Daniel 10: Psalms of War, Psalm 59

Psalm 59 as a Prayer for Deliverance

Turn in your Bibles to the book of Psalms. We are continuing in our series in Daniel, but we're not going to read from Daniel this morning, and you'll see as we go along. Hear now the inspired word of God.

Deliver me from my enemies, O my God. Set me securely on high, away from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from those who do iniquity, and save me from men of bloodshed. For behold, they have set an ambush for my life.

Fierce men launch an attack against me, not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord. For no guilt of mine, they run and set themselves against me. Arouse thyself to help me and see. And thou, O Lord, God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to punish all the nations.

Do not be gracious to any who are treacherous and iniquity. They return at evening. They howl like a dog and go around the city. Behold, they belch forth with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, for they say, who hears?

But thou, O Lord, dost laugh at them. Thou dost scoff at all the nations. Because of his strength, I will watch for thee, for God is my stronghold. My God and his loving kindness will meet me. God will let me look triumphantly upon my foes.

Do not slay them, lest my people forget, scatter them by thy power, and bring them down, O Lord, our shield. On account of the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be caught in their pride.

And on account of curses and lies which they utter, destroy them in wrath, destroy them, that they may be no more, that men may know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the earth. And they return at evening.

They howl like a dog, go around the city. They wander about for food and growl if they are not satisfied. But as for me, I shall sing of thy strength. Yes, I shall joyfully sing of thy loving kindness in the morning.

For thou hast been my stronghold and a refuge in the day of my distress. O my strength, I will sing praises to thee. O for God is my stronghold, the God who shows me loving kindness. Let's pray. Father, once again as we look into your word, especially these difficult psalms, we pray, Father, that you would open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts.

That we would see, hear, and understand what you have to say to us. And that understanding them, that Father, that they would affect us and that we would become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. We pray in his name.

Amen. Please be seated. Well, for a couple of months now, we've been in our study of the book of Daniel. And last week, we began a study in chapter 10. And we saw how in this book, God pulls back the curtain, if you will, between the spiritual realm and the material realm.

And we get a glimpse of the spiritual warfare that's taking place all around us, but is unseen by those of us in the material realm. And if you remember, we drew several conclusions from the text. First conclusion was this.

You will never understand the world that we live in without an understanding of the spiritual realm. Second, as a Christian, you're involved in the conflict between the two worlds. Whether you want to be or not, it's not optional.

And third, one of the most powerful weapons in this conflict, this spiritual conflict, is prayer. And we saw in chapter 10 how soon as Daniel commenced to pray, remember he prayed for three weeks, fasting and fervent prayer.

And chapter 10 showed us that as soon as he started to pray, an angel was dispatched to him, specifically in response to his prayer. Did you ever wonder when you read something like this, what did he pray?

What were the words that Daniel prayed that elicited such a response that immediately an angel was sent? I want to suggest to you this morning that while we aren't given the exact content of his prayers, I don't think we're left in the dark either.

We know that an integral part of the worship and prayers of the Old Testament saints included the use of psalms. And that practice continued right into the New Covenant worship. Right up to the present time, we still sing and read and pray psalms.

The psalms are not only a divinely inspired hymn book for worship, but they are, in fact, a book of prayers. There are psalms for all occasions, psalms of praise and joy for the victories that God has given to his people.

And just praising him for his goodness to his people. There are psalms of mourning that are used on sorrowful and grievous occasions. There are psalms of repentance of sin. We see Psalm 51 where David pours his heart out in repentance because of his sin.

There are psalms pleading for God's help when the people of God are in trouble. And there's a number of psalms where the psalmist calls down judgment, the judgment of God upon his enemies. That's what we've read twice so far this morning.

These are often called the psalms of imprecation or imprecatory psalms. In fact, a pastor friend of mine wrote a book about these psalms and it's aptly called the War Psalms of the Prince of Peace. The presence of these psalms in scripture causes a dilemma for many Christian people.

The dilemma being this, that some Christians see an apparent contradiction between what the psalmist prays for and the command of Christ to love your enemy. Now we've read two psalms in this service even thus far.

I'm just going to remind you, look at some of the language that's used. Psalm 58. O God, shatter their teeth in their mouth, break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord. Let them flow away like water that runs off.

When he aims his arrows, let them be as headless shafts. Let them be as a snail which melts away as it goes along. Psalm 59. Destroy them in wrath, destroy them that they may be no more. Psalm 109. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.

Wow. I don't think there's any disagreement that that's some harsh language. These psalms would, I don't think they'd even get a G rating from the motion picture industry. And then, what's even more troubling to some Christians is look at what the psalmist says will be the reaction of the saints when these things come to pass.

Psalm 58. The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. Seems vicious and bloodthirsty. Doesn't it? Now contrast that with the words of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount.

You've heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. That's why so many people see a dilemma. Perhaps you find yourself in a dilemma between believing that all scripture is inspired by God and an apparent contradiction from between the Old and New Testament.

So we have some interesting interpretations as to the meaning and application of these psalms. And I think it's important to relate some of those before we continue. I don't usually like to state what the erroneous views are.

But in this case, I think it's helpful for us. It's not surprising that those who have a poor view of scripture certainly point to these psalms and say, see, look at those. For example, speaking about these psalms, a theologian by the name of James Bright said,.

We cannot demand that the Bible give us nothing but correct teachings and safe moral instruction and be offended when it does not. Excuse me? We can't expect the Bible to give us all good teaching? Another man, John J. Owen, not the Puritan, said of these psalms,.

These forms of expression are of such a cold-blooded and malignant cruelty as to preclude entertaining the idea for a moment that they were inspired by God. Now we can expect such a response from men who toy or deny the doctrine of inspiration.

But what about some of these familiar names of popular and conservative theologians? Haley's Bible Handbook, for example, a very useful and popular book, says this about the imprecatory psalms,. They breathe vengeance on enemies.

They are not God's pronouncements of his wrath on the wicked, but are the prayers of a man for vengeance on his enemies, just the opposite of what Jesus is teaching, that we should love our enemies. And he goes on for a full paragraph to explain it, and it's so riddled with error that I had to stop reading it.

The pulpit commentary addressing Psalm 35 says,. So with this and other imprecatory psalms, they give us not God's precepts, but man's defective prayers. C .S. Lewis, who we admire, he says,. There is hatred there, festering, gloating, undisguised, and also we should be wicked if we in any way condone or approve it, or worse still use it to justify similar passions ourselves.

He concludes with this, he says,. They are indeed devilish. And then I wasn't surprised that C .I. Schofield weighed in on the issue. He said,. A cry unsuited to the church. And finally we come to the word Bible commentary, a very well respected commentary.

In explaining the problems, Peter C. Craig says,. These are the real and unnatural reactions to the experience of evil and pain. And though the sentiments are in themselves evil, they are a part of the life and soul which is bared before God in worship and prayer.

He continues,. The psalmist may hate his oppressor. God hates the oppression. The words of the psalmist are often natural and spontaneous, not always pure and good. And he concludes,. These psalms are not the oracles of God.

When I got this far in the sermon, I was speechless. You can see that the response of these men range from the psalms are not scripture to they are scripture but not the oracles of God, or they are scripture but not for today.

So what is our response? How do we look at these psalms as those who hold to all scripture is inspired by God? Are these psalms for today? And if so, what place do they play in our worship? Well, the biblical response clearly is sola scriptura and its related doctrine of tota scriptura.

In other words, the Bible alone is our source, but all of the Bible. We can't pick and choose the portions of scripture that are easy for us. We accept the scriptures from cover to cover from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 is the word of God.

Remember Second Timothy 316. All scripture is inspired. All scripture is God breathed and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction and righteousness. It's all profitable.

It's all useful. And so our doctrine of scripture would negate any thought that these psalms are not inspired or that they are not for use for us in the church today. Difficulty of a scripture text doesn't negate inspiration.

What I mean by that is just because you have trouble understanding a portion of scripture doesn't mean it's not inspired. For example, Martin Luther struggled with the inspiration of the whole epistle of James.

He didn't think it belonged in the Bible, but he struggled with it because of James' statements about the relationship of faith and works. Remember, that's the doctrine of justification by faith alone that brought Luther out of the Roman Catholic Church and into the kingdom of God.

And so he was hypersensitive to any mention of the works and faith together. So he came to James with a bias and an unbalanced view because of his personal circumstances. But today, every objective scholar sees that the epistle of James presents no contradiction to the doctrine of faith alone.

That should serve as a lesson for us. Scripture is infallible and inerrant, and if we struggle with a part of it, the problem is not with the scripture. The problem is with us. We're told in advance that there are difficult things in the word of God.

Peter makes a comment of this in his second epistle where he's talking about the end of the age. He makes this observation about the apostle Paul. He says, just as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, and listen to what Peter says, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand.

And that results which the untaught and unstable distort as they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction. Notice, the apostle Peter himself recognized that some of the things that have been revealed by God to Paul were hard to understand.

And when they're misused, notice where Peter puts the blame. He doesn't say, well, you know, Paul, that's just Paul being Paul. He should have made himself a little bit more clear. Maybe he should have just avoided this subject.

No, he doesn't say anything of the clear. He says it is the fault of the untaught and unstable that the scriptures are distorted. Now, we need to say something very clearly here, and that is that the plan of salvation, in other words, what must I do to be saved, is clear and plainly revealed in scripture.

Period. A child can pick up the Bible and read it and know how to be saved. But there are also many teachings that are difficult and hard to understand. So, if you want to understand them, and without distorting them, it's going to take time and effort on our part.

You must study the word of God, listen to those with more maturity in the faith, and those with perhaps greater learning the word than you. So, how do we approach these Psalms? Well, there's some important questions we must ask to help us.

First, who is speaking in these Psalms? Second, are these merely the words of David? And third, are these Psalms the rantings of David calling down judgment on his personal enemies? Well, the answer to the second and third question is absolutely no.

It's not merely the words of David, and nor is it just the rantings of David calling down judgment. The testimony of the word of God itself tells us this is not so. Listen to what the word of God says about David's writings.

Second Samuel 23, verse 1. Now, these are the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse, declares, and the man who was raised on high declares, the anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel, the spirit of the Lord spoke by me and his word was on my tongue.

David wrote these Psalms under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And as we will see, the answer to the first question is that it is none other than Jesus Christ speaking through David in these Psalms.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, if you're not familiar with that name, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the few German pastors during the time of World War II who stood against Hitler, was jailed, and ultimately executed by the Nazi party.

Great man of God. And he said this. According to the witness of the Bible, David is, as the anointed king of the chosen people of God, a prototype of Jesus Christ. What happens to him happens to him for the sake of the one who is in him and who is said to proceed from him, namely Jesus Christ.

And he is not unaware of this, but being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with him an oath that he would set one of his descendants upon the throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of Christ.

David was a witness to Christ in his office, in his life, and in his words. The New Testament says even more. In the Psalms of David, the promise Christ himself already speaks, or as may also be indicated, the Holy Spirit speaks.

These same words which David spoke, therefore, the future Messiah spoke through him. The prayers of David are prayed also by Christ, or better, Christ himself prayed them through his forerunner, David.

J .H. Webster said, David, for example, was a type and spokesperson of Christ, and the imprecatory Psalms are expressions of the infinite justice of the God-man, of his indignation against wrongdoing, of his compassion for the wronged.

They reveal the feelings of his heart and the sentiments of his mind regarding sin. In other words, these Psalms are Messianic Psalms. These Psalms can only be understood rightly when viewed in that context.

Now, we've addressed Messianic Psalms before in our study when we studied the book of Hebrews. The words of the Messianic Psalms are attributed directly to Christ by the New Testament writers. We're not at liberty to make such an interpretation of these Psalms in and of ourselves, but the testimony of the New Testament writers do this for us.

Speaking of Christ, the writer to Hebrews says this, I will proclaim thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing thy praise. That's a direct quote from Psalm 22. Again, the writer to Hebrews, speaking of Christ, says, Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice an offering thou hast not desired, but a body thou hast prepared for me.

Now, you can look all you want, you're not going to find Jesus saying that anywhere in the New Testament. That's a quote from Psalm 40. The list of such quotations of these Psalms attributed to Jesus is lengthy.

We see this in Psalm 110. The most quoted Old Testament scripture in the New Testament is Psalm 110. And we see this Psalm has a prayer of imprecation in it. Listen to just the first two verses. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet.

The Lord will stretch forth thy strong scepter from Zion and rule in the midst of thine enemies. Now, here's an interesting point. Do you remember what Jesus said? Jesus quoted that, that Psalm. Remember what he said about it?

He said in Matthew 22, verse 43,. Then how does David in the Spirit call him Lord? The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put thine enemies beneath thy feet. If David calls him Lord, how is he his son?

With that, if you remember, he silenced his critics because they could not answer. David, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, spoke for Christ. It is Christ speaking in these Psalms. There's no question that some Psalms are Messianic Psalms according to the New Testament Scriptures.

Psalms which speak the words that only Christ himself could speak. And that's what we see in the imprecatory Psalms. These Psalms are the words of Christ praying for the destruction of his enemies. When viewed in that light, these Psalms take on great significance and importance.

What is their real significance? Well, to answer that question, I want to remind you of the important point that we came to in Daniel, which caused me to go into this little side trip. According to Daniel, what did we see?

We are in spiritual warfare. If you're sitting in this place today, you're involved in spiritual warfare. The only question is whose side are you on? The testimony of Scripture that we are at war is so numerous, it's hard to believe that even Christians, we sometimes have a tendency to forget the fact that we're in spiritual warfare.

Because the war is being waged on a spiritual front, we can go for days without taking heed to the fact that we're part of that. When are we reminded of it? When things go bad. Then we will come to prayer meeting and talk about the spiritual battles we're fighting.

But when things are going well for us, even in this life, how often do we remember that we are in war? Satan and his legion have poised themselves against the church of the living God and are committed to its destruction.

Revelation 12, 17. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, that's Satan against the church, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

And so we are commanded by Scripture to prepare ourselves for battle. We're told to put on the whole armor of God in Ephesians 6. And we're told in 2 Corinthians how we are to wage this war. In chapter 10, verse 3.

Let me make an observation, if I might. I believe that the reason that many Christians fall into sin is they forget they're really in a battle. And they let their guard down. We're in the greatest war in the history of mankind.

When you become a Christian, you are enlisted into the army of God and that puts you in the crosshairs of Satan. Now how does this apply to the Psalms of war? That's the question. Christ has assured us that the victory in this war.

He tells Peter that I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. These Psalms of war are the prayers of Christ that his enemies would in fact be destroyed and brought to judgment.

If Christ is victorious, that means his enemies will be defeated. You can't have it any other way. So it is a righteous prayer for Christ to ask his Father to give him the victory over the enemies based upon the promise of God the Father to God the Son.

Psalm 2. Take a moment and turn to Psalm 2 and let's read it. You already admonished once today about Psalm 2. This is such an important Psalm because it talks about Christ being enthroned in his kingdom.

Psalm 2 begins, Let us tear their feathers apart, let's cast away the cords from us. That's what the people of earth are saying to God. And what is God's response? He who sits in the heavens laughs and the Lord scoffs at them.

I'm not going to do the laugh. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury. But as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. That's God the Father speaking.

And then we have the God the Son speaking. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. Ask of me and I will surely give the nations as thine inheritance and the very ends of the earth as a possession.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt scatter them like earthenware. That's the promise of God the Father to God the Son to give all the nations as his inheritance. But there's warfare involved before that.

Now this is not a psalm of imprecation, but it's a statement to the reality that will happen to the true enemies of Christ. In the psalms of imprecation, Jesus prays what his father has told him to pray.

His father told him, ask of me and I'll give you the nations. And that's exactly what Christ prays for in these psalms. Yes, Father, give me the nations. And so he prays for the destruction of his enemies and the victory of the church.

And then we're commanded by Christ to pray for the victory of his church as well. In the Lord's Prayer, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So we know that his victory is guaranteed, but he has told us to pray in this way.

We are to pray that his will would be accomplished on earth, even as it is in heaven. Now think of it this way. How will Christ's kingdom be advanced and victory guaranteed? By the defeat of Satan and the enemies of Christ.

If you are praying for the victory of Christ, then you are also praying for the defeat of the enemies of Christ. Therefore, you should not merely pray by implication that the enemies of Christ would be defeated, but by imprecation.

And that's where these psalms come in. So then, how do we use these psalms? Because it is difficult, is it not? You read that language, and we all have a tendency of trying to shy away from that language.

So how do we use these psalms in our worship and in the warfare? First, cardinal rule. Never use them against your, quote, personal enemies. If somebody offends you, you don't immediately start praying the prayers of imprecation.

There's a difference between praying against Satan and his legion, and how do we pray for somebody who offends us. These psalms of imprecation are upon the true and real enemies of Christ. On a personal level, the command of Christ is to love your enemy, and that's binding on us.

Paul explains in detail how we are to love our enemies. How do we love our enemies? Romans chapter 12, verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and curse not. Verse 17. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.

Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. There's the prayers.

For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. Here's how you love your enemy. If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink.

For in so doing, you will heap burning coals upon his head. And then what I call the smart bomb or the nuclear weapon in the arsenal of the believer. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

There's a difference. The first goal of the Christian is not to call down judgment, but to win their enemy for Christ. And that remains a crucial point to this whole supposed dilemma. Just remember this.

We were once all enemies of Christ. But he purchased us with his blood, and he made us his friends. And that should be the first goal of the prayer of the Christian for his enemies. Lord, save them. Second use.

Always pray against Satan and his legion and the enemies of Christ in a generic sense. We can pray against any philosophy, any religion that keeps men from Christ. We can pray against any system that stands in opposition to advancing the kingdom of Christ.

To pray these psalms is just and moral and actually commanded in these cases. Remember, you cannot pray for the victory of Christ's kingdom without the defeat of Satan's. So as you pray for the kingdom of Christ to be advanced, don't be shy about praying for the destruction of the true and real enemies of Christ.

The great apologist Cornelius Van Til said, It is at all times a part of the task of the people of God to destroy evil. Once we see this, we do not, for instance, meanly apologize for the imprecatory psalms, but glory in them.

Do you find this statement, to glory in them? Think you maybe went a little too far? Perhaps you've forgotten just how God feels about evil. The destruction of evil is a glorious thing. And the psalms point that out.

Psalm 149, verse 5. Let the godly ones exult in glory. Let them sing for joy in their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand. To execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples.

To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. To execute on them the judgment written, This is an honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord. So should we recoil and avoid these great messianic psalms?

The answer is clearly no. Third, these psalms as well as others should be a part of your daily prayers. The book of psalms is the inspired prayer book of God. All of the psalms are useful for this purpose.

So do not shy away from praying for the destruction of the enemies. For he himself did just that. He has commanded us to pray in like manner. So even in your own private and family devotions, These psalms can and should be prayed.

Fourth, they should be part of our corporate prayers and used in worship services. We must not shy away from these psalms for our public worship. We cannot let the wrong thinking attitude in the church community dictate what we do in worship.

A man by the name of Harry Menenga, in his master's thesis at Westminster Seminary, He wrote this,. The church that is conscious of the life and death struggle between the two kingdoms Will not exclude hatred for Satan's kingdom from its love for God's kingdom.

The church is compelled to show love unto all men and pray for their conversion. At the same time, with her eye fixed on the promise of the coming of the day of the Lord, In which all God's enemies will be crushed eternally, The church prays for the hastening of the day of judgment.

And then Johannes Vos, Instead of being influenced by the sickly sentimentalism of the present day, Christian people should realize that the glory of God demands the destruction of evil. And then lastly, Don't minimize the power of prayer.

Far too often, prayer is the last thing we do instead of the first. How often in hopeless situations have you heard someone say, Well, there's nothing else we can do, let's pray. If Christians really understood the power of prayer, Their personal and family quiet times would be revolutionized.

They would become the priority in their lives. And the midweek prayer meeting of the churches would abound. And the world would be packed with Christians, Preaching and praying for the destruction of the kingdom of Satan.

The Psalms of Imprecation, the War Psalms of Jesus Christ, Should be a regular part of those meetings. One last quotation. Calvin Beisner says, Prayer is, in fact, spiritual warfare. One weapon is prayer for conversion of the spiritual enemies.

Another is prayer for the judgment on those who finally refuse to be converted. We handicap the army of God when we refuse to use both of these great weapons that he has given to us. So I don't want to put words in Daniel's mouth.

But I can't imagine that a prayer warrior like Daniel Did not pray the full range of prayers. And that would include these prayers of imprecation. Many good Christian people would never think of praying these Psalms.

And if what we have seen this morning is true, That's hurting the body of Christ. What better way to pray than to pray the words of Jesus Christ himself. We can never go wrong when we include the Psalms in our prayers.

And so I want to close with just a few words. First, to those who may be here who have never come to faith. Do you see the dangerous and precarious position that you are in as an enemy of Christ? He himself is praying for your destruction.

And if you do not repent of your sin, it will happen. His prayers are always answered. So repent of your sin. And become his friend. Second, to all those here who are Christians. I hope you have at least a better understanding of these Psalms.

And I hope you would have a renewed interest in prayer. Not just praying these Psalms, but all the Psalms. If you've never prayed the Psalms, I urge you to learn how. It will give you a greater sense of urgency in your prayers.

It will rejuvenate your prayer life. And then third, I would encourage all of you to keep in mind that you are in spiritual war. Don't let your guard down for a moment. The minute you get lazy or relax your guard, the enemy who is crawling around like a roaring lion will seek to devour you.

Don't lose sight of the big picture. Don't get sidetracked because of the blessings and the prosperity we enjoy here living in America. I'm going to make a somewhat of a bold statement. Feel free to challenge me afterwards.

There's not one of us in this room who couldn't get by on less than what we have right now. And we let the pursuit of these things, happiness, fame, power, distract us from the true priorities of life.

The advancement of the kingdom, the conversion of the sinners, and the destruction of evil. And fourth, I would encourage each of you, consider making a renewed commitment to the prayer meeting of the church.

In light of what we've studied this morning, I believe it's one of the most appropriate responses we could have. Let's pray.