Psalm 108
Let’s hear God’s word together.
This is Psalm 108. It says a song, a song, a Psalm
of David. And these are the words of God.
My heart is steadfast, O God. I will sing and make melody with
all my being. Awake, O harp and lyre. I will
awake the dawn. I will give thanks to you, O
Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among
the nations. For your steadfast love is great
above the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to
the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the
heavens. Let your glory be over all the
earth, that your beloved ones may be delivered. Give salvation
by your right hand and answer me. God has promised in his holiness. With exultation, I shall divide
up Shechem and portion out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is
mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim is
my helmet. Judah, my scepter. Moab is my
washbasin. Upon Edom, I cast my shoe. Over
Philistia, I shout in triumph. Who will bring me to the fortified
city? Who will lead me to Edom? Have you not rejected us, O God?
You do not go out, O God, with our armies. O grant us help against
the foe, for vain is the salvation of man. With God we shall do
valiantly. It is he who will tread down
our foes. Amen. This is God’s wholly inspired
and inerrant word. May he write its truths on our
hearts and minds. Here’s a question for us. Why should we read a book that
dates back 3,500 years and believe it has any relevance for us? That’s what the world, that’s
what the skeptics say when they approach the scriptures, could
a book this old possibly be relevant? And we know the answer because
we’re people of faith. The answer is, of course, it
is the Word of God. God’s Word has been written down
for our instruction. It’s been given to us so we know
who God is, what he’s done, the way of salvation. But God instructs
us and warns us through the history of his people to, on the one
hand, not be unfaithful like people of old, but here’s an
example of how to be faithful under difficult circumstances. So why should we read a book
that dates back 3,500 years? Could it possibly be relevant
for us? The answer is of course. Now
here’s another way to approach a passage like Psalm 108. What
do you think the original hearers of Psalm 108 heard when they
heard the words of King David read aloud. Another question,
what do you think the first readers who had copies of this word in
their hands understood to be true? What about readers of Psalm
108 throughout the centuries of the Christian church, particularly
after the innovation of the printing press and copies of God’s word
in one’s own language handed to them? We must remember that
we’re privileged people most of the time. If you wanted to
know what a scripture said, you had to remember what had been
read in temple or synagogue, for no copy was available to
everyone as we have it so today. But what if readers through the
centuries believed and understood about Psalm 108 or Here’s a really tricky question,
a really good question. How does the Bible itself use
another passage of scripture? How does it understand it? I
think I’ve told y’all before that one of my favorite books
that I use for sermon preparation is called The New Testament Use
of the Old Testament. Not sure how much you have recognized
that lots of places in the New Testament all over the epistles,
all over the Gospels, all over Revelation, which we finished
our study of several weeks back, they quote or allude to the Old
Testament very often. And so this book I have, it’s
a brick, it’s a cinder block, it’s quite thick. It would make
a good doorstop if it weren’t such a good book. The New Testament
use of the Old Testament helps me understand how a passage from
the Old Testament is understood in light of New Testament revelation. Well, Psalm 108 has a unique
case about it. Psalm 108 is two psalms we have
previously studied, and the endings of both those psalms are ripped
off and smashed together into Psalm 108. Psalm 57, remember the Psalms
in the 50s, that was a long time ago in our Psalm studies, but
the Psalms in the 50s were David in hot water. Usually a spear
from the hand of King Saul was flying at his head. And he was
hiding in caves or he was on the run, sometimes from Saul,
sometimes later in his life from his own son Absalom. But Psalm
57 would be one of the cave Psalms where David was hiding from someone
who was after him. In that case, I think King Saul.
And then Psalm 60. David is preparing for war. And each of those Psalms, Psalm
57 and Psalm 60, had a historic setting. And so you understand
those Psalms in light of their historic setting. Well, what
do you do when you get Psalm 57 and Psalm 60 smacked together
in Psalm 108? And you understand 57 and 60
don’t equal 108, right? They don’t add up. But what do
you get? Well, you have to understand
the context of Psalm 108. Psalm 108, though it does take
two old psalms, the ends of them, cuts them off, smacks them together,
makes a new psalm, it’s a totally different setting. Maybe King
David, not 100% sure, But at least it’s a warrior of Almighty
God who is up before the sun facing the Edomites as enemies. And he asked God, who seems to
have hidden himself from Israel or this king because of sin.
And he’s saying, help us not for our glory, but for yours. As we take a few minutes to look
at this psalm, I want to ask this question of you. Have you
ever been faint of heart? And I mean, so faint of heart
that maybe you thought it’d be better to die. Maybe you thought
it would be better not to exist. Maybe you thought, if I live
a minute longer, things could only get worse. Maybe you’ve
been through a stretch in your life where as you awoke in the
morning, you peeked out from under the covers, you thought
to yourself, if I just stay here, things will be okay, they’ll
be safe. But if I remove these covers and put my feet on the
floor, things will not go well. You’ve maybe been at that point
where you’ve been faint of heart, you’ve been lost, you’ve felt
as if Nothing could be done to fix your predicament. You’ve
been in the face of next to impossible. Well, that’s where the writer
of this Psalm, possibly King David, is. He’s facing the next
to impossible. And you get in a situation like
this and you wonder, how can I get through this? What can
give me confidence? Nothing in your own hands can
see you through it. None of your own resources, your
strength, your wealth, The people you know, the folks in your speed
dial, they can’t get you through this. And this is a time not
to be wishy-washy, not to be wobbly. Some of you may remember
in the history of diplomacy between maybe Great Britain and the United
States when George H.W. Bush, the George Bush the Elder,
was with Margaret Thatcher of England, the UK, And Iraq had
invaded Kuwait. I think this was in 1990, 1991. I think I was in middle school
about that time. Margaret Thatcher looked at George
H.W. Bush and said, Georgie boy, this
is not a time to go wobbly. It’s time to take action. And
of course, we know the history. He did take action. And we now
know what the Iraqi surrender looks like. We freed Kuwait,
but you can imagine a situation when you are the one that has
to make a choice like King David or like President Bush. It’s
on you to make the decision. It’s on you to say yes or no,
and history hangs in the balance based on what you decide. Sometimes
we face these situations. It’s not time to go wobbly. I told the folks in Sunday school
this morning about A friend of mine who’s a missionary in Chad,
the African country that’s largely Islamic, a convert to Christianity
named Beshara, who has been a convert for a couple of years, faced
his father who wanted him to die because he had converted
to Christianity. So he met with his father, he
met with his old entourage of people, and his father begged
him to recant. He had a pistol sitting on the
table in front of him. and he would not recant the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t know what situation you
have ever faced where you have been faint of heart and you knew
that it was not going to go well, but maybe someday it will come
to you. It’s not a time to go wobbly.
It’s not a time to be wishy-washy. Indeed, it’s a time to be steadfast,
and that’s what King David here says in Psalm 108. I wanna look
at four different thoughts through this Psalm. The first is an established
heart. An established heart is what
you find in verses one to four. He says it right at the beginning.
My heart is steadfast, O God. I will sing and make melody with
all my being. Awake, O harp and lyre. I will
awake the dawn. I will give thanks to you, O
Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among
the nations. For your steadfast love is great
above the heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Isn’t
that what you want to hear from your general, the commander of
your army? When he wakes up first thing
in the morning, the day of battle has come, outside his tent is
the enemy and he has to lead you in battle. You want to hear
the courage of convictions. You want to hear someone who
says, my heart is steadfast. I know what I’ve got to do. And
that is the thing that I will do. Well, how do we get an established
heart as Christians, as God’s people? We need to know who God
is. And that’s exactly what David
proclaims here. His heart is steadfast, not in
his army. He doesn’t proclaim how many
men he has. He doesn’t mention that he has the greatest stainless
steel swords, the fastest chariots, the quickest horsemen, the best
breed of horses from the best thoroughbred, from the best of
stables in the ancient area. He doesn’t say all that, although
that could be true. but he speaks of God. He speaks
of God, his God, and he proclaims his strength, his praise, and
that he is his source that can establish his heart. We sing
from time to time, the great hymn, how firm a foundation you
saints of the Lord. And you know how it is. As soon
as we sing that hymn, we walk out of church and we, we gain
confidence in our checkbooks. We hear the stock ticker going
up and we say, good thing my portfolio is doing well. I’ll
be just fine a little while longer. Or we pat our big bellies and
say what fine health we’re in or whatever it is we do. We feel proud as we turn the
key into the lock of our un-mortgaged house or whatever it is that
gives us a great feeling. But we really need to remember
what our firm foundation is based on. It is based on Christ. It
is based on Him as the cornerstone assurance. Assurance is a good
thing to have, but assurance is only as good as what your
assurance is based upon. And if you’re basing your assurance
on your strength, your horses, your pocketbook, your bank account,
your paid off mortgage, or some strength that you have accomplished,
you are on a shaky foundation. But have an established heart
like King David. Have your roots deep in the hymns
of the faith. Have your roots deep in the catechisms
and the scriptures, and you will be rooted well and have an established
heart. When the winds blow and when
the tempest comes, you will be able to make your way through
that storm. So that’s the first, an established heart. Verses
five and six give us a brief prayer. And the brief prayer
reads like this. Be exalted, O God, above the
heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth that your beloved
ones may be delivered. Give salvation by your right
hand and answer me. This is a prayer the king makes. Lord, in my hard circumstances,
answer the prayer, but first do it for your glory. Work out
all things for my good, but most of all, for your glory. You see
the two salvation words in verses five and six. He uses the word
deliver and the word save. And when you do this, you will
be exalted. You will be praised among the
people. But he also speaks of God’s ability,
God’s right hand, God’s right hand of strength. What do we
base our prayers upon? What do we base God’s ability
to answer our needs upon? Is God, even our God, who is
going to fight our battles? Are we going to get through it
in our own strength or are we going to call upon the name of
the Lord? And may he give us good, but may he get himself
glory. By the way, he answers, you know,
so many people, I think so many people in the Christian church,
they believe in God, but they believe in a limited God. They
believe in maybe what’s called deism, right? There is a God,
he exists, he made the world and everything in it, but he’s
like one of those Harlem Globetrotters. He took the earth like a basketball,
put it on his finger and spun it and got it going and tossed
it into orbit. And it’s still spinning because
he spun it. And they fail to remember that
simple song that we sing, he’s got the whole world in his hands. Friends, God made the world and
everything in it. He still got it in his hands. The book of
Colossians reminds us that even Jesus, who was present at creation
by the wisdom of Christ, the world was made. He upholds this
world by his right hand and he upholds your life. by his right
hand. And so our prayer for help is
to God, who can deliver and who can save and who has a strong
and mighty right hand. And so make your prayers to him
and trust in him with an established heart. So that’s the prayer. The next little section you find
in verses seven to nine, And it’s simply the promised land.
I think you’ll see why in just a moment. You’ll wonder about
all these interesting names. Well, we’ll, we’ll come to that.
But verses seven to nine, the promised land, God has promised
in his holiness or from his sanctuary with exultation, I will divide
up Shechem and I will portion out the Valley of Succoth. Gilead
is mine, Manasseh is mine, Ephraim is my helmet, Judah my scepter,
Moab my washbasin, upon Edom I cast my shoe, and over Philistia
I shout in triumph. How does God answer prayer? It’s
a good question, isn’t it? We would like to think that he
is the divine machine where we put in our quarter, make our
request, pull the lever, and out comes all the gold. We think
of him as a slot machine in Sin City or something of that nature.
But how does God answer prayer? Well, He answers prayer according
to His will, we know that. God works out all His holy decrees,
all His holy will, according to His definite plan and foreknowledge,
according to His wisdom, His perfections, according to His
designs. He ordains the ends as well as
the means. And so He answers prayers according
to His holy will, but also He answers our prayers according
to what will bring Him the most glory. but also what will bring
us the most everlasting good? Now the answers to prayer could
be yes, it could be no, it could be wait. His purposes are often
hidden, they are sometimes revealed, but he always answers our prayers
according to his holy will. They’re for his glory and for
our everlasting good. But I don’t know if you’ve thought
about this particular way God answers prayers. Sometimes he
answers our prayers based on promises of old. The prayer has
already been answered. We just need to remember it.
There’s one example of this. When Israel was in exile and
Daniel was one of the young Israelites who had been favored by God and
found favor in the sight of the Babylonians, Daniel remembered
why Israel was in captivity. He remembered God’s promises
from hundreds of years ago. If you live in the promised land
and you obey, it will go well with you. But if you, Israel,
live in the promised land and you continue to be stiff-necked,
idolatrous, adulterous, wicked people, I will send you away
in exile. But after a period of time, after
70 years, if you’ll humble yourselves and repent of your sins, I will
bring you back.” And so Daniel, as he prays, he prays the answer
to his own prayer by saying, oh God, I remember your promises
of old. You said if we were bad, we’d
get exiled. Here we are. We’ve sinned. Forgive us and now do as you
promised and take us back. You see how that prayer was already
answered? The time for fulfillment had not yet come, but because
Daniel was a man of God, he was a man of the word, he remembered
a promise of of old and that prayer had already been answered. It just had not yet been fulfilled.
And that’s exactly what takes place here in Psalm 108 as David
is praying over battle. He’s praying over territory that
could be taken. Remember what David’s job was
as king. He was to enlarge the territory.
He was to stretch the borders of Israel as far as he could
possibly take them. And remember that in the height
of David’s kingdom, the territory went as far north, south, east,
and west as was possible. He brought the kingdom to its
limits. And then over time, the kingdom
shrunk and shrunk and shrunk. But God promised of old, as we
see, He promised boundaries of Shechem and the Valley of Succoth
and Gilead and Manasseh, Ephraim, Judah, Moab, Edom, Philistia. He promised that on the east
and on the west of the Jordan River, of these tribes, these
lands would belong. And so in this prayer for deliverance
and salvation, he claims, he calls on the promises of God.
So often we pray prayers and we say, dear God, help so-and-so
to get better. That’s a fine prayer, isn’t it?
But isn’t our prayer strengthened when we say, oh God, you are
the great physician. You’ve healed the lame. You’ve
made the blind to see. You’ve helped those with withered
hands be able to serve again. You have raised the dead. Now,
therefore, look upon your servant who is sick.” Isn’t that a more
powerful prayer? To not just say, dear God, help
Susie who’s sick, which is a fine prayer, nothing wrong with it,
but it’s strengthened when we recall who God is and what he’s
done, and we claim that strength and those promises. Well, that’s
what David is praying here. the promised land, the land that
was promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, the promise that
the borders would extend to the farthest corners possible. That’s
the basis of his prayer. The final section, verses 10
to 13, got titled here, A Fight No King Can Win. That’s why David’s
up early. Most of the time, we sleep late,
don’t we? And when the alarm goes off, we smack it. For nine
more minutes, we think of bliss. And you know falling back asleep
is actually worse for you. It’s harder to get up the next
nine minutes, which is why we hit it again and again. That’s
why I learned long ago, you put the alarm across the room, which
my wife hates because I always get up earlier than she. But
it’s the only way I’ll get up, turn it off, and stay up. David,
I guess, didn’t have an alarm clock, but why was he up early?
Because he faced a battle or a fight that no king could win. Well, what’s the situation? What’s
the scenario of this great battle, this fight that no king can win?
Well, he is probably, based on the text, fighting a battle against
the Edomites. The Edomites had fortified cities
and when there’s a fortified city, unless you march around
it seven times over seven days and seven times on the seventh
day and the walls fall down, guess what? You’re not going
to beat that city. It’s fortified. They can lob
rocks down on you and they can hole up and eat their stores
and provisions and they can outweigh you until you get tired and go
home. That’s the way fighting with the Edomites was. But they
had one particular fortified city that was very difficult. to win. If you’ve ever seen the
city of Petra, maybe you’ve seen it in Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade. It’s the city that is hewn out
of the side of a mountain. Very often in these films where
you see it, it looks like a temple and it’s cut out of the side
of a mountain. You go in and they’ve hollowed it out and made
this giant temple there. the inhabitants live up in the
hills and all these elaborate caves where they have carved
them out. It looks like a real city, but it was just simply
carved out of the rock. Well, the only way into that
city is a one-mile ravine or, what would you call it, canyon,
much like the Grand Canyon, carved out of rock. It’s hundreds of
feet deep, but it’s only 8 or 10 feet and in some places just
a few feet wide where two donkeys cannot pass one another. One
has to stay in the wider portion while the other passes. And so
you can imagine this vast city back in this fortification that’s
built in the mountains of God, no one can get there. An army
can’t advance on it. If they did, it would be one
by one and they could just pick them off one by one. Just a few
people could stop up the passageway. And so David realizes we need
to win this battle, but there is no tactical way possible to
beat it. Only God can help us get into
the city and beat the enemy. And if you’ll notice in verses
10 to 13, for some sin reason, you see it in verse 11. Have
you not rejected us, O God? You do not go out, O God, with
our armies. You remember when Israel was
on the move from Egypt into the promised land, they had defeated,
I think it was Jericho. And what did God said? Don’t
take anything, destroy it all. I think they kept the gold for
the tabernacle. Maybe that was it. But what did
Achan do? He saw something he wanted and
he kept it and he stuck it under the rug in his tent. And so when
Israel went out into the next battle, I forget who it was against.
Ai, a little small bunch of people, not a big battle. They got whooped. They got routed. People lost
their lives. So they all came back to the
camp, and basically it was understood somebody has done something wrong,
and so everybody stood outside their tent. If you’ve sinned,
step forward. Achan, step forward. They took
him, his entire family, and all his stuff. They stoned his animals,
they stoned his family, and they burned, I think, all his stuff.
They put it under rocks outside the camp, and then at the next
battle, God was with them. For sin reasons, God does not
go out with his people in battle. And that same principle applies
to us. You live the Christian life,
you come to worship, you hear the word of God, you want to
live a Christian life, you want to be a great witness, but you
want to have your little pet darling sins. And so you go to
church, you do your worship, you do your Christian duties.
Everybody thinks you’re a hunky-dory Christian, but you’ve got your
little pet sins and you say, God, why am I sick? Why am I
going into battle and you’re not giving me success? Well,
the question you could ask yourself is, am I in sin in a certain
way? That’s what David realizes here.
God, for some reason, you’ve not gone out with us, but go
with us. Help us win, Lord. Help us win
this battle. So what do we take away from
Psalm 108? Well, we need steadfast hearts.
We need to pray to the living God that he’ll fight our battles
with us. We fight not against flesh and blood, but we fight
against powers of the air, principalities. We fight against sin and darkness,
Satan and wickedness and evil in this world. And so we need
steadfast hearts where we make God the main power behind our
battles. But we also, We also fight behind
Jesus, who is the one who at the cross has put all his and
all our enemies under our feet. We may not be in battles against
the Edomites. We may not be trying to impregnate
fortified cities in the back of a mile deep cavern that’s
only eight feet wide in some places and that a cavalry army
of men can’t get to, but we do have battles. We do have serious
battles in the Christian life. And Psalm 108 is reminding us
to fight with God as our strength, not to be wobbly, but to be steadfast
in heart. Let’s look to God in prayer.
Lord, we give you thanks for the Psalm of David to remind
us that in the heat of battle and the thick of our adversaries,
which we face day in and day out until we make it home to
heaven, you give us strength. You give us grace to help us
and hear us as we make our prayer in Christ’s name. Amen.