A King's Confidence

[00:00:00] O rock of ages, we pray to you, and we ask that you would protect us, that you would keep us from the evil one who would seek to destroy us and to separate us from you. We ask that you would keep us from the flesh that still resides within us, desiring always to war against you and the spirit. Lord, we ask that you would keep us safe and that you would keep us close. [00:00:28] Let us learn how to flee to you, how to hide in you, how to rest in you, how to abide in you. And we ask that you would help us to do that today, as we hear your word read and preached. [00:00:41] Be with the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart. May it be pleasing to you and edifying to your flock. Lord, we ask for your blessing today. In Jesus name. Amen. [00:00:56] Well, let's turn to psalm 89. You may be seated. [00:01:04] This is a little bit longer of a psalm. I had initially planned to do this in two parts, but I've decided to cover the whole thing. This morning I'm going to be preaching a few psalms as I prepare to preach in one Samuel. [00:01:23] One of the great themes of one Samuel is, of course, the rise of the kingdom of David and the Lord's promise to him. And this psalm touches on that this morning from the perspective of a time after the kingdom and the king had fallen. And you'll see that as we hear this psalm. [00:01:45] So let's turn our attention to hear God's word, psalm 89. [00:01:52] And let us learn how to sing in times of sorrow. [00:01:59] Maskell of ethan the Ezrahite. [00:02:05] I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever with my mouth. I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. [00:02:15] For I said, steadfast love will be built up forever in the heavens. You will establish your faithfulness. [00:02:23] You have said. I have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn to David my servant. I will establish your offspring forever and build your throne for all generations. [00:02:36] Let the heavens praise your wonders, o Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, a God greatly to be feared in the counsel of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him. [00:02:57] O Lord of hosts, who is mighty as you are, o lord, with your faithfulness all around you, you rule the raging of the sea. When its waves rise, you still them. You crushed rahab like a carcass. You scattered your enemies with a mighty arm. With your mighty arm. [00:03:17] The heavens are yours. The earth also is yours, the world and all that is in it. You have founded them, the north and the south, you have created them. Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name. You have a mighty arm, strong is your hand, a high, your right hand. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. [00:03:45] Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face, who exalt in your name. All the day and in your righteousness are exalted, for you are the glory of their strength. By your favor our horn is exalted, for our shield belongs to the Lord our king, to the holy one of Israel of old. You spoke in a vision to your godly one and said, I have granted help to one who is mighty. I have exalted one, chosen from the people. I have found David, my servant, with my holy oil I have anointed him so that my hand shall be established with him. My arms also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not outwit him. The wicked shall not humble him. I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him. My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him. And in my name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. He shall cry to me, you are my father, my God and the rock of my salvation, and I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens. If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. But I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips once for all. I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever. A faithful witness in the skies. [00:06:07] But now you have cast off and rejected. [00:06:10] You are full of wrath against your anointed. You have renounced the covenant with your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust. [00:06:19] You have breached all his walls. You have laid his strongholds in ruins. All who pass by plunder him and he becomes the scorn of his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his foes. You have made all his enemies rejoice. You have also turned back the edge of his sword, and you have not made him stand in battle. [00:06:41] You have made his splendor to cease and cast his throne to the ground. You have cut short the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame. [00:06:53] How long, O Lord, will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? [00:07:00] Remember how short my time is. For what vanity you have created all the children of man. What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? [00:07:15] Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness, you swore to David? Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked, and how I bear in my heart the insult of all the many nations with which your enemies mock, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed. [00:07:36] Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen. And amen. [00:07:48] Well, this psalm takes us for a ride, doesn't it? [00:07:52] It starts in such a high place. I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever with my mouth. I will make known your faithfulness of all generations. There's exuberant joy here at the beginning, confidence, power, glory. [00:08:12] But as we get toward the end, we hear heartache and pain and confusion and frustration, longing, lamentation. [00:08:26] How to sing in times of sorrow something to think about with this psalm. [00:08:35] What I'd like to do this morning is walk through this psalm with you. We can't do it all, obviously, but to see and re experience in some ways the psalm, having just heard it, to come to a greater understanding of the psalm and what it means for us today and how it is we can sing in our own lives during times of sorrow. [00:09:01] So let's begin by reviewing what we've just heard. [00:09:06] The psalm begins with a personal promise, and it's the promise of Ethan, the author of this song. He says this, I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever with my mouth. I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. [00:09:25] Verse two. He speaks his own words and says, for I said steadfast love will be built up forever. [00:09:33] He is reminding himself of his own confession of faith. He's reminding of himself, of the things that he believes, the things that he knows. [00:09:43] And because of that, he's going to sing. [00:09:46] He's going to sing of God's steadfast love. He's going to sing not just now, but forever. [00:09:55] Verses one, two, we hear Ethan's zeal, his energy, his commitment, and then he tells us why, particularly in verses three through four, he's responding to something God has said. And this is a perfect pattern for our worship, something we try to do. A here at covenant, the Lord speaks, for example, he calls us to worship, and then we respond, right? The Lord speaks his law. We respond with confession of sin. The Lord speaks his gospel. We respond with praise and thanksgiving and our faith in him. [00:10:35] Ethan is doing something similar here. God has said something even a long time ago, before his time. In two Samuel seven, we read about the covenant that God makes with David, and Ethan summarizes it for us here. [00:10:52] You have said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn to my servant David, I will establish your offspring forever and build your throne for all generations. [00:11:05] So this is what's in his mind, the promise that God made to David, and, of course, his own relationship to that promise. As one who belongs to the people of Israel, he belongs to this kingdom of David, and he is suffering. But as he suffers along with others, he looks back and he remembers this thing that God has done. [00:11:31] A covenant is a solemn promise, and that's what God has made to David. He has sworn to build his throne, establish it forever. [00:11:43] All right, so let's turn to the next section. And the next section is verses five through 18. [00:11:50] And what Ethan then says here is he praises the mighty power and the excellencies of God. He's powerful over the heavens. First of all, let the heavens praise your wonders. Verse five, Ethan pictures the Lord and in his heavenly host and the heavenly places. And he recognizes that there the Lord reigns with all of these mighty creatures, creatures which are described in other parts of the Bible, creatures with wings and eyes and faces that bring terror to humans who see them, but even still are below in glory, below in authority, below in every way. Our God who rules over them, he our God. Verse seven is greatly to be feared in the counsel of the holy ones. Verse eight says, yahweh, o yahweh, God of hosts. Earlier, one of the lines that we sang, one of the phrases we sang was Lord Sabaoth. [00:13:01] That means lord of hosts. It doesn't refer to the Sabbath. Sabaoth is a transliterated word referring to, from Hebrew, referring to hosts. So whenever we talk about Lord Sabaoth, you ought to think of God among all of his mighty armies of angels. [00:13:23] It's a title, and it's an expression of his power, of his might. [00:13:29] And so this is how Ethan is thinking of the Lord. But he thinks of him not just in the heavenly places. He thinks about his rule on earth. He begins in verse nine with the sea you rule. The raging of the sea. [00:13:46] Rahab, mentioned in verse ten is possibly Egypt, possibly some sort of sea monster. [00:13:55] Sometimes Egypt in the Bible is referred to as kind of the monster of the Nile, which God crushes and destroys, kind of putting together Egypt's great power and these kinds of things. Either way, however it is meant here, the idea is that the Lord has power over great powers in this world. [00:14:17] He crushes Rahab like a carcass, scatters his enemies with a mighty arm. Summarizing in verse eleven, the heavens are yours. The earth also is yours. [00:14:32] So here we see God and his kingdom on full display. [00:14:39] This power and might of God extends out throughout the world. Verse twelve. The north and the south, you have created them to bore. And Hermun joyously praise your name. And then, as we come to the end of that section, ending in verse 18, Ethan begins then to connect the great power and awesomeness of God over the heavens, over the sea, over the nations, over the people, with the people themselves. [00:15:10] He has in mind the blessings that we have when we are under the authority, under the authority of this God. And not all are under his authority, but under his blessing, as those who are his citizens, his subjects, and willingly so, not just those who are his enemies. [00:15:33] So he says in verse 15, blessed are the people who know the festal shout who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face. [00:15:42] That's such a great phrase there at the end of verse 15. I'd encourage you to maybe memorize that one and make it a prayer for yourself this week. Oh Lord, help me to walk in the light of your face. Make me blessed. [00:16:01] This is, he completes and he talks about how God is the glory of their strength. By your favor our horn. Those who are in him are exalted. So Ethan's on a roll, right? He is praising God, the excellency of those of the Lord. And the excellencies that belong to those who know the Lord are just rolling off his tongue faster and faster, building up, uncovering all of these different domains in which God rules and the effects that that has. [00:16:39] When we get to the end of verse 18, for those of us who know and love the Lord, it's hard not to be excited about him, to be zealous and thankful for him and who he is, to praise him for his awesome power. [00:16:59] The next section is in verses 19 through 37. [00:17:04] And what we have now is our God, who is maker of heaven and earth, of things visible and invisible. As we confessed before, the work of the Lord gets focused down into this relationship with this one person, not Ethan, but David. [00:17:25] He comes back to this theme of the covenant that God made with David, and he recounts it of old. You spoke in a vision to your godly one and said, I have granted help to one who is mighty. I have exalted one chosen from the people. And then he tells us exactly who that is. I have found David, my servant, with my holy oil. I have anointed him. [00:17:51] And this happened. The anointing of David happened in a number of ways, which we'll read about as we come through. First, Samuel. [00:18:00] But Samuel the prophet goes and pours oil on David. He anoints him as a king. He is christened is a word that we can use because he is anointed. The word Christ is similar to the word messiah, both of them meaning anointed. [00:18:23] David is marked as a Messiah here, one who is anointed by Goddesse to be the son of God, the savior of God. Not that God needs salvation, but the one through whom God works his salvation in the world. [00:18:40] And so, as we read what God promises to do for David, we find interesting parallels between David and the Lord. [00:18:50] So, for example, verse 25, I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. [00:18:58] The same power that God exercises in the world will be exercised by his servant, his holy one, this one who commands nature, this one who rules the firstborn. He is called a title of excellence, which is in verse 27, parallel with the next, the highest of the kings of the earth, all kinds of promises. We won't go through them all here, but we have his God's steadfast love, keeping him, establishing his offspring forever, keeping, protecting David, crushing his enemies on and on and on. [00:19:44] There's a careful, there's a careful note that Ethan makeshi from the word of the Lord, recounting this in verse 30, having just said he will establish his offspring forever, he then does say, if his children, David's children, forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, skipping to verse 32, then I will punish their transgression. [00:20:14] Then verse 33. But I will not remove from him my steadfast love. [00:20:21] So if the children of David disobey, there will be punishments, but it will not utterly undo the things that God has promised to David. [00:20:32] Couldn't be clear about this. And if you can get clear on this point. You will be able to understand so much more of the Old Testament, so really important. If you can understand this, you will understand a lot of the Old Testament and the new as well. [00:20:52] God says in verse 34, I will not violate my covenant. [00:20:57] I will not lie to David. [00:21:02] And so then that brings us to verse 38. [00:21:06] Having talked about and clarified and impressed the glories of the Lord and his promise to David, one found one, this servant. We come to this kind of screeching halt. [00:21:21] If you hadn't read the psalm before, you might find verse 38 very, very shocking. Surprising because it says, but now you have cast off and rejected. You are full of wrath against your anointed. [00:21:40] You have renounced the covenant with your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust. [00:21:47] This is surprising, right? The feel of the psalm is energetic. It's happy, it seems to be as we start anyway. It has this kind of exuberant joy about all the Lord has done. But now Ethan comes to the point of his situation that he's in, and he has a heavy heart. [00:22:09] He is full of sorrow because he's looking at his situation and he is seeing that the kingdom of David is not strong and God's wrath is upon his people. [00:22:24] All who pass by plunder him. [00:22:27] He has become a scorn of his neighbors. These phrases are similar to phrases that we have in the prophets, phrases that speak of the things that would happen and did happen when Jerusalem was finally destroyed. That's one good reason to think that this psalm was likely written during the period of the exile, during a period of time when barely anyone was in Jerusalem and everyone had been scattered to the nations. When David and his people and his kingdom was not this powerful, strong thing that we just read about, but instead seems to be dead and dying. [00:23:11] You have made his splendor decease. Verse 44, you have cast his throne to the ground. You have cut short the days of his youth. You have covered him in shame. [00:23:25] This recounting of the moment, of the history or the moment that he finds himself in, then turns into serious lamenting. In verse 46, it becomes very personal and you hear it in his words. [00:23:44] How long, o Lord? [00:23:48] That's a good prayer, too. [00:23:50] How long, o lord? [00:23:53] Will you hide yourself forever? [00:23:56] How long will your wrath burn like fire? [00:24:02] In verses 46 through 51, Ethan cries out. He asks these questions like verse 48, what man can live and never see death? [00:24:14] Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? [00:24:19] Ethan's looking at his situation. He's looking at the situation of Jerusalem, of David, of Zion. He's seeing it all fall apart, and he's saying, this is the end. [00:24:30] Where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness, you swore to David? [00:24:39] Ethan's squinting. You might say he's squinting back into history and saying, I'm having a hard time seeing it. I hear it. I hear what you're saying. I hear your promises. I hear what you have said. [00:24:54] But I look around now and it just doesn't feel like it matches. [00:25:00] Where's the steadfast love that you promised of old? [00:25:04] And he calls on the Lord to remember. [00:25:09] Remember verse 50 says, o Lord, how your servants are mocked, how I bear in my heart the insults of many nations, in John's and in John's revelation, in what we call revelation. And we read about on the souls of those who have been persecuted, those who have lost their lives, crying out to the Lord from the throne of God, saying, o Lord, when will you be? When will you avenge? When will you set things right? [00:25:41] It's a cry that we still, in some ways face today during this period of time in which the kingdom of God does not look quite like it is described here, in which people all over the world who name the name of the Lord find themselves persecuted and struggling with their churches burned shut out of their buildings, on people who lose their lives, who have to go into hiding, people who talk to each other in coded words and make sure they stay off the Internet. [00:26:17] The enemies mock the people of the Lord. [00:26:21] They mock the footsteps not only of his anointed people, but the one in whom they are anointed, the Lord's chosen servant. [00:26:36] This lament in verses 46 through 51, a lament that we recognize and even feel personally at times, ends again, in some ways, with a shock. In verse 52, blessed be the Lord forever, amen and amen. [00:26:56] Right? At least me. It doesn't feel like that's where this psalm is headed, but that's where Ethan lands. In one last quick turn at the end, Ethan declares, blessed be the Lord forever, amen and amen. [00:27:14] What do we make of this? [00:27:16] Well, in order to make sense of this, it is important that we understand something about the history of the Bible and what God is doing at this point in history. [00:27:27] The first thing to understand is that before David was ever born, God was already at work. [00:27:33] God was already at work redeeming mankind from his own self harm, from his sin, from his misery. [00:27:42] God had made Adam a king to rule and expand, to be fruitful and multiply, a task that Adam failed at giving over to the words of the evil one the temptations of his own heart. He and his wife Eve, fell into sin, broke the covenant with God, and brought sin and misery into this world. [00:28:09] But God, in his graciousness, did not utterly destroy us. Instead, he raised up a line of people from Adam that he would establish a line from whom eventually, Abraham came. [00:28:26] Abraham. This one that God chose out of idolatry, chose out of the world and said, I will bless you, Abraham, in words very similar to David. I will bless you, Abraham. I will establish you forever in the land of God's choosing through your offspring. [00:28:46] Abraham was waiting for a son, much like David was waiting for a son. [00:28:52] That promise that God would bring that blessing did not happen all at once, did it? For those of you who know this story, you know that Moses and Joshua and many others, it took time for God to use other people to bring them into that land, to settle them there. [00:29:14] And Israel continued to struggle all that way to be led by God. [00:29:19] Over and over, Israel fought back against the Lord. Over and over, Israel sinned against the Lord. She did exactly what these sons of David did. They violated his law. They forsook God's law. They did not walk according to his rules. [00:29:38] And over and over again, she would fall into the hands of God's enemies and their enemies. And they would cry out to the Lord. Eventually, he would work in their hearts. They would cry out, and he'd say, save us, Lord. He'd raise up a leader. We're in judges now. He'd raise up a leader who would rescue them out of that. But every time this happened, things got worse and worse. Worse. [00:30:04] And there became this sense that Israel needed a permanent king, one who could rule them and defend them. A man after God's own heart. Not a man like Samson, for example, who is wishy washy and change in his mind and fickle and disobedient and strong at sometimes, but not at others. And no, they needed someone stable, someone strong, someone permanent to rule over them. [00:30:33] One after God's own heart, who would do God's work, protecting, establishing, strengthening, building, creating, ruling in righteousness over God's people. [00:30:47] One who was not merely a prophet, like Moses, leading them on the way to the promised land, but one who was a king, who would rule over them in the promised land, settling things. [00:31:00] And then God chooses David. [00:31:04] And in many ways, David is the fulfillment of these promises. [00:31:08] David is the resolution of the promises that were made to Abraham. But what we quickly learn is that it's only a partial resolution. [00:31:20] It's a partial resolution. [00:31:22] We see the beginning of this as the people are settled, as the nation expands. And then David says, lord, I want to build you a house. Things are going so well. [00:31:37] The enemies have been routed. The people are settled. There's money available. There's wise counselors. The list goes on and on. David himself is living in a beautiful palace. [00:31:49] And he says to the Lord, I want to build you a house. [00:31:53] And then the Lord says to David, not going to happen, but I will build you a house. And not a palace to live in, but a people, a family, a kingdom. That would be, as we've read over and over, established forever through your son David. Now we see it's an extension of that promise to Abraham. Through your son, I will establish your throne. [00:32:23] Perhaps Solomon. [00:32:26] Solomon is born, the son of David. And very quickly, the temple is built, more wealth, more powers. The gentiles are coming in to Israel like the queen of Sheba. But as soon as he seems to have barely begun, Solomon falls, and he falls hard. He falls into lust. He falls into power. He falls into idolatry. [00:32:51] And this kingdom of righteousness that was promised to David just begins to unravel. [00:33:00] And over the course of history, we see exactly what the Lord promised here in these verses, 33 through 37. And that happens. The children of David do not obey. They do not follow. They forsake the law, and they follow after the whims and the desires of the nations. Almost as quickly as it was established, almost as quickly as the blessings promised to Abraham seem to have been established, they fall apart. And Ethan, our psalmist, writes, at one of these low points, he looks around and it all seems bad from top to bottom. God has rejected Davids sins. Has God rejected David himself? [00:33:51] What can even be done? [00:33:54] Verse 48 again, what man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power sheol? [00:34:03] The answer, of course, is nothing. Nothing can be done. Nothing can be done by man. It would only. The only thing that could possibly ever happen is that God, somehow, by the great power and might which was expressed at this beginning of this psalm, that God could save Israel somehow from herself and from the world. [00:34:27] And because of that knowledge, Ethan decides to land where he lands and start where he starts. [00:34:36] Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen and amen. [00:34:43] We know what Ethan didn't know yet. [00:34:47] We know that God brought into this world a savior who was a son of David, fully man, one to rule and reign over his people. But there's a twist. [00:35:04] He is also fully God, our savior, Jesus, the son of God, when he came into the world, he came in to the world and he came to establish this kingdom that had been promised a long time and that Ethan sees unraveling. And, and he came to establish it forever. [00:35:28] But there's something that we recognize as future ethans. [00:35:35] We recognize that when Jesus came, the son of God, the son of man, the son of David, the son of Abraham, he didn't come in the glory that David did. [00:35:48] He didn't come with armies. [00:35:52] He came with humility and suffering. [00:35:56] The angels that he rules over, right, the Lord Sabaoth, his mighty hosts, they announce his birth right. The shepherds in the field, hearing and seeing the angels in the sky, or angel speaking to Maryland, telling them about the coming king, the fulfillment of these promises. [00:36:20] They announce him, but they don't protect him when he has to be whisked away from Egypt or to Egypt. As Herod tries to murder the Lord and his peers. [00:36:36] The angels don't protect him. When he is sent by the spirit of God into the wilderness for 40 days, where he is without a food and comes under the temptation of Satan. [00:36:55] The angels, they'll minister to him at the end of that time. [00:37:00] And the angels continue to do his work. [00:37:03] They are not being disobedient. But the Lord has chosen not to come in glory. [00:37:11] It's not that he has an angel problem now. [00:37:15] They continue to do his work. They continue to do his will. And what is his will? What is his work? It is to come into this world and to save us finally from ourselves. [00:37:31] And he did that not by coming in glory, but by coming in humility, by coming and suffering to lead, to enter into our deaths, to enter into our misery that enter into the curse of this world and die. [00:37:51] And he died so that he might defeat death once and for all. [00:37:58] Jesus did that. He could do that because he was Goddesse. He became a sacrifice for our sin. He took the wrath that we deserve. He turned aside the wrath of God. [00:38:13] How long, O Lord? Ethan says in verse 46, will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? [00:38:22] God turns away his wrath from us through the sacrifice of Christ, a sacrifice that perhaps unsurprisingly, after you've heard me talk about, this is a perfect sacrifice. [00:38:37] God didn't accidentally die and do a bad job at turning away his wrath. [00:38:45] God didn't. [00:38:48] He wasn't ineffective at creating the conditions necessary to save us. [00:38:55] He did all his holy will like he always does. He can rule over the sea, over the dry land, over the monsters of the oceans, over the monsters nations of this world, over the host of heaven, over Satan himself. He can defeat death, and he did. [00:39:15] And so, by the power of God, Jesus rose from the dead, having defeated death and Satan himself. [00:39:24] Joy to the world. [00:39:27] The Lord has come right now. Ethan didn't know it fully yet, but he knew. He knew that it would end like this. [00:39:37] And that's why he says what he says. [00:39:40] Blessed be the Lord forever. [00:39:44] Amen. And amen. [00:39:47] So how do you sing in times of sorrow? [00:39:52] When it seems like this world is all cross and no glory? [00:39:58] When it seems like the only way that we know our savior is by taking up our own cross and following him, which is how we know him. [00:40:10] How do we sing when we struggle against sin, when we face difficulties in our communities, in our church life? [00:40:23] How do we sing in times of sorrow? Number one, we be honest about how we're feeling as God models it for us here. We talk to him. We speak to him. We tell him what's on our hearts. It's a crazy thing that the one who controls all things and can save all things and loves us and tells us to talk to him. We don't. Why do we not pray? [00:40:54] We should pray. He's the best listener there is. [00:40:58] If you're looking for someone to be a really good listener, there's no one better than the Lord. [00:41:05] You can tell him your pain. You can tell him your confusion. You can tell him that you're frustrated with him. [00:41:12] This is what Ethan does, and he does it in a holy way. [00:41:18] What makes Ethan's actions holy, at least in part. What makes the lamentations he gives righteous is honesty. But it's also something else. And that's number two. [00:41:32] Number one is we are honest about how we feel. Number two is that we begin and end with a commitment to believe and do the right thing no matter what. [00:41:44] Ethan didn't write his song and then get surprised in the middle. Oh, wait, things are really bad. [00:41:51] He knew what was going on, what he was experiencing from the very beginning of this psalm. [00:41:59] He would be honest about his pain. He would be honest about his sadness, about the questions in his heart. But he would not let those feelings determine his doctrine or his deeds. [00:42:15] Perhaps his beginning is joyful. [00:42:19] Perhaps it's defiant. There might be another way to hear this psalm. I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever. With my mouth I will make known the faithfulness to all generations. [00:42:33] Defiance not against the Lord, but against his own doubts. [00:42:38] Defiance not against the Lord. But against his own questions, Ethan is committed. [00:42:47] He knows the truth. How does he know the truth? Because the Lord has spoken it. [00:42:54] When you don't know what's going on or why it's going on, you've got to cling to the one who does, the one who creates and destroys, the one who gives life and the one who takes it away. [00:43:08] Blessed be his name forever. [00:43:11] And when you look to Christ, the anointed one, when you look to the messiah, when you look to the Son of God, you look to God. When we put our faith and dependence on Jesus, in whose name we pray, we put our faith in God because the scriptures say in him, the fullness of deity dwells bodily, that all that the father has has been given to the son. As colossians says, similar to psalm 89, Jesus is the firstborn of all creation. This title of excellence, not of a title of excellence in which he is the highest of all kings of the earth. Jesus is the son of David that we have all been waiting for. [00:43:59] Through him, God created the world, rules the angels. [00:44:04] Through him, God saved the world and will bring David and his kingdom to a greater and more permanent degree of glory than the world has ever seen. [00:44:15] That's what we're committed to even when we're sorrowing. [00:44:22] We are committed to believe and to do the right thing, no matter how we're feeling. That's number two. [00:44:29] Number three is have so much confidence and zeal for the praise of God in the midst of suffering, that you draw others in, that you call them out of their own sorrow and misery, that you give to them the comfort with which you himself have been comforted by God. [00:44:50] It turns out, as the scriptures testify, all over the place, that God uses what is weak and suffering and frail in this world to do his mighty work. [00:45:04] Let the world know that despite your suffering, which is real, despite the sorrow that truly breaks your heart, you trust in your savior, who will come again and manifest forever what Abraham hoped for, what David promised to, what Solomon lost, and Christ established. [00:45:28] Look to him. [00:45:31] Say things like verse five. Let the heavens praise your wonders, o Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones, say to the nation, say to the world, say to your friends, praise the Lord. Come join me in praising the Lord. I can't. My life is messed up. That's what I'm talking about. Come, let's praise the Lord. He has made a promise to David. He has established his throne forever, and Christ has come. [00:46:01] What could man possibly undo? What could man possibly do to undo the throne of Christ, who sits right now in the heavenly places forever interceding for us on the basis of his perfect sacrifice. [00:46:20] He has established himself as the God man, king over mankind forever. [00:46:28] His throne will not perish. [00:46:31] There's no more partial fulfillments with Christ. He is the fulfillment and the work of finalness. The work of eternity has begun. [00:46:45] We know that in all kinds of ways, one is through the resurrection. Jesus rose from the dead, never to die again in his humanity. He will not, cannot ever die. And the same is true for all who are in him. [00:47:02] And the second thing, and I'll end very soon, the second thing that he that we know is that the Gentiles are being brought in in a huge way. [00:47:16] I mean, this room is proof of that, in ways in which it was drips and drops before a queen here, the queen of Sheba, the king of Tyre, Ruth, you know these little examples. Now you have people all over the world confessing the name of the son of David, aligning themselves with the king and his kingdom, even under persecution, even under loss, letting go the families and wealth and all the things of this world, taking up their cross and following Jesus because of who he is. These are the promises of the prophets, things we thought about last time with Obadiah. These are the things that the world was looking forward to, the things that are happening and will be brought to their final completion when the Lord returns. [00:48:13] So whatever your sorrows are today, I ask that you would join me and your brothers and sisters in Christ here and around the world in song. [00:48:26] Sing of the Lord and his goodness. Sing of his covenant to David. Sing of his covenant to Abraham. Sing of his steadfast love that it may be, and it most certainly will be, established forever through the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:48:44] Let's pray. [00:48:46] Our heavenly Father, we ask that you would bless us through the Son of God, the son of David, that we might belong to you forever as Abraham's offspring, that through faith in the work that you have done and in the fulfillment of these promises, you would graft and Gentiles like us into this great and holy kingdom. [00:49:13] We ask, o Lord, that you would continue to do your work of salvation throughout the world. We pray not only for Gentiles, but also for the Jews. Lord, let them be a light to the world, a testifying to the glories of Christ, a testifying to the good things that you have done in him, the promises that you have fulfilled, that together we might rejoice that together as one body, with neither jew nor gentile, male or female, slave nor free, or any of the other distinctions that we make in this world separating us, but instead bound together into one holy temple in which you will live forever and ever. [00:49:57] Lord, our sorrows are real. Our confusion is great. Our frustration often gets the better of us. [00:50:05] Teach us to pray. [00:50:07] Teach us to pray and to trust you. Teach us to speak to you the matters of our hearts, and to walk before you in the light of your face, in your righteousness, in the righteousness of Christ, granted to us through faith. We are exalted in the glory and strength of Christ. [00:50:30] We have glory and strengthen. Help us to fight in the strength of his might, putting on the armor of God every day, in good times and bad. [00:50:41] It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen.