Living Confidently In The Lord - [Psalm 86]

Fear, Confidence, and the Fear of the Lord

This summer I've been able to teach a couple of times and we begin kinda going through this material in the Psalms and the goal of this thing. Those of you who were here last time have probably forgotten what we did but the goal was just to pick some Psalms and then look at how they apply to specific circumstances in our lives and how do we call upon the Lord in our time of need.

And it was put in the broader context of counseling. So if someone comes to you with a specific need how do you go to the scriptures. And how do you actually minister to them from the scriptures and particularly the Psalms when they are dealing with a specific problem.

And today's the area of our need we're going to be looking at. It's titled living confidently in the Lord. And here at BBC we don't have 10 steps to living confidently. It's not a man-centered approach to solving our problems but rather we look to the Lord in order to receive from him the help we need in our times of need.

So I want to begin with this term fear. My littlest one is going to kindergarten for the first time this year and I think she has a little bit of that trepidation in her heart and I'm sure she's excited a lot.

But it's always a little there's always a little element of fear there when you go exploring the unknown meeting strange people and expect to do things that you have no idea what you're supposed to do.

I mean we have great teachers who are able to help them through that. But there is always so that's one example of fear you know someone just moving into the unknown. Can you think of some other examples of fear that you and I more frequently run into.

What are some causes of fear or some triggers of fear in our lives. Financial fear. So your job may if your company is downsizing you may be afraid of how you can provide for your family food on the table keeping your mortgages up.

That can be a fear. What other fears commonly assail us. Yes health. Very real. And there are some ailments that are very serious and that can put you on your back and not be able to function anymore and can cause death.

And so there can be this fear of losing a life or being unable to live productively. And I remember this before just before summer I had this thing called poison ivy and I was like poison ivy is just an itchy thing.

You know you wash it and go. And how little we know what we should be thankful for when your skin functions well. And yeah and actually they put me on steroids and I knew what panic attack was not a good thing.

Great. So you can have various causes for fear. Now fear in itself let let me actually get into the material now and then I will will unpack this. How do we live confident in the midst of fear. Or when you are assailed by fear due to various circumstances that come your way.

So in your handout if you don't have one please raise your hands. I think we might have some extra copies. Do we have. Does anyone have their extra copies of the handout. Okay we have some. Does anybody need copies of the handout.

Just raise your hand. We'll make sure you get one. Okay great. Okay so in in the first point you have there we have the relationship between fear and confidence. Now when you have the examples that we looked at where those things that actually tend to bring us down bring make us not function properly.

But in contrast to that we have something that is called the fear of the Lord. And in fact it is the fear of the Lord that gives us a confident outlook on life to be able to live life the way that we were intended to live.

I'm gonna just briefly touch upon this will come back to it a little later when we actually look at the psalm itself when you have a healthy and a reverential fear. Let me put it this way. And all of God that fills your eyes when you look at the world when you see it through the lens of the God who made this world who is in control of this world the one to whom you are ultimately accountable.

It gives you a very healthy outlook for you to be able to walk with boldness and with confidence. Why is that. Why would you think that a fear of the Lord would actually cause you to live confidently.

Just a very quick answer. And then we'll move on. What would be one reason for us to have. Yes I think that kinda summarizes it. But I'll just give you a little example for you to picture this. I began by talking about my kid going to Sunday school not Sunday school, she is in Sunday school going to kindergarten.

Now as we grow up when you're little the whole world is strange. You have no idea what is going on as you're just venturing out. When you grow up you just figure out the world is stranger there's a lot more that you don't know than you thought when you were little.

At the end of the day we are not God, there is lots of things in our little lives or big lives that we have absolutely no control over but when you do know the person who has all of these things in control the one person who is bigger than every other thing that you will ever meet the one person who is absolutely and fully in charge and when you are standing in a right relationship with this person that gives you a great confidence in terms of no matter what circumstance you and I will go through.

In fact as part of the trials we'll look at 1st Peter in a bit, God intends for trials to sanctify us to purify us to make us more like him and as you face challenges you are going to experience trepidation and fear may not be far behind and the Bible gives us the means to face these in a godly way by looking to God, to trusting in him to have a right awe and a reverence of God that helps us to move forward and to live the way that God has intended us to live.

Ungodly Fear and the Parable of the Talents

So we talked about two kinds of fear, the first kind of fear that is actually good is the fear that actually reveres God has a right awe and trust toward God now the second kind which is not the good kind is the ungodly fear and I'm gonna be using just one thread of this, there's a lot that can be unpacked from here.

The area that I'm going to work on or will work on today from the scriptures is this aspect of fear that can actually produce what I call laziness now when you have fears that are illegitimate, the right kind of fear is to fear God but if we have the wrong kind of fear, the fears that overwhelm us by us focusing on what ought not to cause us fear and anxiety or worry those can tend to stifle the life that we are intended to live so you look at something before you, it just fills the world as you see it, it is so terrifying that you just can't move forward because this particular trial is huge, if you take financial troubles for example, you lose a job suddenly you don't know where you're gonna get your next the money from to take care of your house and then instead of going actively and looking for more jobs, it can tend to paralyze people to say my brain is kinda shut down, I don't know how to have the will to move forward and to live the way that God has intended me to live.

Now like I said this is just one thread, there's a lot of other things we can pull out of here but I'm just gonna focus on that to say how do you live confidently in the midst of those trials in the midst of those fears that can threaten you.

I'm gonna just give two illustrations from the scriptures, these are not instructive in the sense that these are not the main points of these texts but I think those are good side points for us to just keep in mind as we move as we get into applying this in our lives you don't have to turn to either of these.

The first one is from Matthew 25 14 through 30 and this is actually the parable of the talents. I was just teaching this two three weeks ago in junior church. It's actually very good when you dive into this.

Here you have the master who's going away and he gives five, two and one talent to each of his three servants. The man with the five talents uses it profitably and gets five more the guy with the two does the same and he gets two more and then the guy with the one he actually digs and hides it down.

He doesn't do anything with that talent and then when he's questioned in verse 25 he says I was afraid and the reason he was afraid was because he had a wrong view of his master. In that context it's the wrong view of God.

He says I knew you to be a hard man you know you're not a kind man you gather where you do not scatter any seed. You are in one sense he's accusing God of wickedness and so I was afraid and I went and hid it in the ground and the response of the master is very instructive there as well.

He says his view of the servant is very different than the servants view of himself. He said you wicked and slothful or lazy servant if you knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I have no seed then why don't you take it to the bank and invest it rather than dig it and hide it.

And one of the challenges that we will see here is the wrong kind of fear tends us not to utilize the gifts and talents that God has blessed us with and rather to sinfully use them. The second example actually comes from first Kings 19 3 to 8 very famous passage of Elijah.

He has just finished this huge event at Mount Carmel where all the prophets of Baal are defeated. God sends down fire to vindicate himself on the offering and then these prophets of Baal are destroyed and then you have this Queen Jezebel who threatens the life of Elijah and what you see there is the fear that grips this man of God.

Here is Elijah who has seen this mighty display of God's power vindicating himself among an apostate nation and then when he was threatened by Jezebel we read in verse 3 he was afraid. He ran for his life and then in verse 4 he says he asked that he might die and then in verse 5 he lies down and sleeps for a few days before the Lord ministers and takes him to where he needs to go.

The challenge that I'm going to be focusing on here is there are certain fears that can just cripple us and leave us unprofitable and unuseful and we have all the means that God has provided for us in the scriptures to look to God to have the right fear of God that governs our hearts so that we can live our lives in a way that is in submission to God's will and honoring him.

Developing Confidence Through Godly Fear and the Right Goal

So let's now let me actually add a few more things here. So the illegitimate fear translates to a lack of confidence in what we ought to do and laziness by itself can actually be other causes rather than fear.

It could be because I'm selfish. I don't want to do what I want to do but the issue here that we're going to focus on is when I let me put it this way, from a counseling standpoint you might see some symptoms and then you might work your way back towards the cause of the symptoms so if I'm shrinking back from responsibility if God has given me something to do and then I find myself not doing those things you may want to trace those back to see what is the reason that I am not doing what God has ordained me to do is it because I fear certain things that might be one cause or do I not have the right fear of God that enables me to look at this life that God has given me in order to live it the way God has ordained me to do.

And just here a few more thoughts before we get in. I think it's helpful for us to recognize who we are in Christ. One of the things that sometimes we as we live in the world is we can be surrounded by trials, we can be surrounded by people who are struggling with trials, but in Christ we read in Romans 8 .37 that we are more than conquerors.

We are a victorious people in Christ. In Ephesians 6 .11 when it talks about the how a Christian is equipped to face the assaults of the enemy we are called warriors basically. You know we have everything we need in order to be on the defensive, to be defending ourselves against the assaults of the wicked one.

In 1 Corinthians 9 .24 -27 we see this imagery of athlete. You and I are not just you know couch potatoes we are intended to press forward, to strive and to labor in this life with all the means and the tools that God has given us and we are to press on, lay aside everything that hinders.

And I think one of the challenges when we are tempted to step back, shrink back is to recognize this is who we are and we want to look to God's strength in order to accomplish what God wants us to do.

Now some of the examples of fear we saw were financial, health, what the future might hold and in other cases what are the actions of people that are around us. In fact the Psalms that we are going to be looking at are going to focus on specific trials that come from others that can debilitate us, sometimes may be hurt emotionally, sometimes threatened for their lives and we want to see how God helps this Psalmist and how we can actually draw strength from the Lord in similar trials of our own.

Alright so I have two handouts here, let me make sure I have the right one. Okay so in the second point in your notes we have developing confidence. So one of the things that as a counselor or to yourself, I talked about this last time, some of these times you need to look to the scripture to counsel yourself in the word to look rightly toward God is how do you develop this confidence.

The first one is to look to and learn a right godly fear. So when you exalt him the Lord in your heart, when you learn to love him and to trust him and to have this right reverential awe of God, that is key in order to live a life that is confident before God and this Psalm will illustrate that for us.

And then the second thing and I think this is very important is to have the right goal. Here those of you who are regular probably hear this over and over again but I think it's helpful for us to reiterate this.

Very often when I'm in a trial I want to get out of the trial. My goal is to overcome this trial or get out of this trial, find some way out of it. If I don't have finances, I need finances and that's the only thing that I can see.

And I think we want to be careful to recognize that our purpose here on earth is not just our little world that we live in. We are placed here by God for his sovereign purposes and we are here to fulfill that purpose for which he has placed us.

So that purpose might involve walking through that financial trial for a little longer than what you and I might prefer or going through that bed of ill health longer than we want. But it is God's purpose and his honor and his glory that ought to be foremost in my mind while I'm walking through that trial.

And when you have the right goal in mind you'll be able to then look at those circumstances through the eyes of God so that you can say, here is how I can live confidently no matter the circumstances in which I live in.

I do not need to be dependent on the circumstances in order to have the confidence because I'm dependent on God alone. So to have the right goal is key when we look to the scriptures and its examples of how God ministers to his saints.

Lament Psalms and Psalm 86

Alright, so moving on to the third point, there are a few Psalms here. So you can pick any of these later if you want to study them that are called, that are categorized as these Psalms of Confidence looking forward to the future in the midst of a...

Yes? Excellent. If I can re-amplify that amplification. I mean that was just very true. I was going to talk about that but I had missed it. It is always good, Ephesians 4, our goal is to equip you so that you are prepared as you walk into those trials.

Very often when you're in the trial, it is very hard to see you know, rightly. But if you're equipped before, then as you're walking into the trial your mind is already guarded in terms of how to look at this trial.

You may still be feeling the fear, you may be struggling with walking rightly, but you know how to look to the scriptures and look to those... look to God in those trials. And like Pastor Steve just said, we are here with one another so that we may help one another in those times.

So sometimes when I'm like on that bed with that panic attack it's good that I have a wife who can tell me, you know, the world hasn't ended. There is a Lord on His throne and that's what we do with one another as well.

But these types of... these times of equipping is to make sure that we have our... we guard our hearts and our minds so that when we go through those trials we look to the scriptures rightly. So those Psalms that you have here, these are all actually called Lament Psalms.

A lament psalm for confidence. So that's what we're going to look at. And I'll explain what a lament psalm is and why these psalms are actually meant to gain confidence for the believer. And so let me maybe just jump right into it.

I'm going to... Actually, no, let me go through this in a little bit more. Now the purpose of these psalms are not intended to just commiserate. So here is a psalmist who is lamenting. Here am I, you know, in my woes.

Okay, I have a partner to cry with. Let's just sit together and you know, have a good weep. That's not the goal of these lament psalms. The lament psalms, I mean, they are there in the scriptures because here is someone who's going through a very intense trial, who is brutally honest with what he is feeling and experiencing and he explains it, explains the circumstances of his trial.

He explains the impact of his trials on him. I think explain is not the best word because psalms are just like gut sense. Here is where he is and he just pours out his heart before the Lord. And you can actually identify with him but you can identify with him further because this is a man of God who trusts in God through the trial and draws from the Lord and gains confidence in the midst of his trial.

And that's basically why they are there in the scriptures. So we too can learn from the psalmist on how we can trust when we feel the same way as this lament psalms begin because they often end with a triumph and with the confidence that you would be surprised to find if you just read the first few verses.

You wouldn't think they would end that way. So let me go through the components of a lament psalm. So the first one is the address and introductory cry for help. So if you look at these lament psalms, they always often just begin with a cry.

It's normally stark. It's like Lord save me and there is just a pleading and a crying out to God and that's basically how most of them actually begin. And then you have the lament proper and that is basically will describe the trial that the psalmist goes through.

So sometimes he will say you know here are the people who are against me as we will see and some of these might be longer and others might be shorter but they have three sections and I think those sections are helpful for us as we equip ourselves to I don't know analyze the circumstance that we are going through.

Sometimes he will be talking about the cause of his trial. So there may be some people who are out there to get him and he will say here is what is going on. Here are my enemies who are doing this to me.

And then he will say you know here am I. The second component would be here am I and this is what is going on in my life. I fear for my life. I am destitute and he will talk about his state in the midst of the trial.

And then the third component would be God and very often it'll be in the first person talking to a second person to God. You oh God and he will talk certain things about God. So he will be talking about the trial.

He'll be talking about himself and then he'll be talking about the God who is the object of that psalmist entreaty, the prayer, the cry. Now when you look at the lament psalm you will... there is a lamentation.

Sometimes when you look at the lament psalm you will start to see the tension that the psalmist is experiencing between the circumstances that are brought on upon him that's causing these trials and the need to trust in God and that is basically the goal of counseling through these psalms for us to be able to identify and look to the Lord in our time of need.

Then the last section, the next section we have is the petition proper and here he is actually going to ask God to deliver him, to help him in his time of need. Sometimes he would repeat the cry for help and then and these petitions sometimes involve two things.

One is to entreat the Lord's eyes to be upon him. So sometimes you the psalmist feels so destitute that God has almost abandoned him and he calls God to look upon him or to pay attention. Those are the kind of terms that you will see in these lament psalms and then he would ask the Lord to actually rescue him, save me, deliver me from these circumstances.

Those are the two things in the petition or the request that the psalmist would actually make and one of the things that's very interesting here and here the psalmist actually gets very theological. You may actually have to study it to gain this because he would actually give some reasons why the Lord ought to do so and he would draw upon the character of God.

Here is who you are Lord that I am aware of and I know that you do not abandon your people and here is who I am. I am one who have trusted in you. So he would bring upon the theological reasons for himself to recognize what is the basis of what he is asking for.

In fact when we look to our prayers we are to pray in Jesus name. We are to pray according to the will of God and that's basically what the psalmist is doing here. He is saying why should God answer me and he is drawing out those reasons as he as he prays to God and you will see those in the psalms and then he would and actually at that point it actually start would start to shift as he would say what is my goal in life?

My goal oh Lord is to declare your praises in the midst of your assembly. Several of the psalms that I have read my goal is not just to be here out in the in the wilderness and die without your praises on my name.

I want to come before your people and I want to thank you and praise you for what you are doing you are going to do in my life and other times he would say I'll give you some references if you're taking them down.

The one that I just mentioned is from psalm 6 7 and other times psalm 42 10. It is the honor of God that is at stake and I want your name to be honored your honor to be exalted in this time and another times it's just that my need is a very great need and psalm 54 5 he needs to be saved and then at in psalm 51 verse 4 his need for deliverance is because he has done what is expected in the midst of his sin which is to confess his sin before God.

I have confessed my sin and then at other times big it is an issue of justice. You know that this is a place where I am innocent oh lord and here the wicked have surrounded me psalm 59 3 to 41 and then and the one common thread in all of these would be the nature of God and one of those examples is in psalm 86 verses 3 to 15 and he says I want your name your character and your your name to be exalted.

And I want to give you two references here very quickly. I realize we're completely out of going slow. I'll just put point them and I'll move on. The first one is 1 John 3 21. It talks about the boldness and the confidence we have to approach God with our requests and our petitions and the second one is John 14 30 John 14 13 where we can indeed ask for these things in God's name because the lord because God is honored in our requests and the last piece here is the vow of praise or declarative praise and that's the heartbeat of the psalm where you see the lament actually turn into praise.

Here is this person where he is still in this trial still in the problem but his the lord has done some work in his heart where he no longer is in a state of lamentation but he is in in a exuberance of praise because his heart has been gripped with the glory of God and his heart is knows that God will deliver him in the manner in his particular trial.

So let me let me just move on to the next thing which is the steps in the lament psalms and we're going to use Psalm 86 to walk through this. So if you have your bibles please turn with me to Psalm 86 and we will walk through it rather quickly.

I think it would help to read this again when you go back home but I'll kind of point out what I just mentioned in the psalm so that you can see how the psalmist progresses through his trial and how we can draw upon the help of our lord in trials similar to these.

I'm not going to read the entire psalm I'm just going to point some of these verses so you can actually look to them as I'm walking through them. Someone read for me verse one and actually I actually if you can just scan through it I think we have enough time for this.

Scan through Psalm 86 and tell me if you find out what his lament is what is his situation that he is so desperate for? Why do you think he is penning this psalm? What is his lament? If you find something in a verse just blurt it out this there's a few of those.

Yes that's right so here is this actual circumstance these people have raised up against him that's verse 14 that's one of the laments. Anyone else anything else you see here? In verse one yes I am poor and needy and that's a consequence of this verse 14 I am in in a desperate straight so that's the second thing we see there.

Anything else you see? I think there's one more verse here. Yes yes actually that is part of the lament and we're going to unpack that more in the impact that this lament has upon him. Yes yes yeah that actually will come in terms of his reasons for God's deliverance so when it comes to the lament he is just pointing out what his problems are and in verse 1 and in verse 14 yes yeah so he's pointing to the issue that is going on there there is desperate trouble for him which was laid out in verse 14 and and in verse 17 you also see those who hate me and that's again a repetition of verse 14 so that's it gives you a little picture of what was going on in the Psalmist's life people have come against him and he is in a state of poverty and neediness and it's out of that that he that he's crying out and and as I mentioned okay let me let me move on to the next question so the next question is note any references the Psalmist might make towards how he is feeling to his present situation or any references to the future any verses that stick out that talk about the way he's feeling actually I think yes that's right so the and that's the opposite so you he wants to be gladdened because right now he is not gladdened and he is actually depressed laid low and he needs and he is indicating that in his current state of feeling by what he wants to be.

Which verse did he say. Verse 11 teach me a way. And yeah here are the opposites. So what he needs actually tells us again what he doesn't. So and many a time when you go through trials you do not see clearly you do not know what would be the way of the Lord in the midst of those trials.

And so here he is entreating the Lord to teach him because he doesn't see it. Charlie you said yeah because as a consequence these people who are over me who do not see God or the state of this person that they would actually be he would be vindicated through the Lord's help.

Let me point out a few more verses. So in verse three which Wes mentioned here he was crying all day long. I mean his feeling was one of great sorrow with great great suffering and depression was to preserve my life.

He is feeling that his life is is forfeit he's going to die. Verse four we saw gladden. And then in verse 11 in addition to teach me it also says unite my heart to fear your name. Because right now he may be fearing his adversaries more than he ought to fear God.

So his mind is now scattered in all these circumstances and he says unite me. So there's only one person I ought to fear and that is God. So I need that because right now my mind is distracted in all these things and then so that's that's uh that gives you a state the state of the psalmist as you go through the psalm now in this next one what specific reasons does he give God in his petition for deliverance.

And there may be more than one for this. What what is the reason that God he wants God to deliver him. Pastor Steve. Yeah. Excellent. Very clear. And I think as each of you who trust in God that's basically like a child going to the father and saying daddy I need help and I'm your child.

That's basically verse two. Yes Peggy. Right. And I think that's it's helpful to note this because when you just read through it fast you might say I know this God is merciful and gracious low to anger love and faithfulness of God.

But those need to be fixed in our minds through those trials. Because in those trials when I'm just looking at all the other circumstances I need to remind myself and recognize the power of God and his love toward us.

And that's the character of God in verse 15. Someone else. Yes that's continuing the theme of the character of God. Yes that's right. And before that again the graciousness of God he is gracious and he is strong.

Okay there's there's a few more here but I'll skip through so we can actually finish the psalm. So the next one is what is the vow that the psalmist makes. And I need to explain this a little bit more.

But can you see something that the psalmist says he will do or fulfill. That's right. Um and I think they together they kind of give you the two sides of this coin the first one being that um in in verse 11 uh that I might walk in your truth but I may uh be taught of you and I might live the way that you have intended me to live.

And in verse 12 he has this I will glorify your name forever. And I think the implication there as you would see in the other psalms is come together in the assembly of God and to praise him. Now I want to just say this because the term vow sounds should sound odd because I think we are more familiar with those quid pro quo deals where you know God I'll I promise you to do this you get me out of here and that's not the mindset of the psalmist.

It's not like I'm going to do this and therefore you need to do this to me. It is because God is gracious God is steadfast God is loving. God is uh committed to his people and this is a given and here the psalmist is recognizing his responsibility in order to give thanks to God for what God is actually committed to doing to his people.

It is not the other way around so and I want to be very clear with that because as a you know human interactions we are more used to transactions. I give this and you give this back to me but here the transaction is is all on the basis of God and his character his commitment to us that we will not be faithless.

And I think that's the context of the vow. It's like okay God rescued me. Now I go back to watching tv. You know that's not what the psalmist is saying. That's how I was to say. You know I am committed to the way following in the way of the Lord and I will glorify my God when this trouble is over and not forget about my God all right.

Applying Psalm 86 to Counseling and Daily Trials

Um now uh in your in your notes and in point number two you find the problems in our lives that match the psalmist lament uh in either general or specific terms. So so you have a whole bunch of psalms here.

Some of the psalms like I said deal with us um affliction brought around by other people. So maybe you're in a job that um you know unbelievers do not like you and they're out there to get you kicked out.

Or you could be in a marriage situation which could be very difficult and troubling. Here are trials that are brought upon by others and you can very easily identify with the type of trials that the psalmist is going through.

So you may feel the same kind of um affliction. And then the psalmist here is giving us and it's very nice because here I am unpacking it for you. But when you read these psalms in the midst of your trial you basically resonate with what this psalmist went through and you can see how the lord aided him in the midst of his trial as well.

Point number three apply the truths in the psalm directly to this counselee's situation as if the counselee's problems with that of the psalmist. So when you see a genuine match between what is going on in that particular psalm and what is going on in the counselee's life these if I don't have to remind you again this is the word of god.

God has given this revelation to us in order to minister to us to speak to us his truth. And that's basically what we are doing. So we say this is how god aids his people. And this is how my mind ought to reflect the truths of god when I am more tempted to lie down and bury myself and not act as we were talking earlier in the context of fear when I am incapable of acting in the way that I ought to act.

You come here and see what the psalmist does and respond in like manner. And actually this questionnaire is something in point four helpful for one who is ministering to another. But this is what I do when I am going through my trial.

I like to take one psalm and then meditate on it. That's basically what a questionnaire is as you walk through what is going on in the life of the psalmist. And walk through what are those particular circumstances those symptoms that I see my fearfulness my inability to act my mind being scattered in a lot of different ways.