The Bible Study Hour

Guest (Male): Today on the Bible Study Hour, we'll take a closer look at Psalm 35, a call for righteous judgment, where David pleads his own innocence and begs God for justice. He once again asks God to rescue him and to bring judgment upon his wicked enemies.

Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. Have you ever felt wrongly accused or attacked? David has been delivered from his enemies time and again, and now he's asking God to judge and deal righteously with the wicked. If you have your Bible handy, turn to Psalm 35.

Dr. James Boice: If you've been following this series of studies on the Psalms for any length of time, you may have noticed something about the way we usually end the services. We usually end by singing a hymn that's based upon that psalm. I've been rather surprised as I have prepared for these services and have looked through our hymnbook to find the number of psalms that have hymns based on them. Most of the psalms do, surprisingly, and in some cases, a psalm will have six or eight hymns based upon it or parts of the psalm.

The reason I mention that is that there is no hymn in our hymnbook for Psalm 35. Now, I think there's a good reason for that. This is one of those so-called imprecatory psalms. Imprecatory means a psalm in which the writer pronounces judgment on his enemies or asks God to pour out judgment on his enemies, and it's generally felt by Christians that it's hard to sing a psalm like that, particularly in a hymn on Sunday morning or Sunday evening, for that matter.

I suppose some Sunday night after the Eagles lose, it might be possible for us to sing that in full spirit, but most of the time, that seems incompatible with what we've been taught to do as Christians. Our Lord himself taught us that we are to forgive our enemies. He said when you pray, pray, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing." That's what he did in the case of those who were crucifying him. He said in the Sermon on the Mount, "I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven."

Well, we read these psalms, and we say, how in the world can we sing them? You might be able to study them in terms of something David did, but they don't seem to apply to us very well. Now, there are not a whole lot of them, though there are a lot of sayings like that scattered at random throughout the psalms. There are four psalms particularly that are imprecatory psalms. The 7th is the first. We've already studied that. This is the second, the 35th. The 69th is one, and the worst of all is Psalm 109. These psalms seem to grow in intensity throughout the psalter. The easiest to handle is the 7th. They get worse, and by the time you get to 109, commentators count no less than 30 anathemas pronounced against enemies in that one psalm alone.

And so we say, well, what do you do with that? How do you treat them? I want to suggest that what we need is a balanced appraisal, and I want to suggest a few different ways to go about it. I then want to look at the psalm itself, and I want to make some applications at the end. The way these are usually handled, if you study books on the psalms, is for the commentator to say, well, we are just introduced to a different spirit in the New Testament than in the Old.

And there's something to be said for that because there is something of a different spirit in the New Testament. The Lord said to forgive our enemies. We don't find anything exactly like that in the Old Testament, and that's true of a lot of the things that Jesus Christ said. They have their roots in the Old Testament, but he said it differently. The spirit of the New Testament is indeed somewhat different.

And yet, I, for one, find it a little difficult to settle with that, which I regard as a rather easy way of treating it, superficially, I think, because what it overlooks is that the Bible is a single book given to us by a single God and, therefore, has to reflect a single point of view, and does. When we talk about salvation, we don't suggest that there's one way of salvation in the Old Testament and another way in the New. Certainly, there's a fuller revelation of it in the New, but it's one Gospel. And the same thing should be true of this matter of enemies and sin and judgment. And so, I think we have to look at it a little bit more deeply than that.

Here's a few things to consider. First of all, all of these psalms, the ones I mentioned, the four, are said in their title to have been written by David. That's significant because David is not known for being one who worked out vengeance on his enemies. There are a lot of vengeful people in the Old Testament, but David wasn't one of them. As a matter of fact, he was known for the exact opposite. What David was known for was his mercy, his gentle treatment of those who wronged him, and the great example of that is his treatment of King Saul.

King Saul, his predecessor on the throne, hounded him to death, chasing him from cave to cave in the wilderness, and yet, although God delivered Saul into David's hands on at least two separate occasions so he could have killed him and become king, he didn't do it. David's treatment of Saul in the Old Testament is the best Old Testament parallel to the way the Lord Jesus Christ treated his enemies at the time of his crucifixion, praying that God would actually forgive them. You see, so a fact like that makes us approach this a little bit more slowly.

Second thing we notice about these psalms, if you study them carefully, is that in each case, David claims to be innocent of the thing for which he's charged and for which he's asking God to intervene. Now, not all the psalms are like that, not all the psalms of David. Quite often, David has sinned, and when you come to a psalm like that, you find quite a different spirit. Where David has sinned, he doesn't ask God to judge his enemies; he recognizes that he stands under the judgment of God, and what he does is confess sin and ask for forgiveness. You see, that's quite a different thing. So that fact causes us to probe a little deeper.

And then there's this thought, too. Although, as I said, there is a different tone somewhat in the New Testament from the Old, this idea of rejoicing at the fall of evil is not entirely absent from the New Testament. The great example of it is in the Book of Revelation in chapters 18 and 19 where the righteous in glory absolutely exult over the fall of mystical Babylon. Babylon stands for all of the evil of all of the kingdoms of all the world down throughout all the world's history, and when Babylon falls, the saints just praise God for it. Evil is judged. There's even that wonderful line in which they rejoice because they see the smoke of her goes up forever and ever. It's an everlasting bonfire, and they're happy.

Now, you see, when we see that, we say maybe there's a little bit more to it than simply saying, well, in the Old Testament they were vindictive but we're not like that because we're all like Jesus Christ. You say, now, if that's the case, what is the solution? Well, there are a number of things I want to suggest, but the chief one is this. I think when we study these psalms, we have to realize that David is writing not as a private citizen but as the king of Israel and, therefore, the chief justice in the land. That was a role of the king in those days.

You see, it's quite a different thing to seek justice as a king, that being your responsibility, or to seek vengeance because of some wrong that's done to us personally. It's quite right for us to forgive our enemies, and that's commendable to do so. But it's not right for us simply to pass off a wrong done to somebody else that way, particularly if we're the one responsible for administering justice. We see an innocent person taken advantage of by somebody who is particularly evil; we don't simply say, well, you know, you just have to forgive in those circumstances. That's not a Christian response. Christian response is to seek justice, you see. And David had that responsibility, and he expresses it in these psalms.

Now, secondly, although we have to be very careful here, there is an area in our own lives where we should do that. Reason I say we have to be very careful is that you and I are seldom really innocent, and when we're slandered, often it's with good cause. Slander isn't even the word to use for it; it may be harsh on the part of the other person, but often we deserve it. But nevertheless, sometimes it is true, particularly of a Christian witness. We will be abused for that when all we really are doing is we give a witness, sometimes in fear and trembling, is to seek the well-being of the other person, and yet we're slandered for it. And sometimes, very evil things are done.

Now, in circumstances like that, it is not wrong to ask God to exalt the right and judge the wrong, or exalt the righteous and judge that which is not righteous. You see, it is always good to have right prevail. As I say, you have to be careful about that because often it's just our own pride or our own sensitivity that's involved in it. But if our mind is on the right thing and it's the truth and righteousness and justice, even when it concerns us, there are occasions when we can pray for it.

But I must add, with awareness of our own sins. Even when we pray along those lines, we have to be aware of our own sins. That's what I mean by balance. And that's why I think that in the ultimate analysis, it's only God's people who can do that. David has this balance in the psalms, and Christian people who know something of their own sin and something of the holiness of God can do it too.

You see, apart from that, apart from the knowledge of holiness and justice and righteousness which we only find in God on the one hand, and apart from a knowledge of our own sin which goes along with it, we fall into one of two extremes. Either on the one hand, we become self-righteous and everybody who opposes us is wrong. We become legalistic, mean, and that's bad. Or else we become libertarian in the worst sense. We say, well, you know, nobody is really to blame; let's forgive everybody, and we forget about justice.

You see, it's only people who know something of the holiness of God and because they know something of the holiness of God also understand something about their own sin who can do this, who can pray for right just while at the same time confessing their own sin and being aware of it. Now, with that kind of background in mind, I'd like us to look at the psalm. Sometimes when I talk about these psalms, I point out that it's very hard to outline them, and the proof of that is that the commentators don't agree. Sometimes they have radically different outlines.

This is a psalm where that is not the case. I was astonished to find that virtually every commentator has exactly the same outline for the psalm, divided into three parts. Each part begins with a prayer and it ends with praise. Verses 1 through 10 are the first section, section one. Verses 11 through 18 are the second section, section two. And the third section, verses 19 through 28, are the third.

I don't know why the New International Version doesn't do it that way. It's the only place I have found a slightly different outline. They have put verses 17 to 21 together in one stanza. I think they would have been better to break it with verse 18, putting verses 17 and 18 with the earlier stanza and verses 19 through 21 with the second stanza. Then you'd have five stanzas, the first few verses and the last three being separated, but it would follow more or less the outline I'm suggesting.

First three verses are somewhat introductory, even though they go with the first section, and the last three are somewhat of a conclusion, even though they go with the last section. Now, look at those first three verses. They give us a clue to the outline in terms of its substance or content. There are two images here. First is the image of a lawsuit, and the second is the image of a battle.

The idea of a lawsuit is hidden a little bit, but it's there in the word "contend." Word "contend" just sounds to us like contentious; it can have to do with any kind of a fight. But actually, it's a legal term. It has to do with what a lawyer does. A lawyer comes to help you and he fights for you in court. That's the idea of the word "contention" in the original language. So "contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me." There are people who have brought a lawsuit against David and he wants God to enter the list as his advocate or his defender. That's the idea of verse 1.

And then verse 2 talks about a battle. "Take up a shield and buckler, arise and come to my aid, brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me." So there's a second image. And then it comes together in the third part there at the end because the word "say to my soul, I am your salvation" can apply to either. The lawyer can come to our aid in court and be our salvation legally, and a champion can come to our defense in a military encounter and be our salvation there in the battle. And that's what David is saying.

Now, the reason I analyze that as carefully as I have is that's what we find in the three sections. First thing we find is the image of the battle, and that's in section one, verses 1 through 10 and particularly 4 through 10, which follows. David is facing a military encounter; he wants God to defend him. Verses 11 through 18 are the lawsuit. That's the language there. "Ruthless witnesses" are coming forward; they're attacking him unjustly about things he hasn't committed. And so he asks God to be his defense there.

And then in the third part, just like in the beginning, the two come together. And so in verses 19 and following toward the end, you find the idea of the lawsuit and the battle mingled together, and the great theme there is that God is his deliverance. In other words, God is his salvation, and at the end he rejoices in it. Now let's just look at those a little bit. The section that really begins to talk about the battle is the imprecatory part.

Let me read it. "May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay. May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them away; may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them." Why is that? Why is David praying that way? Well, first of all, he talks about his innocence. That's what verse 7 says. "They hid their net for me without a cause, and without a cause they dug a pit for me." He repeats that later; you'll find it in verse 19. "Let not those who gloat over me who are my enemies without a cause."

So what he's claiming there is to be innocent. Not of all things; David knew perfectly well he was a sinner. But of this issue, whatever it is they're getting after him for, he had not done anything to deserve it. And so he's praying for God to intervene on his behalf. We can pray that as well. Where we see somebody who has done nothing to deserve the treatment they're getting, we can pray for God to intervene and protect the innocent party. That is entirely proper. So David is saying that.

One thing that's interesting in this section is his mention of the angel of the Lord in verse 6. When we were studying the 34th Psalm, the one before this, we found the same thing there, the angel of the Lord. These are the only two psalms in the entire Book of Psalms, the entire collection, that mention this figure, this angel of the Lord. What is that figure? Well, the angel of the Lord could just be an angel of the Lord. But in light of the whole Old Testament, it seems to be more than that because from time to time, periodically throughout the Old Testament, there is a figure called the angel of the Lord who appears.

Very first time was to Hagar in the early chapters of Genesis when Hagar's running away from Sarah her mistress because Sarah was mistreating her. And Hagar decides she can't live with that anymore; she goes away into the desert and of course it's a hostile environment, she's about to die because she has no water and food. And the angel of the Lord appears to her and tells her to go back and submit to Sarah her mistress and promises to bless her. And in that context, Hagar refers to the event and names the place, "Thou God who seest me." So in the language of the text, Hagar is referring to this angel of the Lord who appears to her as God. The language is very clear.

Now, you say that just might be figurative language. True, it might be, but it might suggest something more. The angel of the Lord also appears to Abraham on the occasion of the near sacrifice of his son on Mount Moriah. The angel of the Lord appears there and speaks from heaven, speaks as God. And Abraham names the place "The Lord Will Provide," a significant name. This may be the same character that had appeared to Abraham earlier to announce the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. If you know that story, you know the three heavenly visitors came to Abraham as he sat by the tree of Mamre by his tent in the heat of the day.

As you read the story, two of them are repeatedly referred to as angels. These are the two that go down into Sodom and Gomorrah and bring Lot out. They're angels, it says that clearly. The other one, the third character, is not called an angel, although he is like the other two. But rather, he's referred repeatedly in the story as the Lord. You see that dozens of times in the chapter: "the Lord said, the Lord said, the Lord said." And always it's this individual who is speaking.

There's also an instance of a figure like that appearing to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the burning furnace when they were thrown in by Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar looks in, he said, "I threw three men into the furnace but I see a fourth and he's like the Son of God." That may be the same character. And then I think as a final instance of Joshua before the Battle of Jericho, he's pacing outside the camp, obviously contemplating how he's going to go about the battle the next day, and a figure suddenly appears with a sword in his hand. And Joshua doesn't know what to make of him. He says, "Are you for us or are you for our enemies? Whose side are you on?" You're a soldier. And this figure says to Joshua, "Neither, but as commander of the armies of the Lord am I come." And Joshua bows before the figure because he recognizes that he's more than just a man.

Now, I'd suggest that this Old Testament figure that appears again and again is actually the Lord Jesus Christ appearing before his incarnation. I acknowledge that that's something I can't prove, but it's what I think as I read the stories. Certainly he's referred to as more than a man. He seems to be referred to as more than a mere angel. He certainly speaks with the authority of God and he takes command of the Lord's armies. Seems to me that that fits the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if that's the case, then that's what David is referring to here. In what sense? Probably as the commander of the Lord's host. He's probably thinking of Joshua and he says, "May the angel of the Lord commanding the host of God pursue my enemies and drive them away." Isn't that what you would pray if you were in that situation? David was surrounded by hostile forces most of his life. He'd say, "God intervene, I need your help. I'm not sufficient all by myself to resist all these powerful enemies against me. They're attacking me without cause; I'm not attacking them, they just want my land, they want the benefits of the kingdom. Lord intervene for me, let the angel of the Lord pursue them and drive them away." He was right to so pray.

Well, second section, he is dealing with a different matter. What he deals with here is slander. These witnesses are coming against him. It seems to be a court case. I've called this an image, the image of a battle and the image of a lawsuit. I ask, is that to be understood only as an image or does it have some kind of literal manifestation? I really don't know, but I think there's something literal to it. I don't know of any example in the Old Testament of anybody being able to bring a literal lawsuit against a king. Could you do that in the Old Testament times, sue a king? I'm not sure that that was possible.

But it was certainly possible to slander the king, and that was happening, and it seems to be the kind of language David is using. These ruthless witnesses are testifying against him, and it is almost, if it is not in fact, as if they were bringing a suit in a court of law. Of course, what bothers him again is that it's unfounded. You see, "they question me on things I know nothing about." They're saying, "Now tell us what you did there." I didn't do anything, I don't even know what they're talking about. But nevertheless, that's what they're saying.

When I put it together, it doesn't seem to me strange at all to think that you have a situation here where people are working within and without to unseat him. The armies without and a third current going on within; anything they can do to undermine his authority and bring him down. What bothers David most in this section is that when they were in a bad spot, he didn't take advantage of them, but rather he interceded for them. He worked for their good while they are working for his ill.

Verse 13, "When they were ill, I put on sackcloth, I humbled myself with fasting, and when my prayers returned to me unanswered, I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother." That's the way I behaved toward them. But now when I get into trouble, when the enemies are hammering at the gates of the city, instead of supporting me or praying for me, these people are going about trying to bring me down. That's what hurts, you see.

What David says there is that they were actually mocking him, verse 16. It means they must have been succeeding somewhat. I don't know what he's referring to here, but they must have said, "Ah, look at David, pah! What kind of a king is that?" as they tried to tear him down. He says something interesting. He calls on God to look on, to look at what's happening and to rescue him from their ravages. He says that he knows God's going to do it and that when God does it, he's going to give thanks to God in the great assembly. That's the way each of the sections ends.

Now, in this third section, these two ideas come together. If you read it carefully, you find the language both of the battle and the law court are involved. And the theme here seems to be the fact that they're gloating over him. Now, already in the previous section they're mocking; here they're gloating, and you see the word three times. It's in verse 19, "they gloat over me." And then it's in verse 24, "do not let them gloat over me." And in verse 26, "may all who gloat over my distress be put to shame and confusion."

I suppose that hurts the most of all. All of us suffer failures because we don't succeed at everything, and defeats because we are often defeated. And if we're mature at all, generally we can handle some of that. We can handle our defeats, we can handle our failures, but when people gloat over our failure, that's what hurts, especially if it's somebody we've tried to help. And yet that happens; that's the kind of world in which we live. Don't these psalms ring true? You think of your own experience, can't you think of times when that's happened to you?

And what God is to do here, David prays that he will do, is intervene. He says God is going to do it. That's the way the conclusion goes. He wants all those who are gloating over his distress to be put to shame and confusion. And when he is vindicated, he knows that those who delight in his vindication are going to join him in joy and gladness and praising God.

Now, I usually apply these psalms in different ways. Sometimes I'll even apply them at the beginning; I'll say what they mean and how we're to take it and then we study them. More often than not, I apply them as we go along. I take each section and apply it; I think that's probably the best way to teach the Bible. In this case, I've held the application to the end because this matter of an imprecatory psalm is difficult and I think we have to have the whole psalm before us in order to apply it.

So, how do we do it? How do we apply these words? Well, first of all, let me suggest that just as I said at the beginning that David is speaking here not as a private citizen but as the king on behalf of others, in exactly that way, though we are not kings, we can certainly ask God for justice for other people. You see, we should pray for that, and we should be on the side of justice and we should do that vigorously.

Our problem in this life is not that we are too vindictive, I think, though sometimes we act in a vindictive way, but rather we don't care about justice enough. Oh, if somebody offends us we care a lot, and that's the area in which we have to be extremely careful. But if somebody else is wronged, we don't care very much. But Christians should care. Christians should be on the side of those who are attacked unjustly and do what we can to help them. And if we're not in a position to do anything personally about it, certainly we should pray.

When you see on television some of the terrible things that we see on the news night by night, you should intercede for those who are suffering or taken advantage of by people who are really evil people and have no sense of justice or righteousness at all. Second thing we can do is what I suggested earlier: we can pray for ourselves in certain situations, but cautiously. And the reason for that is that we are sinners and we have to be very, very careful because sin is subtle and it's very easy to mix a desire for personal vengeance with the concern we should have as Christians for right and justice, the justice of God.

Bible says, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." And the way we have to weed through that in our prayers is to make sure that although we pray for justice and for righteousness, that we are not praying for an opportunity to take the matters into our own hands and accomplish it ourselves where we ourselves are concerned. You see, in a case like that we have to leave it with the Lord.

And here's a third way in which these imprecatory psalms can be applied. I notice that the two things that are said about David's enemies here—the fact that like wicked enemies they're seeking his life in battle and like slanderous accusers in a court—both of those things are seen in our great adversary, the devil. Because that's the way he's described in the New Testament. He is a wicked adversary, Peter says, who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and who in the 12th chapter of Revelation is also described as the one who slanders the brothers. "He is a liar from the beginning," said Jesus Christ. That's a description of our enemy.

And so if there's no other way in which we can apply that, if we don't see injustice done and get involved with that and pray that God would establish it, at least we can pray in this area that God would bring Satan down, establish justice, and so bring in a kingdom of righteousness for which every one of us should pray. That's what you pray at the very end of the Bible, "How long, O Lord, how long?" That's the prayer of the saints. And what we pray is that Jesus Christ might return in righteousness and reign. He will do it one day, and on that day we will rejoice as those in David's day did when they saw his own vindication.

Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this teaching and we would pray that you would give us grace as we grow in the Christian life and mature to see our way through these difficult areas as Jesus himself would. We recognize the problem we have: either on the one hand we don't care about others, we just are willing to let everything go, or we become self-righteous and vindictive. And what we need is the balanced view in a middle way where because we know you, we're sensitive to issues of right and wrong and justice and injustice, and at the same time know the sin that's in our own hearts.

Father, as you teach us that as we draw close to you, grant that we might become a good force in this life, light in the darkness, salt in the world, and so become in a very small measure something of what Jesus Christ himself was when he dwelt among us. For we pray in his name. Amen.

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