Psalm chapter 41. Let's read
this psalm together, and I want you to take notice of verse 9.
Before we read this, I'll read it to you. In verse 9 it says,
Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did
eat of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. Now this
friend that he's talking about, that Jesus trusted, is because
these are the words that are quoted in John, chapter 13, verse
18, apply to Judas Iscariot. Okay, so that helps us to establish
that this psalm, in this verse, is talking in prophecy of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke these words about Judas Iscariot. And he's saying here that his
own familiar friend he trusted and ate with him, ate bread with
him, lifted up his heel against him. That means he became his
enemy. And you know the story that he betrayed Christ. But
I mention that first before we read the entire psalm so that
we can all see together that this psalm is a psalm of David
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay? Let's read it now in its
entirety. Psalm 41, verse 1. Blessed is
he that considereth the poor. The Lord will deliver him in
time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and
keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth, and
thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies." What
great blessings these are to the one who considers the poor.
Verse three, the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing. that will make all his bed in
his sickness. To make all his bed here, it
means that he will turn his bed as you would an invalid who couldn't
turn over in their bed and turning them in their bed and changing
their bedclothes would freshen and make them comfortable. And
here it says the Lord is going to do that for this man who considers
the poor. Verse four, I said, Lord, be
merciful unto me. Heal my soul, I, for I have sinned
against thee. Mine enemies speak evil of me. When shall he die and his name
perish? And if he come to see me, he
speaks vanity. His heart gathereth iniquity
to itself. When he goeth abroad, he telleth
it. All that hate me whisper together against me. Against
me do they devise my hurt. An evil disease, say they, cleaveth
fast to him, and now that he lieth, he shall no more, he shall
rise up no more. Verse nine, yea, mine own familiar
friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted
up his heel against me. But thou, O Lord, be merciful
to me and raise me up. that I may requite them. By this
I know that thou favorest me because mine enemy does not triumph
over me. And as for me, thou upholdest
me in mine integrity and settest me before thy face forever. Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen. And so you see
in the psalm here, because of verse 9, knowing that this is
a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ, God gave to David, who
was called the sweet psalmist of Israel, who was also the anointed
king over Israel, on the earth and so over this physical nation
God anointed David. God made him king over his people
in the same way David's son and David's Lord, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the anointed of God, which is what the name Christ
or the title, the office title means, Christ the anointed or
the Messiah. And he obviously is the king
over God's people. He's the king of heaven, the
king of the kingdom of heaven, the king of the kingdom of God.
And the Spirit of God spake by David, so the Spirit of God was
given Christ without measure. And God has spoken in these last
days in him. And that's why in John 1, verse
1, he's called the Word of God. All right, now considering all
that, we see that this psalm, once again, is a psalm of David
concerning Christ. Concerning Christ in his sufferings,
concerning Christ in his glory, as 1 Peter 1 tells us. The prophets of old spoke of
Christ, of his sufferings, and the glory that would follow.
And there's many other places in the New Testament that reaffirm
this to us. So we've seen this over and over
again in the psalms. So that that encourages us, And
it also strengthens our understanding that the Psalms were given by
the Spirit of God to tell us of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
a blessing that is. Because we often, in fact naturally,
when I would read the Psalms, I would try to apply them to
myself. but I would have a hard time
applying them to myself because in honesty, I couldn't claim
what the psalmist was claiming. Like in verse 12 here, as for
me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity. I could claim verse
four, be merciful to me, heal my soul for I have sinned against
thee, but I couldn't claim verse 12. So that's the reason it's
encouraging to know that these Psalms are prophecies of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in this psalm, what we see
here, especially as you read from verse five, it says, my
enemies speak evil of me. This is what they say. When shall
he die and his name perish? In verse six, if he come to see
me, this is the Lord Jesus speaking of his enemies. If he come to
see me, he speaks vanity. His heart gathereth iniquity
to itself, and when he goeth abroad, he telleth it." Now,
think about the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about
throughout his ministry how his enemies, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin,
the Jews, the scribes, and the Sadducees, even Herod, and Pilate,
and the Gentiles, all had something to say against him, especially
the religious leaders, especially the religious leaders. They hated
him. And so when it says here, when
he comes to see me, he speaks vanity, his heart gathers iniquity,
and when he goes abroad, he tells it. You can see how that fits. the Pharisees. When they came
to Christ, they were tempting Him. They were trying to trip
Him up in His words. They were trying to discredit
Him. They tried to claim that He did
miracles by Satan. They made all kinds of false
claims, and then when they saw Him in His sufferings, they They
rubbed their hands together in glee, saying, aha, we have him,
because see, he really must not be of God, because we can see
we have the power over him. He doesn't have power over us.
And so many other things they said, mocking him. And they were
false things. They were false accusations.
They weren't true. But you can see that in this
psalm, that in this psalm, the enemies of Christ are apparently,
it would appear, that they have the advantage over him in verses
five, six, seven, eight, and nine. So that's why, that tells
us why this psalm was given. This psalm was given by the Lord
Jesus, who in his humiliation suffered at the hands of wicked
men. And to all appearances, it seemed
like that he was what they said, that he was false, that God was
not with him. And so that his own disciples
and his friends would forsake him and flee, and they would
be offended because of the reproach that he bore for bearing the
sins of his people. In other words, for doing the
will of God, Christ bore reproach. And the reproach he bore was
because he bore his people's sins. And because he bore that
reproach for them, His enemies took hold of that and used it
to try to claim that he himself was false, that God was against
him, and mock him and bring hurtful things to say to him by claiming
this, that he trusted God but God didn't deliver him, therefore
his trust must be false. or he must trust the wrong God,
or he didn't really know the scriptures as he claimed to know
them, and so on, that God really wasn't with him. And you know
that if that's the popular opinion, and the constant assault of the
enemy, it does have an effect on you when people are constantly
saying things against you. And so they did the Lord Jesus
Christ. So this psalm is meant to direct us to that, to help
us see that and think of it in prophecy since it was written
here In generations to come, when it was fulfilled, his disciples
could look back at this psalm and say, see, God did this, even
though his enemies claim he was not of God. God said this before
it happened, and therefore they took assurance knowing that what
he said was according to scripture. So that's the first thing I want
to point out here. The psalm was given in order to to prevent
or to encourage and comfort God's people under Christ's affliction. But it was also given to teach
us that he suffered, he suffered, no doubt he suffered, and it's
unimaginable grief that he suffered, and it was because of our sins.
And so we're greatly encouraged that because he says in verse
12, that you uphold me in mine integrity, that he bore our sins,
but he wasn't made a sinner by committing those sins. He was
righteous, he was holy, he was righteous and he was holy, which
means that he bore our sins and that bearing of our sins was
obedience itself. And because it was obedience
to God and He bore the sins of His people, therefore His obedience
in bearing our sins is our obedience. So this is what 2 Corinthians
5.21 says. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That righteousness of God is
what He did when He bore our sins. He bore our sins in obedience
to God, and so God counted that as our righteousness because
He did it for us. He did it according to the will
of God. Okay, so now I've given you the
overview here without getting into the verse-by-verse exposition.
Now in verse one through verse three, let's read that again
together. He says, blessed is he that considereth
the poor. Now the words, the poor, are
actually in the singular. And you can look this up in the
Blue Letter Bible online, it's free. And you can read about
this in other commentaries. But the point here is that the
poor man, or the poor one spoken of here is just one person, a
single person. Blessed is he that considereth
the poor, therefore, must be understood as the poor man, like
he says back in Psalm chapter 40. He said in Psalm chapter
40, let's see, where is it? Well, in that last verse, he
says, I am poor and needy, Psalm 40, verse 17. I am poor and needy,
yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer.
Make no tarrying, O my God. So in this, we see a couple of
things. First of all, the Lord Jesus Christ, because Psalm 40,
as we saw last time, was about Christ. And that's clear from
verses six through eight of Psalm 40 with Hebrews chapter 10. But
here, in the first verse of Psalm 41, which just happens to follow
Psalm 40 and the last verse of it, we see that the one who was
called the poor and needy one in Psalm 40, verse 17, is the
poor man that God says, that person is blessed who considers
him. Okay? Now in Hebrews chapter
3 and verse 1 it says, for consider him, consider him, he says, wherefore
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Okay,
so there we have it. We're told by God to consider
Christ. And then in Hebrews chapter 12,
verses 1 through 3, it tells us not only that Christ is the
author and finisher of our faith, but we are to consider Him who
endured this contradiction of sinners against Himself. All
right, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God.
So in both of those cases, again, we're told to consider Christ.
And here he says, the person who considers him in this way,
is blessed. The Lord will deliver him in
time of trouble, the Lord will preserve him, he will keep him
alive, and he shall be blessed on the earth, and that will not
deliver him unto the will of his enemies." Okay, so the Lord's
gonna preserve him, he's gonna give him life, he's going to
make him blessed on the earth, and he's going to not allow his
enemies to have their way with him. He's going to liberate him
from his enemies. And this is true of every believer.
Remember Jesus said, whoever believes on me has present possession
everlasting life. And all those who believe on
Christ have been redeemed from the law, and been redeemed from
all iniquity, and they are given life, they know Jesus Christ,
they know God in Jesus Christ, which is the definition of eternal
life. So you can see that it's fulfilled, it's talked about
in the New Testament as a fulfillment here of the one who believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the poor man here, being
spoken of, is unfolded to us in the rest of this psalm. In
verse three he says, the Lord will strengthen him upon the
bed of languishing, thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.
Believers get sick. And sickness is sorrowful, it's
unsettling, it's depressing to get sick. We feel sad because
we can't do what we used to do. We're limited and we wonder,
is this our downfall? Is this gonna be the end of me?
Is my life going to be over? Will I not have any more time
in this world to speak of the wonders of God's grace and salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ or whatever God has given us to do? So those
things are unsettling to us. But God says here that he's going
to strengthen him upon the bed of languishing. He's going to
strengthen him, not necessarily in his body, but in his soul. The Lord will be his strength,
and if the Lord is our strength, as it says in Psalm 27, Whom
shall I fear? If the Lord is my light and my
salvation, if He's the strength of my life, whom shall I fear?
Of whom shall I be afraid? Because if the Lord is my strength,
then He will always give me the victory, because no one can overcome
Him, and faith is that which God gives us to overcome the
world. So we are going to be more than conquerors through
him who loved us because the Lord is our strength. And so
you can see here that the Lord will strengthen him upon the
bed of languishing and will make all his bed in his sickness.
God will be like a nurse to us. He will comfort us and console
us and be there in all of our sickness, directing us in our
physical afflictions and in the distress of our mind to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is our health. And remember in Matthew 8 and
verse 17, it says when he had healed all those people that
it was done that it might be fulfilled, which said in Isaiah
53, he himself bore our sickness. He took our sicknesses and bore
them. and He bear our sorrows. So when Christ, who is called
the Great Physician, when He heals people, it was to direct
us to His healing of our sin-sick souls because He bore our sins
and therefore He bore the consequences of our sins, which is the plague
of our soul, as Solomon said in 1 Kings. Chapter eight, around
verse 38, he said, a man knowing the plague of his heart looks
to this place where Christ is signified to be crucified, then
God hear him and forgive. And so this is this is our case. We have a plague in our heart
because of our sin. We're like a leper. The disease
has gone lower than the skin and Christ alone can heal us.
And the only way he does that This is the way God heals. He
himself took our infirmities and bore our sickness and our
sorrows. And that's what God is saying here. He will strengthen
him upon the bed of languishing and make all his bed in his sickness
because of Christ. He will direct us to him. Now
that's true of believers, but I want to highlight this, that
in all things Christ must have the preeminence, as it says in
Colossians chapter one. So that when it says here that
blessed is he who considers the poor, we understand that to be
a single man. It's also true that all of God's
elect are considered in the Lord Jesus Christ as one, their one
body, one with him. So that you can see that the
Lord Jesus Christ himself being poor, by his own willing condescension,
he considers, he became poor in order that he might consider
those who in themselves are utterly bankrupt. In fact, they're indebted. And our indebtedness is what
he sees, and in his mercy, when we have nothing to pay, he himself
bears our debt. He bore our debt and paid our
debt in his own blood. He removed our debt and God has
forgiven our debt for Christ's sake. Ephesians 4, 32, God for
Christ's sake has forgiven you. So it teaches us here that the
one who truly is blessed preeminently is the Lord Jesus Christ, because
he as the very lowest and the poorest of all of his people,
He said, I am a worm and no man in Psalm 22, verse six, when
he was on the cross. So he lowered himself. He became a servant to all and
gave his life as a ransom for many in order that he might redeem
them from the debt they owed to God and the curse of the law,
which was upon them because they had to pay that debt, which is
the wages of sin. the death, that's the wages of
sin. He shouldered their sin and bore their death to redeem
them from death, to pay the debt we owe to God and so free us
from our enemies. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
again has the preeminence in this. Even though in believing
Him, we experience, we are those, God says, are possessors of eternal
life and all the blessings described here, because we're in Christ,
looking to Him shows that we're trusting in Him and looking to
Him for everything. And God has given us everything
in Him, but it's ours because He Himself first stooped in order
to make us rich in His righteousness. In 2 Corinthians 8, 9 it says,
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
were rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you, through
his poverty, might be made rich. And his riches are immeasurable
riches. So I say all that in order to
get us to the next verse, which is in verse four, okay? Verse four says, I said, Lord,
be merciful unto me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against
thee. Now, Jesus Christ never knew
sin in the sense that he thought sinful thoughts. It says that
in 2 Corinthians 5, 21. And he never did sin, as it says
in verse Peter 2, verse 22. And in him, according to 1 John
3, 5, is no sin. So all these things and others,
like in Hebrews chapter 7, where it says that he was holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens,
the Lord Jesus Christ was sinless. He had no sin of his own. But
he bore our sins in his own body on the tree, 1 Peter 2, verse
24. It pleased the Lord to bruise him when he made his soul an
offering for sin, Isaiah 53. The Lord has laid upon him the
iniquity of us all, and the Lord said, for the transgression of
my people was he stricken. So all these things teach us
the gospel, that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures. He was buried, he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures. So that the Lord
Jesus Christ suffered death because he took the sins of his people,
which deserved death. And that death, of course, is
the administration of justice on God's part towards the sinner. And the Lord Jesus Christ suffered
that. consequence of justice because
he was made guilty with our sins. He bore our sins in his own body
and he owns it. He takes ownership for our sin,
so much so that he claims it as his own. He says in verse
four, I said, Lord, be merciful unto me. Heal my soul, for I
have sinned against thee. Now here we see a real unfolding
of what it means that he was poor. He said in Psalm 40 verse
17, I am poor and needy. In Psalm 22 he says, I'm a worm
and no man. In the New Testament he says,
the foxes have holes, the birds have nests, but the son of man
has nowhere to lay his head. And he said, the son of man did
not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a
ransom for many. All these things teach us that
he took a stoop, an immeasurable stoop, when he was made poor. It was a willing stoop. It was
a stoop of his own decision, his will. And hence, that's why
it says in 2 Corinthians 8, 9, you know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It was his grace that moved him
to take that stoop. And what grace we see in him
in that stoop. a king, if a king stops along
the procession of his pomp and his alleged majesty among all
of his servants and so on, and he stops to talk to some poor
beggar, we think, what a gracious act of the king that was. But the Lord Jesus Christ, infinitely
more gracious, was equal with God and did not consider it robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. His poverty was in that he became
a nobody. In Isaiah 53, it says there's
no beauty that we should desire him. He was poor in reputation. He was poor in beauty. He was
poor in possessions. He had none. People had to take
care of him on earth, his physical needs, a place to stay and so
on. Food for him, the ladies that
followed him prepared meals for him. He was poor in everything
and we can see that he identified with his people who in themselves
were poor in those ways. They were poor in righteousness
and he became poor because he took our debt. He became indebted. That made him extremely poor
because now he was indebted and only debtors, I mean only, yeah,
debtors are poor people because they don't have something to
pay the debt with. But since he had laid aside his
reputation and his possessions and his position among men, his
place among people, in order to take the debt of his people
and pay it, And because he, as the son of God, was without sin,
therefore he was able, by the merit of his own obedience and
blood, to pay that debt. And so even though he was poor
in that sense, he was also rich in righteousness. But here, as
he's bearing our debt, our sin debt, he talks about himself
as being needy, be merciful to me. So his poverty was that he
was utterly, he made himself utterly dependent upon God in
all of his life and in all of his salvation. And he's always
crying out to God for mercy. He's praying to God, he's making
supplication to God, just like we would make supplication, only
his was effectual. And so we see his poverty because
he became utterly dependent. He had to live by faith on the
word of God. Remember in Matthew 4, in chapter
4, verse 4, he told the devil, man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He was
talking about himself. He was the poor man who had nothing
but the word of God. Now that's actually great riches
in one sense, but in the estimation of men, it's poverty. And he
felt it in his soul. He felt poor. He was needy, according
to that last verse in Psalm 40. Poor and needy. And yet the Lord
thinks on me. He didn't consider himself worthy
of God's thoughts, In that sense, the Lord thinks on me. That's
a gracious look. You can see his attitude here.
The attitude of the Lord Jesus Christ was never arrogant. He
was very humble in his thoughts toward God. He asked for mercy. He thanked God for mercy. He was amazed that God would
look upon him in his poverty, in his need, and show him mercy.
And here he's claiming this poverty of bearing our sins when he says,
be merciful to me, heal my soul, I have sinned against thee. See
how he confesses the sin of his people as his own? And by confessing
it to God, he's actually doing what we could never do, truly
confessing our sins to God in a way that God heard. All right. Now, because he took this place
with our sins to all outward appearance, he bore the reproach
of his people and therefore the next few verses describe the
reaction of his enemies. They took hold upon this. They
took hold upon his apparent weakness. and his poverty and his lack
of education, for example, or the lack of recognition by men
that he had the authority that they would communicate or that
they would delegate to him to be able to do what he did. He
didn't seek any of that from them. And they were offended
by that. And so they, in their offense
and their hostility against him and their hatred for him, they
tried to undo him. They tried to use that against
him, the fact that he was bearing the sins of his people. And he
describes their attitude towards him and their actions toward
him in the next few verses. Mine enemies speak evil of me.
It wasn't true. When shall he die and his name
perish? They hated him, they wanted him to die. They didn't
want him in any way to be recognized by God. They wanted him to forever
be silenced. And this is the will, this is
the desire of Satan. It's been his desire from the
beginning. And it's the desire of all who are the sons of perdition. And so we see this culminating
in verse nine with Judas himself that Jesus said was the son of
perdition. And then he says in verse six,
and if he come to see me, my enemy, he speaks vanity, as I
mentioned earlier, like the Pharisees did. They were always trying
to entrap him. They were pretending that they
had knowledge they didn't have. They pretended to know God, they
didn't. They pretended to do God's will,
they did not. They were hypocrites. They did
all that they did to be seen of men. They had no reward from
God. They were not going to enter
life or salvation or heaven. And God never knew them in a
saving, in a loving way. They were not His people. And
so He speaks of them as coming to Him with these vain words.
They didn't talk about the truth. They didn't talk about things
that were true or about the God of truth. They didn't talk about
his son. They didn't know his son. They
sought recognition from God and from men because of what they
were and because of what they did. And so that's what this
vanity is. Every man, according to, we read
back in Psalm 39, verse five, Every man in his best estate
is altogether vanity. And these vain people come to
him in their own righteousness, stubbornly and tenaciously holding
and refusing to submit to Christ's righteousness. That's what that's
what they are, vain speakers. And their heart gathers iniquity
to themselves. And when they go away from Christ,
they boast as if they had the victory over him. This is like
a playground of naughty boys who make fun and then go off
in the corner and boast about the thing that they did to the
poor little child on the playground. And so that's what they did.
And it says in verse 7, all that hate me whisper together. They
weren't even, they were cowards. They would gather together and
they would design how they might overthrow him and then they would
whisper, trying to collectively come up with a way of overthrowing
him. They couldn't face him because when they did, he exposed them
as false and he exposed their intentions. He told them that
you are of your father, the devil, and therefore you do his works.
And so, that's what he's saying here. All that hate me whisper
together against me. Against me do they devise my
hurt. They had one intent, which was the intention of Satan, to
destroy Christ, to destroy his people. And then in verse 8,
an evil disease say they cleaveth fast to him, and now that he
lieth, he shall rise up no more. think of Christ, bearing our
sins, laying His life down, and they would boast, they rejoiced
over Him. It's like the enemy is having a big party because
they have overcome their enemy, Christ. Verse 9, Yea, mine own
familiar friend, now he singles out Judas, who they hired to
betray Christ to them so that they might do these things. Mine
own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, has
lifted up his heel against me. Verse 10, but thou, O Lord, be
merciful to me and raise me up that I may requite them. Raise me up. What is he talking
about but the resurrection, his own resurrection? When God raised
his son, he justified him. He vindicated him of all accusations
and mockings of his enemies. And he exalted him and enthroned
him. And he gave him all power, all
authority over all things in heaven and in earth. because
he did what's described in this psalm. He became nothing in order
to save his people from their sins. He humbled himself and
became obedient even unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore, God has highly exalted him and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. It was God's will, it was Christ's
work. All of it is of God, and therefore
all of the glory goes to Him. In verse 10, Lord, be merciful
to me and raise me up that I may requite them. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ, verse 10. To requite means to repay, to
return upon them what they deserve. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
the savior of his people, but he's also the judge of all. In
John chapter five and verse 22 and verse 23, he says that the
father has committed all judgment into his hand for this reason
that all men should honor the son even as they honor the father. The Lord Jesus Christ is depicted
in Matthew chapter seven as the one who stands in the narrow
way, admitting to life and salvation and heaven all those who go that
narrow way. And also standing in the broad
way and commanding to depart all those who attempt to come
in the broad way. So he's the gatekeeper of life
and salvation and heaven. we can only come to the Father
by Him. And so we are either those who
look to Him as the poor man God set forth to be our Savior and
our Lord and gladly submit to Him and want Him to receive the
glory in all of our salvation, as every believer does, because
that's the only way that we can be saved. And besides that, He
deserves it. Or we won't believe him, we tenaciously
hold to our own way and our own righteousness and seek recognition
from God and men for ourselves like the Pharisees were always
calling on the Lord. Not because we need Him to save
us and rely on Him to do so, but because we want Him to consider
something about us, our decision, or our free will, or our work,
or our worth, or something like that. And so we're really seeking
nothing more than our own glory. And the Lord says He will requite
them. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to judge all those who
attempt to come to him in any other way than the way of him. He has to be our salvation. And
we should, we say this over and over, but it's so essential,
it's something that we need to be convinced of. God has to convince
us of this and reconvince us of this daily throughout our
life so that in every trial and every joy and everything, whether
we're in the, the doldrums and the wind is not blowing or we're
in a hurricane, whatever it is, we have to be reminded, look
to the rock, look to the Lord Jesus Christ. All of your salvation
is in him alone. And call upon him in the day
of trouble. He will deliver you and you shall
glorify him. So this is what is teaching here. Christ is going to save his people,
but also all those who reject him are going to face him in
judgment to answer before God, the Lord Jesus Christ, without
a savior, without a surety, without a mediator. And what could be
more terrible than that? Jesus said about Judas, it had
been better for him if he had never been born. It had been
good for that man if he had never been born. Now, when you read
verse nine and you read verse 10, I don't know about you, but
it causes a reaction in me, which is to say, oh Lord, my God, Do
not leave me to myself or it will be for me. It will be better
that I had never been born because I will receive what I deserve.
But look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't look to my sin. Don't look
to anything I would claim as righteousness. Look away from
me to him and find me in him alone and forgive me and receive
me for Christ's sake. That's it. That's all of our
hope. Lord, answer for me. According to your righteousness,
forgive all my sin. According to Christ, doing and
dying. That's the reaction of the believer,
because we know ourselves to be no different if we're left
to ourselves than Judas, than to these men who were always
against Christ. We wouldn't consider the poor
man as the one who deserves this great blessing from God. He goes
on in verse 11, by this I know that thou favors me because my
enemy does not triumph over me. How do we know God's grace? Because
he does not let our sin have the victory over us. And how
did he not let our sin have the victory over us? His name shall
be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
When the Lord Jesus Christ prayed for his people, he was asking
God to receive them for his sake. God had chosen them and given
them to him and he laid his life down for them and then he returns
with his own blood and righteousness and asks God to receive them
for his sake. And this is what he's saying
here, is that God has favor. We know God's grace towards us
because it's in Christ. And in Christ, he has saved us
from our enemies. He always gives us the victory
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12, the Lord says, as for
me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity and settest me before
thy face. The Lord Jesus Christ had a righteousness
that God could look upon and justify him because of that. And our righteousness has to
be his. What he did has to be what we did in him or God cannot
receive us. In verse 13, he says, blessed
be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Amen
and amen. This is the truth. Amen means
that's true. That's true. I agree. That's
the truth. And so he repeats it here, the
Lord God of Israel, the Lord God who sent the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord God in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, He Himself
is Lord and God over Israel. He's the King of Israel. And
we see here the magnificent stoop of our Savior, that He would
be made poor, that we might be made rich. bear our sins, that
we might be forgiven our debt, that we might live, that we might
be preserved, that our enemies might not triumph over us, but
that we might have the mastery over them, as it says in the
book of Esther. What grace this is, that Christ
would bear the mocking and the accusations and the cruel pain
unjustly from his enemies, and yet, in this sense, because he
was willing, because he did it in love, in obedience to God,
as they said, he shall die, and they asked that he would not
just die, but utterly perish, because they were accusing him
of it being his fault, in that sense, because he willingly took
it, because he did it by the will of God, and did it in obedience,
he owned it as being his. And so what he received from
God was according to the will of God. Even though his enemies
said he did it because of his own sin, it really was ours made
his, which he took upon himself. And so you can see here the unbelievable
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, can't you? You can see how the,
The attack of his enemies which came upon him for our sin is
what we deserved, but he took it. Therefore, their accusations
will not stick. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It is God that justifies. And
who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, rather,
who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also makes intercession for us. And who is going to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus? Let these
enemies come forward now. Let them come forward and attack
our Savior on His throne. He will requite them because
He will not let them have the victory, the triumph of victory
over His people because He suffered for them. Let's pray. Lord, thank
you for this psalm. We see in it the sufferings of
our Savior at the hands of a trusted friend. He went and ate with
and made himself vulnerable with Judas. And then Judas made him
vulnerable to his enemies and told his enemies where he was. when he was with his disciples
in that most intimate time, when he was bearing the sins of his
people in the Garden of Gethsemane, then they took him, and they
took him away to crucify him. But it was all according to your
will to bring, O Lord our God, it was according to your will
to bring salvation to your people out of his great sufferings.
What a blessed Savior we have. Help us, Lord, not to be found
among your enemies. Help us to be found among those
who consider this poor man that we might see he was the preeminent
poor one who saved us by his own willing and obedient poverty. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.