Brothers and sisters, let's take our Bibles and turn to the Old Testament to the book of Psalms to the Psalter. What has been called, and I think is, indeed, the prayer book of the Bible, and let's look at Psalm number 35. This is one of those impregnatory Psalms, and they are in the Scripture for a specific reason. Probably because it drives home the truth and reinforces the reality that prayer is not always easy or clear-sided. We live in a confusing and complicated world, sin has made things very difficult. As the proverb says, good sense wins favor, but the way of the transgressor is hard. And you know, as well as I do, that common sense leads to favor from the Lord, but sin complicates things, confuses things, and even makes things seem contradictory in our life. A number of people have asked me, pastor, how should we vote in this election? I don't know how you should vote. I'm not so sure how I should vote yet. And some people have said, well, how do we even pray about this election? And I'm not sure that I know how to tell you that either. This is not a simple answer to a complex problem. And the fact is that in many people's minds, or voting between the lesser of two evils, but that means that whoever is elected brings evil with them, and it's a no-in situation, but that there are a lot of situations like that in life. And so we have the Psalter with all of its gamut of emotions, and its insights, and its laments, and thanks-givings, and its praises, and its implications. One of the things that's interesting about these Psalms, James Montgomery Boy says, is when he preached through the Psalter over the span of six years on Sunday evenings, he said, he kind of made it his habit to find a hymn, a closing hymn for the end of the service that was taken from Psalm that he was preaching on. And you know, as well as I do, is you look at the Psalter that most of our hymns are drawn from the Psalms. He said, when he came to Psalm 35, the Psalm we're looking at tonight, he said, he found no hymn into hymn, though. That was drawn from Psalm 35 because he said, quite frankly, the emotions that the impregnatory Psalms bring out in us and in their sentiments and writings in the scripture are difficult things to sing. There are some people who say we shouldn't do that, since we don't really know how to read them, applying them to our own lives or to pray them, or sing them maybe we shouldn't do that at all. Listen to one scholar's name's Weisner. He's written a good commentary on the Psalms. He would be what we would call a neo-orthodox or a liberal scholar. But Arthur Weisner has been faithful to most of the Psalms, and I find that he often has a lot of good insights, but when it comes to the impregnatory Psalms, here's what he says. He says, this Psalm shows its limitations clearly. We have no right to doubt the subjective sincerity of its author. He trust into divine faithfulness and God's help, which like the whole Psalm can be properly understood only in the light of its connection with the religious tradition, but it does not lack its power. The worshipper is, however, neither able nor ready to give himself totally to God, trusting him absolutely and accept his suffering from his hands and during it patiently. His human self will and his low instincts of vindictiveness and gloating retain their power over his thoughts and affect also his idea of God and his relationship to him. In spite of this hope in God, the right of this Psalm thinks of God in a rather human fashion and wants to make use of God's power and the service of his own human sentiments. And thus the hope in God's power is overshadowed in this Psalm by this way of thinking, which is only too common and deeply rooted in the human nature. This is why worshippers who want to pray this Psalm are unable to exercise a liberating influence for it does not lead on to the uttermost depths of ultimate faith. In this respect, this prayer of the Psalm is subject to the judgment of the New Testament. So Dr. Wyzener says that these Psalms are really not worthy of our worship because they impune to God a vindictive human spirit. Now, you would expect that of him, and you could say, well, pastor, it's because he's neo-Worthodox that he doesn't believe in an erity. He doesn't believe in the inspiration of all God's Word. Well, neither did CS Lewis, who's certainly not a liberal. And in his book called Reflections on the Psalms, he says in some of the Psalms, the spirit of hatred which strikes us in the face is like the heat from a blast furnace. In others, the same spirit ceases to be frightful only to become to a modern mind almost comical in its naivety. At the outset, I felt sure, and I feel sure still, that we must neither try to explain these away or yield for one moment to the idea that because it comes in the Bible, all this vindictive hatred must somehow be good and pious. We must face both facts squarely. The hatred is there, the festering, gloating, undisguised hatred, and also we should be wicked if we in any way condoned or proved this hatred or were still used to justify similar passions within ourselves. So Lewis says, we shouldn't pray these things. They don't rise to the level of God's inspired truth, but here's the problem I have with that. If you and I begin to select, which Psalm is really inspired by God and which one is not? Where does that end? Trumper Longman is also an Old Testament scholar. He would fit somewhere between the evangelical C.S. Lewis and the liberal Arthur Weasner. And he has, I think, a more balanced view of these Psalms. He says, curse or imprecation upon enemies is frequently found in the Psalms. How are we to understand these curses? They seem wrong to us who were instructed by the New Testament to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. We're called to put away the sword and share the gospel love with those who are against us. Now listen to what he says. There's a lot of wisdom here. Two errors must be avoided. On the one hand, some Christians argue that we are not to pray these prayers because they are not God's words or rather the Psalmist very human expression of hate that is unfairly imputed to God. The Psalmist falls short of the Christian ideal because he lived before the time of Christ, but if this is true, it reflects on the whole book of the Psalms. And raises the question, how can we treat any part of the Psalms as canonical? After all, these imprecatory Psalms are in the Scripture and the New Testament tells us that all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for our use. So long when it says the other danger, on the other hand, other Christians feel that we can pray these Psalms just as a Psalmist did. Those who persecute us or at least those who commit gross sins against the church in humanity like Hitler, a committee or a mean or the leadership of North Korea are appropriately cursed by the church, however, this does not take into account the radical love to which Jesus has called us. And when I think about the Psalmist, I think that the Psalmist says, we are left with this problem. How can we say it was all right for the Psalmist to pray these things but wrong for us to do so when these Psalms are written as our prayer book? How can we say it was okay for David to pray this, but not for us. And I suggest you that that is the typical response of most evangelical pastors. Psalm 35 is an imprecatory Psalm. And imprecation is the calling down from heaven or God, curses or judgments upon specific people. They're really in the Psalter only four or five of the Psalm 7 and 35 and 83 and I think 109. But there are imprecations or imprecatory parts in many of the Psalms. This Psalm is the first and classic one. Psalm 7 has some imprecations, but it's mild. Psalm 35 is pretty straightforward. It has five paragraphs each presenting evil from David's perspective and a different metaphor, different language. We don't know when it was written, but it does fit rather interestingly in the same time frame of David's conflicts with Saul. In fact, David would say to Saul, may the Lord judge between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancient says, out of the wicked comes his own wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you, after whom as the King of Israel come out, after whom do you pursue a dead dog? Are you looking for a flee? May the Lord therefore be judged and give sentence between me and you and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand. These very words that David spoke to Saul face to face, he now includes in a prayer. What does this prayer mean? How do we pray it? That's the two things we want to do tonight. Let's look at the Psalm, and its five stances is David presents the evil that surround him to God in five pictures, five metaphors. First he says, he's praying about a battle that he's in, he's at war, versus one through eight. Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me, fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler and rise from my help. Draw the spear and the javelin against my pursuers, say to my soul, I am your salvation. Notice his first petition that God contend, fight against, take hold of the shield and the buckler, draw the spear and the javelin, be his literally deliverer, as it says in Hebrew. He sees himself clearly in a battle against wicked forces. He describes them in verses four through six. Let them be put to shame and detour who seek after my life. Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me. Let them be like chaff before the wind with the angel of the Lord driving them away. Let their way be dark and slippery with the angel of the Lord pursuing them. He likenes them to people who have come after him to destroy him and kill him, but the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ comes down and like a warrior drives them back, puts them to flight and pursues them to destroy them. He says his opponents have deliberately and deceptively set traps to ruin him. Verse 7 and 8. For without cause, they hid their net from me. Without cause, they dug a pit for my life. Let destruction come upon them when he does not know it. Let the net that he hid and snare him. Let him fall into it to his own destruction. Here David imprecates against these enemies. He says let them be like chaff in the wind. Let them be driven back in a dark and slippery place falling as they scramble to get away from God. Let the very pit they dug for me fall into it. Let them, if they pursue this course, be destroyed by their own destructive plans. Now David was a man of war. We know that. He was a fighting king and he was a good warrior. And he was a man who had a temper. We know that. You see that occasionally in the Scripture, but you know, surprisingly, when you read how David treats his enemies, Saul, the Philistines, the Edomites, his own son, absolutely rebelled against him. David is a man prone to mercy, who highly values peace and is quick to forgive and to make his enemies his friends. James Boy says the author of each of these imprecatory Psalms is said to be David. Yet in spite of the tone of these Psalms, David is known personally, not for exacting vengeance on his enemies, but rather for forgiving them. His treatment of Saul was exemplary and it probably is the best Old Testament parallel to Jesus Christ attitude at the time of his arrest and crucifixion towards those who would put him to death. So David, when he writes, listen to me, when he writes these imprecatory Psalms, he's speaking out of character. This is not how David treats people who come against him, not personally, but David writes as the head of state. More specifically, he is God's anointed king. In Hebrew, it literally reads Messianic king. He is a type of Christ, a federal head. He is the king of the kingdom of God before the king of the kingdom of God arrives and carnate on the earth. And God made a covenant with him. Would you take a moment, please, keep your finger in Psalm 35, but turn back to 2 Samuel chapter 7. 2 Samuel 7, this is the famous passage where David says, I'm going to build God a temple and Nathan is sent by the Lord to say, no, you're really not. You're not going to build me a house. I'm going to build you a house. This is what we call the kingdom covenant that God makes with David a part of his covenant of grace. If you look in chapter 7, all the way down to verse 11, he says, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father. He shall be to me a son. When he commits an equity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men. But my steadfast love, my covenant love and loyalty, will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from me for you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever. This is just another phase of the covenant of grace that God made with Abraham. Now the Lord said to Abraham, go out from your country and your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make you a great nation. This nation that David would be king over and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. Now listen to this. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you and in you. All the families of the earth will be blessed. We usually neglect that little caveat at the end of the covenant of grace. I will bless those who bless you. Listen and I will curse those who curse you. David, when he prays in predatory Psalms, as a type of Christ, as a stakeholder who holds in contact and in context, this throne, the Jesus Christ, his distant son will inherit, he simply asked God to do what God promised to do. For the sake of the kingdom, to destroy those who would destroy the kingdom. He also prays as if he's been betrayed. Look at verses 9 through 16, then my soul will rejoice in the Lord exalting in his salvation. All my bones shall say, O Lord, who was like you, delivering the poor from him who was too strong for him, the poor and the needy from him who robs him. Malicious witnesses rise up. They ask me of things that I do not note. They repay me evil for good. My soul is bereft. But I, when they were sick, I wore sack cloth. I afflicted myself with fasting. I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though I grieved for my friend and my brother as one who laments his mother. I bowed down in mourning. But, did my stumbling, they rejoiced and gathered, they gathered together against me, wretches whom I did not know, tore at me without ceasing, like profane mockers at a feast they gnash at me with their teeth. That's pretty obvious what he's referring to here. You may remember the story of Saul. Scripture tells us in 1st St. chapter 16 that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and he experienced what we would call today dementia. But his spirit was calmed when the harp or the loot was played and someone sang and we said, I want you to find someone who can play for me and calm my spirit that the Lord might be with me again. And they said, oh, there's a son of Jesse, you've met him before, a young man named David. He sings like an angel and he is a man of war and loves you. And Saul said, go get him and bring him here. And so it says, then when the Spirit of the Lord would trouble Saul, David would play and sing for him and Saul's spirit would be relieved. But listen to this. David heard the little girls in the town singing. Is that like this handsome David? He was a champion. Saul has killed his thousands but David is 10,000. And it says that Saul became jealous. And the next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul and he raved within his house while David was playing the liar as he did day by day. Saul had his spirit in his hand next to him and Saul hurled the spirit him for he thought I will pin David to the wall. But David evaded him twice. Twice David came out of love and loyalty for Saul to minister to him in his hour of need. And twice it was repaid with attempted murder. They repay me evil for good. When they were sick, I mourned and prayed and fasted with him. When I stumbled, they sought my life. David prays as a man betrayed because he was. He also prays against people he calls beasts. He calls them the lions, not the mascot of covenant day school. These are different lions. He says in verse 17, how long or what will you look on, rescue me from their destruction my precious life from the lions? I will thank you in the great congregation in the mighty throng I will praise you, let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those who wink the eye and who hate me without cause. For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit. They open wide their jaws, their mouths against me and they say, aha, our eyes have seen it. He pictures them as lions. You've seen pictures of lions, they open up those jaws and they lock it in these massive fangs are out there. He says they open wide their mouths, he says over in verse 16, they gnash their teeth at me. David said, I have been working for Shalom for peace, they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they devise evil. They would write another song, I am for peace, but they are for war. So he again appeals to God for peace, let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause. He prays against their boasting, that's the fourth thing he says, they are bragging about my demise. Verse 22, you have seen O Lord to be not silent, O Lord be not far from me, awake and rouse yourself from my vindication, from my cause, my God and my Lord. Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to your righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me, let them not say in their hearts, aha, our hearts desire. In other words, let them not say, aha, we wanted him gone and now he is, let them not say, we have swallowed him up, like a lion gorging on a corpse. Let them be put to shame and disappointed together, who rejoice at my calamity, let them be clothed with shame and dishonor, who magnify themselves against me. What does he want? He wants vindication, he wants God to show to all who are presently involved in this conflict, who was in the wrong, who was in the right, and who was on the Lord's side, and who was not. David's prayer for peace and vindication is not a selfish concern for himself. David is simply praying for the very thing that Paul said we should pray, we should lift up holy hands and urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and for all who in high positions of authority that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, and all God that is a dignity for this is good and pleasing in the sight of God. Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, this is what God wants. David says, I am for peace, they are for war, Luther Mays, James Luther Mays who writes a commentary says that these thoughts, listen to this, are the nuclear statements of the theology that informs the entirety of the Psalter. This is what the Psalters all about, it's about the kingdom of God. David will mention two things, over and over and over and over, almost a Nazim, the Shalom, the peace of God upon his people, and his steadfast love, his covenant, love and loyalty. He's saying, how could I sit back quietly as Israel's leader and say, Lord, these people are destroying the peace and seeking to destroy your covenant people, but we're going to love them anyway. He says, I can't do that. He says, I have to ask you to vindicate your covenant pledge and bring what is your will upon mankind. Shalom, the peace of God. And finally, he's praised for blessing. He says, I know that not everybody is against me. He doesn't have a fortress mentality as some commentators say. And the last answer says, at the last two verses, verse 27-28, let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad. And say evermore, great is the Lord who delights in the welfare of his servant. Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and your praise all day long. God is great. God is faithful, he says. And people who know that will rejoice in this. Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all day long. The end product is that God be glorified and David be able to say you see, this is how God honors those who honor him. This is the spirit of his spirit. This is what he's praying. And in the context as best we understand it, so how do we pray, Psalm 35? First of all, can't we pray the impeccatory Psalms? And I say, quite frankly, yes. We are covenant people of God whom we love God, we love His word as a guide to all aspects of our lives. This prayer book of the Bible is given to us by the Holy Spirit and all scriptures inspired by God and profitable for us to make us adequate for every good thing. One helpful book, if you're just troubled about these impregnatory Psalms, is a little book written by a guy named James Adams, the son of Jay Adams, the famous counselor and Bible commentator. It's called War Songs of the Prince of Peace. Lessons from impregnatory Psalms and he writes and introductory chapters. My own experience with these prayers has brought me many times to sense God's very presence is my understanding of them deep and through much study comparing scripture with scripture. My prayer life has begun to enter into the very prayers of Jesus Christ. And I have also been enabled to preach these Psalms with great joy. David is a pair of vocal cords that Jesus Christ has borrowed to teach us how to pray. When the Apostle said, Lord, teach us how to pray. Jesus said this. We say, our Father who art in heaven, how long will be thy name? Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth where men live as it isn't heaven with the angels and saints. Give us our daily bread. Forgive us of all of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Jesus Christ acknowledges what David prays for. There is evil in the world. We will have to deal with it. You're familiar with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. You should buy a copy of his little booklet, The Prayer Book of the Bible. One of the best introductions to the Psalter there is out there. Dietrich Bonhoeffer had no problem, he says, praying these impregnatory Psalms and Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, none whatsoever. He said because it was Christ who prayed these things for his kingdom and those who belong to Christ should pray alongside of him because the end product of all these implications is deliver us from evil. The gospel message and the spirit of the gospel does not preclude the reality of a spiritual warfare of demonic forces in the world. The ugly reality of evil all around us, a passion for God's glory and desire and hope for the preservation of the church and the ultimate, if necessary, destruction of all of our opponents. After all, the Bible says that the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. And I suggest you that if we don't or won't pray against evil, then ultimately we're siding against Jesus Christ who said, I've come to destroy the works of the devil. In fact, here's the second thing I would put for you, before you tonight, when we pray these impregnatory Psalms, that's how we ultimately enter into our aspect of spiritual warfare. Turn to Ephesians chapter 6, famous passage, beginning in verse 10. I'll begin to read it as you find it because you know it already. Find me be strong in the Lord in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm, stand there for having fastened on the belt of truth, and then put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet having put on in readiness, the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Do not listen to this praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication to that end. Keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that the words may be given to me in opening of my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that I may declare boldly as I ought to speak. This passage is brilliant. It's the reality of spiritual warfare, the nature of it against satanic forces, the realm of that spiritual warfare in the heavenly places, in the realm where prayers go, the weaponry of our warfare, truth and righteousness and gospel and faith and salvation and word, and the mode how we fight this warfare on our knees, praying at all times and making supplications for the church. When we face wickedness in the world, there are things we can do. We can vote. We can protest. We can write to our elected officials and call the police. We can boycott. We can lobby. And if it becomes necessary, we can even rebel or go to war. Undergirding all of those things, we are to pray. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they be secure who love you. Peace be within your walls and security within your towers. For my brothers' companions' sake, I will say peace be within you. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good. There is a place for us is private citizens and the soldiers in this kingdom of Christ to pray these prayers. And that leads to the third and final thing I want to give you tonight. I want to give you seven things that you need to keep in mind. If you write these down for when you use these are regulatory solmts, here's the first one. You always pray these prayers in Christ. We have to add to them these two thoughts as we pray them. Lord, not my will but thine be done. And for Christ's sake, we pray. That kingdom come, that will be done. We're praying along with Jesus Christ. But it's all about his enemies that we're confronting. And his glory that we're after and his will that has to be done. And if there's destruction and killing inventions, Jesus will handle that. We're praying along with him. He wrote this prayer and gave it to David when he inspired it through the Holy Spirit. He prayed these solms and their implications and their references as he was a young man. And he gave this book to you and me. Here's the prayer book of the Bible. He says, pray with me. This is how Jesus teaches us to pray. Secondly, we must pray with a foundation of God's word. The first question behind all of these impregnatory solms is, does this prayer match the prophetic purpose of God? If we had time tonight and we don't, we could go into the Old Testament and find reference after reference after reference to the return of Christ and the destruction of all wickedness. And why would we not have solms written by the Holy Spirit to help us pray to that end? We're praying the prophetic voice when we pray these solms thirdly. We must pray these solms with the conversion of God's enemies as the goal. David says in Psalm 35, let them be put to shame and disappointed all together who rejoice in my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me. He doesn't pray that they be condemned, that they die, that they be ruined. The shame and dishonor come upon them. He has a gospel motive here. Let them come to the point he says with so embarrassed with the way they behave that they said, Lord, there's something wrong with me and they repent and seek for God. Fourthly, we must always pray for the destruction of evil and even evil people who will not repent and we let them their evil because God's goodness includes the hatred of evil. For us to be enbibilant about evil is to be uncertain of what is good and in the end to dishonor God. That's what Americans do so easily. Rather than face the difficulty of resting with this question whether it's evil or good, we just kind of explain it away or ignore it. But I'm here to tell you that if you don't stand against evil, then you're not on the side of good and not on the side of God. Fifthly, we must always pray these prayers taking sin seriously. Even CS Lewis who doesn't like these things that doesn't consider them God's word says this. Against all this ferocious part of the Psalms, they serve as a reminder that there is in the world such a thing as wickedness. And that if not a hatred of its perpetrators, God does hate wickedness. In that way, however dangerous the human distortion in these Psalms may be, these words sound through these passages too. That evil is something to be reckoned with. Sixthly, we must always pray these impregnatory Psalms with reference to how they are used in the New Testament. This little Psalm was referenced three times. It's used in chapter 11 of Romans to speak of election. God's purposes of choosing some for eternal life and for many others to go to destruction. Jesus quotes this Psalm in John 15 when he said to his disciples, now they're going to persecute you because he quotes this Psalm. They hated me without a cause and therefore they'll hate you too. That should give us insight to why this Psalm becomes ours because we experience its prophetic fulfillment as Christ did in people hating us without a cause. Psalm 35 also predicts the anger of the gospel witness. Once we tell people that they need to repent and believe in Jesus Christ, Luke references this when he's talking about the martyrdom of Stephen. He said, now when they heard these things were enraged and they gnash their teeth at him just as they did in Psalm 35 against David. We should pray Psalm 35 to pray any other Psalm in Christ with Christ for the sake of Christ because as First Corinthians says, we have the mind of Christ. Now you're thinking right now, yeah, this old guy's losing his mind. He gave us seven things. May he only mention six. Ah, here's number seven. I saved it because it's tentative, but I think it's legitimate. We can say things to God in prayer that we are not able to say to other people face to face. Let me give you an example. I'm not suggesting. Let me give you an example. If you were to meet Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton after a debate that was in our city and you went up to said to them, you know, I don't think either one of you ought to be present. So I'm praying that God would take both of your lives. First of all, that would be unkind and it would be a sin. And if you said it in the wrong context since they're public officials, you probably be arrested. You might go to jail for a while. You can't say that to people, but you can say that to God. Because at the end of this prayer, you always add this thought, if not these words, for Jesus Christ's sake, I pray. You know what you're saying? You're saying, Lord, this is how I feel about this evil situation. These evil people, this evil event, this force moving against us. And I want you to push them back and route them and if necessary, destroy them. But I send you this prayer through Jesus Christ. This is how I feel. This is how I think I'm not telling anybody else this. I'm just telling you. And I know that Jesus Christ sits at your right hand and he will hear that prayer. And if he agrees with me, he'll say, Father, answer the prayer of Michael and destroy the enemies of the church. But if I'm praying at my own impatience and human weakness and folly, then Jesus will say, Lord, let's ignore this part of Michael's prayer and hear the rest. Let my will be done. Not Michael's. There is a psychological benefit to these imprecatory Psalms. I'm not being comical here. It allows us to take our anger and frustration and fear and sense of vengeance and unleash it where it ought to go up to God. It lays right there at the feet of Christ. And if you pick it up, it's done. And if not, we were able to get this off our chest and tell our Father how frustrated and fearful we really are. Rather than stuff all these emotions and end up angry, shrill and bittered citizens, hawking and gawking after someone else. I suggest we channel that energy whether it's righteous or not and send it to God in Jesus name and let God deal with it. Vengeance's mind declares the Lord. You do not take revenge, but you overcome evil with good because you pray in Jesus name. Let's pray. Father, it is our ultimate prayer that your kingdom will come and your will shall be done. In the meantime, we do pray that you would deliver us from evil. We would, by your grace, pray like you, taking no delight in the destruction of the wicked, but rather that the wicked would repent and be saved. We thank you that you're not slow about your promises as some counts loneliness, but patient towards all mankind not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance and the knowledge of the truth. But we also thank you that you're a God of the covenant who said, I will bless those who bless the church, I will curse those who curse them, and I will save you from evil, and I will destroy the works of the devil. And so thy will be done, not ours. We ask that when we pray these prayers, even if we do so in a faulty and foolish and human way, that you would receive the spirit of our prayer as we attempt to pray along with Jesus Christ for his kingdom's sake. And we would ask you this tonight in Jesus name. Amen.