A Christian Response to Evil

Dannah Gresh: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth encourages us to open our eyes.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: His hand is always at work. Are we looking around? Are we seeing it? Are we noticing it? Are we responding with wonder and with worship?

Dannah: Welcome to the Revive Our Hearts podcast for December 28, 2022. I’m Dannah Gresh, and our host is the author of Heaven Rules, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Nancy will continue our study of Psalm 28 in just a moment, but I wanted you to hear what one listener shared after hearing yesterday’s program. If you heard it, you may remember Nancy talking about King David’s complaint in verse 1 when he said, “LORD, I call to you; my rock, do not be deaf to me. If you remain silent to me, I will be like those going down to the Pit” (v. 1).

Nancy: It sounds like he’s been praying for a long time. He’s been asking God, but it seems like God hasn’t heard him. It seems like God isn’t listening. It seems like God isn’t responding. What comes to mind is the perplexing apparent silences of God.

Dannah: Well, that concept really resonated with Linda, who was in our studio audience that day.

Linda: I’ve been praying for a prodigal loved one for nineteen years. And so, I’ve seen God working in the midst. But when you were talking about remaining silent, that he had been praying for a while, of course, I relate to that. And so I see as I look back not just this past year but for nineteen years, the grace that God has extended to me to make His Word so precious and to grow me. It’s not just about the prodigal loved one and to grow that relationship with that loved one, but to give redos and redos and redos. I’m currently in another redo.

But as you said, “I’m not the Savior. It is not mine to fix. It is in God’s timing. I’ll trust in Him.”

Nancy: Yes. God’s timing and in His hands. Consider the work of His hands. Thank you, and may the Lord give you faith and courage and hope to keep trusting, keep clinging. One day we’ll see prayer will become praise, and faith will become sight. Right?

Dannah: Maybe you can identify with Linda and David who say, “I’ve been praying for a long time, and it just doesn’t seem like God is hearing me. It seems like He’s responding with more silence.”

Well, keep listening. Here’s Nancy, continuing in Psalm 28 in a series called, “Perspective, Promises, and Prayers for the New Year.”

Nancy: Well, as we look back over this past year, there have been some wonderful things and some wonderful things to remember. You have some of those stored in your heart or on your camera roll.

But we’ve also heard a lot about evil going on in our world. I mean, unless you don’t see any news or hear anything that’s going on, you know that homicide rates are up dramatically in our major cities. We’re reading and hearing and seeing video of smash-and-grab robberies in high-end department stores. People driving their vehicles and plowing into crowds of people. Unbridled rage, mass shootings in schools and malls and churches. And it’s not just in our big cities, but in remote out-of-the-way places.

And, of course, there’s been all the up and down related to the abortion issue. And in light and in spite of changes on that front in our land, we know this is still a difficult and challenging area. There’s the continued taking of life of the preborn in parts of our country.

But put all that together, and I just want to say: of course, there’s nothing new about evil. The evil we’ve seen exploding in this past year has maybe grown and expanded, because evil gets worse and worse. But sin reigns in the heart of every human being who has not been redeemed by Christ. It always has, since Genesis, chapter 3, and it always will until Christ comes to finish up this story.

So in the psalm we’re looking at this week, we see how David prayed about evil and evildoers in his day. So join me again, if you would, in Psalm 28. As we read the first part of this psalm today, I want you to observe that there are two very different kinds of people in this psalm and in our world. We see this through all of Scripture.

We have, first, those who belong to God. Their hearts are inclined toward Him. They trust Him. They lean into Him. They want to be holy as He is holy.

And then there are those who live their lives as if there is no God. Their bent is toward sinning. They are referred to in Scripture by different terms, but in this passage they are referred to as the wicked, the evildoers.

So you have the righteous, those who are inclined toward the Lord. You have the evildoers who are inclined away from the Lord, if they even believe He exists. Belief in God is at a many-year low in this country, according to polling, although we know there’s plenty of evidence that you have to resist to say there is no God.

But then, towering above both of these groups, the righteous and the ungodly, we see the Lord, the One who really matters high and lifted up—always present, always at work.

We see Him involved in the lives of both the wicked and the righteous—those who reject Him and those who treasure Him. God deals with these people, these two groups of people, these two kinds of people in two very different ways.

We need to keep all of this in mind as we read this psalm, beginning with David crying out to God for help. Psalm 28, verse 1:

LORD, I call to you;
my rock, do not be deaf to me.
If you remain silent to me,
I will be like those going down to the Pit. (v. 1)

There’s that second group there, the ones who are not inclined toward God. They’re going toward the pit. Then he says: 

Listen to the sound of my pleading
when I cry to you for help,
when I lift up my hands
toward your holy sanctuary. (v. 2)

So some are going down to the Pit. David says, “I’m looking towards Your holy sanctuary.” This is where his focus is. This is where David wants to be.

Then as we continue into verse 3, we’ll see that David does not want to be in the company with those who are unholy. He’s looking toward God’s holy sanctuary, but he’s saying, “I don’t want to be living with, doing life with, being engaged in the world of those who are unholy.”

So in the second stanza, notice how David describes this group of the unrighteous and how he asks God to deal with them. Verse 3:

Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with the evildoers,
who speak in friendly ways with their neighbors
while malice is in their hearts.
Repay them according to what they have done—
according to the evil of their deeds.
Repay them according to the work of their hands;
give them back what they deserve.
Because they do not consider
what the LORD has done
or the work of his hands,
he will tear them down and not rebuild them.” (vv. 3–5)

Now the rest of this psalm is way more hopeful, and that’s what we’re going to spend the next two days on. But today we want to focus on this central stanza of the psalm. It’s preceded by David’s desperate cry that we looked at in yesterday’s program, and it’s followed by his earnest praise and trust, which we’ll look at over the next couple of days. But today, verses 3–5.

David says in verse 3: “Don’t drag me away with the wicked, with the evildoers.”

He does not want to be drawn in with the wicked. He doesn’t want to become like them. He doesn’t want to be identified as one of them. And he doesn’t want to end up where he knows they’re going to end up.

You see this concept in other places in the Scripture.

Psalm 26, verse 9—just a couple of psalms earlier—David says: 

Do not destroy me along with sinners,
or my life along with men of bloodshed.

And then in Numbers 16—remember how the sons of Korah proudly, arrogantly rebelled against God and against the leadership God had appointed, and God judged them? God destroyed them.

And then in verse 26 of Numbers 16, it says Moses warned the community, 

Get away now from the tents of these wicked men. Don’t touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.

David kind of pictures something like that and he says, “I don’t want to be dragged away into judgment, into Your wrath. I don’t want to follow in the course of these who are wicked.”

David wants to be different than the wicked. He wants God to treat him differently than God is going to treat the wicked in the end. So he continues with a description of some characteristics of the wicked.

“Don’t drag me away with the wicked, with the evildoers who speak in friendly ways with their neighbors.” Your translation may say, “They speak peace with their neighbors while malice [or evil] is in their hearts” (ESV).

These people don’t necessarily all look or sound like evildoers. They may be people in your church. They can be charming. They can be friendly. They can make a positive impression. They appear to be one thing on the outside. “Oh, yes, I’m with you. I’m one of God’s people.” They speak in friendly ways. They speak peace with their neighbors, but what’s on the inside, in their hearts, is something altogether different.

All their friendly talk, all their religious talk maybe, is covering up a heart that is filled with evil. So they may talk as if they want to bless you and do you good, but they actually detest you and want to do you harm. They’re two-faced. (I don’t know if anybody comes to mind or any kind of person comes to mind as I’m saying that.) Again, throughout the Scripture, you see this characteristic of the ungodly.

Psalm 55, verse 21: “His buttery words are smooth, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, but they are drawn swords.”

Psalm 62, verse 4: “They bless with their mouths, but they curse inwardly.”

And then Jeremiah 9, verse 8: “With his mouth one speaks peaceably with his friend, but inwardly he sets up an ambush.”

He’s out to get you. He’s out to take you down. Have you had somebody like that in your life? Maybe a family member. Maybe somebody in the workplace. Like, they’re all nice and flowers and love and candy and sugar and all that stuff, but then you find out there’s malice in their heart. They’re out to take you down. They’re out to take you under or maybe somebody that you love.

Charles Spurgeon, referring again to his wonderful sermon on Psalm 28, says, “It is a sure sign of baseness [debauchery] when the tongue and the heart do not ring to the same note.”

So we think of people we know or have known maybe, people who are like this. They speak kindly. They speak friendly words. They’re all lovey-dovey and peaches and cream, but oh, there’s malice in their hearts. So, maybe somebody like that comes to mind.

But here’s the more important question I think: does that describe us? And it’s a reminder that apart from the grace of God, you and I are capable of acting just like the ungodly, like the wicked. In fact, there is no sin that ungodly, unrighteous, evildoers, as David calls them, wicked people, there is no sin that they could commit that we are not capable of committing ourselves.

You see, it’s self-righteousness that says, “Oh, the evildoers are all out there. Those people, they’re wicked. Those people who are unrighteous, those people who practice these kinds of sins, these kinds of immorality or abortion, or those people who commit all these different kinds of sins that are out there, oh, I would never do that.”

Well, what God wants to know is: what’s in my heart? Is there malice in my heart even while outwardly, with my tongue, I’m speaking gracious or peaceful or kind or loving words, but I’m really wanting to tear people down? And maybe behind their back I will tear them down with my mouth, if not with my actual actions.

So that’s why we see prayers like this in the Scriptures, Psalm 139, which we’d do well to pray:

Search me, God, and know my heart . . .
See if there is any offensive way in me;
lead me in the everlasting way. (vv. 23–24)

David prays in Psalm 28, against becoming like the wicked. I think we can be so self-righteous. We can be so pharisaical. We can be so two-faced.

So we’re with God’s people, and we’re acting like we’re just the sweetest and most wonderful thing, but what kind of conversation takes place in the four walls of our home? Or in the workplace when we’re with the jesting and the evil talk of ungodly people? Are we one way one place and another way at church or with people who think, She’s just the sweetest wife!

Then they’re wondering why your kids can’t stand you, your husband can’t stand you. I’m going, “Is there some disconnect going on here?”

Now, you can walk with God outwardly and inwardly and still have people come against you. But it’s good to ask the question: “Is there some two-facedness in my heart?”

David says, “Don’t drag me away with the wicked. Don’t let me get caught in the traps they set.”

Jesus taught us to pray in what we call The Lord’s Prayer: “Do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” or from the evil one (Matt. 6:13). That’s a prayer you and I need to be praying.

“Lord, don’t drag me away with the wicked, with the evildoers. I don’t want to be like them. It’s not because I think I’m so great. It’s because I know I’m just like them if You don’t redeem me and rescue me and save me. Every day I need Your keeping grace. Don’t bring me into temptation. Deliver us from evil.”

And then in verse 4, David prays for evildoers to be held accountable for what they have done. And I’ll just tell you right up front, this is not an easy verse, but we’re going to jump into it. Verse 4:

Repay them according to what they have done—
according to the evil of their deeds.
Repay them according to the work of their hands;
give them back what they deserve.

First, let me just make this observation: in verse 2 David said, “I lift up my hands towards your holy place.” We saw that yesterday. In this verse, verse 4, the Scripture says, “The wicked use their hands to do evil works.” And then later in this passage, we’ll see that God does good works with His hands.

So we have the hands of the godly one who are lifting his hands up to the Lord in His holy sanctuary. Here we have the works of the hands of the evildoers. They do evil works.

So in this verse, David asks God to judge the wicked. We call these in Scripture—portions or whole psalms—imprecatory psalms, imprecatory passages. We’re praying down judgment. You see this in the psalms. It can be unsettling because it doesn’t seem like the way we’re supposed to pray for people. So, are we supposed to pray for retribution and disaster to fall on the wicked? And how do we reconcile these kinds of prayers with other biblical principles and examples?

For example, in Luke 9 there was a certain village that didn’t receive Jesus when He came with His disciples. And so James and John said, “Lord, do You want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” (v. 54).

Now remember, James and John were two of the closest disciples to Jesus. We’re not talking about the outliers here. This wasn’t Judas talking. This was James and John, the ones who were close to Jesus. “Lord, do You want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”

It kind of sounds like this prayer here in Psalm 28. But Jesus turned and rebuked them. He said, “You don’t know what spirit you’re talking of.”

We think about Romans chapter 12. It’s not in my notes, but I just thought of it as we were looking into this passage here. Romans chapter 12, the last paragraph, verse 19: 

Friends, don’t avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath because it is written, ‘Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay,’ says the Lord. 

But if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
If he’s thirsty, give him something to drink.
For in so doing,
you will be heaping fiery coals upon his head. 

Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good. (vv. 19–21)

So how are we to put these kinds of prayers and passages together?

Well, remember, first of all, David was not taking matters into his own hands. He was not vengeful. He was asking God to handle the wicked. This is a prayer. He’s not walking out there and lopping off the heads of these ungodly people.

And he realizes, in this prayer, that God is the only one who can right the wrongs of the universe. “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right.” So he turns his prayer toward God.

We learn in Scripture that God is a God of justice, and David wants God, as should we, to restrain evildoers and to overcome the evil in this world. So he prays, as should we, that evil will be stopped, and that those who do evil will not flourish.

And he prays that if they refuse to repent, they will be held accountable, and that they will reap the consequences for their sin because this actually glorifies God. As when those who refuse to believe turn and repent and believe the gospel, the judgment of God also brings glory to God. We don’t delight in that, but it shows God to be holy, holy, holy.

Pastor James Montgomery Boice, a wonderful pastor of the last generation from the Philadelphia area where I grew up, said in his commentary on the psalms. 

If we do not feel this way [longing and desiring for God to hold evildoers accountable, if we do not feel this way], it is probably an indication that we are not very sensitive to sinful acts and have little concern for those who are victimized by them. There are many who feel—I am one—that our criminal justice system is floundering because it has erred in exactly this way. It has placed concern for the criminal or wrongdoer ahead of compassion for his victim and thereby fails to provide justice for either one.

Now, Dr. Boice wrote that in 1994. How much more true is that today?

You see, Scripture affirms that our impulse for divine justice is a righteous impulse—assuming that that is the motivation for our imprecatory prayers. It is right to be outraged over sin, to long for God’s justice to be seen.

 

So in verse 4 David says in his prayer, “Repay them according to what they have done. Repay them according to the work of their hands.”

Now, I hope you have your Bible open in front of you because I want you to see something here. Just look at those two phrases: “According to what they have done. According to the work of their hands.”

When you’re studying the Bible, I’ll just tell you . . . I’ve never been to seminary. I don’t know Greek or Hebrew. I know how to use a few tools that are helpful. But one of the most helpful things is just to soak in the Scripture, to read it again and again and again. Look for repeated words or phrases and make observations.

Like in verse 4, it just said, “According to what they have done. According to the work of their hands.” Look in verse 5, it says, “They do not consider what the LORD has done or the work of his hands.”

There’s a contrast there. It’s a characteristic of Hebrew poetry. So he says, “The ungodly do not take into account what God has done or the work of his hands.”

What does that mean? They look at the beauty around them, and they don’t see a Creator. They just see some ethereal “Mother Nature.” They have food to eat, a house to live in, health, freedom, and they chalk it up to luck or fate or, “I worked hard, so I deserve it.” But they have no concept of God’s providence and God’s goodness being the reason for the good things that they enjoy.

They’re oblivious to God’s redeeming work, speaking of the work of His hands. They’re oblivious to God’s redeeming work to save them from sin. They’re indifferent to His presence all around them because they don’t have eyes to see. They don’t see. They don’t consider what the Lord has done or the work of His hands.

So, again, what about us? Do we consider the works of the Lord? As we’re just going through our busy, daily lives, full to the brim of all the things we’ve got going on and our task list, do we have eyes wide open to the mercies of God? (That’s the Phillip’s paraphrase for Romans, chapter 12:1. “Eyes wide open to the mercies of God.”)

Are we always seeing the hand of God? Are we seeing the work of God? You say, “But you can’t see it.” Oh, it’s everywhere. It’s everywhere.

Jesus said to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, “The wind blows. You don’t see the wind, but you see what it does. You see the rustling of the leaves.” (see v. 8)

We can see the hand of God if we’re looking for it, the works of God. Are we considering those works of the Lord? His providence? His goodness? His provision? His redemption?

His hand is always at work. Are we looking around? Are we seeing it? Are we noticing it? Are we responding with wonder and with worship?

Well, verse 5 says that, “Because they do not consider what the Lord has done or the work of His hands . . . (This is a characteristic of the ungodly. They’re not mindful of God at all.) Because of this, God will tear them down and not rebuild them.”

Now, it doesn’t happen immediately or everybody would just drop dead. But in time, those who do not consider the Lord, the works He has done and the work of His hands, He will tear them down and not rebuild them. Judgment is coming for those who ignore God.

David Guzik is a pastor who’s written some wonderful commentaries and preached some great messages that I often refer to when I’m studying certain parts of the Scripture. In his message on Psalm 28 he says, 

The wicked forget about God, but God does not forget about them. God promises to give those who reject Him what they deserve.

Here’s the thing: they go on building their own lives, building their own worlds, building their sandcastles on the shore, which the waters are going to wash up and that sand is going to wash away. They’re not going to succeed. Whatever they have worked to build apart from God will crumble. It will be gone. It will not last. They will not be able to rebuild it.

As we think about these two verses: “Repay them according to what they have done. Repay them according to the work of their hands.” I want to just make a comment about our New Testament, New Covenant, perspective as believers in Christ on the passage like this.

So David prays, “Repay them for what they have done.” But we get to the cross, and we hear Jesus praying, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they have done.”

And in essence, though it wasn’t these words on the cross, instead of saying, “God, repay them for what they have done.” He’s saying, “Father, pay Me for what they have done. Give Me the judgment that they deserve.”

Second Peter, chapter 3, says, “The Lord . . . is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance” (v. 9).

God will one day repay all of the wicked who spurned His mercy and who refused to repent. God’s giving them time. That’s why we keep proclaiming the gospel. That’s why we keep telling people about Jesus—even the ones we think are wholly unlikely to be interested.

Robert and I have some friends we’ve been praying for, we’ve been connecting with, trying to relate to. They don’t consider what the Lord has done or the work of His hands. They are blind to God’s providence, to God’s goodness, to God’s existence, to God’s redeeming work. But we keep praying, “Lord, open their eyes. Show them. Let them see You in us. Open their eyes. Remove the blinders.”

This is why we keep praying for them, why we keep reaching out to them, because we know that one day God will repay the wicked, all evildoers who spurn His mercy and refuse to repent. He will pour out vengeance on them. They will be held accountable for their wicked deeds.

You say, “But what if they don’t know? What if they don’t believe in God? What if they don’t know there is a God?”

Well, Paul tells us in Romans chapter 1, “His invisible attributes [God’s invisible attributes], that is His eternal power and His divine nature—have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse” (v. 20). 

They can see. They can look around. But the Holy Spirit has to open their hearts, has to open their eyes, has to help them see. You and I wouldn’t see. We wouldn’t consider what the Lord has done or the work of His hands if God hadn’t imparted faith to our hearts and given us the gift of repentance.

So that’s what we pray for those who are without Christ. We’re reminded, and what a sweet reminder this is: for those who do repent and receive His mercy, God does not repay us according to what we have done. He does not repay us according to what we deserve.

Why? Because the price has been paid. Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe. Praise God!

Dannah: That’s certainly sobering, but it’s also a comfort to realize that God will hold the wicked accountable for what they do. What a glorious reminder that for those who are in Christ, God has already poured out His wrath on Jesus. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth just said it: Jesus did pay it all.

Keeping the right perspective is something we want to help you do all year long, including this last week of 2022. As we’ve been reminding you throughout this month, our anchor holds.

Nancy: It sure does, and that anchor is the Word of God. It’s the truth of who Jesus is and what He’s accomplished for us. So no matter what storms may be raging around us, and as I mentioned today, there’s plenty of evil everywhere, our anchor holds.

By God’s grace, as we stay anchored to His Word, Revive Our Hearts is not going to drift or shipwreck. And if your life is anchored to Christ, by His grace, you are safe and secure.

Dannah: That’s so true. And Nancy, at the end of the year, it’s a key time for us as a ministry to truly step into the faith that our anchor does hold.

It’s also a time for us to invite listeners to step up and say, “I’m with you in your prayers. I’m with you in that faith. And I appreciate you as a ministry, the way you’re helping my anchor hold, and I’d like to come alongside you to help you keep going.”

Nancy: And, Dannah, that’s exactly what a lot of our listeners have already done during the month of December. They’ve contacted us to say just that. They’re supporting the ministry of Revive Our Hearts with their prayers and with their financial support.

If you’re one of those who has already given to Revive Our Hearts this month, can I just say, “Thank you so much.”

We need your prayers and your gifts far more than you realize. And, yes, your gift this month has been matched. It’s been doubled—not just financially, but doubled in the impact and the number of women we can reach with this message.

Now, maybe you’ve been thinking about giving, but you just haven’t gotten around to it yet. So, let me remind you that this is the last week that the matching challenge is available. We want to take advantage of the full $1.4 million dollars.

In order for us to do that, we need to hear from you by this Saturday, the 31st. After that, of course, you can always make a donation to Revive Our Hearts, but you’ll miss out on the opportunity to have your gift matched dollar for dollar, up to that total challenge amount.

Dannah: To give, visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959.

Now, if you prefer to mail your gift in, remember that it needs to be postmarked by this Saturday, the 31st.

Well, Nancy, so far in Psalm 28 we’ve seen David’s desperate cry for help, and we’ve discovered his long-term perspective on evil and wickedness. What’s up next?

Nancy: Well, tomorrow, Dannah, David’s lament turns to beautiful, overflowing praise. We’ll look at what it means that God is our strength and our shield. I hope you’ll be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth wants you to discover true freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the CSB.

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