Facing Temptation and Evil Men

This morning we're taking a break from our Bible study in the book of Ephesians and we're going to be looking at Psalm 141.

Last week in Ephesians chapter 5, pastor read to us that we're to be filled with the Spirit and that we speak to one another in Psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs. Well, I want to read to you a psalm today, Psalm 141. The book of Psalms is actually a collection of a bunch of hymns, a bunch of spiritual songs that were written over a large period of time, many by David but some by — one at least by Moses, right? — and other writers. And if you divide up the entire book of Psalms you'll find that it's actually in five different sections or five different books. And within each of those books there are different groupings of Psalms. And today Psalm 141 is found in a group of Psalms starting at Psalm 140 and going through Psalm 143. It's four Psalms that have a very similar subject. They are all about David in exile. They're about David who is running for his life because King Saul wants to kill him.

When you look at Psalm 141 you'll find that, first of all, David is a man that is very much away from his people and away from his religious life. The Psalm intimates that he's not able to go to worship like he used to in the Tabernacle because he's in exile. If he shows up they'll kill him, right? The Psalm also shows us that there are evil men who want to persuade him to do evil things, to go against the God that he loves, to blaspheme God. So he's got that pressure. We also see that he's heartbroken because the people of his land, Israel, are being slaughtered by wicked rulers.

And we also see that these same wicked men, these wicked leaders of Israel, have laid traps for David. They're trying to ensnare him.

So David is a man whom evil is knocking at his door. Everywhere he turns, wickedness is around him. Wicked men are trying to get him to stumble. Wickedness is trying to bring him down.

In our lives, do we ever feel that way?

Do we ever see in our nation where being a Christian is not always welcome and not always embraced in our society? Certainly. Do not evil men try to entice you to go against God and to blaspheme His name?

Do not wicked men lay traps for Christian men and Christian women and Christian families, do they not? So we can look to the Psalms for understanding and see how David dealt with these difficulties. It can help us as well. So let's look starting in verse 1.

This is a Psalm of David. "Lord, I cry out to You, make haste to me, give ear to my voice when I cry out to You."

In distress, David prays and he prays to Yahweh. We see that in verse 1. "Lord," in your Bibles, Lord is in all capital letters — that's letting you know it's the name Yahweh, the divine name of God. This is a name that we see in Exodus chapter 3 when Moses is out shepherding in the hills and God comes to him and He says, "I have heard the cry of Your people of Israel. I have visited them. I have seen their distress under the Egyptians and I'm going to lead them out of bondage, out of captivity and into the Promised Land." And Moses says, "Who shall I say has sent me?" He says, "Tell them I AM has sent you. I AM that I AM." That's what Yahweh means. And I'll be with you and I'll make sure that the people's voice is heard and that they are delivered and they are led safely out of bondage.

So that was a name that any good Jew would have known, especially David. He knows who he's praying to, right? This is a name that he himself has called upon in his own short life at this point.

In fact, in 1 Samuel chapter 17, let me read to you verse 45 and following. When David stands before Goliath, "Then David said to the Philistine, 'You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day Yahweh will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you and will take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all of the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then this assembly shall know that Yahweh does not save with sword or spear, for the battle is Yahweh's and He will give you into our hands.'" He was a man who lived in dependence on the Lord in the face of giants, in the face of armies. So he knew whom to call upon. It was to call upon Yahweh when we are in distress, when wickedness walks on every side of us.

Don't call upon your wealth — your wealth won't save you.

Don't call upon your own strength, your own fortitude. It will not last. It will probably fail.

Don't call upon your family, your friends, your health. Don't put your dependence on anything other than Yahweh, other than our Lord Jesus Christ, Yahweh made flesh. He is who David called upon and so should we.

Look in verse 1: "Lord, I cry out to You, make haste to me." In distress, David prays urgently. He says, "Make haste to me."

When a baby cries — maybe your child falls down outside and cries out — what is he saying?

Even if he's not verbal and you're not able to understand the words he's saying because of his or her crying, what's he saying? He's saying, "Come quickly, come now, I need you mom, I need you dad," right?

When we are in distress, don't delay prayer. Make haste to seek God's help. Sometimes we first try our own strength. We first try our own ways. We first try the counsel of men. But we are to make haste in our prayers to the Lord and to pray for Him to come and to come quickly, to pray for His help. Because His help is the only thing that will save us from our dire situation.

So David prayed to Yahweh. He prayed also urgently. Also, we see in verse 1 that David prayed expectantly. Look in verse 1: "Make haste to me, give ear to my voice."

Don't you know the cry of your own children?

Isn't that what God told Moses at the burning bush? He says, "I have heard the cries of My people. I have visited them. I have seen their affliction." God cares about His people. You're made in His image, right?

God has pity on His own. And if you call out to Him, He will save you, right?

He calls with the expectation that he is going to be heard. And David knows this quite well. Probably concurrently at this time, when he is running from Saul, we know the very next Psalm — Psalm 142 — actually has the inscription written when David was hiding in the cave. Remember that story. Psalm 18 is a celebration of God delivering David from the hand of Saul in the cave. And in it he says, "I cried out to the Lord." He says that the Lord heard him in Psalm 18. And he goes on in Psalm 18 and he describes in a very poetic fashion God moving at the sound of his voice as soon as he cries out for help. You see God turning over the heavens, sending fire and brimstone down. You see the creation language — that the foundations of the earth were discovered at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. The picture is that God is turning over kingdoms, He's turning over creation to save His child, to save His anointed David, right? So he had the expectation. He prayed expectantly that God would hear him. When you pray, we must pray with the same expectation that God hears us and that God is for us and that God will act on our behalf, because that's how David prays, right?

We also see that in distress, David prays constantly. Look in verse 1. He says, "Lord, I cry out." The word "cry out" is in the perfect tense, which means it's already completed. He has cried out. So it's past tense. He has cried out to the Lord. But look, continue in verse 1. He says, "Make haste to me, give ear to me when I cry out to You." Now he's speaking of the present and the future. In other words, he has been crying out to God from the first moment of trouble and he's continuing to cry out to the Lord. And in distress, we must call upon God constantly.

I have on my wall — my wife has a tapestry that she has for me in my office — and it's a quote from Abraham Lincoln.

And it says, "I have been driven to my knees many times with a certain conviction that I have no place else to go."

We have no place else to go. We go to the Lord. So we pray constantly, right? What does the New Testament tell us? To pray without ceasing, right? We pray continually, especially when we're in distress, when evil's knocking at our doors and we're surrounded by wicked men and we seem separated from the Lord and from the goodness of His Tabernacle. And we feel there are traps around us and good and godly men are not around us. Instead, we're surrounded by evil men who are trying to bring us down. We need the Lord. So we pray constantly during that time.

We also find that we pray directly. When David was in distress, he prayed directly. And let's look at this here in verse 2. It says, "Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You. Let my prayer be set before You."

The words "be set before You" mean to be fixed before Your face.

In other words, he was certain that God was for him because he believed in God, he trusted in God. David was called a man after God's own heart. And he knew that he would have God's full favor, right? His blessed look, His look of love as a father has for his child, would be on David when he prayed. And so he sent his prayer directly to the face of God.

When we pray, we don't pray through a priest.

We don't pray through a pastor. You don't pray through an elder. You don't pray through a deacon. You pray directly to God who hears your cries, right? You pray to the One who has gone before us through the veil, Christ. And it's by Christ that we can come boldly into the throne of grace and find grace and help in time of need because Christ has died for us. If we put our trust in Christ, we are clothed with Christ. So when we come before the face of God, we have no fear of wrath. We find God's total acceptance. We hear His voice: "This is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased" — because He's speaking of Christ, and our life is hid in Christ. So we can receive God's favor. We can receive God's love, receive God's help, not on our merits, not on our worthiness, but on the merits and worthiness of Jesus Christ, our Lord. So we pray directly in the name of Jesus to our God. And when you have distresses and you have troubles, that's the way we pray — the way that David prayed — directly to our Lord.

We also find that David, when he was in distress, prayed passionately. Let's look here in verse 2. "Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice." This speaks of a man who's not able to be there at the evening sacrifice or the morning sacrifice. Remember, in ancient times and biblical times, there was a morning sacrifice where the lamb was slain, followed by a prayer. We talked about this a few weeks ago at Christmas time, when we looked at Luke chapter 1 and we look at Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, how he was chosen to go in and pray the morning prayer on behalf of Israel in front of the altar of incense, right in front of the Holy of Holies, right? That was done twice a day.

This is a man who's away from that. He says, "Let my prayer be as if I'm there." You don't have to be in church to pray, right? You can pray in the midst of your troubles. You can pray in a dark cave. You can pray when the enemy's breathing down your neck. At all times, we can pray, but we must pray passionately.

What does the Bible tell us? "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." Exactly right.

Prayer is like incense. In fact, in Revelation chapter 5, we see that the 24 elders before the throne of God have bowls of incense, which the Bible says are what? They represent the prayers of the people of God, right? So incense is a sweet-smelling aroma. It smells good to God. He loves to hear you pray. Also, incense ascends up just as our prayers ascend to the Lord. But when you look in the Old Covenant Tabernacle context, when they would do the morning sacrifice and the evening sacrifice, the priest would take coals from the altar where they just sacrificed the lamb, and they would take them in to the Holy Place — with the candelabra on the left, the showbread on the right — right to the altar of incense, and they would kindle that incense. So they would kindle it twice a day. It was always burning continually, but they kindled it in the morning from the coals of the altar and also in the evening time too.

Your prayers, unless they are fed by the love of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God slain — they'll be cold, right? Prayers are not just about a gimme list.

They're not just a thing of our desires. We're praying the will of the Father through the Son, right? We're praying because Christ loved us so much that He gave Himself for us to be our sacrifice, right? And it's out of gratitude that we come before the Lord, and it's because of Christ's great love for us poured out on the altar, so to speak, that our love goes up to Him in prayer, right? We love Him because He first loved us. We can pray passionately when it's motivated, when it's inflamed, when it's kindled by the love of Jesus Christ, right?

So David not only prayed to Yahweh, not only did he pray urgently, not only did he pray expectantly, constantly and directly and passionately, he also prayed receptively. Let's look here in verse 2. "The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." That posture of prayer was very common in the Old Testament. It's common today, right? We lift up our hands not because we're giving God something that He needs.

We're lifting up our hands because we are in the posture of reception.

We say, "God, I need You. I may need healing, but healing only comes from You. I may need forgiveness, but that forgiveness only comes from You. My all in all is in Jesus Christ, and I receive Him." That is the posture of prayer, right? And David is praying receptively.

And when we pray, that must be our posture as well. Christ is our answer. Christ is your help in times of need. When the enemy is breathing down your neck, only Christ can deliver you. Only Christ can strengthen you in temptation. Only Christ can cleanse your heart and give you a new heart. Take that heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh. Only Christ. We lift up our hands in reception of Him, right?

We also see that this prayer in distress was done sacrificially. It says, "The lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice."

It's not that he was giving God something that God didn't already have. The Scripture tells us that, right? God doesn't desire our sacrifices, our offerings — He already has that, right? But He wants ourselves. He wants our hearts. Our hearts poured out to Him. Our hearts trusting Him. Our hearts in love with Him. That's what God desires. Hebrews 13 even talks about that, commands us to bring the sacrifice of what? Of praise, right? It speaks of our prayers of praise as being a sacrifice. So we can be a living sacrifice when we submit ourselves to the Lord and we give ourselves and present ourselves to Him, right? And we see that posture pictured by David. That's the posture of our prayer as well.

David, though, was concerned not just in the way that he prayed, but he was concerned about his own heart.

You see, these wicked men who were trying to entice him to sin, who were trying to get him to blaspheme the God that he loves — David knows that he's just a man.

He knows that he's weak. He knows that he's frail. And he needs help. And he knows where to find the help, right? In prayer. And let's look at this in verse 3.

In distress, David prays to guard his lips. Verse 3: "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth and keep watch over the doors of my lips." When you are in times of distress, it is easy to listen to the wife of Job and curse God and die. Is it not?

When you're in times of distress, isn't it easy to murmur and complain? "God has brought us out here in the wilderness. We could have been eating the leeks back in Egypt. He's brought us out here to die. He's not for us, He's against us." We often are tempted to speak ill of God during such tough times. We oftentimes will speak ill of others as well. Misery loves company. When you're miserable and when you're pressed on all sides, it's easy to allow ugliness to get a foothold in our heart, right? To lash out at those that we love, even our own wife and our own children, our own father, our own mother, our dearest friends, our sisters, our brothers, our fellow church members. It's easy to be short when our tempers are flared, is it not? Right? So David cries out and he says, "Lord, guard — be the soldier, be the watchman over my lips." If the Tabernacle out in the wilderness and the Tabernacle in the time of David and later on the Temple needed a temple guard and needed a doorkeeper, how much more do our lips?

Because aren't we the temple of God?

Does not our heart speak through our lips? So we need God to guard our lips, especially in times of distress. He also prays not only for God to guard his lips, but for God to guard his very heart. He says in verse 4, "Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men who work iniquity, and do not let me eat of their delicacies." He says, "Do not incline my heart to any evil thing."

Our hearts are desperately wicked, are they not? Apart from the regeneration of Christ, we would be as evil as anybody else, right? And even with having been given a new heart, do we not still struggle with sin? Right? It's the war of the Spirit versus the flesh, right? The old man, we have to crucify daily, right? We have to submit ourselves to God and be ruled by the love and peace of God. So he prays for God to guard his heart.

Some of us may say, "Well, I would never curse God with my lips" — but might you do that with your heart?

Might you with your heart question God's goodness?

Might you with your heart doubt that God is able to save? That God is who He says He is? That He is Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of angel armies? Yes, we're prone to those doubts. So we pray, "God, not just guard my lips, but guard my heart as well." And in times of distress, in times of turmoil, when we're being specially tempted by the devil, we need to pray for God to guard our hearts. He's the Good Shepherd, is He not? And will He not shepherd our hearts? Yes, He will.

David also prays not only to guard his lips and to guard his heart, but also he prays to guard his very works or deeds. Let's look at that in verse 4.

"Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works."

What's in our heart usually is played out in our works. We can sometimes even do things that may look good outwardly but with evil intentions, can we not? And he's praying for God to guard every part of him, not just the words of his mouth, not just the thoughts of his heart, but his very deeds. When the wicked were trying to get him to do evil deeds, were getting him to participate in all kinds of ungodliness, he would not. His own men said, "Why don't you kill Saul? He's in your sight, you can do it."

But that was touching the Lord's anointed, right? He wanted to be faithful to obey Yahweh in all things, even when it's inconvenient for him, even when the man who's trying to murder him is within his very grasp. So he doesn't listen to even his own men in that case, right? Because he doesn't want to do evil deeds. He asked God not only to guard his lips and to guard his heart and to guard his deeds, but he asked God to guard the company that he keeps. Look in verse 4: "Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men who work iniquity."

The company you keep can bring you down. Here in Hebrew, the word "men" means nobility — it means men who have means, men of wealth, men of power, important men.

It's one thing to resist a lowly man, maybe a bum on the street or a wino — you might be able to resist him. But when someone is powerful, maybe it's your boss. Isn't a boss a powerful person? You could lose your job if you don't join in what they ask you to do. They may ask you to compromise at work, they may ask you to do something that's wrong. But who are you to obey?

God. It's what the apostles said — we ought to obey God rather than men, right? He's the one who is our Master, He is the one who is our Lord. So we ask God to guard us against wicked men.

Not only does he ask God to guard against wicked company, but he asks God to guard him against his own wicked appetites. Look in verse 4: "With men who work iniquity and do not let me eat of their delicacies." Delicacies — their dainties, if you will. There's nothing wrong with feasting sometimes, right? And enjoying the goodness of life.

But what happens oftentimes is that the good things God has given us to enjoy can become snares to our souls. When we begin to value those and treasure them and indulge them over and above our love for God, that can separate us from His love. I think of Moses. Remember, Hebrews chapter 11 says, "By faith, Moses, when he became of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward."

Christ was a greater treasure to him than the passing pleasures of sin, than the treasures of Egypt. Nothing could afford to him what Christ afforded to him, right? And so we must beware that we do not be tempted by worldliness and let ourselves be led astray by the dainties, by the pleasures that can so often consume our hearts — even things that aren't necessarily bad, but good things if we put too high a priority on them, to where we're not loving God, we're not loving our neighbor, we're not following after righteousness. We can drown in those dainties and in those delicacies.

In distress, David also prays for reproof. Reproof means correction.

Now listen, David is separated, he's in exile, he's away from the worship of the Tabernacle, he's around wicked men who are trying to entice him to sin, and he's not consenting, he's holding strong —

and yet he seeks reproof.

Look what we see here in verse 5. "Let the righteous strike me, it shall be kindness, and let him rebuke me, it shall be excellent oil; let my head not refuse it." He says, "Let the righteous strike me." The word in Hebrew means to hammer.

It's the same word that's used in Judges — the hammer of Jael that went through the evil man's head, right? Nailed a spike through his head. This word literally means to pound on somebody. And he says, "Let the righteous strike me, it shall be kindness." The word "kindness" is hesed in the Hebrew, which means lovingkindness, it means grace, it means mercy — God's special covenantal love for His children. He says, "I would rather have the rebuke and the correction of a brother or sister in Christ who loves me

than have the deceitful lies, the embellishments, the deceitful tongue of the wicked in my ear."

Because if someone is correcting me and reproving me, true reproof is based on the Word of God, right? He says, "That's drawing me closer to God, so I'm going to call that hesed, kindness. I'm going to call that mercy. I'm going to call that God's covenant faithfulness to draw me nearer to Him as I am corrected according to His Word."

He says, "It shall be kindness, let him rebuke me, it shall be excellent oil; let my head not refuse it."

In the Hebrew that can be translated, "It will not break my head." It's not going to harm me, it's going to be good for me. In ancient times when there would be a feast, a wedding ceremony, or if you were a guest in someone's house, it was a polite thing for them to anoint your head with oil. It was soothing, it was refreshing, it was a way of treating you as special, of blessing you. He said, "I'll take that reproof as a blessing, I'll take it as love."

Now listen, we may not always like rebuke or correction from our brothers and sisters. In fact, sometimes we reject it wholesale and you know what we often say: "I don't like that tone," right? It may be true, but I just don't like the way he or she said that, right? Well, David here is saying, "I'm willing to be hammered."

I'm willing to be struck, so to speak, if that's what it takes to be drawn near to the Lord my God, to be more like Yahweh, to be corrected, to be in His path.

So we, in times of distress, seek reproof, right? Seek godly counsel, seek the Word of God, and you'll find that, yes, it may be slightly painful sometimes to us — or at least to our ego — but in reality, it'll be a blessing. It'll be like oil of gladness put upon your head. It'll be refreshing. It's not going to break your head. Don't refuse it.

Verse 5 continues: "For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked."

"Even when I'm corrected, I'm not going to put the focus on myself. I'm going to be praying against evildoers, against their evil deeds, that they do not oppress the children of Israel anymore."

Verse 6 is a little bit different in the Hebrew, a little bit difficult. The translation isn't so difficult as much as it is what it applies to. There are some scholars who apply it to the first part of verse 5, speaking of being rebuked by the righteous, and it's basically saying that if calamity falls upon them, yet I'm going to speak a kind word to them. I'm going to bless them. I'm going to be a blessing to them as they have been a blessing to me. That's one way of looking at it. Most scholars, though, and most commentaries, refer to the latter part of verse 5, which speaks of "For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked" — it's speaking of the wicked men.

In verse 6, this tracks so well with David's life. And we'll find that in distress, David prays for vindication. Verse 6: "Their judges are overthrown by the sides of the cliff. They hear my words, for they are sweet."

The word "judges" can mean rulers. Some say that maybe he has Saul and Saul's generals in mind, but he's too kind and also too covenantal to speak ill of the Lord's anointed, so he doesn't mention them by name. "The leaders or the authorities" is what that means. The judges are overthrown. Now, the word "overthrown" can signify being destroyed — in ancient times, one way that they executed people was taking them to a cliff and pushing them off. Remember, they tried to do that to Jesus in His very first sermon in Nazareth. We find that in Luke chapter 4, that they took Him to the top of the precipice and were going to throw Him over, but He passed through them, because it wasn't His time, right?

But it doesn't have to mean that they are throwing this person down. It can also be translated in the Hebrew as "let down by the side."

In other words, "let down safely by the side of the rocks." And we see that both of these are possible in David's life. I'm not sure exactly which one's intended here, to be honest with you, okay? But in David's life, we can see in 1 Samuel chapter 24, when David is in the cave, when David is in the rocks, so to speak. Remember, Saul goes into the cave, and what does David do? In the darkness of the cave, he sneaks up, and though he could kill Saul — and Saul wouldn't even see it coming — he takes a border of his garment and he cuts it off. And when Saul goes outside the cave, David presents himself. And Saul sees that David was merciful to him, that he was in the hand of David, the one he's trying to hunt down, and yet David was merciful to him. Two chapters over in 1 Samuel chapter 26, we see a very similar story, where Saul is still pursuing David and his men, even after David just showed him kindness. And God causes a deep sleep to fall upon Saul's encampment. And David walks into the middle of their camp, and what does he do? He takes Saul's spear — his heavy spear — and he takes his water jug, and he leaves. Then he calls out, "Wake up!" He says, "Saul, look what I have."

He had the very spear of Saul. And that was in a rocky region, right along the cliffs, so to speak. In both those cases, the judges were let down safely, right? And David's words were kind to them. They were proved right. They saw the kindness of David, right? Now, this also could be a prayer and a hope that these wicked judges, wicked rulers, would be overthrown. And we see that in 1 Samuel chapter 31. Remember, it was there in the rocks that Saul and his sons were killed by the Philistines. And then the people turned their ear to David. Then his words were heard. He was vindicated, right? And he became king. So David prays for vindication. He's not taking the matter into his own hands, right? Who is he praying to vindicate him? God.

When we're in times of distress, we pray for God to vindicate us, right? We pray that our words would be heard, that the wicked rulers would be let down, right?

We also see that David prays not only for vindication, but he prays desperately. Look in verse 7: "Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave, as when one plows and breaks up the earth."

If you've ever seen a farm, when they till the land, they turn over the dirt, and up out of the ground come chunks of clay and sand or rocks, depending on the terrain. And they're scattered all over the field. That's part of breaking up the fallow ground so plants can be planted, right? He says, if you can imagine all those clods of dirt or sand or rocks — imagine them instead of being dirt, being bones, being skulls, being the bodies of the people of Israel. And he says, "Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave."

Some translations, instead of "at the mouth of the grave," say "at the command of Saul," because the Hebrew is very close and it can be translated that way. The Syriac text — another text — and some of the Septuagint copies actually translate it in such a way. So it could be a reference to Saul there. I think it's definitely a reference to Saul, because remember, in 1 Samuel 22, David was on the run from Saul. And remember, he goes into the Tabernacle to get provisions and to take the showbread. And what does Ahimelech do? David deceives Ahimelech, basically, and says, "I'm on a mission for Saul." He doesn't tell him that he's on the run from Saul and Saul's trying to kill him. Well, Saul immediately suspects that Ahimelech lied, because Doeg, the wicked Edomite, tells him that Ahimelech aided and abetted David and his men. And so what does Saul do? He commands his men to kill Ahimelech and all the priests at Nob. And his men won't do it.

But Doeg, the Edomite, he'll do it. So he kills and slaughters 85 priests. He kills their wives. He kills their children. He kills their livestock, right?

I believe that's what's being pictured here, when he says, "Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave, as when one plows and breaks up the earth." The wicked rulers of the land were destroying God's people. Right? Do we not see carcasses strewn across the world of Christians?

Do you know what's gone on in Ethiopia over the last several years? What's gone on in Nigeria? What's gone on in Sudan? In Nigeria alone, they estimate over 10,000 Christians have been slaughtered by the Fulani herdsmen over just the last two years.

We see that all over our world. We see that figuratively in that the world, the flesh, and the devil love to try to crush the church, love to try to crush the saints. But what does God tell us? That the gates of hell will not prevail. It's the Lord who builds His church, right?

So he's distressed, though, as you can imagine, when he sees these carcasses thrown about, and that's the way he describes his nation, so he prays desperately.

When your loved ones have been torn apart by the devil, torn apart by the world, so to speak, bruised and battered, when everything seems to be in disarray, take it to the Lord in prayer. That's what David did.

It's our only hope. He's the only one who can set it right. The only one who can deliver us is the Lord. Don't despair. Instead, pour out your hearts to the Lord.

David prays also intently. Let's look here in verse 8.

"But my eyes are upon You, O Yahweh, O Lord." This is: "But my eyes are upon You — though I see these bones strewn around, and skulls laying around, the whole place littered with the bodies of the saints — I don't despair." What does he say? "But my eyes are upon You."

When death is at your door, when persecution is in your neighborhood, that's when your eyes must be intently upon the Lord. That's when they need to be fixed, your gaze not looking at anything else but the Lord. That's what David's eyes are on, because He alone is our Savior.

We pray not only intently, but we pray confidently.

Let's look in verse 8: "But my eyes are upon You, O Yahweh, O Lord God." "O God, the Lord" is another way of translating that. "In You I take refuge." The word "I take refuge" means I trust. I have confidence in You. "I'm going to trust in You when all around me are strewn dead bodies of the saints. When everything around me looks like hope is lost. When the battlefield looks as if the enemy has conquered, the enemy has won. When that's what my eyes tell me, I'm going to keep my eyes on You, God. I'm going to keep my eyes intently on You, and I'm going to trust in You. I'm going to keep my confidence in You no matter what. I'm going to hope against hope." As with Abraham and Sarah — their bodies were as good as dead — but since Abraham hoped against hope, he believed that what God had promised, He was able to do, and God provided a son for them even in their old age. God kept His promises, and God will keep His promises to His people always.

In verse 8, he says, "In You I take refuge; do not leave my soul destitute." In the Hebrew that can be translated, "Do not leave my soul naked," or "Do not leave my soul uncovered." Don't leave me without Your favor. Do not leave me without Your love. Do not leave me without Your guidance.

Keil and Delitzsch, who were German linguists, wrote an excellent Old Testament commentary. They were Hebrew experts. They saw in this phrase — "Do not leave my soul destitute," do not leave my soul naked — as being linked up to verse 7: "Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave."

They see this as a hint of resurrection. Do not leave my soul unclothed. We are meant to live in existence — body and soul. Death is a separation of our soul from our body. But in the resurrection, our bodies will be resurrected, recreated, and they're going to be glorified and united again with our souls. God made us as an organic unity, body and soul. This is, I think, one of those places in the Old Testament where we see a hint of the resurrection. The Bible tells us in the New Testament that Christ abolished death and He brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. We know more about eternity and the resurrection because we stand on this side of the cross. In the Old Testament times, before that, they didn't have quite the understanding that we do now. They didn't have the fullness. They didn't have the full understanding. But we see this being a hint of it, that he was praying that God would not leave his soul uncovered, that God would not leave his soul naked or allow his soul to be poured out, if you will. So he prays confidently. In distress, David prays for protection.

Look at verse 9: "Keep me from the snares." The word "keep" means to protect. Protect me from the snares. A snare was simply a trap. They would try to trap animals, of course, using materials such as sticks and vines. And oftentimes they had a trigger and a bait. And they would pull the trigger once the animal is underneath the snare to snare that animal. He says, "Keep me from the snares that they have laid for me and from the traps of the workers of iniquity."

The thing about a trap is they're designed to be hard to see. Are they not?

Be careful on your walk.

Don't become overconfident. Don't think, "Hey, the sun is shining now. The sun has come out, all is well." Know that the devil is a roaring lion. He is your adversary.

And you can't always see the traps. So what do you do? You pray for God to protect you from the traps, to protect you from the snares. Isn't that what our Lord Jesus told us to pray in the Lord's Prayer?

Does not He say, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one?" — it can be translated that way. He says, "Deliver us from evil. Deliver us from the evil one. Deliver us from the hand, from the teeth of the snare." That's what David is praying here. He's praying for protection. Fathers, pray for the protection of your families.

Mothers, pray for the protection of your children. Look out for them. Help them to see snares. Help them to see traps. But most of all, commit that protection to God, right? Because He is our Keeper. He is the shade upon our right hand. He prays not only for protection, but he prays for continuance. And we find that in verse 10: "Let the wicked fall into their own nets while I escape safely." The phrase "escape safely" means to pass over and to pass on.

We go through times of distress in our life.

But thankfully, it's not always that way, right? We have seasons where we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. But we also have seasons where it seems God is so good to us, and He lets us sit down by the green pastures, and He leads us beside the still waters, right? There are some for whom it seems like all their life is distress. You think of some of the great Christian men of the past — John Bunyan, who suffered so much for the Lord. Some lives are marked by distress. Paul's life was marked by persecution and distress, was it not?

Some people seem to have more than their share, but even they know that their sufferings are but transitory, right?

What does the Bible tell us in the book of Romans, that if we suffer with Him we shall also be glorified with Him? If we have died with Him, we shall be raised with Him, right? If God is for us, who can be against us? Nobody can. So I encourage you to pray like David. In times of distress, in times of temptation, in times of evil, pour out your heart to the Lord, and He is a refuge for us. Let's pray.

Lord God, we praise You for men like David, for their words that You inspired him to write. I pray that we would be like him in our prayers, that we'd be like him in our integrity, and we'd be like him in our heart. In Christ's name we ask this. Amen.