Psalm 17

I. INTRODUCTION.

- Do you struggle to pray? It's not always easy to pray. It takes practice. Some may be better with words, but I want you to consider your position when you pray. Do you know how to pray? What I hope you see in Psalm 17 is a Faithful Way to Pray. Some of you are new to the church. Some have been here for a little while. And there are some in our congregation that have been here for a long while. I have good news for you this morning. The Bible itself teaches us how to pray. How to talk to God in a way that is pleasing to Him and in such a way that will strengthen us.

- This entire Psalm is a prayer. But it's much more than just asking God for something. In his prayer, David also defends his postion before God. In other words, he calls upon God to remember his position. He also talks to God about his problem. Not as if God doesn’t already know what’s going on, but to acknowledge that he knows that God is his only hope. And last, but not least, he expresses his firm confidence in God and his expectation that God will be true to His word. David is truly a man after God's own heart. He takes himself, his problems and his requests before his God and trusts God with the results. This is true prayer. This is a Faithful Way to Pray.

- As I was preparing my sermon, I thought about my relationship with my son. He and I both train martial arts. We’re both progressing through the art of Taekwondo. In the discipline of Taekwondo, there are 5 tenets or principles within the art. One of those tenets is Perseverance. He and I are both learning the discipline of perseverance in the physical and mental struggles of progressing through the system of Taekwondo and thinking about the different things that I struggle with compared to the things that my 7 year old son struggles with has helped me understand how Psalm 17 can and should be applied to Christian life. Consider this. His idea of perseverance is much different than mine. Would you agree? He has things that he has to deal with and I have things to deal with, and we both rely upon our instructor to show us the way. Sometimes he doesn’t want to go because he’d rather stay home and play. Sometimes I don’t want to go because my back hurts. Sometimes, both of us struggle in class because we don’t do what we know we should do, simply because we haven’t practiced it enough. That’s where the perseverance comes in. Our struggles may be different, but we both have something in common. Going through the struggles and trusting our instructor is disciplining us to the idea of perseverance. Now when we read this Psalm, we’ll likely see that our struggles are very different than those David was dealing with, but we also have something in common with him. We also must rely on our Heavenly instructor to get us through. We are all totally dependent upon Him for our position. We're dependent upon Him for help with our problems and dependent upon Him to keep His promises. So, David prays. And as we work our way through MPT David prays to God with the expectation that God will hear himself and protect him. And what I hope you take with you is a Faithful Way to Pray. If this is a faithful way to pray, and I believe it is and I also believe that you will also agree with me by the end of this sermon; then MPS we should pray the same way.

II. David prays, knowing his position.

- So, when he prays, he prays from that position. Look with me at Psalm 17:1. He's not just asking God, he's pleading with God. He's begging God. David knows that he is totally dependent upon God for being in this position and for keeping him in this position. But if you're not careful, as you read Psa. 17:3-5 you may be inclined to get a sense as if David is boasting within himself here, so to speak. You see he says things like “I do not have deceitful lips, there is nothing evil in me, with my mouth I will not sin, I follow you paths and my feet have not slipped.” It almost sounds like David is telling God just how good he's been or going to be, as if God is going to make His judgement about David based on his actions. But that's not the case and David knows it. David knows he's a sinner in the hands of God. David himself said in Psalm 51:5 that he was guilty before God when he was born. He said “I was sinful when my mother conceived me.” You see, David knows that the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, has come to him. Before he was born. He was born in a position of sin, if you will. David knew Romans 5:12 that is was through one man that sin entered the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned. David knew that before the Apostle Paul did. But yet he calls upon God to “hear a just cause.” How can this be? How can David be in the position of a sinner before God and be in a right position before God at the same time? It's because David also knew, before the Apostle Paul knew, Romans 5:19 that although through one man's disobedience the many were made sinner, even so through the obedience of the One the many would be made righteous. And what I want you to know is, the One Man that Paul was talking about in Romans 5 is the same One Man that David was talking about in Psalm 16. The LORD has declared unto David that faith in Jesus will result in eternal life. Through God's word, the gift of faith came to David and God's gift to him resulted in placing him in this position. Knowing all of this, David calls upon the LORD to remember this position. And you can clearly see that from his words in the text. Look at Psalm 17:2. He says “let my vindication come from You, for You see what is right.” It could also be said this way. May my judgement come from Your presence, may Your eyes behold what is upright. This is another great example of why we must seek to interpret Scripture with Scripture. It is written in Psalm 130:3,4 if You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O LORD, who could stand? David is well aware of this, and yet he is also well aware that “there is forgiveness with the LORD, that He may be feared.” In Psalm 143:2 David says to the LORD, “do not enter into judgement with Your servant, for in Your sight no man is righteous.” In other words, David knows he is not righteous in and of himself. But David knows he was forgiven and placed into a righteous position by the grace of God. It's from this position that he prays. And it's from this position that he works. David is not working for a position in salvation when he says “I have determined that my mouth will not sin, or my feet have not slipped; he's working from a position of salvation. And he's determined because of his position. Look what he says there in Psalm 17:4. He says it's “by the words from Your lips" that I have done these things. All of these things. His lips are free of deceit. He has determined that his mouth will not sin. He has avoided the ways of the violent and his feet have not slipped. This is all accomplished by God's power, not David's. As it is in the lives of those who have faith in Jesus today. So now, being in this position, David knows that Psalm 34:15 the eyes of the LORD are toward those who are in this position and His ears are open to their cry.

II. David prays, knowing his problem.

- Psalm 17:6 I call on You, God, because You will answer me; listen closely to me; hear what I say. He is confident that God hears him and God will answer him. God has said it and he believes it. So when David says to God “listen closely to me; hear what I say", he’s not telling God what to do; rather, it appears to me that, the Holy Spirit is reminding him that this time of prayer is to be taken very seriously, and, that it all depends upon God's will, not his own.

- You see that in what he says in Psalm 17:7 when he says, “Display the wonders of Your fiathful love, Savior of all who seek refuge from those who rebel against Your right hand.” David is simply calling upon the LORD to do what He has already promised to do. The Bible says in many places that God's faithful love endures forever. His lovingkindness is everlasting. Now this may manifest itself in different ways in your life. God may have decided to show you the wonders of His faithful love in the midst of suffering. He may have you healthy, wealthy and prosperous at the moment, but those are His decisions. I thought about the story in Daniel 4 of the three Hebrew boys, Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego. Most of you know the story. The wicked king Nebuchadnezzar orders everyone to bow down to the golden statue. The three boys refuse. He threatens to throw them in a burning furnace, but they are not afraid. God shows the wonder of His faithful love to them in this moment. They won't bow, the king has them bound up and thrown into the fire. Then something miraculous happens. The king sees four men in the fire and he said “the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” The king didn't know about the wonders of the faithful love of God up until this point, but those boys sure did. They trusted Him and he proved to them that He is a Savior of all who seek refuge from those who rebel against His right hand. In other words, to come against God's people is to come against God Himself.

- and so David prays, Psalm 17:8 Protect me as the pupil of you eye, hide me in the shadow of Your wings. Again, David is asking God to what God has already promised to do. He's asking God to keep His eye on Him and protect him, as if to cover him with his wings. Much like a mother hen would do for her chicks. She gives them extra special care and if you try to harm one of those little chicks, you'll understand what I'm talking about. This is intimate conversation that David is having with God. He understands that to stand in this position with God is to stand on holy ground. And so it is with us, today. Whether you've just begun your journey as a Christian, you've been saved a little while or a long while, the priviledge you have to pray to God for His protection is a blessing that has come to you at a very high price. It costed Jesus His life. Jesus was pierced because of our rebellilon. He was crushed because of our iniquities. The punishment that we deserve was laid upon Him and we are healed by His wounds. Which means, Jesus did all of that so that we could be in this position. You need to remember that when you pray.

- Now, you and I may never be in the same position that David was in as king of a nation and under direct attack from men who want to kill him, but we need help from God, just the same as David did, no matter what we're going through. Let's take a look at David's prayer. Look with me starting in Psalm 17:9-12. He prays, “Protect me, LORD, from the wicked who treat me violently, my deadly enemies who surround me. The are uncaring; their mouths speak arrogantly. They advance against me; now they surround me. They are determined to throw me to the ground. They are like a lion eager to tear, like a young lion lurking in ambush.” David is in big trouble. This is a prayer of desperation. These men want to kill him. And while we may never face this, we have brothers and sisters all over the world who are and we can pray for them. But we can pray with the same mindset and intensity that David prays with here, by making this prayer our own. Consider this. Take this prayer and make it your own. Whatever it is that you're going through, remember your position and present your case to God.

III. David prays, knowing the promises.

- Psalm 17:13-14 - Rise up, LORD! Confront him; bring him down. With your sword, save me from the wicked. With your hand, LORD, save me from men, from men of the world whose portion is in this life: You fill their bellies with what you have in store; their sons are satisfied, and thry leave their surplus to their children. In these verses, David is describing some differences between himself and men who are in a different position than he is. And by doing so, he is setting the stage to say that those who have been placed into a righteous position can and will never be satisfied with only their portion in this life. It is true that God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust, but only those who have this hope of eternal life in Jesus will be truly and eternally satisfied.

- Psalm 17:15 - But I will see Your face in righteousness; when I awake, I will be satisfied with Your presence. David knows that God will not abandon His people. He knows that faith in Jesus and the salvation that is found in Him is eternal. David also knows that his steps are ordered by God and his life is in God's hands. The LORD gives and the LORD takes away. And here in v. 15, it's as if David is saying here, “LORD, not my will, but Your will be done.” And so he says, “as for me, I will see Your face.” I believe that David is talking about seeing Jesus just as He is. In righteousness. In glory. In Heaven. This is what man was created for. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. David know it! He says, I will be satisfied in Your presence. Eternally! Satisfied!

- Christian, there is coming a time when we all will see Jesus face to face. What could be better than that?! It's no wonder to me that David says I will be satisfied with Your presence. He knows that once he's there, he will be there forever and ever. The hope he has of that promise is what sustains him in the midst of the struggle. The gift of God is eternal life. What more could you ask for? Some men are satisfied with earthly treasures. As for David, and I say as for all believers, he was not and we will not be completely satisfied until we see the face and presence of God. For David, that is now a reality. For us, the promise of eternal life is just as sure as the reality. Are you ready? Are you anxiously awaiting His appearing? While you wait, let me give you something to take with you on your journey. A few ways that will help you until Jesus comes back.

IV. CONCLUSION.

- Take this Psalm and make it your own. Use this as a template, if you will.

- 1. When you pray, remember your position. Whether you're a new Christian, you've been here for a little while or a long while, you are in this position because of the mercy and grace of God. Your sins were placed upon Jesus on the cross and His perfect righteousness was given to you as a free gift. You are in a position of eternal life and that, my beloved brethren, is eternal. The gift of God is irrevocable. It cannot be taken away. It cannot be lost.

- You must know that the soul of man can only be satisfied in God, in His face and in His presence. The satisfaction that is spoken of here cannot be found in this world. Knowing God’s will toward His people, the work that He completes in His people and the promise of being with Him in Heaven has prompted David to say, Psalm 17:15, “As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness: I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake.” Can you say that? When you read God's word and you pray His word back to Him, you will see that you have all you will ever need in this life and the life to come.

- 2. When you pray, pray like you mean it. God already knows everything. Yet He desires that you would pray to Him like the good Father that He is. He has revealed Himself and spoken to us through His word. May we humble ourselves and pray to Him without ceasing.

- 3. When you pray, remember God's promises. The Bible tells us that Jesus would come and destroy the works of the devil. And it happened. We're told that Jesus would come and save His people from their sins. It is finished. It was foretold that Jesus would suffer and die, be buried and on the third and appointed day he would rise up from the grave. That's all been taken care of. The Bible tells us that there were eyewitnesses that saw Him ascend back into Heaven and we know that He is now seated at the right hand of the Father. All of those prophecies have been fulfilled. God has kept His word in all of those promises. So now when we read the Scriptures that tell us that Jesus is praying for us and is going to one day come back to get us, we too should be able to say with the Apostle Paul; if God be for us, who can be against us? Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

- So then, I pray that, when you pray, you remember that one day we are going to see His face in righteousness. One day we will be completely satisfied in His presence. And until that day comes, I pray that God reminds us all that “nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our LORD.”