Our text this evening is found
at the end of the psalm that we read, Psalm 109 verse 31. For he shall stand at the right
hand of the poor to save him from those that condemn his soul. In Psalm 109 and verse 31. For
he shall stand at the right hand of the poor
to save his soul, to save him rather from those that condemn
his soul. We might ask the question, who
is this he that is being spoken of? Remember the language of
the Ethiopian eunuch, Tefillin, of whom speaketh the prophet
this?" And we might put that same question to David, the author
of the psalm. Of whom is it that David is speaking? Well, we find the answer when
we turn to the New Testament, as is so often the case with
regards to any of our understanding of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Remember the words of that great Church Father, Augustine of Hippo,
concerning the interpretation of God's Word, how the New Testament
is in the Old, concealed, and the Old is in the New, revealed. And this psalm is a Messianic
psalm. The person being spoken of primarily
is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. the words that we have in verse
8 concerning the wicked it's really a reference to Judas Iscariot
who betrayed the Lord, let his days be few and let another take
his office and see how these words are taken up there in the
opening chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in Acts chapter
1 in particular verse 20 but seeing
the words in their context from verse 16, men and brethren this
scripture must have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth
of David spake before concerning Judas which was guide to them
that took Jesus for he was numbered with us and had obtained part
of this ministry Now this man purchased a field with the reward
of iniquity, and falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst,
and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the
dwellers of Jerusalem, insomuch as that field is called in their
proper tongue Al-Qadamah, that is to say, the field of blood.
For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation
be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and his bishopric let
another take. And you will observe, if you
have a marginal reference, that the particular psalm being referred
to is this 109th psalm. And verse 8. The psalm then is
prophetic, messianic. It is speaking of Christ, it
is speaking of those who are the great enemies of Christ. And think of Judas, who betrayed
the Lord and betrayed him with a kiss. And so we can answer
the question that we put at the beginning. Who is this He, of
whom speaketh the prophet? these things, for he shall stand
at the right hand of the poor to save him from those that condemn
his soul." I want us then to consider the Lord Jesus Christ
himself standing as the surety of his people. That is the theme
that we come to address, Christ standing as the surety for his
people. We search the Scriptures, as
the Lord Himself tells the Jews, and what do we discover? We discover
that the Lord Jesus Christ is everywhere. The Lord Jesus Christ,
and that's our theme. But I want to divide the subject
matter into some three parts. First of all, to consider who
the accused are. Those that will be condemned.
Secondly, to consider the accusers, and then finally to say something
with regards to Him who is the surety, standing at the right
hand of the poor. First of all, the accused. The
accused. We have this description of them
in the Psalm. The Lord Jesus stands at the
right hand of the poor, it says. to save him from those that condemn
his soul. The psalm is dealing with soul
matters. The psalm is to be interpreted in a spiritual sense. Here we
have the needy man. The man who is heartbroken. Look at what he says back in
verse 16 concerning the wicked. He remembereth not to show mercy,
but persecuteth the poor and needy man, that he might even
slay the broken in heart. It's this broken-hearted man,
this needy man, that stands here as one who is accused. Again, in verse 20 we see that
there's a reference to his soul. David speaks of them that speak
evil against my soul. Now the psalm is to be understood
then with regards to the matters of a man's soul, his spiritual
needs. Who is this man? Well, remember
the words of the Lord Jesus in the course of his ministry. We're
familiar with the Sermon on the Mount and that opening part of
the sermon, which we call the Beatitudes, where the Lord describes
those who are truly the blessed, the happy men, blessed, says
the Lord Jesus, are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. And this is the man who is accused,
that man who is poor in spirit, that man who feels so often that
he is condemned in his very soul. And when the Lord utters those
words with regards to the blessed man, He's not just speaking of
a man who is spiritually poor, a man who is destitute of all
spiritual good. We know that that is true of
everybody. There is no one born into this
world that has any spiritual good or are bereft of that. all are born in that condition
where they're dead in trespasses and in sins and how these things
are spelt out repeatedly here in the Word of God. Think of
the language of the Apostle when he writes in the third chapter
of the Epistle to the Romans and he is referring to things
that are written previously in Scripture. Romans 3.10, as it
is written. There is none righteous, no not
one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth goods. No, not one. Their throat is
an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their
feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. And the way of peace they have
not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Oh, as it is written, and where
is it written? Well, those words from Romans 3 are to be found
twice here in the book of Psalms, in the 14th and the 53rd Psalms. All men then by nature are spiritually
poor. They have nothing at all that
would in any way commend them to God, only that that would
stand to condemn them. We're all as an unclean thing.
says Isaiah, and all our righteousness is hard as filthy rags, the very
best that we do. What we think our righteous deeds,
our filthy rags, we fade away like the leaf we see of this
season, of the years, the leaves falling from the trees and how
quickly they dry and wither, and how the wind carries them
away. And that is the state, the condition of each and every
one of us by nature. And yet, strangely, there are
those who think themselves to be good. There are people, religious
people, who think that they are good. There were those in the
early church, there were those in the church at Laodicea. Remember
what he said in that letter that he sent to that particular church
in Revelation chapter 3 verse 17 thou sayest I am rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest
not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind
and naked. Oh God preserve us from any spirit
of self-sufficiency, any thought of self-righteousness. That is not the person that the
Lord is speaking of when he says, blessed are the poor in spirit.
It's not just being spiritually poor, it's not just being destitute
of spiritual good that is being spoken of there. No, those that
the Lord speaks of are such as have been brought to fill the
reality of their spiritual poverty. And it's the same poor man that
we have here in our text. He shall stand at the right hand
of the poor, it says. All this poor man, he knows it,
he feels it. He's a sensible sinner. You all
remember the truth that sin itself is of man, sin itself is of the
creature. But the sense of sin is that
it is of God. It's when God shows a man something
of his real condition, teaches him the truth concerning himself,
and then he'll cry out, all wretched man that I am, Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? Oh, he feels it, because the
Lord Himself has taught him the truth. He's a beggar. He has nothing to commend himself
to God. All he can do is sue for mercy. As Samuel Medley says in the
hymn, A beggar poor at mercy's door like such a wretch as I,
thou knowest my need is great indeed. Lord, hear me when I
cry." And this is what David is seeking to do here in the
psalm. Or how David would give himself
unto prayer. He says at verse 4, for my love
they are my adversaries but I give myself unto prayer. Now we preached on those words
on a previous occasion and observed the significance of what he said
there in verse 4 because the three words give myself unto
are in italics. In other words, they are words
introduced In the translation, not a rendering of any word in
the original Hebrew, the verse literally says, for my love they
are my adversaries, but I pray. All his whole life is prayer. His whole life is one of pleading
with God. He cannot defend himself. He
feels himself to be a sinner. He is worthy only of the condemnation
of God. There's nothing that he can bring
that would in any sense commend him. No, he has to plead and
sue for the mercy of God. In that sense he's a beggar. But here is one, you see, he
stands at the right hand of the poor. To save him from those
that condemn is Saul. Now, the word that we have here
It is interesting sometimes just to examine the words, particular
words. I find word study can be profitable. We believe, as we often say in
the plenary, the verbal inspiration of the word of God, we believe
that the very words that we have there in the original Hebrew,
as it would be here, in the psalm, the very words are God's words.
And so, the words are significant. Well, what of the word that we
have? Well, this word, poor, literally means beggarly. It's derived from a verb that
means to crouch, or to cower. We can think of the beggar, you
see, feeling himself to be so unworthy, crouching, cowering.
asking for arms of all those who go by. That's the word that
we have. And here we see how the Lord
stands at the right hand of such a character of this. These are
those who are accused. But the Lord says to this man
will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit
and trembleth at my word Oh, this man, he trembles at the
word of God. He knows, you see, that God has
every right to condemn his soul. He needs one to stand on his
behalf, to stand up for him. He cannot in any way defend himself. He's a poor man, he's a beggar
man. But again, it has been well observed that in heaven there
are none but beggars. All those who have a place in
that glorious abode, heaven, are beggars here in this world.
Remember how the Lord Himself speaks of the rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus was the beggar. And we're
told the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's
bosom. He's a beggar. Beggars go to
heaven. That's what we see there. Spiritual beggars. And this is
the man that stands before us in the text. He is the man who
is being accused. But let us turn secondly to say
something with regards to the accusers. Now this poor man, he has no
hope at all in himself. He feels his sin. And so we see
him as one who must look to God. How does the psalm begin? Hold
not thy peace, O God, of my praise, for the mouth of the wicked and
the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me. they have
spoken against me with a lying tongue, they compassed me about
also with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause."
Oh, this man, you see, he knows he has nothing of himself, and
so he cries to God, he calls upon God. He says here at verse
21, But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy name's sake,
Because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me, for I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me. How he feels himself to need
someone to stand for him. There are many, you see, who
would accuse him. Why we read here in the text
of those that condemn his soul. It's more than one, it's a plural.
There are many who would lay accusation against him. The hymn
writer says, what easy victims soon we fall to conscience, wrath
and law. There are many enemies. There's
also that language that we find in the hymn, 306 And there, in the third verse, Joseph Hart says, "...all things
to promote our fall, show a mighty fitness. Satan will accuse with
all, and the conscience witness, foes within and foes without,
wrath and law, and terrors, rash presumption, timid doubts, coldness,
deadness, errors. Now the hymn writer you see speaks
of a multitude of accusers. Or there's Satan himself, but
then our conscience will witness against us. There's foes within,
there's foes without, there's wrath, law, terrors, presumption,
doubts, coldness, deadness, errors, so many ready to condemn that
poor child of God who knows that he has nothing of himself that
will in any way defend him or commend him but
think in particular of three accusers three accusers
that we must take account of there is first of all the law
of God now the law is good the apostle tells us the law is good
the commandment is holy and just and good it's not the law it's
the sinner but how that law of God stands inflexible the revelation
of the holiness of God and the righteousness of God, and the
justice of God. And so, to the poor sinner, all
the law can ever do is to condemn him. Oh, it stands there, as
Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, as the ministration of condemnation. The ministration of death. Oh, we know, the soul that sinneth
it shall die. That's the language of the law.
the wages of sin is death and Paul reminds us of that in that
third chapter that remarkable third chapter of the Roman epistle
we've already referred to that long quotation that Paul makes
from the Psalms verse 10 following and then he goes on to to speak
of the Lord of God verse 19 we know that what thing soever the
law saith it saith to them who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God." You are under the law, all the world is under that law
of God. Yes, it was given at Mount Sinai,
it was given to the children of Israel, but it has a wider
application than that according to what Paul is saying there
in Romans 3.19. Whatever things the law said,
it said to them who are under the law. that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world become guilty oh that's the ministry of the
law we know Paul says what things the law says it says to those who are subject
to it all men in their natural state and he says that the law
is good if a man will use it lawfully. Now what is the lawful
use of the law? Well the law, Paul says, is not
made for the righteous man. The law is not made for the righteous
man in the sense of that man who has been justified. That
man who is accounted righteous now because of his faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That man has been delivered from
all the condemnation of the Lord of God, that man is in Christ. It is not made for a righteous
man, says Paul, but for the lawless, the disobedient, the ungodly,
the sinners. Well, that's the ministry of
the Lord. It's a condemning law. It condemns the sinner. In vain
we ask God's righteous law to justify us. Now, sins to convince
and to condemn is all the law can do. We ought to think then
here surely of those that would condemn his soul. Here is one
that would condemn the soul, the Lord of God. No salvation
there. No salvation there. but then
also there is satan you remember it is those not just the law
there is satan those that condemn his soul what is satan? well he is many
things we know he is a fallen angel we know is the author of sin. He comes
even into that paradise that God has created, there in the
Garden of Eden, and by the serpent he tempts Eve, and she falls, and she partakes
of what God has forbidden, and she gives to her husband Adam
and with open eyes he also partakes or they fall you see and as a
result of that fall sin has entered into the world that awful sin
of unbelief that awful sin of pride that we see so much there
in the fall of our first parents Now it's in all of our hearts,
just now before the service in the vestry with our deacon Cliff,
we were talking about pride. The hymn writer says, against
its influence pray, it mingles with the prayer. Against it preach,
it prompts the speech, be silent, still it's there. We were saying
how you can stand in the pulpit and maybe you put together what
you think is such a fine prayer. You feel there's something overflowing
and you're able to say wonderful things and you pat yourself on
the back and say, what a wonderful prayer that was. Praying. Even when it comes to praying.
And it's all of the devil. And he is that one who is the
tempter. But he's not only spoken of in scripture as the temper
and the great adversary. But remember how in Revelation
12 we read of him as the accuser. He is the accuser of the brethren,
who accuses them day and night before God. He is the author
of sin, and He draws us into sin, and He finds so much in
us that He can take advantage of the Lord Jesus, that sinless
One. He could say, the Prince of this
world cometh and hath nothing in me, or nothing there, holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, or but when the
devil comes at me, He finds so much that he can take advantage
of. And he draws us into sin. He entraps our faith. We fall. Oh, and then we feel so ashamed. How can we pray? How can we really
come and confess our sins sincerely? And mean what we say? We've fallen
so many times before. how we would shut our mouths.
This is the adversary, you see, of our souls. He is the accuser
of the brethren who accuseth them day and night before God. Remember how we read of him and
his wicked ways there in the book of the Prophet Zechariah.
Zechariah chapter 3, he showed me Joshua the high priest standing
before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right
hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan,
The Lord rebuketh thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuketh thee. He is not this, a branch plucked
out of the fire. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments and stood before the angel, And he answered and spoke
unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy
garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold,
I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with change of raiment. And I said, Let them set a fair
mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon
his head, and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the
Lord stood by." Well, here it is, you see, Satan, the accuser
of the brethren. How he is there, ready to accuse
them even before God, day and night. But how there is one that
stands by. There's one there, representing
the poor sinner. He shall stand at the right hand
of the poor to save him from those that condemn his soul. The Lord of Gods accuses us because
we're transgressors of Him. Satan comes also to condemn us
having entrapped our feet in his snares and we've fallen. And sin Sin is the third thing
that would condemn us, surely it would. And that cursed, that accursed
sin of unbelief. Now we must come and acknowledge
what we are if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Oh, remember what John is saying in the context
there at the end of that opening chapter of that first epistle
if we say that we have no sin if we say that we have no sin
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us and then he
goes on to say if we confess our sins and then again at the
end he says if we say that we have not sinned we make him a
liar and His Word is not in us. Oh friends, if God's Word is
in us, we won't call God a liar. We'll accept the truth of His
Word, we'll confess our sins, we'll acknowledge our many failings,
the multitude of our iniquities, and that sin, oh that sin which
does so easily beset us, that sin of unbelief, that the Apostle
speaks of at the beginning of Hebrews chapter 12. He's spoken
in the previous chapter, as you know, of Faith, and the fight
of those saints of the Old Testament, that tremendous catalogue, all
the exploits of Faith. And then he comes into the next
chapter, and of course, as we know, the divisions into chapters
and verses in a way are quite incidental we might say there's
a connection between the chapters of course there is and when he
speaks of the sin which does so easily beset us it's unbelief
unbelief that lies at the root of all our sinning without faith
it is impossible to please God He that cometh to him must believe
that he is, and that he is a rewarder of all that diligently seek him.
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." All the importance of faith. And now, we're born unbelievers. And there
are those of us we trust, born again by the Spirit of God. And
the evidence of that new birth is faith, that faith that is
the gift of God, that faith that is of the operation of God. And
yet, how many times do we have to confess that alas, we seem
to be nothing more than unbelieving believers? Oh, the evil thing that unbelief
is. How unbelief condemns us. and
will condemn us. But what does Paul say? If we
believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. There's
our comfort. All our comfort is in that one
that he's spoken of here in our text. He shall stand at the right
hand of the poor to save him from those that condemn his soul. and so finally let me say something
this evening with regards to this one He shall stand it's
said for he stands as that one who is the surety of his people
you remember how in the law courts the surety stands for the one who is accused and if necessary the surety will
pay a bond on behalf of that accused person and here is the Lord Jesus Christ
as I said he is that one who is spoken of in this psalm when
we read so much of that wicked man what a description we have there from verse 5 following and I
said it's a description alas in verse 8 of Judas Iscariot
the one who betrays the Lord Jesus Christ it's a solemn psalm that we have
when we look at the content of it, it's one of those imprecatory
Psalms. The Psalm is praying against
the wicked. And then he comes to this, after
that description of the wicked man, right the way through to
verse 20, verse 21, But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy
name's sake, because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me, for
I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me I am gone
like the shadow when it declines I am tossed up and down as the
locust my knees are weak through fasting my flesh faileth at fatness and so he speaks of his great
need and how is that need met? it's met in this one who stands
at his right hand and stands at his surety and it's Christ
Oh, it's the person, it's the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
that is this poor soul's only hope. Here we see that it is none other
than the Lord Himself. He says in the previous verse,
I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth, yea, I will praise
Him among the multitude, for He shall stand. He will praise this One who so
willingly steps forward to be His surety, and it's the LORD. Who is it? It's the God of the
Covenant. Look at the word, it's LORD in
capital letters, it's Jehovah. It's the great I AM that I AM.
It's that one who reveals himself so plainly in those I Am statements
that we find throughout John's Gospel. It's the Lord Jesus. There in Hebrews 7.22 we read
of Him, Jesus made a surety of a better covenant. Oh, it's this
one. Oh, when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth His Son. made of a woman, made
under the law. Why he comes to stand for his
people and to stand in their very law place. He's a surety,
he's a witness. Behold I have given him for a
witness of the people. A leader and commander of the
people. And again Do we not read of Him there in
Revelation in the opening chapter, Jesus Christ who is the faithful
and true witness and the first begotten from the dead. Oh, He
stands as a witness for His people as well as a surety for them. Why He stands as their friend
He stands as their friend. There is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. This is the one he shall stand
at the right hand of the poor. It's Christ. And all these names,
how they speak to us concerning His gracious ministry, the tenderness
of His heart, the wonder of His love for sinners. Oh, how He
loves the sinner, this man. He doesn't take upon Him the
nature of angels? No, He's made a little lower
than the angels. Takes upon Him, it says, the
seed of Abraham. And for as much as the children
were partakers of flesh and blood, He likewise took part of the
same. Now He is their friend. He sticks
closer than the brother. He comes where His people are.
And we see something of it in the ministry of the Prophet Ezekiel. There in chapter 3 and verse
15 of Ezekiel. He says, Then I came to them
of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that dwelt by the river of Kabar,
and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among
them seven days. all the Lord is that one he comes
and he sits where his people sit and he sits astonished amongst
them he comes to represent them why he is that friend who sticks
to them so close the person of the Lord Jesus and then the work of the Lord
Jesus you think of Christ as the surety Christ as the substitute
Does he not stand as a substitute, as well as a surety? We see something
of the office of the surety. We've mentioned these things
before. We have it back in Genesis in the behavior of Judah, when
he so willingly becomes surety for his brother Benjamin. When
Jacob's sons must go again into Egypt to obtain bread. and they've
gone previously and they've not recognized Joseph the one whom
they had betrayed and he had made it clear to them that he
would have no dealings with them except they bring their younger
brother Benjamin should they come again for bread and how
reluctant Jacob is that Judah should go he'd lost his son,
his favorite son Joseph but Judah comes and stands forward Genesis 43,8 Judah said unto
Israel his father send the lad with me and we will arise and
go that we may live and not die both we and thou and also our
little ones I will be surety for him of my hand shalt thou
require him if I bring him not unto thee and set him before
thee, then let me bear the blame forever." Oh, that's the short
thing. That's the short thing. And then
Judah before Joseph says much the same, Thy servant became
surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto
thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. And the
Lord Jesus, you see, is that one, standing at the right hand
of the poor to save him from those that would condemn his
soul. Or we see it also an illustration in the New Testament when the
Apostle will stand surety for Onesimus. A remarkable epistle
of Paul to Philemon. And what does he say there, verse
18, concerning Onesimus the slave? Philemon's slave would run away.
And yet running away, God in His mercy had met with him, dealt
with him, saved him. And now the apostle will have,
Onesimus go back to Philemon. And he says this, If he hath
wrong thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account. I,
Paul, have written it with mine own hand. I will repay it. Shorten. And that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He stands as surety for his people. Oh, but what a cost! Because
those that he stands for, you see, they are worthy of death. They are deserving of the condemnation
of God. And the wise man reminds us of
the solemn cost of standing as surety. My son, he says, if thou
be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with
a stranger, thou art snagged with the words of my mouth, thou
art taken with the words of thy mouth. There's a cost. There's
a cost to suretyship. Again, Proverbs 11, 15, he that
is surety for a stranger shall smart for it. He smarts for it. That was the Lord Jesus Christ. He stands at the right hand of
the poor, this man who needs salvation. For as many as are of the works
of the law, they are under the curse, are they not? Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. The law has a just demand on
these people. and the law must be paid the
ransom price God can by no means clear the guilt though the price
of their redemption must be paid Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree Oh, this is what it costs the
Lord Jesus when He stands as a surety. How
He loves the sinner. He'll be the sinner's witness.
He's ever the sinner's friend. And how He willingly takes on
all that solemn responsibility of suretyship. And though the
cost be so great smarting all the sufferings that he has to
endure there upon the cross all that wrath of God that must be
visited on his righteous soul in order that the sinner might
go free no condemnation for the sinner because Christ himself
has paid the price Oh, what a word is this, friends,
tonight. What a gospel word here at the
end of the psalm concerning the person, the work of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He knew what it was, you see,
to have false accusation brought against Him. And He opened up
His mouth. Why He would suffer in order
that those who were the guilty ones might go through it. He shall stand at the right hand
of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul. Oh, the Lord be pleased to bless
his word to us. Amen.