Desperate Times

Oh Lord, we thank you for this time that we get to worship you by looking at your word and particularly Psalm 69. We ask, Lord, that You would open up our eyes. In our ears to hear your word. We pray, Father, that You would fill us with your Spirit.

Lord, that we would worship you through this time that you'd protect us, from our enemy, the devil. Lord, that your word would have its greatest effect. We also pray, Lord, for those amongst us that may not know you, Lord, that You would open up their eyes to hear the gospel that they may be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We pray this in Christ's name.

All God's people said, Amen. If you've been around Cornerstone here the last couple of months, we have a reading through the Psalms, series going on, and, this last Friday on the schedule was, Psalm 69, and you can access that schedule on our homepage on the website, by the way, if you have lost it or if you want to see, if you wanna start the reading with us. we're reading through the rest of the Psalms. this summer, and I've titled this message, Desperate times.

you may have heard the phrase desperate times calls for desperate measures, right? I was reading recently about a mother who was, in desperate times with a couple of her children who just refused to get along and so she went to desperate measures. And put them in their get along shirt. Yeah, I wish I would have thought of that.

When a couple of my kids were a little bit younger. But sometimes, desperate times do call for desperate measures, don't they? That can be good or bad. I know in China, one of the problems that the church in China is having is there's so many more women who have come to know Christ than men, and these women all want to get married.

And so sometimes they opt for marrying unbelievers because in their desperation, they can't wait. But oftentimes we find ourselves in desperate times and if we're thinking. biblically, it can drive us to, the Lord. It can drive us to actually good things in the long run.

Doctor Martin Luther of the Reformation. When he went to the diet or the convening of worms in 1521, his friends just knew that that somebody was going to try to kill him. And so on the way back from that particular assembly, his friends, including Elector Frederick the Wise, kidnapped him. And their plan was to make it look like that he had been killed and they took him back to Wittenberg, where he remained in disguise for two years.

In fact, he grew his beard out, grew his hair out, and people started calling him Junker George, which I used to think, I, I thought that that meant that he was doing the job of a sanitarium or picking up garbage, but actually Junker is German for Lord. or young lord, it's an honorific title. And, and it's during this time period actually that he translated the New Testament into German. In fact, he did it in 11 weeks.

And it became a hallmark of the modern German language. But just a, a desperate time. His life was in jeopardy. You wouldn't normally want your friends to kidnap you and pretend like you were murdered.

You wouldn't normally go into hiding and start calling yourself Junker George. but it was during this time of exile that Luther also went through just some very depressing times. In fact, he was prone to depression at many times in his life. And had many infamous battles with the devil.

In fact, if you guys have read much on Luther, there's the infamous where he was in the midst of translating certain parts of the New Testament and, and felt particularly attacked of the devil and took his inkwell and threw it at the wall and just pronouncing that the devil would get behind him. Desperate times, many times does call for desperate measures and we see in this Psalm, David expressing great desperation. And the big idea this morning that we're gonna draw out of this particular Psalm is that in Psalm 69, David shows us how to worship God in our desperation.

Really, he, he turns to God and he worships, but not in the way that we always think of as worship.

He worships God in his desperation and he finds comfort both in God's justice. And his mercy. In this particular Psalm that we're gonna look at, this is an interesting Psalm from the standpoint that it's, there's only one other Psalm that's quoted more times in the New Testament, that's Psalm 22. Other than Psalm 22, Psalm 69 is quoted all over the place in the New Testament.

And because of how the New Testament handles some of the material in the Psalm, we're gonna see and we will see a, a foreshadowing of Christ in many parts of the Psalm. Which makes us study and sing this psalm with a unique worship experience. Throughout the song, we're reciting David's own reflections on his historical circumstances. but we're also invited to also take on the emotions that he expresses.

Because the Psalm has been preserved for us, we rightly find means to express our own emotions and thoughts to the Lord, both as individuals and corporately. And yet there's many places where we no doubt see experience and pronouncements of Christ, the Godman. So we're gonna try to actually keep all three of these ideas in mind as we look through the Psalm, David's expression, our own experiences as we go through this Psalm, but also Christ's pronouncements because there's so many quotes in the New Testament that connect this to Jesus Christ.

I want you to look first of all, before we get into what we're gonna describe as 3 measures at, at the prescription.

The prescription in your Bibles that says to the chief musician set to the lilies, a Psalm of David. just a little tidbit about the Psalms. Most of the Psalms do have a prescription, not all of them, but the prescription, it's, a preserved ancient tradition but is not considered part of the text of scripture. And that's why at least in our Bibles, it, it doesn't receive a verse, right?

It's not verse one and then to the chief musician, verse one comes after that prescription, correct? and so it is an ancient tradition and so we learned something about how the Jews viewed this Psalm going back hundreds of years. And so it says to the chief musician set to the lilies, and this reminds us that this is a song. And so David would have written this song or the words of the song and then given it to who?

The chief musician. I want you to take this, I want you to arrange it. I want you to, to make this suitable for corporate worship. So this reminds us that this is a song, this is poetry and so we see on our, our, in our Bibles Jewish parallelism, but it's also a prayer.

And it's a prayer that we're expected to recite. This is a liturgical prayer. We as Protestants, even evangelical Protestants, sometimes we are shy to go towards liturgy or to recite prayers. We need to remember the Reformation wasn't so much about being anti-liturgical as it was anti-legalism.

And, and there's many great prayers both in the Bible and outside of the Bible that we can recite, that will aid us in our worship. And that's the other thing that we need to just remember is this is worship. And some of the things that we see in this Psalm don't necessarily strike us as worshipful, but they are, worship. Something else to note here in the prescript, notice it says set to the lilies.

This would be the particular tune that this song was sung to, at least in Jewish tradition, and we see this tune shows up in Psalm 45 and probably in Psalm 80 as well. And so the tune itself could be used for different, different psalms. So it appears that David would have written the text and said I, and then perhaps later on, the Jews would have said, we're going to sing his text to this tune. In fact, this is very common even in our own hymns.

we have a hymn Rejoice the Lord is King, that the exact same tune is used for join all the glorious names, or we have, a hymn Rock of Ages, that tune also gets sung to Chief of Sinners and the, list could go on. notice it also says in the prescription a Psalm of David. And there is some question mark about whether David really wrote this particular Psalm. Some commentators think that it was Jeremiah because of some of the, the setting and the descriptions and how it overlaps with Jeremiah's life.

But Romans 9:11 should really dispel that because Paul quotes David, says that David wrote this particular Psalm when he quotes Psalm 69, 22 and 23. So it seems like, David definitely is, is the author, but I think maybe some of the confusion might be that Jeremiah would have perhaps picked up this psalm and recited, recited it and sung it when he was going through his own persecutions and difficulties and perhaps even in some of the language that he uses in his writings, he's reflecting some of David's, characteristics.

So let's talk about 3, measures or courses of action that David takes in this particular Psalm. We're gonna give you guys a very linear outline of the Psalm, but just realize that's somewhat artificial because Jewish poetry doesn't really work that way.

It's very circular. David says things and then he comes back around and says it again and then he says it again. But for the sake of preaching a sermon, we're gonna make this very linear. And the first measure that we see or course of action is that David simply cries out to God in his desperation.

David cries out to God in his desperation and so you don't get worried, we're gonna spend the bulk of our time here. So when I'm about like 40 minutes into this message and we haven't moved to the second point yet, don't get worried. This is the bulk of what we're gonna talk about is the first action and then we're gonna add on the 2nd and 3rd. But look with me at verse one.

We'll read 1 down to verse 3 for now. Save me, oh God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I've come into deep waters where the floods overflow me.

I am weary with my crying. I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry, my eyes fail while I wait for My God Notice that he is crying out, that David is crying out to God to save him. And the imagery here is thick with depressing terms.

This is not a, this is not a happy, clappy song, right? You don't imagine the Jewish people standing around clapping and shaking tambourines. in fact, you might go online on YouTube and listen to some of the, the Jewish, just chants to this psalm. and to get a feel for the the depressiveness or the depression, you might want to think of even just how, Gregorian monks would chant this song and you get a little bit of the feel and the emotion of, of what is being expressed.

So David cries out to God and he says, for the waters have come up to my neck, literally, literally this is nephesh or soul or breath. So it's like the idea is the waters have come up to the very brim of his mouth and he can barely get a breath, sinking in mud or mire reminds us of the slough of Despond in Pilgrim's Progress. No standing, deep waters. In fact, he's been crying so much in verse 3 that he's wearied from his crying.

And his throat is parched. He's been crying out so much that his throat is parched, and he says his eyes fail while he waits or looks for God. He's been looking and waiting for God so long and there's been no response so far. It's his eyes are tired.

This is a wearied. Searching for God, or crying out for God with no immediate answer. This is what the old Puritan theologians used to call the doctrine of the absence of God. This idea that yes, God does answer.

Yes, God is the one that is our salvation, but there are times in the life of a Christian where you do not feel that immediately. In fact, maybe there's long periods of time where you do not feel the presence of God, and you're crying out for God and your eyes look for God and he is just not there. The absence of God. We see a great teachers in the history of the church that went through similar types of circumstances.

A lot of times when we read about our theological or pastoral heroes, we think that everything was all, gold and, and silver, but no, a guy like CH Spurgeon had many bouts of depression. In fact, there were times where he just could not get out of bed. His wife would, tack verses to the ceiling when he would go through such throes of depression to try to give him encouragement. Luther was also of such disposition where there was many times where he would be in just the throes of depression.

I remember particularly after when his daughter Maggie died, it was very difficult for him to come out of that. She died in his very arms. One day his wife Catherine came into their living room dressed in black. And Martin Luther said, why, why are you dressed this way?

She said, because somebody has died. He's like, who's died? I haven't heard of anybody. She says, apparently God has died the way you're acting.

And that actually helped him. They had quite a relationship. That actually helped, helped encourage him and get him out of bed and And back to work. We see also Jonathan Edwards dealt with the same type of challenges and so the Christian life is not a life where we deal it's all ups.

when you look at, David, when you look at histories in the church, there's ups and downs and even there's crying out for God with no immediate answer at times. And so, David then goes on to list some of the reasons. He, he starts off with imagery, but now he gives us various reasons as to why he feels he's in the depths of despair. And one of those reasons is because of his enemies.

Look at verse 4. Why does David cry out in his desperation? Those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head. They are mighty who would destroy me.

Being my enemies wrongfully, though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it. David has enemies and he feels that the reason he has enemies is without cause. He's done nothing really to bring these enemies on. It's one thing if we do certain things that just cause us to have enemies, right?

If we carry ourselves in such a way that just causes our, maybe we just become an irritant to other people because of our behavior or actions, We hear David, he's, he's acknowledging that there's really no cause and his enemies are not just a few, there are more than the hairs of his head. It's a lot of enemies. And they are mighty or it could be that they are many and these enemies want to destroy him. And it seems like there's been some accusations of wrongdoing with, with money or possessions because he's trying to restore items that he has not stolen.

I remember, being a public school teacher and going through a section on On the history of England and they brought up George Whitfield, which is one of my personal heroes and they, the only thing that it said about George Whitfield in my public school textbook was that George Whitfield was accused of stealing money. I, I, I knew, I've been studying George Whitfield for years, I'd never heard that story. But what all the students were learning about George Whitfield is that he was accused of stealing money.

It doesn't surprise me, God's people are always accused of different things that they did not do.

And here David is being accused, and he has enemies that are against him. Just consider your own enemies. If you name Christ, if you are a child of God, you have enemies that, the Bible calls the world. The world is, is both the system, but it's also just the people within that system.

You have enemies that just do not like what you stand for and if you stand for Christ, you will have this enemy called the world, but you also have this enemy called the devil. And the devil is no small foe. He is much greater than we are. Yes, God is greater than him, but he is much greater than us.

And we are always contending with this great enemy who is called the accuser of the brethren. for me, I don't know about you, but one of my defaults, whenever I'm reading the paper or watching the news and I hear an accusation against a Christian, my default is not to immediately believe it. And I'll tell you why. It's because the devil is the accuser of the brethren.

I'm not saying that Christians don't do things wrong, and we know that there are many Christians that have fallen into sin, but my default is not to immediately believe every accusation against a believer. Because I know the devil is always hurling accusations against Christians, and we see right in this text that David was one of those who had been accused without cause. But David, if the world and the devil weren't enough, David has his own flesh and sin. And so, The other thing that causes him to cry out in desperation is not just his enemies, but his own sin.

Although it's unknown to all, it seems everybody else but God. Notice what David says in verse 5 and 60 God, my foolishness. My sins are not hidden from you. Let not those who wait for you, oh Lord God of hosts, be ashamed because of me.

Let not those who seek you be confounded because of me. Oh God. Of Israel As David, he considers his enemies and the accusations against himself that are false. It causes him then to begin to reflect upon other things that he could be accused of that are true.

Yeah, they're accusing me of false things, but as David begins to really consider, there's other things that they don't know anything about, but God knows about, and those things also haunt me and I cry out to God. it's good to remember. That when we are unjustly accused and treated, there are other sins that have been passed over. And sometimes God in His good providence brings things into our life.

Maybe we receive persecutions and challenges in areas that are completely unjust, but if we really think about it long enough, maybe the Lord is kindly passing over other sins. Think about David and Shamai in, in First Samuel. David was being run out of his own city and this guy named Shamai is up on a, a cliff hurling rocks down upon David. And David's mighty men, they want to go take the guy's head off.

And David says, no, don't do it. God has sent this guy to buffet me because of my sins. And he's not talking about anything that was going on at that point. In fact, it was unjust for Shamai to throw rocks down upon him and Shamaiah eventually got his just dessert.

But David was reflecting upon his past sins and saying, the Lord has allowed this to come upon me. And so it's good for us to consider that even when we're being treated unjustly, sometimes there is a connection and we can, we can bear the unjust treatment in patients because we know there's other sins that we have not received chastisement for. Sometimes the Lord will chastise us in different ways. But notice David's real concern here is in verse 6.

He says, let not those who wait for you, oh God of hosts, be ashamed because of me. Let not those who seek you be confounded because of me, oh God of Israel. And this really becomes David's heart cry is he doesn't want anyone to fall from God, either because of the unjust accusations or because of his own true guilt. He looks out at the people of God and he says, God, do not let people be ashamed because of me.

And isn't that the heart of many of you, I know. When you look upon your own children, when you look upon people that you're discipling, when you look upon your grandchildren, how many times have I heard people in this congregation say, I pray that my children will not fall away because of me. And this is a prayer that we can cry out to the Lord. we are sinners, and there are times where our sins are, are in well are in view of people that look up to us.

But if we will humble ourselves before God and cry out to Him, God, let not my sins cause your people to fall away, cause my children to fall away, and we humble ourselves before those people that we have sinned against, I believe this is a prayer that God wants us to pray, and it's a prayer that I believe God wants to answer. And so God, moves upon David to cry out in desperation because of his enemies, because of his sin, but also because of persecution. Why does David cry out in desperation?

Because of persecution or revilings, rejection.

Mockery, really downright bigotry. Look at verses 7 to 9. Because for your sake, I have borne reproach or insult. So now he's back to the unjust accusations.

Shame has covered my face. I've become a stranger to my brothers and an alien to my mother's children. Because zeal for your house has eaten me up or consumed me. And the reproaches, insults of those who reproach.

You have fallen on me. Here, David just reflects upon the fact that That he is being reviled unjustly, really for his concern, his very religious concerns. He has a concern for God's house, the temple. and yet he's being reproached by his own family members.

This, calls to mind just the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who was rejected by his own family and had a zeal for God's house. Many of you, as you have come to know Christ, have no doubt, Felt the same chastisement or reviling. Look at verses 10 to 12 as David continues, When I wept and chastened to my soul with fasting, that became my reproach. I'm trying to humble myself before the Lord.

I'm going through appropriate fastings as a Jew and worship, and people revile that. I also made sackcloth my garment and I became a byword. I put sackcloth to demonstrate humility and repentance and people are still reviling. Verse 12, those who sit in the gate speak against me, the highest leaders, and I am the song of drunkards, the dregs of society.

From the highest leaders to the dregs of society, he's being reviled. Perhaps you as a believer have been reviled by your own family or friends. I remember becoming a Christian at 14 and I didn't do anything to, I, I didn't like withhold myself from my friendships but I would say within about a month, my whole set of friends had changed because certain people disowned me and didn't want to hang out with me and then I found Christians on my campus or church. And my whole life just turned around, not because I tried to pull myself away from anybody, but because there was just this dividing line now that I was a Christian.

I remember times, just being made fun of by teachers. I remember one particular person saying that Mike has to ask God for permission to go to the bathroom, and, and those of you guys that, have come to know Christ in, in unbelieving settings. You guys know exactly what I'm talking about. John Calvin, when he came to Geneva for the first time, to work with John Farrell to try to preach the gospel and reform the city that was, Geneva at that time was a Las Vegas, San Bernardo, Bakersfield place.

And So he's preaching the gospel and and the people did not take kindly to his reformations. They began to name their dogs Calvin. they began to threaten him in the streets, threaten his life, but he continued just to preach the gospel, to continue to minister. Actually, he got kicked out for a while and then when things got worse, they eventually invited Calvin and John Farrell back and said, hey, we liked it better when you guys were around.

now that we're getting robbed and, and everything's going crazy here, could you guys come back and help us with the reformation? It's an interesting story. This is a sideline. he was, John Cal was in the book of Matthew when they kicked him out and when he got back up to preach, everybody was waiting.

What is he gonna say when he gets back up into the pulpit? Is he gonna rebuke everybody for kicking him out of the city? And he gets up and he just says, you remember last time I preached, we were in this particular passage, we'll pick it up in the next passage. That was it.

He just moved on. Instead of going after his enemies, he just pretend like the whole thing never happened. Began to minister to the gospel of the people of Geneva. And saw great fruit and work.

this very Psalm, Psalm 69 has been picked up by a secular rock band and used for the purpose of blasphemy. That's just what the devil does. The devil takes God's things, he takes the people of God. He insults.

And. And revis. But, but not just Enemies and sin and persecution. But now David actually begins to move upward a little bit and speak a little more hopeful and, and talks about his expectation.

Why does David cry out? Because of his expectation, and expectation that his faithful, merciful, covenant keeping God will answer and will deliver him. Look at verse 13 and following. But as for me, my prayer is to you, oh Lord, in the acceptable time or favorable moment.

Oh God, in the multitude of your mercy, has said, I can't say that the way Milton does, has said, in your mercy, Answer me in the truth of your salvation. Deliver me out of the mire and let me sink. Let me not sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me out of the deep waters.

Let not the floodwater overflow me. Nor let the deep swallow me up and let not the pit shut its mouth on me. You see the connections back to the beginning of the Psalms. He's talking about how he's down in the depths.

Now he's saying to the Lord, Lord, you're the covenant keeping God, you have mercy, you have loving kindness. Don't let these waters overtake me. He goes on in verse 16 and following, hear me or answer me, O Lord, for your loving kindness is good. That's the Hesset again.

Turn to me according to the multitude of your tender mercies and do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in trouble. Hear me or answer me speedily, draw near to my soul and redeem it. Be my goel. Deliver me because of my enemies.

So within this particular section, David turns and he cries out, in light of God's has said, in light of his covenant keeping, there's this, even though it doesn't say Abraham, there's this reminder picture back to the Abrahamic covenant. God has made a covenant with his covenant people. God, you're a covenant keeping God, deliver me. Notice like all the repetition of various terms.

Answer, answer, answer, deliver, deliver, deliver. He said, has said, has said. You must get the feeling that through song, David's just saying, Mom. Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom.

Mom, And, he's just like just saying Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh over and over again through different means, just crying out to the Lord to answer. And we have a God that wants us, right? That persistent judge parable just coming back over and over and God wants us to continue. To cry out and to cry out expectantly that God, while there may be this theology of God's absence, God is not one that just wants to remain absent entirely.

We know that he's with us in his omnipresence, but it seems like sometimes he allows us to experience his absence so that we would cry out all the more. And so then we see that David also, while he's up for a little bit, he drops right back down into the pits and he says, and he, and then he begins to describe his friendlessness. Why does David cry out in desperation? Because of his friendlessness or lack of consolation.

Look at verse 19 to 21. my reproach, my shame, my dishonor, my adversaries are all before you. Reproach is broken my heart, for I am full of heaviness. I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none.

And for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for food and for my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. Here we see David just describing that he wanted to have, he was looking for comforters, looking for people that would be there to console him. And at this point in his life, there are none.

We see Jesus after the Garden of Gethsemane, when he gets arrested, everybody who is, all of his disciples, they, they leave him, and he is alone. And then Jesus is given vinegar to drink or gall. We, we see this poisonous herb. Friends should come along and offer a cold water to drink or bread to eat, but instead, his enemies are, are trying to compound his misery rather than help.

And so David feels that sense of friendlessness. Perhaps you have felt that. Perhaps there's been times where you have aligned yourself with Christ, aligned yourself with God, or you've gone through a certain circumstance, you've been looking for friendship and there's just, there's just no one there. This can be part of your worship, this can be part of your desperate cry to the Lord and song, just to, to say with David, to say with Christ, I look for friends.

And there was, there was no one there. And so The measure that David takes in these desperate times, first of all, is, is just a measure of desperation. He just cries out, just cries out in these 1st 21 verses. But he doesn't stop there.

He then calls out to God for justice. He calls out to God for justice and we see this starting in verse 22. As he begins to then pray towards his enemies. Verse 22 says, let their table, his enemies, become a snare before them.

And their well-being, a trap. Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see. And make their loins shake continually. Pour out your indignation upon them.

And let your wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their dwelling place be desolate. Let no one live in their tents. So now, David, he doesn't just cry out in desperation.

Now he's calling out for God to bring justice. A table would normally be a place where you would think it's a, a place of comfort, a place of safety. He's saying let their table be a snare. They think they're dwelling in well-being, let it be a trap for them.

Let their eyes be darkened so they cannot see. This in the New Testament calls to mind passages like 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, where it says, because people did not love the truth, God will send them a strong delusion. God will actually sovereignly participate in their blinding. Make their loins shake continually.

The idea here is, the loins is like the, like the hip area or the small of the back., it's the strong part of the body that connects the lower part of the body to the upper part of the body in Hebrew reckoning. So this isn't like some medical dictionary term. It's just like what you might think of as the core, right? A lot of people like to talk about the core, right?

If you're, if you're in athletics, do you want your core to be strong or weak? You want a strong core. So David is praying that his enemies would have a weak core, right? Think, imagine, an elderly person whose legs are just shaking and they can, they can hardly stand up unless they have a cane.

That's what he's preying upon, his enemies. So that their loins may continually shake. He's asking that God would pour out indignation and that your wrathful anger take hold of them. This calls to mind 2 Thessalonians chapter one where it speaks of Jesus coming in flaming fire, taking vengeance upon his enemies and all those who do not obey the gospel.

Let not their dwelling, let their dwelling place be desolate. Let no one live in their tents. This is actually picked up and quoted by Peter in Acts 1:20 as a reference to Judas. move on to, Versus 26 to 28.

For they persecute the ones you have struck. And talk of the grief of those you have wounded. Add iniquity to their iniquity and let them not come into your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous.

We need to include this in our Sunday morning singing time. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, so on. But hey, this is, this is in the holy hymn book, the Psalms, right? Notice in verse 26, for they persecute the ones you have struck.

It's God's prerogative to chastise His people, but beware when one comes along afterwards and then begins to poke fun at those who God is chastised. And they talk of the grief of those you have wounded. Again, God can look at his children and he can bring chastisement into their life, but beware, woe unto the person that then begins to persecute his kids. We see in verse 27, David's cry for iniquity upon iniquity.

This, this gives call to Romans one where Paul is reminding us that God will turn them over, turn them over, turn them over to their sin. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, the idea that they would die and then not be written with the righteous, that they would not go on into the kingdom. Again, we see many examples in the history of the church where Christians are written poorly about by those that align themselves with the devil and his accusations. This whole section is what we would call an imprecatory, a section of a Psalm.

There are whole psalms that are called imprecatory Psalms. The idea here is, is the idea of calling for God's justice in a particular situation. Is this an anti-evangelion? Is this anti-gospel, as some would suggest?

I want to suggest to you this morning and you can disagree with me if you wish or you can do the research on your own, that this is actually part of our gospel inheritance. God defends his kids. God defends his son. Like the cry of the Revelation saints.

You don't have to turn there if you, Revelation 6:9 and following when he opened the fifth seal, that is when Jesus, the Lamb opened the 5th seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God. And for the testimony which they held, and they cried out with a loud voice saying, How long, oh Lord, holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth. These are saints that are in heaven saying, How long, oh Lord, until you bring judgment.

So these are holy prayers.

Verse 11, then a white robe was given to each one of them, and it was said to them, That they should rest a little while until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were was completed. We also see songs being sung in the old, in, in the book of Revelation praising God for his judgment. Injustice, portions of scripture like this, I believe, remind us of what everyone knows intuitively. And that is evil will be punished.

Evil will be punished. Nobody reads about Hitler and says, boy, I really wish that guy got some mercy. No. This is what everybody knows intuitively.

Charles Bronson knew it. Right? Chuck Norris knew it. Bruce Lee knew it.

Right? You guys ever feel guilty you're watching one of these movies where somebody's family just gets wiped out and then there's another guy that goes out and starts taking out justice. There is, there is a, a little conflict in our hearts, right? Cause on the one hand, we realize that person shouldn't be taking justice upon themselves.

They should be just going out and doing vigilante justice. On the other hand, you really like it when the bad guy gets it, right? I don't know about you, but I like it when the bad guy gets it. I'm waiting for it, right?

And there's something in our hearts that we're waiting for somebody to come and give it to the bad guy. And when we look at the course of scripture, it is appropriate because there is a righteous judge who will come and give it to the bad guys. It's just not for us to take it upon ourselves. Notice here that David leaves vengeance to God.

Now, it's a little complicated because sometimes David is God's instrument, but in this Psalm as he's praying the imprecatory Psalm, he's really calling to God to give vengeance. David does not mention an individual, but enemies in general. Remember how he treated Saul, his own personal enemy. But here he's praying for his enemies in general, and he's crying out for God.

And his real concern is for the people of God. It's not just some personal slight. This is people that have, have done damage to the people of God and by the way, David is a prophet and an author of scripture. And so, I don't know that it's appropriate for us to write our own little letters of imprecatory psalms.

They wouldn't be inspired, by the way. However, this is a Psalm and we can pray these psalms. In fact, when we pray the Lord's Prayer and we say, let thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, what are you praying for? You're praying for many things, but one of the things you're praying for is that Jesus Christ will come back and that he will destroy all of his enemies and set up his kingdom.

That's what you're praying, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. You're praying that Jesus would come back and settle all scores. And so it's appropriate for us to call out to God for justice. But then finally, the final course of action that we see in the Psalm is that David sings out to God because of his mercy.

He sings out to God because of His mercy. Look at verse 29. Where he says, but I am poor and sorrowful. Let your salvation, oh God, set me up on high.

I will praise the name of God with song. I will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull, which has horns and hooves. Now David, is this the first time that David actually mentioned singing by name?

He's actually been singing the whole time, in this song, but here he specifically mentions praising the name of God with song and, and he comes in, and acknowledges his own lowliness before the Lord. He's crying out that the Lord would be lifted up. look over at verse 32 to 34, the humble. shall see this and be glad, and you who seek God, your heart shall live, for the Lord hears the poor and does not despise his prisoners.

Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them. Go back to verse 31 for a moment where he says, this shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull. It's an interesting turn of phrases because who's the one that commanded animal sacrifice? Yahweh, right?

God's the one that commanded animal sacrifice. What is, what is David really saying here? Is he saying that we don't need sacrifice? That there, we don't need the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sin.

No, I think the idea here is, is, is David knows that sacrifice has been commanded by the Lord. He offered his own sacrifices, but as we see in many of the minor prophets, many of the Jews, both in the north and in the south, began to pride themselves in their sacrifice and in their worship when their heart was dead and full of dead men's bones. I think this is similar. It, it reminds me of a, a song that we'll sing sometimes here at Cornerstone called The Heart of Worship by Matt Redman.

When he says, when the music fades and all is stripped away, I simply come. Longing just to bring something that's of worth that will bless your heart. I'll bring you more than a song for a song in itself is not what you have required. You search much deeper within through the ways, the way things appear.

You're looking into my heart. Is Matt Redmond saying that we shouldn't sing songs with musical instruments in church? Not at all. What he's describing is a point in his life where he began to realize that, man, I've been so much into my guitars and my knobs and my, my music and my levels and this and that, that I've began to forget what this thing's all about.

Let's just set all that aside for a moment and let's just focus on what, focus on what worship really is. And I think that's what David is describing here. Clearly, we need to come before the Lord in the Old Testament sense in sacrifice. Clearly, we come before the Lord now through the blood shed blood of Jesus Christ.

But we can go through our ceremony, we can partake of communion, for instance, it can just be a dead ceremony. Or we can come to him with a true heart and what it really means. Let's look finally. It's just the last couple of verses here.

35 and 36 for David or for God will save Zion. And build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and possess it. Also, the descendants of his servants shall inherit it. And those who love his name shall dwell in it.

This is an interesting turn at the end of the psalm as David has been crying out about his enemies. And as it were, he almost foresees, it seems as if he foresees a day when Zion will come to this place of destruction as Jeremiah experienced in the exile. When Zion, that hill outside of Jerusalem will be destroyed and Jerusalem itself will be razed to the ground. And there'll be a time when Israel would cry out and look to God and their with their throats parched and feeling as if the waters are about to overtake them, saying, Lord, oh Lord, when will you bring back your glory of Zion?

And David looks forward to a time when, when God's people would be restored back to Jerusalem. And we're still waiting for such a day when God's people Israel will come back into the land. We're still waiting for a day when Jesus Christ will return for all of those who love his appearing. Let me ask you, according to that last phrase, those who love his name, do you love the name of God?

Do you love the name of Yahweh? Do you love the name Yeshua, Jesus Christ? Or do you despise those who love his name? Are you one of those who calls upon the Lord Jesus and And, and, and you are one who is trying to serve Jesus, though not perfectly.

And so you receive insult, you receive reviling at times, and that can be That can be depressing. But here in this Psalm, we see that we can worship Him in our desperation. We can call out to him and he, while it may seem he's absent for a time, will come and answer. Are you on the other side?

Are you one of the ones that persecutes and reviles? Are you one of the ones who listens to the whisper of the devil and throws accusations against God's people? Beware. God will not take lightly those that trample his son's blood underfoot.

God will not take lightly those who cast his children aside. He is a God who will rise and defend his kids. Let me ask some just final takeaways and then we will pray. Or talk about some takeaways.

So we see in this Psalm that David sets an example for us on how to worship in desperate times. I don't know what you are going through. Maybe you've experienced health issues. Maybe wayward children.

Tragedy, depression. Maybe like Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon at the age of 24, he had his first bout with depression where he would just cry uncontrollably without knowing why. He had no idea.

And yet he would, throughout his life, he would find himself having to just cry out to God and, and his wife would put up scriptures up on the ceiling when he was laying in bed and couldn't get out of bed. And but he brought his desperation to God. What are you going through? This is a song that you can pray through, you can sing through, you can meditate upon.

Think about all that the Psalm says about Jesus Christ. Think about what Christ went through with his rejection of the disciples. And yet the Lord has promised to place all of Christ's enemies under his feet, and he will exalt his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is coming again, for all those that love his appearing.

Do you love his appearing? as a kid I used to love going fishing with my grandpa. There's this one time where we went up outside of Bishop, somewhere, it was near South Lake, but it was more of a smaller pond. And I remember my grandfather just warning me not to get too close to the edge.

And how little kids are, we half listen and but also I'm somewhat curious and so we're fishing and sure enough, I got too close to the edge and I fell in. And I'll tell you what, it felt like an hour before my grandpa pulled me out. As soon as I fell in, I just had this overwhelming sense of fear. Turns out, I could have just stood up in it.

but I didn't know that. I thought this thing was 100 ft deep. I was just crying out, Grandpa, just And I didn't get enough sleep. So, anyway, So then my grandpa just grabs me and, and pulls me out.

And it really did. It seemed like forever. And, I know. All of you guys, not all of you, but many of you guys have been through circumstances in your life where you fall into something.

some desperate situation. And you're, you're just crying out to God and you're like, why doesn't he? Anyway, what I'm talking about. OK Why isn't he answering?

And from our perspective, it just seems like a long time. We just need to remember that from the Lord's perspective, it's not. And he cares. He cares about his children.

And And he will defend them to the end. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we thank you so much for Your word and that we have Such expressions in holy scripture that we can use for worship. Prayer and song.

We're not left with such hopelessness. Like we see in some of the Psychological mind games that are given to people like Turn lemons into lemonade and That we see in your word and expressions of desperation, real life. A crying out for help and acknowledgement of absence. We also see Lord, upon the pages of scripture, a real sense of justice that there are people in this room that have been gone through and been treated horribly.

And yet we know that all scores will be settled because you are a just God. Vengeance belongs to you. And yet we also know that we ourselves have been those who have committed atrocities. Sometimes we've been the subjects, the ones who have caused great pain, and yet you have had great mercy upon us who deserve your punishment and wrath, that you have poured your justice upon Jesus Christ and those of us that humble ourselves, that love your name.

You have promised to shower us with your covenant love and mercy, not because of our righteous deeds, but because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So we thank you, Lord, for just this time that we've been able to worship you through this Psalm. We ask that you would hear our praises now. Also receive our gifts of offering as part of our worship.

We ask that you use these gifts to cause your gospel to go out. In Christ's name, we pray. All God's people said, Amen.