Series: Psalm
Title: According to My Righteousness
Text: Psalm 18: 20-28
Date: May 8, 2014
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
When a songwriter determines to write a song he picks up a pen to write
with. When Christ determines to write a
song he picks up one of his choice servants to write with—this is Christ using
king David to write Christ’s words. We have seen that this Psalm was written as
a prophetic Psalm. These are the words that David wrote but this is Christ
using king David to write the words of Christ.
Just as
we do not praise the pen but the man who wrote the song, likewise, we do not
praise David but Christ who used David to write this song. This is Christ
speaking of the LORD Jehovah, in the day that Christ finished the work and the
LORD Jehovah delivered him from all his enemies.
Psalm 18: 20: The LORD rewarded me according
to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed
me. 21: For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed
from my God. 22: For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put
away his statutes from me. 23: I was also upright before him, and I kept myself
from mine iniquity. 24: Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my
righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
Then we
have the application the Lord Jesus gives to you and I who believe.
Psalm 18:
25: With the merciful thou wilt shew
thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; 26: With the
pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself
froward. 27: For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high
looks. 28: For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
Proposition: The believer who trusts Christ and follows his ways
shall be justified by Christ, even as Christ trusted the Father, followed his
ways and was justified in the Spirit. To see this we will first see how this
applied to Christ then see how it applied to David and to you and I who
believe.
I. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE RIGHTEOUS AND
HOLY ONE—Psalm 18: 20: The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
To help
us focus on Christ, read it this way, “The LORD Jehovah rewarded, me, Christ
Jesus his King and his Christ, according to my righteousness, according to the
cleanness of my hands, hath God recompensed me.” In all God’s dealing with David God was
showing us an imminent type of Christ.
Revolt Against God
The
children of Israel revolted against God, desiring a king like the heathen,
wicked Gentile nations. Because of this transgression against God, God turned
them over to a wicked king, named Saul. It pictures our revolt from God in the
garden in Adam. God turned all Adam’s race over to prince of the power of the
air—we came under the dominion of Satan and under the curse of the law.
Ephesians 2: 2: Wherein in time past ye walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3: Among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of
wrath, even as others.
God’s Chosen King and Christ
God
chose David to be his king over political Israel, to save that temporal nation
with a temporal deliverance. It pictured God choosing Christ before the
foundation of the world, to be his King over his spiritual kingdom, his Christ,
his Savior of his true spiritual Israel, who are now dispersed among the all
Gentile nations—a people he shall call out of every tribe, kindred, tongue and
people on the earth. God said of Christ,
Isaiah 42: 1: Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine
elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles
He said
Christ shall settle judgment—establish righteousness. And give spiritual judgment—discernment—to
God’s spiritual Israel, called the Gentiles because they are scattered among
every nation, tribe, tongue and people under heaven
Isaiah 42: 2: He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause
his voice to be heard in the street. 3: A bruised reed shall he not break, and
the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
This refers
to the meaning of our text. Christ shall do this work in righteousness and
holiness, in mercy and uprightness.
Isaiah 42: 4: He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he
have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
Christ
shall establish righteousness, judgment in the earth. His people scattered among all the nations
shall hear his gospel. Then speaking to Christ our true David, the Son of David
after the flesh, God made this covenant promise to Christ,
Isaiah 42: 6: I the LORD have called thee in
righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for
a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; 7: To open the blind
eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness
out of the prison house. 8: I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I
not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
God
called Christ and made this covenant promise to Christ: he promised to keep
Christ; God promised to give Christ for a covenant to his people; God promised
Christ that he would have the glory of opening the eyes of his blind people and
calling his people out of our bondage of sin and depravity because in Christ,
by Christ doing establishing judgment for us and in us, God alone will receive
all the glory and all the praise—“my glory will I not give to another, neither my
praise to graven images.”
Magnifying the Law and Making it Honorable
Then
God said this of Christ
Isaiah 42: 21: The LORD is well pleased for his
righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.
When we
speak of “righteousness” we speak of perfection under God’s law. We lost all
righteousness when we sinned in Adam. We must have perfect righteousness to
enter God’s presence and be accepted of God.
Christ magnified
God’s law. By being made of a woman, made under the law, Christ magnified God
is righteous and holy—that God must be obeyed in perfect righteousness from a
perfectly holy heart for only Christ could do it for his people—that is why he
came. Christ magnified the law by his
obedience, even unto the death of the cross. Christ magnified God’s law—showing
that God will by no means clear the guilty—when Christ took the sins of his
people and bore the penalty of the law in our place.
Christ
made the law honorable by following God fully as he walked this earth. He made the law honorable by declaring God
just when he satisfied divine justice, fulfilling his law for his people. Christ made the law honorable by declaring
God the Justifier because it was God in Christ reconciling his people unto
himself by working out a righteousness for his people and purging us of our
sins. Christ magnified and made the law
honorable by fulfilling all righteousness in perfect holiness of heart for God
and his people. Now back to Psalm 18.
When
David confronted Saul, in his cause, David was righteous toward Saul, he kept
his hands clean from Saul’s blood when he could have taken Saul’s life, David
delighted in God’s law and as far as men go he was an upright man. But to accomplish the work of god, Christ had
to combat Satan and all his host of evil, in our nature, even on the cruel
cross, in perfect righteousness, with clean hands and a pure heart, in perfect
uprightness. Christ declares in our text
he did so. This why God justified him in the Spirit when he raised him from the
dead, declaring him both Lord and Christ.
Psalm 18: 20: The LORD rewarded me according
to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed
me. 21: For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed
from my God. 22: For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put
away his statutes from me. 23: I was also upright before him, and I kept myself
from mine iniquity.
What
does this mean? Though Christ had no iniquity of his own, yet he had the
iniquities of his people laid on him, as our surety. He called them "mine.” Let me show you
this from Ps 40. We know Psalm 40 is Christ speaking. The Hebrew writer tells us
it is Christ who spoke Psalm 40: 6:
Psalm 40: 6: Sacrifice and offering thou didst not
desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou
not required. 7: Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is
written of me, 8: I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my
heart.
In the
same Psalm Christ owned the iniquities of his people as his own.
Psalm 40: 12: For innumerable evils have compassed me
about: mine iniquities have taken
hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of
mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
So what
does our Sin-bearer mean when he says in our text, “I kept myself from mine
iniquity?” Though he bore our sins, he did not commit any of them; though he
was made sin, he knew no sin; though he was tempted by Satan to the most enormous
iniquities, he kept himself from the evil one, so that he could not touch him. Simply
put, he kept himself from committing any sin, which cannot be said of any mere man.
All
these things show, that the righteousness of Christ is perfect—entirely
agreeable to the laws, statutes, and judgments of God. He is pure in the sight
of God. So Christ was rewarded in strict justice. Hence he repeats himself saying,
Psalm 18: 24: Therefore hath the LORD
recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my
hands in his eyesight.
II. SECONDLY, LET’S HERE CHRIST’S APPLICATION
AND SEE GOD’S FAITHFULNESS BY SEEING HOW IT APPLIES TO CHRIST HIMSELF—Psalm 18:
25: With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou
wilt show thyself upright; 26: With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure
Christ
is he whose ways are mercy and truth. Christ is the upright—perfect Man. Christ
is the pure Man, the holy Man.
From
eternity, Christ saw the sin and helplessness his people would fall into. He
had mercy on us. In mercy he became our surety in eternity; in mercy, betrothed
his people to himself in loving kindness and tender mercies. Then when the time
was come, in his merciful lovingkindness, because he is the upright man, he assumed
human nature—he did so in the womb of virgin—the spotless pure man.
All his
days, he went about obeying God doing that which was perfect, from a pure heart
and all the while he showered us with mercies, doing good to the souls and
bodies of men; he healed the diseased and fed the hungry; he had compassion on
the ignorant, and them that were out of the way;
As our
merciful high priest, the upright and pure GodMan, presented himself and took
the sins and sorrows of his people to be his own.
Though
no mercy was shown Christ while he was suffering for us, because God could not
spare him when he was made sin for us, instead, God must and did awake the sword
of justice against him,
Yet,
satisfaction being made, Christ having redeemed his people from all iniquity, showing
himself merciful, perfect and pure by his finished work, God did not leave him
in the grave, nor suffer his holy, righteous and merciful One to see
corruption. God the Father fulfilled every covenant promise to him, raising
him; setting upon his head a crown of honor and glory; giving him that glory
promised to send forth the gospel and give the blind sight and set us free from
our bondage. So Christ teaches us the faithfulness of God and our Savior, he says,
Psalm 18: 25: With the merciful thou wilt
shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; 26: With the pure
thou wilt shew thyself pure;
III. THIRDLY, LET’S BE SURE TO GET THE
MESSAGE
Christ is the Only Righteousness God will
Accept
By the
obedience of Christ, each of God’s elect are redeemed, reconciled to God. Christ
is the only Righteousness God will accept.
He is well-pleased with his Son.
And God is only pleased with those who come to God through faith in
Christ the Son of God.
Merciful to the Merciful
Christ
comes to each one in mercy: in mercy, sending each one the gospel, in mercy, quickening
each one to life, in mercy revealing to us our need of mercy. Then we become the merciful. We begin to desire for God to save us only by
his free mercy then with the merciful, God shows thyself—that God himself in
Christ is the merciful. In mercy, he reveals that in Christ, we are made the
righteousness of God.
With
Christ the merciful abiding in us, he makes his child the merciful man those
saved by mercy delight in mercy from God to us and from us toward others. This
is why David treated king Saul—and all his enemies-with mercy. It was because
God had first showed David mercy! It was because Christ dwelt in David’s heart,
making him merciful. And to the merciful, God continues to show himself
merciful.
Matthew 5:7: Blessed are the merciful: for they shall
obtain mercy.
Upright to the Upright
Christ’s
work of grace in the heart makes his child upright. We cease bragging of our deeds and become
honest with God. With Christ the upright Man abiding in us, he makes his child
the upright man. When we are made honest
and upright to confess our need of Christ then God reveals Christ in our hearts—revealing
Christ is the Upright Man. Upright means
a perfect Man. He makes us perfect in
Christ through faith. From then on the
believer is upright in heart, sincere and without hypocrisy; an Israelite
indeed: his faith, hope, and love, are not fake. And he becomes a man of integrity: faithful
to God, his cause and interest, his word and ordinances. And faithful toward
the saints. We walk uprightly according to the rule of “faith which works by
love.” God made David an upright man and God showed himself upright, faithful,
keeping his covenant with David.
Pure to the Pure
With
Christ the Pure Man dwelling in his child he makes his child holy in heart. No child
of Adam is pure by nature. We are all defiled with sin. Some are pure in their
own eyes, but far from being cleansed from their filthiness
The
pure are those sanctified by the Spirit of God. By his grace, he creates clean
hearts in his redeemed: whose hearts are purified by faith in the blood of
Christ; whose conscience is purged from dead works to serve the living God, who
are justified by Christ’s righteousness and washed from their sins in his
blood. He reveals to those he has given a pure heart that Christ is the Pure
Man-our sanctification.
To the
pure God shows himself pure: providing for the honor of his purity and holiness
in our redemption, sanctification, and salvation; by making all things to be
pure to them; by granting them his presence, and blessing them with the vision
of himself here and hereafter.
Matthew 5:8: Blessed are the pure in heart: for they
shall see God.
It is
because with Christ abiding in us we are made holy and have that holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord. If that were not the case the thief on
the cross could not have entered heaven with Christ that very day. Our new
nature is made of Christ who is the righteousness of the law; Christ who is our
Sanctification. God does not write his law on tables of stone for us to obey
but the new heart is made in God’s holy law—the new man created in
righteousness and true holiness.
That is
why we do not have to have the letter of the law, or be constrained by rules
and regulation of men, we delight in the law of God in the inward man! We
delight to serve God and hear of him and follow his ways.
Those
made pure speak a pure language of grace: hold the mystery of faith in a pure
conscience, walk with a pure conversation, delighting in all God’s ways and abhorring
our sins.
Froward to the Froward
But
catch this word of warning: Psalm 18: 26:
and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.
The
first word “forward” means false, crooked, perverse. The froward have a stubborn and obstinate temper against God, his
Christ, his gospel and his people.
The
second word means "God will wrestle and twist.” Those who are obstinate in their rebellion
against God, against his people, God will work all things contrary to them—the
same word describing God’s destruction of Jerusalem. Sinner, don’t fight
against God, you will lose.
Afflicted or Proud
Are we
afflicted or proud?--Psalm 18: 27: For
thou wilt save the afflicted people;
God
people are afflicted: with the corruption of our own hearts, from Satan and his
temptations, by the world, with its reproaches, and persecutions. But God in
his own time saves his people out of all our afflictions
Psalm 18: 27: but [God] wilt bring down high
looks. Every proud sinner shall be humbled by God.
John Trapp--They were both naked, and not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25). —Clothes are the ensigns of our
sin, and covers of our shame. To be proud of them is as great folly as for a
beggar to be proud of his rags, or a thief of his halter. As the prisoner,
looking on his irons, thinks on his theft, so we, looking on our garments,
should think on our sins.
Isaiah 2: 11: The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted
in that day. 12 For the day of the LORD
of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and
upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
Psalm 18: 28: For thou wilt light my candle:
the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
This
was God’s promise to Christ
Psalm 132: 17: There will I make the horn of David to
bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed.
Acts 2: 27: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 28: Thou hast made
known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy
countenance.
And
this is God’s promise to those who rest in him. Christ is our Light. He brought
us out of darkness when he raised Christ. Christ gave us light and brought us
out of darkness. And Christ will continue to bring us out of darkness till one
day we see him as he is and are changed into his image. Believer, we can say
with assurance, “He will reward me, according to Christ my Righteousness!”
Amen!