TUESDAY 12th
Psalm 3
NIV (v8) – ‘From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.’
ESV (v8) – ‘Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people!’
The Psalmist commences by stating in prayer that his enemies have risen against him, declaring that they are saying ‘there is no salvation for him in God’. They (his enemies) were saying that David who was fleeing from his son Absalom (2 Samuel 15:14-17) was a lost cause, without hope, but David knew and saw what his enemies didn’t know and see, and he states it in verse 3 ‘But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.’ He knew that the one whom he had proven in the past would not abandon him in his time of trouble, but would come to his aid, and so he ‘cried unto the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill’. It reminds us of Psalm 121:1-2 which says, ‘I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.’ He knew where his help was, he knew his helper would come, he knew that he would be victorious and so he continued ‘I lay down and slept’ in the midst of his trial he had a peace that sustained him, a peace that became his confidence, a peace that gave him boldness against the many enemies that came against him.
In the final verse, our text, he makes a declaration that ‘Salvation belongs to the LORD’ this means that the LORD is the Saviour, the one who is the LORD was not only his shield, his safety, his security but also his Saviour. He was speaking out of personal experience, but also prophetically, for the helper would come from his holy hill to another hill called Golgotha and there give himself as the ransom, as the Saviour of the world. And we who have come by faith to believe and trust can also declare, ‘Salvation belongs to the LORD.’
As I am preparing this devotion, I am listening to an old recording from 1977 and the congregation has just sung ‘Full salvation! Full salvation! Lo the fountain opened wide, streams through ev’ry land and nation, from the Saviour’s wounded side. Full salvation! Streams and endless crimson tide.’ Thank God that when our enemy was pursuing us, hounding us and seeking to destroy us, our help also came, in the person of Jesus, the one born to be the ‘Saviour of the world’, he saves us with a full salvation and defeats our enemy.
Revelation 12:10 ‘And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.”’
In the book of Revelation we also read in 7:9-10 ‘After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”’
Acts 2:12 ‘And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’
Revelation 19:1 ‘After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God . . .’