You know, sometimes we read lines in the Psalms and the meaning is just immediately clear and compelling. We read something in a Psalm and we think, I get that. Obviously, this is what that means. There are other times, this morning is such a time. Other times we read lines in the Psalm and we think, hold on a second, what exactly is going on here? Sometimes the language might not just be unclear. It seems actually surprising. It's the thing you might not have expected a psalmist to say. So for instance, in verse one, in the midst of the gods, he holds judgment. What's going on there? Or in verse six, I said, you are God's sons of the most high, all of you. Hmm. It's understandable for readers to come across these statements and wonder, what's the best way to get at what's happening here? Well, we're in Psalm 82. This is in book three of the Psalms that we've been studying for several weeks. And book three is from Psalms 73 to 89. Most of those Psalms from 73 to 83 are from Asaph. You'll see that this Psalm this morning is also from him. We're near the end of the Asaph group, which will end next Sunday morning. And Asaph is very concerned in these Psalms, so far in book three, with the notion of judgment. Of the fact that the wicked think they're getting away with things, the fact that there is an appointed day of righteous condemnation and wrath that will come, and that the people of the Lord should hope in the righteous and just dealings of their God, who is working out His will, not only in the present day, but also in an ultimate day of wrath. Asaph is concerned about this notion, not concerned in a way that he's suspect of it, but concerned in that he wants to put it forward to us to think about as a theme that pervades these psalms. We're not surprised that in one of these psalms from Asaph, this theme resumes this morning. Now the righteous judgment theme has as its immediate context, its immediate outworking, the concern for earthly image bearers. That the people on the earth, like the weak, the fatherless, the afflicted, the destitute, all groups that are named in this psalm, would have right dealings and treatment toward them, since we might know in ancient days and in present day, the wicked are not interested in justice. And it turns out that in this psalm, the plea for the psalmist is that the weak and the needy would be delivered and rescued. In the ancient world, if you were among the weak and the needy, The gap between those who would seek the Lord and depend upon the Lord and would be prevailed upon and exploited and taken advantage of by others over them was often described as the dynamic between the righteous who are afflicted by the wicked who have seized and are unfaithfully wielding their power. And this is a call ultimately then for the Lord to bring justice. Through the intermediaries and the judicial representatives that are named in this psalm, ultimately final and true justice comes from the Lord himself. The psalm ends that way. That's where it's going. Arise, O God, the psalmist ends with. Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations. This means the Psalms scope is a concern for dealing with the wicked and that the Lord himself above all and at the end of all things shall be the one most trusted and faithful to apply and execute his wrath. This Psalm has three parts to it. Most of it in the middle is about the Lord's words to the people. But in verse one, the psalmist speaks, and in verse eight, the psalmist speaks again. The psalm opens and ends with verse one and verse eight, the psalmist addressing his audience. In the middle though, as I mentioned a moment ago, the largest part of the psalm consists of verses two to seven. Words from the Lord, our translations are helpful here, by giving us quotation marks to help set apart that these words are an address. an indictment from the Lord himself. So the psalmist speaks, verse one. The Lord speaks, verses two to seven. The psalmist speaks again with a prayer for God to arise in judgment over the earth in verse eight. In verse one, there is a courtroom scene. You might've gotten that impression already in verse one. God has taken his place in the divine council. In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment. It's to picture an assembly where God himself presides as righteous judge. But what is going on here, even if that's the impression, and I think that's correct, some of these details could use a little bit of unpacking, because courtroom settings can vary in the Old and New Testaments. The Lord is the righteous judge in all the heavenly places, presiding over, as righteous judge, over all the principalities and powers of this age, even those that would be in rebellion against him, God is God over them. We also recognize that in an earthly sense, any particular rulers and authorities under the sovereignty of God are not independent sovereigns, but are themselves under the authority of God, and he is the righteous judge over all the earth. And so this language of divine counsel, and in the midst of gods, he holds judgment, has sometimes led people to think, are we dealing primarily with the spiritual realm of things? Are we dealing primarily with the earthly realm of things? How does that work out? This phrase divine counsel can sound at first like something angelic, heavenly, and spiritual. You need to know that sometimes this is phrased elsewhere in the Old Testament as the congregation of the Lord. The divine council can also be translated the congregation of God. You see this in Numbers 31, for example. Numbers 31, 16, the plague came upon the congregation of the Lord. That divine assembly or group is his people, his earthly community. Another instance would be Joshua 22, 16 and verse 17, which speaks of the congregation or assembly or council of Yahweh. So this word council is not about gathering together to receive council, that's spelled differently. This divine council is about an assembly, something that is gathered together and who is involved in that. Most of the time this word is used, it's about a human assembly of earthly individuals. whether it's the community of faith in Numbers and Deuteronomy or something broader. I lean toward that view, that God has taken his place in the divine council, a phrase that is speaking about God presiding as the righteous judge over people who have assembled or gathered together. But who is gathering? If we're leaning towards something human or earthly in view, who among them are coming together? And it says in verse one, in the midst of the gods, he holds judgment. And there are two main ways to take this. First is leaning toward the spiritual or angelic side of things. And it's true that in the Old Testament there are principalities or powers that act with influence in God's world. We can still be surprised that the term gods appears. It doesn't say angels. It says in the midst of the gods he holds judgment. Who are these gods? And if you have an instinct that says, wait a second, I thought there are no other gods. They don't exist, right? Only Yahweh, the true and living God. The gods of the nations aren't gods. Those are false idols. That is a good instinct. And that is correct. The writer is not insisting that, oh, all of a sudden I pulled a fast one on you. There are actual deities alongside Yahweh. That's not what's going on here. Whatever we make of this line in verse one, it does not contradict what the biblical authors have taught elsewhere in the Bible, that there's only one true and living God. The deities supposedly put forward in worship by the other nations are no gods at all. But this view of gods has been taken by some to refer to angelic principalities and powers. They're gods in that they have some kind of authority or influence. Like God himself over all the world who exerts authority and sovereignty. The book of Daniel gives us some insight here. It seems that there are angelic powers that have influence on nations to work evil agendas. And that that would be synonymous with maybe what the gods are here. Now, while angelic powers or principalities in the spiritual realm can be viewed as mighty principalities that are under the judgment and authority of God, I think a different view is to be preferred. And I'll explain why. I think these gods, this term gods, refers to human rulers in judicial positions. And the reason is we have more than verse one to try to unpack what's going on. For example, in verse two, these gods that he's gathered in the midst of to hold judgment, they are judging unjustly. In verse two, they're showing partiality to the wicked. In verse three, they ought to be attending to the weak and the fatherless, the afflicted and the destitute to rescue in verse four, the weak and the needy from the wicked. In verse six, they die, or verse seven, I'm sorry, like men you shall die and fall like any prince. So the mortality of these figures are in view and addressing by rebuke with the Lord's question here, why they're continuing to deal out wicked and unjust verdicts. So it might seem odd, to refer to human rulers or judges as gods. But we have to know what the Bible means and doesn't mean by that. The Bible doesn't mean they're deities. The Bible is clear elsewhere. There's no God but God. So in calling them this with this term, the Bible must be doing something different than ascribing divinity. The Psalms do this elsewhere in Psalm 58 with the same term about human beings. Psalm 58, beginning in verse one, the psalmist says, do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly? No, in your hearts you devise wrongs. Your hands deal out violence on the earth. So it is possible to see someone with great authority and influence like someone in a judge position. Someone who would have judicial roles in addressing things that have to be addressed in an earthly sense and in their injustice be rebuked by God as God's wrongly wielding their authority. They're only gods in the sense that they have a derived authority or influence. They can affect people. that they have decisions that when their decisions or decrees or verdicts are rendered, there are ramifications with that. So there is an imitation, okay? An imitation of the one true God by righteous rulers, righteous judges. There is a defiance against the one true God when those who have a derived authority unfaithfully wield it. So this word God's, just to be clear, is not about recognizing any actual image bearer as a deity. Rather, it is about recognizing authority and influence that these people possess. They are God-like in that sense alone. They have power over others, a derived power, but nevertheless, it is a real authority. Even if that view sounds strange, maybe it would be useful to know that among the early church fathers, the reformers and the Puritans, this is the main view. So this is an ancient view, well-established in church history, that in Psalm 82, he's speaking of human judges or rulers whose decisions impact the lives of others. I think that that view is correct. God takes his place in the assembly. the assembly of humans who are gathered to hold judgment, to preside over with righteous deliberation and evaluation. And he begins in the midst of these gods or these human judges to speak about what they're failing to do. All right, so verse one, the psalmist begins to speak and describes what's going on. But the whole point of all of this is once we get a sense of who the audience is, who's being addressed, now let's get to what's being said. In verses 2 to 7, the divine evaluation. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? How long? That's a question we've heard in the Psalms before. It's not typically asked by the Lord though. Usually when we see this question, The weak and the needy are saying, how long, O Lord? How long until the wicked fall? How long until evil is vanquished? How long, O Lord? This is a question from the Lord to a group of people. His question is also, how long? It's basically like this. How long are you going to be disobedient? How long are you going to be unjust? How long are you going to be corrupt in your rulings? How long? So when this question is turned on its head, the Lord turns this question upon these wicked rulers, these gods who are unfaithful, and he addresses them with rebuke because they are unjust. They are wicked. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? By turning this question upon them and by invoking the notion of partiality, he's reminding us that justice is impeded when people are not interested in the truth and the right outcome for all parties involved and instead are saying, well, for whatever reason, I'm just gonna side with this or side with that without looking at what would truly be a just treatment of the situation. Judges in the ancient world would put justice and their neighbor in danger. In fact, we could say that neighbor is harmed when injustice reigns. When unjust judges and unjust rulers exert their influence and authority, people get hurt. Lives are negatively impacted. The problem of corrupt judges is not just an old problem. Oh, if there were only some modern examples, ah, I found some. In Charlotte, North Carolina, a 15-year-old has just been arrested for the 111th time in two years, which averages to an arrest every four days. And this includes a variety of crimes, including inquiries about how to murder law enforcement, 111 times in two years. The only reason that would lead to that particular point, I think we could all agree, is if certain things are not being put into place to curb this kind of behavior. In 2017, four people kidnapped and tortured a teenager with special needs for two days. One of the assailants received probation for four years. Another assailant served less than 18 months in prison after kidnapping and torture. In a recent ruling, several teens involved in an attempted carjacking received probation. The people had beaten the victim to a point where there were broken bones in a concussion. And the ruling from the judge is that the perpetrators would serve probation for 12 months and another probation for nine months, zero jail time. One honest expression from the judge said, it is her job to rehabilitate, not to punish. Well, that sounds compassionate, but a lot of injustice can be snuck into the situation through the guise of compassion. Rehabilitate, not to punish. Let's think about that phrase for just a moment. That's what you call a false dichotomy. It's a false choice. Rehabilitate, not to punish. No, of course the goal should be both. You would certainly hope that any who receive consequences from crimes would take a different path and be a law-abiding citizen. But the notion of punishment is certainly part of judicial responsibility for those who have committed crimes. If people commit crimes with little to no consequences, What message do you think that would send? Does it send a message of deterrence? Is it an encouragement to rehabilitate? The message is, unfortunately, that you can commit crimes against other people and not face serious or long-term consequences for them. Again, a worldview at root must be explored. What does the Bible teach about the nature of man? What does it teach about how people change and how social deterrent works? What does the Bible teach about the corrupted nature of man? We are not blank slates. People are sinners. And it is true that according to the Bible, a major role for governing and judicial authorities is to deter evil and promote what is good. When that's not happening, when corrupt rulings and unjust judges Give decrees. People suffer. And the people who suffer are the weak and the needy and the vulnerable and the afflicted and the destitute. They suffer the most. So he says, give justice to the weak and the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. These people are made in the image of God in verse three. But when corruption in the systems, ancient or modern, plays to rich, powerful, political, social, whatever is the case, and justice is compromised, then what happens is the weak and the needy receive unjust treatment as a result. Give justice, that's the concern. And yes, we would long for rehabilitation to be a part of that, that serious lessons are learned. Don't let anybody tell you it's rehabilitation or punishment, and you need to be about the one and not the other. It's a false choice. Give justice to the weak. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. In other words, the judges are to give justice. remedy and treatment to a situation that has taken place, not just sinfully, but criminally in order that it might be rectified. And in verses three and four, here are groups listed who are taken advantage of by wicked people. The fatherless, the destitute, the weak, the afflicted, they are preyed upon. They are sinned against. And injustice ensures further mistreatment upon them. So the main responsibility of the judges is to address the wrong committed against the victims. And in this case, four imperatives, give justice, maintain the right, rescue, and deliver, all summarize what God expects of them. They should not then only be concerned about doing what is just, they must do what is just or what is righteous according to what God defines as just and righteous. Give justice, but justice is not for their subjective definition. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute, rescue and deliver. They are agents of the Lord in the earthly citizenry, aren't they? that as we are citizens on earth, we are sinners living with sinners and there are sinners who commit crimes against other sinners. And a role for the judges are to imitate the Lord by being a means of righteousness, by being vessels of justice. Now, what's going on with these judges? Well, see, the problem is at the root of their heart and mind. It's in their worldview. What's happening in verse five? He's gonna diagnose it for you. Why do they rule unjustly? Why do they not care about the right remedy and treatment for the victim? Why do they play on the side of what would end up being a result of corruption and injustice? Well, in verse five, they have neither knowledge nor understanding. They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. He describes the human judges here by giving you some spiritual dynamics at play. Having neither knowledge nor understanding, he must mean they're spiritually. They would have various degrees of knowledge and understanding in their judicial roles, but neither knowledge nor understanding and walking about in darkness. These are figurative or metaphorical statements about the fact that they don't operate with a kind of fear of the Lord and a love of neighbor and a pursuit of truth and justice. That's not what animates them. And as a result, in verse five, the foundations of the earth are shaken. Now, when the psalmists talk about how the Lord holds the pillars of the earth, it's about his might, his sovereignty, his wisdom, his total supremacy over all things. But when the earthly foundations are shaken, it's drawing attention to something social and political that is the downstream from unjust activity. And if unjust people are causing greater harm and suffering on the weak, the destitute, the afflicted, the fatherless, and you can keep the terms going, then the foundations of the earth being shaken must refer to, in some sense, the disorder that that creates. In order for us, I'm using the word order a lot, I realize, in order for us, To flourish as citizens in societies, our lives and societies must be rightly ordered with a concern for justice and righteousness. Which would lead us to conclude in verse 5, if the people granted influence and authority have darkened understanding and in their hearts come out with decrees that are unjust and wicked, then the foundations or order in which we ought to be flourishing are compromised. And therefore, injustice threatens the citizenry. In verse 6, he says, I said, you are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you. Nevertheless, like men you shall die and fall like any prince. Friends, if we care about the needy and the destitute and those harmed by crime and mistreatment, then we will care about justice and truth and define it according to the Word of God. that there are plenty of people who want things for themselves and that they might think in their own subjective understanding, this is what I want or this is what would benefit me. But not everything we want is good. And not everything that might be granted according to the desires of those in a culture or society would be good for that culture or society. We don't want the foundations to be shaken. And we want people not with darkened understanding, but with the light of truth and the cause of justice to do what is right. And he says, you are gods. Sons of the Most High, all of you. So when he's talking with this assembly, I think he's reminding them that they have an authority and influence in their role that they must take seriously. One way they would get this wrong is if they thought it made them invincible. that I'm untouchable because look at who I am and look at what I can do, and I'm going to get away with this or that, and I'm going to do what I want. I'm going to decree and give verdicts and deliberate, and I'm going to take this side or that, and it's not going to be because of pursuit of truth and justice. I'm going to do what I want. He says in verse 7, you will die. You will fall like any prince. helping them to remember that relative to the Most High God, they are not gods like God is God. They need to meditate on their vulnerability. They need to die to their pride. They need to embrace the important role they have socially and for the cause of justice and truth. And they need to do so with humility, with reminder that we are mortal people with these roles. And one Puritan named Thomas Watson put it this way, the meditation of death would pull down the plumes of pride. He says, thou art but dust animated. Shall dust and ashes be proud? That's Watson's question. If they would remember who they are, They do not have some sort of independent sovereignty apart from the authority of God who reigns over them with his supremacy. They need to remember that they are mortal and that like other men and like princes, they will die. That should sober their minds. It should lead them to not turn to the left or to the right, but to be concerned for the cause of truth and not be partial and therefore engaging in wrongdoing. Now he knows, the psalmist does, that after these words of God, a proper exclamation for the readers that they would echo with him as a psalm is in verse eight. Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations. He doesn't say because God is judge, we don't need any judges on the earth. He rebukes the idea of unjust treatment. But he knows that in the end, all of our causes and all of our desire for vindication reside in the hands of the Most High God. And God judges justly to the uttermost. The Lord would never be bribed or corrupt. He would never be partial in some sort of wicked sense. Rather, in verse eight, God, judging the earth and inheriting the nations, is a reminder that our just and righteous God is sovereign over all the earth. And the psalmist says, Lord, arise. And this call to arise is from the Old Testament, from Numbers 10. In Numbers 10, the Ark of the Covenant would be taken out of the sanctuary and brought into war, and they would call for God, in this sense symbolically, arise, defend us, fight for us, you're the divine warrior. God is the righteous, divine warrior. Arise, O God, and judge. What's the object there? The earth. You shall inherit the nations as a reminder of the opening Psalms. Not only are the wicked under the judgment of God in Psalm 1, we're reminded in Psalm 2 that the King appointed from David's line, the Messiah, shall inherit the nations. Psalm 2, 8, ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage. in the ends of the earth, your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel, a picture of rule, of justice, of righteousness and sovereignty and wisdom and goodness. And here at last is the long awaited king and righteous judge. In verse 8, when the psalmist says, Arise, O God, and judge the earth, for you shall inherit the nations, here's how that comes to pass. It comes to pass through the return of the Lord Jesus. Because in Psalm 2, verses 8 and 9, the nations being brought as the inheritance of the son of David, This is the king who reigns with authority over all the nations, which is the hope of the believer, according to scriptures with the return of Christ. When you explore the history of the church, people in the early church, as well as Martin Luther, for instance, in the Reformation, or Charles Spurgeon in the 19th century, there are people who look over and over again at verse eight, and they've said, this is basically a prayer for Jesus to return. That's basically what we're getting at here. Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit the nations. That's not a different prayer from, come Lord Jesus, come soon. It's the same idea. Because for Christ to come with the divine warrior role that He plays, He reminds us in John chapter 5, and in verse 22, the Father has given all judgment to the Son. And in John 5, we're told that the day will come when all in the graves will hear the voice of the Son of Man and come out. Those will rise to a resurrection of life, and others to a resurrection of judgment, all presided over by the Son. In fact, this psalm is of interest to the Lord Jesus. I wonder if when we were reading through this, you thought of the scene in the gospels at all. There's this episode in John chapter 10. And I want to direct our attention at this point to this passage in John's gospel, where the Lord Jesus invokes this morning's psalm in order to make a point about his identity. Because who are they dealing with? The psalmist had prayed for the day when the son of David or the righteous king would rule, when he would finally bring justice and righteousness into the world God has made. A world that is too often filled with corruption and partiality and a subversion of the cause of truth and what is just. And so the Lord Jesus is in this conversation where A healing has taken place at the beginning of John 5 and people have begun asking, you know, why he's doing the kind of work he's doing and why he's doing it when he's doing it. He says in John chapter 10, at a later point in John's gospel, after kinds of healings that have provoked identity questions, in John chapter 10 he says that I and the Father are one. Passages not only in John 5 and in John 6 and in John 8 are pointing that way, it seems to be escalating where the identity question between Jesus and his audience continues to get heated more intense. When Jesus says in John 10 verse 29, about the sheep he has spoken about. My father has given them to me and no one's able to snatch them out of my father's hand and I and the father are one. It's at this point that we see what some of these in the audience of Jesus's contemporaries have wanted to do even in earlier occasions. In chapter 10, 31, the Jews picked up stones to stone him. Now why did they pick up stones to stone him? The language I and my father are one is language about a divine identity and prerogative that he seems to be boldly claiming, and not just seems to be, but is boldly claiming, they get it. They listen to those words and they think that's blasphemy. Mere men don't talk like that. So they pick up rocks to stone him. And Jesus says in verse 32 of John 10, I've shown you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you going to stone me? The Jews answered him. It's not for a good work that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you being a man make yourself God. They understand exactly what he's doing. They disagree with what he's claiming. It's not lost on them what he seems to be implying about himself. So here's Jesus's response. Isn't it written, I said, you are gods. Now, where did it say, I said, you are gods. Psalm 82 verse six. When Jesus appeals to the Old Testament, he's drawing from our psalm this morning, he says, well, you're saying you make yourself out to be God, that's why we're gonna stone you. He says, well, doesn't the scripture say, I said you were gods? And if he called them gods, Jesus said, to whom the word of God came, and scripture can't be broken, do you say of whom the father consecrated and sent into the world, you're blaspheming? Because I said I'm the son of God. I think Jesus is making a lesser to greater argument. If the people to whom the word of God came can be addressed as gods, then how much more fitting the one who has been consecrated and sent into the world can be considered God. They don't like the idea that he is speaking as if he's God. And he says, well, if in Psalm 82, people to whom the word of God came, if they can be called gods, then how much more appropriate is it the one set apart and sent? And so Jesus isn't backing away. That doesn't make them any happier. But now he's using the Psalms, okay? So now he's invoking the scripture to really press into the point here, the identity, that he is indeed claiming what they think. And he's not correcting any misunderstanding. And he's not trying to backpedal on what he's implying. Instead, he cites Psalm 82 and doubles down. He says, if I'm not doing the works of my Father, then don't believe me. But if I do them, even though you don't believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand the Father's in me and I'm in the Father. Jesus is needing them to see that He has come as a heavenly Savior, taking to Himself a genuine human nature, but He's not a mere man blaspheming. He is speaking as God. When they listen to his claims and they think, you sound like you're coming across as divine. And Jesus says, yeah, and in Psalm 82, it's even more appropriate that I am if God says that you're gods and he's speaking to mere men. What about the one who's been consecrated and sent by the Father? Isn't that then appropriate that you consider me in this way? So he argues from the lesser to the greater about his identity as the son of God. And in this case, if we might borrow Jesus's interpretation of Psalm 82, he seems to be confirming that the gods addressed in Psalm 82 are humans. and not angelic powers or principalities. The argument works in Psalm 82, if the gods of Psalm, I'm sorry, the argument works in John 10, if the gods of Psalm 82 are humans. And then Jesus shows how he is the son of God with a title most appropriate to him. Indeed, friends, when we look at Psalm 82, Christ is the long awaited judge and righteous ruler. He's the promised king who has taken our sins to himself and that the corruption and the injustice and the transgressions that pervade the world, what sinners need is not just justice done in a human sense. The things that we have committed, even the wrongs, people on a horizontal scale commit one against another. Our ultimate need is that we would find new life and pardon in Christ. Our problem is our sin. Our problem is that we have violated the law of God. Our problem is that in light of the law of God, we stand condemned outside the refuge who is Jesus himself. And so this longing for the righteous God to arise and judge the earth, this God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the savior of all who are in him. He says in John 10, the same place he used Psalm 82, that my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. I call them. I lay down my life for them. We find out that in John chapter 10, Jesus is not only the perfect judge, he's the good shepherd. What sinners need is someone who will take their sins upon himself so that their condemnation is borne by another that we might now not perish in our sins, but have everlasting life. Jesus says in Matthew 25, the way this is going to work, When the Son of Man comes in glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne, and before Him will be gathered all the nations. And He will separate people from one another as a shepherd. separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. The language there in Matthew 25 envisions the fulfillment of the Psalm 82, verse eight prayer, arise of God and judge the earth. For he shall inherit the nations and indeed calls the nations before him. And as the faithful shepherd, we see he's also the righteous judge in Matthew 25. It's not one or the other, it's both. and that the faithful shepherd of his sheep will have them forevermore raised and glorified in him. But he is the faithful judge, and we should tremble before him if we are not in Christ. Our need is to flee to Christ, the only refuge for sinners, and that we would come before him with the humility and honesty of our sinful hearts to say, Lord, I cannot save myself. It must be you. It must be you who shall save me or I shall have no salvation. It must be you who delivers or there will be no deliverance. Here's what I think we find out in Psalm 82 when it says give justice to the weak and the fatherless, the destitute. In verse four, rescue the weak and the needy. In a spiritual sense, we find that we are the weak and the needy. We find that the wrongs that we have committed against the Lord and many sins which characterize our lives then and now, that the only hope we have is that we be rescued by one greater than ourselves. One who will come with a rescuing strength and who will deliver us from our very sins. Friends, this is the Lord Jesus. Let's pray.