august12_2023_psalm69

The speaker reflects on Psalm 69 and the idea that God does not despise prisoners or those who have made mistakes. They discuss the symbolism in the psalm, such as the waters rising, the deep mire, and the weariness from crying out to God. The speaker shares a personal story about waiting for a job opportunity and how they had to release it to God before receiving unexpected news. The overall message is about the importance of our relationship with God and trusting in His timing. August 12th, 2023. Treasures in Christ. Psalm 69. Jehovah Zahaziel. Our Lord God who does not despise His who are prisoners. Psalm 69, 33. For the Lord hears the poor and needy and despises not His prisoners, His miserable and wounded ones. O Heavenly Father, we're just so grateful for a new day. We're thankful that You kept us through the night and decided to give us one more day in this temporal kingdom. Well, it's an eternal kingdom, Lord, but a temporal body, this temporal place, this sojourning that we have here on earth, just this temporary time. But we know that in this time, Father God, it's not about our perfection, it's about our heart's direction, it's about our relationship with You, and that's what matters to You. And it's so beautiful this morning as I reflect on the fact that You don't despise the prisoners. Those who have maybe gone a little far, those who maybe have gone their own way, for You're a redeeming God. Oh, I praise You this morning for Your sovereignty over all things, that You are the King of kings and Lord of lords, that You are the ruler of all the kingdoms of the world. Transform us today, transform me today by the power of Your Holy Spirit, Father God, transform me. And we thank You for that access to the kingdom, to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, the very leader and director of our lives. The one who showed us the way, the one who carried the burden so that we can carry the burden as well. We praise You for Your goodness today. We praise You for this aspect of Your characteristic, Father God, where You are. You look past the temple and You look at the heart of the matter. So transform me by this truth as we read it today, in Jesus' name. Amen. I was taken aback a little bit when I read this verse. I had to go a little deeper into it because I was just interested to see what He had to say about it. And, you know, the verse covers a couple of angles. It covers the poor and needy and it covers prisoners. And you think a prisoner is somebody who's made a mistake, who's been locked up, or somebody who's been disciplined by God. But the reality is it's the heart of a man that God wants in relationship with the soul of a man. The outward state of a man is not what God looks at. This is why He doesn't despise those in prison. In fact, this is why He said we should go visit those that are in prison. Because, see, it's the relationship that He wants. He knows this is a temporal time we have, so we make mistakes. And sometimes, you know what, we're poor and needy because we've made bad financial decisions. And it's just a beautiful expression of who God is and the relationship He wants with us. So let's go take a look at Psalm 69. The psalm of David is set to the tune of lilies. We know Jesus is referred to as the lily of the valley. And we know that we walk in the valley of the shadow of death. I feel like we're going to get a little more in-depth into God's heart today. Well, let's see where David starts out. 69.1. Save me, O God. And, of course, David starts out. I mean, it always shows this place where he's in that secret place under the power of the hand of God. And where does salvation come from? It comes from God. It doesn't come from anything else that we're going to see. He's going to have a lot of angles going on here. And he's not looking for answers anywhere. Although, I was going to mention, I did actually see one aspect where he did go look for an answer, but he couldn't find it. Outside of God. But it says, Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. They've threatened my life. You know, when things come around us, sometimes it seems like it's right to that point. He expresses it here as threatening my life. Like your floodwaters are coming in and they're at your neck already. And that's a good expression of the things that come against us. They suddenly come and rise against us. And I like this verse, too. I think in deep mire, where there is no foothold, I have come into deep waters where the floods overwhelm me. You know, you ever been in that place where you were in the swimming pool and you were trying to reach down and touch the bottom, but you just couldn't? You just went past. It had that slope that went down to the deep end and you just took a step off of it. And there's that reference of flood again. That quick, that sudden. Floods come suddenly, you know. And I like this deep mire that he starts out with. Because when you think about now, we go from the swimming pool, we go to like a pond, or we go to a little small swimming hole, or really any body of water. And as you start to walk out into the water, your feet squish down in the mud. They kind of go down in the mire. You know, that's the mud in the mire. And there's nowhere to really get a solid foothold. You're just kind of doing the best you can to flip from the muddy spot that you're in. There's no solidness. There's no real foundation to walk on. And in the flesh, we can feel this way. The situation can put us in this position where we feel like we're out too far, we went too far away from the solid ground where we could walk. And we're just overwhelmed by this. And we can see the expression of that in verse 3. I am weary with crying. Crying is an outward expression of weaned. Symbolic of need. A baby cries when he needs food. A baby cries when he needs a diaper change. Crying is symbolic of a need. And he's weary with his crying. It's starting to wear him out. I mean, we read it the other day. He said, he used the same terminology, I'm weary. And he's given the symbolism here that he's weary from crying out. Who's he crying out to? He's crying out to God. Save me, oh God. That's how he's dying. And he's weary with his crying. His throat is parched. He's been crying so much. You know, you never see a baby cry so much it gives itself a sore throat. My eyes fell with waiting, hopefully, for my God. You know, sometimes when we're looking for something and we have our eyes, it's great symbolism. So we're looking with our eyes and we're looking and waiting expectantly for something. And we're waiting and we're waiting and we're waiting. And sometimes we end up waiting hours and hours and hours. We thought we would only be minutes, but it was hours. And our eyes begin to fail. We begin to want to close them and just rest a while. He's using this as symbolism because, of course, he's talking about looking for God's help. So he's not actually talking about his eyes. But he's giving a symbolism of that place when we're looking. And I know I've waited. I'll be right back is what I was told. I waited over a day. That's not being right back. That's being back later. But that first day, that first day of waiting, that first day of waiting, but for that first little while, you're constantly, it's symbolism. You've got to put symbolism here. We're looking around. We're kind of anxious in the process. We're excited to look around to see maybe they're going to come around the corner now. Maybe they're going to be there. Maybe they're going to be there. Whoa, whoa, whoa. And then you get to this point of frustration where you just kind of think, you know what, I'm going to stop looking around and I'm just going to close my eyes or look down at something else and busy my mind until the time comes. And he's waiting for God. He's calling to God. He's waiting for God. So when everything's coming in all around us, we have to wait. This week was a good example. You know, I thought, again, I had another opportunity for another maybe door opening for this new career God that seems to be having me on this journey for this new career to go into my retirement. And everything was going good. Everything was going good. We were having a conversation. We set up the interview and I sat there for an hour and a half, whatever it was, and nobody showed up to the interview. And then one phone call from the recruiter later that afternoon asked me how it went. I had texted and emailed and called and left messages during the process of waiting. So I was constantly ahead of my eyes. It wasn't really, you know, you've got to get past the eyes, you know, symbolism. You know, I was looking for more ways, more ways, more ways, more ways. Where are they coming? Which way am I going to get this breakthrough? Where is the breakthrough coming from? And eventually I released it to the Lord and said, You know what, Lord, I just released it to you because they haven't called me back two days. They don't call me back. And I said, You know what, I'm waiting on you now, God. And that way I can keep my eyes on the Lord where my health comes from. But my eyes failed with waiting. They stopped looking. You know, I was getting weary in the process. It seemed like it was coming all around me. It's like, Is this ever going to happen? But then my hope was invigorated in the Lord, knowing He's in charge of the very day and hour that He decides is the hour and day that I want it to be. And all of a sudden one day, two, three days later, two, three days later, I'm sitting in my car. I go out to my car for lunch, a 30-minute lunch. It's a random time of day, and it's a 30-minute time frame. And I get a phone call. And the phone call was from a company that I wasn't expecting to talk to until the end of October. That's when they told me the end of October was when I could get that interview. And that's what they told me. And I had released that to the Lord. I had the challenge, but I had to release it to the Lord. Okay, your timing, Lord. And here they call me. During my lunch break, a 30-minute lunch break, I want to do a 25-minute interview instead of in October. The end of October, in fact. And I do the interview, and here I am just a few days later, and I'm traveling across country to go to orientation. But it just was an illustration of how the eyes fell in waiting. And I've been crying out to God during all of these months of waiting. You know, I've been feeling stuck sometimes. I feel like companies will come back and say, Nope, you're not going to work out for us. And I'm like, I just went to school. I just got this thing. And I was feeling just like David's feeling right here. And as we read on, I'll see even more in my situation. It says in verse 4, Those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs on my head. Those who would cut me off and destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are many and mighty. I am forced to restore what I did not steal. So in this verse right here, it's so beautifully descriptive of the situation for me. I mean, I had in my previous job, I had leads and things that were just this way to me, that were treating me wrongfully. And then when I leave the company, and now my boss has known since I was hired that I was going to be leaving to drive at any day, any moment. I thought it was going to be a month ago or two months ago, but it's not. And then I thought, well, maybe September 1st, and then the end of October. I've got all these things, but the boss knew all along. And here they give me, and I did well at my job. I'll have to admit, I had my days, but I enjoyed it. I had a good time with it. I had a good time with it, and I think the customers appreciated my services. And here they give me a bad review on my leaving the company. Wrongfully. I know this feeling he's talking about. It's like I'm being hated without cause, and it's coming from all angles. They're trying to destroy me. I feel like I'm restoring something I did not steal. I mean, I'm totally feeling what David felt, but I have to give it to God, because God is the God of recompense. God is the God of vengeance. I'm not. My first response was, man, my wife needs to come out of there immediately. You need to just walk out, which was a total, horrible, bad response. And then her thought was, let's get the paperwork changed to at least reflect the truth. And both ways were wrong. God says, thus says the Lord, you leave it alone. Let them do what they do, and as they come and bring this angle at you, let me deal with it. But in the process, I don't want to neglect my own issues, and my own shortcomings, and my own guilt. And this is what David goes on to say in Birthfinder. Oh God, you know my falling and blundering. My sins and my guilt, they're not hidden from you. See? So while this is coming against him, and we know the reality of it was King Saul, and there was a lot of things in David's life, but King Saul, you know, mistreating him a lot, you know, was a big portion of his life. But David always owns up to his own mistakes as well. This is an important factor. While I may have been mistreated in that situation, there are ways in which I went astray, in which I went my own way. My falling, my blundering, my sin, and my guilt. See, God knows all that anyways. David's just being honest here, you know. It's nice to be honest with God. Because I could have done it a little bit better. I mean, the hiring guy says, well, hey, I could do it Monday, or we could do it the 22nd. Well, the 22nd really gave me a perfect amount of time to give a two-week notice, and I didn't think about it at the time. My thought was just to grab the door, let's go through it. And I see how I blundered there, you know. And then my folly in wanting to take vengeance, and my guilt, the sin of my hatred towards them, and it required, you know, I forgive them, I forgive them a dozen times or more to release it to God. It's not hidden from God. God knows my heart. He knows my intentions. And my intention at that moment was just to take the job and run instead of have consideration and kindness for the job I was in. So I'm not exempt from guilt. And neither was David. And David's just confessing that right here. What a beautiful thing. You have to be honest with God. We can't just think when things are coming against us that we're some kind of hidey-piety, perfect individual who does nothing wrong. It's only those people coming against us that ever do anything wrong. This just can't be true. Verse 6, it says, Let not those who wait and hope and look for you, O Lord of hosts, be put to shame through me. Let not those who seek and inquire for and require you as their vital necessity be brought to confusion and dishonor through me. O God of Israel. O God of the fulfilled promise. O Lord of hosts. So he's talking about his leader. See, this is the way he's operating. Because when I went off course with my blundering and my guilt, my sin, I'm not following the leading of God. And this could lead others astray. This is why I had to confess, no, no, there was, I could have done that more godly. There were mistakes I made in the process. And things I should have done. And what David's saying here, and this is a beautiful verse, because David recognizes his need for God, the fact that he makes mistakes. He's expressing his situation with what's coming in against him. But again, he also is confessing his own mistakes and blunderings and falling. And all he's asking God to do right here, Lord of hosts, this is the leader of the kingdom, the sovereign leader of the kingdom, who has, and when he mentions hosts, that indicates the power over all the realm we live in, heaven and earth. And that's, he's trying to, what he's saying here is, don't let my blundering, my mistakes, put them to shame, because they're also a child of God. And when we make mistakes, he's just asking that the mistake doesn't put another child of God to shame. I mean, that's beautiful. And that it won't cause confusion and dishonor. You see? So, you know, don't let those mistakes I made in my life, discipled wrong, create bad discipling, where there's shame and there's confusion and dishonor. And he goes on to say, because for your sake I have borne taunt and reproach, confusion and shame have covered my face. When we're in the midst of it, these are, like, I didn't, you know, I was, when I was in the midst of it and I didn't react correctly, it was, I guess you'd consider that confusion, because the opposite of confusion is wisdom, and, you know, whatever, is knowing what to do, or knowing what's going on, and confusion is just being hurled through. And there's some shame. There's some shame in the situation when everything's coming against us from the outside, the taunting, the reproaching. And sometimes we can be in a state of confusion and we can feel shame, because in the flesh they're doing that, they're taunting and reproaching. They're coming against us in the flesh. I have become a stranger to my brethren and an alien to my mother's children. And this is how alone we can feel sometimes for walking in this place. For zeal for your house, Lord, has eaten me up. And the reproaches and insults of those who reproach and insult, you have fallen on me. This is when we, it's coming against us, because we're walking in obedience in this secret place. When I wept and I humbled myself with fasting, I was jeered at and humiliated. See, when we see God, people, it's a jeering that comes and you humiliate. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a by-organ object of scorn. They who sit in the city's gates talk about me, and I am the song of the drunkards. He's covering every angle here, because usually the civic leaders would sit in the city gate, and the drunkard is obviously the opposite end of the spectrum. So basically, everybody, everybody's hemming him up. When they could see that he was in this place of mourning, that they could see he was in a place of fasting, seeking God for this situation. People just scorned him, humiliated him, and jeered at him. In the flesh, it feels, this is what's happening in the flesh. This is what comes against us in the flesh, and it comes from all angles. It doesn't matter if it's the hidey-pidey, or if it's the street walkers. It doesn't really matter. He's got every angle covered here. But as for me, I love how David talks. So he's being honest about the situation, and what's coming all around him, and skipping these angles. He's seeking God, but yet he's still being laughed at, ridiculed. They're like, you know, where is your God? We see some other psalms of that where they tell him, where is your God? How long are you going to have to wait? But see, God's eternal. He's not temporal. God is eternal. So this little sojourn we have here is nothing in the scope of things. I love David. He always stays bunkered down. But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. See, reference to the leading, right? My prayer is to you, O Lord, the one who's going to lead me in the way that I should go. And at an acceptable and opportune time, O God, in the multitude of your mercy, in the abundance of your loving kindness, hear me. See, now he's talking about the ruling, the overall kingdom rule here. Mercy and grace is what we find at the throne of grace. Oh, throne of grace and mercy, right? At the throne of God, we find grace and mercy. And I like how David, he seems a lot of times to start it with mercy, not getting what we do deserve, which is a reflection of his admittance to the things he's in error on, because he's not perfect by any stretch. And the abundance of your loving kindness, hear me. So in the mercy, not getting what we do deserve, and grace getting what we don't deserve, God will respond. He'll respond to the multitude, because of the multitude of his goodness, at the right time, at an acceptable and opportune time, at the right time, at God's appointed time. See, David, he gives us the brass tacks to operate in the body of Christ. I mean, he's showing us right here, plain as day, that everything could be coming up against us for doing right, and he's praying that our mistakes don't have a negative impact in the body of Christ. He's praying to the Lord who gives him direction, saying, at the right time, at your right, at your appointed time. That's when I had to get to that place with this whole job thing, because I had to get to that place where I was like, okay, God, it's your time. Look, if you said September 1st, October 30th, if you said next year, you say whatever time it is, that's the time I want. And this is what David's saying. He's given us standard operating procedures. And it's interesting, because at the end of the day, his mercy and grace are for a purpose. And in the truth, and he goes on to say, and in the truth and faithfulness of your salvation, answer me. Because that, at the end of the day, is the brass tacks. The mercy and grace, this is great for temporal, you know, while we're here, but that salvation is something, yes, it can save us out of that situation, but we've learned more from reading Scripture that it's less God taking us out of every single challenge that comes our way, but keeping us in it. Now, he delivers us from all the affliction from it, but the fact is the situation isn't going anywhere, as we see in the Scriptures. We don't see a lot of Scriptures where Jesus, David, Moses, anybody in the Bible is praying away the situation. They're praying for God to keep them, and they're showing us how to operate in the secret place, going through them. And as I go through the floodwaters, right, not as you remove the floodwaters. So salvation comes when God keeps us. That's the salvation. And we know that at the end day, that's eternal in nature. And so this is a beautiful verse. It really covers all the aspects of our relationship with God. We're not getting what we do deserve. We're getting what we don't deserve, and it's saving our soul eternally. Oh, it'll bring salvation to us. We have it immediately, but we experience it in the flesh, but it's an eternal salvation. And it's because of the faithfulness of God and His truth never changes and always what He says happens. So here, verse 14, Rescue me out of the mire. You know, He needs to be unstuck. And let me not sink. You know, when you're in that muddy water and you start to sink, you need to be on solid rock, right? And God says He'll bring our feet out of the mud and the mire and put them on solid rock. Now, the situation doesn't get changed, but our ability to be stable and walk is improved. Let me be delivered from those who hate me and from out of the deep waters. Deliverance will come through the waters. Let not the floodwaters overflow and overwhelm me. Notice He doesn't say get rid of the floodwaters. Neither let the deep swallow me up, nor the dug pit with water perhaps in the bottom close its mouth over me. Just the things that are coming against them, He's just asking God that they don't have victory over it. Hear and answer me, O Lord, for your loving kindness is sweet and comforting. According to your plenteous, tender mercy and steadfast love, turn to me. It's all about His grace and mercy. And Lord is the leading. And this is amazing, because hear and answer, O Lord, for your loving kindness is sweet and comforting. It's interesting that when He used the word O Lord there, He used the word grace, because loving kindness is His grace. And the second part of the verse He's talking about tender mercy, turning to Him. So it's like, I'm going to get disciplined, and when you come to do that, bring your mercy with you, because of your love for me, bring your mercy. But it's that leadership that He's crying out for, and that is a reflection of God's grace, because we're getting what we don't deserve by Him leading us. We don't even deserve His leading us, because of our own folly in all of these things. Verse 17, hide not your faith from your servant, for I am in distress, O answer me speedily. We can always be just honest with God. But we don't want to get past the fact that it's His appointed time. That's what He said, acceptable and opportune time. But we still need to be honest with God. Hide not your faith from your servant. It shows David's role in the secret place, his position, I mean his humble position in the kingdom. And he's given being honest about his distress, and honest about how he, when he wants God to answer. Draw close to me and redeem me. Ransom and set me free because of my enemies, lest they glory in my prolonged distress. And it requires God, us being near to God, to be in this place of freedom, where we can have the freedom, where we can operate in the freedom in Christ. Freedom in Christ. But we have to be close to it. We have to be in this secret place where we draw near to God, He'll draw near to us. David's just crying out for the inevitable. It's going to happen. God has redeemed us and freed us. What can man do to us? Verse 19, you know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor, my adversaries are all before you, fully known to you. And again, David's fully honest, but here's the beautiful part about this verse. I did enjoy this verse. I was thinking about making it the focus verse because it's so beautiful. God knows everything. You know, sometimes it seems like, I mean we don't even know all the angles, you know. It seems like the attacks come from so many different angles. We don't even know them all, but God knows them all. They are fully known to God. Every adversary, including the adversary, and all of his demons, and all of the adversary that we have while we walk in the kingdom of God, God intimately, fully knows them. Nothing catches God off guard. Nothing. And I thought that was such a beautiful characteristic of God. Reproach, that's when, and shame and dishonor, that's that flesh, that's a lot of flesh talking right there. You know, when we die, we don't have any reproach, shame, and dishonor, you know, that doesn't happen when we're in the grave. That only happens when we're in the flesh and we have emotions and feelings that we're dealing with. And verse 20, he's going to go even more deeply. But I love the fact that God knows our adversaries. So it seems like something's coming against us. Even if we don't know, which we aren't going to know a lot. I'm fine. I mean, we're just not going to know, but we see the attack coming from all angles. But our adversary is fully known by God. They're all before God. God is the creator and sustainer of the entire planet and everything we know and don't know. Verse 20, insults and reproach have broken my heart. I am full of heaviness and I am distressingly sick. See, stress causes sickness. This is an interesting verse because he's got a broken heart. He's got this heavy-weighted down feeling. He's distressed to the point of sickness. And we know that that has been shown. Stress causes sickness. I looked for pity. See, now, here we go. Here's where he reaches out. Because I did the same thing. I want to go tell somebody about what happened. So that, initially, when it happened, I wanted to tell somebody so that they could have pity for me. Well, that was an interesting commercial that just popped up. Oh, yeah, I looked for pity, but there was none. And for comforters, but I found none. And it's funny because when this happened, when I heard what happened about when the adversary came against me and my heart was broken and I was full of heaviness and I was distressed and I could actually feel my stomach turning, it just distressed me so much because I felt I was a good worker. I had situations there where I had to bounce out of there. I didn't respond properly in those situations. And I confess my error there. But when I was at work, I gave 100%. I don't feel like I did. There was no break taken. I didn't take no time off. Nothing. I was there. The 10-hour shifts, I was there. And some of the days went long, you know, whatever. But when this happened to me, I thought, who can I tell, who can I tell, who can I tell, so that they'll give me some pity and I can give them comfort. But I found none. And I actually decided, I didn't even read this yet, but I did before I read this verse, and I decided I was just not going to do it. I was just going to talk to God about it. And I did. And the times I've done this before, I would imagine the next verse here would have been something that happened. They gave me also gall, poisonous bitter, for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar, a soured wine to drink. And this is the result of going outside of God to try to get, to feel better in the flesh. This is what's going on in the flesh, you know, it's heart, it's heaviness, it's sickness. This is all in the flesh. And we look sometimes for band-aids, but there will be no solution for the wound. The wounding will still be there. And what it really took for me was a bunch of forgiveness and surrender against God. And if it comes back, I'll have to do the same thing again, those feelings, evil feelings, because really at the end of the day, if I harbor sin in my heart, or if I hate even my enemy, then I've committed murder, you know, and I'm in sin, and I'm in transgression. Verse 22, Let their own table, with all its abundance and luxury, become a snare to them. And when they are secure in peace, or at their sacrificial feast, let it become a trap to them. Let them fall to their own device. This is a concept throughout Scripture. We know that this is the way God likes to operate. He likes people to fall to their own devices. Whatever it is that they do that's wrong, that is displeasing to the Lord, especially when they come against His children, He likes them to just go ahead and fall to that device. He might even make the fall even harder, so that they'll come to Him, because at the end of the day, this is why we have to stay obedient, so that they can see the light of God in us. If we would come back with some kind of vengeance, this is why we even love our enemy. It's an amazing truth. Verse 23, Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually from terror, dismay, and feebleness. This is the powerful hand of God that comes down on those that are in enmity with Him. And we won't see very clearly. It'll just be this dark place. And I like the loins, because again, you think that stomach area, loins is what I'm thinking, like the support of the body. You know what I mean? And when it's trembling, and it's having issues, then walking and everything else becomes difficult. Pour out your indignation upon them, and let the fierceness of your burning anger catch up with them. Let their habitation in their encampment be a desolation. Let no one dwell in their tents. So again, David does not pull any punches. He does not sugarcoat anything. He knows God is the resolution. Notice who's doing all this action here. It's not David, it's God. It's not us, it's God. That's what I told my wife, I said, and the Lord said it. So this is what it must be. We must not try to change that paperwork. We must not convince you to leave the job and just take away your good service too, because then we take God out of the equation. And we need God in the equation. But David, I love it, he does not sugarcoat nothing. He wants them to just have no easy go of it. Be alone, be isolated. But desolate, like alone, where they just feel alone in the world. For they pursue and persecute him whom you have spent. This is beautiful. This is a reminder that the things that we experience a lot of times in life that are, obviously if we go out and we sin and we get something for it, this is not what we're talking about as much as we're, well, we're talking about both sides really. And I would say it would be included in both sides, because, yeah, this would be, he's saying you have spent, I'm sorry, I had the wrong end of it. It is when we make mistakes. When we make mistakes and God is disciplining us, this is what he's talking about. When David's in this place of discipline, and God's discipline can be very, very heavy. Smitten, he calls it. Smitten, and for they pursue and persecute the person that you, Lord, have smitten. And they gossip about those whom you have wounded, adding to their grief and pain. So while God, he's disciplining us, rebuking and correcting us, and this is where the attack is coming in. Why? Because that's in the transformation zone. When we're being disciplined by God, and we're coming in repentance and we're turning back, God is transforming us by the power of the Spirit. That's the perfect time to attack, because that's when the adversary has been created to break us out of this place so that there's more value in us coming into this place. If there was nobody coming against David in this process, the value would be a lot lower in the relationship with God. Right? I mean, okay, God disciplined me in that hunky door, but now God's disciplining me, smiting me, and wounding me as he's cutting away those things that my flesh desires in this place. And outside sources are adding to the grief and pain. It just makes sense to me. It just makes sense. I mean, I can't even get my mind completely around it. Just thinking that if I'm in this situation and nothing is pursuing and trying to persecute me and gossiping and doing all of these things to add to the grief and pain of the discipline, then there would be a decreased value in the discipline or a decreased outcome from the discipline, a decreased building up in this place of discipline. It would be less valuable, because there would not have been that outside thing that makes you want to come out of your religion, as some might say. Right? Because this is what a lot of times people do. And that's the purpose of the adversaries, to draw us out of the secret place. And the value comes in us staying in the secret place, like David's doing. Even though you go, You go, No, David's just being honest with God. He's not. And nowhere in here is he questioning God's authority and then blaming God for anything. It's important to remember that. There's a degree. There's being honest, and then there's accusing and bad-mouthing God. And David's not doing that. He's just giving an honest thing of what's going on. But there's value in this, verse 26. We've got to understand the value in this. For they pursue and persecute him whom you, Lord, have smitten. They gossip about those whom you, Lord, have wounded, adding to their grief and pain. I see the value in that. I find that without that added input, there's less and less value. You know, let's think of it this way. If you're trying to develop a commitment to work out, and you've got people coming around you who tell you, You'll never do it. Nah, what's the point, right? But you stay committed to doing it. There's more strength and value. I should say, it's not strength I'm looking for. There's more rootedness in what you're doing than if nobody would have been pessimistic and disbelieving that you'd be able to do it. You see the difference there? And it's a spiritual thing, too. Remember, this is a spiritual battle we're in. We're not in a physical battle. It's not about the flesh. But the flesh is the gateway into that inner man, that heart of a man or woman. I see it. I can see it. He's showing me the truth in this, and it's just so beautiful because there's value in this. But it's the truth of how he feels. It's the truth of what's going on in him. He's being honest about it. He says, Let one unforgiving perverseness and iniquity accumulate upon another for them in your book. Now, David's going to get really harsh right here. And let them not come into your righteousness or be justified and acquitted by you. This is a different angle for David. We don't usually see this. It's obviously, at the end of the day, God is going to pay recompense. And God does not like anybody coming after his children. He's going to pay the recompense for that, especially just that pure wickedness and all of those things. But this is an interesting angle because normally David, he's expressing the fact that, Yeah, go ahead and let them fall by their own device. But at the end of the day, you want them to perish. So let's just see how he unpacks this. Because this is harsh right here. Let one unforgiving perverseness and iniquity accumulate upon another for them in your book. And let them not come into your righteousness or be justified and acquitted by you. We know that the Lord's Prayer says, Forgive me, Lord, as I forgive those who sin against me. And it goes on to say in Matthew, I believe it is, that if we do not forgive others, then God will not forgive us. It kind of sounds like what he's talking about here. So let one unforgiving thing accumulate upon another. Let them keep going the route they're going. And let them not come into this place of repentance, right, which is into the righteousness of Christ, where they can be covered by his blood and justified and acquitted by God, right? This is the place of salvation. So he's saying, let them not come into the place of salvation and into that place. Let them be blotted out. He's going to go even more in depth. I mean, this is the harshest thing I think I've ever read David say. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and the book of life. See, we have the book of the living. That's when we're on earth. We have the book of life, which is the eternal relationship and place we have with God. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and the book of life and not be enrolled among the uncompromisingly righteous, those upright and in right standing with God. And at the end of the day, really, they're not, unless they come into the place of repentance. So David isn't really stating the truth about what could potentially happen. But it's awkward to see David actually sowed to that place where he's just like, don't even give, don't even, don't let them come to your salvation. Don't let them come. Just keep them out of the book of life. I don't want to spend eternity with them. You know, kind of a thing is what I'm thinking, which is harsh. This is harsh. But David's being honest. If we can't learn anything from David, it's we've got to be honest with God. When things are hitting up there, we say, man, this sucks, God. We don't sit there and try to sugarcoat it and do some sort of formal thing. So David's in the secret place, and he basically spent two verses there saying it. But now, do know that verse 27, they're going to be stacking this on, you know. So he's saying, let them fall by their own devices, really. And at the end of the day, if they do, they won't be in the kingdom of God eternally. They'll be eternally separated from God because they've chosen to live out their life that way and chose to reject God at the end of the day. But I am poor, sorrowful, and in pain. You see, he's needy. He's heavy-spirited. He's in pain. Let your salvation, O God, set me on high. Because it's really that salvation. Sure, he can save us from things here on the planet, but it's that eternal salvation, that book of life, that is what, and why the reference, O God, okay, that's the kingdom again. And on high is a reference to the heavenly realm. So he's going to be talking about his eternal salvation here. Let your salvation, that's the knowledge, the hope we have in the salvation of the Lord, keep me focused on the joy that awaits me in heaven. I mean, that's what he's saying in a poetic, much more poetic way. But Jesus said it that way. I was able to suffer even the shame of the cross by looking forward to the joy that awaited him in heaven. Verse 30, I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify him with thanksgiving. See, having a grateful heart is important. This magnifies the praise of God. If you are clapping for something, let's use clapping as an indicator of praise, which could be, I guess. There's a lot of ways to praise. There's no rules about praise. But you could say clapping hands is an aspect of praise. But let's say you're clapping your hands and you really don't want to be clapping your hands. You really hate the fact that you have to clap your hands. In fact, you're wondering, why am I even doing this? So there's no gratitude in your heart. You see the difference? Let's say that you're clapping your hands now and you're thinking, oh yes, I'm grateful that I have two hands and that I'm able to clap. I'm grateful that I have a reason to clap. You see, it's just two different types of expression. If you had one hand, you could still do this. If you had no voice, I mean, I'm sorry, I was using an example of clapping. But for my example, if you had only one hand or no hands at all, you could still praise God without clapping. You could still be clapping. You could still be clapping with a grateful heart or an ungrateful heart. So it's the soul of a man that's doing the praise. Sometimes it can outward express through our flesh and dance, sing and clap and all these things. But if you can't do any of those things, you still have the power to praise God. You still have the ability to praise God. So just thinking it's something we do when we get together, where we get loud and sing a song or clap our hands and dance, jump up and down. Then we've sold ourselves a bill of goods. Those are just physical motions that anybody can do, and they can do it without a heart of gratitude, which isn't going to magnify God. See, they're just motions now that they're going through. So there's no magnification to the work that God has done in our life. Because there hasn't been. Well, there's no gratitude in it, for sure. I mean, praise is stimulated from joy, which is fulfilled promises in our lives. If we have a grateful heart for what is going on, it magnifies God even more. So his operating in our life does, his fruit comes out, joy comes out, and it's expressed as praise. But we can magnify it even greater if we have a heart of gratitude. That was my long one. It just makes sense. It's funny, it's poetic, but it's beautifully simple, and it's a great standard operating procedure. And it will please the Lord better than an ox or a bullock that has its horns and hooves. So he's making a reference to the fact that when God operates in our life and we have a heart of gratitude for what he does and we're magnifying the Lord in this, this is more pleasing to him than sacrifice. Just having a sacrifice to cover up the mistake is good. Jesus did it. I mean, it's essential, really. But it's better, it pleases the Lord better when he sees that heart of gratitude for what he's done. The humble shall see it and be glad. See, the humble, those that are under the prophethood of God will see the joy of the Lord in others. They'll see the heart of gratitude in others. And they'll be glad. You who seek God, inquiring for and requiring him as your first need, let your hearts revive and live. See, because they're going through it, too. There's no one else. Just because you're meek and humble doesn't mean you're not going to go through it. In fact, there is no polyamory doctrine. You're going to go through it. But it's that revival that God brings, reviving that life that his hope can stimulate in us and revive us and renew us and invigorate our lives in the midst of all of this. For the Lord hears the poor and needy and despises not his prisoners, his miserable and wounded ones. And we talked about that at the beginning. It's beautiful. God listens to those who are in need. He hears and responds. And he doesn't despise us just because we've made mistakes, when we find ourselves in prison, for example. He's using this as symbolism for all kinds of things. And I like the way, because we have to see the spirit and in truth here, because he's using symbolism of a prisoner in prison who's committed a crime, right, to get there. Yet God doesn't despise him. It doesn't mean God's okay with crime. No, God's okay with the relationship with the prisoner. And not being despised reflects a relationship with something that is traditionally despised. Responding to the poor and needy is a reflection of what society does, what the symbolism of poor and needy usually doesn't give. They wouldn't be poor and needy if society was all on it. They wouldn't be poor and needy. But they are poor and needy because society has not provided any provisions. It's symbolism here. And prisoners have been committing crimes to be put in prison. And society despises them and ostracizes them. Society ostracizes the poor and needy, and they continue to go without. And prisoners continue to go isolated. But yet God is showing that even when we go without and are isolated, that he wants a relationship. Hearing is a reflection of his response. And the lack of despising, hearing reflects a response that society's not giving the poor and needy. And not despising is the response that society's not giving to the prisoners. So God provides what the world cannot provide. It's amazing what he can say in one verse. It blows me away. Let heaven and earth praise him. The seas and everything that moves in them, that's going to operate in them as they pour forth their praise. For God will save Zion, that's the body of Christ, and rebuild the cities of Judah. And we learned Judah was praise. Rebuild the cities of praise. It's interesting when we think about it that way. He will save the body of Christ and rebuild the cities of praise as he works in our life. And his servants shall remain and dwell there and have it in their possession. When we are submitted to the power of God, this is what we're doing. We're dwelling in the secret place of the Most High and we shall remain and have it in their possession. The children of his servants shall inherit it and those who love his name shall dwell in it. He goes on to say you have to stay in the secret place of the Most High. And the offspring, the children of his servants, as we disciple and others are discipled in the body of Christ, they also will inherit it. This is the inheritance, right? The kingdom of God is the inheritance. The heritage is our right to have the co-heirship with Christ. And those who love his name shall dwell in it. And we know servants and love both say the same thing. We're obedient. That's what love says. Those who love the Lord obey him. And serving the Lord is a reflection of love. Submitted under his powerful hand. There's a submission and an obedience required to remain and dwell in the kingdom. Wow. Man, I tell you what, David, it's amazing how he can really give standard operating procedures for the body of Christ. Amazing. And be honest, as I said. You know, it's so honest. So, oof. I mean, his honesty is without, I don't know. I'm working towards being honest with God more often. And David just has given me the standard operating procedure. So, it's a reminder that Psalm 69 truly is a treasure in Christ and a treasure in heaven. And that God is Jehovah, Bazaar, Asir. Our Lord God, who does not despise, is who are prisoners. Oh, Heavenly Father, we're just so grateful for this truth. That we can be honest, Father God, in the body of Christ. We can be honest with you with what's going on. We know that you are the only solution. Outside of you, there is no solution. And that at the end of the day, you want that intimate relationship. No matter how despised by society or how neglected we are by society, you want to have us in that relationship. And that relationship requires our submission and our obedience to you. So, I pray this over the body of Christ today. That they will find that place of submission and obedience today. That we'll have to walk in the kingdom with the heritage that comes with being in the body of Christ. So, we just are so grateful today for this truth, Father God. I know it'll be a blessing. I pray it'll transform us today. In Jesus' name, Amen and Amen.