(upbeat music)
- Welcome to our look at Psalm 64 today.
Psalm 64 is a psalm about what to do in life's battles.
And the truth is, I know you're in a battle right now.
It might be a relationship battle.
It might be a battle for the work and calling
that you believe God has for you.
It might be a battle with doubt
or with feelings of inadequacy.
Or the reason I know you're in a battle right now
is all of us constantly face the battle of temptation.
How do you find God's victory
in that battle that you're facing today?
Well, listen, listen to these four encouragements
from Psalm 64.
Number one, to find victory in the battle.
Number one, you recognize the strength of the enemy.
If you're gonna win a battle,
you gotta know the enemy that you're fighting.
And you gotta recognize the real strength of that enemy.
Now, if you've read to the end of the Bible,
you know that Satan, our spiritual enemy,
and all his evil will be defeated in the end.
That we can be certain of.
But if we're not careful,
that could cause us to think that the battle is over.
Victory is absolutely assured in the end.
But victory in your life today,
it's something that you must fight for.
You have to fight for integrity in your life today.
You have to fight for God's purposes in your life today.
And it starts by recognizing the strength of the enemy.
Verses two to six in Psalm 64 have a lot to say
about the strength of the enemy.
Now, David is talking about some of his physical enemies
that he's faced in his life,
but it's an easy application
to the spiritual enemies that we face.
These are verses that talk about the weapons of the enemy.
Verses two and three.
Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked,
from that noisy crowd of evildoers.
They sharpen their tongues like swords,
and they aim their words like deadly arrows.
Words, words are the greatest weapon of Satan,
our spiritual enemy.
The enemy of hope is words of discouragement.
The enemy of faith is words of doubt.
The enemy of love is words of selfish fear.
And it says here that these words are aimed
like deadly arrows.
They're aimed right at your weak spots.
If you've been hurt by words lately,
join the human race, we all have been.
They're the greatest weapon that is used against us.
Words of accusation, words of discouragement,
words of hopelessness, those are the weapons.
These are verses that also, if we're gonna know our enemy,
we also have to know the methods of the enemy.
And verses four to six talk about those methods.
Verse four, they shoot from ambush at the innocent man.
They shoot at him suddenly without fear.
They encourage each other in evil plans.
They talk about hiding their snares.
They say, who will see them?
They plot injustice.
And they say, we've devised a perfect plan.
Look at these methods.
One is surprise attack.
I don't know why it is.
We know Satan's alive and well,
and he's working against us,
but we seem to always be, myself included,
always surprised when the attack comes.
You don't expect it.
That's one of the methods of the enemy.
It's also the method of hidden snares.
You can't see it.
If we could figure it all out in advance,
we'd never trip over it,
but we don't see it coming sometimes.
Now, maybe we should, but we don't.
That is the method of the enemy.
And it talks also here about not just surprise attack
and hidden snares, but about unjust plans.
They plot injustice.
The intent is to wrong you, to hurt you.
Listen, the attacks of the enemy,
they're surprising to you, but they're not accidental.
You're having a wonderful day of faith,
and you just happen to come across someone's Instagram post
that totally discourages you about your life,
makes you feel like a complete loser.
Now, that person didn't intend to wrong you,
but Satan intended to use those words for evil in your life,
those words of you're never gonna measure up,
you're never gonna reach that, the methods of the enemy.
It's also important, as we talk about knowing the enemy,
to know the skill of the enemy.
And the last half of verse five says,
"Surely the mind and the heart of man are cunning."
Don't underestimate your enemy.
David didn't underestimate his enemy.
He knew that they could come up with some plans
that could deeply hurt him.
And don't underestimate your enemy, Satan.
Satan is foolish, but he's not stupid.
He's foolish because he's not following God,
but he's not stupid.
He knows the things that will trip us up.
This word cunning in Hebrew,
the mind and the heart are cunning, it means deep.
It has the idea of deep behind it.
There is a depth to the plans of an evil heart,
the plans that are being brought against you.
There's a depth of the understanding
of our human weaknesses, our human failings.
Now, once you see the strength of the enemy,
I'm not ending here, by the way,
it would be pretty discouraging to end here in this Psalm.
You need to know the strength of the enemy,
but once you know the strength of the enemy,
it encourages you to do the three other things
that we see in this Psalm.
Number two, you trust in God's greater strength.
You're honest, the enemy is strong,
but you're also honest, God is stronger.
Look at what verses seven and eight promise to us
will happen when you trust in the power of God.
This is encouraging stuff.
These verses promises, number one,
surprise attack will become sudden defeat.
Verse seven, but God will shoot them with arrows.
Suddenly, they will be struck down.
So Satan has this sudden attack against you,
but suddenly in the end, he's gonna fall,
all evil will fall.
These verses tell us that their words
will be turned against them.
In verse eight, he will turn their own tongues against them.
So the very words that were meant to ruin you
are gonna ruin them in the end,
will ruin Satan in the end and all those evil ones.
This reminds us that God can be trusted
with his own reputation.
He's gonna make the truth known in the end.
And for all those who might criticize you,
come against you with evil words,
there are multiplied more who criticize,
who disparage the name of God.
Yet his name is gonna be honored for all eternity.
His truth is gonna shine forever.
The words will be turned against them.
Surprise attack will become sudden defeat.
And then he says, trust in God's greater strength
because the plots of injustice will become their ruin.
Last half of verse eight, he will bring them to ruin.
All who see them will shake their heads in scorn.
The attacks of the evil one
will become the defeat of the evil one.
You can trust in that truth today.
We have to face those attacks,
but we through faith can have victory in those attacks.
But the evil one who was attacking you,
it's gonna become their ruin in the end.
So you trust in God's greater strength
as you face that battle today.
Number three, as you face the battle,
you remember that the end of the story is God's glory.
The end of the story is God's glory.
Listen to verse nine, all mankind will fear.
They will proclaim the works of God
and ponder what he has done.
That is the end of the story.
Look at those words, fear, all mankind will fear.
Proclaim what he has done, ponder what he has done.
That's what's gonna happen at the end.
All of us as human beings, we will fear.
That doesn't mean to be afraid of.
That means this awe-filled respect for God.
We will proclaim, it will be shouted.
God's glory will be shouted for all eternity.
We will ponder, we will think about all that it means
and the depth of what it means.
The end of the story is the glory of God.
Our awe-filled respect for the glory of God,
our shouts that proclaim the glory of God,
our hearts that will ponder for eternity the glory of God.
And knowing that that's the end of the story,
that can strengthen you
when you're in the middle of the battle today.
And so then number four,
what's the action we take out of all of this?
Number four, you seek God's protection.
When you're being attacked, when you're in a battle,
you seek God's protection.
The first verses and the last verses of this psalm
are about the battles that we face
and our need for seeking God's protection in those battles.
Verse one says, "Hear me, O God, as I voice my complaint.
"Protect my life from the threat of the enemy."
And then verse 10, "Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord
"and take refuge in him,
"and let all the upright in heart praise him."
The greatest mistake that you can have
in the battle that you're facing is to factor God out.
The evil do that.
They try to run life on their own.
But I've got to be honest and say, I can do that.
I can factor God out when I'm relying more on my plans
than on God's plans.
And the number one way that I factor God out,
I don't know about you,
but I think a lot of people would join me in this.
The number one way that I factor God out
is when I think, oh, this is a smaller battle.
I can handle this one on my own.
That is a guaranteed strategy for defeat.
Whatever battle you're facing right now,
whether it seems big or small,
you call on God for protection.
He wants to be a part of every battle that we're facing.
If you know anything in the Bible,
you know that that's true.
The biggest cities that they fought against
in the Old Testament and the smallest cities,
God taught them, you got to trust me
in every battle that you face.
So you're facing a battle today.
You're in the midst of something
that seems like it might take you down.
These are promises that God will be with you in that battle.
Let's trust him for that right now.
And in our trust before you right now, Father,
we recognize that there is strength in the enemy.
We're not lying about that.
The evil one knows us.
He knows how to trip us up,
and maybe he has tripped us up,
or we see him trying, and we're afraid.
We're anxious.
We bring that to you, and we decide instead
of focusing on our anxiety and fear
to trust in your greater strength,
we decide to remember that the end of the story
is gonna be your glory.
God, we decide right now.
We call out to you.
We ask for the protection that we need.
Protect me, God, in this battle,
and give me your victory, I pray.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Join us tomorrow.
We're gonna talk about what it's like
to live in God's house.
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music)