Psalm 35. I want to look at this
tonight with you. Last week, as I said, we did
an overview and we looked at this psalm last time from the
perspective of those for whom Christ suffered the things that
are written in this Psalm. In that regard, I want to read
this to you from Robert Hawker, who directed my thoughts along
this line before last week's message. It says this, he says,
all of this in Psalm chapter 35 is the badge and the explanation
of Christ's love. He said, let us behold him here
as our surety, sustaining every indignity, reproach, and suffering
which we merited, which we deserved, and he endured. As the holy,
harmless Jesus, who had done no sin, neither was guile found
in His mouth, appealing for the justice of His cause to His most
righteous Father. And while you and I read this
sorrowful account, oh, for grace, so to take interest in what we
read here of Jesus as the Christ of God, as to feel our whole
souls drawn out in love and affection to Him, Yea, blessed Jesus, I
would say, did false witnesses arise up against Thee? Did they
nail Thee to the cross and insult over Thy sacred person in those
unequaled seasons of sorrow? Did they add cruelty to injustice
and bid defiance to Thy sovereignty, grace, and love? And wert thou
thus oppressed, detested, and despised for me, for my salvation? Didst thou indeed give thy back
to the smiters, and thy cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair? And did not thy face from shame and spitting, and this,
all this for me? O love inexpressible, incomprehensible,
and passing knowledge, henceforth, dear Lord, let me never, never
lose sight of thee, and thy patience under sufferings. Now that's
what Robert Hawker said. And I encourage you, whenever
you get a chance to find any of his readings, that you would
look at these kinds of things, because he repeats this kind
of an expression of wonder, of the love of Christ for his people,
whenever he writes an exposition of any place in scripture. Now
when we look at this in overview, and I want to do that a little
bit here before I get into some of the details of the first few
verses, but when we look at this Psalm in overview, what we see
here, and I want to read through it, we see the Lord Jesus Christ
pleading to his God as his God and his Lord, as a man, and pleading
that God would deliver him from his enemies. And in this, in
this account of Christ making supplication under the weight
of our sin, under the cruelty and injustice of ungodly men
who came against Him and by God's will were allowed to do what
they wanted, When we see this, what we see is that in this we're
seeing the apex, we're seeing the consummation of the sufferings
of Christ in His battle against all of the forces that oppose
Him and His people. And because they oppose Him,
they oppose God. They oppose God in His rule. They oppose God in His will. They oppose God in His purpose
to glorify Himself. And the way that God has done
that, His will, His purpose for these things is seen in that
He will have His people saved from their enemies and He will
do it by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God is glorified in Christ. Christ is the one who endured
these things. Christ is the one as a man who
prayed under the weight of not only our sins but the sufferings
for them. And in this we see the will of
God, and we see God's will is that He will bring our enemies
to justice. And He did so because of His
own just rule, but also because of the pleadings of the Lord
Jesus Christ in this psalm. The Lord Jesus Christ here prays
in supplication as our surety. He prays as our advocate. He
prays as our intercessor. But here in this psalm we see
him praying as the one who stands in our place under our sins and
the wrath of God from the hands of sinful men. And that's something
that should move us to the very core of our being, that because
our sins came upon Him, He suffered for them what God thinks of our
sins. And that should cause us to hate,
to loathe ourselves and our sins, but to love our Savior, as Hawker
here has said. So we see this great conflict.
We see the conflict of the Lord Jesus Christ in this battle.
And in this battle, he appeals to his God. He doesn't take up
defense for himself. He doesn't strike back with his
own strength or with his words. He could have, but he didn't.
He committed himself to the Lord, his God, to him who judges righteously. Now, all of this is to teach
us It's to teach us not only the love of our Savior, but it
teaches us here a couple of points. I want to make these two points
before we move on. First, that we are to follow
His steps. He's an example for us. Not only
is He our surety, but we are to follow Him as our master.
And we see that in these things here. And let's see, the other
point escapes me right now, so we'll just pass on to that. I'll
probably think of it in a moment. But this is the one that stands
out here, is that Christ in not only standing in our place, but
the way that he stood in our place, the way he depended upon
God under suffering. It teaches us how we are to have
the attitude we are to have and the submission that we are to
have to God in every trial. that when we find ourselves under
the unjust accusations, or the mocking, or the persecution,
or the hatred of ungodly men, What are we to do? Well, the
Lord Jesus Christ here endured that for us, and it was his prayers
to God that delivered us from this awful persecution. He endured
it, and he came through it, but it was his death that was the
climax of that gift of himself. But the other thing we see here,
and this is what I wanted to bring your attention to, that
when you read this Psalm, Understand something concrete and expressive
of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself. He gave himself and he gave himself
in his life. He gave himself in death. He
shed his blood. That's what this means. If you
read this psalm, you'll hear here his agony. You'll hear the
agony of Christ. under the unjust cruelty that
came upon him and all of the false accusations and the mocking
that came upon him. In this psalm you hear him say
that they hated me without cause, and this is true of all ungodly
men. We hate God without a cause. The cause is not found in Him,
it's found in us. But the Lord Jesus Christ here
in this psalm, what we see here is a pictorial description of
Christ giving Himself for our sins. If you know what it was
for Him to suffer, If you want to know what it was for him to
suffer, to shed his blood, this is expressive of that, what he
felt. And this is not the only place,
of course. You can read about this throughout scripture. For
example, in Lamentations. Did anyone suffer as he suffered? No. Or in Isaiah 53, or in Psalm
69. There's all kinds of places in
Psalm 89. And you can look at these things
in Psalm 88. Throughout Scripture, you see
the sufferings of Christ. And so you hear that in such
expressive words and agony here. You can see a pictorial description
of what it means for Christ to give himself for our sins. Give his life. shed his blood,
offering himself to God in sacrifice. And we can only wonder, can't
really understand, but we can only wonder what it was he felt
in his soul when he felt forsaken by God. Here he is suffering
under the hand of man, and how much more agony did he suffer
when he felt in his soul that being forsaken by God. He cried
out, my God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? So let's read
this together and we'll make some observations at the first
part of this psalm after we read it. He says in verse one, plead
my cause, O Lord, with them that strive against me, fight against
them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler
and stand up for my help. Draw out also the spear and stop
the way against them that persecute me. Say unto my soul, I am thy
salvation. Now I can't help but stop here
and comment on this last phrase. I am thy salvation. Around God's
people is salvation. Salvation for walls. Salvation
for a shield. Salvation for a buckler. Salvation even for a spear against
the enemies of God. And what is that salvation? The
Lord is that salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the shield, is the buckler, is the spear against our enemies. We can defend ourselves. Here,
Christ, in submission to the will of God as man, With all
of the needs of man, depending on God to deliver him, cries
out of the depths of his need, Lord, plead my cause. Strive with them that strive
with me. Fight against them that fight
against me. Pull out also the shield and the buckler and the
spear against them and stop the way. Plead my cause. Now, as
I said a moment ago, when we read later in 1 Peter chapter
2, we see that we are to follow His steps in this. He is not
only our salvation, our surety, but He is our example. And didn't
Jesus tell his disciples that in John chapter 15? He said,
is the disciple above his Lord? Is the servant above his master? If they called the master of
the house Beelzebub, how much more you? If they hated me, they'll
hate you. And so he goes on to lump us
with himself in the experience of these sufferings at the hand
of unjust cruel men. As we ourselves look to Christ,
as we depend upon him, as we plead with him to deliver us,
So we are experiencing just a glimmer of the same thing, but here the
reality of it, the fullness of it is poured out on him. But
as he called upon and trusted his God entirely and didn't rely
on himself, nor did he take up his own defense or his offense
either, but depended upon God, to, from his throne, execute
judgment for him against his enemies. So we do the same, don't
we? We also, like him, following his footsteps, make the same
prayers because he prayed as our master. And so we can take
up these words also, plead my cause, O Lord. But when we think
of my cause, As Christ did, it was His cause, but it had become
His cause because it was the cause of His Father. He did His
Father's will and work. He spoke His Father's word. And
so His cause was the one and same cause as His Father, and
what cause was that? Was it not that cause for which
he was given the name Jesus? He shall save his people from
their sins. Jesus, Jehovah, is salvation. Jehovah, my salvation. Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ,
my shield, my buckler, my spear against my enemies. My cause,
pleader, my case is taken up by him. That's why he's pleading
here. Because that cause, to save his people from their sins,
was the cause God gave him to do and finish. And so he's pleading
this cause, God's cause, and his cause, as the one who would
carry it out. He's pleading as the Lord's Christ. And it was Christ that God the
Father appointed to this task. God's Christ was chosen by God
in order to save His people from their sins. So when we think
of the name Christ, we're talking about God's will. We're talking
about God's eternal purpose. His purpose to glorify His Son
in the salvation of His people. And so as the Christ of God,
he was anointed, he was appointed and then anointed to save them
from their sins. And so he's pleading that cause,
the cause of Christ. And that's our cause, isn't it?
We're the ones he came to save. And he's the one who is the savior.
There's a perfect match between us and all of our need and Him
and all of His supply. But He met that need in His great
grace and supply by taking our place and pleading for us. But
we take up the prayer now. We borrow His words. We assume
the role of those who have found the Savior, Christ. And in Him,
all of our salvation resides and is met. And we take this
up when we ask the Lord Jesus Christ to stand for us and to
plead for us against all of our enemies. And who are our enemies? Who are these enemies here spoken
of? Well, in history, it was Judas. It was the high priest, Annas
and Caiaphas. It was the Sanhedrin who gathered
together and trumped up all the false accusations against Christ. It was those who stepped forward
and brought false accusations. There was no truth to them. It
was Herod, it was Pilate, it was the soldiers, it was the
Gentiles and the Jews who cried out for his death. It was everyone
who came against the Lord Jesus Christ in history. But why? Why did these come against him?
Was it not for our sins? The wages of sin is death. Christ died, therefore he bore
the wage of sin. The wage of sin, but not his
own sins. Christ died for our sins. He bore our wage. He paid our
debt. He endured our curse and our
suffering. He died the death we deserved
at the hand of God. And so what we see here is that
in pleading here, we find our captain, our surety himself pleading
with our load laid upon him and God hearing him. And so we also
ask him now who undertook for us, who overcame our enemies
and was delivered from our sins to deliver us also from our sins. Our sins, that's our enemies,
isn't it? Our enemies are everything and anything that oppose God's
rule, God's will, and God's glory. And what is that? That's to oppose
God's Christ. It's to oppose His work, His
salvation, and His people, and His glory in saving them from
their sins. And so what is it that comes
against us most at the top of the list of those enemies? Isn't
it Satan? Satan is the one who tempted
Eve in order to get at Adam and destroy both the man and the
woman and subject them to his rule and bring God's judgment
upon them with the curse under death. And that was just a picture
of Satan's ultimate aim, which is to bring Christ's bride under
temptation and sin to separate her from Christ, make her his
loyal servant and his bondwoman, and then therefore to destroy
Christ in his glory and even put Christ to death. But he was
not successful, because all he did in that vain attempt was
to set the trap and snare for himself. He did bruise the heel
of our Savior, but the Lord Jesus Christ crushed his head at the
cross. In his death, he put all of Satan's
power and work to death. Remember 1 John 3 in verse 8,
for this cause the Son of God was manifested to destroy the
works of the devil. And we could go through and catalog
that and we will touch on some of those. But the point here
at the top of the list of our enemies is Satan. Satan who tempted
us into the fall of sin in order to bring us under death, which
is the wages of our sin, at the hand of God. And it would seem
that he prevailed, but he did not prevail. Christ, our victor,
overcame him. He took the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us and nailed it to his cross, taking them
out of the way, and then he made a show of public humiliation
and spoiled principalities and powers, as it says in Colossians
2, verse 14 through 15. The Lord Jesus Christ, he took
the the enemy at the top of our list, and he humiliated him in
his wicked design, and he brought upon him the same treatment that
he thought to bring upon Christ and his people, which was death,
eternal death, just like Haman thought to destroy Mordecai in
the book of Esther, and yet he was hanged in the very gallows
that he designed for Mordecai's death. And so Haman and his sons,
I think 70 if I remember correctly, were all hung on those gallows.
And they were hung there at the request of Queen Esther, who
appealed to the king, Ahasuerus, on behalf of the Jews, who were
obviously the people of Mordecai, who represented Christ. And so on the last day, Satan
will be put under our feet. Christ will parade Satan and
his kingdom in utter defeat and humiliation before all of the
universe and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess,
even those that oppose Christ, that God's purpose of grace was
a just purpose, a righteous work, a holy cause, and He did save
His people without any compromise to His great glory and His grace. What a victory that is. But what
is the other enemy, the great enemy, second on that list? Well,
it's our sin. And that's the most unimaginable
mercy and grace of God, that He would see that our very sins
against Him which we served, as it were, like we became servants
of Satan by our own fall, so we became servants of sin. And
the ones that we were servants to, God in his mercy delivered
us from. And how did he do that? Well,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. at the
highest cost. God paid it all. He provided
every answer to his own justice in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord Jesus brought to God all that God required. Christ offered
himself. He answered every charge and
every sin with the sacrifice of himself. He bore our sins
in his own body on the tree. And so we see this. It's wonderful. And so what do we do now? We
are sinners and we feel the trouble of our sin. We feel the weakness
of ourselves against our own sinful nature. and under the
prospect of facing God in judgment with all of our sins, what do
we do? We can only do what the Lord Jesus Christ did here when
he was under our sins and suffering at the hand of his enemies. We
plead to Christ. He pleaded to his God, his Lord
and his God, and he was delivered. We plead to our Lord and our
Savior, Jesus Christ. Thomas said when he looked upon
the nail prints in his hand and in his feet, he said, my Lord
and my God, we plead to you. call Christ, our Lord and our
God, and we plead to him. We follow his footsteps. We take
up his instruction to us as our master, and we take up his words,
we borrow them, and we go to him, advocate for me. Lord, let
that answer you gave to your God and Father, in substitution
as the surety for your people, let that be my answer. Answer
for me. Answer every charge. And that's
what we find here in this psalm. What a wonderful thing it is.
I'm going to take you to a couple of verses, and then when we're
done with that, maybe we'll read the rest of the psalm here. Look
at Micah, chapter 7. In Micah, chapter 7, we find
the prophet Micah crying out in the face of a similar situation
here. Micah, chapter 7. Micah is after
Jonah. It's kind of hard to find. I
just have to sort of flip through it and find it there in the Old
Testament. Micah chapter 7. Listen to what
Micah says in verse 7. Micah 7 verse 7. He says, In verse 7, therefore I will
look unto the Lord. Now this is what Christ did. He ran the race. He looked to
the reward set before Him, which was to do the will of God, to
glorify His Father, to save His people and to have them as His
own. Here, every believer looks to
the Lord. We follow Him. We look to Jesus. and who is the author and finish
of our faith. So Micah says this, I will look
unto the Lord. I will wait for the God of my
salvation. My God will hear me. Notice the confidence here in
the prophet. He's teaching us to come boldly,
isn't he? Come boldly as those who wait
on the Lord will not be disappointed. They will not be put to shame.
It says in Isaiah 40, they'll mount up with wings of eagles. So here he says, I will wait
for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Verse 8,
Micah 7, verse 8. Rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy. When I fall, I shall rise. When I sit in darkness, The Lord
shall be a light to me. How often do you sit in darkness?
Why is it that it seems like I can't fix this relationship? Why is it that I have this affliction
of my body and I can't seem to be delivered from it? Why is
it that I have this sin that I can't seem to get the mastery
over? It seems like it's always with
me. Who's going to deliver me from this wretched man that I
am? It doesn't matter. We sit in
darkness in that way, don't we? We feel the darkness and we cry
out. He says, when I sit in darkness, at that very time when it's dark,
it's the middle of the dark night of my soul, the Lord shall be
a light to me. You see here, that God brings
trouble. Trouble comes upon us for this
twofold purpose, to find, to discover, to become intimately
acquainted with our own weaknesses. our sin, our need, our poverty
of spirit. And the second purpose is so
that we will see that the Lord Jesus Christ is our all-sufficient
Savior. He's the light to us. That's
the light of the gospel. And so he says that here. Rejoice
not against me, O mine enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When
I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to me. Verse nine,
I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned
against him. Notice this confession. I'm going
to bear this indignation of the Lord because I've sinned against
him. Notice, until he plead my cause and execute judgment for
me, he will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold
his righteousness. You see that? What a pleasant
thing this is to read here, of one who is himself a sinner,
pleading to God to plead his cause, he said here, until he
plead my cause, my cause to save me from my sins. the cause of
the Lord Jesus Christ who came to do that work. He himself is
my salvation. We plead for him to plead his
cause and save us from our sins. That's the one thing we need,
isn't it? Do we need anything more than that? If we're delivered
from our sins, then we're delivered from death because the sting
of death is sin and there's no wages of death to be paid if
we're delivered from our sins. Satan cannot bring an accusation
Against one who is not a sinner, there's nothing there. And so
we ask the Lord, plead my cause, Lord answer for me in judgment.
Don't we? Lord, answer for me in judgment. That's the attitude of the believer.
I'm not going to rehearse what I've done. I'm not going to point
out those great miracles that somehow I was able to do, or
even the preaching or the prophesying that I did. None of those things
matter. The only thing that matters is,
will Christ be my answer? Will he advocate? Will my judge,
who requires perfect justice to be satisfied and perfect righteousness
to be fulfilled, will he take up that? For me, will he fulfill
that righteousness and answer that justice in himself? Will
he be my advocate? Will he be my surety? Will he
intercede with himself at the right hand of God for me? Will
anything else matter? Nothing else matters if Christ
the Lord is the one who pleads for me. And so we take up in
Psalm 35, just like he did, Lord, plead my cause. I love that account
there in Micah chapter seven. And there's another account which
is kind of both humorous and also very encouraging that occurs
in the book of Judges. And I want you to look at this.
In Judges chapter six, I like this. It's an account of Gideon. You might remember Gideon. His
name was Zerubbabel, or Jerubbabel. I'm sorry, not Zerubbabel, but
Jerubbabel. He says in Judges chapter 6, the situation was
that God had told Gideon that by him he would deliver Israel
from the Midianites. And Gideon asked God for a sign
and God caused the dew to be on the fleece. and it was dry on the rest of
the ground, and Gideon asked him, OK, can you reverse that?
Can you make the ground wet and the fleece dry? He did that.
And then Gideon got up one night. He was going to fulfill the work
that God gave him to do. and to break down the altar of
Baal. He was afraid to do it by day,
but he gathered together he and his men, and they tore down the
altar of Baal at night. And then the Baal worshippers
wanted to kill Gideon. That's the setting here from
Judges chapter 6. And so, What you find here is that Gideon's
father, whose name was Joash, stood up for his son. And notice
here in Judges chapter 6 verse 28, When the men of the city
arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down,
and the grove was cut down. The grove was cut down that was
by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that
was built. So Gideon not only tore down
the altar of Baal, but he built another altar to the Lord and
offered on it. In Judges 6, 29 it says, And
they said one to another, Who has done this thing? And when
they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon, the son of Joash,
has done this thing. Then the men of the city said
to Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die, because he has
cast down the altar of Baal. and because he has cut down the
grove that was by it." Now, notice this answer of Gideon's father,
so wise and such a mocking of the worshipers
of Baal. Joash said to them, said to all
that stood against him, notice, will you plead for Baal? Will you plead for Baal? Now
think about this. Notice what else he says. Will
you save him? He that will plead for him, let him be put to death
while it is yet morning. If he be a god, let him plead
for himself because one has cast down his altar. Now this characterizes
all of false religion, what Joash said here in Judges chapter 6
verse 31. All of false religion needs sinful,
idolatrous worshippers of their gods to plead for their gods. They have to do something in
order to uphold the, what's it called? the fame of their God, don't
they? They have to do something. If
they don't plead for their God, their God will be nothing. He'll
be mocked and humiliated. But the contrast to that is that
every believer in the true and living God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
need God to plead for them. Our God is the Savior, and that's
why throughout Scripture you see this, who is likened to thee,
O Lord, among gods who saves. who saves sinners, who justifies
the ungodly. There's no God like Him. Our
God pleads for Himself. If God needs man to defend Him,
then that God is an idol. But if God pleads for His people,
that is the true and living God. And so, back again to Psalm 35. We see here the instruction of
the Lord Jesus Christ in His own experience to us that we
need to come to the Lord and ask Him to plead our cause, like
in Micah 7, like here in Judges chapter 6, to be our salvation,
our shield, our buckler, and even our spear against our enemies. Do we have enemies among men? Are there people on earth who
are our enemies? Most certainly there are. Do
we take up even prayer to God that God would destroy them as
David in this Psalm does in prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ who
prayed to God against his enemies that God would destroy them?
When we're gonna read this here, we're gonna see terrible things
that Christ prayed that God would do to his enemies. Do we do that?
Do we say, you know, Just pick any figure, either in present
or past times. Do we pray to God that God would
utterly destroy them and bring them into the very pit of destruction
that they have laid for God's people? Well, look at Matthew
in chapter 5. The answer is given there. Matthew
chapter 5. Because this probably is something
that we ask in our thinking here. He says in Matthew 5 in verse
43, you have heard that it has been said, thou shalt love thy
neighbor and hate thine enemy. I can see why. In Psalm 35 it
seems like he definitely hates his enemy. But Jesus says in
Matthew 5, 44, but I say unto you, love your enemies Bless
them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray
for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." Now,
think about that. That's pretty clear, isn't it?
The answer to the question, do we take up prayer that God would
destroy our enemies and curse them? Not the people. Because
remember how throughout scripture you see examples of this. David
didn't pray that way to God against Saul, did he? David was constantly
pleading for Saul in words to people to spare his life. And
also he honored Saul because he was the Lord's anointed. David
also was lamenting his own son, Absalom, who tried to depose
him from his throne unlawfully and unjustly. He didn't take
up prayers against his son. He lamented the fact that his
son had died because it was a consequence of his own sin with Bathsheba
and against Uriah the Hittite. Nor did Stephen take up a prayer
to God against his enemies when he was being stoned by them,
did he? He says, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Remember? He prayed like the Lord Jesus.
And Paul, his persecutors were the Jews, and yet he said, it's
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel that they might
be saved. I could wish myself a curse from Christ for my brethren,
my kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites. and
all that followed that in Romans chapter 9. And then in Romans
chapter 10 again, he says, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not.
That he desires the salvation. Well, let me read it to you so
I don't get the words wrong. I might overstep the claim here. But in Romans chapter 10 and
verse 1, he says it this way. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. So these
men, They prayed for their enemies, didn't they? And that's what
we see in Psalm 35 actually. that the Lord Jesus Christ didn't
start out praying against these people as a man. No, he actually
prayed. He says in verse, let's see,
in verse 13, as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was
sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting
and my prayer returned into my own bosom. I behaved myself as
though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily
as one that mourns for his mother. So no, he didn't start that way. But because he is the judge,
you see, because the Father had committed all judgment into his
hand, and because he is as the judge, he judges righteously,
therefore, we see the Lord Jesus Christ here praying this way.
Just like in Romans chapter 11, back in Romans again, I'll read
this one place here. In Romans chapter 11, he says,
in quoting this from the Old Testament, he says, in Romans chapter 11, he says,
What then Israel has not, verse seven, what then Israel has not
obtained that which he seeks for but the election have obtained
it and the rest were blinded according as it is written, God
has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should
not see, ears that they should not hear unto this day. And David
saith, let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling
block and a recompense to them and let their eyes be darkened
that they may not see and bow down their back always. Now that's
an intercession to God against them. And we see, therefore,
that the Lord Jesus Christ alone can pray this way against these
people because he knows the hearts of all men. He knows his people. And here we see the great distinction,
even in this Psalm, that there's a distinction between those Christ
prays for and those Christ prays against. In John 17, he says,
I pray not for the world, but for them that thou hast given
me out of the world. They are thine, and all thine
are mine, and I am glorified in them." So we see here the
distinguishing grace of God expressed in not only Christ's prayer for
his people, but also in his prayer against those who were his enemies,
his avowed enemies. And so when Jesus prayed on the
cross, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. He
wasn't offering that prayer for all men, but just for his elect. And so we see that throughout
here. All right, well, we're gonna close now with this part. We're just gonna read through
this Psalm here. Let's read from verse four. Again, these are
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ to his father as our surety,
as our captain, as our victor, and as the one who is going to
bring judgment against his enemies. He says, let them be confounded
and put to shame that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back
and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. Now realize,
he felt this shame that they brought upon him. He
felt that they were trying to hurt his soul. They tried to
spoil his soul. They tried to put him to death.
He felt that. That's why he cries out. He did
this out of love. He did this as our representative,
the one who stood in our place, giving an answer for us with
the offering of himself. And this offering is expressed
in all the sorrows here. Let them be as chaff before the
wind, and let the angel of the Lord chase them." That's what
confounded means. It means put to confusion. put to complete frustration in
their purpose, put to shame, openly humiliated and confused
in their attempt so that they could not accomplish what they
set out to do, which was to destroy him. Verse 5, let them be as
chaff before the wind and let the angel of the Lord chase them.
Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord
persecute them. Let God's angels persecute them. For without cause they hid for
me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged
for my soul. Let destruction come upon him
at unawares. When they're least expecting
it, bring them into destruction. Remember Haman? He goes to the
banquet of wine that Esther had asked the king to prepare for
Haman. And in that very time, at the peak of his joy, bam,
life was taken out from under his feet. He was sent to the
gallows by the king. He says in verse nine, and my
soul shall be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in his salvation. See, Christ is expressing his
joy in God when he brings judgment upon his enemies. That's the
salvation, when Christ defeats our and his enemies, Satan, sin,
and this wicked world, death. He goes on, false witnesses did
rise up, they laid to my charge, Oh wait, I didn't read verse
10. All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which
delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him? Yea, the
poor and the needy from him that spoileth him. False witnesses
did rise up. They laid to my charge things
I knew not. I had never heard those things,
but they laid it to my charge. They rewarded me evil for good,
to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were
sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting,
and my prayer returned into my own bosom. I behaved myself as
though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily
as one that mourneth for his mother. But in my adversity,
they rejoiced, and they gathered themselves together, yea, the
abjects, Think of the soldiers, and the Gentiles, and the Jews,
the crowd, and the Sanhedrin, and all those people gathered
together themselves against me, and I knew it not. They did tear
me and ceased not, like dogs. With hypocritical mockers in
feast, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. Lord, how long wilt thou look
on? It's as if to all appearance God was simply looking and nothing
was happening. Rescue my soul from their destructions,
my darling from the lions. I will give thee thanks in the
great congregation. Notice the confidence Christ
has in his God and Father to deliver him. Notice that he prayed
in hope, expecting him to deliver him. Notice that this is an instruction
for us to come to the throne of grace, to the one who knows
our infirmities, who was touched with them, that we might find
grace to help in time of need. Our forerunner I will give thee
thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much
people. Let not them that are mine enemies
wrongfully rejoice over me, neither let them wink with the eye that
hate me without a cause." I don't know exactly what the wink with
the eye means. Maybe they're winking to one another. You see?
You see? We got him. We finally overcame
Him. This was the moment of their
triumph. This was when they thought, look at Him on the cross, helpless,
bleeding, suffering, and dying. We have Him. We've destroyed
Him. We have fulfilled our lust upon
Him. For they speak not peace, but
they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in
the land. Speaking about all of God's people.
Yea, they open their mouth wide. These are the loud mouth mockers. People who don't seem to be able
to be shut up because they had so much venomous hatred for Christ. Barking out their mocking, hateful
spite while he was under the greatest agony. Even the agony of God afflicting
him, and they're rejoicing as if they had their way. They didn't
understand, did they? This was but the bruising of
his heel. He's crushing Satan and his kingdom. This is their judge. And they
opened their mouth wide against me. They said, aha, aha, our
eye has seen it. We've seen the results of what
we wanted to happen. This thou has seen, O Lord, the
Lord Jesus prays against them. Keep not silence, O Lord, be
not far from me. Stir up thyself and awake to
my judgment, even to my cause, my God and my Lord. Notice how
he trusts God as his God. Judge me, O Lord my God, according
to thy righteousness, and let not them rejoice over me. Let
them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it. Let
them not say, We have swallowed him up. Let them be ashamed and
brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt. Let
them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves
against me. Let them shout for joy and be
glad that rejoice that favor my righteous cause. Yea, let
them say continually, let the Lord be magnified, which has
pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. God takes pleasure
in Christ's accomplishments. And so do all of his people.
And the Lord Jesus says, let them shout for joy. And my tongue,
this is the result of what God's answer to him, my tongue shall
speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long. And so his people join him in
that, don't they? Let's pray. Father, what a victory
our Savior has brought to us, over your enemies, in his submission
of obedience unto death, in offering himself for our sins. He did
not keep back his back from the smiters. He gave his face to
shame and spitting and to the plucking off of hair. And he
did all this because of the joy set before Him, to do His Father's
will, to save His people, to have them with Him, to purify
them, to make them holy to God, to save them from death, from
sin, and to defeat their enemies. What a Savior, what a great advocate
we have. Help us to trust Him and to rest
our case with Him, to plead with Him, to plead our cause, though
we have sinned, and to trust in Him. and glorify Him for His
great work. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.