A Sermon deliverd to All Saints Anglican Church on February 10, 2008 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV , based on Matthew 4:1-11.
Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Having observed Ash Wednesday in our small groups, I’m sure we have discussed what types of abstinence or spiritual disciplines we will observe for these forty days.
One of the things we notice right off the bat when we begin to practice a new intention is that no sooner do we start than we begin to fail. We are like Oscar Wilde, who glibly remarks in one of his plays, “I can resist anything but temptation”. (Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act I)
In today’s reading from Matthew, we see Jesus confronting temptation and successfully resisting it. Since he is our great Exemplar, we want to be like him. Therefore it behooves us to notice what Jesus did in response to temptation from the Adversary.
Fasting and Temptation
We must first note that immediately after his Baptism by John, “… Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness… [specifically] to be tempted by the devil (Mt.4:1). This was the way God wanted Jesus to begin his ministry – to be tempted by his enemy right off the bat. Fasting quiets the mind and the soul, making us more open to God and heightening our spiritual awareness. It gets God’s attention, because it lets Him know we are serious about our intention.
Fasting also leaves us physically vulnerable. In a famous example of understatement, Matthew tells us that “…after fasting forty days and forty nights, he (Jesus) was hungry. (4:2). Jesus was spiritually in tune with God but physically hungry. The Devil knew that He was going to be a formidable enemy , so he was quick to try to undermine Jesus’ ministry with several temptations.
As we begin to consider this in terms of our own lives, I think we need to ask ourselves some pointed questions.
Three Pointed Questions
Do we even believe in the Devil? – That he is real and personal, that he hates us and has a terrible plan for our lives?
Do we believe that the Devil tempts us to sin?
Do we even believe in Sin and its real effects upon our spiritual life?
The Devil, our Tempter
Author CS Lewis tells us that:
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” (Screwtape Letters).
Most of us don’t have the latter problem so much. Instead we wrestle with actually disbelieving their existence.
But to quote Hal Lindsey, “Satan is alive and well on planet earth”. He is a real personage. Lucifer, God’s worship leader, arrogantly thought he could take over God’s throne and rebelled against Him.
War ensued and God tossed Lucifer – now Satan, the Adversary, out of heaven, along with a third of the angels – all of whom now serve Satan as underdevils. Satan and his minions are real and they “prowl around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour” (I Pet. 5:8).
We need therefore, to “Be sober-minded and … watchful…, mindful that the Enemy of our soul does indeed try to tempt us.
For an interesting and entertaining study of the temptation tactics Satan and his ‘lowerarchy” employ read CS Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters.” It will enlighten you as to how subtle our enemy really is.
Sin
In 1973, Psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote a book called “Whatever Became of Sin?” He caused great consternation in many circles by asking whether we had become so psychologically oriented that the notion of sin had become passé. But I’m here today to tell you that sin
is real and separates us from God. Sin is any action or thought that goes against God’s will for us. It’s not just our actions – though these are extremely important, but our thoughts as well – just as Jesus told us when he said that even to look upon a woman lustfully was sin (Matthew 5:28).
Sin is birthed in our hearts and then comes to life when we give attention and energy to the desire of our hearts. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” says Jesus (Matthew 15:19).
Sin grieves the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30) and Separates us from God:
“…your iniquities have made a separationbetween you and your God,and your sins have hidden his face from youso that he does not hear” (Is 59:2)
The Good News is that because we have been saved and adopted as God’s children, this separation is not eternal leading to damnation, rather it a temporary disruption of our relationship with God, that can be healed after we repent of our sin. Nevertheless, unconfessed sin in the life of a Christian can lead to very grave consequences, even death. (I John 5:16) “Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15).
So….Sin is real, and it has real impact in our lives. Satan is real and He really does tempt you to sin so that you will be at odds with God.
The Nature of Temptation
Let’s now think a little bit about the Nature of Temptation. James tells us that no one is tempted by God, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (1:14)
Desire is what tempts me. And what do I desire? I want what I want when I want it! - Whatever makes me happy, whatever I think I want, whether that be an object, an experience or a relationship – or to put it crudely: ‘Money Sex and Power” (see the book by the same name by Richard Foster).
Really, what we are talking about is Idolatry, that is: asking a thing or a person to do something for you that only God can do. This Idolatry has within it the seeds of self-sufficiency. I want to fulfill my perceived needs and wants my way – just like Frank Sinatra. I don’t’ care what God says, I want what I want when I want it! Temptation appeals to our basic desire to be self-sufficient and thus is a type of Pride.
The Blessing of Resistance
Now over against this basic desire to do things my way, God promises us something very good for doing things His way:
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:15).
Successfully resisting Satan and his temptations brings us the Crown of Life – that is life in fellowship with God – Divine Favor plus human happiness, all that a human being could reasonably want.
So with all that in mind as prologue, let’s consider how we imitate Jesus in his resistance of temptation.
How to resist temptation like Jesus:
Fast, Pray, and Apply the Word
Fasting increases spiritual awareness – and as we observe with Christ, also opens us up to the attack of the enemy.
Praying to God shows my dependence upon God. I’m not doing thing in my own power, but in His.
Applying the Word correctly give us the ammunition we need to resist the Devil when he comes after us. ‘Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee” says Ps. 119:11. Satan twists the Word to His own purposes; he is a subtle and deceitful enemy and not to be trifled with.
There is much more to say about how to resist the enemy, but rather than give a long list of tips, I’d like to tell you the story of a Successful Resistance.
A Successful Resistance
Recently, one of my clients loaned me a book called “Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.” It is the true story of a Tutsi woman named Immaculee Ilibagiza and how she lived through the bloody genocide of 1994 in which nearly a million Tutsi – and Hutu Rwandans died. During the three-month killing spree her entire family, save one brother, was brutally murdered. She and seven other women survived by huddling together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor’s home while machete-wielding killers hunted for them.
During the endless hours of isolation and terror in her hiding place, Imaculee faced temptation in a way that few of us ever will. A Roman Catholic Christian from childhood, she prayed the rosary 12-13 hours per day for comfort, but she was constantly reminded that the Lord’s prayer calls us to ‘forgive those who trespass against us’. She treid not to think about those who killed her family because she knew she couldn’t forgive them.
One time, when the killers were literally inches from discovering her, she could hear people outside laughing and chanting demonically, “Kill the Tutsis big and small ….kill them one and kill them all. Kill them!”
She heard an ugly whispering in her head: “Why are you calling on God? Don’t you have as much hatred in your heart as the killers do? Aren’t you as guilty of hatred as they are? You’ve wished them dead; in fact, you wished that you could kill them yourself! You even prayed that God would make them suffer and make them burn in hell.”
The insidious voice continued, “Don’t call on God, Immacuee. He knows that you’re a liar. You lie every time you pray to Him to say that you love Him. Didn’t God create us all in His image? How can you love God but hate so many of His creations?”
“It’s no use…don’t call on God. Who do you think sent the killers here for your? HE did! Nothing can save you. God doesn’t save liars.”
Can you feel how wicked and manipulative this is? Just like Satan taunted Jesus and misquoted Scripture, so too he used biblical reasoning against Immaculee to taunt and demoralize her.
The killers did eventually leave, and she made an attempt to forgive them, but deep inside she believed they deserved to die. She pleaded with the Lord, “Please open my heart, Lord, and show me how to forgive. I’m not strong enough to squash my hatred – they’ve wronged us all so much…my hatred is so heavy that it could crush me. Touch my heart, Lord, and show me how to forgive”
She struggled with this for days on end, barely eating or drinking anything. Finally the struggle climaxed when she heard the wails of an infant. It’s mother had been killed and the child was left to die in the street. Immaculee listened to the cries weaken and then stop suddenly followed by the ominous snarling of dogs. She called out to God: “How can I forgive people who would do such a thing to an infant?”
At that moment she says, “I hear His answer as clearly as if we’d been sitting in the same room chatting: You are all my children…and the baby is with Me now. “ In God’s eyes, the killers were part of His family, deserving of love and forgiveness. I knew that I couldn’t ask God to love me if I were unwilling to love His children.” She did pray for the killers and God did touch her heart. "For the first time," she says, "I pitied the killers. I asked God to forgive their sins and turn their souls toward His beautiful light. That night I prayed with a clear conscience and a clean heart. For the first time since I entered the bathroom, I slept in peace" (adapted from pages 91-94).
Folks, I don’t know about you, but to me this is about as tough as it gets! Notice how she overcomes. She struggles honestly with her feelings. She talks to God. Sometimes she avoids talking about her true feelings. She wrestles with God. She prays and fasts. Finally, after days of agony culminating in an unspeakable atrocity, she is quiet, and the Lord speaks clear words of truth and freedom to her.
Imaculee Ilibagiza submitted herself to God. She resisted the devil. She drew near to God in prayer; she persevered under trial with fasting. The devil fled from her when she applied God’s Word.
And God gave her the grace to forgive her enemies, securing for her the Crown of Life.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, I pray that you and I never have to go through what Imaculee endured. But rest assured, if we do have something terrible to face in the future, God will be with us. Jesus promised that He would never leave us or forsake us (Heb.13:5-6). He promised that if we keep our minds stayed upon Him, he would give us perfect peace (Is. 26:3) and that He would guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6,7).
As you face temptations, hold fast to the Lord, pray without ceasing and apply His Word to your situation. As you resist the enemy in this way, you will succeed and you know the blessing of overcoming.
May God help us all. AMEN.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
God’s Promise to the Righteous and the Wicked
God’s Promise to the Righteous and the Wicked 020308
Psalm 37 (Beatitudes Mt. 5)
.
Thesis: God Promises to dwell with His people, to bless them and to judge the wicked.
I. Background: The Promise in Leviticus 26:3-13
Imagine that you and your family are Hebrews. You have just left Egypt, the land where your people have been slaves for 400 years, and you have come to camp in the desert near Sinai. It’s been an amazing journey. You have seen God smite the Egyptians with plagues, you’ve gone through the Red Sea and watched the Egyptian army be swallowed up - and now God has told you to go into a Promised Land where he will bless your people. Through Moses, here is what He says:
3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. 7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. … 9 I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. … 11 I will make my dwelling among you… 12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves… (Leviticus 26:3-13)
Sounds pretty good, right?! God is going to give you a special place to live and He is actually going to live with you there: “I will make my dwelling among you… 12 And I will walk among you…
All you have to do is obey what he tells you and you’ve got it made! God Himself will walk among you, there will be plenty to eat, there will be no enemies – they will all be cut off and God will make you fruitful and multiply you. Just like in the Garden of Eden! How amazing is that!
If you know anything at all about the rest of the history of the Hebrew people, you’ll recognize that events did not play out exactly as outlined in Leviticus. Israel has almost always been at war or upheaval. The promise of peace has been mostly fleeting – mostly because of Israel’s disobedience. But our message today is one of hope because despite Israel’s disobedience, we are going to see that God will indeed fulfill every one of these promises to both the righteous – and the wicked.
II. The Promise reiterated in Ps. 37
Fast forward now to the time of King David. David, as you know, was a warrior. But he was also a passionate worshipper. He loved to write Psalms, and the one we read today, 37, is a poem written to encourage, instruct and edify the Hebrew people. David’s aim in this Psalm is to artfully expand upon God’s word in Leviticus and to contrast the ways of the Righteous and the Wicked.
He starts out with a special exhortation to the righteous:
37:1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;be not envious of wrongdoers!2 For they will soon fade like the grassand wither like the green herb.
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord,and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;trust in him, and he will act.6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,and your justice as the noonday.
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,over the man who carries out evil devices!
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. (37:1-9).
In these nine verses we read two references to dwelling in and inheriting the land, (v 3, 9). David is reminding the people of the promise God made to the nation of Israel that if they would be faithful, he would establish them in the Promised Land. Their obedience would secure for them the blessings of peace because their enemies would be cut off – and God would walk amongst them personally.
Indeed, many of these promises came true during David’s lifetime. He united the kingdom and ushered in a time of peace, but the sword did not depart from his household his entire life. The people had to wait for Solomon to take the throne to experience the zenith of their peace and prosperity. Yet even in their triumph, there were some key things missing:
Although God did dwell among the people in his temple, he did not walk among them face to face nor did he rule them directly. Many years prior to Solomon, the people had decided they wanted to be like the other nations and have a king. Just as at Sinai when the people became afraid of God and asked Moses to speak to God for them, so too, they wanted a King to be an intermediary. The actual face to face presence and rule of God was too scary to handle directly.
So David’s Psalm is both an exhortation to the people and a reiteration of the hope that one day the Kingdom of God would come to earth just as it is in Heaven ( hmmm, sounds familiar…).
III. God Promises to deal with the Wicked
One of the key things about heaven on earth is that the Wicked get what’s coming to them. Unlike the Righteous, who are described as ‘blameless’ (vv.18, 37), “blessed” (vv.22,26) and “upright” , the wicked are: ‘evildoers’ (vv1,9),’wrongdoers (v1), ‘enemies of God’ (v 20), ‘cursed by Him” (v22), ‘ruthless’ (v35) and ‘transgressors” (v.38).
The Wicked “plot against righteous and gnash their teeth (v12). They ‘draw their sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and the needy and to slay the upright (v14). They borrow and do not pay back (v 21). They watch to put the righteous to death (v32). They carry out evil devices and prosper in their way’ (v7).
Sounds like one of my college roommates ---I’m not kidding!
But seriously, these descriptions really do have a contemporary feel. We all know wicked people who seem to prosper, who seem to get away with murder while we, who seek to be good Christians, suffer without justice. There is a temptation to envy the wicked and to be jealous of what seems so easy for them.
But let’s look at God’s attitude towards them: The Lord laughs at the wicked (v. 13). The wicked are cursed by God (v. 22). They are insubstantial – here today and gone tomorrow (v.3), their glory is passing like the grass of the field (v.20).
The movie American Gangster told the story of Frank Lucas, a black drug kingpin from New York. For a period of time, he seemed untouchable. He got fabulously wealthy and literally got away with murder. But he was being tracked down by Richie Roberts and his team of federal drug agents, who eventually got the goods on Frank. He went to jail for 15 years after turning State’s evidence, and the last scene of the movie shows him emerging from the prison utterly alone and penniless.
He was an example of what happens to the Wicked: They fade like grass and wither (v 3). They shall be cut off (v 9). A sword will enter their own heart, and their bows and their arms will be broken (vv. 15,16). The Wicked will perish, they will vanish and they will be utterly cut off (vv. 20, 22). Even their children will be cut off (v.28) and they will pass away with out leaving a trace (v 36).
Cut off, cut off, cut off. In the Jewish world of David’s day, where belonging is everything, being cut off would have been the worst thing that could happen to someone. David is reassuring the people: The wicked are going to ‘get theirs’.
Here again, however, the rub is that it doesn’t always seem to happen on our timetable or even on this earth. It can get downright tedious watching the wicked prosper. It would be really nice if God would Zap a few of them occasionally and we could see Justice being done with our own eyes.
So David gives a whole host of other reassurances to the Righteous – those who follow and obey God:
God will act on your behalf; He will bring forth your righteousness and justice (vv5,6). The righteous will indeed inherit the land and delight in abundant peace (vv9, 11). The Lord will uphold the Righteous (v16). His heritage will remain. (v 18). He will not be put to shame, but will have abundance in famine (v19). Again - he will inherit the land (v22). God will uphold the righteous, he will not let them fall. He will not forsake them and their children will become a blessing. (v26). On and on it goes. Blessings heaped upon blessings. Time doesn’t allow us to list every one minutely, but I think you can see the pattern.
Let’s reiterate here that the promise of Obedience was to inherit the land of Palestine and to live there unmolested in abundance. Let’s also reiterate that in the very best of times for the Jewish people, these promises were only partially fulfilled. They were told to ‘wait upon the Lord (v 7,34). Little did they realize that what they were waiting for was the Coming of the Lord Jesus.
IV. The Promise Modified in the Beatitudes
When Jesus came to earth, God did indeed dwell bodily with human beings. They did see him face to face – but it wasn’t exactly in the context of universal peace. Surely there was never a more strife-ridden place than Palestine at the time of Christ!
In the Beatitudes, Jesus modifies the Promise: the Kingdom of God will not be the triumphal Heaven-on-Earth reign that the Jewish people expected. Rather, in this Kingdom, the poor in spirit, the persecuted and those who mourn are blessed. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled. The merciful will receive mercy, the pure in heart shall see God, the peacemakers will be called the sons of God – and the meek shall inherit the earth.
Shades of Psalm 37:11! …the meek shall inherit the land …
So here is Jesus, talking about inheriting the land. But what land does he mean? Palestine? Ashland? Hurricane or Huntington?
How about all and none of the above? For the Beatitudes clearly indicate that the Kingdom is not of this world but of the Spirit.
V. The Promise Fulfilled: God dwells in and with His people.
Ever since Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the first believers at Pentecost, the people don’t dwell in a promised land – rather, God dwells in the people! You and I have the Holy Spirit living inside us. We don’t need a piece of geography to experience the Kingdom of God; we have it inside us!
So the Promise is fulfilled: Wherever we go, the Kingdom of God goes along in us. Although as believers we do not inherit a specific piece of real estate, the plan for the righteous is always the same: for God to dwell with us and bless us – wherever we live - and to judge the Wicked.
So when do the Wicked get theirs? The answer is that we have to wait for the summing up of all things in the great battle of Armegeddon and the eventual recreation of the heavens and the earth.
In his second letter, (3:7) Peter tells us that the present heavens and earth …are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. It may seem as if this is a long way off and that God may be unjust in holding off so long, but “The Lord is not slow about his promise…but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance (v 9). I, for one, am glad that he postpones His judgment. If He hadn’t I would have been toast long ago!
But never fear, “ The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (II Pet. 3:10). The wicked get burned to a crisp after God has given them plenty of time to repent. And then comes the ultimate fulfillment of all we have been talking about today.
“…according to His Promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (II Pet. 3:12).
Our destiny as Christians is to live in a new Heaven/Earth in which every one of the promises God spoke in Leviticus will literally come to pass! In fact, the original project that God began at Eden find its perfect fulfillment in this New City of God. It’s coming – just as Andre Crouch sings about it: Soon and Very Soon we are going to see the Lord …
VI. Our behavior in light of the Promise
If then, we are looking for the coming of the Day of the Lord and “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought we to be? (v.11,12).
Peter urges us to be “diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (v 14), to ‘be on guard, lest we be carried away by the error of unprincipled men (v17) and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (v 18). He might just as well have said:
(Psalm 37:1) Fret not yourself because of evildoers…3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;4 Delight yourself in the Lord,…5 Commit your way to the Lord…7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!Fret not yourself…9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. Amen.
Psalm 37 (Beatitudes Mt. 5)
.
Thesis: God Promises to dwell with His people, to bless them and to judge the wicked.
I. Background: The Promise in Leviticus 26:3-13
Imagine that you and your family are Hebrews. You have just left Egypt, the land where your people have been slaves for 400 years, and you have come to camp in the desert near Sinai. It’s been an amazing journey. You have seen God smite the Egyptians with plagues, you’ve gone through the Red Sea and watched the Egyptian army be swallowed up - and now God has told you to go into a Promised Land where he will bless your people. Through Moses, here is what He says:
3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. 7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. … 9 I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. … 11 I will make my dwelling among you… 12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves… (Leviticus 26:3-13)
Sounds pretty good, right?! God is going to give you a special place to live and He is actually going to live with you there: “I will make my dwelling among you… 12 And I will walk among you…
All you have to do is obey what he tells you and you’ve got it made! God Himself will walk among you, there will be plenty to eat, there will be no enemies – they will all be cut off and God will make you fruitful and multiply you. Just like in the Garden of Eden! How amazing is that!
If you know anything at all about the rest of the history of the Hebrew people, you’ll recognize that events did not play out exactly as outlined in Leviticus. Israel has almost always been at war or upheaval. The promise of peace has been mostly fleeting – mostly because of Israel’s disobedience. But our message today is one of hope because despite Israel’s disobedience, we are going to see that God will indeed fulfill every one of these promises to both the righteous – and the wicked.
II. The Promise reiterated in Ps. 37
Fast forward now to the time of King David. David, as you know, was a warrior. But he was also a passionate worshipper. He loved to write Psalms, and the one we read today, 37, is a poem written to encourage, instruct and edify the Hebrew people. David’s aim in this Psalm is to artfully expand upon God’s word in Leviticus and to contrast the ways of the Righteous and the Wicked.
He starts out with a special exhortation to the righteous:
37:1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;be not envious of wrongdoers!2 For they will soon fade like the grassand wither like the green herb.
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord,and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;trust in him, and he will act.6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,and your justice as the noonday.
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,over the man who carries out evil devices!
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. (37:1-9).
In these nine verses we read two references to dwelling in and inheriting the land, (v 3, 9). David is reminding the people of the promise God made to the nation of Israel that if they would be faithful, he would establish them in the Promised Land. Their obedience would secure for them the blessings of peace because their enemies would be cut off – and God would walk amongst them personally.
Indeed, many of these promises came true during David’s lifetime. He united the kingdom and ushered in a time of peace, but the sword did not depart from his household his entire life. The people had to wait for Solomon to take the throne to experience the zenith of their peace and prosperity. Yet even in their triumph, there were some key things missing:
Although God did dwell among the people in his temple, he did not walk among them face to face nor did he rule them directly. Many years prior to Solomon, the people had decided they wanted to be like the other nations and have a king. Just as at Sinai when the people became afraid of God and asked Moses to speak to God for them, so too, they wanted a King to be an intermediary. The actual face to face presence and rule of God was too scary to handle directly.
So David’s Psalm is both an exhortation to the people and a reiteration of the hope that one day the Kingdom of God would come to earth just as it is in Heaven ( hmmm, sounds familiar…).
III. God Promises to deal with the Wicked
One of the key things about heaven on earth is that the Wicked get what’s coming to them. Unlike the Righteous, who are described as ‘blameless’ (vv.18, 37), “blessed” (vv.22,26) and “upright” , the wicked are: ‘evildoers’ (vv1,9),’wrongdoers (v1), ‘enemies of God’ (v 20), ‘cursed by Him” (v22), ‘ruthless’ (v35) and ‘transgressors” (v.38).
The Wicked “plot against righteous and gnash their teeth (v12). They ‘draw their sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and the needy and to slay the upright (v14). They borrow and do not pay back (v 21). They watch to put the righteous to death (v32). They carry out evil devices and prosper in their way’ (v7).
Sounds like one of my college roommates ---I’m not kidding!
But seriously, these descriptions really do have a contemporary feel. We all know wicked people who seem to prosper, who seem to get away with murder while we, who seek to be good Christians, suffer without justice. There is a temptation to envy the wicked and to be jealous of what seems so easy for them.
But let’s look at God’s attitude towards them: The Lord laughs at the wicked (v. 13). The wicked are cursed by God (v. 22). They are insubstantial – here today and gone tomorrow (v.3), their glory is passing like the grass of the field (v.20).
The movie American Gangster told the story of Frank Lucas, a black drug kingpin from New York. For a period of time, he seemed untouchable. He got fabulously wealthy and literally got away with murder. But he was being tracked down by Richie Roberts and his team of federal drug agents, who eventually got the goods on Frank. He went to jail for 15 years after turning State’s evidence, and the last scene of the movie shows him emerging from the prison utterly alone and penniless.
He was an example of what happens to the Wicked: They fade like grass and wither (v 3). They shall be cut off (v 9). A sword will enter their own heart, and their bows and their arms will be broken (vv. 15,16). The Wicked will perish, they will vanish and they will be utterly cut off (vv. 20, 22). Even their children will be cut off (v.28) and they will pass away with out leaving a trace (v 36).
Cut off, cut off, cut off. In the Jewish world of David’s day, where belonging is everything, being cut off would have been the worst thing that could happen to someone. David is reassuring the people: The wicked are going to ‘get theirs’.
Here again, however, the rub is that it doesn’t always seem to happen on our timetable or even on this earth. It can get downright tedious watching the wicked prosper. It would be really nice if God would Zap a few of them occasionally and we could see Justice being done with our own eyes.
So David gives a whole host of other reassurances to the Righteous – those who follow and obey God:
God will act on your behalf; He will bring forth your righteousness and justice (vv5,6). The righteous will indeed inherit the land and delight in abundant peace (vv9, 11). The Lord will uphold the Righteous (v16). His heritage will remain. (v 18). He will not be put to shame, but will have abundance in famine (v19). Again - he will inherit the land (v22). God will uphold the righteous, he will not let them fall. He will not forsake them and their children will become a blessing. (v26). On and on it goes. Blessings heaped upon blessings. Time doesn’t allow us to list every one minutely, but I think you can see the pattern.
Let’s reiterate here that the promise of Obedience was to inherit the land of Palestine and to live there unmolested in abundance. Let’s also reiterate that in the very best of times for the Jewish people, these promises were only partially fulfilled. They were told to ‘wait upon the Lord (v 7,34). Little did they realize that what they were waiting for was the Coming of the Lord Jesus.
IV. The Promise Modified in the Beatitudes
When Jesus came to earth, God did indeed dwell bodily with human beings. They did see him face to face – but it wasn’t exactly in the context of universal peace. Surely there was never a more strife-ridden place than Palestine at the time of Christ!
In the Beatitudes, Jesus modifies the Promise: the Kingdom of God will not be the triumphal Heaven-on-Earth reign that the Jewish people expected. Rather, in this Kingdom, the poor in spirit, the persecuted and those who mourn are blessed. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled. The merciful will receive mercy, the pure in heart shall see God, the peacemakers will be called the sons of God – and the meek shall inherit the earth.
Shades of Psalm 37:11! …the meek shall inherit the land …
So here is Jesus, talking about inheriting the land. But what land does he mean? Palestine? Ashland? Hurricane or Huntington?
How about all and none of the above? For the Beatitudes clearly indicate that the Kingdom is not of this world but of the Spirit.
V. The Promise Fulfilled: God dwells in and with His people.
Ever since Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the first believers at Pentecost, the people don’t dwell in a promised land – rather, God dwells in the people! You and I have the Holy Spirit living inside us. We don’t need a piece of geography to experience the Kingdom of God; we have it inside us!
So the Promise is fulfilled: Wherever we go, the Kingdom of God goes along in us. Although as believers we do not inherit a specific piece of real estate, the plan for the righteous is always the same: for God to dwell with us and bless us – wherever we live - and to judge the Wicked.
So when do the Wicked get theirs? The answer is that we have to wait for the summing up of all things in the great battle of Armegeddon and the eventual recreation of the heavens and the earth.
In his second letter, (3:7) Peter tells us that the present heavens and earth …are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. It may seem as if this is a long way off and that God may be unjust in holding off so long, but “The Lord is not slow about his promise…but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance (v 9). I, for one, am glad that he postpones His judgment. If He hadn’t I would have been toast long ago!
But never fear, “ The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (II Pet. 3:10). The wicked get burned to a crisp after God has given them plenty of time to repent. And then comes the ultimate fulfillment of all we have been talking about today.
“…according to His Promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (II Pet. 3:12).
Our destiny as Christians is to live in a new Heaven/Earth in which every one of the promises God spoke in Leviticus will literally come to pass! In fact, the original project that God began at Eden find its perfect fulfillment in this New City of God. It’s coming – just as Andre Crouch sings about it: Soon and Very Soon we are going to see the Lord …
VI. Our behavior in light of the Promise
If then, we are looking for the coming of the Day of the Lord and “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought we to be? (v.11,12).
Peter urges us to be “diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (v 14), to ‘be on guard, lest we be carried away by the error of unprincipled men (v17) and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (v 18). He might just as well have said:
(Psalm 37:1) Fret not yourself because of evildoers…3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;4 Delight yourself in the Lord,…5 Commit your way to the Lord…7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!Fret not yourself…9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. Amen.
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