THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

CIV. Assurance Amid Exposure To The Powerfully Wicked

(Psalm 104:1-35)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

It is tempting to feel unsettled amid exposure to powerfully wicked people in our day:

(1) “‘Two of America’s largest philanthropic foundations are behind . . . some of the anti-Israel activists . . . disrupting campuses across the country,’ Ira Stoll reported in a Wall Street Journal op-ed column April 25. The U. S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights” with “George and Alexander Soros’ Open Society Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund” are involved, and “there’s a clear paper trail of funding” back to them (“Astroturf on campus,” Republican-American, May 3, 2024, p. 8A)

(2) The Rockefellers and Soros have a dark history, too: (a) “‘The Rockefeller Foundation helped found the German eugenics program and even funded the program that Josef Mengele worked in before he went to Auschwitz’” to experiment on Jews. (Brannon House, The Coming Religious Reich, 2015, p. 464, citing Edwin Black, “Eugenics and the Nazis – the California Connection,” November 9, 2003; http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Eugenics-and-the-Nazis-the-California-2549771.php) (b) In his own words, George Soros accompanied a Nazi officer when he oppressed Jews in World War II: “In an April 15, 1993 interview on the PBS television show, Adam Smith’s Money World, George Soros explained that Baumbach’s ‘job was to take over Jewish properties, so I actually went with him and we took possession of those large estates’ . . . Connie Buck, who interviewed Soros for The New Yorker in 1995, wrote that ‘he posed as the son of a Hungarian government official, sometimes accompanying the official as he delivered deportation notices to Jews, or took possession of property owned by them.’” (Richard Poe, “Soros And The Nazis: The Whole Truth, In His Own Words,” August 2, 2006; richardpoe.com)

(3) The Rockefellers and Soros strongly oppose our welfare locally: (a) The Rockefellers and others have financed church-growth conferences to get pastors to use seeker-friendly programs to attract many unbelievers. The sponsors’ aim is to flood churches with unbelievers to pressure believers there to turn from moral absolutes to accept ecumenism and globalism. (Brannon Howse, Religious Trojan Horse, 2012, p. 209-210) (b) Also, the “Soros Fund Management . . . is tightening its grip over the U. S. radio industry after scooping up a majority stake in bankruptcy radio Audacy.” (Shannon Thaler, “George Soros fund tightens grip over radio waves after controlling Audacy,” April 9, 2024; New York Post, cited in finance.yahoo.com) It hits us close to home: “Layoffs hit Hartford-based . . . WTIC-AM 1080” lately “with parent company Audacy trimming 2 percent of its staff nationwide.” (Liese Klein, “WTIC-AM 1080 radio cuts news staff as part of parent company’s bankruptcy plan,” April 29, 2024; stamfordadvocate.com) A pastor who on May 3^rd abruptly left the talk show he hosted on WTIC where he had strongly criticized Soros said there was no link between his quick exit and Soros’ purchase of Audacy, but some listeners are still unsettled over it.

(4) Consequently, “basic concepts like morality, equal protection under law, and freedom of expression and religion are challenged by the relentless agenda of the woke Left that both opposes and co-opts free markets . . . (O)ur political, cultural, and corporate institutions have all turned against working Americans, their God-given rights, and their values . . . Big Tech monopolies threaten economic freedom, freedom of expression, and even freedom of thought. (Kevin Roberts and Derrick Morgan, “Free markets are insufficient,” Ibid., Republican-American)

Need: So, we ask, “How can we handle the temptation to be alarmed over the powerfully wicked in today’s world?”

I. Psalm 104:1-33 expressed great, confidential praise of the Creator God’s vast greatness:

A. The psalmist called upon himself to glorify God for His greatness, splendor and majesty, Psalm 104:1.

B. As the basis for this call, the psalmist noted God’s greatness as Creator and Sustainer of the universe, v. 2-33:

1. God had wrapped Himself in light as with a garment and stretched out the heavens as a tent in creation, producing the rain-giving clouds over the earth, Psalm 104:2-3.

2. The Lord’s angels had been created as servants of flames of fire, doing His bidding, Psalm 104:4.

3. God had parted the waters from the land mass, creating sea and land, Psalm 104:5-9.

4. The Lord is then the Providential Sustainer of life in the world, Psalm 104:10-30:

a. He makes the springs pour water into the ravines that give life-sustaining water for land animals, trees where birds can build nests, grass for livestock and plants for man to cultivate for food, Psalm 104:10-18.

b. He provided the moon and sun to mark time, and when the sun sets, bringing darkness, God has even night animals prowl about seeking food from Him until the sun rises and they go to their dens, Psalm 104:19-22.

c. When the sun rises, then man goes out to work until his labor is done the next evening, Psalm 104:23.

d. Even the sea, though vast and spacious, teems with creatures beyond man’s capacity to number, life forms both big and small, and ships go there and the giant sea creatures that play in the waters, Psalm 104:24-26.

e. All the animals in the sea look to the Lord for their food, too, and when He figuratively opens His hand, the sea creatures gather it up, being satisfied with good things, Psalm 104:27-28.

f. However, when God hides His face from them, a figurative reference to withholding His provision of food, the sea creatures are terrified, and if He takes their life breath away, they die and return to dust, v. 29.

g. Nevertheless, when the Creator sends forth His Spirit, they reproduce, and God renews the face of the earth with food for land animals as well, Psalm 104:30.

5. Overcome with admiration of God’s vast greatness, the psalmist asked for the glory of the Lord to endure forever, that God might rejoice in His works in creation, for He merely looks at the earth, and it trembles, and when He but touches the great mountains, they smoke as do volcanos, Psalm 104:31-32.

6. The psalmist then announced that he would sing to the Lord all of his earthly life, praising Him, v. 33.

II. Having considered God’s vast greatness in the universe, the psalmist at Psalm 104:34 NIV, ESV hoped that his meditation of the Lord in Psalm 104:1-33 might be pleasing to Him, for he rejoiced in the Lord:

III. The psalmist then briefly called for sinners and the wicked to be eliminated by such a great God, v. 35:

A. He called for sinners to “be consumed” (tamam, Ibid., p. 1070) from the earth, and for the wicked “perpetually” (‘od, Ibid., p. 728-729) “not (to) exist” (‘eynam, Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. ; Ibid., B. D. B., p. 34-35).

B. The psalmist was so impressed by the greatness of God in his Psalm 104:1-33 meditation about the Lord that he viewed sinners and the wicked as being suddenly and forever eliminated from the world by his great God!

Lesson: By considering the Creator God’s vast greatness, that view of God so impressed the psalmist that it overshadowed any threat the powerfully wicked were to him so that he saw them as being of no difficulty at all.

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 consider our Creator God’s vast greatness that our view of Him overshadows any concerns we may have of the powerfully wicked that we might face.

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

We address the issues of concern mentioned in our introduction by Scripture application (as follows):

(1) GENERALLY, on the Rockefellers’ and others’ effort to get pastors to use seeker-friendly church-growth programs to flood churches with unsaved people, diluting the truth in churches so as to shift believers from moral absolutes to ecumenism and globalization, and on George Soros’ purchase of Audacy to control public thought, Christ foretold in the Matthew 13 parables that between His earthly life and setting up His Kingdom at His Second Coming, (a) Satan would plant unbelievers among believers to try to disrupt God’s discipling plan, and God would not remove the unbelievers until the final judgment lest doing so harm the discipleship of believers (Tares, Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43). (b) Satan would thus influence these mixed groups of believers and unbelievers to grow greatly in number so that Satan could influence such groups (Mustard Seed, Matt. 13:31-32) to (c) turn doctrinally corrupt (Leaven, Matt. 13:33). (d) To counter these Satanic efforts, God would direct those who discipled His people to make every effort to gain precious discipling truths from the Old Testament, “things old” in the householder’s treasure (Hid Treasure, Matt. 13:44 with Householder, Matt. 13:51-52) and from the New Testament, “things new” in the householder’s treasure (Pearl, Matt. 13:45-46 with Householder, Matt. 13:51-52) to teach them that their hearers might be discipled.

(2) With an eye on the general war between Satan and God as taught in Matthew 13, SPECIFICALLY, (a) as for the Rockefellers’ efforts to swamp our local church with unbelievers to further ecumenical globalization in our church, (i) we hold that God adds to our church those who are being saved (Acts 2:47b), so we accept people into the role of voting and controlling membership in our church only if they profess Christ as their personal Savior from sin! (ii) Our pastor focuses on ministering Scripture as his calling like 1 Timothy 4:13, 2 Timothy 4:1-2 and Acts 6:2-4 direct, so he has no time for ministry conferences! (b) As for George Soros’ effort to buy Audacy radio stations to control public thought, (i) 1 John 5:19 states that Satan controls the secular world anyway, (ii) so our pastor should stay occupied with his local church ministry calling and avoid becoming entangled in civilian affairs like hosting a public radio talk show where he can be shut down by ungodly parties who are under Satan’s control (cf. 2 Timothy 2:4). (iii) We also apply 2 Timothy 3:13-17 and rely on Scripture as sufficient to withstand all spiritual deception.

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 consider our Creator God’s vast greatness to offset concerns of the powerfully wicked.