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917. Bible Study: Psalm 3 (David's trust in God through a Chaotic Life) · Faith by annm2705

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Psalm 3 from the book of Psalms. This is a Psalm of David.
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First, let's pray. Dear Lord, please be with us as
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we read through this Psalm and let our hearts and minds be open
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to what you have to say. Through the Holy Spirit.
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We ask this in Jesus name, Amen. So this is a Psalm of David when
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he fled from his son Absalom. I'll just read it first and then
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get into a discussion about it. Lord, how many are my foes?
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How many rise up against me? Many are saying of me, God will
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not deliver him. But you, Lord, are a shield
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around me, my glory, the one who lifts my head high.
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I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy
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mountain. I lie down and sleep.
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I wake again because the Lord sustains me.
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I will not fear though 10s of thousands assail me on every
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side. Arise Lord, deliver me, my God,
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strike all my enemies on the jaw.
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Break the teeth of the wicked. From the Lord comes deliverance.
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May your blessing be on your people.
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And that's the end. So there's there's a lot here.
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Let's see. First of all, I'll go through
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with the study Bible questions and answers.
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David's son Absalom LED a rebellion against David, forcing
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the king to flee from Jerusalem, and that's found in Second
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Samuel chapter 15, and I'll talk a little bit more about that.
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Why did David pray for God to break his enemy's teeth?
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David's prayer probably resulted from his feelings that his
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enemies were biting and chewing on him and his Kingdom.
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Such inflammatory language shows that David was a passionate
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person shows that it says we we must also remember that David
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would was God's anointed king and God took attacks on David
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very seriously. And that's the end of the study
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Bibles, so really short, but you know, it brings about questions
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if you haven't read the whole book about why is David fleeing
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from his son? And you know, why is he praying,
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you know, for God to protect him from his own son.
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So we'll get into a little bit of that.
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But I guess the the point being of the Psalm is that David is
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relying on God. He, you know, he's recognizing
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that people are against him and he's has faith in God that God
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is a shield. He says God answers him and God
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sustains him and he's asking God to do it again.
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And he's, you know, stating that from the Lord comes deliverance.
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So his entire faith is in God. I mean, that's exactly what this
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this expresses. So that's about all about the
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Psalm. However, there's things to think
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about the that in context of what is happening here.
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And we will see that, you know, there's some questions that come
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about. So the issue with Absalom and
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David and this, you know, I've, I've read this before, but I
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actually just looked it up because it concisely summarizes
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and I'm not always concise about my explanations, but this is
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really good. The dispute between King David
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and his son Absalom. You can find that in Second
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Samuel, chapters 13 through 18 stemmed from David's failure to
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punish his eldest son, Amnon, for raping Absalon's sister
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Tamar. Absalom murdered Amnon in
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revenge, leading to a strained, dysfunctional relationship where
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David failed to act on his affection for three years,
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culminating in Absalom's armed rebellion to seize the throne.
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So you can see right here that there is all sorts of issues
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caused by sinful people that weren't dealt with that lead to
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their that led to a lot of turmoil within David's life.
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So it says the key causes of the dispute, the rape of Tamar and
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inaction when Amnon raped their half sister Tamar.
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David was furious but took no disciplinary action against
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Amnon. Enraged, Absalom waited two
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years, and then he murdered Amnon and fled.
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Then there was a failed reconciliation.
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After returning to Jerusalem from exile, David refused to see
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Absalom for another two years, fostering bitterness.
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See, we can see the root of these things like communication
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is obviously, you know, what's the right thing to do.
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How do you address it? Do you avoid it?
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I mean, there's a lot of things that we can learn here from
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this, not how it's accomplished, but just the fact that these
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things weren't done and it turned into something bigger.
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It's like that verse that says don't in your in your the
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foothold of the devil is anger. Like so when you're upset about
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something, don't give the devil a foothold because that is anger
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starts it and then it turns into something greater.
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So this is justifiable anger. There's no question about that.
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But when it's not dealt with and things are ignored, it snowballs
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into something greater. And we can learn from that too,
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that it's better when there is conflict, to direct address it
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immediately and try to resolve it so that it doesn't snowball
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into something greater. Because history shows us that
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things that are not addressed do snowball into something greater.
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So then there's this power struggle.
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So the son is actually trying to take over being king.
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That's how bad it gets. David's own son is after him.
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So power struggle with the eldest son, Amnon dead and David
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failing to name an heir. So again, here's another
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problem. Absalom, who is handsome,
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charismatic and popular, began a political campaign to steal the
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people's hearts and take the throne.
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Public humiliation Upon revolting, Absalom publicly
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slept with David's concubines on the palace roof, a calculated
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move to secure his position and permanently sever ties with his
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father. The tension was also seen as a
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manifestation of the sword prophesied to remain in David
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David's house following his own sins with Bathsheba.
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So this just you know the thing about David and Bathsheba.
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So David was on his rooftop, he was supposed to be at war, but
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for some reason he was not at war.
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And he sees Beth Sheba on a rooftop.
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She was married to someone else and he lust for her and then he
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acts on that lust and not only that, but then he she was
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married and then he arranges for, I think it's her husband
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was Uriah to be at the front of a war so that the likelihood of
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him getting killed would happen, which it did happen.
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So essentially David set up her husband to be murdered.
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And this is the man that is, you know, that is mentioned as a man
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after God's own heart. So that makes a lot of people
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question like, how is that possible with what he did?
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But this is something that we can all learn from about the
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mercy of God and God's, God's compassion for people who are
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very sinful. David was not a perfect man and
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there were things that he did, choices in his life that he
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could have had better outcomes. Like for example, all of the the
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killings, the murders that came about from David's life made it
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impossible. Not impossible, but it made it
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God's according to God's will. David was not going to build the
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temple. David wanted to build the
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temple. And I think he even drew up the
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plans for the temple and he was communicating with God about how
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he wanted to build this for God. But God said, no, you're not.
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You know, it's going to be one of your, your descendants who
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does this because you have too much murder on your hands.
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So that, you know, we can see how sin in our lives can
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prohibit certain blessings that God had maybe would have allowed
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for our lives. But because of what we do,
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things change. But at the same time, God is
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forgiving, He's merciful, He's compassionate.
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And you can see that despite David's shortcomings, he is he
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is God. God, you know, has a lot of
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respect for him or he sees that there's something about David's
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heart that is aligned with God. And so this is a another good
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summary that again, it's just more concise than I would be
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able to that I, you know, would be able to say.
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So I'm going to just read this about it about David.
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David was called a man after God's own heart in First Samuel
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chapter 13, verse 14, not because he was sinless, but
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because his heart was aligned with God's.
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He demonstrated sincere repentance, profound faith, a
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deep love for God's will, and a habit of turning back to God
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after his failures, prioritizing God's honor over his own.
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The key characteristics of David's heart was heartfelt
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repentance. Unlike many, David did not
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justify his sins like adultery with Bathsheba, but immediately
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confessed as seen as seen in Psalm 51, showing a soft, broken
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and contrite heart toward God, total dependence and faith.
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David trusted God entirely from his battle against Goliath to
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his time as a fugitive. He recognized that the battle is
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the Lord's and looked for God's guidance rather than relying on
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his own power. So even in the Psalm 3, that's
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what David is saying, you know, he's, he's depending on God for
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everything and he's trusting God and he's saying, you know, I
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know God provides for this. So he, he has strong faith in
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God, He has a desire to follow God's will.
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I think that's probably a keyword, a desire.
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And this is like a heartfelt desire that he really wants to.
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He's not just messing up and using that as an excuse, but he
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truly does become repentant. But there are so many things
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that you know that don't align with what God intended for
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people to do that David does. So, but he has this desire to
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follow God's will and it's sincere.
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So this just shows God's mercy. And I think we see God's mercy
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with other people that are very significant in the Bible, like
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Moses, his anger, in his anger, he ended up killing an Egyptian
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who was, it was kind of like justifiable anger because I
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guess an Israelite was being abused or hurt by an Egyptian
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and he kills, but the vengeance is God's.
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God didn't tell him to do it. So he had this anger that came
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up in him and it did lead to killing.
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Just like Absalom, his anger built up and then he kills his
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half brother because something wasn't taken care of.
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So, but going back to Moses, God used Moses despite his issues,
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his sinful ways. And there were lots of other
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things about Moses. He couldn't speak well, but God
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used him to speak to the Pharaoh and get his people released.
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We see another example in the New Testament with Saul, who was
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very zealous for God. It's kind of similar to David
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where his passion was for God, but he wasn't doing things the
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right way. And God finally stopped him when
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Saul was on the road to Damascus and the vision of Jesus came in
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front of him and knocked him out, you know, knocked him down
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to the ground and made him blind temporarily.
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But Saul, he's, you know, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting
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me? That's what Jesus said to him in
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the vision. And Saul's life changed, but he
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had been murdering essentially Christians.
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It sounds very, it sounds like Saul was actually present when
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Stephen was stoned to death and he actually approved of that
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happening. So Saul also had blood on his
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hands. His name was changed to Paul
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afterwards and then he contributed to a lot of the the
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Bible, the New Testament of the Bible.
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But this just shows how God when someone surrenders to God, when
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you know when it when it's like not my will, but your will.
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Like Jesus said on the cross, when a person has that attitude
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towards God, God can change a person's life through the Holy
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Spirit. And but there is this constant
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struggle and there are some, I mean, there are some questions
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about like why did God allow David to do some of the things
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he did when they were not according to God's will?
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Well, the one thing that happened that really was that a
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consequence of David's sin with Bathsheba was that the son that
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they had, she would, she ended up pregnant and that son died.
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And that made David very distraught that that son died.
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But then later, I mean, David was repentant and then later
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God, Solomon came from Bathsheba.
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And then he was a very significant person in the Bible.
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I mean, he was, he wrote a lot of what's in the Bible in the
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Old Testament. And he was a he asked for wisdom
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and even asking for wisdom, he still fell because he didn't do
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what God said. I mean, it was in Deuteronomy, I
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believe it is, where it talks about the kings are supposed to
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meditate on the law daily. And that's why I think it's
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important for us to be in the word of God daily, because it's
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so easy for us to forget about what God says if we're not in
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the word every day. And Solomon, although he asked
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for wisdom and he was very wise and he was known as the wisest
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man and even have people from other countries visiting him
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because he was so wise, he still fell.
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He took wives who were foreign and worshipped foreign gods and,
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you know, not really gods, fake gods.
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And and so that was kind of his fall and he got entwined with
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all of that. And he had like, I don't know,
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almost 1000 wives and concubines.
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And that's just crazy. Plus, he had a, it said in
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Deuteronomy that you're not supposed to have lots of horses,
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and he had huge stables. I mean, there were a lot of
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things that if he would have read the law every day and
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thought it, meditated on it and desired to be within God's will,
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he wouldn't have done a lot of things that he did in life.
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And he suffered because of that. So the the laws of God are
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actually, I used to, you know, they aren't as much restrictive
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as they are guardrails. If we can accept them and live
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by them, they are protection against consequences actually.
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So it's a good thing, like God's law is good.
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And if we abide within it, it's, you know, that's that struggle
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that we have with sin. And, and I don't think it's too
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strong to overcome on our own. It is, but not with the Holy
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Spirit. The Spirit of God can give us
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the strength to overcome those things.
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It's just a matter of us surrendering, you know, do we
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want to be selfish and go after what we want, our sinful
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desires? Or do we say, I'm going to let
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that go and and live according to God's will and be obedient to
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God? The only thing that obedience to
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God does or shows, it shows God that we love him.
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In the New Testament, Jesus says, you know, if you love me,
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obey my commands. And so that is ultimately what
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it is. I mean, there's and there
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probably will be rewards because it says what you sow you will
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reap. So during judgment, there's
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rewards and there's, you know, for people the way they lived.
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So it does matter to some degree.
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Paul always talked about, you know, completing the race for
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the crown. So he was he was very reward
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driven and not that I mean, I guess whatever motivates you,
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but you know, ultimately it should be a relationship with
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God. That's the motivation.
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But God is just so good and so compassionate and so merciful.
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He's so much better than any of us.
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I mean, if, if we were in God's position and, and then had, you
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know, things that we created, if, if this were the case in
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these creation things that we made ourselves started rebelling
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against us and being defiant to us and being mean and harsh to
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us. I mean, how would we react?
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I don't know that we would necessarily be as merciful as
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God. So thank God that he is God and
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that we are not because it wouldn't go so well for any of
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us. If there was a person, a human
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being that was in God's position, it would just be
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probably ultimate destruction. Everything would probably
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eventually get destroyed because of the sinful nature of human
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beings. So there's a lot to be grateful
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for that God is loving and merciful and he forgives and he
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forgets. And he does, like David said,
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like David was not perfect, but David viewed God as a shield
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around me. He answers me from his holy
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mountain. He sustains me.
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I will not fear. And the Lord delivers.
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Those are all the things that David believed and he held on
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and it's true. It's true.
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God does do that. So constant Thanksgiving.
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That was another thing about David.
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Even in hardships, God praised and thank.
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God thanked God, showcasing a spirit of gratitude regardless
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of his circumstances. David made immense mistakes, but
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he never turned idols or abandoned God.
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That's somebody else. You know, you think about.
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We just read Job. Job was like that too.
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Like he didn't know why all these bad things were happening
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to him. And Job was righteous, though it
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didn't say that Job did anything like David did things, but Job
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didn't. But even Job, I mean, Job was
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the like the best example because he never turned from
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God. He questioned God, but he didn't
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say I'm not going to worship you anymore or I don't want this
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relationship with you anymore. And some people do that when
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hardship comes. But that's something else else
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that we can learn from Scripture is when hardship comes, don't
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turn away from God. Because in all these
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circumstance, I mean, there's, it seems so simple to me as I've
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read the Bible that there are two basic reasons why hardships
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come. One is a direct consequence of
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our actions. So all we can blame is ourself
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for why hardships come. And then the other reason is
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that it could be testing. We could not be doing something
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wrong. It's not a consequence of our
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sin, but it's that we are being tested and God allows the
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testing. But who does the actual?
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I don't know if the bad thing to us, it's the enemy of God.
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God allows that to happen, but typically from what we see in
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the Bible is only for a period of time until we overcome that
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testing. So perhaps it's really wise to
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praise God. The Bible tells us to do that in
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all circumstances because maybe by our praise that will shorten
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the amount of the length of the testing.
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That's just, you know, God's compassionate and merciful.
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And if we continue to praise God during all circumstances, maybe
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he will say, OK, enemy, that's it.
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You can't mess with my child anymore.
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So just something to think about because the Bible does show us
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that. So let's see the other thing
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about all of these, like it's a soap opera.
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I mean, this is like David and his life and his relationships
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with these different women. He only had, well, only, I think
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it's when I researched it, it said he had six wives, which is
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still a lot of wives, but unlike his son who had between wives
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and concubines, I think it was 900, you know, close to 1000,
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which is actually, I just like unthinkable.
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Like how you know, like that just is really.
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But it was also a political alignment.
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It was taking, you know, you know, to create peace in a
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Kingdom to have, you know, the daughter of a king as your wife.
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And that made peace because the King's not going to go after
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somebody who's married like his daughter's married to them.
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So there's a like a political maneuvering, but I still don't
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think that was God's intention. That's kind of what happened and
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that's, you know, Solomon is the one who had most of the peace
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because he was probably married to every woman who was the
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daughter of a king that was surrounding him.
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And that's probably why the peace came about, not
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necessarily God's intention. And it did leave lead to
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Solomon's rebellion against God and some consequences in his
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life. So let's see, one of the things
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was am Amnon. I was curious like who was his
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mother? And Amnon's mother in the Bible
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was a a Hinoam, the Jezreelite Jezreelite.
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She was the first wife of King David to bear him a son, making
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Amnon David's first born son and the heir apparent to the throne.
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She was from Jezreel, a town in Judah.
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She married David after Saul gave David's first wife Mikkel
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to another man. She is mentioned as being David
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as being with David in Ziklag and later in Hebron.
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According to Second Samuel 3 Two and First Chronicles 3/1, she is
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specifically named as the mother of Amnon David's first born.
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She is son sometimes called Ahinoam the Jezreelite to
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distinguish her from King Saul's wife, who was also named
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Ahinoam. Ahinoam was one of David's six
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wives who bore him sons while he ruled in Hebron.
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And so it made me curious like what was the what religion was
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prominent around? So I searched the time when was
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Amnon born approximately and what I got was about a 1050 to
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1045 BC in Jezreel. So I wanted to know what what
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was the religion prominent, you know, so this first born child
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of David, it's, you know, it looks like somebody within the
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tribe of Judah. So David is kind of following
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along. You know, first he had Saul's
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daughter, I guess was it Saul's daughter Micah or Mikel?
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Yeah. So first he had her, but then
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she was taken from him. And so then this next one comes
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from the tribal, a town in Judah.
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But then I wondered, you know, were they faithful in that at
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that time or what was happening? So here's what it says.
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Around 1050 to 1045 BC, during the early Iron Age first period,
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the prominent religion in the Jezreel Valley was a mix of
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indigenous Canaanite polytheism, the worship of Baal and Ashira,
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and the emerging Yahwehism. Jezreel was in territory
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assigned to the tribe of Issachar and served as a
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strategic military location where Israelites, Canaanites and
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other groups interacted. There was a Canaanite influence.
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Continued worship of gods such as Baal and Ashira were
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widespread, particularly in regional agricultural
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communities. Israelites worshipped Yahweh,
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though this was often in a fluid, non centralized manner.
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During the light, During the time of the judges, Yeah.
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I think in the book of Judges it says everyone kind of did as
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they saw fit, so there wasn't a unification of this.
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So also during this time, there was widespread coexistence of
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Canaanite fertility cults and Yahwehism occurred with many
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people adopting elements of both religions.
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So at this specific time, the area was under the influence of
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the Philistines, who defeated the Israelites nearby at Mount
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Gebo, suggesting a turbulent mixture of religious practices
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often marked by the biblical narrative as a time of spiritual
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conflict. So this child, this first born
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of David is born into a land where there's paganism and the
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worship of God. So right away we can see that
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this child really has confusion that he comes into much like the
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world today, like children born into the world today.
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There's so many things out there and why it's so important for
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children to know the truth and because they will be affected.
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So perhaps, and I don't know if it's right or wrong to
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speculate, but think about this, the potential for influence Baal
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worship Ashira. I mean, a lot of this, that
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fertility stuff there was like this, you know, the temp Well, I
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don't there wasn't a temple at that time, but a lot of this was
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like sexually related. So here the the son of David,
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the first born son of David, then essentially rapes later on
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in life his half sister because he desires her.
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He has this lust and and that's just what's happening in the
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community that he grows up in. He's surrounded by all of this.
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And even though David was his father, he succumbed to this and
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I guess David didn't know how to deal with it.
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So then let's see then I was wondering who was Absalom's
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mother? So Absalom was the one who was
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then hunting down David, later the son of David.
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And he was, he killed his own brother because his brother
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raped his sister, his, I guess, full sister.
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And so again, look at this, this is like so messed up and not
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God's intention. And this is the life of the king
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of David, who was anointed by God to be the king of Israel.
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And it all of this mess came about through all of his
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multiple wives and their children.
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And there's all this fighting and, and it's just like it said
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in the very beginning that because of what David did with
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Bathsheba, there was going to be conflict that continued
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throughout his whole family life.
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The family line, it just like think about that one act, one
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sinful act. Even though God forgave him, it
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caused him to lose the child that they created together, that
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God created, but then the child died.
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So it caused that to happen. And then it made family strife
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throughout David's life. Like, think of how peaceful his
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life could have been if he hadn't made that one bad choice.
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Because that one bad choice caused this generationally to
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happen within David's life. And David never overcame this
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apparently, because he, you know, I guess when you're mixed
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and you've got all this like paganism around you, I, I mean,
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he didn't turn away from God, but he, you know, I mean, I know
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he, he married so many different women and that wasn't part of
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God's original plan. And the people that he married
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were foreign women that were also forbidden.
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So he was bringing in and it says like in marriage, the 2
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become one flesh. So there's some like spiritual
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issues that happen as a result. And God, you know, warns us
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through the Scripture that how important marriage is and that
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God doesn't just because people get married, God isn't behind
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every marriage. And that's something else that I
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think we need to think about in the in this world.
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And also like in if someone isn't married and think
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contemplating getting married, it you know, God is extremely
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important. God should be a priority in both
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people's lives individually. And then you, because you can
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see from David's life and from Solomon's life how disastrous it
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can be when a person marries. When I say the wrong person, the
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person who is not submitted to God, it just brings strife into
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your household. And that's pretty well
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documented. So in in the Bible, Absalom's
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mother is Makah. I don't know if she is the
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daughter of Talmay, king of Gesher and became one of David's
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of King David's wives. Makah was a foreign wife, making
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Absalom part Jeshurite royalty, which influenced his story.
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She is notably identified in Second Samuel chapter 3 verse
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three and First Chronicles 3 verse 2.
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So she was the mother of both Absalom and his sister Tamar.
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She came from Gesher, a small Kingdom adjacent to Israel,
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making her an important political wife.
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So again, the purpose here was not a godly purpose, but it was
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more to keep peace with the neighbor.
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Probably when Absalom murdered his half brother Amnon for
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violating or raping Tamar, he fled to his mother's family and
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Gesher, staying with them for three years.
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While the name Mac Macaw appears multiple times in the Old
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Testament, the Macaw who was Absalom's mother was the wife of
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David and the daughter of Talmay.
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So I was curious like what was the faith of King Gesher?
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What was his faith, belief, religion that was in the Bible?
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And so here's what I found. Talmaya, the king of Gesher in
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the Bible, the father-in-law to David and the grandfather to
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Absalom, was a Pagan ruler, likely adhering to Aramean or
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local Canaanite polytheism. Archaeological findings at
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Gesher suggest a religion centered around moon God worship
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symbolized by a bull and influenced by Egyptian
34:16
traditions rather than Hebrew monotheism Pagan practices.
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Gesher was a small Aramean principality northeast of
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Bashan. Evidence shows that they
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worshipped at high places using Steliale and in some cases
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Egyptian style amulets. Gesherite religion included
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worshipping a moon moon God in the form of a bull.
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It's kind of like Baal, despite the religious differences.
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Talmi formed a political marriage alliance with King
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David, who married his daughter Makah.
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It was located in a rugged foreign region outside the
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immediate religious influence of Jerusalem.
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So that just shows that there's a lot.
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Let's see, as a Pagan king, he ruled a small army and king
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Kingdom east of the Sea of Galilee.
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Gesherite religion include worshipping moon gods in the
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form of a bull, consistent with the religious practices of
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neighboring nations in southern Syria.
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Also, excavations have revealed Egyptian influence in the
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Gesherite art and amulets, showing a blended religious
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culture. While David married Talma's
35:36
daughter Mecca, creating an alliance, There is no indication
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of the Bible that Talma or his people adopted the worship of
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the God of Israel. That's usually what we we see in
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the Bible is that when someone who believes in the true God
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marries with someone who doesn't, they don't usually stay
36:00
strong in their faith. Now, maybe maybe David stayed
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strong in his faith because this was more of not a, I don't know,
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not a romantic link maybe, but more of a political maneuver.
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And maybe they're just, I don't know, was not really a heartfelt
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connection to this woman where he avoided that.
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But still the Bible does say when you, you know, marry
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another person, the 2 become one.
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So that was maybe that's, you know, that influence that I
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think it's there's these spiritual things that happen.
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And so he's got a mixture of this spiritual impact in his
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life, which is probably causing him to sin because his he's not,
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he doesn't just have God's spirit influencing him.
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He's got these other wives, evil spirits influencing him and he's
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struggling with that. And that's, that could be
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another reason why his life was so chaotic.
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And so it's really interesting when we see these things and,
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and I think if we learn from that, everybody would probably
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take their commitments to another person more seriously
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than we do today. I mean, divorce is a simple
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thing to happen, but when you think of the spiritual aspect
37:19
that comes along with that and what God warns about, I think
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people would take their marriage more seriously.
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And it also seems, unfortunately, that a lot of
37:27
people are choosing not to be married, but that doesn't mean
37:30
that they are not, you know, becoming one with a lot of other
37:35
people because it says like when the, when a person has sex with
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a prostitute, the 2 become one just like that.
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Like, don't you know, when you unite yourself with a
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prostitute, you become one with her.
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So that's even worse. There's no commitment.
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Who knows how many different people she's been involved with.
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And then that influences a person's life.
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So these these kinds of things are things that are not really
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talked about, But when you read the Bible and you dig into it
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and you see these things and you see how this plays out, like all
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of the things that God warns about that how it actually
38:10
effects people's lives. And then you realize that the
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Bible is true and these things do happen.
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And it's just so important to be in the Word and keep it fresh in
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your mind and, and to choose to live by it and not so much as
38:30
that creates, you know, you're not a slave to it.
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It's a choice that you make and it is for your good to abide by
38:43
it. It does two things.
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It kind of keeps your life a little bit less chaotic and it
38:50
also shows God that you love him, that you respect him
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because you want to be obedient to him.
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So there's a lot of benefits to following God's words.
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And and then, you know, by getting back to Psalm 3, I know
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I kind of went off on a tangent, but we can just see from all of
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the influences in David's life, how his life that he lived was
39:14
very chaotic in many ways. But even through that chaos, he
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kept his faith in God. And he knew that God was a
39:23
shield. He knew God answered him.
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He knew God sustained him and God delivered him.
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And we can know all of that is true because God doesn't change
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and He will do the same for us. So God will be a shield.
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He will answer us, He will sustain us, and He will deliver
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us when we turn to him in repentance and when our focus is
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on God. So I think that is something
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that we can take away from the Psalm.
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That is a message of hope and of how God can positively impact
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our life when we turn to Him. So if you found this helpful,
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40:05
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