The Lord Knows How To Rescue The Godly
Psalms 28
February 24, 2019
I want to begin our study tonight by first having you Turn to: 2 Peter 2.
At its base, 2 Peter 2 is about false prophets.
Peter outlines their danger and their schemes and even how to spot them.
But Peter also talks about the CERTAINTY OF THEIR JUDGMENT.
In fact, in verse 3 Peter says, “their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
The idea of course being that
• Despite the fact that it appears that they are operating free from recourse, don’t be deceived.
• God sees everything they are doing, God is keeping record of everything they are doing, and God will absolutely judge them accordingly.
And to further inforce that reality, Peter gives some historical evidence.
(READ 4-10a)
Here Peter lays out his evidence that
God most certainly knows how to judge the wicked
And how to save the righteous who live in their midst.
We know He will judge the wicked because:
• (4) He “did not spare angels when they sinned, but cat them into hell…”
• (5) And He “did not spare the ancient world…when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly”
• (6) And He “condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes”
Point being God knows how to judge the wicked.
But Peter also points out that
God knows how to deliver the righteous who live in their midst.
And we know He will deliver the righteous because:
• (5) He “preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others”
• (7) He “rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds)”
And then in summary Peter says:
• (9) “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.”
I’ve always found that to be both an enlightening and encouraging verse.
Namely because
• We live in the presence of wicked men who do things that provokes God.
• We are grieved by their conduct
• We even dread the judgment that they invite
• We have no control over their behavior (the way they vote, etc.)
IT IS GRIEVOUS TO LIVE WHERE WE LIVE AT TIMES
BUT THAT’S NOT NEW
Peter said that Noah was “a preacher of righteousness”.
Can you imagine his frustration?
• He lived in a world where he alone walked with God.
• He lived in a world where he alone was found pleasing to God.
At least we have a place of peace
Where we gather and fellowship with one another.
Beyond that, there are other believers in our town
That we fellowship with on a daily and weekly basis.
But Noah was it.
He continually preached righteousness,
But we know his preaching was ignored,
For no one besides his family was saved.
We think about Lot.
I can hear echoing in my mind Lot’s pleading with the vile men at his door, “Please my brothers do not act wickedly”
• And yet, they called him a judge and tried to crush him inside his own door.
• Even Lot’s wife lusted for the things of Sodom.
• Even his future son-in-laws had no interest in leaving.
Lot was alone, and Peter said that he “felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds.”
What is more, those men were told of the coming judgment of God.
God told Noah He was going to flood the earth.
God told Lot He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
One can only imagine the anxiety
That might accompany such knowledge.
And yet Peter made it clear that “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.”
Well I give you that truth as sort of a backdrop for our Psalm tonight
Because it appears to me that David is walking in similar circumstances.
Let’s just look at a few things that appear to be obvious to us.
For starters, the Psalm makes it apparent that David must live among wicked people.
After all in Verse 3 he pleads “Do not drag me away with the wicked”
That is really the main request of the Psalm.
Everything else comes really as secondary to that main request.
It paints the picture that when God comes through and begins pulling the wicked from their life of supposed safety and casting them into judgment
THAT GOD NOT MAKE A MISTAKE AND GRAB DAVID TOO.
It would be like Noah saying, “You make sure and give me time to get in that boat before you unleash the flood”
It would be like Lot saying, “Give me time to get out of the city before the fire falls.”
David must be in their midst.
It is also apparent that David knows that these wicked will most certainly be judged by God.
In verse 5 we read: “Because they do not regard the works of the LORD Nor the deeds of His hands, He will tear them down and not build them up.”
If you want a little more backdrop to this,
David spells out their wickedness in verse 3.
He describes them as “those who work iniquity, Who speak peace with their neighbors, while evil is in their hearts.”
That is to say that they are liars.
They flatter men for the sake of gaining and advantage.
(Oddly enough that was one of the things Peter said the false prophets do as well)
2 Peter 2:3 “and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
Jude said it like this:
Jude 16 “These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.”
Even in the Old Testament we have similar references to the false prophets:
Jeremiah 6:13-14 “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.”
It just speaks of a broken and corrupt society.
Lies prevail, integrity is gone.
People will tell you anything for the sake of pulling one over on you.
Jeremiah also described his peers like this:
Jeremiah 9:2-6 “Oh that I had in the desert A wayfarers’ lodging place; That I might leave my people And go from them! For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of treacherous men. “They bend their tongue like their bow; Lies and not truth prevail in the land; For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know Me,” declares the LORD. “Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; Because every brother deals craftily, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. “Everyone deceives his neighbor And does not speak the truth, They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves committing iniquity. “Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD.”
Jeremiah said “I just wish I could escape this awful band of liars I live among.”
God even chimes in to say, “Through deceit they refuse to know Me”
And that is what David is also referring to. They are just lying people who are nothing like God.
They obviously don’t fear God or else they wouldn’t be so deceptive.
When God gives His famous rundown of the wickedness of man in Romans 3. Even there we read:
Romans 3:13 “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,””THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”;
God just said they are liars!
What do we read about the ministry of Jesus?
John 2:23-25 “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”
Jesus knew they were liars,
And just because they said they believed, didn’t mean a thing.
TURN TO: JOHN 8
(Read 28-30)
There are some more of those believers.
But notice Jesus’ response to them again:
(Read 31-32)
• It’s as though Jesus said, “We’ll see if you really believe or not”
• He was kind of taking a “talk is cheap” mentality.
That statement obviously offended them because they started arguing with Him.
(Read 33)
Now there is quite an argument that ensues where Jesus reveals to them
That they are not actually Abraham’s descendants.
But look at what He says later:
(Read 44)
Jesus knew them.
• He knew their talk was cheap.
• He knew what they were really about.
What is more, He knew they were nothing like God,
But were instead of their real father; the devil.
It was just the grief of living amongst a sinful people.
And that is where David obviously is when writing this Psalm.
He is living among “the wicked…who work iniquity, who speak peace with their neighbors, while evil in their hearts.”
And since David knows that’s the kind of people they are, he also knows that God is going to judge them for it.
(5) “Because they do not regard the works of the LORD nor the deeds of His hands, He will tear them down and not build them up.”
David knew that God was going to judge them
Because they were nothing like Him.
They had obviously paid no attention to who God was and what God demanded.
• God is truth
• God never lies
• God is full of integrity in all things
And these people just willfully disregarded God’s demand for integrity
And instead chose to participate in the type of behavior that offended Him
David knew that God would “tear them down and not build them up”
Which is to say, God will crush them for the purpose of judgment, not renovation.
And we read that don’t we?
Revelation 21:8 “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Revelation 22:15 “Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.”
Even as kids we used to say, “Liar, liar, pants on fire”
We know God judges liars.
We know their day is coming.
So did David.
And we also notice that David agreed with that.
(4) “Requite them according to their work and according to the evil of their practices; Requite them according to the deeds of their hands; Repay them their recompense.”
• Jeremiah wished he could just get away from them all.
• David here says that he fully understands that these men deserve judgment.
It is another one of those imprecatory prayers.
And we don’t miss the point to that.
• David isn’t asking for God to destroy them because they lied to David, or even because they lied about David.
• David recognizes the justice of their judgment because they offend God by totally choosing a lifestyle that is 100% contrary to His.
• David just understands that if you live your life in violation of God’s Laws then you will rightfully suffer judgment as a result.
• And because David believes God has the right to defend His own nature, He is fully on board with God bringing judgment.
I mean those things are pretty obvious to us.
• He lives among wicked men.
• They are men who have offended God.
• He knows God will judge them for that.
• And He agrees that they deserve it.
His one request is that
God doesn’t fail to recognize that there is still one righteous person living in their midst and that God not just indiscriminately nuke the whole place.
That is the main request:
(3) “Do not drag me away with the wicked”
Now, just from that standpoint, let me ask you:
CAN YOU IDENTIFY WITH DAVID?
I think many in the church today can.
As we referenced even last Sunday night.
• We live in a nation that murders babies inside (and apparently outside) of the womb.
• A nation that pushes abortion, not only to defend the ease and freedom of our sexual immorality, but also because apparently harvested organs from these innocent babies are worth a lot of money.
• We are a nation that has moved way past atheism or agnosticism. We don’t just have people who claim to not believe in God. We live in a nation of people who have made it their ambition to utterly defy Him.
• We see the dishonesty of our political system and new media.
• We see the obvious lust for sexual immorality that reaches from our Jr. Highs even to our nursing homes.
• We see the infatuation with homosexuality, and other perversions like even denying the very gender of a person.
• Pornography is a thriving industry
• My family watches shows on “Vid-Angel” which is a venue that edits foul language and immoral scenes out of movies and TV shows and they are currently in a massive lawsuit with companies like Disney of all people who don’t’ want someone being able to bleep out a cussword or cut out a nude scene.
And here we are as believers who live in this cesspool.
Our kids go to school where sexual immorality is commonplace.
Many of you work in atmospheres where the language is atrocious.
And like David we know that “because they do not regard the works of the LORD nor the deeds of His hands, He will tear them down and not build them up.”
I mean we know that is true.
And like David, WE EVEN SEE THAT GOD IS RIGHT IN DOING THIS.
Would anyone in this room willfully stand up to be the defense attorney for the United States of America before God?
Would anyone in this room volunteer to be the one who defends their actions before God?
Of course not.
We know what is deserved and we know what is coming.
But to that end, I can certainly understand David’s prayer:
“Do not drag me away with the wicked”
What that prayer actually indicates is
MORE than just a man who wants to be spared judgment.
• It is a man who with every fiber of his being rejects the sinful culture in which he lives.
• It is a man who wants desperately not to be a part of them, or to be influenced by them.
• It is a man who may be here to preach the gospel to them, but who does not want any further association.
He openly wants to take his stand in the midst of a wicked people
And declare that he’ll have no part in it.
NOW THAT IS DAVID’S PRAYER.
I think that’s a fitting prayer.
But obviously that prayer represents THE MIDDLE of this Psalm.
So let’s back up for a moment and look at the rest of it.
If you want an outline, we might call verses 3-5:
#2 THE SUBSTANCE OF HIS PRAYER
Psalms 28:3-5
Now let’s back up and look at the first 2 verses, which we might call:
#1 THE SERIOUSNESS OF HIS PRAYER
Psalms 28:1-2
(1-2) “To You, O LORD, I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help, When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.”
Certainly we don’t overlook the fact that David refers to God as “My rock”
Later in the Psalm he’ll also call God
“my strength” “my shield” “their strength” “a saving defense” and “their shepherd”
All of those titles represent salvation.
• He sees God as his “rock” in the midst of the storm.
• He sees Him as his “strength” in battle.
• He sees Him as his “shield” from the enemy’s fiery darts
• He sees Him as his “saving defense” from the opposition
• He sees Him as his “shepherd” who uses His rod and staff to deliver.
We understand the titles that David is using.
But more than that, the first two verses have a very distinct feel,
And that is a feel of DESPERATION.
Our eyes fix on the statement, “For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit.”
“the pit” would be judgment…where the wicked are headed.
And David says, “If You don’t hear me, and make a distinction for me, then I’m just going to be counted as one of the wicked and cast into the pit like everyone else.”
And in a simple sense you know that’s true.
If God doesn’t hear your cry and intervene on your behalf,
What hope of salvation do you have?
Our very hope of salvation hinges not upon our repentant heart,
Or even the sincerity of our faith,
But rather that God would hear us when we cry, and mercifully answer us.
We want mercy in response to our cry
We want grace in response to our faith
But if God didn’t hear sinners, who cares if they are repentant or not.
But David is here desperate for God to hear.
“Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help, When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.”
That’s an interesting statement.
• I think it’s interesting, because David must have referenced it often.
• In fact, after David’s death and Solomon built the temple, and then prayed to dedicate it, I want you to hear his prayer.
TURN TO: 1 Kings 8:22-53
I know that’s lengthy, but you hear that same request coming from him.
• God, we need Your presence
• We need Your willingness to hear us
• Otherwise how will we repent?
• Otherwise how will we find forgiveness?
• Otherwise how will our circumstances change?
It’s just desperation that God would hear us when we call.
David here is LIKE A CAPTURED PRISONER OF WAR in an enemy camp.
• He’s locked in a cell in the midst of their prison and he knows that his home country has scrambled F18 fighter jets to come and destroy this place.
• His urgent plea is to first get word to his own people not to blow that place up until you get me out!
That’s a pretty urgent request!
God You have to hear me!
“Do not drag me away with the wicked”
David’s desperation reveals to us that
• David undoubtedly believes that God is going to judge the wicked.
• David believes that he can appeal to God and God can and will hear him to save him from that fate.
Perhaps the reason our prayers lack desperation is because we don’t really believe God will do what He said He will do.
Perhaps we don’t really believe that God knows how to keep the wicked under punishment and how to save the righteous from their midst.
Well David believed that, and so he was desperate to get through to God.
So in those first 2 verses you see THE SERIOUSNESS OF HIS PRAYER
And then in verses 3-5 you see THE SUBSTANCE OF HIS PRAYER
Well now let’s look at the end, which we could call:
#3 THE SATISFACTION OF HIS PRAYER
Psalms 28:6-9
(6-9) “Blessed be the LORD, Because He has heard the voice of my supplication. The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him. The LORD is their strength, And He is a saving defense to His anointed. Save Your people and bless Your inheritance; Be their shepherd also, and carry them forever.”
Well it’s easy to see why David is so happy.
“He has heard the voice of my supplication”
David got through!
• He may still be a prisoner in that camp…
• He may still be living among the wicked…
• They may still be marked for judgment…
• But somehow God has made it clear to David that he will not be judged with them.
And David breaks out in praise!
“The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him.”
David is singing because he knows God has not overlooked him.
He knows God has not forgotten him.
He knows what Lot found out on the day that Sodom was destroyed.
That angel grabbed Lot by the hand:
Genesis 19:15-22 “When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city. When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.” But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords! “Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die; now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) that my life may be saved.” He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken. “Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar.”
Abraham had prayed regarding Sodom:
Genesis 18:25 “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
And God certainly honored that prayer.
He would not rain fire on Sodom until that one righteous man was out.
He would not flood the earth until He had shut the door on that ark for Noah.
To read it again:
2 Peter 2:9 “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,”
DAVID KNOWS IT TOO.
In fact, he took that knowledge and
He wrote a song for his own congregation to sing.
It’s a short little chorus and it is found in verses 8-9
“The LORD is their strength, And He is a saving defense to His anointed. Save Your people and bless Your inheritance; Be their shepherd also, and carry them forever.”
David wanted to assure his people that
• Despite living in a vile and wicked world and one that is marked for a certain judgment.
• David wanted the congregation to know that The Lord saves His anointed.
• He saves them and He blesses them.
• He is their shepherd and He carries them forever.
And incidentally, we know that is true as well.
Even during the most horrific judgments in the Bible, God spared His own.
• We already witnessed the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah.
• But what about in Egypt when God spared His own through the Passover.
• What about when the rabble rose up against Moses and Aaron and the LORD intervened on their behalf?
Do you remember the story of the exile?
How God wiped out Jerusalem…
Before He did Ezekiel 9 says that before God sent executioners into the city He first put a mark on the forehead of the righteous
Ezekiel 9:4-6 “The LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.” But to the others He said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare. “Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary.” So they started with the elders who were before the temple.”
And while none in Ezekiel are named.
LOOK AT:
Jeremiah 39:11-18 “Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, saying, “Take him and look after him, and do nothing harmful to him, but rather deal with him just as he tells you.” So Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard sent word, along with Nebushazban the Rab-saris, and Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the leading officers of the king of Babylon; they even sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guardhouse and entrusted him to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him home. So he stayed among the people. Now the word of the LORD had come to Jeremiah while he was confined in the court of the guardhouse, saying, “Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to bring My words on this city for disaster and not for prosperity; and they will take place before you on that day. “But I will deliver you on that day,” declares the LORD, “and you will not be given into the hand of the men whom you dread. “For I will certainly rescue you, and you will not fall by the sword; but you will have your own life as booty, because you have trusted in Me,” declares the LORD.'”
Or we could go to the very end in the Revelation before God unleased that demonic army from hell and blasted those 7 trumpets, we read:
Revelation 7:1-3 “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.”
And then we read about those demonic beings:
Revelation 9:4 “They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.”
Do you see it there as well?
WHAT’S THE POINT TO ALL OF THIS?
Your righteousness and your dependence upon God matters.
• Even if it feels like you are the only one.
• Even if it feels like you aren’t making a difference.
I’m sure Noah and Lot and Jeremiah all felt that their righteousness was pointless, UNTIL the day of the judgment and then how precious it was.
David knew this and so not only did he hold to his integrity,
But he would not rest until he had cried out to God
For confirmation that he would not be destroyed with the wicked.
Well the answer is, we won’t, if we are the Lord’s.
So don’t walk the path of the wicked.
• Stand for the Lord amidst the opposition.
• Preach righteousness to your wicked world.
• When your righteous soul is tormented by the ungodliness around you, warn your brothers not to act wickedly.
CLING TO GODLINESS LIKE THAT SCARLET THREAD IN RAHAB’S WINDOW
