THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

XCII. Flourishing Long In An Evil World

(Psalm 92:1-15)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

In view of the evil opposition we face today, we need assurance that we can still live long, flourishing lives:

(1) We need this assurance in light of a worsening pro-choice position: “Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford, who co-chairs” the “state legislature’s 50-member Reproductive Rights Caucus . . . has made it clear that . . . ending a developing human life . . . even when a pregnancy is near-complete and the healthy, mostly- or full- developed baby must exit the mother’s body” that “women have a moral prerogative to choose to end that life . . . (T)his strain of progressivism . . . like many tribal belief systems” in “history, indulges the basest human impulse – bloodthirst – by justifying human sacrifice.” (“A revolting proposal, Republican-American, January 27, 2024, p. 6A)

(2) We need this assurance in view of the government’s effort to make us buy only electric vehicles by 2035. A letter by Richard Bingham of Wolcott (Ibid.) objected to it, writing, “Solar panels and parts of the cars, if not the whole car, are made using slave labor . . . Electric cars and buses . . . burn people’s houses down . . . The cars are too expensive for most of us . . . In a cold winter the batteries don’t run as long,” and “(t)he recent bitter cold has shown that the cars can’t charge when it get below 10 degrees . . . Even” if an owner of a gas car got “20 miles per gallon and” spent “$2,400 per year for fuel, the purchase cost of a Tesla would take 40 years to break even” with his gas car, and “(t)he Wall Street Journal found that the government has gotten the car companies to overreport the mileage of electric vehicles by 6.67 times . . . (I)f the government has to lie to get us to buy something, it is very wrong.”

(3) We need this assurance in light of President Biden’s awful border policy: “The 10 million people who’ve illegally entered the country during the Biden administration outnumber the population of 40 U. S. states; at this point, it’s possible that the Democratic Party’s status as the single dominant force in American politics has already been fortified as those who have poured over the border will give birth to American citizens whose existence in the country is owed entirely to the party’s open-border policy.” (“Texas leads the way,” Ibid., January 29, 2024, p. 8A)

(4) We need this assurance in view of the deceit in our medical leaders: “‘In texts and emails, scientists shared worries that the (Covid) virus ‘looked almost engineered to infect human cells,’ as one put it. The virus seemed ‘to have been pre-adapted for human spread since the get go,’ another said. These concerns were privately shared with (Dr. Anthony) Fauci and other top health officials. But then, after a still-mysterious Feb. 1 conference call . . . the notion that the virus might have escaped from a lab was dropped like a lit firecracker.’” (James B. Meigs, “The Likely Lab Leak and the Covid Cassandra,” Commentary Magazine, February 2024 issue, cited in “Quotable,” Ibid.)

(5) We need this assurance in light of the evil influence of the far left on the Democratic Party: the Cagle Cartoons political cartoon in the Republican-American (Ibid.) pictured President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in its first frame, saying, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!” In the following frames, the Democratic donkey adds, “And climate change, we have to fear climate change . . . and Trump. He’s gonna kill democracy . . . And anyone who questions the official narrative as dictated by the captured media . . . also, anyone who thinks for themselves. That’s just evil . . . And Jesus. We can’t enslave minds with Jesus in the way . . .”

Need: So, we ask, “Can we be sure of having a long, flourishing life in view of the evil opposition we face today?”

I. Psalm 92:1-7 praises God for His “vindication of the righteous by His destroying senseless . . . evildoers who . . . flourish for a short time,” Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 861:

A. The psalmist opened Psalm 92 in verses 1-5 with abundant praise to the Lord for His faithfulness and loyal love toward the psalmist as seen in God’s works that caused him to triumph in the works of God’s hands.

B. To explain, the psalmist in Psalm 92:6-7 stated that a “brutish” (ba’ar, B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 129) or spiritually insensitive man and a “stupid fellow, a fool” (kesil, Ibid., p. 493), one with “a closed mind” (Ibid., Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 908), does not understand that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will suddenly and permanently be destroyed in God’s judgment.

II. However, in contrast to the end of such evildoers, God makes the righteous flourish in long lives, v. 8-15:

A. In contrast to the wicked, God is forever exalted as being eternally victorious over the wicked, Psalm 92:8-9.

B. Thus, the upright who love and obey the Lord are helped by God, their strength, typified in the word “horn,” being built up by the Lord and His granting them the anointing with quality olive oil, representing “festivity” and “restoration of vitality,” Psalm 92:10; Ibid., p. 861.

C. The righteous see the defeat of their wicked enemies and hear of the military rout of their foes (Psalm 92:11), but the personal experience of the upright contrasts greatly with the fall of the wicked, Psalm 92:12-15:

1. The righteous like a palm tree that “buds, sends out shoots” (para, Ibid., B. D. B., p. 827) will flourish and grow strong like the large, stately cedar evergreens of Lebanon, Psalm 92:12.

2. The godly will be like trees planted in God’s temple who will flourish in His temple courts, Psalm 92:13.

3. Besides, the upright will “still” (‘od, Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 1057; Ibid., B. D. B., p. 728-729; emphatic position) like trees figuratively “bear fruit” (nub, Ibid., p. 626) in “old age” (seybah, Ibid., p. 966), v. 14a.

4. Even in old age, they will “be existing, be becoming” (hayah, “be, become,” Ibid., Kittel; Ibid., B. D. B., p. 224-228) in continuing experience “fat” (dashen, Ibid., p. 206), that is, like trees, they will stay fresh, full of life-giving tree sap and be existing or be becoming “luxuriant, fresh, flourishing” (ra’anan, Ibid., p. 947) with rich foliage and fruit production, Psalm 92:14b ESV, NIV.

5. Moving out of the simile where the righteous are presented as trees, the psalmist noted that the righteous will proclaim that God is upright, that He is their “Rock Cliff of support and defense on high ground from attacking enemies” (sur, Ibid., p. 849), and that there is no “injustice” (‘avlah, Ibid., p. 732) in Him, v. 15. In other words, the righteous will testify that God justly punishes the wicked and blesses the righteous.

Lesson: Though insensitive, close-minded evildoers spring up quickly and flourish like grass, they will suddenly and forever be destroyed in judgment though God will cause the righteous to flourish long-term even in old age. Thus, the upright will testify that God is their Protective Support, and that He will always justly judge everyone.

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 handle evil opposition that flourishes by trusting that God will always administer justice on everyone and focus on living uprightly that God might greatly bless us to live productive, relatively long lives while the wicked who currently flourish will one day be forever punished by God.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message and provide additional guidance . . .)

(1) First, Scripture shows us the righteous way to live with God’s blessing on the issues of concern noted in our introduction: (a) Exodus 21:22-23 condemns abortion as the taking of a human life. (b) Jesus built a “charcoal fire” (anthrakia, Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 66) in John 21:9, what produces much pollution, so it is not a sin to use a gasoline-powered vehicle! (c) Acts 17:26-30 claims that God is sovereign over nations and borders, so we should not fret about the president’s border policy but seek the benefit of the place where we live, cf. Jeremiah 29:7. (d) Medically, 1 Timothy 5:23 with 4:8 directs us to care for our own health, and if that is inadequate in a given crisis, we can apply Proverbs 11:14 in seeking counsel on getting good medical help. (e) On the left’s godless influence on the Democratic Party, 2 Timothy 3:13-17 foretold that people would go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived, but that we are to handle this trial by heeding godly teachers and ultimately Scripture.

(2) Second, we note that each issue of concern in our introduction (a) illustrates Satan’s way of thinking. James 3:14-16 ESV describes this thinking pattern as fueled by envy, selfish ambition and pride that is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. The result of such thinking is disorder and every evil deed. This explains how an official can say that a woman has the moral prerogative to abort her unborn baby, how officials try to push electric vehicles on the public when everything about that push is illogical, how the president’s border policy is so harmful for our citizens, how the nation’s top medical authorities can be so dishonest about the coronavirus, and how the far left’s corruptive thinking can promote the lie of catastrophic climate change, or that Mr. Trump would destroy democracy if reelected, or that anyone who disagrees with the narrative of the mainstream media is to be feared, or that anyone who thinks for himself is evil, or that it is wrong for Jesus’ teaching to block the enslaving of peoples’ minds by the left.

(b) In contrast, James 3:17-18 ESV describes God’s thinking pattern, one that is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good “fruits” in the sense of good deeds, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow God’s way of thinking in others by their teaching produce a harvest of righteousness in their hearers, leading to peace.

(c) Actually, James 3:14-18 contrasts the false “wisdom” of Satan that can be taught in a local church setting versus the godly “wisdom” of the Lord that is taught by godly teachers, for there is a constant spiritual war between Satan and God over the minds and hearts of people in churches according to Christ’s Matthew 13:3-52 parables!

(3) In application, then, we need to discern Satan’s way of thinking from God’s thinking pattern as noted in James 3:14-18 and rely on God’s thinking. God will thus bless us with the blessings revealed in Psalm 92:1-15!

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 trust God’s assurance in Psalm 92 that we can live long, flourishing lives if we are upright.