Good News In A Bad News World Series

Good News in A Bad News World!

Psalm 36

Introduction:

Cf. we live in a world in which we are constantly being bombarded with bad news:

Christians = can become consumed with 24-hour news cycle 365 days a year that is inundated with bad news.

Natural disaster, war, crime out of control, drug addiction, suicide, downward spiral of an immoral society that wants nothing to do with God or anything good or right for that matter.

Christian = take a toll on you mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Psalm 36 = where David was when penned Psalm 36.

Now I am not saying that we as believers are to stick our heads in the sand and pretend there is nothing wrong or bad or dangerous in our world.

Child of God = never get more consumed with the bad news than with the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t get so consumed with what is going on in this world that you lose sight of what God is doing!

Story Behind the Psalm:

- Not told the occasion David wrote this Psalm. Could have been in his early years… young man… looks around at the moral and spiritual decline of his nation, Israel.

- Young people today troubled as never before – Jed Foundation for Mental Health… suicide the second leading cause of death for teens and young adults ages 10-34; over 25% of young adults ages 18-24 serious contemplate taking their own lives… higher than any other adult age group… no hope! Live in a world filled with bad news.

- Longing for some good news.

- Not told when the Psalm was written but we do know who penned it.

- Divinely inspired title: “A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord.”

David = doesn’t say, the giant killer, the King of Israel, or the sweet singer of Israel… simply, “The servant of the LORD.”

Nothing greater can be said of our lives! Can that be said of you???

Q: how many of us tonight could use some good news???

Psalm 36 = David is going to give us both… start with some bad news… end with the good news.

Help us get the right perspective on how to live in a wicked world surrounded by evil people – do that by keeping your eyes on the LORD!

Two Ways Live Our Lives:

1. LOOK AROUND AND BE DISTRESSED!

Look: v.1 – Psalm begins on a low note, minor chord. Looked around and what he saw a world filled with bad news!

“Transgression” = rebellion of the wicked… a society at war with God. Going its own way! Hostile to God and the things of God.

Sound familiar???

“Saith within my heart” = internalizes it … speaks to him… tells him something.

A. The Wicked Man’s Eyes (1,2)

1) No Fear of God (1a)

“Fear” = no reverence of God – no dread of final judgment.

Deceives himself into thinking that he will get by.

2) No Fault in Himself (2)

“Flatters” = center of his own existence… sees himself as upstanding, right, good … sees no evil in his life. Justifies actions… blames society, others, raw deal, (God)… not his fault!

Calls good evil and evil good!

B. The Wicked Man’s Mouth (3)

Mouth = spews out wickedness and deceit.

The tongue is the betrayer of the heart.

Matt. 12:34 – “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

C. The Wicked Man’s Mind (3b-4a)

Cf. not just his eyes, mouth, heart, but his mind is corrupt.

3b – he rejects wisdom! Wants nothing to do with what it right, good, moral, pleasing to God.

Proverbs = a fool!

v.4 - “Deviseth” = to imagine – lays in his bed and imagines… thinks new and novel ways to sin.

Contrast: David does on his bed…

Psalm 6:6 – “I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.”

Psalm 63:6 – “When I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches.”

D. The Wicked Man’s Feet (4b)

“Abhorreth not evil” = don’t despise.

“Evil” = to break up all that is good – destroyer of what is good.

Reject the good and embrace the evil.

Always takes the low road… broad way that leads to destruction. Goes headlong into the path of sin… sinking lower and lower into their sin.

GLAD PSALM DOESN’T END HERE! ANOTHER STANZA. GOES FROM A SAD NOTE TO A GLAD NOTE!!

DAVID SHIFTS HIS GAZE… FIRST LOOKED AROUND… NOW LOOKS UP!

Look Around and Be Distressed

2. LOOK UP AND BE BLESSED!

A. The God Above Him (5-7)