Vengence is Mine

Intro: I was tempted to skip this Psalm because it has such similar themes to some of the ones we have already done and ones that are yet ahead of us. However, the more I read it and meditated on it I realized that this Psalm provides us with an interesting opportunity. That opportunity is to in a sense take apart David’s prayer and look at it piece by piece and in so doing we might just find it relatable. Why do so many of the Psalms amount to a cry for help in the midst of suffering and pain? We live in a fallen world and everyday is a reminder that in our fallenness we must cry out to God. Our vindication must come from only Him and only through Him in Christ. We make a royal mess of it when we spend our days trying to vindicate ourselves. Notice how this Psalm ends. It ends on a high note. So if we want to get from point A to B lets look at David’s prayer.

Vindication

Psalm 17:1–5 “Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit! From your presence let my vindication come! Let your eyes behold the right! You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress. With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent. My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped.”

David is very confident in his innocence. It is important to remember that David is referring in this Psalm to what is a specific accusation or attack. He is not claiming sinlessness he is claiming blamelessness.

Everyone who is falsely accused desires vindication. Everyone who seeks what is right in a sea of wrong desires vindication.

While it is not wrong to desire it, is personal vindication our highest goal? No, however; David seems to approach vindication a little differently than that. When you look at the Psalms as a whole you realize that David wants to be vindicated not only for his personal relief from suffering, but also because he believes that God is glorified when what is true is made fully known. We also see in the Psalms that from David’s perspective an assault on God’s people is an assault on the character of God.

Illustration: There will come a day when we are totally vindicated for defending a pro-life position on abortion. When Christ is reigning during the Millennial Kingdom do you think there will be a single abortion? No, but we don’t hold to this position because of some self-oriented desire to say “I told you so!” We hold to this position because it is true and the sanctity of life is a doctrine that glorifies God. To sum it up, when we are vindicated for believing and holding to true things it will bring honor and glory to God. Therefore if that is our motivation for vindication we are justified in that desire.

God I desire to be vindicated for your glory!

We must carefully examine our desire for vindication and make sure that it is primarily about God’s glory. Otherwise we will quickly get into a speck vs beam situation.

Examination

This is why we have to be careful about demanding vindication. Because shortly after our demand for vindication we may find ourselves under the examination of God.

Psalm 17:3 “You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.”

Tried

Visited (examined)

Tested

The result of this kind of examination is often conviction.

God examines you and finds you wanting in some area of your life or heart. The Holy Spirit convicts us of that sin what ever it may be, but what is conviction?

First, it is not simply a guilty conscience or even shame over sin. Such feelings are naturally experienced by almost everyone. But this is not true conviction of sin.

Second, conviction of sin is not a sense of trepidation or a foreboding of divine punishment. These feelings, too, are commonly experienced in the hearts and minds of sinners. But, again, true conviction of sin is something different.

Third, conviction of sin is not merely knowledge of right and wrong; it is not an assent to Scripture’s teaching about sin.

The word convict is a translation of a Greek word, which means “to convince someone of the truth; to reprove; to accuse, refute, or cross-examine a witness.”

The first step of conviction is the Holy Spirit revealing our sin to us. The second step of conviction is to experience the sheer loathsomeness of sin, to be disgusted by it. This only happens when we view our sin within the context of the holiness of God.

Isaiah 6:5 “And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!””

Psalm 51:4 “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.”

Though it may be painful we should desire it. Psalm 139:23 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!”

Retaliation

Psalm 17:3–4 “You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress. With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent.”

David had determined that retaliation would not be a part of his response.

For the sake of clarity I want to define two terms for the sake of our discussion.

Reacting - this is retaliating, losing your temper etc

Responding - this is a deliberate attempt to respond biblically to a difficult circumstance or wrong done to you.

Responding biblically has to be done with purpose and forethought. If you just allow yourself to react all the time it is your flesh that is in control.

We will never live biblically successful lives if we are consistently reacting and retaliating rather than remaining on the path that God has called us to take.

It doesn’t take any purpose or forethought to lose your temper, but it takes quite a bit to respond biblically.

Probably all of us have someone in our lives that tests us in this.

The example I turn to over and over again is Joseph with Potiphar’s wife. Joseph clearly had a prepared heart. If you are not doing your spiritual maintance then you are reacting to life rather than biblically responding.

Foundations

What is David standing on? On what basis does he make his requests?

Psalm 17:5 “My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped.”

One reason why David can cry out for vindication with such confidence is that he was also confident that he was in the will of God. We don’t hear him speaking like this when he got caught with Bathsheba.

When you are taking apart your pain and looking at the pieces individually ask yourself what path you are on. What are the foundations upon which I have built my life that I can rely and depend on? If your answer does not start with the gospel you have some foundational work to do.

Communication

Psalm 17:6 “I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words.”

David was confident that God heard his prayer.

Charles Spurgeon commenting on this verse said “Thou hast always heard me, O my Lord, and therefore I have the utmost confidence in again approaching thine altar. Experience is a blessed teacher. He who has tried the faithfulness of God in hours of need, has great boldness in laying his case before the throne.”

We allow our pain to do one of two things: drive us from God or drive us to God.

If you want to use your pain to draw you ever nearer to the Savior you must pray.

Pray fervently

Pray honestly

Protection

Psalm 17:7–9 “Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand. Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings, from the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me.”

I wont rehash this again because we have spent sufficient time on the concept of the Lord being our refuge. You may need to go back and reread Psalm 11 or go back listen to our discussion of that passage.

What I want to focus on here is that God’s protection of us is an expression of His love for us. He wondrously shows His stedfast love by sheltering us under His wings.

His protection of us comes as naturally to Him as guarding our eyes comes to us.

Confrontation

Psalm 17:10–14 “They close their hearts to pity; with their mouths they speak arrogantly. They have now surrounded our steps; they set their eyes to cast us to the ground. He is like a lion eager to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush. Arise, O Lord! Confront him, subdue him! Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword, from men by your hand, O Lord, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants.”

Those that are the cause of David’s problems are:

Violent

Greedy

Earthy

Satisfaction

Psalm 17:15 “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.”

By the end of the Psalm we can feel David’s emotional state shift. Even though in this instance it wasn’t wrong from him to desire vindication by the end of the Psalm he remembers where satisfaction really comes from. It comes from the presence of God.

“I will behold your face in righteousness...”

“I will be satisfied in your presence.”