Let's go to Psalm 17. Psalm 17, we'll get back to our study through the Psalms and as I mentioned just by way of context every time we do this. is that Psalms is 150 individual Psalms. It's not one book with 150 chapters. And these are actual songs that were and still are sung by the Jews. It's basically a Jewish hymn book. But we know that just like the rest of the Bible, these words were inspired by the very Holy Spirit of God even though they were written by human instruments like David in this case. And Psalms is divided up into five different sections or books. Book 1 is Psalm 1 through 41 as we have seen and we're going to see it again today. The theme of this first book is human suffering and the need for divine deliverance. And Psalm 17 is really similar to Psalm 7 in that David paints the picture of a courtroom scene in which David is defending his innocence before God. Now, he isn't claiming sinless perfection. Obviously, none of us have ever gotten there. But he is declaring his innocence in this particular situation. It doesn't appear to me that David is in fear of physical harm here. There's other Psalms that talk about that. But here, it seems like he's been verbally attacked. Maybe somebody has lied about him. Somebody has railed on him or criticized him unjustly. And the key phrase that really lets us in on this situation is in verse 10 where it says, they are enclosed in their own fat. That simply means that's not talking about their size. That's talking about the fact they're consumed with themselves. They're wrapped up in themselves. And because of that, the second part of that verse says, with their mouth they speak proudly. And this is David's complaint against them. So the pain and hurt... are not coming from a physical threat, but from their selfish words. You know, contrary to the old, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. We know that's not true. Sticks and stones can cause bodily damage, but hurtful words can wound the soul. Proverbs 18 and verse 21, it says, death and life are in the power of the tongue. Words are a very powerful thing. They do have an effect on us. In James chapter 3, verses 5 and 6 says, Even so the tongue is a little member in it. Before this, he's talking about the rudder on a ship. How comparatively speaking, the rudder is a small thing and yet it can steer a large vessel. And he's saying, even so, or in the same way, the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell. That's a lot of rhetorical language to say that the tongue may be a little thing, but it causes great harm. when words are used intentionally, and even sometimes unintentionally, can hurt and wound people. David has been wounded in his spirit and he is pleading his case before God. And so with that context in mind, let's read the Word of God together. Psalm 17, beginning in verse 1. David says, hear the riot, O Lord, attend unto my cry. Give ear unto my prayer that goeth not out of feigned lips or deceitful lips is what that means. Let my sentence come forth from thy presence. Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal. Thou hast proved mine heart. Thou hast visited me in the night. Thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. Concerning the works of men, by the words of thy lips I have kept me from the path of the destroyer. Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God. Incline thy ear unto me, and hear my speech. Show thy marvelous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by the right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye. Hide me under the shadow of thy wings from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies who compass me about. They are enclosed in their own fat. With their mouth they speak proudly. They have now come past us in our steps. They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth, like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places. Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword. from men which are thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure. They are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you and we worship you. Thank you so much for this day you've given us to come to your house. Lord, we're so thankful for the truths in these songs that we've been able to sing, Lord. God, we have a story to tell. Lord, we have a risen Savior. Lord, we have hope. We have life. And Lord, I pray that if there's somebody here that doesn't know Jesus Christ and the part of their sins, that they would repent and put their faith and trust in Jesus today. Lord, I pray that Christ would be magnified in the sermon, and Lord, that you would just enter me as sin and self and fill me with your Holy Spirit. Lord, make preaching clear and powerful, and may we apply it to our lives. And it's in Christ's name I pray these things. Amen. So each week we've been looking at a different aspect of deliverance and it's always been, Oh Lord, deliver me from something. And we see that again today and if you were to give this message a title, it would be, Oh Lord, deliver me from wounding words. Deliver me, Lord, from wounding words. How can we overcome words that wound us in our spirit. Certainly, we've all been the victim of that at some point in time. And if we're honest, we've probably been the perpetrator from time to time of wounding words. How can we overcome these things? Well, number one, I want you to know that you need to consider the source. Consider the source. I want to skip ahead to verse 10 and then we'll back up later and look at some things, but I want to go back to what I believe to be the central part of this text here. Verse 10 where he says, They are enclosed in their own fat. Because of that, with their mouth they speak proudly. Well, let me just say this up front. Let me just go ahead and get this out in the open. Not all criticism is bad. And not everybody is out to get you. I know that we live in a society that just seems to be very easily offended. I mean, people just almost looking for something to be offended about. Listen, once you buy into that mentality, it's really a full-time job. Nursing wounds and grudges, it takes a lot of effort to do that. And I don't want to feed into that mentality. I want you to know up front that not all criticism is bad. Not all criticism is even wrong. Not all words that wound us are because of the party that has said these things. Sometimes it's just us, are easily being offended, are not being able to take criticism. And we really need to step back and analyze these things. Listen, considering the source is one of the most important factors in being able to overcome wounding words because sometime it is on our end. Sometimes, a person's words can wound us because that was their intention. And in that case, we just need to get up and go on. But get this, sometimes words can wound us because they're true and they hit home. And by the grace of God, we need to make some changes. But there are two ditches that we can get into when it comes to considering the source of wounding words. The first ditch, and I'm going to park here for a little bit, The first ditch that we can get in is if you struggle being a people pleaser, and you don't have to raise your hand, but you probably know even as you sit there, whether or not you struggle with being a people pleaser. But if you are a people pleaser and you struggle with this, you're always going to heap the blame, all of the blame upon yourself for everything, and you will blindly accept the full brunt of the criticism hurled to you whether it's true or not. Listen, people pleasers, they take responsibility for everything. In counseling, one of the things that I learned that I've really, it's really stuck with me, It's just a simple chart, just basically two circles, a circle within a circle. But the inner circle is responsibility. The bigger circle is concern. People get out of line. This is the two ditches that I'm talking about. The first one is a person that they don't have any room just to simply be concerned about something because they have to pull everything in and make everything their responsibility. If you live like that, you've got a heavy burden to carry. Taking responsibility for things that aren't even your responsibility in the first place. I mean, it's really for people that struggle with this, it's almost as if they don't even have the ability to recognize that all criticism isn't true. That every bad thing somebody says to you or about you doesn't necessarily make it true. And as a result, a lot of the time, people pleasers can be manipulated and controlled through shame. And if you run into the wrong kind of people, they'll take advantage of that. You need to be very careful. This is so important. You've got to be very careful who you give that kind of power to. Listen, not everybody belongs on a pedestal. In fact, nobody really belongs on a pedestal. Only God belongs there. But not everybody should be allowed to have that kind of influence and power in your life. Not everybody deserves that. Just because they're alive and breathing and they talk to you doesn't mean that you need to take to heart everything they say. Listen, not everybody gives good advice. Not everybody has your best interests at heart. Not everybody's got a really high IQ. I hate to say it, I mean, I'm just saying. But I mean, I say that in jest, but it really hurts my heart because over the years, you know, so many people I've counseled, And people come to me sometimes and they're just so broken. And they're so upset because somebody said something to them that just greatly hurt their feelings and they're losing sleep about it and they can't eat and it just troubles them. And they're about 20 minutes into telling me what this person said and how it made them feel and I'm like, who is this person? And it's like somebody that's just way outside of their, you know, what should be their sphere of influence and I'm like, Why does that bother you so much? And I'm not trying to be rude, but not everybody deserves that kind of power and influence in your life. It's just the truth of the matter, but people pleasers struggle with that because they want to please people. It doesn't matter who they are. The ironic thing though about being a people pleaser is that even if the criticism spoken against you isn't true, your blind acceptance of what that person says reveals a flaw in your heart. That's because being a people pleaser is a passive form of idolatry. You're worshiping the idol of being liked by everybody. And you find your value in the affirmation of other people. You find your value in being liked. And it rocks your world when somebody doesn't like you. You can have 99 people like you, but you know what you're going to focus on? That one person that you just can't please. They're going to get all of your attention. And if that person takes advantage of that, it's going to be a heavy burden to bear. People-pleasers cannot be consistent God-pleasers because it presents a conflict of interest when that person puts you in a situation where you have to choose whether or not to please God or that person. People-pleasers, most of the time, they're going to go with that person. I've got news for you, friend. If you're living for God, you're not going to please everybody. You're not going to make everybody happy. Everybody's not going to like you. And if that's your idol, that's going to be hard to deal with. Again, I want to reiterate that not all criticism is worth your time. Consider the source. Some people make everything their responsibility. But here's the second ditch about considering the source. The other ditch on this issue is that when somebody is not able to receive any criticism at all from anybody for all time. Do you know anybody like that? I'm talking about couldn't talk to them about anything. This reveals a heart problem as well. It's called pride. Pride is the single greatest source of conflict in relationships. Proverbs 13 and verse 10 says, Only by pride cometh contention. Pride is also the biggest hindrance to a person's spiritual and emotional growth and that's because proud people grow old but they never grow up. They are so small that they can't possibly fathom the idea that they might need to humble themselves and make some changes in their life. Such a thing is too much for their ego to handle. Again, I say consider the source. Because as I said, some criticism is good. Some things need to be said. But here's some good questions to ask. Talking about considering the source, I'm going to move on. Some questions that are good to ask when you're considering the source. Does this person really love me and have my best interests at heart? Is this person truly walking with the Lord? Does this person truly exhibit Christian character and wisdom and grace, especially in the area in which they have brought criticism? I've got news for you if you're taking notes. I know this is deep, okay? drunk uncle that's been married and divorced six times is not the person that you need to take marital advice from. I'm just saying. I'm not being rude about that. But again, this goes back to not everybody deserves that kind of place and influence in your life. In David's case, His detractors were full of themselves and spoke proud words. Their words of criticism, they were selfish. They weren't for David's best interest. They were strictly to harm him. Now listen, if the criticism is true, make changes and move on. Listen, the spirit-filled Christian ought to be small enough to where we can humble ourselves and make changes when needed, but we ought to be big enough to cast aside undue criticism and wounding words. We ought to be able to, just like chicken wings, I love chicken wings, but just some advice about chicken wings. You've got to eat the meat and spit out the bone. We have to be able to do that. We have to consider the source if we're ever going to be able to deal with wounding words. Number two, if we're gonna be able to heal and get over wounding words, we need to be able to call out to the sovereign. Look at verse one. He says, hear the riot, O Lord, or hear my just cause, is what that means. Attend unto my cry. Give ear unto my prayer that goeth not out of fain lips. In other words, I'm not being deceitful here. Number two, let my sentence come forth from thy presence. Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal. Thou hast proved mine heart. Thou hast visited me in the night. Thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. Concerning the works of men by the words of thy lips, I have kept me from the path of the destroyer. Hold up my goings in thy path that my footsteps slip not. I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God. Incline thine ear unto me and hear my speech. He's been hurt by these wounding words, but he goes to the right place, doesn't he? He takes his case before God, which is exactly what we need to do. Listen, this is so important. When somebody hurts you with their words, if you're not careful, we can have a pretty severe reaction to that. And I have found it's been my experience as a Christian that it's not always my actions that get me in trouble. A lot of the time it's my reaction. And when somebody has wounded you with their words, you're not careful, you're going to try to wound them back, either directly or indirectly. You're going to save yourself a lot of trouble if instead of taking wounding words to them, you take those wounds to God. You go to God about that situation. And so David here, he is asking God to examine his heart and life. He is inviting God to see if the accusations are true, which is exactly what we ought to do. We need to go to God with these wounded words, the wounding words and find out if any of it is true. And when we're criticized, we need to weigh what has been said by the words of Scripture. The Word of God will either confront us or it will comfort us depending on where we are in a given situation. When wounding words are hurled our way, we need to go to God in prayer and devotion because ultimately, what He thinks is what matters most. And in David's case, he had a clean conscience before God. This is so important. Because one of our greatest defenses against criticism is to strive to live in such a way that if someone speaks badly of you, the overwhelming odds are that what they're saying is a lie. We need to live above reproach and live above the criticism because we represent the Lord Jesus Christ and we have people watching us. I love what Paul said in the book of Acts. He said that he strove to live his life in such a way that his conscience was void of offense toward God and man. That's a very powerful way to live. You know that. When you live in such a way that you go to bed at night, and when you're ahead it's the pillow, you're at perfect peace because your conscience is clean with both God and man. We can't control what people say about us, but the way that we live our lives can really weaken the influence of those words. Someone once told me, and this is good news for those that maybe struggle with the whole people-pleasing thing, I had a preacher tell me one time, and I've never forgotten this. He said, if you take care of your character, God will take care of your reputation. You don't have to worry about that. David had an air of confidence because he knew that he was innocent of the accusations raised against him. Proverbs 28 and verse 1 says, The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. When wounding words are hurled at you, consider the source, but also call out to the sovereign. And I'll say this, and I'll move on to my last point. But here's the thing. If you're not living with a clean conscience, if you're not right with God, First of all, let me say this, if you've never been saved, and I'm fixing to get to this in a minute, if you've never been saved from your sin, if you don't know Jesus Christ in the pardon of your sin, you've still got the guilt of sin in your life. It's a weighty thing. I love the way that John Bunyan wrote about it in Pilgrim's Progress. It was like that heavy weight, almost like that backpack, if you will, so heavy every day, making everything, the daily routine of life, heavy because of the weight of sin. If you're bearing those things, or maybe if you are saved and maybe there's something you've allowed in your life and you've maybe gone to great lengths to hide it, that's a great weight. And you know, these things happen and you don't even realize them happening, but if that's you, you're already on the defense anyway. And if somebody says something to you, they may not even have any ill intent, and because of the way that you already feel inside, that thing gets magnified in your heart and mind, and you're just... I really believe the reason that a lot of people are offended is because they already don't have any peace in here anyway. The book of Psalms says, Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. The reason a lot of people are offended, they don't have any peace anyway. And so they take everything the wrong way. I mean, I've had people get offended at something I said in the pulpit, and I can't even comprehend the way that they took it that way. And I hope that if somebody does that, they would come to me and talk to me Because I don't have any ill intent. But you know, some people, you just can't please them. It's just impossible. They're not even at peace with God. They're not at peace with themselves. They're not going to be at peace with you. And hopefully that's not you today. Consider the source, but call out to the sovereign with these wounding words. But then number three, we're going to have to contemplate the Savior. Look at verse 7. He said, Show thy marvelous loving kindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye. Hide me under the shadow of thy wings from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies who compass me. They are enclosed in their own fat. With their mouth they speak proudly. They have now compassed us in our steps. They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth, like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places. Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword, or with thy sword is what that means, from men which are thy hand, O Lord. from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy head treasure. They are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." I absolutely love the way he closes that psalm of prayer here, because ultimately he says, Lord, if I can just have your presence, I'll be at peace. If I can just be in your presence, your likeness, I'll be at peace. And the only way to do that... ultimately is to be in a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. So to me, this passage really reminds me of about the salvation of Christ, especially what it says in verse 14 where it talks about these men that have accused Him. How that they are men of the world, they have their portion in this life and the only thing they're ever going to have is material things they leave for their children. That's literally what he's talking about. We've been looking at our John study on Wednesday evening. I got confused there for a minute. We looked at the difference between darkness and light and how Jesus Christ is the light. How the light entered into the world and the world came together. The Romans and Jews and everybody in between, they put aside their great differences for the purpose of coming together and killing God incarnate. for killing Christ. Because the world loves darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Can I say this? The world hates Jesus. Now what if Jesus had a complex to where He had to try to please everybody and make everybody happy? He never would have gone to the cross. I think it was Paul Washer that said that if Jesus had preached the same watered down gospel that most preachers do today, they'd have never killed Him. I believe that's true. Now Christ, think about this, Christ was the sinless, perfect, kind, helping, I mean, Savior of the world. And the world hated Him. They hated Him. God, the Creator of all things, entered into His own creation through the womb of a virgin. God in the flesh, the eternal God, took upon Himself human flesh and walked among His creatures. That's an amazing thought. And as the God-man, He lived a sinless life. He fulfilled the just demands of God's law and voluntarily went to the cross. They didn't take His life. He gave it up. Even death couldn't take Him until He said, it is finished. And on that cross as He wore our sins in His body on the tree, Peter said, God the Father poured His wrath out upon our sins on Jesus. He punished Jesus for what we did. And then to prove that God was satisfied with that sacrifice, caused him to be raised on the third day, we just celebrated that. And somehow the world hated him for those things. Never did anything wrong. Never lied. Never, I mean, never sinned. Never did anything but help people. And they hated him. And so I said all that to say that There's just some people out there, it doesn't matter how good you are, you're never going to be perfect enough to make them happy. They're not on the right team. Jesus said that the world hated Him because He testified that their works were evil. John 7 and verse 7. He went on to say, If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. John 15 and verse 18. In the very next verse, he said, If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of this world, therefore the world hateth you. Talking about this world system. Those that are children of Satan. Those that are children of wrath and of the flesh. And by the way, this is why it would make me really nervous if I didn't have any enemies. It would make me really uncomfortable if everybody liked me. Because Jesus also said in Luke 6 and verse 26, Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. Listen, we need to get this. It's an honor and a compliment to be hated by the right people. Y'all ought to be real nervous. if I start running with false prophets and false preachers and false religion, that ought to make you nervous. Because if we're standing for truth, then we ought to be hated by that which is false. We see it everywhere though. Unfortunately, it seems like the American church, as a majority, has bought into what I call the consumer mentality when it comes to church. Listen, if God gives me grace and I don't lose my mind, I never have any inkling of a plan to build a church based on a consumer model. That was not what the early church was about. They gave, they sold, they sacrificed, they preached the gospel of Christ even at the point of death and under the threat of persecution and imprisonment and death. Does that sound like a consumer model to you? It's never been that way. And I'm telling you, a church that gets that way, they might as well close the doors because their method of operation becomes licking their finger and sticking it up to the cultural winds and seeing which way it's blowing, and we're going to cater to whatever people want. That is not the worship of God. That's not even feeding the sheep. That's entertaining the goats. Hey, let's make a circus out of church. Hey, let's raise up six flags over Jesus so we can get a big crowd. Listen, there's a church across the road. I mean, I'm talking about right across the road from where my in-laws live over in Mississippi. A little small Pentecostal church. And a couple of years ago, the steeple got struck by lightning. The church caught on fire. And my mother-in-law was filming this church that was on fire. She sent that video in. It made national news on Fox News. And you talk about drawing a crowd. Every person that drove by that church had to stop and watch. It was the biggest crowd they probably ever had because it was on fire. A crowd doesn't necessarily mean things are going well. It could just be there for the show. I think about Jesus who gave us such a great example. And I'll conclude with this. The Bible says that when He was reviled, He reviled not again. The sinless, spotless Lamb of God, if anybody had a right to go scorched earth, it was Him. And He didn't do it. He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. I want to conclude by saying when wounding words and criticism are hurled at us, consider the source. Call out to the Sovereign. Contemplate the Savior. Are you struggling? Has somebody wounded you? I'm talking about in your spirit. Has somebody broken your heart with their words? Have you done these things? Have you considered the source and what they've actually said? Have you taken these things to God? Have you contemplated the Savior and the things He endured in obedience to God the Father? Have you been the perpetrator? of wounding words. Have you hurt somebody else? You need to make that thing right. Let's not let these things overcome us. Let's use our words as grace seasoned with salt to encourage and help and lift others up and reach the world with the gospel because the power of life and death is in the tongue. If you've done it to somebody else, repent. If they've done it to you, you can have victory. You don't have to walk in defeat over what somebody has said to you. You need to let what God said be bigger than what they've said. You need to let what God has done be bigger than what they've done. Let what God has done for you be bigger than what people have done to you. Don't let those things be the biggest thing in your life because it will dictate every decision you make, every thought you think. It's a horrible existence and we can walk in victory in Jesus Christ.