Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 60. Every time I prepare a psalm for you on Sunday nights, I shoot up a prayer to God saying, thank you, Lord, for maturing me. I came to you 25 years ago. And over the 25 years, we've made a few attempts at studying the Psalms. And every time we get into it, I like it better and I learn more. Hopefully you do too. But it just shows that I've grown as a Christian because immature Christians don't get the Psalms. The Psalms are not for people who are like bubbles and bounce around from fluffy episode to fluffy episode in their lives. These psalms reflect bone-crunching pain and agony, alienation, being lost, being rejected, being thrown out, being chased. Every malady of the human soul that you can imagine is reflected in the psalms. Psalm 60 is the last psalm that has any historical setting that has to do with David's life. David was a shepherd boy. David fought Goliath. David ran from Saul. David had certain battles. This is the last mentioning in the psalm of geographical locations where he was duking it out with the enemies of Israel. And what I want you to see is that the superscription over the psalm in your Bible is contains content that's the exact opposite of what's in the psalm. Because the superscription talks about a great victory in the Valley of Salt by David's right-hand man, Joab, and yet the psalm is about being defeated by the Edomites. And as I mentioned this morning, this psalm represents the fact that in the midst of lots of victories in a Christian life, you can have a real black eye right smack in the middle of it where there's a real loss. And while we often talk about victories in the middle of defeats, this is the reverse. This is defeat in the middle of a string of victories. So let me read the psalm. It's not long, Psalm 60. Well, let me read the superscription also. For the choir director, according to Shushan Eduth, miktham of David. Remember, miktham means an engraving. This is something that David wrote to teach when he, David, struggled with Aram Naharim and with Aram Zobah, and Joab returned and smote 12,000 of Edom in the Valley of Salt. The Edomites had attacked Israel and bruised David's army pretty severely when David was really in a very strong position, and he was in a good place with God, too. It wasn't like he'd been a jerk for a while, and God said, all right, listen, you're not paying attention to me, so you're going to have to lose a few battles. Things had been going well with David spiritually and militarily, but the Edomites gave him a good punch. And so Joab was sent into Edom to deal with this. Those of you who went to Israel last May, some of you went to Jordan. You saw the city of Petra and how impregnable you can imagine that to have been back in David's day. Well, that's where Joab had to go to defeat the Edomites. And there's an actual verse in this psalm that says, God, we can't do this. Man can't do it. You're going to have to bring a victory. Because Petra could not be invaded by an army. They'd have been picked off one by one trying to come through the narrow channels into that city. All right, let me read it. Oh God, thou hast rejected us. Thou hast broken us. Thou hast been angry. Oh, restore us. Thou hast made the land quake. Thou hast split it open. Heal its breaches, for it totters. Thou hast made thy people experience hardship. Thou hast given us wine to drink that makes us stagger." That's about God giving man the dregs to drink when it's bad news. We'll come back to that later. Verse 4, Thou hast given a banner to those who fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. In other words, you know, we're your people. You gave us the flag to carry. We're believers. Verse 5, that thy beloved may be delivered. Save with thy right hand and answer us. God has spoken in all his holiness. Quote, this is God speaking, I will exalt, I will portion out Shechem and measure out the valley of Sukkoth. Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine. Ephraim also is the helmet of my head. Judah is my scepter. Moab is my washbowl. Over Edom, I shall throw my shoe. Shout aloud, O Philistia, because of me. Who will bring me into the besieged city? Who will lead me to Edom, to Petra? Hast not thou thyself, O God, rejected us? And wilt thou not go forth with our armies, O God? Oh, give us help against the adversary, for deliverance by man is in vain. Through God we shall do valiantly, and it is he who will tread down our adversaries." At verse 8, Moab is my washbowl. That's not a compliment. And the next line, too. Do any of you here remember the When President Bush went to Iraq, he went to Iraq a couple of times during the Iraq war. At one point, he held a news conference in Iraq. Do you remember the irate Iraqi news person who took off his shoe and threw it at President Bush, and he ducked, and it missed him? Do you remember that? That's an old Middle Eastern sign of huge disrespect. When you pick off your shoe and throw it at somebody, that's not good. You also have only one shoe now to walk in, so I'm not sure about the wisdom of that. But that's what they do. So there's real disrespect in these two verses here. So let's go back and look at some of this. The title, as I said, is about Joab's victory in the Valley of Salt, but the psalm itself reflects a defeat. The background of this is 2 Samuel 8. If you'd like to go with me there, I'm going to read a short portion. 2 Samuel 8. And then I'll have to go a little before that to chapter 5 to bring you up as to how well things were going. Boy, from chapter 5 of 2 Samuel on, it was party time. Things were really going well for David and for Israel. And then you hit chapter 8. Here we go. 2 Samuel 8 and 1. Now, after this, it came about that David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. And David took control of a chief city from the hand of the Philistines. And he defeated Moab and measured them with a line, making them lie down on the ground. He measured two lines to put to death and one full line to keep alive. And the Moabites became David's servants, bringing tribute. Then David defeated Hadadazer, the son of Rahab, king of Zobah. Remember, that's mentioned in the superscription of the psalm. As he went to restore his rule at the river, And David captured from him 1,700 horsemen, 20,000 foot soldiers, and David hamstrung the chariot horses, but reserved enough of them for 100 chariots. And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadazer, king of Zobah, David killed 22,000 men of the Syrians. Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David, bringing tribute, and the Lord helped David wherever he went. And David took the shields of gold, which were carried by the servants of Hadadazer, and brought them to Jerusalem. And from Batah and from Berethi, cities of Hadazer, King David took a very large sum of bronze. Now, when Toi, king of Hamath, heard that David had defeated all the army of Hadadazer, Toi sent Joram, his son, to King David to greet him and bless him. because he'd fought against Hadadazer and defeated him, for Hadadazer had been at war with Toy, and Joram brought with him articles of silver, of gold, and of bronze. King David also dedicated these to the Lord with the silver and gold, and he dedicated them from all the nations which he subdued, from Syria, Moab, sons of Ammon, the Philistines, and Amalek, and the spoil of Hadadazer, son of Rehob, King Zobah. I read all that to you to show you how well things were going. And then, like getting T-boned by a truck in an intersection, the Edomites came out and gave David a punch. And so he cries out unto God. And this, I think, is applicable to you and me. Things may be going really well in your life. You may even have had a terrible time in your life. You've emerged from that. And things are going really well. I mean, you're not boasting, but you're happy. God's been with you. Your prayers seem to be being answered. Your spiritual engine's running on all eight cylinders. And suddenly, you blow a cylinder. Bang. Car pulls over the side of the road, and you're completely disabled. And you say, why? Thought we were doing great. I think that's David's attitude in Psalm 60. Why? I need your help. And the important thing is he doesn't cry out to man, but he cries out to God for the help that he needs. Back in 2 Samuel 5, I'm not going to take you there, but if you read 2 Samuel 5, 6, and 7, you get all the buildup to the good stuff. He becomes king, he captures Jerusalem, he makes Jerusalem the capital of Israel, he has victory over the Philistines, he brings the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, and then you get to what I just read for you. Victory after victory after victory after victory. And then you get this defeat. The point is that in times of great blessing there are defeats, you should expect them. It's very easy for the Christian to begin to think, you know, I've been a pretty good boy. Things are going well for me. God must be really pleased with me. And then your path gets suddenly disrupted, and you wrongly draw the conclusion that God is angry with you. That's the conclusion David drew early on in the psalm. You're angry with us? Help! Deliver us! And God does deliver him. But it's as though in a long string of victories God wanted David to realize again, and it's important for us who learn this over and over again, you can never coast in your walk with God. What is the physiological law? Objects in motion tend to stay in motion and objects that are still tend to stay that way? Kind of that way in the Christian life, too. You're in motion, you're moving. Well, I tell you what, it is not a spiritual law that Christians in good motion tend to stay in good motion. God many times arrests what looks like progress in the Christian life and draws us back to teach us things. Even when we're close to the Lord, we have problems. That should be a good indication for you. I could look out at all of you tonight, and I would not argue with the fact that Any of you are not close to the Lord. Let's just say all of you right now are in a good walk with Jesus Christ. You know you're a sinner. You confess your sins to him. You rejoice in your salvation. You know you're going to heaven when you die. But you've got a truckload of problems, don't you? You've got financial problems. Your back hurts. You've got to deal with that goofball Wednesday again like you do every Wednesday. We have problems. But the problems don't mitigate against the fact that God is still gracious to us and that he loves us and he's our provider. These are powerful images here, a defeat in the midst of victory. Look at the words he uses. He uses earthquake. I don't believe there was an earthquake. But he says in verse 2 that the land has quaked and split open. I don't believe the land split open at all. David is saying, God, you turned my world upside down. There's nowhere to go. I can't walk. I can't advance. The earth has opened up in front of me. Heal it so I can advance. And, you know, has God opened up the earth in front of you ever so that you couldn't take another step? You know, He loves you enough to open up the earth so that you can't proceed long enough for Him to instruct you, and then He'll close the earth up again so you can continue walking. Just like God was willing to sink a ship to get Jonah to where he was supposed to go. God's always going to get his way with us. My question for me and for you is how sensitive are we to what God is doing when suddenly we have an unexpected and unwelcomed interruption to what otherwise has been a smooth month in our walk with the Lord. The second image that he gives that's not a good one is the drunkenness in verse 3. it shows a staggering person. Now, Dave is not talking here about some drunk in his army. He's talking about the drink that God sometimes has to pour down our throat to make us stagger so that we don't get where we want to go but wander for a while until God gets us where He wants us to go. Let me take it to two verses for this. One is in Psalm 75, 8 Psalm 75a, for a cup is in the hand of the Lord, and the wine foams. It is well mixed, and he pours out of this. Surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs. That's a picture of God forcing the wicked to drink their comeuppance. But God also moves and disciplines his children in similar ways. I want you to also follow me, or at least listen to what I'm going to read to you from Isaiah 51, verse 17. Rouse yourself, rouse yourself. Get up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the Lord's hand the cup of his anger, the chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs. See, in the Psalms, there's a picture of the wicked drinking what's their due. But in Isaiah, it's a picture of God's people in Jerusalem having to drink the disciplinary cup from God because of their activity. The worst thing about the defeat was that the Lord seemed to be angry with the people, not all of them, but some of them. Now, we know that sin brings defeat of different kinds. We just aren't told. in the psalm that there was a problem in David's life or in Israel's life that brought this about. And I guess, you know, people who don't know God is angry with them when He is angry with them are the worst off. If God were angry with you, if He were displeased with you, would you want to know? If you're a sanctified person, you should want to know to correct the behavior that's brought about His anger. But if you don't know he's angry at you and you don't care if he's angry at you, that puts you in a dangerous position. So when we see problems, what are we to do? We're to rally, well, we could sing the song, Rally Round the Banner. It's interesting that word banner is used because he, David, admits in verse 4, you've given us a banner who fear you that it might be displayed because of the truth." This is a marvelous statement. David's saying, Lord, look, you know we're outnumbered in this world. Nobody out there cares about you. We're the only ones who even know who you are. And all of us aren't even on the same page. But I am. And David's crying out to God to say, please don't take the flag down. Don't let our enemies have victory over us. We want them to know that you are God, and that we are your people, and that you love us. The second section of the psalm asks for help because of the Edomites. And I suppose verses 6 to 8 could be understood in two ways. One is that the land that he gave will be defended. Or secondly, that this is just an old rehearsal reminding people, hey, this land does belong to us. Don't worry about it. Didn't God give us the land? So what if the Edomites walk across the line into our property for a little while? God's not going to sustain this for long. I don't know what exactly that means, but verses 6, 7, and 8 is a wonderful reminder that God gave this land to Israel, and he will protect it for his reasons. We need to remember that biblical faith is not optimism. Are you a Christian? Oh, yeah, I'm a Christian. Do you have faith? I sure do. You know, let me blow some bubbles. Christian faith is not a big bubble of optimism. It's acting on God's word because you believe the word to be true. You see, because the things that God commands of us in this life cause trouble. Being truthful causes trouble. Being faithful causes trouble. Being a spokesman for the righteousness of God causes trouble. So when we're obedient to God, the road gets rough. So the natural inclination is to find a road that's not so rough. And there is a road that's not so rough, but the compromise is you kind of sort of listen to God, but don't really follow what he says. And David's bringing that into the mix here. So there are some lessons to be learned. Edom did have victory, and it's about to be reversed. And David calls out for God. He says, you're not going to get it out of man. I love that verse 11. Give us help against the adversary for deliverance by man is in vain. What do you need to be delivered from tonight that no human being can deliver you? Only God can do it. You say, what is he going to reach down out of heaven and grab me by the collar? Yeah, he reaches out of heaven, but he usually grabs you through some other medium. But it's an important question to ask. Do we ask for these kinds of victories? David anticipates the victory in verse 12. So that, as I bring this to a conclusion, kind of pokes us with saying, when you ask God to deliver you, because you know nobody else can, no one else can, do you believe God's going to do it? So verse 12 says, through God we what? We might surface? Through God we might have a better day? No, it says, through God we shall do valiantly, and it is he who will tread down our adversaries. David's not putting a timetable on that, but David is saying when you suffer a defeat, don't turn to man, turn to God, and in due time, the flag will go back up to the top of the pole again, and you'll be standing on the victor's hill. That's what David is saying. If you take all of Psalm 60 and compress it, what it tells Norm Coop is this. God's wonderful. He's forgiven me. He leads me. He's blessed me. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to take a punch to the gut now and then. And when I take a punch to the gut, my reaction should not be, I guess God doesn't love me anymore. And so I'll turn to my friends for them to rescue me. But rather to take the punch from God as love, as discipline, as correction, as an arresting, knowing that God will bring me back up again in his timetable and that I really know that's going to happen. I don't just hope that it's going to happen. Our spiritual struggles are talked about in Ephesians 6. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. That means we don't wrestle against the Philistines and the Edomites. We wrestle against flesh and blood, against principalities and powers in high places. That's our problem. That's our struggle. We don't even see them. But they infiltrate our life at every level, at the brain, in the emotions, and in the body. Man cannot help us. We have to cry out to God. James 4.2 says something very simple and most of us overlook it every day. You do not have because you do not ask. Next time some Christians complain to you about what they don't have in life, just say, have you asked God for it? You might be surprised to hear them say, oh, gee, I forgot. Well, let me close with this. Remember the stone that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream? There's this great statue. Nebuchadnezzar has this nightmare. And it's all about historic empires, about Persia, and Greece, and Rome, and got a gold head, and silver breastplate, and then iron legs, and clay feet. It's a picture of all of the empires that worked their way from ancient all the way down to Rome. And then it said a stone came in and hit the foot of the statue and the whole thing just pulverized. You read it in Daniel chapter 2. It doesn't hit the feet of the statue and the statue goes kerplunk. It says the gold, the silver, the iron, the bronze, everything dissipated like dust and blew away and that the stone became a mountain and filled the whole earth. And this was, of course, the prophecy of Jesus Christ and Christianity, that all the empires of the world would be struck by the gospel and that the gospel would fill the earth with truth as against the lies of all these empires. Daniel showed that the only hope we had was in the coming Son of Man, who was Jesus Christ. David said it in a different way. You and I know it is Jesus Christ, but the people of God from the very beginning have known that nothing can stand in the way of the progress of God's people, but that it's not absent from gut punches. May God add his blessing to the study of his word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father and our God, we thank you for this psalm. I pray that you continue to teach us its meaning. Like David, Father, we will cry out to you for help. The verse says, O God, help us against the adversary, for deliverance by man is in vain. We do believe that, and we also believe that you are our hope, our joy, our love, our forgiveness, and our soliditude. And when it's your pleasure to stand us up straight when we feel we've been knocked over, you'll do that, and we know that you will. We thank you, Father, that Christianity and biblical theology is not like the plucking of the petals of the flower of the daisy. He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not. And we sure do hope that when we get down to the last petal of that flower, it's a he loves me rather than a he loves me not. We don't have to worry about that when we read the scriptures, because we know at the end you will still love us as you do now. So I pray for those who struggle with issues of life, who have problems, who have gut punches, who are in pain, who hurt, who don't have hope, that they might identify with David tonight to know that in spite of the troubles they will have victory over their adversaries. We ask these things in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.