Psalm 83 Pt 2

0:01 All right. In December, I, for the I kind of set up what we were going to be doing for the podcast for all of twenty twenty four, and one of the main focuses for the podcast for twenty twenty four was what I refer to as the Sermon's two point oh app. Sermon Challenge challenged everyone to download the Sermon's two point oh app. Since you know, the largest archive of conservative Bible teaching anywhere on the internet millions of sermons on the Sermon's two point oh app. I told everyone to download the app, and then the goal was for each day of twenty twenty four, people would take the app find a random sermon. The key was not to look for a specific church or a specific speaker or a specific denomination. Just go random, like you can hit the discover tab and go to new because they add about five thousand sermons every day, So just pick a new one and just listen to it, and then write down the name of the sermon, write down the name of the ministry, and then write a one sentence summary of what the sermon was about. And then by the end of twenty twenty four you can look at your notebook and you would have a sermon for every day of the entire year with at least a one sentence summary of what the sermon was about. So that's what we've been doing in twenty twenty four. And then what I'm doing is coming along choosing a random sermon because I love to listen to sermons because I like to see how pastors structure them or they're they're the way they approach a text or anything like that. And so since I listened to them, then I would just listen to them live on the air for the podcast and then review, analyze, or critique without knowing what I'm

1:32 going to hear, right, without knowing what's going on, because if I listen to it first, that comes across as like it's you know, like it's a performance. Right, I've already listened to it. I know I don't like it, so now I'm going to criticize it. No, the goal is I have no clue what's going to happen. Let's hit play and find out. That's a That's led to some interesting things because sometimes after the sermon, I'm like, I don't really know what in the world just happened. Sometimes I think, oh, this is about this topic, and then when you're down listening to the sermon, you're like, I don't think they ever dealt with that topic. Like, sometimes it's just great. You never know what's going to happen. So it makes it nerve wracking to go live not knowing what's going to happen, right because you're like, I've got to talk, and I guess that's easy for me to do, but sometimes it's like, after an hour of talking, I'm like, I don't know if we accomplish it. It can be very frustrating. Sometimes I'm like, I have no idea what's going on. Like I come across some new interpretation I've never heard, and all my years of preaching teaching in school, I'm like, where did this interpretation come from? But that's so that's what we've been doing. So in the spirit of that, this week, I was going to be out and about driving, and so I'm like, okay, I'll grab the Sermon's two point oh app and I'll just start looking for random sermons and just start downloading. One of the things I've done for the Sermon's two point oh app challenge is some weeks I give everyone specific topic or a specific verse to look up sermons on so but this time I was like, okay, this for this week for the sermon's two point oh app challenge. It was all about the concept the fear of the Lord. Proverbs went to seven

3:05 and I think Proverbs nine, ten and so, and I gave some assignments on that. So I'm like, okay, let me look up sermons on Proverbs and I'll just download a bunch of them, and then i'll choose one of them for the you know, to do a review one. And if I don't get to a review, then I'll just listen to some extra ones, right, because I'm trying to make sure I have one sermon for every day of the year. So I was looking around and I saw this sermon entitled the Coming Middle East War, and I'm like, well, that's not going to go with my Proverbs thing. But for Sunday school, we've been working on eschatology. Maybe I could listen to this and I could then bring this into our study on eschatology because it's the coming Middle East War. And so I was all ready to go, and then I noticed that the beginning of the title was Psalm eighty three, The Coming Middle East War. And at that point I was baffled and confused. I'm like, okay, think I know saw MATI three relatively well, how does this have anything to do with a coming Middle East war? So I did two plus hours of review of this. It's a series, it's eleven messages on saw Mayty three the coming Middle East War have the sermon's two point oh app it's easy to find.

4:17 And I was like, after two hours of review, I still have no clue what they're talking about. I have no idea what they're doing with saw Maty three. It was the most bizarre thing ever. So after two hours, I basically said on the podcast, okay, forget that sermon series. Okay, now I'm going to continue to listen to all of it because I want to give the person a chance to make it make sense. But so far they've not even mentioned a coming Middle East war. After two up and two map part like, I don't even understand right. So, but guess what, it's always easy to do, what to criticize, It's always easy to criticize, simple to criticize. Used to tell all my troops when was in the military. If you bring me a complaint, guess what you better bring with it a solution. Right. It's easy to complain, bring me a solution. So because I could sit and complain or criticize how they approach SAW eighty three, instead of doing that, I feel like then I have a responsibility to see what I can do with SSAW eighty three. Right.

5:19 I've got to figure out what I can do with it, right, And I love to do that when I listen to a sermon that I Sometimes my favorite sermons are the ones I hate because they force me to do what Go work on the text. Go work on the text, like it's easy to say, and people do that, even who attend church, and you should not do. If you don't like a sermon, well, then go home and work on the text. Don't go home and go find a sermon that's opposite to what you just sart. Go study the text. Usually the people who call me and complain, guess what, They don't demonstrate that they've actually studied the text. They just complain, or they've they've cut and pasted some stuff from Google that they did a search, and I'm like, I know the same article, so come on, do bad. So I try to make it a practice. The more I hate the sermon, or the more I'm irritated by it, the more than I should be required to do.

6:13 What go actually study the text for myself. Because if I actually study the text for myself, guess what I may find out Maybe they were right and my criticism was two I was too quick on my criticism. Or may I may find out hmm, I don't know. I may come even be more convinced that they were wrong. But it's being convinced based off why the study of the text. So does that make sense? All right? So that's what we started in the first hour. For everyone who missed the first hour, all I can do is just go quickly through this, all right. So that's kind of how we got to Saw maighty three. So the first thing we did in the first hour is we try to create an outline of Saw eighty three. I'm just gonna go through this quickly Saw many three.

6:59 First one, we refer to that as the plea Verses two through five. We refer to that as the reason for the plea. So verse one is the plea Verses two through five is the reason for the plea. Verses six through eight is the enemies identified Verses nine through twelve, the past and the present versus thirteen, and then this kind of we kind of we kind of went back and forth and exactly where we wanted to break this down. We kind of went versus thirteen to really the verse seventeen. I think it's kind of where we went thirteen to seventeen. We called this the petition for defeat, or yeah, petition for defeat, I think is what I called it. All right. Then we basically said that verses sixteen through eighteen.

7:47 Then we refer to that as the desired outcome, what the sawmus really wants to happen, his motivation for asking for these things to occur. All right, he could break that down a little bit more, but that's kind of a basic outline of what we did, all right. Now, Then after we did that, we looked at the author of the psalm. If you have your bibles, open a Psaw eighty three. If you don't know him by now, that's where we're going. Obviously, Psaw eighty three, you'll see that it's a psalm of Acef. Acef if you don't know, was one of the chief musicians and singers during the time of King David. He was a Levite and a key figure in leading worship in the tabernacle and later in the temple. He is accredited with composing several psalms. So that's the author making this psalm. Then, since he was a Levite and a leader of worship making this, we'll call this a congregational psalm, a communal psalm.

8:46 It's voicing the emotion of the people. All right, that's a good way of doing that. Then we looked at the types of psalms. We looked at the different types of psalms. There are the praise psalms, there are the thanksgiving psalms, there are the wisdom psalms. There is the royal psalms. There is the penitential psalms, there's the imprecatory psalms, and then there is the lament psalms. Now, I'm don't have time to go through and tell you about all those categories. We did all of that in the first hour. It'll be posted online at some point this afternoon. Okay, So we went through all of that. Psalm eighty three is a lament psalm, and we talked about all the reasons it's a lament palm. Does anybody know what it really what we say something is a lament psalm? Do we know exactly kind of what that means? It's an express expression of sorrow, is an expression of They include elements such as a cry for help, a plea for deliverance, expression of anguish, a petition for intervention in times of trouble. A lament psalm typically follows a structure that includes an invo to God, a description of the psalm as suffering or hardship, a petition for help or deliverance, and a vow of praise or thanksgiving. So we went through that, and we we looked at how Saw eighty three meets a good portion of the requirements to be a lament psalm. Now, because it's a lament

10:18 psalm, this is where we ended the first hour. What can we learn about the fact that this is a lament a lament? I did say, sermon a lament psalm? Why is What are the lessons we can gain from this? Saw mayighty three is a lament psalm? What can we gain from the idea of giving a lament So I put forth, I started going through some of the lessons we can learn, and we made it through one all right, that's as far as we made it. So I'm going to go through these lessons. I have a number of them, but here are some basic lessons we can learn from a lament psalm. The idea to give a lament, Now, there are two kinds of psalms that I mentioned. In those types, a lament and precatory. Okay, and precatory it really calls for the destruction on your enemies. A lament as you're expressing pain, sorrow, anguish, confusion, and you're begging God to intervene. Both of those kinds of psalms, that language used by everyday people can make Christians very uncomfortable and they don't like it. What I try to say is a laments salm and unprecatory psalm are psalms that allow people to not talk like Christians or not talk like church people, because church people want everything to be positive. When you hear someone offer a lament or in a precatory, you you'll probably it makes you uncomfortable and you almost want to criticize them and their lack of faith, but you cannot do that, all right, The key to be a lament psalm basically screams and tells us this and this is the way I have

11:52 it in my notes. A lament psalm teaches us the importance of being honest and vulnerable before God about your struggle, about your pain, and about your emotion. A lament psalm shows you that it's okay to express your deep, deepest feelings and your deepest fears to God. A lament psalm says it's okay. It's okay to say, God, where have you been? And if you look at Psalm eighty three, verse one, that's literally what the psalmist is doing. Look at some eighty three verse one, it says, do not keep silent, Oh God, do not hold your peace, do not be still, Oh God. Now what he's saying there, there's an imploment that he's implying something that he has. He's implying very clearly that he has perceived that God has been white silent, that God has been wide inactive, and he's like, God, please, I need you to listen, I need you to wake up, I need you to do something. And then he goes on to express his reasons for needing this, because well, there's enemies and so the people as a congregation. This is sometimes referred to as a communal lament. Right, this is the he's speaking on behalf of all the people. The people are bothered because there's we read Psalm eighty three in the first hour. I didn't I didn't just stop to take time to read it again because of time considerations and seeing how far we can make it.

13:13 But if you read Psalm eighty three, look, he tells God, there's all these people that they've come together in a confederacy to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. And he's like, Hey, God, where have you been? I need you to step up, I need you to wake up? And he's expressing that. Well, guess what when people express that, it makes Christians very nervous. But you know what, if you cannot be honest like that, there's no if. A faith that doesn't allow you to be honest is not faith. It's simply you pretending faith is real.

13:54 Faith is where you can say, God, where have you been? Hey? God? I don't know if you realize this. They've an entire confederacy and they want to wipe us off the face of the earth. Now, I don't know. Do you think maybe now would be the time to wake up? Do you think now would be the time to speak Do you think now? And guess what that kind of lament is perfectly okay. Job expressed that kind of lament many people in the Bible did. Christianity is not about just pretend and saying all the right words. It's about being real with God. If God is God, guess what he can handle You're honesty. He can handle that, all right. It may make Christians uncomfortable, but who cares what Christians think? They're the last people really that sometimes you even want to listen to speak up. And I mentioned this illustration in the first hour.

14:46 Phil Johnson for a grace to you MacArthur's ministry. He's been diagnosed with some possibly incurable cancer and he's been going through a very difficult time and he was giving kind of an update thanking God that I guess you know, he feels that God has intervened and there's some positive news about his cancer, and great and great and great. Well, if you look that article was posted on the Christian Post, I think the very first comment, the very first comment was well, congratulations, Phil, So glad God intervened for you, because today thirteen thousand children have died from cancer. Now Christians don't like that.

15:30 How dare you say that? Well, first, you better be careful not to criticize that person because you don't know. They may have lost a child to cancer. So that's why you gotta be careful about criticizing anyone. Okay, but you can see that person expressing a reality. Christianity is not living in denial of reality. Christianity is about maintaining faith and the face of reality. Did everyone hear that Christianity is not the denial of reality. Christianity is having faith in the midst in the face of reality. The lament Psalm is lamenting and crying out to God, not denying the reality, but doing what expressing the Everyone going back to Psalm eighty three for those who weren't here in the first hour, so that we can read it and you can see it. Do not keep silent, Oh God, do not hold your peace.

16:25 Do not be still, Oh God, for behold your enemies make a tumult. Those who hate you have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty counsel against your people and consulted together against your sheltered ones. They have said, come, let us cut them off from being a nation that the name of visual may be remembered. No more is he denying reality. No, he's doing what confessing reality? And what is he? He seems a little bothered that God has not what. God has not acted, God has been silent, and he doesn't come to say, Oh, I can only give a positive confession. Just stop that nonsense. I know that's very built into many charismatic circles. You can only give a positive confession because if you speak something negative, you will create that reality. Just stop. I've talked about before that I worked with charismatics and they would always give me that nonsense about you have to only say positive things, and I would always say the most negative things. Oh, I'm gonna go to lunch and get hit by a car and probably die. You can't speak that, you'll speak that into existence. I'm like, if I can speak it into existence, and I'm gonna speak that effect that I'm a millionaire and I don't need to be here for work, okay, But I can't speak anything into existence or that would make me God okay with this? Oh? Like, and charismatics just drive me. You know how I can't stand charismatic theology. It's like you're working in a hospital. If you can speak things into existence, why don't you

17:56 just fix everyone? But you can't. All right, stop talking to me, all right, Hugh, I can't. I can't work with charismatics. I can't be friends with charismatics. I can't have anything to do with charismatics because they live in a world that is not facing reality. They live in a world denying reality, and they think that's faith. Faith is when you get hid in the face with reality and you have no problem saying, God, where are you? Why didn't you do something? And that's what the lament teaches us. That's the first lesson it teaches us honesty and vulnerability. Number two said. The second thing lament Psalm teaches us is to trust in God's faithfulness. Despite the overwhelming circumstance described in a lament psalm, there is often a theme of trust in God's faithfulness and goodness. The psalmist turns to God in times of trouble, believing that is able to provide comfort and deliverance.

18:55 What is the Shalmist doing in Psalm eighty three to God? And it's for the whole group, for everyone there. Look, if he's a Levite, and this is for the communal worship than all the people that are worshiping are probably what Israelites, right of Israel, they're Hebrews, and what is They're concerned with a confederacy of nations? Who wants to do what? So Israel is no longer a nation. And he's upset because God doesn't seem to have done anything. But what is he getting the people to do? A turn to God? That that is a lament song. You're honest and vulnerable, but you're demonstrating trust in God's faithfulness. And I've said it so many times. Which is easier to believe that God will take away cancer or take away or fix your problem, or to trust God when he doesn't? You know which one's more faith? To trust when God doesn't seem to act, That requires more faith, doesn't require any faith to say, Okay, God, I believe you can fix this. That doesn't take any faith. But when you find out that's not gonna work, that's not gonna happen, this is not gonna happen, this is gonna be a problem, that's gonna be then all of a sudden you have to do what trust God in this?

20:18 To that that's no fun. That's no fun. But that to me is what faith is. Does that make sense? So what's the first lesson we learned from a lament Psalm? Honesty and vulnerability. Number two, trust in God's faithfulness. Number three hope in God's promises. Lament Psalms reminds us that even in the midst of suffering and lament, there is hope in God's promises. The psalmist often cling to the belief that God will ultimately bring about justice, redemption, and restoration. And if you'll notice in Psalm eighty three, right, he's very honest. Right, Hey, God, where have you been? Could you speak? Could you do something? He does? He face the reality, He lists all that reality. Right, Look what else?

21:07 They have consulted together with one consent, they form a confederacy against you, the tints of Edom, the Ishmaelites, Moab, the hag Rides, the giebaw ammon Amelek Felicitia with the inhabitants of tire. Assyria also has joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. Okay, he's very he's describing exactly the confederacy of nations. If you're using the king James. Some of those are worded differently, but you get the basic idea. He lists all of these nations and he's stating that all these nations want to do what watch them off the face of the earth. Is he being very honest with the He is being very He is not in any way undermining or saying, well, you know, whole things work together for good and the sun will come up tomorrow and what just all the nonsense. No, he's very honest with what's going on. Well, look what he does in verse nine deal with them and here's the key phrase. As with then he goes on the rest of verse nine, as with Cicera, as with Jabin. Now what is he doing there? He say, God, I need you to wake up and do now what you have done in the past. And he mentioned specific situations where God dealt with people, and almost all of those accounts are in the Book of Judges. So what is he doing He's demonstrating as a lament. Is he being honest and vulnerable? Yes? Is he trusting in God's faithfulness, but he's hoping in God's promises, or you could say

22:41 he's hoping in God's past actions in the present. He's hoping in God. And he could be also relying on what the promise of the Covenant, right, he could be hoping in that promise, So that a lament salm teaches us to hope and of the circumstance. But I want to make sure we see a lot of times we would preach that, hey, in the middle of your circumstance, you should have hope, you should have faith. But that doesn't mean you can't acknowledge how you feel in the circumstance. Does that make sense, right? So what's the first lesson? Honest some vulnerability, Number two trust in God's faithfulness, Number three hope in God's promises, and number four community and unity. Lament psalms can also teach us about the importance of community and unity in times of crisis. Some lament psalms are written on behalf of a group of people, emphasizing the collective nature of suffering and the need for solidarity and prayer. The idea is that in suffering, that a lament psalm gives everyone voice to that lament, so that we can all come together to voice said lament. It should bring together instead of doing what what can typically happen in a time of great distress and argue and disunity. This is where were they all come together and what are they saying? They're all basically saying, God, where have you been? We need you because this is what's going on. Right, So there's an aspect of that because this

24:14 is considered a communal lament if you if you don't know? All right? So do we have all of that? All right? So we've done an outline, We've looked at the author We've looked at the types of psalms, and we identify some A eighty three as a lament psalm. Everybody got all of that? Are we feel confident with all of that? Everybody good? Everybody an expert? All right? Let's go to number four? Okay, well yeah, well, I'm doing the best I can right now. We're going to put this for number four. We're gonna call this past present future, past present future. And the reason I'm adding number four here is because of that sermon series that sparked all of this, which refers to psawmighty three as the coming Middle East war, putting this that they believe where and the future. All right, So when I talked about this, one of the listeners I think they looked up AI, consulted AI and was like, hey, what issaw maybe three future, like what's going on here? Right?

25:18 And this is what they found in their research. Some contemporary interpreters see parallels between these ancient groups, this confederacy of ancient groups. You see them, the edom Ishmaelites, Moab, the Hagwrights, and the new King James, the Hagarens. I think in the King James, gieball Amon, Amelek, Felictia with the inhabits of Tire, Assyria, and they've helped the children of life. Okay, see all of that, see them okay. So some contemporary interpreters this seems to be a more modern interpretation. See parallels between these ancient groups and modern nation or people groups in the Middle East. Here's kind of an example. AI provided. Itedom might be linked to parts of Jordan and the Palestinians, Moab and Ammon are often associated with Jordan, Felistia is linked to the Gaza Strip, Tire is associated with Lebanon, and Assyria is linked to parts of modern day Syria and Iraq. These interpreters suggest that the coalition described in PSAWM eighty three could foreshadow a future alliance of Middle Eastern nations united against Israel. This view is particularly popular among those who focus on biblical prophecy and end time scenarios. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know how you come to that conclusion in any way, shape or form. Look

26:48 at the language in Psaw eighty three. Just look at it. When the psawmist talks about these situations, does he talk about them as future or is he talking about them almost in a past presence kind of way, kind of a past this has been going on and is going on. It's kind of a past present situation, right, And just so that any if anyone thinks that I'm making it up, let's read it ourselves, all right, everybody ready, do not keep silent, Oh God, do not hold your peace, and do not be still, O God. He's petitioning God for act when now, in the now when Asaf wrote this for behold your enemies. Okay, So the NIV says, what are a stir they are? At that time? The king or the new king James says, make a tumult.

27:38 They're doing it right then? Right now? What else they say? And those who hate you have lifted up their heads. They that have lifted up their head, and their heads are still lifted up currently. They have taken crafty counsel against your people and consulted together against your shelter ones. They have said, come and let us cut them off, for they have consulted together. They form a confederacy against you. They're doing it now. This is past present. This has nothing to do with something. If you want to try to find some parallel to something in the future, then you're just finding a parallel that. The Psalm is not giving us some prophecy. He's saying what is happening at that time, and the people at that time are voicing a lament to God because what they're facing at that time. Now, can there be lessons and how they face what they face for what we face coming into the future. Maybe, But this has nothing to do with predicting some coming Middle East war. Has nothing to do with that. I don't know how anyone can read that and come to those crazy conclusions. All right, So in our introduction, we have done what we have provided an outline, a pretty decent one, I think, right. We have the next thing we've done. We've looked at the author number. Next we've identified the type of psalm that Psaw maybe three is, which is a lament, or some may call it a communal limit. We've learned lessons for the fact that it's been a lamit, that it's a lament, have we not? I went through them relatively quick, and I think that was pretty good. We've looked at the possibility that someone could interpret this as a future prophecy, and

29:12 I completely reject that outright. So then what does that leave us to do? Now? Now we start working through the song. Now we start working on the teaching of the song. So everybody ready, all right, we've done a little bit of it. Now we just really start digging in. Okay, and we're not gonna have a lot of time, but let's see how far we can make it. All right, So where does our outline begins? With? What? What do we call the first part of our outline the plea? And that covers which verse verse one? So everyone take your bible's look at Psalm eighty three, verse one. Everybody ready, here we go. I think it's pretty simple. The psalm is here expresses a sense of urgency and desperation. He's expressing a motion catch the emotion in it.

30:00 Okay, I don't know about your Bibles. Typically I don't pay attention to punctuation, but in this case I will, all right, because at least in the New King James, I don't know about the NIV or the King James. You can tell me. It says, do not keep silent? What's the punctuation after silent? I got a comma for mine, right, do not keep silent? Oh? God, oh cymical? And what what I have in exclamation? I have an exclamation point. In the King and the New King James. They want us to capture what the emotion in this? Does the NIV put forth any punctuation there? Okay? With a the King New King James wants us to capture the emotion. I think that there is strong emotion here because it's definitely a plea and it's we know it's a lamit song. Oh keep Oh that's interesting, okay, do not keep silent. That's interesting that they capitalize all the letters. Okay, oh just says keep keep not that silent? Okay, So hey, it's really stressed, and I think by capitalizing it is he's really emphasizing the emotion of keep Lord, keep not silent, Lord, speak up, all right, the new the new King, James. Do not keep silent? Oh God, he hey, because he's he's implying that he fills up to this point that

31:32 God has been what silent, silent in the face of what a confederacy being formed of nations who want to do what kill Israel? And I got Please speak up, do something, don't keep silent, and next, do not hold your peace, and do not be still. He wants God to speak, He wants God to act. Okay. This plea is a common theme in many lament psalms, where the psamist the sawmist, implores God to not be silent or inactive in the face of the current situation or threat. The samist is essentially asking God to pay attention, listen to their cries, and intervene on their behalf. That's really the three things that he's asking for.

32:22 Lord, pay attention, listen, and intervene. Speak up, do something, do something for us. The sentiment expressed in this verse reflects the samist's feeling that God's intervention is urgently needed, and there may be a perception that God has been silent or unresponsive up to that point, and that's exactly what I express. He feels like God has been unresponsive. God has been inactive. And look, it's one thing for God not to be active when you're just like, hey, make my day better. It's another thing when God has been active and there's an entire group of nations forming together to wipe you off the face of the earth. I think you're going to probably express that in a little bit stronger language, right, Hey God, it's too hot in Texas? Could you lower the temperature. I don't think you're going to express that in the same way as Hey, God, there's a group of people over there who's ready to come kill me. You may express it in a stronger way. You have to capture that emotion here, Right, The salmest sense of urgency and desperation and calling out to God in times of crisis resonates with humans and struggles which people face during difficult circumstances. All right, and so this, in a sense, what's happening here, it reflects the human experience, right, It reflects that, Remember we listened to the lessons from a lament Palm, but there's really a lesson in this plea. This

33:54 plea reflects human experience because everyone has found theirselfs in situations where you want to do what? Scream out for help? You want something here? Right? Some of the things I put down is that in fear and vulnerability, everyone has faithd fear and vulnerability in their lives. Right in times of crisis, people often feel vulnerable and fearful. The s ist urgent plea to God reflects a deep sense of fear and the need for protection and reassurance. We can all understand that expression, right, Yes, have you ever felt fear?

34:36 Have you ever felt vulnerable? The plea expresses that so we can relate to that. We can see ourselves at that moment. This man is full of fear and he's very vulnerable. And guess what, that's okay. It's okay for a person of God to feel fear and vulnerability and express it to God. Is we don't want to do what when we feel fear and vulnerability? We don't want to respond to it in an incorrect way. We want to respond to it in a correct way. What is his response? He's going directly to God? Does everybody see that? All? Right? When facing challenges, people naturally seek help and support. The Psalmist cry to God for intervention highlights the human longing for assistance and divine intervention during trying times. So what do we see here in this? We can see ourselves in this way.

35:32 We see his fear, we see his vulnerability. What else do we see his desire for help? We see fear, we see vulnerability, and we see a desire for help. And can we not all relate to that? Yes? All right? Another source says that we can also see feelings of isolation. Crisis situations can lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness. The Psawmists call for God to not remain silent or aloof resonates with the human desire for the connection and support. Even in the midst of adversity. He may feel like what that had been abandoned? May feel like, Look, God, where are you this nation, all these nations are coming together? Where are you? May feel abandon may feel alone, may feel isolated. And that's not just the feeling of the summis. That may be the feeling of whom the entire congregation. The entire congregation may feel this right, So what is his PLEA express fear and vulnerability, a desire for help, feelings of isolation, all right? What else? Despite the desperation express the act of calling out to God signifies a glimmer of hope. It reflects the human tendency to seek solace and trust and higher powers or forces during times of trouble.

36:52 What I'm going to say here is I can see the fear of vulnerability. I can see the desire for help. I can see the feelings of possible. But what I'm going to see here, I'm going to refer to it as faith. They call it a hope and difficulty. I'm going to see do you not see faith there? Well? How do we see the faith? Because he's doing what, He's calling on God, He's praying despite the urgency and desperation. It's an expression of faith and belief in the power of God to bring deliverance and relief. This mirror is the human capacity to hold on to faith and spirituality as a source of strength in the middle of crises.

37:34 I think a way to put it is this that the whole point here is we are all we all face difficult circumstances. Yes, and when we face that, what do we If we're going to offer a lament to God? We need to be very honest with it, right and very transparent, and we have to sometimes be willing to acknowledge our fear, our vulnerability, right, our feelings of being isolated for help. We demonstrate a little bit of hope that we turn to God, but we demonstrate our faith when we do w when we cry out to God, we are demonstrating that even though the circumstances may say what In fact, I think saw mayby three reflects this.

38:16 There's two realities that every Christian is confronted with. And this is what makes Christianity sometimes seem just like almost like a mental health problem in the eyes of many people, because we live in this weird reality, do we not? On one hand, we face horrible circumstances that seem to tell us what there is no God, There is no God. God is not coming to help you. God is not doing anything. It may even tell you God doesn't even exist. Yes, I mean he's kind of worried that God is. Where's God? Right? So, But at the same time, this is the weird part of Christianity. We are faced with these circumstances that scream no God. But at the same time we maintain faith that in God, even though the circumstances scream there isn't any God. And that's kind of like that concept of faith, Right is, how does Hebrews describe faith? Where is that famous definition of faith? It gives us a certainty of those things we do not see, right, and what do we see? It's not?

39:27 Now listen, this is very important. Sometimes people think faith is seeing God fixing the situation. No, faith is seeing God in spite of the situation. Right. Faith is like, I know that there's a God who can fix everything. He's choosing not to fix everything, but I still see God and put my faith in him. That goes against every human reason at all. Right, human reason would tell you to do what the get God? Abandon God? What human reason would tell me to do? Right? If God's not going to intervene, then what's the point of God? But God? The point of God. God does not have to justify his existence, does he. Faith is like we we we can admit all of this is happening, but we still demonstrate our faith of God even And that's not faith in God to fix the situation. That's just faith in God that you're believing and trusting that God exists and that he is even though his actions are not doing what you want. That is hard to do. That is hard to maintain that, Right, that's very hard to maintain. I don't know if you know that's very hard to maintain that. But that's that's what this expression demonstrates. The psalmest emotional response of saw me three reflects the universal human

41:01 experience of fear, vulnerability, hope, faith, and the innate desire for support and guidance during challenging times. Right, I think we can get a lot from that plea can't wait not? So let's read it again from that New King James, do not keep silent, Oh God, do not hold your peace, and do not be still, Oh God. That plea captures all of that. It captures the fear, the vulnerability, captures a desire for help, captures that feeling of maybe feeling alone or isolated. But it also shows a little bit of hope. But most importantly, it demonstrates faith.

41:45 That is the lesson you can take directly from that. So there is the plea. Any questions about the plea, right, we'll see how far we can get. Now. What the second part of our outline goes from verse two to five. What do we call this section the reason for the plea? The reason for the plea? What's the first reason? And you may want to make a list here. We should call this the reasons. I don't know why I put singular reason because you really list reasons for the plea? Right? He lists a number of them, so you may want to write these out. What's the first reason for his emotional plea to God to wake up and do something? First? And verse two for behold your enemies? I find it interesting that the Psalmist refers to these people as God's enemies. It's kind of fascinating, Right, Maybe there's a lesson in that that I did not put down in my nose, but I think that that's interesting. But what's the first reason for the plea? Behold your enemies?

42:59 Make a to everybody? See that a tumult. The word tumult refers to a loud, confused noise, or disturbance caused by a crowd of people. Right. It sounds like if you ever knew the peerces back in the day, and if I called their house for any reason, or they called me, I was basically just hang up on them because there was a loud tumult in the background, because it's like, I don't know the sound of war in the camp. Okay, it's like just so much of it. Like I would I would lose my mind. I could not. I would be like, I know, like just call me back when everyone has grown up, okay, because it's too loud, right, but we have lots of kids. It can sound like that, right. When the sawmist mentions that the enemies are making a tumult, it implies that there is an uproar, commotion, or chaotic behavior being exhibited by them. This description suggests a sense of disorder, agitation, unrest among the enemies of God's people. Now that's how one source puts it. The focus really hears they're the enemies of God.

44:06 But okay, all right, they are not acting calmly or peacefully, but rather in a disruptive, tumultuous manner, likely reflecting their aggressive and threatening intentions towards the community. The use of the term tumult conveys a vivid image of a noisy and disorderly situation created by the enemies as they conspire. I'm gonna say against God ultimately, but against God's people. So in other word, what once again, this is a phrase to give you a sense of the emotion, right, to give you a sense of the emotion. Whenever something is chaotic, it's I'll give you an example, all right, So I could drive you to the street where the teen club used to be an Abelle. But I was in the teen club one night, right, and so it was me. I think, I don't know who else was with me. There's a couple of people, and there was a couple of girls.

44:54 One of the girls that I had been dancing with. I had left the floor at the to get something to drink. She was still on the floor. Well, whenever I was in a dance club, I always ended up in fights for whatever reason, Okay, because I typically drew a lot of attention to myself. Right, Well, I'd been dancing with this girl, and obviously there had been a group of people who had been kind of watching the situation, and I should have paid more attention that something doesn't seem right here, right, right? Something? Okay, So I get off the floor and I look over. This guy comes up on the floor, had kind of been standing there. He looks over at me, kind of smiles and then punches her right in the face, just punches her right in the face, and so then I come over the rail and I come running into the situation and then absolute total chaos erupts. All these people come jumping on top of me. I'm getting beat up every way possible, like it's crazy. Someone has a knife that don't get the knife open, but they're driving the you know when the close part of it into my forehead. I'm getting beat over. I'm trying to paunch kick and then all of a sudden wham at the back of the head with a barstool, and I wake up like I got not completely unconscious, and like you talk about a tumult, it was complete chaos and soud cops get called. They're trying to pull people apart. They're kicking people out, and I'm like if you and they're all waiting outside, I'm like, you kick me out, I'm going to die.

46:19 Like the whole thing was just correct. That was a tumult, Right, that was well? And this guess what whenever you find yourself in one of those chaotic situations, what do you feel? What did we just talk about in his plea fear, vulnerability, right, a desire for help? Right? Okay, I needed help, right, I needed someone who weighed more than one hundred pounds and was five six like me. Right, I needed someone who was, like I don't know, had a gun or something. I needed someone to help me, Okay, And I was trying to help, but I was I got I mean who I got beat down? I mean, I don't even know how many people were involved in this sit week. It was complete chaos. Right, it was like nuts. Okay, So that's not a good situation. That's not a good situation. So the enemies are making a toone, which and why is that so interesting?

47:10 Because it wants you to feel the emotion. Remember the psalms are spoken in poetic language. It wants you to feel something you're not, I know. We just read it like, oh, well he wants God to do something. Oh, and the people are in a tumult. Next, it wants you to stop and go wow, this is a bad situation. This is chaotic. Yeah, and that would describe the urgency. Right, Why he's like God, do something now, because there's a loud noise in the camp, right, it's happening. It's chaotic. It would have been. Can you imagine if you lived in Israel on October seventh, over a thousand people died in just a couple of hours. Or if you live in Gaza and bombs are dropping on your apartment complex, you're gonna have a sense of vergence.

48:01 That's a tumult. Right, So you can see why the sawmist is doing them. So what's the first reason for his plea? The enemies are making a tumult? They are what loud, erratic, chaotic, disruptive commotion. Then there's like a sense of disorder and agitation. What's the second reason for this plea? And those who hate you have lifted up their head. Now this is where I'm going to stress it. It's already been stressed first in verse two for behold your enemies, right, and then here and those who hate you. So I broke this down separately. So I have the enemies are making a tumult as reason number one. Reason number two the enemies hate God. These enemies hate God. Those who hate God. The phrase indicates that the enemies are not only opposed to God's people, but they harbor a deep seated animosity towards God himself. Their hostility is directed not just at the nation or community, but extends to the divine, reflecting a rebellious and defiant stance against God. This makes you even more nervous in some ways.

49:25 Right, Why why would this make if the Summa says these people are against us versus these are your enemies and they hate you one which one and what emotions does either approach invoke in you? If you know someone hates God, that to me evokes a greater sense of urgency, because these people are so committed they even hate God himself. That's scary. If they just hate you, that's one thing. If they hate the God God you are identified with, then destroying you gives them a sense of that they are attacking God.

50:09 Now, if Israel's identified with God and people hate that God, then they want Israel to no longer exist because it's an attack directly at God. In other words, if your enemy hates your God, as long as you're identified with that God, they're going to be your enemy, and that makes them a scary enemy. When they're even want God destroyed, to me, that makes it much more powerful. But he and so now you could argue he's going a different way what he wants. He's invoking this idea. Hey, God, these are your enemies, because he's trying to motivate God to Hey, God, forget us. These people hate you, so maybe you need to get involved. I don't know which way do you read it. I think maybe there's a little bit of that there. Hey, God, since you're not waking up, I don't know if you realize your enemies are on the march. So he may be using it to try to get God to wake up, right, correct, I think there's a little bit too.

51:09 I could be wrong, but I think there's a little bit of that. Right, So, what's his first reason the enemies are making a tumult? The second reason they hate God? What's the third reason? The last part of verse two, they have lifted up their heads. What does that mean? Okay? And no longer slumbering? I like that. One source says this lifted up their heads can symbol arrogance, pride, and defiance. It suggests that the enemies are acting with a sense of haughtiness, self importance, perhaps displaying an attitude of superiority or triumph. They may be showing off their powers or influence or confident and their ability to achieve their nefarious goals. This is the idea that they may be arrogant and prideful thinking who are you?

52:06 Who are you? And it may be they what what may be provoking their pride? Let's just think about this. What can be provoking these their enemies pride that they've lifted up their heads in an arrogant way. What can be provoking that pride of the enemies? What do you think could be provoking it? Well, okay, true, Now that is true. If you've ever seen teenagers, if they're one on one, they're not always as loud and ready to fight. But if they got four or five friends with them, oh they'll talk a big game. They'll talk all. If you're by yourself and then there's four or five of them, oh they're ready to say something. If you can separate them from their buddies, then you're like, now come, it's just me and you, And all of a sudden, they kind of like that back to numbers does increase an arrogant pride. That's a good. I didn't even think about that, but that's a good. I was thinking more of this idea. They may, oh maybe their military might.

53:05 They may they feel like compared to Israel, they got an actual full blown military, and Israel probably doesn't seem that structured. That could be another reason I was thinking more this idea. What could provoke this sense of pride or arrogance is they're sick and tired of Israel claiming philological and moral superiority because Israel claims to be worshiping the True God, the one and only God. Remember, Israel was what monotheistic and a polytheistic world. Now over and over and over they became polytheistic, right over and over and over. I always can't stand when I watch the Discovery Channel, a History channel in those state, well, Israel really wasn't truly monopheistic. There's there's evidence of them being polytheistic. Dull, Okay, it's called the Bible tells us that because they constantly turned. I always hate that, like, well, we don't really know if there were mone of what are you talking about? They were monotheistic who constantly violated their monotheism for a polytheis Okay. That drives me crazy.

54:07 But I think that if Israel's marching around claiming we worship the True God, and not only do we worship the true God, God has given us land, not other people, you may be very provoked to arrogance when the other side thinks that they're so great, perfect and right. So there may be some reasons that they've lifted up their head in arrogance. All right, So what's the first reason he's making this plea? Number one, the enemies are making a tumult. They're allowed. Number two, they hate God. Number three, they've lifted up their heads. They're proud, they're arrogance. Next, we see this in verse three and in verse five. What happens in verse three and five. They've taken up crafty counsel against your people. They've consulted together against your sheltered ones. Look at verse five. They have consulted together with one consent, they have formed a confederacy. All right, the enemy. So this is what we'll put for the next one. We'll group all of that together. The enemies have taken counsel and consulted together, all right, consulted together. Could we could also we could throw and throw in confederacy in there as well. Right, So they have done what. They have counseled together, they've consulted, and they have formed a confederacy. We'll just throw it all in there together. Now, Taking crafty council is how

55:38 the new King James puts it. You see it, take crafty council? Has the King James put it crafty council. How's the end? I've put it three? I think with Conny all right. The crafty Council is The phrase suggests that the enemies are devising. There's the idea, and deceitful strategies are plans to harm God's people. They are not employing honest methods, but rather using deceitful, shrewd, and possibly underhanded tactics and their schemes. The use of the word crafty implies a level of cunning and subtlety. And they're planning, indicating that they are strategic and calculating in their actions. So he's like, Lord, I need you to do something because they're they're consulting, they're scheming, they're planning, and it may be so underhanded that we don't even see it or understand what's happening. So we need what divine intervention.

56:37 They consulted together. The enemies are not acting alone, but are coming together and consolation, suggesting a coordinated and collaborative effort against God's people. By consulting together. They are pulling their ideas, resources, and efforts to mount a unified front against their common adversaries. Their collaborative approach may indicate that the enemies are organized, united and working in concert to achieve their malicious goals. All right, they're consulting together, they're working together. They've come together. You get the idea there, all right? That by forming a confederacy, the Psalmist is emphasizing that the ultimate target of their enemies conspiracy is not just God's people, but God himself. The enemy's actions are viewed as an affront to God's sovereignty, authority, and honor. By attacking those who belong to God, the enemies are challenging his power, his faithfulness, and they seek to undermine his divine purpose. All right. Overall, the descriptions insaw eighty five three five serves to convey the seriousness of the enemy's actions and their direct opposition to God and his people. It illustrates the depth of the conflict between good and evil, righteousness and wickedness, and the enduring truth that God will ultimately triumph over all those who rise up against Him and his beloved. Now, let's just go ahead and read then all of that together we see the plea.

58:07 Everyone got the plea there. Do not keep silent, O God, do not hold your peace, Do not be still, O God. Then we give the reasons, right the reasons. And I know we were missing one major reason here, But the reasons we have so far is that for behold, your enemies make a tumult, and those who hate you have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty counsel against your people. They've consulted together against your sheltered ones. They have said, come, let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more. That's probably the big one. That last reason that he's making this plea is because the enemies desire what to destroy the nation of Israel, that it will be no more right. The motivations of the enemies towards the nation of Israel, and there's probably a number of reasons they want Israel to be destroyed. We've talked a little bit about some of those reasons. I won't go into all of them again. We have some possible reasons there, but we'll have to stop there because we're at twelve seventeen. All right, all right, there's a lot there we want to talk about. All right.

59:23 I wanted to get to some other things here. I got so many notes it's not funny, but all right, So what if we have so far? We have a psalm? That is what a lament? That lament is expressing despair, worry, fear, anxiety to God, showing that God's people can express those things to God because we need to be honest and vulnerable to God. This plea right here shows that fear and that vulnerability, showing that fear possible, feeling isolated, showing that hope and desire. But most importantly, what does it demonstrate? Faith? That's what I I want you to see is that faith is not believing that God's going to make everything right.

1:00:06 Faith is not necessarily pretending that everything is right. Faith is trusting and believing in God in the face of things not being right, and you have no idea if they will ever be right. Okay, but you're putting that faith in God. So he expresses it in a powerful emotional way, does he not? Yes, he does, so then what is he doing? He lists his reasons. Hey, God, I'm being so emotional here for these reasons and what are those reasons? You've got them written down. You've got a pretty good idea, right. Ultimately we could summarize the reason is this, there's a whole lot of people coming together and in very underhanded tactics and strategies to do what to basically destroy us but wipe us off the face of the earth forever? And God, where have you been? We need you to intervene. Now that that gets us pretty close. I mean there's a lot here. We still have that very important phrase, and they consulted together against your The new King James put sheltered ones in verse three. Other translations put treasured ones. Do you see that in verse three in your translation hidden ones? We got hidden ones, treasured ones, sheltered ones. We need to understand that phrase because I think there's a lot of significance there, but we don't have time to get into it. So what do we The two major lessons I want you to take from it is this that as a

1:01:37 Christian, it is perfectly okay for you to offer a lament to God being vulnerable and honest, because if you do not do that, it's only detrimental to your own spiritual health. You have to start pretending or you have to start lying, or you become bitter inside, and that's never going to do anything. You have to be honest and vulnerable to God. If you can't be honest and vulnerable to God, you can't be is vulnerable to anyone. Right, Christianity is about fallen, broken, sinful people being able to be vulnerable and honest to God, not pretending to be something that we're not. Right. That's and then secondly, I think what we need to take from this is really that idea of what faith actually is. We st think faith is, Oh, I'm gonna believe God's gonna fix everything. No, faith is I believe you the end. Whatever God does or doesn't do is irrelevant to the fact that I have faith and God his What he does or doesn't do is irrelevant to the equation. I believe God because he is the end, right he is. I believe in God because he is. What he does or doesn't do is irrelevant to that equation. And it's and which which requires more faith believing in God when he doesn't act in a way that fixes the situation for us, or the situation actually gets worse. I mean, when I was trying to when I was a brand new Christian, thinking, oh, I believe in God, well, then everything'll be okay. You

1:03:08 know, when I went to the first Baptist church, t schol and spent the night there praying for my mom. I mean, in my mind God would do what fix it? And then by the next day I'd be able to talk to my mom. By Monday, my mom was dead with the age thirty nine. Some went wrong there, Okay, this God's thing. I was not happy. Wait a minute, so I stopped doing all those bad things. And I'm supposed to listen to the right music and watch the right movies and don't date this girl and don't do this, and don't do that and don't do that. And I do all of that, and then God's like, sorry, you don't have a mom anymore. Well, I'm sorry. This bargain here is trash. I want my money back. This is the worst concept of the world. Oh, if you come to God, everything's gonna be wonderful and great. Your life's gonna be so much better if you come to them. Yeah, well my mom's dead. Oh oh and then you know, well then what my father did next? You know, and less than one year less than one year. He's getting married at the place where my mother's coffin sat, standing in the exact place where my mother's coffin was like nine months before getting married. God, this situation is trash. And then then the woman comes along and then well then it's just total and complete and utter. It's a tumult. Okay, chaos erupts.

1:04:35 Okay, everything in my life just goes from bad to worse to worse to worse to worse to work. I mean really everything just spiraled out of control. So so I can't have you have faith in God that everything's gonna get better. That's not faith. That's that's called you want a genie in a bottle, Oh I got, I got rubbed the genie, or say your name three times whatever however it works and don't boom, there they go and they give you what you want. That's how I thought it worked with God. Now I have got God. I'm on God's side. God's on my side. So that means what, well, God's gonna do? What?

1:05:15 What? What? What I need done? And it doesn't work that way. Now the key is, well the psawmist here has kind of struggled with the same concept. Does everything work out perfect for israel I just go watch the news. You can say, well they didn't do the right thing. Well, job did the right thing. So even doing the right thing is not a guarantee. Faith in God is not based on actions. It's based on reality. He is God, is the end of story, and my faith is not based or dependent upon what he does or doesn't do. That.

1:05:58 Look, I can preach that I'm not so good at living that, not even a little bit, not even that much, because I get mad when God doesn't do what I think he should do. I mean, if he's got all the power, then I don't want children dying cancer. Oh and if God's got power, then I want him to fix every situation. And it doesn't work that way. So all right, let's prayer, Lord Got. We come before you this afternoon, Lord saw eighty three. There was much for us to consider. I pray that we've done at least a decent job and trying to understand it. I pray as we look at it more next week we can hopefully try to finish it up and we can benefit greatly from Him. We asked this in Jesus name. It got people said