From Despair To Hope - [Psalm 13]

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Father, our prayer this morning is the prayer of the psalmists. Open our eyes that we may behold wonderful things from your law.
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In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Hopelessness can lead to despairing even of life itself.
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Hopelessness can lead to despairing even of life itself. Listen to the words of scriptures from some men of God who bear witness to that truth.
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Quote, if you will treat me like this, kill me at once. If I find favor in your sight that I may not see my wretchedness.
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Close quote. That was Moses, the leader of Israel. When a nation of Israel was complaining and grumbling and murmuring that they were in the wilderness and they were crying out for meat.
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And Moses was saying to God, I didn't sign up for this. Did I conceive this people?
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Did I give birth to them that you have let me bear the burden alone? And God was so upset with their murmuring and grumbling.
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He said to the nation of Israel, I'll give you meat not only for one day, not for two days, for a month until it's coming out of your nostrils.
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And Moses said, if you will treat me like this. Here's another one.
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Quote, let the day perish on which I was born. And the night that said a man is conceived.
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Why did I not die at birth? Come out from the womb. And expire.
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Close quote. Any guesses? Job. Here's another one from one of the major prophets.
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Quote, curse be the day on which I was born. Is a good qualification for a prophet, right?
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He continues. Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow and spend my days in shame?
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Close quote. That's the weeping prophet. Jeremiah, who, by the way, when
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God called them, what a ministry to be called to. He says, Jeremiah, I'm calling you to go to this people and to speak to them.
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Oh, but by the way, no one's going to listen to you. You want to sign up for that ministry?
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Yet another one. Quote, therefore, now, oh, Lord, please take my life from me.
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For it is better for me to die. And to live. I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.
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Close quote. Jonah. Who tells God that was the reason that he was disobedient?
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Initially, as we will see. And last but not least from the New Testament. Quote, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
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The great apostle Paul in his opening chapters, the second Corinthians.
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All these statements bear witness to the truth that hopelessness can lead even to despairing of life itself.
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When we had our men's retreat back in December, my office was a mess and it was time for me to clean it up.
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And it's one of those things, you know, when you decide to clean up something in your house, you find things you never knew still existed. But this was a good one.
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I found a letter from my Sunday school teacher when I was a kid. Written in Greek.
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It's all Greek to you, I know. She had been struggling with cancer.
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And my wife and I, before we had children, went to visit her. She was living in Arizona, but she was coming out here to Boston for treatments.
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And I said, when she comes out here, we need to go visit her. And we did. We visited with her. And this is what she writes in the letter.
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Some of what I translated to see even in the midst of her difficulty, the hope that she had.
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And I quote what she wrote. Many times she wrote, we think that God, we think that to God we will bring just the big problems.
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No, every problem, she says, we are to bring to him and trust him. I'm saying this from experience.
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He is the same God. He is faithful, she says. So many years he has been faithful to his promises that now he's going to be made out to be a liar.
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Ask and I will give. But first, the kingdom of God and the others will be added. Naturally, man always murmurs.
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I will never forget one story. This is funny. They asked why God made man last.
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One answered, because man will always murmur against God and would say this worm.
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We don't need it. Leave it alone. This thorn, it's useless. Thus, God made man last once he made everything else in peace.
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She continues, God gives us so many good things and we don't say anything.
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But when something bad comes along, we go after him. Wait, she says, we don't know what will come later.
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You don't know the plans of God. Words of hope, and she continued even in her state to not only give words of hope, but encouragement to me, and she finishes the letter this way.
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I pray that the Lord will allow you to see fruit and that you will glorify God and you rejoice when you see that the seed and the labor didn't go to waste.
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Sometimes we think for some of those who are indifferent and ask ourselves, where are the other nine?
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It's okay, my son, you do the work that the Lord gave you to do. Do not get discouraged.
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Turn with me, if you will, in the Old Testament to Psalm chapter 13. Psalm chapter 13.
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In the midst of difficulty, in the midst of trials, when there is hopelessness and utter despair, even of life.
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But yet, as we will see here from the pen of David, that there can be hope even in the midst of difficulty.
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Psalm 13. How long,
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O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
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How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
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How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me,
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O Lord, my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.
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Lest my enemy say I have prevailed over him, lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
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But I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
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I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.
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Note at the beginning of the psalm, which is actually in the original Hebrew text, a lot of the psalms have a title, a subtitle, if you will, explaining the background sometimes, the author of the psalm.
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But notice what it says at the beginning in your Bibles, it should say there before verse one, to whom?
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To the choir master. To the choir master.
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We have at the beginning of our worship service in your bulletin, you'll see, called to worship. This is a call to lament.
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To the choir master. The Book of Psalms, John Calvin described as following, quote, it's an anatomy of all the parts of the soul, an anatomy of all the parts of the soul.
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I love that. I remember when I was younger, my best friend, the days of the good news Bible translation, his psalms, the
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Book of Psalms in his Bible was just covered with markings. He would go to it often. Why?
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Because it is an anatomy of all the parts of our soul. There are different types of psalms.
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These are not hard and fast lines and rules. There are psalms within psalms, just like different genres of the
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Bible. For example, you have narratives, the New Testament narratives, the gospels. And within those narratives, you have another genre, parables, for example.
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But these categories are there to help us understand the different types of psalms. For instance, there are psalms of thanksgiving, pretty self -explanatory, that give thanks to Yahweh.
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There are royal psalms, which focus on Christ as a sovereign ruler. Messianic psalms, if you will.
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There are those that are called enthronement psalms, that focus on the sovereign rule of Yahweh.
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There are wisdom psalms. This is, after all, the psalms is part of the greater part of Scripture, called the wisdom literature.
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And then there are imprecatory psalms, which invoke God's wrath and judgment against sinners.
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But the most are psalms of lament. Fifty of them, out of 150 psalms, one -third of the book of psalms are psalms of lament.
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Now, if you were writing the Bible, not as a human author, but as a divine author of the Holy Spirit, would you decide in your eternal wisdom to include a book in the
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Bible, in the canon of Scripture, entitled Lamentations? The Holy Spirit did.
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An entire book is devoted to Lamentations. This is the psalm of lament.
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What is a lament? Let me give you a definition. It's three parts to it. A lament is a loud cry, first of all.
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Actually, the book of Lamentations originally was entitled Loud Cries. It's a loud cry from the inner depth of an anguished soul, the second part.
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It's a loud cry from the inner depths of an anguished soul. And here's the third part.
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Looking for deliverance. Looking for salvation.
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A lament is a loud cry from the inner depths of an anguished soul that is looking for deliverance.
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Listen to some of the laments sprinkled throughout Scripture. Psalm in the Psalms and one from Job.
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Job 7 .11. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit.
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I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Psalm 6, verse 6.
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I am weary with my moaning. Every night I flood my bed with tears. I drench my couch with my weeping.
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Psalm 42, verse 3. My tears have been my food day and night. While they say to me all the day long,
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Where is your God? In Psalm 142, verse 4. Look to the right and see.
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There is none who takes notice of me. No refuge remains to me. No one cares for my soul.
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Even as I read Psalm 13, could you hear the pathos in the words of David?
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I mean, what kind of prayer is that? Who discipled David after all? Didn't they teach him the proper way to prayer?
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The acronym ACTS, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication.
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It doesn't follow that pattern here. He's praying from the innermost depths of his soul.
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And by the way, let me remind you, the human writer of this Psalm of Lament was the one who has a heart after God's, a man after God's own heart.
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Spurgeon, in his classic Treasury of David says, Whenever you look into David's Psalms, you will somewhere or other see yourself.
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You never get into a corner, but you find David in that corner. I think that I was never so low that I could not find that David was lower.
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And I never climbed, Spurgeon said, so high that I could not find that David was up above me.
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This Psalm is classic poetry in the Old Testament. It's in couplet of verses.
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There's three parts to the outline. It just follows the outline of the Psalm itself. The first two verses, the middle verses and the last two verses.
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Three points to the outline, just following the couplet of verses that are in the Hebrew text. Point number one, verses one and two.
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The lament expressed with a question. The lament is expressed with a question.
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When we go through trials, what is the typical question we may ask? Why? Why, Lord?
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Why me? Why now? That's not the question
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David asks. What does David ask? No less than four times. How long?
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How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
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How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? And how long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
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This is common in other Psalms. Psalm six, verse three. My soul also is greatly troubled, but you, oh
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Lord, how long? Spurgeon put it in a funny but direct way.
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Concerning this Psalm, he says, quote, we haven't want to call this the how long Psalm. We had almost said the howling
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Psalm from the incessant repletion of the cry. How long?
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I couldn't help this week as I listened to the wind that was howling outside. It kept bringing back to mind these verses over and over and over again.
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The man after God's own heart is asking how long even the saints in Revelation ask that question.
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Revelation six, 10. They cried out with a loud voice. Oh, sovereign Lord, holy and true. How long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?
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And notice this question in verse one. The lament, as we said, is expressed in a question here.
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The second part of verse one, he asked, how long will you hide your face from me?
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It's a common expression in the Old Testament. Many times we use it in our vernacular today. I remember with my my dad growing up and I wanted his attention.
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I would say, Dad, are you listening to me? I'm listening to you. He say, I said, but you're not looking at me. He says,
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I can listen to you without looking at you. I love my dad.
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But the expression in the Old Testament, hiding the face. Look at the context of verse one, the first part of verse one.
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How long will Lord, will you what? Will you forget me forever? That expression hide your face is an expression that expresses the lament of God hiding, forgetting.
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Now, God, we know, never forgets. But David is expressing from the innermost being of his anguished soul how he feels.
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It's used other way, other places in the Psalms. Psalm 44, verse 24. It connects hiding
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God's face from him forgetting. It says there, why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
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It's as if David is saying, God, do you not care? You're hiding your face. You've forgotten what's going on in my life.
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This difficulty I'm going through. How long? How long? There are other places in the
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Psalms where some of the struggles that David goes through, he makes very clear. It's because of sin in his life.
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For example, Psalm 51, which is very clear. It says in the introduction that it was when
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Nathan, the prophet, went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. And David makes it very clear in that Psalm. He says, quote, have mercy on me,
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O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
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Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
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For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. No less than five times does
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David in that Psalm mention his personal sin. It's not in this
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Psalm. But that expression nonetheless, hide your face, in the
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Old Testament is also used in connection with God hiding his face from sinners.
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Isaiah 59, verse 2, for example. God says through the prophet
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Isaiah, your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. And your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
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Though David doesn't specify that it was a sin, as we will see later on, he mentions an enemy of his that seems to be the issue of his difficulty.
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But sometimes how do we react when we go through difficulty? We can react like David did.
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Lord, where are you? You're forgetting what I'm going through? Or Lord, is it something in my life?
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Let me illustrate it with some examples from the Bible. Job's three friends were not privy to what we are, which was chapter 1.
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Right? The scene in heaven. Where Satan comes to the
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Lord, the sovereign, and says about Job. They weren't privy to that.
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So, after being quiet for a little bit, then they spoke up. His friends did. And this was their theology why
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Job was going through what he was going through. Eliphaz said, quote, In other words,
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Job, this is why you lost everything. Your health, your kids, your land. Because this is what you sowed, this is what you're going to reap.
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Bildad, the shoe height. If your children, quote, have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
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If you, Job, are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.
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Their theology was, okay, the reason Job, you're going through what you're going through is because of your sin.
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I love this illustration. New Testament. What was the disciples' theology in John chapter 9?
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Pastor Steve has walked us through that chapter already. The blind man. John chapter 9 begins,
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In other words, the only cause and effect reason why this man is blind is because of his sin or his parents' sin.
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That he was born blind, they asked. Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents. He debunked their theology at that point.
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But why? Jesus said that the works of God might be displayed in him.
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So this expression, hide your face, sometimes in the Old Testament even, refers to God separating himself because of sin.
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But that's not always the case. Here, David says,
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Have you forgotten me, what I'm going through, forever? And notice in verse 2, there's a transition in verse 2, as he expresses this lament with a question.
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In the first verse, it focuses on Yahweh. How long, oh Yahweh, will you forget me forever?
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Notice what he says in verse 2, the transition goes from God, from Yahweh, to self. How long must
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I take counsel in my soul? So because David is feeling that God has forgotten him, has hidden his face from him in the midst of his difficulty, he has to go somewhere else to find support.
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And where does he go? How long must I take counsel where? To you?
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In my soul? Within himself. When David feels
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God is uninvolved, he looks within himself, only to find more despair, since within self, there is no solution.
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And the despair gets worse and worse. Because he says, continuing in verse 2, And have sorrow in my heart all the day, how long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
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God, if you're not there, as long as I'm feeling that you're hiding your face and I feel that you've forgotten me,
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I have to go somewhere. I have to take counsel within my soul. The sorrow has grown within my heart.
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My enemy is exalted over me. That says a lot to us today. Where do we go in the midst of trouble and in the time of lament, through difficulty?
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Whether it's a loss of a loved one, whether it's a chronic illness we're going through, whether it's a wayward child.
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If we feel, like David, that God has forgotten, do we go within ourselves to find the answer?
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David said, I did and I had more sorrow in my heart. One author puts it this way,
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It is a common temptation when trouble lasts long to think it will always.
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Despondency then turns into despair and those that have long been without joy begin at last to be without hope.
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Now it doesn't tell us in the text how long this was happening, but whether it was actually in reality long or not, to David it seemed long.
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He asked the question four times. He says, will you forget me forever, have sorrow in my heart all the day?
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This is continuous. It's like in the other Psalms when he says, my tears have been my food day and night.
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So here he opens up this lament by expressing it in a question. The middle two verses, the second point of our outline.
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The lament is expounded in a petition. The lament is expounded in a petition.
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He kind of hints of it at the end of verse two when he refers to my enemy. He talks about it again in verse four.
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Who is that enemy he is referring to? Some Psalms, certain Psalms make that very clear.
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For example, Psalm 18, the initial title, it says to the choir master, Psalm of David, the servant of the
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Lord who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
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Psalm 142 also says when David was in the cave, that was the background when
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Saul was pursuing David to kill him before David was king. Some people say that could be a possibility of who the enemy is.
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Or could it be maybe his son Absalom, who when David was king, he won the hearts of the people and his own counselor in order to usurp the king's authority over Israel.
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We don't know for sure, but whether it was Saul or Absalom and any of his other enemies to David, this was a real thing that was happening to him.
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And in the midst of his lament, he gives three petitions. Notice what they are in the middle of verses. Number one, consider it's the exact opposite of what he said in the earlier verses.
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Lord, you've you've hit in your face. You've you've forgotten about me. Now consider. Consider.
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In other words. Remember what I'm going through. Take action.
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Second petition, verse three, consider and what? Answer me. He's asking
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God to answer his prayer, his prayer of lament. And notice how he addresses him again with the same term
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Yahweh. Oh, Lord, what? My God, personal.
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David was addressing Yahweh as his God. My God, consider and answer me.
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And the third request. At the end of verse three, notice in the text, he says, light up my eyes, light up my eyes.
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What does that mean? It could be one of two meanings. One possible meaning it could be referring to physical vigor and vitality to restore his physical strength.
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For example, you don't have to turn there. But in first Samuel 14, it talks about that.
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It uses that similar expression. It says the men of Israel have been hard pressed that day. So Saul had laid an oath on the people saying, curse be the man who eats food until it is evening.
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And I'm avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted food. Now, when all the people came to the forest, behold, there was honey on the ground.
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And when the people entered the forest, behold, the honey was dropping. But no one put his hand to his mouth for the people feared the oath.
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But Jonathan, Saul's son, had not heard his father charge the people with the oath.
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So he put out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth.
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And here it is. His eyes became bright. Then one of the people said, your father strictly charged the people with an oath saying, curse be the man who eats food this day.
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And the people were faint. Why were they faint? Because they didn't eat. Then Jonathan said to them, my father has troubled the land.
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See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey. Jonathan was saying, you're faint because you're not giving yourself food to eat.
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So his eyes were lightened up. Similar expression as in verse three of our text.
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But it could also mean, on the other hand, spiritual enlightenment to be able for God. David asking
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God to open his eyes so he can see his difficulty in the midst of his lament through God's divine perspective, through the lens of divine eyes, not through human eyes.
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Psalm 19, verse eight. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
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Spiritual enlightenment. It could be both. Lord, light up my eyes.
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Give back, restore my physical being, my vigor and vitality to life. Light up my eyes. Give me spiritual eyes to see in the midst of my lament, what
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I'm going through. Whether it's one or the other or both, what's the end result? Look at the end of verse three.
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Why is he given these requests? Consider, answer, light up my eyes.
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Why? Lest I sleep the sleep of death. Sleep, as we know even in the
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New Testament, refers many times to death. Why does he give these three requests?
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Consider, answer and light up my eyes. Verse four. He's asking
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God at the beginning of the psalm, how long? He feels that God is hitting his face, he's forgetting him, he's not answering.
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So he looks within himself and then he realizes, I have to go to God in prayer. And he gives him these three petitions.
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Consider, answer and light up my eyes. And the last couplet of verses.
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Number three. The lament ends with adoration. The lament ends with adoration.
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If you study all those 50 laments in the psalms, one third of the book, they never end in the first section of the lament.
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Can you imagine the end of the psalm ends with verse four? How discouraging.
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Notice how verse five begins. The lament ends with adoration. But, God's wonderful buts in scripture.
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We know of them, do we not? Even when we were dead in our transgressions. But God, but God demonstrates his own love for us while we were yet sinners.
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But here, David in the midst of anguish, soul, crying out to God in a lament, where he can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, verse five says, but.
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That signifies, that word signifies that David now is going from despair to hope.
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He's going from darkness to light. He's going from, I want to give up, to,
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I want to go on. What is he trusting?
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But I have trusted in what? Notice what the text says. In your steadfast love.
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Now because it's germane to this text, I want to take a little time to help us understand that term steadfast love.
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Some translations call it different things. It's also been called loyal love. It's also been called covenantal love.
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After all, Yahweh is a God who keeps his covenant. So it's the idea, it's a dual idea of God being loyal to his people, faithful to his people, out of a motivation of his love for them.
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It's the Hebrew word chesed. It's, if you want to know how to pronounce it, it's the same as my first name in Greek, chariton.
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It's that garol ch sound. Don't try it with me at the door. I don't want you spitting at me. But it's that idea, chesed.
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You know the verse, the steadfast love of the Lord, what? Never ceases.
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His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.
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What's the reference? Lamentations. Interesting. Moses knew of chesed.
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Did he not? After he went up to the mountain for the original tablets, and he came down and what did he find the people of God doing?
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So he goes up again. Exodus 34 and he says, and at the text says the
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Lord passed before him and proclaim the Lord, the Lord. This is God talking to Moses of this steadfast love, which are lamenting.
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David is trusting in here. The Lord passed before him and proclaim the Lord, the Lord, a God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love chesed for thousands.
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Jonah knew of this as well. Jonah four verse two. And he prayed to the Lord and said, Oh Lord, is not this what
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I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made a haste to flee to Tarshish.
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In other words, Jonah saying, I didn't obey you initially because I knew what you were going to do if the people of Nineveh repented.
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And Jonah continues for I knew what did he know? He knew of the chesed, the steadfast love of God.
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I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.
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Turn with me briefly to one more passage to help us illustrate this steadfast love.
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Nehemiah chapter nine. Just go back a couple of pages. Nehemiah chapter nine to help us understand the steadfast love, this chesed commitment that God Yahweh has to his people out of his pure love for them.
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Nehemiah chapter nine. And I would just bring to your attention. I'm just going to read this. But there are two two words.
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But in our text beginning in verse nine, I'm going to begin. But you'll notice in verse 16 and verse 17, there are there are two words, the word, but which will signify that despite what
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God has done, but his people went wayward and sin. The second, but is despite what they did because of his steadfast love, but he didn't abandon them.
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And then the other word I want you to notice is in verse twenty five and then verse thirty one, the word nevertheless.
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And again, it's the same context. God did wonders amongst his people. Nevertheless, they abandoned him.
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And then the second, nevertheless, is even though my people abandoned me, nevertheless, because of my chesed, my steadfast love,
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I was faithful to them. Verse nine. And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the
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Red Sea and perform signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land.
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For you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers and you made a name for yourself as it is to this day.
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And you divided the sea before them so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land and you cast their pursuers into the depths as a stone into mighty waters by a pillar of cloud.
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You led them in the day and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go.
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You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments.
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And you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and the law by Moses, your servant.
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You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst.
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And you told them to go into possess the land that you had swung to give them. Now you would hope the next word would be and, and because of all your wonders, they worship you.
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But that's not the next word. But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.
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They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.
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What was God's response to all that? But here it is. You are a
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God ready to forgive gracious and merciful, slaughter, anger and abounding in Chesed steadfast love.
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And you did not forsake them. Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, this is your
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God who brought you out of Egypt and had committed great blasphemies. You in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness, the pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.
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Verse 20, you gave your good spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manner from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.
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40 years, you sustain them in the wilderness and they lack nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
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And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sikhon king of Heshbon and the land of King of Bashan.
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You multiply their children as the stars of heaven and you brought them into the land that you had told their father to enter and possess.
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So the descendants went in and possessed the land and you subdued before them, the inhabitants of the land, the
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Canaanites and gave them into their hand with their Kings and the peoples of the land that they might do with them as they would.
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And they captured fortified cities and a rich land and took possession of houses full of all good things.
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Cisterns already hewn vineyards, all of orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your what great goodness.
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So what do you do when you delight yourself in God's great goodness? Next verse. Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets.
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You would warn them in order to turn them back to you and they committed great blasphemies. Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies who made them suffer.
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And in the time of their suffering, they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven. And according to your great mercy, you gave them saviors who saved him from the hand of their enemies.
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But after they had rest, they did evil again before you and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they had dominion over them.
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Yet when they turned and cried to you and you heard from heaven and many times you delivered them according to your mercies and you warned them in order to turn them back to your law.
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Yet they acted presumptuously and they did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he should live by them.
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And they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey verse 30.
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Many years you bore with them and warned them by your spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear.
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Therefore you gave them into the hand of the people of the lands. Here's the second. Nevertheless, nevertheless, in your great mercies, you did not make an end of them or forsaken.
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Why? For you are a gracious and merciful God. Now, therefore, our
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God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who keeps here, it is covenant and steadfast love.
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Let not all the hardship seem little to you. That has come upon us.
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This is the God that the man,
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David, after God's own heart was trusting in his steadfast love in the midst of his lament.
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Vine hurts it. Well, explaining this further, he says, quote, love by itself easily becomes sentimentalized or universalized apart from the covenant.
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Yet steadfastness suggests only the fulfillment of a legal or similar obligation. Yes, it refers primarily to mutual and reciprocal rights and obligations between the parties of a relationship, especially
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Yahweh and Israel. But yes, it is not only a matter of obligation, but is also of generosity.
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It is not only a matter of loyalty, but also of mercy. Yes, it implies personal involvement and commitment in a relationship beyond the rule of law.
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That's what David was trusting in. And notice how the Psalm ends it back to our text.
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Notice the verb tenses, verse five, the second part, my heart, future tense shall rejoice in your salvation.
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He's not referring to salvation of sin. The term salvation literally means deliverance. The context determines what kind of deliverance.
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Of course, we use the term talking about salvation from sin through the Savior Jesus Christ.
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But here he's talking about a deliverance from his enemy, deliverance from this trial. And he says,
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I shall, I will rejoice in your salvation. Again, future tense, verse six, I will sing to the
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Lord. Now, if it's future, if it seems like it hasn't quite happened yet, his deliver,
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God's deliverance of David. Why is he so determined? How can he say in the midst of his trial?
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I will sing. I shall rejoice. Notice the ending because why?
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Verse six, he has dealt bountifully with me.
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He's recalling back how God had dealt with him before, and he's able to be determined to rejoice in God's deliverance and to sing to the
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Lord. Why does the lament end in adoration? Simply because in the midst of David's difficulty, he had a confident assurance in the unchanging character of God.
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In the midst of your difficulty, where's your assurance? Circumstances of life will change.
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The only thing that is constant is God's unchanging character. What can we learn in closing?
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Some lessons, some takeaways. Remember listening to Steve Lawson's live stream, and he said when he was at seminary, when he would go up during preaching class and preach, one of his professors would hold up a sign in the front.
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I can almost picture it now. A big sign that would say, so what?
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So here's the so what for us. So what? Four things. Number one, though we must not deny our feelings, faith ultimately must be based on the unchanging character and nature of God, not our feelings.
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Though we must not deny our feelings, faith ultimately must be based on the unchanging character and nature of God, not our feelings.
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Notice that I purposely said we must not deny our feelings. I remember as a young Christian, many of you might know this.
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I was shown the train illustration. I have to show this to my son because he's a train fanatic. You know you have the engine, right?
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And the caboose. Faith is in the middle. And our faith, the object of our faith, is on fact, the engine, the facts of the truth of the gospel and the word of God.
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The caboose was the feelings. Our feelings follow that because our feelings change.
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But yet we are not to deny our feelings. But our faith ultimately should rest in the unchanging character and nature of God.
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The Nelson Study Bible says this, quote, the Psalms of lament are a model of godly response to suffering.
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The Lord doesn't expect us to remain stoic when we face suffering. We can pour out our souls to the
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Lord. However, in the middle of our cry, we must remember God's love and care for us in the past so we can willingly trust him with the future.
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Warren Risby puts it similarly. We must not deny, he says, our feelings and pretend that everything is going well and there is no sin in asking how long.
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But, at the same time, we must realize how deceptive our feelings are and that God is greater than our hearts.
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We've learned here, and properly so, biblically so, somebody comes up to you and asks, how are you doing?
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What's the response? Better than I deserve. But it's okay if I come to you and ask you, how are you doing?
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If you tell me, I'm not doing that well. Number two, looking back in the past at God's faithfulness, at his steadfast love, encourages us to worship him in the midst of difficulty.
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Looking back in the past at God's faithfulness, at his steadfast love, encourages us to worship him in the midst of difficulty.
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Looking back at what? Through the pages of scripture. Looking back even at our own lives. As you look back at your own life experience, you've seen
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God's faithfulness, as my Sunday school teacher had seen. It's one thing to worship after he delivers.
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It's another thing to worship before he delivers. Number three, two more and we're done.
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When we've been from despair to hope, we can be better ministers of God's grace to others.
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When we've been from despair to hope, we can be better ministers of God's grace to others.
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This is New Testament stuff. Second Corinthians one. Praise be to the God and father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the
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God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles. Why? So that we can comfort others with the comfort we have received from God.
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And finally, last but not least, God's steadfast love,
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Chesed, his covenant love ultimately points to whom? To Jesus Christ.
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Just listen to the verses. Psalm 89. I will sing of the steadfast love of the
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Lord forever. With my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, steadfast love will be built up forever.
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In the heavens you will establish your faithfulness. You have said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one.
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I've sworn to David, the writer of our psalm, my servant.
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I will establish your offspring forever and build your throne for all generations.
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This is the Davidic covenant recorded in second Samuel seven. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers,
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God says to David, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.
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He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
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I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men.
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But my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom
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I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.
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Your throne shall be established forever. Why did God deliver David in our specific psalm?
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Why did God, if you will, deliver him from the hand of Goliath so some preacher can get up and give a message about how to slay our spiritual giants?
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I'll tell you why he delivered David. Luke one, the angel to Mary. And the angel said to her, do not be afraid,
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Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name
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Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high. And the
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Lord God will give to him what? The throne of his father, David.
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And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there will be no end.
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I began the message with this statement. Hopelessness can lead to despairing even of life itself.
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But the greatest hopelessness there is in life is in your spiritual salvation. Not only are you hopeless to save yourself from your sin, but the
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Bible instructs you that you are helpless. You are weak. You are at enmity with God.
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And you are dead, darkened in your understanding. The only hope, the only help for your salvation is to turn to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Where are you this morning? What part of the psalm do you find yourself in?
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Are you in verses 1 and 2 crying out to the Lord? Lord, how long? How long?
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Are you making maybe in the middle of the psalm petition? Lord, Lord, don't hide your face. Don't forget me.
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I know you haven't forgotten me, but consider, answer me. Enlighten my eyes. And can you say like David did at the end of the psalm, but I will trust in God's steadfast love.
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I will sing to the Lord. I will praise him for his salvation.
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Let's pray. Father, thank you for the truth of your word this morning. We thank you that we can pour out our soul before you in prayer.
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And we thank you that you are a God who is ever present, who answers and hears us.