We're gonna get started. Tonight
we're in Psalm chapter 17. Psalm 17 is a prayer of the Lord
Jesus Christ penned by David under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit. Now, and I can show you a few of the verses. When
you read through this, you'll see that. For example, if you
look at verse three, it says, thou hast proved mine heart.
that has visited me in the night, that has tried me and shall find
nothing, and I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress."
We might determine, we might make a resolution in ourselves
not to transgress, but we know from scripture that there is
none among all the children of Adam who are without sin." And
this is true in many places. Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and verse
20 says, there's no man on earth who does not sin. So you can
read that and that's just one of many scriptures that teaches
that there's no not one person in all the earth who is not a
sinner. So it wouldn't be honest if David
were to pray that God would try him and find nothing or that
he would not transgress with his mouth because all of us at
one point in our life or another In fact, on a daily basis, we
all commit sin. And that's why it says in 1 John
1 that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. And then if we say we have no
sin or that we have not sinned, then we make God a liar. So we
know that only the Lord Jesus Christ can say he is without
sin and that God would search him and find nothing. And so
that verse in itself, verse 3 of Psalm 17, shows that this chapter
must concern the Lord Jesus Christ. And we will see a lot more of
that as we go through it. Since it does concern the Lord
Jesus Christ, it's consistent with 1 Peter 1, where Peter said
that in the Old Testament, the prophets of old spoke by the
Spirit of God. concerning the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow. So this psalm, as we'll
see in a moment, concerns, it speaks about the sufferings of
Christ and his glory that would follow. And the last verse of
the psalm is talking about that glory. He said, as for me, I
will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness. That awaking there has to do
with his resurrection. So that's the glory that would
follow. And then, moreover, in this psalm, I want you to see
that because this psalm is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and
His sufferings, and we'll see here, if you look at this psalm
and the first eight verses, you'll see here that in His prayer,
the Lord Jesus Christ is pleading with God, His Father, and his
God as man, he's pleading with him to consider his own righteousness
and his own righteous cause. And then in the verses that follow,
verse 8, in verses 9 through 14, then he pleads against his
enemies who are the wicked. And so if you look at that in
this psalm, what you see is that in his prayer, the Lord Jesus
Christ is doing what God's purpose is throughout time. And what
is that purpose of God? Well, it is to save his people
from their sins and exalt his son as God and man and to glorify
him So that's the first part of the
purpose, to glorify his son in the salvation of his people,
who in themselves are sinful. and have no strength against
their sin and need a savior. And the second part of God's
purpose in all of time is that he would defeat and destroy and
expose and shame and put to silence all of his enemies. And so this
is encapsulated in Genesis chapter 3 in verse 15 when God promised
at the judgment that he made of the sin that Adam and Eve
committed. He promised in that the word
he said to Adam is that the seed of the woman would bruise the
head of the serpent. So there we have it. Because
the Lord Jesus Christ would suffer in his physical body and in his
soul, that would be the bruising of his heel but it would also
be the total defeat of Satan and his kingdom. And there we
have the two purposes of God throughout time, to exalt his
son and his defeat of our enemies for our eternal salvation. So
if we get that, then we will see here in this psalm that it's
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ in his saving power, pleading
his own righteousness, in obedience to his father, and this would
be also a prayer against his enemies. So I want to remind
you of a few of these verses in the New Testament. that the
Lord Jesus Christ could say these things. He says in John 11, verse
41, he says, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. So God, His Father, heard His
Son. And then in verse 42, John 11,
42, he said, And I knew that Thou hearest me always. But because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent
me." So Jesus Christ is always heard, and the Father always
hears Him. And what He prays, He prays for
our own benefit that we might believe that God the Father sent
Him for our salvation. And then, that's in John 11,
41 and 42, and in John 8, in verse 29, he also told his enemies,
he said, he that sent me is with me. The father has not left me
alone, for I do always those things that please him. So here,
in this second verse from John, we see that God the father was
always with his son, and the reason why is that Jesus always
did those things that pleased him. And then, not only that,
but in Matthew 17, if you remember at the transfiguration of the
Lord Jesus Christ, when Peter, James, and John were there beholding
him as he was transfigured before them. And on that mountain, Elijah
and Moses appeared with him, and they spoke of his decease.
At the end of that, when Peter had made that rash suggestion
that they build three tabernacles, one for him, one for Moses, and
one for Elijah. And then God the Father spoke
from heaven and he says, this is my beloved son, hear ye him. Now that's very significant with
respect to Psalm 17. Hear ye Him. God the Father is
telling His people we must hear Christ. He's the Son of God. He's the Savior. He's the one
anointed of God as the one through whom and by whom God has spoken
to us in these last days. But in this Psalm, The Spirit
of God leading David in this psalm is teaching us that we
need to hear the Lord Jesus Christ, but also our prayer and Christ's
prayer is that God would hear him. Excuse me while I admit this
person. Okay, now I mentioned that fact
that God the Father has told us to hear Him because it corresponds
in this psalm with the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
as believers, while we read this psalm and we see that it's speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ who is always heard, who always pleases
His Father, and who God the Father has told us to hear Him. Therefore,
what is that? What is the one thing we should
bring in our prayers to God, but that God would hear Him for
us? You see, God the Father is telling
us to hear Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ is telling us that
He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to
the Father but by Him. Therefore, in our coming, we
pray that God would hear the Lord Jesus Christ and receive
us for His sake. Now, when we read this Psalm,
then, what we see here is that the Lord Jesus, in His prayer,
is pleading with God to hear His righteousness, to hear His
cause. And then he's pleading against
his enemies that God might destroy and defeat them. And so he's
pleading that God would justify him, vindicate him, and that
he would also vindicate and justify him with his people against their
enemies. Now, I hope that that overview,
that introduction of the psalm helps us as we read through it
together. Let's read from verse one. Notice it opens with his
prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear the right, O Lord. Attend unto my cry. Give ear unto my prayer that
goeth not out of fainted lips. Fainted lips means hypocritical
lips, deceitful lips. It's a pretending. He doesn't
pray in pretense. His prayer is true, it's from
the heart, and it's according to truth, it's according to the
will of God. But notice what he's asking God
to do is to hear the right, hear the right. Now this is a easily
memorized phrase here in this text of scripture, that God would
hear the right. And I love this phrase because
God always hears the right. He always sees everything in
the earth. God is the judge of all. There's
no matter in heaven and earth that doesn't go unnoticed by
Him. He will always see and always
hear all things. But in this case, the Lord Jesus
Christ is asking His Father, as a man, He's asking Him as
His God and His Father, to hear His cause, to hear His works,
to hear His prayer, and that God would vindicate Him in judgment. Hear the right, O Lord. Do what's
right. According to what's just, according
to the truth, in my case. And so he's saying, here, the
right. And we know that in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 1, it says
that Jesus is called Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the righteous
one. And that's not the first place
and only place in scripture it says that. He's called Jesus
Christ the righteous. In Psalm 49, for example, it
calls Jesus his righteous servant. So over and over in scripture,
Jesus is called the righteous one. Remember in Matthew 19 and
verse 17, Jesus told the rich young ruler, why do you call
me good? There's none good but God. There's none good but one,
and that is God. And so the one who is good stood
before this man in human nature. And in his human nature, in his
humanity, he was also good. He was Jesus Christ, the righteous. So when it says, hear the right,
O Lord, he's saying hear the righteous one and hear his case,
hear his cause, hear his works, hear his prayers, hear his desire
and his delight and his will, hear everything about him. In
other words, hear his righteousness, hear the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he's saying.
Set that on the scale of justice. And on the other side set those
who come against me. Set my case on your scale of
justice and hear the right, O Lord. And attended to my cry. Now we
see here that the Lord Jesus Christ is praying as a man. He
doesn't presume on God's justice. He doesn't just sit back and
say, well, God will do what's right and I'll let him do what
he wants to do. No, he brings his dependence,
he brings his prayer in dependence upon God. and he asked him to
do, really, what God will do, hear the right. He will hear
the right. In other words, what we learn from this phrase is
that our life and our salvation depend on God being God. And
we are utterly dependent on God being true and faithful to himself,
to his own right, to what he sees as right. And so the Lord
Jesus Christ, the one who stood for us, the one who pleased the
Father in everything, the one God the Father has told us to
hear him, We want God to hear him. We want to come to God on
the same basis that God has said we are saved, which is to hear
the Lord Jesus Christ, to hear his prayer, and his life, and
his will, and his work, and his delight, and his desire. Everything
about him, we want God to hear him in justice and in righteousness. And so he says in the rest of
the verse, he says, give ear unto my prayer that goeth not
out of deceitful lips or fainted lips, not out of hypocritical
lips. Everything the Lord Jesus Christ
said, not only in prayer, but in his word was absolutely perfect. There was no fault in him. He
himself said, I am the way, the truth and the life. He is the
word of God and God's word is tried There's no hint or shadow
of wrong in what God says. And the Lord Jesus Christ spoke
the word of God because he is the word and the wisdom of God. And so we see here that he could
not lie. because he is truth, he is the
word of God, and he's the wisdom of God. So all of his enemies
who came against him, now they're going to have to stand before
God, and God is going to put on one side of the scale everything
the Lord Jesus Christ said, everything that he purposed to do and did
in obedience to his father, and they're going to stand on the
other side of the scale, and God's going to hear the right.
And then in verse 2, notice Psalm 17 verse 2, he says, let my sentence
come forth from thy presence, let thine eyes behold the things
that are equal. So Christ here is praying that
God would make a judgment, let the sentence come forth from
your presence. He wants God to judge. He wants
him to hold him to the plumb line of his own justice according
to his law. And so he's asking this of God.
He wants to be vindicated. He wants to be openly shown to
be right in his cause. Not because he was arrogant,
Far from it. In fact, he was very humble and
lowly. But his enemies envied him and
hated him because in his humility all he would say and do was the
will of his father. And because that will and that
word of God exposed them and sentenced them, they were opposed
to him. They did not like it that the
people loved him and wanted to hear him because that meant that
those people would not give them the honor that they coveted from
Christ. And so the Lord Jesus is asking
here for an open justification of himself in the eyes of God
and before all of his accusers and the onlooking universe. Remember,
the first half of the psalm Christ pleading his own righteousness
and cause before God in strict justice, asking God to vindicate
him, and then against his enemies, to vindicate him against his
enemies, to put them to silence and defeat them. So here we see
that the Lord Jesus Christ takes His case, His own life, His own
obedience, His prayers and all that He is in relation to His
Father for His people as Christ. He takes His case into the throne
room, into the courtroom of heaven to the Supreme Court and there
he's going to win the case and when he wins the case there then
the courtroom of heaven is going to pass down the decision in
his favor and therefore all of his enemies will be subdued.
Remember what it says in Zechariah chapter 3, there was a case there
where Joshua, the high priest, stood before the Lord And the
Lord, it says here that in Zechariah chapter 3 and verse 1, he showed
me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord,
and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. So the scene
is in heaven and Joshua the high priest is standing before the
angel of the Lord, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan is resisting
and it says, and the Lord said to Satan, notice this, the Lord
said to Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Even the Lord
that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked
out of the fire? Notice how parallel this is to
what the Lord Jesus says in Psalm 17. He asks the Lord to consider
him and to judge in the court of heaven for him, but against
his enemies. So he's saying, let the Lord
rebuke thee. And so that's exactly what's
going to happen in Psalm 17, is that the Lord is going to
hear the cry. He's going to hear the prayer
of his anointed for his people. Now remember that whatever the
Lord Jesus Christ did in his life, he didn't do it for himself
alone, but for his people with him. Remember in Hebrews chapter
2, it says that he was made lower for a little while. He was made
lower than the angels that he might taste death for every son.
And that's in Hebrews chapter 2, 9. And then in verse 10 of
Hebrews chapter 2, it says, For it pleased Him for whom are all
things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory,
to make the captain of their salvation. There's the word,
captain, meaning the one who would win their deliverance,
he would overthrow their enemies, he would bring them out of the
condemnation of sin, and judgment, and hell, and death, and Satan,
and destroy and defeat all of their enemies by himself being
the captain of their salvation. And it pleased God, the Father,
that he would do this and make him perfect in this through sufferings. And so therefore, since they,
the children, God's children were partakers of flesh and blood.
He also took part of the same in order that he might be a merciful
and faithful high priest and go into the holiest of all and
offer his blood and obtain the eternal redemption and sit on
the throne of grace and there intercede for them and make his
petition to God with his own blood on their behalf against
their enemies and save them from their very sins, casting their
sins into the depths of the sea. That's the picture painted in
the New Testament and in the Old of Christ, our victor, our
savior. So here he's praying that in
Psalm 17 verse 2, let my sentence come forth from thy presence,
let thine eyes behold the things that are equal. Now, it's true
that in Scripture, the Lord Jesus Christ was justified. In other
words, he was vindicated, he was declared by God to be right
in all that he said and all that he did. In 1 Timothy 3, verse
16, it says, without controversy, Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles,
believed on in the world, received up into glory. And that's the
mystery of godliness. And it is a great mystery how
that God was manifest in the flesh and justified in the spirit. And that's what he's praying
here in Psalm 17, that God, his Father, would justify him. Romans 4 verse 25 says, God the
Father delivered him up for our offenses and he was raised again
for our justification. So there you have it. Christ
in his resurrection was vindicated by his father over all of his
enemies on behalf of all of his people. And their justification
before God was in his own justification because he died, he suffered,
and died for them. Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He was bruised for our iniquities. He was wounded for our transgressions.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. He died the just
for the unjust to bring us to God. He not only suffered for
us, He lived for us, He suffered for us, He died for us, He prayed
for us. Everything He did, He did as
our surety. He stood before God and he gave
himself in our place. He answered God's justice with
himself in order to deliver us and redeem us out of the hand
of death, out of our sins and out of hell and everything else
by giving himself the ransom for his people. And so he says
here in Psalm 17 verse 2, let my sentence come forth from thy
presence. Let thine eyes behold the things
that are equal. All right? Look at verse three
now. He says, Thou hast proved mine heart. This is the Lord
now, the Lord Jesus. Thou hast proved mine heart.
Thou hast visited me in the night. Thou hast tried me and shalt
find nothing. I am purposed that my mouth shall
not transgress. This is quite amazing, isn't
it? Who, Job said, if I justify myself, my own mouth would condemn
me. So it's not possible for a man,
a mere man, to ask God in honesty and receive a sentence or a declaration
from God that what he asks here, to prove his own heart, to visit
him that he has visited him in the night and has tried him and
found nothing and that he was purposed that his mouth shall
not transgress. This is amazing. What he's saying
here in this prayer, he's speaking to his Father, to his God and
Father, and he's acknowledging the fact that God has proved
him, has tried him, and it's an open trial. It's an open proving. He not only did this, he didn't
just do this in secret, he did it openly. Remember the wilderness
temptation in Matthew chapter 4? He stood, he was there 40
days and 40 nights in the wilderness without food, without water,
and then Satan came and tempted him. And what did he do in every
temptation? It is written, it is written,
it is written, and man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And there,
when he was tempted, The devil was not able to make him sin. He wasn't able to tempt him.
And so it proves this throughout scripture. In 1 Peter 2, it says,
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. When he was
reviled, he reviled not again. When he was threatened, When
he suffered, he threatened not, but he committed himself to him
that judges righteously. And that's what you see in the
psalm. He's committing his life. He's committing himself, his
cause, his deliverance from his enemies. He's not taking his
own defense into his own hand. He's standing as a man, like
Satan tried to tempt him to do. Prove that you're the son of
God. Turn these stones into bread. And he said, no. It is written,
man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God. So in all these things, the Lord
Jesus Christ committed himself into the hands of his father,
and when he was reviled, when he suffered, when he was reproached,
He appealed to his father. He went into the throne, to the
judgment, to the court of God. And he laid his case out and
he said, Hear the right, O Lord. Consider my case. Consider me. Consider my heart. Consider my
words. Consider what I've done. and
lay that before the eyes of God, lay it out so that no one can
say that this was some kind of a compromise, that there was
a charade here, that it was not real. It was real enough. Now
it says here also in this verse, it says, thou hast proved mine
heart, thou hast visited me in the night. What night? What night
was he proved? Well, you know what it's like
for men, ordinary men like that we are. It says in scripture
that in the night, in the darkness, that's when men do the things
that are in their heart. But when it was night, even when
it was under the sufferings of the trial, that the Lord Jesus
Christ felt in his soul and in his body when he sweat great
drops of blood. It says that he still, even then,
trusted his father. He said, not my will, but thine
be done. He says in Psalm 119, I have
remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night. And so all these
things, the Lord Jesus Christ is testifying to the fact that
in the presence of God here, without compromise, without deceit,
without hypocrisy, he could say, God has tried me, he has visited
me in the night, and he has tried me, and he has found nothing.
Now that's very important and encouraging to us. It agrees
with what God said throughout the New Testament. He is holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than
the heavens. Our Savior was absolutely righteous. That's why God tells
us to hear Him. That's why God Himself could
judge and justify Him. He trusted God as man and He
fulfilled all of God's will in all that He did. And so we see
this. And if you think back now, think
back about the introduction of this psalm. What did we say?
We said that this psalm is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and
God's purpose to exalt Him in the salvation of His people,
firstly, and secondly, to defeat and destroy and shame and subdue
all of His enemies and the enemies of His people. Now, because that's
true, then what does that mean about us? Well, the New Testament
tells us that we are to put our trust in Him, in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Remember what it says in Romans
chapter 3 verse 25? that He is the propitiation for
our sins through faith in His blood. So we trust His blood. And what is that? That's Him
giving Himself for our sins to God in satisfaction to God to
take away His wrath and to justify us by His own blood. We trust
what Christ has done. So here when we read this psalm
now, when we hear how the Lord Jesus Christ was holy and harmless
and undefiled, that God had tried Him and proved Him even in the
night season and found nothing, and that He would justify Him
even with His mouth He did not transgress, what does that say
to us? It says the One who is our Savior is absolutely dependable. God has accepted Him. He laid
down His life out of love, in obedience, and in submission
to His Father, and that is our justification. It's our righteousness. It's our propitiation. It's everything. Remission, and reconciliation,
and redemption, and sanctification. Everything the Lord Jesus Christ
did for us, now we can trust Him fully. And so, this is why
in the New Testament it says, that God has exalted him and
there's only one name under heaven whereby we must be saved. It's
his name. And Jesus told Paul in Acts 26, 18 that he was to
go to the Gentiles and preach to them the gospel and that they
who believed were sanctified by faith which is in him, in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so in Acts 20 and verse 21,
he also says it's repentance toward God and faith towards
our Lord Jesus Christ. So over and over again we see
in the New Testament confirmation that what Christ says here in
this psalm is to encourage us, to give us the assurance that
the one we are to trust is the one God has exalted to save us
from our sins, and he absolutely did what God gave him to do,
and he prays in this psalm, consider me, consider my case, my cause,
and my work, and my words, and my prayers, and all about me,
and put it on the scales of infinite justice, and send forth the sentence
from your throne, and vindicate and justify me. And so we see
this. And if you read in Isaiah 28,
in verse 16, there's this verse there, I want to read this to
you. In Isaiah 28, in verse 16, it says, thus saith the Lord
God, and this is Christ speaking in prophecy in Isaiah 28, 16.
Thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion, for a foundation
stone, and notice the next words, a tried stone. a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation, and he that believeth shall not make haste. So God is saying here that we
can rest, we can trust, we've come to the Savior when we trust
Christ because he is a tried stone. God has proved his heart,
he has visited him in the night under the sufferings that he
laid upon him to make atonement for our sins and he has found
him He has found nothing in him. And this is actually another
verse in Psalm 37. I want to read this to you, too.
In Psalm 37, if you look ahead, in Psalm 37, in verse 6, it says
this. The Lord says, Commit thy way
to the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.
Verse 6, He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light,
and thy judgment as the noonday. So here we see again confirmation
that Christ's own work for His people to save them, God displayed
it in open display. There's no hiding here, there's
no corner exchange or transaction here. God is setting forth His
Son. evidently crucified as the righteousness
of God, and we can trust Him. Whoever sets Him forth there
as the foundation stone of Zion, the church, He's a tried and
precious stone, and sure, and whoever believes on Him will
not be ashamed. not be put to shame, not be disappointed. They won't have anything to be
ashamed about because the Lord Jesus Christ bore the full weight
of his church, of his people. And that's why this verse here
is so precious to us. Under God's judgment, he prays,
hear the right, and he committed himself to his father. And therefore,
when we see all that it says in the New Testament about him,
how he did no sin, he knew no sin, and in him is no sin, we
see that he was the one God is justifying to us so that we might
see and trust him. Now, in verse four, Psalm 17,
verse four, concerning the works of men, He goes on to pray. He says, concerning the works
of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths
of the destroyer. So, what did the verse before
this say? That God has tried him and found
nothing in him. Now concerning the works of men,
and he's speaking about wicked men here, by the word of thy
lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. Who is
the destroyer? Well, the destroyer is the devil.
And all who are his disciples are his children. Those who are
in the kingdom of darkness are the are the children of, well
I say, in the kingdom of darkness. We were once in the kingdom of
darkness and God translated us, but we weren't really the children
of Satan. We were always chosen and predestinated
as the sons of God. But here he's talking about wicked
men, and he says concerning the works of men, the wickedness
of men, the doctrines of men, the errors of men, and all that
goes with their ways, pride and lust and corruption and hatred
against God, concerning that he says, I have kept me from
the paths of the destroyer. Remember what it says in John
chapter 14, when Jesus is about to go to the cross, he's talking
to his disciples, And he says this to them in John 14 in verse
30. He says, Hereafter, I will not talk much
with you, for the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing
in me. In other words, the devil could
find nothing in him. He couldn't discover sin in Christ. He couldn't find any fault with
him. In fact, Jesus says in John 8,
in verse 46, to his enemies now, to his enemies, he says, which
of you convinces me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do
you not believe me?" So notice, this goes right along with verse
3, concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have
kept me from the paths of the destroyer. And he's done that
by taking heed to God's word as a man. So there's no part
of his life that was in the paths of the ungodly. This is just
like Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law
of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. He
shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings
forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither,
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper, but the ungodly are
not so. Okay, so here we have it, the
Lord Jesus Christ is not going in the ways of men. Look at verse
5, Psalm 17 and verse 5. He says, hold up my goings in
thy paths that my footsteps slip not. Now, this is a prayer we
can pray, can't we? We want God to uphold our goings
in his paths that our footsteps don't slip. So here again, what
we see is the Lord Jesus Christ has taken our place. He has stood
and under the law towards God for his people in all things,
in all things he was made like unto his brethren. And so he
endured the same weaknesses that we have, such as hunger and thirst
and weariness and sorrows. He felt what men feel, who have
sinned, but he didn't commit any sin. So he was feeling these
things and experiencing these things, the guilt of sin and
the shame of sin and the reproach of ungodly men. He felt all those
things, the persecutions, the unjust treatment of merciless
cruel men and the attacks of Satan. The whole kingdom of Satan
was opposed to him. He felt those as a man. And so
he says to his father, he says, hold up my goings in thy paths
that my footsteps slip not. So he didn't depend on his own
strength. We see that here again. for a while he was made lower
than the angels and it says in Matthew chapter 4 verse 11 after
his temptation that angels came and ministered to him. I've always
wondered how humbling that is for the one who is the creator
and the son of God to have created the angels to serve him And God
has commanded the angels to worship Him, and yet here in Matthew
4, verse 11, He was dependent upon angels serving Him in His
weakness as a man because of the temptation. And then in Psalm
91, verse 11, it says, He shall give His angels charge over thee
to keep thee in all thy ways. So these are verses of scripture
that correspond to what he says here, hold up my goings in my
paths that my footsteps slip not. The Lord Jesus Christ was
constantly dependent upon his father. He never spoke about
strength that was his own, as if he was independent of his
father. As a man, he lived. in complete trust and dependence
upon God in order that we might be credited with his faith and
credited with his obedience and that we might learn that we also
can trust God. Look at verse 6 of Psalm 17. He says, I have called upon thee
For thou wilt hear me, O God, incline thine ear unto me, and
hear my speech. Notice the repetition in this
verse. I've called upon thee, thou wilt
hear me. He has confidence, he trusts
God, he has called, and he trusts him to hear him. He is assured
that God will hear him. He says, incline thine ear to
me and hear my speech. All of these things are him offering
up prayer to be heard In his righteousness, again, in his
righteousness, God always hears his son. He always hears him
because he always pleased him, as we read earlier in John chapter
11. He says, I said these things
for the people's sake. I know you hear me always. And
he told them his enemies in John chapter 8. that he is heard,
God the Father is with him because he always pleases him. He does
those things which always please him. And so he prays that way
here. I have called upon thee, thou wilt hear me, O God, incline
thine ear to me and hear my speech. He was absolutely assured that
God the Father would always hear him. And then remember in Hebrews
chapter 5 it says, though he were a son, in the days of his
flesh, in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 7, it says, who in the days of
his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications,
with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save
him from death, and was heard in that he feared. He was a man
who feared God. He reverenced God. He worshipped
God. God was the one and only a desire
of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He worshiped and trusted
God as a man perfectly, and so he prays this way in confidence,
you will hear me. And he prays to him not presumptuously,
but asking him. Now look at verse seven, Psalm
17, verse seven. He says, show thy marvelous lovingkindness,
O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust
in thee from those that rise up against them. Now here, the
Lord Jesus Christ is including others. Not only did he trust
in God, but he speaks, he asks his Father to show his loving
kindness, not only to him, but he wants all those who are his
people, the church, the elect of God, his sheep, the bride
of Christ, he wants them to know the love of his God and the love
of his Father for him because knowing By them knowing God's
love for him, they would see God's love for them. Because
why did God send his son into the world? That we might live
through him. And how do we live through him?
Because God sent him to be the propitiation for our sins, 1
John 4, 9 and 10. We live because of his righteousness. Death reigned by sin, but now
grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, and by Jesus
Christ our Lord. So it's the righteousness of
Christ by which God gives us eternal life, and that righteousness
is what He did in laying His life down for His people. And
so we see this throughout Scripture. The life we have is the life
of Christ in us because of his righteousness for us by the will
of God to offer up his son who did so in submission of obedience. And here he says, show thy marvelous
loving kindness. the loving kindness of God that
he would not only love his son but love him as man and love
him as our surety and love us as he loved his son. And you're
probably reminded of this in John chapter 17 where Jesus as
our high priest and mediator prayed this way in John chapter
17. He says this, in John 17. He says in verse 20, neither
pray I for these alone, not for these eleven disciples, but for
them also which also shall believe on me through their word, verse
21 of John 17, that they all may be one as thou father art
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the
world may believe that thou hast sent me. Now notice as he goes
on, and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them,
that they may be one even as we are one. That glory is the
revelation of Christ's work in the gospel. The glory of God
revealed there, the glory of their salvation. He goes on,
he says, I in them, thou in me, that they may be made perfect
in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me,
and, notice, hast loved them as thou hast loved me." Now that's
the prayer of Christ in Psalm 17. And verse seven, show thy
lovingkindness, thy marvelous lovingkindness, O thou that savest
by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from
those that rise up against them. This verse in verse seven, it
contains the distillation, the summary of the entire chapter,
doesn't it? God's salvation of his people because of his everlasting
love for his son, and for them in His Son, and the destruction
of their enemies, those who put their trust in Him." What a great
verse this is. It shows us the truth of Romans
chapter 8 that nothing is able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The love God had for
His Son is the love God has for His people because they are one,
not only one as they're all called sons and daughters of God, and
heirs and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ, but God has
made them one in his eternal election and his predestinating
grace where he adopted his people by Jesus Christ to himself. We're
going to go on in Psalm 17, verse 8. He says, keep me as the apple
of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings. Now, in
scripture, God uses the comparison of hiding under his wings as
a way of safety. He says in Deuteronomy, I think
it's in chapter 32 or so, I don't have that verse marked down here,
but he says, the Almighty God is thy refuge and underneath
are the everlasting arms. So God is our refuge, the Almighty
God is our refuge. And then he says in the Old Testament
that God would meet with his people. above the mercy seat
between the cherubims. Between the cherubims they had
their wings spread out towards each looking down constantly
on the mercy seat and the wings of each cherubim touching the
other and their faces looking down on the mercy seat and there
God would meet with his people underneath his wings again. And
then Jesus accused the Pharisees of trying to keep him from gathering
his children, he says in Matthew 23, he says, I, O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered your children as
a hen gathers her chickens under her wings. And so we see the
allusion here, the comparison to God's care for his people
and his refuge for his people and his meeting with his people,
his communion with his people regarding the blood of his son
here in verse eight, keep me as the apple of the eye, hide
me under the shadow of thy wings. So we see that here, the wings
here referring to God's refuge and his care, his tender concern
for his people and his communion with his people concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ and the apple of the eye. That's that part
of your eye right in the center. And what happens when you get
a speck of dust in your eye? You immediately blink and it
becomes the most important thing in all your life to rid yourself
of that irritant to your eye because your eyes are so sensitive.
So the prayer here is that God would keep him as the most sensitive,
the most central view of all he is for his people. His people,
the Lord Jesus Christ with his people in the eye of God. All
right? Verse nine. He says, keep me
as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings
from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies who
compass me about. And notice now in verse 9, now
the Lord Jesus turns from pleading his own righteousness to plead
against his enemies in judgment. He wants God's sentence to come
down on his behalf, but against his enemies who oppose his work
as our Savior. So he says in verse 9, From the
wicked keep me, from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly
enemies who compass me about. Verse 10, they are enclosed in
their own fat, with their mouth they speak proudly. Now, don't
think of this as physical fatness. That's not what he's doing here.
He's not fat shaming somebody here. But what he's doing is
he's comparing the people spoken of here as those who have grown
overly, they have in their pride and in their greed and in their
lust, And they have consumed so much that they have been greedy
to gain and lusted after. And it had nothing to do with
God's salvation. But they have consumed this and
become so enclosed in their own fat that they can't see. They
can't walk. They're restricted by this. In Isaiah chapter 55, he says
this, in Isaiah 55, Verse 1, he says, Ho everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that has no money, come
ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Here, needy beggars are told
to come to God and buy milk and wine. and bread without money,
and he says in verse 2, Wherefore do you spend your money for that
which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies
not? Hearken diligently to me, that this is the way we eat through
our ear, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight
itself in fatness. So the fatness he's speaking
about here is salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
Isaiah 55 is all about. In Isaiah 55, when he says, delight
yourself in fatness, it's in contrast to those who have become
enclosed in their own fat. As he says here in Psalm 1710,
they are enclosed in their own fat. They haven't desired the
fatness that comes through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're trusting in, they're
taking a greedy delight and lusting after righteousness of their
own. And so they boast in it. And
their greed and their lust appear as this over this obesity in
their own self-righteousness. And that's what God compares
the self-righteous in, for example, Luke 18, where the man trusted
in himself that he was righteous, the Pharisee, and he despised
others. So here he says, the wicked that
oppress me are my deadly enemies. They compass me about. They are
enclosed in their own fat. With their mouth, they speak
proudly. So fatness here in verse 10 is associated with this pride,
this opposition to Christ, and really what it means is this
self-righteousness of trust in their own filthy rags, righteousness. And it's offensive. They can't
do anything. They can't see because their
fat has enclosed their eyes. They can't see the truth as it
is in Christ, and so they're just wallowing in their own They've
made themselves unable to do anything because of this focus
they have on their own insatiable appetite for self-righteousness
of their own and their opposition to Christ. In verse 11, of Psalm
17, he says, they have now compassed us in our steps, they have set
their eyes bowing down to the earth. Now notice in this verse
here, of all the verses that we've read so far, except verse
seven where it says that the Lord saves by his right hand
those who put their trust in him. The right hand, of course,
is Christ. He's the one on God's right hand. He's the gospel,
is the power of God to salvation because in it the righteousness
of Christ is revealed. Righteousness of God in Christ
is revealed. So when he speaks in verse seven, Verse 7, he's
speaking about those who put their trust in thee, but unless,
except for that one verse, all the verses 1 through 8 were speaking
about the Lord Jesus Christ exclusively. But here, in 9 and following,
and in verse 11, he says this one thing, in verse 11, notice,
they have now compassed us in our steps. Notice how the Lord
includes not just himself, but us with his people, in other
words, because when the Lord Jesus is spoken of in the New
Testament, as I mentioned before, he never acts by himself or for
himself alone, but always for his people. He shall be called
Jesus for what? For he shall save his people
from their sins. God had given him the commandment
to lay down his life for the sheep, and that's the commandment
he kept. That was the delight of his heart. He loved the church. And what is the church? They
are one with him. And he loved the church and gave
himself for it. But here in verse 11, notice,
they have now compassed us. He's praying to God, not only
on the basis of his own merits and his own purpose, God had
given him to do, But also he's praying for his people and he
includes them in this verse as the us. The enemies have not
only come against me, but in coming against me, they have
attacked my people with me, the us. And so he includes them in
his prayer here. Christ bore our sins in His own
body, that we being dead to sins. Have you noticed that in 1 Peter
2, 24? Christ died, we died, because
what He did, He did as an us. And that is most comforting for
all of God's people here. And so we join in, we ask, as
God the Father has told us to hear Him, as I opened up this
psalm in summary, we now are looking at this chapter and we're
asking in our soul that God would hear His righteousness, He would
hear His prayers, and He would hear His pleadings, not only
for Himself, but for His people against our enemies. And so it
becomes an even more blessed psalm to us when we realize that
our salvation is in God being God and answering the, fulfilling
his own word and answering the request of his own son when he
was fulfilling what God gave him to do in his righteous cause.
All right. Let's now go on to verse 11 and 12, he says, they
have now compassed us in our steps, they have set their eyes
bowing down to the earth, and that phrase, bowing, they've
set their eyes bowing down to the earth, what he's saying there
is that they've pretended to be right, but they've done this
in order to catch us. They're trying to sneak their
way into a close proximity of confidence so they can take advantage
of that being near to the Lord Jesus Christ and turn him over
to his enemies. Let's see, I was going to read
this. I think I jumped ahead here.
I'm looking at the wrong verse. Let me read this verse here to
you. It says, in Luke chapter 20. to show you
what this bowing down with their eyes to the earth means, this
pretending to be humble and right. In Luke chapter 20, it says,
the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands
on him, on the Lord Jesus. And they feared the people for
they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them. And
they watched him, notice, they watched him and they sent forth
spies which should feign themselves or pretend themselves just men. You see, they bowed down their
eyes to the earth. They pretended to be just men.
You can trust us. No, they were not just men. They
did this that they might take hold of his words, it says, so
that they might deliver him to the power and the authority of
the governor. And that's in Luke chapter 20,
verses 19 and 20. So they have not only compassed
us about, and they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth,
but in verse 12, Psalm 17, verse 12, it says, like as a lion that
is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking
in secret places, So the comparison now here to the enemies of Christ
is to a lion who is greedy, trying to catch his prey, and he lurks. He's sneaking around in these
secret places. And what does this conjure up
to you? Well, it just so happens that in the earth, in a physical,
ordinary way, people who are wealthy, people who are in power,
in political power, They have this authority and they have
this, it's delegated to them to have this authority, but they
abuse the authority, they abuse their position to cruelly treat
others in this way. And it was just that in the times
of Christ and his crucifixion. The high priest and the governor,
Herod, Pilate, and Caiaphas and Annas, the high priest, all of
them were gathered together against the Lord Jesus Christ. They had
the authority of the government. They had the soldiers backing
them up. They had the position of high priest. And what did
they do with that position? Well, they used their power like
a lion would use his power against his prey, secretly lurking in
order to take his prey. The lion does. And so Satan and
his kingdom used those powers on earth, the high priest and
the governor and Pilate and Herod, he used them in order to pounce,
as it were, on the Lord Jesus Christ. And this came by the
will of God, of course, because it says this in Acts chapter
4 and verse 27. Let me read this to you. Acts
chapter 4 He goes on, he says, of a truth against thy holy child
Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod Pontius Pilate with
the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. So it was God's will, but they're
the ones who did it and they use their position and their
authority unjustly like a lion in strength. And so it is with
Satan. Satan has a power. He's just
God's devil. God uses him to bring justice
and judgment on wicked people, but he uses his power outside
of the bounds. He tries to do things for the
wrong motive and to destroy God's people, and that's where Christ
is praying against him. Stop them, cut them off. Verse
13, Psalm 17, verse 13. Arise, Lord, disappoint him,
cast him down, and deliver my soul from the wicked, which is
thy sword. That's interesting, isn't it?
God is saying here, the Lord Jesus Christ in his prayer is
saying, the wicked is God's sword. He uses this like a rod against
his enemies, and yet here the Lord Jesus Christ is not taking
up arms against this enemy. Notice here, Jesus Christ did
not defend himself. He didn't utter a word arguing
with his enemies, did he? He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumped, so opened he not his
mouth. He entrusted himself into his
father's hand. He didn't revile again when he
was reviled, and he didn't threaten when he suffered at their hand.
He committed himself. He brought his case into the
throne room of heaven, and that's what we are to do in all of our
life, to trust God. to trust Him that He will hear
the righteousness of His Son, hear the blood of His Son, because
we trust Him. We have faith in His blood and
in His righteousness that God will hear His righteous cause
to save us for His name's sake. And so the Lord prays here. against
his enemy. He says, Lord, disappoint them,
cast him down, and deliver my soul from the wicked, which is
thy sword. We just read that in Acts 4, 28. To do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. All who came
against Christ came against him by the will of God. In Romans
8.32 it says, He who spared not his own son, but delivered him
up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things? God delivered him up for our
offenses. He was wounded for our offenses,
for our transgressions, for our iniquities, and for our sins.
And so God delivered him up. It had to be done in order to
save us from our sins. But that was just the bruising
of his heel in order that God might crush the head by the Lord
Jesus Christ and his justice. The sentence from God's court
of heaven, he crushed Satan. The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. And now, he says in verse 14,
not only is the wicked thy sword, he says, from men which are thy
hand, O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion
in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure,
they are full of children, and they leave the rest of their
substance to their babes. What is he talking about here?
Well, in the natural world, men save up and they give their inheritance
to their children. And there's nothing wrong with
that so much. But what happens is, and you'll
see this in a physical level again, it's easier for us to
grasp the spiritual things when we see it playing out in a physical
way. I noticed this when I was employed
for a company that was quite wealthy. They had billions of
dollars. And what did the CEO, the owners of the company do?
Well, they had so much money, they couldn't spend it all. So
they made a foundation. They created this legal entity
called a foundation, and they put their extra money in that
foundation. And then they set up rules so
that after their death, What would happen is their wealth
would be continued to be used according to their will that
they had set up before they died. So the foundation is run with
all this money, they invest it, they continue to accumulate wealth
even after they're dead, and they give all that they had in
order to achieve their cause, whatever that cause is. And usually
it's a wicked cause because it's a cause for this world. And you
see this in so many places. There's wealthy men, I'm not
gonna name them all, but you can consider these men who have
exceedingly great wealth, billions and billions of dollars, and
they set up these foundations. There's notorious men, there's
popular men, and they all do it because it's a legal way of
getting their money into the cause that they want to. I remember
we were in Santa Rosa, just as a little tiny case, where there
was a, A home built cost 10 million plus to build this home for cats
and dogs to live in. They furnished it like people
were living there. They had doors and windows and
rooms and toilets and everything. And a bunch of cats and dogs
lived there. And this woman had set this up in her will that
after her death they would build this home. And they did. They
took all of her millions of dollars and they spent it on dogs and
cats. Foolish, right? Well, that's what this verse
is talking about only on a spiritual sense. Now, when Jesus was on
the earth and he was casting out devils, the Pharisees accused
him. They said, you cast out devils
by the prince of the devils, by Beelzebub, remember? And Jesus
remarked to them, he replied to them, well, if I cast out
devils by the prince of the devils, then who do your children? cast
them out by. Who do your sons cast out the
devils by? So, he was not talking about
their physical children, he was talking about their disciples.
Those who were their followers were called their children. And
so here, in this verse, the men of the world who have their portion
in this life and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure,
there's rare things in the earth. and they store it up, men store
it up. And here he's talking about like
the strives and the Pharisees in a spiritual sense who have
been given great privileges with the scriptures and yet they have
distorted them and deceived the multitudes and now they get people
to serve their particular cause. And they set up Like the Catholic
Church, for example. Have you ever heard how wealthy
the Catholic Church is? Wealthier than most nations of
the world. They have tons of money. But it's not just their
money, not their physical assets. It's their hierarchical religious
perversion by which they bring millions, literally millions
of people into subjection to a damning gospel. A gospel, a
message they cannot say. And so, that's what he's saying
here. The Lord, deliver me from their hand, O Lord, from men
of the world which have their portion in this life, whose belly
thou fillest with thy hid treasure. They are full of children, many
disciples, and they leave the rest of their substance to their
babes. That, I believe, is what he's
talking about here. But, last verse, he says, but
as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness, In the
case of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's His own righteousness, but
in our case, it's His righteousness. As for me, I will behold thy
face in righteousness. And so this is not only a prayer
of Christ as man, but it's a prayer of his people because we also
say the same things. We want God to hear his righteousness. So as we began, our faith is
in his blood. It's in his obedience, not ours.
In his prayers, not our own. In his answer to God, not our
answer. Not our wisdom. Nothing of our
own. We trust him entirely. And so
he says, as for me, I would behold thy face in righteousness. There was no blemish, no spot,
no wrinkle in Christ, and there is none in his church. He says,
I shall be satisfied when I awake. Here he's talking about the resurrection
with thy likeness. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. He's not like God, not merely
like God, though he is the exact representation of his person.
He says in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 2 and 3, he's the express
image of his person. He's the brightness of His glory.
So in that sense, we can't see God except we see Him through
the Lord Jesus Christ, and when we see Him, we see the Father.
And so in that sense, when it says, He will be satisfied when
He wakes in thy likeness, when He is revealed by God the Father
to be the Son of God and the Son of Man with power. And as
it says in Romans chapter 1, when the Spirit of God raised
Him from the dead and revealed Him to be the Son of God with
power by the Spirit of holiness. But here, we also can pray this
prayer, can't we? As for me, I will behold thy
face because God has heard Christ. We also will behold God's face,
meaning the face of our Savior in all of His glory. in righteousness,
not in our own, but clothed in Christ and we will be satisfied. We will finally have the desire
that God has put in our heart, the expectation that all of our
hope and all of our pursuits ultimately are the Lord Jesus
Christ, to be with him and to see him. And that's what Jesus
Christ himself prayed for his people. I will repeat this here
in John 17, his last verse, and we'll close. He says, John 17,
he said, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. Beholding his face in righteousness,
which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world." What a word this is. Psalm 17. Hear the right,
O Lord, the righteousness of Christ and the right cause of
God that He sent His Son into the world to save sinners. That's
God's right. That's God's way, that's His
wisdom, that's His way, to justify the ungodly by the righteousness
and blood of His own dear Son. And may God hear Him and defeat
our enemies and bring us to Himself with the Lord Jesus Christ so
that we can be satisfied when we awake in His likeness. Let's
pray. Father, thank You for Your Word.
the glory of your son in our nature for us, our surety, pleading
your cause and his cause to save his people from their sins and
his certain success and not only his success in our salvation,
but his utter defeat of our enemies to the glory of his name. And
Lord, we pray that you would give us the grace to believe
him and find all of our hope and joy in him and wait for him.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.