52. Any prayer requests this morning? And that was Chris, you said? Chris Fiber. Chris Fiber. Let's remember him in prayer and his family. Any others? Remember Connie and Tonya? I don't remember hearing anybody else that was sick, their home sick. Yesterday I had an opportunity to share a little bit to a family that lost a loved one yesterday over at the fire department, being prepared that what they heard might be working in their hearts and minds. Kim, you were going to say something? One more time? Okay. All right. Let's pray for the Kalfi family, Connie and others that are sick. Anyone else? Brother Bo, could you open us a word of prayer this morning then, sir? Amen. Psalms 52 is similar to Psalms chapter one. In that it gives a picture of two opposite polar kind of individuals. And in Psalms chapter 52, we're speaking about a mighty man and a mighty God, as you see entitled in Lesson 2, Psalms 52. And on Monday, in verses 1 through 4, it asks us to, how are the words of the wicked man described? In verses 1 through 4, Psalms 52, how are the words of the wicked man described? Anyone? One more time. Like a sharp razor. All right. Any others? Deceitful, yes. Any others? Verse two says it devises mischief. Sharp razor, deceitful. Verse number three speaks to being dishonest there when it says it chooses lying over righteousness, evil over good. And then verse number four, it says they're devouring words, devouring words. Anybody remember Pac-Man? Yeah. The words of evil. Tuesday, flip with me to 1 Samuel chapter 21, if you will, for a moment. 1 Samuel 21, put a finger or a piece of paper there, and Psalms 52, we'll be back. In Psalms 21, verses one through seven, says this, then came David to Nob. And I'm gonna read all these verses because the historical setting is found here. And then chapter 22, four, Psalms 52, it says, Then David came to Nob, to Elimelech the priest. And Elimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? David said unto Elimelech the priest, The king has commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know anything of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee. and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. Now, therefore, what is under thy hand? Give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. And the priest answered David and said, there is no communion bread under my hand, but there is hallowed bread. If the young men have kept themselves at least from women, And David answered the priest and said unto him, of a truth women have been kept from us about three days since I came out, and the vessel of the young men are holy, and the bread is a manner of common, yea, though it were sanctified this day. So the priest gave him hallowed bread. for there is no bread but the showbread that was taken from before the Lord to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdsmen that belonged to Saul. As we look at these verses, A couple things to bring to our understanding. Number one, this is Israel. It's not a church age. It was temple worship. And in temple worship, there was an outer court where people would bring their sacrifices. There was a great big brazen altar on which things were sacrificed. there was a place where they could wash, there was a place to kill, and then there was the inner court, and that is where the showbread, the candlesticks, and some of the holy things were in, and a priest would go in there every day. And then there was the holies that only on the Day of Atonement would they be able to go into the tabernacle, excuse me, not the temple, the tabernacle. And as we're dealing with this, there were different areas of tabernacle worship because not everybody would come to a central location. David obviously has not built his temple. They're still in tabernacle worship. Portable tent with a fence, having these three areas. This hallowed bread was to be cooked with no yeast and presented each day. As showbread, it represented things. So every day there would be bread that would go in and then there would be bread that would come out. Being only day old bread, now it might be a little bit harder because it's sitting there 24 hours, but then it would come out. It was allowed to be used instead of just discarded, but it had to be used in appropriate way. And that's why the priest is clarifying, he can't just give this, there's a difference between the communion bread described here and the hallowed bread. And using the term communion bread is not what we refer to as this, it's different. So when we're looking at this passage of scripture, we have a herdsman. Doag, who the Lord keeps in the vicinity, in verse number seven, and he hears and sees this transaction. David is there to get food for the guys that are with him, but David is on the run from Saul. This is where Saul has been He has already known that the Lord is not going to allow his lineage to be on a throne that David has been anointed and David is running away from him. And he needs some food. There's no bread, there's no food, and he goes to this priest. This high priest does not know that David is not really representing Saul right now. He's just thinking he's one of the king's men and he gives him the bread. Doag is there. As we see in verse 22, 18 through 23, we kind of catch a little bit more of the story. And the king said to Doag, verse 18 and 22, turn thou and fall upon the priests. And Doag the Edomite turned and fell upon the priests and slew on that day four score and 85 persons. That's 85, a number, that did wear a linen ephod. In other words, he killed 85 priests. But it didn't stop there. In verse 19, it says, and Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men, women, children, infants, oxen, ass, sheep, with the edge of the sword. And one of the sons of him, like the son Atub, named Athar, escaped and fled unto David. And Abathar showed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priests. Think about it for a moment. If you were David, how that would feel. You just heard as running as he was. And knowing that he's going to be king. that a multitude of people just lost their life because of a transition of five loaves or so of bread so that his men and he could have something to eat as they were there. Tuesday's question is what wicked man's evil way and then destroyed many priests? The answer, Doag the Edomite. D-O-E-G, the Edomite. If you read the verses between what we read in chapters 21 and 22 and then read on a little bit further, you'll see Doag sat on the information that he knew till just the right time. And when he knew that, he shared that in a moment that would enrage Saul and then he could get what he wanted to do. And that was going this murderous spree. And Wednesday, the question time goes back to Psalms 52, verse one. It says this. Why boastest thou in mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth forever. The goodness of God endureth forever. And then in Romans chapter two, it says this. Verse number four, or despise thou the riches of goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. The question there on Wednesday is why is it so important to remember God's goodness? Why is it so important to remember God's goodness? All right, leads to repentance. Rusty? Yep, endures continually. Anyone else? If you look at verses three in Romans chapter two, and I know it's not in there, but I always go before and after kind of thing. In Romans chapter two, verse three, it says, God's goodness allows us to escape judgment. God's goodness, we're guilty of a lot of things, but His goodness allows for Christ to come and pay for that. His goodness allows for forgiveness. His goodness allows that He might not give us what we're worthy or deserve in judgment. And then in verse number four of Romans two, it provides for a forbearance and a long-suffering in you and I, because we see a forbearance and a long-suffering in his goodness. Thursday, Psalms 52, verse five, what will God do to the wicked? What will God do to the wicked? pluck thee, root thee. These are some nice action words, aren't they? Yeah, verse number five, destroy thee, pluck thee, take thee away, root thee. Friday in Psalms 52, six and seven, it says, what will the reaction of the righteous be to the destruction of the wicked? What will the reaction be? Verses six and seven, it says this, the righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him. For lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trust in his abundance of his riches and strengthen himself in his wickedness. Anybody have an answer for what will God, or excuse me, yeah, what will God do to the righteous? Oh, we already did that. Boy, I need to get my head screen on. Verse number five, I was joking with Kevin earlier that I was congested and all that kind of good stuff. We're on Friday. What will the reaction of the righteous be to the destruction of the wicked? What will the righteous reaction be to the destruction of the wicked? Anyone? All right, fearful. Any other reactions? Verse number six says, we shall see, envy, and laugh. So I have see, fear, and laughing, and we'll get to that a little bit later on in our lesson, what some of that might be and mean, and some of it I'm still pondering and don't have a clue on. According to Psalms 52 verses eight and nine, why did David say he would do in contrast to the wicked man? Remember I told you the picture in Psalms 52 is much like a picture in Psalms 51 of righteous and unrighteous, evil, good. We see the picture of good in verses eight and nine. And the question is, what did David say he would do in contrast to the wicked man? Anyone have an answer for that? A little louder? Trust in the mercy of God. Praise him forever. There's one more thing listed there. Right there, halfway through verse nine. I will wait on thy name. I will wait on thy name. Anybody see anything else? All right, as we jump into the lesson, you see The first point is a conflict between the wicked and the righteous, the conflict between the wicked of the righteous. And we see this laid out now. We've looked at Psalm 51 last week where we we revealed David's heart and his soul had been kind of cut open for us to see for a multitude of people to see. How God worked in his life and therefore his reaction of his soul in his heart to search me, know me, cleanse me, forgive me, and the many things he had within his prayer last week. This week we see a reaction in David that is probably, you might get a different reaction from me if I had that. I mean, how many of you, after someone did something like giving you something to eat, and you learned that 85 of those individuals were dead, family members, extended family members, because of a simple request you had. How many of you would take that personally besides me? Anybody? Yeah, a few. I mean really, if somebody came in and burned down your house, would you take it personally? I would. Would there be some anger issues maybe in you initially? That's where David is. What's that? In verse Samuel, that's where David is. In chapter 22, when the messenger comes unto him and says, David, most, if not all the people in Noah are dead. 85 priests have been killed. He took it personally. It weighted him down. And we see Psalms 52 is an inspiration to the Holy Spirit to guide his reaction, to guide his perspective about what he could do or should do to Dolec. In verse number one, we start to see the mighty man. Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth forever. The word boasting is lifting oneself up. I mean, it's not someone patting another person on the back with congratulations, you did a good job. It's a self-promotion. It goes on to say mighty men. Now when we think of mighty men, we might think of some competitions that are out there where they grab those great big stone and they're just muscular or we might think of an endurance race like a triathlon. And there are competitors out there that are strength, endurance, might. This is not that. There are phrases within God's word that speak to David and his mighty men. Yes, an army that was mighty. Yes, men that were strengthened. This phrase here is of one who sets themself up or one who looks like, so combined with the boasting, it's you set yourself on a pedestal. And Christ, when he was dealing with the Pharisees and Sadducees, said to him, why do you take the chief seats? Why do you not sit somewhere else and then let someone move you up to chief seats where there would be honor? As opposed to if you take the best seats and they should be for someone else and you're asked or escorted to move back then, how humbling and abased that would be. We see in verse number two the tongue devising mischief the description of a sharp razor working deceitfully. Anybody get paper cuts recently? No? You all had one though, right? You know what I mean? Like a sharp knife or a sharp cut that does that and it stings any time liquid's in it. Stings when it opens up and the air gets in it. How many of you experienced a sting of a razor sharp word? There's hurt. This mighty man is not careful with how words are used. But when they are used, there's damage that is done. And verse number three goes on to say, they'll love us to evil more than good, and lying more than speaking. As much the words, it's starting to move into the attitude and the choices and the actions of the individual. And it goes in verse number four, thou lovest all devouring words, oh thou deceitful tongue. He's speaking about Doag. Doag had the opportunity and he seized it. Did he do it because it was an injustice to Saul? No, he did it because he saw an opportunity to make himself look good in Saul's eyes and therefore, I told you about the reading in there, the rest of the story. Saul commanded his men to do this. And they saw that it was the wrong path. They saw it was the wrong sense of justice for what had happened. And they said, not us. And in comes Doeg. Oh, I was there. I saw it. I'm your man. I'll do it. I got strength. I got might. I ain't scared. I'll get them dogs. Saul sends him on. He doesn't stop at what Saul said. He continues on in Noab on a bloodthirsty, murderous rage. Doag is no different than a Dahmer or Charles Manson. He has let his words, he has let his choices, he has let his attitude so move him to a place of action that he's evil. And yet in his mind, he was a mighty man. Verse number five. we start seeing God shall likewise destroy thee forever. And he shall take thee away, pluck thee out of the dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. You see in your lesson text the calamity that comes between the wicked. It speaks about those four things listed there that they'll be destroyed forever. Whenever leaving this earth happens for someone who is a mighty man in their own eyes, but evil, there will be a judgment seat, and that judgment seat will remove them for all eternity. They'll be in destruction, mayhem, loneliness forever. It's up to God. It says in the second part there in your lesson, God will take them away. God will take them away. Anybody ever seen an evil person live a long time? I have. Anybody seen an evil person have a short life? I have. Sometimes in our mind we can't recollect how God lets someone live even though they're so evil. We'll get to that in a moment. the rest of this about his good name and righteousness and waiting and such. But it says the third thing there, God will pluck them out of their dwelling place. Sooner or later, they'll be that recompense of their evil and it'll be removing from a physical place and he will root them out of the land of the living. Ultimately, death and destruction cometh to the wicked. To the mighty who think they're right, to the mighty who build themselves up, to the mighty who boasts of themselves, there's a God who still watches. And as we said last week in Psalms 51, just because judgment is not, or just because judgment is delayed, doesn't mean judgment is denied and won't ever happen. But for the goodness of God, these individuals have the opportunity to change. And I'm so, so thankful for that. Because at 11 and 12 years of age, I was one of these mighty men who built himself up. I was one of these mighty men who used words sharply. But for the grace of God, he could have plucked me out of my land, he could have taken me out of my dwelling place, but he allowed me to live long enough to hear about a Jesus Christ. And he allowed me to see that and illuminate that. And for you, he allowed you that same opportunity. If we were judge and jury, And we look back at the things we did before Christ, would you have been that good? Would you have waited that long? We see the conquest of the righteous in verses six through nine. The righteous shall also see fear and shall laugh at him. As soon as I read through this Monday, I circled or kind of looked at those three words and said, I'm gonna have to look at that further in the week. I do that, I try to start reading Monday. I usually don't do it Sunday night, getting ready for the next one, because I'm still kind of chewing on what God had. I'm supposed to be learning as well as you as we go through the lesson. Monday, Tuesday, somewhere in there, I try and get into the next passage of scripture and at least start reading it through. And as we're looking and reading through, I start looking for things that I think I understand, some things I've already looked at and know I understand, and things I don't have a clue on. Verse number six falls into things I think I understand, but now resides at I'm not sure I have a clue of. In verse number six, the righteous shall see. And it doesn't give us any time frame here in Psalms 52. It's not speaking about just the righteous living, I feel. I feel it's speaking of all the righteous who have ever lived and all the wicked who have ever lived. And as we look at this and set it in its context of David and Doag and what happened with Saul in this murderous spree, I don't know if there was ever a time where David did the third. He saw what transpired. He saw God working. When you look at verse number six, it goes on to say, and fear. Now, I know David feared God. In his early kingship, which yet follows the passage of scripture we read in 1 Samuel, we hear that he fears God, that he's a man after God's own heart. But you and I, Upon seeing how God deals with the unrighteous, we will see. Then it says we will fear. Now I looked up these words just because I knew sooner or later when I had these words, I would have to reconcile within my mind how to share it. how to understand it myself and then how to share it. Seeing simply means to see. That doesn't change. Fearing speaks of reverence, fear and fright. We will have a reverence towards God because of how he handles the wicked mighty men. Now, each of us have someone that's probably in our life who would like to see us stumble and fall. And this passage of scripture is speaking to the person who intentionally sticks a foot out there, throws a two by four as you're walking, whatever it might be, an action or a word or an opportunity to aid in you stumbling. And when that happens, verses six, seven, eight, nine are the ones that we're supposed to focus on instead of what naturally comes to us, and that's retaliation. What caught my attention when I first read through this, and shall laugh at him, in verse number six. In my mind, I just don't see a righteous person humored by the destruction of another soul. Yet the word that is used there and all that I can see as I looked it up Was that it simply means to laugh to mock or to deride? Nanananana Anybody ever heard that when you're a young kid, you know, I Told you so, you know That real hearty, ha, ha, ha, ha, glad it wasn't me. All of these things fit this word. Will we one day in heaven laugh at all the things that, I don't know, I don't know. But it simply says we will see, we will fear. We will laugh at this mighty person who was against us, this mighty person who sought to bring us down. We are to see, we are to fear, and we are to laugh only when God does it. When we look here at verse number seven, it says, lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trust in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness. So we see in the first seven verses the picture of an evil person looking for an opportunity to hinder God, hinder the righteous, hinder the way of God. As we look, our lesson says the conquest of the righteous But when we look at verse number eight and nine, it gives the response of a righteous. It's not really our conquest, it's a right response to when you're wronged by somebody who thinks they're mighty, they're haughty, they're better than you, they're building themselves up, they're taking advantage of the situation so they can one-up on you. What is your response? Verses eight and nine, but I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. So David in verse number eight is saying, I saw that. I had some real good feelings that day. I learned about it and they were anger. They were heaviness about what just happened and he was the cause. But he says, I trust. in the mercies of God. I'm gonna allow this offense to be judged and to be worked on by God. I'm gonna let his mercy, I'm gonna let his justice system take care of this. Verse number eight goes, excuse me, verse number nine says, I will praise thee forever. Wow. You know why the Holy Spirit put that in there for David? And you know why David decided to put that in there and do that? Because David within his heart and the Holy Spirit within God's heart and mind knows that when we praise, it can change our perspective, it can change our physical response system, We have fight, we have flight. We have adrenaline, we have all kinds of different hormones. And when we rage, when we stress, when we're fearful for our lives, there's physiological things that happen within our body that get us ready to protect ourself or deal with a situation. And we can look at a situation and bring that on unnecessarily. But when we praise God and we allow him to deal with the situation instead of making it ours to deal with, it brings on a different set of physical responses, emotional responses, and spiritual responses. So in verse number nine, he says, I'll praise thee forever and ever because thou hast done it. And I will wait on the name of the Lord for it is good before the saints. There's country music songs, there's rock songs, there's Christian music songs, there's all kinds of genre songs talking about a guy waiting on a woman. Anybody ever heard any one of those? Even once in a while there's probably one about a lady waiting on a man. And the word wait has several different Pictures. Sometimes waiting on the Lord. Is an active waiting word where we're doing what he wants us to do. And then. Waiting for us to tell what's next, but still be doing what we're supposed to be doing now. This waiting on the Lord. Is a weight that simply says. Allowing him to do with it. Just gonna let him do it in his time. I might have to endure some things I don't wanna do. I might wanna do some retribution that I should not do. And I want you to turn real quickly, if you will, to Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter five. And in Matthew chapter five, verses 38 and 39. You have heard that it has been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. But I say unto you that resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. These fall in a section of Scripture known as the Beatitudes. Matthew 5, 6, and 7, Jesus Christ is sharing the Sermon on the Mount, and he's sharing how the law and God's word at that point was intending to affect the people, but how the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees had twisted God's word in such a way. And when you see verse 38, it says, you heard, it's been said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This phrase was to speak about justice. However, mankind twisted this phrase to speak about retribution. I will get even. Maybe you heard it said, I don't get even, I get ahead. What Jesus is saying and what the Old Testament law has said was this, if someone breaks into your house and steals something from it, it doesn't give you the right to go to their house and burn it down to the ground because it's not equal injustice. Oh, we'd feel good about it. It would be retribution. It would be getting ahead. But God clearly in his words said if someone steals something they were, and caught, then they were to pay back a portion bigger than what they took, but not extravagantly so. When we think about our heart, when we think about our mind, And when David was faced with Doag the Edomite doing what he did, he could have very easily later on wiped out all the family in retribution. But he said, I will wait on the name of the Lord. And in his waiting he said, I will let God bring equal justice. I will let God show mercy. I will let God be benevolent. I will let God be long-suffering and forbearing, and I will not interfere with what God can do because He can do it better than I can. And again, with our sinful heart, how many of us would be equal if someone offended us in offending them just to the right amount and not cross the line? I know I wouldn't. So Christ in this passage of scripture is saying, you've heard it said, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Equal justice. But then he gives the, putting it back into perspective of where it was in the Old Testament long before man used it for their own, I'm gonna get you back when you offend me. He said this in verse 39, that you resist not evil, but whoso shall smite you on the right hand, turn to cheek. Now there were times where Jesus didn't allow certain things to happen. But could you imagine while he's being falsely accused and falsely judged, getting smacked on the face and his beard plucked out, he just said that's enough and stood up and poof! And there lays Pharaoh, There lays everybody that's around him and he's cold cocked them all and they're down. Would we have a savior? No. Could we look at it and say he would have been justified? It was all unfair, it was all, we could. But you and I, if we are to be the picture of this olive tree by the temple. If we're the picture of a righteous person who has been offended, our response needs to be tempered by, I'm gonna allow God to even the score, not me. A closing thought in Romans, and we'll be dismissed. In Romans chapter 12, Let me jump over 10 chapters real quick from my bookmark. Romans chapter 12, verse number nine. I'm pretty sure we've heard this verse before. It says, let love be without dissimilation. Abhor that which is evil. cleave to that which is good. So we're to love without respect of who the person might be, that's the word dissimilation. We're to be repulsed by evil, were to cling to that which is good, and then verse 19, it says this in the same chapter, dearly beloved, avenge not yourself, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. When you are faced with a mighty man that sets themself up in boasting, waiting for you to fall, the best way to handle that is go to Lord in prayer. Love as best you can love. Be abhorred by the action that's taking place, and David was. Cling to that which is good and allow the goodness of God, the forbearance of God, the mercies of God, and the justice of God to prevail. Don't take the place in the situation of being offended. of God, allow God to have his place. He'll even the score far better than you and I could ever be in that situation. Just some thoughts out of Psalms 52. As David faced Doag, the murderous rage he went on, he said, I will, I will cling to good, I will, Fear God, I will praise him forever. I will wait for God to act on my behalf. Wow, what a challenge for us this morning. Let's close in a word of prayer. Father, I once again thank you for your word and the challenge you have within it. May our souls be stirred, we pray in Christ's name, amen.