Now let's look at that psalm that we sang Psalm 35 Psalm 35 In the red hymnal we have not one but two hymns that are based upon this psalm and I was happy to read through those words and see that both of these hymns are certainly see Christ in Psalm 35. You notice we sang there in verses four and five. Jesus, when he dwelt on earth, sharpest pangs of conflict felt. All the powers of darkness warred with our great anointed Lord. He has vanquished all his foes for himself and all he chose. His salvation is complete. All shall worship at his feet. And so Joseph irons, saw Christ at least in some of Psalm 35 as did Isaac Watts who wrote the other hymn. Now, before we read the psalm in its entirety, let me point out the major divisions. This psalm has some natural division, an outline to it. There are three parts to the psalm and each part follows the same pattern or the same cycle of subject matter. First is petitioning, or let me say it this way, laying out the complaint to God. Second then is the prayer to God. And third is the promise of thanksgiving for the expected deliverance. Let me go through that again. There is complaint. Here's the problem. There is prayer asking God's help. And there is the expectation of deliverance and promised deliverance. And we see this three times over in this Psalm. First, in verses 1 through 10. Second, in verses 11 through 18. And then thirdly, verse 19 to the end. Obviously, each of these three has its own particular focus, but that's sort of the pattern and outline of the Psalm here. Let's read. A Psalm of David. Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me. Fight against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler and stand up for mine help. Draw out also the spear and stop the way against them that persecute me. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the wind and let the angel of the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them. For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul. Let destruction come upon him at unawares, and let his net that he hath hid catch himself. Into that very destruction let him fall. And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in his salvation. All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him? Yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him. False witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into my own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother. In mine adversity, they rejoiced. and gathered themselves together. Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not. They did tear me and ceased not. With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. Lord, how long wilt thou look on? Rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me, neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. For they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me and said, aha, aha, our eye has seen it. This thou hast seen, O Lord. Keep not silence. O Lord, be not far from me. Stir up thyself and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord. Judge me, O Lord, my God, according to thy righteousness and let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say in their hearts, ah, so would we have it. Let them not say we have swallowed him up. Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me. Let them shout for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause. Yea, let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long. May God bless the reading of this psalm. Let us pray Heavenly Father. Do bless this to our hearts that we have read. We thank you for your word. Thank you for every word of it. Thank you for this song. Give us eyes to see what we ought to see. Help us. To get a glimpse. Of our Savior. In his suffering and in his glory. In His name we pray, Amen. So we'll take this section by section and we have then in verses 1 through 10 the petition to God for judgments on His enemies. That's sort of the general heading of this first 10 verses. In verses 11 through 18, we see the character of the enemies especially emphasized. And in verses 19 through 28, the prayer for deliverance is emphasized. But here is, again, the petition for God's judgment against his enemies. And the complaint is really found beginning in verse 1 and then in verse 3 and then in verse 7. So we're going to change up the order here of the verses just a little bit for our purposes here this afternoon. Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me. The complaint is there are enemies. There are those who are at strife against Our Lord. Of course, let me before we go any further, emphasize this one more time. It's the psalm of David. But remember, David is a type of Christ in so many ways. And as David was confronted with enemies and was delivered by the hand of God, so our Lord Jesus Christ in his earthly humiliation as a man, faced enemies, wicked, cruel, scheming enemies. And we have in a psalm like this a window into his mind, into his thoughts, as he faced these deadly, fierce enemies. Samuel Pierce commenting on this psalm says in this prayer Messiah is personated and I think we today would say impersonated but in those days they would say personated. David is speaking for the Messiah as the Messiah in anticipation of the Messiah so Our Lord in his earthly life had real enemies. He had those who fought against him, not imaginary enemies. All through his life, he encountered difficulty from the earliest days when Herod sought to kill him, and especially during the years of his public ministry. In those years, the enmity that Genesis 3.15 speaks of comes into full view. The enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. This is the complaint. It continues in verse 3. Draw out also the spear and stop the way against them that persecute me. He was pursued, persecuted, followed, chased around Palestine. You find those Pharisees from Judea following him up into Galilee sometimes just to find fault with him. Again, the complaint is in verse 7. For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul. There were ongoing efforts to entrap the Lord, to get him into some kind of trouble that would shut him down, that would put an end to his ministry and his influence. And this was all without any cause, as it says twice over there in verse 7, for nothing, undeservedly. So this is the complaint Then there is the prayer. And we go back up to verse one once again to see parts of this. Plead my cause, O Lord. And the word plead here is sometimes translated contend. And the idea here, there's kind of a repetition in the Hebrew poetry here. Strive with those that strive with me, fight against them that fight against me. This is the petition our Lord puts forth to the Father in heaven. Come to my defense. Verse two, take hold of shield and buckler and stand up for mine help. As the son of man in his earthly humiliation, he felt weakness, not sinful weakness, but weakness without sin. He's reduced to seeking help from heaven. His prayer continues in verse three, draw out also the spear and stop the way against them that persecute me, restrain them. Put a hedge about them and then say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. The sweet communion with the father was the soul's delight of God, the son, as a man on earth. to have the assurance of the Father in heaven that he was his deliverer, that he was his helper. To quote Mr. Pierce once again, he says, this would be all sufficient for the support of his vast mind. Jehovah was salvation to him, yet he prays for a fresh evidence of it. And understand that the salvation he's praying for is not salvation from any sin of his own. And that's something we should always. See clearly, but there is deliverance and rescue from all manner of danger that the son needed from the father's hand. The prayer continues in verses four through six. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the wind and let the angel of the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery and let the angel of the Lord persecute them. The evil schemes of our Lord's enemies continued on all through his public ministry, and they were repeatedly frustrated. Early on there in Nazareth, there was an effort to stone him or and to push him off of the cliff and so on. And we read more than once that he escaped death that they had or that the attempts to kill him that they had plotted. When his day came. He did lay down his life on the cross. And these imprecations, these calling down of God's judgments and wrath upon them was finally brought to pass. Especially nationally in AD 70, when the Jewish nation was blown away like chaff before the wind. which I say is simply a foreshadowing of the great final day of wrath upon all who are the enemies of the King of Heaven. We mentioned verse 7 already, let's go to verse 8. This is the last part of the prayer here. Let destruction come upon him at unawares and let his net that he had hid catch himself into that very destruction. Let him fall. You notice he moves from speaking in the plural in the previous verses to the singular here. And it makes us think especially of Judas Iscariot. And the destruction that came upon him. He's caught into the very net that he had set for the Lord Jesus. His misery for his wicked deed of betraying Jesus came swiftly upon his conscience. He was caught in his own scheme. He's not happy with the silver. He's got to get rid of it. His conscience is troubled. He comes back to the priests and tries to give them the money. They won't take it. He throws it down on the ground in front of them, confesses Christ's innocence, and then leaves and hangs himself. And that is, again, sort of a miniature picture. of the sad end of all who are the enemies of Jesus Christ. All who scheme against him will become entrapped in their own scheme and not able to escape from it. Well, this section ends in verses 9 and 10 with the thanksgiving for the deliverance that he anticipated. And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in his salvation. brings to mind the verse in Hebrews that says, because of the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. He knew that beyond that suffering and shame and death, there was glory, joy, resurrection. And he anticipates that here in Psalm 35, 9. And verse 10, all my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him. He speaks of his bones, his human frame. And you may recall back in Psalm 34, verse 20, It speaks of his keeping all of his bones. Not one of them is broken. So his whole human frame will come to rejoice in the Lord in resurrection glory. Then we come again to the complaint. And this is in verses 11 through 16. False witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things that I knew not. We see that so clearly in our Lord's Jewish trial. When it says they brought in false witnesses. And none of them had could agree among themselves as far as the false accusations against him. These efforts to entrap him kept going on and none of them succeeded because there was no entrapping of our Lord. Finally, he is put under oath by the high priest to declare whether or not he is the son of God. And he affirms that. And it's on the basis, not of the testimony of false witnesses, but on the true testimony of himself that they rejected. and considered as blasphemous that he was condemned to death. They laid to my charge, verse 11, things that I knew not, things that were not true at all. Verse 12 goes on. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. He had done nothing but good. And he lays that out in the next couple of verses. He had fed their hungry. He had healed their sick. He had raised their dead. He did good everywhere he went, and yet he was rewarded by man with evil. Nothing less than his death would satisfy them, the spoiling of his soul. The complaint continues in verses 13 and 14, but as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. He was sympathetic to those who were suffering. I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. And that last clause there is, is one that admits of perhaps more than one interpretation. He could be saying that this could be our Lord saying that his prayers did not cease in behalf of needy sinners. His prayers were ongoing and repeated. His prayers returned. They continued on in his soul. Or it may be the meaning here is that the benefits that he asked for were ultimately bestowed upon himself. In either way, it shows his great sympathy as a man among men. My prayer returned into my own bosom. Certainly Thomas Goodwin took it in the latter sense in his treatise called The Return of Prayers based upon this verse. If the Lord answers the prayers that you pray for others in. Benefits to your own self, then that certainly shows that you have prayed in the best interest of others. Verse 14 goes on, I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. He even calls Judas friend. when he comes to Gethsemane. I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother. But in mine adversity, they didn't mourn. They didn't put on sackcloth and fast. They rejoiced and gathered themselves together. Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me and I knew it not. They were scheming in private against him. He was mocked there the night that he was on trial, mocked by abjects, wretches, or perhaps the term means those who smote him. He was hit and beaten, yes, and whipped. They did tear me, he says at the end of verse 15. His flesh was torn in the scourging. That pilot ordered, they did tear me and ceased not. And in all this, they took delight. They rejoiced to see him suffer. There was no pity. I mean, people come to tears when they see an animal suffer. But the enemies of our Lord had no tears for his suffering. They took delight in it. They held nothing but contempt, utter contempt for him. This is a picture, an illustration to us of the depravity of the human heart against God and all that is godly. Verse 16 is so messianic with hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. When did his. Trial and crucifixion occur during a feast during the days of Passover. And you remember that the priests wanted to be so careful. and not to violate the letter of of the ceremonial law and to be unclean and hindered from participating in the feast. They were so hypocritical. Yes, because all the while they're scheming for his blood. And once they had arrested him, They gnashed upon him with their teeth. The sounds of hell itself could be heard in their mockery and their hatred against him. And so then there's the prayer and the petition in verses 17 or in verse 17. Lord, how long will thou look on? How long will you observe without doing something? Rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions. This verse echoes the loneliness of the cross. When he said, why has thou forsaken me? And the word darling here as the margin of your Bible may say indicates only one. And even that is perhaps difficult to pin down exactly as to the the meaning here. But I think perhaps the best explanation is that our Lord here in using this term that means only one is referring to his loneliness, his being all alone in his suffering and death, forsaken once again. This is his petition. But then there is the anticipation of deliverance, verse 18, I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people. He knows that this loneliness and this suffering. Will not be forever. And that he will emerge from it. Worshipful. in company with all that he has redeemed, the great congregation, giving thanks and giving praise to God the Father. The Lord Jesus anticipated as he faced and endured his earthly sufferings, he anticipated the joy of leading in worship in the glory of heaven among the gathering of the redeemed for whom he died and suffered and rose again. Well, the last cycle begins here in verse 19. And we have to skip down really to verse 20 to see the complaint laid out. First of all, they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. Though the Lord Jesus was quiet, he didn't make an uproar. He didn't. Quench the smoking flax. He's harmless and undefiled, as Hebrews 7 tells us. He's no troublemaker. He's quiet in the land. And yet, he is plotted against, schemed against. He was considered to be a nuisance to the nation. And he must be destroyed, not fit to live. And verse 21, yea, they opened their mouth wide against me and said, aha, aha, our eye hath seen it. Here are the false accusations that they brought against him, especially before Pontius Pilate. They said, oh, he's attacked Caesar, the emperor. We heard it. We saw it. Pilot, take our word for it." They knew what buttons to push with Pilot so as to get a condemnation of death from him. And so the prayer then is in verse 19 and then verses 22 and following back up to verse 19 for a moment. Here's the petition. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me. Neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. The phrase without a cause is used here, and you recall down in verse 7, it's used twice there, as well as in Psalm 69 and verse 4. This is what our Lord was referring to when he said to the disciples the night of his arrest. This cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. And this is one of the passages where that is clearly said. And so the prayer is. Don't let them win. Don't let them rejoice. Don't even let them sleep. That's what the winking with the eye seems to refer to. Neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. And you know, that seems to be the case with old Judas Iscariot. He couldn't get a good night's sleep because his conscience was so troubled. Perhaps the priests and others who were involved in his false arrest and accusation and condemnation and death also lost sleep for reasons of their own. Perhaps the nights between his burial and his resurrection were restless nights for those who feared the worst. Either they feared he would be raised from the dead, or else, if they didn't see that clearly, they feared the disciples would come and steal his body, which was nothing to fear, really. The prayer continues in verse 22. Thou hast seen, O Lord, keep not silence, O Lord, be not far from me. Stir up thyself and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord. Judge me, O Lord, my God, according to thy righteousness and let them not rejoice over me. Don't let them have ultimate and final victory. Let them not say in their hearts, ah, so would we have it. Let them not say we have swallowed him up. Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at my hurt. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me. Here is the mind of our Lord in the hours on the cross. When he suffers the pain of loneliness and the pain of no immediate deliverance given to him by the father, the father seems to be asleep. The son is alone and forsaken. And the father sees it. The son knows that the father sees it, verse 22. And yet he's silent. He doesn't come to his aid in those hours of death. He asks for judgment to be rendered. for justice to be administered. Verse 24, judge me, oh Lord, my God, according to thy righteousness. What is the judgment? How was this prayer answered? The verdict was rendered on the resurrection day. That is the judgment of the father with regard to the sacrifice of the son. Mission accomplished. Resurrection glory. Now let me just read one last quotation here from Samuel Pierce. We have several sections here of imprecations and let divine wrath come upon these enemies and so on. Listen to what he says about this. Quote, he prays not against them out of hatred and ill will to their persons, but agreeable to their state and case, that the justice of God agreeable to the perfections of the divine nature might be so exercised as that they may read their guilt in their punishment. End quote. It is a desire for the greater glory of God that these prayers are raised by our Lord against his enemies. If we pray against our enemies, let us make sure that it is for the greater glory of God. But last of all, in these closing two verses, we see once again the anticipation of a joyful end. Let them shout for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause. Yea, let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. Here is the joy of the redeemed, the joy of those whose hearts have been turned by the saving grace of God and the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Let them rejoice in the Lord and magnify him. Reminds us of what Paul says in the book of Galatians, God forbid that I should glory in anything but. cross of Christ. And of course, though it's not stated there, it's implied that the glorious resurrection that followed the death of the cross. Let the Lord be magnified which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. Here's the prosperity gospel. It's the gospel itself. The purpose of the Lord will prosper in His hand. Isaiah 53 tells us, His mediation for us prospered and was successful. And yes, let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity. of his servant. Christ's cause was made to prosper by the hand of the Father. And so we have this closing word of praise and anticipation of deliverance. My tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long. I think I still have more to understand about all of this, but a verse like this indicates to us that the praises of the God-man will continue forever and ever in that great eternal day when there's no night. And the praises of all who are in Christ and redeemed by Christ will likewise continue on in that great eternal day. And every Lord's day on this earth is just a foreshadowing of that great and glorious day. Let our praises continue this day and all throughout our life until we are in glory with Christ. Well, these are some thoughts that I hope will come to mind when you read Psalm 35 next time and see Christ here, perhaps more than ever before. Let me just say this in way of application. This psalm and all the psalms in some way apply to believers as well as to Christ. Do we feel like we are reduced to pleading for help today against our enemies? There are enemies who publicly identify themselves against us and what we stand for and believe. And propagate. And there are more subtle enemies that don't stand up and identify themselves. There are the Judas kind of enemies and there are the Caiaphas kind of enemies. And what do we do? We plead to God in heaven for help and for deliverance. And like our Lord himself, we should expect our prayers to be answered in God's own way. But let us today be comforted to know that we have a savior who can fully sympathize with us. and who knows what it is to be a man on earth with deadly enemies. Let us be comforted remembering him and let us be comforted by the assurance of final victory with him and in him. His victory is our victory. And regardless of what suffering we face and what difficulties and wickedness that comes against us, with Christ, we emerge victorious at the end. Let us take that from Psalm 35 for our own hearts today.