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)
v.5 – shift… David turns his eyes away from the world and onto the Lord.
Heb. 12:3,4 – “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”-
“Looking” = to fix one’s gaze – need to make a conscious choice to take our eyes off of this world and fix our eyes on Him!
Jesus = didn’t let the world stop Him! Rob His joy! Neither should we!
OUR GOD IS GREATER!!!
1) His Mercy (5a) – Knows no limits.
“Heavens” = no limit to the sky… no limit to God’s mercy. Never exhaust the storehouse of His love.
Aren’t you glad God is full of mercy!
2) His Faithfulness (5b) = Knows no end.
Quote: “God’s love is as high as Heaven and His loyalty soars to the skies. ”
Just as the clouds rains down moisture, nourishing the earth so God in His faithfulness showers us with His blessings!
Never fail us! Trust Him!
3) His Righteousness (6a) = Knows no change
“Great Mountains” = firm, immovable, lasting
Thankful for the changeless nature of our God!
Everything around us may change but Jesus never! Forever the same!
Malachi 3:6 – “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”
Because God never changes… His care in our lives never changes… Jeremiah learned this!
Lamentations 3:22,23 – “It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
4) His Wisdom (6b) – Knows no bounds
“Judgments” = God’s actions, what He does… His working in our world.
Reminds = God is in control! Wickedness of man will not prevail!
Not only is God at work in our world… He is at work in our lives.
God = knows what He is doing! Trust Him!
His ways are past finding out!
5) His Love (7) – Knows no depths
“Excellent” = precious
“Lovingkindness” = OT word for grace! Speaks of God’s unfailing love for us. Incomprehensible!!
God’s love never lessens! Always the same!!
Illust: Weathervane – “God is Love”
Wide, wide as the ocean
High as the Heaven above;
Deep, deep as the deepest sea
Is my Saviour’s love.
Under His Wings! Rest in God’s great eternal love for us!
B. The Victories Before Us
1) Satisfies us (8-9)
Quote: “The devil always pays off in counterfeit.”
What the devil offers never lasts… gives you his best on the front end… leaves you empty and broken on the back end.
God = not against pleasures… He is against sinful pleasures the kind the devil supplies… those artificial amusements that require and ever-increasing dose – required for – an ever-diminishing return.
God’s pleasures = on the other hand, are rich, free, abundant, and lasting.
“Pleasures” = come from the Heb. Eden – Garden paradise – God pleasures flow out of His goodness from the paradise of Heaven.
v.9 – “fountain of life” = the very springs of life itself.
- Satan = life taker.
- God = life giver!
a. Connection (9) = light with life – God is the source of both.
b. Contrast (9) = light with darkness.
1John 1:5 – “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
God is not tainted with the darkness of this world. Don’t get so consumed with the darkness around you that you miss the light above you.
2) Secures us (10-11)
Picture = of victory!
David understood what we need to understand – culprit of sin – resides in our own heart.
We don’t have to be overcome with the darkness around us.
3) Sees us through (12)
Rest in the fact that the God who is light is not dismayed at the darkness of this world… not discouraged.
Working out His purposes! In the end He wins!!
Christian = because He wins, we win!!!
Conclusion:
Choice is ours…
1. Look around and be distressed.
2. Look up and be blessed!
