Psalms Mixtape, A Prayer for the Persecuted - Psalm 140

I'm so glad that you guys are joining us.

Today is week two of a brand new series that

we started for the month of December called The Psalms Mixtape.

The Psalms Mixtape. In this series, we are going through

the Book of Psalms, and how we're doing that for

this short series is we're going over the major categories

contained within the Psalms. We're looking at the Psalms of thanksgiving, lament, praise, wisdom, kingship,

and trust, and so those are the major ones that

we're going to be breaking down in this short series

to kind of just give us an introduction to the

beauty and the wealth and the wisdom and help that

we can get from these Psalms. That we see that

these God inspired songs are songs for every season of life.

No matter what season of life you find yourself in,

there's a song for it. In God's word, He's provided hope,

he's provided instruction, he's provided comfort, and so we get to.

Dive into that head first.

And we're hoping that in this series, as we see

that there's songs for every season, that they'll raise our

affections to love and know God more and bring and

allow us to bring every aspect of our life to him,

because I think this is an important thing. We say

it here all the time that at the roots it's

all about Jesus. But how often as Christians do we

say some of it's about Jesus? Right, we only will

bring some aspects of our life to him. We go like, yeah, God,

you can have these areas, you can touch these areas.

This is off limits, Jesus. Don't go in that room.

You're not welcome there, right, Like we have these different areas.

But here we see this example in the Psalms that

we can bring every area of our life to him.

And as a church, it's our mission to make everything

about Jesus, to make it all, all of our life

about him, to bring every area of our life to

him and be for him. Honestly, a lot of us

can be very stubborn.

I don't know about you. Maybe we're stubborn.

Maybe we were forgetful, and we forget to bring issues

to the Lord.

Which is funny because we really don't have an.

Issue with bringing our problems to other people, right, I

don't know about you. It's really easy to have something

going on in my life and just bring it to

someone else, and most of the time those people can't

even do anything about my situation.

I can sit there, I can bring my problems.

I can bring my issues to this person, and they're

gonna be like, man, that sucks.

Man, that's a bummer. Sorry to hear that.

They can't do anything, and yet we'll neglect to bring

it to the one person who can do something about it.

So and it's just like the hymn says that what

peace we often forfeit, what needless pain we bear, all

because we do not carry everything to God in prayer, right,

Like there's that aspect of like we just don't do it,

and it's right there and it's available. Have any of

you guys seen the Gladiator movies? How about that for

a transition, right? They just came out with the new

Gladiator movie, and me and my wife the other night

we just watched the original one, which if you haven't,

thanks to pastor Greg, it is somewhat ruined for me

because you listen to that movie and all I can

hear the soundtrack almost sounds identical to Pirates of the Caribbean.

So do with that what you will. But anyways, those

movies are pretty fun. They're pretty incredible. Any movie about

those eras ancient Times and ancient Rome, ancient Greece are

very fascinating.

And I think one of.

The reasons that those things are fascinating, it's just a

different way of life, right, It's a different way of life.

Sometimes it feels like it was more slow paced. It wasn't.

I don't know, it's just we things felt more spread out.

You could enjoy things over a longer period of time,

you know what I mean. The lights went out when

the sun went down, and you turned on candles and

when that wax was gone, Like that's what you had.

All kinds of fascinating things to learn from history. And

one of the ancient things about the ancient world you

can find, and actually you can still find it today,

is the worship of multiple gods. It's one of the

things you can find is the worship of multiple gods.

And the reason that these ancient societies worshiped multiple gods

is because they believed that there was a god for

specific aspects of life. Right, So if I wanted a

good harvest, I would find out from my local priest

who is the god of the harvest, and then I

would go pray to that God make my offerings so

that I have a good harvest.

I would do the same thing.

If I wanted a marriage, I wanted to find someone

of love, well, I'd go to the God of Love.

If I wanted to have wisdom or win the upcoming battle,

I would go to the God of war. Really, what

they were doing is what every need they had, they

were bringing it to the God that they believed could

help solve their problem. Whatever need they had, they we're

bringing it to the God that they believed could solve

their problem. But we know that there's only one God,

there's only one Creator, that every other god lower case

G is an idol. They're not real. There's only one

Lord of heaven and earth. We know this God has

spoken to us through his word, and he has told us,

and he has shown us that he is Lord alone,

that there's no other gods besides him. He's the first

to last. He is the only creator. He's the only

sovereign Lord. What's interesting is that today we still turn

to idols. We do that by turning to created things

to provide for us things that only the Creator can.

We turn to created things to provide for us things

that only the Creator can and was meant to. We

turned to alcohol, We turned into Netflix or nature to

give us peace. We look to video games, relationships, or

our jobs to find fulfillment in life. When we need something,

we turn to the things we believe can actually give

us what we're looking for.

But all those things, especially if.

You've lived a little, just a little bit, you've realized

that a lot of those things never deliver what they've promised.

On the back you go, you start walking down that road,

and on the other side of it, you realize they

sell us short and they always disappoint us in the end.

But in today's Psalm, we're gonna see that we are

to take our requests and our problems to the Lord

because he's faithful, because he's just because he's the one

who can actually do something that if we take it

to him, he's the one that will actually deliver.

On the other side, he's.

The one who actually can and will do something about it.

And that's really really good news. He's the one we

should hoping in times of trouble, and we can rest

assured that the Lord will actually deal with that trouble.

So we're gonna open up our bibles. We're finally, don't worry,

we're getting there. We're gonna open up our bibles to

Psalms one forty. Psalm is what we're gonna be looking

at today.

I'm gonna read it.

It's gonna be here on the screen, and you can

also follow along in your own Bible. I encourage you

to do that. We also have bibles in the back

at the resource desk out in the lobby. If you

don't have one, please go grab one. Follow along with us.

I'll give it a second. I hear the page of slipping, which, honestly.

Yeah, it makes me happy, for sure. It's awesome. It's amazing,

all right.

To the choir master, A psalm of David. Deliver me,

O Lord from evil men. Preserve me from violent men

who play in evil things in their heart and stir

up wars continually. They make their tongue sharp as a serpent's,

and under their lips is the venom of asps Sailah.

Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked.

Preserve me from violent men who have planned to trip

up my feet. The arrogant have hidden a trap from me,

and with chords they have spread an et beside the

way they have set snares for me.

Selah, I say.

To the Lord you are my God, Give ear to

my voice, or to the voice of my please for mercy,

O Lord, O Lord, my Lord, the strength of my

salvation you have covered my head in the day of battle.

Grant not, o Lord, the desires of the wicked, do

not further their evil plot, or they will be exalted. Seilah.

As for the head of those who surround me. Let

the mischief of their lips overwhelm them. Let burning coals

fall upon them. Let them be cast into fire, into

myrie pits no more to rise. Let not the slanderer

be established in the land. Let evil hunt down the

violent speed or man speedily. I know that the Lord

will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will secute

justice for the needy. Surely the righteous shall give thanks

to your name, and or the upright shall dwell in

your presence.

This is God's word.

Let us pray, Lord, we thank you that we get

to open up the riches contained in your word. That

you have not left us down here by ourselves, but

you have spoken that you have given us your word,

that you have given us your son to confirm that word,

that your spirit dwells in us and has that word

come alive. And I just ask right now that the

word you have for us today would be planted deep,

that it would bear fruit in our lives, and that

it would be to your glory. So please give us

eyes to see and ears to hear the word you

have for us today, all to your glory Jesus name,

we pray Amen. So today we are looking at a

psalm of lament. That is a psalm where someone is

in distress because of a difficulty or trials or in trials,

and they turn to the Lord with their problems.

Right.

They're kind of like emo songs or country songs of

the Old Testament with like a positive ending. Okay, right,

like a country song. My week my last week is

felt a little bit like a country song. My weekend Friday,

our dishwasher went out and then woke up that next morning.

We're gonna start taking care of that issue in my

tyre's flat. Right. That's that's kind of the country. It's

like woe, it's me, help me, Lord, I got all

these issues.

Lament, lament, lament. But no, they are these.

Songs where people are in distress and they need help,

so they turn to the Lord with their problems. And

psalms of the Men usually follow a pattern, just like

we saw a pattern last week in Psalms of Thanksgiving.

The psalms of the Men.

Show a pattern of bringing your problems to God and

by the end of your prayer, by the end of

the song, remembering to trust the Lord with it, remembering

who he is, and surrendering.

It to the Lord.

If you still get to bring your problems, you still

get to complain, if we put it in kind of

a harsh way like that under the Lord. But by

the end of it, we see how we're transformed, we

see where we're what we're putting our trust in. And

so today sermon is titled this a Prayer for the Persecuted,

a Prayer for the persecuted. Now, as he stated just

a minute ago, there's truth in the fact that you

take your problems to those you believe can solve your problems.

You take your problems to those you believe can solve

your problems. And one of the things I want to

argue today is that what you believe about God will

influence what you bring to Him, what you believe about

God will influence what you bring to him. When your

car needs to be fixed, you don't take it to

the veterinarian.

Right.

You don't take your kid when they're sick to the mechanic.

When you want fantastic, delicious baked treats, you don't ask

Duncan to bake them for you ask his wife.

Right, That's that's just a truth. Right, I know my place.

You turn to the things you believe will actually provide

what you seek. And now today that is exactly what

we see in this text that there is persecution going

on and the writer David is crying out to God

for justice. Why why is he crying out to him

for justice? Because he knows God is just and that

the Lord will bring justice. Is anyone does anyone have

that justice bone in their body, that high sense of justice?

Right?

Maybe you're driving someone cuts you off and you're like,

I got all kinds of ideas of what I want

to happen to you now, Right, Maybe someone tells a

story that you're a part of and you're like, that

wasn't the facts, that's not how it happened. I want

I want I want justice. I want to I want

to appear on the on the right sie of this story, right,

or maybe even when we see people being oppressed, we

see people being unjustly persecuted, and we get that feeling

that rises up in us. Right, it's really easy in

today's dan age. We have phones in our pockets that

you can tell us what's happening on the other side

of the planet.

It's really hard for us to do anything about You

can try.

I'm not saying you can't, but the reality is that

it's much harder to but you can still have.

This sense of justice rising up in you.

And honestly, there's a lot of us that even right now,

might be in situations where you might feel like you're

being mistreated, that there's injustice on your part, that there's

persecution going on, that you aren't getting justice. Maybe you've

tried everything and you no longer know where to turn.

But I believe that regardless of what situation you're in,

that this psalm is going to be helpful for those

of us who are struggling, And it's also going to

be a psalm for us to put in the back pocket,

or a psalm that's going to remind us and help

us for when we find ourselves in time of trouble,

because usually we don't get a decide when those things happen, right,

they happen suddenly, they come quickly. We didn't get a

plan for problems to show up. It just kind of happened.

One of my favorite sayings is that you're either prepairing

or repairing. One of my favorite things because I have

to ask the question which one am I either prepairing

or repairing? And today my prayer is that this song

from God's Word will bring blessing to either one of

those seasons of life, whether you're preparing or repairing. So

here at the very very beginning, at the top of

the song, it tells us who wrote it, who was

given to so it was written by David. David is

also known as King David in the Old Testament, is

the writer. It was also written and given to the

choir master, meaning it was a song written and given

for a congregation to sing. Right we talked about that

last week's psalms were meant to be sung. There a

hymn book of not only the Jewish people, but also

it's been the hymn book of the church throughout since

the churches existed.

The last two thousand plus years.

So not only do we see that the song was

written out of affliction, but it was then used for

others to sing and express in worship and to be

able to learn from the truth expressed within. If you're

familiar with all at all with David, this is a

little this is helpful background for us. David in the

Old Testament was a man that God had anointed to

be king over Israel.

Now, the thing that's interesting.

Is that when he was anointed to be the next king,

there was already a king. His name was King Saul,

and he had rejected listening to God's word. So therefore

God rejects him as king over his people. He sends

the prophet Samuel to go and anoint David to be

the next king.

And then as you're reading you can find this all

on for Samuel.

As David is growing in popularity with the favor of

the Lord upon him, you see Saul become jealous and

more than once try to kill him. So David spends

a lot of a lot of his life on the run.

He spends a lot of his life on the run

and from people who are pursuing him, trying to kill him.

So here we get the psalm makes perfect sense coming

from David pleading with the Lord for deliverance from his enemies,

from violent men. And in the psalms, I just wanted

to point out really quick, you see that word selah

or sela there, and.

It's kind of interesting. They're not exactly sure what it means.

There's some similarities to other words that can mean forever

or lift up your voices.

But what they do know is that it was a music.

It was basically a music notation right to say this

is a section, right, like kind of like if you

have a sheet music, you might it might say verse chorus,

verse chorus, but it's a signifier to say it breaks

up this section from the rest. So just in case

you were wondering, there you go. But we're gonna look

at the first two sections where David is pleading to

the Lord for deliverance from his enemies. Let's look at it,

starting in verse one to the choir master, psalm of David,

deliver me a Lord from evil men, Preserve me from

violent men who plan evil things in their heart and

stir up wars. Continually they make their tongue sharp at serpents,

and under their lips is the venom of asps saalo.

So here David ask the Lord to deliver him from

evil men, to preserve him from violent men, and then

he really starts to like describe who these guys are.

He's like, I need help. There's these guys coming after me.

I need some help. He describes them as those who

devise evil or plan evil in their hearts.

They continue to stir up trouble and wars.

And it literally, in David's time, could have been literal

wars that these people were stirring up. But then we

see kind of how we see how this is coming

about what he's David is struggling with it, says, he

gives us this vivid description of the type of talk

that these people have, the type of talk that these

wicked people had. Their tongues were sharp, and nothing but

poison was behind their lips.

That's how he describes it.

So the way I kind of thought that was like

a helpful way to summarize this in modern day languages,

like these people were toxic, right, right, we all kind

of familiar with that, Like when they speak, you know,

nothing good is gonna come of it. So David asked

for deliverance from evil and violent men, those who were

planning and speaking with poison. And I think this is

actually very fitting that he just said, they play evil

in their hearts, and the fruit of their.

Lips isn't fruit, it's poison.

Jesus, as we remember, it tells us that from out

of the heart, the mouth speaks right. And here we

have those with evil intention in their heart. And what

is the result, poisonous speech, gossip, slander. We see in

James three, we're told of the severity of the tongue,

the destruction that it can reak on life. Let's look

at it, and the tongue is a fire, a world

of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining

the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,

and set on fire by hell. For every kind of

beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature can be tamed,

and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being

contain the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of

what deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father,

and with it we curse people who are made in

the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing

and cursing, My brothers, these things ought not to be.

So we all know this to be true. Severity that

comes with the words that come out of our mouth. Right,

every relationship stands or falls on what comes out of

our mouth, the way that we speak to each other.

And we know this, don't we. Husbands? We know this,

don't we wives? Right? We know this. Children, we know this.

Parents, we know on and on how important it is

to watch what we say. I could ruin my entire

life right now with literally just a couple words. That

is the line I'm standing on, just a couple words.

We ruin, destroy, break, and hurt so.

Many people in so many things because of the carelessness

that we have when it comes to how we use

our tongues.

And I honestly think that knowing that, as we.

Are made aware of the severity, especially you know, the

ways that we've been hurt by others and what they've said,

I think that should lead us, on top of one

of and to honor the Lord with what comes out

of our mouth, to also consider how we've been hurt

by what comes out of people's mouths, and be intentional

with how we speak, be intentional with what we say.

Is so powerful, yet it's such a small little muscle

behind our lips. And here David cries out for deliverance

from the poison being spoken around him. But that's not

all David is facing. He then goes on to show

the depths of the persecution that he's facing. It is

not just intentions of the heart, and it's not just words,

but there's actual physical harm that he's facing. Let's look

at it and Psalm reciting in verse four, guard me,

o Lord, from the hands of the wicked, Preserve me

from violent men who have planned to trip up my feet.

The arrogant to have hidden a trap for me, and

with chords they have spread a net beside the way.

They have set snares for me. Sailah, he cries out

for the Lord to guard him, this time from the

hands of the wicked. Right. So in both of these

paragraphs we get two sections that very clearly tell us

that the entirety of these wicked people, whether it be

the intention of their hearts, the intention of their hands,

the intention of their mouths, everything that they're they're coming

at him with everything, and it's out of evil and wickedness.

So he's crying out from for deliverance. Is these wicked

men were coming after him with everything they had, and

the only thing David could do.

Is turn to the Lord.

He has these people coming after him with everything they got,

and the only thing he can do is turn to

the Lord. I don't know if you've ever been wrongly

accused or wrongly hated, wrongly hurt, but if you have,

I know that we know the desperation that comes from

the helplessness, the feeling of being lost, the fear and

the worry that comes with it. To know that potentially

everyone around you hearing these lies believes the other person.

It hurts to feel alone in your head, and the

stress and distress of the wrongdoing that's.

Being done around you over and over again.

The song, this psalm, this lament, the expressing of the

grief or sorrow or sorrow that is all too real

in life is why I think.

These psalms are so helpful.

These palms are so helpful because they're not only here

to encourage us to show us the way, but they

also just remind us that we're not alone.

A right that's nice.

Sometimes they go like, all right, other people have been

in my shoes before, some other people have gone down

this path before me.

I think there's some hope in that as well.

It's also interesting to note that the Book of Psalms

are in the Book of Psalms, Lament makes up the

majority most the Psalms, At least sixty or more out

of the one hundred and fifty are lament. I think

there's a real a reason for that, and that's because

life is hard.

Life is hard.

You live just a little bit and you realize not

every day is a great day. You gotta pay bills

and stuff like that.

People don't always like you for the way you are.

There's all kinds of problems, all kinds of things you

got to face out there. Life is hard. But Jesus says,

and if Jesus tells us this, he says, in this

world you will have trouble. Doesn't pull anything, He just

tells us like it is. But he also gives us

the good news, which is, but take heart, for.

I have overcome the world.

The only glimmer of hope that we have is in

the Lord and his mercy.

And David here.

Has called and asked the Lord to deliver him, to

guard him, and now he begs the Lord to hear him.

Let's look at it. In verse six, I say.

To the Lord, you are my God, Give ear to

the voice of my please for mercy, O Lord, O Lord,

my Lord, the strength of my salvation you have covered

my head in the day of battle.

Grant not, O Lord.

The desires of the wicked, do not further their evil plot,

or they will be exalted Selah. The Davy recognizes the

Lord as his god, and he begs the Lord to

hear his plea for mercy. David knows who the Lord is.

And actually, what's really cool here is he's not just

saying that he knows the Lord relationally, but he's also

saying he knows the Lord experientially. He recognizes that the

Lord is the strength of his salvation. The Lord is

the strength of salvation. I mean, how often do we

turn to the Lord plead for mercy from the situation,

and then we don't actually rely on him, We don't

actually rely on his strength. We'll say help me here,

help me, help me, and then we go like, all right,

now I'm gonna try and take care of it. On

my own thank you, like it's not what we're to do.

He is the strength of our salvation. So in the reality,

this is good to remember, not only just for our

actual salvation, which of course we can't attain by works,

but any situation we need saving from we don't have

the strength we're fuel for that salvation. We need to

rely on his strength. We need to remember that his hands,

the strength of his hands, will never let us go.

Right the Children's song, we are weak, but he is strong.

The reason you learn that at a young age, not

because you're just a week then right you grow up,

you're still weak.

He is the strength of our salvation.

We remember this, and we remember these things by thinking

on the past.

Time has got to save us. Right, This is probably like.

If something I could do in my life that would

just help me be less down all the time.

I'm not a person that's down all this time.

Something that would help for those moments is back in

the Old Testament, every time God would deliver them in

some kind of way, they'd set up rocks.

Right kind of seems arbitrary, seems random.

But the reason they'd set up these rocks is so

that they would remember when God saved them that time, right,

So finding ways to do that in our own lives

is really important because for me, I can look ahead

and go like, I don't know how God's gonna pull

me through this. I don't know how he's gonna save me.

I don't know how he's gonna help me. But actually,

if I just for one second, I'm not walking the

other way. But if I just looked back where I

came from and go like, oh, but there was that

time where I was saying the same thing, And there

was that time I said the same thing, and that's oh.

Oh, that's right. You help me. You always show up.

And so we need to find these ways of reminding

ourselves and remembering what the Lord has done in our

own lives because that helps us get through the next thing,

because it just experientially reminds us that he's with us

and that he will help us. So David, in David's case,

the Lord has protected him. He says, he covers my head,

and that also.

Could be literal.

David was fighting people who's on the run, hiding in caves,

doing all kinds of stuff. He was protected for when

the day of battle comes and David knows this. He

reminds them himself of this fact. And not only that,

but he reminds those who would sing the song to remember.

Just who our God is.

So now David pleads with the Lord, not only to

hear his plea, but he kind of adds an extra ask, right,

this is this is kind of interesting, it's kind of funny.

Probably didn't feel funny, I'll be real about that. But

he now says, and he adds, but put a stop

to the plots of the wicked.

Stop what they're doing.

In verse eight, he says, don't let them win, Lord, right,

that's what he's trying to say. He's like, don't let

them become exalted from having their way, bring them low,

stop them in their checks, an end of this wickedness.

You ever pray like this, Lord, please stop them, Please

stop them, don't let them get away with it.

Please hear me. Don't let them have the last word.

David is pleading with the Lord.

He's calling for salvation and he's also calling for justice

to be done. He now takes it even further. He

just got done remembering that the Lord and covers his head.

In the day of battle.

Now David is going to express what he desires. For

the head of those who are against him, he thanks God, saying,

thank you for covering my head. And he says in

verse nine, as for the head of those who surround me,

And this is where we see David go in a

little bit. He says, let the mischief of their lips

overwhelm them, Let burning coals fall upon them, Let them

be cast into fire, into myrie pits, no more to rise.

Let not the slander or be established in the land.

Let evil hunt down the violent man speedily. So if

David asks the Lord or ask that the Lord would

repay the evil, repay the evil, violent people with the

plans that they had to do to him, he says,

let the plans they had come back on them. Let

burning coals fall upon them, cast them in the fire,

and those are signs of judgment.

Let them be stuck in the pit, never to arise.

He then clearly asked for the Lord that the evil

plans and people would not get to be established or

stay in the land, that they would not get to

take hold or be victorious. In that way, you know,

verily clearly shows what's going on, that he was being

slandered and hunted by evil, and he asked the Lord

to rout out the evil, to let the violent man

reap what he has sown, reap what he's intending to do,

to let the evil they had planned to come back

on their heads.

What is he asking God to do?

He's asking God for justice, but not only that, asking

God to crush his enemies, cast them to fire, let

judgment come down on the violent man. Now, this portion

of the text introduces a genre within the psalms, which

can be found in all kinds of types of psalms,

called the imprecatory psalms. A lot of times you'll find

them with lament, which is, Lord, I have enemies. Smash them, Lord,

help me. These bag guys are gonna get me. Eviscerate them, fire,

come down, bring them up, destroy him, smash them. What

these psalms are is these psalms that are calling down

a curse on one's enemies, basically divine justice. Lord, you

see the wickedness, smash it, destroy it, get rid of it.

It's to ask God for the curses, or it's to

ask for the curses of God to come upon his enemies.

And honestly, I gotta say, I gotta strike. I struggled

in this part of the text. As you might imagine,

this text is kind of interesting because what do we

do with this?

What do we do with this?

When we read this, this is God's inspired word, So

what do we do with this? I can tell you

that I struggle for mainly two reasons. One is, I

know it is totally okay and right to call for

justice to be done on wickedness. Totally cool, totally fine,

it's holy. It's a righteous thing to do to call

for justice. But two, is this how we are supposed

to pray for our enemies. That's where I struggled. Is

this the example we're given how we are to pray

for our enemies? And from where I currently stand, I

could be moved on this. You bring your Bible, we'll

meet for coffee, we'll talk about it. But where I

currently stand is the answer is no, We're not supposed

to pray for our enemies like this. And I do

need to qualify it because does that mean that David

was wrong to pray for his enemies like this? My

answer to that is also no. It's also no, I

don't think it was wrong that David prayed for his

enemies to be smashed. But I think we are not

to pray that way. Now why, I will tell you

because of Jesus. It's because of Jesus. It's only because

of Jesus. When Jesus showed up, he changed everything. And

I believe Jesus would have not himself said that this

psalm was wrong for praynes. I don't think he would

have said that. But I believe that Jesus shows us

a better way. I believe Jesus raised the standard for

how we are to treat our enemies. There was a

totally righteous find way to treat your enemies. Jesus showed

up and he raised the bar. Jesus raised the standard

for how we are to treat those who persecute us.

You remember, let's look at it, Matthew five thirty eight. Jesus,

you have heard it that it was said an eye

for an eye, and a tooth for tooth for a tooth.

That's justice, right restitution. But I say to you, do

not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone

slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the

other also. And if anyone would sue you and take

your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And

if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with

him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you,

and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

You have heard that it was said you shall love

your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you,

love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,

so that you may be sons of your Father, who

is in the or who is in heaven. For he

makes his son rise on the evil and on the good,

and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Jesus quotes the law and raises the standard. I believe

David was within the boundaries of the law at the time,

But on this side of Christ, I believe Jesus has

raised the standard to that of how God treats his enemies,

and that is by loving them. God overcame evil, not

with more evil, not that he could actually do anything evil,

but he overcame it with good. And I honestly don't

think that it would be wrong to sing the psalm

in church either as it's God's inspired word, but in

light of Christ it might serve some explanation or some understanding.

Our prayers, while still praying for justice, should not cause

us to call down curses, but to bless them and

trust God to do the rest.

Let's look at it. Romans twelve.

Paul is writing to Christians about this very thing, says,

Rejoice in hope, be patient and tribulation, be constant in prayer,

and honestly, if we didn't, we don't have to go farther.

That will keep us busy. That right there will keep

us busy.

But we're gonna keep going, says Contribute to the needs

of the saints, and seek to show hospitality.

Ready here we go.

Bless those who persey. You bless and do not curse them.

Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.

It goes on.

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty,

but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your

own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give

thought to do what is honorable on the sight of all,

if possible, so far as it depends on you, live

peaceably with all beloved. Never avenge yourselves, but leave it

to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance

is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary,

if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty,

give him something to drink. For by doing so, listen

to this, you will heap burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Here we see something amazing that the end result is

the same as the psalm. It's actually very funny. The

end result is the same as the pal. Instead of

killing people with curses, we kill people with kindness. Right,

And I'd use that expression purely to help us understand

the picture that's being painted here. And David saw him.

He calls for coals upon their heads. And here Paul says,

if you bless and do good to those who do

evil to you, what's the result. It's like burning coals

on their head. That we are not to overcome evil

with evil, but evil with good. Those who persecute us,

we pray for them. Those who slander us, we do

good to them. But I believe that this is an

impossible task. If we don't understand two things, that is

an impossible task. There's no way I can pray for

those who persecute me. There is no way I'm gonna.

There's no way I want to, right, It's not even

just a have to or.

Need to, it's a want to. I don't even want

to do that.

We can't do that if we don't understand two things.

If we don't understand and believe who God is, this

is impossible. And if we don't understand and believe the Gospel,

this is impossible. Why do I say this Because in

the same way that what you believe about God influences

what you bring to him, the same goes that if

we believe God, if we believe the Gospel, it will

influence and help us obey the standard He has called

us to, which is himself. Jesus is the standard Jesus

think about it was the most persecuted, slandered, hated, mistreated.

Jesus had men seek violence against him pretty much all

the time, and eventually they were successful. They brought violence

to fruition by his brutal trial and execution of death

on a cross. Jesus was the most equainted with grief, affliction,

and persecution. And what's worse, he didn't deserve it at all.

He's the only person who have suffered and yet didn't

deserve it. One bit. And that's the difference between him

and us.

Right.

A lot of times persecution and problems are because we're

sinners too, we add our own bit.

Into the ring.

But Jesus, he was perfect, and yet he was still persecuted.

He didn't deserve it, but he endured it. And why

because he loved his enemies, you and me, the sinners,

the god haters, the rebels.

He loved us.

He showed us a better way instead of crushing his enemies,

totally could have done that, instead of cursing his enemies.

He was crushed for our sin. He hung cursed on

a tree in our place. That Jesus died for his

enemies so as to save and redeem them. Amen, this

is the bar Jesus has raised. Right, that's a high

bar Jesus has raised. And he's also called us to

follow him, not to save other people, but to follow

him to live like he did, to die to ourselves. Right,

that's really what keeps us in the way from surrendering

justice happening. We want to take it in our hands,

but we're to die to ourselves, pick up our cross

and follow him. Jesus sets the example for how we

are to treat our enemies that we were his enemies,

and yet he showed us love, grace, and mercy. It's

beautiful and amazing. But that's only thing two. The first thing,

or yeah, thing too. We have to understand the Gospel

if we're going to live in this radical way. But

there's still the first point we have to address and

takes us back to the beginning of the message that

what you believe about God will influence what you bring

to him. But not only that what you believe about

God will decide whether or not you will trust him.

It decides whether or not you will trust him with

that situation. But look at what Day believes. It's the

reason he even brings his pleas to the Lord. Let's

look at it back in Psalm twelve. I know that

the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and

will execute justice for the needy. He knows who God is,

and David puts his trust in the fact that at

the end of the day, the Lord will bring justice.

He knows that the Lord will bring justice if the

Lord sees the affliction of the suffering, and that he

will stand for them.

And David not only knows this and believes this. He

believes it with everything.

He believes it so much that he doesn't only anticipate

that the Lord will bring justice. He anticipates and believes

that the Lord is going to answer and preserve him

like he asked, and will carry him through. We're gonna

look at this in the last verse, and I need

the band to come up. So surely the righteous, Surely

the righteous shall give thanks to your name. The upright

shall dwell in your presence. David knows that at the

end of it all the right pace just will thank

God for maintaining their cause, and the at their end,

that their end is to dwell with the Lord. And

how amazing this Isn't this is as an anticipation that

though he is crying and pleading to the Lord for deliverance,

by the end of this psalm he reminds himself of

the truth that the Lord will bring justice, that the

Lord will preserve him to the end. God will bring justice.

And if you believe that, you can lay down your arms,

you can lay down your curses and follow Jesus's example

to love your enemies and do good to those who

persecute you, and even more than that, pray for them.

If you need proof that God will bring justice in

the end, all you have to do is look at

the Cross. It's all you have to do.

Jesus is the perfect example, hanging on that cross that

God still demands justice.

He did not tell us you're forgiven. I'm just gonna

sweep it under the rug.

He says. No, I'm still gonna deal with your sin issue.

But He's going to deal with it by dying in

your place. The cross serves as the greatest reminder of

God's justice and wrath being poured out on sin, and

yet at the same time.

His eternal and divine love to save his enemies.

That everyone whom God calls everyone who believes in Jesus,

will be saved from the wrath through their sin. That

for anyone who rejects Christ, the wrath of God remains

to be poured out on them at judgment Day to

the fullest.

Extent for all eternity in hell.

Either way, God will bring justice for sin and for

the sin of others, and it will be either on

Christ's head at the cross or on your head at

judgment day. So if you have not been made right

with God, you need to look at Christ in belief.

He is the only way.

If you hear his.

Call, do not herden your hearts, as hebrew says, but

obey him and repent and believe in Jesus. And that

for us as believers, as we lament our persecutions, let

them serve as a reminder to humble ourselves that at

one point we were God's enemies, but that he was

patient with us, and that he showed us loving kindness

and grace. And let that be the fuel upon which

we bless those who curse us. God will bring justice,

And because of that fact, we can rest easy about

vengeance and repayment for injustice. And now we can pursue,

pursue what the Lord has called us to, which is

to love our enemies.

The Lord will.

Handle the justice part. I need you to hear that today.

The Lord will handle the justice part. And we are

to obey the call on our life to bring our

problems to him and trust him with it. Those are enemies, right,

You go, like, well, no one's seeking my life. Maybe

I get slandered here, But here's the deal. We have

trouble with all kinds of different people, whether it's a

big problem like this or a little problem.

We all need to take it to the Lord.

I was. There's a pastor who is counseling a husband

and the husband was having trouble loving his wife, and

the pastor told him, well, the Bible says to love

your wife. The man says, well, she doesn't really feel

like a wife. The man said, okay, Well she felt

like a neighbor, she said. He said, now, she doesn't

really feel like a neighbor, and he said, we does

she feel.

Like an enemy. He's like, that's it, she feels like

an enemy.

The pastor said, well, we're the Bible tells us to

love your enemy, right, So no matter where they're at,

like where that conflict is at, we bring it to

the Lord to seek justice. So my encouragement to you

today is to bring your problems to the one and

only true God, the God of Justice, the one who

maintains the cause of the afflicted, and execute justice and

the needy, and trust him.

Trust him with it. On my way.

To get my notes this morning, was listening to the

song Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in his

wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow.

Dim in the light of his glory and.

Grace at the problems as we look to our future hope,

as we look to Christ.

The problems, the pains, the trials that we go through vanish.

We can endure them because we know that that's not

where we're going to end up. Verse Peter five six

through seven says this. It says forgot I put it

only in my notes. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty

hand of God, so that at the proper time He

may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because

as He cares for you, Heavenly Father, we lift up

this time.

We lift up this word.

We lift up our cries to you in affliction and persecution,

whether it's our bondage to our sin that has so

easily entangled us, or the problems in our marriage, the

problems in our workplace, our relationships, our friends, our families,

or God. Where they hate us because of You, where

they hate us because of our love for you, where

they hate us without reason, Lord God, we ask that

we would have our view of you magnified and built up,

that our affections for you would grow, so that we

could love you and trust you with every aspect of

our life. Lord God, as we turn to you and

bring our complaints, as we bring our concerns and our

issues and our.

Woes, that you would hear our prayer, that you would

hear us and answer us as the Lord of our salvation.

Lord, that you would do away with the sin in

our lives, that it would do away with the problems

in our life in such a way that would bring

you glory, that would save others.

And preserve us. And Lord God, we know who you are.

We know that you are a great God, that you

see our affliction, you see our pain, and that Lord God,

we have an eternity to dwell with you, and eyes

fixed on you in this time, in this day, Lord God,

as we fix our eyes on you, that you will

get us through to the other side.

We thank you for the hope you've given us. In Jesus,

we just asked we'd answer the call.

When you draw on us, you've already started to work,

because you've already started to move.

That you do what you do and you save you

comfort or we give this time to We love you,

and we praise you for your word. For Jesus and

Jesus name. Everyone said Amen.