Psalm 74. I titled this psalm, Oh God, Why? Taken from the first verse. Oh God, Why? Or it could be titled, A Psalm of Lament. Mourning. Now there's two things about asking God why. One of them is good and the other is bad. To ask God why such a severe trial for the sake of repentance and forsaking the sin that brought the trial is good. Let me say this, not all trials are because of some particular sin. Not all of them. Peter says, think it not strange when some fiery trial comes upon you. Just out of the, what we would call, out of the blue, you didn't see it coming. But there's another sense in which we ask God why. To ask Him why in the sense of bringing Him into judgment. In other words, to sit in judgment of God's dealings with us. That's not good. That's not good. But to ask Him why in the sense for spiritual instruction and to know the reason. Now this time period was probably concerning the devastation that Nebuchadnezzar had made on the temple when he came in and took them captive to Babylon. That's where most writers think this happened. Now, you see this psalm says, Maskel of Asaph. Well, Asif was David's chief singer, which was years before that happened. And so the only logical explanation of this is that this is one of the descendants of Asif. Someone said that Asif holding that position, that's probably the position they named it ever since. But whatever, we know this is not the Asaph that sat under David because if it's the destruction of the temple at that time, he couldn't have been alive. So this is probably more likely the time when Nebuchadnezzar came in and just destroyed the temple. Took everything of value out of it and everything else he burned. All the artwork, I mean all the wood carving, all that carving, he burned it. As he says here, they took the axe to it and they set fire to it. And he was just so distraught over it. You know, I would to God that we would be more distraught over the condition of the church, over the lies that go on in pulpits over God. I would that I was more distraught over that as he was here. So he says here in verse 1, this is an instructive psalm. Masculine means instructive. We can learn from this. We can learn something about prayer. We can learn something about praying from this psalm. And we can learn something about the dealings of God with the church over history. We can learn from this. And He says, O God, why hast thou cast us off forever? Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? Sometimes trials are so hard and so difficult, and sometimes they are so long that it seems like God has cast us off. It seems like He has just cast us off forever, He says, forever. We forget who He is under severe trials. You know, we lose sight, when we are under such trials, we lose sight of who God really is. Remember this, God never changes. Trials change us. Trials reveal a lot of things about me, but they never change God. God is who He is from generation to generation. He never changes. The truth is, God has never, never will cast off His people whom He has redeemed. That would be impossible. God would sooner cease to exist than to cast you off. It would be a destruction to His glory for God to cast off those whom He has redeemed. He would never do that. The question is this. He says, why? Why has thou cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? Why is this happening? Why is this going on? Well, it may be because of sin. In that situation, in that situation, it was sin. I tell you this, What was going on by Nebuchadnezzar to the temple was devastating. But the hypocrisy that was going on in worship was even worse. What they were doing and the idolatry they were allowing was far worse than Nebuchadnezzar. And God brought this upon them. He brought this upon Israel. So in one sense, it can be sin. We still have much sin in us. We still have much sin in us. And then secondly, from time to time, the church needs to be purged of the tares. The church needs to be purged of her coldness in worship. It's just like nonchalant, just like we come and go like cattle in a field. The church needs to be purged from that. When you go home tonight, read the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. Read those letters. Ephesus talks about how busy they were, but they left their first... He said, you've left your first love. They lay out of sins. They were rich and increased with goods, but they didn't know that they were naked, blind, and dead. Another one, I think it was Sardis, I'd have to read it, but God said, there's just a little life. There's a little life left in you. You know, there's a few people there who still believed. There was some believers there who still held on to the gospel who had a flame. It was just a flicker, but it was there. We should worship God fervently. And I say we, I mean me with you. We should worship God, we should praise God fervently. God is very real. He's very real and He's our God, He's our Savior. He's our Lord. We don't want to just go through the motions with no heart love in it. We want to be saved from that. And then thirdly, A severe trial needs to come along, not just on the individual, but on the church. It's this, she needs to be pruned. Every branch needs to be pruned in order for it to bear much fruit. Now, when you prune a branch properly, when you prune, I'm sure, when you prune grapes properly, it looks like you killed them, doesn't it? I mean, you prune it back to nothing. I cut those burning bushes back home. I cut the burning bushes. They were probably eight, nine feet tall. I cut those things back. It looked like I thought I killed them. The next spring, they come out beautiful. They came out just full and just beautiful. I thought, well, what did I do? Because I didn't know what I was doing. I was just whacking away. But I actually did something good for them. We need pruned. We need to be pruned. God needs to prune us individually and also as a church, so that we don't grow cold over the gospel. And he says here in verse 2, Remember thy congregation which thou hast purchased. Well, what a way to pray. What a way to pray. He's holding up before God His church. You have purchased us. You have purchased me. What a way to go to the Lord in prayer, even individually. Lord, did You not die for me? Did You not purchase me with Your blood? Lord, remember, hear me. Hear my prayer. You died for me. You bled for me. What a way to pray. We can learn something about prayer in this psalm. Thou hast purchased of old. Now here He's talking about Israel coming out of Egypt. But now you and I don't have to look back to that time. You and I look back to the cross. We look back to Christ and Him crucified. That's where we look back to. Lord, You purchased us on Calvary's tree. What a prayer for a pastor, for the church. Lord, bless us whom You have purchased with Your own blood. We're the rod of your inheritance. I'm your inheritance, Lord. We are your inheritance which thou hast redeemed. Mount Zion wherein thou hast dwelt, you dwell here. You realize that this local church right here is a dwelling place of God? Can you wrap your mind around that? We are a dwelling place of God in this community. God dwells in this church. If we are His church, He dwells in us. He dwells in this church. A good way to plead with God is on the basis of redemption, the blood purchased. We are His people. We are His people in whom He dwells. You know, here's the problem. Here's the problem when I was looking at this. My thought was this, because I know what Israel was doing at this time, because Jeremiah foretold this fall, this takeover. The problem is we need to remember from whence we are fallen. Is that what the Lord says to one of the churches? Remember from whence thou art fallen. Here's what I'm saying. The problem is never with God. Whenever God chastens us or He puts us through some severe trial, the problem is never, ever, ever with God. It's always on our end. Always. And in verse 3-11, now, He gives a complaint of the ungodly taking over the sanctuary. And I've been looking at this for days and I visualize Nebuchadnezzar and his army going into the sanctuary, the temple, and destroying everything in it. Just cutting it up with an axe. Took axe and hammer in there and just tore it up. And the gold and things like that they kept for themselves and took back. But he's complaining here about the ungodly taking over the sanctuary and cutting up everything in it. It's good to see this believer here jealous for God's glory. We need to protect this place. We ask God to protect this place. But it's also, you know, there's also something on our part of protecting it. And he says here, look in verse 3, "...lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations, even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary." You know what he's asking God to do here? He's asking God to walk through the sanctuary. He's asking Him to walk through Jerusalem and look at the destruction. He's asking God to take notice of the destruction, walk through it and look at what's happened. Thine enemies roar, they roar like lions on their prey, they roar in the midst of thy congregations, right in their midst. They've entered right into the house, they're in your house. They set up their end signs for signs. You know, we know the history of this, and we know, listen, this can happen again. This could happen again. I was thinking today, all governments, you know, God is authority. He sets up all authority. But now, Satan is, he's the little G, God of this world. He's the God of darkness. They're all been, Satan's behind all of them. He's behind all of them. And the very, The very motive behind that he has is to shut us down. It's to shut down the church of God. That's what he's doing. Nebuchadnezzar comes in and he shuts down the place of worship. He shuts it down and they can't worship there no more and they're taken captive. And Satan, the same one that was at work then is still at work today. He's still at work today. He says, the enemies, they roar in the midst of that congregation. They sit up there in signs for signs. In other words, they take their gods and they put them up in the temples. Isn't that what false preachers do? They've put up a false Christ, a false Jesus, another Jesus. Man, in our day, what stands for the church As far as the world is concerned, it's nothing but false preaching and a false Jesus and a false gospel. That's all it is. He says in verse 5, A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees. These false preachers are famous through their spiritual destructions that they try to cause. I heard Jimmy Swagger years ago. I was watching him on television. And I heard him preach a message on five damnable doctrines. And he took the five doctrines of grace, point by point, and just tried to destroy them. Just what they were doing in the temple, just cutting it down. Now he says, here they break down, in verse 6, but now they break down the carved work, the cherubim that was over the mercy seat, all that had flowers that were carved, All that beautiful carving that went on. He said, they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers. They cast fire into Thy sanctuary. They've defiled by casting down the dwelling place of Thy name to the ground. And they're still doing it. Every Sunday. Every Sunday, false preachers stand in pulpits and they do this. They said in their hearts, let us destroy them together. They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land." Now the synagogue, they were places that were built for the Jews to meet in so they would hear the reading of the Word of God. You had the temple, then they built these synagogues in different places so that they'd have a meeting place. And they would come there and the law would be read. And so when Nebuchadnezzar came through, they tore down every place that had God's name on it. This is Satan's work. This is what his desire is, is to take everything that's of God, and it gives God the glory, is to tear it down. That's the whole motive behind everything, the darkness. It's to stop the preaching of the gospel. It's to put a stop to us gathering like this. Now God has had His hand of restraint on this country for a good many years that we're able to do this. But if He pulls that hand of restraint back, you watch Satan go after the church. That's what he'll go after, to shut this down. Just like he did. They say in their heart, let us destroy them together. They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land. They've destroyed all the places where the people of God meet together. And then Asaph laments the loss of the ordinances. We learn from the Scriptures. These things are written for our learning. They're written for our learning. He says here in verse 9, "...we see not our signs." They have taken their end signs, They've set them up in the temple, and we don't see ours no more. What's he talking about? We don't see our signs. The Urim and Thummim is gone. It's gone. The High Priest, gone. The Shekinah Glory, gone. Everything that represented God in the Gospel, gone. He said it's not there no more. Now who would have thought that? But you know what brought that up to pass? It was the hypocritical worship and idolatry of Israel. That's why it happened. That's why God sent Nebuchadnezzar in there to take that stuff down because the hypocrisy that was in the worship was worse than what Nebuchadnezzar did. Far worse. The solemn feast, even circumcision was suspended. They weren't even allowed to do that no more. All of it, everything that represented God, and worship, and truth, Nebuchadnezzar put an end to it. He wouldn't allow none of it to happen no more. The church over the years has suffered many things. In our day, I think she has suffered a lot of false preachers. A lot of false preachers. And who knows what's yet in store. But in reading this, I thought, here's good news. Here's good news. What they got rid of, what Nebuchadnezzar went into that temple, he destroyed all the artwork, all the carvings and all that. Those were just types. What you and I have in Christ can't be destroyed. That can't be touched. What we have in Christ is not something hanging on a wall. It's not a representation. What we have in Jesus Christ is real and it cannot be touched. It can't be destroyed. Now that's good news. That to me is good news. We see not our signs, there's no more prophet. Listen, there was no prophet to tell them what was going on and how long it would go on. Because usually God would send a prophet to Israel, and the prophet would tell them what's going to happen, and usually how long it was going to happen. He said, we don't even have a prophet no more. We're left in the dark. We don't know what's going on. This is why he said in verse 1, Why hast thou cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pastor? They had no word, they had no prophet. It looked like it was never going to change. It looked like it was nothing but darkness and destruction. Forever. Forever. That's what it looked like. And sometimes that's what it does look like. But knowing who God is, we know better. And as He will tell us later. Now here's what He does in verse 10. It's a call for God to act for His own glory. Can you not say that right now? I can. I would to God. He would rise up and make His name known. I wish He would clean house. I do. I wish God would clean house. that He would make known that He has a people in this world and that He is God. He is God and He is our God. I wish He would. I would do God. He would raise up and do. Oh God, He says, how long shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name forever? Why I withdraw thy hand, even thy right hand, pluck it out of your bosom." He's asking God, he said, how long are they going to be allowed to reproach your name? He's jealous for God's name. He's asking God to act. He said, how long are you going to stand by and watch this? He said, pull your hand out of your bosom. Pull it out and strike with your fist. Strike the enemy with your fist. I see in Asaph here a real genuine love, concern, and jealousy over God's name. Over God's name. You know, anybody that can stand around and put up with people who stand around and take God's name in vain, If they can stand around and put up with that stuff, they don't know God. That is so offensive. There's nothing on this earth more offensive than when people take the name of God in vain. That's my father. That's the one who died for me, for us, his church. He bled and died for us. I don't want to hear it. And then in verses 12-23, Asaph cast himself and the children of God upon God's... I want you to notice this. ...upon God's faithfulness and His covenant relationship to them for deliverance. He starts out here, "...for God is my King of old." He's my King. God's my King. Hezekiah is not my King. Hezekiah may have came in and taken over. I may be taken captive, but He's not my King. That old nature has been dethroned. It's not my King. Satan is not my King. God is my King. And He's my King forever. God is my King. God is my King, working salvation in the midst of the earth, always delivering His church, always... You know, when you look back at history, look at the history of the church. God has always delivered the church. The church has gone through some very, very difficult times. Read everywhere in Hebrews 11. They were sawn asunder, many of them were martyred. I was listening to something today and they were talking about John Calvin, his academy. He sent out missionaries from his academy and they said it got to the point where they called it the academy of death because so many of them were being killed. But he says here, and this is interesting, "'For God is my King of all working salvation, The Hebrew word for that is Yeshua, for salvation here, working salvation, Yeshua. That's the name of Jesus Christ. He's working salvation in the earth by sending Yeshua into the world to save us. He's speaking here of Jesus Christ. Our Lord came into this world took upon Him flesh, worked out our redemption, bled and died for us, worked out a righteousness for us, gone back to heaven for us. And through the preaching of the gospel, sinners are being saved even to this day, and will be until He comes back. He's working salvation in the midst of the earth, in the midst of all this darkness and all this evil. that you see going on. God Almighty is working salvation. That's what's going on. Don't get so caught up into the evil of it, into the workings of that, as much as get caught up in what God's doing. He's working salvation. Sinners are being saved. Nebuchadnezzar didn't go in there just because he decided to take them over. God sent him in there. God sent him in there because they had become more corrupt than the heathens. There's one thing I know this, I know this, and I've learned it through reading the Scriptures. When the gospel leaves a place, it's never God's fault, it's the people. It's the people. We grow cold, we grow indifferent, we start to compromise. And then, you know, compromise after a while becomes acceptance. And the next thing you know, it's a mess. Sometimes it gets to be an unrepairable mess. And the gospel's removed. Now Asaph, listen, Asaph recognizes the power of God in delivering his people here in verse 13. Thou didst divide, and I want you to notice this, I want you to notice how his mind now lifts from the destruction of the temple and what the enemy's doing to the sanctuary and to the name of God, and now his mind lifts up. And now his mind is set upon God. It's kind of like when you get up above the dust of the battle. You know, it's hard to see what's going on when you're in the battle, there's so much dust. The way they used to fight battles, there's so much dust. It's hard to see what's going on. That's why generals will set up on top of a high hill and watch the battle and then direct the battle from there because you can't see when you're in the middle of it. I tell you, that's even hard even in When you're going through difficult trials, it's hard to know what to do, because you're right in the middle of it. It's like being caught in a stream, a fast stream, and you're going downhill. I mean, you're just going. And it's hard to know what to do when you're in that kind of a situation. The best thing to do is find a real good old seasoned saint of God and talk to them. Pray. Talk to God first. But use those whom God has already put through it. He says, Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength, or you did break the sea. That's what He's saying. You broke it. You know, we talk about the dividing of the Red Sea. Here, the meaning is this. You just broke it. It's like breaking a stick in half. You broke it. God pulled it apart and let them go through on dry land. You divided the sea by thy strength. And what He's going to show here is that God is no weak God. Our God is no weak God. He can deliver at any second. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength. Thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. The army of Egypt. He calls them dragons here because, you know why? Because their leader is the dragon, Satan. That's what he's called. He's called a dragon. He leads the corruption of this world. He leads the army of corruption in this world. He recognized here that it was God who broke the power of Egypt over them. Listen, it is Christ who has broken the power of Satan over us. He's broken the power of sin over us. Sin will not have dominion over you. If sin has dominion over you, it's never been broken yet. God's not saved you yet. He breaks the power of sin and death. He broke the power of death from reigning over us. Death has no control. Death has no power over us to retain us. And we ought to keep this in mind, especially in times of trouble. Keep this in mind. I love the way the old prophets and these old saints, I love the way they always look back and they looked at the power of God in creation and how He used His power to deliver His people. You know, when they came up against the Red Sea, that's a problem. They're like, now we got a problem. No, you don't. No, you don't. Without God, you do. With God, you don't. Paul said that through Christ, he could do all things. David said that through God, he could run through a troop and leap over a wall. How would you like to face a general with that kind of attitude? You've got a fight on your hands. Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people, You gave Him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness, the children in the wilderness. Listen, this thought, I never thought of this before, never saw this before. All our trials are meat for our faith. That's what they are. The destruction of Pharaoh was meat for their faith in the wilderness. They could look back and feed on what God did to Pharaoh and his army. Did the impossible. Drowned them in the sea. The strongest military might on the earth at that time. God drowned them in the sea. All our trials, all that He puts us through is meat for our faith. We eat meat to strengthen our bodies, right? These trials are meat. They're to strengthen our faith. That's what they're for. Well, when I saw that, I thought, that just puts a whole new light on trials. Really, it's just a serving of a good meal to my faith in Christ. And by God's power, listen, He rules all things for His people. He said, you did cleave the fountain. In other words, you gave water out of the rock, and that rock was Christ. Can you imagine seeing that? And still, most of them didn't believe. But can you imagine water coming out of that rock, and that rock followed them? It followed them. And water gushed out. Can you imagine standing and watching water gushing out of the rock? That's God. That's a miracle. That's all that is, is a miracle. It's not some freaking nature, that's God working out the salvation of His people. And the flood, you dried up. The Jordan, when before they went over, this is interesting, before they go over to the Canaan, Jordan's flooded, isn't it? It's flooded. God always brings us into the extreme and then demonstrates His power. Here it is flooded, and He parts that. Shall not our God always deliver us? Does He not always go before us? Is He not always before us and behind us like He was Israel? Is He not always there? And our God is the God of nature as well as grace. Listen. The daytime is Thine. The night also is Thine. Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. What is not His? Whatever goes on in the daytime is yours, and whatever goes on at nighttime is yours. It's under your control. All are your servants. Day and night alike belong to God. You know, it's nighttimes, you get more afraid, don't you? You do. Nighttime comes along, you step outside, you're looking around, you're more afraid. Well daytime, the scripture says the night is as day before God. God stopped the sun for Joshua. He literally stopped the sun. He suspended the laws that He put in nature. He suspended it. And the sun stood still. It stood still. And he says here in verse 17, Thou hast set all the borders of the earth. Thou hast made summer and winter. You look at that and you say, Thou hast made summer and winter. What's he talking about? He's talking about God's faithfulness. Summer and winter. Spring and fall. Have the seasons ever ceased? Has any of the seasons ever not come around? He's talking here about the faithfulness of God. Now, if God is faithful to bringing around the seasons, how much more faithful to us for whom Christ died to deliver us? The sea has its borders. All nations have their borders. It's God who set them. It's God who changes the seasons. God is not asleep. God Almighty is at work every day. Don't think of God sitting way, way, way, way, way out there on a marble throne and just kind of observing everything. God's active. God's active. He's in the wind, and He's in the waves of the sea. He's in the light. God's in everything. Our God is in everything of this earth. It's His. It's His. And now, in verse 18, He repeats, this thing of asking God to act for His glory. Do this for your glory. Don't do this for me. Do this for your glory, your namesake. And then in verse 19, I'm going to move on here quickly. Verse 19, He offers up this prayer for mercy. He asks for mercy. Oh, deliver not the soul of thy turtle dove into the multitude of the wicked. Lord, have mercy on me. Don't let the wicked have their way with me. Don't deliver me to them. He's asking for mercy. Nebuchadnezzar and that group there, they didn't know the God of mercy. What is our power? God, and He's merciful to us. Learn from your heart to use God's mercy in prayer often, often. Use His mercy. It is good and it's right to plead our weakness, He calls Himself a turtle dove, and to plead God's power to keep us and not deliver us over to the wicked. And forget not the congregation of thy poor forever. Remember thy church, which thou hast purchased with thine own blood. And have respect to your covenant." Boy, I could take a whole message right here. A whole message. He appeals to God's covenant. Let me read you what Charles Spurgeon wrote. God is not a man that he should lie. His covenant he will not break, nor alter the thing that has gone forth out of his lips. God is a covenant God. Remember your covenant. I tell you, that covenant means so much to me now. As I've grown older, I appreciate more and more and more. The covenant of grace. because God will not break that covenant. Have mercy on me. Remember your covenant that you made with Christ concerning me. And then he says here in verse 21, he asks God to let the poor and needy praise Thy name. Did any of the poor and needy praise His name here tonight? Did God let any of us come in here tonight from being out there in that world, being out there in that mess, He allowed us to come in here and praise Him? What a privilege. What a privilege. And that's what He's asking. He said, let not the oppressed return to shame, but let them praise. Lord, let me praise You. Help me to do it. Help me to praise You. And then last of all, His prayer concerns God's cause. Arise, O God, plead Thine own cause. Take up this matter for Your cause. You know, that's what's going on. Since the beginning, it's God's cause in all this, isn't it? Satan's trying to destroy the cause of God. And he's saying here, O God, plead your own cause. Remember, the foolish man reproaches you. Act for your namesake. In this psalm, he wrote of God's people under great affliction. But under that great affliction, we have great hope. Now, right now, we're not under great affliction. Sometimes it's so subtle, that's more dangerous. But that's not saying that tomorrow won't bring that. We have great hope. We have great confidence in prayer. Because we have a great God. God is our King. Our God is our King. Nobody elected Him to be there. Nobody chose Him to be King. He's King. And I'm sure glad of that. All right.