Latest / Reformed Thinking / Appealing to God’s Honor in a Time of Judgment (Psalm 79) | Charles Spurgeon

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Appealing to God’s Honor in a Time of Judgment (Psalm 79) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Hello and welcome to Reformed thinking.
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  I am so glad you have joined us today.
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  It's. Good to be here.
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  We are about to take a a serious look at a text that feels
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  incredibly relevant to anyone who has ever looked at the state
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  of the church, or maybe just the state of the world, and felt a a
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  really heavyweight of despair. We're opening up the Treasury of
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  David today to look at Psalm 79. And you're right, Psalm 79 is
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  not light reading. It's a song of ASAP, and it's a
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  text that's written for the ruins.
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  It's written for the you know, the smoke and the rubble of the
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  beloved city. It really does set a stark
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  scene. I think, you know, often we come
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  to the Psalms looking for personal comfort, maybe a little
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  boost for a day. But this is this is corporate
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  grief. This is national overthrow.
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  Precisely. And the theological lens here is
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  just vital. If we read this only as history,
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  as something that happened to Israel a long, long time ago, we
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  completely missed the point. This is a look at how God's
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  people are supposed to respond when the church is under attack.
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  And maybe more terrifyingly, it's how we respond when it
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  seems like God himself is angry with us.
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  That's the central tension, isn't it?
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  That's what we're going to try to unpack.
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  The problem is laid out in the very first verse.
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  The heathen have entered God's inheritance.
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  The bad guys have won, essentially.
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  And not just one on the battlefield.
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  I mean, that would be bad enough.
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  They have entered the sanctuary itself.
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  Yeah, we're. Going to be relying heavily on
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  Charles Spurgeon's The Treasury of David for this discussion.
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  And what I really love about this particular source is that
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  Spurgeon, he acts as a curator, really.
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  He brings in voices from all over church history.
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  You've got Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Musculus, whole chorus,
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  a whole chorus of theologians all grappling with the same
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  disaster. It's not just one man's opinion,
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  no. It creates a very full, a very
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  rich picture, and our mission today really is to figure out
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  the solution that Asaph presents.
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  How do you plead with God when everything is falling apart?
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  Spurgeon identifies what he calls the mightiest weapon in
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  the Armory of prayer. And I think we need to find that
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  weapon by the end of this discussion.
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  OK, let's do it. Let's get right into the horror
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  of it. Segment 1 covers the 1st 4
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  verses and it starts with this complaint just being poured out.
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  Verse one says O God, the heathen are coming to thine
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  inheritance. Thy holy temple have they
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  defiled, They have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
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  You can just hear the shock in that opening cry.
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  It's a cry of amazement. Asaf is looking around and he
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  just cannot believe what he's seeing.
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  The stranger, the uncircumcised, the Pagan hasn't just crossed
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  the border, he's polluted the very courts of the Lord.
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  Spurgeon has this insight where he says it's bad enough to have
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  enemies in your own house. I mean, if someone breaks into
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  your home, that's deeply traumatic, But he says it's
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  infinitely worse to meet them in the House of God.
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  That is a violation of the sacred.
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  I mean, it's a different category of evil.
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  The source material points out that it was a triple pollution.
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  The Holy Land, the Holy House, and the Hogging City were all
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  defiled. And there's a theological
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  implication there that applies to the church today, isn't
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  there? It's the horror of what Jesus
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  called the tares sown with the wheat.
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  Exactly. It's that scary thought, the
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  idea that wicked men can be numbered within the ministry,
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  that the enemy is not just outside the gate, but inside.
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  It's that internal decay that so often precedes the external
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  destruction. But here in the Psalm, the
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  physical destruction is just it's total.
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  The text says they laid Jerusalem on heaps.
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  On heaps. The visual imagery is just
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  wreckage, like a building that's been imploded.
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  It's just a pile of rubble. The joy of the nation is
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  completely gone. And if the destruction of the
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  buildings wasn't enough, we get to verses 2 and 3 and it it
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  honestly turns into a horror movie.
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  The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto
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  the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy Saints unto the
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  beasts of the earth. It is gruesome.
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  There's no other word for it. It is, and the source material
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  connects this to a couple of really specific historical
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  moments. There's the Maccabian period
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  under Antiochus Epiphanes where a man named Bakides was slaying
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  the scribes. Yes, a terrible time, but it
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  also points forward, doesn't it, to the Roman destruction of
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  Jerusalem in 70AD? It does, and the Treasury of
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  David includes a detail from Josephus.
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  I think that the Romans crucified so many Jews around
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  the walls of the city that there was no room left for the crosses
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  and no more wood left to build them.
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  That's the level of carnage we're talking about.
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  It's almost unimaginable. So with this image of unburied
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  bodies everywhere, Augustine brings up a really interesting
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  perspective. In the ancient world, and
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  honestly in our world too, not being buried is seen as a
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  supreme indignity, a final insult.
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  But Agustin argues that burial is really for the comfort of the
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  living, not the dead. That is classic Augustine, isn't
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  it? Always looking for the pastoral
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  angle. Even in the bleakest situation,
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  he's trying to comfort the survivors.
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  How? So well, he's saying, look, the
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  martyrs do not lose their eternal reward just because
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  their bodies were eaten by beasts.
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  The resurrection will gather every atom.
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  The soul is safe with God no matter what happens to the
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  corpse. That's true, and that's a
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  necessary theological distinction to make.
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  But the Psalm doesn't seem to be taking that High Road of Stoic
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  acceptance. The psalmist is absolutely
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  horrified. You're right, and that's the
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  tension. Well, Augustine is correct
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  theologically about the safety of the believer's soul.
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  The Psalm is using this horror for a different purpose.
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  It's arguing for the inhuman and barbarous cruelty of the enemy.
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  I see. It's being presented as evidence
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  in a courtroom. It's a sign of God's own
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  indignation that he would allow his chosen people to be treated
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  like like roadkill. The phrase uses that their blood
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  was shed like water. And that implies devaluation.
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  You pour water out on the ground and you don't think twice about
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  it. It's worthless.
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  These invaders were shedding human blood, the blood of the
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  covenant people, as if it were nothing.
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  And the sheer volume of it. The text says there was none to
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  bury them. And it's not that people didn't
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  want to. It's that the survivors were too
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  few or too afraid. Or maybe the piles of bodies
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  were just too high. It paints a picture of total
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  helplessness. Which leads right into the next
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  layer of suffering, which is the psychological aspect.
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  First four, we are become a reproach to our neighbors, a
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  scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
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  This is the sting of mockery. You're down, you're bleeding,
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  your home is a ruin, and the people next door are pointing
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  and laughing at you. And it specifically says our
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  neighbors. Yes, and the source material
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  points out that often those who are nearest show the least
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  sympathy. Why do you think that is?
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  Is it just old rivalries? Well, there's often old
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  animosity between neighboring people groups, that's true.
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  But there's also this this hard logic that the world uses.
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  If you are suffering this badly, you must have been a terrible
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  Sinner. The prosperity gospel in
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  reverse. Kind of, yeah.
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  Or they say if your God was real, he wouldn't let this
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  happen to you. So your faith is a sham.
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  Chris Austin, the great preacher, he had a note on this.
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  He said that scorn wounds the soul, whereas stripes only wound
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  the body. That's a striking way to put it.
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  You can heal from a cut, but to have your faith mocked while
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  you're in the depths of suffering to hear them ask where
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  is your God now? That cuts right to the Spirit.
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  There's a really vivid illustration in the notes from a
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  traveler named JL Porter. He describes visiting what's
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  known as the Jews place of whaling in Jerusalem.
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  This was written in the 19th century, but the image is just
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  timeless. It's a very moving description.
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  He talks about seeing the white faces and lustrous black eyes of
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  the Exiles. They're just pouring out their
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  hearts over these ancient stones.
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  He describes old men tottering on their staves and little girls
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  just gazing at the wall. They're kissing the stones,
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  bathing them with tears. It connects this ancient Psalm
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  to a grief that has endured for centuries and centuries.
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  It really does. It shows that the reproach Asaf
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  talks about wasn't a short term problem.
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  It became the defining characteristic of the diaspora
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  for generations. They became a byword.
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  And that forces the question that starts the next segment.
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  Right. Segment 2 begins with verse 5
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  and the question is how long Lord?
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  This is the pivot. Notice the shift in the language
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  in the 1st 4 verses. The complaint is all about the
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  enemy. They did this, they did that,
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  but now the address is directly to God.
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  Wilt thou be angry forever? This is the big realization.
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  The enemy is just the instrument.
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  The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Romans, they are just the
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  rod. The hand holding the rod is
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  God's. That is a hard, hard pill to
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  swallow for modern listeners. I think we like to attribute
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  evil solely to bad human actors. But Asaph sees God's sovereign
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  permission behind it all. Musculus makes this point very
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  clearly in the notes. He says we must recognize God's
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  hand in our afflictions. He says it's not just the malice
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  of the enemy, it's the discipline of the Father.
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  And if you don't see that if. You don't see that you can't
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  repent, you just become a victim.
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  You wallow and sell pity rather than seeing yourself as a
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  chastised son being brought back into line.
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  The text uses the word jealousy. Shall thy jealousy burn like
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  fire now? In a human context, jealousy is
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  almost always a negative emotion.
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  It's petty. It's insecure.
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  Of course, but in the Reformed context and more importantly the
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  biblical context, divine jealousy is the protective,
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  exclusive love of a husband for his wife.
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  Jerome has a great insight here. He says God is jealous because
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  he loved. He didn't care.
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  He wouldn't be jealous. Indeed, if a husband sees his
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  wife running after other lovers, which is exactly what Israel did
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  with idols, and he doesn't get jealous, it means he doesn't
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  actually love her. He's indifferent.
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  So God's jealous anger here is, paradoxically, proof of his
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  covenant love. But the prayer is about the
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  intensity of it, the fire analogy.
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  Fire consumes. Asaph is saying, OK, we get it.
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  We know we messed up. We know you're jealous.
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  But if this fire keeps burning at this heat, there will be
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  nothing left of us. So he tries to redirect the
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  fire, which brings us to verses 6:00 and 7:00.
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  Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known
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  thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.
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  This is the cry for justice, and it seems like a, well, a logical
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  plea. Lord, if you have to be angry,
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  be angry at the people who don't even acknowledge you exist.
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  It's an appeal to God's sense of proportion.
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  The source defines these heathen very specifically as the
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  prayerless, those who have not called upon thy name.
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  David Clarkson had a very strong note on this.
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  He said that the neglect of prayer is a crime that makes men
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  liable to God's wrath. That's a convicting thought,
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  isn't it? We tend to think of crimes as
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  active sin, stealing, killing, lying.
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  But Clarkson argues that even the heathen have a duty to pray
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  to the Creator. To simply ignore God is a
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  capital offense in his universe. So ASOS is essentially saying
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  look at these people, they ignore you completely.
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  They are devouring Jacob like wolves tearing up a sheep.
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  Why are you punishing us so severely while they seem to get
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  away with it? And he uses that metaphor of the
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  pasture. They have devoured Jacob and
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  laid waste his dwelling place. It's not just that they killed
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  the flock, they destroyed the means of survival.
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  They scorched the earth, ruined the sheep coat.
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  This brings us to what I think is really the heart of the Psalm
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  segment 3 Because Asaph knows that just pointing the finger at
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  the bad guys isn't enough. Israel isn't innocent in all
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  this. No, they're absolutely not.
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  And this is where we get into what Spurgeon calls the master
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  argument of prayer. Verse 8 starts with a full
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  throated confession. Oh, remember, not against us
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  former iniquities. Former iniquities.
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  This touches on a concept that's very strong in the Old
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  Testament, but maybe a bit lost on us today, this idea of
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  accumulated corporate guilt. Yes, the idea that generations
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  can lay up stores of transgression.
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  It's like a national debt that just keeps compounding interest
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  over the centuries. Spurgeon quotes John Gill here,
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  who references a Jewish saying. I found this absolutely
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  fascinating. They had a saying that every
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  punishment Israel ever receives holds an ounce of the sin of the
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  golden calf. That is such a powerful image.
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  The idea is that the foundational sin of idolatry at
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  Mount Sinai started a trajectory that the nation never fully
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  escaped. Every subsequent judgement has a
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  little bit of that original rebellion mixed into it.
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  But how does that work in Reformed theology?
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  I mean, is it fair for me to be punished for my great
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  grandfather's sin? People struggle with that.
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  It's not about individual punishment for another's crime
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  in a in a strict legal sense, it's about corporate solidarity.
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  We are part of the people. We're part of a nation.
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  If the nation has been rotting from the inside for 100 years,
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  the final collapse might just happen to fall in our time.
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  And notice Asaph numbers himself with the sinners.
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  He says us. He doesn't say Lord, forgive
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  them for their past. He says remember, not against
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  us. That is true intercession.
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  You stand in the gap, you identify with the people, and
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  you own the guilt. Then comes the plea.
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  Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us.
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  Now we have to unpack that word prevent.
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  In modern English, it just means to stop something from
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  happening. Right.
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  But in the King James English, which translates the Hebrew
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  concept so well, here it means to go before, to anticipate, to
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  meet someone. Like prevent coming before.
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  Precisely, Asaf is saying, Lord, rush out to meet us with your
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  mercy. Come before us in our need,
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  before we are completely and utterly destroyed.
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  And what's the argument he uses? It's fascinating.
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  He doesn't say help us because we are so sorry or help us
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  because we promised to do better, he says.
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  For we are brought very low. This is the argument from
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  misery, and it is a perfectly valid plea in the court of
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  heaven. The believer is allowed to use
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  their own wretched condition as a reason for God to act.
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  Spuzion uses the idea of being emptied out.
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  Yes, the vessel is dry. We have nothing left, no
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  strength, no resources, no hope in ourselves.
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  And that very emptiness is what attracts God's mercy.
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  He loves to fill the empty. But that isn't even the
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  strongest argument in the Psalm. We have now arrived at verse 9.
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  Spurgeon calls this the great gun of the battle.
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  Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name.
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  Why is this the great gun? What makes this police so
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  powerful? Because it shifts the focus
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  entirely off of man and places it squarely unto God himself,
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  himself. William Greenhill, one of the
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  old Puritans, points this out brilliantly.
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  He says God does nothing for the sake of the people's merit.
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  Not their tears, not their prayers, not even their faith.
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  In a meritorious sense, He acts for his name.
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  So salvation isn't just about saving people from their
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  trouble, it's about God vindicating his own character
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  before a watching world. Indeed, think about it.
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  If God's people are wiped out, his name is tarnished.
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  The heathen will say one of two things, either he was too weak
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  to save them or he was unfaithful and broke his
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  covenant promises. So Asaph appeals to God's own
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  self-interest. You could say do it for your
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  reputation. And there's a double plea here
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  too, isn't there? Deliver us and purge away our
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  sins. Yes, and that is the Lutheran
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  and Reformed synthesis right there.
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  We always need two things. We need the removal of the rod.
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  That's the deliverance from the enemy.
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  But we also need the removal of the guilt.
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  That's the purging of the sin that brought the rod in the
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  first place. You can't just ask for the pain
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  to stop, you have to ask for the disease to be cured.
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  Exactly. And both are gifts of pure
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  grace. William Grinnell had a beautiful
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  note on this. He said God is no loser by
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  showing mercy. I love that quote when I read
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  it. His glory is enhanced more by
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  saving than by damning. It's so true.
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  God's justice is certainly glorified in the punishment of
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  sin, yes, but His mercy, His grace, His loving kindness, His
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  long-suffering, those are the multifaceted jewels in his
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  crown. So when we pray, save us for
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  your name's sake. We are aligning our prayer with
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  God's highest goal, which is His own glory.
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  That is a complete game changer for how we should pray instead
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  of just coming to God and saying God I really need this or I
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  really want this. The argument is God glorify
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  yourself by handling this impossible situation.
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  It takes all the pressure off of us.
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  It's no longer about whether I am good enough or sincere enough
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  to be answered. It's about whether God is good
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  enough to keep His word and honor His own name, And the
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  answer to that is always yes. Moving into segment 4, we see
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  this deep concern for God's reputation continue.
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  Verse 10 asks wherefore should the heathen say, where is their
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  God? There's that mocking question
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  again. Where is he if the church falls?
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  If God's people are destroyed, the world assumes God is either
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  weak or absent. Aesop then asked for something
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  that sounds, well, a bit vengeful to our modern ears.
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  He wants known vengeance. He wants the revenging of the
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  blood of God's servants to be done in our sight.
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  He wants to see it happen. This brings up the whole
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  difficulty of imprecatory prayer, praying for curses or
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  judgment on one's enemies. Many modern Christians are very
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  uncomfortable with this. Yeah, we're told to love our
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  enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
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  How do we square that? It's a critical question, and we
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  have to distinguish between personal spite and a desire for
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  public justice. Asaf isn't saying I want to see
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  them suffer because they hurt my feelings.
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  He's saying I want the world to see that you are a God of
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  justice, that evil does not win in the end.
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  So it's a desire for the public vindication of right over wrong,
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  yes. Spurgeon says the destruction of
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  Antichrist, represented here by these Pagan enemies is a valid
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  and righteous hope. If we truly love good, we must
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  by definition hate evil, and we must desire to see evil stopped,
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  judged, and removed. Then in verse 11, the tone
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  shifts dramatically from the battlefield to the dungeon.
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  Let the sighing of the prisoner come before.
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  Thee. This is one of the most tender
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  verses in the entire Psalm. PB Power in the source material
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  has a wonderful analysis of this.
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  Sigh. He calls it an unexpressed
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  declaration. Isn't that beautiful?
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  Sometimes you are so weary, so broken, you can't even form a
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  sentence to pray. You just sigh, and power says
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  that that sigh tells a long, complex tale of sorrow without a
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  single word being spoken. And the text gives us this
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  incredible assurance that God hears the sigh.
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  It reaches the throne of grace. It does.
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  It says let it come before thee. It implies that God is actively
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  listening for the nonverbal prayers of his suffering people.
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  The verse mentions those appointed to die.
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  The Hebrew is literally the sons of death.
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  These are people on death row. In the historical context, these
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  were the Jews captured and waiting to be executed by the
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  invaders, but spiritually, it applies to anyone who finds
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  themselves in what Bunyan called the Dungeon of Giant Despair.
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  People who feel like it's all over, there's no way out.
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  Yes, the source material uses the image of a lamb living
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  between the lions jaws. That's the situation.
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  And the prayer is according to the greatness of thy power,
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  preserve them. It takes great, overwhelming
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  power to snatch a soul back from the very edge of death and
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  despair. Then we get back to the justice
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  aspect in verse 12, and render unto our neighbors sevenfold
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  into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached
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  the oh Lord. Sevenfold retribution.
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  Abraham Wright, another commentator, explains that this
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  isn't unjust. It isn't asking for more than
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  they deserve, which is what it might sound like.
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  How so? Sevenfold sounds like a lot.
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  Because a scorn against an infinite God is an infinite
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  wrong. If you mock the creator of the
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  universe, there is no finite punishment.
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  That is technically too much so sevenfold.
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  Here is a Hebrew ISM, a measure of completeness.
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  It means give them the full and perfect measure of what their
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  sins have earned. The phrase into their bosom is
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  very interesting. It sounds so affectionate, but
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  it's clearly not. No, not at all.
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  It refers to the oriental dress of the time, the long flowing
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  robes that had a large fold at the chest, which acted almost
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  like a pocket or a bag. You could carry grain or other
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  goods in your bosom. So the images of God pouring
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  shame and judgement right into their lap.
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  Exactly. They can't drop it, they can't
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  lose it, They have to carry it with them.
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  It implies a full, personal and unavoidable measure of return
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  for their wickedness. That brings us to the final
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  segment, Segment 5. And after all that darkness,
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  there's a turn, the promise of eternal praise.
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  Verse 13 starts with So we, thy people and sheep of thy pasture,
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  will give thee thanks forever. This is the resolution.
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  This is the statement of faith. Despite the anger, despite the
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  fire, despite the blood running like water, the fundamental
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  covenant relationship holds. They are still thy people, They
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  are still thy sheep. The Lich, the commentator
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  connects us back to Psalm 78, doesn't he?
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  He does. The flock needs the shepherd.
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  The whole history of Israel is the story of God leading a
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  stubborn wayward flock through dangerous and hostile territory.
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  And despite it all, they are still His flock.
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  And the promise is to show forth thy praise to all generations.
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  And this is the purpose of deliverance.
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  Why should God save us? What's the point?
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  So that we can hand down the history of His grace to our
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  children and they to their children.
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  The source material puts it so, so beautifully.
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  History survives on the tablets of the Church.
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  The dark days, the days of the ruins and the heaps, become the
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  necessary prelude to the brightest displays of God's
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  love. If there were no danger, there
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  would be no rescue. If there were no great rescue,
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  there would be no great song of deliverance to sing.
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  So the Psalm moves from the heaps of Jerusalem to the
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  eternal song of the flock. It is a process from sight to
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  faith. Sight sees the ruins and
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  despairs. Faith looks beyond the ruins and
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  sees the shepherd who will never forsake his sheep.
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  We have covered a lot of ground here.
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  Let's try to summarize this for the listener.
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  We started with the problem. The church is under attack, God
• 21:44
  seems angry, and we feel totally helpless.
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  We saw the absolute horror of the invasion, the defilement of
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  sacred space, the dishonouring of the dead, the psychological
• 21:53
  sting of mockery. Then we had to look at the logic
• 21:55
  of God's anger that he uses enemies as a rod of discipline
• 21:58
  for his own jealous love, not because he's indifferent, but
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  because he cares. Then we unpack the master
• 22:05
  argument. We don't plead our innocence or
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  our own merit. We plead our misery.
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  And much more importantly, we plead God's holy name.
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  That's the great gun we. Saw the need for public
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  vindication and justice, but also the incredible tenderness
• 22:18
  of a God who hears the prisoners faintest sigh.
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  And finally, it all culminates in the unwavering commitment to
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  praise him forever as his people, his sheep.
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  The core lesson for us it seems to be this.
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  When you are brought very low, do not argue your own goodness.
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  Argue God's glory. That is it.
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  That is the key of reformed thinking right there.
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  It is not about us. It is always, always about Him
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  in His glory. Now, before we go, I want to
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  leave you with a final thought that really struck me while I
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  was reading about the dead bodies being given to the fowls
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  of the air. OK, what is that?
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  Well, we tend to think of the grave as a final resting place.
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  We put so much stock in a decent burial.
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  We have funerals. We erect headstones.
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  But consider the image of the unburied Saints in this Psalm.
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  Their bones are scattered, their flesh is consumed.
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  They are treated with absolute contempt by the world.
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  It is the ultimate rejection, the final indignity.
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  But doesn't that, in a way almost guarantee a future
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  resurrection where God vindicates that very dust?
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  That's a striking thought. Unpack that a bit.
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  If God cares so much about his name and His glory, as we've
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  just established, and these are His Saints, He cannot leave them
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  in the bellies of beasts forever.
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  That would be a victory for the enemy.
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  So perhaps the very lack of an earthly grave, the lack of any
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  human honor, is the surest sign that their glory must be
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  entirely heavenly. The world gave them no honor, so
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  God himself must give them all of.
• 23:43
  It, and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall
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  awake. It completely changes how we
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  view those heaps of ruins, doesn't it?
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  They're not just piles of rubble.
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  They are. They're just waiting for the
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  trumpet. Thank you so much for joining us
• 23:57
  for this deep dive into Psalm 79.
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  It has been a pleasure. We will see you next time.