Message Podcast
Filtering by Tag: Christ is King
Salvation Belongs To The Lord
Pastor Matt Bell
Psalm 3
Preached 2026-05-31 · Watch sermon
This morning we're continuing our time in the word. If you have your Bibles, grab your Bibles this morning. If you're new to the church, I want to say welcome. Thank you for being here with us to worship this morning. We're in a a series throughout this this year where as a church, we're reading through the whole Bible together. At the front of your handout is the chapters that we as a church are reading this week. And last week we made it to the book of Psalms, the book of Psalms. And so this this time of the year, we're calling this our summer in the Psalms. As the next seven weeks, we'll be reading through the book of Psalms together. Psalms is the prayer and worship book of the Bible. There's 150 of these psalms which are songs and prayers offered to God. The book of Psalms is also known as the psalter. Uh it's a little easier to say than the book of Psalms every single time that you want to reference it. And so it's known as the psalter. And it has played this book has played a huge part in the spiritual life of God's people. Doug referenced one of those psalms that the Lord had placed on his heart before this trip about calling out to the Lord. And throughout the the life of God's people throughout the millennia, this book has been integral to the spiritual life of God's people. The Hebrews used these psalms in their worship of God in the temple. The early church Christians began to sing them in their gatherings as they would gather for worship. And throughout the last 2,000 years of church history, they they have continued to give expression and be used in prayer and in worship. And as we begin our service here every Sunday morning at Christ is King Church with a call to worship. Nine times out of 10, it's a reading from Psalms. The book of Psalms, they teach us by example how to approach God, how to draw near to God. The book of Psalms gives us language that we can use to express what's in our hearts and to express ourselves before God.
And they are full of comfort for weary souls and for souls that are in distress. And for many reasons, Psalms is many Christians favorite book in the Bible. Many believers begin their day each day by reading a psalm. The Psalms show us that it's okay to be human before God. The emotions that are expressed in this book are real. They're raw. They're powerful. And we find that they have something for every season of life. Whether you are at a really good place and you feel like you're on a mountaintop right now or you're walking through a valley or somewhere in between. There are prayers, there are songs in here that speak to that experience that we can use in our worship and in our prayers before God. And it shows us that we can take our feelings, our emotions to the Lord, whatever they are.
Feelings of hurt and pain and anguish as well of feelings of celebration, joy, and victory. One of the things that is so powerful about the book of Psalms is it always leads us from where we are, where we start, wherever you're starting today. It meets us there and then it leads us into praising God. It takes us from where we are, which is sometimes not so great. Can we be honest? And it takes us to a place of worshiping and praising God. And it shows us how to go from a not so great place to a place where we are exalting and glorifying God. And so for the next seven weeks, we will be in the book of Psalms, taking a selection each Sunday and reading it and preaching through it together. This morning, our psalm is Psalm chapter 3. Psalm chapter 3. So I invite you to open your Bibles there with me. And if you would stand with me as we read this psalm together.
Eight verses, very short reading. And we see that this section is broken as we read it into five different this psalm is broken into five different
O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people!
Psalm 3:1–8
do thank you for your word. We do thank you for the book of Psalms that teach us how to go from a place of distress to a place of prayer, from a place of hardship to a place of praise. Lord, I pray as we study this psalm this morning and all the psalms that we will be looking at over the next few weeks, Lord, that you would draw us closer to yourself, Lord. That you would teach us to praise you at all times, Lord. that we would not only exalt you and glorify you when things are going well, but Lord, that you would be our glory. That we would glorify you even when our circumstances are not as we would wish.
That we would still look to you and trust in you. Lord, we thank you for our church and our our time together in your word. Lord, help us to be more like you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated this morning. The title of the sermon is taken from the last line of
Salvation Belongs to the Lord
verse or the beginning of verse 8. It is that salvation belongs to the Lord. And we see in this psalm that it is broken
I. David’s Problem
top. It says, "A psalm of David when he fled from Abselum, his son." This little note at the top before the psalm begins, it gives us the circumstances, what was happening in David's life, the circumstances under which he pinned this psalm. Now David was a man who was no hard no stranger to hardship and difficulty in his life. David did not have an easy life. Though David here is the king of Israel as he is writing he his whole life was a life of hardship of struggle of many great victories and also many defeats. He began his life as the youngest of seven brothers serving his father Jesse faithfully as David was sent out to take care of his father's flocks.
And even though David faithfully served his father, even at times engaging with wild animals to save the sheep, risking his own life to save his father's sheep, at a very critical time, David is overlooked by his father. As David's father considers his seven brothers greater than David, David goes from serving his father Jesse to serving the king of Israel, King Saul. And like he served his father, David faithfully served the king. But David was such a remarkable man. And God was using David and elevating David King Saul became jealous of him. And King Saul was so filled with rage and jealousy, he began to try to kill David. He saw David as a threat to him and his throne and to his legacy.
And so David has to flee from Saul and flee for his life. running out into the wilderness. David spends the prime years of his life, his 20s, these 10 years in the wilderness as a fugitive on the run, hunted by Saul, living in caves. He has to flee into an enemy nation just to survive. Saul eventually we know is killed in battle and David becomes king. But when David becomes king, his troubles do not go away. In fact, they become more personal. They become closer to him as his own family and his own children become his source of grief. David's firstborn son, a man named Ammon, will rape one of David's daughters, his halfsister, a woman named Tamar.
Unfortunately, David ignores this offense. So, another one of David's sons, Abselum, takes matters into his own hand and murders Ammon. David's firstborn son, the heir to the throne, is murdered by one of David's other sons, Abselum. Because David is already bererieved of one of his sons, his daughter having been violated, instead of requiring from Abselum the death penalty, he instead exiles Abselum, sends him away. But this only allows Abselum to plot further revenge against his father, eventually turning the whole kingdom against David, staging a coup, declaring himself to be king. And with the army behind Abselum, David has to flee from Jerusalem. He has to flee the capital city. He has to flee his kingdom running out of the city to save his life.
Just as he had to flee from Saul, flee from Jerusalem running out into the wilderness, now he has to flee not by a mad king, but by his very own son who has turned a nation against him. And this is what is going on in David's life as he writes the words to Psalm chapter 3. Notice here in the first two verses how the word many is used. It's used here three times.
O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.”
Psalm 3:1–2
When we read the account of David fleeing from Jerusalem, we read of of those who were heckling him, who were cursing him as he fled. We read some from Saul's own house who who saw David constantly as an enemy who were so overjoyed to see David so disgraced. As David passed and left in shame, they were hurling rocks and curses at David, saying of him, "There is no salvation for him. He He trusted in God. Where is God now?" And so David's troubles are are not just his son. David's troubles are not just his foes and his enemies that are rising against them. Many as though they are.
David's troubles are compounded by those who are speaking out against him. Those discouraging voices who were surrounding him. And notice here what they are saying is not true. what they are saying in verse two that there is no salvation for David in God that is not true that is a lie and I want you to see here that Satan's greatest weapon against you and against us is lies. Lies. Lies come to us in many different shapes and forms. And here this lie comes in the form of discouragement. These discouraging voices shouting these lies at David. We need, you need to have godly voices in your life. That when your dark days come, when hardship comes, there are those who will speak to you, not discouraging words, but will speak to you the truth of God's word that will encourage you, that will build you up in the Lord.
It's so important the people that we surround ourselves with who can speak the truth of God's word to us, who can encourage us and and and and say, "Yes, you're going through a difficult season, but God is your provider. God is your healer. God can restore your soul. God can restore your relationships. God can restore your marriage. We need that kind of voice in our life. Not those who will come around side of of us and say, "Well, you know, the reality of the situation is we need those who will say, "Hope in the Lord, trust in the Lord. Now these negative voices that can speak into our life, they can come from people that we know personally, we got to be careful about that.
But they can also come from places and people that we don't even know. And I want to I want to caution you. I want to make you aware of something that in the day and age in which we live that we are saturated by words, by messages, by media, saturated by other people's thoughts, whether that's music or or movies or TV or the news. So much of what we consume through media is coming from a world view that is antithetical to God, the gospel, Christ, God's word, the truth. It's coming from a worldview. It's coming from a place from people who do not acknowledge Christ as king.
The assumptions that are being expressed are there is no God. The assumptions that are being expressed are are the same that were expressed to David. There is no salvation for your soul in God. And so when our spiritual diet ends up being a steady stream of these lying voices with these ungodly underlying assumptions, it weakens our soul. It weakens our foundation so that when times of distress do come, even our own thoughts that have been trained in these other patterns can be the tool the enemy uses to preach these lies to you. We must be very careful about the words that we are allowing into our lives that we are feeding our souls with.
We need to guard our heart. Guard our soul. The book of Proverbs says, “Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). What are you allowing into your soul through your ears, through your eyes? What sort of assumptions are underneath it? Is it affirming the truth of God's word or is it antithetical to the truth of God's word? You say, "Well, I'm not in a time of distress. I'm doing pretty good right now. Yes. But it can weaken your foundation. The Apostle Paul says, “Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). Look here at the very first two words words of of this psalm. The very first two words. What does he begin with?
Oh Lord, when the trial comes, here's the question for you. Where do you turn? Where do you go? Where do you run in times of hardship, in times of difficulty? What is the first place that you turn to? We know where the world runs, don't we? I was watching a movie this week. A guy got fired. Guess what happened? Guess where he went? To the bar. Yes. He went and got drunk. That's where the world goes. Just something to numb the pain, to dull the pain. We know where the world turns. Where do you turn? Where do the people of God turn? Well, where does David turn? Oh Lord, my son has turned against me. The kingdom that you gave me has been torn from me. I am having to flee again into the wilderness.
Oh Lord, he takes it to the Lord. For David, God is not the last resort. God is the first resort. God is the place to which we must run.
II. David’s Solution
In verse three and four, we saw his problem. But let's look at his solution. But you, but you, this was my problem. This is what's going on out there. But David then turns his eyes to the Lord.
But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill.
Psalm 3:3–4
So often our instinct is to run to others for help and for comfort. Is that not true? Is that not true? You know, we're good, godly Christians, so we would never run to the bar. So, we run to others with our problems. We'll run to Facebook or whatever we use to blast all of our problems to explain how everyone is wrong but us. We We'll go to a sympathetic ear. We'll go to friends. We'll go to family. We'll go to counselors. We'll go to doctors. And often when none of those can help us as a last resort, as a Hail Mary, well, I guess I'll ask God for help.
I'll ask God to intervene. Now, listen. Friends, family, counselors, and doctors, are those good things? Of course, those can be good things. But they should never be the first place that we run. I would even say before you run to your spouse, run to the Lord. Go to him first. Go to him first. Why? Because he can handle it. Whatever it is that you have got, he can handle it. your family, your friends, your counselor, your doctor. I don't know if they can handle it or not, but he can. He can take it to him first. The first place that we go, the first place that we run must be to the Lord.
And what does David do when he runs to the Lord? But you, oh Lord, you are a shield about me. What is David doing there? He's assaulted by his son. He's run out by the the army. He's being assaulted by these discouraging voices that say to him, "There is no salvation for him and God." But David says, "Those are lies. I am going to remind myself of the truth." That's what David is doing here. They're saying there's no salvation for me and God, but you, oh Lord, are my shield. You, oh Lord, are my strength. Those are what that's what they're saying. But it is lies because this is the truth. David reminds himself of the truth of God's word. And so when we are in distress, when things are are are not going well, when we get the news we never thought we would hear, when we've been betrayed, when we've been lied against, when we've been fired, when whatever it has happened that has happened unjustly, or maybe we even deserved it, we still need to first run to the Lord and remind ourselves of the truth.
The truth The truth is our only weapon. It’s called the sword of the Spirit, the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). Instead of having our thoughts trained by falsehood, we must have minds that have been steeped in the truth, the word of God, to combat Satan's lies. Why am I trying to get all of you to read the Bible this year? Because I want your mind and your heart saturated in the word of God, the truth of God's word, so that when the lies of the enemy come, that the sword is ready at hand. that it's not we're not having to go dig it out of a closet somewhere and and dust it off and it's all dull and and rusted from some Bible verses you memorized in 1980 as a child.
No, that the word of God is as ever ready at our side, ready to be deployed when the lies of the enemy come. And they will come. They will come. the discouraging voices that assault our soul to combat it with the truth of God's word. David here says, "You are a shield about me. The Lord is my protector. The Lord is the one watching over me. The Lord is the one keeping me safe." The Lord is the one who says, “No weapon formed against me will prosper” (Isaiah 54:17). Remind yourself of the truth of God's word. David says that God is his glory. His glory. What does this mean?
Well, as a king, you have all sorts of sources of glory. As a king, you have all manner of ways of displaying your glory. your wealth, your military might, your throne, your crown, your the size of your herum, right? All of these things are meant to display your glory. But David has had all of those things stripped away. The crown, the throne, his kingdom, even his own son has turned on him. David says,"None of those things are my glory. I glory in God and God alone. I glory in him. He is my glory. He is where I take refuge. He is my shield. He is the one who lifts my head."
Is your head turned down today because of whatever is going on in your life or the world? It is the Lord who lifts our weary head. He is our glory. There's so many different things that people put their glory in. their fame, their wealth, their job, their family. All all all all sorts of things that we glory in that we should truly lay aside and say, "God is the one I glory in. Him and him alone is who I seek to exalt, who I seek to magnify, who I seek to glorify.
III. David’s Result
I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
Psalm 3:5–6
David had to flee out into the wilderness, being hotly pursued by his son. But after David takes his problem to the Lord, he lays down and takes a nap. He is so contented. He is so His soul is so at rest. He He doesn't toss and turn. He says, "I lay down and slept." He's saying, "I slept like a baby." Why? Because the Lord sustained me. What a transformation. What a transformation from verse one to verse five. so much peace in the midst of great turmoil. He says, "I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around." David says, "I am surrounded by enemies who want me dead, but I'm going to lay down and take a nap cuz God's on the throne and he's watching over me. He's going to take care of me."
What is his secret? The Lord is his shield. To put another way, the Lord was his shepherd. The Lord was his hedge about him. David's confidence, his glory was in the Lord. And we do, don't we? Don't we find ourselves often trusting in other things than the Lord? If we find ourselves trusting in other things, they have become an idol for us, a sense of false security. So many people trust in again their job, their family, the economy, politicians. These are false senses of security. The only shield we have is the Lord. Therefore, he's the one we should look to at all times. Jesus Christ and him alone. Let us in times of distress, stop looking around for help and start looking up.
Start looking up to the Lord. Start crying out to the Lord. Even as David said, I cried aloud to the Lord. And if you will do that, if you will truly hear me, if you get one thing from this message, get this. In your time of distress, if you will press into that place in the presence of the Lord, you will find this kind of peace. You will find it if you can press in beyond the lies, beyond the condemning thoughts in your own mind and soul. if you can enter boldly to the throne of God’s grace (Hebrews 4:16), you will find this kind of peace. I will not be afraid. The Lord sustained me and you will even be able to lay down and take a nap. God bless you.
IV. David’s Petition
Coming from this, now David makes a petition. We see this in verse seven. Our fourth point here this morning.
Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.
Psalm 3:7
Now, the first part of verse seven, this is pretty normal for us. Yes, Lord, arise. I'm I'm still I'm trusting in you, but I'm I'm still in distress. So now I am going to call out to you, my shield, and I'm going to ask you to move. So he moves from that place of distress into the presence of the Lord where he has peace in his soul. And now he moves into a place of asking the Lord, a petition. God, save me. God, deliver me. My enemies are still chasing me. I'm at peace, but I'm going to need salvation. So he moves to that place of petition of offering that request to the Lord.
That's good. It's good to look to the Lord. It's good to cry out to God. It's good to say, "Save me. Arise, God, move on my behalf." All of that's normal and good. This second part sounds a bit strange to our Christian ears, do they not? When's the last time you asked for God to break the teeth of the wicked? This is what is called, this is the first example of it in Psalms. And there's about a dozen or so of these psalms. They're called impregatory psalms. Impregatory psalms. And to our Christian ears, they do sound strange. These are psalms that call on God for help as his people are threatened with harm from their enemies.
The enemies are often called the wicked and these are the unfaithful who persecute the godly. Impregatory psalms are called this because an imprecation is a curse that is invoked where you ask for misfortune upon someone calling down God's judgment upon them from heaven. And to us as Christians, this sounds strange because we have Jesus example of turning the other cheek of going the second mile of Jesus on the cross not praying down fire from heaven. Not praying God break all their teeth, but on the cross, what does Jesus pray? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). And so as we look to the book of Psalms as our prayer book, our worship book, do we just leave those impregatory psalms aside or do they still have a place for the people of God?
I want to give you some principles in understanding these passages. I want to help you understand what is happening here. First, you need to understand that the people being cursed, the the imprecitation coming down, they are not enemies over trivial matters. This isn't somebody cutting you off on I 10. God, break their teeth. God, crush them, destroy them, and their offspring forever. This isn't when they mess up your order in the drive-thru and you make it home and you're missing your 12count nugget. That's not what this is. These are people who hate the faithful precisely for their faith. These are those who mock God and use ruthless and deceitful means to suppress, oppress, and persecute God's people.
They are hardened and set their face to oppose God. The second thing you need to know is that these curses happen in the book of Psalms, which is a book of poetry. And so these curses are stated in poetic form, which is often exaggerated expressions. And of course, with every prayer, the fulfillment of that prayer is left up to who? To God. No matter what we pray, God's the one who has to decide what to do with it. It's not like, "Oh, David said I got to break their teeth, so here I come." They're poetic expressions in this book of poetry. The third principle is that these curses, they're expressions of moral indignation, not of personal vengeance.
Moral indignation, not personal vengeance. You see, for someone who knows God and knows his ways, it's unbearably wrong that those who persecute the faithful and turn people away from God, it's unbearable to our soul that they would get away with it and even seem to prosper. Our souls cannot bear up under the injustice. the injustice being done in the book of Psalms and even the injustices being done in our world and they're expressions of that moral indignation but not of tit fortat personal vengeance. The fourth is you need to know that the whole biblical ethic is one that forbids personal revenge. This is not calling for personal revenge on people who have slighted you. This is asking God to deal with those who are opposing him and his kingdom.
And we are never ever ever allowed to take personal vengeance on someone else. Period. That's Old Testament. That's New Testament. And finally, fifthly, our Christian witness following the Lord Jesus requires us to have a desire that those who are guilty, even for those who mean harm to the church, who oppose and oppress the people of God, our greatest desire is that they would repent of their sin and come to faith in Jesus Christ. The best way to destroy the wicked is to convert them to Christ. And these are just some principles to help you understand these lines like, "Oh, God, strike them on their cheek and break their teeth." If you want to incorporate that into your worship, oh, that's up to you. Just know that it's not about personal slights. It's about the evil and the wicked that we see in our world.
God do something is what the psalmist is crying out for.
V. David’s Declaration
He ends with this wonderful proclamation declaration of praise.
Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people!
Psalm 3:8
Salvation only comes from one place. Why do we run to the Lord in our time of distress? Because he's the only one who can save us. He's the only one. We must run to the one from whom salvation comes. David recognized this. David was a man in desperate need of salvation. Quite literally, he needed to be saved. David's enemies were strong. But hear this. We too need salvation. And our enemy, the enemy of our soul is even stronger than the enemy that was pursuing David. Our salvation likewise is only found in one place in Christ and Christ alone. And so when we are in distress, when our souls are in anguish, when life is falling apart, and even when it's not, we must run to Christ when we are being tempted.
Run to Christ when your thoughts are being assaulted with the lies of the enemy. Run to Christ. Call out, "Oh Lord, save me." There's the story of Peter as he saw Jesus walking on the water and Peter had the great idea, hey, I think I should try that, too. Jesus, if that's you, tell me and I'll come and walk with you on the water. And Peter Jesus says, "Come, it's me. Let's chat out here in the middle of the storm walking on the water. And so Peter gets out of the boat and he begins to walk on the water. But Peter, what does he do? He takes his eyes off of Jesus and he places his eyes on what? The wind and the waves. His circumstances that were surrounding him.
And as he took his eyes off the Lord and placed them on his circumstances, what began to happen to Peter? He began to sink. And then he drowned. And that was the end of the story for Peter, right? No. When Peter began to sink, what did he do? Cried out. He cried out. Save me, oh Lord. Oh Lord, save me. If you feel like you are sinking today, and I've been there. What you need is him. Cry out to him, oh Lord, save me. Look to him in spirit and in truth. Genuinely cry out to the Lord. Ask him for salvation. Just as he reached down and saved Peter, the Lord will reach down and save you. The Bible says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).
Salvation belongs to the Lord. He is the only source of our salvation.
Conclusion
I want to conclude this morning with a brief quote from John Newton. Some of you will know John Newton and his story. a man who was a slave trader. By his own admission, he was a man who was very evil and very wicked until he found himself in the midst of a violent storm at sea which caused him to cry out to God for salvation. This began a long process of looking to God and of sanctification in his life. And eventually John Newton was ordained as an Anglican minister. Newton is best remembered as the author of the hymn Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I am blind, but now I was blind, but now I see. Newton was a man who knew what it meant to be lost and what it meant to be found.
And as John Newton approached the end of his life, these were some of his dying words. He said, quote, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things. That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great savior. What two things do we need more than this? Yes, we are great sinners, but Christ on the cross has defeated sin, has defeated death, has defeated Satan. The enemy of our soul has been defeated. We need only look to Christ. Are you sinking today? Are you sinking in your sin and temptation? Are you a great sinner? I've got news for you that is very good. Christ is a greater savior.
And he is victorious over every sin, over every temptation, and over every weapon that the enemy fashions and forms and sends your way. He is the shield about you. Look to Christ today.