⁰³      May the LORD silence all flattering lips,
                the tongue that makes great boasts,
⁰⁴               those who say,
‘With our tongue we will triumph,
                our lips are our own;
                who is master over us?’

⁰⁵      ‘Because the poor are devastated,
                because the needy sigh,
        Now I will arise’, says the LORD;
                ‘I will place him in the safety for which he longs.’

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Introduction:  According to the chiastic pattern attributed to this particular psalm, we have drawn into the inner sanctum of its thinking  because here, in that context verses three and four establish the need and the hope for the teachings of verse five.  Spurgeon entitles this whole psalm as “Good Thoughts in Bad Times.”  And that we can easily appreciate, since the opening structure of the psalm begs so plaintfully for the work of the Lord God of heaven and earth to accomplish what His people, reduced in power and influence  may not!

While the focus of the psalm is both present to the prayer of David, it is also prophetic as well.  Delitzsch notes that “together with Psalm Two,” this psalm, “is a second example of the way in which the psalmist, when under great excitement of spirit, passes over into the tone of one who directly hears God’s words, and therefore into the tone of an inspired prophet.”

Of course, we have realized that of all scripture in a certain sense, but here as in other more specifically prophetic passages  we have heard the end of all things from the beginning.  And just as we noted last week, this psalm speaks not only the heart of David for present and future, but also our own sincere desire for the final coming in glory of our Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the age.  It is this hope to which all honest men must come, whenever and wherever the godly influence of either Covenant Church was or is severely limited by surrounding political and social forces.

In point fact, we have here a solid prophetic basis for a necessary full and final judgment at the end of the age for every person born into this world.  One of the hardest lessons that I learned early in my twenty-five years of public service is that a final accounting is mandated by the ongoing moral stupidity of those who would shape and direct the course of human history according to their own fallen wants and desires, and thereby substitute their worldly wisdom for the revealed civility of the Creator God.

Therefore David sincerely prays:”May the LORD silence all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts.” Social utopians of every kind may be included here, because just as Calvin notes, the descriptive phrases in this verse are carefully focused.  Verse three here contains a vivid imprecation that those who are here described may be cut off.  It is not obvious or important whether he hopes for their immediate destruction or that their political means of doing mischief only be limited?

Probably the best that can ever be hoped for is the secondary means being achieved in our time and place, with a final justice and destruction being left for the more perfect justice of the great day at the end of the world.  Calvin’s translation and commentary are vital for our understanding of just what is being condemned in this imprecation.  “From the second clause of the third verse it appears more clearly what kind of flatterers they were of whom mention was made. … David here speaks of … those who in flattering proudly boast of what they will accomplish, and mingle base effrontery and threatening with their deceitful arts.”  To simplify Calvin’s rhetoric, let us consider his translation first:  “The tongue that speaketh great or proud things.”  The society types so described are not just those who lord themselves over the masses, but more specifically those who believe that only they know what is best for the utopian society they have in mind.

Development:  How easily every governing party of every time and place, can fall onto the canvass of descriptive boasts and lies carefully here defined by David.  I am reminded of the Cromwell years in Britain where even the best intentioned politics aimed at the establishment of a godly theocracy fell so far short of that lofty goal  that a return of the kingship proved to be better in the long run of history.

It is sometimes precisely the overblown religiously principled who are the most dangerous.  And in our era, it is precisely the religious bigots of militant Isalm, democratic humanists and soviet styled socialists who are the most dangerous to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Let us look carefully at David’s descriptive phraseology to sense the true nature of those who would impose their personal stamp upon God’s ongoing refining and reformation of civilized mankind.

Verse four cuts to the chase in this regard: “those who say ,‘With our tongue we will triumph, our lips are our own; who is master over us?’”  Therein are the seeds of the humanist manifesto that so plagued the twentieth century and threatens to destroy every aspect of social, moral and scientific achievement attained since Western Civilization was improvised from and upon a biblical foundation.

There are three points to the arrogance of David’s enemies, even the same enemies of our very own God and King in every age.  The first is the false security that “with our tongue we will triumph.”  We have only to consider the New York and Los Angeles Times in this regard.  The Media elitists from both left coasts believe like the editors of Pravda  that if they repeat the same lies over and over again  then the public educated masses must automatically adopt the implied wisdom of liberality gone totally arrogant!  They have so far retreated into the depths of their own imaginations - that they cannot understand that the triumph of the big lie is finally being questioned.

I remember when I was in college and seminary, how the liberals hated me because every time they encouraged us students to doubt everything we have ever been taught, I applied that wisdom to the very system of lies and statistics they were peddling.

 So it remains today, “talk is cheap” as an old proverb goes.  And only those who have not been gifted with discernment and common sense fall prey to the great lie in every age.  For just as Spurgeon gives evidence to the contrary, our second phrase strikes also a discordant note: “our lips are our own.”

Lies have a father, just as well as do the truths.  And in the Gospels, Jesus identifies the father of lies as none other than Satan himself.  Only those who are blind and base cannot recognize the source of their proudest plagiarisms from the abject mind of Satan himself.  “Our lips are our own,” the wicked so proudly and arrogantly puppet the lies of Satan.  Little do they realize that: to not speak and live the words of the Creator, they thereby serve the great enslaver.  While the opposition party to Jesus took great pride in their punctilious performance of the laws of men, Jesus did indeed know their hearts.  And it was partly because He knew them so well that they resolved to do Him in.  At one point in my life, an arrogant liberal demanded that I give up my spiritual responsibilities!  And the only reason he could use to justify that accusation was the sad fact that I supposedly knew too much about him and his abuse of people and power.

“Our lips are our own,” and we can do what-so-ever we please  the worldly announce.  After all, according to the worldly philosophy:  “God is dead” and mankind, therefore being the supreme intellect in creation  can therefore act absolutely in all things, as if we were gods and goddesses in the self-proclaimed absence of any real higher authority.  And in that argument, we move on to the third phrase of this obscene assertion that there is none other:  “who is master over us?”

The sad fact of history is that those who know no higher authority to themselves do indeed do the most despicable things.  Asian & Middle Eastern Potentates, African Kings and Pharaohs and American Chiefs and Shamans, and European Monarchs and Dictators  all alike have supposed themselves to be in one form or another: real sons of heaven.  And thereby, they have lorded it over the common man and stolen not only their properties and families, but even their very lives and faiths as well.

Application:  The Lord God of heaven and earth will tolerate this propensity for only so long.  After a long while, He will refuse to await the coming and final judgment and act within the context of history to set things aright!  This brings us to our last verse, which contrasts so well with the light of man’s fallen character.  “Because the poor are devastated, because the needy sigh, Now I will arise”’, says the LORD,” I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”

Calvin relishes the hope sprung eternal in those words:  “David now sets before himself as matter of consolation, the truth that God will not suffer the wicked thus to make havoc without end and measure.”

The Lord God Almighty does indeed hear the sighs of the poor and needy.  The heirs of Stalin, Hitler, Mao and now Saddam lie trampled in the dust.  Their triumphant statues have been melted down to serve a better purpose.  And while their former subjects still argue about the future, they at the very least do so with some manner of freedom and anticipated prosperity!

Sometimes when we read of the Year of Jubilee tradition in the Old Covenant records, we think only of the redistribution of wealth and inheritance.  However, I am beginning to wonder if that tradition isn’t God’s active and ongoing work in history to limit the absolute powers of all those who would lord it over the common man and thereby make his life seem meaningless in comparison to the grander utopian dreams of those who would carve out their own heavenly hell here on earth?

What David reveals to us here is not only that the Lord God will judge all men and angels at the end of the age, but also that He has His eye upon those who are oppressed.  Further we may know that He takes an interest in those so afflicted and in the experience of worldly suffering, thereby some may be called to salvation from their afflictions.  David was, and so are the countless elect of all the earth  to whom the Father has called them to Himself.

Please understand that by the time we delve down into the political and social utopian hell through verses three and four, the ascent described in verse five takes us higher than we can ever anticipate.  You see, for every worldly problem to which mankind is so easily plagued  the Lord God of David and all his kin: do have indeed a heavenly release.  And all the trials and temptations of earth are nothing more than passing phases, worldly vanities to try the soul and thereby better prepare us for a final heavenly release.

So thereby let us hope for the promised safety of the Lord: a final and eternal salvation free from every tie that binds every sin that corrupts and every false thing that would keep us from embracing our Lord Jesus Christ.  “Come quickly, Lord, come quickly.”  Amen.