Psalms 3:1-8

Psalms 1:41

Gordon Churchyard

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A Morning Song

Psalms 3

Gordon Churchyard

Jesus got out of bed very early in the morning. He went somewhere by himself. There he prayed. (Mark 1: 35)

Psalms 3

(This is) a song of David when he ran away from Absalom his son.

v1 LORD, every day I have more enemies.
Many people fight me.

v2 Many people say about me,
"God will not save him". SELAH

v3 But LORD, you are a shield over me.
You are my glory.
You have lifted up my head.

v4 I shouted aloud to the LORD.
He answered me from his holy mountain. SELAH

v5 I lay down and slept.
I awoke because the LORD kept me alive.
He kept me safe.

v6 I will not be afraid of 10 000 enemies that are all round me.

v7 LORD, stand up! My God, save me!
In the past, you hit all my enemies in the face.
You broke their teeth.

v8 It was the LORD that saved us.
Lord, do good things for all your people. SELAH

The story of Psalms 3

David was king of Israel 1000 years before Jesus came to the earth. Absalom was a son of David. Absalom wanted to become king so he attacked David. David ran away to a safe place. Absalom said, "Now I am king of Israel".

But David asked God for help. David became king again. Absalom died. The story is in the Second Book of Samuel, Chapter s 15 - 19.

David wrote Psalms 3 after he ran away. He wrote it one morning. In it, David thanked the LORD for a safe night. That is why we call Psalms 3 a morning song. We must thank God every morning when he keeps us safe in the night.

What Psalms 3 means

Verses 1 – 2: DAVID SEES TROUBLE David calls God by the name LORD. David is a friend of God, so he uses a special name, LORD, with 4 capital letters. In Hebrew, it is YAHWEH. Absalom and his men call God ELOHIM which we translate God. They do not use the special name. Every day more people followed Absalom. Absalom and his people said, "God will not save David". David was afraid so he prayed for help.

Verses 3 – 4: DAVID LOOKS TO THE LORD Verse 3 tells us that David prayed. He asked the LORD to be a shield over him. David wanted the LORD to hide him from Absalom. David wanted to see the glory of God again. The glory of God is like a light inside God. It shines brighter than the sun! God has this glory because he is holy. David prayed this aloud and the LORD answered him. The holy mountain is Mount Zion, where the Jews thought that God lived. For us it is heaven, God's home. "Lifted up my head" probably means "made me into a king".

This was about 35 years before.

Verses 5 – 8: THE LORD ANSWERS DAVID The LORD answered David when he prayed. The LORD answered by doing something. He did not say anything. The LORD had already hit the enemies of David in the teeth. This is what you would do to a wild animal. It happened when David became king. David wants it to happen again. He also wants good things to happen to all the people of the LORD.

Something to do

1. Learn Psalms 3: 5 by heart. Say it every morning. ("By heart" means that you can repeat the words without looking at them.)

2. When trouble happens:

• tell Jesus about it

• look away from the trouble to Jesus

• wait for the answer