Thursday
Evening Bible Study
September
24, 2015
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken
hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Is the church loved? Target 3300 words
Video = 75 wpm
The English word psalm comes from a Greek word that means “a poem
sung to musical accompaniment”, or in particular, “stringed instruments”.
The Hebrew name is tehillim, which means “praises.”
The book of Psalms is the hymnbook of God’s people.
It’s also the “Him” book as well.
It’s all about Jesus.
The writer of Hebrews quotes from
Psalm 40:8 when he writes,
(Hebrews 10:7 NKJV) Then I
said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the
volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God.’ ”
The author was talking about
Jesus.
We’re going to see a lot of Jesus
in the Psalms.
Soul Music
Music touches the soul. It’s
“soulish” in nature. It touches the emotions.
We’re going to find every kind of emotion possible expressed in the Psalms.
For every sigh there is a Psalm.
For most of us, this is what makes
the Psalms so wonderful. We can identify. We can relate.
If we were honest, even darkest
most depressing Psalms describe the very things we go through day by day.
It is my prayer that as we continue
on this journey through the Psalms, we won’t just look at these songs
academically, with our mind, but that we may also grow as worshippers.
Psalm 9 – The Victor’s Song
: To the Chief Musician. To The Tune of “Death of the Son.” a Psalm of
David.
To the Chief Musician
It is also thought by some that
Psalm 9 & 10 form a complete unit because in the Hebrew every other verse
starts with a succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet, but only part of the
alphabet in Psalm 9, with the rest of the alphabet in Psalm 10.
Both the Greek Old Testament
translation (Septuagint, LXX) and the Latin translation (Latin Vulgate) combine
Psalms 9-10.
Death of the Son
The Hebrew (and Old King James) has
the words “Muth-labben”, which can be translated “Death of the Son”.
This could have simply been the
name of a popular tune at the time, or it could mean something more.
The Chaldee translation has here “concerning the death of the Champion who
went out between the camps” (as per Spurgeon’s Treasury of David).
There are quite a few folks who feel this was written with the account of
David’s facing Goliath as the background.
Though we can only speculate if this is true, the Psalm would fit well with
David’s battle.
We don’t have to be dogmatic about this being a song after David’s defeat
of Goliath, but David’s battle would certainly give us a good picture of what
David is writing this song about.
David (1Sam. 17) was a young man who tended his father’s flock of sheep
while his older brothers went off to battle with the Philistines.
Goliath was a mature, trained warrior.
He was huge – over nine feet tall.
He had been challenging the Israelites for forty days to produce a champion
to fight him “mano-e-mano”
The victor would decide which side won.
When David went out to meet Goliath armed with just a sling and five
stones, Goliath laughed and mocked David.
Yet David wasn’t facing Goliath alone.
God was with him.
Goliath died that day.
(1 Samuel 17:1–51 NKJV) —1 Now the
Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered at
Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped between Sochoh and Azekah,
in Ephes Dammim. 2 And Saul and the men
of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah, and
drew up in battle array against the Philistines. 3 The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood
on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. 4 And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named
Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with
a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of
bronze. 6 And he had
bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. 7 Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and
his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went
before him. 8 Then he stood and
cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to
line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul?
Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your
servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our
servants and serve us.” 10 And the
Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we
may fight together.” 11 When Saul
and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and
greatly afraid. 12 Now David was
the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse, and
who had eight sons. And the man was old, advanced in years, in the days
of Saul. 13 The three oldest sons
of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons who
went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, and
the third Shammah. 14 David was
the youngest. And the three oldest followed Saul. 15 But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his
father’s sheep at Bethlehem. 16 And the
Philistine drew near and presented himself forty days, morning and evening. 17
Then Jesse said to his son David, “Take now for your
brothers an ephah of this dried grain and these ten loaves, and run to
your brothers at the camp. 18 And carry
these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your
brothers fare, and bring back news of them.” 19 Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the
Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. 20 So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper,
and took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to
the camp as the army was going out to the fight and shouting for the battle. 21 For Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array, army
against army. 22 And David left his
supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army, and came and
greeted his brothers. 23 Then as he
talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by
name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines; and he spoke according to
the same words. So David heard them. 24 And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him
and were dreadfully afraid. 25 So the men
of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up
to defy Israel; and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will
enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and give his father’s
house exemption from taxes in Israel.” 26 Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall
be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from
Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy
the armies of the living God?” 27 And the
people answered him in this manner, saying, “So shall it be done for the man
who kills him.” 28 Now Eliab his oldest
brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger was aroused against
David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left
those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your
heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” 29 And David said, “What have I done now? Is there not
a cause?” 30 Then he turned from
him toward another and said the same thing; and these people answered him as
the first ones did. 31 Now when
the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul; and
he sent for him. 32 Then David said to
Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight
with this Philistine.” 33 And Saul
said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with
him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.” 34
But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep
his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the
flock, 35 I went out after it
and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose
against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this
uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the
armies of the living God.” 37 Moreover
David said, “The Lord, who
delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will
deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!” 38 So Saul
clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also
clothed him with a coat of mail. 39 David
fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them.
And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.”
So David took them off. 40 Then he
took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from
the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his
sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine. 41 So the Philistine came, and began drawing near to David, and the
man who bore the shield went before him. 42 And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained
him; for he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking. 43 So the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you
come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 And the Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give
your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” 45
Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me
with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of
the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord
will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from
you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to
the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may
know that there is a God in Israel. 47 Then all
this assembly shall know that the Lord
does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our
hands.” 48 So it was, when the
Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and
ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. 49 Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he
slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone
sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. 50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone,
and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the
hand of David. 51 Therefore David ran
and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and
killed him, and cut off his head with it. And when
the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
:1 I will praise You, O Lord,
with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works.
:1 with my whole heart
Lesson
Complete
Worship
Mary knew how to worship with a
whole heart:
(John 12:1–8 NKJV) —1 Then, six
days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been
dead, whom He had raised from the dead. 2 There they
made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at
the table with Him. 3 Then Mary
took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and
wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of
the oil. 4 But one of His
disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, 5 “Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and
given to the poor?” 6 This he
said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the
money box; and he used to take what was put in it. 7 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of
My burial. 8 For the poor you have
with you always, but Me you do not have always.”
Mary’s worship was very costly –
David said, “I will not offer the Lord that which costs me nothing”. Mary’s offering cost almost a year’s worth of
wages, perhaps all she had.
Jesus is the one who set the
example for all of us. He gave His life
for us.
Judas complained about the
extravagance of worship. Be careful when
you find yourself complaining about worship.
Would you rather follow Judas’ example or Mary’s in worship?
Some thoughts from Jon Courson:
Her perfume filled the house –
worship affects those around you – yet there would be two people who would
carry the fragrance the longest – Jesus and Mary. For the others, the smell would wear off
after a while. Half-hearted worshippers
can smell the fragrance, but it wears off.
Later in the week, the disciples
will be arguing over who can sit at Jesus’ right hand. There seems to be no argument over who can be
at Jesus’ feet. There’s plenty of room
at Jesus’ feet. There’s plenty of room
for people who will worship Jesus with all they have.
:2 I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O
Most High.
:3 When my enemies turn back, They shall fall and perish at Your presence.
:4 For You have maintained my right and my cause; You sat on the throne
judging in righteousness.
:5 You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have
blotted out their name forever and ever.
:5 You have rebuked the nations
David knew God had the ability to handle his enemies.
(1 Samuel 17:45
NKJV) Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword,
with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of
Israel, whom you have defied.
David still had to sling his stone and cut off Goliath’s head, but he saw
God behind it all.
:6 O enemy, destructions are finished forever! And you have destroyed
cities; Even their memory has perished.
:7 But the Lord shall endure
forever; He has prepared His throne for judgment.
:8 He shall judge the world in righteousness, And He shall administer
judgment for the peoples in uprightness.
:8 He shall judge the world in
righteousness
Lesson
God judges correctly
People like to suggest all kinds of
flaws with God’s judgment, such as asking “What about the aborigines in
Australia who have never heard the gospel?”
The truth is that in the end we
will look back and see that God has done is all correctly.
When Abraham was negotiating with
God over the deliverance of Lot from the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, he
said,
(Genesis 18:25 NKJV) Far be it
from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so
that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the
Judge of all the earth do right?”
God will do what
is right.
When the angels in heaven are
watching the judgments of the Tribulation, they will exclaim:
(Revelation 16:7 NKJV) And I
heard another from the altar saying, “Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and
righteous are Your judgments.”
God knows what He’s doing, even if
we don’t.
:9 The Lord also will be a
refuge for the oppressed, A refuge in times of trouble.
:10 And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek
You.
:11 Sing praises to the Lord,
who dwells in Zion! Declare His deeds among the people.
:12 When He avenges blood, He remembers them; He does not forget the cry of
the humble.
:12 He avenges blood
Lesson
God’s justice
David saw God avenge the Israelite’s with his defeat of Goliath.
God will not sit by when His people are hurt.
At the end of the Tribulation period John wrote,
(Revelation
16:5–7 NKJV) —5 And I heard the angel of the waters saying: “You are righteous,
O Lord, The One who
is and who was and who is to be, Because You have judged these things. 6 For they have shed the blood of
saints and prophets, And You have given them blood to drink. For it is
their just due.”
7 And I heard another from the altar saying, “Even so, Lord God
Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”
I received this today from a friend (Gillett Doggett) who was passing on
requests for prayer for the Christians in northern Iraq. I don’t know how old this news is …
“ISIS has taken over the town they are in today. He said ISIS is
systematically going house to house to all the Christians and asking children
to denounce Jesus. He said so far not one child has, and so far all have
consequently been killed. But not the parents. The UN has withdrawn and the
missionaries are on their own. They are determined to stick it out for the sake
of the families even if it means their own deaths. They are very afraid, have
no idea how to even begin ministering to these families who have seen their
children martyred. Yet he says he knows God has called them for some reason to
be His voice and hands in this place at this time.
“Even so, they are begging for prayers for courage to live out their
vocation in such dire circumstances, and like the children, accept martyrdom if
they are called to do so. The brave parents around them instilled such a
fervent faith in their children that they chose martyrdom. Please surround them
in their loss with your prayers for hope and perseverance.
“One missionary was able to talk to her brother briefly by phone. She
didn't say it, but I believe she believes it will be their last conversation.
Pray for her too. He told her to tell the families we ARE praying for them and
they are not alone or forgotten - no matter what. Please keep them all in your
prayers.”
God will one day judge these wicked people.
:13 Have mercy on me, O Lord!
Consider my trouble from those who hate me, You who lift me up from the gates
of death,
:14 That I may tell of all Your praise In the gates of the daughter of
Zion. I will rejoice in Your salvation.
:15 The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made; In the
net which they hid, their own foot is caught.
:16 The Lord is known by
the judgment He executes; The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.
Meditation. Selah
Think about all of this.
:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, And all the nations that
forget God.
:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell
Lesson
Avoiding hell
Hell is a very real place. You don’t
want to go there. You shouldn’t want
anyone to go there.
Hell was created for Satan:
(Matthew
25:41 NKJV) “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me,
you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:
Hell is eternal:
(Isaiah
66:24 NKJV) “And they shall go forth and look Upon the corpses of the men Who have
transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, And their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all
flesh.
Some think that the wicked will just burn up and cease to
exist. Not so.
There is a way to escape hell:
(John
3:16 NKJV) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, in order to
make it possible to avoid hell.
In a sense, it’s like Jesus was saying, “You’re going to
hell over My dead body”. If you reject
Jesus’ death for you will go to hell. If
you receive Jesus’ forgiveness, you will go to heaven.
:18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten; The expectation of the
poor shall not perish forever.
Even if in this life those who trust in the Lord suffer martyrdom, they
will not be forgotten by God.
:19 Arise, O Lord, Do not let
man prevail; Let the nations be judged in Your sight.
:20 Put them in fear, O Lord,
That the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah
:10 those who know Your name will put their trust in You
Are you facing a giant like Goliath?
Are you facing troubles that seem bigger than you can handle?
You need to do as David did when he faced Goliath and put your trust in
God.
Song
Psalm 9
I will praise (echo)
You oh Lord (echo)
With all my heart (echo)
I will tell (echo)
Of Your wonders (echo)
I'll be glad and exalt in Thee
I'll be glad and exalt in Thee
I will sing praise to Your Name
Oh Most High
I will sing praise to Your Name
I will sing praise to Your Name
Oh Most High
I will sing praise to Your Name
Psalm 9/ Words & Music by Sally Beck / © 1987 by Mercy
Publishing / Psalm9.doc
Psalm 10 – Help against the wicked
Some have suggested this is really an extension of Psalm 9, written after
David’s conquest of Goliath.
:1 Why do You stand afar off, O Lord?
Why do You hide in times of trouble?
:1 Why do You stand afar off, O Lord?
Even though we may have experienced triumphs like David over Goliath, we
are weak, flawed people.
Right after a victory, we find ourselves asking the same kinds of questions
– “Where are you God?”
Even after we face one enemy (like Goliath), there will always be another,
and another, and another.
:2 The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor; Let them be caught
in the plots which they have devised.
:3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire; He blesses the greedy and
renounces the Lord.
:4 The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is
in none of his thoughts.
:5 His ways are always prospering; Your judgments are far above, out
of his sight; As for all his enemies, he sneers at them.
:6 He has said in his heart, “I shall not be moved; I shall never be in
adversity.”
:7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue
is trouble and iniquity.
:8 He sits in the lurking places of the villages; In the secret places he
murders the innocent; His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless.
:9 He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den; He lies in wait to catch
the poor; He catches the poor when he draws him into his net.
:10 So he crouches, he lies low, That the helpless may fall by his
strength.
:11 He has said in his heart, “God has forgotten; He hides His face; He
will never see.”
:11 He will never see
Lesson
Not accountable
The wicked person doesn’t want to acknowledge that God does see and know
what is going on.
I believe he knows that if he acknowledges there is a God, then he would be
accountable to Him.
Illustration
Lee Strobel is now regarded as a pastor, but he wasn’t always that. He had been an award winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune. He was a skeptic and atheist. Things started to change when his wife Leslie
became a Christian. Lee began to examine
the claims of Christianity and found himself wrestling with what he was
finding.
Video: Case
for Christ – Lee’s Emotional Struggle (43:26 – 45:00)
Lee said that one of the reasons he did not want to
believe in God was because he did not want to be held accountable for his life.
This is one of the roots of sin.
When a person tells himself that God isn’t paying attention or God doesn’t
care, then the restraints are thrown off.
Ezekiel had a vision where he was taken to Jerusalem and shown the secret wicked
things that happened in the Temple. In a
way, it’s a picture of what people do in their hearts and minds (also a
temple).
(Ezekiel
8:12 NKJV) Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of
the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For
they say, ‘The Lord does not see
us, the Lord has forsaken the
land.’ ”
Secret images in the dark.
Wicked things. Because they
thought God didn’t care or see.
If you are struggling with “secret” things like
pornography, God actually does care and He actually does see.
The best thing you can do is to bring your “secret” out
into the light.
Stop hiding your problem.
Let someone know about your struggle.
:12 Arise, O Lord! O God,
lift up Your hand! Do not forget the humble.
:13 Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, “You will not
require an account.”
:14 But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief, To repay it
by Your hand. The helpless commits himself to You; You are the helper of the
fatherless.
:15 Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man; Seek out his
wickedness until You find none.
:16 The Lord is King
forever and ever; The nations have perished out of His land.
:17 Lord, You have heard the
desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to
hear,
:18 To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, That the man of the
earth may oppress no more.
:15 Break the arm of the wicked
Lesson
Identify the enemy
Sometimes your enemy is a real person.
I think that sometimes it’s okay to pray what David prayed, but with great
caution.
Jesus said,
(Matthew 5:43–45 NKJV) —43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your
neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say
to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate
you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His
sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust.
You may be wanting
to break their arm, but God may be wanting to show them kindness to help them
turn from their sin.
Jude wrote,
(Jude 22–23 NLT) —22 And
you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. 23 Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show
mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that
contaminate their lives.
Sometimes the enemy is a spiritual one, like Satan.
Paul wrote,
(Ephesians 6:12 NKJV) For
we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts
of wickedness in the heavenly places.
If the enemy is a spiritual one, go ahead and ask God to
break his arm.
Sometimes the enemy is me.
(Romans 7:18–19 NLT)
—18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful
nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I
don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
Sometimes we’re our own worst enemy.
Paul knew that sometimes God allowed difficulty in his life to help keep
him from sin.
(2
Corinthians 12:10 NKJV) Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs,
in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I
am strong.
Maybe a broken arm every once in a while is not a bad
thing.
Psalm 11 – Song of the Steadfast
: To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
We aren’t told when this psalm was written, but it certainly fits the time
in David’s life when he was fleeing from King Saul.
When David killed Goliath, he became an instant hit with the people of
Israel.
They even wrote songs about David, and the songs were about how much better
David was than King Saul.
Whenever David came up to bat, the crowd started cheering, “MVP, MVP, MVP”
Saul became extremely jealous of David and began to plot how to have David
killed.
David ended up fleeing for his life and lived on the run for quite some
time.
:1 In the Lord I put my trust;
How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”?
:1 Flee as a bird to your mountain
When David confronted Saul and pleaded for him to stop chasing him, he used
similar language,
(1 Samuel 26:20 NKJV)
So
now, do not let my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord. For the king of Israel has come
out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains.”
:2 For look! The wicked bend their bow, They make ready their arrow
on the string, That they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart.
:3 If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?
:3 If the foundations are destroyed
Lesson
Broken foundations
Saul was king of the nation of Israel, yet he was not acting like a godly
man.
Saul was trying to kill David for no good reason. At one point Saul even massacred a bunch of
priests because he thought they were plotting against him with David.
Today I can’t help but think of this verse in relation to what’s happening
in our nation.
We have banned prayer from public schools.
People laugh when someone quotes the Bible.
I watched today as the pope addressed the joint session of congress with
Joe Biden and John Boehner sitting behind him, both Catholics.
As he spoke and mentioned Moses, the camera panned to a
point on the wall at the back of the room, a plaque with Moses on it.
Later, the camera panned out from the pope. In large letters over their heads were the words,
“In God we trust”.
Do you ever wonder why our nation has gone so far from God?
The foundations are being destroyed, even when there are still hints of it
in front of our eyes.
I was thinking about how divided
our congress is over the issue of abortion.
Many people
believe (including our vice president Joe Biden, a Catholic) that life begins
at conception.
Yet we don’t have
the courage to stop abortion.
Instead people
rally behind the call for “women’s rights”.
I think we ought
to be concerned about women’s rights.
I think it’s a
horrible shame that the woman is the one who has to carry the baby for nine
months when a couple have sex.
It’s good to
sympathize with this.
But we’ve
forgotten about the silent person in the situation – the baby. Few people speak up for the baby that is
killed in order to protect a woman’s “choice”.
I wonder if we
ought to not just stop abortion, but go back to a deeper root of the problem –
the lust that we promote in our society.
The lack of
morality that comes from not having a godly foundation leads to unwanted
pregnancies.
:4 The Lord is in His
holy temple, The Lord’s throne is
in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
:5 The Lord tests the
righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
:6 Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning
wind Shall be the portion of their cup.
:7 For the Lord is
righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright.
:4 His eyes behold
Lesson
God sees
We may tell ourselves that God isn’t aware of what goes on in the world,
but He most certainly is aware.
We act like the cat does when you’re not home
The truth is, God is here.
He sees.
:7 His countenance beholds the
upright
Lesson
God will take care of it
He sees everything that goes
on. Nothing escapes His attention.
Though there are times when
“fleeing” is the right thing to do
David did run from Saul many times.
There are times when we must not
“flee”.
Sometimes “trusting” means we don’t
flee.
Psalm 12 – Trusting God’s Deliverance
: To the Chief Musician. On An Eight-Stringed Harp. A Psalm of David.
An Eight-Stringed Harp
We saw this back in Ps. 6. It might even mean that one part of the song
was sung an octave higher/lower than the rest of the song.
:1 Help, Lord, for the godly
man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
David is sad that there seem to be fewer and fewer godly, trustworthy
people.
:2 They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; With flattering lips and
a double heart they speak.
:3 May the Lord cut off all
flattering lips, And the tongue that speaks proud things,
:4 Who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our
own; Who is lord over us?”
:4 With our tongue we will prevail
The wicked are saying to themselves that they can tell lies to their
heart’s content because nobody can stop them.
I see this more and more in our society. At times I think that everybody
must lie.
We don’t seem to hold the idea of “telling the truth” in very high esteem.
I’m sorry to say that this is one reason I hate to do counselling.
So many people lie, even when they are talking to their pastor.
I sometimes think that people tell me what they think I need to hear so I
can give them permission to do what they planned on doing all along.
:5 “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, Now I
will arise,” says the Lord; “I
will set him in the safety for which he yearns.”
:6 The words of the Lord are
pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven
times.
:6 The words of the Lord are
pure words
God’s word are “pure” and “tried”.
It’s been tested. It’s the real
thing.
It works.
While others around us are lying, God is telling us the truth.
:7 You shall keep them, O Lord,
You shall preserve them from this generation forever.
:8 The wicked prowl on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons
of men.
:8 When vileness is exalted
Our society has come to make villains into heroes.
Illustration
Prior to 1965, television shows
portrayed businessmen as good guys twice as often as bad guys, as Michael
Medved shows in Hollywood vs America. In
the 1970s, this ratio was reversed; two villains for every good guy. Today, big
business has become television's favorite villain. Medved quotes an exhaustive analysis of prime
time television by the sociologists Richter, Richter and Rothman which
concludes, "By 1980 a majority of the CEO's portrayed on prime time committed
felonies." Respectable businessmen
were by then committing 40 percent of the murders on prime time television, and
44 percent of vice crimes like drug trafficking and pimping.
-- Michael Medved, Hollywood vs America: Popular Culture and the War on
Traditional Values (New York, Harper Collins, 1993).
Illustration
Erma Bombeck once wrote,
We live in a strange society where we make documentaries of serial killers,
movie idols out of organized crime members, authors out of political crooks,
and role models out of criminals who beat the system. ... I don’t know when
crime went from being news to entertainment, but somehow it’s made the
transition.
Back to verse …
:5 …Now I will arise,” says the Lord;
“I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.”
:5 I will set him in the safety
Lesson
His Promises
The people are struggling with the evil around them, and God speaks.
God makes a promise to protect the people.
The Bible is filled with God’s promises for us.
God’s Love
(Romans
8:38–39 NKJV) —38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height
nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing can separate you from God’s love.
God’s Provision
(Philippians
4:19 NKJV) And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in
glory by Christ Jesus.
This doesn’t mean you don’t get a job. But when you do your part (working), God will
provide what you need.
God is Good
(1
John 1:5 NKJV) This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to
you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
All God’s ways are good.
The world tells you to do things it’s way, but God’s ways are the best.
God won’t lie. You can trust His
promises.
Psalm 13 - Despair to Hope
: To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
:1 How long, O Lord? Will You
forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
:1 How long, O Lord?
This is a familiar phrase in the Psalms – found 18 times.
We’ve already seen it twice in Ps.
4, 6.
(Psalm 4:2 NKJV) —2 How long,
O you sons of men, Will you
turn my glory to shame? How long will you love
worthlessness And seek falsehood? Selah
(Psalm 6:3 NKJV) —3 My soul
also is greatly troubled; But You, O
Lord—how long?
We see the same cry in the book of Revelation after the Tribulation has
started, and there are those who are being martyred that cry out to God:
(Revelation 6:10
NKJV) And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy
and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the
earth?”
I imagine there are some right now in Iraq and Syria who are crying to God
with this phrase.
I imagine that Pastor Saeed Abedini being held prisoner in Iran is praying
this. Christians around the world will
be fasting and praying for him this Saturday.
When will the trouble end?
David is expressing great frustration and depression.
Do you ever ask God this question?
Are you asking God this right now?
:2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my
heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
(Psalm 13:2 The Message) Long
enough I’ve carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain. Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me.
:3 Consider and hear me, O Lord
my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
:4 Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest those who
trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
:5 But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your
salvation.
:6 I will sing to the Lord,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
:5 I have trusted in Your mercy
This is David’s way out of despair.
He moves from despair to hope and singing in just six verses.
Lesson
Get on His shoulders
Back in the 1800s there was a famous tightrope walker named “Blondin”.
In 1859 he made his first crossing of Niagara Falls on a rope 1100 feet
long, 160 feet above the water.
He would go on to cross the falls many times doing different types of
tricks – riding a bicycle, walking blindfolded, even stopping once to cook an
omelet.
The most daring attempt came when he announced he would cross with another
person on his shoulders.
The only person to take up his offer was his manager,
Harry Colcord.
It was a harrowing nightmare with various guy ropes
breaking, and Colcord having to get off his shoulders six times while Blondin
rested to gather his strength.
But they made it.
You don’t have to be a tightrope walker to get across the falls of
life. You just need to trust Jesus
enough to get on His shoulders.
Even though you might think it’s pretty scary to trust Jesus, He’ll never
drop you. Get up on His shoulders.
He’s been across the “falls” many times.
(Hebrews 12:1–3
NLT) —1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of
witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us
down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with
endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates
and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross,
disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s
throne. 3 Think of all
the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and
give up.
Because He’s endured, you can too.
What are you struggling with right now?
What makes you cry out “How long?”
Take the prayer request card and write down on the back of it the thing
that makes you cry out “how long”.
Can you trust Him?