Psalm 74. I titled this psalm, Oh God,
Why? Taken from the first verse. Oh
God, Why? Or it could be titled, A Psalm
of Lament. Mourning. Now there's two things about
asking God why. One of them is good and the other
is bad. To ask God why such a severe
trial for the sake of repentance and forsaking the sin that brought
the trial is good. Let me say this, not all trials
are because of some particular sin. Not all of them. Peter says,
think it not strange when some fiery trial comes upon you. Just out of the, what we would
call, out of the blue, you didn't see it coming. But there's another sense in
which we ask God why. To ask Him why in the sense of
bringing Him into judgment. In other words, to sit in judgment
of God's dealings with us. That's not good. That's not good. But to ask Him why in the sense
for spiritual instruction and to know the reason. Now this time period was probably
concerning the devastation that Nebuchadnezzar had made on the
temple when he came in and took them captive to Babylon. That's
where most writers think this happened. Now, you see this psalm
says, Maskel of Asaph. Well, Asif was David's chief
singer, which was years before that happened. And so the only
logical explanation of this is that this is one of the descendants
of Asif. Someone said that Asif holding
that position, that's probably the position they named it ever
since. But whatever, we know this is
not the Asaph that sat under David because if it's the destruction
of the temple at that time, he couldn't have been alive. So
this is probably more likely the time when Nebuchadnezzar
came in and just destroyed the temple. Took everything of value
out of it and everything else he burned. All the artwork, I
mean all the wood carving, all that carving, he burned it. As
he says here, they took the axe to it and they set fire to it.
And he was just so distraught over it. You know, I would to
God that we would be more distraught over the condition of the church,
over the lies that go on in pulpits over God. I would that I was
more distraught over that as he was here. So he says here
in verse 1, this is an instructive psalm. Masculine means instructive. We can learn from this. We can
learn something about prayer. We can learn something about
praying from this psalm. And we can learn something about
the dealings of God with the church over history. We can learn from this. And He
says, O God, why hast thou cast us off forever? Why doth thine
anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? Sometimes trials
are so hard and so difficult, and sometimes they are so long
that it seems like God has cast us off. It seems like He has
just cast us off forever, He says, forever. We forget who
He is under severe trials. You know, we lose sight, when
we are under such trials, we lose sight of who God really
is. Remember this, God never changes. Trials change us. Trials reveal
a lot of things about me, but they never change God. God is
who He is from generation to generation. He never changes.
The truth is, God has never, never will cast off His people
whom He has redeemed. That would be impossible. God
would sooner cease to exist than to cast you off. It would be a destruction to
His glory for God to cast off those whom He has redeemed. He
would never do that. The question is this. He says,
why? Why has thou cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against
the sheep of thy pasture? Why is this happening? Why is
this going on? Well, it may be because of sin. In that situation, in that situation,
it was sin. I tell you this, What was going
on by Nebuchadnezzar to the temple was devastating. But the hypocrisy
that was going on in worship was even worse. What they were
doing and the idolatry they were allowing was far worse than Nebuchadnezzar. And God brought this upon them.
He brought this upon Israel. So in one sense, it can be sin. We still have much sin in us.
We still have much sin in us. And then secondly, from time
to time, the church needs to be purged of the tares. The church
needs to be purged of her coldness in worship. It's just like nonchalant,
just like we come and go like cattle in a field. The church
needs to be purged from that. When you go home tonight, read
the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. Read those letters.
Ephesus talks about how busy they were, but they left their
first... He said, you've left your first love. They lay out of sins. They were
rich and increased with goods, but they didn't know that they
were naked, blind, and dead. Another one, I think it was Sardis,
I'd have to read it, but God said, there's just a little life.
There's a little life left in you. You know, there's a few
people there who still believed. There was some believers there
who still held on to the gospel who had a flame. It was just
a flicker, but it was there. We should worship God fervently. And I say we, I mean me with
you. We should worship God, we should praise God fervently.
God is very real. He's very real and He's our God,
He's our Savior. He's our Lord. We don't want
to just go through the motions with no heart love in it. We
want to be saved from that. And then thirdly, A severe trial
needs to come along, not just on the individual, but on the
church. It's this, she needs to be pruned.
Every branch needs to be pruned in order for it to bear much
fruit. Now, when you prune a branch properly, when you prune, I'm
sure, when you prune grapes properly, it looks like you killed them,
doesn't it? I mean, you prune it back to nothing. I cut those
burning bushes back home. I cut the burning bushes. They
were probably eight, nine feet tall. I cut those things back.
It looked like I thought I killed them. The next spring, they come
out beautiful. They came out just full and just
beautiful. I thought, well, what did I do?
Because I didn't know what I was doing. I was just whacking away. But I actually did something
good for them. We need pruned. We need to be pruned. God needs
to prune us individually and also as a church, so that we
don't grow cold over the gospel. And he says here in verse 2,
Remember thy congregation which thou hast purchased. Well, what
a way to pray. What a way to pray. He's holding
up before God His church. You have purchased us. You have
purchased me. What a way to go to the Lord
in prayer, even individually. Lord, did You not die for me? Did You not purchase me with
Your blood? Lord, remember, hear me. Hear my prayer. You died
for me. You bled for me. What a way to
pray. We can learn something about
prayer in this psalm. Thou hast purchased of old. Now
here He's talking about Israel coming out of Egypt. But now
you and I don't have to look back to that time. You and I
look back to the cross. We look back to Christ and Him
crucified. That's where we look back to.
Lord, You purchased us on Calvary's tree. What a prayer for a pastor, for
the church. Lord, bless us whom You have
purchased with Your own blood. We're the rod of your inheritance.
I'm your inheritance, Lord. We are your inheritance which
thou hast redeemed. Mount Zion wherein thou hast
dwelt, you dwell here. You realize that this local church
right here is a dwelling place of God? Can you wrap your mind around
that? We are a dwelling place of God in this community. God dwells in this church. If
we are His church, He dwells in us. He dwells in this church. A good way to plead with God
is on the basis of redemption, the blood purchased. We are His people. We are His
people in whom He dwells. You know, here's the problem.
Here's the problem when I was looking at this. My thought was
this, because I know what Israel was doing at this time, because
Jeremiah foretold this fall, this takeover. The problem is
we need to remember from whence we are fallen. Is that what the
Lord says to one of the churches? Remember from whence thou art
fallen. Here's what I'm saying. The problem
is never with God. Whenever God chastens us or He
puts us through some severe trial, the problem is never, ever, ever
with God. It's always on our end. Always. And in verse 3-11, now, He gives
a complaint of the ungodly taking over the sanctuary. And I've
been looking at this for days and I visualize Nebuchadnezzar
and his army going into the sanctuary, the temple, and destroying everything
in it. Just cutting it up with an axe.
Took axe and hammer in there and just tore it up. And the
gold and things like that they kept for themselves and took
back. But he's complaining here about the ungodly taking over
the sanctuary and cutting up everything in it. It's good to
see this believer here jealous for God's glory. We need to protect
this place. We ask God to protect this place.
But it's also, you know, there's also something on our part of
protecting it. And he says here, look in verse
3, "...lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations, even
all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary." You
know what he's asking God to do here? He's asking God to walk
through the sanctuary. He's asking Him to walk through
Jerusalem and look at the destruction. He's asking God to take notice
of the destruction, walk through it and look at what's happened. Thine enemies roar, they roar
like lions on their prey, they roar in the midst of thy congregations,
right in their midst. They've entered right into the
house, they're in your house. They set up their end signs for
signs. You know, we know the history
of this, and we know, listen, this can happen again. This could
happen again. I was thinking today, all governments, you know, God
is authority. He sets up all authority. But
now, Satan is, he's the little G, God of this world. He's the
God of darkness. They're all been, Satan's behind
all of them. He's behind all of them. And
the very, The very motive behind that he has is to shut us down. It's to shut down the church
of God. That's what he's doing. Nebuchadnezzar comes in and he
shuts down the place of worship. He shuts it down and they can't
worship there no more and they're taken captive. And Satan, the same one that
was at work then is still at work today. He's still at work
today. He says, the enemies, they roar
in the midst of that congregation. They sit up there in signs for
signs. In other words, they take their
gods and they put them up in the temples. Isn't that what
false preachers do? They've put up a false Christ, a false Jesus,
another Jesus. Man, in our day, what stands
for the church As far as the world is concerned, it's nothing
but false preaching and a false Jesus and a false gospel. That's
all it is. He says in verse 5, A man was
famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees. These false preachers are famous
through their spiritual destructions that they try to cause. I heard
Jimmy Swagger years ago. I was watching him on television.
And I heard him preach a message on five damnable doctrines. And
he took the five doctrines of grace, point by point, and just
tried to destroy them. Just what they were doing in
the temple, just cutting it down. Now he says, here they break
down, in verse 6, but now they break down the carved work, the
cherubim that was over the mercy seat, all that had flowers that
were carved, All that beautiful carving that went on. He said,
they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and
hammers. They cast fire into Thy sanctuary. They've defiled by casting down
the dwelling place of Thy name to the ground. And they're still doing it. Every
Sunday. Every Sunday, false preachers
stand in pulpits and they do this. They said in their hearts, let
us destroy them together. They have burned up all the synagogues
of God in the land." Now the synagogue, they were places that
were built for the Jews to meet in so they would hear the reading
of the Word of God. You had the temple, then they built these
synagogues in different places so that they'd have a meeting
place. And they would come there and the law would be read. And
so when Nebuchadnezzar came through, they tore down every place that
had God's name on it. This is Satan's work. This is what his desire is, is
to take everything that's of God, and it gives God the glory,
is to tear it down. That's the whole motive behind
everything, the darkness. It's to stop the preaching of
the gospel. It's to put a stop to us gathering like this. Now
God has had His hand of restraint on this country for a good many
years that we're able to do this. But if He pulls that hand of
restraint back, you watch Satan go after the church. That's what
he'll go after, to shut this down. Just like he did. They say in their heart, let
us destroy them together. They have burned up all the synagogues
of God in the land. They've destroyed all the places
where the people of God meet together. And then Asaph laments the loss
of the ordinances. We learn from the Scriptures. These things are written for
our learning. They're written for our learning. He says here in verse 9, "...we
see not our signs." They have taken their end signs, They've
set them up in the temple, and we don't see ours no more. What's
he talking about? We don't see our signs. The Urim
and Thummim is gone. It's gone. The High Priest, gone. The Shekinah Glory, gone. Everything
that represented God in the Gospel, gone. He said it's not there
no more. Now who would have thought that?
But you know what brought that up to pass? It was the hypocritical
worship and idolatry of Israel. That's why it happened. That's
why God sent Nebuchadnezzar in there to take that stuff down
because the hypocrisy that was in the worship was worse than
what Nebuchadnezzar did. Far worse. The solemn feast,
even circumcision was suspended. They weren't even allowed to
do that no more. All of it, everything that represented God, and worship,
and truth, Nebuchadnezzar put an end to it. He wouldn't allow
none of it to happen no more. The church over the years has
suffered many things. In our day, I think she has suffered
a lot of false preachers. A lot of false preachers. And
who knows what's yet in store. But in reading this, I thought,
here's good news. Here's good news. What they got rid of, what Nebuchadnezzar
went into that temple, he destroyed all the artwork, all the carvings
and all that. Those were just types. What you
and I have in Christ can't be destroyed. That can't be touched. What we have in Christ is not
something hanging on a wall. It's not a representation. What
we have in Jesus Christ is real and it cannot be touched. It
can't be destroyed. Now that's good news. That to
me is good news. We see not our signs, there's
no more prophet. Listen, there was no prophet
to tell them what was going on and how long it would go on.
Because usually God would send a prophet to Israel, and the
prophet would tell them what's going to happen, and usually
how long it was going to happen. He said, we don't even have a
prophet no more. We're left in the dark. We don't
know what's going on. This is why he said in verse
1, Why hast thou cast us off forever? Why does your anger
smoke against the sheep of your pastor? They had no word, they
had no prophet. It looked like it was never going
to change. It looked like it was nothing
but darkness and destruction. Forever. Forever. That's what it looked like. And
sometimes that's what it does look like. But knowing who God
is, we know better. And as He will tell us later.
Now here's what He does in verse 10. It's a call for God to act
for His own glory. Can you not say that right now?
I can. I would to God. He would rise up and make His
name known. I wish He would clean house.
I do. I wish God would clean house.
that He would make known that He has a people in this world
and that He is God. He is God and He is our God.
I wish He would. I would do God. He would raise
up and do. Oh God, He says, how long shall the adversary reproach?
Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name forever? Why I withdraw
thy hand, even thy right hand, pluck it out of your bosom."
He's asking God, he said, how long are they going to be allowed
to reproach your name? He's jealous for God's name.
He's asking God to act. He said, how long are you going
to stand by and watch this? He said, pull your hand out of
your bosom. Pull it out and strike with your
fist. Strike the enemy with your fist. I see in Asaph here a real genuine
love, concern, and jealousy over God's name. Over God's name. You know, anybody that can stand
around and put up with people who stand around and take God's
name in vain, If they can stand around and put up with that stuff,
they don't know God. That is so offensive. There's
nothing on this earth more offensive than when people take the name
of God in vain. That's my father. That's the
one who died for me, for us, his church. He bled and
died for us. I don't want to hear it. And
then in verses 12-23, Asaph cast himself and the children of God
upon God's... I want you to notice this. ...upon
God's faithfulness and His covenant relationship to them for deliverance. He starts out here, "...for God
is my King of old." He's my King. God's my King. Hezekiah is not
my King. Hezekiah may have came in and
taken over. I may be taken captive, but He's
not my King. That old nature has been dethroned.
It's not my King. Satan is not my King. God is
my King. And He's my King forever. God
is my King. God is my King, working salvation
in the midst of the earth, always delivering His church, always... You know, when you look back
at history, look at the history of the church. God has always delivered the
church. The church has gone through some very, very difficult times. Read everywhere in Hebrews 11.
They were sawn asunder, many of them were martyred. I was
listening to something today and they were talking about John
Calvin, his academy. He sent out missionaries from
his academy and they said it got to the point where they called
it the academy of death because so many of them were being killed. But he says here, and this is
interesting, "'For God is my King of all working salvation,
The Hebrew word for that is Yeshua, for salvation here, working salvation,
Yeshua. That's the name of Jesus Christ.
He's working salvation in the earth by sending Yeshua into
the world to save us. He's speaking here of Jesus Christ. Our Lord came into this world
took upon Him flesh, worked out our redemption, bled and died
for us, worked out a righteousness for us, gone back to heaven for
us. And through the preaching of the gospel, sinners are being
saved even to this day, and will be until He comes back. He's
working salvation in the midst of the earth, in the midst of all this darkness
and all this evil. that you see going on. God Almighty
is working salvation. That's what's going on. Don't
get so caught up into the evil of it, into the workings of that,
as much as get caught up in what God's doing. He's working salvation. Sinners are being saved. Nebuchadnezzar didn't go in there
just because he decided to take them over. God sent him in there.
God sent him in there because they had become more corrupt
than the heathens. There's one thing I know this,
I know this, and I've learned it through reading the Scriptures.
When the gospel leaves a place, it's never God's fault, it's
the people. It's the people. We grow cold,
we grow indifferent, we start to compromise. And then, you
know, compromise after a while becomes acceptance. And the next
thing you know, it's a mess. Sometimes it gets to be an unrepairable
mess. And the gospel's removed. Now Asaph, listen, Asaph recognizes
the power of God in delivering his people here in verse 13.
Thou didst divide, and I want you to notice this, I want you
to notice how his mind now lifts from the destruction of the temple
and what the enemy's doing to the sanctuary and to the name
of God, and now his mind lifts up. And now his mind is set upon
God. It's kind of like when you get
up above the dust of the battle. You know, it's hard to see what's
going on when you're in the battle, there's so much dust. The way
they used to fight battles, there's so much dust. It's hard to see
what's going on. That's why generals will set
up on top of a high hill and watch the battle and then direct
the battle from there because you can't see when you're in
the middle of it. I tell you, that's even hard even in When
you're going through difficult trials, it's hard to know what
to do, because you're right in the middle of it. It's like being
caught in a stream, a fast stream, and you're going downhill. I
mean, you're just going. And it's hard to know what to
do when you're in that kind of a situation. The best thing to
do is find a real good old seasoned saint of God and talk to them. Pray. Talk to God first. But use those whom God has already
put through it. He says, Thou didst divide the
sea by thy strength, or you did break the sea. That's what He's
saying. You broke it. You know, we talk about the dividing
of the Red Sea. Here, the meaning is this. You
just broke it. It's like breaking a stick in
half. You broke it. God pulled it apart and let them
go through on dry land. You divided the sea by thy strength. And what He's going to show here
is that God is no weak God. Our God is no weak God. He can
deliver at any second. Thou didst divide the sea by
thy strength. Thou breakest the heads of the
dragons in the waters. The army of Egypt. He calls them dragons here because,
you know why? Because their leader is the dragon,
Satan. That's what he's called. He's
called a dragon. He leads the corruption of this world. He
leads the army of corruption in this world. He recognized
here that it was God who broke the power of Egypt over them.
Listen, it is Christ who has broken the power of Satan over
us. He's broken the power of sin
over us. Sin will not have dominion over
you. If sin has dominion over you, it's never been broken yet.
God's not saved you yet. He breaks the power of sin and
death. He broke the power of death from
reigning over us. Death has no control. Death has
no power over us to retain us. And we ought to keep this in
mind, especially in times of trouble. Keep this in mind. I love the way the old prophets
and these old saints, I love the way they always look back
and they looked at the power of God in creation and how He
used His power to deliver His people. You know, when they came
up against the Red Sea, that's a problem. They're like, now
we got a problem. No, you don't. No, you don't. Without God, you do. With God,
you don't. Paul said that through Christ,
he could do all things. David said that through God,
he could run through a troop and leap over a wall. How would
you like to face a general with that kind of attitude? You've
got a fight on your hands. Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan
in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people, You gave
Him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness, the
children in the wilderness. Listen, this thought, I never
thought of this before, never saw this before. All our trials are meat for our
faith. That's what they are. The destruction
of Pharaoh was meat for their faith in the wilderness. They
could look back and feed on what God did to Pharaoh and his army. Did the impossible. Drowned them
in the sea. The strongest military might
on the earth at that time. God drowned them in the sea.
All our trials, all that He puts us through is meat for our faith. We eat meat to strengthen our
bodies, right? These trials are meat. They're to strengthen our
faith. That's what they're for. Well, when I saw that, I thought,
that just puts a whole new light on trials. Really, it's just
a serving of a good meal to my faith in Christ. And by God's
power, listen, He rules all things for His people. He said, you
did cleave the fountain. In other words, you gave water
out of the rock, and that rock was Christ. Can you imagine seeing
that? And still, most of them didn't
believe. But can you imagine water coming out of that rock,
and that rock followed them? It followed them. And water gushed
out. Can you imagine standing and
watching water gushing out of the rock? That's God. That's a miracle. That's all
that is, is a miracle. It's not some freaking nature,
that's God working out the salvation of His people. And the flood,
you dried up. The Jordan, when before they went over, this is
interesting, before they go over to the Canaan, Jordan's flooded,
isn't it? It's flooded. God always brings us into the
extreme and then demonstrates His power. Here it is flooded,
and He parts that. Shall not our God always deliver
us? Does He not always go before
us? Is He not always before us and
behind us like He was Israel? Is He not always there? And our
God is the God of nature as well as grace. Listen. The daytime
is Thine. The night also is Thine. Thou
hast prepared the light and the sun. What is not His? Whatever goes
on in the daytime is yours, and whatever goes on at nighttime
is yours. It's under your control. All are your servants. Day and
night alike belong to God. You know, it's nighttimes, you
get more afraid, don't you? You do. Nighttime comes along,
you step outside, you're looking around, you're more afraid. Well daytime, the scripture says
the night is as day before God. God stopped the sun for Joshua. He literally stopped the sun.
He suspended the laws that He put in nature. He suspended it. And the sun stood still. It stood
still. And he says here in verse 17,
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth. Thou hast made
summer and winter. You look at that and you say,
Thou hast made summer and winter. What's he talking about? He's
talking about God's faithfulness. Summer and winter. Spring and fall. Have the seasons
ever ceased? Has any of the seasons ever not
come around? He's talking here about the faithfulness
of God. Now, if God is faithful to bringing
around the seasons, how much more faithful to us for whom
Christ died to deliver us? The sea has its borders. All
nations have their borders. It's God who set them. It's God
who changes the seasons. God is not asleep. God Almighty
is at work every day. Don't think of God sitting way,
way, way, way, way out there on a marble throne and just kind
of observing everything. God's active. God's active. He's in the wind, and He's in
the waves of the sea. He's in the light. God's in everything. Our God
is in everything of this earth. It's His. It's His. And now, in verse 18, He repeats, this thing of asking God to act
for His glory. Do this for your glory. Don't
do this for me. Do this for your glory, your
namesake. And then in verse 19, I'm going to move on here quickly. Verse 19, He offers up this prayer
for mercy. He asks for mercy. Oh, deliver
not the soul of thy turtle dove into the multitude of the wicked.
Lord, have mercy on me. Don't let the wicked have their
way with me. Don't deliver me to them. He's
asking for mercy. Nebuchadnezzar and that group
there, they didn't know the God of mercy. What is our power? God, and He's merciful to us. Learn from your heart to use
God's mercy in prayer often, often. Use His mercy. It is good and it's right to
plead our weakness, He calls Himself a turtle dove, and to
plead God's power to keep us and not deliver us over to the
wicked. And forget not the congregation
of thy poor forever. Remember thy church, which thou
hast purchased with thine own blood. And have respect to your
covenant." Boy, I could take a whole message right here. A
whole message. He appeals to God's covenant.
Let me read you what Charles Spurgeon wrote. God is not a
man that he should lie. His covenant he will not break,
nor alter the thing that has gone forth out of his lips. God
is a covenant God. Remember your covenant. I tell
you, that covenant means so much to me now. As I've grown older,
I appreciate more and more and more. The covenant of grace. because God will not break that
covenant. Have mercy on me. Remember your
covenant that you made with Christ concerning me. And then he says
here in verse 21, he asks God to let the poor and needy praise
Thy name. Did any of the poor and needy
praise His name here tonight? Did God let any of us come in
here tonight from being out there in that world, being out there
in that mess, He allowed us to come in here and praise Him? What a privilege. What a privilege. And that's what He's asking.
He said, let not the oppressed return to shame, but let them
praise. Lord, let me praise You. Help
me to do it. Help me to praise You. And then
last of all, His prayer concerns God's cause. Arise, O God, plead
Thine own cause. Take up this matter for Your
cause. You know, that's what's going on. Since the beginning,
it's God's cause in all this, isn't it? Satan's trying to destroy
the cause of God. And he's saying here, O God,
plead your own cause. Remember, the foolish man reproaches
you. Act for your namesake. In this psalm, he wrote of God's
people under great affliction. But under that great affliction,
we have great hope. Now, right now, we're not under
great affliction. Sometimes it's so subtle, that's
more dangerous. But that's not saying that tomorrow won't bring
that. We have great hope. We have great
confidence in prayer. Because we have a great God. God is our King. Our God is our
King. Nobody elected Him to be there.
Nobody chose Him to be King. He's King. And I'm sure glad
of that. All right.