THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

XXVIII. Handling Injurious Deception

(Psalm 28:1-9)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

Though we often hear of “fake news” today, we do face a lot of injurious deception, what we need to handle:

(1) The editorial, “A ‘specialist’ state doesn’t need” (Republican-American, June 7, 2022, p. 8A) asserted, “Just five months before Connecticut voters go to the polls, state government is trying to hire someone to combat election ‘misinformation’ . . . Obviously, a certain point of view will be zeroed in on” so that “one fairly can argue Connecticut government’s path will infringe on free speech.”

(2) “President Biden” lately “celebrated record-high gas prices” as “part of ‘an incredible transition’ of the U. S. economy away from fossil fuels.” (Callie Patteson, “Biden praises high gas prices as part of ‘incredible transition,’ May 23, 2022; nypost.com) The president’s effort to restrict oil use is led by his war against “climate change” (Steve Forbes, “Will Biden’s Electric Vehicle Plan Really Fight Climate Change?”, August 21, 2021; forbes.com), but God in Genesis 8:22 promised to keep the climate of the earth stable as long as the earth continues to exist, so the president’s curbing of fossil fuel use that hurts the economy so much is based on a completely false ideology!

(3) Elected officials greatly raised the national debt, knowing it could fuel inflation: “Janet Yellen biographer Owen Ullmann” claims that as “Treasury secretary,” Yellen “argued early in 2021 for a smaller bill than the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan” over “concerns that overspending would fuel inflation, as her Clinton administration predecessor Larry Summers argued in The Washington Post.” (Michael Barone, “What was the left thinking?” Ibid., Republican-American, June 13, 2022, p. 8A) Still, officials ignored the advice, raised the debt, so “Wall Street entered a bear market Monday.” (Associated Press, “Wall Street enters bear market,” Ibid., June 14, 2022, p. 3B)

(4) Lolita C. Baldor’s AP story, “New vaccine may be option for troops with religious concerns” (Ibid., June 10, 2022, p. 7B) reported, “The Novavax vaccine may be an acceptable option for . . . service members who have sought religious exemptions,” adding: “Laboratory-grown cell lines . . . from fetuses that were aborted . . . were used in some early-stage testing of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and to grow viruses used to manufacture the Johnson & Johnson vaccine,” but “Novavax . . . says that ‘no human fetal-derived cell lines or tissue’ were used in the development, manufacture, or production of its vaccine.” The AP and Novavax thus imply that those who refused the first three vaccines due to their use of aborted human fetal cell lines may now conscientiously take the Novavax shot.

However, that is not true! The URL, science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe1502 posts a study by Sandhya Bangaru, et al., “Structural analysis of full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike protein from an advanced vaccine candidate,” Science, Vol. 370, Issue 6520, pp. 1089-1094. The study’s abstract claims that it tested the “Novavax” vaccine, the study’s acknowledgments reveal it was supported by several grants, one being from “Novavax, Inc.,” and that co-authors Jing-Hui, Alyse D. Portnoft, Nita Patel, Michael J. Massare, Greg Glen, and Gale Smith are “employees of Novavax, Inc.” who “contributed” the Novavax vaccine candidate for the study. The study report at one-point claims: “By comparison with site-specific glycan processing of the spike protein produced in mammalian human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293F cells, both mammalian cells and insect cells exhibit extensive processing at most sites.”

Novavax money and employees were involved in using the aborted human fetal cell line HEK 293F [“F” is for “freestyle”] to test its vaccine! It may not have used the cell line to develop, manufacture or produce its vaccine like the other companies did, but it did use it to test its vaccine! The deceit here is great and harmful to many consciences!

Need: So, we ask, “How does God want us to handle the injurious deception that we face?!”

I. In Psalm 28:1-2, David voiced an emergency appeal to God for deliverance from a lethal threat.

II. What threatened David was God’s just punishment that was due to his enemies who spoke peace to their fellow man while harboring “injurious evil” (ra’a, Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 997; H. A. W., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 1980, vol. II, p. 856) in their hearts, Psalm 28:3b.

III. Accordingly, David asked God not to punish him along with these evildoers (Psalm 28:3a), but to recompense them with the punishment due to their injuriously evil deeds, Psalm 28:4.

IV. Confident that God would punish these evildoers and not himself, David explained that the workers of evil committed their wicked acts because they did not have respect for the works of the Lord, Psa. 28:5.

V. David then praised the Lord as his Source of stability and protection from destruction, his Strength and Shield in Whom David’s heart trusted and in Whom he rejoiced, Psalm 28:6-8.

VI. In summary, David called upon the Lord to rescue His people Israel from the destruction that God planned for the wicked, to be the Gentle Shepherd of Israel forever, Psalm 28:9:

A. The KJV verb “feed” (ra’ah, B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 944-945) means “to pasture,” what implies shepherding in its general sense, and the KJV expression “lift them up” means to “carry,” the action a shepherd takes with vulnerable lambs, carrying them for protection and nurture, cf. Isaiah 40:11; J. A, Alexander, The Psalms: Translated and Explained, 1975, p. 125.

B. David thus requested that opposite the divine ferocity of punishment God would level against the wicked that the Lord would comprehensively care for His upright people, gently shepherding them in His grace.

Lesson: Knowing that God’s anger was great toward those who spoke peace with their fellow man but who harbored injurious evil against them, David urged God not to punish himself and upright Israel along with such wicked men but to deliver His people in His mercy and gently care for them forever. Confident that the Lord would answer this prayer, David rejoiced in the Lord, praising Him as his Source of security and stability.

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) In facing injurious deception, may we recall that God’s great anger against such sin will surely be expressed, but that we should hope in His deliverance and gentle grace in dealing with us in contrast to His punishment of the wicked.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

As we hope in God’s deliverance and gracious shepherding, God’s Word provides us His practical guidance and encouragement in handling the issues of concern we mentioned in our sermon introduction (as follows):

(1) On the “misinformation specialist” our state wants to hire to combat election “misinformation” that will be biased in favor of the party in power, we note that after God’s prophet Elijah told evil king Ahab that there would be no rain until he said so (1 Kings 17:1), and Ahab searched even in other nations to find Elijah (1 Kings 17:2-3, 9, 15; 18:10), God hid Elijah from him. (a) First, God hid him at Brook Cherith, a seasonal brook that dried up (B. K. C., O. T., p. 522), where Ahab would never think to look for Elijah since it seemed foolish for one to hide in a typically drying brook in a drought, and (b) then at Zarephath near Sidon, home to Ahab’s wife Jezebel! (1 Kings 16:31 with 17:9, 15) Ahab would not think of looking in Jezebel’s homeland, especially in a widow’s home, for widows were the first to suffer in a famine! (1 Kings 17:12) God will fulfill His plans for us regardless of the deeds of evil officials!

(2) On the spike in gas prices due to the president’s badly misguided war on “climate change,” when the Lord punished Ahab and Israel’s people for idolatry with a famine (1 Kings 16:29-34; Luke 4:24-26), God kept refilling the olive oil and meal containers of the widow of Zarephath for many days to feed herself, her son, and Elijah, 1 Kings 17:8-16. When the widow’s son died, and she blamed Elijah for it, assuming that God had sent him to punish her for some sin of hers, Elijah knew God wanted to provide for the widow, her son and himself until God sent rain (1 Kings 17:13-14). Elijah thus trusted God to raise the widow’s son from the dead so he could continue to be fed from his mother’s meal and olive oil containers at least until it rained! (1 Kings 17:17-24) Thus, we can trust God to provide for our livelihood needs so we can fulfill His assignments for us in spite of the livelihood hardships that we face.

(3) On the swelling of the national debt that fueled the inflation that now afflicts us, Elijah blamed Israel’s evil king Ahab for the nation’s drought and resulting livelihood woes (1 Kings 18:17-18). However, for godly Elijah, God fed him via ravens by the Brook Cherith until it dried up, 1 Kings 17:2-7. God used ravens that often fail to feed their own young (Job 38:41) regularly to bring Elijah both carbohydrates and protein both morning and evening until the brook dried up. When the brook did dry up, God sent him to Zarephath to live with a widow and her son, 1 Kings 17:9, 14-16. God will provide for our livelihood needs if we regularly stick to our budget with the income we already have! If that income “dries up” due to issues we cannot control, God will lead us on we should do next!

(4) On the Novavax issue where the Associated Press and Novavax mean to lure those opposed to vaccines that used aborted human fetal cell lines to take the Novavax shot with the implication that Novavax did not use aborted fetal cell lines, in 2 Kings 6:8-23, God told His prophet Elisha of the secret plans of the Aramean king so that Israel could avoid harm. Similarly, God can reveal the truth to us to keep us from harm, just like He led me to investigate Novavax’s claim: I typed a few key words into a search engine, what eventually led me to Novavax’s own published study on its involvement in the testing of its vaccine that told of its use of aborted human fetal cells!

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God’s gifts of eternal life. When then facing harmful deception, may we realize that God will surely punish such sin, and trust and obey the Lord to enjoy His gentle shepherding and care in contrast to His punishment of the wicked.