4. Blessed Midst the Cursing! Psalm 35:9-10

Text:  “And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in His Salvation.” 

Psalm 35:9.

Good morning, eye-of-the-storm Christian!  In the midst of all the curses of opposition to your Christian faith – the world, the flesh, and the Devil’s hindrances – you find yourself still, at peace, in the eye-of-the-storms of life.  Hallelujah!  Christ has promised you and I ‘His peace’, and because the mouth of the Lord God Jehovah has spoken it, you are I find a haven of His peace, even in the very thick of life’s turbulent storms. 

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  (John 14:27)

“These things have I (Jesus the Christ) spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:33)

In this world, as genuine committed, born again, Bible-believing Christians, we can have much trouble, many oppositions; hard hindrances – yet our souls continue to be joyful in Christ Jesus our risen Lord.  We rejoice, not in ourselves, nor in anything that we are or can do in this world – but in Christ Jesus and in the Eternal Salvation that He alone gives us through His sufferings on Calvary’s Cross. 

Verse 9.  “And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in His Salvation.”         In this ever-increasing mire of 21^st Century apostasy and the decline of true Bible-based Christian values, anyone who earnestly seeks to live life as God’s Word directs us to do comes immediately under a deluge of Satanic attack, carnal opposition; and worldly ridicule.  Fact!  It is not popular to be a genuine Bible-believing Christian today!

However, no matter how fierce the oppositions we face, we are always assured of Divine deliverance from them; or Eternal deliverance from out of the very world in which we are experiencing such gross persecutions.  Hallelujah!  God has spoken!

“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  (Philippians 1:21)

Furthermore, anytime we are called to suffer some affliction or persecution, or illness and pain – all these become Spiritual school-teachers, teaching us to look all that deeper into the sufferings of our Lord and Saviour upon Calvary’s cruel Tree.

Verse 10.  “All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto Thee…?”    “Our own sufferings give us a partial insight into the sufferings of Christ Jesus.  In our prosperity we pass by the Cross. The story of Christ’s passion stirs our hearts for Him, but the pity and passion are quickly gone.  But let God pinch our flesh with some sore affliction, fill our bones with pain, and set us on fire with a burning fever; let our feet be hurt in stocks, and iron enters our souls.  We look upon Him they have pierced and say: ‘If the chips of the cross are this heavy, what was the Cross itself?  If my bodily pains are so bitter, what were the agonies the Lord sustained in His soul?  If the wrath of man is so piercing, what must the wrath of God be?’ 

“Is it a heart-piercing affliction to be deserted by friends?  What was it then for the Son of God’s love to be deserted by his Father?  Is a chain so heavy, a prison so loathsome, and the sentence of death so dreadful?  O what was it for Him Who made Heaven and earth to be bound, mocked, abused, spit upon, buffeted, reviled, cast into prison, arraigned, condemned, and executed in a most shameful and accursed manner!  O what was it for Him to endure all this contradiction of sinners, the rage of the Devil, and wrath of God, to cry out, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?’”  (Thomas Case 1598-1680, Select Works, A Treatise of Affliction, page 73-75)

Verse 10.  “Lord, who is like unto Thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?”  “Blessed be God, my prison is not Hell, my burnings are not unquenchable flames, my cup is not filled with wrath, and I am delivered from the wrath to come!  By our sharing the remainders of His Cross, which He has bequeathed to us as a legacy, we may come in some measure to understand the sufferings of Christ, or at least by comparing our sufferings of such vast disproportion to His, we are able to guess at what we cannot understand.”  (Thomas Case 1598-1680, Select Works, A Treatise of Affliction, page 73-75)

Let me ask, dear reader, Are you afflicted in some grievous manner as you read this weekly Bible Lesson?  Are you facing ruthless oppositions in your family life; your business life; or concerning the practice of your Christian faith?  Then look up, beloved in Christ, your Lord God knows what you are going through for His dear sake, and will not leave you comfortless or without powerful support.  We possess Christ’s faithful promise on the matter:

“I will not leave you comfortless: I WILL come to you.”  (John 14:18)

Let the Divine Voice of the Living Lord God reverberate throughout your afflicted soul:  ‘I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.’  (Isaiah 41)10

Suffering and cruel afflictions are a real curse promised to every credible Christian, but such cruel oppositions and persecutions only serve to PROVE beyond a doubt that we are indeed the Eternal children of the Almighty Lord God, Jehovah.  Hallelujah!  Victory is ours in the Cross of Christ Jesus!  Stand fast, Blood-bought Christian!

Thought:  “Affliction teaches us to prize and long for Heaven.” (Thomas Case 1598-1680, Select Works, A Treatise of Affliction, quoted in Voices from the Past, edited by Richard Rushing, pages 188-189)

3. Powerful Christian Curses? Psalm 35:4-8

Text:  “Then shall He (the Lord) say also unto them on the left hand (unsaved, reprobates), Depart from Me, ye CURSED, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.”

                                                                                                               Matthew 25:41.

Good morning, powerfully armed Christian!  A careful study of God’s Word – Old Testament and New – clearly reveals the God-given fact that we who are genuinely redeemed by the shedding of Christ’s sinless Blood at Calvary, are granted powerful Spiritual weapons with which to wage war with Satan and his vile, rebellious agents, both spiritual and temporal.  Too many today, in this increasingly apostate and Spiritually toothless 21^st Century church, have no idea of the powerful Spiritual weapons the Lord has placed at our disposal to enable us to ‘confound’ the enemies of the Gospel, never mind willing to use them in the Cause of Christ Crucified. Fact.

It is time, beloved in Christ; it is time to unwrap our powerful Spiritual armoury and unleash God’s power upon those who would even dare to hinder and persecute those of us for whom Christ suffered, bled, and died.  Awake, and Christ shall give thee light!

Verse 4.  “Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul.  There is nothing malicious here; the slandered man simply craves for justice, and the petition is natural and justifiable.  Guided by God’s good Spirit, the Psalmist foretells the everlasting confusion of all the haters of the righteous (Made righteous in Christ).  Shameful disappointments shall be the portion of the enemies of the Gospel, nor would the most tender-hearted Christian have it otherwise; viewing sinners as men, we love them and seek their good, but regarding them as enemies of God, we cannot think of them with anything but detestation and loyal desire for the confusion of their devices. 

“No loyal subject can wish well to rebels.  Squeamish sentimentality may object to the strong language here used, but in their hearts all good men wish confusion to mischief-makers.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 170)

Christianity today seems, in many cases, to have slumped down into a cozy, lovey-dovey sentimentalism that is devoid of the Spiritual teeth necessary to engage in any serious contention for ‘…the faith once delivered unto the saints…’  (Jude 3)

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against Spiritual wickedness in high places.  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day…” (Ephesians 6:12-13)

The power to call down God’s Divine curses against His enemies and, therefore, ours – is a powerful weapon indeed.  However, not all professing Christians are willing to even think of employing such a devastating Spiritual weapon – and thus, the church declines and is found reeling about in a politically correct confusion of its own.  Sad.

“Verses 4, 8, & 26. How are we to account for such prayers for vengeance?  We find them chiefly in four Psalms – the seventh, thirty-fifth, sixty-ninth, and one-hundred and ninth, and the imprecations (curses) in these form a terrible climax.  In the last, no less than thirty anathemas (curses) have been counted.  Are these the mere outbursts of passionate and unsanctified feeling or are they the legitimate expression of a righteous indignation?  An unobstructed fastidiousness, it is well known, has made many persons recoil from reading these Psalms at all.”  (J.J. Stewart Perowne 1868)

If our KJV Bibles are indeed, ‘God-breathed’, Spiritually inspired as Paul, inspired by God the Spirit, teaches us they are – then ‘the Imprecatory Psalms’ mentioned above, are also the inspired Word of God, and as such are God’s Authority to us for our use.

“All Scripture (Old Testament and New) is given by inspiration of God (breath of God), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man/woman of God may be perfect (mature in teaching), thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”  (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

The souls of those placed on ‘the left hand’ by our Lord Christ in our text for today are the souls of the reprobate (those ‘passed over by God reference Eternal Salvation); these are the enemies of God and of us, ‘His people’ who are elected to Salvation from before the foundation of the world.  Therefore, the Lord Jesus is declaring the fact that those on ‘the left hand’ on His judgement day are in fact, left under God’s curse declared back in Eden’s Garden; and as such are the Eternal enemies of Christ and ‘His people’.  They are Eternally cursed of God, and as such have been, shall always be, and are, Eternally lost.  What an Eternally sad and devastating position to be in!

Divine Curses In Psalm 35.  Confusion (verse 4); Blown Away, as dust before the wind (verse 5); hounded by God’s angels (verse 5);  Unstable, set in slippery darkness, and persecuted by God’s Holy angels (verse 6);  Doomed, thrust into sudden destruction, caught up in God’s net of retribution (verses 7 & 8)

Imprecatory curses are not prayed lightly by Christians.  They are prayed against tyrants who, ‘without cause’, persecute, slander, hinder and harm Christ’s children.

Verse 7. “For without cause…without cause…  Twice does David assert in one verse that his adversaries plotted against him without cause.  Net-making and pit-digging requires time and labour, and both of these the wicked will expend cheerfully.  Men set traps and catch their own fingers.  They throw up stones, and they fall upon their own heads.  How often Satan outwits himself and burns his fingers with his own coals!”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 171)

Thought:  “Maxentious built a false bridge to drown Constantine but was drowned himself.  Henry the Third of France was stabbed in the very same chamber where he had helped to contrive the cruel massacre of the French Protestants.” (Thomas Brooks 1608-1680)  Anti-Christians, beware God’s wrath!

2. A Plea for God's Confounding! Psalm 35:4

Text:  “Let them (oppressors) be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.”

                                                                                                                      Psalm 35:4.

Good morning, powerfully equipped Christian!  When we study God’s Holy Word to us, ‘His people’, we find that we are a powerfully equipped people indeed.  We are given Spiritual weapons by the Lord God to wage war and to defend our soul’s territory from the most powerful adversaries of the world, the flesh, and the Devil.  One of our most powerful Spiritual weapons is the power of fervent prayer.

Here in Psalm 35, the Psalmist David is pleading with the Lord to CONFOUND his enemies that are oppressing him without proper or just cause.  Let us look briefly at the concept of confounding, and in particular, at the Lord God’s power to confound the enemies of ‘His people’.

Dictionary Definition: Confound – (verb transitive) to overthrow, to defeat; to confuse, to throw into disorder; to defeat in argument; to perplex; to astonish; (to damn, blast, and curse to shame…)  (The Chambers Dictionary, page 345)

If worldlings, ungodly Governments, and anti-Christian detractors seek to persecute, slander, and oppress Blood-bought Christians; they should not be surprised when they are cursed by the Lord God Who suffered and died on a Cross for those whom they persecute.  Take heed, persecutor of true Christians!  God is watching you!

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man/woman soweth (continues to do), that shall he/she also reap (get back in).”  (Galatians 6:7)

“See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.  For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from Heaven.”  (Hebrews 12:25)

The Lord God is NOT some old man with white hair and a long beard, as unbelieving fools seem to think.  Our God really is, ‘…a consuming fire.’!

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.”  (Hebrews 10:31)

The Lord God gives ‘His people’ sure and powerful promises as they continue on believing/trusting in His Spirit-inspired Word.  We are called to use such powers.

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I WILL strengthen thee, yea, I WILL help thee, yea, I WILL uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness…For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I WILL help thee.”  (Isaiah 41:10;13)

Look again, now, what the Psalmist is pleading before God’s throne of Grace in his prayer.  He is praying for God to confound those that seek to hurt him and oppress his soul – that is, temporal and Spiritual enemies included!  He is, primarily, saying, ‘Lord, I am not able to bear the attacks of these enemies; please deal with them at the same level of hurt which they themselves are dealing with me.’ 

This is a powerful prayer for the total ‘confounding’ of those who are seeking David’s downfall: a prayer to overthrow, defeat; confuse, throw into disorder; defeat in argument; perplex; astonish; (damn, blast, and curse to shame…) all those that are causing him such oppression without just cause!’  All this is being prayed under instruction from God’s own Word!  What a Spiritual weapon!  It is time to break it out again and use it!

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.  Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil.  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities (Spiritual and temporal), against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against Spiritual wickedness in high places.”  (Ephesians 6:10-12)

The powerful pleas contained in Psalm 35 are an integral part of ‘the whole armour of God’ detailed in the book of Ephesians, chapter 6, especially taking note of verse 18, which clearly states: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints (all born again believers).”  (Ephesians 6:18)

However, many professing Christ today would be most reluctant to pray such imprecatory prayers – it seems that THEY have become more ‘spiritual’ than the Psalmist David!  If God’s Word makes sense – don’t try to make it nonsense! If king David, a man after God’s own heart, the anointed king of Israel, sees fit to pray such powerful imprecatory prayers (prayers containing God’s curse upon enemies), then surely we latter day Bible-believers should do so also?  It is time to take off the velvet gloves.  I am convinced that we are in the very ‘last days’ in this 21^st Century.

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come…” Read 2 Timothy 3:1-17 and understand the seriousness of this subject, brethren.

Verse 4.  “Let them be…brought to confusion that devise my hurt.  This is a sincere prayer, prayed from a clear conscience that loves and seeks to serve the Lord God Jehovah – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Christ did teach us to pray for our enemies, and those that ‘despitefully use us…’. However, such prayers are not always for our enemy’s conversion, or for their well-being!  No. Those that blatantly and maliciously set out to persecute, slander, prevent and hinder true Bible-believing Christians as we go about our God-ordained ministries in the Gospel of Jesus Christ need to beware!  If such detractors seek to persecute and oppose us ‘…without cause… (verse 7); then they are fair game in the prayer life of Christian believers who may legitimately call down God’s wrath upon them.  Serious persecution requires God’s sternest rebuke.

Thought:  Satan trembles when he sees, the weakest saints upon our knees!