FBC Morning Light (5/11/2024)

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. This morning, we are reading, and this weekend, we are reading through a number of Psalms. They are all Psalms of David. It's Psalm 108, 109, 122, 124, 131, 133, 138, and 139.

I'm going to talk about all of them just briefly, except for Psalm 109, which I'm going to come back to at the end and talk a little bit more about that one. So Psalm 108, let me start reading. It says, O God, my heart is steadfast.

I will sing and give praise even with my glory. Awake lute and harp. I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples, and I will sing praises to you among the nations. If you're kind of getting the tenor of what David is saying here, he's excited to be worshiping God.

And this Psalm is about David's excitement to worship, and maybe it makes you think of the time when a time or even now when you are looking forward to gathering together in worship. And then Psalms 122, 124, 131, and 133 are called Songs of Ascent or Psalms of Ascent.

And the idea was with the different pilgrimages, the time of Passover, of Pentecost, and there was one other that's not coming to my mind right now. The people were called to go up to Jerusalem, all right?

And so why would that be an ascent? Because Jerusalem was at the top of the hill. It was always upward to Jerusalem throughout Scripture. And so the Song of Ascent was a song that was to be sung on their way to Jerusalem.

Application for us with that would be it's a good thing to sing songs of worship and praise on your way to church, that it's a time of preparation and gathering together to sing a song to the Lord. Psalm 138, David again says, I will praise you with my whole heart before the gods.

I will sing praises to you. I will worship toward your holy temple and praise your name for your loving kindness and your truth, for you have magnified your word above all your name. And so David is again emphasizing here attributes of God and his worship of God and his excitement for doing that.

Psalm 139, O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and rising up. You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.

For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it all together. And David is again praising God for who God is. God knows all things, says even the word that is on your tongue. What you're going to say, what you have said, what you will say in the future.

God already knows. God is a God who is worthy of our worship in this regard. So back to Psalm 109 and Psalm 109 is a very different Psalm. And let me start in verse one says, do not keep silent, O God of my praise for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful have opened against me.

They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have surrounded me with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause. In return for my love, they are my accusers, but I give myself to prayer.

Thus have they have rewarded my evil for good and hatred for my love. So David here is looking at the times when he has done well towards someone else and they have responded with evil. And this could be about Saul.

It could be about Absalom. It could be about any number of people who were attacking David at different times. We're not certain which one it is. But David goes on to say what's called an imprecatory prayer against those who would be seeking his life.

And he says, set a wicked man over him and let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him be found guilty and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few and let another take his office.

Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Now it would seem that this doesn't make sense that David could be so worshipful of God and yet say these things or bring these requests to God for another.

But I think there's an important distinction to be made in these words. David is not requesting that he be the one to make this person's children fatherless. He is not the one asking to make this pursuer of his wife a widow.

He's calling out to God for vindication, for God to work and act here. It is not wrong to pray an imprecatory prayer so long as you are calling out to God to perform the action for you to pray an imprecatory prayer against those who would take the lives to say, Lord, please protect the lives of others from one who would take their life.

That's not a wrong prayer. That's not. And so the focus needs to be on what God and who God is and what God can do in that prayer. Let's take a moment and pray. Heavenly Father, we call out to you as the only one who is sovereign and supreme.

And those that would attack your word, that would attack your gospel, that would attack your church, we ask that you would be the one who is in charge as one who is sovereign and supreme, that you would cause your word to go forth, that you would change the hearts and lives and minds of those who hear your gospel.

We call out to you as the only one who is able to act in these matters, for we ourselves can change no one. It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray, amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.