Think Deeply About God’s Works!

[Psalm 64]

This past Monday evening, while reading the Bible, I meditated on Ecclesiastes 3:18:
“I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.”

When I first encountered this verse, my initial reaction was one of surprise. The purpose of God testing people is so that we realize we are no different from beasts?
How do you interpret this verse? As I reflected more deeply, Psalm 73:22 came to mind:
“I was as a beast before thee.”

Asaph, the psalmist, who once envied the prosperity of the wicked, only came to understand their end after entering the sanctuary of God. There, he confessed how foolish and ignorant he had been, saying he was like a beast before the Lord.

A person who is like a beast before the Lord is someone ignorant of the ultimate fate of the wicked. In other words, such a person does not see the future consequences for the wicked and lives envying their present prosperity. This kind of person, as Psalm 64:9 says, does not think deeply about God’s works.

Put differently, a person like a beast before the Lord lives unaware of how God punishes the wicked.

Therefore, today I want to meditate on two points from the passage, especially focusing on verse 9, under the title “Think Deeply About God’s Works!”:

First, I want to understand the cunning of David’s enemies. Then, we will deeply reflect on how God acted against David’s enemies. In doing so, I pray God’s grace will be with you and me.

First, we need to understand the cunning of our enemy, the devil.

Look at Psalm 64:6:
“They devise wicked schemes; they think up evil plans every day. They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips.”

Here “they” refers to David’s enemies (verse 1), either Saul or Absalom and his men. These people plotted wickedly to get rid of David and finally came up with a perfect plan. Knowing this, David says, “The thoughts and intentions of people are cunning” [Note: “thoughts are deep” means “heart is crafty/cunning”] (verse 6).

So, to understand how the cunning of David’s enemies was expressed, we will examine it in four ways. I hope this will help us better understand the cunning of our enemy, the devil.

(1) David’s enemies had a “secret plot” to harm him.

Look at Psalm 64:2:
“Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked and from the tumult of those who do evil.”
This verse shows that David’s enemies were targeting David’s life (verse 1), and they devised many schemes to harm his life. Moreover, these evildoers, who were David’s enemies, believed that their plans were very cunning (a perfect plan) (verse 6).
If we fall into the sly schemes of these evildoers, we cannot escape by our own strength. Only the Almighty God can deliver us from these traps (Park Yoon-sun).
Therefore, David pleaded to the Lord, “Hide me… deliver me from the wicked and the uproar of sinners” (verse 2).
If we recall Psalm 2:1-2, the devil opposes God and God’s Anointed One, the Messiah (Jesus Christ), gathering his servants—the “nations and peoples” (v.1), “the kings and rulers of the world” (v.2)—to provoke “anger” and to “plot in vain” (v.1), and also to “conspire” against God and God’s Anointed, Jesus.
If the devil opposes the children and people of God—us—how much more would he oppose us? The devil is always “plotting.” He is always scheming. How can he destroy us? Therefore, we need to be alert about how we live our faith.

(2) David’s enemies encouraged each other with “evil purposes” and secretly conspired together to “set traps.”

Look at Psalm 64:5:
“They encourage each other in evil purposes; they talk about hiding traps and say, ‘Who will see it?’”
Here, of course, the “evil purpose” is to take David’s life. To achieve this, David’s enemies secretly set traps.
Do you know what a “trap” is? Have you ever seen someone setting a snare or trap to catch rabbits or birds? The true skill in handling traps is to hide them. When setting a trap, it is completely camouflaged and covered (Jones).
David’s enemies fully disguised and secretly set traps so well that they said, “Who will see it?” (verse 5).
Only God and the devil know about this secret trap. If David himself could not see it, how could we? We must recognize the danger of the traps the devil secretly sets in our lives and learn how to avoid them.
He is targeting our lives. This “life” is considered to be eternal life rather than merely physical life.
This is exactly the devil’s evil purpose. He secretly sets traps in our lives so that we will never gain eternal life.
Therefore, like David, we have no choice but to plead to God: “Preserve my life from the fear of the enemy” (verse 1).

(3) David’s enemies aimed at him with malicious words.

Look at Psalm 64:3:
“They sharpen their tongues like swords; they aim their bitter words like arrows.”
This speaks of the malice of their lips. Such malicious words shoot and kill like arrows. In other words, malicious words ruin a person’s reputation and bury them (Park Yoon-sun).
David’s enemies abused their tongues—sharp like swords and arrows—to stab and try to kill David with bitter words.
The tongue can indeed be used very wickedly. That is why the apostle James says about the tongue:
“The tongue is a fire… full of deadly poison… no one can tame it” (James 3:8).
The tongue of the wicked is full of deadly poison. It is an evil that does not cease, and no one can tame it. David’s enemies secretly conspired to set traps for David while aiming their malicious tongues—like swords and arrows—at him.

(4) David’s enemies suddenly attack from hidden places.

Look at Psalm 64:4:
“They shoot from ambush at the perfect; suddenly they shoot and do not fear.”
David’s enemies did everything secretly, hiding, but then suddenly attacked without fear.
They suddenly attacked David, who was innocent and blameless, from hidden places.
Recently, watching news about the Iraq war, we hear that snipers shoot American soldiers from hidden spots. Bombs are also secretly placed on roadsides and exploded to kill American soldiers.
We must not lower our guard because when we are defenseless, the devil attacks us.

Pastor Lloyd-Jones says in his book “Spiritual Combat” that “cunning is a major characteristic of the devil” (see Genesis 3:1).
In today’s passage, we have considered four aspects of the cunning heart of David’s enemies.
They plotted secret schemes to harm David, secretly set traps, targeted David with malicious words, and ultimately attacked David suddenly from hidden places.

Now that we have understood the devil’s cunning heart, what should we do?
We must pray to God like David did. What should we ask God for?

(1) We must lay down our worries before God in prayer.
Look at the first half of Psalm 64:1: “Hear my voice, O God, when I complain…”
We must lay down our troubled hearts, like thornbushes, before the Lord in prayer (Park Yoon-sun).

(2) We must ask God to preserve our lives.
Look at the second half of Psalm 64:1: “…preserve my life from the fear of the enemy.”
We cannot overcome the devil’s cunning on our own. Without God’s help, we cannot be victorious.
Therefore, like David, we must ask God to preserve our lives. We must also ask God to hide us (verse 2).
God hid David, while David’s enemies secretly carried out all their deeds, such as “secret schemes” (verse 2) and “secretly setting traps” (verse 5).
Interestingly, in the midst of these secret and evil actions, David prayed, “Lord, hide me from the secret plots of the wicked and from their secretly set traps” (verses 2, 5).

Secondly, after understanding the devil’s cunning as our enemy, what we need to strive for even more is to deeply meditate on God’s work.

Look at Psalm 64:9: “All mankind will fear; they will proclaim the works of God and consider what he has done.”
What we need to deeply consider is, in a word, God’s work of punishing our enemies.

Regarding God’s work, the Bible says today:
“But God will shoot his arrows at them; they will suddenly be wounded.
They will be made to stumble and fall, and their own tongue will bring about their ruin…” (verses 7-8).

Here it describes how God punishes the wicked: by making them fall into the trap they themselves have dug (Park Yoon-sun).
For example, David’s enemies tried to shoot him suddenly from hiding (verse 3), but God shot the enemies who were shooting at David.
Therefore, suddenly David’s enemies were wounded (verse 7) and fell down (verse 8).
Also, although David’s enemies aimed their malicious tongues at David—sharp as swords and arrows—God did not allow those evil tongues to harm David but instead caused harm to the enemies themselves.

What was the result of God punishing David’s enemies?

(1) When the people saw that God punished the wicked, they came to know God’s existence (Park Yoon-sun).
Look at Psalm 64 verses 8 and 9 in today’s passage:
“…all who see them shake their heads; all people fear, proclaiming God’s works, and meditate on His deeds deeply.”
All people will fear God, proclaim Him, and also deeply consider His works.

(2) The righteous rejoice even more in God.
Look at Psalm 64 verse 10:
“The righteous shall rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in Him; all the upright in heart will glory.”
Dr. Park Yoon-sun said this:
“It is good for the righteous that God avenged their enemies, but even more than that, God Himself was better to them. Therefore, when given the opportunity that their enemies were avenged, they drew closer to God and rejoiced in Him.”

The devil is truly cunning and deceitful. Secretly plotting schemes (conspiracies), setting hidden traps, attacking us with malicious tongues, and hiding only to suddenly strike— the devil continues to work to destroy us by any means.
Who can escape the devil’s traps by their own power?
Without the help of Almighty God, we cannot escape from the devil’s snares.
Therefore, we must earnestly pray to God.
When we do, God punishes the devil and his servants, thus delivering us.
Those who do not know this truth are like beasts before the Lord.
We must never sin against God in ignorance or foolishness.
We must deeply consider that God punishes our enemies, and with faith, faithfully endure the spiritual battle that exists within us.

In spiritual warfare,

Pastor James Kim shares
(believing that we can only overcome by the grace of God)