God's grace that takes us from eternity past to eternity future. It's His grace that sustains us. And I want to look at a psalm that speaks of God's sustaining grace in the life of David. He wrote this actually on the day that we're going to be picking up next week, 2 Samuel 18. And so we're not going to look at all 17 Psalms that were in the interlude. I think this one is key, though, that we do need to look at it. Psalm 3, beginning with the inspired title. A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son. Lord, how they have increased to trouble me. Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me there is no help for him in God. Selah. But you, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the one who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my voice, and he heard me from his holy hill. Selah. I lay down and slept. I awoke, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for you have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone. You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your people. Selah. Amen. Father, we thank you for this, your word, and I pray as we dig into it that our hearts truly would worship you and receive from your throne the sustaining grace that we need to engage in the battles of life. We love you and we pray for your anointing during this time of preaching. In Jesus' name, Amen. William Carey is often thought of as a man who was not fazed by much of anything. Sometimes he is presented as very calmly facing the persecution that came from the Hindus, that came from the British East India Company. They hated missionaries. They wanted to get rid of them. The opposition that came from the government in England and even from fellow missionaries. And there is no doubt about the fact that he displayed an amazing courage and tenacity in the face of incredible opposition. But I think we'd be hugely mistaken in thinking that he was not emotionally fazed by these things. When you read his journal, you realize he's a man just like you and I. And he struggled. He had his fears. He had his hurts. And there were times when he was just overwhelmingly saddened. One time when he was fighting against these inward feelings he wrote to himself, Oh that I had an earthly friend on whom I could unbosom my soul. He felt lonely and discouraged from all of the opposition. And you can hear some of that O in the heart of David as you read through this psalm. As I said, this was written sometime on the day of his big battle with Absalom. He had just discovered that week that his son and his closest A friend had betrayed him and the whole nation really was ready to hunt him down and kill him. And so the question that we want to look at today is what do you do when it seems like everybody is against you? Now some people, like a gal whom we will call Katie, I go to drugs in order to deal with the pain. She said, I was in a lot of trouble with the law. Basically every time I got out of jail, I'd go back in. I felt like I had no friends. I felt like everyone was against me. I didn't trust anyone, didn't really feel anything besides pain and my family was disconnected from me and I just felt like there was no hope. Now sometimes when we feel this way it's because we're depressed and we've lost perspective and we really don't have good reasons to feel that way other than our body is tearing us down. But these feelings of loneliness that David was expressing in verses 1 through 2 are feelings that Christians have experienced all down through history. So what do you do when it seems like everyone is against you? Well, first of all, you don't ignore the problem. David was evaluating the true severity of the problem. And when we do this, there are times, you know, you put the pros and the cons and you look at all of the issues and you realize, well, I guess it's not as bad as I feel like it is. Uh, but when you look at what David was going through, it really was bad. Okay. And so we don't want to ignore the severity of the problem or we won't take the proper solutions versus one through two. Oh Lord, how they have increased to trouble me. Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me, there is no help for him in God. Selah. Now first he looks at the numbers against him and they really do look pretty bad. David is not naive nor is he exaggerating the problem like we are sometimes prone to do. He realized that the enemies were overwhelmingly numerous and we've already seen the odds that he was up against before. And you might think, well, I can't really relate to that because I don't have that many enemies. But if you look at the culture wars in America and you realize what they would really like to do with Christians like you, some of these people, no, there are a lot of enemies out there. And at least even if you set that aside, at least when you consider the unseen enemies that are ganging up against you, you realize you have a lot of opposition. I believe every one of you can take this psalm upon your lips at some point in your life when you feel the incredible demonic opposition. When I grew up in Ethiopia, we felt the oppression of the demonic almost everywhere that we went. And in the last 50 years, there has been an increase, a steady increase of the demonic in America. And too many Christians don't understand why everything's going wrong in their lives. It just doesn't make sense to them. But it doesn't make sense because they have not factored in those invisible demonic forces that are arrayed against Christians. And we really do need to be doing that. Now it's true that some of these people have fought very valiantly against their fleshly temptations. They've fought against false worldviews that they're confronted with, but they're not gaining full success because they have neglected that third enemy. The Bible calls us to fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And there are trillions of demons. We've already looked at that. Some people question, could there really be that many? But I tend to side with the Puritans who saw the incredibly numerous numbers. You read through the book of Revelation. I think you will realize that there are many, many enemies that we have to deal with. So David saw numbers. He also saw dangers. Why else would he have fled? There are times where it's appropriate to fight, and there are times where it's far more appropriate to flee. David, not David, Paul told Timothy to flee from youthful temptations. Told him to flee because there are situations that you get yourself into. If you don't flee, you're probably going to fall. And certainly David recognized if he did not flee immediately from Absalom, he would be in trouble, he would lose. And so he had to go on to the other side of the Jordan And regroup. So you recognized the dangers. And again, this is an area where Christians sometimes have a tendency to fall down. They're not evaluating the seriousness of the threat. Things are really getting bad, and they're accelerating bad in America. The dangers that the church faces are huge. But I just want to look at the demonic. When was the last time you engaged demons in spiritual battle? And if you can't remember the last time you engaged them in battle, I would say de facto, you do not consider the demonic to be very dangerous. You've not considered the danger that is out there. And you need to, you really need to. Paul was so conscious of the demonic behind his human adversaries, but comparatively speaking, he was able to say, we really don't wrestle against flesh and blood, it's demons that we're wrestling against. principalities and powers. Now, there were flesh and blood people that were coming against him. There's no doubt about that. And yet, as he preached to the flesh and blood, as he argued and debated with them, sometimes as he fled from them, he recognized that if he did not deal with the demons who were stirring up these flesh and blood enemies, he was not going to be successful. And so we need to know our enemy, know how dangerous the enemy is. And I believe in America both the flesh and blood as well as the demonic is very dangerous. Know your enemy's strategies. We saw that one of the strategies that Absalom had used against David was propaganda. And in verse 2 David recounts one of the statements circulating about him. Now David had sinned horribly, massively, and the rumor was being circulated, there is no help for him in God. People thought, yeah, the way David was dealing, God's never going to side with him. There is no help. for him in God. They were claiming not only that God was against David, but that God had afflicted him with a sickness and he was about to die from that sickness. And David was quite aware of what was being said. And then you look at the title of the psalm and it indicates that he took prudent action. It says, A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son. He didn't just wait around for God to bail him out. He was not passive. And we too must take Action when we are feeling overwhelmed. It may mean fleeing to God in times of prayer to get healing to get Renewal and restoration it may mean getting advisors Counsel from somebody like who shy gave to David and there were others who were giving David counsel. It may mean making plans regrouping but the point is that when we are overwhelmed, we cannot crawl into a hole and hope that the problems will go away. Problems rarely disappear on their own. And so the first thing that we see in this Psalm is that David did not ignore the problem, but rather took prudent actions. But there is a second thing that David modeled to us. When everyone seems to be against you, don't give up hope. First, bring your problems to the Lord in prayer. Now Gary and I harp on this so frequently you're maybe tired of hearing it, but really God is the first one you ought to go to when you've got issues, when you've got problems. We need to go in prayer. Now this psalm is one of David's prayers and he wrote 17 psalms during that two or three day period. He took prayer seriously. And by the way, since Joab and the other men we're going to see in chapter 18 refused to let David fight, he was not on the battlefield. They were worried he was going to die and then everything would be gone. So they refused to let him fight. So the only thing he could do all day was to be praying for these warriors. And I think that's where a lot of these 17 Psalms were written. That whole day of fighting was probably engaged in prayer. Second, Learn to find security in the Lord. Verse 3 begins, but you, O Lord, are a shield for me. Now it's not that he wishes God would be a shield but that God has let him down, no. This is a total affirmation of faith that no one can harm him when God is his shield. He's standing in God, he has learned to find his security in God and God is the best shield that we can possibly have. Now too frequently what happens is when we see the enemy like Peter on the waves, he began seeing the waves, what happens is we fear, fear chases away faith, and scripture says without faith it is impossible to please God, which means when we're fearful, God is not our shield. You know, it accomplishes the very opposite of what we hope we fear. And the very thing we fear comes upon us. It's almost like it's a reverse faith. And so David is making an affirmation of faith that he cannot feel, that he cannot sense, that he cannot see. We aren't told if David had to fight with his own within his own spirit to be able to make that affirmation in verse three. I suspect he did. When you read verses one and two, he's probably having to fight with himself to believe that God is for him. And if God is for him, who can be against him? He was pressing into the Lord, fighting the feelings of hopelessness, despair, fear, and other faith killers. Pressing in, insisting that he was going to believe the Lord, not the doubts that Satan might have been suggesting. But in any case, he learned through affirmations of faith to find his security in the Lord. Now the second half of verse 3 shows that he had learned to get his spirits lifted in the Lord. It says, my glory and the one who lifts up my head. Now, when you're feeling downcast, your head tends to go down. And commentators point out that when God lifts up your head, what he's doing is he's giving you joy. He's restoring the joy of the Lord in your heart. And it was David's inner communion with God that enables even his body to respond appropriately. The Puritan Richard Sibbes said on this verse, God will have the body partake with the soul. As in matters of grief, so in matters of joy. The lantern shines in the light of the candle within. In other words, he's saying as our spirit lays hold of God, it has an impact upon our bodies. Our bodies tend to drag us down when we get depressed and we've got to resist it. We have to resist our bodies. Our spirit must lead our body, not vice versa. We must strive violently against our flesh's temptations to give up and say, no, I'm not going to call God a liar by doubting him. He has said, if God is for us, who can be against us? I am not going to give up. There are times when we need to subdue the natural impulses of our bodies and force our bodies to focus on God rather than on the problem. And when our spirit rules our body in that way, Our bodies do come around, we gradually feel the joy returning. And there have been countless times when I have very tangibly felt God's renewed joy and hope creeping into my body as I have verbally insisted that God is indeed my glory and the lifter up of my head. Spurgeon had a fine one sentence comment on this verse. He said, what a divine trio of mercies is contained in this verse. Defense for the defenseless, glory for the despised, and joy for the comfortless. Now verse four gives yet another reason why David did not lose hope. It says, I cried to the Lord with my voice. Now it's hard for us Westerners to do this. We have a tendency to keep our religion internal and private and secret and quiet. But if you remain quiet during times when you're attempted to abandon living by faith, it will be much harder to maintain that faith. You must force your body to affirm what your spirit wants to affirm. You see, Paul says that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. The flesh is the weak link that tends to drag us down. And so if you can force your flesh, and in this case it's his mouth, to affirm what the spirit believes, you will find something remarkable happening. You'll find the fear, despair, and the hopelessness diminishing. It's just the way God made us. See, our bodies and our spirits are so connected that one or the other will win the battle of faith. They're going to end up going one way or the other, but they will impact each other. And so when you cry out aloud, it will affect your emotions. Spirits even have an impact upon your bodies. There is a place for crying out aloud, and it's not just on issues of fear, it's also on issues of apathy. There have been times when my mind wanders so much in prayer, and my body is so lethargic that I simply cannot pray silently. And if I start praying silently, I find myself praying for one minute, and then my mind's wandering on who knows what for four minutes, and I get so frustrated with myself And so I find that I've got to cry out aloud to the Lord in my prayer life to keep myself focused. And anyway, just so you don't think this is simply a Kaiserism here, let me quote from Charles Spurgeon on that phrase. And I could quote many other godly teachers from the past who have said the same thing. But Spurgeon said on this verse, why does he say with my voice? Surely silent prayers are heard. Yes, but good men often find that even in secret, they pray better aloud than they do when they utter no vocal sound. And I have certainly found this to be true. I especially pray aloud when I'm tired, when I find my hope diminishing, when I'm finding myself discouraged. And you may feel weird doing this at first, especially if you're vehemently having to pray against your flesh. But the more you do this, you're going to find the impact on your spirit. What you do with your body will have such an impact on your spirit. You're going to thank God that you even heard this hint from the mouth of David. So do take that seriously. I think it will be a huge help. Now, his statement of faith in verse 4 is a fifth way that David refused to lose hope. He said, I cried to the Lord with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill. Selah. How in the world can he say that he heard me from his holy hill when he hasn't even begun the battle yet? For sure, we know from this psalm that there is a lot of battle that's still ahead of him. Well, there's two possibilities, and I really believe that they are both true. They're usually involved in each other. The first possibility of why he does this is that God the Spirit has given him a sense that God the Father has already answered his prayer. And the second is that this is an affirmation of faith. And I think really those two go together. I've had quite a number of times where the Spirit has urged me to prayer and I've been praying intensely for some issue and all of a sudden it's like the Holy Spirit has flooded my soul with a sense that God's answered and I can quit praying and I can go to Thanksgiving. Now, I don't know that it's answered in terms of my visible eyes, but I know it by faith, and I hold on to that, and I thank God for it, and it's always been true. God gives this assurance within, and then we utter these expressions of faith and thanksgiving, just like David did here. So both reasons, I think, can coexist. So next time you feel like giving up and losing all hope, stop and take these steps. And by the way, I should have probably commented on that Selah. A lot of people don't read the Selah. It is an inspired portion of scripture and it really means stop and reflect. Now, there is debate amongst commentators on exactly what it means, but the majority believe it means stop and reflect. Think about what we have just said. Now, it may be a musical interlude where it says the musicians can continue playing while the singers stop so we can reflect on what has been said. But there is a place for stopping and reflecting on how God is the answer to our hopeless situation. So, first point, don't ignore the problem. Second, don't give up hope. Thirdly, don't lose sleep over it. Verse 5 is a remarkable statement. It says, I lay down. Well, that's not too remarkable. But it says, I lay down and slept. I awoke, for the Lord sustained me. How can you sleep with all of the events that are coming up in the next day? He slept the night before that huge battle. My tendency would have been to worry all night long and not get a wink of sleep, and I still occasionally have bouts of insomnia due to anxiety. I've mentioned to you a number of times my whole lifetime. My besetting sin that I have to keep fighting against has been anxiety and fears and worries. I think God has given me a huge degree of success against that and by far the vast majority of my insomnia is nothing to do with fear and anxiety because I'm praying to the Lord and and just totally relaxed and not even thinking about anything that would make me anxious. But I still do catch myself on occasion finding myself worrying about something that's coming up and I have to immediately repent and start taking the steps to overcoming worry that I have outlined for you. What was it last week, a couple of weeks ago? from Philippians chapter 4. You take those steps. In fact, commentators on other Psalms have said that David's insomnia seems to be linked with anxiety. He talks in those things about being awake in the middle of the night, so anxious and fearful about what's going on. And you see in those Psalms, he takes exactly the same steps that we looked at in Philippians 4. And I have found them hugely helpful in my own life. Don't lose sleep when everybody is against you. If your sleep loss is because of anxiety, anger, bitterness, brooding, or other negative emotions, you've got to get rid of them. You have to process through them. Now sleep can sometimes be a great barometer of our trust in God's sustaining grace. David said, I lay down and slept. I awoke for the Lord sustained me. Thomas Watson, another Puritan pastor said this, a good conscience, and maybe I should stop there. I didn't mention bad consciences can keep you awake too, right? There's all kinds of things that can keep us awake. But he said a good conscience can sleep in the mouth of a cannon. And he goes on to say, it may be shot at, but never shot through. Grace puts the soul into Christ, and there it is safe as the dove in the ark. He's just got a wonderful way of phrasing things. This was not simply a sleeping pill. This was sleep from God Almighty. God can give us sleep. And actually, he's the sovereign who gives sleep, who takes it away. He owns everything. He owns our sleep. And so there are times when God takes this sleep away from you. I've had many times where God has woken me up in the middle of the night with a burden to pray for somebody, and I keep praying until he's given me a peace that I can quit praying. And so some insomnia is a great thing. Two days before, David had been fleeing from Absalom. He had to flee all night long, okay? That was absolutely essential to lose the sleep on that night. So I'm not saying that all sleep loss is a bad thing, but I'm saying just realize These negative emotions sometimes can be a factor. And to those of you who are workaholics, this verse is a good reminder that sleep is not a waste of time. It's part of God's sustaining grace in our lives. Solomon said, it is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Sleep is a gift of God. Whenever he gives it, I'm thankful. I love it. Anyway, if you look at verse six, you'll see that David explicitly ties his sleep in with the fact that he had no anxiety or fear. He says, I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Now, too frequently, people allow fear to make them worry at the same time that they're not taking actions that they could be taking. Okay, that's a ridiculous way to do it and this kind of false fear can lead to cowardice. J. Oswald Chambers once said, courage is that quality of mind which enables men to encounter danger or difficulty with firmness, or without fear or depression of spirits, the highest degree of courage is seen in the person who is most fearful but refuses to capitulate to it." Now that kind of courage is great, but what David is talking about here is not just that. He's talking about a peace that is supernatural that is guarding his heart. It doesn't even make sense from a human perspective. This is why Philippians 4 verse 7 speaks of the peace of God. It's a peace that comes from God and he speaks of that as the peace of God which surpasses all understanding. In other words, you can't wrap your brain around it. You cannot explain this in terms of naturalistic causes. No, this is supernatural. And he says it will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Now that word guard implies there's something preventing something from outside invading your mind, invading your heart, and that's exactly what demons want to do. They want to invade your mind and invade your heart with fear and worry and bitterness and anger and any negative emotion that they can possibly put into your heart because they know it's not compatible with walking in the Spirit. And when we take the steps given in Philippians, God's supernatural peace prevents that. It guards our hearts and minds. And I have found this. It's just a remarkable, remarkable thing. In one sense, you know, I am so grateful that I had fear and worry as my besetting sin because it's enabled me to step into this area of supernatural that many people have never experienced. But there is, it's just like something supernatural is keeping me, there's all kinds of stuff going around, and I'm not worried in the least. It's guarded my heart and my mind. And I encourage you to press toward that. So, don't ignore the problem, don't give up hope, don't lose sleep. Fourthly and lastly, use a godly offense against the true enemy. After taking courage in verse six, Verse 7 begins to use the nuclear weapon of the imprecatory psalms. Now some of David's psalms that he wrote during this period have a lot more imprecations in them than this one does, but there's at least a little bit of a nuclear weapon in this psalm. And we're going to quickly look at that. Verse 7. Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for you have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone. You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. Now, this is David's call to battle. And the amazing thing about it is that by God's inspiration, he is calling God to battle. And because this psalm is included in our Psalter, it means that God is allowing us to call God to battle. Now, this is breathtaking in its scope. It almost seems impertinent. Who are we to call God to do anything? We can understand God calling us to battle, but calling God to battle seems like it's just not appropriate. It would not be appropriate if God's law itself did not command us to do so. And that's exactly what Numbers 10, 35 does. Every time Israel went into battle, Say words like this, rise up, oh Lord, let your enemies be scattered and let those who hate you flee before you. We are calling God to arms. Now there are six applications that I want to make from this. These are logical deductions that you can get from those two verses. They're not in your outline, so if you want them, you're gonna have to scribble here. But first of all, God is committed to spiritual warfare. And the great war that started in Genesis chapter 3 between God and Satan, between all of Satan's demons and God's angels, that war is not going to end until God has won the victory and completely banished all sin from planet earth. So God is committed to battling against everything that is wrong on planet Earth. We've got to be convinced of that or our own spiritual battle with enthusiasm, we're not going to be able to do it with enthusiasm. Okay? God has committed the battle. We sometimes doubt that. We wonder, where are you, Lord? I'm ready for battle. Where are you? And we are not having the faith that God indeed is committed to this cause. The second implication is that God commits us to warfare. He wants us to be so committed to His cosmic war that we will not be satisfied until every enemy is put under the feet of Jesus Christ. 1 Kings 15 says that He must remain at the right hand of God until He has put all things under His feet. Are we committed to that proposition? We must be. Third, God wants us to initiate many of these battles in His name. He doesn't want us to simply be a passive spectator of what God and the angels are going to do. In fact, Revelation 8, if you want to just put in your memory an amazing, amazing image. Look at Revelation 8, the first few verses. It talks about a half hour of silence in heaven. And in terms of the imagery from the earth to the heaven, Edersheim says what's going on is that the priest is bringing the incense on the earth into the altar of incense. And it takes about half an hour to do that. And during the time when the prayer people are waiting for the prayer meeting to start, there's silence in heaven. There's no activity among the angels of heaven. Now, they want to be active. They've got swords in their hands. They've got trumpets ready to blast. They're raring to go into battle, but they do nothing. There is silence in heaven when there is silence on earth. And the point of that passage is it's not until the prayers of the saints Like incense, ascends, is accompanied with the prayers of Christ and presented before the throne of God. It's not until that happens that the signal is sent and instantaneously, trumpet blast after trumpet blast, goes forth from God's angels, regiments of angels go out. God starts sending thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes in the earth. He begins advancing His kingdom. Now what's going on in that passage? He is saying we must be initiators in this grand battle, this cosmic battle for the souls of men. Now obviously God is the ultimate and first initiator in His eternal counsels. He's planned all of this. He's inspired the scriptures, the work of Christ, giving the Holy Spirit, regenerating us, justifying us, sanctifying us, stirring up our hearts to pray this kind of prayer, giving us faith to battle, giving us armor, stirring up our prayers. I mean, he is ultimately the initiator on everything. There isn't anything that we can do that he doesn't first do in our lives. But here's the point. Read Philippians 2. 12 through 13, I think it is, right in that passage, it talks about, I think I'll just quote it for you. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. We can only work out what He's already worked in. So I'm not saying that we contribute anything in the ultimate sense. God has done everything. But the point I'm wanting to make is that the scripture in James is quite clear that you have not because you ask not. And there are other scriptures that say that you have not, and I'm paraphrasing it, because you act not. Okay? We must be initiators. We cannot be passive and say, okay, we'll follow and tag along, you know, as God's army of angels go forth. God says we must be initiators before the angels can even act. We've got to take this very, very seriously. Now, the fourth implication is that God does not want us to fight these battles on our own, but depend upon His name and depend upon His strength. And I've sort of dealt with this already. Human responsibility, divine sovereignty, they go together. David's men were going to go out there and they were going to use their slings and their bows and their arrows and javelins and war clubs and whatever other accoutrements that they had for battle. But David realizes ultimately it is only God who can make the difference in his battles on earth. And so he says, Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for you have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone. You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. The fifth implication is that it is appropriate for us to sing God's curses on the enemies of God and His church. Now we do need to use them with care because these are nuclear weapons. These are powerful weapons and they need to be used biblically. And just as a hint of this, we know from 2 Samuel 18 that David was sure hoping that these curses would land on Jesus and that Absalom would be saved, that Christ would be a substitute for him, but he realized too that we cannot ignore this important area of our spiritual battle. If we are committed to war, we must come into agreement with God's judgments against everything that stands against His throne. Not our judgments, God's judgments. In the book of Revelation, the reason that the saints were able to overcome the dragon, Revelation chapter 12, and they were able to not only get through but overcome Their persecution was because they came into agreement with God's judgments. They rejoiced in God's judgments. They called God to bring down his judgments. Okay? The church in America will get nowhere. Guaranteed, they will get nowhere if we continue to be a bunch of mild-mannered people teaching other mild-mannered people how to be more mild-mannered. Revelation is a war manual! It's a war manual that's calling us to aggressive warfare, and we've got to take that seriously. And one of the essential components of winning is coming into 100% agreement with God's curses upon His enemies, being willing to join with the saints of heaven and the saints on earth in revelation and singing the war songs. Jesus did. The apostles did. And yet Christians today say, oh, that's sub-Christian. We're supposed to love our enemies. We cannot do that. Well, David loved his enemies. David loved Saul, he loved Absalom, yet he wrote these Psalms because he said, we cannot allow anyone, even my own son, to continue to offend against the throne of heaven. And God can answer this by saving them, they're no longer enemies, or he can answer it by taking them out. But we've got to take these things seriously. You look at the book of Revelation, how it uses music in war. Just study that by yourself. I think you'll be shocked at how important this is. The last implication is that we should pray these prayers in faith that God will answer. Notice that verse 7 is looking to the future in the first half of the verse because the battle has not yet begun. But he used the past tense for the second half of the verse. Because he sees it in faith, it's almost as if it has been done. It's just like Revelation speaks of Jesus being the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. before the foundation of the world. You know, in God's counsels, it was as good as done. So he says, for you have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone. You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. The victory has already been won. In other words, by faith, David was convinced that because he and his men had sung this psalm in faith, that God would do it. Now here's the question. Is that presumptuous? And I say, no, absolutely not. Now, I'm not going to go into this in depth, but let me just give you some hints in terms of a theology of why this is not presumptuous. First of all, the New Testament makes it very clear that all 150 Psalms are the prayers of Jesus. They are the prayers. He was the pre-incarnate Son of God who inspired these Psalms. They are the prayers of Jesus. Secondly, the New Testament makes it very clear that the Father always hears the prayers of Jesus, okay? And thirdly, Hebrews 2 makes it very clear that Jesus is only willing to offer these prayers as he sings them within, in the midst of the brethren, I think is the way it's worded. So here's the situation. The only way that these prayers are going to go up before the Father is if the church is willing to agree with Jesus and pray the prayers that Jesus has given. That's the only way they're going to go up. Can you see why singing the imprecatory Psalms are so important? God always hears the prayers of Jesus. If we sing these prayers in faith that we are coming into agreement with Jesus, God will answer. And when the church around the world, boy, it'd be fun to maybe just give a whole sermon on imprecatory prayers sometime, because there's so many examples out in Ethiopia The church was very mild on this. They didn't want to pray curses against God's enemies, but they were being hounded, their property confiscated, people being put into prison, they were being beaten, some of these people being beaten to death. And finally the church said, you know, we ought to really pray this against God's enemies. It was two policemen in particular that were in the area that we were, that we were, my parents were working. And shortly after they were praying, I think it was on a Sunday, it may have been right while they were praying, these two policemen came to arrest all of these people in church and it was a clear blue sky, not a cloud in the sky, and a lightning bolt came from heaven and killed one of those police officers. And the other guy, he freaked out and he never touched the church again after that. But why is it that the church is unwilling to take these psalms upon their lips? Case after case can be given through history. You look at the early church fathers. Why did they have so much success in the advancement of the kingdom? It's because they took these warfare psalms seriously. They didn't just, you know, use the nuclear weapons well as a last resort. No, this was fundamental to their advancing to the kingdom. They hated Satan and all that he stood for, and they wanted to see his kingdom going forward. Well, this is not a sermon on imprecatory prayers, so I won't give you any stories on that, but maybe sometime I will. It's really fun to see what God has done. So, it is not presumptuous. It's so important that we come into agreement with Jesus. Finally, be totally confident that if God is for you, who can be against you? Verse 8 says, salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your people. Selah. Salvation from America's ills does not and will never come from the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Constitution Party, the Christian Liberty Party. It's not going to come from man. Salvation is from the Lord and from the Lord alone. We must not put our trust in princes or in the right hand of human flesh. It comes from the Lord. His blessing is upon His people when they come in faith to Him. But there's something that Revelation 7 verse 10 does with this verse that sends shivers down my spine. It quotes this verse as being on the lips of the church And the angels respond to the church's use of this verse by saying, amen, and immediately coming into total agreement with this as part of the advancement about God's kingdom. Now why wouldn't the angels say amen to the church saying this, since they're saying amen to Jesus' prayer? Of course they're going to say amen. But to me, this is just a phenomenal, phenomenal application. Now the situation of the first century was almost identical to the situation that David was facing. There were some who sided with Jesus, the second David, but really the church was a tiny persecuted minority. And yet the book of Revelation talks about, prophesies this growth of the church until it's going to be a multitude that no man can number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues. And so in the last book of the Bible, God was reminding the first century Christians that even though it seemed like everybody was against them, even though it seemed like they were about to be wiped out by Israel and by Rome, But they needed to look behind the physical persecution and realize, like in Revelation 12, Herod was the one who tried to kill Jesus. But what does Revelation 12 say to go after? The dragon. It's the dragon who moved Herod to try to devour Christ as soon as Christ was born. And so it's giving a behind-the-scenes perspective. And at some point, Well, he wanted the first century to see that there was a great warfare for the souls of men and they had awesome power in confronting those spiritual demons and taking down strongholds in the name of Christ. Amen? Revelation is a book of comfort for the church and it tells us the final result that God wins. And He continues to win. He's winning all the way through and He wins finally. The book of Revelation is sort of like a battle cry for those who are willing to go into the fray of spiritual warfare. And I hope to preach on that book at some time after I'm finished with this series on the life of David. I think it's just a marvelous book. It's not a private study about irrelevant things in the future. No, the book of Revelation is a commitment on the part of God to fight for those who are willing to fight His battles, and so is this psalm. God does not forsake His own. He recognizes we're sinful, so He cleanses us. He recognizes that we are weak, okay, He strengthens us. He recognizes we feel defeated. We feel like everybody's against us. So He gives us that sense that if God is for us, who could be against us? He gives us the victory in Christ. But we must initiate by faith and refuse to give in to despair. So if you're feeling like everybody's against you, I would urge you first of all to not ignore the problem. There may be something inside of you that needs to be dealt with, something inside of others that needs to be dealt with. Our own sins can make us powerless against the enemy. One of my father's fellow missionaries, Tommy Titcombe, he actually was a missionary in Nigeria, but very powerful preacher and minister in the name of Christ. And he went to this one village and he saw a group of Nigerians levitating, a woman, way up into the air through demonic power. And he was kind of an ornery guy, but he was very bold. He went up there and was going to cast out the demon in the name of Christ. And the demons grabbed him by the throat and threw him back several feet. And he said, Lord, why are you allowing this to happen? And immediately the Holy Spirit convicted him of something he had been convicting of for quite a long time. He had been resisting his repentance. And as soon as he saw, okay, I'm powerless because I'm in rebellion against God, he confessed his sin and he said, Lord, I know there's some loose ends I need to deal with later. I'm going to make those good as soon as we're done here, but please forgive me and please restore my power. And he went back. and immediately cast out the demon and had the power to deal with it. So there are times where we must deal with a problem inside of us. There are times we must deal with problems with flesh and blood. There's problems that we need to deal with elsewhere. But I also urge you to not give up hope, to not lose sleep over it, to go on the offensive with a faith that God will use your battles to advance the cosmic war that, by the way, is predestined to win all of planet Earth for His glory. Can you say amen to that? Okay, let's pray. Father God, we do believe that Jesus has already won the victory and that we are merely called to stand in that victory. And on the basis of that victory, to do great exploits for you, we thank you for the promise in Daniel that those who have faith in you will do great exploits. And we want to, as a church, Father, be able to have an impact upon our society that is leveraged and far out of proportion to our small numbers. Father, may we drink so deeply of You that out of our innermost being would flow rivers of living water. We long for more of You, Father, and less of us. And we pray that You would wash away the filth of our flesh that tends to hinder and clog up the pipes. And I pray, Father, that as those pipes get unclogged, that there would be a moving of Your Spirit such as we have not experienced before. Teach us, Father, even as David said, teach me my fingers for battle. that you would teach our spiritual fingers for spiritual battle. Father, help us to walk in the power of your Holy Spirit and not in our own strength and in our own wisdom. We need your wisdom, Father. We want more of you. And so we pray that you would bless this here congregation as we seek to commit ourselves to the battles that you have called us to. And we pray all of these things in Christ's name. Amen.