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Psalm 110: The Priest/King at God’s Right Hand
Christ Church on August 11, 2019
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Psalm 109: God Is Not Mocked

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Introduction

This psalm has been a challenge to many Christians for centuries. It is an imprecatory psalm, and of the most bracing variety. Many commentators have been reduced to saying something like, “We know it is inspired, but we don’t have to like it.” The great C.S. Lewis stumbled over it, saying that God put it in Scripture so that we might have an example of how not to behave. And even Charles Spurgeon said the psalm represented “no small difficulty,” and that “we have need of all our faith and reverence to accept them as the voice of inspiration.” This psalm, he says, “tests our teachableness.” And so it does.

The Text

“Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise; For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: They have spoken against me with a lying tongue . . .” (Psalm 109:1–31).

Summary of the Text

The psalmist begins by asking God to not hold His peace (v. 1), and the reason given is that the wicked are not holding theirs. Theyare speaking, they are telling their lies (v. 2). For no good reason, they surrounded David with words of hatred (v. 3). They turn David’s love into their grievance, but David gives himself to prayer (v. 4). They returned evil for good, and hatred for love (v. 5). This ends the first section, which is a statement of David’s dilemma. He then uncorks, and the next section contains some of the fiercest words in all Scripture. Let the accuser be at his right hand, and let Herod have a Herod rule over him, and Stalin a Stalin (v. 6). When he comes to judgment, let the verdict be guilty. When he prays, let that prayer be sin (v. 7). Cut his days short, and let another take his position. This is the verse that was quoted when the apostles replaced Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:20). Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow (v. 9). May those children be turned out into the street, hunting for scraps in waste places (v. 10). May an extortioner take everything, and may strangers pillage him (v. 11). May no one show mercy, whether to him or to his children (v. 12). Cut his posterity off, Lord (v. 13). May the Lord remember the sins of his fathers, and also of his mother (v. 14). May God remember them all, such that He cuts off their memory from earth (v. 15). And why? Because he was merciless (v. 16), and no, this is not lack of self-awareness. He loved to curse, and so may it all return upon him (v. 17). He wore clothing dyed in venom; may that venom sink down into his bones (v. 18). May he be covered with a garment like that (v. 19). Let this be the return that my adversaries receive from the Lord (v. 20). This is the conclusion of the second section, the imprecatory section.

The third section is a plea for deliverance (v. 21), for the sake of the Lord’s name. For David is poor and needy, and his heart is wounded (v. 22). He dwindles like a declining shadow; he is tossed like a locust in a stiff breeze (v. 23). His knees are weak because of fasting, most likely forced on him through adversity (v. 24). He was a reproach to his foes, they shook their heads at him (v. 25). He pleads for God to save him, according to God’s mercy (v. 26). He wants his foes to know that God undertook for him (v. 27). If God blesses, then let them curse. Let them be ashamed when David rejoices (v. 28). May his enemies be wrapped up in confusions (v. 29). The psalmist will praise God with his mouth in the midst of the multitude (v. 30), for God will stand at the right hand of the poor in order to deliver him from those who condemn his soul (v. 31).

Surrendered to Christ

We are supposed to sing this. To the end of the world, the Christian church is supposed to sing this (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). And we are not supposed to sing bad attitudes back to the Lord. And Peter was not shy about applying the imprecatory section of this psalm to the desolation that Judas brought down upon himself (Acts 1:20), and this means that if the antagonist in the psalm was Judas, then the protagonist is Christ. David in his troubles served as a type, but this is really about Christ. And Christ responded to His foes in two stages—in the first, He was like a sheep before the shearers, answering not a word (Is. 53:7). In the second, He was the one who destroyed His enemies with the breath of His coming (2 Thess. 2:8). We want to reverse that order (Luke 9:55), but we must not. We are invited to turn it all over to Him, therefore. Psalms of imprecation are a surrender to the judge of the whole earth who will do right.

God is Not Mocked

We sometimes complain about psalms like this on the grounds of “injustice,” but what really troubles us is the sheer justice of them. We have quietly and surreptitiously switched the categories of mercy and justice. We think that mercy is owedto us, and that if we don’t get it, then that is somehow unjust. But grace that is owed is no grace at all. So the wages of sin is death, and the gift of God is eternal life (Rom. 3:23). Note that death is the pay check, death is the wage, and death is what we have earned. There is an asymmetry between death and life that extends beyond the categories of death and life. There is also the asymmetry of wageand gift.

God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows (Gal. 6:7-8). If you plant thistles, you will harvest thistles. If you sow cursing, then your crop in the fall will be cursing, and your barns will be full of it. Of course, this is not talking about salvation (Eph. 2:8-10). We are notsaved by our works—but we are most certainly damnedby them. Never forget the stark difference between law-righteousness and faith-righteousness. The former is damned by works while the latter is saved by grace.

In addition to all of that, remember the fact that justification is by grace through faith. This does not abrogate the principle that God is not mocked with regard to your sanctification. Let us assume that a man is a converted man, by grace through faith. Now consider two other realities of the Christian life—the blessings that come from obedience and the obedience itself. These are joined together in Christ and only in Christ. The temptation to separate them (by various means) is always the attempt to obtain the blessings of obedience without the obedience itself. The name of this sin is—at the foundation—sorcery.

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23).

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Psalm 108: We Shall Do Valiantly

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Introduction

There is a true theological balancing act that is able to handle two very different sentiments that are both found in Scripture. The first is the response of a humble servant of Christ—“So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10). We are to say that we are unprofitable servants, and when we do that, we are doing no more than what we were told to say. But what does the Lord say to us? “His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:21). How do we reconcile the two? To paraphrase Spurgeon, we don’t need to reconcile them. Why reconcile friends?

The Text

“O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, Even with my glory. Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: And I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great above the heavens: And thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: And thy glory above all the earth . . .” (Psalm 108:1–13).

Summary of the Text

The one who would worship God rightly should be settled in his intention. O God, my heart is fixed (v. 1). He will sing and praise, and will do so with his glory, which is likely his tongue, his faculty of speech. He wakes up his instruments in order to give himself to the task; he wakes himself up early to do it (v. 2). He will praise God among the people, and sing praises among the nations (v. 3). God’s mercy is great above the heavens, and His truth stacks up to the clouds (v. 4). The exaltation that is rendered to God, therefore, ought to reach as high as His mercy and truth do (v. 5)—above the heavens, above the earth.

The psalmist refers to himself as God’s beloved, and asks God to save him with His right hand. Answer me (v. 6). God is holy, and He speaks in His holiness (v. 7). Then David as king rejoices in what God has granted to him—Shechem and the valley of Succoth (v. 7). Gilead and Manasseh are now his (v. 8). Ephraim is the strength of his head (v. 8), and Judah is his lawgiver (v. 8). We then come to the odd image of wash pot and shoe. I take it this way. Moab is the basin that some slave uses to wash David’s feet, and Edom is another slave that he—having taken his shoe off for the washing—throws his shoe over (v. 9). Philistia has been defeated, and David triumphs (v. 9).

Who is going to bring about his conquest of the strong city in Edom (v. 10)? God, is it not you? You have cast us off before, but not now. Will You not go out with our armies (v. 11). God, give us help in our trouble, for the help of man is vain and empty (v. 12). We are God’s instruments, and we shall do valiantly. We shall do valiantly because we are not really doing it. It is He that shall tread down our enemies (v. 13).

That Balance Within the Psalm

“Give us help from trouble: For vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly: For he it is that shall tread down our enemies” (Ps. 108:12–13).

David is looking for tangible help in a physical battle. How can he take the strong city in Edom? And so he asks for the help of God in this trouble because, as he says, the help of man is vain (v. 12). Vain. Futile. Worthless. Inconsequential. The victory, when it comes, is through God. David says that it is through God because He, God, is the one who is going to tread down the enemy (v. 13). But with all this said, David does not sit down on a sofa to watch the battle from afar. He does not expect God to smite the adversary with lightning bolts from the open sky. “Through God we shall do valiantly.” So how do we relate the action of God to the actions of men?

God is God

God is always God, absolute and sovereign, and man is always man, finite and limited. We need not concern ourselves with God’s sovereignty of inanimate objects—that presents no difficulty at all. The challenge for us is when we are dealing with beings who have free agency. They are not puppets, and yet . . . God directs them perfectly as well.

Sentient creatures who make choices can be divided into two categories—rebels on the one hand and sons and daughters on the other. The rebels choose wickedly, but their choices are overridden by God such that they accomplish the opposite of what was intended. Remember Herod, Pontius Pilate, and all the Jews (Acts 4:27-28). And if the rulers of this age had known what the crucifixion would accomplish, they would not have engineered it (1 Cor. 2:8). They all had true freedom, but it was not freedom to win.

Sons and daughters lay down their arms, and surrender to Him. In the course of His kindness to them, He gives them everything. But what He gives, on the basis of our new justified status, He gives into us. And we then work it out.

Working In, Working Out

“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily” (Col. 1:27–29).

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12–13).

Shall we, like David, do valiantly? Yes, we shall, but that valiant spirit has to be given to us first. Shall we be Christ-like as we overcome in His name? Yes, we shall. But first . . . the Christ must be given.

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Psalm 107: So Let the Redeemed Say So

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Introduction

If there is one lesson that the psalmist would like for us to take away from this psalm, it is the desire that men would learn how to praise God for His goodness. It must follow from this that—either from the difficulty of the lesson or the sluggishness of the students—this is not an easy thing to accomplish. We consider some of the central aspects of this difficulty shortly.

The Text

“O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lordsay so, Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy . . .” (Psalm 107:1–43)

Summary of the Text

The mercy of God is forever, and so we thank Him (v. 1). The redeemed of the Lord should talkabout it (v. 2). The redeemed of the Lord have been gathered from every direction (v. 3). They were out in the wilderness, and had no city (v. 4). They were faint, and cried to the Lord, who delivered them (vv. 5-6), and led them into their city of habitation (v. 7).

Oh, that men would learn how to praise God for His goodness (v. 8). He fills the hungry soul with that goodness (v. 9). His goodness even extends to sinnerswho are in affliction as a consequence of their own stupid fault (vv. 10-12). When they cry out, He hears them (vv. 13-14).

The point is repeated. Oh, that men would praise God for His goodness (v. 15). He has broken down their prison bars (v. 16), the chains that fools forge out of their own iniquities (v. 17). God breaks those. They are in a bad enough way to abhor food, and are near death. They finally cry to God, and He delivers them (vv. 18-20).

A third time! Oh, that men would praise God for His goodness (v. 21). Let them sacrifice to Him, and declare His works (v. 22). Sailors see the works of God (vv. 23-24). The winds and waves testify by going up to heaven, and down to the depths (vv. 25-26). The men stagger on deck like drunkards, and cry out to God, and He stills the storm (vv. 27-29), and they are glad when He brings them into their haven (v. 30). God is the one who does this marvelous thing, and this is the backdrop to the disciples astonishment when the Lord speaks to the wind and waves, and they obey Him? What is their response? Who is this (Mark 4:41)?

The refrain comes a fourth time. Oh, that men would praise God for His goodness (v. 31). Praise Him in the congregation, as we are doing here (v. 32). Praise Him for His work in raising up and throwing down. He dries up rivers and springs (v. 33), and makes a fruitful land desolate (v. 34)—on account of the wickedness there (v. 34). He can go in the other way as well. He turns the wilderness into a lake, and dry ground into springs (v. 35). He gathers in the hungry, and gives them a city for habitation (v. 36). He gives them fields and vineyards, overflowing with bounty (v. 37). He grants them increase, and will not let their cattle decrease (v. 38).

But there is another turn (v. 39), and the people are brought into affliction. Then He heaps contempt on princes, and throws them out (v. 40). And He sets the poor man in a high place (v. 41), and gives him abundance. The righteous see and understand this pattern, and they rejoice in it (v. 42). Iniquity is shut down and finally shuts up (v. 42).

Do you want to be wise? The one who is wise will observe these things, and these are those who understand the lovingkindness (hesed) of the Lord (v. 43). This is what we must learn to take away.

Affliction from the Outside

We live in a world where hard things happen. Hard things happen to losers and wretches, and hard things happen to saints and sweet people. If we set ourselves up as the judges on the sidelines, we are going to reveal just how ignorant we are. We are going to look at life as though it were a gigantic vending machine, and we are going to take note of who gets their product and who does not. When a nice person does not, when bad things happen to good people, we rail at Heaven as though some kind of injustice were going down.

Or, in order to protect our false assumption, we simply declare that the nice person must actually have been a sinner. Job’s three comforters simply assumed that he must have done something to deserve what he got (Job 2:11). The disciples wanted to know who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind (John 9:2).

Viewed From Within

The hinge of all faithful living is this, found in both Habakkuk and Romans (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17). The just shall liveby faith. And faith knows how to take the affliction apart, and how to examine the inside of it.

“For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:4–5).

When you look at a blessing from the outside, how can you tell whether it is a Deuteronomic blessing or not? Maybe you are the rich fool in the parable, on the verge of building bigger barns (Luke 12:18). But then there is this . . .

“Honour the Lordwith thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine” (Prov. 3:9–10).

So we are to walk by faith, and not by sight. We are not supposed to figure out whether something is a blessing, and then, having done our due diligence by sniffing at God’s kindness suspiciously, thanking Him for it. No. Our thanksgiving is what makes it one thing or the other. This is applies to thanksgiving for simple blessings, and for the forgiveness that comes with forfeited blessings, but where the blessing comes anyhow.

Christ the Heart of Every Blessing

Christ is the heart of every blessing, and He is what makes it a blessing. Christ is at the heart of every affliction, and He is what makes that affliction into a long haul blessing. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18).

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Psalm 106: The Salvation of Ingrates

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Introduction

God is always to be praised for His wondrous works, but we also need to remember to make sure to catalog our praises. God works wonderfully in creation, and He works wonderfully in the salvation of His people. He also works wonderfully, as we shall see here, in the salvation of ingrates.

One level of praise is to extol God for His creative work in the heavens and earth. Another level of praise has to do with His work throughout the course of history—and because of the fact of sin, this is largely the work of redemption. And, as we shall see here, it frequently involves the salvation of stupid ingrates.

The Text

“Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? who can shew forth all his praise? Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times. Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation; That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance…” (Ps. 106:1-48).

Summary of the Text

The invitation is given—come praise the Lord for His everlasting goodness and mercy (v. 1). Who is up to this task of praising Him (v. 2)? Blessed are those who keep their covenantal wits about them (v. 3). Remember me, the psalmist prays, with the favor that You show to Your people (v. 4). And why? That I might see the good of the chosen, rejoice in the gladness of His nation, and glory with His inheritance (v. 5).

And then the psalmist begins the reckoning—all the sins that Israel has committed in the course of God’s gracious dealings with them (v. 6). Israel did not understand the judgments that fell on Egypt, did not see the multitude of God’s mercies, and began to kick at His goodness, even as early as the Red Sea (v. 7). But God saved them anyway, for His name’s sake (v. 8). He rebuked the Red Sea, and led them through it (v. 9). He saved them from the Egyptians who hated them (v. 10), and the waters covered Pharaoh’s armies (v. 11). They sang His praise (v. 12), but soon enough forgot what had happened (v. 13). They didn’t want His counsel. They went straight from singing to sinning.

They had hot desires, and tempted God (v. 14). He granted their physical request, but sent leanness to their souls (v. 15). This should remind us of the comment from the pagan satirist Juvenal—“enormous prayers which Heaven in anger grants.” Envy of Moses and Aaron was also a problem (v. 16), and which God dealt with by having both earth and fire destroy Dathan and Abiram (vv. 17-18). Then they made a calf and worshiped the molten image (v. 19). They exchanged their glory for slow, grass-eating quadruped (v. 20). They forgot God, who had done great things for them in Egypt, and terrible things by the Red Sea (vv. 21-22). God would have destroyed them had it not been for the intercession of Moses (v. 23). They despised the pleasant land (to which they were going), and did not believe a true account of it (v. 24). They grumbled in their tents, and did not listen to the voice of God (v. 25). And so God lifted up His hand against them (vv. 26-27). They sinned at Baal-peor, and ate unclean sacrifices (v. 28). They provoked Him to anger, and He answered with a plague (v. 29). Phineas intervened, and Israel was spared (v. 30). Thatwas imputed to him for righteousness (v. 31).

They angered God at the waters of strife, such that Moses over-reacted (vv. 32-33). When they invaded Canaan, they did not complete the work of destruction assigned to them (v. 34), but mixed with the heathen and learned their ways (v. 35). They served the Canaanite gods, which ensnared them, and they even sacrificed their children to devils (vv. 36-37). They shed innocent blood, and so polluted the land (v. 38). They were inventive in evil, and went whoring after their own devices (v. 39). They made God sick of His own inheritance (v. 40), and so He turned them over to those who hated them (v. 41). Their enemies oppressed them hard (v. 42), and God delivered them many times—but they kept provoking Him (v. 43). Nevertheless, He regarded their affliction, which they richly deserved, and He heard their cry (v. 44). He remembered His covenant with them, and turned His mind (repented) in accordance with the infinite mercies of an infinite God (v. 45). He made even their oppressors pity them (v. 46). Save us, Lord, gather us up, and bring us all back (v. 47). Bless the name of the Lord, and let all the people say amen, and amen (v. 48).

Background to All Corporate Applications

Israel was a called out and chosen nation, and one of the temptations that Christian nations have had in the past is the temptation to think of themselves as occupying that same unique role—which is necessarily false. But the ditch on the other side of the road is the error of thinking that God no longer deals with nations at all. But He does. The Great Commission requires us to disciple all the nations, and to teach them obedience. So it is not the case any longer that just one nation possesses the Deuteronomic promises. And it is also not the case that no nation possesses them. Rather, in and through Christ, any nation may possess them. And any nation can stumble and fall in just the ways described here in this psalm.

A Psalm of Lament for America

As a nation, we have blood of millions on our hands. Christians know that we bear the image of God from conception on, and that this image must be honored for what it is from that moment on. But we have, by the tens of million, sacrificed American children to devils (vv. 36-37). In this regard, we are no better than ancient Molech worshipers. How can these children have blood, and have us not be guilty of bloodshed?

As a nation, we have seen God grant our materialistic wishes, along with leanness of soul (v. 15). There has never been a people so awash in material prosperity as we currently are, and there has never been a people as medicated for unhappiness as we are.

As a nation, we have deliberately forgotten our Christian founding. We have actively fought that knowledge, and we have mocked those who try to keep such knowledge alive. We have suppressed the doctrines that might indicate the many times that God has delivered us (v. 43).

Christ the Savior

The time we have spent on these shores has been about 400 years. About half of that time we have been constituted as a separate nation. Our total history is the same amount of time that Israel spent in Egyptian slavery. And He led them out of that slavery only to watch them sinning against him on the shores of that Red Sea. And they kept it up, over and over and over again (v. 44).

God has forgiven people in the past who have been far more wayward than we have been. This is not because we are better, but rather because we are not old enough to sin that much. But if we had been, God’s covenantal mercies are multitudinous. There is a crowd of them, all purchased by the death of Christ on the cross. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:7).

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