We're going to begin in Psalm
74 tonight. We have not yet read this psalm,
so I want to go through this with you and read it, and then
I'll try to give you an overview of what is pretty obvious from
this psalm. It begins in verse one, Psalm
74. Oh God, why hast thou cast us
off forever? Why doth thine anger smoke against
the sheep of thy pasture? Remember thy congregation, which
thou hast purchased of old, the rod of thine inheritance, which
thou hast redeemed this Mount Zion wherein thou hast dwelt.
Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations, even all that the
enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. Thine enemies roar
in the midst of thy congregations. They set up their ensigns for
signs. A man was famous according as
he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees, but now they break
down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.
They have cast fire into thy sanctuary. They have defiled
by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.
They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together. They
have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land. We see not
our signs, there is no more any prophet, neither is there among
us any that knoweth how long. O God, how long shall the adversary
reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy
name forever? Why withdrawest thou thy hand,
even thy right hand? Pluck it out of thy bosom, for
God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the
earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength. Thou breakest
the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou breakest the heads
of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people
inhabiting the wilderness. Thou didst clave the fountain
and the flood, Thou driest up mighty rivers. The day is Thine,
the night also is Thine. Thou hast prepared the light
and the sun, Thou hast set all the borders of the earth, and
Thou hast made summer and winter. Remember this, that the enemy
hath reproached, O Lord, and that the foolish people have
blasphemed Thy name. O deliver not the soul of thy
turtledove Unto the multitude of the wicked. Forget not the
congregation of thy poor forever. Have respect unto the covenant,
for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of
cruelty. O let not the oppressed return
ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise
thy name. Arise, O God, plead thine own cause. Remember how
the foolish man reproacheth thee. Forget not the voice of thine
enemies, the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth
continually. Alright, so you can see this
is a very earnest supplication that is made in a woeful cry
because of proud and wicked men who are the enemies of God's
people. A very woeful and lamentable cry is uttered here in supplication
by the psalmist to God, and it is a supplication made on behalf
of the congregation of the Lord. because the enemy has assaulted
and brought desolation upon God's people for a long period of time."
Which is why he says, why? How long? And there seems to
be no end in sight. So the enemy, it says in verse
four, roars. Thine enemies roar in the midst
of the congregation, of thy congregation. It says in verse 7, they have
cast fire into the sanctuary, the very dwelling place where
God has put his name, where he dwells with his people. They
have set up symbols of their gods and their victory over God's
people in the place of the Lord's true signs. As it says in verse
4, thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregation. They
set up their ensigns for signs. So they have burned up the sanctuaries
of God in the land. In verse eight, all of them,
they've burned them up. They have determined in their
hearts to destroy God's entire congregation, it says in verse
eight. And the Lord's people cannot see any tokens of God's
deliverance. There's no evidence that God
is going to deliver them, nor is there any prophet among God's
people to give them hope or tell them how long it will be when
the Lord will deliver them from this enemy. And that's in verse
9. He says, we see not our signs.
There is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any
that knoweth how long. So the psalmist here is expressing
his cry on behalf of the entire congregation. And he asks God,
how long will the adversary reproach them? He says in verse 10, shall
the enemy blaspheme thy name forever? He asked why God doesn't
draw his hand out to save and to subdue their adversary, whose
reproach against them and blasphemy is against God's own name. And
that's in verse 11. He says, why withdrawest thou
thy hand, even thy right hand? It's as if God is holding back
his hand. And he asked him to pluck his
hand out of his bosom to save them. And then he asked the Lord
to not only save them, but to destroy the enemies. The adversary
has determined to destroy and blaspheme the name of the Lord,
even the dwelling place where God's name is with his people.
And there is no apparent deliverance. There's no evidence of salvation
on the horizon. No one can tell the people how
long it will be until the Lord saves them from their adversaries.
And no one is able to say that God is going to silence their
enemies and subdue them in their blasphemous efforts here, roaring
for destruction against the Lord's people and against the Lord himself. So you can see this is a very
earnest and lamentable cry. It's a sad cry of a long affliction
by God's people. Now, if you look at verse 12,
I'm just still doing the overview, he says, For God is my King of
old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. So here we
see that In the prayer of the psalmist, he now turns from the
woeful cry out of the condition, this long condition of trouble
from the enemy. He speaks of God as my king of
old, working salvation in the earth. He goes on from verse
13 to 17, giving examples of how God has done mighty things,
why they can trust him. He says he has separated the
land from the waters. Remember in Genesis chapter 1,
when God divided the waters, he did all sorts of dividing. Remember he divided the light
from the darkness. He divided the waters above from
the waters below. He divided the land from the
sea. And he divided the night from the day. And he also made
boundaries for the seasons of the year. So there would be a
winter and summer. And he refers to these things
because all of them point to salvation that God performs for
his people. Dividing means that God is making
a difference. God made a difference between
the land and the sea, between the waters above and the waters
below, between the light and the darkness, between the seasons
of the year. There's cold and winter. There's,
I mean, cold and summer. There's heat and winter. And so all these things are teaching
us that they're representative of God's saving grace to His
people, His almighty power to save them. Then also, if you
remember, he not only divided the land in Genesis, but he divided
the Red Sea, when Israel passed through the sea as dry land,
when they were delivered from Egyptian armies and the king
of Egypt. And then God also stopped the
flow of Jordan, when the priest carrying the ark entered Jordan,
and Jordan stopped, all the water that was flowing stopped, and
the people were allowed to pass over Jordan. That Jordan River,
which represented judgments flowing endlessly, and when the Ark of
God, which represents Christ and Him crucified, entered to
that river, all of the judgments were stopped, and God's people
passed over into their eternal inheritance. Remember, by Joshua? So he refers to these things. God also says in verse 13, he
has broken the heads of the dragons in the waters. And he broke the
heads of Leviathan in pieces. It says in verse 14, Leviathan
is a name, a title given to sea creatures in Genesis. It's translated
as whale, or God made whales. And in the book of Job is this
apparently a sea creature with his tough skin for protection. or scales, whatever they were.
Whatever those creatures were in actuality, they represent
a greater beast that is naturally capable of destroying God's people,
and yet God is going to save them from these beasts. And then
also, I mentioned the Red Sea and Jordan,
but also God says in verse 16, it says, the day is thine, the
night also is thine. In other words, God has rule. He rules over both the light
and the darkness, the day and the night. There's nothing hidden
from God and there's certainly nothing in the darkness that
can hurt his people because the Lord is ruler over all of that. And then he says in verse 17,
God set boundaries over all the earth and made summer and winter. So again, these things are to
teach us that Psalmist is remembering, he's recalling to mind not only
in his prayer to God, God's greatness and his power on behalf of his
people, that he could do all these things and therefore he
has power over the enemy now, but he's also saying these things
for the peace and the assurance of his people, even though it
doesn't seem like it. God always brings His creation
out of nothing, He brings life out of death, and whatever He
says is what is done. And so that's the nature of God,
that's the way of God, and He says these things in this psalm
for the people, for the sake of His people. And then, he goes
on in verse 18 of this psalm, he says, remember. Now, he's
asking God to remember what the enemy has done, to reproach God's
own name. He pleads to God not to deliver
his beloved ones into the hands of the wicked multitude. He says
in verse 19, oh, deliver not the soul of thy turtle dove to
the multitude of the wicked, and do not forget the congregation
of thy poor forever. And so you can see that the psalmist
is crying out to God on behalf of a poor and oppressed people. And these are God's people. And
then in verse, a little bit later, he says in verse 20, have respect
to the covenant. In other words, recall the covenant
God made with his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. The covenant
God made with his people has blessings promised in it, blessings
of life, blessing of his spirit, blessing of a new heart, blessing
of knowing God, blessing of the remission of their sins, blessing
of eternal inheritance. All these things are in that
covenant. All the promises are given to them in Christ. All
of those blessings were promised to Christ and to all who were
in Christ. So that covenant is what the
psalmist is asking God to remember here. And that covenant was made
with them in Christ, and so it's sure, Christ himself is that
covenant. We'll talk about that more in
a bit. And then in verse 21, he also goes on to say, don't
let the oppressed return to shame. God's people are oppressed by
the enemy, and he asked God not to cause them to be ashamed of
their hope, which is Christ. And he says in that same verse,
let the poor and the needy praise thy name. So this is the way,
this is the result of God saving them. They will be enabled by
faith to see his salvation and they will praise his name. And
then in verse 22, he says, he makes this cry to God. He says,
arise, God, and plead your own cause. There's no greater basis
for asking God for His grace and His salvation of us than
His own cause. God always acts according to
His own will. Ephesians 1.11 says He does all
things, He works all things according to the counsel of His own will.
And also God always acts to the praise and the glory of his own
name. And so whatever God does, he
will always do it for his own name's sake. And this is our
salvation. And so that's the overview that
I see in this psalm. And I have some questions now
to kind of direct our thoughts into how this psalm is addressing
some very powerful questions, questions that we need to understand.
Why is God giving us this psalm? Well, the fact is that this psalm
is telling us that in the history of his people, throughout history. and especially in times of great
affliction and persecution, which are evident, but mostly in the
times when the enemy seems to have dominance, at least the
evidence seems to suggest that the enemy has complete dominance
in the congregation of God's people. And that's the worst
kind of time. And we'll consider what that
means a little bit later, but here's the first question. For
whom does the psalmist make supplication to God in this psalm? Who is
he praying for? And if you look at verse 1, the
answer is given. It says, O God, why hast thou
cast us off forever? Why doth thine anger smoke against,
notice, the sheep of thy pasture? Remember thy congregation, which
thou hast purchased of old, the rod of thine inheritance, this
Mount Zion wherein thou hast dwelt." Wherever God's dwelling
is, whatever God calls Zion, Mount Zion, whatever congregation
is God's congregation, the people of His redeeming purchase, these
are the people who are being prayed for. It's the church,
isn't it? In Hebrews chapter 12, it says, we're not come to
Mount Sinai. We're not come to the Mount that
might be touched, that burned with fire, and to the sound of
a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voiced those that heard,
entreated it should not be spoken to them anymore. But we're come
to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem. So that's the church, right? We're come to Mount Sinai. the multitude, a heavenly host
of angels, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus
the mediator, to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better
things than the blood of Abel. So this is what we're come to
in the new covenant. We're come to Christ and we're
come into the kingdom of Christ, which is his church. and his
kingdom is in the hearts of his people, and he dwells in them,
and they dwell in him. So this is what we're come to,
and these are the ones God is, by the psalmist, is making supplication.
Again, we always remember that these are the words of the Spirit
of God. This is the will of God. Remember Romans chapter eight,
the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings, which
cannot be uttered according to the will of God. And he that
searches the heart, which is Christ, knows the mind of the
Spirit, and he makes intercession for his saints according to that
same will, the will of God. So, when we don't know what to
pray, God's Spirit here is praying for us. What is our condition?
Well, the condition described in this Psalm, in Psalm 74, is
that the enemy seems, by all evidence, seems to be wreaking
havoc in the church of God. And so this is a problem. This is a great problem, isn't
it? And so that's what the supplication is made to here. It's for God's
people. They're called the rod of his inheritance. Now remember,
when there was a dispute about whether God had chosen Aaron
and Moses, God told Moses, you take all the rods of the heads
of the elders of Israel, and you lay them up, and whichever
rod buds and brings forth these blossoms, that will be the one
the tribe God has chosen for the priesthood. Of course, it
was Aaron's rod that budded. It not only blossomed, but had
almonds on it, a dead rod. And that was an indication that
this was God's man, God's choosing, his priesthood. And who are God's
priests? They're the ones that Christ
has made kings and priests to God. They're God's people, God's
elect, God's choice. And so that's what it's saying
here, the rod of thine inheritance. God has taken his people to be
his inheritance. And what is our inheritance?
Well, the Lord himself is our portion. Remember, the Lord is
my portion. And so here we can see that the
people being prayed for are the Lord's people, His choosing,
His redeemed, the people in whom He dwells, His sheep, the Zion,
the Mount Zion where God Himself dwells among His people. All
right, so when we read this first verse though, it says, oh God,
why hast thou cast us off forever? Why does thine anger smoke against
the sheep of thy pasture? It raises another question. Does
God, is God angry at His people? Does God truly forsake His people
and does He cast them off forever? Is that possible? What does the
scripture teach us about this? It tells us this in Romans chapter
11, and this question is raised by the apostle Paul because in
the book of Romans he teaches the truth that not all who are
in the nation of Israel are in the true Israel of God. And that's
a fundamental truth that was cleared up in the book of Romans,
it's not those who are outwardly Jews, or who are Jews by birth,
physical birth, as Jesus told Nicodemus, that which is born
of the flesh is flesh, only that which is born of the spirit is
spirit. But in Romans chapter 11, listen to the apostle after
laying out God's election and how he had made a distinction
between Jacob and Esau, and this was to illustrate in them, not
only them, but also between Isaac and Ishmael, it was to show that
God's purpose of election was designed to remove all possibility
that salvation could be by works. Let me just read that text from
Romans 9 to remind you. He says in Romans 9, when Rebecca
had conceived by one, by our father Isaac, for the children
be not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, so there
was nothing in these children that made the difference, that
the purpose of God, according to election, might stand not
of works, but of him that calleth." In other words, why does God
make salvation his choice and not ours? Well, the main reason
is so that it wouldn't be anything of us, not of our works, but
it would all be of God who makes that call. It was said to Rebecca,
the elder, shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have
I loved, But he saw have I hated, and then he goes on to describe
those two differences in the people of God, not just the people
of the nation of Israel compared to the Gentiles, but more particularly,
all of the remnant in the nation of Israel and the remnant from
among the Gentiles were God's chosen people. They are the children
of promise. In other words, the children
with whom God made covenant in Christ, the children of promise.
But in Romans 11, after going through all of that and showing
in Romans 10 that only those who call on the name of Christ
the Lord are saved, but whosoever does call shall be saved. So it doesn't matter whether
they're Jew or Gentile. It doesn't matter anything about
what they did with respect to the law. It's all about what
Christ has done for them. And that's in Romans 10. And
he goes on to show that this was prophesied in the book of
Isaiah when Isaiah said, that they have not believed the report. The good report, of course, is
the report of Christ crucified for the salvation of his people.
But in Romans 11, he says this in verse 1, I say then, has God
cast away his people? Now, the whole nation, has God
cast away his people because they rejected the good report? They heard the gospel, but they
didn't believe it. He says, the answer to the question,
has God cast away his people, is no. God forbid, for I also
am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
God has not cast away his people, which he foreknew. Do you see?
So the question is, in Psalm 74, verse one, oh God, why hast
thou cast us off forever, is God doesn't cast his people off.
So why does the psalmist say this then? Well, because the
evidence, the outward observable evidence to all appearances is
that God has. Because they're left, it seems,
to the power of their enemies, the will of their enemies, seems
to have control over them. And that's what the psalmist
is lamenting. Well, we know that salvation is by grace. It goes
on in Romans 11. Even so, then, at this present time also, there
is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by
grace, then is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no
more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. It can't be
grace and works. It's either grace, all grace,
or it's work, all work. And of course the gospel is all
grace, because salvation is all of God. It's nothing we do. We don't earn it. We don't merit
it. We don't contribute to it. God
performs it, and we see it, and we praise him for it. And that's
the work of God. Even that work to cause us to
see these things and to trust him for it is the work of God
in us. So, to answer the question, does
God cast away his people? No, no. Jesus said, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give
to them, notice, eternal life, and they shall never perish,
and neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, my Father,
who is greater than all. No one is able to pluck them
out of His hand. They're His sheep, and they're my sheep,
and no one can take them from Christ, and certainly no one
can take them from the Father. So, how about their sins, though? Would their sins remove them
from God's hand? And the answer to that is no,
no. Because Romans chapter 8 says, Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. God
has justified them, and not for anything He founded them, but
for Christ's sake, He justified them by His blood. And that's
what Romans 5, 9 says, justified by His blood. It's free. It's
not by merit. Freely, being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. So
this is the way God saves his people. So there's no possibility
then, because God justified them, Christ died for them, there's
no possibility that any enemy can take them, not even their
own sins. Because enemies ultimately come
upon us because of our sin against God. It's the design of the enemy
is to murder, isn't it? And what's his motive? I mean,
not his motive, what is his means? What does the strategy of the
enemy look like? Well, the enemy, which is Satan,
is going to deceive by deception, he thinks, to make God's people
fall into sin and idolatry against God. And then God will have to,
in justice, bring his judgments upon them and destroy them. And
then Satan can just dust his hands and say, see, I accomplished
my work. I overthrew God's people. I proved I was greater. then
God, He wasn't able to keep these people because they were such
vile sinners and He could do nothing about it. His justice
cried out for judgment and He executed that according to His
holiness and therefore they're wiped away. No, that wasn't the
story, was it? The story is far, far more stupendous
than that. The fact of the matter is that
God designed salvation for his people in such a way that his
love would be made known and his righteousness and his justice
and all his faithfulness, his mercy, his grace would be made
known in the highest pinnacle possible. The highest possible
way demonstrating that God allowed by his will man to fall into
sin so that the salvation, his love toward them would be so
amplified that he would not only keep them, but he would save
them by the blood of his beloved son. And this is beyond all comprehension. There's nothing like this on
earth. There's no way we can draw any comparisons to this
by any earthly relationship. God has done something that is
only God could do this. This is the most God-like thing
that God ever did, as someone so aptly said one time. And so
we see this here. Now the second question is in
verse 1. Notice, who ultimately brought
this calamity upon the people of God from their enemies? Who
did? Notice verse 1. Oh God, why has
thou cast us off? You see, God takes responsibility,
if you will, for the afflictions that come upon his people. It
says in the book of Job, Job chapter 2 verse 10, Job answered
his wife, he said, shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall
we not receive evil? You see, God made light and darkness. He made the sea and the dry land. He made the waters above and
the waters below. He made night and he made day. He made the cold and he made
the heat, the winter and the summer. God did all these things.
So he uses these things to bear instruction from God to us so
that the church of God would not be despondent, would not
despair in all of their afflictions, but they would see God's hand
and they would recognize this is God's hand. And if it's from
him and he does good, and all for the glory of His name in
the salvation of His people, therefore we can know that even
if we suffer death, even if we suffer death in the worst possible
way, it will not be for our destruction, but it will actually be for our
conquering of our enemies. Now, I want to give you a couple
examples of that. Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? When King
Nebuchadnezzar threatened them to be cast into the burning fiery
furnace, which was heated seven times hotter than it had ever
been heated, and unless they bowed down to his image that
he had set up, and they said, well, I don't remember exactly
the words they said, but they basically said this, We're not
careful in our answer to you, O King. We are not careful. Our God is
able to deliver us from your hand. But if he doesn't, we're
not going to bow down to your idol. So understand that. And then, of course, the King
grabbed them up by his strong mighty men, cast them into that
furnace. The mighty men perished in the heat. And there they were
walking around in the midst of that fire. And their clothes
weren't even, and their hair wasn't even singed by the heat.
And the Son of God was with them in that flame. All right, so
even that one example shows us the way God cares for his people.
When you pass through the fire, he says in Isaiah, it shall not
burn you. The floods won't overflow you.
No weapon formed against you is going to prosper. This is
the heritage of the servants of the Lord. Their righteousness
is of me, Isaiah 54 verse 17. So that's an Old Testament example
from Isaiah. And so in the book of Romans,
then, he gathers together all of these examples in Romans chapter
8. And I know that you know this,
but I'm going to read it to us because it applies here in Psalm
74. He says in Romans chapter 8,
who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation
or distress? That means I don't know what
to do. Everything I can see, everything in my life, everything
has made it so that I'm completely distressed. I don't know where
to turn. He says, how about persecutions? Famine, nakedness, danger or
peril, sword. What about these things? He says
in verse 36, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all
the day long. All right, so there's the statement
of God. We are killed all the day long,
but it's for the Lord's sake. He says in verse 36 of Romans
8 still, he says, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But
notice in verse 37, nay, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us. For I'm persuaded that neither
death nor life nor angels, nor principalities, and what greater
enemies could we have than these spiritual powers in high places? Nor things present, not our present
circumstances, nor things to come, it doesn't matter what
comes, nor height nor depth. nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord." Those words are so comforting and they apply
to this psalm in particular. Ultimately, God is the one who
brings affliction. He says in 1 Thessalonians 3,
let me read this to you, in 1 Thessalonians 3, because these new converts
who had heard the gospel and believed on Christ, they faced
incredible persecutions then. But he says in 1 Thessalonians
3, verse 3, that no man should be moved by these afflictions,
for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. God has
appointed us to these afflictions. For verily, when we were with
you, we told you before that you should suffer tribulation,
even as it came to pass, and you know." So Paul told them,
you're going to suffer tribulation. They did. It came to pass. And
they knew it now. And this was appointed by God,
their Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they knew that
this was coming. This is the way Job said it,
shall have we received good and not evil. Remember in Luke 16,
Lazarus, the beggar, had received evil things in his life, whereas
the rich man received good things. In other words, in this life,
the rich man seemed to receive the good and the poor believing
sinner received what seemed to be evil. But then it was Lazarus became more than a conqueror
when he entered glory, because the Lord declared he was in the
bosom of Abraham, the very one to whom God made all the promises
and the covenant promises in Christ, and so he was one of
those heirs of promise. All right, so we see this. The
Lord is the one who brought the affliction. The Lord always does.
And he brings it for various reasons, but whatever the reason
is always to the praise of the glory of his name. One of the
things you see in scripture is that whatever God intends, by
trouble in the lives of his people, he accomplishes that intention. Whatever purpose God has for
trouble in our lives, God will make that purpose come to pass.
And that should comfort us, shouldn't it? When we face things we do
not understand, things that we have no power over, things that
seem to be against our very lives, things that would cause distress,
where we're so perplexed we just don't know what to do. And what
that causes the believer to do is to cry and call and look to
God, his Savior. Remember Jehoshaphat in 2nd Chronicles
chapter 20, when God had the Moabites and the Ammonites coming
against them? King Jehoshaphat then prayed
for the people. Let me read that to you. It's
one of my favorite texts of scripture. It says, he says, Jehoshaphat
said in his prayer, he says, now behold, he's praying to the
Lord, now behold the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir,
the Edomites, which were Esau's children, whom thou wouldst not
let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but
they turned from them and destroyed them not. Behold, I say, Jehoshaphat
is talking to the Lord, how they reward us to come to cast us
out of thy possession. That sounds like Psalm 74, doesn't
it? to destroy, to cast us out of God's inheritance. He says,
which thou has given us to inherit. Oh, our God, wilt thou not judge
them? For we have no might, no strength
against this great company that comes against us. Obviously,
in coming against God's people, they were coming against God.
Like David said about Goliath, you come to me with a sword and
a spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts
whose armies you have defied. And so Jehoshaphat says, we have
no might, no strength against this great company that comes
against us. Neither know we what to do. We
don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And then
if you read on in 2 Chronicles 20, you'll see how the Lord told
them, stand still. You will not fight in this battle.
And then the Lord had these singers go before the people of Israel
to praise the name of the Lord, and God destroyed all their enemies.
And they saw it. And so these things are brought
out in the Old Testament scripture to give us a picture, an example,
a physical example of how beyond all appearances, God is for his
people. He will never leave them. He
will never forsake them. He's always with them. Remember
in Revelation chapter two, it begins, Revelation chapter two,
Christ tells his people that I dwell among these candlesticks
in the churches and he holds the stars, the preachers, the
ones who minister the gospel to his people, he holds them
in his right hand. Think about that. Think about
the incredible provision that the Lord Jesus Christ makes on
a continuous basis for his elect in this world, that he holds
in his right hand those he has sent to preach the gospel to
his people, to give them the light. so that they might see
God in all of their salvation, in all of the providence of their
life that God has designed, and that everything is working together
for their good according to God's eternal purpose. So this is the
thoughts we have when we consider, does God do this? Does he bring
these things upon his people? All right, now let me read this
scripture to you in Psalm chapter 27. He says in Psalm 27, verse
one, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life. Not myself, the Lord. Of whom shall I be afraid? You
see? When Paul had this affliction
from the Lord in his flesh, he said he prayed three times that
the Lord would remove it. And the Lord said to him, my
grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect
in weakness. Weakness. You see, there's never
a time when we trust Christ more than in our weakness. when we're
afraid, when we have no strength, when we have no way to save ourselves. You see, these words from the
psalmist, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall
I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life. They didn't come out of some theoretical paper. It wasn't just an abstract written
on some PhD's dissertation. or something you read in a math
book as you're taking a course in calculus or something. This
was something that came out of the experience of God's people
under the worst kind of afflictions. And when he says these things
by the spirit of God, breathing them out through the prophet
here in the psalm. When he says these things, it's for the assurance
of God's people that the Lord himself is our light, our salvation,
our strength, and therefore we have nothing to fear. The Lord
is my shepherd. My shepherd I shall not want,
and though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil, for the Lord is with me. He makes me
lie down, even in the presence of his and my enemies. All right. So there's much to be said about
that, but I want you to think about these things as you read
on this psalm. So the next question I have here,
and we probably have to stop after this one because I'm noticing
that the time has gone by quickly, is what description does the
psalmist give here in this psalm, Psalm 74, of the people From God's viewpoint, what is
the description God, the psalmist, which is the spirit of God speaking
through this man, Asaph, what description does he give of the
Lord's people from God's view? Now, I want you to see this.
They're called the sheep of thy pasture. In other words, they're
very dear to the Lord. David took care of his father
Jesse's sheep. And when a lion and a bear came,
and they had one of the sheep in the mouth of the lion and
the bear, David took hold of the beard and smote the lion
and the bear. I don't know how that happened.
It was a miraculous deliverance, but it shows this is what Christ
did for his people. Them also I must bring. I am the good shepherd, the good
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And this is the everlasting
covenant, the God of peace who brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, make you
perfect in every good work to do his will. Okay, so the Lord
is our shepherd, therefore he is not going to allow one of
his sheep to perish. And so that's the first way that
God sees his people. They are his sheep. In John 17,
verse 9 and 10, Jesus says that, you've given them to me, they're
mine and they're yours. The people of the Lord belong
to the Father and to the Son, the same people. Okay? So the next way that God describes
them as his congregation, his church, his gathered people,
that's what they are, they're gathered together by God's call. It says in Acts 2, the last verse,
or near to the last verse of Acts 2, verse 47, he says that
the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Remember that? And it says these
were the people whom the Lord called, that's why they called
upon him. So the sheep They utter their
call, their cry. The Lord hears them because the
Lord chose them. They were his sheep and he called
them. That's why they called to him. Okay? And that's the
evidence that we're the Lord's people. It says in Psalm 34,
17, the righteous cry. They cry. They're the oppressed.
They're the poor. They're the afflicted people. And they cry.
And it's out of their trouble that they cry. All right? The
other thing, the other name God has given His people here is
that they're the rod of His inheritance. I mentioned that. They're the
people of His choosing, His elect. They're His redeemed. Not only
did he choose them, but he purchased them with the blood of his son.
They're called Mount Zion. That's the place where he dwells.
That's the place of his kingdom. That's the place where Christ
rules, is among his people. Remember Matthew chapter 16,
verse 18, Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates
of hell will not prevail against it. No matter how much the devil
and his kingdom seem to prevail outwardly and by all evidence
that we can perceive, the Lord says, no, no. The gospel will
accomplish, because it's the power of God, it will accomplish
its work. God will not let his word return
void. All of his people will be called
and given life by the spirit of God and trust Christ through
that gospel. And so that's the name of his
dwelling place is Zion, and that's where God has put his name. If
God does not accomplish what he promised to do for his people.
If he doesn't save them, if he doesn't give them the eternal
inheritance he promised to them in Christ, then God himself suffers. His name suffers. And that's
why it's so important when Moses prayed in Exodus 32, when the
people had worshipped that calf that Aaron made for them, Or
in Numbers 14, when they refused to go into the land of Canaan,
the prayer of Moses in both instances was that God consider his name
and his covenant and therefore save his people, not for something
found in them. but because God had set his name
upon them as his people. And bearing his name, if he lets
them fall, then his name falls. And you know that since, for
our own assurance, God has sworn by an oath that he will give
his people all that he has given them in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews chapter six makes the case that if God doesn't fulfill
his word of promise to us in Christ, then God ceases to be
God, because he proves himself to not be faithful to his word. He proves himself to not be able
to save his people. that their sin was greater than
his ability to save them from their sins, and all these things,
that he wasn't strong enough over their enemies, and all these
things are brought to bear on the confidence and the assurance
given to God's people that it's because of Christ that they are
saved, not because of their own strength, or their own wisdom,
or their own righteousness, but because God is faithful to his
own glory. to the praise of the glory of
His grace. That's why the Lord saves us.
And to think about that should cause us to lay our head on our
pillows at night and rest in peace. Not because we find in
ourselves something worthy, or strength, or any of those things,
but because the Lord has directed us to see the Lord Jesus Christ
is our light, our salvation, and our strength. And therefore,
we have nothing to fear. And we don't want to sin. We don't delight in sin. We want to be victors over sin,
and we shall be, but all of our strength and the light of how
this happens is in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's where God
directs us to in the gospel of His grace. So I'm going to stop
here, and we will continue in Psalm 74 next time. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this psalm. Thank you that your power is
great, that you are the great Savior, that you work salvation
in the earth, as the psalmist has told us here and reminded
us, and that you teach us to bring to your remembrance these
things, although we know you cannot forget. But when we bring
them to your remembrance, from your word, we're reminding ourselves
and drawing comfort and assurance from your word that you will
not be unfaithful to your own word, to your own name, to your
own glory, but you will uphold your people because you have
bound yourself to them in name, you've called yourself by them,
And we see this and we stand in awe that you would stoop so
low to save a people so undeserving and bring them to glory so high
and teach them of the infinite love of the Lord Jesus Christ
in doing so in a holy righteousness that is to admire, will require
the days of eternity. And we pray, Lord, that you would
give us this grace now, under all afflictions, and when we
see the assault of the enemy, and the deceptions, and all of
our tendency to be tempted to look on things outwardly, that
we would know that we live by faith alone. And all of our afflictions
are but light afflictions, considering the greatness of the inheritance
you've given us in Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.