Sacred Songs - Psalm 3
Series: Sacred Songs
Speaker: Lead Pastor Dustin Aguilar
Scriptures: Psalm 3
Emotions - The Psalms are a huge section of the Bible where people process emotions in healthy ways.
Stereotype: Women are emotional & men are not emotional.
But men and women BOTH are sometimes driven by emotion to do dumb things, or are affected by trauma and can’t process feelings appropriately.
As Christians, sometimes we feel pressure to shove our emotions in a corner and only focus on logic.
The psalms get really messy/violent as the psalms progress. Psalm 3 is a bit of a warm-up to that.
Psalm 3 - a psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom, his son.
2 Samuel 15 - Absalom stages a coup against his father, David.
Absalom worked on a political plan to betray his father for 4 years in Jerusalem. He’d kiss and win over the people (betraying by a kiss!), and say “oh if only I were judge…”
Absalom spent a long time stealing the hearts of the people.
Betrayal can only happen by someone who is close to you. (Causes a special kind of pain, because it is a special kind of wrongdoing.)
It’s in this bitter situation that David writes Psalm 3.
V1. “Selah” - a Hebrew word whose meaning scholars are not sure of. Could mean:
”to rest” - for the musicians or for the congregation to rest.
”to lift up” - lift up what we just read to God, or a musical term for the musical instruments to pick up
V1. - David is expressing his sorrow by stating how horrible everything is, and he is saying it to God.
TAKEAWAY: It is healthy to acknowledge the struggle and difficulty you are facing.
V2. “salvation” - not talking about eternal salvation, but deliverance from situations.
However, today it is common for Satan to use this lie on people in modern times concerning salvation. (That what you’ve done is too bad, or you’re too unclean to be saved)
V3-4. - The shape of the psalm is emerging.
The first few verses are about how bad everything is, BUT then there’s a TURN with “But you O God”
This pattern is common in many psalms.
If you’re experiencing pain, don’t deny it’s happening. Spill it all out, but then try to include a turn where you begin to list good things about God (even if you aren’t feeling it in the moment)
e.g., David said God is his protector (“you are a shield about me”)
TAKEAWAY: It is healthy to acknowledge good things about God in the midst of difficulty.
V3-4 - 3 Turn statements: David says several turn statements about God.
“You are a shield about me” / You are my protector
”You are the lifter of my head” / God is not the cause of my pain
”I cried aloud, and he answered…” / we are allowed to process our emotions and cry aloud to God without buttoning ourselves up.
Satan will often attack these very statements and ideas and try to tell you the opposite!
TAKEAWAY: It is healthy to acknowledge how you feel.
more than just saying what’s going on, but also how you FEEL about it.
Even if you feel angry at God, the best thing you can do is bring it to him and process. Don’t stay angry, be honest about how you’re feeling with Him and turn your heart.
V5-6. - “I lay down and slept…for the Lord sustained me.”
When something bad happens, the first night after that often feels extra long. That’s true for David here with Absolom’s betrayal, but it’s also true every day.
TAKEAWAY: In the midst of sorrow, betrayal, and loss, thank God for the small things.
^keeps our hearts from becoming entitled.
V7. - a tiny sliver of David’s emotions showing
an “imprecatory psalm” - to “imprecate” means to pray a curse on someone. (E.g., “praying to God to curse someone”)
David asks God to strike his enemies.
In David’s day, most of David’s enemies were human. Today, our battle is different. (Jesus says to bless our enemies and not to curse them)
Ephesians 6:12 - for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood…but spiritual. Our battle is different than David’s.
What do we do with imprecatory psalms? - David personally marks spiritual warfare verses in his Bible.
TAKEAWAY: The Psalms sometimes call for human warfare, but the Christian can pray them as spiritual warfare.
Even if you’re not running from human enemies like David, you can still pray Psalm 3.
If you’re a Christian, you have spiritual enemies and can pray these verses.
V8. “Salvation belongs to the Lord; [let] your blessing be on your people”
On this side of the cross, we know that eternal salvation belongs to the Lord, and there’s nothing you can do to achieve it.
That’s true, but that’s not what David is talking about.
People around David are saying there is no help for David, but David is saying there is.
2 Sam 15:25
TAKEAWAY: In sorrow, betrayal, and loss, the safest place to be is in the hands of God.
Wounding, loss, and betrayal often make us think lies: like, “God is not my protector, so I must help myself”
Jesus is alive RIGHT NOW, and he wants to be your protector! He doesn’t want you to work for him to prove yourself to him. And he wants to be the lifter of your head.