Amen. We're turning to Psalm 35 this evening. We'll read the psalm together and so we welcome you and we appreciate you making the effort come to god's house so psalm 35 it is a psalm of david and he pens these words in the 35th sam plead my cause oh lord with them that strive with me fight against them that fight against me take hold of shield and buckler and stand up for mine help draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them. For without cause have they had for me they're net in a pit which without cause they have digged for my soul that destruction come upon them at unawares and that is net that he had catch himself into that very destruction let him fall My soul shall be joyful in the Lord, and it shall rejoice in his salvation. O my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him? Yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth them. False witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into my bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother. But in my adversity, they rejoiced and gathered themselves together Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not. They did tear me and cease not. With hypocritical mockers in the feast, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. Lord, how long wilt thou look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction. My darling from the lions. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me, neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. For they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me and said, aha, aha, or I have seen it. This thou hast seen, O Lord. Keep not silent, O Lord. Be not far from me. Stir up thyself and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my Lord and my God. Judge me, O Lord my God, according to thy righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it. Let them not say, We have swallowed him up. Let them be ashamed. and be brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me. Let them shout for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause. Yea, let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long. Amen. As we continue to make our way through the book of Psalms and ponder its inspired contents, there are three matters that I simply want to address you upon before we come to our time and season of prayer. I want you to see first of all from this psalm, I want you to see the plight or the pain of the psalmist. The plight or the pain of the psalmist. I think you would have to agree with me that one of the most difficult things to get over in one's life is the hurt that is felt whenever you have helped someone, someone that you have shown kindness to, and yet that person has not reciprocated that kindness back. In fact, they come to repay your kindness with cruelty and with nastiness. Well, that's what appears has happened in the life of David. in Psalm 35 when he comes to pen this particular Psalm. Let's read the verses 11 again through to 16. False witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into my bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother. In my adversity they rejoiced and gathered themselves together. Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not. They did tear me and cease not. With hypocritical mockers and feasts they gnashed upon me with their teeth. David speaks here about those whom he had shown kindness towards, but they in turn had rewarded him with evil. These were people who when they were sick, David mourned. He'd fasted. He had prayed for them. David treated these people as if they were his own family members, as if they were his own friend or his own brother. And yet whenever now the tables are turned and David finds himself in his day of adversity, these same people, they rejoice in David's misfortune. They do not mourn because of it, but they rejoice over David's misfortune. And David recounts that in the verses 15 through to 16. Mine adversary rejoiced. They gathered themselves together. I knew it not. They ceased not with hypocritical mockers and feasts. They gnashed upon me with their teeth." I can only imagine the deep hurt that David must have experienced. And this deep hurt that it must have caused David, as those that he had helped in the past, those that he had shown kindness to in the past, have now come to repay his kindness with such cruelty and with such wickedness. Maybe you've experienced that. in your life at some point. You've helped people along life's road, you've prayed for individuals, you've visited people when they were passing through difficult times, you've maybe even helped or lent a helping hand to those who were in trouble and yet whenever the tables were turned and you needed someone to help you, you needed someone to confide in, someone to assist you, someone to show kindness to you, those people were nowhere to be seen. They forgot the kindness that you once showed them. They got on with their lives, caused you to face life's troubles, on your own. I can only imagine how hurtful that has been to you. Or maybe you're the kind of person that David is speaking about here in Psalm 35. Someone who's always on the receiving end of help from others, but never paying it back in kind. Instead of repaying back kindness that has been shown to you, you instead have inflicted great pain to the person who has helped you in your time of need. You maybe criticized that person. You've maybe misrepresented them. You've maybe ignored them. I trust that you're not one such person. Beloved, I believe that it would do well for us at times to do a crash course or maybe a refresher course in the basic elements of Christ's teaching whenever it comes to how we are to treat others. The Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5, The verses 44 and 45, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. We must not simply read these words, brethren and sisters. But we must come and ask ourselves the question, do I love my enemies? Do I pray for them that despitefully use and persecute me? Do I bless or do I speak well of those that curse me? Do I do good to that person and at work or the person at school who hates me? These are the words of Jesus Christ. The Savior goes on in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7 verse 12 to say, Wherefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them, for this is the law and the prophets. If we want others to love us, if we want others to show kindness to us, if we want others to show us forgiveness, then we must love them first. We must show kindness and extend forgiveness to them. Frequently the liberal will attempt to explain away the uniqueness of what is known as the golden rule. Do even unto others as you would have them do unto you. They say that this is really simply a common ethic shared by all religions in the world. That is not the case. Jesus' command has a subtle and yet a very important difference. A quick survey of the sayings of Eastern religions makes that clear. Confucianism, it says this, do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you. Hinduism says, this is the sum of Judaism, do not to others what would cause pain if done to you. Buddhism says, hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. And you would think, well, they're really saying the same thing as what Jesus Christ is saying, but that's not the case. There is a subtle difference. While they speak in the negative, Jesus Christ speaks in the positive. He gives a positive command that we are to show love proactively. While Eastern religions, they say, refrain from doing, the Lord Jesus Christ says, do. Eastern religions say it is enough to hold your negative behavior in check. But the Lord Jesus Christ, he goes further, and he says that we are to act positively towards others. Do unto others as we would have them to do unto us. Are we doing that? Are we finding ways in which we can help and encourage and strengthen and comfort and build up others? Do we treat others in the way that we ourselves would want to be treated? Matthew 22 verse 39, the Lord Jesus Christ said that second of the great commandments is thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself this is the teaching of the lord jesus christ with regard to others that would maybe show us unkindness those who would repay us when we show kindness to them in a negative way jesus christ said thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself And therefore, no matter how disagreeable, how unlovely, how awkward our neighbors may be, the commandment persistently and relentlessly says to us that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. We're not just to hate them, we're not just to, or not to hate them, or not to dislike them, but we are to love them to the degree that we love ourselves. And folks, we have no lessons to learn with regard to loving ourselves. Certainly David responds here in kindness to him or to them who had rewarded evil for good, praying for them in their time of need. When I think of that I see the Lord Jesus Christ himself, David's greater son. You think of all the kindness that Jesus Christ showed in his earthly ministry, the many people that he healed and touched, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the mute to speak, those whom he raised from the dead. He went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed of the devil. And yet they crucified him. And yet in the midst of his crucifixion, he would pray for his enemies. He prayed for them who despitefully used him and persecuted him and said all manner of evil things against him. And so David has the spirit of Christ about him here. He hears a man, yes, his enemies reward him with evil while he showed them kindness. But that's what Christ did whenever he was here on earth. Oh, that God would give us a spirit when we find ourselves on the end of injustices from others, just as David's spirit was with regard to these particular men. You know, sometimes we might wonder, why are there times in our lives When we are hated without a cause, David speaks here about being hated without a cause. Verse 7, There was no particular reason. Why David finds himself now as the target of false accusations by others. And maybe sometimes we wonder, well, why do such things happen to us? Why are we treated in such a way? And why are we treated in such a manner? Why do people put false accusations against us? Well, there was a man by the name of Zephaniah Smith. He had something to say about this matter. in a sermon called The Malignant's Plot. He preached the sermon in 1647. And answering the question, why does God permit wicked people to lay to the charge of the ungodly such things as they are clear off? Zephaniah Smith stated, there is a five-fold good that God brings out of it to his people. God by this means humbles them and brings them to examine what is amiss, so that though they be clear of the crime laid to their charge, they will then examine whether there be nothing else amiss betwixt God and them. They will search their hearts and walk more humbly and cleave more closely to the Lord. That's the first reason. Number two, God doth by this means In other words, it drives us to God in prayer. When we're falsely accused without a cause, we take the matter to God in prayer. Thirdly, God doth use the reproach of the wicked as a preventing medicine against that crime which the wicked lay to their charge. The child of God can say by experience, I never should have prayed and watched against such a sin so much had not God used the tongues of the wicked as preventing physic. In other words, God uses the accusations, the false accusations of others for us as a preventative measure whereby We would not give them grounds for which, with regard to the sins by which we are being charged, that we would watch against such sins. Fourthly, God doth by this means exercise the graces of his people by letting them undergo bad report as well as good report. He tries whether they will cleave close to him in all conditions. What are we going to do when we find ourselves falsely accused? Well, God brings such accusations for God to prove what we're going to do. Fifthly, God by this means teaches them how to judge others when they are falsely accused. In other words, it gives us sympathy for others who find themselves at the end of false accusations. And so here's David's pain. Here's a man who has walked in honor. Here's a man who has walked with God and yet the enemies are coming against him. and rewarding in evil for good. This is the pea and this is the plight of the psalmist. But the second matter I want to say something about is the prayer of the psalmist. The prayer off the psalmist you see david immediately launches into prayer in the psalm he calls upon god in the opening verse of the psalm plead my cause oh lord with them that strive with me fight against them that fight against me in other words be my advocate you thought about that on sunday the lord's day be my advocate Stand up to be my defense. Be my advocate. Ultimately, this psalm is a prayer for divine intervention. It feels very much like David is saying something like this to the Lord. I'm alone. I'm outnumbered. I've been outmaneuvered. My back is up against the wall. I need you, Lord. I need you. I wonder, have you ever been there? Your back up against the wall. others have laid charges against you. What do you do with those charges? You take them to God in prayer. Plead my cause. Lord, stand to my defense. Clear my name. Clear my name. This is what David is pleading for here. One preacher said, our troubles are worthwhile if they teach us the value of prayer. Sometimes we must face the difficulty in order that we might seek after God and discover our rest in Him. We thank God for our troubles if those troubles drive us to God in prayer. You know, the tenor of the psalmist's prayer is that God would judge his enemies here in the 35th Psalm. Psalm 35 is known as an imprecatory psalm. Imprecatory psalms are those in which the author of the psalm imprecates. What does that mean? Well, that simply means that he calls down calamity, destruction, and God's judgment on His enemies, the imprecatory Psalms. And you find a number of these Psalms throughout this book. Psalm 5, Psalm 10, Psalm 17, Psalm 58, Psalm 59, Psalm 69, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137, and 140. Whenever you read these imprecatory Psalms, whenever you study this genre of Psalms, it's very important to note that they were not written out of vindictiveness. They weren't written out of spite. They weren't written out of personal vengeance. How these prayers sit alongside the Savior's teaching on loving our enemies and praying for them can cause at times some confusion. Do we take this model of prayer as the prayers that we pray? Or do we follow the line of Christ's teaching where he says that we are to pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us? How do these two kinds of prayers sit alongside each other? Well, can I say that we must be careful And what we must be careful in doing first is to pray for our enemy's repentance and their conversion. only when they continue in their sin, and they show no sign of repenting in their sin, should we pray in a manner like the psalmist does here. In short, imprecations apply to those who obstinately and unrepentantly persevere in their evil against God. In other words, that they will not yield to God. and they have devised and planned to continue in their sin. When responding to the Savior's request from the disciples, teach us to pray, the Lord Jesus Christ gave his disciples a pattern prayer. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. us to stay our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not in temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen whenever we pray the words thy kingdom come that prayer incorporates the judgment of god that will come upon our enemies Because at His return, as we are reminded in 2 Thessalonians 1, He is returning in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. And so when we pray the words, Thy kingdom come, We are praying that Christ will return and judge our enemies and His enemies too. And thus, there are times when we can pray such prayers that God will visit His judgment on our enemies. But surely, first and foremost, we want to see them converted. Surely first and foremost we want to see them saved from eternal perdition. And so as David makes his approach to the throne of heavenly grace he prays a number of prayers. Verse 1 he prays that God would fight against them that were fighting against him. In verse 2 he prays that God would stand up for him. In verse number 3 he prays that God would hinder the progress of his enemies. He prays in verse 4 that God would confound and put to shame and turn back and put to confusion his enemies. He prays in verse 5 and 6 that the angel of the Lord would chase and persecute his enemies. He prays in verse 8 that God would permit swift and unexpected destruction to befall his enemies. And so, as we said, there is a tension here that exists between what we find here in these imprecatory Psalms and the precept of the New Testament where Jesus Christ prays that we are to love our enemies and to pray for them which despitefully use us. How do we unravel this tension? Well, I think it's quite difficult to do so, but maybe a solution to the tension can be found in a number of points. Number one, when God's judgment is executed against his enemies, the righteous are then established and vindicated. God judges and as he brings down the wicked he then comes to establish and to exalt the righteous. And thus God is glorified. When God's judgment is executed against his enemies, God is ultimately praised. Look at verse 18 and the verse 28. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people. In verse 28, my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long. You think of whenever the children of Israel stood at the other side of the Red Sea. And they looked upon the destruction of the children of Egypt and of the Egyptian armies. What did they do? They sang praise to God. God was glorified. God was praised in the judgment of His enemies. And God's judgment is executed against His enemies. Those who see it come to realize that it is God who judges in the earth. Both the righteous, those who benefit from God's judgment, and the wicked, those who lose out because of God's judgment, they come to understand that God is concerned with justice in this world, and thus God will bring our enemies to be under his feet. They will become his footstool. When God's judgment is executed against His enemies, He comes to demonstrate to all that He is sovereign over man and over the affairs of man. He is the one who exalts some, and He is the one who demotes others. When God's judgment is executed against the ungodly, then this is a means whereby God speaks to others of His enemies. in order that it might provoke them to turn from their wicked ways and to seek the Lord. We find that in the days of Jonah, the Ninevites are warned of God's impending judgment and they repent of their sin and they turn from their wicked ways before judgment befalls them. And I suppose we find ourselves in a similar place. If we find ourselves in a similar place as David finds himself here, hears his enemies are coming against him, they're falsely accusing him, he begins to pray for them. I suppose we could pray along the lines like a young girl prayed many years ago with regard to our enemies, Lord, either improve them or remove them. Improve them. or remove them. We need to always remember, brethren and sisters, that we were once an enemy of Christ, and He showed us mercy. He showed us mercy. You think of the Apostle Paul. I'm sure the church could have very well prayed imprecatory prayers against the Apostle Paul. Here's a man persecuting the church of Jesus Christ. Healing men and women and putting the men to prison. Persecuting the church. Involved in the killing of Stephen, that lovely deacon in the church in Jerusalem. And they could have very easily prayed imprecatory prayers upon Saul. I don't know how they prayed, but God intervened. God stepped in. God improved him rather than removed him. became a vessel unto honor. The church has many enemies in these days. How do we pray for them? What do we pray for them? Do we pray like John and James? Do we pray fire down from heaven? Do we long for their destruction and their soul? taken out into God's great eternity. We were all enemies of Christ. We have experienced the mercy of God in Christ. Oh, that we would pray for our enemies, pray that God would deliver them from their folly and their sin, rescue them and make them the modern-day equivalents of souls of Tarsus, make them ambassadors for Christ, and heralders of the gospel, and missionaries of the cross, and ministers of the New Testament, and pillars in the church of Jesus Christ. And if they continue obstinately in their sin, God would visit them. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay We think about the plight or the pain of the psalmist. We think about his prayer, then we come to the praise of the psalmist. While his circumstances may not yet have changed, David was able to look forward in faith to the day when God would work on his behalf and God would deal with his enemies. And so in light of that, expected deliverance, that deliverance yet future. So certain was David of it, that he comes to declare in the verse number nine, my soul shall be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in his salvation. Verse 18, I will give thanks in the great congregation, I will praise thee among much people. Verse 28, and my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long. Before deliverance ever came, before it was ever realized, before it was ever, as it were, seen on the ground, David was praising God for it. That required tremendous faith on David's part. Even though the answer had not yet been given, David believes in deliverance so fervently that he praises God in advance for what he will do. Not content to praise God on the far side of deliverance. Faith teaches a child of God to praise Him for deliverance before it even comes. Are we that type of people? Are we that kind of faith? Praising God for a deliverance that is yet to come. Or are we waiting for the deliverance before we praise our God? Well, David begins praising God before the deliverance ever comes. Oh, that we would be men and women like that. Oh, for a faith like David's, one that is able to praise God for deliverance before it is ever realized by us. Because beloved, deliverance is up ahead for us. It is. This isn't some kind of crystal ball that I'm looking into and seeing five, ten years down the road, the whole spiritual landscape being changed. No, this is me looking into the Word of God and being able to say that deliverance is up ahead for us all. That victory is up ahead for us all. Now, I'm not saying that we'll experience it in this world. We may do so. but I can assure you that we'll certainly experience it in the world that is yet to come. Oh, the deliverance that will be ours. Oh, the victory that will be ours. And so then let's praise our God for that deliverance. In the words of Joseph Hart's hymn, "'Tis Jesus the first and the last, whose spirit shall guide us safe home, will praise him for all that is past and trust him for all that is to come. David had his enemies, men who rewarded him evil when he had shown them kindness and good. And yet he trusted God. that God would turn it all around, that God would deal with his enemies, that God would visit his enemies as he saw fit, either with mercy or either in judgment. But he left God to deal with them. Oh, for grace to do that. And may God enable us to continue to praise Him and look forward to the victory and the deliverance that He will secure and bring to us when we find ourselves seeking Him for it, even at the throne of heavenly grace. May God bless even His word to our hearts for Christ's sake. Let's bow our heads in prayer together. Our loving Father, We come before Thee this evening and we find ourselves sometimes wondering how we should pray. Should we pray in the line that David prays, in the vein that David prays in Psalm 35 when it comes to those who hurt us, when it comes to those to whom we show kindness to and they repay us in a manner that is the complete opposite Or do we pray as Christ teaches us to pray? Oh, the old flesh would have us to pray at times in this manner. And yet, dear Father, oh, give us the heart of our Savior. Help us to pray for those who hurt us, who hate us, those who despise us, who persecute us. Oh, give us a heart of pity. Give us a loving heart. help us to understand that we were an enemy of God. We at times were as bold and we were as cruel, Lord, against Christians when we were in our sin than they are toward us. And yet we thank Thee for the mercy of God and the grace of God and the change of heart and the change of nature. O God, that Thou has wrought in our souls by the new birth. O help us, Lord, to work out these matters in light of Holy Scripture. And grant, dear Father, us to have in these days a spirit, O God, that is so like Thee. And Lord, grant even those who are presently persecuting us and those who are so hostile against us and say all manner of evil against us. Oh, to pray for these ones. We pray, Lord, that Thou wilt improve them or remove them. Thy will be done, Even in that situation, we pray our prayers through Jesus' precious name.