Psalm 40:11-17
11 Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord; Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me. 12 For innumerable evils have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; They are more than the hairs of my head; Therefore my heart fails me. 13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me! 14 Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion Who seek to destroy my life; Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor Who wish me evil. 15 Let them be confounded because of their shame, Who say to me, “Aha, aha!” 16 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, “The Lord be magnified!” 17 But I am poor and needy; Yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God.
How many of you have been attacked by some other person?
Were you physically attacked?
Were you verbally attacked?
Were lies told about you in a “sneak attack”?
Were you “set up” in a no-win situation?
Were you hurt by a breach of trust?
There are countless ways that MAN can hurt us, wound us, and just leave us feeling completely alone and abandoned in this life.
Look at the world around us nowadays!! I am honestly not sure that there is a single source of information left out there that is actually TRUTHFUL! The lies of the enemy are everywhere. Find me a headline today that actually tells me the truth. I am willing to bet that you can’t find one. Even when it does have the “essence of truth”, it has some underlying political motivation to attack or discredit someone or something else. The only REAL TRUTH that we can hold onto is God’s word! His book of TRUTH and WISDOM that was with Him before the beginning, has stood the test of time, and will never pass away.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Recently many of you know that I have had to deal with lies and situations and all sorts of “falsehoods” that the enemy has thrown against me. And yes, there are still more going on at this very moment. But I find comfort in the words of David here at the end of Psalm 40, and this has been my prayer as of late.
So, let us look closer at the passage and see what all is going on and our proper BIBLICAL response.
David begins with asking God to be merciful, to be forgiving. He also asks to just let God’s love and truth be his guiding principle.
But listen what happens next:
12 For innumerable evils have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; They are more than the hairs of my head; Therefore my heart fails me.
David is completely overcome by “evils”. Have any of you ever felt like you have been completely overtaken by “evils”? That doesn’t mean that you are being evil. But evil has surrounded you and you are just drowning in the attacks of evil.
Now David also makes and important point here by saying that “my iniquities have overtaken me”, so he is ashamed of something he has done. I know myself when the enemy is really hitting me hard, I start thinking, “What have I done that has caused the favor of God to leave me?” Anyone else have a brain that works that way?
Let’s be honest, when it comes down to trouble, there are 2 types of people. There’s the “What have I done to deserve this?” group and the “This is all your fault” group.
Now you husbands better know that you are supposed to always be in the first group right? Please don’t answer that, because it’s a loaded question!!!
Back to David… All evil is smothering him and it seems that he is ready to admit defeat. “I am not able to look up…..My heart fails me” Have any of you been there? Are any of you there right now?
But does he give up? Do you give up? Does everyone around you tell you to give up like Job’s wife and friends? I hope that your faith in an all knowing and powerful God is stronger that that.
Look at what David says in verse 13.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me!
LORD HELP!!!!!!!!!!! AND DO IT QUICK!!!!!!!!
We want our vindication and justice right now don’t we? I’ll tell you that personally I am that way. I yearn for justice sometimes so much that I forget that truth be told……..I’m not worthy for God to allow me to keep living. If you want to get back to the “Law”, there are things I’ve done that I should probably have been stoned for. Heck, being born into this world into sin is simply enough for God to be justified in destroying us!
But aren’t you glad that we serve a God of Hope, Love, Peace and GRACE??? That’s a good spot for an amen!
David, in his Psalm, after asking for mercy, goes on to then ask for Justice.
14 Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion Who seek to destroy my life; Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor Who wish me evil. 15 Let them be confounded because of their shame, Who say to me, “Aha, aha!”
David asks for justice, but not our woke/unfiltered/retribution type of justice. He says, “Let them be ashamed……Confuse them……Drive them back in dishonor…..Mess up their plans when they think they have me”.
Boy that is a tough one isn’t it? When we want justice, want full on eye-for-an-eye justice! We want payback don’t we??? But that is not God’s ways. And David, the “man after God’s own heart” realizes that here.
David ends this Psalm by pointing all of us back to God’s purpose.
16 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, “The Lord be magnified!” 17 But I am poor and needy; Yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God.
He calls again on the promises of God. For those of us who are in covenant with God through Christ Jesus, we can come to Him in confidence knowing that He hears us. That simple fact alone is enough for great rejoicing and gladness!! He calls us to praise the Lord! “THE LORD BE MAGNIFIED!” There’s an exclamation point in that set of quotes for a reason! We are to shout praises to the Lord in our times of trouble. When evil seems like it has us completely surrounded and there is no glimmer of hope…… “THE LORD BE MAGNIFIED!”
I believe that this is soooo intentional. David realized that if we magnify and lift up God, and we put forth the effort to praise His name during our times of trouble, that He will see our faithfulness and use our situation for His Glory.
Do you give praise to the Lord in times of trouble?
Do you shout “The Lord be magnified!”?
Maybe we should stop making the problems we face all about US and our pitful selves. Maybe we should lift up the name of the Lord so that the whole world will see WHO was working to fix our problems. They will see WHO showed us Mercy and Love first. Then when God fixes whatever it is going on….HE will be Magnified and lifted up! Lets focus on Him, and let Him handle it!
We will end by jumping to Psalm 113 where David lays out Praising the Lord.
Psalms 113:1-5
1 Praise the LORD ! Yes, give praise, O servants of the LORD . Praise the name of the LORD !
2 Blessed be the name of the LORD now and forever.
3 Everywhere—from east to west— praise the name of the LORD .
4 For the LORD is high above the nations; his glory is higher than the heavens.
5 Who can be compared with the LORD our God, who is enthroned on high?
Have you been attacked recently? Are you still dealing with evil all around? Are you hurting still from evil’s sting being denied “justice”? Try this…
1) Ask God for forgiveness and to be merciful towards you.
2) Tell God what is troubling you and ask for HIS justice.
3) Then MAGNIFY and PRAISE His name! GIVE GOD PRAISE!
4) Finally, expect Him to deliver justice in such a way that He will be glorified.
Remember, its not about us and our desire for revenge. Its about God being glorified and everything working together for the betterment of His eternal Kingdom!
