A Road Map for Life | Beginning With GodSample

ON THE WINNING SIDE (Psalm 3)

(Psalm 3:1-3) “Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.”

Have you ever lived there? Has that ever been the expression of your heart, how you felt? Well, that is how Psalm 3 begins — with what seems to be a note of real defeat -- we are losing the battle. Yet, by the time it ends, we are going to be on the winning side.

Psalm 3 is amazing. We believe that it was written when David was running for his life from his own son, Absalom, who had turned against him and taken the kingdom from him. David was dealing with betrayal, disappointment, and trouble. Sound familiar? The Bible says in Job 14:1, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.”

Maybe you are dealing with an Absalom today. Or maybe it is something else. Everybody has something to deal with.

Where does Psalm 3 fit into the scheme of Scripture? We believe Psalm 3 fits in II Sam. 15:30, “And David went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot: and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.”

Geographically, they were going up, but emotionally it seemed like they were going down into the valley. That sounds a lot like the way Psalm 3 begins. It was the words of a man dealing with difficulty.

I am glad God shows us this in Scripture that David, the man after God's own heart, the man of great blessing, also had his burdens. The man who was so blessed also had his battles. You are not alone. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful ...” (I Cor. 10:13).

I am glad that Psalm 3 does not end with those first two verses. There is a “Selah” there, a call to pause and meditate on David’s hurt and his heart for a moment. Then we move on.

Listen to verse 3. “But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; My glory, and the lifter up of mine head.” He is your shield and will protect you. You may feel as though you have nothing to glory in today, but you can glory in Christ. He will lift your head.

Is your head hanging low today? Lift your head up. You say, “I can’t.” But the Lord will lift your head up. The Bible says in Heb. 12:12, “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.” We all get to the place where we're just kind of moping around and we're groaning our way through life. Get your head up, friend. The Lord is the lifter of your head.

Verse 4: “I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.” He is the God who answers prayer. God hears you when nobody else hears you or knows what you are dealing with. Sometimes the greatest battles are the ones fought in private, and the greatest burdens are the ones nobody knows about. When you wet your pillow with your tears in the middle of the night and wonder how you are going to live through this, God hears you there.

There is another “Selah” here. Time to pause and think. Don't just think about how hard you have it; think about how good your God is.

What happened in verse 5? “I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me.” You can rest in Him. You can go to sleep because God is going to take the night watch.

“Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (Ps. 121:4)

“... for so he giveth his beloved sleep.” (Ps. 127:2).

Rest in the Lord, because He is your sustainer. He is not going to just get you started. Paul would later write in Phil. 1:6, “being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

Hey, David. I know God gave you a promise that you were going to be on this throne and have an eternal kingdom. And now it looks like that is not coming to pass. But just know this: God's got it under control. You are still on the winning side. The Lord is going to sustain you. He is “the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2).

Verse 6: “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.” Was he tempted to be? I am sure he was. But he made a choice. Exercise your will against your own emotions today. Determine not to be afraid. Remember the words of II Tim. 1:7. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

The psalm ends with verses 7-8. “Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.”

Don't just meditate on your difficulty; meditate on who God is and what God is going to do.

In Psalm 3, He is the Savior. David already knew God, but he cried out for salvation. You see, the salvation God gives is not just past tense. If you were saved 30 years ago, that is wonderful. Praise God! You were saved from the penalty of sin. But that was not the end of your salvation; it was just the beginning.

His salvation is not just future tense. Some might say, “Well, I know when the Lord comes back some day, I'm going to be saved from all this madness.” That is true. On that day God will save you from the very presence of sin and all of the curse that is connected to it.

But remember, God is a present-tense God. He is the I AM, not the I WAS or I WILL BE. He is “a very present help in trouble” according to Ps. 46:1. He is with you right where you are.

God’s salvation is always a present-tense salvation. The same God who saved you from the penalty of sin, and will save you from the presence of sin, wants to save you from the power of sin today. He wants to deliver you from the power of the wicked one and from this present evil world that we are in.

He is a present-tense Savior. You can call on him now. The word “Hosanna” literally means “saved now.” I pray that many times through the day when I need the Lord, I just say, “Hosanna, Lord.” Save now. Help me now.

Psalm 3 does not just point to the enemy. It points to our captain. We are on the winning side. Stop looking at your circumstances or the enemy that is against you, and stop listening to everybody else around you. Begin to rehearse again about who God is.

That is what David does here. He just goes back to what he knows for sure and Who he knows for sure. As Rom. 8:31 reminds us, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

When Elisha’s servant grew afraid as the horses and chariots surrounded the city, the prophet said in II Kings 6:16, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”

Maybe you cannot see it today, but I want you to know you are on the winning side. One of my favorite hymns contains this verse:

I will never have a fear, for my Lord is ever near,

And in him so often I confide;

He's the keeper of my soul since I gave him full control,

And he placed me on the winning side

I love the fact that Psalm 3 ends again with a blessing. Verse 8 concludes with this phrase: “Thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.”

Stop and think about God's blessings today.