A Lament for the Godly (Psalm 44)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:06.639 Let's give our attention now to a psalm. I'm taking a break for about 2 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:11.189 a month, I suppose, from first chronicles. Will hear Psalm forty four 3 00:00:12.070 --> 00:00:24.620 tonight. As we hear it, let us here with humble ears and ears 4 00:00:24.620 --> 00:00:32.219 of faith, Psalm forty four, a Maskul of the sons of Cora. 5 00:00:34.020 --> 00:00:38.170 Oh God, we have heard with our ears. Our fathers have told us 6 00:00:39.090 --> 00:00:43.689 what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old, you, 7 00:00:44.170 --> 00:00:48.130 with your own hand, drove out the nations, but them you planted, 8 00:00:48.850 --> 00:00:53.479 you afflicted the people's but them you set free. For Not by their 9 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:57.359 own sword did they win the land, nor by did their own nor did 10 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:02.679 their own arms save them, but your right hand and your arm and the 11 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:07.430 light of your face, for you delighted in them. You are my King 12 00:01:07.629 --> 00:01:15.069 O. God ordained salvation for Jacob. Through you we push down our foes. 13 00:01:15.310 --> 00:01:19.340 Through your name we tread thou down those who rise up against us, 14 00:01:21.340 --> 00:01:25.579 for not in my own bow do I trust, nor can my sword save 15 00:01:25.700 --> 00:01:30.099 me, but you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame 16 00:01:30.180 --> 00:01:34.930 those who hate us. In God, we have boasted continually and we give 17 00:01:34.010 --> 00:01:44.450 thanks to your name forever but you have rejected US and disgraced us and have 18 00:01:44.609 --> 00:01:48.680 not gone out with our armies, and you have made us turned back from 19 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:53.959 the foe, and those who hate us have gotten spoil. You have made 20 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:59.200 us like sheep for the slaughter and have scattered US among the nations. You 21 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:02.790 have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them. 22 00:02:04.670 --> 00:02:08.990 You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of 23 00:02:09.069 --> 00:02:14.509 those around us. You have made us a by word among the nations, 24 00:02:14.909 --> 00:02:20.419 a laughing stock among the people's all day long, my disgrace is before me 25 00:02:20.659 --> 00:02:25.219 and shame has covered my face at the sound of the Taunter and reviler, 26 00:02:25.460 --> 00:02:30.849 at the sight of the enemy and the Avenger. All this has come upon 27 00:02:30.969 --> 00:02:36.129 us, though we have not forgotten you and we have not been false to 28 00:02:36.169 --> 00:02:40.050 your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed 29 00:02:40.129 --> 00:02:45.520 from your way. Yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and 30 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:50.719 covered us with the shadow of death. If we had forgotten the name of 31 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:54.439 our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God 32 00:02:54.639 --> 00:03:00.389 discover this, for he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet, for 33 00:03:00.550 --> 00:03:06.550 your Sake, we are being we are killed all the day long. We 34 00:03:06.669 --> 00:03:13.219 are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Awake, why are you sleeping? 35 00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:17.580 A Lord, Rouse Yourself. Do not reject US forever. Why do you 36 00:03:17.659 --> 00:03:23.340 hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and depression? For our 37 00:03:23.460 --> 00:03:30.330 soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly clings to the ground. 38 00:03:30.370 --> 00:03:36.889 Rise up, come to our help, redeem us for the stake of your 39 00:03:36.969 --> 00:03:44.919 steadfast love. May God bless his word to us. Please be seated. 40 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:57.590 Despite the perpetual news cycle we're always in, can't seem to be freed of 41 00:03:58.349 --> 00:04:02.509 Americans are nevertheless optimists. We just can't let that go. I don't think 42 00:04:02.550 --> 00:04:06.150 we. We just always seem to find a way to or at least we 43 00:04:06.349 --> 00:04:14.139 feel the weight of optimism. There is a pressure we have to be optimists, 44 00:04:14.259 --> 00:04:16.259 so sort of always be on the up and up, even when things 45 00:04:16.939 --> 00:04:26.410 look very bleak, and sometimes, I'm afraid, that kind of American optimism, 46 00:04:26.569 --> 00:04:30.329 if I can put it that way, gets transferred over to our our 47 00:04:30.490 --> 00:04:35.009 faith. There is, of course, a great optimism that we have in 48 00:04:35.209 --> 00:04:42.160 God, a hope that is unfading, ever secure. We have a God 49 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:46.560 who promises things and never lies. Who never changes, whose will is perfect. 50 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:54.149 If anyone has reasons for hope, it's Christians. It's those who've found 51 00:04:54.269 --> 00:04:59.110 their lives, or find their lives in Jesus Christ and his work on the 52 00:04:59.189 --> 00:05:06.220 cross. But at the same time, Christians are also realists. We don't 53 00:05:06.699 --> 00:05:13.139 pretend things are ways in which they're not. We see the world as it 54 00:05:13.220 --> 00:05:18.060 is. Martin Luther says, the mark of a truth theologian is someone who 55 00:05:18.540 --> 00:05:24.689 calls a thing what it is, who calls good good and evil evil. 56 00:05:25.569 --> 00:05:30.290 Sometimes this is a bit backwards from the way it might seem, for we 57 00:05:30.490 --> 00:05:38.759 call the cross good and we call riches evil and net nevertheless, there is 58 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:45.279 this distinction that Christians are called to make a really a realism, a realism 59 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:49.949 that's based on what we see in front of us and what God has promised 60 00:05:49.990 --> 00:05:56.709 to us. And what that means is that in our Christian lives we will 61 00:05:56.790 --> 00:06:04.339 sometimes find ourselves, like the Psalmist, here singing a song of lament. 62 00:06:04.379 --> 00:06:13.459 A lament. Maybe you've not heard that word before if you're little. A 63 00:06:13.500 --> 00:06:19.009 lament is a cry to God in a moment of crisis. Kids, you 64 00:06:19.209 --> 00:06:26.810 have lamented before when, let's say you're really, really hungry and dinner is 65 00:06:26.850 --> 00:06:30.970 about an hour late and you really want to eat and you say, mom, 66 00:06:31.009 --> 00:06:36.720 I'm hungry, please feed me, I'm so hungry. That's a lament. 67 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:42.560 It's a pleading, as saying I need, I need this thing, 68 00:06:42.759 --> 00:06:46.079 I want this thing, I'm having a bad time, a hard time, 69 00:06:46.670 --> 00:06:51.470 without this thing. Well, we can lament for good reasons and for bad 70 00:06:51.629 --> 00:06:58.589 reasons, but here we have a lament over some very serious things. This 71 00:06:59.269 --> 00:07:06.259 cry to God in a moment of crisis. And what's unique about this psalm, 72 00:07:06.379 --> 00:07:12.540 we see other laments in the psalms, is that it's national, it's 73 00:07:12.740 --> 00:07:16.170 corporate. There are places where it speaks in an individual way. So, 74 00:07:16.449 --> 00:07:21.329 for example, in verse for it says you are my God, Oh king, 75 00:07:23.529 --> 00:07:27.410 or verse fifteen. All the day, all day long, my disgrace 76 00:07:27.689 --> 00:07:31.000 is before me and shame has covered my face. Here is the picture of 77 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:38.600 an individual person feeling the weight of this distress that they're under, these hard 78 00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:45.910 times. But it's not just one person. The context are the problem that 79 00:07:46.069 --> 00:07:50.110 these people are facing is that they, Israel's armies, have gone out. 80 00:07:51.149 --> 00:07:56.670 They've gone out to face some enemy. It doesn't say who it is here, 81 00:07:57.069 --> 00:07:59.660 but they've gone out to face an enemy and you know what happened. 82 00:08:00.779 --> 00:08:05.180 They were defeated. We've been looking at first chronicles right, and we've been 83 00:08:05.459 --> 00:08:11.779 focusing on these great victories David has had. This psalm probably isn't from that 84 00:08:11.980 --> 00:08:16.290 period of time. David is going out battle after battle after battle, and 85 00:08:16.370 --> 00:08:20.129 he's winning, winning, winning, all, conquering all victory. It's going 86 00:08:20.569 --> 00:08:26.560 swimmingly well, but not here. This describes an instance where the people of 87 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:31.839 God march out to battle confidence in the Lord, their God, and then 88 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:37.240 when they get there they're destroyed. They're destroyed and it seems like they're destroyed 89 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:43.029 in a very strong way. Will come to that. Will describe that in 90 00:08:43.110 --> 00:08:46.350 a moment. But that's the context that we have here for this lament, 91 00:08:46.990 --> 00:08:54.309 this cry to God in a moment of crisis. What I'd like to do 92 00:08:56.620 --> 00:09:01.580 is go through the Psalm, look at its four parts and then draw your 93 00:09:01.659 --> 00:09:07.860 attention to a couple points of application. So the four parts of this psalm 94 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:16.970 I'm going to call past, present, protest and plea. First there is 95 00:09:16.009 --> 00:09:22.929 a description of Israel's past, then Israel's present, then there is a protest 96 00:09:22.090 --> 00:09:28.720 to God and then a plea to God. Past, present, protest, 97 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:33.480 plea. So first the past. That's in verses one through eight. This 98 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:37.519 is where the Psalm starts, and it starts out on this very positive note, 99 00:09:37.559 --> 00:09:41.190 doesn't it? Oh God, we have heard with our ears, our 100 00:09:41.309 --> 00:09:45.870 fathers have told us. This is a good way to start, right. 101 00:09:46.269 --> 00:09:50.309 These are people that have grown up and they say our fathers have taught us 102 00:09:50.509 --> 00:09:56.019 about God. They've told us the stories. We know what you've done in 103 00:09:56.059 --> 00:10:01.620 the past and they described some of those things, things that we read about 104 00:10:01.659 --> 00:10:05.580 in Joshua and judges, for example. I'm even further back than that, 105 00:10:05.779 --> 00:10:11.009 and they describe the PSALMIST describes it in this way. With Your own hand, 106 00:10:11.370 --> 00:10:16.450 you drove out the nations, but the people, your people, are 107 00:10:16.649 --> 00:10:24.559 fathers and mothers. You planted them, the Canaanites. They were afflicted people's 108 00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:28.440 verse two says. But to the people of Israel, you set them free. 109 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:35.399 You remember where? They were set free from Egypt, bound in Egypt. 110 00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:37.909 And what did God? He God do with a mighty hand and an 111 00:10:37.950 --> 00:10:43.149 outstretched arm, he set his people free. He said to Pharaoh, let 112 00:10:43.350 --> 00:10:48.190 my people go, and Pharaoh resisted with everything that was in him. He 113 00:10:48.350 --> 00:10:52.100 made his heart as strong as a rock and said no no, no, 114 00:10:52.340 --> 00:10:56.580 I won't. He said to God I won't, and God said you will, 115 00:10:58.659 --> 00:11:05.210 and he made him and his people were set free. The people of 116 00:11:05.370 --> 00:11:11.409 Egypt were afflicted, but God's people were set free. Israel didn't rise up 117 00:11:11.450 --> 00:11:16.289 when some kind of insurrection, beat down their chains, kill some Egyptians and 118 00:11:16.370 --> 00:11:20.279 run out of town. No, they walked out with bags of bread and 119 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:28.200 food on their backs because God had said go, you're free to go now. 120 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:33.750 It was not even when they did use swords, when they went into 121 00:11:33.750 --> 00:11:37.230 the land of Canaan, the people of God recognize very much that it was 122 00:11:37.309 --> 00:11:43.710 not the sword that saved them, but it was God, God's right hand, 123 00:11:43.870 --> 00:11:48.580 his arm, verse three says, and the light of his face. 124 00:11:50.100 --> 00:11:54.580 What does that mean? How did the light of God's Face Save Them? 125 00:11:56.620 --> 00:12:01.649 It's described in the parallel phrase right after that. For you delighted in them. 126 00:12:01.809 --> 00:12:05.049 To talk about the light of God's faces, to talk about his happiness. 127 00:12:05.450 --> 00:12:09.009 He was happy with his people, he was pleased with them, he 128 00:12:09.529 --> 00:12:13.330 was shining on them, he delighted in them, and so they were fine. 129 00:12:15.129 --> 00:12:20.559 Everything that God willed for them and for their protection happened. And this 130 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:22.440 is what this is how this is what he did in the past. This 131 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:28.120 is what their fathers had told them about, and they knew this, and 132 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:33.110 so there's this confession that results from that. In verses for through seven, 133 00:12:33.549 --> 00:12:39.549 you are my king, our King, Oh God, or Dame Salvation for 134 00:12:39.629 --> 00:12:43.950 Jacob, it's through you, verse five, that we push down our foes. 135 00:12:43.029 --> 00:12:46.460 Through your name we tread down those who rise up against us. It's 136 00:12:46.500 --> 00:12:50.100 not our bows, it's not our swords that save us, it's you, 137 00:12:50.299 --> 00:12:56.139 are God, and for that, in Verse Eight, we have boasted continually 138 00:12:56.580 --> 00:13:01.889 and we give thanks to your name. We're all taught that boasting is a 139 00:13:01.009 --> 00:13:05.929 bad thing, and that's true when we're boasting in ourselves, but when we 140 00:13:07.090 --> 00:13:11.450 boast in God, when we say and we have confidence in his strength, 141 00:13:11.490 --> 00:13:16.000 there's no false pride in that. The problem with boasting is we're often exaggerating 142 00:13:16.039 --> 00:13:22.840 our achievements beyond what we really should. We're not humbling ourselves according to the 143 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:26.190 way we ought. But in God there's no need to humble God. There's 144 00:13:26.190 --> 00:13:31.549 no need to chasing him a little bit and not let him get him too 145 00:13:31.669 --> 00:13:35.870 puffed up, because he's God, he's perfect, he's good, he's glorious 146 00:13:35.950 --> 00:13:41.190 in all things, and for that they are proud and they give thanks to 147 00:13:41.269 --> 00:13:46.700 him for his name. So that's the past. That's who they know God 148 00:13:46.940 --> 00:13:52.299 is. That's their experience of God, partly through the stories of their fathers. 149 00:13:54.820 --> 00:13:58.730 Now we come to the present. In Verses Nine through sixteen. What 150 00:13:58.970 --> 00:14:05.169 the plea this lamentous saying about the presence is that the present is very different 151 00:14:05.210 --> 00:14:13.919 from the past. You rescued our fathers, but us, you've rejected US 152 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:20.480 and disgraced us. Instead of going out with our armies and conquering all these 153 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:26.629 people, we feel like sheep being led to the slaughter we don't feel like 154 00:14:26.710 --> 00:14:30.870 a great and power for army working in the name of the Lord, but 155 00:14:30.990 --> 00:14:37.700 we feel like little lambs walking to the slaughterhouse ready to be killed. Lambs 156 00:14:37.779 --> 00:14:43.139 don't are not powerful. They don't have armor and defenses and swords. Their 157 00:14:43.220 --> 00:14:50.860 lambs sheep. This is how they feel and they are in some ways experiencing 158 00:14:52.059 --> 00:14:56.129 this. The armies have gotten the better of them. Verse Ten. They 159 00:14:56.250 --> 00:15:01.529 have got and the spoil. They've won the war. Their enemies have won 160 00:15:01.610 --> 00:15:05.690 the war against them, or the battle against them, and have taken away 161 00:15:05.690 --> 00:15:11.759 their things. Verse Twelve describes the magnitude of this by saying you've sold your 162 00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:16.080 people for a trifle, demanding no high price to them. For them. 163 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:22.309 It's as though this enemy army has overtaken God's people, and it wasn't even 164 00:15:22.350 --> 00:15:26.190 hard. There was the Israel can't even say, well, at least they 165 00:15:26.190 --> 00:15:28.990 took a lot of casualties, at least they lot used a lot of equipment. 166 00:15:31.470 --> 00:15:35.070 You've sold your people for a triple. You didn't even demand a high 167 00:15:35.110 --> 00:15:41.820 price for us, and because of that, now there's this shame attached to 168 00:15:41.940 --> 00:15:46.980 us. Not only did we die in battle, not only have our armies 169 00:15:46.019 --> 00:15:50.009 been routed, not only have our things been taken from us, but now 170 00:15:50.090 --> 00:15:58.289 there's this shame, and not just internally, but real shame among the nations. 171 00:15:58.330 --> 00:16:03.840 Verse Fourteen says you have made us a by word among the people's a 172 00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:08.600 by word is is like a little phrase, a little short phrase that describes 173 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:15.759 something larger. So you know. Well, we all know about Israel. 174 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:19.549 Right like. That's all you would have to say to know about how embarrassing 175 00:16:19.669 --> 00:16:23.149 these people are, how shameful and weak they are. All you have to 176 00:16:23.230 --> 00:16:33.100 do is is mentioned them a laughing stock among the people's. Perhaps in your 177 00:16:33.100 --> 00:16:37.059 bibles you have a little superscript to there. That points you down toward the 178 00:16:37.100 --> 00:16:40.539 bottom, and it says Hebrew as shaking of the head. That is kind 179 00:16:40.539 --> 00:16:45.460 of yeah, I can't believe those guys. What fools trusting in Yahway. 180 00:16:45.700 --> 00:16:48.889 And look at what happened to them. They got destroyed. We wasted them, 181 00:16:49.330 --> 00:16:52.690 we blew them out of the water. What a joke, what a 182 00:16:52.809 --> 00:16:57.809 joke of a people, what a joke of a nation? That's how that's 183 00:16:57.850 --> 00:17:02.840 what they were hearing from their enemies, the enemies that God was supposed to 184 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:10.759 be protecting them from. And so now the instead of feeling confident and proud 185 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:15.710 and happy, Verse Fifteen and Sixteen says that, at the sound of the 186 00:17:15.829 --> 00:17:19.869 Taunter and reviler, every time I see an enemy, every time I see 187 00:17:19.910 --> 00:17:26.549 the avenger, I filled with disgrace. All the day long, shame has 188 00:17:26.990 --> 00:17:33.339 covered my face. So that's the present situation, very different from the past. 189 00:17:33.660 --> 00:17:37.339 In the past you've taken care of us, you've fought for us, 190 00:17:37.779 --> 00:17:42.099 but in the present you've left us out in the open. We feel as 191 00:17:42.140 --> 00:17:49.809 though you've simply led us to die. Where are you? Well, that's 192 00:17:49.890 --> 00:17:56.890 then comes the protest. In verses Seventeen through twenty two. The protest of 193 00:17:56.009 --> 00:18:03.160 essentially says what did we do? DID WE DO ANYTHING WRONG? No, 194 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:07.680 we didn't. We kept your covenant, we didn't commit adulter our idolatry. 195 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:12.910 We didn't open our hands to false God's we didn't forget your name. You 196 00:18:14.069 --> 00:18:18.950 know the secrets of our hearts. We've done the things that were Sparta supposed 197 00:18:18.029 --> 00:18:22.230 to do, whether that's in a legal sense, being false to your covenant, 198 00:18:22.269 --> 00:18:27.140 or in the imagery of walking a straight path. We stayed the course. 199 00:18:27.259 --> 00:18:32.180 We've kept on the PAT on the on the path. Essentially, another 200 00:18:32.220 --> 00:18:37.059 way to put what they're saying is they're saying if we had sinned, if 201 00:18:37.140 --> 00:18:41.170 we had put up idols or forgotten that you are our God, we could 202 00:18:41.170 --> 00:18:48.769 understand why this was happening, but we haven't done that, so we don't 203 00:18:48.809 --> 00:18:53.529 understand. We are being killed all the day long. And then again this 204 00:18:53.690 --> 00:19:00.000 phrase. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. That's the protest. 205 00:19:00.759 --> 00:19:07.319 And then, finally, the plea. The plead to God is to help. 206 00:19:07.960 --> 00:19:14.990 They describe God as though he were sleeping, unaware of what was going 207 00:19:15.109 --> 00:19:18.670 on. Wake up, help me, Lord, wake up. Why are 208 00:19:18.710 --> 00:19:23.420 you sleeping? Rouse yourself now. Of course they don't believe that God is 209 00:19:23.500 --> 00:19:29.980 actually sleeping. God never sleeps, he never slumbers, he always knows what's 210 00:19:30.059 --> 00:19:33.299 going on. But they're saying this is a descriptive way to say, don't 211 00:19:33.339 --> 00:19:40.049 leave us alone, don't reject US forever, as they as it goes on 212 00:19:40.250 --> 00:19:45.250 to say. It's put in a second way. Instead of a sleeping image, 213 00:19:45.250 --> 00:19:51.329 a face, a facial image is used. Remember, before, the 214 00:19:51.690 --> 00:19:56.640 light of his face shined upon his people, and that's why they were victorious. 215 00:19:56.640 --> 00:20:02.759 Well, the flip side of that is hiding the face. Twenty four 216 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:07.670 says, why do you hide your face? Why have you turned away from 217 00:20:07.710 --> 00:20:11.789 us? You have maybe experienced this body language says as much in the ancient 218 00:20:11.869 --> 00:20:18.430 world as it does today. When somebody turns your back on you, when 219 00:20:18.470 --> 00:20:22.619 someone turns their face away from you, it's a kind of rejection. As 220 00:20:22.700 --> 00:20:26.539 what we mean by that, and that's what they mean here. Why do 221 00:20:26.619 --> 00:20:33.140 you forget our affliction and oppression? The situation is bad, they plead one 222 00:20:33.220 --> 00:20:40.970 more time. In Verse Twenty Five describes a situation of being near to death. 223 00:20:41.490 --> 00:20:47.650 You remember God's curse on Adam. I'm from dust, you were made 224 00:20:47.690 --> 00:20:52.160 to dust. You shall return. Well, Verse Twenty Five for our soul 225 00:20:52.359 --> 00:20:56.079 is bowed down to the dust. Our belly clings to the ground. We're 226 00:20:56.119 --> 00:21:03.200 not standing up with strength and confidence, we're clinging to the ground. We 227 00:21:03.349 --> 00:21:08.549 are near the dust. We are almost dead. Rise up, verse Twenty 228 00:21:08.589 --> 00:21:12.309 Six, Rise Up, come to our help, redeem us for the sake 229 00:21:12.349 --> 00:21:22.140 of your steadfast love. They plead for deliverance. So this is the psalm. 230 00:21:23.660 --> 00:21:30.059 This is one example. There are others in the psalms of what we 231 00:21:30.099 --> 00:21:40.089 might call a godly lament. How do people here we have an example of 232 00:21:40.450 --> 00:21:47.880 the people of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, lamenting, crying out 233 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:53.680 to God in a moment of crisis. We have the press, the past, 234 00:21:53.920 --> 00:22:00.319 the present, the protest and the plea. Well, what shall we 235 00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:03.829 make of all of this? I think there's a lot we can say, 236 00:22:03.910 --> 00:22:10.069 but let me mention two things. First, there is a permission to pray 237 00:22:10.710 --> 00:22:15.099 here. There is a permission to pray here. We have, in God's 238 00:22:15.180 --> 00:22:23.859 inspired and holy word, permission to be realists, to look at our situations 239 00:22:23.980 --> 00:22:33.329 and feel desperate and to express the desperation that we feel to God. God 240 00:22:33.450 --> 00:22:37.490 gives us permission in these words and even gives us words to use that we 241 00:22:37.529 --> 00:22:44.839 might pray to him and cry out to him in our desperation to express our 242 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:52.000 feelings and our difficulties. Now, this permission to pray is not permission to 243 00:22:52.200 --> 00:22:59.069 feel desperate and hate God. It's not permission to feel desperate and judge God 244 00:22:59.509 --> 00:23:06.269 or to reject God. We know that. Jesus, when he washed the 245 00:23:06.349 --> 00:23:10.029 disciple's feet, you remember what he did. He washed their feet, and 246 00:23:10.309 --> 00:23:11.829 I believe it was Peter who said no, no, no, you shouldn't 247 00:23:11.859 --> 00:23:15.500 wash my feet, Lord, and he says no, I must wash your 248 00:23:15.619 --> 00:23:18.819 feet and you, likewise must also wash feet, he says, as a 249 00:23:18.900 --> 00:23:23.339 servant greater than the master, were called to follow him. Are we not 250 00:23:25.099 --> 00:23:29.450 in service to him? The same is true of our suffering, of our 251 00:23:29.890 --> 00:23:36.289 persecutions. Jesus suffered and we are called to suffer in his name. This 252 00:23:36.450 --> 00:23:41.289 is a reality of our lives. This is something that God indeed calls us 253 00:23:41.410 --> 00:23:48.960 to and in that just as Jesus felt desperate, even bleeding straat drops of 254 00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:53.279 blood, as he prayed to God before he went to the cross, feeling 255 00:23:53.480 --> 00:23:59.069 that desperation, if you could take this cup of me, please do. 256 00:24:00.950 --> 00:24:06.029 We who also follow in his steps and suffer, will find ourselves, like 257 00:24:06.230 --> 00:24:11.259 our Lord feeling desperate. But what do we do? Did Jesus turn away 258 00:24:11.299 --> 00:24:15.019 from God and say, forget you, I'm going to do my own thing 259 00:24:15.180 --> 00:24:19.099 now. No, he didn't do that. He called out to God, 260 00:24:19.180 --> 00:24:23.140 he pled to God, he prayed to God, he lamented to God. 261 00:24:25.529 --> 00:24:29.130 Jesus didn't reject God, nor did he hate him. He didn't say, 262 00:24:29.450 --> 00:24:32.769 I hate that you're doing this to me, you're wrong for doing this to 263 00:24:32.849 --> 00:24:37.839 me. Jesus didn't stand over in a judgment over his father. What did 264 00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:47.640 he say? Not My will, but yours be done. Brothers and sisters, 265 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:51.039 this is what we do when we follow in the steps of our Lord. 266 00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:53.829 When we suffer, is he suffered. The Servant is not greater than 267 00:24:53.910 --> 00:24:59.509 the master. We go to God. We have permission to pray, permission 268 00:24:59.549 --> 00:25:02.670 to open up our hearts and say, Lord, this is hard, this 269 00:25:02.789 --> 00:25:07.619 is really, really hard. But we go to him. We don't go 270 00:25:07.740 --> 00:25:12.579 to ourselves, we don't go somewhere else, we don't find our salvation away 271 00:25:12.660 --> 00:25:17.700 from him. We don't hate God, we don't get angry at him, 272 00:25:17.740 --> 00:25:22.369 we don't judge him. We say I don't understand it, but it's for 273 00:25:22.569 --> 00:25:29.130 your sake that I am being killed. It is for your sake that these 274 00:25:29.450 --> 00:25:34.410 things happen. So please save me, please help me according to your will. 275 00:25:37.279 --> 00:25:41.720 When we come, when we face our suffering, we must not lose 276 00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:47.200 heart in God. We cry out to him and it's to him that we 277 00:25:47.400 --> 00:25:53.470 cry. Too often it's really hard to see that what's going on. A 278 00:25:53.509 --> 00:25:56.670 lot of times we think, will God, I can deal with my suffering, 279 00:25:56.789 --> 00:26:03.630 assuming I can know what this is all about. I if you tell 280 00:26:03.710 --> 00:26:06.980 me what's going on here, then okay, I'll I'll believe you for that 281 00:26:07.220 --> 00:26:11.660 and we'll go forward. God doesn't always give that to us. He doesn't 282 00:26:11.660 --> 00:26:15.460 always tell us what's going on and why it's going on. You remember job. 283 00:26:17.380 --> 00:26:21.049 Did job know what was going on in the Court of Heaven when Satan 284 00:26:21.089 --> 00:26:26.170 came to accuse him and God allowed these things to fall upon him? Did 285 00:26:26.210 --> 00:26:29.930 job know all that was going on and how we would be blessed by what 286 00:26:30.009 --> 00:26:33.640 happened? Did job know the end of the story and how he would be 287 00:26:33.960 --> 00:26:37.200 blessed exceedingly and beyond what he even had before? No, he didn't know 288 00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:42.200 any of that. And yet he was called to be faithful to God, 289 00:26:44.680 --> 00:26:48.789 and job was. Remember, let me remind you of some of the things 290 00:26:48.869 --> 00:26:53.430 he said. Job On twenty one, he says, naked I came from 291 00:26:53.470 --> 00:27:00.819 my mother's Womb and naked I shall return. Yahwig gave, Yah weigh gave 292 00:27:00.980 --> 00:27:10.539 and Yah wit has taken away. Blessed be the name of Yahway, who 293 00:27:10.579 --> 00:27:14.259 are we to go to God and say, I don't think your calculus is 294 00:27:14.299 --> 00:27:19.170 right on this one. If things should be another way? God gives, 295 00:27:21.009 --> 00:27:26.650 God takes away. Blessed be the name of God. Job To ten. 296 00:27:26.930 --> 00:27:30.759 Job's wife comes to him and tries to tell him to do exactly the opposite 297 00:27:30.759 --> 00:27:36.640 of what I've said. She says just give up on God, curse him 298 00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:41.359 and and die, and job says to her, you speak is one of 299 00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:48.549 the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God and shall we 300 00:27:48.750 --> 00:27:55.470 not receive evil. And then scripture comments on job. What job just says 301 00:27:55.549 --> 00:28:00.500 they're again, job says to his wife, shall we receive good from God 302 00:28:00.619 --> 00:28:06.940 and shall we not receive evil, and then scripture comments and the Holy Spirit 303 00:28:07.059 --> 00:28:11.380 says in all this, job did not sin with his lips. This is 304 00:28:12.009 --> 00:28:17.130 a way of God's. I'm giving his approbation of saying this is how you 305 00:28:17.250 --> 00:28:21.250 should talk, this is how you should think. When we face these difficult 306 00:28:21.250 --> 00:28:25.569 times, we cry out to God, even as job did, but we 307 00:28:25.730 --> 00:28:30.240 do not turn away from him and we can express the desperation of our hearts, 308 00:28:30.279 --> 00:28:34.599 our grief, our sadness, are not an inability to understand what's going 309 00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:41.230 on, but we do not say I curse God. The cry of the 310 00:28:41.269 --> 00:28:47.349 Christian is the cry of job. You are the Lord and I will take 311 00:28:47.670 --> 00:28:56.740 whatever you give. So this is a one application of on this psalm. 312 00:28:56.900 --> 00:29:03.140 We have permission to pray, we have permission to cry out to God, 313 00:29:03.339 --> 00:29:06.539 but as we do so, we do not reject our Lord in suffering, 314 00:29:07.500 --> 00:29:12.930 but instead we cling to him, we plead with him and we find comfort 315 00:29:14.529 --> 00:29:19.690 in his promises. The end of the Psalm says, come to our help, 316 00:29:19.849 --> 00:29:25.839 redeem us for the sake of your stead fast love. And that brings 317 00:29:25.880 --> 00:29:30.079 us to the second point of application in my final point, and that's this. 318 00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:37.000 This lament teaches us that our hope is in God and in God alone. 319 00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:41.910 This is a godly prayer. This is a Christian prayer because it doesn't 320 00:29:41.910 --> 00:29:47.950 go elsewhere. It goes to God and go to him alone, and for 321 00:29:48.109 --> 00:29:52.980 good reason, reasons that we can find in the psalm itself. We can 322 00:29:52.059 --> 00:29:57.500 find in the minds of the people that are praying this. One reason that 323 00:29:57.619 --> 00:30:03.740 we hope in God and him alone is because he's sovereign. As I've not 324 00:30:03.900 --> 00:30:08.769 to just repeat the point, but this is what job is saying, isn't 325 00:30:08.769 --> 00:30:12.849 it? He's saying God is sovereign over both the good and evil, the 326 00:30:14.329 --> 00:30:18.490 calamity that comes upon us, as well as other things. This is what 327 00:30:18.650 --> 00:30:23.359 Isaiah forty five says. A God says I form light and create darkness, 328 00:30:23.400 --> 00:30:29.400 I make wellbeing and create calamity. I am Yahway, who does all these 329 00:30:29.440 --> 00:30:34.480 things. God is sovereign. We have in some ways, no choice about 330 00:30:34.519 --> 00:30:41.430 to submit to him. He is king and we should UN bow our hearts 331 00:30:41.470 --> 00:30:45.069 before him. But that's also why our hope is in him. What kind 332 00:30:45.069 --> 00:30:51.099 of foolish person would go elsewhere? There is nowhere else to go. If 333 00:30:51.220 --> 00:30:53.900 God is sovereign over these things, if he is the one that makes one 334 00:30:55.019 --> 00:31:00.740 army win and another army lose, does it make sense that Israel would turn 335 00:31:00.980 --> 00:31:04.490 elsewhere, would turn to another God that night? Don't do that. They 336 00:31:04.529 --> 00:31:08.049 don't say, well, God's rejected us, so let's try molech see how 337 00:31:08.170 --> 00:31:14.529 he does. Know, they go to their God because he is sovereign, 338 00:31:14.730 --> 00:31:18.200 also because he's powerful. Remember, throughout this psalm it says again and again 339 00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:26.000 that he alone is powerful to save, that he alone can bring from bring 340 00:31:26.079 --> 00:31:30.559 about salvaytion verse, for you are my king, Oh God, ordained salvation 341 00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:37.309 for Jacob. And finally, our hope is in him and in him alone, 342 00:31:37.950 --> 00:31:44.029 because no other God as powerful and as sovereign as he is. And 343 00:31:44.230 --> 00:31:48.940 there is no other God, but no other God has made promises to his 344 00:31:48.180 --> 00:31:56.779 people, has given and made expressed covenant with them. Redeem us for the 345 00:31:56.859 --> 00:32:02.369 sake of your steadfast love. The Christian goes to the Lord in lament in 346 00:32:02.490 --> 00:32:07.250 their difficult trials and circumstances, not just because God is sovereign, which he 347 00:32:07.529 --> 00:32:12.730 is, not just because God is powerful, which he is, but also 348 00:32:12.809 --> 00:32:19.480 because of God's promises and the character that is attached to those promises. When 349 00:32:19.519 --> 00:32:22.680 they say redeem us for the stake of your steadfast love, they very much 350 00:32:22.759 --> 00:32:29.319 have in mind the promises that God has made to Adam and eve in the 351 00:32:29.400 --> 00:32:34.150 garden that stay, that a son would be born who would crush the head 352 00:32:34.150 --> 00:32:37.910 of the serpent, to Abraham, that God would make out of him a 353 00:32:38.069 --> 00:32:43.789 great multitude and a people, a bigger than more infinite than the stars and 354 00:32:43.910 --> 00:32:49.859 the skies. A good promise to remember when you see people around you dying. 355 00:32:51.339 --> 00:32:55.220 God has promised these things. Perhaps they are also remembering God's promises to 356 00:32:55.259 --> 00:33:02.049 David, but he would establish his kingdom and his throne forever. The remembering 357 00:33:02.170 --> 00:33:09.049 God's character, that it's attached to these promises, his steadfast love. And 358 00:33:09.250 --> 00:33:14.759 that's why Paul, as we saw this morning in Romans Chapter Eight, draws 359 00:33:14.960 --> 00:33:20.400 our attention to this psalm, this psalm in particular, because when we face 360 00:33:20.559 --> 00:33:24.839 distress and sword and famine, when we face a pressures against governments and our 361 00:33:24.920 --> 00:33:30.509 physical bodies and our sins and all the things that we face trials and difficulties 362 00:33:30.549 --> 00:33:36.349 under, we feel like sheep being led to the slaughter. We feel like 363 00:33:36.509 --> 00:33:38.789 we're being killed all the day long, and in some ways we are. 364 00:33:40.460 --> 00:33:49.700 Christians has suffered, sometimes in the thousands, persecution, hard trials, when 365 00:33:49.700 --> 00:33:53.500 they have done no good, no wrong against God, but instead have confessed 366 00:33:53.619 --> 00:34:00.490 his name and been true to his word. But Paul quotes these these UN 367 00:34:00.970 --> 00:34:05.970 these verses, which remind us of the whole of this psalm, to say 368 00:34:06.569 --> 00:34:10.760 what he says there and what we heard in God's word this morning that nothing 369 00:34:12.599 --> 00:34:16.119 can separate us from the love of God, in Christ Jesus, Our Lord, 370 00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:22.079 and that's what they say here too, in Verse Twenty Six. Redeem 371 00:34:22.239 --> 00:34:29.150 us, rescue us by US back from the evil one. For the sake 372 00:34:29.309 --> 00:34:37.630 of your steadfast love. We have confidence in God because of his love, 373 00:34:37.750 --> 00:34:40.300 because of his promises, because of his power, because of his sovereignty, 374 00:34:40.900 --> 00:34:45.980 because God is God. This is what job felt, isn't it? This 375 00:34:46.139 --> 00:34:53.570 is the great words that God overwhelmed him with, that God is God and 376 00:34:53.809 --> 00:35:00.889 we are not. And so when we're feeling like our trials are killing us, 377 00:35:01.170 --> 00:35:07.920 and brothers and sisters, even when our trials do kill us, we 378 00:35:07.079 --> 00:35:16.360 don't despair. We don't despair because God has given us Jesus, who didn't 379 00:35:16.400 --> 00:35:22.110 just go to the garden and suffer, he didn't just go to the Cross 380 00:35:22.150 --> 00:35:25.469 and suffer, he didn't just die, he didn't just lay in the grave, 381 00:35:25.630 --> 00:35:30.989 but he rose again from the dead. Didn't he any promises that we 382 00:35:31.190 --> 00:35:37.019 will to God takes care of us and often does rescue us in this life, 383 00:35:37.500 --> 00:35:43.260 but our hope is not ultimately in this life, is it? It's 384 00:35:43.300 --> 00:35:46.219 in the hope to come, even as Abraham hoped in that heavenly city, 385 00:35:46.340 --> 00:35:52.889 so we too are hoping in God's judgment. Revelation pictures the martyrs under the 386 00:35:52.010 --> 00:35:57.090 throne of God, crying out God, God, when will you have your 387 00:35:57.130 --> 00:36:00.489 vengeance? When will justice be done? And he says it will be done. 388 00:36:01.050 --> 00:36:06.920 The day is coming, the day of the Lord. So I'll finished 389 00:36:06.920 --> 00:36:10.920 by reading these verses from James Chapter Five, verses ten and eleven, where 390 00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:16.639 we're pointed to the steadfastness of job as an example of suffering and patience. 391 00:36:16.760 --> 00:36:21.909 Brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, 392 00:36:22.030 --> 00:36:25.349 we consider these blessed. Who remains steadfast? You have heard of the 393 00:36:25.389 --> 00:36:30.030 steadfastness of job and you have seen the purpose of the Lord. How The 394 00:36:30.150 --> 00:36:37.059 Lord Is Compassionate and merciful, whether we are in times of great joy and 395 00:36:37.420 --> 00:36:43.500 celebration for the goodness of God or whether we are enduring the evils of the 396 00:36:43.659 --> 00:36:53.250 Lord, to use Biblical language. There we have our eyes on God who, 397 00:36:53.449 --> 00:37:00.599 as James Says, is compassionate, is merciful, as Paul says, 398 00:37:01.880 --> 00:37:07.119 is full of love, who is, the Psalmist says, has steadfast love. 399 00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:14.360 We keep our eyes on the Lord in all of our prayers, in 400 00:37:14.480 --> 00:37:20.710 the good times and bad, because he is good, because his promises are 401 00:37:20.869 --> 00:37:24.309 sure and made sure in Jesus Christ. So let us pray