Introduction — Why the church as a corporate body must cry out to God asking Him to rescue and to judge

All across the world this Sunday has been set aside to remember the persecuted church. And I want to begin by reading some statistics of persecution during this past year. It's hard to validate statistics of what goes on in closed countries, but quite a few missions organizations believe these are fairly reliable.

1. Both IDOP and The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission claim that in 2024 "Over 365 million Christians live under governments that restrict religious freedom and subject believers to various forms of persecution..."¹ 365 million! That's a lot!
2. World Watch List documented that 10,000 churches were closed down by the Chinese government this year.²
3. Story after story of massive persecution has been documented by many organizations as occurring in Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, and several other Muslim countries. For example, last year 5,000 Christians were martyred for their faith, 4,000 were detained, 300,000 had to flee from their homes and go into hiding.³
4. We don't have much information on North Korea, but several organizations have claimed that it is the most dangerous country for a Christian to live in.

How should the church respond to persecution? Should we love our persecutors? Yes. Should we preach the Gospel to them? Yes. Should Christians refuse to get bitter when they are persecuted? Yes. But is there nothing more that can be done? Some sincere Christian pastors say "No. Absolutely no." Even some Reformed people have advocated total passivity and non-resistance to persecution. For example, John MacArthur (who is a wonderful pastor on many levels, and I have appreciated his ministry) has mistakenly said,

In a sense, pointing out the apostles’ submission in that passage is an argument from silence. Nowhere does Scripture indicate that they struggled against their captors or fought against their detention. But in that silence is a notable lack of resistance, especially from Peter, who just weeks earlier lopped off a Roman soldier’s ear in a misguided attempt to protect Christ from arrest. It’s clear that in the intervening days, his attitudes about submission and self-defense changed significantly.

That pattern of submission repeats throughout the New Testament. The apostles frequently faced legal and physical repercussions for their ministries. Many of them suffered long imprisonments, vicious beatings, and ultimately martyrdom. Yet in every instance [and he is wrong on that, but he says, "Yet in every instance"], they faithfully submitted to wicked authorities and their unjust punishments. The pattern in the early church was not to avoid or fight persecution, but to submit to it, trusting in God to sovereignly work through it to accomplish His purposes.⁴

What he failed to point out is that Peter rebuked the authorities in that same passage that he quoted and he questioned their authority to do what they were doing. He also sang Psalms - Psalms that resulted in Satan's kingdom taking a hit and a guard becoming a Christian. And it wouldn't suprise me if he sang some of the Imprecatory Psalms.

Let me give you some other examples. David loved Saul. Lack of love was not the issue. Yet David did not submit to Saul's persecutions. He even wrote some imprecatory Psalms against him, Psalm 59 being one of the more famous. He loved his son Absalom, yet wrote an imprecatory Psalm by God's inspiration against him too. That's Psalm 3. You see, you can love people, yet pray that God would bring down His judgments upon His and our enemies. And we do that because we don’t want Satan to triumph in the lives of those that we love. And by the way, God can answer the prayer in this Psalm by either converting them (in which case Christ bears the judgment of this Psalm in their place - and we will see a hint of that in this Psalm) or He can take them out (in which case the righteous are no longer persecuted). But it is simply not true that Christians should not cry out to God for His protection and judgements when the church is being ravished.

So before I even dig into this Psalm, I want to read a rather unusual passage as an introduction. You may not see the relevance of it immediately, but I believe that it is relevant. It is Deuteronomy 22:22-24. Verse 22 says,

If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die—the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel.

Using that as an analogy, I would say that there are some disasters that happen to the church because she has committed spiritual adultery, and the husband, Jesus Christ, is a jealous husband. He is forgiving when true repentance has occurred, but an adulteress who continues to sin with a high hand cannot expect to appease His fury. And there are passages in the prophets which apply this passage in Deuteronomy to God’s relationship to adulterous Israel. So some persecution is God's judgment for spiritual adultery. And I believe that the American church has committed spiritual adultery with a high hand, and apart from repentance, there is bound to be severe persecution.

But the next two verses are the ones that I want to focus on this morning. Verses 23-24 of Deuteronomy 22 say this:

If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbor’s wife; so you shall put away the evil from among you.

And I want to emphasize that phrase, “because she did not cry out.” Women were expected to resist their rapists, and they were expected to cry out for help. Neither men nor women were supposed to be passive when it came to evil. They were to resist evil with all the means at their disposal, and crying out for help is one of those means of resistance. Well, God has given us at least 18 imprecatory Psalms to cry out to God, and if you count portions of Psalms, some scholars give as many as 39 Psalms that give imprecations or cry out for vengeance.⁵ Indeed, one of the ways for persecuted Christians to be freed from bitterness and to be freed up to love their persecutors is to hand the judgment of their enemies over to God.

But many church-going people do not think it is right for the church to cry out these God-authorized imprecatory Psalms. They are particularly disturbed by phrases like the following:

"Let destruction come upon him unexpectedly, and let his net that he has hidden catch himself; into that very destruction let him fall." (Ps. 35:8)
"Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive into hell." (Ps. 55:15)
"Beak their teeth in their mouths, O God." (Ps. 58:6)
"May his children be fatherless and his wife be a widow." (Ps. 109:9)

These are all cries of a church that is being demonically ravished by enemies of God. And each one of those cries are God-authorized cries. Yet many say that we must not put those words upon our lips. Let me give you some quotes of Christians who hate Psalms 35, 58, 59, and many other Psalms. They hate them. That's not too strong of a word - they hate them.

1. The Church of England removed all the imprecatory Psalms from their Psalter many years ago. And here are direct quotes from the revisers as to why they did so. They said, these Psalms include “wild screams of barbaric rage in which reason, morality, respect for humanity and reverence for God seem alike forgotten.” These psalms are “unchristian,” unfit for the age of the gospel, an affront to the peace and love of the bleeding Savior, belonging to a time of primitive, warlike, and unrefined Jewish religion. They are “little short of an insult to the divine Majesty.” Of course, they failed to explain why the divine Majesty gave them to us in the first place. (Of course, they don't believe in inspiration, do they?)
2. C. S. Lewis called the imprecatory Psalms “diabolical.” He also wrote, “It is monstrously simple-minded to read the cursings in the Psalms with no feeling except one of horror at the uncharity [and uncharity is simply an older word that means "lack of love" - the uncharity] of the poets. They are indeed devilish.”⁶ That's C. S. Lewis. Now, if he was consistent, he would have to say that Jesus is devilish, since Jesus quoted these Psalms and made even stronger imprecations in the book of Revelation. He would also have to accuse Moses, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, and other saints in the Bible who all used the same language against their persecutors.
3. A. Weiser's commentary on the Psalms calls the imprecatory psalms “the undisguised gloating and the cruel vindictiveness of an intolerant religious fanaticism.”⁷ Of course, that is a gross misinterpretation of those Psalms and of David.
4. Francis Watson said, "Christian victims of oppression could never legitimately appropriate this psalm in its entirety, however extreme their sufferings, and its use in Christian liturgical contexts can in no circumstances be justified."⁸
5. Alfred Martins says, "Ultimately, of course, Christians at prayer will keep in mind that in praying the psalms they find themselves within a pre-Christian and sub-Christian ethos, on a level far surpassed by the Sermon on the Mount."⁹
6. And I have heard many modern pro-lifers say things that were similar.

But I am here to tell you that the church must cry out to her husband and His armies for help when she is being ravished. There is too much passivity when it comes to persecution. We will have a special prayer meeting this afternoon, and we have special guides to help make your own family prayers more systematic on this topic. And I am grateful to pastor Elliott and Daniel for having put those together. But I would encourage you to in some way set aside time today to pray for Christians in other countries who are being tortured in the most barbaric ways, or where they have been imprisoned in bug and rat infested holes for years, or where gangs of militants have murdered, raped and pillaged Christian areas simply because they were Christians. You see, Hebrews 13:3 says, "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them - those who are mistreated - since you yourselves are in the body also." If you are in the body of Christ you are part of the bride of Christ, and this is a Psalm that you can cry out on behalf of the bride. So let's dig into the text.

Driven To God as Our Protector (vv. 1-5)

The first thing that we see in this Psalm is that David is not just crying out on his own behalf; he is crying out on behalf of the bride as a whole. Yes, there is a historical context given in the title, but let me show you hints of how he (by inspiration) made this much broader than himself. The only enemy David had when he wrote this Psalm was Saul, a Jew. But notice in verse 5 that he calls on God to punish all the nations and to not be merciful to any wicked transgressors. Verse 8 says, “You shall have all the nations in derision.” This is the whole bride crying out wherever she might reside in the world.

Let’s dig into the first five verses: In verses 1-5 the bride is driven to Jesus, her husband and Protector. He says, “Deliver me from my enemies, O my God.” This is in the first personal singular (“me,” and “my”), and you might think, “How can I sing this? I don’t experience the bloody persecution that is mentioned here.” But again, we need to get used to thinking of ourselves as being part of the bride of Jesus Christ, and calling on the Lord to protect her. If you see yourself corporately, this is a psalm you can take upon your lips. When a bride was molested in the Old Testament, God expected her to cry out. And God expects the bride of Jesus Christ to cry out and not take persecution passively. There is much that can be done, and God is a jealous God who defends His bride and avenges her when she is ravished.

The Psalm says, “Deliver me from my enemies,” The church has a lot of friends, but it also has enemies. And you might wonder why? Why on earth would the church have enemies!? Down through history the church has benefited mankind enormously. The church has provided orphanages, old age homes, hospitals, schools, financial aid, and many other acts of love. Why on earth would the world bite the hand that feeds it? Why would our love be responded to with hate? Well, the answer is that we don’t wrestle ultimately with flesh and blood, but with demons. Jesus said that unbelievers have Satan as their father, and the desires of their father they will do (John 8:44). And the demons who influence these men and women hate anything associated with Christ’s grace. When you respond with love and grace to the persecution, it infuriates those demons even more. And Saul was a vivid example of this. The demon that afflicted Saul moved Saul to persecute David even though David had defended him and sought his good. David did nothing but good to Saul.

David goes on: "defend me from those who rise up against me." What this Psalm is teaching us is that the church must not be ravished quietly. She must cry out, and when her husband hears her cries, He will respond with vengeance.

A second thing we learn is that enemies rise up rather suddenly. A person who was not an enemy yesterday might rise up as an enemy today. Even in our voting we need to consider this. What was not an enemy yesterday might rise up as an enemy today - if the person does not have God's protection from demons. Sometimes Christians don't know where the next attack will come from.

The Psalmist goes on: "Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloodthirsty men." The level of iniquity and the level of bloodthirstiness that can be aroused in unbelievers by demons is often astonishing. My research shows that 1,037,000 abortions were officially reported just in the formal healthcare system in America in 2023. America is dripping with bloodthirstiness. It is a demonic bloodthirtiness.

Back when I used to make mission trips to India, I knew a Baptist pastor there who had been used by the Lord to convert many people. In fact, it was so noticeable, that the fanatical group of Hindus known as the RSS stormed into his church while the service was going on, dragged Pastor Paul into the street and beat him up. They told him never to preach again. When he was released from the hospital he went back to preaching. The second time that he was so savagely beaten, it took him quite a while to recuperate in the hospital. But he was back at the work that God had called him to do, seeking to show love to his persecutors and preaching forgiveness, love, and the Gospel. People in the church were fearful of him preaching anymore, wondering what might become of him, but he persisted. The third time he was confronted by the RSS Hindus, instead of beating him, they grabbed his daughter, doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. Through the flames, his daughter held her head high and yelled at her dad - “Don't stop preaching, Dad. Preach, preach preach the gospel." She died in front of him while the RSS men were holding him and keeping him from running to her. This is so clearly demonic. His persecutors were men held captive by demons - much like Saul was.

Yet here was a pastor who (though he was torn apart by anguish), also knew (as he worded it) the anguish that his enemies would experience in hell if they did not believe, so he continued to preach. The next time that they beat pastor Paul, they used a sharp rock on his stomach and cut his abdomen open so that his intestines spilled out. They also beat the rock up through his rectum so hard that it permanently damaged it and he had to have a permanent colostomy - simply because he was preaching the love of God to sinners. I've lost track of him for many years. Maybe he is no longer living- I don’t know. But the last I heard he was back at preaching, bearing in his body the wounds of Christ. THE BRIDE OF JESUS CHRIST NEEDS US TO CARE ABOUT THEM AND TO SING THE WAR PSALMS OF THE PRINCE OF PEACE. The bride is being ravished, and Deuteronomy 22 implies that if we (that is, the bride) do not cry out, we are guilty of complicity with the ravisher. We need to pray these prayers until enemies are either converted (in which case the curse has already come upon Christ as their substitute) or until they themselves are destroyed. When you begin to see the total depravity of men, you will not have problems with God's curses against them in these psalms. If unbelievers have demons pushing them, they can eventually become bloodthirsty. If God gives America up (in other words, He withdraws His restraining grace), America will plummet into more and more bloodthirstiness - such as ungodly wars, and bloody persecution. And even that kind of persecution could start happening here in America.

Verse 3 goes on: "For look, they lie in wait for my life; the mighty gather against me…" At this point, all David had done to Saul was to show him love, faithful service, and loyalty. Yet the demon that was afflicting Saul continually moved Saul to destroy David. Sometimes Saul wasn’t even sure why he hated David so much. Sometimes he was embarrassed by it later. But because he had given Satan legal ground to work in him, he was powerless to resist Satan’s temptations. And by the way, that is one reason why we have to always come clean on sin. Sin gives demons a foothold to be at work in your life.

Anyway, demons hate the church today just as they did back then, and they are waiting to destroy it. The day before this Psalm was written, Saul had thrown a spear at David trying to kill him. David thought it was just a temporary fit of anger, but that night the soldiers of Saul were outside his house waiting to kill him in the morning.

The title says "To the chief musician. Set to 'Do not destroy.'" That's an interesting title for a psalm that is calling for destruction, is it not? But in this all-out-war, it is one side or the other that is going to be destroyed. Either the church will be destroyed or Satan's kingdom will be destroyed. And as Moses prayed, "O Lord, God, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance…" If it has to be one or the other, David is saying "Do not destroy your own people. Have mercy upon them, and destroy your enemies." Anyway, the title goes on to say,] "A Michtam [which just means an inscription - a Michtam] of David when Saul sent men, and they watched the house in order to kill him." His wife helped him to escape out of window, but David was on the run from her father, Saul, from then on. And while on the run, David was driven to the Lord for defense. And the question might come: "Why? What had David done?"

Back to our Psalm: Verse 3 says, "For look, they lie in wait for my life; the mighty gather against me, not for my transgression or for my sin, O LORD." He is not claiming to be sinless. He is claiming to not be committing spiritual adultery - to not be doing anything worthy of this persecution. He is claiming that there is no guilt in him that would justify the bride’s husband executing her. He is claiming that there is no justification for the persecution.

Sometimes we are persecuted because we are jerks, but that was not the case with David. He was living as a Christian should. It was David's righteous life that offended Saul so much. And I believe the reason was that David's integrity highlighted Saul's lack of integrity, and this made Saul feel insecure. David's loyalty to Saul stood as a rebuke to Saul's lack of loyalty; David's love stood as a rebuke to Saul's unreasonable hatred. David's service stood as a rebuke to the king's lording it over others. His whole life was an offense to Saul because it showed Saul to be unworthy to be king. It made him insecure. And Scripture assures us that this is to be expected. 2 Timothy 3:12 says, “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” You might have a hard time believing that - surely people will like you if you live godly!! But 2 Timothy 3:12 says, “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” Why? Because they are of their father the devil, and the desires of their father they will do. Make sure that your persecutions are not because of your sin - those kind of persecutions don't count. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake" (Matt. 5:10). Make sure that the persecution is because of the reality of God's presence within you. If that is true, then your cry, “Awake to help me, and behold!” will be taken seriously by God.

Verse 5 starts, “You therefore, O LORD God of hosts...” Notice that phrase: “God of hosts.” David realized that Saul's visible army is not the one that makes the ultimate difference; it is God's invisible army (or hosts of angels) that counts. It was not the number of sophisticated weapons that were used by northern Sudan against the South that made the crucial difference in the South's successful war of secession. Obviously it would have been nice if Southern Sudan initially had had a few Patriot Missiles to shoot down helicopters that were strafing women and children. But ultimately it was the favor of the Lord God of hosts. In fact, it is absolutely amazing to read about the advances that the Christian South had despite lack of any weaponry from outside. The only weapons Southern Sudan had been able to procure were those that they had captured from the North. One time the south was way outnumbered, and yet the north ran, leaving all their equipment behind. One northern soldier who was captured was asked why they ran, and the terrified soldier said that it was the fiery men who were advancing. It scared them. And I believe that they saw God's fiery angels. That was the Lord God of hosts who had his heavenly hosts fighting on behalf of Southern Sudan. Why? Because they had started using the imprecatory Psalms as Peter Hammond had coached them to do. So few Christians do this! No wonder we are being defeated. But Peter Hammond taught the southern Sudanese Christians in the army to pray the imprecatory Psalms against their enemies. They were finally crying out in a God-authorized way, and God answered. They had become a bride who was crying out when she was ravished, and her husband came to her defense.

And so David says, “You therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to punish all the nations…” Notice this Psalm is not just written for David's situation. It was included in the canon the moment it was written with the knowledge that it would be used in all nations of the world. "Awake to punish all the nations; do not be merciful to any wicked transgressors.” Ladies, would you not feel that way if someone was attempting to rape you? You would want your husband to shoot him before he could rape you. Right? And so it is with the bride of Christ. She is being coached to say by David’s inspiration, “Awake to punish all the nations; do not be merciful to any wicked transgressors.” Can you say "Amen" to that? If you cannot, then you are not acting like Deuteronomy 22 says you should. God wants us to cry out for vengeance. In the parable of the importunate widow, Jesus praised her, and then said,

...now shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:7)

The question is not whether God responds. He does. The question is, “Will we cry out like the importunate widow in faith?” And the church did cry out when Christ came in AD 70 to judge Israel and Rome, and there are miraculous stories of God's intervention that enabled the church to grow like crazy in those first few centuries. And I think their use of the imprecatory Psalms was one of the keys. The Psalter was their main hymn book.

Anyway, back to our Psalm, you will notice that next comes a “Selah” notation, which means "Pause." He wants people in all ages and in all nations to pause so that they can take time to meditate on the reality of persecution and the need for God's people to be driven to our Protector in prayer. Pause to be gripped by the enormity of the conflict. Pause to reflect on the stakes involved. If the church is wiped out in some of these countries, what will happen to those nations? Are we driven to the Lord to offer up the War Psalms when we see persecution around the world? I hope this Psalm will motivate you to do so.

Confident in God as Our Protector & Avenger (vv. 6-15)

Frustrated Howling of the Wicked (v. 6-7)

But now we come to the heart of the Psalm - an expression of confidence in God as protector and warrior. We do not pray this psalm out of despair. No. We know that Jesus will defend her bride when the whole bride is willing to cry out. We cry this in faith because we know of our Heavenly Husband’s love. And so, this Psalm, in verses 6-10 focuses on God as protector, refuge and defense; and then the parallel section in verses 11-15 sees God as avenger, warrior and conqueror. This Psalm is written with a chiastic structure, with an abcddcba pattern.¹⁰

So in your outlines, verses 6-7 are parallel to verses 14-15. Both speak of the howling frustration of the wicked. Let me quickly read both sections so that you can see how the structure works. Verses 6-7: "At evening they return, they growl like a dog, and go all around the city. Indeed, they belch with their mouth; swords are in their lips; for they say, 'Who hears?'" Now look at verses 14-15. "At evening they return, they growl like a dog, and go all around the city. They wander up and down for food, and howl if they are not satisfied." There are slight differences in the parallels because the emphasis in the second half is offensive whereas the first half is defensive. But they are clearly parallel.

And knowing the parallels of each section helps us to appreciate not only what is being developed in the Psalm, but also show us what the heart of the message is. In the Hebrew chiastic structure, the center part of the chiasm (in this case, the two D-points) is the heart of the message; it's the main theme. We usually put the theme right at the beginning of a paragraph, and most Hebrew paragraphs do too. But the chiasm puts the theme in the center. So this is not simply a complaint about persecution. The persecution described at beginning and end sets the framework for why our God is a mighty fortress and a mighty warrior. He needs to be a fortress because of the war being brought against the church. But He needs to be a Warrior on the offensive because God has ordained that the church of Jesus Christ shall triumph. Amen? He’s not just a fortress; He is also a warrior. Praise God! And we can take comfort from that. But He wars when the church cries out in faith. And much of His conquest is Gospel conquest in which many of the enemies are converted.

In the second howling section, the failure of the enemies of the cross is highlighted by the fact that though these dogs seek food, they are howling from the frustration of not being satisfied. Saul couldn't catch David, and it frustrated him. He couldn't win. More and more people were going over to David. More and more people were becoming dissatisfied with his kingship, which makes Saul even more fearful and more intense in his efforts to suppress and control the people. And that’s what is happening right now in so many countries. There are so many people going over to Jesus that the Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and atheists are fearing that they will lose control. The only thing they know is force, so they persecute - many times out of frustration.

I think Iran is a great example of this dynamic. Several studies have shown that more than one million Iranians have become Christians and joined the churches in the last few years, despite the incredible persecution that the government and even private citizens have been bringing against Christians. I mentioned this to you before, but it deserves repeating. Mohammad Abolghassem Doulabi, a senior Iranian cleric reported that 50,000 mosques have closed recently due to a steep drop in attendance.¹¹ Many of these Muslims risked dying in order to become Christian because they saw the difference in the lives of the Christians and they wanted what the Christians had. They didn't like what they saw in the mosques, and they wanted what they saw in the churches. There was a stark difference between Muslims and the Christians just like the citizens of David's day saw a stark difference between Saul and David. And many of these Muslims have had dreams that have told them to read the Bible. And they did. And as they read the Bible, they became soundly converted.

Well, enough by way of introduction to this concept of chiasm. Verse 6 says, "At evening they return..." And of course Saul's soldiers had come at evening to watch for David when he came out. Demons are creatures of darkness that liked to hide what they were doing from scrutiny. Granted, many persecutions happen in the open (especially when the enemy is in control), but many are whisked away with no one knowing where they have gone to.

Verse 6 says, "They growl like a dog, and go all around the city." What a picture of the wicked persecutors! Scavenger's who have nothing from their own dominion, and who howl because they are jealous of what the Christians have. And so these dogs even pick fights with each other and threaten each other. We live in a city where dogs are licensed and controlled (and I don’t believe in that, but they are), so we have a hard time understanding this image. But believe me, in Middle Eastern cities of that day (when there were lots of stray dogs), it was much like we experienced in Africa. You never went anywhere without a club to fend off wild dogs. Wild dogs were everywhere. I remember being sick to my stomach one time at what I witnessed as a kid. I was in a bus driving through the capital city and saw a drunk being attacked by dogs in Addis Ababa, the capital city. They were trying to eat this drunk alive. That is one grissly image that has stuck in my brain. They would have finished him off if others had not chased the dogs away. Middle Easterners didn't care for dogs much - at least not wild dogs. You can see that God does not have a high opinion of these persecutors.

It goes on: "Indeed, they belch with their mouth…" They may see their bragging and boasting as something smart. God sees it as no better than a dog belch. "Swords are in their lips; for they say, 'Who hears?'" They thought they could get away with it. Northern Sudan thought they could get away with their attacks on Christian women and children in the South. China thinks that its economic clout insulates it from any criticism. North Korea has had a cocky who-cares-what-God-or-the-world-thinks attitude. Saudi Arabia belches forth acidic hatred upon its Christian citizens thinking that no one will hear or care. But you know what? They are mistaken. We do care! Amen? We will do something. We will take upon our lips these nuclear weapons of the Psalms and begin to wield that rod of iron that Christ promised to share with us in Revelation chapter 2. Let me read that passage from Revelation 2. It is Jesus speaking to His bride, the church, saying,

“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations – [Did you get that? He is going to give us power over the nations. And how is He going to give us that power? Jesus quotes from Psalm 2 (an imprecatory Psalm), saying] ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’ – as I also have received from My Father.”

He is saying that though this passage promised a power given by the Father to Jesus, Jesus is willing to share that same power with those of us who are willing to use the imprecatory Psalms to cry out in faith. When we take Christ’s prayers upon our lips (and the imprecatory Psalms are Christ's prayers), we are raising that powerful rod of iron to smash the nations. The imprecatory Psalms are a kind of nuclear weapon, and the church must once again learn how to use them. We need to use them carefully, but we do need to use them. Jesus says that those Psalms are His God-ordained rod of iron.

Confident that God is Motivated to Defend Us (v. 8)

In verse 8 David is confident that God is motivated to defend us because he is looking at life from God's vantage point - from the fortress throne room of heaven. "But You, O LORD, shall laugh at them; You shall have all the nations in derision." They may think that they can successfully cast off the bonds of Christ, but He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Their attempts to exterminate the church are as futile as a fly seeking to kill a man. And confident that God is motivated by His emotions to laugh and to be in derision, he goes on to say in verses 9-10,

God on the Defensive (Fortress) (9-10))

"I will wait for You, O You his strength; For God is my defense. My God of mercy shall come to meet me; God shall let me see my desire on my enemies." When the bride cries out, she can be confident that her Husband will come running with His guns blazing. Having asked in faith, there is no question in David's mind that God will be His defense. As Shadrack, Mesheck and Abednego said, "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king." The Christian has the best of both worlds. If he dies, he receives the ultimate deliverance from the pain and suffering down here into eternal bliss. Heaven is a marvelous deliverance. I look forward to getting to heaven. To get to heaven early is an incredible blessing. And yet God is also able to physically deliver Christians out of the hands of persecutors in miraculous ways, and He has done so many times. Either way, God is the victor and the Christian is more than a conqueror through Christ.

God on the Offensive (Warrior) (vv. 11-12)

But God is more than merely a defense. He is on the offensive as well. And notice the interesting wording in verses 11-12. "Do not slay them, lest my people forget; scatter them by Your power, and bring them down, O Lord our shield." David over and over again spared Saul's life when he had the chance to kill him. Remember when he was in the cave, David cut off part of his robe and then later showed it to Saul to prove that he could have killed him. And he did something similar on another occasion as well. His ultimate desire was that Saul repent, be delivered from the demon, and be changed from an enemy into a friend. And so David prays, "Do not slay them…" That displays amazing love and forbearance. Do not slay them. It is perfectly compatible to love your enemy and yet pray this Psalm. In a later War-Psalm David speaks of the love and kindness he had shown to his enemies. It was probably his hope that they would get saved, in which case Christ would bear the judgment being called upon them in their place.

But David still prays that their ungodly power and their Satanic kingdom would be utterly and totally destroyed - not just in word, but in power. "Scatter them by Your power, and bring them down, O Lord our shield. For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride, and for the cursing and lying which they speak." There is plenty of reasons for God to destroy the persecuting Muslim governments who have tried to cover up crucifixions, murders, slavery, forced sex, etc. And God can uncover those lies.

I found a story from years ago that took place in Zimbabwe after the transition in government happened. A leading official had been caught on video tape telling the government thugs to beat up any opposition party followers until they were dead (and to make sure they were dead), and to blame it on the opposition. He said no one would know. If anyone reported it to the police, he said he had the police in his pocket. Yet God uncovered his lies. God had somebody leak a video of what he had said - which was hugely embarrassing to the government because it had international implications. God has uncovered the lies of communists. God has uncovered the lies of our present administration. God is currently uncovering the lies of the Iranian government. A state-controlled newspaper survey conducted in November 2023 revealed that 92% of Iranians are dissatisfied with the country's current state. 92% of Iranians do not like their current government. No wonder the current government is cracking down in their insecurity - just like Saul did. The survey was called the Fourth National Survey on Values and Attitudes of Iranians. It was hugely embarrassing to the government. But Iran has just doubled down on its control as a result of it. That's all these God-hating governments seem to know - control, statism, power, coverups, and lies. But lies can be uncovered. Isaiah 28:17 says, “The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.” But [and this is a big but - but] that is assuming that the bride of Jesus Christ is acting as she should when she is being ravished. When we are willing to cry out to our God when being attacked by a metaphorical rapist, He hears better than any earthly husband can. He can see through the deceptions and hiding places of these enemies and take them out. And the purpose of this sermon is to motivate the church to cry out to the church's husband.

Confident that God is Motivated to War for Us (v. 13)

He repeats his confidence that God is motivated to war for us in verse 13. "Consume them in your wrath, consume them, that they may not be; and let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the earth." Once again he doesn't want them consumed in a way where they can't know that God rules. He doesn't necessarily want them dead, though he is OK with that if it is God's will. He wants them scattered so that they can't do their dirty work and so that it is obvious to all that God rules. And that should be our desire. Revolution is not the answer to any society. Conversion and social transformation is. And yet God sometimes uses death - our death and the death of others. And that's up to Him. And when He does so we should rejoice.

Frustrated Howling of the Wicked (v. 14-15)

Then working backwards in this chiasm he repeats that these enemies of the kingdom are like frustrated, stray, howling dogs. "And at evening they return, they growl like a dog, and go all around the city. They wander up and down for food, and howl if they are not satisfied." And it is my prayer that this would be the state of all the persecutors of the church - frustrated at every turn in their efforts to advance humanism, abortion, perversion, statism, ungodly taxes, and other evil things. Howling, but unable to intimidate the righteous. I’m halfway through Seth Gruber’s book on the 1619 project, and wow! We need more bold people like him. May the Lord bring the enemy to this state of howling, but running off into the darkness as the light penetrates their haunts.

Throughout this middle section David is expressing His confidence in God's power, God's ability, God's motivation, and God's reasons for judgment. We too need to have a confidence that our God is a God of judgment - not just in eternity, but in time as well. The question is not whether God judges. The question is, "Are we willing to ask Him to judge? The modern church is largely composed of wimps. They don't like the war Psalms. They are like that bride in Deuteronomy 22 who refuses to cry out. They think they are being loving and meek, but that is neither loving nor meekness. Meekness is defined in the Bible as power under control. Are we willing to arraign people before the court of heaven and ask God to speak His verdict of guilty right now? When the church has a husband who has vowed to defend her (and He has), how can the church not cry out with such Psalms? We must. Deuteronomy 22 mandates that we do so.

Joyful in God as Our Protector (vv. 16-17)

It is no wonder to me that David ends on a joyful note. He says in verse 16: “But I will sing of Your power...” He doesn't lament that God is wringing His hands and frustrated over what the nations are doing. He doesn't relegate God's Power to the future. He says, “But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning...”

But, I want to focus on that word "mercy." The church doesn't deserve His protection when we consider the church's sins against Him. It is mercy to the church, and we should never forget it. We can never charge God with wrong when He allows persecution. God has the right to allow the church to be persecuted. Our sins testify against us. They cling to us - that is, when we do not confess them. But because of our union with Christ, and because of His blood, we can plead for mercy. This implies that even the persecutions are sometimes used by God as His disciplines of the church. But that also implies that God can withdraw the discipline when we have learned from it. And for that we can be joyful.

Starting at the second clause in verse 16 - “For You have been My defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; for God is my defense, my God of mercy.” The ability to sing when you are down is an evidence of faith; faith in the sovereignty of God; faith in His goodness; faith in His mercy; faith in His power and strength. And what a great place for us to end the sermon! When we sing the War Psalms, we must sing them in faith that they portray a just and perfect and loving God.

Conclusion

Many people speak against the War Psalms as if they showed a harsh God. But I revel in the War Psalms. I delight in them because they evidence a divine husband that is raised to fury when He sees His wife abused, beaten, and threatened with rape. What kind of a husband would he be who passively sat by and watched and did nothing? That would not conform to God’s own blueprint for a husband! God's blueprint says that we must lay down our lives for our wives. And Jesus is a better husband than any of us. Christ will declare War on all who violate His wife and we can rejoice that Christ is jealous for His bride. In Exodus 34:14 He says, “for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” If His very name is Jealous, it means that it is of the very character of His nature to rouse Himself up on behalf of His bride. Can we not rejoice in that?

I'm going to have us sing a different imprecatory Psalm to end this service. And as we do so, let us sing it with confidence, joy, faith, and with zeal. Let's lift the rod of iron to smite the nations who persecute His church. And may all God's people say "Amen."