God's saving help. God's comforting justice. Do we ever think of the justice of God? In this way, we'll read Lord's Day 4 and then we'll come to our text, Psalm 5, and we will very much be working through Psalm 5 tonight, but certainly Lord's Day 4 is the background, the summary of the justice of God as a whole, and yet also that God is merciful, And so we'll be looking at Lord's Day four, page 204 in the Forms and Prayers book. I'll read questions nine, 10, and 11, and together we can say the answers. Question nine, I'll read the question. But doesn't God do man an injustice by requiring in his law what man is unable to do? No. God created man with the ability to keep the law. Man, however, at the instigation of the devil, in willful disobedience, robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts. 10. Will God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished? Certainly not. He is terribly angry with the sin we are born with as well as our actual sins. God will punish them by a just judgment both now and in eternity having declared Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the Book of the Law. 11. But isn't God also merciful? God is certainly merciful, but He is also just. His justice demands that sin committed against His Supreme Majesty be punished with the supreme penalty eternal punishment of body and soul. That is the confession, the faithful summary of God's Word. Here summarizing His justice, including answers to some objections against the justice of God. We turn now to Psalm 5, one of the many psalms that deals with the just judgments of God. Psalm 5, page 570 in most of the Pew Bibles. And we'll be reading all of Psalm chapter 5. It is to the choir master, For the flutes, a psalm of David. Let us hear now the word of God. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down towards your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness. Because of my enemies, make your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth, Their inmost self is destruction. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Because of the abundance of their transgressions, cast them out, for they have rebelled against You. But let all who take refuge in You rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy and spread your protection over them. For those who love your name may exalt in you. For you bless the righteous, O Lord. You cover him with favor as with a shield." The grass withers. The flower fades. The word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as is so often the case with the Psalms, we are not told of the specific circumstances this prayer comes out of. We have enough details of the life of David that we can guess perhaps it's the time when Saul is pursuing him, perhaps More likely, it was the time of the rebellion of Absalom. What we do know is that false words are a big part of the picture. Many of the details in this psalm relate to something coming from the mouth, a lie, a boast, a word of deceit, a word of flattery. In other words, this is a time when David is facing a war of words. And that doesn't really narrow it down, does it? Because when we face trials, times of difficulty in this life, so often the words of man are a big part of the trial we are facing. And so here David is in a time of trial. David is facing a war of words. And through this war of words, David demonstrates that the justice of God and the just dealings of God are his source of peace and comfort. The justice of God is such that there's both wrath against the unrepentant and the rebellious, and there's a covering and a peace for the righteous. And David is holding both of these realities up and taking comfort in both of these realities of both sides of the justice of God. He's leaning upon God in every way. And that's our theme this evening, that we would lean upon God for all of His just dealings, for all of His just dealings with mankind. And we see in this psalm the guilty exposed, and we see also the righteous covered. So David is facing this war of words he's facing a time where urgent prayer is is needed and so he cries out with these words give attention to the sound of my cries we read in in verse two and perhaps Our situations can be desperate like David's, hopefully not as difficult, but certainly we all stand always in need of prayer. And David gives this urgent prayer at a good time in the morning. Now, other Psalms make it clear that praying at night is good, is proper, is part of our prayer life, but there is something especially beneficial about beginning the day with God, coming to God in the morning. And so this is a morning prayer. Jesus himself woke up early in the morning, even after a long day, to go and be with God, commune with God, his Father, and pray. And so David comes at a specific time. The timing of the prayer is specific. The mode of this pray, the way that David prays is not specific at all. Look at verse one with me. Notice that David is both speaking, give ear to my words, and he is also meditating. Consider my groaning, groaning there sometimes translated my meditation. He is speaking, he is meditating in his heart, It's a written psalm, a written prayer, so we know he's also writing it down. We have the written portion is what the Holy Spirit inspired and what we ended up with, but in this time of prayer, David's coming in all these ways. He's speaking, he's meditating, he's writing it down. Sometimes it's good for us to pray our personal prayers out loud. It might help us to focus. Sometimes it's good to pray through meditation. It can help us to pour out things that we can't express. Sometimes it's good to pray in writing. It might help us to slow down. And sometimes we have a time of prayer that's all three together. And for David, this looks to be a time when he's praying in the morning, but in all three ways. His mode is not specific. Now again, the circumstances of this prayer, we don't know exactly. It's a war of words. There's another specific thing that David says about what is going on. And we see it indirectly in verse eight. There are enemies of David. He speaks of the enemies at the end of verse eight. And it's because of his enemies, specifically because of his enemies, that David asks God to keep his way straight. What does that mean? That means that in their words, in their flattery, in their lies, in their deceit, his enemies are trying to get David off of the path of righteousness. you see he's saying because of my enemies my enemies who are who are trying to to take me away from you to take me away from your law to take me away from your your path Lord save me from my enemies and keep me in your way in your path people of God this is the the common way of man. For David, again, they're especially trying to trap David with their words. And so we move from verse 8 into verse 9. We see that they're speaking without truth. They're speaking with flattery. Their throat is an open grave, which is a picture of, by their words, they're trying to bring me into a way of death. Their mouth is open for a grave, a place of death, and they're trying to lure me in out of your path, verse eight, and into their way of death, verse nine, through their lies, they speak without truth, and through their flattery. Consider, people of God, how many examples we can give of such opposition to holiness in our lives. There is a young man who desires to speak in ways that are encouraging and honoring to God in Ephesians 4, verse 29 says that passage and others would direct him. The young man does not want any unwholesome talk to come out of his mouth or to spill from his keyboard. His speech is so different from those around him that he faces pressure to conform to the ungodly speech of his friends. There's a lie for the young man who tries to speak in wholesome and godly ways, the lie that a dirty mouth is cool. There's a young woman who desires to dress modestly as 1 Timothy 2.9 and other passages would direct her to do, but her friends subtly and sometimes not so subtly mock her modest dress and encourage her to push the limits. There's a false flattery for the young woman who at last gives in to the pressure and puts on less than modest clothes. You look great today. A middle-aged man knows that we should not celebrate the sins of homosexuality, as Romans 1 and other passages make clear. But a co-worker is excited that his nephew just came out of the closet. And he wants the Christian man to be excited too. And there's a false flattery for the Christian who would go along with this and be okay with this sinful pride. I'm so glad to see that You are tolerant and loving of my nephew's decision, unlike some other Christians that I know." A middle-aged mother delights in the work of child rearing and working in the home, even as her children grow older, even as Titus 2, 5, and other passages would encourage But she faces pressure from the world to think that motherhood by itself is somehow a less than worthy calling. There is a lie for the woman who loves motherhood. The American dream of two incomes and two or less children will make you healthy, wealthy and happy. You see there is much opposition that the Christian will face in this world. There are many words from sinners that come to us like an open grave with lies big and lies small, inviting us into the thinking of the world and the kind of thinking that eventually can lead to death. But we are called to be light in this world. We are called to uphold the truth in matters great and matters small and to celebrate, to love the truth of God and what God commands. Lean upon the unchanging truth of God. Lean upon God whose justice will demand that small lies and big lies, outright lies and false flattery will all be judged. Now, in the light of the wickedness of man and being surrounded by lies, notice that David leaves this in God's hand, in God's just hand. God who, verse four, does not delight in wickedness. And then again, the words are such a big part of this psalm. God specifically hates those who boast falsely with their mouth. And God specifically will destroy those who speak lies, verse five, and then verse six. And so David finally says at the beginning of verse 10, make them bear their guilt, oh God. Now there's an important word at the end of verse 10. Not because of what they've done against me, but for their sin, their transgression against you. The last words of verse 10. David is surrounded by those who want him to fall out of the way of God. They're using false words and lies and flattery and deceit. to try to trap David, to pull him away, and David is leaning upon God, who hates lies, and David is even specifically leaning upon the justice of God, which will judge those who love lies and deceit. Brothers and sisters in Christ, if there's one thing for the mature believer to take away from Psalm 5 this evening. It's, see this, David is not embarrassed by the justice of God. David is not put off by the justice of God. David is leaning on the justice of God. He's surrounded by lies and confusion and deceit. It comes in flattery, it comes in outright lies, it comes in all these ways. And he doesn't say, I'm embarrassed that God judges sinners. He doesn't say, God, it's just words, they're just lies, but give me a little help here. David leans upon the justice of God. He leans upon the just judgment of God against those who are liars, who do not repent. David can lean upon the justice of God because David worships God. That's really one big part of this psalm we're not focusing on tonight, but we see it in verse 3 and verse 7. He leans upon God because he worships God, so he knows that God is good and God is fair. But he leans upon the justice of God. God is just because disobedience and rebellion against him must be punished. Lord's Day 4 summarizes this well. God will not allow disobedience against him and against his law to go unpunished. Indeed, all sin is justly deserving of the supreme penalty of eternal punishment. Surely we can leave all things, whether it's words or anything else, in the hands of God who will expose all matters of injustice. But what now about the mercy of God? Because God is also certainly merciful. And if God is going to execute justice in the punishment of sin, can anyone be saved? That takes us to our second point, the righteous cover And to ask if anyone can be saved is really better than to ask if anyone can be judged because we are all standing in guilt. We are all justly in a state of death. That should be the easy question. Yes, we can all be judged. We are all sinners against God. But praise be to God that we can not only lean upon his just judgment against sinners, but we can also rejoice that all who trust in God are protected, that are all saved by his sure mercy. And so the language of the Psalm takes on a new tone of rejoicing in verses 11 and 12, as the Psalms so often do. It comes and it ends in a word of praise. We see this again and again and again. And here, after many words of God's hatred of deceit and wickedness and lies and his judgment against that, The praise, the words of rejoicing at the end are rooted in the righteous protection. You spread your protection over them. That's verse 11. You cover him with favor as with a shield. That is verse 12. God will cover the righteous. Now a shield was was a critical part of defense in ancient warfare. There were many different offensive weapons used in ancient warfare, but the shield was like the main defensive weapon. Were you battling against swords? Well, a shield is a critical part of your defense. Were you battling against spears? Well, a shield is a critical part of your defense. Are you battling against arrows? Well, a shield is a critical part of your armor and your defense. Now, today shields are rarely used, the weapons of warfare have changed so much but in the days of David the shield was an essential and widely used piece of defensive armor and that was true through the days of David. for thousands of years more really just up until a few hundred years ago. And so it's true in the days of Jesus in the days of the New Testament as well. And so when the Apostle Paul speaks about taking up the armor of God and guarding ourselves against the fiery darts of the wicked one, he uses the image of the shield. Ephesians 6 verse 16, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Now the devil might try to convince us that God should not be just at all. that punishment of sin is a bad thing, that the justice of God is something we should be embarrassed of, is something that we should see as being angry or unloving or unfair, whatever it is. But we take up the shield of faith and we say, no, God's justice is completely right. And I lean upon the just judgment of God knowing it is fair and good and as it should be. And so that was again our first point. We saw this, we see that that's a mark of the prayer of David. But then the devil can try another strategy and the devil can can come in the opposite direction and say, well, okay, you know that God is just, but since you know that God is just, then how can God save you? We know that this is one of the main tactics of the devil. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12, we will begin reading in the middle of verse 10. John is on the island of Patmos and he tells us about one of the strategies of the devil. Revelation chapter 12, beginning in the middle of verse 10, and I heard And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him that is the accuser by the blood of the lamb. and the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, in you who dwell in them." The devil does stand and accuse us. It's one of his titles. He stands and he says, Oh, so you are the ones who do realize that God is just. Well, how can you be saved? I accuse you. And then we stand up and we say, yes, I am a sinner, but I'm covered by the blood of the lamb. I'm covered by the blood of the lamb, by Jesus Christ who died for my sins. We are covered as with a shield. God spreads his protection. over us. There is a story, a pastor once was speaking with a little boy, and the little boy was trying to repeat this essential truth of the faith to the pastor, and so he was going to say, Jesus came to save sinners. But he was a little boy, so he misspoke, and he accidentally said, Jesus came to save cinders. And the pastor was about ready to correct the little boy, and then he realized, accidentally, this youth has just spoken the truth, hasn't he? Because we are all black cinders. We are all ashes. We are all dead and dry bones. But God, in his grace, sends Jesus Christ and gives flesh to the dry bones, restores the black wood and ashes and gives us life and light eternal. There are some cinders that are restored, that are covered because the blood of Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins if we trust in Him. Lean upon Jesus Christ and the justice of God is a justice that is covered by the work of the Eternal Son. So we see that this psalm does have those wonderful words of the salvation that God provides in the last two verses. But still, much of the psalm is about judgment. For the sinners that never come to Jesus Christ, they will remain in a state of black death and ashes. Only those who repent are covered and made righteous. The one who lives in their lies, who delights in their lies and deceit, they will bear their own guilt, as it says in verse 10. As we see in verse 5, if we think that God will reside in our hearts, If we allow wickedness to dwell in us, to sit in the back of our mind or to be more openly expressed through our mouth or whatever it is, that is not who God is. God will not reside with those who allow wickedness and evil to dwell in them. But for the righteous, for those who through the abundance of God's steadfast love, as it says in verse 7, come to Him and worship Him, who then know they are protected and covered. We lean on God's righteous salvation. When we think of a psalm like Psalm 5, do we Do we only pray verses 11 and 12? Do we skip over the judgment of God against others? Do we skip over our own need to confess sin, to come in dependence upon his steadfast love in our worship? People of God, let us pray all of this psalm. Let us lean upon all of God's justice and his just dealings with sinful man. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, God Almighty, we surely can lean upon you for our salvation. We thank you for the pictures of your covering and your protection of us. And we thank you also for the truth that you are the God of truth, who has no room for lies, and that you will make those who live