Psalm 63

Father, we thank you that we can trust you.

We can know you and we can trust you.

Father, we love you and thank you.

Amen.

You can be seated.

Just because it's never remiss to read the Bible again,

let's turn back to Psalm 63 and read it one more time.

So that's Psalm 63.

O God, you are my God.

Earnestly I seek you.

My soul thirsts for you.

My flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

beholding your power and glory.

Because your steadfast love is better than life,

my lips will praise you.

So I will bless you as long as I live.

In your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food.

And my mouth will praise you with joyful lips

when I remember you upon my bed

and meditate on you in the watches of the night.

For you have been my help.

And in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

My soul clings to you.

Your right hand upholds me.

But those who seek to destroy my life

shall go down into the depths of the earth.

They shall be given over to the power of the sword.

They shall be apportioned for jackals.

But the king shall rejoice in God.

All who swear by him shall exult.

Since Kendra and I got married a few years back,

we've tried to go camping as much as possible,

as frequently as possible.

And it usually ends up being a couple of times a year.

I mean, that's just how life goes.

Hobbies can't be daily life.

Most years we've been married,

what we'll do is every year we'll go out

and buy one more piece of equipment

to make our camping experience better or easier

or more fun or some other thing.

One of the first years we went out

and bought a nice little tent,

one that you could pick up and carry easily,

you could put in your backpack.

Another year it was a water filter

because, you know,

you don't want to drink the bacteria out there.

One year it was a stove.

So every year just something new,

slightly better outfitted to make camping

a more enjoyable experience

because there's almost nothing as bad

as being improperly equipped for a camping trip.

A little bit of rain is a big deal

when you're out there

and your tent is full of holes or whatever it is.

You don't have enough shelter.

Anybody who's been camping

probably has a story about getting rained out

and wishing they could quit

and, you know, being too far to get anywhere,

get home to shelter or whatever.

Bill Mason, who is a Canadian outdoors guru,

avid canoeist,

he was a filmmaker with the NFB.

He had a lot of writing about camping done.

And one of the things,

one of the distinctions that he liked to make

about his camping experiences

was that when you were camping,

you could either find adventure or adversity.

Adventure happens when you're well prepared,

when you have a tent that's not full of holes,

something that will keep out the elements,

when you're not finding bugs everywhere,

when you're having enough to eat,

when you have enough to drink.

You can really enjoy being out in the sunshine.

You can really enjoy

chomping through a moist forest

or you can enjoy racing across a lake in a canoe

or whatever it is that you find attractive.

Adventure is sitting,

taking a nap by the edge of a lake.

Adventure is the reason

you might go camping in the first place.

Adversity is what happens

when your tent floods in the middle of the night

or when it falls down,

when you run out of food or water or too cold.

Adversity is misjudging the length of your hike

and having to hike in the dark.

Bill Mason would say that enjoying the outdoors

is all about finding adventure,

avoiding adversity.

There was one time that I was a kid

that we were out camping in a place called

the Gran Sabana.

So I grew up in Venezuela.

A number of people asked me that last week.

It's not a secret.

I grew up in Venezuela.

Gran Sabana translates Grand Savannah.

So it was lots of open space,

grass, shrubs, sand.

So there's very few places

if you wanted to keep your tent cool

during the day to pitch it.

So you look around.

We finally found an area where we could camp

and there was a tree

that we could put our tents underneath.

And the sky was clear.

There was no bugs.

There was as many elements

that would make it an adventure as possible.

There was no rain in sight.

Everything seemed perfect.

Our trip was an adventure.

And so we bedded down for the night.

There was no mosquitoes.

The rain didn't happen in the middle of the night.

The tents didn't fall down.

When morning came,

my parents woke up and started to stir

and then started to get bitten.

And as they got up,

they noticed that their tent

was full of little red bugs.

Little dome tent full of red bugs.

And as they got up,

they realized that they had pitched their tent

right on top of the entrance to a fire ant nest.

So, as they stirred,

they bothered all the ants

that were very hungry

from a night alone in the tent

trying to find a way out.

They actually weren't bitten that badly,

believe it or not.

But it could have been a lot worse.

Nonetheless, for my parents,

that easily crossed the line

between adventure and adversity.

And for the right or the wrong sort of person,

a thought like a tent full of ants

probably makes you queasy enough

to not think about anything else for a minute.

Maybe shudder.

And that's often what turns adventure

to adversity.

It's something that you can't take out of your mind.

These are the sleepless nights

moments of our life.

And this is the reason

I've never gone winter camping.

Never been able to drag myself

out into the cold.

Because I know that if I go out winter camping,

it'll be instant adversity for me.

I'll be able to think about

nothing for the cold.

And who wants to spend an entire weekend

thinking about how cold you are?

Now, David is writing this psalm,

Psalm 63,

from the desert.

Helen read the introduction

to this psalm of David

when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

A lot of people like to speculate

that this is when he was being chased by Absalom

in a big rebellion.

But there's not a ton of evidence for that.

It's mostly speculation.

But we do know that he was writing

in or about the desert.

And the first verse just sounds thirsty,

doesn't it?

Our God,

O God,

you are my God.

Earnestly I seek you.

My soul thirsts for you.

My flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land

where there is no water.

When you're in a desert,

thirst quickly becomes

the only thing you can think of.

Just like winter camping for me,

deserts are prone to becoming

instant adversity.

And yet David is

pointing his desperation,

his need to God.

And that's a great lesson

to learn from David,

and one that I talked a little bit more

about last week.

In our need,

in our desperation,

we can turn to God

and expect him to respond

in his nature.

We can expect a response

that's good,

and merciful,

and sovereign.

Our desperate times

are often the ones

that we are more apt to call out

in the first place.

Our desperate times

are ones that often

God responds most dramatically.

These desperate times

are often times of adversity,

where you can't think of anything

but your problems.

The times that you have

those sleepless nights.

Where David says,

my flesh,

my flesh faints for you

and my soul thirsts for you.

Where we might say,

God,

if there was ever a time

where I needed your help,

it's now.

But there's another kind of desert.

The desert beside the one

where you're worried

for your safety,

or the one that you get chased into.

Where your enemies hoped you would die.

You probably know something

about what I'm talking about already

because desert is almost synonymous

with a place

where what we need to survive

is lacking.

Desert is such a common metaphor

for this

that sometimes

we use it without thinking

for a time and a place

where we can't see God

in our life.

We can't see him working.

We don't hear him speaking.

And I'm afraid to say

that more often than not,

it's not a place

that I am chased to

so much as it's

a place that I walk to

of my own accord.

It frequently takes me

a long time

to even realize

that I've gotten to that place,

that I am desperate.

A long time to see

that I'm not turning

to God enough

to even realize

that I'm there.

That I'm even thirsty

for God's presence

until I'm scared

and freaking out

and saying,

my God, my God,

why have you forsaken me?

So here's David

in the desert.

He's in a place

of adversity,

a place where

he's thirsting for God.

He's thirsting for God

and that's all

he can think about.

It's coming to the forefront.

And what does he say next?

He says,

verse 2,

so I have looked upon you

in the sanctuary.

David looked back

to a time

where he did see God,

to a time

that he was in the tabernacle

in the tent of meeting.

So how do we trust

a God that doesn't appear

to us at every instant

of our life?

Well, David looks

to times

where he has seen God.

David knew

that his fathers

had seen God act

when they needed him.

David knew

that from his own birth

he had seen God act

when he knew,

when he needed him.

And so he had reason

to trust

that God would be with him

in whatever situation he is.

David is thirsty for God

when he's in the wilderness

and he's looking back

to a time

when he saw him clearly.

One of my favorite shows

to watch

when I have the time

is a show called

Man vs. Wild.

And the premise

of the show

is pretty simple.

There's a fellow

named Bear Grylls

and he's a special forces,

an ex-special forces soldier

whose job is to survive

in extreme situations.

And the whole premise

of the show

is that Bear Grylls

jumps out of an airplane

and parachutes

into some forsaken location.

It's frequently

a mountaintop

or the Australian outback

or some inhospitable place

where there's nothing

but adversity.

And the whole show

is him working himself

and his cameraman

out of whatever adversity

they find themselves in.

So off he goes

trekking through

whatever wilderness

he's in

doing cool stuff

making it all seem easy.

Usually dispenses

little bits of survival advice

as he's going along.

If you've ever been

camping with me

I'll usually try

to impress you

with a trick or two

I've learned

from the show.

It doesn't usually work.

At some point

in time during the show

almost every week

there's a point

where

you will see a sunset

or

a very pretty flower

or

a waterfall

that's just breathtaking.

And the show

will normally just

pause for a second

and Bear Grylls

the presenter

will frequently sit down

and

he'll often say

something to the effect

that a big part

of survival

is

getting your eyes

off the problem

for a minute

keeping your spirits up.

Now Bear Grylls

is a Christian

and frequently

he'll say something

to the effect

that he understands

that worshipping God

is a way that

Christians find

ways to get

through adversity.

And you hear

a similar

refrain from people

who George likes

to call

spiritual but not

religious.

There's usually

statements made like

nature is my church

or

I feel closest

to God

when I'm in nature.

And certainly

David sees

God's glory

in nature.

There are

lots of psalms

in the book

that describe

God's glory

in terms of

nature

and what he sees

surrounding him.

Psalm 19

is quite explicit.

The heavens declare

the glory of God

and the sky above

proclaims his handiwork.

There's an explicit

declaration

that God's glory

can be seen

in nature.

And certainly

there are aspects

of that thought

that God's glory

can be found

in nature

that are true

and good

but that's not

where David goes.

David recalls

a time

in the tabernacle

in the sanctuary

of the tabernacle

which is almost

the complete opposite

of looking for

God in nature.

Instead of looking

for God the huge

God the expansive

the God

who rolls out

the sky

David is looking

for the God

at the center

of Jewish

organized religion.

David's psalm

is directed

to a God

who he is seen

in a particular

place

in a particular

tent

at a particular

time

a tent made

by particular

people.

God

the God

that David

is looking for

is not just

creator God.

He's looking

for God

who doesn't

just work

on the greatest

of scales.

He's looking

for Jehovah

the God

who spoke

to Moses

directly

and David

has known

from his

childhood.

One of our

mistakes

when we find

ourselves

in the desert

is sometimes

to just go

looking for

this gigantic

God

for this God

who called

an entire

nation of Israel

out of Egypt

for the God

who creates

the intricacies

of our world.

We go looking

for his glory

in the biggest

things we can

find.

We can see

God's glory

in a wide

open sky

so that's

where we

look.

We can see

God's glory

in a piece

of finely

written music

and so that's

where we look.

We can see

God's grandeur

in the intricacy

of our world

so that's

where we look.

And you can

fill in the

blanks with

whatever you

find.

You can see

God's glory

in the creation.

But don't

get me wrong.

The mistake

isn't looking

for God's glory

in creation.

That's not

the mistake

at all.

The mistake

is looking

for God

in those

places

when we

should be

looking for

God

in the

place

that he

chose

to meet

us.

Our God

is not

just creator.

Our God

is not

just the

sustainer.

He's not

just holy

and he's

not just

awesome.

Our God

is also

a very

particular

God

who has

chosen

to show

himself

to his

creations.

He's not

just chosen

to be

visible

in his

glory

in creation

although he

is that.

He's chosen

to create

a relationship

between himself

and us.

So when our

God created

the universe

and he

rested,

some of the

first things

he did

was to

talk to

his

creations.

Right from

the start

our God

has shown

a desire

to be

more than

arm's length

with his

creation.

He has

always wanted

to speak

to individuals.

As much

as we see

the character

of God,

his faithfulness,

his mercy,

his sovereignty

played out

on the

grand scale

of God's

relationship

with Israel

as a whole,

we also

see all

of those

things

reflected

in individual

relationships

with God

like David's.

In this

case,

when David

is far

from home

and under

physical duress,

he's not

looking at

the bigness

of the desert

around him.

He's not

looking at

a God

who is even

greater than

that desert

and created

it in the

first place.

He's not

looking at

how huge

that makes

God.

David is

looking towards

the tabernacle.

He's looking

to the

relationship

with God

that is

represented by

it.

The glory

of the

tabernacle

is not

the glory

of the

massive

God

of the

desert.

It's the

glory

of a

God

in covenant

with his

people.

It's the

glory of a

God who

would stoop

to speak

to Abraham

and stoop

to speak

to Jacob

and Moses

and David

started all

when they

were all

weak and

worth very

little as

far as the

people around

them were

concerned when

God started

to speak.

Certainly none

of them were

worthy of

attracting the

attention of

almighty,

gigantic,

glory-filled

God, the

God who

created the

universe.

After David

looks to the

sanctuary, to

the place that

represents his

relationship with

God, he

names an

attribute to

praise God

for.

He names

a part of

God's

character that

is steadfast

love, loving

kindness as the

older versions

say.

The original

word that David

would have

written is

one that

oddly enough

comes up in

all the

commentaries.

Everybody

argues about

what it

means.

The reason

they do

that is

because as

it comes

up in the

Old Testament,

it has a

whole lot of

nuanced meanings

to it.

It gets

translated a

lot of

different ways,

sometimes as

kindness,

sometimes as

mercy, sometimes

as grace,

sometimes as

love.

In some

places, the

context seems

to indicate that

it's all of

those things

wrapped up in

one.

That's the

attribute that

David is

looking at.

The story goes

that at one

point there

was an

English

translator who

decided that

he didn't

want to

translate all

those words

differently.

He wanted to

choose one

word and so

he just said,

all right,

loving kindness,

that's the

word that I'm

going to

choose.

That is the

attribute that

David is

praising, all

those words.

That word

loving kindness

sometimes gets

used for God's

love towards

people.

Sometimes it's

used to

indicate his

favor towards

people.

Sometimes the

word is

emphasizing God's

commitment to

particular people.

Sometimes it's

indicating the

sort of promises

that he makes.

Sometimes it's

indicating the

kindness that

he shows in

action.

And you can

see that a

mix of all

those various

things just

doesn't occur in

English, right?

But nonetheless,

that's the

character that

David is

praising in

God.

God's steadfast

love, his

loving kindness,

is deeply rooted

in the relationship

that God has

created with

David and that

David has

fostered.

It's not ever a

word that would

be used by a

disinterested

party.

By its nature,

it is used by a

party that

God is so

interested.

And God is so

interested that

he would make

promises in his

covenants to

stubbornly love

Israel, to

stubbornly show

favor that doesn't

waver easily, and

to act on their

behalf through all

situations.

That's the

steadfast love of

God.

And it was the

steadfast love of

God that followed

Abraham, Isaac, and

Jacob from their

journey from Babylon

all the way to

Egypt.

And even though in

Egypt, Israel

completely forgot about

God, it was that

loving kindness that

drew God to pull

them back out

again.

It was the loving

kindness of God that

brought him to be

merciful to Israel

throughout centuries of

rebellion.

Although they rebelled

over and over and

over again, it was the

loving kindness of God

that brought him to

mercy.

And as we were reading

through the book of

Revelation over the last

few months with

George, it was clear

that Israel still plays

a role in God's plan

right up until the end

of days.

That's the loving

kindness of God.

And those are the

promises that David is

appealing to, the

promises for love and

for mercy and for

kindness and for grace.

And those are the

promises that are

extended to us in the

exact same way.

Those are the promises

that are extended to us

through Jesus.

Those promises of

steadfast love the

same way that he has

steadfastly loved Israel

that he has showed

loving kindness are

extended to us.

That's part of the

good news.

That's part of the

gospel of Jesus.

And perhaps you might

feel like you're in a

desert and it doesn't

really matter how you

got there.

It doesn't matter if

you walked there

yourself or if you

were driven there by

adversity.

It doesn't matter how

you got to the dry

and thirsty land.

Because that same

loving kindness is

offered to us.

that same loving

kindness that drew

God to mercy time and

time again.

And the same loving

kindness that drew

God to favor over and

over and over again.

It doesn't matter

because it's the same

loving kindness that

David appeals to.

And you can look to

the sanctuary where

Jesus now stands as

our advocate and appeal

to that same steadfast

love of the Father.

So if that is you, it

doesn't matter how you

got there.

You can still appeal to

the loving kindness

of God.

Let's pray.

Father God, we thank

you that we can know

you and we can see

your mercy and we can

see your kindness and

your love.

And Father, we thank

you that your loving

kindness is beautiful

and fantastic and

brings you glory.

Father, we thank you

for all these things.

We thank you in Jesus'

name.

Amen.

Amen.