Great is the Lord - Part 3 (Ps 35:19-28)

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Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Preaching of God’s Word (Ps 35:19-28)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Psalm 35:19-28.

We’re in part three of three in this psalm, which means that we’re wrapping up the end of Psalm 35. The theme of the remaining few verses is almost identical in that there is a lament from David and then there is praise from David, but this time there is an emphasis on just relying on God to handle the problem at hand—that isn’t to say that David didn’t rely on the Lord prior to this point, but rather that he ends this psalm by focusing on it.

We’ll see the lament and the prayer of David, but ultimately, he leaves it all in the hands of God—there’s much that we can learn from David’s response to hardship at the end of Psalm 35.

Keep this in mind as we read all of Psalm 35 to keep it all 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 the last ten verses, we’re going to break it up into two very similar groups. I say that they’re similar because they line up with the previous two sections of Psalm 35; though I will say that the lament and prayer is a little more entangled in the remaining ten verses, so keep that in mind: (1) David’s Lamentation (19-26) and David’s Praise (27-28). In the remaining verses of Psalm 35, David prays for something in particular, he prays for the Lord to vindicate him; and then he calls God’s people to praise the Lord. In many ways, what David does in the last few verses of Psalm 35 is that he calls on God to act and then he leaves it all up to God to do what God deems best as he focuses on calling God’s people to praise Him. I think you can tell where we’re going with this, but we’ll talk more about application later.

Prayer for Illumination

David’s Lamentation (19-26)

Remember, that thus far in the text, we’ve seen David give two laments over all that was occurring around him, while interspersing different prayers throughout the laments.

He started in vv. 1-3 by asking God to defend him or fight for him.

He utilizes various militaristic ideas and terms to describe both the situation that he’s in and the help that he needs fro the Lord.

It’s clear that the situation itself is dire.

David then speaks throughout vv. 4-8 and vv. 11-16 of how his enemies are accusing him of doing things that he didn’t do, they repay him evil for the good that he did.

He even goes as far as to explain what exactly he did do—and he makes it clear that he wept with them, he mourned with them, he grieved with them anytime they struggled or were sick.

But the moment that he started to stumble, they gathered around him like lions ready to pounce onto him and attack him—they mocked him, they sought to harm him, they wanted to kill him.

And through all these laments, David prays to God and he promises to praise God in vv. 9-10 and vv. 17-18.

We see David give this vow to praise God as he says, “all my bones shall say, ‘O LORD, who is like you,” and “my soul will rejoice in the Lord.”

And of course, we see the prayers throughout as he asks God to defend him, to punish the wicked, and to protect him throughout the situation.

All these different laments, prayers, and promises for David to praise God lead up to our final section of lament, prayer, and praise. This time, the prayer and the lament are intertwined throughout vv. 19-26 so we’ll look at the lament first and then the prayer.

The lament in vv. 19-26, includes 20b and 21, “For they [meaning David’s enemies] do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit. They [again, meaning David’s enemies] open wide their mouths against me; they say, ‘Aha, Aha! Our eyes have seen it!’”

This again, speaks of the fact that his enemies are lying about David and what he has done. Remember in v. 11 we see the statement from David that “Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know.”

I explained that this is a way of saying that they’re making false accusations against him and they’re so false that David doesn’t have a clue what they’re talking about.

David reiterates how the blatant lies being told of him by calling them “words of deceit” and he speaks of how devious they’ve been in doing this by talking of how they “devise” or scheme these words, how they don’t speak peace, and how they “open wide their mouths against [him]” to make these false accusations.

Now, we’re not told what these accusations are, but David does make it abundantly clear that they were false, that they were lies made up against him, and they (his enemies) were speaking these lies to cause problems for David.

Notice that there is a contrast given in v. 20 between those who are devising these lies and those who aren’t devising the lies in, you have those who “do not speak peace” against “those who are quiet in the land.”

The enemies of David were devising false accusations against those who simply wanted to live quietly, including David, his enemies were slandering them all.

The prayers of David are found in v. 19 and then in vv. 22-26. These prayers include several requests scattered throughout the different verses, including:

V. 19, “Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes” —this reminds us of David’s claim of being innocent of wrong-doing. Throughout the psalm, he has retained his innocence and he has made it abundantly clear that those who are seeking to do harm against him are doing so despite him not harming them.

“Let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause.” —the winking of the eye that he mentions is an idiom that implies them gloating over what has happened to David.

The prayer in v. 19 reminds us of the idea of David being paid evil for his goodness by those who seek to harm him.

Derek Kidner, “Hatred without cause is so basic a response of evil towards good.” (TOTC, 162)

His enemies hate him, they’re rejoicing that he’s suffering, and they’re gloating because of his suffering.

V. 22, is a prayer for God to be close to him. He writes that God has seen the wrongdoing of David’s enemies against him and his prayer for God is for God to respond, “You have seen, O LORD; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me!”

Note the contrast here between David’s enemies and God himself—David just mentioned that his enemies are making up lies against him and they’re claiming to have seen him do these terrible things, v. 21, “They open wide their mouths against me; they say, ‘Aha, Aha! Our eyes have seen it!’”

They’re making this claim to have seen the supposed evil that David was committing.

David simply calls out to God, “You have seen, O LORD.” David appeals to God’s omniscience—that He knows all things and David appeals to God’s omnipresence—that He is everywhere. If David had done evil things, God would know. Conversely, David’s enemies are doing evil things, God knows.

So, David prays for God to both speak and to be near him. The “be not far from me” might be better understood (in light of God knowing the truth) as “God, you know what’s true; don’t abandon me.”

In V. 23 David asks God to vindicate him for or because his cause and that call for vindication is emphasized in v. 24, “Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause! . . . Vindicate me, O LORD, my God, according to your righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me!”

This prayer continues in V. 25 as a prayer that his enemies will not win over him, “Let them not say in their hearts, ‘Aha, our heart’s desire!’ Let them not say, ‘We have swallowed him up.’”

And the prayer ends with, v. 26 as a prayer for David’s enemies to be ashamed, disappointed, and dishonored.

There are a number of things that David asks for in these four verses:

And all of them stem from this idea of vindication that he asks for starting in v. 23. Vindication is the idea of being declared righteous or of no wrong doing. David is asking God to look at all the different facts and make the judgment of David being in the right.

He asks for vindication twice—once in v. 23 and the second time in v. 24. In both verses he asks God for his vindication based on two things: (1) he’s asking for vindication based on his own cause and (2) he’s asking for vindication based on God’s righteousness.

Or in other words, he’s appealing towards his own innocence and God’s own character, which is something that honestly would be a bit foolish to do if he wasn’t certain of his own innocence.

And I say that simply because asking God to judge you if you aren’t certain of your innocence is utter foolishness.

David asks God for vindication based on his own innocence and because he knows God and understands God’s character. He knows God is a just, righteous, and truthful God; and he knows that God judges according to the truth.

He asks for God not to rejoice over him in v. 24.

This is simply a request for God to prevent his enemies from winning over him. Remember that his enemies are all seeking to hurt him and to kill him—if they were to be successful, they would gloat over his death, they would rejoice over his downfall.

They would celebrate anything negative that would happen to him, so God prays that as part of his vindication, his enemies would have no reason to celebrate.

Which is then reiterated in vv. 25-26, “Let them not say in their hearts, ‘Aha, our heart’s desire!’ Let them not say, ‘We have swallowed him up.’ Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether . . . Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor.”

The phrase, “Let them not say in their hearts, ‘Aha, our heart’s desire!’” speaks of their want to see him harmed. David is asking God to essentially not allow them to win in this sense.

The statements that David is pointing out are statements that he doesn’t want his enemies to be able to speak against him.

And it makes sense—remember that David is innocent here, his enemies are doing evil things towards him, and they’re slandering him. Of course he doesn’t want them to win the battle or even to think that they had won the battle.

No, he’d rather them be ashamed and disappointed and dishonored, which interesting enough are all words that his enemies were trying to get David to feel like through their slanderous accusations of him.

Allen Ross sums this up rather well like this, “Though David’s enemies falsely claimed to have seen him in sin and were vocal about it, David knew that the Lord had seen them in their wrongdoing. So he asked God to end His silence and rise to the psalmist’s defense. By vindicating David, the Lord would rightly put to shame and confusion all the foes’ gloating.” (Allen P. Ross, “Psalms,” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J.F. Walvoord and R.B. Zuck, Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985, 821)

Now, just as a side-note; and I know that we’ve discussed this before concerning this psalm, but it’s important to keep this in mind especially during a psalm like this—the prayers that David prayed during this psalm were certainly what we would call imprecatory prayers.

And there has been debate over imprecatory prayers and the modern-day Christian for quite some time as to whether its acceptable for a Christian today to pray prayers like this in light of Jesus’ command for us to love our enemies.

Every time we’ve discussed this, I’ve made clear that there are appropriate times to prayer imprecatory prayers, but its not common and it always has to be done with the right heart and the right attitude.

Imprecatory prayers aren’t meant to occur during every distressing moment of your life or when someone annoys you—I always use the example of someone cutting you off as you drive home (that isn’t the appropriate time to pray for God’s judgment on them). Nor would it be the appropriate time to pray an imprecatory prayer simply because you dislike someone or you see them doing something that you don’t really appreciate.

Imprecatory prayers are meant for issues in life in which someone is in complete and utter unrepentant sin and it’s really more of a last resort—its when someone refuses to repentant and now they’ve started hurting other people while in their sin.

Note also, that when these sorts of prayers are uttered, they have to be done with the right motive or the right heart. Even in the harsh words that David prays against his enemies in Psalm 35, if his enemies were to repent from their sins and turn to God, don’t you think that David would celebrate their repentance?

If his enemies actually turned to God, David would be ecstatic; the only reason he’s praying a prayer like this now is because its all that he knows that he can do—there’s nothing else that can be done.

But his motive for these prayers isn’t that he just wants to see his enemies destroyed—he’s desperate for help and he doesn’t know what else to do.

Imprecatory prayers can be acceptable if done rarely and if done with the right heart and motive.

Now David doesn’t end this psalm with an imprecatory prayer—he doesn’t stop at just lamenting. David ends this section of the psalm with a praise or a promise of praise. Except this time, he sums up the whole psalm by calling all to praise the Lord. Look at the last two verses, vv. 27-28.

David’s Praise (27-28)

Psalm 35:27–28 ESV

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.

V. 27 starts with a call for all “who delight in [David’s] righteousness shout for joy and be glad.” He’s calling all who are on David’s side to praise the Lord.

Really, there’s a slight implication in here that those who were or are on David’s side are the only ones who genuinely believed in God to begin with.

Conversely those who opposed him, essentially opposed the Lord—we really see that implication when he continues and says that those who delighted in David’s righteousness ought to shout for joy and be glad, “and say evermore, ‘Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant!’”

Knowing that David’s enemies were slandering him and recognizing that they were committing sins against him, that slight implication might be warranted.

Note that there really isn’t any command or thought on how they are to shout for joy and be glad or how they’re to praise God. The only idea presented by David here is that they ought to shout for joy and be glad and praise the Lord because God took care of His servant, David.

The call here is by David for all who were on his side to give thanks, to be glad, and to praise God.

Which really, that ought to be the response of every person whenever they experience any sort of hardship, particularly when someone sins against them and then they’re vindicated by God—they’re proved to be righteous in God’s sight.

And that’s precisely what David does after calling everyone to praise the Lord.

In v. 28, the Psalm ends with David promising or vowing to praise God, “Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.”

He speaks of this praise as being vocal—he’s using his tongue to tell others of God’s righteousness, which means two things:

He isn’t hiding his praise—he’s shouting it to all that can hear him.

And he’s praising God not because of what David could do on his own, but because of who God is—he’s praising God because God is righteous.

And he speaks of his praise as being continuous—all the day long.

This isn’t a temporary praise that’s based on how he feels (whether that’s elation or pain and suffering). This is genuine praise of the Lord that occurs because of who God is.

Again, because of God’s righteousness.

This brings us in the last few minutes to our application for this text. And because we’re at the end of the psalm, I would like for us to take into account the whole psalm for our application this evening.

Application

Psalm 35 is a lengthy psalm in which we see David cry out to the Lord for help during a situation in which his enemies surrounded him seeking to harm him. David makes it abundantly clear that he had done nothing to warrant their evil towards him and that they were genuinely repaying him evil for his good. He speaks of them as seeking to trap him and even kill him despite them not really having a reason to. He speaks of them slandering him and accusing him of sin despite the fact that he treated them like family. He speaks of them encircling him like lions circle their prey.

And while lamenting all these different issues concerning his enemies, he prays to God, and he hopes in the Lord, and he chooses to praise God anyways. Now, of course, because we’ve been working through the same psalm over the past two or three weeks, the application tonight is going to sound very similar to the previous nights, but the repetition is good for us.

Let me start by getting you into the shoes of David. David again, has done absolutely nothing wrong to warrant those around him seeking to harm him—he’s treated them like family, he’s cared for them, he wept for them when they suffered.

And they repaid all his kindness and goodness with evil. They sought for his life and they created traps for him. They wanted him to struggle and suffer; and when he did, they celebrated his struggle and his suffering.

They lied about him, they accused him of doing things that he didn’t do, and they mocked him and attacked him—this is the very epitome of those who are wicked and evil hating those who don’t do evil.

Now, let’s consider your own life:

Think of your life and those who are around you—perhaps you have a situation in your life very similar to David’s. You’ve treated someone with kindness, you’ve cared for them, you treated them like family.

But now, they treat you with disdain and contempt—they laugh when you struggle and suffer, they intentionally seek to harm you. They treat your kindness with wickedness. What do you do in situations like this? How should you respond when someone treats you like this? Whether its family, or a co-worker, or maybe a fellow student, or friend. What do you do?

Start first and foremost by making sure that you didn’t sin against the person.

Note how many times David refers to his own innocence in the situation that he’s facing—over and over again he points out that he did nothing to deserve their actions against him.

Consider your own situation—did you sin against someone? Are they acting this way because you sinned against them and now they’re repaying your evil with evil?

Now, of course, anyone in a situation like this would automatically assume that they’re innocent of all wrongdoing, so, of course, you have to take some time to be honest with yourself.

Honestly ask yourself if you did something against this person.

I’d say for most of us, we probably did something sinful and that’s why a person is treating us negatively—so check your heart, repent, and reconcile with the person if possible.

Go and apologize for sinning against someone and seek to fix the relationship that you’ve broken.

If someone’s treating you this way, first and foremost—check your heart and repent if necessary.

Now, in the off chance that you did absolutely nothing wrong or if you did do something sinful and you’ve since repented and sought reconciliation, but they’re still treating you with contempt, disdain, and evil then David really gives us a good model of how we ought to respond. What do you do?

Cry out to God—the vast majority of Psalm 35 is simply David crying out to the Lord—he laments, he prays, and he praises. All three are aspects of crying out to the Lord.

I think sometimes when we pray, we try to pray in such a way that if we’re experiencing depression, pain, and suffer, we don’t really express those issues.

I think we typically do it with the idea that we really shouldn’t complain—we should simply be thankful and give praise to the Lord; and whatever we’re struggling with, we just kind of push that down and don’t deal with it.

The reality is that David shows us that expressing those sorts of issues in life aren’t just acceptable, but they’re really expected. God wants to hear from us even when all we do is lament about what’s happening in life.

Now, of course, you ought to do this reverentially, remembering that God is still God; and you are not—thus, remember who you’re speaking to when you do lament.

But if you’re struggling in life, take that to God through Jesus—don’t just push it down, talk to God about it. Lament to the Lord.

Cry out to God and express how you’re feeling and what’s causing those feelings—whether its from people treating you like this or whether its just from the normal everyday problems of life.

As you lament or cry out to the Lord, don’t be afraid to ask God for help. We do a terrible disservice in our prayer life when we forget to simply ask God to help us.

This could be a result of being a very self-sufficient society in which we tend to think that those who ask for help are weak; or it could just be a result of being sinfully prideful.

But the very idea of not running to God and asking God for help is antithetical to what the Christian life is—just think about, the very first thing you must do to be a Christian is recognize that apart from Jesus’ sacrificial atonement on the cross for your sins, you can’t be saved. The very first thing that you must do to be a Christian is to ask for God’s help.

It’s our pride and lack of humility that causes us to think that we could possibly walk the Christian life without Jesus continuously working within us with the Holy Spirit.

The reality is that when we do face situations in life such as the one described by David, it’s not just right to ask God for help, it’s to be expected—you should do this, without hesitation.

As you lament what’s happening, ask God to help.

When faced with situations like this in life—cry out to God for help.

And after you ask God to help, trust Him. We see David doing this over and over as he asks God to help him in various ways, he seems fully confident that God is going to help him.

Part of that confidence is because he recognizes that he didn’t do anything wrong, but probably the bigger part of that confidence is because he has confidence in who God is.

And that confidence in who God is is predicated or built-up on the fact that David actually knows God.

He knows who God is and he knows what Scripture teaches concerning who God is, but he also has that personal knowledge of who God is as well.

Or in other words, he didn’t just have book knowledge of who God is—he actually knew God; and since he actually knew God, he had confidence in Him, he trusted God.

Which, by the way, is the very definition of what it means to have faith in God—we tend to mystify what faith is, but the reality is is that faith is simply trust. To have faith in someone or something, you trust that person or object.

I’ve frequently utilized the example of a bridge—you can know every detail of a bridge—its height, its width, its supposed weight allowance, but until you actually step out on the bridge, you don’t have faith in it—you don’t trust it.

Likewise, you can know every detail that Scripture gives us about God and the Trinity and every aspect of theology, but until you actually trust God, you don’t have faith in Him.

It is very much the idea of putting all your eggs in one basket—when it comes to faith in Jesus Christ, you don’t get a back-up plan—it’s Jesus and it’s all or nothing.

Scripture teaches us that God is sovereign and that He providentially works all things to conform you into the image of His Son.

And knowing what you know about God—that He is only ever good, that He is kind, that He cares for HIs people, and He loves His people—shouldn’t you have faith that He will do whatever is best for you in every situation?

Shouldn’t you trust Him? Even in situations in which everyone seems to disdain you, treat you with contempt, and do wicked things to you?

Shouldn’t you still trust the God who is sovereign?

When faced with situations like this in life—cry out to God and then trust Him.

And lastly, praise God anyways.

Our tendency during hardships in life is to disregard or neglect our worship and praise of the Lord.

In fact, most people when they face hardships in life tend to blame God for those hardships, which, just to be abundantly clear, shows that they don’t actually understand God and they don’t have a proper theology of suffering in life.

Regardless of if we actually blame God or not, the tendency is to neglect worship and praise while struggling in life—the idea is essentially that life’s too hard right now, so let’s just focus on putting our heads down, getting work done, and we’ll wait until everything settles down until we focus on our worship and praise of God.

Do you see the problem with that mindset? It’s sinful and it places comfort, joy, and even work on a higher ground than God—you’ve created idols.

The reality is that life is filled with hardships and suffering—it is part of living in a sin-cursed world. We are continuously dealing with the curse of sin.

And what Scripture teaches is that despite the hardships and suffering, the proper response isn’t to just get through those sufferings, it’s to worship the Lord even in the midst of those hardships and sufferings.

It’s to offer praise even when surrounded with enemies and grave difficulties of life.

It’s to see all these different issues and still choose to praise and worship Jesus.

This is much easier to do when you’re already in the habit of praising and worshiping the Lord through your normal, every-day life.

When life seems fine and everything seems to be working well—if you’re already worshiping the Lord and praising Him during these moments in life then when the harder times of life comes; your response will tend to be worshiping and praising God anyways—just like David’s response was.

When faced with situations like this in life—cry out to God, trust Him, and praise Him anyways.

Put simply, what Psalm 35 teaches us is a proper response when there is significant opposition against us despite us doing absolutely nothing wrong. That response is for us to (1) check our hearts and be sure that we didn’t sin; and then (2) cry out to God, (3) trust Him, and (4) praise Him anyways.

Pastoral Prayer

Prayer Requests

Deane Herbst - Continued healing from COVID-19

Sean Herbst - Addiction

Wes Lovell — injured in a work-related accident. Currently in Danville

Tom Medzie — Alexus

Caleb Miller — Medical Issues

Alan Wisor — Medical Issues

Pray for the church’s building fund

Pray for Lubangakene Bible Church in Uganda and their pastor Shadrach Nyeko. Over the weekend they held evangelistic services in the local communities and about 57 people professed salvation. In their area of Uganda, there is very low Gospel witness, but their church is growing rapidly. Their church was planted just about a year ago and they’re currently working on building a building. They’re working to raise $60,000, which for them, is enough to be able to build a building that can hold about 300 people. They have a mission to preach the Gospel, disciple new believers, and plant more Bible-believing churches throughout their area.