4. The Response of God’s Righteous Saints Psalm 58:10-11

Text: “The righteous shall rejoice when he/she seeth the vengeance: he/she shall wash his feet in the blood of the blood of the wicked."

Psalm 58:10.

Good morning, God-made-righteous Christian!  Once you and I were lost, now we are found by Christ and saved.  Once we were Spiritually blind, now we have Spiritual eyes to see and adore Jesus.  Once we were numbered among ‘the wicked’, but now have been redeemed from the world by the precious sinless Blood of God the Son, Christ Jesus.  Can we not now shout a loud ‘Hallelujah!’ to the Lord God, for saving our never-dying souls?

“For (a conclusion) He (God the Father) hath made Him (God the Son) to be sin for us, Who knew no sin: that we (God’s chosen elect souls) might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  (2 Corinthians 5:21)

This wonderful verse of God-breathed Scripture from our KJV Bibles teaches us about Christ’s Substitutionary sin-bearing, suffering, death, and resurrection for all those of us whom God the Father willed would be Eternally saved and given the full righteousness of His darling Son, Jesus Christ.  We theologians call this the doctrine of Substitution.

“Substitution:  a change of places, by Christ, as God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) 

“Surely He (Christ Jesus) hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows...He was wounded (or tormented) for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed...the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all (i.e. all born again believers!).”  (Isaiah 53:4-5) (Genesis 3:15)

Definition of the term:  The doctrine of Substitution concerns the penal sufferings (i.e. punishment required by Law) of Christ Jesus, in the place of His people, by which everyone born again of Him are SAVED.

God’s righteous penalties for sin had to be met, and God had to be satisfied by an acceptable Sacrifice.  Christ’s SINLESSNESS and perfect conformity to all God’s holy laws, was the only sacrifice the Father could accept - to pay the Price of our vile sins, “...the just for the unjust...”  (2 Corinthians 5:21) (John 1:29)

Christ’s holiness and righteousness was the only thing pleasing to a thrice holy God.  (Hebrews 4:14-15) (Matthew 3:13-17)

Thus, the satisfaction offered by Christ was not on His own behalf, but to bear the sins of  “...His people...”, and to suffer the required penalty of God’s wrath (literally) “...in our place...”. What a Saviour!  Amen. (Matthew 1:21) (Luke 19:10) (John 3:16)

Substitution:  Substitution reveals the highest exhibition of God’s grace and mercy towards Hell-deserving sinners such as we.  (Ephesians 2:8-10)

It is, of course, the very essence of the Gospel message of Salvation in Christ ALONE.    None other Sacrifice could Atone for the sins of the Elect Body of believers, the true Church of Christ!  (Psalm 118:1) (1 Corinthians 1:12-27) (John 3:3-8) (Romans 5:1)

Substitution:  Substitution manifests the Father’s love for sinners in sending His only begotten Lamb to suffer in our place upon the Cross at Calvary.  The Father’s grief must have been INFINITE indeed!  Some reflection of God the Father’s sufferings is revealed in type, as King David mourns the death of his beloved son Absalom upon a much earlier tree than Christ’s Cross. (2 Samuel 18:33) (Acts 2:22-26)

Substitution:  Substitution manifests God the Son’s love for His people, as He suffers INFINITE sufferings upon that Calvary Tree - the Almighty Bridegroom in place of His weak Bride, the Church.  (1 John 4:10) (John 10:11)

Christ took upon Himself our grave-clothes of sins that we, by His grace, might be ROBED in the Robe of His righteousness!  Oh, the love of a risen Christ Jesus!  Hallelujah!  Thank you, beloved Lord God!  (Isaiah 61:10)  (1 Peter 1:16-19)

Substitution:  Substitution is portrayed wonderfully well in the Gospels as Barabbas, the guilty, rebellious murderer is set free; and Christ, the faultless One, goes to the cruel Cross in his place.  Instead of the guilty sinner being made to suffer the legal penalty for sin; the guiltless, sinless, Saviour, Jesus Christ, suffers as his substitute!  (Luke 23:18-25)

Substitution:  The doctrine of Substitution helps us to comprehend, to some degree, how God can remain a HOLY and JUST God of immutable wrath against sin; while at the same time be a God of infinite LOVE and pardoning mercy towards the sinner, who has by faith, received Christ Jesus as their SIN-BEARER, and Saviour; their blessed and gracious Substitute.

Christ, therefore, suffered as a substitute for His elect people.  All others who refuse His Substitutionary Sacrifice must suffer for themselves in Hell’s fires forever!  There can be no ‘double jeopardy’ in the matter.”  (Dr C.K. McClinton, Basic Christian Doctrines Button on our website/Blog (www.ulsterchristians.org )

Having more closely defined exactly who ‘the righteous saints’ are in the title of today’s Bible Lesson – we can now clearly gauge our response to Almighty God’s dealing and treatment of those He calls ‘the wicked’ in Psalm 58.

Verse 10. “The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. We shall at the last say ‘Amen’ to the condemnation of the wicked and feel no disposition to question the ways of God with the impenitent.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 261)

Rejoicing shall be the only response of God’s saved people when we see God’s wrath being poured out upon the wicked, who have tortured the saints of God since the Fall of man into sin. “No doubt, at the sight of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim destroyed, angels saw cause to rejoice and sing, ‘Hallelujah’ Wickedness was swept away.” ...the Lord Jesus Himself, and each one of His members shall cry, ‘Hallelujah’, over Antichrist’s ruined hosts.” (Andrew A. Bonar 1859)

Thought: “...There is a reward for the righteous: verily He is a God that judgeth in the earth.”  Psalm 58 reveals the reality of God’s Holiness, and His judgement to come upon ‘the wicked’, who would not obey Almighty God, and hated His elect people.

3. Prayers Against ‘the Wicked’! Psalm 58:6-9

Text: “And take the helmet of Salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”

Ephesians 6:17-18.

Good morning, powerfully armed Christian!  A careful study of God’s Word – Old Testament and New – clearly reveals the God-given fact that we who are genuinely redeemed by the shedding of Christ’s sinless Blood at Calvary, are granted powerful Spiritual weapons with which to wage war with Satan and his vile, rebellious agents, both spiritual and temporal.  Too many today, in this increasingly apostate and Spiritually toothless 21^st Century church, have no idea of the powerful Spiritual weapons the Lord has placed at our disposal to enable us to ‘confound’ the enemies of the Gospel, never mind willing to use them in the Cause of Christ Crucified. Fact.

 

It is time, beloved in Christ; it is time to unwrap our powerful Spiritual armoury and unleash God’s power upon those who would even dare to hinder and persecute those of us for whom Christ suffered, bled, and died.  Awake, and Christ shall give thee light!

 

Verse 6. “Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth. Treat them as the snake-charmers do their serpents – extract their fangs, break their teeth.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 260)

 

“There is nothing malicious here; the slandered man simply craves for justice, and the petition is natural and justifiable.  Guided by God’s good Spirit, the Psalmist foretells the everlasting confusion of all the haters of the righteous (Made righteous in Christ).  

"Shameful disappointments shall be the portion of the enemies of the Gospel, nor would the most tender-hearted Christian have it otherwise; viewing sinners as men, we love them and seek their good, but regarding them as enemies of God, we cannot think of them with anything but detestation and loyal desire for the confusion of their devices.

 

“No loyal subject can wish well to rebels.  Squeamish sentimentality may object to the strong language here used, but in their hearts all good men wish confusion to mischief-makers.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 170)

 

Christianity today seems, in many cases, to have slumped down into a cosy, lovey-dovey sentimentalism, that is devoid of the Spiritual teeth necessary to engage in any serious contention for ‘…the faith once delivered unto the saints…’  (Jude 3)

 

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against Spiritual wickedness in high places.  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day…” (Ephesians 6:12-13)

 

The power to call down God’s Divine curses against His enemies and, therefore, ours – is a powerful weapon indeed.  However, not all professing Christians are willing to even think of employing such a devastating Spiritual weapon – and thus, the church declines and is found reeling about in a politically correct confusion of its own making.  Sad.

 

“How are we to account for such prayers for vengeance?  We find them chiefly in four Psalms – the seventh, thirty-fifth, sixty-ninth, and one-hundred and ninth, and the imprecations (curses) in these form a terrible climax.  In the last, no less than thirty anathemas (curses) have been counted.  Are these the mere outbursts of passionate and unsanctified feeling or are they the legitimate expression of a righteous indignation?  An unobstructed fastidiousness, it is well known, has made many persons recoil from reading these Psalms at all.”  (J.J. Stewart Perowne 1868)

 

If our KJV Bibles are indeed, ‘God-breathed’, Spiritually inspired as Paul, inspired by God the Spirit, teaches us they are – then, ‘the Imprecatory Psalms’ mentioned above, are also the inspired Word of God, and as such are God’s Authority to us for our use.

 

“All Scripture (Old Testament and New) is given by inspiration of God (breath of God), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man/woman of God may be perfect (mature in teaching), thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”  (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

 

“Then shall He (the Lord) say also unto them on the left hand (unsaved, reprobates), Depart from Me, ye CURSED, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41)

 

The souls of those placed on ‘the left hand’ by our Lord Christ in this verse above, are the souls of the reprobate (those ‘passed over by God reference Eternal Salvation); these are ‘the wicked’, the enemies of God and of us, ‘His people’ who are elected to Salvation from before the foundation of the world.  Therefore, the Lord Jesus is declaring the fact that those on ‘the left hand’ on His judgement day are in fact, left under God’s curse declared back in Eden’s Garden; and as such are the Eternal enemies of Christ and ‘His people’. They are Eternally cursed of God, and as such have been, shall always be, and are, Eternally lost.  What an Eternally sad and devastating position to be in!

 

Divine Curses In Psalm 35.  Confusion (verse 4); Blown Away, as dust before the wind (verse 5); Hounded by God’s angels (verse 5); Instability, set in slippery darkness, and persecuted by God’s Holy angels (verse 6); Doomed, thrust into sudden destruction, caught up in God’s net of retribution (verses 7 & 8)

 

Imprecatory curses are not prayed lightly by Christians.  They are prayed against ‘the wicked’ tyrants who, ‘without cause’, persecute, slander, hinder and harm Christ’s children, and openly defame His Holy Name.

 

Verse 9. “He shall take them away as with a whirlwind. Cook, fire, pot, meat, and all disappear at once, whirled away to destruction.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 261)

‘The wicked’ prepare all their schemes, their false laws, against Christ’s saved people, but they only ever succeed in calling down God’s full wrath against themselves.  God is not mocked.  Let us implore unsaved souls to cease from their wickedness, and come, receive Christ’s Salvation, while it is still the day of God’s Sovereign grace.  Come, sinners, come, now!

 

Thought: “Maxentious built a false bridge to drown Constantine but was drowned himself.  Henry the Third of France was stabbed in the very same chamber where he had helped to contrive the cruel massacre of the French Protestants.” (Thomas Brooks 1608-1680) Wicked Anti-Christians, beware of God’s inevitable wrath!

2. The Wicked, Hurt by God’s Truth! Psalm 58:3-5

Text: The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.  Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.”

Psalm 58:3-5.

Good morning, once ‘wicked’ Christian!  Exactly like unto the ‘wicked’ clearly defined here in Psalm 58, you and I were once as ‘wicked’ as can be; born sinners, lost and going astray by choice and carnal desire; headed for the pit that contains no drop of water; and a Hell that is hot indeed to receive all such sinners. 

Let any hint of self-righteousness take a knock this morning, dear brother and sister in Christ – you and I were once just as ‘wicked’ as the most ‘wicked’ described in revealed Scriptures.  We have God’s own Word on this vital issue: 

“...For (a conclusion) there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (the absolute Holiness of the Living Lord Jesus Christ IS God’s glory!).”  (Romans 3:22-23)

But here comes a glorious, most gracious, ‘however’!  However.  The Spirit of God found you and I in such a state; revealed to our most profound essence (hearts) the fact that we were such gross sinners, on our way to a Christ-rejecter’s Hell; quickened us (made us alive); granted us His free gift of faith to believe (trust) in the Saviour, Jesus Christ – and re-created us to be ‘...new creatures in Christ...’.  Believing in Christ’s full Atonement at Calvary’s Cross, we were saved from our ‘wickedness’ and re-created sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty, Jehovah.  Praise and all glory to His Holy and gracious Name!

“Therefore (a conclusion) if any man (woman) be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed (passing continually) away; behold (look and fully understand), all things are become (or are continually becoming) NEW.  And all things are of God, Who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation (the Gospel message of Salvation); to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world (the  elect from all corners of the world) unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them (our ‘wickedness’); and hath committed unto us the Word of reconciliation.  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”  (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)

Take note, dear Reader: Born in man/woman’s sinful image (Adam/Eve), all true Spiritually regenerated Christians were then re-created by Christ to be children of God.  Check it out for yourself, God’s Word will never lie:

“For (a conclusion) by grace are ye saved through faith; and that (faith) not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.  For (a conclusion) we are His workmanship, CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS unto good works, which God hath before (before the very foundation of the world) ordained that we should walk in them.”  (Ephesians 2:8-10)

We, who were once as ‘wicked’ as can be, lost, are, by God’s Divine grace, His created Christians – Spiritually regenerated from dead spirits, to truly believe and receive Salvation in Christ alone, and for His greater glory alone, we give Him all the praise!  Amen?

Let us look for a moment at those defined in Psalm 58 as ‘the wicked’:

Verse 3. “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.  So-called scientific professionals, even the most confirmed atheists, all agree on this one point - we don’t have to teach babies to be disobedient, to tell lies; to be contrary and disobedient to what we, as parents and teachers, are seeking to teach them.   No!  They do these things naturally.  The do so naturally because they are natural born sinners, born in the fallen likeness of Adam and Eve, and alienated from God in His Holiness and wrath against all sin.

Verse 3. “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.  It is small wonder that some men/women persecute the righteous seed of the woman (Gen.3:15), since all of them are of the serpent’s brood, and enmity is set between them.  No sooner born than alienated from God – what a condition to be found in!  He who starts early in the morning will go far before night.  To be untruthful is one of the surest proofs of a fallen state, and since falsehood is universal, so also is human depravity.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 259)

“How early men do sin!  How late they do repent!   As soon as they are born ‘they go astray,’ but if left to themselves they will not return till they die; they will never return.”  (Joseph Caryl 1602-1673)

Verse 4. “Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear.  Sin is poison.  Original depravity is called corruption; actual poison.  The violence and virulence of this venomous quality comes not at first.  No man becomes worst at the first dash.  We are born corrupt, we have made ourselves poisonous.  There be three degrees, as it were so many ages, in sin.  First, secret sin; an ulcer lying in the bones, but skinned over with hypocrisy.  Secondly, open sin, bursting forth into manifest villainy.  The former is corruption, the second is eruption.  Thirdly, frequented and confirmed sin, and that is rank poison, envenoming soul and body.”  (Thomas Adams 1614)

There are no ‘small sins’ and ‘big sins’ – all sin is gross sin against God’s Holiness, and each of us born of woman, in Adam’s fallen image (Gen.5:3), are guilty of his sin and our own.  Only Christ Jesus can save us from our sin, and present us sinless before His Father.

“For whosoever shall keep the whole law (Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:1-17), and yet offend in one point, he/she is guilty of ALL.”           (James 2:10)

‘The wicked’ defined in Psalm 58: will not listen to such teachings, nor turn from their sin.  They will listen to anything other than the Gospel of forgiveness in Christ Jesus.

Verse 5. “Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers (Gospel preachers), charming never so wisely. Ungodly men are not to be won to right by arguments the most logical or appeals the most pathetic.  Try all your arts, ye preachers of the Word!  Lay yourselves out to meet the prejudices and tastes of sinners, and ye shall yet have to cry, ‘Who hath believed our report?’  It is not in your music but in the sinner’s ear that the cause of failure lies, and it is only the power of God that can remove it.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 260)

Stephen, on the day of his cruel martyrdom, experienced such ‘wicked’ people.  “Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord.” (Acts 7:51-60)

Thought: Only a Sovereign and gracious Lord God can open the ears of such ‘wicked’.  "Salvation is of the Lord!"  (Jonah 2:9)

Psalm 58: A Psalm Seldom Preached Today! 1. Divine Truth Hurts!

                                   1.  Divine Truth Hurts!                    Psalm 58:1-2

Text: “For the Word of God is quick (living), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (the most inner essence of man).”

Hebrews 4:12.

Good morning, plain-speaking Christian!  Not for you, the so-called ‘politically correct’ mode of speech; and certainly not the present-day style of insipid preaching of utter humanism, and the boast that ‘we should never offend any person’.  No! You are taught of God the Holy Spirit, and informed by the authority of God contained in the King James Version of the Bible.  Therefore, you are not called of God to call a spade ‘a tool of manual extraction’. No! To you and to the author, a spade is a spade – and we must at all times openly declare it so!  Amen.  Praise God for plain-speaking Christians!  God’s Divine truth hurts wicked hearts!

“Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word IS truth.”  (John 17:17)

“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit (capital S!) unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.  Being born again, not of corruptible seed (humanism), but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.”  (1 Peter 1:22)

By these two short verse selections quoted above, we can clearly see and fully understand that sinful hearts (the essence of mankind, not the blood pump in our breast) can only be ‘sanctified’ (cleansed and regenerated, made alive and separated unto holiness.) by God’s inspired truth, which is contained within the sixty-six canonical books of KJV Scripture.

We also learn that our very souls are purified by obedience to God’s truth as ministered unto us sinners by God the Spirit – Who IS the Divine Author and inspiration of all true Scripture.

Dare to leave God’s Word out of our Christianity, and it becomes mere humanistic RELIGION!

Humanistic religion is defined by Scripture such as: “Having a form of godliness (small g!), but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”  (2 Timothy 3:5)

Nowadays, in this increasingly apostate 21^st Century (I write this in 2022); we find entire church groups who had the name of being sound in Christian faith and doctrine, openly practicing blatant humanism.  Christian buildings that once stood firm on sound Christ-centered doctrine and preaching of the glorious Gospel of Salvation in Christ alone, by God’s grace alone, through God’s gift of faith alone – are now populated by humanists, preaching man-centred, politically correct tripe, to those who are seldom discomforted by the mention of such Biblical principles as sin, and God’s absolute Holiness  and fiery wrath against it; - and the fearful judgement that is to come upon all nations is never alluded to. 

Man is in full control of his/her own destiny within such humanistic circles, and ‘every man is doing what is right in his/her own eyes.’  Just as long as it is deemed politically correct to do so!

“And in those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”  (Judges 17:6) (Judges 21:25)

Humanism: “In the 16^th Century, the party of Erasmus and Reuchlin whose academic pursuit was the cultivation of classical literature, the literae humaniores ‘polite letters’.  Nowadays the word refers to an entirely different movement and philosophy.  It describes the pursuit of purely human interests and ideals, usually considered apart from and antagonistic to any idea of God or His intervention in human affairs.  Indeed the Humanist Manifesto makes it a fundamental tenet of humanism that man neither needs nor may have salvation from any superhuman source, and specifically not from God.”  Dictionary of Theological Terms, by Alan Cairns, Ambassador Productions, Ltd., page 179)

The committed proclamation of God’s pure and Divine Biblical truth dispels such humanistic nonsense, therefore, we increasingly find committed, Spiritually regenerate, Bible-believing Christians being shunned, ridiculed, and driven out from such so-called groups of ‘churchianity’.  Spiritual separation occurs, by the grace of Almighty God.

“Wherefore come out form among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord.”  (2 Corinthians 6:17-18)

Verse 1.  “Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? ‘What everybody says must be true’ is a lying proverb based upon the presumption which comes of large combinations.  Have we not all agreed to hound the man to the death, and who dare hint that so many great ones can be mistaken?  Yet the persecuted one lays the axe at the root by requiring his judges to answer the question whether or not they were acting according to justice.  It were well if men would sometimes pause and candidly consider this.  Some of those who surrounded Saul were rather passive than active persecutors; they held their tongues when the object of royal hate (David) was slandered.  He who refrains from defending the right is himself an accomplice in the wrong.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 259)

Verse 1.  “Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation?  Psalm 58 is seldom preached, and certainly not expounded as forthrightly as this Bible Lesson, because Divine truth hurts those who have sinned against God’s Holiness, and severely hurts those hearers who totally refuse to have the Lord God’s will to be continually done in their lives here on earth.  Like the rats on a sinking ship, who refuse to leave the ship while there seems to be safety in numbers – the disobedient, and unbelieving seek to hide themselves in gathered ‘church’ congregations; congregations that have abandoned the purity of KJV Bible doctrine, and the pursuit of true Christian holiness.

Verse 1.  “...Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?  It takes Holy Ghost given courage to stand forth in the midst of a congregation and uprightly say, “Excuse me, Sir, you do err in your Scriptures!”  Sound Bible-believing Christians are being hounded from humanistic gatherings in what were Christian church buildings, because of our faithful adherence to the Word of God, and the preaching/teaching of sound Christian doctrine.  Fact. 

Verse 2.  “Yea, in heart ye work wickedness.  We who speak Biblical righteousness are today labelled by charlatans as ‘trouble-makers’ – because Divine truth hurts sinful hearts.

Thought: “Do YE indeed speak righteousness, O congregation?”  What answer can YOU and I give to this most searching question from God’s Word?  Repent now!