O Lord my God, in Thee do I put
my trust. Save me from all them that persecute
me and deliver me, lest He tear my soul like a lion, mending
it in pieces while there is none to deliver. O Lord my God, if
I have done this, that there be iniquity in my hands, if I
have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me, yea, I
have delivered him back without cause as my enemy. Let the enemy
persecute my soul, and take it. Yea, let him tread down my life
upon the earth, and lay mine honor in the dust. Arise, O Lord,
in thine anger. Lift up thyself because of the
rage of mine enemies, and awake for me to the judgment that thou
hast commanded. So shall the congregation of
the people compass thee about. For their sakes, therefore, return
thou on high. The Lord shall judge the people.
Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, according to
my integrity that is in me. O let the wickedness of the wicked
come to an end, but establish the just, for the righteous God
trieth through hearts and the reins. My defense is of God,
which saveth the upright in heart. God judges the righteous, and
God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he
will whet his sword. He hath bent his bow, and made
it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death.
He ordains his arrows against the persecutors. Behold, he travaileth
with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it,
and is fallen into the ditch he made. His mischief shall return
upon his own head, and his violent villain shall come down upon
his own pain. I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness,
and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High." Now, what we have here in the
seventh psalm, Cush the Benjamite had slandered
David, falsely accused David. And he accused him to Saul, who
was the king. And you remember how Saul, Israel
wanted a king and they wanted Saul, because he was tall and
heads and shoulders above everybody else in Israel. They wanted a
big, strong, handsome man. So they anointed him king. Well,
Saul became jealous of David, and David, This pushed the Benjamite. He began to falsely accuse David.
The King Saul says, David is treasonous towards you. He wants
to kill you. He wants your throne. He wants
your throne. But that was a false accusation. It was a slander because that
wasn't so. David spared Saul's life twice
when he could have took him, both times. But David takes his
cause. to the Lord. He takes his cause,
he takes his persecutions and what's against him and the things
that are against him, he takes them to the Lord. And he takes
them where we ought to always take all of our causes and all
of our complaints and the things that trouble us. And so the first
thing David says is this, Oh, Lord, my God. Notice how he says
that, Oh, Lord, my God. When I read that, I automatically
thought of that song. How great thou art, O Lord my
God, how great thou art." And David says it twice here, but
he says, O Lord, O Jehovah, Jehovah, the great eternal I am, my God. And that's the first time he's
used the plural talking about God in this way, in the Psalms.
He said, O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust. What do you
do when you're slandered? What do you do when you've got
a foe that's right in your face and that's falsely accusing you?
That's why David said, you know what I'll do? I'll trust the
Lord. I'm not going to trust myself. I'm not going to trust
the flesh. I'm not going to trust anybody
else that I know. I'm going to trust the Lord.
In Thee do I put my trust. Who else can you put your trust
in? Where would you put your trust? For your soul? For your
family? for your body, for your mind,
for your heart, for your soul, where else would you put your
trust? Surely, surely not in the vain prince, surely not in
the prince whose breath goes from him. That would be vain. And he said, I put my trust in
you. And trust means, beloved, that you, it's like putting what
you have in a place and you put it there and say, that's going
to be good there. It's going to stay there. I trust that there, that
it's going to be kept. And that's why David says, my
enemies and what's against me, in thee, O Lord, do I keep my
trust. And I put my trust. And I tell you, beloved, that's
why the scripture says, blessed is the people who have the God
of Jacob for their God. And Jacob, he said, my days have
been short and full of trouble. And you're days short and full
of trouble. You say, Lord, in me, O Lord,
my God, in thee do I put my trust. And I'll tell you, and I showed
you this before, but this is one of, I've said it before and
you've probably marked it, but in Psalm 62 and 8, this is one
of my all-time favorite scriptures. I love this verse of scripture,
Psalm 62, 8. Oh my, that faith that trusts
God, that faith that looks to God, like Abraham. He went out
not knowing where he was going, but he trusted God to keep him,
trusted God to protect him, trusted God to provide for him. And when
he took Isaac up on the mountain, he trusted God that he's going
to bring him down off that mountain. That's what we're talking about,
faith. We're talking about this trust in God. And look at Psalm
62, 8. Trusted him at all times. Ye people. All times. Now sometimes we feel real good,
things are going great, the sun's shining all the time. Trust Him
then, because I tell you what, He's the one causing the sun
to shine. And then trust Him in the dark, trust Him in your
trouble, trust Him all, at all times. In the morning, in the
afternoon, and at night, in the middle of the night. Trust Him
at all times. No matter what's going on. Ye
people, and listen to this, pour out your heart before Him, because
God is a refuge for us. Oh, trust Him. And then look
what else he says in the last part of verse 1. What do you
do when you're slandered and you've got a lot of people against
you? You've got these foes, and we'll see about them here in
a minute. You pray. You call on this God. David said,
save me. Save me. from all them that persecute
me and deliver me. Save me for those that are against
me. Save me from them that persecute
me, that slander me. And I tell you, there's more
people been hurt with the tongue than they've ever been hurt with
anything else. And that's what they used against David, the
tongue. And save me. Lord, I need saving. I need you to save me. I can't
save myself from them that persecute me. I can't deliver myself. I
can't shut their tongues. I can't stop them from doing
what they're doing. And oh, he says, so he prayed. And oh, he
called on God. Look down in verse 6. It's God's
prerogative to execute righteousness and judgment. Look what he said
in verse 6. Arise, O Lord, in your anger. Now, boy, that's
something, you know, when you've got enemies and people persecuting
you and saying things about you and mistreating you. He says,
Arise, O Lord, in your anger. Lift up yourself because of the
rage of my enemies. Oh, my enemies, they rage against
me. You rise up against them. Lift
up yourself because of the rage of my enemies. And wait for me.
Awake for me. Now, we know God don't slumber
and He don't sleep. But what he's saying is, stir
yourself up on my behalf because of my enemies, and wait for me
to the judgment that thou hast commanded. Bring these men to
judgment. You command all men to go to
judgment, but there's a time for these people, and let it
be right now. Bring them to judgment right
now. I was talking to a dear preacher friend today, Brother
Bruce, and talking about somebody going to You know, marriage splitting
up, good marriage, and she thought things was good splitting up,
going this way and that way. And remember, we started talking
about people that things has happened to. And one woman said
one time that she was going to leave her husband, took up with
another man. She said, I'll do it if God don't kill me and to
stop me, that's what I'm going to do. There's something worse
than God killing you. He can make your life hell on
earth and then send you to hell after this one. And that's people that was so-called
believers for years in churches, Sovereign Grace Church. And that's
why David says, you know, here's God's prerogative. And for God
to bring a man to judgment, bring him to the place where God's
going to judge him in this world. Judge him. And you can't go by
outward appearance what God's doing to a man. You can't go
by that. I mean, but God, when He judges
a man, I mean, beloved, He'll let him sit and fester and live,
and then, beloved, after that, then there's the judgment also
before God Himself. That's a horrible thing to think
about. And then He says, oh, listen,
then back over here, look in verse... He said, lest these
lions save me and deliver me, lest he tear my soul, like a
lion, rendered it in pieces while there's none to deliver. You
know what I mean? This could be Christ, our Lord
praying, without those that was against Him. And he says, somebody
like a lion. Them that persecute like a lion.
And there's a lion that goes about seeking to devour whom
he may. And he says, taking my soul and
rending my soul into pieces. Just tearing my soul apart. Just
making my soul in agony. Making my soul hurt and tearing
it apart. And then he does that, and I
ain't got nobody to save me from it. Got nobody to save me. Nobody
to save me. Then look what he says. God searches. There in verse
3, O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there be iniquity in
my hands, if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace
with me, yea, I delivered him that without cause is mine enemy.
Now what David's saying is in this situation, in this situation,
the things they say to me and the way they're treating me and
the way they're running me, cutting me down like a partridge on the
mountainside, he said if I were all these people, If this has
been me causing them to come after me, if something I've done,
something I've said, if I've not trusted you and not looked
to you, and what he said, if I have done this, if I've caused
these to do this to me, if there be iniquity in my hands, if there's
something that I've done, I've mistreated them, I've cursed
them, I've blasphemed them, I've provoked them to this anger,
If I record and reward an evil unto him, that was at peace with
me. Now, if a man was at peace with me and I turned around and
treated him with evil, and yea, I delivered him that without
cause is my enemy, I didn't have no cause to deliver him up. He
said, this is what I want you to do for me. That you let the
enemy persecute my soul. Just let him have me. Just let
him take me. And yea, let him tread down my
life upon the earth, and let him take my honor and put it
in the dust." That's what he's saying. He said it, and you know
there's been times in your life and my life where we just couldn't,
just something happened, you say, what caused that to happen?
Do you know when you look and you say, what did I do to provoke
that? What did I do to cause that to
happen? And there are times that you can say, Lord, in this particular
thing, I don't know what I've done. And that's what David says,
and listen, if I'm the one that provoked this and started this,
then let them do what they will with me. That's what our Lord
says. He says, Lord, there's no iniquity in me. I've never
delivered my enemy without a cause. I've never rewarded anybody evil
that was at peace with me. And I'll note it down there on
my desk, and I wish I'd have wrote it down and brought it
out here tonight. But to reward evil for evil is devil-like. To reward good for evil is man-like. But to reward good for evil is
God-like. And that's what David's saying
here. if I have mistreated anybody in this situation. And what happened
was, they accused him of wanting to kill. And you know what David
always said about Saul? He said, I would not touch him
because he's the Lord's anointed. He went in a cave one time, and
he was laying there asleep, and he took his knife and cut part
of his clothes off and took it out and got his crews of water
and stood up on a mountain and said, look what I could have
done to you. I'm not against you. I'm not against you. I'm not trying
to hurt you. I don't want your throne. And then old Saul said, oh, I'm
sorry, David, I'm sorry. Then another time, David caught
him asleep on the ground and walked up and again took something
from around his pillow, took his sword, his weapon, and stood
up and said, send him, I could have took him. And all of David's
men said, kill him. He said, I would not touch the
Lord's anointing. So this is what he said. If I
have wronged these people, let them have me. Turn them loose
on me. Let them destroy me. And that's what he's saying,
and that's why, beloved, we don't want no, you know, my soul, if
we ever, look what Peter said. I'll just remember this. Look
over, I think it's 1 Peter. 1 Peter, if any man suffers a Christian, You know, I'll try to find it
here just in a minute, but... Oh, here we go. Here we go. Over
in chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4, yes. He said in verse 12, Beloved,
think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try
you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice
inasmuch as you are partaker of Christ's sufferings." Whenever
you're going through the fire, going through the flood, you're
partaking of Christ's sufferings. That when His glory shall be
revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. When His
glory is up, you're going to rejoice and be glad. But now
listen to this. If you be reproached for the
name of Christ, happy are you, blessed are you, for the spirit
of glory and of God rest upon you. On their part he is evil
spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But now listen
to this, but let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a
thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's
matter. In other words, if you're going
to suffer, suffer as a believer. That's what he said. If any man
suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify
God on his behalf. So if you're going to suffer,
that's what David's saying. If I'm suffering, I'm suffering
for not something that I myself had done. I myself had done. And then down here in verse 8,
we see there, he said, in verse 8, The Lord shall judge
the people. Judge me, O Lord, according to
my righteousness and according to my integrity." You know, when
he told the Lord to arise there in verse 6, and then he says,
when you arise and you do this judgment, and God's people see
you like this, the congregation of the people will get round
about you. And for their sakes, you'll return on high. You'll
return back to where you was. You'll sit down on your throne
and we'll all have comfort. We'll all have rejoicing because
you do what's right. And he says, the Lord shall judge
the people. God's the judge. And he says, so judge me. Oh
my. Judge me. How many of us would
say that right now? Judge me, oh Lord. according
to my righteousness and according to my integrity in me." But now you remember, he's in
a particular situation. He's not talking about how he
is all the time. He's talking about, was I righteous
in this situation? Did I hold to my integrity in
this situation? Was I honest in this situation?
And then when they accused me of what I did, was it true? If it was true, let them punish
me. But if it ain't, you judge the people. You be the one to
judge them. You judge me. You judge me. And, oh, beloved, look what he
says. And, oh, my. And that's what we do. We testify
that the Lord shall judge His people. And He'll judge all people. And then he says, Lord, according
to my righteousness, this could be Christ speaking. Judge me,
O Lord, according to my righteousness, mine integrity, and then Christ
surely, surely comes out that way. And I tell you what, the
Lord rewards us according to the cleanness sometimes of the
way we are in a given situation. Then we're going to confess something.
We're going to testify that God, God is the judge. God is going
to judge everybody. And here's the frightening thing
about it. If you've got a child, if you've got a child, you've
got a brother or sister, a mother or father, God himself won't judge them. He's going to judge my daughter,
going to judge my son, going to judge my grandchildren one
of these days, and if he don't say it by his grace, then they
might be able to say, judge me according to my righteousness
and my integrity. It's a frightening thing to find
out, you know, folks don't take it serious enough that judgment
is coming. And you know the scripture says judgment begins in the house
of God. This is where it starts right
here. How you react to the gospel, how you react to the word, how
you react to the justice of God. Would you get mad at God if God
let you in your home and took out one of your children before
they ever made a profession of faith? Would you get mad at God if He
took your great-granddaughter or your great-grandson and took
him away from you? You see, He's the judge. And
look what he says here. And I tell you, people got to
understand that. It's a frightening thing. And
I tell you what, that's when no wonder David said, Oh, save
me. I want to be saved. I do not
want to get to the end of the way and find out that I was fooled.
I want to know Christ. I want God to judge me now and
judge me in Christ and judge me according to His righteousness
and His integrity. And look what he says, and this
is our confession of faith right here in verse 10. My defense
is of God. My defense is of God. Who's going
to defend me? God is. Who's going to defend
me? God is. You know the safest place to
hide from God is in God. Who's going to defend you? God is! Who's going to defend
you? God is! Oh my, and look what
he said here, we're saved with the upright in heart. Oh, my
soul, God made us of a pure heart. He made us of a heart that loves
Him, wants Him, and wants to be upright, wants to honor Him,
and wants to believe Him, and wants to trust Him, and wants
to live to His glory. And the enemy may say to us,
there's no help in God for him. But we say, oh, he's my defense. He's my defense, and oh, it's
amazing the grace He gives. It's amazing how He'll defend
you against your own self and your own thoughts and your own
fears and your own anxieties. It's amazing how He'll keep you
there. And we make a full confession
of Him right now as a present, present, present Savior and a sufficient
one. What did David say? God is my
very present help in trouble. You know, and if God is so far
off, it ain't going to do you much good. But one is present. He's present. Oh, bless His name. Ever-present. Ever-present. And
then look what we do. This is what a great warning
right here. What a great warning right here. I used to quote this
all the time. Eleven, God judgeth the righteous, and this says
in the margin, is a righteous judge, or God judgeth righteously,
and God is angry with the wicked every day. Angry with them. Well, I don't like to get angry.
Do you like to get angry? I don't like to get angry. Do you? I
don't like to get upset. I don't like to get angry. But it says God's angry. And you know who He's angry with
every day? The wicked. The wicked, every single day.
And you know what He says about this? If that wicked person,
if he doesn't turn, doesn't turn through his wickedness, He'll
wear this on. He's got that. You know, my grandpa
was a barber. He had a barber shop over in
Kent, North Carolina. I remember going up to his barber
shop. He had them, all them straight razors. They were shaved. They
were done everything in straight razors. He'd have them razor
stripes up there. He'd rake that thing, and oh,
I'm telling you what's the truth. It just, oh, you couldn't even
feel it going across your face. And the men tell me that. But
anyway, God's got a big old stripe. He's wearing this. thing getting
sharp, and sharp, and sharp, and sharp, and sharp, and sharp.
He's got that thing getting sharp. He's got his sword wet. And you
know the only reason you wet a sword is to make it sharp. And oh, my. And then he goes
on to say this. And then not only that, but he's
got him above. He's got it bent. I mean, he's got a sword against
him. And you know what the sword that's
against him, the Word of God, is quick and powerful and sharper
than any two-edged sword. And that Word of God, I mean,
it'll cut you. And you better hope it'll cut
you in this life, because it'll certainly cut you in the life
to come. Then he got his bow drawn back. He said, I got my
arrow. That fellow don't turn? If that
fellow don't turn, I got my arrow. Got my arrow back here. And he's
made it ready. And listen to this. He has also
prepared for him the instruments of death. That wicked person that he's
angry with every day, He has also prepared for him the instruments
of death. Whatever that instrument may
be. There's a thousand instruments God can use to kill a man. Storms, car wrecks, heart attacks,
cancers. Oh, so many ways. And he says
he's got the instruments of death preparing for him. And look what
he says, he ordains his arrows against the persecutors. David,
he says, you know them fellows that follow you, I've got arrows,
and I'm going to shoot them. And then look what happens to
this man. Behold, this person, the wicked, they prevail with
iniquity. They have such sin, such iniquity that they travail,
they labor at it, they get in pain and agony about iniquity. And then when they bring forth
this iniquity, they can see mischief and bring forth falsehood. Boy, don't you think it's right
that God judged people like that? Huh? Oh, it's right that He does
that. Do you know anybody that prevails
with iniquity? I mean, they just go around,
just hurting to get into some kind of meekness. They conceive
mischief. They bring forth falsehood. They
couldn't tell the truth if their lives depended on it. There's
so many people, there's people in my family that way. They couldn't
tell you the truth if you laid up a money pound to tell you
the truth. And oh my, then look what he
said. He made a pit. He digged a pit. He thought he
was going to catch somebody in his pit. He got this myth that
if he's going to rob them, he's going to mistreat them. He's
going to catch them. And then look what happens. He's fallen
into the ditch he made. He said, I'm going to get these
fellas. I'm going to catch them. And
then he says, God said, you're going to fall in your own pit.
Ain't that what our Lord said when Peter says, don't you know
you've offended them Pharisees? Our Lord said, let them alone.
Just let them alone. Every plant which my heavenly
Father hath not planted is going to be rooted out. Just let them
alone. Let them go ahead and dig their ditch. Let them go
ahead and brag about what they do. Let them go ahead. He said,
their hour is coming. Their hour is coming. And then
look what He said. Here's mischief. This is one
way that God does them. His mischief shall return upon
his own head. Whatever they planned, whatever
they manipulated, whatever they done, it just comes right back
on them. And his violent dealing and all of his violence shall
come down upon his own pain, come down on him. And, oh, beloved,
let me tell you something. And then look what we do in praise.
Because God saves us from randomness. He's our defense. on our behalf. Look what he says in verse 17.
I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness. I'll praise the Lord according
to His righteousness. How righteous is God? How righteous is He? Well, according
to His righteousness, that's what I'm going to praise Him.
Lord, how righteous are You? Have you ever done anything unrighteous?
Have you ever mistreated anybody? Ever done anything to anybody
that wasn't right to do? Well, I tell you what, I'm going
to praise you according to your righteousness, because you've
never, ever, ever, ever been nothing but righteous in your
whole being. And look what he says. and will
sing praise to the name of the Lord, Most High." Oh, beloved,
I tell you, he started out saying, Oh, Lord, my God, I trust You. And then he up says, Now I praise
You. And all the things he talked
about in between, starting out praising God, trusting God, ending
up praising and trusting God. The Lord saved me. The Lord saved
me. He said, I'm going to praise
Him according to His righteousness. I'm not going to praise him according
to mine, because he's the judge. He's going to do exactly what's
right. And I find such comfort in that. That God himself is
going to always do what's right. Ain't you thankful for that?
And you know, and I tell you where he's done the most right,
and the most righteous act he ever did, which all of them are
righteous, I shouldn't say it that way, but when he made his
son, to be sin for us, and charged our sin to His account, and punished
Him in our place. When He had no sin, and He had
no guilt, He had no shame, He was the just for the unjust,
the innocent for the guilty. And when God put sin on Him,
and then God, listen to me, God righteously, righteously, judged
him and condemned him to death so that he could righteously,
justly give us life and give us righteousness. What a righteous thing to do.
And righteousness is involved in all of it. Our Lord, O gracious Father,
Your word's too big. Your word's too great for stammering
lips and faulty tongue like mine. Lord, take these efforts, and
Lord, you can bless them. If you'd be pleased to, I'd be
thankful. But Lord, your word's just too big, too great. how
to deal with it, how to deal with it right, with God be divided,
understood. Oh, it's just too great, too
big. God bless it to the hearts of those tonight. And Lord, we
will praise you according to your righteousness, and we'll
praise you, excellent and glorious name. And oh Lord, my God, in
thee do we trust, and save us and deliver us, We ask in Christ's
holy name. Amen. Amen.