Complaint or Confidence?

 Temple Baptist Church - 7-10-2022

Psalm 3

 

A.  Tonight, we see another beautiful Psalm of encouragement. 

 

1.  The Psalms were stories of the lives of God’s people just like the old hymns of today.  Songs about people just like you and me.  People who share the ups and downs of this life together. 

 

2.  I pray that it will be of help to both those who are having a rough time in their personal valley and those who are enjoying the mountain top just before they endure the same.

 

B.  Let us just break this Psalm down tonight with this thought in mind:  “Complaint or Confidence?”

 

1.  Verses 1-2.  David states his Plight. I find no complaint here, just a statement of fact.  David, a man after God’s heart, spent most of his life either on the run or in troubles otherwise.

 

a.  David was a young man who kept his father’s flocks until God chose to have him anointed to be the King of Israel

 

b.  It was then that David’s life changed for both the better and for the worse.  Better as God had an important work for David to do, establish an everlasting throne upon which our Saviour would one day sit!  The worse, from shepherding sheep to shepherding the Nation of Israel.  What a chore to shepherd this nation of “stiffnecked” people.  That is what God said about them!

 

c.  From the beginning, David spent time, months – or years on the run until King Saul died.  Sleeping in caves or living in other countries because of Saul’s hatred for him. 

 

1 Samuel 27:1  And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul …

 

d.  In this Psalm, he is on the run again because of a sorry son who undercut his authority with the people of Israel and now the rebellion is strengthening as the people along with most of David’s counselors and military men are turning to Absalom and against David. 

 

e.  Befitting for a King?  I think not but it is God who holds our future in His hands!  We may not always like it but suffering of one sort or another is a way of life.

 

f.  We suffer also because of our faith that is inclusive, whosoever will, and exclusive, most do not want it!

 

“Complaint or Confidence?”

 

2.  Verse 3.  David’s Confidence.  “But!”  The world tells us that we have no hope in God because they reject both God and what God can do.

 

a.  God is our Shield!

 

b.  God is our Glory!

 

c.  God is the Lifter Up of our Heads!

 

3.  Verse 4.  David’s Reliance.  I cried … He heard!  Selah – pause to meditate upon it.  You rely on self, you will always reach a breaking point, you rely upon God—you will always find help and endless power.  Just “Call unto me and I will answer thee.”  Simple enough?  His eyes are always on His children and His ears open to their cry.

 

4.  Verse 5.  David’s Peace.  Rest in the Lord with peace in your heart and you will awake refreshed and assured.  The meaning of “sustain” is two-fold: To rest oneself and to stand fast.  It is He who sustains by giving us the peace of heart to rest and the strength of God to stand fast.

 

5.  Verse 6.  David’s Courage.  With God on our side, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.  The people feared where no fear was.  God has it all under control.  He is neither surprised nor limited in His knowledge and ability to do all things.

 

6.  Verse 7.  David’s Remembrance.  God helped him as a shepherd (a lion and a bear), God helped him with a giant (Goliath), God helped him with a tyrant (Saul), and God would help him now.  Satan has not devoured any of us at this point.  As we look back on life, God has always carried us through the valleys.

 

8.  Verse 8.  David’s Praise.  Salvation – deliverance through or removal of our trials.  Blessing despite all that this world can throw at us.  I am blessed; I am blessed; every minute of every day or night.  God is good all the time.

 

“Complaint or Confidence?”  The choice belongs to us individually.  I want to choose confidence!