The Bridge of Grace

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. Selah

    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. Selah

    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! Selah
(Psalm 3 ESV)

I love this Psalm.  Here is David broken, hurting, and feeling trapped.  I mean the guys own son is thirsty for his blood.  And to top it all off he hears their taunting, “there is no salvation for him in God”. 

Now that can mean a couple of things.  It could mean that they are saying, “David, you are so wicked there is no hope for you to be found in the Lord; there is no way that God can forgive someone like you.”  Or it could be simply questioning the faithfulness of God.  More than likely it is the first one. 

Have you heard these messengers? 

Perhaps they are saying, “your sins are so bad there is no hope for your soul.  Clean yourself up and then maybe the Lord will find you acceptable”.  Sometimes it cuts deeper.  It’s not just our behavior that is unacceptable, it’s our entire being.  And at times they sound like this, “You are on your own. If you want change you better make it happen yourself. God is sick of having to do it. It’s about time you start carrying your load”.

And every day we hear from messengers saying, “This will save you”. Underneath this idolatry is the message that you had better find refuge in this new (fill in the blank) because God isn’t sufficient to make you acceptable.

In our darker times we believe the lie.  We try something new.  Even holy, churchy, Jesus-sounding things.  This new study will finally fix me.  This new strategy for conquering addiction will finally break the chains.  This new information will transform me.  This new community will finally heal these wounds. 

But notice David…

He had a history with the Lord.  He believed that God was is shield (notice that it isn’t that God gives David a shield.  God IS the shield).  He knew that these messengers were liars, and it did not matter how many or how loud they shouted.  David had firmly experienced and had it settled in his mind (at least on this occasion) that Salvation belongs to the Lord and in nothing else. 

David is only saying what Spurgeon did thousands of years later:

Ah! the bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. I can hear their trampings now as they traverse the great arches of the bridge of salvation. They come by their thousands, by their myriads; e'er since the day when Christ first entered into His glory, they come, and yet never a stone has sprung in that mighty bridge. Some have been the chief of sinners, and some have come at the very last of their days, but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them trusting to the same support; it will bear me over as it has borne them.

Don’t believe the lie…the bridge of grace will bear your weight!!!!  Salvation belongs to the Lord.