Savage Street Church of Christ

12_23_2018_Psa140_DonRuhl

When People Oppose You

Put your confidence in the Lord as David Did

Psalm 140

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • December 23, In the year of our Lord Christ, 2018

Persuasion:

1. Psalm 140.0 | A Man Who Loved God
   
   0 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
   
   1. David loved God and people hated him for it. 
      1. People who hate God,
      2. hate people who love God.
         1. Therefore, David had enemies.
         2. Much of his psalms speak of his enemies.
   2. God loved David.
      1. People who hate God,
      2. hate people whom God loves.
         1. Therefore, David had enemies.
   3. If you love God and God loves you,
      1. people who hate God
      2. will see in your life
         1. that you love God and
         2. that God loves you.
            1. They will oppose you for it.
            2. They will fight you.
               1. However, do not despair thinking
               2. that you have done something wrong, because
                  1. you have not, but
                  2. it is not so much that they oppose you.
                     1. They oppose
                        1. the God whom you love and
                        2. who loves you.
                     2. That being the case, think as David did in Psalm 140.

[Main points only are from Wiersbe]

1. Psalm 140.1–5 | What Sinners Do to God’s People
   
   1 Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men;
   Preserve me from violent men,
   2 Who plan evil things in their hearts;
   They continually gather together for war.
   3 They sharpen their tongues like a serpent;
   The poison of asps is under their lips.
   Selah
   4 Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked;
   Preserve me from violent men,
   Who have purposed to make my steps stumble.
   5 The proud have hidden a snare for me, and cords;
   They have spread a net by the wayside;
   They have set traps for me.
   Selah
   
   1. David had a problem and
      1. his first thoughts were to talk to God about it.
      2. Since he loved God and knew that God loved him,
         1. of course David would pour out his heart to God.
         2. Of course, David would put his life into the hands of God.
   2. As humans, we have great power and wisdom
      1. given to us by God Himself, but
      2. we cannot do everything.
         1. Sometimes, we find ourselves overwhelmed by a problem, and
         2. in this case evil men had overwhelmed David.
   3. We find it easy to love David because 
      1. he loved God, but
      2. not everyone thought that way.
         1. Yet, David was like Jesus in that
         2. people loved them and others hated them.
            1. If you love God,
            2. some people will hate you.
   4. Evil men plotted against David because he was a threat to them!
      1. However, in one sense we want the evil against us and
      2. we want the good for us.
         1. If the good oppose us, and
         2. the evil support us,
            1. we have a problem,
            2. we are the problem.
      3. Therefore, do not despair over having enemies or
         1. people who always seem to be contrary to you, for
         2. it means that God is with you:
            
            12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. 14 If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified (1 Peter 4.12–14).
            
      4. Therefore, although as David said, they have tongues like a serpent, and
         1. the poison of asps on their lips,
         2. it means that you stand with God and
            1. that is a good thing.
            2. Paul quoted verse 3 in Romans 3 to show the world’s depravity.
   5. David turned to God in prayer because
      1. he knew of God’s mercy,
      2. whereas man does not know mercy.
         1. That is why in verse 4,
         2. David pled to be kept from the hands of the wicked,
            1. just as when God sent a prophet to David,
            2. asking him to choose between three punishments.
               1. David could not choose, but
               2. he did ask that he not be left in the hands of man.
   6. David knew that his enemies made plans to make him stumble,
      1. they wanted to ensnare him,
      2. spreading a net before him, and
      3. setting a trap for him.
         1. David recognized that he needed God’s help
         2. to avoid those snares, nets, and traps.
            1. Those devices are not in the open, but
            2. are used in trickery.
               1. Do not underestimate the evil
               2. that resides within the hearts of people who oppose you.
2. Psalm 140.6–8 | What God’s People Should Do to Sinners
   
   6 I said to the LORD: “You are my God;
   Hear the voice of my supplications, O LORD.
   7 O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation,
   You have covered my head in the day of battle.
   8 Do not grant, O LORD, the desires of the wicked;
   Do not further his wicked scheme,
   Lest they be exalted.”
   Selah
   
   1. Have you said to God that He is your God?
      1. Hearing yourself say it
      2. will help you to see if it is true.
         1. We need to know for ourselves in what or in whom we trust.
         2. If we say it to God, we will more firmly plant it in our thoughts.
   2. See David recall the past in verse 7.
      1. We can do the same.
      2. Think of all that you have gone through in life, yet,
         1. here you are today.
         2. How did you make it?
            1. David could see that in the past the Lord had covered his head,
            2. shielding him from death blows.
               
               “The shield of the Eternal is better protection than a helmet of brass.” – Charles Spurgeon
               
               1. That is why David won and Goliath lost.
               2. It also explains why Saul could not kill David.
   3. Therefore, in verse 8, David asked for God’s help again.
      1. David did not want the wicked to win, for
      2. if they did,
         1. they would only exalt themselves,
         2. believing that they are invincible.
            1. The wicked are not suppose to have their desires fulfilled.
            2. It is the righteous who should prevail.
   4. Speak these things in prayer to God.
3. Psalm 140.9–11 | What Sin Does to Sinners
   
   9 “As for the head of those who surround me,
   Let the evil of their lips cover them;
   10 Let burning coals fall upon them;
   Let them be cast into the fire,
   Into deep pits, that they rise not up again.
   11 Let not a slanderer be established in the earth;
   Let evil hunt the violent man to overthrow him.”
   
   1. Since they plotted evil against David,
      1. he wanted them to reap as they had sown.
      2. God had covered the head of David, but
         1. David wanted God to cover the heads of the evil
         2. with their own evil words of scheming.
   2. David wished for them hell.
      1. They sought to destroy a man who loved God.
      2. Therefore, David thought that they should suffer the worse punishment.
   3. They slandered him.
      1. Why should they be established in the earth.
      2. They were hunting him so let evil hunt them.
4. Psalm 140.12–13 | What God Does for His People
   
   12 I know that the LORD will maintain
   The cause of the afflicted,
   And justice for the poor.
   13 Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name;
   The upright shall dwell in Your presence.
   
   1. Seek to have the confidence that David had in the Lord.
      1. Job had the same confidence:
         
         25 “For I know that my Redeemer lives,
         And He shall stand at last on the earth”
         (Job 19.25)
         
      2. Paul also had this confidence:
         
         12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day (2 Timothy 1.12).
         
      3. Why can’t you have the same confidence?
         1. Do what all three of these men of God did.
         2. They focused on the Lord and not on themselves.
            1. They did not have self-confidence.
            2. They had God-confidence.
   2. David knew that if he walked with the Lord,
      1. the Lord would maintain David’s cause.
      2. His enemies would then be fighting someone much greater than David.
   3. Then David finished by affirming what the righteous would do,
      1. meaning himself and
      2. anyone in a similar circumstance:
         1. They would give thanks to God for how He had delivered them.

Exhortation:

1. Evil men
   1. plan evil things,
   2. seek a fight,
   3. speak poisonous words,
   4. entrap the righteous,
   5. have evil desires and schemes, and
   6. speak evil words and slander.
2. However, see and remember who God is (From Roy Deaver’s book, Vol 2, page 241):
   1. God is the one who who delivers from evil men;
   2. God is the one who preserves from violent men;
   3. God is the one who guards from the hand of the wicked;
   4. God is the one who hears our supplications;
   5. God is the one who protects us in the day of battle;
   6. God is the one who opposes the desires and the plots of the wicked;
   7. God is the one who maintains the cause of the afflicted;
   8. God is the one who executes justice for the needy;
   9. God is the one to whom the righteous give their thanks;
   10. God is the one in whose presence the upright shall dwell.
3. Enemies surround the church today.
   1. Many in government have misapplied the First Amendment and
      1. so they seek to silence us.
   2. Many in secular universities are teaching young people against the church.
   3. Entertainers have taken bold stands against us.
   4. Say David’s prayer for the church.
      1. Our enemies shall not prevail,
      2. if we speak to God in prayer as David did.