Jun 30, 2024
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Scripture: Psalms
The Lord is your strength when you face injustice!
Cry out to God with desperation (28:1-2)
Plead to God for justice (28:3-5)
Praise God with confidence (28:6-9)
https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/god-didnt-forget-me/77-b82a9a45-6742-4b0c-9481-a057c
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https://www.theledger.com/story/news/crime/2020/03/10/florida-lawmakers-ok-bill-to-pay-former-death-
row-inmate-2m-over-wrongful-conviction/1547121007/
Good morning! My name is Paul and I’m one of Citylight’s pastors. I want to invite you to join me now as I go before the Lord in prayer.
Heavenly Father, this morning we join with our Lord Jesus in praying that your kingdom would come and your will would be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Specifically, Lord, and as we consider Psalm 28 this morning, we praise you as the God of justice – you love justice and all your ways are justice. We pray that here and now, as it is in heaven, your justice would roll down like waters and that your righteousness would be like an ever-flowing stream.
Lord, I pray for any among us this morning or in our church family who are facing injustice of any kind. Whether in their workplace or their neighborhood, or even in their family – I pray that you, the God of justice, would bring justice to their situation. I pray that you would sustain them in the face of whatever they’re facing and give them hope of a day that’s coming, where every wrong will be made right.
Dear God, we also come before you asking for your kingdom to come and your will to be done in our city of Philadelphia, as it is in heaven. Lord, bring an end to the violence that plagues our streets. We know your heart for the marginalized, so we pray that where there is inequity, you would balance the scales of justice. We pray for our mayor, Cherelle Parker, and her administration, that you would lead them to reward what is good and punish what is evil, pursuing true righteousness for the sake of our city. Give them great wisdom as they lead our city.
Beyond this, Lord, we pray for a fresh outpouring of your Spirit within our city – a revival of souls whom you call out of darkness and into your marvelous light in Christ. We pray that you would lead us as your people to be ambassadors for Christ in our city, loving our neighbors in both practical ways and by sharing the good news of Jesus with them. Fill our church with new Christians who love you and seek to pattern their lives after you.
Lord, in all of this and so much more, we ask that your kingdom would come and your will would be done, here as it is in heaven. And as we wait upon you, we pray that you would fill us with hope that you’ve not only heard us and will respond, but a day is coming when you will make all wrongs right. We pray this in the powerful name of Jesus, amen.
As we gather here on the Lord’s day, we aren’t just here to worship as individuals, but as a community in Christ. With that in mind, take a moment now to turn and greet those around you, and consider picking up where you left off after the service ends.
Good morning again! This morning we’re wrapping up our “Summer in the Psalms” for this year – likely, next summer we’ll pick back up with Psalm 29. Next week Pastor Matt will be back and we’ll spend a few weeks in some of the short books of the New Testament: 2 & 3 John and Jude. But this morning we’re in Psalm 28 and I’d love to pray for us before we dig in.
Father, thank you that you’ve given us your word, that we might know you and love you. Help us now, we pray, as we study it together. May your Holy Spirit enlighten the eyes of our hearts that we will understand your word, believe what it says, and faithfully apply it to our lives. Empower us to love and obey your word. Meet each of us here this morning personally, whether we’re in need of comfort, encouragement, or conviction. And use me this morning to deliver your word in a way that is true and helpful, with faith that, by your Spirit, you will accomplish all you set out to do this morning. In the powerful name of Jesus, amen.
What do you do when you face injustice? What do you do when you face injustice?
I recently learned the story of a man named Clifford Williams. He was a resident of Jacksonville, Florida, in 1976 when two women were shot, one of them killed. Clifford was falsely accused and inadequately represented, and was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Some time after he was convicted, another man confessed to this murder, but was never charged or investigated before he died. It wasn’t until 2019, 43 years later, thanks to one of a growing number of non-profit organizations seeking justice in overturning wrongful convictions, Clifford Williams was found innocent and released from prison.
43 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit! Just for a couple points of reference: first, I’m 43 – so he was in prison for the entire length of my life. Second, most of your parents hadn’t even met 43 years ago. 43 years!
I was amazed to learn about how Clifford Williams faced the injustice he endured. In an interview after being released from prison, he declared, “God did it! They said I’d never be free, that I’d die in there. But God did it, He didn’t forget me.”
Similarly, here’s what his grandson said of him after his release: “He doesn’t let stuff defeat him easily. He could have easily come out and been frustrated. He could have blamed everyone, he could have been very depressed, he could have had hatred and bitterness in his heart…. Instead he had the love of God, he had affection for people, he had forgiveness.”
And when asked what he’d do following his conviction, Clifford said, “I’ve got a lot of friends of mine that are still in that prison system, and they told me once I’d been out a year, that I could come and bring them ministry in there, and that’s what I want to do,” then adding, “God came to the rescue.”
Over the 43 years he was wrongly imprisoned, Clifford Williams entrusted himself to the Lord. The Lord was his strength, helped him endure, and gave him hope when there didn’t appear to be any end to this injustice in sight.
One thing that makes the Psalms so beloved for us as Christians is that it’s so relatable to all of our lives, and this psalm is no different – facing injustice is part of our lives. We may not face the severity of injustice that people like Jackie Robinson did, but we all face injustice in some way and at some point in our lives.
This morning we’re going to see an example of this in the life of King David. David faced his share of injustice over his life, and we don’t know exactly what circumstances led him to write Psalm 28, but we do see how David responded to the injustice he was facing. In Psalm 28 we see the truth David believed and how that led him to respond in the face of injustice.
The truth he believed is our big idea for this morning: The Lord is your strength when you face injustice. We see that through woven throughout our passage – at the beginning, referring to God as his “rock”, and twice at the end of our passage with David referring to God not only as his strength, but the strength of his people as well. The Lord is your strength when you face injustice.
And we see 3 ways David responded out of his trust in the Lord’s strength, which we can also follow when we face injustice in our own lives:
With the Lord as our strength when we face injustice, we first…
Psalm 28:1-2, To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. 2 Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.
Where do you turn when you’re facing a difficult situation?
In this Psalm, David is lamenting a truly difficult situation, specifically injustice committed against him. He’s threatened by the works of evildoers and in a desperate state. And beyond that, he’s not seeing the Lord’s justice in his situation. He acknowledges God for who he is – “my rock” – and then cries out to him, begging God simply to hear him – “be not deaf to me… hear the voice of my please for mercy…”.
Put yourself in David’s shoes. We don’t know the specific situation he was facing when he wrote this psalm, but we know he’s the King of Israel – not just the leader of a nation, but the one who has spiritual responsibility for the people of God. And he’s under threat by some of the very people he’s responsible to lead – the passage describes them as “workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts.” They’re rebelling against God, first and foremost, but also specifically to David, and David is facing unjust treatment as a result – even as he walks with integrity as he leads God’s people, he’s facing scorn, contempt, and distrust because of the actions of these evildoers. This must have affected him on a number of levels:
Have you ever experienced anything similar? Perhaps at work, or in your family, or in a friend group? Even as you seek to walk with integrity before God and others, people turn against you, sowing seeds of distrust or contempt… What does that feel like? What types of thoughts go through your mind? How are you tempted to respond?
Even aside from the more serious injustices we might face, for just a snapshot of this think about how you feel when you get cut off on the road. Even the most insignificant of slights can bring up the darkest thoughts of vengeance. As one commentator put it, “Nothing stings so sharply as injustice.” How much more when our actual livelihoods are at stake? When our jobs or the unity of our families are at risk?
The question this passage begs is, where do you turn when you’re facing injustice? Here in verses 1-2, David turned to the Lord with desperation and urgency: “To you, O LORD, I call…” He cried out to the Lord, pleaded with him, begged him to hear him and show mercy.
Note where he didn’t turn. He didn’t turn to taking vengeance into his own hands. He didn’t turn to others to rally them to his side – or what we might be tempted to do, putting them on blast on social media. And he didn’t simply turn inward to despair or throw up his hands in apathy. He cried out to the Lord. This was the first and best place he could turn.
In his small book on Prayer, John Onwuchekwa writes, “To call on his name is to make an appeal to his character. It’s a cry for help like when someone shouts, “Call 911”. To call 911 is to make an appeal for help based on what we know 911 is – an emergency line.”
I’m not sure if you’ve ever been in a position to call 911. Whether it’s a medical emergency or a dangerous situation, you quickly recognize that something needs to happen, and your own ability and the ability of others around you to do what’s needed is limited. It’s a call of desperation to seek help from one who’s best equipped to respond. If someone’s breaking into your house, or a loved one has a medical emergency, your first instinct shouldn’t be to call your friend to vent about it or post something on social media – you call 911.
Amazingly, and I speak for myself here too, it’s often not that instinctive for us to call on God when we’re facing a difficult situation, injustice or otherwise. Instinctively, we can be so quick to turn to someone or something that is far less equipped to respond to our situation. We’re often tempted and far more likely to brood internally, take matters into our own hands, or rally others to our support.
But here we see David, in his desperation, turn to the Lord. He places his “911 call” knowing that the most capable and competent One to turn to is his “rock”, the Lord. He cries out to the Lord!
If crying out to the Lord in difficult situations isn’t instinctive for us, how do we get to that point? Learning a behavior to the point that it becomes our instinct takes regular development and practice. How many of you think about every step you take when you’re walking? Believe it or not, there was a time in your life when every step took concerted effort!
To get to a point where crying out to the Lord becomes instinctive, we need to form habits that nurture and cultivate our trust in Him. It comes from regularly learning about who God is by reading the scriptures, but also developing a regular practice of going to God first through regular prayer and communion with him. This might look different for each of us, given the rhythms and seasons of our lives, but whatever shape it takes it’s vital to nurture a trust in the Lord such that you instinctively call on him in difficult situations – more than anyone or anything else in your lives, the Lord is the one who is best equipped to help you. Develop the instinct to cry out to him when you’re facing trouble.
Here in Psalm 28, David doesn’t stop there, with a broad call for help.
Psalm 28:3-5, Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts. 4 Give to them according to their work and according to the evil of their deeds; give to them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward. 5 Because they do not regard the works of the LORD or the work of his hands, he will tear them down and build them up no more.
In the face of the injustice he was experiencing, David went to the Lord boldly and specifically, pleading with God for justice.
First off, he wants to separate himself from these wicked workers of evil. Given the injustice he’s facing, he’s concerned about being dragged off, or swept away, with the ones who are at the heart of the injustice – he doesn’t want to go down with them, but instead wants to justly separate himself. It reminds me of Psalm 26, which Walter preached a couple weeks ago – David is asking the Lord to vindicate him, believing that he’s walking with integrity before him. While David is certainly not walking perfectly, he’s walking faithfully with the Lord with a clean conscience.
But beyond wanting to be vindicated before the Lord, and his corresponding desire not to suffer the same consequences and fate of the evildoers responsible for the injustice against him, David pleads to the Lord for justice – to judge the wrongdoers and bring real consequences for their actions. In verse 4, we read, “Give to them according to their work and according to their evil deeds; give to them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward.”
Completing a quote I mentioned earlier, Bible scholar Derek Kidner helpfully explains it this way: “Nothing stings so sharply as injustice, and nothing should; so these verses are not simply vindictive, but put into words the protest of any healthy conscience at the wrongs of the present order, and the conviction that a day of judgment is a moral necessity.”
David rightly longs for true justice to be done – not vindictive revenge, but fitting consequences for evil done against him. But even in this, you may be feeling a tension. Is it right to plead to God for justice like this when someone’s wronged you? Wasn’t it Jesus who taught us to “turn the other cheek” and to love our enemies? The answer to both of those questions is, “YES!” Yes, Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek and love our enemies. And yes it’s right to plead with God for justice!
Why does this seem to us like a tension, or even a paradox? In his commentary on this, Allen Ross offers helpful encouragement to those of us who feel this tension. “David is praying for the Lord to judge a particularly wicked group of people, people who have no regard for God and his will but are bent on harming and destroying other people. He is not praying for God to do something he has never done, or to do something he has not said he was going to do. His prayer is not a personal vendetta; it is a prayer that they be judged according to the wicked deeds they perform and that the judgment be accomplished in a way that would separate them from the righteous… However else we may pray with regard to wickedness in the world, it is proper to pray for justice and righteousness to prevail, and that may require divine justice being enforced.”
Justice and mercy are both at the heart of God and, for him, there is no conflict. It’s good and right to plead with God that justice be done in the face of evil, whether against us or against others. Even when we pray along with Jesus, that our heavenly Father’s kingdom would come, and his will be done, on earth as it is in heaven – this is, in part, what we’re asking for. Here in this Psalm, David pleads to God that justice would be done in the face of the injustice he’s experiencing.
While Psalm 28:1-2 offered a broad call for help, it’s in verses 3-5 that David gets bold and specific. We don’t need to end all our prayers with “your will be done.” We can trust that God’s will will be done even as we come honestly before him, asking boldly and specifically for what we desire. Here, David pleads with God for justice – asking God to “give them to them according to their work and… the evil of their deeds.”
If you’re facing injustice – or seeing injustice take place in the lives of others – what would it look like for you to boldly and specifically plead with God for justice?
In all of these cases, praying for justice doesn’t preclude you from praying for other things – especially praying that those responsible for the injustice would come to know the Lord and turn from their evil ways – but we see here and throughout scripture that it’s good and right to plead with God for justice to be done where there is injustice. It also doesn’t mean that pleading to God for injustice is the only way we respond in the face of injustice – there are countless examples in scripture of godly people taking godly action in the face of injustice – but I believe this passage is directing us to trust that the most important thing we can do is cry out to God and plead to him for justice.
Practically speaking, what would it look like for you to plead to God for justice? Honestly, it could be as simple as committing to pray regularly for God to bring justice to bear on the situation you’re facing or witnessing. Make a prayer card that you regularly pray through. Set a daily or weekly reminder on your phone to remind you to pray. Going back to a few moments ago, train yourself to cry out to God instinctively as you experience injustice or see those who are wronging you. Whatever it is, regularly position yourself to trust God with the injustice you’re facing and plead with him to intervene.
In Psalm 28, we witness David crying out to the Lord with desperation and urgency; boldly and specifically pleading with God for justice to be done in the face of the injustice he’s experiencing. But then we see, thirdly, that David praises God with confidence.
Psalm 28:6-9, “Blessed be the LORD! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. 7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. 8 The LORD is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed. 9 Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever.”
There’s a significant change in tone for these verses, compared to what came before it. But it also raises an important question. David proclaims, “Blessed be the Lord! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.” How could David know that God heard his cry? There’s no indication here that the situation has been resolved or that justice has actually been done. David immediately shifts in verse 5 from what he believes God will do to praising him in verse 6 for what he has done. How could David know that God heard his cry?
One possibility is that some time had passed between his writing of verses 1-5 and what he wrote in verses 6-9, or that he’s writing the whole thing in hindsight. But it seems just as likely, or perhaps more likely, that David’s writing this based on who he knows God to be, even before God has actually acted in response to his prayer. Instead of focusing on specific ways the Lord may have answered his prayer, detailing how God brought justice in his situation, David proclaims his trust in God and praises God for his character: “The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. 8 The LORD is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed. 9 Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever.”
For David, knowing who God is gives him sufficient reason to confidently praise him even in the injustice he’s facing. God is his strength and his shield – his helper on offense and defense as he faces difficulty. God is strong enough to carry him through this situation, and serves as a shield for him to protect him. David knows these things are true – as God’s character has been displayed throughout history with his people, and even displayed in David’s life to the point of writing this Psalm – so David can confidently praise God that he’s been heard and that God is responding.
But the fact that we don’t know how God responded and addressed the injustice David was experiencing leads us to an important realization. We’re not promised perfect justice here and now. It’s good to cry out to God in the midst of injustice, and to plead with him to bring justice – and even, as we see elsewhere in scripture, to pursue justice – but we’re not promised that God’s justice will reign here and now. We will see the Lord bring justice in part here and now, but a time is coming when God’s justice will reign fully. Because of that, we can entrust ourselves to God in the face of injustice and praise him for his provision of exactly what we need now: that he is our strength, our protection, and ultimately that he will deliver us.
Ultimately, we can praise God with confidence because Jesus faced the greatest injustice the world has ever seen on our behalf, guaranteeing that God’s ultimate justice will be done. Anticipating that we, as Christians, will face unjust treatment in this life, the Apostle Peter points us to Jesus: “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter. 2:22-25).
In the face of injustice, Jesus entrusted himself to the one who judges justly, knowing that he would be vindicated by God and that a time would come when God’s true and ultimate justice would reign.
But Jesus is not only our example for how we respond in situations of injustice; he’s our ultimate deliverance. All of us must reckon with the fact that we, too, are wicked and workers of evil, perpetrators of injustice. It was for our sin that Jesus faced the ultimate injustice on the cross – “He himself bore our sin in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”
None of us is righteous, we all “stray like sheep” and we all deserve God’s just judgment for our sin. In Christ, we can identify ourselves with David, but apart from Christ we’re the ones who justly deserve God’s justice. But Jesus, in entrusting himself to the one who judges justly, bore our sins that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
Friends, all of us need to answer to the Lord for the injustice we’ve committed. Left to ourselves, Psalm 28:5 describes us: “Because they do not regard the works of the Lord or the work of his hands, he will tear them down and build them up no more.” But when we trust in Jesus’ perfect life and sacrificial death on our behalf, we are made righteous. The justice due to us was laid upon Jesus for us. And because Jesus rose, we can trust that a day is coming when he will return and execute justice once and for all, and we’ll be secure with him forever.
Because of this, we have even more reason to confidently praise God when we face injustice. We can rest in the Lord, entrusting ourselves to the one who judges justly, because we know that God is faithful. We can praise God with confidence knowing that Jesus will one day judge all injustice fully and finally.
Friends, justice is at the heart of who God is. Scripture tells us that he is a God of justice (Isaiah 30:18) and that he loves justice (Psalm 37:28). God also loves you so much that he sent his Son, Jesus, on your behalf, to die in your place – to take the justice due to you upon himself. God has delivered you, and he will deliver you.
When you’re facing injustice in this life, you can trust that when you cry out to the Lord with desperation and urgency, he hears you; when you plead with him for justice to be done, he will act – whether right now or in a day to come. And because of that you can confidently praise him now based on who he is and trust that he will one day right every wrong. Trust in the Lord as your strength.
Let’s pray.
Father, we praise you that you hear us when we pray to you. You are not deaf to our cries for mercy and pleas for justice, but instead hear us and respond to us. Lord, help us to trust in your character and entrust ourselves fully to you in all seasons, but especially when we’re facing difficult situations. Meet us in whatever we’re facing and lead us in righteousness. As we respond now by taking the Lord’s Supper together and singing of your power and goodness, grow our confidence in you. In Jesus name, amen.