We turn in the Word of God to Psalm 9, Psalm number 9. The Bible says in Revelation 6 and in verse 10, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Now the book of Revelation is the message of Jesus Christ to John, Revelation 1 verse 1, which includes all that happens in heaven. Only Jesus could communicate what happens in heaven to John, because he's in heaven, yet he is able to communicate all of these wonderful truths. He couches them in terms of signs and symbols, and in plain statements as well, so that John is able to write it all down. Revelation 6.10 tells you that in heaven, the souls of believers cry out to God, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Well, you may say, well, how does that connect to Psalm 9, verses 15 to 20? Well, it's this. The prayer of saints in heaven is the prayer of saints on earth. The prayer of saints on earth is here in verses 15 to 20. and it parallels the prayer of Revelation 6 verse 10. So we look at these verses under the heading prayer for judgment. I hope you're not squeamish or a weakling or intimidated by our culture. The church must understand what it believes why it believes it, and what it expects God to do. Not because we tell God to do anything, but precisely because of what God has told us. Therefore, the prayer of the saints of the church on earth includes these verses before us, a prayer for judgment. First of all then, verses 15 and 16. The expectation of judgment. Do you expect judgment? Note two things here. First of all, failure in verse 15. The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made, and the net which they hid is their own foot taken. Our expectation should be, must be, that all the laws and policies and procedures and enactments of man should be a failure, that they must fail, and they must fail because of sin, rebellion and idolatry. Of course we expect a modicum of success from all the laws and the policies and procedures and enactments of those who rule over us. We expect a modicum of success in order that society itself will survive, will have a certain order so that we can live and go about our business. It must always be the case that these policies, procedures and laws will and must fail precisely because our leaders do not begin with God in their thinking. In fact, they refuse to begin with God in their thinking. In all of their debatings, in all of the procedures and policies and laws and enactments that they lay down and put into place, they do not begin with God in their thinking. So there has to be within us an expectation that these things will fail. And so every catastrophic failure, as you know, in our nation immediately leads to an inquiry. There are those who say, well, there must be an inquiry into this catastrophic failure. What went wrong? Why and who is to be blamed for this? And so there is an inquiry and mistakes are uncovered with lessons that allegedly are to be learned. but there cannot be any learning. There will be a modicum of learning, but there cannot be any true learning. And so there will still be catastrophic failures, mistakes will still be made because man as a sinner just will not learn. And if the catastrophe is significant in itself, yes, it will alter things for a while, but because of man's nature, they will always drift back. to that way of thinking that matches their own nature and depravity. And so the failures will continue. For the benefit of younger ones, teenagers, a couple of examples might help. Remember the whole catastrophe of what was called the Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying. Well, two things clashed here, quite evident. On the one hand were those physicians. They had a policy that said, well, there's not a lot we can do for the dying, so we'll just make them comfortable along the way. Which clashed with the demands of loved ones and relatives who thought, well, we don't want anyone to die. The problem is both sides began in their thinking without God. Well, the inevitable happened. Those who used the pathway as simply a way of getting rid of others, and all that was uncovered as we know it became a, I suppose, a state-sponsored euthanasia without anybody knowing anything about it. And so we had this big inquiry that happened, and all kinds of things were uncovered, and the policy apparently at that time was a boss. But nobody seemed to learn. Loved ones refuse to accept that those who belong to them die. They just cannot accept death. And so they blame the physicians, and they said, it's your fault our loved one died. I'm not saying that didn't happen. But I'm most definitely saying everybody's going to die. But nobody wants to accept it. And then, of course, taking a more recent example, without getting into all the ins and outs about it, all the COVID era policies, one after another. And now, of course, everyone is learning what catastrophic failures happened at that time. We're all covered over. But of course, at the very beginning of it all, there was that public rejection. There was a call for a day of prayer. And our leaders steadfastly refused to have it. My dear friends, we cannot expect policies to be right and procedures to be successful if the ones who are enacting the policies refuse to acknowledge the providence of God and refuse to have a day of prayer, a day of humiliation and fasting. In other words, they're saying, we can handle it ourselves. We don't need God to interfere, so to speak. And the psalmist is there for telling you that. The pit that they made, they've fallen into it themselves. The net that they have hidden for others, they've been caught themselves. Everything done without seeking God will always end in failure. Do not you expect national prosperity and success as long as those who rule over us simply will not listen to God. You remember the Blair, Mandelson, Campbell era, and their mantra was, publicly, we don't do God. Well, that was the first time leaders stood up and stated their atheism. Before that, they maybe didn't do God, but they didn't dare say it, and now they said it. Well, was that a rip-roaring success, that era of Blair, Mandelson, and Campbell? A book was produced with a fascinating title, The Rise of Political Lying, and it pinpoints that era, that's when lying went mainstream, when telling lies was deemed to be in the best interest of everybody. because the people were deemed to be too stupid to understand things. Therefore, the best thing we can do for them, this is the message of Blair, Mandelson and Campbell, we lie to them. And they'll all feel better for it. The nation will be better. Well, we know what happened in that period of time. Apart from war, other things happened as well. And the psalmist tells the church, don't you think, at any moment in time, that your political leaders will be a rip-roaring success. To the contrary, because they're against God, they act without God, they will sink down into the pit that they make, and the net which they hid is taken in their own field. That's the stance of the church. It's the stance of God laid out in scripture for you, and he says, this is your expectation. So there's failure. The second thing is the response in verse 16. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executed. The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Agaion, Selah. When it all goes wrong, You are to say in response, the Lord has done it. The Lord has done it. The Lord has judged. He has brought them into failure. National folly, failure and fault must be accepted as inevitable when the nation, when its leaders, when its institutions and its influencers are all against God. The church replies, the Lord has done it. The Lord has brought you down. The Lord has shown you the folly of your policies and now you're kicked out of office. The Lord will deal with you. The church replies, the Lord has thrown you into the pit that you dug. because of your own humanistic, atheistic cleverness. This is the Lord's doing. Just to take an awkward policy or an awkward example, the whole drive across our country for a generation was trumpeting the benefits of multiculturalism. Let's bring in all these people with all their hang-ups, idiosyncrasies, and all their baggage, let's bring it all into our nation, and let's pass no judgment upon anything they believe, any practice they have, and let's call it all toleration. And now we see the mess the whole country's in. There is strife in the streets because the historic laws and institutions of this country have a unique origin. all of these people come in they want to tear everything down to match the place they came from and if the place they came from was a mess then they'll turn this country into a mess it's as simple as that this is not about being anti-immigrant what it is saying is that the bible says when those who were to come from outside they were to leave their baggage at the border so to speak and they were to come and to submit so that there would be one law For everyone. Now we have half a dozen different practices. How many people are aware that we have different courts for different people? So we have our own national courts and our own national laws. But if you belong to a different religion, you have a different court. You have different rules and procedures and sentences. So if you're a Muslim, you go to your Sharia court, and that determines whether you're married, divorced, or whatever penalty they deem should be passed upon you without any reference to our national codes. So the pit that our leaders dug, the whole nation has fallen into. In 1967, to give another example, remember David Steele introduced the Abortion Reform Act. It was designed, at least the rationale he says, it was designed with a specific conflict between mother and child. This was such a complex issue, he said, that needed a new law, needed reform, the original law, so that clinicians would be able to work out You know, the balance, the rights between the mother and the child. Oh, we know what's happened, don't we? The pit was dug, and the whole nation's been thrown into it. The answer of the church is, in the words of Scripture, the Lord is known by the judgment which he executed. He brings the whole lot to a disastrous end. And that's as should be. The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Unintended, unplanned consequences. Because our leaders don't begin with God. There will always be, there must be, unintended, unplanned consequences for all that has been enacted without God. So there must be that expectation of judgment. You must seriously expect the Lord to bring things crashing down on a constant pathway. It must happen all the time. You must expect it. And when it doesn't happen, that's when we should get alarmed that the Lord has not done something and we want him to do something. And here's the rule of thumb. The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made, and the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The Lord is known. By the judgment which he executed, the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. You must expect it, friends. You must have that expectation. of policy failure, procedural failure, legal failure, institutional failure. But then secondly, verses 17 and 18, the equity of judgment, the equity of judgment. Here someone might say, well, it may seem a bit unfair. Well, we need this section also. Firstly, there is the wicked in verse 17. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. There's only one direction for the wicked. Whether of individuals or of nations, there's only one direction, and that is hell. The whole direction of our nation is hell. Look at the political parties we have, whether it be Sinn Féin, SNP Alliance or whatever, They're only taking you in one direction. And their leaders are taking us in one direction. They're taking the nation to hell. Whether it be Ulster, Wales, England or Scotland, there's only one direction they will take you. In other words, you cannot be on the broad road, pursue the things of the broad road, and think it's all going to end well. It's not going to end well. God says nations, no matter how civilized and cultural they may be, no matter how much classical music they may play, no matter how many wonderful theaters they may have and how many wonderful buildings that are designed by interesting architects or whatever, no matter how many art centers they have, the nation will end in hell. That's where it will end, unless the nation turns to God. And it doesn't matter whether they say there is no God or have a false God. they're still going in the same direction. And what is said here is surely entirely correct. It's the prayer of saints in heaven replicated by the saints on earth. The wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations will forget God. The Lord must avenge. The Lord must punish. If he has a holy rights as God, then the Lord must act consistently with himself. So as far as the wicked is concerned, the nation, the wicked, shall be turned into hell. And this is why the church preaches the gospel. This is why we witness to others. We witness to those around us. You know, we start in our little circle in the family, move out into our neighborhood, then out into that wider circle of acquaintances in the workplace and so on. We have these various circles that the Lord places us, and we go with this knowledge. Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade. Everyone's going to hell. the wicked and the nation. The second element, verse 18, the needy. For the needy shall not always be forgotten. The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. Well, as you know, the vulnerable are always generally overlooked. Yes, I'm well aware that there are politicians They tell us they're very concerned about the poor and the needy. They claim to have the poor and needy in view. But without being into politics of the situation, a lot of these politicians need poverty. They need the poor and the needy to exist, otherwise there's no reason for their own existence. So as much as they say they're trying to lift the poor and the needy out of their poverty, they want to actually keep them in poverty so as they can pontificate about how wonderful they are, how concerned they are about others. Because if they solve the whole problem of poverty and need, well, they no longer have a reason for their existence. Now you may say, well, how does verse 18 fit into this general prayer? Well, the answer is simple, isn't it? The Lord who turns the wicked into help is the Lord who takes care of the poor and needy. You do believe that, don't you? You do believe this, not just the judgment, but that the Lord takes care of the vulnerable, of the poor and the needy. The Lord who rules over nations takes care of these ones as well. Now, the poor and the needy will always exist. That is what the saviors taught us in Mark 14, 7. For ye have the poor with you always. And whence, wherever ye will, ye may do good to them. You may do them good. In other words, we are charged to do good to the needy. And we do that, I trust, as best as we can, when we can. Whence whoever ye will, ye may do them good. But me ye have not all. So there's the context the Lord is speaking. So the poor and the needed will always exist. That means there will always be those to whom we can do some good. And that's important as a Christian. In other words, there is equity in God's judgment. The Lord will always do what is right. We won't always do what is right. Half the time we don't even know what is right anyway, no matter how clever we are. But we're assured of this. The God of heaven and earth always does right. There's equity. in his judgment. So the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten, the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. And then thirdly, the prayer for judgment proper, verses 19 and 20. Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail. Let the heathen be judged in thy sight. Put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah. So what does this prayer for judgment actually look like, sound like even, in our ears? What exactly do we want? when we pray for judgment. When the saints in heaven say, arise, O Lord, holy and true, how long? How long shall it be until we see that vengeance? What exactly do we want to see? Well, the Lord tells you three things. the Lord to be honoured. Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail. My dear friends, I think we're just heartily sick of man's brazenness. We're just sick and tired of it all. The word prevail refers to strength, impudence, hardness. Everything about man is marked by impudence and hardness. Everything about man is simply wretched, repugnant, and vain. And frankly, the church has had enough. So the church says, arise O Lord, we have had enough of man's impudence, we have had enough of man's wretchedness, we have had enough of all that man does in the world. So it's a call for God to act, to begin to act as judge, a call for God to simply put a stop to things, to bring a halt to things. Do we want the Lord to act? Are we not heartily sick and tired of all the wretchedness of all that's going on in our country? Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail. We don't want man to glory in their supposed achievements and to continue to act as they do without God. We've had enough. And secondly, the Lord to terrify. Put them in fear, O Lord. The same word is used in Deuteronomy 4 and verse 34, God by a mighty hand and by a great terror. Put them in fear. We want the Lord to bring them to that fear, to terror, to be terrified. You see something of that. In Revelation 6, don't do that, I read to you earlier. As those seals are open, the trumpeters sounded. We read and we get to that fifth trumpet, fifth seal open, the heaven departed. Every mountain and island moved. Kings of the earth, great men, rich men, chief captains, mighty men, and every born man, every free man starts at the top, with kings and with rulers, all the way down to servants, slaves. Hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, said to the mountains, fall on us. Hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand? Taken from the Psalms, Psalm 130. If thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, who shalt stand? Even at that moment the words of the Psalmist are perfect. That truth, we want the Lord to bring terror, to bring fear into the hearts of nations and of people. And the third thing we want is the Lord to humble, that the nations may know themselves to be but men. What's the lie of Satan? The lie of Satan was he said he is God. What was the promise that Satan gave? Autonomy from God. You'll be your own God. You'll decide for yourself. You don't need God. You can ignore him. You can shut him out of your life. You're autonomous. Decide for yourself. And we hear the cry, my body, my life, I'll do as I please. That's the lie of Satan. We can all see where that fall led to, can't we? We can all see what leads to continuing. There's only one way of describing things. Stupidity rules nations. Stupidity rules our nation. How many politicians, how many leaders, how many movers and shakers and wealthy people and movie stars all come along to give us their views, and they tell us they have the inside track on things, the inside knowledge of things, and by their own human cleverness, we can solve it all. That's what they promise. We really know what's going on. You little people haven't a clue what's going on, but just trust us. Put us on par, because we have the cleverness. We have the means by which we're going to make everything wonderful for you. And people believed them. They put them in the office. They turned out to be as corrupt as the last kind of rulers that were in before them. And they weren't all rulers. It's a bit unfair, but nonetheless, you get the point. What do we ask for in judgment? Oh, Lord, bring the nation down so that it clearly begins to understand we are but human after all. And we don't know everything. We can't plan everything. We can't govern everything. We simply can't do it without God. Isn't that what we want? Oh, we have. Some interesting prime ministers in the past. Well, they've all been different. We have once had a passionate evangelical as a prime minister, and then somebody assassinated him. And then there was Gladstone. You know, there was Gladstone, prime minister. Maybe he wasn't always great, but he believed scripture for all his faults. How did he spend his Lord's Day? He was the presenter. in his congregation. There's how he spent his Lord's Day. Imagine having the Prime Minister as one of our presenters. That would be something, wouldn't it? Well, he was a presenter, literally. That's what he did. Left No. 10 Downing Street, left his home, where he stayed in the country, his family seat, whatever, made his way to his local congregation. to present for the congregation. Left the politics to one side. Now these guys who are in politics think every day is a working day. They don't even bother taking the Lord's day off. Because they think they're so important they have to know everything, try to do everything, and they're going to do it in their own strength and with all the advisors they have around them thinking that they're going to help me and assist me. We're all going to do it without God. My dear friends, the prayer for judgment says, bring the nation to its knees so that it begins to grasp afresh. We are small, finite creatures. And the only one who knows everything is God, and we need to start with him. Well, let's come to some points of application. Surely the first one is this, if nations are to fall into the pit, the phrase, arise, O Lord, says, is a call for God to push them in. I hope you're not squeamish at that. But you can't say, arise, O Lord, and not understand that that's the significance. Push them into the pit and the net that they've dug and set. Catch them. Yes, I know it's contrary to modern theology even and modern thinking, but this was standard. This was the standard position even amongst the Puritans. Here's John Howe on Psalm 9 verse 17. Now John Howard was an English Puritan. He came to Antrim. He was one of the first Presbyterian ministers in the town of Antrim. Some of you I took to the meeting house. You've probably forgotten, but that doesn't matter. And while he was at Mazarine in Antrim, which is the name of the estate that he was living in, He wrote that book, The Lighting of God, but he did also preach on Psalm 9. And here's what he says in the verse. The glory of God's justice requires that wicked men be punished. Why must this be? Answer, because God will never else be known by them. When they come to be turned into hell and to fall onto the pressures of everlasting wrath and mercy, then They will never forget God. All those in hell will never forget God. They forget him at life but say so. And all the nations that forget God, when God turns them into hell, they will never be atheists. They will never forget God. But when we say, arise, O Lord, we're saying, Lord, push them in. That's a solemn, very solemn statement, isn't it? Then secondly, praying boldly means praying and using sound mind. You know, the Apostle Paul tells us to come boldly to the throne of grace. We are so afraid of boldness that often we reduce our prayers to personal things. Not against praying for personal things, but sometimes we're so afraid of boldness that we limit our praying to things that just relate to us and forget about so much else. The psalmist calls you to a global and national vision in your prayer. And we need that global vision. After all, we sing Psalm 69, or Psalm 67, Lord bless and pity us, wow. That the nations might know a global vision. But we, in our timidity, simply pray for personal things alone. Psalm 9 says you need to have this wider vision. Psalm 9 contributes to that enlarged view of the worth of God. Judge the nations of the world. Judge our nation, judge every nation. And thirdly, as you sing this psalm, You should remember some of the things that happened in the past. As you sing this psalm, for example, remember five scholars. Five scholars from Lausanne were students under Theodore Biza and Vire. They went into France to preach the gospel. All five of them were arrested. They were burned at the stake together. On their way to the stake, they sang Psalm 9. Imagine leaving your prison where they've been held for a year in wretched conditions. And as they sat on that cart, were taken to the place of their burning, Psalm 9. is upon their lips. I will praise you, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will sing forth all thy marvelous words. I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most high. When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. For thou hast maintained my right and my cause, thy saddest in the throne, judging right and so on. All thou enemy destructions are come to a repetual end. The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made, and the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executed. The wicked are snared in the work of his own hands." And so on. They sang soundly. What was their crime? Their crime was they had a Bible, they believed it, and they preached it. That was their crime. That is why in France, they cut the tongues out of the Huguenots before they killed them. Why did they cut their tongues out? To stop them singing. The church does not have its tongue cut out, and yet how many people don't want to sing Psalms? Something odd about that, isn't it? We with our tongues don't sing sound. They without their tongue sang these sounds. So they were all burned at the stake together. Final thing I say to you is this, going to heaven is not a common thing. It's not a common thing. Nations that forget God shall perish. It's an uncommon thing to be on the way to heaven. Are you on the way to heaven? Or are you with the multitude on the way to hell? Going to hell will be more ordinary than we realize. Going to heaven is less ordinary. Broad is the way. Many there be on that broad road, narrow as it be, few there be that find it. Which path are you on? Which crowd are you with? My dear friends, I think the worst tragedy of all is to have heard the word of God and yet die on sin. That's the saddest of all, isn't it? So you've heard the word of God this morning. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executed. We should all face that judgment. How shall we face it? Shall we be amongst those turned into hell? Know that awful sentence we have in scripture. The Savior bids the angels come. To take that condensed inner body and soul, cast them into hell. And we're told that at that moment in time, there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Because at that point they realize, this is forever, without any change. And the godly will spawn each time. Hallelujah. That's how solemn it is, how serious. May the Lord put us in fear to know a little of our own frailty and humanity that we might seek him and have desires after him. May the Lord bless these words to your heart.