I Love the Lord, Because He Has Heard My Voice

Pastor Tom's going to begin a three-week series next week on anticipation, about talking to the Lord through prayer in anticipation of how he'll respond.

And I thought Psalm 116 would be a good way for us to begin the new year and begin thinking about prayer in anticipation.

Psalm 116 is one of the 150 Psalms in your Bible.

It's one that's classified usually as a psalm of thanksgiving.

Psalms are, they don't always like being neatly categorized, but generally we think of psalms in three major categories: laments.

A lament is just pouring out your heart to the Lord, asking for rescue and help for your immediate needs.

Psalms of praise are very common as well.

Prayers worshiping the Lord who saved his people, often worshiping him for the glories of creation or his redemptive deeds many years ago.

Thanksgiving psalms, like 116, are very often about recent rescue.

And the thing about a Thanksgiving Psalm is it contains lament.

It'll contain, as you'll see, a recounting of the difficulty that God rescued the author from.

And then it also contains words of praise and thanksgiving for his mercy.

Thanking God for his goodness should be at the heart of all of our prayers.

No matter what we're saying to him, we should be thankful because thanksgiving helps us to worship.

It reminds us of the source of our trust.

It helps us to be generous when we remember how much we truly have.

Christian author John Bloom has said that grumbling is the accent of hell.

And gratitude is the accent of heaven.

I really think that's true.

The Apostle Paul tells us to do all things without grumbling.

Grumbling and complaining are the opposite of giving thanks.

And it's especially meaningful, it's meaningful to hear Paul say, do all things without grumbling, because he was somebody who had many causes to grumble and complain.

He's the one who experienced beatings and imprisonment, shipwrecks, being stoned until he appeared dead.

And he's the same one who told the Thessalonians, give thanks in all circumstances.

He told the church in Ephesus, give thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so my point is that gratitude is indeed the accent of heaven.

But we learn to speak with that accent here on earth.

Grumbling comes more naturally to us.

Complaining comes more naturally in a world of pain and disappointment.

But one of the reasons God gave us the Psalms is to be model prayers for us, to teach us how to pray.

I want to read a quote from a book called Deeper Places by Matthew Jacoby.

He's a pastor, and he's also the leader of a band called Sons of Korah.

If you don't know Sons of Korah, I encourage you to look up their music.

They just set the Psalms to music.

And they do a remarkable job of capturing the anguish and the fear and the pain and also the hope and the joy of the Psalms.

Listen to what Jacoby writes in his book, Deeper Places.

To have a relationship with God is to share life with God.

At the center of this sharing of life is a constant flow of communication, expressing joy when we are happy, showing gratitude when we are blessed, complaining when we feel let down, crying out when we feel abandoned, supplicating when we are in need, raging at injustice, delighting in goodness, lamenting hardship, and celebrating bounty.

The book of Psalms was not given to show us what the worship of angels looks like.

The Psalms are an expression of what an authentic relationship looks like between human beings and God.

They will therefore express all the complexities inherent in any relationship.

And so I chose Psalm 116 for us today because I think it's a great model for our prayers at the beginning of a new year.

To take time to give thanks for all the Lord did in 2019, even if it was a very hard year for you, even if it was a hard year, what can you thank him for?

Because with that accent of gratitude on our lips, we can pray about the new year with anticipation of how he will show his mercy and goodness to us as we trust him.

So let's read Psalm 116 together.

I'll read it and please follow along in your Bible or bulletin.

I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy, because he inclined his ear to me.

Therefore, I will call on him as long as I live.

The snares of death encompassed me.

The pangs of Sheol laid hold on me.

I suffered distress and anguish.

Then I called on the name of the Lord.

O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul.

Gracious is the Lord and righteous.

Our God is merciful.

The Lord preserves the simple.

When I was brought low, he saved me.

Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

I believed, even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted.

I said in my alarm, All mankind are liars.

What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

O Lord, I am your servant.

I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.

You have loosed my bonds.

I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.

I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord.

Holy Spirit, would you enable the hearts of my brothers and sisters to be honest with you about grief and disappointment, about frustration and sadness, but also to pour out to you their hopes and dreams, fears and anxieties about the year to come.

Lord, may this prayer, may the other Psalms be for us models about how to engage with you in a real relationship, as the children of the Almighty King who loves to hear our prayers and receives our thanksgiving and even endures our complaints and frustrations.

Because in all these things we come to you through the name of Jesus.

Amen.

So three simple points that I'd like to use to outline this.

Our need, verses one through four.

Hebrew poetry, you often find a summary of the whole psalm in the very beginning.

And so verses one and two are really a summary of the whole psalm.

Verses one through four express our need.

Second point, verses five through nine are about God's rescue.

The third point, our response, verses 12 to 19.

So looking at verses 1 to 4, talking about our need.

We wouldn't have a psalm of thanksgiving if there weren't first a plea for mercy.

We don't know who the author was, but the author had a problem, a problem that brought him or her into a place of desperate need.

And the need plus God's response resulted in greater knowledge about God's character and goodness.

You see, human needs are like lenses.

Our human needs are lenses that help us see God's character more clearly.

We wouldn't know that He is merciful and loving and patient if we didn't need mercy and love and patience that cause us to cry out to Him.

Now, in a few of the Psalms we know exactly what the problem was.

David being pursued by his enemies, or someone being very sick, or a time that Jerusalem was sieged by a foreign army.

But in most of the Psalms, we don't know what the problem was.

And that's good, because then we can take that same psalm and consider it to be written for ourselves, that we can pray and sing it in our own times of trouble.

But we know that this was a serious problem.

It was a life or death struggle, as verses three and four make clear.

And even more important than what the struggle was is how the author responds.

Where do you go in distress and anguish, in confusion and bewilderment?

God wants us to come to him, no matter what we're feeling, even if we don't have the words to say, even if we don't have faith in him, even if we don't believe, he will respond.

That's I love the honesty of verse 10.

I believed, even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted.

It reminds us of the man who told Jesus, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

You see, God doesn't listen only to the prayers of those with great faith.

He listens to the faintest whisper of those who have the most feeble faith.

Hard times often cause us to doubt.

To say, why is this happening, God?

Where are you?

Where were you when that happened?

Were you not paying attention?

Or how could these bad things happen to me if I'm really your child?

It's okay to say these things to God.

In fact, God wants you to say them to him.

What did the author believe in verse 10 when he said, I believed?

It may be as simple as this.

Just, I believe that God will hear me.

I believe that he cares.

And so I will speak.

And so, in your own words, when you are struggling, just tell the Lord what you're feeling.

I'm so sad.

I don't even want to talk to you right now, God.

I don't know why I'm talking to you.

I'm mad at you.

That's a good prayer.

Say it to him.

Your belief doesn't have to be any more sophisticated than an honest expression of what you're feeling.

Just as the author did in verse 4.

The snares of death were threatening to pull him down, and he then I called on the name of the Lord.

Oh Lord, I pray, deliver my soul.

And God did.

He delivered his child because he loved him.

And so, the first thing I want you to take away from this is that this psalm teaches us where to go with our fears and doubts.

Even if our fears and doubts are about God Himself, He wants you to come to Him.

And to keep coming, even when you don't get an answer right away.

Even when the sickness lingers, the unemployment persists.

Maybe you've heard the saying that sometimes he calms the storm, and other times he calms his child while the storm rages on.

We can't control which way he'll respond, but we can come to him asking for rescue.

That's point two, God's rescue.

I love verse two.

Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

Because he inclined his ear to me.

A lot of your prayer life will depend on how you see God.

Do you picture him standing back, distant from you, with a skeptical, stern look on his face and his arms crossed when you come to him in prayer?

Is he looking at you saying, yeah, this better be good?

I don't know why this girl's even coming to me.

Or do you picture him inclining his ear to you, getting down as to a small child, so he can hear every whisper?

That's how God listens to you.

He inclines his ear to you.

The creator and king of the entire universe.

When you realize that he pays full attention to your prayers, how can you not pray?

Don't take it for granted, though, that God listens to your prayers.

If you grew up in a Christian home being told to pray throughout your life, don't take it for granted.

There are many powerful people on this earth who won't take my phone call, who won't answer your email.

And yet the sovereign King pays attention to your prayers.

Not to everyone's prayers.

David says in Psalm 18, You made my enemies turn their backs on me, those who hated me I destroyed.

They cried for help, but there was none to save them.

They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.

He doesn't listen to everyone's prayers.

But if you're his child, if you pray to him in the name of Jesus because you've been washed clean by Jesus, then the King of Kings will incline his ear to you.

In verse 5, we learn why God listens.

Not because you pray well, not because you've been good this week.

Verse 5 says, Gracious is the Lord and righteous.

Our God is merciful.

God helps his people because it's in his character to do so.

But still, sometimes we pray for something, we cry out for something, and he doesn't seem to respond.

I've experienced that.

Experienced distress and anguish and gone to the Lord with my feelings and my fears, and he doesn't give the answer that I want.

If that's been your experience, then look at verse 6.

The Lord preserves the simple.

When I was brought low, he saved me.

God wants to hear your prayers for help, and he wants you to come as a child.

To come with childlike prayers.

Knowing that he may not respond the way we want, but we will come to him.

Not coming to him as an adult does.

Not coming to him with a fully formed plan all laid out with details on a spreadsheet.

A plan that's ready for his signature.

No, he wants us to come as a child who has no idea how this is going to sort out, but knowing the daddy can take care of it.

Part of understanding the Psalms and applying them to our lives is learning to surrender our own ideas about what is good for us.

When we dictate to God precisely what rescue should look like, we're not coming to him with the simple trust and faith of a child.

It takes that kind of faith to come to him in prayer, and it takes that kind of faith to come to him for salvation in the first place.

And that's what we must do first.

I don't want to take for granted that all of you have that access, that all of you have come to him the first time for salvation.

God has very sobering words for those who reject him.

Isaiah 1.15, when you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you.

Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.

For your hands are full of blood.

All of our hands are guilty, stained by sin, and it's enough to present us from being God's children.

We can't come to Him on our own, on our own righteousness and record, expecting to be heard.

So before we come to God the Father, we have to come to Jesus.

Before we can ask God the Father anything, we need the access that only Jesus can give us.

That when we come with that childlike humility and say to the Son, I am a sinner.

I made a wreck of my life last year.

And you are the only one who can wash me clean of that guilt and shame.

You're the only one who can give me a fresh start.

Jesus, wash it away.

Give me your righteousness.

And he does.

He responds to that prayer of humility and dependency.

And then he asks us to continue throughout the Christian life to pray with that same humility and dependency.

Jesus is the only one who's worth turning to when the pain and hardship of this world overwhelm you because he's the one who endured the ultimate pain and hardship and defeated them.

Defeated them so he can deliver you and I from them.

We find Jesus in Psalm 116.

We find him in all the Psalms, really.

I'm going to read verses 3 and 4 again.

But hear them in the mouth of Jesus.

The snares of death encompassed me.

The pangs of Sheol laid hold of me.

I suffered distress and anguish, and I called on the name of the Lord.

You see, Jesus called out to his father on the cross as the pangs of Sheol were laying hold of him, as the snare of death was wrapping around him, pulling tighter.

Jesus suffered pain and distress and anguish beyond anything any of us has experienced.

But when he called on the name of the Lord, his father was silent.

Jesus quoted instead from Psalm 22, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Jesus didn't pray for the Lord to deliver him from death, as Psalm 116 does.

Because he was born to die.

That was the reason he was here.

And so Jesus Death and resurrection.

His father's silence, when his son cried out in anguish, is the reason why you know the Father will not respond with silence to your prayers.

Because Jesus faced death in your place, you can pray, verses eight to nine.

This is a prayer that only Christians can pray.

You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

There's three blessings in there.

Verse 8 says that God has delivered the author's heart, body, and soul, dealing with his past, present, and future.

His soul is delivered from death, delivered from eternal spiritual death.

That's a future blessing.

And in the present, God has protected the author's body, guarding his feet so they don't stumble.

And God's also at work in the author's past, healing the wounds and tears.

And so as a result of God's deliverance, we can sing with the psalmist in verse 9, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

That's the promise we have in Christ for the year 2020.

That we can walk on earth in light of the eternal security we have in Christ.

And so that brings me to my third point.

Our response.

And if you're someone who walks before the Lord, then you can sing verse 16 to him.

O Lord, I am your servant, I am your servant, the son of your maidservant, you have loosed my bonds.

If he has freed you, if he has released you from the bondage of slavery and self-centered sin, then you have the privilege of servanthood.

The privilege of serving him all your days.

And one way we serve him is simply by praying and singing with thanksgiving and by testifying.

You see, Psalm 116 is both a private and public prayer of thanksgiving.

The author is retelling himself the story of his need and of God's rescue, saying in verse 7, return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

Giving thanks like that is good for our souls.

It helps us stop grumbling.

Thanksgiving changes us.

It changes us so we'll live differently.

There's five verses in this psalm beginning with, I will.

You may want to underline them.

We just read verse 9, I will walk before the Lord.

And then verses 13, 14, 17, 18, how the author is going to respond to God's goodness.

Because he's not the same person after this experience.

In verse 13, he says, I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

And verse 14, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

He's not going to stay quiet.

The Lord has done good for him, and he is going to tweet about it.

He's going to post it on Facebook.

He's going to tell people in the line at the grocery store.

Everybody he sees is going to know what the Lord has done.

We have a special service every year, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and we gather here and share stories of Thanksgiving and testimonies.

But it's something we should do throughout the year.

Look at verse 17 and 18.

I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.

I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

You know, one of the best reasons to join a covenant fellowship group, if you're not in one of our home groups, one of the best reasons to do it is to have a dozen people praying with you and for you, week in and week out.

And then to be able to come back to them and in the presence of his people to share how God answered those prayers.

It's a good practice to share these stories because it reorients our hearts to be full of gratitude and it amplifies God's glory.

The same way that an amplifier is amplifying my voice so it's easier to hear.

Our thanksgiving amplifies God's glory when we tell others of what he has done.

That's why the author considers it an obligation and says in both verses 14 and 18, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

Right after verse 14 comes a verse that might seem out of place.

Verse 15 says, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

How can death be called precious?

Because for God's people, only our body will die.

You are going to die.

Every one of us.

But if you have trusted in Jesus, if you have said to him, Jesus, sometimes I still wonder how you dying 2,000 years ago on a cross can mean eternal life for me now.

But I'm going to accept it and believe it because I have nowhere else to turn.

And I'm going to trust and cling to you that you will help me believe it more and more each day.

If you've said that to Jesus, if you've put your trust in him alone, then your life is precious to God.

And the end of your life does not mean the end of God's protection or concern for you.

No, your death is precious in God's eyes because he meets you there with tenderness and hope, abundant tenderness and hope for your loved ones who grieve when you pass, who weep when you die, and they remain here on earth.

But when you die, the reason your loved ones will be able to grieve with hope is because you said verse 9 with confidence before you died.

You said, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

If that's your confidence today, if that's where your feet are planted as you enter the year 2020, then it's going to be a precious thing in the sight of the Lord when you pass.

Whether it's this year or 50 years from now.

And it will be even more amplified one day in heaven when we gather and tell stories with thanksgiving.

Dan Allender, the Christian therapist and author, has a theory about heaven, which he admits has no foundation in Scripture.

But I like it.

His theory is that when we gather in heaven, we're all going to gather around a bonfire.

It's going to be a big bonfire because there's going to be, you know, a billion people gathered around this bonfire.

And we're going to tell stories.

Adam and Eve are going to go first.

And they're going to fill in everything that isn't in this book.

So it's going to take them a long time to tell us all the details that we don't know about, all the things that they're thankful for about what God did and how He took care of them, even when they were kicked out of Eden.

And then the next generation will share.

And then the next.

And so Alander thinks it's going to take about 10,000 years for all of human history to take their turn telling these stories and just rejoicing as we hear about all the unseen ways that God was at work in our lives.

I like that.

What I do know is that we will sing in heaven.

And we will sing with an accent of gratitude, an accent of thanksgiving for all God has done.

And we are called to speak with that accent even here, now on earth.

So before I close in prayer, let me suggest seven more psalms that would be good for you to read this week.

Seven psalms that will help you speak with an accent of gratitude as you also come to Him with your concerns and requests for 2020.

Here's some Psalms to meditate on this week.

Psalm 30, 40, 66, 92, 100, 118, 138.

I'll say that again.

30, 40, 66, 92, 100, 118, 138.

Read these.

Meditate on them.

Read them out loud at the dinner table.

Make them your prayers.

And come to the prayer meetings this week.

Come with thankful hearts, looking back on the year behind, and come with hearts full of anticipation about what you're asking him to do this year.

Let's pray to him now.

Father, thank you.

Thank you that we can come to you with thanks, gratitude for what you've done.

But thank you that we can come honestly and transparently.

That you don't expect us to come with polished, sophisticated prayers or prayers that are only full of flowery praise and thanksgiving.

We can come to you even when our hearts are grumbling.

We can come to you even when we are doubtful of your goodness or even your existence.

You invite us to come just as we are, because we come in the name of and clothed by the righteousness of Christ.

And so may this week and this year be marked by a conversation with you, a way of praying that is honest and hopeful for our good and your glory.

Amen.