Broken Bows and Slaying Swords - Part 2 (Psalm 37:12-15)

We now please turn your Bibles to Psalm 37 and Before we begin let's bow our heads and ask the

Lord's blessing on our study Our father in his earnest desire today that we would hear from you in your word

That you would speak to us in the pages of Scripture That we would learn the lessons that we ought to learn from the warnings that are given to the wicked

That we would be encouraged as those who have found refuge in Christ To cherish that refuge and to look forward to the hope that you have laid up for us in your son

In the future. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you for our time here We thank you that we can gather together and and worship

In freedom and in comfort and now we ask that you would be glorified through The proclamation of your word and to our understanding of it for christ's sake amen

Psalm 37 we're going to read together verses 12 through 15 The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth

The Lord laughs at him for he sees his day is coming The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow to cast down the afflicted and the needy to slay those who are upright in conduct

Their sword will enter their own heart and their bows will be broken This is the passage that we started last week

We got partway through it looked at verses 12 and 14 To consider together the description there of the wicked and their violence against the righteous

Today we are looking at verses 13 and 15 and we're taking them in that way 12 and 14 and 13 and 15 not just because we're grouping odd verses together and even verses together but because there's a pattern here in this chunk of the psalm that That is unfolds here and the intention of the author is to restate in Verses 14 and 15 what he says in verses 12 and 13.

So verse 12 makes the statement about the plotting of the wicked and the anger of the wicked then verse 14 unfolds that a little bit gives more detail the wicked have drawn the sword and Bent their bow to cast down the afflicted and the needy and to slay those who are upright in conduct

And then verse 13 describes god's response to that his judgment which is the lord laughs at them verse 15 adds more detail to that So there's this alternating pattern in the psalm and we are grouping together verses 12 and 14 because they both describe the pernicious plans of the wicked

And we saw there last week the anger and the hatred the violent intent and hostility

Of the wicked toward the righteous We saw that last week that that war that hostility goes back to the garden

And it is really a tale that is as old as time itself The war that is unfolding between the seat of the woman and the seat of the serpent

That is really the tale of all of scripture We saw in those verses 12 and 14 that the wicked have not only violent hatred and hostility towards the righteous

But they also have the means to carry out their nefarious ends They have drawn their sword.

They have bent their bow. They are ready to draw blood ready to destroy So their anger and violence is is not just a a pipe dream

It's not just something that they hope for it is actually something that the wicked have within their means to inflict on the righteous

We saw there that the righteous are their target the wicked go after the vulnerable And those who are without the means to defend themselves in order to destroy and to despoil the righteous

And then we saw that the central idea of this part of the psalm these four verses is that God in his judgment on the wicked will turn the evil of the wicked and all of their plots and intentions back upon their own heads

There is a poetic justice that is to come And that's what these four verses are describing

So verses 12 and 14 the pernicious plans of the wicked and now we pick it up almost like this is part two of last week's

Sermon, which it is with the poetic punishment on the wicked in verses 13 and 15

Let's read verse 13 and 15 together and notice how verse 15 Repeats and gets added detail.

I should say it doesn't repeat it gives added detail to what we find in verse 13 Verse 13 the lord laughs at him that is at the wicked for he the lord sees that his the wicked

His day is coming verse 15 Their sword will enter their own heart and their bows will be broken

Psalm 13 describes god as laughing at the wicked Now you remember this is not the first time that we have seen this in this time that we have spent in the psalms

We saw this back in psalm 2 verse 4 he who sits in the heavens laughs He scoffs at them this word for laugh in verse 13 is the same word used for laughter back in chapter 2 psalm 2 verse 4

Describing how the lord responds to the wicked of psalm 2 uh in verse 4

The word translated laugh here describes mockery and derision It means to make sport of someone or to hold them in ridicule

Now that might make you slightly uncomfortable to think of god doing that to the wicked But I want to briefly lay out for you the case that this is entirely justified and entirely righteous mockery and derision

This is the judgment upon the wicked now there are There are different kinds of laughter and we recognize this

I mentioned these I kind of expanded on this a little bit in psalm 2 There are different kinds of laughter There is the laughter that finds something funny because something is unexpected

Like the punch line of a joke or a situation that unfolds that has a certain note of irony in it

Or we see something that kind of catches us out of the blue. And so we laugh at that because it's it's kind of humorous

That's one kind of laughter There is another kind of laughter that is a coping mechanism You laugh at something that is not necessarily funny.

We wouldn't find it humorous, but in order to cope or to vent Uh sort of something inside of us

We sort of laugh at it as a way of just coping with reality when reality gets tough Or sometimes we laugh to relieve tension

Or we laugh because we are nervous or anxious. There is a nervous laughter kind of a

You don't know what's coming that kind of a laughter. You're not sure what's what's happening Somebody gives you a gag gift.

You're not sure what you see coming. So you kind of laugh nervously at it But none of that is the kind of laughter that god has with the wicked.

He's not surprised by what they're doing He certainly doesn't find it humorous Oh The wicked are oppressing the righteous

They're trafficking people They're oppressing people. They're stealing things. They're they're looting.

They're murdering. They're going to war They're heaping up their possessions and just spoiling the righteous Isn't that funny?

I didn't see that coming. That's not the kind of laughter Nor is it god coping with reality or relieving tension nor is this a nervous or anxious kind of laughter?

This is the type of laughter that is what it is described as here a scoffing and a derision

The lord holds them in contempt In the sense that he makes sport of them or mocks them

And consider if you would going back to psalm 2 not turning there But I mean if you were not here for the messages on psalm 2 and this is something that perplexes you

How can god laugh at the wicked go back to that psalm and watch how we unfolded this? This is this is a just god for god to scoff or deride or to ridicule those who have scoffed at And derided and ridiculed his truth and his son and his kingdom and his righteousness and his law

That is entirely just entirely righteous entirely appropriate I would say to you if your view of god does not have room for that kind of theology.

You have a small god You need to understand that this is in fact god doing to the wicked

The very thing that they have done to the righteous to his people and to his truth

And god is simply turning back upon their own heads the very thing that they deserve and warrant for what they have done

This is justice of god inflicting upon them what they have inflicted upon him and upon his people

Psalm 2 the parallels here are quite striking because in psalm 2 we see Something similar happening that we have happening in psalm 37 namely the wicked are plotting against the righteous

Raging in their hatred and their animosity and enmity against god and his people To persecute through violence to cast off to throw down to destroy to despoil people

In fact psalm 2 verses 1 through 3 says why are the nations in an uproar and the people's devising a vain thing?

Remember what psalm 12 37 look at verse 12 says the people's plot Or the wicked plots against the righteous you have the same kind of plotting in psalm 2

But in psalm 2 it is not the wicked generally speaking in psalm 2 It is the rulers and the and the leaders and the kings of the earth

Who are doing this plotting against the lord and against his anointing? Verse 2 the kings of the earth

This is psalm 2 the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the lord

And against his anointing there is a plotting and a planning there is a particular target that is imbued

Namely the lord his truth his kingdom his law his word his righteousness and his anointed which is the king that would come from David's line, they're really persecuting or prosecuting christ in psalm 2

And so that's the activity of the wicked there. It is obviously a violent angry Rage filled rebellion going on in psalm 2

It's described in verse 3. Let us tear away their fetters and cast away their cords from us.

There is this rash This rash thrashing about casting off restraint in almost a violent way that is described in psalm 2

So the psalmist in in psalm 37 describes that type of rebellion Anger violence and hostility and then he says in verse 13 the lord laughs at him for he sees his day is coming

In psalm 2 the psalmist describes that same type of violent anger and hostility and rage against the lord in his truth

And the response in verse 4 of psalm 2 is the lord laughs in them He who sits in the heavens laughs not because he finds it humorous not because he's relieving nervous tension

But psalm 2 verse 4 says the lord scoffs at them This is a scoffing laughter

Consider also psalm 59 verse 8, but you oh lord laugh at them

You scoff at all the nations This is an appropriate response And notice how appropriate this response is

Let me back up a second There is an intentional Uh mirror of of the act with the response in this passage

So what is the act the act in verse 13 is the wicked gnashing their teeth at the righteous?

I say that gnashing their teeth you can You can see the jaws clenched and the mouth shut and the teeth grinding

You can see the anger and the hostility in the countenance of the wicked through that description

The lord's response is to laugh at them Which highlights the countenance and the face of the lord not that the lord has a face

Not that he has a mouth but the idea of god laughing Puts in your mind the picture of somebody laughing with their with their mouth and with their face

So the wicked gnashing their teeth the lord Laughing at that You see the contrast there in those two images

It's an appropriate imagery an appropriate response The wicked use their tongues as swords and gnash at the righteous

And the lord uses his mouth to condemn the wicked and to laugh at them and that in fact is their judgment

Yahweh laughs at the wicked Now if you are the righteous

You are suffering at the hands of the wicked You might be thinking to yourself Jim, it's it's it's great that the lord laughs at the wicked

But I would like him to do something more than just laugh at their wickedness In fact calvin in his commentary on on this passage says

The fact that god doesn't seem to be doing anything to counter The wickedness of the wicked and appears to us only to be laughing at it

Tends to bring us little comfort and little consolation as we reflect upon what the wicked do to the righteous, right?

You might you might wish why doesn't god do something move rise up and to defend the righteous?

Rides up and destroy the wicked even now. I mean laughter seems like an inadequate response given the reality of their evil

It feels as if god should come forth armed for our defense to himself come out with his sword drawn

And his bow bent and all of the armies of heaven to defend the righteous whom he loves and whom he has died for So the imagery that he sits in heaven and merely laughs at the wicked

Would tend to conjure up within us this desire to see him do far more than simply laugh at them

The fact that god is waiting in that laughing and waiting to deal with the wicked is what tries our patience in a in a difficult world

That's what is that is what is difficult for the righteous to deal with it's it's the habakkuk problem

Lord, this is what I see going on around me. No justice in the land The wicked just flourishing in all that they do the kings are promoting immorality and wickedness people turn against your law

The priesthood is corrupt. The monarchy is corrupt. The people are corrupt I feel like i'm the only righteous one in all of the land and I cry to heaven and you seem to be silent

You seem to be doing nothing. You're just waiting and waiting for what that's the that's the angst of habakkuk chapter one

It's also the angst of psalm 37. Why is it or some 73? why is it that the wicked prosper and the righteous seem to have nothing and god seems to do nothing in this and and there seems to be this this reality in our world where This this happens for the wicked

And this is happening to the righteous and god seems content with that circumstance for both the righteous and the wicked

And we want god to do something more than simply laugh at it and again, he's not

It it helps us if we remember that the laughter is not finding it humorous the laughter is itself the certainty of their judgment

Notice what verse 13 says he sees his day is coming god laughs at them because god sees

The day of the wicked is coming upon them and from god's perspective It is not a long time for us.

It feels like a long time from god's vantage point It is not and listen brethren. I want to promise you something

There will come a time when you will look back upon this time and you will say, you know, it wasn't that long after all It felt like a long time in the moment but boy

Those events unfolded quickly like that And my suffering was not really that much My suffering was not really that long

It was a whole lifetime But you're going to be dead a lot longer than you will be alive Here now eternally speaking in terms of resurrection.

You're going to be alive a lot longer than you will have been dying You understand that but I mean when you die you're going into eternity and you're going to look back upon this life

And you're going to realize that the lord laughing at them was just the lord preparing for their judgment

That is what the psalm is teaching The lord laughed at him for he sees his day is coming

His day of judgment and the destruction of the wicked and given the the parallelism of the passage verse 15 describes that judgment

We're not there yet But the plans of the wicked are destined to fail they cannot succeed his their triumph is temporary

And the resistance is futile because the wicked have an appointed day and this is how paul Wrapped up his sermon on mars hill in acts chapter 17.

God has overlooked the times of ignorance in the past But now he is declaring to all men everywhere that they should repent because he has fixed a day

Upon which he will judge the world in righteousness and he has furnished proof to all men by raising that judge from the dead

That's act 17 30 and 31. God has fixed a day that day is coming. It is Unalterable.

It cannot be delayed and every day that we live brings us one day closer to that final day

But it is certain the judgment and the execution of justice upon the wicked and the exaltation of the righteous

Is as fixed and certain as anything could be fixed and certain And therefore god is able in his judgment to laugh at the wicked

And while we wait for the wicked to be cut off and the righteous to inherit the land That is the repeated promise of psalm 37.

Remember? So while we wait for that to happen the wicked plot and scheme They plan destruction and unrighteousness and seek to overthrow the righteous and to destroy them

But the wicked might as well plan to put out the sun with a cup of water because it will be just as effective They can't do it

And they won't do it So everything that they have plotted will eventually come to nothing and the wicked do not see just how close they are to ruin

That's one of the underlying implications of the passage. The wicked don't see just how close they are to ruin

They are sinners in the hands of an angry god plotting against god's people And there is barely a hair's breadth between them and their eternal damnation and they march along in their folly and rebellion acting as if they are the the rulers of time and eternity and every breath that the wicked take they take by Nothing less than the bare permission of a god who is long -suffering and patient with them

And every heartbeat that is theirs is the only thing that separates them from everything. They have an instantaneous and eternal loss

It's the only thing between them and eternal destruction And once that day has arrived all their evil will turn back upon their own heads

It will return to their own pate as the scriptures say Now this is what this returning back upon them is what we would refer to as poetic justice

Matthew henry says this men have their day now, but god will have his day shortly a day of Recompenses a day which will set all to rights and render that ridiculous which now passes for glorious That's a great phrase

God will render that ridiculous which now passes for glorious when he makes everything, right?

This is poetic justice verse 15 says their sword will enter their own heart and their bows will be broken now given the parallel structure of this

This part of this psalm 12 and 14 are paralleling one another 13 and 15 parallel one another verse 15

I think is the explanation of the kind of judgment that is coming that is mentioned in verse 13 for god sees his day is coming

What is that day verse 15 their sword will enter their own heart and their bows will be broken The symbols the bow and the sword and the bow are the symbols of their strength

Symbols of their their military prowess their ability to do harm their violence

Their might is being crushed here in verse 15 The tools of their oppression are brought to nothing and their violence is inflicted upon them

Judgment here is described as the undoing or the reversal of their plots Remember verse 12 says the wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him

Uh, no, sorry verse 14 The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow To cast down the afflicted and the needy and to slay those who are upright in conduct

Their sword will enter their own heart and their bows will be broken So verse 15 is the reversal the undoing of verse 14 the wicked have drawn their sword

They have bent or walked back their bow stretched it out And they are ready and aiming at the righteous and the judgment that is mentioned in verse 13 is turned

Is that judgment which turns those instruments right back upon them so that their sword pierces themselves?

Not the righteous and the way and their bow is ultimately broken This is the judgment the total destruction of the means that they use to oppress the righteous

Their sword enters them and their bow is broken now If you've ever had a bow break on you in the middle of pulling it back and stretching it back

You know that that in itself can be very painful right when I was a kid, I used to shoot a slingshot all the time and it had the

Surgical rubber that we used for the bands on the slingshot made it out of a tree It wasn't one of the slingshots that you get that sort of wrap around your wrist come up you hold on to it that can never leave your wrist we just Those were for sissies and pansies.

None of none of my friends ever shot those things We we mocked and ridiculed scoffed at and laughed just like god laughs

We scoffed at and laughed at the kids who used those we had the Chunks of tree that we held in our hand and we made our own slingshots and I was wicked good with that slingshot

Because you used to go practice all the time We could go back in my day You could go to the landfill and you could go down into everybody's garbage and pull their stuff out and shoot

Shoot stuff rocks and marbles at it and and shoot them with the guns You can throw bottles up and shoot them out of the sky with your shotgun

We lived in a good country once we lived in a great country once Never forget what they have taken away from you

That was great because you could do your target practice and your christmas shopping all at the same time in one place

It was it was a great time to be alive but with that slingshot You would pull that back and if that surgical tubing broke

It would in an the twinkling of an eye It would twist that in your hand pull it out of your grip and that chunk of wood would come hurtling back at your head

Before you could even blink And it happened quite frequently when I was a kid quite frequently

I use that thing constantly and always tried to get more out of that surgical tubing than anybody should have gotten out of that surgical tubing

So if that happens with a slingshot, that's the type of destruction. That's the type of thwarting

And and judgment that is pictured here They step it back and when that bow breaks it crushes in on them.

They get the effects of that They are the one who is wounded by that they are the one who is destroyed by that That is poetic judgment the very thing that they sought to do to somebody else

Comes back upon them when god destroys the wicked This notion of poetic judgment is sprinkled all the way throughout scripture

Obadiah 15 I call obadiah the prophet of poetic judgment. I borrowed that from somebody somewhere.

I'm not sure who it was Um obadiah 15 says for the day of the lord draws near on all the nations now

Listen to this as you have done it will be done to you Your dealings will return on your own head

That's poetic judgment now obadiah is pronouncing judgment against the edomites

And the edomites if you read obadiah understand the context of it mentions this the edomites which was

Came from esau. That was jacob's brother They stood back and and kept and allowed the invading armies to come in and despoil god's people the israelites

And they actually sat there and kept the israelites from escaping that They hedged them in as it were and rejoiced in their judgment

And so the lord in the book of obadiah says what you have done is going to come back upon you and guess what?

That's exactly what happened in in that time period Psalm 7 verse 14 to 16 we read that at the beginning of the service behold

He travails with wickedness. He conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood He has dug a pit and hollowed it out and has fallen into the hole

Which he has made he digs the pit and he falls into the pit that he digs Psalm 7 verse 16 his mischief will return upon his own head and his violence will descend upon his own pate

Psalm 35 verse 7 for without cause they hid a net for me without cause they dug a pit for my soul

Let destruction come upon him unawares and let the net which he hid catch himself and into that very destruction.

Let him fall the wicked sets the trap intending to ensnare the righteous

And the psalmist prayer is let the wicked fall into and be caught in the very trap that they have set for someone else

Psalm 10 verse 2 in pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted let them be caught in the plots that they have devised

Do you hear it? It's sprinkled all the way through scripture So israel sins and they commit iniquity and idolatry and and bow down to their idols and the lord says

All right, you like idols? I'll give you idols I'll come in and destroy you with a nation and i'll send you off to worship all those idols in a place where I am

Not known and you're surrounded with nothing but idols. That's poetic justice And then to the babylonians who did that the lord says to the babylonians you like violence

Well, i'm raising up a nation far more violent than you the medes and the persians and they're going to come in and they're going To destroy you

And then to the medes and the persians he said you like violence I'll tell you what. I got a nation more violent than you that's going to come in and they're going to destroy you

This is the cycle of justice all the way through the old testament And I promise you it is the very kind of justice that is going to fall upon the wicked if they will not repent

In the ultimate sense god's judgment upon the wicked He visits upon them the very things that they have sought to do to the righteous so they seek to take from the righteous

What they have in their lives and god's judgment is to take from the wicked not only their lives

But to remove from them everything they have ever enjoyed They intend to rob others and they ultimately will lose everything

They are cut off and the righteous inherit the land even though the wicked have desired to cut off the righteous

And take all of their land and all of their stuff The wicked seek to establish their own kingdom and in short they suffer all of that loss for they miss the real kingdom

They want to exalt themselves be remembered have a reputation Have their own little fiefdom their own little kingdom

And ultimately they will be forgotten. That is the promise of scripture Now the reality is that sometimes in this life.

This is true. The wicked do triumph over the righteous that happens

And sometimes in this life the wicked kill persecute cast down destroy oppress

And take everything from the righteous This psalm is not suggesting that that will never happen to the righteous

Because that would be unrealistic The psalmist is not describing that instead.

He is pointing to the ultimate triumph of god's judgment over the wicked and god's exaltation of the righteous

For the psalmist continually says yes the wicked do this but in the end

The righteous will inherit the land and the wicked will be cut off So this is a temporary

Situation that we have going on in this world. Ultimately all of this is going to be reversed A couple weeks ago when jeff miller was preaching he talked about eschatological reversal

And he made a statement that I have to correct but it's a correction that I think jeff would agree with He made the statement that eventually god's going to flip everything upside down I would correct that and say eventually god's going to flip everything right side up.

It's all upside down right now All right, and so we're we're hanging upside down and when you're hanging upside down everything's upside down everything looks right side up But eventually god is going to flip all of it right side up When he cuts off the wicked and the righteous inherit the land that is the promise of this psalm

In the meantime while we wait for their day to come We are called to trust and wait patiently and I would just remind you of what we have already studied in this psalm

Look at verse five Commit your way to the lord and trust also in him. He will do it He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noon day rest in the lord and wait patiently for him

Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes look down at verse nine for evildoers will be cut off But those who wait for the lord will inherit the land

Trust in the lord wait patiently for him. Do not fret wait for the lord.

You will inherit the land Now sometimes this poetic justice happens in this life i've given you a couple examples from the old testament

Let me give you a couple more Do you remember balak hired balaam to go curse? The israelites and what happened?

He got up there and spoke and ended up cursing balak blessing the israelites, right? That was a judgment.

That was the reversal of what balak had hired balaam to do. You remember haman? mordecai

Haman thought to himself How can I glorify myself before the king and all of the people?

Came up with this great scheme when the king asked him What shall I do to the man whom I want to honor and and haman thought?

Well, who would the king want to honor more than me? Of course So he gives him this whole this whole thing and then the king says all right do that to your

The person that you hate to mordecai and so haman had to do that And then you remember what happened that haman went back that very night and said to his wife

Here's what the king made me do and his wife said. Oh Yeah, you've got it coming if you if you started to fall your destruction is certain and and eventually

The very gallows that he built to hang mordecai on he and his family were hung from those gallows.

That's poetic justice Nebuchadnezzar strutted about on the rooftop of his palace standing up over everything that he had built

And he said look what I have built for my glory And god says you are not going to stand over what you have built

You are going to be under what you have built and makes him walk on his hands and knees eating grass for seven years

That is a poetic switching of the rules And rather than being in his glory and in his dominion and in his sovereignty

All of the stuff that he gloated about was instantly stripped from him and he was given nothing

Belshazzar Descendant of nebuchadnezzar. I think it was I think belshazzar was nebuchadnezzar's grandson belshazzar used the instruments of god to to participate in a drunken orgy inside of the

Inside of his own palace while the medes and the persians were outside of the gate finding a way to get inside of the city and meanwhile, he is flaunting the god of israel and Cursing the god of israel and engaging in all kind of immorality and daniel chapter 5

Ends with some of the most glorious words in all of the scripture It just says and that night the kingdom was given to darius the mede just taken from him like that Belshazzar thought he was so secure

And he was not at all god stripped him of all of that in one night Saul persecuted david tried to put him to death and how did saul end?

He fell on his own sword In battle and ended up giving the kingdom to david anyway Sennacherib, this is in isaiah and second chronicles first second chronicles

Sennacherib the king of assyria came and invaded the land of israel and and besieged the city of jerusalem

And meanwhile inside the city gate the the righteous were there held up for their lives And sennacherib taunted the god of israel from outside and said your god whom you serve will not be able to deliver you from my hands

None of the gods of any of the other nations have been able to deliver their people from my hand Your god will not be able to deliver you from my hand

And that night god destroyed 185 000 of the assyrians and sennacherib went back to assyria And scripture says that he bowed down in the temple to worship his god

And while he was in the temple in front of his god, his sons came in and slew him and killed him and then fled

So here was somebody who stood there and said your god whom you serve cannot deliver you and he goes back and dies in The presence of his god while his sons slay him while he's standing there right in front of his idol

That is poetic justice. His god could not deliver him even from his own sons And on and on it goes god uses one nation to punish another using babylon to punish israel using medes and the persians to punish babylon using the greeks to punish the medes and the persians using israel or using other nations to punish edom when they had executed violence against israel

And then in the new testament an example of this herod in the book of acts in all of his palm Uh gets up there and struts about it's actually chapter 12 struts about in front of the people in this big ceremony and the people

Say oh and herod speaks and the people say oh the voice of a of a god and not of a man

And the text says that he refused to give god glory So god struck him and he was eaten by worms and he died

That doesn't sound like the way that a god dies does it to be eaten by worms? So he's how god takes the glory and turns it into the most disgusting

Thing that you could possibly do takes that from him And gives him the lowest possible thing to be written across his tombstone.

He was eaten by worms and he died I don't know if that was written across his tombstone, but If I were in charge of things, it would have been

I would have done that Psalm 37 15 their sword went to their own heart and their bows will be broken

Let me give you three closing considerations from this passage of the psalm First you and I are not promised peace and prosperity in this life

We I think we understand that that is that is not what we are promised David is not promising that kind of peace and prosperity even though in the next verses 16 and following he talks about God's provision for the righteous.

He talks about the righteous never going without the righteous being given what they need He's not there promising that we will never have want in this life

We can expect to be the objects of hatred and hostility and enmity and and the violence of the wicked

That is something we can't expect in this life as the righteous It may be in this life that we are slain by the wicked cast down robbed abused harshly treated slandered reviled persecuted hated and suffer loss

That's that's the reality of god's people In nations that have not been our own around the world for all of human history

That is the tale that is as old as time but ultimately What the psalm is promising is that ultimately

That will not be the end the wicked will not prevail in that because even if they kill the righteous in this life

That is not ultimately prevailing If they lose everything and the wicked are cut off and the righteous are resurrected to inherit the land.

That is the ultimate victory The lord is the one who will right everyone wrong and he will execute justice and righteousness in the earth

He will restore to the righteous what was lost. He will bless his people with abundant shalom

He will exalt the humble. He will turn the plans of the wicked to nothing and bring about their ultimate destruction their day is coming

Look at verse 10 of this psalm yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there

So number one, we are not promised prosperity and ease and protection in this life

It may be That god's purpose for you or for me for our good our

Sanctification his glory his purposes the advancement of his kingdom It may be that in this world.

We ultimately see feel or it would ultimately appear like we are undone by the wicked

That the righteous are slain by the wicked that they're cast down by the wicked and ultimately suffer loss in this world

But from the eternal vantage point from the perspective of eternity that is not how things are going to unfold

That is not going to be the final line of the story That's the promise second. We don't seek vengeance on our own against our enemies or the lord's enemies

This is why scripture says Do not return evil for evil. Do not seek vengeance.

Do not take your Do not take vengeance and revenge into your own hands why because you and I can be confident we can be confident

That the lord will handle that and he will handle it better than we ever could and perfectly

And so we don't have to take vengeance upon our enemies instead and this would be my third consideration from the passage instead you and I have a message for the wicked

And that is that this indeed is what is going to happen to them unless they turn from The repent of their wickedness and trust in the savior

We have good news for the wicked and the good news is that god became a man in the person of christ

And lived a perfect life in this world and then died the death They were required to die so that they would not have to go to hell if they will repent

And trust in that savior. That is the good news good The good news is that god takes rebels and wicked which describes at one time everybody in this room and everybody outside of this room

And he turns them into sons by wooing their hearts Overwhelming their will making christ precious

Granting them repentance and faith and drawing them to the sun and redeeming them

Giving them forgiveness of sins and righteousness. This is the gracious and loving god who does that for the wicked?

This destruction that we are reading about in psalm 37 and all the other passages that i've quoted that destruction that judgment

You and I deserve for our lying and our rebellion For our lives for our adultery of heart for the blasphemy for our lust our greed our selfishness disobedience to parents

Are taking god's name in vain That was the judgment that we deserve But that is not going to be visited upon the righteous not even in the smallest measure

Why because one came who bore our wrath for us who paid the penalty for us lived and died in our stead

So that we would never be condemned along with the world But instead might have the righteousness of that savior and the forgiveness of sins that comes through his work on the cross

He died and three days later. He rose again and now he has ascended to the father's right hand and he is coming again

Scripture says to judge the living and the dead and he is appointed a day for judgment So our message to the wicked is you may triumph in this world

But like with the devastation going on in the other parts of the country with the fires

Everything you have and everything you cherish in this life can be taken away from you and you will stand before god

In clothed in the robes of your own self -righteousness And give an account for every evil deed that you have ever done and god commands you this day to repent

And to trust in his son lest you face the wrath that is to come That is our message in love and in grace not vengeance not

Crying and whining and fussing about the inequities of this life, but to call the wicked to repentance

So may god give us the grace to do that very thing. Let's bow our heads Our father we thank you for the solemn reminder from your word

Of the temporary nature of the current state of affairs And though it seems long to us as your people to wait for that day when your name is vindicated your righteousness is done

And everything is on earth as it is in heaven We pray that you would give to us the patience to wait patiently for you

To trust in you and to look to that day when the wicked will be cut off and the righteous will inherit the land

And before that happens, we pray that by your grace you would draw many wicked to yourself

Redeeming the sons of adam and making them sons of god So that they may have the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness that comes on the basis of faith be glorified to do this drawing

Rebellious wicked sinners to your son so that he may have the full reward for his suffering on the cross in our place

Thank you for imputing to us his righteousness and taking away our sin And now we pray that you would give us the strength to endure until he returns

We long for and look forward to that day when we shall behold your face in glory And enjoy all of the pleasures that are your right hand forevermore.