My Savior and My Shield

· INTRO: Good morning GPC! It’s great to be together this week! Would you turn in your Bibles with me to Psalm 7? We’ll be looking at Psalm 7 this week. While you’re turning there, let me highlight a few announcements. (Announcements- summer series, Nauvoo on Wednesdays, TSHIRTS!, etc.)

Would you please stand with me for the reading of God’s word? THIS IS GOD’S WORD! (Read vs. 10-11, pray, you may be seated, drink)

· Have you ever just been overcome by emotions? Have you ever felt defeated? Well, if you have, you’ve probably experienced some level of confusion. Out of these difficult times, we find ourselves with really 2 responses. Either we RUN FROM GOD, or we RUN TO GOD! Throughout scripture and Christian History, we see many people who battled hard times and who battled anxiety, depression and more as they followed the Lord!

o Paul very famously was afflicted throughout his life. We don’t know what he dealt with it, but in 2 Corinthians, we see that he pled with God to take it away from him. But God did not! Instead, God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

o Paul went on with life clinging to God! And Paul isn’t alone in suffering as a follower of God! Paul isn’t alone struggling with many emotions. David struggled with many emotions as we’ll see today and so did Charles Spurgeon, the famous English preacher.

§ Charles Spurgeon once said, “I wonder every day that there are not more suicides, considering the troubles of this life.” He said many other things about depression and how it was like a “dark cloud that came on inexplicably.” Often in his life, he’d become so depressed that he was known to curl up under his desk and sob!

§ These emotions are real. If you are here today and you are struggling, hear me say this, God loves you and is there for you. The beauty of this passage is that we get to see how David handles some deep, dark, hurt.

· David feels overwhelmed and pushed to the brink! Yet, he does something productive with his emotions! He goes to God and he does 5 major things in his song.

o Now, before we talk about those 5 sections of the song, let’s talk about Shiggaion’s themselves. There are only 2 in scripture. This psalm, and then Habakkuk 3. The word roughly is translated as “wandering.”

o As we will see, as David mourns and hurts, he wanders through this song, pouring out everything in his heart!

o There is a major takeaway that we should have from this psalm, amidst all the wandering that we will see. That is that: “Our God and His Righteous way stands in direct contrast to the way of the World.”

o We will also see 5 different sections of this psalm. These are:

· Declaration of Faith- vs. 1-2

· Repentance- vs. 3-5

· Confession of the Lord’s righteousness and power- vs. 6-11

· What befalls an unrepentant man (prophetic section- forthtelling)- vs. 12-16

· Closing in praise- vs. 17

o As we dive into this psalm, I’d encourage you, put yourself in David’s shoes, hurting because he faces a difficult predicament. The heading of our psalm today provides some context for us. This psalm is sung by David to the Lord after David is insulted by Cush the Benjamite. This psalm is believed to have been written around the time of 1 Samuel 26, when David is fleeing from Saul who is trying to kill him!

§ That’s a hard situation. Put yourself in his shoes; consider your own struggles and pain! And let’s see together how David sets us an example for FOLLOWING GOD even in our hardest hours!

· BODY: The psalms are so different from Acts, but they are so rich for us to study! As we’ve established, today we are going to see a contrast between our Righteous God and the sinful way of the world.

· Let’s go ahead and dive in as we look at our first of 5 sections. Our first section is a Declaration of Faith from David. We read,

“O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.”-Psalm 7:1-2

§ He begins his song by crying out and DECLARING HIS FAITH IN THE LORD!

o David begins by addressing God. He cries out, “Yahwheh, Elohim,” or in other words, he uses the name of God and then addresses God as God!

§ David does this throughout the psalms, including again in verse 3. There’s a very real reason for this. David is showing deep reverence and love for God! He’s both addressing God directly, showing where his faith lies and is also giving God the respect that God deserves!

· David FEARS GOD! This isn’t a popular concept in America! We don’t like talking about Fearing God! Yet, GOD IS WORTHY OF FEAR! As we see God, as we LEARN ABOUT THE POWER OF GOD, there is a natural fear that will come over us! God is so unlike us that we can’t help but fear GOD!

§ So David cries out, “YAHWEH, MY GOD,” and then he continues on decalring that it is in GOD THAT HE TAKES REFUGE!

· David is a mighty warrior, a hero for the Israelites. Even by this time, David is a warrior and a general who earns respect from all around the known world! Yet, David doesn’t put his confidence in himself!

o He puts his confidence in the Lord!

§ For, as David declares in verse 2, without God, HE WILL BE DESTROYED!

· What humility! I don’t think that’s a characteristic of David that we often think of, but we see humility here! David cries out to God in need of help and protection!

· He is at the mercy of God and he knows it!

o APPLICATION 1: As we go through our passage today, I want to give us one practical application for each section of David’s psalm. For this section, let me challenge the way that we approach difficult situations.

§ Let’s DECLARE OUR FAITH IN THOSE TIMES! Let’s remind ourselves of where our hope lies!

§ So how can we remind ourselves of where our help lies? Let me suggest a note to yourself! Maybe it’s a post-it note on a mirror, or in your tractor, or on your desk, or maybe it’s a reminder in your phone! But, there’s so many tools around to help us remind ourselves of the truth!

· And what is the specific truth that verse 1 and 2 should remind us of? They should remind us of the fact that our HOPE LIES IN THE LORD!

o Even this morning, WRITE IT IN YOUR BULLETIN!

o MY HOPE LIES IN THE LORD (FIB)

· Whatever method you want to use, be it written word, or a picture on a wall, a reminder on your phone, or something else, I want to challenge you, how can YOU remember that your faith is in the Lord this week!

· Now, moving on to our second section, we are going to see David repenting for his sins. David says,

“O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah”- Psalm 7:3-6

o Once again, David uses that phrase, “YAHWEH MY GOD,” for God! This time he is crying out in faith, not praising God, but instead repenting and saying, “IF I AM GUILTY, PUNISH ME!”

§ David is sure that he is innocent! In this case, he is! David has a clear conscience before God! He knows that he has done no wrong! In other psalms, he takes time to repent in a more traditional sense, but really, what we see David doing here is bringing his sinful reality to God!

o David lists off a few different accusations he faces, accusations that we can read more about in 1 Samuel 26. He is accused of repaying friends with evil and plundering his enemies without cause. Those are serious accusations!

§ No one wants to be friends with someone who repays evil for good! And no one could trust him if David was unreliable and randomly plundered people at will!

§ David is laying his heart, his reputation, his entire reality out before God!

§ And look at the freedom he feels! He knows that he is innocent, so he says, “Do whatever to me!” KILL ME EVEN! David is confident in WHO GOD IS AND IN THE FACT THAT GOD WILL RIGHTEOUSLY JUDGE HIM!

o This section then ends with a selah. That word has many definitions, but one of them is that it means, “PAUSE, CONSIDER WHAT IS GOING ON, LIFT UP THESE WORDS TO GOD!” It’s a chance to reflect on what has just been said.

§ I don’t think this is any accident to place a selah here. What David is saying in his confession and in his plea with God is very heavy and real! David is saying to all who would read or sing this song, “PAUSE HERE AND CONSIDER, WHERE AM I BEFORE GOD!”

o And that’s exactly what I want our second application to be. “WHERE AM I BEFORE GOD?” (FIB)

§ Am I here this morning having confessed my sins and my wrongdoing to God, or am I here trying to hide evil in my heart?

· I know that we do not often think about this aspect of worship, but our repentance is a part of our worship! This is exactly what Paul is getting at in 1 Corinthians 11:28!

o Paul, as he writes about communion, commands the Corinthians to be introspective, to REPENT OF THEIR SINS before taking!

o In other words, Paul and David both challenge us that as we prepare for worship, we MUST and I MEAN MUST, take time to look inward! We must go and repent! We don’t repent because Jesus sacrifice wasn’t sufficient, we repent because we still sin! Our justification is complete; we stand forgiven before God, but we also know that our sanctification, or growing to be like Christ, is a journey!

o So I want to challenge us now; WHERE AM I BEFORE GOD? DO I KNOW GOD, DO I NEED TO REPENT OF SOME SIN FROM THIS WEEK? HAVE I REPENTED AS PART OF MY WORSHIP?

· Moving onto our third section, we are going to see David’s confession of the Lord’s Righteousness and Power.

o David sings,

“Arise, O Lord, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment. Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high. The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me. Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous— you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God! My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.”- Psalm 7:6-11

o David cries out in this section for judgement against his enemies and for the assembly of God’s people to be restored!

§ Notice the exact wording that David uses in verse 7! He says, “The assembly of the peoples.”

· David is praying for believers from every tribe and tongue to come together to God! Even under the Old Covenant, David longed for all people to follow God!

o We often think of David as a warrior-king and he was. But, do you think of the depth of his faith and his longing for people to be saved?

o BECAUSE THAT WAS A HUGE THING ALSO! DAVID HAD A PRIORITY IN HIS HEART FAR GREATER THAN CONQUERING LAND; HE LONGED FOR PEOPLE TO BE SAVED!

o When we say that David was a man after God’s own heart, we are talking in part, about how HE LONGED FOR PEOPLE TO KNOW GOD!

o Wealth wasn’t David’s passion! Power wasn’t his passion; no, instead in his life, we see that WORSHIP AND FOLLOWING GOD IS HIS BIGGEST PRIORITY!

§ David continues on. After praying for the assembly of God’s people, David pleads with the Lord, acknowledging his righteous judgement upon all people, good and evil.

· In verses 8 and 9 we see that! David calls for the LORD TO JUDGE HIM and then for the Lord to end the wicked and ESTABLISH THE RIGHTEOUS!

o David then begins a transition. He praises God for his righteousness and declares 2 things about God! He says that God is HIS SHIELD and that GOD IS HIS RIGHTEOUS JUDGE!

o This entire section is really focused around David’s confession of praise for God and around his humble confession of NEED FOR GOD!

§ OUR GOD IS BIG! Our God is powerful and mighty! Our God is righteous and like David cries out, our GOD feels indignation because of sin everyday!

§ Sin is a personal affront to our creator! It may seem like no big deal, but it is!

o Now, like with every section of this powerful Shiggaion, let’s take a very quick second to apply this to our lives.

§ Really, there are a few ways to apply this, but let’s focus on David’s cry in verse 7 and how that shapes the rest of his prayer!

· David is praying and singing with a Great Commission mindset! He didn’t have the Great Commission, but he is praying for the assembly of people from the nations to worship God and to be protected from wicked!

o Do we have a great commission mindset? FIB

· This section shows us David praying the great commission! What a wonderful example! The Great Commission isn’t only seen in Acts, we see it throughout scripture! GOD’S WORD IS CLEAR; WE ARE TO TAKE THE GOSPEL WITH US!

o Practically, NAUVOO evangelism opportunity, PRAISE IN THE PARK- July 23rd- a chance to invite your friends to a night of worship in our community!

· Moving onto our fourth section, we see David speaking about What befalls an unrepentant man. Do you remember how we defined Shiggaion? It’s a WANDERING SONG! DAVID NOW MOVES FROM PRAISE TO PROPHECY!

o Prophecy isn’t just about the future, there’s another aspect of prophecy. We could say that PROPHECY CAN BE FORETELLING OR FORTHTELLING.

o Foretelling is when a prophet was given a message regarding the future. Forthtelling was when a prophet was given a message to REBUKE sin!

§ For instance, NATHAN the prophet FORTHTELLS David’s guilt when David is with Bathsheba. Isaiah FORETELLS of JESUS COMING TO EARTH!

§ Here, David FORTHTELLS THE TRUTH OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN MAN REBELS AGAINST GOD!

o We read, “If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him hid deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.”- Psalm 7:12-16

§ David declares and prophesies that God will punish men who do not repent. We know this to be true! Further, David highlights a few attributes of the wicked man.

· The wicked man thinks evil, creates mischief, lies, tries to trap others and genuinely thinks he is getting ahead through this!

· BUT WAIT! Then in verse 16, David utters some extremely true and heavy words. David says, “His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.”

o THE WICKED MAN IS WALKING HIS ENTIRE LIFE INTO A TRAP!

o This section is full of wisdom and insight. It also fits in perfectly with what we see throughout scripture about the wicked!

§ This is also clear in the book of Proverbs, and in the New Testament.

§ Specifically, we can see this in places like Romans 1, 1 Timothy 4, 2 Timothy 3, 1 John 3, Jude and so many more places!

§ The wicked man spends his entire life walking straight into a trap! He may feel like he is successful and to the world he may look successful. But, he is walking straight into a trap!

· It’s almost like in Christmas Carol when Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s old business partner carries all these chains because of evil!

· He was successful on earth, but there is a cost to it! The biblical truth of the situation is similar! There is a cost to wickedness. It isn’t paid through walking the earth in chains; it is paid through eternity suffering in separation from God!

· Application:

o The Lord’s Judgement comes with just punishment. (FIB)

Have you ever wanted revenge? Have you ever been deeply hurt? Well, you don’t need revenge! GIVE IT TO GOD! REST IN THE FACT THAT NO MATTER HOW DEEP YOUR HURT, GOD WILL RIGHTEOUSLY JUDGE AND THAT DOES INCLUDE PUNISHMENT!

GOSPEL! WE NEED JESUS TO COVER OUR SINS AND SAVE US FROM THE PUNISHMENT THAT WE ARE DUE! GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS IS COMPLETE AND PERFECT! GOD’S JUDGEMENT WILL NEVER BE APPEALED OR BE WRONG!

· Our fifth and final section is that David “Closes in Praise,” which we see in verse 17.

o We see that David ends his song saying, “I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.”- Psalm 7:17

o David ends his Shiggaion with a declaration that HE WIL GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD AND WILL SING HIS PRAISE!

§ LOOK AT THE REASON HE GIVES! David doesn’t say that he will give thanks because God has given him exactly what he asked for, DAVID SAYS HE WILL GIVE THANKS DUE TO GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS! REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME, GOD IS WORTHY OF PRAISE!

· O that we would praise God in this same way! O that we would cry out to OUR GOD AND PRAISE GOD FOR HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS! (PRAISE GOD FOR HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS FIB) That’s our application from this section! PRAISE GOD! WE SHOULD PRAISE GOD FOR HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS! TO PUT IT ANOTHER WAY, WE SHOULD PRAISE GOD BECAUSE OF HIS HOLINESS, BECAUSE OF HIS PERFECTION IN EVERY SINGLE WAY!

· CONCLUSION: Honestly today, we have seen a lot of application as we have studied this weaving and wandering Shiggaion. Let’s try to summarize all of the wandering and the five applications down into one simple challenge.

o As we said at the very beginning of our time together, our main point today amidst the wandering is, “Our God and His Righteous way stands in direct contrast to the way of the World.”

o Let’s talk about what we should do with this. If you have not placed your faith in Jesus, that’s what you should do! If we have put our faith in God; if we understand WHO GOD IS, then we should cry out in praise and live a life that is centered upon God! That’s what David demonstrated for us today!

§ I want to challenge us today that as we PRAISE GOD like DAVID, we will naturally live out what DAVID WAS PRAYING FOR IN VERSE 7! NATURALLY AS WE PRAISE GOD, WE WILL BOTH LONG TO BE GATHERED WITH OTHERS WHO DO THE SAME AND WE WILL ALSO SHARE OUR LOVE FOR GOD WITH OTHERS!

· Now, how do we practically praise God everyday? Well, we can through our words as DAVID DOES HERE, but we also can through our actions as we see throughout scripture! We can praise God as we work, as we eat, as we drink, or in anything that we do as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31!

Paul says something very similar in Colossians 3:17 as he writes, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” WE OUGHT TO LIVE TO SERVE GOD AND TO GIVE THANKS TO GOD IN ALL THINGS!

· As we praise God by serving him in all of those things, we naturally are lead to EVANGELISM because we are sharing the gospel in everything that we do! THE GREAT COMMISSION ISN’T JUST A BOOK OF ACTS MISSION, or an EARLY CHURCH MISSION, IT’S A MISSION THAT REALLY BEGAN IN GENESIS AND CONTINUES ON TO THIS DAY!

o The way that we discipline a child, or the way that we speak to our spouse, or the way that we work Monday-Friday should speak the gospel to people!

OUR LIVES SHOULD BE A LIVING EXAMPLE OF PRAISE IN EVERYTHING THAT WE DO WHICH WILL THEN SHOW THE GOSPEL TO THE WORLD AROUND US! NO MATTER WHAT IS GOING ON, NO MATTER HOW BROKEN WE FEEL, WE CAN PRAISE THE LORD THROUGH OUR ACTIONS EVERYDAY!

And God is so worthy of that praise! As we prepare to close today, we are going to sing ONLY A HOLY GOD. This song fits so well with what DAVID SANG ABOUT TODAY! We praise God not because of how perfect our lives are, but BECAUSE OF GOD’S HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS! I’d encourage you as we sing this song to TRULY MEDITATE ON THE WORDS AND TO SING THEM OUT IN PRAISE FOR OUR GREAT GOD!

(PRAY)

BENEDICTION: