Psalm 86 "Facing Haters"

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful

that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either

by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray

for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really,

I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,

they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will

do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a

non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't

hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the

types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

Just bowing our heads, let's pray. Father, sometimes, Father, we read your Word and don't see ourselves

in your Word. But Father, we confess that the problem is not that your Word isn't addressing

us, but that, I don't know, there's something blind in our eyes and clogging our ears and dull

with our conscience. Father, we ask that you help us to hear your Word. It's a Word directly

to us, a Word that speaks to us as we really are, at the center of who we are, not only at the center

of who we are, but the real life that we actually live day by day. And so, Father, we ask that your

Holy Spirit would do that gentle but very important work in us all the time and this morning now as we

spend some time looking at your Word. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our

Savior. Amen. Please be seated. So the psalm today is going to talk about haters, having to live your life

with people who hate you. And there might be a... Obviously, hate's a very, very strong word,

and for some cases, it might not be hate, but it might be constant irritation. It might be severe.

It might be real dislike, or it might literally be haters. And one of the things is some of us might

say, well, you know, I don't think I'm dealing with any haters right now. I don't think I'm dealing

with anybody who wants me to fail, who wants me to land, you know, on my face, not pick myself up.

I don't know if I'm dealing with people who want to defeat me. I don't know if I'm dealing with haters.

Well, actually, every... Probably every single one of us in this room, in fact, are dealing with haters.

Because there's a range of topics that we, as those of us who are here who are historic,

biblical Christians, that if we were to say it out loud, people would hate us.

And so it's not unusual that if you're in a Starbucks, or a Tim Hortons, or some other place,

and you discover you meet another person who holds some of the same views as you, you talk like this.

And you sort of look around a little bit. Because we don't want to be hated.

Don't bring it up at our workplace. We don't want to be hated. Now I know there's a few people here who,

I don't know, you're built out of titanium, and you go through a life scene, whatever you want.

But for most of us, most of us Canadians, we, in a sense, do have to live with haters.

And we live with them by avoiding them. So this psalm is a psalm that actually talks about how do you

live in a world where there are people who are hating you. And it has some surprising,

counterintuitive advice. So let's look and see what it says. We're looking at Psalm 86. Psalm 86.

And here we go. It begins like this. Once again, I'm not sure if it's on the screen,

but it begins by saying, A Psalm of David. Just want to remind you, those, if you read the psalms

for yourselves, and you know, like in my version right now, there has this thing in the bullet print,

Great is Your Steadfast Love. That's just the editors thinking that that's a good title for it.

But right underneath it, there's usually emboldening bullet print, not always, because they don't always

have an ascription, but something like a Psalm of David. I think I've said this before, but not for

a few weeks. One of the differences between a Hebrew Bible, like a Jewish Bible, and ours,

is they count that as the first verse. So their verses, where there's an ascription at that at the

beginning, their psalms will always be off from ours by a verse. And if that's why, that's why

they consider it. But it's original, a Psalm of David. And then it continues, verse one.

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Now just pause here before I go any

further. David is the king of Israel, and he's just said he's poor and needy.

So is this political posturing? We all know of people like politicians who try to pretend that

they're working class and just scraping by, and they have lots of mansions that are worth millions

and millions of dollars. I've done funerals for people who live in a mansion in Rockcliffe,

and when they're talking about the deceased, they talk about how they're just managing to get by like

everybody else, as if they're working, living in some of the poor areas of the town, but they

go to elite school. Is that what David's doing here? He's not. And you'll go on and you'll later,

like for instance, towards the end of the psalm, he's going to refer to himself as God's servant,

a son of God's maidservant. What's going on here isn't political posturing. It's not make believe

and pretend. It's, which you'll see as you go through the whole psalm, everybody is poor and

needy in regards to God. It doesn't matter if you're one of the richest people on the planet,

you are poor and needy. You need God for life, you need him for your breath, you can't buy your way

into heaven. And so there's a, this is a type of a humbling phrase of David's, which is important

to notice. It's not a cynical phrase, it's heartfelt, and it's heartfelt in the context of the living God.

So I'll read that verse again. Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.

Preserve my life, for I am godly. Save your servant who trusts in you, you are my God. Be gracious to me,

O Lord, for to you, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you,

O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love

to all who call upon you. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer. Listen to my plea for grace. In the day of my

trouble, I call upon you, for you answer me. So verses one to six are sort of covering some important

things about him in terms of his heart and his attitude, and he's getting to the point right here

at verse seven. I'm in trouble. And we're going to see later on in the psalm that the trouble is that

he's dealing with haters. Haters who don't just want him to fail, they actually want to kill him.

And that's the trouble that he's dealing with. Now, a couple of things, you know, about this.

Now, the first thing is, you know, I think every one of us, as soon as I said we have to deal with

haters, that maybe some of you right now are consciously dealing with somebody. Maybe it's a

parent, maybe it's a neighbor, maybe it's your boss, that really does, is out to get you and hates you.

And maybe we're just avoiding saying certain things so we don't develop haters. But here's the other

thing about this psalm. You'll notice that David keeps talking about his need for grace and mercy.

And the reason he's doing that, there's a couple of things that we can get from that. The first one is

this. There might very, and so this whole psalm is going to teach us how to pray into a situation

where people hate us. And that sounds like something we're going to look forward to hearing more about.

We need to also remember that there might very well be people praying this psalm because of us.

In other words, there's people in our office or our neighborhood who perceive us as hating them.

And maybe they're in another church, maybe they're somewhere else, maybe they hear about this online

and they watch it and they're thinking, I really need to hear this because that's, I need to deal

with that George. You know, I need to deal with that, you know, Andrea. That's just something in here.

There's implicit within this call for grace and mercy, this double-edged thing that we need to

understand that it might be us that others are praying about. Now, before I say anything else,

I'd like to, if you could put up the first point, Claire, that would be very good. The biggest lesson

of this whole psalm, but especially these first few verses, is this. Life is difficult,

so prayer is necessary. Life is difficult, so prayer is necessary. In Canada, and probably in the United

States, and probably in many other countries, the basic assumption that we're brought up with is that

life should be easy. And so when life is not easy, what's the problem? And many Christians, those of you

who are maybe watching this or are here, and you don't know much about Christianity, a lot of times

Christians, when life isn't difficult, when life is not easy but difficult, they say they're under demonic attack.

Well, maybe they are. But they're operating from the assumption that life should be easy, not that life is

difficult. And often, if life isn't easy, maybe our finances aren't as easy, our relationship, our work, etc.

And then for some of us who are prone to depression, we start to think that the problem is with us.

And we can be overwhelmed with great guilt, because our money isn't the way we would like it,

our relationships aren't the way we would like it, our living situation isn't how we would like it,

and we can start to beat ourselves up. And we can say, you know what, why am I such a bad person?

Why am I so incompetent? Like, why can't I lead well? Why can't I manage well? Why can I do this well?

And we beat ourselves up. But underneath that, we're assuming that life is easy. The more common

Canadian response to when life is not easy is it's somebody else's fault. Dang the government, like,

dang my boss, my parents, my kids, my wife, my husband, it's all their fault. If I could just have

a better one of those, life wouldn't be difficult, it would be easy, because somehow or another,

we actually think that life should be easy. But that's something that idols tell us. And it's not

true. Now, the Bible's not telling us this, so we will be depressed. It's not telling us this,

so we can be like, you know, the sort of person who does the exam, and they think, oh, I probably only

got a, you know, a D plus. So that way, if they get a B, they're really happy, you know, whereas if they

think they got an A and they got a B, they're unhappy, if the Bible's not telling us this is a

weird way to be happy, life is difficult. Like, raising kids can be difficult. I have great kids,

by the way. You know, it can be difficult in a marriage. Being in a church could be, you know,

being a scholar. Life is difficult. And so the message of the psalm is because life is, that's how

you should just begin to expect that life is going to be difficult. And so prayer is necessary.

And this is a really important lesson to me. In fact, if you could pray for me, this would be the

case. I too often fall into the habit that I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, oh, no, I guess

I better pray. Or I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, and I'm in really trouble, so I pray. But if life is

difficult, not impossible, just difficult, so we need to pray, then we should begin with prayer,

and continue with prayer, and end with prayer, because life is difficult.

The idols of our age try to tell us that life should be easy, therefore worship us. The Bible says,

listen, I'm not causing you to be depressed. Life is difficult, so prayer is necessary. Now,

the other thing which is going on in this, if with the whole language of him being, like, asking for

grace and mercy, is another very, very important thing to think about when we're thinking about life

as difficult. And part of the reason that life is difficult is because of, part of the reason my life

is difficult is because of me. What I mean is this, there's a fellow by the name of John Maxwell,

he's, like, famous for a lot of power of positive thinking and leadership stuff, and by the way, he

has a lot of stuff that's worth reading, by the way, and I have to confess, he was very helpful for

a season in my life, and he really was. But John Maxwell, one of the things he famously said was,

he said to an audience one day, you know, if I could kick the person who's causing me the most

trouble, I wouldn't be able to sit down for a week. In other words, he'd have to be kicking himself,

because a lot of times I bring my own trouble upon myself. And this is, once again, why we need to

pray to God, that I not make my own life more difficult than it needs be, in the sense that I

wake up, or be more attentive, or just be a better person. But life is difficult. So, now, just, by the way,

sometimes I mention movies in this, on eSermons, and when I mention a movie, it is not a movie

recommendation, okay? So, one of the things that's, over the last couple of months, some Saturday

nights, Louise and I, with the two of our kids, will watch a movie together on Saturday night,

and often we'll let them pick the movie. And a couple of weeks ago, trying to decide what to watch,

and we decided to watch Mad Max Furiosa. This is not a movie recommendation to people, necessarily.

If you don't like violent movies, don't watch this movie, okay? Anyway, to our surprise, like,

everybody liked it. Even Louise liked it. I liked it. I'm fine with sort of violent, some types of

violent movies, or lots of action, or fighting. So, those of you who know this movie, Mad Max Furiosa,

you know that it just came out. It's a prequel to a movie that came out a couple of years ago.

So, last night, we watched the movie that it was a prequel for called Mad Max Fury Road. Now,

there's this really funny scene. It's very short. It's close to the end of the movie. So, there's,

you know, Furiosa, and Tom Hardy, and Nicholas Holt, and some young women, and they're fleeing a group of

really unbelievably fearsome-looking, cruel, violent people, and they know that if they get caught by

these cruel, violent people, they're either going to be... Everybody except the young women are going

to be killed, and the women are... The young women are going to become sex slaves, and they're being

chased, and it looks like they're going to get caught, and they're in this war rig in the back,

and there's this one young woman at the back, and she's doing... Doing hand signs, and her eyes are

closed, and she's nodding. And Lady A, we'll call her Lady A, looks at her and says,

what are you doing? Like, what are you doing? Lady B doesn't pay any attention, just doing this,

closing her eyes, doing hand motions, and stuff like that. Lady A says, are you praying?

And the woman stops her praying and says, yes. Lady A says, who are you praying to? And she answers,

whoever's out there to listen, which I think is really, really funny. Maybe you guys don't think

it's funny. I just thought it's such a funny answer. So, you know, we say we're going to pray. Well,

the question then is, if life is difficult, so prayers, who do we pray to? Well, that's the next

few three verses. It's just, I mean, in a sense, the whole psalm is letting us know the God that

we pray to, but the next three verses in particular are important. Look at them, verses 8 to 10.

David prays, there is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.

Now, just sort of pause. At a first reading, this makes it look as if David believes that there are

many gods, and in a world of many gods, there's also the Lord. That's what it looks like, but that's

not what he's saying, and I'm going to loop back to it, but you'll see in a moment why that's not

what he's saying. I'll read verse 8 again. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are

there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord,

and shall glorify your name. Just pause. It's beyond the scope of this one verse, but the psalmist

here is not saying, David is not saying that every single person will come to a saving faith in Jesus,

but it's a very important verse, as Steve, who's with the church, will tell you. It's reminding us

that it's God's heart that people from every people group on the planet and in all of history,

that he is calling people from every people group to a saving faith in Jesus,

and that the church is something which is worldwide, that in a sense we can't just think of ourselves

here as Canadian Christians. We need to remember there's Nigerian Christians, Singaporean Christians,

Chinese Christians. It's one of the reasons why the work that Colin and Gail are doing,

here as missionaries, is so important, is to reach out to international students, not only because

some of these international students will stay in Canada and become Canadians, but some of them

will go back to mainland China, or they'll go back to Iran, and sort of reach out to them and share

the gospel with them as part of how we bring all the nations to come to worship and glorify the Lord.

So just read verse 9. So verse 8 again, there is none like you among the gods, O Lord,

nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come,

and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.

And here's the correction to verse 8.

For you are great and do wondrous things.

You alone are God.

Clarifying what he meant in verse 8.

He means he knows there's lots of, in a sense we would say he knows there's lots of different religions.

But in all of the religions of the world, in all the gods that the religions worship, there's no God like the Lord that he's talking to.

You are the only God.

If you could put up the first point, Claire, that would be, the next point, that would be very helpful.

And it's this, as a Christian we would say the triune God is the only God.

The triune God is the only God.

The God revealed in the Bible is the only God.

Now, obviously, that's one of those statements that if I was to say it very loud in the average coffee shop,

I would get haters.

Because it's a very un-Canadian thing to say.

It is considered to be impolite.

It is considered to be imperialistic.

It's considered to be implausible.

But just because the fashion makes us want to be silent, fashion isn't an argument.

Never is.

And in fact, there's very, very good reasons to say that the triune God is the only God.

Just a couple of things.

First of all, the very fact that the text uses the word gods rather than religions is very helpful.

When we look at religions, we might say, well, like most, lots of religions like candles.

Or lots of religions like silence.

Or lots of religion like prayer.

Or lots of religions like this.

And it can sort of get us a little bit confused about all of these things.

But if you talk about gods, you'll see that that's actually a far better way to talk about the issues.

Because all of the gods that peoples on the earth believe, they can't all exist.

It's just impossible.

Because they describe, the gods that are described, are radically different.

It would be a little bit as if I was to say that I'm married to Louise.

And some of you might think that that means that I'm married to an elephant.

Some to an alien.

Some to the Rocky Mountains.

Or some to the person named Louise who's, you know, beautiful and, you know, this tall and all of that.

Like, the difference between the gods is just as big.

The difference between Brahmin and the difference between pagan religions with many gods.

And the difference between some types of philosophical Hinduism where God is everything or God is in everything.

Or where there's, frankly, just lots of different idols.

And the God of the Trinity.

They're radically different descriptions of God.

And it can no more be true that they're all describing the same being than for me to describe my wife as either a person, an alien, the Rockies, or an elephant.

Like, the differences are just as big.

Nobody would say that those are all describing the exact same thing.

And so, it's completely reasonable to say that they can't all exist.

We can maybe say that maybe none of the gods exist.

That's what our atheist friends say.

But you can't very well say that they're all describing the same being.

And in this psalm, if you go back and look at verse 8, when it talks about God being, the Lord being his works,

it's referring to the fact that he's created all things.

When you look at verse 9, it's talking about the nations.

It's implying that he's sovereign over all things.

And when it looks at verse 10, and it talks about his wondrous—how does it say here in verse 10?

You do wondrous things.

It's talking about his miracles.

The fact that he comes and he speaks by revelation.

Or he does things like deliver the nation of Israel.

Or now, for us as Christians down the road, the death and resurrection of God.

You see, why—

Why do I say that only the triune God exists?

Well, there's two basic reasons.

The first one is love, and the second thing is evidence.

In our culture, love is huge.

In fact, you know, in a few more verses, we're going to talk about how the psalmist is asking us to pray to fear God.

And for Canadians, that's just not something that makes any sense to them, that you should fear God.

Fear just seems to be something you have when you don't have love and intimacy.

And love is very, very important.

We say, you know, love is love, and all of those things.

It's a very, very profound value for us.

Well, once again, think of love in the gods.

Only the Christian faith has a God that you could really say is a God of love.

Well, why is that?

Well, if God is ultimately everything, how can everything be love?

Like, you need another person for love.

Like, I can love Louise because she's not me.

I can love my kids because they're not me.

I can love you because you're not me.

And if everything is God, then that, by definition, can't be love.

And if you think of Allah, if Allah is all alone and there's no God, how can he be a God of love?

Who is there for him to love?

Does that mean that he's needy?

He really wants to love somebody, and he can't find anybody to love, so he creates people so he can love?

Well, if that's the case, that's like a very imperfect type of love.

That's not even really love at all.

We would sort of think that's a bit cringy.

Don't you think?

That if you had a God that's so lonely that he has to create people?

It would be sort of like if you discovered that, you know, somebody to get some partnership, they get an inflatable, you know, a guy gets an inflatable woman and sits and has supper with them or something.

That's really weird, like having an inflatable woman that you can hug at night.

Like, you probably need to see a therapist.

But the triune God, Christians say that when you know the triune God is to know love loving.

Because from all eternity, you have the Father loving the Son, loving the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit loving the Son and the Father, and there's this constant interplay.

There's only one God, the triune God, the unity of God, but there's three persons.

And so only in Christianity is it actually the case that you can have a God that can really be described as a God who is loving.

Only in Christianity.

If you value love and you want there to be a God of love, there's only one option in the entire planet and the entire history of the planet.

And that's the God that's revealed by Jesus.

And this gets us to the second thing, which is evidence, which is that Jesus changes everything if what is said about him is true.

He really did die on the cross.

He really did get buried.

On the third day, the tomb was empty, but the grave clothes were there.

And on the third, they never found his body, and Jesus appeared alive.

And there's good historical reasons to believe that all of these things are true.

And if Jesus actually did die on the cross and rise from the dead, it changes everything.

It's the most reasonable thing in the world to believe what he says.

And he reveals the Trinity to us.

He reveals God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

It's completely reasonable to believe this.

Those are part of God's wondrous works.

God is love-loving.

God is love-loving.

Now, we still have to get to this part about how does this all fit with dealing with haters.

Well, the psalm is very wise.

First, it's just reminded us life is difficult, so prayer is necessary.

Secondly, it's reminding us that there is a God that does exist.

There is a God that you can pray for, pray to, and this is a God of love.

And by the way, just a small but very important point.

One of the problems we have when we're dealing with haters is that when we deal with haters or enemies

or just people who really want us to fail, they can seem so huge.

I know that sometimes when I'm dealing with a conflict, that other person can seem so big,

it's hard for me to have any mental or emotional space to do other things,

to get the emails done that I need to get, to just to do anything,

to even concentrate on a book that I'm reading or to work on a sermon.

These things can become really huge.

Because you see that often when we have people who are hating us,

we're really opposed to us, they seem really big.

And when they seem really big, it means that God is small.

So one of the really wise things that this psalm is doing is reminding us of proportion.

God is big.

The hater is small.

And so to spend time thinking about God

is a way to put other human beings and other events that are troubling us

in their proper perspective.

They're not that big.

I mean, they might be bigger than me.

And maybe they're going to win against me.

But I can pray to the God who does exist who's way bigger.

He's the one who created all things.

He's sovereign over all things.

He reveals his words and does miracles.

That's the God who really does exist.

And everything else is small.

But what the psalm is going to do now, it's going to be very, very wise.

Because you see, one of the things that we want,

there's two types of things that we want in our lives.

One of them is that we want surface change.

Right?

We want to have, you know,

I used to have a problem of really putting people down in conversation.

And I wanted to stop that.

That's like a surface type of change.

That, you know, you're going to say something

and you just have that ability to zip your lip for a second.

You know?

And there's that type of surface change, immediate change, which we'd like.

But what we also want is deep change.

We want to be changed at the level of our being,

at the level of deep habits,

the level of deep character,

of the level of deep affections.

We want that double change,

the immediate and the deep.

And so now, for the rest of the psalm,

the first three verses are going to,

the next three verses are going to talk about deep change.

And then the last four verses are going to talk practically

about five things we can pray for dealing with haters.

But let's look at the deep change.

And it's really interesting,

because the deep change is going to go in a direction

which we would never have expected.

Let's look at what happens.

Verse 11.

Teach me your way, O Lord,

that I may walk in your truth.

Unite my heart to fear your name.

Whoa.

Fear your name.

We're going to talk about it.

Unite my heart to fear your name.

I give thanks to you, O Lord, my God,

with my whole heart,

and I will glorify your name forever.

For great is your steadfast love toward me.

You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

If you could put up a point.

We're going to put up the point,

and then I'll go back to look at the verses.

The point of this thing is,

be formed for day-to-day life and for eternity.

In a sense, the Bible is forming us

for day-to-day life and for eternity.

Now, just to go back and look at these verses 11 to 13,

like, on one level,

if you get nothing else out of the sermon,

verses 11,

and you get over a little bit in a moment

this fear of the Lord thing.

Actually, I'm going to say this one thing.

If, I don't know,

I mean, there's lots of things

if I could get modern Christians

and Canadian Christians to do.

I guess there's lots of things I'd do,

but you know one of the things

that would be really high on my list?

I know I'm weird.

I don't think enough Christians

pray for the fear of the Lord.

I don't think that's part of our worship services.

It's not part of our worship songs.

I don't think it's part of how we think.

It's not often part of counseling

and spiritual advice.

And it's so all the way through the Bible.

If there's one thing I would encourage Christians to do

is just, you know,

maybe you're going to be fearful of doing it at first,

but there is something really powerful

about praying to fear God.

I know this is something

that's not fitting in with our culture,

but I, you know, forget the culture.

Like, don't care what Oprah says.

Just, like, pray, or The View,

or Jordan Peterson, or whatever.

Like, be equal about, you know, people.

Like, pray for the fear of the Lord.

Like, if you just think about it,

well, I'll try to get over the,

talk about the fear of the Lord more in a moment,

but just, if all you get out of the sermon

is that you're going to maybe

put in your Bible somewhere

that every day or once a week

you're going to pray verses 11 to 12

or 11 to 13.

Like, what a brilliant thing to pray.

Teach me your way, O Lord.

Like, I can, like, this,

David has put,

God has written a prayer for you to pray.

Teach me your way.

Like, a way means in terms of how to live,

how to do each day.

Teach me that, Father.

Teach me your way.

You're the one who's created all things.

You sustain all things.

You're sovereign over all things.

You're the miracle-working God.

As we're going to see in a moment,

you're the God who redeems.

You are love,

and you are love itself loving.

So teach me your way, O Lord,

and that I may walk in your truth.

What a good thing to pray.

Like, you know, we live in a world

that increasingly values lies.

Misinformation, disinformation

are two really fancy words for lying.

That's what misinformation is.

It's lying.

Disinformation is lying.

You know, we live in a culture

that says the end justifies the means.

So if lying gets what you want,

go ahead and lie.

But that's not the way of Christ.

That's not the way of God.

God is inviting you to be a people of truth,

people of the truth,

and people of truth,

that I may walk in your truth.

Unite my heart to fear your name.

Now, if you think about it,

if I was, like, this is a whole other sermon.

Just this last little bit

and the first bit of verse 12.

Many of us here,

many of us here,

would say there's been times

in our hearts,

our hearts have been broken.

Our hearts have been bruised.

Our hearts are scattered.

Our hearts have a hole in them.

Something has happened

to rip something right out of our heart.

Our hearts feel like they're poisoned.

Our hearts, like,

that's a really big thing.

Our hearts don't feel whole

and they don't feel united

and they don't feel healthy.

This is talking about

the very center of who we are.

And the Bible here is saying

that it's asking God

to unite my heart.

Knit my heart back together

so it is whole and healthy.

What a good thing to pray.

Well, what is this thing

about fearing your name

that's fearing the Lord?

And here's the whole,

here's part of what you're praying for

when you're dating.

Like, and why is the word,

well, here's the word,

the word is there,

is partially fear.

Is that because what you want

to really know

is when you,

you want to know

how moral God is,

how just God is,

how God is love-loving.

And if you start to really see

that, like, goodness is untamed

and it's deep

and it's real

and it's of God

and to do something

which is not good,

to have that sense of horror

of what you've done,

to know the importance of truth

and then when you say a lie,

to not just say

that it's just a lie

but to have a sense

of the horror

of the fact that I have lied.

That love is so important

and so to show indifference

or hatred

and to have a sense

of the horror of that.

To understand the importance

of others

and to be selfish

and to have a sense

of the horror of that

and to know God

and to know Him

so that you know Him

in these ways

and that you can start to see

when you do things

that are not that

and have an appropriate emotion.

I mean, that's part of,

those are good words.

And it has a sense

of reverence

and honor

to know love, loving.

Why wouldn't you want

to honor and glorify

love, loving?

And also,

it's implying,

this is why all of the things,

it talks about God's love

and His steadfast thing

and about knowing Him

and knowing His grace

and it talks about fearing Him.

It's one of the most profound things.

As we all know,

one of the hard parts

about parenting

is us not being able

to understand

that a parent

is different than the child.

And it's too easy

for us to see

the child reflecting on us

or have our fears

and foibles

transferred

and translated onto them

or want what we think

is going to be successful

for our kids.

My parents did not want me

to be a minister.

They were Irish immigrants.

I'm the oldest son.

I was really good

in math and science.

Up until my conversion,

I told everybody

I was going to be

an engineer.

They were in seventh heaven

to hide the idea

that they'd have a son

who was an engineer.

I was going to be a minister?

Like, they were Christians,

but they were disappointed.

And so it's so easy

for us to confuse ourselves

with other people.

It's even more easy

for us to confuse ourselves

with the invisible,

immortal,

transcendent,

but imminent God.

And the fear of God

is a growth

in knowing

where I begin and end

and where God begins and ends

and that I am not God.

Wouldn't that be better

if more people knew

that they weren't God?

Shouldn't that be something

we should pray for ourselves?

It would horrify us

if we saw that somebody else

said he thinks he's God.

No, that should cause a fear

that that would ever be within us.

This is why it's such

a brilliant thing

to know him and honor him

and the horror of idols.

Don't we all want this?

And it's all done

in the context of hope.

Look at verse 13.

It's the context of hope.

You know, we can pray

verses 11 to 13

in a way that

David couldn't pray it.

David has this prophetic

vision or sense

and the verb tenses here

are this prophetic tense.

Look at verse 13.

For great is your

steadfast love toward me.

You have delivered my soul

from the depths of Sheol.

Now, David hasn't died yet

and he's not talking

about metaphors.

But the verb tense there

is there's a tense

in ancient Hebrew

and a tense in Greek

where something in the future

is so certain,

the only way to communicate

the certainty of the future

is to use a past tense.

Canada was founded in 1867.

Jesus has come back.

Now, Jesus has come back

would be a bit confusing

confusing in English.

English doesn't have that sense.

But that's what

they're talking about.

This is so,

David is so certain

that he's going to be delivered

from Sheol by God.

Now, we as Christians

understand that in some ways

he's prophetically

seeing Christ

that he doesn't understand

and we can say that

in Christ.

You know,

there's an Anglican minister

who is also a Puritan

and he has a hymn

and I'm just changing

the line a little bit.

I love this line.

What's the significance

of the cross?

In the cross,

love to the loveless shown

that loved and lovely

shall you be.

That's what Jesus

is doing in the cross.

Love to the loveless shown

that loved and lovely

you shall be.

So,

five ways to pray,

right?

So,

life is difficult

so prayer is necessary.

Begin with prayer,

continue with prayer,

end with prayer.

The triune God

is the only God.

He's the one

that you should pray to.

He is big,

everything else is small.

We ask God

not just for the superficial things

which we're going to pray

for right now,

but we ask for those

deep changes in our character,

the deep changes in our heart,

the wholeness of our heart,

the unitedness of our heart.

The heart would be alive

and strong

and rooted in him

and now we still have to pray

for the situation.

So,

in a sense,

if you could put up

the fourth point right now

rather than a few verses,

the fourth point is

how to pray

when faced with haters.

And the first thing,

given all that we've just said,

is 4A,

if you could put it up,

Claire,

pray for the fear of the Lord.

Pray verses 11 to 13.

And pray,

the 4B is pray honestly.

Look at verses 14 to 15.

O God,

insolent men,

can be translated as arrogant men,

insolent,

arrogant men

have risen up against me.

A band of ruthless men

seeks my life

and they do not set you before them.

In other words,

they have no time for God whatsoever.

But you,

O Lord,

are a God

merciful and gracious,

slow to anger

and abounding

in steadfast love

and faithfulness.

Now,

I mean,

sometimes people

really are out to get you.

Like if you think

people are out to get you,

maybe you should talk to somebody

and you talk to them

and say,

you know what,

maybe when your dad said that to you

it's not because he hated you.

Like maybe he just meant that.

But really sometimes,

you just need to be honest.

I'm dealing with haters.

I'm dealing with people

who want me to not succeed.

I'm dealing with people,

everybody in my office

is trying to climb

the greasy pole

and the best way

to climb a greasy pole

is to kick other people

who might want to climb above you

so you can climb on their faces.

And that's what I'm dealing with.

And you pray into it.

Right?

Pray honestly.

Verse 15

is going to be

pray for strength to act.

Look at the first part of verse 15.

But you, O Lord,

are a God merciful and gracious.

Sorry,

verse 16.

Turn to me

and be gracious to me.

Give your strength.

to your servant.

Pray for strength.

Right?

First one is

pray for the fear of the Lord.

Pray honestly.

Third,

pray for strength to act.

Fourth,

pray for God's help.

Verse 16.

Turn to me

and be gracious to me.

Give your strength

to your servant

and save the son

of your maidservant.

That's asking God's help

to save him.

And finally,

if I give my life to Christ

and I understand

that Jesus

takes,

Jesus died on the cross

because he wants me

to be the father's,

the child of the father

adopted

by his grace

and the power

of the Holy Spirit.

And if I come

to realize

that that's the heart

of the father,

the heart of the son

and the heart

of the Holy Spirit

for me,

it should be my heart

for others.

And that we can see

in the final verse.

Pray that the Lord

will turn

the hearts

of the haters.

Look at verse 17.

Show me a sign

of your favor

that those

who hate me

may see

and be put to shame

because you,

Lord,

have helped me

and comforted me.

So because you have

helped me

and comforted me,

it's a good thing

that others

who are hating me

will be ashamed

of what they're doing

and hopefully

out of that shame

turn to Christ.

Very wise way

to pray.

Very wise psalm.

Encourage you

to pray

into deep change.

To know Jesus

who's died

on the cross for you.

He died for you.

Love to the loveless

shown that you might

loved and lovely be.

That's why he died

for you.

And to give yourself

to that love.

And to use the words

of verses 11 to 13,

not all the things,

to remember

how big God is

and to pray

that God

would show you

his way,

that you'd walk

in his truth,

that he'd unite

your heart

to fear your name,

that you can pray

with your whole heart

not only every day

but into all eternity.

Brothers and sisters,

let's do that.

Let's stand right now.

Father,

we give you

thanks and praise

that Jesus came

and died on the cross,

that you,

Father,

and Father,

Son,

and Holy Spirit,

three persons,

one God,

that you are love-loving,

and that you showed love,

Father,

in the cross

and the person

of your Son,

so that loved

and lovely

we will be.

We were loveless

because we turned

our back on you,

but your Son

came and sought us

that loved

and lovely

we might be.

And we ask,

Father,

that you help us

to see you as big,

haters as small

in comparison to you,

that you would help us

to begin with prayer

and continue with prayer

and to end with prayer.

And we ask,

Father,

that you would

teach us your way,

help us to walk

in your truth,

unite our hearts

to fear your name,

so that with our

whole hearts

we might glorify

and praise you

each day

and every day

into all eternity.

And we ask these things

in the name of Jesus,

your Son and our Savior,

and all God's people said,

Amen.

I invite you

to take a posture of prayer

as we go into a time of,

oh wait,

so there's not

any intercessions

at this time.

Actually,

I'm going to just say

a short prayer.

Take a posture of prayer

and we'll just say

a very brief

extemporaneous prayer.

Father,

we give into your hands

our city

and our nation.

We thank you,

Father,

for those who are

in government.

We thank you,

Father,

for those

who are in the civil service.

We ask,

Father,

that you help them

to do their jobs

honorably and honestly,

to be very good

at what they do,

and that you would use them

for the true flourishing

of this land,

of this city.

We ask,

Father,

for our neighbor

to the south

in the midst

of a very important election.

And we know,

Father,

that tempers

and spirits

are very high.

And we commend

that country

into your hands,

Lord.

They are important

in and of themselves

and they are important

for the rest of the world.

And,

Father,

we ask that you would have,

just as we will have

an election next year,

and,

Father,

and for our American

brothers and sisters,

we pray for both countries,

Father,

that you have mercy on us

and that you do not give us

the governments we deserve.

But that you would give us

a far better government

than we deserve.

That you would raise up

men and women in office

who would seek

the true good

of their people,

the true good Father

of the world community,

that would seek

true prosperity

and justice

and righteousness

for all.

And we ask,

Father,

for each of us

that you help us

to be very faithful

in the task

that you have given us,

that you help us

to be faithful in prayer

and sharing the gospel,

help us,

Father,

to be financially generous,

to have a deep life

of prayer

and to read your word.

And show us,

Father,

how we can do things

both in the church

and in the world

and in our community

that bring you glory

and are good

for this city.

We commend into your hands,

Father,

our partner churches

around the world,

in particular,

I think today,

Father,

of the missionaries

that we support.

And I commend

into your hands

B as he prepares

to go to Asia.

We commend

into your hands

N and K

in Northern Africa,

Trish in Uganda,

Norm and Audrey

in Angola,

Judah and Jesse

in Colombia,

and also,

Father,

for Samir

and his work

in Afghanistan

and amongst

Afghani refugees.

Father,

we ask

that you would

help these missionaries,

that you would

bless the churches

that they partner with

and are involved with,

in particular,

Father,

for the underground church

in Afghanistan

and Iran.

We ask your blessing

upon them.

These are brothers

and sisters in Christ.

And we ask

that you help us

to be faithful

in praying for them.

And we ask

all these things

in the name of Jesus,

your Son

and our Savior.

Amen.