Psalm 6:1-10

6 O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
    nor discipline me in your wrath.
² Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
    heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
³ My soul also is greatly troubled.
    But you, O Lord—how long?

⁴ Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;
    save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of you;
    in Sheol who will give you praise?

⁶ I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping.
⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief;
    it grows weak because of all my foes.

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
    for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
⁹ The Lord has heard my plea;
    the Lord accepts my prayer.
¹⁰ All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
    they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

Back to Special Services

My Refuge and My Fortress

Wednesday, September 27th, 2023 

Psalm 91:1-16

91 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say^[a] to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
    and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his pinions,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
    nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only look with your eyes
    and see the recompense of the wicked.

⁹ Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
    the Most High, who is my refuge^[b]—
¹⁰ no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
    no plague come near your tent.

¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways.
¹² On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the adder;
    the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

¹⁴ “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
    I will protect him, because he knows my name.
¹⁵ When he calls to me, I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble;
    I will rescue him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”

Back to Teachings

Intro

How can I live through difficulties honoring God?

What happens when “life” treats us badly, and things don’t go as we desire. When we do “good”, and the situation is not better, doesn’t improve. When people treat us “unjustly”. When there is no apparent exit.

I think we all can relate to this passage. I think is important to go through as we often forget how to live out our faith in seasons of difficulty or unknowing.

As you can realize, this section of Psalm 69 is a lament or a prayer for deliverance. The writer is in trouble and is asking for God’s help.

He feels overwhelmed and oppressed by his enemies who are numerous and powerful. He acknowledges his own faults and mistakes and pleads with God not to let his troubles bring shame to those who trust in God.

We will see this later.

The exact historical context of the psalm is not clear, but it is believed to have been written during a time of oppression and turmoil for the people of Israel.

The writer speaks of deep waters, a flooded situation, and enemies who are trying to destroy him.

He is weary and his throat is extremely thirsty, roasted, dried, suggesting a long and difficult journey.

But, despite his own misery and mistakes, he trusts in God’s mercy and seeks protection and salvation.

Overall, the context of this psalm is one of desperation but reliance on God’s power to deliver and save.

When is this psalm possibly written?

The exact date when Psalm 69 was written is not known. However, it is believed to have been written during the time when King David ruled over Israel, which was approximately from 1010 to 970 BCE.

Given that many of the psalms attributed to King David reflect similar themes and language, it is likely that Psalm 69 was written during a time when David faced challenges and difficulties in his rule as king of Israel.

Let’s start with the first verses.

Verses 1-3

¹ Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck [soul].
² I sink in deep mire,
Where there is no standing;
I have come into deep waters,
Where the floods overflow me.
³ I am weary with my crying;
My throat is dry;
My eyes fail while I wait for my God.

As we already mentioned,

The writer speaks of deep waters, a flooded situation, and enemies who are trying to destroy him.

He is weary and his throat is extremely thirsty, roasted, dried, suggesting a long and difficult journey.

These verses describe the writer’s distress and sense of drowning in a difficult situation. The imagery of being submerged in deep waters and sinking in miry depths is a metaphor for a sense of hopelessness and desperation.

The writer is asking for God’s help and deliverance, as he is unable to find a way out on his own.

It is sad we go to the Lord until this moment, but still God is there.

These verses can be seen as a cry for help and a plea for God’s intervention in a difficult situation.

By asking for God’s help, the writer is acknowledging his own limitations and expressing his dependence on God.

And now he will express his difficulties and concerns.

Verse 4

⁴ Those who hate me without a 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.

In this verse, the writer is expressing feelings of being unfairly persecuted and attacked by his enemies. The language used in the verse conveys a sense of hopelessness and despair, as the writer feels overwhelmed by the number of his enemies and their strength.

The writer also mentions that he has been wrongfully accused of theft and must restore what he did not steal. This adds to the sense of injustice and oppression that the writer is experiencing.

The verse can be seen as a reflection of the difficulties that people often face in life when they are unfairly persecuted or attacked by others.

Then, this can be seen as a metaphor for the experience of suffering through difficult or challenging circumstances that one did not bring upon oneself.

Many people can relate to the feeling of being treated unjustly or unfairly and experiencing suffering as a result. This could be in the form of physical or emotional pain, financial difficulties, rejection, or personal loss.

In such circumstances, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless, much like the writer of Psalm 69. However, the psalm reminds us that even in the midst of suffering, we can find strength and hope in God’s love and protection.

Through our faith in God, we can be reminded that there is a greater purpose and meaning to our suffering, and that God is with us and working for our good, even when we cannot understand why we are going through what we are going through.

1 Peter 1:6-7 – ⁶ In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,

This can bring comfort and peace in the midst of suffering and help us to remain steadfast and resilient in the face of adversity.

These verses can be an encouragement for us, as they remind us that God is always present and available to help us in our times of need.

Whether we are facing difficulties in our personal lives, our relationships, or other aspects of our lives, we can turn to God and ask for His help and deliverance.

By relying on God’s strength and guidance, we can find hope and peace in even the most difficult of situations.

Romans 8:28 – ²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

For those who may be facing similar challenges, the message of verse 4 can serve as a source of encouragement and comfort. It reminds us that even when we are unfairly persecuted or treated unjustly, we can find strength and hope in God’s love and protection.

Despite these challenges, the writer’s trust in God remains unwavering, and he looks to God for deliverance and protection.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

A Hymn of Faith

¹⁷ Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
¹⁸ Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.

¹⁹ The Lord God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.

To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments.

Verse 5

⁵ O God, You know my foolishness;
And my sins are not hidden from You.

I like this verse as acknowledges the writer’s own mistakes and faults. He acknowledges his own responsibility.

In this verse, the writer is acknowledging that God is aware of his faults and shortcomings. The use of the word “foolishness” suggests a sense of guilt and shame for the writer’s mistakes. The writer is also recognizing that his sins are not hidden from God, implying that God is aware of everything in his life, including his mistakes and failures.

This verse is a reminder that God is all-knowing and always present in our lives. It also highlights the importance of confessing our sins and seeking forgiveness from God, as we cannot hide anything from Him. This serves as a reminder of the importance of confessing our sins to God and seeking forgiveness.

This can be a source of comfort and encouragement, as we know that God loves us despite our faults and is always ready to forgive and offer grace.

The writer’s acknowledgement of his foolishness and sins can also serve as an example for us to acknowledge our own shortcomings and to seek forgiveness and redemption from God.

Confession is an important aspect of our relationship with God. It involves acknowledging our wrongdoings, repenting of our sins, and asking for forgiveness. By confessing our sins, we show our humility and willingness to turn away from our mistakes and towards God.

Through confession, we receive the gift of forgiveness from God and experience the healing and restoration of our relationship with Him. Confession also helps us to grow in our faith and to live a life that is pleasing to God.

1 John 1:9 – ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Proverbs 28:13 – ¹³ He who covers his sins will not prosper,
But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

Isaiah 29:15 – ¹⁵ Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord,
And their works are in the dark;
They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”

Psalm 32:1-7

¹ Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered.
² Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit.

³ When I kept silent, my bones grew old
Through my groaning all the day long.
⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah
⁵ I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I have not hidden.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

⁶ For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You
In a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters
They shall not come near him.
⁷ You are my hiding place;
You shall preserve me from trouble;
You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

Relating verse 5 to confession can remind us of the importance of confessing our sins and seeking forgiveness from God. It can also serve as an encouragement to rely on God’s grace and love, even when we have fallen short.

By relying on God’s grace and confessing our sins, we can find peace and healing in our relationship with Him.

By confessing our sins and seeking forgiveness, we can experience the joy and peace of a restored relationship with God.

Verse 6

⁶ Let not those who wait [Wait in faith] for You, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed because of me;
Let not those who seek You be confounded [dishonored] because of me, O God of Israel.

In this verse, the writer is expressing concern for the impact of his own troubles on others who trust in God.

He is afraid that his enemies’ success in oppressing him might cause others to lose faith in God.

He pleads with God not to let his own shame and dishonor reflect poorly on those who hope in God and seek His presence.

The writer is asking God to protect the reputation and faith of others, even as he himself is going through difficult times.

The verse highlights the importance of standing firm in faith, even when faced with adversity, and the fear that one’s own struggles may have a negative impact on others.

Let not those who wait [Wait in faith] for You, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed because of me

This phrase expresses the writer’s concern that his own troubles and difficulties might cause others to question their faith in God. The writer is afraid that his enemies’ success in oppressing him might lead others to believe that God is not powerful or faithful, and that their hope in Him is in vain.

The writer is asking God to protect the faith of others, even as he himself is facing opposition. He is recognizing that his own struggles can have an impact on those around him and he is pleading with God to spare others from shame or dishonor as a result of his troubles.

This verse is a reminder that our actions and experiences can affect others, and that we should strive to live in a way that honors God and encourages those around us to do the same.

It is also a call to rely on God’s grace and trust in His power, even when faced with adversity, and to seek His guidance and protection in our lives.

Let not those who seek You be confounded [dishonored] because of me, O God of Israel.

This phrase is a continuation of the writer’s request for God’s protection. The writer is concerned that his own difficulties might cause others who are seeking God to experience dishonor or shame.

This could be because they might see the writer’s struggles and conclude that God is not present or powerful, or because they themselves might be implicated in the writer’s troubles and be dishonored as a result.

The writer is asking God to protect those who are seeking Him, even as he himself is facing opposition. He is recognizing that his own struggles can have a negative impact on others and he is pleading with God to spare those who are seeking His presence from dishonor or shame as a result.

This verse highlights the importance of being mindful of the impact of our actions on others and of living in a way that honors God and reflects our faith. It is also a reminder of the power of prayer and the importance of seeking God’s guidance and protection in our lives.

By relying on God’s grace, we can find comfort and hope, even in the midst of difficulties and opposition.

How can I apply this to my life?

Here are some ways you can strengthen your faith and avoid bringing dishonor or shame to others as Psalm 69:6 implies:

1. Live a life of integrity: Strive to live a life that reflects your faith and honors God. Avoid engaging in behaviors or actions that could bring dishonor or shame to yourself or to others.
2. Be a positive influence: Seek to be a positive influence on those around you and demonstrate your faith through your words and actions. By doing so, you can encourage and inspire others in their faith journeys.
3. Seek accountability: Surround yourself with other believers who can provide support and encouragement, and who can hold you accountable in your faith journey. Having a community of faith can help you avoid behaviors or actions that could bring dishonor or shame to others.
4. Practice forgiveness: Forgive others and seek reconciliation when relationships are strained. Holding grudges or engaging in behavior that causes harm to others can bring dishonor or shame to both yourself and those around you.
5. Seek wisdom and guidance from God: Seek wisdom and guidance from God through prayer and reading the Bible. By doing so, you can grow in your understanding of His will for your life and avoid actions that could bring dishonor or shame to yourself or others.

By taking these steps, you can strengthen your faith and avoid bringing dishonor or shame to others.

Intro:

Though it isn’t normative that Psalms follow other Psalms in chronological order (from a linear perspective), Psalm 2 is connected with Psalm 1 in a couple of ways. One of those connections is in sharing the role of introducing the Psalms. 

• Psalm 1 provides two different “ways” for individuals (the way of the Godly and the way of the Ungodly, for example) 
• Psalm 2 seems to follow up with an application for nations. 

Psalm 2 is referred to as a “Royal” Psalm. Royal Psalms are those Psalms that speak to the reign of the king. Other examples of what are considered to be “Royal Psalms” in addition to Psalm 2 are Psalms 18, 20, 21, 45, 72, 89, 101, 110, 132, and 144). 

Another interesting note. Not only is Psalm 2 referred to as a “Royal” Psalm because of its subject matter but Psalm 2 is also considered a “Messianic” Psalm. A “Messianic” Psalm is often prophetic in nature because it’s one that points directly toward the coming Messiah. Psalms can be called Messianic when they have been directly referenced and expounded upon in the New Testament and point straight to Christ. Not all of the Psalms referenced in the New Testament are Messianic in nature but those that refer to Christ as Messiah are. This Psalm is in fact referenced in Acts (4:25-28, 13:33), Hebrews (1:5, 5:5), and Revelation (2:26-27, 12:5, 19:15) and on all those occasions, point to Christ. 

Since we are NEVER to wrestle a particular word, verse, chapter, or even Psalm from its context, we have to be be VERY careful to distinguish between the writer of the Psalm and the prophetic reference to Christ. It’s clear that some of the Psalms are focused entirely on our Lord while other Psalms obviously refer to the experience of that particular Psalmist where at some point in the Psalm, there’s an isolated reference to the Christ. Psalm 69 is a good example of this. When David writes, “O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you,” he’s obviously referring to himself (Ps. 69:5). But later when David continues with, “They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink” (Ps. 69:21), we know that this refers to our Lord as we read in Matthew 27:34 and again in Matthew 27:48. And this is the reason why it’s so important to make the distinction between the Psalmist and Christ. 

Another example of the distinction we have to make is that sometimes a whole Psalm references Christ (Psalm 22). But sometimes only a paragraph applies (Psalm 40:6-10). And then sometimes it’s just a few verses (Psalm 69:4, 9, and 21). And in the case of Psalm 41:9, it’s just a single verse.

Psalm 2:

1. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
2. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
3. “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

4. He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
5. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6. “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

7. I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 
8. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
9. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

10. No therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling./
12. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

We don’t know the (human) author of Psalm 2 for certain, but it’s long been considered to have been written by David (Acts 4:25-26). Looking at how Psalm 2 breaks down, we see that the 12 verses of Psalm 2 are divided into 4 stanzas, with 3 verses each. In the first 3 verses, we see man fighting against God. In the second 3 verses, we see God’s reaction to this rebellion. In the third set of verses, we see God’s decree. And then finally, the fourth set of 3 verses (verses 10-12), points to our responsibility in light of God’s rule.  

Verses 1 – 3:

Looking at these first verses, we see a picture of mankind’s depravity. “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”.”

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?” Why indeed do we fight against the Most High? What a hopeless thing to fight against God. A finite, carbon-based creation who depends upon God Himself for our next breath taking up “arms” against God. What an example of foolishness. It’s a vivid description of the nature of our fallen hearts towards Christ. 

In Acts 4:25-26, Luke DIRECTLY attributes this Psalm (the nations raging) against CHRIST as the Anointed One. Therefore the emphasis can be laid upon the Lord here. Luke specifically attributes the raging of Herod, the Pharisees, the Gentiles, and Pontius Pilate as a fulfillment of Psalm 2:1-2. Acts 4:27 he says, “…for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel…”. But this holds direct application to our lives as well because of how WE constantly rage against Him. This is something that we do on a DAILY BASIS. We rage against God when we value something else more than Him. That’s why this SIN is such an insult to God: Human beings prefer something else to God. We rage against Him constantly. We push Him out of school, from government buildings, out of public Nativity scenes at Christmas, etc. But what about our own hearts and minds? 

Maybe you consider yourself someone that’s been able to love the Lord perfectly, your whole life, every moment, of every day, worshiping Him as you should, loving Him as you should. But remember that the STANDARD OF GOD IS PERFECTION and none of us has achieved it. Our sin *IS* a rage against God, a plot in vain. That describes us all. Bad news if you aren’t in relationship with Christ, because God is Just. 

In Romans 1:22–23 Paul writes, “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images…”. We have all done this and we are all tempted to do this every, single, day. We all look at Him and His glory, and we say, “I am going to trade you for something that I really want right now”. We break the 1st Commandment when we do these things. Not a single one of us, not one, has ever at any time in our entire lives, for even one moment, loved God as we should (completely, perfectly) with all our hearts, souls, and minds (Matt 22:37). I would never suggest that we don’t enjoy “things”, hobbies, etc. On the contrary, many of our diversions have their place and many of them can be done in a way that glorifies God. The point is that these things are given in exchange for perfectly loving God. Our very sinful nature is irrational and vain. 

Also note from verse 3 that these “bonds”, these “cords” were not the bonds or cords of enslavement to some evil entity. In Hosea 11, verse 4 God says, “I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.”. That’s how twisted the human heart is: that God’s LOVE is confused for something to be cast off and hated.

Verse 4 – 6:

In verses 4, 5, & 6, we read the response of God to this rebellion, “[4] He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. [5] Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, [6] “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”. God’s position is the first thing we see. “He who sits in heaven”, a place of great power. He is high and lifted up, as Isaiah says. Exalted. A place so far ABOVE the ridiculousness, the evil, and the sinful mutinies of fallen man. The next thing we see the mocking laughter of the Most High God. You really don’t want to be the subject of Divine laughter and mocking contempt. 

Back in verse 3 we see a futile, empty challenge by man to God where they desire to throw off His rulership over them. And now here in Verse 6 we have God’s response. “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill”. 

Consider the three-fold nature of Christ’s Kingship: 

1. He is King over His enemies
2. He is King over us, the children of God
3. He is His Father’s King

Verses 7 – 9:

Verses 7, 8, and 9 we now read, “[7] I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. [8] Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. [9] You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”. The first part of that where it says, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you” is an expression of the privilege of the relationship with a prophetic eye toward the coming Messiah, which of course would be Jesus. This is quoted in Acts 13:32-33 saying, “[32] And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, [33] this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”. And later in Hebrews 1:5 saying, “[5] For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”?”. 

Verse 8 here speaks of Christ’s inheritance of all things that the Father ordained for Him. And with verse 9 we see reference to a rod of iron. It appears that the word used here for “rod” is the same word for both the Shepherd’s “rod” and the King’s “scepter” in the original Hebrew. This idea of Shepherding and Kingship are apparently intermixed in ancient philosophy. So we have a picture of the supreme sovereignty of Christ’s rule by way of both Leading and Ruling over all things. 

Verses 10 – 12:

Verses 10, 11, and 12 we read, “[10] Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. [11] Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. [12] Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”. In light of who Christ is let all men take heed. We are but dust particles before Him. Be wise. Don’t listen to your heart. Let us live in the counsel of God, let us listen to the Word of God. And the staggering reality is that God is, BY HIS VERY NATURE, a Savior. Instead of an immediate judgment, we see a chance for turning back to Him, a chance for repentance. Look at the commands that are placed on rebellious mankind: Be wise, Be warned, Serve the Lord, Rejoice with trembling, Kiss the Son. Amen. 

Intro:

Examining firstly the superscript above verse 1, where it says “To the Choirmaster; According To The Dove On Far-Off Terebinths. A Miktam Of David, When The Philistines Seized Him In Gath”. We know from our other studies in the Psalms that anytime we see the address, “To The Choirmaster”, we know that this was a Psalm used for temple worship. The second part where it says, “According to the dove on far-off terebinths”, is likely to have been a tune as in – this Psalm will be sung in the tune of such-and-such.

The next thing we see is that word “Miktam”. That’s one of the words lost to us today in terms of its meaning. Hebrew scholars have no idea, nobody knows. There are those who would speculate on the term Miktam and its meaning. Some say it could mean “golden”, some say other things.

The last part of that superscript is quite interesting because it gives us something of a clue as to what was happening when David composed this Psalm. Now it says, “when the Philistines seized him in Gath” – the most similar parallel we have is when David was in danger while in Gath after he had feigned madness before the king there, in order to get out of there alive. We find that account in 1 Samuel 21:10-15:

[1 Samuel 21:10-15]

[10]  And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath.

[11]  And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,

            ‘Saul has struck down his thousands,

            and David his ten thousands’?”

[12]  And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

[13]  So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.

[14]  Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me?

[15]  Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”

So that’s the possible parallel account. And even though that can give us a little bit of flavor to Psalm 56, we don’t actually know definitively that this was the occasion in which this Psalm was written. The superscript includes the term “seized by the Philistines” – or even “taken by the Philistines” in some translations. Most theologians and scholars seem to believe that this was the likely event which prompted this Psalm but I think it’s important to at least notate the fact that we don’t know with 100% certainty – only that it seems to fit.

Verses 1 – 4:

“Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?”. David of course begins his Psalm with a heartfelt prayer for God’s divine intervention on his behalf. It’s a common pattern within the Psalms to begin with a burden or a trouble. It’s a common pattern in our own prayers. It frames the rest of the prayer, or in this case Psalm, but thankfully it doesn’t end with it.

Fear does NOT equal faithlessness. Fear is common to all of us, at one time or another. Maybe we rationalize our fear, maybe we repeat mantras of positivity to ourselves in an attempt to flat out deny our fear. But the reality is that at one time or another, sooner or later, all experience fear. And here’s why:

Fear is really a gift from God when you think about it. Why? Fear serves to keep us from doing remarkably stupid things: it alerts us to danger, it causes us to take precautions, and it causes us to take action in aid of self-preservation. If indeed the account given to us in 1 Samuel 21:10-15 is the prompt for him to have written this Psalm, then we can deduce that it was the natural, God-given fear response that alerted him to the reality of the grave danger he was in that caused his brain to race to find a solution – which was to act like a crazy person in order to bounce out of there to safety. So fear is a good thing in that sense. Fear is a natural emotion that God has given us to help keep us safe.

It’s not a sin to fear though some people believe that. Some assume it’s sinful to have that emotion because they believe it somehow indicates a lack of faith or trust in God. We just saw David say in Verse 3, “WHEN I am afraid, I will put my trust in you”. So the key word there is “WHEN”. David acknowledges that at times he has fear, that indeed his natural reaction is panic. So that should encourage us in a sense that fear is not the measuring stick for our level of faith or trust in God. The measuring stick is our RESPONSE to the fear we feel, it’s what we DO with that fear. Using myself as an example, I think back to a time as a kid, out walking with my dad in the neighborhood. I remember that I was starting to get ahead of him and pretty soon, I found myself walking near a fenced yard that housed a mean dog. And when it began to bare its teeth and snarl at me, I immediately ran back to dad. I felt fear but my RESPONSE was to immediately run back to dad. It’s much the same with our heavenly Father. It wasn’t sinful that I experienced fear. Actually, the fear I felt when the dog began snapping at me through the fence wasn’t even an indication of a lack of faith in my father’s ability to protect me. Putting our trust in God when we DO feel fear doesn’t negate the fact that at times, we WILL feel fear, it means that when we DO feel fear, it is TO God that we run. And we can trust Him to come through for us, according to His will. Bear in mind too, that this was David, the same one who killed the lion and the bear as a young man, a gifted soldier on the battlefield, a war-hardened veteran and yet HE never denies that he feels fear. It was a question of his response to it.

David expresses his trust in God during times of grave danger. “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?”. We are always to put our trust in God, no matter what evil comes, no matter when we are afraid. A question:

1. What is it about God that we can trust?
2. Who He is. His nature & character. God is, by His very essence, a Savior.
3. His promises. Here are just a few:

Joshua 1:9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Matthew 6:34, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Isaiah 43:1, “…Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”

Romans 8:38-39, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

There is no fear that God can’t deliver us from. God will either remove the thing we fear or He will remove our fear from the thing or situation. If you are indeed in Christ, that if you have been made regenerate by way of the Holy Spirit, and you have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, then you have been foreknown to your heavenly Father since before He even placed the Sun in the sky. He knew you BY NAME. He cares more for you than you can even fathom in your carbon-based mind. He did not redeem you to bring you into fellowship with Him only to forget you in your trouble. So fear not, He is with you!

Verses 5 & 6:

In verses 5 & 6, we see a description of David’s enemies. David writes, “All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life.”. They sneak around, they gossip and lie, they slander and talk behind the backs of others, intending to cause division and strife and pain. They’re great at finding the problems and failings of others. Their sin always looks worse on someone else. But what of us? Does our sin look worse on others? Or are we truly the worst sinner we’ve ever met? Serious question: does the Lord point and laugh at us when we fall? Does the Lord LIVE to criticise us or question our hearts? So what’s our excuse? Whenever you begin a sentence with, “I heard…” or start a question with “Hey, did you hear about…?”, watch out.

Verses 7 – 9:

Continuing into verses 7, 8, and 9 we see David’s expression of confidence that those who came against him would not escape by way of their iniquity. David writes, “For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God! You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know: that God is for me.”.

Here’s a profound truth that we can suss out from this text:

• FROM wickedness and iniquity and sin, there IS escape
• THROUGH wickedness and iniquity and sin there is NO escape: the mercy of God secures the escape of the one and the justice of God prevents the escape of the other.

Verse 8 tells us that even if we wander, that God’s mercies extend to that. We are often so beset by our troubles and our fears that we have no idea where we are. We lose all of our focus, we lose our grounding, our horizon. Fortunately we only have to call upon our Lord Jesus who is All-Present to return to His safety whenever we have wandered off course because of all the troubles and fear we sometimes face. That’s a mercy.

What about the tender mercy where even our tears are counted. He knows our sorrow, He knows the fragility of our hearts, He knows our frame – after all He made us BY HAND. And let us never forget His covenantal mercies. Those mercies extended to us because we belong to Him. We have been paid for with a price, therefore we are His and He is ours. Amazing!

Verses 10 – 13:

Finally in Verses 10-13, David writes, “In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.”.

Remember that these things were written for our admonition. Just like David, I will praise God FOR His word because IN His word He is revealed and BY His word He will uphold me. Our thanksgiving is so often focused on the temporal, material things we’ve been given. I’m totally guilty of that. Notice the juxtaposition in verse 13 where David commemorates what the Lord has done for him in the PAST saying “For you HAVE delivered my soul” with what God will do for him in the FUTURE where David writes, “That I MAY walk before God in the light of life”. Let’s meditate on what He HAS done for us YESTERDAY, His past deliverances and His past rescues, and then use that to soothe our anxieties about what God is capable of doing TODAY as well as TOMORROW.

Intro:

Whenever we look at a letter, or a book, or a particular verse, or in this case a Psalm, we always want to begin to ask some rudimentary questions at the outset and sort of interrogate the text to see if we can suss out the context and set the stage, right? So, for example, some of the questions we might ask are who wrote it? Why was it written? To whom was it written to? What’s the author talking about? And why is he saying it THAT way? Is there something in the text that gives us a clue as to the timeframe in which it was written or what was happening when it was composed? Why is this Psalm in the bible? If it’s a theme that’s repeated throughout scripture, WHY is it repeated? Etc.

Some questions:

• Who wrote it? David – the superscript above verse 1 tells us as much.
• What’s a Miktam? A word whose meaning is lost to us however, there are 5 other Psalms that include that titling (Psalms 56, 57, 58, 59, & 60).
• What’s the thrust of this Psalm? This is (chiefly) a Psalm of protection.

Point of interest:

• Even though it was written primarily about David’s own experience, the book of Acts records a sermon that Peter gave at Pentecost where he references this Psalm and says that this Psalm refers to Christ (rather than to David) which is to say that it was written by David but points to the Messiah.

So how do we read & interpret this Psalm? Should we do so as it was during David’s time? Or do we read it (as Peter suggests) with Christ in view. The answer is really both. And the reason is that the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is an unfolding revelation of the Person and Work of Christ – it all points to our Lord Jesus. But for this study, we will mainly focus on the original Davidic interpretation.

Verse 1:

Verse 1 begins with a prayer and a plea for protection. “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge…”. David KNOWS that God is his refuge. The application point for us is this: that no matter what comes, let us, JUST LIKE DAVID, settle our hearts in our reassurance in the favor of our God. Let us always remember that though we may seem to be all alone, we are not so. God IS our refuge, an ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1). When we resolve to trust Him and Him alone for our redemption and rescue. David knew that. We might rattle and roll, but the Rock upon which we stand will NEVER move.

Verse 2-3:

In the first part of Verse 2 we read, “I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord…”. There’s a sense of “ownership” there. David takes possession of his relationship with the Lord; he has submitted and committed himself to Divine authority and in saying “You are my Lord”, he swears off any self-righteousness by that declaration. It’s actually one of the evidences of true faith: he declares his allegiance to the Almighty and in so doing, forsakes any notion of being able to justify himself in the eyes of the Lord in the matter of salvation.

And then of course he continues with the 2nd part of verse 2 saying, “I have no good apart from you.”. God is David’s ultimate treasure, his greatest and most profound joy. Everything David had was only good by virtue of them being from God AND most importantly, gave him more OF God.

Moving into Verse 3, David begins to underscore and emphasize the value of God’s goodness in him by looking at how David sees godly people. David writes “As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”. Speaking of those who treasure God, who value righteousness, and holiness, David finds his delight in them. They are not his greatest treasure apart from God of course; he just seems to be saying that he delights in the godly which is in contrast with David’s displeasure and disgust with the ungodly. In other words, with regard to people, no one gives him pleasure and delight quite like the godly do.

In a sense, when you look upon other believers, we actually look upon a miracle in the making. We are surrounded by the mysterious regenerative atoning work of Christ in the hearts of sinners. And this extends to eternity to the heritage that we who are in Christ all have. The permanence of our familial bond as the body of Christ. I’m personally convinced that in heaven, we will see every other believer as though they were our best friend in the world.

Verse 4:

And now here in Verse 4 we come to a more somber note regarding the sorrows of idolatry. David writes, “The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.”. We as Christians tend to think of idolatry in terms of other gods or belief systems. But consider that when we set up something in our hearts above God, when something occupies our hearts over Christ, we are guilty of idolatry. We as humans were created for worship. But because of our own depravity, we find ourselves worshiping others (and ourselves). The thing which captures our hearts is what we worship. If I’m being honest, I do this all the time. Hobbies for example. There is a time and place for hobbies, to be sure. But I find myself dedicating way too much time to them. Inordinate amounts of time to the peril of further study in the Word. To the peril of more time in prayer. To the peril of the affections of my heart. That’s idolatry. It’s one of the reasons that social media can be so dangerous to our souls. We feed on that which doesn’t satisfy our souls, and then we chew on that which stunts our growth in the Lord.

We have a duty to separate ourselves from the sin of this world and its influences in not only life but in words too. I’ll use myself as yet another sad example: I’m guilty of using coarse language, I watch movies that don’t edify my soul, and I sometimes listen to music that’s questionable in its morality. And even struggling with those things can become idols. You might say for instance, “Well, if i can just get my tongue under control”. And so that becomes the pet sin. And we make a mountain out of it. And we begin to sneakily set that struggle up as an idol. So the focus is on the struggle and not the grace with which we have been given IN our struggles. And how foolish we are to abandon our all-satisfying Lord for idols. Those things we set up in our hearts, those things we secretly worship can all become great temples. And when the storms of life and the earthquakes of our experiences come, those temples we set up can come crumbling down around us and bury in their rubble, imprisoning us and becoming our tombs.

Verse 5:

Leaving our reflections on idolatry in Verse 5 here, David emphasizes and effectively repeats what he said in Verse 2. He writes, “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.”. Back in verse 2 he said, “You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you”, and here he underscores that. David knows that nothing can satisfy his soul but the sweetness of God Himself. You might have read about David’s life. You’ll know that he’s certainly made some errors along the way and has chosen other things over God at times in his life. So either this Psalm was written the day before David died or (more likely) it points to the fact that because we have all fallen and there is none good among us, that it is our regenerated hearts; our new affections towards Christ that testify to the same truth.

And I think that this also speaks of our future, final satisfaction in Christ when we are glorified in His presence in Heaven. He is our greatest good. David uses the wording “you hold my lot”. God holds David in the hollow of His hand. And the same goes for us who are in Christ. Consider that even at this very moment, our Lord Jesus, is making intercession on our behalf before the Father. THANK GOD that our salvation does NOT depend on our ability to hold on to Him; it depends on His ability to hold on to US. God’s word is FULL of promises that He will preserve and keep us.

Verse 6:

David continues rejoicing when he writes, “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”. The wording there of “the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places” is not entirely understood. It certainly could mean that it speaks of borders or boundaries (as in “land”). But it’s likely that the wording has less to do with the literal and more to do with the figurative and here’s why. The word used there for “pleasant places” is from the Hebrew word for “pleasures”. And this very same word is used later, in Verse 11 in fact, to describe the pleasures to be found  at the right hand of God forevermore. That God IS his inheritance. God IS his ultimate treasure. And the same goes for us. But let us never forget that because God is Sovereign, He ordains all things for His glorious purposes and for our benefit. It’s been said so many times before from this pulpit: don’t pray so much to get out of a trial; rather, pray that we get everything out of a trial. That we learn everything we are to know. To see everything that God has intended we see. And through it all, remembering that He is truly our inheritance. To see the heritage that we share in Him for eternity. The heritage we share with other believers in the greater body of Christ. The witness of the Holy Spirit in us, doing a work of sanctification. Causing us to become more and more like Him. What an inheritance we have whereby we are recipients of God’s favor. A favor that is straight from the hand of our Father in heaven, in the blood of Christ, by way of the Holy Spirit, through His Word.

Consider how unimaginably fortunate we are that we live in this country. We now live at the apex of human achievement (in terms of information, medicine, tech, etc. And so often we pursue things which will never satisfy us. The contrast between a 1st Century Christian and a Christian in 2021 is astonishing.

Verse 7:

David writes “I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.”. So God isn’t just a refuge by way of His providence. Here David suggests that God is his refuge by way of instruction, by way of counsel. He is certainly the provider of our refuge spiritually, but He is also our refuge by way of His instruction on how to find safety in Him. He instructs us to walk in the way of Life and not death. His word is a guidepost to us in the darkness. And that leads us to our refuge IN Him.

God is our treasure in matters of His wise counsel, His wise instruction, His words of Life, and His many encouragements to us in the dark. His counsel is always a salve to our hungry souls. His guidance and counsel is always good and can always be trusted because they lead us to refuge in Him. God is sovereign and He doesn’t “need” any of us to accomplish His will. In other words, He can do whatever He wills without our permission. Yet God has voluntarily chosen to use us as a means for exercising His power. Sometimes, through encouragement we have received, through the Word He has given us, the counsel He gives us, we can then allow that to manifest in our daily walk in the lives of those around us. And in so doing, effectively we become an instrument of His power.

Verse 8-10:

Coming now to Verse 8 and we see David effectively saying, “Because of the truth of God that I just declared in the previous 7 verses, I will use that to stand firm for what’s to come”. Verse 8 David writes, “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”. David declares that he will stand firm because of Who God is. “I am now confident that I will be preserved…” he says. He moves from fear to certainty. By standing on what he knew to be true about God, he shaped his petition into a declarative prayer of strength and NOW no longer asks God to preserve him – he now says God WILL preserve him.  BECAUSE of these things, David won’t be moved. He won’t be shaken. Having a sense of the presence of God in our lives AND standing upon what we know to be true about Him (as He has revealed Himself in His word to us of course) provides us our best support. We have the same confidence – we too, right along with David can say, “I will not be moved. I will not be shaken. I will be preserved”.

Verse 9 & 10:

Finally in Verse 9, we come to these words, “Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.”. With God’s preserving power now at hand, we can see why David’s whole being rejoices. He then says something interesting: “…my flesh also dwells secure”. Could it be that David feared for his life? When you take that with the following verse (verse 10) which reads, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.”, it’s entirely possible. If so, tat means that the joy of Verse 9 is based on the confidence in Verse 8. David is certain that all that God has been for him (his refuge, his treasure, etc) will be those things for him FOREVER. Death doesn’t negate these truths that David came to know. Death is not the end of our relationship with God – on the contrary, God is the God of the living, not the dead.

David finishes Psalm 16 in Verse 11 with these words, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”. Fullness of joy in perpetuity. That the way of life through death that God shows us this: “in your presence there is FULLNESS of joy; pleasures FOREVERMORE”. Fullness. Forever. Not even death will keep us from the fullness of joy in the presence of our Lord, the beautiful eternal pleasures at His right hand.

Intro:

Normally, we want some background/history when possible for flavor/context for the text.

• A Psalm of David
• This Psalm is addressed to the Choirmaster (a Psalm used in temple worship)
• This Psalm is laid out in a 2-2-2 configuration. ie, separated by grouped pairs of verses

Verses 1 & 2:

All start with David’s mournful inquiries of the Lord asking, “How long…?”. Whatever he’s going through must have been the source of such anxiety, anguish, and despair. And it must have been borne of the knowledge that David knew that at any moment, God could end this trial. But He doesn’t. Instead, God chooses to allow David to stay right where he’s at. And that begs the bigger question:

• WHY? If God could deliver David in a moment, with the snap of His finger, why does he allow David to continue in his suffering to the point of David asking “How long…?” 4 different times in the first 2 verses?

Our exhortation: Stand on what we know to be true about God and then to use THAT to judge our circumstances.

Therefore, let’s ask some questions about who God actually is with regard to His nature and character:

• Is God impotent?
  • No. His word assures us that He is All-Powerful.
• Is God uncaring and distant?
  • No. His word assures us that we who are IN Christ are His adopted children THROUGH Christ and that if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us.
• Is God unable to move?
  • No. Scripture affirms that God is not only Sovereign over all His creation but that He is Supreme. He does what He wills and doesn’t do what He doesn’t will.
• Does God require something from us first?
• No. Scripture affirms repeatedly that God is Self-Reliant and dependent on NO MAN.
  • Doesn’t He require faith from us?
    • How much faith did Lazaurus have when Christ raised him from the dead? God often intervenes when we have no faith at all. He even intervenes in the lives of those that hate Him. Where’s their faith? Surprise: faith isn’t an activator of God’s providence over your life. God’s word in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in Chapter 2, Verse 8 clearly teaches us that faith is a GIFT. So faith comes from God. Our faith doesn’t even originate with us. It’s a gift. Why? So that NO MAN MAY BOAST. God is not a genie. He’s not a Cosmic ATM machine in the sky. God is moved by NO man. He moves according to His own will, when He decrees to move and He can never make a mistake. He can never be wrong. He can never mess up the timing of things.
• Does God even know what’s going on in my life?
  • Yes. His word declares that God is All-Knowing. Nothing can escape His knowledge.
• Does He need us to “plant a seed”?
  • No! The God of scripture doesn’t NEED anything FROM you to move. He doesn’t NEED any of us at all for anything! All things depend ON God and yet He is dependent on nothing.
• With regard to prayer, if God is sovereign, then why even pray?
  • First: We are commanded to pray. So that part involves obedience.
  • Second: God has created and ordained certain means to accomplish His will. And one of those means is prayer. He has chosen to use our prayers as one of the means by which He accomplishes His will.
    • He doesn’t NEED our prayer. But He has chosen, according to His own will, to involve you and I THROUGH prayer, to establish His will. If we fail to pray, God will prompt other believers to pray. And God’s will is accomplished.
• Third: Sincere communication with our heavenly Father. By participating in prayer, we are participating in a very intimate aspect of our relationship with Him.

Sometimes God seems distant and sometimes He leaves us with nothing more than the knowledge of Who He is to support our faith. Let every one of us trust in the Word of our God and NOT in what we can see with our eyes.

Many of us have all sorts of reasons to disbelieve God based only on what we see with our eyes. But let us always refuse, and say, “No!”. “I will not believe what I see. I will believe what my God has said”. “I will trust in the nature and the character of my God”. He can safely be relied on.

We all feel abandoned from time to time. And because we DO sometimes, God provides encouragement from His word through it. It’s why we GO through the Psalms.

Verses 3 & 4:

Next pair of verses, David prays, “[3] Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, [4] lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.”. This isn’t a rote, mechanical prayer to a disaffected deity in the sky. This wording shows us not only the relationship between David and God but also David’s ownership of his relationship with God.

David goes on, “…light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death…”. He needs to see God in the darkness that surrounds him. And then having seen the light of God IN the darkness, David is assured that God is his guiding light THROUGH the darkness.

• A story about an Afghani pastor and his congregation.
  • Singing the final verse of a worship song
  • An Afghani brother whispered in his ear that the Afghan President had just resigned and that the Taliban were now in control.
  • They sang these words: “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still; His kingdom is forever”. (“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”, a hymn).

Verses 5 & 6:

“[5] But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. [6] I will sing to the LORD, because He has dealt bountifully with me.”. “I DON’T understand – but I trust You anyway! I choose to stand on what I know to be true about YOU God, in order to make sense of my situation. My heart SHALL rejoice in your salvation”. What a change in heart.

We see David’s trust in action:

• David’s declaration OF trust in God is based on WHO GOD IS. The only thing certain IS God. The only thing certain ARE His promises. (Romans 3:4) “Let every man be a liar but let God’s word be true”, right?
  • God has promised to preserve us. So hang on. Just wait.
• David says in Verse 6 that God has dealt bountifully with him. We don’t deserve what provisions that God has given us. God HAS dealt bountifully with us – what is the basis for our complaint?
  • We certainly don’t deserve salvation.
    • We deserve His Justice. But we got His Mercy.
    • Christ deserved Mercy but what He got was God’s Justice in our place.

Stand on the truth of WHO GOD IS to be your hope in your trial. “I don’t understand – but I trust You anyway!”.

Verses 1-3:

This is a Psalm that we ought to study, pray, and take before the Lord. Every single one of us is in this Psalm.

We acknowledge:

• This is a Psalm of David
• This Psalm is addressed to the Choirmaster (so we can know this is a Psalm that was used in temple worship)
• We don’t know the occasion for why David composed this Psalm but there is speculation that it was written when David was on the run after Jonathan had warned him that Saul was coming for him; perhaps after David had heard what Saul did to Abimelech and the Priests at the city of Nob. We don’t know.

3 things I think we will see as we make our way through Psalm 11:

1. That we walk by faith; not by sight.
2. We can crush fear with the truth of Who God is.
3. A deeper understanding of the attributes of God is the greatest defense against the fear caused by what we see with our eyes.

I think we can see WHY this was a Psalm used in worship.  We can readily see that the first part is written something like a rebuke to fear and then becomes this incredible song of strength in the Lord. In the first 3 verses, David repeats back either what was said to him or he was simply reflecting the panic in the heart or hearts of those who uttered what David wrote. David declares in verse 1, “In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul…”? He essentially asks, “How dare you tell me that I should act otherwise and run in fear?”. We are often reminded from this very pulpit that we are wise to start with what we know to be true about God and then use THAT to judge our circumstances. That’s the basis for our reliance on the Lord. That He is Who He says He is and He does what He says He will do. Why does it take seemingly our whole lives to learn that? Unless you’re a very new Christian, you should be able to look back at myriad examples over the years of when the Lord came through for you. All sorts of examples of God’s Providence in your life.

David rejects the cry to cut & run. It wasn’t necessarily BAD advice – but it was FEARFUL advice. I think most of us can relate to that. Oftentimes, walking in faith flies in the face of human wisdom. Faith rarely “makes sense” in the human sense. It doesn’t make any “sense” that God would have Pastor Dale and Denise get married after only 10 days, never having seen each other. Faith doesn’t make “natural” sense. We can think of so many examples in our own lives & from scripture. Faith rarely makes sense in the world’s eyes – it rarely makes sense in our OWN eyes and we have the inner witness of the Holy Spirit who GIVES us the faith that we’re talking about.

When I was 21 years old, I had no real, biblical understanding of who God was. It was easy to see why: I wasn’t in His word. A few rhetorical questions to see my ignorance of Him:

• Is God bored?
• Is God malicious?
• Does God enjoy inflicting pain?
• Is God twisted?

Does that describe the God of the Bible? Of course not! But that’s who I thought God was based on what was happening in my life. I was so convinced that God was out to torture me, that I ended up putting the barrel of a loaded shotgun in my mouth to end it all. About to make a terrible, final mistake. But in the end God SHOWED ME WHO HE ACTUALLY WAS.

But what if I had truly understood WHO GOD WAS in those days, as He revealed Himself in His word? What if I DID stand upon what WAS true about the Lord, and then used THAT to judge my circumstances? I would have judged the situation MUCH differently and I wouldn’t have put a gun in my mouth. So I would encourage you today to be JUST AS SINCERE in knowing Who God REALLY is, as He has revealed Himself in scripture. Because just like a FAULTY understanding of the truth of Who God is almost cost me my life, a Biblical understanding of the truth of Who God is will save your life.

Verse 4-7:

David continues, “(4) The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. (5) The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. (6) Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. (7) For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.”. It’s as though David is saying “Oh you want me to be afraid? YOU be afraid! “The Lord is on the Throne!”. Oh you want me to be reasonable and open my eyes to the dangers around me and make the smart choice to hide? YOU go hide! “The Lord is in heaven, He is in control, and He sees all.”.

David declares that the Lord tests His children (the “righteous”). But then David quickly instructs his listeners that God HATES the wicked. God TESTS the righteous but He HATES the wicked. Let’s define terms real quick: in the Old Testament times, the righteous were those seen as having right-standing with God. The wicked obviously were not. So when God sends calamity for example, it’s different for us as God’s kids. We who are in Christ are to understand that we are being sanctified, not judged. We’re kept from judgement because Christ was already judged in our place. God doesn’t judge sin twice. It was paid for at Calvary. When God forgives us, our sins are gone forever. And until the day that God violates His nature and decides to change, our sins never return to the mind of God who has pardoned us. But for the unrepentant, God’s wrath is still very much upon them. God’s love certainly IS extended to those who are lost – dead in trespasses and sin. I mean, how else do you explain our own salvation? While we were yet sinners, while we were still enemies of God, He loved us and died in our place that WE may live. But for the unrepentant sinner, only the Wrath of God is available to them in eternity.

A word on God “testing” the righteous: God “tests” us but not for His benefit. That is to say, not for HIS diagnostic purposes, not for HIS knowledge but for our OWN. The test is really OURS. Testing will come but we in Christ have right-standing with God. The world does not. Ergo, God’s hand upon us is a little different than God’s hand upon the world and it’s system.

Look at all the fear that gripped the world over COVID. Is COVID real? Of course. Do people die from it? Yes. But what’s my response to that fear? We cannot trust circumstances and situations in the natural by what we see. We can’t have faith when we’re walking by sight. Even in the secular world, when it comes to crime for example, eyewitness testimony is UNRELIABLE. STOP RELYING ON WHAT YOU SEE! In the courtroom of man, eyewitness testimony is unreliable. In the courtroom of GOD, what you see with your natural eyes is UNRELIABLE! Why else are we repeatedly admonished in scripture to walk by faith, NOT BY SIGHT? Because our eyes CONSTANTLY deceive us as to the truth of God.

This Psalm is about developing confidence in the Lord based on the truth about Him as revealed in Scripture. This passage shows us how to stand on what we know to be true about God and thereby walk in faith while we are assailed by what is happening (or appears to be happening) in the natural when we walk by sight. This is a remedy for that.

So, in conclusion:

1. Walk by faith

How do we do that?

2. Stand upon the truth of the Lord

How do we do that?

3. Declare what God reveals about Himself in His word as a defense against our fear in the circumstance

What happens as a result of doing those 3 things?

4. We crush our fears under the weight of the truth of our Father’s Word!

Intro:

It’s probably difficult for Christians to connect the Psalms with the teachings of the New Testament. And I think that’s because of the lack of understanding of one very simple truth: and that is this: that the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation is one complete story, written by the same Author (Divinely speaking). The Bible, in its entirety, in it’s chronology, is the unfolding revelation of God’s plan of redemption through the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. The whole bible points to Christ. And when you realize that, you can’t help but to see Christ revealed across the pages of scripture. Including the Psalms. In fact, what fascinates me personally most about the Psalms is actually seeing Christ revealed in them. And I’m not just talking about the obvious Messianic references that we see for example in Psalm 2 and many, many others. I’m talking about all the shades and shadows of Christ that are revealed.

Many of the Psalms contain doctrinal truths. Not all of them, but certainly many do. The scriptural concept of doctrine includes the ENTIRE message about God, about God’s salvation, about our depravity and the nature of sin, and about righteousness. So what IS doctrine? One definition gives doctrine as this: teaching that is FROM God, ABOUT God, and that directs us TO THE GLORY of God. Doctrine is a means to an end. And what is that end? GREATER AND GREATER DEGREES OF WORSHIP of our Lord! Because if doctrine doesn’t cause us to behold the astonishing, earth-shattering, MAJESTY of Christ Himself, then we’re left with nothing but dry, lifeless, rote religion.

And even with all that talk of doctrine, particularly when it comes TO the Psalms, there’s another thing to consider and that is this: that even though the Psalms very often highlight some profound doctrinal truths, and they certainly DO, the reality is that they don’t have to be read with an eye that looks for doctrine at all. Remember, the Psalms are meant to stir us, to move us, to TRANSform us, not just to INform us. The Psalms are meant to help us, to guide and shape our emotions.

We are ALL emotional creatures. We all feel anger, sadness, fear, grief, injustice, isolation, resentment, in varying degrees, at one time or another. You can ALWAYS find yourself in the Psalms, no matter what you’re going through or what you’re dealing with; you can always be found there.

The Psalms, perhaps more so than any other book in the Bible, are designed to take hold of our emotions and to mold and shape our emotions. They’re like a pressure valve for our emotions. And the Psalms change them and keep them in check and free them up and magnify them and mortify them, where they need to be mortified. The Psalms are such an amazing gift to us as Christians, as the body of Christ.

Here’s another way to look at the Psalms as they relate to our own walk with Christ: we as born-again Christians are not made perfect. At least not here on earth. We, who are in Christ, are actually new, we are actually spiritual, but in a lot of ways we’re still immature – much like newborn babies. And so the question for us is this: How do our new minds and our new hearts – full of all of the imperfection in our thinking and imperfection in how we feel – walk towards righteousness and walk in affection towards Christ? And one of the main answers of the early church was to saturate and immerse themselves in the Psalms.

And we can see that in Scripture. The book of Psalms is the most often-quoted Old Testament book in the New Testament. It was the book of poetry, it was the hymnal. Psalms, alongside the teachings of our Lord and the Apostles, was the book that molded the thinking and affections of the disciples more than any other. And so I encourage you to look at the Psalms afresh. Meditate on them. Pray them. Sure, we see history in some of them. But more than mere information, we find the possibility of transformation in them.

PSALM 8:

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.

[1] O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

[2] Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

[3] When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

[4] what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

[5] Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

[6] You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,

[7] all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,

[8] the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

[9] O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Verse 1(a):

Now one of the first things we notice right off the bat is this strange word, “Gittith”. A couple of weeks ago in Psalm 6 you may remember we saw the word “Sheminith”, last week we saw the word “Shiggaion”, and this week we now see the word “Gittith”. What’s a “Gittith”? Well, as in the past couple of Psalms we looked at, we have another word here in the superscript that we are really unsure of. Another word that seems to be lost to time. However, many scholars seem to think that a Gittith was either some sort of stringed instrument, perhaps invented in Gath or perhaps even a song sung over Goliath, the champion of Gath, after David had killed him. Ultimately, we’re just not sure. There are only 2 other Psalms that we find this peculiar word and those are Psalm 82 and Psalm 84 both of which, as in the case here of Psalm 8, are songs of joy and praise.

Now, one way to see this Psalm in addition to the very clear and obvious exaltation of God’s greatness is as an allusion to Christ. An allusion is an indirect reference designed to call attention to something else where the listener or reader has to make the direct connection in his or her mind. For example, someone might say “It must have rained for 40 days and 40 nights”. The mention of the 40 days and 40 nights would cause a person to conjure up the story of the flood and the Ark and then that brings to mind the sheer amount of rain that must be falling and therefore hammers the point home. So we’ll also look at the allusion to Christ as a parallel as we work our way through Psalm 8.

Now what’s really cool though is that looking at the first verse here of Psalm 8, we see that it’s immediately bookended at the front-end by the same praise that we see this Psalm bookended by at the back by, which is, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”.

Firstly, and most importantly, this Psalm is an exaltation and praise of God’s greatness. Greatness in His Name, greatness in His earthly work of creation, greatness in His consideration of man, greatness in His handiwork in the heavens, etc. The main, overarching thought in David’s words is the greatness OF God revealed BY God in nature and furthermore, that the utter “smallness” of mankind makes the revelation of God so great. God is to be glorified because He has revealed Himself to us.

Note also, that the first expression of the word “LORD”, the one in all caps here in verse 1 is not translated “Lord” in the original Hebrew. It’s a translation of the name “Yahweh” which is not the generic name for God. This personal name refers to the nature of God being the One who always was, the One who is, and the One who will always be. He didn’t come into existence, He will never go out of existence, and He will never change in His existence. He depends on absolutely NOTHING for His existence and yet everything else depends on Him. He sustains all things everywhere, He is above all things, He is the foundation of all things and the ultimate end of all things. He is more wonderful and He is more grandiose than everything. So we can read that beautiful first verse as “O Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth”.

David addresses God using the wording, “O LORD, our Lord” which makes sense for us because if we believe in fact that God is Lord, and we who are in Christ belong to the Lord, then we can surely shout right along with David that He is OUR Lord! And He IS ours; He made us, He keeps us, He protects us, He provides for us, He disciplines us, He takes special care of us, He preserves us, etc. And if God indeed be ours, then we are to submit to Him and to be bound TO Him and to obey His word. Look, if we belong to God through Christ, then we truly do BELONG to Him. In Christ, we actually belong to Him. Our lives are not our own. We have been paid for with a price. He owns us. That’s one of the great comforts of our salvation. That you belong to Him. NOTHING can snatch you from His hand.

And we can’t just rely on the affections of our hearts to do that. Our feelings and our hearts deceive us all the time. The Lord tells us through the prophet Jeremiah that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” [Jer. 17:9]. We have to rely on the TRUTH of things. And how do we rely on the TRUTH of things? Well, we spend time in God’s word. We sit under solid teaching. We fellowship with other believers. We spend time on our knees in prayer. We grow in our knowledge of WHO GOD IS. Most of us are so prone to look at our circumstances and create a false impression of who God is based on them. And in so doing, our faith in who God ACTUALLY is becomes diminished, His utter majesty in our hearts becomes dull, and then we go limping through life almost totally defeated. And so the great remedy is to use what we know to be true about God as revealed BY God in His word to judge our circumstances. Then by doing that, we begin to stand on objective truth rather than relying on the subjective experience of our fleeting and deceptive emotions.

Verse 1(b) & 2:

Now David expresses exuberance in God’s majesty in all creation. When we examine the last sentence of verse 1 and then look at verse 2, we begin to see this incredible contrast. Verse 1(b) we read this, “You have set your glory above the heavens.”. And in verse 2 David then writes, “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.”. The contrast is this: In verse 1(b), we see how highly God is exalted above everything else in creation. No one is greater, no one is a match for Him, no one is as wise, no one is as mighty, no one is as powerful. And then a stark and powerful contrast: we see infants.

But why? Newborns are fragile, they are weak, they depend entirely on their parents. Why does David include them in his song to God? Because They.Defeat.The.Enemies.Of.God. How can THAT be? Because of Who.God.Is. Though high and lifted up, though His majesty knows no bounds, though He is greater than all things, though He is dependent on nothing, because of Who He is, He causes BABIES to be the means of His glorious victories. Amazing. God has adversaries, right? He isn’t threatened by them; He could literally un-make them. But He doesn’t. Why? Because He chooses to defeat His enemies through BABIES. And there’s the answer. That God conquers His enemies using the very weakest of all weak things; babies.

Consider that Jesus Himself quoted Psalm 8, verse 2 in Matthew 21 (verse 16) after He had cleared the temple of money changers and after He had healed the blind and the lame. In that account, the chief priests and scribes were seeing the miracles that Jesus did and then heard the children crying out, “Hosanna to the Son of David”, they couldn’t believe what they were hearing. So they said to Jesus, “Do you hear what they’re saying?” to which Jesus replied by quoting the Greek version of Psalm 8:2 saying, “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise”. Now in the Hebrew version, the one we are looking at this morning, we read “out of the mouth of infants…you have established strength”.

So why did Jesus even cite this Psalm in the first place? Our Lord Jesus, King of Kings, rode on a donkey. And the victorious shout came from the mouths of babes. All the way to Cross, the Priesthood of Jesus, the Power and the Kingship of Jesus would be victorious in weakness.

But another thing happened when Jesus quoted Psalm 8:2. See, the meaning of the Greek version of Psalm 2 is obviously praise to God. Those kids were singing, “Hosanna to the Son of David”. That praise was directed towards JESUS! And those priests and those scribes knew it. God is being praised by these young kids. When the children are praising God while directing it at Jesus, they are praising Jesus as God. Because that’s Who He is.

Verses 3 & 4:

Now, continuing forward through this Psalm, we see another amazing contrast being set up. In verse 3, David writes “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place…”. He doesn’t describe the daytime sky. He doesn’t describe the sun and how it shines over all creation. He speaks of looking upward into the overwhelming vault of the night sky and he speaks of the glory of the moon and the stars against the inaccessible depths of the universe. And that just seemed to speak to David so much more about the handiwork of God and His grandiosity of creation in the heavens above.

And then David goes on to illustrate that amazing contrast here in verse 4 where he writes, “…what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”. The contrast is the unimaginable glory of God and the insignificance and smallness of us, of mankind. And yet the knowledge of being handmade by God, we have the assurance of God’s care for us, for such a small creature by comparison that we are. God is so infinitely GREAT and by comparison, we are utterly nothing. It’s been said from this very pulpit that any theology which elevates Christ and makes Him indispensable while at the same time negates our pride and makes us totally dispensable and unnecessary, is good theology.

I love talking about Who God is, His attributes. But it might be helpful if we spent some time talking about who WE are. Because doing that is sometimes helpful in framing who God is. We don’t have enough time to go into who WE are this morning but if you want to know who WE are, just look at history. Actually forget history, look at ourselves. Look at our own lives and the mess we’ve made of it. Look at the Law of God and count how many times we have followed it perfectly to know who WE are. Even our FAITH is a gift from God. God literally has to give us the faith that we spend on Him. I don’t want to diminish the glory of that but it reminds me of how when fathers give their kids money to go buy them a gift for Father’s Day. If you’re a father in that example, then effectively, you bought your own Father’s Day gift. The child is really proud of what he found for dad but he used dad’s money to buy it. Our faith is much like that. There are no great men and women of faith. There are only weak, faithless people who receive the gift of faith from their Father in heaven. And yet we prance about all day talking about how great we are and all the wonderful things we do for God. We are reminded to spend a lot less time talking about what we do for God and a whole LOT more time talking about what He is doing for us.

You may remember that I’ve spoken a couple of times over the past couple weeks about how God is always creating weakness in His children. I’ll go a step further to drive home the point. What if I were to tell you that God actually INSISTS on our weakness? Why? Because that weakness would drive us to prayer, more and more and more. And therefore, it would cause us to depend on Him more and more.

In reading that question here in verse 4 where David asks, “what is man…” we shouldn’t stop there. Because the magnitude of the night sky ALONE dwarfs us. David is giving full weight to our lowliness. And the words from verse 3 “the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars” only enhance the contrast. That even a God who is so majestic as to (frankly) escape human words, that He actually cares for us in a most special way. So why are we here? Why are we – a seemingly insignificant, tiny, weak – people even here?

Let’s skip ahead just a second to verse 6: “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet…”. Wow. I mean that is absolutely MIND blowing! Remember, we are like infants, we are like babies. We are absolutely NOTHING compared to God. We are so utterly small when placed side-by-side with all the other works of God in terms of the magnitude of all creation. Yet… just as God uses babies to defeat His enemies, He uses us, mankind, to have dominion over His magnificent creation; that we are to rule over the creative works of God’s hand.

So here it is so far: God not only crushes His enemies through the weakness of infants, but that He also rules His creation using the weakness of man. And this is a theme that runs the entire course of God’s word. It’s one of the golden threads throughout scripture. That the glory and greatness of the strength of the Most High God is made so much greater because He chooses to establish it through the weakness of man. The glory of God’s wisdom is made so much greater because it is established through the foolishness of man. What the world sees as useless and weak and of no value, God uses as the means to victory. What the world sees as the foolish things, God chooses to use to confound the wise.

Verse 5 – 8:

Now back to verse 5 for just a moment, David writes “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”. We have seen that by comparison to God, man is nothing, and yet God bestows an abundance of kindness on us. In terms of creation, the word of God is clear that we are above all the creatures in this earthly world, that down here on earth, we are the favored creation of God. The picture of HOW God created man was David’s only concern here. And so he sort of paints his description here with the palette of the creation account which already includes our original fall.

In that description, we can see a few interesting things. One is that not only are we formed BY God but we are further crowned with glory and honor, perhaps by virtue of us being given dominion over the resources of the earth. Another thing to consider in David’s description here is that he uses the phrase “…a little lower than the heavenly beings”. While it’s clear that we aren’t angels, what does he mean by the words “a little” when he says that we were made “a little lower than the heavenly beings”? Well, many theologians and commentators believe that it refers to the spirit of man, which is made in God’s image, and owing to the virtue of how it is confined in the flesh, and therefore limited by our flesh, and the fact that we are also subject to physical death, that this highlights our inferiority to the heavenly beings.

But within this context, diving into our hierarchical position and where we rank and all that doesn’t seem to be anywhere near relevant to David. What David IS saying, and I think this is something we are to see, is that according to the pattern set before us earlier in our look at Psalm 8 – which is the pattern of God operating through and ruling through our weakness – that we ARE placed only a little lower than the angels and that we ARE crowned with glory and honor, and THAT is just flat amazing. What a position to be in.

Now with that in mind, let’s walk back again into verse 6 for a moment, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet…”. Ok, so we know that creation is fallen. From where WE sit, it might seem like creation has dominion over US. And so here’s the cool part: Paul actually quotes this verse in 1 Corinthians 15. Here is what I wanted us to see: Man WILL one day in the future have dominion over all the earth but before that happens, the Son of God, Jesus Christ Himself, must condescend Himself and become man. He is to be the IDEAL Man, the REAL Man, the truest representation of Man because He will have to do what our father Adam, the first man, what ALL of us men fail to do, so that IN HIM, IN CHRIST, all who trust in Him, all who belong to Him, will be able to share in what He does. And what’s that? That He lives a perfect life, that He dies because of sin, then He is raised from death, and finally He rules all of God’s creation to display and demonstrate the absolute majesty of God!

In verses 7 and 8, we can see listed the various creational works of God on earth at least as it relates to that which we are to have dominion and rule over. He speaks of the creatures of the land, creatures of the sky, and of course, creatures of the water. And though we are to rule over and have dominion over the earth, let none of us allow the possession of any earthly creature or any earthly treasure to ensnare us. Let us always, always, always remember that we are to rule and reign over them, and are never to allow them to rule and reign over us. It is under our feet that we must keep the world and all of its trappings, and we must be diligent to mortify and put to death our flesh which is all too happy to let all of our worldly cares and pleasures influence and imprison us.

Verse 9:

And finally we come to the conclusion of this beautiful Psalm of praise. In verse 9, David closes his song with the line he opened it with by saying, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”. You might say that what started perhaps as a proposition in the opening verse of Psalm 8, we now see David close his song with a well-proven conclusion of the absolute MAJESTY of Who God is.

Intro:

Let’s begin to set the stage for this Psalm, which is referred to as a Davidic Psalm because it’s written by none other than David. Last week, we had taken a closer look at Psalm 6 and we noted that not all Psalms give us the occasion for their being written. Some certainly do, but not all. Here in Psalm 7, we are given the specific occasion as to why David composed this particular song. The text tells us that David had suffered some unjust and malicious accusation and slander at the hands (“mouth”) of his enemy(s). So David goes before the Lord seeking favor and then pleads his innocence of the things he’s accused of before God. David then goes on to ask the Lord to judge in favor of him against his prosecutors, and while expressing confidence that the Lord would do that, that God would also return the evil meant for David upon the heads of those who made these vile accusations. Finally, David then promises to give God the glory for His deliverance.

I think that this Psalm is of particular comfort to those of us who have ever been lied about, have been the subject of hurtful gossip, have been the target of slander, or those of who have faced retribution for things which we haven’t done. God Himself vindicates us and we can rest in the words of Isaiah in Chapter 54:17, “…no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment…”.

(Read Psalm 7, starting with the superscript above verse 1)

-I’m reading from the ESV-

Verse1:

Immediately we are presented with 2 issues:

1. We don’t know exactly what a “Shiggaion” is (was)

And

2. We don’t know exactly WHO Cush, the Benjaminite, was.

Firstly, a “Shiggaion” is a word that even Hebrew scholars scratch their heads at. It could be a type of varied and frenzied singing, it could be a liturgical term relating to music or song that is sung with heavy emotion, or it could mean “wandering”. Either way, this word only appears one other time in Scripture and is found in the 3rd Chapter of Habakkuk. In the end though, the exact meaning is lost on us today.

Now the second issue: the “Cush the Benjaminite” mentioned here leaves us searching for the meaning of who David specifically refers to. Some say that the reference to Cush was to Saul himself, the archenemy of David. We don’t know for sure.

But in Verse 1, we see David going before the Lord to plead against the one who had accused him of these treacherous charges. We would be remiss, no matter the occasion, if we didn’t FIRST go to the Lord in our own defense. Are we as confident in our own reliance upon God as David was? Whatever emergency may come, whatever circumstance may arise, we must exercise our reliance upon our Heavenly Father by bowing our knees before Him FIRST. In our trouble, we will do good to remember that we have been loved too long and bought at too great a price to be now forgotten by God. So let us always find ourselves at the foot of the cross before our Lord in humble submission and prayer in our times of great need. And actually, the great irony is that we are EVER in great need and so therefore, we are reminded to ALWAYS be at the foot of the cross, communing with our great Lord. Pray without ceasing, always mindful of the Lord and His hand upon us.

What assurance we have in, those of us in Christ, when we go to our Father in Heaven. When we have resolved to trust in Him and Him alone for our redemption and rescue. David says, “O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me…”. In YOU do I take refuge. Scripture is replete with descriptions of the Lord as a mighty fortress. Though our lives may reel, though the sea of life’s difficulties and circumstances cause us to be tossed to and fro, though uncertainty in our infirmities and fear in our hearts may come like a sudden raging storm, catching us out in the open, let us run to our Refuge, let us stand upon our Rock. As Christians, we are sealed by the blood Covenant of Christ, our lives have been paid for with a price, we are in full communion with the Alpha and the Omega, the Most High God. We have no excuse NOT to run to Him. You will NEVER trust Christ in vain. If your faith and hope are in God, then you have a security that none can destroy. We might shake and tremble, but the Rock upon which we stand will NEVER move.

David goes on to lay the burdens of his heart before the Lord in describing his “pursuers” and asking to be saved from them. His enemies were on all sides and any one of them would have swallowed him up in their hatred of him. We would do well to approach the Lord of mercy and pray the same: “Rescue me from the traps and snares of sin. Deliver me from the false accusations of my own “Cush the Benjaminite”. You see, prayer is that open door that no one can shut. Enemies may surround you on all sides, but the way upward is always open. So keep praying.

Verse 2:

In verse 2, David makes a plea in great fear as he says, “…lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.”. Either this Cush the Benjaminite (or the one he appealed to) was a mighty enemy – at least one with the ferocity and likeness to that of a lion. We who are in Christ have our own “Cush the Benjaminite”, don’t we? One who goes about like a lion, seeking whom he may devour.

David then writes, “…rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.”. Keep in mind, David was a Shepherd at one time. This was a picture of what happens when a lion gets ahold of a defenseless lamb and makes it his dinner. I don’t think this is an over-exaggeration concerning the accusations which came against David. After all, physical wounds can be healed from. But the venomous slander of the tongue cuts much deeper and those wounds are not so quickly healed. We’re told later, in Proverbs 18 (verse 21) that “life and death are in the power of the tongue”. Being the subject of gossip or slander or lies is something we all face.

Verses 3-5:

Now the second part of Psalm 7 is where we see David protest his innocence before God. David invites the wrath of God upon his own head should he be guilty of the charge that Cush the Benjaminite makes against him. With a clear conscience, David is effectively telling God to search his soul for any wrongdoing in this matter and indeed has no need to fear the curse of God upon him because HAS a clear conscience. It’s been joked that having “a clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.” [Twain]. I think we also have an application point in integrity here: men and women in Christ should mean what they say and say what they mean. This is one of the highest qualities in the world, but it should be, at the very least, something one should expect from a Christian. This is what we all should be — a person who believes what he or she says and shows this by seeking to put it into practice. And David knew that before God Himself, that he had practiced integrity in this situation and that he was indeed innocent of this accusation and therefore could walk as in the sight of God with a clear conscience. David feared no guilt because in the very sight of God, he knew he could plead his case innocently.

Verse 6:

And now having avowed himself before the Lord of his innocence, in the next 4 verses we’ll see David cry out for the coming judgement of God upon those who have come against him. Beginning here in verse 6 for example, David now prays,  “Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.” In the preceding verses, David appears to be content with deliverance. But here his plea takes on a boldness, a cry for the punitive Divine retribution upon his enemies. It’s probably not uncommon, at least owing to the great patience and long-suffering nature of God, that we (like David) assume God to be sleeping when we don’t see instantaneous justice. Or when we see gross injustices on a global scale and it may seem that God is asleep. Take heart – God neither sleeps nor slumbers. And actually, we should bear with the evils we see because it is evidence of God’s patience with sinners. And isn’t that great news for us? If God wasn’t so patient with sinners, you and I would never have had the chance to be brought to Christ. Remember that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. He gave Himself for us while we were still His enemies. And we are to adopt that same heart.

Verse 7 & 8:

The rendering of Verse 7 here where David writes, “Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high…” is something of a picture of God, who has now come over His people who have congregated before Him having been awakened by the cries of David.

Continuing on with his prayer, David writes in verse 8, “The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.”. David now imagines the Lord seated upon His throne in His Majestic splendor, holding proper Court where now David stands before Him and pleads his case afresh. David continues to insist upon his innocence, upon his integrity in this matter and cries out solemnly with all due humility and sincerity, “judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me…”.

Verses 9 & 10:

In verse 9, David cries out, “Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous – you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!”. Isn’t that what all of us in Christ truly desire? Is that not the deepest longing of the church, the body of Christ? It might be worth noting that David’s prayer is not for the destruction of the wicked, but of their wickedness. And since this prayer is further girded by David’s declaration of God as righteous, then we who view all of the seemingly unending triumph of evil in the world around us are now capable of hope in the final judgement of God against wickedness and the rescue of all redeemed by the blood of Christ. We who are in Christ have claim on God because by His covenant with us in Christ, He has claim on us! Chin up fellow Christians, our deliverance from wickedness draws near.

And that last line of verse 9 is wonderful, “you who test the minds and hearts”. What a heavy and solemn thing that the depth of God’s Divine knowledge of those He rules is. According to Hebrews 4:13, “…no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”. Solemn indeed.

“My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.”. “My shield is with God” is to presume that God Himself bears the defense of those who place their entire trust in Him. It was certainly true for David and it is certainly true for those of us in Christ.

The last part of that verse, speaking of the Lord “who saves the upright in heart” shows us, on this side of the Cross, that God saves those of us who have received the righteousness of Christ, with an eternal salvation and that God will therefore preserve us to glory in Him. We take great hope and great comfort knowing that He will save us out of our present troubles. Therefore, if you have come to a saving knowledge of Christ, you are safe and you ought to consider yourself under the divine protection of God Himself. You are after all, in that instance, His adopted child and there isn’t any enemy on this earth that can keep you from Him when He has fixed His eyes upon you, His beloved child. So take heart!

Verse 11:

Verse 11, “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.” Keep in mind, your enemies don’t sit upon God’s throne. Your Heavenly Father alone does. Your enemies can’t remove your name from the Lamb’s Book of Life. So don’t wish for vengeance against your enemies, despite their venomous lies against you. God Himself will handle all things when His time is right. And besides, we should NEVER wish for God’s vengeance upon those who come against us. Just remember, you too were once God’s enemy. What if YOUR enemy wished God’s vengeance upon YOU? The shoe is on the other foot now, so let us, like Christ, forgive those who come against us and pray that God brings them all to the Cross of Christ’s redemption. 

Look, David says that God feels indignation every day. God detests sin. He doesn’t wink at it. And more than His detestation of sin, His anger burns against those who continue to revel in it. Ironically, the impenitent sinner has no fear of God. There is no more fearsome a thing in all creation than to be found unrighteous in the hands of the Living, Holy, Just God. If you don’t know Christ today, I urge you by way of the Holy Spirit, to turn to Him this day to be saved. You say, “How can I be saved?”. You turn from your sin, and you turn towards the only One who can save you from it, and that is Christ Jesus. You put your whole trust in Him and you pray to receive His mercy. When you meet Christ, you either drop all the stuff that you’ve been counting on for your salvation and trust Christ alone, or you hold to all the stuff you’ve been holding on to for your salvation and reject Christ. You’re either trusting yourself and your achievements or Christ. And when you come to trust Christ, all your achievements become rubbish. So I urge you to choose Life today if you haven’t yet come to know Christ.

Verse 12 & 13:

We come to a part of David’s prayer that, frankly, in my eyes at least, we find some terrifying language in which God is regarded as a fierce Enemy to those who oppose Him. David writes in verses 11 & 12, “(11) If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; (12) he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.”. God will whet His sword against those who will not repent? His bow is bent and ready to fire? He has prepared fiery arrows? I can’t even imagine. Again, it’s ironic that the impenitent sinner, the very person who has no fear of God whatsoever, shouldn’t understand their imminent ruin lest they turn to the only One who can save them. This is what frustrates me most about the so-called modern American “evangelical” church today. They don’t teach on sin! Because a church that’s just LIKE the world has nothing to offer the world. Most of them seem to exist to serve the unregenerate as nothing more than motivational speakers, trying to get people to feel better about themselves. Teaching that Christ is a means to an end. Teaching that prayer is a means to move God to do your bidding.

Look, anybody that says that Jesus came and died to make us happy, healthy, and wealthy is preaching a false gospel. Jesus SAVED me! I was on the path to Hell. He snatched us from the flames of Hell and saved us from our sins. And when we see that God is whetting His sword against the unrepentant sinner and His bow is pulled back, ready to fire – how can we go on with our petty, small-minded discussions about fighting for the things of this world as though THIS was our kingdom? This is about souls!

Verses 14-16:

We now come towards the end of Psalm 7 where in verse 14, we see the 3-fold action of one who bears evil, utilizing the metaphor of conception, a full-term pregnancy, and birth. “Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.”. Somewhere along the way, this accuser of David had succumbed to his base nature, now pregnant with the DNA of sin, and now behold the metaphorical “child” of a most unholy birth. As we are told in James, sin always gives birth to death. You can just see how this plays out in the slanderer’s heart: in his sin, he begins to devise gossip and lies, therein is the “conception”. Then, he mulls it over and over, thinking on it constantly, licking his chops at what weapon he has formed, giving a malignant cancerous growth and unnatural life to the machinations in his heart. Therein we see the “pregnant with mischief” part. Finally, we see the “birth” aspect where the gossip, the lies, and the slander slither from his mouth, causing death in the hearts and minds of all who hear this metaphorical child being born.

But then in Verse 15, the accuser goes even further. David writes, “He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.”. He meant to wreak absolute havoc on his subject. But in Verse 16, we see the surprise ending where David writes, “His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.”. Beware the deadfall. He has spoken great evil against one of God’s own and has found it heaped upon his own head as his reward. Like the guy who intends to burn down his neighbor’s house but gets the gas all over himself and accidentally sets himself ablaze.

Verse 17:

And now finally we conclude Psalm 7 with verse 17 where David brings such a joyous and hopeful contrast to that evil which hounded him so closely and so painfully. David writes, “I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.”. We now see that the end of David’s travails here are thanksgiving unto the Lord. That should always be the end of our own travails in our walk with Christ. Because no matter what, we who are truly in Christ Jesus, have the eternal assurance of a blessed completion in Him. That one day, every tear will be wiped away and all pain erased. We will know only joy. I will leave you with a quote from Charles Spurgeon: “Our infirmities become the black velvet on which the diamond of God’s love glitters all the more brightly”.