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 the lesson.

We're in Psalm chapter 17 we're going to keep.

We're gonna start with the verse 8 and.

And.

We're 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.

And.

So when we read this we tend to picture a physical enemy, right?

We tend to picture.

Being.

Or encompassed about me.

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 oh 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 justification.

It's 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 beats you up mentally big time.

And so that's how Satan does his job the world 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 and hear 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.

His 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 the sovereignty of God, right?

Here's the sovereignty of God part.

Hide me under the shadow of thy wings.

From the wicked that oppressed 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 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 is

home 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 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?

Thank you.

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 say 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 have 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 sometime just 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 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 gonna 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.

So 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.

I 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 this 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.

And 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.

Matty 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

us.

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 or 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.

We ask these things.

Amen.