Sermon Central
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Please Deliver Me, Lord! Series
Contributed by Bobby Oliver on Jun 26, 2018 (message contributor)
Summary: Deliver me from persecution, deliver me from righteous judgment, and deliver me completely.
Please Deliver Me, Lord!
- We’re continuing our study through the book of Psalms.
- This week, we’re going to look at a time when David cried out to God for deliverance.
- One of the important things to do when we read a Psalm is to look at the title and see if it tells us the occasion upon which the Psalmist wrote it or not.
- Psalm 7 it titled, “Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto the Lord, concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite.”
- The exact meaning of the Hebrew word Shiggaion is unknown, and there are several different guesses of what it means.
- If you have a NKJV, you’ll see that they translate it “A Meditation of David.”
- I prefer the commentator Adam Clarke’s translation of the word which is “to wander”, so he calls this “a wandering song.”
- That makes sense because the next part of the title, “Concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite” leads some to believe that this had something to do with King Saul.
- And remember, David was constantly wandering in the wilderness, as he kept hiding from Saul who wanted him dead.
- But who was Cush the Benjamite?
- Unfortunately, this is the only place in Jewish history where he is named, but because he was a Benjamite, he probably was a follower of King Saul.
- It’s likely that he was going to Saul and accusing David of some kind of treason.
- Charles Spurgeon goes so far as to call this Psalm “The Song of the Slandered Saint.”
- In any case, whatever circumstance David is facing, he goes exactly where he needs to go…before the Lord!
- So let’s look at 3 parts of this deliverance David is praying for.
I. Deliver me from persecution- Vs 1-5
- As Christians, persecution is always hard for us to experience.
- Years ago, my father took my brother and I street preaching when we lived in Colorado.
- I’ll never forget my dad, preaching, “Repent! Turn to Jesus!”
- We were all wearing sandwich signs with Scripture on them.
- But across the street, there was an outside bar on top of the building.
- I’ll never forget those people laughing at us and shouting swear words down at us.
- Someone from the bar actually called the police on us, and the officer told my father we needed to leave because we were on city property, or something like that.
- I remember I was embarrassed and scared, but also was glad that in the middle of persecution, I could stand up for the Lord.
- King David was persecuted a lot during his life, and here in Psalm 7, we have an example of how he responded to that persecution, through this song of prayer.
- First, he begins by calling out to God… “Oh Lord, my God!”
- That’s the first place we should go, whether we’re in trouble or not, but especially when we’re facing tough times.
- In Psalm 50:15, God says, “Call to me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me!”
- David understood that no trouble was too big for God to handle, and as His servant, he could bring his problems to God, and God would take care of it.
- Of course, that hasn't changed today for us.
- We serve a big God!
- Nothing is too difficult for Him!
- Troubles to us are not troubles to Him.
- Notice next he says, "In thee do I put my trust"
- There were a lot of people and things that David could have put his trust in.
- He was a strong warrior, so it would make sense if he put his trust in his own strength.
- He was a military leader with soldiers under him, so it would make sense if he put his trust in the small Army he had with him.
- He had proven himself to some of the Philistines when he lived with them, so he could possibly have turned to them as Israel's enemies and trusted in them to get him through.
- I'm sure there were other places as well.
- But David knew that none of them would be enough.
- No, his trust was in the Lord.
- Think about some of the people or things that you might put your trust in when you're being persecuted.
- Some might trust in themselves, so they respond in anger with whatever harsh words or actions can be used to get vengeance.
- Others might trust someone else to take care of it for them, so they tell them the problem and expect that other person will put a stop to it.
