My sermon title tonight is A Psalm for the Embattled. A Psalm for the Embattled. And you'll see as we begin to read the text as to why. Starting at verse 1, this is a song of Asaph, one of the singers of Israel, in this superscription, Oh God, do not be quiet. Starting at verse 1, Oh God, do not remain at rest. Do not be silent and, O God, do not be quiet. For behold, your enemies roar, and those who hate you have lifted up their heads. They make shrewd plans against your people and conspire together against your treasured ones. They have said, come and let us wipe them out as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more. For they have conspired together with one heart, and against you they cut a covenant." The tents of Edom, and the Ishmaelites, Moab, the Hagrites, Gebel, and Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia, and the inhabitants of Tyre. Assyria also has joined with them. They have become the power of the children of Lot, Selah. Do to them as to Midian, as to Caesarea, Jabin at the river Kishon, who were destroyed at Endor, who were as dung for the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeb, all their princes like Zeba and Zamuna, who said, let us possess for ourselves the pastures of God. Oh my God, make them like the whirling dust, like chaff before the wind, like fire that burns the forest, and like a flame that burns up the mountains. So pursue them with your tempest and dismay them with your storm. Fill their faces with disgrace, that they may seek your name, O Yahweh. Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever, and let them be humiliated and perish, that they may know that you alone Your name is Yahweh and are the most high over all the earth. Let's pray together. Lord, would you open up our hearts to receive the truth of this passage where we know that all scripture is God-breathed, inspired by our God, and it's profitable for us for teaching for correction, reproof, training, and righteousness, that the man of God might be thoroughly equipped unto every good work." We know that Your Word is a sanctifying and a cleansing Word, and the Lord Jesus Himself prayed for us, sanctify them by truth, Thy Word is truth. Lord, may this be a washing of water with the Word tonight. May we be taught, may our minds be renewed, may we put on the mind of Christ. Lord, may we be fit with armor ready for the battle. I pray that for us at Grace Life Church, that each person here and those that will listen online, those that take heed, according to the Word of the Lord, that we would put on the armor of God that we might be able to withstand the evil day. Lord, help us as we're working our way through this psalm to remember that you have provided ample armor for your beloved, for your treasured ones, those who are hidden, God's people. Make us ready for that day, and we ask it in Christ, amen. The Christian life, grace life, is warfare. I think sometimes we forget that. We think sometimes confused thoughts. We begin to think about a Norman Rockwell painting and a serene little chapel with a little house to the next of where the preacher lives and a quaint little picket fence around it and everything looks so peaceful and calm that is not an accurate portrait of the church. The church is to be filled with warriors for the glory of God and that we face embattlements, we face life and the world, the flesh, and the devil, and that there is real warfare, there is real plight and struggles for Christian people like you and me in the Christian life. There are casualties. It's a warfare. There are casualties in war. There are dangers in warfare at every turn. There are attacks, there are battles, there are sacrifices made, and there are costs to be paid. Think about war. In every war, there's a dangerous enemy that's lurking and posing to strike and to kill. And as I mentioned, there are so few Christians live as if this is true. A.W. Tozer once said that the world is not a playground, it is a battleground. And at the moment that a sinner puts their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Christ alone, the battle begins, doesn't it? We become the children of God, and because we become the children of God, we become the enemies of the devil and all of his evil horde. That there's bitter enmity as we learned a couple of weeks back when I was opening up and unpacking the 15th verse of Genesis chapter 3, that enmity between the two seeds, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Paul talks about this throughout his writings in the New Testament. He expounds it in the reality of the warfare within the context of those seeds in the fourth chapter of Galatians telling us that the children of the flesh persecute the children of the spirit and that this is a perennial persecution. Let me read Galatians 429 just as I introduce this psalm tonight, but at that time He was born according to the flesh, was persecuting Him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. Paul's not just pointing back saying, look what happened then. He's saying that that which we saw then is characteristic of what we face day in and day out, that there is enmity, that there is strife, that there is battle, that there is blood, that there is war. That's Christianity. Think in terms of the persecuted church. Why is the Lord's church persecuted? Have you thought about that? The church is a peaceable, loving, kind, gratuitous institution, isn't she? What would provoke such angst? What would drive this sort of animosity towards the Lord's church? We are a kind people, a helpful people. Whenever there's a disaster, who does the world look to to render aid? Whenever there is a hurricane that blows in and devastates cities, who comes to the rescue? It is the church. But why is the church so hated and maligned? Because of the enmity between the seeds. Genesis 3.15, the Lord gives us this great promise, that I will put enmity between you, and by the way, this is the curse upon the serpent, and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. The first gospel mentioned in the whole of the scripture. Human history, Grace Life Church, is nothing more than Genesis 3, 15 being worked out in the saga of redemption. Prophecy of Genesis 3.15 is not setting idle. It is not some philosophical idea. The world itself testifies to the enmity between the seeds. Our own experience in this plight of the Christian life gives witness to the strife that we face, that every Christian, including you, tastes the bitterness of the conflict mentioned in Genesis 3. We fight temptations, we fight for holiness, we strive and fight for obedience, we battle the flesh, the world, and the devil, and we even face persecution because of our connection to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church. Every moment in our life, as Christian people, evidences the reality of spiritual warfare. Paul expounds this with great force in the sixth chapter of Ephesians where he instructs us to put on the armor of God that we may be able to withstand the evil day or the evil one. In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul writes to the church of Corinth and reminds us of the spiritual nature of this warfare that we're embattling, we're fighting in. The weapons of our warfare, they're not carnal, but they're mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds in 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3 to 5. And this battle that we're talking about, the battle of the Christian is found on nearly every page of Holy Scripture. fourth chapter of Luke and the first portion of that chapter we find even our Lord Jesus Christ. He was filled with the Spirit having gone through the baptism of John. He's led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. For 40 days he eats nothing and that he's faced head-on by the enemy in spiritual warfare. Even the Christ of God was not exempted from the strife. In fact, the weapons of warfare were aimed at him most furiously. C.S. Lewis rightly wrote that the enemy will not see you vanish into God's company without an effort to reclaim you. The 83rd Psalm is a unique psalm. It's not as lauded as most other psalms, but nonetheless, it is a very important one. It's the final asaphic psalm in this section of Scripture. And I want you to note, and I think you already have, that it is an imprecatory psalm. And by that, I mean that it cries to God for justice, for God to curse and crush His enemies and Israels. In Precatory, Psalms are highly concerned with divine justice. Not as much mercy and grace, but divine justice upon inequity. But what's unique about the 83rd is we see a confederacy of the enemies of Yahweh uniting together against the people of God, Israel. There's not a specific historical record of a joint insurgency against Israel as poignant and descriptive as what we find in Psalm 83. The closest that you read of is found in 2 Chronicles 20. It's a very familiar chapter if you've been reading the Old Testament for any time. It's a time where the nation of Israel led by Jehoshaphat were threatened by a coalition with Edom and Moab and Ammon. But some of the nations that are mentioned in the 83rd Psalm are not found in 2 Chronicles 20. So what we find in Psalm 83 goes beyond the historical record of Scripture in the 20th of 2 Chronicles. But it seems clear that Psalm 83 speaks to the embattlements that the church faces against the entirety of the world's system. Christopher Ash in his helpful commentary wrote, both the names of the enemies and the scale of the hostility in Psalm 83 go beyond even 2 Chronicles 20, given the canonical context in Book 3, Book 3 of the Psalms. which suggests reading it in the context of the Babylonian exile is perhaps best to understand Psalm 83 as describing with poetic freedom and theological accuracy, listen to this, the enduring hostility of the world for Christ and His church. So again, it would not be entirely inaccurate to tie Psalm 83 to 2 Chronicles 20, and I encourage you in your own devotion time to read that passage, 2 Chronicles 20. It would just not be complete. Some features here, I want you to note, first of all, in verse 1, the psalmist cries, says, oh God, do not remain at rest, do not be silent, and oh God, do not be quiet. What is not obscure is the embattlement that the people of God are facing, the nation of Israel. The situation is more dire than it looks in black and white ink. This is a heightened conflict in the nation of Israel. And what do we see the singer of Israel do? He turns to God in prayer, doesn't he? He cries out, to the living God. He pleads with the Lord at the throne of grace, petitioning God for light in the midst of darkness because the situation is dark and God is light. But the battle's fierce, but the God of Israel is both omnipotent and sovereign, isn't he? Listen, it's an act of faith, isn't it? petition God whenever we too find ourselves in similar situations, embattled, in trouble, that prayer is the hand of faith lifting up the crises to God with expectancy. Let me say that again. Prayer is the hand of faith lifting up the present crises to God expectantly. And what is the petition for? Well, we see here Asaph prays for God to act. He prays for God to speak. That is that Asaph invites God's creative and demonstrative power into action on the behalf of his beleaguered people. It's not hard to read this psalm and to recognize how endangered the people of God are. That Israel's plan of action, first of all and foremost, Asaph's plan of action is to turn to the God of Israel, to go to the throne of grace for help in his time of need as we find in the New Testament book of Hebrews 4. This clearly, Grace Life, illustrates that the foremost action of a Christian, whenever we come to cruxes as this, trouble, trials, hardship, peril, danger, we're to run to God in prayer, that we are to go to the throne of grace, that we are to literally set up camp at God's gracious throne. Israel recognized her need for the help of Yahweh. action from the Lord was needed. So here we find Asaph petitioning for the voice of God that quiets and conquers the nation. He creates with his own voice that he speaks and reality shapes. And we have to begin to think in our crises that whenever we're facing embattlements, when we're troubled, when we're vexed, when we're tempted, when we're facing formidable foes in the Christian life, what are we to do? What is the church to do? Whenever the church itself is facing hardship, whenever the church is embattled, when the church is persecuted, we're to go to God in prayer. Luther's Psalm, Psalm 46, says that he is our present help in time of trouble, in the first verse. You know, whenever the Apostle Paul addresses the reality of spiritual warfare, he writes with force to show the importance of prayer, doesn't he? If you go back to the section in Ephesians chapter 6, whenever he talks about and details out the pieces of the armor that God's provided for every Christian, he comes to the end of the armor. And I think sometimes we forget that the most glorious of all the pieces of armor is found in verse 18 of chapter 6 when Paul says, and praying at all times with all prayer, and petition in the Spirit, and to this end, being alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, praying at all times." Whenever we're in battle, that we're to be a people of prayer. Jesus clearly told us in John 15, 5, apart from me, you can do nothing, and that truth, beloved, has not changed, has it? That whenever we pray, what are we doing? We're inviting God to intervene. We're coming to the Lord and asking for His omnipotent power. Whenever we pray, we trust God to come to our rescue. We trust God to come to our aid. Whenever we pray, we are confessing our weakness, our inability. Whenever we pray, we are recognizing God's presence and God's power, that His presence and His power is more than enough to help us in our weakness and in our need. prayerlessness is arrogance. It's self-confidence. It's confidence in the flesh. Here, Israel's adversaries, as we recognize by the way in the forest the psalmist prays, has not backed Israel into a corner. Their adversaries have pushed them to the throne of grace. They've not backed them into a corner. They've pushed them to the throne of grace. And it ought to be said of you and I that whenever we are facing hardship, that it's not pushing us into a corner, but it's bringing us to the throne of grace to where we are crying out for our God to help. It's at the throne of grace, grace life prior, that the protection of God is found. It's at the throne of grace that the provision of God is accessed. It's at the throne of grace the power of God is unleashed. Paul would later write to the believers that were embattled in the city of Rome, and he would say, if God is for us, who can be against us? So where we run in times of trouble tells us so much about where our confidence lies. But here we see in our text that whenever Israel is in trouble, they go to the throne of grace where they receive their help. Verses 2 through 8 give us the conundrum. We see the psalmist cry, and then in these verses, the second verse through the eighth verse, we see the conundrum that they're facing, the danger that there's a coalition of forces that has one objective. Look at verse 4, that the name of Israel be remembered no more. i.e. they're not seeking mere victory, they are seeking annihilation. To destroy not only the nation, but even the memory of the nation of Israel, God's people. And I remember, I'm going to bring back to our remembrance, this is not specifically addressing a particular historical narrative in the past of Israel as much as it is addressing a present spiritual reality. a reality that you and I face day in and day out in the Christian life. This is descriptive of the forces of darkness that are warring against the children of light. Note these features. Verse two through four gives to us the threats that they make. Look at it with me. For behold, your enemies roar and those who hate you have lifted up their heads. They make shrewd plans against your people and conspire together against your treasured ones. They have said, come and let us wipe them out as a nation that the name of Israel be remembered no more. I want you to notice in these verses as they're making these threats, how the hatred of God is manifested. They hate God, and because they hate God, they hate God's people. They hate Yahweh, and because they hate Yahweh, they are at bitter enmity against those that have been born of Yahweh, those that have been called by Yahweh, those that are identified with Him. And by the way, this angst is the ancient promise of Genesis 3 in boot leather, in real time and space, that the enmity between the woman's seed and the seed of the serpent is very glaringly evident in this pericope, in this passage. This is a coalition of serpents, a coalition of them. This is the seed of Satan that's become agitated and vengeful against the remnant of God, the people of God, Israel. And now we see they've contrived plans. They have conspired against the people of God. Their speech is decisively antagonistic. Their aim is annihilation out of remembrance, the people of God, the nation of Israel. And I can't help but note verse 3, and who their enmity is against is the treasured ones of Yahweh. See that? Literally, in the Hebrew language, it would probably be better translated, the hidden ones. The hidden ones. The idea here is how treasures and valuables were hidden in the ancient world. They didn't have great big gun safes like we have today. The same language, the same root word is used in Joshua 7 whenever it speaks about Achan. Remember when Achan took the valuable things that were forbidden by God and he dug a hole in the ground underneath his tent and he hid the illicit treasures underneath the ground? That's the same idea here. The treasured hidden people of God, those that have been hidden with God in Christ in New Testament language. and they're striking against God's treasured people. Zechariah 2.8 says, do not touch the apple of God's eye. Asaph here clearly understands the love of God for his elect, his people, and his complaint and prayer is that they're making threats against the precious possession of God. They're calling now for God to send swift judgment, to crush the enemy, to disgrace them. This is an important point that we need to remember whenever we're facing spiritual battles. And by the way, there is times when you particularly, individually, are facing spiritual battles. Maybe your brothers and sisters in Christ are not, but you are being afflicted, that you are being tempted, that you are being harassed in your mind, harassed by thoughts, harassed by feelings, harassed by circumstances, and that there's just a dark gloom over you. But then there are times where this happens to the entire church. There's times where a church collective, a church assembled, a church unified will face battles and that the enemy will begin to try to set one brother against another brother, set one sister against another sister, and so the infection goes from the individual to the corporate. We've experienced that in church life. And here we see the psalmist calling us to remember God's love and care for us, the precious treasured ones, the hidden ones. You know, I wrote in my notes here, and I just want to expand upon this for a moment, that there's never more of a suitable time for you and I to remember God's affection for His people. His purchase premium paid for us. than whenever we're assailed by and surrounded by enemy forces. To remember the high price that he paid, to remember the great love with which he loved us that has been demonstrated at Calvary, to call to mind, to renew your thinking that God loves me, and yes, I may be surrounded by hostiles, yes, I might be afflicted on every side, but God has shed his own son's blood for me, and that he's purchased me with the premium of a high price, and that he will not abandon me, that he is with me, and that I, as Asaph, need to go to the throne of grace and to cry out for God to defend his ones that are hidden in him, and to defend us, and to strengthen us, because we are his weakness, and let the strength of Yahweh defend us and to fortify us against the ramparts that are set against us. So much of the battle in the Christian life is in our minds, isn't it? I'm convinced in Luke 4, when Jesus is being tempted of the adversary, that much of that was in the realm of thought, because he was tempted in every manner like what we are, yet without sin. And when was the last time the devil came to you in flesh and blood with green slime dripping off his fangs that starts tempting you in physical scene warfare? It just doesn't happen that way. How am I tempted? How am I assailed by the enemy? Most generally, it's in my mind, in my thoughts. Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 reminded the church of the mental nature of spiritual warfare. In fact, he tells them that they are to employ spiritual weapons to tear down speculations. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but yet they are mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds, or as the legacy puts it, the tearing down of speculations. Logesmos. Speculations. The word is better translated, thoughts. Those things that come into our heads. Those things that bounce around between our ears that discourage us and get us down. The lies that come from a liar, an adversary, an accuser. And that's why it's so critical for us that we repudiate lies that come into our minds and the thoughts that are untrue with those things that are true. You read in the temptation of the Lord Christ, and we know that there's a lot of other applications there, but one of the applications is that he spoke the word of God, that whenever the enemy came with a lie, that he countered the lie with divine truth. And what did he quote? The Bible. Most of those quotations were pulled from Deuteronomy, and that he combated the lies with divine truth. All through the New Testament, and even in the Old Testament, we are reminded again and again that our minds are to be renewed with divine truth. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you might prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, Romans 12.2. Philippians 2.5, put on the mind of Christ. Philippians 4.8, think on these things. Ephesians 4.23, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. This is all part and parcel of the Christian battle, the Christian war. The adversary that we face is an accuser, he is a liar, and that his lies are to be repudiated with divine truth. This is, my friend, critical to Christian warfare. It's not a mistake that in the armor of God that the helmet of salvation is placed upon the head. It covers the entirety of the head. That represents the mind. That is that the mind is the jurisdiction of Christ and His truth. The mind is the jurisdiction. It is the property of Christ. It is to be renewed with divine truth because it belongs to Him. You may think, well, what I'm thinking, my mind, does that really hurt anyone? Your mind is not your own. It is Christ. Renew it to the truth of God. Salvation is to permeate all of our being, even the processes by which we deal with information. That's why it's so critical to read the Bible. That's why it's so critical to meditate upon Scripture. The one that meditates upon the Word of God day and night will be like a tree planted beside rivers of water. He will bear forth his fruit in season, and whatever he does, it will not fail. But with the wicked, it is not so. They are like chaff blown around by the wind, right? Psalm 1, meditate upon the Word of God. Renew your mind. Begin to think bibline. Thank the Bible. Not only that, Psalm 19, verse 11 says that we're to memorize the Scripture. Thy word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Why is that? Because the lies of Satan are strategic and they are devastating. That's how he wars. That's how he manipulates and schemes. And they can only be overcome with the truth of the Word of God, the two-edged sword. Again, Jesus showed this to us in the temptation that His mind was full of the Bible, that He countered Satan at every turn, and He did so with divine truth. He understood the power of the double-edged sword of the Word of God. I want, secondly, to note the alliances that they form in verses 5 through 8. Look at it with me. They have conspired together with one heart against you. They cut a covenant, the tents of Edom, and the Ishmaelites, the Moab, and the Hagrites, Gebel, and Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia, and the inhabitants of Tyre. Assyria has also joined them. With them, they have become the children of Lot, Selah. What we see here is that this is a conjoined, a co-joined federation with one purpose, and that's to bring Israel to an end, the people of God to ruin. We're all familiar through the history of Israel that each one of these particular nations have had their individual part in the enmity with Israel historically. Interestingly here, geographically, the geographic location of each one of these nations mentioned forms a complete circle around the nation of Israel where there's no escape. They're cut off. They're encircled. They're surrounded by enemy forces and conspiring with one heart against Yahweh. In fact, it says in the text, they covenanted one with another against the Lord. This is literally the dirty dozen of Satan's horde. He said, well, I don't count 12 there. Well, if you understand the children of Lot, there are two, the Moabites and the Ammonites. So if you count that up, there are 12. This is the dirty dozen of Satan's horde. The children of Lot, the Moabites, and the Ammonites were the incestuous children of Lot. Remember the story? Edom was the vile descendants of Esau. So were the Amalekites, the Ishmaelites were the reprobate descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham's flesh. The Hagrites were perhaps the descendants of Agar, the handmaiden of Sarah. Most scholars say they don't know what this is, but it's possibly the Canaanites that were right where Beirut is right now. But these nations represent the enemies of God in tota, exclusiveness. And you could really, as you're reading the text, feel the stress and the song the singer is singing. And to him, Asaph, the whole world, as it says in 1 John, lies in the power of the wicked one. And these collective arms, by the way, are aimed at the elect of God, the nation of Israel. Listen, we as Christian people are surrounded by evil forces, aren't we? That's why Paul tells us to gird ourself with divine armor, that we contend against rulers and authorities and world forces of darkness, spiritual forces and of wickedness in heavenly places, Ephesians 6.12 says. That is to say that there are spiritual forces above us, beside us, below us, that there is evil everywhere. The church is literally surrounded by wicked adversarial forces and that we must, we must, we must have our armor provided by God in place. And by the way, I can't wait till we get to Ephesians 6. I don't want to fast forward or rush there, but when we get there, We are gonna pause and ponder, and it will be a say-law series. We're gonna think richly and deeply and drink about the nature of this warfare. 1 John 5, 19, we know that we are of God, the seed of the woman, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, the seed of the serpent. Christopher Ashe again says, the central point is clear, the world is united in wanting to remove the seed of the woman, the Christ, and all who are his from the face of the earth. That's the situation that Israel is facing. That's the situation the church even faces in this hour. And let me ask this question, because of this, because we're surrounded, because there are adversaries everywhere, are we to fear? Will we lose the battle? Will our supply lines, because we are encircled, will they be cut off? Will our fate be imminent? And the answer is, as you've already said, not at all. That the God who watches over Israel will neither sleep nor will he slumber, Psalm 121, verse 4. Thirdly, note the psalmist's confidence in verses 9 through 18, and this is where we will end. Asaph begins to pray like a military. I mean, he prays like Schwarzkopf. Some of y'all have no idea what I just said. You're too young to remember. These are very powerful, imprecatory prayers. There's several of these in the Psalms, by the way. I'm not going to get into the debate about whether or not the imprecations are for today. I mean, y'all have heard me say I believe wholeheartedly they are, not for personal vendettas, but for the honor and the glory of God and for God to be just in his dealings with evil. Del Ralph Davis made the most, I believe, powerful and pithy statement about imprecations. He says, they are prayers with hair on their chest. Three features noted here. First of all, the psalmist prays with confidence. Why? Because God has been faithful in times past. Verses 9 through 12 look at it. Due to them as Midian, as to Caesarea, Jebing, at the River Kishon, who were destroyed at Endor, who were as dung for the ground, make their nobles like Oreb and Zeb, and all their princes like Zeba and Zalmunna, who said, let us possess for ourselves the pastures of God." What we see in verse 9 through 12, you may be thinking, what in the world is that talking about? Well, the Old Testament gives us some great narratives of God granting massive victory against all odds, that in the weakness of man, it brought the power of God, and that God discomfited the sword of a mighty, noble force, and He did it by His own sovereign majesty and might. These are stories in the Old Testament narrative about how God's people were greatly outnumbered and greatly out-militarized, and that God here used the weakness of His people to display His power and manifest His glory and to grant to His people victory despite radically opposed odds. First, we see here God's triumph over Midian, and He did this through a little boy by the name of Gideon. When you're familiar with Judges 6, 7, and 8, You remember the narrative that the Midianites, the enemies of God, the ones that are mentioned in our text, how they were so numerous you couldn't count even their camels. This adversarial military. And that God called Gideon a mighty man of valor. And Gideon's like, wait a minute, I'm down here in a wine vat threshing out barley to feed the people because the Midianites are stealing all of it. I'm the least of my family, my tribe's the least of Israel, I think you've got the wrong guy." Note here that the Midianite rulers are even named in this text, Oreb and Zeb and Zeba and Zalmuna. We see here the great victory of God against these rulers, these warriors. The story is so amazing to me because Gideon was no Navy SEAL, he was more like Pee Wee Herman. The least of the least, hiding again from the Midianites and the wine vat, God called him to liberate them and there was a massive army surrounding Gideon, about 32,000 warriors, but God gave a great divine layoff. They all got their pink slips. What is striking about this is that the adversary, the Midianites and the Amalekites, were massive. It was a horrible host of enemies. Judges 7 and 12 says, Now the Midianites and Amalekites and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts, and their camels were without number as numerous as the sand on the seashore. Nevertheless, under the leadership of Gideon, the people of God, the nation of Israel, prevailed because God's faithful. That's the point. What is the point? The point is that when you and I as Christians, when we as the Christian church are facing overwhelming odds, we've got to remember that God's been faithful and the leading his people to victory, even when it looked like it's impossible. God plus one's a majority. The second story here in the Old Testament is found in Judges 4 and 5. It's the story of Sisera and Jabin. Sisera was the commander of an army that was fortified by 900 iron chariots. This is an enemy. He had been terrorizing the nation of Israel for 20 long, arduous years. The commander of Israel was a man by the name of Barak. who defeated Cicero's army with 10,000 of the men of Israel, that in the heat of the battle, this enemy leader, Cicero, was forced to abandon his chariot and to run on foot. This is a powerful military man. He comes to a tent of a man by the name of Heber. He had a wife by the name of Jael. Not J-ails, but Jael. And this man, Sisera, was a warrior, but he was exhausted because of the war. And he asked to be taken in so he could have some rest. And he goes in and immediately gets a drink of, he asked for water, but he gets a drink of milk and falls into a deep sleep. And this woman, the wife of Heber, Jael, takes a tent peg and a mallet and drives it through his temple. That's an excedrin moment. And you wives, please don't get any ideas about your husband that's on your nerves tonight. And here, Israel was delivered from the armies of the adversary by a courageous woman. That a little woman turned the history, the course of divine history. Of course, we know that it's God that was with Israel, and that's the point that Asaph is making here, that God's been faithful to deliver His people, even whenever it doesn't seem possible. Listen, my friend, it is impossible for 300 men to conquer hundreds of thousands of warriors until you factor in the power and faithfulness of God. And for you and I, looking back, because our Lord loves us and He gave Himself For us, whenever we're in battle, we need to remember the high price that God has paid for us. He's not withheld his own son, but he's freely given him up for all of us. Will he abandon us now? No. That's the point Asaph is making. God has been faithful. He drags two stories out of the Old Testament narrative and says, look what God has done in these overwhelming odds against his people that God has showed up and shown himself strong and liberated his people by the own might of his right arm. He rides up on the wings of the wind. He's with you in the fire as the fourth man, that whenever we as his people, when we as his church are embattled, we must call to mind the faithfulness of God in times past. Never forget the cross. Secondly, we find the psalmist praying with confidence because He understands that God will be faithful in times present. Look at verse 13 to 17. Oh God, make them like a whirling dust, like chaff before the wind. I mean, his prayer is beefy, isn't it? Like a fire that burns the forest, like a flame that burns up the mountains. So pursue them with your tempest and dismay them with your storm. Fill their faces with disgrace, that they may seek your name, oh Yahweh. Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever, and let them be humiliated and perish. The confidence of remembering the past exploits of God in His people's salvation has fueled massive boldness in praying. He's praying that God would now act on the behalf of Israel with the same force, with the same faithfulness as He's displayed in days that have gone by. Israel has been harassed. It's high time for Yahweh to throw these enemies into disarray. They've disgraced God's people. Now he prays that God will disgrace them providentially and powerfully. Interestingly, in verse 16, Asaph prays for their salvation. He prays that they would seek the name of Yahweh. But then in the next verse, he prays for utter ruin if they continue in the rebellion. bring them to ruin." This is powerful praying in faith, isn't it? This is a man that's fervently praying for the ruin of God's enemies because the ultimate problem is they hate God. But at the same time, he's praying for mercy for many to turn to the Lord. He's praying in faith. He's praying with confidence because he knows that God is faithful and trustworthy, and he's praying for the army of the devil to be dismantled and for the adversary to be dismayed. That's what he's praying. But he's also at the same time praying for those that have been blinded by the devil's devices to be awakened that they might turn from those wicked devices. praying that God would, through providence, disgrace men that they might turn to Him and seek His face. I think that's a good way for the church to pray. The objective of the church is for us to shine light and to objectively preach the truth about Jesus Christ that, as Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3, 7, that they would turn away from evil and do good. Not only is Asaph calling down thunder, upon evildoers, he's calling for God to save sinners at the same time. And it is proper, it is proper for the church to pray for the enemies of God to be crushed, but it's also proper for the church to be praying for God to save sinners, as it says in Jude 23, to snatch them out of the fire. And we pray in faith that God will give to us the request that we ask of him, 1 John 5.15. Lastly, the psalmist prays with confidence because he sees and understands that God's sovereignty is undefeatable. Look at that with me and we'll be done. That they may know that you alone, your name is Yahweh, are the most high over all the earth. Clearly, confident praying is on the heels of a proper view of God, isn't it? that Asaph is praying with boldness because he has a right view of the sovereignty of God. You are the most high over all the earth. Listen, not one inch of the earth is outside of the jurisdiction of God. Reminds me of that famous but beloved Abraham Kuyper quote where he says, there's not one square inch over the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, mine. He owns it. He fashioned, He made it, that the earth is His, the cosmos, it belongs to Him, and He rules, He upholds, and He rules the nations. And here, above all else, the writer who is Asaph wants the glory of God to spread from shore to shore. He's concerned about the fame of God. He wants the enemies of Yahweh to be humbled and that the peoples of the earth might realize who's sovereign over the nations. He wants them humiliated so the power of God might be put on display. He's concerned with God's glory, that they may know, that they may know, that they may understand that you alone, your name is Yahweh and you're the Most High. Sure, he prays for the salvation of the wicked, but he does this to the end of the glory of God. He prays for the damnation of the wicked, but he does so to the glory of God. So not only are we to pray boldly when we acknowledge the sovereignty of the glorious God, not only is it bold praying, but it's biblical praying to pray this way. When we realize that God is sovereign over all, our prayers begin to aim upward. for the glory of God. Our prayers begin to have a radical God-centeredness about them. Our selfishness in praying begins to subside when we begin to see that God is sovereign, that He rules the nation, that He is the most high over all the earth. Asaph prayer foremost is that God's glory would be extolled and that they all might know that He is the most high over all the earth. So as I close, remember this is a psalm for the embattled church. This is a psalm for the embattled Christian, that whenever you and I feel most overwhelmed, whenever we are facing numbers that far outnumber us, we must remember this, that He is the Most High. That He is over all the earth. The citizens, the inhabitants are counted as nothing that the Lord does his will amongst the citizens of heaven, the host of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth, Daniel 4.35 tells us. And he loves his church. He invites our prayer. He asks and invites us to come to the throne of grace. He calls us to remember the triumph of the cross and to remember this, that he is for us and not against us. Let's pray. Lord, we're so thankful for.