Psalm 55, to the chief musician
on Neginoth, Maskell, a Psalm of David. And we have spoken
about some of those things, and I would be the first to tell
you that those, we don't really know a whole lot about the import
of a lot of these titles, but nonetheless, The Lord saw fit
to give those descriptions to us, and He can give us understanding
that we stand in need of for it. It says, give ear to my prayer,
O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. Attend unto
me and hear me. I mourn in my complaint and make
a noise. Because of the voice of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked. For they cast iniquity
upon me, and in wrath they hate me. My heart is sore pain within
me, and the terrors of death are falling upon me. Fearfulness
and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.
And I said, oh, that I had wings like a dove, for then would I
fly away and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off
and remain in the wilderness, say law. I would hasten my escape
from the windy storm and tempest. Destroy, O Lord, and divide their
tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and
night they go about it upon the walls thereof. Mischief also
and sorrow are in the midst of it. Wickedness is in the midst
thereof. Deceit and guile depart not from
her streets. For it was not an enemy that
reproached me. Then I could have borne it. Neither
was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me.
Then would I have hid myself from him. but it was thou, a
man mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance. We took sweet
counsel together and walked into the house of God in company.
Let death seize upon them and let them go down quick into hell
for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them. As for me, I
will call upon God and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning
and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice.
He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was
against me, for there were many with me. God shall hear and afflict
them, even he that abideth of old, say, law, because they have
no changes, therefore they fear not God. He hath put forth his
hands against such as be at peace with him, he hath broken his
covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but
war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil,
yet were they drawn swords. Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved. But thou, O God, shalt bring
them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall
not live out half their days, but I, will trust in thee. Now this psalm I believe is Of course, as all of these Psalms
were written by men and written according to experiences that
they had in the course of their life. Of course, most of them
were written by David, not all of them, but most of them. And
this particular one was written by David. And many of the things
that are in this Psalm give me reason to believe that
And David is writing primarily about his trusted friend and
counselor, Ahithophel, who was walked with David and was David's
counselor, as he said, as a king. And whenever Absalom sought to
overthrow David and get the throne from David, Ahithophel became
Absalom's confidant and instructed him on what he needed to do.
He was the one that told Absalom that what he needed to do was
stretch out a tent on top of the building there and go in
unto David's wives, so that he might show that he was the one
that was in control there in Israel. And so David was a man
who was very much tried in many ways. Now David was a sinful
man, just like all men. He was an imperfect man, just
like all men. But the Lord made David an object
of his mercy and his kindness. And he used all of these things
to teach David where in his help and his hope lay. And because
he couldn't trust in men as he came to learn. He couldn't trust
in the arm of his own flesh. Now this Ahithophel, The scripture plainly says he
was David's counselor. And of course he speaks there
in this passage of scripture about that one that was his friend
and confidant. He says, we took sweet counsel
together and walked unto the house of God in company. We went
to church together. We worshipped the Lord together.
We walked together as friends. And yet Ahithophel turned against
David. And of course the Jews say in
their genealogies, and I didn't study this out, but I'm taking
someone's word for this, that Ahithophel was Bathsheba's grandfather. And some of the Jews surmise
that he was holding a grudge against David all this time that
he was walking in concert with David. And when the opportunity
presented itself, he turned against David. And so, I don't know if
all of that is absolutely true or not, but it might be an underlying
thing. You know, the wickedness of men
is woven throughout the affairs of this world. And it's really
a mess. You know, when people think The things that men always want
to bring up is all the wondrous achievements and things that
men do and, you know, it's just wonderful mankind. He's just
on an upward trend and he's getting all this great wisdom and he's
accomplishing all these things. But the underlying fabric of
society and all of the things that have gone on in the world
are interspersed and intertwined and the one thing that is constant
from beginning to the end is the wickedness and depravity
of men as they move against one another and primarily against
the Lord. and against those who are the
Lord's people. So, with that in mind, as we
think about what David is saying, now David was a beleaguered man,
was he not? Now, you might say that David
deserved everything that he got. But, you know, if we look at
the troubles that arise in our lives, could we not say the same
thing? I mean, you know, some person was asking me, they said,
well, what have I done that my life's just a shambles? What
have I ever done to deserve this? And I don't even know where to
begin to tell, what do you say to somebody like that? I mean,
because obviously, obviously, you know, they have no understanding
of what they are, because that's not a question that a man that
knows himself to be a sinner would ever ask. Why did this
happen to me? I mean, the question would be,
why has anything good ever happened to me? You know, because of when
I understand and see what I am by nature, it's an amazing thing
that God would have mercy on any. And of course, you know,
people get mad because you tell them God doesn't show mercy to
everybody. Because they just think it's kind of like man's
right. But if men got what they deserved, we'd all be destroyed
tomorrow. And the Lord would wipe his hands
of this whole thing and he'd just go on and do something else. But He has determined, dear brethren,
to redeem His people in this world. And He demonstrates that
through the sinfulness of men and their interactions with one
another. And He uses these things to teach
His people to trust Him. And this is the place where David
is brought. Speaking of David, David is just
a small illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because every heartache
that David ever knew, the Lord Jesus knew tenfold. Because he
was betrayed far greater than David ever was. David had many
things that went against him in his life, but the Lord Jesus,
the Scripture says, was a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief. He knew these things firsthand. He walked among men, and need
we say more. I mean, think about that. A perfect
man walking amongst sinners, what a great trial that in itself
would be. I mean, sometimes we think we
are vexed by the wickedness and stuff we see around us, and we
get on our high horse sometimes and get thinking about, you know,
what a terrible condition everything's in, and surely it is. I wouldn't
minimize that in any way. But, brother, we're all really
just part of it. I mean, the Lord hath not lifted
up His soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. And He had
to come and walk among men who have deceit in their heart, and
corruption in their veins, and go about to do those things that
would be contrary to His perfection. So in David's prayer, we do see
these, I believe, are the prayers of Christ, even though David
is the one who's given to speak these words to us. Give ear to
my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. Now that is the place that every
man, by the grace of God, Every man who by the grace of God is
brought to trust the Lord has to come. I mean, he will come.
And he desires that the Lord would hear him when he prays,
attend unto me and hear me. I mourn in my complaint and make
a noise. That is, I'm groaning. This is the effectual prayer
of a righteous man. Now, a lot of people look at
the effectual prayer of a righteous man, and they think of it, well,
here's a man who's righteous in morality, or he's righteous,
his men would say, well, here's a righteous man, and so, well,
his prayer is going to count for more before God. But you
see, the prayer of a righteous man is the man such as the publican
who went down to the temple to pray. Now, which one of those
guys that prayed, the Pharisee or the Publican, which one's
prayer was heard? Now, men would have looked and
they said, well, here's the righteous man, the Pharisee. He went down
there to pray. Well, the Scripture says he prayed
with his self. He prayed thus with himself.
But the old Publican, you see, he prayed the prayer of a righteous
man because he said, O God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He
knew what he was. He confessed that before Almighty
God. And that is the mark of a righteous
man. In the effectual prayer of a
righteous man availeth much before the Lord, because he will hear. that prayer, will he not? He
said he would not despise a broken and a contrite heart. He'll not
turn that man away that comes in that fashion. I mourn in my
complaint and make a noise because of the voice of the enemy, because
of the oppression of the wicked, for they cast iniquity upon me
and in wrath they hate me. Now this is indeed the words
of Christ because the world did hate him and does hate him. Now
the world will pay lip service to serving Christ, perhaps less
than at other times, at least in our society. I mean, the way of Christ and
the truth of Christ is not revered in the sense, at least outwardly,
in which it has been in times past, made more of a mockery
of it. Men take their own take upon what Christ came to do,
and they call themselves Christians, and they try to tell us, well,
this is what the Bible says, that Christ, He's trying to support
all men in whatever they want to do. Well, no. That's not true. You see, the problem with men
is we're by nature in rebellion against that which God says to
do. And so it doesn't make any difference what I think is the
right thing to do. What matters is what He says
is the right thing to do. And so it is. The enemies of
the Lord surrounded him. They cast iniquity upon me. And in wrath they hate me. My
heart is sore pain within me, and the terrors of death are
falling upon me. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ knew
what it was to walk in the valley of the shadow of death, even
as David testified in the 23rd Psalm, that yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death. The Lord Jesus Christ
did indeed walk in the valley of the shadow of death. As he
prayed before his father, Father, may this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as Thine, Thy will be done. Fearfulness and trembling are
come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. You know, horror
is a thing that was shrunk back from. Horror is that which just
causes us to cringe within us. And the sorrows of death, the
sorrows of hell got hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ as He bore
our sin. Now, I can't fully even begin
to comprehend it, much less to speak it to you or to tell you
anything really, in essence, about such great trouble. as came upon the Lord Jesus Christ,
but He was marred more than any man, not just physically, but
in soul and heart. He was torn apart from the inside. horror hath overwhelmed me. And
I said, O that I had wings like a dove, for then I would fly
away and be at rest." Now, David says, and this I believe even
as the Lord, as he was a man, this is a natural tendency of
man. Oh, if I could just get rid of my troubles. Now, thankfully
the Lord was willing to bear. the troubles for us, but it's
the natural way of man. It's just that which is a part
of man to want to escape trouble. Men don't run to trouble. They don't try to get into trouble.
They don't try to cause themselves pain. They want to be free from
it. And so David's prayer is, O that
I had wings like a dove, for then I would fly away and be
at rest, for I could just get away from my troubles. Don't
you sometimes just wish you could just get away? You know, you
just want to leave the troubles behind, you just want to close
the door and walk out and go out in the field and just be
out there and let all the other troubles, you know, take care
of themselves. That is a way of men. Lo, then
would I wander far off and remain in the wilderness. Just go off
in the woods and I'd just stay there. You know, far off from
all the troubles and problems. I would hasten my escape from
the windy storm and tempest. That is the place we would like
to be. But the Lord has a windy storm
and tempest for a reason, doesn't He? Just like when those disciples
were in the boat, and the Lord was asleep in the vessel, and
they said, what in the world's going on? I mean, here He is
sleeping, and we're about to perish. Well, why did the Lord
put them there? He put them there so they might
see that He was able to deliver them. Now, if there hadn't been
any storm or tempest, they would have never known that, would
they? I mean, would they have ever said, what manner of man
is this? If there would have never been
any storm for him to come, then they would have never seen it. But by the grace of God, he put
these troubles upon them to drive them to his feet. And that's
exactly where they came. Lord, save us. We perish. I mean,
we're fixing to sink any minute now, and you've got to wake up
and help us here. Destroy, O Lord, and divide their
tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and
night they go about it upon the walls thereof. Mischief also
and sorrow are in their midst. Wickedness is in the midst thereof.
Deceit and guile depart not from our streets." See, the justice
of God is The Lord Jesus Christ, He came
not into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved. But He did come as one to testify
against the wickedness of this world, of which He did. As He
told those Pharisees, He says, you're of your father the devil.
But He judged them. And He said, the Lord will destroy
you with the brightness of His coming. He said that He would
do that. And surely as he speaks out forth
this judgment here, as he describes that it was indeed those that
go about upon the walls thereof, wickedness is in the midst thereof,
deceit and guile depart not from their streets. For it was not
an enemy that reproached me, then could I have mourned it.
Now here he is, I believe David, speaking about Ahithophel, and
the Lord Jesus, of course, speaking about Judas Iscariot, no doubt. Neither was it he that hated
me that did magnify himself against me, then would I have hid myself
from him. You know, it would just be natural if you knew who
your enemies were. Now the Lord Jesus, on the other
hand, he knew who his enemies were, didn't he? He knew who
Judas was. In fact, he told Judas, he said,
you know, this is what you were born to do. He said, it'd been
better off if you'd never been born. But, because to fulfill
my purpose, he said, you have been created for this reason.
Now, he didn't say it in those words, but that's exactly what
he did say, in essence. And so the Lord Jesus knew who
his enemies were. We don't often know. And he wasn't
taken by surprise by that which Judas did, but David was indeed
taken by surprise by that which Hithophel did. He said, you know,
if it had been somebody that was said against me from the
beginning that I knew who my enemies were, he says, it wouldn't
be so bad. But he said, here you are. that
one who was my sweet and trusted friend. It was thou, a mine equal,
my guide and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together
and walked into the house of God in company. You stood with
me." Now, is that not the place Judas was? Judas was a trusted
disciple, wasn't he? I mean, he was the one they said,
here, you take care of the money. They trusted him. And yet the
script says he was a thief. Now that was in retrospect. See,
they didn't know he was a thief while he was among them. Why? Because he was a deceiver. And just as he would demonstrate
that he was a betrayer, We took sweet counsel together and walked
unto the house of God in company. Let death seize upon them and
let them go down quick or living into hell, for wickedness is
in their dwellings and among them." And that is the judgment
of God upon deceivers. The Scripture says that there
are no liars. in heaven. That is, in the presence
of God. There's no liars there. There's
no place for them, no place for deceivers. We took sweet counsel. Let death
seize upon them, for wickedness is in their dwellings and among
them. That is just the way that they are. And as for me, I will
call upon God and the Lord shall save me. You say, it doesn't
make any difference. I see that, I know that, but
my Confidence is not in trying to get people to do right and
be right, but it is in the Lord. Because it doesn't make any difference
what men do unto me. It doesn't matter what they speak
about me. It doesn't matter how they cheat
me, or if they lie to me, or all of these things. My help
is not going to come from them. And so my heart is turned to
the Lord. As for me, I will call upon God
and the Lord shall save me. Now, is that not the confidence
and trust of God's people? I mean, you know, we don't know.
You can't climb up to heaven with a ladder and read and see
if your name is written in the book of life. Would you want
to? You can't do that. You know,
you can't find that out. But by the grace of God, He manifests
Himself unto His people because they say the same thing David
did here. He said, I will call upon the
Lord, and the Lord will save me. Now Job said, though He slay
me yet will I trust in Him. But see, his confidence was that
the Lord would save him. even though he said, I cast myself
on the Lord regardless of what happens. Because you see, a man
that's been given faith, he can't do anything else. You can't keep
a man that's been given faith from trusting the Lord. Can you? How could you? I mean, the Spirit
of a son has been sent to his heart crying, Abba, Father. He
doesn't look for help anywhere else. He knows there's only one
place he can find help. And this is that prayer of David
and surely the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. Evening and
morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear
my voice. Now, we don't always know if
the Lord hears us, do we? On one hand, but then on the
other hand, we're right back in the same place. Why? Because
we do believe that he hears us. We don't know if He hears us,
but we do believe He hears us. It's kind of a conundrum, isn't
it? I mean, you can't know these
things, but yet at the same time you do know these things. You know that the Lord will hear
a sinner's prayer. You know that. Now you don't
know if he's going to hear you or not. Pass me not, O gentle
Savior, hear my humble cry, while on others thou art calling. Do
not pass me by. Now you see the Lord causes a
man to call upon the Lord. And a man can't necessarily say,
well I know for a fact that he's heard my prayer. But yet, he
knows that he does hear Sooner's prayer. And what does he do?
Does he turn away and say, well, I don't guess he's going to hear
me. No, I mean, see, he might think in his mind, he might think
of him like Jeremiah. You remember he said he got so
aggravated with the people wouldn't listen to him, he said, I decided
I wasn't going to say anything else about the Word of God. He
said I was just going to go home and I was going to be quiet,
not say anything else. But he said, the word of God
burned in me like a fire and I could not be silent and so
it is that the God's people they might get aggravated with the
Lord, well Lord you ain't even listening to me and they might
just make a resolve in their mind, well I'm not even going
to pray anymore don't do any good where are they going to
be? in a little while they're going
to be right back there Calling on the Lord, Lord help me. Why? Because the Lord is constraining
them unto Himself. And He's praying. The Spirit
of God moves them in prayers that cannot be uttered. See those
things. Prayer is not an exercise of
the mind, brethren. It's an exercise of the heart.
It's an exercise of the soul. And a man might not pray eloquently. I wouldn't say that the publicans'
prayer was an eloquent prayer, but it was a true prayer. And
that's the kind of prayer you see that the Spirit of God works
in men, is to pray truly as they call upon the Lord. He had delivered
my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there
were many with me. Now, that's kind of confusing
in how we would use the word with. I think what David is saying
in this word with, if you look it up, it can be translated as
against me. And I think that's really how
better it would be understanding. He's saying there were many against
me. That is, there were many with
me. That is, they were fighting against me. Because it's in the
context of what he's saying here. He said, the battle that was
against me, for there were many against me. That is, there were
many who were fighting with me, not alongside of me, but against
me. God shall hear and afflict them,
even he that abideth of old. Selah. Now listen to this, because
they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. Now how does
a man fear God? Does he fear God by nature? No,
men don't fear God by nature. Now, they should. They should
fear God. I mean, if they read, all they'd
have to do is just open up the book and read it, and a man just
with natural reason ought to read this book and put it down
and say, man, I'm in trouble. But they don't, why? Because
they don't believe it. They can't believe it. They don't
have any understanding of it. They can care less. They're content
to go their own way, and they're not trembling before Almighty
God. But you see, when the Spirit
of God begins to move in a man, he begins to tremble before God. And he says, because they have
no changes, therefore they fear not God. Now, the children of
God do have changes, do they not? They were walking, what
happened to the Apostle Paul? He had a change didn't he? What
happened to him? He was going one way down the
road to Damascus was one thing in mind and the Lord brought
about a change in him. He didn't decide to do something,
the Lord decided to do something. For him, and he brought about
a change. The Lord said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And that's the change, you see,
that must take place. And the wicked, those who are
set against the way of God, they don't have any changes. They
don't fear God. You can't make a man fear God.
You can't teach a child to fear God. Now, I believe you need
to teach them the Word of God. You need to set it forth before
them in such fashion as if you could cause them to fear God,
you would. I believe you can instill the
fear of God in a measure or at least the principle of the fear
of God in a child through discipline. Otherwise, you know, if a child's
never disciplined, how are they ever going to know that there
is a right and a wrong? They must be corrected. The rod
of correction is that which the Lord is pleased to use in that
way. But that's not a spiritual change
that takes place in them. And a child, regardless of how
much of the Bible he might hear when he's growing up, if the
Lord does not cause a change to come into his heart and mind,
he'll never fear God. They have no changes, therefore
they fear not God. He hath put forth His hands against
such as be at peace with Him. He hath broken His peace. This
is speaking of the wicked. He said those that try to be
at peace with Him. He says the way of wicked men
is to be against men. He hath broken His covenant.
That is, the things that He says He would do, He will not do.
Dishonesty is in the heart of wicked men. He hath broken his
covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother
than butter, but war was in his heart." Now I think he's speaking
of Ahithophel here. Ahithophel, he spoke like smooth
butter to David, as long as David was the king. But as soon as
David got deposed by Absalom, then things changed. But war
was in his heart. His words were softer than oil,
yet they were drawn sword. Same way with Judas. Judas knew
what he was going to do before he did it, did he not? I don't
know how long he plotted to do this. I don't know when Judas
came to the place where he decided to betray the Lord? I don't know what happened. I
don't know if there was a point in time or if he from the beginning,
now the scripture says from the beginning he was a devil. Now
what I think it means is that, of course this is just describing
him that he was ordained under this purpose. This was the purpose
for which he was ordained. Now, at some point in time, he
made a conscious decision to betray the Lord. And I don't
know if that was if he, from the first day, or if he was just
looking for an opportunity all the time, buttering him up, you
know, and talking like he was one of the lead disciples. Remember,
he was all concerned about how the money was going to be spent.
Or so he wanted men to think, the disciples to think, when
in reality he was just Didn't want the woman to do what she
was doing. Thought that money ought to be
spent better than what it was. Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved. What a glorious thing. Is that
not what we would tell sinners? The hoes are in a place of need
this day. Cast your burden on the Lord.
I mean, you can't bear it yourself. I mean, you've tried to bear
it, and look what it's got you. I mean, you know a man, when
a man tries to solve his own problems, he can't solve them. And a man that thinks that he
can get his life straightened out, and then he'll come and
walk with the Lord, is a foolish man, only as the Lord changes
a man's heart. He shall sustain thee, he shall
never suffer the righteous to be moved. But thou, O God, shalt
bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful
men shall not live out half their days. The Lord will destroy the
wicked. I mean, that's what it says.
Now, David's speaking about the fact that I believe literally,
if you stop and you look at historically, Ahithophel, according to Jewish
history, he died when he was about 35 years old. Judas died
when he was about the same age. I mean, the Lord will, but that's
about half. Didn't the Lord say 70 years is about the course
of a man's life? Now we know some people live
longer and some people don't live that long. But 70 years
is considered to be kind of like, you know, whatever you get beyond
70 years is really, you know, an extra blessing or curse or
however you want to look at it. But that's the normal span. He said they won't live out half
their days and they did not. The Lord Jesus Christ became
sin for us. In the sense in which our sin
was put upon Him, He became foul. And He lived not half of those
years. He died when He was about 33
years old. Now, the Lord does sometimes
cause wicked men to live long lives. So this is not speaking
about literally true, but it is prophetically true. The Lord
will destroy the wicked. Whether he lives to be 100 or
he lives to be 25, the Lord will destroy the wicked. And that's
what he's saying. Thou shalt bring them down to the pit of
destruction. But look at what he says in the
very end. He said, but. will trust me. I know the Lord will destroy
the wicked. And it might turn out that I'm one of them. But I will trust the Lord. Because I can't do anything else. And that gives me reason to hope.
That gives me encouragement as I go along the way that the Lord
will hear my prayer. Now that is an encouragement
to the sons of God, that His ear is open unto the cry of His
children, to those that call upon His name and know themselves
to be in need of His mercy.