Sermon Tone Analysis

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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.

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.