Psalm 4 | "Covenantal Peace: True Rest for the People of God"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

You and I live in a radically, radically, extremely humanistic age.

As Jeremy prayed for our graduates, you're going out into a world where people care about the needs of mankind.

And at best, they care about the needs of other men, not just themselves.

The average person you meet thinks, whether they think it at the front of their minds or just as the native part of their worldview, that mankind is all there is and the most valuable thing on the planet.

And so therefore protecting and providing for human flourishing on this planet is the most important thing we have.

That means everybody has to treat one another nicely, we have to share limited resources, we have to do what we can to preserve the health of the planet for our kids.

Equality, which is a good thing, which is a good thing, quickly becomes the only thing.

Because you and I, we're it.

We're all there is.

Truthfully, friends, it's not all that bad.

From a biblical perspective.

There we go.

From a biblical perspective, it isn't all that wrong.

God has set mankind a little lower than the heavenly beings.

He has given us dominion over the earth to keep it, to give it stewardship.

And we most certainly are to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Humanism is good.

Really?

So far as it can take you.

But saying that mankind is all there is falls short of lasting fulfillment of true hope.

If you can hang with this old nerd.

After the devastation of the World Wars, there was a school of philosophy that not only held to this position, but it dealt honestly with it.

They were called the existentialists.

And in 1945, at the end of World War II, the foremost among them, a Frenchman named Jean-Paul Sartre, or Jean-Paul Sayr.

You have him there.

And gave a public lecture in Paris that drew a crowd, my sources say, of many thousands of people.

He didn't feed them, but he gathered them.

The lecture's title, I have it for you there, is Existentialism is a Humanism.

And one quote from the whole lecture sums it up well.

Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself.

This, that is the first principle of existentialism.

And whether or not most people know it, and one way or another, they've built a lot of their lives upon a truth like that one, or at least a belief, a conviction like that one.

I shouldn't call it true.

It's not.

They don't know it.

The problem with this, the problem with this belief or a worldview that's saturated with it is that you quickly, very quickly, if you deal with it honestly, you become very sad.

You become quite anxious quite quickly, and eventually you lose all hope because when the brightest light you can think of is you and me, things get things get dark.

Especially in 1945.

I have a few more quotes from Sartre here.

And the characters in his stories, just to make you feel good.

While these are witty, and he intends them to be a little bit humorous.

There is, if you listen to him, a dark and deep abiding sadness to men who believe such things as that.

Sartre writes, I want to leave, to go somewhere where I should really be in my place, where I would fit in.

We all want that to some extent, right?

But he says, But my place is nowhere.

I am unwanted.

Or this one.

It is certain that we cannot escape anguish, for we are anguish.

Really happy guy.

All human activities are equivalent, and all are doomed to failure.

So far, his picture of humanity, the humanism he vaunts, is this unwanted, anguish itself, doomed to failure.

His most famous line, hell is other people.

This is Sartre.

This is what thinks that mankind is it, leads you to.

He says, Life begins on the other side of despair.

And finally, I exist.

That is all.

And I find it nauseated.

The Apostle Paul, on a happier note, was dead on right when he said in Ephesians 2 that people without God have no hope in the world.

None.

But today we're not going to listen to Sartre anymore.

Today, King David is going to help us all find hope against such despair.

Peace in the place of such anxiety and meaning in a world where life feels pointless sometimes.

And David has far more to give you than burying your head in the sand or the power of positive thinking.

Turn with me in your Bibles to the fourth Psalm.

And have it here on the screen for you as well if you're not sure how to find it.

Psalm 4.

And we don't do this often, but I've been in the garage lately a couple times, and they do it on Wednesday nights.

Would you stand with me once you have it?

And I'll read this for us as we follow along together.

I'm reading from the English Standard Version with a few tweaks.

So if you see a tweak, it's my fault.

Psalm 4 to the choir master with stringed instruments.

A Psalm of David, verse 1.

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness.

You have given me relief when I was in distress.

Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

O exalted men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?

How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?

But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself.

The Lord hears when I call to him.

Be angry and do not sin.

Ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent.

Offer right sacrifices.

Put your trust in the Lord.

There are many who say, Who will show us some good?

Oh, lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord.

You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

In peace.

In shalom.

I will both lie down and sleep.

For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

You may be seated.

Well, thanks be to God for his word.

Let's seek after hope against despair together in four movements today.

First, David's God.

Then David's enemies.

Then David's people.

Well, then we'll look at David's heart.

Look with me now at verse 1.

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness.

You've given me relief when I was in distress.

Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

What a plea.

What a cry.

Remember how Paul has told the Ephesians that those without God in the world have no hope?

David here begins where most of us in our distress fail to ever reach.

He cries out not to the universe, not to his schedule, not to the power of his own insight, not to the mustering of a righteousness all his own, not to his vices for escape.

No.

David cries out to the God of his righteousness, the God of my righteousness.

God is the possessor of righteousness, the one who owns it.

God is the author of righteousness, the one who defines it, and God is the arbiter of righteousness.

Righteousness, the one who decides it.

This is Abraham's righteous judge of all the earth.

Most surely, he will do what is right to rescue those who deserve rescue.

This is Moses' righteous lawgiver, who will state his case plainly, and there will be no confusion about what is right and what is wrong amongst God's people.

This is the God of righteousness, and David lays claim to that God, calling him his, calling him mine.

Oh, I pray you can call the Lord your God.

But not only that, in a way David also lays claim to the righteousness of God, calling it his.

It's like David says, What you call righteous, I will call righteous.

What you deem good, oh my God, I will call good, for you are my God, and I will have no other.

Throughout his life, David consistently expresses a loyalty to God that rivals that of even his great-grandmother Ruth, who said to Naomi, where you go, I will go.

And where you go, I will go.

But how could David, how could David make such a claim?

How could David say such a thing?

What possible reason does David have to call out that the God of Abraham and Moses is his God?

David is no righteous man on his own.

I'm convinced the psalmist put Psalm 4 after Psalm 3 so that we would think of David and Absalom.

The parallels will blow your mind.

Just like in Psalm chapter 3, which Jeremy covered so movingly for us last week.

Psalms 3 · chapter mention

If you weren't here, go listen.

The story of David and Absalom came alive, for me at least.

But for today, suffice it to remember this.

David, the father who stayed his hand when his son Amnon violated his daughter Tamar.

Remember David, the coward, who had Uriah the Hittite murdered to cover up his own sin.

Recall David, the king, whose guilt-ridden favoritism towards Absalom, permitted rebellion to boil over in Jerusalem, the city of God.

Remember David on the run.

Remember David riding rough, sleeping under the stars, hungry, cold, sad, and in distress over the consequences of his sin.

His counselors have betrayed him, his people have given up on him.

Shimei spits curses, saying, You man of blood, you worthless man, and David winces.

Because in a way it's true.

Shimei is not all that wrong.

For the Lord told David he would not build his house because his hands had too much blood on them.

No, King David is no righteous man.

But that David all the while cries out and calls to the God of his righteousness.

Calls out to the righteous God.

And calls him his.

How can he say such a thing?

It's right there, it's in the text.

You have given me relief when I was in distress.

David can call God his God because God has given him help before.

Think about it.

At least Goliath, right?

David's father-in-law tried to impale him with a spear and stick him to a wall.

David's king, same guy, hunted him throughout the countryside.

And when David was in distress, the Lord has helped him time and time and time again.

One story that I think is profound.

The Amalekites once raided David's home while he was away.

They burned it.

They carried off many, if not all, of the women and children.

And the text says that David and the people who were with him when they came home raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep.

Some of you know those exhausted tears.

But see this.

And David was greatly distressed.

It's the same word.

And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him.

Because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters.

Not only did David's sons and daughters and his wives get carried off, but his compatriots thought about stoning him.

So you have a man in grief who doesn't know what to do.

And he calls out to the Lord.

He sought the Lord, and the Lord answered him, and then David went out as the Lord commanded.

And David struck down those same Amalekites from twilight until evening of the next day, and David recovered it all.

The text says, Nothing was missing.

David brought back all.

Because the God of his righteousness gave him relief when he was in distress.

But do you know what else David had?

David not only had the memories of God's work on his behalf, but he also had the word of the Lord from the prophets of God.

It would be Samuel, Samuel, that child who was called by the voice of God in the tabernacle.

Samuel, that great prophet and priest who heard the word of the Lord saying, No, no, Sam, I look upon the heart, and David will be king over my people.

David knew from the word of the Lord by the mouth of his prophets that he was God's anointed one.

That's how David knows.

He has the word of the Lord.

But not only that, David is the recipient of the third great covenant of the Old Testament.

Abraham, leading his boy up the hill, could cling to the word of the Lord, that the promises would come through Isaac.

Moses could promise blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.

Or the other way, if you guys want to feel better.

He could promise those things because Moses stood on the mountain of fire and smoke, and he heard the Lord speak from the cloud.

If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured people.

And in a similar way, God spoke to Nathan, David's prophet, in second in 1 Chronicles 17, and said, Thus you shall say to my servant David, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel.

And so I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house.

And when your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.

David can say that God is his righteousness.

Not because of anything he'd done, but because God had plucked him from among the sheep.

And God called David his servant.

And God who adopts people like that, listens to his kids.

He hears their prayers.

And David knows it.

Verse 2.

David's enemies.

Oh exalted men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?

How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?

I've inserted the word exalted into verse 2.

It's not there in the English standard, but if we check the footnotes, you'll see the option for men of rank.

And that's just as effective.

I chose exalted for my own reasons, but it's an important nuance to the Psalm.

David uses a word here that implies an exalted status.

In Psalm 62, he uses the same thing in contrast.

He writes, those of low estate are but a breath, and those of high estate are exalted ones, are a delusion.

So these men who David addresses here, his enemies, these are the men of high estate, landowners, nobility, heads of houses, wealthy merchants, so to speak.

These are the folks who rode in David's girttails to prosperity in Israel.

And they've turned him, they've turned on him to side with his son Absalom.

These men had previously been loyal to David.

I think his counselor Ahithophel is a great example.

You need a picture of who he's talking to.

It was said of Ahithophel that when he spoke to David, it was as if one consulted the very words of God, a close confidant and a beloved advisor.

Ahithophel turned on David to side with Absalom.

These men, these exalted ones, these aristocrats.

They scorned David's honor.

They chased after worthless lies.

They trampled the honor of their king.

One commentator alliterated it, with their delusions and their deceptions, believing that they could steal influence in the kingdom like Absalom stole the hearts of the people.

These aristocrats stumbled along after worldly goods, the worthless things, the vain words, and they left David in the dust behind.

While he's still the rightful king out under the stars, David gives his rebellious subjects seven commands.

A perfect seven.

Seven commands.

We'll take each of them in turn.

First, know that the Lord has set apart, or better, lifted up, or better yet, exalted.

No, the Lord has set apart the godly for himself.

The Lord hears him when I call.

Verse 3, right?

David says to them, You think that you're exalted?

No.

The Lord has exalted me.

David reminds them of that which he himself clings to, but I've already shown you that David is the Lord's anointed.

This is no small thing.

This isn't just saying I'm God's favorite.

No.

Earlier in his life, David had his enemy Saul helpless at the end of his spear in a cave.

And David spared him with the words, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Yahweh's anointed, to put my hand out against Saul, seeing that he is the Lord's anointed.

You see, for David and for all of Israel, to strike at the Lord's anointed one, you may as well strike at God Himself.

For it is the anointed one who's carried in battle against his enemies.

Philistines fall, and armies tremble before God's anointed one.

And so David says to his enemies, Remember who I am.

Remember who I am.

Know that I am the Lord's anointed, and you, you have stretched out your hands against me.

Careful now, children, is the tongue.

Careful now.

The next command, be angry, is a tricky one.

The Hebrew is more like tremble, as the New American Bible has it, or even quake.

And the word ranges from getting really excited to shaking with fear or boiling over in agitation.

What David describes as a bodily response of extreme emotion.

Not necessarily just anger.

When David cut Saul's robe in that cave, it says that David's heart struck him.

Struck him, and that's the idea.

Be disturbed about your sin.

Tremble before what you've done against the holy God.

But don't sin.

Don't sin.

Don't sin.

Don't make it worse for yourselves.

David says to his enemies, don't act rashly.

Don't panic in that complicated blend of fear and anxiety and anger and despair.

Sound like Jean-Paul Soutre to you?

Don't panic in that.

Don't run off once you realize what you've done.

Don't run off and murder Absalom like that'll make it better.

Please don't do that, David says.

Don't give in to despair and do something you'll regret.

Just ponder.

Just speak to yourself in your heart.

Just think it over.

Sit and reflect on your beds.

Really get a hold of what's going on.

And I love this bit.

Shut up already.

Just hush up.

These are men who spread worthless lies.

They seek after lies.

And David says, just stop.

And we can read a lot into this silence as if they're covering, throwing their Hands up over their mouths, a really strong biblical image, right?

But notice, at the very least, what a portrait of repentance we have in these first five commands.

David says, Realize what you've done.

Let it bug you.

Because you should be afraid.

And you should be mad at yourself.

And you should panic about what's coming next.

Tremble.

Let it bother you that you've sinned against the Lord's anointed.

Don't sin, though.

Don't run off and do something else.

Just think it over and stop sinning.

Just stop.

This is the stuff of repentance, right?

Look what comes next.

Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.

David tells his enemies, who are still subjects in his kingdom, fellow sons of Israel, themselves, the people of God.

He tells them to seek atonement, to cry out for forgiveness and to trust in the mercy of the Lord.

These men seek his life and he's hiding in the bush.

And he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

What a way for a man to speak of his enemies, no?

What a king.

What a gracious and forbearing king.

This psalm was challenging to me and my fellow pastors and elders.

What an example we have of our shepherd, of a shepherd king taking from a sheep.

Stunning.

Third David's people.

Or the many.

Right?

There are many.

Those many are his people.

The many who say, Who will show us some good?

Oh, lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord.

You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

Things were not well in David's Israel.

When he's on the run from Absalom, and really often in the history of the nation, things are not good.

Specifically, when running from Absalom, David rejoices to see 200 loaves of bread.

He's hungry.

The king of Israel is in Israel, and he's hungry.

Things aren't right.

Lots of people saw no reason from help.

The blessings they're supposed to receive as God's people aren't coming true.

Their monarchy is upended.

The nation sat on the brink of civil war, and there were many who say, Who will show us come good?

Or what good could possibly come from all of this?

Do you hear the anxiety?

Do you hear the despair?

Now what?

And their king prays for them.

Their king prays for them.

Their shepherd intercedes on their behalf.

You'll notice I've moved the quotation marks in the English Standard Version.

Some commentators think that the many are still speaking all the way through.

Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord.

End quote.

I disagree.

And many commentators in most translations do as well.

It is better to see David as the one speaking here, the rightful king, nearly deposed, being spit upon by dead dogs.

It's better to see David receiving the complaints of the people, the grumbling, as it were, of the congregation, and lifting his voice above the noise to paraphrase and song, Aaron's blessing.

Do you hear Aaron's blessing?

The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

When reviled, when the king was reviled, because things weren't well in Israel.

He blessed.

He intercedes on behalf of his people.

Yet again, what a gracious and forbearing king.

Mark him well, my brothers.

David intercedes.

He seeks their blessing, and then he teaches.

The think that the Lord of heaven would bend his knee to look tiny Israel in the eyes and speak gently to him like a mighty man of valor kneeling to give a toddler a wildflower.

Breathtakingly gracious of the Lord.

But still nonetheless conditional.

If they obeyed, the Lord would bless them.

And if they disobeyed, the Lord would curse them.

And in a land like Israel, those blessings were almost always about their crops, their farms, or their militaries, or their homes.

If you obey me, your grain and your wine will abound.

And if you disobey me, the field will dry up.

That's the sense.

Moses lays it all out for you in Deuteronomy 28 if you'd like to know more.

But the people were to learn slowly over time that even when their sins went over their heads, the Lord didn't remove them from the land.

He did not totally destroy them.

They still had daily bread to eat in the face of their sins.

They sought atonement through the sacrifices of the tabernacle.

Don't get me wrong, but they knew the blood of bulls and goats wasn't doing it.

Something else is going on.

And it's still, it's not as if the Lord passed over their sin.

Discipline was surely present.

Philistines came often, and drought and famine still plagued the land.

But David, like Moses before him, learned the secret of grace without yet uncovering the mystery of Christ.

And you, my friends, have already sung it today.

Psalm 130, verses 3 and 4.

Psalms 130:3

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared.

Somehow, with this God, there's forgiveness.

You all sang it this way.

Were you to count my sinful ways, how could I come before your throne?

Yet full forgiveness meets my gaze.

I stand redeemed by grace alone.

The people cry out for grain and wine, bountiful crops and good harvests.

And David, as he reminds them of Aaron, points back to the law and says, Your crops fail for your sins.

Yet somehow, yet somehow David has more joy than a bountiful harvest.

David has a joy greater than the reward for righteous obedience.

He really does.

What could be better than God's rewards upon righteous people?

I'll tell you, the righteous God himself.

For it is God who has put more joy into David's heart, more joy than all the gladness of a good harvest.

So take that to heart, all you men of the earth among us.

The ground grows thistles, and the ground springs up wet holes because of Adam's sin, because of your sin, because of my sin.

But let the frustration of a wet basement for the rest of us remind you of a righteousness, not your own.

For it is the righteousness of a God who always does what is right that fills David's heart.

And he has more joy even in great distress, even in his despair.

Not only that, but David has peace in peace.

David has shalom on the brink of civil war.

On the edge of war, David has shalom so deep he can not only lie down, but he can sleep too.

The rightful king, the true king of Israel, threatened by another claiming the throne.

He can't just lie down, but he can go to sleep too.

Men on the run.

Men in danger, men out in the field, they often have to sleep like wild animals, standing upright and dozing on their feet so they can run at the sound of danger, or they sleep with their eyes open, or they don't sleep at all.

But surely the king has guards, right?

He's not alone.

He doesn't have to keep watching the night.

So I think it's fair for us to say that David speaks of something more than just an anxiety about his neck.

David speaks of a spiritual anxiety.

He's concerned about the kingdom.

He's kept up by a distress over the consequences of his own sin.

That kind of anxiety that robs us of peace.

But David has peace.

This isn't the first time.

Nor will it be the last time in the history of Israel that two kings held some claim to one throne and argued for it.

Previously, when David fled from Saul and Saul pursued him, David not only spared Saul once in the cave, as we've already seen, but a second time David spared Saul.

Once when David and Abishai, I presume the same guy who offered to take off Shimei's head last week, when David and Abishai snuck into Saul's camp at night, there lay Saul.

And Abishai wanted to pin him to the ground with one stroke of the spear.

But David said, Do not, do not destroy him.

Hear this.

Wow.

Absalom's party very well may come upon David in the night.

David knows firsthand with his eyes and his memory just how easy it is to creep into a camp, but David will sleep.

David will sleep because it is the Lord alone who makes him dwell in safety.

And so David finds peace in a night of anxiety.

And he offers it to his people by ending where he began.

Trusting himself to a righteous God who always does what is right.

By now, many of you have noticed the painting I've used in my slides.

I told you that David and Absalom weren't the first pair of kings to fight in Israel.

But neither would they be the last.

One king on the run and one in the throne room.

Let me zoom in for you.

There we go.

It's a Rembrandt painting, if you can see it there across the bottom.

But sitting by that modest fire, sleeping under the trees, is a king.

He's a king.

His name is Jesus.

His name is Jesus.

And up until now, Jesus led an army of hosts of mighty angels.

Forget about Abishai and those mighty men.

The angels swing swords of fire.

But that little boy, that little boy, looking into that fire, that puny fire with curiosity.

He not only left his palace, but he laid aside his glory, and it's not Absalom on Jesus' heels, but an even worse imposter of a puppet king named Herod.

Herod seeks the life of that little boy.

Herod sitting in Jerusalem, tricked into a rage by the worshipful magi, killed all the boys in Bethlehem to and under.

But Jesus laid down and slept in peace.

If you look, Rembrandt paints the light across the top.

There's someone in heaven watching.

Jesus has a righteous God.

Even when he's far more helpless than David.

How much greater is the trust of our Lord and the righteous God that he could sleep even when he hadn't yet figured out how to speak his own name?

He could barely lift his head up, and he's on the flight to Egypt, entrusting himself to a faithful God.

Jesus would come to his own people, the descendants themselves of David's people, and they did not receive him.

They rejected him, scorned him, laughed at him.

They mocked his mother, they thought him only a petty prophet doing parlor tricks.

But yet he fed them.

Scorned by scribes and Pharisees, they thought that Jesus was an upstart youth with nothing but foolish ideas.

And he walked around among them for three years, prodding and provoking and teaching and correcting them, calling them steadily, graciously to repentance and faith.

For the leaders of Israel had spread lies about their king.

And those lovers of money had chased after worthless things.

At our Lord's first crash with the Pharisees with the scribes in Matthew, he forgives the sins of a paralytic, right?

And the scribes spoke to themselves in their hearts, just like in verse 4 of our verse 3 of our Psalms, rather.

And they accused the Lord of blasphemy.

But what did Jesus do?

What did Jesus do?

He corrected them with such gentleness, just like David says, know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself.

Jesus said to the scribes, that you may know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

Get up and walk.

And the man got up and walked.

He gave them a sign.

It wasn't out of just only and singularly kindness towards the paralytic that Christ healed him.

No.

Christ healed the paralytic out of a profound graciousness towards the scribes to teach them who he was.

And yet they scorned him.

Those same enemies of Christ would literally seek out liars.

David asks his enemies in our psalm, How long will you seek after lies?

And turn with me.

Turn with me to Matthew 26 and verse 57.

At this point in the story, Jesus has been betrayed by Judas, arrested by guards, let out in the night, and brought before the high priest.

We're in Matthew chapter 26, verse 57.

Matthew 26:57

And let's see some men with a nature like ours trample the honor of their king.

Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered.

And Peter, following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside, he sat with the guards to see the end.

But now the chief priest and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death.

But they found none, though many false witnesses came forward.

At last two came forward and said, This man said, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.

And the high priest stood up and said, Have you no answer to make?

What is it that these men testify against you?

But Jesus remained silent.

And the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.

And Jesus said to him, You have said so.

But I tell you, from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

And then the high priest tore his robes and said, He has uttered blasphemy.

What further witnesses do we need?

You've heard his blasphemy.

What is your judgment?

They answered, He deserves death.

And like Shimei, they spit in his face and struck him, and some slapped him, saying, Prophesy to us, you Christ.

What does the word Christ mean?

Messiah.

Anointed one.

Right?

Prophesy to us, you anointed one.

Who is it that struck you?

And they lifted up their hands against the Lord's anointed.

Even Peter.

Even Peter would lie three times over and turn on Jesus, seeking after worthless things.

David at least had Joab and Abishai, but Jesus had no one.

And the horror of mankind's aggression against God and his anointed would not stop there.

They led him out to crucify him.

They wagged their heads and they mocked him.

And a little bit later in chapter 27, verse 41.

Verse 41, so also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him, saying, He saved others.

He cannot save himself.

He is the king of Israel.

Let him come down now from the cross.

And we'll believe him then.

He trusts in God.

Let God deliver him now if he desires him.

For he said, I am the Son of God.

And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

But their king replied, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

And then in a stunning turn, verse 45, darkness fell over the whole land.

And the rightful king, the true king, bore in his body the wrath of God upon the sins of those who would usurp his throne.

Beloved, that's you and me.

Since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, we all have tried to take the crown from God.

We've all usurped the throne of the rightful king, not just of Israel, but of the whole cosmos.

And the true king.

The true king died so that his children, his wretched Absaloms, could come home.

Take the elements.

If you wayward sons of God, all of you, sons and daughters of God, forgive me, if you wayward sons and daughters of God would proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Lord's anointed, the only true King of your life, then take the cup.

Peel back that top layer.

And take the bread.

Symbolic of the broken body of the only righteous man who ever lived.

That broken body that cried out to his righteous God in the words of his father David, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The answer?

The answer?

To bring his many wayward sons and daughters home to glory.

Take the bread today, remembering the broken body that died in your place.

And read Psalm 22 this afternoon.

It'll change your life.

Let's take the bread together.

And then open the cup.

Think now of the blood streaming from his hands, streaming from his feet, pouring from his side.

But think also of the blood from his head.

Yeah.

Think of the blood from his head.

As an imposter's crown is shoved into his scalp, blood pours down and fills his eyes.

And the king of heaven wearing a fake crown, making peace, looks over at the man by his side.

And the Lord himself promised to let his face shine upon the thief who believed.

As the king of Israel intercedes on behalf of his people to the bitterest end.

Drink the cup and hear the words, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

As the king of Israel and the king of heaven, making peace, both lied down and slept.

He bowed his head and breathed his last.

Like those three youths cast into Nebuchadnezzar's fire, Jesus knew.

He knew that even his God did not save him from the hands of wicked men.

He would still trust in him.

And Jesus was right.

For the righteous God of all the earth, the God of David and the God of Jesus, he most assuredly did what was right.

He did not leave him in the grave.

He rose him up again to everlasting life, ascended him through the heavens, and sat him down at his right hand.

And the Lord has exalted the godly.

So let me ask you, what have you to fear?

What have you to worry about?

What profit do you gain by fretting away yourself in the night, anxious over their toil?

What good is it to any of you if you respond to your enemies with reviling in kind for their evil words?

When men speak lies against you, why do you fret?

Why do I fret?

What is the worst that Man can do to you if God is your judge.

God was the judge of Jesus and he raised him up.

And so if you are in Christ, hear me, if you are in Christ, then you may claim David's God as your God.

You may stay with David and with Jesus, the God is yours, and you can have courage, though multitudes of wicked men rise up against you.

You can claim the righteousness of God for yourself.

Not because you've already obtained it or are somehow already perfect, but because Christ Jesus has made you his own.

Just like God plucked David from the pasture.

You are his, and he is yours by faith.

As Paul wrote, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you are at peace with the King of heaven, that is no longer at war.

If the King of heaven has reconciled you, Absaloms, back to himself, then you can lie down and rest.

You can lie down and rest.

Because with God, you most certainly have hope in the world.

You really do.

God is for you.

Who could ever be against you?

And that's what humanism misses.

That's what Sartre and his contemporaries could never do.

They hated God.

Not because they could find no reason to believe he existed.

No.

They could find evidence to believe in him.

They hated him because if they did, if they admitted that God was there, then humanism was dead.

For God could interfere with the desires of men.

If there really is a king in heaven, he can tell us what to do and what not to do.

If God exists, then there is only one true king of the universe.

It's not Absalom, it's not Herod, it's not Adam in the garden, it's not Sartre, and it's not you.

It's not you.

And that is the opposite of humanism.

Around here we call it faith.

And so if you want to have hope in this world, if you're sick of being anxious, if you're done fretting all the time about what will happen to you today or tomorrow, then you must kneel.

Then you must bow your head before the cross of Christ and behold your king.

A king covered in blood for your sins.

A king high and lifted up.

A king who would rather die for you than give up on his people.

Even though you and I would rather give up on him than forsake our sins.

When you kneel before a God like that, let me tell you, when you kneel before a God like that, swearing fealty with your whole life to the one true king, you will find that this king is good.

This king is kind.

This king wants to bless.

And David's God will be the lifter of your head.

That's the kind of God he is.

For the Lord has spoken.

His anointed has sealed it in his blood that all who come to him by faith, believing in him, like Abishai, believed in David, for all such citizens of God's kingdom.

The king of heaven will throw wide his gates and welcome all those wayward Absaloms home where there still remains rest for the people of God.

You can have peace if you kneel.

For that's the kind of God he is.

That's the kind of king he is.

Let's pray.

Oh Lord, what shall we say before all of these things?

We have gathered together today around some of the greatest truths that I can think of.

You revealed to us from your word and through the through the sacrament, through the symbol of your son's death.

Reveal to us just how kind you are.

Reveal to us how if we would just quit running around worrying about all sorts of things and entrust ourselves to you through obedience, through repentance, through submission, casting ourselves upon your care that you would give us peace.

I know how we've seen your peace.

Help us all to hold fast to it.

Teach us to cling not to our own power, our own wisdom.

David could bend a bro a bow of bronze.

May we not boast in such feeble things as man's strength or woman's insight.

May it never be.

If we are to boast, Lord God, may we boast in Christ alone.

For we have only one true king.

And it gives our lives such joy to serve him, such gladness to trust him, and such hope for a real future to see him seated at your right hand.

We have a king.

A king who intercedes for us.

Teach us to love him for all that he's done.

It's in his name that we pray.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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