(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you a common theme in the psalms, but as we study them, what you'll notice, even though that is a common theme, it's not going to be the same sermon every week. There's a lot of details and there's a lot of little things that are slightly different here, slightly different there as we go through these psalms. Even though you might have a greater broad picture that's very similar or the same, as we dig into these, there's just a lot of truth. And you know, that's also how our spiritual songs and our hymns and things that we sing praises to God. You know, I think God wants us singing psalms. We do have an effort to sing psalms. We don't know the exact music that was or tune that might go along with with these psalms when they were originally penned down. But we don't need to know that. That wasn't what was as important as the words themselves as the lyric here. But it is a good idea to sing these. And we have those people who put forth and putting forth music to go along with these words. And we do have some psalms that we sing from time to time. But even with the hymns and other things, there's a reason why we use and sing the old hymns. When we sing in church, you notice that, we sing the old hymns. The ones that we consider to be old-fashioned today. You know, the Amazing Grace and all these songs that have been around for a long time and stood the test of time. And these songs are different than the modern songs by and large. I'm not saying there's no good modern song out there that's praising Lord Jesus Christ or anything like that. I'm sure they exist. There's believers out there that can produce quality music. But the overwhelming theme in modern music has to do with Christian artists just trying to make money. And in order to do that, you make really generic songs that have the broadest base to appeal to. And they make it sound like all the modern rock and all the modern pop songs and all the other stuff and they just want to dabble a little bit of Jesus in there or dabble a little bit of God, if they're not that bold to even add the name of Jesus to it. You know, and then you just have these really generic, really broad songs that people of any denomination, any religion, anybody can just listen to and be like, oh man, what a great spiritual song. But when we look at the Bible, God's songbook in the book of Psalms, you don't find that. It's very specific and it's packed with a lot of great doctrine, which is why we're even studying this tonight. We're going through because there's a lot of great doctrines, a lot of great teaching. This is how our praise and our worship, our music should be to the Lord is packed with good doctrine, which is why we sing these old fashioned hymns because these hymns, and that's why we sing, by the way, all the stanzas, all the verses. We don't just go all the first and the last, you know, like churches are just getting rid of all this great music and praising the Lord, which that never, this is a little bit of a rant, this has nothing to do with Psalm 55, okay? It doesn't even in my notes, but it bothers me going to churches, the singing part of a service is so short as it is in general. Vast majority of churches, ours included, it's not very long. I mean, how long does it really take to sing three or four verses of a song? A few minutes. The really long songs might take four minutes, maybe five, but that's kind of stretching it. I mean, you have to sing a pretty long song, usually about two and a half, three minutes singing a song. And we sing, we sing in this church four songs, okay? That's not a lot of time. Now, I'm not saying it's bad, but the problem I have though is when people just want to say, well, that's still too much, we need to cut that down. And it's just like, now we're only singing one verse of songs, and we only sing a couple songs or something, and it's like, there's a reason why the biggest book in the Bible is a songbook. I sing praises of the Lord. I mean, it's not a coincidence, it's not an accident. 150 Psalms, but I digress. Keep that in mind as we go through this. This is a song, it's a praise song, a praise to the Lord, but there's a lot of great truth in this song. Let's look down there. We're going to go through verse by verse here. Verse number one, the Bible reads, give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. Attend unto me and hear me. I mourn in my complaint and make a noise. Now, I want to just make a note here about that word complaint, okay, because we know that we ought not to be what the Bible calls murmurers and people who are just complaining about things and, oh, this is so bad. You know what I'm talking about, right? People just love to complain about things and kids that'll complain about their food and this isn't my favorite food and I don't really like this and why are you giving this to me? That's not what he's referring to when he's talking about his complaint, okay. The way that the word's being used here, being a complaint, it's like a plaintiff. Think about in a court. You've got a plaintiff and a defendant, right? The plaintiff is bringing forth an accusation or has a cause. They have something that they want to bring forth, some justice that they're seeking and then someone else who's defending themselves. So he's saying here's my complaint. I'm the plaintiff. I have a problem because people are doing me wrong and I need justice here. So that's what he's talking about when he's saying to hear, you know, I mourn in my complaint. And as we see this, we're going to see, you know, he's being oppressed. He's, you know, he's got all these things that people are attacking him and stuff for no good reason. He's righteous and everything else. So don't take this to think that like, oh, see, it's okay to complain. No, not the way that we think about complaining. It's not, it's not okay to complain. So he says, attend unto me. And many of these psalms start off like this. Hey, listen to me, God. Please give ear to my prayer. I want to ask you something. Don't hide from me. I need you to hear me about this. Attend unto me. I mourn in my complaint and make a noise. I need you to hear me, God. This is really important to me. Verse number three, because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked, for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath, they hate me. So he's saying, there's a lot of wicked people out there that hate me and have it out for me, and they're casting iniquity on me. They're sinning against him, basically. They're sinning on him, and they don't just hate him, but they hate him in wrath. Like, they really want him dead. They want him to experience physical harm. They have it out for him. He says, my heart is sore pained within me, and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. Further illustrating that these aren't people that just say things he doesn't like, and he's offended, or they're calling him names, and he doesn't like it, so he's going to God, saying, oh man, I got all these problems, God. When he's talking about the terrors of death falling on him, it's because these people are serious about oppressing him, and wanting him dead, and seeking his life. And the psalmist here, according to the Bible, is a psalm of David, and we know, based on the stories that the Bible records about David, is that he had people seeking his life, throughout his life. He had King Saul, the king of Israel, coming after him, trying to kill him, many times. It's not like a one-off, it's not like the one time when he's sitting there playing as he was hired for the king to do, play music for him, and then Saul's just like, whipping a javelin at him, trying to kill him, right then and there, and he barely ducks out of the way, and the javelin strikes the wall, and he's like, man, I got to get out of here. Okay, like, like, that happened, but even beyond that, then Saul just starts chasing him, and coming after him, and bringing these armies and forces against him, and everything else, and just keeps on chasing him, and is relentless, and just continues to pursue after David. And David's just like, man, I'm going to die. Like, this is no joke, okay? And Saul wasn't the only one, it's just a great example of, we see a lot written about in scripture. So David had other people that hated him, and other enemies, and people that wanted to destroy him as well. And this is the word of God, this isn't only for David, right? So when we read these words, David's a human author that was used to pen down these psalms, okay? But the word of God is deeper and broader than just for one man. This is for really anyone. This applies to, you know, people who could find themselves in a position like this, where you've got people who just, in wrath, hate you and want you dead, and may actively be seeking to try to kill you. I mean, I thank God, to the best of my knowledge, I've never been in this situation. I know I have people that hate me out there, but I haven't had to deal yet with someone literally, physically trying to take my life from me. I haven't been there. And I'm thankful for that. I don't really want to know exactly how that feels, because it's not good, and we can see that here. But the good thing is, is that for anyone who does find themselves in a situation like this, you know, we have this great encouragement from the psalms. We know that there's other people who have been through this before, and God is a God that delivers. So he's talking here about the terrors of death falling upon me. Verse number five says, fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. Now, we know from the scripture that we should not be afraid of anything, that we have nothing to fear, that even that really any other fear besides the fear of God is sinful, but what's being expressed here is the truth out of his heart, okay? Nobody is perfect. We all know that. We're not above sin. You say, yeah, but he shouldn't be, he shouldn't be fearful. Yeah, we know that, but neither should you, and you should be living perfect too, and you shouldn't be sinning at all, but it happens, right? And when we go through these, especially when you have these great emotions, you're dealing with all this stuff, and fear comes upon you. Look, when you're alone, and you know, you got some type of I mean, even at night, maybe you've got, you hear some strange sign, and you know, something's going on. You might hear some prior or whatever. You don't know what's going on. You might feel some fear, right? I'm just saying, like, it happens, because it's kind of a normal response for human beings to feel a little bit of fear sometimes, and especially if someone's coming after you trying to kill you, you know, I'm not going to give David a hard time here saying, why are you afraid, David? Well, it's written so that we can relate to this, and understand like, okay, yeah, he's, I mean, this is serious. This isn't just this isn't like we have today, the hypersensitive culture of people just, I'm offended, I can't believe you would say that to me, and words are, what do people say, like, words are violence? It's insanity, like, words are violence. Like, no, words are not, words are words. Like, violence is something completely different. I mean, if you, if you can't, like, these are coming from people that have never experienced violence before, apparently, because you actually experienced violence, you're not going to say that words are violence. And you don't want to have to experience that either, because they're two totally different things. Let's keep going here, though. So this is the state, this is the condition that he's in, this is why he's pleading and treating the Lord to hear him, right? There's fearfulness, there's trembling, horror has overwhelmed me, and verse 6 says, and I said, oh, that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest. He's like, I just want to get out of the situation completely. If I just was suddenly able to have wings, I can just fly up, and fly over, and just fly away, and just completely remove myself from the situation. He can't do that. And, again, if we're thinking about the times, for example, specifically with David, he's in the wilderness, and he's literally just trying to move around, like, we read that one story last week, Saul's on one side of the mountain, he's on the other, and he's just like, I mean, he's literally trying to get away from him, so he's not killed. He's being hunted. But, he doesn't have wings. He wants to just leave. And I think we can relate to that feeling, too, like, man, I wish I could just get away from some situation sometimes, and just completely remove myself out of it, and not have to be here and deal with it. He says, lo, then will I wander off and remain in the wilderness, like, great, I'd be happy just to be way out, away from everybody, out in the wilderness, and then I don't have to deal with anything, and I don't have to deal with the drama, I don't have to deal with the people that want to hurt me, and hate me, and everything else. He says in verse 8, I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. You know, that feeling, when you have the storm in your life, turmoil, everything's going wrong, all kinds of chaos around you, oftentimes you're just like, I just want to get out of this. Like, I'm done with this, I'm sick of this, I want this to be over. And he's saying, you know, I would happily just fly away if I could. Okay, this is where he's at. But we know that we can't just leave these things, we don't have wings like a bird, we can't just ignore things and walk away, we have to deal with them, and God will strengthen us to be able to go through these times. And God's there for you, and as much as you may want to just leave a situation behind, you know, some people try to do that, and they say, you know what, I'm sick of this, I'm sick of this crazy world, this perverted world, I'm just going to go off and live out in the boonies somewhere. I'm going to go buy me some property, I'm going to get, you know, 150 acres somewhere, and I'm going to put my little house right in the middle of that, and I'm going to have my water, and I'm going to have my farm, and I'm going to have my animals, and I'm just going to live there, and I just want to be away from everybody. It sounds great. Look, I would love to live that life in my flesh, I would love to have that life. But how productive is that really going to be for the Lord and the things of God? See, that ultimately is going to, now, living the Christian life, the Bible says, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Living righteously, doing what's right, standing on the word of God, in your life, in your heart, being able to just do what's right, believe this or not, and test it out if you don't believe me. Start getting rid of the sin in your life, and living strictly to what the Bible says. What's a sin? What's not a sin? What do you need to separate yourself from in this world? Start living that way, even if you don't say anything to anyone, guess what's going to happen? The persecution is going to come your way anyways. It happens. When people start seeing you, look different, act different, not get into the same things they maybe used to be into, the wicked things that are put out by the world, the music, and the movies, and all these things that want to corrupt your mind, and you start realizing, man, this stuff is just ungodly. I ought to have nothing to do with this stuff. As you start to purge that stuff out of your life, you don't even have to do anything. People will start persecuting for that. They do. Family members, friends, coworkers, people see this stuff happening. You're not even trying to put it in their face, but it happens. They notice it. And you'll start going through the problems. Okay? And that's little. Those are small problems. It's not a big problem. These things happen. But here's the thing about running away, you know, yeah, in your heart you might feel that way because you've got a lot of bad things going on or whatever. It seems like there's just too much drama, too much turmoil, but that doesn't really help anybody. And if you truly want to be a Christian in this sense, right, I'm separating a difference here between being a believer and a Christian. So just hear me out here. Being a believer means you're saved, you're born again, because you put your trust in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You're saved. That requires no effort on your part. He did all the work for you. He saves your soul because you're just trusting what He did for you to save your soul. That's great. That's good news. But that's not what I'm calling a Christian. A Christian is someone who wants to be Christ-like. A Christian is someone who wants to follow Christ and do as Christ did and live the holy, righteous life trying to live like Christ did. That's what I'm talking about tonight. Now if you want to do that, that requires work. That requires effort. That requires a lot. And, but here's the thing, why did Christ do all that? For other people. So if you want to follow in Christ's footsteps and you want to do like He did, you know what you're going to be doing. You're going to be ministering unto other people. You'll be helping other people as you get the sin out of your life. The focus still isn't really on you. It's going to be focused on other people. Jesus Christ did not have the focus on Himself when He was in this life. He had His focus on others. He went out and healed other people. He preached the gospel to other people. He spent all day and all night out, not wandering, but you know, going around, traveling about, talking to people in different towns, and preaching the truth of God. That's what He did. And He cared for others, He prayed for others, and He was here for others and ultimately gave His life for others. That's what it means to be Christ-like. To be a Christian in my definition that I'm using here right now. So if you want to do that, how are you going to accomplish that by running off and going to your property out in the middle of nowhere? Who are you going to be helping out there? You're not even going to see anyone. Your whole point is because you don't want to see anyone, right? What good does that do? You say, yeah, but this world's wicked, it's going hell. I know, but it's not going to get any better by you just running and hiding. It's only going to get worse. We already don't have many people standing up for the word of God and what's right and speaking their mind and saying, no, this is wicked, this is wrong. We already don't have many people like that here as it is without people trying to run off into the wilderness. Now more than ever, we need people not running away but standing up. Standing in the gap. The Lord has His eyes running to and fro throughout the earth, looking for someone that would stand for Him. This isn't just a story from Isaiah or from Ezekiel or from Jeremiah or from these old times in the Old Testament, even though the word of God that does talk about that then, it wasn't only for that time. It's all time. God's always looking for people that will, He can use Himself strong and that's willing to yield themselves up to the Lord for His service, for His benefit, for His glory and honor. All you've got to do is be willing, be faithful. He could use every single one of us. Equally, I would say, He could use every single one of us. Doesn't matter what your background is, doesn't matter what your experience has been, if you are willing, if your heart is right with God, you want to do the things of God, God will use you. But it does require you also to then start investing your time in the things of God. It's not enough just to sit here today and as I preach it with God, you say, wow, that's great, yeah, that's what I want to do. You spoke into my heart. I want to do that today. That's great if you feel that way right now, but you need to still do something about it. You need to leave here and say, you know what, no, that's real. I do want to offer myself up a sacrifice for the Lord. I'm going to start reading His Word every day. Every day. Without fail, I'm going to start reading His Word. I'm going to start learning more about God because I want to do the will of God. Well, how am I going to do the will of God if I don't even know what God wants? If I don't even know, write His Word. Get in the Word, pray to the Lord, start doing the things that are more spiritual and actually do it. And look, as God sees you trying, putting forth the effort in your heart, He's going to draw nigh unto you. The Bible says that He's going to draw nigh to those that draw nigh unto Him. So the Bible says, draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. And nigh just means close. You draw close to God, He'll draw close to you. So, I know we know we have this feeling sometimes of wanting to just, man, I want to get out. David had this feeling, and I would say for good cause, because when people want to kill you, I don't blame them for wanting to go get lost somewhere. Yes. It's a serious cry for help to the Lord. He's experiencing this hatred, this oppression, so much that He's fearful and He's horrified of the terrors of death. He just wants to fly away and go escape and live away from everyone. Let's keep reading here, though, because it doesn't just end right here. Like, well, I just want to fly away and just get away, and then I'm going to leave. Verse 9. This is how He's looking for justice from the Lord, and He's seeking the Lord's help, because first, this is just His complaint. This first part where we stop there, verses 1-8, it's like, here's what's going on, God. We haven't even really gotten to His prayer yet, what He's asking. Verse 9 says, Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues. For I have seen violence and strife in the city. Now, there is nothing ungodly or unrighteous about this request. You say, but I thought we're Christians, we're supposed to love everyone. Look, we are supposed to love. We are supposed to bring the good news. We are supposed to do, you know, we ought to be characterized by love, absolutely. But love is not the only thing that you can have in this life, and we see this taught in many places. I'm not going to get too deep on this. There's going to come a sermon real soon as I go through Ecclesiastes chapter 3. We haven't gotten there yet where the Bible says there's a time to love and a time to hate. And there is a time to love and a time to hate. That is biblical. That is scriptural. We shouldn't be characterized as hateful people, right? It's not like you should just be able to look at this and be like, oh, man, anyone that knows Pastor Bruce is man, that guy just hates on everybody. That guy is just so full of hate. Like, no, that's not how we should be. But just because you're supposed to be characterized by love and characterized by the good things doesn't mean that you could never hate, because there is a time. And we see here, look, David is looking for justice. There is nothing wrong when people want to kill you and are persecuting you and everything else to seek justice. Like, can we just have some justice here? Like, I didn't do anything wrong with these people and I can't even live my life now because they're just trying to kill me. Like, I want to do good. I want to help people, but I can't because these wicked people are trying to kill me. God, can you just destroy them for me? Because I can't even do what's right. I can't even do what's good because they're trying to kill me. There's nothing wrong with asking for that. Destroy, oh Lord, and divide their tongues. Divide it. Make them not be able to work together. Make them not, their words not really come to fruition because he is confounding them. For I have seen violence and strife in the city. They're violent. They're full of violence and strife. Day and night, they go about it, talking about the city, upon the walls thereof. Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it. So, he's referring to the city, okay? Now, mischief and sorrow are in the midst of it. You will find this, when it comes to the wicked people, the mischievous people, the people out seeking to do harm and seeking to do hurt and going after righteous people, they're never going to be happy. They're never happy. There's always sorrow and misery with that life. And people who are out for themselves that are real selfish and live these lifestyles where they just have it out for someone else. They're planning on robbing people. They're planning on stealing, doing whatever and just harming people. There's plenty of people out here that live a life similar to that, right? They don't go to work. They don't help anyone out. They like hanging out, maybe like partying, doing drugs or whatever and then they're just plodding and planning, hey, where can I get some more money from? Who can I steal from? What can I, what can I, what trap can I set for somebody so I can take their money? Those people are never happy. They're never happy. They may get high on drugs, but they're not happy. If they were happy, they wouldn't be seeking out the drugs. You have a lot of joy and happiness. What do you need to get high for? Your life should be good enough without it. Because all the drugs do is just bring more misery anyways. And it brings more bondage and it bring, it just makes things worse in your life. Hopefully that's evident and obvious to you. Maybe you don't have experience around people like that, but I've been around plenty of people like that. Believe me. They may say they're happy. They may think that they're, you know, when they act like fools that they're happy because they laugh, but they're not really happy. They have problems in here. And don't be fooled by the external appearance of some foolish laughing to think that they actually have joy in their heart and peace in their life because they don't. Because you're never going to find it that way. Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it. The Bible says this about the wicked in Isaiah 57. Just keep your place there in Isaiah 57 verse 20 the Bible says, But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. So if you've ever been to the ocean or you've been near a big lake or something where the waters are just flowing back and forth, they're coming up against the shore, they're pounding into the rocks and stuff. It's just not settled. It's not calm. It kicks up the sand and the dirt and the muck and stuff gets real cloudy. You can't see through it. And he's saying the wicked are like that troubled sea. There's just never any rest. It's just always back and forth and then boom! And you hear them crashing and everything else. It's unsettling. They can't rest. The waters cast up mire and dirt. And then verse 21 says, There is no peace, sayeth my God, to the wicked. The wicked don't have peace. But the good news is that through Christ, one, you get saved. Two, you start trying to live a holy life, a righteous life, a separated life, a life unto God. You will know peace. You will. And that is better than any drug. When you can go to bed at night and you have a clear conscience and not only a clear conscience from not just being in some wicked sins but also hey, I've done some pretty good things today. I did some things and so forth. I led someone to Christ and had some really good things to do. That is peace and joy and there's nothing like it. That is where you want to be. I mean, that is true peace and comfort. But people who only care about themselves and their next fix and their next, you know, whatever, what can I do for me and people who just always want to have more money, they're never satisfied with what they have and they're always looking for more. When you can be content with what you have, when you can look on the things of God and just say, you know what, I'm going to just try to do what's right. I'm going to live righteously and I'm going to try to serve Him. You have the peace. You say, well, Pastor Rosens, this doesn't make any sense because we see David here is like, I mean, he's fearful and trembling. He still has the peace in his heart knowing that the Lord is with Him. And as we go through this, don't stop. We can't just stop at the first eight verses of the psalm. We've got to see it all the way through. Even in the midst of turmoil and in the tempest, yeah, you might get these feelings from time to time thinking, like, man, I just want to be out of this. But he can still have that peace from the Lord. That is unlike any other. The wicked definitely don't have it. The Bible clearly states that. Look down at verse number 11 there in Psalm 55. The Bible says wickedness is in the midst thereof. Deceit and guile depart not from her streets. Why would you want to live in a place, live in a city where everyone around you is just using deceit and guile, right? That's trying to trick you. That's not very comforting. You've always got to be on your toes. You've got to be looking over your shoulder. You've always got to be wondering, you know, what's the next person going to try to do to me? It's unsettling. There's no peace there. The wicked city is a miserable place to be. Especially for those that have no hope. Verse 12, we're actually going to shift gears a little bit here now. He's been talking about destroying them, their tongues, the city, this place, right, where multiple people are. But now it's going to get more personal. Starting in verse number 12, the Bible says for it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it. So as he's continuing with his complaint here, first he's just talking about the wicked city, and now it's getting more specific, and he says, there's not an enemy that reproached me. Like it wasn't just someone that was already a known enemy, that okay, yeah, this enemy is coming after me again, of course, right? Because you expect that, you know that, it's not a big deal in one sense, knowing that people are your enemies coming after you, of course. He says, I could have dealt with that, I could have borne that, I could have handled that. Neither was it he that hated me, that did magnify himself against me, then I would have hid myself from him. He's like, I would have just gotten away from the guy and just been like, whatever. But it was thou, a man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company. What's he talking about? A friend that's betrayed him. See, this isn't just like some enemy that's always been my enemy, this isn't some Philistine, you know, like with King David, he killed Goliath, it's not like one of Goliath's brothers, yeah, of course he's going to be my enemy because I killed Goliath, he's going to be my enemy until the day I die, right? I would have known, if it's just some enemy, I could expect that, I could deal with that, I expect him to hate me and come after me and everything else. He's like, you know what, you know what makes us so different though? This is my friend. This is someone I went to church with. This is someone that was like a guide unto me and someone I confided in and someone who was real close to me now has turned their back and betrayed me. This is a big deal and this is what's getting him so upset. Now, David had betrayal on more than one occasion in his life. In Scripture we see this, probably more than even what we see in Scripture, but for sure we know for a fact that he's had more than one betrayal in his life. King Saul, as I mentioned before, was his friend and his mentor first. He brought him into his household, to his family, you know, he gave him his daughter to wife, it's his father-in-law, he's serving him, he's elevated to be this chief guy in the army, he's climbed the ranks, he's gained the respect of everyone, he's worked real hard, he's fought against the enemies, he's served Saul to the forest. He was brought in to play music for him, as I mentioned before, all these great things. He was close to Saul and then Saul turns around and tries killing him and coming after him time and time and time and time and time again. He's betrayed. But how about this? Even his own son Absalom betrayed him. When he tried to steal the kingdom away from him, right under his nose, he went in and he starts working in the minds and the hearts of the people that want to show up to the king, Absalom kind of cuts him off before they keep making it to the king, he's like oh yeah, you know, if I were king, and starts talking to him, oh man, if I were king I'd be doing everything you want me to do and I'd be great to you and just kind of being this politician and telling the people what they want to hear and winning over the hearts of the people. Watch out for the politicians just want to tell you how much they want to give you. I'm going to give you this and I'm going to give you that and I'm going to do this for you. Look, we shouldn't be seeking all that stuff from anyone in government. How about you stop stealing from us? How about you stop giving everything away for free because it's not free because we're all paying for it. I'm not going to go down that rabbit trail. But this is his own son. And he basically kind of creates this coup. And David has to flee for his life. Because Absalom's won enough people over to join his side and the power has shifted a little bit where David has to run before he ultimately gets back and comes back and is made king again. He's had to deal with this at least on these two occasions and both of them are people who are really close unto him. The Bible says in Psalm 41 verse 9 Yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted which did eat of my bread hath lifted up his heel against me. This theme, this isn't the first time this has come up about a friend betraying him. But how about this too because in the word of God obviously we have, David has his own examples as someone who's preaching but you know what, the Bible is also prophetic. And most of the word of God is about Jesus Christ anyways in one way or another it's teaching some greater truth. So this isn't all just about David just like we read in Acts chapter 2 when it talks about the resurrection of Christ it was a psalm of David but you know what David wasn't talking about himself being in hell and rising in from the dead, he was talking about Jesus Christ. So he prophesied that because he's speaking to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost which I believe this is also similar because we know that Jesus Christ also was betrayed. So when we look to these psalms and we look for the hope we could at least have an understanding even if you're betrayed by someone who's the closest to you in this world, it could be from a parent, a sibling someone that you would never expect to ever betray you and they betray you you know what, there are people who know what you're going through, Jesus Christ himself knows what that feels like. It wasn't his mother or father but it was someone he considered to be a friend. The Bible says this in Matthew 26 I'll read this for you, you don't have to turn if you want to turn somewhere, keep your place in Psalm 55, turn if you would to Zechariah 13 Zechariah 13 I'm going to read from Matthew 26 for you, Matthew 26 Matthew 48 the Bible reads Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign saying whomsoever I shall kiss that same is he, hold him fast and forthwith he came to Jesus and said, Hail Master! and kissed him and Jesus said unto him Friend wherefore art thou come? He's talking to Judas Judas led these people to get to arrest Jesus and he greets him and says, Hail Master! and he gives them a kiss what a stinking backstabbing devil he pretends to be the friend he pretends to be oh my friend, oh Jesus, oh it's so good to see you and he gives them a kiss a greeting, right? and Jesus says Friend wherefore art thou come? Hey buddy Why did you come here? It's good to see you, what are you doing here? Now he knew he knew why Judas came he knew Judas was going to betray him he was aware of that but we still see him greeting him as a friend Zechariah 13 verse number 6 the Bible says, And one shall say unto him What are these wounds in thine hands? talking about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ who is nailed to the cross, then he shall answer those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends the Bible says Jesus came unto his own and his own received him not his own people his friends, even someone in his close inner circle, you know the 12 apostles, the 12 disciples that were following Jesus and went with him everywhere he went one of those guys betrayed him with a kiss that's tough it's hard it's hard when people stab you in the back it's hard when you do so much for someone and invest so much David invested so much of his time and his effort and even put his life into his hands when he was fighting for the king and fighting against these enemies and doing these things Jesus Christ is teaching and taking his time out and giving his disciples the way of truth and the way of God and how he's investing all this to these people and then they turn around and stab you in the back look I know what that feels like too maybe not to the extent as these gentlemen cause like I said I haven't had anyone actually literally try to put a knife in my back hope that day doesn't come I'm gonna say that again but I have invested plenty of time in people being a pastor it happens I'm kind of used to it but it doesn't make it any better any time that it happens you put forth effort, energy you pray for people, you care for people you do what you can to help them, do favors for them whatever it is, right cause hey, that's my job that's my job it's not mine only if you're following Christ we ought to be trying to do things like that but you know sometimes cause people are sinners someone might end up stabbing you in the back and betraying you, and betraying your trust and treating all the things that you did to them like you did for them like it's nothing and you may feel like well I just want to give up, I want to quit I want to run away, I want to go out into the wilderness and just say forget all this but you can't do that don't let son Judas make you stop God's command hasn't changed imagine, just imagine this what if Jesus Christ would have just been like Judas betrayed me, you know what forget all this, forget you guys I'm done, I'm just going to go to heaven right now he didn't quit and thank God for that he continued and went through the hard the hardship for us why, for our benefit so you have something like that happen you have a stab in the back, you have someone do you wrong, you have someone do you dirty don't give up don't give up stay the course there's plenty of other people to help that won't stab you in the back plenty of people so don't let that one bring you down now depending on the situation and who it is and what they do you might have a response here like in verse 15 the Bible says let death seize upon them and let them go down quick into hell for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them but that's not always the case that's not always the case with Jesus that's the case Judas was a devil Judas Judas was an infiltrator from the beginning Judas was not sincere Judas was not saved, Judas was not a child of God Judas was unsaved and a devil from the very beginning and Jesus knew it and he was selected to be part of that ministry because Jesus knew what had to happen and he knew he had to be betrayed and he had to be sacrificed and everything else he knew everything that had to happen okay and Judas still gets the curse because he still chose to do those things Jesus didn't make him do any of the things that he did okay but Judas is someone who is cursed in the Bible who is cursed, I believe it's in Psalm 69 and you can read about there about the curse upon Judas and upon his posterity and you know it's pretty bad talking about him just being cursed and damned to hell and that's a righteous judgment but you know upon someone who may be your brother in Christ people can still backstab you that are not you know just total reprobates or whatever and people do sin and people do things that are just not right you shouldn't always have that response of saying well you know what then they can just go to hell no I mean if they're born again they're not going to go to hell right and we shouldn't be praying for that either upon a brother or sister in Christ but also notice this I want to point this out actually because there is a back and forth and psalms do this often times too is that the subject kind of changes a little bit as you go through because it is meant to be sung it could be you know the the lyric changes a little bit in verses 12 through 14 it's talking about a vow a singular a person prior to that it's talking about the wicked them the city like this this group of people and notice in verse 15 it says let death seize upon them so we're back to talking about the city, the group of all of these wicked people not just the one right so he says let them go down quick into hell not let him go down quick into hell so even just in the context of this psalm it's now we've shifted gears and it's being applied to the city to multiple people here it says for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them and you know what this is how God has judged cities and nations before anyways when cities and nations just become really corrupt and really wicked and just full of sin God judges them and there's nothing wrong here we see this it's just saying you know what God just wipe it out be done with it Sodom it's time for him to go verse number 16 as for me I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me he knows this he makes his prayer he entreats the Lord and he's sincere and serious about this and trying to just make sure God hears him but then he still has the confidence and the comfort knowing he says as for me I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me and then verse 17 evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice now we just had the prayer challenge back last month and honestly I still I might have to change it next year because 20 minutes is kind of a joke of a challenge if you ask me amen it's kind of a joke of a challenge now look, everyone's in different places in life and everyone's got different amounts of time for different things and everything else but you know what, 20 minutes is not that much what we see in Scripture at least people who are serious about God this is not a one-off or a unique thing here in Psalm 55 about evening, morning and at noon I will pray keep your place here, turn if you will to Daniel chapter 6 and this is why I say the 20 minutes is kind of a joke because if we're doing things the way that we see people in the Bible doing them and praying to God they're praying three times a day I mean they're taking time out of their day to make sure that they're praying three times a day it's a set time we see an hour of prayer we see the hour of prayer we see the hour of prayer you know that hymn that we sing sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer why is that even in the psalm book? because the Bible talks about there being an hour of prayer at the hour of prayer they went down and prayed I mean that's like a thing that Christians did in the Bible in the New Testament we'd go down and have an hour to pray and it wasn't that normal it was right in the mountain top so why am I even saying this? because I think by and large overall and I'll include myself in this I don't think we're praying enough I don't know your personal life I don't know what you do I have no idea and I'm not asking but I just have this sense that if we were to go around and ask that personal question, how much time do you actually spend in prayer? I'm not going to ask that, you ask yourself that and you know what, if you're saying I am praying a lot I'm praying for hours amen and I'll say great but if we're not we ought to be considering this and yes, we have busy lives I know what it's like to have a busy life and I'm preaching tonight to myself just as much as everyone else let's make sure we can take the time aside and I'm going to pray, I'm just going to stop for a minute, I'm going to stop and I'm going to pray and I'm going to make that time I'm just going to put that aside I get 30 minutes for lunch I'm going to take 5 minutes and set that aside and I'm going to pray to the Lord and I can eat in the other 25 minutes or whatever I wake up in the morning how about you get up 10 minutes earlier than you normally do and say I'm going to start my day with a prayer in the evening man I'm really tired you know what though let's just pray let's recognize God when we wake up let's recognize God in the middle of the day so we don't lose sight of Him let's pray to Him, let's ask Him for things and then before we go to bed the first thought, the last thought middle of the day let's be praying we see that in the psalm look at Daniel 6 verse 7 Bible says all the presidents of the kingdom the governors and the princes the counselors and the captains have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for 30 days, save of thee, O king he shall be cast into the den of lions yes, this is the story of Daniel in the den of lions real popular among kids stories and children's church and stuff like that it's a cool story, right? cause Daniel gets thrown in this den of lions but then they don't destroy him and he makes it through the night and he gets saved and everything out of there and then the people who tried putting him in there they get thrown in there and then they get devoured to pieces I don't know if that's part of the kids story or not but that's one of my favorite parts of the story they throw in these wicked people and then they just get chomped up right? but that's the real story, that's what's in the Bible and now why are they doing this? why did they make this law? they have to come up and be like, you know what king? we love you so much, we think that you should have more glory and honor than God himself and if anyone wants to say a prayer to God or ask God for anything, they have to come through you first before they can go to God there's one reason why they made this law it's not because they thought that the king was a god or they even cared about the king it's because they were trying to get Daniel in trouble because as a good believer he was righteous he was doing what's right, he was working real hard and he was promoted at his job and he was one of the highest people in the kingdom because God blessed him, he's doing what's right they couldn't find any wickedness in him he wasn't taking bribes he wasn't stealing from people, he wasn't doing anything wrong and they're like, we gotta do something so they made up a law to make him a criminal they're like, well if we could make a law that somehow is gonna force him to break this law because it's something that he does for the Lord, then we got him and this is what I was talking about Daniel was not seeking anyone else's harm or hurt he's just trying to live his life and do what's right and even just doing that gets people to hate you and these people envied him they coveted his stuff, they wanted his position, they just hated him because he was righteous and they hated him because he didn't have any dirt on him or whatever and there's you know, there's wicked people out there it's so baffling the mindset but I know it and I've seen it before where people are just like, man if you don't have some dirt on you, I can't trust you what? yeah, what? It's not, it's counterintuitive but here's why it's because they have so many skeletons that cause it, they have so much dirt on them they wanna have something to hold over your head in order to think that they could trust you with anything because that's the way that they work, they work through extortion but that's not trust that's extortion you ought to be able to trust the righteous person because they're doing right they're not out to seek your harm or your hurt you can trust that person but these people, they're out to seek Daniel's hurt so what they do, they make this law and say, you know what this is illegal and if you do this, if you break this law you're gonna be thrown into this den of lions you're gonna lose your life that's pretty serious look at verse 38, the Bible says Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing that it be not changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians which altereth not basically when they pass a law it goes into effect, there's no amendments there's no going oopsies no take backs it's in that was the way that their law was it's established like that set you cannot, the king himself couldn't change it even when he wanted to he couldn't change it once he signs that in, it's like, boom that's part of the law wherefore king Goliath signed the writing and the decree but this is the best part, verse number 10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed he heard about this law he knew what the penalty was he knew everything about this he went into his house and he hid under his bed and he was real quiet and he whispered and he prayed to God wait, oh, I must be thinking of a different Bible version the non-inspired version might say something like that, I don't know no, the King James Bible says something completely different what does it say? he went into his house, in his windows being open he didn't even shut the windows windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees, how many times? three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God look at this, as he did a fourth time so did he go and do this and open up his window because he wants to make a statement and he wants to just be bold and make this stand for the Lord no he's doing exactly what he'd already been doing it's what he did before why should he shut the window? that's what he did before why should he not pray three times a day? that's what he did before that's what he's been doing this was his schedule this was his routine, this is what he's used to and I would say, you know as believers, as Christians we ought to get used to that make it part of your schedule make it part of your routine, let's pray three times a day evening, morning, and noon let's go back to Psalm 55 we'll close this out here verse number 18 he hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me for there were many with me there's that peace, there's that comfort and there's the deliverance the Lord, he's troubled, he's in terrors and God's there to deliver deliver from the battle, deliver from the storm deliver from the temptations and the trials verse 19 God shall hear and afflict them even he that abideth of old, Selah because they have no changes therefore they fear not God now we switch the subjects again so remember we're kind of going back and forth here between the singular, the one person, the enemy the traitor, versus the wicked enemies in the city that everyone's just doing really wickedly verse number 20 says he hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him he hath broken his covenant the words of his mouth were smoother than butter but war was in his heart his words were softer than oil yet were they drawn swords yet were they drawn swords and this goes to the traitor attitude and mentality of oftentimes false profits where people will have these same attributes that they're out and hurting the people that they're at peace with their own friends these people that have their trust and their confidence and they think that they're friends they're turning on them they're breaking that truce that peace, that covenant that they have with one another but hey, the words of his mouth are smoother than butter and there's a lot of false preachers out there a lot of false prophets that hey, they say some really smooth things be like, woo, man, that sounds good and they could draw a crowd and they could get people real excited but pay attention to what they say they have smooth words but war is in his heart they're hiding what's inside they're hiding what's truly in their hearts because they don't care about the people they're out to destroy, they're out to hurt that's the wolf in sheep's clothing, my friend have you heard that phrase before? a wolf in sheep's clothing? Jesus talks about a wolf in sheep's clothing talking about the false prophets being wolves in sheep's clothing why? because on the outside they look like a sheep, they look harmless they look like you and me, they look like anyone else oh, hey brother, hey sister they'll talk the talk, they say good things it sounds real good hey, Lord bless you Lord keep you, make his face to shine upon you and they'll say all these nice things to you but they're just wearing a costume, they're wearing a mask and they're really a wolf we're warned about this over and over and over again throughout the Bible, and look it's not fun when you end up being on the receiving end and you get fooled by people like that it happens we need to pay close attention to the things that people say especially prophets, preachers, things like that as well as just the fruits of their ministry what are they really bringing forth? I said, what was in his heart? his words were softer than oil yet were they drawn swords it's a trap, it's not real he wants to sound real soft but he's really going in for the kill these mentions of smooth words and stuff like that is brought up a couple times in the Bible I'm going to read this for you, Proverbs 5, 3 the Bible talks about the lips of a strange woman the Bible says drop is a honeycomb and her mouth is smoother than oil so it's talking about an adulterous woman someone who is literally looking to commit adultery with men and they hunt for them like it's a game, like it's a sport they're looking to commit adultery with married men they're seeking out these married men that they could bring down and cause to have this relationship with and it says, hey, their mouth is smoother than oil they say all these real flattering nice things to try to get these stupid guys to go along with the adultery and these women are out there and you've got to be aware of that they use the smoother than oil mouth in the Bible, in Isaiah 30 the Bible says which say to the seers, see not these are people who are saying to the prophets the preachers, hey, we don't want you to tell us the right things, he says see not and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things speak unto us smooth things prophesy deceits there are people that want to hear lies because it sounds good I don't know about you I'd rather have someone tell me they're not so good and not so pleasant but they're true just tell me the truth I just want to know what's right I just want to know what's true if that means I'm wrong and I'm insane and I've got all kinds of things that change in my life just let me know because I want to know what's true if it makes me offended if it makes me sad, if it makes me angry I just want to know what's true but there's some people that don't want to know it nope just, just tell me what I want to hear just tell me what I want to hear so it keeps the false prophets in business because there are people that just want to hear what they want to hear don't you tell me don't you, don't you, don't wait a minute, wait a minute don't go actually reading all this stuff out of the Bible just tell me what I want to hear this is, this is Joel Osteen ministry to a T just tell me tell me how great I am and tell me how great everything is and how wonderful I am and how nice and shiny my white teeth are and how straight they are and just, you know, everyone could smile and feel good about themselves but don't, don't you go opening up that Bible and you better not be opening up to the Old Testament my friend don't open up the law, we don't want to hear about that don't worry go to someone like Joel Osteen, he won't do that I think he's made a vow to never do anything like that alright, let's close up here, we got a couple more verses left verse number 22, cast that burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved we have a God that can make you immovable he provides the strength you just need the faith just trust in him he'll bring you the peace no matter how much the odds are against you no matter how many people are against you no matter how scary it is no matter how much fear it brings into you God is bigger than all don't lose sight of that and you know when things are when walls are closing in around you those are the hardest times to keep your faith because you don't see God with your eyes those are the most likely times for you to have your doubts you have your fears but just stay with it and God will see you through he will take the comfort in that promise you have a strong faith now, hopefully keep that with you so when, God forbid, a time like this may approach you and come into your life you can still hold on to this hope and that strength, knowing I've got a Lord will give me peace, I know that he can sustain me, and he will sustain me he shall sustain me, is what he says here cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain me tell God about it and treat him like this psalm is doing hey, here's my complaint, God I'm casting my burden on you here's what's happening in my life he'll sustain you he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved, but thou, O God shall bring them down into the pit of destruction bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days but I will trust in thee the wicked, don't worry about them they come and go you just don't want to be like one of them no matter how dark things get, trust in the Lord he'll bring you that peace that's as far as our word of prayer, heaven and father Lord, we thank you so much for your word we thank you so much for the great truths and this great inspirational psalms excuse me, that we read about in the Bible, and I pray that you would please just help us to take these words to heart I pray that you would please help us to have that desire to serve you, help us to improve our prayer life, Lord, that we would be setting aside more time for you just in our day to day life and that we would be focused on the things of God because we're thinking about you we're thinking about praying, we're asking you for stuff we're more mindful of the things of God in our day to day life God, that'll just help us all the way around, but please, Lord use your spirit to prompt us and to remind us, dear Lord and help us to keep our minds focused as much as possible with all the distractions in this world, dear Lord help us to help us just to do it, to not quench the spirit, but to be able to set aside the time you are completely worthy and deserving of it, dear Lord and we love you, Lord, just keep us safe as we go our separate ways this evening, in Jesus' name we pray Amen Alright, we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed this evening so let's open up our song books to song number 264 Song number 264 Song number 264 Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Thank you for being here tonight, we are dismissed Thank you for watching