Summer in the Psalms: Learning to Be Angry/cope

Big Idea:

Tension: How do God’s people cope with the evil of the world?

Resolution: By identifying it as sin and trusting in God’s gracious salvation.

Exegetical Idea: God’s people cope with evil by identifying it as sin and trusting in God’s gracious salvation.

Theological Idea: Christians in cope with evil by identifying it as sin and trusting that God saves through Christ.

Homiletical Idea: We cope with evil by calling it sin and trusting in Christ’s salvation.

Introduction

J.D. Vance’s bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy tells the story of his family moving from the mountains of Kentucky to his home in the factory town of Middletown, Ohio. There, Vance tells the tragic story of how he grew up with a drug addicted mother who kept moving from man to man, continually uprooting him and his sister. He tells the story of how she took advantage of him and continued to ask for money only to spend it all on drugs. As you read the story, there should be this agony welling up inside of you, this sense that you get that this is not the way that things are supposed to be. And Vance’s story is not unique. We all know many people who grew up in families that were abusive. Or we have a friend who has betrayed us. Or someone that we know has been left destitute bby the people that they cared abbout the most. There are dark things that human beings do to one another. Maybe you grew up in a situation like that, where someone that you knew and loved, someone who was supposed to protect you, someone who was supposed to take care of you, let you down and abandoned you. When we look at our culture, at the society that we live in, and we see all the evil around us, how are we supposed to cope with it? How do we make sense of all the brokenness in our world? How do we make sense of all the hurt that we see. How do we make sense of the evil that we have done to each other/? How do we cope with the evil of this world?

Thankfully, the Psalms tell us how to do that. And the Psalms give us two tools for coping with the evil in our lives and the evil in our world. We cope with the evil in this world by calling it sin and by trusting in Christ’s salvation. Let’s start with what it means to call evil, sin.

Calling it sin

The Fool: Look in vs. 1. The Psalmist says that the “fool” says in his heart. Now, that is the Hebrew word Nabal. And there is actually someone named “Nabal” that David knew, and you can read about Nabal in . Now, Nabal was a rich man, whose farmers were out in the fields. And David and his men were travelling through that area and they saw Nabal’s men, and they were weak and vulnerable, so David and his men stayed with Nabbal’s shepherds and protected him. So later on, David and his men were hungry and they were travelling through close to Nabal’s estate, and David sent a message asking Nabal for help. And Nabal basically told him to get lost. Now, you can read aobut the rest of that in and what happened after that. What is interesting for us, is that David viewed Nabal as the epitome of the fool, the epitome of the unjust person. He felt that he was someone who was a stereotypical wicked person. So when David is writing this, and he says that “the fool” he is saying, “Nabal, that foolish person, people like him.”

Practical Atheism: And what the foolish person is, is he is a practical atheist. Now you’ll notice that David describes the fool as one who says in his heart, “there is no God.” Now, maybe the foolish person wouldn’t come right out and say it, maybe they would actually say the opposite, but in his heart, he says ,”there is no God.” Maybe you have known somebody like this, who maye they say they’re a Christian, they say that they love Jesus, but when you look at their life, they do not walk according to God’s ways, they do not walk in line with Jesus, they do not follow him. Maybe with their mouths they say they believe in God, but in their hearts, they say, “there is no God.” They deny that God is holy, they deny that God is just, they deny that God is righteous. And of course, as we see thorughout vs. 1, that leads to this progression. So first they say in their heart there is no God, ut then they become “corrupt.” It says they do “abominable deeds.” Now, this word, “abominabble deeds” is used elsewhere to describe child sacrifice and all kinds of horrific things. So you see how simply this small decision to say, “God does not exist” in the ehart snowballs into the worst kinds of deeds imaginable. yet, the wickedness is not over, because the first verse ends by saying, “there is not one who does good.” And what he means by that, I think, is that these people who have these abominabble deeds in them no longer do good at all. They walk away from good. They lose all sense of morality. They lose all sense of right and wrong. They don’t want to walk righteously.

Some of you need to learn how to talk this way: Now, here is what I want to say. We need to learn how to do what David does here. Because David looks at this injustice that happens to him, he looks at this person who wrongs him, and he is willing to call it what it is: sin. We are so hesitant today to call sin sin. And the result is that we have lost the aiblity to understand and describe the evil that we have experienced. Some of you have experienced, horrific, awful, destructive things. Someone you trusted has harmed you, has violently hurt you, has betrayed you and broken your trust. And our society would try to tell you that its culture, or that its just media exposure or give you some other small explanation. And without denying the nugget of truth in some of those, we need to look abbuse in its eyes and call it what it is: sin. Listen, it’s not okay. It’s not just something that happened. THis person sinned. They sinned against you. It was wicked. It was evil. It was destructive. It hurt you. We need to learn how to do what David is, to analyzie it. This is one of the hardest things that we have to do, but it is so important. When we feel like someoen has hurt us, we need to look at what they did, and understand that, at least in some small way, they sinned against us. If we never learn how to do that, then we will always be looking for an explanation that never quite matches up. But if we see that people are sinners, then we come to a much more profound understanding of what we’ve had to experience.

The Lord looks down: Of course, while they are pretending in their hearts that God does not exist, God is watching them. It says in vs. 2 that the Lord looks down on teh chidlren of man to see if there are any who unerstand who seek after God.” God is looking down to see if anyone gets it, if anyone is paying attention, if anyone is walking righteously. The word here for “watch” kind of comes from this word for “rocky pinnacle.” So you can imagine this picture of a hawk or an eagle looking down on the desert landscape from the cliffs abbove, well that is the picture of God looking down at man. God is looking down like an eagle watching the desert floor to see if there is anyone who is not like this, anyone who does not say that he has done evil. He is up high, and he is looking down to see if there is anyone who is walking according to his ways.

They have all turned aside.... Now, what the Lord sees is highly disappointing. Becauyse there is nobody that he can find who walks according to his ways. Nobody who seeks him. Nobody who does what is right. Nobody who says no to what is wrong. Now this word for “corrupt” is like sour milk. So if you leave milk for too long it sours, well if someone allows this unbelief to stir in their hearts for too long, it corrupts them. And you’ll notice in vs. 3 that there is nobody who does what is good. That is repeated from vs. 1, but it is used to include all of mankind. Nobody walks according to God’s ways. Nobody seeks him. “Not even one.”

All the evildooers.... In fact, in vs. 4, he will call them “evildoers”. These are people who eat up God’s people, who eat up any righteous people like bread. They have no knowledge, and not only do they say with their hearts that there is no God, ut they say with their mouths that they will not call upon the Lord. They have totally denied God, in word and in deed. And when he says, “nobbody” that includes you and I. Thus Scripture condemns all people. says… THis is why Paul quotes this Psalm in one of the greatest indictments on the huyman race in ....

This includes us: ANd here is the problem. If we are going to call others sinners, which we should, if we are going to look at teh evil that others have done to us and call it what it is, which we must, then we have to also recognize the sin and the evil in our own hearts. We have to recognize that we are not all that better. We have to recognize that our sins may be different, ut they are not all that bbetter. Yes, some people have hrut us, and betrayed us, and neglected us. Zbut in our own subtle ways, we have hurt others. We have gossipped aout them behind their backs, we have cut them down rather than build them up, we have gotten too angry with them. You see, the reason that we are so afraid to call others sinners, is bbecause we all know deep down that we are not all that better. What a sorry lot and sorry mess we are, broken and torn by sin, frayed at teh edges, fractured at the core. You see, coping with the evil in this world means recognizing both others’ sin, and our own. It means recognizing that what they did to us was wrong, but it also means recognizing that what we have done to others was wrong.

love the story of Isaiah, bbecause it is such a great illustration of this. Isaiah was a propeht, and he spoke great things for God. He fulfilled God’s will and spoke God’s will truly. He was a faithful witness to a faithless people. And one day God give shim this vision of the throneroom of heaven. And Isaiah stands in the presence of hte throne of God. ANd he sees the one seated on the throne. And he sees the angels around the throne with three sets of wings each, covering their faces, and their hands, and their feet. And each is crying out to one another for all eternity, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, God Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory.” And Isaiah beholds the glory of God, and this man who we would think of as faithful and godly falls to his face in terror because as he says (), “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips and I come from a people of unclean lips.” When we stand before the holiness of God, not a single one of us stands a chance. Coping with the evil of the world begins with recognizing both the sinfulness of others, and our own sin.

Trusting in Christ’s salvation

but thank goodness, that’s not the end of this Psalm. We actually see that this Psalm goes on to hope...

Implication: God must make some “righteous”: Now, our first clue that there is something up comes in vs. 5. Because we see two things. First, we see that God judges those who are sinful and opposed to him. And so those who are opposed to him are in a “great terror.” But relaly, the purpose of that in the first part of this verse is to contrast with the second. Bbecause look at the second half of the verse, it says that God is with the generation of the righteous. Now wait a minute. I thought we just said in vs. 3 that there is nobody who does good. there is nobody who is rightoeus. How can God bbe with the generation of the rightoeus if there is no such thing? Well the only way God can be with the generation of the righteous, is if somehow he makes the unrighteous righteous.

How can God make the unrighteous righteous? How can God make the unrighteous righteous? By taking on the punishment of the unrighteous himself. Only by taking the unrighteousness from the unrighteous and by giving them his own righteousness. Which is precisely what God did. He put his son forward. He took the unrighteousness from the wicked and he took the righteousness from his son. This is why says that he made him sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. How can we receive the salvation of God? By putting our faith in his son, our righteousness. Bby reaching out and grabing hold of him bby faith, by saying, “Dear Father, would you cover me with your son. Would you give me new life. Would you take my sins and give me your righteousness.”

you would shame the plans of the poor… So when we do that, when we put our trust in Jesus, then he becomes our refuge. He bbecomes our strength. You see, we cope with the evil in teh world first by calling it sin and then by trusting in his salvation. You see, when we recognize that if we are in Jesus, then we are no longer condemned but justified, if we recognize that when we are in Jesus then we are no longer orphans, bbut adopted, no longer slaves bbut redeemed, no longer dead, but alive, then what can the world do? They can heap on us all the shame that they want, bbut if I am in Jesus, then I have a sure and steady refuge, one that can weather every storm, and survive every disaster.

Rock of ages, cleft for me

Let me hide myself in thee

Let the water and the lbood

From thy wounded side which flowed

be of sin the double cure,

Cleanse from wrath and make me pure

Nothing in my hand I bring

Simply to the cross I cling

When the Lord restore the fortunes of his people.... Now, we see here this plea for the Psalmist, that salvaiton would come out of Zion, and that the Lord would restore the fortune of his people. Now, this is actually a reference to the obok of Deutoronomy. now, the book of Deutoronomy is one of those books that usually bogs us down if we try to read all the way through the bible because it is so heady. It is a collection of laws that was given to Israel shortly bbefore they entered teh promised land. And in the book, Moses predicted that one wday, Israel would wander away from God. He predicted that they would abbandon him and that they would betray him. It predicted that one day they would walk away from him. And it predicted that he would allow them to e taken into exile. He would let the foreign nations come in and wrap them up and take them away. And when that happens, the Psalm says, and the people of Israel recognize what they have done and they turn to the Lord, they repent of the error of their ways, and they turn bback to God, God willr estore the fotune of his people. He will bring them home. He will ring them back to salvation. He will save them. Dear friends, here as we are enduring the wickedness of of the world, and we are recognizing it for what it is, calling it sin, and we realize that we are ourselves sin, and that we are only righteous bby the bblood of Jesus, we can look forward to the day when our exile will bbe over, when we will be brought into the throneroom of God. We can look forward to the day when evil will cease, when sadness will be blotted out, where every tear will be wiped away, we can look forward to that day when our sojourning will be over and we will be home, and our fortunes will truly bbe restored.

Let Israel Rejoice: When that happens, let Israel rejoice. Let them celebrate. Let them sing with gladness. Let them calp their hands. because we who were exiled are now brought home. We who were abbandoned have een recovered. We who were condemned ahve been justified. We who were broken have been mended. Our fortunes have been restored, and we will be in the presence of our king. As we trust in the salvation of CHrist, we look foward to that day with great joy, because the fight will be over, and evil will be no more.