So Psalm 95, we want to continue in our little study of this chapter. And you know, I'm trying to think of what to entitle this. We could entitle it, When the Psalms are Scary. Or we could entitle it, Enjoying Imprecatory Psalms. This would not be a good title, but you know, in my sarcasm, I might say we can title it, What's Your Problem? That's a little too generic. But yeah, what is their problem with the Psalms? And that's what we're going to look at this morning. Last week, I kept comparing Psalm 95 during the sermon, I kept comparing it to Psalm 139, oh, and by the way, so I was gonna, well, I'm gonna finish off this psalm this morning. But then as I got to thinking about it, I said, you know, I gotta do it once again. They're taking the ax out and chopping, just chop that sermon right in half, you know, just to cater to the weaknesses of the flesh. I try my best, don't always succeed, don't usually succeed. So we'll actually get to the meat and potatoes of seven through 11 tonight. This morning, all I'm really gonna do is kind of put it in its perspective, put this Psalm in its spiritual perspective in relation to the nature of how God reveals himself so oftentimes and so oftentimes in the Psalms. It's sort of a philosophical foundation that I want to observe in this Psalm that we find in other Psalms. And we'll just be talking broadly about that this morning. So, but last week I was comparing this Psalm to Psalm 139, and I said, and I was making the point that both Psalms in the first portion of the psalm, the first two thirds of the psalm, are very digestible by the evangelical community. But when they get to the end of the psalm, it's no longer digestible for whatever reason. It gives them indigestion and it gives some even nausea. They want to join the camp of C.S. Lewis who can't stand the psalms anymore. And he picks on David for the 23rd psalm. As if there's something wrong with it. We don't need that guy. What are the evangelicals puffing him for anyway? But be that as it may yeah, there's a two-part nature to many Psalms, and I wanted to compare Psalm 95 to Psalm 139. But as I told you last week, it was after the sermon ended, and then I'm just making some comment after, you know, the sermon after the sermon. I said, you know, I just realized, I kept referring to Psalm 139 in my sermon, and that wasn't my intent. My intent was to compare Psalm 95 to Psalm 149. And I told you one reason why I was making that mistake. That's because last Sunday night was when we were doing this last time. And last Sunday night, I said to the elders before the service, I said, I think I might want to do a psalm meditation. What psalm do you want to do? I said, I'm looking at the psalms. I know I do it a lot, but let's do Psalm 139. I like that one. I like that before I preach. calms me. And so I said, but if I don't have time, obviously we won't do it. So sure enough, we didn't have time because I'm probably good at talking about something. Before the sermon, I just gave them the signal like, you know, we're not going to do Psalm 139. So I made the decision, you know what, we'll sing it at the end of the service. So the last thing before I went to preach, and I go, we're gonna sing Psalm 139. And then I kept, I wanted to refer to Psalm 149, kept referring to Psalm 139. So there's like a glitch in the connections in the brain. But I realized this actually right up front, and I thought about it later too. That wasn't the only reason I kept making the mistake of Psalm 139. The other reason is because I know what's in Psalm 139. And it's true for Psalm 139 too. And I want us to look at that for a moment. Let's go to Psalm 139, and what I'm saying is, the structure of Psalm 95, you can see in other Psalms, and as usual, much of the Christian community will enjoy the Psalm. Well, at least the majority of the Psalm up front. Let's take a look at this one as an example. Psalm 139, for instance, you start at verse one. O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Now, I think all the evangelicals can receive that. God is so sovereign and so powerful that he knows me. He knows me better than I know myself. And so, you know, I don't think you get much opposition from the Lord's people with that. So yes, they say, amen. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought far off. The Lord knows from his throne in heaven, far away, wherever that is. He knows what I'm thinking without me uttering a word. I don't think there's any Christians, even the Arminians, that want to downplay his sovereignty that will deny that. I think we understand that. And so they rejoice. This is great. This is the God we serve. He's great and he's powerful, he's all-knowing. We're all on board with that. They're loving the psalm. Verse three, thou compasseth my path and my lying down. He is everywhere where I am, whether I'm lying down or he's all around me as I walk the way. And he, God, thou art acquainted with all my ways. Again, the sovereign wisdom, knowledge, of God, which is comforting to God's people, and it should be. Well, we jump down to verse seven. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, in the grave itself, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. You know, the Psalms have the greatest poetry that ever existed on planet Earth. I mean, look at that verse. If I take the wings of the morning You know, the wings of the morning. There are wings to the morning, right? You go into that slumber world of sleep. You say, by the way, why are you doing this? Because, I'll tell you why. You know, we can rush through. We can rush through the psalm and make our point and show where the truth is, and then show how the opposition to the truth is wrong, and then we can move on. And we make our point, but if that's all you do, I think there's something wrong. Almost seems like you're preaching based on pride, just trying to prove the other guy wrong and how much we know and we're right. Well, look, I did that, let's go. But wait a minute, isn't there a desire to like stop and smell the roses or can't you smell them? Is your faith all in your brain? And it isn't in your heart. So if it's in your brain, yeah, you can teach a lot of doctrine, a lot of sound doctrine. Look at this, look at this, look at this, look at this, look at this. They're wrong, they're wrong, they're wrong. Right, right, right. Point made, let's go. But wait a minute, hold on. You know, the scripture should be more like, you know, you're walking through a garden, you know. And look at that over there. Can you smell that? And you just came from the misery of the dump yard of the world. And then you enter into the paradise of some enclosed garden, the enclosed garden with the wall around it that Roger Williams talks about, well, sort of John. And just, oh, this is the greatest place, right? You've come into paradise. What, you're going to go dashing through paradise just to show you went there? Where's the exit door? I've been there. Now let me go tell people I was there and they weren't. In a sense, that's how some people teach. There's not a lot of those, but there are people like that. And so it isn't just a matter of how much can we learn to show how knowledgeable we are and how everybody needs to leave their church and come to mine. People will do that. I think as we teach whatever's true, that it rebukes error is good, And sometimes you need to intentionally design it to that end because there's a bad problem in the society you're in. But I think we ought to stop and smell the roses on the way. And like I've said to you before, if we went to the mall, I walk fast. But if I'm going someplace I really like, like I say, there's a big gun store over in Connecticut there. What's the name of that store? What is it? Yeah, Hoffman's, it's Hoffman's, Hoffman's guns. And it's big, it's a big gun place, you know what I mean? And they got, like, everything there. It's like, oh, well, when you go in there, you know, you just kind of browse around. Hey, wait, can I hold that one? You know, that kind of thing. And like, that's when Paula's legs are getting weak and maybe they're getting like little wet noodles. And then when we're in the mall and she's looking at girls' dresses, my legs become like wet noodles. But, you know, we learn to accommodate each other. That's the way it is, right? So we're going to the scripture though for God's people. It should be like that experience like why everything there's so many glorious things here Well, let's slow down That's why I read the book a book. I really like and I get to that passage. Oh, that was so well written so powerfully That's like a rare gem. You say well now it's time to move on you begin the next chapter You can't oh, yeah, I gotta go back. It takes me a long time to read a good book because that's what I do. I Can't help it I like it. I realize there's something special about the way the guy did that. It goes right, it like draws in the hot strings or in the mind and the conscience in such a powerful way. Ooh, I could do that again. It's like, you know, you can get that like reading J.C. Philpott sermons. They're very challenging spiritually, but they're also, they're spiritually in-depth. You think, ooh, that was a really good way to put that. Let me read that again, you know? Well, you don't want to be that way with God's Word, and we're talking about particularly the Psalms. which are designed to be particularly enticing because they're in the form of the artistry of poetry. And we're even reading the poetry in English, not even in Hebrew, but even in a translated language. Look at verse 9. If I take the wings of the morning, like I said, you go to bed, you're in slumber, you're in this strange world, you have a knock on the door at two in the morning, it scares you, not like everything's creepy because it's two in the morning, you just woke up and you're not all there. It's this surreal or maybe scary world. Well, you wake up in the morning, but then the sun's rising, right? And the sun comes up and everything's fresh. Maybe it rained the night before and everything's beginning to glisten and the sun's coming. It's like everything's new again. You went to bed, you went to bed maybe worrying, well, I gotta do this tomorrow, I gotta do that tomorrow. Oh yeah, my boss said this, I gotta do that. I gotta remember to pay that bill or whatever you're thinking. And you wake up, the slate's wiped clean. And so the morning gives you wings to realign your priorities in thinking. It's like you have a fresh start. And it's incorporated into the psalm by the direction of the Holy Ghost. Here I am taking five minutes just to talk about the wings of the morning. Is it really necessary for us to understand Psalm 95? This isn't even Psalm 95. I know. I know, but as we go, I'm making the points, and those same points are applicable to Psalm 95 as well. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, if I take the wings of the morning and then I fly to the other side of the world, to a deserted island where nobody is there, no one even knows the island exists, If I take my wings of the morning and dwell in the outermost parts of the sea, even there, on that deserted island on the other side of the world, even there thy hand shall lead me. What Christian can't rejoice in that? Yeah, this is a great thing to sing, right? Even though they don't like singing songs, but oh, we can make an exception for this one, yes sir. Even there shall thy hand lead me. when I'm all alone in this forgotten place, and thy right hand, oh, they would love this, right, shall hold me. And these are proper sentiments that we should rejoice in and be encouraged by, right? So you can see, there's no controversy here. Look at verse 14, I'm not gonna go through the whole psalm. Look at verse 14, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Now, we know that the evangelical community at large will, they embrace that because it's often quoted in regards to opposing abortion. Although, amongst evangelicals, that conviction is weaker than it was yesterday. It's still there, probably, I would say, held by most, I would think, but it's been compromised. But be that as it may, at least historically, it's always been true, even the evangelicals, even the new evangelicals, at least some time ago, and probably many of them still now, they agree with this. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. If you took the abortion thing out of it, of course it's not about that, but has an obvious application. Nothing all Christians can say, we're fearfully and wonderfully made. Except many of them think we were made by virtue of a divine guidance of evolution that took eons of time. So I am fearfully and wonderfully evolved. One way or another, they're going to say they rejoice in that. They would love this song. I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are thy works. And that my soul knoweth right well. I even like the way that said, we know it right well. There's nothing not to like. Go to verse 17. I'm not skipping over like scary parts. Just read them yourself. I'm just not gonna take the time to go through all of it. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them? So the Christian community, they love talking about the love of God, the grace of God, the passion of God. And well, they should. Well, we should. That's why we're taking some time when we're talking about it right now. How precious are the thoughts of God to God's people? And how great is the sum of them? You look at them in total and there's just overwhelming. Look at verse 18, if I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. Count your many blessings because they're more in number than the grains of sand on the seashore. When I awake, look at this, when I awake, I am still with thee. See, all the Christian community can come together and rejoice in these thoughts. Then they read, surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Well, what's he bringing up that for, you know? I mean, the psalm was so wonderful, full of the love and mercy and grace and the glory of God. It just made me feel warm inside, like out of nowhere. It talks about surely God will kill evil people. Why is, well, I mean, yeah, really, really bad people. God don't do that because it's holy. We agree with that, but it seems a little out of place they think to themselves. Now, I'm just gonna talk out loud the way they don't allow themselves to think out loud to themselves, but it's what they're thinking. I'm just putting it in words for them. What happened to the psalmist? He was talking in the first 18 verses so much like the New Testament God. And then it seems the New Testament God got shoved out, and then the Old Testament God came with whom they're not so well pleased. Oh, they would never say that. I know they won't. I'm saying it for them. And you know what I mean. You know what I mean. Surely thou will slay the wicked. You're walking in a garden, and the sun is shining, and the birds are chirping, and the Lord sends a thunderbolt down. Makes that bush burn. Surely thou will slay the wicked. Well, yeah, because God's holy, and there's really, really bad people, like murderers or something like that, and he said that has to happen. Right, God is good. Okay, amen. Let's keep going, Pastor. Thou shalt surely slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, the psalmist says, ye bloody men. Wait a minute now. I look back at the beginning, a psalm of David? David, David. Okay, that God is gonna wreak vengeance on the wicked, okay, but then David adds a thought. And then David declares, depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. Well, see, David said, ye bloody men. He must be talking about really bad guys like murderers. So obviously murderers have to receive justice. Yeah, we agree. Don't pass the Gallagher. They're just uncomfortable, but they're agreeing. Uncomfortable in agreeing. They're uncomfortable. I'm saying, I'm trying to get to a point. Why are you uncomfortable? And I want you to think about that. What exactly are you uncomfortable with? Oh, let me rephrase that. Who are you uncomfortable with? Just a question. Verse 20, let's keep reading. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Well, we agree, that's not right. But let's just keep going. This psalm was so good. And then all this negativity. We have Joel Osteen in the fetal position, crying with his thumb in his mouth. Keep going on, Pastor Geller, move, move along, hurry. Get through this. We're in the bad section of the department store. Walk faster. Okay, we'll walk through it with you, but will you hurry up? We gotta get to the sweet stuff. We don't want our vegetables, we want chocolate. All right, let's move on. And David says, not the Lord, David says, do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee. I am grieved with those that rise up against thee. Now, so many of these Christians, they don't say these things out loud. I don't even know that they think them explicitly to themselves. It's an undercurrent in the subconscious. I'm going to put the best construction on it. I think that's true. Maybe it's worse than that, I'm thinking. But in the subconscious, they might think, you know, I've been witnessing to my neighbor for a long time. I've been telling them about the love of Christ, and his mercy, and his goodness in Jesus, and how he'll forgive us of our sins. And he died in our stead, that we can have eternal life. I'm asking them to come to church. I hope they don't ever see verse 21, because I'm witnessing to them. And that'll ruin everything. Again, they'll never say those words. But it's the undercurrent in the back of the mind. It's feeding the words that come out of their mouth. Adapt those words to Christian expectations and even their own expectations. But if the truth were known, because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, what comes out of our mouth is sanitized. But when you read James, what comes out of the mouth isn't always so good. And that's the sanitized version. They don't want their unconverted friends to read verse 21. They're ashamed of it. Heaven forbid the people I've spent all this time witnessing to and endearing myself to, if they stumble across this. Keep moving pastor, you're going too slow. This garden walk is not good, it's not healthy. If you preach this to your congregation or if some visitor comes in and he doesn't know the Lord. Well, wait a minute, this is going on sermon audio. It's being live streamed right now. All right, David, you're aggrieved with those that rise up against God, okay? Yeah, yeah, because they're doing wrong, they're opposing God. But keep moving, pastor, okay? Then David says, I hate them with perfect hatred. No, you just lost them. They'll never say, I disagree with that, They just won't talk about it. They'll hide it. And they're ashamed of it, and they'll say they're not. Because there's something wrong with their thinking. They say, that's what I'm actually driving at. I'm trying to go to the root, not so much, how much can we learn real fast and we'd be really, no, no, no, let's slow it down so we really learn. We can learn a bunch of facts and figures and truths and doctrines and get them right, fine tune them and show how smart we are. And then what we do as we learn all these new things is go on continuing to dishonor the Lord in these subversive ways and we don't admit it to ourselves. Just trying to be real. And the truth is these things are usually the more important lessons. You know why Christians don't oftentimes embrace sound doctrine? It's because of these things. It's because there's a compromise in the exercise of faith that they're in denial that they're exercising. Or we're not exercising any such compromise. And because you don't even acknowledge that, you're going to make the doctrinal, look, if you can't accept the end of Psalm 139, what are you going to do with the doctrine of election? You're going to play games. If you can't admit the end of Psalm 139, what are you going to do with the doctrine of a first century parrhesia? Do the same thing you do here. Try and ignore it. Gloss over it. Come up with some vague explanation if you're forced to talk about it. And then run away as fast as you can. And don't bring it up until someone forces you to face it again. David says, I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies, you know. And then, Then these Christians, they won't say it, but they'll think to themselves, in the back of their mind, not in the forefront, I think it's in the back, I'm giving them credit. But then look what David said, look at what he just said, I hate them with perfect hatred. Jesus says we're to love our enemies. We're to pray for those that despitefully use us. And then after David says, well, I hate them. I hate them with a perfect hatred. They're my enemies. And then David has the gall after such a ungodly statement. Well, I can't say that. David has the gall then immediately after saying that, search me, oh God. and know my heart. I want you to see in the inner recesses of my heart my true priorities and motivations. I want you to see if I'm utterly sincere. He dares to ask the Lord that after he stated these vile words of hate? Again, they'll deny it all day long. But all you have to do is listen to them and interpret their words. David says, search me, O God, know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts. He dares say that? How about what you've just plainly stated, the sentence before? Then David says, and see if there be any wicked way in me. Didn't he listen to himself in verse 21 and 22? That's what they would think. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Of course, I look at this and I don't have a problem with it. The psalmist is rejoicing in all the goodness and the greatness and the glory of God. And what a blessing he is to his life, how he watches out for him, he cares for him. He can go to that deserted island on the other side of the world, the Lord's there and the Lord will hold him. And just to show how much he loves them, the psalmist makes it plain to that, to David, who knows the Lord will lead him and guide him and put his arms around him in that desolate place. Don't worry, I will slay the wicked who want to kill you because they hate me. Now, is that meant to scare David or to encourage David? It's meant to encourage David because the bad guys want to kill the good guys. And when I say that, I don't mean that Christians have meritorious good work. I mean that the world hates Christ. And Christ said, if they hate me, they'll hate you. Because to the degree they can see me in you, they will hate you. Which means they're really hating me, if you're living your life for me. So he says, don't worry, David. I will slay the wicked that hate me. David says, I don't want to have anything to do with these bloody men that look that way towards you and hate you. Depart from me, I don't want them. I don't want them around. I don't want their influence. I'm on your side God. But they speak against thee wickedly. That's an offense to David. David isn't talking about being angry with the people that persecute him per se. David isn't talking about taking vengeance on his personal enemies. We're to pray for our enemies. Would you love our enemies? If you're going to actively work against God in hate, you're going to stand on God's side. That's where your heart is. You may love your neighbor, and your neighbor might not be that great. Maybe he's quite unlovable, but you have your Christian obligation and duty, and you know that he's lost in his sins, and you can pray for him, and you can mean it. You'd love to see him saved. But if he's busting down your door with a gun to come in and kill your wife, You're thinking differently, and you will act accordingly, and you'll do actually what is right. David says, do not I hate them, the enemies of God, O Lord, that hate thee? And am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? Yes, I am on the side, David is saying, with what is godly. I'm on your side, Lord. I'm on the side of what is right and just and which would bring peace and blessing and harmony to mankind. And love? Love will make a soldier kill the hater. What it boils down to, I mean, a lot of wars, it's bad guy against the worst guy and there's no moral cause, I understand that. But I mean, in the typical good versus evil battle, maybe a nation's defending itself against an assault and attack to rape, pillage, kill, and steal. The cause is just. David says, I hate them with perfect hatred. It's not a malicious, worldly, godless form of hatred. It's a holy hatred. It isn't commingled with selfishness, pride, evil desire, or even personal vengeance. He hates them with a perfect hatred. the kind that God exercises, in which there is nothing unholy. Otherwise, then there is no judgment. No one's cast into the lake of fire, no matter how you want to interpret that. But it's there in the scripture. I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies. And David, in full good conscience, writing under inspiration of the Holy Ghost, after saying those things, says, search me, Lord. I want you to know and see deep inside me if there's any inconsistency in my thought, if there's any sin in me in any way, any wicked way, and lead me into the way everlasting. I don't have a problem with it. Now, so what we see in Psalm 139 is the first part of the psalm, the first two thirds of the psalm, everybody loves. But let's not go to the end. It's a big problem. The problem isn't just how do we understand the Psalm correctly. There's a fundamental spiritual problem of weak faith, rebellion, and compromise residing in the sinner's heart, the Christian's heart, maybe it's the sinner's heart, the Christian's heart, if he's gonna fight against God in these things. There ought to be a general principle that just negates their lack of understanding. And that is, it's God's Word, so it must be right. I have no problem with it. And they totally have no explanation. It's just a go-to default position to hold. They won't do it. See, this is what they need to learn. This is what we all need to learn. We need to relearn it when we need to relearn it. Because sometimes we can forget in the heat of battle. So we see that Psalm 139 It's very much like Psalm 95, as we'll see tonight when we get to Psalm 95, or even maybe this morning just for general purposes. So the Psalm is digestible, but then when it gets to the imprecatory part of the Psalm, they don't want it. Last week, we're talking about this psalm, Sunday night. So I'm standing at the back after the service, and Brother Sam comes up to me, and he tells me a story. He says, you know, I've, in my past, he's at one of his churches he belonged to in the past, and I guess Sam had, you know, some kind of ministry where he'd go to the hospital and visit the sick. So he was told by, it was either a pastor or deacon or somebody, one of the leaders in the church, I think it was the pastor, He says, he told me at the back door there, he says, so my pastor told me, now when you go and visit the sick in the hospital, it's good to read the Psalms. And I agree with that. I mean, the Psalms have something for every occasion. And if someone's in the hospital, you know, they need encouragement and strengthening and hope. And there's so much of that you can find in the Psalms, and it's so easy to do it, and it's so well stated. It's just a go-to place. When I go to the hospital, I would say the majority of times someone's in the hospital, I'm probably reading something from the Psalms, but sometimes I'll read something from the New Testament. Sometimes I'll read something from the Old Testament that isn't in the Psalms, like Deuteronomy or something, you know. But usually I'll go to the Psalms because it's so easy to for that purpose, and so I agree. So anyway, his minister said to him, so when you go, you know, use the Psalms. It's really great for that kind of ministry, and I agree with that. But then he told, Sam told me that he was instructed, however, make sure you're going to the pleasant and encouraging portions of the Psalms, and you want to work hard to avoid those hard, I don't know how he said it, but those hard and precatory divine wrath pots of the Psalms. That's not gonna help someone that's sick and in bed. So he told me that story, so then Sam asked me, so, is that what you do? Do you just use the encouraging pots of the Psalms when you go to? And so my reply to Sam, I said, well, not today. I went and saw Dave. And it's funny he asked that because that was last Sunday night and just a couple of hours before two or three hours before I was at the hospital visiting Dave because he just had his operation on Friday and so last Sunday afternoon I went to talk to Dave and So I said to Sam well No, no, I don't do it that way not today. I went and saw Dave and I brought my Usually I go to the hospital, I bring like a little small Bible, right? You can stick it in your pocket. And so it's just a New Testament with the Psalms. And so this is what I brought last Sunday. And I still have my little thing, you know, the little marker they gave you, the ribbon. And it's in the page, in the text that I read to Dave last Sunday. And so I'll read you what I read to Dave. I mean, I just, you know, sit in the park a lot, look at the Psalms like, three minutes, two minutes, and say, well, that'll do. And you don't even give it any thought. I mean, it's just like, you know, they jump off, you just kind of flip open anyway. I'm not searching for something. It's just like, yeah, that'll work. Put it in your pocket and go. So this is what I read. The righteous shall cry, and the Lord heareth. Now this is Psalm 34, verse 17. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth. and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Now that's the first verse I started reading, verse 17. And of course, you know, there's Dave, he just went through major surgery, and you know, he was uncomfortable. You still get that tube in here, and that's really, it's, you know, it's just, you want to tear your hair out, you know. And so he was expressing his being uncomfortable. He was up on a chair, but it was uncomfortable. He was on pain stuff, so he wasn't in pain, but there's an uncomfortableness to that. And so it's hard. So, but you hear that, you know, that's encouraging, right? The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. And I said to Dave, well, look, You just told me, because I talked to him for a while before I read anything, you just told me that the operation went faster than they thought it would. He says, yes, that's right. Well, in other words, everything went well. There was no issues, no problems, and it went better than they expected. It went good. So the Lord is right now, although you might feel uncomfortable, he is in the process of delivering you. You're alive. You're here. It went better than they thought. All's looking good. But you're feeling uncomfortable. You're being delivered. Okay? That's a blessing, right? The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Then verse 19. We read 18, then we read verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. I said, no Dave, I remember talking about it. I mean, I don't have anything memorized, I just, you can look at the text and just thoughts will come to your mind while you're talking. I said, look, many are the afflictions of the righteous. Dave, you're not peculiar. Here you are, I say, well, you know, you might think to yourself, why is this happening to me? Many are the afflictions of the righteous. There's no exceptions. Everybody is gonna have their day of trials. They can take all sorts of forms. So, you're like the rest of us. And God brings those into our lives to strengthen us, to increase our faith, and to be a blessing to others who observe how we conduct ourselves in these things, and it bears a powerful witness. It's an honor, what the New Testament says, to suffer for Christ. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all. He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken. Now that was verse 20. Now I could stop there. That'd be great. Beautiful text. Did I stop there? No. And I was gonna, I remember thinking, you know, I wasn't having anything planned out. I remember thinking, well, I stopped there. I looked at the first word of the next sentence. Well, I stopped there. No, keep going. And the reason I said keep going, well, there's only two more verses to the chapter. You know, read those. So, verse 20, which I read, he keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken. Ah, wonderful. Next sentence. This I read to Dave, the next two sentences. Evil shall slay the wicked. Oh, where is this coming from? All of a sudden, out of nowhere. Yeah, just like Psalm 139. Evil shall slay the wicked, and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. So I said to Dave, now Dave, look at that. You see, we're told in verse 17, the righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles. That's not true of those that hate God and trample over the blood of his son. Evil shall slay the wicked. No, there's no deliverance there. See, you're here. It went well. He is in the process of delivering you. He doesn't do that for the non-Ellen. So it's meant to be an encouragement. I'm taking this thing that, oh, and I'm talking about these scary bad things. Evil shall slay the wicked. That's meant to be an encouragement. And they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants, and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate. So yeah, you read what's there, see? You don't have to hide portions of God's word to make it palatable. That's not making it palatable, that's hiding it. Understand there's a reason as to why it's there. Now, go to Psalm 149, the Psalm I wanted to compare Psalm 95 to. That was my intention. I shared my mistaken intention in Psalm 139, so now let's look at Psalm 149. Psalm 95, likewise, has a two-part split, just like Psalm 139. It's great, it's great, it's beautiful, we love the whole thing, and then you get towards the end, oh, wait a minute, I'm not sure you want that. The same thing is true of Psalm 149. Verse one, praise ye the Lord. Now, see, right away, you're gonna get them because they're all about praise and worship now. You know, oh, that doctrine, we'll take a little doctrine, you know. Don't go overboard with the doctrine, because you're going to have lots of room for praise and worship, what they call praise and worship. It's the horse and pony show, look at me, won't you, our. We call it praising the Lord. Praise ye the Lord, sing unto the Lord a new song. That doesn't mean sing the songs from Hillsong. Sing unto the Lord a new song. So yeah, praise, sing, and worship. Oh, once the worship team and the praise band gets crankin', we can just feel the Holy Spirit and the excitement with that tambourine a-clangin' in our ears. We know the Holy Ghost is falling upon us. Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song and His praise in the congregation of the saints. They're all gonna love this. Oh, well, they love the next sentence. Let Israel rejoice in him. Yes. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him. God made the children of Israel. Let the Zionist state of Israel in the Middle East rejoice in the Lord who made them his chosen people. Amen. We can sing that with extra vigor. We rejoice in the saving of Gentiles, but oh, the saying of the Jewish people in the Middle East, and how God elected them. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king, and you know, it is Jesus, you fellas, but they don't realize that. That's okay. God still loves them, even though they hate them, and they say that Jesus is in hell, having hot lead poured down his throat. They love it. Verse three, let them praise his name in the dance. Oh yeah, you know. You see the mega churches, I always talk about, you know the women, they wear the flowing, look at the dresses, they're made of silky stuff that goes over their floor. And usually they don't have, I don't know, they kick their shoes off and they're in bare feet. And they're up to these long flowing dresses, and then they got these little silk things that are maybe like 10 feet long, and they're different colors, and they're going around going hoo, like this, hoo, and they're going like, and you get like 10 of them up there, and they're doing all these, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo. Are they the nymphomaniacs of, you know, the ones that draw the sailors in? That's what makes me think of, I forget what you call them, the siren call of the, what's the name of those crazy women? I get that image, I'm sure that's not what they're, I don't think that's what they intend to do, but they got their praise and worship, and so praise them in the dance. And look, I got nothing wrong with dancing. When the ark came home, David jumped and leaped and danced and praised God. Well, I have no problem with that. He was like happy, like I'm gonna express myself, my whole body, right? That's how he felt. But there is a time and place for everything. And what I mean is, When you come into his presence to hear the word, it's just, you adopt a different frame of mind. Because you come into his presence that way. I know he's always with us. When you're out in the street, on the way back with the ark, his presence is there too. But then when you come into the temple, with your sacrifice, to have it be placed before the Lord, I'm not sure that's why you're doing that. So it's situational awareness. They don't have it. But I'm not against the dance. In the 60s and the 70s, they described what dancing was then. It was a vertical expression of a horizontal act. That's not quite how they said it, but. And pretty much, that's how a lot of it is. Never became a dancer. I grew up in the 70s. I'm gonna go to my high school dance. I don't think so Not only will it be a vertical expression of a horizontal act But the drugs and booze would be flowing and offered and the young men are doing runs to the pharmacy Not my world. I never learned to do a step of dance because of the age I grew up in. I don't feel ripped off by it. If I want to run and jump and leap, I know how to do that. It might not look pretty, but... They praise him in the dance. They sing praises unto him with timbrel and hop. They're all about the timbrel. They'd love this. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. See, he loves us. He takes pleasure in us, particularly us. He will beautify the meek with salvation. What's there not to love? Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing loud upon their beds. This is a psalm that everybody can get behind, right? And I always think of that, sing loud upon their beds. I always visualize that. There's a guy laying in bed and he's like, you know, what's he saying? I don't know what he's saying. Onward Christian soldiers. Maybe that's something that, you know, Pastor Cugini was in his bed. He might sing that one, right? They're singing probably one of those repetitive, Jesus loves me and I'm really great, ditties that come from Hillsong or wherever. But it's a great imagery. You're singing loud upon your bed. Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing loud upon their beds. It's like the glory and the wonder and the beauty and the satisfaction you get from the Lord is from the time you rise up right down here. You're in bed. You're going to go to sleep with that on your mind. That's the imagery. It's a good imagery. We are to take delight in it. Verse six, let the high praises of God be in their mouth. See, everything about this psalm is right and good, they love it. But wait a minute, they gotta finish the sentence. And a two-edged sword in their hand. Here we go again. Everything was so good. Everything was the love and grace of God. And then like, out of nowhere, we didn't even have a warning to be prepared for this. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand. Some of these evangelicals are fighting for greater gun control. Two-edged sword do violence to no man. Okay It's the two-edged sword of the Spirit of God and the Word. Yep We're gonna have the Word of God with us and the sword so we can have a reason there. Yeah, it's metaphoric All of a sudden they're gonna go metaphoric here on us. Oh Wait a minute now, but let's keep reading Yes Please do hurry up now that you went in this got in this rough section of the highway as all potholes You sure those are potholes? Why is this two-edged sword in the hands of God's people well Number seven, to execute vengeance upon the heathen. What? And punishment upon the people. Well, vengeance is the Lord's. To execute believers? To execute vengeance with a sword upon the heathen? Verse 8, to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron. What? They're just utterly lost. They're in a tailspin, you know? They're in a confused state of mind. Oh, that neighbor that I've been witnessing to, please, Lord, don't let them see your word. And why are they doing all these things? Verse 9, to execute upon them the judgment written. This honor, this honor have all his saints. And then the psalm, it says right after that, praise ye the Lord. Like it's the beginning of the psalm. They can't comprehend what's going on. It's not a problem. So they're rejoicing. In verse five, let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth. And yet, at the same time, at the same time, think walk, chew gum, walk, chew gum. A two-edged sword is in their hand. Oh, brethren, that only makes sense. I go to bed at night. I fall asleep in two to three minutes because I lack sleep. So I go hard, go to bed when I go to bed. Boom. When I go to bed, I'm a happy, content person. I don't have things running through my brain. I mean, once in a blue moon, like it may happen like once every five or six months. I'm not having things running through my head like, oh, I got to do this, got to do that. Like, I can shuttle whatever my, I just shuttle it aside, it's not a problem. So I go to bed quite content and happy, you know? I'm there, the bed's warm, Paul is right there, the house is warm. Life is good. And about four feet from my big toe, there's a big safe with a bunch of guns in it. Maybe the sword isn't in my hand, but it's within reach. Why wouldn't I? It just makes me sleep even better. So when that scary thing comes at two in the morning, what's going on? See, they're getting scared. I'm saying, wait a minute, the Lord provides means. Two-edged sword in their hand. Because we're soldiers. The Bible says so. Now, you've got to remember, this is delivered originally to Old Covenant Israel. We will use the words and interpret it at the higher paradigm of New Covenant reality. but they would still profit from it, from their limited old covenant reality, which was more materially based. And so under that external material covenant, you know, land, promises, God defeating physical enemies, giving them physical long life, corn and wine, all part of the promise, a much lower level that's pointing to the the banqueting table of the Messiah, which is spiritual food. But when it was said to old covenant Israel, let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand, I think that was a two-edged sword. I don't mean that every Israelite went to bed holding a sword, but the two-edged sword is in their hand. To execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people. Isn't that exactly how they took the promised land? You think that was a metaphoric sword? And didn't God guide their sword? Didn't David say, Lord, teach my fingers to fight? And wasn't that the blessing of God? Because the bad guys would kill them. And they hate God, and they hate truth, and they hate God's people. And the God's people are too weak to be able to beat these people. The Lord says, you just trust me. You do what I told you, and I will defeat them. And one would chase 1,000 or 10,000. That's divine grace. But they had literal swords. They literally killed people. But they weren't doing it out of personal vengeance. The Sword of the Lord. And they were implementing God's justice at the appointed time under His direct command. They were, verse 7, executing vengeance upon the heathen on God's behalf, not theirs, and punishments upon the people to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. You know, if the Christian is going to be so afraid of this, I say, is that such a bad thing? James Comey ought to be in fetters of iron, a big phony charismatic phony, a big big phony, criminal, evil from top to bottom given the Christian talk. Until he exposes himself it isn't even credible I would think even to his own constituents. Nancy Pelosi is a millionaire because she's been swindling the taxpayer's dollars and even inside information to make investments and we all know it. And everything that Doge is exposing about the United States for a long time has been a criminal enterprise on the behalf of politicians that have the globalist views in mind more than the good of their own constituents, which is what they're sworn to uphold, the constitution on behalf of we the people. It's been a criminal enterprise. I'd be happy to see some of these people bound in chains, prosecuted, and justice had. They like to talk about the return of the Lord and Judgment Day. Well, what do you think Judgment Day is? No one is going to get away with anything. And that's supposed to make us feel ashamed? If that wasn't true, then I think we would be ashamed of God. But we don't have to because he's holy, he's loved, but he's also just. And look at this, to bind their king for chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgment written. In other words, Israel would use the sword to judge the enemies of God at his appointment, And the judgment they will receive is that which was written of old by Moses. So you do this, this is what's going to happen to you. And the Lord usually will, sometimes he'll wait for a few generations. He'll give them a long time to repent. And then he says, no, that's it. Now you go and you take care of my business. Go. And they wield the sword of the Lord. And we're told, In verse 9, that's their honor to execute the divine judgment of God on his behalf. Look, a judge doesn't usually become a man's executioner but the judge gives the order, justice demands that man dies and the judge gives him over to the executioner. And that executioner, now we might not think of it this way, but that executioner has the privilege and the honor of being the instrument of a righteous judge to impose the justice that is due that wicked man and that is due the society and the people to which he brought great harm and perhaps death. That's an honor to do that. That doesn't mean it's pleasant. We don't become cold about the taking of life. But the taking of life, when you take the life of a murderer, if you actually take all pleasure in it with no dislike for the process, then you've done something very harmful to yourself. It's meant to be unnerving. You know why? Because it says, it's teaching you this, is teaching you to fear God. It ought to be distasteful because this is the price and that's to be seen. That's why forgiveness came through the shedding of the blood of bulls and goats. I mean, they're only animals, but how pleasant is it to ever have to kill an animal? Way to kill chickens. And when they got old and got a block of wood, had a machete, made sure it was sharp. You got to make sure the wood beneath it isn't too soft, because then it goes in and it kind of indents. It doesn't do the job. But you know what? We killed them to eat them in the prime of their life. It isn't a pleasant thing, it's all the result of the fall. Man has sinned. Which requires the shedding of blood. So this is all healthy. So go to Psalm 95. We're not gonna go through Psalm 95, we're doing that tonight. Just making the connections here. Psalm 95 is the same thing as Psalm 139. Psalm 95 is the same thing as Psalm 149. What we have is a two-part split. Most of the Psalm all up front, it's all good, everybody rejoices, and then like a lightning bolt out of the blue with no warning, this reality. Because we can get so caught up with God, loves us, God loves us, everything is good, He's gonna fight our battles and it's all good. And then we're just feeling like everything's great, Zion's at ease. And the Lord says, but wait a minute, I know you better than you know yourself. And while you're at the height of loving me and rejoicing in me, you're also on the verge of taking me for granted. Which means you're on the verge of sinning again. It's just reality. And when the Lord does that for us, it's a blessing because it causes us to stop in our tracks. The Lord has blessed me. Zion is at ease. But I don't want to make the mistake that my forefathers made when they were at ease. And the Lord's reminded me, use a consuming fire. So let me not lose what I have. I'm not talking about salvation, but Old Covenant Israel, it was living in the land and having physical life. We should never look at the Psalms this way. The good parts, the bad parts. There's no bad parts. It's a kind of a simple thing. There's no bad parts. We should never look at any portion of scripture that way. Psalms or anywhere else. And I'll leave you with this thought. So Paul said, all things work together for good to them that love God and to them who are the called according to its purpose. For all things, all things work together for good to them that love God. Now when Paul said in Romans, all things, what did he mean in the context? Well, he meant all things. Whatever transpires in this world, all things, anything that could happen to you, every providential act that comes into your life, whether it be good or bad, all things work together for good to them that love God. So anything that can happen in this world, the Lord will use for the strengthening and the benefit of his people. Now, if that's true, that all things is true of everything that happens in the world, even the bad, then how much more must it be true of God's word? All scripture, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. It's all good. That means the beginning of Psalm 139 is good and the end of Psalm 139 is good. The beginning of Psalm 149 is good. The end of Psalm 149 is good. You don't know how? Then you need to sit and think about it longer and ask the Lord to show you because it's true. And the beginning of Psalm 95 is good. And as we'll see tonight, and we'll go through it in detail, the end of Psalm 95 is good too. All things, including everything in the scriptures, including whatever Psalm you're reading, from the first verse to the last, is good and profitable for the blessing of His people. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the Psalms all of them and every bit of them, whether we can fully comprehend them all the time or not. But Lord, I suppose the great lesson for us is when we cannot comprehend your incomprehensible ways, we are to presume at all times. We are to know and to believe that what you are doing is right, it has a good purpose, and is a righteous act that's meant to strengthen the body of Christ. And that will be a position that we hold by faith, even without understanding. Lord, if the Christian community could lay hold of that principle, not only would it help them, Lord, the trials and tribulations of life, which is a very important thing, but also enable them to believe all the scriptures, no matter what they think of them, to say, well, in some way, I have to agree with that. And whether they know how to agree with it or not is almost inconsequential. And it will simplify their life to live by faith, And through that faith, some of the answers come far more easily because, well, the just shall live by faith. It's how we grow in grace. We grow by believing Thee and trusting Thee like Father Abraham, even when what you're doing is incomprehensible. And we thank Thee for that faith because we do recognize it is a gift of a sovereign loving God. We thank Thee for it. We pray these things in Jesus' name, our Savior. Amen.