Psalm 56, I want to begin reading
from verse one. Be merciful unto me, O God. This is David praying. Be merciful
unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up. He, fighting daily,
oppresseth me. And the next verse says in verse
two, mine enemies would daily swallow me up. For they be many
that fight against me, O thou most high. It's clear from those
two verses that David is in need of God's mercy, that only God
can help him. He expects God will hear his
cry. He knows that God is able to
save him. And he's depending upon God to
do that, to be merciful to him and to deliver him from his enemies.
And he is expecting that God will do that. So this is a prayer
of faith and hope in God for his mercy against his enemy.
In David's case, his mercy from God and God's mercy towards David
in judging against his enemies. And so in verse two at the end,
oh most high, you can see that David is depending upon God as
the most high God. He has sovereign rule over David
and his enemies. So in this prayer you can see
David's great faith and we're gonna keep reading verse three.
He says, what time I am afraid I will trust in thee. What had
put him in fear were his enemies. And as I mentioned last time,
it's surprising if you read David's life, especially when he was
fighting against the Philistines, he didn't seem to have fear at
all. He was fearless. One time, for example, there
was a place called Keilah, and he heard that the Philistines
had attacked them, and he asked the Lord, and the Lord gave him
guidance to go ahead and go down, and that God would deliver the
Philistines into his hand and he would save Keilah. And he
did. I mean, that's courage and bravery that's hard to find in
the world. But David was strong and courageous
because of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So in verse four,
he says, in God, I will praise his word. In God, I have put
my trust. I will not fear what flesh can
do to me. Every day they rest my words,
they twist them. All their thoughts are against
me for evil. That's the only thing his enemies
could think of, how they can destroy David, how they can do
him harm. They gather themselves together,
they hide themselves, they mark my steps when they wait for my
soul. Shall they escape by iniquity?
So this is a question he's posing to God. Shall they escape by
iniquity? In thine anger cast down the
people, O God. Thou tellest my wanderings. God
knows about all of his wanderings because he was wandering from
the enemy. And this is what he's saying
here. The Lord knows it. He says, put
down my tears into thy bottle. Are they not in thy book? When
I cry unto Thee, then shall mine enemies turn back. This I know,
for God is for me. In God will I praise His word. In the Lord will I praise His
word. In God have I put my trust. I
will not be afraid what man can do unto me. Thy vows are upon
me, O God. I will render praises unto Thee,
for Thou hast delivered my soul from death. Wilt thou not, or
wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk
before God in the land, in the light of the living? Not the
land, but the light of the living. Okay, so that's the reading of
this psalm. And I wanna read the words that
are in the Bible before verse one. They're actually part of
the psalm. And for some reason, the, The King James Version puts
these as an introduction to the psalm before the first verse.
And a lot of times, actually, I have apps on my phone that
allow me to read the Bible, and they don't include these words
in all the apps. So we want to read them, though,
because they are part of the Word of God. Notice in Psalm
56, the introduction, it says, to the chief musician, upon,
and there's a big word here, it's really a compound word,
is Jonathelum Rehokim, or however you would say that in the Hebrew,
I'm not even coming close. And so it's to the chief musician
upon Jonathelum Rehokim, he says, Mictam of David, when the Philistines
took him in Gath. Okay, so if you see that, you
can see here that David was in a city of the Philistines, Gath. And the reason he was there,
if you remember from 1 Samuel, is that he was running from King
Saul. Now this helps us a great deal
to understand this psalm. David writes this psalm on the
occasion of running from King Saul. David and his men were
running from King Saul. They were not in the land of
Israel. They were in the land of the enemy, the Philistines.
And they were actually in Gath, which was the city of Goliath
that David had killed. So you can feel the pressure,
the tension in David. And if you think about this,
here's a man in the city of his enemies, in the very town of
the giant that he killed. They knew him. They would have
hated him. And and he would have known that
he had no safety there. And and so At the beginning of
this, before verse one, it uses these words to the chief musician.
The chief musician was the one who would give this song to the
people. This was a public form of worship. And so we understand that this
is the spirit of God who wrote by King David, who was the anointed
of the Lord in the historical sense, and he therefore is a
type of Christ who is the anointed. That is what Christ means, the
anointed. And it says here in the beginning, before the psalm,
it's Jonathelum rechokim, or however you say that word. And
that's a compound word. The first part is Jonathah, or
Yonah is what it says in the Hebrews. It means a dove, a bird,
a dove. And elem means silence or mute
justice. It's as if justice wasn't speaking. among the congregation, and the
next part of that, which is rihokim, or however you say it, means
distances or strangers. So put that word as a way of
summarizing what this song, the context of this psalm. David
and his men were outside of Israel. They were among the aliens and
the strangers, and they themselves were considered strangers to
those who were in authority in Israel, which was King Saul and
his servants. And while they were strangers
from their native land, which was the Lord's inheritance, David
and his men were just that, they were not in the Lord's inheritance.
They weren't in the place that God had promised them. And so
they, it says yona, or dove, they were there as the Lord's
people, and in that sense, like doves, Jesus said that you should
be wise as serpents, but harmless as doves, remember? God's people
are harmless when it comes to one another, but God has to fight
for them, and in that sense they were called doves. So here we
can see, if we understand the historical context here, that
David and his men were like doves in a strange land among strangers
to the Lord. They were outside of the Lord's
inheritance that he had given to them and promised to them,
and they felt estranged. And it seemed as if God's justice
was silent. It was mute. And they were a
long way from their homeland. They were a long way. And it
seemed like that because of this, I mean, this was all the reason
for this was that David and his men were running from King Saul.
Okay. So you can see now if you read
the first verse and second verse, be merciful unto me, O God, for
man would swallow me up, he fighting daily oppresseth me, mine enemies
would daily swallow me up, for they be many that fight against
me, O thou Most High. And what time I am afraid, I
will trust in thee. So historically, can you understand
the setting here? But since that is the historical
setting, it's good to understand some of that in a little bit
of detail. Let me show you a place here.
David in 1 Samuel chapter 26 asked King Saul this question. Saul was in a cave and he had
stopped in the cave to do what he needed to do to relieve himself. And David snuck up behind him
and cut off a piece of his skirt. And after Saul left the cave,
even though some of David's men suggested to David to kill King
Saul, he wouldn't, and he cried after King Saul. And he says
to Saul, this in 1 Samuel 26, he says, Wherefore doth my Lord
thus pursue after his servant? For what have I done? Or what
evil is in my hand? This is David talking to Saul.
Sorry, verse 18 of 1 Samuel 26. He says in verse 19 of 1 Samuel
26, now therefore I pray thee, let my Lord the King hear the
words of his servant. If the Lord have stirred thee
up against me, let him accept an offering. So if God stirred
you up against me, David says, let the Lord accept an offering.
But, he goes on, if they be the children of men, Cursed be they
before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day from abiding
in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, go serve other gods.
Do you see how serious David was showing here in those words,
and the wisdom of God is with him, that when King Saul was
pursuing David to put him to death with his men, that he was
acting either on this part, that God had stirred him up against
him, so he was God's enemy, or men had done this, and they were
chasing David out of, driving him out of God's inheritance,
which was given to Israel by promise, and telling him, no,
you don't have any inheritance in God, God is not your God,
go serve idols. And so that's a very serious
thing. You can see how serious it was. And David took it so
to heart that these people were his enemies because they were
telling him, go serve idols. God is not your God. You have
no part in Israel. And if Saul was stirred up by
the Lord, then he's saying, then let the Lord accept an offering.
Because if God's doing it, then he will accept an offering. He'll
be merciful. Now all of that could be expanded
to teach us a great deal about Christ and his church. And we
will do a little bit of that here in a minute. But let me
also point out that Saul was pursuing David without cause. And the reason I'm developing
this is so that you can see the impact of this psalm to our own
selves. Saul pursued David without cause. He envied him. He accused him
falsely. David didn't do anything that
Saul accused him of. And King Saul slandered David
to Saul's servants. He said things about David that
were not true, and he made them think that David was out to overthrow
him and the kingdom, which was also not true. He imputed to
David false things. Saul claimed these things that
were not true to his own servants, to Saul's servants, and he made
up charges against David, and based on those charges, Saul
publicly condemned David to his men in their hearing, and he
wickedly then went about to pursue David to death. Okay? So, does that sound like anything
familiar to you? It should, it should sound very
familiar to you. Saul and his servants therefore
in this represent Satan and his kingdom. As Saul charged David
and envied David and therefore charged him and condemned him,
so the enemies of Christ charged him, envied him, and condemned
him to death. And not only Christ, but Christ
with his people. They wanted to kill Christ. And all of the sons of perdition,
Satan at the helm, ruling over them in their hearts, instigated
this charge against Christ and his people. And so you can see
it's historically in Saul and his fight against David. It was
baseless. It was a false charge. It was
slander. And you know that the word in scripture, which we read
as Satan, means adversary. And you also know that devil,
the word devil in scripture means an accuser, a false accuser,
a slanderer. So you can see that Satan and
the devil here are appropriate names for those who falsely accuse
and slander Christ and his people. Okay, so hold that thought. I
want to also remind you of some of the other servants of Saul
who were opposed to David. Remember Doeg, we read about
him a couple of Psalms ago. The Edomite, he lied to Saul
about David's meeting with Ahimelech, the priest, and Saul then told
Doeg to kill the priest, which were 85 in number, and Doeg did
that, and so Saul and Doeg killed the Lord's priests. And isn't
that what Satan and his kingdom want to do, is to slay all of
God's priests, all of his people, especially the high priest, the
Lord Jesus Christ? And then again, while David was
running away, these people called the Ziphites, and you can read
about that at the beginning of Psalm 54, a couple of times ago
we read that. The Ziphites, or those who were
of the land of Ziph, They helped Saul against David, telling Saul
where David and his men were hiding, in the woods of Ziph.
And they joined, therefore, the wickedness of Saul against David,
but not only them, but also the people of Keilah. After David
rescued Keilah from the Philistines, David asked the Lord, he said,
will the men of Keilah turn me over to Saul? And he said, yes,
they will. And so these very people that
he had saved were disloyal to David and his men for saving
them. All right, so, and you can read about that in 1 Samuel
chapters 21 through 26, if you're interested. But perhaps you're
familiar with those. So in the very introduction of
the psalm, when we read this word, jonathelum rechoem, Kim
or however you say it that David was among that shows us that
David was among these strangers the Philistines He was driven
out from the inheritance of the Lord by wicked men as we as he
just said to King Saul if the children of men have done this
then cursed be they and And they were held David and his men were
held and as the enemies of the Lord by those people in the delegated
power, King Saul and his servants. David over and over again said,
King Saul, I'm not going to touch him, God anointed him king. So they had the delegated authority,
and with that authority they abused their authority. And they
did that without any reason found in David, but for envy and hate
in their own hearts when they under this pretense of his sin,
they sought to kill him and his men. But his men and David were
harmless as doves, and they were driven out from the inheritance,
the land of Israel, their place was in the presence of their
enemies, as strangers, and God's justice seemed silent against
their enemies, and so it was, it didn't seem like there was
any deliverance. That's why David's praying here. That's what this
psalm is about. But it's not just about David,
okay? It's not just about David. David
knew that God could and only God could deliver him. He knew
that God would hear his cry. He trusted that God would help
him and he expected God to do that. And so you see David's
faith in God and in his word. He is relying on God, trusting
him in the worst situation. when his enemies seem to have
the upper hand and have chased him out of his inheritance away
from the Lord as someone who should go worship idols and die
at the hand of Israel's enemies in the land of the Philistines.
That's a pretty strong case against King Saul and his servants, isn't
it? And it's meant to be a strong
case. Because if you think about it here, David and his men were
highly loved of God. David was the beloved of the
Lord. His name means beloved. And he
was a man after God's own heart. And what was Saul doing, therefore,
when he hated David? He was hating the one God loved. He was hating the one God was
for. Remember in Romans 8, we probably
don't preach a sermon without quoting this. If God is for us,
who can be against us? If God is for us, who can be
against us? And that's why he says here in
verse three, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. But as
I alluded to this earlier, not only did David faithfully trust
God and expected him to deliver him, but in all of this, he typifies
the Lord Jesus Christ with his people. David was the king, Christ
was the king. David's men had trusted in David
that the Lord was with him and he would deliver them and that
he was God's chosen king and God would make him king and so
God's people know that Christ is the Lord's anointed and they
trust that the Lord has exalted him now. and will give him all
of his desire and save them from their enemies. This is exactly
parallel to what we read about the life of David. So David typifies
Christ and his men typify the believers. Saul and his servants
typify Satan and his kingdom. And the men that were adversaries
to David in his time, notice this, those men who were adversaries
to David in his time, in the world over time, all of time,
represent those men, well, I mean those men in that time represent
all men in the world over all of time who hate Christ and His
people. Okay? Especially in the New Testament. Especially in the New Testament.
We know that the kingdom of Satan is made up of devils, but we
know it also includes men of this world, don't we? And so
when Jesus said in John 16, 33, for example, be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world. He's not just talking about people.
He's talking about the theology, institutions of religion of this
world who are headed by men who are the sons of perdition. Okay? Antichrist religion. That's what
he's talking about. He's overthrown them. And so
the men of this world are very religious. We know that. Everyone
in the world has a religion. But there's only one true religion,
and that's Christ and Him crucified. All other religions are idolatry. We have to understand that. They're
not just neutral, they are enemies of Christ. And men who are idolaters
trust the works of their own hands. That's what an idol is
by definition, it's the work of men's hands. So they're self-righteous,
they're proud, They are critical of Christ. They judge Christ
because, why? Because he's the friend of publicans
and sinners. Now this really begins to get
at the issue here. This is the issue. That the Lord
Jesus Christ came into the world, remember in John chapter three,
he says, he did not come into this world to condemn the world,
but to do what? To save, to save the world. Not
the world in terms of every individual in it, obviously, because these
men and others were enemies of Christ and they went to their
grave as enemies of Christ. So not them, but to save his
people from their sins. Since he did not come into the
world to condemn the world, Those who condemn Christ's people are
what? They're in opposition to the
purpose for which God sent his son into the world, which was
not to condemn the world, but to save. Okay, so now it's beginning
to come into focus here. If those with Christ are publicans
and sinners in themselves, they are those who are justified by
the blood and the righteousness of Christ. And if they, because
they hear Christ and are compelled out of their need by God's grace
to flee for refuge to Christ from their enemies, which was
Satan and his kingdom, and not only that, but also the accusing
law of God. That's the main reason they come,
is to be saved by Christ from God's own justice and God's law. These people who are sinners
in themselves have fled to Christ for refuge. for justification
by the blood and the righteousness of Christ. And yet, King Saul
and his servants, which typifies Satan and his kingdom, spent
their time doing nothing else while Christ was in the world,
in the days of his flesh, trying to destroy Jesus for that very
reason, because he received publicans and sinners. He was called the
friend of publicans and sinners, in Matthew 18, I think around
verse 19. And Jesus said in Matthew 9,
verse 12 and 13, he says that when he was accused, why do you
eat with publicans and sinners? And he said, because I'm not
come to call the righteous. They don't need a doctor. It's
sinners who need a doctor. And I would add, you numbskulls.
So the point here is that All of the opposition against Christ
by Satan in his kingdom attempts to destroy him, how? By accusing
him with God's law for justifying sinners. Okay? Do you understand
that? Now, if you take that statement
and you apply it to the New Testament, you see it all over the place.
Remember, let me turn to one text of scripture here in Romans
chapter 3, for example. This just shows you that the
apostle Paul, who was obviously sent by Christ with Christ's
gospel, was accused of this, which means all of Christ's servants
are going to be accused of this. They're going to, Satan and his
kingdom will accuse Christ's servants of this very thing.
Notice in Romans chapter 3 and verse I'll just read here from verse
3. He says, what if some did not
believe? Romans 3, verse 3. And the question is, so much
of Israel didn't believe God. And so he asked, well, what if
some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? If God has said something and
no one believes it, does it mean that what he says isn't true?
No. Does it mean that God's power
didn't have its effect that he intended? No, it doesn't mean
that either. God does precisely what he means
to do all the time. His word never returns to him
without accomplishing his will. It never returns void. So he
says here, he raises the question, well, if some didn't believe
in Israel, shall their unbelief make the faith of God without
effect? No. Verse four, no, God forbid. Yea, let God be true,
but every man a liar. Well, that's a fact. Every man
is a liar and God is true. And so let that be true. As David
wrote when he was condemned, For his own guilt, he said, as
it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and
mightest overcome when thou art judged." God's always going to
be clear in his judgments. David said that even when he
was judged, God is doing right judging me. That's what David
said in Psalm 51. Now he says in verse 5, the Apostle
Paul, but he raises another objection. From the opposers of Christ,
he says, well, they would say this, if our unrighteousness
commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God
unrighteous, who taketh vengeance? So this is very, a very wicked
twisting of truth. You're saying then that since
Israel didn't believe God, then they're all proved to be liars
and God is just in condemning them. Well, therefore, since
God is glorified in condemning them, how can God judge them
for their sin against him? Since he's glorified in his just
condemnation against them, isn't there something wrong then if
God finds fault with them for that? And the apostle Paul says,
No, he says, I speak as a man. God forbid, for then how shall
God judge the world? What you're saying in that objection
that if God judges us, and is glorified in his judgment. Therefore,
it's wrong for him to hold me accountable because he just set
this all up to get glory for himself. He says, I speak as
a man. God forbid, how shall God judge
the world? You're trying to strip God of
his throne as judge. That's what it amounts to. God
is going to judge. He's the judge, and He cannot
but be just in His judgments. He goes on in verse 7 to repeat
that same claim. If the truth of God has more
abounded through my lie to His glory, why yet am I also judged
as a sinner? So it's a repetition of the same
argument stated differently, you see. And then he says, and
not rather, as we, notice, be slanderously reported, as some
affirm that we say, let us do evil, that good may come. So
the gospel says what? God justifies the ungodly, by
grace alone, without their work at all, trusting Christ only. And they say, the enemies, Satan
and his kingdom say this, That's saying, by saying that you're
saying, let's do evil so good may come. So they're accusing
Christ with God's law as if He doesn't keep God's law. And they
think by that accusation they have Him. And they also can destroy
and stone His people because they're sinners after all. And
also in saying that, the enemies of Christ and his people justify
themselves as law keepers by their own morality or by whatever
they measure themselves by. I do everything. I haven't done
that. You guys do that. We don't. I
know people who do these bad things in your group, but not
in my group. You see, this is called accusation
and slander. This is what Saul was doing to
David. This is what every believer experiences in several ways. The first place is from God's
own holy law, but Christ has entered the law. Remember in
John chapter eight, that second stoop of Christ, when he wrote
on the ground, the first stoop he wrote, he stood up and he
says, whoever's without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.
And then he stooped down again and began to write again. by
what he wrote the first time and what he said to them, they
went out from the oldest to the last, one by one, until there
was no one left. And he stooped down that second
time to write, and he wrote the second time, just like when God
gave the law to Moses the second time after the first commandments,
the first table of the law was broken by Moses when he threw
it on the ground because of Israel's idolatry. The second time God
gave it to Moses, he had told him, you put it in the ark. Christ
in his heart delights to do thy will, O God. So the Lord Jesus
Christ stoops a second time and he rises up. There's no accusers.
The woman's accusers are silent and they've been sent out by
the accusation of God's own law. They came with his law to accuse
Christ and condemn him and the woman. And with the law, Christ
silences them because he answers the law. OK. So that whole account
in John 8 shows us that the enemies of Christ were always trying
to destroy him. using God's own law as the legal
basis for their charges, but they were false charges because
Christ was without sin, and they were false charges against God's
people because of why? Because God has justified them.
Who is he who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God who justifies. So to say that the Lord Jesus
Christ was antinomian, as if he was against God's law for
not stoning the woman, that's to also charge God to be antinomian
because God cleared the woman when he justified her. And God
didn't justify the guilty. He justified the righteous, because
we're made righteous in Christ. Of Him, of God, 1 Corinthians
1.30, are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us righteousness. You see? Okay, so with these
things in mind, we see that the first accusation comes from God's
own law, but Christ has answered God's law, and in answering God's
law, He's answered every objector. Every accuser has to be answered
if God is answered by Christ, you see. And therefore, when
David is under the hounding of King Saul and his enemies, this
is what has been happening since the dawn of time. It came to
its highest point in the life of Christ, but it has been going
on since then. And you can read about this throughout
the New Testament, that the accuser of the brethren is trying to
throw them down. and he's using God's law, he's
using their own conscience, he's using the accusation of religionists
who are self-righteous, and these people go around with all of
their confidence and their own obedience to whatever system
they've chosen to claim as their basis of faith and so on and
practice, and they say, we've kept our laws and our rules,
and you haven't. and you're to be so sorely condemned,
you're not even the Lord's people. This is the way it goes. You're
cast out of God's inheritance, and your strangers send you out,
you aliens, and you're to be condemned. Go ahead and worship
your idols, you see. All of these accusations come,
and they never come more powerfully than when they come in our own
conscience, do they? And that's why in Hebrews 9,
14 it says, the blood of Jesus Christ has sprinkled us, sprinkled
our conscience, so that we're clear. Let me read that to you
in Hebrews chapter 9. Let's see. He says in Hebrews 9, he
says, how much more? Verse 13 says, if the blood of
bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh in the Old Testament,
The priest did all these routines and sacrifices and sprinklings
in order to cleanse their flesh, to perform the outward ceremonies.
How much more, he says in Hebrews 9, 14, shall the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot
to God, okay, this is Christ now, no sin, and the eternal
spirit of God, the spirit of holiness, he offers himself to
God without spot, that offering of Christ himself by the Holy
Spirit to God for his people, that will purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God. All right. That makes you God's own sanctified
ones. That's what it means. He will
purge your conscience, wash it, to serve from dead works, to
serve, to serve as a sanctified one. You're sanctified by the
blood of Christ to serve God. Because in your conscience now
you stand before God and by faith you experience the peace and
joy of knowing that God in Christ has taken away all your sins
and established a perfect righteousness for you. And even though our
conscience assails us, we appeal. to God and the answer Christ
gave. And even though self-righteous,
proud, works-religionists assail us, what do we do? We don't say
a word. We let our advocate argue at
the throne of God for us. And even though in the day of
judgment we would think that our works would accuse us, what
do we do? We appeal to our advocate who answered at the cross and
who stands at the right hand of God making intercession for
us, who died and rose again for us. He's already given an answer,
and the answer he gave included the answer to God for our sins
and the fulfillment of all of God's law for our righteousness.
And God himself has said this. This is our hope, this is our
trust, our confidence, and our expectation, because God can't
lie. Okay, so you can see this. But in all these other things,
too, we have this other enemy, which is our own sinful nature.
And in that sinful nature that we still have within us, That
flesh, as it's called, the old man, the wretched man that I
am, the body of this flesh, all these things, the flesh lusteth
against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, you cannot
do the things that you would, Galatians 5, 17. That's the enemies,
you see. Everything that opposes our salvation
by Christ shed blood and righteousness is the enemy of God. The enemy
of God. Therefore, if God be for us,
who can be against us? So the plea in Psalm 56 is just
this in its New Testament application to us. And so you know this,
don't you? If you have been justified by
Christ, if you have been given faith in his precious blood and
righteousness, then how do you act? Well, you come to God by
Him alone, don't you? And you keep coming daily. He
says in verse one of Psalm 56, be merciful to me, O God, for
man would swallow me up. He fighting daily oppresses me. The believer experiences a daily
battle. His old man, his conscience,
Satan, and all of the world are always accusing him. And what
does he do? In everything, we appeal to Christ, our answer,
our advocate, our surety, everything. God is the one who's justified
us. And like the woman taken in adultery, we stand silent,
don't we? We let him defend us. And he
does. He defends us from his word.
He defends us at the right hand of God. He intercedes for us. So this prayer of David is echoing
out by the spirit of God, God's own will for his people, Christ's
own word to his people, Christ's own work for his people, his
place in glory and his pleading for his people according to the
will of God. God had chosen us in Christ to
conform us to the image of His Son and predestinated us to be
conformed to the image of His Son. Therefore, He's going to
fulfill that, isn't He? So we appeal to Him. We are absolutely
helpless against our enemies. So we cry to Him for mercy. Lord,
be merciful to me. man would swallow me up, he fighting
daily oppresseth me. And we know the old man, we know
him very well, we know our own conscience, but do you know what
this word man, this word in verse one for man is used, the root
word of this word man is used in Jeremiah 79 as the word for
man. It says in Jeremiah 17, 9, that
man is desperately wicked. That's what the word here is.
Be merciful unto me, O God, for desperately wicked would swallow
me up. He fighting daily oppresseth
me. That's what the word is in Jeremiah 17, 9. The desperately
wicked. Incurably wicked. Isn't that
what our old nature is? Incurably wicked. It's the carnal
mind that's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be, and doesn't believe Christ. But the new man, having experienced
By faith being justified by Christ's blood and righteousness is overjoyed
to find this is God's truth. This is the gospel. I can stand
here. Christ defends me. And we just
point to our Savior, don't we? And when people say, or when
our conscience says, yeah, but what about this? What about that?
How can you possibly be a believer? What do we do? Christ came into
the world to save sinners. His name is Jesus. He shall save
his people from their sins. We're trusting him, aren't we?
David didn't go out and fight King Saul and his servants. He
asked the Lord to deliver him. And so we do, too. All right. I hope you get some sense now
of this psalm here. It's a twofold enemy. It's the enemy without, Satan
and his kingdom who would falsely accuse Christ for accepting sinners
and Christ having answered for us before the throne of God with
himself in sacrifice, we now stand before God justified and
he has defended us. He is now defending us, He's
answering for us, and He will forever answer for us. And therefore,
He openly, without apology, on the highest mountain in this
world, Mount Calvary, He professes His commitment and His love with
unfailing faithfulness to His bride and says, She is mine. She was given to me by God and
I have redeemed her with my precious blood. And so we stand on that,
don't we? We look to God's Word, we trust
in Him. He says in verse 2, "...mine enemies would daily swallow me
up, for they being many that fight against me, O thou Most
High." And who is that? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
Most High. He says, "...what time I am afraid,
I will trust in thee." Isn't this our answer to all these
problems? Every day, Lord, I'm trusting in you, in your salvation. He says in verse 4, in God will
I praise his word. In God I have put my trust. I
will not fear what flesh can do to me. I won't fear my old
man, because he who has begun a good work in me will complete
it unto the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1.6. And faithful
is he who called you, who also will do it." 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5 verse 23 and 24. He's the great shepherd of the
sheep, who through the blood of the everlasting covenant will
make you perfect in every good work to do his will. Hebrews
13, 20 and 21. This is the God we trust. If Christ has died for us, now
that He's risen again, how much more will we be saved by His
life? Romans 5, verse 10. And He is able to save us to
the uttermost, Hebrews 7, verse 25. So these are the things that
we resort to, don't we? We lean and we're leaning on
the promises and standing on the promises of God in Christ. I will praise his word. In God
I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can
do to me." If I think men are somehow greater than God has
said they are, I'm going to fawn before them. I'm going to act
like a dog with his tail between his legs and not stand on the
truth of Christ. When they say, well, how could
you possibly be the Lord's? I'm gonna say, well, I'm a great
sinner, nothing at all. But Christ is my all in all,
aren't I? Or if I think too lowly of men,
because if in my self-righteous pride, I look upon men and compare
them to some figment of my imagination of what pleases God and that
I have conformed to, I'll judge them, then that's also wrong,
isn't it? But when I'm afraid, when I'm
afraid, I will trust in Him. I will not therefore fear what
flesh can do to me, because God is my fear. And if God is my
fear, then I don't need to fear anything else. He says in verse
5, every day they rest my words. And what are my words? The gospel.
What are they saying? Well, they rested Christ's words,
first of all, but His words now are my words, and I hold to the
gospel as my life and everything in life and eternity. But my
enemies try to twist those words and try to get me to tempt me
not to trust Him, just like they did Christ on the cross. He said
He was God's Son. He said that He trusted in God.
Let God deliver Him now, seeing that He trusted in Him. And he
said, no, I do, I do trust him. And he trusted him even in the
darkness, didn't he? And so he says in verse six,
they gather themselves against me, I'm sorry, they rest my words,
all their thoughts are against me for evil. They gather themselves
together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps when they
wait for my soul. Shall they escape by their iniquity?
No. God's anger will cast down the
people. So he prays that way. In thine
anger cast down the people, O God. And you can hear Christ in this,
can't you? If he that is without sin among
you, let him cast the first stone. In their iniquity, did they succeed?
No. No, they did not. Did Cain succeed? No. He killed Abel. And God,
and his punishment was greater than he could bear. Did Judas
succeed in betraying Christ? No. It had been better for him
if he had never been born. Did the Pharisees succeed? No. Jesus said, woe unto you. Woe
unto you. Hypocrites. You see, they won't
succeed. In verse 8, thou tellest my wanderings. God knows everything about us
and he knows it in grace because he works all things together
for our good. David was out with his men running outside of the
inheritance of the Lord. His enemies were pursuing him.
Every believer in all of our wanderings whether we're running
from real people who are persecuting us for the gospel's sake, by
accusation or slander or physical persecution, even death, or whether
in our own conscience we're wrestling with, what do we do now? We've
sinned and we're so full of sin, how can we be the Lord's and
we have to flee to Christ? The Lord knows our wanderings,
doesn't he? Put thou my tears in thy bottle, Are they not in
thy book? The Lord says he's going to wipe
away every tear from our eyes. Isn't he? Because he knows. He
knows the struggles we go through. He knows because the Lord Jesus
Christ is not a high priest who cannot be touched with a feeling
of our infirmities. Hebrews chapter four, verse 14
through 16. Therefore, let us go boldly to
the throne of grace that we might find mercy and help in time of
need. Verse 9, when I cry to thee,
then shall I mine enemies turn back? Why? This I know, for God
is for me. When a believer, out of the struggle
with all these enemies, when it seems like the entire kingdom
of Satan is against him, and he doesn't have light, what does
he do? He says, I know this, God is
for me. If God is for me, no one can
be against me. In God, he says in verse 10, in God will I praise
His word, in the Lord will I praise His word. In Christ we praise
God, don't we? We trust Him. In Christ we can
say, I trust God's word. And I praise Him for His grace.
Verse 11, in God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid what
man can do to me. You see, keeps reassuring us.
all the enemies that come against us, whether it be our internal
enemy or our external enemy. Thy vows are upon me, O God,
I will render praises unto thee. The vows of God are the oath
that God has made. And we have committed our all
to Christ, haven't we? We've entrusted ourselves and
everything to Christ. For thou hast delivered my soul
from death. There's the truth. That's the
fact. You've delivered my soul from death. Will you not deliver
my feet from falling? What a blessed promise. If God
has saved us in the Lord Jesus Christ from our sins and therefore
from death, he's going to uphold us, won't he? He will continue
and complete the work he started. You'll keep my feet from falling
that I may walk before God in the light of the living. The
light of the living is the light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ himself is the light. Let's pray.