Let's start with a word of prayer and we'll get on with our Sunday school lesson this morning. Thank you, Lord, for your safety. Thank you for your watch care over us. Thank you for you being our defender, our deliverer, our Lord and Savior. Thank you for you being our judge and to watch over us and keep us on the right track. Just pray that you'll be with us now as we study your words, study the book of Psalms here this morning. Bless us and everything that's said, everything that's talked about, Lord, that will bring honor and glory and praise to you. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, good morning. Thanks for coming back. And we're gonna pick up where we left off here two weeks ago. We had a good trip down to see our daughter last week. and appreciate being able to be gone. And we left off last time with Psalm 35, and I felt a little rushed through Psalm 35, so we'll kind of start there this week and go on. We have the key verses here, verses 9 and 10 of chapter 35. And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in his salvation. All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like you delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him? Yes, the poor and needy from him who plunders him. And we look at the outline here, David's prayer to defeat his adversaries. You know, two weeks ago, when we looked at this, we were kind of going through this. And this week, when I was kind of reviewing it, I said, I need to look at this outline. It's a long outline. And so I kind of went through this prayer, his prayer for their defeat, for their humiliation, for the angels to pursue them. And what I found here, which was really kind of cool, that the Lord is the avenger of his people. And David's prayer said, let them, and think of all the things he was praying for, let them be put to shame. Let his adversaries be brought to dishonor. To be turned back, to be brought to confusion, be like chaff. You know, that one hit me, of course, because, you know, I grew up on the farm. And, you know, baling hay, that was kind of my thing. There's something about chaff, folks. There's not much to it, but if it gets inside your shirt, it's an irritant. I tell you. Nothing quite like it. But the chaff, let them be like chaff. Let them be away. It'll blow away. There's nothing to it. Let the angel of the Lord chase them. Let their way be slippery. Let the angel of the Lord pursue them. Now, I don't know about you, but if the angel of the Lord's chasing them, if the angel of the Lord's pursuing them, I think they're in deep trouble. Let their destruction come to them unexpectedly. And I like this, let his own net catch him. You know, he lays the net out for us to catch us. And David says, let his own net catch him. And that's a great promise there. So here, when trials and troubles come without cause, and you'll notice here in the chapter, we have without cause, like in verse 9. And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in his salvation. Where's my without cause here? I put verse 9 to be joyful. Hold on here. Oh, there it is, verse 7, which they have dug without cause for his life. They have done all these things without cause. But when the trials and troubles come without cause, remember, be joyful in the Lord. He is, and he says, I am your salvation. Those who seek after you, fierce witnesses and adversaries, because they will come, The answer is, Lord who is like you, he will deliver. He's our deliverer. He's not only our judge, he's our deliverer. God sees all things, he knows all things, even what's in our hearts. You know, many times we don't think about our heart attitude. You know, we portray this persona about ourselves to other people. But what's really truly in our heart? What's truly in our heart? Let the Lord be magnified. Are we praising Him? Are we magnifying the Lord? And I love this in verse 28. We left off with this last time. Praise Him all day long. It's an admonishment to me and an admonishment to you to praise Him. Praise Him all day long for everything that He does for us. Everything that He is doing. Thoughts, Psalm 35. All right, well, we finished up with that last time. Let's go on here. Psalm 50. Psalm 50. God the righteous judge. Three key verses I found here, and one of them I picked just because. Psalm 50, verse 10. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle of a thousand hills. And you know, when I grew up on the farm, we had plenty of cattle. I mean, my dad had Holsteins when I was born, and he sold the farm, and then he had to go back to the farm, and we had Black Angus, and we had that for a while, and then we, grandma got remarried, so we had to sell that farm, and so we went back to Holstein again. So we've had plenty of cattle. But my dad's favorite song, I know, I have to bring songs into this. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. You think about it, as a farmer, or any of us, the promise is just in that song. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine. We may not have wealth, but he does, and he supplies our needs. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine. He owns the rivers and the rocks and rills, the sun and stars that shine. Wonderful riches more than tongue can tell. He is my Father, so they're mine as well. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. I know that, get this, He will care for me. He will care for us. So that verse is a blessing to me. I just love it, you know. Psalm 50, verse 15, call upon me in the day of trouble. When we call upon the Lord, it says, I will deliver you, but it doesn't stop there. It says, and you shall glorify me. Think about that. He delivers us. Are we glorifying Him? All those little things that He does for us, we do, we thank Him. Do we praise Him? Do you thank Him that when that gas tank is getting low that you make it all the way to the gas station without running out of gas? You know, I remember growing up on that country road, we ran out of gas. Guess who had to walk back to the house to get gas? It wasn't mom, it was the kids. Good thing we had six, you know. But God supplies our needs. God supplies our needs. We need to glorify him. And verse 23, whoever offers praise glorifies me. And to him who orders his conduct aright, I will show the salvation of God. You know, Psalm 50 is really, when I looked at this, divided into basically three sections. The first section, I think we'll see that here in the outline here, is verses one through six. But it's that God is the judge. You know, the outline here, it's a subpoena from God. You know, when we think about God being a judge, and I think of law, the subpoena, an order to appear. We need to appear before Him. And here's the call for judgment. He's the judge, I mean, the mighty one, has spoken. Out of Zion, God will shine forth. Our God shall come and shall not keep silent. The fire shall devour him and it shall be very tempestuous all around him. He shall call to the heavens above and to the earth that he may judge his people. And then it ends there in verse six, for God himself is judge. And then the second section, the admonition to the righteous. Here, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. We have a heart of worship to God. He, everything is His. Now look it here. I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices, for your burnt offerings. I will not take a bull from your house, nor goats out of your folds. Every beast of the forest is mine. the cattle of a thousand hills, all the birds of the mountains, all the wild beasts of the fields are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine in all its fullness. I will eat the flesh of bulls, I will drink the blood of goats. Offer to God thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you will glorify me. And then the last section here, or that third section is, move my page, the third section, the condemnation of the wicked. The condemnation of the wicked. But to the wicked God says, God says to the wicked, what right have you to declare my statutes or to take my covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast my words behind you? When you saw a thief, you consented with him. You have been a partaker with adulterers. You have given your mouth to evil, your tongue to famed deceit. You slander your own mother's son. You know, it's part of the Ten Commandments here. You know, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not bear false witness, all found in these verses here. These things you have done and I kept silent. So if I look at the summary here, the summary is in verses 22 and 23. Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there is none to deliver, whoever offers praises to me and to him who orders his conduct of right, I will show the salvation of God. So in verses one through six, when speaking of the judge, Come quickly, Lord Jesus. He's the Mighty One. He's spoken. God will shine. Our God shall come. God Himself is judge. Teach me how to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving. When you look there in verse 14, offer to God thanksgiving. True worship and sacrifices from a heart faithful to God's work, God's word, excuse me, recognizes the fact that everything we bring to God is already His. Everything we bring to God is already His, including ourselves. Are we giving Him, are we sacrificing ourselves for Him? Think about those situations you come up against each week, those people that you are involved with. Are you letting Him have control or are you working on in your own self? We are His and everything that we have is His. Teach me to love your word and your discipline. Believers who despise God's disciplinary chasing have already despised His word. I was thinking about this little section this morning as I was going through my notes here again. Do you realize that many times when we are getting disciplined by God, that the reason we're getting disciplined is we're headed down the wrong path, and we just are too bullheaded to realize it, and he's guiding us to the right way. He's guiding us to the path he wants us to be on. And sometimes those trials, those troubles come, and we just say, I can't do it. Why are you sending it, Lord? He's trying to wake us up and bring us to where we need to be, trusting in Him. He's judging us, but He wants to bring us to Himself. Thoughts here on Psalm 50. Long chapter, but it's good. Got a lot of good stuff in there. Thoughts. Yeah, and that's kind of the theme that I've seen throughout the book of Psalms. That no matter if we're going through a trial, whether we're going through trouble, no matter what the Psalm is about, the Psalm is ultimately wanting us to glorify Him, to bring us back to Him. And we'll see some other just good, I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm excited when I study Psalms. I mean, it's just packed full of little nuggets, you know, I just, I'm rich. So, other thoughts? Other thoughts? Psalm 50. All right. I kept silent, verse 21. Now this is something I've looked at. You know, many times we say, why, Lord, don't you judge those people that are doing wrong? I found this little quote here. The wicked foolishly think that they have God as confused about their motives as their human contemporaries, because God has done nothing to strike them down. They assume he's unconcerned, or even worse, that he is altogether like them. Boy, are they confused. God will judge. And he may be silent for a time, but he will judge in his time. He is true, and his word is true. Let me focus on spiritual things, verse 23 is just the great thing here. God will judge his people for heartless and hypocritical worship. You know, I've been in that spot. You know, you come to church because it's the thing to do. Are you really here to worship? You're just going through the motions. You know, you need to change that attitude, change that whole thought process so that you are here to worship Him, to love Him, to sing praise to Him, to be thankful, to learn from His Word, and you'll get a new, renewed blessing from Him. Any thoughts on this? And even during this morning, our time of communion, a time for us to focus on him. Yeah, we have communion every month, but do we just kind of go through that ritual of having communion, or do we really focus on ourselves and our relationship to him and all that he's done for us in his sacrifice? It's a great point, thank you. Yeah, Grant. Right. And, you know, I don't know if you have illustrations about that, but I, you know, I know of one man that's probably in hell today. He's died. But I remember him saying that, you know, why do I want to be a Christian? I see how they live. And it's a testimony to us, or an admonition to us more, that we need to live right around other people. We need to portray Christlikeness. Because people are watching. And I remember growing up in Christian school, you know? And to me, the example of those younger kids that are looking up to you, well, you are a role model. And people do look up to you. And even as adults, they look to you for guidance. And they look to you to see what a Christian's really, truly like. Because they may want to be like you. They admire you. And that doesn't mean we won't fail. You know, we're all human. You know, sometimes we forget that part. But God needs to be working in our hearts and working in our lives. And I'm thankful for his word. Thankful for these little nuggets that he gives us to say, yep, I need to look to him. I need to trust him. Any other thoughts? All right, Psalm 54. Psalm 54. Key verse I have. Verse six, I will freely sacrifice to you, voluntarily offer, completely give of yourself. I will praise your name, O Lord, for it is good. Praise your name for it is good. The theme I have for this chapter, when trouble comes knocking. Now think about it. When trouble comes knocking at the door, what are you gonna do? Well, the point of the outline here is call on the Lord, trust in the Lord, worship the Lord. Look at this one, he says, call on the Lord, save me. Oh God, by your name, vindicate me by your strength. Hear my prayer, oh God. God answers prayer. Look at this, give ear to the words of my mouth. For strangers have risen up against me. The oppressors have sought my life. They have not set God before them. Who can I trust? David's talking here. I mean, the adversaries have come. Who can I trust? Simply call on him, because it says in verse four, behold, God is my helper. The Lord is with those who uphold my life. He will repay my enemies for evil. And then it finishes up the chapter, I will freely sacrifice to you. I will praise your name for it's good, for he has delivered me out of all trouble. He answers prayer. We need to worship Him. The major point of the psalm is clearly on the powerful and effectual name of Yahweh. Yahweh may seem absent from the world, but those who invoke His name with faith and courage will discover the reality of His awesome presence. Verses one and two. Save me, O God, by Your name. Vindicate me by Your might. Hear my prayer, O God, give ear to my words. I'm thinking of Philippians chapter two, verses nine through 11. Wow, therefore God has highly exalted him. Yahweh has a name, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, Every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Wow. He has a name. And I keep thinking of those songs. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. There is a name I love to hear, I love to sing. I mean, on and on we can go about that name Jesus. Do you love to sing about him? Think about the richness of what he has done for us. He sacrificed himself. I can't do anything but praise him. Thank him for what he's done. Save me from my enemies by your power. He promised he'll do it. Hear my prayer, he will. Be my helper and my support. When I feel betrayed, rejected, abandoned, we need to take our problem to God in prayer. He's the resource, he's where it goes. Thank him for saving you. Thank him for saving you. God's righteous justice will prevail. And I think of the first Timothy 2, four through six. Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth? For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Are we telling them about it, others about him? Are we testifying of him? Think about your life and what God has done and what you can tell others about how he has brought you through this trial, this trouble. He is Lord. He's true. He's just. Thoughts here on Psalm 54. And you brought a good point. I mean, we can pray for vindication, but we've probably been there too. We've probably done the same kind of thing. But yet at the same time, I think David, it's clearly showed us that praying for vindication is not wrong, even though we need to, I think I pointed out two weeks ago that we need to love one another, but yet, at the same time, God is judge, and we need to pray to him to vindicate and set things right, but there are, I guess, situations that, when's the right time, when's the wrong time, that's kind of the question. So, any thoughts from you folks? Yeah, Grant. I think you're right. I think we'll see that even as we continue through these judgment type Psalms. I think it comes full circle. Yeah, it's back on us that we need to look at that. Good point, yeah, Wayne. And you have to look at David as far as praying for their salvation. Yeah, we should be praying for the salvation of the lost. But yet, David was looking at it from the standpoint of, he's got armies pursuing him, and kings pursuing him, and all these people that are against him. They're speaking evil of me. I try to do good, and they do evil to me. Throughout these Psalms, we're seeing that. Chuck. It's a hard thing. Yeah. I suppose Chuck is saying that this was not correct back when I was coaching Hillsbury. Oh. Oh, no. He said, now, Lord, help us to beat those Catholics. Oh, my. Oh, my. Could see something coming with that one. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, pastor. All right. And we need to look at both. You know, we need to pray for their salvation. And a lot of times we're looking at, and I don't know, I mean, it may be something different, but is it an attack on us or is it an attack on him? Because ultimately we want to bring glory to Him. The Lord doesn't want things necessarily bad to happen to us, but those things will happen. But we need to pray that the Lord, in His righteous judgment, will have control and take care of the situation. Yeah, Chuck. Yeah, and I think that's what, I think it's evident through here, that there isn't any specific name, it's just the wicked and what they're doing, and I think that's a good point to be brought out, that bring salvation or judge them, whoever it may be. And we can use it in general terms, we don't have to be specific. I mean, the Lord knows our heart, he knows what we're thinking, But yet at the same time, he knows what's going on. He's in control. And so that was another one that was listed in the syllabus, Psalm 55. But we covered it under crisis and desperation. But yet at the same time, it's a judgment psalm. And cast your burden upon the Lord, he will sustain us. There's great promises in all these psalms. It's like your cup's full and it keeps running over with all the promises and blessings It's like, I gotta keep reading these things over and over again. I'm so blessed with what God has given us, so. Any other thoughts? Thanks for all your comments this morning. It's great. Gives us a lot to think about. Keep digging in his word. Keep reading the Psalms here. I'm getting a blessing every single week, every single day reading these things, and I hope you do too. I mean, delve into them, search them out, and you'll get more and more blessings as you read, so. Any other thoughts? Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your great love for us. Thank you that, yes, you are a judge. But let your name be glorified and exalted in everything that's said and done, bring the unsaved to you, and judge the wicked, Lord, and is thankful for these Psalms. Thank you for the richness of the words that bring us to you and to trust you and glorify you as our salvation and our deliverer. Bless us now as we look into Ecclesiastes. The pastor speaks, just pray he'll guide his words, touch our hearts and lives, and make our lives change for the better for you, in Jesus' name, amen.