Sermon Outline:
Deliverance: “Save Me” (vs 1-18)
Vindication: “Judge my enemies” (vs 19-29)
Praise: “Be Glorified” (vs 30-36)
Jesus: "The Messiah"
Sermon Text:
• Next to Psalm 22 and Psalm 110;
• This is the most frequently quoted Psalm in the New Testament.
• Seven of its thirty six verses are quoted in the New Testament.
• Some of the quotes you will recognise immediately;
• Some are a little bit more obscure.
This Psalm is what we call an imprecatory psalm:
• Because contained in the Psalm are imprecations,
• That’s just a clever word that means ‘curses and judgments’ against God’s enemies.
• These psalms are usually considered problems for us as Christians;
• Because Jesus taught us (Luke chapter 6 verse 27–28).
• “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
• Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you”
• And we know Jesus practiced what he preached because;
• Jesus prayed for his enemies on the cross (Luke chapter 23 verse 34).
• “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”
• So some Christians have problems with these Psalms:
• Because it sounds like these psalms are doing the opposite of what Jesus said and did.
• But Jesus did not have a problem quoting them;
• And neither did the disciples have a problem quoting them.
• Notice that they quote the imprecatory verses.
• And not just what we might call ‘the nice bits’.
• The key to understanding these imprecatory verses is always to note the context;
• David wrote of course prior to the coming of Christ.
• He did not have the full revelation of teaching that you and I have.
• And when Jesus and the disciples quote from these verses;
• They again quote them in a specific context.
• So the key to understanding and applying them is always to note the context.
Note: The key verse of the Psalm – verse 4:
I am forced to restore
what I did not steal
• These words perfectly describe the unfair situation;
• That David the Psalmist is experiencing at the time of writing;
• These words perfectly describe the unfair situation Jesus experienced;
• When he went to the cross.
Ill:
• Think of the human race aboard a hijacked jet-liner flying through time.
• God himself directed its takeoff from the divine control-tower.
• The initiator of all evil, whom we call the Devil, Managed to get a boarding pass.
• When the plane reached its cruising altitude,
• The Devil produced his weapons, threatened the pilot,
• And took control of the aircraft and all its passengers.
• Thus the plane hopped on fearfully through history;
• From airport to airport.
• Until it was caught on the tarmac at Jerusalem,
• An outpost of the Roman empire, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
• Where the Son of God offered himself as sole hostage;
• In exchange for the passengers and crew.
• “I am forced to restore what I did not steal”
• These words perfectly describe the work of Jesus on the cross;
Note of warning:
• When reading the Messianic Psalms to be careful;
• Because not everything in the Psalm is applicable to Jesus.
• ill: Just as a shadow is the same yet different from the object that forms it;
• Not everything in the Psalm is applicable to Jesus.
• A perfect example of that is verse 5:
• ill: “You, God, know my folly; my guilt is not hidden from you”.
• This verse cannot apply to Jesus because the Bible clearly teaches;
• That Jesus was without sin, without guilt, without folly.
• So as you look at Messianic Psalms you need to exercise spiritual discernment.
• Because there are two levels to every Messianic Psalm.
Ill:
• Think of a crossword puzzle.
• You have both the horizontal and the vertical.
In every Messianic Psalm you have the horizontal and the vertical:
• The main part of the Psalm is horizontal.
• The experience of the psalmist as he describes his own personal circumstances.
• The vertical part of the Psalm relates upward;
• They are the certain verses that speak of Jesus the Messiah;
• Question: How do we know which bits apply to each person.
• Answer: The New Testament interprets and applies what those verses they should be.
(A). THE HORIZONTAL
• The setting of the Psalm is a hurting man – David.
• He is asking God to help him against his troubles and against his enemies.
I want to divide this Psalm under three headings.
(1). Deliverance: “Save Me” (vs 1-18)
Ill:
• John Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands.
• One night hostile natives surrounded the mission station,
• They were intent on burning out the Paton’s and killing them.
• Paton and his wife prayed and prayed through a long and terror-filled night;
• When daylight came they were still alive inside their un-burnt hut.
• They looked around and were amazed to see their attackers had left.
• A year later, the chief of the tribe was converted to Christ.
• Remembering what had happened,
• Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down the house and killing them.
• The chief replied in surprise,
• “Who were all those men with you there?”
• Paton knew no men were present;
• But the chief said he was afraid to attack the hut;
• Because he had seen hundreds of big men in shining garments;
• With their swords drawn circling the mission station.
Now I believe God has the power to deliver in miraculous ways:
• That does not mean that on every occasion he will!
• For every Daniel protected in the pit from the hungry lions,
• There is a Stephen who was violently stoned to death.
• For every John Paton God rescues from the enemy;
• There is a Jim Elliott or a Nate Saint that God calls home to glory!
• Help is available but not automatic;
• God may rescue us from danger or he may take us through danger.
• In this Psalm God takes David through danger,
• Through difficult circumstances!
FIRST: DAVID PRAYS DELIVER ME FOR HIS OWN SAKE (VS -5):
• In verses 1-2: David pictures himself as a drowning man;
• Who is desperately trying to keep his head above the water.
• He cries out again and again for help!
• ill: verse 1: “Save” or “Deliver me”.
• ill: verse 3: “I am worn out calling for help”.
• ill: verse 13: “I pray to you”.
• ill: verse 13b: “…answer me”.
• ill: verse 14: “Rescue me”
• ill: verse 14b: “Deliver me”.
• ill: verse 16: “Answer me”
• ill: verse 17: “Do not hide your face”
• ill: verse 17b: “Answer me quickly”.
• ill: verse 18: “Come near and rescue me”
• In verses 3-4: He is worn out calling for help;
• This situation has been going on for such a long time that his throat is parched;
• And he must be wondering why isn’t God answering my prayers!
Remember God always answers our prayers:
• Trouble is that his answers are not always the ones we want to hear;
• Sometimes he answers: ‘Yes. No & Wait’.
• He always answers but no always the way we want!
Quote:
“If the request is wrong, God says, "No."
If the timing is wrong, God says, "Slow."
If you are wrong, God says, "Grow."
But if the request is right, the timing is right, and you are right,
God says ‘Go!’”
• “If the request is wrong, God says, "No."”
• This is when we ask for something that is outside of the will of God
• “If the timing is wrong, God says, "Slow."”
• This is when there are other things that need to happen before the answer comes.
• So remember that God's delay is not God's denial.
• “If you are wrong, God says, "Grow."”
• The answer does not come because you are not ready to handle it.
• Or God wants you to learn, to grow through this experience.
• “But if the request is right, the timing is right and you are right, God says, "Go!"”
• This is what most of us want most of the time!
• Notice that David prays and he prays and he prays:
• He needs to learn that God's delay is not God's denial.
• He will answer David’s prayer at the right time and in the right way.
SECOND: DAVID PRAYS DELIVER ME FOR THE LORD’S SAKE (VS 6-12):
• David is not facing these troubles from his enemies because he is at fault;
• In verse 5 he admits his faults.
• The reason David is experiencing this persecution;
• Is because of his faith in God.
• e.g. Verse 7: “For I endure scorn for your sake”.
• Because he openly stood up for his faith he was ridiculed.
• e.g. Verse 9: These enemies also blasphemed the name of his God:
• “For zeal for your house consumes me, & the insults of those who insult you fall on me”
• e.g. Verse 10: They mock him as he practices his faith by ‘prayer & fasting’.
• e.g. Verse 12: He has become the subject of drunkards in their cruel songs.
Ill:
• T.Shirt – Sharks and piranhas etc swimming in one direction;
• Then you have the fish symbol (ICTHUS) swimming the opposite way.
• It’s a good reminder that we are always swimming against the tide;
• We are moving in a different direction to those around us.
• Therefore expect difficulties, expect life at times to be hard.
THIRD: DAVID PRAYS DELIVER ME BECAUSE OF YOUR CHARECTER (VS 13-18):
• When God seems distant and uncaring;
• When your prayers are going unanswered,
• It is always good to remind yourself of God’s character.
Ill:
• One day the great preacher C. H. Spurgeon;
• Was walking through the English countryside with a friend.
• As they strolled along, the evangelist noticed a barn with a weather vane on its roof.
• At the top of the vane were these words: GOD IS LOVE.
• Spurgeon remarked to his companion;
• That he thought this was a rather inappropriate place for such a message.
• “Weather vanes are changeable,” he said, “but God’s love is constant.”
• His friend replied:
• “Charles I don’t agree with you about those words, you misunderstood the meaning.
• That sign is indicating an important truth:
• Regardless of which way the wind blows, God is love.”
When God seems distant and uncaring:
• When your prayers are going unanswered,
• It is always good to remind yourself of God’s character.
• He loves us and that love never diminishes or wavers.
• e.g. Verse 13: He mentions God’s ‘great love’.
• David bases his plea on the fact God is good, merciful and loving.
• e.g. Verse 13: He mentions God’s ‘sure salvation’ –
• God is a God whose track record is intervening and saving those who trust in him.
• e.g. Verse 16: He again mentions ‘Goodness of God’s love’.
• The Psalmist has no bargaining power but leans 100% on the character of God.
(B). Vindication: “Judge my enemies” (vs 19-29)
• The psalmist now makes another plea to God
• Only this time as he talks about his experiences of derision and shame.
• He wants vindication. He wants God to deal with his enemies.
• In verse 19: he tells us and God that when he need support and encouragement;
• Those he expected to provide comfort failed to stand by him;
• And he waited and waited and waited in vain for them to offer help.
• Then it grew worse for him because in verse 21: Instead of support they harm him;
• The idea is that his enemies wanted to hurt him by poisoning his food and water.
• ‘Gall’ is derived from a poisonous herb;
So in response David prayed a precatory prayer:
• David thinks its payback time;
• And he wants God to sort out his enemies for him.
• And we would say sort them out big time!
• Now remember that the key to understanding these imprecatory verses;
• Is always to note the context;
• David wrote prior to the coming of Christ.
• He did not have the full revelation of teaching that you and I have.
• So his understanding of forgiveness is different to ours.
Remember also that he is baring his soul, sharing his innermost feelings;
• And we see in these verses the raw emotion of those feelings as they flow out from him.
• Note: In verse 21: David prays a sort of play on words:
• He says they put poison in my food;
• In other words they laid a trap for me on my table;
• In return he asks God in verse 22 to set a trap at their table.
• ill: Boomerang – may what goes out from them come back on them.
• Then in verses 22-25 David prays that some of the basic blessings of life;
• Would be taken away from his enemies.
• i.e. eating, sleeping, walking and having descendants.
• And finally he asks in verses 27-28:
• That life itself would be snatched from them.
• And if that wasn’t enough he goes on to say;
• That they be blotted out of God’s book of life.
(c). Praise: “Be Glorified” (vs 30-36)
“I will praise God’s name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving.”
David wants to God to be glorified in three areas:
• FIRST: God be glorified in his worship (vs 30-31).
• “I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving”
• SECOND: God be glorified among the poor and needy;
• That description in verses 32-33;
• May well be symbolic i.e. the humble – those who seek God.
• THIRD: God be glorified in all of creation (vs 34).
• “Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them”,
• FOURTH: God be glorified in all of Israel (vs 35-36).
• “For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah”.
TO SUMMARISE:
• The Psalm starts with sinking and ends with singing!
• It goes from prayer to praise.
• From reproach to rejoicing.
• Because Davis poured out his heart to the Lord.
• So remember even if we feel our prayers are not changing anything;
• The change us – they have an affect on us!
• This is a Messianic Psalm;
• Out of David’s sufferings God reveals to us his Son!
• One of the reasons God allows suffering is that through it;
• We might be refined, that people might see Jesus in us!
• And that we might become more like his Son!
(B). THE VERTICAL:
• This Psalm has an upward as well as an across-ward interpretation.
• Seven times these verses are quoted in the New Testament:
• And Jesus himself quoted it concerning himself.
• The reason for this is that Jesus is the Son of David;
• And what happened to David as God’s anointed one;
• Is a foreshadowing:
• That is in certain ways the experience of David – anointed one;
• Will be the experience of Jesus – the anointed one!
• So Jesus must have read this psalm many times;
• He had some if not all of it.
• He quoted it and saw a parallel in this Psalm with his own mission.
• Let’s read the verses that are quoted.
Quote 1: verse 4 (found in John 15:25):
• It was the night before Jesus went to the cross;
• He warns the disciples of the gathering storm ahead,
• He uses these words to describe the situation that they will soon face.
“Those who hate me without reason
outnumber the hairs of my head;
many are my enemies without cause,
those who seek to destroy me.
I am forced to restore
what I did not steal”.
Quote 2: verse 9 (found in John 2:17):
• Jesus is full of passion and jealousy for his Father’s house and his Gather’s glory;
• So he purged, he cleaned up the temple by driving out the money changers and thieves.
“for zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who insult you fall on me”.
Quote 3: verse 20 (found in Mark 14:49-50):
• In the Garden of Gethsemane, when they came to arrest Jesus;
• The writer refers to this verse:
“Scorn has broken my heart
and has left me helpless;
I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
for comforters, but I found none”.
Quote 4: verse 21 (found in Matthew 27:34&38):
“They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.”
• The first part of this verse was fulfilled just before the crucified Jesus;
• His executioners offered him Gall in some food.
• ‘Gall’ was a sedative to dull the pain.
• The second part of the verse was fulfilled as Jesus was hanging on the cross;
• John chapter 19 verses 28-30 tell us they again offered Jesus a stupefying drink.
Quote 5: verse 22-23 (found in Romans 11:9-10):
“May the table set before them become a snare;
may it become retribution and a trap.
23 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever”.
• These verses refer to the nation of Israel;
• Who rejected Jesus as their Messiah.
• The writer says that when light is deliberately refused;
• Judgement in the form of darkness from God follows.
Quote 6: verse 24 (found in Revelation 16:1):
“Pour out your wrath on them;
let your fierce anger overtake them.”
• The apostle John quotes these words while exiled on the island of Patmos.
• They are quoted in an apocalyptic vision as John sees the wrath of God.
Quote 7: verse 24 (found in Acts 1:20):
“May their place be deserted;
let there be no one to dwell in their tents”.
• It was Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver;
• The apostle Peter individualizes this verse and applies it to Judas;
• On whom God’s judgement has fallen.
TO SUMMARISE:
• The Psalm starts with sinking and ends with singing!
• It goes from prayer to praise.
• From reproach to rejoicing.
• Because Davis poured out his heart to the Lord.
• So remember even if we feel our prayers are not changing anything;
• The change us – they have an affect on us!
• This is a Messianic Psalm;
• Out of David’s sufferings God reveals to us his Son!
• One of the reasons God allows suffering is that through it;
• We might be refined, that people might see Jesus in us!
• And that we might become more like his Son!
