And so we're gonna be continuing our study summer through the Psalms, where we take 10 weeks to go through 10 Psalms in the summer, something that I hope to do with you many, many years, even to the point of finishing the entire book of Psalms, maybe 15 years from now. But we, for today, will be in Psalm chapter 7. This is our seventh week in this study. And so I would encourage you to open up to that psalm. And as we prepare to preach it, just a few reminders. We have a couple resources for those here in this room. We have coloring activity sheets for those who are a little bit younger and may be interested in that based on our question and answer. Families, feel free to take some of those coloring sheets home if you want your kids to be reviewing those questions and answers as part of their instruction or devotion at home as well. And then also, I haven't highlighted this in a few weeks, but we do have some sheets for note taking if anybody would like to take notes during the service as well. And so we're opening up to Psalm chapter seven, and we're gonna see that this psalm is a psalm of prayerful appeal to God and a prayer of, as I would entitle it, of innocence, that David is crying out before God, pleading his innocence before him. And before we dive into that, I have a bit of a story from my own upbringing. You may or may not know, but I am the youngest of four older brothers. And so you can imagine the childhood trauma that I underwent growing up, being the youngest of four boys. Yes, I was mocked, made fun of, physically abused at times, and a lot of times had no way to get my own, well, I'll just say it, revenge upon my brothers based on my own physical might. So us younger siblings, if there are any other younger siblings in the room, you know that you have to be a little more clever, little more crafty with regards to your mischief towards your siblings. They can easily rely on brute force, but we, we have to be the smart ones. And there was one instance where I had some of that hateful resentment in my heart towards my brother Bobby, who was five years older than me. but we shared a room. And I can't remember if he had been bothering me during the day or not. I mean, I'm sure he was. That was part of the practice of being brothers growing up. But I knew that that evening I was going to make a plan to get my revenge on him for what he'd done that day or what he'd done to me in my whole life. And what I came up with was as we were sent to bed, And as the room was quiet, I waited for a good 10, 15 minutes, until it would appear that either my brother was asleep, or at the very least, my parents expected us to be asleep in our room. And I said as loudly as I could, ow, Bobby! Now, he might have actually been asleep, so I probably woke him up, but what happened was, because I'm not strong enough to hurt my brother, I tricked my dad, who was stronger than all of us, to come in and hurt my brother by falsely claiming that he had hurt me while we were supposed to be going to bed. And so, I have some evil pride over that scheme that I came up with. But the reason why I share this story with you is my brother reacts to my dad coming in the room. And my dad is coming in, in many ways, the authoritarian, basically ruler of the house, ready to punish my brother because he so often is guilty of these things. And he came to give him a nice little swat of sorts. But my brother was pleading, I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. Nobody believed him. But, in that instance, we see an example in some ways of what we see in this text of someone pleading their innocence. to the person that is in authority over them. Now, my brother was not an innocent person, as I've shared. He was guilty of hurting me, doing bad things to me, all that sort of stuff, like older brothers do. But in that instance, with regard to that situation, he was indeed innocent and was right to proclaim his innocence in the face of that judgment. In the same way, we're going to read this Psalm of David, where David is pleading his innocence towards God, particularly of some sort of slanderous charge brought by another Israelite. Now, this is not to be confused with overall innocence of David, because if you were here last week, you heard us read Psalm 6, which is a psalm of lament, of prayerful confession, where David poured out his guilt before the Lord, asking for his grace and forgiveness. But that doesn't mean that we can't still confess our innocence before God when we find ourselves in a situation that we are not guilty of. And so this is a Psalm that we need to know how to pray in our own life, but full disclosure, I think we need more often to pray Psalm six than we do seven, because we're usually more guilty than we want to admit. But nevertheless, this is God's inspired word for us to help us know how we are to relate with him. And really the Psalms, one of their greatest teaching benefits is to teach us how to pray. And so as we go through this psalm, we're gonna break it up really into two themes. We're gonna see our point number one is David's cry of the innocent, and then point number two, him praying for the impending judgment of the wicked. But first, let us read the entire psalm. So if you are willing and able, please stand for the reading of God's word. We'll read the entire psalm out loud, and then at the end of it, we will have our call and response on the screen as well. And so let me begin in the title of the psalm. Psalm 7, a Shegoan of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite. O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge. Save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it to pieces. with none to deliver. O Lord, my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah. Arise, O Lord, in your anger. Lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies. Awake for me. You have appointed a judgment. Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you. Over it return on high. The Lord judges the peoples. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me. O, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God. My shield is with God who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will wet his sword. He has bent and readied his bow. He has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends. I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High. This is the word of God this morning. Let us say together, may God apply its truth to our lives. Thank you. You may be seated. And so hopefully, in the introduction and hearing the psalm read, you see that David is pouring out his heart before the Lord and his innocence, declaring his innocence before God and crying out to God for help, for vindication. Now I can't stress this enough. This does not mean that David is saying that he is righteous and without any sin of any kind. He is merely limiting his innocence to the situation that he finds himself in. And so let us, through the context of this psalm, describe what sort of situation this is. It's in this instance that this pretext, this title, before we get to verse one is very important. We aren't always given context for every psalm, but when we are, it often plays a key role in helping us understand this psalm. And so I wanna draw our attention to that. First and foremost, you may see a funny looking word there, which I would agree that is indeed a funny looking word. So funny indeed that many scholars actually don't know what it means. It's only in the Bible twice, it's never talked of anywhere else, and so the best guess of this psalm being described as a she-goin is basically that's in reference to the music that it would have been set to, that it would have been an appropriately somber arrangement of music is the best that they have. And so that's not necessarily what I want to draw your attention to. Instead, I want you to see what comes after that, that this is a song of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite. And so Cush is the name of a Benjamite Israelite, and he is singing this song concerning a situation or some sort of hostility that existed between David and this man, Cush. Now, important in this is not just this man's name, but the detail that he is a Benjaminite. So you may or may not know that Israel was made up of 12 tribes, the sons of Jacob. One of those tribes, in fact, Jacob's youngest son, was Benjamin. And there was actually a lot of distrust or hostility between the Benjaminites and David throughout his reign. We need to ask, well, why is that? Well, David was not the first king of Israel. The first king of Israel was a man named Saul. Guess which tribe of Israel Saul came from? the Benjaminites. Now God appointed that Saul would be king, but in many ways as a form of judgment over the people of Israel, that he would not be a good king, but that he would indeed be the king that they asked for, a king like all the other nations who would use his position, his power and authority to serve himself and not his people. And so God does indeed give Israel their first king, King Saul, but intentionally gives them a bad king. And after it is very clear that Saul is a bad king, God raises up a king of his desire, a man after God's own heart. And so we see David anointed as king. Well, David, he was a servant of King Saul, never raised a hand to him, but many saw David basically taking that spot of King Saul. seeing King Saul killed with his warring against David and his mighty men as a betrayal, that they were loyalists to the true king from the true tribe. And so David, in a number of times in his life and in his rule, experienced conflict with people of the tribe of Benjamin. We have an example in this Psalm of this man named Cush, which that's all the context we're giving of him in this instance, but we know of other examples. In the life of David, when he was forced to flee from Jerusalem, when his son Absalom was rebelling against him and trying to steal his throne, in one of the towns he fleed from, we see that David is cursed by a guy named Shimei of the tribe of Benjamin as he left the city, much to do with the fact that David came against God's anointed King Saul. We see this also later when David returned to Jerusalem after Absalom's death and the defeat of his armies. Another Benjamite named Sheba led a revolt against David. This is recorded for us in 2 Samuel chapter 20, only the first few verses. The point of this being is that there is hostility, there is division amongst God's people in Israel at this time, that not everybody was a fan of David, particularly those of the tribe of Benjamin. And so what we read from this psalm is that this man Cush was bringing charges against David, slanderous charges. We don't know the substance of what they were, but we could almost imagine what they could potentially be, that he is a false king, that he stole the throne from King Saul, that he's bloodthirsty, that he doesn't deserve to rule. And these charges, these slanderous accusations, were greatly harmful to David and his rule. They led to revolts, as we saw, people rejecting him, civil war, but nevertheless, turmoil and chaos in his life. And we ought to learn from this psalm the dangers of slander, that even though the violence done to David is mainly words, words can still hurt, impose a serious threat, and can often lead to physical violence. Here, the anguish in which David speaks about with regards to these slanderous accusations and how he describes it in verse one. He says, oh Lord, my God, in you do I take refuge. Save me from all my pursuers and deliver me. Verse two, less like a lion, they tear my soul apart, rending it to pieces with none to deliver. These slanderous charges, these accusations thrown against David are troubling him in such a way that he feels that he is being devoured and mauled by a wild lion. His soul is being ripped apart. Even if he's not in threat of physical danger, the emotional toll that it is taking is quite serious. You know, we have a habit of saying quaint phrases like, sticks and stones may break my bones, but your words will never hurt me. I don't know if any of us have ever believed that statement when we have said it. In fact, words often hurt us and hurt us deeply. Right? Physical abuse. We may be actually hurt. Bones may have been broken, but the damage done by words often takes longer to heal than even broken bones or torn ligaments. Words cut deeply and can damage relationships and leave us feeling quite harmed, like we ourselves have been mauled by a lion. They create wounds that take longer to heal than cuts and broken bones. How much more when we know that they are not true? These are false, and yet they're affecting my life so greatly. This is the case with David. David, interestingly enough, had opportunities to take Saul's life. It was literally within his grasp. would have been so simple and he never raised a hand against this king. And yet I'm sure he's been accused of doing much violence, not just to Saul, but many others. People are seeing him not as the good and gracious king that he often was, but an evil man, not worthy of being in that position. It hurt him greatly. And this is why we see David go on to plead his innocence very strongly. And I would caution any of us to plead our innocence as strongly as David is here, that it requires a good amount of self-reflection to speak as David does in verses three through five. Hear how David uses this statement, if then, if then. Verses three through five, oh Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory to the dust. David honestly pours out his heart. He is bewildered at these accusations. He believes that there is no grounds for them, but he at least in an open humility before the Lord is saying, Lord, if these things are true, then let me suffer the consequence of them. But I am so confident in my innocence with regards to these accusations that I can say something like that and know that I have nothing to fear. I am innocent. There's a level of self-examination required to speak so boldly before God in this way, to invite punishment if we are guilty of something. So I do warn you to take these things seriously, somberly. Oftentimes, we have to admit that we at least contributed to some sort of conflict we're experiencing with others. That yes, things may have escalated and gone too far, but we need to own where our bad actions are indeed present. However, it is possible that we can be completely innocent in a situation. I'd point back to the situation with my brother and those instances leading up to what I did when I yelled, Al Bobby, he was indeed completely innocent and was right to plead his innocence before my father. And there really is no greater way to please your innocence before a judge than what David does here, inviting punishment if we are guilty, knowing that we are not. This is not meant to be a form of manipulation, but humility before the Lord. And so notice that in David's prayer, he is speaking to the Lord. Notice that David is only making a case of his innocence before God and not before men. That this is where we ought to run to. This is who we ought to plead our innocence before because God being sovereign God, Lord of all, is the only one able to deliver us and to know the truth ultimately. You see, if we were to plead our case, our innocence before men, we would have to prove a negative. which is very difficult to do. Proving a negative is extremely difficult thing to do. When someone calls you a liar or a murderer or guilty of something, when you have to prove that to be false, that is a big task on your part. Thank goodness our justice system does not work this way. We're not called to prove our innocence. Our system is set up to where you have to prove that someone is guilty. The burden of proof is on them. And so to show how difficult this may be, if I were to go out to my car this week and find a scratch, come back next Sunday and accuse you, you individually, somebody here, that you scratched my car. You scratched the pastor's car. The best you could do is say, no, I didn't. And if I said, prove it, I don't believe you. What kind of case would you be able to make? Not much of a case. Maybe you could say it in park by you. I could then go on and say, well, I saw you drive by. But the idea of proving a negative is difficult. And there's really only one way or two ways to respond to this. You can respond by attacking the accuser. You're a liar. Why would you say such a thing? You're an awful person. But sometimes this can make you guilty of some of the same things that is being done against you, that you can start responding with more slander, more hostility, more anger. Or, unfortunately, sometimes this can make you just look guilty as you defend yourself so strongly. And this harm to your reputation can last a long time. Now, some of you may actually like this, but if you were accused of this and it was slandered against you in such a way, then maybe everybody would intentionally avoid you in the parking lot and not park anywhere near your car. Or some of you are like, yeah, that's great, then my car won't get scratched. But nevertheless, you'd be thought of as a liar, as someone who would lie, who would do selfish things, and that could hurt your reputation. And so you can attack the accuser, you can make your case strongly, or you can simply entrust yourself to God. This is what David chose to do. And more interestingly enough, this is what Jesus chose to do when false accusations were brought against these men. David pours his heart out, pours his innocence out before the Lord here in this prayer, and we see something very similar in the life of Jesus, but on a scale far greater. A lot of these Psalms are meant to point us to Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of what is talked about in these texts. You see, Jesus had slanderous charges brought against him as well that had no basis of truth whatsoever, not even close. Jesus was called a false teacher, a blasphemer, Jesus was called demonic, that he was able to work miracles by the power of Satan or Beelzebub. And Jesus was even accused of leading a rebellion against the Roman rulers of his day. All these things were false. But how did Jesus respond? Did he throw accusations towards those who were accusing him? No, he silently entrusted himself before the Lord. Hear how 1 Peter recalls this attitude of Jesus with regards to false accusations and suffering that he endured and how we are to follow in his likeness. 1 Peter chapter two, verses 21 through 23. Peter writes, for this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. It is not our place, it is not wise for us to defend ourselves at time, but instead to silently endure even what may be false accusations and entrust ourself to the Lord, knowing that often this sort of slanderous attack will come at us as Christians, and we ought not to slander in return. We ought not to revile in return, but entrust ourselves to God. So how are you ready to respond when someone issues charges against you that you are innocent of? You will encounter these difficulties, slanderous accusations from others that are not true. How will you handle it? You will be placed the blame for certain actions that you did not do. Right? Some of the kids in here know this, that mom and dad oftentimes will come in and hold you responsible for something that you did not do. Even moms and dads get it wrong occasionally. Not often, but occasionally. What will you do? Too often we respond with anger, with vengeance, with slander, with resistance, with hate, animosity. What would be better for us is to endure and trust the Lord, knowing that he will right every wrong. Now, I do want to, as a tangent point of application, give a warning against such divisive behavior. Scripture has a lot to say about sins of the tongue, and we would be remiss to not at least briefly talk about that here in this text, that there is great harm done in the life of David because of words, because of what someone said. And the danger is not limited to the times of David, but this is a danger that we and our church still face today. So let me read James and hear his warning about the dangers of an untamed tongue. James 3, verses five through nine, how great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God." This goes back to our idea of unity within the church, the body. that unity is often not able to happen when we do not have tamed tongues, when we are prone to slander, gossip, speaking behind one another's backs, reviling, that these are church killers. This is how Christians divide. This is how churches go under. In the U.S., we don't, in many ways, have to face much physical threat to our worshiping and our fellowship together, but this threat of division through slanderous gossip, many churches have fallen victim to that, and I pray that we would not be one of them, not now and not ever. And so let us also take this warning about how dangerous our words can be towards others and towards unity within the church. Let us now turn to the remaining half of the psalm. We'll go through this a little more quickly, but David continues in this psalm and begins to pray for God to judge, for God to judge rightly, for God to vindicate him. We see this in verses six and seven where he says, arise, O Lord, in your anger. Lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies. Awake for me. You have appointed a judgment. Let the assembly of the people be gathered about you over its return on high. David is bothered by what appears to be God's inaction in this situation. He, by saying words like arise and awake for me, is having that honest conversation with God, basically saying, God, are you sleeping on the job? Do you not hear what these people are saying about me? Do you not see what it's doing in my life, what it's doing to my kingdom? I'll rise and defend me, bring judgment. So this is just a simple acknowledgement that it's difficult when it seems like the wicked are prospering. that as those accusations are flying at you or others that you care about you so desperately want God to do something about it, and you might find yourself frustrated by his inaction. Well, let me tell you, friend, that God will judge the wicked. He is not asleep. We do not need to set the alarm clock to wake him up. In fact, we know from verses like verse 11 that he is even more deeply troubled than you are over the situation. Verse 11 is this, God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation every day. You're troubled now because it's happening to you. But God feels this kind of indignation. every day. And what does that word indignation mean? Well, essentially, it's an anger or annoyance specifically provoked by what is perceived unfair. God sees every injustice all the time every day throughout the world, and he is provoked to indignation every day because he's a holy and righteous God, and all sins are sins against him first. You're only getting a taste of what it is to be offended as God is in this situation. And God has promised that he will right and judge every wrong. So David, he's not saying this in an accusatory way, but just an honest crying out before the Lord, his frustration that the wicked seem to prosper. And he calls for God's judgment, for God's judgment to be enacted here on this earth in verses eight through 11. The Lord judges the people. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me. O, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God. My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation every day. I don't have time to get into this as much as I had originally intended, but really the idea here is oftentimes when we think of judgment, our mind, as New Testament believers, goes straight to the end of times type of judgment. But the Jewish thought what was more common was earthly judgment. Now, here in this instance, judge rightly. Let people suffer the consequences for their actions. And for us as Christians, we don't need to choose between one or the other. It is not wrong to want God's justice to reign on the earth as it will in eternity. That if this is what's going to be, when God makes everything new and his law is lived out perfectly on this earth, then we should have a growing desire to see it. even now in certain instances. But I want to spend a more significant time on these final warnings of the wicked. Look with me at verse 12, just the first few phrases. This is a warning that David gives, Now, you heard me say that it is good and right and even godly to pray for earthly justice. but more than earthly justice, we should first pray for repentance. This is a reminder that even as we call for God's justice, even as we call for wickedness to be punished or returned upon the wicked, let us also have the heart and mind of Christ to first pray for their repentance. Because if they do not repent, then it is certain that they will face judgment. In a harsh judgment at that, we see war-like language that God is sharpening his sword, that he is pulling back his bow and the arrow is lit with fire, ready to rain down on the guilty. God's wrath and fury is nothing to take lightly. So let us Pray that they would experience the same grace and repentance that you yourself have received in Christ Jesus. This is where we must acknowledge, yes, I may be innocent in this situation, but I am not an innocent man or woman. I am a sinner who has received grace and forgiveness from God, and I must first pray that they would experience that same grace and forgiveness from God should they choose to accept this message of forgiveness. But if not, then let God's will be done as they are judged and held accountable for their sin and their unrepentance. This is how someone as godly as Paul prayed, both for grace and then when grace is refused, for judgment. I think of when Paul prayed for his Jewish people, his kinsmen, being of the tribe of Benjamin himself. He prays in Romans 9, verses one through five, he speaks of his kinsmen. He says, I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from the race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever, amen. Paul is desperately pouring out his heart before God, saying, I wish that I were accursed so that my kinsmen would be saved. He prays for their repentance. Paul, at other times, would pray for their judgment. We left our study in Galatians to move into the Psalms, but in Galatians 5, when Paul was correcting and teaching again to those who said, you must be circumcised according to the law to be saved, it's not by faith alone, has harsh words of judgment such as this in Galatians 5, verse 12. Those who were insisting on circumcision for salvation, he says this, I wish those who unsettled you would emasculate themselves. That if you are going to insist on this procedure for salvation, then you might as well be cut off completely, both from Christ and even in your physical body. Harsh words of judgment. There are times for both. This in some ways also mirrors Jesus, who came as a savior of grace and mercy in his first coming, but friends, is coming as judge of the earth in his second. And so we can mirror both Paul, more importantly Jesus, as reflected in this psalm, praying for repentance, but also praying that justice would reign and vindication would come. And so Psalm 7 goes on, verses 12 and 14. If a man does not repent, God will wet his sword. He has bent and readied his bow. He has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. If there are brimstone and fire verses in the scripture, I can think of very few as poignant as these ones, that God is ready to make war with the wicked, and the wicked do not stand a chance. His sword is sharpened, his bow is ready, and it's prepared for the deadly battle and punishment for their sin. Hell is a real and awful place. And I would encourage anyone here who is not a Christian, who has not put their faith and trust in Jesus, to repent and believe, repent and believe, that you may be spared this fate. We sometimes sanitize hell too much, making it too palatable. Saying quaintism such as hell is just a place where God is absent. No, God is not absent in hell. We serve an omnipresent God. He is everywhere all the time. Yes, he is in hell, but in all the ways you would not want him to be. It's where his wrath and his justice are displayed. But we also know the character of God, that he does not delight in the destruction of the wicked. His heart, his desire, is that you would repent and believe and be saved. Nowhere is this put more clear than Ezekiel 33, verse 11. Prophet Ezekiel, speaking on behalf of God, says, say to them, as I live, declares the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from this way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? The reason why God gives us such vivid pictures of his wrath is so that we would turn back, turn back. Why would we continue? Receive his forgiveness. Verses 14 through 16 show that sin ultimately does not lead to prosperity, that that displeasure, that that David had and God being slow to judge, if we're patient enough, we will see that the fate of the wicked will not turn out for their benefit. In fact, many times their sins come back on their own head. And so he says in verses 14 through 16, behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out and falls into the hole he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head and on his own skull, his violence descends. The idea is kind of, you dug yourself into this hole. What goes around comes around is the idea. that oftentimes these wicked actions lead to these wicked people's demise. And there's some vivid pictures in scripture of examples of this being exactly the case. The perfect example would actually be a story in the book of Esther. You may or may not be familiar with this story, but there is, the people of God are in exile, they're living in Persia. There's a high-ranking official in the Persian empire named Haman, who hates all the Israelites, wants to destroy them and wipe them off the face of the earth. And one of his first things that he wants to do is destroy or kill one of their leaders, Mordecai, and so he fashions a gallow, a place for him to be hung and executed. But as it would have it, God ordained that instead of Mordecai, the person he intended to hang from there, that Haman himself would be hung for his treachery there. This is recorded in Esther chapter seven, verse nine. It says, then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king said, moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman's house, 50 cubits high, and the king said, hang him on that. And so the very means by which he was seeking to kill another was the way in which he destroyed himself. To use not just a biblical example, but as it's my practice and example from movies, this one more kid-friendly, Aladdin. The very first one, you see the bad guy Jafar desire power more than anything else and seeks it. Continually, Aladdin is a threat to his power in the movie and Jafar is tripped. into wishing to be the most powerful being in all the land, and in granting that wish, he becomes a genie and is enslaved in that lamp, and thus defeated. This is some of the ways in which God has ordained that the wicked would be judged, that their wickedness would be returned upon themselves for judgment. And so this ought to give us the perseverance and the hope to endure when it seems like they are only prospering. when their slanderous charges are believed about us, when they seem to be getting away with it, when they seem to get a promotion because of it, or life gets better for them and worse for us, but we know that these things often have a way of working out in God's providence, that they will taste their own judgment by their own hand. And if not, then they will be judged by God, by his own hand, yet in the future. So let's exercise patience as we endure these things and trust God to be judge and not ourselves. And so this psalm ends in verse 17. David writes, I will give to the Lord the thanks due his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High. Don't underestimate how difficult that last phrase might have been for David to utter. That his accusations were thrown at him, as people thought less of him, as he experienced chaos in his life, revolt, rebellion, all at the hand of these untrue, slanderous charges, it would be so easy to let bitterness and hate in our heart be directed towards God. But instead, David, trusting in the goodness of the Lord, says, I will give to the Lord the thanks due his righteousness. This is David declaring, all the things you do, God, are right, even if I think that they're wrong. And I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. And so through our suffering, through our innocent suffering, our emotional suffering, spiritual suffering, physical suffering, let us have this heart of David that is the heart of Christ to entrust ourselves to the Lord, to call Him the God of righteousness, that everything He does is right, and that we will sing to His name regardless of we experience that vindication now or at the day of His return. or somewhere in between. So just to rapid fire and remind us of some of the applicational points with regards to this message, first and foremost, let us cry out to God in our struggles, particularly when we may find ourselves suffering innocently under false accusations or through no fault of our own. Let us cry out to God. And then although God may be slower to act than we would like, That does not mean that he's not indifferent. In fact, we're just getting a small taste of what he experiences every day. We should all pray and long for God's justice to be enacted on this earth, but we should also pray that our enemies would repent, that they may not face the judgment that we ourselves were spared because of Christ. Know that God and his divine plans and sovereignty sometimes poetically enacts justice by visiting the sins of your enemy upon themselves. And lastly, do not struggle or do not let this struggle hinder your praise of God. Run close to him, not farther away. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we are not innocent with regard to sin, But Lord, we at times do indeed suffer innocently because we live in a broken and fallen world. There are those who would seek to do us physical or emotional harm simply because we are Christians. I pray that you would help us in restraining our desires of the flesh to revile in return, to respond with anger or even sinful slander in return. Help us to patiently endure as Christ did, looking for vindication, not just from these people, but vindication that only you could give us. either in this life or in the life to come. And Lord, we do pray for the repentance of those who would accuse us or seek to harm us. But at the same time, Lord, we pray that your will would be done perfectly on this earth as it is in heaven. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.