Psalm 52, I'm going to be continuing
there tonight. Hopefully we'll be able to finish
that psalm tonight. It's a very short psalm, and
we left around verse 5. We finished around verse 5, so
I want to go on from there, beginning at verse 6. But before I do that,
I want to review with you just a little bit what we saw last
time. In this psalm we see God speaking
through David as a prophet who wrote the psalm. David wrote
it, it says, to the chief musician, Maskeel, a psalm of David. The
word Maskeel, according to John Gill, means a psalm of instruction.
And certainly this is an instruction, it gives us understanding. And
along those lines, there's a verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 14,
1 Corinthians 14 verse 15, Paul the apostle said, I will sing
with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also.
So this is the apostle Paul talking about singing by the enabling
grace of the spirit of God given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's something to think about that when we take up the
words of this song here from scripture that this is God himself
giving us these words and what a blessing it is that we can
take God's own words to him again and sing them rejoicing and also
praising God for the truth that he has given to us. As Jacob
said, I'm not worthy of the mercies, of any of the mercies, not the
least of the mercies you've shown to your servant or the truth
you've shown to your servant. And so we find ourselves the
same way. We're not worthy that God would give us his word. If
it weren't for God doing that, how dare we even think about
God? He is holy and we are unholy.
And all we would do would be to pollute. His holy name, but
God has given us this grace to be able to take His words and
to return in our hearts with thanksgiving and song to Him
because of His goodness that He reveals to us in His words.
In this psalm also, I wanted to remind you that we saw that
this was a psalm taken in the historical context about a man
named Doeg. Doeg was a man of greedy ambition. And he tried to gain advantage
and position and accumulate to himself through a relationship
with King Saul, who was a self-serving man, a man of the flesh. And
Doeg, fawning to King Saul, revealed where David's whereabouts were
when he went to Ahimelech, the high priest, and when he received
from Ahimelech bread and a sword of Goliath that was there with
the priest. And so King Saul, with murderous
intent, wanted to kill all the priests that belonged to Ahimelech,
85 men. And so he first commanded his
own men to do that. Saul's men wouldn't, but Doeg
did. And so Doeg chose himself to
be the most cruel, self-serving sort of man. And so we see in
that that also he was an Edomite, and these things show us that
this man was like Esau, he was hated. And God is righteous when
He hates. He doesn't hate unjustly. God says in Psalm chapter 5,
verse 5, that He hates all workers of iniquity. God's hatred is
a clean hatred. All that God does is holy. He
can't do anything but what is holy. Holiness really is who
God is. What God thinks is holy, what
God says is holy, what God does is holy, everything that God
accomplishes is holy. And by holy, I mean it's completely
consistent with His character, His nature, His holiness as God
in all of His truth, His righteousness, His justice. His own character,
his throne is established in justice and in judgment. And
God can't be anything but what he is in his nature and in his
character. And that's a great comfort, isn't
it? If God cannot be otherwise than what He is, then when God
swears to us by Himself, we know that's for our comfort, it's
not because God won't perform His word and has to swear in
order to twist His arm, as you would think, to keep His word,
but He swears by an oath to us on His own name, on his own person
as God, so that if he fails to keep his promises, fails to keep
his word, then God himself, who staked himself to that promise,
would cease to be God. And what could be so condescending
as that, that God would swear in order to comfort us on his
own name? But because he does this, we
know that God is holy, and he is just in everything that he
does, and he is righteous, and there's nothing that he does
is not right. We think sometimes that there's some external measurement
to see how good God is. there is none. God himself is
the standard. He's the reference. So we sometimes
say God is just or God is holy, and that's right to say that,
but we mistakenly apply those words to God by taking God and
applying to him a measurement that we conjure up, our own preconceived
notions of what just and holy and right is. But we have to
know that God is sovereign, and that sovereignty covers everything. His justice is sovereign. His
truth is sovereign. His wisdom, everything about
God is sovereign. So that holiness and righteous
is God thinking, God speaking, God acting. God is the reference. Nothing can be compared to Him.
And we have to remember that because when we think about how
good God is and we think about how He has stooped to swear by
Himself and has done that for our consolation, it teaches us
to trust Him. It teaches us to trust Him who
alone is holy and right and true and good. No one else is merciful
but God. No one else is good but God. No one else is gracious but God. We have human measures, human
comparisons of those things, but there's no way to truly measure
them except by God, and He alone, therefore, is the one who's good. And Jesus said that in Matthew
19, verse 17, that only God is good. And in Romans 3, it says,
there is none good. So there we have it. All among
men and women are not good, but God alone is good. Okay, so I
say all that just to remind us that the Lord is good and that
we can trust him. We must always find our greatest
comfort and our most certain assurance in trusting God that
he himself is the one who will do what is right. And this was
Sarah and Abraham's trust, the Lord of all the earth shall do
right. And there's nothing too hard
for the Lord. He does the impossible. He raises the dead. He calls
things which are not as though they were. And this is the one
we believe. This is the one we trust. So
when we think about believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we
should always think about believing Him as a person, as our God and
our Savior. There's none like Him. And no
one else can be a reference. No one else can be a rock. You
can't crush rock. Very, very difficult, of course.
And God is a rock. The weight of our eternal souls
will not crush him down. He can't be moved. He endures
all the storms and the violence of all that would assault his
people. He's a rock. And so those things
are certain. And he's true. And his mercy
is forever and ever towards those that fear him. And he himself
gives them that fear. Everything is of God. And it's
such a comfort to know that and to think that. Now, I say that
in background to remind us that when Doeg killed those 85 priests,
it seemed as if God didn't do something to rescue them. But
that also was good of God to do. And those who are the Lord's,
the death of those who are the Lord's is precious in the Lord's
sight. To die in the Lord is to be,
is an advantage. The apostle Paul said in Philippians
chapter one, for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain. And that's true throughout history.
So for someone who is the Lord's to die is great advantage, great
advantage. We're free from sin. In our death,
we're free from the sin that's in our body, and we're free to
be with the Lord, to see him as he is. What could be greater
than that? So in thinking about the goodness
of God, we also bring to our remembrance Romans 8.28, that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to his purpose. And that purpose is to conform
us to the image of His Son. What could be greater than that?
That God would make us the brethren of Christ. He would be the firstborn
among many brethren. We would be called the sons of
God. There's nothing that can compare to that. Behold what
manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God. 1 John 3, 1 and 2. All right, so with that in view,
since God is good, and His mercy endures forever, nothing can
influence Him, and His love towards His people is as early as He
is God, which is from everlasting, and is as enduring as He is as
God, which is too everlasting. and that it cannot change, as
God himself cannot change, so we are comforted by that. If
God is for us, who can be against us? And though that is the case,
God has also said, in the world you shall have tribulation. The
mountains shall depart and the hills shall be removed, but the
kindness, God's kindness to us and his covenant Towards us in
Christ, that covenant, that kindness shall not change. That's Isaiah
54 verse 10. And so these things are the comfort
that God gives to his people. Nevertheless, Doeg did kill these
85 men. And so in verse 1, it says, Why
boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of
God endureth continually. And we saw last week there were
five different ways, just those five, and we could consider others,
in which the goodness of God is made known. And preeminent
among those is that God, in doing all that He does, does it for
His glory, first and foremost, and for the salvation of His
people, the eternal salvation of His people. Everything working
for our good and God's glory according to His purpose to conform
us to the image of His Son. And since God is for us, nothing
can be against us. It may appear to be so, But nothing
can separate us from the love of God, because that love of
God is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And nothing can separate Christ
from the Father. Okay? So, then when we looked
at that, we saw that God's goodness is seen out of evil. And this is something that no
one but God can do. He brings, He always brings good
out of evil. When Satan tempted, Eve and Adam
fell into sin, God brought good out of that. He said, the seed
of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent, and that
Christ did on the cross. So, and throughout scripture,
we see this over and over again. God's people are called to, they're
given, according to Philippians 129, it's given on the behalf
of Christ for us to suffer for his sake. We should count it
a privilege when we are doing well that we can live. with all
that we've been given for the Lord's glory in our labors, in
our prayers, whatever God has given us to do. But in suffering
also, in suffering we can also be happy that we're privileged
to bear affliction as the Lord Jesus himself bore affliction.
And we see that in 1 Peter chapter two, Christ suffered for us,
leaving us an example to follow in his steps. He did no sin,
and when he was reviled, he did not revile again. He committed
himself to him who judges righteously, so the believer does also. And
we see God's goodness, for example, in the fall of the nation of
Israel, when they rejected Christ. The result of that was the salvation
of Christ came to the Gentiles. So in all these things and more,
we see God's goodness. brought out of what appears to
be wrong. Hebrews 11 shows a catalog of
all those Old Testament saints like Abel, who was murdered by
Cain, or Moses, who suffered affliction with the people of
God because he considered the affliction of God, the persecution
with the people of God and of Christ, to be greater treasure
than the riches of Egypt. In all these things, and in Hebrews
11, there were people who suffered. They were sawn asunder and suffered
loss in so many ways. They dwelt in caves and dens
of the earth and the world was not worthy of them because they
were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. They were God's people.
So we are given that privilege. We're given that privilege and
we should not shrink when trials come. James said, count it all
joy, brethren, when you suffer temptation, knowing that the
trial of your faith is given to you to work this patience
perfectly. And so we find that in our suffering,
our faith has increased, hope has increased, our love for Christ
has increased. We see more and more that because
Christ died for sinners, he's our rock and we can praise and
thank God that though we are sinners and great sinners, yet
the Lord is a savior and a great savior. What a wonderful salvation
we have. Okay, so the other thing I want
to say about Delweg is not only was he an evil man, but he portrays
The prince of darkness, he portrays Satan himself. And you can read
this, I won't go to it, but in Isaiah 14, if you read Isaiah
14, you will see God is personifying Satan as a man, and a wicked
man, that when God judges him, the people of the earth will
look upon him narrowly and say, is this the man? that troubled
the nations, and so on. And that God is going to bring
him to hell, because he thought in his heart that he would be
like the Most High, just like Doeg, just like Haman in the
book of Esther, just like Antichrist in the book of Revelation. All
these characters portray, Pharaoh and others, they portray the
sons of perdition, the children of Satan. And unless the Lord
has mercy upon us, unless he in his unspeakable grace translates
us into the kingdom of his dear son and makes us his children,
then we also would be like them. We would be given over to our
sin and receive the just condemnation we deserve. So we, on two accounts,
we praise and thank God with the greatest possible thanksgiving. On one account, that he's destroyed
our great enemy. On the other account, that he
didn't leave us as his enemies, but he saved us by the blood,
by the death of his own son. Romans 5, verse 9 and 10. What
greater things is there than this? And let me read a couple
of verses to you in the book of Revelation, so you can see
the triumph of believers over their enemies. In Revelation
chapter 11, for example, I'm going to just quickly turn there.
In Revelation 11, if I can put my finger on it, he says, In verse 15, the seventh angel
sounded, there were great voices in heaven. This is Revelation
11, 15. There were great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his
Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. This is the exaltation
of Christ over all things. And the four and twenty elders,
which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces
and worshipped God." The four and twenty elders represent the
heads of the Old Testament and the New Testament church, the
apostles and the tribes of Israel. Verse 17. And this is what they
said, those who were redeemed, they said, we give thee thanks,
O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, because
thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned, and
the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of
the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst
give a reward unto thy servants, the prophets, and to the saints,
and them that fear thy name, small and great, and should destroy
them which destroy the earth. All right, so you see here, this
is not talking about people who pollute the skies with cars,
destroying the earth with pollution or some ecological destruction.
I heard people say that. It's so foolish. Destroying the
earth? No, this is people who serve
idols. And they are rebelling against
God. And so God brings destruction
on the earth because of them. And so here we see in Revelation
13, the celebration of God destroying those who are opposed to his
people, opposed to Christ. A similar statement is said in
Revelation 17 and 18 about the destruction of the kingdom of
Satan and Antichrist. And in verse 20 of Revelation
18, 18-20, it says, Rejoice over her, this is the kingdom of Satan
called Babylon here, Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye
holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you of her. God
has taken vengeance on our enemies. And what do the saints do? What's
the response? The joy. They're happy. God has
avenged us of our enemies. And so back in Psalm 52, Doeg typifies Antichrist, free
will, works, religion, and the kingdom of Satan, the synagogue
of Satan, which is what God called those Jews who claimed to be
Jews but were not in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. Okay, so now
I want to get into verse 6 here. In verse 6 it says, The righteous
also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him. Now, first of all,
who are the righteous? These are people who, unlike
Doeg, go about doing good all the time, right? That's not what
he's talking about here. It's true that when the Lord
saves us, we follow the Lord Jesus Christ, but we're still
sinners, aren't we? That's our problem. That's what
keeps us constantly in need of the Lord, isn't it? Don't you
constantly find yourself making supplication to God, to the Lord,
with the same prayer that you began to walk with Christ? Lord, save me. Don't you? In Psalm 65, 3, it says, Iniquities
prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. That's a believer. In Psalm 51,
we studied last chapter in the book of Psalms. It's all about
a believer and his problem with sin and needing God to blot it
out and to give him a new heart, to renew a right spirit within
him. This is a constant warfare. It's
not because that in themselves they are righteous, not in themselves, but in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember Psalm 51 is an example of a believer, namely David,
crying out against his sin. You can read Romans 7, the apostle
Paul crying out against his own sin. and calling himself a wretched
man, considering what he was. But listen in Psalm 32, verse
1, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not. iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no guile." There's no guile in
his spirit because he has a new man. God has created in him a
new spirit, a right spirit, and that is created by the Spirit
of God, the Spirit of Christ. The Apostle Paul in Galatians
2.20 says, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God. I live, but it's Christ who lives
in me. And in Colossians 3.4 it says,
Christ who is our life. Christ is our life. Christ lives
in us. The new man is Christ in you,
the hope of glory, right? And God has joined our spirit
to the spirit of Christ, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 17. He has joined our
spirit to the Lord. And so we're one with him. And
that means that Christ in us is the hope of glory. For me
to live is Christ. And all these verses of scripture
teach us that the Lord Jesus Christ living in us is that new
man. the new man. We're made a new
creature in Christ. We've been raised from the dead.
We've been regenerated by the Spirit of God. We've been birthed
of God. The seed of God, that incorruptible
seed of God, lives in us, and we cannot sin. That part of us
God has created in Christ is the Spirit of God given to us
and has raised our spirits from the dead and joined us to the
Lord so that we're one. In John 14, verses 19 and 20,
he says that because I live you shall live
also and in that day you shall know that I am in my father and
and you in me and I in you. So there's a union between the
Lord Jesus Christ and his people. And in John 6, 56, he says, whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood, I dwell in him and he dwells
in me. So there's this such a intimate
union that it can't even be described by human terms without realizing
that the best that human terms can describe this is the members
of our own body, right? He says, don't you know that
your body is the temple of the Spirit of God and that Christ
is in you? And that your members are the
members of Christ? So, you know, this is the way
God, He teaches us about this intimate union between us and
Christ by referring to our body. And we understand that our eyes
and fingers are all part of the same body. The eye is not separate
by itself, and the fingers aren't separate, or the foot, but they're
all one. And so these things are given by God in Scripture
to teach us that intimate union between Christ and His people. Now, in... I say all that when
I was referring to in whose spirit is no guile from Psalm 32. But
remember in Romans chapter 4, Psalm 32 is expounded by the
Apostle Paul with the inspiration of the Spirit of God. He says
this means that righteousness is imputed to us. Righteousness
is imputed to us without works. We didn't do anything. God did
something. He did it in Christ and he credited
us with that righteousness, which is the obedience of Christ unto
death. That makes us righteous. What God did so that when we
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we're really coming to him, asking
and depending in reliance on God, to consider Christ for us
and so consider us as Him, as righteous, not by some imagined
process on our part that we thought these things up or somebody else
did, but God Himself in His Word says this, that He Of God are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. These are not the fanciful thoughts
of men. This is the wisdom of God, that
he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. So all the statements
of the righteous in scripture are not talking about our own
performance but about Christ's performance. Not our works, His
work. Not our deserving, but God's
grace. Not our striving, but faith in
Christ's desire and striving and work. We're really trusting
Christ's faithfulness, His obedience. Right? This is the revelation
of God's grace in the new covenant. And what a wonder it is. So,
back to the text of scripture. The righteous also shall see
and fear and shall laugh at him. The righteous are those who are
in Christ. They are righteous with Christ's
righteousness. He is their righteousness. In
believing Christ, we establish, we literally are establishing
the law Not because we kept it, but because we're agreeing with
God that the only one who could and did keep the law is the Lord
Jesus Christ, and he did it for his people. He is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. Romans
10, 4. And so this is amazing. And the righteous shall see in
fear. In Psalm 130 it says, there's forgiveness with thee that thou
mayest be feared. We worship God, we revere God, we have an
awe and a respect of God because of the forgiveness of our sins,
don't we? Luke chapter seven is the classic
case. Two debtors, one owed a huge amount, the other one owed a
small amount, one-tenth of that. And neither one could pay. And
the creditor frankly forgave them both when they had nothing
to pay. That's God's grace. giving us forgiveness because
of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, justifying us freely
by His grace because of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Then
the righteous are going to see this man, they're going to see
this monster, this son of perdition, this antichrist, the reprobate,
if you will. They're gonna see this, and they're
gonna fear, and they're gonna laugh at him. They're gonna laugh
at him. Why? Because this man, it goes
on in verse seven and answers it, because this man, look at
what he says, this man said that in his purpose, in his thoughts,
in all that he did, he did not make God his strength. which
means that the righteous do make God their strength. They trust
the Lord. They say, the Lord is my strength. My strength? I don't have any strength. The
Apostle Paul said, when I'm weak, then am I strong. And in my weakness,
in my infirmities, then Christ's strength is perfected in me.
We learn throughout our lives over and over. We grow in this
grace of faith, realizing, because that's what faith is, is depending
not on myself, but on Christ, more and more. We grow in this
that the Lord is my strength. The Lord is my strength. He's
my rock, right? Trust in him at all times, you
people. Pour out your hearts before him. So this man said,
no, the Lord is not my strength, but he trusted in the abundance
of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness. And
what is more wicked than to claim that by something I bring to
God, like Cain, I can find justification with God. What's more wicked
than that? Why is that the greatest wickedness?
Because it means that all that God did in giving His Son and
all that Christ did in giving His life was completely a waste
because I could have done it myself. It's to trample underfoot
the blood of Christ. That's what this man does. He
is anti-Christ, a substitute Christ, someone who stands in
the place of Christ as if he is Christ. And that's what free
will works religion does, doesn't it? They claim that salvation,
contrary to what the Lord said, that it is impossible for man,
they claim, no, it is possible. All I have to do is this, that,
and the other. Verse eight, he says in verse eight in Psalm
52, but I, unlike this man who did not make the Lord his strength,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches, like the rich
man who said, what will I do? I've got all this stuff. I need
more barns. Tear down this barn, build more
barns. Or like the man, he says, you can't serve God and mammon,
or money, You're gonna either hate one and love the other,
or love one and hate the other. So you can't serve God and man,
and mammon. And so you can't trust in yourself and trust in
Christ. That's what he's saying. You're
either on, you have either a single eye, you see Christ, and him
crucified is everything, or you think that somehow you've got
to do your part, like Abraham and Sarah tried to do with Hagar.
But in verse eight he says, but I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God I trust in the mercy of God forever. Now,
first of all, think about mercy for a minute. When you think
about mercy, and you think about the publican asking God to be
propitious to him, to look upon Christ and his sacrifice, and
considering that, be pacified towards me, find satisfaction
in him, and be merciful to me on that just basis. That's mercy,
right? Mercy is not just something that
we trust someday, hopefully wishing that God, because He's a kind
and gracious God, He's gonna overlook my sin and He's gonna
allow me into heaven. If you watch any television show
about religious things, that's precisely the attitude they take. So-and-so is in a better place
now. They're looking down on me. They're
watching me do all this stuff on earth, cheering me on because
I'm pursuing my career or fulfilling my talents, blah, blah, blah. And they're happy for me as their
grandson or whatever. And so they think that these
people somehow arrive in heaven because God is just somehow merciful. He's just merciful. But that's
not the teaching of Scripture. God's mercy is found only in
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to have that. That has
to be so persuaded. We have to be so persuaded by
God of that truth that it becomes the bedrock of our confidence.
God's mercy is in Christ. Lord, find me in him. And so
he says here, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.
Now, when we think of the house of God, our first thought is
the church, isn't it? But More centrally, the house
of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the temple. In him, the
spirit of God dwelt without measure. So the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us and tabernacled among us. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the one in whom God dwelt. The fullness of the Godhead dwells
in him bodily. But So when you read this, he
says, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. It resonates with those other
scriptures. Like Jesus said, I am the true
vine and you are the branches. You're in Christ, in other words. The true, in contrast to the
typical. In the Old Testament, Israel
was a typical vine that God took out of Egypt. But the Lord Jesus
Christ is the fulfillment of that. All of his people are delivered
from sin, Egypt, and the world, Egypt, and the kingdom of Satan,
Egypt, by the redeeming blood of the Passover lamb, Christ. And because they are in Christ,
in that nation, as it says in Galatians 6.16, the Israel of
God, therefore in Christ they are a green olive tree. Now when
you think of an olive tree, you think of Romans 11, don't you?
And remember Romans 11, let me just read a couple of verses
there, that this is talking about us as Gentiles having been grafted
into Christ. He says in Romans 11, he says,
talking about the Gentiles, He says in verse 15, if the casting
away of them, that nation of Israel, that physical nation
of Israel, be the reconciling of the world, because when God
rejected the Jews, because they rejected Christ, which was all
part of God's plan, it wasn't like he was apprised by it, then
the world was brought to Christ through the preaching of the
gospel. So, if the casting away of them be the reconciling of
the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the
dead? For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy,
and if the root be holy, so are the branches. The lump that is
holy and the first root that's holy is Christ. If some of the
branches be broken off, and thou being a wild olive tree, work
graft in among them with them, partakest of the root and fatness
of the olive tree, which is Christ, Boast not against the branches,
but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee."
Don't boast against those who were taken out of the olive tree
because of their unbelief, because you're saying then that in your
boasting that you got into the olive tree by what you did, calling
your faith a work. He goes on, Thou wilt say the branches were
broken off that I might be grafted in. Well, okay, I'll give you
that. Because of unbelief they were
broken off and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded,
but fear. But the point here is, is that the root in fatness
and the olive tree is the Lord Jesus Christ and only those who
are grafted into Christ live, just like the vine in John chapter
15. But I wanna read a place in Hosea chapter 14 with you,
if you wanna turn to the book of Hosea. Hosea chapter 14, I'm
gonna read the first eight verses. It says, O Israel, return unto
the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take
with you words and turn to the Lord. Say to him, take away all
iniquity and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves
of our lips. Asher shall not save us, we will
not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work
of our hands, you are our gods, for in thee the fatherless find
mercy." In the Lord Jesus Christ, the fatherless find mercy. Every
one of God's people was fatherless until God adopted them and birthed
them. Then they became children of
God the Father. They found mercy in Christ. But
look at verse four, Hosea 14, verse four. I, the Lord says,
I will heal their backsliding. All of us are backsliding. All
of us, even having believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, have an
up and down experience in the intensity of our faith. We continue
to believe Christ, but we have this backsliding tendency. But
the Lord says, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them
freely, without cause found in them, but freely. For mine anger
is turned away from him, from the Lord Jesus. That's the reason
we are loved freely, because God's love to us is in Christ.
And then he says in verse five, I will be as the dew unto Israel,
the dew. He shall grow as the lily and
cast forth his rose as Lebanon. Remember the Lord is called the
Rose of Sharon. And here he says, God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is
going to be as due to his people as the due is to the lily, or
as the due is to Lebanon, that causes these trees and everything
to grow there, the rose of Sharon. And verse six, he says, his branches
shall spread. He's talking about God's people,
the believer, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree and
his smell as Lebanon. Everyone in Christ, because he
is in Christ and it's evidenced by his faith in Christ, is as
an olive tree. His branches shall spread, his
beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
He's beautiful. Because of Christ. Christ is
his life. Christ is the tree. Christ is
the vine. Christ is the rose of Sharon.
Christ is the lily of the valley. The fragrance of Christ is the
fragrance that is given to the believer. Everything about Christ
is made to be that true of the believer because he's in Christ.
And so you see that because we are in Christ, we are as the
lily, the rose of Sharon, the fragrance of those fragrant things,
the olive tree, the smell of Lebanon. And they that dwell
under his shadow shall return, they shall revive as the corn,
grow as the vine, the scent thereof shall be the wine of Lebanon.
Ephraim shall say, this is what God's people say, What have I
to do anymore with idols? I have heard him and observed
him. I am like a green fir tree. From
me, the Lord says, is thy fruit found. From me, the Lord's fruit. I mean, the Lord's people say
to the Lord, Jesus Christ, I mean, they say, the Lord Jesus Christ
says to his people, from me is thy fruit found. Isn't that what
he says in John 15? Without me, you can do nothing.
Whoever abides in me shall bring forth fruit. And this is because
of Christ. Now back to Psalm 52 and verse
eight. I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God, in Christ. I'm flourishing. I'm alive because
I'm in Christ. I trust in the mercy of God forever
and ever. What is the evidence that we're
in Christ? What is the operation that God
has performed in us in giving us this new nature, in giving
his spirit to us? What is the result of that? We
trust in the mercy of God, don't we? We trust Christ who is the
mercy of God. He is the propitiation for our
sins, isn't he? 1 John 4, verse 10, he's the
mercy of God, the mercy of God. All of God's mercy to sinners
is in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we trust him. We think about
what he accomplished, but why do we trust what he accomplished?
We don't just trust his accomplishments, we trust him who accomplished
it. We don't just trust His blood, we trust Him who gave His blood,
who gave His life and sacrifice and offering to God for our sins,
who is our righteousness. We trust Him who is our righteousness. We trust Him who is our strength,
who is our life. You see, everything gets back
to the Lord Jesus Christ. So that when Abraham heard God
say, I will make you, I will make your seed to be as the stars
of heaven, and Abraham believed, it says he believed in the Lord. In believing God's word, we believe
in the Lord. And what has the Lord said? He
said, it is finished. John 19, yeah, John 19, didn't
he? When He hung on the cross, it
is finished. We believe Him, don't we? We think, we know,
we're persuaded that the work that God gave Him to do, He actually
finished, and that work was to save His people from their sins.
That's His name. That's God's word. We believe
in the Lord who spoke that word. Because we believe in the Lord,
we believe His word. Because we heard His word, we
believe in the Lord who gave the word. And trusting the word
of the Lord, we're trusting the Lord. Trusting Him, we trust
His work. We trust Him who is our Redeemer,
who shed His precious blood. All this is trusting in the Lord.
And people want to give evidences, they want to find evidences,
but the believer says no. There's nothing more certain,
nothing more sound nor more stable than to know that Christ is all
to me. Righteousness, wisdom, sanctification,
redemption, life, eternal life. the mercy of God, the propitiation,
the access into glory, everything. From me, he said, from me is
thy fruit found. Everything is in our fruit, everything.
Faith comes from him. So in verse 9, finally in Psalm
52, he says, I will praise thee forever because thou hast done
it. Notice the repeating emphasis
on Christ. You have done it. I will praise
you forever because you have done it. That's what the saints
in Revelation are saying in glory. You have redeemed us by your
blood out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation unto him who
loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. You've
done it. God who performeth, how does
it say it in Psalm 57 verse 2? He says, I will cry unto God most high,
unto God that performeth all things for me. He who began a
good work in you shall complete it. He shall perfect it unto
the end, Philippians 1.6. It's God who's at work in you,
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And 1 Thessalonians
5, 23 and 24. Faithful is he who called you,
who also will do it. In Isaiah 26, 12, thou hast worked
all our works in us and for us. And in Hebrews chapter 13, verse
20, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, God has
given us all things. And how does that go there? Let
me see if I can finish it by looking at that real quickly
here. Hebrews chapter 13, in verse 20, he says, May the God, now the God of peace
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd
of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working
in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, because Christ shed his blood,
God is going to make his people perfect. Now unto him who is
able to keep you from falling, Jude says in verse 24, and to
present you faultless in the presence of his glory. These
are all speaking about the work of God. And here he says, I will
praise thee forever and ever because thou has done it. God
has destroyed our enemies. God has saved us. from being
his enemy and has reconciled us to himself by the death of
his son. And then he goes on here in Isaiah, I'm sorry, Psalm
52 verse 9, and I will wait on thy name for it is good before
thy saints. To wait on his name. What does
that mean? Well, It says in, this is something
that I think is good to know, in Isaiah 42, it says this, this
is Isaiah 42 in verse 4, it says, the isles shall wait for his
law. Okay, well how does that relate
to this? I will wait on thy name. Well, because in Isaiah 42 when
it says, "...in His name the isles shall wait for His law,"
the same words are translated in Matthew 12 verse 21, quoting
Isaiah as this, "...in His name shall the Gentiles trust." So
the isles are the Gentiles, and to wait is to trust. To wait
on His law is to trust in His name. Because there's a quotation
from Isaiah 42, 4 in Matthew 12, verse 21. And Jesus himself
was saying this is what he did. He came to do this. And when
he came, it says that the Gentiles would trust in his name. In his
name shall the Gentiles trust. Here he says, I will wait on
thy name. He's reiterating the fact that
I as a believer will praise God because He has done the work
in Christ and I will trust in Christ. I will trust in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is that name? Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. The one name
God has given under heaven to men that we would trust in Him,
Acts 4.12. This is the only name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. The Philippian jailer
said, what shall I do? And the apostle Paul said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, trust in his name. You see how this
psalm is like the other psalms in the face of the worst apparent
evil. And it is bad. Antichrist. The
kingdom of Satan, all represented in this Edomite, this reprobate
man, doing this harm, killing the priest of the Lord, yet out
of this God holds up his goodness in the song here given to the
church. to remember that God's goodness
is continuous, that He is going to destroy their enemies, they're
going to praise Him for it, they're going to laugh at their enemies
and say, you did not trust God, you held tenaciously to your
own righteousness, you would not submit yourself to the righteousness
of God, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, like the Jews. You refuse
Christ, And then the saints are going to laugh when God destroys
the kingdom of Satan and Satan himself and Antichrist. They're
going to rejoice. His salvation has come. Look,
he delivered us from our great enemy. And He saved us from that
kingdom. You see these two things? What
a God, what a Savior. I will trust in the mercy of
God. I'll trust in Christ, the propitiation
for our sins. He through whom alone God's mercy
comes to sinners. And I will praise His name forever
because He did it. He did it and I will trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is good, His name is good
before thy saints. Isn't it? Redeemer, surety, Savior,
Prince of Peace, King of Righteousness. Every name of Christ is precious
to us. Isn't it? It all speaks of His
work for our salvation. It speaks of Him who is our trust. and speaks of what he is for
us to God, and speaks of who he is as God to us, our mediator. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for
your great salvation, for your great grace, all to be found
only in the Lord Jesus Christ. and all for sinners who could
do nothing to deserve it, nothing to keep it, nothing to bring
it to its fulfillment, but all in everything and in every way,
we're utterly dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
our strength. How happy we are to know that
He is and to trust Him to be our strength in everything, especially
in the matters related to God, pertaining to God. He is our
high priest. He does all for us. We couldn't
do anything. If anything was required of us,
nothing would get done because we couldn't do anything. But
the Lord Jesus Christ has done everything for us. Help us, Lord,
to know this with God-given persuasion and God-given faith by your Holy
Spirit, from your Word, to exalt the name of our Savior with every
breath and all of our life. In his name we pray. Amen.