Psalm 124, another Song of Degrees,
reads as follows. The Song of Degrees of David.
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel
say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men
rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick, when
their wrath was kindled against us, then the waters had overwhelmed
us, the streams had gone over our soul, then the proud waters
had gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord who hath
not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as
a bird out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken
and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the
Lord who made heaven and earth. What a cry of confidence in the
Lord we see here. For this people knew that none
but the Lord and the Lord alone could save them. If it had not
been the Lord who was on our side now may Israel say if it
had not been the Lord who was on our side where men rose up
against us then they had swallowed us up quick. David repeats this
phrase twice. If it had not been the Lord who
was on our side. He encourages all Israel to repeat
it. If it had not been the Lord who
was on our side when men rose up against us, then they had
swallowed us up quick. This emphasises it's repeated
because it's a point worth repeating. This is a cry born out of knowing. knowing in your heart, knowing
as a reality that salvation is of the Lord and only of the Lord. This cry comes from the hearts
of those who knew and who know what it is to be overwhelmed,
brought to nothing and yet delivered by God's grace. If you or I are
brought here, we too will declare with emphasis that if it had
not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against
us, then they had swallowed us up quick. We cannot stand on
our own. We cannot stand before God and
we cannot stand against our enemies. We cannot stand in self in our
own strength, in our own ability, in our own wisdom, or in our
own righteousness. Because we have no strength,
we have no ability, we have no wisdom, and we have no righteousness. We are wicked from head to toe. We are sinful rebels before a
holy God. We have nothing. So if it had
not been the Lord who was on our side, then where would we
be? But is the Lord on your side?
Is he on our side? Or is he against us? David knew
what it was. Though a rebel by nature, though
full of sin, though utterly undeserving, he knew what it was to have the
Lord on his side when his enemies were multiplied against him.
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose
up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick when their
wrath was kindled against us. Swallowed up devoured, engulfed. What a word to describe this.
Not just struck down, not just tormented, not just bruised but
swallowed up. These are not words or terms
that David uses lightly. He chooses his words carefully
and descriptively as led by the Spirit of God. They would have
swallowed us up except God kept us. Israel, as a nation, as a
people, themselves knew something of being swallowed up. They knew
what it was to be swallowed up when the Lord was against them.
In number 16, We read of Korah and a number of others who rose
up as it were in rebellion against Moses and Aaron and through them
the Lord. The Lord had brought his people
out of Egypt. He delivered them by his mighty
hand and he set Moses over them to lead them forth and to bring
them through the wilderness to the promised land. But Korah
and his company, in number 16 we read, rejected Moses' authority. Like many today, he looked at
the people and said, we're all holy. We're all the Lord's people. He separated us from the Egyptians
and the nations around us. We're all his. We're all equal
before God. Then who set you above us, Moses? And he comes with this levelling
attitude that would say that, well, we're all equal souls,
why is one set over us? When in reality, he seeks the
same position for himself. We see this at times today in
the churches and in various circumstances. We see those who would question
the authority of this person or that person, but ultimately
they're just putting themselves there, just as we do with God. Men don't want to serve God.
They don't want a God who's sovereign and rules over them. But that's
just because they want to be the one in his seat, in his throne. They want to rule over the affairs
of men. So Korah rebelled with the same
rebellion that's in each of our own hearts. The same attitude. We don't want to be ruled over. He didn't want to bow to Moses
but through him he didn't want to bow to Christ and he didn't
want to bow to the Father. He didn't want to be ruled over. Nor do you and nor do I by nature. We want to be in charge. We want
to make our own decisions. We want to decide. But God's
wrath was kindled against Korah. And as we saw, as we see, if
you read through number 16, God tells Moses to separate from
them. and the ground around Korah's
tents and the tents of his family and his people was opened up
and swallowed them up, literally. They fell into the depths of
the earth, into the pit beneath and were swallowed up as God's
wrath was kindled against them. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hand of an angry God. what happened to Korah and those
men, those 250. And later on in the chapter,
some 14,000 who then complained of what had happened to Korah
and complained at God's wrath against them, and God's wrath
was kindled at them too. And another 14,000 were destroyed
in Israel. except that God was merciful
unto the rest through Aaron who stood between as a picture of
Christ, standing between a holy and a righteous and an indignant
God and sinful man, he stood between as a mediator and God's
wrath was stayed. Except the gospel come our way,
except the Lord be on our side, we will be swallowed up. by men,
by our enemies, or by God if he is our enemy. The earth literally swallowed
them up, a reminder of the judgment to come if we set ourselves against
God as we do by nature. Each of us, we will not have
this man to rule over us. how we reject Christ and his
rule over his people. Again, throughout the history
of Israel, as they rebelled from time to time against God and
the circumstances he brought them into, his anger was kindled
against them. We read in Hosea 8.8 that Israel
is swallowed up. And in Lamentations 2, verse
5, we read that the Lord was as an enemy. He hath swallowed
up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces, he hath destroyed
his strongholds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning
and lamentation. God is righteous. And when we
set ourselves against him, his anger is kindled. And accept
Christ's blood. washes us clean except Christ
comes between God and us as a mediator as a savior except Christ be
on our side we too would be swallowed up. And we see this as we come
into the New Testament where we read of God's people in Christ
that Christ has come and swallowed up their enemies on their behalf. In 1 Corinthians 15, 54, of that
great enemy death, the result of our sin, the result of our
rebellion, that which would destroy us if left to ourselves, that
Christ in laying down his life for his people, swallowed up
death in victory. Death is swallowed up in victory. He came and he suffered the judgment
of God against his people's sin. And God's wrath was poured out
upon the Saviour on the cross, upon His own Son. And in slaying
His own Son, in bringing His own Son into death, in Christ
suffering death, In the place of his people, death itself was
swallowed up in victory. He took it away. He took it away
on the part of his own. He took it upon himself that
they in him should live. Again Paul writes in 2 Corinthians
5 and verse 4 that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Christ came to take that mortal
death, mortality, the death that reigns in us by sin, and swallowed
it up. His everlasting life, His everlasting
righteousness, took it away. He took as it were our sin. and
he took the death by sin and the judgment and the wrath and
he as it were threw it into the pit that swallowed up Korah and
his company and it swallowed up death, it swallowed up sin,
it swallowed up the wrath and judgment against all his people
and it took it away. He took it away. He came as a
substitute for his people, to stand in their place. He was
swallowed up by God's wrath for the sins of his people. Yet in
so doing, he swallowed up death in victory. Mortality was swallowed
up of life, swallowed up by the life, everlasting life, eternal
life. Christ. He swallowed it up. As Christ comes on the part of
his people he stands before a holy and a righteous God whom we have
offended and he takes the judgment, the wrath which would swallow
us up and swallows it up himself. In Exodus 15 again regarding
Israel and their deliverance from Egypt. We see there as God
brought that people out of Egypt and brought them to the Red Sea,
and brought them through the Red Sea, that God judged their
enemies. Egypt pursuing the Hebrews through
the Red Sea, Moses writes victoriously that God had stretched out his
right hand and the earth swallowed them. Thou stretchest out thy
right hand, the earth swallowed them. They were swallowed up,
they were taken away. What a fearful thing it is to
be found pursuing the Lord's own. Whether it is our opposition, our enmity to
Christ himself, or our disdain, our enmity, our opposition to
Christ's people in whom he dwells. However our enmity is manifest,
if we find ourselves opposing Christ and his own, we have a
fearsome opposition. We cannot stand before a holy
God. Egypt with all its might, Pharaoh
in all his power, could not stand against Moses' God, the God of
the Hebrews, the God of Israel. And nor can we. But God having delivered his
people having brought them out of Egypt, having swallowed up
their enemies, watched over them. He brought them through the wilderness. He led them through Jordan. He brought them into the promised
land. Having delivered His own, God
watches over them. If He delivers us, In Christ,
if Christ swallowed up death in victory for you or for me,
if he delivers us, he will watch over us. He won't leave us to
ourselves. He won't leave us to be devoured
of our enemies. We're not on our own, however
it might seem at times, however troubling the circumstances we're
brought through may be. However great our enemies may
appear, however hateful they might be, of us, our God and
our message, God watches over us. There is no enemy that can
come upon his people who can truly prevail. God will destroy,
has destroyed and can destroy whole nations just to save, to
deliver, to preserve and to watch over one or two of his precious
elect, his sheep, his little ones. He will move all events
in history and time, he will move nations, he will bring huge
circumstances, global circumstances to bear in order to bring his
gospel and his salvation to deliver one of his, in order to preserve
his own from their enemies. if it had not been the Lord who
was on our side. Now may Israel say, if it had
not been the Lord who was on our side. When men rose up against
us, and they had swallowed us quick, when their wrath was kindled
against us. But if it is the Lord who's on
our side, no one can touch us. Not ultimately. The Lord may
let them come upon us. He may let them strike at us
and spit at us and bruise us and bring us into trouble, but
they cannot destroy us. Even should they take our life
away, we will but rise up in glory with our Savior eternally. Our enemies can do nothing to
us. if the Lord is our God and our
salvation. But why does the Psalmist, why
does David speak of being swallowed up? Why would the enemies of
God swallow him up? Why did they hate him so much? Why was their wrath kindled against
us? because they hate the God that
David served. They hate the God that delivers
his people in Christ. They hate the truth of God and
they hate the Lord himself. Every one of us by nature has
a heart that will put ourself on God's throne and dispense
with Him in order that we might rule. In order that we might
rule over all we see and all that we are. We will not bow
the knee to God. We will not bow the knee to His
sovereignty, to His rule, to His power, to His glory, to His
righteousness. We will not bow the knee to His
Son, to His wisdom, to His love, to His grace. Our enmity, our
wrath, is kindled against Him and kindled against all that
would follow Him. Then He had swallowed us up quick
when their wrath was kindled against us. Then the waters had
overwhelmed us. The stream had gone over our
soul. Then the proud waters had gone
over our soul. When their wrath is kindled against
us, the waters would come and overwhelm us. Overwhelm. The opposition of man against
God and his gospel, against his son and against his people, the
opposition we feel against us as believers is overwhelming. It comes as floods under which
we would drown. We cannot stand against it, we're
not able to stand against it. It reminds us indeed of those
floods that came down upon the ark in Noah's day. That global
flood that rained down upon the whole world and caused everyone
and everything to perish. Accept the Ark! and those that
were in the ark, except Noah and his wife and his three sons
and their three wives, but eight people whom God took and put
in that ark. His judgment rained down upon
the world. The rains came down and everyone
outside of that ark was drowned, consumed, swallowed up in God's
wrath. The whole world And as it was
with the wrath of God against the sin of men, so we see on
the opposite side, we see the sins of men and the hatred of
men throughout the world set against God and His people. They
too would come like rains from heaven to drown us, to overwhelm
us, to flood us. and we cannot stand against it.
Whether this opposition, whether this hatred comes from without
or comes from within, it's overwhelming. We see all around us the hatred
and the opposition of men to God, his gospel and his ways. We feel the hatred in all strata
of society against God's gospel, against Christ, against his own. But we feel the same floods of
hatred as believers flowing in our flesh. flowing in our fallen
nature, it resists all that is of God. Until God came in His
Gospel and shone the light into the darkness of our own hearts,
our whole being was set against Him. We did not want to know,
we did not care, we'd rather run away. We'd rather close our
ears. We'd rather drop our head. We'd
rather bury our head in the sands. We didn't want to know. And so
we were and so you are today if you know not Christ. Everything
in you says no. Even though God from heaven may
declare in power, yes, this is true. There is none other name
in heaven or earth by which men may be saved but the name of
my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Come unto me, he says. all ye
that labour and are heavy laden. Look unto me, all ye ends of
the earth, and be saved. God comes each and every day
in creation. He brings forth the light of
the sun in the morning and He shines forth in this world and
says, I am God. Without me this world will drop
down in a moment. He wakes you from your sleep
in the morning and causes your heart to beat and says, I am
God, turn unto me and you will not. He comes in the sound of
the gospel and declares his son unto us as the one saviour of
sinners and says, turn unto me and we will not. Our flesh rages against him.
And as believers, every time we hear the Gospel, the flesh
comes in doubt and unbelief and hatred. It resists, it finds
every reason, every excuse to turn aside to something else.
There's this constant warfare. And yet God says from above,
look unto me. He comes in the Gospel, in the
person of his Son. And the Spirit of God leads His
people and lifts them up and turns their gaze and lifts up
their eyes to the hills, lifts up their eyes to Him who is their
Saviour and says, look unto Me. But all around, within our flesh
and within man around, there's a constant opposition, it's overwhelming. We see this in every realm. We
see this in the political realm. We see this in society and its
thinking and its wisdom. We see this in religion. There
is opposition everywhere to the truth. In the last 50 years or so, we've
seen this opposition multiply. How we see the governments of
our lands, insist on the teaching in the schools of evolution as
a fact that has never been proved and never been demonstrated.
This godless theory which was always described as such even
in my lifetime, even when I was in school, it was a theory of
evolution. but 30, 40 years ago. Today is
taught as a fact and not only as a fact, the opposite, the
truth of God's creation of this world is treated as but a myth,
as a dangerous lie which must not be taught. What a shift we've
seen in society. And what a direct attack on the
sovereign power of God, on the truth of creation. This world
was created in seven days by Almighty God. And this world
knew that. And yet today, man would turn
around and say no. This has come in like a flood.
It's overwhelming. Again in the last generation,
The governments of our land, of the Western world, of most
countries in this world have moved to legalize abortion, the
destruction of the unborn child. They have gone from recognizing
that this is murder to legalizing it as something which is beneficial
to society. And ultimately they use it as
a means of population control. in direct opposition to God's
command to man in the beginning to go forth into the world and
multiply. How man's mind is deceived that
he can take something as wicked as murder of a child and justify
it and reason it out as acceptable. And yet it's come in like a flood,
it's widespread. Millions have died at the hands
of these wicked laws. Again, in but the last 10, 20,
30 years, it's come in like a flood that these strange teachings
on gender, gender ideology, that there is no longer male or female. that we can choose to be whatever
we want something else entirely perhaps and that no longer does
a man marry a woman but men can marry men and women can marry
women and people can do whatever foolish nonsense they like in
direct opposition to God in the beginning he made them male and
female how they've taken marriage and trampled it underfoot, how
they've made it normal in our society in the present day for
young people to go and live together as man and wife who are not yet
married. And then maybe sometime when
they choose to, they'll eventually tie the knot, as they say. They're married from the day
they're brought together in God's eyes. Oh, the sexual immorality
that's come in and is accepted by foolish society as normal. It's overwhelming. So overwhelming
that nobody can see right from wrong anymore. Nobody knows right
from wrong. It's what everybody does. But
how it's come in, out like a flood. Again. Today the cry on everybody's
lips, the great concern we see in society is not people's souls,
is not where they stand before a holy God, is not the fact that
judgment is coming upon this earth and the wrath of God will
come one day and destroy this earth and bring it to an end. There is no sense of a need to
repent and turn to a holy God for salvation. Oh no, what's
troubling man is the change in the climate, how the world is
heating up, how our use of fuel and our lifestyles and this,
that and the other is causing a change in the world which we
must change, which we must halt. So the great rallying cry is
for everybody to change their circumstances because in so doing
we'll halt these changes in the climate as if they would. As if man can save the world
around him. Behind this thinking is a complete
rebellion against God. It says there is no God. It says
this world is not God's. He's not ruling over it, we are. And there's a complete foolishness
in thinking that what is going on in the society, in the world
around us and in the climate around us can be remedied by
the actions of men. It cannot. They will do all the
changes that they plan. They will spend millions. They
will uproot society and turn it upside down and still the
destruction will come. Because man loves to be his own
saviour. Man loves to think he can save
the world and make it a wonderful place. And he's learned nothing
from history that every generation hates one another. Every generation there is warfare,
every generation there is sickness, every generation there is trouble.
This world is getting worse, not better. Yet man loves to
be his own saviour, man loves to take the throne of God and
place himself on it. This past year we've seen this
pandemic in the world. We've seen a sound of judgement
and oh how foolish man is, oh we'll turn to the science, we'll
find the answers, we'll sort everything out. Do you not know
that God rules on high and he can send a plague that could
put everyone in the grave if he wills? And he only doesn't
because he would have you hear the gospel and turn from sin
and turn from destruction and turn to life, not death. But will you hear? No. Because the lies and the deception
of Satan all around us are overwhelming. They're all around us and they're
all within us. We believe what we hear without
because our hearts say amen to the lies we are told. Because
our hearts don't want to turn unto God and accept the truth. All these things we see in society
are aimed to undermine the truth at its very heart. Satan has
sent these things in like a flood and he wraps them up with a rainbow. Peace, peace he says when there
is no peace. The liar that he is. God gave
the rainbow as a sign when he delivered Noah and his house
from the judgment that he would not send judgment again until
the end of time. He sent peace. He sent in that
sign a picture of the gospel. He said to the world, I have
delivered by grace a people from judgment. Look unto me. And Satan comes in our day and
age and takes the very same and says, look unto me, save yourself. Yes, Satan would include all
in his deception. He's very diverse and he's very
inclusive. But he hates the people of God. Likewise, there have come in
at his hand floods of deception in the churches. the forms of
godliness, the outward appearances of righteousness, the will of
man in religion, the works of men in religion, all the building
up of men's towers of Babel under heaven that we see in the churches. It's all of man, how he will
get to God. and it's coming like a flood.
It's throughout all false religion. Underneath the veneer of righteousness,
underneath their taking of Jesus' name, underneath their quoting
and reading the Bible, underneath their praise songs and their
worship songs, underneath the whole thing is a Setting up of
man on the throne of God, men choose to accept Jesus. Men make themselves right before
a holy God. We've gone this way, we make
the decision. It's coming like a flood, a deception,
it's overwhelming such that no one can see right from wrong.
They think they're worshipping God when they're worshipping
Satan. In Jesus' name, he comes in and
masquerades before them and says, lo, here is Christ, lo, here
is Christ. There's nothing of God in it.
It's overwhelming. They gather in their great synagogues,
in their great companies, with their well-orchestrated stages,
and their lighting, and their well-orchestrated music. They
take the entertainment of the world, they take the music of
the world, the band on the stage, the orchestration. Oh, how righteous
they are! Oh, how glorious! God is on our
side! Look at the numbers that are
coming in! But they come in because they're of the world, coming
into the world to seek, to worship as the world, a God that suits
the world. They come to build their tower
of Babel under heaven. comes in like a flood, it's overwhelming,
you cannot discern right from wrong, you cannot see the lie
of it except God comes in his gospel and opens your eyes to
see that there's no Christ in the midst to you. That if Christ
came into this church, he would come as he came into the temple
of old and overturn the tables of the money changers. They've
made his house like a den of thieves. They've come in like
a flood and overwhelmed his people and taken over, but it's all
lies. And likewise, there is the deception
of our own hearts. Our own hearts, even when we've
come to hear something of the truth. Even when we're brought
up under the truth of the Gospel, even when we have the right Bible
and have read the Bible and have heard messages preached and think
we know something of the truth, how we can be deceived by our
own flesh. Oh how pride can overcome us. those who've stood against the
tidal wave in society and the tidal wave in the churches, those
who've been brought out from amongst them and separated and
here we are in our meeting under the sound of the truth and we
say unto ourselves well we haven't been deceived We haven't gone
with them. We haven't gone that way. We've
stood fast in the faith. We're not like unto these sinners. Oh I thank you God that I'm not
like unto these Armenian sinners. Unto these charismatic sinners.
Unto these sinners in the world. I'm not like unto them. Oh thank
you God for making me otherwise. And oh the pride. that soon comes
up in our own hearts as if it's something about us or something
that we've done, that we've stood fast, when it's nothing that
we've done. Of ourselves we have loved and
embraced every lie of Satan. that he spins in the world, that
he spins in the churches, and which he spins so convincingly
in our own hearts. He comes alongside us and says,
but you stood. You stood. You're not like them. You're better. You know right
from wrong. You've eaten of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. You know right from wrong. You're
like a god now. I know how he deceives us. He comes in with the truth as
near as he can get it to the truth of the gospel in Christ.
He's happy to deceive you right there at the door of God's sanctuary. He'll get you. He'll cast you
down. It's overwhelming. Satan sends
it all like a flood. It's overwhelming. And there's
only one answer. But God except God had been on
our side if it had not been the Lord who was on our side we would
have been swallowed up but God but God excludes his own he takes
them and he puts them in the ark like Noah was in the ark
he takes them and he puts them and he locks them up in his own
son Christ in his ark and He keeps them safely in His Son. In His Son who swallowed up the
wrath. In His Son who went through the
storms of God's judgment that they might not be swallowed up. In His Son that they might be
spared the flood. That's the only place that we
can be that will spare us from being overwhelmed. by the lies
and deception of Satan, especially those lies and deceptions
that come from within our own heart, which would look out upon
the wicked with some sort of envy of the freedom they appear
to have, but also some censorious judgment as though we are better.
David goes on, blessed be the Lord who have not given us as
a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird
out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we are
escaped. Here's our only hope. It's the
only thing that makes one to differ from another. Blessed
be the Lord, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird
out of the snare of the fowl, as the snare is broken and we
are escaped. Escaped, delivered, saved. We haven't saved ourselves, we
haven't escaped by our own wisdom, our own dexterity, our own swiftness
of foot. We've been delivered. God caused
the way of escape. He took us and put us in the
ark. Oh what joy there is in David's
words here. What elation we see. We are escaped. They came and they would have
swallowed us up. They were overwhelming and we're
escaped. Israel knew it when Egypt pursued
them to the Red Sea. There was the sea ahead. There
were the Egyptians in their hordes behind them. There was certain
death coming upon them. And the Lord parted the waves
and led them through dry shod and then brought the waters back
down upon the Egyptians behind. He delivered them. They're escaped. They couldn't believe it. It
was unbelievable. It was impossible. But God makes
the impossible possible. We are escaped. Are you? Has God brought you to Christ? Has he brought you to an end
of yourself? Knowing you're nothing and knowing
you're overwhelmed. You're drowning, you're sunk,
you're lost. You've got no hope. Has he brought
you to him and plucked you out of the waters? and put you within
the ark and cause you to escape. If you have, then you will join
in with David at the end when he cries out, our help is in
the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Our help is
in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Our help. We need help. Here, as the psalm
concludes, the gaze is lifted up once more to heaven, to the
Lord, to the place and to the one unto whom the people of God
here, as they sang these songs of degrees, were gradually ascended. We take our journey from this
sinful veil of tears below up towards Zion above, looking up
to the one place and the one upon the throne who can save
us. We're lifted up to look unto Christ. Our help is in the name
of the Lord and nowhere else. To look anywhere else will overwhelm
you. If you look to man, you'll be
overwhelmed. If you look to men's religion,
you'll be overwhelmed. If you look to your own self,
you'll be overwhelmed. You'll see nothing but sin in
every place. Nothing but misery, nothing but
despair. But if God lifts you up by grace
and declares his son unto you and says, look unto my son, then
you will find help. everlasting help, eternal help,
true help. Our help is in Christ, the name
of the Lord. Christ, Joshua, Jehovah, who
saves. Jehovah's Saviour, God saves. Our help is in the name of the
Lord, our help is in believing and knowing the God who saves. Not the God who makes salvation
possible, not the God who offers salvation to you if you but will,
but the God who when you are drowning, when you are lost,
when you are gone, when you are overwhelmed, comes unto you and
plucks you out and saves. Jehovah saves, Joshua, Christ,
our help is in the name of the Lord, our help is in him who
was swallowed up for his people that they might escape the wrath
to come. It is He who went through what
this psalm describes. Everything that David describes
here, when he says that if the Lord had not been on our side,
we would have been swallowed up. When their wrath was kindled
against us, the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream
would have gone over our souls, the proud waters would have gone
over our soul. All those with their teeth coming
upon Him as prey, coming upon him as a bird, taken in the snare
of a fowler. All their opposition, all their
hatred was brought upon Christ. David himself knew something
of this. He knew what it was to be pursued.
He knew what it was to be hounded unto death. He knew what it was
to have Saul chasing him and trying to put him to death and
have many others hate him and bring him into such straits.
But through David's words we have the experience of Christ
here. He was hounded unto death from the day he was born. Herod sought to slay the firstborn
in Bethlehem. He sought Christ born in Bethlehem. He sought to put him to death
from the day he was born. His parents had to take him away
to Egypt to spare him the destruction of man. From the day that Christ
went out preaching in his public ministry, the Jews, the scribes,
the Pharisees sought constant ways to put him to death. He
was hounded to death every day of his life. They'd have swallowed
him up. They'd have devoured him with
their teeth. They'd have trapped him in their
snare. And when the appointed hour came that God decreed that
He should deliver His people from their sins, they did. They
took Him and they led Him away and they nailed Him to a tree
and they crucified Him. And when they crucified Him,
God took Him and laid upon Him as the substitute of His people,
as the Lamb of God slain for His own. He laid upon him the
sins of his elect and made him to be sin in their place and
poured out the righteous judgment and wrath of God upon him. He
was opposed. He was swallowed up. He felt
the flood in order to save his people from
their sins. He felt the flood. He was overwhelmed. But the Lord, the Father, was
on his side. And he took the sin, he took
the flood, he took the judgment, he took the hatred, he took your
hatred, my hatred, he took the hatred of all his people, he
took the hatred, he took the sin, and he took it away. And
he took the wrath of God away, he took the judgment away, the
Lord was on his side. And he looked up when he was
hanging in the darkness upon the tree, consumed in the wrath
of God, he looked up to his Father, in faith, in trust, knowing that
though he was being tormented, that though he suffered an eternity
of wrath, in the end, he would be delivered. In the end, his
soul would be satisfied. In the end, he would rise again
victorious. And in the end, he did. At the
last moment, he cried out, it is finished. God's wrath was
quenched. Every last sin was taken away. He was victorious. and they laid
him in the grave and early on the first day of the week the
Son of God rose and all his people rose up in him. Victorious. When men rose up against him,
when we rose up against him, he laid down his life for his
elect. We hated him as believers and
yet he loved us. We poured out our sin upon him
as a flood to overwhelm him and he poured out his righteousness
in love upon us. We by our sins, our unbelief
and our hatred of God and our hatred of Christ put him to death. But he, in dying, brought us
to life. Did he do it for you? If it had not been the Lord who
was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they had
swallowed us up quick. Know this for a fact. that if
the Lord is not on our side, we will be swallowed up. You
will be swallowed up. You will be swallowed up as you
journey through this world. Often you will be let down. Often
you will be hated. Often you will be despised. Often
you will know trouble. Sickness will come your way.
And in the end your life will be taken away. And in the wrath
of God, will swallow you up for eternity. But if the Lord's on
your side, if Christ in love laid down his life for you, then
you will live and reign forever. Our help is in the name of the
Lord who made heaven and earth. Oh may God look upon us in peace. and love and mercy and grace
and by his gospel lead us under his son the one saviour of sinners. Amen.