Turn with me to Psalm 64. Psalm
64. Hear my voice. Oh God, in my prayer, preserve my life from fear of
the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel
of the wicked, from the insurrection, the scheming, plotting, and planning
of the workers of iniquity who wet their tongue like a sword.
and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words
that they may shoot in secret at the perfect. Suddenly do they
shoot at him and fear not. They encourage themselves in
an evil manner. They justify themselves. They
vindicate themselves. They commune of laying snares,
privily. They say, who shall see them?
They search out iniquities. They accomplish a diligent search. Both the inward thought of every
one of them and the heart is deep. But God shall shoot at
them with an arrow. Suddenly shall they be wounded. So shall, so they shall make
their own tongue to fall upon themselves. All that see them
shall flee away and all men shall fear and shall declare the work
of God, for they shall wisely consider of his doing. The righteous shall be glad in
the Lord, and shall trust in him, and all the upright in heart
shall glory. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in the name of thy son. And Lord, we come in his name
with boldness because we know you're pleased with him. And
we ask that you would hear our prayer for his sake. We ask in
his name that you would be pleased to meet with us. to speak to
our hearts from your word and Lord enable us to stand in awe
of thy son and worship him and trust him and glory in him. Lord, we ask that you would Forgive
us of our sins for Christ's sake. You taught us in your word to
pray that we would have the forgiveness of sins. When we pray and we
pray, we confess our sins and pray for forgiveness and cleansing. Lord, we ask through your son
that you'd accept our thanksgiving. We're so thankful for who you
are, that you're a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God. And
we give thanks for all your glorious attributes. Lord, we pray for
our friends that are sick in mind and body and spirit. We pray for your blessing upon
them. Wherever your word is preached,
we ask that you would bless it. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen. Now, most commentators believe
that this psalm was written when David was fleeing from Absalom,
and that would give us some understanding as to why he's speaking of those
who are speaking against him. Now look what he says in verse
two, hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked, from the
insurrection, from the plotting and scheming of the workers of
iniquity. He's on the run and this is how he feels about these
people, who wet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows
to shoot their arrows, even bitter words that they may shoot in
secret at the perfect Suddenly do they shoot at him and fear
not. They encourage themselves in an evil manner. They commune
of laying snares privily. They say, who shall see them?
They search out iniquities. They accomplish a diligent search
like a politician looking for muck to bring up. Both the inward
thought of every one of them and the heart is deep. Now David is experiencing slander,
persecution, ill will, people speaking evil of him. And every
one of us, listen real carefully, every one of us have experienced
that, people misrepresenting us. Every one of us have. And every one of us have dealt
it out. Every one of us have slandered people when we shouldn't
do it and spoken ill of people when we shouldn't do it. I want
to read a passage of scripture. I mean, we identify with David
so much, but in Ecclesiastes 7, verse 20, for there is not
a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Also take
no heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant
curse thee. Now you hear that? If you hear
your servant speaking evil of you, don't pay attention to it. Now, how do you go about that?
For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself
likewise has cursed others." You've done it. I've done it.
To our shame. But whenever you're slandered,
and you will be, whenever you're misrepresented, you will be. Listen to me saying this because
I always get angry. Don't take it to heart because you've done
the exact same things that they've done to you. So may the Lord
give us the grace to remember that whenever we're misrepresented,
whenever we're slandered. The Lord's in control of what
they said. And it was for our good. I think of David when Shemai
was cursing him and Abishai said, you want me to go take his head
off? He said, no. The Lord said, curse David. Everything
they've said, the Lord told them to say. And he's in control of
everything. Thank God for that. And you will
be misrepresented like David was. And you've done the same. May the Lord give us all the
grace to never misrepresent or slander anyone in any way again. That's never right. And David
is experiencing the pain of that as he is fleeing from Absalom. Now look what he says in verse
one, Psalm 64. Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer. Now he doesn't tell the Lord
what to do. He doesn't ask the Lord to execute
vengeance. He just says, hear my prayer.
Hear my prayer. Give ear to my voice. You know, anytime someone misrepresents
you, you know what the thing to do is? Nothing. Don't protect
yourself. Turn to Exodus chapter 14 for
a moment. Don't try to get vengeance. Don't
try to get even. The Lord said vengeance is mine.
I will repay, saith the Lord. Verse 13 of Exodus chapter 14,
and Moses said unto the people, fear not, stand still, and see
the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today. For
the Egyptians whom you've seen today, you shall see them again
no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you.
And you, what? Shall hold your peace. You're
not gonna vindicate yourself. You're not going to try to defend
yourself. Trust the Lord for that. He says, vengeance is mine,
I will repay, saith the Lord. So when David opens his thoughts
on being misrepresented and slandered, he says, hear my voice, oh God,
in my prayer, preserve me, keep me. Can't you pray that prayer
right now? Lord, preserve me, keep me. I'll go in every wrong direction,
I'll do everything wrong, Preserve me, keep me from the fear of
the enemy. Verse two, hide me from the secret
counsel of the wicked, from the plotting and scheming is what
insurrection means, from the plotting and scheming of the
workers of iniquity. which, here's what they do, who
wet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot
their arrows even bitter words. Now, I remember when I was a
kid, I would hear that song, sticks and stones may break my
bones and words will never hurt me. I thought, yeah, they can.
I mean, what can they do? They hurt a lot more, don't they?
And he felt the sting of this. Bitter words they shoot, and
their arrows, even bitter words. Verse four, that they may shoot
in secret at the perfect. Now here, David calls himself
and every believer the perfect. The perfect. If I'm in Christ, you know what
I am? Perfect. Perfect in Christ. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Every believer is perfect in
Christ Jesus, complete in Christ Jesus. I lack nothing. I stand
before God perfect. Somebody says, well, I'm not
perfect. I already knew that. And if I
say I'm not perfect, you've got that down already. But in Christ
Jesus, I am perfect. I am complete. I am without sin. I am without iniquity. Every
believer is perfect in Christ Jesus. And David is speaking
of these people, and he calls himself this, and every believer,
that they may shoot in secret at the perfect. Suddenly do they
shoot at him, and fear not. They're not afraid of what they're
doing. What I'm doing is right. They vindicate, they justify
themselves. Look in verse five. They encourage
themselves in an evil manner. They say, I've got a reason for
doing this. People deserve this. This is why I'm doing this because
they got it coming. I'm totally vindicated in my
actions. I don't have any problem with
it. They encourage themselves in
an evil manner. They commune of laying snares
in secret saying, who should see this? Who should see? I'm
not going to be exposed. I mean, really what I'm doing
is right. I'm not worried about it. They're
vindicating themselves in their evil words. Look what verse six
says. They search out iniquities. It
reminds me of a politician trying to destroy another politician,
so they try to search out things from their past to bring them
down. You know, if somebody wants to
search anything on any of us, there's skeletons in everybody's
closet. that can be brought up. And what a wicked thing to do,
to try to search out iniquities, to try to destroy somebody, to
try to bring them down. And this is this evil manner
they encourage themselves in, they search out iniquities. They
accomplish a diligent search, both the inward thought of everyone
and the heart is deep. What that means is it's the depths
of wickedness, who can know it? It's deep, you're not gonna reach
the bottom of it. And I think of what Jeremiah
said, the heart is what? Deceitful above all things. Desperately wicked. And that's my heart too, that's
your heart, that's the heart of all of us by nature. Deceitful
above all things. and desperately wicked, and that
person who is slandering you and accusing you and misrepresenting
you, their heart's deep. Who can know it? The Lord does
though, doesn't he? The Lord does. He's in control
of everything. Verse seven, but. I love the word but in the scripture.
But God. There's the difference, but.
But in spite of all this, God's on the throne. But Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. But God shall shoot at them with
an arrow. Suddenly shall they be wounded. Now David understood the character
of God and he knows that this will take place and God should
do this suddenly. You know, you and I don't need
to worry about anything. God's going to take care of everything.
He'll shoot, and he will shoot suddenly in his own time, and
he shall use the weapons that they use upon them. Look what
it says, but God shall shoot at them with an arrow. Suddenly
shall they be wounded, so they shall make their own tongue to
fall upon themselves. All that see shall flee away.
And here's what he's going to do. Their machinations, their
words, whatever it is they're planning to do, he's going to
turn it back around on them. There's a very real sense in
which this is true. What goes around comes around.
Now, I'm thankful in the gospel of grace. What goes around comes
around in the sense that I'm righteous in Christ, and I'm
gonna be rewarded for it. What goes around comes around,
and I'm gonna be accepted in the beloved, but it's also true. I think the best example of this
is Haman making those gallows to hang Mordecai on. He had it all planned out how
he was going to destroy Mordecai. Guess who was hanging on those
gallows that he prepared for Mordecai? And you can count on this, the
Lord always pays his debts. Do you know that not one sin
shall ever go unpunished? Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? We can rest in that. He will
do right. Verse eight, so shall they make
their own tongue to fall upon themselves and all the sea shall
flee away and all men shall fear. Now, when he says all men shall
fear, it's all men that fear shall fear. All men don't fear
God. All men have fears. We have the
fear of mistrust, the fear of not knowing what's going to happen.
We have the fear of loss. We have the fear of exposure. We have the fear of punishment.
All men have fears like that. But that's not what the fear
of God is. The fear of God is that awe and reverence and respect
of God that makes you afraid to look anywhere but Jesus Christ
alone. That, and nothing less, is the
fear of God. You have the fear of God. If
you're afraid to look anywhere but Christ, you can't look to
yourself for anything. You look to him as everything
in your salvation. Now that is the fear of God. And nothing less, that awe and
reverence and respect of God that makes you look to Christ.
And all men shall fear, And here's what folks who do fear do. They shall declare the work of
God. Now, everybody that fears God,
here's what they're gonna do. They're going to publicly declare,
they're going to identify with the message of the work of God. Now, when we talk about the work
of God, Creation is the work of God. He created the universe from
nothing as an act of His will. And we're just, I like to declare
that. Somebody says, I don't believe
that. I don't care whether you believe it or not, it's true.
This is God. He created the universe as an
act of His will, and He is in control of everything. When people
call that into question, it's just annoying, isn't it? Because
everybody knows, deep down, God created the universe. This is
His planet. You're breathing His air. You're
eating his food. The only reason you're alive
is because he wills it. This is his universe. He's the
creator. And the work of God, we're going
to declare the work of God, the work of God is everything that
happens in time, isn't it? Everything. Everything. He is the first cause behind. You know, people's objection
to that is, well, you're making God the author of evil when you
say that. God doesn't need my protection. I'm not going to
try to explain away for him. He controls everything. He said,
I make peace. I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. Somebody says, well, that's talking
about calamities. Well, it's talking about calamities
and everything else. God reigns. He controls everything. That's how Romans 8, 28 is, so
all things work together for good. To them that love God,
to them who are called according to his purpose. The lot's cast
into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. He controls everything. So whatever
we're talking about is his work. Most especially, salvation is
His work. We are trusting completely that
salvation is His work and His work alone. It's not by our works.
It's not by our doings. It's His work. God the Father
elected a people to salvation and gave them to His Son and
Christ Jesus worked out their salvation by his perfect obedience
and his sin-atoning death. He did it all. God the Holy Spirit
comes in regenerating power and gives life, salvations of the
Lord. And anybody who fears God, this
is going to be obvious. They declare his work, not by
works of righteousness, which we have done, No, salvation is
His work, and I find such joy in that. I find such peace in
that. Salvation is of the Lord, and
this is what we declare, and all men, verse nine, and all
men shall fear and shall declare the work of God, for they shall
wisely consider of His doing. Now, here's a wise consideration.
Everything is His work. Everything is His doing. And He is doing everything for
His own glory and for the glory of His Son. And we just don't
need to worry about anything, do we? Nothing to worry about. Everything is His doing. And
we love it that way, don't we? We wouldn't want it to be any
other way because we love Him. This is not just a fatalistic view. Well, whatever's
going to happen is going to happen. No, we love Him who controls
everything. We know He does right. Whatever
He does is best, glorious, altogether lovely. And the wise consideration
is to consider that everything is His doing. I love it that
way. And then He says in verse 10, The righteous shall be glad in
the Lord. It's his doing that makes a man
righteous. Now my righteousness is my righteousness,
but it's his righteousness made mine so that I am righteous. Every believer may have the very
righteousness of Jesus Christ as their personal righteousness.
Now, David, he's began this psalm with the glum, people speaking bad about me,
and then he remembers who's in control of that, and now all
of a sudden he's got back to the place where he remembers,
I'm righteous. I'm righteous. When God looks
at me, he looks at a righteous man, someone without sin, someone
without guilt. That's what righteousness is.
It's not part righteous and part sinful. You're all together righteous
in Christ. But notice how he says this.
The righteous shall be glad in the Lord. In the Lord. Of him are you in Christ Jesus. who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, the righteous
shall be glad in the Lord. There's only one place of peace
and safety and security and righteousness, it's in the Lord. So that when
God looks at me, all he sees is me being in Christ. Is that
what you want? I mean, is that really the desire
of your heart? Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in him. Not having my own righteousness.
I don't want to have anything. I don't want to have anything
to do with that. Anything that's got my fingerprints on it, get
rid of it. I don't want it. I want to be
found in him. The righteous shall be glad in
the Lord and shall trust in him. Now we trust, don't we? But that
trust is in him. The emphasis is not really our
trust, but the emphasis is in him. According as he has chosen
us in him. We're accepted in the beloved. That's where the righteous trust,
they trust in him, the righteous shall be glad in the Lord and
shall trust in him and all the upright in heart. Now that is
a description of every believer. What about your heart? You just
quoted that scripture that the heart is desperately wicked and
deceitful above all things, who can know it? How can you talk
about your heart as being upright in heart? Well, didn't the Lord
say, blessed are the, what? Pure in heart. Every believer
has got a new heart, a pure heart. That's the heart that believes.
That's the heart that sees the glory of Christ. Now, here's
what the upright in heart will do. The righteous shall be glad
in the Lord and shall trust in him, and all the upright in heart
shall Glory. What's that look like? Well,
let's end this up by turning to Galatians chapter six. You know, the gospel sheds a
lot of light on the Psalms, doesn't it? You can't possibly understand
the Psalms apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in the gospel,
you see the glory of everything that David says. The Psalms mirror
our experience. David expresses better than what
we can express ourself in all of his experiences. I'm so thankful
for the Psalms. He says the upright in heart,
those with new hearts. He said a new heart I'll give
you. Not an improved old heart, but a new heart. The new heart
I'll give you. Well, here's what it means when
they glory. Galatians chapter six, verse 12. As many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh. Well, look good. I want everybody
to see how holy I am, or how religious I am, or how committed
I am, or how used I am. A fair show in the flesh. That would represent all of man's
religion. A fair show in the flesh. As many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. They tell
you what you need to do. They tell you what work you need
to perform. Here's what you need to do to
reach my level. Here's what you need to do. They
constrain you to be circumcised. This is what you need to do to
please God. Why do they do this? Only lest
they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. They
give you something to do because that's gonna keep them from being
experiencing any of the persecution that's involved in preaching
the cross of Christ, Christ alone, the full salvation that's in
him. Verse 13, for neither they themselves who are circumcised
keep the law. They tell you to keep the law.
They don't keep it. Pure hypocrisy. They don't keep the law. They
tell you to, but they don't. but they desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. Look how I've been used by God
to help this person. I must be special. I've affected this person's life.
It's just glorying in the flesh. Now here's the glory that David
is speaking of and Paul speaks of. Paul says, but God forbid
that I should glory that I should have confidence in, that I should
boast in, that I should find rest in, that I should hope in
anything save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what I glory in, what
my Lord accomplished on Calvary's tree. I glory in that. I boast in that. I'm not boasting
anything in me, but oh, I'm boasting in Christ. I have boldness to
enter into the very holiest by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We glory in that, we boast, we rejoice, we hope, we have confidence
in. He says, now I'm not to glory
in anything except for the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me. You know, in light of the
cross, this is not talking about the planet. This is my father's
world. I love this planet. I love the
earth. And the Lord's going to change
it all. I realize that. But the values of the world,
the religion of the world, the maxims of the world, You know
what they are to me? Crucified. The values of the
world, they're worthless. In light of the cross of Christ,
they're worthless. And also, I'm crucified to the world. You
know, the way I feel about the world, the world feels that way
about me. And that is how we glory only in the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.