Psalm 79. If you want to turn
to Psalm 79, I want to read through this with you and then we'll
try to get started in it. It says in verse 1 of Psalm 79,
Oh God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance. Thy holy
temple have they defiled. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants
have they given to be meat to the fowls of the heaven. The
flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood
have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was
none to bury them." So the enemy cruelly not only slaughtered
the servants of the Lord, the saints of the Lord, but left
them unburied. Verse four, we are become a reproach
to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are round
about us. How long, Lord, wilt thou be
angry forever? Shall thy jealousy burn like
fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen
that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not
called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob
and laid waste his dwelling place. Oh, remember not against us former
iniquities. Let thy tender mercies speedily
prevent us. And that word prevent means to
go before, the mercies of God to go before us. For we are brought
very low. Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of thy name, and deliver us and purge away our
sins for thy name's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is their God? Let him be known among the heathen
in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants
which is shed. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee according to the greatness of thy power. Preserve
thou those that are appointed to die. And render unto our neighbors
sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, so the reproach
that the neighbors of Israel, that Jerusalem, had brought on
Jerusalem. It's a prayer that God would
render unto them seven times for their reproach against them.
Wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord, so we thy people
and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks forever. We
will show forth thy praise to all generations. Now the very
last verse where it says, we will show forth thy praise to
all generations, that reminds me last time and the time before
when we were in Psalm 78. In that chapter in Psalm 78,
and I didn't mention this then, but I was thinking I would, it
says in Psalm 78 verse 3, These dark sayings we have heard
and known and our fathers have told us, we will not hide them
from their children, showing to the generation to come the
praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful works which
He has done. and so on. In verse 5 of Psalm 78, he says,
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law
in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should
make them known to their children. Remember what God said about
Abraham. He says, I know that Abraham
will command his children after him. So that's an example of
a man, one of the fathers who God said would command his children
after him, which obviously his children were Jacob, I'm sorry,
Isaac, and then Jacob and Esau, the grandchildren. And so you
see how this succession of the gospel is meant to be preached
to our children. But what I wanted to mention
there is that when we talk about the children and Abraham giving
that what God had given him, the gospel,
to them. It doesn't just signify his physical
children, but it signifies, most importantly, his spiritual children,
because those to whom the gospel is given are the children of
God. I wanted to mention that there it also applies to verse
13 of Psalm 79, where it says, when the Lord does what is asked
for here, we, thy people, and sheep of thy pasture, will give
thanks forever, and we will show forth thy praise to all generations,
because that's the way that God has designed the gospel to come
to successive generations of God's elect. It's through the
preaching of the gospel. And so it's important that in
our generation, to our children, to our grandchildren, and so
on, that we would preach the gospel. Make sure that your children
hear the gospel. Faith comes by hearing, hearing
by the word of God, and their only hope is to hear the gospel,
so we want them to hear it. That's why it's so important
for parents and as much as possible for grandparents to make sure
that their kids are under the gospel. All right, but in this
psalm, Let's go back to the beginning of the psalm. It says, O God,
so it's a prayer to God by the psalmist and if you look at the
subtitle of the psalm, it says a psalm of Asaph. Now Asaph was
a prominent man. David gave psalms to Asaph and
it seems as if Asaph wrote at least one psalm himself. He was
a leader, a singer who was to bring the songs through the Psalms
to the children of Israel. And so he's mentioned here because
this is a psalm of Asaph. But the context of this psalm
suggests that it was talking about the captivity of Babylon
and how the Babylonians came into Jerusalem and really wasted
it. And that's what is described
here in verse one, the heathen are come into thine inheritance,
thy holy temple have they defiled, they have laid Jerusalem on heaps,
the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to
the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints to the beasts
of the field, their blood have they shed like water round about
Jerusalem and there's none to bury them. That's a horrible
atrocity that these enemies against God's people have brought, and
it calls them the heathen here in verse 1, the heathen are coming
to thine inheritance. But the problem is, if it were
the account or the history of Babylon, coming into Jerusalem. Asaph was long since dead, so
Asaph couldn't have written about this as a history in his lifetime. It had to be either a future
history of the Babylonian destruction that came on Jerusalem, Or, it
could be even a prophecy of yet another history that was still
to come, a future history that would come upon Jerusalem in
which the whole city would be destroyed. And you know that
it was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans, so it's possible
that this is speaking of that destruction. Or, it's possible
that it's speaking of all of those destructions that came
upon Jerusalem. But the thing I've noticed about
as we've been going through the Psalms is it's not necessarily
essential that we even understand the historical events that took
place that were behind these Psalms. What's important is that
we see the principles that are declared to us in these Psalms. And those are independent of
time and independent of a particular instance of, in the case of the
Babylonians, or the Assyrians, or the Romans, or others that
came into Jerusalem and laid it waste. So let's look at it
from that perspective, that this is talking about the destruction
of God's people and it may occur at any point in time. And God
is using this horrible account here to give us what seems to
be the worst of all historical cases. And so when we read it,
then it has a greater impact on us because listen to the language
here. Let's just enumerate what happens
here. First of all, who are the enemies
in verse 1? The heathen. And what have they
done? Well, they came into God's inheritance. God's inheritance is His people.
It says the Lord's people are His inheritance in Deuteronomy
32 verse 9. So, this is true throughout scripture. Remember, God the Father gave
to Christ his elect, his sheep. They are his sheep. They are
his inheritance. They are his bride. So, they
are the daughter of God the Father given to his son in marriage. And so that in itself is a great
gift. And so they are very, very precious
to the Lord Jesus Christ. So the God's people, God's sons
by adoption and daughters by adoption, they are Christ's own
brethren. They are his bride. And so they're
called his sheep and his congregation and many other things, his temple.
Whatever they are, they're God's inheritance. So this is a plea. Notice how the effectiveness
of these words come out of the distress. The effectiveness is
seen in that what is being brought to God's attention, which obviously
the Lord knows, but this is the basis of the plea, is that, Lord,
they heathen are come into your inheritance, thy holy temple,
it says in verse 1, have they defiled the holy of holies. where
the Ark of the Covenant was. When the Babylonians came in,
they destroyed that stuff. They took it. It says they have
laid Jerusalem on heaps. All the structures were demolished,
and the temple. And then it says, not only that,
but the servants, the dead bodies of thy servants have they given
to be meat to the fowls of the heaven. They not only killed
them, but they left their bodies unburied to rot and to be food
for the buzzards or whatever birds would eat them. That's
a terrible thing. And the flesh of thy saints unto
the beasts of the earth. And the word saints here means
God's holy ones. So these are truly the Lord's
people. And it's showing here great atrocities that came on
the Lord's people. And we have a bit to say about
this, but go on in verse three, their blood have they shed like
water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to marry them.
So they had the enemy, the heathen here, had as little regard for
the death of God's saints and shedding their blood on the ground
as they did as if they were pouring out water. It made no more difference
to them. They would just as easily kill
them and shed their blood and take their lives as they would
pour water. And they would do it with as
much abundance, too, because there was so much of them that
were killed. So, when has anything like this
ever happened in our own history? I haven't had anything like this
happen in my history. The first thing that makes me
think is how spared we have been in our time from this kind of
persecution on the people of God. This brutal, brutal loss
of life by murderous people, murderous enemies. So you can
imagine what it would have been like. You're in Jerusalem. You
are a worshipper of the God of Abraham. You are a believer.
You are looking forward to the promises. You hold in your breast
the hope of God's promises in Christ. And you carry that message
to your children. And then the enemies come ruthlessly. And they have the power over
you. And they don't seem to be kept
back from their heart's desires. No one checks them. They seem
to have, it seems like the wickedness rules and God's rule is subdued
under the heathen. And so you can see the situation
in the psalm is dire. It's really, it's horrible. And
so that's the setting out of which this prayer comes. And
this could have happened at any point in time. even after the
cross, it could. It's speaking about martyrs,
isn't it? People who died for the Lord's, the Lord's people
dying for the Lord's sake. And that's something that this
prayer comes out of this. It reminds me of what's said
in Romans chapter 8. He says in Romans 8, verse 35
says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword. You can see that all these things
are mentioned, and these things would have come upon Jerusalem
in the days of Psalm 79. And then he says in verse 36,
as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Okay, so that's really a summary
of Psalm 79, isn't it? The Lord's people being killed
like sheep for the slaughter. And so the text in Romans 8 is
very applicable. And it's a text of scripture
that's extremely comforting. It says that all things work
together for our good to them that are the called of Jesus
Christ, those who were predestinated to be conformed to the image
of God's Son. God arranges everything to work
together for their good, and that's the promise of God. But
you know how it is. You hold these things to be true. You hold to the fact that God
is in control. You hold to the fact that he's
merciful, that he does what's right, and that he has forgiven
us for Christ's sake, and that he will give us eternal life,
and all the things that we hold dear. But trouble then comes. And the ones that look to us
will say, what's going on? I thought we were the Lord's
people. And look at what's coming upon us, this trouble, unbelievable
trouble. You can see what it would be
like, children being killed. are taken, wives being killed
or harmed in horrible ways, and husbands dying, families being
separated. So fearful were the people that
they wouldn't even go out and bury their own dead because the
enemy was so vicious. And these things were coming
upon them. This is real. And so the cry comes up out of
the worst possible imaginable circumstances that these people
experienced. And they were the Lord's people. That's the setting of this psalm.
So the first four verses, you can see, are a summary of these
atrocities that were brought upon the Lord's people. And the
second division of this chapter begins at verse 5, goes to verse
7, it says, How long, Lord? Wilt thou be angry forever? Shall
thy jealousy burn like fire? pour out thy wrath upon the heathen
that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not
called upon thy name, for they have devoured Jacob and laid
waste his dwelling place." So now you can see the second division
here, the prayer is not only describing the atrocities The
heathen, Lord, have come into your inheritance, defiled your
temple, laid your city in heaps, killed your saints, left their
bodies unburied, and they're reproaching us. They're reproaching
us. They're saying, you're God? What kind of a God would leave
you to people like us, who can come in and destroy you? And
you can see what kind of a reputation this would give to the Lord.
These people would come in, whether it was the Babylonians and the
Romans or the people of the cross, whoever they were, they would
say, you see, being the Lord's people, you're claiming that
it's the Lord's, your savior, and yet he can't save you from
us. What kind of a God do you serve? It seems to me that if
you serve your God, it's not the certainty of salvation, it's
the certainty of death. So why would anyone ever serve
the Lord? And they reproached them. They
held them in scorn. And they didn't just hold them
in reproach. And in this particular case,
because their bodies were lying in the street, rotting, and no
one could go out and help them to bury them. And there they
were. These were people who believed
in the resurrection. These were people who held the
hope of the resurrection, so that when they buried their dead,
it was with the view that they would be raised again. And so
the body was something that they had a high respect for. And yet
these people came in and left them to rot. And so all these
things seem to go against the very truth they held most certainly
to be their hope, their truth, the truth of God. If this has happened, then there's
only one conclusion that can be drawn. Because it can't be
that God failed. So what does he say in verse
five? He says, will you be angry forever? God is angry with us.
It says, shall your jealousy burn like fire? The Lord is jealous
for his name. He's jealous for his people.
He's jealous for his worship, for his truth. He's jealous for
all these things. In Song of Solomon, chapter eight,
verse six, it says, jealousy is a vehement flame. Let me see
if I can get that verse and read it to you here. In Song of Solomon. It's after Proverbs, right? I
always have to refresh my memory where that little book is located
in scripture. Let me see if I can find it real
quick. It's in chapter 8 of Song of
Solomon. It says this, Set me as a seal
upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love is strong
as death. Jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of
fire, which hath a most vehement flame. That's the way jealousy
is. It's cruel like the grave. The coals of jealousy are a fire
that just keeps burning. And so that's what's said here
in Psalm 79. Shall your jealousy burn like
fire? pour out thy wrath upon the heathen."
So they're not denying the fact that they deserve this, because
they're saying, how long wilt thou be angry forever? They're
not saying God's anger wasn't justified. They're not saying
that they didn't deserve it, but that in fact his jealousy
was aroused because of their idolatry. And so they say, pour
out your wrath upon the heathen, they have not known thee, and
upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. Now, the
heathen have not known thee. So who are these heathen? Well,
it's those that don't know the Lord. Those who never know the
Lord. Remember Jesus told those in
Matthew 7, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never
knew you. And remember how it says in Romans
chapter 1, how that men have held down the truth because they
have denied what God has showed them about himself. So it says
in Romans chapter 1 and verse 20, he says, verse 19, because
that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God
has showed it to them. God has showed it, so they know
it. There's no denying it. Verse 20, for the invisible things
of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power
and Godhead. If all of creation was produced
by God and nothing was made but that He made, therefore His power
has to be eternal and has to be almighty. And then it goes
on, so that they are without excuse, because that when they
knew God, They glorified him not as God, neither were thankful,
but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed,
notice, what they knew to be true, they changed the glory
of the uncorruptible God into an image, that's idolatry, something
they imagined, made like to corruptible man, to birds, four-footed beasts,
and creeping things. Wherefore, this is why, God also
gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts."
Because their hearts were so perverse and so rebellious against
the truth of God, they did not like the truth of God. They, as Romans 8.7 says, the
carnal mind is enmity, it's hostility against God. because they, and
this is talking about all of us by nature, because when they
knew God they glorified him not as God, therefore God gave them
up to their own hearts lust to dishonor their own bodies between
themselves, and all that follows in that chapter is a catalog
of that. And it starts with homosexuality
and goes on and on to a long list, 23 different things that
it lists there. The point here is that these
people in Psalm 79 realize that these things that came upon them,
that God would allow the heathen to come in and do this to his
own inheritance, his temple, his holy place, his people, that
it had to be something that they had done to deserve it. So they
say, How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry forever? Shall thy jealousy
burn like fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen
that have not known and upon the kingdoms that have not called
upon thy name." If we don't know God, if we do not know God, then
we can only think wrong. Isn't that the truth? The only
way we can think right is if we know the truth. And Jesus
said, I am the truth. So, if we don't know the truth,
then we're only going to do wrong. We're going to think wrong, all
of our motives will be wrong, everything is wrong. But God's
word is like a water that washes us and it begins with the cleansing
of Christ's blood and washes our conscience with his blood
and teaches us that God's law is fulfilled by the Lord Jesus
Christ, both for precept and penalty. And so these things
are unknown to us until God makes himself known. But anyway, he
goes on, so bring out your wrath, pour out your wrath upon the
heathen that have not known, have not called upon thee. If
we know the Lord, we're going to call upon him. If we don't
call upon him, it's because we don't know him. And remember,
that's one of the promises in the New Covenant. They shall
all know the Lord. It goes on. They have devoured
Jacob and laid waste his dwelling place. Oh, remember not against
us former iniquities. Let thy tender mercies speedily
prevent us, for we are brought very low. Now, at this point,
I would like to consider the contrasts in this psalm. the things that are held in contrast. On the one hand, we see the heathen. And we hear the heathen have
come into God's inheritance and defiled His holy temple and laid
Jerusalem in heaps, killed the Lord's servants, and left His
saints' bodies exposed after they died to being eaten by beasts,
didn't bury them. They shed the blood of God's
saints as unconscionably as they would pour out water in an abundance
like water. So this is on the one hand. On
the one hand, these people, these heathen, scorned and reproached
the neighbors of the people of God. Their neighbors, actually
they reproached Jerusalem to their neighbors. So they would
mock them to their neighbors. And obviously the way they treated
them was a shame and a mockery. And it seemed like serving the
Lord would lead only to shame and certain death instead of
salvation and honor, which is what they believed. So the heathen
are winning. God's saints are losing to all
appearances. The heathen who don't know God
and don't call upon God seem strong and victorious, and they
seem to be at ease and able to plunder and spoil the saints
of God. And they're proud. because they
overcome the Lord's inheritance, so they boast. They scorn and
reproach the Lord's people. They want to humiliate them in
their victory. That's on the one hand, okay?
And that's clear in this psalm. But on the other hand, now, he
says in this same psalm, we see that God has a city. God has
a temple. God has an inheritance. God has
saints. He has servants. And his name
is the God of our salvation, as we're going to read here in
a minute. And we also see that though the heathen were proud,
God's saints were brought down. They were greatly humbled by
the chastening of God's hand. And so when the heathen do all
these things, they boast themselves against God. They reproach God
and they do it by reproaching God's people. But when the Lord's
people, when this comes upon them, what is their response?
Well, they're brought low, and they ask the Lord to save them,
and they tell him, in verse 13, the very last verse, that if
he does, so we thy people and chief of thy pasture will give
thanks to thee forever, and we will show forth your praises
to all generations. So the Lord's people, they anticipate
God's salvation, they hope in His salvation, they ask Him to
save them for His name's sake, for His glory, and to bring upon
the heathen what they brought upon them. What the heathen brought
upon Jerusalem, bring that upon them seven times as much. And so you see these two things
contrasted. So the Lord's people seem to
be devoured and killed, and their blood poured out like water,
and their bodies left to be eaten, and the Lord's name is scorned
and reproached. But the heathen prosper by the
destruction of the Lord's people, and so these atrocities go on
unbridled, unchecked, and unrepaid. And it seems like that this only
leads to a greater pride and determination of the heathen
here to destroy God's people and reproach God's name. So,
what we see in this psalm was, there was a poet that I remember
these words from a long time ago, which is why they came to
my mind. He said this in his poem, truth
forever on the scaffold, truth forever on the scaffold, wrong
forever on the throne, yet that scaffold sways the future and
behind the dim unknown stands God within the shadow keeping
watch above his own. Now, that poem was written for
a different purpose, but it captures the sense that it seems like
wrong is on the throne and God is in the shadows and nothing
is happening. And it appears that serving the
Lord, rather than evidence of salvation, And leading to preservation
and blessing actually leads to a horrible end and a shameful
death. And to all appearances, God has
left his people. But the response of the Lord's
people now, the response of the Lord's people by the mouth of
the psalmist here is the instruction of God's grace to us. Because
the Lord's people here are going to, we're going to see the response
of grace operating in the heart of God's people. Now look at
this in verse 8. Remember not against us former
iniquities. You see the prayer? Forgiveness,
when God forgives, He doesn't remember. In 1 Corinthians 13
verse 7, the translation of that text of scripture is actually
according to J.P. Green Sr. in his literal translation
version of the Bible. It goes like this, love quietly
covers all sin. Love quietly covers all sin. I love that text because that's
what God has done for his people. God has covered their sin. He has not brought it to our
up for judgment. He has not held it against them
for the long term. He has put it away. He has washed
them from it. And he has promised he will no
more remember their sins. And that's amazing. I remember
sins. I can't call them sins. I remember
things done wrong against me. And I hate that. I hate the fact
that I don't quietly cover all sin. When I'm wronged, it's easy
for me to remember it. And that should not be, because
love covers, quietly covers, all sin. But, here's the thing. When the Lord can't, how can
God forget? How can God forget? Remember
the thief prayed, Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom
after death, through death, and in all the busyness of your kingdom,
remember me. The Lord doesn't forget. Can
the Lord forget his people? No, no, no. But does he remember
their sins? And the answer is no. And that's
what the psalm is. Don't remember against us former
iniquities. And this is the promise in the
New Covenant, Hebrews chapter 10. Their sins and their iniquities
I will remember no more. And in Hebrews 10, he gives the
reason why God will not remember their sins. And what is that
reason? How is it that God cannot remember
or will not remember the sins of his people? It's because their
sins are no more. Their sins are as though they
never were. Because they are no more, Christ
has put them away. That's what the remission of
their sins means. And so that's a promise in the New Covenant.
It was fulfilled in the blood of Christ, and here the psalmist
is praying that, Lord. And this is the response of the
believer, in contrast to the heathen, who have only one thing,
one motive, which is to destroy, and to take, and boast against
the Lord's people, and to reproach their God, and to reproach them.
So the prayer of the believer is, Lord, don't remember against
us former iniquities. First, don't be angry with us. Your jealousy against us ought
to burn like fire. So here what we see is confession.
They're confessing their sins. Here we see they are justifying
God for what he has done in chastening them. They are not saying he
was unjust. They're just pleading with him
not to remember their iniquities, which we know can only happen
if God makes a full atonement for their iniquities. So he goes
on, remember not against us former iniquities, let thy tender mercies
speedily go before us, which is what the word prevent here
means. for we are brought very low." Go before us with your
mercies, Lord. Go before us so that no one can
lay anything to our charge. God has said, who can lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? So that's God's mercies going
before us. He went before us because before the foundation
of the world, God ordained to redeem His people by the precious
blood of Christ. So that He went before us in
the death of Christ to bear our sins so that He could say, And
who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died from before
the foundation of the world. So his mercies did speedily prevent
us. Remember his name is Jehovah
Nis, is it Nis or Jireh? I think it's Jireh. I can't remember.
Genesis 22 verse 14 and following. Abraham was going to offer up
Isaac, God prevented him, and then God provided a ram. And
when Isaac asked his father Abraham, we've got the fire, we've got
the fire and the wood, but where's the sacrifice? And Abraham said,
my son, God will provide himself a lamb. And so after that, Abraham
called that altar Jehovah-Jireh. I think that's the right word,
the right appendix to God's name. because he provides. He speedily
went before us. He provided in Christ before
we were ever born for our sins. That's amazing grace, isn't it? And then he says, after that,
for we are brought very low. That's the result of this chastening
of God. We're brought very low. And blessed
are they that mourn. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Remember Matthew 5, verse 4?
And so he says in verse 9, and this is one of the sweetest verses,
I think, in the entire psalm. He says, help us, O God of our
salvation. See the name? They that know
thy name will put their trust in thee. Psalm 9, verse 10. They
that know thy name shall put their trust in thee. What is
his name? God of our salvation. What is his name? Jesus. For
he shall save his people from their sins. He is Emmanuel, God,
with us. God has become my salvation. That is the promise of the Old
Testament Scriptures. That was the fulfillment of them
when Jesus was born, and that is what He accomplished when
He cried, It is finished. God of our salvation, help us.
Remember the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew 15? Help me, Lord. After she was rejected, it seemed,
by the Lord and by the disciples, she just said, help me. That's
what he's saying here. Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of thy name. Notice the motive. He's asking
God, consider this motive, the glory of your name. There's no
higher motive. There's no more correct way to
pray. In Matthew 6, when Jesus taught
his disciples how to pray, he said this, This is the way to
pray. He says, Our Father, which art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. So he was praying for God's glory,
wasn't he? Whatever your will is in heaven, make it happen
on earth. Bring to pass your will for the
glory of your name. Holy is your name. And then at
the end he says, unto him power and glory, and I can't remember
it because I'm not saying it in the right order, but you can
see that it all ties back to God's name, God's will, and that's
what he's praying here. Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of thy name, and deliver us. and purge away our
sins for thy name's sake." Incredible. Only the inspiration of the Spirit
of God could make known to us that it would bring glory to
God's name to purge our sins away. You see, God set his love
and purpose on his people. And in order to bring to pass
the blessings that he predetermined to give them and predestinated
them to, he would have to take away their sins. Before he would
destroy their enemies and subdue them, he would have to take away
their sins. Because their sins brought all
of this upon them And yet, in their prayer to God, they're
showing by the revelation given by the Holy Spirit that it's
because God purged their sins that he is delivering them from
these enemies and giving them what he purposed, promised, and
would do for them, for his people. Okay? And then he goes on in
verse 10. He says, wherefore should the
heathen say, where is their God? Let him be known among the heathen
in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants
which is shed. So in this verse here in Psalm
79 verse 10, after asking the Lord to purge our sins, then
bring upon the heathen a revenge. And he's talking here about the
heathen, and this is maybe one of the key elements, key pieces
of information in this psalm that we need to understand to
help us understand what this psalm is talking about. It's
who is the, who are the enemy? Who's the enemy here? Well, they're
described as the heathen. But realize that these heathen
that bring this destruction and reproach and everything are really
just the point on the spear. Who's holding the spear? That's
the question. Well, we know that Satan is ultimately
our enemy. But why are we allowed, why has
God given us up to the destruction and the cruelty that comes upon
us by Satan? It just seems upside down. In fact, this whole psalm seems
to be describing a situation that's upside down, doesn't it? The truth of God is that He blesses
His people. He's the God of His people. He's
going to do for them all that He promised. There's no good
He's going to withhold from them, and yet they're suffering like
the heathens should be suffering. It seems upside down, inverted,
inside out. What's going on here? And why
is the heathen, which are the point on the spear that Satan
wields, why are they allowed to do this? Well, it's because
of our sin, you see. It's because of our sin. And
the people of the Lord here, even though they're under this
horrible persecution and the sword and death and everything,
yet they're given by God to pray to Him in hope of the work of
Christ for them. And that's why they're praying
this way, purge away our sins, and then bring upon the heathen
what they deserve. You see? And so the heathen here
are not only Satan, but also his kingdom. These are those
who were appointed to wrath. Remember 1 Thessalonians 5? He says, God has not appointed
us to wrath. Let me read that to you in 1
Thessalonians 5. He says, in verse 9, for God
has not appointed us to wrath, which is what Psalm 79 seems
to open with. No, he says, God has not appointed
us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. So
whatever Psalm 79 is talking about in deliverance, the God
of our salvation, it's through the Lord Jesus Christ, who died
for us. that whether we wake or sleep,
we should live together with Him. Christ died that we might
live, and not just live, but live with Him. Together with
Christ, He died for us. And so, this is the result of
God's saving choice of His people to salvation. Look at 2 Thessalonians,
in chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, a contrast
is made there also. It says in verse 10, with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness, this man of sin, lying wonders
and so on, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, sounds like
Satan's modus operandi, in them that perish, them that perish
would be the heathen, because they receive not the love of
the truth, remember all men have the truth, but they suppress
it, and they worship and serve the creature more than the creator.
They serve themselves, they worship themselves, and they are opposed
to God in their minds. And so it's just that God would
bring upon them what they deserve. He obviously chastened his people. What's going to happen to them?
So he says, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that
perish because they receive not the love of the truth, that they
might be saved. God didn't have grace upon them.
Isn't it God's prerogative to show mercy? Is it right for God
to show mercy to whom he will? and harden whom He will? Is that
right? Well, to us humans, it seems
harsh, but we don't judge things by our own sense of right and
wrong, do we? If the Lord did it, it's right,
because He did it. If He thinks it, it's just, because
justice and right is defined by God. It's not defined by our
thinking, but His. And he's the sovereign. And so,
he says in Exodus 33, 18 and 19, this is his glory, to show
mercy to whom he will show mercy. And so, here he says, them that
perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they
might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion that they should believe a lie. that they all might be
damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord." You're
loved of God. God's love is towards His elect.
Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit. This is the means He chose. He
predestinated the means, which is the Spirit of God would apply
the Gospel to us. And belief of the truth through
faith. Saved by grace through faith, which is God's gift. He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So you
can see here that the prayer of the psalmist is to bring upon
the heathen, the reprobate, those who were given by God to wrath
out of justice, to bring upon them what they did to the Lord's
people and to the Lord's name. And that has to be right. It
has to be right, because God is praying this way. He makes
intercession against them, as it says throughout the scripture.
All right, we're going to have to stop here because we've run
out of time, but we'll pick it up here and finish this psalm
next time. Let's pray. Father, we know that
you are good. You are holy in all your ways,
righteous in all your thoughts. because you think them, and you
do them, and because you are holy. And we know that the Lord
Jesus Christ is holy, and he is right. And we also know that
you're gracious to sinners. in him, gracious to sinners,
in the Lord Jesus. So we ask, Lord, we plead with
you to forgive us to not remember our sins for Christ's sake, as
you've promised that you do, that you have forgiven our sins
for Jesus' sake. What a blessed truth this is. and how we find ourselves attracted
to this psalm, even though the destruction seems more horrible
than we can imagine. And we shudder to think of coming
under such judgments, such chastening, and yet we know, Lord, the answer
is your grace in Christ. And so we pray, Lord, that you
would forgive our iniquities and do it for your name's sake.
Bring glory to yourself in our salvation. You are the God of
our salvation. We're calling on you because
you've taught us to. We're trusting you because you've
convinced us that you save sinners and you do it by yourself. To
the praise and the glory of your grace, in Jesus' name we pray,
amen.