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Psalm 109 - Praying Against Your Enemies · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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Welcome to Tabernacle talk Tabernacle talk is a Bible study
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podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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you to know Christ, grow in his word and show his love to
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others. Let's dive right in.
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Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Hope that you're having a good
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day Today. We are in Psalm one O 9, and we
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are walking through Book 5 of Psalms right now.
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And Psalm one O 9 says for the choir director a Psalm of David.
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And this is a particular, clearly a unique Psalm.
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I don't know that we've gone over many of these, what are
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called imprecatory Psalms, not impregnatory, imprecatory.
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And what that means is a prayer for God's justice against some
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specific people. And these are not these Psalms.
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There's a few of them, and there's several of them that
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take place within Book 5 of Psalms.
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So there's one I know of in particular.
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It should be somewhere between like Psalm one 36137 that it's
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not that the person writing the Psalm the the psalmist or hear
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David. It's not like they just have a
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petty grudge against someone that they're like, oh, I don't
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like them. Their personality is kind of and
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so I'm going to ask for God to like really nail them.
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It's not that at all. Instead, the imprecatory Psalms
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are God. You have made a covenant with
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your people and you have said as you all relate to me as your God
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and to each other in a right, good, holy, just way.
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There is blessing and there is joy, but if you break the
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covenant, if you either deal falsely with God that you
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worship other gods, you're not following the Lord, or you
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mistreat or kill or do evil towards other people that are
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part of the same covenant as you.
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There are, if you will, curses that will come on you as a
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result of breaking the covenant. And you can read about that
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pretty extensively in one of the songs of Moses in Deuteronomy.
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I believe it's 32 and 33 if I have those chapter numbers
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correct, that if you obey the covenant, there are blessings.
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If you disobey the covenant, there are curses.
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And so here David is crying out for God's justice against people
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that are doing wrong and doing evil in such a way as to break
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the covenant that they are supposed to have together as the
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people of Israel and the covenant that they're supposed
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to have with God. And so in recognition of the
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abject human wickedness, David is crying out to God for him to
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work and for him to be just and for him to right wrongs in a way
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that David goes, I can't fix this, God, I really need you to
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fix this. So I hope that even as we have
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that mindset coming into the Psalm, that that will be
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helpful, that there are times in your life and in mine where we
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go, man, this person is just making a mess of their life, of
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every relationship that they are in.
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They have harmed me in some ways.
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And God, like, I don't want to take out personal vengeance
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against them, but God, something needs to happen.
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And so, Lord, would you be the one that you operate, you work,
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you fight the battle that I can't fight.
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And so that ought to be our mindset and our prayer even as
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we walk into Psalm 109. And then as I often state, the
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one limiting factor on the imprecatory Psalms is always
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this. We remember Jesus and though he
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had a right to call down 10,000 angels to come and wipe out all
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of the Roman soldiers and the Pharisees and Sadducees that had
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arrested him and mistreated him and beaten him and nailed him to
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a cross, he did not pray an imprecatory prayer against those
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individuals. And so even as we follow Jesus,
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yes, we can ask for the justice of God.
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You can read Romans 12 and 13, as Paul has some things to say
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about that, but we ought to remember that our default
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posture has to be forgiveness and reconciliation and a prayer.
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God, would you save them? Would you help them to become in
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relationship with you so that that way this person that was my
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enemy can now be made into my friend.
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Something that of course, Paul, once Saul of Tarsus was very,
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very well aware of. All right, let's dive into the
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actual Psalm now. Psalm One O 9.
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God of my praise, do not be silent, for wicked and deceitful
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mouths open against me. They speak against me with lying
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tongues. They surround me with hateful
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words and attack me without cause.
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In return for my love they accuse me, but I continue to
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pray. They repay me evil for good and
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hatred for my love. Here David is saying, God, right
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now there are all of these mouths that are saying things
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about me that are not true. They are speaking hateful things
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against me. They are spreading lies about
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me. And so in the face of other
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people's wrong words, God, don't be silent.
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May you speak good words over my life.
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May your declaration of justice go out.
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Don't just stand by and do nothing as I am under assault.
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I do think here of Jesus in first Peter 2 and in Isaiah 53
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where it talks about Christ in his suffering.
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He did not open his mouth and like a sheep before her shearers
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is dumb, so he does not open his mouth.
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That Jesus suffered silently against the wickedness of
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mankind and because he was silent.
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Now we have the love of God spoken over us.
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We have the certainty of a home in heaven.
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We have our relationship with God that was purchased because
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God was silent. Because God did not send the
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angels to defend Jesus from his sufferings for our sins.
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What a thought there. So David here is asking God,
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would you intervene? Would you speak into my life,
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the judgment against evil and would you speak on my behalf?
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And I love that he says in verse 4 in return for my love, they
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accuse me. So these weren't people that
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David was just like at odds at. It was people that David trusted
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and David loved and yet it was not reciprocated.
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And that will happen in your life and in mine, where we love
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someone but they will have perhaps a thought about us in
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their mind. And so they think that we are
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out to get them, or they think that we have intended to do them
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wrong in some way, or we wanted to slight them in some area.
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So we will have times when we love people and we are not left
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in return. When that happens, we can
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remember that God has always loved us, but until the point
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when we responded to Him in faith, up until that point in
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our life, we hated God. We acted out of love with Him,
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and so we returned evil for the love that He had lavished on us.
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So David says in return for my love, they accuse me, but I
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continue to pray. The answer when you have
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problems with people is pray. Pray for them.
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Pray for healing, pray for restoration, pray for wisdom.
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Pray, yes, even here for justice, but pray God is the one
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who can work in the rooms that you and I are not in.
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I'm going to continue now in verses 6 through 15 as kind of
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this next section says God set a wicked person over him, let an
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accuser stand at his right hand. So an accuser.
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This is in Hebrew the word hasatan, so we would know the
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name Satan. It's actually a title in Hebrew,
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not a name. Satan is the accuser.
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That's that's his title, that's his quote, UN quote, if you
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will, his name. And so David here says, let
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Satan stand at his right hand. Let the prosecuting attorney
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stand at the side of this person that is speaking wrong things
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against me. Verse 7 when he's judged, let
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him be found guilty and let his prayer be counted as sin.
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That the fact that even it when he calls out to God that it is
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for selfish things that it is not a true prayer of dependence
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on the Lord. It is simply continuation of the
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self centeredness and evil and sin that is within the heart of
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this person that would attack David.
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So David says Lord, let him be found guilty when he's judged.
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Let even his prayer be counted as sin.
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Verse 8 let his days be few. Let another take over his
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position. Let his children be fatherless
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and his wife a widow. Let his children wander as
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beggars searching for food far from their demolished homes.
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Creditor sees all he has. Let strangers plunder what he
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has worked for. Let no one show him kindness,
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and let no one be gracious to his fatherless children.
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Let the line of his descendants be cut off.
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Let their name be blotted out in the next generation.
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Let the iniquity of his Father's be remembered before Yahweh, and
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do not let His mother's sin be blotted out.
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Let their sins always remain before Yahweh, and let him
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remove all memory of them from the earth.
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OK, that's really, really tough. Direct even we would say in the
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light of the New Testament. This is probably not the exact
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like wording of a prayer that we would even feel any comfort in
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sharing. But this is the heart of someone
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who is going through incredible hardship and difficult guilty
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and betrayal. And when you are feeling those
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emotions, frankly, what I see here is God cares about you in
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those instances that when you feel like this is what you want
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to say about your arch nemesis, about your family member that
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you're totally at odds with, with that coworker, that you're
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like God, would you just like remove them from the scene, let
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their marriage fall apart, let their kids hate them?
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And would you let no one love their kids forever?
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Would you help their home to burned out?
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Like when you have those awful thoughts and emotions, God's
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like, OK, I don't hate you. I might not sign off on that.
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I might not do those things that you're asking me to do, but I
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understand the hurt that you are experiencing because you were
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created for a good relationship with God and with people.
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And God is the one that never does wrong by us and so we can
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always rely on Him. But we were also created for a
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good relationship with other people.
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And when that is broken, it should genuinely hurt our souls
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because that's not what God made us for.
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And so as we experience that heartbreak, like, bring it to
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God. You can tell God anything and
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he's not going to be like, whoa, I've never heard that before.
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You're so terrible. No, bring the raw, real emotion
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of rage and anger and abject depression and despair.
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Bring it all to God because he already knows that you're
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thinking it. So just say it to him.
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And as you say it to him, it can help form and shape your heart
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so that you begin to think differently about the situation.
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Or you might begin to think with some clarity about the
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situation. You need to get it off your
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chest. And so give it to the One who
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deserves to hear it. But I do think it's helpful.
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Then in verses 16 through 20 that David says, here's why I'm
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asking all of these crazy things that seem over the top and just
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seem like, OK David. Like, I don't think his kids
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deserve to like, never have anyone show the mercy.
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Like, aren't you just being a little bit of a jerk right now?
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The short answer is yes. But then in verses 16 through
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20, we can see some of the actions that were done that
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would cause David to have this heart, even in addition to the
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lies and betrayal and hatred that these people are bringing
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against David. So verse 16.
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For he did not think to show kindness, but pursued the
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suffering, needy and broken hearted in order to put them to
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death. So here there's a murderer, a
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murderer of the poor, a murderer of those that were suffering, a
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murderer of those that had encountered loss.
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And so for the murderer, you know, kind of makes sense.
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You're like, yeah, I I I understand why someone would
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want everything in their life to just like if you will be
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exploded that there would be nothing left of this kind of
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evil person. I've people in my life that I
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know have lost even children to violence and to murder and they
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for years had to work through in their heart like the grief of
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having lost their adult son. And I, I think here's Psalm 109
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gives comfort that God says when you have these big emotions,
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bring them to God and know that he doesn't, if you will, he
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doesn't think you're crazy. He's encountered this before and
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he's encountered it for thousands of years.
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And so you can know that God knows what it's like.
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God's son was murdered on the cross by the governments of this
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world, by both the the Roman government and the and the
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Jewish government of the time. And so God knows what it's like
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to experience murder. And so we can call out to him
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when we have those thoughts. Verse #17 he loved cursing.
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Let it fall on him. That is a strong denunciation
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and hatred of other people. He loved tearing other people to
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shreds with his words. So he says, God, this dude loved
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cursing, so let him be cursed. He took no delight in blessing.
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Let it be far from him. He didn't encourage other
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people. He didn't speak well of them.
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He didn't speak life into them. And so let no one do that for
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him. Verse 18, he wore cursing like
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his coat. Let it enter his body like water
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and go into his bones like oil. He says all of the terrible
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things that he said about and for and towards other people.
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May all of that boomerang back onto him, if you will.
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May he reap what he has sown. Verse 19.
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Let it be like a robe he wraps around himself, like a belt he
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always wears. Let this be Yahweh's payments to
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my accusers, to those who speak evil against me, he says God.
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Everything that they put out onto me, let it come back onto
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their own head. But then David, like, breathes a
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little bit and begins to talk to God.
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So all this time he's been talking to God about other
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people and now he's just going to talk to God.
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He says, But you, Yahweh, my Lord, deal kindly with me for
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your name's sake, because you are faithful.
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Love is good. Rescue me, for I am suffering
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and and needy. My heart is wounded within me.
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I, I fade away like a lengthening shadow.
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I'm, I'm shaking off like a locust.
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My knees are weak from fasting and my body is emaciated.
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I've become an object of ridicule to my accusers.
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When they see me, they shake their heads in scorn.
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This is a verse actually that's quoted if I remember correctly.
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It's in Matthew talking about Jesus on the cross.
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And Matthew says David is actually prophesying here about
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Jesus, that as they saw Christ on the cross, emaciated and and
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hurt and bleeding out and bloodied from the beatings, they
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ridiculed him. And they shook their heads in
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scorn at the only begotten Son of God.
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Verse #26 Help me, Yahweh, my God, save me according to your
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faithful love, so they may know that this is your hand, that you
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Yahweh have done it. He says, God save me and save me
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in such a way that everyone goes, oh, yeah, that that had to
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have been the God of David because David couldn't
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orchestrate that. But David's God did this.
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This is consistently my prayer about so many situations in my
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life and in the lives of those that I love is God.
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Would you do something and do something in such an incredible
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way that it's obvious that it was you?
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No one else could do this. No one else could finagle this.
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This is the work of God. So that's my prayer verse #28
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Though they curse, you will bless.
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When they rise up, they'll be put to shame, but your servant
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will rejoice. My accusers will be clothed with
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disgrace. They will wear their shame like
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a cloak. I will fervently thank Yahweh
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with my mouth. I will praise Him in the
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presence of many, for He stands at the right hand of the needy
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to save him from those who would condemn him.
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I love this thought that it's God the evil doers, the wicked,
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the the murderers, the unkind. They will get what's coming to
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them says, But Lord for me, when I experience your salvation, I'm
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not just going to rejoice in the downfall of the wicked, though
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that can be a great day when good wins and when evil is put
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down. He says, God, I'm going to
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praise you to other people in the presence of a whole ton of
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people. I'm going to say what my God is
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like. I'm going to talk about Yahweh
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and I'm going to thank you because you stand that that
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verse 31. I love for He stands at the
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right hand of the needy to save him from those who would condemn
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him. And I think about the state of
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our souls before Christ, that we were needy, we were the
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condemned, we were those that deserved judgment.
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As a result of our wickedness, we were far away from God.
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We had completely left the path of righteousness.
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We had left the path of relationship with God and
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instead we pursued sin and death and evil.
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And yet Jesus stands at the right hand of the needy, and He
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saves us from those that would rightfully condemn us.
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That we are saved from the righteous good wrath of the
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judge of the whole earth. We're saved from the wrath of
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God through what Jesus accomplished for us.
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We are saved from the condemnation of Satan the
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Accuser as a result of Jesus standing beside us.
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And I would echo in the words of Romans 8, If God is for us, who
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can be against us? He that spared not his own Son,
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but delivered Him up freely for us all, How shall he not with
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Him also freely give us all things?
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Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
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It is Christ that justifies, yeah, that is at the right hand
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of God interceding for us. What an amazing God that we
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serve. And if you are needy, if you are
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angry, if you have this, this rage and this hurt that you are
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experiencing, bring it to God and he will save, he will
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protect, he will restore you. Call on him that he would be
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glorified, that evil would be put down.
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And if it doesn't happen immediately or if it doesn't
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happen in this life, it will happen for all of eternity, that
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for 100 billion trillion, quadrillion years and forever
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into the future, evil will be punished and you will be
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vindicated for every person that has believed in Jesus.
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If you've never put your faith in Christ, I encourage you.
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We have all said and done and thought things that go against
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the nature and character and commands of God as a result of
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that which is sin. Sin is anything we think, say or
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do that goes against God's character and His law, His
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commands. Because of our sin, we deserve
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punishment, condemnation. But Jesus came and died for us
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on the cross so that we could be forgiven, so that we could be
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brought back into relationship with God, so that Satan the
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accuser, his claims that we deserve punishment, he would be
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shut up because Christ already took the punishment.
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So there's no punishment left for us who believe in Christ.
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And the Bible says that everyone who calls on the name of the
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Lord will be saved. And that if we confess with our
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mouth that Jesus is Lord, he's the one that's in charge of our
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life, He's our master, He's the 1:00 calling the shots, that if
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we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and we believe on
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him in our hearts that we are given the righteousness of
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Christ and we will be saved forever.
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We have a relationship with God. God places his Holy Spirit
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inside of us and we live our life in the new way that is
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walking with Jesus as our Lord and our Savior.
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And anyone that comes to Jesus, he will forgive.
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He will restore and redeem. He will make you into, as the
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apostle Paul said, a new creation.
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And so turn to him today. And he is good on His word.
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Well, I hope Psalm 109 was an encouragement to you.
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Definitely some strong language that is in that Psalm, but it
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speaks to the brokenness of the human heart when we undergo
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evil. But I'm thankful that for every
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evil person that turns to Jesus, they can find forgiveness and
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that means I can experience forgiveness and so can you.
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Thanks for tuning in. See you next Wednesday as we
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look at Psalm 110, which is one of the New Testament writers
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favorite Psalms because it talks so clearly about Jesus.
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Looking forward to diving into that with you next week.