A Word in Season: Lifted Up (Psalm116:6)

Media Gratiae

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Psalm 116 and verse 5 and following speak in this sweet way.

00:05

Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple.

00:12

I was brought low and he saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the

00:18

Lord has dealt bountifully with you. I was brought low, says the psalmist, and he saved me.

00:26

That's true in measure of our entrance into life as believers. No one really comes to God until they first come to the end of themselves.

00:36

That may be a more striking experience and sense. It may be something that develops gradually over time.

00:44

But until we realize we are sick, we feel no real need of the doctor.

00:50

And so we need to be brought low. And for some of us, that's a painful experience in a particular degree, because naturally we are proud and puffed up.

01:00

We think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We imagine that we are fine by ourselves.

01:06

And until we realize our sin, our need, our dependence upon God to save us, we will not come to him.

01:14

But we are brought low by God that we might be lifted up. Again, perhaps it's our experience of trying to save ourselves, and we become exhausted with the effort.

01:25

It might be the word of God that perhaps in a moment or over time peels back the layers of our rubbery souls and deals with the very heart of the matter and shows us our sin and our need, shows us the beauty and the glory of Christ as Savior.

01:43

And it is then as those brought low that we come to God and find that he is both willing and able still to save sinners like us who cast ourselves upon him in our need so that we can say, the

01:57

Lord has dealt bountifully with me. But this is not just our experience in first coming to Christ Jesus.

02:06

It's not just the first movement toward God. It's our continual experience in this world.

02:13

Often as believers, we are brought low. We can be brought low outwardly.

02:19

We can be brought low inwardly. We can sometimes be needing to be instructed to have again the bubble of our pride popped.

02:30

God can bring us low by sickness. He can bring us low by a renewed sense of our sin.

02:36

He can bring us low by desertion, especially perhaps in times of need, distance from friends.

02:43

And very often at this time, many feel that exposure to temptation. We can be brought into the hands of enemies.

02:51

Our reputation can suffer. We can fall into trouble. We can be brought into economic poverty.

02:58

Our faith can be shaken. Our plans can be brought to nothing. And we need to be brought low very often.

03:05

It's painful. It's distressing. It's a great grief and sorrow of soul. But we do need to be brought low.

03:14

And it is at that point so often that we find that God is still there to help us.

03:20

Perhaps initially we've forgotten that. Perhaps again we've fallen into that old pattern of trying to help ourselves and sort ourselves out.

03:30

And yet at the point of lowness, we find God is both willing and able to go on saving us, to grant to us new deliverances, to lift us up over again.

03:43

There is no limit to God's capacity to save us. It's rescue in its entirety.

03:51

It's delivering us from destruction. God has done it for his people. And he keeps doing it for his people.

03:59

And it's because of his character. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes, our

04:05

God is merciful. He's ready to bestow favor on those who don't deserve any good from him.

04:12

He always acts in perfect righteousness and justice. He is merciful, not dealing with us as our sins deserve.

04:21

And that's why he preserves or takes care of the simple, the vulnerable, those who cannot take care of themselves.

04:28

And so when we are brought low, where can we turn and where should we turn?

04:34

The help of man is empty. We ourselves and other creatures do not have the strength and sometimes even the will, the desire to do us any good.

04:46

But God is able. When brought low, he saves his people.

04:52

He loves us, he keeps us, and he blesses us. And so we should return to our rest,