again connected to the sixty nine psalm we started at last word the evening psalm sixty nine while it is listed by schofield is one of the imprecatory psalms yet beginning in verse twenty two you have the some of the most severe implications that are found anywhere in the word of god what we have here is a subject of divine retribution The first twenty-one verses of Psalm sixty-nine are one of the most graphic pictures of Calvary that is to be found anywhere in the prophetic scriptures. Psalm sixty-nine and Psalm twenty-two are very much alike. Psalm sixty-nine is quoted a number of times in the New Testament, almost as many times as a hundred tenth psalm. You'll find it in John chapter two and verse seventeen, John chapter fifteen and verse twenty-five, Romans chapter eleven, verses nine and ten, Romans chapter fifteen and verse three, and in Acts chapter twenty and verse one. And while this psalm is a psalm of Calvary, we must remember that for those who reject the message of the cross, divine retribution awaits them. and the man who will not have the salvation of God must suffer the penalty of his sins forever. They who reject Christ reject God's purposes in grace. This sixty-nineth Psalm, what we have here in the first twenty-one verses, you have Calvary and our Lord upon the cross through his agony and all that he endured. restores according to verse four what he took not away now there's a an interesting article in this month's interest magazine by a man that I have a lot of respect for Mr. Albert Horton he had been a missionary for a number of years in Angola and he is a linguist but he doesn't think that this psalm is speaking of Christ It's a picture of Christ. He thinks that this Psalm is really talking about David. And he takes, as many do, many other men like Dalish in the Kyle and Dalish commentary. And like Alexander McLaren and others. But I mentioned last Sunday night when we looked at verse five. And it says, how could Christ ever confess sin? He knew no sin, and that is correct. But we must remember that Christ not only died for us, he died as us. And on the cross on Calvary's Hill, he came under the curse and the load of our sin. And he bore it on our behalf. And when we look at this, It's a good article by Brother Horton, but I just don't agree with it. And who knows, maybe he's right. But nevertheless, I see it as being our blessed Lord on the cross. Now, these awful curses of God upon the Christ rejecter is seen here in all this horrible reality, and it shall be experienced. by those who have no room for Christ in their life now. Verse twenty-five in particular is applied to Judas's chariot by Peter in Acts chapter one in verse twenty. Judas, of course, we know, was never saved. John chapter six, verse sixty-four, makes that very clear. Judas was a Christ rejecter. The problem with Judas is a problem of many today. Judas was a lover of money. And the Word of God says that a covetous man is an idolater. He was a lover of money. And he was called by Christ in John chapter seventeen the son of perdition. And that term the son of perdition is also reserved for the Antichrist. in second Thessalonians chapter two so we want to read beginning at verse twenty two to the end of this chapter from verse twenty two down to verse two verse twenty eight we have the awful imprecations describing the retribution of God upon those who know not God and obey not the gospel then beginning in verse twenty nine We again return to Calvary, and we see the Lord, and then we see the working up because of Calvary, the purposes of God, not only concerning those who believe, but also for Israel and for Judah, as we note in the closing verses. So let's read this passage together. Verse twenty-two, let their table become a snare before them, and that which should have been, for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened that they see not, and make their loins continually to shake. Pour out thy indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents. For they persecuted him whom thou hast smitten, and they talked to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. and iniquity unto their iniquity, and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with a righteous. But I am poor and sorrowful. Let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. The humble shall see this and be glad, and your heart shall live that seek God. For the Lord hereeth the poor and despiseth not his prisoners. Let the heaven and the earth praise him, the seas and everything that moveeth therein. For the Lord will save Zion and will build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it, And they that love his name shall dwell therein. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. This is an interesting psalm. If you take another view of this psalm, it can be done. In the first twenty-one verses, we have Calvary. Then, beginning with a retributive part in verse twenty-two, down to verse twenty-eight. Here we have the judgment of God. in the tribulation period and then the last part of the of the psalm beginning at verse twenty nine we have our lord and the reward that is given to him in a coming day when the saints of god are gathered in his presence the reward that our lord is going to have for his great work at calvary's cross So it can, this Psalm also can be looked at in a dispensational way. I want you to notice as we examine these awful curses upon the children of men, Hebrews chapter ten is one of the greatest chapters explaining the purposes of God in redemptive work that you're going to find anywhere in the New Testament. But when you get to verse twenty nine, verse twenty nine, is an awful verse and an awful warning to the children of men. It says, How much sorrow punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy of who have trodden under foot the Son of God, and have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified and on holy things, and have done desperate to the Spirit of grace? These are questions that are asked in Hebrews ten twenty nine. And then, of course, in verse thirty, he quotes that verse, Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. So the vengeance that flows from these curses is the vengeance of God. It's not the psalmist calling for vengeance, but it is God or the Son of God who is calling for vengeance upon those who would not obey the gospel and bother neither him. So from verses twenty-two through twenty-five, we have the scope of the redemptive curse, or the retributive curse, excuse me. If the redemption of Christ is burned and his sacrifice rejected, then the curse must inevitably return upon the head of the person who rejects Christ. We see this when we look at the cross. For there are two thieves who were crucified with a Savior. The one turned to the Savior, and in faith he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He saw that through the death of the Son of God, we know there was genuine repentance. For he said to the other thieves, we received the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing amiss. He said, this person does not deserve to die. And he saw through the death of Christ to the coming of Christ. He said, Lord, remember me when thou comest. He saw the resurrection and he saw the glory of the Son of God. And by faith he said, Lord, remember me. And the Lord said to him verily today thou shalt be with me in paradise. But the other thief, the other thief was just as lost and the retributive judgment of God. awaited him. You see, the first thing that we notice in this retributive judgment is the curse is upon the home of the Christ rejected. You have that in verse twenty two. It says, Let their table become a snare before them, and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Our homes are a place that God is preserved for the welfare of his people, and now the home is under the curse. You see, the cross of Jesus Christ is at once the high point of man's guilt. Man could do nothing worse than crucify the Lord of glory, the Son of God. Now while the cross is the high point of man's guilt, The cross is also the high point of God's grace. God could do no more than he did in showing his forgiveness, in showing his compassion, and in declaring his mercy. The cross. And God took that very instrument of cruelty, the cross, and turned it into the means of the salvation of man and the blessing of man. This is what God is able to do. But it's interesting the reading of that twenty-second verse. He says, let their table become a snare, and that is closer to link with verse twenty-one. For what did they give the Lord? In his agony on the cross, they gave him gall to quench his thirst. Gall and vinegar. So the Lord speaks of their table in poetic justice. Poetic justice is justice that is returned to someone in their own kind. And what they gave the Lord through his lips, their own table becomes a curse. And you see, when you think of the retributed judgment of God, the breakup of the home is a harbinger of the coming day of God's wrath. And the home of Christ's rejectors is going to be broken up in the day of the wrath of God. But not only is the curse, the retributed curse upon the home, The retributed curse is upon their health in verse twenty three. It says, Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loins continually to shake. Pour out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. The curse is upon their health. Men gloated when the Savior suffered at Calvary. They cried out, he saved others. Himself he cannot save. In other words, they said, oh, he performed miracles. But now look at him. He can't even save himself. Had our Lord tried to save himself, there would be no salvation for you and me. He didn't save himself in order that he might save us. as we read in Romans chapter fifteen and verse three for Christ pleased not himself that verse has always amazed me whenever I read it Christ pleased not himself and you think of what a self-pleasing generation we're living in but Christ did not please himself You see, disease, not only the breakup of the home, but also disease is another herald of the coming day of God's wrath. Plague and pestilence will sweep the world in the day of God's wrath. Deadly diseases that defy medical skill. will be worldwide, they'll sweep the world. And when you think of the deadly disease called AIDS, and what I read concerning the AIDS epidemic in the country of Uganda, the millions that have this epidemic there and they do nothing, it defies the human mind. And our Lord is breathing out in this Psalm the terrible curses upon the health of men who live in sin and who reject the grace of God. But then in verse twenty four, closely linked to this, you have the expression of their happiness, the home, the health, and the happiness. You see, the fun soon goes out of sin. when the chickens come home to roost. I remember years ago we had a friend on his final message in an evangelistic series, my friend Peter Galinsky. His subject was when the chickens come home to roost. That was a subject. And I tell you, the fun goes out of sin in a hurry. when the young woman who thought she was having a good time is pregnant. The fun goes out of sin in a hurry when a person learns that they have AIDS. You see, this is a day, friends, when men in government, men in high places, Openly alert with sin in all of its abominable forms. And they're not going to escape the poetic justice and the reprobative curse of a holy God. The time is going to come when men give an account for their deeds. I remember a great preacher, George Landis, saying to me one time, he said, isn't it amazing that we remember what God forgets and we forget what God tells us to remember? You see, you go to a meeting and there's a testimony meeting. What does man do? He remembers what God forgets. God says there are sins and iniquities, well, I remember no more. what we like to talk about them in a testimony meeting. But when we forget what God remembers, that's bad. God tells us to remember lots why. When did you think about it last? Remember lots why. You see, Luke seventeen verse thirty-two. for Lot's wife, though delivered, she's the only person in Scripture that was led from the city of destruction by the hand of an angel and said, I want to go back. She said it because she looked back when she was told not to. Her love was in Sodom, like Judas's love was in the offering basket. or the hold that sin can get on the people who know about God. She was married to a righteous man. Lot was a righteous man. Remember, that's why. There are other things God tells us to remember. And Lot's wife. And we're told to remember Lot's wife. In relation to the coming of the Lord. But then when you come to verse twenty five. Here we have the curse upon their houses. The very houses. For it says let their habitation. That's the house. Let their habitation be desolate. And let none dwell in their tents. This is a verse that is quoted by Peter in Acts chapter one and verse twenty. It is quoted concerning Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus for the price of a slave. He loved money. He loved it. If people will not have Christ, God will permit them to have the Antichrist. If men will not have the one who blesses houses, then they're going to have to have the one who destroys houses. You see, it is the law of sowing and reaping all over again. That's what this Psalm is telling us in this passage. But when we get to verses twenty-six through twenty-eight, here we have the reason for the retributing curse. God doesn't do anything without a reason. He's a very reasonable and a righteous person in what he does. In verse twenty-six, it begins with the word for. And that's a conjunction. They could change that word to because. Because they persecuted him whom thou hast smitten. In other words, when the word Jesus was on the cross, it was God who made him to be sinned for us. who knew no sin, and man aggravated it all by what he did, showing the wretchedness of the human heart. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. You see, that little word for introduces us to the reason. The person smitten is smitten by God, and man aggravated. the sufferings of Christ with his lies and with his abuse. The abuse that came from the lips of men, the lies that came from the lips of men, just aggravated the sufferings of our blessed Lord. But verses twenty-seven and twenty-eight declare that there is no hope for salvation upon earth. No hope. Verse twenty seven, add iniquity to their iniquity and let them not come into thy righteousness. And the only way that a person can stand in the presence of God, he must have the righteousness of Christ. And the Lord here prays through the psalmist that they don't have it. This is a terrible implication. We have become so lovesick as we study the word of God that the love that we talk about is not a righteous love at all. It's mush. But all the love of Christ that's real. It is a righteous love. And God loves us with a righteous love. a love that declared his own son to be sinned for us in order that we might be declared the righteousness of God in Christ. And here the Christ rejector is seen as not having his righteousness. And then it says, let them be blotted out of the book of the living in verse twenty eight. All the awfulness. of being blotted out of the book of the living. In other words, without hope and without God. Now, then he repeats this. He says, let them not be written with the righteous. And this was a problem with every one of us before we were saved. There in Ephesians chapter two, verse twelve, we were without hope and without God in the world. Here we have the reason for the retributive curse of God. When I read this, all I can say, I'm glad I'm saved. All to be in this situation without hope, I once was there. And the marvel of the grace of God and that which incites genuine worship is a knowledge that God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Well, when we come now to verse twenty-nine to the end of the chapter, we have the fulfillment of God's eternal purposes. Why didn't was Calvary a reality. It was a reality according to the eternal purpose of God. God does all things according to the purpose of his will. And we return now to the cross. And when we return to the cross, our Lord from the cross, and we see the wide scope of redemption. And we see the purposes of God in redemption. In verse twenty-nine we hear the Lord say, but I am poor and sorrowful. Now the word for poor here is not the same word that you have in verse thirty-three. Here the word means I am afflicted and sorrowful. That is the word that we have here. Our Lord is speaking in this verse as the man of sorrows, the one who is acquainted with grief. But our word in this verse, he's looking beyond Calvary. There's even a joy in it. I am poor and sorrowful. Let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high. You see, in Hebrews chapter twelve, verse two, we read, Who for the joy that was set before him? Let the salvation of God set me on high. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame. In other words, the thought of his redeemed people being with him, worshiping him, rejoicing in his salvation, the redeemed of the Lord being with him, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. In other words, It describes in Hebrews twelve in verse two, and in this verse here, in the midst of the anguish of the Son of God, there's a certain joy that he had in accomplishing the will of God, even in his affliction. I can't explain all that, but I believe it's in the text. I can't explain Hebrews twelve verse two. who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame. You see, one of the things that we have is we know that the scripture says the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. And therefore, out of this, out of the lips of the afflicted Savior comes praise unto God. And we have one of the great worship sections here. It says, I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify him with thanksgiving. When you read the second chapter of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter two, it is written of our Lord in the midst of the church, will I sing praise unto thee? And in the midst of our singing, As we remember the Lord, and as we seek to glorify him in worship, there is a Lord himself singing with us. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. Now what does God have to say concerning it? It says, This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs. In other words, Depending on how wealthy you were as an Israelite, when you came to the altar of the Lord, you brought turtle doves if you were poor. Or you may bring a handful of meal if you're very, very poor. Or you can bring a lamb or a goat if you have a little more money. But if you're wealthy, you could bring a bullet. But here's something that pleases the Lord more than bringing what a wealthy man would bring. It's the praises of the lips of the people of God. God is listening for the praises of these people. And you see, in the midst of the praises of the people of God is a voice of the Son of God. whose enabling helps us to worship. But when you come to verse thirty-two, it says, The humble shall hear this and be glad, and your heart shall live that seek God. The humble. In other words, here we have in verse thirty-two those who will believe the message. The humble shall believe the message. and when they believe the message they're saved we're saved by believing the report of the word of God faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and there are those who will not believe and the same message that saves one group curses another I can prove that from Hebrews alone it says by faith Noah Being warned of God, offered to God, no. By faith Noah, being warned of God, prepared an ark to the saving of his house. By the which he condemned the world. The same ark that saved Noah condemned the world. And he became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. That's what the Word of God tells us in Hebrews chapter eleven. There are those whom the gospel will save. They're called the humble. The humble shall hear the road and be glad. I've never met a person who saved who wasn't glad they were saved. I've met a lot of miserable sinners living for themselves, but I've never met a person who saved who was sad that they were saved. Every one of them is happy. The humble shall hear the road and be glad. But... When we come to verse thirty-three, here's that verse that has the word, poor in it. For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners. In other words, the poor here are the helpless. Apart from his grace, all of us are hopeless and helpless. You see, this was the first reward to the Son of God, the dying thief. And it was a reward of the operation of His grace. And then our Lord looks to the future in our glorious triumph when the purposes of God are going to be accomplished. And it tells us, let the heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moveth therein, for God will save Zion. God's purposes will be accomplished. Zion, the city of David. all that is connected with Zion, the city of our God. And all the hopes of the world hang upon the blessings that God gives in Zion. For it's in Zion that the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. We read in the hundred thirty-third Psalm. And the purposes of God will be accomplished. How wonderful to realize that God when he restores Israel according to his purposes the nations of the world are going to be blessed and in a special way the cities of Judah are going to be built and that speaks of a restored nation of Israel now I know there are those who don't believe that Israel as a nation is going to be restored excuse me excuse me, that Israel as a nation is going to be restored. But they will. And the promises of God to Israel will be fulfilled because God keeps his work. Let's pray together. Our Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus, We realize that judgment is your strange work. But we thank you for your grace. And as Revelation nineteen tells us, there's going to be a hallelujah praise to thee for the judgment that you execute upon the wicked woman Babylon. We can only say, you do everything well. And we thank you for this Psalm. We thank you for the person of the Psalm, our Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you for the way in which it relates to both grace and government. Because you've made him who died on the cross, the governor of the universe, king of kings, and the Lord of lords. We give you thanks in his worthy name. Amen.