Toward An Imprecatory Theology - Lesson 7

Kootenai Church

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Well, it is 930, so let's get started with adult Sunday school class if you find your way into the sanctuary and have a seat

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We'll get started here in a moment. All right, let's bow in a word of prayer

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My father we thank you for the joy and the pleasure the delight that it is to gather around Your word and to be informed by your truth

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We pray that you would shape and mold our minds and our hearts and our affections by your word and that the teaching of it

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May land within our hearts and that we would be conformed to the image of Christ we pray that you would make us to think your thoughts after you and help us to see evil and wickedness in the light of your word and Also to see the future judgment that is to come

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That is revealed in your word to see it with clarity and what it will accomplish and how it will glorify and honor you

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And we pray for innocent people now in Israel and around Israel who are in danger

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This is a perfect opportunity for us to pray that you would protect those who are yours deliver them and bring judgment and justice and Cause the evil to cease and so we pray that you would protect your people and protect the innocent

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Lest they be consumed like bread and lest they be destroyed and we pray that through this your name would be magnified

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We know that everything in this world is accomplishing a great end and it is all heading toward the

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Conclusion that you have ordained and in the midst of this as you set the stage for all that is to come

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We pray that you would in your wrath Remember mercy and that you would show your loving kindness and grace

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By destroying your enemies and those who are the enemies of your people and of the innocent and of your truth

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We ask this in Christ's name. All right.

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Well, we are talking about imprecatory prayers in this series today, my object is to my objective

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I should say is to construct a Theological framework of justice and just to remind us of some of the things that we already know

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Next week is the last Sunday that we'll be dealing with the subject of imprecatory prayers If those of you may not be here an imprecatory prayer is a prayer where somebody invokes

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God to curse or destroy his enemies Or their enemies you see this in Scripture quite frequently as reading through the book of Jeremiah this last week of Jeremiah is repeatedly praying that God would embarrass and shame and destroy those who are his enemies and then

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Jeremiah talks about when God is going to embarrass and shame and destroy those who are his enemies and so we are dealing with this subject of imprecation and how to interpret it and we are today going to I'm going to give you 12

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Statements of sort of truth some of which we've collected Some of which I've mentioned without really going into it some of which

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I've mentioned at great length I'm just going to give you 12 statements theological statements or observations that we have observed and made over the course of our study in imprecatory prayers and there is no logical

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Theological order to this I sort of just wrote them down and have been collecting them over the course of the last several months and Then when

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I got ready to put all of this together, I realized there's just no there's no order to this so it might seem a bit of a scattergun approach but the point of this is to basically put into place some of the

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Building blocks that we're going to use next week when we look at five principles for praying in precatory prayers So here's the first observation.

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I have 12 of them and I will get through all 12 of these. I Have to get through all 12 of these because I only got one more week

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The first one is this generic prayers for salvation or for deliverance from the wicked or for the fulfillment of God's Eschatological plans are in precatory by implication

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The long statement and I'm hoping none of you are trying to write all of this down because some of them are a bit longer Than that even so just listen carefully generic prayers for salvation or deliverance for God's people from the wicked or prayers for the fulfillment of God's Eschatological plans they are in precatory by implication and what

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I mean by that is For God to come and to begin to execute his

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Eschatological end times plans is going to mean the destruction of his enemies and the enemies of his people

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It will be a wholesale slaughter of those who have allied themselves against God So even prayers such as thy kingdom come

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That's an imprecatory prayer. Do you understand what you're asking for your ass? There's only one way that's going to happen

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Not slow and progressive without any violence No when his kingdom comes it is the

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Stone cut out of the mountain without hands that comes in and crushes the statue of Daniel It is the destruction of all the kingdoms of the world

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It is God putting his king on Zion and ruling them with a rod of iron and the destruction of all the wicked

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So even even an innocent prayer like thy kingdom come or come Lord Jesus. That's an imprecation by implication an imprecation by implication you are

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Implicitly asking God to do something to the wicked namely to destroy them and to to institute his

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End -times plans the coming of Christ is going to be an imprecatory event.

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It's going to be a violent event It has to be that by nature. I want you to look at a couple of Psalms here

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Psalm 14 verses 1 through 7 The fool have we switched yet? Okay The fool has said in his heart there is no

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God they are corrupt they have committed abominable deeds There is no one who does good The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand who seek after God They have all turned aside together.

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They have been corrupt have become corrupt. There is no one who does good not even one now

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Do you recognize some of those statements from somewhere? That's the book of Romans right chapter 3

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And look at the next few verses Do all the workers of wickedness not know who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the

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Lord They are in great dread for God is with the righteous generation

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Who would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted but the Lord is his refuge Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion when the

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Lord restores his captive people Jacob will rejoice Israel will be glad Okay verse 7 when the

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Lord restores his captive people the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion What is that describing?

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That is describing a judgment that is to come not just that God would deliver his people Israel from their enemies

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But when you talk about the ultimate salvation of Israel, you were talking about the complete destruction and annihilation of all

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Israel's enemies So a prayer for salvation would mean Often the end or the destruction of the wicked now

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It is possible for God to end evil without judging his enemies. That is possible, isn't it?

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for somebody to be enduring or somebody to be committing untold wickedness and evil and then for and this to be happening to God's people or to the innocent or The bystander and then for God to cause that to stop we could probably think of a dozen two dozen ways that God could cause that To happen he could he could save the evildoer

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He could cause the evildoer to have a heart attack and go to the hospital and stop his evil ways God could make it impossible for the evildoer to do that Just like remove his physical or mental capacities for to have that happen

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There are all kinds of ways that God could stop evil without bringing judgment, but in the

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Psalms that is rarely the case even some of the generic requests for God to save his people and deliver his people even some of those generic requests are

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Laden with the implication that this is going to happen through judgment ultimate judgment upon God's enemies

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Second statement though some Psalms don't mention judgment upon the wicked Those are the non -imprecatory

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Psalms many of them lament the wicked and plea for deliverance So even though there are Psalms that do not ask

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God to curse or to judge the wicked Even those Psalms are rife with mentions of the wicked and pleas for God's deliverance

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And they don't go those 53 in non -imprecatory Psalms and I class put them in that classification

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Those 53 non -imprecatory Psalms may not necessarily go as far as to ask God to destroy the wicked

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But the implication is that these wicked things are happening. These people are evil they're doing this to the innocent to your people

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God come and deal with this make it stop and The implication even of the non -imprecatory

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Psalms is that they are asking for some sort of a deliverance Which may or may not involve eschatological wrath

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The notable exception to that is Psalm 150 that I mentioned several weeks ago And I just remind you if there is a chronological order to the

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Psalms in other words David saw to the composition of the first two books of the Psalms was it two or three?

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I think it was the first two books of the Psalms mostly David's Psalms and And there is a chronological order to those

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Psalms as a story is being told when you get to the end of the Psalter Psalm 150 there's no mention of the wicked.

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There's no mention of judgment. There's no mention of wrath. There's no mention of destruction There's no plea for any of that Why is that because Psalm?

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150 is probably a picture a portrait of the ultimate state that we will enjoy when all the wicked have been done away with When all wickedness has been judged then it's just praise

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The wicked aren't there the lament isn't there the angst over the people of God is not there and the innocent

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It's just nothing but praise Number three the reign of God cannot be separated from the destruction of the wicked and the judgment to come

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The reign of God cannot be separated from the wicked the certain destruction of the wicked and the judgment to come

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God's desire is to reign and to establish that reign and to demonstrate that reign and to manifest that reign

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Reign to all of creation. This will necessarily mean the destruction of the wicked Psalm 45 for instance celebrates the

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King's marriage. It's a song written for a royal celebration probably probably

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Solomon or somebody close to Solomon maybe David Psalm 45 verse 3

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Says gird your sword on your thigh and remember this is a this is a wedding song This is what we this is what we sing at a wedding.

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This is the joy. This is the rejoicing Happy celebration Gird your sword on your thigh.

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Oh mighty one in your splendor and your majesty and in your majesty ride on victoriously For the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness

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Let your right hand teach you awesome things Your arrows are sharp the people's fall under you your arrows are in the heart of the

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Kings enemies Your throne Oh God is forever and ever a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom

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You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness Therefore God your God has anointed you with the oil of joy above your fellows

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You probably recognize verse 6 is a quotation from Hebrews chapter 1 God your God has anointed you

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Your throne Oh God is forever and ever in a scepter of uprightness is a scepter of his kingdom that is a that's quoted in Hebrews chapter 1 to show that Jesus Christ is the

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God and the King who is Spoken of in Psalm 45 So this is obviously a psalm written in a historical context that is describing the the wedding ceremony the wedding song of a great

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King of Israel but then there is again as we see so often in the Psalms one who's looking beyond that event to another future event and that is describing the one who takes this scepter of his kingdom and loves righteousness and hates wickedness and Is anointed by God with oil above your fellows and he reigns and he rules and that will necessarily mean the destruction of his

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Enemies look at I could take you back to verse 4 We talks about majesty riding on victoriously and your arrows are sharp and the people's fall under you.

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That's destruction and judgment so the King described in Psalm 45 is a righteous

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King. He is a ruling King He is a reigning King and he is a warrior King and that King of course is

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Jesus He is the one who is God whom the Father calls God and anoints to rule and to reign

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Okay That's a quarter of the way through my 12 any questions on any of that yet Yep, not drawing any conclusions just yet Just throwing out all of these observations theological observations that we're gonna use sort of laying out pieces on the table that we'll use to Put together the puzzle next week

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Okay, number four praise is given to God for his reigning Praise is given to God for his reigning his reign his rule his his mighty triumph over his enemies becomes the source of Praise and adoration for the people of God.

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It is something that they rejoice in Psalm 47 verses 1 to 4 Oh clap your hands all peoples shout to God with the voice of joy for the

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Lord Most high is to be feared a great king over all the earth He subdues peoples under us and nations under our feet

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He chooses our inheritance for us the glory of Jacob whom he loves Psalm 48 verse 11.

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Let Mount Zion be glad and let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments in other words the judgments of God and his rule and reign become then the source of Rejoicing the cause of rejoicing for the people of God God's people are to delight in God's righteous judgments

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We should delight in that if we can't delight in that Something is wrong with us and our perspective and not with God and his perspective

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But we should be able to rejoice in God's righteous judgments Justice and righteousness are

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God's attributes and he delights in them They're part of his nature and part of his glory and he is worthy of praise and worship and adoration

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When he is revealed through his righteous judgments, this is the point of Romans chapter 9

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God in order to show his mercy Was gracious to Moses God in order to show his justice hardened

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Pharaoh and We can praise God for his mercy and we can praise God for his justice And when justice is done, we can be thankful that it is done.

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We can rejoice in it We can be glad about it. We can be happy and we don't have to hide that from people if suddenly

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Israel today just destroyed all of their enemies in the Middle East and the evil of Hamas and Hezbollah and all of the other organizations stopped immediately

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You would have your David French style Latte sipping Christians going online and lamenting this execution of justice and righteousness and they'd be all

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Clutching their pearls upset about it in an apoplectic fit. I would be rejoicing

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I would be thankful and I would praise God for his righteous judgments and If God is to destroy other people who are wicked we can

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I think rejoice in those the execution of those judgments number five Imprecation involves

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God turning the plans of the wicked back upon themselves letting them receive the evil they planned for others

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That's the psalm 64 1 to 8 which we'll read here in just a moment. This results in righteous rejoicing

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All right, it is imprecation involves in Scripture God turning the plans of the wicked back upon themselves

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Letting them rejoice receive the evil that they plan for others. This results in the righteous rejoicing

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This is what we would call poetic justice What the wicked plan they get when God brings it back around to them

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The wicked lay a snare for the righteous and then they fall into the snare This is Proverbs right the wicked lays a snare for the righteous and he falls into that He is entrapped by the words of his own mouth

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It's this idea that God knows and he sees all of these deeds and then he allows the wicked to set all of this up And then executes judgment upon the wicked by bringing upon them the very thing that they had planned for others

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Like Haman who is hanged on his own gallows Right what a graphic display of God's justice

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Haman, you know the story builds the gallows and he's the one hanging from it at the end of the day

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Edom got what they deserve because of what they did to Israel if you read the book of Obadiah That I refer to as the prophet of poetic justice

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You will see in there a statement in Obadiah what you have planned for God's people God has brought back upon you

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Your deeds will come back full circle upon your own head. That's the book of Obadiah Edom when Israel was being raised and plundered the

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Edomites who Sat as it were apart and watched that happen and rejoice and even cut off historically

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They cut off escape routes for Israel so that they could be sacked and and that the Raiders and the plunders could be even more

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Effective and then Obadiah comes out and he proclaims against Edom what you did to others what you planned for others

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I will do to you They planned that in complete destruction of Israel and God said because you did that I will turn this back upon your own head

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You're gonna get what's coming what you planned for them. And this is what it's coming for you. There is there is a An equality with the judge between the judgment and the crime that is committed

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That's the book of Edom, I'm sorry the book of Obadiah By the way, you see it in the history of Israel Israel sins

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God uses or starts to say Judah sins to give this illustration Judah sins God uses

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Babylon to punish Judah This court, of course creates a moral conundrum How can you use a pick of people more wicked than Babylon to punish us and God says don't worry about it.

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I got a plan and The plan was that God would use the Medo -Persians to punish the

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Babylonians and that happened during Daniel's stay in Babylon When Belshazzar lost the kingdom in one night

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Remember that at the end of I think it's Daniel chapter 5 Belshazzar loses the kingdom and is taken from him And you say well did he leave the

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Medes and the Persians unpunished? Nope The Greeks came in and did that well, how about did the Greeks were they did they remain unpunished?

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Nope, the Romans came in and destroyed them Well, did the nation of Rome remain unpunished

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Nope, what happened to them? They were split into four kingdoms and went away and they lost the entire

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Roman Empire because of their folly and their sinful choices So there is a there is a cycle to this a poetic justice that is involved in imprecations

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Let me give you some examples of that Psalm 64 verses 1 to 8 hear my voice Oh God in my complaint preserved my life from dread of the enemy

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Hide me from the secret council of evildoers from the tumult of those who do iniquity Who have sharpened their tongue like a sword pay attention to this language?

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They aimed bitter speech as their arrow to shoot from concealment at the blameless Suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear

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They hold fast to themselves an evil purpose. They talk of laying snares secretly

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They say who can see then they devise injustices saying we are ready with a well -conceived plot

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For the inward thought and the heart of man are deep, but God will shoot at them with an arrow

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Remember the previous slide they sharpened their arrows. They have aimed them at the righteous They have conceived this plot and that arrow is gonna go out and like a boomerang

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It's gonna come right back and hit them God would foil their plots by destroying their wicked plans

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Suddenly, they will be wounded. So they will make him stumble stumble their own tongue is against them.

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Remember the previous slide What did I say they've sharpened their tongue like a sword They aimed bitter speech as their arrow and now

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God says the arrow will come back and hit them and their tongue like a sword Will be against them. That's poetic justice

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So when you talk about imprecation, we are not praying or we are not asking God or expecting God to Do something to the wicked that they do not deserve

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Nor are we asking God to do something to the wicked that they are not planning to do to somebody else And then look at how this is a cause of rejoicing look at verse 9 and 10

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Then all men will fear and they will declare the work of God and will consider what he has done The righteous man will be glad in the

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Lord and take refuge in him all the upright in heart will glory Glory over what the wicked receiving what they have planned for the righteous so when a terrorist plans to Strap a bomb to his chest and wander into a pizzeria and kill 30 40 50 80 people innocent people

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And he's walking down the street alone. The bomb goes off and destroys him. I Rejoice in that I Would rather have that end than the other end and that can cause us to rejoice

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God does this in small ways with individuals? He does this in large ways with nations and when we see it we can rejoice in God's righteous judgments

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And by the way, if we refuse to rejoice in God's righteous judgments, then we are refusing to delight in one of his attributes

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And if we are going to worship God as God then we need to embrace all of his attributes even the ones that make us uncomfortable and we need to be willing and able to Rejoice in those and to worship and glorify him because he reveals all of his attributes

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Number six the righteous should be disgusted by evil and have a righteous indignation over its temporary triumph

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Righteous should be disgusted by evil and have a righteous indignation over its temporary triumph

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Psalm 15 verse 4 in whose eyes a reprobate is despised but who honors those who fear the

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Lord He swears to his own hurt and does not change It's describing a righteous man who can ascend into the hill of the

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Lord Psalm 15 I think is verse 1 and here's the answer the one in whose eyes a reprobate is despised

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We should have a righteous despising indignation towards sin and Sometimes that means towards individual sinners who commit that sin

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That indignation that righteous indignation can Simultaneously exist with a love for our enemies

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And again, if we can't get that the problem lies with us and not with God Evil should elicit a righteous indignation and a visceral desire for justice from the righteous

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We have that when we are offended right when you get offended. Don't you get sort of indignant a little righteously indignant?

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When somebody hurts you cut you off in traffic says something about you. You kind of get all huffy -puffy Well, how much more when the name of God is maligned?

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When his people are attacked when his holiness is is thwarted When his but his ways are mocked and ridiculed when his son is despised and rejected

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How much more should the righteous be indignant about that? Psalm 139 look at verse 19 through 22.

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Oh that you would slay the wicked Oh God depart from me therefore men of bloodshed look at that prayer verse 19. Oh that you would slay the wicked

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Oh God That's what I prayed for at the beginning of this class, by the way That's that's not the prayer of an unrighteous vindictive bloodthirsty blood -soaked

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King That's the prayer of a righteous man Depart from me therefore men of bloodshed for they speak against you wickedly your enemies take your name in vain

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Do I not hate those who hate you? Oh Lord, and do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

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I hate them with the utmost hatred. They have become my enemies See these imprecations and these sentiments is

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David's righteous indignation and hatred for sin. He's not upset that somebody called him a name

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He's not upset that somebody burned his dinner He's not asking God to judge his cook or his maid because she didn't empty the bedpan or or Somebody because they forgot to give him a birthday present.

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That's not what he's asking for he's righteously indignant over those who hate God despise him and are his enemies and David says because zeal for your house has consumed me

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God's enemies are my enemies and The degree to which they attack him is the Duke and and me is the degree to which

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I want God's justice to fall upon his enemies Alan Ross and his commentary on the

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Psalms says this these Implications are the Psalms expressions of their hatred for sin the psalmist's expressions of their hatred for sin the enemies

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Who are actually attacking the righteous and taunting their faith were the embodiment of evil Vile people in whom falsehood and treachery cunning greed hatred cruelty arrogance and pride had found full expression

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Could David have pitied them and treated them with kindness? He did that in so far as it was possible

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But as King he had to champion righteousness and punish evildoers in order to safeguard

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God's program Now this is one of the theological principles. We have to keep in mind there are times when

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David is expressing these sentiments and he is speaking of the coming eschatological judgment that the

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Sun will pour out upon His enemies and there are times when David is describing his own indignation over sin and sinners and as King He was commissioned to execute judgment.

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This is something we have to keep this in mind This is something that you and I do not share with David right

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We've made God has made no covenant with us the called the Davidic covenant and set us on his throne and given us the charge

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To execute God's enemies David as a king was commissioned to do that. So there are times when

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David when David Showed pot was how does it say? Oh had pity and treated them with kindness.

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There were times when he did that He didn't execute Shimei when he came back into the city of Jerusalem after Absalom run him out

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Did he he didn't execute Shimei on the day that Shimei was cursing him when he left Jerusalem and he could have as King He could have said you're cursing

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God's anointed He could have executed Shimei right on the spot and he had men at his ready who were willing to do that But he didn't do that instead.

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He gave grace to Shimei. He gave grace to Absalom and lamented when Absalom was killed even though there are imprecatory psalms where David is praying for the end of the evil and the destruction of God's enemies where Absalom was probably in the background of that Those two things are both going on at the same time

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And then you have David as King whose job is to execute justice He didn't he didn't execute God's justice upon Saul a rebellious and wicked

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King when he caught him in the cave, right? Now you may say but I remember David putting out a hit on Shimei when he handed the throne to Solomon That's true

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Probably because there is an execution of justice that was right for the King to do and Shimei's time of grace had come up It wasn't unjust for Solomon to execute justice like that Number seven the desire for God's justice must be motivated by a concern for the victims of injustice and unrighteousness

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This is key desire for God's justice must be motivated by a concern for the victims of injustice and unrighteousness

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Psalm 110 or sorry Psalm 10 verse 12 through 18 arise. Oh Lord. Oh God lift up your hand

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Do not forget the afflicted why has the wicked spurned God? He has said to himself you will not require it

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You have seen it for you have beheld mischief and vexation and take it into your hand the unfortunate commits himself to you

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You have been the helper of the orphan the afflicted the unfortunate and the orphan So here's the prayer break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer

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Seek out his wickedness until you find none the Lord is King forever and ever nations have perished from his hand from his land

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Oh Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will strengthen their heart You will incline your ear to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed so that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror

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What kind of terror is he concerned about the orphaned the afflicted the poor the oppressed the downtrodden? David is concerned there.

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The psalmist is concerned about what is happening to innocent people who are afflicted by this wickedness

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Psalm 12 verses 1 through 5 help Oh Lord for the godly man ceases to be for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men

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They speak falsehood to one another with flattering lips and with a double heart They speak may the Lord cut off all flattering lips the tongue that speaks great things

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Who have said with our tongue we will prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us

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That's the taunting of the the wicked verse 5 Because of the devastation of the afflicted and because of the groaning of the needy now,

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I will arise says the Lord I will set him in the safety for which he longs The concern of the imprecations and the prayers for the needy the downtrodden in the afflicted

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Psalm 74 verses 18 to 23 remember this Oh Lord that the enemy is reviled and the foolish people have spurned your name

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Do not deliver your soul do not deliver the soul of your turtledove to the wild beast Do not forget the life of your afflicted forever

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Consider the covenant for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence Let not the oppressed return dishonored let the afflicted and needy praise your name arise

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Oh God and plead your own cause remember how the foolish man reproaches you all day long Do not forget the voice of your adversaries the uproar of those who rise against you which ascends continually

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Sorry about that So that is the that is

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David's Lament over the what the wicked are doing to the afflicted the needy the innocent and that should be the concern behind imprecations

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All right number eight Right on track. No, not leaving any time for Angelica last questions.

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She saved them all up all up for next week. What's that? Okay now in a modern context before I go on to number eight in a modern context the it would be appropriate to pray for wickedness and evil and God's destruction upon his enemies who oppose his people who persecute

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Christians who exploit people who traffic people who Sell and buy slaves or people who exploit the needy and the desperate with false teachers prosperity gospel fake healings things of that nature

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Those are appropriate expressions of imprecations in our own day Number eight the righteous laugh at the wicked on the day of their calamity

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I don't want to make too much of this but this is something that has to fit inside of our imprecatory theology

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Psalm 52 verses 1 to 9. Why do you boast in evil? Oh mighty man the loving -kindness of God endures all day long

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Your tongue devises destruction like a sharp razor a worker of deceit You love evil more than good falsehood more than speaking.

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What is right? You love all words that devour. Oh deceitful tongue But God will break you down forever

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He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent and uproot you from the land of the living The righteous will see and fear and will laugh at him saying behold the man who would not make

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God his refuge But trusted in the abundance of his riches and was strong in his evil desire The righteous will laugh at him.

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They will see they will fear and they will laugh But as for me the psalmist says

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I am like a green olive tree in the house of God I trust in the loving -kindness of God forever and ever I will give you thanks forever because you have done it and I will wait

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On your name for it is good in the presence of your godly ones. Now the righteous are Satisfied they can delight and even chuckle and mock the fool

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Who plans his little deeds and it all comes back upon his own head and then the righteous can say

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Got exactly what he deserved Now You got to be a little bit careful in that don't you?

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Because you got to also at the same time thing. What did I what do I deserve? And that has to have an element of humility that's inside of all of this mix

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Remember God laughs at rebellion Psalm 2 verse 5 you sits in the heavens laughs the Lord scoffs at them

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You speak to them in his anger and terrifying them in his fury Verse 9 of that of that psalm says you shall break them with a rod of iron

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You shall shatter them like earthenware The kings of the earth take their stand against the Lord and against his anointed

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I think we're singing that song today. Is that right? Yeah Psalm 2 We're singing that song today and the kings of the earth do that and God sits in heaven and he mocks them

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He ridicules them. He derides them. What do you think you're doing? I'm gonna shatter you like an earthenware vessel

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I'm gonna crush you like a clay vase Boss depending on how you how much it's worth. I'm gonna crush you like a clay boss and shatter you into pieces and Is that unrighteous for God to laugh at the wicked to mock them to ridicule them?

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and It's not I mean, obviously it's not God does it it's obviously it's not but there's some element that has to come in again with Our own humility and say though we may do this though We may mock the wicked for his evil plans when justice falls upon him

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There has to be a sense of humility that's woven into that where we balance this We are distraught that the wicked have perished from the land because we know that they are being destroyed

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Even in hell for all of eternity There's a sorrow there over that but I can rejoice at the same time that the wickedness has stopped and that God's justice has been manifested and I can

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I can laugh at and rejoice in and declare that that justice is good while remembering at the same time that if not by the grace of God, I would be the object of the righteous is scorned and I have you had to balance that I am hope you understand

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I'm in no way suggesting that we flaunt about and parade about holding up signs like Westboro Baptist Church saying

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God hates this God hates that God hates you and Mocking them and taunting them. That is not the attitude that we should have

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There should be mixed in with our delight and joy in God's judgments Also a sorrow over the reality of those judgments both of these are appropriate emotions and they can be going on at the same time

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How we balance that I'm not even gonna answer that next week. We got to work that out in our own thinking

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I'm just simply saying that there is a role for both of these number nine there is no contradiction between The everlasting loving -kindness of God and the destruction of the wicked or his judgment upon enemies and nations

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There's no contradiction between God's everlasting loving -kindness and his judgment on the wicked and I would point you to Psalm 136 verse 10 to him who smote the

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Egyptians in their firstborn For his loving -kindness is everlasting And by the way, that phrase is loving -kindness is everlasting is at the end of every phrase of every verse in that psalm

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It is this for his loving -kindness is everlasting. It is this because his other kindness is everlasting It's every other phrase in there and there are phrases in there that describe

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God's mighty works of grace and justice and provision and creation Yes, but there are also phrases in there like these three that describe

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God's destruction of entire nations to him The Egyptians in their firstborn verse 15

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But he overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea Psalm 136 verse 17 to him who smote great kings

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For his loving -kindness is everlasting. There's no contradiction between God being an everlastingly loving kind God and his destruction of the wicked these two things are stated together back -to -back and We can affirm both of those

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God smote Pharaoh because of his loving -kindness God destroyed

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Egypt because of his loving -kindness. He wasn't contradicting his loving -kindness. It is kind and loving and gracious For God to judge sin.

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It is an expression of love. It is also an expression of justice Just as my disciplining my child or inflicting pain upon my child when they disobey can be an expression of love to them

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By the way, Psalm 136 just as an aside something a bit humorous here when

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I was a kid in this church They had a competition to see who could memorize the most verses between boys and girls and the loser had to cook breakfast for the other like if the if the boys did it they if the boys wanted girls have to cook

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Easter breakfast if the boys wanted girls that I just said the same thing, baby and Psalm 136 was one of the

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Psalms that I memorized because half the work is done for me I just have to remember for his loving -kindness is everlasting and then you just you just rattle that off and you're memorizing a lot of Verses but only half of each verse which was great

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Number ten, there were probably girls praying in precatory songs when they heard heard us do that verse ten or number ten a desire for justice and judgment upon evil doesn't seem to be

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One of the wicked ways that God should search out and remove from us All right a desire for justice and judgment upon evil doesn't seem to be a wicked way that God would search out and remove from us and For that I would just turn you back to Psalm 139.

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We've referenced this already. How precious also are your thoughts to me? Oh God, how vast is the sum of them if I should count them?

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They would outnumber the sand when I awake I'm still with you. Oh that you would slay the wicked Oh God depart from me therefore men of bloodshed for I for they speak against you wickedly and your enemies take your name in vain

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Have you ever had that kind of indignation when you hear somebody taking God's name in vain? Yeah, it should be every time

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Unfortunately, it's not but that's a fault with us Do I not hate those who hate you?

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Oh Lord And do I not loathe those who rise up against you I hate them with the utmost hatred they've become my enemies

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Then immediately he says search me Oh God and know my heart try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there's any hurtful way in me and lead me in the way everlasting

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No, you don't have in the next verse Him saying Lord I just realized that my desire for your justice and the destruction of your enemies is one of these wicked ways that resides in my

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Heart I confess this I repent of it. I'm sorry David doesn't do that So as desire for God's justice upon his enemies does not seem to be a wicked way that God would search out and remove from him in fact

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The psalmist enemies because the psalmist enemies are God's enemies David aligns himself with God to the point where he is able

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To hate with the same kind of hatred that God hates the wicked There is a way in which

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God hates the wicked I would show you a few verses Psalm 5 verse 6 now 5 and 6 now listen

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Let me prep this by saying I'm not in any way suggesting that God has no love for the wicked he does God loves even the most wicked sinner with a love that you and I cannot imagine.

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It is a creaturely love it's not a redeeming love, but it is a love that is beyond even our capacity to understand and to and to commit to and And that is held out in Matthew chapter 5 as an example of how we are to love our enemies

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God does love the enemies his enemies But there is also inside of the being of God a visceral hatred for those of some kind for those same people

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Psalm 5 verse 5 and 6 the boastful shall not stand before your eyes You hate all who do iniquity not you hate iniquity.

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That's true But you hate the one who does the iniquity you destroy those who speak falsehood

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The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit Psalm 11 verse 5 the Lord tests the righteous and the wicked and the one who loves violence his soul hates

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Not the violence his soul hates the one who loves violence his soul hates Hosea 9 verse 15 all their evil is at Gilgal indeed

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I came to hate them there because of the wickedness of their deeds. I will drive them out of my house I will love them no more all their princes are rebels

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Proverbs 6 verse 16 to 19 there are six things which the Lord hates yes seven Which are an abomination to him haughty eyes and a lying tongue

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Hands that shed innocent blood a heart that devises wicked plans feet that run rapidly to evil a false witness who utters lies and One who spreads strife among brothers

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Not he hates the lies and he hates the strife. There are six things that the Lord hates and These are them and there are people that are listed in that list you said this before you've got to have room in your theology for God to be a

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Complex being in the sense that he can have to what seemed to us to be conflicting desires or passions in him at the same time for the same person there is a love there and there is a visceral detestation of What is there as well?

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There's no repentance over prayers like this for justice. There's low no lamenting of the curses and call when they call for justice

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There's no lamenting it. I would submit to you that these are the right and appropriate passions for the godly

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If we understood sin and we understood righteousness and we understood God's nature

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We would be able to feel and know and express all of these emotions now Am I saying that it is never appropriate to have love for the wicked unless you also hate them

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It's not what I'm saying. We we're more simplistic We we vacillate between love and detesting something and we go back and forth as the wind might blow but God does not

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He's always the same his anger burns against the wicked day after day after day this passion

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With which God detests the wicked is visceral reaction He has it is always there and it is always burning and so is his love and so is his loving -kindness at the same time

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Number 11 the desire for justice to fall on the impenitent is a good desire It is a desire for God's righteousness to be vindicated

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And a desire for his truth to be known as glory to be revealed for sin to be punished for good to triumph for evil to Cease those desires are holy righteous and good desires

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Because God will do those very things and God if he didn't have those same desires would not be righteous or just And so really since God feels this way towards wickedness you and I should have if we are growing in holiness we should have the same sort of love that God has for the

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Unbeliever and and desire to reach out as well as the same kind of visceral indignant Reaction to wickedness and sin when the when the afflicted are oppressed

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It is appropriate for the righteous to desire these things Alan Ross Says this these imprecations are the expressions of the longing of the

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Old Testament believer for the vindication of God's righteousness Their faith in God's goodness and righteousness was put to the test by malicious wickedness

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And so they were left longing for vindication Moreover the imprint their imprecations made it clear that the wicked deserve the curses

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As I could have put this down as number 13, but we have 12 tribes 12 Apostles all of that So I want to keep it at 12

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But this is another observation that we can make that the imprecations that are called for in the Psalms are deserved

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There's not a one of them that is undeserved There's not a one of them if we understood truth. We'd say yeah, that's that's over the top

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They don't The wicked deserve these curses, they're not unjust they're not undeserved They're not unwarranted

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These curses are not out of proportion with the with the sin and the evil of the wicked These are things that have happened and these are things that will happen and now 12th and finally

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David saw Himself as king as being God's instrument to bring justice upon the wicked we alluded

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I alluded to this earlier, but I want to revisit here at the end David saw himself as king as being the instrument of God who would bring justice upon the wicked

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Psalm 110 verses 1 through 8. I will sing of loving kindness and justice to you. Oh Lord.

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I will sing praises I will give heed to the blameless way. When will you come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.

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I will set no worthless thing before my eyes I hate the work of those who fall away It shall not fasten its grip on me a perverse heart shall depart from me

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I will know no evil whoever secretly slanders his neighbor him. I will destroy No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will endure my eyes shall look upon the faithful of the land

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Oh, sorry. I thought to switch that My eyes will look upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me

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He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house.

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He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land so as to cut off from the city of the

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Lord all those who do iniquity These are the words of David as a righteous king.

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He as the king of Israel was required and commissioned to execute the justice of God upon the wicked in the land and So David is simply saying

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I will destroy all of the wicked That would be the righteous thing for a righteous king to do and as one who was speaking on behalf of I think

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Christ because David did see himself as something of a Messiah figure as one who is speaking on behalf of Christ David is expressing here something that will happen in the coming kingdom

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There will be a time when the righteous will be taken two men will be plowing one will be taken and the other will be left

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Two people will be in bed together one will be taken and the other will be left and that's being snatched away to judgment

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That's not the righteous That's being snatched away to judgment And so when that happens When that happens the

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King will destroy all of the unrighteous and wicked out of the land Well, David is a king how he was commissioned to execute justice as God's executor of justice in the land as King So sometimes he is expressing that by the way

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I think that this speaks prophetically of Christ as I've already mentioned. I think it's true of the next passage we're gonna look at but Remember David had plenty of wicked people inside of his own administration, right?

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So, I mean there's a sense in which you're looking at this and you're saying come on David You're overstating it just a little bit I mean how long did you let

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Joab go on and do his thing and how long did you let this guy go on and do? His thing you had plenty of wicked people that had surrounded you

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But this expresses the sentiments of a godly King who wants to execute justice as God's King.

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I Think this is the same kind of language. We see here So I'm 118 verses 10 through 12 all the nation surrounded me in the name of the

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Lord. I will surely cut them off They surrounded me. Yes, they surrounded me in the name of the Lord. I will surely cut them off They surrounded me like bees.

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They were extinguished as a fire of thorns in the name of the Lord. I will surely cut them off. I Should have memorized that for The competition if I didn't know that was this

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Do you get a see the pattern see what David is saying? There's a righteous indignation

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Alan Ross again quoting him these imprecations are expressions of zeal for God in his kingdom

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The monarchy was the earthly administration of the theocratic kingdom It fell to the monarch

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David in the first place and his righteous followers to protect the institutions of the nation

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Against enemies who sought to overthrow them and the faith So if the king was God's representative his enemies were not merely his enemies, but God's Okay, this is key.

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You had to wait all the way till now to get to the money quote But this is the money quote David as God's King is

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Talking about executing justice upon God's enemies The key is that these were not David's personal enemies all the time that he's describing here these are

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God's enemies because because of the covenant that existed between David and God concerning the kingdom the throne the

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Theocracy because of that covenant and because David was commissioned to to execute justice and righteousness in the land

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That is what he was called to do Because of that when David speaks of judging God's enemies

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He is speaking of prophetically a future eschatological judgment that is to come but David is also speaking as one

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Whose enemies were also God's enemies if David was a shepherd outside of Bethlehem eating off a

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Jesse's table all the way through to the end Of his life and he had died out in the field with the sheep doing his thing God had never made a covenant with him

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David never would have had those kinds of enemies David had those enemies because he was God's representative and God's King Therefore those enemies were

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David's enemies because those enemies were God's enemies. That makes sense Okay, time is up Okay Remember the gateway to the

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Psalms Psalm 1 Psalm 2 Blessed is a man who walks in the law of the Lord Does not stand in the path of sinners sit and see the scornful but his delight is in the law of the

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Lord in his Life meditates day and night Then you have people who oppose that man who is God's King his representative the nation's rage at the end of that It says do homage to that King lest you be destroyed.

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That's the warning sign that is above the entrance to the Psalter So as we walk into the Psalms We are keeping in mind that there is a blessed man who constantly delights in the law of the

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Lord and therefore he is the enemy of the of the wicked Because he delights in the law of the Lord He is the blessed man of Psalm 1 is that King whom

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God will set upon his throne in Zion who will destroy the wicked And now the end of Psalm 2 which is do homage to the

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Son lest he smite you and you perish along the way That warning is the warning to all the kings all the wicked all the nations

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Pursue this path of opposing God's anointed his Messiah and you will perish And so then what do we see in the

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Psalms the people who oppose God and his anointed David? They will perish all

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David is doing in the imprecatory Psalms is asking God to do what he has promised to do to the wicked

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He's simply asking God that he may see it that this may fall to deliver the afflicted in the needy

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So the vengeance justice triumph and destruction of the wicked will be fully executed by the Messiah King who is David's descendant

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He is the one to whom all these Psalms point in some measure and he is the one who will vindicate Yahweh's righteousness and holiness

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He is the one who will judge the wicked and deliver God's people fully and ultimately from all evil and all evildoers

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Now that's a good quote. I didn't put that up there because those are my words not anybody else's but that is a good quote

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God will execute his justice upon all evil and all evildoers. That is what he has promised to do so when we long for that when we ask for that when we pray for that when we want that to happen those are righteous and holy desires and We need to make sure that we hold those desires in a way that honors the

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Lord and is tempered with other desires that we are Also commanded to have like love for our enemies and compassion, etc All right.

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I don't have any questions, but I will take one or two or have any time for questions But I'll take one or two if we have any Yes, you're delighting my heart

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Angelica Okay, it's all maybe

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Yes And Yes Yes, it is appropriate when you're reading the

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Psalms and I won't repeat the question because I don't speak German and I just would just just answer people go tell him saying this is appropriate when we

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When we read the Psalms that sometimes we can read in the Psalms the voice of Christ when it's appropriate

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So when there is a confession of sin, my iniquities have done this, you have chastened me down, you have chastised me for my iniquity and my transgressions, we can't impute those to Christ.

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But when we see the innocent suffering, there is a sense when David suffers as an innocent man that he is picturing or portraying the ultimate suffering of the ultimate innocent man.

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And so that distress, just as it is appropriate to see Christ in his suffering saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

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Not that there is an abandonment or division within the Trinity, but that is the real genuine expression of that sentiment that Christ and his humanity felt.

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And then you have later on in the Psalm, David coming back around in Psalm 22 and saying, the Lord has not abandoned the afflicted. God was there the whole time, but he expressed and understood the sentiment expressed at the beginning of it that I feel abandoned,

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I feel neglected, I feel forsaken. He wasn't, but he felt that. That was a genuine empathetic feeling that David had.

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And it is okay to see that as Christ in his distress. We know that that language was used of him as well.

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For all of us to see in this distress, and we don't see it in the answer sometimes. Yeah, well, going back to what we did,

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I think it was in lesson two and three, one of the ways that the Psalms minister to us is by showing us genuine and real emotions and affections, and then how we wrestle through that with truth to inform our emotions about what is actually true.

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So it is true, we can sometimes take the words of the Psalms on our lips and say, this is how I feel. But we also have to balance that by taking the words of the

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Psalms on our lips that describe what is actually true of us. All right, yeah,

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Joe, quickly. According to Alan Hoffman's interpretation here, we are

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Christ's righteous followers, so are you calling to protect the institutions of our nation?

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No, because the institutions of our nation are not the same as the institutions of God's nations. We should vigorously defend things that are righteous, the church, the truth, his people, et cetera.

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But I'm not interested in defending the CIA, the FBI, Congress, Supreme Court. I have no interest in those things at all.

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So those are not righteous institutions that have been co -opted, they were fallen institutions that God never ordained that have been co -opted.

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So, okay, let's pray. Oh, yes, Emily. Last thing I want to ask you is

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Joe's question, is that where his passion for the church is, by moving on from this idea of the righteous to defending the institutions of our nation?

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That was true in David's case, but not in David's case. The question is, does Christian nationalism get its incentives to defend institutions, even our own institutions, from misusing the

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Psalms? I would probably suggest that they do misuse the Psalms at some point, I don't know if that's where it comes from.

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I think it comes from an eschatological perspective, a covenant perspective. I think it's a wrong -headedness.

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We're not national Israel, we're not the New Testament Israel. We have no institutions like that that are ordained by God.

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All right, let's pray. I'm sorry to take you guys over time. Father, we thank you for your word and the clarity of it, and we thank you that it informs us and instructs us in how to feel about the things that should vex us and sometimes do.

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And we pray that you would give us wisdom in assessing these truths, these things, and that we may not become unbalanced in any way, veering into one ditch on one side or the other, but that we may hold the mystery of godliness, that we may hold to these things in a way that honors you and your intention in the text.

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Glorify your name through us, we pray, by delivering us, your righteous. And we do look forward to that day with longing, when wickedness and the wicked will be no more, and it will all be dealt with, and you will have what is yours, you will have what you have paid for on the cross, and we pray that you would hasten that day.