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THE SON AND HIS PEOPLE WILL BE AVENGED AND REWARDEDPsalm 69:22-36INTRODUCTION This is the third and final sermon in a series based on Psalm 69. As I mentioned last week we are using this psalm during this Easter season in order to see something of the greatness of Christ as our suffering and resurrected Savior. The psalms have been recognized throughout the history of the church as first and foremost the prayers of God’s Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. The famous German pastor and theologian, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred under the Nazi’s during the last days of WWII wrote this about the Psalms, “According to the witness of the Bible, David is, as the anointed king of the chosen people of God, a prototype of Jesus Christ. What happens to him happens to him for the sake of the one who is in him; and who is said to proceed from him, namely Jesus Christ.…. In the Psalms of David the promised Christ himself already speaks… The prayers of David were prayed also by Christ. Or better, Christ himself prayed them through his forerunner David” (pp. 26-27, “War Prayers of the Prince of Peace” by James Adams). Psalm 69 is the prayer of Jesus. Last Sunday, in vv. 1-18 we saw why and how Jesus endured being hated by human beings throughout his entire life. Jesus’ murder on the cross was the ultimate expression of humanity’s feelings about Jesus. As we saw in v. 9, the divine Son of God endured the hostility of humanity because of his passionate desire to glorify his Father and to save his people. He did it by entrusting himself into the hands of his Father, trusting him to deliver him in the time of his favor. Then we saw on Friday in vv. 19-21 what the suffering of Jesus on the cross involved and we discovered why this suffering was necessary for God to be glorified and us to be saved. Today, in vv. 22-36 we are going to see the results of Jesus’ being raised from the dead the third day following his crucifixion. One summer morning when I was about 11 years old my dad told me that when he got home that afternoon we were all going fishing. However, he told me as the oldest of the children that he wanted the back lawn mowed before we went. He had recently showed me how to mow the lawn. While he was gone I got out the mower and proceeded to mow the lawn. I’m not sure why I did this but for some reason I thought random paths through the yard was a better way to mow than just going around the yard in a big square like he had showed me. When I finished my random crisscrossing of the yard there were lines and tufts of uncut grass all over the place. This did not seem to be a problem to me. However, when my dad came home, he thought it was a problem. He made me remain and mow the lawn again in the traditional way while he and my other siblings went fishing. I had been given a job to do and I failed to do it as I was instructed. When my performance was evaluated upon the return of the one who had authority over me I had to suffer the punishment due me for my disobedience and I did not get to experience the reward promised to the obedient. My father, upon his return, exercised his just judgment upon me as was his duty and right. When the NT authors talk about the resurrection of the crucified Jesus it always connects the fact of his resurrection to the fact that he is coming back again as our judge to punish and to reward. Jesus was raised from the dead so that one day he will return as the one who has authority over all humanity for the purpose of evaluating us and then assigning either punishment or reward based upon his evaluation. I trust you heard this in the NT passages we had read for us this morning. When Jesus tells the parable of the nobleman who goes away to be made king and then to return again, he has in mind his dying on the cross and then his resurrection and ascension to the Father’s right hand from where he will one day return to judge all human beings. The apostles of Jesus in their sermons recorded in the book of Acts and in their letters to the churches follow Jesus’ lead. As Paul says to the people of Athens God has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. The one he has appointed as judge is the one whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, the Messiah. What we are going to observe in this last portion of Psalm 69, as Jesus continues his prayer to his Father, is what Jesus does and will do as our resurrected and returning judge. MAIN POINT God raised Christ from the dead to confirm his right to judge. Therefore…I. The resurrected Christ justly gives humans over to their sin now (vv. 22-23) As we saw on Friday evening, vv. 19-21 is a description of Christ upon the cross, abandoned by man and God. What follows then is the prayer of Christ as he suffers. Anyone here who has any knowledge of the story of Christ’s crucifixion will have an immediate problem with my saying that the prayer of vv. 22-28 is the prayer of Jesus on the cross. The reason for this sharp reaction is that the NT records Jesus praying, while hanging on the cross, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” That prayer is the opposite of “Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them.” Before we can see what this portion of the psalm teaches us about the work of the resurrected Christ we have to answer this question: How are we to understand these two apparently contradictory desires coming from the lips of the same person? What some have done is said that these prayers calling down God’s curses upon enemies, which are recorded in the Psalms are evil and wrong. Jesus, the merciful savior never prayed them. These are sinful sentiments and the only reason they are in the Bible is to show us that we should be completely honest with God in our prayers, even when what we think and feel is so evil. If that is true then you might as well throw away your Bible because the Bible does not treat these sentiments as evil but as correct ways to respond to evil in the world and especially to the evil rejection of God and his Messiah. Over 40 of the 150 psalms contain these sorts of prayers. Additionally there are almost 50 psalms that express God’s determination to destroy the enemies of the psalmist. When you consider that almost half of the NT quotes of the OT come from the Psalms you must realize that to treat these prayers as evil or non-Christian is to undermine the integrity of the whole Bible. I don’t have time to fully answer this question and work out all the implications but I can fairly simply help you to see that it is not incorrect to attribute this prayer to Jesus. The same Jesus who said to the prostitute who was washing his feet, “your sins are forgiven,” and who taught us “to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us” and who prayed on the cross, “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing," also said things like this while he lived on this earth: To the Jewish religious leaders he said, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” To the residents of Jerusalem he said, “…your enemies… will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls… because you did not recognize the time of God’s appearing to you.” About Judas he said, “…woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” The crucified and resurrected Christ offers himself as friend and Savior to everyone who will acknowledge his or her sins and trust in him. He offers free and full forgiveness to every repentant rebel. However, he also threatens eternal wrath and condemnation for all like Judas, like the Jewish religious leaders who resist him and reject him to the end of their lives. This prayer for God to curse is simply an expression of Jesus’ commitment to the glory and honor of his father who is a God of justice. He knows that what he prays is indeed the future of all who finally reject his offer of a free forgiveness. This prayer is as much a prediction of the future as a prayer because Jesus knows that what he asks will indeed come to pass. The apostle John in his vision of the world's end writes, ( 6:15-17): “ Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” Jesus is the Lamb who was slain for the sins of the world and yet it is this same Lamb of mercy whose wrath the peoples of the earth cannot endure. What exactly is Jesus asking in vv. 22-23? These two verses of Jesus’ prayer are quoted by Paul in Romans 11 and thus help us to understand how Jesus treats his enemies. Please turn to Romans 11 on page 802. In Romans 11:1 Paul asks one of his famous rhetorical questions: “I ask then, did God reject his people?” Why is he asking that question? He is asking this question because the OT repeatedly says that God chose Israel out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession, forever. Yet, Paul has argued that only those who have faith in Jesus are God’s people and the majority of Jewish people in Paul’s day and throughout the last 2000 years have not accepted Jesus as the Messiah and thus have not trusted in him. So the problem is, did God break his word? As the majority of national, ethnic Israel has rejected Christ, does that mean that God has rejected the people he said he would always love? Paul’s answer in v. 2 is, "Absolutely not!" His evidence is that he is Jewish and he believes. Then he says, “God did not reject his people whom he foreknew.” What does that mean? Paul gives an illustration to show what he means by the phrase, “the people whom he foreknew.” He brings up the story of the prophet Elijah. Remember how Elijah, after being threatened with death by the evil queen Jezebel ran away into the desert. Then he had a little pity party and told God that he was the only true believer left in all of Israel . What did God say to him? He told Elijah that he wasn’t the only one left but that God himself had preserved for himself 7000 Israelites who had not worshipped the false god, Baal but who had remained faithful to him. Then Paul says, it is exactly like that right now. God’s promises were not to national, ethnic Israel but to the elect within Israel , to the remnant, those whom he foreknew who are identified by their faithfulness to God and their refusal to worship false gods. God has always had a chosen remnant among Israel whom he chose by free grace, not on the basis of anything they ever did or didn’t do. God’s promise to save was never given to all of national, ethnic Israel but always and only to the chosen remnant who believe the promises like Abraham. The salvation that national, ethnic Israel worked so hard to obtain by their attempts at observing the law they did not obtain but only those chosen by God’s free grace obtained that salvation. Elijah and the 7000 faithful Israelites are evidence of God's saving people on the basis of his own free grace and not on the basis of anything that anyone has ever done. Then notice at the end of v. 7, the others, the majority of Israel was hardened, just like God hardened Pharaoh when he brought Israel out of Egypt . To prove that God hardened the majority of Israel he then quotes three verses from the OT, one from Deuteronomy, one from Isaiah and then our two verses from Psalm 69. The point that is being made here is this: national, ethnic Israel , like the rest of humanity, does not keep God’s law, no matter how much they might pretend to do so. They are rebels and idol worshippers, just like Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Therefore, God is under no obligation to save any of them. If he decides to give them over to their sins and let them perish he is merely giving to them what they deserve. God’s “hardening” is not his forcing people to sin but rather his just decision to let them go on sinning and do nothing to interfere with their desires. Those who love sin and reject Christ have done nothing to obligate God to be kind to them. They have no claim upon God’s goodness and thus Jesus is perfectly just to leave them in their sins. In Israel as in the rest of humanity there are none who are seeking God or keeping his law and thus there are none who have a right to expect God to be kind to them. If Jesus were to do what was perfectly just and fair, then he would leave all people in their sins. Jesus is under no obligation to save those who insult him and his father. So he prays that God take the expressions of his kindness, food and the human fellowship of the table and use it to trap those who are already trapped. He asks God the Father to blind those who are willingly blind and to cause those whose desires are fixed upon this earth to always walk with their eyes fixed upon this earth. Jesus is simply asking his father to give people over to their sins. Every day every human being is confronted with the goodness of God in food and family and physical ability and breathing and yet every human by nature refuses to see what is blazing before them. Thus the resurrected Jesus justly hands people over to their own blindness and rebellion, so that seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear. As Spurgeon says, “Those who hate divine mercy shall not have it forced upon them, but, unless sovereign grace interposes, they shall be left to themselves to intensify their guilt and ensure their doom." I am not trying to make some obscure theological point here. The fact that Jesus can justly leave you in your sins and your blindness to his glory ought to terrify every one of us. What reason can you give to God that he should save you or that he should pay attention to you and be kind to you? You have done nothing but provoke him with the ways in which you have used his many gifts to pursue your own agenda. You’ve aggravated his anger not only by your outright disobedience to him but by your indifference to Christ and his saving work. You young people whose parents have taught you the gospel since you were a small child and yet you treat them and the gospel with contempt. You prefer video games and friends and good grades and parties to Christ. Why should he be kind to you? What reason is there for him to not let you perish and go to hell? We all ought to be cast into deep despair as we consider how right it would be for God to simply ignore us and leave us in our rebellion. You who do not embrace Christ as your treasure and savior must tremble as you see the resurrected Jesus asking his father to confirm his enemies in their unbelief and to leave them in their enjoyments of this world, indifferent to the next. God raised Christ from the dead to confirm his right to judge. Therefore…
II. The resurrected Christ will justly punish all who reject him and his church (vv. 24-28) In v. 26 Jesus lets us know why he is praying for the destruction of these people. The ultimate expression of human rebellion is seen in the fact that we persecute the one God has smitten and we gleefully talk about the sufferings of those whom God has wounded (Not so the NIV, see the ESV). The first half of the verse is talking about Jesus and the second half is talking about the church. The chief sin of those whom Jesus asks his Father to curse is that they are full of hostility to Jesus and to his church. The chief example of the people against whom Jesus prays is Judas. We know this because in Acts 1:20 the apostle Peter quotes v. 25 as the evidence of God’s judgment upon Judas for his betrayal of Christ. Just look at what he prays for those who, like Judas resist him to the end of their lives. He asks God to pour out his wrath upon them, calling to mind the many examples in the OT where God did just that: the flood in the days of Noah, fire and brimstone that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, the ten plagues upon Egypt and the drowning of their army in the Red Sea. He prays they have no home or family or safe place to live. Essentially he asks God to make them like homeless refugees. Then in v. 27 he asks God to not ignore any of their sins but to execute full and perfect justice upon them, refusing them his salvation. Finally, in v. 28 he prays that God blot them out of his book where all the righteous are written down. Revelation 20:11-15 refers to this book when it says, " Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life….If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." It is Jesus who will sit upon that throne and open the book of life. It is Jesus who asks his father to blot out from his book those who hate him and his church. The fact that Judas is the poster boy of those for whom Jesus prays this prayer shows us that those in the greatest danger are those who profess faith in Christ but who are not truly Christians. Indeed, they may be men and women who like Judas even preached the gospel to others and performed miracles in the name of Jesus. However, they show their true colors by their indifference to and outright hostility towards Jesus. Everyone assumed Judas was the friend of Jesus until it was discovered that he had betrayed Jesus to the authorities. While many explicitly hate Jesus yet there are many others who, while professing belief, oppose him by refusing to obey his clear commands. As Jesus said, “If you love me you will obey my commands.” We show our true opinion of Jesus by how we respond to his commands. If you are truly trusting in Christ then your highest joy is obedience to Jesus and the greatest source of grief is when you disobey him. Those who have a false profession also show their true colors by their dislike for the members of Jesus’ church. This is exactly the argument of John in the third and fourth chapters of his letter where he states that if you hate or do not love Christians then you do not belong to God; you do not have his life in you. There are many who are part of the visible church who will not be part of that eternal fellowship with the resurrected Christ in the new heavens and the new earth. There are many who will experience what Jesus prays in these verses. Again, as C.H. Spurgeon says, “Man in his imperfect copy of God’s book of life will have to make many emendations, both of insertion and erasure; but before the Lord, the record is forever fixed and unalterable. Beware, O man, of despising Christ and his people, lest your soul should never partake in the righteousness of God, without which men are condemned.” Prior to God's graciously awakening me to my true condition and giving me a heart that embraced Jesus I had no fear of God. I told people that I didn't think that God existed but if he did exist, he liked me fine. I could see no reason for God to be angry with me. If someone had read these verses to me at that time and told me that this was Jesus' prayer for me in my unbelief I would have told him he was crazy. Like most healthy, affluent people living in peaceful and prosperous times I could not comprehend that I had done anything that would arouse such passions against me. But the fact was that I daily despised and opposed Jesus by refusing to do what he commanded me to do: love God with my whole being and my neighbor as myself. I was no friend of Christians and often mocked and ridiculed them even though I would go to church when I was at my parent's home. While the ways in which we express our opposition to Jesus and his church may vary from person to person, all of us, in our natural condition, apart from God's gracious work oppose Jesus and his church and richly deserve what Christ prays for us. Therefore, if you are not yet trusting in Christ you need to hear this prayer of Jesus and know this is what he is asking his father to do to you so that you will fear and flee to him and thus gain the reward he promises to all who trust him. God raised Christ from the dead to confirm his right to judge. Therefore…
III. The resurrected Christ graciously saves forever all the poor who see him and love him (vv. 29-37) In v. 29 Jesus acknowledges again his sorrow upon the cross but then describes in prayer what will be the result of his suffering for himself and for his people. The second half of v. 29 literally says, "…your salvation, O God, will set me on high (will exalt me)." We are told in Hebrews 12:2 that Jesus "for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." In Philippians 2:5-11 Paul writes about Jesus that he was "obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Verse 29 expresses this fact and this confidence of Jesus that his suffering would indeed be followed by this glory. He knows, while hanging upon that cross in pain and distress that exaltation awaits him on the other side. Then what follows in the Psalm is what happens as a result of Jesus being set on high, that is, being resurrected and ascended to God's right hand. First we see Jesus leading the choir of praise to the Father who has raised him on high. Jesus begins the song while yet in his suffering which will be sung through all eternity. This praise, led by the Son to the Father is the end for which the Father and the Son have labored. This has always been God's final goal; the thing which he most desires and enjoys. The Father and the Son have always labored to save a people who will joyfully worship the Father forever. Verse 30 is one of the scores of statements in the OT that indicate the temporary nature of the OT system of sacrifices. Religious performance has never been what pleased God but rather the spiritual, heartfelt praise of all those who belong to Christ, whose hearts have been changed. It is because Jesus suffered on that cross and has been set on high that we sing now and we will sing forever. You can see this so clearly in vv. 38-39. What is it that the poor see that makes them glad and causes their hearts to live? The poor in spirit see the suffering of Jesus in their place and then the glorification of Jesus as their resurrected Savior. The source of all our happiness and hope is found in our seeing Jesus joyfully endure the suffering in our place. Our eyes are fixed upon our Lord Jesus Christ who has done everything to gain for us a full and free forgiveness and the certainty of eternal life. His love for us is seen in his gladly laying down his life for his friends. Now we see our friend raised up to God's right hand thus securing our salvation for us. He has come into God's very presence for us, not with the blood of bulls and goats but with his own blood shed for us. So now we are glad and our hearts live and we know that we can boldly approach God's throne for it has become for us, not a throne of judgment but a throne of grace where we know that he hears us and does not despise our prayers for deliverance from this prison of sin and death. But not only are we glad now as we see our crucified and resurrected Savior but also we live full of joyful anticipation for that day when Christ returns and all of creation will be restored to its original condition and thus glorify him perfectly. Look at vv. 34-36. All of creation will rejoice when Jesus returns to save Zion, which is the church of the living God. At that time he will make for us safe and prosperous cities to dwell in. We will possess the earth and we will dwell in peace. It will be a place where all those who love his name will dwell. As God says about that new world in Revelation 21:3-8 "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son." The crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus Christ holds forth this promise on the basis of what he has done. It is because he was in pain and distress and has now been exalted to God's right hand that he has the authority to make this promise. All this joy is for those poor and needy ones who see the crucified and resurrected Christ and who love his name. If you are one of those poor and needy ones who see then Jesus is praying for your heart to live and assuring you that the Father hears your cries. He assures you that one day God's full salvation will arrive as he remakes this entire creation and makes it a safe place in which you and I can live with him forever. Therefore, do you see yourself as poor and needy? Do you see Jesus as having died for you and now living for you so that you can freely approach God now for help? Do you love his name? Jesus is praying for everyone in this room. He is either praying for your destruction or for your salvation. One day all that he prays will come true but that day is not yet. Therefore I urge you dear friends to embrace Christ now. Do not remain in opposition to him. Trust him now, forsaking your sins so that you might join in the joy of his salvation and escape the horror of his condemnation. God raised Christ from the dead to confirm his right to judge. Therefore…
© Copyright 2008 John Swanson.
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