I was a young man. Brother Maurice
got up to preach one time at a conference and he said, listen,
everybody preached this week, the whole weekend and been blessed
by it. And he goes, I just couldn't decide what I was going to preach
on. And he said, I still don't know what I'm going to preach
on. I thought he was joking. I don't know what I'm going to
preach on this morning. I got some notes. I did a lot
of studying, did a lot of hard work. I think I'm just going
to speak plainly to you. Last week we looked here in Psalm
7 about David's trust. Trust, the whole of me, all my
finances, all my hope, my earnest expectation, the outcomes of
this life, everything I put in the Lord, I put into Christ. We're going to look at the next
couple of verses this week. dealt with David's heart to make
him pray unto him. Lord, I haven't been guilty of
these accusations of Cush the Benjamite that come to me and
said, I was out to kill David. And he said, but if I had been,
you'd deal with me. If you need to chasten me, Lord,
chasten me. What makes somebody say something
like that? And he said in there, and we're going to learn something
about that, yea, I delivered him. Who without cause is my
enemy. Speaking of Saul, King Saul has
chased him. Bid after him. Oh, that's a gospel. That's what we're going to see.
You ever been an enemy of God? Soak that in. Has there ever
been a time in your life, some people say, never. Never. Oh, I've been saved since 4 Osborne. Well, in a sense, maybe. But
you ever said no, God? You ever watched a glass of milk
go to fall over on a table and went, no! Enemies, they're not uniform
people with bayonets all the time, are they? Oh, I wish that
wouldn't happen. Why is it raining today? Why
ain't it raining today? You ever been an enemy of God?
Thinking he's religious and doing something right for his honor.
Brought to see that. All the way for a sinner to be
just with God is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
our just deliverer. The one who truly delivers his
people. And we see this picture of Christ here in David. He said
in verse 1, Psalm 7, Oh Lord my God, in Thee do I put my trust. Save me from all them that persecute
me and deliver me, lest He tear my soul like a lion, rending
it in pieces while there is none to deliver. The Lord calls us,
His people, to put all of our trust, all of our expected outcome,
our hope, all of me. Not part of me, not three or
four days a week, the whole of me. into Christ. In our text this morning, we're
going to see His elect will also be brought to put all justice,
all judgment in Christ alone as well. I don't think what you're
doing is right, and I'm going to say something about it. That's me taking judgment. That's
me taking justice, isn't it? I'm going to be vengeful. You
think I could be vengeful? I could be real vengeful. You just make a living
out of it. Vengeance is of the Lord, isn't
it? He corrects his servants. By his hand, his servants' stands
are false. We commit all that justice. And
the chastening. There was a time in my life I
bore a heavy trial for years. And my mom come to me and said,
you asked the Lord to take that trial from you yet? And I said,
I don't think it's time. What a fool! He let me have it
too for a couple more years. I had to learn that the hard
way. I was a fool, thinking I knew better on justice and judgment.
I need to suffer a little bit more. I don't know what I need.
Commit that to Him. It's in His hand anyway, and
the Lord used that appropriately through Providence to teach me
something. It took a couple of years of pain and misery. But
we'll see in our text here, we commit that to the Lord too.
Here in verse 3, Psalm 7 verse 3, There's a parenthesis here
in verse 4 and we're going to leave that out. A parenthetical
notation. We can lift that out of the text.
We're going to see something. We're not going to do harm to
the text and we're going to come back to it. It says in verse 3, Oh Lord
my God, if I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hands,
if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me. Verse 5. Let the enemy persecute my soul
and take it. Yea, let him tread down my life
upon the earth and lay my honor in the dust. Selah." Pause on
that, think about that. First, the believer is going
to, I want to look at three things today. First thing is the believer
is going to take sides with God against themselves. That's what
the Lord's grace makes His children do. He makes us take sides with
God against ourselves. David's not saying here that
he's sinless. Lord, I've never committed iniquity.
Look how good I am. I don't do those evil things.
I don't watch them movies. I don't read them books. That
ain't what he's saying. I don't drink wine. Of course
not. He said in Psalm 32, I acknowledge
my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgive us
the iniquity of my sin. He had iniquity to be forgiven.
He had a plea to make to the Lord, didn't he? He said in Psalm
38, there is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger.
Neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. He
was plagued with it. David knew he was a sinner. He
spent nights by himself on that couch, making it wet, making
that bed swim, didn't he? He stayed up all night crying
because of it, he knew. But his charges that's laid against
him by Cush the Benzamite, against Saul the king, they were false. They weren't true. David wasn't
trying to go kill Saul and dethrone him. David prays to God here. He makes an earnest plea of innocence
over these charges, over what happened right here with Cush.
And we'll see in a minute what took place between David and
Saul. The history has already took place. David was used to
speak and deal with Saul in a manner that ought to be frightening
to us. But as David commits his whole matter to God to judge
for Him, His pleas for God to judge this whole trial in righteousness. That's what this whole psalm
is about. The judgment of God, the justice of God, and Lord
do it in righteousness. Be holy when you do it. If we
went downtown and there was a judge that was just letting everybody
off, ain't nobody getting convicted of murder, ain't nobody getting
tickets this week. We'd be outraged, wouldn't we? Justice is gone. We want a holy and righteous
judge, don't we? And that's the plea of every believer. Lord,
judge in righteousness. We're brought to that when we're
with God against ourselves. It's said in Psalm 51, that thou
mayest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou
judgest. Lord, you be just, you be holy.
Your honor and glory be magnified. David's plea is for God to judge
him, but if David himself is unjust in the matter, David's
ready to be corrected. He's ready to be chastened by
the Lord. I want to do what's right. I want to honor the Lord.
That's our primary goal in being here this morning. Ain't nothing
else to magnify God, to glorify Him, to honor Him, to worship
Him. That's why we're here. I want to do that to the best
of my ability, in all seriousness, and in awe, and in fear, And
as painful as it would be, Lord, if I'm wrong, Jason, man, correct
me, Lord, show me what the right way is. Teach me. That's a good
student and a good child that wants to be corrected. Not pop
off at the mouth, tell everything they know. I'm running stuff,
that's what spoiled little brats do sometimes, don't they? Teach
me. Teach me. That's what David wants
to be. Where does a believer get the heart to do this? To
commit it all to God who judges righteously and have a desire
to be correct. Turn over to 1 Peter 2. To commit these things even when
we've been falsely accused. I've had several people get on
me and accuse me of things before and that's right. But boy, it
stings. Then you're shamed, aren't you?
As much as you did this, and you know you did it, you're shamed.
There's guilt. You want to hide your face. But
what about when you don't? I've been accused of a bunch
of stuff I haven't been guilty of, and I get fighting mad. I
want a bare knuckle box. Man said, one time, if you ain't
mad in a bare knuckle box, you ain't mad. I'll go out to the
parking lot and we'll fix this right now. I get mad, even in
those times, falsely. The wolves come up and just nip
at you. Guilty. Ignore it. Commit it to the Lord. How do we get that way? Look
here in 1 Peter 2, verse 19. For this is thankworthy, if a
man for conscience towards God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. That don't sound appealing, does
it? Verse 20. For what glory is it, if when
you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently?
I was wrong. I'll take my punishment." What
glory is in that? That's just what you ought to
do, isn't it? But if, when you do well and suffer for it, you
take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. If you're doing the
exact right thing, to honor the Lord, live peacefully among all
men, and you're attacked for it, and pay no mind to it, trust
the judgment to the Lord, the Lord said that's acceptable.
That's well-pleasing, isn't it? For even here unto where you
called, that's never happened to me. If you're the child of
God, wait. It's going to. I ain't never had no trials like
that. If you're a child of God, it's
coming. It ain't happened already, and it's going to be persistent.
For even here unto where ye called, because, why would we be called
something? Why would that be purposed in
the life of a child of God? Because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow in his
steps. When we're wrongfully accused, suffer patiently. Speaking of our Lord, verse 22,
who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. David knew
he was a sinner, but he also knew in Christ there was no sin.
His Lord to come, who when He was reviled, reviled not again.
When He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to
Him, to the Father, that judges righteously. What did Christ
do? He committed all that judgment.
He didn't open His mouth. The One who had every right.
We think we have rights. I'm going to fix this wrong.
Here, hold my drink. I'm going to go sort this out.
We think we have rights. The one who actually had the
right and would have been righteous to kill everybody there. Just
destroy and vaporize them immediately. Didn't say a word. He committed
all judgment to God. Why? Why would Christ do that?
You have to. I have to. His people have to. He did it for us. Isn't that
something? That's not putting the bondage of the law on somebody.
So if somebody makes you mad, you better just deal patiently
with it. You want to. I want to deal patiently with
it. I want to keep my mouth shut and be quiet. Don't strive. Don't revile again. It was Christ
alone who laid down his life for his people. The one who knew
no sin, who was charged falsely. He was reviled and he reviled
not again. But he committed himself totally to the Lord that judges
in righteousness. We see David praying in our text,
here's a picture of Christ. He was given that ability to
trust the Lord in all goodness and all judgment. It was the
Spirit of Christ abiding in David that gave David this prayer,
that gave David this psalm to write for us. There may be many
times when we're charged unjustly, and verse 21 says there in 1
Peter 2, even whereunto we were called, What are we to do? It's going to come. Verse 23,
committed to him that judges righteously. Committed to the
Lord. True humility is taking sides
with God even against ourselves. Even against our desire to be
right. I can handle this. I know what's
best. I'm going to correct this. That
judgment against us, we commit that to the Lord, don't we? Even
as we ask God to take up our case, and we ask in spirit that's
truly ready to be corrected. Believers trust the Lord fully
to save us, to defend us, to keep us for eternity, and to
correct us. He makes us willing to be corrected.
Jeremiah said, O Lord, correct me, but with judgment, not non-anger,
lest thou bring me to nothing. I know what I deserve, Lord,
but correct me, teach me, show me right. And we have a true
desire, not just in words, not just in outward show and pretend,
because that's what everybody else says. We have a true desire
for the Lord to be just and holy in everything and for Him to
receive all the glory for it. Alright, back in our text. We
see first, believers want to take sides with God against themselves.
Now secondly, the Gospel is here in the parentheses. The parentheses
tells us what David did And here we see the grace of God. Here
we see what Christ has done for His people. For enemies. Enemies. Many of the modern translations,
they take out this part in the parentheses. They just remove
it. That's mankind doing his best,
you know that? Whenever they stand up, we're
going to honor God, we're going to make the Scriptures easier
to understand. All they do is remove the gospel.
Isn't that right? Or if they add to it and change
some words, that's even worse. That new King James Version says,
I have repaid evil to him who was at peace with me, comma,
or I have plundered my enemy without a cause. They replaced
that word delivered to plundered. That's when you go in and loot
after a war. Is that what happened? Did the Lord plunder us? Did
He deal with us harshly? I better hope not. Here in verse 4, there isn't
a continued thought like it is, or if I've plundered. There's
a declaration. A declaration. It says there
in Psalm 7 verse 4, Yay! Yay! I have delivered him that
without a cause is mine enemy. What's the gospel? Christ delivered
those. No calls in us, no calls in him. We was his enemy and he delivered
us. That's something. That's something special to those
that are enemies. The true enemy that hasn't been revealed to
them, their enemy, they care less. Man, that's some nice words you
have given up. Interesting points. I'm glad
you studied that this week. I was an enemy against God. I
want to kill him. and no cause in me. I was an
enemy for no cause in Him and there's no cause in me that He
came and He delivered me." What a humbling thing. Let's turn
over to 1 Samuel 24 and we'll see what David was talking about. Twice David delivered Saul. We'll
look at this first one here in 1 Samuel 24 and leave a marker
there. I'll try to condense this down for you. Saul took 3,000
men to chase after David. And he came to a cave, and he
decided to get some rest. And so Saul went in, and it says
he covered his feet, got bundled up good, and he went to sleep.
And while he was sleeping, David went to Saul, and he cut off
the skirt of his robe. He cut off a part of his robe,
part of his garment. And then David told his men not
to touch Saul. He said, because I did this,
I'm heavy in heart, don't you touch him. I said, well, kill him right
now, he's sleeping. Don't you touch him, don't lay
a hand on him, because he's the Lord's anointed. What did Saul
mean? It didn't matter. He was the
Lord's anointed. Touch not mine anointed, he said. Look here in verse eight. First
Samuel 24, verse eight. David also arose afterward and
went out of the cave and cried after Saul, saying, my Lord,
the king, And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with
his face to the earth and bowed himself. And David said to Saul,
Wherefore hearest thou men's words, saying, Behold, David
seek thy hurt? He said, Saul, why are you listening
to men? Men's told you I want to kill you. Behold, this day
thine eyes have seen that the Lord hath delivered thee today
into mine hand in the cave, and some bade me to kill thee. But
mine eye spared thee, and said, I will not put forth my hand
against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. Moreover, my
father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe, for in my hand,
for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed thee
not. Know thou, and see, that there is neither evil nor transgression
in my hand. I have not sinned against thee.
Yet thou hunnest my soul to take it. The Lord judge between me
and thee, and the Lord avenge me of thee, but my hand shall
not be upon thee. The Lord will sort this judgment,
but I ain't gonna be the one that kills you. As saith the
proverb of the ancients, wickedness proceeded from the wicked, but
my hand shall not be upon thee. After whom is the King of Israel
come out? After whom dost thou pursue? After a dead dog, after
a flea. The Lord therefore be judge and
judge between me and thee and see and plead my cause and deliver
me out of thine hand. David came to Saul, cut part
of his robe off and went to him and said, you've been listening
to men, yapping off at the mouth. They can't shut up and won't
stop talking with all their great ideas. And they told you, I was
going to be the one to dethrone you. Here's part of your garment.
If I want to cut your throat, I could have. I'm a flea. You've
got 3000 men chasing me. I'm nothing to you. If I wanted
to harm you, I could. I ain't going to touch you. You're
the Lord's anointed. God made you king. I ain't going
to touch his anointed. What a thought. Let's look at
the other time. Leave a marker there in 1 Samuel
24. We want to see what Saul thought of after that. 1 Samuel
26. Turn over a couple pages to 1 Samuel 26. Here's another time David spared.
That's what he's referring to in Psalm 7, that he spared Saul. 1 Samuel 26, verse 7. So David and Abishah came to
the people by night and said, Behold, Saul lay sleeping within
the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground. at his bolster. But Abner and the people lay
around about him. Then said Abishah to David, God
hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day. Now therefore
let me smite him, I pray thee, with a spear even to the earth
at once. And I will not smite him a second
time. You let me get that spear. I'm going to put it clean through
him all the way to the dirt underneath him, and it's only going to take
one time." Somebody looked to slay us, didn't they? And David said to Abishai, destroy
him not, for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's
anointed and be guiltless? David said, furthermore, as the
Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him, or his day shall come to
die, or he shall descend into battle and perish. The Lord forbid
that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed,
but I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his bolster
and the crews of water, and let us go. And David took the spear
and the crews of water from Saul's bolster, and they gapped them
away. And no man saw it, nor knew it,
neither awakened, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep
from the Lord was fallen upon them." They could have done cartwheels
out of that trench, out of that camp. They wouldn't have woke
up. The Lord made them sleep. I look forward to getting back
to 1 Samuel 26 one day. But look down at verse 23. The
Lord rendered to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness,
for the Lord delivered thee into my hand today, this is when he
is speaking to Saul, but I would not stretch forth mine hand against
the Lord's anointed. He hollered from the other side
of that valley from a mountain and said, Saul, and Saul heard his voice.
He said, I know that voice. Is that David, my son? And he said,
I got your spear and I got your crews of water. Could have put,
run you through. We didn't. Hear the Lord's anointing,
verse 24, and behold, as thy life has much set by this day
in mine eyes, so let my life be as much set in the eyes of
the Lord, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation. We like to have judgment in our
hands, don't we? How quick we want to throw the spear all the
way to the ground. If next time you're sitting around
a table, we don't think so, do we? We don't do that. It gets
kind of quiet, not much people have nothing to talk about. Bring
up anything you've seen in the news for the last week. You seen
us pull out of Afghanistan? Here's what I'd do. They did
it wrong. What about this shop? What about
masks? What about lockdown? We'd chug that cruise of water
and stick a spear right in everybody that makes a decision, wouldn't
we? That the Lord's anointed? He
put them there? Well, if we could see, Saul chased
David without a cause. David had nothing to do with
him, did he? He did it the first time. That wasn't good enough.
He still chased him. He wanted to kill him. You ever said no
to the Lord? You ever chased the Lord? I don't
want to have it that way. I'm going to do this. I'm going
to live here. I'm going to do that. I can do this. No, Lord. No, God. We have at any time
ever been an enemy against God. What does the Lord come to us
and do? He'll come cut your robe of righteousness
and show you a piece of it. That's what trials do. I think
I'm so covered until the Lord takes just a chunk, not the whole
thing. He could have shredded it. Tearing me to shreds, couldn't
He? He'll take a little corner of
your robe of righteousness and wave it at you. What do you observe? Oh, the tears. Oh, they closed
my house. Begging for mercy. Then He'll
come to us again. You got life in you? You make
it through a desert? Here's your crews of water. Pour it out. He's living water. You're not. That's what the scriptures
say. We make broken cisterns. We try to keep water in it. He
gives us our water every day. Well, but our armament, our spears,
I can defend anything. Yeah. Here's your spear. I got
your righteousness, I got your life, and I got all your defenses. Oh, it's a blessing if the Lord
does that to us. If He comes to us and shows us we're nothing.
That's life, isn't it? That's delivering. That seems
harsh, it seems cruel sometimes. That's true delivery. And Christ
is the just deliverer. Christ is the innocent one. David
was honorable in these things. This is a great example, and
that's what most people all get out of it. Oh, how to deal with
enemies and foes in a post-millennial society or whatever, some nonsense. David did right by Saul, but
boy, Christ is the innocent one. Christ is the holy one. There
was no iniquity found in him. And he said in Psalm 69, they
that hated me without a cause are more than the hairs of my
head. They that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully,
are mighty. Then I restored that which I
took not away. He didn't steal from us, but
he gave us something, didn't he? There's no cause in God and there's no
cause in Christ that walked this earth for any sinner to consider
him our enemy, that he's wronged us. Ever. Nobody. Like Saul persecuted David without
a just reason, without a just cause, every natural-born son
of Adam that comes into this world, we see the Lord as our
enemy. We go against Him without cause. And there's no cause in God for
any of us to be His enemy. No cause in Christ for us to
be against Him. God only does that which is right, that which
is just, and that which is good. And we're the unjust ones. Being
so, there's no cause in the center. There's nothing we've done, nothing
we've merited for Christ to deliver any of us. We ain't nothing but
enemies. If he makes us see that, if he
reveals what we are to ourselves, I ain't nothing but an enemy.
I'd kill him if I got the chance. I'd take 3,000 men and chase
him. Fight his providence, fight his will, fight his goodness,
his holiness, his wisdom. I ain't nothing but anything.
There's nothing in me that he should deliver me. Salvation
is by the grace of God. David was under no obligation
to deliver Saul, was he? Somebody had 3,000 men chasing
me, and I got them between the cross hairs. It's a justified
homicide, isn't it? He's trying to kill me for no
reason. Saul had done nothing to deserve mercy that David showed
him. And that's the case with everyone
that Christ delivers. We've done nothing to deserve
mercy. That's the definition of mercy,
not getting what you do deserve. Paul wrote to us in Colossians
and said, And you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, now hath he reconciled. You were enemies. That's not a Disney word. He's reconciled us and He did
it in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Have you ever been
enemies? I pray you have. I pray He makes
us confess that and take sides against ourselves with God. Do
I have to do that? Turn over Romans 5. Saul was asleep in a cave. And
the Lord made a deep sleep following Saul and all his men and Abner
and all them. And that trench, that field opened
us. We're sleepy, ain't we? Bored
and sleepy. Our eyes closed without strength.
Defenseless. Death comes like a thief in the
night without power against it. Look here in Romans 5 verse 6.
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ
died for the ungodly, for those enemies. We weren't even on the
scene. We didn't give a hand to it. We didn't make a decision. We
didn't contribute to it. We were without strength. We were asleep
in a cave. We were asleep in a field. And the Lord came to
us. Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perventure
for a good man some should even dare to die. But God commendeth
his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us much more than. Now being justified by his blood
we shall be saved from the wrath through him. For if when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by death of his son, much
more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life. We can
read of Christ on the cross and the shame and the guilt that
He bore and the horrible things. Every time I read Matthew 27,
I'm just brought low and anger and all emotions come out. What
a sight to behold. Who did He do that for? Enemies. No cause in them. Not good little
Christian folks. Enemies. Ungodly. Sinners is
who He came to save. That's good news to a sinner,
isn't it? Christ restored God's honor and His glory on our behalf. Christ restores life to dead
sinners through the Holy Spirit. And through Christ we're born
again in the image of God that we lost in Adam. How does a sinner
without cause, how does it in sinners without any cause, in
them. He says in our text, yea, I have
delivered him without cause that is mine enemy. It's without us,
isn't it? There's a work of grace in the
heart that the Lord does when He shows us who Christ is, what
He did, His death on that cross, why He was there, because of
my eneminess, that ain't a word, make them up, my enmity against Him. He works grace in the heart,
and we confess He's more righteous than not. Turn back to 1 Samuel
24. Saul had a temporary confession.
He had a confession of the mouth. It was a show, a farce, because
he went right back at it, didn't he? Oh, David, I'm sorry. There
he is. Kill him. David, I'm sorry. It
won't ever happen again. Kill him. This is a good picture
for us of what God truly does lastingly in the heart of His
people. 1 Samuel 24. The effectual grace of God makes
the believer confess that Christ is all our righteousness. And
we do it from that day for eternity. He's the Lord our righteousness.
Here in 1 Samuel 24 verse 16. And it came to pass when David
made an end of speaking these words to Saul that Saul said,
This is thy voice. Is this thy voice, my son David?
And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. And he said to David,
Thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me
good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil. And thou hast showed
this day how thou hast dealt well with me. For as much as
the Lord had delivered me into thine hand, thou killest me not.
For if a man find his enemy, will he let Him go well away. That means, well, He let Him
go away well, intact, fully. Wherefore, the Lord reward thee
good for that thou hast done unto me this day. And now, behold,
I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom
of Israel shall be established in thine hands. Is that what
we cry when the Lord shows us that? That we're enemies? He
takes our robe, He takes our spear, He takes our cruise of
water. Effectually, He does it in power to us. We cry out. We cry. Our voice goes and we
weep. And we say, Lord, you're more righteous than I. You could
have killed me and you've been just to put me away for eternity,
forever. And I know, I see now, you're
a king of Israel. You're going to be a king of
kings and Lord of lords. You are now. Boy, what a day that'll be when
that comes. That's what we're made to cry in. Secondly, we're
made to ask for mercy. You know that comes second? We're
crying out and weeping, that's asking for mercy. We honor and
praise God. You're righteous, I'm not. Lord,
you be king, not me. And then we beg for mercy. Look
here in verse 21. Swear now thou for unto me by
the Lord, that thou will not cut off my seed after me, and
that thou will not destroy my name out of my father's house.
You make a covenant with the capital L, capital O, capital
R, capital D. that you won't cut me off. You'll
keep your seed. You'll preserve me forever. Lord,
let this happen. That's what we beg for in them.
That's happened before. How come that comes to the heart
of a child of God to praise Him and to beg for mercy? Because
we're the Lord's anointed. That's already happened, hasn't
it? The Lord willed that before time again. Why didn't He kill
me? I'm the Lord's anointed. I was
put in Christ before the foundation of the earth. Why not come for
His name's sake? That's our assurance. That's
our surety right there. And then thirdly, Saul receives
the word of mercy. David gave mercy to him. He says
in verse 22, and David's swearing to Saul. He says, I'll be just
as you said. I promise. I promise. The Lord's made us some promises.
I promise. And Saul went home. But David
and his men got him up into the hold. Saul went home and David
went up to the wilderness and he wrote Psalm 57. Praise unto
the Lord. Let your glory be over all the
earth is the title of that Psalm. He just delivered King Saul.
Could have killed him probably. And he said, Lord, all your glory.
Isn't that what our Our Redeemer does. Gives all honor and all
glory and all trust to the Father, as we are to. That makes us want
to, doesn't it? When God speaks this word of
grace effectually in the heart, the grace of God in Christ, it
just melts us. melts the heart of His children
of mercy. Forgiveness is Christ. Forgiveness in Christ is what
makes God's children fall down and worship Him and serve Him
in newness of spirit, in newness of life. Seeing who we are, who
He is, what He did for us in the condition we were. And if
that promise of mercy is sure for eternity, it's swore with
an oath. He swore it by His name. He could
swear it by no higher. While we was asleep. He comes
to us and reveals Himself to us. Someone wrote this one time,
they said, Evil for good is devil-like. Evil for evil is beast-like. Good for good is man-like. And good for evil is God-like. Turn over to Psalm 116, we'll
close. Psalm 116 verse 8, For thou hast delivered my soul
from death, and you've delivered mine eyes
from tears and my feet from falling. The Lord will be pleased to deliver
one of his children today from death. He will deliver their
eyes from tears because we'll see everything that was needed
to come to that point for salvation in him alone. And then he will
deliver our feet from falling. We'll never leave that cross
our solid rock. I'm afraid he'd do it for us
today.