The Lord Is on My Side

If you open your Bible to Psalm 118, we are going to look at verses 1-9. Hear God's Word. The Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear.

What can man do to me? The Lord is on my side. As my Helper, I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you this evening and Lord as we open your Word, I pray that the Holy Spirit teach us as we look at the text before us how David used this Psalm as a Psalm of praise. But Lord, the truth that it teach us today in a very necessary time to hear those truths. Father, I pray that you keep me from error, that your Word is spoken. And Lord, I pray that you are glorified by what is said and done here tonight. And it's in Christ Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. I was telling Wendy on the way over, I feel like I'm bookending a very difficult time. The last time I had the opportunity to speak was on her birthday, October 31st, and it was the Sunday before the election. And now I get to preach this Sunday, and it's the Sunday after the inauguration. So it's sort of a bookend of what in itself is normally a strenuous time on all of us. The election, especially the election of President, comes with a lot of rhetoric, a lot of debate, a lot of side drawing, and a lot of tough feelings. This year, it was even heightened because of everything that has accompanied it. Still struggling with a virus that's causing sickness throughout not just North Carolina or the United States, but the world. Struggling with the right ways to take care of one another in this time.

Struggling with social disorder, riots, protests. We see a continual struggle over these past nine to ten months, eleven months, heading on twelve months, in a time that normally was high enough tension in itself when everything was what we would consider normal. If you remember back on October 31st, I preached a message called Finding Rest in the Tumult, and it was from Exodus 14.

And it touched on how we could find rest throughout this time by resting in God, the one who delivers us. And if you remember back to that message, it was the Israelites standing at the Red Sea with the army charging behind, and a sea in front of them, and how would they be delivered. In some ways, I feel like we're still standing at the Red Sea.

The army's still coming, and we're waiting for the sea to open. I have given myself at times to be drawn in by the rhetoric. I have given myself at times to be drawn in by concern. I don't want to say the word fear.

I haven't been fearful. But when I turned to Psalm 118 and when I prayed about this, I asked myself, why is it that this is so difficult, especially inside the church? And especially inside the church where we believe in a covenant-keeping God, where we believe in a God who has promised to deliver us. And so, when I look and I examine my own heart, it is because of my own unbelief. When we turn to Psalm 118, there's no author listed for this psalm, but what we find is that David is attributed to writing this psalm, and it can be tied back to Ezra 3, verse 11, where a piece of the psalm is quoted by the Israelites, and it is attributed by Ezra to when David was king of Israel.

And so, we are going to work with that thought process. This is a psalm that was penned by David. It is what is called the last of the Egyptian Hallel psalms. It is a praise psalm. What is really neat about this psalm, as we study it tonight, this is probably the last psalm that Christ sang and his disciples as they left the upper room. And when you step back, and I mean it's one thing to say historically, this is the psalm that Christ sang, but to realize what Christ was stepping out into. He was headed toward the Garden of Gethsemane, and him and the disciples sing this psalm to end the celebration of Passover, and it is a direct declaration of God's deliverance, it is a declaration that God is on his side, and it is a declaration that even is messianic in parts.

We draw several of our hymns from this psalm, so it is a psalm that is rich, but it is one that actually was sung by our Lord Jesus Christ on the night that he gave himself over. And so as we approach these words, please let us do it with a great deal of reverence to the truth that is found here. As we look at what the past three months from October to now or from March or wherever you want to start where all this stress and tension has boiled up from, it has been causing within the culture, but unfortunately also within the church, fear, for some anger, for many distrust. There is confusion it seems, and I would like us tonight to use the text as David meant it to be used by the original audience. When we sit and realize that David wrote this and what he writes about how God is and how we can rely upon him, this is not a man who, and this is great because Doug's been preaching on David and his rise to the kingship, and so if you've been here for Doug's sermon, it hasn't been an easy rise, has it? This is a man who was anointed and told he would be the king of Israel, and from that time we've read about turmoil after turmoil that he has gone through, trying at times he fails, but trying to stay faithful to the Lord through those turmoils, and today in our sermon we have the consummation of that kingship in the Sunday morning sermon. This evening we look and see how David writes about his own experience and where he places how his life, how our lives, how the Israelites' lives, how believers' lives are in God's hand.

So as we look at it, that is the lens that I want us to look at it through. We're going to sort of just skim through the first five verses and we're going to focus on verses six and seven. In verse one, David gives us the reason that we should give thanks, and it is a very simple reason. We are to give thanks because the Lord is good. Where else do we see that in scripture? If we go to the rich young ruler, he says, Good teacher, and Jesus says to him, Why do you call me good?

There is only one that is good. What does it mean when we say God is good? Does it mean he's just doing right things?

Does it mean that he doesn't do wrong things but he doesn't connect with us? David, when he said, God is good, the Lord is good, we give thanks because the Lord is good, he's saying it for the reason of what is stated further down. His steadfast love endures forever.

This is going to be repeated three times by three separate groups. God is good not just because he's right, holy, and just. God is good because he epitomizes and interacts with his people to make them those same things. God is good is a great statement.

I think we skim over it many times because we use adjectives in very improper ways. When we sit and realize God's steadfast love for his people, David has, yes, been faithful to God, but David has also been unfaithful to God. The Israelites in the next verse have been faithful to God, but they've been unfaithful to God.

The priests have been faithful to God and unfaithful to God. And that third group, which people say there's no universality in the Old Testament, that third group, let those who fear the Lord say, that is the Gentiles who have come into the camp of Israel and have been called to serve Yahweh. So we know that they have failed, but they also have been faithful. And God in his steadfast love has kept them and David calls out to them, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his steadfast love endures forever. It is a repeating of the same things just like Moses when they get to the Red Sea.

We just went through the Passover. God has promised generations for us to celebrate this. He will deliver us. When we start to realize when he writes to his audience, that is what he is calling them to. Then he shares in verse 5, and if we would go further in the text, 10 through 20, he shares God's deliverance from an issue. In verse 5 he says, Out of my distress I called on the Lord, and the Lord answered me and set me free. David is telling them, as the man of Israel, the representative of Israel, because they can look back through their history, they have called upon him and he has delivered.

He has set them free time and time again. They have sinned, they have gone from God, he has punished or chastened them, but his steadfast love has held to them. They are at a point here that most authors believe they are celebrating the dedication of the foundation of the new temple.

They are reassembled. They are under the kingship of David. So these words about God being steadfast to them have an importance. To you and I, they have an importance. I could stand here for the next hour and easily share with you testimony after testimony from my own life of how God in his steadfast love, though I sin against him and rebel against him and turn my own way, how he has remained faithful and brought me back unto him.

He's chastened me. At times, even when I was not an active sin, he has provided for my family, for my business in ways that I cannot explain. And it's not some small list that would go quickly. I was struggling last year in my thought process and I decided to write myself a letter. And in that letter, I simply wrote, I am a sinner who is not deserving of anything, but yet you have called me and you have led me. And in this letter, I wanted to pin down those blessings that God has given me. I started to write it.

I got to the third page in the 54th thing and I was just writing out bullet points. And every one of them were just ripping at my heart. I was born to two parents who loved Jesus Christ and took me to church.

That's the very first thing I penned. I, further down, was not a good husband in my mid-twenties. And my marriage should have dissolved and God restored that.

He didn't just restore it. He caused my wife and I to have a better relationship than what we thought we had when we said I do. I could go down that list and I got to 54 and I thought, how foolish am I for my unbelief that God is able to carry me through. So as we see, David shares with them this distress, his cry out to him in God's deliverance, and David immediately moves to these words. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear.

What can man do to me? He moves down in verse 7 to say the Lord is on my side as my helper. I shall look in triumph at those who hate me. I'd like for us to meditate briefly on those two things. Just two points tonight. Very simply, if God is on our side, not if, since God is on our side as believers, we have no reason to fear man.

Hear that tonight. Whether it's a political issue, whether it's cultural unrest, whether it's COVID, since God is on our side, we have no reason to fear man. And the second point will be, since God is on our side, we have triumphed. And the question I have for you is, do we truly live in this?

Do we truly understand what this even means? And I'm hopeful tonight that you're not going to hear a lot of me, but you're going to hear a lot of scripture. Because that's what I want to walk through as to the why and what these verses are trying to teach us.

Point 1. Since God is on our side, we have no reason to fear man or this world. If you look with me again at 118 verse 6, the Lord is on my side.

I will not fear. What can man do to me? I read that question and I thought to myself, well if you just ask me that question, I would have to answer back, man can do to me a lot. And so I went to one of my favorite pastors, Doug's my favorite, one of my favorite pastors, James Montgomery Boyce.

I didn't have his commentary on the Psalm 118 because he does an overview, but I went to Romans 8 and his commentary on Romans 8. And Boyce lays it out, answering that question the same way because I thought, am I wrong thinking that? The question is, what can man do to me? And he can do a lot. He can persecute us, he can jail us, he can kill us. Scripture doesn't pull a punch on any of that.

You know, as we sit and look at it, it's quite amazing. We can take a verse like that and we can say, well the Scripture teaches me that I am fully protected from everything without any consequence. That's not what it's teaching here. If you have your Bibles, I'd ask you to turn to John 15. We're going to look at verses 18 through 20 real quick and I'm not going to make you jump.

I'll tell you where I'm getting these reference verses from, but this is John 15 to 18. These are Jesus' words. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you. A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. If you move to 1 John 3.13, do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. When we sit and look at Jesus' own teaching, he's telling his disciples, if you're of me, the world is going to hate you and they are going to persecute you. So why would the psalmist write, the Lord is on my side, I will not fear, what can man do to me?

Well, it's because we don't really have an understanding, I think. Many times we get wrapped up in our own selves and we don't understand what the scripture tells us about fully how God sustains, protects, and keeps us. If you jump over to Romans 8 verse 1, we want to look at how scripture says that God is on my side, therefore I won't fear, what can man do to me?

Romans 8 chapter 1 says this, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The very first thing that we are assured of if we are in Christ Jesus, if we are a follower of God and serve him, that when we come to his judgment throne, we do not stand condemned because we stand in the righteousness of Christ. The ultimate destruction of us is averted because of the work of Jesus Christ and us being found in him. If you move over to Matthew 10, 26, 33, it says, So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Notice he's not saying they can't kill the body. He's saying do not fear those that can kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my father who is in heaven.

Again, a tie, number one, to the salvific work and our justification and our future glorification. But I think there's a physical part here too. Because he says that not two sparrows will fall to the ground without the father noticing him.

But the hairs of your very head are counted and are you not worth more than two sparrows. So there is a protection, not just in the spiritual realm that comes, there is a protection in the physical realm that comes. If we turn to Ephesians 2 10, why would that be there? In Ephesians 2 10 it says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. As we are brought to Jesus Christ, as we are changed, as we are made his children, it is not just I'm saved I got to get to heaven free card. It is I have a work and a ministry, some work and it may be as simple as taking care of your wife and your children. It is not called to the mission field, it's not called to stand in a pulpit, it may be cleaning for someone who can't and while you clean you share the gospel with them.

It may be to be a respiratory therapist, it may be to be an engineer, whatever. God has works that he has prepared beforehand and guess what, God will not be thwarted, you will be provided with the way to do that work. Whether it's a Democrat in the White House or a Republican in the White House. Whether COVID-19 is crazy or COVID-19 is gone, whether there is social unrest or not, God will work through you to accomplish the works that he's begun. If we move a little bit further into the scripture, going back to Matthew to the Sermon on the Mount. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious about anything, about politics, about illness, about my job, about my health, not that we shouldn't do the things God calls us to to be healthy, not that when we go to our work we shouldn't work as unto the Lord, but which one of us by being anxious can add a single hour to his lifespan? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, will he not much more clothe you? O you of little faith, therefore do not be anxious saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Therefore don't be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. When we read that text, when I read that text, a thing pops in my mind that I heard over and over from Christian people from early on in my life and it was a very pragmatic statement that basically went, don't be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good.

I don't know if you've heard it, I've probably repeated it and I will tell you this evening I'm ashamed that I would repeat such a thing. Because as I studied scripture more and more I think the statement should be from biblical wisdom that we should be so Christly minded that earthly things fade away. We should be so enamoured by God, so enamoured by Christ, so enamoured by heaven that those things that are to us here potential idols can easily slip away without concern. Is our faith in our bank account or is our faith in God who provides the very things he knows we need? Is our faith in my ability to be able to do something or is my faith in God giving me the ability that I need to do it? I think that is where we start to have issue and we can come against the very first commandment of the Ten Commandments that we shall have no other gods before us. It's easy for us to say, oh I don't have one but I lost my job and the market looks like it's going to go away and I might not have any money.

What am I going to do? And that's a serious concern folks. But God tells us, I know the need you have and I will provide them. It is not a question. He calls us to seek his kingdom first. You know, I've heard Doug preach and I think it was the name Leterno and they had a very big company and like a multi-million dollar company and the guy sold it for a dollar, right? A dollar, a multi-million dollar company sold it for a dollar, went to serve the Lord and the Lord took care of him and his family.

He could have sold it for 10 million, 20 million, whatever millions it was worth and say we are protected here, he sold it for one dollar and went and sought the righteousness of God and God sustained him. Do we truly grasp that? That's what David grasps when he writes, the Lord is on my side, I will not fear, what can man do to me? Man can do a lot of things but it can only be done to earthly temporal things, even our body.

To kill this body is no win for man. We win because we enter the presence of Christ Jesus at that moment. But it is searching and seeking to serve him. We move from there and the writer of the book of Hebrews in chapter 13, 5 and 6 writes, keep your life free from the love of money. Before that there's a hole on how we are to be serving God but he finishes it with keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have.

For he said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say, Hebrews 13 verse 6, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do to me. If we run back to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourself treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. When we read 8.1.18.6, and we will not be afraid of man, what can he do to us? What we need to understand is what Will explained to us last week, that as believers we are different. We have been changed by the grace and the power of God and the mercy of Christ and we are different. Let us live our lives as redeemed people, as Will said, just resting in grace, amazed by that grace and sustained by the most high God who is on our side.

We should not fear man and what he can do, we should fear God and serve him. What we want to do though is look at the result that David tells them in point 2 since God is on our side, we have triumph. Verse 1.18.7 says, the Lord is on my side as my helper, I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.

Notice it is a shall, I shall, not I hope to, I maybe possibly will, I shall. This is David writing on the other side of the cross. For us as Christians on this side of the cross, we live in what theologians like to call the already but not yet.

The statement is a completed statement. Doug preached revelation, referenced the last time I was here. In that he said several times, Jesus wins. Actually we can change it and say Jesus won. He is reigning right now, this very moment. The God of the universe is in control of all things. He has the heart of the presidents, of the prime ministers, of the dictators in his hands and they do only what he ordains and permits.

They can do no more. Do you remember Christ before Pontius Pilate? Pontius Pilate asked him, don't you realize I can kill you? And Jesus looked at him and said what?

To one of the strongest officials of Rome to the Jerusalem area, he said you can only do what the Father allows, what the Father gives you to do. As we worry and squirm because news stations tell us this and podcasts tell us this, remember that whoever you're worried about, their very thought process, their heart, their actual life at this moment is in the hand of the one who sits on the throne and they will only be able to do what is ordained by God. Does that mean it may be persecution for us? Yes, but then aren't we to count it as all glory that we could suffer as Christ Jesus? Aren't we supposed to be being made more and more like Christ Jesus? As we sit and think through, these are the things going through David, his understanding when he says the Lord is on my side and my helper. I shall look and triumph on those who hate me because as on this side of the cross we are triumphant. We're not hoping God is going to deliver, God has delivered in the man Jesus Christ. Matthew 1 21 tells us she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.

Why? For he will save his people from their sins. John 19 28 through 30, after this Jesus knowing that all was now finished said to fulfill the scripture I thirst.

A jar full of sour wine stood there so they put a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch, held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine he said it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 20 verse 31, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name. Do we realize who we are serving? Do we realize who the Holy Spirit has brought us to and in? It is not a God who might be able to, it is not a God who does not care about us, it is a God who gave over his only son to die for you and me.

How can we rest assured God will sustain us? Because he gave his very son to save us. That is what the scripture tells us as we look at Romans 8 28 through 32 and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the first born among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called and those whom he called he also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us who can be against us? That is the question in verse 31 of chapter 8 that Paul asks but in verse 32 he gives the answer. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? That is the God we serve.

That is the God who is sitting on the throne. We do not need to walk in fear, anger, confusion. We need to walk in humbleness of heart, broken and contrite because we don't deserve the very grace that saved us. We don't deserve the very grace that sustains us.

We don't deserve the very grace that right now allows me to say Jesus Christ is Lord without fear either from this pulpit or from the street corner. What's amazing in this already but not yet if we rush over to Revelation 21 one through three, hear God's word then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God.

That's where we are. We're eschatologically moving towards this full consummation but to God that consummation is complete. Christ has won. What we read in Revelation 21 is our made into a new glorified being able to interact with God in his reign but he is reigning right now and his Holy Spirit is in our hearts and he knows what we need and he calls us to one thing and that is to seek his kingdom first. To close tonight, when we say from the text God is on our side, he has revealed that to those who are his. The people who respond in this Psalm are not the world. It is the people of God. It is the church, ladies and gentlemen. When I say God is on our side, the church should respond back because his steadfast love endures forever.

We are his through Christ. If tonight there is anyone here that doesn't know Christ. I pray that the Holy Spirit uses the word that has been spoken to open your eyes, your ears and your heart because without Jesus Christ, you are lost. And when this full consummation does occur, you will be looked at and said, depart from me, you worker of iniquity.

I've never known you. For those of us who are believers tonight, I implore you to walk in the spirit of Christ. Not fearing but believing as Paul writes in Romans 8.37 and I'm just going to close with reading that text because it is basically the full build of what David and Paul both wrote. If you turn to Romans 8, we're going to look at verses 37 through 39.

If you want a tremendous application, believe these words from God. Know in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We serve a living king who reigns on the throne, who has his will that will not be changed or thwarted and he guides those who govern, he guides those who follow, he controls illness, health, all of it. Tonight, let us say that we will not fear because God is on our side. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit, the truth of your scripture tonight, not the words that I said. Drive home what we've read about how you sustain, how you protect, how it is Jesus Christ who has paid the penalty for sin and that through him sins are forgiven. Father, we give glory and honor to your name for on our own we are lost in nothing but through you we are adopted sons of the king. Let us rest in your protection and your grace and it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.