Finding Refuge in Psalm 59 - with Karin Ferris

My name is Karen. I'm one of the members of Sarah's Grace Church,

and it's really great to be here today.

So we're going to be in the last two verses of Psalm 59.

The majority of this psalm is actually an applicatory psalm,

which is where the author is asking God to rain down judgment on his enemies.

We're not going to be in that part of the psalm today. That's another sermon

for somebody else, but we're going to be in the last final two verses today.

Um, David is the writer of the song.

He sings these really powerful verses at the end of a chapter full of anguish and fear of his enemies.

He's hiding from King Saul and the king's gang of murderous men who, he says in verse 3,

conspire against me for no sin of me and return in the evening snarling like

dogs and prowl about the city.

The psalm was written with the events of 1 Samuel chapter 19 in mind where King

1 Samuel 19 · chapter mention

Saul's rageful jealousy of David after he first killed Goliath and then he successfully

fought the Philistines made the king want to eliminate him quickly.

So the king sends out his attending men with the express intent to capture David

and then kill him so that David was no longer a threat to Saul's rule.

David's wife, who's also King Saul's daughter, warns him about her father's

murderous intent and helps him escape from their home in the middle of the night.

David is scared. he's hopeless, he's near death.

And he knows that he will be killed by the king if he can't get away.

But in the midst of his terror, he does something remarkable.

He proclaims that God is his strength and his fortress on whom he can rely.

For you, God, are my rescue. You are the God who shows me unfailing love.

David is well aware of the trouble that he's in. These are not the words of

a person who is in denial of a serious situation, choosing to stick their head in the sand.

Rather, these are the words of someone deeply convicted of God's trustworthy

faithfulness, his deliverance of the righteous, and his never-ending love for his people.

And earlier in the psalm, David asks the Lord to reveal his power by uplifting

his enemies and bringing them down.

Let them be caught in their pride, he asks.

And it's in light of this truth that he then later breaks out in worship.

And he can sing with joy of God's unfailing love, his strength, and his place of safety.

So where is God when we are being chased by our enemies, whoever and whatever they may be?

Or when our families are falling apart? When we can't make sense of the world around us?

Where is God when our Christian brothers and sisters in other parts of the world

are living in war, persecution, famine, violence?

What can David teach us about how we, as children of God, should respond?

So we're going to break these two verses down. David starts in verse 16 by saying,

But as for me, I will sing about your power.

And we're going to go check 2 Samuel 22 real quick. It says,

For who is God except the Lord?

Who but God is a solid rock?

God is my strong fortress, and he makes my way perfect.

So we humans, we tend to measure power and success, money, fame, status.

I think everybody who's on social media can attest to that.

Human power can also manifest through oppression and justice towards vulnerable

people who lack resources and influence.

Power struggles are common in everything from parent-child relationships to

major international crises. I think we've all listened to the news this week.

But God's power is different, as evidenced in these words from Samuel.

He is a strong foundation.

He is a solid rock. And he demonstrates his ability to accomplish his will all

the time in all kinds of different situations.

His power means he's always in control.

And there's nothing happening in the world that he doesn't know about.

David leaned on the knowledge of God's protective and awesome power in a life-threatening

situation, and it made him sing.

While the king is raging out for blood, David is lifting his voice to glorify

God in the midst of his terror because he knew that God was bigger than his plight.

So how many of us here can honestly say that our first instinct would be searching

in God's praises if we were in the same boat?

It would probably not be the first thing to come to mind, or it would be something

that would be hard in the beginning.

But we can trust that God can take even our deepest fears, redeem them,

and turn them into praise.

So a couple of years ago, we had guest worship leaders from RM here,

and it was during a pretty difficult time in my life.

One of the songs that they sang described God's power as that of our fortress.

And in the middle of that song, my grief came pouring out, and I was able to

hold my sorrow and my praise and tension at the same time, knowing that the

power of the Lord was carrying me.

And I'll tell you, it was probably the most cathartic and beautiful moment in

worship that I've ever had.

So crying out to God in the midst of his people, singing his praises was incredibly powerful.

And in walking through the challenges of those months, I had to daily ask for

faith that God was still in control.

Well, verse 16 then continues with, Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love.

And we're going to go quickly into Romans here where Paul says,

I am convinced that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God

in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And that can be hard to comprehend, even except with human understanding,

just how great God's love is.

And we tend to think transactionally about love. Like, you do this for me and

therefore earn my favor and affection.

But everything god does and thinks is done in unfailing love,

The definition of unfailing is reliable or constant, without error or fault.

So is that what David had in mind when he penned the psalm?

Was he thinking of how reliable and thoughtless the love of God is,

even as his enemies were closing in on him? Perhaps.

Perhaps he was so convinced of the same thing that Paul, a thousand years later,

wrote in Romans, that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God.

That even the prospect of death wasn't going to stop David's rejoicing.

And Paul too rejoiced amidst suffering.

And it can at times feel a little trite, almost cliche to talk about the love

of God, because we've heard it so many times, we've heard it in so many ways,

and in so many different contexts, that we almost forget the magnitude and the breadth of it.

And we might go through seasons where God's love feels distant, caring, indifferent.

And we look deep inside and we also find that our own love has grown cold.

Thoughts come into our minds concluding that, since I don't want God,

or care about his ways, it means that he doesn't want me.

He hasn't called me or chosen me. And for sure, there are people whose hearts

are hardened and full of pride.

But those people typically don't

wrestle with these questions or wonder if God's love is actually there.

For we know that Scripture says, God demonstrates his own love for us in this.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Love looks like a man hanging on a cross in our place do we let that truth sink

in enough and do we stand in all what jesus has done for us do we sing with joy like king david did,

knowing god's great love for us and the sacrifice that he made and sending his

son should help us grow in love for him and for others,

And it should help us become the most humble people on earth.

As we understand the great love that was involved in rescuing us from sin.

A reliable and constant love is a love we can count on. It will not fail us or leave us.

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger,

and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Psalm 86.

David goes on saying For you have been my refuge A place of safety When I am in distress.

So I got caught up In a new show this week Called The Pit I don't know if anyone else Has seen it,

It's a medical drama Set in an ER In the city of Pittsburgh United States So

the name The Pit Play on the words For the city it takes place in And the fact

that the ER Is located in the basement Of the hospital So, a bit.

And on account of it being in an ER, it's a place of great distress,

pain, suffering, lots of stress.

But it's also a place of great resilience and deep care for ailing people.

It's a daily fight between life and death, where even with the best efforts,

death sometimes gets the upper hand.

Well, during one intense scene There was a character who earlier in that episode

Had made it clear he and God were not on great terms,

But he huddles in a makeshift morgue Reciting prayers to the same God That David

cried out to in his turmoil,

So the good doctor was at the end of his rope He was calling out to God who's

distressed Just to find a minute of refuge From a heartbreaking crisis.

I think it's in these moments of weakness where we many times hear God's voice the strongest.

For all our pretense of self-sufficiency is stripped away and we admit that

he is strong and we are not.

Sometimes it feels as if trouble is chasing us, like we just can't catch a break.

But what hope we have in knowing that God is our helper and our refuge,

always near the we imagine, and with unlimited resources to help and comfort us.

And while it doesn't guarantee that we will never find ourselves in difficult

situations, Jesus never made such promises, it does mean Jesus will walk with

us through those difficult situations.

I think, in fact, most of us would probably, God, pluck us out of those harder

moments, when it's more often than not in those hard times where God does his

deepest work in our hearts.

I know that to be true in my life, at least.

And sometimes Christians, we as Christians, we feel as if we need to muster

up a sort of blind faith, where we stand in denial or we have a difficult predicament

or plaster a fake smile on our faces, because while we're pretending,

everything is all right.

But I don't believe that is what God is asking of us. If we don't feel as if

God is our refuge, or that we can count on Him as our safe place from distress,

the answer isn't to pretend or deny our circumstances.

Or how we feel about them even, but rather to admit to God. We don't have much faith right now.

Like Steve said earlier, it's a gift. Faith is a gift. We have access in front of his throne.

He can handle our prayers. He can handle our weakness. He can handle our doubts.

Ask him for his grace to get you through and for your faith to grow.

And if a Christian brother or sister shares a struggle with you,

if they're struggling with faith, then respond with compassion,

with a listening ear, praying heart.

That is how we carry each other's burdens.

Understanding that God is our refuge means that He is where we go to,

we run to in times of trouble.

It's where we acknowledge His sovereignty of whatever situation we find ourselves

in and allow Him to minister to us, to calm our fears, to speak to our hearts.

It's so easy to turn in the opposite direction, soothe ourselves with hobbies, work, doom scrolling.

But these things end up being a distraction rather than to help.

God is ready and most importantly, he is willing to welcome us and give us rest

when we earnestly seek him.

Nahum chapter 1 says the Lord is good. He's a refuge in times of trouble.

Nahum 1 · chapter mention

He cares for those who trust in him.

The arms of the father are open to his children.

Don't let lesser things keep you from finding peace in his presence.

Last verse, verse 17 says, O my strength, to you I sing praises,

for you, O God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love.

So here is the ending line of this psalm. And David repeats his words of praise

to the God who is his refuge in hardships and the one who shows him unfailing love.

He's driving home the point of finding peace and strength in the shadow of the

Almighty when the ground around him is shaking.

He wasn't satisfied just saying it once. He wanted to say it over and over again

in testimony of God's tremendous faithfulness, the leading of his Holy Spirit, and his saving power.

And let's remind ourselves that this is not trouble. It may feel wrong. It may feel unnatural.

Like, last thing you want to do is to worship God when we're going through hard times.

But the joy of the Lord is our strength, right?

Yeah. David found the key to worship even when his enemies were coming for him.

Most of us probably don't have powerful people as our enemies waiting to take

us down or hurt us or our loved ones.

We don't currently live in a place where we are violently persecuted for our

faith or where bombs fall nearby, although that is the reality for many people elsewhere.

Even so, we still live in a world

where we can see and oftentimes feel the repercussions of sin and pain.

Our enemy can be a serious illness or slander against us.

Our biggest enemy is prowling around like a lion, waiting to devour us.

That is the bad news. So, what great news we have in the gospel.

Where in the words of Paul, Jesus disarmed the powers and rulers of darkness

and made a spectacle of them at the cross.

And his victory and triumph became our victory and triumph.

Psalm chapter 9 says, I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will sing the praises

Psalms 9 · chapter mention

of your name, O Most High. Hebrews chapter 13.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

We have more reasons to praise the Lord than David, in that Jesus came to earth

as a human, who paid the penalty for our sin on the cross, and he made us righteous before the Father.

Because of his sacrifice, we can offer up our lives in service of a king and

be welcomed as children by a loving father.

So let's lift up our hands and praise God for his compassion,

his goodness, and his power.

When we feel sad, confused, wronged, God is ready to comfort us.

And he's always worthy of the acknowledgement of his great name and our praises.

And he sees that sacrifice and he comes near to us with his peace and his grace.

So in conclusion, David's choice to praise and trust God amidst difficult and

dangerous circumstances can give us a blueprint for how we can position our

hearts and our wills when we are in duress.

So like we talked about earlier, David was not a person unfamiliar with hardship and sin.

Some of it cost by himself.

And he didn't write this psalm in an ivory tower, far removed from pain and

suffering. He was right in the middle of it.

But he also wouldn't let his own failings trump the love of the Father.

So when the most counterintuitive response in the world is to lift our hands

of worship and thank God for his providence and steady love,

let's consider David's attitude towards what God actually deserves and not let

our shortcomings get in the way.

Yes, our reaction that may come more naturally to us is rather to lose hope,

lose faith, and be overcome with despair.

Or be angry at God.

And those are common, very human responses. Nothing out of the ordinary to feel all those things.

And God is there to help us when we find ourselves slipping into hopelessness, fear, and anguish.

So in those times, let us remind ourselves that our God is a dependable God.

He has unlimited, reliable power

and a steadfast love, which holds us and keeps us through dark times.

Can we lift our hands in the storm and praise him, even when everything in us

and around us tells us not to?

I'm sure some of us here this afternoon came in with heavy hearts and minds

and had to make an active decision to raise their voices in worship,

allowing God to recenter them and act on them in His truth.

It isn't always easy, but it is always worth it.

So when David cries out, For you have been my refuge, we can think about the

fact that God isn't just concerned with our physical safety,

but also our spiritual and emotional well-being.

Even with violent henchmen circling his home David was at peace because he trusted

that God was ultimately in control

of the situation and that his grace was there to sustain him to the end,

so when we are battle weary and we're tired we can rest in his promise to never

leave us we can remember the unfailing love of God and how it pierces even the

darkest night of our souls when we feel like there's nothing left to do but give up.

In closing, this hymn from 1917 that I found says it well.

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.

It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell.

The guilty pair bowed down with care. God gave his son to win.

His erring child he reconciled and pardoned from his sin.

The love of God is greater for. Amen.

We hope that this sermon has encouraged you. If you'd like to learn more about

us, visit us online at gracechurch.se.

Thanks for listening.