Psalm 42: Why Are You Cast Down?
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Alright, so, if you've been around long enough, you know this. We don't line up sermon series and individual sermons with holidays that aren't Christmas and Easter. It's just not a thing that we do. We did last year do Psalm 31 on Mother's Day, but that was very much the exception, not the rule. So, it's not intentional to put a Psalm of lament right before July 4th, but it is where it landed on the calendar. And that's what we're looking at today is Psalm 42.
It'll be on page 268 in the blue Bibles that are right around you. You can grab one of those. You can also follow along on the screen as we walk through this. So, culturally, in America, we don't handle suffering and sadness very well. That's just a cultural thing we don't handle very well. And in the American church, we're not much different.
We don't handle that subject well either. I could give you lots of examples of how that proves to be true. I really just want to give you one this morning, and that is K-Love. That is Christian Radio. So, this might step on some toes. I'm mildly apologetic about it.
But, Christian Radio in this department is very painful. It's painful in general for many reasons. First off, there's a lot of stuff that ends up on the radio that just is bad. It's bad theologically, songs you should not sing, bad quality, songs that should be done differently. You know, there's lots of reasons. You know, the songs that come from churches that I would never recommend you ever visit personally, ever, ever, ever.
There's a variety of reasons why Christian Radio can be a landmine. But one of the ones that is more pertinent that K-Love really misses the Mark on is that they're literally branded as positive and encouraging. That's it. Positive and encouraging. And what that really means and how they define encouragement is very narrowly what they mostly mean. It's positive.
It's positivity. And, you know, that's kind of been a thing for years in Christian Radio. It's just like it's all, it's a lot, it's very, very happy, positive, positive, positive. And, listen, I'm not against encouragement. I think encouragement is a very biblical thing. But you've got to have a broader category for that.
And, you know, that's been a thing. But I didn't want to. I was like, you know, I haven't listened to Christian Radio in some time. So let me get on K-Love and listen. And as soon as I turned it on, this song got off. And this guy got on and was like, it's National Selfie Day.
He's like, and just got really excited about National Selfie Day. And then he had this little jingle that went with it that was, you know, turn that frown upside down. I was like, you've got to be kidding me. It took two minutes for me to hear this. And I was like, all right, no, I think they're on brand. I think they're sticking to what they do.
Okay. Here's why that's problematic. When life curb stomps your happiness, okay, when it destroys the good things that are happening in your life, you need more than just positivity. That's not going to cut it. But, I mean, listen, you need more than even solid, cheerful theological songs. All right.
Psalm 100 is glorious. I mean, that's a beautiful Psalm. Some of the songs we sing are very joyful. Great things he has done. But there's got to be more than that.
The Psalm book gives us more than just joyful songs. When life is hard, you need more than celebration. You need a dirge. You need lament. And the Psalm book gives us that as a holistic part of worship. That there are Psalms throughout the whole 150th Psalm book that give us this, and we're in one of them today.
And my hope is that this would expand a category of worship for us. But what we're going to see as we follow through this today is that godly lament does not seek to fix our pain and suffering and loss, but it will help us endure. And that is what Psalms do for us. They help us endure through it all. So we're going to see that this morning as we walk through this.
Let me pray for us, then we will jump in. God, I pray that you'd help us be present this morning as we walk through a Psalm that is heavier. There are folks that are in a joyous season right now. And I pray that this would speak to them, preparing their hearts for the day of suffering when it comes. There are folks in our church family that are suffering. That right now this is very apparent in their life.
And I pray, God, that you would use this Psalm to provide unbelievable comfort that is found in you. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Okay, so the Psalm book, the Psalms have subscripts underneath them that I'd argue probably go back to the original when it was recorded. And this Psalm 42 has that. It has a subscript that gives us some context.
And it says, To the choir master, a mascal of the sons of Korah. Now, we don't know what mascal means. It happens in the Psalms. There are certain words we don't know. It could be an artistic teaching type Psalm. But we do know who the sons of Korah are.
If you know the story of the sons of Korah, their descendant, their ancestor, is Korah. So Korah was a part of a rebellion that happened against Moses in the wilderness. And that rebellion did not go well for the people who rebelled. The earth literally gave way in judgment and swallowed them whole. So some of the sons of Korah survived this, and they bear the history of their ancestor's rebellion, of his unfaithfulness.
But they go on to do... This is a really cool redemption story. They go on to do great things. They become worship leaders. They become Psalm writers. Some of them are in the party of David, when David is on the run for his life.
And it's just a really cool backdrop to see the suffering that they come from, and the redemption that they have, that sets up Psalms like Psalm 42. So that's the subscript. Then you get into verse 1. It says, As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. So, as a deer pants for flowing streams, I like to deer hunt. That is a hobby of mine.
I actually got to join a hunting club this year. I'm very excited about it. Been working on the land, getting it ready for the fall. One of the things that you, when you're choosing land to hunt on, you want to choose land that has a water source of some type. Because if it doesn't have a stream, or a creek, or something nearby, you will not have a lot of luck. Deer need water.
That's the point. As a deer pants for flowing streams, as an animal who is in need, who's dehydrated, who needs water to survive. So my soul pants for you, O God. We're going to see this next week in Psalm 1, when Psalm 1 says, He is like a tree planted by streams of water. That God is this vibrant life source, this well of worship, and joy, and goodness. He says, As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you.
He's desperate, in need of the Lord. And what it's setting up is that, that this man, is a man who loves the Lord. That this lament, is not disconnected from the fact, that he is a godly man. He loves the Lord. He longs for the Lord. And that, that's a part of building this category of lament.
That it needs to come from a desperate, love, and desire, and pursuit of God. Because often times, culturally, mourning, and sadness, and lamenting of our culture, isn't that. When we're sad, we'll escape. Or we'll distract ourselves. Or we'll comfort ourselves. Which in the south means, a lot of unhealthy food.
And I'm not saying, like, bringing food isn't, I'm not, I'm not down on that. But you've got to have a broader category, that says no. Godly lament, is coming before the Lord, desperately needing Him, longing for Him. That type of godly, lament, does not seek to fix, our suffering and sadness. But it, it helps us endure.
It helps us withstand. And that's what He's doing here, when He gets into verse 2. My soul thirsts, for God, for the living God. When shall I come, and appear before, God. So, we're going to see this, throughout the rest of this Psalm. But that statement there, when shall I, when shall I, come and appear before God, we're going to see it fleshed out, that He can't be, in the presence of God, right now.
That He's far away, from the presence of God. So, in this period, the presence of God, ruled and reigned from, this is either written, during the period, when the tabernacle, was in existence, or the temple. But both of those, have the same thing. This is where God, ruled and reigned, amongst the people of God. This is where, He ruled and reigned from, and this is where, worship happened, before the Lord. So, when He's separated, from the Lord here, He can't be, worshiping, before the Lord.
And that's a very, joyous event, as the sacrifices, were being offered, there was all types, of joyful singing, before the Lord. There were instruments, like trumpets, and harps, and lyres, and tambourines, and strings, and pipes, and cymbals, and dancing. Yes, dancing. Baptists. There's this joyful, worship before the Lord, and He can't be there. We don't know, if it's because, He's on the run with David, if He's one of those, Corites, or if He's been banished, from the temple.
We don't really know, why He can't be there. But He longs, to be there, like in a barren, desert, needing, thirst, He needs, God. Which, just pause for a moment. That just gives us, that elevates the importance, of corporate worship, of what we do here, every Sunday. It is good for our souls, to be here. And we just, a lot of times, we take that for granted.
Like the inside joke, for us as pastors, is if we want to make, an announcement, it's got to be not just done, on one week. You have to do it, like multiple weeks in a row. Because we're, this is something, we're not alone in this. A lot of southern churches, struggle with this. That if you're, had a long week, or retired, or you know, coming off vacation, or whatever, it's just easy, to miss out on this. And even in our church, it's a lot easier, actually to be in a community group, and show up on, in the week, than it is on a Sunday morning.
And I want to push on that, a little bit, to say no value this time. It's good. It's good for your soul, to be amongst the people of God, worshiping Him together. So he goes on in verse 3, he says, my tears have been my food, day and night. What a vivid picture of suffering. That he's, in such mourning, he can't drink from the streams, of worship, that is before the Lord, that he's, day and night, crying.
So much so, that tears are flowing down his face, they're flowing, blubbering into his mouth. And that should expand, the category for us, and especially, men more struggle with this, generally speaking, that emotions are okay. You don't have to put your emotions, in a box, and put it up on a shelf, and never talk about it again. No, like, tears are fine, it's a healthy part of worship. Jesus, the God man, wept, when he saw Mary and Martha, mourning, when Lazarus died. We should have that, as a category of response.
I'm trying to build this, in my own son, who's four. I'm trying to help him see, listen, there are things, that we don't cry about. Alright? Not getting the right ice cream, not getting the right toilet, like, that's not, you know, yesterday was his sister's birthday, and his time's frustrated, he's not, no, no, no, it's alright. We're not gonna cry about that. There are things, you do cry about.
There are things, that you should grieve, there are things, that you should have tears for. I'm trying to build that, in himself, or build that in him. We need that, we need to grow in that. He's weeping, before the Lord. My tears have been my food, day and night, while they say to me, all the day long, where is your God? So, in the midst of, weeping, he's being taunted, with where is your God?
And I would argue, that that's more than just, the skeptical taunting, of where is your God? Because we hear that, culturally, you hear that a lot. Where is your God, when the shooting in Uvalde happened? Where is your God, when children were dying? I don't think that's what's, happening here. I think it's more personal to him.
He can't be, in the presence of God. So they're, they're poking on something, that's deeply hurtful for him. Where is your God? Oh, you can't be there, amongst your people, in the presence of God. Verse four, these things, I remember, as I pour out my soul, and then he starts to, recollect, how I would go, with a throng, throng is just, a crowd, the crowd worshiping together. I would go, with the throng, and lead them in procession, to the house, of God.
With glad shouts, and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Oh, I remember, how I used to lead, and worship, amongst the people, with, glad shouts, and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. That's such a human, response, in the midst of suffering, to long for the good old days. Maybe that's, maybe that's for you, that's long for the days, when you were a kid, in high school, the days of college, longing for the days, when you're in this community group, with this group of people, and this time of life, this friend group. That's very natural. That's what he's doing, he's longing, for the days, when he could joyfully, worship in the presence of God.
And in verse 5, we get this refrain. So the way that this Psalm, is structured, is you've got, verses, refrain, verses, refrain. So think like, verses, chorus, verses, chorus, that's kind of how this works. Here it is, verse 5, Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil, within me? Why am I so sad?
Why is there so much turmoil, in my soul? That is a question, that many of us will ask, in life. Why am I so sad? Why am I depressed? What's wrong with me? Why can't I feel, better?
And a lot of times, those answers, are not readily available. Last week, we looked at Psalm 55, which was, cast your cares, your burdens, your anxieties, upon the Lord, he will sustain you. And as I walked through that, can I help us, see a little bit, that anxiety is complicated. And we've taught that in the past, it's complicated. There's, there's physical things, that contribute to that. There's spiritual things, that contribute to that.
There's behavioral patterns, there's all kinds of things, that makes anxiety, a very complex subject matter. But the scriptures, say in the midst of that, it has a word for it. It has a word for us, when it says, to cast your cares, upon the Lord. The prescription is, coming to the Lord, with our anxieties. And depression, well depression is a close cousin, of anxiety. In fact, a lot of times, they come together, for some folks.
Depression and anxiety, come together. And depression is complex. It just is. There are physical things, that add to it. All the way down, to where you live, geography matters. Right?
You live in more northern parts, of the hemisphere. It's a little bit harder, when you have less sunlight. Sunlight matters. The vitamin D is, it matters. Seasonal affect, depression matters. That sometimes winter, is very hard.
There are physical things, there's chemical things, that are happening, that contribute to depression. There's behavioral patterns, that contribute to depression, and deep sadness. It's a strong correlation, between social media usage, and depression. Especially, the younger you are. There's contributing factors, that make it a very complicated, thing. It is definitely, multifactorial.
The part of the treatment, is very similar. It's coming before the Lord, with our depression. Coming before the Lord, with our sadness. That's what the psalmist, is doing here. He's deeply depressed. He's lamenting, before the Lord.
And he's asking, before the Lord, his own soul, why are you cast down? Why is the innermost part, of my being, so deeply sad, and distressed? Why is there so much, turmoil within me? Or as one songwriter, paraphrases this. He says, why so disturbed, within me? He's asking this.
These are difficult questions, to ask before the Lord. You have to, that's the question, why is he asking this, of himself, before the Lord? And it's very simply, he is acknowledging reality. He is acknowledging, his reality, before the Lord. That he, is in a desperate, depressed, sad, state. You can try to act, like you're not depressed.
Try to act, like you're not sad. You can try to grit your teeth, and get through it. Or, you can acknowledge, reality, before the Lord. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, one of the most famous, preachers, in western, history, the last 500 years. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, was, I mean, had an early ministry, from 20 all the way, until he passed away, in his mid-50s. And what some people, don't realize is, that Spurgeon, if you read about his life, was depressed, on and off, most of his life.
Most of his adult life. He struggled with depression. I mean, there are times, where he literally, he could not, muster the strength, to stand up, and proclaim the word of God. He's nicknamed, the prince of preachers. That's his nickname. That's a dope nickname, that you want, if you're a preacher.
But he, could not muster, the strength sometimes, to actually come, before the Lord, and proclaim the word of God. That there were times, that he was deeply, deeply sad. And part of it, there's multiple things, there's multiple things, that contributed to that. One of the things, that he had, was he had chronic pain. That he had, chronic gout, and kidney disease. And he had to leave London.
The doctor said, you need to leave London. So he had a place, in the south of France, where he would go, to get better weather, less harsh climate, more sunlight. That's actually where he died. Because he got away, out of London. And he just never came back, because he died there. Spurgeon, once said this, I could say with Job, and Job is an Old Testament story, where a man suffered immensely.
I could say with Job, my soul chooseth strangling, rather than life. And then he says, I could readily enough, have laid, violent hands upon myself, to escape, from my misery, of spirit. That is Spurgeon saying, that, I could have readily, harmed myself, than endure this, miserable, spiritual state. And Spurgeon, was a great man of faith. He understood, this song well. He's a great man of faith, and some people will try to reduce, depression down to, well, if you just have enough faith, you'd be joyful.
Don't you, don't you know the gospel? Don't you know how good, the news is? Just believe the gospel. And it's just not, that simple, sometimes. To muster up enough faith, to lift you out of this. Faith does not guarantee, hear this, faith does not guarantee, a permanent state of joy.
It just doesn't, not this side of the fall. It does not guarantee, a permanent state of joy. But in faith, we get to endure, through suffering, through lament. And through, hear this, a right understanding, of who God is. So when he says, why are you cast down, oh my soul, and why are you in turmoil, within me, in his next breath, he says, hope in God.
For I shall again, praise him, my salvation, and my God. In the midst of depression, he knows where his ultimate hope, is found. His hope is in the Lord. He's not able to praise God, joyfully now. That day is coming for him. He will joyfully praise God again, but it is not yet.
So that's the refrain, that's going to be repeated at the end. And then, from that position of faith, knowing who God is, he continues, my soul is cast down, within me. Therefore, I remember you, from the land of Jordan, and of Hermon, from Mount Mazar. So this is where we see, how separated he is. Okay? But he is in the land of Jordan.
He's, that's far away from Jerusalem. That's how far he is, as he's, suffering, longing to be back in Jerusalem. Longing to be, before the Lord, in his presence. And then verse 7, he says, deep calls, to deep, at the roar, of your waterfalls. All your breakers, and your waves, have gone, over me. Water is very metaphorical, throughout the scriptures, and how it's being used.
You just saw, in verse 1, like God is a stream of water, that he longs for. But the picture here changes. It's replaced with, a violent picture of water. The roar of a waterfall. Waves crashing, over him. Like the judgment waters, that crashed over, Jonah.
This is the picture, that's happening here. And I want you to hear, what he says. I want you to, he feels the pain, but I want you to acknowledge, I want you to see, what he acknowledges here. He says, your breakers, your waves, have gone over me. He's talking to God. Your breakers, your waves, have gone over me.
And that highlights, and taps into, a difficult truth, that is mysterious, and hard, to wrap our minds around, that God is sovereign, over suffering. He's sovereign, over our suffering, and our pain. People try to get around that, try to explain that away, and they'll say, no, it's actually, this is the work of the devil, that increases suffering, in our lives, or this is our own flesh, you know, our own sin, you know, results in suffering, or the world, is a fallen place, and in a fallen place, there is suffering, and all of that is true. Okay? The enemy absolutely does, increase suffering. Our sinful mistakes, absolutely do, increase suffering.
We do live in a world, that is fallen, and broken, and because of that, suffering exists, but, God is sovereign, over all of that. Which is why he says, your breakers, your waves, God has ordained for him, to suffer in that purpose. God ordained suffering, in our lives. We don't always understand why, we don't understand the purposes, the mysteries, all behind it. But don't miss that, when he says, your breakers, and your waves, are crashing over me.
And as he says, that, right, in the next breath, he says in verse 8, by day, the Lord commands, his steadfast love. And at night, his song is with me, a prayer to, the God, of my life. As he's acknowledging, the suffering, the God is sovereign, over the waves, and your breakers, are crashing, over me. You are the God, of steadfast love. And look at this, at night, his song is with me, that at night, he's worshipping God. This man loves the Lord.
He is worshipping, in the midst of his suffering. And he's pouring out, songs, and prayers. And we get a glimpse, of his prayers, in verse 9, when he says, I say, to my God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning, because of the oppression, of the enemy? As with a deadly wound, in my bones, my adversaries, my adversaries, taught me, while they say to me, all the day long, where is your God? He says, I say to my God, why have you forgotten me?
What a bold prayer. Why have you forgotten me? Why do you, why do you allow my enemies, to taunt me like this, in the midst of my, suffering? That almost feels dangerous, to question God like that. And it would be dangerous, if it was done from a place of arrogance, or a place of pride, if he was questioning, the character of God. But he's not doing that.
He says, you're the God of steadfast love, you are my rock. The breakers, your breakers, he understands, who God is, and the character of God. So he's not doing this, from a place of arrogance, or pride, or self-righteousness. He's doing it, from a place of deep humility. It's a legitimate plea. Spurgeon, once said that, faith is allowed, to inquire of her God, the causes, of his displeasure.
They're done from a place, of faith. faith. You can ask, God, why have you forgotten me? Why have you forgotten me? Why am I so sad? Why do I suffer, O Lord? And then he ends it in verse 5, or the repeated refrain of verse 5, shows it in verse 11.
This is the final verse. He says, why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil, within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation, and my God. And that's it. There's a promise, a future joy, but it's not now.
And it is an end joyfully. It acknowledges the reality of it. There's no verse 12 that says, and everything gets awesome. This is not, it's not what happens here. It just ends. And I could expand on this Psalm, in a lot of different ways.
There's a lot of different directions, you can run with this, to deal with sadness, and loss, and depression, and suffering. I just want to, I just want to end, on one idea. You need, good theology, to help you endure, a downcast soul, in turmoil. You need, a right understanding, of who God is, and a right worship of who, of God, to endure, depression, suffering, and loss. Jerry Bridges, a pastor once said, trust is not a passive state, of mind. Faith, is not a passive state, of mind.
It is a vigorous act, of the soul, by which we choose, to lay hold, on the promises of God, and cling to them, despite the adversity, that at times, seeks to overwhelm us. He says, faith, is not a passive state, where you're passively, just believing, the promises of God, is a active, vigorous, clinging to, claiming, holding, the promises, of God, laying hold, of who he, is, and that happens, throughout this entire Psalm. Verse 2, God is the living God, verse 5, God is my salvation, verse 8, God is the God, of steadfast love, verse 9, God is my rock, verse 11, God is the God, of my salvation. This psalmist, has a healthy, understanding, of who God is.
And there is a great danger, as a Christian, being unprepared, for, suffering. There's a danger, and an over emphasis, on positivity, on faking it, until you make it. On saying, I'm fine, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm fine. And never, actually, preparing your soul, for what awaits you. If your understanding, of God, and believing in Him, is that He is going to, faith, equals, blessing, in this life. If that's the equation, of your heart, that you are setting yourself up, for failure.
You're setting yourself up, for, when that happens, the questions of God, that are not done, from a position of faith, but are done, from a position of arrogance. It says, I would not believe, in a God, who lets, this happen. I can't believe, in a God, who would let, this person die. My brother, my sister, my father, my child. I can't believe, in a God, who would allow, this type of suffering, in my life.
Psalm 55: Cast Your Anxieties
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. So before we get into the text for today in Psalm 55, which is on page 272, if you want to go ahead and flip there, just have a church family quick announcement to address really the elephant in the room. So Friday was a big emotional day in our country with the fall of Roe v.
Wade. If you've not been around our church the last few years, we are not a political church in the slightest. We do approach things biblically as they arise in the scriptures. When it talks about life in the womb, when it talks about justice, we will address the issue. We do believe as a church that life begins at conception. We believe that God is knitting and forming a child in the womb.
And where biblical ethics overlap with political things, we will actually address that from the scriptures. Now, I'm not going to get into all of that today. What I will say is if you have not been here long enough, and that was a lot to hear, I would invite you, please have a conversation with me or one of the pastors. We would love to have that conversation with you. I understand it is a very, very hot button issue right now, and there are a ton of emotions that are stirring in the midst of all of that. But the reason I say that is because that ruling will directly affect this state.
And there will be an opportunity for Christians to do what we are called to do in the coming years in this state. There will be unplanned pregnancies that happen in this state. And we as Christians are called to care for orphans. That's biblically, James 1, 27, the pure undefiled religion before the father is this, to visit the orphans and the widows. That is historically, the church has stood up for orphans all the way back to the first, second, and third century when children who had birth defects were being abandoned by Roman families and Christians were swooping in and adopting children. We get the opportunity to live out our faith and the calling of Christians when it comes to orphan care.
That we'll have an opportunity to step into that through the foster system, which some of you should be praying about. Domestic adoption. We have families that do domestic and international adoption in our church. I say all that to say that we have a benevolence fund in our church. It's $15,000 this year. That benevolence fund is for a lot of different things, from paying for families in our church that are behind on payments, to supplementing counseling costs, to engaging community needs that we do from time to time.
We have $15,000 that we set aside in our budget for that. We will be, in the future, giving adoption grants out of that because we want to incentivize and come alongside some of the financial costs of adoption because we deeply care about orphans. And my hope, my prayer is in the response to all of this, that we would first walk in wisdom, be salt and light, but that we would get behind the biblical ethic of orphan care and actually step into a need that is going to happen. So I want to start this conversation. If you have questions about any of that, please don't leave today frustrated or angry.
Please come and talk and we can start a conversation. But we are going to be moving this direction with orphan care and we want to encourage this as a church family. So we're going to be in Psalm 55 today, which is on page 272 in your blue Bibles. You can turn there and follow along. The text will be on the screen. These first three Psalms and this summer in the Psalms that we have deal with.
Last week, Chad introduced the idea in Psalm 37, a fret not. Be still before the Lord. Don't worry. This week, we get to walk into that a little more from Psalm 55. The next week is a Psalm of lament. It's kind of all three go together on this broader subject matter of what do you do in the midst of suffering.
So we're in Psalm 55. We'll follow along with that in a moment. About a month ago, if you know me, I love music. I listen to lots of different types of music, different genres of music, different time periods of music. And I have Spotify, different playlists and shuffles that happen. And I had a shuffle.
I was in a late 90s, early 2000s music, alternative music kind of mood. So I was letting the Spotify shuffle. And that's, you know, that was my childhood, late 90s, early 2000s. So these are songs that I grew up listening to. And then all of a sudden, one came on and it hit differently because when you're listening to a song, when you are a kid, it doesn't hit the same when you're in your 30s. So it was a song called Breathe by Anna Nolik.
That, you know, 2 a.m. and she calls me because I'm still awake. All right. So that song. Listening to it, I'm like, oh man, I remember this. And then all of a sudden, the chorus hit. And I went, oh man.
The chorus says this, because you can't jump the track. We're like cars on a cable. And life's like an hourglass glued to the table. No one can find the rewind button now. So cradle your head and your hands and breathe.
Just breathe. And I heard that and I went, oh man, I did not know songs from Grey's Anatomy could do that to me. Like I just, I was like, man, she has a point. Life is like an hourglass glued to the table. Like there is no rewind button. She's talking about all like difficult situations and life is hard and suffering happens.
And her advice is cradle your head and your hands and breathe. Just breathe. And I was like, yes, man, that is so good. It's so close. Like you almost got it. You got part of the picture.
The gospel gives us a more complete picture. And this Psalm 55 today helps paint that in more completely. It helps give us a picture of what to do in the midst of suffering when life hits us in the face and how we are called to respond. We're going to look at this, the Psalmist David, in the midst of deep trials and suffering. And we're going to see his response and how that is key for us and important for us in understanding how we are to respond in the moments of trial. So if you feel overwhelmed right now, if you feel ridden with worry or anxiety, if you feel like you are struggling, this Psalm is for you.
Okay? Let me pray for us and then we will get going. Father, I pray that you would help us be present this morning. You help us hear the words of the Psalm, the wisdom that is bound up in it, that it would be balm for the soul. That it would help us see how we would respond in the midst of trials and suffering. And that you would help us walk this out in faith, in repentance, in glorious worship.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Verse 1. He says, Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy. Attend to me and answer me.
I am restless in my complaint and I moan. There are four urgent pleas right out the gate. He says, Give ear. Don't hide yourself from me, O God. Pay attention. Answer me.
This is a desperate, needy posture. Lord, listen to me. Give ear to my prayer. And then he says, I am restless in my complaint and I moan. You ever heard someone moan before? And by someone, I mean not a child.
In our household, we have, in the summertime, we have ice cream. Because we're a fun family. And I'm a cool dad. And we have, my wife bought the variety pack of, box of drumsticks. Which back in the day, they just had like the vanilla centered ones. Not anymore, you guys.
They have ones that are filled with chocolate in the inside. And caramel in the inside. And about every day, our kids are like, Can we have ice cream? And most days, we're like, Yes. Now, they love the ones that have the chocolate and the caramel in the center. Right?
Because that's awesome. And, you know, they get the chocolate ones. I may or may not clear out the caramel ones. But by the end of the week, or however long we have them, what's left is just the original ones, the OG drumstick. And there is weeping and lamenting in our house sometimes. But there's moaning and deep complaint.
And it's like, Oh man, y'all have not experienced suffering yet. If this is the type of lamenting that happens. Like, it's not a child. But if you ever heard, you ever heard an adult moan? And deep pain. It hurts the soul.
It is heavy. It is a deep hurt. Deep complaint. That's what's happening here. And then in verse 3, he says, Because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked, for they drop trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me. So, context.
David is the Lord's anointed. He is a man after God's own heart. God fiercely loves David. David fiercely loves David. And yet, he ordains that David suffers. In fact, when you follow his life in 1 and 2 Samuel, you see he suffers over and over again.
He has enemies that seek to destroy him, to kill him. Some of these Psalms are written in the midst of those times. And that's what's happening here. So, God loves his people deeply. That does not mean he will spare us from suffering in the slightest. Verse 4, it says, My heart is in anguish within me.
The terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me. And horror overwhelms me. David is in emotional and physical torment. He's restless. He cannot sleep.
Moaning. It says, His heart is in anguish. Fear of death. Fear and trembling are upon him. Horror overwhelms him. And some of you have felt that.
You felt that with the death of a loved one. You felt that with abandonment that has happened in your life. That type of deep anguish of the heart. You felt that with rejection that happens in a way that makes you question reality itself and what's happening in your life. We feel this. And at some point, if you have not felt this, you will feel this.
Suffering is guaranteed this side of the fall. You will feel this type of pain, the kind of pain deep in your soul when you have no more tears to cry. And when this happens, you may feel tempted to run. And that's what David feels here in verse 6. And I say, Oh, that I had wings like a dove. I would fly away and be at rest.
Yes, I would wander far away. I would lodge in the wilderness. Selah. Which, by the way, we don't know what Selah means. Okay? In the Hebrew, we just don't know.
It could be a pause. It could be a musical note. Not even Kanye knows what Selah means. We don't know what that means. But before that, he's like, if I had wings, if I could just spread and get away, if I could fly away, if I could wander and get in the wilderness.
Who hasn't wanted that to run from your problems? Who hasn't wanted to flee and get away from it all? Maybe you're someone in a marriage that is filled with suffering and you want out. Maybe you're a teenager that's in a home that you maybe feel misunderstood. Or maybe it just feels toxic. Or maybe you're the parent of a teenager where you feel misunderstood and things are tumultuous and you just want to get away.
Listen, most of us, we're not going to physically escape. It's not going to happen. But we will do it mentally. Right? That's our go-to. We'll mentally escape.
We'll go to Netflix. We'll go to social media. We'll go to pornography. Because that's easy and controllable. To get away from it. Fly away to it.
What feels like a safer place but ultimately isn't safe for the soul. David feels that. He wants to get away from it all. He's acknowledging that before the Lord. I want to get away. Verse 8, I would hurry, verse 8, to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.
A tempest is a storm. I could just find shelter in the midst of all of this from this storm. From this raging storm of suffering that he's enduring. Maybe you've wanted that. Maybe you've wanted that. You've been in a group and a community group that feels like there's a lot of suffering, a lot of trials, a lot of people that are hurting.
Maybe there's some relational drama that's happening. You just want to get away from it all. Maybe you're a group leader and you feel that as a group leader. I just want to stop leading this group. Maybe you feel this as it pertains to the whole church family. It's like, I just want to leave this church.
I want to find somewhere else. I want to find shelter from what I'm facing. Listen, you have felt this or you will feel this. This side of the fall in a world that's filled with suffering. David feels this. He feels this and he continues in verse 9 to describe what he's facing.
Destroy, verse 9, O Lord, divide their tongues for I see violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go around it on its walls and iniquity and trouble are within it. Ruin is in its midst. Oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace. So he has enemies that seek to destroy him but he's also in a city that's filled with oppression and fraud and violence and sin.
He wants to get away from it all to the wilderness. He wants to leave it all behind. That's a familiar feeling for our country. And that was 2020. Cities falling apart. People trying to leave and get away from all of it.
My sister recently moved to Bozeman, Montana with her husband. And when they moved out there and they were, before they moved out there they were on a job interview out there and the Uber driver that was driving around said, hey, where are you from? They said, we're from South Carolina. He said, oh good. He said, as long as you're not from California. Because Montana and some of the states have been overwhelmed.
People trying to get away from the cities, get away from the violence, get away from everything that's happening. The reality is it's not just the cities that have sin all over it. It's the suburbs. It's your phone. It's the internet. It's all around us.
David feels this. Iniquity, sin is all around him but the situation is much worse. In verse 12 it says, for it is not an enemy who taunts me, then I could bear it. It is not an adversary who deals insolently with me, then I could hide from it. The enemies are not the worst part of what I'm facing here. Verse 13, but it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.
We used to take sweet counsel together. Within God's house we walked in the throng. David has been stabbed in the back and betrayed by a close friend. By a familiar friend. That's an intimate, close friend. A friend he used to go to advice for.
The end of throng is worship. So he used to worship together with him in the house of the Lord. This friend has betrayed him and it is crushing. If you've ever been betrayed, it hurts. My first big dose of that was when I was 17 and naive, 17, dating a girl, thinking, things are, things are great. All of a sudden, boom, find out she's cheating on me with not one, not two, but most likely three.
Couldn't confirm the third one, but I'm almost positive. Third. Three of my friends and football teammates crushed me. I was like so naive. Like how could this happen? You were my friends.
You were my girlfriend. What in the world? And it taught me one valuable lesson. You really cannot trust anyone fully in this life like you can, God. No one is 100% dependable like the Lord. But what came out of that is a lot of cynicism and a lot of deep anger.
I worked through it, you guys. It took some years to be able to get in to trust some people. But if you felt that kind of betrayal, it hurts if you've been betrayed by a family member or a friend or a church family member, a mentor or a child or a parent or a significant other. It hurts. When you've had your trust violated seemingly beyond repair, it hurts. One of the most famous lines in all of Western literature is from Julius Caesar, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
And Caesar, in the midst of the conspirators, in the midst of the senators who are killing him or stabbing him is fearless. He's fearless. But the moment he sees Brutus, his friend, he's no longer fearless. One of those famous lines, et tu, Brute. And you, Brutus. And this is a picture of, oh, man, you would betray me as well.
A dear, close friend. That's what David feels. A king betrayed by a close friend. And when that happens for us, you will, there's a part of you that longs for retribution. Longs for, maybe it's not retribution, but it's justice. But you feel that in you.
That's what David feels in verse 15. He says, let death steal over them. Which is a poetic way of saying, let death come upon them by surprise. Let them go down to Sheol alive. Sheol's the place of death. The best I can tell what he's saying there is let them be buried alive.
For evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart. David has put his enemies, the evil in the city, his close friend, all in the same category as he's lamenting before the Lord all of this. this shows the real thoughts and sorrow that David feels. Many of us have felt that. Maybe a co-worker that has hurt you. Maybe a family member that has hurt you. We can't relate to what David is saying here.
And then a shift happens in verse 16. After 15 verses of David before the Lord lamenting all the pain and suffering that he has endured and is facing, he shifts to the one whom he's crying out to in verse 16 and says this, but I call to God and the Lord will save me. He cries out to God because God is his help. Throughout the Psalms you see this one of the ones that David writes and throughout the Psalms the Lord is our help. The Lord is our salvation. This cry here in this Psalm is personally humbling for me to read this, to see this on display because what happens for me and I'm probably not alone is that when I face problems right, every now and then it's like clockwork in our family.
Every three years we're due for like a major medical bill that just comes out of nowhere and when it comes like we're feeling with right now it's like alright I'm going to hustle who I got to call alright, insurance company, doctors, how are we going to negotiate this? I get into I'm going to fix this.
Psalm 37: Fret Not
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
I turned my mic off before walking up here, which means it was on forever. So if the music sounded particularly good, you're welcome. Singing along. Go to Psalm 37. We're starting a series. During the summer, we're going to walk through some of the Psalms together.
So we're going to be about eight weeks in the Psalms over the course of the summer. The Psalms is the Bible's songbook. It's the Bible's hymnal where God gave us, through the psalmist, ways to pray and to praise. He gave us songs of worship and songs of lament. There are poems and wisdom in the Psalms. And so they are helpful for us to periodically take some time to just spend some time here to grow in prayer, to grow in worship, and to grow in understanding how to deal with a lot of what's going on inside of us in relation to God.
Because that's what the Psalms deal with quite often, is how we feel, and then turning over to what's theologically true in worship and what's true about God. So the Psalm we're looking at today is Psalm 37. It's a poem written by King David. And he wrote it when he was older. The way we know that is in this Psalm he says, I'm old. And so that helped us.
That was the clue. Tipped us off. And so we see that he wrote this when he's older. And what he's doing is he's looking at the world. And it's as if he's surveying everything. And he's going, okay, I see evil.
I see wickedness. And so often it seems like evil works. Wickedness helps you prosper. It's kind of what he's seeing in the world. That being violent, being aggressive, being greedy. So often seems like it helped them.
That they've prospered. That that was the way to go. To be aggressive, to be violent, to be harmful to the poor and the needy. Somehow helps people win. That's kind of what he's looking at. And you can see, you almost feel him as he's looking at this going, and that tension of, is this how this is always going to be?
Is this how this always works? And so he gives this encouragement in the midst of surveying this. That Psalm 37 is an encouragement to us. And here's what he says. Let's look at verse one.
Fret not. Fret not. That's the theme of this Psalm. Fret not. To fret is to be anxious. To be worried.
To wring our hands. To have something roll in our mind over and over again. It's this feeling of turmoil and fearfulness. It's this feeling of frustration and anxiety. And if you've lived recently, you'll know that we live in an anxious time. We live in a tumultuous, frustrated time.
And that we're told to be anxious and frustrated. That much of the message today is, aren't you mad about this? Aren't you upset by this? Don't you see what they're doing? And it really doesn't matter which side of any of these arguments or these issues that you fall on. Don't you know they're coming for you?
Don't you know they're coming for your children? Or don't you know that the children are coming for you? Don't you know they're coming for your guns? Or they have guns and they're coming? That these, whatever, which way ever it is. And all these things.
There's this general fearfulness. Anxiety and fretting. Because of the wickedness that's out there. The oppression that's out there. And how troublesome it is. And so, David says, The most helpful thing that I would just encourage you to use this in any kind of discussion you get into when someone's upset.
Calm down. That's what David says. Shh. Try that next time you get in an argument. It's nice. Works well.
I found that that works really effectively with babies. But not so much with my wife. But that's what he's saying. Fret not. And immediately your response is, Sounds great. Would love to do that.
How? I'm so glad you asked. Because that's what David's going to spend this whole Psalm explaining to us. That he proves his point. That you can fret not. So let's pray.
And let's walk through this together. Lord, if we're honest, we have so much to fret over. We have so much that if you just talk to us for a little while, if we just remain undistracted for a little while, we're afraid. Lord, we're anxious. We look into the future so often and we feel vulnerable. And so, Lord, we take a Psalm like this and we look at it and we're told to fret not.
And we pray that by the empowerment of your spirit and by the goodness of your word, that you would help us to see how that can be true practically and fundamentally in our hearts. We ask that you would apply this to us today. Help us to learn. Help us to grow. And help us to walk this out by the power of your spirit. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. So what we're going to do is we're going to walk very slowly through the first 11 verses. If you peek ahead, you'll see this is a long Psalm. And so after a few minutes, as we've walked through the first few verses, you're going to think, oh, we're going to be here for four and a half hours. And as much as I would enjoy that, we're not going to do that. We're going to go very slowly for the first 11 verses because in the first 11 verses we're given about 12 commands.
So in some ways, at the very beginning of this Psalm, David's taking us and grabbing us by the ears and looking us in the eye and he's talking directly to us. But at about verse 12, he releases our ears and he turns us and he says, see? So he's going to give us these commands and then he's going to go, look, I'm going to show you how this plays out. And then when we hit verse 12, we're going to move at a bigger, more landscape kind of pace. We're going to move a little faster to try to see how we can take what he told us in the first 11 verses and how he can press it in a little more in the back part.
So I'll tell you when we're making the turn. But at first, we're going to move a little bit slowly. OK. Fret. Fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers.
First thing I want you to notice is that the evildoers and the wrongdoers exist. He's not saying it's not as bad as you think it is. He said, no, no, no, they're out there. And I know that evildoers sounds like who Batman fights at night. Ne'er do well. But what he's saying is people who do evil, that there are wicked people.
There are people who actively seek to lie and oppress and use their power to harm. There are people who go out of their way to to take and to defend their position. They don't care about others. There are people who lie, that steal, that cheat, that murder. And he says, yes, we acknowledge that. But then he's going to tell us to fret not and be not envious.
And it feels like those are often the two paths that we kind of have when we're looking at evildoers and wrongdoers. Fretting is this general sense of anxiety, this, oh, my goodness, how is this going to work out? Oh, they're winning. It's working out for them. They're coming for us. That general feel.
And we just roll it over in our head over and over and over again. It's almost like we're churning butter. You take something that exists, take some milk, and you just keep messing with it. You keep churning it. And eventually it turns into cream and then it turns into heavy cream and then it turns into butter. And you take something that's real and you make it worse and thicker and more problematic.
That's what fretting does. Take something that's real and you just keep rolling it over and over and over again. So it's the only thing that exists. It's the only thing that you can think of. That's one of the options for us. The other one is to be envious.
And we take that route sometimes. Which is if that's how they're going to act, that's how I'm going to act. If that's how they're going to do politics, that's how we'll do politics. If that's how they're going to talk, that's how we'll talk. And it can be real simple things. Like I used to work sales.
And there's a thing I learned. Is that you sell things if you lie. I worked with a salesman. He was a great salesman. And he was a liar. People would ask him questions.
And he would just... I knew he didn't know the answer and he would just answer. And at first I was like, is that real? And he was like, I don't know. So then I just learned.
He's just making stuff up. I learned after a while that I knew more than he did. But he just would give better answers than I could. Because his were fictional. Sometimes it was just he made up an answer so that he could keep the sale going. Sometimes you asked him a question and he actually had a bad answer.
And he would just go, oh no, no, that's not these. That's those. And it's like, no, it's those too. Those also have that problem. They know their stuff. They're just...
And so you can be envious. You can go, you know what? I think I'm just going to have to lie. I think I'm just going to have to join that. I've worked with people in our... As I've been being pastor.
And trying to help them get out of situations. And they're fighting. And they're working. And they're laboring. And I've had the conversations with them. And they go, this isn't worth it.
I'm going to go back to selling weed. Because I can make so much more money so much quicker. I know it's wrong. But I'm just going to do that. Because the guys around me that are doing that, everything works out easier for them. And so there's this fretfulness or this being envious.
And he says, don't do that. And that's what he says. Don't. Stop. Stop. And I'll tell you, that's how I...
If you ever get to do counseling with me, that's how I do it. I ask you what you're doing. And I say, stop it. And then I say, let's pray. Okay. So it's not super helpful, but the meetings are short.
So you can get back on your merry way. That's what he says. He just says, stop. But he's going to tell us why. He's going to give us some reasons. We're going to move on.
So he says, for. That's how he starts this next sentence. So when he says, for, that means, here's why. Here's why not to fret. For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. He says, the reason you don't have to fret, the reason you shouldn't be envious of them is it will not work out for them ultimately.
Watch them for a little while. It doesn't work. They'll fade like the green grass. They'll wither like the green herb. They'll look about like your front yard looks right now. Unless you've been running your water constantly.
Spring came. The grass was like, ah, the sunshine. Okay, that's enough. Okay, all right. Too much. Too much.
Stop. Please stop. It's just been cooked. That's what he says. It's going to look like that. It's going to wither.
It's going to fade. It's going to fail. I don't get green herbs a lot, but I do sometimes buy bananas. If you have children, they'll have a week where they each eat three bananas a day. And you're like, oh, we eat bananas here. And then you buy a bunch of bananas.
And they're like, I don't like bananas. I don't get that away from me. And so then you watch like seven bananas that you bought just so you could murder on your counter. And you watch them wither. That's what he's saying is that if you watch it for a little while, it's going to fail. It's going to fade.
And I love how this is written because he says they. Now, he's referring to the evildoers and the wrongdoers. But I love that he says they because isn't that who's after us? They. You ever have someone go, you hear what they're doing? Do you hear what they just did?
It's never anything good. They is not out to help us. It's never like, you know what I heard they're doing? They take our military and they train them so that if something bad happens, they can show up and help. Can you believe that? I heard they're taking our teachers and they're teaching them so that later they can teach our children how to read.
Can you believe that? It's never what they're doing. They're coming for you. They're coming for your wallet. They're coming for your children. They're coming for your house.
They're killing all your cattle. They're invading all these things. They did covid so they could put the batteries back in the birds. All the crazy things they are doing. They are never up to anything good. And it just depends on who you're talking to as to what they are doing.
And I will encourage you every once in a while, go to the other side of the Internet so you can hear that your team wins, too. They're scared of you also. But they are never up to anything good. And so I think what you can do is say, you know what I heard? I heard they will soon wither like the grass. And fade like the herb.
We're going to be OK. They won't win. The wickedness that they're up to, the evil that they're up to, they won't win. That's the promise. That's why you don't have to fear is because they. Will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
So he keeps going. Trust in the Lord and do good. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. What he's not saying is don't do anything. He says do good.
Do what's in front of you to do. When he defines this later, he's going to talk a good bit about generosity. He brings that up a couple of times. You do good. You do what's in front of you to do. But you do that out of a position of trust, not fear.
We do that out of a position of faithfulness, not fretfulness. We do that out of a position of understanding who he is and how good he is and that we're supposed to follow him. Not if we don't do this, everything will fall apart and they'll get us. We get to trust and do. But you got to be in the position of trust that ultimately.
We have a Lord. That's what he says. We don't have to be fearful. We have a Lord. He's king. He's in charge.
He rules with a scepter. He's the king of kings and the Lord of lords. He's overseeing this. Trust him and then do. And I love the back half of that verse where he says, dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. I stared at that for a long time.
I was just trying to wrap my head around what does dwell in the land mean? And I think in this context, what he's getting at is. Live a life. Trust the Lord enough to live a life. To plant, to harvest, to build. To live.
Don't always have your bags packed. Don't always have one foot out the door. Don't live in such a way that you can't ever think that anything good will happen in the future so that you're terrified. Dwell in the land. And then he says, befriend faithfulness. Make faithfulness your friend.
That's your new friend. I appreciate that. Because so often we've befriended anxiety. Fearfulness is our best friend. You're about to go to bed at night. And anxiety just busts up in the door.
Opens your refrigerator. Sits down on the couch next to you. It was like, hey. I was thinking. What if first we'll just start running through some memories from middle school for the heck of it. Then I'm going to tell you how all your friends currently think about you.
I can read their thoughts. And guess what? It's not looking too good for you. Then I'm going to tell you how the future is going to go. Awful. Spoiler alert.
And then after we've done this for a couple of hours. So it's like, I don't know, one or two in the morning. Then we're just going to talk about how you haven't fallen asleep yet. And tomorrow is going to be awful. And we'll just discuss how you should fall asleep. But because I won't shut up.
You're not going to. That's our friend. Faithfulness. Fearfulness. Anger. He says, no, no, no.
I mean, did I say faithfulness? Yeah. He's not our friend yet. But we should have him as our friend. Y'all got it. Pay attention.
All right. Faithfulness is who your friend needs to be. That you're trusting in the Lord. You're walking steadily in faithfulness. And so often we've made anxiety, anger, and fear. That's who we dwell with.
And he says, no, no, no. Trust in the Lord. He's good. You have a Lord who oversees all of this. Let's keep going.
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. If we can learn to find what is good and fulfilling from the Lord. That if our hope is in him, two things happen. First, if your delight is in the Lord and then someone comes and says, don't you know they're going to take everything from you? Not my delight.
They can't take him. They can take everything. But where my hope is, where my fulfillment is, they can't take. See, if our delight is in the Lord, then everything else gets to be everything else. That if he's really where our joy is, if he's really where our foundation is, then guess what? Money gets to just be money.
It's nice. It's helpful. It can be a gift. But it's not our hope. It's not our future. If our delight is in the Lord, then our kids just get to be our kids.
Little sinners that live in our house. They don't get to be what makes us okay. They don't get to be what saves us. They don't have to be our hope and our future. If our delight is in the Lord, then our relationships, our romance just gets to be that. A gift.
It's nice. But it doesn't have to fix our souls or save us or make us lovable. And then, as our delight is in the Lord, he says, he'll give you the desires of your heart. Now, this isn't like a wink your delight is in the Lord and then you get whatever you want. Like, okay, how do I make him think my delight is there so that then I can have what I really like? That's not how that works.
What he's saying is if you genuinely have your heart set in the Lord where your joy comes from him, then he blesses and works in a way that you get what your delight is. You get him and you get the other stuff, but the other stuff just falls in its right spot. And it doesn't have to be there for you to be okay. That's what Jesus says when he says to seek first the kingdom of God and the rest of this will be added to you. That if you've got this in place, everything else falls into place. And if it doesn't fall into place the way you want it to, you're still okay because your delight's in him.
Verse 5. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will act. So this is the same thing he's been saying to us the whole time. He's telling us, trust him. Commit your way to him.
What's just a saying? Don't be envious of wrongdoers. Just say, Lord, I'm going to do the thing that you tell me to do. I'm going to walk the path that you lay out for me. And we trust him and he Acts. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noon day.
That justice and righteousness are carried out by him. That he Acts on our behalf so that we can trust him knowing that he's going to accomplish these things. Verse 8. Oh, verse 7. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way over the man who carries out evil devices.
I want you to see what it doesn't say is that evil never works. What it's saying is that evil never ultimately works. That you watch them and they prosper in their way. That it's a good way to get ahead. And he just says, yeah, but it's temporary. They're carrying out evil devices.
They're winning. Have you noticed how much culture, your social media, your radio, your YouTube videos, and your friends who are on social media, listen to their radio or watch YouTube videos, are telling you they're winning. We're losing. They're prospering. And if you said, yes, I've got a plan. I'm going to be still and wait.
What? When something happens, people will post, you know, our thoughts and prayers. And people have started just saying, we don't need your thoughts and prayers. We need your action. We don't need being still and waiting. We need you to move and do.
I will say, the world actually doesn't need our prayers. It doesn't need us to post on Facebook that we're praying. Just throwing that out there. It does need our prayers. But there's this general sense of you're going to wait.
You're going to be still. That's crazy. You've got stuff to do. Aren't you enraged? Aren't you frustrated? Aren't you scared?
Don't you see what's going on? Verse 8. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself. It tends only to evil. I've said this before, but one of my favorite types of movie is the you've ticked off the wrong guy movie.
I love that movie. Like, he was minding his own business. You started it. Now you and all your friends are going to die. It's one of my favorite westerns is that. Look at this farmer.
Uh-oh. Now he's going to have to kill everyone. But what verse 8 says is that Denzel Washington is lying to you. That this tends towards evil. And that we're to forsake wrath. We're to refrain from anger.
There's some amount of, I should be mad. I should be angry. And this is going to fuel my work. This is going to fuel what we're going to do. I'm going to use this anger as a furnace. I'm going to fret.
I'm going to wrap my head around this. And we're going to be able to accomplish this. And he says, yeah, that actually just leads to more evil. Calm down. Fret not. Verse 9.
For, again, he's telling us why. He's reminding us over and over again why. For the evildoers shall be cut off. But those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. Who cut the evildoers off? The Lord.
And those who waited. Inherit the land. That God goes to work. That's what he's saying. Take a deep breath. Calm down.
God works. Now there are times where God works through people. And that's where it's trust in the Lord and do good. There are things to do. But to be done from a position of faithfulness and trust.
Not from fearfulness. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land. And delight themselves in abundant peace. This is where, that the meek shall inherit the land is what Jesus is saying when he says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
This is a direct quote of this. So here's what we've been told so far. Trust. Trust. Be still. Wait.
Wait. Wait. Refrain. Forsake. Fret not. Fret not.
Can you hear David's tone? Come have a seat. Look at me. It's going to be okay. Wait. Be still for a second.
Well, I've got to, I've got to, we've got to. Be still for a second. Wait. Trust. Trust. Don't worry.
Don't worry. See, our culture looks at us. And if we say, that's what we're doing. I'm trusting. Don't you care? Yeah, I care.
But I'm trusting. Aren't you going to do something? Yeah, I'm going to wait. I'm going to be still for a moment. I'm going to wait on the Lord. Our culture tells us, oh, you're just putting your head in the sand.
You're just looking down. And David says, no, no, no, we're not looking down. We're looking up. I cast my eyes to the hills. That's where my help comes from. It's not up to me.
I'm not the hero of this story. But there is a hero. There is a Lord. And I'm going to sit and watch. Because he's coming. And he's going to sort this out.
And he's going to help us. And I'm going to trust that his timing is good. Because I trust that he is good. Okay. We've made it to verse 12. Now David's going to turn with us.
He's just going to start telling us how things work. We're going to move a little faster. You're going to have to do a little more work to pay attention. But I believe in you. It says, The wicked plots against the righteous. And gnashes his teeth at him.
But the Lord laughs at the wicked. For he sees that his day is coming. The wicked draw the sword. And bend their bows. To bring down the poor and needy. To slay those whose way is upright.
Their sword shall enter their own heart. And their bows shall be broken. Better is the little that the righteous has. Than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken. But the Lord upholds the righteous.
The Lord knows the days of the blameless. And their heritage will remain forever. They are not put to shame in evil times. You ever feel like we're in evil times? They are not put to shame in evil times. In the days of famine they have abundance.
But the wicked will perish. The enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures. They vanish like smoke. They vanish away. Why can we sit and wait and trust on the Lord? Because he watches the wicked and he knows their day is coming.
Because he breaks their bows. He breaks their arms. He takes their sword from them and sticks it back in their own heart. He breaks their bows. He breaks their arms. And he takes their sword and sticks it back in their own heart.
Now, that means we can wait. That means you can sit. That means you can be still. That means you can trust. Now our culture tells us this is backwards.
Our culture says, how dare God judge? Did you hear that? Who is he to sit and say what's right and what's wrong? Who is he to say this is good, this is bad? Who is he to... I can't believe in a God that would judge, that would have wrath.
I can't believe in a God that would send people to hell. And then, at the same time... Which the answer to who is he is. The answer is he's God. But at the same time, they'll say to us, aren't you mad?
Aren't you frustrated? Don't you see how wrong this is? Aren't you going to fight to fix this? Aren't you going to stand up for injustice? So they want us to be excellent Judges, but they don't think that God is.
And the Bible says, no, that's backwards. Humble yourself, trust in the Lord, and know that he's a good judge. There's an idea that the thing that makes us peaceful is that we believe that God is kind and peaceful. That if we believe in a God of anger and wrath, then we'll be angry, wrathful people. But if we believe a God who's loved, then we'll be loving.
But there's a theologian, he's a Yale theologian. His name is Miroslav Volf. He's a Croatian, and he saw all the violence in the Balkans. And in his work, The Exclusion and Embrace, he says this is the exact opposite. What he says is, my thesis that the practice of nonviolence requires a belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many Christians, especially theologians in the West. What he says is, if you're going to be calm, if you're going to sit, if you're going to wait, you have to believe that there's a God who breaks bows, breaks arms, and kills the wicked.
That if you're going to be calm, if you're going to wait, you have to trust that there is a God who does not let evildoers escape. That's his thesis. And he says that this idea, he said, soon you will discover that it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence corresponds to God's refusal to judge. So he's saying, if you believe, no, no, no, the only way we can be nonviolent is if he refuses to judge. He says, that takes the quiet of a suburban home. In a scorched land, soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die.
In his work, he says, when you, when you, your village has first been pillaged, then knocked to the ground, when your wives and sisters have been assaulted and your brothers and fathers have had their throats slit, you have to believe that there's a God who takes up the sword. Otherwise, you have to. And so, if we're going to not fret in the midst of evil, we have to believe in this God that Psalm 37 just told us about. that he breaks bows and he breaks arms and that evil doesn't win. And if that's true, then you can take a deep breath and trust his timing and his justice and his judgment. Otherwise, we have to fret.
Verse 21, the wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives. I want you to just look at that for a second because it's likely that you don't put money in the category of wickedness and righteousness, but the Bible does. The wicked borrows and does not pay back. Some of you might need to consider how you're operating in some low-level wickedness in your tool shed. You might need to consider how your bookshelf operates and operates in some low-level wickedness. The wicked borrows and doesn't pay back, but the righteous is generous and give.
Twice when he gives examples of what the righteous does, he talks about they're generous. For those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. The steps of a man are established by the Lord when he delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand. So those who delight in the Lord are walking around holding hands with him.
I don't know if you've had the opportunity to walk and hold hands with a child that wants to hold your hand. It is a blessed thing. Often I hold hands with unwilling participants. My four-year-old says, you're hurting my hand. And I say, well, quit trying to snatch it out of my hand and I won't hold it so tight. But we're in a parking lot, homie.
You're this tall and you don't have any sense. People can't see you and you're dumb. That's a recipe for disaster. But there are times when he willingly chooses to hold my hand and it's wonderful. And I don't know if you can think back to the times that you got to hold onto a hand that was much bigger than yours and that was keeping you safe and that ability to hold the hand helped you know you were going to be okay. And that's what he says that when we delight in the Lord we just get to walk along holding a hand.
It's so much bigger than ours. And when we fall, because we will, we aren't cast headlong. We trip. We fall. But our head doesn't smash into something because he's holding our hand.
You might say, well, I've fallen. It's like, yeah. He's got you. And he picks you back up. And we get to keep going. That's the promise there.
I have been young and now am old. Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. He is ever lending generously and his children become a blessing. Turn away from evil and do good. So shall you dwell forever for the Lord loves justice.
He will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever. Some of you need to wrap your soul up in that. In the midst of your sin, in the midst of your doubt, he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever. The children of the wicked shall be cut off.
The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart. His steps do not slip. The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death. The Lord will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial.
Now wait for the Lord and keep his way and he will exalt you to inherit the land and you will look on when the wicked are cut off. I have seen a wicked, ruthless man spreading himself like a green laurel tree. But he passed away and behold, he was no more. Though I sought him, he could not be found. You see, death is the end of the wicked but the righteous are held forever. Mark the blameless and behold the upright for there is a future for the man of peace but transgressors shall be altogether destroyed.
The future of the wicked shall be cut off. We're going to finish where he finishes which is verse 39 and 40. We're going to look at this for just a moment. The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them.
He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him. Fret not. How? Fret not. Calm down. Don't be anxious.
How? The answer is theological and outside of you. He says, trust the Lord. Look at who he is. Look at what he does. The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.
He is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him. The only thing that you do is run to him to take refuge. He does everything else. Fretting not is anti-work.
It's not something you accomplish. It's something you run to him and then he does everything else. It's trusting. It's placing faith in him. And he does everything else. My little boy that I was just talking about came back from preschool and he had gotten to go to the library.
And the preschool library has a lot of just books that people have turned over. Kind of a lot of used books. Their teacher teaches them in the library that you get what you get and you don't pitch a fit. Which is fun to then quote at them now. It's like, you get what you get and you don't pitch a fit. He brought home a book that was Batman's secret code book and he was pumped.
And so it was this Batman's secret code book and you open it up and it's got little pictures of Batman and it's got these huge giant blobs of red. And on the front of the book it says, use your secret decoder glasses. Well the person who generously gave this to the school didn't seem to give those or they stayed at the first house they went home with or whatever. But we didn't have Batman's secret code book. We had Batman's giant red blobby mess. So he was excited and I was like, yeah we'll read that later.
And I got on Amazon and I ordered some old school 3D glasses with the blue side and the red side. And so when that came in we had secret decoder one-eyed things that you could look through. And so then, I hate bragging up here. But I know all Batman's secrets. I know a lot of things about Batman that y'all don't know. Because we decoded Batman's secret decoder book.
Often, when we're looking at the Old Testament, what we get to do as Christians is see the whole picture. When they were promised that they could trust in the Lord, they didn't know how far the Lord would go to prove His trustworthiness. When they promised life for the righteous that was eternal, they didn't know how God was going to accomplish that. But we do. That we get to look at this through the cross, through the resurrection, through, when we talk about the Lord, we know of a risen king who's one day going to return and set everything right. And we get to look at this and know that if He wouldn't withhold Himself from us, that if God wouldn't withhold His Son from us, how can we not trust Him in all things?
If He's for us, who can be against us? This is Psalm 37 parallels so well with Romans chapter 8 where it says all of this is going on but we have hope in something bigger and better and we have an assurance in Christ that's been accomplished for us forever so that we can trust knowing that He rules, that He reigns, that He's good and that He's trustworthy. The band's going to come back up and we're going to try to be people who fret not. The next time someone comes to you and tells you what they are doing, I want you to say yes, but they will wither and my King will not. They will fall but the Word of the Lord lasts forever and though they take everything from me, I'll still have what I delight in which is my King and the righteous are preserved forever and I am not made righteous through my own works but I'm made righteous through Christ and I get to walk in faithfulness not fear.
That's our hope that we can be people who are not wrapped up in anxiety and frustration because we have a King in whom we trust. Let's pray. Lord, may we be people who have joy and delight because we have you and may we be people who can be still, who can forsake wrath, who can trust because you are trustworthy. We praise you that you save sinners and that you judge righteously and that our hope is in you both to rescue us from our sin and to rescue us from evil. we leave it up to you in your wisdom and your timing and your grace. Amen.