Springs Lighthouse Church

Pastor Brian Michaels: Psalm 58, if you would turn there, please. Psalm 58, and we will pray, and we will jump into our study. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to gather and to be able to study these things together. Lord, I pray that you would minister to our hearts by your spirit.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Lord, I pray that you would sustain my voice through through this study with all of the the illness that's going around. Lord, many have lost their voices, and I I I know it just seems like I'm right on the verge, and I just pray that you would be the one who sustains that so that your word can be taught, and Lord, that you can speak through it.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Lord, that you by your spirit would minister to each and every one of our hearts as we read of David's struggles and we consider the things that he went through and how he always turned his focus back to you. Lord, in our struggles, the craziness of what's going on around us, in our neighborhoods, in our nation, the insanity that we just feel like is is crowding around us each and every day. Lord, teach us to keep our eyes on you and to trust in you. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Well, Psalm 58, it says, to the chief musician, set to do not destroy, a Michtam of David. A couple of things, and and we'll see the same kind of an introduction in the next Psalm. These are obviously Psalms of David, both of them tell us that they are. They are Michtams, which means that I hear angels singing.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Which means that they were golden Psalms, is about the the best translation that we have of that word. And so, apparently, something that was to be treasured. These are Psalms, they're they're set to a common tune. This, I think both of ours tonight are to the tune, Do Not Destroy. So, it must have been a very popular tune, might have been the one that was just playing.

Pastor Brian Michaels: But in all seriousness, you, when you set words to music, they're easier to remember. And I I don't know if I mentioned this last week, but I remember in the early days of of Calvary Chapel, and when Maranatha music was birthed, and how many of those praise songs, the Maranatha praise CDs, or cassettes, if you remember back in those days. Aaron's like, what's a cassette?

Pastor Brian Michaels: But if you if you think back to those days, they were such simple tunes and just had scripture set to them. And how many of us remember scripture because they were set to those tunes, right? As the deer panteth for the water brook, so my soul longs after you, oh Lord. And some of those things we remember because they're set into our mind by a song.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Well, apparently, these things that David is writing in Psalm 58, Psalm 59, were set to the tune of, Do Not Destroy. And so, to the chief musician probably indicates that they were to be sung publicly, and so setting them to a common tune that everyone knew would certainly make that easy, yes?

Pastor Brian Michaels: So, this Psalm is an outcry against a corrupt judicial system. Something that, you know, we're just going to have to suspend your logic for a moment, suspend your understanding for a moment, because we're going to get into a Psalm here that was written to deal with something we can't even imagine in our day and age, a corrupt judicial system.

Pastor Brian Michaels: So, verse one, Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones? Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men? So, David clearly is writing this Psalm against some group of men who were judges or some other type of leader. He speaks of them passing judgment. We know that leaders of many types have to pass judgment. many times have to pronounce a judgment upon something or other. But it seems more specifically that he's dealing with people who may have actually been in a judicially appointed position.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Some believe that they may have been the men whom Saul used to pronounce unjust judgment upon David. Because David was declared to be a traitor. David was declared to have been treasonous against Saul. There were many who were in their own effort to curry favor with the king, thinking that if they turned against David, whom Saul was becoming jealous of, that they could attain greater influence with the king, or a greater position with the king, there were those that certainly were in that place.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And so maybe David is talking about them. We don't know all of these things to be sure because David doesn't give us all of these specifics. Remember when we went through Psalm 57 last week that David was hiding in a cave. It may be, it could easily be. And I only say this, I want to be really, really, really careful when I'm projecting my own opinion or a possibility that you understand this is not thus saith the Lord and it's not thus saith the word of God.

Pastor Brian Michaels: But I think sometimes it can help us if we try to imagine, Psalm 57 is written, David is in a cave hiding from Saul. Could it be that while he's in that cave, someone comes to him with word that they have pronounced judgment upon him as a traitor, guilty of treason. If so, then he would have written a Psalm very similar to this.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And David uses a certain irony in describing their actions. He says, Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones? It's like, well, that's kind of, that doesn't make sense, does it? Do you speak righteousness, you silent ones? Remember, this is poetry. And it's laid out in a poetic context. He's he's basically giving us word pictures, if you will. He's trying to paint a picture in our mind.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And I need to apologize because I'm really distracted because I just developed a wheeze as I'm breathing in. Can you hear it? Yeah, well, I can and it's driving me crazy. I just I've had this thing for since about Monday, and it's just just now as I'm speaking, of course, I can breathe in and I hear this. And yeah. And it just makes me feel like a weenie when I'm trying to be very forceful right now.

Pastor Brian Michaels: They're speaking in judgment, but they had understanding that David really had done nothing wrong. So in their unwillingness to speak up and to say what they knew to be true, they were being silent. They weren't only Jonathan. Jonathan seems to have been the only person close to Saul that was Jonathan, Saul's son, that was willing to go to Saul and say, Saul, Dad, why are you doing this to David? No one is more supportive of you. No one has done more for you. No one has fought more of your battles for you. Everyone else is just kind of sitting back trying to see where the wind is going to blow this whole situation and what would be more advantageous to them.

Pastor Brian Michaels: So they're being silent in regard to David's innocence, while they are acting like they're speaking righteousness in their judgments. Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men? Acting it seems as if their judgment carried the force of law, carried the force of God's law. And he gives them a reality check here. You sons of men. You were squeezed out of a birth canal just like everybody else. You're a human being. And yet you're acting as if you are speaking forth the words of God, acting as if they were God in their judgments. An interesting side note.

Pastor Brian Michaels: The term Elohim that we often use to ascribe that is ascribed to God, is sometimes in the Old Testament, particularly in places like the Psalms and in poetic writings, it's used to describe judges as well. Because when a judge rules, it has that kind of force, like God in that sense. In a much lesser sense, you understand what I'm saying. But in a lesser sense, they have control over life or death in men's and women's lives. The way that God obviously does.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And so often times that term is used to speak of those who are in these positions. And he says, do you judge uprightly, you sons of men? You're not God, and you're not judging uprightly. And again, I think it sounds like our judicial system today, doesn't it? I think regardless of which side of the political aisle you fall down on, I think there is plenty on both sides of the spectrum to look and say that so many of those who are in those judicially appointed positions are not truly trying to rule on what the law says, they're ruling on their ideology.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And this is not the way it's supposed to be. That's not why God ever puts anybody into that position. Now, we can trust and know, no one gets into any position unless God allows it and wills it. So whatever God's purposes are, I won't stand up here and pretend to know some days. But I know they will be held in judgment for their actions. And that's where David is going to ultimately take us.

Pastor Brian Michaels: So, in verse two, he says, no, in heart you work wickedness. You weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth. Because they were working corruption. But here's the thing about corruption. We are willing to put up with an enormous amount of corruption as human beings until it starts affecting us personally. And that's what's starting to happen in our country. We're starting to feel it affect us personally. And so all of a sudden our minds are attuned to it and we're starting to get the sense like, those that we elect to represent us are not adequately and accurately representing us.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And there's a whole lot of, well, I'll call it hostility out there because of it. Where it's going, again, I don't know. I'm not a prophet. I prefer to be a pastor. Thank you. Prophets have to do all kinds of weird stuff, like walk through town naked and all of that. I ain't going there. You're all welcome. Even saying that, a lot of you are going, oh, no. No, I just, thank you. No, thank you for that word picture. But I don't know where it's all going to go, but I know that there's a lot of anger, and there's a lot of frustration, because all of a sudden the corruption is hitting every single one of us.

Pastor Brian Michaels: In verse three, he says, the wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Now, in in a sense, this is true for all of us because we all have that depravity that we are born with, with our sin nature, yes? We all understand this. None of you as parents ever had, this is the day we're going to teach little Johnny how to lie. You never had that day, because you never had to, because long before you even thought of it, you realized one day, Johnny's been lying to me. And they just come by it naturally. It's part of the way that we are hardwired, being born now into a sinful environment, and coming into that sinful environment with our sin nature.

Pastor Brian Michaels: So we understand that this is somewhat true for all of us. The difference being that through Christ, we've number one been forgiven and cleansed, and number two, we've been made a new creature. So we're looking to see God's spirit work something different in us. These that David are dealing with, they are estranged from the womb, they went astray as soon as they were born, speaking lies, and they haven't stopped, is the idea.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Their poison, verse four, is like the poison of a serpent. They are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear. That idea that there are a lot of people spewing absolute poison out of their mouths towards David, simply because they wanted to curry favor with those in power. And again, we see a lot of this today. This is a very, I I think a very important Psalm for our day. Because the things that David is seeing are a lot of the same things that we're seeing today. The stuff that is spewing out of their mouth like the poison of a serpent.

Pastor Michaels: The the amount of poison that spews out of someone's mouth towards someone who does not agree with them politically or ideologically, certainly ought not to be the way that we as Christians respond to those who disagree with us. And that's clear all throughout the scripture. And I say that, but don't get the idea that I say that as one who's got this conquered myself. Okay? I struggle just like anyone else. I want to respond when someone says something that I feel like is completely idiotic. But I realize that my goal here on Earth is not to win someone to any political party. My goal here on Earth is not to win someone to my way of viewing the world unless it's a completely biblical way of viewing the world.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And I realize, I don't have this all nailed. Any of you? Got it all nailed? Some things are pretty clear, some things, I sit down and have conversations with people and I have to acknowledge, you've got a point. And so there's there's no place I don't think in the church particularly that we're spewing out venom towards those who disagree. We want to win them to Christ. Then let the Holy Spirit of God deal with all the other things that he will deal with. I've watched it.

Pastor Brian Michaels: I've watched it in the woman that I married, who grew up in a very different political system than I did and a different ideology. And and it wasn't that she came over to my ideology, she came over to a biblical point of view. And in some ways, I had to moderate my ideology to come back in line with a biblical point of view. Because I can tend to be extreme. I'm just teasing. No, I can't. I can get something and grab a hold of it and just. I I had an aunt ask me one time. Because you all know where my political leanings are, right? That's my right, sure left.

Pastor Brian Michaels: But I had an aunt. She was talking to me about another family member that she had gotten into numerous arguments with politically and we just went and spent some time with her and just because I love her. And she said to me, she says, what is the biblical stance on gun control? She said, do you have feelings and opinions on gun control? I said, yeah, two hands is better than one. And and I said in in all honesty, I I I just lean towards freedom and and the second amendment and all of that. We can have those discussions. But she said, but what's the biblical stand on gun control? And I looked at her and I said, and I used her name and I said, there's no biblical stand on gun control.

Pastor Brian Michaels: The Bible doesn't address gun control. The Bible doesn't address guns. There weren't guns. The Bible, in a day when there were swords and spears, doesn't address sword and spear control either. Spear control. It just doesn't address it. So we can have our strong opinions. You see what I'm saying? But we don't have to bring it into a place where we're angry and frustrated with each other over things that aren't even really addressed in the scripture. I'm all for having those conversations.

Pastor Brian Michaels: But what David is dealing with here is these people that disagree with him, and and he's not even taking a position, he's waiting for God to do what God wants to do, but Saul sees him as a threat. So now they're spewing poison at him. And it's hurting him. It's crushing him. Because it was never his intent to come against Saul. Verse five, he says, speaking of these, this deaf cobra that stops his ear, which will not heed the voice of charmers, charming ever so skillfully.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Now again, ah-ha, yells the critic. Snakes don't hear, they don't have ears. The scripture is wrong. Listen, it's true. Snakes do not have ears, they do not hear. And I know this, I do consider myself something of an amateur expert on this. I grew up in South Florida. I love snakes. I've usually had snakes as pets. To my wife's chagrin, I don't have one now. I'm thinking about it. She's thinking about shooting me. There's she's a second amendment absolutist, yes.

Pastor Brian Michaels: But when I was a kid, there was a point in my life, I wanted to be a herpetologist. Which was someone who just spends their life studying snakes. Snakes don't have ears. They do not hear. You do not go hunting snakes with a snake call. You don't traipse through the bogs and here, snakey, snakey, snakey. I'm going to track them. No, they don't hear. But this is poetry. It's poetic, descriptive, pictorial language. The snake senses the vibrations, sees the movement of the charmer with his little flute going back and forth, and sometimes you'll see the charmer swaying, and the snake will start swaying, and that's what they're responding to.

Pastor Brian Michaels: It doesn't come out of the basket because the flute playing is so bad. Which in any video I've ever seen, it is. But that is not why, you know, the snake's not going to, turn it off. No, that's not happening. They can't hear. They don't have ears. What David is saying is like the snake that will bite its handler. It doesn't care that that handler takes care of it, that that handler feeds it, that that handler might even be involved in a breeding process to let that snake have a little lady snake. He doesn't care about any of that. He just as soon bite them as anyone else. That's what David is saying. They refuse to listen, even to reason.

Pastor Brian Michaels: So, David's cry, verse six, break their teeth in their mouth, oh God. You might highlight and underline that verse. Break out the fangs of the young lions, oh Lord. I love this verse. Jesus said, pray for your enemies, and I think this sounds like a good one. But here's the thing. In the new covenant, we are not instructed to pray this way. We're not instructed to pray this way. But can we all just admit for a moment, we love to read David praying it?

Pastor Brian Michaels: Because there are times that we think this way. But here's what David is saying. I I don't think that he's literally wanting God to punch them in the mouth, although there are times that David will pray for their destruction. But David's heart was always for the glory of God and the good of others. And so his cry that God would destroy them, as we'll see later in this Psalm, we'll see this in the next Psalm. He did ask God to destroy and deal with his enemies.

Pastor Brian Michaels: But he does it because they were mocking God's plan. Remember, God has decreed his plan already. Samuel has anointed David as the king. Saul is opposing the plan of God. David will not take this into his own hands when he could have easily killed Saul on at least two occasions. I I say at least two, because David clearly had the opportunity when Saul was relieving himself in the cave. He clearly had the opportunity when he snuck into the camp and stood over Saul and took his spear. He also probably had the opportunity on the two occasions that Saul took his javelin and threw it at David and tried to kill him by pinning him against the wall.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Because I think most of us, if we were David, we'd have pulled it back out of the wall and thrown it back at Saul, right? And David was a warrior. He could have done it. He's saying this, but he's not willing to take it into his hands, his own hands. He's saying, this is God's to deal with, but God is not going to let these men oppose his work. And it's not good for Israel for them to be opposing the work of God and getting away with it Scott free. The power of snakes, the power of lions, as he mentions here, break out the fangs of the young lions, oh Lord, is in their bite.

Pastor Brian Michaels: So David's prayer, they're like lions coming against me. So just make them so that they can only try to gum me to death. That's really his cry. Lord, make them powerless. Spurgeon said it this way. If they have no capacity for good, at least deprive them of their ability for evil. That's David's prayer. So break out the fangs of the young lions, oh Lord. Break their teeth in their mouth, oh God. Verse seven, Let them flow away as waters which run continually. When he bends his bow, let his arrows be as if cut in pieces. Let them be like a snail, which melts away as it goes.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And again, we know that snails as they go along the ground, they don't actually melt away as they're going. But we've all seen the little mucus trail, right? Behind them. Okay, if you grow up in Florida, slugs. They're even worse. They're like snails without a shell. But they leave this long trail of mucus. Not like when you pour salt on them, that's a different deal. Just saying. But it's like this idea that as they go, they're leaving this trail behind them. It's again pictorial. May they melt away like a snail melts away.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Like a stillborn child of a woman, that they may not see the sun. And that's a pretty graphic description that he gives here. It's it's horrific. But what he's saying is, it would have been better for all of Israel if these men had never been born. We all would have been better off, had they never come to the place of live birth. Verse nine, before your pots can feel the burning thorns. They would put thorns under the pots. That's what they would use to make the heat, to heat up the pot and whatever stew they had in it.

Pastor Brian Michaels: He says, so quickly that you would light the thorns on fire, but the pot wouldn't even feel the heat, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, as in his living and burning wrath, quickly taken away in God's judgment. Then he says, the righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. And again, we look at this picture that David is painting. And I think sometimes we can look at it and we understand that Jesus wants us to have a different attitude because we're not fighting against flesh and blood.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And Jesus, part of Jesus coming was to reveal that to us. Israel and what Saul and David are dealing with was a a different covenant entirely for the nation of Israel. We live under the new covenant. So we read this and sometimes it sounds really harsh, but don't forget. This day is coming. This day is still future for us, the day that the righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance that God brings upon his enemies. When the Lord returns, we will see the vengeance he brings upon his enemies.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And we will rejoice in that day. And I think in that day, because we'll be in our glorified bodies, we will be coming back with the Lord at his coming. We will more clearly see the affront that hostility against God really is. You know, we understand it now. We understand God's holy. We understand that sin is an affront to a holy God. But in our glorified body, having seen the face of the Lord, I think we'll have a much clearer understanding of how bad sin really is.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And we'll rejoice when we see the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, so that men will say, surely there is a reward for the righteous, surely he is a God who judges in the earth. So David, he's asking God to bring judgment on his enemies, because in reality they are God's enemies. And he says that God's judgment will ultimately prove two things. Number one, there is a God. Surely he is God who judges in the Earth. And number two, he rewards the righteous. He rewards the righteous.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Who are the righteous? Well, we are because of Jesus, right? We have been granted the righteousness of Christ. And I read something like this, and all I can think of, it it prompts me to worship. Thanks be to God for the indescribable gift of his son, Jesus Christ, that his righteousness is mine. And surely there is a reward for the righteous. It's not going to be here on Earth. It's not. But we look forward ultimately to the righteousness that will be rewarded in heaven.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Psalm 59, to the chief musician, so to be sung publicly, set to do not destroy, evidently a popular tune in that day, a Michtam of David, a golden Psalm to be valued, perhaps committed to to memory. And then we get a little bit further description for this Psalm. When Saul sent men, and they watched the house in order to kill him. At this point that is described here, David was in his early 20s. Saul has become jealous of David's success. The women are singing songs that Saul has killed his thousands and David his his 10,000s. And so, Saul actually gives his daughter Michael to David as wife.

Pastor Brian Michaels: He has to go out and Saul requires that David kill a hundred Philistines in order to win her as a bride. It's a little more graphic than that when you read the account. Saul says, I want you to bring me the foreskins of a hundred Philistines. Well, that means he wants them to kill a hundred Philistines because they're not going to give those up willingly. So, he goes out and he brings back 200 foreskins of the Philistines. So, Saul gives David, his daughter Michael as wife. But Saul, it's really interesting the way that Saul's thinking is described there. He believes his daughter Michael will ultimately be a snare to David.

Pastor Brian Michaels: I mean, think about that. A dad thinking, if I give this daughter to David, she's going to trip him up. She must have been a hot mess. At this point, Saul has twice thrown his javelin at David to try and kill him and pin him to the wall. This time David runs away. Jonathan has warned him. Now Michael, his wife has warned him that Saul's trying to kill him. So David goes to his house. Saul sends men to keep watch at the house so that in the morning they can grab David and they can kill him. Michael warns David, he escapes out the window and runs off and begins his wandering through the wilderness running from Saul for the next more than 10 years, maybe as long as many as 15 years he's going to be running from Saul.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Michael, after David has escaped, she takes an idol, which makes me wonder why in the world did they have an idol in the house? Did David know, did he allow it, what's going on there? We're not told, but she has an idol, she puts it in the bed, puts covers over it and clothes over it, puts goat's hair up where the head would be, to fool those that are going to come in to kill David into thinking that he's lying there and she says that he's sick.

Pastor Brian Michaels: So they don't want to get near David if he's laying there sick. So they go back to Saul and say, we didn't kill him because Michael says he's sick. And Saul's like, he's sick, what does he have? I don't know, it looks like mange. Some kind of goat head disease or something. And Saul says, you go back, pick up his bed and bring him here in his bed and I'll kill him myself. It's at that point that they realize that Michael has tricked them. Saul uh lashes out at Michael and chastises her and then she lies and says that she only did this because David threatened to kill her if she didn't deceive her father. Totally made up, total lie.

Pastor Brian Michaels: So now David is on the run. Everybody's against him. Everybody but Jonathan, but he's now separated from Jonathan. He, his own brothers are not yet on his side. He has a wife that is now turned against him. Saul, the king is trying to kill him. And you know, it's bad enough when we feel like life is falling apart and we realize it's a consequence of our own sin. Ever been there? Ever been in that place where it's just like, my life is a disaster, even to that place of saying, I just I just want to die, but you know it's because of what you've done.

Pastor Brian Michaels: How about when you feel like that's where you're at and life is falling apart and everything is against you and you haven't done anything to deserve it. That's where David is as he writes this Psalm. Not that he was sinless, it's not about that, it's just in this situation with Saul, he's done nothing but honor Saul. And now he's on the run for his life. So he says, deliver me from my enemies, oh my God. Defend me from those who rise up against me.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloodthirsty men, for look, they lie in wait for my life. The mighty gather against me, not for my transgression nor for my sin, oh Lord. In other words, they're trying to kill me, but I haven't done anything wrong. And how many people cash in their faith in God right here? If this is what it looks like to serve you and to follow you, I've done nothing but try to honor you, and this is what happens to me. Have we heard that?

Pastor Brian Michaels: We've got many in a a younger generation now that are embracing this ridiculous deconstruction idea of their faith. Because somehow God didn't do what they demanded and show up on their timetable. And so all of a sudden, yeah, I'm going to, I'm just going to turn my back on that. This is where David is. He says in verse four, they run and prepare themselves through no fault of mine. And while many would throw in the towel at this point on their faith, just want to tap out, that is not what David does. He is in that place where nothing is going right.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Everything is against him. He has absolutely nothing left. And his response, awake to help me, and behold. He cries out to God. Deliver me from my enemies. You see that first line in verse one? Oh, my God. It's not even, deliver me from my enemies, oh God. It's, oh, my God. I'm not turning from you. Awake, not in the sense that he thinks God is sleeping, but the idea is, rise up on my behalf to help me, and behold. Look at my situation, he cries out to the Lord.

Pastor Brian Michaels: My brothers are not on my side. My father-in-law wants to kill me, and has tried legitimately to do that on a number of occasions. My wife has now falsely accused me of domestic violence. I've been anointed king, and Samuel tells me this is your plan, but I am very far from the throne. Lord, do you see it? Behold. He presses into God. He doesn't abandon his faith and his trust in God. He presses in more deeply, more closely. You therefore, verse five, oh Lord, God of Hosts, the God of Israel. Yahweh, Elohim Sabaoth, L Israel.

Pastor Brian Michaels: He is crying out, using the covenant name of God, the fact that God is in fact the Lord of Hosts, He is the God of Israel. Judgment needs to be executed, justice needs to be accomplished, but not just to Saul for what he's doing to David, to all that are wicked. And it's as if he sees this global reckoning that one day will need to happen. And it will, because all the rest of the scripture speaks of it. There is a global reckoning that will happen. And David looks at it as a bigger picture than just what is taking place with Saul.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And I wonder if David, because God is using all of this to prepare him to be king, if this is part of the reality for David to one day say, you know what? I was treated this unjustly, and I had been anointed by God. I'll bet there are people in my kingdom that feel the same way. That have been treated unjustly. And I need to shepherd God's people, Israel. Saylah, or what do you think about that?

Pastor Brian Michaels: Well, at evening, verse six, they return. They growl like a dog and go all around the city. Indeed, they belch with their mouth. Swords are in their lips. For they say, who hears? They're acting like no one knows what they're doing. They probably convinced themselves, no one knows what they're doing. We're going to get away with this. David knows better because he knows that God knows it all. And so he says, but you, oh Lord, verse eight, shall laugh at them. You shall have all the nations in derision.

Pastor Brian Michaels: You ever wonder what things look like from God's vantage point? I've used this illustration before, but many years ago, there was a big new Shirley MacLaine special on TV and it was a big new age push and in that special, she's on the seashore. And she's standing there on the beach, the waves coming up and she puts her arms in the air and she starts yelling, I am God, I am God. And it was so blasphemous. But that's the new age mentality that we are all God.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And I thought, in that moment, I thought, what does that look like to God? To see this puny little ant of a human being going, I am God, I am God. Remember the fly? Oh, yeah. That's how I picture that coming up into the throne room of God. And does God ever just kind of snicker at this kind of stuff? It's like, Gabriel, look at that. That little red-headed lunatic thinks she's me. I mean, can you imagine, what does this look like to God?

Pastor Brian Michaels: Have you ever heard somebody make this amazingly blasphemous statement? When I get to heaven, I'm going to give the man upstairs a piece of my mind. It's usually at that point, I look at them and say, you've clearly given a few two-piece too many pieces of your mind to too many other people that you don't have enough left to keep you from making a stupid statement like that. You don't have enough mind left to give God a piece of it.

Pastor Brian Michaels: They're going to fall over shaking terrified when they stand in the presence of God. That's the reality. David knows it. You, oh Yahweh, shall laugh at them. You shall have all the nations in derision. Verse nine, I will wait for you, oh you his strength, for God is my defense. My God, my God of mercy, shall come to meet me. God shall let me see my desire on my enemies. Do not slay them, lest my people forget. Scatter them by your power and bring them down, oh Lord, our shield.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And this is really interesting. Remember earlier I said David so often seems to have the heart that all of this is for God's glory and for other's good? Because he's going to be king of Israel. He will be tasked by God to work his life and his position for the good of the nation. See, this isn't David just being bitter and hateful, or he would say, just crush him. But what he says is, don't slay them, lest my people forget. The idea is, let there be a visible lesson. Lord, scatter them, bring them to a place of destitution so every time people see them, they remember the judgment you brought on them because they opposed you, who you are and what you were doing in Israel.

Pastor Brian Michaels: So that others have that visible example so that they never forget. If there's going to be judgment, let it be for your glory, God, because they opposed you, and let it be done in such a way that the rest of Israel will see it and learn from it. Verse 12, For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride and for the cursing and lying which they speak. Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be and let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the earth, Saylah. And that's still true today. God reigns in Jacob to the ends of the earth. What do you think about that?

Pastor Brian Michaels: And at evening, verse 14, they return. They growl like a dog and go all around the city. They wander up and down for food and howl if they are not satisfied. But I will sing of your power. Yes, I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning. For you have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. To you, oh my strength, I will sing praises, for God is my defense, my God of mercy. I love how he goes through all of this.

Pastor Brian Michaels: From that place of realizing, I've got nothing left. I've got nothing left. But I'm going to press into God, and at the end of it all, I'm still going to worship. I'm still going to worship. And he ends this Psalm, this Psalm with his worship. He ends this Psalm that begins with struggle and pain with worship. He said, I did everything right as far as I know. I risked my life for a handful of sheep when I was a kid out on that mountainside. I've slain tens of thousands of the enemies of God.

Pastor Brian Michaels: If I needed to kill a hundred Philistines, I killed 200 Philistines. I went against a giant that no one else would fight in the name of the armies of God. I have done nothing but serve Saul excellently and diligently and now I've got everything has been stripped away from me. And what is his response? It's not, this is what I get for serving you. It's though he slay me, yet will I serve him, just like Job. Though he take my life, he's still God. I know he is God. I don't get it. I don't understand. I don't like it. But I'm going to serve you and I'm going to sit and watch and I'm going to let you be my defense.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Such an amazing heart of trust and faith in this young man. Now we know, because we've talked a lot about the life of David, he will have times when he falters in his faith, won't he? See, but that's what gives us hope. Because we read this and we see this beautiful expression of faith. And we can be encouraged by it, and then encouraged, I think even a little more, because otherwise we look at this and we go, I I could never do this. No, David faltered too. But even in his faltering, he always came back and trusted in the Lord. He never changed his God. He never gave up on God, knowing that God would never give up on him.

Pastor Brian Michaels: I talked to a gentleman this week, and he has gone through just amazing trial. And the Lord has stripped everything away from his life, and it was not done easily. People came against him, and they intentionally destroyed much of his ministry, his reputation, tried to destroy his family. And I I've had numerous opportunities this week to talk with him, and the brokenness and humility that God has brought in his life, and his willingness to trust God is it's amazingly beautiful.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And he's my friend, so it breaks my heart that he's had to go through all of this to be in this place now. But he's a different man because of the trials that he's gone through. And he didn't deserve what had happened to him. Very few know that or understand that. But God allowed it, and he's come to a place of peace with it. It rears his ugly head up every once in a while and he'll go on and I'll say, you've you've been talking nonstop for the last half hour. And he'll go, I know, I know, I know. I'm sorry. Every once in a while it just kind of creeps up again. But there's such an amazingly repentant heart of just allowing God to deal with all of those things.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And I I see David in that. Of just getting to the place of going, Lord, anything I have, you gave me in the first place, and if you want to strip it away, I'll just trust you. I will honestly say I don't feel like I'm always there yet. Um, but that's where I want to be, amen. And I think that's true for all of us. Lord, give us this kind of a heart. Father, that truly is our prayer. As we close this study, give us this kind of a heart that even when we don't understand why we have enemies, when we have done all that we can, as much as is within us to live at peace with all men.

Pastor Brian Michaels: And Lord, we still find that we have enemies because often times they're just simply your enemies and we're your closest representatives. But Lord, it hurts, it's painful, and we see things stripped away from us, and it breaks our hearts, and it wounds us, and Lord, keep us from ever sitting back and shaking our fist or our finger at you and saying, this is what I get for serving you? But Lord, may we always come back to this place of just wanting to press in further. Lord, give us a little bit greater glimpse of your glory, that we might understand a little bit more who you are and understand a little bit more that our reward is not in this life. It's when we see you face to face. It's when we stand in your presence boldly, because we know we have nothing to fear because your perfect love has cast out fear.

Pastor Brian Michaels: Give us the heart of this young man, David, in the way that he responded to all of the struggle, and all of the pain, and just pressed into his relationship with you. It's not in our nature, Father. We confess that, and we own it. So, Lord, transform us into the image of Christ, give us a new nature that we might want nothing more than to just press into you. We pray it all in Jesus' name. Oh, God's people said, Right on. All right, God bless you guys. We will see you this weekend.