While you're turning to Psalm 7, just by way of remembrance, the Psalms is 150 individual Psalms. They were songs that were sung by the Jews. If you'll notice, even in many of the Psalms, there's actually musical instructions at the beginning of the Psalm. And Psalms is divided by five different sections or books. is Psalm 1 through 41. And I think you've seen clearly thus far that the theme is human suffering and the need for divine deliverance. And really you could just, ever since Psalm 2, you could just about line it up. Lord save me from, and then fill in the blank. And today, that's no different. We're gonna look at, Lord, save me from my accusers. With very few exceptions, we're gonna see a need for deliverance. And I'm so glad that in God's wisdom and His transparency, that He put things like this in the Bible. Because if He left out all of the struggles, if He left out all of the hard things, and I really think that as a Christian, I would read the Bible and think that, I mean, I could just never live up to that. But here we see David, a man who was after God's own heart and he struggled with some things. And I love the way the Psalms hits on so many different areas of human suffering and how God can deliver us from them all. And Psalm 7. is another psalm of lament. We've seen several of these in a row. Next week, we're gonna see somewhat of an exception. Well, Psalm 8's in a category all by itself. It's gonna be a special treat next week because of the way that it ties in with Jesus and his suffering. But Psalm 7 is a psalm of lament. And although we don't know the exact situation that David was going through, what we do know for sure is that a man named Cush of the tribe of Benjamin had spread lies about David. He had slandered David. And in fact, you can see that. Let's just read the opening instructions here. Shigion, now shigion is just a word for praise. It's a Hebrew word for praise. That's what it means. So you might say a praise of David, a shigion of David, which he sang unto the Lord concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite. And so Cush had lied about him. Now the reason this is important, I think this is probably the setting this took place in. If you'll remember, David was promised to take the throne eventually from King Saul, but there was a period of time where even after that was known, King Saul still sat on the throne and Saul was a jealous man. He tried to kill David on more than one occasion. And the reason this is important is because Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin. And so this is one of Saul's own people that are spreading these lies about David. And so even though words are hurtful, and even though it hurts to be lied about, in this situation, from a human standpoint, it could have cost David his life, because Saul was not a man that you wanted to be angry with you, and he was already angry with David. In fact, he tried to impale him to the wall with a spear. And being thrown by a man that was head and shoulders taller than anybody in the kingdom, that's just not somebody I won't throw in a spear at me, okay? And so this has gone from a hurtful situation to a potentially dangerous one. But even shoving the potential danger to the side, words hurt. I know we've all heard the children saying, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. That's just not true, is it? Words hurt. Words are powerful. In fact, Proverbs 18 and verse 21 says that death and life are in the power of the tongue. We can use our words to build someone up or to tear them down. We can use our words to encourage or discourage. We can use our words to speak truth or to speak lies, to praise or complain. We can use our words to share the gospel or to share gossip. And we can use our words to communicate our heart to others, or we can shut our hearts off and keep words to ourselves that should be spoken to others. And as Christians, we're commanded to let our speech be always seasoned with, it should actually be grace seasoned with salt. A lot of times I feel like we may be so salty we just sprinkle a little grace to make it sound a little bit better, but we're commanded that our speech should always be grace seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer every man. Now this isn't the message this morning. But I don't want to be like Cush the Benjamite, do you? I don't want to use my words to hurt people. I don't want to use my words to lie about people. And I would say especially true within the body of Christ. I don't want to slander my brothers and sisters in Christ. And I'll be honest, I try to really be careful about even saying negative things that may be true. Because listen, we're all human. We're all imperfect. We all make mistakes. And I've just determined in my heart that to the best of my ability, almost to a fault, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and talk about the good things. Talk about their areas of growth. Talk about the ways that they're doing better. The only exception that I would say in my life is when it comes to false teachers and false teaching. I am very vocal about that. I don't even mind calling names. Jesus didn't have a problem doing that either. But I think as a whole, I think we just need to be careful to try to use our words to lift people up instead of cut them down. Whether that's to their face or behind their back, I think is really a negligent point. I think we need to be grace-seasoned with salt. That's not the message, but we're going to look at, O Lord, save me from my accuser. So with all this background in the front of our mind here, let's read Psalm 7 together. Let's read the Word of God. O Lord my God, in Thee do I put my trust. Save me from all them that persecute me and deliver me, lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver. O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hands, if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me, Yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy. Let the enemy persecute my soul and take it. Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth and lay mine honor into the dust. Selah. Arise, O Lord, in thine anger lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies. and await for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. So shall the congregation of the people come past thee about. For their sakes, therefore, return thou on high. The Lord shall judge the people. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to mine integrity that is in me. O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just. For the righteous God trieth the hearts and reigns. My defense is of God, which saveth the upright in heart. God judges the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, He will whet his sword. He hath bent his bow and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death. He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealings shall come down upon his own pate. I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you. Thank you for being so good to us. Thank you for those that have come today, and we're especially thankful for our visitors. Lord, I pray for those that are sick, that are unable to be here this morning, be with those that are watching online. God, I just pray that you would just empty me of sin and self, fill me with your Holy Spirit. I pray that the preaching of your word would be powerful, it would be clear. I pray that... Just as Derek talked about this morning how the Word of God is the mirror to our heart. It is the mirror of who we are on the inside. And I pray that the Word of God would shine that light in the darkest places of our heart to take us from where we are to where we need to be. Lord, I pray that Christ would be magnified and we'll thank you and praise you for it. In Christ's name I pray these things, amen. So we're looking this morning at, oh Lord, save me from my accusers. How can the Lord deliver us from the hurt and fear? of being falsely accused or lied about. Now, I know that this is somewhat situation-specific, but we don't need to be too narrow about the way we look at this because I'm sure that somebody has lied about you at some point in your life. Somebody has accused you falsely, probably. And even if they haven't, somebody along the way has hurt you with their words. There's no doubt about that. And it hurts. And so how can God give us peace during those times? How can he bring us comfort when somebody harms us with their words? Because that's really what this is all about. I mean, look at verses one and two here. He says, O Lord my God, in Thee do I put my trust. Save me from all them that persecute me and deliver me. And then he gets specific about the deliverance that he desires. In verse 2 it says, lest he, talking about Cush, lest he tear my soul like a lion and rend it in pieces while there is none to deliver. Now, thus far, We've seen David in situations where he needed to be delivered for his very life. He had people who were coming after him to do him bodily harm, but that's not the situation here. His soul is torn apart, his heart is broken, and he's saying, God, would you deliver me? Would you help me? And so I'm glad that we have a God who is concerned even with the feeling of our infirmities, the feeling of our weaknesses. You know, I know that, especially in our society, many times people can be taken away by their emotions, and I don't think that's a good thing. But I also don't think it's very spiritual to ignore them, because God made us emotional creatures, and our emotion... Listen, when you hurt in your soul, When your heart has been broken, I mean, it's as real as having a broken bone. It hurts. No, you can't see it on an x-ray or a blood test. It's real and it's there. And it can drive us crazy. And that is what David is asking deliverance for. And I don't think God has a problem with that. His soul being torn into pieces like a lion. You can hear the pain in the words, the rhetorical language that he's using here. So how can God deliver us from these things? Well, there's three things I want to look at this morning. The first thing is, if we're ever going to find peace in times of hurtful words and false accusations, we're going to have to have a connection to God through prayer. Number one, a connection to God through prayer. Again, let's read these first two verses. Oh Lord, my God, in Thee do I put my trust. Save me from all them that persecute me and deliver me, lest He tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces while there is none to deliver. Notice the very first, I mean, the way that the psalm even opens, the very first thing that David is doing is he is taking his burdens to God in prayer. And we see this over and over and over. I mean, even like my Bible right here, it's open and I can see five different Psalms at the same time. And just looking from 30,000 feet, Psalm 3, O Lord, how they increase and trouble me. Psalm 4, hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. Psalm 5, give ear to my words, O Lord, concerning my meditation. Psalm 6, O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger. David is going to God over and over and over and over for his needs. Man, if we could just get a hold of that, how needy we are and how desperately we need the presence of God in our life and how we need the direction of God in our life and we have that access and that availability through prayer and we have that access to God through Jesus Christ. On a personal level, I want you to think about this. On a personal level, how many of you take your burdens to the Lord in prayer? I mean serious, private, intentional prayer. Going to God in prayer knowing that not only does He have the solution, but that He is the solution. As Christians, we have both access and an invitation to come to God in prayer. One of my favorite texts and one of my favorite chapters and one of my favorite books of the Bible is Hebrews 4 verses 14 through 15. It says, seeing then that we have a great high priest talking about Christ. that is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. And verse 16 is the great invitation. It says, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Isn't that such a wonderful invitation to the children of God that we can go to the very throne room of God as a child to a father and communicate our hurts, our needs, our desires? I mean, what a great weapon. I just hope that we're utilizing that. Now you can tell as we've seen, this is a familiar place to David because he calls God both by his name and by his title. He says, Oh Lord, my God. Now I've said this many times, but in our English translation, when the word Lord is, when all four letters are capitalized, that is the covenant name of Yahweh or Yehovah. Some people call it Jehovah. It's the same thing. I think Yahweh is more accurate, that's why I use it. But he is calling him by the most personal name that a Jew could call God. And then he says, oh, Yahweh, my God, or Yahweh, my Elohim. And so he is acknowledging him on a very personal way. Can you say that he is your God? that you can go to your God in prayer and call Him by name and know that you've been given access to the very throne room. This was not unfamiliar territory for David. Now, one of the greatest weapons that you can have in your life is personal, private prayer to God, knowing that He is the only one who can give you peace. Now, what I love about this is this is true for both young and old. This is not some mystical secret. I'm sure there's some basic how-to's when it comes to prayer, but it's really as simple as communicating your heart with God. That's really it. And knowing that you have access to God through Jesus Christ. Young people, you're never too young to start a prayer life. You're never too young to adopt a prayer life. You never get too old to adopt a prayer life. There'll never be a time in between in middle age that you won't need to go to God in prayer. It's really that important. And we really need to make time for it. There's an old black spiritual, it was later put into the hymn book, but it was written by Charles Albert Tenley. Charles Albert Tenley was born I think in 1852. And he was born, his father was a slave. But his mother was free and by the laws of the state of Maryland, that meant he was free. So he was never technically a slave, but he certainly grew up in it and around it. And Charles Albert Tenley wrote a song and I think about this song because the church that I got saved in, There was a woman named Betty Markham, and just had a gift for singing, just loved the Lord. And you just tell when she sang, it meant so much to her. And she used to sing this song a lot. And every time I hear the words of this song, I think about her singing it, but the words have always stayed with me. I think about the words of this song by Tinley. It says, if the world from you withholds of its silver and its gold, and you have to get along with meager fare, Just remember in His Word how He feeds the little bird. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. If your body suffers pain, and your health you can't regain, and your soul is almost sinking in despair, Jesus knows the pain you feel. He can save and He can heal. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. When your enemies assail and your heart begins to fail, don't forget that God in heaven answers prayer. He will make a way for you and will lead you safely through. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. And the chorus says this, when your fateful days are gone and old age is stealing on and your body bends beneath the weight of care, He will never leave you then. He'll go with you to the end. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. Leave it there. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. If you trust and never doubt, He will surely lead you out. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. Isn't that a blessing for somebody who knew what they were talking about? I'm glad that we had the invitation, but you know, so many times we want to hold on to it. Instead of going to the Lord in prayer being our first response, many times it's our last resort. We do everything that we can to try to save the ship, and then at the very last, when we just know or think we're out of options, okay, God, I'll give you a chance now. I couldn't do it, so I'll give you a shot. That ought not to be the way that it is. David's soul was crushed by the false allegations against him, but he knew where to go to find comfort and peace. As Christians, we have that same access, but do you use it? Do you have a designated time of daily prayer? Do you have a time of family prayer? The Lord can heal your soul's greatest pain. But listen, I have never known a person who had a negligent prayer life that was full of consistent peace and joy in their life. I've just not seen that. The Lord can heal your soul's greatest pain, but we need to be connected to God through prayer. Number two, if we're going to find healing and peace from hurtful words and false accusations, we're going to have to have a clean conscience. He says, O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there be any iniquity in my hands, if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me, yea, I have delivered him that was without cause in my enemy. Let the enemy persecute my soul and take it. Yea, let him tread down my soul upon the earth, and lay mine honor into the dust. Selah. Arise, O Lord, in thine anger. Lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies, and awake from me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. So shall the congregation of the people come past thee about, For their sakes, therefore, return thou on high. The Lord shall judge the people. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to mine integrity that is in me. O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just, for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reigns. Now, David is pleading his case before God here. And he actually says, that if I'm guilty of what I've been accused of, if what Cush the Benjamite says is true, then let me face the punishment for that. He is going before God as a judge and he is pleading his case before the judge. He is pleading his innocence. And there's something really important that I need to point out here. But when David is asking God to judge him according to his righteousness in verse 8, he says, O Lord, judge me according to my righteousness. Now, that is not an absolute righteousness. He is not saying that he is not a sinner. He is not saying, oh Lord, I'm righteous, I deserve your salvation. He's just talking about his innocence in this particular situation. He is saying that I am innocent of these charges that have been brought against me. So don't get that confused. I know that sinless perfectionists and different heresies throughout the centuries, they've tried to use Psalm 77. That's not what he's talking about. Folks, context matters. He's talking about being innocent of the charges brought against him. Now let me say this, not every accusation is a false accusation. Sometimes people can say bad things about us that are true. That's just because they can be true. We can do wrong things. We can mess up. And I would say this, just because of the culture in which we find ourselves, but you know, the numbers show that when somebody is accused of some type of sexual misconduct, 97% of the time those accusations are true. Less than 3% of the time they're false accusations. Now they do happen. In fact, I knew of a young lady that I actually grew up with in church and her boyfriend broke up with her and she got so angry about it that she actually filed a police report that he had tried to rape her. The problem was, when she said the rape took place, he was working 600 miles away. And she ended up facing charges for that. She made national news. I saw this person I went to school with, I saw her on national Fox News for this falsehood. It does happen, but it doesn't happen much. But in the course of everyday life, we can mess up, we can have flaws and faults, Not every accusation against us. Listen, we ought not to be so quick to try to play the martyr either. Because when we face criticism, hey, don't just get so defensive that you can't hear what's being said. Even if their motives are not good, their criticism may have some merit to it. And just be man enough or woman enough to stand back and examine that and say, hey, is there any truth to the criticism that has been levied against me? And if there is, make a change. Do something about it. Concerning accusations, I would say try to live life in such a way that you never give someone a bad truth to tell about you. If you mess up, be the first one to speak up and make it right. Then if someone wants to accuse you, then it's just old news. The accusation has no power. Yeah, that's old news. That's been taken care of. That's what blameless means. Doesn't mean perfect, just means you take care of yourself and you handle yourself in such a way that you're blameless. Nobody has a charge against you. But let me say this. Let's kind of get back to the context here and the false accusations. Accusations tend to hurt and worry us ultimately because we do worry about what people think, don't we? I mean, if we're honest, we want people to like us. Do we not? I mean, I'm not above that. I wish everybody liked me. But not everybody does. In fact, I sometimes would probably be scared if I saw the hit list that my name is on. But, you know, we do, we care about what people think. We want people to like us. We want to be able to get along with everybody. And it's uncomfortable and that doesn't happen, but for some people it's crushing. We put so much of our value on what other people think about us that it's crushing when people don't like us or they lie about us or they say bad things about us. It shouldn't be crushing to us if we have a clean conscience before God. David had a clean conscience here. Here's something that will help you. You need to get this. Instead of being so worried about what people think, you need to be concerned with what God knows. Instead of being so worried about what people think, you need to be worried about what God knows. Because God knows you better than you know yourself. He knows what you have done right. He knows what you've done wrong. He knows your intentions. He knows your thoughts. And so I wouldn't be so much concerned with trying to make people like me. Be concerned what God knows about us. You see, this is who David is appealing to. God, you know that I'm innocent in this situation, but the truth is you will never have any peace in the face of true accusations that haven't been dealt with. Listen, in the life of a child of God, there ought to be no sin that's not dealt with. especially when that sin hurts and affects other people negatively. That ought to always be dealt with. And listen, I don't care if it happened 20, 30, 40, 50, I don't care. There's no statute of limitation on these things. If there's some sin in your life, confess it to God, repent and get it right, and then get it right with the people that it hurt. There's no way. that you can ever have true peace trying to hide the 800-pound gorillas in the room. You can't do it. That's just surface-level compliance. There's nothing real about that. It'll harm every relationship in your life. But when the accusations come out, if they're true, oh my goodness, judgment day has come. Proverbs 28 and verse 13, it says, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh shall have mercy. Now, in this situation, the solution's very simple. 1 John 1, 9, which was written to Christians, by the way, says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, this isn't talking about getting resaved. It's not saying you can lose your salvation. The context is actually fellowship with God. You can be saved. and not be walking as close to the Lord as you should. Not walking in the light as you should. Listen, I've seen saved people that live their life in such a way they try to cover things up and their understanding was darkened for a season. They couldn't even see what they were stumbling at. And sometimes we can get that way. Bitterness, unforgiveness, some kind of secret sin. But you'll never have peace without a clean conscience before God. This is true. whether anybody else knows what you're hiding or not. You'll never have that kind of peace. You got to get those things right. There's such a fear many times of the consequences. And the thing is, you really harm your fellowship with God when you do that. And God's going to bring it to light anyway. You don't even have to guess. Be sure your sin will find you out. But I can promise you it's a totally different story. When somebody has a repentant heart and a repentant attitude and they get out ahead of that thing, the process is so much better when it goes that way than somebody else finding out about your sin and now you have to go on damage control. It's a totally different situation. Deal with it. Get through it. Get over it. God can heal that thing. You'll never have true peace without a clean conscience before God. But then number three and I'm done. If we're going to find healing and peace in the midst of hurtful words and false accusations, we're going to have to have confidence in the character of God. This is so important. Look at verse 10. He said, my defense is of God. Is there any confusion in David's mind as to who's going to help him in this situation? My defense is of God, which saveth the upright in heart. God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will wet his sword. He hath bent his bow and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death, He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made." He's talking about Cush dying by his own lies. Verse 16, his mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealings shall come down upon his own pate. I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. By the way, when David is talking about absolute righteousness, he's talking about God, isn't he? I will praise God according to his righteousness. So David knew where his help came from. He stated that his defense was going to come from God. And in verse 11, it uses the word judge in a way that we don't often use in English. It says, God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. So there's a contrast there. The word judge here is used in the sense of a rescue. A judge coming to rescue the innocent and condemn the wicked. Now certainly, if you were hurtfully and falsely accused, and the facts of the case went before a judge, that would really be an empowering and liberating thing, right? That's the context here. And one of these days, listen, the Lord is going to stop evil in its tracks, and He will judge the world in righteousness. He will bring the secret things to light. He will right every wrong, and He will make everything that is crooked, He'll make it straight. Now listen, just like the contrast in verse 11, God judges the righteous, He's angry with the wicked every day. What I just said, the truth of God's justice, the fact that He will judge the world in righteousness, this should be a great comfort to the believer and it should be a great fear to the non-believer. Because He will judge the world in righteousness. And so listen folks, and this is where I'll wrap it up. This really takes us back to the gospel. Because either Christ is going to pay for our sin, has paid for our sin, or you will pay for your sin. That's just all there is to it. Because good works cannot erase our sin. Good works cannot erase broken laws. The payment of sin, the debt of sin has to be paid. God is too righteous of a judge to sweep it under the rug. And so that's why people go to hell. That's why God judges the wicked because He's a righteous judge. But He's also so loving that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into this world, born of a virgin. That's what we celebrate specifically this time of year. that the second eternal person of the Godhead came into this world through a virgin, that He was fully God, fully man, that He lived a sinless life, therefore He was above condemnation. He fulfilled the just demands of God's law and on the cross, God the Father placed our sins in Jesus Christ and punished Him for our sin. And three days later to show that God was satisfied with that sacrifice, He rose Jesus from the dead. And the good news of the Gospel is, not that we're good, not that we're innocent, we're not, we're condemned, we're lost, all have sinned and come show the glory of God, the Word of God says in Romans 3. The good news of the Gospel is that if we would recognize our sinfulness, if we would recognize our need of a Savior, if we would repent of our sin and our self-righteousness, and we would put our faith and trust solely in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross, that God would forgive us of our sin and that He would give us the righteousness of Christ. You say, Brother Brandon, what does it take to get to heaven? It takes absolute sinless perfection. You say, wow, we're in trouble. Yes, we are. But the good news is that because of the sacrifice of Christ, He can remove our sin. and give us, clothe us in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's why we're going to heaven. That's our hope. And so that's why we can, just like David, we can praise the Lord according to His righteousness and sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. This is where our hope lies. How can we find peace in the midst of hurtful words and false accusations? We've got to have a connection with God in prayer. We've got to have a clean conscience before God. And we've got to have confidence in the character of God. Does it not bring us peace to know that God is going to make everything right? If we could just learn not to get so hung up on the temporary and have our focus on the eternal when God is going to judge the secrets of men. Jesus Christ is going to judge the secrets of men in righteousness. The only real question you have to answer is whose side are you on? Are you on the side of Christ or not? Because it says he's angry with the wicked every day. Where do you stand this morning? Where does your help come from? Where does your hope lie? Because, listen, I'm just thankful that God is a God of justice, aren't you? He's not going to be bribed. He's not going to be bought off. He's not going to be fooled or persuaded. He's going to judge the world in righteousness. That ought to bring hope to every child of God in here. Listen, when you're falsely accused, when people use words to hurt you, You just need to step back and ask, is this true? If it's not, give it to God and go on with it. If it is true, give it to God and go on without it. God is a God of righteousness and we can put our faith and hope and trust in Him because He will vindicate the righteous.