FBC Daily Devotional – September 24, 2021

Well, good morning and good Friday to you. Here we are the last workday of the week for most of us anyway and looking forward to the weekend looking forward to the

Lord's Day gathering together with God's people I trust and Worshipping and serving him together.

Well, let me ask you this. Have you ever found yourself in the position that David finds himself in in Psalm 109 in In verse 2 he says the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful

Have opened against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue You ever been there ever experienced that?

There's an awful lot of lying going on in our world today, isn't there? I mean it's coming from the top down in our government and it's gotten to the point where It's extremely frustrating.

I was talking with someone recently who said, you know I hate being cynical, but I can't help but being cynical.

It's like I I can't really believe anything. I'm told I Understand that and that's bad enough

But what about when you? personally are being lied about When you're being maligned when somebody is maliciously

Trying to hurt you. How do you handle that? What do you do about that?

Well, I don't about you but I know how I'm inclined to handle it

Well, the psalmist gives us a better approach than perhaps our inclination rather than just You know going off on a counter -offensive

Against the the person who's lying and lying about you and seeking to destroy you What we need to do is

Appeal to our Heavenly Father. This is what the psalmist does He says, you know these liars the wicked people are open against me they've spoken lies

They've surrounded me verse 3 with words of hatred. They've fought against me without a cause

In turn for in return for my love. They have become my accusers Isn't isn't that painful when that happens?

She says but I'm gonna give myself to prayer They've rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love, but I'm gonna give myself to prayer

And what he does is he asks God to speak and to act

So in verse 1, he says do not be silent. Oh God of my praise act speak in my behalf is basically what he's saying and in verses

Really verses 6 through 20. He asks the Lord to deal with the one who is being malicious and Deceitful and lying about him

He's asking the Lord to deal with him according to his wickedness and it's a it's a pretty

It's a pretty sober list of things. He's asking the Lord to do for example He says when this person is judged let him be found guilty.

Okay, I can understand that let his days be few Let someone else take his office.

Now. You remember Peter used that in Acts chapter 1 about getting a replacement for Judas someone else to take

Judas's office But the the application is broader than that. He's saying let his days be few let that one who's being so Malicious and hateful and hurtful if it's necessary just you know, take him out of the way

Take him out. Let his children be fatherless. He says his wife be a widow. Now. These are pretty strong requests but the thing of it is

He's he's taking these These feelings of his to the

Lord and asking the Lord to deal with him that person In a way that the

Lord sees fit. He's not saying You know vengeance is mine says the

Lord and I'm an agent of the Lord And so I'm gonna go take out vengeance. No, he doesn't do that. He leaves it with the

Lord he's asking the Lord to deal with this person according to his wickedness and He he also asks for his own deliverance deal with that person according to his wickedness but Deliver me because he says in verse 22

I am poor and needy and my heart is wounded within me been there done that got a t -shirt that says that maybe it's got a

Wounded heart on it, you know with an arrow through it and the blood pouring out of it Yeah, I'm sure you have had your heart wounded by those

Who have sent the arrows of lying and deception in an effort to destroy you?

I am a needy person. He acknowledges to the Lord and in verses 21 and 26 he expresses his

Dependence upon the steadfast love of the Lord. Remember that from the other day in Psalm 107

He says in verse 21, but you Oh God the Lord Deal with me for your namesake because your loving -kindness your steadfast love is good

Deliver me because your steadfast love is good deliver me and again in verse 26

He makes that same appeal help me. Oh Lord my God save me according to your steadfast love

I need that steadfast love. I'm counting on it and Then he admits the

Impact that this person has had upon him in the last part of verse 22.

He says my heart is wounded He goes on to say I'm like a shadow when it lengthens and I'm shaken off like a locust

My knees are weak through fasting. My flesh is feeble from a lack of fat and fatness

It is it is not selfish or wrong or improper or inappropriate at all for us to go to our

Heavenly Father and Tell him how we're really feeling and tell him what we're really struggling with This is exactly what the psalmist does and I think perhaps many times our our

Wounded hearts could find some solace and some balm Before they become bitter and caustic toward others if we would follow the psalmist example here

So he admits the impact of this deceiver upon him and he pleads to be saved in verses 26 through 29

Help me. Oh Lord. My God save me according to your mercy. He pleads for that deliverance

He pleads for that salvation and then here's a fourth strategy and handling this. Okay. What are they again?

Number one? Asked the Lord to speak and act number two asked the

Lord to deal with that person who is so Maliciously wronging you

Thirdly asked the Lord to deliver you and fourthly. Here's the fourth point in the strategy

Determined to praise God for his gracious intervention determine now I'm going to praise you when that deliverance comes

This is what he says in verses 30 and 31. I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth

Yay, I will praise him among the multitude for he shall stand at the right hand of the poor

To save him from those who condemn him. I will praise him make that commitment as even as you're in the middle of struggling through the the malice of Of the the deceiver the liar the one who wants to destroy you our

Father and our God How easy it is in those times to take matters into our own hands and to retaliate to strike back

Oh Father, may we go to you? May we go to you? Bring our bring our burden to you

Call upon you to act in our behalf and this we pray in Jesus name.

Amen All right. Well again Have a great weekend this weekend and if you can make it to God's house on Sunday I trust you will

Ron Burnett who has preached for me in the past when I couldn't be there Will be speaking this

Sunday and I know his messages will be a blessing and if you can make it to Faith Baptist Sunday for the services