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God: Judge of All the Earth

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God: Judge of All The Earth Psalm 58:1 To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David. Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly? 2 No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth. 3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies. 4 They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear, 5 so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter. 6 O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD! 7 Let them vanish like water that runs away; when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted. 8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun. 9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away! 10 The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked. © Reformed Baptist Church of Northern Colorado and Pastor Doug Van Dorn 1 All Rights Reserved 11 Mankind will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth."" Psalm 59:1 To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David, when Saul sent men to watch his house in order to kill him. Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise up against me; 2 deliver me from those who work evil, and save me from bloodthirsty men. 3 For behold, they lie in wait for my life; fierce men stir up strife against me. For no transgression or sin of mine, O LORD, 4 for no fault of mine, they run and make ready. Awake, come to meet me, and see! 5 You, LORD God of hosts, are God of Israel. Rouse yourself to punish all the nations; spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. Selah 6 Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city. 7 There they are, bellowing with their mouths with swords in their lips-- for "Who," they think, "will hear us?" 8 But you, O LORD, laugh at them; you hold all the nations in derision. 9 O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you, O God, are my fortress. 10 My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies. 11 Kill them not, lest my people forget; make them totter by your power and bring them down, O Lord, our shield! 12 For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies that they utter, 13 consume them in wrath; consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah 14 Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city. 15 They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill. © Reformed Baptist Church of Northern Colorado and Pastor Doug Van Dorn 2 All Rights Reserved 16 But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. 17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love." Psalm 60:1 To the choirmaster: according to Shushan Eduth. A Miktam of David; for instruction; when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and when Joab on his return struck down twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt. O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; oh, restore us. 2 You have made the land to quake; you have torn it open; repair its breaches, for it totters. 3 You have made your people see hard things; you have given us wine to drink that made us stagger. 4 You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow. Selah 5 That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer us! 6 God has spoken in his holiness: "With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Vale of Succoth. 7 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter. 8 Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph." 9 Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? 10 Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go forth, O God, with our armies. 11 Oh, grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man! 12 With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes." Psalm 58-60 © Reformed Baptist Church of Northern Colorado and Pastor Doug Van Dorn 3 All Rights Reserved Yahweh and the Problem of Evil: A Case Study from 1 Kings 22 I WAS ASKED A QUESTION THIS WEEK by a friend that is closely related to our Psalms today. The question deals with a strange story found in 1 Kings 22. It is a classic divine council scene, but it takes a twist that is difficult for many people to understand: And Micaiah [the prophet] said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; and the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ And the LORD said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ Now therefore behold, the © Reformed Baptist Church of Northern Colorado and Pastor Doug Van Dorn 4 All Rights Reserved LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the LORD has declared disaster for you.” (1Kg 22:19-23) We see here the court of heaven. Yahweh is its leader and the host of heaven are deliberating over the fate of king Ahab, one of the most wicked kings in the history of Israel. This shows very clearly that there is heavenly interaction amongst several heavenly beings (not just Yahweh) that deal with us humans. The first difficulty comes in the question Yahweh poses to the council, “Who will entice Ahab?” The word for “entice” can also mean “deceive.” But we know that deception and enticement are bad things. God does not do such things. So how could he ever be a party to them? Does this depict the LORD as an evil being? The second difficulty comes when a “spirit” (ruach) comes forward and says, “I will entice him.” Yahweh asks him how, and the spirit responds, “By being a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.” Lying is a specific form of deception. The thing is, Yahweh tells the spirit to go ahead and do it and tells him that he will succeed in his mission. © Reformed Baptist Church of Northern Colorado and Pastor Doug Van Dorn 5 All Rights Reserved Then the prophet caps it all off by confirming that the LORD put a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets. How can we possibly understand such a passage as this? How can the Bible not be teaching that God puts his blessing on sin and wickedness? Psalm 58-60 This week we are concluding a series of psalms of David that began in Psalm 51. Psalms 56-60 form a unit that were collected together as “Miktams” of David. Last time we looked at how Psalms 56 and 57 are individual laments over the wickedness of men which build to a crescendo. That crescendo comes in Psalm 59 which we will look at today. But we will begin with Psalm 58 which was inserted between these others to help us reflect a bit more objectively upon their meaning. We will finish with Psalm 60 which takes the individual reflection and helps us think collectively as the church about the implications should the God-side of this become more personal to us. Psalm 60 is “A Miktam of David; for instruction.” But instruction for what? This entire set of © Reformed Baptist Church of Northern Colorado and Pastor Doug Van Dorn 6 All Rights Reserved Psalms have circumstances from the life of David at their center. So we are to learn things from his life that we can take into our own. Psalm 59 was when Saul sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him (Psalm 59:1; cf. 1Sa 19:11). Psalm 60 has in mind several passages recorded in 2 Samuel 8:1–14 and 10:6–18 and 1 Chronicles 18:1–13 and 19:6–19.
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