Now the clear theme of this psalm
in its entirety is captured in this picture painted in verse
one. God standeth in the congregation
of the mighty. And by the way, that word mighty
there, I believe it's the same word as God's in verse six. It's the powerful, the influential,
the ones in authority, judges. The word means judges or rulers. The mighty, he judges among the
gods. The gods or judges or rulers
of the earth are gathered together here in the congregation of the
mighty. They're gathered together here
in picture in this verse one to make judgments among men.
That's what they do. They're elected or appointed
or whatever to rule over the people, to make judgments among
men, to supposedly dispense justice. to establish right and wrong
in the sense that when that is unclear in the affairs of men,
and often it is, that's why we have courts and judges and government
established to settle things like that, when right and wrong
is unclear. Who's right, who's wrong in this
matter? Well, somebody's got to decide that. And those in
authority will do that. In whatever sense, based on the
justice system that's in place. But here these judges were established
to do this and they're called gods more than once in the scripture,
not just in this song. The Lord quoted this verse when
speaking to the Jews because they. They had a problem with him referring
to himself as the son of God. And he said, doesn't the scripture
say you are all gods? And if men are called gods in
the sense that they have authority from God and are like God in
that, then the argument from the lesser to the greater, you
know, as the Jews often did, is that can you really have a
problem with God Almighty calling himself God? If men can call
themselves what they are based on authority, given authority,
established authority, Will you deny the authority of the one
who gave them that? But these gods, judges, they
were the final say in the matters of men. Now the picture is this
though, when these men of high authority and holding men's lives
in their hands, I don't know if you've ever had your life
in the hands of another man, I can't really remember a case
of that to a great degree in my life, but I've seen it happen.
I've sat in court and I've thought, you know, whatever happens to
that person is going to be decided by those people. And that person,
that's got to be pretty, pretty sobering, pretty sobering. And you understand the power
that these men had, but there's one standing in their midst when
they judge, when they decide matters, When they declare right
and wrong, when they wield power that it's downright scary for
any mortal to have, there's one judging them. There's one deciding
what they decide. There's one who is in authority
over their authority. There is one who decides their
decisions. There's one who holds in his
omnipotent hand these ones who hold in their hands the destinies
of men. Aren't you glad? Aren't you? Just delightfully glad of that. And how timely this message is,
as we see the political campaigns of this country being played
out before our very eyes, even now. Think of the power that
they'll have, that those men and women will have, who are
elected to Congress and to be President of the United States,
the President of the United States, the most powerful single human
being on God's Earth. Earthly speaking. And I'm glad that we have the
form of government that we do. I thought about this, a republic,
such as we have in this country, where people are ruled and judged
through elected representatives of the people. I believe it's
the best possible form of earthly government that there can be.
No one person wields power without checks and balances. Of course,
it has its flaws. Maybe the greatest one is nothing
ever gets done, because it's almost impossible to get men
to ever agree on anything. Imagine if the wrong man had
ultimate power and authority to just do what he wanted to,
like a king. That scares me. But no matter what form of government
we find ourselves under, is it not comforting to the people
of God that no man or group of men has the final say in anything? In fact, when you get right down
to it, They don't have any say in anything. You think about
that. They have no say in it. God,
the judge of all the earth, is just using them to accomplish
his divine, good, unalterable, sovereign purpose. How do you
sleep at night? That's how I sleep, thinking
about the Lamb of God on the throne, on the right hand of
the majesty on high, ruling and reigning and declaring this,
revealing this to his people. Everything that happens, happens
for your good. It works together for your good,
if you love me. If you've been called according
to my purpose. I know the political news is
frightening. It's hard not to be a little
concerned, isn't it? I know that our country is almost
unrecognizable from what it was even just 10 years ago. It's
a frightening time. I know that there are legitimate
concerns. And those who say, let me just say this to you,
those who say that we should have no interest in the political
process of our country at all because God's on the throne,
they're missing the point too. You're just missing the point.
David was a man after God's own heart. Would you say he was concerned
with the political affairs of his country? involved in politics
a little bit? I'd say so. He grieved over,
Paul grieved over the error and the terrible condition of his
countrymen. But they both trusted in and
rested in the great judge who rules all things, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and so must we. And bless God, we can, and by
his grace we do. There are gods of the earth who
wield great power and determine things of great consequence.
But the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. And as the
rivers of water, he turneth it with her, soever he will. I will
both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord only, makest
me to dwell in safety. Do you remember when David numbered
the people? And God gave him a choice, said, trust in the
Lord. It seems that he wanted to know, you know, how strong
are we? Who can we, what can we do, you know, based on how
many strong we are, how many men we have and things. And the
Lord, the Lord rebuked him for it. And God gave him a choice
of three consequences. And David said, It would either
be famine, or it would be to be overrun and destroyed by the
enemies that constantly surrounded Israel. And we're just looking
for a chance to do that. Or it would be a pestilence,
great disease. Here's what King David said in
2 Samuel 24, 14. David said unto God, I'm in a
great strait. Let us now fall into the hand
of the Lord, for his mercies are great. and let me not fall
into the hand of man. Don't want my enemies to have
their way with me. Don't want a famine because you
know what happens in famine. You're dependent on those where
there is no famine. Just like in Egypt, when Joseph
opened the storehouses and all who were suffering from the famine
were dependent upon them. David said not I don't think
I like that. So it was pestilence. The Lord
gave him disease and then he died. But he said, even as a
secondary instrument in the hand of God, I don't want to be in
the hands of men. I'd rather be directly in God's
hand. I can understand that. Don't
you understand that? To be at the mercy of the merciless
is a terrible, terrible prospect. But even if we do find ourselves
there, we can still rest in the fact that the judge, the judge,
judges among the judges. I like that verse one. He stands
in the congregation of the mighty. And verse two, how long will
you judge? This, of course, is directed at those who were referred
to in verse one. How long will you judge unjustly
and accept the persons of the wicked. If you think about this,
this is, this is, these are two questions. If you condensed all
the consideration, you think about politics and the leaders
of this country. And it kind of boils down to
this, doesn't it? Unjust. And when you say the word politics,
if you say, oh, down in our office, there's a lot of politics. You
know what that means, don't you? People are favorites based on
what they can do for one another. That's what the latter part of
that verse has to do with. Politics is defined by that.
You scratch my back, I'll scratch your back. I just was hearing
it today. How that the money that's injected into the political
process corrupts everything. Nobody does anything based on
whether it's right or wrong. They do it based on how much
is it gonna profit me. And here we are. The more corrupt
and unscrupulous a person is, the better political candidate
they'll make, generally speaking, and everybody knows it. And I say that regarding the
latter part of the verse. This could be applied in a number
of ways. Think about the people who are pandered to by our government
right now, in terms of the language of this verse, accepting the
persons of the wicked, who are made heroes and who are set on
pedestals and who are pandered to. Who gets invited to the White
House and who doesn't? Who are the people who are celebrated
and protected and given preferential treatment by our rulers? I could
name them for you, but I'm sure you can think of it. And judging to judge unjustly? Can you think of a few examples
of that? I have some examples down here
but I think it would just be, it would just limit it to these
two if I said them because it just, you could probably think
of a hundred if I don't distract you from doing it. So I'll just
let you think of them. I think most people agree that
our government's broken. our sense of justice, our priorities,
our values as a nation, especially when it comes to our government,
who we elected, by the way. Somebody did, didn't they? You can't blame them, really,
ultimately, can you? That's the only thing scarier than the wrong
people being in power, is the fact that this nation is so messed
up that we put them there. You think about that. Over and
over again we put them there But here's the lesson of our
psalm tonight The judge of all the earth is on the throne of
all dominion and power and he judges righteous judgment And
so the psalmist calls upon him Lord you rise up and judge Last
verse we'll get to that Lord willing But this means If God
judges the judges He decides what the deciders decide. And
that means a couple of things now. If God is on the throne,
and he ultimately rules and reigns and judges between men, then
that means a couple of things. There's accountability. The buck doesn't stop with you,
whether you think it does or not. I don't care how much power
you have, how big a boss you are, you have a boss too, and
you're accountable to it. And it means this too. It shall
be well with the righteous. I don't care how ill it is based
on the judgments of men. According to his judgment, according
to his estimation of things, according to his rulings, according
to his authority and dominion. It ends well for us, his people.
Look at verse three. Defend the poor and fatherless. The judge does, doesn't he? Blessed
are the poor, he says. Do justice to the afflicted and
needy. Deliver the poor and needy. Rid them out of the hand of the
wicked. But look at verse five, they
know not. This is again talking about the judges that are in
in control. They know not, neither will they
understand. They walk on in darkness. All
the foundations of the earth are out of course. You ever feel
that way? Everything is just swirling down
you know where. That's how David, that's how
the psalmist here felt. Because of who's in charge in
this world, all of the foundations of the earth are out of course.
We're going the wrong way and there's no end in sight I've had some thoughts like that
just lately But in the midst of this notice in verse 5 there
one little phrase I wanted to point this out particularly in
this passage here Neither will they understand you think it's
fixed to get better They don't have a clue and psalmist
here said they're not gonna I It's not going to get any better.
If you weren't depressed yet, maybe now it's sinking in a little
bit. It's not going to get any better. You think it's going
to get better? Not really. But think about this with me
now. I know we hold out some hope. I do too. I'm with you in this. We hold
out some hope that for a while at least things could be better.
And it's true. We might elect somebody that
will actually do some of what they say they'll do. The economy
might improve for a while. These are things that people
were concerned about then. Their daily lives are affected
by those in power, just like they are now. The economy might
get a little bit better for a while. The military might be strengthened.
I think that's a pretty important one right now for us. You look at the condition this
world is in and our relationship in this world with everybody
else, I think we need to spend a little money on the military. That could happen. I think that's
wise. Some of the rank injustices and
just abysmal policies might be repealed, and some justice may
prevail for a little while. Of course we hope that. That's
why we vote. Of course we do, and rightly
so. But here's the lesson. If your
hope is in men, You're in a sad place. Ultimately, it don't get better. It just doesn't. And we need
to realize that, you know, we go through this life just in
our own personal status and condition in this world, we keep thinking,
Oh, if it just gets better, and again, if it just get better,
how long have you been thinking that? It already is better. It is what
it is. It's time we started living right
now. And I'm talking to myself. I'm
always thinking, boy, if I could just, especially when I was in
this world in the sense that you are, trying to scrape out
of living in this world and in this dog eat dog world, trying
to climb the ladder, you know. I was always thinking, boy, just
another year. I'm going to be over. I'm going
to be there. I'm going to be over the hump. You're already where
you are. And you're always going to be thinking that if you think
it now. Live in the moment. Is that too cliche? We don't
have to honor God. If we think things are bad now
and we're hoping they'll get better, we don't have to honor
God while things are bad. Because we always think that. The truth is we're rich. We have
everything we need. And always have. You know, you learn things from
your parents and from people that you look up to in the sense
of good. And you also learn things in
the negative sense, don't you? You learn lessons from failures
and from thinking that's just flawed. And this is what I want
to learn. I don't want to be 50, 60 years
old and God has taken care of me every day of my life, however
many days, 60 years is. And I think on the next day,
everything's going to fall apart. I still think that way. Don't
you? He's taken care of me for 51 years. And I think 50 year
52 is everything's going to fall apart. How ungrateful, how dishonoring,
and how stupid, just flat stupid that is. It's not going to get better.
You think this world is going to get better? This world is
what it is. And ultimately, evil men and
seducers will wax worse and worse, those in authority and those
not in authority. They don't know anything the
psalmist said and they're not fixing to They're not going to
know anything next year and they're the year after that But here's
our hope god is going to do something about it He's going to do something
about it. What did I say a while ago? That
god being the ultimate judge his son. He committed all judgment
to his son jesus christ. What does that mean to you and
me? accountability Look at verse six, I have said you are gods
and all of you are children of the most high, but you shall
die like men. Those who judge poorly and wrongly
and defy the true judgment of God. And you're going to fall
like one of the princes. Now, these are not children of
God in the sense of Matthew 5 and 9. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Not the elect
of God. Our verses here are speaking
of men who are godlike in their authority. They are children
of God in the sense that they are like him in that, in their
authority, and because he appointed them to that authority. That's
why they're called his children here. But the message of these
two verses is that in spite of their having elevated status
in this life and being the big shot and what they say goes,
they're going to die just like everybody else. Just like everybody
else. We all die the same. Just like
a, just, just a man, a dead man is all you're going to be. Not
a dead judge. There are no dead judges. There's
just dead men. See what I mean? When you're
dead, you're not a judge anymore. Or a pauper or anything. Do you remember what it said
in Hebrews 9, 27? This is a well known and often memorized verse. It is appointed unto men once
to die. Do you remember the rest of it? After this, the judgment. That's
what we're talking about. And that judgment's not talking
about men judging. That's the judgment. That's when
the judge of all the earth will stand before him. God is judging
and ruling among men right now. We know that. Not a pair of dice
is rolled except he decides what comes up. Snake eyes or an 11. That's what the scripture says.
The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof.
You look up that word disposing. It means the deciding of the
matter is of the Lord. He's doing that right now. He's
judging and deciding everything right now. Yes or no. Black or white, whatever. This person, that person. But there's also a final judgment,
when every man must give account of his judgments in the earth.
And this is all of us now, because we're all judges in a sense,
aren't we? I show you that from the scriptures. The Lord said
to the Jews in John 7, 24, judge not according to the appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. He wasn't talking to a bunch
of judges in the sense that they were appointed judges of something.
He's just talking to ordinary Jews, religious Jews. And he
said, you better judge righteously, not based on your eyes, not based
on what you think, not based on the way you estimate things
to be. And he was talking about their
opinion of him, what they thought of him. You better judge righteous
judgment. That's all of us now. They judged
the only begotten Son of God, the only good man who ever lived,
to be evil and worthy of death. He warned them, didn't he? Judge
righteous judgment. Acts 13 46 part of Paul and Barnabas
waxed bold and said it was necessary that the Word of God should first
have been spoken to you But seeing you put it from you and judge
yourselves unworthy of everlasting life Lo we turn to the Gentile
you make judgments every day These judges in our scripture
psalm 82 or a picture of all of us And I'll tell you this
we are judges you and me I are judges in matters of great consequence,
eternal consequence. And what else does it mean that
Christ is judge? That he sits on the throne, he
rules and he reigns, he decides. He said to the disciples, you
didn't choose me, I chose you. He says in his word, you don't
love me, I love you. Before you were ever born or had done anything
right or wrong. I either said I love you or I
hate you. We talk about the judge now.
What does that mean? That he decides. Well, it means
hope and rest and comfort. Enjoy. For his people. That's verse 8. Arise, oh God. Judge the earth. Do you know
how many people in this world want that? Very few. Very few. We got things well
in hand ourselves. We don't need God to judge anything.
Oh, but His people say arise. Oh God. Oh God. Don't let me be in the
hands of men. Don't leave me in the hands of
those people in Washington, D.C. Don't do that, Lord. You arise.
You decide the matter. You rule. You reign. You turn.
You move. You speak. You do what you do. What is the result of Christ
being given all judgment? Why do we say that? Lord, you
are rising judge. You decide. You be the decider
of every matter. Why do we say that? Turn to John
5. I just want to read this brief passage of scripture and close.
John chapter 5. Verse 21, now you listen to the
word judge and judgment and what goes with it here. John 5, 21. For as the father raiseth up
the dead and quickeneth them, even so the son quickeneth whom
he will, life. And death is in that verse too,
because he quickens whom he will, not everybody. We will. For the
Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son. Judgment is connected here with
who lives and who don't. That all men should honor the
Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself,
and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because
he is the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus Christ decides
every matter in this world down to the small detail of somebody
rolling a pair of dice. But what's the greatest matter
that'll be decided? Who lives and who don't? He decides that
too. Arise, oh God and judge. Decide whether the dice come
up a three or a seven. And decide whether my children Live or die. Is that alright
with you? Who do you want to decide that?
Them? And let me say this, and decide
everything in between. Everything in between that. Decide
who's going to be president, who's going to control the Senate. Oh God, you arise. And his people wouldn't have
it any other way. You decide everything. Don't leave anything. Here's the favorite words of
religion. Don't leave anything up to us. The favorite words of religion
are the most scary words I've ever heard in my life, I bet
you. Do you really want anything to be up to men? That's what
the psalmist is saying here. Arise, oh God, judge the earth. As judge of all with all authority
and executing his will freely in all things, the son is going
to decide who has life and who does not have life. By virtue
of his sin atoning death on Calvary, he by his death bestows life
on whom he will. If he dies for me, I live for
him. It's that simple. He that hath the Son, he that hath Him as Redeemer,
he that hath Him as propitiation for sin, he that hath Him as
Lord, as God, he that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life. If God be for me, I live. If He be against me, what difference
does it make who's for me? In the last part of the verse,
he shall inherit... The nations now are just a picture. You know what he inherits? Everything. Everything. These words, all nations now,
this speaks of those people whom the Father gave him from all
eternity. Out of every kindred, tribe,
nation, and tongue under heaven, The Father says to the Son in
Psalm 2 8, ask of me that I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. And the Lord said, give them
to me. And he did. Father, I will that those that
you've given me be with me where I am. Done. Done. So he inherits us. He gets us. I'm so glad. Aren't you? He inherits all glory and all
authority and all dominion and all power. And listen to this,
Romans 8, 16, The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit
that we're the children of God. Those are the ones who say, Arise,
O God, and you judge, you decide. You have authority. The children
of God. And if children, then heirs.
Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ He inherits everything
and I inherit with him If so be that we suffer with him that
we may also be Glorified together. So let me say this to you tonight
We're gonna worry about it a little bit aren't we don't worry too
much about it. Don't worry that much about it
We'll fret a little bit We will, we'll do it together. We'll say,
oh no, so-and-so is leading in the polls, you know. There's one judge and one ruler,
and he doeth all things well. Don't let's ever forget that. The government is on his shoulder. Isaiah 9, 6. And he don't even need both shoulders.
It's on just one of them. The government, all government.
He governs his universe sovereignly. He decides everything. For under
us a child is born. Under us a son is given. And
the government shall be on his shoulder. Boy, that better be somebody
wonderful if everything rests on his shoulder. Can you think
of anybody in politics that you'd describe that you'd want everything
to rest on their shoulder? Who is this one upon whose shoulder
rests the government of the universe? Well, Isaiah said, I'll tell
you, his name is wonderful. Arise. Counselor. The mighty God. The everlasting Father. The Prince of Peace. I'm okay with Him deciding everything
about you. In fact, let's cry out to Him.
Let's call upon Him. Let's praise him in that and
agree with him in it arise Oh God and judge us Don't leave us don't leave us
in the hands of me Let's pray