Psalm 59 - Body Doubles and Complaining Dogs

Well, welcome back to another end of week here on Tabernacle Talk. That is if you're listening to this on the Friday when it comes out.

We are in Psalm 59 today, and this is another one of those Psalms where we're going to be jumping back to the book of 1 Samuel to get some background on what is happening. The inscription for this Psalm reads like this.

For the choir director, to the tune of Do Not Destroy, a mictam of David. This is when Saul sent agents to watch the house and kill him. Okay.

If you don't already have the Mission Impossible theme going through your head, you might be getting that now, because that's what I got going when I read, when Saul sent agents to watch the house and kill him. So we know who David is.

He fought Goliath. He began fighting in Saul's army, accomplishing great actions and works for him. He became Saul's son-in-law through marriage.

Saul said, hey, bring me 200. They're basically like kill 100 Philistines, bring the proof of it, and I will give you my daughter to marry. And David brought 200 proofs of Philistine death.

But despite him being his son-in-law, despite the fact that Saul's eldest son Jonathan loved David and knew that God had set him up to be the next king of Israel, despite the fact that the people loved David and sang songs.

Saul was slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands, despite the fact that David had never done or said anything to kind of make Saul think that he was in danger, that David was coming for the throne.

Saul tried to kill David on multiple occasions, and Jonathan tried to go to his dad and be like, hey, stop, what are you doing? Like, this is bad, this is wicked, this is wrong, don't do this.

And verse number six of First Samuel 19 says, Saul listened to Jonathan's advice and swore an oath, as surely as Yahweh lives, David will not be killed. So Jonathan summoned David and told him all these words.

Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he served him as he did before. If I was, if Saul had tried to kill me multiple times, I don't know that it would have been like David and gone back, but that is what David does.

Verse number eight, when war broke out again, David went out and fought against the Philistines. He defeated them with such great force that they fled from him.

That is that there was a huge retreat that was sparked because of how hard David was fighting. Now verse number nine, now an evil spirit sent from Yahweh came on Saul as he was sitting in his palace holding a spear.

David was playing the liar and David and Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear. As the spear struck the wall, David eluded Saul, ran away and escaped that night. I do want to give one caveat here.

It says, now an evil spirit sent from Yahweh came on Saul as he was sitting in his palace holding a spear.

That is that God uses his angel emissaries to accomplish many actions, especially as it relates to kings and kingdoms, as we could look in the Book of Daniel as well as some of the Psalms.

I don't think the ones that we're interacting with in Book 2 of Psalms, but Book 3 deals a lot with some of those specifics. So God doesn't personally tell Saul to do anything bad. He sends one of these spirits as you look at, what is it?

The Book of Second Kings. There's a very interesting look at how this goes. God isn't just sitting in heaven by himself.

He's got a bunch of angels of varying ranks that are with him. There are some that are like kind of the throne room. I use the phrase guardians, though obviously we understand that God doesn't need any guardians.

These are just the ones that are in the presence of God that like a king would have some guardians. Angels are there. And so the only way that we can kind of make sense of their location is to call them guardian angels in that sense.

Those would be, well, we sing about it, the cherubim and the seraphim. I think I've talked about this before on the podcast, if not, then I did in our study through the book of Genesis 1 through 11, where the seraphim and the cherubim are mentioned.

So there are multiple kinds of angels, spiritual beings that are in God's presence. And occasionally when God says, I want this action done, He will send someone to do it.

So Passover, you have the death angel that goes through, that is sent from God, that says any doorpost that has the blood of the lamb on it, you pass over that. Anyone that doesn't, you are to kill.

You are to bring this judgment, this justice, just as the Pharaoh had killed the Hebrew boys, all of the boys. So God in His divine justice and retribution, He doesn't kill all of Egypt's boys.

He just takes the firstborn, which frankly is a picture of how He is going to give His firstborn, so to speak, his only begotten, Jesus Christ, not to, not just to be killed, but that He would be the sacrifice for us.

So that in that story, Jesus is the Passover lamb. Jesus is the King. Jesus is the one that leads the children of Israel out.

Jesus is the firstborn son that dies, that gives His life, and that leads Israel out to safety. Jesus is the one that frees His people. Like, Jesus is all over that story.

So that is neither here nor there. So all of that stemming from God does not do evil. And sometimes people have wondered, okay, well then when bad things happen, what's going on?

Look at Job 1 and 2 that God tells Satan when Satan's like, hey, I really want to do this. And God says, okay, you've got a leech. I'm going to tell you what you can and can't do.

But yeah, try it out. See how it goes for you. And this will test this person to see the veracity of their faith.

And obviously, Job passes with flying colors. At some point, we will probably on the podcast go through the book of Job to just deal with some of these things. So there's this spirit sent from Yahweh.

He comes to Saul. Saul tries to kill David. David gets away.

And verse 11, Saul sent agents to David's house to watch for him and kill him in the morning. But his wife, Michael, warned David, if you don't escape tonight, you will be dead tomorrow.

Here, Saul's own daughter is saying, like, my dad's going to get you, so you have to get out tonight. So she lowered David from the window and he fled and escaped. Here, this is betrayal of the king.

This is disloyalty.

And we'd already read early in 1 Samuel what happens when a child of Saul rebels against something that Saul has said, even if they don't realize that Saul had said it, that Saul tried to have Jonathan killed because he ate some honey when he was

hungry during a battle. And it helped him to have the strength to be able to fight harder. And so certainly Michael here is putting herself in danger. I mean, you could also pronounce it like Michael, Michelle, if you wanted.

So then she lowers David from the window, he flees, escapes. Michael took the household idol and put it on the bed, placed some goat hair on its head and covered it with a garment. When Saul sent agents to seize David, Michael said, he's sick.

Saul sent the agents back to see David and said, bring him on his bed so I can kill him. When the agents arrived, to their surprise, the household idol was on the bed with some goat hair on its head.

Saul asked Michael, why did you deceive me like this? You sent my enemy away. And he has escaped.

She answered him. He said to me, let me go. Why should I kill you?

Obviously, there she's lying. Though there's certainly many ethical questions about when your life in danger. What truths do you owe to your captors?

Kind of the old question of, you know, if the Nazis come to your house and they're like, hey, are you harboring any Jews? Do you have to tell them? Yes.

Can you lie? Can you say no? Kind of one of those ethical questions going on.

Also, note here just randomly is like, why is there a household idol here?

And from some of the rest of the interactions that we see of Michael throughout the biblical account, it could very well be that she was not like, strictly sold out to worshipping God.

It is a possibility there's maybe some other considerations that would be in there, but that has nothing to do with the Psalms. So, we're gonna now go over to the Psalm. Now, we've seen David's father-in-law.

He's tried to kill him. He barely escapes because of his wife's intervention and because of his brother-in-law's intervention. And so, here's where David says this, rescue me from my enemies, my God.

Protect me from those who rise up against me. Rescue me from those who practice sin and save me from men of bloodshed. Because, look, Yahweh, they set an ambush for me.

Powerful men attack me, but not because of any sin or rebellion of mine. For no fault of mine, they run and take up a position. Awake to help me and take notice.

Yahweh, God of the heavens' armies, you are the God of Israel. Rise up to punish all the nations. Do not show any favor to any wicked traitors.

Salah. Here, frankly, just a really straightforward God. My father-in-law, my king, is doing bad.

And God, I need you to rescue me. I need you to wake up and punish him for what he is doing. And God would eventually do so.

That Saul would be killed by the Philistines. That Saul would consistently not be fighting against the Philistines.

He didn't use his energy over the course of several years to fight against the people that God had said like, hey, make sure that you drive out the Philistines, because with their idolatry, they are going to drag you down.

And that exact thing happened in the life of Saul. That there at the very end of his life, he's not hearing from God at all. And so he goes to a witch, to a person that would talk with demonic spirits and would try and get answers.

And so Saul did not get rid of evil. And so evil got rid of Saul.

I do want to mention, if you're in America and you're like, God, I really want you to like punish this group or that group or punish this people, punish this political party, God's not going to give like little individual lightning bolts to all of

your political enemies. If America is going to be judged, it's going to be all of us. So you can pray for God to punish America for our wickedness. Certainly, we are deserving of it.

Just remember that God's not going to only have it affect the good. It's also going to affect, or God's not going to have it only affect the wicked. He's also going to have it affect the good as well.

The rain that's good falls on the just and the unjust. And when there is economic ruin or warfare, things like that, that falls on everybody. So be careful what you wish for.

Verse number six, They return at evening, snarling like dogs and prowling around the city. Look, they spew from their mouths, sharp words from their lips, for who they say will hear. But you laugh at them, Yahweh.

You ridicule all the nations. I will keep watch for you, my strength, because God is my stronghold. My faithful God will come to meet me.

God will let me look down on my adversaries. Here is, there is these people stationed outside of David's house to try and capture him, to try and get him. He says, God, you're laughing at them.

Here David was able to escape, able to get through, and they didn't even know he left. And God is laughing at wickedness. God is not threatened by evil.

He's not like, oh no, my church isn't going to survive if this person or that person, you know, is in office or whatever. God is not thrown off by anything that humans do.

Instead, he is the one that laughs at the plans and the schemes and the wickedness of nations and rulers and evil people.

And we can trust in God as our stronghold, the one that will never fail, the one that there is safety in, security, peace, settled-ness, a calming of our nerves, and a feeling of joy, and even a filling of love.

All comes with God's presence, and he is faithful. Verse number 11, he says, Do not kill them, otherwise my people will forget. By your power, make them homeless wanderers, and bring them down, Lord our shield.

For the sin of their mouths and the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride. That are curses and lies. Consume them in rage, consume them until they are gone.

Then people will know throughout the earth that God rules over Jacob, Sala. David has just a kind of crazy out of pocket line, so to speak.

He says, God, this is actually from that one scene in The Princess Bride where Humperdinck thinks that Wesley is going to kill him, and he says, No, I'm not going to kill you. Well, the whole time through he's bluffing.

He says, Basically, all I'm going to do left is leave you your tongue. That way you can tell people like who did this to you and how you were beaten by me. And turns out he was just bluffing for some time.

But here this is kind of what David says. He's like, Hey, God, like, don't kill them. Otherwise, people won't know like what happens when you judge wicked people.

He says like, keep them alive. But that way then people will know God is just and God brings justice on wicked people. Verse number 14, he says, And they return at evening, snarling like dogs and prowling around the city.

They scavenge for food. They growl if they are not satisfied. There's this desperation that they are dirty, filthy scavenging animals that whine and complain and make loud noises when they don't get what they want.

Man, how many times has that been me? I've been a complainer. I've been, I'm making noise when I don't get what I want.

That's not what I want to be. Here's what David says.

Instead of a complainer, David says, Here's what I'm going to do when I when I think about you, he says, But I will sing of your strength and will joyfully proclaim your faithful love in the morning.

He escaped at night and he says, God, I'm going to sing about you and I'm going to joyfully proclaim your hasad, your steadfast, your covenant love in the morning. He says, For you have been a stronghold for me, a refuge in my day of trouble.

To you, my strength, I sing praises because God is my stronghold, my faithful God. Today, maybe you're on the run. Maybe your wife had to hide a decoy, body double dummy in your bed so that your father-in-law didn't kill you.

If your day has gone a little bit better than that, then praise the Lord. That's the grace of God. But David in this situation, he ends it saying, like, God, I'm going to praise you.

I'm going to sing about you because you are faithful to me. You've made it so I'm alive this morning and so you are deserving of my praise.

And maybe if that's all that God's given you today, you're on the run, you're away from your family, your father-in-law is trying to kill you.

You're headed to the Philistine city of Gath, where you killed its chief champion and where its chief champions, four brothers live. And on the journey, you're like, hey, God, I'm going to sing to you. We can praise God in any and all circumstances.

I love that about the life of David, that everything that he was going through reminds me, hey, life's never as bad as you think it is. So praise the Lord and lift him up. Thanks for tuning in today.

Hope that you have a good weekend. Make plans to be in church on Sunday if you are physically able. And if you're coming to Tabernacle, we're doing John chapter 3 verses 22 through 36.

It's going to be a wonderful time. In God's word, we're also learning about our salvation with our Baptist Faith and Message 2000 Statement of Faith class, Basic Beliefs. We're going over salvation and would invite you to be a part of that.

Then Monday, we're going to be going over, I think this is Psalm 59 if I remember correctly. We're going to be going over Psalm 60. So looking forward to doing that with you all.

Thanks for tuning in. See you next episode.