A Song of Victory After Battle — Gary Wilkerson

A Song of Victory After Battle — Gary Wilkerson

Hello, everybody. Welcome to our continued series on the Book of Psalms. We are going through each chapter line by line as best as we can. It's an expository, devotional look into the Book of Psalms, into the heart of David, and really, most importantly, into the heart of God.

It's been already well over a year that we've been looking at this. I appreciate you taking the time with me to devour the word of God. Jeremiah, the prophet said, Thy words were found and I ate them and they became to me a joy.

We pray that this series has been a joy to you. If you've not checked out some of the previous videos, I want to encourage you to go to World Challenge or YouTube, and you can find all of these psalm series there.

Let me pray for us. And then we're going to be talking from Psalm 33, a song of victory after the battle. Father, we pray that this word would speak life into our ears, into our hearts, into our minds and into our circumstances.

And that no matter what we're facing now, we would realize there's a song coming. There's a day of rejoicing coming. There's an end to the battle. There's a victory that you have already won. And we're just there sort of mopping up now the residue of what's left of these wars that we're in, in our life.

And I pray for those who are right now in a battle. They're facing a difficulty, could be medical, relational, financial, spiritual. And we pray that this message would be a word of encouragement to them in Jesus name.

Singing a New Song After the Battle

Amen. A song of victory after the battle. Maybe you have just come through a battle and you've seen the faithfulness of the Lord, or maybe you're in the middle of a battle, a difficulty, a struggle right now, and you're feeling confused or distraught or, or, and I don't want to say this in a negative form, but most likely if you're not in one now, just hold on.

One more is coming down the road. Why? Because we live in a fallen world. We live in a sin saturated world and there's all kinds of struggles and difficulties that we all face. And so this is a word of encouragement that tells you no matter what your past has been like, your present is like, or your future may be like, God orchestrates things where ultimately there's a song of victory, no matter what you have been through or going through.

Let me read this. It's 22 verses and it's quite long read. I pray that you don't tune out or fast forward to get to my comments. The most important thing said today will actually be in these next few minutes as we read these verses, get this into your heart, into your mind, ask the Lord to allow you to absorb this so that we are hearing the very words of God.

Psalm 33, verse one, the shout for joy in the Lord. Oh, you righteous. Praise benefits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre. It's a musical instrument. Make melody to him with a harp of 10 strings.

Sing to him a new song. This is really what we're going to concentrate on today. What is this new song? How do, how do we get a new song placed skillfully on the strings with loud shouts for, or you could say they're because.

So verse four says there's a reason for verse one, two, and three. There's a reason we can shout. There's a reason we have joy. And, and here it is for, or because the word of the Lord is upright and all of his work is done in faithfulness.

He loves the righteous and justice, the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. Verse six, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made and by his breath, excuse me. And by the breath of his mouth, all their hosts, he gathers the waters of the sea as a heap.

And he puts them in deep storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, but all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him for he spoke. And it came to be, he commanded and it stood firm. The Lord brings the council of the nations to nothing.

He frustrates the plans of the people. The councils of the Lord stand forever. The plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his inheritance.

The Lord looks down from heaven and sees all the children of men from where he sits enthroned. He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes their deeds.

The King is not saved by his great army, a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation and by its great might, it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in a steadfast love that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them in a time of famine.

Oh, our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield, for our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, oh Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. Go back to the beginning of this and I want to concentrate to start with, not that we'll skip over verse one and two, but verse three to me is the core of the message of this passage.

It's at the very heart of why we would rejoice. And later on in this chapter, it goes on to discuss some difficulties that the writer is facing. There's war going on. There's a, speaking of a war horse, there's the King not being saved by a great army.

He talks about the false hope of salvation that great might can't rescue. This is a battle chapter. This is a conflict chapter. And anytime the writer of scriptures uses this phrase, sing a new song to him, oftentimes we think of that and we go like, Oh, you know, maybe God's just tired of the old songs.

Maybe he wants something fresh. Or he's like, I heard that song a thousand times. Let me have you sing something new. Be creative. No, this phrase new song I'm about to share with you throughout scripture.

The New Song in the Psalms

We're going to do a short survey of scripture. Psalm chapter 40 turning with me. If you have your Bibles open, Psalm chapter 40 verse two and three also speaks of this new song. He drew me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog.

He set my feet on a rock making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. In verse 10, he talks about the deliverance of the Lord.

You're seeing here almost the exact same things we see in Psalm 33, that in the midst of a battle, the Lord is calling upon his people to put together, to write and to then sing a new song. Go ahead a little bit further to Psalm chapter 96.

Psalm 96 continues this same theme. Take a look at that if you'll open up your Bibles. Psalm 96 verse one and two. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name.

Tell of his salvation from day to day. Verse three, declare his glory among the nations. His marvelous works among the people. In verse 11, it talks about the seas and roar, the fields rejoice and the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth.

Judgment, warfare, battles, conflict are going on. And God is saying, no matter what you've experienced in the past, no matter what you're facing right now or whatever happens in the future, put some words down, the words of a new song, a victory song because that victory is the Lord's and the victory is coming.

Just a few chapters later in Psalm chapter 98 verse one. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Why? For he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for us. He's worked salvation.

He's saved us from our enemies. Go on ahead. If you don't mind taking a few more moments with me in the survey, Psalm chapter one 44 and we'll see in Psalm 144, you're probably going to already get the point of what I'm after here versus nine and 10.

I will sing a new song to you. Oh God, I will play upon a 10 string harp. That's exactly the same thing that David is saying in the 33rd chapter who gives victory to Kings and who rescues David, his servant from the cruel sword.

Man, you see the it's beginning to form in your mind, isn't it? That this, this idea of a new song, isn't just, um, something that keeps us active or creative or gives us something fresh. It has to do with a demarcation and time, uh, a monument.

If you will, the song becomes a monument to something particular in your life. I want to talk to you about that in our own life in just a little bit, but I want to finish this survey. Psalm one chapter, Psalm chapter one 49 verse one says this, praise the Lord, sing to the Lord, a new song, his praise in the assembly go in verse six, let the high praises of the Lord be on their throats and a two edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the people to bind the Kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron to execute on them.

The judge judgment written. This is the honor for all of his godly ones. Praise the Lord. The new song is an honor that God gives to us to say, record what I have done. Show my power, show my victory, show my breakthrough, show that the circumstances that surrounded you, so that the waves crashed against you.

Show them that I have overcome, that I have given you a breakthrough, that I have given you power. Show them through this the words of this song and through the singing of this new song, show them what God has done, what God can do.

Uh, it's not just in some, in Psalms though. It's also in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 42. This is exciting, isn't it? Isaiah chapter 42 begins to show us that it is, it is throughout all of scripture.

Verse 10 tells us sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth who go down to the sea and all that fills it, the coastlands in all their inhabitants. And then in verse 13, the Lord goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war.

He stirs up his zeal. He cries out, he shouts aloud. He shows himself mighty against his foes. It's interesting. It seems almost like the Psalmist and the prophets here are saying, God will deal with your victory and all that's required from you is to stand still.

And at the end of it, record your testimony of God's faithfulness, your song that he has given to you, write a song about it, record it. One of the most favorite songs that my wife and I have loved for the past decade is a song written by acquaintance of ours, who was going through a very difficult time in his own life.

And then he wrote these words, these lyrics and the song. And when our son was involved in a horrible form of addiction and actually became homeless living on the streets, we heard this song. We just began to sing it over and over the, I wish I could sing to you.

I wish I could say, but the lyrics of the song say, it's not over. It's not over. It's just beginning. The battle belongs to the Lord. We're going to see his victory. And we would sing that song over and over again.

It's, it's not over. The circumstance that we're in seems like we've been defeated. It seems like we've suffered loss that can't be changed. And then we saw our son come to the Lord in a miraculous form of salvation.

And that's been a decade now that he's been serving the Lord and happily married two lovely children. And now when we sing that song, we were singing it in the battle. It's not over. And now it's a memorial to us.

We look back and say, it's not over. And now we have the actual reality of things are changing. God is on the scene. God is moving situations. God is remedying those things that are broken in our world, in our family, and in our life.

We see the glory of the Lord. And then we shout praises by this. You'll probably know one of the most famous songs of praise after a battle of victory. Does your mind go where mind goes immediately? Maybe so.

Moses and Miriam’s Song of Deliverance

The Exodus chapter 15, the song of Moses and Miriam. It's after they had been in bondage for 400 years. Could you imagine singing a song? It's not over. The story's not finished. The bondage is not our future.

And then finally seeing the breakthrough. And then being caught on the edge of the Red Sea and feeling like, what happened? I thought we had the victory. I thought, I thought it's over now. That our past is over.

We have the new beginning. And then all of a sudden feel crushed again, feel overwhelmed again. And then God opening up the Red Sea. And all she asks is you just in faith cross over to the victory I've given you.

And when you get to the other side, write a new song and sing a new song. Here's the song of Moses, the song of Miriam. Then Moses and all the people of Israel sang the song to the Lord saying, I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously.

If you don't remember anything else that I say today or the scripture says to you. Memorize, underline, capture this verse and sing it when you're in the battle or or or the battles that are to come in your life.

If you have this song ready, sing it as a new song. I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and the rider, the enemies that are coming against you. He has thrown into the sea.

You didn't do anything. All you did is cross. All you did is step out in obedient faith. And he won the victory for us. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. This is my God.

Another powerful phrase. This is my God. This is how my God works. This is how my God moves. This is how my God orchestrates the events of my life. This is how my God provides breakthrough and victory in every area of my life.

It begins to show us the very nature and character of God, that he is powerful, that he is omnipotent, that he is glorious, that he is present, that he is caring, that he is merciful, that he's on the scene right when we need him.

Even before we feel like we need him, he's there, he's present, he's doing his great and mighty work. This is my God. I will praise him. My father's God and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war.

He's doing the battle. He's bringing the victory and he wants us to sing the songs of praise as a result of what God has done for us. Let's take a few more moments now that we've done the survey and now that you see how biblically clear it is and we could have gone into other verses of Revelation.

The book of Revelation has two different times where it says sing a new song and all of that has to do with coming out of conflict as well. But having moving away now from the survey, let us look at the verses line by line in the scripture of Psalm 23, because this can teach us how to confidently put together a new song, whether we're in the battle or whether we're seeing the victory.

Righteousness and the Foundation of Victory

It starts off by saying, shout to the Lord. Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. It's truly the righteous people, the ones who, and it's not a self-righteousness, it's the people who have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ, cleansing all of our sin, then imputing his righteousness into us, that we can now look to heaven and say, my righteousness is not what I see in my behavior.

My righteousness is not what I think in my mind. My righteousness is seated at the right hand of God in heaven. And therefore we can shout for joy. We feel unclean. No, I'm clean. We feel worthless. No, he's made me worthy.

We feel unacceptable. No, seated at the right hand of heaven is a righteousness that Christ won by his perfect obedience to all the law of God. And then he paid our penalty of death. The wages of sin was our death.

And he paid that for us. And now we are seated with him in heavenly places. That's the ultimate song of victory. That's a bigger victory than a financial breakthrough. That's a bigger victory than a marriage restoration.

That's a bigger victory than your church growing. This is the ultimate victory. We shout for joy because of what Jesus has done for us. And as a result of that, the next phrase says, praise benefits the upright.

Worship Directed Toward God

Sometimes we think our praise is, Lord, we want to bless you. And certainly he is blessed by our praise. He loves our praise. He loves that. But part of the reason he loves our praise is because he sees it benefits us.

When we praise, it gets our mind off the battle. If you're in a battle right now, I want to encourage you to begin to praise the Lord, begin to look at the song we just sang in the book of Exodus and see that the Lord is mighty in battle.

He's a warrior. He's fighting for you. And there'll be a benefit from that. There's a confidence that comes from that. There's a peace. Oh, there's a rest, a glorious rest for the saints that the world can't understand, that the world doesn't know.

And so not being able to come before the Lord righteously, a sinner could stand in church and try to sing the songs of praise, but it doesn't do the same benefit. It doesn't have the same benefit because they haven't seen the Lord's work for them.

And they can't see the righteousness that God has imputed to them. And they need to be saved. They need to know Jesus, need to come to him. And then verse two says, give thanks to the Lord with a lyre, a musical instrument.

Make melody to him. Interesting. Our worship service or our own times of worship, if we're listening to worship music, it is meant to be to him. It's not to each other. It's not him doing something primarily for us, although there's, as we just said, there's a benefit to us.

It's us making melody to him, making sure our praise is not just, I like that kind of pop song, or I like this kind of instruments in church, or I like it when they have lights, or I like it when they don't have lights, or I like when they have smoke.

I don't like it when they have smoke. It's our mind is set on him. And it's a song that is a victory song when he has helped us overcome the battle. And so our mind is on God's glory. Our mind is on God's presence being near and our mind is to honor him and thank him and praise him for all that he's done.

And it's not to judge, evaluate, oh, the guitar player is pretty good. Oh, I like that new song that they're doing by that group. Or, oh, I don't like singing songs from that particular group of people.

It's not about that. It's about, Jesus, will you be honored as I lift my heart in thanksgiving to you for all that you've done? This melody I'm giving to you. And then it says, with the harp of ten strings, this is in verse two, I call this your ten-string testimony.

Crafting a Ten-String Testimony

And I know I think you'll know what I'm talking about here. None of us as Christians have just one testimony. I have the testimony of a son coming back to the Lord, but I have other children that were prodigals as well that have come home to Jesus.

That's a multiple. I've been married 45 years. That's that's one of the strings that I could play on and say this is this is a note to the Lord. And it's not just one note. You know, you maybe have met those one note Christians.

Well, back in 1979, I got saved. I went to a Billy Graham crusade and everything, you know, that that really helped me. That was a great day in my life. I look at that history. That's that's that's good.

Praise God for it. But that's a one string testimony. And God is saying here, use all ten strings. Tell people about my wonderful works. Tell them what I've done in your life. Give testimony. Give songs of praise for the powerful things that God has done.

And this 10 string testimony is your testimony. And and as we're talking about the the victory that comes, the song of victory after the battle is won. These are your 10 string testimonies. And I know if you met Jesus, you've got something to sing about.

You've got a song of praise in your heart. I tell you today, I praise him for those 45 years of marriage to a wonderful wife. I praise the Lord that all four of my children are serving him. That's one of my songs of praise.

I praise him that I have 10 wonderful grandchildren who, as soon as they begin to understand the concept of Christ, they immediately fall on their knees and ask Jesus to come into their heart. And and any of them that are age appropriate have all come to Jesus.

And we don't trust that song will be all 10 of our grandchildren. Lord willing, even more coming in the future will come to know Jesus. My part of my victory song is that he set me free when I was a young man from pornography.

That's a song of praise. When I won that battle, I had cancer and I wasn't sure what was going to happen with my life and my future and my family. And Jesus set me free, cancer free. I have a song of praise.

My friend, do you have a song that you're ready to sing right now in your heart? Do you have a song that wants to explode from inside of your soul? I was in a car accident and broke my back and and my legs were numb.

I wasn't sure I'd be able to walk. And and the Lord orchestrated events in my life where, as you can see, I can stand, I can sing. Maybe I could even add a dance to my song, my song of praise, a victory after the battle.

I can tell you I have something to sing about. I have something to praise about. And I want to encourage you not to get stuck in a morbid, discouraged, downcast repetition of all the bad news in your life, the moaning and the groaning and the murmuring and the complaining.

And every conversation you have with somebody is this is so bad and this hurts so much. And why isn't God working? That's not your song of praise. And the Lord is going to deliver you through faith. And I want to encourage you to sing the song now, begin to rehearse all that he's done for you.

Throughout scripture, we see the problem that people had when they forgot the works of the Lord. There are several Psalms, and we'll get into them later as we study the book further. We will see these Psalms where it says, and the Lord healed them and the Lord delivered them.

But then they forgot the Lord and they went back into sin. And then the Lord delivered them once again after judgment came upon them. And they rejoiced in the Lord and had a song again. But then they backslid and went back into the things of this world, went back into murmuring and complaining and grumbling, wondering if the Lord is present, wondering if the Lord's going to really do anything in their life, getting bitter at God because of the trial that you're in and forgetting.

This reality of what he's done in your past. I've gotten to the place now where when I start to feel myself wondering, will there be a breakthrough in this battle? Will the Lord come through for me? And it's just that slight bewilderment of it's the weight of this thing.

It's the pressure. It's the length sometime of it. It's the intensity of it. It's the how it wakes you up at three in the morning and you're just concerned over these situations and begin to wonder, will the Lord ever set you free from that?

I tell you, my history with God now is as such that even when I'm questioning, I know and I say to myself, don't be a fool, Gary, because you're going to be ashamed of yourself. Maybe it's the word I want to look for here.

You're going to be you're going to realize that you wasted all that time and energy doubting and wondering and being uncertain about the power of the Lord when you know he's going to break through for you, when you know he's going to give you the victory.

And he's done that so many times now when that when the enemy comes in like that, Lord really does raise up a standard and says, remember what I've done and realize that if you get in the cycle of murmuring and complaining, you're going to be ashamed that you did that because you already know that I'm going to be there for you, that I'm going to give you this powerful and mighty breakthrough.

Skillfully Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness

Verse three then goes on to the theme of what we're talking about today. Sing to him a new song. This is a warfare victory praise. This is coming out of the intensity of a battle and seeing the Lord do a mighty work and it gives you a new song.

And it says, play skillfully on the strings. If we're talking about strings being a testimony, then he's saying, do this skillfully, craft your words, craft the song, speak in ways that honor God the most.

In other words, if you've had a miracle in your life, don't just say like, hey, I was I was depressed, but now I'm set free. Some people are afraid to talk about their testimony. They may have been set free from drugs and they go, I'm ashamed of that point in my life.

So they don't really ever paint a picture anymore of their past. And we have to be careful. We don't want to glorify our past. But sometimes it's important to to skillfully choose the words of your testimony.

I would encourage you to even write them out, take a piece of paper or your laptop and and write out a page. Just here's my victory song. This is this is not this is not just some emotional sentiment.

This is actually instruction. This is God saying to us. And we've read time after time through these passages of scriptures. He's he's asking us to do this. It's not just recording something that happened in the history.

He's telling you and I put together a new song. And if you don't know how to write a song or sing a song and put together a testimony and let that be skillful of what you do. And then with loud shouts, I mean, proclaim it, write it, sing it, preach it, share it, tell your friends at Starbucks, at the coffee shop, at the restaurants, on your job.

Don't be afraid. Let your lips go loose and tell people of the glorious things that God has done for you. Verse four, for the word of the Lord is upright and all his works are done in faithfulness. I love that the writer here says we're giving praise and we're singing new songs because the Lord is upright.

He does things the right way. His word is upright and his works are faithful. I love that he brings together the word and his works. He speaks something and then he works it out. He makes a promise and then he fulfills his promise.

He speaks of his nearness and then his nearness accomplishes a battle victory for you and I. Both of these things are important. The word of the Lord, to trust in it, to believe that what God says always comes true, that God has never broken a promise, that all things work together for good, Romans says, to those who love him are called according to his purpose.

That is a promise of God. That's an upright word. And then his works accompany that. It's not just talk. He's actually accomplishing what he says he will do. And verse five says he loves righteousness and justice.

This is the heart behind his word and his works, that there's a love there. It's in other words, it's a passion. It's not just like I'm God in heaven and I'm obligated to do these kind of words and works.

It's a soul thing. It's a deeper thing. It's a thing of the heart. And I know I'm putting anthropomorphical pictures of God having a heart and things like that. And he's a spirit. But nonetheless, the spirit of God loves, clearly loves righteousness and justice.

And the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. Does this make you rejoice? Does this make you want to shout for praise? He loves righteousness, justice. He's not begrudgingly there to help you.

He loves it. He says to one of the minor prophets, let justice roll down, man, let it pour out of heaven. The prophets would cry, rend the heavens and come down because they knew God loved to come down and give victory in the midst of the battles.

And the earth is full of it. It's not just a part of it. In other words, your life should be full of songs of praise, victory songs from what the Lord has done for you. So that's verse one through five, which which gives us the first context.

God’s Sovereignty Over Creation

And then verses six through nine speaks of the song being a song that we sing confidently because of the sovereignty of God over creation. He is sovereign over creation. It says here by verse six, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth, the host, he gathered the waters of the seas, he puts them in deep storehouses, let the earth fear the Lord, let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world standing on.

For he spoke and it came to be, he commanded and it stood firm. Verse nine echoes verse four and five. The word spoke is upright. All his works were faithful. He loves doing it. And now in verse nine, he's echoing the same sentiments.

He spoke, excuse me, he spoke, he commanded it and it stood firm. I love that phrase. It stood firm. It's it's unshakable. It's unchangeable. The very nature and character of God is an unchanging God.

He changes not, the Bible says. And so we see when he puts forth a word and he does his work to accompany it and he asks us to write a new song, it's going to stand firm. In other words, do you fear? Well, right now my health has come back.

Right now my marriage is good. Do you live in fear that that could transition? And I want to say to you, even if it did, even if your health gets worse and even if your marriage falls apart, God is still faithful.

His still his word is still working and he still will give you a song. I know some people that even though I have a testimony of my son coming back to the Lord, I know some close friends who lost children to drugs and addictions.

And yet the Holy Spirit, this may sound strange to you, still gave them a new song. The faithfulness of the Lord. Some of them sing a song because they know that their children turn to the Lord in the last days of their life and they can sing the song of praise to the Lord.

God will give you a song no matter what your circumstances look like. And it will stand firm. So to understand the sovereignty of God is essential to be able to trust God while you're in the battle, waiting for this new song to be written.

God is sovereign. He rules and reigns. He rules and reigns over the heavens, the deep waters. Genesis is a picture of Genesis one. It was formless and void. It was chaotic. And this speaks of the sovereignty of God bringing order to disorder and that he controls the chaos and brings chaos into peace like he did in the New Testament when he was in the boat.

And the winds and the waves were causing such fear of the disciples. And he spoke over those winds and waves. That's the sovereignty of God. He controls everything. Nothing is outside of his control. The deep waters, the deepest things of your life, he is watching over to perform his will and his way in your life.

The song that we sing, this new song, is born out of awe, even the awe of his sovereignty over creation, that no storm happens, no earthquake happens without God understanding what's going on in the world today and allowing certain things to take place for a better and higher good.

And we can trust him and his sovereignty. And that song is now a conviction that what he commands is going to stand form. In other words, it's an assurance that the battle is already won, that the battle belongs to the Lord, that he is a man of war, that he's fighting on our behalf, that he's going to give us this new song.

And we can see that in all creation. And that gives us an awe of him, the beauty of the mountains and the woods and the forest and the river. We just see God's beauty and all that he's done and how he has created these things out of nothing.

God’s Sovereignty Over Nations and Generations

And he can do that in our life. Take what's chaotic, take what's falling apart and bring it all back together. Then in verses 10 through 17, it's not creation now, but it's nations. He is sovereign not only over creation, but verses 10 through 17, which we've read already, so I'll read all of it together here at one point.

But looking at these verses, verse 10 says, the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the people. Underline your Bibles if you have in front of you the word counsel and the plans.

These are words that the psalmist used in Psalm chapter two, the people plot, the kings imagine vain things, they counsel against the Lord and his anointed one. In other words, the world, sin, Satan, devil, demons in hell, they are against Christ and his anointed ones, you and I.