The Pain of Betrayal
Gracious heavenly Father, what a sweet precious thing we have just sung, “Christ is Mine Forevermore.” Forgive us when this declaration rests on us lightly, we pray that we may so live and feel and move and have our being that this would be our great hope that we belong to Christ and He is joined with us through faith by the Holy Spirit. And now we pray that you might speak the Word, the Word made flesh and that you might give to us the Word from scripture to build us up, to help us, to encourage us. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Our text this morning is Psalm 109. It’s four weeks looking at 107, 108, 109, next week Psalm 110. Unlike the previous two Psalms which are Psalms of great exaltation and deliverance, now we do have some of those themes here, but this is a Psalm of cursing. It is one of the so-called imprecatory Psalms, the last of these Psalms in the Psalter where David calls down curses upon his enemy, and so as we get in particular to the middle verses of this Psalm, if you’re paying attention, they may even sound like verses that you’re not sure should be in the Bible. They may grate on you at first and wonder, can we really say these verses, could we really pray these things, could we really sing Psalm 109? I hope by the end you will agree with Martin Luther who says that his is a Psalm of comfort, but it may not feel that way at first.
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Be not silent, O God of my praise! For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is tried, let him come forth guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin! May his days be few; may another take his office! May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow! May his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit! May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil! Let there be none to extend kindness to him, nor any to pity his fatherless children! May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation! May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out! Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!
For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted, to put them to death. He loved to curse; let curses come upon him! He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him! He clothed himself with cursing as his coat; may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones! May it be like a garment that he wraps around him, like a belt that he puts on every day! May this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD, of those who speak evil against my life!
But you, O GOD my Lord, deal on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me! For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me. I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust. My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt, with no fat. I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they wag their heads.
Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love! Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD, have done it! Let them curse, but you will bless! They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad! May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak!
With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD; I will praise him in the midst of the throng. For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.
It’s one of the best scenes in one of my favorite movies, I probably mentioned before, A Man for All Seasons. It’s based upon a play by the same name. A Man for All Seasons is about Thomas More from the 16th century. He was the Lord Chancellor of England and the movie excellently written and acted is about how Thomas More refuses to support the annulment of Henry VIII from his wife Catherine of Aragon. Remember, I’m Henry the 8th I am, Henry the 8th I am I am. I got married to the widow next door. You remember he has lots of wives and this was the annulment from his Spanish wife. Thomas More, being a high ranking official, everyone wants him to speak on the issue and they want him to support the king in his annulment, but he refuses to speak, and he’s a layer, and he’s shrewd, so he knows that he cannot ultimately be condemned if he simply does not state his opinion, but nevertheless he’s imprisoned, he refuses to sign a letter supporting the annulment, and then the climax of the movie, he’s there on trial and the prosecutor is Thomas Cromwell, not to be confused with Oliver Cromwell from the next century, but Thomas Cromwell finally has a smoking gun, a man who will bear false witness against Thomas More in order that he might be convicted because More has been silent on the matter of the king’s marriage. And so, the prosecutor brings to the stand a young man named Richard Rich. Now earlier in the film we are introduced to Mr. Rich. He’s a younger man and Thomas More was something of a mentor and a friend to him. At one point Richard Rich wanted some advancement and More did not give it to him because he knew that he was too ambitious, he was weak-willed, and he encourages Richard Rich. He wants to be a teacher and Rich responds, “Well if I’m a teacher how will I make my mark, how will I be known in the world?” So, we already have a view of this man and then at this climactic scene, Richard Rich is given a governmental position in order to exchange for false testimony against Thomas More. It is an act of craven despicable betrayal, and it leads to one of the most famous lines in the movie and there’s lots of very famous lines. After he bears false witness against Thomas More, and he says, “Do you deny it”, and he says, “Well of course I deny it. Do you think after having kept silent on this very matter for all of these months that I would have finally stated my convictions to a man such as this”, he’s disgusted with him, he says, “I’m a dead man, I’ve nothing to say.” But then as Richard Rich is walking by Tomas More says, “There is one question I would like to ask the witness. That’s a chain of office you’re wearing, may I see it”, and so Rich comes near and he holds it up, More says, “The red dragon, what is this”, and then a member of the tribunal says, “Sir Richard as appointed attorney general for Wales to which More gives this famous response, “Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world, but for Wales?” No offense to the Welsh among us of course, but it’s so excellently delivered and at that point in the movie everything in you is disgusted with this pitiful little man Richard Rich, and he betrays this man who is presented as so much his superior and intellect and character and conviction. Yes, the movie does sort of present the Protestants as bad guys, Catholics as good guys, so just use that discernment, but it is really, really well done. He was a betrayer to a man who did not deserve to be betrayed.
This is a hard Psalm, 109, and we’re gonna talk about whether to use it, how to use it, but I think we should recognize at the outset that there is almost no emotion that I think human beings feel more deeply and exquisitely than a sense of betrayal. When you’re betrayed, and I don’t just mean someone disappoints you, I mean really deeply betrayed, there’s a sense of injustice combined with anger, combined with disappointment, combined with the raw emotion you see in verse 4. Look at it, “In return for my love they accuse me.” If the Bible tells us do not return evil for evil, which the Bible does on several occasions, someone gives you evil, you are not to give them evil in return. If we are not to give evil even when evil is given to us, how much worse is it when someone returns evil for good? That’s what this Psalm is about. David says, “I loved you, I did good for you, and you have done this to me, surrounded me with hatred, with allegations, with accusations.” Perhaps some of you feel this or feel something like this, you think of a child and a parent, maybe you want to say and you’ve even cried out to the Lord or tried to communicate, your child can scarcely know how much you love them and everything within you says, I have given my life for you, I would lay down my life for you, I love you, I sacrifice for you, and now as you are grown you hurl these accusations at me, you don’t think that I’m someone to be trusted, you don’t think that I love you. Maybe you helped a friend in a moment of crisis and you were there and you came in the middle of the night and you brought meals and you got on the phone, and you did everything you could for months and months and finally you come to a point you can’t be everywhere at all times and in all places and this friend whom you have given hours and months finally says, well you don’t really care for me do you? Maybe it’s a church member you counsel, you visited in the hospital, you showed up at their moment of deepest trial only later to have them turn against you.
Thankfully I’ve not had many occasions like this in pastoral ministry, but I know many pastors who feel this very deeply. They’ll have someone they poured their life into, they were there when they had to be rushed to the hospital, they were there when their marriage fell apart and they were right in their kitchen at their kitchen table to pray for them and they gave hours to counsel them and encourage them and respond to texts, and then at the end the person says, you’ve not done anything and they become the problem and deeply painful. Maybe you think of a young person in your work you mentored and then they climbed to the top, not just past you, but they step on you to get up there, slander your reputation. Maybe there’s a wife here thinking of a husband that you forgave, that you welcomed back into your home, welcomed back into your bed only to have him cheat on you again. Or maybe it’s a husband here in a broken marriage and you have tried your very best to set a new tone in the relationship and you’ve given gifts and flowers and compliments, and you’ve tried to be a leader in the home and every time you do, she responds with sarcasm or disbelief or biting comments. Maybe there’s someone in the position of authority and you helped him or her to reach that position and now they perceive you insufficiently loyal, so they use that power to tear you down, to block everything you care about. We could multiply examples and some of us feel that deeply. This Psalm speaks with strong language, but perhaps it is because we need strong prayers to deal with the deepest injustices and the deadliest betrayal.
Calvin says, “Nothing can be more unnatural than to hate and cruelly persecute those who love us.” One thing you don’t like is your enemies, you persecute those who also you hate them, they hate you, you get it. Calvin says there’s nothing more unnatural than the very one who loves you, you hate them, you persecute them. Look at the opening stanza here, verse 1, David cries out for help, be not silent, and then he explains the dire predicament in verses 2 through 5. He says, “The wicked speak against me, they lie about me, they surround me with nasty words, they attack me for no good reason, they accuse me and worst of all I have loved them. I did good to them, and they have rewarded me with evil and with hatred.” Look at verses 22 through 25, that stanza. You see David is absolutely wrung out. We have to understand, this is not a matter of someone who just was mean to David, said a few nasty things, an anonymous bot on the internet. This isn’t some light matter, they are threatening him. Their lies may undo him. The setting here if not literally in a courtroom is one of a legal process, there are false accusations against him and the schemes against him may undermine his kingship. Some people are believing the lies about King David. He has become to them, you see verse 25, an object of scorn, so he’s not exaggerating, he’s not feeling sorry for himself, it’s not a pity party when he says in verse 22, “I am poor and needy.” I wonder if you’ve ever felt like this, “My heart is stricken within me, I am fading like a shadow, I’m shaking like a bug that you just shake off of your arm. My knees are knocking, my body is emaciated, I’m not eating, I’m not sleeping. These accusations, these schemes, these lies they are gnawing at my very health, people are questioning my integrity, my authority, my identity, my character. Help me O Lord my God. That’s where David is. Even with all of this, however, trying to sympathize with all that David is going through and what some of you may feel deeply this morning. We have to admit that upon a first reading those middle verses, verses 6 through 20, they land on us awkwardly.
David shifts his focus in verse 6 to a man, singular, he’s maybe putting into one person the faults of the group. More likely there’s a particular ringleader, someone who is a chief among them, who’s the chief instigator. Some speculate that this may be the man named Doeg the Edomite who is mentioned in Samuel. Doeg was Saul’s chief shepherd, he’s the one who told Saul about David’s whereabouts when he was hiding with the priests at the city of Nob. He was seeking refuge because King Saul was trying to kill him, and then Saul hears of this report from Doeg the Edomite and Saul orders his guards to go and slaughter the priest and these guards say, I’m not gonna kill the priests, and then Doeg says “Well I’ll go and do it myself”, and he slaughtered 85 priests, he wiped out not just the priests but the entire population of that village of Nob. This Psalm may be about him, maybe David was kind to him as a member of Saul’s administration when David was there with Jonathan or David was playing musical instruments or maybe it’s about someone unnamed, certainly he is not named here, maybe a close friend, someone who betrayed him. We aren’t told who it is, except that this person, look at verse 8, has some kind of office. This is someone in some official capacity who is seeking to undermine, accuse, and undo David’s leadership and I won’t read again verses 6 through 20, but you heard the words, what David prays is striking. There are over 20 different curses that he calls down. He asks that the man’s days would be few and not just that, asking for his death, he asks for suffering to fall upon his children. He asks for calamity to befall his entire household. He says, “May no one deal kindly with this man and everyone associated with him, may he experience cursing and not blessing,” He says, “May the memory of this man and everyone connected to him be blotted out from the earth.”
That’s verse 15. These are hard words. What should we do with these words? Could we sing as a congregation Psalm 109? One answer to the question, what to do with these words, and here’s the most important answer, which I am going to give you here in the middle of the sermon instead of at the end this week, the most important answer to that question is to understand that Psalm 109 has to do with Jesus Christ. We know that because look at verse 8, “May his days be few, may another take his office.” Do you recognize that language. Peter quotes directly and Acts 120 from this Psalm, when they are casting lots to replace Judas, so Judas is the betrayer, that fulfills this man of false accusation. And so Peter sees the fulfillment of another taking his office when Matthias is chosen to replace Judas and when you go back and think about this Psalm and think about Judas as the accuser, Judas as the betrayer, and think about Christ then read through verses 1 through 5, thinking of Christ’s betrayal and hear Christ saying “In return for my love they accuse me, I give myself to prayer in the garden. This may reward me evil for good, I have loved him and now he hates me.” Think of Christ’s betrayal. You can read verses 21 through 25 and think of Christ suffering, hear Christ saying “I am poor and needy, my heart is stricken, I am gone like a shadow, my knees are weak, my body has become gaunt. They see me and they wag their heads.”
You remember at the cross those who even passed by, that they shook their heads at Him and they said this man, this man who said He was going to tear down the temple in three days, look at Him. They derided Him. Think about Christ’s deliverance in verses 26 through 31, as he ultimately is given the place to sit at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, and His enemies are put to shame, and He does route those forces of evil and darkness in His resurrection, His ascension, and His exultation. So surely this is the most important answer, what do we do with Psalm 109 as we think of Christ, we think of His betrayer, and we think of Christ’s final vindication. But what about us, Calvin says everything that is expressed in this Psalm must properly be applied to Christ, the head of the church, and to all the faithful in as much as they are His members. So, Calvin says, “It’s about Jesus, but it’s also about His body of which we are members. Can we really sing this Psalm.” Many good writers have said no. C.S. Lewis, all of us have read C.S. Lewis, appreciate C.S. Lewis, he gets so much right, and he gets some really important things wrong. He has a wonderful book on reflections on the Psalms, but here’s what he says about these imprecatory Psalms, “In some of the Psalms the spirit of hatred which strikes us in the face like the heat from a furnace mouth.” Lewis says this is a spirit of hatred and then he says, “Examples can be found all over the Psalter, but perhaps the worst is in 109.” Lewis says Psalms like 109 express things that are “terrible”, “contemptable”, so Lewis says we can use Psalm 109 to understand these are the sort of temptations to hatred that can well up within the human heart, but Lewis says the cursings found in Psalm 109 are “devilish.” So, Lewis says this is just here really as a bad example, this is a devilish contemptable hatred. We should not say it or sing it; we can learn from it.
Similarly, not quite as severe, is Derek Kidner, also a very fine commentator, but he lands in a similar place. He says these Psalms are “recorded for our learning, not for our imitation.” He says, “We who are under the Gospel simply cannot pray this way.” And other commentators say the same thing. Alright they’re here, they’re inspired, we can learn something from them, but they’re here really to just show the raw emotion of the human heart and this is maybe something that Old Testament saints didn’t know better and were here to see how our hearts can get all twisted and knotted up, but this is not something Christians should ever think or feel or speak. That’s what many commentators say and before I argue to the contrary, let’s deal honestly that there are things here that ought to make us nervous. If you make Psalm 109 verses 6 through 20 the lynchpin of your personality something is going to be off. We can feel there are dangers, there is dissonance. If we take this to be a reason to enjoy and give vent to all of our personal petty vindictive thoughts and feelings, then we will be misappropriating the Psalm. So, there is a danger, don’t you have personal petty thoughts? I do. I try to swim during the summer and there’s a pool that has plenty of lanes for all the children to frolic in, there’s one lane, just one, that’s all that’s given to us lap swimmers, don’t ask for much, just one that’s designated there, says for lap swimmers, there’s only one person in there, me. Only should be one person in there, but there ends up being many, many children, not yours I’m sure, playing and throwing balls, mothers lodged at one end of the lane teaching children to swim as if I didn’t even exist and I find myself as I swim vigorously, and I told my wife, I then pop out of the pool and I see them right there in my lane and I’m giving them many nonverbal cues of disappointment, many sighs. I’m thinking to myself, “Are we not a nation of laws?” I have personal petty vindictive, surely, we would all, no, Psalm 109 is not meant for that Kevin. More importantly, what about all that the New Testament says bless those who curse you, love your enemies. When Jesus’ disciples said, hey Jesus should be call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans. No, no, don’t call down fire from heaven. And the fact that we are liable to miss our own faults, we are all very keen experts on seeing specs in other people’s eyes and not seeing the law in our own eyes. This was the point of last Sunday evening’s sermon from Malachi that the people were complaining to the Lord, “God, you don’t care about justice, God would you do something, God would you judge the wicked”, and then Malachi says, “Okay here’s the word of the Lord, the Lord will come and the day of the Lord will be a day of vengeance and he will come in judgement for you.” They didn’t see that coming, they didn’t think they were the sinners in that equation. So yes, there are many ways in which a Psalm like this can be used dangerously.
But to quote C.S. Lewis and one time where he was thinking very clearly, C.S. Lewis says about the hard sayings of Jesus, “They are salutary for people who find them hard.” That is the hard sayings that you need to hate your father and mother. That saying is not going to do you good if you say, I love it, that’s my verse, hang that up on the wall, I get to hate mom and dad. It’s salutary when you say that cuts against, what does that mean, how does that go with everything that I need to love and honor, what does Jesus mean, he means you put me even above your parents. It’s a valuable saying if you find it hard. So, there ought to be something in us, then read Psalm 109, it says, “Are you sure Lord?” But we cannot simply put this Psalm in the category of useful, but a bad example, useful as a bad example that people may be tempted to. No this is not like the story of Jobe where you have his miserable comforters and we can all tell in that dialogue, those comforters, those so-called friends are not giving very good advice. For this is not a narrative like many stories in scripture where we are presented matter-of-factly with the sins of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Bible and we’re not given to comment on it, but we understand we’re not to make their descriptive acts to be normative for us. No this is not like, there’s no indication, in fact there’s an indication quite the opposite because you see the superscription there before verse 1, To the Choirmaster. That tells us this was a song to be sung by the choir, leading God’s people. By design this was meant to be sung by God’s people so you cannot just quarantine it safely to the side and say, well this was just a bad example in a story somewhere.
So how then do we understand this harsh language, what are we to do with it, could we dare sing it, yes ultimately as the Words of Christ, but what about in a provisional way the song of his own people, I believe we can. Let me give you seven considerations and I understand that the sermon is more than half over now. Seven. Most of these we’ll go through quickly. This is about how to appropriate this Psalm wisely, prudentially, carefully, but ultimately for your comfort. Seven considerations.
One, consider the context. Yes verses 6 through 20 have those many curses, but notice the first paragraph, it starts in praise and thanksgiving, “O God of my praise”, and then the last paragraph end with “My mouth I will give thanks to the Lord.” So often this is the case with a Psalm. You have to see where does David end up, starts in praise, he ends in praise, and when I say context, remember this is one song in the 150 selections of the Psalter hymnal. We don’t think of them as being a whole book, but they are a collection. Just like you would take your Trinity Hymnal, it’s got more than 150, you would understand it’s trying to give you the whole sweep of the Christian life, and so the Psalter gives you expressions of praise, confession, lamentation, thanksgiving, exultation, desperation, and yes, there are some that are imprecation. So, this is not the only chapter in the book. That’s what I mean, consider the context.
Second. Remember that implicitly there is always the possibility of repentance. This is implicit and sometimes it’s stated explicitly. For example, in Jeremiah 18 we are given the principle, Jeremiah says that if ever a nation whom the Lord is threatening with judgement, if they should repent He will relent from that judgement and He will do good to them, and conversely if those to whom he means to do good turn into wickedness he will turn and he will do evil to them. This is stated explicitly in Jeremiah 18. That is the principle, that’s why we have in Jonah, the only recorded message we have from Jonah is all law no gospel, 40 days and then it will be overturned. Well, that sounds like an ironclad promise, but then they repent and God relents from the disaster. Not because he changed His mind and He said, oops, but because there is always the implicit understanding that if you turn, I will turn from the judgement. Proverbs 28:13, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” So even here when David is talking about the curses he calls down upon the family and upon the children, there is an assumption that they continue in the wicked ways of their father. Remember in the Ten Commandments, “He will visit the iniquity to the third and the fourth generation”, don’t forget the last part, “Of those who hate him.” It is not a blanket promise that you have generational hexes, generational curses, we see the principle already in the Pentateuch that the son should not die for the sins of the father. So presumed here is that all of those in his family associated with him continue in this wicked path, so we must always allow that even in this declaration of cursing there is the possibility of repentance. Here’s a wonderful statement from Calvin, “Let believers be on their guard lest they should betray too much haste in their prayers and let them rather leave room for the grace of God to manifest itself in their behalf because it may turn out that the man who today bears toward us a deadly enmity may by tomorrow, through that grace become our friend.” Calvin says, “Don’t be quick to run the bus over your enemies, leave room for God’s grace, who knows but that his man that has done you such harm and such betrayal may by God’s grace at this time tomorrow be your friend. Remember there’s always the possibility of repentance.”
Here’s the third consideration. Note that David does not describe a momentary lapse of judgement, but a habitual way of life. In other words, we are talking about intractable wickedness. This is not an occasion someone messed up, someone had a bad day, a bad month, this is intractable. Look at the language in verse 16. “He did not remember to show kindness; he pursued the poor and needy.” This is an aggressively wicked man. The brokenhearted. He sought to put them to death. He loved to curse. He did not delight in blessing. He clothed himself, the very way of his life he was covered up with curses. That’s what this man was like, not a momentary lapse of judgement. This is not calling down curses upon the car who cut you off on the highway, or waits too long at the left turn lane, or your friend who let you down, or even your spouse who has been so hard to live with for this last year. This is someone who has given themselves to the pursual of intractable wickedness.
Fourth. Consider that God promises justice. See before we can think about the language that David uses, we need to step back and say, well do some people deserve to be treated like this, do some people deserve to be punished, and the answer in all of Scripture is yes. God is a God of justice; love does not rejoice in wrongdoing. God on the cross shows how seriously He takes sin in forgiving our sin. He did not just look the other way and say, you know what, never mind, it’s all fine. His justice was not set aside, it was satisfied. So, God is a God of justice. Does Revelation not show us the rath of the lamb. Yes, Jesus cries out at the cross, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do”, expressing that that crowd in Jerusalem was swept up in their emotional furfur, they were weak, they were fickle, they were easily stirred by the wrong passions and Jesus rightly says, “Forgive them Father, they don’t even understand what’s happening.” Now remember what He says about Judas, “Woe to the man.” That’s the language of cursed be the man by whom this betrayal comes, and He says about Judas, “It would be better if he had never been born.” Jesus has very hard language about the betrayer. To pray for justice is to pray as a covenant Christian. Do you notice the language here of often of curses and blessings, you see it in verse 17, “He loved to curse, let curses come upon Him.” This is the Abraham of covenant, “Whoever curses you I will curse, whoever blesses you I will bless.” So, David is asking according to God’s own Word, God had established the principle. If someone curses you, he deserves to be cursed. If someone blesses you, he deserves to be blessed. It is asking God, do what you said you would do, and it is right to desire that evil in our world would be punished. It is right that we want to see righteousness vindicated. Consider that God promises justice.
Fifth consideration. Notice that David is concerned with the glory of God. Yes, he prays that He is weak, “I’m poor and needy” verse 22, he’s under attack, but he also prays according to God’s steadfast love. You see that in verse 21 and verse 26. Verse 21 he says, “Deal on my behalf for your name’s sake.” This is a cry not about settling scores on some personal vendetta but seeking out the glory of God. I hate to tell you, but Inigo Montoya probably got it wrong. His whole life was one of personal revenge. Now maybe if he had been deputized as a law enforcement officer, but he was a one-man vigilante crew, you killed my father, now prepare to die. And there’s something right that resonates in us, a wickedness deserves to be punished. That’s a right feeling; the feeling of personal vengeance and vindictiveness is not. David’s prayer is not about settling scores for his own sake alone, but for the glory of God. Two more and these perhaps are most critical for us.
Number six. Consider that David does not pray as a private person. Surely it is telling that all of the imprecatory Psalms are of David, they’re all prayed by the king, by one who would become the king. They are prayers of a man in a position of authority, not merely as a private person. Calvin says that in order to appropriate, Psalm 109, we must keep three things in mind, he says one, David was not instigated by any immoderate carnal propensity. That means, I think what he means, is this was not David’s whole way of life, this was not his propensity. Second, David was not moved by zeal without knowledge, that’s important, I think Calvin is saying he was not jumping to conclusions, he was not believing something on hearsay as we often tend to do, we’re eager to hear the worst report about somebody we don’t like, we’re eager to believe the worst thing about someone who hates us, this was not zeal without knowledge. And then in the third point Calvin says David was not influenced by any private personal considerations. There’s hardly a Psalm where David doesn’t mention his enemies. You can just about count on it as a principle of life and leadership. The more people who love you, the more people out there who will hate you. The more people you are able to lead, the more opponents you will have. And so, it was in David’s life, he was very beloved, and by some he was very hated. This Psalm describes to us a public setting, a legal setting, accusations, allegations.
So, this is not David praying simply about his personal feelings. He has in mind the good of the nation, for if his kingship is done away with, the whole nation will suffer. He is thinking about himself not only in his personal thoughts and emotions, but in his public duties and responsibilities. This helps us make sense if you’ve ever looked through the Book of Acts, why sometimes it seems like Paul is just willing to take on the suffering and other times he is absolutely adamant that he insists, no, no, no, no, come on, I’m a Roman citizen don’t you dare do this to me, and he wants to appeal all the way to Rome. Why does Paul do that, why sometimes I’m just gonna take it, and then other times I’m absolutely vigorously defending my rights. But one of the answers is because Paul is thinking about himself insofar as his example will harm or benefit others and so Paul wants to defend his citizenship, he wants his case to go all the way to Cesar, remember Acts is written to most excellent Theophilus just like Luke is, who is likely some high ranking official, a new Christian perhaps in the court of Rome, and one of the things that Luke wants to show by Paul’s example is that these Christians are not violent insurrectionists. They too can be loyal in an appropriate way to Cesar and so Paul is insistent on his rights because he knows his rights will be the rights of other Christians. That’s why it is important in our day when some people will stand up and you have different lawyers and firms and organizations who will defend Christians in the court of law. It’s important, not simply that they may have their day in court, but because these things can provide protection for others. So, David is thinking of himself not merely as a private individual, but publicly as the king. If they are able to lodge these complaints and these false accusations against David, and people start multiplying and believing them, this will have a deleterious effect on the whole nation and then finally and perhaps most importantly, remember what this Psalm is. Here’s what I mean, look at verse 4 again. “In return for my love they accuse me, but”, there’s another one of these great adversatives in the Bible, “They accuse me, I love them, but I give myself to prayer.” You could even see the footnote in the ESV Hebrew, “But I am prayer.” That’s literally, Paul says, “I am prayer, I am so given over in this act of betrayal, my name is prayer.” This is absolutely crucial because you might think that after in return for my love they accuse me, some of use would like it to say, and therefore I hunted them down like dogs, I ruined their land, I sent my whole army to ransack their village, I will not rest until I personally slay each one by my hand, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die! He doesn’t say that. Of course, there is the Romans 13, and the civil magistrate is given the sword. There is a place for the appointed authorities to exercise justice, to execute vengeance on the wrong doer, both a local level and international level. This is David saying no, no, no, I did not take that betrayal and then make it my life’s mission to hunt them down. He gave himself to prayer, he did not turn himself to revenge, he turned himself over to the Lord.
Leave room for God’s wrath, that’s the principle from Proverbs and from Romans and that’s what David does, that’s why this Psalm, I believe, can still be used in a salutary way for the Christian because think of what David did not do. He’s not telling you now to commit your whole life to tearing down your enemy, give yourself over to prayer. David does pray some hard things. You think of 1 Peter 2:23, “When Christ was reviled, He did not revile and return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but He continued entrusting Himself to him who judges justly.” We know that David could be a great sinner with Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite, but he also was a man after God’s own heart and the totality of his life was one lived in obedience to God. May it be, might it be the case, that it was actually because David communicated these thoughts in prayer to God that in David’s personal life he was so often marked by surprising magnanimity. This is one of the things that you find over and over again if you’ve ever studied David’s life. He did not conduct himself as one who was on a personal vendetta. Twice he spared Saul’s life when he could have killed him even thought Saul was hunting him down. The man Shimei cursed him, and David showed him undeserved mercy. David showed kindness to the House of Jonathan. David was often rebuking Joab for being so quick to shed blood and seek vengeance and put to death all of David’s enemies. No David was a man of great magnanimity toward his enemies, and might it be because he knew where to put those thoughts. Leave room for God’s wrath, this is your business God, this is what my enemies deserve, and I will pray to you, and I will entrust myself to the one who judges justly.
There is a story in the New Testament, not only Jesus, but there’s another story that gives us almost the perfect example of this in Acts 7:56. Stephen, the first martyr in the church as he is being pelted with stones and about to die for simply telling the people the truth about their own history and about Jesus, he says, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Now right there you should think, standing, don’t we confess, and he sits at the right hand of God. Why here is Jesus standing not sitting. He is standing, I think, for two reasons that are really one and the same. He is standing that He might defend Stephen, that He might vindicate Stephen as they kill him and He’s standing to welcome Stephen home. That’s the picture of entrusting ourselves to the one who will judge justly. The Christ who is betrayed by Judas will not betray you. He will not only wipe away every tear from your eye, He will right every wrong, He will expose every lie. One day all the things in secret will be revealed and He will vindicate his people against every false charge, every false charge from a friend, from a family member, from a colleague, from the internet, He will vindicate you. Will not the judge of all the earth do right He will. We are not the vessel of His wrath, we are the objects of His love, and He will listen to us when we pray.
Our Father, in heaven we commit ourselves to you, would you do the important heart work, surely there are some here who receive this Psalm not merely as a theological problem to solve, but feeling a very real sense of betrayal and whether we are in a position in such a sin against us to make these words ours or not, help each one of us to entrust ourselves to you that we may find our final vindication from Christ, that great man of sorrows who suffered for the sake of sinners. In his name we pray. Amen.