Refuge For A Slandered Heart

So who else likes to celebrate the coming of summer by driving down the road with the windows open listening to the radio? (Or with the top down, if you’re that kind of driver!) Maybe that was more of a “thing” twenty years ago, before most cars had air conditioning and DVD/MP3/Satellite radios. Maybe it’s because of my old radio career, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for good old local broadcast radio. Nowadays people can have their favorite music with them in just about every place they go, (and it’s only their favorite songs). But back in the day there was no good way to take music with you unless it was on a radio--and you didn’t get to control what songs came on when; that’s the program director’s job at the station! And there’s nothing like driving down the road and hearing a song come on the radio that fits your mood exactly.

In some ways, I suppose that’s a good way to think about our “Summer Psalms” series--consider the next ten weeks to be the sermonic equivalent of driving with the windows down listening to songs. Only the songs we are listening to aren’t programmed at a radio station somewhere; they are the perfect, living and active Word of God Himself. Never forget that the Psalms were written to be sung--that is why we take the time to sing the psalm that we are studying each week. And more than any other song on the radio that you might here, the psalms are powerful to speak the deepest cries of your heart before God.

And the psalm we have before us today is no exception. It is a song written by King David at a very difficult point in his life when he was not only suffering physically, but also under attack from slanderous enemies. So this psalm is his cry to God to deliver him from the physical suffering of his illness and the spiritual suffering of the slander and betrayal he was being subjected to.

And some of you are sitting here right now and thinking, “Yep--they’re playing my song!” Because you have been there, haven’t you? Maybe you’re there right now: You’re in a season of weakness--something has landed hard on you, and it’s weighing you down and crippling you emotionally and physically. Maybe you’re struggling with illness, or maybe it’s a hard circumstance in your job or your family--whatever the case, you’re laid low by it. But the worst part of it is that the people you should be able to count on in that struggle seem to be doing their best to hurt you as well! Instead of trying to help you through your weakness, they are piling on --instead of sympathy they’re ridiculing you; instead of offering you refuge and respite, they’re causing you more pain with their slanderous lies.

Maybe you’ve been there; maybe that’s where you’re at this morning. This psalm isn’t just an academic exercise for you this morning--David is singing a song of pain and anguish that you are living in. We don’t know exactly what the situation was that brought David to this point, but some commentators suggest that this was a psalm that he wrote when his own son Absalom had betrayed him and driven him from Jerusalem (2 Samuel 15), after a long whispering campaign where he accused his father of being an incompetent ruler (2 Samuel 15:3-4: “See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you… Oh that I were judge in the land! Then… I… would give justice!”)

Whatever the slander you are suffering in your weakness, you need to hear from God--you want to know from God’s Word how to respond to that onslaught, how to respond to it, how to find hope and peace in the midst of it. And I believe that this psalm before us this morning will help you do just that. What I aim to do this morning is to show you that David found a refuge from slander and suffering by focusing on the sufficiency of God’s promises to Him. And I want you to see how David kept his gaze fixed on God throughout this psalm--by clinging to what he knew about God, considering the enemies that he faced, and by committing himself to hope in God.

First, look at the way David clings to what he knows about God as he opens this song in verses 1-3: “Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him; the LORD protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies. The LORD sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health.” Now remember, this psalm was written when David was on a sickbed, suffering physically and suffering the hateful slander of his enemies. And where is his focus? Is he talking about those rotten, good-for-nothing skunks who are always tearing at him?

No, he’s not, is he? In each of the three opening verses of the psalm, who is the subject? The LORD! And you’ll notice that “LORD” is in all-capital letters, indicating that David is using the covenant name for God, YHWH--the name that recalls the covenant that God made with His people in the Old Testament. And when he says, “Blessed [or “happy”] is the one who considers the poor”, he is in essence standing on his own covenant faithfulness before the LORD. David had been faithful to the covenant God established. God laid out His heart for the poor in the Mosaic Law, telling them in Leviticus 19:10, for instance, “you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God”.

God tied His covenant faithfulness to the way His people treated the poor--and David says, “I have regarded the poor!” And so on the basis of his faithful covenant membership David expresses confidence in what he knows about God. In the face of the hateful slander he is suffering, David clings to what he knows about God and His promises: That God is faithful to His people. That Yahweh delivers His people in the day of trouble, He protects them, He keeps them alive, that they will be happy in “the Land”, that they will not be given over to their enemies, that the LORD will sustain them on their sickbed, that He will restore their health. Whatever else David may be suffering, however full of hatred and slander and malice his enemies may be, the first thing David knows is that God is faithful.

Then in verses 4-9 David goes on to considers the enemies that he faced, the enemies that were seeking to destroy him in the midst of his weakness. They are “kicking him when he’s down”, as it were. Verse 5: “My enemies say of me in malice, ‘When will he die, and his name perish?’” Here he is, laying on a sickbed, and they are saying “When is he going to die, already??”

Verse 6: “And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad”. They come to see him in his hospital room , full of concern and pity, but are only there so that they can have juicy details of his suffering to pass around. They whisper and gossip about him, “imagining the worst” (v. 7).

Verse 8 says, “They say, ‘A deadly thing is poured out on him; he will not rise again from where he lies.’” The phrase “a deadly thing poured out on him” here is literally translated “a thing of Belial has fastened upon him”--it is a phrase used to indicate a sign of God’s judgment on an evildoer. As David is languishing there on his sickbed, his enemies are telling everyone that it is because God is judging him for his wickedness! “God is making you suffer to punish you for your wickedness!”

And Verse 9 is the cruelest cut of all: “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” The phrase “lifted his heel” is probably a reference back to the story of Jacob and Esau, where Jacob “grasped his brother’s heel”--the idea being that David’s close friend betrayed and cheated him for his own gain.

David considers all of the evil that he has suffered at the hands of his enemies, and lays it all out before God. But if you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that before he makes any cry to God regarding his mortal enemies, he first cries out to God to deliver him from his worst enemy. Verse 4: “As for me, I said, ‘O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!’” Once again--where is David’s focus? Is it on those dirty rotten skunks who are slandering him on his sickbed? No--once again his focus is on Yahweh. He is not looking at the way his enemies are destroying him; he is looking at the way his sin will destroy him if he does not receive God’s grace!

Don’t make the mistake of reading in verse 4, “Heal me, for I have sinned against you” and equating sin with sickness, as if sickness is always the result of sin (as the prosperity Gospel wolves claim). David isn’t saying that he is sick because he sinned; he is saying that his sin is the real sickness that he needs rescued from! He is very honest about how his enemies are hurting him--there is no “stiff upper lip” or brushing their attacks aside as if they don’t matter. They hurt him, and they hurt him deeply. But see here that their betrayal of him doesn’t bother him as much as his betrayal of God in his sin! And before David asks God to deal with the wickedness of his enemies, he asks God to forgive his wickedness!

David found a refuge from slander and suffering by keeping his focus on the promises of God--he clung to what he knew about God, he considered the enemies that he faced, and David committed himself to hope in God. Look at verses 10–12: “But you, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them! By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me. But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever”. Once again, David’s focus is not on his enemies, but on Yahweh! Why is he happy that his enemies’ plots will fail? Because he wants them to suffer? No--the reason he looks forward to their downfall is because it will prove that God delights in him! More than his vindication before his enemies, more than his recovery from his suffering, what David wanted most was to see proof that God loved him!

David is able to rest in the knowledge that God would uphold him in the midst of the slander he was suffering and clear his name and vindicate him before his enemies because of his integrity (v. 12). The word “integrity” in Hebrew gives the idea of “perfection”, “innocence” or “purity”. David knows that he is innocent of the slanderous accusations his enemies are making against him; more than that, he knows that God knows he is innocent! He can say, “Lord, you see what they are saying about me; that they are lying about me!”, and he can leave it to God to sort out. He didn’t return slander for slander or reviling for reviling; his physical suffering did not cause him to lash out in pain and humiliation. It was enough for David to know that God knew he was innocent; and that He would bring justice at the right time.

Throughout this psalm, David shows us over and over that the way we respond to the slander of our enemies and the suffering of our bodies is to focus on the sufficiency of God’s promises! Our refuge from slander and suffering is found in the sufficiency of God’s promises to us, and we know that God will keep those promises to us because He kept them for His Son!

On the night when Jesus was betrayed, this Psalm was on His mind. As He reclined with His disciples at the Last Supper--one last meal with His dearest and closest friends in the world--this song was playing in His head. Because this psalm of suffering and slander, of pain and betrayal, was a prophecy of what Jesus was going to suffer. In John 13:18, He tells His disciples, “I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against Me’”, and then hands a piece of bread to Judas Iscariot, the deceiver, the false friend who would betray Jesus for the sake of thirty pieces of silver. Have you been stabbed in the back by a close friend who you thought you could trust? Who you depended on to help you, but who betrayed you for their own profit or advancement? Jesus has been there!

Jesus is the refuge for your slandered heart. Have you suffered from the hatred and animosity of people who took advantage of your pain and weakness to kick you when you were down? Jesus understands, because He has been there. When He came out of his trial by the Sanhedrin, He was blindfolded and beaten and mocked, “Prophesy! Who hit you??” (Luke 22:63). After Pilate delivered Him over to be crucified, the entire cohort of six hundred Roman soldiers garrisoned in Judea took out their frustrations on this helpless Jewish prisoner, dressing Him up in royal robes and crowning Him with thorns and mockingly bowing down to Him before beating Him in the head and leading Him to His death (Matt. 27:27ff). And on the Cross as He hung there, broken and bleeding, He was viciously mocked and berated by everyone from the religious leaders to the Roman soldiers to the people passing by--even the robbers crucified with Him mocked and ridiculed and slandered Him (Matt. 27:39-44). A deadly thing had befallen Him--and his enemies were overjoyed to watch Him die.

But the pain of His crucifixion was not the worst suffering that He faced on the Cross. Far worse than the physical suffering of the cross, a far more “deadly thing had fastened upon Him”. Your sin against God and mine fastened on Jesus on that Cross--He became a “thing of Belial” in God’s sight. Because your deepest need for healing is not the healing from the wounds of slander and treachery that you have suffered at others’ hands--your deepest need for healing is for the slander and treachery and hypocrisy you have inflicted on others.

The reason David did not ask God to deal with the slander and treachery of his enemies until he asked Him for healing from his own sin is that he had caused just as much suffering with his own treachery. For all of the pain he suffered at the hands of flattering enemies who stabbed him in the back, he was just as guilty of the same sin--ask Uriah the Hittite. Uriah was one of “David’s mighty men” (2 Samuel 23:39), one of an elite band of brothers who were King David’s most trusted, most elite inner circle.

Uriah was the most valiant in battle, the most loyal in heart, one of the greatest heroes in all of Israel, a man who pledged his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor to David--and David had him murdered in order to cover up the fact that he had been sleeping with his wife. And just like David, you have in your own life inflicted at least as much suffering with your own treachery as you have suffered yourself.

And that is why the cross of Jesus Christ stands for you today as such a monument of hope and grace and comfort--He is not only the refuge for your slandered heart, but Jesus is the redemption for your slanderous sins! He suffered the penalty for your slander. God poured out the full measure of His wrath on Him, not because He deserved it, but because you did. Jesus suffered unjust slander from His enemies, and He suffered the punishment for the slander you have hurled at others.

Jesus Christ knows what you are going through this morning, as you struggle with the slander and betrayal you are facing. He has been there--in your darkest, bleakest moments of betrayal and pain, you still cannot even glimpse the depths of anguish that He endured for your sake. And more than that, He has paid the penalty before God for the depths of anguish you have inflicted on others. For the times when you have been stabbed in the back and the times when the knife has been in your hand. For the times when you have been crushed by false accusations and lies and the times when you have let a lie about someone linger so that you could get ahead.

This Table has been set for you this morning by hands that have been scarred by hatred and violence and slander and betrayal--He sets this table as one who knows what you have endured. So come to this Table to receive His peace and comfort. And more than that, this Table has been set for you by One who suffered that hatred and violence and slander and betrayal in your place. It was your sins of treachery, lies and betrayal that put Him on that Cross, and it was His love for you that kept Him there.

And when you come to Him in repentance for that sin and trust in Him alone as your Substitute, He will uphold you because of His integrity--He will surely keep His promise that “whoever comes to Me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). If you will hear His voice and come to Him, He will give you eternal life, and you will never perish, and no slander or treachery or pain or heartbreak will ever pluck you out of His hand, no condemnation for your own sin will stand against you, and you will stand in His presence forever.

So hear His invitation today--He promises to be a refuge for your slandered heart, and your redemption for your slanderous sins. So take your eyes off of the slander and hatred you have suffered, and fix your eyes on your Refuge and your Redemption, Jesus Christ!