Tonight we're going to be looking at Psalm 35 as we continue our journey through the Psalms on Sunday evenings. It's a longer psalm, so instead of going through it verse by verse, we're going to just kind of pull some principles out of the text itself. But before we read it, I want to introduce an idea and then we'll get to the text of the psalm itself. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, number 26, asks this question. How does Christ execute the office of a king? And the answer is Christ executes the office of a king in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all of his and our enemies. When Israel demanded a king, they wanted a king like all of the other nations around them. They wanted him to go out and fight before them, fight their battles, and Samuel warned the people that if they asked for this king, if they appointed a king over themselves, an earthly king, he would take their sons and their daughters, their crops, their slaves, and he would leave the people impoverished and crying out for relief. Israel wanted a king like all the other nations, and they got exactly what they asked for. In reality, the Lord was already the king of Israel. So when Israel demanded a king, what they were really doing was rejecting the Lord as king. They wanted something better, as they saw it. And ideally, the human kings over Israel were supposed to act as representatives of the Lord. So when God allowed Israel to appoint a king, a human earthly king, he was supposed to act as a representative on earth for the Lord. and he would be almost a picture of Yahweh's rule over Israel. This is something that you can look to since you want a king like all the other nations. God says, I'll give you that, so here's a picture of what I am doing for you, ruling over you. But other than a couple exceptions, most of Israel's kings and Judah's kings led the people into idol worship, into paganism, and ultimately into exile. They failed to rule and defend the people of Israel. And of those few good kings, probably none other than David, especially early on in his reign, recognized his rule as a representative of the Lord. David understood that the Lord was really Israel's king, and David was just a prince under him in reality. But even David, who's described as a man after God's own heart, failed to rule and defend the people as he should. But Psalm 35 shows us that David had a clear understanding of what the Lord's rule looked like. What it looks like for the Lord to restrain and conquer his and our enemies. So let's read Psalm 35. Listen closely, this is the word of God. Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help. Draw the spear and javelin against my life. Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me. Let them be like chaff before the wind with the angel of the Lord driving them away. Let their way be dark and slippery with the angel of the Lord pursuing them. For without cause they hid their net for me. Without cause, they dug a pit for my life. Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it. Let the net that he hid ensnare him. Let him fall into it, to his destruction. Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his salvation. All my bones shall say, O Lord, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him? Malicious witnesses rise up. They ask me of things that I do not know. They repay me evil for good. My soul is bereft. But I, when they were sick, I wore sackcloth. I afflicted myself with fasting. I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother. As one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning. But at my stumbling, they rejoiced and gathered. They gathered together against me. wretches whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing. Like profane mockers at a feast, they gnash at me with their teeth. How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions. I will thank you in the great congregation. In the mighty throng, I will praise you. Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes. And let not those wink the eye who hate me, for they do not speak peace. But against those who are quiet in the land, they devise words of deceit. They open wide their mouths against me. They say, aha, aha, our eyes have seen it. You have seen, O Lord. Be not silent. O Lord, be not far from me. Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God, and my Lord. Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to your righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say in their hearts, aha, our heart's desire. Let them not say we have swallowed him up. Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me. Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad, and say evermore, great is the Lord who delights in the welfare of his servant. Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long." So again, let's look back at question 26 of the Shorter Catechism that I read a moment ago. The answer being, Christ executes the office of a king in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all His and our enemies. Now, as you read Psalm 35 and as you think about it, I want you to look at it as a model for rightly understanding how to live in light of Christ's kingship. Life is really about Jesus. This is His cry for help. when he is attacked by those who attack him without cause. And he is vindicated in the resurrection, as we heard about this morning, vindicated in the resurrection from the dead by the Father. But there's another sense in which this psalm is for the Christian as well. And that's what I want to focus on tonight. So first, these are the three things we're going to, I'm going to use the catechism question as a model for understanding this psalm. We're going to talk about how Christ conquers his and our enemies. Second, how Christ rules and defends us. And third, how Christ subdues us to himself. And we're going to see these things throughout Psalm 35. And I think Psalm 35 is going to teach us how to live in light of those truths. So in the first 10 verses of Psalm 35, David calls out to God to go to war for him. In the ancient world, the king, it wasn't like the king you think of in medieval times where he just sits on the throne and sends out people to go fight for him. In the ancient world, the king went out to battle with his generals, and he led the campaign from the battlefield. And that was the common practice for the kings of that day. If you think about David's sin with Bathsheba, the chapter in 2 Samuel 11, it says that, It was the time for kings to go out to war, but David remained behind in Jerusalem. So just an example of one of the ways in which David failed to be a king for Israel. But that also shows the expectation was for kings to go out to war. So as king, David would have been expected to go out to war with his generals. So in Psalm 35, David is now pleading that God will do this for him. The imagery here is vivid. A shield and a buckler are defensive tools. A spear and a javelin, offensive weapons. David's request is clear. He wants God to suit up and go to war for him and save him from his enemies. Not only is David's desire for salvation clear, but also the desired end for his enemies is clear as well. He doesn't just want rescue, he wants his enemies destroyed. Look again at verse 5, let them be like chaff before the wind with the angel of the Lord driving them away. Those are pretty serious words, especially if you think back as we've talked about the Psalms throughout the last few weeks we've talked about Psalm 1 as sort of a model psalm that the themes of which run through the rest of the Psalter and here we have a specific reference to something that's in Psalm 1 when it talks about the unrighteous or the wicked it says they will be like the chaff that the wind drives away and David is specifically referencing that here so you've got those two roads which are you going to take the path of the righteous man the path of the wicked man and David is clearly asking God and telling God, my enemies are those on the path of the unrighteous. So what he's saying here is that these aren't merely David's enemies, these are God's enemies also. David's not asking, David's not asking God to take care of the school bully for him here. David recognizes that the ones who are after him are not just God's enemies, or not just David's enemies, but are also God's enemies. So he's asking for the judgment of God to come against them. David's saying something like, the unrighteous you said you'd drive away are now after me, so come and rescue me and destroy them. And I want to emphasize this point. This point's important. The fact that these are both God's enemies and David's enemies. Because when you come to psalms like this, and there are a number of them, these prayers for God to destroy a certain person's enemies or Israel's enemies, Christians can go back and forth on whether it's appropriate to sing or pray prayers and psalms like this. Is it really right for us to pray that God will destroy our enemies? And so I want to emphasize this point. This is important. If you're going to pray for divine judgment, you need to be careful. And there are a couple of principles in the way that David does this that I thought we could draw out and help us in thinking about how we pray. So if we're going to pray for God to conquer our enemies and his enemies, here are a couple of principles that I thought would be helpful from the text. Are my torments without cause? So David clearly states that the torment he's facing is without a cause. This is an unjust torment. In this life we're going to face a lot of different torments and most of them are probably going to be our fault. Whether it's due to sin or not, much of the torment we face in this life is not without cause. It could be a consequence of what we've done It may even be discipline from God himself. So that's one principle to keep in mind. Are these torments without cause? When you're considering the way to pray for judgment against your enemies, are the torments you're facing without cause? Second principle, are my tormentors on the path of unrighteousness? So David's call for judgment is really a call for God to do what he's already said he was going to do. To make the unrighteous driven away like chaff in the wind. To, on the day of judgment, make it so they are no longer remembered. And so if you're going to pray for judgment against God's enemies, and your enemies, you'd better be sure they really are God's enemies. Um... I see this so often too, especially in the day of social media and the internet where it's so easy for everybody to have an opinion. Whenever a church faces a difficult task of discipline or something like that, whenever a minister or an elder takes a stand on a controversial issue, I'm especially thinking of today's world moral issues like abortion, gay marriage, or Well, abortion and gay marriage are two very relevant issues. Or divorce without fault, issues like that. You'll see, as soon as this happens, as soon as a church takes a stand on an issue like that, there will be this army of very nice Christian people who surround them and condemn them for their unloving nature and their unchristian attitude when it comes to the moral issues they take a stand on. So I want you to be careful that when you consider praying for judgment against your enemies and God's enemies, that you aren't like this pack of wolves that comes to the righteous and prays for judgment against them. If you're going to pray for judgment against God's enemies and your enemies, be sure that they are God's enemies and that you are not. A third principle drawn from David's prayer. If you're going to pray for divine judgment against your enemies, let God mete out that judgment. Don't you bring judgment against your and God's enemies. If you're going to ask God to go to war on your behalf, let God go to war on your behalf. And let God fight that war. In Deuteronomy, God says that vengeance is his and that he will repay So when we ask God to bring vengeance against his and our enemies, we ought to let him bring about that vengeance and not do it ourselves. So like David when he faces tormentors, we take our request to King Jesus and trust that he will repay his enemies for their torments against his people. And even if you believe all of those criteria that we've just talked about are met, I still want to warn you to be careful about how you pray, and especially how you pray for God's judgment. It can be easy to sin in your heart against someone, even when they have wronged you. So be careful. David doesn't stop at asking the Lord to go to war for him, though. In the first half of the psalm, he uses that metaphor of God rising up to go to war. But in the second half, in verse 11, he shifts gears. And now he's going to describe things a little differently. Beginning in verse 11, he's going to ask God to serve as a judge over his case. So if we think about verses 1 through 10 as God conquering all of his and our enemies, as the catechism question says, then verses 11 through the end of the chapter we can think about as God ruling over us and defending us from the catechism question. So the kings of Israel weren't only warriors, they didn't only go out to fight battles, but they also served in a kind of judge capacity. If you think about the story in The Old Testament, when Solomon's king, the two women bring a baby to him, they both say, this is my baby. And Solomon, in his wisdom, suggests cutting the baby in half and giving them each equal share. And this shows the wisdom of Solomon in that he's able to judge wisely to bring about the right conclusion. And so in this section of the psalm, David is now going to ask the Lord to serve as a judge in his case against his enemies. He explains to the Lord that his tormentors are like false witnesses who are bringing false charges against David, that they're openly mocking him in his distress. But David tells the story that when his enemies were in distress, he prayed for them, he mourned for them, he grieved for them. And now they've repaid the good he did with evil in return. So now that his enemies seek to destroy him, David cries out to the Lord as a judge. to vindicate his name, and he makes three different requests for vindication. First, David requests that his enemies not be allowed to rejoice over his destruction so that he can, in turn, rejoice over God's salvation. You see that in verses 17 through 19. I won't read over them again, but if you're looking at the text, you can see that there. Secondly, David requests that those who falsely claim to have seen David's deceit be revealed as liars because God has seen David's righteousness and the lies made against him. And that's verses 21 through 23. And third, David requests that his enemies be put to shame in order that the name of God be exalted. In verses 25 through 28. So just as I gave you three principles earlier for thinking about how to live in light of God as a warrior on your behalf, how to pray for divine judgment, now I want to give you some principles for how to live in light of God as your judge and defender. First, your primary concern, as was David's in these three requests, must be for the glory and honor of his name. All of David's requests above have at their center a concern for God's glory. He asks for salvation so that he might praise the Lord. He asks for his enemies to be put to shame so that God's name might be exalted. And he asks for their lives to be stopped so that God's truth might be known. So, as you seek to live as a subject of Christ in all that you do for him and ask of him, be sure that your primary concern is for his name and his glory. Second, David recognizes that God sees all things, even the things done in secret. And so he asks that his name might be vindicated, because even though these false accusations have been made against him, God knows the truth of the matter. So, in the same way, as you serve under Christ as one of his subjects, know that he sees all things. When you pray for vindication, know that he sees the deepest inner workings of your heart. Do not try to cover or hide your sin, but confess it openly to him. receive forgiveness from Christ in order that he can vindicate your name against the accusations of Satan on the last day. Not only that, but recognize that when the world hates you and tears down your name and reputation as a result of your service and submission to Christ, God sees those things too. And he knows the truth of the matter in those things as well. So have confidence before others, especially, this is important, especially young people, listen. Have confidence before others when they mock Christianity, when they mock the Lord, when they mock your faith. Because God sees those things. He knows the truth. And they will mock your beliefs. That's ridiculous. We talked about that a little bit this morning when we were talking about Chronicles and the way that people like to point out little inconsistencies in Scripture. Apparent inconsistencies in Scripture, I should say. They're going to try to make you feel ashamed because of what you believe. They're going to make you feel ridiculous for Christ's command to keep yourself pure. But don't believe that lie. David said, they're like profane mockers at a feast, and they will rejoice when you stumble. They will point and say, aha, see? We knew this Christianity thing was all a lie when you fall. But don't lose hope. The Lord sees, and he will vindicate your name for the sake of his name. So remain faithful to your king, and he will rule over you and defend you. The third and last principle that can be drawn from David's three requests is that God's rule over you and his defense of you ought to lead you to praise. Throughout the psalm, David goes back and forth announcing the ways in which he's going to thank and praise God based on the Lord's battle against his enemies and his defense of David. So, also, don't see Christ's rule as burdensome over you. But rather, when he comes to your defense, rejoice and praise his name. It can be easy for Christians, even those who are faithful believers, who trust in Christ, to resent God's actions in their lives. Sometimes you may feel as though you've got a better solution to the problem than God has presented for you. But I want to warn you against that kind of thinking because, as I said, God sees everything. He knows everything. Christ is your king and is king over the entire universe. He knows and sees all things. And there's nothing that comes about in this life apart from his will. He knows the end from the beginning and he's working out all of history for the good of his people. So when Christ's rule over you seems to be a harsh rule, Don't grumble or doubt, but rather trust in him, praise him for his gracious saving acts, and believe that he knows better than you do. So this far, we've seen how David's psalm teaches us to respond to Christ's rule and defense over us, and how to live in light of his conquering his and our enemies. And I want to make a final point of application which is to show how Psalm 35 teaches us to live in light of our subjection to Christ. As I said earlier, ultimately this psalm is a picture of the sinless life and the torment and oppression Jesus faced without cause and the vindication he received from the resurrection. And in Christ, we also receive that vindication. And in Christ, we have access to the Father, so we can make these same prayers that David makes. But this psalm also teaches us how to live in light of Christ's kingship. So when Samuel warned Israel about appointing an earthly king, he warned them of all the demands that these kings would make over them. and how the people would cry out for relief. King Jesus also makes demands of us. When he subdues us to himself, we are his people. We are his subjects. But where Israel's kings subdued the people to anguish, Our King, King Jesus, gives life by his subjection. So remember again Psalm 1. The righteous man who is like a tree planted by rivers of water and whatever he does he prospers. What's the evident, the identifying feature of that man? Psalm 1 says his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. So how does Psalm 35 teach you to live in light of your subjection to Christ? And I think the answer is clear. By careful attention to the law which King Jesus has given you. Now Psalm 35 doesn't explicitly mention David's subjection to Christ, but it's the foundation which undergirds everything else. David is certain in the rightness of his cause, calls for the defense and protection from his enemies on the basis of his subjection to Yahweh's law. So like David, as you seek to live in subjection to Christ, the foundation of your life must be on the law of God, on the word of God. Be like the wise man who built his house on the rock, not the foolish man who built his house on the sand. question I want to ask you as we close, the question I want to leave you with because there's not much, it would take an entire another sermon to answer this question for each of us in our various stations of life, but the question I want to leave you with is this. How do I, in my life, live in subjection to Christ? So fathers, mothers, children, older men, younger men, older women, younger women, What does King Jesus require of you? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this psalm that David wrote. We thank you for the way that it shows us a picture of your life, but also teaches us how to live as your subjects and your servants. I pray, Lord, that we will hear the words of this psalm, gain wisdom from it, and believe your word. In Christ's name, amen.