The Seated King

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

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sermon. God bless. Let me pray for us again as

we begin Lord God, we have this psalm before

us this lengthy psalm This psalm that speaks

of your deliverance and your Establishing yourself

and your promised land and for your people and

the glory of Mount Zion Zion because you dwell

there and how all peoples will come and worship

you and we think Lord of how this psalm is most

fulfilled in Jesus. God, we pray that even as

we look at this long psalm, God, that we might

have a little bit better understanding of it,

but even more so, Lord, we might have a greater

awe of your grace and your kindness and your

love for us in Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen. All right, I have mentioned before that

the last house that I lived in in college Had

a fair amount of beer brewing going on in that

house And it was above board. I'm not going to

get into all the details of it because it's not

really pertinent necessarily But some of you

know that when you're brewing beer you have some

downtime You know, there's different times where

you're supposed to put the hops in or the different

additives but then there's some times where you're

just waiting for it to do its thing and so One

of the things that we would do while we were

waiting is we as a group of guys living in this

house together would sing together and We had

a great front porch and the quite a few of us

played different most of us played different

instruments we would sing songs together and

One of the songs that we would sing was Psalm

68 And so for me this Psalm has this fond memory

And but for the most part that the the reason

for this was really just practical Psalm 68 is

pretty long Right. It took a little while to

read it through This is the hymnal that I have

it in currently And I'll show you how long so

Psalm 68 in this hymnal. This has most of the

Psalter in it. This is one verse Okay, it's one.

So this is six verses and then this is another

six verses, and I timed it. It's 12 minutes long,

so it kills a lot of time. It's a psalm with

a personal history there. Unlike a lot of psalms,

though, actually, that we're going to look at

even this summer, like what we looked at last

week and the one we'll look at next week, it's

not so much reflecting on the life of the individual

believer with our doubts and our joys and all

the different things that affect us in this life.

Instead, it sort of has this broad horizon of

what God has done, what he's doing, and what's

going to happen. That's more the idea of this

psalm, and specifically this psalm, we're going

to talk about this a little bit, is a psalm of

procession. It actually mentions that a couple

times. This was a psalm almost certainly written

by David for the procession of the Ark of the

Covenant to Jerusalem. So it's a psalm with a

history, again a bigger history, It's also a

psalm with an ecclesial history, a history within

the life of the Christian Church. Psalm 68 was

sung by Savonarola and the other Dominicans as

they were forcibly marched to the Great Plaza

in Florence where they would meet their death,

where they were burned to death. Why? Because

they preached against the excesses of the Pope.

Some of those excesses which I read about this

week are not even appropriate for a sermon with

most of our children gone If you want to hear

about them come ask me afterwards But this this

song was what he was supposedly singing as he

made his way to his death Having been sort of

a precursor to the Reformation calling out the

errors of the Pope This Psalm, also Psalm 68,

has been known as the Protestant Psalm of Battles.

So if you might know, what is the battle hymn

of the Reformation? Anyone? Psalm 46, particularly

Martin Luther's, a mighty fortress is our God,

is known as the battle hymn of the Reformation.

This Psalm is known as the Protestant Psalm of

Battles. Many of you probably at least aware

some of you may be maybe fairly aware of French

history and Protestant Reformation history one

of the more Kind of saddest parts of church history

is the second half of the 16th century in France

I Studied in France right after high school for

a year and then actually after college for another

semester and I attended a church there which

was called which is actually the church on the

road of the mass. And it was a church that was

founded by one of the seminarians from Calvin's

seminary in Geneva. They were then sent out through

the French speaking world to plant churches.

And this church was planted by one of those guys.

And they actually had the original letter that

Calvin had written to this young church, encouraging

it to continue on in the proclamation of the

good news. That you're saved not by what you

have done, but by the work of Christ alone, the

necessary work of God. When I was there also,

we went on a little university student retreat

for a weekend down to the Seven Mountains, which

are in the south of France. The Seven Mountains

were one of the Huguenot holdouts. Because it

was so mountainous, they could hide in order

to preserve their life, and that was one of the

places where they hid. Well, if you're familiar

with sort of that part of French history, which

I I know that's sort of like a niche thing. OK,

but maybe you've heard of the Saint Bartholomew's

Day Massacre because the actually the situation

had gotten so bad in the second half of the 16th

century between the Catholics and the Protestants

that actually, as was done, the king's sister

Margaret, who was a devout Catholic, was fell

in love with a Huguenot prince, probably not

forcibly. Asked to marry Henry the third of Navarre

who was a Protestant king in order to in some

ways repair What this great schism that had happened

violent violent wars that were taking place between

the Catholics and the Protestants in France Well,

what happened is that many of the many of the

Huguenot which is the French Protestants came

to Paris to celebrate this Union this marriage

that was supposed to repair these breaches that

had led to all these battles and about 30 ,000

Protestants in France were slaughtered on St.

Bartholomew's Day there in Paris. The wars of

religion in France lasted from about 1562 to

1598, which was a few years after Henry IV, Henry

III's, of course, son, signed the Edict of Nantes,

which gave a lot of the Protestants certain rights

in France, which was supposed to lead to the

end of the wars of religion. Anyway, that same

year that began the wars of religion, which is

1562, there was a tune that was put to Psalm

68 in the Geneva Psalter. And that is the tune

that I just showed you. It goes, God shall arise

and by his might put all his enemies to flight.

In conquest shall he quell them. That was written

by Mathis Greider. He was the church musician

living in Strasbourg in German speaking France,

okay? There's a good reason for why I'm telling

you all this and it's not so that I can give

you a weird church history quiz afterwards, okay?

What I'm saying is that Psalm 68 is a Psalm with

a history. And some of that history is very wonderful.

For me, it brings back just these great joyous

times with my friends in college some of it brings

back for me fond memories and then actually there's

another part of it that actually makes me deeply

sorrowful because my primary teacher that taught

me French history when I was living in France

her name was Madame Sarati she said that she

was among the millions and millions of French

people that said this je suis catholique mais

je crois pas en Dieu which means I am a Catholic

and I do not believe in God." And she said, why

would I say that? Why would she say that? Because

of the violence done in the name of religion.

I mean, that's probably not lost on anyone today.

I would guess that all of you have people that

you think they would say, okay, culturally I'll

say blah, blah, blah, but this is a farce because

of the violence. done in the name of God that

tune was actually outlawed for a little while

particularly in Paris because whistling that

tune meant that you were part of the Protestant

Reformation and it led to conflict to violence

God shall arise and by his might now here's the

odd thing I want you to keep your Bibles open

okay Please keep your battles open. We're gonna

we're gonna try to look at this long text and

I know we we don't have a lot of time The things

I want you to see first is that Psalm 68 is the

celebratory psalm If you look up what category

of psalms the psalm 68 fall into it falls into

the psalms of praise Psalms of praise it begins

God shall rise his enemies be scattered But then

quickly it says verse 4 sing to God sing praises

to his name Lift up a song to him who rides through

the deserts. His name is the Lord Exult before

him if you go down actually to the next real

significant section break actually verse 19 blessed

Be blessed be the Lord who daily bears us up

God is our salvation. Ascribe power to God, whose

majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in

the skies. Awesome is God in His sanctuary, the

God of Israel. He is the one who gives power

and strength to His people. Blessed be God. It's

a psalm of praise. It's a psalm of praise that

is celebrating how God led his people through

the wilderness Kind of has these echoes of Mount

Sinai where the Ark of the Covenant itself was

built and how he brought them through the wilderness

how he brought them in to the promised land Nearly

everybody as I said says that psalm 68 was most

likely written to commemorate the event of when

David and the whole procession brought the Ark

of the Covenant from Obed -Edom up to Jerusalem.

Which is to say, what they're singing is, finally

God, you did. You're at home now. You're settled.

You've brought us in to this promised land and

we're following you to your home in Jerusalem.

So here's here's what I sort of want to do I

want to give you a little outline of this psalm

But I want us to particularly sit in the second

section for a little while Okay, because I kind

of want to speak to something that is prominent

there, but if you have your Bibles open still

Well, you'll you'll see some breaks here and

I want to kind of point them out to you verse

1 through 6 most people take to be sort of the

introduction of this psalm. You know, this is

a long psalm, it's kind of giving you a little

introduction, and even in that introduction,

it's giving you a short outline for how the psalm

is going to go. So it says, you know, they praise

God, they speak of how his enemies are nothing

before him, they speak about how life is lived

as it's meant to be lived. It says specifically

that his enemies scattered before him, he's the

hope of the the helpless. It says the father

to the fatherless, defender of widows in their

distress. That's verse five. Verse six, he cares

for the lonely. God settles the solitary in a

home. He cares for the prisoners. He leads out

the prisoners to prosperity. And he actually

deals with the rebellious. What we have here

in this little bit are sort of marks of what

a great leader does. But it's also introducing

it for us the entirety of the rest of the psalm

It's breaking up the rest of the psalm which

is broken up into primarily God dealing with

his enemies and God being established as the

true king for which we long so then we turn and

verse 7 to 18 then recount for us much of this

kind of movement of God first with his people

at Sinai through the wilderness and then into

the promised land And then verses 19 through

31 again speak to us about that idea of God being

on the throne. So, verses 7 to 18 first, which

is recounting for us this movement from the wilderness

into the promised land. Verse 7 there speaks

specifically of God being in the wilderness.

when you marched through the wilderness. But

then verse eight moves to actually God establishing

his people in the land. And specifically that

verse eight actually quotes from part of the

song of Deborah that is found in Judges chapter

five. Okay. When Sisera's army is destroyed by

the heavy storm. So it actually verse nine kind

of follows on this idea. Well, let me read verse

8. So that word inheritance is referring to the

land, the inheritance of Abraham and his disciples,

and saying he brought them in in part through

this destruction of other people, namely Cicera

and through the prophetess Deborah. By the way,

we don't have a lot of children here that story

is one of the crazy stories of of the Bible too

because maybe some of you remember jail taking

the tent peg and Actually pounding it into the

head of the commander to kill him So it's inviting

us to remember how God actually brought his people

into the land, into the promised land through

the judges like Deborah. And of course, you're

supposed to also think of some of the other judges

and you're supposed to think of Joshua and all

this other story. But part of what it's doing

for us is bringing to mind some of the very violent

things that took place when God brought his people

from the wilderness into the promised land. And

how specifically God does it. How are they saved?

But it's by a rainstorm. God brought that. Okay,

we're gonna get to some of that. Let's continue

on. Verses 11 to 14, they repeatedly reference

the kings. The women who announced the news are

great. The kings of the armies, they flee, they

flee. Down below. This is kind of interesting.

It's talking about how the mountain of God is

not the mountain that you expect, but it's Mount

Zion, but it also references how God has his

chariots, which should have evoked in us the

memory of the chariots of King Pharaoh, right?

There's this dynamic between the different kings

that are taking place and how God is establishing

himself against the kings there in Canaan, which

is supposed to invite you to think of, you know,

the King of Ai. Joshua, or maybe you're supposed

to remember the story of Jericho. You're supposed

to call to mind the story of Sisera, like we

just heard with Deborah, God leading his people

into the promised land. When we think of Bation,

we're supposed to think of the Og, King of Bation,

of which God, you know, in the story there where

God brings his people again into the promised

land by conquering those other kings and their

kingdoms. Okay, now here's the thing. As you

sit in those stories and as I try to bring some

of these stories to your mind, I'm guessing that

most of you know that this subject that we're

talking about is one of the hardest subjects

in the Bible. I mean, my guess is that actually

I would guess that every single person in this

room at least knows someone that would say one

of the reasons why they think the Bible is not

to be trusted and the story of scripture is not

to be believed is because of the Canaanite conquest

of which this psalm is is is bringing to mind

for us. That's actually partly why I wanted you

to hear this story even of how this psalm has

intertwined with these wars of religion and these

religious conflicts that led to so many deaths.

What this psalm is celebrating is what many people

find to be one of the great reasons for rejecting

the Christian faith and rejecting the Bible What

this psalm is celebrating in at least in a way

is the conquest of the Canaanite So of course

we have folk like the very well -known atheist

Richard Dawkins who writes things like this The

God of the Old Testament is arguably the most

unpleasant character in all fiction. Jealous

and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving

control freak. A vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic

cleanser, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal,

genocidal, filiacidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal,

sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

I did practice reading that out loud because

there's a lot there. And what we must do as people

who actually say the Lord does reveal himself

and he's given us his word because he loves us

and actually longs to live life with us. We must

say, what do we do? How do we have a text that

celebrates this story in a way? And it also leads

so many people down that kind of road. Because

here is the fact, throughout the centuries of

the Christian Church and the Christian life leaders

have used texts like this for all kinds of evil

I Mean it's unquestionably the case. I mean many

many people believe that the French Revolution

actually had its beginning more in how the French

Reformation happened in these wars of religion

and the rejection of God But of course we can

think of the effects of these kinds of texts

not just the Crusades against the Muslims We

can think of genocides of the Native Americans

here in North America. They're aboriginals in

Australia. We can think of apartheid in South

Africa We can of course think about the various

discriminations Here racially in our own country

primarily against African Americans, but plenty

of others We can think about the troubles in

Northern Ireland. We can list so many ways So

many ways in which some of the story that is

alluded to here and celebrated here Has led to

so much violence and so much harm. It's a long

list And here's the truth actually I can't speak

to all I can't give you all the reasons why I

still would say believe in the Lord Trust his

word. His ways are good He is full of love and

truth and goodness and beauty can't speak of

all the things that I would like to speak to,

because you guys would probably leave for lunch.

I mean, I would love to show you how the judgment

on wickedness is not just an Old Testament thing.

In fact, Jesus, you know, the word for Gehenna,

the place of fire outside of Jerusalem, where

things would be burnt out, that is a reference

to hell, the New Testament. Of the 12 times that

that's talked about, 11 are from the mouth of

Jesus. So that's something you got to think about.

I mean, I'd love to show you, as we've looked

at in our adult Sunday school class somehow,

the New Testament is always saying the Old Testament

is authoritative and those stories are true and

good and therefore our learning and our belief.

I would love to show you how these cannot be

taken as allegorical stories. These are not made

up for some moral lesson. I can't go into all

those things, but I think I can go from this

text into a couple things that I think are important,

okay, as we address the question of the Canaanite

conquest. And the first thing is that this is

God's doing and not ours, which is to say this

isn't just some holy war, but it's God's doing.

The whole psalm actually, right from the very

beginning, right, it says, God shall arise and

by His might. Put his enemies to flight or it

says God shall rise his enemies shall be scattered

and those who hate him shall be flee before him

the whole emphasis in this psalm is what God

does and I wonder if you were very attentive

when Don was reading for us from the book of

numbers this verse this first verse in in Psalm

68 is nearly a direct quote from Numbers chapter

Numbers 10 · chapter mention

10. Verse 35, it says this, and whenever the

ark is set out or sets out, Moses said, arise,

O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered and

let those who hate you flee before you. This

Psalm is beginning with the very phrase that

Moses said every time the ark of the covenant

went out and led God's people. It's saying, we

are following you. You're the one doing the action.

Where are your people that you're bringing into

this land? From the very outset of this psalm,

what it's telling us is this, this is not God's

people saying, we're gonna go and conquer them.

They need to submit to us. You look down at verse

seven, you see this idea again, of course. It

says, oh God, when you went out before your people,

when you marched through the wilderness. It's

saying God's leading his people in this way,

okay? Verse 21 it says but God will strike the

heads of his enemies the hairy crown of him who

walks in his guilty ways So this is not like

hey God deal with just with my enemies like this

just saying actually God is the one who is the

actor here, okay? Which is why if you think with

me again back to the story of AI you should also

think with me about the story of Aiken who was

a part of Israel, but he took some of the plunder

of the city and was judged for it. Because this

whole God bringing his people in was not so that

they could just align their pockets. This was

not about them. This was about God. He was the

commander. He was the one that was in charge.

So verse 30 tells us, Trample underfoot those

who lust after tribute. Scatter the people who

delight in war. God is saying you cannot delight

in war. This is not about Taking joy in another's

misfortune This is related to the second point

that I want you to see this morning and this

is this is an important point This is not about

some human conquest. This is divine judgment,

but this is also a reference to divine grace

a divine judgment, but also divine grace So if

you know this that God had told Abraham that

this would be his land but actually way back

in Genesis chapter 15 he says the sins of the

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

Amorites which were you know related to the Canaanites

living in Canaan there has not yet reached its

full measure so way back in Genesis when God

had first called Abraham he said you can't have

this land yet because their sin is actually not

so bad that that their land should be taken from

them That means that the wickedness of that society

at the time of Abraham was not yet so wicked

as to morally justify God acting on complete

judgment. God himself actually says, they are

not so evil that it would be right for me to

act this way. And yet, so we can say this, okay,

all humans in all societies are sinful in one

way or the other. But there are times when the

extremes of wickedness call for a particular

judgment. And I would actually say that pretty

much everybody in this room agrees with that

idea. Whether you want to admit it or not, there's

a time when there's an extreme of wickedness

that invites a certain judgment. I have stood

in the furnaces built for human bodies in Dachau.

I'm telling you, if you stand in that place,

it is hard to deny that fact. that there is an

extreme wickedness that invites an action. We

know that the time had come when the wickedness

of the Canaanite people had arose to a state

where God must bring about its end. We know that

actually from the Old Testament. We actually

also know it from other histories outside of

the Old Testament. The Canaanite people were

a particularly wicked people, even in sort of

ancient Near Eastern standards. Here's an interesting

thing. Those evils that they were particularly

known for are these. Cult prostitution, so fertility

cults, and child sacrifice, so offering up their

children to be burned in their cultic practices.

So you had the combination of massive sexual

sins that were related to worship their fertility

cults along with the idea that many of those

people who were expecting babies were killing

them to their very gods those were those that's

what we know what was going on particularly in

the canaanite culture okay so hold those things

together and when you come okay hold hold these

two things together god is the one who's doing

it He's saying this like a lot and it's not about

lining their own pockets think of Aiken in in

Joshua chapter 6 or 7 Think of that story of

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

God actually bring judgment on his own people

for trying to take from these wars And now I

want you to think about so I want you to think

about how God is doing this and also how it's

a particular judgment Primarily because of the

wickedness of the Canaanites had gotten so bad

particularly around the idea of cult prostitution

and child sacrifice And then I want you to think

about what is the very first thing that happens

when God's people cross the Jordan into the promised

land? What's the battle that takes place? Jericho.

Jericho. What do the people of God do at Jericho?

Do they draw swords? No, they don't. They walk

around and they blow trumpets and God does the

rest. It is not about them. Not about them. Who

is saved at Jericho? I feel like I heard some,

Rahab. Yeah, Rahab. What does Rahab do? What's

her job? She's a prostitute, which means that

she is the very embodiment of the evil of the

Canaanites. She's it. I mean, cult prostitution,

child sacrifice, she would have been the one

that embodied what God said, you deserve my judgment.

And frankly, very few people would totally say,

yeah, somebody like that doesn't deserve some

level of stopping. Who gets grace there right

have actually in her whole family it extends

beyond her I'm suggesting to you is that even

in this story? Did you notice that the maidens

are the ones that are playing their tambourines

as the procession is making its way in? Can't

you imagine that maybe some of those are Rahab's

very descendants? Who are celebrating what God

has done bringing an end to such evil, but also

extending unbelievable grace to the world All

you have to do is turn to him Actually, that's

part of the story later on in the Gibeonites

to right they Come and be part of this family

God's it's not an ethnic. It's obviously not

an ethnic cleansing. Otherwise the very first

story would not include say hey, you can totally

be part of our Not about ethnicity. None of it's

about it But God acting and God bringing an end

to evil but also God extending his grace the

very embodiment of that evil So I'm gonna wrap

this up We come to the second half of this this

psalm, right? I said it kind of breaks up verses

1 to 6 7 to 18 19 to 31 and then you have the

end there which kind of wraps it around but the

second, that second section we have in the second

section is, you know, this procession comes up

to Mount Sinai and then they celebrate that God

is on the throne, that he's the one that's there

and you have everybody coming and you have them

offering tribute and you have the nations. Verse

20, you know, I mean verse 18 talks about, or

17 rather, you know, the Ark of the Covenant

is now in the sanctuary and what you have is

that the the virgins are celebrating, you have

all this kind of stuff, but then also it says

you have the princes, the princes of Judah and

Benjamin and Zebulun and Naphtali, they're all

coming and they're worshiping and they're bowing

down, they're saying, you're the true king, you're

the one who reigns properly, not us, because

if we do it in our own power, it only leads to

destruction and chaos and all this. But then

interestingly, you also at the very end, or near

the very end, verse 27, Verse 31 it rather it

says noble shall come from Egypt Again, it's

the place of God's enemies actually They're being

welcomed into this family. It actually says also

Kush which is even beyond Egypt think of South

Sudan. Maybe that that area actually is probably

Kush Everybody you're all welcome here. The very

enemies of God are welcomed into the very place

the abode the house of God everybody together

there at the end says blessed be God. Why? Because

if you think through this great story and if

you think actually of the conquest and even beyond

actually if we have our sort of historical lens

on we know that God actually does bring the same

judgment on Israel when they go against God's

ways and go and worship as the nations worship.

they're going to get kicked out of the land too

if they don't actually abide by God. But everybody,

they're invited to say, hey, God is full of grace,

but he does not permit wickedness. He doesn't

love the ways of just doing whatever you want.

Come to him and turn and repent and have new

life. This is what's on offer here. The Egyptians

are welcomed. The Rahabs are welcomed. The Peter

Rowans are welcomed. You're welcomed into this

new family. Where God reigns with justice and

with grace hating wickedness loving righteousness

I'm saying is that this Psalm is a psalm of a

history Of course, it has like my own personal

history and it has the history of the church

But it has this great history that God tell that

is telling us of how he brings his people into

the promised land How he does away with evil

how he cares about? things being done right,

but he also extends grace to the worst of the

worst, invites them into his family. And all

of this we see most of all in Christ. It is.

This is a story almost everybody reads. This

is about the ascension. Jesus finally going and

sitting on the throne. And if you have ears to

hear, you might have heard the echoes from this

Psalm even that we hear in the book of Revelation,

where the nations themselves bring their tribute

before the true King. Where people from every

tribe and tongue and nation, right? This is not

ethnic thing come and fall down before the Lord

their God Where grace is extended beyond Any

border that you might think people are brought

in? Where the healing of nations exists because

the tree of life is there because the lamb is

slain The lamb who is slain is right there in

the middle this Psalm prepares us for what we

are all actually most longing for the true King

Father to the fatherless the defender of widows

one who meets the lonely Brings them into his

family Friends I wanted to kind of give you this

sermon in a way as to say the difficulties of

scripture are real They are That does not mean

that we do not worship the true God, the God

who is full of grace and love. And it does not

mean that there may not be actually answers to

some of our great challenges that could actually

challenge us in how we think about it. But I

also wanted to invite you into seeing that this

text is actually just speaking what we most long

for, which is Jesus to be on the throne, to rule.

To welcome the nations to his throne To invite

you as a sinner that's saved by grace Changed

and transformed from your evil ways brought into

the kingdom of our Lord Let me pray for us Lord

God I do thank you for psalm 68 even though it

does speak to a subject which is deeply difficult

Recalls to mind stories that are violent tent

pegs being drilled through enemy commanders skulls

God things It recalls for us the history in your

church, which is often So violent that we blush

and that we are ashamed I'm got to think of The

two million or so people that died there in France

during the wars of religion God we think of our

day now, where people use such violent rhetoric,

such violent action in the name of God. Lord,

we pray that you would bring your peace to the

world. Jesus, that you would reign from your

throne. God, we pray that this text might even

move in us that we might desire your return and

your reign more and more. God, I pray that this

text might remind us that we were once outsiders.

We were once sinners, deserving your just judgment.

And yet you have welcomed us into your family

with glad arms. That we might be with the procession

going to the house of the Lord, singing your

praises, saying aloud, blessed be God. God, I

pray that as difficult as it is, Well, as difficult

as texts like this are, and as easy it is to

want to dismiss them or to push them aside, God,

I pray that we would be those who say, let's

take on the hard questions. Let's wrestle. Spirit

of God, move in us. Give us faith and understanding.

Help our unbelief. God, do this in us, please.

Now we thank you for your word. We pray that

we would hide it in our hearts and that it would

teach us more and more of the word made flesh,

Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. Thank you

for listening to Second City Sermons podcast.

We hope this sermon has encouraged you to worship

God and to celebrate the gospel of Jesus. Please

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for listening. God bless.