This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) Welcome back to our last day, day five. We're looking through
Psalm 31 to 35. We're looking at Psalm 35 today.

It's a psalm that begins with the word contend. It's a psalm about how to trust
God to contend, to fight for you. How to trust God to fight for you specifically
against those who scheme against you, against those who lie about you, and
against those who gloat over you.

Now, you're going to need this in your life at some point, but if you've got
somebody scheming against you right now, if you've got somebody lying about you
right now, if you've got somebody gloating over you right now, you need the
words of this psalm today. Because David tells us exactly what to do. How to
trust God to fight our fights.

How to trust God to win our battles. In verses one to 10, he tells us, when
people scheme against you, look to God to protect you. Let me read verses one to
six.

Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight
against me. Take up shield and buckler, arise and come to my aid.

Brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me. Say to my soul, I am
your salvation. May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame.

May those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay. May they be like chaff
before the wind. With the angel of the Lord driving them away.

May their path be dark and slippery. With the angel of the Lord pursuing them.
So here, David, he asks God to fight for him.

Instead of deciding he's going to fight the battle on his own, he's saying, there's
people scheming against me, and God, I'm showing up, I'm asking you to fight
this battle for me. I need you to fight this battle for me. Many times when
people scheme against you and you start to fight against them, you're actually
entering into the very battle they'd love to have you in.

They love to have people begin to fight against them. That was part of their
scheme. That makes them feel important, helps them to maybe win some material
victories.

People that scheme against you are very confused when you start to trust God to
fight your battles for you. Now, does that mean you have nothing to do in the
battle? No, God's sometimes going to direct you and do exactly what you need to do.

But there are many times when he will direct you to be silent, when he will
direct you that he has the work to do. When Jesus faced his greatest battle on
the cross, his father directed him to be silent in the face of the accusations
that were brought against him. So when you face these battles, you ask God to
fight for you.

He not only prays that when he looks to God to protect him, he also asks God to
speak to his soul. Did you notice that in the midst of this? It sort of stands
out as a different phrase as he's praying about his enemies.

In the midst of this, David says, say to my soul, I am your salvation. So as
you're asking God to fight the battles for you, you're reminding yourself,
you're asking God to remind your soul that he's your salvation, not the
circumstances, not those people, not everything working out like he wanted it
to, he is your salvation. So God speak that to my soul.

Give me that confidence that no matter what happens, I am standing firm in your
salvation. Now, as he prays this prayer, he prays very specifically, and he asks
the angel of the Lord to drive the enemy away. It's like he's bringing out the
big guns.

I mean, the angel of the Lord is the spiritual presence of God in this world
fighting against the enemy. He doesn't say, hey, God, we make sure the
circumstances don't work out right for them, or God, could you like maybe
confuse their minds? He does pray some of those prayers in other places, but
here he just goes for the big guns.

And he says, just send the angel of the Lord. Just in your presence come and you
just chase them away. Let them feel like you're pursuing them.

Well, if somebody's being pursued by the very presence of God, they're not
thinking about you anymore. They're not scheming against you anymore. And the
truth is, that person that's fighting against you, they're not a believer.

One day, one day they're going to lose the battle against the Lord. One day they're
going to stand before him, and they're going to find that the life that they live, the
schemes that they had, they end up just sand in their hands. They're nothing.

They're going to end up with nothing but loss. So any battles that we face against
those who are not believers, we need to remember there's compassion, because we
recognize they need the Lord. We ask God to fight for us with a sense of
compassion towards even our enemies.

Jesus taught us, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. When
people scheme against you, you look to God to protect you. Now, each of these
sections, he ends it with praise.

And here, he begins this praise in verse nine. Then my soul will rejoice in the
Lord and delight in his salvation. My whole being will exclaim, who is like you,
O Lord?

You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and the needy from
those who had robbed them. It is good to praise God as you ask him to fight for
you. And in advance, before the battle is even over, David reminds himself,
God's going to win this victory, and God, I'm giving you praise in advance.

Even those who have no resources, you fight for them, and you're going to win this
battle. So when people come against you in this kind of way, you trust God as
the one who's going to bring your victory. Second truth he reminds us of is in
verses 11 to 18.

When people lie about you, look to God to reward you. Listen to verses 11 to 15.
Ruthless witnesses come forward.

They question me on things I know nothing about. They repay me evil for good,
and they leave my soul forlorn. Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and
humbled myself with fasting.

When my prayers returned to me unanswered, I went about mourning as though for
my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother.
But when I stumbled, they gathered in glee.

Attackers gathered against me when I was unaware. They slandered me without
ceasing. So David says when they were ill, I prayed for them.

I even fasted for them. But when I stumbled, they gloated against me. They
slandered me without ceasing.

Here he says they rewarded my prayers, God, with evil for good. And so I'm
praying that you will give good for even the evil that they're trying to do
against me. Even this evil, even these lies, God, bring good out of it.

Only God can do that. Lies are from Satan. Satan's the liar, he's the father of
all lies.

So any lie that you're hearing against you, it's coming from Satan. God is the
father of all good, and he's greater than Satan. He can defeat any lie.

He can take any lie and he can use even what Satan is trying to use against you
for evil, he can use it for good. So in verse 17, David prays, oh Lord, how long
will you look on? Rescue my life from their ravages, my precious life from these
lions.

There are times when people are saying false things about you, when you're
facing circumstances that are against you. There are times when you feel exactly
like David feels here. How long?

How long do I have to endure this? When you feel that way, what should you do?
Well, you start like David started.

You tell God how you feel. You say, God, how long am I going to have to go through
this? It seems like forever.

I don't know if I have the strength to go one more day. You tell him exactly
where you are. You ask him to rescue you.

And God gives you the strength for one more day. Now, as he's praying that God
will give him strength, even when people lie against him, he adds a note of
praise. In verse 18, I will give you thanks in the great assembly.

Among the throngs of people, I will praise you. What I love about this is that
David kept praying amidst the people, even when he was under attack, even when
people were ridiculing him. He could have been embarrassed, ashamed.

He could have decided, I'm not going to show my face in front of anybody. But even
when he was under attack, he kept praising God with others. And I encourage you
to do that.

Even when you're under attack, keep praising God with others. Yeah, there may be
some people in that crowd who are against you, but there are a lot who are for
you. Don't let their lies cause you to hide out from worshiping with others.

That's what Satan would love to see happen. Then he has the victory. You keep
worshiping with others.

That's where God's victory is. That's where God's truth is. There's a third
section to this psalm.

It talks about when people gloat over you. When people gloat over you, you look
to God to vindicate you. Listen to verses 19 to 24.

Let not those who gloat over me, who are my enemies without cause, let not those
who hate me without reason maliciously wink the eye. They do not speak
peaceably. They devise false accusations against those who live quietly in the
land.

They gape at me and they say, aha, aha, with our own eyes we have seen it. Oh
Lord, you have seen this. Do not be silent.

Do not be far from me, oh Lord. Awake and rise to my defense. Contend for me, my
God and my Lord.

Vindicate me in your righteousness, oh Lord, my God. Do not let them gloat over
me. That's trusting God with your troubles.

That's trusting God when people are against you. All of us, when people gloat
over us, we want to vindicate ourselves. We all feel that way.

But David, he has the spiritual strength to look to God to vindicate him. And
look at his bold requests. God, do not be silent.

Do not be far from me. Awake and rise to my defense. Contend for me.

Vindicate me. Now you might get the sense here that he's ordering God what to
do. He is not.

David clearly knows that he can't order God around. Instead, he's boldly
recognizing before God what God can do in this circumstance. Even in a time when
you are under attack, you can know, you can recognize before God, God, you will
not be silent.

You will have the last word in this circumstance. God, you will not be far from
me. You will be my closest friend, my omnipresent father.

God, you will arise to my defense. God, you will contend for me. God, you will
in the end vindicate me.

I trust in that. Jesus looked to this verse 19 of this psalm when he faced those
who would gloat over his misfortune. In John 15, 25, but this is to fulfill what
is written in their law.

They hated me without reason. So Jesus saw Psalm 35 as a prophecy of how he
would be treated. And we see in how Jesus responded how we're to act.

As I said earlier, we love our enemies. We pray for those who persecute us.
David says two things to end this psalm.

First in verse 27, may those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and
gladness. May they always say, the Lord be exalted who delights in the wellbeing
of his servant. David talks about those who delight in his vindication.

He remembers that he has friends. No matter what attack you're going through,
don't forget that you have friends who will stand with you. You may not have
even found them yet.

The people who are surrounding you right now, there are no friends. Well, in
God's church, in God's body, he has some friends for you who will stand with
you. And then the second thing that David writes at the end is in verse 28, my
tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long.

So again, keep worshiping no matter what the attacks. Don't let their schemes
keep you from seeing God's promises. Don't let their lies keep you from seeing
God's truth.

Don't let their gloating keep you from seeing God's encouragement and hope.
Let's pray together. Our Father, contend for us.

Contend for us. When those around us are scheming against us and lying about us
and gloating over us, we look to you as the Father who loves us, who will
contend for us. And I know, Lord, we often pray how long.

We wish the fight that you fought would be immediate, but Lord, you're fighting
an eternal battle and you're going to have eternal victory. So we stand in that
place of your eternal victory right now. And in that place, we pray that the
battle we're facing right now, that one day is going to end in victory, we pray
that as soon as possible, it could end in victory.

Let the lies stop, let the gloating stop, let the schemes stop. And instead,
God, bring out your plan, your purpose, your promises. We ask this in Jesus'
name, amen.

Join us next week, we're going to continue together to let God's word speak to our
hearts.