This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back to day four of this week. We're going to be looking
at Psalm nine today, which is a Psalm of victory. You can hear that at the very
beginning, starting in verses one and two.

Psalm nine, one and two says, "I will praise you, O Lord, with all of my heart.
"I will tell of all your wonders. "I will be glad and rejoice in you.

"I will sing praise to your name almost high. " You can just feel the victory
that's in David's heart here. It's praise because of victory has come.

He talks about it in verses three to six. "My enemies turn back, they stumble
and perish before you. "For you have upheld my right hand and my cause.

"You have sat on your throne, judging righteously. "You have rebuked the nations
and destroyed the wicked. "You have blotted out their name forever and ever.

"Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy. "You have uprooted their cities. "Even
the memory of them has perished.

" David talks about victory here, victory over his enemies. David's life was
filled with battles and with enemies, enemies who sought to ruin his life. So
what do you and I do with all this talk about enemies and battles in the book of
Psalms?

'Cause we're not like David, most of us going out every day to battle. Maybe you
are, but most of us listening to this, we're not. You may have enemies that are
physically battling you right now, but for most of us, the application is to
think about the spiritual enemy who is trying to ruin your life every day.

You do have someone who's battling your faith. You do have someone who's
battling your life. Satan, the Bible tells us, is like a roaring lion seeking to
devour you.

And sometimes it seems like Satan is winning the battles, that your life is
filled with defeat. Whether of your own making or others making, your life is
filled with defeat. But other times, like in this psalm, you've had a victory
over the temptations of Satan, over the trials of Satan.

And David reminds us in this psalm of three truths to remember when you have
victory over your enemy. These are truths that prepare you for the next battle.
Satan is a schemer.

And what he would love for you to do is, when you have victory, he loves to take
us into some temptations over that victory, temptations of trusting in
ourselves, temptations of relaxing our guard, letting our guard down. He loves
to take us into temptations when we have victory, that are going to assure our next
defeat. So instead of that, listen to what David has to say to us.

How do you deal with victory in a way, in a way that prepares you for the next
battle? Some truths to remember. First truth is, the Lord reigns forever.

Verse seven, the Lord reigns forever. He has established his throne for
judgment. He will judge the world in righteousness.

He will govern the peoples with justice. The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in time of trouble. When you and I have a victory, we tend to
magnify our part in that victory.

And yes, you often play a part. The prayer that you prayed, the leadership that
you gave, the decision that you made, the work that you did, God used you in
that victory. But David here invites us, instead of magnifying our part, to
magnify God's part.

He is the king. He is the one. Now remember, David is a king.

So here is a king reminding himself that God is the one who reigns forever. And
as you magnify God's part in the victory, what you're doing is, as a leader,
you're reminding yourself that God is the one who leads forever. As a parent,
you're reminding yourself that God is the one who loves forever.

When you have a victory, you remind yourself that God is the one who triumphs
forever. You don't try to own the victory, you praise God for the victory. Now,
it's good to see that God worked in and through you for the victory, but give
God the credit for working in and through you.

The more credit you can give God, the more secure that victory is going to be.
Because it leads you back to the place of strength, of where your victory came
from, your trust in the Lord. So you start with this sense of the Lord reigns
forever.

You take yourself back there when you have a victory. The second truth to remind
yourself of when you have a victory is the truth that defeat comes to those who
trust the work of their hands. In verses 15 and 16, David says, "The nations
have fallen into the pit they've dug.

"Their feet are caught in the net that they've hidden. "The Lord is known by his
justice. "The wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands.

" Hegeon, Silah. I'm not going to read those interjections like Hegeon and Silah
every time they come across. They're meant to mean something not said.

They're phrases that really mean pause. David's writing and he's saying, the
nations are working hard, that they're digging pits, they're hiding nets, traps,
that their hands are at work, but they're ensnared by the work of their hands.
And then he says, and it's the only time he does this, he says, "Hegeon and
Silah together.

" It's the only time these two words that mean pause and consider are put
together in the Book of Psalms. So I guess we should pause and consider. Pause
and consider.

The most important question of my day is not what work am I doing? Pits dug,
nets hidden, hands working. It's not what work am I doing, but who am I
trusting?

Because I can fall into the pit I'm digging. I can be ensnared by the work of my
own hands. And that's true even with spiritual work.

That's true even with things that you say you're doing for the Lord. Because if
you own too much of it, or you allow yourself to become too involved in it as if
it's yours and not his, you become ensnared by it. Even as believers, we can
start to dig our own holes, to hide our own nets, to work with our own hands.

Pause and consider for just a moment. Is this work that God is doing through me?
Or that somehow I feel like I, in my brilliance and in my deep spirituality,
that I am doing for God?

Isn't God lucky to have me working for him? Pause and consider. When I trust the
work of my own hands, I'm going to be ensnared by that work.

Now I say pause and consider as someone who's often trusted the work of my own
hands, often fallen into a hole that I have dug. I thought I was doing it for
the Lord at the time, but when I fell, I recognized I was really doing that for
my own pride. I was really doing that for my own sense of security.

God loves us through that, but he wants to take you to a different place. Or the
reason that you do the work is because of your love for him, pure and simple.
Lord, grow us to that place.

It's going to take a lifetime, but grow us to that place. So when you have a
victory, remind yourself, God's always the one who reigns, not my victory or the
way I did this victory. Remind yourself that the work of my hands, defeat's
going to come if I trust only in the work of my hands.

And then remind yourself of a third truth, the Lord will never forsake those who
seek him. Verse 18, the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the
afflicted ever perish. And then verse 10, those who know your name will trust in
you, for you Lord have never forsaken those who trust you, who seek you.

Sing praises to the Lord enthroned in Zion. Proclaim among the nations what he
has done, for he who avenges blood remembers. He does not ignore the cry of the
afflicted.

God has never forsaken those who seek him. He's always been faithful to me. I've
let the Lord down, he's never let me down.

I have often misunderstood the work and the timing of the Lord, making it seem
like maybe he was letting me down, but in the end, it was clear, he's never let
me down. And if I can start to see that with just my decades of following the
Lord, just think of how clearly we're going to see that when we get to eternity and
we can see it all. He will never let you down.

There's a very personal expression of that here in verse 12. That phrase, he who
avenges blood remembers. In that day, the one who avenged the blood of a family
member, somebody who was killed, was the family.

It was the responsibility under the law for the family to go and avenge the
blood of somebody who had been murdered in their family. And without getting
into Old Testament, New Testament, capital punishment and all of those thoughts,
what I want you to see here is what the expression is. It's an expression of the
depth of God's family love for you.

He who avenges blood remembers. God is your avenger. He is the one that you can
count on.

He is your father. God avenges the blood of the saints. God avenges the words
that are spoken against you.

Now, my prayer is that those who have done evil against the saints, like the
apostle Paul, or spoken against you, that they will turn to Christ for
forgiveness. And then instead of facing an avenging God, they'll face a
forgiving God. That's my prayer.

But that's not what this expression is here. The expression is those who refuse
to turn to him, they're going to face a father who's going to avenge the blood, the
hurt, the pain that's come against those whom he loves. In this psalm, the Lord
is spoken of as the judge, the king, the refuge, and the avenger.

He is all of those things in your life. He will never let you down. So in
prayer, let's just thank him for that right now.

Would you pray with me? And just say, Father, thank you for who you are. You are
the king.

You are in control. Even when it seems to me that this world is out of control
or my life is out of control, you're the king. You are the judge.

And you will judge rightly in the end. Even if for the moment it seems like the
judgment is going sideways, your judgment will prevail in the end. God, you are
my refuge.

You're the place that I can go when there's nowhere else to go, to find safety,
to find security, to find strength. And God, you're the avenger. You will not
let the hurts that have been done against your loved ones go unavenged.

You are a father who loves his children. And so I praise you for that. I thank
you for who you are.

And I pray that I could live in this place of victory in you. In your name,
amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look at Psalm 10, which tells us what to do when God
seems far away.