Psalms 129 He Broke the Hitch

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan, where we are growing in faith, community, and service.

This is a sermon series on the Psalms of Ascent by Pastor Don Filsack. Let's listen in.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Filsack. I'm the lead pastor here, and we are very glad that you've taken time out on this

Mother's Day to come together and worship God. Do you want to just start off by saying happy Mother's Day?

Particularly, obviously, to those of you that are moms in the room, I would encourage you, if possible, to get together with your mom this morning or to give her a call and remember that honoring your parents is something that should go along with us throughout our entire lives and something that's a worthwhile endeavor.

And some of you maybe have a strained relationship with your mom. This would be a great day to honor her by reaching out and doing something like that.

And so just a reminder that that is today in case any of you forgot and need to run out and maybe get some flowers this afternoon or something.

But make sure that you honor your moms. Be sure also to fill out the connection card you received when you walked in. Those are available.

And you can turn that in in the black box back there. Remember that if you've been attending here for a while, we still would love for you to fill that out.

There's a place for you to put comments, suggestions, prayer requests on the back of that. And we do pray for those each week as a leadership.

And so they don't get shared with the whole entire church. But just as a leadership, we pray through those that are on there.

And so take advantage of that. And if it's your first time with us, and you'd be willing to fill out one of these connection cards, we would love that.

And then also please take a free coffee mug back there. Just our way of saying thanks. There's a set of coffee mugs on that table back there.

Grab one of those. You can check out the worship folder you received. It's got all different kinds of announcements and things.

But the primary way we communicate is through the e -cast, an email that goes out every week. And the only way you're going to get on that listing is by sharing your email address with us on a connection card.

Offering envelopes provided. Again, offerings go in the black box back there. We don't pass an offering plate. Don't want anybody to have that, oh, no moment, the plate is passing.

I've got to give kind of thing. We want it to be out of the abundance of blessing that God has given to you that you would give.

And so that envelope is provided. You can recycle that back there if you're not going to use that this morning. And that is it for the announcements this morning.

At recast, we have a core value of authenticity. Many of you know that our name is an actual acronym.

And each letter stands for, except for the E, each letter stands for one of our core values.

And so it's replicating community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth. And those are the guiding principles of this church.

And I want to focus in on the A, which stands for authenticity. This is a core value that comes out of what

I've recognized a lot in ministry. I've recognized it in my own heart. And it's a tendency to to be fake or at least to sugarcoat our lives as we come in to gather together.

We scrub up our lives and act like everything is okay. And then we gather together with God's people.

You know, it's the whole kids are freaking out in the back of the minivan and you're shouting on the way to church. Kids behave.

And then everybody walks through the front door and smiles and everybody, kids smile, you know. And it's like everything, and we put on this front that everything is always running smooth in our lives.

And then, of course, we leave the gathering of God's people and go back to being our regular old messy selves from Monday through Saturday.

But I want to be sure that we recognize that when we talk about authenticity in that way, it doesn't imply that we say

I'm just the way that I am and everybody has to deal with me. There is a sense in the

Christian life where in our authenticity, we hope that part of, an authentic part of us is growing in faith towards God, is actually taking on more of who

He is and is recognizing more of His grace and His glory in our lives. And so I would love it if our authenticity,

I mean, I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, if our authenticity always looks like being dour and down and sad and complaining and whining, then that says something about our heart, doesn't it?

I mean, being authentic, I don't want, the answer to that isn't to fake being kind, generous, and nice.

The answer is a heart change and that comes through Christ. But if we have authenticity, we will come to the gathering of God's people to take in God's word and under the conviction and belief of God's word, leave here with more power, more power to honor

God by applying that message to our daily lives. And I mention authenticity because the psalm that we're coming to this morning is a raw psalm.

It's kind of visceral in the things that it has to say. I mentioned last week that some of us in our society want to focus on the nice Jesus.

The one who says, let he who has no sin cast the first stone. The Jesus who tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

The Jesus who partied with tax collectors. The Jesus who partied with prostitutes and other sinners and made them feel welcome.

And we love that Jesus, right? Isn't that the Jesus that we champion in our culture, in our society? People out there are just like, man, that is awesome.

But then we encounter a text like ours this morning that calls for God's judgment on the wicked and sinful.

And I think we get uncomfortable because if we're honest, we recognize that wicked and sinful are not words that are far from labels that we deserve.

When we consider and contemplate our own corrupt hearts, those just don't seem that far away if we're honest. Would you agree with me on that?

Wicked and sinful, does that describe? Is that pretty close to home? So we can tend to, when we start seeing judgment passages towards the wicked and sinful, we can hurry and kind of scramble to get back to the comfortable bits of scripture.

Right? The comfortable parts that make us more happy and kind of bolster us and all that stuff.

And by the way, some of you might even just kind of be sitting there like with your jaw down like I'm not preaching a Mother's Day message.

Obviously, this is not a particularly made -for -moms message this Sunday. And I believe that the word of God comes to bear on all of our lives.

I would hate to preach a sermon that was to the moms and just asked everybody else to chill for a second.

This is a message for all of us, but moms alike. This is a message for everyone to take in. And so we're kind of marching right through into the next psalm.

This morning, the text this morning, I would venture a guess, has never been chosen as a one -off sermon.

That an associate pastor, for example, I've been an associate pastor before and sometimes you're given a slot to fill.

And so it's just like I've got one Sunday. I've got to preach. I know what I'll preach. Psalm 129. I don't, this is not that kind of text.

It's not one that's a favorite of many people. I probably would, honestly, if I'm just being honest, would not get to this text in my lifetime if I was picking my favorite verses to preach on.

And this is one of the reasons I preach in an expositional chapter -by -chapter way, is that that way we get to these sections of scripture that sometimes make us uncomfortable.

These psalms, by the way, these 15 psalms, 120 to 134, have the common title of psalm of the sense.

And that's one of the reasons I'm preaching through that as a chunk. These were the playlists that were the earbuds of a traveler to Jerusalem.

And as such, they were good reminders of the way that God works in the lives of his people.

Each one of these picture, each one of these psalms, a picture or a snapshot of a life lived on a journey towards God.

And in that sense, each one of these psalms serves as a metaphor for our lives. How many of you would say right now,

I'm somewhere on a journey to God? Go ahead and raise your hand. I'm on a journey towards God. Then these psalms apply to you.

They apply to you in the sense of a, of a, of a sense and understanding. Different stages, these psalms would hit you in a different way depending on where you're at in that journey.

So these psalms of ascent were traveling songs, pilgrim songs, songs of ascent.

And they were good reminders of the way that God works in the lives of his people. And not every season of life, we know, works well on a motivational poster.

Not every season of life has a coffee mug to go with it, with a nice quip or a nice saying.

If we were to select a modern song, think about this in terms of how these psalms work. Let me clarify.

If you were to pick a modern song to summarize how your life feels today, there'd be a whole host of different songs that you might select or choose.

In each one of us, it would be kind of interesting to see. And maybe during connection time, ask somebody, what's your song today? Be an interesting, interesting thought, right?

There might be times in our lives that might be classified by Bette Midler's Wind Beneath My Wings, right?

A couple of you know it, good. There would be times in our lives that would be defined by Jesus loves me, this

I know. Just the simple times of faith, right? There would be maybe seasons, maybe in our childhood we could go back and say there was a time in my life where I recognized just the love of Jesus and that was central to me.

There might be times where Guns N' Roses' Welcome to the Jungle defines the season of life that you're in, right?

Three of you probably knew what I was talking about there. The rest of you are really spiritual, right? Some seasons might be defined by, oh my favorite genre,

Garth Brooks' Friends in Low Places, right? Some seasons. So you can think of just all different kinds of songs that could potentially define a season in life and that's what this song is like.

This psalm defines a segment, a section of a journey towards God and it's not a pretty picture.

It's not one of the good ones in the sense. They're all good, by the way. They're all beneficial and they're all helpful. Some of you are like me.

There are songs that you like but there are times in life where you can't hear them, where you literally turn the radio off because or you change the channel because it's like I needed something a little more melancholy than that right now.

Or I needed something a little more upbeat than that right now and you're just kind of like the song matches the mood or whatever.

This is one of the harder songs and yet in the midst of the emotional frankness of this song, we find hope.

In all of these psalms of ascent, in a journey towards God, they all have an element of hope.

Unlike our modern songs, unlike tuning into the pop songs or the classics or whatever, that you're going to find some melancholy songs that never resolve.

All of these psalms resolve within the realm of the hope that the pilgrim has in this journey towards God.

They all have a ray of hope. They always point in some way to gratitude towards God.

So open up your Bibles to Psalm 129. If you need a Bible, just raise your hand and Mike's back there and Mark's back there to bring a

Bible to you. We do want everybody to have a copy of the Word of God. And if you don't have one, if you don't own an English standard version of the

Bible, this is your chance to just grab one. We want you to take one of those with you, but otherwise navigate in your app or whatever.

But I want you to have the Word of God on your lap throughout this message that you can see and especially this text that you can see that what

I'm saying is coming from God's very Word. Psalm 129, a song of ascents.

Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth. Let Israel now say, greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me.

The plowers plowed upon my back. They made long their furrows. The Lord is righteous.

He has cut the cords of the wicked. May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward.

Let them be like the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up, with which the reaper does not fill his hand, nor the binder of sheaves his arms.

Nor do those who pass by say, the blessing of the Lord be upon you. We bless you in the name of the

Lord. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the opportunity to be together in the gathering of your people.

I thank you for your grace and your mercy toward us. Father, I thank you that you do not afflict your people for long, but there is a coming time where we know that even though there is darkness in the night, the morning is coming.

We know that we are not people without hope even in the midst of affliction, even in the midst of difficulty, even in the midst of dark times.

Even for those here who are mothers that are ceaselessly toiling and working.

For those who are here and are struggling. And Father, even on a day like today, those who struggle with infertility,

Father, those who have lost a mother, those who are just going through all kinds of things in their lives and in their hearts.

Father, I pray that you would bring peace to this place. In the gathering of your people, that you would be present in the opportunity that we have even now to lift up our voices in worship to you.

And as we have an opportunity to come in contact with your word, Father, that you would transform us, change us from the inside out, make us more in the image of your

Son, more willing to suffer, more willing to endure with the long perspective in life that you are indeed making all things new.

And we have that to look forward to no matter what we face in this life. And so may we exalt and rejoice in our

Savior Jesus Christ as we sing these songs, Father, that we would be moved in our emotions as well as in our minds as a result of encountering you through worship this morning.

In Jesus' name. Again, thank you so much to the band for leading us in worship.

I just appreciate greatly the effort that they put in. And you may notice that there's a couple of new faces up there.

Thanks to Steve Root for stepping up on the drums there and helping out. And then I don't know if you could notice the resemblance here, but this is

Josh's brother Joe here who is on the bass. So a couple people got them confused this morning.

So, but thank you guys very much. Really appreciate what you do. Get comfortable. Keep your

Bibles open to Psalm chapter 129. And just to let,

I kind of debated whether I let you know this, but my throat is a little bit sore this morning. So if I hit a high note and I get really, you know, how

I sometimes get excited and if my voice cracks, it's just puberty. So, and that will pass.

So that will get past that. But, and I might just need to have something in my mouth here the entire time.

So, but please don't let that distract you from the Word of God. Remember if you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts or the seat that you're in gets uncomfortable, you can get up in the back and stretch out or whatever it takes.

But keep your Bibles open to Psalm 129 as we dig in this morning. Our song this morning starts off with a song formula that is not uncommon in Hebrew poetry.

We saw it back in Psalm 124, which started off this way. If the Lord had not been, if it had not been the

Lord who was on our side, Israel now say, if the Lord had not been, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side. And that repetition with an injunction to the congregation to sing along with the person leading is very similar to what we do today.

It's a common style of song in ancient times and it's something that's not that uncommon even now.

The song begins and then asks everybody to join in right in the middle of the song. And it's a bit funny what the songwriter wants to hear us all say.

It's a little bit funny and a little bit strange. You can imagine singing something like, how great is our

God, sing with me, how great is our God. Anybody familiar with that song? Same formula, same starting formula.

We sing that in modern worship times. So we are familiar with that.

We say, come and sing along with me right in the middle of it. But so in our text, he says, greatly have they afflicted me from my youth.

Come on, sing it. You guys know the tune. You know it. Come on, sing with me. Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth.

It kind of strikes us as a funny thing that a songwriter would ask us all to join in saying, right?

It's a little bit strange, a little bit odd. But the experience of the pilgrim on the way to Jerusalem is that they've experienced some degree of persecution.

Somewhere on this road of life, I would suggest that all of us at some level and at some point encounter those people.

According to the text, they, those people, you know, them. They have always afflicted us from our youth.

The psalm is going to fill out for us as we go along a better picture of who they are in verse one, verses one and two.

But let me just point out at this point that the psalm is immediately drawing an us, them line, a line that's very uncomfortable for many of us, particularly because we are increasingly growing in our sense as a country and as a nation against all distinctions.

Like we have a distinction issue. We have a problem distinguishing between one thing and another.

It's becoming more and more and more and increasingly a problem in our culture. Let me think about it in this, in this way.

We're moving rapidly to try to pretend that there's not even a difference between the genders. A complete washing away of distinctions, of any differences.

And let me just suggest to you that if, if we can go so far and so extreme in our culture to deny that there's any distinction between the genders, then how many of you think we might be quickly moving towards a culture where to distinguish between those who are in the faith and those who are out of the faith might be on its way out as well?

Are you seeing what I'm saying? Just if we, if we have an issue, if we have a problem with distinctions in general, then certainly within the church, we have, at least in scripture, some level of distinguishing that, that not everything is always the same.

There are those who are pilgrims on the figurative road to God in our

Psalm this morning. And then there are those who afflict those who are on a pilgrimage to God.

Different, very different roles. And I believe that every person in this room who has lived outside of the protection of a

Christian family, and even those, some of you who have and currently do live in the, under the protection of your parents' household, can identify a name or a group of people who have attempted to push you down for your faith.

I think everybody can come up with a name or a group or some kind of interaction you had with someone out there.

Maybe it is a group. Maybe it's an organization. Maybe it is a boss. Maybe it's a neighbor. Maybe it's a someone in high school who used to mock you.

Whatever it might be, there has been somebody who has attempted to push you down. But fortunately, this isn't a song.

This isn't a Psalm that's just strictly about adversity. But it's a song that is about victory.

Because notice the last line in verse two. Look at, look at your Bibles with me. The last line,

Victory. Israel, the context here is, sing with me

Israel. Certainly Old Testament, we're talking about that people of God.

Now we can translate that and we ought to translate some of the notions of Israel into the people of God and then under the new covenant, we'll kind of do that as we go through.

But they had indeed experienced corporately from the very beginning, people afflicting them and opposing them.

And have you read the Old Testament? Israel faced some persecution. Did they face some affliction? From even the foundation of that fledgling country, there was indeed significant opposition.

From the wars all the way starting in Abraham's time, to Isaac's battles over wells in Canaan, to the

Egyptian slavery, to the Moabites, to the Ammonites who opposed them, the Philistines who stood against them,

Edomites, Assyrians, Persians. All of those being groups of people who had some kind of opposition to the people of God, and I believe in some kind of orchestrated way.

Then you go on into modern times, the Nazis, the Arabs. You see some kind of a pattern here, right?

How many of you think that if you just study Jewish history, you might begin to see a pattern of persecution?

You see some level there of something that's going on? But they, the oppressors, have not prevailed.

The song exalts in the glory that the people of God have sustained by his hand onslaught after onslaught.

And the evil one's schemes have all failed.

Now, I want to point out that there's a little bit of a distinction. I send out my sermon and somebody kind of challenged me on this, and I think it's just something for some of us, it might be an issue as you're looking at, is the

Persian persecution of the Jews the same as the Nazi persecution of the Jews? And is that similar?

Is that the same? And I just want to point out that in that Old Testament, I think that Satan had motivation, has always had motivation for persecuting the people of God.

But I want to point out now in the New Testament era, the church is the people of God. We can get kind of hung up on, well, no

Nazis gonna ever succeed, or the Arabs will never succeed in taking over Jerusalem because God's favorite people and all that stuff.

And I want to be clear that God was saving out for him a people called Israel, who were the protector, who were protected by God for bringing forth who?

Jesus Christ, the Messiah. The hope of Israel was the Messiah. And now all focus from the cosmic glory of God is focused on his chosen one,

Jesus Christ. And so everything goes over to him now and his church. And in one sense, how many of you know that Satan has it out for the church?

The New Testament people of God. So there's some way in which we are kind of recipients.

We sit under this as we're in the crosshairs to some degree. You've experienced that.

The church is often in the crosshairs. And yet I would suggest to you that you go, okay, well, once Jesus came, was

Satan done with the Jews? He was just like, oh, that doesn't matter anyways, because I think he still has hostility towards them, right?

They are still the ones through whom the Messiah came. And so it makes perfect sense that he has this animosity towards them.

And I want to suggest to you, this is kind of interesting. If you study this and you research these things, there's overwhelming evidence of the animosity, of animosity and affliction towards God's people down through the ages.

Enough that it makes me wonder sometimes if Satan hasn't actually overplayed his hand. That we have, in one sense, almost kind of like a visual material evidence for a systematic animosity from spiritual forces.

I think sometimes I wonder if it's not like, Satan's not like the guy sitting on a full house whose eyes sparkle and he goes all in too soon.

And he's kind of played his hand. He has granted us significant material evidence of his existence.

And I don't think it's a stretch to identify that what we see in history, even as this psalm identifies on a personal level, the pain and angst that is going through the people of God at that time, we see a systematic attempt to extinguish the people of God.

And the individual pilgrim is called upon to remember that many have been used to afflict

God's people. Just like the Old Testament people of God had affliction, so also the church of God's, the church of God's New Testament people face concerted effort by Satan to eradicate us as well.

But, hear me carefully, hear the text carefully, they will not prevail.

And I want to suggest to you that in the midst of the persecution, in the midst of the difficulty, as the songwriters crying out, greatly have they afflicted me from my youth.

This is not a pleasant thing. It's not like all fun and games. Verse three, doesn't really work well on a coffee mug.

Look at it. The flowers plowed upon my back, they made long their furrows. Yep, another day. Is that the way?

It's not really great for a motivational poster. And the image that we're given here, the word picture that we're supposed to have in our mind would be humorous if it wasn't for the reality that sometimes this is the way that it feels to be in the household of God.

Sometimes it feels like persecution. Sometimes it feels like difficulty and affliction. The group called they in verses one and two are now in verse three called plowers.

And they've hitched up their oxen to plow. And they have set about plowing the songwriters back.

And they haven't done a lazy job at it. They're not bad at farming. They're pretty good at agriculture.

They're doing a great job. They have put all of their energy, all of their will, all of their effort to make sure that they get to the edges.

They get the whole field. They make long furrows on the back of the people of God.

Not just doing, you know, hey, well, if we get a little spare time, we'll do some plowing. Obviously, this is a word picture of persecution that probably for some of us in our mind should reasonably make us consider the possibility of a literal opening up of the back with whips.

But let's not lose the fact that this is an agricultural illustration and fits with the theme of the rest of the text, which is all agricultural in its scope.

The affliction of Israel in this text and the corporate nature of this Psalm is in part meant to make us consider how when we come together as God's people, we come together to gain strength.

Even in this gathering here this morning to gain strength in our common bonds in Christ. As we face a world that is increasingly, increasingly in opposition to God and to us as his people.

We need to be reminded that affliction is real. We need to be reminded that affliction is normal.

We need to be reminded, boy, do we need to be reminded that affliction is temporary. And they who afflict us will not prevail against the people of God.

And the reason they will not prevail is not credited to us. We don't get credit for them not prevailing.

Look at verse four where it says, the people of God are strong and they have cut the cords of the oppressors.

They have risen up. Is that what it says in the text? The people of God have risen up and cast down the cords of the oppressors and cast down their reign.

Verse four, is that what it says? No. And it also equally does not say through their wisdom and quick wits, through the wisdom and quick wits of the people of God, they have avoided the traps and snares and the plows of the enemy.

Now when the scripture wants to speak about deliverance, when the scriptures want to speak about salvation, when the scriptures want to speak about hope, you can be sure that God is in the center of that context.

When scripture speaks about salvation, when scripture speaks about deliverance and rescue, God is there.

The Lord breaks into the center of a song about affliction.

Grave affliction, affliction that leaves deep scars on the back of those receiving it.

Affliction likened to a team of oxen pulling a plow over your back and God, the righteous one, shows up and he cuts the cords that bind the plow to the oxen.

He cuts the cord that binds the plow to the oxen.

The word righteous here as it defines and talks about God, which I'm gonna think when you see a word defining

God, you ought to take some special attention to that in the text of scripture. It has the notion of God and his covenant faithfulness.

Now the word righteous has all different kinds of applications. It's a pretty broad word in the Hebrew language. All kinds of legal terminology that it's used for and it certainly implies to some degree that God is always right in his judgments.

He is right in all that he does. He is pure in all that he says but he is also always faithful to keep his promises.

And the faithful one who is right and just in all of his ways, he is the one who has the freedom to truly judge the hearts and minds of mankind.

It's only him who has the true right. How many of you ever gotten it wrong? You've judged somebody else's motives only to find that, oops, that's kind of embarrassing, right?

Because we are not infinite. We are not good at judging the motives of others. We are not good at looking in and perceiving hearts.

All we see is the behavior. And how many of you really have judged somebody else for doing something that you did yourself but then you kind of give yourself the benefit of the doubt because you knew your own intentions weren't that bad, right?

Maybe just those of you who have argued with a spouse recently might need to go and take care of that, right? You've accused them of doing the same things that you do.

You always use the word always. I just use the word always. If you stop and think about it for a second, you kind of just need to clarify that.

God is the only rightful judge. And here he judges on behalf of his people and he cuts the cords of the wicked.

We started off, by the way, here the progression of the words that are designated for the people who are opposing the people of God.

First, it started off as they or them. And we moved in verse three to find that they are plowers of the backs of God's people.

They are persecutors. And now in verse four, they are identified as the wicked. These are people who love and embrace opposition to God and his people.

They are a people who say that bad is good and good is bad.

They embrace opposition to God and his people. They are aligned with the evil one, whether intentionally or not.

Nobody needs to sign a contract with Satan in order to be in this category. Some people without even knowing that they are opposing

God are opposing God and that's reality and a terrifying reality, but it's true. But before we consider that this must be a really extreme group of people, like you hear the word wicked and you're like, okay, well,

I know some of those people. I've seen them on TV or I've seen them in the news or something like that. I want to point out that wicked is a hard attitude.

Wicked is something about the heart, not just strictly about behavior. Not everyone who is wicked is a murderer.

Not everyone who is wicked is in prison or headed that way. There are many upstanding people who in a civil sense seem to be really good citizens of our nation.

They seem to really have it well and everything seems to be going in their direction who fit this category of people opposed to God in his ways.

You understand what I'm saying? It's not just, this isn't a word wicked that's reserved just for the most vile offenders in our culture, but in our text, the

Lord has cut the reins from their plow. The image is a bit silly. If you can imagine a person working to plow a field, guiding a team of oxen.

Of course, the oxen are the tractor, right? We have a tractor in these days. They will still plow a field and you pull a plow with a tractor and so you hitch up the tractor to nothing and just drive around the field for a while.

And just up and down every row, all the effort, all the time that it would take to plow a field, but nothing's happening.

Hitch up the team of oxen, head out to plow the field and you never hitched up the plow.

You get what I'm saying? This is in a sense in the title of the message is Jesus broke the hitch. He's broken their hitch.

He has cut the cords of the plow from the oxen.

The picture is one of futility. Despite the attempts to plow up the people of God, the oppressor's effort will come to nothing.

Now I want to point out, some of you might even just be having a hard time tracking with me because you're like, hey, I thought persecution hurt.

I thought it would damage people. I thought, you know, could we indeed be martyrs? Could our lives end?

Could there be some fruit to the efforts of those who would afflict us and oppress us?

Could they accomplish something? Could they plow up something? And I want to point out that in the short run, there are times where the oppressor seems to be victorious.

There are times in our lives where it feels like the evil one is winning. There are times when it feels like the wicked prosper and the righteous are always a day late and a dollar short.

But in the big picture of what God is doing, the wicked will not prosper.

The wicked will not prosper. The wicked will one day stand before the

God that they opposed and they will find that their attempts to oppose him have been like plowing without the plow attached.

And the work of opposing God is foolish. It is empty and will in the end come to nothing.

And while we should be moved to compassion for those who are in this category of wicked opposition to God, we equally recognize within our own hearts a longing for justice against those who have opposed

God and his glorious purposes of love through his people.

Because it can be a conflict within our hearts of wanting justice and recognizing we ought to love our enemies, right?

Have you ever felt that tension in your life? So far the song has been about deliverance and hardship.

God watches out for his people and he will not allow the enemies of his people to triumph over them.

But then things turn. Verses five through eight, it's like the music turns louder and discordant and we can barely pick out any musical quality as we try to navigate the emotional frankness of God's people calling out for judgment on these wicked people.

In our culture, we might not mind calls for revenge and vindication towards a murderer or violent criminal.

Some even in our culture today will still call for the death penalty without shame. But I would suggest to you that we're rapidly moving towards no room for religious cries for vindication.

Our society can barely abide any calls for the justice of God to roll down on the wicked.

We're a culture where it can be hard to mention hell, right?

Where it's become unpopular to talk about any honest, real scripture -oriented judgment of God.

But again, we're a culture that loves the Jesus who forgives and we just assume that he's gonna forgive everyone.

But notice that the word wicked has not been strong enough. Verse five identifies these people further and gives them another title.

Haters of God. I hope the picture of these people kind of snap into focus for you as we go from verse to verse.

It started out as they. Identified further as persecutors of God's people that want the plowers who plow the back of God's people.

Then they are referred to as wicked and now finally identified as haters of God. And the songwriter asks that those who hate

God will be brought to the shame that they deserve. And equally, that they will be turned backwards.

Hating the creator. Hating our creator is probably the most shameful of all human achievements.

And the psalmist is calling for those who hate God to receive what they deserve, shame.

But the second part of the verse, verse five is more difficult because it's a little bit more direct.

Verse five, may all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backwards.

Seems quite likely that he is asking for them to receive what they tried to dish out. That they would in turn have their backs exposed in the way that they have attempted to expose the backs of God's people.

May they have their back turned to God. Well, it seems like the request fits the crime.

Despite what we might, what might strike our hearts is a vindictive nature. Some of us might cringe at the thought of saying, man, they should get what they tried to mete out.

Let me point out what is significant about verses five through eight. The songwriter isn't going out and hitching up his oxen to go plow himself some

God haters backs. You hear me carefully there? What is the songwriter doing?

Is he getting geared up to go out and take revenge on those who have persecuted him?

Is that what he's doing? He's praying, he's praying.

He's on his knees calling out to the one who knows justice. The one who is true and righteous in all of his ways and he's calling on him.

Thank God, would you take care of this? I have some ideas. I'm gonna share with you God some ideas of what I'd like to see happen.

But hey, you let it roll. You bring your justice here.

I'm not going vigilante on this. I'm not hitching up my oxen and getting ready to plow their backs in return.

No, I'm just talking with you, God. And if there's vindication to be brought to this situation, would you bring it?

Even in this psalm is a distinct and powerful reminder that God is the one we turn to for vindication. We are not as people of God, those who take revenge ever.

I want you to think deeply about whether it is, whether or not it's incompatible to both love your enemy and pray for them and equally ask

God to sort it out through justice. And I think that if you spend some time working through that in your own scenario, in your own situations, you will find that you recognize that possibility in your own heart.

If you've ever been deeply wronged, then I think you already understand what it means to experience conflicting emotions of knowing that you want justice and knowing that God doesn't want you to be the one through whom justice comes.

You're hearing what I'm saying? And so we have this balance in the Christian life where Jesus clearly indicates that we are to love our enemies.

But equally, can we pray that the schemes of the evil one would come to nothing, that their efforts would be thwarted?

Absolutely. And that's what this songwriter is asking for. Furthermore, the songwriter requests that the wicked

God -haters might be like grass on their housetops. He gives some suggestions. He said, God, could you, I'm gonna give you some word pictures here.

You do with them what you want, but could you make them like grass on their housetops? They who have fruitlessly sought to plow the backs of God's people should have no harvest.

The request is that they would not be successful in their ventures in verse six, that they would not be plentiful in verse seven, and that they would not be blessed in verse eight.

These quite honestly don't sound like good Christian prayers to me. I think at a gut level, we're kind of like, man, how does a

Christian, can a Christian pray this way? You know, you imagine, imagine you're sitting at dinner, you're sitting around the lunch table today.

Your child is home from college, there for Mother's Day, you know, and you've gathered around and you're like, hey, would you say a blessing for the lunch today?

And the prayer goes like this. God, thank you for this food. And could you please shame my professor who hates you?

Could you befuddle all of his research and let all of his academic attempts come to nothing so that those who pass by his office say, man, you have fallen from such great height.

God hasn't been with you now, has he? Amen. Please pass the mashed potatoes.

How would you respond to that kind of a prayer from your college student? And yet that's kind of a modernization of this psalm.

That's what the songwriter is saying here. But let me suggest that we keep our focus on the

God who is our deliverer. He is open to bringing anyone into his family who will respond to him by faith and trust in him.

He has provided a way for redemption, even for those who currently hate him, even for those who are wicked, even for those who have persecuted.

So that those who remain in a state of hatred and animosity towards him have aligned themselves in an extremely dangerous place because grace has been offered.

It has been extended. Do you want them to feel like they've accomplished great things in their life?

We want their plots and their plans to be foiled. We do not want them to be satisfied and fulfilled in a life of opposition to God.

And I'm not attempting to soften the nature of this psalm, but I think the reality is that a fulfillment of these prayers could be the very thing that could be used to turn a

God -hater to him. When all of their attempts to foil

God's people are like grass that sprouts up on the muddy rooftops, only to shrivel by noon and die in the heat of the day, they may be moved to look elsewhere for their purpose and meaning in life, someplace other than opposition to God.

His people. But in wrapping up this text, we've got a couple of applications that I'd like us to think about.

As I've studied this text this week and as we work through it, the first is to rejoice that God is working out a massive plan of redemption that involves severing the reins of the wicked.

Praise God for that. As you face opposition for your faith, consider with pity. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day if you're able to slide that off and go, you know, they just hate the message.

How about it feels like they hate us? Sometimes that's the way it feels when there's a personal side to this.

And much of the affliction, as much as it hurts, sometimes it leaves scars.

And for some of us, rejoicing has to involve gratitude and the amazing freedom and peace that we have in the church in America and that we've experienced for over 200 years here in this country.

I would suggest to you there are some indications that this could be coming to an end. Some possibility that our favor in the eyes of our culture could be on the way out.

And so I suggest to you that we make hay while the sun is shining. God takes wicked people and gives them new hearts all of the time.

So let's get bold, even if it means entering into the suffering that this text is talking about. Paul spoke about being struck down, but not destroyed.

And again, that's not a popular one. I've never seen that on a coffee mug. Struck down, but not destroyed.

But if we're speaking out for the gospel of Christ, we may at times be struck down. It might feel like that, but not destroyed.

If we get knocked down, we get up again. The second thing, let's pray against the tide of evil in our world.

It seems like a strange, strange application unless you're studying this text. And yet that's exactly what the text is telling us.

Pray against the tide of evil in our world. I would suggest to you that there could probably be nothing more out of whack than when a

Christian goes out vigilante and murders an abortion doctor or does something terrible like that, taking vengeance in their own hands.

Or when anyone for that matter uses violence in the name of Jesus Christ. We are not to take revenge or personal justice, but equally, we ought to be moved to pray consistently against the tide of evil in our world.

We should pray that the efforts of the evil one promoted by wicked haters of God would come to nothing.

That they would be like grass on rooftops that nobody would see as a blessed harvest. When he goes out and harvests in that ancient culture, goes out and tries to harvest their rooftop.

It's just thin, hard mud that the grass might get a hold on and then just wither and die.

What do you do when your blood begins to boil over current events? What do you do when you're watching the news and things seem to be going all swirling around you as negative and bad?

What do you do when you find the cause of Christ and his people being maligned and marginalized and ridiculed?

Pray and ask for God to cut the cords of those who seek to plow over the backs of his people.

And lastly, lastly, let's come to communion this morning. Remembering the one whose back was literally plowed for us.

The vicious attack on God's people down through the ages is not just simply orchestrated by evil men, but it's more so orchestrated by the evil one.

He has always hated the people of God and he has moved the nations to rage against God and against his anointed one.

And the vicious attacks on Jesus at the cross is the culmination of Satan's plot to bring down the

Messiah and the line of God's people. He was pierced.

He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And by the deep furrows on his back, by the long furrows of the violent whips, by his stripes, we are healed.

The Lord did not allow them to prevail. For in our lives, sometimes our lives might model what

Jesus did for us. Sometimes, how many of you know that on Friday, it looked like evil one?

On Good Friday, did it look like evil one? Did Satan do his little happy dance that day? He thought,

I've got him. I actually got him. I can't believe this. I got him. I got the one. Three days later,

Christ, our victor, over the forces of evil, over sin, he crushed in the righteous, the righteous, correct wrath of God against sinful people like you and me.

And he rose victorious over sin and death. Three days later, the plans of the evil one had amounted to nothing, despite the reality of the pain in the process.

And you think there was some pain in that process. Pain involved in the redemption of you and me.

And yet, the efforts of the evil one came to nothing. If you're all in with Jesus, I'd encourage you to come to one of the communion tables.

There's four set up throughout the room. Come to the communion table to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that has brought healing to us all.

But if you're here and you're saying, I don't know where I stand with Jesus Christ. I'm not sure, you know, I'm kind of new here.

I'm just trying to figure things out. And I'd love to talk with you about how you could start a relationship with Jesus Christ.

He's offering right now free forgiveness to anybody who would come to him. Anybody who would come and say,

I believe, Jesus, that you died on the cross for my sins and that you rose again three days later.

And I want you to be my Lord. I want you to be my master. I want you to be my king. And I see the sacrifice that you took the punishment for me.

As we come to communion, I'd just encourage you just to contemplate and consider this next week coming up and think about when we come to those tables, we are coming in humility saying,

I couldn't live this next week without you, Christ. There's nothing magical in the bread that's gonna give you the power to live through the week or nothing magical in the juice, but it is a reminder, a reflection of how we are to go forward.

Maybe a reflection on the week past, nothing you can change about that. So maybe just say thanks or I'm sorry and move forward.

But what you can do is you can come to this table and say, I wanna start again. I wanna start again with humility coming before you and saying,

I need you, Jesus. I need you every step of the way. I need you for every breath. I need you for every interaction. I need you for every report at work.

I need you for every task and everything that I do. And so please walk with me through this week.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this day that you have given to us. I thank you for the opportunity that we have to come to the table and remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

Father, what a glorious victory is ours through Jesus Christ. And Father, it's our desire to see more come in.

And as we think about this really strange psalm about vindication, and I pray that you would help us to leave that in your hands as difficult as that can be at times.

We wanna forgive people and then take it back up again and forgive people and take it back up again. And Father, I pray that we would relieve, release those things to you, recognizing that the affliction is genuine, that there is real pain, there is real difficulty, there is real problem for your people in this world.

You have not promised us all prosperity and health and everything just going awesome for us. But Father, what you have told us is that you will walk with us in every situation, in every circumstance, and that the evil one will not, in the end, prosper.

And so Father, I pray that you would be glorified and honored in our remembrance of you this morning in Jesus' name.