Psalms 109:21

The Bible says in Psalms 109:21-25, “But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust. My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness. I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.”

Every sufferings in life and everyone dies. Some people suffer worse than others though. Some people have horrible tragedies and circumstances that happen to them. If you look out at the world you might ask yourself why it is this way. Why do some people suffer more in life than other people? Sometimes it is because of their own choices. Sometimes it has to do with the circumstances that they are into. Sometimes it has to do with the evil that other men do unto them. Regardless of all the possibilities what should be considered above all is that God allows it in a person’s life so that that person will turn to Jesus and believe in the Gospel.

Of course those that trust in Jesus will suffer things that they would otherwise not suffer if they had not trusted in Jesus. Some Christians for some reason God chooses them to suffer greatly for the gospel. Jesus has His reasons. Reason’s we may never know until we get to heaven. But we can be assured they are good reason’s.

The important thing to do in the midst of suffering is to respond properly. The wisest and best way anyone can respond is to pray to God for mercy and deliverance.

The Bible is a book about deliverance. Deliverance from sin, deliverance from the spiritual powers of darkness and sometimes even deliverance from physical circumstances. Be prepared however, to follow Jesus means to take the gospel road. And sometimes that means not being delivered from your physical circumstances.

Those who preach that trusting in God means you will become healthy wealthy and blessed materially are preaching a false gospel. The true gospel is about blessings spiritually that come to you. Sometimes God chooses to bless a person materially but more often than not He does not.

I Timothy 6:10-11, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.”

I am gone like the shadow when it declineth. It may be indeed your destiny to fade like a shadow. A shadow leaves no mark no trace. You may never have world wide fame and fortune in this life but if you follow Jesus you will receive His deliverance. The deliverance from sin and the eternal victory over the spiritual forces of darkness.

Psalms 109:26-30 says, “Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy: That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it. Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice. Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle. I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude. For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.”

Everyone will reap what they sow. If you sow wheat you will reap wheat. If you plant an apple tree you will reap apples. If you sin you will reap suffering and destruction and the judgment of God. If you do what is right you shall reap righteousness and gladness and eternal life through the blood of Jesus.

This is basic truth taught in these verses but there is also several other truths taught. The first has to do with the mercy of God.

Psalms 109:26-27 says, “Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy: That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.”

Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve. He gives us mercy because He loves us. He gives us mercy because He is kind. God gives us mercy because His Son Jesus suffered the punishment for our sins on the cross. No matter how bad you fail, and no matter how terrible are the consequences that you might suffer from your mistakes you can be certain that God will be merciful unto you when you come to Jesus looking for mercy.

Some people accuse the Bible of being filled with violence. They say the Bible is not a message about love but God’s anger. There is some violence in the Bible but the question is the violence just or unjust? Yes God is merciful to us but God get’s angry at sin. God has great eternal wrath against sin. For those who do not repent of their sins God will judge them. God will punish them eventually once all of their opportunities to repent of their sins have been wasted and rejected.

Governments punish those whom break their laws. They have the power to do so. God has the power to punish those who break His laws. Unlike governments God first gives the chance for repentance through Jesus Christ. How much more merciful God is than any government. And yet people say, “the way of the Lord is not equal.”

The New Testament is all about Jesus, His life, his suffering and death on the cross so that the world might have mercy. Any one who says the bible is filled with unjust violence is lying. Sin is violent. And judgment against sin will be a violent judgment but a just violence and deserved violence especially once we consider how much God has poured his love and his grace through the blood of Jesus Christ for the world.

In the end, God will have mercy on those that seek mercy and those that want His mercy and forgiveness. Those that desire to do what is right; those that desire to be honest and to believe the truth. These are the kinds of people that come to Jesus with repentant and humble hearts.

Psalms 109:26-27 says, “Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy: That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.”

One of the reasons that God has mercy is so that others may see that it is the Hand of God that it is the power of Jesus and in seeing they too will turn to the Lord and seek His great everlasting mercy for their sins. How important it is for people to see the great things that God does. People need to be told about the things that God has done so that they will hear and will see and will believe.

This is why the Bible says in Romans 10:13-14, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

Of course there is a difference between just hearing about what God does and has done and actually experiencing it.

First let me say that hearing about what God does is not the same as hearing about something a man has done. The things that God does are might and everlasting and holy and they often effect every person’s life in the world. The best example is the gospel. Men die every die. If you hear about a man dying it might touch your life but it’s not the same as hearing about God dying for you’re s sin.

In a way you could say when you hear about the things that God does you are in effect seeing the hand of God and experiencing it personally because the things that God does are always great and everlasting. There is a great contrast between what God does and what man does. The thing’s that God does are powerful and majestic. The Bible is filled with stories of the great things that God has done. The world needs to hear about these stories, especially the story of Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the grave for the sins of the world. In hearing about these stories men can experience God.

Psalms 109:28-29, “Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice. Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.”

The main point here is that for the Christian there will always be a joy, a joy in the gospel. And for the unrepentant sinner there will always be shame. Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.

Shame and confusion. Shame and confusion is the result of sin. Those who are lost in their sins have great confusion. Their lies confuse them. They are confused about what the purpose of life is. Sometimes they are even confused about the simple and obvious things such as the difference between a man and a woman. A woman is not a man and a man is not a woman. Oh how great and terrible is the confusion of those that turn away from Jesus.

We must remember how confused the lost of this world are and we must have compassion on them and patience. God is patient with them. God is merciful to them. God loves them. God wants them to be saved. One day, if they do not turn to Jesus, they will face the wrath of God. They know this, this is why they hate the Bible and hate the message of God’s anger and accuse Him of unjust violence in the Bible.

The Bible says in Proverbs 28:13, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

Most people when they see and feel the shame of their sins they try to turn away. This is the reason that people who live in gross immorality such as sex out of marriage or homosexuality, people such as these often hate Christians and the message of the Bible because of the great shame that comes with fornication and adultery and sexually immorality. Yes there is great shame with sexual sins and great shame with all sin. But he that covereth his sins shall not prosper. He that covereth his sins shall ware the mantle of confusion in life. Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy.

Lets talk about sexual immorality for a minute because it is so rampant in the world. Why would anyone want to be so naive and choose the such a shameful act when they could have instead the honor of romance in marriage. There is great honor in sexual purity. There is great joy and great pleasure in marriage when you marry who God wants you to marry. The pleasures, the joys and the honor and the romance that comes with marriage is immeasurable and indescribeable. Why miss out on all these blessings to follow after unsatisfiable and unfulfilling lusts? Just imagine the freedom of being about to enjoy sex without worrying about catching sexual diseases. People that marry and stay faithful to each other don’t have such a problem.He that covereth his sins.

Psalms 109:30-31, “I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude. For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.”

From those that condemn His soul. As said afore in the beginning of this sermon those who stand up and preach the message that if you give money to God it will result in you being blessed materially. Anyone who preaches this message is a false preacher, a wolf in sheep’s clothing come to devour you, and a selfish person who only wants to feed their own belly, a well without water and a wandering star reserved for chains of darkness.

But when it comes to those that want to condemn your soul this will never happen if you trust in Jesus Christ. Christ paid the debt for your sins.

Romans 5:8-9 says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. Yes the world may steal from you, the world may crush you down, you may lose your job, or your health, or your friends, you may lose all that you own even, you may lose you family, you may even lose your freedom and even your life. Yes there are a great many things to lose if you follow Jesus but you will never lose your soul. I will praise Him among the multitude For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.”

They will try to condemn your soul. In other words just like the devil there are those who hope you will be lead into hell. They will lie about you. They will paint you as evil as they can. They will call you a racist and a bigot and many other things. They will try to lead you astray into sin. But in the end Jesus will save your soul because you are saved if you have the blood of Jesus painted upon the doorposts of your heart then you are covered in the blood and saved from the wrath to come. In Jesus there is no condemnation. If you have the righteousness of Christ imputed unto you your soul cannot be condemned.

If you have turned to Jesus then do so today. Pray to Him ask him for mercy. Jesus will wipe away all the shame of your sins and bring you into His eternal love and grace giving eternal life and eternal joys. Amen.

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