4. The Lord God Avenges ‘His People’! Psalm 64:7-9

Text: “And shall not God avenge (margin: protect) His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?  I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.  Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh (Jesus Christ), shall He find faith on earth?”

Luke 18:7-8.

          “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

Romans 12:19.

Good morning, sorely tested, tried, and persecuted Christian!  Not for you the easy-believer’s walk in attempted secret Christianity.  No!  You have been saved at a great Price to serve the risen Christ Jesus, and as a direct consequence of your faithfulness in diligently serving the Son of God, you are constantly faced with the most gross and fierce hindrances, testing, and trials of your God-given faith. 

If this describes your experience of Bible-believing Christianity, I rejoice to hear it – for it certainly closely describes my own!  Hallelujah!  No persecution? No faithfulness to Christ!  Check it out, Christian!  There can be no secret, comfortable, Christians!

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.  But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.”       (2 Timothy 3:12-14)

Mankind’s patience is not always to be relied upon – no, not even in the best of Christ’s saints and servants.  Push, prod, hassle and bully the Christian long enough, and with enough viciousness – and WHAM!  His/her patience will crack.  This is a clearly observable fact.

The wonderfully patient, kind and humble person – when redeemed by the Lord God – remains a patient, kind and humble servant of Christ.  However, the impatient, short-tempered, and prone to swift action person – when redeemed by the Lord God – can very often remain just as impatient, short-tempered, and prone to action servant of Christ Jesus.  

Faith in Christ makes us ‘…new creatures in Christ…’ in many vital Spiritual ways, but we remain the same person the Lord seen fit to save, we do not suddenly become another person in our personal nature, that takes a lot of time, and testing, and failings, and persevering before the new born again nature begins to get the advantage of the old carnal man/woman within. 

The loving disciple John remained a loving, humble disciple after being called to follow Christ.  The impulsive and hot-tempered Peter remained so after he too was called to serve his Lord.

This is a practical procedure in what we theologians call Progressive Sanctification; or becoming more and more ‘conformed’ to Christ Jesus; more Christlike.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed (daily) by the renewing of your mind (consistent Bible study?), that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”  (Romans 12:1-2)

God’s will is contained within the pages of God’s written Word.  Therefore, we learn God’s will for us, by constant, prayerful fellowship with Him within the pages of our canonical KJV Bibles.  The more we learn of God’s will through God’s Word – the more we can know how we are to live our daily lives as witnesses of the Living Christ Jesus.

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judae-a, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8)

Knowing Christ’s wonderful, loving and humble manners and way of living, both disciples – John and Peter – were duty bound to try to emulate them. However, John seemed to have been a tad more successful in doing so, while impulsive Peter continued to want to immediately ‘walk on water’ with Christ, and chop off the ear of Malchus when they arrived in Gethsemane to arrest the Lord Jesus!  Both were born again, but each were still the same person as before.  Only time with Christ can empower us to become more like Him in all our ways, yet, always imperfectly.

Malchus “Malchus was the servant of the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas who participated in the arrest of Jesus as written in the four gospels. According to the Bible, one of the disciples, Simon Peter, being armed with a sword, cut off the servant's ear in an attempt to prevent the arrest of Jesus.” (Wikipedia)

When impulsive Peter drew his sword and cut off Malchus’ ear, the Lord Jesus immediately intervened: “And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far.  And He touched his ear (Malchus), and healed him.”                 (Luke 22:49-51)

It was not, nor is it today, God’s will that we Christians avenge ourselves when confronted by persecutors’ slanderers’ gossips, and tormentors – NO – the Lord God has taken that duty upon Himself.   “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”  (Romans 12:19)

Verse 7. “But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.  We are well aware of God’s warnings to the world to ‘…touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm.” (1 Chronicles 16:21-22) (Psalm 105:13-15)  The Lord God has spoken, He has promised to ‘repay’ all such persecutors with His Holy vengeance.  Fearful indeed.

Verse 8. “So shall they make their own tongue to fall upon themselves.  Gossiping, and especially gossiping maliciously against a Blood-bought child of God, is a most dangerous occupation, and should immediately cease.  So often has Christ’s servants had our character assassinated in secret, by detractors from the Christian faith, and often by media hacks who are paid far too much wages to conjure up written lies in order to smear the witness of God’s people. The Lord God has promised to deal with such detractors/persecutors severely.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man/woman soweth, that shall he/she also reap.  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”  (Galatians 6:7-8)

Verse 8. “So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves.  Their slander shall recoil.  Their curses shall come home to roost. Their tongue shall cut their throats.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 279)

Thought: The same, unrepentant tongues that currently scream out abuse, persecutions, and rage against Bible-believing Christians today – shall utter a terrible, unheard, cry for God’s mercy as they stand at the Great White Throne of Holy Judgement.  How sad.