SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We are grateful for a love that will not let us go.
SPEAKER_00: It's just good news that we serve a God.
SPEAKER_00: We have a God who loves us and he will not let us go.
SPEAKER_00: As we prepare this next few weeks, in our last um our last series, we were talking about growing in grace, and Pastor Josh and Pastor Tom took us through a series of sermons relating to that matter.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the series is Pastor Josh was talking about meditating on the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And in that sermon, he had challenged us and he asked us to think about this aspect of meditating on God's Word, the value of meditating on God's Word, and the importance of meditating on his word.
SPEAKER_00: And so the next few weeks, myself and Pastor Hoel and our guest pastor will be sharing a particular psalm each week.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to be encouraging each us as a body, as a church, to meditate on that sermon, on that psalm as we go through the week and exercise and build those muscles of meditating on God's word.
SPEAKER_00: As Pastor Josh reminded us, it is not an emptying of ourselves, it's not an emptying of our mind, but it is a filling of our mind with the word of God and taking God's word and allowing it to maneuver and to work through all aspects of our lives and allowing the Holy Spirit to bring about change.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're going to be doing that this week in these next few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And so we want to pray for one another that as we meditate on God's word, that it might do that work of finding good soil in each of our hearts and in each of our minds.
SPEAKER_00: With that in mind, if you would take your Bibles or follow along on the screen or in the bulletin, and we want to read from Psalms chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, how many are my foes?
SPEAKER_00: Many are rising against me, many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him and God.
SPEAKER_00: Salah.
SPEAKER_00: But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
SPEAKER_00: I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill.
SPEAKER_00: I lay down and slept.
SPEAKER_00: I awoke again, for the Lord sustained me.
SPEAKER_00: I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for you strike all my enemies on the cheek.
SPEAKER_00: You break the teeth of the wicked.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Your blessings be on your people.
SPEAKER_00: Saylah.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we pray that as we reflect on this psalm this morning and on these words, that you would minister your word to our hearts by the power of your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We pray, Lord, that your word would not return void, but that it would accomplish what you have set out for it to accomplish in each of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for those who do not know you as their Savior, Lord, that that as they hear the word, that there might be, that hope might spring up in them, that they too long for someone who will not let them go, who who will save them to the end.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Speak to our hearts this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray that your spirit would guide all that we say and do.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And the words of an old pastor I heard say said this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Everybody is either in trouble, getting out of trouble, or heading into trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's either in trouble, they're getting out of trouble, or they're heading into trouble.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, our psalm, this text that we are looking at this morning, lets us know that David is in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's in big trouble.
SPEAKER_00: He's in real trouble.
SPEAKER_00: His son is after him.
SPEAKER_00: His son is seeking to take him off of the throne, and he's seeking to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, just for a little background on this psalm, this the indicator gives us what this psalm is about.
SPEAKER_00: And the title of the psalm is the Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom.
SPEAKER_00: So he's he's fleeing from his son.
SPEAKER_00: And the story of David, we know the story of David.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just remind you, David was a man after God's own heart, but but after he became king, he sinned against God grievously with Bathsheba committing adultery.
SPEAKER_00: He had her husband murdered, and then he tried to cover it up.
SPEAKER_00: And God sends the prophet Nathan to David.
SPEAKER_00: After about a year, David had been walking and living with this.
SPEAKER_00: And after a year, God sends this prophet and he and he tells him a story, and David was so outraged and enraged about the injustice that this man, this king, was doing, and then Nathan hits him with, You, David, are the man.
SPEAKER_00: And he repents.
SPEAKER_00: He falls on his face, he repents.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 51, Psalms 32 speak of the repentance in the heart of David.
SPEAKER_00: And yet God told him, He says, David, your sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: You have been washed, and this is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: You have been washed whiter than snow.
SPEAKER_00: But, but, but that sometimes sins have consequences.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean he wasn't forgiven, doesn't mean God didn't love him, doesn't it mean that God didn't care for him, it wasn't going to bless him, but there were consequences to his sin.
SPEAKER_00: And he told him, he says, your home, your house will not be the same.
SPEAKER_00: And from a series of events, tragic events, Absalon is after his dad.
SPEAKER_00: He's after his father's throne.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: David is fleeing from his own son.
SPEAKER_00: He's brokenhearted.
SPEAKER_00: He he feels betrayed.
SPEAKER_00: He's disillusioned.
SPEAKER_00: He's fearful.
SPEAKER_00: He's confused.
SPEAKER_00: He's disoriented.
SPEAKER_00: He's angry.
SPEAKER_00: All those.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine your flesh and blood trying to kill you?
SPEAKER_00: Chasing you down.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know who to trust in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know who to trust in his leadership.
SPEAKER_00: All those whom he had he had served and he had cared for, now they are, they have turned their backs on him.
SPEAKER_00: They are a part of the army that is seeking him and trying to destroy him.
SPEAKER_00: He's running out of the city, trying to find safety.
SPEAKER_00: His life, his world is turned upside down.
SPEAKER_00: David is in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us here this morning are in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: You've got trouble in your life.
SPEAKER_00: It may not be your chill, somebody trying to kill you, but but there might be trouble in your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: There might be trouble with your children.
SPEAKER_00: There might be trouble on your job.
SPEAKER_00: There might be those who are trying to get at you, and then you're going to work week after week and day after day.
SPEAKER_00: And you got to watch your back because somebody's trying to get you.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not a figment of your imagination.
SPEAKER_00: It's a real thing.
SPEAKER_00: These are not make-believe troubles.
SPEAKER_00: These are real troubles.
SPEAKER_00: And each of us, all of us, have trouble.
SPEAKER_00: It may be trouble of health and trouble with finances, but they are troubles that you and I experience.
SPEAKER_00: But one thing that we have to understand and we have to realize, beloved, is that that's not abnormal for the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Trouble isn't abnormal for the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: It's important that we understand that just because you're a Christian, just because we embrace Christ as our Savior, that doesn't mean that there won't be trouble in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's not a thing where I'm hunting for trouble.
SPEAKER_00: I don't ask, I'm not trying to go find trouble and stir it up.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: But because you and I live in a fallen world, a world full with sin, a world that is controlled by the enemy of our souls and the system of this world, that there will be trouble in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: This world is broken.
SPEAKER_00: And so you and I, as Christians, we cannot guarantee, there's no guarantee that you and I will be exempt from troubles in our world and in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen to the witness of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says this himself in John chapter 16.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, In the world you might have tribulation.
SPEAKER_00: Is that what he said?
SPEAKER_00: No, he said, you will.
SPEAKER_00: You will have tribulation.
SPEAKER_00: He says, but but take heart.
SPEAKER_00: I have overcome the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's a part of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: That's a part of being a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can't be a child of God and think that there won't be trouble.
SPEAKER_00: You should not be surprised.
SPEAKER_00: It should not catch you off God.
SPEAKER_00: Now it might, but but but that's not unusual for us as men and children of God.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to these words of the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show this surpassing power that belongs to God and not in us.
SPEAKER_00: We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in your immortal flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Death is at work in us, but but life in you.
SPEAKER_00: He says this, there's always gonna be trouble.
SPEAKER_00: That's a part of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna come.
SPEAKER_00: You might be in a in a holding pattern right now.
SPEAKER_00: Things might be going well and praise God, but but but live long enough.
SPEAKER_00: Something's coming.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why should we have this settled in our hearts?
SPEAKER_00: Why should we understand and come to grips and realize that that I that that being a child of God does not mean that there won't be trouble in my life?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we we need to be settled in that so that we don't become like, if you ever read Pilgrim's Progress, and as as Pilgrim is on his way to the celestial city, every once in a while he'll see somebody running back to the to the to the city of destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Because they ran up on something that scared them, and they said, Don't keep going this way, because this way is gonna get you killed.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens if we are not reminded and we're not understanding that this is what is a part of our lives, you may become disillusioned, you may, you may take your hand off the plow, you may say, Well, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't want to do this anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But if you already know, that's how gracious Jesus is, that's how good and kind he was.
SPEAKER_00: He he he was talking to his disciples, he was talking to us.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Look, I'm going to get you to the end, but understand the road there, there will be trouble.
SPEAKER_00: He's not doing a bait and switch, he's not saying, Come to me and everything will be fine, and the next thing you know, your world falls apart.
SPEAKER_00: No, he tells them up front, he says up front, this is what is going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now look at at what's going on here when we look at this passage.
SPEAKER_00: In this passage here, he says, he says, verse two, many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God.
SPEAKER_00: So, so verse one said, I got all kinds of trouble all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: And verse two says, Not only do I have trouble, but the folks that are giving me trouble are talking drunk to me.
SPEAKER_00: They're talking trash, they're they're talking about me, they're they're saying that I'm no good.
SPEAKER_00: They're saying that the reason why you're running, David, is because of what you did with Bathsheba.
SPEAKER_00: And you you act like you were a great king, but we know all about you that David, your hands are full of blood, and and now God is getting after you.
SPEAKER_00: They're talking all kinds of things about him, and and they're saying of him, and they're saying to David, they're saying that God cannot possibly deliver him.
SPEAKER_00: You trusting in God, you think God's gonna pull you out of this?
SPEAKER_00: You think God's gonna fix this?
SPEAKER_00: How many of us, how many of you are are right now the the enemy of your soul?
SPEAKER_00: There might be others around you that are saying they're looking at your circumstances and they're looking at your situation, and they're saying, Surely you don't think God's gonna fix this.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe in our own hearts, we look at our our circumstances or situation, and I must confess to my shame, there there have been times I've looked at situations, and I've honestly thought to myself, well, that this this this one is too messed up for God to fix.
SPEAKER_00: God can't possibly do that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what they were saying to David.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they were saying about David.
SPEAKER_00: David, you surely don't think that God's going to deliver you out of this.
SPEAKER_00: And and beloved, there might be some of you this morning where where that thought's going through your mind, you're looking at your circumstances, you're looking at your situation, you're looking at this or that, and as those whispers in your mind, God, I don't think God can fix this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I can trust Him to do this.
SPEAKER_00: You know, after that verse, it says Salah.
SPEAKER_00: That word Salah, it's a it's a musical term of thing, and people don't really know what it means, but we generally just say it means to stop and pause.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: And the question that you need to ask yourself this morning is am I thinking like that?
SPEAKER_00: Is there something that's going on in my world and in my life, and I'm sitting here and I'm thinking, there's no need me praying about this.
SPEAKER_00: God can't fix this.
SPEAKER_00: There's no need for me to continue to pray.
SPEAKER_00: I've been praying and there's no answer.
SPEAKER_00: God surely is not able to deliver me.
SPEAKER_00: But but beloved, is that true?
SPEAKER_00: Is it true that God can't fix it?
SPEAKER_00: Is it true that God can't give you the resources that you need to deal with the situation?
SPEAKER_00: Is that true?
SPEAKER_00: And that's why when we meditate on God's well, we got to think it through because a lot of times we don't think about what we're thinking about.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to stop and think, what am I thinking about this situation?
SPEAKER_00: Am I trusting God?
SPEAKER_00: Am I resting in God?
SPEAKER_00: Or am I actually believing that God cannot get this done, that he cannot deliver, that he cannot do what I believe that he can do.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, what is David's response?
SPEAKER_00: David's got problems all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I've got hundreds and thousands of people chasing me, and that was true.
SPEAKER_00: They got people saying that that God can't deliver me and he can't fix this situation.
SPEAKER_00: How does David respond?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But you, oh Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and a lifter of my head.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's good news.
SPEAKER_00: He says, No, I hear what they're saying, but but God, and this isn't just a shield that they would put right here, but this was a shield that covered the whole body.
SPEAKER_00: He says, God, you are the one who is covering me.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I know what the enemies are doing.
SPEAKER_00: I know what the people are trying to do to me, but I have a God, the God of the universe, the God that spoke all this world into existence.
SPEAKER_00: That God is is is is shielding me.
SPEAKER_00: He's over me.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, who's getting through when God's covering you?
SPEAKER_00: Who's gonna get through when God's the one who is your shield and God's the one who is watching over you?
SPEAKER_00: Who's breaking through that?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's breaking through that.
SPEAKER_00: And David says, but you, oh Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
SPEAKER_00: You, oh God, lift my head up.
SPEAKER_00: You know how it is when when things are going bad, you walk around with your head down.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to smile, you ain't happy.
SPEAKER_00: People can tell something's going on.
SPEAKER_00: But David recognized and realized that because God is my shield, covering my whole body and my glory, I can, I can, I can lift my head.
SPEAKER_00: I can stand up tall.
SPEAKER_00: I can walk, I can, I don't have to, I don't have to shuffle like my world's falling apart because of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And and then he says in verse 4, notice what he does.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I cried aloud to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So not only does he recognize that God is a shield, not only does he recognize that God is the lifter of his head, but he also recognized that I know where to go when I got problems.
SPEAKER_00: I know who to turn to when things are going bad.
SPEAKER_00: I know where to cry out when my world is falling apart.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I cried aloud to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I told the Lord about everything that was going on in my world.
SPEAKER_00: And that is one of the things, beloved, that you see in the Psalms is that the writers of the Psalms, even though they're going through hell, they know where to go.
SPEAKER_00: They cry out to God, they're they're lifting their voices up to God, they're they're they're they're they're they're praying, they're worshiping God.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I cried to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill.
SPEAKER_00: Says, think about that, think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Stop.
SPEAKER_00: Are you crying out to the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with sharing with our friends, no, nothing wrong with sharing with other people, but are you crying out to the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Are you like Hezekiah when he when when the when the the the king sent the letter to them, telling them what he was gonna do to the nation of Israel?
SPEAKER_00: He took the letter and he spread it before the Lord and he said, Lord, would you please take a look at what this man said he's gonna do to us?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but Lord, are you spreading the letters before the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Are you spreading the words that they have speaking that are spoken against you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you laying them before the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: And are you entreating God?
SPEAKER_00: God, would you would you look at what they said they're gonna do to your child?
SPEAKER_00: Would you look at what they said they're gonna do to the one that you sent your sin son to die for?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you deal with this.
SPEAKER_00: I can't handle this, but you can.
SPEAKER_00: He spread the letter before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He cried out to the Lord, and the Lord answered me from his holy hill.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, beloved, understand something.
SPEAKER_00: David was run out of Jerusalem, he couldn't get to the temple, but he knew where his help was.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times when we're in trouble, when things are going bad, the last place we come is the church.
SPEAKER_00: Be honest.
SPEAKER_00: You be see, things are going bad.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, I don't feel like going bad.
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like them people smiling at me and and praise the Lord and all this stuff, and they don't know what trouble I got going on.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna stay home today.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't feel like it.
SPEAKER_00: David said, I feel like it.
SPEAKER_00: David said, I know where I need to go.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be in the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be in the house of the Lord, I need to be with the saints of God, I need to hear the words of God, the prayers, the songs, the preaching.
SPEAKER_00: I need the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill.
SPEAKER_00: Cried to the Lord his prayers of fears, his confusion, his despair.
SPEAKER_00: They were directed to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He wrestled in the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Oh beloved, see, that's that's where that's where we fall short.
SPEAKER_00: That's where I fall short.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's just teaching me how now to wrestle in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: Before I would just I would just go into myself.
SPEAKER_00: I would get moody, I would get attitudeish, and I'm still struggling with that.
SPEAKER_00: I still ain't got that together, but now I'm learning.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm learning that when something goes wrong, I'm learning to run straight to God and say, God, I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm scared, I'm confused, I'm angry, I'm I'm I'm disillusioned, I don't know what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: I need your help.
SPEAKER_00: And and that's what the psalmist does.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I cried aloud to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And he answered me.
SPEAKER_00: But he's not done.
SPEAKER_00: He's not done.
SPEAKER_00: He says, verse 5, he says, I lay down and I slept.
SPEAKER_00: I woke again for the Lord sustained me.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The sun's trying to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: He's got armies after him.
SPEAKER_00: He's running for his life.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the midst of the fire.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I went to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's be honest.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us go to sleep when real troubles happen?
SPEAKER_00: I know I struggle with it.
SPEAKER_00: I wrestle with it, but but David understood something.
SPEAKER_00: If God is my shield, if he's my shelter, if he's the lifter of my head, if if God is the one who is surrounding me, I I can go to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: I can go to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: I they can't get to me.
SPEAKER_00: They can't make it happen unless God says it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: You know the story of Job.
SPEAKER_00: The devil came to said to God, I need to get at him.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I'm gonna let you go so far, but you can't do this.
SPEAKER_00: God controlled the whole situation.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the same thing with you and I.
SPEAKER_00: That the enemy of our soul can't do anything unless God says, okay.
SPEAKER_00: And if he says okay, he's still got your back.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, doesn't mean that you're abandoned and he's never no, okay means that he's doing something else that you and I don't understand, but he's accomplishing something greater in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And so he said, I lay down and I slept.
SPEAKER_00: I awoke again for the Lord sustained me.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice something here about verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I I went to sleep, I got up, God sustained me, he kept me.
SPEAKER_00: Through the night, and I got up.
SPEAKER_00: But understand, the trouble was still there.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say when I got up that Absalom will stop chasing me.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he said.
SPEAKER_00: It's not what the text says.
SPEAKER_00: He says he got up and he said, The Lord sustained me, the Lord gave me and renewed in me, and he restored in me what I needed to face the day.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how many of us, and we've all been there where you're laying in bed and you're like, I don't want to go to work tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to see that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: Or I don't want to deal with this situation tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Or I can't, I don't have the resources.
SPEAKER_00: But but David goes down and he sleeps because he understands who God is.
SPEAKER_00: He gets up and God gives him what he now, okay.
SPEAKER_00: He's still coming.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Let's deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: He gives him, he gave him what he needed to be able to face the day.
SPEAKER_00: The troubles weren't gone.
SPEAKER_00: Absalom was still after him.
SPEAKER_00: But God gave him grace.
SPEAKER_00: God gave him what he needs.
SPEAKER_00: These words are familiar.
SPEAKER_00: You heard them in Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He said, so he kept me from becoming conceited.
SPEAKER_00: So to keep me from becoming conceited, because of surpassing greatness, the revelations, the thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me to keep me from becoming conceited.
SPEAKER_00: Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me.
SPEAKER_00: So God had put this on Paul, and Paul prayed to God, God, could you please get this out of my life?
SPEAKER_00: He prayed three times for God to do that.
SPEAKER_00: But then he said to me, verse 9, but he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you.
SPEAKER_00: My power is made perfect in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I will boast more gladly in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
SPEAKER_00: See, God, God didn't take the thorn away, but what he said, I got something better for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you more of me.
SPEAKER_00: I got something better for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not taking it away.
SPEAKER_00: You have asked me, and it's not gonna go.
SPEAKER_00: But what I will do is that I will let your my grace rest upon you.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Paul saw that, he says, Gladly will I glory in my infirmities, because when I am weak, now I'm strong.
SPEAKER_00: God's on me, God's with me, God's got my back.
SPEAKER_00: So he he says, I'm I'm good to go.
SPEAKER_00: And see, David woke up, and and Absalom wasn't gone, but God, David was like, But God's with me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how this thing is gonna work out.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know when it's gonna work out.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if I'm gonna make it out alive, but I know that my God is with me.
SPEAKER_00: So he says in verse 6, he says, I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves around me.
SPEAKER_00: I ain't scared.
SPEAKER_00: I hear you.
SPEAKER_00: I hear the I hear the dogs and the barking, I hear all the words that are coming at me, I hear everything.
SPEAKER_00: But but but because of who God is and because of what God has done, I'm not scared.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
SPEAKER_00: There was this man was being chased down, and he said, But God's with me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus was in the boat, and the storm came up, and the disciples were trying to save the lives.
SPEAKER_00: That was a real storm.
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't no make-believe storm, it was a real storm.
SPEAKER_00: They're in the boat, and Jesus is there and sleeping, and they're irritated.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, Where's Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's bailing water and doing everything they need to do.
SPEAKER_00: And and you know how it is, like you know how it is when you're doing work and you're looking around and you're like, well, where's so-and-so?
SPEAKER_00: You know how people that know how to slide off when it's work time, you know, you're looking for them, like, where's that brother at?
SPEAKER_00: You know, you sweating, lifting everything.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, where's he at?
SPEAKER_00: That's the same thing they were feeling about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Where's Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And they they go down my knee and they say, Master, don't you care?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you understand what's going on here?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you realize that we're getting ready to die?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you care?
SPEAKER_00: But but as one preacher said, because Jesus was on the boat, beloved, that boat wasn't going anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is on board, beloved, and the person of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Ain't nothing happening to you.
SPEAKER_00: Ain't nothing gonna happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: Unless this God of this universe says, okay, but even then, you will still be with him.
SPEAKER_00: So he said, I'm not scared.
SPEAKER_00: I won't be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me.
SPEAKER_00: Then you notice what he does in verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: He basically says in verse 7, Okay, God, get busy.
SPEAKER_00: Get busy.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for you strike all my enemies on the cheek.
SPEAKER_00: You you break the teeth of the wicked.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now understand here, we oftentimes we look at verses like this and we're like, well, you know, I thought we were supposed to be a people of love and you know, turn the other cheek and everything.
SPEAKER_00: The scriptures does do say, Vengeance is mine, let me do the repaying.
SPEAKER_00: God will handle that.
SPEAKER_00: And so he puts God on them.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm not gonna go after them.
SPEAKER_00: He seeks God on God, you deal with that.
SPEAKER_00: You get them.
SPEAKER_00: God can get them a whole lot better than you and I can.
SPEAKER_00: And there are, beloved, understand, there are evil people.
SPEAKER_00: There are evil people, there are people that don't have your best interests at heart.
SPEAKER_00: There are people that will seek to destroy you.
SPEAKER_00: There are people that would just seek to destroy your life and your marriage and your children.
SPEAKER_00: There are evil people.
SPEAKER_00: The apostle Paul spoke about that.
SPEAKER_00: He talked about um Alexander the coppersmith, and he told Timothy, he said, beware of him, because he's done me much harm.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You better watch that, brother.
SPEAKER_00: You better watch that man, because that that brother right there, he will get you.
SPEAKER_00: So there are people out there like that.
SPEAKER_00: And there are people out there like that.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you gotta get God on them.
SPEAKER_00: Let God handle that.
SPEAKER_00: Let God get after them.
SPEAKER_00: God can do it, let him deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, Well, rise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for you strike all my enemies on the cheek, you break the teeth of the wicked.
SPEAKER_00: And then he ends this psalm.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Salvation belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Your blessings be on your people.
SPEAKER_00: Salah.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Salvation is of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now, how can this man say this?
SPEAKER_00: This is an amazing thing to say.
SPEAKER_00: This is a man that that walked with God and was serving God.
SPEAKER_00: This is a man that sinned grievously against God.
SPEAKER_00: This was a man that was running for his life from his children and from his son.
SPEAKER_00: And he was being scandalized and he was being hated by those around him, but yet he was able to say, salvation belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You see, he would he recognized, he understood something.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Look, look, I'm he has God has entered into covenant with me.
SPEAKER_00: He has saved me.
SPEAKER_00: And I I'm not gonna get it right all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And folks are gonna, there will be failures and there will be stumbles, but but but the reason why I'm gonna get through the end, the reason why I'm gonna, I can, I can trust and I can rest on this God is because salvation belongs to him.
SPEAKER_00: What what God begins, he's going to complete.
SPEAKER_00: And that passage that we read this morning in Romans chapter 8, verse 31, I the reason why he could say that, the reason why he could say salvation belonged to the Lord is because because God's keeping power wasn't dependent on how well David lived his life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, yes, he needed to walk in obedience and his heart was repentant, but he but he had faults, he had flaws, he had failures and he had missteps, and yet in the midst of all that, he said, salvation belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: God's going to get me through.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because of me, no, because of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: He's a covenant-keeping, faithful God, and what he has begun in my life, and what he begins in your life, he will complete it unto the day of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it says in Romans chapter 8, verse 31, he says, What then shall we say to these things?
SPEAKER_00: If God is for us, who can be against us?
SPEAKER_00: Now he he could have stopped right there.
SPEAKER_00: He could have stopped right there and said, That's all I need to say.
SPEAKER_00: God is for you, who can be against you?
SPEAKER_00: The answer is nobody can be against you.
SPEAKER_00: But but he goes on, he just piles on.
SPEAKER_00: He says, He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
SPEAKER_00: If he gave you Jesus to save our sorry souls, do you think he's gonna shop if he gave you the best?
SPEAKER_00: Everything else that God gives you is just icing on the cake.
SPEAKER_00: He gave the best for you.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't send an angel to die for you, he didn't send an angel to do the work for us, he gave us his own dear son.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if he gives us his own dear son, everything else is just that's just icing on the cake.
SPEAKER_00: He continues on.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 33, how who shall bring any charge against God's elected is God who justifies who who it is, who who is to condemn?
SPEAKER_00: Christ is the one who died more than that, who was raised.
SPEAKER_00: Who is that who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us?
SPEAKER_00: All these things are going on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this, interceding for us, who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.
SPEAKER_00: As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long.
SPEAKER_00: We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
SPEAKER_00: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
SPEAKER_00: For I am sure that neither death, so even if Asalon had killed David, that death would not separate him from the love of God that was in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: As one preacher said, I can't lose.
SPEAKER_00: He said, If you kill me, I'm going to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: If you leave me alone, I'm still with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I'm winning one way or the other.
SPEAKER_00: And what he says here, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: David running for his life, but David was able to say, But salvation belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: God's got me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what you try to do to me, I don't care what you say about me, David said, God's got me.
SPEAKER_00: And because he's my shield and he's my covering, I ain't scared.
SPEAKER_00: I will not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, beloved, as we as we reflect on this passage, as we reflect on this psalm, and you may be in trouble, you may have trouble.
SPEAKER_00: There may be trouble in your home, on your job, in your body, there may be trouble.
SPEAKER_00: But would you reflect on a God who is able to keep you?
SPEAKER_00: Keep us.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what's going on around us.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved salvation belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for this psalm.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Lord, for this reminder that salvation belongs to you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you, Lord, for the um the honesty of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Because Lord, there is real trouble in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: You're not saying that the things that we're experiencing are are no big things.
SPEAKER_00: There are.
SPEAKER_00: There are big issues and problems and challenges that each of us face, and some may be facing them right this very moment, and it's real.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God.
SPEAKER_00: Would you remind them that salvation belongs to you?
SPEAKER_00: Would you remind us that you are a shield upon us.
SPEAKER_00: You cover us.
SPEAKER_00: Would you remind us, Lord, that we can go to sleep and we can get up and face today because you sustain, you keep us, you sustain us.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Father.
SPEAKER_00: May we be a church, may we be a people that recognizes and understands that salvation belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.