THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

V. Handling Confusion Caused By Deception

(Psalm 5:1-12)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

In today's world, we face a lot of confusion about what is the truth because of the effects of deception:

(1) It occurs with the "climate change" issue: "The U. N.'s top human rights official and U. S. President Joe Biden's climate envoy" urged nations "to step up the fight against global warming" for humankind's "sheer survival." (Frank Jordans, "Official urge action to avert climate disaster," Republican-American, October 29, 2021, p. 12B)

Yet, the dreadful forecast record of climate alarmists exposes the deception involved: (a) The article, "The Cooling World" in Newsweek, April 28, 1975 claimed, "There are ominous signs that . . . the earth's climate seems to be cooling down. Meteorologists . . . are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century. If the climate change is as profound as some . . . pessimists fear, the resulting famines could be catastrophic." (b) Then, a June 29, 1989 AP dispatch read: "A Senior U. N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000 . . . He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control." ("Notable & Quotable," The Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2019, p. A17)

Thus, neither the 1975 prediction on catastrophic global cooling nor the 1989 forecast on catastrophic global warming came even close to being fulfilled, exposing the huge deception behind climate alarmist ideology!

(2) It occurs in religious realms: When the "Vatican . . . abruptly canceled the . . . live broadcast of President Joe Biden meeting Pope Francis . . . several media outlets" complained "and asked for an explanation." (Nicole Winfield, "Vatican cancels live broadcast of Biden greeting pope," Republican-American, October 29, 2021, p. 3B)

Reporter Nicole Winfield noted the meeting "was being closely monitored since U. S. bishops are due to meet in a few weeks" where "conservatives" will "contend that Biden's support for abortion rights should disqualify him from receiving Communion . . . Francis has strongly upheld the church's opposition to abortion, calling it 'murder.' But he has also said bishops should be pastors, not politicians" and refrain from the call to withhold communion, Ibid.

However, the pope's claim that abortion is murder while letting a Catholic president who supports abortion take communion has produced confusion and negative responses from many bishops. The pope thus cancelled the live broadcast of his meeting with the president. Yet, that cancellation itself was a political move to calm the bishops opposite the pope's own call that the bishops be pastors, not politicians while the pope also himself fails to pastor by clearing up his own contradiction in action with the Church's official beliefs on abortion and communion!

(3) I recently faced this problem in my ministry: In my October 10 sermon on Psalm 1, I cited from the babylonbee.com web site on New York Governor Kathy Hochul's claim that God made the creators of the COVID-19 vaccines make them, and the reaction of atheists against it! However, someone has since informed me that the part of the story about the atheists was not true, but a "satire" as babylonbee.com is a site of alleged Christian satirists!

I was stunned and confused by this report, for I knew the site was run by Christians, the reason I cited from it! Nevertheless, to be sure of giving out only the truth in my ministry, I have asked our webmaster to delete the MP3 recording of that sermon and I have modified my written notes on our site to reflect my doubt over the story's validity.

Need: So, we ask, "How can we handle the confusion that is caused by deception?!"

I. David voiced a prayer of petition to the Lord under duress, Psalm 5:1-3:

A. Due to a great burden in his heart, David explained that he was calling out to God for help, Psalm 5:1-2.

B. This prayer was being expressed in the morning due to his restlessness during the previous night, Psalm 5:3.

II. The cause for David's duress was the affliction he faced from his enemies, Psalm 5:4-7:

A. The fact that David noted that his holy and righteous God punished the wicked (Psalm 5:4-6) coupled with his complaint about the wicked in Psalm 5:9a indicates David's duress came from wicked oppressors.

B. However, David clarified that in God's grace he revered the Lord, that he would worship Him in humility, thus expecting to find God's help in delivering him from the oppression by his wicked foes, Psalm 5:7.

III. The actual PROBLEM David faced from his foes was his battle with CONFUSION caused by the DECEPTIVE actions his enemies used to oppress and try to control David's thinking, Psalm 5:8-9:

A. David asked God to "lead/guide tenderly" him "out of trouble" (nahah, B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 634-635; H. A. W., Theol. Wrdbk. of the O. T., 1980, vol. II, p. 568-569) and to "make [His] way even" (yashar, Ibid., B. D. B., p. 448-449) before his face, the direction he was to go, Psalm 5:8. This request indicates David's duress was that of confusion as to what was reality, that He needed God to help him by gently guiding him down the right path, making it obvious so as to offset his confusion!

B. To explain the situation more fully, David clarified to God that his enemies were the cause of his confusion (Psalm 5:8b) by their use of harmfully wicked deception in their communication with him, Psalm 5:9.

IV. David thus requested that God deliver him from the harmfully wicked deception, to punish his wicked oppressors and to bless him along with all those who trusted in the Lord, Psalm 5:8-12:

A. As we noted in part "III" above, David requested God's gentle, gracious help in giving him clear guidance as to the truth in countering the harmfully wicked deception of his enemies, Psalm 5:8-9.

B. The psalmist petitioned God then to punish his oppressors, Psalm 5:10.

C. Finally, David asked that he along with all the godly who trusted in the Lord be delivered from oppressors and enjoy God's blessing and resulting joy, Psalm 5:11-12. The word "shield" in Psalm 5:12b translates sinnah, "a large shield covering the whole body" (Ibid., p. 857), so David claimed that God customarily surrounds (ta'terenu, [customary] imperfect of 'atar, "surround," Ibid., p. 742) the upright like a full body shield, v. 12b.

Lesson: David handled the confusion he faced from harmfully wicked deceivers by trusting God gently to lead him to the truth, making it plain, and to bless him and all who trust the Lord while seeing God punish the wicked.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) May we pray for God's deliverance from the confusion caused by harmfully wicked deceivers, trusting God gently to guide us to the clear truth while punishing deceivers.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

Since 2 Timothy 3:15-17 claims Scripture has all the information we need to do every good work, we use Scripture to address the issues mentioned in our introduction in a way that helps us see the obvious truth (as follows):

(1) On the current warning by officials about how alleged catastrophic global warming threatens the survival of humans, though we have often viewed Genesis 8:22 in countering this view, an equally effective but different passage is Psalm 74:16-17: (a) In the context of calling upon his Sovereign Lord to deliver his people from their enemies, the psalmist acknowledged God's vast sovereignty over creation in Psalm 74:16-17. (b) At Psalm 74:17b, the psalmist wrote of God, and we translate the Hebrew text, "Summer and winter, You (emphatic pronoun 'atah) 'formed as a potter.'" (yasar, Ibid., p. 427-428; Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 1040) The words for "summer" (qayis) and "winter" (horep) are the same Hebrew words used for "summer" and "winter" in Genesis 8:22 (Ibid., Kittel, p. 11, 1040). (c) Thus, if God in Genesis 8:22 said "summer" and "winter" would continue along with "cold," "heat," "seedtime" and "harvest" while the earth remained, since Psalm 74:17 held God "formed as a potter" both "summer" and "winter," mere humans have no ability either to save or not to save themselves from catastrophic climate change, for the climate is in the hand of the infinitely powerful, sovereign Creator God! Man should forget about a futile carbon tax and simply trust the Lord since the climate is His creation and is under His providential care!

(2) On the pope's opposition to abortion as "murder" while letting pro-abortion, Catholic President Biden take communion, (a) 1 Corinthians 11:28 directs that one is to partake of communion by his own choice and 1 Corinthians 11:29-32 notes that God directly punishes those who partake in sin! Thus, the one who is responsible to decide who takes communion is not a church official, but the man in the pew! (b) Also, elective abortion at any trimester is murder. (Exodus 21:22-23) (c) James 4:8 calls us not to be dipsuchos, "divided [in] heart" (Theol. Dict. of the N. T., v. IX, p. 665), not divided in loyalty to God and the world. We should oppose abortion but also teach that one who practices or holds that abortion is righteous must confess that view as sin before taking communion. (d) Above all, Ephesians 2:8-9 claims that salvation is by faith alone, not by faith plus partaking of communion and performing the works of the other sacraments of the Catholic Church as is taught in that Church. (Robert C. Broderick, ed., The Catholic Ency., 1986, p. 534-535) Communion is a memorial for believers only, it has no power to save, so adopting this view erases the whole problem the Catholic Church now faces with the president over his taking of communion.

(3) On the alleged Christian website babylonbee.com with its alleged mix of truth with error in alleged "satire," from now on, I will apply Ephesians 5:11 NIV in having "nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness" by closely vetting all alleged Christian sources along with all other sources that I cite in my sermon notes!

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life. May we pray for God's deliverance from confusion by harmfully wicked deceivers, trusting Him gently to guide us to the obvious Biblical truth in a plain manner, followed by His blessing.