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Psalm 129 - How To Pray For God’s Vengeance · 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. Today we are going through Psalm
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  129. Psalm 129 is another one of the
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  song of a sense. So these are the road trip songs
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  that the children of Israel would sing as they were going up
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  to one of the three annual feasts in Jerusalem.
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  And this song is it's very interesting.
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  Let's just dive into it because I I don't have a great intro
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  into what this is other than I'll use the phrase an
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  imprecatory Psalm. And imprecation is like a curse.
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  It's saying may bad things happen to this person.
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  So the I'm trying to think of any normal like imprecations or
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  curses that people tend to have nowadays.
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  Probably one of the more like quote UN quote savage ones that
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  I've heard is may you have the day you deserve.
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  Which is always a veiled way of saying you're a despicable
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  person and you deserve bad things to happen to you.
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  So may your day be bad because you are bad.
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  I feel like the theater phrase break a leg is almost the
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  opposite of this, that it's OK if I say it.
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  Well, then it might not actually happen.
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  I, I don't, I don't know of a ton of other curses that we tend
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  to have. So I'll read through the passage
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  and you'll see what I'm talking about today.
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  Verse one, since my youth, they have often attacked me.
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  Let Israel say, since my youth they have often attacked me, but
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  they have not prevailed against me.
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  Plowman plowed over my back. They made their furrows long.
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  Yahweh is righteous. He has cut the ropes of the
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  wicked. Let all who hate Zion be driven
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  back in disgrace. Let them be like grass on the
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  rooftops which Withers before it grows up and can't even fill the
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  hands of the Reaper or the arms of the one who binds sheaves.
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  Then none who passed by will say, may Yahweh's blessing be on
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  you. We bless you in the name of
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  Yahweh. Here one second.
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  I'm going to interesting. OK, this is a super, super cool
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  Psalm. Let me preface this with two
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  things. Number one, remember this is the
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  Old Testament. Christ has not yet come.
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  There are some new metrics by which we understand Scripture as
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  a result of the message of Jesus.
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  So as a result of that, we are able both to say human evil is
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  not something that we love, it's not something that we support,
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  It's something that is a blight on our world.
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  And all human evil will be punished ultimately by Jesus.
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  And all human evil can be forgiven and it can be forgiven
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  by Jesus because he is the one that we have truly sinned
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  against. It's we have done these things,
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  bringing sin and corruption into his good world that he made and
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  that he sustains, and that each person is an image bearer of
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  God. And so to mistreat and to do
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  evil to any individual image bearer is to sin, to commit a
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  crime against God himself. It's, if you will, it's the
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  defacement of a politician or a businessman's face on a
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  billboard or on, you know what, a park bench or something like
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  that. It's to, you know, if there's a
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  picture, I think I have a picture in here of my wife and
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  I. It's off camera here.
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  You can't see it, but there's a picture of my wife and I there.
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  And if someone, you know, doodled on that and wrote
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  obscenities and all this and that on my picture, that would
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  be a crime first and foremost against me.
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  Yeah. It's a crime against the here
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  the the picture, the I I cannot remember for the life of me what
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  you call that when a pictures in a frame.
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  I guess you could say it's a crime against the frame, but
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  ultimately the intent is this is a crime against Brian.
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  And so it is that as we sin against people, we sin against
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  God himself. And so God is able to forgive
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  sins because sins are ultimately sins against God.
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  But the total basis for the forgiveness of sins is a
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  surrender, what Scripture calls belief and repentance that we
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  say, God, I recognize that you are the one in charge, not me.
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  And I've been living in opposition and rejection of your
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  way. God, I surrender, I lay down my
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  arms. I am going back to your way.
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  I am pleading for your forgiveness of my sins, and I'm
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  asking your Holy Spirit to come and live inside of me so that I
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  would now live life not my way, but your way.
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  So as a result of that truth, because all sin has been
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  punished, the the punishment of all sin has been laid on Jesus
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  Christ himself, that even if someone has sinned horribly
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  against mankind and ultimately against God himself, there is a
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  punishment that was met out for that sin.
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  And that punishment was met out on Jesus Christ himself, the Son
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  of God, who was punished not for what he did, but for what the
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  repentant Sinner did. And so we can know all evil will
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  be justly punished. Now this brings us to the
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  imprecatory Psalm. We can pray number one, first
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  and foremost for the salvation of sinners #2 we can and ought
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  to pray for the Lord to bring vengeance and justice on those
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  who are mistreating us. Now let me just throw in here,
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  what we read in the Bible is not people praying imprecatory
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  psalms against someone else at church who sat in your seat.
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  You're being a baby. Stop it.
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  Now. I don't know if anyone has ever
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  actually, especially anyone listening to Tabernacle talk has
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  ever actually had that, you know, kerfuffle with someone
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  else. But if you have like, repent,
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  repent of that sin, you're being a baby.
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  If if you're like, oh man, you know, so and so I'm trying to be
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  careful that I don't actually use any real life examples.
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  I'm trying to find something ridiculous.
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  If you're like, oh, so and so put a new wallpaper in the
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  bathroom and this one has giraffes on it.
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  And the old one had elephants on it.
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  And you know, elephants are biblical and giraffes are the
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  devil's handiwork. And so they, they switched out
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  the wallpaper on me in the bathroom.
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  And so I'm going to pray in a preparatory Psalm against this
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  person that changed the wallpaper.
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  No, stop. If you're like, they didn't
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  invite me to their birthday party.
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  No, that's not the kind of stuff that warrants an imprecatory
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  Psalm. That's something you need to
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  grow up and get over. And I can say that I'm just
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  looking at Brian in the face. I know Brian is dumb.
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  And there are things that I have, you know, thought or that
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  I've been offended at that I had no reason to be it.
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  It means nothing in the grand scheme of life.
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  I tell my son often when him and his sister are, you know, kind
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  of fighting and he's, you know, kind of whining a little bit.
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  I'm like, hey, Brian, are you bleeding?
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  And by now he's gotten so tired of me asking that because every
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  time he's, well, no, I'm like, then you're OK, You're fine.
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  Now, certainly I know there can actually be legitimate
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  psychological harm and things that happen to people.
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  So I'm not saying unless you're being physically afflicted, that
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  none of your problems are really that bad.
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  No, there can be legitimate mental and psychological
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  hardships that happened to you. Someone could, you know, take
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  away my, my family and my house and my job and my clothes and I
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  could be like, well, I mean, I'm not bleeding anywhere so I guess
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  I just have to be fine. No, no, it's not that at all.
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  But recognize what is a legitimate problem and what is
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  just our own selfishness as humans because we are selfish
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  glory hogs. I was reading a quote earlier
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  today by Paul David Tripp and he says that humans are great glory
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  thieves. And instead of drawing the
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  attention and the glory and the praise to God, we like to bring
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  all the attention and glory and praise to ourselves.
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  And we try and get glory from others and we make others.
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  We attempt to have others follow our every whim.
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  And so it is not a good thing to be a glory hawk.
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  Where was I going with this? Oh, OK, in purgatory, Psalms,
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  there are legitimate bad things that happen in life.
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  I can think of one of my fellow church members in Washington
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  state that actually just a couple years prior to my coming
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  to the church, him and his wife, they had lost their son because
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  he was killed by another individual.
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  And so even in situations like that where there is abject hurt
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  and trauma that occurs, we have a recourse in the word of God to
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  call on God to execute vengeance and justice.
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  This is not something we take on ourselves.
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  Read the end of Romans 12, that God is the one who owns
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  vengeance, but it is something that we can pray for.
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  And you can read about that even in the Book of Revelation over
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  and over again. You have the Saints in heaven
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  asking God to execute vengeance. And so if the Saints in heaven
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  can do it, then certainly the Saints here below can pray that
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  as well. So let's look real quick at the
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  verses and see what this has for us today.
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  What can I pray? What's the mindset that I need
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  to have? What what counts as something
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  that I can be praying for God's vengeance on?
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  And then how do I have that heart of forgiveness?
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  So verses one through 4, since my youth they've often attacked
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  me, LED Israel say since my youth they have often attacked
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  me, but they have not prevailed against me here.
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  There is recurring harm that is done many times in our lives.
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  There will be people that fail us in kind of one off ways that
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  it's not their regular habit. It's not, if you will quote UN
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  quote who they are. It's not a volitional choice to
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  be like, OK, I'm going to be Brian's nemesis.
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  It just happens to be OK. This day he was talking to me.
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  You know, it's kind of the, the wrong time.
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  Whole bunch of bad circumstances happened.
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  I had a rough day. I was super tired.
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  And so I said something and I, I hurt Brian.
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  Well, I could walk away from that and go, I just so loathe,
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  you know, John. And so because I so loathe John
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  because he said this thing, I'm going to pray an imprecatory
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  prayer against him. Well, no, I think even from
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  verses 1:00 and 2:00, I could see here clearly there is
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  recurring action that takes place.
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  So what is this recurring action that happens against Israel that
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  warrants A Psalm and praying for their downfall?
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  Verse 3, Plowman plowed over my back.
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  They made their furrows long. Yahweh is righteous.
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  He has cut the ropes of the wicked.
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  Here what is being talked about is slaves that were beaten by
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  their overseers and their owners creating stripes on their backs.
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  So here you can think of a whip that here proverbially these
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  slaves working in fields would say as I have been going through
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  the field and I know like the lines that are made as a result
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  of my working my back looks like that because of the harm
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  inflicted on me by other people. But then I love in verse four,
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  he says Yahweh is righteous like God does what is right by his
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  creation and he says he has cut the ropes of the wicked.
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  He says that rope that was used to whip me, now that rope has
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  been cut. And so they have no more ability
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  to use that instrument of unrighteousness to harm me.
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  And so I'd say this is maybe another thing.
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  So #1 something that, if you will, warrants an imprecation or
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  prayer of vengeance from God against someone.
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  Might be something that was recurring.
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  Now, I'm not saying, you know, is in the one instance that I
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  mentioned earlier where a man took the life of another man
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  might say, OK, well, that wasn't ongoing.
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  Yeah, but that had really ongoing consequences.
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  I think for many people that have endured abuse specifically
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  like physical or perhaps sexual abuse, that it might not be
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  something that happened very recurringly, but when it
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  happened has literally caused a physical reaction a a mental
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  bookmarking of that time that doesn't really go away.
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  And when you enter into high US environments, thousand different
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  things, those memories, those emotions come flooding back in
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  and you might struggle with anxiety or panic that just keeps
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  recurring within your life. And I love here, verse four,
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  that as we're praying for God to have vengeance, one of those
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  ways that we can pray is God make it so that they are
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  incapable of perpetrating this further, that you would cut off
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  the instrument of their harming. As the Christian standard Bible
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  study Bible phrases it, the Lord will prevent the wicked from
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  harming his people by eliminating the weapons used to
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  force submission. And so this is something that we
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  can pray and we say, God, would you please make it so that this
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  person no longer, you know, has access to this or that?
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  Would you make it so that this person that is abusing, that
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  they have no more access to anyone else that they could
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  abuse, You know, God, for this person that killed, would you
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  help them to be jailed correctly and for the right amount of time
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  that they would not take anyone else's life?
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  And so you can pray in vengeance.
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  God, you see what this recurring action has been, or you've seen
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  what this action with recurring consequences has done.
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  And so, God, would you eliminate their ability to do evil?
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  Verse #5 let all who hate Zion be driven back in disgrace.
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  Here there's a malintent. That is a person that wants to
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  do harm. It's a person that wants to do
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  evil for people in our lives that do genuinely love us and
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  care about us and yet fail us. We ought to have a heart that
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  wants to go towards forgiveness that we would say, I know that
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  you love me. And so as a result, I might not
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  give you all the access before that you had to me.
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  You know, you've you've misused my finances a whole bunch.
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  So I'm not going to lend you any more money, but I love you.
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  And so I'm going to work to have like this restoration of
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  relationship and and love and communication, even if there
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  have to be some boundaries set up here.
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  These people do not love. There is no care at all there.
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  It's a desire to inflict harm. And very unfortunately, there
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  are people like that in our world.
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  And even as I say that many of you are like, yeah, I know.
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  And those might be ones that we say, God, either I need you to
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  execute vengeance on them, or I need you to do the like soul to
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  Paul thing on them so that they've become my brother or
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  sister in the Lord. Because otherwise, you know, I,
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  I need you to do one of those two options.
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  So I just do that for me, God. But that can be another filter
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  that we have for when we're praying an imprecation, when
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  we're praying for God's vengeance.
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  Verse number six, Let them be like grass on the rooftops,
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  which Withers before it grows up and can't even fill the hands of
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  the Reaper or the arms of the one who binds sheeps here on the
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  rooftops. This doesn't make a whole lot of
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  sense to us because we've all got sloped rooftops.
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  Well, in Israel they would have flat rooftops and because of
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  the, you know, building materials of the time,
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  occasionally, you know, you might get some seeds or whatever
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  that kind of pop up a little bit of grass on the roof, but it
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  doesn't have, you know, it's not being regularly watered.
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  It can't draw up water from the soil.
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  And so and the sun beats down on it like really hard.
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  And so the grass would just wither and, and dry away.
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  And so there's no lasting impact, if you will.
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  This is praying God allow their evil actions, allow their living
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  in wickedness to pass away, to pass away quickly that this
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  would not be a long lasting thing if you will Lord make
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  their time of evil. Be sure I think for those that
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  that perpetrate abuse that this would certainly be a worthy
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  prayer to be like all right, God I I'm asking because I know that
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  I suffered or I know that my loved one suffered.
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  Would you make it so that this person is quickly off the scene
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  with their evil so that it won't be you know 23510 more people
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  whose lives are impacted as a result of this God dry them up,
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  send them out then verse #8 then none who passed by will say may
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  always blessing be on you. We bless you in the name of
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  Yahweh here. It's there's not a friendly
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  formal greeting here that takes place.
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  They're not going to be blessed. There's not even going to be a
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  statement of like, you know, God bless you.
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  Have a great day. Because no one's going, all
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  right, yes, you're this murderer or this here, you know, abusive
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  slaver or something. No one's going to be like, oh,
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  God bless you, if you will. There is public knowledge of the
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  evil private actions God may their evil be shown so that
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  everyone knows and that there would be open public shame for
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  their wrongs that they have committed.
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  That is a that is a big prayer. That is a prayer that is good to
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  pray Here. It's outlined for us kind of
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  step by step of, you know, consistent actions or actions
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  that have recurring consequences.
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  You have those that are inflicting harm.
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  You're asking that God would make it so that they are unable
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  to continue perpetrating that evil.
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  That these are people that they have the intent to harm.
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  You are asking that God would help their if you will reign of
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  evil, reign of terror to end quickly.
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  That it would just be passing. That there would not be a a
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  taking down of roots so that it continues for much longer and
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  instead they are shown publicly to be evil and wrong and that
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  there would be shame as a result of it.
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  That's a crazy that that's not something as I even or it was
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  like, all right, I'm going to record a couple episodes tonight
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  of Tabernacle talk. That wasn't something that I was
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  like, I really hope I learned this, but I'm glad that God's
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  word speaks into my life and your life that it even gives us
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  illustrations of. Here is how you pray for what
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  you're not even sure that you can pray for.
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  Now, as I mentioned, any evil human can be turned into a child
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  of God through the work of Jesus and his Holy Spirit that
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  transforms us. So I can pray God either save
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  them or judge them and I want them to be saved.
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  That's the part of being a Christian is you adopt the mind
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  of Jesus, which is I want their salvation.
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  I want them to experience life in Christ.
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  I don't want them to experience, if you will, the judgment of God
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  now and forever. I want them to experience the
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  life of forgive, forgiveness and freedom that I've experienced.
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  So that's our prayer is God. I want you to save them.
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  If they are not one that will be saved, then God, I'm asking for
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  you to execute vengeance. And frankly, I'll, I'll put it
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  this way as well, knowing some of the stories of people in
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  Scripture that did know the Lord and yet sometimes walked in sin
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  and wrong. We would not be out of bounds to
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  also sometimes be praying for vengeance against even those
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  that might truly know the Lord might be saved.
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  But they are acting in such a way that is loudly declaring
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  Jesus, at least as of this moment, is not my Lord.
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  I am not submitted to him. And it might be that through the
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  unveiling of their sin, even through something, you know,
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  like church discipline or like being arrested, that they might
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  come to their senses and go, oh, man, I have been so off base.
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  I've been, you know, like Peter betraying Christ and I have to
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  return to Jesus. And it might be good for them.
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  So that's it. Pray preparatory vengeance
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  filled prayers against people with the caveats.
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  Love them like Jesus loves them. But then also recognize that God
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  gives us these words in Scripture for a reason.
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  And you can claim them. And for those that have had
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  tremendous evil perpetrated against them, this might be like
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  the balm of God to your soul that you're able to say God
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  sees, he knows, and he is not OK with the thing that I'm not OK
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  with because it goes against his design and his will.
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  Thank you for tuning in today. I hope that this was an
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  encouragement to you. I'd love to hear from you if you
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  have any other thoughts or things that would be a a great
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  blessing me, but see you next time in Psalm 130.