Sermon: O God, I Have Spoken of You, Speak for Me! Psalm 109

 

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02072016OGodIHaveSpokenOfYouSpeakForMePsa109DonRuhl

 

Purpose: To encourage people to praise God, and then seek His help

O God, I Have Spoken of You, Speak for Me!

Do you want the Lord to stand at your right hand?

Psalm 109

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • February 7, In the year of our Lord, 2016

Song Leader and Song Suggestions: Larry Amberg – Songs on Prayer

Prelude:

  1. What should the church, or you, do about false accusations against us?

Persuasion:

  1. Psalm 109.0 – Stand in for the Messiah

    0 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

    1. The Holy Spirit used this Psalm of David
    2. to show one of the enemies of the Messiah.
  2. Psalm 109.1 – Pray

    1 Do not keep silent,
    O God of my praise!

    1. The God whom we praise,
    2. speak now for us.
      1. Please do not ignore the one who praises you, for
      2. we have prayed to you, praising you,
        1. even when we did not need help.
        2. God, an enemy speaks, but
          1. You have been silent.
          2. Now is the time to speak up!
  3. Psalm 109.2–5 – Accusations

    2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful
    Have opened against me;
    They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
    3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
    And fought against me without a cause.
    4 In return for my love they are my accusers,
    But I give myself to prayer.
    5 Thus they have rewarded me evil for good,
    And hatred for my love.

    1. The enemies of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth,
      1. made false accusations against Him,
      2. denying He came from God.
    2. The same thinking also accuses us, saying:
      1. The church is full of hypocrites.
        1. Do you know why we have hypocrites in the church?
        2. We have a standard that sometimes Christians fail to achieve.
          1. By what standard does the atheist live?
          2. If no atheist lives hypocritically,
            1. they have no standard and anything goes.
            2. Yes, we fail, because
              1. we strive for something higher.
              2. Can you fail at atheism?
      2. The church is ignorant.
        1. The first time that I encountered this attitude was with a neighbor of the Nile Street property.
          1. The congregation that meets on Nile Street in Klamath Falls owned close to 5 acres.
          2. However, a huge irrigation canal cut through the property, leaving close to half an acre inaccessible to us.
            1. On that other side, homes started going up.
            2. One of those homes, belonged to a builder and his real-estate-agent wife.
              1. They told us the property was only worth $500, and they tried to get us to sell it to them for that price.
              2. As I talked with them, I could tell that they thought we did not know anything.
                1. I guess they thought the membership lived in the church building, and never came out and never learned anything in life.
                2. Since then I have encountered that attitude many times.
                  1. By the way, we did sell the property, and
                  2. it was large enough to put a home on, as you can see.
        2. Listen to atheists, for they treat us the same way.
          1. They think we did not go to school.
          2. They think we know nothing of how the world works.
            1. Therefore, they condescend to us.
            2. They see themselves as highly educated and wise.
      3. The church is judgmental.
        1. Have Christians ever treated people treacherously?
        2. Believe me, I have been on the receiving end many times.
          1. And will again.
          2. Sometimes the church acts pharisaical.
            1. However, we make no claim to perfection, but
            2. we do preach a perfect God and His perfect Son.
              1. Yes, Christians will offend you, but
              2. I also do not know of a more loving and accepting people on Earth.
      4. The church is intolerant.
        1. The world and atheists change on what they condemn and what they approve, and if we do not get in line with them on their latest cultural fad, they wonder what is wrong with us, although we may hold a view that even they held just a short while ago.
        2. Truly, what I have discovered is that if you want to find an intolerant person, go talk to one of the so-called tolerant ones.
          1. They proclaim love and acceptance, but
          2. be prepared for a tongue lashing when they find out that you do not hold to all their views.
      5. The church believes in fairy tales.
        1. God creating the heavens and the Earth, they call a fairy tale.
          1. They judge us.
          2. They do not tolerate us.
        2. Believing
          1. that something came from nothing,
          2. that order came from chaos,
          3. that life came from non-life,
          4. that one form of life transformed itself into all forms of life,
            1. they call science.
  4. Psalm 109.6–15 – Judgment

    6 Set a wicked man over him,
    And let an accuser stand at his right hand.
    7 When he is judged, let him be found guilty,
    And let his prayer become sin.
    8 Let his days be few,
    And let another take his office.
    9 Let his children be fatherless,
    And his wife a widow.
    10 Let his children continually be vagabonds, and beg;
    Let them seek their bread also from their desolate places.
    11 Let the creditor seize all that he has,
    And let strangers plunder his labor.
    12 Let there be none to extend mercy to him,
    Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
    13 Let his posterity be cut off,
    And in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
    14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord [Yahweh],
    And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
    15 Let them be continually before the Lord [Yahweh],
    That He may cut off the memory of them from the earth;

    1. Why should they prosper when they fight against their Creator?
    2. Why should they enjoy prominent positions?
      1. Look at verse 8, and
      2. you will see the passage that Peter used as a command to replace Judas.
    3. The shame Judas brought on his family,
      1. they would never get over,
      2. as verses 9–15 show.
        1. He would leave his children fatherless, and his wife a widow.
        2. His family would have to beg to survive.
        3. Creditors would seize their possessions.
    4. To understand the words of prophecy that David spoke of Judas,
      1. consider what Jesus said of Judas,

        24 “The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” 25 Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?” He said to him, “You have said it” (Matt 26.24–25).
      2. Psalm 109 shows why it would have been good,
        1. if Judas had never been born, and
        2. it does not even speak of what happened to him after death.
  5. Psalm 109.16 – Persecution

    16 Because he did not remember to show mercy,
    But persecuted the poor and needy man,
    That he might even slay the broken in heart.

    1. Judas knew that the Jewish leadership hated Jesus.
      1. Rather than protect Jesus from them,
      2. Judas turned Jesus over to them.
    2. Judas had no compassion upon the poor and needy man.
  6. Psalm 109.17–20 – Reap

    17 As he loved cursing, so let it come to him;
    As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.
    18 As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment,
    So let it enter his body like water,
    And like oil into his bones.
    19 Let it be to him like the garment which covers him,
    And for a belt with which he girds himself continually.
    20 Let this be the Lord’s [Yahweh’s] reward to my accusers,
    And to those who speak evil against my person.

    1. Judas would reap as he had shown and
    2. he would not receive what he had not given.
      1. So shall it be for those who accuse us falsely today.
      2. They shall reap as they have sown.
  7. Psalm 109.21 – Mercy

    21 But You, O God [Yahweh] the Lord,
    Deal with me for Your name’s sake;
    Because Your mercy is good, deliver me.

    1. Man may despise us, but
    2. we know that we can all upon the Lord and
      1. He will show us mercy.
      2. Please cry out to the Lord
        1. that He show us mercy now,
        2. that young people think about the doctrines of atheism and
          1. see them for what they are.
          2. May the Lord equip us to answer their objections.
  8. Psalm 109.22–25 – Suffer

    22 For I am poor and needy,
    And my heart is wounded within me.
    23 I am gone like a shadow when it lengthens;
    I am shaken off like a locust.
    24 My knees are weak through fasting,
    And my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.
    25 I also have become a reproach to them;
    When they look at me, they shake their heads.

    1. Picture Jesus around the time of His betrayal by Judas.
    2. What did Jesus have?
      1. What happened in His heart as He watched His creation reject Him?
      2. How did they wound His heart as they hurled insults at Him?
        1. He came to show love, but
        2. they trumped up false charges against Him.
    3. He became very weak.
      1. He was depressed.
      2. They did not feed Him.
      3. They beat Him.
      4. They did not allow Him to sleep.
  9. Psalm 109.26 – Cry

    26 Help me, O Lord [Yahweh] my God!
    Oh, save me according to Your mercy,

    1. He did what we should do:
      1. He cried out for help.
      2. He begged for mercy.
    2. Any time you are hurting,
      1. whether in the heart or in the body,
      2. pray to God.
  10. Psalm 109.27–29 – Knowledge

    27 That they may know that this is Your hand—
    That You, Lord [Yahweh], have done it!
    28 Let them curse, but You bless;
    When they arise, let them be ashamed,
    But let Your servant rejoice.
    29 Let my accusers be clothed with shame,
    And let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle.

    1. Here He revealed His motive for asking for help through mercy.
    2. He wanted His accusers to know when God delivered Him.
      1. Do not ask God to help you just because you do not want to suffer.
      2. You should want the atheists and other false accusers of Christians
        1. to see God’s hand in your life, because
        2. they claim that they cannot see Him.
  11. Psalm 109.30–31 – Praise

    30 I will greatly praise the Lord [Yahweh] with my mouth;
    Yes, I will praise Him among the multitude.
    31 For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor,
    To save him from those who condemn him.

    1. David, Jesus, and Christians do not seek personal comfort.
    2. We want to praise the Lord and we want our accusers to praise Him also.

Exhortation:

  1. The Scriptures can also accuse us,

    45 “Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust” (John 5.45).

    1. One of two parties will accuse you:
      1. Satan and his friends, or
      2. The Scriptures.
    2. Satan will accuse you,
      1. if you turn to the Lord, and
      2. give yourself to following His Scriptures.
    3. The Scriptures will accuse you,
      1. if you turn from the Lord, and
      2. give yourself to following the works of the flesh.
  2. What will it be?
    1. The decision is yours.
    2. Let us have Satan accusing us, because
      1. he hates our devotion to God’s word.
      2. If you follow Jesus,
        1. believing His word, and
        2. obeying it with all your might,
          1. He will take care of Satan for you,

            10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death” (Rev 12.10–11).