Psalm 35
Contend, oh Lord, with those
who contend with me. Fight against those who fight
against me. Take hold of shield and buckler
and rise for my help. Draw the spirit and the javelin
against my pursuers. Say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let them be put to shame and
dishonor who seek after my life. Let them be turned back and disappointed
who devise evil against me. Let them be like chaff that before
the wind with the angel of the Lord driving them away. Let their
way be dark and slippery with the angel of the Lord pursuing
them. For without cause they hid their net for me. Without
cause they dug a pit for my life. Let destruction come upon them
when he does not know it. And let the net that he hid ensnare
him. let him fall into it to his own
destruction. Then my soul will rejoice in
the Lord, exulting in his salvation. All my bones shall say, oh Lord,
who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong
for him, the poor and the needy from him who robs him. Malicious
witnesses rise up. They ask me of things that I
do not know. They repay me evil for good,
my soul is bereft. But I, when they were sick, I
wore cycloth. I afflicted myself with fasting.
I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though
I grieved for my friend or brother, as one who laments his mother.
I bowed down in mourning. But at my stumbling, they rejoiced,
and they gathered, they gathered together against me. Wretches
whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing. Like profane
mockers at a feast, they gnash at me with their teeth. How long,
O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction,
my precious life from the lions. I will thank you in the great
congregation. In the mighty throng, I will praise you. Let not those
rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink
the eye who hate me without cause. For they do not speak peace,
but against those who are quiet in the land, they devise words
of deceit. They open wide their mouths against
me. They say, aha, aha, our eyes have seen it. You have seen,
O Lord, be not silent. Oh Lord, be not far from me.
Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause,
my God and my Lord. Vindicate me, oh Lord, my God,
according to your righteousness. Let them not rejoice over me.
Let them not say in their hearts, aha, our heart’s desire. Let them not say we have swallowed
him up. Let them be put to shame and
disappointment altogether, who rejoice at my calamity. Let them
be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against
me. Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy
and be glad and say evermore, great is the Lord who delights
in the welfare of his servant. Then my tongue shall tell of
your righteousness and of your praise all the day long. Amen. This is God’s holy and
inspired word and may it be a great blessing to us. So what are some
of your favorite hymns? I know we like Amazing Grace,
How Sweet the Sound, Save the Wretch Like Me. This morning
we sang When We All Get to Heaven, What a Day of Rejoicing That’ll
Be. What are some of our other favorites? Abide With Me, Fast
Falls the Even Tide. Because He Lives, I Can Face
Tomorrow. Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine. Go tell it on
the mountain. The Hallelujah Chorus. Great
is thy faith on us. All of these are positive, uplifting
hymns. But how about singing Psalm 94? God of vengeance, oh Jehovah,
rise forth and take care of business with my enemies. Do we ever sing
songs like that? Well, in just a few moments,
we’ll sing a little bit of Psalm 35, but these were the hymns
of the old covenant people. And they’re still the hymns of
the new covenant, people. We just choose not to sing them very often.
But we’re trying to fix that from time to time. And as we
study a psalm on Sunday night, sing some version of that psalm. But it’s probably not very popular
to sing a hymn asking God to exercise vengeance on our enemies. But it’s a biblical idea. It’s
a biblical concept. We’ll talk about that for just
a few moments. So the question might be, In
light of the New Testament, in light of God being a God of mercy,
in light of Jesus saving us, in light of kissing or turning
the other cheek or walking the extra mile with our enemy, that
sort of business, we might come to this question, is it not nice
what David is saying in Psalm 35? Well, the answer is, no,
it’s not nice. but there may be a time and a
place for it. And so that’s what we’ll think
of. Is it okay in the economy of God’s kindness and mercy to
sometimes ask God to strike dead his and our enemies, or at least
to give them a good shaken up? Well, Psalm 7, which we studied
maybe sometime last spring, is an imprecatory Psalm. Psalm 35,
which we’re looking at tonight is one. Psalm 69 is another and
Psalm 109 is another. Read Psalm 109, go home and before
you go to bed tonight and wanna have a nice peaceful rest, read
Psalm 109. It’s not very nice, but it’s
in God’s word. It’s in the songbook of the Old
Testament people of God. Now in the New Testament, Some
of you might be thinking, oh, God is nice. God is gracious.
He would never do this in the New Testament. Well, how about
the apostle Paul, and which of you ladies are in the Wednesday
Bible study? Okay, what does Paul say in Galatians? If anyone
preaches another gospel, let him be accursed or go to hell,
he says. Or how about in Revelation chapter
18? Revelation chapter 18 is the place in the Bible where
John, John the Revelator is in the spirit, he sees into heaven,
he sees some of the events that will take place, and one of the
events he sees, which is recorded for us in the 18th chapter of
Revelation, is the fall of Babylon, or the fall of the wicked realm
on this earth. And what do the people of God
in heaven sing? It’s almost as if they’re jumping
up and down saying, fallen, fallen is Babylon. She is now getting
her due and her just reward. And so we see in the word of
God, where it is legitimate, it is appropriate, it is right
and in the right context, in the right place and time for
the church to pray or to rejoice in the downfall of our enemies.
We say sometimes it’s not nice to dance on the graves of our
enemies, but how many of you in, was it 2004, maybe 2005? Maybe it was 2003. Yeah, it was
2003, we invaded Iraq. And do you remember when the
statue of Saddam Hussein was torn down? They put a chain around
it and they yanked it over with a tank. And then maybe it was
another year or so later, Saddam Hussein was put to death. And do you remember the people
cheering? This wicked tyrant is now gone. And so we understand
the feelings that there may come within the range of human emotions
when the wicked person who has done many horrible things falls. We can’t stand Planned Parenthood. We dislike wicked leaders like
Kim Jong of North Korea and on and on the list to go. The list
can go, but how are we to look at this with spiritual eyes?
How are we to look at these hardships and our desires? Well, one thing
we must always remember is that we ourselves are sinners. As
we look at other people’s sin and wickedness, we need to remember
that God is gracious to point out our own sin. and that we
should see the wickedness in our own hearts first. Another
thing to remember is while we may want somebody wicked like
Saddam Hussein to fall, what would be a more honorable wish
for an evil person like that? It would be that they would come
to faith in the Lord Jesus and be converted and become a worshiper
of God. You know, and sometimes in our
day and time, particularly as Christians in Southern culture,
You know, we speak of things that we would never ever do as
Christians. We would never break certain
cultural norms, but we go whole hog and we will condemn others
for their behavior. And so we ought to be careful
when pointing out the sin of others and wishing that God might
judge it, that we too have received God’s grace and considered our
own sin. Well, here’s a Psalm where King
David what 28 verses, speaks of his difficulty. There’s three
sections, and I’ll just mention them briefly in our short amount
of time. But there’s three sections, and
each section has a prayer, God do this, and it ends with hope
that God will bless. And those sections are verses
one through 10, then 11 through 18, and then 19 through 28. And
there’s two main requests that David has of God. One is that
God would fight David’s battle for him. So there’s an aspect
of war. The other request that he has
is that God would be his advocate or his lawyer. So God wants him
to go to war for him, and he also wants him to go to bat for
him as an advocate or as a lawyer. So there are words and phrases
in one through 10 of battle. And then there are words and
phrases in 11 through 18 of legal, legalese or lawsuit. And then
in the last section, both of those are merged. Very quickly
look at verses one through 10 about the battle. David is speaking
of schemes and plots and traps that are set for him, that they
are done for no reason. And he’s asking God, catch them.
Look at what he says. Contend, O Lord, with those who
contend with me. Fight against those who fight
against me. Take hold of shield and buckler.
Rise for my help. Draw the spear, the javelin.
Draw against my pursuers. Say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let them be put to shame and
dishonor who seek after my life. Let them be turned back and disappointed
who devise evil against me. And notice who he calls on there
in verse five. Let them be like chaff before
the wind with the angel of the Lord driving them away. Let their
way be slippery and dark with the angel of the Lord pursuing
them. Do you notice who David is calling on to help him? He’s
calling on the angel of the Lord. Remember what the angel of the
Lord has done. The angel of the Lord was in
Egypt when the firstborn were stricken down. Okay, he’s calling
on the big guns. He wants God to fight against
his enemies and to do really dastardly deeds against them,
we might say. So he’s calling on the angel
of the Lord. This is the same angel of the Lord that appeared
to Joshua before he fought the battle of Jericho. This is the
same angel of the Lord that when he shows up on the scene, business
gets taken care of. And so David’s enemies are in
a bad way if God answers his prayer. This is like, you know,
our commander in chief, if he were to threaten a nation that
was showing aggression to us, you know, we’re gonna, what was
it George Bush said? We’re gonna come with shock and awe. That’s
what David is asking for here. And so he’s saying, oh God, take
care of business. I’m calling on you, the five-star
general, to do this. And notice how he ends This little
section, verse nine. If you do what I ask, go to battle
for me, then my soul, verse nine says, will rejoice in Yahweh.
I will exult in his salvation. All of my bones shall say, oh
Lord, who is like you? Delivering the poor from him
who is too strong and the poor and needy from him who robs him.
Well, the next little section goes into legal language. Malicious
witnesses rise up against me. He’s being slandered. They ask
of me things I do not know. They repay me evil for evil.
And he goes on to speak of how he has been kind to them in the
past, and now they are being wicked towards him. They’re slandering,
they’re lying, they’re setting traps for him. And he says, how
long, O Lord, verse 17, will you look on, rescue me from their
destruction, and I will thank you in the great congregation. He’s asking God to step in and
be his advocate. Now, one of the things we have
to remember is that when we suffer injustices, that Jesus also suffered
injustices, and nobody stepped in with Jesus. He was accused
by the Romans of sedition against Caesar. He was accused by the
Jewish authorities of blasphemy, claiming to be the son of God.
And nobody, nobody stood in for Jesus. And that is the way it
sometimes is as Christians. I mean, we can’t begin to wonder
what our friend and brother in the faith, Andrew Brunson is
feeling like in prison in Pakistan. It must be awful. And to feel
like nobody is stepping in for you. Nobody’s standing in the
gap. And God tells us clearly in the scripture, sometimes that’s
the way it’ll be. We will simply have to suffer
injustice. Nobody will come to our aid and
we will have to get through it. Do you remember at the end of
Paul’s life, He says in one of his letters, no one was with me, but Jesus
stood at my side. And sometimes that’s all we have. And this passage seems to say,
that’s enough. It’s enough and God will deliver
us and then we can praise his name and give him all the glory.
The last little section takes us through verses 19 through
28, he says, let not those who rejoice over me, who are my foes,
let not those who wink the eye, who hate me without cause, who
do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet, who devise
words of a deceit, let not those rejoice over me, he says, Lord,
you’ve seen it. So be not silent, be not far
from me, awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause,
my God and my Lord, vindicate me. And he goes on to say, put
them to shame, let them be disappointed. They’re gonna rejoice at my downfall,
but let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify
themselves against me. So he’s asking for God. to take
care of business with those who gloat over his downfall, who
rejoice in his doom. Now it’s interesting, Psalm 35
is a long ways down the line from Psalm 1, but what did Psalm
1 tell us? It said to stay away from people
who do what they’re doing to David here in Psalm 35. And so
the company we keep, we have to remember, is important. But
we also have to remember that if we keep that kind of company,
God will fight for his people. And guess what? Our enemies are
whose enemies? They’re God’s enemies. The little
catechism, Westminster Shorter Catechism, about Jesus as prophet,
priest, and king. Remember the one about Jesus
being king? As our king, He subdues us to
Himself. He draws us to salvation to Himself. And He rules our lives by His
Word and Spirit. But He also restrains and fights
against all His and all our enemies. And what a blessing it is to
know that. David knew that here in Psalm
35. Verse 23 is a good one to remember. Awake and rouse yourself for
my vindication, for my cause, my Lord and my God. Give your
troubles to the Lord. Yes, your sicknesses. Yes, your
family struggles. But even when people rail against
you for your faith or for your Christian stance, give your enemies
over to God. He can take care of it far better
than you. Remember what the Apostle Paul
says, vengeance is for the Lord. God can repay, God can take care
of business way better than you can. I was talking with my dad
several weeks back about just the whole business of being a
pastor and he was remembering back to the days when he pastored
here locally and actually the church that we prayed for in
the right west, then it was called Westview. And there were some
folks there that gave him such a hard time. And he said, you
know, the Lord took care of every one of those people. And he said,
I look back and I don’t rejoice, but God gave cancer. Some were
hit by cars, some lost their businesses, and they gave him
such trouble as a minister of God’s word. And he said, you
know, I could have done everything possible to fight against them,
but the Lord, the Lord took care of those hardships. And I’m sure
that David has experienced that, and I’m sure you have as well.
God will deal with his and our enemies. And so that’s a good
reminder to us. Don’t be an enemy of God and
his people, but also let God take care of your hardships and
your struggles. What a blessing it is. Now think
about the Lord Jesus. He was accused falsely. He was suffered. He suffered. He was beaten. He was put to
death. But after his suffering, what came? His exaltation. And God may take us through humiliation. He may take us through hardship.
He may take us through absolute misery. But what did he do for
Jesus? He exalted him. Death could not
hold him. His enemies could not stand with
their foot upon his neck. In fact, Jesus was raised from
the dead and the tomb was empty and the Romans didn’t know what
to do except to lie about it and say his body was stolen.
But Jesus, after his death, appeared to his disciples and he was not
only risen and ministered for 40 days, but he was ascended
into heaven where he sits at the right hand of God Almighty.
And guess who is now in heaven? King David. Has God vindicated
him? Absolutely. And will that same
God not vindicate you as he sees you through your troubles? Let’s
pray together. Our Lord, we thank you that in
Christ Jesus, we have all ability to triumph over our enemies and
yours. We do bless you for the hardships
you put upon us. We do bless you for the trials
that are ours, for they sanctify us, they make us more like Christ.
And we thank you that there is nothing in this life that we
might endure that Jesus hasn’t endured. and we thank you that
you have vindicated his name and that every eye someday will
see Jesus and every knee shall bow before him and every tongue
shall confess that Jesus is Lord and we thank you for our future
vindication also, but we pray now that you’d help us as we
live life in a world that is full of hurts and hardships and
injustices. Give us grace and may we remember
that vengeance is yours and the trust in you And it’s in Jesus’
name we pray, amen.