When was the last time you played a game of hide and seek?
It's a game as old as time. It's a classic.
It's one of the first games you learn to play when you're
growing up. The fun thing about hide and
seek is when you find the person you're looking for, friends.
What do you do when it feels like you're stuck in a game of
hide and seek with God? Like you're seeking him, trying
to find him, but he's nowhere to be found?
What do you do when it feels like God's face is hidden?
What do you do when you feel a massive gap between God's
promises and your experience? Friends, in these types of
situations, no sunshine and rainbows.
Religion will work. Religion and and even in some
cases a sort of cultural Christianity will do us no
lasting good. Is Christianity just a crutch to
escape reality? Is it an excuse to ignore the
pressing needs of the moment? We have tragedy pressing in from
all sides. I mean, just look at the news.
Look at our world around us. Is Christianity meant to be just
this false smile we put on our faces?
What about when your friends confront you with injustice?
When they bring up to you the things in this world that are
happening all around? How are the people of hope to
respond then? What will you say to them?
What about when injustice comes knocking on your door, when the
pain becomes personal, When the hurt and the loss and the
tragedy make you weep? Maybe some of you this morning
have come in with those types of burdens, with affliction, seeing
the injustice in the world and experiencing it in your soul,
thinking God is supposed to be a helper.
But I'm experiencing so much hurt and so little help.
Feeling like you're stuck in a game of hide and seek with God,
sunshine and rainbows. Religion won't work.
Then suffering slices right through shallow answers to deep
sorrows. But in Psalm 10 we learn from
the psalmist how we should seek God's face when he feels hidden.
Listen as I read Psalm 10, Psalm chapter 10.
You can turn there in your Bibles.
Psalm 10 reads, Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor.
Let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
For the wicked boast of the desires of his soul, and the one
greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord in the pride
of his face. The wicked does not seek him.
All his thoughts are, There is no God.
His ways prosper at all times. Your judgments are on high out
of His sight. As for his foes, he puffs at
them. He says in his heart, I shall
not be moved throughout all generations.
I shall not meet adversity. His mouth is filled with cursing
and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue are mischief
and iniquity. He sits in ambush in the
villages. In hiding places.
He murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for
the helpless. He lurks in ambush like a lion
in his thicket. He lurks that he may seize the
poor. He seizes the poor.
When he draws him into his net. The helpless are crushed, sink
down and fall by his might. He says in his heart, God has
forgotten. He has hidden his face.
He will never see it. Arise, O Lord, oh God, lift up
your hand. Forget not the afflicted.
Why does the wicked renounce God, and say in his heart, You
will not call to account, but you do see, for you note
mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands.
To you the helpless commits and self.
You have been a helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer.
Call his wickedness to account till you find none.
The Lord is king forever and ever.
The nations perish from his land.
Oh Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted.
You will strengthen their heart. You will incline your ear to do
justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that the man
who is of earth may strike terror no more.
This is a heavy passage, a relatable passage, and it serves
us as God's people, as a model of how we should respond to
injustice. Friends, what do we do when
God's faith feels hidden? Point #1 lament evil, lament
evil. We see this in verses one
through 11. Notice how the psalmist begins.
Look down at verse 1. He says, why, O Lord, do you
stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in
times of trouble? This phrase times of trouble
occurs only two times in the Old Testament and we find it in the
chapter right before. In Psalm 9, verse 9, David
writes the Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold
in times of trouble. Psalm 9 and Psalm 10 are almost
like paternal twins. While there's some debate as to
whether David wrote Psalm 9 and Psalm 10 because of Psalm 10's
lack of a superscription, that little headline at the top, the
connections between the two make it obvious that it's very likely
that David did indeed write both, that he had his pen in his
hand. He wrote Psalm 9, paused, and
then wrote Psalm 10. It's a continuation of the same
line of thinking. The connections are right there.
Psalm 9 and 10 both speak of times of trouble.
They both call for God to arise. Both pray that God would not
forget the afflicted. While they're an obvious pair,
they also have distinct personalities.
In Psalm 91, we read of David recounting the wonderful deeds
of the Lord. But here in Psalm 10, David
moves from recounting to wrestling, from speaking about
God's presence. In Psalm 10, I'm excuse me,
Psalm 9 to mourning. God's absence in Psalm 10 feels
like God is far away. David, like us, felt the tension
between God's promises and the world's problems.
He had trouble aligning what he believed with what he saw.
The Psalms are full of these honest cries arising from what
has been called divine hiddenness, times where God
feels far away. This theme is found across the
Psalms. Psalm 44, verses 23 through 25
read Awake. Why are you sleeping?
O Lord, rouse yourself. Do not reject us forever.
Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction
and oppression? For our soul is bound down to
the dust. Our belly clings to the ground.
Or look at Psalm 13 verse one reads.
How long, O Lord, why will you forget the wicked forever?
Excuse me, will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my
heart all the day? How long shall my enemies be
exalted over me? The Bible is a very honest book.
It's not just full of sunshine and rainbows.
Christianity. The Psalms are full of these
honest cries of times when it feels like God is asleep.
What do you do when you feel like you're playing hide and go
seek with God? These Psalms call us to imitate
David by praying prayers of lament.
Praying prayers of lament. Lament is prayer and pain that
leads to trust. I'll say that one more time.
Lament is prayer and pain that leads to trust.
It's cries of confusion that flow from faith.
As we saw a few months ago in the Habakkuk series, Lament is a
divinely approved pressure release.
When the pressure in your soul of confusion and trial and
sorrow have no nowhere else to go.
Lament is the way we release them to God by saying honestly
what we see and what we feel. How is lament different from
grumbling might be asking that question.
Lament complaints to God while grumbling complaints about God.
Lament flows from faith flows from trust in God, whereas
grumbling flows from unbelief. Lament leads to deeper trust,
while grumbling leads to deeper sin.
Christian, do you have this category of prayer in your
spiritual toolbox? Without it, there will
eventually come a time, if it's not come already, where you're
out of options, you're out of levers to pull, and you'll need
to pray prayers of lament. The pressure will be such, the
suffering will be such, the confusion will be such that
lament is the type of prayer that you need to pray.
I personally struggle with people pleasing.
I'm a habitual people pleaser. If I'm over at someone's house,
I might hesitate from saying if I don't prefer that particular
food. I'm worried that my honesty
might hurt their feelings. I'm worried that saying what I
actually think, what I'm actually feeling, is going to
make someone feel bad. Maybe you feel the same way,
beloved. We can do the same thing with
God holding back our honest prayers, because deep down,
whether we would admit it or not, we don't want to seem like
unthankful Christians in our sufferings, even as we talk
about them with God's people. We could just put on this fake
smile and suffer in silence because we don't want to come
across as unthankful to God's people or to God Himself.
Beloved, God won't be hurt by your honesty.
He won't be hurt by your honest prayers of lament.
Our lack of lament does not deceive God.
He knows our confusion. He knows our sorrows.
He knows everything. Us not telling Him doesn't make
it any different. He already knows.
So crack open your sorrows right in front of the Lord.
Go before Him in prayer and pray right where it hurts.
Tell God honestly where you're confused and where you feel like
he is far away. Follow David's example and bring
your lament to the throne of grace.
Bring others laments to the throne of grace.
This is exactly what David goes on to do.
He says to God exactly what he sees.
He presents the evidence to God that suggests that God is far
off. Look down at verses 2 and 3.
David writes in arrogance. The wicked hotly pursue the
poor, let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one
greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord like a movie
jumping into a high speed chase, verse 2 just immediately ropes
in our attention the wicked hotly pursue the poor.
The wicked here are a dangerous combination of both pride and
prosperity. They're proud and they have the
means and the power to execute oppression on all those around
them. They're steered by their selfish
desire. That's the steering wheel of
their life, their desires. Verse 3 says the desires of his
soul. They're greedy for gain.
They're boasting, scheming and renouncing God.
And then in verse 4 we read in the pride of his face, the
wicked does not seek him. All his thoughts are there is no
God. David here skillfully identifies
The Fountainhead of sin, the source of all sin, and that is
No Fear of God. The source of our sin is pride,
arrogance. Where we don't fear God's face,
we don't fear His judgment. The place where God should have
been in their hearts has been replaced by selfish desire.
That's what's driving them. That's what's driving their
life. We see here what we might call a
type of practical atheism. Practical atheism.
It's essentially where, whether you would admit it or not, you
live as if there is no God. You might say there is a God,
but your thoughts would reveal otherwise.
The NIV in this verse literally reads there is no room in their
thoughts for God. No room.
Sadly, this is as common today as it was way back then.
At UNC, where Brian Miller and I have the privilege of going out
and sharing the gospel with students, we often come across a
practical atheist response. Someone who might say there is a
God, but then when we ask them, have you ever thought about God?
You ever considered his existence, will often get the
response. That's not something I think
about very often. I don't really worry about God.
That's not something I spend much time thinking about.
That's the response we get pretty often, and it's sad
because many of these students clearly do not have God in their
everyday thoughts. There's no room in their
thoughts for God because God has been replaced in their hearts by
something else, some other desire, pride, selfishness,
whatever drives them pride has pushed out the fear of God in
their thinking. In the neighborhood that I grew
up in, we had a neighbor across the street who I spent a good
amount of time playing with my siblings.
We spent a good time playing with him and I'll never forget
one particular afternoon. We're playing, we're having fun
shooting basketball. And on this particular day, he
had come to think that if he had his eyes closed that he would be
invisible. If he just closed his eyes that
instantly he would magically poof, go away and be invisible
and he would yell at us with his eyes closed.
You can't see me, you can't see me.
And all of us would yell back at him, Yes we can, Yes we can.
He thought that because his eyes were closed, because he couldn't
see us, that we couldn't see him.
Friends, this is what pride is like before an all seeing God.
Just because we don't see him or care about him or think about
him doesn't mean that God doesn't see us.
God's not fooled. Your lack of seeing him doesn't
mean he ceases to exist. Your lack of seeking him doesn't
cause him to vanish. God is there.
God sees verses 5 through 6 of the Psalm point out this exact
thing. Says his ways prosper at all
times. Your judgments are on high out
of his sight. As for his foes, he puffs at
them. He says in his heart, I shall
not be moved throughout all generations.
I shall not meet adversity. Friend, your lack of thoughts
about God do not erase his existence.
God sees even if your eyes are closed.
Look back down at verse 7 says under his tongue are mischief
and iniquity. Here we have a vivid image of
trickery under the tongue, hidden away, ready to bounce out
the wicked. Are plotting and mischievous.
They're using their words for greed and gain rather than for
others. Then in verses 8 through 10, our
attention is brought again to the way that they ambush the
poor. David describes this person like
a lion, the master predator. Big mane, very strong, loud
growl. The wicked person uses his
tongue to deceive, his eyes to identify the vulnerable, and
then his strength to seize them. Here we're reminded that the
weakest and the poorest are often the most vulnerable to
attack the orphan, the person without the resources or the
power to defend themselves. We're also reminded that
prosperity is not an automatic sign of God's favor.
Here in this passage. This person is greedy for gain.
They want more and more. The helpless are easy targets
for these lions to attack. David here is mourning.
He's lamenting before God that he lives in a society filled
with lions attacking the helpless poor, those with little
money, little physical strength. No fatherly defenders are being
attacked within Israel and the world.
At that time, there was No Fear of God in people's gaze, No Fear
of God in their thinking, No Fear of God to stop them in
their tracks. In verse 8, the psalmist talks
about hiding places. Kids, I don't know if you've
ever played hide and go seek. I'm pretty sure you have.
You have a hiding place. It's where no one is looking.
And in our text, it's clear that before the eyes of others, the
attack of these lions might be postponed.
No one's looking. Excuse me?
If someone's looking, they might not attack, but when no one is
looking in the dark, the attack goes forward Because they assume
that God doesn't see, they assume that God's eye isn't
there. They assume that because they're
in the dark that there really is no God.
Friend, who are you in the dark? Who are you in the hiding
places? The modern reader may read these
verses and think, well, I'm not that bad, I'm not like that, but
we need to take a closer look. I need to take a closer look.
How often do you puff up in pride against those who are
weaker than you? When you're the strongest
mentally or physically in the room, Do you use that
superiority selfishly or selflessly?
When no one is looking, what do you think and what do you do?
Well, verse 10 summarizes the state of things.
The psalmist says the helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall
by his might. This is a godless society within
Israel and within the world at large.
It's a time where might makes right, you might say.
Certainly times are different today.
We're in 2025. We have modern technology.
That was 1000 years ago. Surely things are different now.
Surely we've made progress. Yet throughout our world, it's
obvious that the most vulnerable are being preyed upon.
With our eyes wide open, we can see the helpless crushed all
around us. Predators prey on the most
helpless and the most innocent. Even children.
Millions of abortions each year. Shootings across our country and
across the world, the persecution of Christians, those
who believe in Christ across the globe, the list goes on and on.
Turn on the news, you see it there.
Talk to your friends and family, you see it there too.
Those who are most vulnerable, most weak are taken advantage
of. We live in the same world as the
psalmist did, and the psalmist here models for us a sensitivity
to sin that we should follow. All of this should affect us as
God's people. It shouldn't be water off a
duck's back. It shouldn't be light or easy
for us to brush these things off.
We shouldn't ignore it and go with the sunshine and rainbows
approach. Depending on who you are,
there's likely certain evils that you're more nose blind to
than others. My wife Kim and I are eager to
welcome our first child into the world come December.
Lord willing, we'll bring this child in.
And I've been asking a lot of dads, hey, give me some advice,
give me some tips and tricks, tell me what is going to happen.
And one dad I was talking to just the other week said, Joe, I
want to let you know that the stinky diapers, you'll
eventually get used to them. Eventually it'll be just second
nature. And I was thinking to myself, I
sure hope that's true. I sure hope that's the case,
said eventually you'll grow nose blind to them.
But friends, let's not grow nose blind to the sin around us.
What tragedies, what evils don't prick you like they should?
Politics especially can pollute our sensitivity to certain sins.
We're soaking more in political commentary than we are in
Scripture. This is why we need God's Word
to splash us in the face and to remind us the sins and the evils
that are all around us. Get into your Bibles.
Read Scripture. This is one reason why we need
one another. We need each other in the church
so that when sin or tragedy strikes, we can weep with those
who weep. Maybe a brother or sister can
remind you or point out to you certain sins that you've grown
numb to, either in your own life or in the world at large.
Perhaps something that you're listening to or watching, or
your regular intake of social media or the news is dulling
your senses and you need to scale back and introduce more
scripture after the service. Ask a brother or sister what
evils are you tempted to grow nose blind to?
Well, verse 11 concludes this section of lament.
David has been pouring out his heart before the Lord, pouring
out his pain, showing the evidence that God feels hidden.
And in verse 11, he concludes with these words talking about
the wicked says he says in his heart, God has forgotten, he has
hidden his face. He will never see it.
In verse one, David, praise God, why do you hide your face?
Here in verse 11, the wicked say, God, you have hidden your
face. God seems far away and the
psalmist has prayed his pain before the Lord.
And here in this last verse, verse 11 of this section, the
wicked seems to think that God will never see and will never
judge. But it's a dangerous thing, a
very, very dangerous thing to conclude from God hasn't to God
won't. Just because God hasn't judged
the wicked doesn't mean he won't.
And friends, as we stare at the unbalanced scales of justice, we
need to guard against that same assumption.
Just because God hasn't judged our enemies doesn't mean he
won't. That's why we must point #2
Petition the God of justice. Petition the God of justice.
Verses 12 through 15 the first words read.
Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up your hand.
Forget not the afflicted. Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, you will not call to account when God
feels hidden, when His justice feels far away?
We are called here to model David and petition this God of
justice to call out to him that He would balance the scales.
Psalm 7 verse 6 is very similar. It reads, Arise, O Lord, in your
anger, lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies.
Awake before me. You have appointed judgment.
David, unlike us today, lived in the theocracy of the nation of
Israel. He had been appointed king, and
he was called upon by God to dethrone his enemies so that he
could righteously rule. In that sense, we are not like
David. We are not anointed kings here
to establish our Kingdom here on earth, to establish our nation,
the nation of Joe or insert your name.
But church, we can model David's petition by praying that God
would punish evil doers, that he would push back the enemies of
righteousness, that he would push back those who seek to
oppress the poor, that he would have victory over evil.
We should pray that God would disarm wicked people, wicked
institutions. When we see evil all around us,
call a brother or sister, say, would you pray with me?
This evil is burdening my soul. And you can pray like David that
God would disarm them. We should be praying for our
persecuted brothers and sisters. We should be praying for those
in our society that I was mentioning earlier that are
helpless, that are being crushed.
We should not only pray for God's justice now, we should
pray for God's justice in the future, the justice of God's
second coming of Christ's return.
We handicap our prayers if we never pray for God to execute
justice. As Christians, God's judgement
can sometimes be one of these uncomfortable things.
Maybe pray for God's mercy, but God's judgement?
Can we pray for that? By not praying for God's final
judgement, we're essentially not praying for Christ to return.
Christ is returning to judge all things, so we should pray for
that. Listen to the prayers of the
Saints in heaven. Revelation 6 verse 9 says, When
he opened the 5th seal, I saw under the clouds, Excuse me, I
saw under the altar of the souls of those who had been slain for
the word of God, and for the witness they had borne.
They cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy
and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood
on those who dwell on the earth? We should pray for God's second
coming, for His justice. Jesus Himself calls us to pray
in the Lord's Prayer that His Kingdom would come and that His
will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.
This is one of those prayers that you can pray and know that
you have a guaranteed yes. Those are pretty sweet prayers
to pray. You know there's a yes on the
other side of that prayer because Christ will return.
Brothers and sisters, we all long for the scales of justice
to be balanced. It's a deep craving in every
soul. Every time we see the helpless
crushed and our world spinning out of control, we crave
justice. There are Christian families I
love very much and sitting down with them as they share their
trials, the abuse that's gone on in their family, how within
their circles the helpless have been crushed.
Those who are most weak have been taken advantage of, and
there's no justice that's been done.
My eyes, they fill with tears because worldly comforts, they
just fall short. There's no silver lining,
there's no positive spin. So I'm sitting there with them.
There's just this crushing weight of evil unpunished,
that's on their backs. God has given us governments
with the power of the sword to punish injustice.
Praise God for that. But worldly injustice is
insufficient for at least two reasons.
It falls short for at least two reasons.
The 1st is that worldly justice systems don't possibly have the
ability to see everything. They're not all seeing.
They're not all knowing. Their eyes can't be everywhere
at once. And second, they don't have the
power to punish everything. They can't possibly punish to
the degree that's necessary, and they can't possibly punish with
the scope that's necessary. Their power is limited.
Their eye and their hand is weak.
And friends, without a God who is on the throne, the wicked
will get away with it. They'll get away with it.
And This is why verse 14 is so refreshing, as the burden of
unpunished sin crushes our backs.
Look down at verse 14 and let relief wash over your soul.
This is what the psalmist says, verse 14.
But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you
may take it into your hands. When justice falls through the
cracks, we can trust that God does see and that he will judge.
This is good news. It's good news that God is just.
It's good news that God's eye and his arm are strong friends.
This is the hope for the world. There's no utopia that's going
to be accomplished by justice here on earth.
It's only the justice from heaven coming down to earth.
When the clouds are ripped open, that justice will finally reign.
God will establish everlasting peace when he comes again.
God is really watching. He's really waiting to bring
final judgment on the earth. And This is why Jesus came.
He came and announced repent and believe, for the Kingdom of
heaven is at hand. There will come a day when God
will make all things right. He will RIP open the sky and
judge the living and the dead. Every arrogant thought, every
abuse of power, every boastful word, every proud look and every
word of deceit will be brought before the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords, and He will begin his courtroom, and he will
execute justice and punish perfectly every sin, every evil.
Our perfect Creator will pronounce judgment on every
soul. Everyone of us in this room
individually will be judged before the God of the universe
and on our own, by our own merit, not one of us will be
pronounced not guilty. On our own.
The sentence will be guilty. God's eye will see right through
any pretence of good, even the good things we have done.
They'll be like paint over our rotten wrongs.
God can see right through to our proud hearts.
As verse 15 says, God will call our wickedness to account till
he finds none. Just like a righteous judge here
on earth won't let the good outweigh the bad, so God will
perfectly judge each of us. He'll judge every thought we've
had in the dark, everything we've thought, everything we've
done, all the things that we're ashamed of.
And the final judgement really should be a terror to those who
are doing evil. Maybe some of you even in this
room thinking that God is not going to judge you, that there's
going to be no accounting, that you're getting away with it.
Might I just point you to this text and say God's judgments are
on high right now, out of your sight, but eventually they'll
break over your head. So turn to this God.
The question we should all be asking is how can a just God
still forgive us? How can a just God wash away our
iniquity? How can the banner of guilty be
taken away from over our heads on that day?
Friends, this is also why Jesus came.
He came to announce His coming judgement, but He came first to
give righteousness to those who would believe on this earth.
He lived a perfect life where we failed.
Christ was perfect, and on the cross of Calvary, as He was led
up that hill, and as He had the crown of thorns placed in His
head, and as He was nailed to that tree, those sins of ours
who believe in Him were accounted to him so that He
could count. Many righteous Jesus can forgive
sinners because on that cross He was made to be seen as the most
angry, boastful, deceptive, greedy man to ever walk the
earth. As your sin and my sin was
placed on His shoulders, He was seen to be sin, so that in him
you and I might have the righteousness of God credited to
us. The just anger of God was poured
out upon Christ as if He was the most sinful man to walk the
earth. The cross brings together God's
uncompromising justice and his unrelenting mercy, as on that
cross he satisfied the wrath of God against those who would
believe. And then he was laid in the
grave. And the question would be, was
this God's payment for sin sufficient?
Was it enough? Well, I'm happy to announce that
three days later, Jesus rose from the grave, proving that the
check had been cashed. He can say to you and I, I
forgive you and actually mean it because he purchased it on that
cross. He is the just and justifier of
the one who has faith in Jesus. Friends, This is why Jesus is
the only way to salvation. This is why no other way to God,
no other religion can offer forgiveness.
Don't rely on them because Jesus is the only one who justly
satisfied God's wrath. So if you're not a believer,
turn to this God today and be accounted righteous by praying
that God would give you his righteous robes, the righteous
robes of Jesus, and that he would take your filthy robe of
sin. God will answer that prayer.
Call out to Him, bow before him, and He will wash you clean.
For us who are believers already, the justice of God is
good news for us. This is why we, like David, can
say to you, the helpless commits himself.
You have been a helper to the fatherless.
Many in our world despise the idea of needing help, of being
helpless, of needing someone stronger to overthrow the bully
or to fill in the gap where we're weak.
Many, even in Christian circles will repeat the phrase God helps
those who help themselves. But friends, this is not the God
of the Bible. We are all need and He is all
help. We are full of weakness and He
is full of strength. We are full of doubt and He is
full of promises. We are full of sin and He is the
fountain of righteousness. We struggle with sin and He was
tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.
We are all need and He is all help.
God doesn't mail us a check. He comes to us even though we
may feel like David, that God is far away, that He's hidden, yet
even there, even then God has not removed His Holy Spirit from
us. Remember what the Spirit is
called called the Helper. You and I have the Helper within
us, and that Helper is the very one that leads us to pray
prayers of lament and then pray prayers of petition.
That's God's work in you. Even though God may feel
1,000,000 miles away, He's actually, if you're a believer,
right inside you, helping you and causing you to seek Him.
You, like David, can remember how God has been a helper in
days past. Recall the times where God has
been a deliverer in your times of confusion.
In your confusion, commit yourself to the God of help.
He will fill you up in due time. We've seen how we should lament
injustice. We've seen how we ought to,
excuse me, We've seen how we ought to petition the God of
justice. Now finally, point #3 praise the
God of justice. Praise the God of justice.
The psalmist concludes in verses 16 to 18.
The Lord is king forever and ever the nations perish from his
land. Oh Lord, you hear the desire of
the afflicted. You will strengthen their heart.
You will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and
the oppressed so that the man who is of earth may strike
terror. No more.
Winter time is coming, even a little bit colder this morning
than it normally is. And many of us will be making
bonfires. I love bonfires.
I love getting them started. Sometimes they can grow a little
bit dim, a little bit cold. And what you do with the bonfire
is you either take the Stokes or you do it the old school way.
You just blow on those coals and they the oxygen hits them, they
get hotter, they glow. Well, in this Psalm, it's almost
as if when David prays his prayer of petition, that those
prayers are like oxygen hitting the promises of God that he
knows. And it makes him grow hotter and
hotter in his mind until finally, as he's praying prayers
of petition, his heart just naturally moves to prayers of
praise because those promises begin to feel glowing hot to
him. His petitions lead him to
praise. David prays that God would be
glorified. He prays in confidence, and he
prays in confidence because he knows that there is coming final
judgment. These prayers make no sense.
His praise makes no sense if God's not coming back to make
all things right, to make all things new.
While he certainly anticipated earthly victory in his Kingdom
in the nation of Israel, he's clearly looking forward to the
one who would come from his line, the line of David, who
would execute justice and righteousness for all who are
oppressed. He's looking forward to the day
when God's judgement will bring lasting safety for the people of
God. How does God respond to this
prayer of calling for God to arise, even these praises that
he lifts up to God? Well, Psalm 12 verse 5 previews
God's response that will come. Psalm 12/5 reads I will now
arise, says the Lord. I will bring him into the safety
for which he longs. Christian, when God's face feels
hidden, look forward to heaven. Look forward to the day when the
scales of justice will be balanced.
Look forward to the day when the burden of injustice will be
removed from your back. God's goodness and His face in
heaven will not be hidden. God will deliver you to the
safety for which you long kids in heaven.
There will be no more locks on doors.
There will be no more nightmares.
There will be no more scary people.
Just safety. And that safety will be
accomplished because of God's righteous judgment.
No more bad guys, no more crimes.
Just peace, just safety. Look forward to that day.
In verse 18 we have a glorious promise.
It says on that day God will do justice to the fatherless and
the oppressed so that the man who is of earth may strike
terror. No more Christian.
Let God's final judgement be a comfort to you.
You're going to need this in your Christian life.
You're going to need this as you live in this world where the
righteous suffer and the wicked often flourish.
You're going to need these categories.
You're going to need the comfort of heaven and the day of peace.
Christian, if you came in today feeling like God is far away,
follow the Psalmist's example. When God's justice seems hidden,
lament the injustice you see. Petition the God of justice and
then praise him. He is the King.
He is coming back soon. You will come to find out that
he has heard your every cry. Let's pray.
Lord God, we thank you that you were just.
We thank You that you are coming soon to execute justice and
righteousness for all who are oppressed.
Lord, we pray that everyone in this room would be made right
with God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that they would
be justified through that sacrifice.
And Lord, we pray that when we see injustice around us that we
would turn to your word and we would turn to one another, and
that we would respond as David responded.
Lord, we pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.