How The Godly Survive In An Ungodly World. Series

Intro:

1. “One penalty of living near God is keen pain from low lives. The ears that hear God’s Word cannot but be stunned and hurt by the babble of empty speech. This Psalm is profoundly melancholy, but without a trace of personal affliction. The psalmist is not sad for himself, but sick of the clatter of godless tongues, in which he discerns the outcome of godless lives. His complaint wakes echoes in hearts touched by the love of God and the visions of man’s true life. It passes through four clearly marked stages, each consisting of two verses: despondent contemplation of the flood of corrupt talk which seems to submerge all (vv. 1f); a passionate prayer for divine intervention, wrung from the psalmist by the miserable spectacle (vv. 3f); the answer to that cry from the voice of God with the rapturous response of the psalmist to it (vv. 5f); and the confidence built on the divine Word, which rectifies the too despondent complaint at the beginning, but is still shaded by the facts which stare him in the face (vv. 7f).” [CBL]

2. We are going to have to deal with a world that has gone mad! This Psalms gives us some helpful hints at playing spiritual survivor man.

3. How the Godly Survive in an Ungodly World.

Trans: Psa. 12

I…FIRST, THE DESPAIR. 1

A. The Crying for Help.

Help, LORD – yasha, means “to be open, wide or free. In other words, when one has plenty of room in which to move, he feels safe and secure. Help means here to be delivered, saved, or preserved. The personal name “Jesus” is derived from this same root.

“The cry for help abruptly beginning the Psalm tells of the sharp pain from which it comes. The psalmist has been brooding over the black outlook until his overcharged heart relieves itself in this single-worded prayer. As he looks around, he sees no exceptions to the prevailing evil. Like Elijah, he thinks that he is left alone, and love to God and men and reliableness and truth are vanished with their representatives.”

Trans: Our Lord Jesus has helped or saved us spiritually from our sins; as well as physically from our adversity. Either by changing us or by changing our circumstances.

Notice the key is prayer – this is a prayer. Ja. 1:2-5

Gordon, “Prayer is insisting upon Jesus victory and the retreat of the enemy on each particular spot. The enemy yields only what he must. He yields only what it taken. Therefore prayer must be persistent. He continually renews his attacks, therefore the ground taken must be held against him in the Victors name…The greatest agency put into man’s hands is prayer. And to define prayer adequately one must use the language of war. The earth is in a state of war.”

B. The Ceasing of the Holy.

For the godly ceased… - godly here means “saint or holy one.” At times it does seem like the godly have ceased.

Prior to 1965, television shows portrayed businessmen as good guys twice as often as bad guys, as Michael Medved shows in Hollywood vs America. In the 1970s, this ratio was reversed; two villains for every good guy. Today, big business has become television's favorite villain. Medved quotes an exhaustive analysis of prime time television by the sociologists Richter, Richter and Rothman which concludes, "By 1980 a majority of the CEO's portrayed on prime time committed felonies." Respectable businessmen were by then committing 40 percent of the murders on prime time television, and 44 percent of vice crimes like drug trafficking and pimping.* Michael Medved, Hollywood vs America: Popular Culture and the War on Traditional Values (New York, Harper Collins, 1993).

One the other hand Satan caused David to buy a lie! David felt as if he alone was serving God, but he was more alone then Elijah (1 Ki. 19:14,18). Why does Satan work so hard to get us to think that we are the only godly one’s on the planet? Because we are never effective when in isolation. We not only need prayer but fellowship.

Application Bible: “Living for God in a deceitful world can be difficult and lonely. At one time the great prophet Elijah felt so lonely he wanted to die. But God told him that there were 7,000 other faithful servants (1 Kings 19:4, 14, 18). We are never alone in our battle against evil. When you feel alone, seek out other believers for strength and support.”

David’s despair caused him to pray and unfortunately he had been convinced the he was alone. The key is proper focus.

I few times driving across those mountains I was scared to death. The problem was I was look at those treacherous vallies. Then I changed my focus – I kept my eyes on the road and put on some music. As long as I refused to look to the right or to the left I did fine.