Chris McCurley: If would turn to Psalm thirty six. I think you've seen enough of our interns to know how talented they are. So far they have been a real joy. It's a pleasure getting to work with them every day. I have complete confidence that any one of these three could fill a pulpit today. I really do. And so I'm thankful for these guys. Thankful for the camaraderie we have during the week as well. We won't get too deep into that, right? I I also want to let you know what's going on in the next couple of weeks. End of this week, I'll make my yearly trek to Red River, New Mexico, where I engage in the Red River family encampment. About 1,200 to 1,500 people ⁓ descend on the little town of Red River and we sing and we worship under a tent for a few days. ⁓ Blake and Cade, which is where I recruited them from to come and be ⁓ our ⁓ interns here. They'll be going as well, and so you'll be without their services. But next Sunday morning, Austin. ⁓ we'll be delivering a message here, our youth minister, and then ⁓ Sunday evening, is that you chance Sunday evening? Yeah, so chance will be Sunday evening. The following week on Sunday morning, I will be in Mickey, Tennessee. Anybody know where Mickey, Tennessee is? ⁓ yeah, I don't either. ⁓ but I'll be there ⁓ to to preach ⁓ for their family day and ⁓ but I'll be back in the evening and we'll pick up on our series on Psalms. It's always a busy summer of speaking engagements and things of that nature. I'm so thankful that the shepherds allow me To do that and to ⁓ take some sig s some time to be with other congregations and to ⁓ and to share with them. So we're in Psalm thirty six, let's just jump right in. Verse one. Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart. There is no fear of God before his eyes, for he flatters himself in his own eyes, that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit. He has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots trouble while on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not reject evil. Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like the great deep. Man and beast you save, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house. And give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life, in your light do we see light. O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart. Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the land the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the evildoers lie fallen, they are thrust down, unable to rise. There's a great movie called 1917. Anybody seen this movie? Really good movie. I don't want to give it away if you haven't seen it, but there is a scene that is absolutely heart wrenching. The movie is about two British soldiers that are trying to get a message to the front lines of the battle during World War One. And they're out on a countryside somewhere and they notice a German biplane has been shot down and it is heading right for them. They evade the wreckage, but notice that the German pilot is suffering. And so they turn into medics trying to save their sworn enemy. And as they pull him out of the plane, one of them says he needs water, and he runs over by a barn and starts pumping water when he hears an excruciating, anguished sound, and he looks over to find his fellow soldier holding his stomach, bleeding profusely. The German that needed to be saved turned on the soldier and stabbed him in the stomach. I guess he didn't appreciate their efforts. And so the other soldier runs over to him, shoots the German pilot, and then holds his friend in his arms as he passes away. And I'm yelling at the TV, What are you doing? Why are you trying to help this guy? He's the enemy. Don't you know that this is war? The men forgot that they were in the middle of a fight. They forgot who the enemy was and That's what feels like is being communicated in this psalm, doesn't it? These words speak to us. And the message is: don't forget that you're in the middle of a war. Don't forget who the enemy is. Don't show him mercy. He will turn and kill you. Just like the two boys in the movie, you and I can lose sight of who the real enemy is. We can lose sight of the fact that we are in the middle of a war. And Psalm 36 screams at us and says, Wake up! Understand that this is the fight for your life, that this is a battle for your soul. Psalm 36 is also a reminder that there are two teams. There's good and evil. And we see this contrast play out throughout Scripture. It is the story of the Bible, isn't it? There are two teams: God and E and the devil, good and evil. We see this play out in books and movies and TV shows all the time. We see the, you know, the hero versus the villain, the guy on the The white horse versus the guy dressed in black, it's Thor and Loki, it's Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, you know, it's ⁓ Harry Potter versus Voldemort, God versus Satan, and there is no question which jersey we wear. Anyone can look at us and tell which team we're on, right? I mean ideally, yes, but not always. Sometimes we just play Switzerland. We don't really want to pick a side. We just want to stay neutral because we don't want to we don't want to fight about it. But other times we can find ourselves wearing the opposite jersey. We find ourselves taking reps for the other team. We don't necessarily think about it. We just find ourselves on the other side. And you think about David's life. You think about all that we've just said, and then think about this psalm, think about David's life. And the fact that he is the one writing this psalm, he played for both teams, didn't he? Certainly David would know what he's talking about here. When he's talking about picking a side and choosing a team, certainly David knew what that was all about. Here in Psalm 36, I believe he's telling us to wake up to the fight and remember which team that you're on. There was a time when he was one of the great warrior kings, perhaps the greatest warrior king in the history of Israel. The fact that he was crowned, anointed by God, that he stepped up when no one else would to take on Goliath, chopped off his head, paraded it through town, going from zero to hero. Instant rock star status. But then he also found himself at rock bottom. Look at verses one through four again. Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart. There is no fear of God before his eyes, for he flatters himself in his own eyes. That his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit. He has ceased to act wisely and to do good. He plots trouble while on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not reject evil. You may have noticed there's three movements to this psalm. Movement one is David meditating on the wicked human. Movement two is David meditating on the divine. And movement three is David meditating on Making a request. God, I don't want to be on the team that I mentioned at the beginning of the psalm. I don't want to be on that team. I want to be on your team. And so imagine this psalm as a portrait. And the frame is really a depiction of the sinful and corrupt man. And inside the frame is a picture of God and a plea from David, let me be on your team, God. And the psalmist presents the two sides, the two teams, as well as Their characteristics, then he announces his commitment to God through prayer. Remember in PE class or maybe recess, when you'd play dodgeball or kickball, and they would pick a couple of team captains, and back and forth they would pick from a lineup on the wall who was going to be on their team. And if you were one of the first ones chosen, it was a good day. You felt good. But if you were the last one chosen, Didn't feel so good. We all remember that one person where they're like, ⁓ you just take them. No, you take them. I mean, how humiliating, right? Well, understand that if you're looking at this like two team captains, you've got God and you've got Satan, both of them want you on their team really badly. You would be their first pick. And King David knows what he's talking about here. At the very least, we can say that he has been divided in his allegiance at some point. And notice how we have a personification of Of sin. We call this a hapax legomena. And it's just a fancy way of saying that this is the only time we see something like this in the Old Testament as a description of man's sin speaking to him, maybe whispering in his ear, deceiving him, guiding him down a path of destruction. The man's heart is self deceived as he listens to the voice of transgression. And transgression here is one of the Hebrew words we talked about this morning, pesha. And transgression simply means that there's a line, and there's the line, and when you cross it, you've committed a transgression. And so the pesha here, the transgression means betrayal, which is highly appropriate because that is what sin constitutes. That's a transgression. It's a betrayal of God and self. And the man described here has listened to the seductive influences of sin for so long that they no longer fear God. Paul mentions this in Romans chapter three when he says, None is righteous, not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God, all have turned aside together, they have become worthless, no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive, the venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, and their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. There is a total disregard of God. Transgression or Pesha has consumed them to the point that evil is now the new standard. The voice of sin is the loudest in their lives, and it's filling their heads and their heart with lies. And this voice is flattering to them. Imagine the voice of sin speaking in their ear and saying, You're doing good. I'm proud of you. You should be proud of yourself. Keep your head up. You think about all the sin that's celebrated in our world today. That's what I think about when I when I read these words, when I think about the deception that comes with Pesha. And because the psalmist heart is consumed with evil, his tongue becomes the instrument of wickedness and The words that flow from his lips are anything but pure and wholesome. It's the opposite of wisdom and good sense. And this is what happens when transgression becomes your master. It rules over you. It consumes you so that whether you're laying down, whether you're walking around, or wickedness is on your mind because you're wholly given to it. And again, this is a choice. Nobody makes you do it. You choose this by your own volition. This is not merely a misstep. Or a heat of the moment type of thing. This is a marriage. And the transgressor has developed an appreciation for evil and has embraced it. It's a wedlock of iniquity, something David, the author, knows all too well. Remember when he went from hero to zero? You remember when he was should have been out in the field of battle, but he was at home. That was his first mistake. And he looks out and he sees Bathsheba bathing on the rooftop. And he says, I've got to have her. And so he does. And now he is a disgrace. Now he's got to do something about her husband because he wants her all to himself, but he's standing in the way. And so he comes up with a plan. I'll get Uriah to come in off the battlefield. He'll lie with his wife. They'll have a baby together, everybody will think that it's theirs and and it'll all just kind of go away. I will be absolved of anything. But David didn't count on the loyalty of Uriah. Uriah wouldn't leave the battlefield. Why should I go and sleep in my own bed when my men are out here fighting? And so David resorts to plan B, and plan B is to get Uriah drunk. To get him drunk, he'll he'll be a disgrace, he'll lose his nobility. But again, David didn't count on the integrity and the character of Uriah. And so he resorts to plan C, which was to have him set up, to have his murder staged. He would be on the front lines, they would pull back from him, he would be killed, and David could have the spoils of victory, which meant Bathsheba all to himself. And this is where we see the unrestrained arrogance of David. Because David sends these orders to Joab, the commander of the army. Who's he send the orders with? Uriah. He sends Uriah's own death warrant by Uriah to give to Joab. And this is where David looks like anything but a hero. In fact, if you're following along in the story, who's the hero? It's Uriah. He's the one you're pulling for. David is the evil villain. He's the one dressed in black. And Uriah is the one who's riding the white horse. No way would you think that David would be the hero. David is desperate. The plan is followed through. And Psalm thirty-six verses one through four is describing David. Is it not? This is an autobiography. This is David writing about himself. Uriah dies, David is free to take Bathsheba as his wife, and in his mind, out of sight, out of mind. Everything I did before doesn't matter. I'm happy, I can move forward. And Nathan, the prophet, comes on the scene to set him straight by telling him a little story about a man who had one little ewe lamb that he treated as a pet. It was like a family member. And a visitor comes through town, and the man, another man in town wanting to show him hospitality, instead of taking from his abundance of lambs, goes and steals that one little ew lamb from that man that treated him like a pet. And he takes that one little treated her like a pet, takes that one little ewe lamb. And sacrifices it, and David hears this parable and he is incensed. I mean, the man has to die, even David says. And Nathan looks at him and says, You're the man. You know, guys, we like to hear you're the man. That's usually a compliment. Not this time. Nathan had painted a portrait of a transgressor. And it was a portrait of David. And to David's credit, he owns it. He doesn't try to blame shift. He doesn't try to play the victim. He doesn't try to, you know, to blame someone else. He says, I have sinned. And at that point, David switches teams again, doesn't he? He's back on the side of God. He was a lost man. Transgression or Pesha had a stranglehold on his heart, but now he was a man after God's own heart. And I can't help but make a connection between the mercy of God and David's praises in verses five and six. Notice what it says. Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. By the way, that's why I asked chance to lead the steadfast love the Lord again tonight, even though we led it this morning, because it goes along with this psalm so well. Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like the great deep. Man and beast, you save, O Lord. David starts out by meditating on the character of the wicked. Now he shifts. To meditate meditating on the character of the divine, and he does th so through cosmological language. Why is that important? Because we see it over and over again in the Psalms and in the Old Testament. You've got to ask when studying the Bible some questions we've already talked about. What was the culture of the time? Who is the one writing it? What was he dealing with? ⁓ you know, what was going on around him? What is the genre? Is it poetry? Is it apocalyptic language? Here, of course, it's poetry. But we also have to ask what was their worldview at the time? And the worldview that we see being played off of so often in the Psalms is that of cosmology, the cosmos, and creation. It often goes back to the creation of the world, to Eden, and David is certainly using cosmological language here. Notice how he takes the attributes of God and combines them with God's creation. Steadfast love is heavens. Faithfulness is the clouds. Righteousness is the mountains. Judgments or justice is the great deep. Nature accentuates the greatness and the uniqueness of God. Your steadfast love, God, is measureless like the heavens. Your faithfulness is limitless like the clouds. Your righteousness is immovable and unchangeable like the mountains. Your judgment or justice is like the deep, the depth of the oceans, in unfathomable, unexplainable. Inexhaustible. And God's providence covers every piece of creation. He preserves both man and beast. He keeps us alive by his caring nature. And then notice verses 7 through 9. How precious is your steadfast love, O God. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life in your light. Do we see light? David is meditating on God's protection. It's been there before, it's still there. Any anyone, regardless of ⁓ of color or culture, or social standing, can take refuge in Him. There is always salvation and hope as long as you have breath in your lungs. And then David is meditating on the provision of God. God's house is like a storehouse where there is an abundance of resources. There's bounty for everyone. God is also like a gardener, and in his garden there is a river that is filled with blessings. It flows out to anyone who comes into his presence. One may continually drink of this abundance. And this is Eden language. You see it throughout the Psalms. This harkens back to the garden, doesn't it? There's a house and a garden with a river, and God is also described as a fountain, and those who drink from this fountain will have abundant life, because God is the source of life, and whoever partakes of him enjoys the abundant life, not just in the future, but right here, right now. And then David is playing off the perspective of God. He is light, and this light illuminates for us what we truly need to see. Light means that there is life and understanding, and those who come to God have their eyes opened. To the source of life. Those who don't come to Him are confined to darkness, but those who draw near to Him see the world differently. And hopefully you see what's happening here in this Psalm. The Bible often deals and contrasts, and certainly that is happening here. David began by meditating on the sinful human, the man that he used to be, and then he shifts to meditating on God and his divine character. I think two things are happening here. David is reflecting on his life and he's remembering the time that he played for Team Sin and then he's reflecting on how much better his life got when he switched teams. He's also speaking generally. I think by way of contrast, there's this massive difference between the two teams. One team is going to take an ill, and not just now, but for eternity. And the other team always, always wins. Always. They are guaranteed victory. Notice how it closes. ⁓ continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart. Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the evildoers lie fallen, they are thrust down, unable to rise. The poet says, God, if you don't mind, could you just keep that steadfast love coming? That can certainly be our prayer too. God, if you don't mind, can you just keep doing what you're doing? Can you keep it coming? There's a group of us who acknowledge you as creator and would really appreciate it if you would extend that righteousness and that faithfulness. That holds the cosmos together, and that in particular give us life, both now and for eternity. Because there's a lot of corruption down here. There's a lot of things going on. There's a lot of evil. There's a lot of bad. That that other team seems like they're winning. Even though I know they're going to take the L in the end, it sure seems like that they're winning. Could you do something about that, God? In contrast, we see everything coming together, right? The contrast starts to make sense. David is trying. To take that first part of the psalm and tie it to the second part. In light of who God is as the cosmic sustainer, and in light of the reality of living in a distorted world, please, God, don't let the disharmony and the disunity and the distorted humanity crush me. Please protect me. Verse eleven. Drive me away. That phrase, drive me away, that's Eden language. Don't exile me, God. Don't push me out of the garden. Don't kick me out. I want to be close to you. I don't want to be outside of your good graces. I don't want to be outside of the garden. Don't let me be banished from the source of life. Don't let me be exiled. Look at the language. The evildoers lie fallen. They can't get up. And the psalmist says, Don't let me descend to where the wicked is. I want to rise up. Because that's where the source of life is. And you remember that the Garden of Eden had four rivers that nourished the land. And two of the lands that were nourished by that river were were who? Babylon and Assyria. They were included in that region that were nourished. They were wicked nations that took the blessing that was provided to them and became autonomous. They took those blessings and they did their own thing. They became oppressive empires, and David says, please don't let that happen to me. The wicked can't rise up. I want to rise up. I want to be on your team. I want to be on the winning team. Please don't exclude me. Please keep me close to you. I want you to tell me if you recognize these words. Well, I gave it away. Sorry. I didn't know that I put a put an image up there. Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living. And above all, pity those who live without love. This is at a point where Harry and Voldemort have their showdown. Again, movies love this plot line because we love this plot line. Good versus evil. And now good versus evil are having their showdown. And Harry remembers remembers his mentor, Dumbledore. He remembers these words. He's saddened because he's no longer with them, but he remembers these words. Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living. And above all, pity those who live without love. That kind of pity for the loveless, for the self-deceived, the corrupt, the lost, those living in darkness is what Psalm 36 reveals. It presents us with two teams and a choice. It's really the storyline of the Bible, and it begs a question for us. Which side are you on? And understand, you can't wait to answer that question. That question needs to be addressed immediately in your life. And hopefully you're on the winning side. And if you are, then rest assured that you have God's protection and that you are going to win at the end. But if you can't answer the question with all confidence that you're on the winning side, then do something about that this evening. Psalm 36 is presenting us with that question: which side are you on? David had been on both teams. He reflected at the beginning of the Psalm on his life and how he had been on the losing side of things. But thanks be to God, he acknowledged his sin. God took him back and he was on the winning team again. And I'm sure all of us have probably flip-flopped a few times. We found ourselves on the losing side, and we found ourselves realizing that this is not a winning formula. I've got to do something different. Make the right decision. And for many of us, it might be a regular decision, a daily decision, in fact. Maybe we're tempted, maybe we're pulled by evil to come over to its side. Maybe it's whispering in our ear. And it's hard to turn it off. But remember, you've got to think big in this thing. You've got to think future and not just here and now. Because instant gratification is always enticing. And it always makes us feel like that the here and now is most important. Where Jesus, the Bible, presents us with a bigger picture choice. We might call it delayed gratification. Where you don't buy into the world's enticements, you don't take reps for the team that is evil. Instead, it's persistent plotting in a godly direction, knowing that you're not just a winner now, but you win in eternity. So I I leave you with this question tonight. Which side are you on? And the beautiful thing about this is if you're not on the right side, you have opportunity to be on the right side. As we've said before, if you end up in hell, you had to step across, you had to step over the cross to get there. God has made a path, he's made a way for you to come to him because he wants you in heaven with him. And so if you're not on the right side, make the right decision tonight. Chance has a song. Why don't you come as we stand and as we sing?