Psalm 64
Let’s give our attention to God’s
word. Psalm 64 says to the choir master, a Psalm of David, and
David says, hear my voice, O God, in my complaint, preserve me,
or preserve my life from the dread of the enemy. Hide me from
the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evil doers,
who wet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows,
shooting from ambush at the blameless. shooting at him suddenly and
without fear. They hold fast to their evil
purpose. They talk of lying snares secretly, thinking who can see
them. They search out injustice, saying,
we have accomplished a diligent search, for the inward mind and
heart of man are deep. But God shoots his arrow at them.
They are wounded suddenly. They are brought to ruin with
their own, their tongues turned against them. All who see them
will wag their heads. Then all mankind fears. They
tell what God has brought about and they ponder what he has done. Let the righteous one rejoice
in the Lord and take refuge in him. Let all the upright in heart
exult.” Well, here we are again in a psalm about enemies. There’s been at least a dozen
or more of them about the enemies. And so you say, isn’t it enough? Couldn’t there be a different
topic? Couldn’t we get on to something happier? Maybe in the
Psalms to come, we will. But we have to remember that
a significant part of the Christian life, a significant part of the
Christian church is we will be under attack. Think all the way
back to the garden, when Adam and Eve sinned, God made some
promises to Adam, some promises to Eve, some promises to the
serpent. And he announced that there would be this divine battle
between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. would
be a cosmic battle to the end of the ages between Jesus and
Satan. And so we have to remember when
we land on the Psalms like 64 or 63 or 62 or 61 or the story
of Herod and the story of baby Jesus or the story of Satan and
the church that we are in the midst of a cosmic battle for
the righteous versus the unrighteous. And we have to remember that
the program of redemption is always under threat. Now, one of the wonderful ways
that our shorter catechism breaks down and helps us understand
who Jesus is and what Jesus does, what he does in the past, what
he does in the present, what he will do in the future, is it names
him our prophet, our priest, and our king. And so as our prophet,
Jesus speaks to us the will of God for our salvation, the will
of God for our life. As priest, he is both the priest
and the offering. He offered himself once, a sacrifice
for our sins. He died on the cross, he paid
the penalty for our sins, and he ever lives above to intercede
for us. But Jesus is also, in addition to prophet and priest,
he’s our king. And as our king, he subdues us to himself, he
rules us, He tends to us, he defends us, and he restrains
and conquers all his and all our enemies. That’s one of the
wonderful answers to the catechism we have. I think it’s maybe somewhere
in the 20s, maybe 25. But Jesus is our King. He subdues
us to himself by calling us to Christ. He rules us by his word. He defends us, but he restrains
and he conquers all our enemies. And this is a rich message and
theme of the Bible that we very often forget about. I mean, think
about your daily troubles. If you’re sick, what do you do?
You go to the doctor. And then when the doctor bills
come, what do you do? You call Blue Cross and Blue Shield or
Medicare Part A, B, C, or D or whatever. Your car breaks down you take
it to the magic shop and they fix it and you hand them your
piece of plastic or you write them a piece of paper or you
give them some green backs and it’s all taken care of we have
ways to solve problems, but what happens when our problems are
like they were described in Ephesians chapter 5 they’re spiritual they’re
from another world. They’re from a place where we
can’t control them. Well, Psalm 64 can help us there.
And so we have to understand this. We will face enemies. As
Christians, we will face enemies. It’s just part of it. Whoever
told you that you come to Jesus and it’ll all be happy and joy,
they sold you a bill of goods. Because what happens when you
come to Jesus? Yes, there’s happy and joy, but there’s also trial
and sorrow and hardship. And so it’s a tough Christian
life. It’s a joyful and joyous and
triumphant one. But we will face enemies. We
will face enemies personally. We will face them as Christians,
and we will face them as part of the church of Jesus Christ.
And Psalm 64 gives us a word about that. As a member of the
family of God, as a Christian, as a person, we will face enemies.
And so it’s important for us to have perspective. Perspective
on enemies in this life, perspective on the judgment that is to come,
and perspective on what will happen to us and to our enemies
in the life that is to come. And so a couple things that we
can find about this from the scripture, we can have peace. When our enemies surround us,
we can have peace. We have hardship in life, we
can understand that it will shake out, it will work itself out.
It’ll be settled by God. One great piece of advice I was
given several years ago is when people do things against you,
don’t worry, God has a way of rubbing their noses in their
own stew. That was the way it was put to
me, and it sure is true. They will get trapped by their
own traps, snared by their own snares. So what do we find in
Psalm 64? What do we find King David saying,
doing, believing, trusting, hoping? What do we find? Well, in verse
one, we find him lodging his complaint. He says, hear my voice,
O God, in my complaint, preserve my life from the dread of the
enemy. I think about every time we go
to Presbytery, and maybe Jay and Bill and Tim can, give testimony
of this. Somebody lodges a complaint.
They lodge a complaint. It’s a legal proceeding. You
can lodge a complaint against somebody for them doing something
that you don’t like. And that’s in a sense what David
is doing. He’s saying to God, um, this
is what I don’t agree with. And it’s about my enemies, and
it’s about what they’re doing, and about what they’re going
to do to me. They’re planning, they’re plotting, they’re going to kill me, and
then they’re going to eat me. And then it’s all going to be really
bad. So he’s lodging his complaint.
Now, when we think of the word complaint, what do we say? Particularly
you mothers in the room, you grandmothers in the room, quit
your complaining, quit your whining, quit your belly aching, right?
Well, this isn’t that, though it is the word. But David is
here, he’s sort of filing He’s filing his issue. You know, we
don’t like what we see on TV tonight, you know, with this
NFL thing. And so we lodge a complaint with the FCC. If we don’t like
what happens to us legally, we file a complaint with a judge.
We issue, we lodge, we make known our issue. And that’s what he’s
doing. He’s issuing a complaint to God. These people have their
secret plans. These people have their secret
plans. They are our enemies. and they’re going to do something
against me. So what do we do? What do we do once we have lodged
our complaint with God? Do we then say, God, now that
I’ve told you what’s wrong, I’m going to help you out. What do we do? We let the Lord
do His work. It’s His place. It’s His prerogative. It’s His job to fix what is broken. What does the Apostle Paul tell
us? Do not repay evil for evil, for vengeance is mine, saith
the Lord. He’s quoting the Old Testament.
We let God do his work. We lodge our complaint and we
let the Lord do his work. And not only do we let the Lord
do his work, he can do it better. Think about all the places in
the Bible you’ve read where God takes some kind of action against
the enemies of his people. Could you accomplish that? I
mean, just think in a destructive, retaliatory way. Think sinfully
for a moment. What’s the worst thing you could
do? God could do it worse. He can strike with blindness.
He can open the ground and it swallows up. He can give leprosy. Those are all things we can’t
do. holler at people and we can make a t-shirt that says ugly
things about others but God can do it way better so we lodge
our complaint and we let God do his work for it’s his place
and he can do it so much better but what do we do we take our
complaint to God in the secret place we’re alone with God and
we say Lord this is what is going on he already knows it but we
want him to know that we know that we can trust him what’s
that hymn we sing Take it to the Lord in prayer. What are
the little beginnings? You got sorrow, you got pain,
you got troubles, and then what’s the refrain? Take it to the Lord
in prayer. That’s what David is doing here.
Well, in the next little section, he speaks of danger, and it’s
danger from within the ranks of the nation of Israel. And
we find all this in verses two to six. He says, hide me from
the secret plot of the wicked, from the throng of evil doers,
They wet their tongues like swords. They aim bitter words like arrows.
They shoot from ambush the blameless. They shoot at him suddenly and
without fear. They hold fast to their evil purpose. They talk
of laying snares secretly thinking who can see them. They search
out injustice saying we have accomplished a diligent search
for the inward mind and heart of a man or deep. so there’s
danger from within. Now David in this particular
psalm spends more time talking about the character and the actions
of his enemy than he does about the character and action of God.
So who are his enemies in this spot? It’s Absalom. It’s his
own son. It’s his courtiers or the people
in his kingdom, it’s his army, it’s his military, and it’s his
people, his loyal subjects. I mean, after all, he’s God’s
man, he’s God’s chosen, he’s built a nation, he’s conquered
their enemies. He’s done in a little M Messiah
way what the big M Messiah does for us. He has, what did we say? God is our king, Jesus is our
king, subdues us, he rules us, he defends us, and he restrains
and conquers all our enemies. So, in a sense, David’s subjects
who had received his protection, his blessing, His ministry as
king have now turned on him. And so he speaks of about five
or six things they are doing in verses two through six against
him. He says, hide me from their secret
plots. They wet their tongues like swords. What does it mean to wet a sword?
Yeah, you spin that thing. I wouldn’t really want to stick
my tongue against that little whetstone. That’s worse than
sticking it to the flagpole. in the dead of winter, but it’s
a good image, isn’t it? They wet their tongues. They
are sharpening their tongues like swords. And so there’s plots,
there’s words, and then notice what’s next. They aim their bitter
words like arrows, shooting from ambush at the blameless. It is one thing to know that
a battle is coming and to brace yourself for it, but it’s another
thing just to be walking along and ambushed. And these are people
that you know and that you love. They’re part of your kingdom.
Then he goes on to speak of their secrets. They hold fast to their
purpose. They talk of laying snares secretly,
thinking who can see them. They search out injustice saying
we have accomplished a diligent search. And then it speaks of
their pride at the end of verse six. For the inward mind and
heart of a man are deep. They are full of pride. So what
is the danger from within, and what should David do about it?
Well, he lodges his complaint. He lodges his complaint against
these folks with Almighty God, but this danger is from within.
So what can a Christian do? What can a person do? What can
the church do? What can the people of God do when we have enemies,
when Satan wishes to tear us down? Well, you think about the
Bible for just a minute. Think about all the things that
we can run to for resources. First of all, we have the blood
of Jesus. We have the finished work of Christ on our side. And
what does Romans chapter 8 tell us? There is therefore now no
condemnation. I mean, these people may speak
words, they may condemn, whatever, but there is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8 goes
on to tell us, what can separate us from the love of God? Not
life, not death, not evil, not demons, principalities, not the
boogeyman, no one, nothing, no thing can separate us from the
love of God. So we have the blood of Jesus.
We have the word of God. It’s full of promises, full of
truths. And so we can conquer, we can
withstand, we can make it through the battle. Even as the arrows
whiz past us, even when our, um, our lives are taken over
or so it seems by the words of others, you notice in Psalm 64,
the main threat of this enemy is their words. You know, we
have that little saying as children, sticks and stones may break our
bones, but words will never hurt us. Well, that’s really not true,
is it? Sticks and stones can break our bones, but words can
really hurt. They can damage. The book of
James tells us that our tongues are a fire and that fire is lighted
from the place of hell and our tongues can do great damage and
the tongues of evil men even worse. And so Uh these are the
things that we have at our disposal for fighting against our enemies. Well, there’s a last little section
uh verse seven uh next to last little section verse seven is
God to the rescue. So, notice I want you to notice
look at all the build up. I’ve lodged my complaint verse
one. We got plots. Uh we got words. We got ambush.
We got secret. We got pride. We got all the
things that These wicked people are doing and then notice verse
seven, but God, he shoots his arrow at them and they are suddenly
wounded. So all of their plotting, all
of their planning, all of their scheming, all of their rampart
setting up, all of their arrow sharpening, all their string
of their bows and their words that they plan to say is simply
put put to death. It’s put away in verse seven,
but God shoots his arrow at them and they are wounded suddenly. And this is God to the rescue. Um, all the angst that is built
up, uh, is done away with in a little poof, a moment, the
release of not many arrows, but how many? It’s one, not 10, just
one. It says in verse seven, God shoots
his arrow at them. Isn’t that a comforting little
verse? I mean, you get seven verses of angst, seven verses
of doom and gloom, and then one burst, one suddenly, God shoots
his arrow at them. And that’s what the gospel of
salvation is like for us. Lots of darkness, but one blast
of light can do it all. So God to the rescue with just
one arrow. Doesn’t it make you feel a little
bit sorry for these enemies? I mean, they’ve plotted, they’ve
planned, they’ve worked, they’ve sharpened, they’ve strung their
bows, they’ve filled their quivers with all the right arrows, and
don’t you feel a little bit bad for them? They’ve done all that
work, and what does God do? Poof, gone, done with. No, we
really don’t feel bad for them. There’s a commentator that speaks
on this aspect of God to the rescue in this story and he Reminds
us as Christians of the story of Esther. Remember Esther the
beautiful princess who? Was in the kingdom of the Persians.
She catches wind of Haman and his anti Semitism, his plot to
exterminate all the Jews. Her uncle Mordecai assists her
in this plot, and she’s having dinner one night with the king.
And Haman is there at dinner, and she says to the king, there
is somebody in your kingdom who is plotting to kill all of my
people. And he says, who? And she says, him. And he says,
what? And then what do they do? They
hang him immediately on the gallows that he had just built for who?
Mordecai, and there’s all that angst in Esther, all that struggle
in that story. And then doesn’t God release
that arrow and it strikes the heart of Haman. And what a wonderful
story it is. And it reminds us over and over
how God comes to the rescue. So what do we take away from
the Psalm? What are we to learn about our enemies and about our
God? Well, you find those answers
in verse eight, nine, and 10. Verses 8, 9, and 10 say this,
they are brought to ruin with their own tongues turned against
them. All who see them will wag their heads. Then all mankind
fears, they tell what God has brought about and they ponder
what he has done. Let the righteous one rejoice
in the Lord and take refuge in him. Let all the upright in heart
exult. So what happens, what are we
to learn from the things that take place in this song. Well,
look at verse eight. People may plot, they may try to bring to
ruin the people of God, the church of God, but it will be turned
in on themselves. And what will the people who
look at this say? They’ll wag their heads. How
many of y’all have kind of wagged your heads and said shame on
them? Yeah, we tsk tsk, that’s right.
It sounds like Ed is well-versed in that. probably say it in the
classroom quite a bit, but we see others look in on the wicked
and we say shame on them. Well, what’s the next thing we
learn? Verse nine, all mankind fears God and they tell what
God has brought about. You remember in 2001, after September
11th, we thought there was a mass conversion and we know there
wasn’t, but what did 9-11 do? It got people’s attention. And
it got people’s attention to think about serious and eternal
things. And at least for a little time,
we saw what verse nine teaches us, all mankind fears. And they
tell at least what they think God has brought about and ponder
what he has done. Now we saw that fade away within
weeks, but it happens. But notice what the righteous
do. The righteous one rejoices in the Lord and they take refuge
in him. So why is Psalm 64 written? and
63, and 62, and 61, and what’s that backwards, 60, 59. Why all
these enemy Psalms? It is so that we will do what
verse 10 says. The righteous will rejoice and
take refuge in him. So why 10 or 12 or 13 or 14 Psalms
about enemies? It’s so that we will look and
see that God is able to rescue us and defend us and help us. And so that we will fear him
and take joy in him and take refuge in him. Now let me end
on this little thought. How often do you think about
judgment? The judgment. The end. How often do you think about,
and not just the fact that you will escape judgment because
you’re found in Christ, you’re clothed in his righteousness,
the outcome of his judgment on you is already determined, not
talking about that. How often do you think that God
in his righteousness, and in his wrath, and in his holiness,
and he is gonna come, and he is gonna clear the deck, and
put an end to all the plotting, all the planning, all the words,
all the ambush, all the secret, and all the pride, and he’s gonna
put it away. It’s not something we think about
very often, but it’s something that God uses to comfort us.
They won’t get away with it for long. They won’t get away with
it. This will not be a part of the kingdom of God in eternity.
And so it ought to give us great comfort. So let’s pause and pray
on these things and ask for God’s grace.