Psalm 7 Part 2

Finding Rest In A Hurried World

Introduction

We started examining Psalm 7 in the last post. That was a lengthy introduction. I did that for a reason, and let me mention a few points to you briefly. We live in strange times, don’t we? Some very strange times. We see all kinds of things transpiring globally, and really, those are of much more interest to me—the things that are going on globally, especially in the Middle East, as it relates to Israel and what we see going on there.

But there are a lot of things going on in our nation, things that I never thought that I would see in my lifetime, we’re seeing. And I’ll save some of those thoughts for another teaching on another day, but we talked about the days of Noah, the similarities between what the Bible describes as the days of Noah, the things that would be going on in this day. Jesus talked about that, didn’t He? And so, we talked about that a little bit. We talked about Israel and how she continues to be the center of global attention—how interesting that is to a Bible student or to a believer who understands what the Bible says.

Prophecy Is Important To Understand

Folks, one of the things that you have heard repeatedly over the years from me—and you will continue to, and you’re not going to hear in a good many other places is that prophecy is important. Too many churches discard prophecy, and they spend no time there. But, brothers and sisters, it is what we’re supposed to be paying attention to. We’re supposed to be seeing the signs of the times and knowing the days in which we live. And by the way, that’s a paraphrase of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

See, we don’t just happily go along our way, skipping down the yellow brick road of Christian-land and acting like nothing’s going on in the world and everything is going to remain the same as it always has been. You know, that’s an exact description or prescription for disaster, and in fact, it parallels very nicely with what Jesus said about the days of Noah. Folks will just be going about their business like it’s always going to happen and always will be, and then sudden destruction will come.

We talked about Russia and the rise of Gog and Magog. Putin is an amazing figure, politically speaking, to do any research on, and I encourage you to do that on your own. In fact, I sent the guys in our Men’s Ministry Bible study—I sent them a good many links for their own research and edification. If you’re interested in some of those, I’d be happy to pass them along. But it says a lot about what’s going on over in Russia today. It’s no coincidence—how many of you know there aren’t any coincidences in the Kingdom? No coincidences. But it’s no accident that Russia is pressing its case in the Crimea, in the Ukraine, in that area. Listen, that’s the gateway, brothers and sisters. That is the land bridge to Israel. You need to understand what’s going on there—it is preparation for what the Bible talks about, the Ezekiel 38–39 battles of Gog and Magog.

Egypt has changed its political structure completely again. It supposedly was a democracy; really, it was a dictatorship under Mubarak. But he got thrown out, and the Muslim Brotherhood came in, and that sufficiently startled enough people that they threw the Muslim Brotherhood out. But listen, it is still a dictatorship. Egypt is talked about in the last days, and it’s on the rise.

We talked about technology, the rise and the expansion of technology. How many of you still suffer under the illusion that you have privacy at any level in your life? Because I want to quickly dispel that today. How many of you know that the government is not your friend? I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the government knows more about you than perhaps even your spouse.

“Mike, you’re scaring me when you start talking like that.” Well, good. Maybe it’ll wake you up from your slumber, and you’ll start looking at some of this stuff with new eyes.

We talked about many of the world leaders coming together to push for, to agitate for, a one-world religion. How many of you know that’s on the rise? I see it even in America. What has to happen for a one-world religion to take place? One primary thing needs to happen: Christianity needs to be marginalized. And when I say Christianity, I’m talking true biblical Christianity. I’m not talking about the Christianity-land that goes on in a good many places. I’m talking about true biblical Christianity—it has to be marginalized. In fact, it has to be pushed completely off-subject.

How many of you understand that today one of the fiercest battles that’s being waged between the church—true Christianity—and the government is over this phrase they’ve coined, “religious liberty”? You see that in the papers, on the news, in the sources you check—that’s huge. Religious liberty, brothers and sisters, is all about one thing: silencing true Christianity. That’s what it’s about.

So all of these agendas, all of these different topics that we see flying around in the news is all about creating an atmosphere for the one-world religion. Apostasy is on the rise. Apostasy is on the rise. We see so many so-called Christian ministries that are advocating for things that the Bible clearly says are abominations unto the Lord. That’s apostasy; that’s not enlightenment; that’s not progressive thinking—that’s apostasy. We need to call it what it is.

Previously, we talked about the occult and the rise of that. We talked about society declining more and more into this hedonistic, humanistic immorality and situational ethics. Our children have been, for the last generation, steeped in situational ethics. What would you do?

Values And Morals Originate With God Not Man

But listen, here’s a thought, and I don’t want to go too far with this or we won’t get into the text again today. Situational ethics. How many of you know what I’m talking about when I talk about situational ethics? Okay, situational ethics, brothers and sisters, is nothing more than a derivative or a result of Darwinian evolutionary thinking. Let me connect the dots for you. What does Darwinian evolutionary thinking say about species and how they get into the next generation? They talk about what? Survival of the fittest.

Survival of the fittest goes hand in hand, brothers and sisters, with this whole idea about situational ethics. Moral relativism is the philosophy of situational ethics. Now, one of the things that is spread all across the news today—and I wish that someone in a prominent place, a true Christian voice, would stand up and ask this question. I can ask it, but nobody pays attention to me. But I wish somebody would stand up. How many of you are familiar with this whole big push on bullying? Well, connect the dots. We’ve got a couple of generations now of children that have been brought up on Darwinian evolutionary theory, which teaches, among other things, situational ethics under morality, right? But one of the other things that it teaches is that people are really just an accident. You’re just a product of chance and time, and get this, mutation.

Now, if we’re just the product of chance and time and mutation, then human life has no significance. If we’re not made in the image of an Almighty Creator, then we’re just all about getting our genes into the next pool, and we should be the most selfish creatures on the face of the Earth. See, that’s one of the things that atheism, that Darwinian evolutionary theory, cannot account for: morality. Where did morality come from? Because Darwinian evolutionary theory teaches exactly the opposite—my morals should be to make sure that I get the greatest number of resources available, even if it means they come at your expense. That’s survival of the fittest; that’s the law of the jungle. And so where does this whole concept of bullying come from if we’re just chance, just an accident, if it’s all about survival of the fittest? Why shouldn’t I bully you?

You see, the concept of bullying that they’re trying to advocate for today has smuggled in Christian theistic morality. The reason why we don’t bully, brothers and sisters, is because people are important. People are significant. People are made in the image of God. That’s why we don’t bully. But see, our culture’s got it completely upside down, where value is ascribed to people not because they’re made in the image of God, but value is ascribed to them because they’re lean and fit, they wear the right clothes, they have the right makeup, they’re pretty.

We should be looking at people, no matter what they look like, and say, “There is a creation of God, and I will respect them and honor them and value them because they are a creation of God.” Not because they wear the right clothes. Not because they’re pretty. We know this is true.

So, we see that on the rise today, but that’s the way the enemy works. The enemy turns things upside down and makes you believe things that aren’t true, completely twists the truth. And I wish somebody would stand up and say, “You’ve taught the last two generations of our children that life is not significant, that you can

“You’ve taught the last two generations of our children that life is not significant, that you can end a life in the womb for any reason, and then you expect them not to bully people?”

Anti-Semitism is on the rise. We just witnessed a maurderous rampager by two Islamist men, a father and son, in Australia. Of course, the Australian government gave a weak and woke response. Jews in the Ukraine have to register now. You know, this happened before back in the 30s. They made them register, and then they brought them out, and they machine-gunned them down in ditches. Hostility towards Christianity is on the rise. The world is being prepared to accept a “Mr. Fixit,” somebody who seems to have the answers to all the problems, is going to fix things, and make everything good. The Bible calls that personage or that personality the Antichrist.

I could go on and on and on, but I think you understand that we live in some pretty interesting times. Now I shared all of that—I went into much more detail last week in case you weren’t here. And some of you might be thinking, “Wow, I’m glad I wasn’t there, because I can hardly stand this!” But listen, I don’t share all of that for you to wring your hands because that’s what some people do. There’s a danger in sharing this kind of stuff because people, when they get their eyes open for the first time, think, “Wow, we’re not in Wonderland anymore.” No, you’re not; you never were. You were made to believe you were—it’s time to wake up. The day is almost over. We have work to do.

We have work to do as the church. We’ve sat back and got fat and lazy as the church, and we believed the lies that the culture has told us—that we’re not permitted to share our faith in public because that might be offensive to people. Well, my Savior and Lord said, “I am an offense, I am a stumbling block. All those who reject this message of salvation in Christ alone will perish.” Brothers and sisters, we don’t have an option to step back and say, “Well, we’re just going to let the world go its course.” No, we need to be sharing Jesus. There is salvation in none other than Jesus.

And so, I share all of that to encourage you, actually—to encourage you to remember a couple of different things. Number one: God is sovereign. How many of you understand that none of what I’ve talked about—none of what is transpiring currently, none of the evil that’s currently in the works and will transpire in the days ahead—is a surprise to God? How many of you understand he knows all of this? How many of you understand that he equips us, his children, to face and deal with all of this? Jesus is both the author of our faith, and he is the perfector or finisher of our faith, and he will cause us to persevere.

Now, we’re facing some challenging times, and if the Lord tarries in his return to take the church out of here—my personal view is, and you may have a different view—but my personal view is, it’s not going to be long. It’s not going to be long. It can’t possibly be much longer. As I look at the evil today—at last count, and I may be wrong, but you can correct me—just since Roe v. Wade, is it like 56 million? Fifty-six million children murdered in the womb. Fifty-six million. Do you understand that that is more people murdered than in all the world wars, Vietnam, conflicts, that we’ve ever seen? Murdered in the womb. And we think God is okay with that? I’ve got to tell you—he’s not okay with that. And America, brothers and sisters, has blood on its hands, and we will not escape the judgment.

How Do We Live A Godly Life In The Midst Of Global Upheaval?

God is on the throne. Here are some thoughts—Psalm 7. How do we live a godly life in the midst of this? Now, some of you may be disturbed already, and I haven’t even gotten into the text yet. You may be thinking, “Thanks for making my day, Mike—now I’ve got to think about all this stuff.” Well, good, you should be thinking about this stuff. Stop skipping down the yellow brick road and acting like everything’s going to be fine tomorrow, just like it is today. Things aren’t fine today. Wake up, Neo, come out from under the delusion. (That was a little Hollywood thing if you didn’t catch that.)

Pictures of godliness in trying times—how do we live a godly life? Well, we need to understand something: God is sovereign.

When we see all these things going on, and we ask, “What is the world coming to?” how do we rest and have peace in the midst of that? Well, here’s the answer: Understand that God is sovereign.

We don’t need to race around trying to—and I don’t know who I was talking to; maybe it was at the men’s study recently, we were talking about Preppers. The day and age that we live in is not like the 1800s. Yeah, you could go someplace far away off in the woods and hide, and nobody would find you for years. Live off the land, all that good stuff. There’s not a lot of places you can do that—well, maybe Alaska. Folks, with the technology that’s out there today, you’re not hiding from anybody. And you can put up a whole year’s worth of food if you want to, but when the government comes down, they’re going to confiscate that.

God is sovereign, brothers and sisters. And so, dealing with the times that we live in, that’s the starting point—by understanding that he’s in control of all of this.

Examining The Text Of Psalm 7

Now let’s read through this, and then we’ll camp out. Notice it says, there’s a preamble to Psalm 7, it says, “A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjamite.” Now, what that means is a Shiggaion is a song with high and low notes. High and low notes. The idea is this—it is a song of life, and that’s life, isn’t it? Life has high notes; life has low notes. Sometimes we’re up, sometimes we’re down. Sometimes things are going well, sometimes they’re not going good. So, David is—this is a song of life. It’s just a real song about real issues.

Notice it says it’s sung to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjamite. Now, we don’t know anything about Cush other than he’s listed here, and that he’s a Benjamite. Now why is that important? Well, David had issues with the Benjamites, didn’t he? Why would he have issues with them? Because of his predecessor, you remember who David’s predecessor was? King Saul. Saul was from what tribe? The tribe of Benjamin. So, he was a Benjamite. The Benjamites didn’t really look on David with favor. They looked on him as a usurper, that he had taken away from Saul what rightfully belonged to him. They never recognized his anointing.

In fact, the Scriptures tell us in the Old Testament of a couple of instances when David was leaving Jerusalem and coming back into Jerusalem, particularly during the rebellion of Absalom and after some different battles, that there would be a Benjamite that would ridicule him and slander his name and call him all kinds of things. And it’s interesting to me when I read that, that David didn’t do anything about it. He’s the king, but he didn’t do anything about it. I think it was for a couple of reasons. One, he understood that God was in control, that God would be his shield, that God would be his defender. But he also recognized that when you’re slandered, sometimes the best thing to do is not to say a word. Because when you’re slandered sometimes, and you try to make an argument, the only thing you’re doing is adding fuel to the fire. Because if you’re innocent, brothers and sisters, what defense can you give? Let God be your defender. That’s what’s happening here.

Notice in verse 1, “O Lord my God, in you I have taken refuge; save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me. Or he will tear my soul like a lion, dragging me away, while there is none to deliver.” So, again, the context is slandering, being talked about. But what I want you to see is a godly response to all that. I want you to see what the godly man does, or the godly woman does, living in these days.

First of all, from verse 1, we see that the godly man recognizes that he needs help to live his life for God’s glory. We need help to live this life. No man is an island. There’s no such thing as a lone-ranger Christian. Now, I’ve known people like that who thought, “Well, I don’t need to be with my brothers and sisters, I can just do my own thing.” I’m telling you, if you think you can do your own thing, and you just kind of get on the outskirts of the body, you’re easy pickings for the enemy. You know where the safest place to be in the assembly? Right in the center of the action. Because the enemy is going to look for those on the periphery, those who are starting to stray off a little bit, those who are starting to say, “Well, you know, I don’t really need that.” Listen, you need the body of Christ—we need each other.

There’s a reason why the writer to the Hebrews, whom I think was Paul—you may think it was Apollos or someone else—said that birds of a feather flock together. Okay, he didn’t say that exactly. He said, “Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as is the manner of some.” You’ve heard me say this over the years, and this is why I say it—for a believer, our appointed place on the Lord’s Day or whatever day you choose to gather together, is with the fellowship of believers.

If I have got to call you during the week and encourage you to be here, and send you cards, and just constantly be pulling to get you here, that wears me out. And I wonder about someone’s relationship if you have to constantly be prodded or coached to be here. If you belong to him, you’ll want to be here. And if there are things in your life that are keeping you from this place on Sunday morning or Wednesday night, get rid of those things in your life. Amen?

So, we need help to live this life. Why? Because when you live for God, you will be opposed by the world. When you live for God, the world will oppose you, and you can’t handle what the world throws at you without God. That’s why David starts this psalm. He says, “O Lord, my God.” My God. We each have a personal relationship with God, you understand that? Personal, individual. He is your God. He is my God. He is my God by faith, he is my God by covenant. He is your God by faith, and your God by covenant. “My God, in you I take refuge.”

I don’t take refuge in my spouse. I love my wife, and she completes me, and she is my strength, but I do not take refuge in my spouse. God is my shield, and my protector, and my defender. Because guess what? My wife will disappoint me. And guys, you will disappoint her. In God, you will never be disappointed. Amen? He is constant, 24/7.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank you for giving us rest in the midst of a chaotic world. Thank you for reminding us that You are in control of all things. We need to be reminded that what we see transpiring is not a world falling apart, but things falling into place. The return of Jesus is near. Until that day, may we be found faithful to proclaim the everlasting Gospel of Jesus, so that all who believe will receive eternal life. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

To be continued…

Pastor Mike