Looking at Psalm 56, in consideration of the question
that John brought up the other day, which was a good question,
Hithophel does appear from the genealogies to have been Bathsheba's
grandfather. But he, as John pointed out,
would be pretty difficult for him to have died at 33 years
old and that be true. And so I think that the, of course
that's, much of this, that type of thing comes to us through
Jewish tradition and whatnot. And that obviously couldn't probably
be true. But I believe that, It is true
that the psalm that we were looking at does indeed have an application
to Ahithophel because it says there, thou shalt not live out
half their days. Just like Judas, which of course
we see a picture of Judas and Ahithophel, Ahithophel took his
own life because when he found out that his counsel wasn't going
to be uh... received uh... he killed himself
and so uh... he didn't uh... live out his
his full days in as far as men were concerned and we know that
that was as much ordained uh... to occur at the time that it
did as Judas' death was but nonetheless when we look at somebody as they
commit suicide we think of it in terms of the fact that uh...
You know, their life was cut short. Now, we know that that's
not the case in the overall picture of things, but insofar as men
are concerned, those things do come into our minds. So I did
want to make that correction about that. Thought that that
was, I'm sure you all probably didn't lose any sleep over that
this week. But anyway, that's the way it
is. I'm sticking to that. We're looking
at Psalm 56, Psalm 56, to the chief musician upon Jonathalim
Rechochim, a mctham of David when the Philistines took him
in Gath. Now this was of course right
after the situation that caused Bimelech to lose his life as
he gave David the shelter, took him in, gave him the showbread
of the temple, and then shortly after that David fled, and he
fled to the Philistines. Now there's an old saying and
that is that the enemy of my enemy is your friend. And so that was basically what
David had in mind when he fled to the Philistines because of
all the surrounding nations at the time they were at peace with
Saul. but not so the Philistines. They were at war. So David figured,
well, if Saul's after me, my best shot will be to go over
here to the Philistines and they'll take me in to spite Saul. That's the reference that he
has here when the Philistines took him in Gath. Now, he wasn't
actually captured by the Philistines. He actually went to the Philistines. But this, as we read in this
Psalm, as he recounts, this was a very fearful time because David
was a man that had slain thousands of Philistines. He was a mighty
warrior. And he had waged war in the name
of Saul on these Philistines, so he was kind of fearful as
he went into their midst, but he felt like he didn't have much
other choice. And so that's the occasion of
this. And as he speaks, and of course
as we have continued to say, even though these are the words
of David, they are indeed the prayers of Christ. as he faced
a much greater foe than David ever did. Be merciful unto me,
O God, for a man would swallow me up. He fighting daily oppresseth
me. Mine enemies would daily swallow
me up, for they be many that fight against me, O thou Most
High. What time I am afraid, I will
trust in thee. In God I will praise his word. In God I have put my trust. I
will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Every day they rest
my words. All their thoughts are against
me for evil. They gather themselves together,
they hide themselves. They mark my steps when they
wait for my soul. Shall they escape by iniquity?
In thine anger cast down the people, O God. Thou tellest my
wanderings, put thou my tears into thy bottle. Are they not
in thy book? When I cry unto thee, then shall
mine enemies turn back. This I know, for God is for me. In God will I praise his word. In the Lord will I praise his
word. In God, if I put my trust, I
will not be afraid what man can do unto me. Thy vows are upon
me, O God. I will render praises unto thee,
for thou hast delivered my soul from death. Wilt thou not deliver
my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light
of the living? Now, of course, David being in
a situation that he could not control, is brought to the place where
he must cry out to the Lord. And that is the place that the
Lord brings His people. You know, men go along and we
have problems and troubles, but we think we can handle them.
And we do, you know, men are able to kind of cope with many
of the problems that come into their life. But from time to
time the Lord brings problems into our life that we can't cope
with. And it is in such time as this, as David is crying out
to the Lord, be merciful unto me. Now what a mercy it is for
God to bring a man to the place to cry out for mercy. Because
you know, when a man thinks he's strong, he's actually at his
weakest place. Now, those that are in the movement
of the power of positive thinking type concept, they would have
us to think that men can will themselves to be strong. And
there is a measure in which that might be true psychologically.
But there are times when all of the psychology that men can
muster up just won't do the job. And in such time as this, we
see David crying unto the Lord, be merciful unto me, O God. And
I believe even as the Lord Jesus Christ cried out unto the Lord
that he might help him in his time of great trouble as he prayed
for his people. For man would swallow me up,
he fighting daily oppresseth me. Now, you know, I've said this many
times, but our greatest enemy is not those that are out there,
although sometimes we find enemies out there. But the biggest enemies
that we face or the biggest enemy that we face is right here. And
daily we are entered into a battle if we belong to the Lord and
the Spirit of God works in us. to will and to do of his good
pleasure, then there is a struggle that is brought to pass within
the children of God. Paul speaks about it in Romans
chapter 7. He talks about the good that
he would, he did not, and that which he wanted to do, he didn't
do. And he said, oh, woe is me. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I mean, I can't, the enemies
have gathered around me and I'm being crushed on every hand,
and what can I do about it? Lord, help me. Save me. Mine enemies would daily swallow
me up, for they be many that fight against me. Oh, thou most
high. And I thought about that In,
of course, David's case, I mean, he had Saul and then he had Absalom,
he had the Philistines, he had all these different people, you
know, trying to bring him down and trying to destroy him. They be many that fight against
me, O thou Most High. But think of the enemies of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I mean on every hand where he
turned, his enemies gathered around him and they were like
a pack of dogs at his heels. I mean the Pharisees and the
Sadducees were constantly trying to trip him up. Now, of course,
it was impossible that they should do so. I mean, if Satan himself,
the father of all lies, if he couldn't trip the Lord up, how
were the Pharisees going to do so, even though they be his stepchildren? Mine enemies would daily swallow
me up, for they be many that fight against me, O thou Most
High. Now listen to this. He said,
what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Now, one of the
presidents, was it Roosevelt, I think he said, the only thing
we have to fear is fear itself? Well, David might have said something
different. He said, what time I am afraid. It's okay to be afraid. It's
a natural thing. It's a good thing to be afraid.
You know, when a man's not afraid, there's something wrong. I remember
Brother Curtis Collins telling me about one time he went to
a church over here. I'm not going to mention which
one it was, but they had a Sunday school lesson. And the fellow
that was teaching the lesson, it was on the fear of God. And
he said, the teacher said, well, I don't fear Him. Or he said,
I ain't afraid of Him. And I think about that when I
read this. I mean, that's because a man
that doesn't fear God is ignorant. I mean, there are people that
don't fear God. I mean, there's plenty of them
out here, but it's not because they know what they're getting
into, they just don't understand. Because if they knew Him, they
most certainly would fear Him. But he's not talking here about,
the fear of God, but it is actually the fear of God that brings him
to this place. He said, what time I am afraid.
I don't have any way out. I'm being crushed. I'm being,
here I am in the, as David prayed it, here I am in these, right
in the camp of the Philistines. I'm right here before the king
of the Philistines. And I'm scared to death because
he could just say, well, take him out and kill him. What's
he doing here? I'm afraid. And he said, what
time I am afraid, I will trust in the Lord. I'll trust in thee. Why? Because he can't do anything
else. I mean, the children of God can't do anything but cry
to their father, just like a young child who doesn't have You know,
any ability to fend for himself when he gets into a place of
trouble, what does he do? Calls out for his mom or he calls
out for his daddy because there's nothing else he can do. He has
no power. And this is the picture here,
what time I'm afraid. I'm without any help. I look
around, I look at myself, I say, man, there's nothing I can do
about this. This is beyond my capability.
What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. But then, he says
in God, I will praise his word. In God, I have put my trust. And so if I have put my trust
in him, I will not fear. what flesh can do unto me. The man who fears God doesn't
have any worries about men. I mean, what can men do? The Lord said, don't fear him
who is able to destroy the body. Speaking about men, speaking
about maybe even the devil. I mean, sometimes the Lord gives
men's lives over into the hands of the devil. He said, don't
fear those that are able to destroy the body. He said, but fear Him
who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now, He's the
one you need to fear, and who is that? It's none other than
the Lord Himself. I mean, He's the only one who
can destroy soul and body. And he does so according to the
good pleasure of his will. He is the one to be feared. He
is the one in whom we have put our trust. I will not fear what
flesh can do unto me. Now that's easier said than done,
isn't it? I mean, you know, a man can say,
well, I won't fear. You know, you hear these people say, and
maybe I've said it, maybe you've said it, They say, you know,
they can take my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Well, it's one thing to say that. It's another thing when they
come and they knock on your door. to actually live by that motto. It's not really as simple and
easy as it might seem like it would be when we're all sitting
around talking about it. What he's saying here is, I will
not fear what flesh can do unto me. Doesn't make any difference
what happens. I will not be afraid. Every day
they rest my words. All their thoughts are against
me for evil. And I'm sure there were many
among the Philistines who said, look, they said, look, we gotta
do something to this guy because he is our enemy. What are we doing with him? And
of course we know David And, of course, this was, you know,
again, ordered by the Lord to occur as it did. But David, he
feigned being crazy. And he fell down on the floor
and wallowed around on the floor and slobbered on himself. And they said, well, man, we
can't kill this guy because he's insane, something's wrong. And
they let him go. Every day they rest my words,
all their thoughts are against me. for evil. And that is, this
is particularly true of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, did He
not twist His words and say, He said, you know, things that
He didn't say? He said He was going to become
a king and overcome the government and, you know, He made Himself
a king and He's doing all these things. Their thoughts are against
me for evil. That is what they desire to do.
And of course, Satan goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom
he may devour. His thoughts toward the people
of God are not good. He's not looking to help the
people of God, but his thoughts toward us are evil. Now thankfully,
he goes about seeking whom he may devour. But he may not devour
the children of God. He can't devour the children
of God. He can devour some, but not the sons of God. They gather
themselves together. They hide themselves. They mark
my steps when they wait for my soul. And surely they did indeed
lay in wait for the Lord Jesus Christ, even picking one out
from his number to betray him. and setting a trap for him at
every case. But all of this, of course, in
the Lord's case was unto the purpose of God, fulfilled the
purpose of God. But keep this in mind that it
was Christ who underwent that. He bore that as a man. He had
those fears as a man would have. I mean, the scripture says that
he learned obedience in the things that he suffered. He feared God
according to the purpose, and he was brought into fear as a
man. Shall they escape by iniquity,
and by an anger cast down the people, O God? Now, one thing's
for certain, and that is that judgment shall be done. It is appointed unto men once
to die, and after this, the judgment. Now, all wrongs shall be righted. Now, all the wrongs done to you
are not necessarily gonna be righted, because all the wrongs
done to you weren't necessarily wrongs. You know, whenever we
get to looking at the things people do to us, and 95% of it
we deserve, you know, and so we look at the things that happen
to us that other people do to us, and boy, we get all mad,
and then we turn around and do the same thing to them. And you
know, those things are just, that's just being, walking among
sinful men, those things happen. But those things that are an
injustice, God is going to bring every idle word into account. That's what he said. And so most
assuredly, and those that are, The haters of God and the haters
of the people of God, they shall not escape their iniquity. These things will be brought
upon their head. The Lord said, even of Judas,
it'd be better if he'd never been born because of the great
judgment that is upon him for those things that he has done.
In thine anger cast down the people, O God, and he will. Thou
tellest my wanderings, put thou my tears into thy bottle, are
they not in thy book? Thou tellest my wanderings, or
thou, you count my wanderings. Now, I was thinking of this as
I read this, about the wanderings of the children of Israel, and
one of the, I think it's in the, I don't remember what chapter
of Numbers, But there's one of the chapters in Numbers where
it just recounts the wanderings of the children of Israel. I
won't attempt to, because I can't remember them, but I wouldn't
attempt to read them to you. But the various places that they
went. They went here, and then they left there and they went
here. And the next verse says they left here and they went
there. And they just wandered about for 40 years in the wilderness. And they were within a few days,
March, of being where they were going, but yet they wandered
around. Why? The Lord brought them to that
place. Now, men often say, well, why has life got to be so difficult? Why do we have to go through
so many trials and troubles? It's just like the wanderings
of the children of Israel. The Lord will bring his people
the way that he wants them to go, and it's not necessarily
a direct route. But He is teaching His people
something on the journey. And so He knows our wanderings.
Thou tellest my wanderings. As we read in Hebrews, they said
they looked for a city. They called themselves strangers
and sojourners in the earth. They were wandering about. And are not the sons of God wandering
about in this wilderness of this world? I mean, we think that
song that Ed picked out a while ago when we sang speaks about
the fact, you know, we're in this world and we see all these
things and we think, well, man, we could really get some satisfaction
out of this. And we get that and we realize,
well, hey, there's nothing to that. I mean, there's nothing
in this world that brings lasting satisfaction to the people of
God. Now, the men of this world, they're
pretty happy with it. I watched the program the other
day and this guy, he had become a millionaire when he was about
27 and he had all these different cars and all this stuff and he
was just happy as a bug in a rug. I mean he had everything going
his way and he just couldn't understand all these stupid people
out here that didn't do like he did and just, you know, become
rich and just because he just figured he just did all of it
himself. You know, he just, just, in fact,
he was in the business of teaching other people how they could do
the same thing. I mean, you know, you can just
do it. I mean, it's just all up to you. And so he was happy. He didn't wander around. He wasn't
in poverty or he wasn't in trouble. And so it is that many are in
the same shape. But God's people are wandering
around in this world. Even if you've got plenty of
stuff, you still don't find any satisfaction in it because it's
nothing. It's not the thing that satisfies
the soul. Put thou my tears into thy bottle,
are they not in thy book? Has not the Lord? Does He not
know all of these things? Are they not written down? Now,
a lot of times people think of it, oh, the Lord's up there with
a pen in His hand and He wrote down, well, oh, so-and-so cried
today, so I'm going to write it down. He had a hard time.
And then one day I'll go back and look at it and I'll say,
well, you know, he really had a hard time, so I'm going to
reward him. No, that's not what he's saying
at all. He's saying, are not all these
things ordered by thy hand? Have you not written them in
a book? Have we ever shed any tears that the Lord didn't mark
out that we might shed for our good? All things work together
for good to them that love God, who are called according to His
purpose. All of these things. These things are not just haphazardly
occurring, but they're occurring according to the purpose of God
for the benefit of His people. Now, we can't necessarily see
that at the time, because if you could see that at the time,
it wouldn't be a trouble, would it? I mean, you wouldn't have
any trouble if you knew what the outcome or something was.
But by the grace of God, He has given us reason to look beyond
the present. and see that which is to come. Are they not in thy book? When
I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back. This I know,
for God is for me. Now what a place of assurance
the psalmist speaks of here. By one minute he says, I'm afraid,
Lord, I'm overwhelmed. But then, by the grace of God,
the same man who is fearful of his enemies, he says, I know
that the Lord is with me. How can a man be brought to such
a place as that? I can't bring him there. Only
the Lord can. But in His own time and according
to His purpose, He does bring His people there. When I cry unto thee, then shall
mine enemies turn back. This I know, for God is for me. And God, will I praise his word,
and the Lord, will I praise his word. Now, that seems to be redundant,
and in some ways, I guess it is. But there's actually two
different words used here. The first word in God is Elohim. And of course the word Elohim
has specific reference to the plural nature of God. That is
how God has been seen fit to manifest Himself unto men as
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now we believe there is one God.
We believe that when Jesus Christ walked upon the earth, He walked
upon the earth as God. He wasn't walking upon the earth
as something less than God or some secondary figure, but He
is God. But yet nonetheless, the Lord
is seen fit in His Word to show us Himself in this plural fashion. And the less that men try to
say about that, the better off they would be. And just fall
out and worship him because that's the way that he has seen fit
to say it. But knowing this, that he said
to Philip, Philip, have I been so long time with you and you've
not known me? Philip said, show us the Father
and it'll suffice. He said, he that has seen me
hath seen the Father. Now, that seemed pretty clear
as to what he was saying there to me, and I don't think it needs
a lot of explanation. I think a lot of times when men
try to explain things is when they get into trouble with what
the truth is. So we just fall down and worship
Him, but Elohim, that also has reference to the fact that He
is the Supreme God. Now when we read that He says,
In God will I praise His Word, and then He says, In the Lord,
and that word for Lord is Jehovah. Now that's the name by which
He was pleased to reveal Himself unto the nation of Israel. It is that great I Am, the self-existent
One, that One who is before all things. He is that one, and in
the Lord will I praise Him in His name, because the Lord is
the one who reveals Himself as that Savior. In fact, you know
the name Jesus when the angel came to Joseph. and said to him that Mary is
going to bring forth a child and thou shalt call his name
Jesus. First time that ever appeared. What a blessing it was to Joseph. to hear that name for the first
time. Thou shalt call his name Jesus
or Joshua is actually that Hebrew word, Yeshua. And the word literally
means Jehovah is salvation. And so when we read about that
one who is the Lord in the scriptures, he cannot be separated from that
one who is our salvation. He is our salvation. And so we
trust in the almighty God. And we trust in Jehovah, who
is our deliverer, that one who has ordained all things to come
to pass as that self-existent one. In God have I put my trust. I will not be afraid what man
can do unto me. Now, remember what he said up
here in verse three? What time I'm afraid, I'll trust
in thee. And then he said, in God have
I put my trust and I will not be afraid. Now, I remember reading
one time years ago, Charles Spurgeon said something to the effect,
and I won't quote this, because it's been a long time since I
read it. But he said, David talks about two different modes of
travel here. He says one is first class and
one second class. He said they're both good ways
to get where you're going. But he said, the first class
traveler says, In God, if I put my trust, I will not be afraid.
And he said, the second class traveler says, what time I'm
afraid, I'll trust in thee. Now, I don't necessarily agree
100% with that perspective of things, but it does kind of give
us a little thought because a man can't be, he can't decide to
be a first class traveler. I mean, only the Lord can put
you in first class. It's like when you go, if you
get an upgrade to your ticket. I mean, the Lord may put you
in first class, but you can't get in first class. You know,
so you're going to travel in second class what time I'm afraid
I'll trust. in the Lord, you know, when I'm
afraid. When I am afraid, I'll trust
in Him. But there comes times when the Lord is pleased to visit
His people and gives them that first class ticket and they say,
I will trust the Lord and not be afraid. Oh, what a glorious
blessing it is to be given a mind and heart to trust the Lord and
not be afraid. I will not be afraid what man
can do unto me. Thy vows are upon me." Or that
is, the desire of my heart is to praise Thee. I can't escape
it. See, if a man... Men think that
they can just worship God when they get ready. And that kind
of goes along with the concept of free will, is that man just
says, well, I think we'll go worship God today. If God doesn't put the desire
to worship God in a man's heart, then that man cannot worship
Him. He will not worship Him. Because worship must come from
the Father to the people and then return back unto Him. The Father seeketh such as worship
Him in spirit and truth. And that is the work of God.
Thy vows are upon me, O God. That is, You have put them upon
me. I can't escape it. I want to
worship Him. And how can I go away from it? I mean, I can't not desire to
worship the Lord if He has put His Spirit in me. For Thou hast delivered my soul
from death, wilt Thou not deliver my feet from falling, that I
may walk before God in the light of the living. He has delivered
my soul from death. Now the Lord Jesus Christ tasted
death for every man. That is, he walked in this earth
in the same fashion as a man and he tasted the same death
that every man tastes. And it was a real death. And
I can't fathom it, I can't comprehend it, how he lay in that tomb for
three days and three nights, according to the scripture, dead. Now if you understand that and
you can comprehend it, you know, tell me about it. But I know
that it's so. But I also know that at the time
appointed that he took his life right back into himself because
he is the life. He who is the life died, but he rose again. He said, for thou
hast delivered my soul from death as he prayed to his father. And
as David understood, having been put into the very mouth of his
enemies, I mean, really and truly, when I read that account of him
going to the Philistines, it's just the grace and mercy of God
that they didn't kill him. Why wouldn't they have killed
him? You know, I mean, that's an amazing thing, really, how
the Lord restrains wicked men according to his purpose. Because
by all rights, they'd have just killed him and hung him, cut
his head off and hung him up on a stake and said, look, we
got David, because David's killed his tens of thousands. Thou hast delivered my soul from
death. Will thou not deliver my feet
from falling? Now, if the Lord has promised,
basically, this is what he's saying. If the Lord has promised
to keep us to the end, will he not keep us from falling? Now,
David was a man who was kept from falling. Now, He wasn't
kept from falling into sin, was he? I mean, David was a great
sinner. He committed many sins, not the
least of which was when he disregarded the way of God in numbering the
people. And we think of him with Bathsheba,
and we think of the other acts that he committed during his
lifetime. But the Lord kept him from falling. He didn't keep him from falling
into sin, but he kept him from falling into the destruction
of sin. He kept him back. Now sometimes
I believe that the Lord brings His people right up to the edge,
the brink of destruction. That He might snatch them back
and that they might praise Him when they recount, you know,
how close to destruction they went in, and how they would have
destroyed their own self if it were not for the mercy and kindness
of God. Wilt thou not deliver my feet
from falling that I may walk before the Lord, before God,
in the light of the living? The light of the living. There's no light in death, is
there? I mean, You know, you don't have to worry about LED
light bulbs in a coffin, or what kind of batteries you got. Because
there's no light in death. But there is light in the living.
Because you see, the living, our life is hid with God in Christ. And he is the light of the world. He is that one who is the light.
He's that one who said, let there be light. And so, may we live
in the light of the living. Because that's the only place
where there is any light. All else is darkness.