Transcript of a Failure

Psalm 3
Don Garlington | Friday, February 23, 1996
Copyright © 1996, Don Garlington

Psalm 3 speaks about failure. Now, the subject of failure is one that we certainly don’t want to deal with very often, but everyone knows failure to a certain extent. Students know failure, employees know failure, and parents know failure. If you are a parent, perhaps one of your most grievous failures is not being consistent before your children. Christians know failure. We have pledged to the Lord, perhaps time and again, that we are going to improve in certain areas, and we do better for a little while, but then fall down again. What about New Year’s resolutions? All the smokers say, “This year I am quitting for sure.” Those of us who are metabolically challenged say, “I am losing weight this year for sure.” In fact, I said that as recently as the first of January of 1996, but so far I am afraid that I haven’t made a great deal of progress.

So it is that we fail in various aspects of life, but there is no failure greater than the failure of a Christian when he faces his or her sin. Psalm 3 is the transcript of a failure–a failure which is all the more grievous because of both the potential of the man who wrote this psalm, King David of Israel, and his high calling and position.

We generally think of David when he was a youth, tending the sheep at night, composing hymns to the Lord his God with his harp. These were precious days, the days of youth and sweetness, days in which there was no particular responsibility except to guard the sheep, gaze up at the sky, and marvel at the heavens. He would transcribe his thoughts on parchment, perhaps, or commit them to memory, and later compose tunes for those songs. This was a wonderful, glorious, blessed time for David.

David Creates His Dilemma

But the man who writes Psalm 3 is a different David altogether. It was not simply that he hit what we call the midlife crisis and skidded off the runway at the point. Tragically, that happens even to professing Christians. But David is in a situation of his own making. The heading of the psalm helps us to understand what is going on: “A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.” These words, in a sense, tell the whole story, because all of David’s problems began when he took to himself the wife of Uriah the Hittite. The writer of the books of Samuel sets the stage in 2 Samuel 11 by saying that although it was in the spring of the year when kings go forth to war, David did not go. Instead, he saw this beauty bathing on her rooftop and had to have her, and the rest is history.

Now you and I and the movie makers, understandably, like to play up the aspect of the adultery, but when you actually read the books of Samuel, what the writer emphasizes is not so much the adultery as it is the murder of Uriah the Hittite. In reading the Old Testament we must keep in mind that what the writers spend a lot of time talking about is what they are emphasizing. Why was this aspect so important? In a strange way we get the answer from David himself in his last psalm recorded in 2 Samuel 23. There David speaks of the blessedness of the king who reigns in righteousness over men, and David knew he had done anything but that.

As king of Israel, David was the regent of Yahweh on the earth. He had the great privilege and the great calling of representing God to the people. It is at this point that the magnitude of his failure is seen because it is precisely at the point of ruling over men justly that he fell down. Instead of protecting and looking out for the interests of Uriah the Hittite, he chose to take Uriah’s life to cover up his own sin.

Of course, from that point onward everything began to go wrong for David. Do you remember the sordid incident in which Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar, and then Absalom slew Amnon? When David learned about it, instead of acting righteously and summarily toward his own son, he allowed Absalom to leave Jerusalem. Why? David had just committed the same crime. His own conscience was screaming at him, and he lost all moral authority to deal with Absalom. So Absalom was allowed to leave, but in time he came back and sat at the gates of the city. As people passed by on their way to the king, Absalom would say, “If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that he gets justice,” implying that they would not get justice from David (1 Sam. 15:4). In time, Absalom was able to mount a rebellion against David, and civil war ensued.

At the end of the war, Absalom’s forces were being routed and Absalom was being chased by Joab. As he rode along, he probably looked back to see how far Joab was behind him, and got caught in the branches of a tree by his hair. Joab then came up with his sword and finished off Absalom. Was this rough justice? Yes, but it was also poetic justice, because Deuteronomy says that a rebellious and incorrigible son was to be put to death. David did not do it, so in the providence of God Absalom wound up being hanged on a tree. When David found out about it, instead of rejoicing he cried, “Absalom, my son! My son, my son!” And in spite of what David had become, we cannot but help having our own hearts touched by this poignant, tragic, lamentable scene.

David was aware of why these troubles came on him. As he fled from Absalom you may recall that Shimei came out on the brow of the hill and began to curse David. He did so because he was a descendent of the house of Saul. David’s men said, “Why should this dead dog curse [our] lord the king? Let [us] go over and cut off his head.” But David said, No, the Lord is doing this. He knew he was in a mess for which he is entirely responsible.

“God Will Not Deliver Him”

In verses 1 and 2 David reflects in his own words: “O Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, ‘God will not deliver him.'” David wrote this before Absalom died, and we don’t know precisely where he is, but we know he is surrounded by enemies. At one time, many were his friends, but now they have turned against him. Why? By his actions he brought shame, not only on himself, his household, and the nation of Israel, but on the Lord God of Israel. David was in a mess.

Now, as in any political situation, there are always those who are ready to pounce upon the leader at the slightest little infraction. And David was in a kind of political situation, and so all of a sudden his enemies showed up. They had dared not say anything up until this point, but now they boldly proclaimed, “God will not deliver him.”

These words were fraught with profound emotional impact. Why? David was the king of Israel. He was the anointed one. He was the vice regent of God, and yet would God not deliver him? In other words, David’s enemies were saying he should be written off as a complete reprobate. How David must have been pierced to the very core of his being to hear those words!

David’s Response

So David was literally surrounded, in a situation of his own making. How often do we find ourselves in similar circumstances? Look at verse 3. How did David respond?

The easiest thing for David to do would have been to despair altogether and fall on his sword, as Saul did when he was surrounded by his enemies. But David did not do that. In the midst of all of this trouble, with all of his enemies surrounding him, David became theological.

Does that mean David started taking seminary courses? No. I am not discouraging that, but I don’t think David sat down under his olive tree and began to read Ridderbos’ Paul , or John Murray’s Redemption: Accomplished and Applied . Theology means thoughts about God. In the academic realm we say theology is the science or study of God, but I mean that David’s thoughts became very God-centered. In the strict sense, theology is having God-centered thoughts.

“You Are a Shield around Me, O Lord”

David invoked three categories when he began to think of God. First, in verse 3 he says, “But you are a shield around me, O Lord . . .” Now, a shield was the great defensive implement in ancient times. Shields were so important that the Greek commanders told their soldiers they could return from war either carrying their shields or be carried on them, and frequently it was the latter. But here David is invoking God as his protector and helper. The enemies were saying there is no help for David in God, but David says just the opposite. He is saying that despite his situation, he believed God was his helper.

The idea of God being the helper of Israel is something you find throughout the Old Testament, especially in the historical books. So as David is surrounded by his enemies, he is aware of the omnipresence of God. Wherever the enemies are to be found, God is to be found as well, and he is superintending even the thoughts of the enemies. Though there are cutthroats, snipers, and those who are waiting for David to slip up so they can attack him, David’s confidence is that the God of Israel is still his helper and his protector.

I submit to you that he is also your helper and your protector. Now, I do not imagine that you will encounter enemies of this sort. You may, in your lifetime. But there is always the enemy within, the sin that remains in us. And there are those who rise up and say to us that we cannot be the children of God because of our failures. So God being the shield of his people is a very practical piece of theology. Instead of putting God out of our thoughts, which is what we are inclined to do, we need to put God directly in our thoughts.

“You Bestow Glory on Me. . .”

Have you ever heard of evangelical penance? When we sin, do we think that we have to mope around for several days, preferably a week, to get all the poison out of our systems before we pray, ask forgiveness, and continue our Christian lives again? Such behavior is totally foreign to the thinking of the Bible, and whatever else one might say about David, however many times and ways he sinned, we must say that David was a very Christlike individual.

Some have said that David was the most Christlike man in the Old Testament. It may scandalize us to make that identification, but I think it is certainly close to the truth. Why? The Lord Jesus Christ was preoccupied with the glory of God his Father. That leads us to look at the second item in David’s theology. Not only did he see God as his shield, but he is also his glory. Now the term “glory” refers to the shekinah glory of God. It appears for the first time in the opening verses of Genesis. After the earth was formed in Genesis 1:1, it assumed a chaotic form and shape–without form, having no definite shape, and uninhabited. The first thing that God did to bring cosmos out of chaos was to say, “Let there be light.” And this was not the light of the sun, the stars or the moon, because they were created later. It is the manifestation of God’s own shekinah, his own glory, which pierces and penetrates the darkness. And from that point onward the process of bringing order out of chaos began.

Later on in Israelite history it was that very shekinah which was made to reside in the Holy of Holies. We all know that, but there is an interesting point of connection with the creation, because the Holy of Holies, this little cubicle, was absolutely dark. No light was allowed to penetrate because of the heavy curtains, and yet, the shekinah glory, the light, shone in the darkness of the tabernacle and the temple. When you read the Old Testament and later bodies of Jewish literature, you notice that this glory is Israel’s unique possession. No other nation can lay claim to the shining essence of the Creator of the universe, this God who has condescended to dwell among his errant people.

What, then, was David saying? He was saying that God had not sent him away, as a man would write out a bill of divorce and send his wife away. And the reason for that is that God upholds his covenant with his people, even when they sin as David did. In our day divorce courts are always open, and we have the phenomenon of no-fault divorce. Whether it is for the reason of eating crackers in bed or something just as frivolous, couples can divorce easily. The relationship ends and they part ways, not wanting to see the other again. How the Lord God might have done that to David and us! But instead of writing on David’s forehead the word ichabod , meaning “the glory has departed,” he wrote shekinah , chabod, glory . Israel’s greatest possession is still David’s possession because the Lord himself is committed to sustain the bond that he has inaugurated with his people.

“. . .and Lift up My Head”

Then David says God lifted up his head. Have you had a child sobbing in your presence, one perhaps that you have had to discipline? Understandably, the child won’t look up until the parent puts his or her hand under the child’s chin, raising the child’s head. Do you see David’s point? It is as though the Lord is saying, “I’ve had to deal with you severely,” and yet he is the lifter of David’s head. David doesn’t have to go around day after day, week after week, staring at the ground and unable to raise his eyes. No, the Lord has lifted his head and said to him, “You are still mine. You can pick up the pieces and go on again. You can live in my presence because I have not cast you off.” This image is one of the most precious things I can think about: God lifts up the heads of his people.

Here is a picture of God’s fatherhood, written by one who realizes, as we read in Psalm 103, that we are but dust. And this picture stands out in even greater relief because of the magnitude of the sin of this man and all of its consequences.

“To the Lord I Cry Aloud”

David’s first response to trouble was to become theological, invoking the character and covenant of the God of Israel. What else did he do? In verse 4 we read, “To the Lord I cry aloud.” Now, sometimes a whispered prayer or a silent prayer is appropriate. But David cried aloud to God because a whispered or silent prayer in this situation would have been like trying to keep the lid on an atomic bomb ready to explode.

David cried aloud in his agony of soul, and yet, at the same time, with full assurance that the God of Israel was still his possession. And so we must pray. Don’t perform evangelical penance for three days or two days or one hour. Pray! This doesn’t mean we minimize the sense of our sin and shame, but we need to respond biblically. David responded by this prayer, which was appropriate to the situation.

And then he said God answered him “from his holy hill.” All the prayers of Israel were directed to the temple in Jerusalem, and then upward to God. Remember when Daniel was in captivity? When he prayed, he looked to Jerusalem and prayed toward the temple. Here David does the same thing. He was out in exile, perhaps in the wilderness somewhere, and he turned to Jerusalem, prayed toward the temple, knowing God would hear him from his holy hill.

God Answers David’s Prayer

In what terms did God answer David’s prayer? Did he just stroke him on the head and say, “There, there; now, now”? No. God did something very concrete which David tells about in verse 5. He says, “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.” Now if someone were reading this from a detached, clinical point of view, that person might say, “Well, now, that was his problem in the first place. David just needed a good night’s sleep. Everything looks better in the morning, doesn’t it?”

Not always. But such an interpretation trivializes the text. Why? David is surrounded by cutthroats. You know how in war time soldiers are warned not to light cigarettes at night in the camps, because snipers are watching for little flashes of light. Those who don’t pay heed frequently pay for their carelessness.

These enemies were just waiting for some little slip-up on David’s part. Maybe David remembered how he was able to steal into Saul’s camp one night and cut off a piece of his garment. Who knows? Someone with stealth could come in and finish him off while he slept. And so the Lord answers David’s prayer in this instance which is very mundane in a certain sense. David was able to sleep, and when he woke up, he realized that God had sustained him through the night in this very tense and dangerous situation. I am still here, he said, and that is how God answered my prayer.

We want our problems to be separate from us. We want to leave the arena of problems and be in the arena of deliverance. We want God to come down and pluck us out from the midst of our enemies, to their great frustration. But frequently it doesn’t work that way. Why? The assurance of deliverance comes in the middle of problems. Frequently we are left in the problems with the awareness that we were sustained yesterday and last night, and we will be sustained again. And therefore we are content to remain in that situation until definitive deliverance comes. He says, “I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.” This is one of David’s Ebenezers. After the Israelites routed the Philistines in 1 Samuel 7 we read how Samuel took a rock, which in the Hebrew language is the eben, set it up and called it Ebenezer, meaning a rock of help (v. 12). This rock symbolized the fact that God had helped them hitherto. And so even something as mundane and common as a good night’s sleep in security was an Ebenezer for David.

We all receive these Ebenezers, these tokens of God’s goodness, kindness, and deliverance. Have you ever been in a situation where you needed a certain amount of money to pay a bill, and you didn’t know where it was coming from, but the next day money came in the mail, or someone put something in your hand when you were shaking hands, and it just happened to be the amount you needed? These things have happened to me on many occasions, and they are reminders, signposts, of God’s provision and deliverance.

What was Israel’s problem in the wilderness? They forgot how the Lord their God had led them through the wilderness. They forgot how he had provided manna, quail and living water from the rock. In one of John Newton’s hymns he wrote, “His love in times past forbids me to think he’ll lead me at last and trouble to sink; it is sweet Ebenezer I have in review, confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through. By prayer let me wrestle and he will perform; with Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm.”

David’s Confidence

David had his Ebenezers, John Newton had his, and we have ours as well. And in verse 6 we find David bursting with confidence, saying, “I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.” Now, again, if someone looks at this in a detached, clinical way, he or she say, “What have we got here? It looks like we have a schizoid on our hands,” because at the beginning of the psalm David was complaining of all his enemies, and now he was saying he would not be afraid of the myriads of enemies drawn up against him on every side.

Why does he have such confidence? First of all, we must realize he is not a schizoid but a saint. How we have misunderstood, even in the Protestant church, the notion of sainthood! We have been influenced by the idea that there are certain people, certain super-Christians, certain high, spiritual high-fliers, who are deserving of sainthood. We wouldn’t go so far as to say that we pray to these, and yet somehow we view some Christians as being distinct and on a higher plane than ourselves.

We must realize that they were not on a higher plane. One of the problems with some evangelical biographies is that they are not really biographies, but hagiographies, meaning accounts in which you bring out all the person’s good points leave out all the bad points. For example, Bishop J. C. Ryle, who said that “best of men are men at best” was a man who had a very short temper at home. It was the matter of some vexation, to say the least, to his family that he would fly off the handle and treat his own family in a way that he would never think of treating anyone else. Is that a reason to blot his name out of the book of life? Hardly. But it shows that Ryle and others were men and women of like passions with ourselves. Sainthood is getting a grip upon yourself in the midst of all your failure and your fear, and coming back again to the conclusion that the Lord has dealt and will deal with my enemies.

Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in his book, The Sermon on the Mount , gives the illustration of a compass that always points to the true north. If you put a magnet to the east of the compass, the needle goes straight to the magnet and stays there for a while, but then it starts bobbing back and forth, and finally finds true north again. Lloyd-Jones says this is the way we are, that it is just in our nature to panic when our enemies are saying, “There is no help for you in God. You might as well just throw it all over and go back into the world.” And yet the needle goes back to its true place of residence. So David continues to press on as his confidence grows, and in verse 7 he can say, “Arise, O Lord! Deliver me, O my God!” And then he speaks in the past tense as though God has already smitten all of his enemies on their jaws and broken the teeth of the ungodly.

David Is Delivered

That is the language of warfare, and it is not very pretty, is it? But David is pointing to ultimate deliverance, as God, with the little Ebenezers he has given along the way, points to the great deliverance in the last day. David’s language is ultimately eschatological.

In 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 Paul wrote, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.” And then some remarkable providence transpired to deliver Paul and the others, and Paul said it was like a resurrection from the dead. From that point on, he takes off and speaks of the resurrection of the dead in the last day. There is such a thing as daily dying and rising, and then ultimately there is the great dying, the big sweep, as it is called, and rising in newness of life. The way is prepared by all of the incidents of our lives, and so it is with David. He states that deliverance is coming, and he knows it is because of all the mini-deliverances along the way, pointing the way.

Deliverance Belongs to the Lord

David concludes, “From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.” This is a great passage that we quote, and rightly so. In some translations it reads, “Salvation belongs to the Lord,” because ultimately that is what it is– salvation from the enemy.

Then David says, “May your blessing be on your people.” This is not to be understood in the optative mood of wishing, but rather as a statement of fact: God’s blessing is upon his people. This tells us that the things that really matter have not changed, that the people of God are blessed in all of the times in which they find themselves in trouble, even when the trouble is all they are doing.

What a comforting reality! I find the experience of David to be far-removed from the kind of pietistic mind set that the Western church has imbibed for a long time, an attitude of biting one’s fingernails and thinking, “I’ve really blown it this time,” and just waiting for the blow to come from on high. It doesn’t come, and it will not come, precisely because of God’s very nature and essence. In Exodus 34 we read how God is slow to anger, long suffering, and for that reason, he bears with his children.

Do you find yourself in trouble? If so, you have to realize something. You cannot put scrambled eggs back under chickens. In other words, once the egg has been broken, scrambled and fried, you cannot fit it back into the shell and get all the pieces back perfectly as they were before. Or to put it in other words, you cannot put your finger on the rewind button of your life and run it back to where it was before you sinned. It just doesn’t work that way. Would that we could!

If you have problems in your life, is there anything you can do? Yes! You can get up where you are, reckon with the fact that the Lord God of Israel is your helper, or is willing to become your helper in Christ, and your glory and the lifter up of your head, and from that point onward, you begin anew. That is what sainthood is–not the sainthood of plaster saints, but of flesh and blood saints. I see nothing in David’s experience to encourage me to repeat what David did, but I see everything in David’s God to encourage me and persuade me to believe upon him. May it be so for all of us. Amen.