God, judge my enemies
Series: Wisdom
Speaker: Chris Jones
Date: 15th July 2012
Passage: Psalm 69:1-36
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Real hatred is not something I think that I have ever experienced.
00:00:04 --> 00:00:09 Or if I have, I think God has very graciously dimmed my memory.
00:00:10 --> 00:00:12 Unjust treatment, yes.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 Hatred, I don't think so.
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 I understand the emotions of hatred.
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 I had plenty of energy running through me the other week
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 when I watched New South Wales go down to Queensland by one point
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 in State of Origin 3.
00:00:30 --> 00:00:32 I was incensed at the ridiculous commentary.
00:00:32 --> 00:00:35 I was exasperated at some of the refereeing.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:39 And I was disgusted when the Queensland crowd booed the New South Wales team
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 after an awesome game.
00:00:43 --> 00:00:47 We understand sometimes what it is to hate politicians.
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 We use the language of hate to our politicians.
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 I don't think it's a godly thing to do, but it's done.
00:00:52 --> 00:00:56 You can get some idea of the side of the political fence that I was raised on.
00:00:56 --> 00:01:00 My grandmother, with dementia setting in,
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 used to vehemently refer to the Prime Minister Gough Whitlam as Hitler Whitlam.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 And believe it or not, she was a warm-hearted human being
00:01:08 --> 00:01:12 who had been a gracious and generous landlord to many people
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 from South East Asia 50 years ago.
00:01:15 --> 00:01:16 Put that together.
00:01:16 --> 00:01:20 I have friends in ministry who have known real hatred.
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 A Christian leader said to me that he could name several people
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 who were in ministry who hate him.
00:01:28 --> 00:01:31 And they hate him for decisions he has taken
00:01:31 --> 00:01:35 which have had a huge impact on their life and on their ministry.
00:01:36 --> 00:01:38 They literally hate him.
00:01:38 --> 00:01:44 He bravely tried to honour Christ without fear or favour towards people.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:50 Another brother was so despised for his ministry
00:01:50 --> 00:01:53 that he was driven out of his parish and his denomination.
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 Another friend in ministry was vehemently lied against
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 and accused of being a tool of the devil.
00:02:00 --> 00:02:07 Hatred has been recorded since nearly the first page of the Bible.
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 Cain slew his brother Abel, driven by envy.
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 He killed his brother out of jealousy.
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 He hated the Lord's approval of his brother.
00:02:16 --> 00:02:20 Murder came from the evil turmoil which was within his own heart.
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 Last week I quoted from John 15 when Jesus said,
00:02:24 --> 00:02:28 If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
00:02:28 --> 00:02:33 So his expectation was that his disciples, his followers,
00:02:34 --> 00:02:38 might experience real hatred on account of their faith
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 and their faithfulness to Christ.
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 So Psalm 69, which I'm preaching this morning,
00:02:46 --> 00:02:51 is an anguished song by a king who is experiencing real hatred.
00:02:52 --> 00:02:53 It's a psalm of David.
00:02:53 --> 00:02:56 It is probably written by God's anointed king
00:02:56 --> 00:02:59 a thousand years before Christ came into our world.
00:03:00 --> 00:03:04 We don't know the exact circumstances he was facing.
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 We do know how he feels and what he wants.
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 And David cries out to God in utter distress
00:03:10 --> 00:03:11 and he says,
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 Save me, O God!
00:03:16 --> 00:03:17 He's brief.
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 He's absolutely to the point.
00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 This is a huge cry for help.
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 Save me, O God!
00:03:23 --> 00:03:27 And he paints a picture of how he feels.
00:03:28 --> 00:03:29 Verse 1 into verse 2,
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 For the waters have come up to my neck.
00:03:31 --> 00:03:35 I sink in the miry depths where there is no foothold.
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 I have come into the deep waters.
00:03:37 --> 00:03:39 The floods engulf me.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:41 I am worn out, calling for help.
00:03:41 --> 00:03:42 My throat is parched.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 My eyes fail, looking for my God.
00:03:46 --> 00:03:48 He's a drowning man.
00:03:48 --> 00:03:49 He's staring death in the face.
00:03:50 --> 00:03:51 Water's up to his neck.
00:03:51 --> 00:03:52 No place for a foothold.
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55 He's going under and he cannot save himself.
00:03:57 --> 00:03:58 So verse 14,
00:03:58 --> 00:04:00 Rescue me from the mire.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:01 Do not let me drown.
00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 Deliver me from the deep waters.
00:04:04 --> 00:04:05 Verse 18,
00:04:05 --> 00:04:06 Rescue me.
00:04:06 --> 00:04:07 Redeem me.
00:04:07 --> 00:04:08 Verse 29,
00:04:09 --> 00:04:10 O God, protect me.
00:04:10 --> 00:04:17 Now he's not really in a tank of water drowning.
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 He is God's anointed king.
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 He has enemies who are seeking to destroy him.
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 They seek to overthrow his power.
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 This is a mortal struggle of life and death and power.
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 So in verse 4,
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head.
00:04:38 --> 00:04:42 Many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me.
00:04:43 --> 00:04:46 I am forced to restore what I did not steal.
00:04:48 --> 00:04:49 And down in verse 10,
00:04:49 --> 00:05:15 Many people hate him and he's bewildered by it.
00:05:15 --> 00:05:19 And he expresses the injustice of what he's experienced.
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 He's hated without reason or cause.
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 He's forced to restore things that he hasn't taken.
00:05:25 --> 00:05:27 They may have even tried to poison him.
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 Gaul is something which is really bitter or even poison itself.
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33 And they ridicule his religious piety.
00:05:33 --> 00:05:34 He fasts.
00:05:34 --> 00:05:35 He put on sackcloth.
00:05:35 --> 00:05:36 He comes before God.
00:05:36 --> 00:05:38 He humbles himself before God.
00:05:38 --> 00:05:40 And they mock him for it.
00:05:40 --> 00:05:45 And it's really interesting.
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 He doesn't try to say to God,
00:05:47 --> 00:05:47 I'm sinless.
00:05:47 --> 00:05:48 Why is this happening to me?
00:05:49 --> 00:05:50 He's quite forthright.
00:05:50 --> 00:05:51 And he says,
00:05:51 --> 00:05:52 You know my folly, O God.
00:05:53 --> 00:05:53 Verse 5.
00:05:54 --> 00:05:56 My guilt is not hidden from you.
00:05:58 --> 00:06:02 May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me.
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 O Lord, the Lord Almighty,
00:06:04 --> 00:06:08 may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me.
00:06:10 --> 00:06:14 He's like a Christian believer.
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 You don't have to hide our sin and weakness from Christ.
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 He sees it all and he has died for it.
00:06:24 --> 00:06:30 We are broken, imperfect, sinful people who have been redeemed by Christ.
00:06:32 --> 00:06:36 And so if Christ has died for you, there's no hidden secret in your life
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 which can bring you undone with him.
00:06:40 --> 00:06:45 It might cause you problems with people, but not with him.
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 But David sees something which is even bigger than his own personal suffering.
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 He cares about those who hope in God.
00:06:57 --> 00:06:58 He cares about people who seek God.
00:06:58 --> 00:07:06 And he really cares that they won't in some way be disgraced or shamed because of his own behaviour.
00:07:07 --> 00:07:13 He cares about the harm which he as a Christian leader can do to God's people and to God's name.
00:07:13 --> 00:07:32 How we behave as a congregation here at St. Paul's has a bearing on how Christ is perceived in our community.
00:07:32 --> 00:07:46 How we behave, any of us who have leadership, how we behave in our leadership bears on the name of Christ
00:07:46 --> 00:07:50 and how he's perceived in our community and our witness to him.
00:07:50 --> 00:07:54 And David's saying, I'm not the perfect man and you know that, Lord.
00:07:56 --> 00:08:02 But in these things I am hated and accused without reason and it is killing me.
00:08:04 --> 00:08:06 His integrity's intact.
00:08:06 --> 00:08:08 You don't have to be perfect to have integrity.
00:08:08 --> 00:08:09 integrity.
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 Integrity owns weakness and failure.
00:08:14 --> 00:08:18 But integrity stands firm against lies and wickedness.
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 And even with integrity he is suffering.
00:08:26 --> 00:08:30 And David is actually experiencing what he refused to do to his predecessor Saul.
00:08:30 --> 00:08:36 He had the opportunity at least twice in his ministry in his life to take Saul's life.
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 And he refused to do it.
00:08:40 --> 00:08:43 He would not lift his hand against the Lord's anointed.
00:08:45 --> 00:08:52 Samuel had anointed David as the next king, yet David refused to take the kingship by force.
00:08:52 --> 00:08:55 For David that would have been an act against God himself.
00:08:56 --> 00:09:01 So to bring down the man that God had appointed would have been to strike out against God.
00:09:01 --> 00:09:09 So in some ways the mocking of the king is with reason.
00:09:11 --> 00:09:17 Hatred of David is driven by hatred of the God who stands behind David's throne.
00:09:17 --> 00:09:22 And it's hatred of the God whom David is devoted to.
00:09:22 --> 00:09:27 He was experiencing what Jesus would come along a thousand years later and teach.
00:09:28 --> 00:09:32 If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
00:09:32 --> 00:09:42 So the circumstances of his life threaten to completely overwhelm him even to death.
00:09:43 --> 00:09:49 I imagine that's what happens inside people when they contemplate taking their own life.
00:09:52 --> 00:09:54 They lose hope.
00:09:55 --> 00:09:58 They feel completely lost in their circumstances.
00:09:58 --> 00:10:06 They can see no way out by themselves and by their own efforts and so they give up.
00:10:09 --> 00:10:11 But David does a wonderful thing.
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 He's desperate but he doesn't give up.
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 He cries out beyond himself.
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 He's God's king but he doesn't beat around the bush.
00:10:19 --> 00:10:24 He dials triple O to God and he doesn't waste time getting around to the point of his need.
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 This whole song is directed to God.
00:10:26 --> 00:10:27 Save me, O God.
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 And it's a humble thing to do.
00:10:31 --> 00:10:32 He's saying, I can't fix this.
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 The circumstances of my life, they are unfair.
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 They are completely out of control.
00:10:37 --> 00:10:38 I am in great danger.
00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 I cannot do a thing about it.
00:10:40 --> 00:10:45 He is like a person coming to Christ for the very first time and he cries, save me, O God.
00:10:50 --> 00:10:57 And it should be no surprise that Jesus and the gospel writers apply this song to the circumstances of Jesus.
00:10:58 --> 00:11:03 So God's anointed king misunderstood and unknown in the world.
00:11:03 --> 00:11:09 Jesus would suffer cruelly and unjustly at the hands of the people that he had made.
00:11:09 --> 00:11:15 In John chapter 7 verse 3, Jesus' brothers said to him, they said,
00:11:15 --> 00:11:21 You ought to leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples may see the miracles that you do.
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 Because no one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret.
00:11:27 --> 00:11:30 Since you are doing these things, go and show yourself to the world.
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
00:11:33 --> 00:11:38 And it's an echo of Psalm 69 verse 8 which says,
00:11:38 --> 00:11:44 The Lord's anointed is a stranger to his brothers, an alien to his own mother's sons.
00:11:46 --> 00:11:50 Or in John 2, Jesus comes into the temple at Jerusalem at Passover time.
00:11:50 --> 00:11:57 He makes a whip out of cords and gentle Jesus, meek and moe wreaks havoc as he drove everyone out of the temple
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 and overturned the tables of the money changers.
00:11:59 --> 00:12:03 And John tells us that Jesus said,
00:12:04 --> 00:12:09 Get these out of here! How dare you turn my father's house into a market!
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 And his disciples remembered that it is written,
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16 Zeal for your house will consume me.
00:12:17 --> 00:12:23 So what John does a thousand years later is quote Psalm 69 verse 9 exactly
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 to explain what was motivating Jesus.
00:12:26 --> 00:12:31 He was concerned for God's name and he was concerned for God's glory.
00:12:32 --> 00:12:36 Matthew's gospel just describes Jesus' suffering on the cross.
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38 In Matthew 27 verse 33,
00:12:38 --> 00:12:43 They came to a place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull.
00:12:44 --> 00:12:48 And there they offered Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall.
00:12:49 --> 00:12:52 But after tasting it, he refused to drink it.
00:12:52 --> 00:12:58 So Matthew uses the language of Psalm 69 verse 21
00:12:58 --> 00:13:02 to describe what happened with Jesus at the cross.
00:13:03 --> 00:13:07 They put gall on my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
00:13:08 --> 00:13:13 So what you start to see is that Jesus is like David.
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 His suffering is completely unjust.
00:13:16 --> 00:13:22 But he is unlike David in that he had no guilt or folly.
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 David cries to God for salvation.
00:13:29 --> 00:13:34 On the night before he died, Jesus cried out to God in the garden of Gethsemane.
00:13:34 --> 00:13:34 He said,
00:13:35 --> 00:13:38 Father, if possible, take this cup from me,
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 but not my will, but yours be done.
00:13:41 --> 00:13:46 He entrusts himself to his father's purposes.
00:13:46 --> 00:13:51 He goes and faces the hatred of men and women like us that he came to save.
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 Hebrews chapter 5 says it like this.
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 During the days of Jesus' life on earth,
00:13:58 --> 00:14:01 he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries
00:14:01 --> 00:14:05 and tears to the one who could save him from death.
00:14:06 --> 00:14:09 And he was heard because of his reverence of mission.
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 Although he was a son,
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16 he learned obedience from what he suffered.
00:14:17 --> 00:14:18 And once made perfect,
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
00:14:26 --> 00:14:29 The unjust suffering of Jesus
00:14:29 --> 00:14:34 was part of the amazing plan of God that has brought salvation to us.
00:14:34 --> 00:14:42 Now, knowing who is suffering in this psalm
00:14:42 --> 00:14:46 helps us to make sense of its most difficult verses,
00:14:46 --> 00:14:47 and that's from verse 22 down.
00:14:47 --> 00:14:52 May the table set before them become a snare.
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 May it become retribution and a trap.
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see
00:14:58 --> 00:14:59 and their backs be bent forever.
00:15:00 --> 00:15:01 Pour out your wrath on them.
00:15:02 --> 00:15:03 Let your fierce anger overtake them.
00:15:04 --> 00:15:05 May their place be deserted.
00:15:06 --> 00:15:08 Let there be no one to dwell in their tents.
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 For they persecute those you wound,
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14 and they can talk about the pain of those you hurt.
00:15:14 --> 00:15:18 Charge them with crime upon crime,
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21 and do not let them share in your salvation.
00:15:21 --> 00:15:24 May they be blotted out of the book of life
00:15:24 --> 00:15:26 and not listed with the righteous.
00:15:31 --> 00:15:35 So the king calls down God's judgments on his enemies.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 And one way to hear this is something like
00:15:41 --> 00:15:42 vindictive retribution.
00:15:42 --> 00:15:45 You know Bruce Willis in a die-hard movie
00:15:45 --> 00:15:48 promising to get back and to get even.
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 An angry outburst on your enemies.
00:15:53 --> 00:15:56 Something that fits really well with turn-or-burn preaching.
00:15:58 --> 00:16:00 Give it to them, Lord.
00:16:00 --> 00:16:01 Trap them.
00:16:01 --> 00:16:02 Blind them.
00:16:02 --> 00:16:03 Wipe them off the face of the earth.
00:16:03 --> 00:16:05 Don't allow them to share in your salvation.
00:16:05 --> 00:16:07 Block them out of the book of life.
00:16:09 --> 00:16:10 That's what it says.
00:16:10 --> 00:16:17 Try that down at Chatswood Mall this afternoon.
00:16:20 --> 00:16:22 Go down and start telling everybody
00:16:22 --> 00:16:23 that they're going to hell.
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30 People would see us as aggressive,
00:16:31 --> 00:16:33 judgmental hypocrites with little love.
00:16:33 --> 00:16:38 Who are we to condemn people to hell?
00:16:38 --> 00:16:40 What makes us better than anybody else?
00:16:40 --> 00:16:42 You can hear it all, can't you?
00:16:45 --> 00:16:47 And in a sense, they would be right.
00:16:47 --> 00:16:48 Who do we think we are?
00:16:50 --> 00:16:53 Self-righteous frauds who exalt themselves over other people?
00:16:53 --> 00:16:59 People who show none of the grace which has been shown to us in Christ?
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 Brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ,
00:17:05 --> 00:17:07 you have been brought from darkness to light,
00:17:08 --> 00:17:10 from death to life,
00:17:11 --> 00:17:13 from hate to love,
00:17:14 --> 00:17:16 from judgment to mercy.
00:17:16 --> 00:17:23 And God does not allow us to remain haters of people.
00:17:25 --> 00:17:30 And the Apostle Paul himself was brought from being merciless to full of mercy.
00:17:30 --> 00:17:31 He was a hater.
00:17:33 --> 00:17:37 So in Acts 9, it says that Paul was still breathing out murderous threats
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39 against the Lord's disciples.
00:17:39 --> 00:17:45 And he went to the high priest and he asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus,
00:17:45 --> 00:17:48 so that if he found any there who belonged to the way,
00:17:48 --> 00:17:49 whether men or women,
00:17:51 --> 00:17:52 those who belonged to Christ,
00:17:53 --> 00:17:56 he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
00:17:59 --> 00:18:02 And by the time that God had finished working on him,
00:18:03 --> 00:18:05 he reflects on his own transformation.
00:18:05 --> 00:18:07 He says things like in 1 Timothy 1,
00:18:07 --> 00:18:11 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
00:18:11 --> 00:18:13 of whom I am the worst.
00:18:15 --> 00:18:18 But for that very reason I was shown mercy,
00:18:19 --> 00:18:22 so that in me, the worst of sinners,
00:18:22 --> 00:18:26 Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience
00:18:26 --> 00:18:29 as an example for those who would believe on him
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31 and receive eternal life.
00:18:31 --> 00:18:37 I think a better way to hear this passage,
00:18:37 --> 00:18:38 these verses,
00:18:38 --> 00:18:39 these difficult verses,
00:18:40 --> 00:18:42 is from the king's perspective.
00:18:45 --> 00:18:49 God's king is the voice behind this song.
00:18:51 --> 00:18:55 The king has been given his role by God himself
00:18:55 --> 00:18:58 and people have hated him for it.
00:19:01 --> 00:19:04 Jesus told a number of stories predicting this.
00:19:04 --> 00:19:06 The tenants on the farm who kill and abuse the messengers
00:19:06 --> 00:19:08 that the farm owner sends
00:19:08 --> 00:19:10 and finally sends his son
00:19:10 --> 00:19:13 and they say,
00:19:13 --> 00:19:15 let's kill him and the inheritance will be ours.
00:19:18 --> 00:19:20 It's the Garden of Eden all over again.
00:19:20 --> 00:19:21 Given the opportunity,
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25 we have shown again and again
00:19:25 --> 00:19:27 that if we could get God out of our lives,
00:19:27 --> 00:19:28 we will
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30 even kill him.
00:19:30 --> 00:19:37 And that, brothers and sisters,
00:19:37 --> 00:19:40 is injustice on a cosmic scale.
00:19:43 --> 00:19:47 And the Bible says it is driven by the forces of hell.
00:19:49 --> 00:19:52 And it means that any act of hatred or injustice
00:19:52 --> 00:19:55 that we have experienced
00:19:55 --> 00:19:59 pales in insignificance
00:19:59 --> 00:20:03 to what all of us have done with Christ.
00:20:08 --> 00:20:11 God has been amazingly humble and patient
00:20:11 --> 00:20:12 in putting up with our hatred of him.
00:20:15 --> 00:20:16 But the Bible is very clear
00:20:16 --> 00:20:18 that he will act against our rejection
00:20:18 --> 00:20:20 and bring it to a final end.
00:20:22 --> 00:20:23 Acts 17.
00:20:23 --> 00:20:24 Again, I said this last week.
00:20:24 --> 00:20:25 God has set a day
00:20:25 --> 00:20:28 when he will judge the world with justice
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 by the man he has appointed.
00:20:31 --> 00:20:34 And he has given proof of this to all people
00:20:34 --> 00:20:35 by raising him from the dead.
00:20:40 --> 00:20:43 The judgments in this psalm
00:20:43 --> 00:20:46 are an inconvenient truth.
00:20:50 --> 00:20:52 Eyes are darkened to God's truth.
00:20:52 --> 00:20:56 people will experience his anger.
00:20:56 --> 00:21:00 They will be charged for their crimes.
00:21:01 --> 00:21:03 They will miss out on salvation.
00:21:04 --> 00:21:07 Their names will be blotted out of the book of life.
00:21:10 --> 00:21:13 Make no mistake that God's patience
00:21:13 --> 00:21:15 must give way to justice.
00:21:15 --> 00:21:19 And putting your head in the sand
00:21:19 --> 00:21:21 will not prevent or slow
00:21:21 --> 00:21:23 God's great day of judgment.
00:21:27 --> 00:21:28 And what a good thing.
00:21:30 --> 00:21:33 In Revelation 6, verse 9,
00:21:34 --> 00:21:35 Jesus opens the fifth seal
00:21:35 --> 00:21:37 and I saw under the altar
00:21:37 --> 00:21:39 the souls of those
00:21:39 --> 00:21:40 who had been slain
00:21:40 --> 00:21:41 because of the word of God
00:21:41 --> 00:21:43 and the testimony they had maintained.
00:21:43 --> 00:21:46 And they called out in a loud voice
00:21:46 --> 00:21:48 how long, sovereign Lord,
00:21:48 --> 00:21:49 holy and true
00:21:49 --> 00:21:53 until you judge the inhabitants of the earth
00:21:53 --> 00:21:54 and avenge our blood.
00:21:58 --> 00:22:00 See, God will bring justice
00:22:00 --> 00:22:02 not just for his beloved
00:22:02 --> 00:22:03 but hated son.
00:22:04 --> 00:22:05 He will bring justice
00:22:05 --> 00:22:07 for everyone who has been hated
00:22:07 --> 00:22:09 because of Christ.
00:22:09 --> 00:22:12 If the world hates you
00:22:12 --> 00:22:13 bear in mind
00:22:13 --> 00:22:15 that it hated me first
00:22:15 --> 00:22:19 we will be vindicated.
00:22:22 --> 00:22:24 And so it's good and right
00:22:24 --> 00:22:26 to long for God's day of judgment.
00:22:28 --> 00:22:30 Believers will be safe on it.
00:22:31 --> 00:22:33 We have been shown mercy and kindness
00:22:33 --> 00:22:35 from God that we could never deserve.
00:22:35 --> 00:22:40 But we have no personal right
00:22:40 --> 00:22:42 to glory in the destruction of others.
00:22:43 --> 00:22:45 Because in God's economy
00:22:45 --> 00:22:47 anybody who goes to hell
00:22:47 --> 00:22:48 goes to the place
00:22:48 --> 00:22:50 where every single one of us
00:22:50 --> 00:22:51 deserves to go.
00:22:54 --> 00:22:56 Fear of God's judgment
00:22:56 --> 00:22:57 was the jolt
00:22:57 --> 00:22:58 that brought me to him.
00:23:01 --> 00:23:02 And in that moment
00:23:02 --> 00:23:03 when he showed me
00:23:03 --> 00:23:04 how undeserving I was
00:23:04 --> 00:23:05 of special treatment
00:23:05 --> 00:23:06 from him
00:23:06 --> 00:23:08 that was the moment
00:23:08 --> 00:23:09 when I understood
00:23:09 --> 00:23:10 the mercy of Christ
00:23:10 --> 00:23:11 for the very first time
00:23:11 --> 00:23:12 in my life.
00:23:13 --> 00:23:14 And I cried out
00:23:14 --> 00:23:15 to God for mercy.
00:23:16 --> 00:23:17 Save me, O God.
00:23:21 --> 00:23:22 The psalmist is hated.
00:23:24 --> 00:23:25 God's king is hated.
00:23:27 --> 00:23:28 The Lord Jesus Christ
00:23:28 --> 00:23:30 God himself was
00:23:30 --> 00:23:32 and is hated
00:23:32 --> 00:23:33 by some
00:23:33 --> 00:23:35 but there is safety
00:23:35 --> 00:23:36 for everyone
00:23:36 --> 00:23:37 who cries to him
00:23:37 --> 00:23:38 save me, O God.
00:23:41 --> 00:23:42 So brothers and sisters
00:23:42 --> 00:23:44 don't walk away
00:23:44 --> 00:23:44 from this song
00:23:44 --> 00:23:47 grumbling against
00:23:47 --> 00:23:47 a God
00:23:47 --> 00:23:48 who sends people
00:23:48 --> 00:23:48 to hell
00:23:48 --> 00:23:50 who blots them out
00:23:50 --> 00:23:51 of his book of life.
00:23:54 --> 00:23:55 See the nature
00:23:55 --> 00:23:56 of our hate of him.
00:23:57 --> 00:23:59 See the injustice
00:23:59 --> 00:24:00 of this world.
00:24:01 --> 00:24:02 See our extraordinary
00:24:02 --> 00:24:03 arrogance
00:24:03 --> 00:24:05 and wickedness.
00:24:07 --> 00:24:08 Delight that injustice
00:24:08 --> 00:24:09 won't prevail.
00:24:11 --> 00:24:12 Rejoice that perfect justice
00:24:12 --> 00:24:13 will reign.
00:24:14 --> 00:24:16 Rejoice that the world
00:24:16 --> 00:24:17 in which children
00:24:17 --> 00:24:18 are killed
00:24:18 --> 00:24:19 in natural disasters
00:24:19 --> 00:24:20 and people do wicked
00:24:20 --> 00:24:22 things to one another
00:24:22 --> 00:24:23 will be brought
00:24:23 --> 00:24:23 to an end.
00:24:25 --> 00:24:26 Marvel that God
00:24:26 --> 00:24:27 in his goodness
00:24:27 --> 00:24:28 has given us Christ.
00:24:29 --> 00:24:30 Praise him
00:24:30 --> 00:24:31 that on the great
00:24:31 --> 00:24:32 day of judgment
00:24:32 --> 00:24:33 we will receive
00:24:33 --> 00:24:34 mercy and kindness
00:24:34 --> 00:24:35 that we can never
00:24:35 --> 00:24:36 deserve.
00:24:36 --> 00:24:37 That every wrong
00:24:37 --> 00:24:38 in the world
00:24:38 --> 00:24:39 will be put right.
00:24:41 --> 00:24:42 See it's confidence
00:24:42 --> 00:24:43 in the justice
00:24:43 --> 00:24:44 of God
00:24:44 --> 00:24:44 that allows
00:24:44 --> 00:24:46 the hated king
00:24:46 --> 00:24:46 to finish
00:24:46 --> 00:24:47 Psalm 69
00:24:47 --> 00:24:48 full of hope.
00:24:48 --> 00:24:49 He can look beyond
00:24:49 --> 00:24:50 his present suffering
00:24:50 --> 00:24:51 and he can say
00:24:51 --> 00:24:52 there is more
00:24:52 --> 00:24:53 there is hope.
00:24:54 --> 00:24:54 Verse 30
00:24:54 --> 00:24:56 people will praise
00:24:56 --> 00:24:56 God's name
00:24:56 --> 00:24:57 in song
00:24:57 --> 00:24:58 and they will glorify
00:24:58 --> 00:24:59 him with thanksgiving.
00:25:00 --> 00:25:00 Verse 32
00:25:00 --> 00:25:02 the poor will see
00:25:02 --> 00:25:02 and they will be glad.
00:25:03 --> 00:25:03 Verse 34
00:25:03 --> 00:25:04 heaven and earth
00:25:04 --> 00:25:05 will praise him.
00:25:06 --> 00:25:07 And verse 36
00:25:07 --> 00:25:08 children of his servants
00:25:08 --> 00:25:09 will inherit
00:25:09 --> 00:25:10 his holy city
00:25:10 --> 00:25:11 and those who love
00:25:11 --> 00:25:12 his name
00:25:12 --> 00:25:13 will dwell there.
00:25:14 --> 00:25:15 Praise God
00:25:15 --> 00:25:16 for his justice.
00:25:17 --> 00:25:18 Praise God
00:25:18 --> 00:25:19 for his mercy.
00:25:20 --> 00:25:21 Please God
00:25:21 --> 00:25:22 help us
00:25:22 --> 00:25:24 to be generous
00:25:24 --> 00:25:24 in offering
00:25:24 --> 00:25:25 your mercy
00:25:25 --> 00:25:26 to others
00:25:26 --> 00:25:28 that they too
00:25:28 --> 00:25:29 might escape
00:25:29 --> 00:25:30 your perfect justice.
00:25:30 --> 00:25:32 Amen.