Psalm 108
Notes
Transcript
A Song, a Psalm of David.
My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing, I will sing praises, even with my soul.
Awake, harp and lyre; I will awaken the dawn!
I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples, And I will sing praises to You among the nations.
For Your lovingkindness is great above the heavens, And Your truth reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, And Your glory above all the earth.
That Your beloved may be delivered, Save with Your right hand, and answer me!
God has spoken in His holiness: “I will exult, I will portion out Shechem And measure out the valley of Succoth.
“Gilead is Mine, Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet of My head; Judah is My scepter.
“Moab is My washbowl; Over Edom I shall throw My shoe; Over Philistia I will shout aloud.”
Who will bring me into the besieged city? Who will lead me to Edom?
Have not You Yourself, O God, rejected us? And will You not go forth with our armies, O God?
Oh give us help against the adversary, For deliverance by man is in vain.
Through God we will do valiantly, And it is He who shall tread down our adversaries.
Introduction
Introduction
As my opportunity to preach has been increased to the last Sunday of the month, I wanted to be able to supplement our worship with sermons from the Old Testament.
Building upon our understanding of the building story that God has revealed to us and the preaching of Philip in the New Testament.
If I do my job correctly, our understanding of God’s work through the Old Testament will grow and that will greatly enhance our understanding of God’s work in the New Testament.
God is smart.
Every event in history is His wise weaving of a tapestry of events that work out His will, which He reveals to us in His scripture.
And this scripture builds this story, so that as we look back to the Old Testament through the more full revelation of the New Testament, we can see the building blocks of this plan unfold.
And that is how we study the Old Testament; studying it to show those foundational building blocks to reveal more of the truths that God has for us.
We have broken up the Old Testament into four sections of categories: Genesis - Deuteronomy are the Pentateuch, Joshua - Esther are the Historical Books, Job - Song of Solomon are the Poetical Books, and Isaiah - Malachi are the Prophets.
Each of these categories are looked at in certain ways and studied in certain ways, and I aim to show, as I preach in each type, some of the ways we study them to help you in your personal studies.
No matter what type of book we are in, we are to look at it in light of the whole Bible.
What is this passage saying that helps me understand its part in the great tapestry of God’s story which has as its main focus who Christ is, and what He has done.
As we use that lens to look at our Psalm today, I want to show us how this song written hundreds of years ago, can help us live our Christian lives today, and point us to the Messiah that the author and compiler of it were looking forward to when it was written and compiled.
With that in our minds, let’s look at this Psalm today and pray that it helps us see our savior in a fuller light.
Psalm 108 written by David is what is called a Lament.
A lament is Psalm written to cry out to God in a time of trouble or suffering.
The general pattern they have is a cry out to God in some kind of suffering, followed by a praise to God for His glorious help.
The Psalms help us express all sorts of emotions, happiness, sadness, pain, and mourning.
They can give us a voice in times where we do not even know what to say.
What makes Psalm 108 unique is that it is actually a combination of parts of 2 other Psalms: Psalm 57 and Psalm 60.
108 takes the second part of the two laments, the glories, and combines them together into one new song.
57 and 60 were Psalms where David is crying out to God for help, we can see in the titles of them what help he needed.
For the choir director; set to Mikhtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.
And
For the choir director; according to Mikhtam of David, to teach; when he struggled with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and Joab returned, and smote twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt.
So either David, or a later compiler, took the endings of these two psalms and made a new psalm from them, like a double hit of God’s glorious power over the enemies of His king.
And when this was done, it changed the tone of the psalm.
The two sources were Psalms of specific circumstances of David. They were particular times in his life where he struggled.
But when they were put together, the scope of them is expanded.
Expanded to produce a prayer for God to be finally victorious over all of His enemies.
And so we join with the author to pray the same prayer, to sing the same song, that we would understand with the psalmist that God will be victorious in the end.
And so I this Psalm teaches us that…
Every Believer must look to the Lord for victory.
Every Believer must look to the Lord for victory.
I. Because the Lord is Above All Things v. 1-5
I. Because the Lord is Above All Things v. 1-5
My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing, I will sing praises, even with my soul.
Awake, harp and lyre; I will awaken the dawn!
I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples, And I will sing praises to You among the nations.
For Your lovingkindness is great above the heavens, And Your truth reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, And Your glory above all the earth.
These 5 verses are taken from the glory section of Psalm 57.
And in that psalm David is lamenting over having to run for his life from King Saul.
God had selected David to be king over Saul’s heirs, because Saul had become prideful in hisself and took things into his own hands.
So Saul, taking things into his own hands again, chases after David to get rid of the competition.
In his pride, he believed he could over turn the decision of God, the very reason God removed him in the first place.
David runs for his life and takes refuge in a cave.
So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s household heard of it, they went down there to him.
Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.
Quite a motley crew David began to amass.
And if we were looking at this strictly through the lens of man’s understanding, we would compare the trained professional army that was with Saul, to the militia of distressed, indebted, discontented amateurs that David had become captain to, and we wouldn’t think highly of his chances.
So David writes this psalm looking at how outlandish his situation was.
So with this context in mind, let’s look at the suffering part of Psalm 57.
Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, For my soul takes refuge in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge Until destruction passes by.
I will cry to God Most High, To God who accomplishes all things for me.
He will send from heaven and save me; He reproaches him who tramples upon me. Selah. God will send forth His lovingkindness and His truth.
My soul is among lions; I must lie among those who breathe forth fire, Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows And their tongue a sharp sword.
Be exalted above the heavens, O God; Let Your glory be above all the earth.
They have prepared a net for my steps; My soul is bowed down; They dug a pit before me; They themselves have fallen into the midst of it. Selah.
So in the scales of men, David had no chance, but David is looking above, he is weighing things with God on his side of the balance.
Even though verse 6 says that his enemies have set a net for his feet and dug a pit for him, they will fall into it themselves.
And this is so true with how God works things out.
God delights in turning things upside down, he loves to show His wisdom trumps man’s wisdom every single time.
From the sin of Adam to the life of Joseph in Egypt, to Christ’s life and death and resurrection, He is flipping around the intended evil of His enemies to the praise of His goodness and glory.
This is a universal fact. Look at what Paul shows us about His wisdom in
Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;
but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;
the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;
If the rulers of this age, the evil men and demons had understood the full extent of what God was doing, they would not have conspired together to murder Him on that cross.
But God, in His wisdom that is above, worked through their evil intent to our salvation and His glory in a way that only He could.
Not working with cards dealt to Him, but intricately working out a plan made before the foundation of the world, predestined before the ages, which cannot compute in our little, weak minds, to use their wickedness for His glory.
And Christ knew this, and trusted in this perfectly, in our place.
The gospels tell us that Christ stood before the rulers of His day, the Jewish leaders and the Roman leaders.
They thought they were in charge, they thought they had power over Him.
John tells of Christ standing silent before Pilate, and was amazed that Jesus was not groveling for His life before him.
So Pilate said to Him, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?”
Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”
Jesus knew that God was above all things, like the psalmist.
David looked at his situation and said
My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing, I will sing praises, even with my soul.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, And Your glory above all the earth.
He could sing joyfully, not because his situation was stacked in his favor in man’s eyes, it wasn’t, but because God had His thumb on the scale.
Christ had the same joy in front of Pontius Pilate. Hebrews tells us
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
We look to the Lord for victory for the same reasons. He is worthy to be praised even in the sufferings of life.
Even in trial His lovingkindness is great above the heavens, His truth reaches to the skies.
He is using these hardships for His exaltation, and His glory.
So let us, with the early Christians rejoice in them, that we would be counted worthy to endure the sufferings of Christ, not in some self-flagelation, but because these are the very tools that point us to Him.
Secondly, we look to God for our victory…
II. Because God is Ruler of All Things v. 6-9
II. Because God is Ruler of All Things v. 6-9
That Your beloved may be delivered, Save with Your right hand, and answer me!
God has spoken in His holiness: “I will exult, I will portion out Shechem And measure out the valley of Succoth.
“Gilead is Mine, Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet of My head; Judah is My scepter.
“Moab is My washbowl; Over Edom I shall throw My shoe; Over Philistia I will shout aloud.”
This next part of our psalm is taken from the glory section of Psalm 60.
David has become King of Israel, just as God promised, and God in 2 Samuel makes a covenant with him that his family will always be on the throne.
And in this covenant the ultimate Son of David, the messiah, would sit in the throne of the world.
In 2 Samuel 8, the some of the triumphs of King David over the surrounding enemies of Israel are listed.
We get to see the list of these after they happened, David took this city, David defeated this king, David plundered this much… but David had to actually fight in these battles.
David had to trust God, but his enemies didn’t just hand over their land and stuff.
His trusting meant he actually had to pick up the sword, make the plans, and fight.
And sometimes, it didn’t look promising, in the midst of the battle.
Look at the suffering section of Psalm 60.
O God, You have rejected us. You have broken us; You have been angry; O, restore us.
You have made the land quake, You have split it open; Heal its breaches, for it totters.
You have made Your people experience hardship; You have given us wine to drink that makes us stagger.
You have given a banner to those who fear You, That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.
That Your beloved may be delivered, Save with Your right hand, and answer us!
So how did David do it? He remembered that God is in charge.
He went into battle with the understanding that God was the real king, not just over Israel, but over the whole universe.
Look at verses 6-7
That Your beloved may be delivered, Save with Your right hand, and answer me!
God has spoken in His holiness: “I will exult, I will portion out Shechem And measure out the valley of Succoth.
He prays to the King and asks for His salvation, he looks for His answer.
And God speaks, and when He does He speaks in His holiness.
To say that God has spoken in His holiness, is to say that it’s a sure thing; that it will happen.
God is holy, and cannot go back on His word.
As He promises something, that thing will happen, and you can trust it to the end of time.
The Sun may fail to rise tomorrow, but if God has said something will happen, that will never fail.
And so as David went to battle against his enemies, no matter how the battle looked from man’s perspective, he trusted and relied on the word that God had spoken in His holiness.
This is a song, a type of poetry, so David is going to tease that out in poetic fashion in order to evoke an emotional response.
He starts to list the enemies of God, and what God is going to do. Listen, this is beautiful.
God has spoken in His holiness: “I will exult, I will portion out Shechem And measure out the valley of Succoth.
“Gilead is Mine, Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet of My head; Judah is My scepter.
“Moab is My washbowl; Over Edom I shall throw My shoe; Over Philistia I will shout aloud.”
He gives us a geography lesson.
He starts to list off all of these places, but the places aren’t as important as what God is going to do in them.
You see each of these places that God is going to exult or triumph in, may have had their own religions.
Maybe they worshipped this small “g” god here, and this other idol over their.
But these gods were false. The real God is King of kings, over all of the earth.
And in His reign as king He lays down His sovereign will over all of His enemies.
Shechem is rich? God will portion them out.
Succoth is full of wealth? God will measure them out.
“Gilead is Mine, Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet of My head; Judah is My scepter.
David knew who laid claim over the land. All of these were places in Israel, inheritances God had personally given to the tribes of His chosen people.
He was the One they looked to for protection, David was just the under-king to the real King of Israel.
Verse 9 is the peak of the poetry here.
“Moab is My washbowl; Over Edom I shall throw My shoe; Over Philistia I will shout aloud.”
What does this mean?
You may recognize some of these names as nations that the Hebrews warred with constantly.
They were always picking fights with the Jews.
They were surrounded by them.
The Moabites were on the East of Israel, the Edomites to the south, and the Philistines to the west.
In danger on all sides, David had to be constantly on alert for incursions from his enemies.
But God was not concerned. In fact, these nations were put there to be a constant reminder to the Jews need to rely on His strength.
No matter how strong the nation became, God was stronger.
They mocked the Jews for their faith.
They would amass wealth, arms, and soldiers to do battle.
They only had an earthly view though. They thought that if they could just have more numbers and more spears and more horses, then they could defeat the people of God.
But what was God’s response?
My favorite view of this line is that while the enemies of God are sharpening their swords and spears; while they are mustering for battle; putting on their armor; getting psyched up for battle; God is sitting down to take off his sandals and washing His feet.
They are like mosquitos swirling around His head.
In their own minds they are mounting a coup against His kingship, but God is not in the least but concerned.
He looks up, throws His shoe, and they all fall down, utterly stunned while He finishes washing His feet.
Psalm 2 describes exactly this
Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing?
The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
“Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!”
He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.
Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying,
“But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.
‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’ ”
Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth.
Worship the Lord with reverence And rejoice with trembling.
Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
Brother and sister, we have to do what the King says, but as we do it we can remember the great promise that He has given us.
He has spoken in His holiness, it will not fail: He will exult, He will triumph over all of His enemies.
And remembering this, as citizens of His kingdom, we will share in this victory.
Let us go on with the faith of David to our own battles.
We have victory in the Lord because He is above all things, He is ruler of all things, and…
III. Because God is Victorious Over All Things v. 10-13
III. Because God is Victorious Over All Things v. 10-13
Who will bring me into the besieged city? Who will lead me to Edom?
Have not You Yourself, O God, rejected us? And will You not go forth with our armies, O God?
Oh give us help against the adversary, For deliverance by man is in vain.
Through God we will do valiantly, And it is He who shall tread down our adversaries.
David fights the battles of the Lord, but he can not do it alone.
He knows this and asks the question, who will go with me, who will lead me in the fight against the enemy?
If God doesn’t go, if God rejects Him, how can He succeed?
So he requests that God goes with him, because if He doesn’t he will fail.
This is true for the battles that he fought against Moab, Edom, and Philistia, but through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the writing of these words we see a prophecy unfold in this.
God is using David as an illustration of the reality of our fights with our enemies now, and into the last days.
Let’s turn to the Prophet Isaiah to see a little more of this.
Who is this who comes from Edom, With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah, This One who is majestic in His apparel, Marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press?
“I have trodden the wine trough alone, And from the peoples there was no man with Me. I also trod them in My anger And trampled them in My wrath; And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, And I stained all My raiment.
“For the day of vengeance was in My heart, And My year of redemption has come.
“I looked, and there was no one to help, And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold; So My own arm brought salvation to Me, And My wrath upheld Me.
“I trod down the peoples in My anger And made them drunk in My wrath, And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, According to all that the Lord has granted us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has granted them according to His compassion And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses.
For He said, “Surely, they are My people, Sons who will not deal falsely.” So He became their Savior.
In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.
David asks who will lead me to Edom, and Isaiah answers Who is this who comes from Edom.
In other words, He is coming back from Edom victorious.
He has won the battle.
David answer comes in the form of a Savior, not just a savior from the earthly enemies but one who
In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.
The religions of this world claim that we can have victory in this life by our own power.
The world says that we can, through wealth and power, overcome ourselves.
They clamor about for some semblance of temporary happiness by their own power.
But they will fail.
We, on the other hand, know that we need help. That we cannot make it on our own. We need a savior with a strong arm to lift us up and fight our battles for us.
When we look at who will go with us to battle, we see One who is already walking back in triumph.
This is the gospel.
This is Christ winning our ultimate battle with sin in our place and for us.
When we look around in desperation, wondering what are we going to do with this sin.
How are we going to defeat this greatest enemy of our life, our Savior goes in our place and comes back before us.
We have no hope in ourselves, but our Lord has already taken His seat in victory, washed His feet, threw off His shoe, and shouted in triumph over it.
Look with me to the last verse of our psalm.
Through God we will do valiantly, And it is He who shall tread down our adversaries.
At the end of this psalm we see the simple declaration that God is how we succeed in battle.
Through God we can be valiant.
That’s not a word we use too often any more.
It means to have the ability, the strength to perform, to be the hero.
When it comes to the end of time, we will recognize that ever battle we fought successfully, even the battle of our salvation from our sin, was won through God.
Because He tread down our enemies.
Conclusion
Conclusion
This is another allusion.
Can anyone think of something else that God will tread down?
The very first promise of the gospel is back in Genesis 3 when God promises the wicked serpent that the promised seed will crush his head.
The greatest enemy that we face is our own sin, handed down to us through our father Adam, who was tricked by the serpent.
Of all the earthly battles we face, this is one we cannot win on our own, but our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has won it in our place.
With this we can go into our daily battles and face them with courage, as heroes, because like David we know that the Lord will be victorious in the end.
We look at all the political machinations going on around us, all the wars and rumors of wars, and we are not frightened.
And if we are, we shouldn’t be.
Christian, look to your savior, trust Him in the heat of battle.
If you had to fight them in your own strength you would be shaking in your boots, but you don’t have to fight them by yourself.
You have a champion in Jesus Christ, a champion who laughs at the pride of His enemies.
And if you don’t have Jesus as your champion, today is the day to stop trusting in your own strength, and look to the One who has already triumphed and is seated on the throne, King over all kings and Lord over all lords.
May all of our hearts be steadfast, and all of our souls sing, even in the midst of battle.