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Reading Psalms 17 and 18 where David pleads with the Lord to consider his cause according to his righteousness, which he has been given from the mouth of God. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
By faith in Jesus Christ, we have been given the righteousness of God. And according to what is said to us in the scriptures, God looks upon us with favor when we dwell in His righteousness, when we understand the text.
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Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. In our Old Testament study, we've been going through the Psalms, and we'll be looking at Psalms 17 and 18 today. Psalm 18 is the longest psalm that we've looked at so far. That one's 50 verses long.
We'll begin with Psalm 17, which is a psalm of individual lament. David considers himself unjustly accused of wrong, and so he is asking that the Lord would consider his cause. Let's begin by reading through the entire psalm.
Psalm 17, starting in verse 1. Hear a just cause, O Lord, attend to my cry. Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit. From your presence, let my vindication come. Let your eyes behold the right.
You have tried my heart. You have visited me by night. You have tested me, and you will find nothing. I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress. With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips, I have avoided the ways of the violent.
My steps have held fast to your paths. My feet have not slipped. I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God. Incline your ear to me. Hear my words. Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries, at your right hand.
Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me in the shadow of your wings. From the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me. They close their hearts to pity. With their mouths they speak arrogantly.
They have now surrounded our steps. They set their eyes to cast us to the ground. He is like a lion, eager to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush. Arise, O Lord. Confront him. Subdue him. Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword.
From men by your hand, O Lord. From men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure. They are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants.
As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. There are some similarities here to some things that even Job had said in some of his laments, but David is a little bit more cheerful in his conclusion than Job was when he was lamenting about similar things.
So let's go back to verse 1. David says, Hear a just cause, O Lord. Attend to my cry. David knows that as he comes before the Lord in prayer, he is guiltless of the things that his enemies have afflicted him with.
So when David prays unto God, he's saying what you're about to hear is a just cause. My plea is for you to deliver me from the hands of my enemies because I've walked in righteousness and they have not.
So this is David making a just cause before the Lord. And as with other Psalms, and as I've explained before, David is not taking pride in himself here. He knows that the righteousness that he has is not from himself.
It comes from God, and he measures his righteousness against what God has said in his word. And that comes up here in this Psalm, David delighting in the word of God and knowing the way of the Lord. Hear a just cause, O Lord, attend to my cry.
Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit. In Isaiah chapter seven, which would be written several hundred years after this particular Psalm. But in Isaiah seven, Isaiah dreads seeing the presence of God and the train of his robe filling his heavenly temple, because as Isaiah says, my lips are unclean and I dwell in a land of men who have unclean lips.
But David is making this plea before God and he says, give ear to my prayer from lips that are free of deceit. David has not spoken evil or blasphemy or anything that would be against God and his holiness even in the midst of this trial, this struggle that he is going through.
He has decided in his heart to extol, celebrate, lift up the name of the Lord. So he says, give ear to my prayer from my lips free of deceit. And this is to contrast himself with his enemies who speak only deceit.
From your presence, let my vindication come. Let your eyes behold the right. So the vindication that David will receive, he's not going to take matters into his own hands. He's not going to be a law unto himself, but let his vindication, his deliverance from his enemies and even their punishment come from the Lord himself.
God is holy, so let his eyes behold the right. Look upon me with favor is basically what David is asking for there. You have tried my heart and you have visited me by night. Again, David knows that he's coming before the Lord guilt free of the sins that his enemies are guilty of.
He is not guilty of these things. God has tried his heart. He is innocent. You have tested me and you will find nothing. I have purpose that my mouth will not transgress. Compare that with verse one here.
A just cause. Oh Lord, attend to my cry. Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit. I have purpose that my mouth will not transgress. David's lips are free from deceit. And once again, this is not because he's boasting in himself, but because he's been obedient to the commands of God.
Consider verse four with regard to the works of man. By the word of your lips, I have avoided the ways of the violent. So David desires that what would come out of his mouth would be pleasing unto the Lord that his words would be conformed to God's words with regard to the works of man.
By the word of your lips, I have avoided the ways of the violent. Verse five. My steps have held fast to your paths. My feet have not slipped. I call upon you for you will answer me, oh God, incline your ear to me.
Hear my words. Once again, hear a just call, a just cause. Oh Lord, attend to my cry. Just as we started the psalm with. Now consider verse seven, wondrously show your steadfast love, oh Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.
Consider what it is that we've read earlier this week out of John 15. Jesus has said that we should keep his commandments. And if you keep my commandments, John 15, 10, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.
So David is talking about having kept the commandments of God and says in verse seven, wondrously show your steadfast love, oh Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.
That's worded kind of funny, but it's basically your, your followers will seek refuge at your right hand in order to escape from their adversaries. They will not even become part of their adversaries.
They will not walk in their ways for they desire to be in the presence of God. We are friends of God when we are obedient to our Lord Christ and follow his commandments. And so David knows that of the Lord God, he is speaking to him as a friend.
He knows that he can call upon God and God will listen to him because he is a just and upright man who has feared the Lord and been obedient to his word. Verse eight, keep me as the apple of your eye.
This is very much a, an intimate, friendly sort of a consideration that David is asking for from God. Keep me as the apple of your eye. Look upon me, look upon me with favor, look upon me with your love and deliver me, hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me.
Verse 10, they close their hearts to pity with their mouths. They speak arrogantly. They have now surrounded our steps. They have set their eyes to cast us to the ground. So you have a contrast going on here between God's eyes or what God looks at with his eyes versus what the enemies have set their eyes on.
David is asking that God would consider the upright, that his eyes would look upon the righteous. Remember that Habakkuk 1 13 says that God's eyes are so holy he can't even look upon sin. But David is saying he has been pleading his cause.
He is saying, I am righteous for I have kept your word. So keep me as the apple of your eye. But the enemies, where do their eyes go? It says they set their eyes to cast us to the ground. David wants God to look upon him and consider him with favor.
But the enemies consider him with contempt. He is like a lion, David says, of his enemies, eager to tear as a young lion lurking in ambush. Arise, O Lord, confront him, subdue him. Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword.
So consider this comparison that David has made of the wicked to one who is like a lion crouching, lurking, waiting in ambush. And David says, Arise, O Lord. So it's like you see a lion crouching in the grass, ready to pounce.
And suddenly this massive, huge, looming figure just stands up right in front of the lion. Okay, that would be what David is asking for from God. The lions are crouching down and they're ready to pounce.
But God is going to stand up and be fierce against these predators. Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword, from men by your hand, O Lord, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure.
They are satisfied with children and they leave their abundance to their infants. This is almost exactly like, almost word for word, something that Job said when he talked about how the wicked dwell in tents with relative safety.
They even get to have children. Their posterity prospers. And David is saying the same thing. And God is the one who does this. The wicked prosper and God is the one who fills their womb with treasure.
And even these wicked persons are satisfied with children, which is why he's appealing to God to deliver him from the wicked. Don't bless them. Consider my cause and lift me up. David says in verse 15, as for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness.
When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. These wicked evil persons, they're only satisfied with things in this world. They're not looking for God. They're looking for treasure on earth. That's why they take advantage of the righteous.
That's why they would afflict David. The way that David has been afflicted is because they seek to take from him to make more of themselves. And God has even blessed them with children. And he has given abundance to their infants.
But David's delight is not going to be in the things of this world. It is going to be in the Lord God. And he will be satisfied in him no matter what. That's Psalm 17. Let's go now to Psalm 18. We'll see if we can knock this out in about eight minutes here.
This is a 50 verse psalm. It's a pretty lengthy psalm. And it starts by saying to the choir master, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord rescued him from the hand of all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
So this would have been written prior to David becoming king. I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. Already you've got warrior-like language here at the very beginning. And that is because Saul brought an army out against David to pursue him and destroy him.
But God delivered David because God is the true sword and shield that delivers me from my enemies. The cords of death encompassed me. The torrents of destruction assailed me. The cords of Sheol entangled me.
The snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord. To my God, I cried for help. From his temple, he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Very similar to what we read in Psalm 17 with David saying, hear this plea from my lips.
Consider a just cause, O Lord. Verse 7, then the earth reeled and rocked. The foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth.
Glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew. He came swiftly on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him.
Thick clouds dark with water. Out of the brightness before him, hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire.
And he sent out his arrows and scattered them. He flashed forth lightnings and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laying bare. At your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place. He rescued me because he delighted in me. Verse 20, the Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself free from guilt. So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
With the merciful, you show yourself merciful. With the blameless man, you show yourself blameless. With the purified, you show yourself pure. And with the crooked, you make yourself seem torturous. For you save a humble people.
But the haughty eyes you bring down, for it is you who light my lamp. The Lord my God lightens my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God, his way is perfect.
The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. The word of the Lord proves true. Over and over again, amen. It proves true in a multitude of ways. We can make archaeological discoveries that prove that the word of God is true, but most of all you will find that in your life it affirms itself over and over again.
It is not just something that you believe for the sake of believing it, but you believe it because it's true and it continues to show itself to be true. And this has been David's experience in rejoicing in God for his commandments, for he knows the commands of God are not burdensome to him.
Verse 31, for who is God but the Lord, Yahweh? And who is a rock except our God? The God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.
He trains my hands for war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation and your right hand supported me and your gentleness made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under me and my feet did not slip.
I pursued my enemies and overtook them. I did not turn back till they were consumed. I thrust them through so that they were not able to rise. They fell under my feet. For you equipped me with strength for the battle.
You made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me and those who hated me, I destroyed. They cried for help, but there was none to save. They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.
I beat them fine as dust before the wind. I cast them out like the mire of the streets. Now this is something for David to be praising God for that he gives a bloody description of having struck down his enemies, but nevertheless he knows his enemies have been delivered into his hand because God is the one who has delivered them.
Now we understand according to Ephesians chapter six that our battle, our war is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces in the dark realm. And the sword that we use is not a literal physical sword in our hands, but it's the sword of the spirit when considering the armor of God that's written about there in Ephesians chapter six.
So we praise God when our enemies are struck down, namely when we preach the gospel to someone else and they turn from sin and believe Satan and the hold that he had on that person has been severed by the cut of the word of God, the sword of the spirit.
And so we rejoice in the victory that has been accomplished through the preaching of the word of God. Verse 43, you delivered me from strife with the people. You made me the head of the nations. People whom I had not known served me.
As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me. Foreigners came cringing to me. Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortress. Those who are not part of the church, who are not part of the body of Christ, they would be strangers to us, but they come to God in worship and then become part of the family of God because of the gospel that we proclaim.
So in this way, we are delivered from strife from the people and those who previously did not serve God now serve the Lord together as we serve one another. Verse 46, the Lord lives and blessed be my rock and exalted be the God of my salvation.
The God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me who delivered me from my enemies. Yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me. For this, I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations and sing to your name.
Great salvation he brings to his King and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever. And yes, the Lord is faithful to this and continues to do so through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. This has been When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.
Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.