Receiving Mercy and Being Merciful

Transcript

GRM 1243
June 14, 2020
Receiving Mercy and Being Merciful
Psalm 41
Gil Rugh


These are certainly interesting days as the world finds more and more ways to unravel itself and create confusion. Interesting days to be living. Remember we are moving more and more toward lawlessness as we have talked about, so in many ways we are not surprised as believers. We note that much of what goes on in the world is a reflection of the animosity and opposition to anything that is related to biblical truth. The heart of man is in rebellion against God, and that rebellion against God expresses itself in rebellion in all things that would be more consistent with the truth that God has given. We see that with the breakdown of the structure and order in society. And rebellious people find all kinds of reasons and excuses; they are not responsible, someone else is responsible. And that is why things are in such terrible condition, it is what you have done to me, it's what others have done to me. We have removed any sense of responsibility and accountability. But the scripture is clear, we will all give an account of ourselves to God on the day of judgment.

Life in this world can be difficult, difficult for unbelievers, but particularly difficult for believers because the god of this world (small “g”, Satan) is relentless in his opposition against God and against the people of God. So the trials, the difficulties, you can expect they might even get more difficult because much of what is being expressed in the rebellion going on in the world that people struggle to understand, at root is a rebellion against everything that God has said. So what God says is right they say is wrong; what God says is wrong, they say is right. So no matter which way the world goes in its turmoil, the attitude toward believers and toward those who adhere to the truth of the word of God will become more difficult, will become more openly rejected. The world is not becoming more receptive to biblical truth, it is becoming more open in its rejection of truth.

So we as believers expect to live in a world of trouble and trial. I realize in our country we have been blessed, much of the world has been blessed in a sense of avoiding persecution as being believers. And for our country that has been true for some time, and we are relatively comfortable. And we expect that God will give us a life of tranquility as long as we are faithful to Him. So turn with me to John 15, this is just a little bit of background; we are going to look into a psalm but we're going to look at a couple of passages as background. John 15, Jesus is preparing His disciples for His departure, this is His last night with them, we are on the brink of the betrayal and subsequent crucifixion of Christ. He instructs them, John 15:12, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus preparing for that great act of sacrifice and His giving His life. He expects then that those who are His followers will manifest that same kind of love for one another. And that becomes crucial because God's people live in the midst of a hostile world, in a hostile environment. Again He repeats it in verse 17, what He said in verse 12, “This I command you, that you love one another.” But you'll note, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” So the love of believers for one another is a supernatural love, comes from the spiritual base and it's important because everybody else in the world hates the believer. You say, it seems to me like you have a persecution complex. No, this is what God says. “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” The world hates Jesus Christ, it hates the God of the Bible. That's why there is such animosity toward biblical truth. We get intimidated and think, maybe it's because we don't present it right, maybe we haven't done…, maybe we should do this, maybe if we did that. Do you believe the Christ didn't handle things properly? Do you believe that if He had did things differently the world would have loved Him? We as believers begins to make excuses for the unbelieving world. We're going to talk about our responsibility, but the foundational issue is a spiritual issue.

Note verse 19, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own.” Here we get to the basic problem. “But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,” we're talking about this matter of God's choice, God's election in our study of Romans 9 in the evenings. “Because of this the world hates you.” Do you have that marked in your Bible? It's because of this that the world hates you. If you believe the truth of the Bible, if you believe what Jesus said, you have the foundational issue between the believer and the unbeliever, it is because God chose us out of the world to belong to Himself. That means those who do not belong to God belong to the devil. And the devil makes no peace with God, there is no peace between God and the devil, it is an ongoing warfare. And for the children of the devil there is no peace, there is no peace says my God to the wicked. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” Then He reminds them in verse 23, “He who hates Me hates My Father also.” So the opposition that comes to the believer and the biblical truth has a spiritual foundation. Constantly comes back, if we just did the things that the world would realize… That's not the problem. Now again, we see the character of God is to be revealed in the believer, but that won't solve the problem, that won't resolve the issue. The issue is a spiritual one. Come over to John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.” There's where the peace for the believer is, it's in Christ, and He has brought us into a relationship of peace with His Father. “In the world you have tribulation,” the trouble, the turmoil, the pressures, the opposition, “but take courage; I have overcome the world.” That's the pattern that continues down to today.

Come over to Hebrews 11, one more New Testament passage. We know this as the great chapter on faith “and without faith,” Hebrews 11:6 says, “it is impossible to please Him.” The beginning point is you “must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of those who seek Him.” There is where the world's problem is, they won't start at the beginning. I believe in the God of the Bible, the true and living God, He is a rewarder of those who seek Him, I must come and place my faith in Him, what He has provided in salvation for me with the death of His Son, and so on. You don't begin there then… But this about those who did have that saving faith in the living God. And what did they have? You are familiar with this, you can reread the examples, but come down to verse 35, they “quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war,” that's verse 34. “Women received back their dead by resurrection,” verse 35, “and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy).” You see, this is not some unusual phenomenon. The harder believers try to fit into the world to be loved and accepted by the world, the more they must become unfaithful to the relationship they have with the living God. In fact James put it bluntly, friendship with the world is enmity toward God. We're not here to make friends with the world, we are here to bring the message of life to a world that is at war with God, the people who have hearts filled with hate toward the living God.

Come back to Psalm 41. This is why we often end up in the Psalms in time of trouble, and since there are many kinds of trouble that come into our lives, one kind or another, some general like physical afflictions, sickness, ailments, age, whatever, not just direct persecution, but things that come as part of a fallen creation. We come to the psalms, they are often a source of encouragement because they reveal something of the pressures and trials that God's people had experienced and the grace of God to sustain them in their trials, in the troubles. The disappointments that come, the friends that turned out not to be genuine friends, that somehow ended up hoping to bring about your ruin. I thought they were friends. The psalmist faced those kinds of things and found that only God could bring the resolution, only God could bring rescue, if you will, only God's grace would be sufficient.

That's what we have in Psalm 41. You'll note it has been titled in most of your Bibles probably, ‘The psalmist in sickness complains of enemies and false friends.’ And it's a psalm of David and he is sick and he is facing problems. And he sees that he has sinned and those that he thought he could count on have turned out to be false friends, even the closest of friends have turned against him. And it hurts all the more, here I am down, weakened in physical condition as well as spiritually. And those I thought I could lean on, they are gone. In fact they are more than gone, they have turned against me. They just didn't disappear, they joined the opposition. But there is One who hasn't left him, there is One who intervenes to act on his behalf, that that's the God that he loves and serves.

You'll note this is for the choir director. He brings that again. This is just not David's personal testimony so we can look back and have a nice account of how that man of God functioned. This was from its beginning intended for the people more broadly, be truth for them that they could apply in living out very similar situations and God working for them in similar ways that He did to David. Then it is recorded as part of our scripture so that we 3000 years after David can come and read it, be reminded. We see a world in turmoil and pressures closing in. We don't know where it will go, what room will there be for believers if things continue to go as they are. Everything that people are rioting in the streets about, most of them are things we would say they are more biblical things. We believe in order, we believer in obedience, we believe in certain conduct, they don't believe in any of that. Is there any room for that anymore? Well, for Satan there is no room for God in his world, he would like to push God out completely. We know that by the coming seven years tribulation. And he has no room for believers.

But how do we function, this is where the psalmist is going to take us. He is going through physical trials. Physical trials usually don't remain in the physical, they play games with our mind. And we get weakened physically, then we seem emotionally to get weaker, and spiritually. David becomes aware of his own sin and that just makes you all the more unsettled. And so he is going to walk us through this. Then you depend on your friends, and God intends believers to strengthen other believers, but it's going the other way for David. Those friends that came even to visit him in his sickness, as we're going to see, they were just looking for things they could pick up to use against him. Have you ever had a person who pretended to be your friend and you knew, just looking, he's looking for things he could use against you. You say, that's a terrible way to go. David found that came to that even with a close friend.

But in all this, what makes David unique is not that he sinned less than anyone else, any other believer. We don't have a detailed account of all of David's life, but all of us can mention some of his great failures like with Bathsheba, like numbering the people, the consequence was 70,000 men died, David said it is all because of my sin. We have a couple of those. But he had the normal struggles, he is but dust as we are so it comes out. What we find out about David that makes him stand out is that he never lost sight of God's mercy, God's grace, he kept coming back for more of that. He didn't let his failures or the actions of others be an excuse to move him away from the Lord. It constantly drew him back, constantly came back and cast himself before God. God, I need mercy, I need your grace again and God gives it. And that is given to be an encouragement, as His child He never leaves me, He is always there to provide and rescue me.

Three divisions in this, I have just taken it as many of the writers or the commentators do, some are more creative,. You have three verses, 1-3, David is reminded and reminds us that God blesses the merciful, we'll talk about that. Then in verses 4-9, it is God who is David's Savior, so friends may fail, they do; God never fails. The arm of flesh will fail you, God will never fail you. So God is David's Savior, in the midst of the abandoning of friends he calls on God, that's 4-9. Then in verses 10-13, God will vindicate David, in the end he wins, and this is true for all of us as God's people. We've read the last chapter, we win, it doesn't get any better than that. There are bumps in the road, there are pitfalls, there are stumbles, and we all stumble in many ways, but I like to read the last chapter, we win. That's what is important so I always want to keep coming back with that, and that pushes me back to the Lord if I begin to wander. Lord, You are not done with me. This doesn't mean that I am now kicked out of the family, there is no way back. No, we see that constantly with the prophets coming to Israel, God keeps saying, come back, come back. The problem is when people keep going in their drift or allow themselves to be confused. That's the beautiful thing about David and the Spirit directing him to write even this psalm.

So let's pick up the first three verses, God blesses the merciful. First verse, “How blessed,” that word blessed, that's how the psalms started in Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man.” “How blessed,” happy, joyful, spiritually prosperous “is he who considers the helpless.” And what are the helpless? The needy, the weak, some would translate it the poor. But he is not talking about physical poverty particularly here, although that could be included in the breadth of this word. But David's situation is not that of material need. He is in a physical condition of sickness and bodily weakness and the emotional pressures and spiritual trial that that is for him compounded by the action of others. So here, “he who considers the helpless.” And that word ‘considers’ is not just they come to mind and you say, Lord, bless so-and-so and you move on with your life. This is a word that denotes more of an involvement, they consider them, they take them to heart and they are looking at how they can help that needy one, how could they give aid to this helpless, weak person in their time of need. This is foundational because you'll note the first line is “how blessed,” prospered by God, “is the one who considers” and gives attention and helps the weak in their time of need. “The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble.” You think about a verse, you think of the beatitude, Matthew 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall have mercy.” Look at verse 4, “As for me, I said, ‘O Lord, be gracious to me,’ ” this word is ‘be gracious,’ ‘show mercy.’ David is going to keep in mind always that he is undeserving and unworthy, but he keeps coming back for more mercy, more grace. He'll repeat it down in verse 10, “But You, O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up.” David is not proud, he humbles himself, God, I need your mercy.

We have this old hymn, ‘I Need Thee Every Hour,’ and there is a sense of that, I need the Lord continually, it is His grace that sustains me every day. I haven't moved on and now I don't need mercy and grace like I used to because I can make it. David doesn't come to that, David in his failure it doesn't ruin him, so to speak, because he keeps coming back to God and God says He will keep giving His mercy. “Be gracious to me,” show me mercy.

So come back to Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount, and the verse I just alluded to, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy,” that's what David is talking about. He started the psalm out by saying how blessed is he who considers the weak because the Lord will deliver him. In other words he shows mercy. David was one who did that, and he can then turn to God, and Lord, I need mercy. And as one who has received God's mercy, he shows mercy to others, manifesting the character of God in dealing with others, this principle that runs through the scripture.

So why is that one blessed who helps the needy? We get these kinds of passages misused by people who say, God really wants you to take care of the poor and this is what the church ought to be doing. We have ministries to the poor and helping the poor get out of their poverty and that has nothing to do with what He is talking about. It's just a way of taking a side trail that will lead you nowhere. He's talking about godly action flows from the heart of one who is the recipient, not just at a past day of salvation, important as that is, but it's an ongoing recognition. Mercy. That's why David said in Psalm 41:4, “O Lord, be gracious,” be merciful, “to me” because he comes to that, and he comes again, that permeates here. And of course I show that to others, dealing with them not on the basis of what they deserve but how I receive mercy. By definition mercy, grace, is undeserved, unearned, unmerited. So my being willing to help this person is not based upon they earned it; I am manifesting God's character in the doing of it.

You looked in Matthew 5, look in Matthew 6, still in the Sermon on the Mount, verse 14, same principle. We have what we call the Lord's Prayer given as a pattern of how believers can structure their prayers, and it includes verse 12, “Forgives us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Verse 14, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” He doesn't want them to be hypocrites. How can I be forgiven all that I have been forgiven by God and yet refuse to forgive someone else? That's another way of saying how can I call upon God and receive His overflowing mercy and grace but refuse it to someone else. Verse 16, He goes on to talk about hypocrites, that comes to that self-righteousness and the failure to appreciate and really know the mercy and grace of God that has brought us forgiveness when we withhold it from someone else.

Come over to Matthew 18, obviously we are out of the Sermon on the Mount, a passage we've come to a number of times, often connected with what we call church discipline. It really has to do with the restoration of a wandering believer and God's first concern is our conduct and attitude toward one another within His family. That doesn't mean we are not gracious and kind and thoughtful to all, as much as is in us we do good to all men, but especially of those of the household of faith. Because if we don't love one another as God's people, then everything else becomes unacceptable. Matthew 18, after He talks about how you go to restore this wandering sheep, that's the goal, God is not willing, verse 14, that's the verse I have underlined here, it's at the heart, “It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” So we are about the restoration of a wandering believer, that's what this chapter is about. Then Peter asked a question in verse 21, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” And of course Jesus says no, many times more than that. Come down to verse 33, here is a slave, He gave the picture, a slave was forgiven a huge debt by his master but then a slave who owed a slave, and there was structure among slaves, a little bit, that slave that had been forgiven so much wouldn't forgive him the little bit that he was owed. That becomes the picture, if you don't forgive you will not receive forgiveness. Now that's not earning forgiveness, but that's manifesting a recognition and an understanding. If you truly have placed your faith in God and the salvation He provided in Christ and have received forgiveness, mercy and grace in forgiving you a debt that would take eternity in hell to pay, how are you going to withhold forgiveness to another? That's the point. Verse 33, “Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way I had mercy on you?” You see, if you truly have received God's mercy, you will manifest it in being merciful, that's what David is talking about in Psalm 41, don't expect forgiveness of God if you are an unforgiving person, an unmerciful person.

Wait a minute, that’s the point! Come to Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” Is there any sin that could be done against me that I would withhold forgiveness? I have to do it the way God in Christ forgave me. What God forgave me deserved eternity in hell, what you have done to me is minor. I lose my perspective. That's how David starts out, how the blessedness of the one who shows mercy to the one in need, and David needs that and he is reminded of it.

One more passage and then we will go back to Psalm 41. Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass,” a sin, “you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.” That's the same thing as Matthew 18, God is not willing that even one of His precious sheep be lost, here is how you restore him. So if you see a believer ensnared in sin, you go on a rescue mission, that's the point. You are spiritual, you are walking with the Lord, you want to reach out now, “restore such a one,” not just rebuke and reject, restore. “Looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.” That's one thing beautiful about David, a man after God's own heart, he sins… he's going to admit he sins when we get back to Psalm 41, I sinned, I'm crying for mercy; he did what God kept telling Israel to do, but they wouldn't. And that's what we ought to do, I have to get back with the Lord. It isn't David is not fighting it, it's Lord, I need more mercy, I need more grace, and I've showed it to others and you have blessed me. So “bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” We step in to help them, carry them through the trial, whatever we can do to help them.

Come back to Psalm 41 when he says in the second part of verse 1, “The Lord will deliver him.” And he begins there with seven things the Lord will do for those who are merciful. And you see these are we're talking about really basically relationship among God's children primarily. Here is this child in need, this child of God, and struggling, I've been there to help him. Remember Job, that was part of his defense, I saw someone in need, I helped him, I did what I could for him, the orphans, I was there to help them. And he says seven things here that the Lord will do for the merciful, those are those who belong to God, who are the recipients of God's mercy, as David cries for in verse 4 after he lists these things that God does for the one. He delivers him, He'll deliver him, protect him, keep him. I've just put them with the two words, deliver him, “deliver him in a day of trouble.” He'll protect him, verse 2, He'll keep him, “keep him alive”; He'll bless him, he'll “be called blessed upon the earth”; He'll preserve him, He will “not give him over to the desire of his enemies”; He'll sustain him, even on his sickbed; He'll “restore him to health.” You see here the mercy of the Lord is poured out upon this one who shows mercy. David never loses sight of the fact that I am constantly in need. Every day we ought to thank God for the grace and mercy He shows us. We get caught up in the trial and it gets so absorbing and then we are floating around. And David is minimizing the trial, he's going to come to that. But my confidence is in the Lord, He'll do what He promised, He'll show me mercy. And this is what God does for those who show mercy to others. And I have, I've walked with the Lord, I want to think of others, I want to care for them.

So verse 4, God is a deliverer for David, He's the Savior, he has told us what He does, so now verse 4 he calls the Lord to be gracious to him. It is interesting how he started out, verse 1, of the One who takes into consideration and helps meet the need of the needy, and the Lord delivers that kind of person. What David comes to is I've done that so I can call upon the Lord. “As for me, I said, ‘Oh Lord, be gracious to me.’ ” The foundation is “heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.” There is no self-righteousness here in David, he doesn't mind because there is going to be a statement that he makes that is going to set us back a little bit. I need grace, heal my soul, body and soul, because you get to that point and you think my physical illness may be a result of my spiritual illness. David thought it was. Some of the commentators go off on trying to identify the point in David's life where this was, maybe as a result of Absalom's rebellion and those who joined… Maybe, but the scripture doesn't tie to that, and I think the Spirit directs David to write it for the choir director so all believers can benefit from this in whatever particular so I don't think we want to build too big a case out here. The fact is David needs the healing and he is conscious of his own unworthiness and sin so he comes to God for grace. Doesn't say he earned this by what he did, by showing mercy and being merciful, because you don't earn mercy, but he did express and show that he understood and appreciated his own condition and his own need by the way he treated others in their need and it gave him confidence to come to God. And the psalms, we almost think this is somewhat repetitive, I think I've read this in a number of psalms, because David never tires of coming to God and asking for more mercy. Lord, I don't come and ask… Sometimes we begin to think Lord, I've been faithful in a lot of days so I don't think I deserve what is going on. What's wrong? I live my life every day in the realm of grace, mercy, that's David, heal my soul, I have sinned against You. Whatever he has done, it gets back to one place, one issue, all my sin is against God.

Turn over to Psalm 51, and here we are told of the account, its accurate, it's not a part of the scripture itself but it is old and probably reflects the true statement, this is after Bathsheba. What does David look for? Verse 1, “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion,” here he has lovingkindness, graciousness, compassion, “blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned.” What about Bathsheba, what about Uriah, what about Uriah's parents, what about everybody? They are nothing in comparison to the fact I have sinned against God. This is what David again keeps coming up, the magnitude of sin is constantly before him,. The terrible thing is not that I murdered Uriah, as terrible as that was, the awful thing is I sinned against God. And when it comes down to it, You are the only one that matters. David killed a lot of men, some more maybe deserving than others, but he is a man of blood, he wasn't allowed to build the temple because he had been involved in so many killings, he is a warrior king. But my sin is against God, that's what makes it so terrible. “Done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.” And this is my life from conception, I was conceived in sin, I was born into this world a sinner. There is no self-righteousness in David. This is the hardest thing for people to come to God's salvation, they can't get over that, I'm not that bad a person. People rioting in the streets are just sure they are so good and so righteous that they have to try to destroy all those people that aren't as righteous as they are. Have no conception. Happens to religious people, and we have to be careful this doesn't begin to intrude into our thinking.

There are other verses in the psalms but we'll leave those for another time.

Come back to Psalm 41. He acknowledges his sin and now the enemy, God's enemies are my enemies, are your enemies as a child of God. That's what Christ said, if they hate Me they'll hate you, if they hate Me they hate My Father, they hate the children of My Father. It all goes together. This is an opportunity for them to pile on. David has sinned, I don't know what he did but he says I sinned against You and I need healing. “My enemies speak evil against me.” This is an occasion, see now they even can call God, they will, as support. But they are really the enemies of the child of God because they are the enemies of God, even though they may pretend to be godly. They are not on a rescue mission of David, they are on a destroy-David-mission. That tells you something of their true character, don't like to see it that way, but these are people… “My enemies speak evil against me. When will he die and his name perish?” He is sick, God has got him now, He is going to finish him, and then we'll be done with him and we'll soon have forgotten. David will just be a forgotten person, that's their goal, that's not God's goal. God is not willing that any of His children perish, that's what we saw in Matthew 18, it's true in Israel.

Note, “When he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood.” This is why I say these are professing people, he calls them his enemies but they come to see him disguised as friends. We're here with concern for your comfort, but “when he comes to see me he speaks falsehood.” What he is really doing is “his heart gathers wickedness to itself,” he is looking for things so he can go out and say I could tell God is really done with David, I think we'll soon see David passing from the scene, God is not with David anymore. So they are in there but they are speaking falsehood. Who comes to see you when you are in a sickbed? Well, supposed friends. Not saying everyone who came to see David was in this, but this is where many of them were, they were just there gathering information to use against David. You can tell it had to be God who was dealing with David and he obviously deserved what he was getting and God wasn't done, He is going to bring him to his end. Was that really David?

“When he goes outside, he tells it.” He went in, yes, I was in, I saw David, I can tell you things about David you don't know. That's the kind of person it is. Now we have the internet, goes everywhere, they reveal their own character more than the character of those they attack. “All who hate me whisper together against me.” Those kind of people find each other, we put it ‘birds of a feather flock together.’ That's what David is saying here, “All who hate me whisper together against me; against me they devise my hurt, saying, a wicked thing is poured out upon him, that when he lies down, he will not rise again.” Yes, we can join together, this is the end of him, this is the end of David, this is the end of that church, we can pull together. Amazing how they find each other. And then they come to agreement because what pulls them together, what pulls these enemies together? Their hatred of David, they probably have a lot of differences, but now we have a common enemy, David. That's why the world can pull together and include everyone except those who are the children of God, because they are all in agreement on the most basic thing, we will not bow before the God of heaven. Only believers are on the outside.

This is where these have come. So they devise my hurt, they spread it out and they add to it, and the attacks and the slander. Because then believers get confused, I think they are good people, they probably know things we don't know, they visited David. In fact his closest friend, here we go, verse 9, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me,” if anybody knew David this person ought to have known David, and he says obviously… And this is one that comes and you see the world doing it all the time, but as believers the real destruction comes… I'm sure they know things, we probably don't know what they know. We've seen that going on in governmental issues in recent days and months. This happens among the church, happening in David, in Israel, the man God appointed to be king, a man after God's own heart, the man that God used to write so many of our psalms. And this is the attitude of people that claim to be his friends, to have a close relationship with him? Now they've joined the attack, David says they are really my enemies, they were false friends, their character has come out. They are not part of the merciful, they don't understand God's mercy because they are quick to go on the attack to destroy, that's what David is experiencing.

You recognize this verse from the gospel of John, John 13:18, Jesus applied part of it to Himself in connection with Judas, the one who had eaten bread with Him now lifted up his heel against Him, the betrayer. Three years he acted like the friend of Christ, he was the treasurer of the group of disciples, paid the bills with what came in, but he was really a thief. He realizes all of that was put on, make-believe. None of the other disciples recognized it. Remember when Jesus told them at that last supper, one of you will betray me, everybody is looking around. Me, will it be me? Everybody didn't say a-ha, we all knew it would be Judas. No, they didn't, they all thought Judas was good, fine. Do you know what? He wasn't, it just took the right situation at the right time and he is exposed. We realize that, David realizes it, under the direction of the Spirit, these are not friends, these are enemies, they speak falsehood, it's all a lie. How they joined and be part of these attacks/ And it does, when it happens to you, many of you experience this, he says I don't know what happened. Why would they be saying that? I never did anything to them, I never said anything that would give them cause, I never thought they were thinking those things, I'm totally taken back, I don't know what to say. But David says this is the thing. So we don't want to become suspicious of everyone, but when the reality happens we don't want to deny the reality. And that helps us understand the rest.

What does he say in verse 10, as we come to this final? God will vindicate David, and He will vindicate us. “But You, O Lord, be gracious to me.” So you see where he has come, he started out by showing mercy to one in need and that person could expect mercy, but David hasn't experienced that mercy from friends, even a close friend. But David acknowledges in the first three verses God will deliver him, and he listed those seven things there that God does for those who are merciful because they are the ones who have experienced God's mercy and they have shown it. Now he comes back, this is what I have gone through, he writes, I can't even have a friend to lean on, but God I come to You, He is the unchanging God. He tells Israel after all that Israel did, come to Me, I'll forgive you, I'll restore you. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are red like crimson, they can be white. Israel won't come. Claim to be believers, it's natural. David sins, verse 10, “But you, O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up.” Well, that's what God does to those who are merciful and now going through their trials, That's what we covered in the opening verses, he's back to that, I need mercy, grace. “That I may repay them.” Wait, wait, I thought he wasn't going to be that kind of person. You ought to be gracious to me and heal me and I have sinned and I'm just looking for mercy. David is just like the rest of us, be merciful and then I'll get back at them. Wait a minute. We talk about some of the psalms that are troubling where David is calling curses on his enemy. Here, “that I may repay them.” Keep a balance. David has the picture here, this is just not a personal issue, their attack on him is deeper and much more serious. Let me read you what one commentator wrote on this portion of the psalm, “The honor of God and the integrity of the faith and the security of the faithful demands that the righteous do this, for this kind of treachery is no harmless sin.” So while you are not seeking personal vengeance, eye-for-eye kind of thing, I want the Lord to be gracious and merciful, to spare me, to raise me up so that I may repay them and show them for what they are. We do not help cover up other people's sin so they can just go about it. They profess to be believers but they really are on a mission of destruction.

I want to be careful, but over the years there have been people whose one goal is to destroy a church, A pastor a number of years ago, and this goes back years, but he said we got people from Indian Hills, I don't know what to expect, and some of them it seems like their only reason to be here is their animosity toward Indian Hills, they are no asset to us. I don't want to cover for those kind of people, they are on a mission of destruction, they pretend to be a friend over here, but they are just there if they can cause trouble someplace else. But they will soon be trouble there and I don't want to cover for that.

What David is saying, they ought to be exposed, they are not friends of God, they are not friends of David. They are true enemies and the enemies of David are the enemies of God. We ought to be careful that we don't allow things to go on that should not go on. We also have to be careful that we don't become personal in seeking our own vengeance, want to be careful. David does not want to cover, and it's the inspiration of the Spirit here raising him up. Quite frankly, there have been times in my ministry that has extended long where I have asked the Lord to see me through this so that the enemy would not have occasion to say that it was the Lord who did what is happening. That's what David is praying, it's the testimony for God that is at stake. And their lies just be allowed to go on? What does that say about the scripture David wrote, if what they said about him was true? What are they doing to influence Israel, to turn Israel against God with their lies? So that's the answer to that and those psalms that sometimes are troubling.

“By this I know that You are pleased with me, because my enemy does not shout in triumph over me. As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, and You set me in Your presence forever.” God answers David's prayer, He sees him through, when all is said and done, David will be king, he survives, he lives to fight another day. That doesn't mean sometimes… we read in Hebrews 11 some were sawn in two. Tradition said that's what happened to Isaiah the prophet. Paul is going to end up executed, most of the disciples will. That's not a guarantee that God failed if I don't get rescued through this, every situation is its own. There was a time in Paul's imprisonment where he says I am confident I am going to be released, God has ministry for me. There was a time when he said I think this is the end, the time of my departure is at hand. Here we are. So we want to be careful, but we want to stand firm. God does rescue us in spite of the animosity, opposition, I am still here, you are still here. The word of God stands true.

“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen,” He gets all the glory, He gets all the credit, that's our comfort, that's insurance. So we may stumble, we may fall, we all do in many ways, that's what the scripture says in Ecclesiastes, there is not a righteous man on the earth who always does good and never sins. That's not an excuse for our sin, don't have the attitude, well, Lord, it wasn't that bad and you know I'm good 92.4% of the time, as I keep my records, so I know You'll understand. David doesn't come with that heart attitude. I need grace, I need mercy again, and I realize that ongoing need I have and I try to recognize that in my dealing with others. But Lord, the reality of the enemy continues to attack and sometimes those closest to me are really the enemies in disguise and sometimes those close to me have joined the enemy. But Lord, You are always merciful, You are always gracious, You never become my enemy. David's God never joins the enemy and David never wants to leave God's presence.

Verse 12, “You set me in Your presence forever,” and I am secure here, I am not leaving. I fell on my face but I'm getting up in Your presence and being established by You. And we have the truth that David wrote. He's been gone for 3000 years, the enemies weren't successful. Who were they? Well, there are some mentioned in the history accounts of David's life, and there are probably many more, they don't matter, but David's faithfulness, it does.

So we are secure. Here we are in a word of turmoil, battles come, more will come. Sadly sometimes those you thought were your friend will be revealed not to be those friends. Sometimes it is those who seem to be friends will turn out and turn against you. All that does what? Oh, that discourages me. Well, it is disappointing, of course it is. But do you know what? There is someone who never turns against me, who never leaves me, who never gives up on me, never gives up on you, never leaves you, He is constantly working to restore you, bring you back to where you need to be and continue to use you. David is writing scripture because God is merciful, God is gracious, not because David was perfect. But David never lost sight of the fact he was imperfect and I live every day, looking for God's mercy; may that be true of us.

Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your Word. Lord, a Word that never goes out of style, never goes out of date, is always relevant, is always pertinent. We live in days of turmoil, uncertainty, the world seems set on openly defying You, the living God. Confusion seems to spread and yet, Lord, we realize Your hand is in control, You are moving all things to their appointed end. The devil can marshal his forces, can attack in so many ways, but Lord, he cannot frustrate what You have planned. We belong to You, we are just as secure as we could be in the calmest place because we find our peace in You. May that be true of everyone in this congregation. For those who don't know You as their God and Savior, Lord, may this be a day of salvation for them as they come to see their own sin and guilt and place their faith in Christ and know what it is to have the peace of God which surpasses understanding stand guard at their hearts and minds, no matter how much confusion and disarray surrounds them. Bless this day, we pray. In Christ's name. Amen.