Salvation

Cry out to the Lord who saves

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Good morning. We get to meditate upon that incredible truth this morning. If you're new with us, we've been walking through the first three Psalms. As we looked in the last two weeks, Psalm 1 and 2 really frame the 150 books, the book of Psalms. Psalm 1 and 2 begins with a blessing. Blessed is the man who delights in the law of God. Psalm 2 ends with blessed is the man who takes refuge in God's king. The Psalms have a unique role in how God leads us to know him. He speaks his law so that we know who he is and what he expects of us. It's a word he gives authoritatively that we receive and trust and believe and obey. And then he gives us the Psalms to know how to speak back, how to go back up to him. And there's a variety of different kinds of Psalms. There's Psalms who lead us to confess sin, to cry out in trouble. to praise Him, to ascend up to His holy hill, the last five Psalms inappropriately with halels, the praise of God, the praise of Yahweh. One of the things we see throughout Scripture, and especially here in the Psalms, they help us in all different kinds of trouble. If you just think the first three Psalms, well, Psalm 1, it's my internal problem. I need to delight in the law of God and not in sin with others. Psalm 2 was God's problem of evil. The nations are raging. How will God solve that problem? Psalm 3, the first psalm in the four books, the two intro psalms, the first psalm we come to, well, it's my external problems. Foes pressing in on me. Psalms are a way for God to guide us through our trouble, through our difficulty, to cry out to him. This morning, we're gonna see a model prayer for living in this fallen world. The simple message is, cry out to the Lord who saves. Cry out to the Lord who saves. There's four stanzas. There's four points. Surrounded, shielded, sustained, saved. Surrounded, shielded, sustained, saved. There's four truths we're gonna take away. The Lord knows our trouble. He protects us in our trouble. He sustains us in our trouble. He saves us from our trouble. I want you to see how the first few words of each stanza begin. Oh Lord, and that's where he makes his case before the Lord as to what's happening. Then notice, but you, oh Lord, he cries out to him personally. Then it's, I lay down. What are the consequences of how he's called out to the Lord? And then finally he makes his request. Arise, oh Lord. and save me. As we walk through the psalm, let's first look at surrounded. This is a psalm of David. He is speaking to Yahweh. That is the word that continues to control the entire psalm. It's, O Lord, O Yahweh, but you, O Yahweh. Yahweh sustains and arrives Yahweh. But the focus of that first is declaring all the problems.

How many are my foes, my adversaries, my enemies?

They're rising against me, they're numerous and they're attacking. And notice what they're saying, there's no salvation for him in God. They're not saying God isn't able, they're saying God isn't willing, God doesn't want to. You are cursed, you're despised. Now, it's the first Psalm with a subscript. It tells us this is David at the time of Absalom and the conspiracy, and David is fleeing from his own son, Absalom. It's helpful to understand the historical context and who David is and what we know of him. From 1 Samuel, we know David was constantly fleeing from Saul, while David was not the king, but he's already been told he would be king. He's fleeing regularly from Saul, who was the king. David fights Goliath. He overcomes a giant with Yahweh's help. Well, we fast forward and we see the high point of the kingdom. We see the promise God makes to David explicitly in 2 Samuel 7. We saw this last week a little bit. God looks around and says, God, you've given me such a great kingdom. I have this great palace. Can I build you a house? And God says, no, but I'll build you a dynasty. One of your children will serve as king forever. We fast forward to two chapters and we see David showing Mephibosheth, a grandchild of Saul, his enemy, loving kindness. We see a king after God's own heart, exercising the kind of rule that God has set David for. But then, 2 Samuel 11, at the time when kings go to war, David stayed home. And he took a woman who was married to another man, Bathsheba. He commits adultery. Murder, deception, pretty sure he breaks almost all the Ten Commandments. The law he's been given from God to exercise for God's people, he's breaking it. What a tragic, sad unwinding of a kingdom. And then we see what happens next. David has many children. This captures David as an older man. Amnon, one of David's sons, Covets Tamar, one of David's daughters. He ends up raping her and then despising her. Amnon and Tamar, both David's children, they don't share a mother, but Absalom is David's son, whose Tamar's full sibling. Absalom is unsatisfied with David's rule and the way he handles this particular problem. So he plots a conspiracy, and we see this conspiracy played out in 2 Samuel 15 to 18. Absalom continues to call people to question David as a good ruler, as a right ruler, as a righteous ruler, and so it records he had many who followed him, and he captured the people's hearts. Well, now Absalom has captured people's hearts. His own work against his father David has to flee the city out of fear, and it's the most vulnerable situation. It's his own son who's attacking him. The many foes are led by his own flesh and blood. They're rising against him. And much of this is the consequence of David's own failing. But we see here, Absalom is in no way the right. Focus in on verse two, because what the foes are doing, there are many, they're rising, but I think the end there is the hide of the problem. It's what they're saying. David, there's no salvation for you in God. He flees, and what they're declaring, it's not that God isn't able, it's you're cursed. You're out of the kingdom, you're off the throne, you're out of the wilderness, you're fleeing. It's a devastating attack. The Lord is no longer for you, he's against you. There's no help, there's no hope. There's no salvation for you, David. You have been despised by God. It's pretty easy to see how someone might get here. It's pretty easy to see how David would actually believe this. This is very much like Job's friends. Let's interpret God based upon your circumstances. Let's look at your current situation and let's just read back into whatever is happening to you and assume what God must think of you. That's what we do. When we receive earthly blessings, we must walk around a little kick in our step and think, wow, God must be really happy with me. When things go bad, we must think, wow, what have I done to displease God? What have I done to deserve this curse? This is helpful for those who are prone to just beat yourself up, to think there must be something wrong, that things are going wrong. Look, there's always, Lots of ammunition available to think about what's wrong and how I'm not blessed and how God must be upset. This is why we need to understand from David, he's crying out to the Lord in the midst of this. It's so powerful, those first, the first word. Yahweh, they say you won't save me. What a powerful declaration. There are other Psalms that cry out with absolute grief and fear, and there's a real complaint, how long, oh Lord, will you forgive me, but not here. He's an older man. He's conquered giants. He's sought and found forgiveness. Lord, this is what they're doing. This is what they're saying, and already we see a man who doesn't believe that. because the God they're saying who cannot save him, he himself is crying out to. There's reality. Everybody prays when we're in trouble, but this is the kind of prayer you want to be ready for when you're in trouble? This is a prayer that's been seasoned by the grace of God in faithfulness and finding forgiveness? That this is a model prayer for us to want to achieve so that when someone or we might feel like there is no salvation for us, we know we are going to cry out to the God who is our salvation. So he's surrounded. He's crying out to the Lord in the midst of that surrounding, in the midst of them saying there is no salvation. And notice now the second turn, he's shielded. The Lord protects him. He now speaks to them much more personally. You, Yahweh, you, oh Lord. He knows God. Again, he's an older man who's learned how to walk with God, and he's learned how he's failed God, and he knows God is always faithful. You is emphatic, and notice there's three things he says about God.

You are a shield about me. You are my glory. You are the lifter of my head.

Three things to really help us contemplate God. He's a shield. There's a protection. In the armies of this day, they would have shields and they would kind of create a turtle shell kind of contraption so that arrows wouldn't penetrate. The shield is an absolute protection. God is strong and reliable. He's helping them in the middle of the wilderness. Secondly, my glory. Now, that's an unusual way in which we would use the word glory. The word glory carries with it the idea of weight, and we usually apply this word to God, who alone is truly glorious. It could be that David is contemplating, I've lost the glory. I've been removed from the throne. I'm out in the wilderness. There is no weight to me anymore. But you, Lord, are still with me. Or this could be a reference back to the Exodus. where the Shekinah glory followed Israel. The glory of God swept around Israel as Pharaoh and his troops are coming one last time because Israel's trapped in the Red Sea. The picture there of God and his glory being able to surround his people and protecting from a great adversary. Third, the lifter of my head. Well, this is almost universal. In defeat, where does your head go? When you're discouraged, down, your head drops. The Lord, he lifts your head. The Lord who has promised goodness, the Lord who extends his mighty right arm in protecting and saving, he encourages. We realize that the root of encourage is He instills courage. In the midst of what feels like defeat, in the midst of being surrounded with what absolutely looks like defeat, he lifts the head. Important. Life is full of trouble, challenges, discouragement. What is your source of courage and joy? What helps you find comfort and strength? One of the most difficult problems we have isn't the foes out there. It is what they're saying, and there's always someone who's willing to discourage you or throw you off track. But I believe it's our own internal record that we usually are wrestling with the most. It's will we believe the lie of verse two? Is it we'll take that and put that on our record player instead of what God has said? Notice verse three, but you, oh Lord, But you, oh Lord, we have to know where the buts are in scripture. We saw the significant one in Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who does not walk with sinners, does not sit with scoffers, but delights in God's law. Even more significant, you were dead in your trespasses, but God made you alive. You were distant in sin and shame, but God drew you near by the precious blood of his Christ, who is our peace. You were frolicking in your foolishness, but God and wisdom provides light and truth. You were twisted in your own deception, but God heals and makes whole. The truth of who God is and what he has done and what he has promised, it gives us buoyancy. It helps you rise up out of whatever trouble or problem or difficulty that you're facing. This isn't a look inside and tightening your bootstraps. No, this is look up and know that God who has promised himself to you is with you and he's for you. It helps you rise above the difficulty and the trouble. But you, oh Lord, you've protected me. You have been my glory. You're the lifter of my head. How quickly we get dragged into despair, but you, oh Lord. How quickly the intensity of a pain or a problem comes and overwhelms us, but you, oh Lord. What a glorious instruction. Christian, lift up your head. This is what the author of Hebrews tells us. There's no drooping in the kingdom. We're not citizens of Sinai and fear and trembling, no, we're citizens of Zion, where there's great rejoicing because we know God has saved us. We get to enter boldly into the presence of God with a head lifted high, with a conscience that's been cleaned. by the precious blood of Christ. Church, we need help from one another to be encouraged at times, all the time. There's a way in which we're supposed to be welcoming one another as Christ has welcomed us, we should be building each other up, we're supposed to be encouraging one another. Homes and churches are God's designed self spaces. Because it's there where you go and you know who loves you and you know you're welcome and you know you're going to be cared for and your head will be lifted up. You'll receive a word that gives you buoyancy and courage and strength. I'm always somewhat upset when people mock our culture that talks about safe spaces. No, the problem is that the best safe space they can find is trying to find somebody who won't say something. No, we're supposed to be a safe space. to confess sin and hear you're forgiven. We're supposed to be a safe space where we can come and talk about our difficulties and our trials and hear, oh, but here are the promises of God who help you come up out of those problems. It doesn't remove the problems, but it helps us see those problems in light of God. Christian, are we making our home? Are we making our church? A place where we know we can come and cry out to God together. Notice verse four. The Lord who protects, David declares,