The Bible Study Hour

Guest (Male): The historical context behind Psalm Chapter 3 points us to a time of crisis and betrayal in the life of King David. Today on the Bible Study Hour with Dr. James Boice, we'll learn that there's only one tried and true method for finding peace in the midst of life's challenges. And we'll be reminded that, like David, we're each in need of the kind of deliverance that only God can provide.

Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. Psalm 3 is full of military references, and as we study it together, we'll be encouraged that in our daily battles, God fights for us.

Dr. James Boice: The first two psalms stand in an introductory place. The initial one at the very beginning of the psalter shows the position, the proper position of the Word of God in the life of the godly person. It's a way of saying that a man who would find God and serve God and become like God must be a man or must be a woman of the Word. Very appropriate at the beginning of this book. And then in the second psalm, we have a messianic psalm, a psalm about the Messiah and a prophecy of his ultimate triumph. Those, as I say, are introductory. They introduce themes that are going to come up again and again throughout the psalter.

But beginning with the third psalm, we have the first of a number of psalms, especially here at the beginning, that talk about the different things that come into the life of the godly man and how he is to deal with them, how he is to be victorious as a result of his confidence or trust in God. Now this third psalm has been called a morning psalm. The reason for that is because of verse 5. Verse 5 says, "I lie down and sleep; I wake again because the Lord sustains me." That might seem to most of us on an initial reading to be an inadequate basis for calling this entire psalm a morning psalm, since that's only something mentioned partway through and it doesn't seem to be dominant.

But what I would hope to show as we go on and look at this in our time together, that it really is a morning psalm and more than that, it is talking about a specific morning with specific dangers that came into the life of King David. What happened is that it was written, as we're going to see, in response to those specific circumstances. It's a testimony to the grace of God in David's life, how he found peace and confidence with God on this dangerous morning. But then because it was written in a general way, as most of the psalms are, not alluding very obviously to specific things that came into the life of the writer so they could be sung and used by many people, this gradually became a general morning psalm and then was put here at this initial place in the Book of Psalms as the kind of thing that should be in our minds as we begin the day. It's significant that it's followed by Psalm 4, and Psalm 4 is an evening psalm.

Now, we ask what specific morning is this? I hope I've said enough to whet your appetite about it. You find it in the title of the psalm, which strangely enough, though it is in the canonical text of the Hebrew Bible, is not in many of our English translations. It is in the New International Version, and if you have that, I invite you to look at it. It says at the very beginning, that is before verse 1, "A psalm of David when he fled from his son Absalom." Now, there are three "firsts" in that very brief introduction. This is the first time in the Book of Psalms that the word "psalm" itself has occurred. It's not there earlier. Our book is entitled "Psalms," but that's not even the title in the Hebrew Bible, and neither Psalm 1 nor Psalm 2 are introduced in this way. But here in Psalm 3, we read "A Psalm of David."

So that's the first thing. Now the second thing is the ascription of the psalm to David. There are many psalms that are ascribed to David, that is he is said to be the author. Most of them are in the first two books of the psalter. There are five books in the psalter. The first two books cover Psalms 1 through 73, and most of these psalms of David are there in these first two books, but not all of them. They occur again later, and there are other people who are said to have written some of the psalms. One of them is ascribed to Moses. There are two psalms of Solomon. There are people we don't know much about, people like Asaph, Heiman the Ezrahite, Ethan the Ezrahite, the sons of Korah. A number of them are ascribed or directed in some way to the director of music, obviously responsible for the worship in the temple. And then there are a number of psalms that are not ascribed to anybody. They are technically anonymous. But here at the beginning, we have a psalm of David and there are many of them. Now there's a debate among scholars whether that really means that they are psalms of David. The Hebrew particle that introduces that could also mean "to David," a psalm to David or a psalm of David, but traditionally they're understood as being a psalm of David, and that's the sense in which I take them.

Particularly in view of the third part of this ascription that I'm talking about. The first thing that occurs for the first time here is that it's a psalm. The second is that it's described as being a psalm of David. The third thing is that it is related to a specific historical incident in his life. And that's found in the phrase, "when he fled from his son Absalom." Now what I want to suggest is that that should be taken literally. I don't know why we wouldn't take it literally since it's part of the Hebrew text and is to be understood as part of Scripture. But even if we didn't, the circumstances are such that we can well understand the psalm in that context.

Now, you know something of the life of David, so I can refer to it briefly. It was a time in David's life well on into his reign when his son Absalom, who had turned against him, was conspiring to take over the kingdom. David was preoccupied with the business of administration, and while it was going on he began, as sometimes happens, to lose touch with the people. He'd been very close to the people initially, but generations change and David was growing older and he was beginning to lose some of that touch that he'd had earlier. And Absalom saw that and seized the opportunity. We're told in 2nd Samuel the 15th and the 16th chapter where the story is unfolded that he would sit in the gate of the city and as the people would come to the gate—it's where the elders sat and where in olden times decisions were made—he would listen to their complaints. And then he'd say something like this. He would say, "If only I were king, I would deal with that. You certainly do have a valid complaint. It's too bad that there's nobody in charge of the kingdom these days that really cares about little people like you." And we're told in 2nd Samuel that by that means over a process of time he eventually stole away the hearts of the people.

Now the time came when the rebellion broke out. He went to Hebron on a pretext. He took his armed entourage with him, a small army. He had them give out the word: there is a king in Hebron. It's where David had begun his reign. A king in Hebron. Absalom reigns in Hebron. And the news came back to Jerusalem that there was a great uprising. The people apparently were flocking to Absalom. And David recognized the danger of the situation. He was a great military commander. He knew that he was in great danger because he was unprepared for an attack. And so he did what he had to do. He took those who were loyal to him and quickly, without waiting at all, the very evening he heard the message, left Jerusalem, fleeing down that steep descent away from the city to the Kidron Valley, passed over, up the Mount of Olives and into the desert where he had lived and had fought all those long years while Saul was on the throne and was seeking his life.

As he went along the way, he was abused by people who, as is often the case when somebody who is great has fallen, took special delight in his fall. There was a man named Shimei, a Benjamite, one who had been loyal to King Saul, David's predecessor, and who was still loyal to him. And he stood on the hill and he shouted down at David, the king, as he passed by, "Get out, get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel! The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The Lord has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a man of blood." One of David's soldiers wanted to go up and put an end to Shimei for that kind of language, but David said, "No. No, this is a time when the Lord has allowed shame to come upon me and we'll spare his life. It may be that the Lord will restore me to Jerusalem, and if he does then we'll rejoice in it. But we're not going to compound the situation by killing the man." It was a low, low period in his life.

Now, what I want to suggest is that that is the situation the third psalm describes. It doesn't describe it with particular detail. As I said earlier, none of the psalms do that because if they did, of course, it would limit their usefulness. And yet if you study it carefully as the scholars do, you'll see that it does describe a situation exactly like this. One great Lutheran scholar, I've mentioned him before, H.C. Leopold, notes a number of parallels and he says the parallels alone are enough to carry out the identification. For example, the opponents of the author are numerous. You find that in the psalm. He says tens of thousands are drawn up against me on every side. It isn't any normal person who can say that. It requires a king almost to have enemies of that quantity. And yet that corresponds very well with what we're told in 2nd Samuel. When the battle finally takes place in 2nd Samuel, 20,000 are killed. So that's probably, if you want to divide it equally, 10,000 on one side, 10,000 on the other. Very easy to understand that there were tens of thousands drawn up against David in the battle.

Again, the attitude of some of David's opponents was that he had forfeited all right of hope to divine aid. You see it in verse 2. Many are saying of me, "God will not deliver him." That's what Shimei was saying as he shouted down to David as he fled the city. "You're a man of blood. God's not going to deliver you. It's quite the contrary. God is punishing you because of all the evil things that you have done." David had actually been very generous and gracious to the household of Saul, but it's not the way it was perceived. Again, David in this psalm directs his prayer to God in his holy hill. When you read that story in 2nd Samuel, there were some people in his company that wanted him to take the ark of the covenant with him when he fled the city. It was a symbol of the presence of God. They said, "If you bring the ark with you, then it'll be evident that God is with you." And David was too wise to do that. He recognized that the presence of God, though it was symbolized by the ark, was not identical with it. If God was with him, God would be with him anyway. So he said, "No, leave the ark in Jerusalem." Symbolize the presence of God there. He wanted it to be God's battle, not his battle. And he said it may be that God will bring me back. And so you see, he looks up to God in Jerusalem, the symbolic presence of God, and he aspires to return there one day.

The other thing you notice in the psalm is that throughout it, the psalmist speaks as if all of the issues of life depend on God. That is exactly the way David speaks in 2nd Samuel. You find that the author is a man of some eminence. When you begin to put all of that together, what you have here very closely describes the other situation. Let me give you one other reason why we should take it that way. I'm going to apply this in a practical way in a moment, but I want you to understand the situation. There's a scholar named Peter Craigie who has written a commentary on the first 50 psalms for the Word Biblical Commentary and he doesn't incline to take these identifications of psalms as David's literally just because it says "a psalm of David." He's not willing to believe that David literally wrote it. He might think that it's in the style of David or after David or about David or to David or something like that, but not necessarily that David wrote it. But in this case, he does believe that David wrote it and the reason he gives is the military language. He says this is a military situation. We read it and we tend to take all these things as images and they are, but of course he takes them literally and he says look, the references to foes and enemies in verses 2 and 8, the reference to victory in verses 3 and 8, the fact that God is described as a shield. That's a military term. "The people" referred to in verse 7 may be employed—that word may be employed—with the nuance of "army." "The people are against me." You see, the masses are against me like an army. In verse 8, "Arise, O Lord," or "Rise up, O Lord," that's parallel to the words that were used when the ark went forth into battle. We're going to see that in a minute. That's what Moses would say, "Rise up, O Lord," and so it has to do with battle. And then finally, "From the Lord comes deliverance" or "victory belongs to the Lord." That sounds, says Craigie, like a war cry or a battle cry. Well, all of that, of course, fits the situation of a man who was a king and who was used to warfare as David was.

So what I want to suggest you see is that what this psalm is describing is real danger. This is not just talking about problems in general, the human condition as we might say, or a discouraging situation in life, but real danger. This is a man who's in danger of his life and yet at the same time it's a testimony to God's grace in his life because God gives him comfort even in the midst of the danger. Now, you and I face different situations, of course. None of us can say that 10,000 soldiers are literally raised up against us, at least I don't think we can. I don't know that any of us in a lifetime are going to say that unless for some reason we'd be in the military and there'd be a war or something like that. You generally can't say that, but there is a sense in which you and I go out to do battle most days of our lives, at least if you work in the secular world and sometimes it's true in the Christian world as well.

You may work in a company where you literally do battle day by day. It's a cut-throat operation. Everybody's out to get everybody else and there are lots of weapons that are used. They use slander and gossip and innuendo and sometimes bribes or stealing, all sorts of wicked things go on. A man told me once that he had gone away, he'd been in a small business with a partner, he'd gone away for two weeks on a vacation when he came back the partner had stolen the business. Stole it right out from under him and left him with a lot of debt which as he explained the situation to me years later he was still trying to pay off. You ask yourself how can you survive in that kind of a world? That's the kind of world David knew. He was God's anointed. He was a prophet and a psalmist, but he was also a king. He was a secular ruler. He fought secular battles and we fight them too.

Sometimes it's not like that. We say look, here's a man who has thousands of enemies. I don't have thousands of enemies. Well no, but how many enemies do you need to make life miserable? One good one if he's really talented or if she's really vicious can be enough. And probably you have more than one. You're lucky if you know who all your enemies are. Maybe they're enemies behind your back that you don't even know of. Maybe there are dozens out there that are trying to get you. Don't dismiss it as saying well I'm just paranoid. You know what Yogi Berra said about that. Yogi Berra had these wonderful sayings and one of his sayings, my favorite saying, is this: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you." And maybe they are. There're probably lots of them and the more successful you are the more there are. The more visible you are the more vulnerable you are. That's what it's like in the world. David's situation's not altogether different than ours. Maybe you can't say that your son has raised up an army against you, but you might well be able to say that somebody in your family is against you. Somebody that ought to be on your side, a son or a daughter. Maybe they hate you. Maybe they've said vicious things. Maybe they're out to get you. Maybe they betrayed everything you stand for. Maybe it's not just a son or a daughter. Maybe it's a husband or a wife you thought he or she was your ally and it turns out they're on the other side. They're part of that vast force out there that is arrayed against you. And not only in a secular way, maybe spiritually as well. They're trying to tear down your testimony, try to drag you away from a commitment to God which you earnestly want to keep.

Now you see if that's the situation we face, then we can read this psalm and we can say to ourselves the very fact that it describes a situation in the life of David does not make it more remote from us but it makes it close to us because that's what we go through as well. And we ask the question, "How did David handle it? What did he learn? How did he cope?" Now I want to look at the psalm in that way. The first two verses are a section that describe the crisis. Let me give you words that will define these little stanzas for you. Verses 1 and 2, the Crisis. Verses 3 and 4, David's Confidence in God. They all begin in "C"s. I don't normally do that but I'm doing it this time. Verses 5 and 6, the Courage that he has even in the midst of it. And finally verse 7, a Cry for help. And you'll notice that verse 8 is separate and that becomes something of a testimony at the very end. So you have four sections there. You have the Crisis, the Confidence, the Courage, the Cry, and then finally the Testimony.

Now the crisis is what we've been talking about. "O Lord," says David, "how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of him, 'God will not deliver him.'" They've raised an army. They're marching against Jerusalem. I've had to flee. I don't know when they're going to attack. Perhaps they'll come after me tonight. And not only are they pursuing me, there are people like Shimei up there on the hill that are saying God's not going to deliver him. The very fact that Absalom has succeeded so far and has raised up this army is proof that God has washed his hands of this king. You see, crises like that come into our lives and there are people who will say that. "Ah, you religious, where's God to help you now?" You ever had anybody say that to you? I imagine you have, many of you.

Now look at something. That's the tone of the first stanza, verses 1 and 2. What happens when you come to verses 3 and 4? "But you are a shield around me, O Lord, my glorious one, who lifts up my head." What's happened? We've passed from this feeling of crisis in the first stanza to a sense of quiet confidence in stanza 2. Now ask the question what's gone on between stanza 1 and stanza 2 that's made the difference? What's happened in between stanza 1 and stanza 2 is that David, who before this had his eyes upon his enemies, has now gotten his eyes off of his enemies and upon God. You see it's always that way. When Christian people are looking at the dangers, the dangers grow. Like Peter when he was trying to walk to the Lord across the water. When he was looking at the water, the waves seemed to be getting higher and higher, more and more threatening. He said to himself, "How can I ever survive in these waves? I'm going to drown." And he began to sink. But you see, when you get your eyes off the dangers and you get your eyes on the Lord, then the dangers, though they are real—that's why it begins by describing the crisis, it's why it says when he fled from his son Absalom, real dangers—but the dangers begin to shrink. Why? Because they're less? No, they're there. They're every bit as strong as they ever were. But because you're beginning to see them in perspective, you're beginning to see them as God sees them. And in the light of God, everything fades to near insignificance.

There's a great illustration of that in the Old Testament when the spies went into the promised land. You know the ten went in and looked at the land and they saw the giants, the sons of Anak, descended from the Nephilim. Just the very fact that they had a name like Nephilim was scary enough. And here they were, the sons of Anak, descended from the Nephilim. Wow! And they were big. They were like football players. And here they looked at them and they said, "Oh, you know, we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and so also did we seem to them." And they went back and they said the land's a great land but there's not a chance that we're going to be able to take it with people like that living there. That was the ten. And then there were the two, Caleb and Joshua. And Caleb and Joshua said, "Oh, we can surely take it." What was the difference? Were Caleb and Joshua blind? No. Had they failed to see the giants? No, they'd seen the same land, they'd seen the same people. The difference was Caleb and Joshua had their eyes on God. And so you see when the ten looked at the giants they seemed small, the giants were big, a huge barrier to the conquest of the land. But when Caleb and Joshua looked at God, the giants began to shrink to manageable proportions.

And that's exactly what has happened to David in the psalm. You see, I don't know if it was the case that when he literally fled he literally feared. It may have been. Certainly it was a moment of panic, required quick action. David acted quickly, wisely. But after all, there were tens of thousands that had risen up against him and he hadn't even had time to prepare for it. After all, if it was the Philistines he would have known they were coming. His spies would have said they're beginning to arm, they're going to march in the spring, he would have gotten ready. But suddenly here it was from his son. Maybe he really did begin to experience the panic of the moment. But if he did, he did also what he had learned to do by discipline during a long lifetime of living with God. He took his eyes from the problems, he directed them to God, and the problems began to shrink. You see, in that perspective, even the tens of thousands marching under Absalom became manageable and he came to the point where he could say at the end God can give me the victory.

There's something interesting here. This is the first place in the psalter where between stanza 1 and stanza 2, you find the word "Selah." So puzzling a word, nobody really knows what it means. Certainly the translators of the NIV don't because at the very bottom there's a note: "a word of uncertain meaning occurring frequently in the psalms, possibly a musical term." Well, it occurs 73 times in the psalms and it occurs three times more in the psalm that ends the book of Habakkuk. There's a prayer there, very formal prayer, and three times over that word "Selah" occurs. It often occurs, most frequently occurs between stanzas like this, but sometimes it occurs at the end. You'll see it there at the very end after verse 8. Sometimes it occurs in the middle of a stanza. You'll see it in the next psalm, Psalm 4. It's right after verse 4 and before verse 5. Sometimes it even seems to break up a thought. Selah, Selah, what does it mean? Well, it can mean one of two things. It can be derived from a Hebrew verb which means to lift up or to raise. And people who derive it from that root say, well, it's a musical notation. It means here's where you modulate to a higher key. Maybe. On the other hand, it can also come from a verb which means to pause or to stop. And generally most people think that's what it means. It says, look, here's the time to stop, to pause, to think about this. Perhaps it even meant both. That at this point in the singing of the piece, there would be a modulation or a quiet, a musical interlude, and then you'd begin the next stanza. But you see it probably indicates that during that period we're to stop and think. We're to apply what we have just said or what we've just read. And I would suggest that's what we ought to do. You see, if you think, and I'm sure you have as we've been talking here about the crises you're facing in your life, perhaps what you're going to face tomorrow morning when you go to work, do what it says. Selah. Stop. Think. Consider. Get your eyes away from the troubles onto God. And if you do that, you'll be able to see and say, "But you are a shield around me, O Lord."

David says three things about God in that verse. He says God's a shield, that is God'll protect him. He's done it before, he'll do it again. He says God lifts up his head. His head is drooping. Maybe your head is drooping. Sometimes my head's drooping, often drooping. Sometimes I'm just drooping. I get tired. Sometimes we get discouraged. You ever droop? Well, God lifts up the one who's drooping. Third thing God does is answer him. You see when he cries out, God answers him from his holy hill. God speaks to him when he cries out in need. God does that to you. He doesn't always answer immediately, doesn't always answer saying what we want him to say as his own ways and his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts, but he does answer. He does not abandon his people. And if you've lived long with the Lord, you know that is true. Those things should be in your minds when you face the problems you do face day by day. And you should be able to stop and say yes, my God is like that, he has been with me in the past, he'll be with me again. And when that happens, the problems begin to shrink in size.

The next stanza, the third, is the one that in most people's minds is the best. At least it's the one that seems to touch them most closely. It's where the psalm gets its name: a morning psalm. It expresses this quiet confidence that David has in God and it shows real courage. "I lie down and sleep," he says, "I wake again because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side." One of the commentators says this is the spiritual high point of the psalm, and I think it is. Imagine David having to have fled Jerusalem quickly. The text in 2nd Samuel says he even went barefoot, bareheaded, although he pulled something over his head as a sign of mourning, making his way out of the city—the king, the king. And here he is out in the wilderness that first night. He doesn't know what's happening. All he's heard is that Absalom and his armies are marching on Jerusalem and he's had to flee and what's Absalom going to do? Is Absalom going to turn and attack him and pursue him at night and catch him out there in the desert and wipe him out, all at once, he and his troops? David just thought of God. God's the one that's in charge of his life. God's his shield, always has been. God's answered him when he's prayed, always has. He can trust God and so what we find David doing is lying down and sleeping. How can you sleep on a night like that? Well, you can do it if you commit your life to God. And that's exactly what David did. That's why he's a model. That's why we have these psalms in our psalter. That's the way he lived and that's the way we can live as well. It isn't only, you see, a fact that he has laid down and slept. That's remarkable in itself, sleeping in a situation like that. But literally speaking, this psalm is the psalm of the next morning. He lay down, he slept, now he woke up in the morning. He's refreshed. He says I'm ready to face the new day and what's coming? Why, this army is coming! But he says, you see, I'm not afraid of that. I'm not afraid of the ten thousands because I've composed myself and I am resting in the Lord. That's the way you and I ought to go off to work on Monday morning. We ought to go off resting in God, not fearing what foes may be drawn up against us.

Now that doesn't mean that there's no battle. There is a battle and David acknowledges it in the fourth of the stanzas. You see he's described the crisis, he has expressed his confidence, he's demonstrated courage, but now nevertheless, as he draws to the end of the psalm, he cries to God for help because God knows he needs it. He needs God's help. Absalom has the edge, he has the numbers, the armies are on his side, David merely has a little group of people that have fled away with him. If God doesn't help him, there's no help. And so he turns to God and he says, "Arise, O Lord, and deliver me! Deliver me, O my God!" And then he thinks of the past. "Because you've struck all my enemies on the jaw, you've broken the teeth of the wicked." That's what David had experienced during a long career as king. God had done that for him. Now he says I need it again. I need God to go before me.

And it's in that courage that he went forth. When I read this, I think of Martin Luther, you know. Luther was a man who had great courage and for the same reason: he had learned to trust God. He's put it into his hymns. We sing it when we sing "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." That's what Luther had discovered and what he knew. There's that great time in his life, you know, when he was on the way to Worms where he was to give defense of himself before the Diet. He had been given a safe conduct, but his friends had heard his enemies saying that a heretic shouldn't be granted the privilege of a safe conduct. Nobody should honor the safe conduct of a heretic. And besides, John Huss had been given a safe conduct not very long before that and he'd been burned at the stake. They simply arrested him anyway. Now Luther was going to Worms, marching into the very hand of his enemies. People began to warn him along the way. They said don't go. Finally as he got on the very edge of the city, his friend Spalatin from within the city sent him an urgent message by his servant. He said do not enter Worms. And Luther replied, "Tell your master that even if there should be as many devils in Worms as there are tiles upon the housetops, still I will enter it." That must have stuck with him because many years later on his deathbed he was thinking of it and talking about it and he said of that moment, "I was then undaunted. I feared nothing." And he acted that way because it was at the Diet that he spoke those immortal words: "Unless I be persuaded by the words of Scripture and sound reasoning, I cannot and will not recant. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me." A man, he called out for help to God and God heard him. God did deliver Luther, spared him for many, many years, and he became the father of the Reformation.

And David experienced it too. God delivered David. Would you think that God would abandon David in a situation like that? God didn't abandon David. David had been caught off guard, his own son had been raised up against him, the armies of the enemy consisted of tens of thousands, but God heard David and he spared him and he returned him to the throne. If Absalom had attacked that night, he would have been able to wipe out David. David knew it. One thing David said, he had a faithful counselor with him and the counselor wanted to stay with David, but he said, "No, go back to the city and pretend that you're still loyal to Absalom and when counsel is given, you give counsel that will serve my cause." And so this counselor did. They took counsel that night. They said what shall we do? Some of them said now's the time to attack him, he's weak. And this faithful counselor of David, blessed by God in this wrong counsel that was actually to help David, said, "No, you know David's a man of war and he knows how to fight and what if you attack him tonight and he actually wins or even if he wins a skirmish? Why, everybody's going to say, 'Ah, he's going to triumph.' No," said this counselor, "what you need to do is wait and take your time and collect your armies and then when you're good and ready, move out against him." And we're told that God blessed the counsel to confound the counselors that actually were for Absalom and Absalom didn't attack. So God intervened, you see. It says that explicitly. God intervened. Interestingly enough, David didn't know what was happening. David had sent his own counselor back and that's what he wanted to have happen, but he didn't know that was happening and yet God was working all that out. All of that was happening while David was sleeping and waking and trusting God. And eventually, of course, the battle did come. David in this time had managed to collect those who were loyal to him and there were many. And they had a battle. It was a great battle. I mentioned earlier that 20,000 soldiers were killed according to the text in 2nd Samuel and among them in the battle was his son Absalom. It was a hard moment for David, he didn't want his son to die. Nevertheless, God had preserved him. He had cried out, "Arise, O Lord, deliver me, O my God," and God did arise in power and deliver him. And the glory went to God.

But at the very end of this, David gives a testimony. Verse 8: "From the Lord comes deliverance." That's a great text. It's almost the same thing you have in the second chapter of Jonah, verse 7, where Jonah after his experience in running away from God and being thrown overboard and swallowed by the whale and repenting in the belly of the great fish has that line: "Salvation is of the Lord." That's what this text is saying: "Salvation is of the Lord." I heard somebody preach on Jonah once, they said that is the theme of the Bible. And indeed it is. It's the theme of the Bible. Salvation is of the Lord. You and I need deliverance. We need deliverance in all sorts of ways. Above all, spiritually. And the only place that deliverance will come from, above all spiritually, is from God. But it does come from God. That's it. Salvation is from the Lord from beginning to end. It says that we don't save ourselves, God saves us. He plans it, he executes it, and he applies it. And it's not due to the human will or human powers of decision or anything else, but it's due to God and the grace of God. Salvation is of the Lord. And we know that to be true.

But if that is true in the greater matter, if that is true in the matter of our salvation when we're utterly helpless, when we are subject to the power and the influence of the devil and are on our way to hell, if God intervened in a situation like that and saved us as I might say in a situation in which you and I did not even cry for help, if God did that, well then how much more is God going to save us in the battles of this life, the battles you face tomorrow morning? He's going to do it because he wants to work through you and he honors his promises. You cry out to him. You say, "Arise, O Lord, deliver me, O my God." God will do it. He wants to demonstrate his power in you and in your life. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this great, great psalm. We thank you for the great man who wrote it, not because of himself great in you, because of what you did in him and what you taught him and how you blessed him and through him how you teach us. Father, we don't live in situations as dramatic as his. We don't fight literal battles with armies. And yet we fight battles every day and we need deliverance in them just as much as David did. Father, do arise for us. we ask you to do it. We look to you to do it. and in the meantime, we want to rest confidently in what you have done, lying down to sleep and sleeping well, rising again and rising to a new day knowing that you go before us and that the victory is the Lord's. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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