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Psalms 10, 11, 12, 14, 53, 17

Psalms
PsalmsSteve Gregg

In this talk, Steve Gregg delves into various psalms in the Bible, highlighting the themes of poverty, affliction, and righteousness. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing one's humility and dependence on God, especially in times of adversity. Gregg notes that while the wicked may seem to have advantage over the poor and oppressed, ultimately, God sees their affliction and will help them. He also stresses the significance of seeking God and maintaining righteousness, as it leads to satisfaction and reward in the eyes of God.

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Transcript

Let's turn to Psalm chapter 10, and today we're just going to fill in the gaps around some of the psalms we've already studied. In the course of taking the messianic psalms as a group, and the psalms about the Word of God as a group, and the psalms that are penitential as a group, we've hit a lot of the psalms in the early part of the Psalter, and they're sort of spread out here and there. The ones we've hit, and in between them lie the psalms that we now want to pick up that don't belong to any particular group.
Though
in many cases they certainly resemble each other, you'll find that a lot of the themes of the psalms recur over and over again. And because of that, I trust we won't have to make comments on every verse of every psalm, simply because a lot of it will be repeating a thought or a feeling that was mentioned in an earlier psalm about which we had time to make comment. So we will mainly try to focus on the unique elements of each psalm, and glean what fresh and new things we can from each one as we go through.
We covered up through Psalm 9
yesterday, and I'd like for us to pick up at Psalm 10, and keep moving through the psalm. This psalm divides into two parts. The first 11 verses seem to be of one set of verses, seeming to describe the wicked men who seem to be prospering, as is often the case when the psalmist begins his psalm.
He's talking about why is it that the wicked men are always
being blessed, it would seem, always prospering, whereas the righteous doesn't seem to be prospering. And then of course, as most of the psalms have, it's a cry for God to act in verse 12. And the latter verses, the very last verses of the psalm, express a confidence that God is already reigning, and therefore that things can be trusted to his hands.
Let's read this psalm.
Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous
whom the Lord abhorreth. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts.
His ways are always grievous. Thy judgments are far out of
his sight. As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
He hath said in his heart, I shall not be
moved, for I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages,
in the secret places doth he murder the innocent. His eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth and waits secretly as a lion in his den.
He lieth and waits to catch the poor. He doth catch
the poor when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth and humbleth himself that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten. He hideth his face,
he will never see it. Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up thine hand, forget not the humble.
Wherefore
doth the wicked contend God? He hath said in his heart, thou wilt not require it. Thou hast seen it, for thou beholdest mischief and spite. To requite it with thy hand, the poor committeth himself unto thee.
Thou art the helper of the fatherless. Break thou the arm of the wicked
and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness till thou find none.
The Lord is king forever and ever.
The heathen are perished out of his land. Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble.
Thou
wilt prepare their heart. Thou wilt cause their ear to hear. To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress." So we have another of the common instances of a psalm beginning in something like despair, wondering where God is and why he hasn't shown up.
And it's very evident that in the short time it took for David to write this psalm, or
whoever wrote it, that things probably hadn't really changed. I mean, it wouldn't have taken more than an hour or so, perhaps, or even maybe as much as several hours, but probably within the course of a single day, the psalm was written. And things are so bad in the first 11 verses, it's almost certain that things hadn't really changed much by the time he got to the end of the psalm.
But what did change was his attitude. He was concerned about the state of the wicked
prospering and persecuting the poor. It's very evident that persecution of the godly person is on his heart.
In the second verse, the wicked in his pride does persecute the poor. And throughout
the first 11 verses, the wicked man is portrayed as one who is lying in wait like a lion, ready to pounce upon a prey. In verse 9, he says, he lieth to wait secretly as a lion in his den.
He lieth
in wait to catch the poor. He doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth and humble himself, that is, he lowers himself down like a lion upon his stomach, crouching in the grass, ready to leap on someone.
So the wicked man is like a lion, unchallenged, unafraid, and very
aggressive toward his prey. And he says the wicked man is always afflicting and oppressing the poor. Now concerning his own self, the wicked man boasts in verse 3 of his heart's desire, which seems to mean he can boast that whatever he wanted, he's got it.
And he blesses the covetous. Now the word
covetous means greedy. Covetousness is something that the New Testament speaks a great deal about.
Jesus said, take heed and beware of covetousness. And it says in Hebrews chapter 13, let your lifestyle be without covetousness, but be content with such things as you have. And so forth.
There's
many places in the Bible that speak about covetousness, which is the love of money. Paul said the love of money is the root of all evil. And many, having sought after it, have pierced themselves through with many sorrows and have erred from the faith.
And those who want to be rich, Paul said, are overtaken by
many hurtful and foolish lusts, which drown men's souls in perdition. John told us, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. And to love money and to love the things in the world to be covetous is something that is strictly against the mentality that God wants Christians to have.
Yet we
find the wicked man blesses covetous people, even though those are the very people that the Lord abhors or hates. Now, I realize that he's not talking about this group of people, but today there is, even in the church, a certain teaching that's prominent that teaches that God is blessing you, especially if you're prosperous, and that you should never accept any adversity at all. If you're sick or poor, this is not the will of God for you.
This is the devil. And that you need to take a stand against it, because if you're walking
in the faith that you're supposed to be walking in, then you'll never be sick. You can always have your healing.
You'll never be poor. You can always be prospering. It reminds me very much of verse 6, where it says, He has said in his heart, I shall never be moved.
I shall never be in adversity. It's as though a man thinks he can
live his life without any troubles, without adversity. Those people, in a sense, are blessing the covetous ones.
The man who's greedy and out there making money by the fistful, they're blessing him, saying, he's the godly man. He's the man who's really taken hold of his inheritance in Christ. And I realize that this is not a description of those people in particular, but it's interesting that there are some parallels in the attitude between the wicked man that is described here, and even some Christians who we would not describe as wicked, but who have certainly erred into some of the thought patterns of wicked people, namely in the area of covetousness and thinking that adversity is not a part of their lives.
The Bible indicates that adversity is to be a part of our lives.
Affliction and trials are given to us to improve us. Job, when adversity came upon him and his wife said, why don't you curse God and die? He said, you speak like a foolish woman.
Should we receive only the good things
and not the evil also from the Lord? That is not adversity. Should we only get the blessings and not the adversity? He realized that that was not wise, and that it was a foolish suggestion on the part of his wife. And yet many Christians don't take that to heart and figure that if you suffer an adversity, there's something deficient in your faith and in your walk with God.
And of course, that kind of teaching, if people accept it, can be very discouraging
because not everyone who believes that is prosperous, and not everyone who believes that is healthy. And if you're not healthy or prosperous, and you believe that teaching, you'll get the impression there's something wrong with you and makes you feel guilty and everything, where in fact, you might be walking in as much faith as ever anyone did. And yet God may be putting you through some trials, some adversity, which is part of his plan for you, even as Job went through.
Well, anyway, we see the man then, he's prospering, therefore he's self-confident. He can boast that he's got his heart's desire. And he's not content with that, but he's continually trying to increase his substance by oppressing the poor man, by exploiting the poor in one way or another, perhaps by one of the common ways to exploit the poor in the old days was to lend money to him on interest or usury.
And that may be what's happening here, or simply to just take advantage of
him knowing that the poor can't get justice in the courts, he can't bribe the judges like you can, because you're rich and he's not. And therefore, you can just do whatever you want to him, you can take his property, you can steal from him, you can have him working for you and refuse to pay him, not because that's legal, but because justice is rarely upheld in the courts. And therefore, the rich man, the wicked man can exploit the poor.
And that exploitation is described like a lion pouncing on prey, the
rich man taking for a prey the poor man who has no defense against him whatsoever. And so, as usual, the psalmist cries out to God to act, arise, O Lord, verse 12, O God, lift up thine hand, forget not the humble. As far as the humble goes, it says concerning them in verse 17, Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble, thou will prepare their heart, thou will cause thine ear to hear to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.
So even though at the time of writing, the
oppressor is still crouching, still taking a prey, still oppressing the poor, yet the psalmist comes to the conclusion simply by reflection on the fact, which was true, in verse 16, the Lord is king forever and ever and the heathen are perished out of his land. Now what this is probably saying is that as the land of Canaan or the land of Israel once was formerly inhabited by heathen, that is by Canaanites, and have now been driven out, so God is able ultimately to drive out all the wicked out of the earth someday. He's pointing out that historically it's already happened that God can show his victory over the heathen just in giving the Jews the promised land and driving out the wicked heathen in front of them.
So this is only a precursor of what God shall eventually do in the whole earth. And so eventually the
oppressors will all be driven out, even as the heathen were driven out of God's land, Israel. There is an interesting and important verse in verse 14 where it says, thou hast seen it, that is to say that God has seen how the wicked man has oppressed the poor.
And if you happen to be
oppressed, it's good to know that God has seen it. In fact, you know, when the Jews were in Israel, I mean, in Egypt as slaves, and God called Moses at the burning bush and said, I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people, and I have come down to help them. And to know that God has seen the affliction is tantamount to the same thing as knowing that help is on the way, because God, when he sees, must act, though he sometimes will restrain himself and give the oppressor a chance to repent, because he loves the oppressor also and desires that they repent rather than perish.
He says, thou hast seen it, verse 14, for thou beholdest mischief in spite, to requite it or to pay it back with thy hand. The
poor committeth himself unto thee. Thou art the helper of the fatherless.
The statement, the poor committeth himself unto thee, reminds us of the
attitude that Jesus and the apostles taught us, that we must commit our case into God's hands. If someone is oppressing us, in this case the poor was being oppressed by the rich, the poor had no choice, he had no legal recourse, what can the poor man do? He can commit himself into God's hands and let God bring justice at the right time. In Romans, chapter 12, Paul says, Brethren, do not avenge yourselves, but give place for wrath.
For God has said,
Vengeance is mine, I will repay. We're not supposed to avenge ourselves, because if we seek to do so, then God will not move on our behalf. But if we do not avenge ourselves, we commit ourselves to God and he will repay, the oppressor, and he'll repay us for our virtuous submission to his will.
Remember how it says in
1 Peter 4, verse 19, Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful creator. 1 Peter 4, verse 19, The righteous man commits his case into the hands of God, as unto a faithful creator. Believing that God faithfully will eventually bring justice, we just commit our case into his hands.
It says also in 1 Peter, earlier in the book, in describing the case of Jesus when he was under
persecution on the earth, in 1 Peter, chapter 2, in verse 21 and following, 1 Peter 2, 21 through 23, says, For even here unto where ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile or dishonesty insincerely found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not.
But what did he do? He committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. So, Jesus committed himself
into the hands of God, instead of reviling back when they reviled him, instead of threatening them when they caused him to suffer, and he certainly could have threatened them, he could have said, I'll send my angels after you and you'll see, you know, who's who. But he didn't offer any threats, he didn't revile back, he just held his case, and he committed himself into the hands of God.
Among his last words on the cross were, Father, into thy hands I commend, or,
on alternate translation, commit my spirit. I just yield myself into your hands, and that's what David said the poor man has to do. Since he cannot, in his own self, defend himself against the rich, he has a better recourse than that.
If he were, for instance, rich himself, for instance, if the poor man suddenly inherited a fortune, and had the power to go to law against the rich man and to bring justice down upon him, well, he'd be better in a position to do so if he himself got those resources, but he would have no assurance that justice would ultimately be done anyway. Even if we fought back against people who attacked us, we would at least perhaps have a chance of getting the victory over them, but there's also the chance we wouldn't. There's a chance that justice still wouldn't be done even if we fought back.
But if we do not fight back, if we commit our case into the hands of God, we can be quite certain that justice will ultimately be done, because God cannot do unjustly. There's no injustice with him. And so, the confidence of the psalmist that God is reigning, the Lord is king forever and ever, it says in verse 16, he says, basically in verse 12, Arise, O Lord, lift up thine hand, do not forget the humble, he prays, and then in verse 17 he says, Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble.
So, God listens to the humble. God said something like that in Isaiah 66, verses 1 and 2. Isaiah 66, verses 1 and 2, Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things have mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord.
But to this man will I look, even him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and tremble at that my word.
Now, it's the man who is of a humble and poor spirit. That's the man that God will look to.
And so says the psalmist.
Now, humility, by the way, was considered a virtue by the Jews, although they very rarely practiced it. And it's always been considered a great Christian virtue as well.
Interestingly, the Greeks and the Romans never considered it a virtue. They considered it a sign of weakness. To the Greeks and the Romans, in their culture, pride was considered virtue, and arrogance, and might, and so forth.
And the humble man was just, I mean, humility was just not something to be admired or chosen. And you can see how much change of mind the Greek converts and the Roman converts had to have when they became Christians. They had to have their minds renewed.
But the Jews, in their society, understood, because God told them, you know, that they had to be humble. You see in the Proverbs, frequently, statements made about pride and humility. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
And about how God rescues the humble, God gives grace to the humble, and resists the proud, and so forth. So the scriptures reveal that humility is a virtue, and not only a virtue, but a safe attitude. If we are proud, and tend to think that we have what it takes to defend ourselves, or to meet our own needs, then God will let us try.
But if we humbly admit our need and our weakness, and commit ourselves into His hands, then He cannot help but do what's right, ultimately. We may suffer more for it. I mean, our suffering may not end the moment that we commit ourselves into His hands, but we can look for ultimate vindication.
As when Jesus said, Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit, it didn't get him down off the cross. In fact, the next thing that happened to him was he died, and went to Sheol, but he did come out again. And so, by committing ourselves into the hands of God, it does not mean our suffering will immediately stop.
But it means that we will at least go through what suffering we have with a clear conscience, and with assurance that justice cannot but prevail. Because God, it's left in His hands, and when the ball's in His court, He never misses it. Okay, going on to Psalm 11 now.
In the Lord do I put my trust. How say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? For lo, the wicked bend their bow, and they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven.
His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men.
The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest.
This shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. His countenance doth behold the upright.
Now this has some very nice verses in it, though not all of them are the easiest things to understand. But the first verse is, I'm trusting the Lord, why do you advise me to flee from my enemy? There must have been someone who had advised David to run away because of all his enemies. And he said, wait a minute, I put my trust in the Lord, how is it that you tell me to flee? My refuge is not in the mountains, my refuge is in the Lord, in another place.
Let me see if I can find it quickly, I'm not sure that I know the right psalm, but I think it is. Yeah, in Psalm 121, verse 1, one of the songs of degrees, it says, I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord, which made the heaven and the earth. Now the way that Psalm 121, verse 1 is punctuated in the King James is deceptive, because it looks like he's saying, I will lift up my eyes to the hills from which comes my help.
His help comes from the hills. But really, he's saying, I will lift up mine eyes to the hills. Then he asks the question, from whence cometh my help? And the answer is, my help comes from the Lord.
So you've got a choice, you're going to trust in the hills, you look over towards the hills and say, is that where I should run to? Or should I run to the Lord instead? There's a lot of people in our society today who are particularly paranoid about the trends in society and in world affairs, and are afraid either of nuclear holocaust or of political upheaval, of revolution, of violence, pollution, all kinds of things that are driving people to want to seek refuge in the wilderness or in the mountains. One of the very popular trends today is survival schools. I used to look into these a few years ago myself, back when I began to feel like tribulation might come before I'm gone.
And so I began to think, well, you know, if tribulation comes, I want to be able to stay alive and so forth. And I was looking into some of the wilderness magazines and things that advertise these survival schools, and I found that there's many, many people who've gone through these kinds of courses. They go out and live in the woods, and they teach them how to eat bark, and grubs and things like that.
And the idea is that people want to be able to survive. And many people are looking to the wilderness. Lots of people are buying plots of land in the wilderness.
Or just, you know, looking for escape routes from the city for when the big war comes or something. And they're looking to the hills, really, for their refuge. And yet the Bible says in Colossians that our life is hid with Christ in God.
That our only safety, really, is to be hid with Christ in God. I'll tell you how my thought processes eventually developed. I was thinking, of course, if he that runs away to the hills, you know, can live to preach the gospel another day.
But then on the other hand, if a person runs away to the hills and things never get better, he may never preach the gospel again. He may, unless he wants to preach to the trees. And I figured, well, it's better to go down preaching in the city and to go up with the bomb, you know, than to spend my day living paranoid, running from the Antichrist through the woods or something.
It's better for me to commit my case into the hands of God, even though it may mean my death, but knowing that I can at least live every day serviceably for God. My days may be fewer, but what's the use of living longer if I can't do anything for God? What's the point of just surviving for year after year in the woods when there's nothing to do for God there? And so my views have changed quite a bit, and I'm not the least bit interested in those survival courses or anything. But a lot of people still are, and a lot of them are Christians.
There's a lot of Christians who feel they need to store up food against the great tribulation time that's coming. And I've seen a lot of that kind of talk among Christian leaders and certain Christian organizations are advertising in Christian magazines for these dried food packages. At this point, the cassette tape was stopped and turned over to record on the second side.
God is pure. Do not add to his words because they are not to be added to. Every word he's spoken is pure.
You don't want to add any dross to that pure gold, that pure silver. This is so different from the words of men, in which a few of them can be trusted and a few cannot be, or many of them cannot be. And you never know.
When you're listening to man, you have to test everything he says and not take anything at face value. But when God speaks, you needn't worry. There's nothing in it that is untrustworthy.
There's nothing in it that's dross. It's all pure. And he says, finally, in verses 7 and 8, Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, probably meaning thou shalt keep thy your words, because it says the words of the Lord.
Now, it's possible that he's talking about the poor, who are mentioned in verse 5, for the oppression of the poor. He says, Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. But I think it's more natural to assume that he's talking about the words that were mentioned in verse 6, that God's words will be preserved forever.
Jesus said, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away. He said that in Mark 13, 31. Mark 13, 31, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
So he indicated that they're permanent. And in another place, in Luke 16, in verse 17, he said, Jesus said, It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one tittle of the law to fail. A tittle is a little stroke of the pen.
And so, for any detail of the law to fail, or of God's word to fail, he said, it's easier for heaven and earth to pass. That's Luke 16, 17. The other scripture that Jesus said was Mark 13, 31.
Okay, so he's saying here in verse 7 of Psalm 12, You will keep your words, that is, you'll preserve them, O Lord. You shall preserve them from this generation forever. Tremendous promise that has now been fulfilled for all of us to behold.
At the time this was written, not that many generations had passed since the giving of the law, though some had. But now, many hundreds of generations have passed since God first spoke. The law of Moses, and more recently, the New Testament, those things have been sought to be destroyed by critics, by armies that have marched to try to wipe out the word of God, by communist governments, and by the Roman emperors, and by the popes.
There have been so many people tried to eliminate the scriptures and to drive them out of existence. Voltaire believed that the scriptures would be gone within a hundred years of his life. He died in 1776.
He said that within a hundred years, Christianity and the scriptures will be extinct. He just believed that criticism and so forth would destroy them. But he's gone, and the scriptures remain.
In fact, 50 years after his death, his house purchased by the Geneva Bible Society was used as a print shop for Bibles, and one of those ironic turns of history. And so many times people have sought to destroy the Bible, but the promise here is that the words of God, God will keep them and preserve them from this generation forever, and they are something that are never going to be destroyed or removed. He says, the wicked walk on every side, but when the vilest men are exalted, I didn't have time to look up a cross-reference for this, but in the Proverbs somewhere, it mentions that when the wicked are in authority, that wickedness increases, that wicked people increase.
And that's essentially what this is saying too. When the vilest men are exalted, when evil men are in places of rulership, then wicked men walk on every side. That is, all around you, you'll be surrounded by wicked men.
A case for good government here. It says also in Proverbs, when the righteous are in power or in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in authority, it says the people hide themselves.
Then people have to go into hiding because of wicked rulers. So here, this is saying essentially that there's a case to be made for godly men in government, men who will honor the words of God, because those who ignore the word of God are not trustworthy themselves. Their words are not trustworthy, and yet, gods are.
Now going on, we studied Psalm 13 yesterday as an example of a turnaround through prayer. How that he starts with dejection in the first two verses, in the next two verses he prays, and in the last two verses he's totally optimistic. And this is just an example, a very graphic example of this trend in the Psalms that we see frequently.
But we won't study this verse again. We talked about it yesterday. We come now to Psalm 14.
Psalm 14 is almost identical to another psalm. It differs only in a few words, but the thoughts are almost the same throughout. The other psalm is Psalm 53.
I'd like to look at both of them just in order to see what differences there would be. This is a psalm of David, and it says, The fool has said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt.
They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.
They are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon the Lord? There were they in great fear, for God is in the generation of the righteous. Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge.
Oh, that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad. Well, the first three verses basically is saying that there's not many good people around.
In fact, he said there's none. No, not one. Now, this might be poetically understood to be a slight exaggeration unless we're speaking of absolute goodness.
If he's talking about absolutely good people who've never done anything wrong, then we could rightly say there's no, not one. And that's how Paul uses it. You know that Paul quotes this passage in Romans 3 verses 10 through 12.
He quotes verses one through three here saying that there's none righteous. No, not one. And if we're talking about absolute righteousness like Jesus had sinlessness, then of course that can be taken as a very literal statement.
No, not one is sinless. On the other hand, the Psalms usually use the word righteous and doing good in a more relative sense. Frequently, the Psalmist mentions that he is righteous, that he's done the just thing, that he's done the good thing.
And if that is the way it's intended here, if he's talking about good men of which he acknowledges there are some, including himself, then when he says there's none righteous, no, not one, then he'd be taking it, it would be more of a poetic statement, more like what Elijah was saying. There's no other righteous people and I'm the only one left. But not necessarily saying he's really searched out to see if there's any others, but that in his experience, he can't even name another righteous man besides himself.
But again, as I said, Paul can take it very literally when he's speaking of absolute righteousness and showing how none of us can be justified in our own works because we all have sinned and all have come short of the glory of God. He can take it very literally, though the Psalmist might not be thinking of that kind of thing because as I said, the same writer, David, frequently speaks of himself as being righteous. In fact, when we get to Psalm 17, you'll see how clearly he speaks of himself as being righteous and all.
But he's pointing out generally the depravity of most all the men he knows. And in his statement, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. The Hebrew word fool is nabal, N-A-B-A-L, nabal.
And nabal was the name of a man who actually resisted David in a mild sort of way. When David was fleeing from Saul, this rich man, Nabal, lived on the property that David was fleeing through. And David sent messengers asking Nabal if he could get food from him.
And Nabal spurned him. And David was so angry at Nabal, he was going to attack the man with his armies and wipe him out. But Nabal's wife, whose name was Abigail, came out and took food to David and his men and beseeched him not to come and kill her husband and so forth.
And so David said she was a wise woman and let her off. But she says, my husband Nabal, he truly is a fool. Because the word Nabal means fool.
His name meant fool. As it turned out, Nabal died the next day apparently of a heart attack. And Abigail became one of David's wives.
But that's another story. When David here says the Nabal has said in his heart, there is no God or the fool, it's possible that he wrote this shortly after this experience with Nabal and that he was thinking very much of this man. Though it's also possible that he wasn't because Nabal was the normal word for fool.
But since David did have conflicts with a man by that name, it's an interesting possibility that he's thinking, he's sort of taking the man's name and making the statement more of a general statement about all people who can be described as fools. Here he's saying an atheist is a fool. It's interesting that the people who consider themselves most learned today are the ones who usually espouse atheism.
Usually they don't have good reasons, but it's fashionable for scientists to be atheistic, to suggest that everything can be explained by scientific laws and mechanistic processes and so forth. That everything is just governed by natural laws and nature did it all and there's no God. But even though those who are atheists today may feel like they're getting for themselves a reputation of wisdom and erudition, David says those are the ones who are properly called fools because they are ignoring the most evident realities of nature around them.
The heavens declare the glory of God. Those who say there's no God are without excuse and they're fools because they're blinding their eyes, deliberately blinding their eyes to the reality that cries out about them. Now, in the second verse where it says, The Lord looked down from heaven and the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.
It sort of reminds us of the time before the flood. How it says there were none. It says God looked down from heaven and he saw that the imaginations of men's hearts were always evil continually.
Sort of has that same picture of God looking down and seeing how wicked men are. And what he sees in verse three is that they've all become, they've all gone aside, it says. They've all become filthy.
The word filthy in the New English Bible translated rotten to the core. Everyone's become rotten to the core and there's none that do us good, no not one. Now, in other words, these are people who have not sought after God.
They have disregarded his self-revelation. They are fools. They ignore his law apparently.
The works they do are abominable works. So, they defy God in their actions directly by living in sin and breaking his laws. Another problem that they do besides breaking God's laws and directly defying God, they do, they defy him indirectly by persecuting his people.
And that's what it says in verses four and such. It says, have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon the Lord? There were they in great fear for God is in the generation of the righteous. Now, he's saying that those people who persecute God's people, they will be brought into great fear.
God will bring their fears upon them and will punish them because he is in the presence of his people. The generation of the righteous is God's people. You have shamed the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge.
Shame the counsel of the poor probably, although it's not certain, probably refers to the fact that you've made the poor man ashamed by injustice shown to him in court. Counsel often will refer to legal counsel and that when a poor man goes to court to get vindicated by the counsel of the judge, that these people have taken advantage of him and have brought a shameful injustice upon him. Though the wording there is somewhat difficult to understand.
Then it says, then it's crying out and longing in verse seven for the day when God's going to make everything right, when the wicked will be punished and the righteous will be exalted again. He says, oh, that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad.
Jacob and Israel are just alternate names. They were both names for the same man. His name was Jacob.
He wrestled with God one night and they called him Israel from then on. And sometimes the nation Israel was called after the name of the man before his conversion. And sometimes by his latter name, Jacob or Israel.
Here we find both names for some reason, probably just for the sake of poetic parallelism. The mention of bringing back the captivity of his people, the expression bring back the captivity in the Hebrew may be translated, restores the fortunes. So he talked about when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people.
Not necessarily referring to them being in captivity at this time. David didn't live to see the people going to captivity as they later did in Babylon. And some have felt that because this mentions captivity, that David couldn't have written this.
It must have been written by the Jews when they were in exile and in captivity. But David needn't be saying that and the psalm needn't be saying that because it could literally just mean wait till God restores the fortunes. Remember what it says about Job at in Job chapter 42 in verse 10, the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.
Again, the same expression brings back the captivity or turn the captivity of Job, meaning he restored his fortunes. It doesn't mean that he was literally a captive of anyone now. So we see the psalm describes the wicked, first of all, in terms of their just outright abominable practices against the laws of God.
And secondly, in that they persecute God's people. And that is the great miscalculation because they don't realize that God is in the presence of his people. And that and Saul, when he was persecuting the church, was brought up short by the Lord, saying, Saul, why do you persecute me? You can't persecute God's people without persecuting God himself.
We'll find a reference to God protecting his people as the apple of his eye. And one of the psalms we're coming to very shortly. And the apple of the eye means, of course, the pupil, a person defends his eye if he wants to touch their eye.
They won't allow it. And God defends his people like the apple of his eye because to touch them in Jeremiah, I believe it was, no, in Zechariah, God said to the Jews, he that touches you touches the apple of my eye. That is, what does it feel like when someone touches your eye? Painful, of course.
And if anyone lays a finger on them, he says, it's like poking God in the eye. And that's not going to meet with God's sitting back and just taking it. So that was the miscalculation of the wicked.
They not only break the laws of God, but they persecute the people of God. And now he's going to have them in fear. And the psalmist in the end longs for the day when God will restore the fortunes of the people of God and destroy the wicked.
If you'll turn quickly to Psalm 53, which I said is almost identical, you can see that simply by glancing at it. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God, corrupt are they. They have done abominable iniquity.
There is none that doeth good. And so forth. Now, the psalm follows almost exactly the other one.
Let me just run through it and show you the basic differences, which most of the differences are very small or negligible. Most of the differences are not even differences, except in word order, though there is one part that has a significant difference. In the first verse, the only difference is between Psalm 53 and 14 is in 53.
It says corrupt are they. They have done abominable iniquity, whereas Psalm 14 says they are corrupt. They have done abominable works.
But you can see basically the thoughts are no different. Just the wording is different. There is also in verse two, a slight difference in verse two.
It says in 53 to God look down, whereas 14 says Jehovah look down. Now the word God is Elohim. It's the Lord or Jehovah in Psalm 14.
In fact, all the way through, all the way through Psalm 14. It uses the name Jehovah, whereas in this psalm, it sticks in the name Elohim, God. The significance of the change, I can't, I don't know.
In fact, it's not really a significant change as far as I can tell, since God and Jehovah are the same being. Nonetheless, it is an interesting fact that this psalm all the way through uses the word God, whereas the one in 14 consistently in the same spots uses the word Jehovah or Lord and King James. At the end of verse two, where it says that he looks to see if there are any that did understand that did seek God.
The only difference is in chapter 14. It says did understand and seek God. No, no real difference in thought.
In verse three, it says every one of them is gone back. That's in chapter 14. He says they are all gone aside.
So in 14, the idea is that they've gone aside. They've gone off the right road. Where here it's more like they've been, they backslid.
They've been driven back. In both cases, the idea is the same. They're not following God.
But one has the image of leaving the path, going aside. And the other has the image of actually backsliding. Down in verse four, it says have the workers of iniquity, no knowledge.
Whereas chapter 14 says have all the workers of iniquity, no knowledge, no significant difference. When it says they eat up my people as they eat bread, they have not called upon God. The only difference is in wording.
And then other songs as they eat my people as they eat bread and call not upon Jehovah. Then here's where the difference comes in verse five. This song says there were there were they in great fear where no fear was.
For God has scattered the bones of him that encamped against thee. Thou has put them to shame because God has despised them. The way Psalm 14 reads on that same passage says there were they in great fear.
That's the only thing similar because this for for God is in the generation of the righteous. Thou has shamed the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge. You can see that in Psalm 14, it's talking about how God will vindicate the poor against the ones who have shamed him.
And the picture is of the poor at this time have been shamed. The counsel of the poor has been shamed by the wicked man. But here he's talking about how God has brought judgment on the wicked already.
For God has scattered the bones of him that encamped against thee. Encamped against thee probably refers to encamped against the Jews as a people that they've been deceived. So that this speaks of a national disaster or a national distress.
Probably Psalm 53 is a slight modification of Psalm 14, which was modified for for a national occasion of distress. And so there's only a slight difference there. And then the only difference in verse six is in verse six, it says, oh, that the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion when God bring it back to captivity.
Again, the word Jehovah is there instead of God in Psalm 14. So the thoughts between the two songs are identical, practically almost no change at all. In a few cases, a change in word order, but without changing the thought at all.
OK, now I want to. I want to quickly cover one other song before our break. And that'll be Psalm 17.
This song will not need too much comment on the first part. It begins. Basically, it's a cry of a man for justice again, a man who clearly has a clean conscience, a man who has suffered and knows that he has done nothing wrong to deserve it, such as perhaps Job would be.
And in this case, it's David. He knows that he's innocent, but he's suffering and he's crying out to God for justice. And he protests his innocence in such a way as to actually challenge God to come and judge him.
Come and judge me, you know, search me out. And you can tell man's got to have a clean conscience if he'll if he'll ask God to do that. And the probably the only part that will need much comment is the closing verses, which are quite excellent.
Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear to my prayer that goeth not out of fainted lips, fainted means pretending. So this is sincere cry, not I'm not pretending at anything. Let my sentence come forth from thy presence.
Notice my my my sentence, like a judicial sentence passed down by a judge. Let my sentence come forth from thy presence. Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal or just.
Thou has proved mine heart. Thou has visited me in the night. Thou has tried me and I shall find and you shall find nothing.
That is, you've searched out my character and you there's nothing evil in me for you to find. I am purpose that my mouth shall not transgress concerning the works of men. By the word of thy lips, I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.
Hold up my goings in my paths that my footsteps slip not. I have called upon thee for thou wilt hear me, O God. Incline thine ear unto me and hear my speech.
Show thy marvelous loving kindness that save us by thy right hand. Them that put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. Keep me, here it is, as the apple of thine eye.
Just like a man protects his eye from things getting into it or from injury. He says, keep me the way you keep your a man keeps his eye. Keep me as the apple of your eye.
Hide me under the shadow of thy wings from the wicked that oppressed me from my deadly enemies who can pass me about. They are enclosed in their own fat. With their mouth, they speak proudly.
In other words, they're prospering. They're fatless and prosperous and they're proud and arrogant. They have now compassed us in our steps or surrounded us.
They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth like as a lion that is greedy of his prey. See how often a wicked and rich man is compared to a lion leaping on a poor man, helpless prey. They are as a lion that is greedy for his prey.
And as it were, a young lion lurking in secret places. Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down, deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword. From men which are thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world which have their portion in this life and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasures.
They are full of children and leave the rest of their substance under their babes. Now, the statement here, which says in verse 13, Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down, deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword. And then in the next verse, which says, O Lord, from men of the world, which are no from men, which are thy hand, seems to be saying that he recognizes wicked men as God's agents.
His sword in his hand of bringing punishment and bringing chastening upon people. And certainly that is a scriptural concept, but to me, it's not likely that that's what he's saying. You notice the italicized words there.
And if you have a marginal reference, it probably says another very legitimate reading would be, Save me, my soul from the wicked by thy sword. The italicized words are not in the Hebrew. So another word could be supplied instead of which is.
The expression which is italicized there could be replaced with the word by. And it would possibly make more sense to the present context, though it is true that other passages do speak of the armies of the heathen being tools in God's hands, which he uses to bring punishment upon nations that are ripe for judgment. Nonetheless, it's not likely that that's his thought here.
He's not seeing the value of the wicked here. He's not seeing that God uses them and that they are really God's tools. And that's a rather deep concept to just mention in passing here.
If he were mentioning it, seems like that would have to be developed more fully. It seems more likely that we should read this. Deliver my soul from the wicked by thy sword and from men by thy hand.
That is, deliver me by thy hand and by thy sword, instead of recognizing the wicked men as his hand and sword, which would be a different concept altogether, a valid one, but not necessarily what I would think would be in his thoughts here. And the other is definitely an alternate reading. Now, the description of these men is that they're enclosed in their own fat.
They're prospering. In verse 14, it says about them, they have their portion in this life. Remember, Jesus said, don't be like the Pharisees who do their righteous witness to be seen of men because they have their reward.
He says, what you need to do is do your righteous things secretly and then your father in heaven will reward you. He said to those who are persecuted, blessed are you who are persecuted for my name's sake, as great as your reward in heaven. The Christian is not looking for an earthly reward.
It says in Hebrews chapter 11 that those who wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins and refused deliverance were seeking a better resurrection. They were looking for their reward elsewhere. By faith, Moses forsook Egypt.
It says in 1127 of Hebrews, I think. I think it's Hebrews 1127. By faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king because he had recompense unto the reward.
He was thinking not of the rewards of Egypt's riches. He was thinking of the rewards that he'd have as a godly man, which maybe would not come until the resurrection. Now, these men that he's describing have their portion.
They have their reward in this life. And he's going to contrast that with himself in the next verse. But one of the things he says to describe them is they are full of children and they leave the rest of their substance to their babes.
That is to say, they're prospering in all respects, not only in goods, but their families are booming. They've got enough prosperity to leave an estate to their children. And then he says that as for me and the contrast here is I'm different than they are.
As for me, verse 15, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. Now, the word satisfied there is the same Hebrew word as in verse 14, the word full.
They are full of children. In the Hebrews, the same Hebrew word, full and satisfied. And it means both.
It means, of course, to be satiated, to be satisfied, to be full. And there's a direct contrast intended. He's saying that these people are full of such blessings as men can have in this world.
Large family, large meals, large profits. They have all their, their portion is in this world. They get to see the blessings poured out on them in this life.
But he says, I will be satisfied or full with something else. They are satisfied with these earthly things, but I am satisfied with your likeness. I will behold thy face in righteousness, he says.
That means that he realizes that integrity and righteousness of character is a condition for seeing God. He can't behold God's face and see God if he is unrighteous. Therefore, he must live righteously to behold the righteous God.
There cannot be communion between light and darkness. If God is all light, it says, in fact, in 1 John 1, in verse 7, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
We can't walk in fellowship with God if we're in darkness because he's light and there's no darkness in him at all. He's all righteous. And if we want to behold his face and commune with him, then we must live righteously, of course, as well.
And so he says, I'm going to behold his face in righteousness, meaning I'm going to live a righteous life and I'm going to keep my eyes on God rather than on these earthly blessings that wicked men seek after. And he says, I will be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. Now, this either means that when I wake up in the morning or when I'm resurrected from the dead, perhaps, and that's probably more likely.
When I'm resurrected from the dead, I will be satisfied with thy likeness. That is, by being able to see his likeness, I will be satisfied just to see his face, to see his image. Which I will be able to see at the resurrection morning.
The other alternative is that I will be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness. Meaning when I wake up, when I'm resurrected and I am in your likeness, not necessarily satisfied by looking at your likeness, but satisfied by being in your likeness. And both thoughts could be drawn from the passage and whichever you feel the spirit leads you to is the one you should probably meditate on.
But the idea is that my satisfaction will be later when I arise. That is, when I arise from the dead. That on the day of resurrection, my reward is not in this life.
The contrast is in verse 14, they have their portion in this life. Mine is in the resurrection in the next life. Jesus said, when you have a feast, do not invite those rich men and friends and relatives of yours who can invite you back.
He said, if they do invite you back, then you have your reward. But he said, when you have a feast and a banquet, invite all the poor people who can never pay you back because then you will have your reward in the resurrection. In other words, the choice is, do you want a reward now or do you want it later? And he implies that you're cheating yourself if you take your reward now.
He said, if they pay you back, you'll have no other reward. But you, even if out of nothing else but self-interest, should seek the reward that's in heaven. Now, that's not the best reason to seek it.
But the point is that it is to your good to not take a reward now so that God will figure he owes in a sense. There's an unpaid debt. You've done something good and you've not been repaid in this life.
Therefore, God will see to it that you're repaid in the next. And so the psalmist says, my satisfaction comes not in this life, not with the things such as men want to bless themselves in this world, but with the likeness of God. I'm going to be satisfied when I awaken in the likeness of Christ.
In the meantime, I'm going to behold his face in righteousness. I'm going to live a righteous life. I'm not going to follow the paths these men follow.
I'm not going to seek the satisfaction they seek. My satisfaction will come by being like God, which will not ultimately be realized until the resurrection. Although, of course, I can certainly move in that direction between now and then.
All right, we'll close there.

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