Book of Psalms - Psa. 18, Vs. 18-22 (08/20/2023)

Where's Matthew? He's here today. He's here. He probably didn't bring some time in.

He's on his own. All right.

Well, good morning. Good morning. Can you point the mic down just a little bit?

Point the mic down just a little? Yeah. Is that better?

Yeah. All right. All right. Well, it's been a minute since I've done

Sunday school. Ben's been covering for me because I've been gone a lot out of state last weekend.

I'm glad to finally get back in here and get back to it, roll the sleeves up here and go to work.

We're going to be in Psalm chapter 18. We started this psalm by looking at the background before the psalm was written, and we looked at just how difficult

David's life was. It was not a very easy life by any means.

Definitely a blessed one by many means, but we see that this psalm was written when the

Lord finally gave David rest from his enemies, when he was delivered from his enemies and from the hand of Saul, and basically all of his enemies are at this point vanquished.

We see David start the psalm with, I will love thee. And so regardless of all of the punishment that he received from the

Lord, he had a resolution to continue to love the Lord. And so then we see him talk about the deliverance that he experienced from his enemies at the hand of the

Lord. And we see just his complete dependence on God for that deliverance.

We then got into kind of the picture of what it looked like for God to come running to save him.

And we also kind of showed the parallel between David and Jesus, because this is a picture is a type or picture of Jesus.

And so when you imagine Jesus writing the psalm or saying or reciting the psalm,

David's the one who wrote it, of course, but they're the words of God. When you think of Jesus saying the words of this psalm, it's pretty powerful picture of God coming to running to deliver his son from his enemies.

And so we've kind of been looking at, like we have so many of the psalms, this as a parallel between David and Jesus.

And so we got to the point, I think it was verse 18,

I think it was where we stopped last time, might've been verse 19, where basically we were going to start transitioning from like the deliverance to the reason for it,

I guess you could say. What we're going to do today is we're going to get into verse 18.

That's where we're going to start. So we are going to be backtracking just a little bit here.

And this will kind of give us a little bit better idea of the flavor of the psalm as I like to say.

So starting in verse 18, this is kind of a recounting of the contrast between David's enemies and David's deliverer.

So they prevented me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay.

It's showing contrast between David's enemies and David's savior.

Same for if it was Jesus, it's the contrast between Jesus's enemies and his father in heaven, who comes to deliver him and raise him from the dead.

But I want us to also look at this from a very personal application standpoint. And so for us, just think of the contrast between your enemies and God.

The word prevented means to stand in front or to be in front of, to face.

It's as if they are opposing, right?

So like if you were to try and cross a bridge, remember the old fairy tale of the three billy goats gruff, right?

You don't remember that? Oh, man. So maybe I'm just showing my age. A fairy tale, these three billy goats that are basically guarding a bridge.

And I just imagine walking up to a bridge and you try to cross it and something stands in your way.

It doesn't even have to say anything, right? You could, if somebody were to be walking and you were to walk and just kind of oppose them, like stand where you're face to face with them, they would automatically feel threatened.

Like wait a minute, you don't want me to go this way. It's an opposition. And that is what this means when

David writes, they prevented me. It's like they stood in front, like you're not going anywhere.

And it's in the day of my calamity. The word for calamity is burden or disaster.

In other words, they are a part of the problem.

Maybe you're experiencing a difficult time. Sometimes you go through stuff, right? And when you go through stuff, when you're at your low, you tend to find out who's for you and who's against you.

I remember training in jujitsu. I was doing my black belt training.

I have a lot of memories of that. It was only about a week in my black belt.

I say my black belt training, but it was more like a week of testing to see if I was going to be allowed to wear the black belt.

Right. And I remember it was me and one other guy, Jonathan Myers, still

Facebook friends with him, but he and I were, we'd been in jujitsu together for years and years and years, probably close to seven, eight years together, something like that.

And we'd had lots of classmates throughout the years. And he and I were the only two out of all the classmates that were actually at this point training for our black belts.

And our sensei was just demolishing us. It was it was a really rough week.

And I remember at one point in that week, I was doubled over, just I wanted to throw up, but there was nothing to throw up.

So I was just like dry heaving. My buddy was next to me. He was dry heaving. And it was just a really low point for us.

And sensei told us, he said, David, look over at Jonathan.

And so I looked at him and he's like, he about to throw up his guts, man.

And he's like, Jonathan, look at David. And he looked at me and he goes, this is when you know who you can trust, when they can see you at this level and they still be your friend.

And I was like, OK, yeah. And and it's kind of like David is at his point of calamity.

This is a point of disaster is how he's describing it. And he is seeing people opposing him, right?

They are preventing me. So he's learning who his friends and who his enemies are.

If you'll remember, we looked back at David's kind of kind of snapshot, his life of all the troubles he'd been having.

And at one point, his own son rises up against him and many of his friends rise up against him, his trusted advisors.

And it's just it's just absolutely devastating to him. What's he learning?

He's learning who's on his side and who's not. And in his day of calamity, that's that's when he starts to see who's preventing him.

But there's also a contrast here, right? Like they prevented me in the day of my calamity, but.

The Lord was my stay. If you look up the word stay, it kind of means staff.

Staff or supporter. I think it's a great picture, because if you envision a staff, what do you think of?

When you think of a staff? A long rod. How do you how would you use a staff?

OK, you could use it as a weapon. Definitely. Right. Like I have a bow staff that was my weapon of choice because I wanted to be able to use any broomstick

I could find. So you could use that as a weapon, but you mentioned something aside from weapon aside from a weapon, weaponing.

So, yeah, I am my father's my daughter's father. Abby Kate has funny words that she makes up.

And and so I just made up the word weaponing. You mentioned something aside from using it as a weapon first, what was the first thing you mentioned?

An aid in walking. How would a staff aid you in walking? Support. Right.

Which means you do with what with the staff, you lean on it. Now, if I handed you a staff or a walking stick.

And it was cracked. And you saw that it was cracked.

What would you do with it? Maybe not lean on it, right?

And and so what I love about the fact that this says, but the Lord was my stay in the word stay can mean staff.

It shows that there's trust. Right. Because you have to trust a staff in order to lean on it.

You have and you trust it with a lot of weight. Right. Like if if if Ashton were to use a staff to go walking, she's she's got a baby in the tummy right now.

Like she might need a little extra help. Something to lean on. She would be putting a lot of trust in that stick, because not only would she be concerned about her own well -being, but also well -being of her baby boy who's inside her.

So like there is a lot of trust that goes into something as simple as a stick or a staff.

But I don't think it's by any accident that the Lord used a word that means staff. To say he's

David's stay, his support. So to say that the

Lord is my stay, which means staff, is to say that he is the one I can trust in times of trouble, which

David is talking about his times of trouble. The enemy is against me, but God is for me.

There is a starting place. I'm not really sure.

I've got a I've got a funny note in here that I know what that's supposed to be.

I think I better change my note so that I don't forget it in the past.

OK, so there's a starting place for deliverance, basically. Who's doing the delivering for David, by the way?

The Lord, right? He's the one that does the delivering, but David plays a part.

There's still like this one of those examples where there's the sovereignty of man or sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man.

There's there's always that they kind of go hand in hand. What is David's part when it comes to being delivered?

It's pretty much it, right? Um, when when someone is drowning, like you see when they have floods and stuff and it's all over the news, you know, an entire town underwater and you see the rescuers coming down with a helicopter on a on a line, they're reaching out and doing all the work to save someone who's completely helpless in the middle of the water and they're going to get swept away.

But that person still has something they have to do. They've got to let go of whatever it is that is holding them above the water at the moment so that they can hold on to the deliverer.

All right. So there's a level of trust that someone who's being saved displays when they're being saved.

I have a movie reference because I like to put movie references, but there are several movies that do this where there's a scene where the hero says, do you trust me?

Right. The first one that came to mind for me is a cartoon, Aladdin. Remember Aladdin? And Aladdin and Jasmine are running from the royal guard and now they're running on like rooftops and they're cornered because they've run out of rooftops to jump to.

And Aladdin says, do you trust me? And she's like, yes. He's like up on the edge of the building and he just reaches out his hand and he's like, do you trust me?

And she's like, OK, yeah. And she grabs his hand and he's like, jump.

So they jump off the building and they land in like some haystacks or something. But there was that that question first, do you trust me?

If you do leave this place that's that seems like, OK, I might be caught by the enemy, but at least

I'm not falling to my death, right? I'm going to ask you to do something that seems like falling to your death and will be saved, right?

Someone who's being saved from a raging river, let go of the stick that feels like it's keeping you alive.

And hold on to me and I will I'll save you. So that is very similar to what man experiences with God.

God says, I know you've got rules and regulations and laws and principles and things of that nature, and you've got a will and you might even think that with all of that you can work your way to heaven.

You can't, it's the stick that's going to get washed away in the flood. All the laws and fundamentalist things out there that you think you can work your way to heaven with, you can't, there's nothing that you can do, you're hopeless, you need a deliverer.

Well, David, a man after God's own heart, has always been pretty good at recognizing that.

In fact, some might say he's a little bit dramatic when it comes to his problems and God delivering him from his problems.

When he describes his problems, there is no lack of drama in his wording.

You know, I mean, he says the day of my calamity, that's pretty dramatic, right?

Even though he didn't come to ruin, when he talks about, you know, even though there'd be 10 ,000 people around about me, you know,

I will not fear. And there may not actually be 10 ,000, but it feels like that to him.

So David sometimes uses some hyperbole when he when he's writing these psalms. This is his day of calamity, but the

Lord is his stay. Trust is a firm belief in the reliability of a thing.

Our part is to trust that God has a plan and that plan is reliable. There's nothing else we can do, really.

And if you think about the idea of trust, we can't even really do that unless the

Lord gives us the ability to trust him. So, verse 19, he brought me forth also into a large place, he delivered me because he delighted in me.

All right, so in times of calamity, like David has found himself in, it feels as though the enemy who prevents you is closing in, like disaster is looming.

How many of you have ever experienced something where it was a stressful situation that you were dreading the outcome from?

All right, dreading the outcome, that we call anxiety. It feels like disaster is looming, it feels a lot like pressure, does it not?

Like the spiritual battle part of life has a lot to do with pressure, people experience pressure all the time and we deal with pressure in different ways.

Some confront this pressure with determination, you know, they get real determined to overcome the pressure.

Others experience dread and just anxiety and hopelessness, and sometimes they even get to a point of apathy.

Even the most determined people, when pressed upon long enough, they might start to succumb to the contracting feeling of anxiety.

And it kind of feels that way, that's why we say things like being stuck in a bad situation, right,

I'm stuck, it's like you're bound, caught in a bind, we say, it's another phrase we use, right, like I've been caught in a bind.

It's not necessarily that you are tied up, which is what a bind is, but we say that because the situation feels like it's closing in on us.

It's tied you up, yeah, I'm all tied up at the moment, that's another great one, Pop, I'm all tied up at the moment,

I'm stuck in a bind. Yeah, when it comes to finances, when finances are tight, we call it tight, right, and the finances are tight, but really all it is finances are low, they don't get tight, they get low, but it feels tight because the situation is enclosing in on us, it's pressure is all it is.

Let me ask you this, have you ever gone through something stressful and gotten it behind you?

Like the stressful thing, the pressure was behind you, what was that feeling like? Relief, right, how do we describe that relief?

Freedom, okay, how else? Yes, got a weight off my chest or a weight off my shoulders, you see, now if you have weight, there's the pressure and it's closing in, it's like bearing down on you, that's why we say things like, yeah, loose my bonds,

I feel like I could spread my wings and fly and that kind of stuff, it's like all of a sudden you have room, we call it breathing,

I finally have a little breathing room, that's another one we use, I finally have some breathing room, and people talk like that when it comes to things like, again, finances,

I finally have some breathing room, money doesn't make you breathe. The lack of it can keep you from breathing, right, but we say that because it's like, what did you say, oh, yeah, that's a funny, that's a funny quote, last night, we were talking about a money situation with some other individuals, and I was like, man, money makes people crazy, and Finn pipes up and says, money makes people rich, he was like, yeah, he's five years old, just he couldn't believe

Uncle Dave got that so wrong, he's like, money makes people rich, Uncle Dave, I was like, okay, you got me there, kid, it was cute, but yeah, we talk about money, as if like, you can just feel like it's closing in, that there's a lack of money, and when you get some money, maybe more than you actually needed, it's like, oh,

I finally have a little breathing room, got a little space, well, that's what this verse means, he brought me forth also into a large space, it's like, the pressure that I was feeling,

God has released it from me, and now I feel like I've got room, right?

I can got breathing room, I've got the ability to, to move around now.

So what did David do to accomplish that breathing room? If anything, just that there was nothing that he could do in and of himself, just trust.

That's why it says, he brought me forth also into a large place.

He did it. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.

So why does God provide all of, all of his needs in this scenario?

Why does God deliver him from his particular day of calamity, give him a place of space, some breathing room?

Why does he do it? True, yeah, true that David, David does try.

Does he always try? Nah, he messes up sometimes, right?

So is it because of David's trying that the Lord delivers, delivers

David? Yeah, it's because he delighted in him.

Not because of David's trying, it's because he delighted in him.

And this is where I like to just camp out for just a second and dwell on that.

Think about that because these are verses that David wrote, knowing, being a man after God's own heart, knowing the

Lord and understanding the Lord's heart in many ways. He writes these saying, he did this because he delighted in me.

So David is in a place of reflection right now, going, God delighted in me.

If you hear, if you hear these words coming from the mouth of Jesus, makes total sense, right?

Like Jesus was perfect. He was God's only begotten son. He never sinned.

He perfectly kept the law. He loved everyone that he, he, he, he showed everyone love.

I should say he showed everyone love. I don't know that I would say he loved everyone, but he loved with a perfect love.

And it's easy to hear

Jesus say these words and go, of course, the father delighted in the son. I get that as a dad, it makes sense to me and my boy isn't perfect, right?

But I delight in that little guy. Uh, Katie and I were talking about that on the way up here.

He's just super cool. We love little Sam, but think about yourself and think about the creator of the universe delighting in you that we don't tend to accept as easily.

It doesn't make as much sense. You know who it makes even less sense to any guesses?

Definitely the world. I think that's a good answer because the world, I don't know that the world even none even knows it.

I think the world doesn't even believe it. Right?

So that's a good example. They don't, they don't understand it. They don't believe it. They don't understand it because they don't believe it.

I don't think it's the other way around. And here's why, because there's another group that I'm thinking of that it makes less sense to, but they do believe it.

The angels. Yeah. Because think about the angels looking at these fallen beings and the

God of everything delights in these fallen depraved humans and he works in them to change them.

Seems like a lot of work for a mostly useless being, at least in their eyes.

Like what? And think about this is why I want to camp here for just a second.

I want to think about what must go on in the mind of an angel when it comes to looking at us, they see us and we're just a paradox to them.

Like these people rejected God and he delights in them.

I don't understand it. Why does he like them so much?

You ever, have you ever, uh, have you ever known somebody, probably anybody in your life?

Can you think of something that they enjoy that you just don't understand why they enjoy it? All right.

Pop doesn't understand why Mimi loves cucumbers so much. He says, cause she's a fallen bee.

Um, here's an example. Last night we were talking about my video game collection and Katie and her, uh, and her sister are just kind of making fun of my, my delight in video games.

It makes no sense to them. And I, I think with, with something like that, while it makes no sense, there's at least a frame of reference for them because they remember being kids and liking video games as kids.

It's a strange thing for a 40 year old middle -aged man to still like video games. I'll readily admit,

I've got another 40 year old middle -aged man friend who will sometimes come over and play them.

And we look like, or we sound like teenagers, I think screaming at the television because we'll really get into it.

And it's something that we just delight in. It's just fun. You know, I don't get to do it very often cause I'm all grown up.

I've got responsibilities, but others will look at that and they'll say, makes no sense.

I mean, I maybe if he was still 16, right? If he was still 16, then, then it would make sense.

But think about it from the angel's perspective, looking at us, they don't even have a frame of reference.

Like okay, would have made sense back then. They're just like, like I never would have liked these guys.

They are all messed up and God likes them. It, it causes them to marvel.

They've got zero frame of reference as to why we get to like, what's so special about us?

Anybody care to guess what it is that's so special about us? Okay.

Created in his image. It's a pretty good answer, but God doesn't delight in every human and every human is created in God's image.

So what? What do you mean by love gift? All right.

So there it is. The thing that makes us so special is that we are the recipients of the greatest love that ever existed.

And that's it. Right? Like that. The thing that makes us special didn't come from us.

It didn't originate in us. It originated with the father and to an angel, they must go,

I don't get it, but I do believe it. So I will protect these weird people with every ounce of heavenly power

I can muster because they are super important. Don't know why, but they are,

God loves them, you know? And it, it just makes me go, wow, that's gotta be a surreal thing for them.

And the Bible talks about how they desire to look into this thing, this salvation thing.

Like they don't understand it, but they do believe it. And that's, what's different between that group and the world, the world, they don't understand it because they don't believe it.

You know, these guys don't believe it. The angels don't believe it.

I mean, they do believe it. Now I'm getting myself confused. The angels do believe it. And yet they still don't understand it.

Now think about us. We believe it because the

Lord gave us that belief. And we ourselves have a frame of reference, knowing that we are depraved.

Angels don't understand that because they don't even have that right. But we have a frame of reference.

And what that causes us to do is glorify him, right?

That causes us to go, wow, I actually kind of, in a way, understand it.

We don't fully understand it. David and I were talking about this, uh, yesterday or the day before. I can't remember the verse that we were, that we were looking at, but it was something about, oh, it was the verse that he quoted last

Sunday. I wasn't here. I didn't get to, uh, be here for when he was talking about the dimensions of love.

But one of the things that Paul writes is that he, he hopes that they, I think it was the

Corinthians would understand or comprehend the height or depth or length or breadth of, of love.

Right? And so it's something we can't fully comprehend, but we can better understand it than the angels can.

And that causes us to glorify him, which has got to really just throw the angels for a loop.

They go, whoa, that depraved human being is now doing something right.

And something good because of something he did to them. This is a powerful love. Like, how does that work?

We gotta, we gotta understand this more. So anyway, it's enough camping out there, but you get it.

Like it's a really I love that.

So Ben, Ben has a great point.

He says it's the exact same thing that Satan does, you know, repeat for those of y 'all listening online.

Uh, Satan looks at this, doesn't understand it at all either.

And he accuses and he's like, no, these they've messed up. This makes no sense whatsoever.

And I don't know if it would be right to say he doesn't believe it.

He certainly rejects it. He rejects it as being something good.

The angels see it, believe it and accept it, even though they don't understand it.

Satan sees it, believes it, rejects it. He's like, nah, that's wrong. This, this is wrong to do.

I think he looks at this and says, that's not fair. You know, that that's unjust.

Um, oh yeah. And so, yeah,

David is rescued because God delights in him.

Spurgeon calls it God's uncaused love. Nothing caused it just was.

All right. So verse 20, the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands, hath he recompensed me.

Okay. Who's writing this song. David is writing the song. All right. He says the

Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness and cleanness of my hands was

David righteous to a degree.

So did the Lord reward David to a degree? Okay. You almost, almost exactly said what

I was looking for. Almost. So remember David is a type or picture of Jesus.

So if we think about Jesus saying this again, it makes sense, right? According to my righteousness, the

Lord has rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands. But we know David's hands weren't clean.

He couldn't even rebuild the temple because he had too much blood on his hands. Right? So it's this verse confuses a lot of people because if you, if you look at it from the perspective of David, he's, he doesn't have clean hands from man's perspective, right?

From man's perspective, he has no, he does not have clean hands. Didn't he commit adultery? Didn't he murder the husband of his mistress?

Yeah. So what's this about cleanness of hands? He could be in the next phrase, the next verse, when he says,

I kept the ways of the Lord. From his perspective, he could be saying he's righteous because he atoned for his previous sins via the high priest and then kept his ordinances, kept the law of Moses the best that he could, which was the best that he could was the best that he could have.

That was Pete. So perhaps it's just David's understanding of his efforts to keep the law, to atone for his sins when he did commit them.

Or again, it's deeper than that. And it's just the Holy Spirit leading him to to understand the idea of imputed righteousness.

Okay. So Ben basically says it's one, probably one of two things.

Either David is looking at his life and saying, all right, I've atoned for my sins.

I've kept the law of Moses as best I can. Basically I'm doing, I'm a follower of God, you know,

I mess up sometimes, but I'm a follower of God. Or it's deeper than that.

And David through the Holy Spirit has some kind of forward looking understanding of a much deeper doctrine, which is the doctrine of imputation, right?

Like somehow he understands that it's not really his righteousness, but it's the righteousness of God.

I think it's both. I think since the

Holy Spirit is giving David these words to write, it's safe to assume that the Holy Spirit would definitely have the, how do

I say this properly? It would definitely be referencing when you talk about righteousness, like all righteousness belongs to God, right?

So like the doctrine of imputation is bleeding out through every verse in the

Bible. So like, this is definitely God's righteousness on man.

But as David writes it, he's also comparing his deliverer and his enemies.

He's comparing himself and his enemies. And if you look at his enemies, his enemies have no desire to follow

God. They have no desire to follow, to keep his commandments.

And so that's, that's what is referenced in the next verse, which we'll get to in just a second.

But basically David is clean and he is righteous, not because of his own doing, but because of God's.

But because of the work of God, when you look at David compared to his enemies, that righteousness becomes his righteousness.

Like it's the righteousness of God, but it's, that's part of the love gift.

That's what man receives when he receives love from the Lord. He receives righteousness, right?

And so now it's, it's my righteousness because God put it on me, right?

It's like, um, if I gave you a, a jacket, right?

This is my, this was my jacket and I give it to Noah. Noah would say,

Hey, Emily, how do you like my jacket? You're right. It's my jacket. And it was something that was a gift, but it becomes his, the righteousness that we receive from Christ becomes our righteousness.

And David, when comparing himself with his enemies, is righteous, but it originated with the righteousness of God.

Um, does that make sense or did I just make that completely clear as mud? That's a, that's a good thing to add to it.

So you've got the two kinds of righteousness. There's a basically positional righteousness that we have, and that's the, the jacket, right?

God basically put the jacket on me and now I've got his righteousness that I'm clothed in.

But when you receive that, it should result in some experiential righteousness where, where you are being sanctified.

And at this point in David's life, he's gone through a lot of sanctification, a lot of repenting of sins, um, atoning, uh, basically praising the

Lord for helping him get past them. And so he is definitely at that point in his, in his life, uh, more experientially righteous.

It's God's right. So, right.

So, so here's, what's interesting. It's a reward, right?

So, uh, the, the verse here, the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, right?

And according to the cleanness of my hands, hath he recompensed me, right? So he, then you said that the word recompensed means turn, turn towards cool.

So here's, what's interesting. God gives us righteousness and then he rewards us for the righteousness he gave us.

Tell me he's not a gracious heavenly father. Like it'd be like, if I gave

Sam a present and been like, Sam, because you have that present, I'm going to give you a prize.

You know, he'd love that. He'd be like, yeah. Okay. Don't know why, but I like this game, daddy.

Right. And that's how we should feel towards God is like, he gave us righteousness. Wow. And now we get rewarded because he gave us that righteousness.

How do we get, how do we enjoy those rewards? We got to walk in that righteousness, which is where the experiential righteousness comes into play.

Verse 21, for I have kept the ways of the

Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. In this verse, you basically have a summation for Christian living.

This one verse, we must keep the ways of the Lord and in doing so, not wickedly depart from fellowship with him.

The only way that you can keep the ways of the Lord is to keep close to the

Lord. You can't keep the ways of the Lord without keeping close to him. So these two, these two phrases,

I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. It shows something that David does, which is there.

Those are the actions, right? And the actions are the experiential righteousness playing out.

I'm, I'm keeping God's rules, so to speak, two greatest commandments, love the Lord, your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Love your neighbor as yourself, right? All the laws and prophets hang on these two. So if you, if you are keeping those two, you're keeping

God's commandments. You're keeping the ways of Lord.

But then it shows something he's not doing. He is not departing from the

Lord. So he's staying close. Right? And what I love about that is it challenges something that I've, I have been pondering and David and I've pondered this quite a bit.

Like when you are in the spirit, right? When you're in the spirit, being filled with the spirit is what we call it, right?

You're holding onto Jesus's hand. If you metaphorically let go, right?

Of Jesus's hand, isn't that sin? We tend to think, well, that's, that's sin.

If you, if you let go, well, but the new man, the spirit cannot sin.

So how is it possible for us to let go? And so David and I have, have kind of pondered that one of our hypotheses has been with the introduction of sin into man's experience.

We also received the second law of thermodynamics, which is everything heads towards disorder.

And so even on a spiritual level, perhaps that is, is true to some degree.

Like if you don't put energy into your, your relationship with God, then that, that relationship can decay to some degree.

It's like, if you don't spend time with your wife, things just kind of fall apart, right?

If I'm gone, I was gone for what, four days, five, five days, like five. If I, if I'm gone for five days, like that's just not good, right?

And so that's one of our hypotheses. This seems to challenge it just a little bit for me because to not depart, it's something that it doesn't sound like it's something that requires energy.

Just, just stay. Doesn't it sound like when you leave, that requires energy.

Jenny was over last night. She's needing to leave. Procrastinating because she didn't want to go and get all of her stuff together and she didn't want to get

Finn bathed. And finally, when she got him bathed and she started getting her stuff together, she was like,

I don't understand how I think I'm packing light. And then when I start packing up to leave, it's like, why did

I bring my whole life with me? Right? Like she's, she's got all this stuff and it requires a lot of energy for her to leave.

Right. And when we think of leaving and going anywhere, it's like, well, we got to get dressed and we got to brush our teeth and our hair and we got to pile into the car.

And like, there's a lot of energy, but just staying. I mean, you can be lazy and just stay right.

Not leaving. Doesn't sound like it takes energy. And David is saying,

I have kept the ways of Lord. There's the energy, but I have not wickedly departed from my

God. That doesn't sound like it takes energy. Okay.

Now that's a good thought. Pop says, well, the word wicked, wickedly would, would indicate some intention.

I like that. David, do you like that? Think about this wickedly would require intention for God's people.

It would only work for God's people because our natural state before God, old things passed away, behold, all things become new.

Our natural state is just wickedly like that's just, that's no energy whatsoever. Right.

But if God has crucified the old man, and now you are new, all things become new.

Now you are going to be making a conscious effort to go and do sin.

I like that. I will ponder it more. It's a good thought. Maybe that is where energy is required to wickedly depart.

Good thought, pop. Good thought. Exactly.

But that's a good thought there that we'll have to ponder more because it may, it may be that that's true, but why does it seem that way?

Maybe because we're just so good at being in the flesh and the better we get at, um, maybe it's energy at first.

Ooh, okay. We got to have coffee talk. Cause now I've got all kinds of good thoughts on how that might would work.

So notes, put it in the notes. We're going to have some coffee talk on that for now.

Think of it this way. Um, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, right?

Holy acceptable unto God for this is your reasonable service.

That phrase, this is, this is Romans chapter 12 that Romans, I think that's Romans 12. This is your reasonable service means this is what's logical for you, right?

Like that's, that's what's natural is to present your bodies, a living sacrifice.

And because of that, your natural state should be as a new creature in Christ, your natural state should be to be one with Jesus.

It is now no longer natural or reasonable or logical for you to return to that, which is dead.

We tend to do it still though, don't we? And maybe that's why it requires energy.

So, uh, good thoughts there, but we're running out of time. So I got to wrap it up here. So, um, for all his judgments were before me and I did not put away his statutes from me.

To wake up in the morning and to put on a pair of sunglasses, if you do that, or a pair of glasses of any kind, what happens?

You now see the world differently through a different lens, right?

Um, you see the world through those lenses. And David is saying he is viewing the world through the lens of scripture, right?

For all his judgments were before me. That's the lens that I view the world through God's judgments, the whole, what would

Jesus do? Like that didn't come about in the nineties. David invented that long before what would

Jesus do in the nineties? Yeah. Jesus invented it, right? Like it's exactly right.

And so, uh, his judgments were before me and I did not put away his statutes from me.

Um, Spurgeon says that backsliders begin with dusty Bibles and go into filthy garments.

So for sake of time, I think, uh,

I think we'll quit there cause it's already 10 57, but wow, we didn't, we only got through four verses.

I really thought I was going to get a lot further than that. Um, when you, when you begin this next week, ask yourself where your energy is, what the lens that you are waking up and, and looking at the world through is like, are you, are you looking at the world through God's judgments?

Thank him for that beautiful, wonderful gift of righteousness because it gives you the ability to look through that lens and go, okay, now

I'm going to make my actions match what the lens says they should match.

Because when I do that, I'm going to be in my natural state. My, my new natural state is with the

Lord. My burden is easy. My yoke is light, right? My yoke is easy. My burden is light.

I had that backwards. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. That's, that's just what is natural.

That's where the large spaces are. That's where the pressure comes off. The pressure comes off when you are walking in your new natural state, but we are so accustomed to walking in the old natural state, which is in the flesh, that that in a sense becomes a comfort zone.

And we will go and put our energy back to the comfort zone of walking in the flesh.

And it will cause us to miss out on the blessing of walking in experiential righteousness.

So when we confront that day of calamity, right? And the, and our enemies turn against us, we will find ourselves going, instead of,

I am righteous. I have clean hands. If we will begin to look at ourselves the way that God sees us and view the world through that lens and through his judgments, we will walk with experiential righteousness and we'll be able to boldly look at our enemies and go, you fall short, but I don't.

And so that's kind of the thought for today. We have a long ways to go still on this chapter.

We're about halfway through. So it's, it's the longest Psalm yet.

Any other thoughts before we close? Sure.

Yes, it kind of makes sense. Yeah. There was energy and doing something wicked there, right?

Adam wickedly departed from the Lord in that respect. Yep. Yep.

I think you're right, man. Yeah. Adam wickedly departed. He knewing he knowingly ate of the fruit.

Eve was deceived, but not Adam. Good thought. That's that's true. All right, let's pray.

Heavenly father, thank you for your word. Thank you that it's truth. Thank you for the lens of your judgments.

Help us to walk with that lens always in front of us. Help us to keep your judgments before us and view the world through that, through that lens of what would

Jesus do? Father, thank you for delivering us. Thank you for giving us righteousness.

Help us to walk experientially in that righteousness and help us to just do the very best we can with what we have right here, right now.