Please turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 21. We looked at the first half last week. We'll take up verses 8 to 13 this morning. But I want to read Psalm 20 and 21 as they go together.

Psalm 20 is the hope and the prayer of the church with reference to the first advent of our Lord Jesus Christ and the confident faith that God will bring to pass all that they pray. And then in Psalm 21, we get the finished result. We see God's answer to prayer and the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ in verses 1 to 7, and then the church with a confident expectation concerning the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and His final triumph or victory over all of the enemies of the Most High. So beginning in Psalm 20 at verse 1, to the chief musician, a Psalm of David.

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob defend you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and strengthen you out of Zion. May he remember all your offerings and accept your burnt sacrifice, Selah.

May he grant you according to your heart's desire and fulfill all your purpose. We will rejoice in your salvation. And in the name of our God, we will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.

Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed. He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They have bowed down and fallen, but we have risen and stand upright.

Save, Lord! May the King answer us when we call. To the chief musician, a psalm of David. The king shall have joy in your strength, O Lord, and in your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice.

You have given him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah. For you meet him with the blessings of goodness. You set a crown of pure gold upon his head.

He asked for life from you, and you gave it to him. Length of days forever and ever. His glory is great in your salvation. Honor and majesty you have placed upon him.

For you have made him most blessed forever. You have made him exceedingly glad with your presence. For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High, he shall not be moved.

The Judgment Is Inescapable

Your hand will find all your enemies. Your right hand will find those who hate you. You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger. The Lord shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them.

Their offspring you shall destroy from the earth, and their descendants from among the sons of men. For they intended evil against you. They devised a plot which they are not able to perform. Therefore you will make them turn their back.

You will make ready your arrows on your string toward their faces. Be exalted, O Lord, in your own strength. We will sing and praise your power. Amen.

Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your glory, for your majesty. On a beautiful day like this, we see that the heavens do declare your righteousness and the firmament shows forth your handiwork.

And then we come to that written word, that revelation concerning our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We stand in awe at your grace and at your mercy to us. We thank you that with you there is forgiveness. We thank you for that righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone.

And as the church expectant, we look forward to that coming again in glory of this righteous judge to judge the living and the dead. Help us to live in light of that reality, and for any and all here that are dead in their trespasses and sins, awaken them to that reality, that they will stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ to give an account of deeds done in the body, whether good or ill. We ask now that your spirit would guide us and illumine us as we continue in the Psalms of David. We ask that you would wash us clean in that precious blood of the Lamb, and we pray in his most blessed name.

Amen.

Introduction

Well, as I said, Psalms 20 and 21 go hand in hand together. There is expectation concerning the coming of the Messiah. And if you note specifically in 20, verse four, it says, may he grant you according to your heart's desire and fulfill all your purpose. And then in Psalm 21 too, you have given him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips.

So certainly we see David in Psalms 21 and 22, David, the king of Israel going out to battle against the Philistines or against the Amorites or the Ammonites. But I think it far transcends David and points to David's greater son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I think that's obvious and confirmed in say, verse four of Psalm 21. He asked life from you and you gave it to him length of days forever and ever.

King David of Israel did not occupy the throne forever and ever, but rather it would be the seed of or a descendant of David that would take that throne and reign forever and ever. So as we come to Psalm 21, we see the exaltation of the king in verses one to seven, and then secondly, the future triumph of the king in verses eight to 13. By way of reminder, we saw a declaration in 21, one and two, The king shall have joy in your strength, O Lord." The apostle tells us who for the joy set before him, describing our Lord Jesus in Hebrews chapter 12. He did what he did in terms of despising the shame, enduring the cross.

He did it for the joy that was set before him, namely the glory of God in the salvation of all those whom the Father had given him. And then we see in verses 3 to 7 the declaration or expansion on that. For you meet Him with the blessings of goodness. God the Father meets Jesus with the blessings of goodness at the resurrection from the dead, at the ascension to His right hand, at the exaltation of the Son of God, and the current session at the right hand of the Father.

All of these things are bestowed upon the blessed Savior. As Spurgeon says, Jesus wore the thorn crown but now wears the glory crown. It is a crown indicating royal nature, imperial power, deserved honor, glorious conquest, and divine government. And I think there's references in terms of Christ's second exaltation at the right hand in the remainder of this section of the psalm.

The exaltation, simply, He is enthroned at the right hand of the Father with a crown of gold. The mediatorial office, notice specifically in verse 7, for the King trusts in the Lord. The Lord Jesus, according to His human nature, trusts in the Father. And then the constancy of Christ, notice at the end of verse 7, He shall not be moved, a promise made to the righteous man of Psalm 15, underscored in Psalm 16, and again fulfilled here at the ascension of our blessed Savior.

The Judgment of the Wicked

Now, that brings us to the church's confidence in the second advent of Christ, specifically with reference to the judgment of the ungodly. So when we look at verses 8 to 13, there's two main points. One, the judgment of the wicked in verses 8 to 12, and then secondly, the exaltation of the Father in verse 13. So let's look at this judgment of the wicked in verses 8 to 12, and there's two things that we need to notice here. the certainty of the judgment in verse 8, and then secondly, the finality of the judgment in verses 9 to 12.

Now, this is a sober passage of Scripture. It demands our attention. It is very serious. Hopefully, as the people of God, as the church of Christ, we'll be able to imitate the apostle Paul, who said, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

In other words, what is presented here in verses 8 to 12 in terms of God's judgment through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is terrifying. It should be terrifying and it should be horrifying. But notice that it's not without reason. It's not like the Lord Christ is going to come and judge a bunch of innocent, helpless, hapless souls that never did anything deserving of punishment.

No, they're God-haters. They're enemies. They're despisers of Yahweh and of His Christ. They plot, they engage in scheming, vain things against the Most High and against His anointed.

I think it was last week or the week before in our studies in the book of Deuteronomy, we dealt with God's admonition or rather commandment to the Israelites in terms of holy war. There in Deuteronomy chapter 20, there's engagement rules, engagement with those cities that are distant from Canaan and those cities that are within Canaan. And when you see what God demanded of Old Covenant Israel with reference to the cities within Canaan, it was absolute obliteration. It was absolute destruction.

And if you've ever heard anybody talk about that, or you hear an atheist or an agnostic response, they say, well, that's just horrifying that the Old Testament actually sanctions genocide. Now when you think through it, at least at the surface level, it might sound a bit compelling. You mean old covenant Israel is given the green light by Yahweh to go in and utterly exterminate all of the Canaanites? But you need to remember that the Canaanites were wicked.

It wasn't based on ethnic concerns. It was based on ethical concerns. In other words, they are lawless. They engage in lawlessness.

They are wicked. They are reckless. They are rebellious. They are vile and vicious.

So God demands that Old Covenant Israel go into the Canaanites and destroy them and cast them out and dispossess them. Again, not because they have Canaanite blood, but because they're in rebellion against the Most High and against His Christ. Intriguingly, after Old Covenant Israel does that, not sufficiently, not perfectly, not obediently and compliantly with the way the terms of holy war were specified, when they ape or imitate the same conduct, God raises up Assyria to take out the northern kingdom. When Judah doesn't learn the lesson, God raises up Babylon to take out the southern kingdom.

This is not genocide. It's not arbitrary. It's not capricious. It is the reality that all men everywhere have transgressed the holy law of God Most High and are therefore liable to His just judgments, both in this life and that which is to come.

And so when it comes to this concept of second coming and judgment by our Lord Jesus, the reality of a righteous and just God necessitates it, demands it. Absolutely crucial that in a moral universe governed by an infinite holy God, there's going to be an accounting given on the part of His creatures who were made to worship Him and to glorify Him, but instead have transgressed His holy law. So hopefully the church as church will understand and appreciate what we've been saved from through the gospel of our salvation, but as well what our fellows are prone to and we pray for them and we persuade them because we do in fact know the terror of the Lord. And if you're not a believer here this morning, you need to ponder, and you need to see, and you need to understand what David, by inspiration of the Spirit, is alerting us to concerning the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Psalm 20, they pray for the first advent of the Messiah. He comes, He suffers, He dies. But then Psalm 21 indicates that Yahweh heard the prayers of the church. He was raised up.

He's enthroned to the right hand of the Father. And now the church prays in light of verses 8 to 13, His return again in glory to judge the living and the dead. So

Certainty of the Judgment

note the certainty of the judgment according to verse 8. Your hand will find all your enemies. Your right hand will find those who hate you. This is certain.

It's not something you can wishfully hope away. It's not something that you can say, well, I deny the prospect of a future judgment, so therefore it's just not going to be. Try that with a red light. I deny the presence of the red light, so I'm not going to stop my car.

Try that with the policeman who pulls you over after running the red light. I don't believe in the presence of this policeman, so therefore I'm not going to get a ticket. Your wish ideals, the things that you don't like, don't stop being. And the same is true here.

Your hand will find all your enemies. Your right hand will find those who hate you. The apostle in the book of Hebrews tells us, and as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgment. I've already alluded to 2 Corinthians 5.10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

In other words, the apostles assume and take as reality and truth what the psalmist is inscribing here by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's an amazing thing, isn't it? We all plan for something, don't we? If you're a child, you're planning for lunch this afternoon.

And if you're an adult, if you're a businessman, you're planning for a work meeting perhaps on Thursday. If you're a high school student, you're planning for your future in terms of college or trades or military or whatever it may be. All of us at some level are planning for something. We may be planning to die, not by our own hand, but by the inevitability of things.

How many times do you meet people that don't plan for what Paul highlights is the absolute reality that we'll die and then be judged? that we must stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of deeds done in the body, whether good or bad. How many times do we live as if that's not a future certainty? How many times do we take into consideration that if we stand before that just judge of all the earth on that day, and we're not cleansed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness, all of the horror and the terror that Psalm 21, 8 to 13 holds out, is going to be true upon us. This is certain.

This is inevitable. And I would suggest as well, it's inescapable. In the book of Revelation, in chapter 6, at the opening of the sixth seal, we read this in verses 15 to 17. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath, notice, of the lamb.

For the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand? Can you picture that? A lot of people interpret that in a different bunch of ways, but everybody sees it as judgment, judgment of some sort. Some of us interpret it as a judgment of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Others put it into the future like this particular psalm does, but all of us agree there's some form of judgment going on and the wrath of the Lamb. But notice, all these strong men, all these wise men, all these powerful men, these commanders, they say to the mountains and they say to the rocks, fall on us and hide us. Why? Because we're gonna face the judgment from the Most High God.

We're going to be cut off in our sins. We're going to have to give an account of deeds done in the body, whether good or bad. And we're going to hear those cursed words, depart from me, I never knew you. These men understood the judgment, the wrath of the Lamb.

And as a result, they want to run and hide. But you can't run and hide. At the opening of the fifth seal, the angels, or not the angels, but rather the souls under the altar, cried out and said, avenge us, O Lord. How long will it take before you avenge us?

Which just shows that imprecations and a desire for God's justice and righteousness are not only not biblical, they are perfectly biblical. If the souls of the men under that altar in Revelation chapter 6 are crying out for the vengeance of the Most High, and the Most High doesn't say, how dare you speak something so offensive in my hearing, but rather says, oh, it's coming. You can bank on it, it's coming. Such that those who try to escape it are gonna be futile and they're gonna be ultimately met with the wrath of the Lamb.

This is an inescapable reality. And the fact that verses 8 to 12 are then ended in verse 13 by, be exalted, O Lord, in your own strength. We will sing and praise your power. The certainty of the judgment is seen as well in the praiseworthiness of it.

In other words, we praise God as a result of it, not in some vindictive, cruel, and vile way. Oh, I can't wait till that guy who cut me off on Wellington gets what's coming to him. That's not it. But in the magnifying of the justice, and the righteousness, and the holiness, and the spotlessness, and the purity of our Most High God, how should the church respond?

Well, you know, Lord, that's embarrassing. That's not befitting a New Covenant believer. Singing the Psalms of David are certainly not appropriate for a church that's about love and about compassion and about kindness. Interesting that John, under inspiration by the Spirit in Revelation 6, had no problem describing the wrath of the Lamb. had no problem describing those souls under the altar crying out, How long, O Lord, till you avenge us?

How John, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, had no problem penning for us the fourfold hallelujah in Revelation 19 at the destruction of the whore and the false prophet. Funny thing, when the church doesn't sound like the Bible and her praise, it's not the Bible that's wrong. It's not the scriptures that are off. It's not, well, you know, that's antiquated and barbaric.

We're much more polished and refined now. No, we've abandoned the truth as it is in the Most High. It is praiseworthy to our God to sing of His conquest by His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 101.

I will sing of mercy and justice to you, O Lord. I will sing praises. I'm all about singing of God's mercy. I'm all about singing of God's grace.

I'm all about singing those things that highlight and underscore His goodness and His kindness to miserable, hell-deserving sinners wherein He liberates us and frees us through His sovereign grace, but His justice. the rightness of Him cutting off His enemies once and for all. The rightness of Him doing precisely what Psalm 21, 8 to 12, describes. Spurgeon says, "...the destruction of the wicked is a fitting subject for joy to the friends of righteousness. Hence, here and in most scriptural songs, it is noted with calm thanksgiving." Notice that David never takes a moment to say, okay, I'm gonna give you 15 reasons why it's okay for me to write this, why it's okay for me to sing this, why it's okay for my greater son, the Lord Jesus, to be the very subject of them, the object of them, the singer of them, and the prayer of them.

Again, if our songs and our prayers are dissimilar than our Lord Jesus, the problem isn't with the Lord Jesus. The problem is always with us. It's high time we recover the church militant aspect that our forefathers had. I mentioned the Huguenot last week, going into battle singing Psalm 68.

I mentioned the Scottish covenants at drum clog. What were they singing? Again, Jesus is my boyfriend. Shine, Jesus shine.

No, no. Psalm 76. That's what they were singing when they were going into battle. That's what the church militant is characterized by.

This is why the apostle tells us to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And much to the chagrin of Psalm, he means psalms, psalms, and psalms. In the Psalter, the word hymn is used to apply to psalms. And when it comes to spiritual songs, perhaps we should capitalize that S songs given by the Spirit, not some spiritual song we made up that isn't biblical.

See, I think there is a direct correlation, and I mentioned this last week, you're probably gonna get tired of hearing it, so I'm just gonna forewarn you, that what the church sings often reflects what she thinks. And if what the church is singing is reflective of what she's thinking, then may the Most High have mercy on us. And I don't mean us specifically, though let's not include us, but in the church in general. Would we sing the Psalms of David if necessary in marching into battle?

And I also think about the imprecations and judgment passages like these. Will it take the sorts of persecutions faced by Huguenot and Covenanters to get us serious about a church militant mindset? Do we actually have to see people thrown into prison? Do we actually have to see tongues cut out by communists?

What's it gonna take for us to get serious about saying, how long, oh Lord? What's it gonna take for us to get serious before we start to sing Psalms like Psalm 21, 8 to 13? Brethren, this is scripture. This is what marked the church in the better part of its history in terms of the singing and corporate worship.

Finality of the Judgment

Now notice the finality of the judgment. So we've got the certainty of it in verse 8. Your hand will find all your enemies. Your right hand will find those who hate you.

You may escape now. You may be able to hide it from a wife or a husband. You may be able to get it over on the, you know, the RCMP. You might be able to get it over on your fellows, your friends, your neighbors, your relatives, your work associates.

I mean, face it, lots of times horrible people get away with horrible things, right? I mean, miserable, decadent, degraded sinners get away with atrocities. And that can at times be demoralizing to the rest of us. As I've already mentioned, as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. God is going to bring you to account. God is going to judge. Certainty.

But with reference to the finality, notice in verses 9 to 12, if you're taking notes and you want to just sort of outline this, I think we see two things here. The execution of his wrath in verse 9 and the elimination of his enemies in verses 10 to 12.

Execution of God's Wrath

Note the execution of his wrath in verse 9. shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger. The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them." Very vivid imagery. Very vivid language. I think it speaks concerning the office of Christ When we get to John 5, our Lord highlights that the judgment on that day is His.

It's a God-befitting task of our mediator. We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Acts 17. How do we know there's a judgment?

Because God has raised up Jesus. And it's this Jesus that you're going to stand before on the day of judgment. So I think the office of Christ is highlighted here. You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger.

The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath and the fire shall devour them. But notice the language that is oftentimes rejected, repudiated, or argued down in terms of hell and its New Testament description as being everlasting fire. Probably for David, the original penman in Psalm 21, Sodom and Gomorrah is in his mind. Perhaps the burning of the Ammonites in 2 Samuel 12, when David marches them into their own brick kiln.

But whatever might be in the mindset of David, specifically in terms of history, prophetically, Doesn't Jesus warn about weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth? Doesn't Jesus warn about a place where their worm dieth not? Do not the apostles take up this as well and tell us it's everlasting destruction? Doesn't Jesus in the separation or the distinction of sheep and goats on that final day tell us that the one goes into everlasting life and the other goes into everlasting death?

Does not our Lord highlight the realities of burning fire? Yeah. It's funny when you ask Chatt GPT, for instance, a question about a passage like this, which I didn't, by the way, I have in the past, it says, well, you can't load up the Christian concept of hell and bring it here to Psalm 21. I'd love to have a hermeneutical discussion with Chatt GPT and look him eyeball to eyeball and say, why not?

Who's the best interpreter of Psalm 21? The Holy Spirit. Where does the Holy Spirit speak? In Psalm 21 and in all of the New Testament.

I'd argue, brethren, that the only successful interpretation of any Old Testament text comes from a Christian framework, comes from an apostolic framework, comes from those men saved by God's grace, given eyes to see and hearts to receive what the truth of Scripture is. In other words, it is perfectly appropriate, chat GPT. I'm talking to a non-even thing. to interpret Psalm 21 with the New Testament. What else are we left to do?

Well, that's not fair. No, that's fair. That's right. That's accurate.

That's hermeneutics. That's interpretation. This language that is used here by David is the language that we so often associate with every description in the New Testament of hell. So notice, you shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger.

The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath and the fire shall devour them. It's terrifying. It's horrifying. But then notice in terms of the, well, Before notice, I want to quote Ashe.

It says, So I argue that Jesus is the one who engages in the actual act of judgment. And so it says, the Lord, Yahweh, shall swallow them up in His wrath. Well, which is it? Is it Yahweh, the Father, or Yahweh, the Son, the Lord Jesus?

Ash makes the observation, just as opposition to the Messiah is opposition to God, just as opposition to the Messiah is opposition to God in Psalm 2, 1-3, so judgment by the Messiah is the judgment of God. So he can say that.

Elimination of His Enemies

But now note in terms of the elimination of his enemies in verses 10 to 12. Verse 10 might be a bit of a stumbling block. So we're gonna spend just a moment there trying to get our minds wrapped around the implications of verse 10.

Verse 10 and Genesis 3:15

I call verse 10 the comprehensiveness of the elimination of his enemies, or just the comprehensiveness. Look at verse 10, their offspring, literally their seed, you shall destroy from the earth and their descendants from among the sons of men. Just let that wash over you for a moment and consider that all you ever sing are Jesus is my boyfriend songs. Consider perhaps you have a defective theology on the whole doctrine of soteriology.

Perhaps you are a pagan. Perhaps you are a heathen. Perhaps these sorts of things cause you a bit of concern. Really?

Not only them, but their offspring? Not only them, but their seed? That seems a bit much. Seems a bit overboard-ish.

That seems a bit mallet to an ant in order to kill it. I mean, come on! There's two texts that I think we need to understand with reference to a passage like verse 10. Their seed you shall destroy from the earth and their descendants from among the sons of men.

I would suggest Deuteronomy 24, 16 speaks to criminal matters and the relationship between fathers and sons. Deuteronomy 24, 16 says, Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers. A person shall be put to death for their own sin. So just know that the Bible has a doctrine of justice and righteousness.

My dad goes out and commit a crime, they don't put me to death. The son goes out and commit a crime, he does not, the father isn't put to death. So our concept of fair hasn't been violated, hasn't been denigrated, it's there. Another passage that I think helps us get at this is Ezekiel 18.

Ezekiel 18, you have an exiled people basically whining about They're not the ones who brought this on. Our fathers ate sour grapes, and it's our teeth that are on edge? You get it, right? They're exiled, they're judged.

Everybody's got to have a scapegoat. Everybody's got to have somebody to blame. Old Judahites aren't going to say, God, forgive us and have mercy. No, we're here because of the sins of our fathers.

The teaching that follows isn't amazing. Well, not amazing. You should follow it pretty simply. Behold, all souls are mine, God says.

And in verse four, the overarching principle is the soul that sins shall die. And then he gives two illustrations. Perhaps there's a righteous man who has a wicked son. What happens?

The wicked son is punished, not the righteous man. But what if there's a righteous son who has a wicked father? Well, of course, the wicked father is punished and the righteous son isn't. Why?

Because the soul that sins shall die. In other words, God is fair, God is just, and God is right. And Judah, you're in this mess in large part because of you. So when we look at a verse 10 in Psalm 21, we can't think I don't think it's wise to think that this verse teaches that the son of an unrighteous man can't be saved.

I would imagine several of us could raise our hands and say, I'm the son of an unrighteous man, and by God's grace, I'm here singing Psalm 11 to the Lord. But it also doesn't mean that the son of a righteous man can't be lost. Everybody following me? Whatever verse 10 means, it doesn't upbraid the rest of the Bible in terms of criminal matters and in terms of spiritual matters.

Seed of the Woman and Headshots

And that's why I think the better interpretation of verse 10 is to hear it as an allusion to Genesis 3.15. In other words, let's read verse 10 one more time. their offspring you shall destroy from the earth and their descendants from among the sons of men. Either you can turn with me to Genesis 3, you can rehearse it from your own mind and memory bank, or you can just listen. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.

He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. There's a lexical connection. In other words, the same word, seed, 2110, seed, Genesis 315. But I would suggest that the thematic connection is even stronger.

Psalm 21, 8 to 13 envisages the righteous triumph of God's righteous judge in his second advent against those, again, notice who he says they are. Verse 9, they hate God. Or verse 8, they hate him. What's the thematic connection?

Genesis 3 is the promise of the skull-crushing seed of the woman who's gonna triumph over the devil himself. So you've got the same word, seed, got the same theme, conquest and triumph, but then you have a lot of references from Genesis 3.15 on about God, through his righteous servants, Dealing out death blows via headshots. How does JL dispatch Sisera? The old tent peg in the head scheme.

God is praised for the actions of JL in the song of Deborah in Judges 5. How does David dispatch Goliath on the field of battle in Elah? headshot. You see this throughout, typically, prophetically, forward-thinkingly, concerning the promised one of Genesis 3.15, who, by the way, is crucified at Golgotha, place of a skull, But in the Psalter itself, you have repeated emphases on headshots as the primary means of God taking down his enemies. Notice in Psalm 68.

Psalm 68, specifically at verse 21. But God will wound the head of his enemies, the hairy scalp of the one who still goes on in his trespasses. Look at 74. Psalm 74, verses 13 and 14.

You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters. You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gave them as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Notice in Psalm 110.

Psalm 110, specifically at verses one and two, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion, rule in the midst of your enemies. Notice in verses five and six, the Lord is at your right hand. He shall execute kings in the day of his wrath.

He shall judge among the nations. He shall fill the places with dead bodies. He shall execute the heads of many countries. This is not incidental or accidental language.

This is Genesis 3.15 language, where old covenant Israel was taught that the seed of the woman was going to crush the serpent. And in a passage that speaks concerning the exaltation of the seed, looking forward to his return again in glory to judge the living and the dead, I think that's what verse 10 is on about. The lawless are cut off. The godless will be doomed.

The wicked are going to lose. That's what's in view here in terms of the comprehensiveness of this judgment.

The Guiltiness of the Wicked

Then notice as we work our way down, verse 11, the guiltiness. Verse 8 tells us those who hate you. Verse 11 says, for they intended evil against you, they devised a plot which they are not able to perform. Isn't this Psalm 2, 1 to 3?

Why do the nations rage and the people plot of vain things? The rulers and the kings, they set themselves against who? Against Yahweh and against His Christ. They plot, they devise, they engage in schemes and machinations against the Most High and against His Christ.

That's what David is telling us in verse 11, they intended evil against you. They devised a plot which they're not able to perform. It's a blessed reality. Why aren't they able to perform it?

If we continued in Psalm 2, we'd see. But I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. Ask of me, I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You shall dash them to pieces with a rod of iron." You see the consistency in this altar?

You see David interpreting David? David advancing David? David interacting textually with David? Beautiful.

Why? Because it's the Holy Spirit who gives us the Scripture. So verse 11 tells us they intended evil against you. They devised a plot which they are not able to perform.

They're not able to perform it at the first advent of our Lord Jesus. If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. Now is the judgment. Now the ruler of this world is cast out.

Colossians 1.13, Christ has delivered us from the dominion of darkness or the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love. 1 John 3, Hebrews 2, what does Jesus do at His first advent? He crushes the head of the serpent. He crushes the devil. The second coming is the triumphant, glorious consummation of all things when the Son offers up the kingdom of the Father.

So what we have here, again, is prophetic language concerning the second coming of our Lord. And

Relentlessness of the Judgment

I would suggest in terms of this judgment, the relentlessness of it, or rather the elimination of his enemies, the relentlessness of it. Notice in verse 12, therefore you will make them turn their back, you will make ready your arrows on your string toward their faces. So notice verse 11, we got a bit of a contrast going on in verses 11 and 12. They intended evil against you.

Okay? What do I do when I intend evil against somebody? I seek to implement it. I seek to carry it out.

I pursue them. They devised a plot which they are not able to perform. So verse 11 underscores the basic history of mankind. Doesn't it?

Why do the peoples rage? Why the nations plot a vain thing? Why do the kings and the rulers set themselves up? It's against Yahweh and against His Christ.

In other words, we intend evil. We are pursuers. We don't just kind of live neutrally in this world. No, we take every commandment of God and we destroy it.

We trample on, we transgress it, we lack conformity unto it. God says go right, we'll always go left. God says jump up high, we'll dig a hole and bury ourselves. Whatever God says, we don't want it.

We're on a collision course. Our intent is to destroy the Most High and His Christ. So when verse 12 comes, therefore you will make them turn their back. In other words, there will be a forced retreat.

You may intend evil. You may plot vain things. You may think that you're the one amongst a billion that's going to wedge his way in and somehow dethrone the God of absolute sovereign glory. No, it's not going to happen.

It kind of connects with that inescapability, the inevitability of it. You're going to stand before him. All the plots, all the vain things, all the evil pursuits, all the machinations, all the evil desires, you're going to be finally on the run. You're gonna be put to the retreat.

You're gonna come up short. You're gonna be lacking. You're gonna be the one ruined. That's the emphasis in verse 12.

Therefore, you will make them turn their back. You will make ready your arrows on your string toward their faces. It's terrifying again. You think of a bow and arrow.

I don't wanna be on the business end of an arrow. Looking at it, I don't think any of us do. Hey, there's a hunter over there. He's a really committed guy.

Instead of a 30-06, he's got a bow and arrow. Would you point that at my head? Kind of like that. What?

This is the kind of vivid language that is used. You're not only gonna stop intending evil, you're not only gonna stop plotting a vain thing, You're going to be turned back. You're going to be forced to retreat. You're going to be the recipient of the arrows of the Most High in terms of the judgment described, not only in Psalm 21, not only sort of pictured in Sodom and Gomorrah or in 2 Samuel 12 or in the language of our blessed Savior, but the Psalter uses this repeatedly.

Notice in Psalm 7, specifically in verses 11 to 13, God is a just judge and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he does not turn back, he will sharpen his sword. He bends his bow and makes it ready. He also prepares for himself instruments of death.

He makes his arrows into fiery shafts." So if there's any concept in your mind right now, right here, unbeliever, that you're going to somehow escape this, you're somehow going to get out of it, you're going to somehow avoid it, may I encourage you to drop that from your mind? and rather flee to the Lord Jesus, believe on Him, who is exalted at the right hand of the Father, who has accomplished everything that we see in Psalm 20 in terms of battle, in terms of sufferings, and now receiving glory, come to Him in faith and you will have everlasting life. And this judgment described explicitly in verses 8 to 12 will not be yours. Why? Because it was Jesus in your place.

It's the amazing thing about all this. We get to Psalm 22, that Psalm of the cross, when our Lord says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? At some fundamental level, we know the answer to that. We know the answer to that.

He cries that so that we'll never have to. We who deserve to, We who should, we in justice, ought to be forsaken, ought to be cast out, ought to be like those Ammonites, run into the brick kiln and know something of that weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for all eternity. We know that. But by God's grace, he made Christ as a curse.

Galatians 3, 13. So that adoption could be ours by the Spirit. It's a blessed, beautiful gospel set in the context of this judgment and righteousness of God.

Exaltation of the Father

And then finally, the psalm ends with this exaltation of the Father, the confidence of the church in verse 13. Be exalted, O Lord, in your own strength. that strength that is triumphant through your son, the Lord Jesus. Yes, in his second coming in glory, but in his agonies, in his sufferings on the cross, in the victory achieved there as he assumed our humanity. Be exalted, O Lord, in your own strength.

The strength of God's gospel is foolishness to the world, but to those of us who are being saved, Christ is both the wisdom and the what? The power of God. This is what the church praises its God for. Be exalted, O Lord, in your own strength.

And then notice, we will sing and praise your power. In the context, it's his power in the overthrow of his enemies. Spurgeon again says, it is always right to praise the Lord when we call to remembrance his goodness to his son and the overthrow of his foes. May the church listen to Spurgeon.

May the church imitate Spurgeon and the whole host of God's holy servants that have gone before us. And in terms of the Psalm as a whole, I think it connected to Psalm 20, shows us our expectation with reference to the coming of Christ. Prayer and confidence, Psalm 20. Praise and celebration, Psalm 21.

Anticipation, Psalm 21, of the Savior's return again in glory to judge the living and the dead. I would suggest as well the church's practice in light of the Psalms of Christ. Psalm 20 offers up petitions. Psalm 20 offers up faithful confidence that God is able to bring those petitions to pass.

And then Psalm 21 is the response in praise. In other words, guilt, grace, Gratitude. Psalm 20 and 21 set forth that paradigm in blazing glory. How do we respond to God's grace?

By singing praises to Him, by praying to Him, by celebrating, by rejoicing, by worshiping, by honoring, by delighting in, by talking about Him, by searching Scripture, by feeding our minds with the words of Scripture so that we can sing praise as a rite. The psalmist shows us when God answers prayer, brethren, you thank Him for it. When God answers prayer, you come to Him and praise. When God saves a sinner, what do you do?

You bless God for His mercies and His kindness and His graciousness. The psalmist isn't just about petition, and this is what we want, and this is how we want it. God's been merciful. God's been gracious.

God has visited his servants, and God has blessed his church. We can't help but celebrate. We can't help but do a Psalm 21, verse 13. Be exalted, O Lord, in your own strength.

We will sing and praise your power. I would suggest that Psalms 20 and 21 show us the very confession of the church herself. We confess his sufferings. We confess his agonies.

We confess his death. But we as well confess His glory, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension on high, His exaltation of the right hand of the Father, His current session until He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And that we confess as well, that Christ is coming. This is inevitable.

This is inescapable. This is necessary in a just universe or in a moral universe governed by a just God. Therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, come to the Savior King. And I would suggest as well the church's confidence in Christ.

This psalm or these psalms are ours because they were first Christ's. These Psalms are ours because they were first Christ. The sufferings and death of the Savior gave way to the enthronement and triumph of the Savior. His triumph is our triumph.

It's the same pattern that we see. Listen to Hebrews 2, 9 and 10. But we see Jesus, with the backdrop of Psalm 8, we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death and crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

In other words, for the church as church, with all of our trials and all of our difficulties and all of our hardships and our afflictions, may we meditate on Psalms 20 and 21 to see that sufferings end in glory, to see that crosses end in crowns, to see that momentary light afflictions give way to an eternal weight of glory, May we have the confidence of that, not based on our own performance, which is miserable at best. not based on our own rectitude or our own diligence, but on Christ. May that be the bone in our hearts. May that be that which encourages us, and may that be that which causes us to get out of bed each day, to seek by the grace of God to live for his glory, to be faithful in family, to be faithful in church, to be faithful in society, and to be steadfast, persevering, dealing with and understanding that this world is no friend of the Most High, and that in this world we will have tribulation, but we are able by the grace of God to overcome because Christ has. This psalm is the great cause for the celebration of the people of God.

May we take it thus, may we rehearse it, may we sing it, may we pray it, and may we delight in the subject and the object of this psalm, which is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Closing Prayer

Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for these psalms and what they present to us concerning our blessed Savior, We pray that you would help us to praise Him, to be thankful for the provision of Him, and to look forward with a confident expectation of His second coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And we thank you that you have cleansed us in His blood and clothed us in His righteousness, and we know and we are assured and we are confident that you can do the same thing with sinners here even now. that you by grace would turn their hearts to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that they may be saved.

Bless the gospel as it goes forth throughout the earth and we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Scripture References

• Genesis 3:15
• Deuteronomy 20; 24:16
• 2 Samuel 12
• Psalms 2:1-3; 2:6; 2:8-9; 7:11-13; 8; 15; 16; 20:4; 21:1-2; 21:3-7; 21:8-13; 22:1; 68:21; 74:13-14; 101:1; 110:1-2; 110:5-6
• Ezekiel 18:4
• John 5
• Acts 17
• 2 Corinthians 5:10
• Galatians 3:13
• Colossians 1:13
• Hebrews 2:9-10; 9:27; 12
• 1 John 3
• Revelation 6:9-10; 6:15-17; 19