The following message was recorded at Antioch Presbyterian Church, an historic and charter congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, ministering to upstate South Carolina since 1843. Come and visit us at the crossroads of Greenville and Spartanburg counties. Experience our past and be a part of our future. For more information, visit AntiochPCF.com. When you find yourself in the middle of a difficult situation, who is it or what is it that you look for refuge, and what do you trust in in the middle of that situation? Imagine some of you children are afraid of the dark, or at least were at some point afraid of the dark in your younger years. And so, what did you have when you slept throughout the night? You may have had, like I, when I was a young child, a nightlight. nightlight to shine out the darkness. And so I trusted, I took refuge in that nightlight. Maybe some of you do that as well. Or maybe when one of you children break your bones, break one of your bones, an arm or a leg or whatever, you trust your parents to take you to the hospital, the ER, or wherever, so that you can get the proper medical attention that you need. And this is similar to what we see in our passage today. That is, taking refuge in something. Taking refuge in something that is stronger than you. Taking refuge and trusting in something that is stronger than you. And this is what David does in this psalm, Psalm 52. He is taking refuge in the Lord. Psalm 52 was written in response to a quite bloody, horrific event in Israel's history. In Psalm, or rather, 1 Samuel chapter 22, we see the slaughtering of the priests of Nob, Ahimelech and his father's house. This was during a time when David is on the run from King Saul. King Saul is continually pursuing David. David has already been anointed king at this point, but he has not been enthroned at this point. And Saul hates David. In fact, he has tried to kill him on more than one occasion, on several occasions, and he is still pursuing and after him. And David seeks aid and assistance from a priest named Ahimelech. Ahimelech in the city of Nob. And Ahimelech gives him this required, or this assistance that he seeks, that David seeks. And a man named Doeg, who is an Edomite, and Edomites are descendants of Esau, the older brother of Jacob. A man named Doeg the Edomite sees this, and he informs King Saul about this. And Saul summons the priest of Nob, particular Ahimelech, and accuses him of having conspired against him with David. And so in response, Saul, Saul orders the massacre of at least 85 people. He orders his own men to kill them, but his own men do not do so. So what does he do? He must turn to this Edomite, Doeg the Edomite, to slaughter these priests. And what does Doeg do? He does not hesitate one bit to slaughter all these priests. And in fact, if you look at 1 Samuel 22, he does more than what Saul commands him to do. He slaughters more people and animals, beasts and creatures, than he is commanded to do. And so with that in context, David writes this psalm. David is taking refuge in the Lord. So our main proposition is what David is actually taking refuge in this today. While the works of the wicked lead to their destruction, the righteous take refuge in the Lord. While the works of the wicked lead to their destruction, the righteous take refuge in the Lord. And we will look at this in under three headings. Verses one through four, we look at the works of the wicked. Verses five through seven, we see the destruction of the deceitful, or we could say, even a warning to the wicked. And in verses eight through nine, we see the refuge of the righteous. So verses one through four, the works of the wicked. David begins by asking, why do you boast an evil and mighty man? The loving kindness of God endures all day long. This verse does not just act as an introduction to the psalm, but it also acts as a summary of the psalm. Everything that we see later in the psalm can be summarized just in this tiny little verse here. But the word why is significant. Word wise, very, very significant. It's not as if David is asking, for what reason? He's not just asking for information. For what reason did you do this? By the way, this is response to Doeg. He is writing, as it were, to Doeg. Why do you boast an evil, a mighty man? This word why has to do with the astonished horror of what Doeg, and really Saul through Doeg, has just done. Because in that story of 1 Samuel 22, Saul does not do anything to stop Doeg. He does not do anything. And so Saul through Doeg is the one slaughtering all those priests. And so David is astonished in horror. One commentator says this, that the word why expresses both astonished horror and bewilderment at the stupidity of what he is doing. Why would anyone boast in evil? Why would anyone boast in the atrocious acts that this man committed? David is astounded that he would boast in such evilness, in such wickedness. And it is the same with us today. We can do the same exact thing. When we see such people boasting in wickedness, we can wonder to ourselves, why are they doing this? It's not so much for what reason. We're not asking for information. But we're astonished in horror that such evil men would commit such atrocious crimes. And notice how this evil man does not just do evil, but he boasts in evil. This is reminiscent of, we could say, James chapter, I believe it was chapter three, verse five. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire. It is not as if the Doeg does not just commit these things, does not just commit these atrocious crimes. He actually boasts in these crimes. It is not just speaking of the acts, it's also getting to the heart behind the action. As we will see later on in verses one through four, Doeg and all wicked men, they love evil. They love, what does it say, all words that devour. And notice what David calls this man. He calls him a mighty man. This is a little bit sarcastic, because as we will see later on in the Psalm, he is only called a man in the presence of God, in the presence of his own destruction from the hands of God. So it's partly sarcastic. But also, we must admit that in our world, many men commit great crimes, commit great wickedness and great evil. We must admit that. And so David is, in a sense, right to call him, oh mighty man. It's partly sarcastic, but it is also partly true as well that we see. Your tongue, verse two, your tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor, O worker of deceit. You love evil more than good, falsehood more than speaking what is right. You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue. verses four, three through four, we have the word you love. There's repetition. In other words, it is meant to emphasize this love. Now, sometimes we use the word love rather loosely. We could say, I love my car, or I love this food. I'm sure some of you children love ice cream or pizza, or you love a certain type of food or a certain type of movie. And so we use this word loosely. However, this word love is much, much stronger in the Bible. It has the implication that your entire life is devoted to this one thing, that all you think about night and day is evil. We could think of a negative or an opposite example is the psalmist in Psalm 119, longest psalm in the Psalter by far. And yet how many times does the psalmist say, oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all day long. And this is exactly what the wicked do with, this is exactly what the wicked do with their deeds, with their actions. It's not so much that they fall into sin and repent of it. No, they love these works. Their heart is in it. They are totally, completely devoted to these works. And yet, what does David say about all this? Back to verse one. The loving kindness of God endures all day long. It is as if David is asking, why are you doing this? Do you not know that the loving kindness of God endures all the day long? Do you not know, as we'll see later in our psalm, that your destruction is certain? Your destruction is certain. Why do you not fear? Why do you boast in that which is evil? And so there's a lesson for all of us here. All the works of the wicked are indeed evil. Some of them, some of the works may appear calm. Sure, many, many men who do not love the Lord, they love their families in one sense. They love their families. They love their friends. They maybe love their jobs. But all their works are bent against the Lord, as we see in Romans chapter one. We see that there is none who does good, no, not one. We see that they have all turned aside, turning to their own way. all the works of the wicked are bent on destruction. And it's not bent on destruction of others. It is also bent on the destruction of themselves. As we will see later in this psalm, all the works of the wicked lead to their destruction. So that is verses one through four, the works of the wicked. And now in verses five through seven, we have the destruction of the deceitful. We could also say the warning to the wicked. Verse five is really the turning point in the Psalm. David is still speaking to the wicked at this point. He's still using that second person, you. So he's still speaking to the wicked at this point, in this case specifically Doeg, but it is applicable to all men who hate the Lord. But God will break you down forever. He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent and uproot you from the land of the living. And despite all the works of the wicked, as we see in verses one through four, God will bring them to ruin. Look at all that God will do in verse five. God will, he will break you down. He will snatch you up. He will tear you away from your tent and uproot you from the land of the living. This is strong, powerful language. This language speaks to the utter destruction of the wicked ones. break, snatch, tear, and uproot. The destruction of the wicked is certain and will be total, complete, and final. The evil one Those who hate the Lord and His Messiah and His people, the ones who persecute the church day and night, the ones who are bent on our destruction, the ones who are bent on the destruction of our brothers and sisters overseas or even here in the United States, their destruction will be total, complete, and final. And so we can take comfort in this, dear friends. We can take comfort knowing that those who hate the Lord, that those who hate goodness, who hate the law of the Lord, who hate the people of the Lord, their end is near, their destruction is certain. Turning on to verse six through four, we have the response, we have a response from the righteous. Notice, the righteous will see and fear, and will laugh at him, saying, Behold, the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and was strong in his evil desire. So the righteous see and they fear the destruction of the wicked. They do not just see, but they fear. It's not as if they fear as in terror or horrified, but they fear with great reverence and awe. They fear with great reverence and awe. And not just that, but they also laugh. This language is very similar to what we see in Psalm 2, where we are told, he who sits in the heavens laughs, that is, the Lord who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them, that is, the wicked nations of this world in derision. says that the righteous will laugh. One commentator, Richard Phillips, says this regarding this word, laughter. Because this word, laughter, we laugh at a lot of things. We could laugh at a funny movie. We could laugh at a funny joke. But this word, laughter, is not particularly what David has in mind when he writes this. So Richard Phillips says this. This laughter is not of a kind that enjoys the destruction of the wicked as a sort of smug entertainment. It is, however, a holy boasting in the victory of the righteous and holy God who is faithful to deliver his people from evil. Unlike the imprecatory psalms, imprecatory psalms are psalms which call for judgment upon the enemy of the psalmist. Unlike those types of psalms which call for God to judge enemies, this psalm completely bypasses that element. It completely sidesteps that element and just says, your destruction is certain. Your destruction is sure, oh mighty man. And contrast that with taking refuge in God versus taking refuge in their own destruction, as we will see in verses eight and nine in a little bit. Fellow believer, we can take comfort knowing that God will vindicate his servants. Every wrong done against his loved ones. Every wrong done against them. wherever that may be, God will take judgment upon his hated enemies. But also this might raise another question. How is it that we, when we are called to love and pray for those who hate God, for our enemies, even for those family members and friends, who do not know God. When we are called to pray for them, how is it that we can rejoice over their own destruction? This is something that I hope many of you have wrestled with. And to this I answer, I give two answers. For one, Bible simply says that we will rejoice over, as we saw, over the destruction of those who hate the Lord and His Messiah, as we saw in Revelation 19. But friends, there is another response I have to say to this. When we know that we will rejoice, that all those who love the Lord will rejoice over the destruction of those who hate the Lord, ought this not meant to drive us to pray for our brothers and sisters who do not know the Lord, for our family members who do not know the Lord, knowing that a day is coming when we will no longer weep for them, when we will no longer cry, weep, and shed tears over them, knowing that a day is coming when we will no longer plead for their souls and plead with them. Should we not be more earnest and zealous in our prayers for their souls? Should we not be more earnest and zealous in praying for the souls of those who do not know Christ, knowing, remembering that if it wasn't for the grace of God, we would be in that same exact situation. We need to pray for our family members, our friends, the civil magistrates who do not know God, in fact are openly opposed to God and to life. we must pray more fervently for them. But for those of you tonight who do not know the Lord, this is a sober warning for you. You have been given many, many reasons to turn to the Lord, to repent and place your faith in Christ. A day is coming when all those who shed tears for you will no longer shed tears for you. When those who weep for you will no longer weep for you. A day is coming when the only thing you will hear in response to your destruction is not sorrow. No. The only thing you will hear is great rejoicing from the saints. And so let this be a warning to you tonight. Return to the Lord. Turn to the Lord. Turn to the Lord. Place your faith and trust in Christ this very night, if you have not done so already. Because what is true of this mighty man, in verses 5 through 7, will one day be true of you if you do not repent and believe. We see this in Revelation 19, verses 2 through 3, which was our New Testament text. Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God, because his judgments are true and righteous. For he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his bondservants on her. And a second time they said, hallelujah. Her smoke rises up forever and ever. Notice what the wicked man is trusting in. behold, or is taking refuge in, rather, behold the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and was strong in his evil desire. Friends, if you are trusting in your own strength, in your own wealth, in your own riches, in your own works, whatever they may be, you cannot serve your wealth, you cannot serve the vain nations, the vain ideas of this world and God. You cannot serve both God and mammon. You cannot have your cake and eat it too, as the saying goes. You either trust in the Lord and take refuge in Him, take refuge in Christ and in Christ alone from the wrath of God, or you are taking refuge and trusting in your own desires, in your own riches, wealth, and abundance of wealth. And so I urge you to turn to the Lord this very night. But the psalm does not end there. In verses eight through nine, we see lastly the refuge of the righteous. Verses eight and nine. But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the loving kindness of God forever and ever. I will give you thanks forever because you have done it. And I will wait on your name for it is good in the presence of your godly ones. Notice how he describes himself. He describes himself as a green olive tree. I had to do a little bit of research on this tree and found out that this tree can live for hundreds of years. It can remain stable and even bear fruit in even the most harshest of weather conditions. And so regardless of where you are in your life, regardless of what season of life you may find yourself in, you are like a tree. In fact, you are, as the psalmist says in Psalm 1, verse 3, a description of the righteous. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and in whatever he does, he prospers. Notice the great contrast between the righteous and the wicked in verse 5. In verse 5, the Lord says that he will uproot you. uproot you from the land of the living. And yet the righteous are the ones who take refuge in the Lord. They are like a tree that is planted alongside streams of living water. Its roots grow deep, its roots grow deep, but the roots of the wicked ones will be uprooted. Notice how he says, I am in the house of God. In the house of God signifies stability and safety. So if you are trusting in Christ this day, you are in fact safe. You are safe from all things. Nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Yes, those who hate the Lord may be able to destroy your body. They may be able to destroy your physical body, but they cannot, cannot destroy your soul. You are safe in the arms of Jesus Christ. You are safe in the house of the Lord. unlike the wicked who trust in their own riches. The psalmist trusts in the steadfast love. This word steadfast love is a very, very important and very common word. Because we see it so many times in the Bible, we can completely glance past it. But this word, this word is the love that God has for his beloved, his beloved, his beloved children. the psalmist's trust in the loving kindness of God forever and ever. He's not trusting in it just today, not just tomorrow, but forever and ever in the house of the God, even into eternity in the new heavens and the new earth. We will still be trusting in the steadfast love of God, in the steadfast love of the Lord. He will thank him. David will thank God because he has done it. What has he done? He has brought judgment upon the one who opposes the king and acted to vindicate his king and his people, says one commentator. Notice that the way of the righteous is full of life. This is, every image that we see for the righteous, is full of life and life in abundance. But you don't see anything like that in the description of the wicked, in the description of the mighty man. There is a stark contrast between those who love the Lord and those who hate the Lord. There is such a stark contrast between those who hate the Lord and those who love the Lord. So believer, I ask you this day, do you praise God for the certainty of His judgment? Do you praise God that He is your refuge, that in Him alone is your trust? Do you praise Him? The destruction of the wicked is certain, and we can rejoice in that. Friends, we could be entering a time of great persecution, even in our own country. We see signs of it all around. We see signs even in this country or even to the north of us in Canada. We see signs of great persecution coming. We could be having a great flood of persecution coming upon this church in this country. Are you taking refuge in the Lord and in Him alone to deliver you from whatever comes your way, whether it be from the evil one? Do you take refuge in Him in the great trials, temptations, and sufferings of this life? Are you taking refuge in Him? Are you taking refuge in Christ this day? Are you taking refuge in Christ, who is the only one who is able to shield us from the wrath and the judgment of God? I urge you, if you have not placed your faith and trust in Christ, do so this evening, for he alone is your refuge. He alone is our hope and our confidence. So I ask you again, in whom do you take refuge this night? Are you taking refuge in your own destruction? If you are not taking refuge in Christ this day, you are taking refuge in your own destruction. But if you are taking refuge in the Son, then as Psalm 2 tells us, blessed are all who take refuge in Him. Blessed are all who take refuge in the Son. You are protected forever. Your heart and life and soul is in the very hands of God and nothing will be able to separate you from that love. So tonight, turn unto the sun. For if you have not turned unto the sun, then what is true of you? Cursed are you. Cursed are you. If you have turned to the Son, then blessed are you. But if you have not turned to the Son, then cursed are you. And so I urge you one more time this very night to run unto Christ, to turn unto him. For he alone is your stronghold, is your refuge from all evil. from everything, from the wrath of God, from the judgment of God, from everything that this world can throw at us. And if you are taking refuge in the Lord, then believer, rejoice. Rejoice that your sins have been pardoned. Rejoice, oh believer. You might be very weak, you might feel very, very weak this day, but are you taking refuge in him? Are you taking refuge in the Son? Pray that you are. Pray that your trust and confidence is in Christ and in Christ alone. Amen. Let us pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, we give you praise for you alone are worthy to be praised. We thank you for your word, for it is a light unto our feet and a lamp unto our path. We pray that you would take what has been taught today what has been proclaimed today and apply it deep into our hearts. May it take root in our hearts this very evening. We pray if there be any who do not know you this very night, that they would run unto Christ, that they would run unto the good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. We ask, oh dear Lord, that you would send your Holy Spirit to cause us to love Your Word more and more day by day. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you for listening to this message from Antioch Presbyterian Church. For more information about Antioch, visit us at our website at antiochpca.com.