Psalm 57

Thank you.

Thank you.

When others seem to be against you and there's nothing you can do to change it, when you

feel that there's no easy escape from the difficulties you are facing, what do you do?

How do you respond in hard circumstances?

And you know, your circumstances may be severe or they may be trivial.

You may be facing a life-threatening illness or you may have spilled your coffee all over

your clothes five minutes before you walked out the door to come to church this morning.

But no matter how serious or how trivial your circumstances, when they are difficult, when

they are hard, things aren't going your way.

How do you respond?

I don't know if you're like me, but I know that I have an unerring heart response to it,

and that is that I want to fix it.

And I might fix it by trying to correct it and make it right, or I might want to fix it

by escaping it and simply getting out of it.

But whatever I'm trying to do, my heart cry is, make it stop.

Whatever the circumstance I'm facing, I want to make it stop, either by making it right or

by removing myself from it.

And you know, I don't just simply want to make it stop, but I become consumed by it.

I find that this then becomes my number one priority when life doesn't go the way I think

it ought to, is how do I fix it?

And in doing this, then all of my life energies and all of my thoughts, and in fact, the very

affections of my heart, become focused on this task of somehow addressing my situation, my circumstances.

I become distracted from everything else by this.

And you know what I find?

I become a fairly joyless person when I do this.

When I am trying to fix my life one way or another, I am not a joyful person.

Maybe you, like me, are tempted in those situations to run, to escape somehow, to find some pleasure of the world,

some distraction, some little entertainment.

Some little entertainment to take the sting out of your disappointment.

Some of you may have the impulse to become the crusader, to not only fix it in your life, but to fix the whole world so it will never happen again.

But whatever it is, the driving force is, in the face of hard circumstances, to want to fix in some way or another.

And where is God in this?

Where is God in this process of wanting to fix the world?

Well, it seems that often, as circumstances are hard, as things don't go our way, as it builds up over time, our hearts turn to bitterness, resentment.

We question God.

We question God.

We ask God, God, why does it have to be so hard?

And that's if we account for God at all.

Sometimes, in the midst of a circumstance that we want to fix, we just exclude Him altogether.

And in our frustration and our drivenness or our escapism or whatever it is, we end up actually living in despair because there's no God in there at all.

It's just us and our circumstances.

Well, as we turn to Psalm 57 this morning, we will find that there is another way.

I forgot to note it, but it's in your bulletin.

It's probably right in the middle of your Bible, Psalm 57, if you want to turn there with me.

And as we turn and look at that together, this psalm is going to point us beyond our circumstances.

It's going to point us to something else.

Today, our psalm points us to the glory of God.

And so, let's read it together and then explore it.

Psalm 57.

Be merciful to me, O God.

Be merciful to me.

For in you, my soul takes refuge.

In the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge.

Till the storms of destruction pass by, I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me.

He will send from heaven and save me.

He will put to shame Him who tramples me.

God will send out His steadfast love and His faithfulness.

My soul is in the midst of lions.

I lie down among fiery beasts, the children of man whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.

Let your glory be over all the earth.

They set a net for my steps.

My soul was bowed down.

They dug a pit in my way.

But they have fallen into it themselves.

My heart is steadfast, O God.

My heart is steadfast.

I will sing and make melody.

Awake, my glory.

Awake, O harp and lyre.

I will awake the dawn.

I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples.

I will sing praises to You among the nations.

For Your steadfast love is great to the heavens and Your faithfulness to the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.

Let Your glory be over all the earth.

Let's pray.

God, we pray this morning that You would show us Your glory.

Even as Moses long ago stood on the mountain and pleaded for You, saying,

Who will we be, God, if You do not go with us?

So go with us and show us Your glory.

God, we pray this morning that You would show us Your glory.

That our hearts might be captured by all the greatness of who You are.

Spirit, we pray that You would open our hearts to the truth of Your Word this morning.

I pray that You would give me words to speak.

That You would be exalted, O God.

That Your glory would be seen.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

When you look at the superscription, you realize the situation that David is in.

Remember, this is David who at the tender age of, we don't know, young,

he was anointed to be the future king of Israel while he was still a shepherd of his father's sheep.

We know that he was the one who God led to the front lines in the battle against the Philistines

and won a tremendous victory over the giant Goliath and sent the enemies of God's people scattering.

This is the David who was brought in to the king's house,

who was made a leader and a captain in the army and who had great success.

And yet, as we see in the superscription, he is now in a cave pursued by that very king.

Saul is now seeking his life in his jealousy, in his hard heart.

He has now spent time pursuing David, and David is on the run.

David's army is outmanned six to one probably.

A small band against a large army seeking to capture and destroy him.

And not only that, but David has become poison to others who seek to help him.

Earlier in the account in 1 Samuel, if you remember a couple weeks ago,

Pastor Nick preached on the psalm that talked about Doeg the Edomite.

Those who helped David lost their lives because of the vengeful wrath of Saul.

His circumstances were dire.

You see how he describes them in the psalm.

In verse 1, he says, they are like a storm of destruction.

Verse 2 says, they want to trample me.

I'm sorry, verse 4.

They want to trample me.

It says that they are like…

He is surrounded like a man camping out in the wilderness

where he knows that there are dangerous wild beasts

and that he's encircled by these lions prowling.

Imagine him putting his head down every night,

and every snap of a twig,

every sound that he doesn't know what it is

will make him jump.

That's the kind of danger that he is in.

They're like hunters laying traps with nets and pits

to capture him and to destroy him.

They seek his death.

And in the midst of these most difficult circumstances,

and in the face of the disappointment that he must be feeling

and at times he must have, you would have thought,

humanly thought,

God, what are you doing?

I'm going to be the anointed king,

and I'm hiding in a cave.

In the midst of this,

David does not seek to fix his circumstances.

He does not seek, in fact, to escape his situation.

But instead, he employs a different strategy

to respond to his circumstances.

Rather than fixing his circumstances,

he fixes his heart and his eyes on the glory of God.

And this is what I want us to hear this morning,

is that it is not in fixing our circumstances,

but in fixing our eyes on the glory of God,

that there is real help for us today.

Want to unpack the word glory?

John already did it some at the beginning of the service,

but just to take it one step further,

in the Old Testament,

according to a biblical scholar,

the Old Testament,

the word translated glory

was originally expressed in the idea of weight.

And so glory came to be applied

to the characteristic of a person

that makes him weighty,

that makes him…

that is, that in the eyes of other people,

they are seen as weighty,

and it prompts them to honor him.

And to respect him.

So it is the characteristics of a person

that makes them honorable or praiseworthy.

And that's what glory is.

And you see in this psalm,

this refrain in verse 5 and verse 11,

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.

Let your glory be seen over all the earth.

And this is David's cry in the midst of his circumstances.

And as we see that refrain frame our psalm,

we see it gives us our structure as well.

The first part of the psalm gives us

David looking to a God

whose glory fills him with confidence.

And the second part from 6 to 11 is

David looking to a God

whose glory fills him with praise.

So first,

a God whose glory gives him confidence.

One of the things that struck me

is that this psalm starts out like a lament.

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful.

And many other psalms will continue in this strain

for long…

for verse upon verse upon verse.

But David almost immediately in this psalm

turns to statements instead of confidence.

He knew how needy he was

and how dire his circumstance was.

He said,

God, I need your mercy.

I need your grace.

I need you to save me

because I can't save myself.

I need you to be my refuge

because I don't have the wherewithal

to be my own refuge.

And yet, in the midst of all of that neediness,

he says,

God, I am confident in you.

Look, in verse 2, he says,

I am confident that you are a God

who will fulfill your purposes in my life.

My life is in your hands

and I won't be let go.

Verse 3 is confidence.

He will send from heaven and save me.

He will send his steadfast love

and his faithfulness.

He will put to shame those who trample me.

He had confidence in God

that he would do all of these things.

He had confidence because he knew

that God was a God

who was able to do all of these things.

Think about David's story.

Think about what he could remember.

In his past,

he saw God help him

as he was a shepherd

fighting against lions and wolves

and God preserved his life.

He saw God preserve him

as he walked onto the battlefield

against Goliath.

He saw God preserve him

when Saul tried to kill him

while he was still living

in the palace.

David had seen God's faithfulness

and there was a track record of it.

There was also a promise.

There was a promise of the anointing

that David had received

that Samuel came and anointed him

and said,

you will be the king one day.

How will God anoint him

and then kill him?

He will live.

To reign on the throne of Israel.

And not only that,

but David's confidence

is in the steadfast love

and faithfulness of God.

You see it in verse 3.

And friends,

any Hebrew reading this text,

these words,

steadfast love and faithfulness,

will resound.

And I'm hoping you will hear me

say this enough from this pulpit

that you'll begin to see it

for yourself.

Steadfast love and faithfulness,

these are the words

that God used on Mount Sinai

when Moses cried out,

God, show me your glory.

God said,

you can't see my glory and live,

but I will put you

in the cleft of the rock

and I will pass by

and I will declare to you my name.

And the name is the Lord,

the Lord,

slow to anger and abounding

in steadfast love

and faithfulness.

This is who God is.

And David knew that.

And so both from the past faithfulness of God

and the future promises of God

and the covenant reality

of who God is

and how he has revealed himself,

David faced his situation

with great confidence.

Now some of you

may be sitting there and thinking,

how could he do that?

I mean, really,

how could God

be trustworthy

if all these terrible things

are happening to David?

And maybe you're asking that question

because that's a question

you ask in your own life.

How can God be trustworthy?

How can this glory be so wonderful

if my life is so messed up,

if my life is so hard,

if my circumstances

don't get better?

How can God be good?

Friends, that's a huge question.

I can't give you the full-blown answer.

But what I want you to see

is that David's confidence

and our confidence,

while it may not be watertight,

it is reasonable.

Because we too can look back

and see God's faithfulness.

For many of you,

you can think of instances

in your life

when God has provided for you,

when God has protected you,

when God has taken care of you

in particular ways.

And God wants you to remember

those times

and cling to them

when you don't see Him

doing it right now.

There are promises

that God has given

to His people.

I will never leave you

nor forsake you.

Though you die,

yet you will live

if you have believed in Me.

There are promises

that God has given.

He is a heavenly Father

who knows what you need.

He will not give you stone

when you ask Him for bread.

And so there's both

past faithfulness

and future promises

that are yours

as much as they are

for David.

And so there is a reasonableness

to trusting in God

even when right now

you can't see it.

because the glory of God

has been revealed

in so many various ways,

in so many rich ways,

that David's confidence

is reasonable.

And I say to you,

it is reasonable as well

for you

to have confidence

in this,

in this God,

in this God

who has shown His glory

in so many ways.

most of all,

and we'll return

to this later,

in the cross

of Jesus Christ,

He who loved us enough

to die in our place

and to take our sin

and to rise again,

God would not let

His anointed one

see death,

but He would let Him live.

He would raise Him again.

And that is the ground

of our confidence

because that is the display

of the glory of God.

And so for you this morning,

the question I wanted to ask is,

do you let your circumstances

define you?

Have you allowed your desire

to fix your circumstances,

to consume you,

and to distract you?

Father,

friends,

our psalm this morning

points us to a different way,

to confess your need for God,

to rehearse His faithfulness

and His promises to you.

And it is okay

to cry out for help.

It is good to say,

God, will You help me

in my circumstances?

Will You heal me?

Will You reconcile

this situation?

It is okay to cry out

for those things

and to ask God

to do them.

But ultimately,

our confidence

is not in God

doing those things,

but in the glory

of God Himself.

That He is a God

who can save you

from every circumstance.

And if He can,

if He will,

He can.

He can save you

and so we set our heart

and our hope

on Him.

The second half

of the psalm

moves beyond

just this statement

of confidence

in God

to an even,

perhaps,

more surprising

response.

For we see

David

fixing his eyes

on a God

whose glory

fills him

with praise.

in the midst

of his circumstances,

he is in the back

of the cave

and likely,

not only is he

in the back

of the cave,

but Saul

and his army

are camped

in the front

of the cave

between him

and the exit.

David is not

filled with worry

or fear.

Instead,

he is filled

with praise.

Look with me

again at the psalm

starting in verse 7.

My heart is steadfast,

O God.

My heart is steadfast.

I will sing

and make melody

to you.

He calls

to his heart,

awake!

He calls

to the instruments,

awake!

He says,

I will be up

before the dawn.

I will awaken

the dawn

with my praises

to this God

in the middle

of these

incredibly hard

circumstances.

He would be

the one singing,

crown him

with many crowns,

the Lamb upon

the throne.

Awake,

my soul,

and sing

of him

who died

for me.

This is what's

happening

in David's heart.

He's not looking

at his circumstances.

He's looking

up at the glory

of God

and his heart

is filled

with praise.

And we see

again in verses

9 and 10,

thanksgiving.

I will give

thanks to you

among the peoples.

I will sing

praises to you

among the nations.

Why?

And I don't have

to explain this

to you, right?

I just did it.

For your steadfast

love is great

to the heavens

and your faithfulness

to the clouds

because you

are a God

who has made

a covenant

with his people

and you

in your glory

will not forsake me.

And so,

instead of seeing

my circumstances

and being consumed

with worry,

being consumed

with fear,

trying desperately

to fix it,

in fact,

interestingly,

in this account,

if we place it

right in the story,

David had a chance

to kill Saul

and to fix

the situation himself

and he didn't

because Saul

was God's

anointed one

and David

chose to honor God

and to honor Saul

because of what

God had done

for him.

And he chose

not to fix

his circumstances

when he could

because of his

commitment

to God

and God's glory

in all that he did.

and so he did not

try to fix

his circumstances

but he fixed

his heart

on the glory

of God

and up from

his heart

welled

steadfastness,

joy,

praise,

thanksgiving.

And again,

our refrain,

be exalted,

O God,

above the heavens.

Let your glory

be over

all of the earth.

God,

may the world

see

your grace

and mercy,

your power

and strength,

your steadfastness

and faithfulness,

your righteousness

and justice,

your right

to be honored

and worshipped

and served.

May all the world

see it.

That is my heart's cry.

That is my greatest

desire.

God's cry.

So again,

friends,

maybe some of you

are thinking,

well this sounds like

a whole lot of

really religious

self-talk.

Isn't this just

the power of positive thinking?

I think things

are going to get better

and I believe in God

so I'll sort of

pin it on Him.

But isn't this just

trying to hope

that things are better?

I don't know

if you've ever read

Voltaire's Candide.

There's a character

in it named Pangloss

who walks around

the world saying,

this is the best

of all possible worlds

in the face of

dire circumstances

and terrible suffering.

And do you know what?

Voltaire was making

fun of the church

and the church's hope

in God

as he wrote that.

And maybe you think

that too.

Maybe you're sitting

there going,

this is just

a bunch of

hopeful,

unbelievable,

like mysticism.

You think that

the world is going

to be better

just because you

hope it will be?

And you pin it

on God?

No,

I don't think

it's that.

That's a straw man.

That's an empty picture.

Because the amazing

thing is that David,

and note this,

David did not say,

my circumstances

are fine.

I'm great.

This is not hard.

This is easy.

We rehearsed it earlier.

David walked through

how dire his

circumstances were.

He said,

the storms of destruction

ride over me

again and again

and again.

The men who seek me

have these sharp teeth.

They're seeking

to devour me

and trample me.

David is not saying

the world is not hard.

He is not saying

that your circumstances

are not dire.

He is not saying

that the world

is going all

as it ought to be

in ease

and comfort.

What David is saying

is in the midst

of the very hard things,

in the midst

of the most dire

circumstances,

as well as the most

trivial inconveniences,

there is something

greater

that we

were made for.

There is a deeper

reality of God

and His glory

and His kingdom

and His purposes

in the world.

And this

is the foundation

upon which

then we experience

our circumstances.

And when we see

that foundation,

it undergirds

and shapes

not only

what these circumstances

truly are,

but also how we

can respond to them.

David says

we can look

beyond the circumstances

to the eternal

weight of glory

of a God

who is faithful,

of a God

who is love,

of a God

who sets

His strength

and His power

to do right

and to do good

in the world.

Not to fix it,

but to bring glory

to Himself.

Do you remember

the story?

Tragedy happens

and they ask Jesus,

Jesus,

why did this happen?

Who sinned?

Who is to blame

that this was

God's judgment?

Jesus said,

no,

no,

you're thinking

about this wrong.

This happens

so that you might

see the glory of God.

So you might see

a God

who is able

to save.

So you might

see a God

who is able

to redeem

out of the pit,

out of the most

difficult circumstances.

Friends,

when we see

this kind

of a God,

we are able,

like David,

to be steadfast,

not consumed

with worry

or anxiety,

not pursuing

our strategies

of escaping

or correcting,

not fixing them,

but in the midst

of them,

fixing our eyes,

fixing our eyes

on God

whom we were

made for.

The Westminster

Catechism tells us

that the chief

end of man,

that is,

the reason

for which

we were created,

is to glorify

God

and to enjoy

Him forever.

That is,

to see Him

in all of His

manifest glory

and to reflect

back to Him

the praise

and the honor

and the worship

and the service

that is due.

And in doing that,

we enjoy Him

and we are satisfied

at the very

core of our soul.

And we no longer

seek the satisfaction

of a comfortable life,

of an easy life,

of a life

where our circumstances

are not hard.

But instead,

we seek this God

and with Paul

we can say,

whether we live

or we die,

our greatest desire

is that God

would be glorified

in us.

In us.

this is my greatest hope

for us

as a church

as well as for each

of us individually.

My hope is that

in our circumstances,

when they are hard,

we do not

become

distracted

and consumed

with fixing

all the little things

that don't go

just as we planned.

Oh, we want

to pursue excellence.

Oh, we want

to pursue goodness.

We want to pursue

good things

in our midst.

But friends,

if we are a church

that is consumed

with the glory of God,

if we lift our eyes

out of our circumstances,

what God will do

in us

and through us,

how God will make

the glory of the gospel

shine in us,

resound

in us.

And friends,

of course,

we,

even more than David,

have

a greater reason

to fix our eyes

on the glory of God

because we have seen Him.

We have seen Him come.

John 1.14,

the Word became flesh

and dwelt among us

and we have seen

His glory,

the glory of the

only begotten One,

the One who has come

from the Father.

We have seen His glory.

And the passage,

it was read earlier

from John 12.

If you ever want

to read the book of John,

watch this.

Jesus says,

my hour has not yet come,

my hour has not yet come,

my hour has not yet come,

my hour has not yet come.

And then in chapter 12,

He says,

now has the hour

have come

for the Son of Man

to be glorified.

He says,

unless a wheat of grain

falls to the ground

and dies,

it cannot produce fruit.

Where is the greatest glory

of God?

Where have we seen

God show

His past faithfulness

and His future promises

and His covenant love

most clearly?

You know the answer

to this already.

It is at the cross

of Jesus Christ

and in His resurrection

where He did not

forsake His justice,

but also committed

to showing grace

and mercy

to sinners

like you and me.

He sent His own Son.

Jesus displays

this glory

by taking the punishment

for our wrath,

by taking the alienation,

He who was separated

from God

so that we might be

brought back to God.

He who faced

the worst circumstances

ever on this earth

as God poured out on Him

the wrath against

the sin of the world

so that we might not,

so that we might be saved.

This is where we see it.

And you know what?

This glorious Christ

who has died

and risen for us,

He does not promise

to fix our circumstances

in this life.

In fact, He says,

if I suffered,

you will suffer too.

If they persecuted me,

they will persecute you too.

The message of the gospel

is not that it will

make your life easier.

In fact,

it often means

your life will be harder

and your circumstances

will be filled

with greater opposition

and difficulty.

And yet,

in that,

as Paul says

in Corinthians 4,

we carry around

the death of Christ in us

so that the very life

of Christ

may also be manifested

in our mortal bodies.

The glory of Christ

is that

the worst circumstances

here on earth

cannot shake the glory

that God has set

on us

and that we have Christ in us,

the hope of glory,

and we know that one day

Christ will return

and He will make

all things right

and we will be raised

with Him.

And finally,

God will fix

the circumstances

of the world

in His judgment

on evil and sin,

in His exalting

of those

who have put their faith

and trust

and confidence

in Christ.

So, friends,

this morning,

if you are here

and your circumstances

are hard,

I appeal to you.

This psalm

gives you language.

It gives you words

to cry out to God

with.

And it may be

a cry

that has no heart

behind it

when you first say it

because you're so overwhelmed

and so filled.

But I pray

that you would

take this psalm

and put it on your lips

this week.

Be exalted,

O God.

Be exalted

in my life.

Be exalted

in our church.

Be exalted

in our city.

Let your glory

be seen.

Awake,

my soul,

and sing.

I will give thanks

and sing praises

to you.

This psalm

gives you language

in the worst

circumstances.

And friends,

if you're here

this morning

and you've never

trusted in Christ,

I hope that you

will look at His glory

at the cross

and you will think

this is what you

were made for

and this is the only

place where your

circumstances

ultimately

can be made sense of

and can find

ultimate hope

and resolution in.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

I want to end

with a quote.

It's from a

book called

Shattered Dreams

written by Larry Crabb.

This is a testimony

of a man

who he had

been counseling

as he worked

through it

and I want to leave

these words with you.

Faith,

as I'm growing

to understand it

more,

is about looking

beyond my circumstances

to a person.

To have faith

in better circumstances,

even in God

creating better circumstances

is not true faith.

I want to be

the kind of man

who can watch

every dream

go down in flames

and still yearn

to be intimately involved

in kingdom living,

intimately involved

with my friend,

the King,

and still be willing

to take another risk

just because

it delights him.

And my flesh shivers

to think about that.

Friends,

if all of your dreams

go down in flame,

will you fix your heart

on the glory of God?

Will you continue

to trust in Him

and have confidence in Him?

Sing praises to Him

because He's loved you

so well.

Let's pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Spirit, we ask

that you would show us

where we have been

committed to fixing,

committed to trying

to correct

or to escape

our circumstances

in pursuit

of an easier

or a more comfortable life.

God, we pray

that as you show us this,

that you would,

Lord, remind us

and show us

your glory.

Lord, capture our hearts.

Lord, for we can't

simply will

ourselves to do this,

but we plead for you.

Capture our hearts

with your glory,

with your steadfast love,

with your faithfulness,

so that we might be filled

with confidence

and songs of praise.

We pray these things

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.