Well, let us turn and worship our Lord through the hearing of His word and the proclamation of His word. The title of today's message is Help and Confidence in Times of Trouble. And we'll be looking at Psalm 7. So turn with me there if you have your Bibles. Psalm 7. It's printed there in your bulletin as well. In case you're wondering, because of a kind of erratic January schedule, it'll be a few more weeks before we return to our regularly scheduled sermon series through judges. And so, we're going to continue this morning to make our way through the Psalms. I looked at Psalm 6 a few weeks ago, and this morning we're picking up right there with Psalm 7. Psalm 7, let us then listen carefully to God address us from his word. A Shigion of David, which he's saying to the Lord concerning the words of Cush of Benjamite. O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge. Save me from all my pursuers, then deliver me. Lest I, like a lion, they tear my soul apart, rendering it in 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 in the ground and lay my glory in the dust. 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. 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 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, a 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 thanks to the Lord, the thanks due to His righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High. Amen. Bow with me again in prayer. Our Father, our God, You alone are our greatest joy and source of happiness. As we approach Your Word, we ask that You would pour out Your Spirit, the Spirit of truth. We ask, Lord, that You would use the prayers of the psalmist here, the covenant mercies that he enjoyed, the hope and the comfort that he found in You, that through Your Spirit we might also lay hold of these things and find life. Our desire as we come to Your Word is that You might live in us and us in You. And we pray this through Christ our Lord. Amen. There are scarcely more words that are more comforting to the Christian The one of Christianity's most enduring hymns. A mighty fortress is our God. There are words, there are scarcely words that are more comforting than this idea that, you know, the Lord is our refuge. The Lord is our stronghold wherein we find safety. Our Lord is our fortress. As we sing in that beautiful hymn, He is a bulwark that is never failing. He is our helper amid the flood of all these mortal ills prevailing. These words are comforting to us. These words are some of the most precious words that a Christian can hear and contemplate. And yet, I think that As popular and as comforting as these words are, all too often I fear that perhaps maybe we shortchange them or perhaps we misunderstand them at times. Let me just ask you, what does it mean when we say that God is our refuge? What does it mean when we sing that God is our fortress? Does it mean that as our fortress, He keeps us safe from trouble in this life? From difficulty? From suffering? Of course not. If we're familiar with the hymn, we know that at the end, Luther sings, Luther writes, Luther says, Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, but God's truth abideth still. God as our fortress, as our refuge, does not mean that we are kept safe from the loss of possessions, or the loss of loved ones, kindred. the loss of even our very lives, our bodies. Of course, we see the same thing as we come here to Psalm 7. Already on the surface, you might notice that this is a psalm of lament, a passionate expression of intense grief and sorrow. David writes as he is in anguish, and perhaps the worst part about it is that this anguish was not something that he deserved in this sense. He says that, essentially, I have done nothing to deserve this. I haven't wronged anyone with my hands. These are crimes that I did not commit. And yet he still spoke of God being his refuge. He still gave thanks and praise to God, despite the suffering that he was enduring, despite the fact that he wondered, you know, is this the end? What does it mean that God is our fortress? How could David do this and say this in light of what he was experiencing? Well, this is a question that I hope we find the answer to today as we open up this psalm. And of course, this isn't just a theoretical question, it isn't an academic question. What does it mean that God is our refuge? Well, everybody turn to page 302 in our textbooks and we'll see exactly what this means. No, the Psalms are experiential. And this is because truth is experiential. The beauty of the Psalms is that they take truth and they bring it down to real life as a prayer book of the church, as a song book of the church. It's an expression of the church's greatest joys and deepest sorrows and most painful experiences. And how this intersects with what is revealed in the Word about the God that we serve. The one reason we have this psalm is so that in times of trouble, we might also look here and find, as David did, that path to help, that way to the confidence that God provides for us as our refuge. So this morning, I want you to see how even in suffering, God remains the focal point of the Christian life. And I want you to see that God as our refuge does not mean that we have favorable circumstances, or that we're kept safe from evil, or that He promises to fix everything. But God as our refuge means that we have His Word, we have His promises, and that He is our God. And that though we might suffer, one day He will act in righteousness. One day He will make everything sad come untrue. That's what it means when we say that God is our refuge. So where is our help in times of trouble? Where is our confidence to be found? What is the path from the painful cry of verse 1 to the joyful praise of verse 17? Four things I want to look at from the psalm today. Four things. The first is this. David trusts God alone as his Savior. David trusts, David looks to God alone as his Savior. Now to set the context here, the situation that led to the writing of this psalm is something related to the words of Cush, the Benjamite, as we read here in the title. Now Cush is not mentioned anywhere else in scripture, so we can only kind of piece things together and speculate here. We don't have all of the details. But our best guess is that Cush was someone who was close to King Saul, who was also a Benjamite. Perhaps this was written at the time when King Saul was seeking to put David to death. He was seeking David's life. He was pursuing him. And so, putting this together, Cush seems to be hurting David with his words. Perhaps this refers to 1 Samuel 24-9, where there were some men who were close to Saul, lying to Saul and saying, you know what? David is seeking your harm. David is seeking your harm. So this is what seems to be going on here. Cush is lying about David and this put David's life in great danger. This gives rise to the anguish that we see expressed here. And as we think about this more, it's not hard to see that slander is one of the most difficult things for us to endure. smearing of our name, of our reputation, and you know, it's not fair. And it's not something that we can do anything about. That's one of the most damaging things about slander. Even though the charges may be proven to be false, it can still permanently and forever mar someone's reputation and name. So just imagine the stress that's going on that leads to this. There's this man who's lying about David, and this in turn is putting his life in danger. And so, even though we don't know exactly who Cush is, we do know what it's like to have things said falsely behind our back, don't we? And in respect, slander at times can be easier if it's an enemy. What else do we expect, right? That's what enemies do. can be easier to handle also if it's something that we deserved. Well, obviously I did that, I deserve that. But when it's from someone who's supposedly a friend, as we infer from verse four, and it comes when our hands are innocent, as David says in verse three through five, this is incredibly hard to deal with. It's almost too much to bear. That's why David describes it in verse two as like a lion tearing his soul apart, rending it in pieces. He uses this very graphic imagery to kind of communicate what's going on as a result of mere words. Just think about how a lion moves stealthily and stalks his prey and prowls around and then catches that animal and just rips it to pieces and devours it. This is what he's feeling at the moment. This is the anguish that he's going through here. This is what gives rise to him to say, Oh Lord, you are my refuge. Help. Perhaps you can identify with this if you've ever been slandered before, if someone has done this to you. Most of us have been through things like that, though probably not, I would venture to say, probably not in situations where your very life was at stake. But even if you haven't experienced this, how can our minds not also run to the New Testament? When we hear that Satan himself is that roaring lion who prowls around seeking whom he may devour. Think about it, Satan himself is the great accuser of God's people. He is the deceiver, he is the slanderer with his words. And this is why Jesus taught us to pray, Lord, deliver us from the evil one. Brethren, this is relevant to you because Satan would love nothing better than to destroy you with his words. How can God love you? You are worthless. How could God ever show favor to you? Don't you know your own sin? Don't you know how guilty you are? Satan would love to tear you down and tear your soul to pieces with deceptive words and slander. We get a little picture of that here in this psalm, something that we ought to all identify with. But in light of the slander, in light of these hurtful words, where does David find help? Who does he seek? Of course, he says in verse 1, O Lord my God, in you I take refuge. This is kind of ground zero. This is what lies at the heart of the most basic idea of taking refuge in God. Our refuge is in God, not in us. Our refuge is in Him and His Word, not what we can do with our own hands. If it says, my refuge is in you, and you are my God, in you and in you alone. As we think about this, I want to point out that this is very explicit covenantal language. In the ancient world, the most prominent type of covenant was what was called a suzerain vassal treaty. This was a treaty often drawn up between kings, most of the time between a superior and an inferior. The suzerain was the superior king. Right? He had more power and more might, a bigger nation. And the vassal was inferior, a smaller king, a tribe, or a smaller nation. And these covenantal agreements would be that the greater king would protect and come to the aid of the lesser king in exchange for the lesser king's submission and allegiance. And this is what It's the kind of language that's on David's lips here in verse 1. He uses God's covenantal name. Yahweh. Lord. He says, you are my God. Not just the God. Not just a God. But you are my God. The One who has joined Himself to me in covenant. And he says, I take refuge in you, my God, like a covenantal union, like a marriage with all of the intimacy and promises and obligations entailed. His refuge is not just in God the Creator. It's in the God who has joined himself to David in covenant. And this is key to understanding where his confidence lies. It lies in the promises that God made to David and to his people in covenant. Thus, given the language here, it's important that we notice. He doesn't say, I will take refuge in you. Oh no, a tragedy has come. I've got to run to God. Right? The shooting has started, so let me make my peace with God before I enter into the danger zone here. No. He says, I have taken refuge in you. This isn't something new. This isn't just a plea for help now that the sky is falling. I'm not just praying because a crisis has arisen. In you I take refuge. I have already, already take refuge. I'm already in covenant union with you. Brethren, this too is our help in confidence in times of trouble. This too is how we come forth as faithful in times of difficulty. One way in which we do this is preparing for it, taking refuge in God long before the trouble comes. The winds and the storms and the trials may not be upon us now, but it's the wise man, right? Well ahead of time, who builds his house upon the rock, upon the fortress, so that when the storms do come, he can say, I have taken refuge in You. God alone is our Savior. God alone is our source of salvation. God alone in His covenantal promises that He makes to us in Christ and our clinging to those promises is ground zero for our hope and confidence in times of trouble. But a second thing we see here is not just that David takes refuge in God his Savior, but he also takes refuge and his confidence is built up in how God has searched him and known him. A source of his confidence and hope and refuge is in that he knows that God has searched him and knows him. Here it's helpful to point out that this psalm is a chiasm. Chiasm is a writing technique and it's very common with poetry and prose, it's very common in Hebrew, particularly in the Psalms and Hebrew literature. But it's a way of structuring the writing, of making parallels in order to bring out similarities and contrasts. For our purposes today, I simply want you to see that, I want you to notice that David examines his own heart in verses three through five. And he talks about the consequences that he deserves if he's guilty. But then if you look down at verses 14 through 16, he does the very same thing in regards to the wicked. He looks at their heart and the consequences that they deserve. And this is important because as we'll see in a moment, a chiasm, what's most important to a chiasm is the center, and that is, as we will see, God's justice. That's where his ultimate confidence lies. But here we ought to see that part of David's confidence in the midst of trial is that he knows that God knows him. We see him right here. He invites the Lord, in verse three, to examine his own heart and his own life. And he essentially says, you know, I'm not asking for mercy here, as if I've sinned and please don't give me what I deserve. I'm actually innocent. And as the God who knows all things, you know this, for, verse nine, you are the one who tests the minds and the hearts of man. Brethren, this is helpful for us because one of the first things that we ought to do when trouble arises in our lives is to examine our own hearts before God. No, as we will see, David's innocence is not the ground of his confidence, but it is a valid argument that he uses to prevail with God in prayer. And it's a means by which he calls then God to act in justice. So we have to ask ourselves, is this something that we do when the difficulties of life come upon us? Do we search our hearts to see if we've harbored evil? Are we fervent in calling on God to examine us Are we fervent in calling on God to bring justice in accordance with His revealed will? We ought to. Especially because sometimes God uses difficulty in our lives to reveal our sin to us and to lead us to repentance. God uses our prayers as well, our calls for justice, to bring judgment upon those who deserve it. As David opened up his heart before the Lord, times of trial, we ought to as well. However, another thing that this shows us, David opening up his heart, it shows us that sometimes our trouble in our English is not directly related to specific sins that we've committed. David was innocent and yet he was suffering. Of course we know the greater David, the one who is really ultimately speaking in this psalm, Jesus Christ, we know that he too was innocent and yet suffered. He was betrayed by a close friend as well. The point we ought to see is that difficulty and trouble in our lives is not always brought on by sin. And they're not always a sign of God's displeasure with us. How does David know this? Well, he examines his own heart. And he knows that God sees this too. And this serves as some encouragement to him so that he doesn't fall into the depths of despair. I'm getting what I deserve. But think about this in relation or in contrast to the wicked. What happens with the wicked? Look at verses 14 to 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 that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends." What a graphic picture we see here. You know, David pours out his own heart and says, Lord, I am innocent. And then he goes on to describe the heart of the wicked. And he gives this picture of conceiving wicked, and being pregnant with it, and giving birth to it. This is a vivid illustration when we think about how a woman patiently and lovingly and expectantly bears the child for nine long months in her womb. And greatly anticipates the day of its birth. This is Him kind of blowing the lid off of what wickedness really is. What sin really is. how it's rooted in our desires, how it's rooted deep within us, how it's rooted in our passions and inclinations, not just what we do and what we don't do. Wickedness is lodged deep inside of us, and it's cherished, and then a plan is hatched, and the wicked long for that day when they can bring those desires to birth. The other picture, of course, is digging a pit as if they were hunting animals, trying to trap the righteous. You know, they're not afraid of hard work to accomplish their evil. They're not afraid of getting their hands dirty to get what they want. But the irony is, the child that they give birth to will turn and destroy them. The pit that they dig will be their own downfall. The shot that they fire at the righteous will ricochet and crush their own skull. Sometimes in poetic justice, in God's providence, evil has a way of punishing itself. David acknowledges this. And he bears his heart before God. And his confidence is, this is not what's happening with me. Even though I bear my heart before God, the wicked cherish that evil within. He knows then it's not brought on by God's anger. He knows that the wicked will get what they deserve. And thus, David's refuge in times of trouble is that God knows him inside and out. What a blessing it is to have a clean conscience. What a blessing it is to say, God, You know me. You know me. And so bring justice to this situation. What a blessing it is to know that trial and difficulty is not because of His anger or His punishment. Because when we know that, what do we know? We can be assured that God has a greater purpose in mind. And that He's bringing about this pain ultimately for our good. And not because He's angry with us and just wants to smite us. These are blessings that come to us in the Gospel. There are blessings that come to us when our sin is forgiven in Christ and we're cleansed and sanctified and we have that promise that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Well, moving quickly, there's a third aspect to this refuge that we see here. God's his savior. He's in covenant with God, so God knows him inside and out. And thirdly, David's refuge is that God is his judge as well. That's his hope. God is my judge. Again, like I said, the hallmark of a chiasm is that the center carries the main point of the text. And that's what we see in verses six through 13 here. David turns his focus upon God as judge. He begins in verse six. Arise, Lord, in your anger. Lift yourself against the fury of my enemies. Awake, you have appointed a judgment. The key to this is in the last phrase here. You have appointed a judgment. This essentially gets at what David is pleading for here. He's not praying for his own desires. He's not praying his own wishes, his own hope for retribution. He knows that God is righteous and will judge righteously. And he leaves retribution in God's hands. and is content to simply pray that God would bring about that justice in due time. Here in verse 7 he talks about the assemblies of the peoples gathered. God being on high judging the people. What he's praying for is the final judgment. He's not praying for judgment in that moment. He's praying for the final judgment, the final ultimate day when God judges every right, every wrong. And so that really gives us insight into seeing that David is praying not for his own justice, but he's praying for God's will. He knows God has promised to judge each person according to their deeds. And this is His refuge, not that God, you need to fix it right here and right now. No, He's content in saying, I'm leaving it in your hands. I will wait for that day of vindication. And His only prayer really is, Lord, come quickly. Come quickly, because I'm in pain. It's like the souls under the altar in that picture in Revelation, in heaven, where the martyred souls who are under the altar cry out to the Lord, how long till you avenge us? How long till you return and bring vindication? Brethren, we ought to see here It is unbelief that is consumed with justice here and now. Unbelief is consumed with justice here and now. How many times have you heard somebody say, I could never believe in a God who would allow this person or that person or the Nazis in the Holocaust to get off scot-free? I could never believe in a God who would let this happen and wouldn't punish that wicked and evil person. This is unbelief, which says if there is no justice now, there is no justice. But faith, on the other hand, receives the word of God as a bond, as a promise. And faith looks to that full and final execution of justice that will come at the last day, when God rights every wrong. This is what it means when God says, vengeance is mine. I shall repay. David knows this. David believes this. And that's why he talks in v. 11 about how God feels indignation every day. And how God's wetting His sword in v. 12. How God is bending His bow back, redding His arrows, preparing His deadly weapons in v. 13. He knows that God isn't asleep. He knows that God hasn't dozed off, right? And is oblivious to the evil and the injustice that's all around us. He knows that God's anger burns against sinners. And that God is making preparations to bring justice, and that His justice thirsts for vengeance. It's because God is holy and righteous and good. Justice deferred is not justice denied. Justice may tarry, but it will never be too late. Brethren, this is sobering. Life is not a game. How you speak to others is not an incidental matter. How you speak about others. Church is not a game. The warnings and threatenings of Scripture are not to be trifled with. The Lord's Supper, which is a visual symbol of judgment, final judgment that has been rendered to Jesus Christ on our behalf. It's not a game. This psalm reveals that God is sharpening His sword. that he's preparing for war at this very moment. Who can withstand that great day of the wrath of the Lamb? This is a call to repentance. If man does not repent, If man does not repent, what a call this is to us to turn from our sin and bow the knee to Christ in faith. It doesn't matter if you're far from God and you're running away from Him. His arrow will meet the mark. It doesn't matter if you are close to God. and trusting in your own righteousness. His sword is for those who are near. And it will pierce to the depth of our being. God is pleading in this text through me, through this Word, for you to be reconciled to Him. Let us take refuge in Christ and turn from our sin and take refuge now that we might be safe from the wrath of God when it is poured out. David's refuge looks to that last day. David's faith looks to that coming vindication. David's hope and confidence is not in here and now. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also. His refuge and his hope is what will be true at the last day. And that's his confidence. But there's one more thing here before we turn to our concluding observation. I've made the argument that David takes refuge in God as his judge, but it only takes just one moment to think about this and we're presented with a little bit of a problem. What do we know about David? He himself was an adulterer. He himself was a murderer. He himself was a sinner. How can he say, how can he find hope in God being his judge? Hasn't God said that the soul that sinned will surely die? Hasn't God said that no one is righteous? No, not one? Well, that's where we cannot miss verse 10 here, which shines bright like that north star, which points us our way home to Jesus Christ. For right when David is talking about judgment, he says here, my shield is with God. And again, we're taken back into this covenantal language. If you're familiar with this terminology, God, when he makes a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15.1, says, fear not, Abram, I am your shield. Literally, shield bearer. God is that suzerain lord, the one who swore to protect Abraham and has sworn to protect David as well. And what that means is, no, we're not removed from the presence of danger, but it gives us confidence because we know that the arrows that are flying all around us will not find their mark. Yes, God is our judge, but also in Christ, He's also our attorney, our defense, our advocate. This is what Paul means when he says that God put forth Jesus Christ, that He might be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Him. You see, because outside of Jesus, God as judge is always bad news. It's the worst news in the world. but by sending His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ Himself is our shield. He is the one who screens us from the blazing hot wrath of God. And only in Christ as our shield will God as our judge ever be comforting. Yes, David lived before the accomplishment of the Gospel in Jesus Christ. But he looked ahead, and he knew that God Himself was his shield. God Himself would protect him, and thus he is content to wait for that final day and can eagerly look forward to it and long for it. That, brethren, is our confidence as well if we are in Christ. Let's bring this all to a conclusion. As fourth and finally, David takes refuge in God as His song. He takes refuge in God as His song. Again, following the chiasm of this psalm, notice in verse 1, David opens with a prayer, and in verse 17, he closes with a praise. These correspond to one another. In fact, the very first word in the original language is Yahweh, and the very last word in the original language is Yahweh Most High. All of life, then, is lived between those brackets of Yahweh and Yahweh, of Lord and Lord, my God and my God. No matter what comes in between, all of life is lived with those bookends. They hold everything together. Think about what David says here in verse 17. David gives thanks in all circumstances. He wasn't being treated righteously. He was being slandered. He was suffering. He was in pain. He was in anguish. He despaired of life itself, as it were, and yet he gave thanks to God for his righteousness. He says, you were righteous. He knows justice will eventually come. But then he says, I will sing praise to the name of the Lord. And think about just kind of the imagery here. What's being portrayed in light of all of what's going on. How is Cush attacking David? With his words. And yet David doesn't return the fire. He doesn't use his words to defend his own cause. He doesn't use his words against Cush. He says, rather, my words They will go up to God. The one who was spoken against now becomes the speaker. The one who was slandered now becomes the singer. See it in this way, brethren. David's trouble is nothing more than an invitation to worship. Instead of being consumed in the here and now, David uses his thoughts and his words to direct his focus upward. Singing, praying is a way in which He preaches to Himself. A way in which He reminds Himself of what He knows to be true. All of these promises of who God is and what God has promised. And these are worked into His heart. Not by running to the defense of His own cause. But by believing and clinging to them by faith. And using His words to worship. Brethren, we ought to ask ourselves as well, do we look at our heartaches, at our trials, at our sufferings the same way? As an invitation to worship? As a call for us to examine our hearts and our lives, and to remind ourselves of what we know to be true, even though the circumstances around us scream otherwise. God is not just. All hell is broken loose. There's no justice in this world. Everyone's doing what is right in their own eyes. The wicked are getting away with everything. We see this. We're tempted to doubt. Do we use suffering as an invitation to worship? This is what it means when we say that God is our refuge. It's not just a colloquialism. It's not just something we say, right? It's just to comfort us in times of trial. Oh, He's our refuge. No, if God is our refuge, we will worship even in the midst of life's most painful circumstances. no matter what comes, it too will lead us to praise Him. It's kind of like Churchill's famous speech, we will fight them in France, we will fight them on the streets, we shall fight them in the hills, we shall never surrender. The same thing is true here. We ought to say, we will praise Him in the joys. We will praise Him in the sorrows. We will praise Him in the difficulties. We will praise Him in the days of prosperity. When all the world turns against us, we will praise Him and we will never be silent. We shall never surrender. Brethren, if David could respond in worship in such a way, how much more should we who live on this side of the cross? How much more should we, as we look at this psalm and we see, oh, this is a psalm about Christ. He was slandered. He was innocent. He's the only one that could ever say, judge me according to my righteousness. He was torn apart without cause. He was the one who endured the wrath and the arrows of God for my sake, so that we might have those covenantal promises, so that we might be assured that he sympathizes with our weaknesses, so that we might say the Lord is our refuge, so that we might stand firm and confident at the day of judgment. How much more should we worship in light of these things? Let us then see the nature and character of God here, and His promises, and His Word, and His character. so that we might not be overcome by circumstances, so that we might have a superficial view, might not have a superficial view of what it means to take refuge, as if it means God's going to save me from trouble, so that we might rejoice and praise Him and find refuge in Him no matter what comes. Well, may God give us the grace to receive these words. by faith and to sing praises to Him even today. Amen. Let's pray.