Book of Psalms - Psa. 17. Vs. 9-15

Good morning We'll have a little bit of a short lesson today, we're getting started a little late

Had a lot of technical difficulties. We had to work out before the main service, so we will

We will have kind of a shortened lesson. We're in Psalm chapter 17 we're going to keep we're gonna start with the verse 8 and And Just a real quick recap on where we left off last week

We left off talking about Being the apple of the eye and how that terminology actually means

The reflection or the little man in the eye that little reflection you can see when you get close enough to someone to see yourself in their eyes and So when

David asks God to keep him the apple of the eye we tend to think that he's asking

God to keep me your favorite but what he's really asking is keep me close enough to you where I can see myself in you and So there's this very close relationship that Requires a lot of self -examination

That David is displaying here in his prayer for deliverance and So we'll pick it back up on the second half of verse 8 because we kind of stopped mid -verse that's not the end of the verse keep me as the apple of the eye verse 8 ends with hide me under the shadow of thy wings and So what we recognize here is that close relationship with the

Lord That we're supposed to have in righteousness and in looking as much like him as we possibly can

That doesn't just give us favor from the Lord Which is what we've studied in the past how we we gain a different kind of experiential favor

When we are in right relationship with him We also gain confidence in our prayers when we are closer to him, but here we're seeing something else

We gain protection. There is a certain level of protection that you receive when you are in right relationship with God When you are close enough to see your own reflection in his eyes, so to speak

Then you are certainly close enough to experience the protection of The Lord as well,

I'm gonna turn off my My Notifications here and so hide me under the shadow of thy wings

He's asking for protection But I want you to see now is who he's asking for protection from we know that this psalm was written

Around the time or most I should say most scholars believe this psalm was written around the time that David was running from Saul But he names more than one enemy here he says from the wicked that oppressed me

Right, so he wants protection from the wicked that oppressed me from my deadly enemies

Who compassed me about? What does that sound like? Yeah, they're trying to surround him that's right

Ben like they're just It's like he feels trapped almost right.

They've compassed me about they're oppressing me and So when we read this we tend to picture a physical enemy, right we tend to picture being

Or encompassed about and we think about the fact that David may be in fact running from Saul in his army

So we go. Okay, it's a physical enemy, but this represents a lot more than just a physical enemy

Because we are compassed about by enemies that are both physical and non -physical

You have three main enemies that we talk about sometimes Maddie who are the three main enemies The world the flesh and the devil right and when we say the world

We tend to think of the people the bad people in the world, but it's actually more the world system, right?

And I briefly mentioned this before I'll mention it again the way the world the flesh and the devil work together

And they do they work together is that the flesh has sinful desires And that that does not need

Satan that does not need the world It's just already depraved. So it already has sinful desires if Satan were chained in Hell and the world system were abolished you would still be at risk of falling to temptation

Because you have the flesh and the flesh is still with you We know that this is true because it indicates that that will happen around the

Millennial Kingdom Satan will be chained and Jesus will be ruling on the throne

With a rod of iron and yet man will try to rise up against Jesus So that's entirely the flesh and I believe the reason why

God has ordained that it will be that way is because the flesh is the ultimate enemy

We tend to think of Satan as the ultimate enemy, but I believe it's actually our flesh. I think it is our number one enemy

Because we can't really even get away from it. You know, the flesh is always with us However Satan's job he doesn't have the

His job is not to give you fleshly desires your flesh has that already his job is to appeal to those desires

Is to present temptation or an opportunity for you to take advantage of those desires

And so that's what he does and he does it with the lie of sin. The lie of sin is

That it will fulfill you in some way shape form or fashion this will make you feel better this will

Give you happiness. This will give you satisfaction. This will Give you protection this will you fill in the blank?

he always has some sort of provision in the lie of Sin that that you feel a lack in something that you need if you feel like you are

Struggling in any area of life happiness health Emotional well -being loneliness

Like whatever it is that you are struggling with sin

Has a lie that it can be the thing that will help with that struggle So Satan uses that as yeah, you know, it's okay, and then he'll even give you a justification

Right, like here's your justification God loves you.

Anyway, he said it's gonna be fine. You've got grace And Now, of course people who are not

Belonging to Jesus they may not know about grace. So it will be some other form of logical justifications for the greater good perhaps

Right, and so there's this lie that it's gonna be. All right, you can do it.

Yeah, just this once It's not that big a deal. It's not as it's not like you're Doing something really bad right and it will start with little things and it will grow into bigger things

As soon as you give in to those lies Satan turns from the tempter into being the slanderer.

Oh How could you do something like that? Shame on you you call yourself a

Christian or He'll never be able to be a Christian because you just did that and God couldn't forgive you for that So he goes from it's fine.

It's okay to oh shame on you Yeah beat you up mentally big time and so that's how

Satan does his job the world's system its job is to make sinning easy and Acceptable right give you technology so that you can get to things that you should see that you should not see in here more easily present you with an eye with a an environment of instant gratification in Just about any area of life,

I mean instant downloads fast food, right like zero waiting

It's just like you can have the answer to your problem. You can have it right now So just go get it right now.

And so the world system is designed to get you easy access To doing whatever, you know, you shouldn't be doing right easy access to sin and then they make it acceptable

Well, you should just love people You should just accept them the way they are. You should be more tolerant if you do sin, that's okay

It wasn't your fault your environment and your conditions you know, they the people around you the community around you have driven you towards this the the

The System of economy drove you toward it, you know, the system of politics is to blame

You're just a victim. So they make it acceptable to sin and that's how the three enemies work together and we have a really beautiful picture of Jesus's battle plan against these enemies when he was baptized

Right and we hear the father say this is my son in whom I'm well pleased The next verse tells us that Jesus was then led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan and we know that this the

Spirit of God the Holy Spirit Jesus is spirit that leads him

Does not lead into temptation, but it sounds like that's what it's doing in that verse, right?

It led him he was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted But he wasn't led into temptation.

He was led into the wilderness, which is away from cities away from the world system and so we see

Jesus leaving the world system to prepare for a time of temptation and So that's what happens with Jesus So he he separates from the world thereby defeating one enemy

But he can't separate from his flesh because it's stuck to us all the time, right? So his flesh is there with him.

So he begins to defeat the second enemy through self -discipline prayer prayer and fasting right and so he's he's weakening the flesh and Then when

Satan comes to tempt him he confronts lies the lies of sin with the truth

Right and so he gives us this beautiful battle plan for how to overcome sin

It's divide and conquer right separate from the world From the world system don't allow them to make sin easy and acceptable in your life resist that part by getting away from it and then

Have self -discipline to to discipline the flesh and Confront the lies of sin with the truth and you'll only know

How to confront those lies of sin with the truth if you know the truth So you've got to know the truth and it will set you free, right?

You've got to read the word So that's a lot right and I wanted to bring that in before we get into the protection piece, right so like that's our responsibility do those things separate from the world weaken the flesh and Confront lies with truth

But then there's the God's side of the equation right when you do those things

You're actually drawing nearer to God experientially. That's what Jesus does

He spends a whole lot of time away from the crowds. He goes into the mountains, right?

He goes into the gardens and he spends time away from the world system praying and getting closer to his father

And it's that whole Apple of the eye thing, right like he sees himself in the reflection of his father's eyes

We are supposed to do that with Jesus and that's our responsibility side There's always the responsibility of man and sovereignty of God, right?

Here's the sovereignty of God part Hide me under the shadow of thy wings From the wicked that oppress me and my deadly enemies who compass me about It's not just physical enemies the

Lord can hide you from the world the flesh and the devil Verse 10 they are enclosed in their own fat

With their mouth they speak proudly Now he's describing the way the enemy works the enemy

Is so blinded with vainglory so blinded with selfish ambition

That he completely misses everything that is of God He is completely enclosed walled off Isolated from things that are of God By his own fat

Big old fat enemy, isn't it? But what it actually is depicting is only his own personal gain his own

Prosperity And that's not to say that prosperity is evil. In fact That's kind of what's funny is the enemy thrives in Times of fatness the enemy thrives in times of prosperity often when

God's people prosper they they tend to They tend to miss areas of weakness in their own in their own lives and so the the enemy will hide in those times of fatness and he will prosper in those times of fatness and he will mount a

Revolution against God's people in those times of fatness, which is why so many people think that prosperity and wealth and success

And victory for the Christian is not this side of heaven. It's not meant to be this side of heaven

We think oh no that's supposed to come on the other side of heaven After we die and it's we should shun it now because What's what that really means is we don't want to take personal responsibility

For being Vigilant in those times of prosperity and success and so The enemy will thrive in times of fatness

The enemy will thrive in his own fatness, what do I mean by that?

Well, you've got some people in this world who are certainly enemies of God and Enemies of God's people,

I mean Psalm chapter 1 talks about it Or is it

Psalm chapter 2 I think it is Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a feigned thing?

kings of the earth set themselves and rulers take counsel against the Lord and against his anointed saying let us break their bands asunder and Cast away their cords from us, right?

So that's that's the enemies Viewpoint they're the enemies

Way of looking at God and his people like all they want is to destroy

God Destroy the things of God destroy the ways of God and destroy those who adhere to any of that with God and so In being enclosed in their own fatness and their own personal gain in their own selfishness.

They tend to Completely miss the things of God and they completely miss right judgment.

They completely miss Righteousness and We as Christians we we look at these people and we look at these enemies and we go man

They just they send tend to thrive in the world and We go. Oh, well, it's because they're evil that they have the success.

It's because they are evil that they have the the victories and One or two things happens one we get a little bit covetous of that of that Success and victory that they seem to have in this world and we go well, maybe the only way to have that is through living like them and so we fall victim to the temptation of compromising a little bit for Personal gain so that we can at least survive that is why

Christians so often say well I want to make enough money just to get by I I don't need to be wealthy

I just need to make enough to get by because obviously there's something you've got to do

It's not right or good in order to make the money, right? So let's Let's just do enough of it to where we can get by and that's that's just in the realm of money

I need to do just enough Compromising to make some friends or I need to do just enough compromising to maybe survive a bad social situation

But I'm not gonna completely compromise my morals because I'm a Christian right and so we tend to look at the fatness of the world and think that the only way you get to fatness in your life is to live like the world or We shun it completely and go.

I'm not I'm not gonna have fatness God doesn't want me to have fatness, you know, that's that's not for me

Both are wrong thinking right the Lord He has riches and wealth in his hand he is he is the king of kings and If we being evil give to our children good things how much more

Does he want to give us being good and righteous? There's so much more. He wants to give us so we can certainly have times of prosperity

Both financially and spiritually Paul even said

I I would that you prosper even as your soul prospereth, right? He talks about that kind of stuff and So we can have these times of prosperity and success and well emotional well -being and and fatness if you will

But during those times we should be vigilant Against the enemy because the enemy won't do that the enemy in those times of fatness

Let the fatness become the whole thing and that's what it means that they they are

Completely enclosed in their fatness like that's that's all they have. That's all they see

That's all they care about and their mouths speak proudly Because their mouths speak from the place of fatness, right?

We are supposed to be poor in spirit, which means even when we experience

Fatness, we recognize that we are in complete need of the Lord. We are completely dependent on him

And so the enemy is not that way They have now compassed us in our steps.

They have set their eyes bowing to the earth Okay, so here's an interesting picture Going on here

Remember, this is David who is talking he starts off in the psalm. Yeah We are in verse 11 of chapter 17 in Psalms.

Yep So David here Remember he starts off this chapter chapter 17 a song

Basically coming to the Lord as the Plaintiff in the case like this I am being oppressed and I want you to hear me and I want you to Judge my case and I want you to examine me and examine them.

You're not gonna find anything wrong with me You're gonna find everything wrong with them. I need you. I need you. I need you, right? And he asks the

Lord to send forth his judgment From his presence or meaning his face.

So in other words like look at me See me Send forth your judgment, but I want you to in your mind picture what that would look like physically if David came before the throne of God.

What would that picture that would picture David? Facing God, would you agree with that?

Like the two of them would be looking at each other There he's he's asking the Lord to look at him.

I Want you to see the picture that you get in verse 11 now, they have now compassed us in our steps

They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth. Originally it was hear my cry hear my plea

This is about me. I need you. I need your help. But now he's using different language

He's using they have compassed us now

David is not completely alone. He may feel alone in this but remember When he's running he's also

He he goes to the men that are Depressed they are oppressed

They are poverty stricken the indebted and He becomes a captain over those people in the cave of Adullam, right and so he has people eventually so maybe he's talking about him and these people and that would be right to think

I believe but also With the way David always prays it almost always starts out him talking with God and then him

Like joining up and hat and saying like you and I are in this together Right, and so I think what we have here also is a picture of David saying this isn't just my fight

This is your fight All right, we see that from him all the time. We've been through 16 other

Psalms We're actually 17 because we've accidentally skipped 17 and went straight to 18. So we've already done

Psalm 18 This is technically our 18th Psalm to go through But in a lot of those

Psalms he starts off I have a problem and it ends up being now God you and I have a problem

Right, like this is us together. Yeah, and so he's kind of doing that here again

They have compassed us in our steps Remember his steps. He wants to be like the

Lord's steps make my steps like the hinds feet Right put my steps where your steps are.

So when he says our steps, he's not talking about just his own He's talking about the steps of the father

And it says they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth. What do you suppose that means? Okay, well so He's actually describing the enemy right now, right because the enemy has compassed us in our steps

And the enemy has that set their eyes bowing down to the earth That seems weird

Here's what it that's an interesting take.

I hadn't thought of that that maybe they're focusing on worldly things not focusing on God That certainly is true

But I think what it is is it's a precursor to the next verse and the reason why is the way it's written

They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth like as a lion that is greedy of his prey

So if you ever watch a lion attack, here's what a lion does. They don't just stand there and they go

I'm coming What do they do they crouch they bow down to the earth right and they set

Even as they go down their eyes don't move off that prey So they have set their eyes on the prey and they have crouched down to make themselves less visible right

David's enemies are trying to get David and When doing so they don't just come blowing trumpets and horns and saying here we come

We're coming after you like they're gonna try to be sneaky about it and the world the flesh and the devil

We've already described how those three work together. They're very sneaky about it Very sneaky very conniving and that is how the enemy works like a lion

It's gonna crouch down and make itself less visible. But the whole time it's got its eyes on you and That's what this enemy is doing to us every day and to David here in this verse

You're crouching like lions. They have to reach new lows to do this, by the way Like you got to go low and hit really low

To to take out a very strong opponent in basketball we do this When when

I used to play in in high school and in college in high school

I was considered kind of a big guy until we played in the big tournaments and then I was a little guy because Then you play against teams that have seven footers, you know in college same thing

I had one time when I jumped up and grabbed a rebound and Wrapped it up like this had the ball wrapped up like this and I never hit the ground because someone grabbed the ball and Held it up with me.

The guy was huge and He shook me up and down like a ragdoll. I'm six three

The guy was huge But the way you take guys out like that in basketball is

You actually get really low You don't try to get big because they're way bigger than you can be So you squat down and you try to box them out with your rear end, but you try to get them beneath the knees

Because then it makes it hard for them to Exercise their bigness, right?

And so the enemy does that to us they get low and they will hit us in the lowest spots and when we are low, they'll keep kicking us while we're down and They do that so that we can't be as big a

Christian as we're called to be and so verse 12 continues this description of the lion like as a lion that is greedy of his prey and As it were a young lion lurking in secret places think of what a lion looks like When it's getting ready to attack if you ever watched

Discovery Channel, I know Matt has the eyes That are gazing on its prey the sparkle you see in that lion's eyes like it is

Almost terrifying watch it. Sometimes get on Discovery Channel and you'll see it's not just like This it's like the eyes get huge and it's as if the only thing it sees is that gazelle and Everything else in the world doesn't matter only its prey

All it wants is that and it just looks like I am about you can almost see the saliva

Coming down off of its fangs like this is you can just see hunger in that lion's face

That is how our enemy is towards us They want so badly to utterly destroy us and their only focus is that Anything that God calls his own.

That's all they want. That is their prey and So They are getting low

They are getting less Less noticeable

They start that way They become less noticeable and they get their eyes are huge and they get super bloodthirsty hungry for us and when they prance have you ever seen a

Lion actually pounce on its prey Does it do it by just like?

Like under the grass and you never see him Like all of a sudden he gets in the grass and then in next thing, you know, the the gazelle is just dead

No, all of a sudden it's like it goes from in the grass to I am here and it's too late

You know and like it's in all this massive like terrifying glory that it just comes out jaws open claws out and right and It seems like it's too late at that point

That is how a lion attacks. So I want you to ask yourself With our enemies right now.

Are they making themselves less known or more known more known?

Because the enemy thinks it's too late Yeah So now

I want you to remember the story of David Before he fought Goliath. What did David say?

What he told Saul like we can defeat this guy and he had some Experience in these in this realm.

What was his experience? Bear and a lion, but do you remember the story of the bear and the lion?

Did he catch the lion? In the act and get him before he got the sheep. Oh If you go back and read it

He delivered the sheep out of the mouth of the lion Like he literally it says that it snatched away one of the sheep and I went and got him

It may be too late the enemy is probably right about that It's too late to stop this attack

You're about to endure an attack, but it's not too late to be delivered from the attack and to survive the attack

Yeah, and so We David is a picture of Jesus to us, right?

He's he is the a type and He was the

Savior of his sheep The Savior of his flock there are times when he had to deliver them out of the mouth of the predator

I believe America which is a Christian nation as a

Christian nation is already in the mouth of the lion and The only thing that we can have at this point is

Deliverance out of the mouth of the lion and that's going to take a supernatural deliverance now We individually same thing we because our

Christian home is now attacked We have to recognize that the only thing that's going to save us is

God now There's one more thing. I want to get to before we run out of time here and we're getting close He says

And as it were a young lion lurking in secret places Two more points here.

The secret places are often not just times of We talked about the times of fatness right financial fatness

Emotional well -being fatness stuff like that. We're not just talking about that. We're talking about where you think you have strongholds in other words, you might be in a time of fatness you might be in a time of Peace in your own life and you feel like hey things are going pretty good

You might feel like I have overcome a sin habit You might feel like I have improved a relationship or this particular relationship.

I'm I'm good in Nothing will ever break this relationship maybe that's

With a spouse or a friend or co -worker or something like that a boss

What things are good and you might feel like? Nothing's gonna mess that up because I'm I have worked hard to make sure things are good there

Those are the areas They're your secret places You think that's your safe spot?

The enemy would love to get you there because remember when the enemy attacks a sheep. It doesn't just want its leg

It doesn't just want its wool We're an ear. It's not just gonna nip

It's not like a Mike Tyson lion that just wants to nibble on the air a little bit Like this is this lion wants the whole thing a full meal deal

So he doesn't just want to attack you in an area. He wants everything He might use an area, but he wants all the areas even that the ones where you think you're strong So if we are indeed in a time right now when the lion has made itself known and Is presenting itself as it's guess what?

It's too late. I've got you We need to be asking the Lord To arise

Oh Lord and disappoint him It would be a disappointment if he had that sheep and it got away, right?

Cast him down Deliver my soul from the wicked and that sound like coming right out of the right out of the mouth

Which is thy sword now, that's an interesting thing. That's the last thing I want to focus on by the way That David is talking about here

It's a weird statement Deliver my soul from the wicked which is thy sword

Then that seemed kind of strange. Like what was that even mean? Why does he say which is thy sword?

Any guesses no guesses

Yes, sir. That is exactly right.

He uses evil nations to punish people Maddie Grace Recently wrote a very good paper on the sovereignty of God versus the the will of man and part of it dealt with the idea of Does God create evil?

I think the Bible is very clear that he does And then you go. Well, why would he? Because it's useful to him

It's not sinful for him to create evil Even just by giving a single law

Hasn't he by that very nature created the possibility to break the law and thereby created the concept of evil

Paul said I wouldn't have sinned if I had not known the law, right? So it absolutely is

True that God created the concept of evil, but evil is useful to him. He used a lying spirit to deceive

King Ahab He used a heathen nation to drive out The Israelites and to judge them.

He used Satan himself to test Job The these evil beings are his sword

So when David says deliver me from my soul from the wicked what he's actually doing is removing all power all recognition of power from his enemy and Putting 100 % of the recognition of power on his

God and saying the only way they could even do this is Because you gave them the power to do it

Like this is your sword and I'm coming to you asking for and now that in this case mercy

Right. I'm Asking for deliverance because you are the one who controls them

It shows the sovereignty of God right there. But what does he do leading up to the sovereignty of God? Responsibility of man

He works on the righteousness the walk of righteousness that he has here and so When we when we see him say arise, oh

Lord disappoint him It's interesting to me because he's he's changed his language from I need you to come and do this

To now we're in this together All right, and it's almost like hey, let's let's look around look like they've compassed up Let's pray

Heavenly Father. We thank you so much for your word. We thank you that it's truth We thank you that it has the ability to change who we are and how we are

Father, please help us to align ourselves more closely with your word help us to recognize that that in times of success in times of Whatever fatness

Lord that we still are desperately in need of you Help us to be vigilant against the enemy to recognize where he's trying to creep in Help us not to rest on our laurels and think that we're good we can do this under our own strength and father

Arise disappoint him because he he does seem to think that he's got us

More and more so he's becoming bold. It's like he's pouncing Disappoint him deliver us out of the mouth of the enemy

Lord, we love you. We thank you For everything that you've done for us, and we can't wait to see what you do next. It's in your name