This morning my thoughts are on the cross of Jesus Christ. Crucifixion is horrid. But today and for two millennia is the cross of Jesus Christ something wonderful. How did such a heinous method of capital punishment and public intimidation become a symbol of salvation and peace? If you understand the answer to that question, then you will have some understanding as to why verse 9 of Psalm 64 makes sense.
Then everyone will be afraid;
they will proclaim the mighty acts of God
and realize all the amazing things he does.
God speaks into the void and creates. God hovers over the chaos and prepares the wonder of creation. Out of nothing, something appears; God breathes into dust, and humankind is born. This is God’s way of showing His greatness. God is the master of value added production. In fact, God loves to turn around things that look impossible. What then is the act of God that in verse 9 makes people afraid, proclaims mighty acts and causes realisation of His amazing doing? God’s attack on the attackers, God's justice against the wrongdoers is the wondrous eye-opening work that convinces people of God’s greatness.
MAIN POINT: God’s act of saving is the proof of His greatness.
Saving is springing into action against harm, danger or injustice. So when we face harm, danger or injustice and need rescuing, we are (actually it is God himself) setting the stage for God’s greatness to be displayed.
People need saving because people are evil.
v.1 evil people plan to threaten life.
v.2 evil people gather in gangs of wrongdoers. (v.5)
I’d like to divert my attention just for a second and say, we know misery likes company and birds of a feather flock together. We know bad company corrupts good morals. We know the mob mentality lowers nearly all inhibitions to evil doing (Rwanda genocide for instance). But God’s plan is to use this same power to do good. Get with other believers, gather with the righteous, find godly friends and fan to flame the embers of faith. Collect friends who show the fruits of the Spirit and watch the plots to do good grow. God has called you into His family, to be part of Christ’s body, to be a living stone in the holy temple of God. You might rightly have some fear of a gang of bad guys, but this evil world should fear a church full of good doers who will expose evil, undo plots to extort, kill and steal. God will save. And He saves through His Son. And the church is a group of people “in Christ”.
v.3 Words are weapons. Once again you can see the parallel. Evil uses it to destroy but God uses it to build up. They may have hurtful, bitter, spiteful words. But they got nothing compared to the Words we can speak, and our healing words are all pointing to Jesus, the WORD of God. That’s why John is so excited to talk about Jesus as the WORD of God. Because in contrast to the words Satan brought into the world (full of deception and lies), God brings the Truth and the light. When you are reading Psalm 64 you are getting a poetic glimpse of an epic cosmic battle. They have evil words. But God has v.9 "proclaim(tion of) the mighty acts of God”.
vv.5-6 Look at the mob mentality that fuels bold evil doing.
“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near." Heb 10:24-25
See how God’s plan is that we would talk about God and what He has done, and that would undo the evil works of evil people.
God saves. v.7 God shoots arrows at evildoers.
Who must judge sin? God must judge sin. Who gave His own son as a sacrifice? God gave Jesus as a sacrifice for sin. The cross is a conscious choice of God’s to pay and to judge. God pays for our sin. God judges our sin by accepting the life of His own son. God shoots the arrows of salvation. Was that not what happened on the cross? Please correct my theology if I have seen it wrongly. He who knew no sin became sin. “He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
I don’t think David had this particularly in mind when he wrote verse 10, but I do. I am my own worst enemy. v.10 “The godly will rejoice in the Lord and find shelter in him. And those who do what is right will praise him.” So when I find shelter in God, I am finding shelter from my evil thoughts and cunning plans. I am being protected from my own evil heart. If I do right, then I am proclaiming the power of God’s transforming justice and saving greatness. Not only have my evil deeds been judged, but my old self has been crucified with Christ and so I am dead. And I now live in the salvation acts of Christ. Can you see it? I crucified Christ. Christ died for the world. My sin was an agent in the salvation of the world. God used evil to bring about good. “As for you, you meant evil against me, [but] God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to keep many people alive.” Genesis 50:20
Joseph knew how God works all things together for good. And Paul understood this so well that he says, Should we sin that grace may abound? God forbid. But wow. And that is the proper response. WOW
Conclusion:
What an amazing plan of salvation, to turn everything around and make it good. We are part of God’s plan of salvation. We can now join together using our words to proclaim the goodness of God and by doing this together, we take part in God's plan to save. Villains become heroes as they proclaim the greatness of God’s rescuing plan. David must have seen this even as he was writing it and by doing so, getting you and I the readers to join in the plan and multiply God’s glory.
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| Handwritten Psalm 64 |
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