Psalm 129, Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth. May Israel now say, Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. The flowers plowed upon my back, they made long their furrows. The Lord is righteous, he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion. Let them be as grass upon the housetops which withereth before it groweth up. Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheathes his bosom. Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you. We bless you in the name of the Lord. This is a psalm about evil men. We know that there are Christians that sin against each other. This psalm isn't about them. We recognize also that there are unbelievers who commit sins against one another and commit sins against Christians. This psalm isn't about them either. This psalm isn't about the hurts and the pain of living in a cursed world caused by the friction that we have living among sinners and we ourselves are sinners. I understand that we are all of Adam's race and we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. This psalm isn't about that. This psalm is about evil men. About evil men who are called the children of the devil by Jesus himself. We're in a different class. Jesus said to the Pharisees, you are of your father, the devil. The lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it." In other words, the Pharisees were condemned by Christ because they were children of the devil. They were known as children of the devil by Christ because their entire life was characterized by murder and lying. This psalm is speaking of those men and women who have so united their hearts to the works of the evil one that they are called the children of the devil. Their works are not characterized by even the simplest forms of common human decency that you find in unbelievers by the common grace of God. Their works are characterized by murder and lie. Everything that they do, everything that they dream, everything that they imagine is for the purpose of destroying the image of God in man. But they often conceal their true motives by a false front of sorrow for sin, contrition, pious phrases. They put on a front of kindness and strength. But under it all is murder, hatred, and destruction. I remember once when I was a small child, about 5 or 6 years old, I had my first piano teacher. It was a young girl, about 16 or 17 at the time. She seemed very old to me. And I remember every time I was dropped off at their house, her father was sitting on the front porch, and every time he saw me, he said, Oh, praise the Lord! Look who's here! And there was something about that man that bothered me, even when I was 5 or 6, and I gave him a great distance. I found out years later that he had been molesting his daughter for years. This is the kind of person this psalm is talking about. A murderer and a liar. We don't know when this psalm was written. It's not really relevant because the experiences of this psalm are the experiences of God's people in every age. We know that there were many times in Israel's history when they were greatly abused by the children of the devil. Both the nation of Assyria and the nation of Babylon were renowned for their cruelty. We read in the Bible of them smashing the babies' heads against the stones in front of their mothers, of beating and abusing children and women and the elderly and the infirm, raping women and children. all under the front of honor and glory of the kingdom of Babylon. They were murderers and liars. There was a servant at one time in the land of Syria, servant of the king, named Hazael. He was a servant. He served the king. By all appearances, he was an honorable man. God told Elisha to anoint him king over Syria. And the time came when God sent Hazael to go see Elisha. And Elisha stood there and looked at Haziel, and then burst into tears. Haziel said, Why weepest thou, my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do to the children of Israel. Their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, wilt dash their children, and rip their women with child. Then Haziel said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. Eventually, Hazel did become king over Syria, as the Lord had said. And he showed that his words of kindness and his words of reason, his service to the king, were all lies. At heart, he was a murderer and became one of the most violent and abusive kings in the history of the ancient world. It was not that Hazel lied once, It's not that he got angry once and killed a man. It was the thoughts of his heart were only murder and lie from the very beginning. The psalm is about these people. For these people still show up today. Often times they show up in church. In church they have ready prey. and naive leadership. This all warns us of them. Too often we hear of men that are well thought of in church. They know all the right phrases. They know when to shed the right tears. They sing with gusto. They say amen in all the right spots in the sermon. But when they go home and are alone with their wives and children, they think only of destruction and murder and lies. systematically seeking to destroy the image of God in their family. They're the king of the castle and smack their loved ones around just to make sure they remember it. They belittle, despise, and ridicule their wives. They beat and abuse their children. And it isn't because they lose control over their temper. As bad as that is, these people are even worse, for they have complete control. If you call them on the phone or show up at the door during one of their tirades, they immediately switch the switch off, and they're back to being very kind and nice. They're not governed by passions, they're governed by their father, the devil. Since they are murderers, they only think of destruction and tearing down, and since they are liars, they do it all under the cloak of decency. and their wives and children are left broken, bloodied, have learned how to keep all their feelings and thoughts and opinions carefully hidden so as not to enrage this wicked and abusive man. We know these people. Many of us have been victims of these people. We know people who have been victims of these people. These are not sinners. Even a sinner like David who committed murder and adultery but was himself broken to repentance. They're not even sinners like Paul who murdered and slaughtered the church out of ignorance and unbelief. No, these are children of the devil. They know what they're doing. They plan it. They think it through. They carry it out. They're murderers and they're liars. Because they are liars, as soon as they are exposed in the church, they know how to weep. to all the right people. They know how to stress how sorry they are. And then the church usually starts talking about forgiveness and reconciliation. Often times when abused children become adults or an abused spouse is finally free from the abuser, they get horrible counsel from the church. Well, now you just need to forgive them. Now you need to reach out to them. They're very sorry. Now you need to give them another chance. And if they don't, the abused one is often times rebuked or even excommunicated for not forgiving their abuser. That's what this psalm is about. If we take this psalm seriously, then we will not be partakers of other men's sins, but we will know how to deal with it when the time comes. The fact is, God hates abusive men even more than we do. The man who systematically beats and terrifies and belittles and controls his wife is not a nice person who's made a few mistakes. He's a child of the devil. A man who will molest a child is not someone who's just lost control for a moment. He's a monster and a child of the devil. It is true that the Bible commands us to lay aside all bitterness, all wrath, and all desire for revenge. As we read in Romans, befits the child of God. It's true that we're commanded to do good, even to our enemies. The question is, how do we do that? How can we become free from the bondage of bitterness and the isolation that always results from abuse? As children of Adam, we normally have two responses. We either fight or we run away. We fight by lashing out, striking back, plotting revenge, seeking to harm those who have harmed us, or become abusers ourselves, oftentimes. Or we run away, burying ourselves in drugs and alcohol or entertainment, or we lie to ourselves, pretend like it never happened, bury the memories, and hope it will all go away. The ultimate fight is to commit murder yourself. The ultimate flight is to commit suicide. One lashes out at God and the world, the other one lashes out at God and ourselves. This psalm speaks of a far better way. A way to deal with abuse that honors God is driven by love, and is the only way to finally be free from the effects of abuse. The first one we see in the first two verses, many a time have they afflicted me from my youth. Be honest. Be honest with the damage caused by evil men. Verse 3, he says, the flowers plowed upon my back. They made long their furrows. Our Creator does not want us to live in a lie and pretend like abuse has never happened. This psalm was written by a man who knew what it was like to be as helpless as a field under the blades of a plow. It says, the plowers plowed upon my back those who have afflicted me from my youth, standing over me, hurting me, cutting me, shredding me. And I had no power, no ability to do anything, except lay there and take it. Many times, over and over and over and over, was I abused by someone stronger and greater than I was. How many times have I been helpless as a field under a plow? The word afflict means to bind tightly, to wrap with cords, to tie up, to constrain. It's the action of an enemy designed to keep you under their control. It's the act of an enemy to completely subjugate the helpless to their power. Which is ultimately an act of murder, intent on destroying the image of God in you. Ultimately, our afflictor is the devil himself. We know He does seek to destroy you. We know He tries to keep you under bondage and control. So oftentimes He convinces you that what happened was your fault, or that it wasn't so bad, or that you caused it to happen. But it's a lie. The devil is a murderer and a liar from the beginning, and so are those who are children of the devil. The fact is, evil men didn't smack you around because you mouthed off one too many times. Evil men don't ridicule and belittle their wives because their wives happen to be stupid and foolish and disobedient. They didn't blow up at you because you did something wrong. They didn't lose their temper because you didn't listen to them. And evil men didn't abuse you when you were a child because you came on to them. They did what they did because they're evil, abusive, murderers, and liars. We have to be honest. The fact is these men abused you because they were murderers and liars, and you were as powerless and as free from fault as a plow, as a field under the plow. But if you are being honest about the damage of abuse, you have to be honest about one more thing. At the end of verse 2, they have not prevailed against me. The Hebrew word is literally, they were not able concerning me. In other words, they were not able to do what they wanted to do. Yes, they hurt you. But they didn't destroy you. Yes, they have afflicted you. They afflicted you and did you great harm. But they didn't succeed in doing what they wanted to do. Why is that? You're here. You're alive. You're loved by God. They plowed you under because they wanted to destroy you. But God allowed it because He wanted your field to bring forth much fruit. And they didn't destroy you because now you're bringing forth fruit to God. The only way that you survived the abuse of these evil and abusive men, the only way you survived to this assault of the devil, was because God did not give them the ability to do to you what they wanted to do. The devil could do nothing to you except what God had planned from the beginning. And yes, it hurts. Yes, it was evil. Yes, it left scars. But it didn't destroy you. The destroyer did not win. In fact, God called you out of the kingdom of death and bondage and misery into his kingdom of light and grace. Which he talks about in the next verse, verse 4. He has cut asunder the cords of the wicked. Think about that. The abusive man wants to keep you in his power, to keep you in his control. But God has cut that. He's cut you free. He's cut you away from the plows of the wicked and brought you into the kingdom of his Son. So in Christ, the bondage of abuse does not need to control your life. For those cords have been cut asunder. by our righteous God. God has called you out of the kingdom of the devil into His kingdom, and you cannot serve two masters. Satan wanted to control you. When you came to Christ, you turned your back on Satan in order to embrace Christ, and God has broken His power over you. That's what the psalmist means when he says he has cut asunder the cords, the ropes of the wicked. It's a shame today that so many in the church use the word forgiveness in such a light-hearted and muddled way. Forgiveness in the Bible is acknowledging that the blood of Christ has covered your sin and the sin of the one who has sinned against you. When you forgive a Christian, you are promising to remember it no more, just as God in Christ forgave you. Since an abuser is a child of the devil, and not a child of God, the word forgiveness doesn't really apply. And it's meaningless. Now I know that that is a very controversial statement. One of the reasons it has been a controversial statement is that abusive men love to hide out in the church. And they hold their power over each other by demanding forgiveness when they are caught. I know that I'm speaking bluntly. Bear with me. We must acknowledge that the cords of Satan no longer control us. We are to put aside self-protection, isolation, bitterness, anger, distrust, rage, and denial. Those are all the cords of the wicked one. We're to put those aside. But we're not talking about forgiving an enemy of God. We're talking about laying aside all thoughts of bitterness, all thoughts of revenge, and not letting Satan have control over us. There's a difference between those two things. We are talking about opening up the door of your heart to truly love and to receive love again, even though it is risky. Because the only alternative is hatred and strife, which the devil loves. The only way to lay aside bitterness and wrath and anger and malice and to finally set yourself free from the cords of Satan is to understand this from God's perspective. Evil and abusive men may have fooled everyone else, but they have never fooled God. God has a very special care for His little ones. And when men abuse and molest God's little ones, it is as if they were molesting and abusing God himself. That's why Jesus said, who shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me if it would be better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the sea. My prayer is that the church would become more and more like Jesus Christ. and have the same view of abuse and molestation that Christ himself has. And how do you get there? Understand what God thinks of it. Pray for justice. And God will certainly hear that prayer. Verse 5, let them be confounded and turned back. The word confounded literally is ashamed. The word turned back is driven from their purpose. It is interesting, if you follow me, the grammar here is important. There's four phrases here that are translated, let them. Let them be confounded, let them be as grasped, let them, in verse 8, neither let them say which go by. Some translations say that. In Hebrew, there is no difference in the grammar between a prayer and a promise. In other words, either one of these could be translated, let them be ashamed, or they will be ashamed. Both are acceptable in the Hebrew, the words are exactly the same thing. You'll bear with me geeking out on grammar. It's important for us to understand, because the way the Hebrews thought, the distinction was not important. This is an inspired prayer, and when we pray that prayer, God will certainly hear our prayer, and it is His will to grant us what we pray and face. Therefore, when we pray, it certainly will happen. And therefore, whether we say, let them all be confounded and turn back, or they will all be confounded and turn back, is the same thing to the early church. Ashamed doesn't mean embarrassed and sorry. It means that everything they hope to have accomplished will come to nothing. Everything that they have placed their life on, their carefully constructed frame of righteousness and goodness will come crashing down. Their carefully controlled platform of control and abuse that they have erected over decades will come crashing down and they will be exposed before all. That's what shame means. And it will happen either in this life or in the life to come. Everything that they sought to accomplish will come to nothing. Satan himself will be cast into a lake of fire forever. And we know that with him go all of his children and all of his angels. For God hates abusers and molesters with a perfect hatred, a hotter and fiercer anger than anything that we can feel on this earth. For his anger is infinite and everlasting. And his care for his children is infinite and everlasting. But not only that, molesters will not even succeed on this earth in accomplishing what they desire. For a time they may appear to be growing in power, they may appear to be untouchable and as lush and as green and as full of life as grass, but it's all grass on a rooftop. They will be as grass upon the rooftop. What happens when grass grows on the roof? As soon as the sun comes up, it withers. It blows away. It comes to nothing. Don't fear their money. Don't fear their power. Don't fear their fame. They might be famous directors or famous writers or famous actors with hundreds of thousands of sycophants and lawyers at their beck and call. But does God care for their money, their fame, or their lawyers? From God's perspective, they're grass on the roof. And whenever God desires, their fear is gone, their wealth is gone, their life is gone. And their power over you is an illusion. Verse number three, as we saw, the church suffering abuse is compared to a field being plowed. We know that the devil seeks to destroy us, as I said, but God is seeking us to produce fruits. So what was meant to us for evil, God meant for good. We know that in Christ we will bring forth fruit, the fruit of love and joy and peace and faith and hope and self-control. We will be fruitful and productive in Christ and honored and blessed by those around us. And all those things come to us by the power of the Holy Spirit, but they also come to us through the trials that God brings upon us. And so we can, by God's grace, look to the damage of the past. through the eyes of faith and see that God has used that to make us who we are today. And even more, He will use that to make us who He has for us tomorrow. But what about the plot? What about those who have done such great damage? Verse 7, people look for fruit, there isn't any. In fact, when the mower comes along and cuts down that grass, there's not even enough weeds left to fill his hand with. And the only thing left that he can find is to toss into the fire. The abuser wanted to be somebody, wanted to be a big man, wanted to be a hot shot, wanted to destroy and tear down everybody around him to exert his power and his control. And who is he in the eyes of God? A handful of weeds to be tossed into the fire. When we are under the plow, when we are being afflicted by the children of the devil, we tend to think that our abuser is all powerful, all wise, and very terrifying. So we succumb to fear. We think that they have far more power, far more reputation, and far more charm than they actually have. And this psalmist is calling us to see them as God sees them. Weeds to fill your hand and throw into the fire. Grass on a rooftop. And finally look at verse 8. Neither do they which go by say the blessing of the Lord be upon you. This was a common greeting in Israel. It's still fairly common in the Middle East to say this when you're passing by the reapers plowing their fields or gathering their harvest. You would greet them by saying, the Lord be with you, or the Lord bless you. We see this in the book of Ruth, when Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered him, the Lord bless thee. Among the godly, it was a way of saying hello. But more than that, it was a prayer for God's blessing. This verse is one of the most freeing verses for someone who has suffered at the hands of an abuser. How can you expect or pray for the blessing of God to come upon a child of the devil? It's a promise that there will come a time when these people will be exposed And no one, even walking by their field, will say to them the blessing of the Lord be on you, even casually, for they will be known by all according to the reality, and not by the fears of our youth. How can you pray for or expect God's blessing on those whom He has given over to destruction? I must be very careful here. For I am not saying that the blood of Christ is not strong enough to save certain people. God certainly can save anyone whom he chooses. The blood of Christ can cover even the vilest offender. But at the same time we must remember that there are many passages of scripture that speak of those that God has devoted to destruction. Those that have turned the truth of God into a lie, who are so hardened in their sin that the only thing left for them is to be drowned at the bottom of the Red Sea by the power of God. I understand that all men are sinful and in desperate need of Christ's blood. I understand that as Christians, we all feel sin daily and hurt each other, and we need to seek forgiveness from one another. But as I said before, this psalm isn't about that. We know clearly from Scripture and from this psalm that there are those from whom God has removed His hand, given them over to their lusts, and they are full-blown children of the devil. They are characterized, as Jesus said, by their relentless pursuit of murder and destruction. Their actions show that they have no restraints. These are the people that we are dealing with, and when we're dealing with them, it is an abomination to God to bless them in the name of the Lord. That's what this psalm is talking about. Our prayer should be that they would be exposed and outcast and that the whole world would see them for who they are. And it's about time that the church stopped worrying about hurting the feelings of abusers and started speaking the truth. And for all of you who have suffered this kind of trauma in your past, you may have been told how harsh you have been towards your abuser. You may have been commanded to forgive them. You may have been instructed to let them back into your life because they're really sorry now. You may have been confronted by your abuser with tears, making demands for reconciliation and restoration. You may even have forgiven them over and over and over again, only to be abused over and over and over again. How can you be set free from this cycle? only by the truth quit offering the blessings of Zion to the children of the devil. How can you tell who is who? How can you tell the difference between David and Hazel? And this is the beauty of it. You don't have to. God knows who his people are. You can leave that to him. God knows whom He has devoted to destruction. You can leave that to Him. Here's a psalm written thousands and thousands of years ago dealing with the very current problem. There are people that seek to destroy and murder because they're children of the devil. And as long as you keep allowing them in your life, they will continue to murder and to destroy. It is true that you must put off hatred and bitterness and desire for revenge, and the only way to do that is to leave the question of their salvation or their judgment in the hand of God. For He is perfectly capable of taking care of it. If they are truly repentant, they will rejoice in their salvation, and they will understand the depth and depravity of their sin, and therefore they will understand that their relationship with you has been forever broken. One thing we read about in David's Psalm of Repentance, Psalm 51, is that he made no demands. He didn't demand that Uzziah's family forgive him and accept him back into their membership and their love. He made no demands. He cast himself only on the mercy of God and sought to quit causing damage to the people that he has damaged for so long. How can you tell someone who's not truly repentant but simply manipulating and lying? They're still making demands. I demand you forgive me. I demand you let me back in. I demand to restore this relationship. They demand that their wife not divorce them. Marriage is for life. I can do what I want to and you can't divorce me. They're still liars, manipulators, and murderers. And if you refuse, they will accuse you of hard-heartedness. They will get many gullible, unkind people on their side, and they'll seek to manipulate you with their tears and cause you as much grief as you allow them to, seeking to constrict you again and to afflict you again. The only way to be free is to leave them in God's hands. Certain sins are covenant-breaking sins. When a man plows a helpless back, as he would plow a field just because he can. He has forfeited all right and all expectation of any relationship. And again, that break was not your fault. He did it, not you. The only way you can put away bitterness and wrath and desire for revenge is to leave all those questions in God's hands. You do not plot revenge, you do not live in anger, but you also do not bless them out of Zion. The judge of the earth will do right. When you leave it all in God's hands, you can finally know the freedom that you have been given when God cut those cords from you. And now we can live like it. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the delivery that you have given us, that you have delivered us from the abuse of wicked and evil men. We pray that you would continue to deliver us, to continue to give us strength, continue to pour out your Spirit upon us and cause us to rest in your goodness and your care and protection. Forgive us our sins, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.