Psalm 35 (Strong Identity)

The Shepherd's Church

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Good morning. As Kendall says, it's been a while since I've done this, but the proclaiming of the word of God is not about who's doing it.

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It's about the word itself, and it's about the Lord who we're speaking of. So the text this morning is from Psalm 35, and I'm using the entire

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Psalm. When I set out to pull a sermon together, I decided to just start from where I was in my devotions, which was

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Psalm 35, and then I realized, oh, it's hard to preach a psalm. It takes a lot of work.

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So this has been a pleasure, actually, to go through this psalm and to dig into what is it really about, because we read these and we sort of use them in worship, and we use them occasionally to refer back to them as prophecies from back when we're looking at the

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New Testament. But we actually have to dig a little bit to understand what

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Psalm 35 is about. So I'm gonna read the psalm, and then we'll pray, and then we'll talk about it. Psalm 35, of David.

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Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me.

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Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help. Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers.

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Say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life.

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Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me. Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the

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Lord driving them away. Let their way be dark and slippery with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.

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For without cause they hid their net for me. Without cause they dug a pit for my life.

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Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it. Let the net that he hid ensnare him.

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Let him fall into it to his destruction. Then my soul will rejoice in the

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Lord, exalting in his salvation. All my bones shall say, O Lord, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him.

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Malicious witnesses rise up and they ask me of things I do not know. They repay me evil for good.

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My soul is bereft. But I, when they were sick, I wore sackcloth.

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I afflicted myself with fasting. I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother, as one who laments his mother.

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I bowed down in mourning. But at my stumbling, they rejoiced and gathered.

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They gathered together against me. Wretches whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing, like profane mockers at a feast.

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They gnash at me with their teeth. How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions.

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I will thank you in the great congregation, in the mighty throng, I will praise you. Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes.

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And let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause. For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land, they devise words of deceit.

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They open wide their mouths against me. They say, aha, aha, our eyes have seen it.

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You have seen, O Lord, be not silent. O Lord, be not far from me. Awake and rouse yourself from my vindication, from my cause,

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O God, and my Lord. Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to your righteousness.

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And let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say in their hearts, aha, our heart's desire.

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Let them not say, we have swallowed him up. Let them be put to shame and disappointed together, altogether, who rejoice at my calamity.

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Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor, who magnify themselves against me. Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, great is the

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Lord who delights in the welfare of his servant. Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.

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Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.

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Thank you for the Psalms. Lord, they show so much richness of your character and of your posture towards your people.

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Lord, they can be hard to understand sometimes because they are emotional and aggressive sometimes in calling out for you to afflict our enemies.

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And it's hard to understand those things. Lord, as we go through this, help us to understand the heart behind this

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Psalm. Help us to understand what this means to us. Lord, be praised and glorified today as we look into your word.

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We pray in Jesus' name. So, Psalm 35 is one of those

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Psalms that gives everybody some trouble. Christian and non -Christian alike because it's so aggressive, right?

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It's challenging because it calls for God to take sides, right, to go to war against David's enemies.

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There's a frequent accusation against Christianity that the God of the Old Testament is a tribal God of a tribal people requiring primitive and brutal acts to appease him like wiping out their enemies, slaughtering animals, offering blood and burnt offerings.

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And that is seen as in contrast to what they believe is a more refined God of the New Testament who encourages us to be gentle and enlightened and humble and forgive and turn the other cheek.

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And from this perception, they conclude quite reasonably that a God who changes over time is no

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God at all and just an invention of men that gets more civilized as people get wiser. Their perception is wrong, of course.

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If you've been listening to Jesus' words as Kendall's been preaching through John, you know that God has not changed, right?

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The gentle character that Jesus wants to produce in us and produce in his people is straight out of Deuteronomy, right, it's not new, and the prophets.

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And the scathing curses and judgment that Jesus proclaims against the Jewish rulers and the city of Jerusalem who rejected him is as strong or stronger than any of the other than any judgment in the prophets.

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And while his chosen people have gone from being a nation to being the church, dispersed to bring the gospel to every tribe and nation, the apostles' letters include equally scathing words of God's judgment and wrath on those who reject his son.

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But nevertheless, at first read, Psalm 35 does sound petty and self -absorbed, like a football team praying for God to help them win the game, right?

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It's almost as if David thinks he's somehow special, right, and that God is somehow obligated to save him.

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Part of what we see is that this is in fact true as we dig into this. David has a special identity that has been given to him by God, and because of that identity,

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God in fact is obligated to save him. God obligated himself to save David specifically as the king of Israel.

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Psalm 35 is actually about how unchangeable God is and how radically he is committed to his chosen people and how his chosen people can in fact expect

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God to go to war on their behalf. That's an unexpected conclusion because we as people don't tend to think that way, that God is going to go to war on our behalf.

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So we'll approach Psalm 35 from a couple of different vantage points. So obviously, right, this psalm is about David.

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David's the author, that makes sense. And it's also true that this psalm is not about David.

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This psalm is not about you, at least not you as in your human character.

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The psalm is sort of about Jesus, but some of the things in the psalm are clearly not about Jesus.

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And finally, oh wait, the psalm is about you, but it's about you and your identity in Christ.

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So we'll go through the psalm from those perspectives. So you'll have to bear with me a little bit because we're gonna go back through, it's talking about this as a psalm of David.

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We're gonna go back through David's life and look at what happened in the course of David's life.

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If you have not read 1 and 2 Samuel in a while, it's a good read.

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It's a fascinating account of God taking the

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Israelites from the time of the judges and then the installation of first the calling of Samuel as a prophet and then

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Samuel installing Saul as the first king and then Saul failing miserably in his obedience to God and of God declaring that he has found a man after his own heart and eventually the progress of David to ascend to the throne of Israel.

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So 1 and 2 Samuel is the setting of the stage of establishing the throne of David and God declares that that throne will go on forever.

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So we're gonna walk through the life of David and follow along.

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So it's written, the psalm is written by King David, the second king of Judah and the third king of Israel.

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We don't think of David that way, right? He was the king of Israel, but in fact he was the king of Judah first and then when

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Saul's son Ish -bosheth was murdered, then

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David became also the king of Israel. Saul was the first king of the United Kingdom of Israel.

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So when Ish -bosheth was assassinated, David was anointed the king of the northern tribes, reuniting the kingdom and establishing the kingdom of Israel.

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I mentioned Ish -bosheth for a very important reason and that's so you'll know who he is if he ever comes up.

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Which he won't ever. You'll probably never run into Ish -bosheth again. He's actually useful here as sort of an example of the level of strife and conflict that characterizes

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David's ascent to the throne. Ish -bosheth was in power for a very short amount of time and it was all the political jockeying and posturing and he died a very ignomious death.

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His generals actually snuck up on him in the middle of the night and killed him. And that's sort of the nature of the politics that's going on through this entire time.

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So David's first referred to in Samuel chapter 13, verses 13 and 14.

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King Saul has just become king. The consolidation of the promised land is still going on. And Samuel as prophet has been offering sacrifices to God before each battle as a reminder to the people that their victory comes from God's faithfulness.

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Prior to this, the Israelites had gone into battle and had lost and they had lost because they were depending on their own skill and their own talents.

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They had turned to foreign idols. And in the course of Israel turning back, it became the standard approach that Samuel would offer these sacrifices prior to going into battle to remind the people that the

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Lord goes before you. The Lord is gonna win this battle, not you. So reading from first Samuel 13, 11 through 14.

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Saul said, because I saw that the people were scattering from me and that you did not come within the appointed days and that the

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Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, I therefore said, now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal and I have not asked the favor of the

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Lord. So to set the stage, Saul is preparing for battle against the Philistines and he's waiting for Samuel to show up and offer the sacrifice to declare

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God's favor. And Samuel has not shown up for seven days. So Saul continues, so I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.

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Samuel said to Saul, you have acted foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the

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Lord your God which he commanded you for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever but now your kingdom shall not endure.

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The Lord has sought out for himself a man after his own heart and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over his people because you have not kept what the

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Lord commanded you. So the Philistines are gathering to attack and Saul has offered the sacrifices himself and the

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Lord has told him you were wrong to do so. Why was he wrong to do so? So I think there are a couple of hints to that although it's not obvious.

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You have to sort of read between the lines to understand this. So at the end of 1

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Samuel chapter 10, Samuel told the people the rights and duties of kingship. So the

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Israelites had asked for a king, God had granted that request and Samuel had anointed Saul and Samuel in that process wrote down in a book the rights and duties of a king.

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So we don't exactly know what those were but Samuel's words, you have not kept the commandment of the

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Lord your God, suggest that probably Saul had violated what Samuel had written down. So I think there's evidence for why

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Samuel said Saul offering the sacrifice was not appropriate. But secondly and maybe more importantly because it's the part we can identify versus the rules that were written down somewhere.

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The people were panicking but the Philistines were approaching and Samuel hadn't shown up and Saul decided he was gonna invoke

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God for his purposes, right? He was afraid, he was panicking and he said, all right, it's time to put

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God to work. And so he said, I'm gonna offer the sacrifices so that we can make sure that God is gonna go before us.

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I'm putting words in Saul's mouth but I think that that's probably the heart of why Saul offering the sacrifices was sinful.

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He was demonstrating a profound lack of understanding of his identity before God, right?

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God is God, Saul is his servant and he has to wait on God to move into battle.

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So Samuel's next words, now your kingdom will not endure. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.

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So now we start to get introduced to David, right? Samuel is sent by God to the house of Jesse, the

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Bethlehemite, right? We know that Bethlehem is called the city of David, that's why, to find the man

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God has chosen. He works his way through Jesse's sons, right? Jesse brings all the sons, it's almost like the prince coming to Cinderella's house, they're probably looking for the, it's not quite that way.

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And Samuel goes through the sons and the Lord says, nope, not him, nope, not him. Finally he says, is this it, these all the people?

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Well, I got this young son, he's out in the field. And so Samuel says, bring him in.

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And when Samuel sees him, the Lord confirms in his heart, this is the one, this is the one that I've chosen. So God says to Samuel, arise, anoint him, for this is he.

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Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.

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So now David has been identified, and the spirit of the Lord has come upon him, and David is the one who was identified as the man after God's own heart.

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And then in remarkable fashion, there's a series of events orchestrated by God, through which

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David's faith is established and built up, through which he's brought into the service of King Saul.

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His reputation is built up within the nation through his acts and the way that the

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Lord has blessed him. And it builds his character as someone that places God's reputation above his own.

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And so David is established as this remarkable person after God's own heart. At the same time,

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God's spirit has departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit has been sent to torment him.

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So Saul has been rejected by God as king. His servants have heard that David is a talented musician, right, this is before David has any reputation at all.

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They don't know about Samuel anointing David as the future king of Israel. They simply said, hey, this guy sings well, and he plays the harp.

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Maybe he can soothe Saul's tormented spirit. So David is actually brought into Saul's service to play the lyre and to comfort

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Saul. Lyre meaning an instrument, not lying to Saul all the time. It's funny,

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I just say something out loud and you realize that's not right, so. So from there, things progress pretty rapidly in scripture, right?

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Then there's the famous story we all know about David and Goliath, right? Even before that encounter,

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David recounts how God has delivered him in hand -to -hand combat with bears and lions, right?

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This is a remarkable set of blessings that David is, his reputation is being built from a very young man.

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And then in his fight with Goliath, that propels him forward as a warrior.

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He, we begin to see David's incredible faith in God displayed as he contributes every victory in his life to the

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Lord. And meanwhile, while David is ascending and gaining this reputation,

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Saul, who at this point hardly knew who David was, and that's clear from the text, as Saul notices

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David periodically, he says, who is this guy again? Saul now is starting to get jealous because when

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David comes back from battle, there were women standing on the side of the road saying, Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands.

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So now Saul's going, what? That is not right, right?

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The king should be getting all this, not this guy, David. So at this point, things become very tortuous in David's life.

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Saul attempts to kill David in fits, first of all in fits of passion, he throws a spear at him while he's playing the liar.

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David flees and Saul pursues him all over Israel and out of Israel. And then there's a whole series of events where Saul nearly captures

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David but only to have God turn the tables in remarkable fashion. Messengers sent by Saul to capture

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David when he's with Samuel, the messengers arrive and they start prophesying, the spirit of the

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Lord suddenly comes upon them and instead of capturing David, they start proclaiming the word of God. Saul himself goes up saying, what's up with this?

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And God comes upon him as well, the spirit of the Lord. And Saul starts prophesying and is caused by the spirit of the

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Lord to strip off his clothes and to lie naked for an entire day in total humiliation while proclaiming the word of God.

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Saul came with sin in his heart and God stripped him naked spiritually and physically, communicating simultaneously his commitment to David who he saved but also the disdain with which

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God views the authority of men. Saul was the king that God had rejected and there is no dignity for those who reject

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God and who are rejected by God. If that doesn't make you tremble just a little bit, make you kind of make a little quiet silent prayer, please

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God, don't let me be like Saul, right? None of us want to be stripped naked, right?

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And yet we come to God with nothing, right? We come to God completely dependent on him.

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David prophesied as well, the spirit of the Lord came on him but he prophesied willingly and with a heart towards God, not at a heart opposed to God.

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Remember in Philippians 2, Paul writes every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. Saul might be the first one we see in scripture to have this literally occur but every one of us either walking by the spirit or compelled by the spirit, we will proclaim that Jesus Christ is

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Lord. Saul continued to hunt down David as did the Philistines and David continued to show how he was a man after God's own heart.

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So reading from Samuel 22 verses one through five. So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam and when his brothers and all his father's household heard of it, they went down there to him.

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Everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was discontented gathered to him and he became captain over them.

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Now there were about 400 men with him and David went from there to Mizpah of Moab and he said to the king of Moab, please let my father and mother come and stay with you until I know what

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God will do for me. Then he left with the king of Moab and they stayed with him at the time that David was in the stronghold.

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The prophet Gad said to David, do not stay in the stronghold, depart and go to the land of Judah. So David departed and went to the forest of Hereth.

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So here we see David's heart, instead of like Saul saying, time's up,

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God, you gotta go now, I'm gonna make this offering, we're gonna go. David says, we're gonna wait here until I see what the

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Lord's gonna do for me. It's not what the Lord wants me to do for him. David is waiting to see what the

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Lord's gonna do in his life. And then the prophet Gad comes and tells him, go, and now it's time to go.

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Note how everyone in distress and debt and discontent comes to David and see David, while sometimes afraid, express his trust in God, waiting until he knew what

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God will do for me. Why did David expect God to help him? Because God had anointed him king and David believed

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God's promise that he would be king. Multiple times, God gave

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Saul into David's hands. There are accounts of Saul coming right up to the cave where David's hiding, and then camping right outside, and David able to come outside and cut off a lock of his hair.

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But David refused to kill Saul because he would not raise his hand against the one that God had anointed king before him.

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He understood that it was God's kingdom to give, not his to take. Even though God had anointed him,

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David was not gonna take action to grab hold of the thing that God said that he had promised to him. He was instead going to wait for God to provide that kingdom.

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And so he refused to take it into his own hands. Eventually, David has to go and live among the

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Philistines, leave Israel, to keep out of Saul's hands. And there's battle and war, and finally, at the end of 1

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Samuel, Saul and his son Jonathan are overtaken by Philistine archers, and they die in battle.

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So remarkably, through all of this, when Saul dies in battle, David mourns deeply for the death of Saul.

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Because Saul was the Lord's anointed. And also, he lost his close friend,

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Jonathan. So throughout this whole drama, right, because it's dramatic, we see

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David living under a threat of constant upheaval, but trusting in God and living a life of faith and humility.

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And we see Saul, the king of the nation, operating out of jealousy, trying to force

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God's hand, growing more unstable and desperate and unhappy, and finally falling defeated by enemies that God had promised to vanquish, and does vanquish once David is king.

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So this is another moment to quietly pray, Lord, please don't let me be like Saul. So almost immediately, the men of Judah came to David and anointed him king of Judah.

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So now David has ascended to the throne in Judah, the lower kingdom. He has not yet become king of the northern kingdom.

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After the death of Saul and Jonathan, Saul's son, Yisbosheth, remember him? Now you can forget him, so.

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Right. Held the throne of Israel for two years, with much turmoil, ending with him being ruthlessly murdered in his own bed by his captains.

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Once again, David showed his heart, and he avenged that murder, because it was not for men to kill the king who was the rightful heir of Saul.

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So after David avenged the murders, the tribes of Israel came to David and stopped the war and anointed him king of Israel, and finally restored a united kingdom of Israel, and God's promise of establishing

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David on the throne of Israel was fulfilled. So now we move into the second chapter of David's life, and I'm not gonna cover that in as much detail, because I think in going through that first half, we've gotten a lot of the flavor of what

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David's life was like, and what folded into this psalm that we've heard.

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But I will say a few things. The second chapter of David's life begins his 33 -year rule of the king over Israel.

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In chapter six of 2 Samuel, David brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem amid much celebration, and we find

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David leaping and dancing before the Lord as the Ark came into the city. This is a passionate man.

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This is not a passive man. And chapter seven begins by telling us that the Lord had given him rest from all of his surrounding enemies, and the

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Lord, through the prophet Nathan, declares this great promise, which is often referred to as the

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Davidic Covenant, right? And this is the prophecy of what

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God is going to do in bringing Christ as salvation. So I'll read that from 2

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Samuel 7, verses eight through 17. Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant

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David, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people

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Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and I will make you a great name like the names of the great men who are on the earth.

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I will also appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly.

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Even from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies.

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The Lord God also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. And it's worth noting,

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David just prior to this had said, wow, all that the Lord's done for me, I wanna build a temple.

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And the Lord said, no, you're not gonna build a temple, I'm gonna build you a house. When your days are complete and you lie down with your father,

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I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you and I will establish his kingdom.

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He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me.

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When he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men. But my loving kindness shall not depart from him as I took it away from Saul, whom

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I removed before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever.

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Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

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So here we see the prophecy of first of Solomon taking the throne after David and building the temple and God promising to correct him when he commits sin, but to be faithful to him.

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But we also see the promise after that of this kingdom, this throne established through Solomon's line will be a throne that endures forever.

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And that is a prediction, a prophecy of the coming of Jesus in the lineage of David.

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And we see in the New Testament all of the references back to this as being clearly one of the clearer prophecies about the

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Messiah. David's response to this from Nathan is actually worth reading as well because it reflects his deep understanding of everything that God has done for his own glory.

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This is not for David that God is doing this, this is for his own glory. So I'll read from 2

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Samuel 7, 18 through 29. Then David the king went in and sat before the

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Lord and he said, who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me this far?

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And yet this was insignificant in your eyes, O Lord, for you have spoken also of the house of your servant concerning the distant future.

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And this is the custom of man, O Lord God. Again, what more can David say to you?

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For you know your servant, O Lord God. For the sake of your word and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness to let your servant know.

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For this reason, you are great, O Lord God, for there is none like you. There is no God beside you according to all that we have heard with our ears.

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And what one nation on the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for himself as a people and to make a name for himself and to do a great thing for you and awesome things for your land before your people, whom you have redeemed for yourself from Egypt, from nations and their gods.

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For you have established for yourself your people Israel as your own people forever.

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And you, O Lord, have become their God. Now, therefore, O Lord God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and his house, confirm it forever and do as you have spoken, that your name may be magnified forever by saying, the

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Lord of hosts is God over Israel. And may the house of your servant, David, be established before you.

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For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made a revelation to your servant saying, I will build you a house.

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Therefore, your servant has found the courage to pray this prayer to you. Now, O Lord God, you are

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God and your words are truth and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now, therefore, may it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you.

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For you, O Lord God, have spoken. And with your blessing, may the house of your servant be blessed forever.

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What's so remarkable about that passage is David, David's obviously struggling with the same thing that we talked about at the beginning of this psalm.

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Why me, right? And the only conclusion he can come to is for God's purposes, it's for God's glory.

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God is doing this not for David, not for Israel. God is doing this to establish a name for himself on this world.

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And at the end of it, what's even more remarkable is the humility that it takes to say,

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God, you've chosen to bless me. Bring it on, bless me. It's hard for us to do that.

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It's hard for us to accept that God will bless us, not because we're worthy, but because he wants to and he loves us.

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It's hard to believe that God loves us that much, that he will choose to bless us. And this is part of the reason why

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David's a man after God's own heart. Because David understood that when

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God says that he's gonna bless you, you need to believe him, you need to trust him.

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So of course, David lived happily ever after. Not really. The remainder of David's life was not tranquil, and we see in those events many of the things that are in this psalm.

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He struggled with his own sin and he stumbled horribly. Usurpers tried to steal his throne.

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Accusers tried to undermine his rule. Foreign nations tried to conquer his people. People tried to destroy his family and prevent his son from succeeding him on the throne to get in the way of God's promise and blessing.

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So we can see in David's life and his faith, we see it right out of this psalm. David knows that God will be faithful because of God's righteousness and his promises.

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David knows that only God can save him, and he knows God's character at delivering the poor and the weak.

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David knows God's power and that the traps and the aggression against him are like chaff in the wind compared to God's protection.

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David knows all of this is undeserved, and he is thankful and celebrates

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God's salvation rather than his enemy's downfall. You notice in this psalm, David never celebrates the downfall of the people.

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He prays for it, but when it happens or when he sees it going to happen, he praises

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God for God's goodness, not about the downfall of his enemy. David believes

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God's promises and accepts that God is at war with his enemies. There's an awful humility to Psalm 35 because David is taking

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God at his word to act on his behalf, and that's a humility that we didn't see in Saul.

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So this psalm is about David and his faith in God, but this psalm isn't about David, or at least it isn't about a specific event in David's life.

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It's written in general terms as a psalm. It's a psalm. This is a psalm that was meant to be sung by the people of Israel as celebration of the fact that God will be faithful to their king, to their nation.

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The perils described in the psalms are not the focus of the psalm. It's not about the perils. The focus is on the response of the king towards God.

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When attacked, the king calls to God. When plotted against and robbed, the king calls to God and praises him for the deliverance of the poor and the needy.

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When accused and betrayed and repaid evil for good, he calls for God's help and thanks him in the great congregation in the mighty throng.

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He stands up before the congregation and thanks him. When the people gloat over him in his stumbling, he calls for God to vindicate him.

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And he calls on those that love him to celebrate with him, proclaiming, great is the

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Lord who delights in the welfare of his servant. And all of this he proclaims as God's righteousness.

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It's also worth noting that when Samuel anointed David as the future king of Israel, the Holy Spirit rushed upon him.

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So this psalm is inspired scripture, penned by a spirit -filled man after God's own heart.

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So in that sense, this psalm is not about David. It's the king of Israel leading his people in worship.

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He's acknowledging God's promises, God's character, God's power, God's goodness, and believing

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God regarding the unique status of God's chosen people in the face of every trial and circumstance.

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They're not unique because they're special. They're unique because God has chosen them. And in this psalm, we can follow

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David and the Holy Spirit in worshiping God for those same qualities in his love and commitment to us in our troubles.

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Okay, so it's about David, but it's not about David. It's certainly not about us, right?

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It's not about you. It's awfully tempting to generalize David's relationship with God to be about you, about everyone, right?

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We experience trials and tribulations in our humanity, and we want this psalm to be about how God loves us and cares for us.

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If we just cry out to him, he'll vanquish our foes, save us from every situation, make all our dreams come true because we're special and awesome.

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But Psalm 35 is not a declaration that God will make all your dreams come true and will embarrass and destroy anyone who gets in your way.

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Verse 27 says, and let them say continually, the Lord be magnified who delights in the prosperity of his servant.

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It is the Lord's servant who's being vindicated, not people who have trouble.

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It is not David, the man, that God is saving. It is David, the anointed king of Israel, and it is his lineage that will bring about the eternal kingdom of Christ.

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It is David as king that is being vindicated, and because God has established David as king, it is

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God that is being vindicated in his promise. So we can't just appropriate

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David's words in the psalm and start praying for victory in every conflict and defeat for everyone who has hurt us.

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This isn't about David's victimhood, and we can't make this psalm about our victimhood.

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This is certainly not about God being all about our identity politics, siding with people groups that are oppressed and against people groups with privilege.

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This is about God doing what he said he will do, which is to preserve David's throne, because David's throne is being preserved for Jesus, the son of God and the son of David, the rightful king whose reign will be forever.

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In a way, this psalm is about Jesus, because we've seen that much of what happened to David is that it also happened to Jesus, right?

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In Luke, and David is the promised son. So in Luke chapter one, verses 38 to 33, we often read this around Christmas time.

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The angel said to her, Mary, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him

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Jesus. He will be great and will be called son of the most high, and the

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Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.

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So here's the fulfillment of the prophecy back in the passages in Samuel that we read.

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So Jesus is the promised son of David. Unlike Solomon and his son Rehoboam and any of the

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Davidic kings who died and passed along the throne, Jesus ascended to the throne after he rose from the dead.

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Jesus still sits on the throne and continues to reign. Jesus' life on earth embodied this passage, and he experienced the threats and hardships described in Psalm 35.

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If we just sort of walk our way through them, Jesus had men devise evil against him. Jesus had traps set to ensnare him.

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Jesus was poor, and he had no home. Jesus had malicious witnesses rise up against him.

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Jesus, the son of the most high God, came to save and bless, and they paid him evil for good. Jesus mourned and fasted with the sick and afflicted and grieved as though for a friend or a brother.

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It was Jesus that was hated without cause. It was Jesus against whom they said, aha, aha, our eyes have seen it.

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It was Jesus who had people rejoicing at his suffering. It was Jesus who had people who did not know him tearing at him without ceasing and gnashing their teeth at him like profane mockers at a feast.

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It was Jesus of whom they said, aha, our hearts desire, we have swallowed him up. It is

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Jesus' righteousness in whom we delight, about whom we shout for joy and are glad, and say, great is the

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Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant. It is Jesus' righteousness that our tongue tells of and whose praises we sing all the day long.

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Every element of Psalm 35 is fulfilled in Christ. Jesus is the king whose throne will be established forever, and the church is his chosen people, the people promised to Christ by God, given to him by the

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Father. Jesus is our king who gave everything to ransom his people and believed

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God's promise that we were his possession. So this psalm is about Jesus.

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But this psalm isn't about Jesus, at least not entirely. Psalm 35 refers to when

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David stumbled and God rescued him and restored him and continued to bless him. But Jesus did not stumble as David did.

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He was perfect in every way. And yet, in his perfection,

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God turned his back on him, that he might bear the sins of his people. Jesus knew that God could save him, and he knew that he deserved salvation.

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But he was willing to go to the cross to bear the punishment due to us that do stumble and that don't deserve that salvation.

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Jesus is the son of God, the spotless lamb, the better Adam. The psalm describes the salvation that Jesus deserved, but he didn't receive.

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And the salvation that we didn't deserve, but we have received through Christ. But if Jesus is in this psalm, he's actually there as the

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God who rescues the poor and needy, as the one who vindicates his chosen one according to his righteousness.

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He is the God who delights in the welfare of his servants, the one whose righteousness and praise we should tell of all the day long.

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So earlier, we established that this psalm isn't about you.

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However, if you're in Christ, this psalm is about you. Keep flipping the tables.

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Or at least it is about you, or at least it's for you, to give you the words of faith when facing trials of many kinds.

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This psalm is about God's faithfulness to save his anointed, to fulfill his promises, and to vanquish every enemy of his chosen servants.

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If you are in Christ, you are called his beloved. And scripture is full of promises of the blessings that God intends.

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Stronger than that, that God vows, that he swears. These are blessings that Jesus died to purchase.

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And there is nothing in heaven or earth, or in your heart, that will prevent him from bringing these blessings about in your life.

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We'll look at some of those blessings, but first we'll take a quick side trip back before David, when

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Moses was leading the tribe of Israel through Moab. So, I won't belabor this, but the king of Moab, Balak, bribed the local prophet,

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Balaam, to curse Israel. Because they're coming through, and they've wiped out so many tribes at this point.

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Balak says, I don't want any part of that. Balaam, curse these people so I can defeat them. So, Balaam tries, and every time he starts to curse them, he ends up blessing them, three times.

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Balaam keeps saying, hey, let's go over here. Maybe you can curse them from over here. And Balaam says, nope, sorry.

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So, I'll read you what Balaam says in Numbers 23, verses 19 through 23.

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God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. Has he said, and he will not do it, or has he spoken, and he will not make it good?

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Behold, I have received a command to bless. When he is blessed, then I cannot revoke it.

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He has not observed misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord his

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God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brings them out of Egypt.

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He is for them like the horns of a wild ox, for there is no omen against Jacob, nor is there any divination against Israel.

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At the proper time, it shall be said to Jacob and to Israel what God has done. Balaam was unable to curse, because God had blessed.

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And he says, what God has spoken, he will make good. So, at the end of that, he says, at the proper time, it shall be said of Jacob and to Israel, what has

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God done, at the proper time. What did God say to David at the proper time? Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me, and your throne shall be established forever.

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And at the proper time, God sent his only begotten son to redeem a people for himself.

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God acts and fulfills his promises at the proper time. Unlike Saul, who tried to accelerate the time,

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David waited, Jesus waited, we wait for God to fulfill his promises at the proper time.

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So, let's look at the promises for the people of God. What is said of that people, the elect of God, the bride of Christ, the church.

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First Peter, chapter two, verse nine. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you might proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

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Again, not about us, right? It's about us being chosen to proclaim his excellencies.

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Ephesians, chapter two, verse 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God has prepared beforehand that we would walk in them. Romans eight, 28 and 29.

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And we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

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For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren.

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Timothy actually phrases it in a way that even more closely aligns with David's role as king. In second

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Timothy, chapter two, 11 and 12. For if we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him.

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And Romans eight hammers the point home about God's irrevocable will in the life of a believer.

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Romans eight, 31 through 39. What then shall we say to these things?

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If God is for us, who's against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

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Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns?

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Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

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Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

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Just as it is written, for your sake, we are being brought to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

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But in all these things, all these things from Psalm 35, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who has loved us, or the more common phrase, we are more than conquerors.

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For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, or any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our

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Lord. Psalm 38 is about our strong identity in Christ.

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It's written by David, secure in his strong identity as God's anointed king of Israel, and the recipient of the promise that God would, through his son, establish his throne forever.

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If you're a baptized believer in Jesus Christ, born again to new life in him, then you can sing this psalm, and call upon God to fulfill his promises in your life as he has promised.

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If you're not born again, this psalm is not for you. If you do not belong to Christ, eternally elect in his love,

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God has not promised to secure your life and to come against your enemies, and he will not answer your prayers for salvation.

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Speaking of Jesus, Peter declares an ax, and there is salvation in no one else.

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For there is no other name under heaven which has been given among men by which you may be saved. If you find that you are like Saul, desperately trying to win

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God's favor and secure your own salvation, I implore you to repent and ask

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God to redeem you through the body and blood of Jesus, and to bring you home to his church so that you will be able to receive his love and favor and blessings forever.

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Do not descend into sin and insanity and rejection and death of this world like Saul did, but turn from your striving and receive the free gift of grace of God.

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There's kind of a second application of this as well. Knowing what

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God has said, we can pray with confidence for the utter destruction of our enemies. This psalm is about God's faithfulness to go to war with what threatens our dominion in the areas of life that he has given us when we are too weak to fight.

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In the spiritual realm, as we look around us, there are antichrists who are in plain sight right now, seeking to undermine the church, preaching a different gospel than Jesus, denying the moral authority of God while asserting a moral authority of their own.

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Aggressively preaching a different account of creation, chance and evolution, a different doctrine of man, gender spectrum versus male and female, a different doctrine of sin, identity politics, and oppression, a different doctrine of salvation, science and education, a different sanctification, diversity and tolerance, and a different heaven, human progression to the stars.

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As a believer, are you praying against the enemies of your soul? And I don't mean the people who believe those things.

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I mean the spiritual forces that are coming up against the church and against God's will and against your life.

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Are you praying for God to go to war against your flesh and your sinful appetites? Are you praying for God to vindicate you as a believer and to bring shame and failure to every effort to undermine your faith and your obedience?

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Are you praying for God to go to war against those who would tear your family down? Are you praying for God to go to war against the persecutors of his church?

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I know I often behave more like I'm hiding from my enemies or, in fact, I'm hiding my enemies, looking to come to a comfortable understanding with them rather than calling for God to rain down airstrikes against them and not really defeat them.

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Our Lord Jesus, who went to the cross to pay the price to ransom us from our enemies and rose from the dead to secure for us new life with him, sits at the right hand of the

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Father, interceding on our behalf. What do you think he's praying for us?

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He's praying Psalm 35. I'll close with a final refrain from this psalm.

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Let them shout for joy and rejoice who favor my vindication. Let them say continually, the

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Lord be magnified who delights in the prosperity of his servant. And my tongue shall declare your righteousness and your praise all day long.

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Father, thank you. Thank you for Psalm 35. Lord, all of your psalms illuminate who you are.

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But as we look deeply into this one, we see that you are a God who is faithful and righteous and that you have given us an identity.

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Like David, the king of Israel, you have given us an identity of your people and you have established a rock -solid commitment to us that you will go to war on our behalf and bring us home.

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Father, forgive us when we don't behave as though we believe that. Father, instill in us such assurance of faith, of your power and your goodness and your righteousness, that you will do what you have said in scripture and that you will do it in our lives who do not deserve it.

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But it's not being done because we deserve it, it's being done because you have said it and it will be so.

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Lord, teach us how to have a radical faith in you that believes your promises and believes that your son will bring his kingdom about in our lives and in this world.