The Rock that is Higher Than I - Brandon Scalf

This evening, Psalm 61, and the title of today's message is

The Rock That Is Higher Than I. And so if you would, please stand with me for the honoring and reading of God's holy and fallible and all -sufficient word.

Psalm 61, this is the word of God.

For the choir director on a stringed instrument of David, hear my cry of lamentation,

O God. Give heed to my prayer. From the end of the earth,

I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been a refuge for me, a tower of strength before the enemy.

Let me sojourn in your tent forever, and let me take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

For you, O God, have heard my vows. You have given me the inheritance of those who fear your name, and you will add days to the king's life.

His years will be from generation to generation, and he will sit enthroned before God forever.

Appoint loving kindness and truth that they may guard him. So I will sing praise to your name forever as I pay my vows day by day.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever, amen? Amen, go ahead and have a seat and get your eyes back on verse one, verse one.

Many years ago, a theologian by the name of A .W. Tozer once said, faith, like a muscle, grows by stretching.

You see, hardship in life is the very thing we need if we want our faith to be bolstered, if we want our faith to grow.

I don't have to remind you, especially in regard to the season that we are in as a church, that there are, in fact, dark valleys of life.

And in the deepest shadows where our souls feel stretched and strained, the psalmist here,

David, is going to teach us that our cries do not have to be, or in some cases, should never be, silent.

There are times in life when the weight of sorrow, the sting of isolation, and the ache of unmet longings press in so heavily that we can only lift our voices to God from the depths of utter despair.

Well, that's where David's at in this psalm. It's where many of us find ourselves in many different seasons in life.

And so we see here, David, a man after God's own heart, he is lifting a loud cry, a prayer of desperation.

But one of the things that you notice as we read through that, and as it will become more clear as we move through it, is that he had an unwavering faith.

So on the one hand, he could be completely stretched to his breaking point.

His heart can be absolutely shattered, and yet he is steadfast knowing whom he has believed in.

David has been, if you pay attention to the Old Testament, pursued by many enemies.

He's had many sin failures of his own, and yet he is still held up by the hand of God.

Now, we don't know exactly what situation was going on when this psalm was penned.

There are a lot of clues in this specific psalm that help us to understand what it could have been, based on different references, specifically to things about the temple, which means that it was still standing, and all of these different things that are pointing to the reality that it could have been at a time when

David was fleeing from his son Absalom, who wanted his head, who wanted his throne, and was doing everything that he could to usurp his authority and cause everyone's heart to lean in to him, but we don't know.

And it could be many other situations. David often found himself rather in tumultuous seasons, both sin in his own life and sin against him and people trying to kill him.

And so he, here, and it's really the only thing that we are crystal clear on, is having a vulnerable yet victorious plea to God.

So let us dive into these verses. Let us learn how we might consider hardship and trial.

Let us consider how we might consider our own cries, how we might need to think through who our refuge is and our longings, and who we ought to expect to do the helping.

Many times in life, we find ourselves lifted to a place of greater faith, greater confidence, and greater worship, and we find ourselves there in the midst of the storms themselves.

And that is specifically how God has designed it to work, because even though there are storms, even though there are shadows, we are often reminded in that unshakable or in that shakable situation that there is an unshakable rock, a firm foundation who is unmoved, unshaken, and unassailable.

And that is God, the rock of our salvation. And so as we look at this psalm, the first thing that I want you to note, the first point that I have is

David's cry. Now, this is a psalm like every other psalm that begins with some sort of a plea.

Not every psalm has a plea, but there are a lot of them written by David that begins with a sort of cry for help.

This is no different. He begins by saying, hear my cry of lamentation,

O God, and give heed to my prayer. David here is essentially showing his cards.

He's letting us know what trouble he has found himself in. He's exposing his complete and utter desperation.

This word for cry in the Hebrew suggests something more than just a simple weeping, a simple cry where tears simply fall.

No, no, no, but something that is more urgent than that. It's not a mere whisper.

It's not a shout, but it's, and here's what the Hebrew points to, a shriek of the soul that carries with it the tone of distress.

It's a, in other words, desperate shout. So he's not just in his prayer closet praying in a whispering tone where he's just,

Lord, would you please help me? No, he feels it so much so that he is crying out in such a way that he probably would not be pleasant to listen to.

He's weeping, he's wailing. He's wailing because he feels hopeless, but he knows he's not hopeless, which is why he actually is calling out to God in this way.

He needs deliverance, and he knows there is one who can deliver. He goes on to say, after saying, hear my cry of lamentation, my cry of despair, oh

God. Give heed to my prayer, pay attention to it. And he's not demanding something of God in so much as he is expecting

God to do that which he is crying out for. He's not demanding him do something that he doesn't want to do.

He knows that God will hear him. And he continues on in verse two, from the end of the earth,

I call to you. So we have a cry and we have a call, and he's calling out to God and tells us something about his inner disposition.

Of course, the cry of lamentation teaches us where he is at in terms of his emotional state, but here it deepens.

His heart is faint. Another way to say this throughout the scriptures is crushed in spirit.

Crushed in spirit. And what this is doing, what he is doing, as he's helping his readers understand, he's helping us understand, that the reality is sometimes human beings can be pushed to the point of being absolutely weary.

That his heart would buckle. That the trials have so burdened

David's soul, whatever they might be. And he's obviously not anywhere near Jerusalem, which is where he would want to be, where the temple is at, because he says, from the end of the earth,

I call to you. Now, there's a lot of commentators who will argue with this here and say, well, he could be talking about being far from Jerusalem, which would make sense, right?

Because if he's running from Absalom, he's probably hiding in the mountains. He's obviously not going to be around where everybody else is going to be around because he's fearful for his life.

I think that's true. And there's also people who would say, well, no, he's not talking about this, this is poetry.

And so what's actually being said here is he's actually painting a picture of his emotional state even further.

It's as if, from the ends of the earth, he is being, he's crying out to God.

I think both of these things, in these types of situations, I don't think we have to pick one or the other.

It's probably true that he was not anywhere near Jerusalem. And it's also true that he is not doing well at all.

His heart is faint, it is giving up on him. He has emptied of all sorts of inner strength.

And here's what you need to hear. This is what you need to hear in this moment. And what

David is teaching us, right, is that that's okay sometimes.

You just gotta know who to take it to. Strong faith is not faith that is never hurting.

It is just faith that never wavers in the rock with whom we must run to, we must be led to.

And David is showing us that right now. And this, of course, echoes Psalm 34, 18, where David says, the

Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. And so if the Lord here is near the brokenhearted and he saves those who are crushed in spirit, or you could say faint at heart, then it would be a logical conclusion to follow that, well, we must come to him with these things, right?

I fear too many people, far too many Christians, they might wallow in despair, they might be brokenhearted, they might be crushed in spirit, but they think that that is not real, vibrant faith.

And so they need to clean themselves up. They need to get more, right, more strong in their belief of what's going to happen.

But that is not what David is modeling for us at all. No, no, no, you feel those things.

And before you clean yourself up, so to speak, before you have a situation where you're trying to get your ducks in a row, you come to the one who can help.

You come to the one who can help.

And so the imagery here, in both paints the picture of him being far away from the place that he loves the most, while at the same time, conveying this physical distance, it parallels the emotional and spiritual desolation that he feels.

And in some ways, and many commentators have said this, that his location away from the temple even symbolizes his need for his spiritual nearness to God.

Right, because that's where the temple is at. So if he's far away from Jerusalem, he's far away from the temple.

Under the old covenant, he was far away from God. He needed God, he wanted

God, he longed for God. And he felt far from his presence.

So what is the response? Well, to look to God.

We look here at the next half of verse two. He says, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Now there's some sort of imagery here that you're gonna want to pick up on. And that is this. If he is in fact hiding in the caverns and the caves and running away from Absalom, he's most certainly down in the wilderness and not up on the mountains, right?

Because that's an easy place to see someone running around. And so he's longing for this rock who is higher than he is.

And of course, he's speaking of God himself, Yahweh. Yahweh.

This term rock in the Hebrew here, it conveys a solidness, an immovable thing or person.

More than that, it conveys a place of complete and utter safety in the face of instability.

So if you're moving, if you're being tossed, if you're being, right? If life is hard and you're in the valley, this thing is here and it's not going anywhere and you can trust it.

If there's waves, you're on the rock. We trust in this rock.

We love this rock. This rock is God. This rock is, and we'll get here momentarily,

Christ himself. And this is why Charles Spurgeon has famously said, amidst trials,

I have learned. I have learned to love the waves that push me into the rock of ages.

The torrents of the water are good because they lead me to the rock that is higher than ourselves.

What is interesting here is that he doesn't say, I'm gonna go to the rock, but he says, lead me to the rock.

David acknowledges that he cannot elevate himself to this rock. He must be led by God, in other words, to God so that he might rest under the protecting arm of God.

And the reason that this is important to note is because it literally is a confrontation against human pride, against your pride, against our pride.

We cannot even help ourselves help ourselves. We need God. We need

God to be directly involved. We need him to provide for our salvation.

And I think that we're all on the same page here, having walked through the book of Ephesians, but also with security in times of trouble.

The good news is we have a God who delights to do just that. This rock is higher than David, he's higher than us, but that does not mean that he is above the fray.

The good news about this rock is he gets in our business and he helps us where we are at.

He's high and we must be led. We must be led.

Now, it's hard to know exactly what David was thinking of when he wrote this, it's an obvious assertion.

However, Charles Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon said, commenting on this particular psalm, this, quote, for our part, not only do we need a rock, we also need the

Holy Spirit to lead us to him. Our rock is Christ, but none of us come to Christ by ourselves.

And we need the Holy Spirit to quicken our dead souls, awaken us to our spiritual need, renew our wills, and bring us to the point of personal commitment to the

Savior. And Spurgeon, today, ships often ran upon the rocks off the coast of England, and mariners were cast into the water and they often drowned and died horrible deaths.

They would, if they didn't die, find themselves struggling at the base of high cliffs, knowing they would not be safe if they could only get up the steep, slippery face of those rocks.

Sadly, they often could not. At one place, according to Spurgeon, a man who lived at the top of one of these cliffs carved stone steps into the rock face so that wrecked mariners could climb up.

And when the steps became badly worn and impassable over time, someone else added more steps and a chain railing to help them, as well as a bridge.

And because of that, in light of this text as well, Spurgeon observed this, quote, "'How infinitely higher than we "'is the salvation of God.

"'We are low and groveling, "'but it towers like some tall cliff far above us.

"'This is its glory. "'And it is our delight when we have once climbed "'onto the rock and claimed an interest in it, "'but while we are as yet trembling seekers, "'the glory and sublimeness of salvation appall us.

"'And we feel that we are too unworthy "'even to partake of it. "'Hence, we are led to cry for grace upon grace "'and to see how dependent we are for everything, "'not only for the

Savior, "'but for the power to believe on Him "'and the security with which we find ourselves needing.'"

Heritage, let me ask you this. In moments of desperation, where do you turn?

Where do you turn? When you are at your weakest, what do you do?

Do you try to figure out what to do next? Do you create a plan of action?

Or do you cry out to God first? Do you lean on yourself or do you lean on the rock that is

Christ? The rock that David clings to, friends, if it's not obvious, is available to you.

Available to you, whether you are weary, whether you are scared, whether you are anxious, and the strength that He will supply as you come to Him surpasses human understanding, a peace that far exceeds the situations that you are in.

We don't have to be fearful when we know who our rock is.

So as Christians, we must be quick to rely on our resources or be quick to deny our resources and strength that we think that we have in ourselves and cast all things, like the psalmist is here doing on this rock, the true refuge, and in so doing, realizing our own helplessness and our own frailty.

And it's in those moments that the sovereign God makes Himself most known.

He delights in that. The second point, the second thing that I want you to note is this,

David's remembrance. David's remembrance. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, or maybe someone reading this for the first time might conclude, why does he have such a desperation and why does he want to be led to this rock that is higher than he, that is most obviously the

God whom he is crying out to? The answer for that is, in fact, this. He's seen

God's faithfulness in the past and he can trust

Him for tomorrow what He has done for him yesterday. So not only is he aware, as we look at this, and we will, not only is he reminded of God's past protection, but also competent in his persistent faithfulness.

Look with me at the next verse, verse three. He says, for you have been.

This is past tense language. For you have been a refuge for me.

So there's been other times, David is saying, where I have needed protection, where I have needed safety, where I have made a refuge and you came through.

It may not have been exactly when I wanted or how I wanted, but you were my refuge. I hid myself in you.

Under you. A tower of strength before the enemy.

You see here, David understands that God has been his place of safety.

That's what the Hebrew word refuge means, literally. A place or a palace of safety or a sanctuary.

Not a sanctuary itself, but like having a sanctuary. David has been shielded before and he has not changed.

God is always the same. In other words, David is saying, the

Lord has been David's haven from all storms, which is why you can look to him.

And this tower imagery builds on that because in ancient times, towers were tall.

They are now, but they were fortified so that people could not put anyone in those towers in danger.

And as he thinks about these towers, he's thinking about God. He thinks about their strength, he thinks about his strength.

When he thinks about their security, he thinks about God's security above his adversaries and above his situations.

And he knows that since he's been that before, as I've already said, it's going to continue on.

It's not just some simple nostalgia either. It's rock solid certainty in God's character.

It's rock solid certainty in God's character. In other words,

God has not failed David because God would never fail David. God has never harmed

David because he would never harm David. And because he has not, because he will not, he never will.

And he never will for anyone who is under covenant blessing, underneath him as the rock.

And this is something that we need to hear because remembrance and understanding who God is is in many ways fuel for faith.

David's confidence in his present troubles springs forth from God's proven track record.

So this acts as a bedrock for his many trials.

Things may seem hard now, things may get harder. The question you have to ask yourself no matter what season of life you find you're in, find that you're in, is you need to think about past mercies.

Because when we get in the middle of a situation, we can often find ourselves flailing about, hurting, and spiraling and thinking there's no way this could ever get better.

There's no way God would ever show faithfulness in this situation. It's all over from here. No, in those moments, do what

David does and attempt to recall times God has been utterly faithful. And let that not be the wind in your sails exactly, but let it be the thing that governs your heart as you're working through these sorts of things.

As good as, and I'll say this, as good as past things are, as good as past memories are, we have a more sure word even than our own experience of God, which is found in this word here, which tells us whether or not we feel that or remember it.

Maybe our memory is failing, maybe we're hurting so bad we can't see the truth of his faithfulness.

We have his record of it right here. For many people other than ourselves, and we have his promises.

And that will do us well. And so the

Christian life in many ways is all about looking back to look forward, trusting in God's unchanging nature, unchanging promises, and unchanging rockness.

The third thing that I want you to see, the third point here is David's expectant requests.

So now he's moving from crying. He is moving past remembrance and trust in his current circumstances to expectant requests.

Because of God's faithfulness, and because he is sure that God will hear his prayer, he now begins to make some requests.

Longings are going to pour from his heart, and he's going to do it in this way.

Look with me here at verse four. Verse four, he cries out, let me sojourn in your tent forever, and let me take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

Now this idea of sheltering underneath wings should be very familiar to you as we walked through the book of Ruth not too long ago.

And we did a deep dive in there. But the idea here is twofold.

Well, it's like really fourfold if you take the two pieces of imagery together, but let's take them one at a time.

The idea here that he would request to sojourn in his tent would be essentially him asking if he could be in his tabernacle or his house or whatever, but forever.

Not just here in space and time, but forever.

So this is an eternal request. This is not a request for now, right?

Because we know, and if you don't know, you should know that you might die in the midst of trial.

Trial on this side of heaven might just continue to be a trial until you see

Jesus Christ face to face. But here's the deal. God has promised never to let your trial endure forever.

In fact, the end of the Bible ends with one of the most beautiful promises that exists, namely that God will wipe every tear from our eye.

Everything that caused us pain, every pain that we have caused other people, these pains will be wiped from our eyes.

Ailments that we experienced and others that we love experienced, all of those tears, gone.

Everything that we experience here that hurts will be done away with. And God, as Romans chapter eight, verse 28 and following, says that he works all things for the good of those who love him.

He works all things for good for those who love him. So every single trial that you faced here and now is going to eventually be worked for your good.

Now, your good is not indiscriminate your good. It's not your good if you just exist.

It is your good if you know Christ, right? Because if you are in Christ, if you are trusting in this rock, then when bad things happen to you,

God sovereignly works those things for good even if it's in the eschaton. But if you do not know

Christ, if you are not in this rock, if you are not standing on that firm foundation, then bad stuff just happened to you and then you die.

And then bad stuff continues to happen to you for eternity. But not

God's people. But not God's people, which is why he says, let me take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

Throughout the Bible, God is pictured as this great mother hen who is gathering chicks under her wings.

But this could also be pointing not just to that reality or not even that reality, but he might be thinking of the wings that are in the tabernacle.

He might be thinking of the wings that set upon the

Ark of the Covenant, which showed God's presence to be with God's people.

So most certainly it echoes the protection of a mother bird over her young. Not only does it signal for us this protective nature that God has about him, surrounding and encompassing his people, but also

God's complete and utter presence as a refuge.

One that offers more than temporary safety, but eternal safety. Or one that offers more than temporary help, but eternal help.

Do you see what I'm saying? This is why he wants to sojourn in his tent forever.

That's what matters. He wants to take refuge in the shelter of his wings forever.

Eternally, he wants to be near God. When you are in trials and tribulations and suffering, is your first response to get out of that or is it to get closer to God?

Because there's a right and a wrong answer here. Do you notice that not once has David said, even though I'm crying out to you, even though I'm lamenting, even though my heart is fainting,

I want to be led to the rock. I want to be in that strong tower.

I want to sojourn with him. I want to take refuge under his wings.

You see, the Christian response is not in situations that are hard to flee and get out of those hard situations, but to go to the one who can sustain you in those trials and tribulations.

Anything else is just pagan and it makes you the

God of your own problems. And here's the thing, if you don't know it, you being the

God of your own problems not going to work out very well. So do you, even now, maybe you're not feeling like you're in a trial.

I don't know how that would be possible, but let's just say for the sake of argument, that's true. Do you even now desire to dwell in God's presence?

Because as I have said many times, heaven and heaven's not the goal, right? Being with God is the goal, which just happens to be heaven, right?

But heaven is not a place for people who are scared of hell. It's not for people who want to get out of trial and tribulation.

It's for people who love God. So if you don't love God now and you don't love God's people now, you're gonna hate eternity.

So seek God as your hiding place, not only in emergencies, but in every single season that exists, trusting yourself to him, letting yourself be comforted by him and his strength.

So as we've seen, David is not asking for a temporary rescue but an enduring residence in God's presence, a sanctuary that no storm can shake, a rock standing in the middle of the ocean, an eternal ocean.

Now, verses three and four, and then we get to verse five.

We get to verse five and we see, and this is my fourth point,

David's competence. David's competence. But before we look specifically at verse five,

I want to pair it with what we've already seen. This let me sojourn in your tent forever. Let me take refuge in your shelter of your wings.

And then we move into verse five. For you, O God, have heard my vows. You have given me the inheritance of those who fear your name, and you will add days to the king's life.

His years will be from generation to generation. Here we see something beautiful that fuels his competence, but is almost an outworking and outflowing of everything he's said thus far, which is this, that his permanent, his desire to permanently abide with God flows out of his understanding of God's covenantal promises.

If the tent refers to the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God among his people, and the wings echo the cherubim that overshadowed the mercy seat,

David is most certainly appealing to God on the basis of his promises.

And depending on how you look at it, and we'll get into this at a later time, his covenant, a profound claim of belonging to God and to his people and inheritance.

God's covenant faithfulness guarantees that he will shelter

David. And if you are in covenant with this God, this same guarantee that will follow you.

And so heritage, listen. The new covenant, the covenant of grace has opened a fuller revelation of God's refuge in Christ.

We, if we are in Christ, if we are in covenant with him, we dwell in the shadow of the almighty through Christ's work.

We stand on this rock because of Christ, because of his doings and not our own.

Because of him, we can be led to this rock. In other words, because of Christ and God's covenant with his people that he realized in space and time, in the cross of Jesus Christ, he can actually answer

David's prayer. He can answer your prayer. And so we need not fear the storms of life when we stand under the shelter of the wings of our redeemer whose covenant love is unbreakable, it's unshakable.

It's unassailable. It is everywhere all the time. And you need not fear being away or not under it.

God loves his covenant people and he is for them. It doesn't matter.

But you see here, David moves from his cry, though a faith -fueled cry to competence, affirming the strength that he finds in God's promises and his provision.

Verse 5, for you, O God, have heard my vows. You have given me the inheritance of those who fear your name. You will add days to the king's life.

His years will be from generation to generation, and he will sit in throne before God forever.

He's speaking, of course, of his lineage. And of course, it's true that he will add days to the king's life.

His years will be from generation to generation, and he will sit in throne before God forever.

Who is he speaking of here, friends? The Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, God had to protect him. Because if David died, so did

God's promises. Friends, David lived.

David lived, and now his seed sits enthroned before God forever, and this son is

God. He's the God -man. And he sits now in heaven, ruling.

And so David trusts that God's covenant love will preserve him because he's seen him do it.

He believes his word, and he knows that he is going to even appoint him loving kindness, which is, this is verse seven at the end here, appoint loving kindness and truth to guard him.

It's beautiful. He's exuding confidence here. He's praying that God would prolong his life.

And what's beautiful about this is he's praying for himself. God's going to fulfill that in him, and yet this points to a bigger and more beautiful reality in the

Lord Jesus Christ. The word loving kindness here, translated steadfast love in the

ESV, and faithfulness in other translations, underscores a trust that is not merely for the present, a loving kindness, a kindness that we don't deserve that is ate up with love.

David sees his salvation and his security not as something momentary, like I've said, but divine provision that reaches all the way into eternity, which is this

God -given heritage, this inheritance. David here is confident that God has established his inheritance, his covenant blessings.

And it's not flimsy, it's a covenant. It doesn't blow over when the winds get strong, but it holds true and fast, even in the darkest of times, in the darkest of moments.

And sometimes, that type of faith hires you to extend your hope to a future you can't yet see.

God's there, and he's orchestrating and ordaining all things that come to pass. Where does your confidence lie?

A God who could do that? A God who can protect you? Or if we go back here, can protect you if you're

David, and also make sure that the line of David and the

Messiah comes to be. A God who is this committed to his covenant faithfulness, because it's only this

God, this rock, who will not fail. It's only these promises that are eternal.

It's only him who will stand firm amidst an unchanging and unpredictable world, relationships, and church.

My last point, my last point is this, David's praise.

David's praise. One of the things that David teaches us in this Psalm is something that we need to really take to heart.

And that is, yes, we need to cry to God. We need to oftentimes lament when we find ourselves in these very hard situations.

We need to call out to him, even when our heart is fainting. And we need to go to him by asking him to lead us to him, and we need to find our refuge in him and remember what he has done for us and what he has promised to do for us.

And we need to request him to remind us of or reveal to us his covenant blessings as his people.

But we don't just stop there because that's not good enough. We must also praise.

David closes this lament Psalm, which by the way, that is what scholars often call this a royal lament

Psalm or a royal, even a royal Psalm, speaking of course of David, pointing to the Messiah. But here he ends with a declaration of praise.

Look with me at verse eight. He says, so I will sing praises to your name forever. The same eternity -driven understanding of things is continuing to go on.

As I pay my vows day by day, he says. He will sing praise.

And apparently, according to the superscription above, with stringed instruments. Sorry, exclusive psalmists.

Singing praise to God's name forever.

And David here, as it says here, as I pay my vows day by day, is seemingly committing himself to a daily commitment to honor

God and to praise him. He promises his whole heart to this

God forever, forever. And he's moving about with ceaseless gratitude because of what he has done, doing, and will do.

He has protected him, he is protecting him, and he has promised to always protect his covenant people.

And so his praise here is not one of forced obedience. It's the natural, actually,

I don't like that I wrote that. It's the supernatural outflow, right? Logically, it's natural, but we're not given over to that quite so easily, but it's the supernatural outflow of a heart mesmerized with God and what he has done, and what he is doing, and what he will do, as the rock who is higher than we.

David is committed to being faithful forever because the

God who sustained him is the God whom he trusts, the God whom he loves, and the God whom he knows will get him out of every situation.

Somehow, this isn't the prosperity gospel.

It's just Bible. Life may hurt all the way until you see

Jesus, but there is a time where hurt stops. And even in the midst of hurt,

God has promised to sustain his people. He has promised to give them a peace that surpasses all understanding, and that comes from a knowledge of who

God is and what he has done, namely, especially for us on the other side of the cross, in the person and work of the

Lord Jesus Christ. In that cross, friends, accomplished by that rock, we have every bit of protection we will ever need.

If you were never given another dollar to buy another bit of food, if you were never given a paycheck to pay your rent, if you were never healed of any ailments this side of heaven, if you would lose everything around you, you'd have more than you need if you have

Christ. If you're standing on that rock and that foundation, everything can blow up around you, and you will move forward because you know, as Paul says in the

New Testament, whom you have believed in. You've been reconciled to God.

It's more than you'll deserve. It's more than you need, because one day, as this Psalm teaches us and other

Psalms, we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Do you praise God like this? Do you think about praise like this?

Can you praise God in the midst of trial like this or are praising moments, so to speak, only available to you when you are in a season of comfort?

Can you praise God when your face has been pushed to the dust or when you think everything around you is going to explode?

Because even then, we must and we get to praise. In other words, true praise perseveres because God perseveres.

True praise continues to praise because our praise to our

God does not depend upon our circumstances as if he were some sort of genie, but on his character, on his nature, and on his workings and his doings of Jesus Christ.

And so, heritage saints, David's cries, remembrance, his expectant requests, his confidence, and his praise all point us to our need for God, who is our rock.

And this rock, of course, as we continue on through the New Testament, as we see here in this text, is none other than Jesus Christ himself, who endured the ultimate separation so that we might be forever close to God.

And in him, we find the ultimate refuge. And we are called to rest upon this rock.

And when we cry out in desperation, it's this rock who is ours. And he has proven his past faithfulness by walking up Galgotha's Hill and bleeding on behalf of every single one who would bow their knee to him.

He's proved his faithfulness as he was mocked and spit on and bludgeoned.

And he proves his faithfulness by being there for us now as our great high priest, as our king, as everything that is everything.

And so in your own lives, in our lives as a church, we have one thing to do.

When trouble finds us, we must turn to the unshakable, the immovable, or as Martin Luther has said, the mighty fortress, who is promised to never leave us and to never forsake us.

And it's to him who we must lift up our cry to. And it's him who we must cling to by faith.

And we must always continually pray and praise and ask, lead me, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you. We thank you that you are a rock much higher than us. You can see what we can't see.

You can do what we can't do. You stand above the fray because you ordain it.

You are sovereign over it. And oftentimes you bring it to us so that we might learn to ask, lead us to the rock that is higher than us.

And I ask this evening, as we close out the Lord's day here at Heritage, that you would impress the truths of this word on our hearts and that you would help us to stand strong, no matter the hardship, no matter the trial, no matter what we are going through.

Help us, Lord, to love you, to seek you and to honor you.