We're told in Psalm 2 that those that take refuge in the Lord are blessed and are happy. And then we come to Psalm 3, and Psalm 3 is a reality check for the blessed. Because in our blessedness, there will be troubles and challenges. And that's the reality of life. And that's the reality of the Psalms. The Psalms connect with everyday life. They don't pretend to be something they're not. They're not all Psalms of rejoicing and happiness and making us feel that everything, everything, everything is wonderful. Because there are times in life when life gets very, very difficult and very, very challenging. And to be blessed of the Lord, to be happy in the Lord, to have that situation that they talk about in Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, doesn't mean that our wish lists and our desires are always fulfilled. With Spotify, with your streaming service, you get to choose the music that you want. But life is not like that. And we may choose to have 24-7 happiness. We may choose to have 24-7 comfort. We may choose to have 24-7 stress-free life. And that's just not what it is. To be happy in the Lord doesn't mean that everything in this life is going to work out perfectly as we see it. And so the blessedness of Psalms 1 and 2 transition straight into the troubles and difficulties that are set out in Psalm 3. And so maybe in Psalms 1 and 2 you thought, that's great, that's nice, that's good for them, but they don't know my situation. Well, Psalm 3 shows us that God knows our situation. And so it starts with troubles, it's cut into four little sections and each little section's got two points, so we're gonna have four main points two little sub-points on each main one. And the first heading is Troubles, verses one to two. And we know from the beginning of this psalm, in the ESV, it's in capital letters, the Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom, his son. These descriptions that are here for us, they're descriptions that were given to these psalms way, way back. And they're there to help us understand what is going on. And what we read in 2 Samuel 15 is this story of Absalom's treachery. David was Absalom's father. And this was a difficult time for David. He was getting older in his life. His kingdom had been established. Things were going well-ish. But this was a difficult, difficult time in David's life. There were troubles. And we know the story of David well, don't we? We know the story of David and the key things we often remember is him there as a young boy, defeating the giant glass. And he defeated him with a stone and a sling. And he defeated him because he was trusting in the Lord. And we go through David and he had lots of troubles in his youth and King Saul wanted to kill him. And so often then David was coming to the Lord, trusting in the Lord. And you read so often in those passages, David inquired of the Lord, what to do? He was close to the Lord, things were going well. He became king, God looked after him. And then we know about David's infamous sin of adultery and murder. And this is one of the Psalms that was written after that event. A long time after that event. And in some ways the troubles that David was in was as a result of his sin. The challenges that he faced after then were often connected to the fact of the consequences of what he had done. And while our sins can be forgiven, we may have to live through the consequences of them, and that's something to remember. Yes, we can be forgiven. And yes, we are made right with God through Jesus. But there still can be consequences of poor choices. And we need to bear that in mind and I think that should motivate us and help us to think on the one hand we don't want to sin against God but also we need to remember that there are consequences to sins. But there's two main things going on in this verse. These two verses here under our heading troubles. And then the first one I want to notice is the fact of the matter, that the facts of what are going on here, what is actually happening here. And David describes it like this. He says, Oh Lord, how many are my foes? Many are rising against me. David was absolutely correct. This is the situation he was in. David's own son was conspiring against him and we read about that in 2 Samuel and 15. Absalom did all that he could to undermine his father's authority. He was stealing the hearts of the people from his father. And can you imagine that? That relationship, a father-son relationship, and the son is wanting to outwit, outdo his father. And how must that have hurt and distressed and caused his father difficulties? He lied to his father about his going out of town. He said he wanted to go and make vows, where in reality he was going to cause an insurrection. He was going to cause his own revolution. And he was becoming more and more popular than his father, as we read in verses 12. And in verses 14 of this chapter 15, the only thing left for David to do in his safety, for his safety, was to run away from Absalom. Can you imagine that change of events? The king having to leave his city, having to run away, and who is it from? His own son. His own son. How hard was that to be? It was painful. It was high treason. It was horrendous betrayal. His own son was forcing him out of the kingdom. And on top of that, it seemed like his own people were turning against him. And they were. He was betrayed. He was lonely. This great king, this great king that the Lord had used to establish that kingdom, that great king who'd won so many battles, was being humbled and he had to run away. Now there were some who were loyal to the king. but he was on the run. And he feared not just for his kingdom, but his own life. And this was the facts of the matter. This was the situation that he was in. This is what was going on. Oh Lord, how many are my foes? Many are rising against me. And then the second part of this, the troubles, are what people are saying about it. It's the commentary of others on this matter. It's what other people are saying about this. And verse two says, many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. David wasn't just aware of the challenging situation that he was in. David wasn't just aware of the problems that he had, the threat to his own life, but he's also aware of what other people were saying about this situation. It may have been connected to the cursing and the mocking that is recorded in chapter 16 from verses 2 to 8. But the actual pain of what was going on was very, very real to David. And he's left in weeping, and he's crying, and we read of that in verse 30 of this chapter 15 of 2 Samuel. But as he leaves weeping, and as he hears his friends mocking, and as he hears his enemies mocking him, the big question mark that was put there, the big thing that was said to him, is they were saying that God wouldn't save him. God wouldn't take care of him. Many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. There was this spiritual battle that was going on. The people were questioning God and questioning his relationship to David and questioning God's ability or even God's desire to save him. They were questioning the very promises of God. And what was happening to David was doubt was being put in his mind. He was being challenged. The situation was difficult. The situation was treachery. The situation was potentially his own death. And added to that, people were stirring it up. And he had this, this spiritual battle was going on. And it's not dissimilar to our Saviour Jesus, when He was dying for the sins of His people on the cross. And as He was there on the cross, that the people around about, we read about this in Matthew 27 and 43, they were saying, He trusts in God. Let God deliver Him now, if He desires Him, for He said, I am the Son of God. And so there on the cross, in Jesus's real time of trial and temptation and difficulty, when he was dying for the sins of his people, those around about him were causing doubt, were wanting him to give up and be distrusting. And he trusts God, let him deliver him. And they were joking and laughing about it. Now friends, I think this is really, really important for us because our situation may not be like David's, yes? You are not being chased out of your kingdom. Well, if you are, I would like to hear about it after the service. But for most of you, not kings or queens, that's not your situation. But you have got troubles in your life. and your troubles are very, very real. But our troubles are magnified when we are tempted to doubt God's salvation, when we're tempted to doubt that God is real. That's where the real battle of these difficult times come in. And so here was the psalmist, David, and yes, he was in difficult times, but the difficulty was being magnified because people were speaking into his situation People, if you like, were preaching into his situation, and people were saying, there is no salvation. There is no hope. And in your difficulties, and in your troubles, and right now, you may be being tempted to think exactly the same. There is no hope. How can I, how can God save me in this situation? How can God provide for me? How can God look after me? How is he going to deliver me? And then we start doubting God's ability. We start doubting who God is. And often it's not even others that are provoking our thoughts, but it's our own sinful minds thinking that our situation is too bad for God. Thinking that there's no way that he can help us through this situation. We may feel that things are too helpless for him to intervene, too hopeless, too big. We may even think it's just too little for God to bother about. And very often in my own experiences, and very often in the experience of God's people in his word, is the doubts and the fears are far worse than the reality. Have you ever had that? There's been something ahead of you, and your mind has made it into this great thing, and it's bowed you down, and then you go through the great thing, and you think, well, actually, was that so bad? And you actually think, well, actually, God got me through it. There's a surprise. But this is what happens. This is the difficulty, and this is the problem, and this is where the psalmist was, and this is where we so often are. And the tragedy is this, is so often we get verses one and two stuck on loop. Yeah? And so we go back to that young man or that young lady who's lost their love of their life, or she hasn't smiled, or he hasn't smiled, or he hasn't texted, or he hasn't phoned. And so what soundtracks go on, they are love songs of lament. They're sadness, and they just become more depressed and more inward-looking, and it just loops round and round and round and round until one of their friends says, get out of this! Come on! Wake up! Switch that off! Let's go out! Let's have something to eat! Let's have a walk! Let's not listen to that rubbish! And this is what happens to us in our lives. We get caught in verses 1 and 2. We get caught in the soundtrack of lament and sadness. Now, lament is good. And yes, we can bring these things to the Lord. It's not wrong to lament our situation. It's not wrong to speak to the Lord and tell the Lord about our problems. The Lord, our Heavenly Father, is there and He's waiting to listen to you. And this is what David does. It's not wrong to tell the Lord your problems. Be open, be frank. Spill out your guts, as we say in England. Let it all out. And African friends, yes? You are telling God who knows it already what is in your heart. You're not manifesting something to make it happen, yes? The fact you tell God what your problem is doesn't make it a bigger problem and won't make it a reality. It is a reality and God knows it and you need to tell God. You need to share with God. You need to tell God your fears and you need to tell God your doubts. But we must not stay there. We don't want a shuffle, loop, repeat of verses one and two in our lives. That would be awful. You see, Psalms one and two tell us that we are happy and blessed. And Psalm 3 tells us that we are happy and blessed no matter the situation or the difficulty. Yes, friends, you may be in challenging and difficult times, but you still can be blessed in them. You still can be happy in them. But just staying on repeat, loop, and verses 1 and 2 are not going to be a blessing to you. So what do we do in troubling situations? That's our second point. The psalmist moves us on. The psalm teaches us. The psalm tells us where to go. David's opened his heart to the Lord. In verses one and two, he's lamented, and we can too, but we mustn't stay there. There's no long-term comfort in complaining to the Lord. You'll become bitter and twisted and miserable, and you'll be that person in church that no one wants to sit next to, because you'll just be going on and on and on about your problems. and your problems are real, and don't get me wrong, but you need to take them to the Lord, but don't just complain. Now we can thank God for the Bible, and the howevers in the Bible, and there's a but here, and rather than dwelling on the problem, David did two things, and the first thing that we see is he looked to the Lord, verse two, but you, oh Lord, There's his problems. There's his difficulties. There are these many people rising against him. There are people causing him to doubt even what God's going to do for him, and doubt the Lord in that situation. And rather than dwelling on that, he says, but you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. Rather than dwelling, he looks to the Lord. He sees the Lord, and he sees the Lord as a shield. And a shield is not something that takes away the problem. It's Captain America, isn't it, who has that shield, yes? And it doesn't actually take the problem away. It stops the problem from causing him damage. He does use it offensively, but the shield doesn't take the danger away. The shield stops the danger from harming you. Do we get this, yeah? God is not saying, the psalmist is not saying, I prayed and everything got better, and everything worked out, and everything was made right. No. He's saying, God became between me and the problem. He is the shield. He comes in and he protects us from the negative aspects of it. Ephesians chapter 6 talks about the armor of God and it's the shield of faith and what do we have faith in? We have faith in God and God believing and trusting in him is a shield to us. And so David, he sees the problems, but he's seeing that the Lord is there. The Lord is a shield to him. He is my glory and the lifter of my head. You see, David knew the Lord. David knew God's word. And so he could confidently take the promises for himself. And in Genesis 15, this is the first place where we hear about a shield. And it's God speaking to Abraham in verse 1 of Genesis chapter 15. It says, After these things the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. Fear not, Abraham. Why not? I am your shield. Fear not, friends. Why? I am your shield. And friends, we need the scriptures. We need to know the scriptures because that's where the blessing and the comfort comes to us in the times of trouble. And often what we're looking for is the blessing and the comfort in our feelings. And it's not about our feelings, it's about the facts. And the fact here is the Lord is a shield. He protects us. He comes between us. And here, in the height of the challenge, there is glory. God is working everything out to the glory of his name. You see that in Psalm 2, don't you? The nations are raging, and people are shaking their fists at the Lord. And who gets the glory? The Lord gets his glory, because his people come to him. And then they kiss the sun, lest he be angry, and they have salvation. And God is glorified in this. He is in control of every situation. And the difficult situation that you are going through now is a situation that will bring glory to God. Full stop. Everything that we're going through in this life will bring glory to God. Yours and ours stupid, sinful mistakes that we make that are on us, God will use to his own glory. The unwise decisions that cause us hurt and pain ultimately will be to God's glory. And God is shielding us from the enemy. And God is going to bring glory out of the situation. And he's going to raise our heads. When I was playing sports, If the other team scored a goal or scored a try or scored a basket or whatever it was, if they had the upper hand, the team who is losing, what happens often is their heads drop. Have you seen that? And what would happen in that situation is often the captain of the team or somebody who's got a big mouth will be shouting, heads up, boys! Don't drop your head, let's have some pride in this, heads up! And then if someone went on to make a good tackle, if someone went on to... do a good run or something positive happened, then your heads would rise because something was going on well. And then the Lord is the giver of hope in darkness. He is lifting our heads in this situation. Jesus, who's gone before us, has overcome everything, and he's telling us to lift our heads. He is our shield. He will work it to his glory and to our good. And he's lifting our heads. There is a hope. It's not outside of his control. It's not outside of his power. And sometimes our troubles, the trouble of our troubles is we get caught up in the feelings. We get caught up in the feelings and we let these feelings take over ourselves and we press verses one and two. We're looping round, looping round, looping round, and we're feeling bad and we're feeling dark. And yes, that is the reality of the situation, but the other reality of the situation, rather than the feelings, is the facts. And it's this fact that God is our shield, and it's the fact that God is working this to His glory, and it's the fact that God will lift our heads. And He does lift our heads, and He can lift our heads, because He is God. And so David here, in this situation, is preaching the truth to himself. He's changing the soundtrack. He's moving the soundtrack of lament and distress to the soundtrack of adoring and worshiping the King of kings and the Lord of lords who's in control of everything. And that's what we need to do in our dark, dark situations. We need to be continually feeding on God's word because we need it in the bad times. And then he cried out to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill, Sila. You see, the second thing we see him doing in this, so what to do in troubled situations, you look to the Lord, you speak the truth into your life in that way. And then he prayed to the Lord. Now, for definite, David took practical steps. He didn't just stay in Jerusalem and say, I'm going to pray now. And as Absalom and the army came, I'm going to pray now. He got out of the place. He took practical steps. And it's right to take practical steps. He sent spies back to spy on the situation in 2 Samuel 15, 35, which we read earlier. He realized that Zadok and Asper, the priests, were there. And he said, whatever you hear from the king's house, tell Zadok and Asper. And they get the message back to me. There was practical things that he was doing, but also he was praying. And we see a very, very practical prayer in 2 Samuel 15 31 at the end of it. David said, Oh Lord, please turn the counsel of SFL into foolishness. And he was very practical in his application of what he did, but he was also very practical in his prayers. And in our troubled times, yes, we should take action for sure, but we must pray to our God who is our shield, who is our glory, and who is the lifter of our heads. We must come to Him, and we must ask Him to help us, yeah? Not just pray, lament, and cry out what the problem is, but ask for help. Pray that the Lord will protect us as a shield. Pray that the Lord will use this situation for His own glory. One of the most helpful things that I've found to do when I'm in situations of difficulty and pain or ill health or whatever it is, is rather than asking God the question, why? Why? Ask the question, what am I to learn from this? What's gonna bring glory to you out of this, Lord? It changes the whole soundtrack. It changes the dimension. It changes the tune. It changes what we're thinking from why, why, why, negative, negative, negative to, Lord, this is, what are you doing? Help me to learn the lesson. Help me to see your name glorified through this. And yes, we can ask the Lord to comfort us and lift our heads, and he will. Now we know the outcome of this story. And I believe that when David wrote this psalm, he wrote it looking back, and he knew that his prayer was answered. And friends, we can have a confidence in that. We don't know how God is going to answer our prayers, but we know he is going to answer our prayers. We know he is going to take care of us. We know that he is going to look after us from his holy hill, as David uses that language there. He's now, Christ is sat on the right hand of God in heaven, and he's waiting for us to come to be with him for the whole of eternity. And as we pray to him, he's interceding on our behalf. Now, we may think that he needs to answer our prayers in a certain way. That may be the case, but God will answer, and he will do that. And so we need to remember this, that in our times of trouble, yes, lament, yes, tell the Lord, but look to the Lord. and then pray to the Lord. And then the third thing we see as we go through this psalm is the results of doing the right thing in troubling times. The results of doing the right thing in troubling times. Now we might think that the results were it worked out well for David and he got his city back and he got his kingdom back and he was back in his right position. Well, this part of the psalm was written before that happened, yes? In this sense, yes, that did happen. But what he's writing about here is the next day. That night, yeah? That night when everything is messed up in his head. That night when everything is traumatized around him. That night when he knows the foes are marching on the city. When he knows that his life is in danger. When the people around about are saying there is no salvation for him. David goes to bed and he sleeps. How can you do that? How can that happen? It's because of verses three and four. He realized that the Lord was his shield. He realized that the Lord was working this to his glory. He realized that the Lord was the lifter of his heads. He prayed to the Lord, and he went down, and he went to sleep. And then he woke again, for the Lord sustained me. It'd have been a very different psalm if he hadn't woken up, wouldn't it? It would have been a very different psalm if it then said, and Absalom killed me in the night. Work out how did that happen? What was going on there? But that wasn't it, was it? Yes. He laid down and slept. And friends, what are the problems in your life now that you're losing sleep over? What are the problems that are taking up the waking moments of your mind? What are the things that are pulling you away? You see, the answer to verses two, sorry, to three and four, how God works is he allows David to sleep. And maybe Maybe the fact that we find it difficult to move from feelings to fact is because we haven't done verses three and four. We've just left ourselves in the loop of lament, the loop of the problem, the loop of the difficulty. And here we see David in verse five. And he laid down and he slept. And we ask why and how can you do that? And it's because he preached to himself and he knew that the Lord was his shield. And he knew that the Lord would bring glory out of the situation. And he knew that the Lord would lift his head. And he did not just go to sleep, but in the morning when the enemies thought he would be done for, when they thought that God wouldn't save him, he woke up. And David saw this as the Lord's doing it, and he gives us the praise. And when the Lord is our shield, when we are working for his glory, when he comforts us, we can sleep. We can sleep in the storm, that knowing the Lord is over the storm. And I think we also have to see something here, yes? And that's David took an action, yeah? And the action he took here, it says, I laid down, yes? It doesn't say what I so often do. I went back to verses one and two. I worried some more. I thought about the problem some more. I tried to work out a solution. I was thinking of how many are my foes? How can I get around this? How can I work this out? And I didn't lay down to sleep. But David, he did, verses three and four, and the Lord used that and allowed him to be able to go to sleep. sometimes in our difficulties when everything is saying panic and everything is saying be anxious and worry and when we can't sleep or we think we won't be able to sleep we just need to go back and ask the Lord to help us and to help us to lie down realizing that he is our shield and realizing that he will look after us And then secondly, he says again, I will not be afraid. I will not be afraid. David has everything to be afraid about, doesn't he? Humanly speaking, there is this great army coming to get him. He has every reason to be afraid. And then he says, I will not be afraid. And what's he to be afraid of? Of many thousands of people who set themselves against me, and they're all around. That's a bit of a difficult situation, yes? And you might think that David was exaggerating. But in 2 Samuel and 17, the first verse of it, there's some advice being given. And the advice is, let me choose 12,000 men, and I will rise and pursue David tonight. Yeah? So when David says there's thousands around him, literally, they were planning on 12,000 being around him. That's a big number. That's an unfair fight, isn't it? One on one, possibly. One on two, half a chance. One on 12,000? He had every reason to be afraid. But he says, I will not be afraid. Now, it's easy in a situation, isn't it? When you are afraid, when you are worried about someone, and someone smiles sweetly to you and says, don't worry. Don't be afraid. Or maybe they even go a little bit further and say, the Bible tells you not to worry. Well, where's the comfort in that? The comfort is not in not being afraid. The comfort is in the reason why we shouldn't be afraid. And that's going back to thinking, but you, oh Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and the lift of my head. The comfort is I cried aloud to the Lord and he answered me. And that's where we need to take our minds, friends. This is not some sort of positive mantra that he had. This is not some sort of declaration. This is not some sort of manifestation. This is a fact. And he says, look, everything around me is going to make me afraid, but I'm not. I will not. Why not? Because, because, because the Lord is my shield. Friends, we have so many problems and challenges because the devil takes our minds off God and keeps us stuck in the loop of our problems. And we need to ask the Lord to help us to look past our feelings, and to look at the Lord, and to pray to the Lord. And so that when we are in these difficulties, we can sleep and rest in the Lord. When we're in these difficulties, we can say, I will not be afraid. Or maybe we just need to ask the Lord to say, help me not to be afraid. I want not to be afraid. Help me to look at you rather than the problems. And lastly, we see in these troubling times to trust the Lord. And it brings it back to us and it underlines us. And we see David humbly asking the Lord to save him. So in troubling times, we need to trust the Lord. And we trust the Lord by simply saying, arise, O Lord. Save me, O Lord. And then he has a recommendation. He doesn't have a recommendation. He says what God does. For you will strike all my enemies on the cheek. You will break the teeth of the wicked. He doesn't tell God to do that. He says what God will do. God will take care of the problem. That might sound quite dramatic. That might sound quite barbaric. That might sound not very 21st century and friendly. But wouldn't you want the things that worry you to evaporate and be taken away and smashed? Wouldn't want you to be saved from them? And so the picture language, the poetry here is of God having total dominion over the situation. God having total control over the situation. He can smack the enemies on the cheek and he can break the teeth of the wicked because he is in total control. And David is humbly trusting him and saying, Lord, please arise. Please save me. And it seems to me from God's Word, it seems to me from my own experience, that rather than humbly trusting in the Lord when things to go wrong, we desperately try to save ourselves. We need to work out a plan. We need to work out a way to do it. But the only way is if God saves us. And his plea was for God to arise. And his plea was for God to save. And he didn't ask for himself to beat his enemies. He didn't ask for himself to have victory over his enemies. He asked God to have the victory. And often we are not comforted. Often we're not strengthened. because we are too proud to ask God to save us. And I say that guardedly. I say that lovingly. I know there's many of you that are in troubles and difficult times. And I would just suggest, look, ask, search your heart. Ask the Lord to search your heart because sometimes I think we are not comforted or strengthened. because we're not really asking the Lord to save us. We're asking the Lord to save us in the way that we think he should. We're asking the Lord to bless our plans because that's the only way out of the situation. We're asking God to take away the situation because we believe that's the only way we can cope with it. God has a perfect plan. God will be a shield to us and we need to come to him humbly trusting him to arise to save and to do it in his way and in his timing. We also should be expectantly trusting. We need to be humbly trusting. But we can be expectantly trusting, because verse 8 says it, doesn't it? Salvation belongs to the Lord. It belongs to the Lord. It's His. He's the owner of it. And your blessings be on your people. And for each and every one of us here that know the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior, each and every one of us who knows our sins to be forgiven through Jesus' work on the cross, we are God's people. And he will bless us. And he will give us the happiness. Why? Because salvation belongs to the Lord. And so friends, let's not get caught in the forever looping shuffle mix of verses one and two. But may we be in a situation where we delight on the fact that salvation belongs to the Lord. May we see him as being a blessing to us now and forevermore. Amen. I'd just like you to take a few moments to pray over and think over what you've heard. And then we will close with our final hymn in just a moment. Almighty God, you know our own situations. You know our foes, our enemies. You know the doubts and the fears that we have. We bring them to you. Will all our God help us to see you as our shield. Help us to see you as the Lord who will have glory in all situations. And may you lift our heads. Help us to pray to you. May we be able to sleep knowing that you are our shield. May we not be afraid knowing that you are our God. Forgive us when we go on to the loop of verses one and two. But help us, oh Lord God, to come to you humbly, asking you to save us and looking to you to do that in your way to your glory. And we thank you, almighty God, that salvation belongs to you. And we thank you, almighty God, that you will be a blessing to us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We're going to sing in response.