All right, Psalm 52. Let's read
through this psalm together. It says at the beginning of the
psalm, before verse one, to the chief musician, Maskill, a psalm
of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul and said to
him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech. So that's the setting
of the psalm. We'll look at that in a minute,
but let's just read through it. Verse one says, why boastest
thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? And this is David writing
by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, speaking historically
of Doeg, but more broadly of other things. So we'll look at
that in a minute. Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty
man? The goodness of God endureth continually. Thy tongue deviseth
mischiefs, like a sharp razor working deceitfully. Thou lovest
evil more than good, and lying rather than to speak righteousness,
Selah. Thou lovest all devouring words,
O thou deceitful tongue. God shall likewise destroy thee
forever. He shall take thee away and pluck
thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land
of the living, Selah. The righteous also shall see
and fear and shall laugh at him. Lo, this is the man that made
not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches
and strengthened himself in his wickedness. But I am like a green
olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever
and ever. I will praise thee forever, because
thou hast done it, and I will wait on thy name, for it is good
before thy saints. All right, so there's a background
to this psalm. And remember now that David is
writing this psalm under the inspiration of the Spirit of
God, and he's writing it on the occasion of this background story
about Doeg the Edomite. Doeg is memorable because his
name kind of sounds like dog, only it's stretched out, Doeg,
you know, dog. But it's obviously not spelled
like dog, it's D-O-E-G. And he was an Edomite, according
to this text of scripture. So he was a descendant of Esau. And because he was a descendant
of Esau, it helps us to understand here in the historical context
how it applies to a spiritual people. Doeg was an Edomite. Edomites were descendants of
Esau. Esau was hated by God. Remember
in Romans chapter 9 verse 11, before the children, Esau and
Jacob in the womb of their mother, Rebecca, before they were born,
I'm sorry, Rebecca? No, it was, yes, it was Rebecca,
Isaac's wife. Before they were born, God said,
before they had done any good or evil, God said, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. That's found in Malachi. But
in Romans chapter nine, it quotes Malachi and applies it to the
case of Jacob and Esau before they were born. And it shows
that God's purpose of election would stand and that God's election
of his people would be independent of their works. That's the point.
in Romans chapter 9, if you read it. Now, because Esau was hated
by God, it means that God left him to his own work. That means that rather than choosing
him in Christ to salvation, God left him to face God in the obedience
or disobedience of his own life. He didn't benefit from the work
of Christ as his surety or as his redeemer. That is reserved
for God's elect. But Esau and all those who like
him were not chosen by God are left to themselves. Now, there's
no injustice in that for God to require of us as the creator But I'm just signaling to my
wife, so she got the idea. So, as the Creator, there's no
injustice if God requires from us, is there? That He requires
obedience from us and holds us accountable. And there's certainly
no injustice in choosing Jacob to life and to salvation. That certainly didn't depend
on Jacob being good for that. God did that by grace. So Esau
and all of the people that God did not choose in Christ are
left to face God in the justice of their own, of God's justice
in their own obedience or disobedience. They will be judged by their
own works. whereas God's elect are judged for Christ's work.
And that's the mercy of God. And there's no injustice in God's
mercy. There's no injustice in His justice.
It's a wonder that God chose any to salvation, to have mercy
on any. But I bring all that up to help
us to understand that in this context, in the larger meaning,
doeg represents those who are outside of Christ. And that means
that the others in this psalm, as we've seen this in other psalms
before this, is that he contrasts the two different people in the
world throughout history, the righteous and the wicked, those
in Christ and those not in Christ, those who are unrighteous in
themselves, ungodly sinners and enemies of God by works and in
their minds. Now, God's elect were no different
in themselves. And we're going to see that in
this very psalm. But the point is here is it helps
us to see the application of the being in Christ or not being
in Christ when we look at Doeg in this matter. God speaks of
him in a judgment. He speaks of him in this psalm
in judgment. When he speaks of this in verse
2, thy tongue diviseth mischief like a sharp razor working deceitfully,
that describes him. That was an accurate description
of Doeg. Thou lovest evil more than good
and lying, rather than to speak righteousness. That also described
him. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.
And then in verse five, the condemnation of God, it says, God shall likewise
destroy thee forever. He shall take thee away and pluck
thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land
of the living. Selah. So when we think about
that, it makes the hair on the back of our neck, in a kind of
an analogy, stand up. That God would hold a man accountable
for his wickedness. Why does that make us concerned?
Because we know ourselves that we also are wicked, don't we? I like the Quotation, I first
heard it from Todd Niebuhr, but it was actually something Blaise
Pascal, who was a philosopher and mathematician in the 1600s,
he said, the righteous all believe that they are wicked, and the
wicked all believe that they are righteous. And that's true. We know that in ourselves we
have done things and thought things that are every bit as
evil as what Noah did. And there's no reason in us why
God should treat us differently. But God is pleased to do that. And the way that he does that
is, of course, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, so let's consider
now this backstory, the context of this psalm. We find it, and
I won't take time to read all of it, in 1 Samuel chapter 21.
The setting there was that David was fleeing from King Saul. King Saul was jealous of David. David killed Goliath. The women
of Israel sang of David and Saul that Saul had slain his thousands,
but David his ten thousands. That made Saul irate. He was
intent, out of envy, to kill David. And in that way, David
represents the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ was hated.
He was hated by the king of this world. He was hated by those
who are loyal to the king of this world. And the king of this
world, of course, is Satan. The king, I say, not as the ultimate
sovereign, but the king that rules in the hearts of men. The
prince of darkness, as it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and
Ephesians chapter 2 and other places. that Satan rules over
men like a tyrant. Luke chapter 11 verses 20 through
22 and other places, he rules over men like a tyrant who rules
his own palace in peace when everyone in his palace is inside
the walls of the palace. They don't even realize that
they're subjects to the tyrant because they can't see their
bondage in that way, that their slave master is the devil himself. But this is the way it is. This
is God describing our condition because of sin. God has subjected
us to the tyranny of the devil, the fear of the devil, the fear
of death and all that goes with it. Sin reigns unto death. And it was Satan who tempted
Adam and Eve, tempted Eve, and then Eve gave the fruit to Adam
and caused the entire human race to fall into sin and became subject
to this. So, David is a type of Christ
in that way, that he was fleeing from Saul, so the Lord Jesus,
while on earth, was constantly hunted. by the servants of the
kingdom of Satan. He was constantly, he was tempted
by the devil himself. The Pharisees and the Sadducees
and the religious rulers of the Jews were called in Revelation
the synagogue of Satan. And there's so many ways you
can substantiate all this from scripture, but the point is that
Christ was hounded, he was hunted by them, and they eventually
killed him. King Saul was intent on killing
David, so David fled from Saul, and because Saul intended and
kept trying to kill David, While he was fleeing, David came to
Ahimelech, and Ahimelech was a high priest, and there were
other priests there with him who were his own household, and
they served the Lord as priests. So David coming to Ahimelech
knew that he couldn't tell Ahimelech that his business was not for
King Saul, but that he was running from King Saul, because that
would make Ahimelech complicit in the thing that David was doing,
which was trying to get away from the king. If the king found
out that Ahimelech knew that David was running from him and
didn't turn him in, then Ahimelech would be a conspirator against
the king, which would mean his death. But Ahimelech didn't know
that. And so David kept him from knowing
that. He pretended to be sent by Saul
on a secret mission. And he asked Ahimelech when he
got there for bread. He needed food for himself and
for his men. But the only bread that was available
was called the showbread. And they put the showbread in
the tabernacle and they put it on a table and it was holy. It was holy to the Lord. And
after they removed that showbread from that table for the next
fresh set of bread, then the priests and only the priests
were allowed to eat the showbread. So David asked Ahimelech for
bread, but Ahimelech said, I don't have any bread except the showbread.
And so David asked him for that bread because it had been left
for the priests now. Now, it's not clear why that
was lawful in 1 Samuel, chapter 21, where that takes place. But
in Matthew, chapter 12, Jesus refers to this incident. And
it says here that Jesus said in Matthew, chapter 12, verse
4, that David entered into the house of God and did eat the
showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them
which were with him, but only for the priests." Now, I want
to turn to Matthew chapter 12 because this is also, everything
in Scripture is connected and this is so deeply instructive
that we see this. It's wonderful to see this. Look
at Matthew chapter 12. The setting in Matthew 12 was
that Jesus and his disciples were walking through a cornfield
or a wheat field. They sometimes called wheat corn. But it was the Sabbath day as
they were walking and the disciples were hungry and they began to
pluck the ears of corn and eat them. Well, of course, the enemies,
those who hunted Christ and his disciples, verse two of Matthew
12, when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, behold, thy
disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath
day. All right, so they're trying to hold Jesus to the law of Moses,
aren't they? Would Jesus break the law of
Moses? No, of course not. He said, I did not come to destroy
the law, but to fulfill it. That's in Matthew chapter five,
verse 17 and 18. And so the Pharisees, they were
blind to that. They were blind to the fact that
the son of David would be Christ and that Christ would come and
he would fulfill the law of God in doing God's eternal will,
which was to save his people from their sins. And so let's
read on. When the Pharisees saw it, they
said to him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to
do on the Sabbath day. But he said to them, have you
not read what David did when he was and hungered, and they
that were with him, how he entered into the house of God and did
eat the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, neither
for them that were with him, but only for the priests? Okay,
so it's clear from this, it was not lawful for David to eat it,
but Ahimelech gave it to David. All right, there's a very deep
meaning about this. Verse five, Jesus goes on, he says, or have
you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath day the priests
in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? In other words,
they're busy working on that day. And the Sabbath requires
men to rest. And so he's putting the question
to these Pharisees who were accusing him of breaking the law. What
about the priests? What about David? David was the
king. The priests were the priests.
And here these people were supposedly using the law to judge Christ.
Then if you're experts in the law, then judge the priest, judge
David. What was wrong with David doing
that? What are you going to say about
David? What are you going to say about the priest that profaned
the Sabbath, you see? But there was a meaning here,
he goes on, he says in verse 6, But I say unto you, now this
is the Lord Jesus talking with the authority of the one who
himself is the truth, who is the word of God, the prophet
we must hear. He says, but I say unto you that
in this place is one greater than the temple. The priest served
in the temple. Clearly the temple was greater
than the priests. But here Christ says there's
one greater than the temple, referring to himself. He was
greater than the temple. Remember in John chapter one,
it says, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The word
there is tabernacled among us. He tabernacled among us when
he became incarnate. The son of God took our nature
and dwelt among us. His body is the tabernacle. It's the temple of God. Christ's
body, the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily, the temple
of God. Jesus in John chapter 2 said,
destroy this temple. And in three days I'll raise
it up again. And he meant the temple of his body. All right. Verse 7 of Matthew 12, Jesus
says, but if you had known what this means, I will have mercy
and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.
The guiltless were those who went to the cornfield eating
corn on the Sabbath day and all the rest also who were guiltless. Why were the disciples guiltless?
It was wrong for them to work on the Sabbath day. They were
to gather the manna on the day before the Sabbath, but not gather
it on the seventh day. But notice in verse eight, Jesus
said, for the son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. What
does that mean? What does it mean that Jesus
is Lord of the Sabbath day? Well it means that he himself
gives the rest. Sabbath means rest. There remaineth a rest for the
people of God. Remember Hebrews chapter 4? He
that is entered into his rest has ceased from his own works
as God did from his. The work that is God's work was
completed by the Lord Jesus Christ, because he did the work, and
it was actually done before the foundation of the world, but
he fulfilled it in time. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Therefore, it was before the
foundation of the world in the purpose and in the covenant of
God, but it was fulfilled in time. And so he's the one who
gives the rest We, in the Old Testament, the law required people
not to work. But in the New Testament, Christ
gives to us the fulfillment of his work so that we, in believing
him, enter into his rest. Remember Matthew chapter 11,
if any, he says, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. He goes on in Matthew chapter
11, he says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I'm meek
and lowly of heart and you shall find rest for your souls. He's the Lord of the Sabbath,
the one who gives rest because he fulfilled the work. And in
believing him, God imputes all that he did to us is ours. We did it in him. Now I mention
all that to help us get an appreciation for the significance, the deep
and broad significance of Matthew chapter 12 here. Christ is greater
than the temple. The priests served in the temple.
They had showbread and it was holy. It was for the Lord until
the day when it was taken off the table to be replaced with
new bread. Who gives the bread of life but
the Lord Jesus Christ? Doesn't he? And you can read
John six about that. He says, I am the bread that
came down from heaven. I give my flesh for the life
of the world. The world he gave his flesh for
live because he gave it for them. And all those for whom Christ
gave his flesh eat his flesh and drink his blood in believing
him, just like they enter into rest. So faith is always the
means God has chosen and the gift he gives in order for us
to take of Christ to ourselves and receive the benefit to ourselves
of what Christ has done, okay? That's why he's called the Lord
of the Sabbath and the temple. He is where God meets with us. He is where God came to us. He's the mediator. He's the revelation
of God. No one has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
He has declared Him. Alright, so now let's go back
to the setting of Psalm 52. Having seen this in Matthew chapter
12, The rest of the setting is not only did David go to a Himelech
while he was running from Saul and ask bread from a Himelech,
but he also asked the Himelech for a sword and a Himelech said,
there is no sword here except the sword of Goliath. Obviously,
it was a sword that was Goliath's that when David killed Goliath,
really was the sword that David picked up. It could have been
kept by David, but I guess it was set aside and set in the
temple there, or the tabernacle, wherever this place was that
Ahimelech was serving during the priesthood. And so he had
that, and David asked him for that sword, and assuming that
David was on the king's mission as he claimed to be, Ahimelech
gave him the sword of Goliath, and he gave him some food, the
showbread, and And then David left, and he left there, and
he went from one place to another. Well, in the course of David
running from one place to another, and some of those places were
places where God told him to go, in 1 Samuel chapter 22, the
story picks up where There were those who went to
David that were in the land who were oppressed because of the
way Saul was ruling that land. And they followed David. It says
in 1 Samuel 22, verse 2, everyone that was in distress, everyone
that was in debt, everyone that was discontented gathered themselves
to David and he became a captain over them. And there were with
him about 400 men. So that describes what happens
when sinners come to the Lord Jesus Christ. We were in debt,
we were discontented, discontented with the plight of our sinfulness
and our bondage. God opened our eyes to that,
and we needed a Savior, and we found the Lord Jesus Christ to
be our Savior. And so, just like these men came
to David, and he became a captain over them, all of God's people
come to Christ, and He is a captain of their salvation. So David
is going from place to place. But in the course of this, Saul
began to complain to his men that no one was loyal to him. And this begins around verse
seven of first Samuel, chapter 22. And this is this was Saul's
manner. He was very self-centered, very
insecure because he really didn't know the Lord. and he acted out
of pride, he acted out of lust, he just lived his life as a slave
of his sinful self. And what we see here in this
account is that as he was questioning the loyalty of his men, he asked
them if David could give them what he was giving them. I give
you fields and vineyards and make you captains, can he do
that? So in response to the self-pity that Saul was showing and the
false accusation that he was making against David, because
David hadn't really done anything wrong, he was running for his
life, Doeg was there with King Saul and his men, and he speaks
up. because he's the proverbial suck-up
where he is trying to get, fawning like a tail between his legs
dog, trying to get the favor of the alpha dog, if you will. And so, Doeg acts this way, it
says that he was an Edomite there, also in 1 Samuel 22, and he was
with Saul's men, and he said to Saul that he had seen David
come to Ahimelech, the high priest. And so Doeg told Saul that Ahimelech
had spoken on David's behalf for guidance to the Lord. It says he inquired of the Lord
for David, gave him vittles and gave him a sword. And when Saul
heard about that from Doeg, Saul was enraged. How could this man
help my enemy? That was his claim. So Saul accused
Ahimelech. He called Ahimelech to come to
him. He told him to bring all the
priests. There were 85 priests that were
under Ahimelech, the high priest. And Ahimelech, I mean Saul accused
Ahimelech. Himlech asked Saul some questions
back in return. He said to him, Who is so faithful
among all your servants as David, which is your son-in-law, and
who goes wherever you tell him to go? He goes at your bidding,
and he is honorable in your house. Did I begin to inquire of God
for him? Be it far from me. Let not the
king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father,
for thy servant knew nothing of all this less or more." Ahimelech's
telling the truth. He didn't lie. He didn't stretch
the truth at all. He did not know David's mission
was to run from Saul. He didn't know that. And so he
just gave him these things in all of the integrity of being
a high priest to the Lord. Well, Saul would not be pacified
because he had envy in his heart and therefore, like Cain, he
wanted to murder Ahimelech. There was nothing justifiable
in putting him to death, but Saul was intent on it. So Saul
commanded his men to kill Ahimelech and all the priests. But Saul's
men would not do it. They did not obey King Saul because
they feared God more than Saul. Now that's something, isn't it?
They wouldn't kill the priest because they knew if they killed
the priest they'd be guilty of killing the Lord's priest and that was
certain death to them. So they weren't going to do that.
And so Saul told Doeg, aha, he found this faithful guy who was
a weasel. He said, you go kill them. Well,
Doeg complied with the king gladly because he was, of course, trying
to gain his favor. to get something for himself.
And it says, the king said to Doeg, turn thou and fall upon
the priest. And this is in First Samuel 22,
verse 18. And Doeg, the Edomite, turned
and he fell upon the priest and slew on that day four score and
five persons, 85. that did wear the linen ephod,
and Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the
sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen and asses
and sheep with the edge of the sword." So Doeg the Edomite,
either by himself or with some of the men that he had under
him, who were Saul's servants, went in and killed everyone and
everything in this city where the priests were, and he killed
85 priests of the Lord. Awesome wickedness, right? Do
you get it? And one of the sons of Ahimelech,
out of all this murder, whose name was Ahitab, I'm sorry, Ahimelech's
name, Ahimelech was the son of Ahitab, but the man who escaped,
his name was Abiathar, And he ran away and fled to David. And
it says in 1 Samuel chapter 22 that Abiathar showed David that
Saul had slain the Lord's priest. And David said to Abiathar, I
knew it that day when Doeg the Enobite was there, that he would
surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons
of thy father's house. And so David tells Abiathar,
abide thou with me, feared not, for he that seeketh my life seeketh
thy life, but with me thou shalt be in safeguard. Okay, so you
see the context here? You probably had read through
this yourself before and were familiar with it and perhaps
this helps you to remember that. But remember now that all of
this has a greater and deeper and broader meaning to it. So
back to Psalm chapter 52. I want you to make a few observations
with you as we look at this, considering the fact that Jesus
Christ was after the flesh, he was the son of David. And you
can read Romans chapter one, verse one through five about
that and many, many other places, Matthew one and so on. He was
the son of David. He was not just a descendant
of David, but he was the one promised. The one of David's
sons God had promised would sit on the throne of David forever
and ever. And of his kingdom there would
be no end. So he was the Christ, clearly,
the Lord Jesus. The Son of God is the Christ
of God. He's the one spoken of in the
psalm that of the fruit of David's body, God would raise up his
son to sit on his throne. And he was talking about Jesus.
You could read that in Psalm 132, verse 11, for example. So Jesus was born after the flesh
to be the son of David and therefore David was merely a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, in his life,
in his words, in his Psalms, in his history, he depicted the
Lord Jesus Christ, his physical activities and his words depicted
the spiritual accomplishments and the eternal words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was a man after God's own
heart, so the Lord Jesus Christ was obviously the man who was
the Son of God, God's own heart. And we could just go on and on
there. But because he was a type of Christ and fulfills these
things, in Matthew 12 we saw he was the Lord of the Sabbath,
he was greater than the temple, and in also 1 Samuel 21, this
being persecuted by Saul, and the account of Doeg, so that
what we can say here in Psalm 52 is that the words that David
wrote as the psalmist are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ
given by his spirit to the Church of God because of the apparent
triumph of their murderous enemies over these innocent people. Okay? So when you read verse one of
Psalm 52, why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? Think
in the immediate context, doeg, but more broadly, think, who
is the mighty man who devised mischief and boasted in it? And
what happened because of that? What's the answer of David? The
answer of David in the Psalm is, the goodness of God endureth
continually. So the answer of the Lord Jesus
Christ to his people is that God's goodness towards his people
will turn the evil intent of their enemy for their salvation. Do you see that? Now, throughout
Scripture, this principle is amplified throughout Scripture.
But I like to think about this because I'm going to give you
some examples of this. First, think of Joseph and his
brothers, the sons of Jacob. Remember they cast Joseph into
the pit, they sold him into slavery, he was at Potiphar's house, and
then he went to the jail, and he went from the jail to the
throne. And then his brothers come to him, and Joseph shows
himself eventually, he shows himself to them, and listen to
what he said to them in Genesis 45. He says, Genesis 45, Joseph
tells his brothers, be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves that
you sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve
life." Wow. You would think that Joseph would
hold it against them, but no, he didn't. He was given such
a sight of God's goodness, the continuance, continual flow of
God's goodness to his people that he even lifted the burden
of their guilt, the guilt of his brothers off of them, and
he says, God did this to save life. Don't be angry with yourselves
that you sold me here. What a savior, right? Don't you
hear the Lord Jesus Christ in those words? And then later in
chapter 50 of Genesis, Joseph tells his brothers, as for you,
you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good. to
bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Without Joseph, Egypt would have
died. The king, his household, and
the Egyptians would have died. There would have been no food,
and they would have died from famine. But because of Joseph,
they were saved. Much people were saved. So the
Lord Jesus Christ saved much people. And notice that, well,
let's go on. So that's the first example,
God bringing good out of evil. Another example is, remember
that the Jews in Jesus' day rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. And when
the gospel was preached to the Jews, by and large, the Jews
would not believe. What happened as a result of
that? That was evil, wasn't it? It was evil that they rejected
their Messiah. It was evil that they crucified
the Lord Jesus Christ. What was the result of their
evil? Well, it says in Romans chapter 11, verse 11, through
their fall, salvation has come to the Gentiles. It also says
in verse 12, if the fall of them be the riches of the world and
the diminishing of them, the Jews, the unbelieving Jews, the
riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. So you can
see here another example in scripture. The Jews refused Christ. The
result of that was God's plan was fulfilled so that the Gentiles
then were saved. They were brought in. Talk about
bringing good out of evil. Then, another example. Remember
that when the early church began to preach the gospel, what happened?
Well, they were persecuted everywhere. Peter and John were cast into
prison. James, the brother of John, had his head cut off. I
don't know if it was... He might not have had his head
cut off, but Herod killed him with a sword, I think is what
it says. So James was martyred. The church was persecuted heavily.
And what happened as a result of that evil? Well, God used
that evil for our good. The gospel was spread throughout
the whole world. The apostles were dispersed from
Jerusalem to the four corners of the world. I heard in one
commentary that I think it was Matthew was in India. I don't
know if that's true or not. But the point is, is that these
apostles went everywhere. And we don't know exactly where,
but they would all, Peter wrote the books of 1st and 2nd Peter
from Babylon. So, amazing. Another example,
two more examples. Take the trials of every believer,
both in the Old Testament and in the New. Read Hebrews chapter
11. And you'll see there others were tortured, not accepting
deliverance. Moses considered the afflictions
with the people of God to be a greater treasure, to be greater
riches than all the treasures of Egypt. He considered persecution
for Christ's sake to be a greater than all of the treasures of
Egypt. And that's not just Moses, but
all of those cataloged in the book of Hebrews suffered in some
way. Samson, you could just read about
them. And then there were these people
who were sawn asunder and so on. So the point here is that
in the believer's life, and Hebrews 11 is teaching this, in the life
of a believer, trouble comes. Jesus said, in the world you
shall have tribulation. It's not a maybe so. In Philippians chapter one, verse
29, he says, unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not
only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. First
Peter chapter two, he says that Christ suffered and leaving us
an example to follow in his steps. So we could just go on and on,
right? So the point here is another way in which God brings good
out of evil is in the suffering of his people. Read Romans chapter
five and you'll see that faith causes us to live under the trials
of God's providence with patience, and patience brings experience,
which is that proving of the validity of our faith. and experience
brings hope, and hope does not make us ashamed because, and
then it goes on and it tells us, because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given
to us, and that love of God which is made known to us by the Holy
Spirit is concerning how that when we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. When we were without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly and on and on. So he keeps bringing
us back to the fact that we're sinners and Christ is the only
Savior. He's the glorious Savior of sinners.
So one more example. And the last example, of course,
is the Lord Jesus Christ, the cross of Christ. What could look
more bleak and more dark than the cross of Christ? The thief
on the cross seems to be the only one who had an awareness
of what was going on. Amazing, amazing grace, huh?
And yet that was the very place where God's glory was set forth
in all of its brightness and all of the salvation of God's
people was accomplished. Talk about bringing good out
of evil. Now, I mention all these to bolster
your confidence that in Psalm 52, what's being said here in
verse one, Why boast thyself in mischief, O mighty man? The
goodness of God endureth continually. The answer of the Lord Jesus
Christ to the church by the Spirit of God here in verse one is that
no matter how evil it seems in the experience of your time state
while on this earth, look to Christ, trust him, because the
goodness of God endureth continually. And so it says in Romans 8, 28,
For we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose,
for whom He did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren." And it goes on in Hebrews chapter 8,
and it confirms the fact that God Himself stands as the advocate
for his people, the judge and advocate for his people, when
he challenges the onlooking kingdom of Satan to lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. And he throws the hammer down
as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Heaven and says, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifies. And if you want to challenge
them, you're going to have to go through God to get to them.
And then he answers that again. He says, who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died. He rather who was risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession
for us. The one who sits at God's right
hand, who rules over all things in heaven and earth is our intercessor
and our advocate. And he's there as our intercessor
and there as our advocate with his own blood shed for us to
fulfill the everlasting covenant God gave to him to fulfill. And
so he's living, the one who made the will, that testament, lives
now to administer it and give to his people the promises that
he obtained for them by his own blood. You see how this verse
ties in now in Psalm 52 verse 1? And if you read on here in
verses 2 through 3, what you're seeing here is just God's judgment
of those outside of Christ. He lays it to their charge, the
charge sticks. We can see that ourselves are
no different as God, we're like them in Ephesians chapter 2.
God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he
loved us even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together
with Christ. And then later on in this psalm,
he says in verse 5, God shall likewise destroy thee forever,
talking about Satan and his kingdom. Because ultimately the mighty
man here, the strong man, is the one the Lord Jesus Christ
bound And he removed his teeth, as it were. He bound him in a
chain and threw him in the pit and made a humiliation, a show
of him openly in his triumph over him to the church. Read
Revelation chapter 12, for example. And the church, all those who
look to Christ, overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, by
the word of their testimony. They loved not their life even
to death. So these are all the things God tells us to encourage
us to strengthen our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that the
goodness of God endureth continually. He will triumph. He will triumph. God is good no matter what it
looks like now. God is eternally good and He
doesn't change. His goodness doesn't increase
or decrease. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. bound the strong man, and he
will not allow any to overcome. He says, heaven and earth shall
pass away, my word shall never pass away, and though the mountains
depart and the earth be cast in the midst of the sea, or however
he puts it, the mountains be cast in the midst of the sea,
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of
trouble. And so that covers the first
five verses. We'll have to save the last part
of this psalm until next time. Okay, let's pray. Lord, thank
you so much for your comfort to your people. We pray you would
give it to us by this gift of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We would know in our heart that the one who rules over heaven
and earth is Christ, our savior and our advocate. He died for
his people. He rose again. was ascended to
heaven to take the place of power and glory and sits as our advocate
and intercessor. And now we cannot be lost because
he holds us in his hand, in the hand of omnipotence and grace. All the work has been done by
him. He gives it to his people. He's everything to us. Help us
to trust him, Lord. Help us to know that there's
no assurance, no confidence, nothing more stable than that
we know that Christ is on the throne. We can't find in this
world or in anyone in this world any more assurance than we have,
but that Christ rose, lives, and reigns and intercedes for
us on the throne of glory. Thank you for this. Help us to
trust him. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.