Last week we began this psalm and we spent some time in verses 1 and 2. I hope to finish the rest of the psalm tonight, but I make no promises. There's a lot here and it's good for us to consider it, especially since this is what is commonly known as a psalm of imprecation and if you're new to Christianity, Or if you haven't been in a rock ribbed church that preaches Christianity, you may not know what a psalm of imprecation is. And if you do know what it is, you may be asking, is there any place on the lips of Christians for psalms of imprecation? Well, we're going to consider that tonight. So let's read the whole text again. It's just nine short verses. Psalm 28. Listen carefully, for this is the word of the living God. Of David. To you, O Lord, I call, my rock, be not deaf to me, lest if you be silent to me I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts. Give to them according to their work and according to the evil of their deeds. Give to them according to the work of their hands. Render them their due reward. Because they do not regard the works of the Lord or the work of His hands, He will tear them down and build them up no more. Blessed be the Lord, for He has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield. In Him my heart trusts, and I am helped. My heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him. The Lord is the strength of His people. He is the saving refuge of His anointed. Oh, save your people and bless your heritage. Be their shepherd and carry them forever. That's far the reading of God's Word. Would you bow with me one more time this evening? Father God, we are often told that the Psalms are the anatomy of the soul. We are often told, Father, that in that book we find every emotion, every thought, every feeling that rises up out of the soul the child of God, whether that is the feeling of affliction, or the feeling of despair, or the feeling of joy, or the feeling of happiness. Father we pray tonight that as we consider another category, the category of imprecation, that Father you would give us balance. that You would give us the full counsel of the Word of God as it were, and that, Father, we would be able to sing and pray and make petitions for such things as Your people have done all throughout the ages, but that we would do so in a peculiar way on this side of the cross as those who live in the light of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I help Your servants to do that tonight, we pray in Christ's name, Amen. So we find, as I said, a prayer of imprecation. What is a prayer of imprecation? Imprecation basically means curse. To imprecate means to curse or to call down something negative. And at the same time, the idea of cursing is somewhat misleading because it's really more precise to say, especially in these psalms, that the psalmist is requesting that the Lord give to a person according to their works. And that's actually what we see in these verses. And we know that there are at least two venues in which God punishes people for their sins, the final judgment and the here and now. And we talked a little bit about the here and now in the morning. We talked about Romans 1.18. The wrath of God is, the wrath of God is presently being poured out upon all in righteousness. That is the act, consequence, nexus that's built into the fabric of this world. You do evil, generally speaking, it's gonna come back upon your head. What you reap is what you sow. So God does this even now, and I wanna consider the foundation of these imprecatory prayers. Very simply, the foundation of imprecatory prayers is the justice, holiness, and transcendence of a thrice holy God. So I wanna consider this tonight under a few headings. Number one, and we find this in verse three, number one, Remember, we're talking about the trusting heart in prayer. And number one, we're going to consider the trusting heart always seeks a righteous accounting. Let me say that again. The trusting heart always seeks a righteous accounting. The trusting heart has a burden, the trusting heart has an ardent desire that God would do right. I mean one of the most famous verses in the Old Testament is that, it's really a question, will not the judge of the earth what? Do right. Will not the judge of the earth do what is right? And it's really something of a redundant question, right? It's almost a Captain Obvious question. The answer is, of course the king of all the earth, of course the judge of all the earth will do right. And yet, there are many things that we know that God is going to do, especially because He has prophesied that He will do them, and yet we pray for them, right? We know that Jesus is coming back, but we say at the end of every communion service, Maranatha, O Lord, come. We pray that, we sing that, we breathe that out in our time of despair and when we feel like hope is lacking, oh Lord come. And so it is with God doing right and establishing justice. We want God to do that. Look at verse three. It's interesting here in an age that talks so much about how bad discrimination is, how bad prejudice is, and there is a sense in which those things are bad. But in verse three we find a prayer of discrimination. Look at verse three. Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts." In other words, you know what he's saying? He's saying, don't let me be collateral damage when you come and judge the wicked. Discriminate. Prejudge. Mark us out. I think of Habakkuk 3.1. In wrath, remember mercy. How often in the history of Israel when wrath came upon even their enemies was there not collateral damage? And so the psalmist is asking, and so should we ask, don't drag me off with the wicked. In some sense, Father, we're asking for you to discriminate between the righteous and the wicked. And we have seen God do this throughout the ages, right? My wife and I were just talking last night about the various ways in which God has done this in redemptive history, and our minds went automatically to the plagues in Egypt, right? Because the plagues come down on the Egyptians, but it's like the Lord created this habitus of safety for the Israelites. There was an Egyptian neighbor and an Israelite neighbor in the suburbs of Egypt, and the cow of the Egyptian died, but the cow of the Israelite still went out and got milk in the morning. He was there. because the Lord discriminated. So don't drag me off with the wicked. Discriminate for me. I don't want you to reckon me, Lord, with sinners. I don't want to get swept up in the judgment that should rightly fall on the workers of iniquity. So distinguish me from wicked sinners, not because I in and of myself am righteous enough I'm not righteous enough for you to shield me from that judgment, but because I am found in Jesus Christ through faith who already endured your wrath, you see. And that is the cry of the psalmist. Father, your judgment has fallen on your son, so discriminate for me when you send judgment again. And I'm praying this prayer. Be sure. Be sure that what you are positionally before God, in Jesus Christ, through faith, be sure that when you pray this prayer of discrimination, that your life is also matching that. You don't want to be a hypocrite when you're praying this prayer. You want your heart, and that's the purpose of prayer, right? I think of the psalmist, what is it, Psalm 26? I wash my hands, and then I go around your altar to worship. When we come to prayer, we confess our sins, and then we pray such prayers of discrimination. But now secondly, consider this. A trusting heart asks for retribution according to the character of God as revealed in the law. Let me say that again. It's a mouthful, but it's very important, and we're gonna see this in verse four. A trusting heart asks for retribution according to the character of God as revealed in the law. This is very important. Look at verse 4. There is a threefold plea for retribution here. Give to them according to their work and according to the evil of their deeds. Give to them according to the work of their hands. Render them their due reward. I always tell my children in catechism often, and I would tell my students this when I taught, and I think I tell you too. There's two words in the Bible, law and gospel. The law says do this and live, and the gospel says Christ has done it for you, right? And in that law, do this and live, there is what we call a works principle. It's a works principle that we see all throughout the Bible in the Old and New Testament. It is a principle of merit. What you do, you get a reward for. And make no mistake, grace cannot be grace unless you first understand law, right? I mean, think about that for a second. It is when the law is broken that grace, which is the polar opposite of the law, unmerited favor, makes sense, right? So law and gospel are connected in that sense. Unmerited favor is only needed when favor has not been merited. So, as we come to God and we think of this context of imprecatory prayers, number one, we cannot be indifferent to evil. And if there's anything that the prayers of imprecation teach us, it's that the righteous were never indifferent to evil. They were never indifferent to wickedness. There was never this sentimental idea that love forgives wickedness. No, no. There's a place for an expression of moral indignation against wrongdoers and the enemies of God. There's a place for asking God for proper retribution. There's a place for that. Now, I want to answer a very important question that I'm sure many of you have, and it's this. What about all those verses in the New Testament that say to do, Josh, precisely the opposite of what the psalmist is telling us to do? Like, doesn't Jesus tell us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? Yeah, he does say that, doesn't he? Doesn't Paul tell us in Romans 12, 14, bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. What does imprecation mean? Curse. Are you starting to get uncomfortable? And what are we to make of the Lord's prayer from the cross? Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do. What about Stephen, who essentially said something similar? As stones are raining down upon his head, Lord, do not hold this against them. What about Paul in 2 Timothy 4, 16, when he says, at my first offense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them. On the one hand, that is true. But on the other hand, even in the New Testament, even in the New Testament, there is a spirit of imprecation. There is a spirit which desires to see justice served. Let me just give you a few examples. 1 Corinthians 16.22. This is Paul, the same Paul who just said some of the things that we heard that was on the other end of the spectrum. He says at the end of his letter in 1 Corinthians 16.22, if anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Oh Lord, come. There's that Maranatha. Paul says in Galatians 1, 8 and 9, you're very familiar with this. If anybody preaches a different gospel, even if it's a human or an angel, let him be a what? Anathema. That's pretty strong. What about Luke 18, 7 and 8? Jesus says, And will not God give justice to His elect who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? And even think of this, beloved. Think of the scenes in the book of Revelation. You have the martyrs who are under the altar, and what are they doing? They're crying out, how long, O Lord, until you avenge our blood? And they pray, bring judgment down upon our enemies. And when the fallout begins to take place, what do the people of God do? They're singing hallelujahs. They're singing hallelujahs as their enemies are being judged. There most certainly ought to be a sense, even in the New Testament, of righteous indignation at the enemies of God who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Jesus even had very, very strong words for anybody who would lead one of these little ones astray. Now, can I just give you a little hermeneutical insight? That's in the book of Matthew. I mean you see parallels in the other synoptic gospels, but in the book of Matthew if you trace it, if you look at every use of this term little ones, Jesus almost every time is always just talking about Christians. I think we read that sometimes, we think, oh, He's talking about little children. Certainly it can include that. I mean, you know, kids at two years old can be saved. You know, there's mystery in that. But little ones is talking about His disciples, and so it's a much broader category. And He says anybody who leads one of these little ones astray, it would be better for them to have a millstone wrapped around their neck. And so Jesus has very strong words against anybody who would suppress, afflict, or persecute the people of God. But I would also, you don't need to go there, but I want to draw your attention to Psalm 98, verses seven and nine, because this is interesting. There's a sense in which it would even be a violation of natural law not to rejoice and take delight in what nature itself takes delight in. Listen to Psalm 98, 7-9. The psalmist says, Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity. He's saying even nature, listen to this, even nature rejoices at the retribution that God brings in judgment. And that is not simply or exclusively eschatological. That is in the here and now. And I would also point you to Romans 8, 21 and 22. Think of Paul where he's fleshing this principle out from Psalm 98. The creation, he says, the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Then he says in verse 22, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. Not only you, beloved, are groaning, but the creation is groaning. You talk about, you know, conservatism and environmentalism. There isn't sense in which we should care for our earth. It's waiting for redemption just as much as we are. R.L. Dabney. A very excellent sermon on the Christian's responsibility to his enemy says, righteous retribution is one of the glories of the divine character. If it is right that God should decide to exercise it, then it cannot be wrong, it cannot be wrong for his people to desire him to exercise it. Think about that. If it's not wrong for God to exercise it, then it cannot be wrong for his people to desire to exercise it. So he goes on to observe that though retribution is forbidden to us and pleasure and men's punishment for punishment's sake is forbidden to us, that as judgment is justly inflicted by God, it is a proper subject of satisfaction to the godly. If you've ever talked to Christians, particularly in countries like Africa or China, who deal with persecution on a regular basis, I've had conversations with some of these folk missionaries who recount to me unspeakable acts that haters of God and haters of Christianity have done to Christians. And I really mean that. If you want to come and ask me privately, you can. They're unspeakable, the things that they do to Christians. And then you bring up in the next breath a conversation about imprecatory prayers and how hard it is for you as an American to do that. They'll just give you a snide little laugh. And they will say to you, we have no problem with prayers of imprecation. We have no problem with prayers of imprecation. Because I think that they have, more than us, have suffered to the point of bloodshed. I'm not talking about losing people because of stupid decisions that they make. I'm talking about losing people who are Christians who died because they were Christians. And like the martyrs under the altar, they are crying out to God for justice. So can we pray these kinds of prayers? Yeah, I think we can. Yes, we can. Let me say that more strongly. But let me give you five things very quickly to remember when we pray these prayers, okay? Five things to remember when we pray these prayers. Number one, There must be a Godward intention. There must be a Godward intention. Look at verse 5. Psalm 28, verse 5. Because they do not... This is after verse 4. He has the threefold request or petition that God would render unto them according to their works, that is, their infraction of the law. And then in verse 5, why? Because they do not regard the works of the Lord or the works of His hands. He will tear them down and build them up no more. Always separate A desire like Jesus had in the temple for God's glory as the foundation for your imprecatory prayers versus a personal vendetta. You must always make that distinction. If you're praying against somebody and asking God to bring judgment against them because of something they've done personally to you, and it's for that reason, it has no connection to God's glory at all, then that's not the purpose of imprecatory prayers. Secondly, whenever we pray, especially in terms of the wicked, we ought to be humble ourselves. We were at one time sinners. We were at one time alienated from the commonwealth of God. We were at one time just as blind and just as deaf and just as dead as those who now persecute us and speak against us and do awful things in the world. We were there and we can never, ever, even in the midst of our imprecatory prayers, forget grace. We must always remember grace. Third, We can pray both for their conversion and if they do not convert, their judgment. And this is the most important thing. When it comes to imprecatory prayers, we don't have to decide, well, do I pray for their salvation or do I pray for their judgment? You pray for both. You pray for both. You know, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. You see that at football games. You never see John 3, 36 at football games. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. You don't see that at football games, but both of them are in the Bible. They're even in the same chapter in the same book. So we can, on the one hand, pray for somebody's conversion, but on the other hand, God, if you will not save them, stop them dead in their tracks, whatever that means, I'll leave that up to your sovereignty. Fourthly, keep in mind the proper perspective, what is prayed for will really be done. Make no mistake, the justice that is coming at the end of the age will be at the expense of all competing kingdoms. Think about that for a second. What you pray for that God will do and what God will be in all the earth will be done at the expense of all competing kingdoms." When we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done, make no mistake, we're saying all of the pretenders, all other kingdoms, all the naysayers, and all those who foolishly and wickedly suppress the truth and unrighteousness, they will be put down. We are praying, beloved, for the demolition and destruction of other kingdoms. Do you pray that? Pray for the demolition and destruction of other kingdoms, and pray that Christ's kingdom will fill the earth as Daniel prophesied that it one day will. We're praying that only one king would reign in all the earth. And when we do this, we are entering into the battle. We are aligning ourselves on God's side. We are availing ourselves of the spiritual weapons of warfare. Fifthly, Respond in worship, not in rage. Look at verses 6 and 7. Before I get there, William Gouge, an old Puritan, said that prayer is the best remedy in a calamity. They who pray well will soon praise well. The way that saints are most often lifted out of their calamity is when they go to God in prayer and God visits them with His assurance. Look at verse 6. After praying for judgment to come, he says, Blessed be the Lord! Blessed be the Lord! Have you ever thought about that? I think for many of us it's odd that we would think that the inferior could bless the superior. It's odd for us to think that the finite could bless the infinite. But Paul says this, the Hebrews had no problem with it. The Hebrews had no problem with the inferior, saying, God, bless you. May you be blessed. Not that I, in and of myself, can give to you anything that you do not have, but all that I do have is an image-bearer of you and a re-image-bearer of you in Jesus Christ. I bless you. I bless you with the fruit of my lips. I bless you with my praises. I bless you with my life. And that's what the psalmist does. Not knowing yet what the outcome's going to be, he blesses his Lord. And then look at verse 7. The Lord is my strength and my shield. In Him my heart trusts and I am helped. What does he do here? He breaks out in song over God's valiant protection. Songs are the best vents for bursting hearts. Songs are the best vents for bursting hearts. I think I've told you guys this story before, but in my graduate studies, I took a course on Islam, and one of our assignments was to take a field trip to a mosque, and so we did. And so we went to a mosque in downtown San Diego, and it was a very interesting experience. We sat there through the, I guess you would call it a prayer service. And they had the typical prayers, and they would get on their knees and kneel down and do all those types of things, and there was a message. But there was one curious peculiarity, and that was that they just did not sing. And when we got back to class, the professor asked, he said, why do you think they don't sing? And one of the students brilliantly answered, well, what do they have to sing about? And I'm not trying to be mean to our Muslims, our Muslim friends, but let's be honest. There is no redemption in Islam. There is no redemption in Judaism. There is only redemption in Christianity. And so we have something to sing about. Songs are the best vents for bursting hearts. And then verses eight and nine. The Lord is the strength of his people. He is the saving refuge of his anointed. Oh, save your people and bless your heritage. Be their shepherd and carry them forever. He asked God to bless all of God's people with the same comfort. And that's what I want to end on tonight. I want you to think about this. The psalmist is basically saying what I have found God to be for me in my time of need, in my time of struggle, in my time of angst, in my time of affliction. I want others to experience the same thing. Do you want that for your brothers and sisters? You know, beloved, this is one of the reasons why we meet together. There are a million reasons why we meet together as commanded by the Lord, but one of them is so that our stories, if I could put it this way, can rub off on one another so that we can edify one another with what the Lord is doing in our life. You don't just come to listen to a sermon. It's so much more than that. There are many sermons that go on in this parking lot before and after service and morning and evening. There are many sermons that go on in this sanctuary as you talk with one another and you hear how God is alive and working in your lives. And that is critically important. The Lord is my strength, verse eight. He is the saving refuge of his anointed. Look at verse nine. Notice four things. Oh, save your people, bless your heritage, be their shepherd, and carry them forever. In this verse, you really have a comprehensive list of what God is to his people. He saves, he blesses, he shepherds, and he carries. I mean, it's just all there. The whole Christian life is there. He saves and he blesses and he shepherds And he carries. And that carrying is especially significant. Why? Because he was talking to a people who were often tempted and often fell into the temptation to worship false gods. And guess what you have to do with a false god? You have to carry it. You have to carry it from point A to point B. When you move, you gotta carry your gods. You gotta take them with you. You gotta get a bag. You gotta put them in. You've gotta carry your gods. They can't what? They can't carry you. But our God carries us, does He not? Our God carries us, He saves us, He blesses, He shepherds, and He carries. And what I would call all of us to do tonight is to examine our hearts because maybe there are idols that we're carrying around. Maybe they're not the physical idols, maybe they are, I don't know. But there is liberation to be had in dispensing with those and letting God carry you as the Redeemer of Israel. So what's carrying your heart tonight? What's carrying your affections? What's carrying your attention? What's carrying your love? What's carrying your time? And like the Israelites, aren't you tired of carrying those idols? Why not let the Lord carry you tonight in prayer? Let's pray. Father God as we go into a time of corporate prayer I want to say first off thank you for this time Lord. Thank you for a time when we could gather and pray with our brothers and sisters and hear about answered prayer and hear about ways in which we could lift one another up. But more importantly than that Father we pray as we always pray that you would bend your ear toward your saints and that you would hear our cries and our petitions And Father, I pray that in the next 30 minutes or so, this would not be a time of rote, perfunctory custom, but it would be a time, Father, it would be a time when we would really, as the old Puritans would say, enter into the veil in our prayers. And Father, we would really pray, and Lord, I'm not necessarily talking about emotions as much as what I'm talking about is that we would really believe, not only that you can, but that if it be your will, you will answer these prayers. And if you won't, as the three youths said in the time of Daniel, we know that God can save us, but if He won't, if He won't, we're still not going to do what you want us to do. We're going to be faithful to our God. Help us to be faithful, Father, no matter what your answers are to our prayers, whether they are answered quickly, or whether it takes 10 years. Father, help us to be faithful. Help us to love You. And like the psalmist, Father, help us to turn to our neighbors and desire that they have the experience that we have of fulfillment that comes from a God who carries us. We ask these things in Christ's name, Amen.