Great is the Lord - Part 2 (Ps 35:11-18)

Announcements

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Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon (Ps 35:11-18)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Psalm 35:11-18.

Last week, we started working through Psalm 35 together and what was made clear when we read the passage was that David is giving a series of laments—he’s crying out to the Lord in anguish and in sorrow for three particular reasons. Last week, we saw him ask God to contend for him and to fight against those who fight against him. He describes those who seek to do him harm as those who devise evil against him despite him not doing anything against them.

Our text for this evening will build on those who devise evil in such a way that David will describe a bit of what they’re doing against him. Note that he still retains his innocence—that he did nothing wrong against them; and just like his previous lament, he ends with prayer and praise.

Though we’re focused primarily on vv. 11-18, let’s read the full psalm together to keep it in context:

Psalm 35 ESV

Of David. 1 Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! 2 Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help! 3 Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!” 4 Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life! Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me! 5 Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them away! 6 Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them! 7 For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life. 8 Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it! And let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it—to his destruction! 9 Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his salvation. 10 All my bones shall say, “O Lord, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him?” 11 Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know. 12 They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft. 13 But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest. 14 I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning. 15 But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered; they gathered together against me; wretches whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing; 16 like profane mockers at a feast, they gnash at me with their teeth. 17 How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions! 18 I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you. 19 Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause. 20 For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit. 21 They open wide their mouths against me; they say, “Aha, Aha! Our eyes have seen it!” 22 You have seen, O Lord; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me! 23 Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God and my Lord! 24 Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to your righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me! 25 Let them not say in their hearts, “Aha, our heart’s desire!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.” 26 Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me! 27 Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, “Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant!” 28 Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) David’s Lament (11-16) and (2) David’s Prayer and Praise (17-18). You’ll note that this section of the psalm follows a similar pattern as the first section vv. 1-10, which makes sense because its part of the same psalm. You’ll also note that the application for this section is fairly similar as well. The repetition will help us to remember the meaning and application of this psalm. We’ll see David cry out to the Lord again, but we’ll also see him praise the Lord as well.

Prayer for Illuminations

David’s Lament (11-16)

David is in the midst of a series of laments and he already has expressed his first lament in vv. 1-10 before getting to his second lament in vv. 11-18. This time around David sort of builds on what he’s already lamented about in the first section, which makes sense.

Remember that the Old Testament is primarily a book written from an Eastern perspective—David is from the Ancient Near East.

Whereas, in today’s western writing, we write in a very straightforward manner by laying down the premise and the giving support thoughts to that premise through a paragraph, ANE writing isn’t quite the same.

Eastern writing tends to be cyclical to emphasize a point, particularly when we look at poetry from the Old Testament—vv. 1-10 brought up the issue, vv. 11-18 emphasizes the issue, and next week’s passage vv. 19-28 will re-emphasize the issue.

So, in today’s passage, David speaks again of the sin or the evil that’s been committed against him in vv. 1-10, but this time around, he describes it more. He says in vv. 11-14, “Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know. They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft. But I, when they were sick—I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning.”

Remember, back in vv. 1-10, David’s complaint against those who were his enemies included the idea that he had done no wrong towards them and yet, they were still trying to harm him.

V. 4 speaks of them devising evil against him and seeking after his life to kill him.

V. 7 speaks of them hiding a net to trap him and digging a pit for his life. V. 7 also makes it abundantly clear that he did nothing to warrant them doing any of these things—that they did all these things “without cause.”

You’ll notice that the statement in vv. 1-10 are a little vague—this is intentional because of that Ancient Near Eastern Style of writing.

David continues in v. 11-12 and then 15-16 by giving essentially four different ways that his enemies have come against him.

V. 11 gives the first one—“Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know.” You can consider someone who is a malicious witness as a false witness that happens to be more ruthless or slanderous concerning the false witness that they offer. They aren’t just lying about David, they’re lying with the intent of doing harm. And its made clear in the second part of v. 11, that the lies are so malicious and so blatant, that David doesn’t have a clue what they’re talking about. Essentially, they’re falsely accusing him of doing things that are so far-fetched that he’s clueless as to where the accusations could even come from.

V. 12 gives the second one—“They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft.” This verse along with vv. 13-14, which we’ll get to later, maintain David’s innocence. I chose to look at this verse now however, because it still speaks of a way that his enemies have come against him. “They repay me evil for good,” which means that David has been acting rightly towards them—he hasn’t done any wrong towards them and he hasn’t committed any evil against them. In fact, he’s done only good things for them and towards them.

Skipping ahead a few verses (don’t worry, we’ll go back to them, we see in v. 15 the third one—“At my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered; they gathered together against me; wretched whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing;” Now stumbling sometimes refers to sin in the Bible—as in, someone might refer to their sin as stumbling, but because David has spent much of this psalm insisting on his innocence, I think we might be better off assuming that David means this in the sense of a calamity—some sort of great difficulty or hardship in life has caused him to struggle; and in stead of coming to help him, the enemies around him celebrated. They saw what was happening to David and they rejoiced and gather together against him. Not only is David in a situation in which he is experiencing hardship, the hardship is compounded because those that really ought to be helping him, are standing around, pointing and laughing, and celebrating his downfall.

We really see this in v. 16 as David gives the last way that his enemies have come against him—“Like profane mockers at a feast, they gnash at me with their teeth.” Now, we’re a little uncertain as to what exactly this verse means because just reading the sentence is a bit confusing. We understand what a profane mocker is and we understand what a feast is, but what does profane mocking have to do with a feast? I personally, like the way that the NASB renders this verse, “like godless jesters at a feast, they gnashed at me with their teeth.”

Now a jester was a person who would be in the court of the king or a nobleman with the purpose of entertaining guests. The Encyclopedia Britannica mentions that the terminology for a jester didn’t exist until much later in history, but the idea of what a jester did was fairly common even in the ancient world.

Jesters had the opportunity or the privilege to sort of mock the monarch or the noblemen without repercussion, but their jesting wasn’t meant to be malicious. It was meant to sort of mock bad decisions made by the king, but not out of vindictiveness, but rather for the goal of the king changing.

David speaks of his enemies mocking him like a court jester would mock a king, but they’re doing it in a malicious way.

Note that the word profane in the ESV means godless and the gnashing of their teeth at him is simply a poetic way to talk about them snarling at him and attacking him with their words.

Note that David still maintains his innocence through all this. Going back to vv. 13-14, David says, “But I, when they were sick—I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning.”

What David says in vv. 13-14 is that before they had started rejoicing and gathering against him during his calamity, he had treated them as family. To the extent:

That when they were sick—he wore sackcloth and he fasted and he prayed for them. The idea of wearing sackcloth is that he grieved on their behalf. The fasting speaks of the intensity of his prayer for them, we might say that he prayed day and night to the extent that he neglected his own meals for the sake of praying for them.

But note what the last phrase of v. 13 says, “I prayed with head bowed on my chest.” The wording for this is a little unusual, but if you check the footnote that your Bible probably has, the idea is that the prayer returned unanswered. In fact, that’s how the NASB, KJV, NIV, and NLT all render this verse, “Yet when they were ill, I grieved for them. I denied myself by fasting for them, but my prayers returned unanswered.”

Derek Kidner says, “The Hebrew does not mention my head bowed. The line runs literally ‘And my prayer will return (or, kept returning) to my bosom’, which [the] RSV and ESV [take] to be a reference to the prayer’s posture, but which seems more likely to mean that the prayer would return to him . . . unanswered.” (Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 15. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 161)

Nevertheless, despite the unanswered prayer, v. 14 says, “I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning.”

He genuinely did treat them as family and he genuinely cared for them as family, so much so that when they got sick, he prayed for them unceasingly, he grieved, he cried out to the Lord in anguish, and his posture did change for them to the extent that his body bowed in mourning.

Or in other words, despite what his enemies have accused him of, he’s done nothing against them to warrant their evil deeds; he’s done everything he can to help them and care for them, but they chose to sin against him anyways.

He has treated them and cared for them as family, but they return his goodness with evil.

What exactly is David lamenting in Psalm 35?

He’s crying out to the Lord for his help, for his protection, and for his salvation because he’s in a position in life in which enemies surround him and these enemies seek to do great harm to him.

They seek to kill him, they devise evil against him, they tried to trap him and bury him.

They speak malicious lies against him, they falsely accuse him, and they do evil things against him despite him only doing good things towards him.

He’s lamenting because he has treated them like his own family, but they still chose to do evil and wicked things against him; he cared for them and he prayed for them and he mourned and grieved with them, and they mocked him and gnashed their teeth at him.

He’s lamenting because they’ve treated him with contempt despite him treating them with goodness, righteousness, and kindness.

This leads us to the last two verses for this evening and the last two verses end this section by following the same pattern that the first section did. The bulk of the section has been a lament, but each lament that David gives in Psalm 35 ends with prayer, praise, and hope, which is precisely what he does in vv. 17-18. Let’s read these verses again.

David’s Prayer and Praise (17-18)

Psalm 35:17–18 ESV

17 How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions! 18 I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.

David prays a prayer and its one of great petition. David poses a question and then he makes a request.

The question that David asks is, “How long, O Lord, will you look on?”

This question from David shows us two things for sure:

It shows us his level of desperation—the “how long” indicates that he has been waiting for God to do something concerning his enemies for quite some time. His crying out here shows us that he has waited for such a long time and he knows that he can’t escape the situation apart form God.

It also shows us the level of reliance that he has on God—because he knows that he cannot do this apart from God and because he knows that he’s been suffering through this for such a long time, he has nothing else that he can do except to cry out to God for help.

The question that David cries out is that of desperation and reliance. He’s crying out hoping that God will intervene.

The request that he makes is then found in the second part of v. 17, “Rescue me from their destruction, [rescue] my precious life from the lions!”

He utilizes some vivid imagery to describe his own request—he asks for rescue and clearly, what we’ve seen in this psalm is that it isn’t the first time he’s asked God to rescue him in the text. In fact, the idea of rescue is what he speaks of in vv. 1-3 when he asks God to contend for him, to fight against those who fight against him, the take hold of shield and buckler and rise for his help. This is, however, the first time he uses the word rescue.

And utilizing the word rescue again, emphasizes the desperation and reliance that he has on the Lord. This is something that he could not do alone, God must help him if he is to get out of this situation.

Note that destruction utilized in this context isn’t referring to the enemies of David being destroyed, but rather the destruction that his enemies would induce—or in other words, he’s asking God to rescue him from being destroyed by his enemies.

He then asks for God to then rescue his precious life from the lions—precious here can simply mean only life, which it being the only life certainly makes it precious. And the Bible’s use of the word lions to describe those who seek to harm David is consistent with the previous descriptions given of David’s enemies in Psalm 35.

Lions, particularly young lions are known for being vicious when they’re hungry and they’re looking for food. Despite the fact that Israel no longer has lions roaming the countryside, when David was alive, they did roam around Israel. We see David kill one when he was a child to protect the sheep he was tasked to care for.

He has some pretty solid knowledge on the behavior of lions not only from the time that he spent protecting sheep from lions, but also just from living in a country in which there was a very real chance that a lion could show up—if you lived somewhere where vicious animals could appear, wouldn’t you warn your children, wouldn’t you prepare and train to protect yourself from them?

Thus, when David compares his enemies to lions who are seeking his life, he’s giving us quite a bit of insight into how they’re acting and reacting around him—they’re essentially stalking him like a lion stalks his own prey, they’re ready to tear into him as soon as the moment comes, and David is helpless against their advances.

It’s really not surprising then that David would cry out, “How long, O Lord, will you look on?”

How long will you wait before saving me? How long will I be in such a desperate place before you rescue me?

Or put another way, “when will you come to save me?”

Nevertheless, David still has hope in the Lord. The last verse for our section of Psalm 35 for this evening shows us this, “I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.”

David is confident in God’s salvation of him. His confidence is seen in this last sentence.

There is no if, it’s a firm, “I will thank you” and it’s a clear, “I will praise you.” David is so confident in God’s salvific work that he speaks of the praise and thanksgiving as something that he’s almost promising to do rather than something that he would only if God would save him.

Note also, that the confidence that David has in God’s salvific work results in his praise and thanksgiving in such a way that’s public.

Now, I don’t think we could read too much into his public thanksgiving and praise, but I do think if his thanksgiving and praise were hidden, then that would be concerning.

Likewise, when God does something in our lives today, our praise and thanksgiving really ought to be public, not hidden.

But again, don’t read too much into this last verse.

Allen Ross writes of the last two verses of this section, “Such vicious mocking and personal attacks can only lead to one recourse, prayer . . . This section of the psalm also closes with the psalmist’s determination or expectation to praise the LORD. [V. 18] indicates his anticipation of making a public acknowledgment of the LORD in the sanctuary, in the midst of the congregation. The mighty throng refers to the great assembly, a large congregation, who will hear his praise.” (Allen Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms, Kregel Exegetical Library, 772-773)

Now, in the remaining few minutes I’d like for us to focus a bit on application. And because this is part two of three in Psalm 35, let me point out that the application is going to be very similar—it is the same psalm after all. However, because David gives a little bit more detail into what’s happening in this scenario, we can be a little more specific in our application as well.

So, last week’s application focused primarily just on the idea that there are some people in David’s life that are attacking him, so he runs to God for protection and help. Because he was a little vague, we had to be a little vague as well and we focused on the idea of people that simply opposed us in persecution-related ways and the need for us to run to Jesus in those sorts of scenarios.

Again, David’s a little more specific in this section, so we can be as well—I think it’d be best for our application to keep the division that we had through the message: (1) Vv. 11-16, David’s Lament and (2) vv. 17-18, David’s Prayer and Praise.

Application

David’s Lament (11-16)—in the first six verses from our section of Psalm 35, we see David again give a lament concerning the situation that he finds himself in. While I could point out that his lament is actually a good thing and is something that we ourselves could do, I’ll save that for the prayer and praise section. Instead, I want to look more at the scenario at hand.

David describes a scenario in which he had done no wrong, he had cared for these people—he prayed for them, mourned with them, and even fasted for them; and yet, they repayed him evil for good, they falsely accused him, and bore malicious witness against him. They rejoiced when he struggled and they mocked him.

This is a very specific scenario, one in which you might even have some experience with—you may have someone in your life—your child, your parents, your co-workers, or even your friends; who you’ve mourned with and fasted with and prayed for them. You treated them like your own family.

And yet, like in David’s situation, your children, parents, co-workers, or so-called friends rose up against you, they accused you of things, they did evil towards you, and they rejoiced when you struggled and mocked you.

Even as I say this, this evening, you might be thinking of someone in particular, that did this to you and you might have been asking yourself how to deal with a situation like this.

So, let me give you some ideas on what needs to happen when you do face scenarios like this.

First, be sure that you didn’t sin—often, we tend to make ourselves victims in situations like this. “Oh, woe is me, everyone has been mean to me and everyone has rejected me,” but let’s be honest about it.

If people are acting or reacting to you like this, it is an opportunity to check your heart first—there could be a simple reason as to why people are mean to you or reject you. Have you lied to them frequently? Have you been unreliable as a friend or family member? Have you treated them with evil or wickedness?

If you have, if you’ve sinned against them; then you really shouldn’t be surprised if they reject you or distance themselves from you, or even treat you negatively because of your actions. They’re just responding to how you’ve treated them.

David knew that he had done no wrong to those that sought to harm him; and because he knew that he had done no wrong, he was right in the lament that he cries out to God with.

Likewise, if you haven’t done anything sinful towards those who are treating you like this, then you rightly ought lament as well—you should cry out to God for help.

But be sure that you didn’t sin before doing so. If their treating of you is different because you sinned against them, then the right way to go about this would be to repent and to seek reconciliation with them.

Second, if you didn’t sin or if you did, but then you repented and sought reconciliation and they’re still treating you with contempt then do what David does.

Cry out to Jesus and seek his help. Express your suffering to the Lord, He wants to hear it from you.

When faced with situations in life such as these, where people are directly opposing you when you absolutely did nothing wrong and you’re certain of your innocence—cry out to Jesus, pray to Him, He’s listening.

When opposed unrighteously by those around you, check your heart to be sure that you aren’t in sin and then cry out to Jesus—pray.

Speaking of prayer, the last two verses emphasize both prayer and praise. David’s Prayer and Praise (17-18)—in the last two verses we see David’s actual request and his willingness to praise the Lord even before seeing the result of His prayer’s answers.

We’ve already talked briefly about this need for prayer, even if it is a lament-sort of prayer, but what David does in v. 17 sort of expands that application.

Yes, we ought to pray when we’re faced with situations such as this, but really, I think anyone who is honest with themselves would admit that they don’t pray nearly as often as they ought to. Especially in light of 1 Thess 5:16-18 “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

I think often, the lack of prayer can be attributed to two issues: (1) you either don’t think of it as something that’s important or (2) you don’t really know how to pray.

Now, the first assumption is outrightly wrong. Scripture itself tells us to pray, so to think that it is unimportant is unequivocally wrong and goes against what Scripture itself teaches.

The second issue, is something that you can work actually work on—you can improve your prayer life, but you can’t start improving your prayer life unless you first start praying.

You’ve heard me say it multiple times, especially through this series in the book of psalms, we have a tendency in life’s difficult moments to run everywhere but to God. That’s true with prayer as well—prayer tends to be something that we only do right before we eat or at the start or end of our day. It’s something that we do out of duty, but not really out of love.

And then when we do pray, we wonder why we don’t seem to grow in prayer or grow as a result of our prayer. Of course we won’t if we treat it as something that we don’t really delight in doing.

Do you want to improve your prayer life? Start by simply dedicating time in which you can pray—somewhere quiet, without distractions,

Actually be intentional with prayer.

Only when you have a consistent prayer life to begin with will you start running to Jesus in prayer during life’s greatest trials and tribulations.

John Newton wrote a hymn titled “Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare” and the very first verse lines up with this idea of crying out to Jesus to seek His help, “Come, my soul, thy suit prepare, Jesus loves to answer prayer; He Himself has bid thee pray, Therefore will not say thee nay.” He continues with, “You are coming to a King; Large petitions with you bring; For His grace and power are such, None can ever ask too much.”

When opposed unrighteously by those around you, check your heart to be sure that you aren’t in sin and then cry out to Jesus—pray.

And lastly, note the hope, confidence, and praise that David gives in v. 18. This is where our final bit of application comes in.

Why does David have hope? Why does he have confidence? Why does he praise the Lord?

Because He knows who God is and because he knows who God is, he knows that God will protect him, God will rescue Him, and God will keep His promises to Him.

True knowledge of God always results in the ability to have confidence and hope in the Lord. Genuine confidence and hope in God always results in praise and thanksgiving.

That means, even when faced with terrible trials and tribulations in life, you can still have hope and you can still have confidence.

Not in what you can do and not in your own endurance of these hardships in life, but in who God is and what Jesus said He would do.

It contrasts how our flesh typically wants to respond to these sorts of situations, but because we know God and we know who He is, we can have hope and confidence in Him.

So, even when faced with great difficulty, even when being opposed by those around you, praise Jesus and give thanks.

Put simply, Psalm 35:11-18 reminds us that it is possible that we could do absolutely nothing wrong and still be opposed by those around us. The proper response in all these situations is to (1) check your heart—be sure that your sin didn’t cause the hardship that you’re facing, (2) pray, and (3) praise Jesus anyways.

Pastoral Prayer

Prayer Requests

This Week’s Prayer Requests include:

Melissa Bush is requesting prayer for her father as he travels; I believe he’s supposed to be home sometime this week, but I’m not positive.

Deane Herbst—continued healing from the effects of COVID-19.

Sean Herbst—addiction

Tom Medzie is requesting prayer for his niece Alexus and the seizures that have plagued her for quite some time now. Prayer for the doctors to have the wisdom they need to help her.

Caleb Miller—Medical Issues

Alan Wisor—Medical Issues

Building Fund

Discipleship Groups

Pray for Griggs Memorial Baptist Church in Greenville, SC and their pastor Mitch Miller. Pray for them as they seek to reach the Poe Mill neighborhood of Greenville, which is a low-income, slightly dangerous neighborhood adjacent to the downtown area—they work a lot with homeless individuals and addicted individuals. We want to pray that God uses them to reach those who are often neglected in cities.