Let's look back at Psalm 17. I'm going to try to do something
tonight I want to do. You see me get up here with this
manuscript, you know, it's out of character for me. But I did
a little work last night on Psalm 17, and I want to look at it
very carefully, not having you turn anywhere else in your Bible,
just a good, hard look at the 17th Psalm. Now, right under Psalm 17, you
see the number of the Psalm, it says, a prayer of David. Now, twice in the Scripture,
and I don't find this said of any other man or any other woman.
I'm sure that others were, but I don't find it said of anyone
but David. And that twice, he was a man
after God's own heart. That's what scripture says, a
man after God's own heart. When David was a man of prayer,
I'm confident that David certainly would not have been a man after
God's own heart if he had not been a man of prayer. And this
is called a prayer of David. Actually, and I noticed this
when I left Psalm 17, just started turning through the Psalms, all
of David's Psalms are filled with prayer. He'll be writing
on any subject, then he'll just explode into prayer. He'll be
writing on something and then he'll start talking to God. He'll
be talking about the people, he'll be talking about God's
glories, he'll be talking about... and then he'll turn and say something
to the Lord in a heart prayer. Now, this psalm, someone called
it this. It's called here a prayer of
David, but someone called it this. They said it's an appeal
to heaven, an appeal to heaven concerning the trials and persecutions
of this earth. And that is kind of a summary
of this 17th psalm. You'll see that as we go along.
It is an appeal to heaven, a prayer of David. concerning a particular
subject, and that is the trials and persecutions of this earth.
Now, another thing about this psalm, just making you acquainted
with it, the smell of the furnace of affliction is upon this psalm. You can smell it. You can smell
heat and trial and suffering. It is the cry of a man who knows
something about oppression. It's the heart cry of a man who
knows something about affliction. It's the heart cry of a man who
was much troubled by many enemies. But the last verse, he got the
victory. The last verse indicates and
clearly reveals that the one who wrote this psalm came through
the trial unharmed. He says all these things in 14
verses, and then he comes down to the victorious note, but he
says, ask for me. Ask for me. I'm not shaken. I'm not defeated. I'm not consumed. Ask for me. Don't know about
everybody else. But ask for me. I will continue to behold the
face of my Lord in righteousness. And when all this is over, I'll
be completely satisfied when I awake with his likeness. Now
another thing, I've never seen this before, I was reading a
sermon by Spurgeon a few days ago and I marked, well it's been
a few weeks ago, and I marked good by it and stuck a bookmark
in the book and I turned back to it yesterday and he said this,
listen, you'll have to think a minute to get hold of this,
it would be difficult to say to which we owe the most, to
David's friends or to his enemies. It would be difficult to say
to which we owe the most, to David's strength or to his weakness. Let me give you an illustration.
I know, I know David's writings concerning the sheep and the
shepherd, how blessed they are, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want." When he talks about, I was glad when they said it
to me, let's go into the house of the Lord. As for me, he said
on another occasion, I'd rather be a doorkeeper, a custodian
in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked. Then
another, make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands come
before his presence with singing and so forth. And then the psalm
Dale read tonight, praise ye the Lord upon the hearts, upon
the organs, the lutes and timbrels and dance and all these things.
And that's great when he talks about the covenant blessings
of God to Israel and the holiness and glory of God and the house
of God and the sheep and the shepherd. But wait a minute.
Had not David, I'm going to give you several things here, had
not David had the experience of being hunted like a deer,
on the mountain, chased by Saul, hated by men. Had not David known
the fickle friendship of one who one time called him my son,
had not David experienced heartache in his family, O Absalom, Absalom
my son, would God I had died for you. If David had not known
the sorrow of death among his loved ones and his close friends,
had not David felt the guilt of his own sins and fouls, had
not David experienced the chastening hand of God, had not David felt
the wrath of wicked men, had not David been deserted by those
who claimed to love him, Absalom and all the others, had not David
walked the valley of repentance and climb the mountain of faith,
where would be the Psalms of David which speak such comfort
to the people of God?" You see, you can't write what you don't
know. You can't write what you haven't experienced. And all
of these Psalms that you read, that one time he said, are the
heavens brass? Will God never hear me again?
Is God clean gone? Is His mercy clean gone forever?
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness. Blot out
my iniquities. My sins are ever before me."
These psalms with which you identify and these psalms in which you
find such great comfort, they would never have been written
had not he experienced those things. See what I'm saying?
And that's what Spurgeon meant when he said, I don't know to
which we owe the most. David's friends are his enemies.
I'm glad he had enemies so he could tell me about them. I'm
glad he had these experiences so he could write about them
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And you cannot,
you don't even believe what you don't experience, let alone are
you able to write about it. So where would they be? Most
of the Psalms, somebody said most of the blessed Psalms were
wrung out of David by the hand of trial. Most of them were wrung
out of David by the hand of affliction. And we profit by them. Everything
that God brings into a man or woman or young person's life
is for his glory, God's glory, for our good and for the health
of others. Everything. All right, now this
psalm, let's look at it more carefully now. It's divided into
five parts. I have it divided that way. In
my Bible here, I have it marked in five parts. Now, the first
part is verses 1 through 4. I know you're not going to remember
all of this, but it's divided into five parts. Now, in these
four verses, now listen to me. In these four verses, and then
we'll read them, David looks to God for justice. In these
four verses, David looks to God for justice and truth in the
controversy between him and his enemies, between him and those
who hate him, between himself and those who seek his fall.
David looks to God for justice and right and truth in this controversy
and in this great trial. Now let me say this before we
read these verses. A person, say you're in a trial
and a conflict and you have enemies and you have those who are bringing
wrath to bear upon your trouble, upon your affliction or persecution
or hard word, you do no good debating with an enemy. You do no good debating. You
accomplish nothing answering your adversary, nothing whatsoever.
You do no good coming to your own defense. You know where we're
to look? To Him. You see, God said, vengeance
is mine, I'll repay. It's not your business. You know,
when Michael the archangel encountered Satan in that conflict over the
body of Moses, whatever, but when he encountered Satan, he
didn't rail against Satan and argue with Satan and debate with
Satan, he just said, the Lord rebuked thee. The battle is the
Lord's, it's not mine. It's His. And so we do no good. We do no good. And David didn't
do that. And you'll see in a moment, he
even asked for grace not to answer. He asked for grace not to reply. He asked for grace not to defend
himself. Not at all. Leave him alone.
That's what Christ said about the Pharisees. When the disciples
came and said, now the Pharisees didn't like this and didn't like
that, He said, leave them alone. Leave them alone. God will handle
them. It's not your business. Now watch, that's what these
first four verses are teaching. Now look at verse 1. Hear the
right, O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer,
that goeth not out of fain lips. Now look up here a minute, listen.
Here's what David says there. Hear my righteous cause, O Lord. Hear my righteous cause. I have
a cause for which I stand, and it's a righteous cause, and I
want you to hear it. I want you to listen to my cry.
I want you to give ear to a prayer that comes not out of hypocritical
lips. What I'm saying and what I'm
looking to you to supply is out of a sincere heart and faithful
lips. Now, that must be the truth.
or we waste our time going any further. Hear my righteous call
and cause, O Lord, listen to my prayer which comes out of
a sincere mouth and faithful lips. Verse 2, let my sentence
come forth from thy presence. Let thine eyes behold the things
that are equal. Here's what he's saying. Let
my vindication come from you. Let my vindication, let my justification
come from you. It matters not what men think.
Your eyes behold things as they really are. That's what he's
saying. Your eyes look upon the heart. God said, I don't look
on the outward countenance. God looks on the heart. And David
is saying, you look upon the heart and you behold things that
are just and right. So let my sentence, let my justification,
let my vindication come from your presence. Let your eyes
behold things as they are, equal, as they are. God sees things
as they are. We see things as we think they
are. We judge by a lot of different standards, but God Almighty knows
things as they are. That's what David is saying.
Now you hear my righteous, judge my righteous cause. And let my
vindication come from you, because I speak with an unfeigned mouth,
and you know these things that are just and equal. No man can
deceive God. Now verse 3, listen. Let me read
it and then comment on it. Thou hast proved my heart. David
says, I'm no stranger to you. I'm no stranger to you. Yeah,
he said, you've proved me. You've proved me. You've visited
me in the night. You've tried me and shall find
nothing. Now let's stop right there a
moment. Here's what David is saying. I know this is true.
I'm no stranger to you, Lord. You have proved my heart. You
have visited me in the night. You have dealt with me in mercy
and grace. You have revealed yourself to
my heart. You have tried me and found nothing."
Now, what he's saying is not, I'm perfect and pure and without
fault. What he's saying, if you stay
with the text, he's saying you've found nothing hypocritical in
the sense in which these men accuse me. You've found no hypocrisy. You know me. I'm no stranger
to you. You have proved me. You have
visited me in the night. You know me and I know you. That's
what David is saying. You found nothing hypocritical. You found no evil purpose in
me. That's what he said. Our relationship
is a genuine relationship. Our relationship is one based
upon your grace and your mercy and your revelation and you found
nothing evil that is an evil purpose in me. Now watch the
next line. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.
Now here's what he's saying. I am purposed, I have purposed
that my mouth shall not transgress. That is, I will not rail on my
enemies. I will not use their tactics.
I'm not, because they transgress with their mouths, I'm not going
to transgress with my mouth. I'm not going to question the
good providence of God. I'm not going to transgress with
my mouth in finding fault with God's providence in this trial
and affliction. I'm going to keep my mouth shut
toward men and toward God. That's what Job said when they
kept bringing him that bad news. Here's one of the key things
in the book of Job. Job put sackcloth and ashes on
his head, he put sackcloth on and ashes on his head, and he
worshipped God, and the Scripture said he did not charge God with
foolishness. He did not sin in this respect.
So what David is saying, he's saying, Lord, hear my righteous,
judge my righteous calls. Let my vindication come from
your presence. I'm no stranger to you. You've
proved me. You've tried me. You've bested
me in the night. And you've found nothing hypocritical
in me. No evil purpose in me. And I
have purpose that my mouth will not transgress in this matter.
I'm not going to find fault with God's providence. I'm not going
to find fault with God's purpose. And I'm not going to quarrel
and debate against men. I'm not going to rail on men.
I'm not going to transgress with my mouth. Now verse 4. Concerning
the works of men, their railings, their accusations, their harshness,
their persecutions, concerning the works of men, these evil
works, this evil persecution, listen to him, concerning their
works, by thy word, by the word of your lips, by the word of
your lips, I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer."
Now here's what he's saying. concerning these works of men,
these evil works, this harshness, these railings, these accusations,
these persecutions, only by your word, standing on your word,
looking to your word, trusting your word, will I myself avoid
the path of the destroyer. David chose to follow the word
of the Lord and not the paths of anger and flesh and malice
and quarreling and debate. Now, we, every one of us, would
imitate the ways of Satan in trials if we didn't look to the
Word. That's where we get our strength. That's where David
is saying, in order to keep my mouth from transgressing, in
order to keep my feet from following the path of the destroyer, I've
got to look to God's Word. I've got to find my example and
my instructions right here. The Lord Jesus Christ, it is
said, when he was reviled, he answered not again. Rather, he
looked upon his enemies and he said, Father, forgive them. Forgive
them. They know not what they do. And
this is what David is saying in these first four verses. He's
calling out to God. He's looking to God for justice.
He's looking to God for truth in this controversy. And he said,
Lord, You judge this righteous cause. You hear my cry. You hear my cry. My cry doesn't
come from hypocritical lips. Lord, You know me. I'm no stranger
to You. You've visited me in the night.
You've tried me. You've proved me. You've found
no evil purpose in me. And Lord, I purpose that I'll
not sin with my lips, I'll not find fault with your purpose
and your good providence, and I'll not rail on men, and I'll
not follow the path of the destroyer. I'm going to look to your Word
for my instructions and my example, and I'm going to do what it says
here, not what it says here, and not what it says here. I'm
not going to be caught up in their ways. and in their passions
and in their debates and in their arguments and getting even and
finding, getting vengeance and all these things, I'm going to
let you deal with the whole thing. I'll look to you. All right,
notice the second part now, verses 5 through 8. David requests grace. This is what the next verses
5 through 8. is dealing with this subject.
David requests grace from the Lord to act rightly in time of
trial. He wants to act in a right manner.
You know, somebody says two wrongs don't make a right. Someone do
you wrong and all these things. And you're getting even and lashing
back and saying hard things. This doesn't do any good. This is not the way. And so David
asks for grace. And somebody said this, under great trial, it is not
easy to behave aright. Sometimes we know what's right,
but we don't behave that way. It's not easy. It's not easy
to remain calm when everybody else is upset. It's not easy
to remain peaceful when everybody else has got their shotguns loaded.
It's not easy to remain contented when everybody else is discontented.
Now listen to this, this is worth the whole sermon, and I wish
I'd have said it. A candle is not easy to keep
burning when a dozen mouths are trying to blow it out. Now you think about that a little
while. A candle is not easy to keep burning. I'm going to let
my light shine. It ain't easy to let your light
shine when there's about a dozen mouths trying to blow it out.
So David calls for divine grace in verses 5 through 8. Listen,
in verse 5 he said, Hold up my goings in thy path. I looked
at that and I thought, that doesn't... I was born 1900 years too late
or 3000 years too late. I don't quite understand what
he's saying. Hold up my goings in thy path. It's God's path
that I'm in, the righteous path, the path of righteousness and
holiness and truth. But hold me up in it. Hold me
up. Now here's what I found, the
best thing I found, all the suggestions. David suggests a careful driver
holding back a horse and a wagon on a hill. Holding him back. That horse, he's on that path,
you know, and that careful driver knows the treacherous way, and
he holds back that horse, wanting to go, but he holds him back.
And that's what David said, hold me back, Lord. He's praying for
grace. When all this railing is against him and this conflict
and trouble, he says, hold my goings. Hold my goings. I'll
go if you don't hold me. I'll go. I'll go where this old
flesh says go. Hold my goings in thy paths that
my footsteps slip not. What? A believer slip in the
path of God? Oh, yeah, the road's good, the
way is good, but our feet are frail, and they can even slip
on the king's highway. So hold me, restrain me, hold
me back. I pray for grace. Verse 6, I've
called upon thee. I look not to the flesh, I've
called upon thee. I have called, I look not the
well from which we draw, our living waters never dry. I call
upon thee. I know no man after the flesh."
Paul said, I used to know the Lord Jesus, but not anymore that
way. I call upon thee, for thou wilt
hear me, O God. Thou wilt hear me. Men won't
hear you, but God will hear you. Incline your ear to me, Lord,
and hear my speech. You will hear me, he says. Now
look at verse 7. The whole thing he's doing here,
he's praying for grace in this time of difficulty. Show thy
marvelous lovingkindness. He didn't say, Lord, let me show
my love. He said, you show your love.
You show your marvelous lovingkindness. Lord, here's what he's saying,
put on display in my conduct and behavior your love. Your
love. I ain't got no love of my own.
God gives it. It's His love. It's His grace. Somebody says, I'm going to demonstrate
my humility. What's humility? You'll demonstrate
His grace. Put on display your marvelous
loving kindness. Put on display your love, your
mercy, your kindness. Show it to me. Show it to my
mind. Show it to my heart. Show it
to my faith. Show it to my enemies. Show it to the world. You know
why he's praying this? Because sometimes God's lovingkindness
is hidden. That's right. Sometimes it's
hidden. Sometimes it's not on display
like he wanted here. Oh, Lord, show your marvelous
lovingkindness. Oh, listen to this. Oh, thou
that savest by thy right hand them that put their trust in
thee. Now, you've got to take two hitches at that. I know already
some of you have looked at your marginal reference there, and
it says down there in 13, down there at verse 7, "...or them
that trust in thee, save from those that rise up against thy
right hand." But now, there are two ways to read this. Let me
read the first way. He gives God a title. He says,
O thou that savest by thy right hand. Who's his right hand? Who's
on his right hand? Christ. O thou that savest by
Christ, them that put their trust in thee from those that rise
up against them. Now that's the first and the
best, and I like that. I like that. I like the other
two. And there's nothing wrong with the Scriptures by focal.
It has its first application, then it has dozens of others.
We listen to this, "...O thou that savest them from those that
rise up against thy right hand." When a man rises up against a
true child of God, who's he rising up against? Christ said, "...inasmuch
as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it to
me." So that's all right. That's true. So either way, you
want to read it. David said, "...show your marvelous
lovingkindness. O thou that savest by thy right
hand, by Christ, by Him who sits on thy right hand, by the victorious
Mediator, thou that savest by thy right hand them that put
their trust in thee, save us from those that rise up against
us." But I like this too. Save them that trust in thee
from those that rise up against thy right hand. Because any affront
or attack upon God's people is an attack upon God's Son. It's
an attack upon God's right hand. All right, now watch this, verse
8. Keep me as the apple of the eye. You know, I wonder if some
of our pet sayings are not scripturally motivated. I asked somebody the
other day, I wish somebody would find out this for sure, but have
you ever looked at the medical ins and outs, call it a medical
sign, the pole and the serpent around the pole? I wonder if
that came from Moses looking to the serpent. It might have.
And then I hear people say, oh, he's the apple of his father's
eye, or she's the apple of her mother's eye. But actually, the
word apple here Now listen to me, I'm not butchering the scripture. It's pupil. I think it's in your
reference right there. No, it doesn't give it here,
does it? Keep me as the apple of thine eye. He's saying here,
now watch this. Somebody said, no part of the
body is protected like the eye. No part of the body is protected
like the eye. It gets as much attention from us. And there's
no part of the eye That's as precious and protected as a pupil,
or as sensitive. And so here's what David's praying,
and it goes right with the text. Lord, save us from them that
attack thy right hand, or save by thy right hand them that rise,
us, trust thee from them that rise up against, and keep us
as the pupil of your eye. The most sensitive part of the
whole body. Keep me like a man to keep the
pupil of his eye. That's what he's saying there.
Hide me under the shadow of thy wings. Hide me like a hen gathers
her little chickens, her little bitties, under her wings and
protects. See, he's praying for God's protection
and God's grace. Now, here's the next division,
verse 9 through 12. David describes his enemies.
He seeks protection from enemies whom he describes. Now, first
verse 9, he says they're wicked. They're wicked. Save me, hide
me from the wicked that oppress me. The wicked that oppress me. They're wicked men. They're God's
enemies. Our enemies are really... Now, I wish I could get all of
us to see this, and it'd help us a whole lot. You say, well,
they don't like me. They do this against me, and
they say things about me. Let me tell you something. If
you are a child of the King and if you're standing far and preaching
and proclaiming the truth of God's grace and the right spirit,
your enemies are not after you at all. They're after God. They're not after you. We're
insignificant in this whole affair. Satan's not after you. He uses
you to get at him. That's exactly right. Satan is
not... We could matter little. Somebody says, Satan's after
my soul. No, he's after your Lord. Absolutely. He's after
the Lord's church. And he'll use one person, two
or three. He doesn't care who it is. But
always, David calls them wicked because they're God's enemies.
He doesn't call them wicked because they don't agree with him. You
couldn't call a man wicked because he doesn't agree with you. They're
wicked in the sense that they're attacking the Lord, His church. His people, His kingdom, His
purpose, His glory, His gospel, and David says they're deadly
enemies. Deadly. You know what he means by that?
They seek David's destruction. Nothing but his death, nothing
but his total fall will satisfy them. Nothing. They want him
obliterated, they want him wiped out, they want him destroyed.
They're deadly enemies and they don't play games. These people
motivated by Satan don't play games. They're after your destruction. They're wicked in that they hate
God, and secondly, they're deadly in that they're set for your
total destruction. They're my deadly enemies, deadly
enemies. They encompass me about. And
verse 10 says they're enclosed in their own fat. He's not talking
about obesity there. He's talking about worldly prosperity.
Good health, success, that which puffs men up, pride that makes
them senseless to spiritual truth. You know what a man said one
time? He was speaking on the Scripture in Revelation where
it says we're rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing
and you don't know that you're naked, poor, miserable and blind.
He said full bellies usually mean empty skulls. Full bellies, prosperity, success,
pride, usually mean empty skulls and hard hearts. He said this,
he said, the rankest weeds grow in the richest soil, where the
soil is rich and well kept and fed. In other words, where there's
a famine, where there's pestilence and famine and no water, it takes
grace for anything to grow. But boy, you've got that rich,
Pure soil and the weeds will grow there just like the good,
just like the wheat. The tares will grow just as well
as the wheat. With their mouths, he said, they speak proudly.
In verse 11, they encompassed us in our steps. Now notice he
changes from me to us. He changes from I to us. They
encompassed us. In other words, the ungodly man's
fury is not aimed at one believer, not at one believer, aimed at
all believers. It's aimed at all of them. It's
aimed at the whole congregation of the Lord. It's not at one.
It's at all the believers. The prince of darkness would
disrupt all of God's kingdom. He zeroes in on one to use him
as an instrument. But he wants all of them, not
all of them, to be destroyed and to be divided and to be wounded. And he says, what's this right
here? This is some picture here, verse 11. They have now accomplished
us, all of us, in our step. They have set their eyes bowing
down to the earth." What did that suggest? Well, I looked
everywhere, and I finally found one that satisfied me. Did you
ever... You know, I was down in Mississippi
one time at a farm. I can't tell you whose
farm it was, I can't remember, but I went out in the field,
And he had an old bull out there. And we went out in the field,
and we were walking near to that old bull, and I just happened
to be looking at him. And he looked at me, and then he bowed
his eyes to the ground like this, and then looked up and bowed
his eyes again and started coming. And I ran and jumped the fence,
you know. And the man that wrote about this said that these enemies
are so full of wrath like a mad bull, and when they're getting
ready to charge, their eyes go down to the ground. Did you ever
see one do that? He's not even looking at you, but he's thinking
about you, and his eyes go right down to the ground. And those
horns, those instruments of destruction, they level off right at you.
He senses you and feels you, but his eyes are down to the
ground. And that's what David says, they set their eyes bowing
down to the earth, and like a lion, That's greedy for his prey. And
there's a young lion who lurks softly and secretly, waiting
for an opportune time to pounce. That's the way. These enemies
are subtle and crafty. In verse 13, he goes to another
subject here, and he prays that his enemies will be disappointed.
That they'll be disappointed. He says, Shake thyself, Lord,
arise." And it's like he said, put on display your loving kindness. Sometimes it's hidden. Sometimes
it seems like God is clean gone. Sometimes it seems like God is
just letting His child be the object of arrows and darts and
spears and the hate of wicked men. It just seems like God has left
him to stand there alone. And David said, Arise, O Lord! Arise, O Lord! Disappoint him!
Disappoint him. Disappoint him. Cast him down. Cast him down. Deliver my soul
from the wicked by thy sword. That's what Bob read a while
ago, by thy sword. What is his sword? His word. Verse 14, from men which are
which are thy hand, O Lord, for men by thy hand, O Lord. Deliver
me, my soul, by your sword, for men, deliver me with your hand,
for men who have their portion in this life." This is all they
have. Don't get too angry with them.
This is all they have. I thought sometimes when people
are so hard against the gospel and hate it so much, you say,
well, Lord, just kill them. No, don't do that. Don't do that.
All they got is here. Let them enjoy it. Don't, don't,
don't, don't do that. Don't leave their children without
a father. Don't leave their wives without
a husband or a husband without a wife. Don't, don't do that.
That's not what David's asking. Not what he's asking. Because
they have their portion in this life, and their bellies are filled
with our hid treasures. Their bellies are filled with
riches. They're full of what they want.
That's what he said. Full of what they want, and they're full
of children that are just like them. They give birth to children
just like them. And this is one thing I've found,
that our children usually follow our example in leadership. They
usually do. They're usually influenced and
affected greatly by the attitude of parents, spirit of parents,
conversation of parents, criticism of parents, and so forth. And
they leave the rest of their substance, they enjoy what they
have, and then they leave the rest of it to their babes. Now
verse 15 is the last division. And we'll wind up with this.
He said, but as for me, whether I'm shepherd, soldier, or king,
as for me, whether I'm in joy of the mountaintop or the sorrow
of the valley, as for me, whether in trial or comfort, as for me,
I have no envy with those wicked men, those deceitful, deadly
enemies. I have no jealousy of what they
are, who they are, what they have. I have no covetousness.
I have no defense in the face of the flesh. As for me, I'm
going to continue to behold thy face in righteousness." That's
what that says right now. Whether in trial or comfort,
I will continue to behold thy face so as through Christ to
partake of your righteousness. I'm going to behold my righteous
God. I'm going to turn my eyes away
from my trial to my King. I'm going to turn my eyes away
from my enemies I've never yet ever barked at a dog that barked
at me. Have you? Let's learn from that.
You walk along the road and a dog will start barking at you, barking.
It gets irritating, gets on your nerves, but you've never belittled
yourself to get down on your hands and knees and bark back
at him. Have you? No, you just kind of smile and
say, poor dumb creature. And that's what David said, I'm
not going to get down on their level, I'm not going to get down
to the eye lowering and bowing, I'm not going to get down to
their type of conflict, and I'm not going to transgress with
my list, I'm going to keep on beholding thy face in righteousness,
in the righteousness of Christ. And then he talks about the resurrection.
And he said, when all this mess is over, I'll be satisfied when
I awake. with our likeness. I'm going
to be totally, completely satisfied. He looks to the day of resurrection.
Two looks. He looks right now to the righteousness
of Christ and beholds his blessed face. He's all I need. Mike leads us in saying that
he's all I need, my righteousness, wisdom, and sanctification and
so forth. But on the other hand, he's all I need. There's plenty of other things
I can use, there's plenty of other relationships that I can
enjoy. But when you talk about needing,
he's all I need. And I'll be satisfied when I
wake with his likeness. I hope that's a blessing to you.