So, I'm I'm sure you've probably heard
this already, but the mission of
Covenant Seminary, we all know that by
heart, right? Why are we here? We're
here to glorify the triune God. And how
do we do that? How do we do
that? By training his servants to do
what? To walk in God's grace.
to minister God's word and to equip
God's people.
Why? All for God's mission. And every
semester, one of the things we do in
chapel is we take a different portion of
that mission statement and we we preach
that as the theme in chapel. And you all
remember the theme for this semester. It
is to walk in God's grace. That's right.
Needed a little bit of help with that.
And we've been doing that through the
Psalms. In case you haven't noticed, the
Psalm that we're focusing on today is
Psalm three. So, if you have a Bible,
you can go ahead and turn there. Psalm
3. And the theme I'm taking right from
verse 8 of the Psalm, which says,
"Salvation belongs to the
Lord." Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Now, in the church tradition that I'm
from, sometimes the pastor will ask you
to turn to your neighbor and say
something. And it's not rhetorical. We
actually mean it. Turn to your neighbor
and say this. And so, I'm going to ask
you if you would turn to your neighbor
and say, "Neighbor,
out loud now." Neighbor. Neighbor.
Salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation
belongs to the Lord. I think I don't
know if they heard you. Let's try one
more time. Neighbor. Neighbor. Neighbor.
Salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation
belongs to the Lord. Amen. Thank you so
much. So, this is one of 14 psalms. As
we look at the heading that actually has
a title that tells us a little bit about
the context that this psalm comes from,
it tells us here that it's a psalm of
David when he fled from his son Abselum.
So homework assignment is go back and
refresh ourselves of what's happening
there. From 2 Samuel chapter 15 all the
way down to chapter 18, you find King
David on the run from his own son and
his own people. Right? They're joining
in the rebellion against him. He's fled
the kingdom for fear of his own life
with those that are still loyal to him.
And his son is in pursuit to take his
life. And that's where this psalm comes
from. And here we learn that salvation
belongs to the Lord. Here now the
reciting of God's
word. Oh Lord, how many are my foes,
many are rising against me. Many are
slang of my soul. There's no salvation
for him in God.
But you, oh Lord, are a shield about me,
my glory and the lifter of my head. I
cried aloud to the Lord and he answered
me from his holy
hill. I lay down and slept. I woke
again, for the Lord sustained me. I will
not be afraid of many thousands of
people who have set themselves against
me all around.
Arise, oh Lord. Save me, oh my God. For
you strike all my enemies on the cheek.
You break the teeth of the
wicked. Salvation belongs to the
Lord. Your blessing be on your people.
This is the word of
God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you
for your word and how it testifies about
itself that it's God breathed and it's
useful for teaching and rebuking and
correcting and training in
righteousness. So Lord, work in all
those areas in our lives. We pray
through your word in this time. Holy
Spirit, we thank you for your presence
in this place. Continue to have your way
among us. Open up the word so we can
understand these words that we read. But
not only that, fill us with power. Lord,
fill us with yourself so that we can
walk in light of what you call us to in
this psalm. Lord, we thank you. We give
you glory for salvation belongs to the
Lord. All this we ask in Jesus name. And
all God's people said, "Amen." Amen. I
don't know if you all have ever heard of
the pastor Ed Clowny, great great
preacher and teacher of preachers mostly
in Philadelphia. There was one time when
he was meeting with a group of pastors
in Philly and they were just talking and
asking him different questions and one
of the pastors asked him an interesting
question and I want you to think how you
would answer this. They asked him,
"Pastor, could you tell us if you could
summarize the message of the Bible in
one verse, which verse would you choose?
One Bible verse that summarizes the
message of the whole Bible. What What
would you pick? What would you think?"
Right? Would you say John 3:16, right?
Or God so loved the world that he gave.
Or maybe you would say Genesis 1:1,
right? In the beginning, God. Or maybe
the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd.
Well, Dr. Clowny thought about that for
a second. And then he said, you know
what? The verse I can think of is Jonah
chapter
2:9. And it's also in Psalm
3:8. And it's that phrase,
salvation belongs to the Lord. God is
the pro possessor and the provider of
salvation. Salvation belongs to the
Lord. And I want us to think, think
about as we come into the room this
morning, where was David when he
declared that he's running away from his
son for his life. And in that moment, in
that moment of struggle and strain, he
remembers that salvation belongs to the
Lord. Where was Jonah when he recalled
that? Where's Jonah in chapter 2? He's
still in the belly of the fish. And
there in the belly of the fish, the Lord
reminds him again that salvation belongs
to the Lord. And I point that out to
say, I don't know how you come
today. Some of us are looking very much
forward to
graduation and finishing running across
that finish line, but then starting a
new race.
And I don't know if there's some anxiety
as well as excitement around that. Many
of us are looking forward to our
graduation and we're wondering, will we
ever get
there? Some of us come visiting, I don't
know what you bring, those of us on the
faculty, on the staff, whatever it is.
This psalm is an encouragement to us.
It's a psalm on the one hand of lament,
but also one of great confidence in the
God who protects us. Salvation belongs
to the Lord. And because of that, we do
our theme, right? Our theme that we're
focusing on, we walk in God's grace. But
let me ask you, how does this psalm call
us to do that today? How does the psalm
help us in walking in God's grace?
There's going to be three things that we
pull out here, three expressions of
prayer that we learn from David that
help us in walking in God's grace
because salvation belongs to the Lord.
The first thing we learn from just the
first stanza, and you can put up that
first slide, is it calls us to lay our
complaints before God. It calls us to
lay our complaints before God. Does
anybody come with any complaints this
morning? Amen. All right. Well, notice
where David lays
his. He brings them to
God. What does he say? Look at verse
one. I don't know if you heard this when
I was reciting. Oh Lord, how many are my
foes, many are rising against me. Many
are saying, right? Can you can you sense
that? And this is literally true for
him. There are many thousands against
him. And he begins to complain about
what they're doing and what they're
saying. They are rising against him. And
if you go back and read in 2 Samuel and
the read you read the context of that
passage, you see again that his son
Abselum is chasing him to take his life
away. He's conspired and turned the
people against him. So there are
literally people rising against him to
kill him. So what are they saying?
Right? That's what they're doing. What
are they saying about him? That's in
verse two. Do you see that? It says,
"Many are saying of my soul." And I want
you to notice what they say. There is no
salvation for him in God. Do you catch
that? They're not saying there's no
salvation in God. They're saying there's
no
salvation for
him. Why would they say
that? Well, if you go back and look in
that section in 2 Samuel 16, as David
and the people with him are leaving,
they're leaving barefoot with their
heads bowed and and they're mourning and
sackcloth. They're weeping as they go
along. And there's a man named Shemia
who sees them coming and he's just above
where they can reach him. And he begins
to shower them with dirt and stones and
also insults. And he says, "You
essentially, you're getting what you
deserve, David. You are a man of blood."
And incidentally, it tells us that
Shemia is a relative of King Saul. And
so there's a rumor going around that
King David had something to do with King
Saul, his life being taken. Is that
true?
No. Several times we see where David
saved his life. David protected him when
he had a chance to take his life away,
but they accuse him falsely of taking
Saul's life. I wonder if anybody here
knows what it feels like to be falsely
accused. Well, that's what's going on
with him. They say that's why God left
you because of what you did. But there's
another thing that maybe David is
thinking about. Maybe the people didn't
know that there were some things that
David was guilty
of. And I don't know how known that was
with his sin against Bath Sheba and her
husband Uriah. And do you know Uriah,
not only is he one of the mighty men,
but Bath Sheba's father was also one of
the mighty
men. And still, what does David do in
this situation? He brings that complaint
before God. And that's an encouragement
to us today because maybe some are
coming and you're saying,"I suffering as
an innocent sufferer. Where do I take
that complaint? Where on social media
can I post that?" He's saying, "Before
you do that, bring that complaint to
God." Or maybe there's some that come
today and you're like David. Maybe
you're saying, "Well, I didn't do that,
but they don't know what I did do. I
could never come to
God." But he does. He still brings that
complaint to God. I don't know what the
enemy is saying about you or to you or
what message you're saying about
yourself, but bring that complaint and
lay it down before God. That's the first
thing that David shows us. We walk in
God's grace as we lay these things
before our God.
Secondly, we see in the middle stanzas
here that not only do we lay our
complaints before God, but we also look
in confidence to God. Where is David's
confidence? It's not in his ability as a
king or as a warrior. Where does he
place his confidence? If you go to verse
three, look at what happens. He says,
"But you, oh Lord." Do you catch the
contrast there? Before he's saying,
"Many are against me." But you, oh Lord.
Many are rising against me, but you, oh
Lord. Many are saying there's no
salvation for me, but you, oh Lord. And
then he begins to put his confidence in
God because of who God is and because of
what God does. Well, who does he say God
is? Who does he say in this passage?
What are the images that he he paints
for us? He says, first, he's a shield
about me. He's a shield about me. What's
a shield, right? It's a it's a weapon of
defense. But actually, if you think
about it, it's a limited weapon, isn't
it? Because you have to be facing where
the attack is coming from. If the arrows
are coming or the sword is coming, for
the shield to be effective, you have to
be facing the attack. But what kind of
shield does David say God is? He's a
shield all about me. So that means if
you attack me from the front, God's got
me. If you attack me from the back, God
has me there. If you come at me from the
sides, God has me. If you attack me from
the inside or the outside, God has me
because he's a shield all about me. So,
I look in him to confidence. And not
only that, he is my
glory. Again, think about what we know
about David as we're reading through the
scriptures. He's a great warrior.
He's a musician. He's a king. He's all
of these things. But he's chased away
from his kingdom. And here essentially
he's saying, "You know what? Y'all can
take my kingdom. You can take my
throne. Can take away my
family. You can take away my
friends, but you can't take my
glory." Do you know why? Because it's
not in any of those things.
Ultimately, my glory, my treasure is in
the Lord. You can even take my life
away, but you can't take my
glory because it's in
him. And then what else does he say? He
says, "Not only is he a shield about me
and my glory, but he's the lifter of my
head." Remember how David left? He's
bowed down and crying and weeping and
barefoot with shame. All he's got ashes
on his head. But the image here is of
the king also acting as a
judge. And the king has the power either
to
say you live or you
die. And he's saying the Lord is coming
to me in my bowed down state. And ding
ding down as I'm kneeling down before
him. And
he's lifting up my
head. That's who he
is. He's a shield about me. He's my
glory. And he's the lifter of my head.
Now, do you notice the personal nature
about that? Of all those things, y'all.
He's a shield. What? About me? And he's
my glory. And he's the lifter of my
head. It's a question. Is he those
things for
you? Is he your shield
today? Is he your
glory? Oh, is he the lifter of your head
today? That's who he is. Salvation
belongs to the Lord. But David is
putting confidence in God, not only
because of who he is, but also because
of what he does. You see here in verse
five or excuse me verse four he says I
cried aloud to the Lord and he answered
me from his holy hill. And that's
significant the holy hill is saying
that's Zion. He's saying Abselon might
have taken away the kingdom but he's not
the ultimate king. God is the king. And
you know what he did y'all? He answers
prayer. He answered my prayers. I cried
aloud to the Lord and he answered me. I
wonder if there's two or three people
here that could testify that God is a
God who answers prayers. Has anybody had
their prayers answered by God? Well, you
know what y'all? You got to tell
somebody about that. Don't keep it to
yourself in your time in your covenant
groups, in your classrooms, wherever you
are. Make sure that you take time to
testify about how God has done this
because you know what? It's going to
encourage the brother and sister right
next to you to be reminded that God is a
God who answers prayer. But not only
that, if we go to verse five, you see
that he not only answers prayer, but
he's a God who sustains us. Look at
verse
five, he says, I lay down and
slept. I woke
again for the Lord sustained me. Now, I
know maybe you're here and you're
thinking, "Well, that's not really that
big of a deal." Listen, y'all. Some of
you come today and the the problem that
you have is you just need a nap. Do you
know that? You just need some rest. You
trying to overspiritualize what's going
on with you. The problem with you is
you're
tired. You're not taking care of your
body. And we're we're reminded here of
what kind of God we serve. that he cares
not just about our spiritual lives, but
all of
us. In the African-American tradition I
grew up in, sometimes we would have in
the service what we call testimony time
or or testimony service. And and there's
a little speech some of y'all know that
that you make. You say, "Well, I'm just
glad to be in the house of the Lord just
one more time." And I believe I'll
testify while I have a chance. And then
you tell everybody what God has done to
encourage them. I just imagine as I read
this verse, David showing up to
testimony time and he says he stands up
he says I believe I'll testify while I
have a chance and the testimony person
can say all right David tell us what God
did for you and David will say well he
did three things see I laid down and I
went to sleep and I got back up again
and the testimony person says all right
that's nice but what did the Lord do for
you and and he could say well I don't
think you heard me let me say it again
see I laid laid down. Uh-huh. And I went
to sleep. Uh-huh. And I got back up
again. And the person say, "Well, David,
what's the big deal about that?" And
David can say, "You know what? I just
need to tell you one more time because
you don't understand how many were
rising against me. You don't understand
what people were saying about me. You
weren't there when I was crying myself
to sleep. You weren't there when I
didn't know if I could make it to the
next day. And so I'm going to praise God
right now because what the Lord did for
me is I laid down and I got back up and
I went to sleep because the Lord
sustained me.
What's your
testimony? What's your testimony? How
has the Lord sustained
you? You got to tell somebody about
that. Look at the result you see here in
verse six. Look at this. It says, "I'm
not going to be
afraid of many thousands of people." And
he's not exaggerating, y'all. This is
literally true. But he says, "I'm not
going to be afraid of these thousands of
people who've set themselves against me
all around." Has have his circumstances
changed? No. They still trying to kill
him, but now he's saying, "I'm not going
to be afraid." Why? Because his
perspective has changed. It's like he
says in another psalm, even though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil. Why
not for you're with
me? The Lord is my light and my
salvation. Of whom shall I be afraid?
It's not because of how bold he is. It's
because God is with him. How about
you? Where are you placing your
confidence?
Are you placing it in your degree? There
is no better seminary than Covenant
Seminary. Amen,
somebody. But your degree isn't going to
be enough to carry you through these
things. All of your successes in
ministry, all of the material things
that you have, all of those things.
Where are you looking to have your
confidence? It's got to be in the one
who's a shield all about you. who is
your
glory and who's the lifter of your head,
who answers your prayers and who
sustains you. Look in confidence to
him. One more thing we see here because
salvation belongs to the Lord. We walk
in God's grace. And so that means we
already saw, right? We leave our
conflicts with God. We look in
confidence to God. And this last thing
that we see is that we leave our
conflicts with God.
We leave our conflicts with God. And let
me say this as a person who tends to be
conflict avoidant. That's not what I'm
talking about here. That's not what I
mean. But I mean trying to control the
outcome of those conflicts of anybody
else stay up all night wondering about
your conflicts and all those things and
what you're going to do and and how
they're going to turn it how they're
going to turn out and all those things.
What do we see in David here?
Look at verse seven. This is the first
time that David actually asked for
something in the psalm. What does he
say? Arise, O Lord. Do you remember what
he was saying back in the first verse?
Many are doing what? They're rising
against me. So now he's saying, I need
you to get up, Lord. Arise, oh Lord.
He's calling on the Lord to come and
help him. And then he says, save me, oh
my God. Now what's ironic about that?
What were they saying about David? Do
you remember that back in verse two?
They're saying there's no salvation for
him in God. And what David is saying
defiantly here is it's not up to
y'all. Save me. Oh my God. Salvation
belongs to the Lord. It doesn't belong
to y'all. It belongs to him. And so I'm
going to call on him now. And then I
love these images here in the second
part of verse seven. for you strike all
my enemies on the cheek. In that
culture, that's a sign of
humiliation because God shows up. All
the enemies will be struck down. And
then he says, "And you break the teeth
of the wicked." What a wild image is a
it's a symbol of
powerlessness. The Lord, essentially
David is saying, Lord, you ain't got to
kill them. Just knock their teeth out.
So, so that way when they bite me, it
doesn't hurt quite as
much. That's what he's asking for
here. But there's something else that he
asked for in the last verse, y'all. This
is mind-blowing. And this shows us that
he's leaving this conflict with God. At
the very end, what does that last verse
say? The last phrase, it says, "Your
blessing be on your people." He's asking
for the blessing of God to be on these
people. the favor of God to be upon
them. That's a wonderful thing to pray,
isn't it? What's unusual about
that? Who's trying to kill
David? Abselum. Who else with
Abselon? At least half of his
people. And here David at the very
end is asking for the blessing to God,
blessing of God to be upon these people
even though they're trying to kill
him. He's showing us what Jesus would
refer to later saying, "Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute
you." That's what he's doing right here.
Will you say, "How can he do that?"
Well, you see in the the beginning of
verse eight, what does it say? Salvation
belongs to the Lord. Remember he told
him salvation doesn't belong to
y'all. But he's also saying neither does
salvation belong to
me. It belongs to the
Lord. And so I'm going to put you in his
hands.
Salvation belongs to the Lord. Do you
have any conflicts as you come in
today that you need to leave with the
Lord that you've been trying to control
the
outcome? This frees us to be able to
seek justice and not
vengeance because you're leaving that
conflict with the Lord. Why are you
doing that? Because salvation belongs to
him. And that's part of what it means to
walk in his grace. We lay our complaints
with before God. We look in confidence
to God and we leave our conflicts with
God because salvation belongs to the
Lord. But maybe you're saying here,
well, what about when I don't feel like
it? Even as you're saying that, pastor,
I don't feel like it now. I'm struggling
with it. I'm not at all like like David.
I can't do these things. What about
then? Well, you know what's wild is we
actually know more than he
did. We have actually more reason to be
able to trust God and to walk in his
grace than David knew about. Why is
that? Because we know the one to whom
this psalm and every psalm points. We
know the greater David, the one whom I
love, the the writer of Hebrews
says is able to sympathize with us in
our
weaknesses, who's been tempted in every
way that we are, yet was without
sin. And do you know what? This is his
prayer book,
too. I can imagine him praying Psalm
three.
He knows what it feels like, y'all, to
have many rising against him, doesn't
he? He knows what it feels like to have
many saying of him, "There's no
salvation for you." As he's hanging on a
cross, they said, "If you're really a
savior, save yourself and come down from
there." Not realizing that he's saving
the us and them by not coming down.
He knows what it feels like to cry aloud
to the Lord, to answer from his holy
hill. But you know what? He also knows
he knows what it feels like to cry aloud
to
God and not have God
answer from his holy
hill. Causing him to say, "My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?" As he's
dying on the cross for our
sins so that we might walk in God's
grace, he knows what it feels like to
lay
down and go to sleep and not get
up until the third day when he rose with
all power in his hands. He arose to save
us so that the blessing of God could be
on the people of God. Why did he do
that? Because salvation belongs to the
Lord. Maybe some of you have come in
this room today and you don't know
him and you've been trying to save
yourself with your own efforts, with
your own good deeds. But he says here,
"Salvation belongs to the Lord." And the
man who's writing these words is a man
the Bible calls a man after God's own
heart and has some of the worst failures
of anybody that we could read
about. And yet he's in the family of God
because salvation doesn't belong to him.
It belongs to the Lord. And that same
thing is true for
you. As you come and you know him, in
the midst of your struggle today, be
reminded salvation belongs to the Lord.
You've got a complaint. Lay those things
before
him. You're looking for a place to have
confidence. Put that confidence in him.
You have a conflict, leave that conflict
with him. We walk in his grace because
salvation belongs to him. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you that you remind us
here in your word that salvation doesn't
belong to us. It doesn't belong to the
people around us. Doesn't belong to our
enemies. Doesn't belong to our friends.
Salvation belongs to you. And it's only
only by your grace that we can know you
and that we can walk in your grace. So
help us to do that as we minister your
word, as we equip the servants of God
all for the mission of God that you've
given us. Let us declare with our lives
and with our mouths, salvation belongs
to the Lord. We ask this for your glory
and in Jesus name. And all God's people
said, "Amen.
[Music]