A Study in Psalms - Psalm 58

Good evening and welcome back to our summer of Psalms. Tonight we have a psalm that's a little bit different than any other one we've ever looked at. So tonight I'll just begin by reminding you that it was last October 7th, last year, when Hamas invaded Israel and they killed more Jews in one day than in any day in recent history, and they committed any many many atrocities. So let me ask you a question.

Did you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, Psalm 122 6? I think a lot of people here did because that's a very popular verse here at Christ Community Church, praying for the peace of Jerusalem. But let me ask you, did you also pray an imprecatory prayer for the enemies of Israel?

I did. I prayed that God would destroy Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and all those enemies of Israel. You may ask, what is an imprecatory prayer? We've looked at a few verses in the past when we preached on Psalm 139. There's a few verses in Psalm 139 about imprecatory, but tonight we're going to look at an entire psalm.

So this may be new. You may ask, what is an imprecatory prayer? Isn't that something that belongs in the Old Testament? Am I allowed to pray an imprecatory prayer? Doesn't the New Testament teach us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? So when and how do I pray? This psalm tonight teaches us it might be new for you, it might be uncomfortable for some people. In my study I found that, I don't know exactly when, but one Anglican denomination actually forbid the reading of Psalm 58 in their churches for quite some time.

So tonight I hope that you'll learn. In past summers we looked at a few verses from imprecatory prayers, but not an entire psalm. So my prayer tonight is that you'll understand imprecatory prayers in the psalms and feel comfortable praying them against Israel and God's enemies. I think it's important and it's necessary. It's important for two reasons. One, because prayer is effective. Number two, because our society is full of evil.

I think you know that. Then the so-called imprecatory psalms. There are seven great imprecatory psalms. Let me give them to you.

Psalm 6, Psalm 35, Psalm 58, Psalm 69, Psalm 83, Psalm 109, and Psalm 137. These psalms call on God to punish the wicked. The psalmist invokes, cries out to God to invoke God's wrath and judgment against his enemies or Israel's enemies. The psalmist calls down a curse or destruction or judgment upon his enemies. So we shall read Psalm 58 now, if you turn there. Psalm 58, to the choir master, according to, do not destroy a miktam of David. Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly?

No, in your hearts you devise wrongs. Your hands deal out violence on earth. The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray from birth, speaking lies. They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter. O God, break the teeth in their mouths. Tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord. Let them vanish like water that runs away. When he aims his arrows, let them be blunted. Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.

Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away. The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked. Mankind will say, surely there is a reward for the righteous. Surely there is a God who judges on earth. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we love you and thank you for another chance to look at a new Psalm tonight.

Father, may we leave here tonight knowing how to pray more, knowing how to talk to you when we see the evil in the world. In Jesus name, amen. Tonight's Psalm is about the unjust judges in Israel that David saw. And I thought I'd begin with a story of a judge in court here in the United States. The judge had made an announcement at the beginning of the trial. He said, gentlemen, I have two checks in my hand, two bribes, one from the defendant for $15,000 and one from the prosecutor or the accuser for $10,000.

My decision is to return the $5,000 to the defendant and decide the case strictly on its merits. So the judge kept the $20,000. Now that's a joke, but did you know how hard it is to know about our judicial system? Reuters did a study and it's one of the few studies you can actually find online about how many judges are corrupt in the United States. But they said that the country has approximately 1,700 federal judges who hear 400,000 cases annually. And then there are 30,000 state, county, municipal court judges who handle over 100 million court cases a year from traffic cases to divorce to murder.

Their titles range from justice of the peace to state supreme court justices. Their powers are vast and varied from determining whether a defendant should be jailed or deciding who deserves custody of a child. So this first study that was done, they looked at, it took 12 years, they looked at cases over 12 years, and they identified 1,509 cases from 2008 to 2019 in which judges resigned, retired, or were publicly disciplined following accusations of misconduct.

1,509 cases. But they found another 3,613 in which discipline was warranted, but it was kept hidden from us in the public. So one person said, all told, 9 out of every 10 judges were allowed to return to the bench after they were sanctioned for misconduct. So most of the time we don't even know what's going on. So one person said that you would be appalled at some of the lenient treatment judges get for substantial transgressions. The psalmist here who is David was appalled 3,000 years ago at the unjust judges and rulers in Israel.

As Christians, we carry within us an innate sense of right and wrong, don't we? A conviction that oppressors, criminals should be punished and the weak protected. We all want justice. We follow Jesus Christ, we have a sense of justice which is imparted to us by our creator God. He is loving, He is kind, He is merciful, but He's also righteous, justice, and holy. Psalms 89.14 says, righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. So we said that the type of psalm here is an imprecatory psalm.

The superscription says to the choir master, according to do not destroy, a mictum of David. Those words do not destroy is possibly a song, says the same thing as Psalm 57 and 59. And mictum means a golden or precious. So we know the author here is David and we don't know the history, but most commentators believe that this is King David looking at King Saul and King Saul's wicked court. You know that King Saul was surrounded by ruthless fellows. You remember when he was told to absolutely destroy the Amalekites and he didn't.

And he finally admitted he didn't do it because he was afraid. So he had a lot of people in positions of power that were not good people. And possibly David's looking at this or maybe David when he became king inherited. A few years ago, President Donald Trump said he was going to drain the swamp. Well, here David has a swamp that needs draining. The main idea is there are many today who say a leader's private life doesn't matter. We should only be concerned about his public life. But we all know that what a person is in private, he is in public.

D.L. Moody said, character is what you are in the dark. Psalm 58 is a lament psalm filled with righteous anger about corrupt judges who lord it over the people. David is asking God to judge these corrupt leaders. One commentator said, this psalm is a bold protest against all the unrighteous judges. It opens with an indignant exposition on their deliberate perversion of justice while they pretend to uphold it. It lays bare their character and that of those whom they favor as men thoroughly habitually by their very nature are corrupt.

And finally, because they are thus beyond all hope of correction or amendment, it calls upon God to rob them of their power and bring all their counsels to naught.

I hope you have an outline. Point one is justice violated. Let's look at that. So here in verses one to five, David is going to come across like a prosecutor in court. And sub-point A there, the unjust judges are examined there. And we have that the verse says, do you indeed creed what is right you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly? We'll look at that in a little bit.

But I just want to let you know that God is really concerned about Israel when He established them and its leaders judging with equity and justice. Just some verses, Leviticus 19.15. He tells the leaders of Israel, you shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor. In 2 Chronicles 19.7 he says, now then let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the Lord our God or partiality or taking bribes.

And then there's another Psalm. Psalm 82 would be a companion Psalm of Psalm 58. And it's interesting that this one's written by Asap, who would be the worship leader. He would see these phony judges who would come into the temple and give their fake worship, knowing that when they went out they would be accepting bribes. And Psalms 58 says, God has taken His place in the divine council. In the midst of the gods He holds judgment. How long will you judge unjustly and show impartiality to the wicked?

Give justice to the weak and to the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor understanding. They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said you are God's sons of most high, all of you. Nevertheless, like men you shall die and fall like any prince. Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations. Proverbs has a lot of verses about injustice, justice, and judgment.

Proverbs 13.23 says, The foul old ground of the poor would yield much food, but it swept away through injustice. Proverbs 17.23 says, The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice. Proverbs 28.5 says, Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely. Proverbs 22.8 says, Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity and the rod of his fury will fail. And then there's that beautiful verse, Micah 6.8. We used to sing this in the youth group when I was helping out in the youth group maybe 30 years ago.

Micah 6.8 and it says, He has told you, O man, what is good. What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. As Christians, we're required and expected to do justice. Proverbs 21.3 says, To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Zechariah 7.9 says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, or some translations say justice. Show kindness and mercy to one another. So God is serious about justice and righteousness and he expects man to do the same.

But here in verse one you can see that that's not what's happening. This is actually a very difficult verse to translate. Commentators argue and debate about it, so we'll just try to give you what I think is the right meaning. But first off it says, Do you indeed decree what is right?

Now at least that's what my ESV Bible says. The Legacy Standard Bible says, Do you indeed speak righteousness? Judges are required to speak righteousness. That's probably the better translation. The NIV says, Do you rulers indeed speak justly? So it's talking about judges and are they speaking right or righteously what God wants. And then you have the controversy of the Hebrew word alem, which means muteness or silence. And it's a very difficult world to translate. And in fact most translations have translated you gods, small g, I think you saw that.

Psalms 82.6 says, You are gods, speaking of kings and judges, small g. So the ESV says, Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? The NSV says, Do you indeed speak righteousness, you oh gods? The LSB says, Do you indeed speak righteousness, oh gods? Then the King James Version, I don't know where they got this, Do you indeed speak righteousness, oh congregation? They might be talking about a body of advisors. I think the best translation might be the New King James. They corrected the bad translation.

And it says, Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones? So are they gods or are they silent ones? Well they're judges. And what he's talking about is these judges are silent when they should be rendering justice. They're not speaking I think. And then of course you have the whole verse itself. It's a rhetorical question isn't it? Which you see in Psalms very common. We all know that rhetorical questions imply a negative answer. And in verse 2 David says, No, no, no. So David asks the judges who are probably Saul's advisors and counselors, Are your verdicts right?

Are you speaking righteously? Are your decisions just or impartial? Are you upholding the law or twisting it to benefit the wicked? If the New King James Version is correct in its translation, then these judges were silent when they should have rendered justice. David knew the answer to the rhetorical question as we do today. So we looked at the unjust judges examined. Now let's look at the unjust judges exposed, verses 2 to 5.

And then they have the source of their wickedness. He says, Know in your hearts you devise wrong. So it's a heart issue. David answers his rhetorical question, Know in your hearts. The answer is in our sinful human nature it begins in the heart. I think we must say Jeremiah 17 9 every other week in this church. And you know that verse. Jeremiah 17 9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? So you have a heart issue. And if you have a heart issue with a sick heart, it becomes a hand issue.

It says your hands deal out violence. If your heart is wrong, at least your hand's doing sin, including leading up to violence. The word violence here in Hebrew is translated Hamas. So I don't know about you, but I don't think there'll ever be a peace treaty between Israel and Hamas. And if there is, it will be a peace treaty that Hamas will break, just like Iran, Hezbollah. If they ever sign peace treaties, they never keep them. So literally Hamas's name means violence. And then he says, The wicked are estranged from the womb.

They go astray from lies. So you have a heart issue that's full of sin, which leads to a hand issue, which leads to violence and many other sins, including violence. And why is that? Because they're born in sin from the womb. David would write in that great Psalm 51 5. Surely I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. So the source of the wickedness is the heart. Let's look at the stubbornness of the wickedness.

Psalm 58 has some powerful images and none better than that as a description of evil doers as snakes. Now in the Bible, you know that that Satan came as a snake in Genesis three, right? And in Revelation 12, nine, it describes Satan as the great dragon who was thrown down that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan. So when it says they have venom, they have the venom of a serpent and like a death adder that stops its ear. So it doesn't hear the voice of the charmers or the cunning enchanter.

What's he talking about there? Well, he's talking about, um, uh, I got ahead of myself here, but the phrase they have venom means of course, the speech coming from their mouths. And you notice in verse three, the speech leads to lies.

Verse three says they lie, but like a Cobra, a snake, a Cobra, the unjust judges only obeyed the charmer when they got something out of it, but they had a mind of her own. Snakes apparently have no visible ears or internal eardrums. They have small bones in the top of their head that, that, that can listen to the sound vibrations. So the Cobra responds more to the movement of the charmer than the tune that the charmer plays. So what he's saying is they're deaf to sound reason. These judges are stubborn.

They ignore all calls for justice. Let's move on. Well, I said written 3000 years ago, I think you all know we have the same problem. Even if nine out of 10 court cases with judges, we don't know about, but we have corrupt judges. We have injustice administered by judges, not following the laws. We have bribes and many innocents suffer. Let's look at justice visualized because justice was so corrupt.

David has no choice, but to call upon God, asking him to intervene. David is angry at what he sees. People are suffering because of these unjust judges. People are being abused. The poor, the fatherless, the widow, the orphan are being trampled. So in verses one to five, David is like a prosecutor in court, but here in verses six to nine, he's going to pronounce six curses using six images or metaphors for God's vengeance and judgment. So the fate of the unjust judge, David asks to be like number one, like a disarmed lion verse six.

Oh God break the teeth of their mouths, tear out their fangs of the young lions. Oh Lord. So David already compared the judges to snakes. And here he's going to compare the unjust judges to lions, which also is often used of Satan. And you know, that very familiar verse, first Peter five, eight, which describes Satan as a roaring lion.

And the Greek word for devil means slander. So you can see how it fits in this verse. So the shattering of teeth is the first image of God's vengeance.

The teeth of lions can crush, they could tear and the wicked have torn the righteous. So David asked God to defang these fierce enemies in the first metaphor of his prayer.

Then he moves to number seven and says, let them vanish like water that runs away. Now, when you see the words, let them, when you read through Psalms, and I hope you read through one Psalm a day, when you see the words, let them, that's an imprecatory verse. And we'll talk a little bit more about that. Psalm 35, I think six times has let, let, let, let. So here's a, here's a metaphor or an image of the flood waters that come like a mighty rush and they threaten to sweep everything away. But soon the flood waters are scattered and they vanish quickly.

So the picture is of an enemy coming upon the godly like a flood, but God deals with them and they are no more. The third metaphor that David uses is in the end of seven B, a destroyed weapon.

It says when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted. The arrow is aimed, but it doesn't reach its destination. It falls aimlessly to the ground. David is asking God to intervene and help the godly. And then you've got two very, very, very powerful metaphors, the dissolving snail and the discontinued pregnancy. So he says, let them be like the snail that devolves, it dissolves into slime. So the fourth image is more powerful than the first three, but it's God's vengeance and it's described as a withering snail.

Apparently there are actually some snails that can dissolve in the heat of the sun. David's basically saying here, let them be gone. And then number five, he talks about a discontinued pregnancy in verse eight, second part of verse eight.

The stillborn of a baby is the fifth image. It passes away never to see the light of the sun. The picture here is the wicked who have been evil since birth. They should have been cut off at birth, David's saying. And this is one of those imprecatory Psalms that can often have uncomfortable language. And lastly, number six, we have a disrupted meal. So I think there's a better translation in the legacy standard Bible. Let me read that to you.

It says, before your pots can feel the fire of the thorns, he will sweep them away with a whirlwind, the living and the burning alike. I think that's a better translation to understand it. So the final or sixth image is pots and thorns are twigs of a bramble bush used to heat the pots. But before they can produce heat, before they can cook the pot, a whirlwind comes and they're scattered. Today you might use the phrase of flash in the band. David is asking for sudden and complete destruction of his enemies.

You know, we see the beauty of the Psalms here in Hebrew poetry. The language can be strong, can be uncomfortable using these six powerful images. But David is asking God to destroy these wicked judges. Cannot we say the same of the enemies of Israel and God? I think we can. But understand this, this is not a hatred of others. It's not a desire for revenge. David prays as the king and the supreme judge of Israel about a matter that's not some personal thing in his life. This is public. Everybody knows it in Israel that these are wicked, corrupt judges.

David prays that God will fulfill his covenant promises, Genesis 12, 1 to 3. David prays for justice so that God might be shown righteous. Psalms 35, 27 and 28 says, Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, Great is the Lord who delights in the welfare of his servant. Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and all your praise all the day long. He longs for a day when he can shout out about the righteousness and justice of the Lord. Let's move to the last two verses, judgment vindicated.

Now judgment may have not happened in David's day. I trust as the king when he finally was crowned king that he got rid of most of these judges.

But justice may not have happened in his day. It may not happen in our time but someday it will be vindicated. So you have verse 10, an irrepressible praise. And first off, it says the righteous will rejoice.

Many Christians think this verse is contrary to New Testament teaching. And I mentioned the one denomination that forbid the reading of Psalm 58 in churches. In this life, we shed many tears at the injustice and oppression that Christians face, not just here in the United States, but all over the world. But when Christ returns and judges, we are going to rejoice. In many countries like China, North Korea, India, Christians can be the victim of greater injustice than you can even imagine. Prison sentences, houses confiscated, fired from jobs, and even death.

They have a lot worse than us, but some great day they're going to rejoice. Proverbs 21, 15 says, when justice is done, it's a joy to the righteous, but terror to evildoers. Then it says, when he sees the vengeance, when he sees the vengeance, understand the wicked are not slain by the believers. In precatory prayers, you are not going out and bombing abortion clinics. You are not fighting Hamas, okay? But you someday will see the vengeance of the Lord. It's God who slays them if God desires to slay them.

Now, they will face the ultimate wrath of God when Jesus Christ, the judge, returns, and there will be complete 100 percent justice. But David's praying that, don't wait, God, do it now.

And so he wants to see the vengeance, but it's not our vengeance, it's God's vengeance. When God destroys these unjust rulers and judges, the righteous are going to rejoice. But we have to be patient. And there's a reminder about the great tribulation. In Revelation 6 verses 9, it says, when they open the fifth seal, these are the tribulation saints who've been slaughtered in the tribulation. It says, I saw under the altar the souls of those who've been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.

They cried out in a loud voice, oh, sovereign Lord, holy and true. How long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. So it's almost as if the Lord God is saying, patience, patience, I'm going to judge. So even in the tribulation when you'll have the worst injustice, the worst violence, Christ tells the tribulation saints, wait a little bit longer so we may have to wait.

So the righteous are going to rejoice and they will see the vengeance. And then you have the words, he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked. Sounds really bad, right? Now the imagery of bathing feet in blood is a reference to an aftermath of the battle, okay? The idea is that something is so abundant that you just can't help step in it. There's going to be so much blood. And you know, in Revelation, I think it's 12, the blood comes up to the horse's neck in that great battle. But in this case, David is implying that God's wrath be so great that God's people will walk through pools of wicked men's blood.

And there's another Psalm, if you want to turn there, Psalm 68, Psalm 68. Psalm 68, I'll read verse 23 says, blessed be the Lord who daily bears us up. God is our salvation. Oh, God is a God of salvation. And to God, the Lord belong deliverance from death. But God will strike the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways. The Lord said, I will bring them back from Bashan. I will bring them back from the depths of the sea that you may strike your feet in their blood, that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe.

So we want justice today. We want it now when we see the many injustices today, but we have to be patient. I was reading about a case in England where a woman went to an abortion clinic, not unlike the one in New York, where the woman was arrested at the abortion clinic praying. The woman in New York apparently went into the zone she wasn't allowed to. But this one, this woman was just praying and the police officers arrested her. And even though she was praying silently and she was outside the zone, the city council of Birmingham in England had passed a law that you weren't allowed to pray at the abortion clinic.

So we're not just talking about the injustice of judges. We're talking about city councils, mayors, governors. OK, a lot, a lot of people trying to pass laws. I saw today on Twitter in Sweden, a family was trying to not let the state give puberty blockers to their son and son or daughter, I think it was a son. And they lost the case and there's nothing they can do. There's just injustice everywhere. And that's happening here and will come more and more here. So let's look at verse 11, the irrefutable proof.

As with many of the Psalms we've looked at, the psalm always ends with a absolutely beautiful conclusion. Twice here, it says, surely, surely, you know, that means truly, truly. So we have two truths here. Truth number one, mankind will say, surely there is a reward for the righteous.

Mankind someday is going to see that there is a reward for the righteous. The reward may be delayed. We may not see the justice we want now, but God is going to reward the faithful. Spurgeon said here, two things will come out clearly after all. There is a God and there is a reward for the righteous. Time will remove doubts, solve difficulties, and reveal secrets. Meanwhile, faith's foreseeing eye discerns the truth even now and is glad. So there's going to be a reward for the righteous. Okay, we don't take the law into our own hands.

You can't bomb an abortion clinic. You can't do, you have to obey the laws as long as God, they tell us not to disobey our God. So truth number one, there's going to be a reward for the righteous.

Truth number two, surely there is a God who judges on earth. Now we tend to forget this verse when you see the rampant wickedness supported by corrupt judges in our society and the increasing destruction of morality and decency. We forget that God in His righteousness and justice cannot let sin escape. God is holy and just and He must administer justice and righteousness and He will pour out His wrath in the end. In the end, the righteous will see that God does indeed judge all wickedness and judgment will be vindicated.

So what are we going to learn about this psalm? So I've got kind of a long application tonight because I want you to be comfortable if you want to feel like you can pray. But first off in application, let's learn some lessons from those in the Bible and outside the Bible who faced injustice.

What about the children of Israel? They were slaves. Their children, their male babies were slaughtered by Pharaoh. They went through a lot of injustice for a lot of years before Moses came. Then you have Joseph. Joseph faced many injustices. His brothers selling him off as a slave. The false accusations that put him in jail for many years. Yet you know that great verse at the end of Genesis 50 20. It says, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

We need to remember that verse when you face injustice and some of us will. Daniel had unwavering faith and commitment to God and God's word in the faith of injustice when corrupt leaders passed the law saying you can't pray. And Daniel 610 said Daniel went three times a day as he exactly had done before and prayed. And of course you have Paul and Silas in Acts 16, beaten and thrown in a Philippi jail without a trial. You know, Paul was a Roman citizen. Today, Paul and Silas might sue and get some money for that, right?

Get a lawyer and sue, but not Paul. Paul got beaten, but when he left, it says he was rejoiced. Why? Because he knew a church was planted in Philippi. So remember that there's, there's people in the Bible who faced a lot of injustice and God uses it. I quoted that verse a couple of weeks ago. I think we looked at Psalm 10, Proverbs 16, four says the Lord has made everything for his purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. So we see injustice in the Bible, but God uses it and we might have to face the same someday.

And number two, the judge and justice is coming. Second Timothy 4.8 calls him the righteous judge. Have you been a victim of injustice in our society? Unjust judges who corrupt society will be judged severely when the judge of all the earth rewards righteousness. God hates injustice and he does hear the cries of the poor, the destitute, those who've been wronged. And on this side of eternity, you may not see justice, but on the other side of eternity, God will judge all wrongdoing and we will see it with our own eyes from heaven.

God will repay all the unjust judges and rulers and authorities and their penalty is going to be much more severe because they're in a position of authority. The judge is coming. And did you know that when you pray for the return of Jesus Christ, you're praying an imprecatory prayer. Two verses, Matthew 6.10, the Lord's prayer and disciples' prayer. It says, Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Think about that. When he comes, what will it mean to evil world rulers and wicked people?

It'll be justice. Righteousness will be administered. And the second last verse in the Bible, Revelation 22.20 says, He who testifies to these things say, Surely I am coming soon.

Amen. Come Lord Jesus. That's an imprecatory prayer in itself because when Jesus Christ comes, we're all going home. If you have Jesus Christ in your heart, I trust you do tonight. We're all going home with him. And then Christ is going to administer righteousness and justice at the end of the tribulation. So number one, learn some lessons from the Bible for those who face injustice.

Number two, the judge and justice is coming. And number three, it's important, we already mentioned it, never take any act of violence for yourself or never pray for revenge.

Now as much as I might like to pray for the Cadillac converter who stole my Cadillac converter that the next time he steals that the jack falls and he gets crushed, I can't do that. That would not be right. Okay. That is revenge and that would be sin. I can't pray that. I can pray that he gets arrested, pray that we have better laws, but I can't pray that God takes vengeance on my enemies. You know, I was thinking about this. What's the difference between Islam and Christianity? Okay. The God of the Bible can and will administer justice.

God doesn't tell us to go out and kill, right? You can't go out and kill an abortion doctor and say, well, I'm saving lives. You can't do that. Okay. But the false God of Islam tells his followers to do jihad. If Allah was omnipotent, he apparently could kill, but apparently he isn't. So he has to have his followers do it for him. So understanding in Precatory Prayers, the hatred expressed, the strong language that we just read, it reflects concerns over the violation of God's laws. You know, I didn't even get into what these judges are doing.

We talked about Jezebel and Naboth, the garden last week, right? That was one wicked woman and she had Naboth killed, right? So these judges are violating God's laws everywhere. So it's nothing personal. There's no personal grievances here. The psalmists were right in expressing these things to God in prayer rather than seeking their own vengeance. And you know Romans 12, 19, which quotes Deuteronomy 32, 35, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. God is going to come back. So you never take any act of violence.

So let's talk about in Precatory Prayers. How? Who? When? While the violent language of these psalms may sometimes seem out of keeping with a God of love and grace, keep the following things in mind. An imprecation is a curse. It's an invocation asking God to judge. Now in ancient Near East, curses were actually written into the trees. And you have an example in Psalm 35. Psalm 35 is a psalm about some country, we don't know who it is, that had a treaty with Israel and they broke that treaty. So in Psalm 35, I'll just read a couple verses for you, verses 4 to 6, it says, Let them, again that's how you know it's in Precatory, let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life.

Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me. Let them be like chaff before the wind with the angel of the Lord driving them away. Verse 8 says, Let destruction come upon them when he does not know it and the net that he hid ensnare him. Let him fall into it, into his destruction. So cannot we pray to God that these evil people be rebuked, be removed, or be redeemed? Well, you know, the word judgment is listed 363 times in the Bible. We see the word judgment in 50 times in Psalms alone.

Psalmists are crying out for judgment. They're crying out for justice and righteousness. Psalms 119, the Mount Everest of the Psalms, 22 times we have the word judgment, which is a synonym for the word of God. So there are judgments written all over. Another thing I'd like to know is the Precatory prayers are not in opposition to the New Testament teaching of love and forgiveness of one's enemies. You all know Matthew 544, right? But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

So loving our enemies in the New Testament never comes at the expense of foregoing appeals of divine justice. There's nothing wrong with crying out to God for justice, for divine justice. We're not killing them. We're not asking if God wants to kill them, he can kill them. He wants to let them live. It's his will, not mine. But you can pray for God to punish the wicked, and that is not unloving, that is not vindictive, but it's an expression of faith in the God of him who judges justly. 1 Peter 2.23 says that him who judges justly.

So it's not just about love. And some examples, even New Testament writers with a complete knowledge of grace and mercy, they pronounce curses on people under certain circumstances. Matthew 23, Jesus pronounced seven woes, which is a curse, upon the Pharisees in the Sanhedrin. Luke 18, 1 to 8, is a parable about prayer. So I'm not trying to misconstrue that, but I think Jesus, when he's talking about this parable of prayer, he's talking about the unjust judge. Maybe there was one in that city. And he says, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man, though I neither fear God nor respect man.

And the Lord calls, hear what the unrighteous judge. So there were plenty of them in Jesus' days. And in Galatians 1.8-9, a very familiar one you're with, says that, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you have received, let him be accursed. 2 Timothy 4.14, Paul says, Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm.

And then he says, the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. So it's not just about love and mercy. It's not wrong to pray imprecatory prayers. It's also right to pray for the overthrow of tyrants. You know, we have a biblical view of value of life. We love our brothers and sisters in Korea, North Korea, yet we need to pray imprecatory prayers against Kim Jong-un. And what about Xi Jinping in China who said he's going to eradicate Christianity within the next ten years? We can pray for the destruction of these leaders, and there's many of them.

And we do pray for them during different times of the year here at Christ in church. And then it's right, another one, it's right to pray for the justice on behalf of those who are oppressed. Remember during COVID, they were locking up at least three pastors in Canada, and we were praying for them. And we're praying that God would deal with those, those judges, those courts, those politicians, because they're oppressing and weren't allowing those churches to meet. So we can pray for justice on behalf of those who are oppressed.

And then lastly here, praying the imprecatory Psalms is not a call to arms, but it's a call to faith. We lift up our voices, not our swords, as we pray for God to either convert them or curse the enemies of Christ and his kingdom. We want Christ to bring justice and righteousness now if it's his will. So let me give you a few examples, okay?

Well, we had Sunday, Lance showed you the prayer card, right? And if you don't have one, maybe you don't come on Sunday. We have the prayer card every month at Christ to Me Church. We pray for it. We pray for the Hindu world, the Buddhist world, the Catholic world. This month, we're praying for the peace of Jerusalem. And Lance mentioned, it says, pray for the enemies of Israel. That would be that I would pray. When I heard about the 12 kids killed the other day, yesterday, another person was killed by a rock in Hezbollah.

I pray that God would destroy those men. I pray that he would, you know, defeat the rockets. I pray he'd give IDF and the Mossad and Netanyahu wisdom how to wage this war because it may be a war coming with Iran. But I pray for their destruction. And I know that the children of Israel have turned their back on God and they rejected the Messiah. And I know that someday all Israel will be saved, but a lot of them will die in the tribulation. But we can pray for the enemies of Israel because the Bible says in Genesis 12, and remember I mentioned a few weeks ago, when you pray, the great prayers of the Bible, they always remind God.

So I remind God, remember what you said, God, in Genesis 12, I will bless those who bless Israel and I will curse those who curse Israel. And my prayer is that the United States and our politicians will bless Israel, that will give them the money, give them the resources, the weapons to fight this war. But I also pray an imprecatory prayer that God will destroy the enemies of Israel if it be his will and spare Israel. So we can pray an imprecatory prayer against the enemies of Israel. We can pray imprecatory prayers against the abortion industry, and you all know that California is the leading state in that area.

We can pray that God would rebuke them, maybe change the laws, God would remove them, or God would redeem them. You've probably heard the story of Abby Johnson. If you haven't, you can look it up. She was a director of Planned Parenthood and she's now a born-again Christian talking about the evils of the abortion industry. So God did redeem her. So you can pray an imprecatory prayer, not that God would destroy the works of the abortion industry, but that God would remove and save some of these people.

The LBGT, you can pray that God would rebuke them, God would remove them, or God would redeem them. Maybe you've heard of Rosetta Butterfield. She was a lesbian and she was at a, I think, Yale or Harvard, one of the Ivy League schools, a feminist professor. Well, today she's the wife of a pastor. And if you listen to her speak, and I recently watched a video of her at Liberty University, she's speaking more powerfully, eloquently than most pastors are who are compromising on the issue. And then you can pray an imprecatory prayer against the transgender movement.

I mentioned about Sweden and the puberty blockers, and that can happen here in California. And we mentioned a couple weeks ago the law that Gavin Newsom recently signed. So, you know, men and women are made in the image of God, and God is righteous, God is holy, and we can pray that God would rebuke them, remove them, or redeem them. And of course, politicians that are corrupt, judges that are corrupt, maybe some Supreme Court judges, we can pray that God would remove them, rebuke them, or redeem them.

And I've already mentioned world leaders, okay, that God would remove them, rebuke them, or redeem them. And then what about false prophets? Benny Hinn, Todd White, Paula White. Paula White is Trump's spiritual advisor. She's a false prophet, okay. Ken Copeland, Joseph Prince, you could go on and on and on, and more of them come out every day. You can pray an imprecatory prayer because they pray on the weak, they pray on the poor, they pray on those who are sick, and, you know, they may not know the Bible, and they jump out of the fire into the frying pan.

So, you can pray an imprecatory prayer. So, I hope tonight that this helps you, but I remind you that if you're not a man or woman of prayer, and remember what Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, man is at his greatest and highest when upon his knees, he comes face to face with God. You got that? There's nothing greater you can do than pray. But if you're not going to pray, you're probably not going to pray imprecatory prayers or care about this psalm. But I think it's important. I think we can. God ultimately will give justice when Jesus Christ comes, but I hope you learn a little bit tonight that, yes, we can pray imprecatory prayers against the evils out there, the unjust judges, but especially the enemies of Israel and all the evils out there because our God is a righteous God, a God full of justice, and we can pray that he would pour out his wrath now.

I know he's going to, you all know he's going to pour it out when Jesus comes, but we can pray that he would do it now.

So I hope that helps you a little bit. This was a little bit of a different psalm. Next week, we're going to look at the old age psalm, Psalm 71.

Psalm 71. Let's pray. Father, thank you that we can learn a little bit tonight about a difficult type of psalms. Maybe it's new to everybody here because we know you told us to pray for those who hate us and persecute us, our enemies. But Father, for those who are truly, truly wicked, those who would kill the children of Israel, your people, those who would slaughter those 12, we do pray, Father, that you would destroy their works, destroy their leadership, destroy their weapons, destroy the initiative that Iran is funding many of these terrorist organizations.

So we pray, Father, that you would deal in your current judicial system, that you would deal, be it ever so severely, with the enemies of Israel, if it be your will, Father. Not my will, but your will. But Father, we long for that day when justice will be vindicated, when Jesus Christ will come and take us home to be with him. And then someday when he will come and all the nations of the earth will come to Jesus at Jerusalem and there will be true justice, there will be true righteousness. Father, we long for that day.

May it come soon. May you give everyone a good night's sleep and a good ride home tonight and bring us back Sunday to hear the word of God in Jesus' name. Amen.