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Episode 536: In this episode, Jeff and Chris delve into Psalm 3, which David wrote during his time of fleeing from Absalom. This psalm captures David's feelings of fear and vulnerability, as he laments the many enemies surrounding him while simultaneously affirming his trust in God. We discuss how David, despite being in a dire situation, finds peace and safety in his faith, even stating that he can lay down and sleep because the Lord is watching over him.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good morning everybody, And if you're watching, Jeff and I decided to both wear gray today. It's a uniform. Yeah, it's the Baba guy's uniform. We're shooting from prison. And this is our friend. That's terrible. People who are not watching, which is what at least half of our listen. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they don't watch. Yea more than half. Yeah. No, we're not in prison. And are these actually uniforms lately? It just happened to be two gray shirts. That's right. Have you ever been in prison? Have you ever been in prison? No? I mean I've been in prison for ministry stuff, but I've never gone to prison. Okay, have you ever been to jail? No, I've never gone to jail. Have you ever been arrested? No, I've never been arrested. Oh so again, good for you, Good for you. I haven't arrested twice. Chris Once is a past, which says almost everything you need to know if you're a new listener. That's the differs between the two of us. Ready, Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not true. I've never been kicked out of Bible cog. Chris was on the show for color commentary. Hey, you got kicked out of Bible college twice. It's true. It's true, and I'm a Bible guy. That's right. Right, So you get to get up and talk about redemption and mercy and you need to get up and talk about I got Yeah, I got kicked out of kicked out a Bible college twice. Well, hey, everybody, Hey, now that I think about it, my first Bible college felt like prison. So maybe that come there you maybe that you. That's right, I'm with you there. Okay, So today we're talking about well, I mean, technically we're skipping over this chapter. But let's read what Desiree wrote. She said, David in this passage escapes into the wilderness. So let's pose this question. If you were to choose one celebrity to be trapped with you in the wilderness, who would it be? Bonus points if they have survival skills, are just a great sense of humor? Oh wow, yeah, so you want. To do rock paper sciss those first? Yes? And so we just do one one person, just one, just one person. We're not picking like a draft or nothing? Just one? Okay, but there's there's an obvious choice. Want to do shoot? One? Two? Three? Shoot? Oh? I had paper? Of course it's bear grills. Of course that's not that's a no brainer. That's the reason why I accept. I don't know. I don't want to drink anything he hands me to drink, and I don't want to eat anything he. Wants me to drink. I think I made a bad choice. I'd like to evoke that. Yeah, because I'm gonna be able to find food and water. What was I thinking? Yeah? I actually don't know another survival celebrity, which is why I did rock paper scissors. Oh yeah, yeah, Well the other one would be, uh was it something man, wilderness man or something? I forgot there was there was another guy. That did this made up name. No, no, no, no, I can't remember. Their certificate doesn't say wilderness. He doesn't I know, I know, but there's bear grills and something. So there's another guy. Yea, yeah, I forgot again. This is not his run. I forgot I got his name, all right, Okay, Well who would you pick? Well, I I mean apparently not grabbed mine. So bear girls, I actually type this in just a second ago and the only I've got kidding, the only person that's coming up, and all of Google in the first page is all bear girls. Really, so there's. Nobody else even suggested, isn't that funny? Yes? Okay, here, here you go. Ed Stafford is the guy uh was which is on naked and marooned. So I'm gonna choose that guy. Really, yeah, a naked guy? Well no really, no really, if he and I were stranded together and he suggested I get naked, I would say. No, okay, he will, good, thank you. Okay, Well, there you go. I don't have to be naked in order for that guy to know things. Well, I know, but I just wouldn't want I wouldn't want to be with him, as what I'm saying. So, yeah, well I mean less Stroud, that's the one survivor man. Yeah, less Droud. Okay, i'll give you bear grills. My guy came right up. Yeah, I'll give you bear grills, and I'll take less Stroud. I think Less Droud's a touch crazier, but he's not going to make me drink terrible stuff. Oh really yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what I'm going to go ahead and. Give you thanks bear grills. Thanks, Jeff, you're going to need bells. Let me just say that you're gonna need bear grills. If you're stranded like that, you're gonna need somebody who can help you. Here's the thing. I a normal special Forces guy. I think I'm a little tougher than you, so I could drink whatever. Jeff, what tougher than me? Yeah? Okay, well I'm pretty sure physically, I'm pretty sure I've seen you gag way more than you've seen me. Gay. So so listen, listeners don't know. We probably have a minute. I get sure this. Listeners don't know this. But last October we filmed a really fun video where we were supposed to get in a confrontation, right. Right, that's right. So and so we were on roller skates, yes, and uh no no, we both had. Taken off taken off our and so we. Were like, let's go, man, you want to go? And you started like pushing each other like this, yeah, and and all of a sudden I pushed you like boom. You hit me hard. You shoved me hard, and you didn't move and then and then. You went boom and you hit me and you literally threw me. I flew. I flew over the staff. The staff was in booths and boots, and I literally flew over the booths and everybody laughed, and I was like. Oh my gosh. I was like, I mean, I feel like I'm in the eighth grade again. I felt so. I didn't mean to do that. I still feel bad about that. When we were driving home, my wife was there. Yeah, my wife was like, the whole thing was fun, that was fine, but what were you thinking. I was like, I wasn't thinking anything. He shoved me and I shoved him back right right. Well, it was it was what they told us to do. Yeah, I know, but I shouldn't have thrown you into the thing like that. I didn't mean to it just it was really really funny. Yeah. So Chris is a big tough guy sitting here on the thing, Yeah, at the table, but uh yeah, in that moment. I was not very tough in that moment. Yeah, in that moment I threw yet. But well, I think you're tough guy. You took it like a champ. I mad if I punch you in the face ten times, you would be okay, exactly. You take it like a champ. I felt really embarrassed by it. But okay, so hey, there you go. Congratulations you get bear grails even though you lost the rock paper scissors I can get. I'll go less and I'll take them drive a little more nuts. But okay, all right, Well you know what, either way, I don't ever want to be in that situation. And if I had no celebrity and I was stranded, I would I would be in trouble because I don't really know that many survival skills. I didn't do boy scouts, I didn't do wilderness things. But you'd figure out right away you needed water and shelter. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean those things. Yeah, but sure, but you know all those tricks of like compasses and direction and all that, like like, oh, let's heat up a needle. Let just put it on relief in a water. Okay, well good, yeah, well that'd be hopefully that never happens, Chris, right, I agree. So the reason why she had us do that one, by the way, is you remember those of the listeners with us last week David is running from Absolom. Absolom is pulling off a coup, Absolom being David's son, and the heir to the throne. And so David goes out into the wilderness in outside of Jerusalem, heading down towards the Jordan River, and so that's why she was doing that. It's pretty crazy. He's running, he's hiding. And during that time several things happened. Absolom gets terrible advice from says, hey, go sleep with some of David's wives, and so that was pretty horrible. But then. While Absolom is just misbehaving in such a horrible way, suddenly God begins to leaning on David. David begins writing more psalms, right, he's writing prayers. Every Psalm that you read is a prayer to God, and it was always set to music, so it was like a musical prayer, which really, if you think about it, those of you that are Christians, on when you're singing worship songs, a real worship song is going to be a prayer to God. So some of our testimonies you're just sing about how good God is to you. That's one thing, but others are they're like a prayer to God. And you can tell the difference. So here we go Psalm chapter three. Today, it's a psalm of David regarding the time David fled from some absolom. And it's not a very long chapter, but it says, Oh Lord, I have so many enemies, so many are against me, so many are saying God will never rescue him. But you, o Lord, are a shield around me. You are my glory, the one who holds my head high. I cried out to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy mountain. I lay down and slept, and I woke up in safety, for the Lord was watching over me. I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies who surrounded me on every side. Arise, O Lord, rescue me. My God, slap all my enemies in the faith and shatter the teeth of the wicked. Victory comes from you, Oh Lord, May you bless your people. Jeez, wow, Well you can hear him. He's got fear and he's reminding himself that he's trusting the Lord. Right, that's that's where he's at. There, and he probably has some pretty big flashbacks, yeah, right of being. In the caves, and he's been here before. He's been here before, and he's written various similar psalms before. So are we reading sixty three or we just. Talking about for sixty three tomorrow. Oh I see, okay, very good. So this is Psalm three today, that's correct. So Psalm three basically is during absence rebellion, and it's it's reminding us, you know, that victory comes from the Lord, and and David's always been that way. You know, think about this. David started off with Goliath, and even before Goliath, what did he do? He referenced that, you know, even when the bear came, and even when the line came, I knew that God was going to, you know, be with me. And so he took care of the bear in the and the lion, and then even during Goliath and then what else, he was put in charge of the Commander's army, and he always gave credit and honor to the Lord. And so David has always believed that God's in control, even though it seems like, oh, it's just that human versus that human, it's their skills versus my skills. It's these circumstances and they're cunning general versus you know, our strategies and things like that. It seems that way, and it's very easy to forget that God's overall in charge of everything. So I would just say for our listeners, there's a sermon in there somewhere. You know, it doesn't seem like God's in control, but God's always in control. Yeah, Well, here David lost his throne. He's losing so much of his identity. At this point, you know, he had he's had like a decade of relative peace and safety, some discord in his family, but other than that, it's not like he's going to war all the time and stuff, and he's settling into this idea that God has blessed me and this is my new norm. And because of all the struggles in my past, I paid my dues, I did all my stuff. Now my job is to sit on the throne and rule. And at this point, now he's running and he's losing every he feels like he's losing everything. And sometimes when we have bad circumstances happen in our life, we can kind of feel like when life turns against us, we can start to feel like God is turning against us. And you know, in that moment, you kind of have a choice. When you are when the pressure's on, what's on the inside comes out. It's like a tube of toothpaste. Right, or ketchup bottle or whatever. When the pressure's on, whatever's on the inside comes out. And in this situation, you either run to God or from God. And it's interesting because in all this time, it seems like David is relatively silent prior to this, for like a decade, and I'm sure he was writing things, but we just don't. We don't see a lot. And then all of a sudden, here he is. We're going to read a couple of these prayers where he's just what's on the inside comes out. He's a man after God's heart, and he immediately leans into and trusts God even when he feels like everything's working against him. And there is something about that that when you're in your sane moments, you need to decide who are you when the pressure comes? Because pressure's coming. There's gonna be another hard day, there's going to be difficult things. Life is difficult because we live under the curse, right, And so when the pressure comes, who what are you gonna do? Are you gonna run to God? Or are you gonna blame God? And David once again decides to trust God. So we don't often cross reference that much, but you know, it reminds me what you just said, is Daniel. Remember Daniel one eight, It says when Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat or the portion of the king's wine which you drink. And I just thought to myself, you know, one of the greatest lessons that I could have learned. And I think I clung onto this even as like sixteen or fifteen years old. Is the idea that you should decide now to purpose in your heart? Yes, so you know, so make a decision now, you know when things are, you know, before the trial comes. And so when it says in Daniel w Ate that Daniel purposed in his heart and he says, hey, whatever's going to happen, you know what, I'm not going to do. These are the lines I'm not going to cross. And in this case, you just to give some readers some context, because I did bring it up. So, Daniel was captured by the Babylonians, right, he was taken, and he was taken captive, and he was chosen out of a group of prisoners basically to represent people well, and they wanted him. He was good looking and everything else. So they wanted him to be this representative. So they basically said eat this meat, but it was sacrificed to false idols, and so it was this paganistic sort of a deal. And and Daniel says, no way, I'm not going to eat meat, sacrifice to false idles. I'm not going to do any of those things. And so he used to prayed and said, I bet you if you give us a vegan diet and we don't even eat like the rest of the people who are training. He said, you watch us after what was it thirty days? Yeah, and he said watch us after thirty days or forty days. It was one of those two things. And he said, and then and tell me if we don't look better, stronger, healthier, and more good looking, and which, by the way, we know is not necessarily you know, they took that challenge because that wasn't normal, right, So that's not a you know, I've heard people say, well, that's the reason for the you know they call it. You ever heard of the Daniel diet, right, and people say, people say Daniel looked better, Well, that it was the reason why they took that challenge, because it wasn't exactly common for that to happen, right, for them to eat corn meal and then look better. But anyway, but Daniel did. Anyway, all that to say, this is David. David a long, long, long time ago made a decision on what kind of man he was going to be, so that when the pressure did come, when the things did happen, he rides into town. What does he get. He gets a messenger that says, your son, Absolom has usurped you and he is claiming to be king. And then David immediately goes into action. But he always decides what kind of man he's going to be before that kind of thing hits him. Yeah, so this is where David's at, and he decides he's going to run to God in this crisis. That's what we're talking about, is either you run to him or from him. You blame him or you trust him. And Davids decided, Hey, even if I'm surrounded by ten thousand men, if Absolom had ten thousand men, Now we know David had hundreds of thousands of men, right, but absolumly has ten thousand men. It's really striking when you have this incredible warrior that even a guy like Joe ab or a Masa would look at and follow David. The mighty men would follow David. He is just an incredible tactician, an incredible warrior. He's very, very, very sharp. But he's decided he's not going to fight his son, and so he'd rather retreat than fight his son. That that's pretty amazing. So here he is, he's surrounded by ten thousand men, his son, Absolom. We have no evidence that Absolom ever actually led any men in battle prior to this, right, right, So it's David, this grizzled old warrior who savvy and has every trick in the book in his bag, and Absolom, who chiss is handsome and has long hair, right and is a politician. David could have wiped him out, but instead David says, it doesn't matter. The im surrounded by ten thousand men. I'm trusting you, right, And I think that there's kind of a hint here that he's saying to God, I'm not fighting, I'm going to trust it. You're my shield, You're the one that's going to protect me. And then he says, I'm crying out to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy Mountain. His holy mountain is Mount Mariah, which is the Temple mount in Jerusalem. That's the temple. Mount Mariah peeks out right where the Temple mount saits today, where Solomon built his temple. That's probably where the tabernacle was sitting. It's interesting because he's not in Jerusalem, but he knows, you know, the presence of God this holy place, and he's still associating with that's the place. That's the place. Remember when he left, he said, I think God's going to bring back here. He sent the Ark of the Covenant back there, right, and he's saying, I believe God's going to bring me back there. And then he says, I laid down and slept. That's really rare when you're in that kind of pressure, right when you're getting eaten alive. You feel like many people have a hard time. Do you have a hard time sleeping when you're worried? Lately? I would say in the last three or four years especially, I would say it's way more common than it used to be. Yeah, yeah, well, I think a lot of our listeners probably have that, you know, the worries of life just kind of weighing down and you're having a hard time sleeping. So you know, if you're woking up in the middle of the night, well, one of the things that the best things you can do is just start praying and telling God, hey, I trust you. Pour out your fears first. I love it how he ends at the end, Hey, God, bust their teeth, smack them. Up a little bit. Y. Hey, I don't want to kill him, but he's kind of asking God to be like a mafia tough guy, right, he just don't don't kill him, just break his legs, right right, slap him in the face and break his teeth for me a little bit, send him a message. But other than that, I'm going to trust you. And so you know a lot of times when we pray, we're like, oh, help me, help me, help me, help me, help me, help me, help me help And also we're doing is worrying, worring, warring. But there is a moment where what you see with David is David says, I need your help, and then he pivots into so I'm going to trust you and and and he's lays down and goes to sleep. So there is this time when you just have to pray to the point where you say, I'm going to trust you in this. When I was in high school, I was having a problem with some kid and I literally have you know, I got a big, huge Italian family and really yeah, right, and and uh, you know, a lot of them were, you know, sort of connected. You know, my grandfather was truly connected to the mob and was right in the thick of it, and so you know, I think consequently his sons and then and then there's some us sort of felt like they were mob like you know what I'm saying, right, tough guys, right, And by the way, they were definitely tough guys, like like there is no way that that they did not back it up. Okay, But anyway, I remember one time I was having trouble with this one guy and one of my cousins came up to me and said, you want me to take care of it? And I said, what do you mean? And and I was just curious, and I was like, what what would you do exactly? And basically I can't use any of the words that he used, okay, but essentially he just said, you give me one phone call he goes, and I would just figure out he goes. I would. I would, I would follow his pattern, and I would predict when he's going to be alone, he says, and we would come up behind him, put a blanket over his head and beat him up and then run away and he'd never know who did it. That's what that was sort of the promise, right. And I said, I said, you'd put a blanket over his head and beat him up? And they said yes. And I said have you done this before? And he's like, oh yeah. And I'm like, okay, I'm an expert. Okay, So this is this David. So he's saying, Arise Lord, rescue me, slap my enemies, shatter their teeth. It's not unreasonable when you're praying to ask for justice, right, that's what he's asking. He's asking for justice here, right. I don't want you to kill him, but man, make him pay. Right. And it's surprising that I remember David's a pretty hard man. David killed people who came and gave him bad news, and right now he just wants him smacked up a little bit, just rough him up a little bit. But it's not unreasonable to ask God for justice, because God's a just god. Let me look at let me take a minute to look at the interludes here. So this is so this is written as a musical psalm, and so it you know, for instance, it does verses one and two and then it says interlude, and another version may say selah right right, and then then it does tows. That's the Hebrew word. The Hebrew word is cela. Is cela is cela okay, And then then you have three and four, then interlude cela, then five and six, seven and eight, and then sela is what it says. So when you're reading that, just know that number one it's there because it's a it's a song, right. But there's also a sermon in there as well, isn't there? So you can do a whole sermon on this is the time to rest, right, so, and then you could do another sermon on reflecting on what you just said, like, for instance, have you ever read the Bible? Yes? And thank you, thank you, comma okay. Have you ever read the Bible and you feel like you make progress because you've read you know, like a whole chapter or something, and then you think, then you then you think to yourself, I didn't really take time to soak in any of that have you ever done that? Absolutely where you gone like you read the words? Yeah, you read the words, and then you're like, I need to go back and I need to like really truly reread that and then really think about because that was some good stuff, right, especially when you're in Proverbs. Right, you can read. You could zoom through Proverbs and go I need to reflect on every verse for at least five minutes because that's how unbelievably different they are. And and and there's like massive truths, you know, hanging on each verse. Well, it's the same thing with interludes. So this is like a song, but it's also sort of like a prayer. And I think that there's a sermon in there somewhere where we could remind ourselves that when we, you know, for instance, drop on our knees or posture ourselves. And doesn't have to be on our knees, but we posture ourselves to pray to God. And we start off, for instance, and we say, our Father are in heaven. How great is your name? Like, let's pause right there and recognize God is God is great? And then and then we say, give us this day our daily bread, you know, and and and and and then just pause there for a minute and realize, like, like the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years and they woke up every day and God gave them their daily bread and they couldn't even hoard it because it would go bad. And God wanted them to depend on him. And that's that's really what they're at asking. It's a it's a word picture for you and for me to say that God will give you everything you need. And before you move on to the next verse, you know, just rest there and think about that, you know, not my will but yours be done. Instead of moving on, let's really think what that means in our lives. That's great. Let's let's let's seala that shall we right and figure out like, Okay, God, what is it that you want me to surrender? What what agenda you know that I know is not it's my agenda, it's not your agenda? What do I need to surrender? And I think that, you know, sometimes when we read versus we can just whip over it. But there's a lot to be learned in the pause. Absolutely, in the rest. Yeah, but you would you call that a bridge? No, it's yeah, so we're not exactly sure what Cela meant, but it seems to have these three big ideas. One is that there's this kind of a pause moment, but then beyond that, the next time, it's the next section is going to be louder than the last section. So there's a. Musical thing like, Okay, we're going to crescendo into the next piece, and it might have been like a like a turnaround where the band is playing and Okay, we're gonna get a little louder in the next one. It also seems to have an indication maybe for the crowd, this is where we're going to raise our hands and shout hallelujah or praise the Lord. Or something like that. So it kind of has these three pieces to it. And so what you have is you have him starting off quieter and gentler, Lord, I have so many enemies, this brokenness kind of thing. Then hey, we're gonna get louder and we're gonna raise our hands. We're gonna trust God. But you, oh Lord, are a shield around me. And it's building energy. There's energy building there. And then you get to the end of that he heard me from his holy mountain and then we're gonna pause, and there's gonna be this crescendo, and then we're gonna raise our hands. We're gonna I'm not afraid of ten thousand. You see what, you see what's happening. So these interludes are almost like when the band plays a little bit and then you come back in a little bit more excited, the drums kicking on the harder. So it's an African American preaching. Yeah almost, yeah, yeah, So it builds all over and then finally it ends with a sela. So that word sela comes up seventy four times in the Bible, and almost every time it has a pattern like this, where the song is where the song seems to be or the prayer seems to be building. And so we're not exactly sure what cela means, but it certainly isn't some kind of an interlude or an intermission piece. But it's not a stop. It's a we're going to build up to. The next thing. Okay, great, that's great, recollect your thoughts and then push on to the next part of it. Very powerful. Wait, that is our time, so we will see you next time on the Bible. Guys,