Turn with me to Psalm 64, continuing
in our study of the book of Psalms. Let me say before we begin, I
was greatly convicted in the study of this Psalm. Psalm 64. Like so many of the Psalms, we
again find David in this Psalm, Psalm 64, praying for deliverance
and somewhat complaining of his enemies. Do you ever complain? Yeah, I know we all do, but really
we shouldn't. You see, it's God who sends troubles,
it's God who sends enemies, and it's God that sends trials. Verse
one of Psalm of David, hear my voice, O God, in my prayer. Preserve my life from fear of
the enemy. Now we as flesh and blood fear
many things. But with God our Father and with
Christ our Deliverer, we shouldn't with both on our side. Many of the commentators say
this particular psalm was written when David fled from his son
Absalom. What a trial that must have been. It's one thing to have an enemy,
but when they're of your own household, what a trial that
must be. Some of you have experienced
that personally. In verse two, David says, hide
me from the secret counsel of the wicked from the insurrection,
the plotting and the scheming, that's what the word means, of
the workers of iniquity, who wet their tongue like a sword
and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words,
that they may shoot in secret at the perfect, Suddenly do they
shoot at him and fear not. They encourage themselves in
the evil matter. They commune of laying snares
privileged. They say, who shall see them?
They search out iniquities. They accomplish a diligent search,
looking for fault. Both the inward thought of every
one of them in the heart is deep. David here is experiencing some
slander, some persecution, people seeking and speaking evil against
him and of him. And I suppose we've all experienced
that. And at the same time, we're all
guilty of it. Hold your place here and turn
with me to Ecclesiastes 7, chapter 7. I want you to look at verse
20. Ecclesiastes 7, verse 20, Solomon, the wise man here, speaks
on this subject. Ecclesiastes 7, verse 20. Solomon says, for there's not
a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Also take
no heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant
curse thee." If you hear your servant speaking evil of you,
if you hear a friend speaking evil of you, even someone of
your own family, take no heed unto the words. That's how we
deal with it. We ignore it. We should. How do we do that? Verse 22,
for oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself
likewise has cursed others. We've all done it. But when we're
slandered, and we will be, if we haven't been, we will be,
but most of us have been, may God enable us not to get angry,
to retaliate, For this reason, we've all done the same thing
ourselves. This is the same principle for
forgiving others. There's nothing that anyone has
done to us that we have not ourselves done to others. And more specifically,
there's not anything that's been done to us that we haven't done
to our Lord. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4, verse
32, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. That's our motivation for forgiving.
We've been forgiven so much. We want forgiveness when we transgress
against others. Shouldn't we forgive those who
slander and sin against us? God has forgiven us for Christ's
sake. That's our motivation. For Christ's
sake, we should forgive others. God forgives us of the same things
that we've done to him and others for the sake and glory of Christ.
We should do the same with others. God helped me to be forgiving,
to have a forgiving spirit. God helped me to hold this tongue
when I want to retaliate against those who slander me or who I
feel have done wrong against me. And I'll be the first to
confess that I haven't arrived at this, brothers and sisters,
I haven't. It's our nature to get upset
and when we're slandered and mistreated, but that's no excuse. Shall we continue in sin, the
grace may abound, God forbid. But by God's grace, the child
of God is growing in grace and in the knowledge of him who has
forgiven them of all their sins. Help me remember that, Lord.
All that you've forgiven me of, help me to forgive. Help me to
be patient with others. He's so patient with us. It's
never right for us to slander others. Remember when Shimei
cursed David, his servant wanted to take his head off. He said,
let me just take his head off. And you remember what David said?
He said, let him curse, because this is why the Lord has said
unto him, curse David. Everything that he said, the
Lord told him to say, David is saying. The Lord is in control
of everything, even the cursing of our enemies. May God enable
us to forgive and forget. We say we forgive, but we don't
forget, so we really don't forgive, do we? And whatever happens to us or
whatever's said about us, the Lord is the first cause. He's
always the first cause. Everything else is secondary.
And David here is experiencing the pain of that as he's fleeing
Absalom, a son that he loves. And again, verse one, back in
Psalm 64, David says, hear my voice. Oh God, in my prayer. He doesn't suggest what the Lord
should do. He doesn't ask the Lord to exercise
vengeance. He simply says, hear my prayer,
hear my request, give ear to my voice. Anytime that we're
in distress, this is the first thing that we should do. A simple
prayer will suffice. It's not how eloquent that we
pray, but to whom we pray. The simplest prayers of a righteous
man, a fervent, passionate prayer from the heart is always sufficient. Lord, help me. Lord, help me. Lord, save me. These prayers
always get the attention of our loving father who is out to do
us good. God's out to do his people good.
Anytime anyone does something to represent us or to cause us
harm, we should do nothing but pray. Don't retaliate. We don't seek vengeance. The
Lord says, vengeance is mine, I will repay. The Lord take care
of it. Slander against us, that's the
Lord's business. It really is. All sin against
us, that's the Lord's business to deal with. Look back at Exodus
chapter 14. Again, hold your place here.
I want you to see this. Exodus chapter 14, verse 13. The Lord has sent the plagues
upon Egypt time and time again. hardened his heart against the
Lord and his people. And then one day he said, go,
just get out of here. And then he had a change of heart
again. The Lord hardened his heart one
more time. And the people of Israel are
up against the Red Sea. And Moses said unto the people,
verse 13, fear ye not, stand still. Lord, help me to learn
to stand still. Stand still and see what? The
salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you today. For the Egyptians whom you have
seen today, you'll see them again no more forever. The Lord shall
fight for you and you shall hold your peace. The Lord does our
fighting. Lord, help us to just shut up. Don't try to vindicate yourself.
Don't retaliate. Vengeance is the Lord's. He'll
take care of it His own way. You know what we do? We'll just make a mess out of
it. He does all things well, always, all the time, every time. Why shouldn't we trust in Him?
Again, David says in verse one, hear my voice, O God. In my prayer,
preserve me, keep me from the fear of the enemy. You see, our
enemy is not the one that slanders us or sins against us. Our enemy
is Satan, and he's the father of all lies. And the Lord said,
what you hear your father do, that's what you do. You're just
like him. May we recognize who our true enemy is. And in verse two, David says,
hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked, from the insurrection,
as I said a moment ago, from the plotting and scheming of
the workers of iniquity, who wet their tongue like a sword
and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words,
all of us. I'm sure you remember this saying
when we were children, sticks and stones will break my bones,
but words will never harm me. But they do. They do. Words hurt. We're not left without hope while
we live on this earth as we attempt to put out the fires that our
little tongues start. We have a savior whose own life
redeemed the brokenness of this world, the brokenness of our
hearts. On the cross, he bore every blow. He received every
accusation. He endured every grief and he
carried all our shame and our sorrows on his shoulders. He
absorbed the wrath of God in our place so we could live in
the light of his glorious grace. So why don't we? God help us
to. In Proverbs 420, the Lord says,
my son, attend to my words, incline thine ear into my sayings, let
them, not the words of others, not depart from thine eyes, keep
them in the midst of thine heart. For they, God's words, are life
unto those that find them and health to all their flesh. Proverbs
12, 18, there is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword,
but the tongue of the wise is health. Death and life are in the power
of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. You ever stop and think about
that? Those who delight to be talkative, slanderous, they love
to use their tongue to defame the character of others, they're
gonna be recompensed. They shall have the fruit of
their doings. And I might add, that goes for those whose tongues,
use their tongues in a bad way and a good way. Whether our tongues
are used in good or a bad way, we're the ones who reap the fruit
thereof. We ought to be sowing them to the good, shouldn't we?
Good fruit, looking forward to good fruit. Proverbs 15, verse
one, a soft answer turneth away wrath. I wish I could remember
that. But grievous words stir up anger, only adds fuel to the
fire. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge
of right, but the mouth of fools pours out foolishness. David
felt the sting of this slander. So do we. But may we learn by
God's grace that how we react to others determines the fruit
that we receive, whether it is good or bad. When those who take sides against
us wet their tongue like a sword and shoot their arrows with the
bows of bitter words, look what verse five says, that they may
shoot in secret at the perfect. Suddenly do they shoot at him
and fear not. They don't give any thought that
when you speak against one of God's people, you're speaking
against him. And David here tells us, what
we have such difficulty in believing about ourselves, they shoot them,
their arrows, their bitter words, at the perfect. This is speaking of every believer
called the perfect. If you and I are in Christ by
our union with Him, we are perfect. perfect in Christ. And it doesn't sound right to
one who knows who and what they are, but nonetheless true, perfect. Hebrews 14 verse 10 tells us,
for by one offering he, God, hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us, for after that he had said before, this is the
covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. I'll put my laws in their hearts and in their minds
will I write them. And their sins and iniquities,
I will remember no more. The scripture says, Noah was
a just man and perfect in his generations. And Noah walked
with God. I wanna walk with God. Thou shalt be perfect with the
Lord thy God, Deuteronomy 18, 13. How? Only in Christ. God is my strength and power
and he maketh my way perfect, 2 Samuel 22. How does he make
my way perfect? In Christ. The scripture says, Asa's heart
was perfect with the Lord all his days. And you know what? You're in my ways, if we're in
Christ, we'll be perfect all the days of our life because
we're in Him. David said, give unto Solomon,
my son, a perfect heart. I was thinking about this morning.
I pray this for my children. Give them a perfect heart, Lord.
Save them. Make them perfect in Christ. Again and again in
the scriptures, over and over, They talk about a perfect heart.
Our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. How can they be perfect? Same
answer, only in Christ, only in Him. God said to Satan, has
thou considered my servant Job? That there's none like him in
the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and
askeweth evil. Our Lord said, be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect.
How are we going to do that? Only in Christ. Christ said,
the disciple is not above his master, but everyone that is
perfect shall be as his master. Oh, to be like Christ. God help
me to be like him. I am them, and thou and me, that
they may be perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast lovest me."
Isn't that an amazing thought? God loves me just as he loves
Christ. What a union we have with him. The apostle Paul wrote, be perfect,
be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the
God of love and peace shall be with you. We can only be perfect in Christ. Let us therefore, as many as
be perfect, be thus minded, and if anything, ye be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal it even this unto you. May God continue to remind us
that in Christ, we're perfect. In Christ, you and I lack nothing. We stand before God unblameable
and unreprovable in His sight, in God's sight. And that's all
that matters. It doesn't much matter what others
think of it. I want others to think well of
me. But if they think wrong of me for no reason, that's God's
business, not mine. And the truth of the matter is,
is that I'm pretty much guilty of anything that could ever be
said about me. David is speaking of those who
are perfect, without sin, without iniquity. And when others seek
to defame our standing in Christ, look at what verse five says.
They encourage themselves in an evil matter. They commune
of laying snares, privilege. They say, who shall see them?
They encourage themselves. They justify themselves. Well,
I've got every right to say what I say about them. They think
that they're right doing what they should, but they're not.
They're only vindicating themselves. That's what we do when we slander
others. They find encouragement in their
evil matters. They say, who shall see them? God does. God always sees them. Everything
that we do, God sees. Verse six, they search out iniquities.
They accomplish a diligent search. Both the inward thought of every
one of them and the heart is deep. This reminds me of politicians. We are in that time where You
see a lot of political ads on the television and hear them
on the radio and that's all we have. They're seeking to destroy
their opponents. They seek out skeletons in their
closet. We all got them, every one of
us. But the believer does as Peter
says, love shall cover a multitude of sins. Use hospitality one
to another without grudging. Don't hold a grudge. God help
me not to hold a grudge. That's something I'm good at.
I'm good at it. Not proud of it, ashamed of it,
actually. He that hideth hatred with lying
lips and he that uttereth of slander is a fool, Solomon said. He that goeth about as a tale-bearer
revealeth secrets, therefore meddle not with him that flattereth
with his lips. Whoso curseth his father or his
mother, his lamp shall be put in an obscure darkness." What
a wickedness it is to try to destroy someone with our words.
It ought not be among the people of God, whom the Lord has made
perfect. Men who search out iniquities,
those who accomplish a diligent search, they look hard to find
something wrong. Their inward thoughts of the
heart, it says, is deep. They expose the depths of their
wickedness and depravity. The wickedness goes deep in the
heart, doesn't it? That's what Jeremiah says. Deceitful above all things, the
heart is, it's desperately wicked. There's nothing more deceitful.
There's nothing more wicked than our own hearts, apart from Christ. But here's the good news. Verse
seven, but. There's that blessed word again. But God. But God, who is rich
in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us. You know, 46 times
in the Scriptures that phrase is used. But God, you ought to
look them up sometime and read them. It'd be an encouragement
to you. Joseph's brothers. Remember Joseph? His brothers hated him without
a cause. They hated him because his father
loved him. They moved with envy. They sold Joseph into slavery. But the scripture says, but God
was with him. God was with him in Potiphar's
house. God was with him in the prison.
God was with him. But God commended his love toward
us. And then in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us, but God. Paul said, I planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. It's God who blesses. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God, God's everything, and
he giveth the increase. Verse seven, but God shall shoot
at them with an arrow. Suddenly shall they be wounded.
I think about That passage, be not deceived, God's not mocked,
whatsoever a man soweth, he shall also reap. David understood something
of the character of God. I wonder sometimes if I do. We
don't need to worry about anything. God's gonna take care of everything
for us, everything. Maybe not in our timeframe, maybe
not as we think he should, but who are we? Doesn't matter what
we think. God is gonna take care of it.
Verse eight, so shall they make their own tongue to fall upon
themselves. All that see them shall flee
away. God's gonna turn it around on them. You know, I think about
Haman. He sought to hang Mordecai on
the gallows that he built, and those same gallows were used
to hang him. God turned things around on our
enemies. And we say it this way. My mother
said it all the time. I don't think I ever took it
to heart, but she said, what goes around comes around. In
a very real sense, that's true. Men and women reap what they
sow. I don't want to reap what I sow. I don't. No one sin will ever go unpunished. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? Yes, every single time. And we say it often, but it's
nonetheless true. God always does what's right.
He doesn't do it because it's right. It's right because He
does it. Men make their own tongues to
fall upon themselves. Verse nine, and all men shall
fear. All men. that fear... See, how do I want to say that? All
men that fear are all men that fear shall fear. It's those that
fear God that... Not all men fear God, but all
men fear. Men fear the unknown. Men fear
loss. Men fear the punishment. But
that's not what the fear of God is. The fear of God is that awe
and that reverence and that respect for God that makes us fear to
look to anyone but Christ. That's what I fear. I fear that
I will trust in something that I do instead of what God has
done for me. We are in awe and reverence and
respect of God to look anywhere but Christ for our salvation. That and nothing less is the
fear of God. We fear to look to ourselves for anything. This
is what all men that fear God do. Look at verse nine, they
shall declare the work of God. That's what we're doing when
we meet together, when we preach, when we listen to the gospel,
we're declaring the work of God. It's God's work, not by works
of righteousness that I've done, Paul said. That's not the work
that we declare. This is what we declare, the
work of righteousness that God has done for us in Christ. According
to His mercy, He saved us, it says. By the washing of regeneration,
the new birth, the new creation, and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost, Titus 3.5. God created the universe as an
act of His will. This is His earth. We eat His
food. We breathe His air. He causes
His Son, S-U-N, to shine on us, and He causes His Son, S-O-N,
to shine on us. The rain falls from the heavens
on the just and the unjust, but I can assure you this, it's for
His elect people. The rain of His righteousness
falls on His people. We sing, this is my Father's
world, it is. He forms the light, He creates
darkness, He makes peace, He creates evil. He said, I, the
Lord, do all these things. All of them. This is why all
things work together for the good of them that love God, who
are thee called according to His purpose. Romans 8, 28. The scripture says the lot is
cast in the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Whatever we're talking about
is His Word. Most especially salvation. It's
his work. It's not a work that we should
boast. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus.
Salvation is Christ. They're synonymous. Salvation,
Christ. Christ, salvation. That's our
hope. That's our peace. That's our
rest. Again, verse nine, and all men shall fear and shall
declare the work of God, for they shall wisely consider of
his doing. Everything is God's work and
everything's his doing. And it's for the glory of his
great name and the glory of his son. The believer wouldn't have
it any other way. I wouldn't have it any other
way. I love that everything that happens is God's doing. I find
rest there because I know in the end, whatever it is, is for
my good and for His glory. And what does this bring for
the child of God? Verse 10, the righteous shall
be glad in the Lord and shall trust in Him. And all the upright
in heart, those that are perfect, shall glory. What are we glorying? Not anything we do, not unto
us, not unto us, O Lord, but we glory in Christ our Savior,
the one who loved us and gave Himself for us. You see, my righteousness,
filthy rags, but my righteousness in Christ is His righteousness.
It's perfect. And I'm perfect because of it.
Christ is made to be sin that His chosen people might be made
what? The righteousness of God. Where?
In Him. Always in Him. His righteousness is my personal
righteousness. I didn't work for it. It was
a gift. It was given to me. David begins
this Psalm with complaining and he ends it with gladness. Oh,
that I might do that. When I complain, I look to Christ. He's made me perfect, knowing
that all things comes from His hand, for my good, for His glory,
and make me glad. Notice how David says this. He
says, the righteous shall be glad in the Lord. No gladness anywhere else. But of
Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. But of Him, who
of God, in Him, by Him, through Him, is all His doing, His works. That's what we declare. We're
declaring His works. My attempt in the next hour will
be to declare his works, what he's done for sinners, why he
came, what he did. We shall be glad, David says. We shall trust in him. God's
gonna see to it. And all the upright in heart
shall glory. Glory in God, glory in Christ,
glory in their righteousness, glory in their election, glory
in their salvation. We're accepted in the beloved,
in Christ, nowhere else. This is the description of every
believer. We shouldn't complain, but be
glad. We shouldn't grumble, but trust in Him. We shouldn't speak
evil of others. We should glory in Christ. May God be pleased to make it
so for His glory, our good, and for Christ's sake. And let me
just say, I don't say that at the end of a message as something
to say to close the message. It's true. May God make these
things so for His glory, for our good, and for Christ's sake.
Thank you.