Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Superbowl Party on Sunday, February 13th, 2022 at 6:30pm—free wings, pizza, and drinks.

Join us for fellowship as we watch the game.

As you know, we’ve been heavily emphasizing outreach over the past year—that emphasis is going to continue into this year as well.

We do outreach in a number of different ways, but when winter comes along, it does become more difficult for us to do anything outdoors.

However, since we’re starting to get into Spring, I do want you to be aware that we’ll have more opportunities to serve in outreach coming.

I don’t think that we’ll be participating in the Farmer’s Market this year (because I don’t think they plan on doing the Farmer’s Market this year), but we’ll have many different opportunities for people to get involved and I’m asking everyone to pray for ways to help—whether that’ through door-to-door canvassing of neighborhoods or helping us pass out flyers during the parades this summer.

There will be plenty of opportunity and we’ll announce them as they come up.

I also want everyone to be aware that we’ll be opening an online order form through Custom Ink to order new t-shirts for this year—the church doesn’t make any money from this, but it does provide a means for people to subtly advertise the church.

I actually get a lot of comments about the shirts that we have from last year.

This year’s shirt is going to be light green with a smaller logo for the church on the front with the church’s name under it.

On the back, we’ll have our “Worship Jesus.

Equip Believers.

Make Disciples.”

tagline along with the church’s website on it.

I’ll have to get back to you concerning price, I think they’re about $18 with an added fee for larger sizes.

You’ll pay for these shirts through Custom Ink this time around that way the money doesn’t have to go through the church.

I’ll email the link for everyone in next week’s prayer list and I’ll post that link on Facebook as well.

Let me remind you to continue to worship the LORD through your giving—to help you give, we have three ways for you to do so: (1) in-person giving can be done at the offering box: checks written to Grace & Peace and if you’d like a receipt for your cash gifts, place it in an envelope with your name on it.

Debit, Credit, and ACH transfers can be done either by (2) texting the number 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompt or by (3) visiting us online at gapb.church and selecting giving in the menu bar.

Everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

This evening, we’re continuing our series in the book of Psalms with Psalm 17. Psalm 17 is written by David and it’s a little different than all the previous psalms that we’ve worked through thus far.

With the exceptions of Psalms 1-2, which carry no superscription and are usually seen as introductory psalms to the rest of the psalms, every psalm since has carried a superscription.

And up to this point, the superscriptions have been clear that the psalms prior to Psalm 17 were written primarily for the musical worship of the LORD.

Psalm 17 was also utilized for the musical of the LORD, but this is the first psalm in which we’re told that the first purpose of the psalm wasn’t just for music, but it was first, primarily a prayer.

Psalm 17 was written originally as a prayer from David to God and though we don’t know the exact time-period for it, we can clearly see that it is during a time when his enemies surrounded him seeking to harm him.

This is, of course, a reoccurring theme through many of the psalms that David wrote and as the king of Israel, that opposition from enemies surrounding the nation is to be expected.

David writes this psalm as a prayer in which he pleads to God for justice to be enacted and he does this by first starting with an appeal to the truth about himself.

Let’s read Psalm 17 together:

As we study this passage together this evening, we’re going to break it into three parts: (1) Vss.

1-5, David’s Character, in the first five verses, David starts his prayer to God by asking God to hear his plea—in doing so, he explains essentially why he thinks God should hear his plea.

(2) Vss.

6—12 is David’s Prayer for protection.

He utilizes striking and quite beautiful imagery to describe those who he needed protection from and the protection that he’s seeking itself.

(3) Vss.

13-15, The Hope for the Future, then ends the psalm by looking forward to what God will do and praising him for doing it.

This psalm ought to help us in two ways in particular—it should remind us to look at our hearts when we do face times of danger and then is should cause us to run to God through Jesus for help in those times.

Prayer for Illumination

David’s Character (1-5)

David starts this psalm by reflecting on his own character.

I do want to be abundantly clear that what David is doing here is not telling God to look at his own character or his own works, but rather, he’s making the statement that if he was someone reveling in his own sin, then he would expect God to act justly against his own sin as well as the sins that he asks God to respond justly to in the latter half of the psalm.

Or in other words, before asking God to handle the wickedness of his enemies, he looks at himself and he contemplates his own heart.

By the time he comes to pray this prayer, he’s contemplated his own state, which is why he starts his prayer by saying to God, “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!”

After checking his own heart he comes to the realization that he is righteous in his own behavior and in his own thoughts, only then does he decide that he can make such a bold claim:

That his cause is just; that his lips are free from deceit; and that he is righteous in the sight of God.

This claim is a claim that unless he’s certain of his righteousness is foolish to make—it’s always foolish to claim righteousness if you don’t know for sure that you are righteous (cf., Ananias and Sapphira who claimed to be righteous in their giving, but were found to be liars or the Pharisees who regularly claimed that they were righteous according to the Law, but were regularly proven to be unrighteous by Jesus).

In the case of David, he’s certain that he is in the right and he’s so certain of this, that he pleads his innocence through the first section of the psalm.

David makes the claim that his cause is just, his lips are free from deceit, and then he asks God to attend to his cry—to essentially hear him because his cause is just and he isn’t lying.

In vs. 2, when David says “from your presence let my vindication come!

Let your eyes behold the right!” he essentially calls on God to act in his justness, to vindicate David.

Again, I do want to clarify that as David makes these statements, he isn’t telling God to look at all the good that he has done as reasons for God to act.

If we aren’t careful with how we read this text, we can get that idea, but David isn’t trying to convince God to do something on his own merit.

David isn’t saying, “God, I’m such a great believer; I do such amazing things.

Please do these things for me.”

No, what David is doing is he’s checking his own heart before asking God to handle the unrighteousness of someone else.

He’s checking to be sure that his own heart isn’t filled with sin before asking God to deal with someone else’s sin against him.

That’s amplified in vss.

3-5.

David continues in vs. 3, still talking to God in prayer about his own character, “You [meaning God] 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.”

David is sure that he is in the right and that he isn’t acting in sin to the extent that he’s willing for God himself to examine him.

That’s the idea behind God “trying [his] heart” and “testing [him].”

And quite frankly, considering those handful of examples that I mentioned before about those that claimed to be righteous when they weren’t, what David is doing here is only smart if he knows for sure that he is genuinely righteous.

Otherwise, it would be completely foolish for him to ask God to examine or inspect him—David is sure that he is righteous and he bases that on two things.

First, he bases this on his faith in God.

This basis is implied by the simple fact that he’s taking the time to pray to God.

In other words, he knows he’s righteous because of the righteousness of God that’s given to him as a believer, thus, he can commune with God and speak with God.

Second, he bases this on his own personal lifestyle and character.

This basis is apparent in the very words that he speaks: try my heart and test me, vs. 3, “and you will find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.”

And he continues to look at his personal lifestyle and character through vss.

4-5, “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 claims that whereas those around him are working or living a certain way, he has avoided living the same way that they live—the phrase, “by the word of your lips,” speak of God’s Word itself.

What David is claiming is that whereas those around him live according to their own desire, David has sought to live according to God’s Word.

In doing so, he has avoided the ways of the violent and he has walked according to God’s paths.

David has kept himself separate from the ways of those who are violent and destroy.

He has endeavored to follow God’s Word and he has followed the way God wants him to live.

And he has done this intentionally and he has done this consistently—David has sought to follow God and God’s Word.

And again, let me stress that David is not saying these things in an effort to pridefully tell God of all the good things that he has done with a demand that God obey him because of all the good that he’s done.

What David is doing here is reflecting on his own heart condition before asking God to act in his justice and goodness.

It’s with this in mind that David then prays in vss.

6-12:

David’s Prayer (6-12)

David starts his prayer by calling on the person that he’s speaking to—David says that he is calling on God because God will “answer [him].”

Because he knows that God will answer him, he’s not only expresses confidence in this assertion, but he asks God to “incline [his] ear” and “hear [his] words.”

Now, you might hear this confident assertion from David and think that this is based on his previous statements concerning his own character, but remember that he didn’t speak of his own character as reasonings for God to work on his behalf—he spoke of his own character to check his own heart before praying.

David doesn’t rely or depend on himself for God to answer his prayer, in fact, David doesn’t base the answer to his prayer on himself whatsover, but on God himself.

We see that in vss.

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.”

In these verses we see that the reason for David’s confidence in God’s answering of his prayer isn’t predicated on himself whatsoever; it’s based on God’s character.

And David utilizes a series of anthropomorphic illustrations to show how this works.

Why does David think that God will answer him?

Vs. 7 Because God is epitomized by hesed, his steadfast love or his loyal covenant-keeping love.

Thus, because of God’s steadfast love, David knows that God will do something.

Why does David think that God will answer him?

Vs. 7 Because God is the Savior of those who seek refuge in him.

Particularly, God will be the refuge for those who are running from adversaries that not only oppose the person, but opposes God.