A DOXOLOGY ON THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD.
Psalm 138: 7, 8
Sermon by:
Prof. Dr. A. Baars
PUBLISHED BY THE
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
OF THE
FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.
(January 2006)
LITURGY:
Votum
Psalter 227
Apostle’s Creed
Scripture Reading: Psalm 137 and Psalm 138
Text: Psalm 138: 7, 8
Psalter 429: 4
Congregational Prayer
Offerings
Psalter 190
Sermon
Psalter 429: 2, 3
Thanksgiving Prayer
Psalter 381: 2, 3, 4
Doxology: Psalter 315
Congregation,
The text for this sermon is taken from the second psalm, namely, psalm 138:7,8 “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.”
In the Canadian churches we are accustomed to singing a doxology at the end of the sermon. It is actually the answering song of the congregation, after the service and the benediction. It is a good custom. The Dutch churches do not do so, as you know.
Now, a doxology is a song or psalm of praise. Particularly it is the praise of the Triune God and all His attributes. You will find many portions in the Book of the Psalms, and even entire psalms devoted to the praise of God. Sometimes to just one of God’s glorious attributes. And now let us look at the closing of Psalm 138 and there we see a doxology on the faithfulness of God.
That is the theme of the sermon. “A doxology on the faithfulness of God.”
There are three elements that I would like to stress.
- This doxology speaks about God’s protecting care
“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive or protect me”
- This doxology speaks about God’s saving care.
“thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.”
- This doxology speaks about God’s enduring care.
“The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.”
The ordering of the Book of Psalms as we have it recorded in the 150 psalms is rather late in the history of the Israel. Some psalms have been written quite early, think of the Psalm of Moses. Many psalms are written by David, but only after the Babylonian captivity. The Book of Psalms as
we know it was composed by the scribes, possibly by the sons or grandsons of Ezra. Psalms written in different times, and under different circumstances, but I believe that they were written with peculiar care and under the special guidance of the Holy Spirit, who entrusted this book in this order for the Church in all ages.
There is something remarkable in the orderings of Psalm 137 and 138. When you look briefly at Psalm 137, a well-known psalm, a psalm written in the Babylonian captivity, and actually a psalm full of sorrow and even of gloom, the psalmist was complaining about the Babylonians who were surrounding their villages and who came to the Israelites saying, “we have heard that in Israel you can sing so many beautiful songs, please sing to us one of the songs of Israel.” But because of their distress, they did not want too. They felt humbled to a certain degree. Why? Well, the temple, the place of worship, where the songs of Zion had been sung for so many centuries, had been destroyed. How can we sing the songs of Zion in a strangecountry? Moreover, under the heavy hand of God’s chastenings, the psalm even tends to become a psalm of hatred. Imprecatory psalms, Psalm 137 and other psalms are called by Old Testament scholars. Praying for the vengeance upon the enemies. One of the most awesome words found in the Word of God is in the closing verse, in which the Israelites in captivity prayed and even call him happy who taketh the little children of the Babylonians and dasheth their little heads against the stones. Gloomy, dark without any light and it seems to be a song of vengeance and hatred. And then Psalm 138, a much older song, a song of David, full of the glory of God, filled with the singing with the whole heart of the mighty works of God, seems at first glance to be written in a different era. And yet, there are strong and close ties between Psalm 137 and Psalm 138. Right now I am not going to elaborate on them all but mention just a few of them.
Several commentators indicate that when the scribes so shortly after they have been in the Babylonian captivity, and found among the sons of Zion this dark and gloomy song, they put Psalm 138, the psalm of David, on purpose behind this dark song from the Babylonian captivity. And if so, you can see some of the reasons maybe. In Psalm 137 there is no hope, nothing, it seems to end in darkness. The scribes afterwards remember how dark and painful those days had been for the Israelites.
And yet, reading one of the old psalms of King David, they are recalling for themselves and reminding the people how their beloved psalmist David, wrote that no matter how dark the ways of God may be, and how many calamities, afflictions and evils that surround them, the Lord takes care of His people. Even though they walk in the midst of trouble, as we can find emphasized in Psalm 137 which ended in such deep gloom, though I walk in the midst of trouble, God’s children may sing He will revive us. Now what do these words mean?
Though I walk in the midst of trouble was spoken by David. The Hebrew words indicate trouble relating to his own royal authority. Maybe it is the trouble relating to his anointing as king, despite the fact that the throne of Israel seemed so far away from him. He was afterwards persecuted by King Saul, he had to flee, and he was surrounded by troubles no doubt. Or it could also be the time of the rebellion of Absalom, his son, who rose up against his own father. He had to flee from Absalom as well. He was surrounded by trouble. But the Lord showed him, that, even though he was surrounded by all kinds of trouble the Lord would take care of him. That is the reason that he penned this psalm to convince his own heart and to proclaim to others who would read this psalm in the ages after him or even sing this psalm, that through faith all the true children of God may believe and sing, even though they may feel themselves in some kind of captivity. Thou wilt take care, Thou wilt revive!
Now, we should look more closely at the wording of the text. It says, in very emphatic language, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble,” An example may clear up the imagery of the text. One commentator writes, “It is as if you are walking in the midst of a corn field”. Everywhere you look, you see corn! Nothing but corn! So it was with the troubles that David was experiencing. They were surrounding him like the corn of the corn field. Another example. You are standing on a rock in the midst of the sea. All around you there is foaming water, waves and more water. Water everywhere! So it was with David. He was surrounded by them. He felt oppressed by them. Spiritually they caused darkness and pain. He uses imagery that can refer to tightness of the chest. He could hardly breathe spiritually speaking. And then the Lord gave him air to breathe. He revived him. Maybe someone here knows of this spiritually. There
was darkness because of sin, darkness also because of the ways and dealings of the Lord that you could not understand. It seemed that your way was hidden from the Lord, which gives grief and trouble as we read in Psalm 116. Pain and darkness!
If you experience this kind of darkness, this kind of soul trouble and pain and you have no light, where do you find help? Well, you can try to help yourself. That is a very common expression in American pastoral theology. “How to help people to help themselves” or “how to help yourself in all kinds of problems.” Well, my friends, when it comes to the deep afflictions in our own life, and in particular when it relates to the deep troubles which are spiritual in nature we are not able to help ourselves. The pastor is not able to help his people to help themselves. They need the divine help of the Lord! And NOTHING but the divine help of the Lord! That is why we here read that David cried mightily unto the Lord. He could not help himself. He could not help himself with his past experiences; he didn’t trust his faithful helpers either. When it came to these kinds of afflictions and troubles, he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord in His mercy helped him out. He gave him relief and revived him. Fresh air! He could breathe. The trouble was gone. David explains this more in depth in the following words: “thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.” Here we see a relationship between Psalm 137 and Psalm 138. We read in Psalm 137 of the exiles who were surrounded by enemies, thinking of their enemies, namely, the people of Edom. Living on the east coast of the Dead Sea, they had shouted for joy when they saw the walls of Jerusalem tumbling down. They had rejoiced in the captivity of Israel. The Israelites were surrounded by the Babylonians, who had forced them out of the land which had been promised to them by the Lord, and brought them to the strange land of Babylon. And now they are pleading with God, “O Lord, wilt thou punish all our enemies.”
You may ask,” Is that right?” May we plead that God will punish our enemies? Some say, in particular those in more liberal evangelical circles, that it is the language of the old testament, the language of the imprecatory psalms, where there is pleading for vengeance upon the enemies, with all these wars, even in those wars which were started by
calling upon the name of the Lord, that is the old testament way, and we should have nothing to do with that any more. O yes, it is important to know some of the beautiful prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ in order to understand that in the new testament the old testament prophecies have been fulfilled. But really, large parts of the Old Testament should not be preached upon in the Christian Church. Well, we don’t believe that do we? In the service, the entire council of God should be preached. That means the New Testament passages and also the Old Testament passages even certain passages of Scripture that may even seem offensive to our civilized ears. What then, do these words mean? It is very necessary to dwell on these matters.
I am not going to dwell on all the problems with the imprecatory psalms. Time is too limited for that but I would like to mention some of the most important issues. When you read Psalm 137 in which the vengeance of the living God is prayed down from heaven, you should not read these inspired words of God as if the psalmist has become somewhat vindictive towards his own enemies, that he is uttering his own personal hatred against some of the men he doesn’t like for when you read these inspired words and compare scripture with scripture then you will see that he is calling down the vengeance of the Lord upon the enemies of God.
And by grace, the enemies of these men in their exile in Babylon, their enemies have become the enemies of God. This is particularly clear when you realize that in Psalm 137 it is said that they were shouting for joy that the walls of Jerusalem had tumbled down and the temple of the Lord had been burned down to ashes. They rejoiced not only in the captivity of Israel, but they rejoiced in the fact that the God of Israel had been proven to be a powerless God. This Jehovah was not a God at all to be worshipped, for the psalmist says, and I believe he said it in a trembling voice, but he said it boldly nevertheless, “ O Lord, think on thine enemies and bring them down.” That is also expressed in Psalm 138, that precious psalm of praise, also pleads, “God, wilt thou stretch forth thy mighty hand against the wrath of mine enemies, actually thine enemies and let thy right hand save me.”
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The imagery used in this portion of our text is best described as the right hand of a warrior, the hand used for fighting, the hand of the sword. The enemies would be destroyed with the mighty right hand of a warrior. This is human illustration to describe the living God. We know God is not a warrior of course, but God is the almighty God, and now the psalmist is using this poetic and human language in order to clarify what God will do. He will, as an Almighty Warrior destroy all His enemies and so He will save His people. Now, you may recall in the history of the Israelites, how the Lord destroyed the armies of the Egyptians, how He in the long run would destroy the Babylonians, that mighty empire of Babylon. There are so many examples in the Bible in which God with His Almighty right hand destroyed all His enemies.
Do you know what the most important act of the living God has been in destroying His enemies? Maybe our young people know from catechism class or young people society. The mightiest act of God in delivering His people is His baring His right hand with the sword of His justice; which took place at Calvary. There, the Lord Jesus died on the cross. As good Calvinists, we often think that when the blood of the Lord was shed on Calvary, followed by the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He offered Himself up to God and He suffered for sin, that these are the key aspects of the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should certainly, especially in this our confused day and age, defend and adhere to this precious doctrine against all the heresies that are around, but apart from the atoning character of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is also the view that is more prevalent in Lutheran Churches, and we can use some influences from Luther besides the prevailing influences of Calvin, Luther said,” In dying on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ conquered sin and conquered the devil.” He even said it in his own eloquent way, as only Luther can say it,” at the top of Calvary, there were two kinds of blood. The blood of our beloved Savior, who died for the sins of His own, but also the blood of the old serpent whose head, was crushed when the Lord Jesus Christ cried with a loud voice, “It is finished!” Don’t forget that! It is an aspect of great importance and has many lessons for God’s own people; He destroyed the power of the devil by bruising and crushing his head.
Now what does that mean? Paul says,” That the Lord Jesus Christ by dying on the cross has triumphed over all the enemies.” When we think of our own personal life, we may see some enemies around us and maybe also the power of the enemy alive and well in our own heart. Let me mention just a few things. You may think of the power of secularization, increasing worldliness in our own circles, the devil seems so mighty to penetrate the walls of the church and the covenant community and maybe as we get older thinking of our children, of your grandchildren maybe even of your great grandchildren and you ponder on what kind of world we live in, and then looking at those sweet little children you think, “what will happen to them?” You as a parent or a grandparent then can only plead,”O Lord keep them, for the devil is busy as a roaring lion and walking also as an angel of light among us. Keep and protect us, our young people, and the generations to come.” Perhaps you have one of your children or grandchildren in mind just now. They have been baptized in a Christian Church but they have left to serve the world. It has become quite evident. It has become very difficult to speak to them of the ways of the Lord, the Word of God and the things of the Lord. You see their sin, but also the power of the enemy who seduces and tempts the young and the old. His power is mighty. But look at one word in our text: “God will deliver him from the WRATH of the enemy”. Young people, don’t forget that the devil and his powers though they seem so eloquent even to some degree lovely, for he says,” follow me and in serving me you will have a lot of joy”, but listen, behind this loving voice of the dark angel of light there is only wrath. His wrath is only increasing, now that the time is short before the end of times, and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is at hand, in his wrath he has wicked pleasure in seeing that people of the church stay unconverted. He wants them drawn away from the influences of the truth and one day he will reveal his terrible wrath when you stand before the throne of judgment. Then you will see that you were deceived. That is why the psalmist David pleads,” O Lord keep me from the wrath of the enemy.”