Charles W. Holt
Community of Grace Church
(An Assemblies of God Fellowship)
cholt@gt.rr.com
HOW TO DEAL WITH MEAN, UGLY, BACK-STABBING PEOPLE
Psalm 55
I want to begin with a trivia question.
Question: Who was Spike Jones and the City Slickers? I remember them as a musical hodge-podge band who sang and played some of the funniest songs ever. One of their horseracing songs featured a horse name Beetle Baum. They did a parody of Adolph Hitler about saying Hiel, Hiel, Right in the Fuher’s Face. And many, many others.
But there is a song I want to recall, for the purpose of this message today, entitled “You Always Hurt The One You Love.” Allen Roberts and Doris Fisher wrote it and was a Top 20 hit in 1961. Many serious performers have sung this song including the Mills Brothers but none have a version like Spike Jones and his City Slickers.
The words of the song say:
You always hurt the one you love
The one you shouldn’t hurt at all
You always take the sweetest rose
And crush it till the petals fall
You always break the kindest heart
With a hasty word you can’t recall
So if I broke your heart last night
It’s because I love you most of all
Now I know there are many lyrics of songs I could have chosen but this was the first one to come to mind and I find it expresses so well a truth we have all shared.
This is a two-way street. We have either been guilty as the offending party and have hurt the one we shouldn’t hurt at all or we have been on the receiving end of someone’s unkindness, someone’s cutting, hurting words.
I have chosen the testimony of Israel’s great King David to illustrate and provide substance to for this message. We will be turning to Psalm 55 for this story.
In the chapter heading for Psalm 55 in my New King James Version that I will be using are these words: Trust in God Concerning the Treachery of Friends. That’s an interesting heading and it is a proper one, as we shall see. In actuality it gives a thumbnail sketch of what today’s message is all about.
1. Friends
2. Treachery, i.e., deceitfulness, disloyalty
3. Dealing with the deceit, treachery
4. Trusting God
Let’s take the time to read the entire chapter. It is only 23 verses long. (Read)
This chapter literally explodes with feeling if you could read it in one of the modern translations such as The Message or other modern English version. Here is only a mere sample from The Message of verses 4-8.
4-8 My insides are turned inside out;
specters of death have me down.
I shake with fear,
I shudder from head to foot.
"Who will give me wings," I ask—
"wings like a dove?"
Get me out of here on dove wings;
I want some peace and quiet.
I want a walk in the country,
I want a cabin in the woods.
I’m desperate for a change
from rage and stormy weather.
It would help greatly if we knew for certain the circumstances or situation that made David feel the way he does in this Psalm. There are two very good possibilities. One source says it was written when David was a captive of the ruthless Philistines in Gath. I prefer to believe it came as a result of an event described in 2 Samuel 15. It concerns the rebellion of David’s son Absalom who sought to take the kingdom from his father. It also involved David’s trusted counselor name Ahithophel. These two conspired to betray the King and Absalom persuaded hundreds to follow him. David had to flee for his life.
Psalm 55 is descriptive of that event recorded in 2 Samuel 15. (Summarize these events if desired.)
Let’s listen to David’s prayer, in Psalm 55, as he pours out his heart to the Lord.
The severity of his distress may be realized in the words that he uses to describe his circumstances, his distressed condition.
1 I am restless
2. I moan noisily
3. Oppression
4. Trouble
5. Wrath
6. Hate
7. Severely pained
8. Terrors of death
9. Fearfulness
10. Trembling
11. Horror has overwhelmed me
12. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.
How many times have we, in one way or another, wanted to “get away.” We may not have expressed it as David does but his words describe our feelings at the time. I call your attention again to the words from The Message in verses 6 – 8:
"Who will give me wings," I ask—
"wings like a dove?"
Get me out of here on dove wings;
I want some peace and quiet.
I want a walk in the country,
I want a cabin in the woods.
I’m desperate for a change
from rage and stormy weather.
Now look again at verses 12 – 15. “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me. Then I could bear it. No is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in the throng.”
Oh, that hurts! That’s a sleep stealer. It is a good cause for sleepless nights. That’s an appetite stealer. It will wring out tears.
Even our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ suffered the same fate. From Psalm 41:9 we read: “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” This verse is a prophecy of the day when Judas Iscariot would betray the Lord.
How do we handle this mountain of misery? How do we somehow make sense of it all? How do we keep from sinking beneath the waves of worry? Hear what David did.
1. “As for me, I will call upon God. And the LORD shall save me” (vs. 16).
2. “I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice” (vs. 17).
3. “Cast your burden on the LORD, and He hall sustain you” (vs. 22).
4. “I will trust in You” (vs. 23).
Let us take seriously David’s response to this extremely distressful time in his life. And for us today let us remember the words of Scripture that clearly define our personal battles with distress, adversity, when we are the victims of those who maliciously seek our hurt.
Recall the words of Psalm 34:19: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all” (NKJV).
Recall also the words of Jesus in John 16:33: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (NKJV)
This world — like it or not; believe it or not — is our warfare arena.
In His great intercessory prayer of John 17 Jesus plainly asks the Father: “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (vs. 15-18 NKJV).
This world is a breeding ground for hatred, unkindness, greediness, self-seeking, self-serving, all kinds of evils. And we live in this world, in this atmosphere that is an enemy of grace, love, forgiveness; an enemy of kindness and caring.
As believers we must struggle against these tendencies within ourselves and when others manifest them.
This is the Christian’s DILEMMA.
There is within us a conflict of DESIRES. Our carnal nature, which is very much alive within all of us, is warring against the Holy Spirit’s work within our redeemed spirit. Paul said, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish” (Gal. 5:17 NKJV). Here is how the New Living Translation says it:
17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
Listen again to the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:21 – “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:21-25 KJV).
King David did not have the Holy Spirit’s anointing as we have today.
King David did not have a leather-bound, gilt-edged copy of the Red Letter Edition of the King James Bible as we have today.
King David did not have a cassette player or DVD player with the latest and greatest messages on Faith and The Five Steps to Live a Triumphant Life.
King David did not have the fellowship of fellow believers, of people who could pray for him, encourage him, help him, and lift him mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
King David did not have any of the resources that are so readily available to us today.
BUT King David did know his God.
He knew how to trust God.
He knew how to pray.
Thus he sets out a model for us to follow when we must deal with what we have described as “the treachery of our friends.”
“As for me, I will call upon God, and the LORD shall save me” (Psa. 55:16 NKJV).
--We can do that.
“Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice” (Psa. 55:17 NKJV).
-- We can do that.
We can confess: “He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me” (Psa. 55:18 NKJV).
-- We can do that.
We can “Cast your burden on the LORD, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved” (Psa. 55: 22 NKJV).
-- We can do that.
“But I will trust in You” (Psa. 55:23 NKJV).
-- We can say that.
-- We can do that.
LET US PRAY
