Have You Been Betrayed? (Psalm 41:9-13)

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Have You Been Betrayed? (Psalm 41:9-13)

GIST: You can face betrayal with hope because Jesus faced betrayal for you.

Today, we’re going to walk through the rest of Psalm 41 which will mark our final Sunday in our fourth Summer in Psalms. This psalm has led us through some tough conversations so far. First, we talked about loving even those who are difficult for us to love. Last week, we talked about why we shouldn’t be gossips, what our tendency toward gossip reveals about our hearts, and how to face being the recipients of gossip with hope. 

When we had that conversation last week, I tried to be very honest and call us all out for being gossips (Yes, I know I just said gossip like 5,000 times ☺️) . I really felt like it was a conversation we needed to have because it’s an issue that hits us all.  Today, we’re looking at the other conflict David was facing in this psalm: betrayal. At first, I didn’t think this was as broadly applicable. When I first thought of betrayal, I thought of the “big” examples: someone pulling a Benedict Arnold, or a spouse cheating on their husband, or a friend doing something to get you fired so they can take your place. Framed like that, betrayal wouldn’t seem as relevant a conversation as gossip. But then I started thinking about betrayal in a broader sense. If we look at it in terms of being abandoned and mistreated by someone you love or at least trust, then all the sudden it starts touching a lot closer to home. 

There are actually several observations I want us to take from these verses this morning. Initially, I had them broadly divided into points. However, I realized it might actually work better for our discussion to just walk through the text verse by verse together, then we’ll camp out in our takeaways for a bit longer as a kind of two for one package at the end :). To get us started though, here’s our big picture gist: You can face betrayal with hope because Jesus faced betrayal for you.

Let’s break this down.

“9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.”

So, here’s the situation. David has not only been the victim of gossip, but someone close has betrayed him and is actively opposing him. We could try to speculate about what part of David’s life this correlates to, but the text doesn’t give it away. However, we know from Scripture this happened to David several times. If you’ve experienced something similar, you know it hurts. This is a deeply personal wound.  

“10 But you, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them!”

Ok. We need to camp out with this verse for a bit because it should raise some questions. Did David just pray to get payback? Guys, I need to be very honest with you. I have read several commentaries on this passage which have softened this request in a number of ways. Some have focused on David’s role as king which would require him to exact public justice for wrongs committed against the throne. Others have assumed the payback he was seeking was essentially a kind of grace. Both of these could be true, and I would really like to believe, given the context of the rest of the verses, that David was ultimately moved to a gracious response to this betrayal. Nonetheless, taken at face value, the most obvious interpretation of the text seems to imply David is seeking vengeance. What do we do with that? There are three points I want us to unpack with this verse.  

1. Not all inspired Scripture is meant to be emulated. Not everything in the Bible is a positive example for us to follow. If you’ve been with us much in our four summer study of psalms, you’ll remember the book is full of incredibly raw emotions. In one of the very first sermons I preached in this series, I tried to point out that this points to God wanting us to come to Him honestly. Misguided though our emotions may be, we need to be able to lay them at His feet. What’s awesome is that when we do that, He has a way of teaching our hearts and redirecting them. This psalm is a perfect example because we’ll see in just a moment that regardless of where David started when he wrote this, he ends up in a very good place. Therefore, we don’t have to do mental gymnastics to try and understand his motivations. We can learn from his honesty and God’s response to it.

2. It’s ok to struggle with God’s Word. Melissa and I were actually talking about this yesterday. I want my kids to be comfortable coming to me with their doubts. I want them to know it’s ok not to have everything all figured out. I want them to know there are parts of the Bible I don’t fully understand. I want them to know if they are wrestling with a truth the Bible clearly teaches, I want to walk with them through that— not yell them back to the “straight and narrow”. Why do I bring that up here? What does it have to do with… well anything we’re addressing this morning? Maybe it doesn’t ☺️, but coming to a passage like this where I have to step aside and say, “yeah, I’m not 100% sure on this one” reminded me of these truths because how in the world will my kids ever feel comfortable coming to me with their struggles if they don’t think I ever have any? And that goes for us as a church too. We shouldn’t have to put up a false front for each other or anyone else. I know I called you all gossips last week ☺️, but I guess I’m on a roll of some kind because I’m going to call you out again this week→ you don’t have it all together. You don’t fully understand God’s Word. There are parts of the Bible that make you uncomfortable, so you avoid them. Or, there are entire portions of the Bible you’re completely ignorant of because you’ve never actually read them. I know you can’t read tone, so if you’ve just stumbled onto this post, please know I’m expressing this in love knowing I’m part of the problem here. Let’s be willing to drop the walls, so we can grow together. — End of tangent ☺️. 

3. We can’t know David’s heart, but we can learn from what he did. We can’t know his heart here, but regardless of his motivations we can see this important truth that is consistent with the teaching of all Scripture. Before he was able to repay, graciously or otherwise, he needed to experience God’s grace. Notice that he doesn’t just go out and try and get “his due”. He might have wanted it ☺️, but he came to God seeking His grace first. Oh, how we can learn from that!

“11 By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.”

This is an ultimate truth. You will not be defeated by this world because Jesus overcame for you John 16:33, “33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

“12 But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.”

“In my integrity” might be a better translation than “because of my integrity”, and many translations use that phrasing. Either way, his integrity is the result of His being upheld by God. Remember, the psalm started by talking about the kind of heart that has been transformed by grace. David has experienced this and knows it is the work of God in his life. 

The result is that he has been set in God’s presence forever. We’re almost to the last verse of the psalm and already we see a massive shift in his focus. People hate me. They want me to die. Those I trust have turned against me. Be gracious and let me repay them. I’ll never be defeated because You’re my God...and You love me, and I’m looking forward to eternity with you and… look at how he wraps up→ 

“13 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.”

I know it’s been about a month since we began studying this psalm together, but you might remember this is the last psalm in “Book 1” of the psalter. During my study of this psalm, it was pointed out to me that each book ends with a statement very similar to this one. But don’t just take my word for it. Check out the other four→ 

Psalm 72:18-19 “18 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. 19 Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!...”

Psalm 89:52 “52 Blessed be the LORD forever! Amen and Amen.”

Psalm 106:48 “48 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, "Amen!" Praise the LORD!”

Psalm 150:6 “6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!”

I find it hard to believe that’s random. The book of psalms is jam-packed with raw emotions. Reading it takes us on an immersive roller coaster ride through the human heart. Yet, all throughout we’re being reminded what our hearts need never forget: God is awesome, and our lives should be spent rejoicing in His grace and proclaiming Him to the world.

Was David mad when he wrote this psalm? Probably. At least, he was when he started it. However, when he ends here he’s not focusing on himself or his circumstances at all. It’s like he prayed to be reminded of God’s grace, the floodgates were opened, and he was overcome by the majesty of God. All of the sudden, the other stuff didn’t matter as much.

Ok, let me try to tie all this together with some→

 

TAKEAWAYS

1. Don’t hide from the struggle. Life. Scripture. It’s not going to always make sense. It’s ok to admit that. In fact, it’s healthy to admit that— especially to each other. I want you and my kids (and honestly, I want this even more for my kids than I do for you ☺️) to see that I don’t have it all figured out. I want us to be a family that wrestles together and comes out stronger because we didn’t feel like we needed to hide from the hard stuff.  

2. Face betrayal by remembering the one who faced betrayal for you. This was essentially my gist statement today, and we really haven’t addressed it yet. This would be a good time for that ☺️. The verse we opened with today (verse 9) might have sounded familiar for many of us. “9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” That’s probably because Jesus quoted it during the Last Supper in reference to Judas. That night, he was betrayed by someone He had poured three years of His life into. He was abandoned by all of his closest friends. He was led away, brought before a kangaroo court, beaten, and ultimately crucified for crimes He had never committed. Any betrayal we face pales in comparison. Beyond that however, is the reason He did this. He did this as the ultimate act of faithfulness to us, who by nature are sinners who hate God and fall from His grace. Hm, does this sound a little like the conclusion we drew last week? It should because this is the kind of thinking that permeates our lives when the gospel takes over! We can face betrayal knowing we’re messed up people living in a messed up world→ who are loved deeply!