TITLE: GOD HELPS THE AFFLICTED
TEXT: PSALM 9:13-20
- We’re continuing our study through the book of Psalms.
- We’ve already looked at the first part of chapter 9 and looked at some of the reasons why we can praise God.
- We can praise Him because He is great, we can praise Him because He is our refuge, and we can praise Him because is a Righteous Judge.
- This week, we’re looking at the second part of chapter 9, where David looks at some of the ways that God helps the afflicted.
- I’ve been reading about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.
- She and the rest of the slaves were horribly afflicted while working on plantations down in the South.
- They hardly had any rights, they were treated like property instead of human beings, they were fed little, they were whipped, and chained, and sold to the highest bidders…
- Slavery was a horrible thing that afflicted innocent men, women, and children.
- Yet there were men and women who were willing to risk it all to help slaves escape to the North, where they would have their freedom.
- One such group of people were the Quakers.
- They were Christians who strongly opposed slavery, and they were willing to feed, shelter, clothe, and help any runaway slave who wanted their God-given rights of freedom and liberty.
- Unfortunately, the government passed a law called “The Fugitive Slave Act”, so any slave caught running away was supposed to be returned to their master, and if anyone was caught helping them, they’d be arrested and tried in court, and if found guilty, they had to pay huge fines and do jail time.
- One Quaker, named Thomas Garrett, sacrificed his own fortune to help.
- He was arrested and found guilty of helping runaway slaves.
- The fine was so heavy that it left him financially ruined, yet Thomas Garrett stood up in Court and said, “Judge thou has left me not a dollar, but I wish to say to thee and to all in this courtroom that if anyone knows a fugitive who wants a shelter and a friend, send him to Thomas Garrett and he will befriend him."
- What would cause him and so many others to risk their homes and fortunes for runaway slaves?
- It was because they believed that slavery was unjustly afflicting an entire group of people, just because of the color of their skin.
- They also recognized that God cares for and helps the afflicted…
- As followers of God, they knew that it was their Christian duty to help the afflicted, even if it meant breaking man’s law, the Fugitive Slave Act.
- King David certainly felt afflicted many times during his time on earth, so he could cry out in prayer, and he knew God would listen…that’s what we find him doing here…
- Let’s look now at some of the ways God helps the afflicted.
FIRST: GOD IS MERCIFUL- VS 13-14
- My brother and I used to rough house with one another.
- We’d punch and kick each other, then we’d tackle one another…
- I used to give him noogies on his head, and he’d try to give me an Indian burn on my arms…those really hurt!
- Anyways, we’d fight with each other until the other person cried out, “Mercy! Have mercy!”
- Then, that’d be the end of it.
- It was always fun, but it also taught us there was no shame in asking for mercy when we’d had enough.
- Of course, neither of us wanted to be the one to ask for mercy, but you get my point.
- It’s the same thing with God…when things get overwhelming, there’s no shame in coming before Him and asking for mercy.
- Now that David has praised God in the first part of the Psalm, he is now coming before God to plead for the needs of the present.
- He starts by saying, “Have mercy on me, oh Lord!”
- I like what Charles Spurgeon says about this sentence.
- He says, “Just as Martin Luther used to call some texts little Bibles, so we may call this sentence a little prayer book; for it has in it the soul and marrow of prayer.”
- God is the source of mercy, and whenever a time of trouble comes, the first place we should go is to Him in prayer!
- David explains that the trouble he is facing is coming from those who hate him.
- He had a lot of enemies.
- As Christians, there will always be people who hate us as well.
- Many times, it’s because they hate the God we serve, so we will be persecuted for taking a stand for Christ.
- And of course, Satan and his demons hate us, and we must continually wear the Armor of God to be protected against their attacks.
- Remember, In Ephesians 6, after each piece of armor is described, we’re told, “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests!”
- And that’s what we’re doing when we cry out to God for mercy and ask Him to consider our troubles.
- We’re fighting a battle, and we know that God Almighty is there to help us.
- David continues by saying, “You lift me up from the gates of death.”
- What an amazing way to describe God Almighty…the One who lifts me up from the gates of death…
- That means David had been feeling so overwhelmed by his enemies, that it felt like the next step was death…
- When we’re in the thick of a tribulation, and it seems like our enemies have the upper hand, we sometimes come to that point…where we feel like the only relief from the struggle would be death, because we know we’ll be in Heaven with Jesus.
- Yet it’s at those times when God shows Himself as the “One who lifts me up from the gates of death.”
- Notice that He doesn’t just lift us up from the gates of death, though.
- Vs 14 says, “In the gates of the daughter of Zion, I will tell of all your praise and rejoice in Your salvation.”
- So, He brings us to the gate where instead of feeling like dying, we instead feel like praising Him and rejoicing in Him!
- Think about that.
- No hole is too deep, and no valley is too low for God to stretch out His arm for us to take hold of, and for Him to pull us out.
- Through the rescue, all the praise, honor, and glory goes to God Almighty, who deserves it.
- Notice the last part of vs 14 though…
- “I will rejoice in Your salvation…”
- When is the last time you rejoiced in your salvation?
- The Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, became one of us, allowed Himself to be crucified, all because He loved us and through this, would save us.
- That’s not something to be mopey about…that’s exciting!
- It’s life-changing, it’s transforming, it’s wonderful beyond description…
- Salvation is a beautiful thing, and the more we rejoice because of it, the more people will want this salvation we have.
- I like what Charles Spurgeon says about it.
- He says, “It is a good thing for the melancholy to become a Christian; it is an unfortunate thing for the Christian to become melancholy. If there is any man in the world that has a right to have a bright, clear face and a flashing eye, it is the man whose sins are forgiven him, and who is saved with God’s salvation.”
SECOND: GOD IS THE JUDGE- VS 15-16
- Years ago, when I worked at McDonalds, there were some managers I really liked, and others who I was afraid of.
- I remember whenever I went to work, I was nervous because I knew if one of the mean managers was working, I was going to have a horrible day.
- If one of the nice managers was working, then things would be great.
- So, whenever I had to work with one of the mean and grumpy managers, I was super stressed out, felt like I was walking on eggshells, and those hours I worked seemed to go by much slower.
- Obviously, I wanted the nice friendly managers to work with because it always made me feel better.
- When it comes to God the Judge, I think we’d all prefer Him to be like the nice friendly manager as opposed to the grumpy, mean manager.
- Of course, God is neither a nice friendly Judge or a grumpy mean Judge…
- God is a fair Judge!
- As His followers, we don’t want to stand before Him as our Judge for rejecting Him because as a fair judge, He would deny us just as we denied Him…
- No, we want to stand before the Righteous Judge who judges righteously.
- And that’s what we see here in vs 15 and 16 as David explains that the Lord is known by the judgment He executes.
- One of my favorite childhood cartoons is Looney Tunes, and my favorite characters in the show are the Roadrunner and Wile e Coyote.
- Wile e coyote was always setting traps for the roadrunner, hoping to catch him.
- He’d order all sorts of things from Acme Corporation, such as huge missiles, and TNT, and all sorts of dangerous things.
- The funny thing is that no matter how hard he tried, or how clever his traps were, they never worked…
- Instead, they backfired and usually ended up hurting him badly.
- It’s a silly show, and we can laugh at it when we watch it, but in reality, when the enemies of God’s people set traps for us, it doesn’t end well for them.
- Vs 15 tells us that the nations have sunk down in the pit which they made, in the net which they hid, their own foot is caught…
- That’s because when they plot against God’s people, they’re actually plotting against God Himself…
- And how can you plot against someone who already knows your next move before you know it?
- It’s not possible…God always wins, and David saw that time after time again…
- When Goliath stood before the armies of Israel and blasphemed God and mocked His people, David knew that God would take care of it, and he allowed God to use him to take care of Goliath.
- When King Saul came against him, David knew God would take care of it.
- When the Philistines fought against him, David knew God would take care of it.
- Those are just a few examples…
- David understood that God is the Judge, and his enemies would answer to God.
- Vs 16 promises that God will judge them, and that God is known by the judgment He executes.
- So, the enemy finds out real fast that God is against them…
- And even better, God’s people find out real fast how great, mighty, powerful, and awesome God is, and that we don’t have to take vengeance or judgment into our own hands…
- God’s got it covered!
- And then he adds that the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.
- I like what the commentator Adam Clarke says about this.
- “There is nothing that a wicked man does that is not against his own interest. He is continually doing himself harm and takes more pains to destroy his soul than the righteous man does to get his saved unto eternal life. This is a weighty truth; and the psalmist adds: Higgaion; Selah. Meditate on this; mark it well.”
- I think the reason David adds the word ‘Selah’ is because he understands that it’s awful easy for us to focus our attention on the enemy and the problems they’re hurling our way…
- That can be overwhelming.
- But when we stop, and think about these words, really letting them sink in, it helps us to turn our eyes upon God Almighty and not be overwhelmed by the enemy.
THIRD: GOD IS MINDFUL OF THE POOR AND NEEDY- VS 17-18
- I grew up in a fundamentalist, independent, King James Only Baptist Church.
- I have very fond memories of my time at the church, but one of the things I remember that doesn’t sit well with me is the way they preached about hell.
- When they talked unbelievers going to hell, it was almost like they were bragging about it.
- They’d say things like, “Yeah, there’s a hot spot in hell reserved for that adulterer over there” or “So and so is going to burn in hell forever.”
- Sometimes, they’d even smile about it or let out a little laugh.
- One fundamentalist preacher who reminds me of some of these preachers has over 300 people in his church and has people from all over the world watch his sermons…
- He said from the pulpit, “To me, LGBT stands for ‘Let God Burn Them’”, and his whole congregation started laughing.
- Listen folks, people going to hell is not a laughing matter.
- Here in vs 17, David is not rejoicing about this fact…he’s simply stating it because it is true.
- The wicked and the nations that forget God…David uses Hebraic repetition here to remind us of how great the sin is of forgetting God.
- The commentator David Guzik lists some of the things that the wicked forget about God.
- Man forgets the infinite majesty and glory of God.
- Man forgets the mercies of God.
- Man forgets the laws of God.
- Man forgets the presence of God.
- Man forgets the justice of God.
- Why does the sinner forget God?
- Man forgets God because the thought of God makes man afraid.
- Man forgets God because the thought of God doesn’t entertain him enough.
- Man forgets God because the thought of God makes it hard to carry on in sin.
- As Christians, you and I know that even though the wicked attempt to forget about God, He is still real, and they will still face judgment before Him, or “be turned into hell.”
- Then, in vs 18, David says, “The needy shall not always be forgotten…”
- Here, David is referring to the godly men and women who are being oppressed by their enemies.
- During those times of oppression, it will sometimes feel like God has forgotten us.
- I was watching that new movie about the Apostle Paul last week, and the way they portrayed the early church in Rome really stood out to me.
- They were a community in hiding because Emperor Nero was persecuting Christians, throwing them to the lions, burning them alive on poles in order to light his gardens…absolutely horrible things he and the Romans were doing to the Christians.
- There are several scenes where they are talking about this oppression, and how it seemed like God had forgotten about them.
- And yet every time they felt that way, God reminded them that He was with them, and the Church was not extinguished…
- As a matter of fact, it grew through the persecution.
- God says the needy shall not always be forgotten, and their expectation shall not perish forever.
- He takes care of His people, always.
- I like what the commentator Adam Clarke says about this…
- “The needy, and the poor, whose expectation is from the Lord, are never forgotten, though sometimes their deliverance is delayed for the greater confusion of their enemies, the greater manifestation of God’s mercy, and the greater benefit to themselves.”
- And of course, the Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 4:7-8 said, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
- He is mindful of us, He has not forgotten, and we can be grateful for that.
FOURTH: GOD IS VICTORIOUS- VS 19-20
- David knew that God would act, but he continues to call out in prayer because it’s a way to strengthen his own faith.
- “Arise, oh Lord, do not let man prevail!”
- So, David is teaching us the importance of prayer.
- Sure, we could sit back and do nothing, but our faith wouldn’t grow that way.
- No, our relationship with God is a very active and very real relationship…
- It’s not passive or fatalistic.
- He says, “Let the nations be judged in your sight.”
- Some people might try to misinterpret this and say that David is calling down a curse on his enemies.
- “Arise, take them out, oh Lord!”
- But that’s not the case…
- David is stating a fact, foretelling as a prophet, exactly what will happen to those who dare to defy God Almighty and persecute His people.
- God will always be victorious.
- In vs 20, he says, “Put them in fear, oh Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men.”
- Another way to translate the word “fear” here is “teacher” or “legislator.”
- So, David isn’t jumping up and down with joy, saying that God is going to judge the nations, and he’s so happy about it!
- No, he’s saying, “Teach them that they’re only men…”
- If they could come to that realization, then they might acknowledge their proper place before God, and their need for repentance…
- They they might turn to God.
- I like what G. Campbell Morgan says about this.
- “What prayer, then, can we pray which is of more vital importance than that the nations may know themselves to be but men? Such knowledge must drive them to dependence upon God, and such dependence is the secret of national strength, and of national prosperity and permanence.”
- So, brothers and sisters, you and I must remember that God is always victorious…
- When we’re being afflicted, He will help us, He will strengthen us, He will bring us through.
- David knew that from experience, and he grew closer to God.
- Hopefully you and I can say the same.
