Sermon
Psalms for the Summer: I Cry Aloud to God : Psalm 77
Publisher transcript
Transcript
-
Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
-
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
-
It's our hope that these sermons will draw you
-
more into the life of following God, Father,
-
Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and
-
joining with us each Sunday morning at 10am in
-
the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find
-
us online at SecondCityChurch .org and on Facebook,
-
Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this
-
sermon. God Bless. Lord, thank you for your holy
-
word. Thank you that you give it to us out of
-
love, to guide us in your paths, to teach us
-
of you, to teach us about ourselves. God, I pray
-
that this morning we would know you better, that
-
we would look to you. Maybe that we would do
-
some good self -assessment and that we would
-
see Jesus. God, bless now the words of my mouth.
-
Bless the meditations of our hearts. Would they
-
be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and
-
our Redeemer? Amen. All right, we are back in
-
the Psalms. Actually, you all were back in the
-
Psalms last week, but we are back in the Psalms
-
together. And actually, this is the 12th summer
-
that we've been in the Psalms together. My first
-
Sunday with you all was the last Sunday of June
-
in 2015. That makes this the 12th summer. And
-
we began with Psalm 1 long ago. I've told you
-
this in the past, but I'll tell you again, there's
-
a few different reasons why we've done this.
-
Some of them are practical reasons. Let me give
-
you a couple of practical reasons why we do the
-
Psalms in the summer. One of the practical reasons
-
is because the Psalms are kind of one -offs,
-
meaning that if you look at Psalm 76, you don't
-
necessarily have to jump to 77 to understand
-
76. Actually, you don't really have to do that.
-
You know, but if we're looking at many of the
-
books in the Bible and you, oh, I don't know,
-
you're on vacation for a week or two or three
-
or however many times you're gone during the
-
summer, it's going to be hard to follow that.
-
It's going to be hard to follow kind of the argument
-
that's being made in a given book of the Bible.
-
But with the Psalms, they're good. It's a good
-
series for vacations. You guys, you know, you're
-
going to be gone. I was gone last week. We can
-
kind of jump back in. So that's one practical
-
reason. Some Psalms go together, Psalm 1 and
-
2, Psalm 9 and 10. Some Psalms, so the people
-
think those were actually written to go together.
-
Some Psalms just work really well together. Psalm
-
104, 105, that kind of thing. But many of the
-
Psalms are one -offs. And so it invites the summer
-
kind of life of in and out that so many of us
-
live in. But there's another reason, another
-
practical reason is, and that's that most preachers
-
have preached a Psalm. And so for me, sometimes
-
I have a hard time finding somebody to preach
-
for me, not so much now that Jed's around and
-
Dale's here. Sometimes it's been really hard
-
to find somebody. Like last week, I asked five
-
different people about serving communion. We
-
believe that the Bible teaches that ordained
-
ministers are ordained to word in sacrament and
-
the sacraments are to be administered by pastors.
-
And so I can't find anyone. And sometimes that
-
actually has happened in the past with preaching.
-
Jonathan knows this because it's happened. It's
-
been kind of stressful for the session. What
-
do we do? Peter plans to be away. We can't find
-
anybody. Well, oftentimes I can call somebody
-
and say, hey, all you have to do is just bring
-
your psalm. And they're like, oh, good. OK, I've
-
got that. So it's kind of practical. Anyway,
-
as practical as some of the reasons are, there's
-
also just some theological reasons, some spiritual
-
reasons why we come back to the Psalms each summer.
-
And partly I just want to say it's for our spiritual
-
good that we sit in the Psalms. Two quick reasons
-
why it's for our spiritual good. One, I think
-
it's a good healthy diet of the Bible. Right
-
the fall we do Old Testament New Testament from
-
about Christmas to Easter. We're in the Gospels
-
We do a series like ten commandments and we come
-
back to the Psalms and part of that is is just
-
like how in our in our Services we have the Old
-
Testament the New Testament and the Gospels in
-
the Psalms That's often how the Bible is broken
-
down into these like major categories. The Psalms
-
are its own category often and So to have a healthy
-
diet of scripture is to at least spend some time
-
in the Psalms. We believe that all scripture
-
is given by God and it's useful for us for our
-
correction, for our training in righteousness,
-
for all the rest that we would be equipped for
-
every good work. And all scripture, and a big
-
part of all scripture is the Psalms. So one spiritual
-
reason is it's a Bible diet. Another spiritual
-
reason is that the Psalms are the devotional
-
book of the Bible, devotional book in church
-
history for sure. They are songs. Actually, this
-
one, did you notice that it was given? It said
-
that it's a song and that it's according to Juddathan,
-
which is probably a tune. Sounds like kind of
-
a funny tune name, but it's a song, it says,
-
and it's actually written for a specific tune,
-
which is kind of interesting, but they're songs.
-
which is say that this is a hymn book, but it's
-
also a prayer book. People have always said that
-
this is the great prayer book of the Bible. We
-
say this is the great sort of devotional book
-
of the Bible. One thing that we were at a camp
-
this week, a family camp, Christian family camp,
-
and the speaker actually referred to the Psalms
-
as the journals of the Bible. He said they're
-
journals for the journey. They go all the way
-
through the journey of life. So I hope that that's
-
what problems are for you, that they actually
-
kind of give voice to the different experiences
-
that you have in life, because God wants us to
-
bring all of life to Him, all of it. He wants
-
us to live all of our lives with Him, which means
-
that, you know, the days that you want to just
-
roll the windows down, driving down Front Street,
-
or if I don't think any of you have a convertible,
-
but it's, you know, the days where you just want
-
to have a convertible and you want to turn up
-
the tunes and you want to sing. I'm gonna have
-
a, oh wait, how's it go? Thank you, that's what
-
I was thinking. That's what I was thinking. I'm
-
about to have a good day in every single way.
-
You know, just like, yeah. But also the days
-
when you're like, I don't want to get out of
-
bed. I don't want to get out of bed today. You
-
know, Psalm 13, I'm sleeping the sleep of death.
-
That's what it says. Because God, where are you?
-
How long? Why have you forgotten me? That's all.
-
Because God wants you to bring all of your life
-
to Him, all of it. And that's my desire for you
-
is to kind of learn this summer in, summer out.
-
God is always saying, bring it all to me. Live
-
your life with me. That you will have this in
-
your bones, this devotional life with God, that
-
you'll find it your joy to live all of your life,
-
even the stuff you want to hide. with God. So
-
journal entries. It's one way to think about
-
the Psalms. And I like that because I do think
-
there's a temptation to think that you need to
-
go to God as a good Christian. You know, do you
-
know this? Like, I'm feeling good about my life
-
and so I'm going to show up to church. I think
-
I can bring myself to God today, even though
-
we confess our sins every week, right? We kind
-
of feel like we kind of... We've got to go to
-
God as good Christians. That's what we sometimes
-
think. It's kind of like how we post on social
-
media, right? We normally post... We don't post
-
the sink full of dishes pictures. We don't post
-
the pictures of ourselves after we've had too
-
much pasta and you just feel kind of bloated.
-
That's not going up on social media, right? It's
-
like, I got a nice fresh dew. I'll do that. Okay,
-
that sounds better. And we're tempted to kind
-
of go to think of our life with God like that.
-
I'm not going to show him this stuff. I'm going
-
to show him that stuff. But the Psalms invite
-
us to bring all of it, all of it to him. All
-
of our doubts and our struggles and our questions.
-
That's part of what's in Psalm 77, our questions.
-
Some of our struggles with not having maybe sufficient
-
answers for some of the big questions in life.
-
just all of it. God wants us to bring all of
-
it to Him. And so we come to Psalm 77. It's kind
-
of a long introduction back into the Psalms,
-
but also to this Psalm. We come to this Psalm,
-
and Psalm 77 is a Psalm of lament. Lament. What's
-
lamenting? Lamenting is expressing sort of sorrow,
-
maybe frustration. questions about the pain and
-
the wrongness of things, the wrongness of the
-
world, the wrongness of our lives. Lament gives
-
voice to the reality that things are not as they
-
should be. And I don't know, if you're a new
-
Christian, maybe this would surprise you. Maybe
-
if you've been a Christian a long time, maybe
-
you haven't heard this, but lament is the largest
-
category of the Psalms. Isn't that interesting?
-
When you come to sing to God, don't you often
-
think you come and you sing song? songs of praise.
-
Lord, we worship you. You know, we want to clap
-
our hands. That's in the Psalms too. But the
-
largest category of Psalms are, what's going
-
on here? Why is it like this? Lament. There's
-
actually 65 Psalms of lament, and there's 150
-
Psalms, so it's almost half, like 40 % or so,
-
a little over 40 % of the Psalms are Psalms of
-
lament. And this is one of those And I think
-
there's just something to learn just in that,
-
okay, before we actually look at Psalm 77. There's
-
something to learn in this. God wants your laments.
-
He desires you to share them with him. God, why
-
did this happen? And why am I so full of questions?
-
Why do you seem so far off? Those are all in
-
the Psalms, those questions. He gives us words
-
to express back to him. how we lament that things
-
are not as they're supposed to be. Yesterday
-
we were driving home from the Adirondacks. It
-
was raining the whole time. And one of my kids
-
asked me quite a bit, how long, Dad? How long?
-
How much longer? I was like, there's a Psalm
-
for that. There is a Psalm for that. It's actually
-
the same one I mentioned earlier about sleeping
-
the sleep of death, Psalm 13. How long, oh Lord,
-
will you forget me forever? How long are we going
-
to be on this car ride in this rain? Anyway,
-
Psalm 77 is a lament psalm. And this psalm is
-
broken down into two main sections, but you probably
-
heard when I read it that it's actually broken
-
into four sections, because there were three
-
times that there was that word salah. Why that's
-
salah and not an English word is because we actually
-
don't necessarily know what it means. We think
-
it means something like rest or peace, but we
-
don't know. That's why it's not translated. But
-
it makes sense. A lot of times the psalmist use
-
it as a break. So it's probably like, hey, pause
-
here for a guitar solo, and then we'll get back
-
into it. It's instrumental pause possibly. We
-
don't totally know. But it's broken down into
-
four sections, but it's two main sections. And
-
I want to suggest that these two main sections
-
first talk about our cries of remembrance, so
-
our lament of remembrance, and then actually
-
our confession of remembrance, okay? Our cries
-
of remembrance and our confession of remembrance.
-
So first, our cries of remembrance. And the first
-
little section here, the first part, one to three,
-
leading up to the first salah there, is cries
-
in the night, cries in the dark places. It cries
-
when you're kind of alone. So here's what it
-
says, I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he
-
will hear me. In the day of my trouble, I seek
-
the Lord in the night. My hand is stretched out
-
without wearying. My soul refuses to be comforted.
-
When I remember God, I moan. When I meditate,
-
my spirit faints. It's actually kind of interesting.
-
Commentators say this is kind of a tricky thing.
-
Is he crying aloud to God and being heard or
-
not? Well, it seems like as you walk through
-
it, he's crying out to God and he's saying, actually,
-
I'm not getting any response here. I'm just moaning.
-
Where are you, God? What seems to be the case
-
is that Asaph here isn't seeing God responding,
-
isn't hearing him responding, isn't seeing him
-
at work in his life. In the day of my trouble,
-
I seek the Lord at my night. My hand is stretched
-
out without wearing, meaning it's not stopping.
-
He's reaching out to God. Reaching out your hands
-
in the Bible is oftentimes, at least towards
-
God, is the posture of prayer. That's partly
-
why we often pray raising our hands. It's one
-
of the great postures of prayer in the Bible.
-
By the way, actually, the Bible never mentions
-
people praying seated. Isn't that interesting?
-
but most often they're praying stretching out
-
and so he's doing this he's doing it without
-
weary but he keeps reaching out and it seems
-
as though god is not answering his prayer that's
-
what that image is my soul refuses to be comforted
-
he keeps reaching out and he's saying god where
-
where are you when i remember god i moan um his
-
spirit is fainting in his meditation Because
-
though he's reaching out, he's going, God, where
-
are you? Reaching out, saying, God bless me,
-
like we often do at the end of our services,
-
right? During the benediction, you reach out
-
and you say, Lord, please bless me. It's like
-
he's doing that. God, please bless me. And he's
-
saying, I'm just crying out here in the night.
-
And it seems as though I'm all alone and you're
-
not showing up. My spirit is fainting. Now I
-
want to say, I hope that you find that there's
-
something deeply refreshing actually about this.
-
It's kind of raw, the idea of moaning before
-
God, but also, so it's kind of wild that this
-
is there, but it's also very refreshing that
-
this is in the Bible, that the Bible actually
-
knows our experiences, right? It's not trying
-
to just sugarcoat things and say, ah, everything's
-
going to be fine all the time. Don't worry about
-
it. God actually knows our experiences, and he
-
gives us words to express them back to him. There's
-
an Old Testament scholar, Herbert Leupold, he
-
said, Why does God let things go on as long and
-
as tragically as they do without giving any tokens
-
of His interest and concern? Isn't it just kind
-
of nice to know that there are people who are
-
committed to following the Word, who love the
-
Lord, and who know that that's part of our experience
-
in life? I mean, an Old Testament scholar is
-
saying sometimes it seems as though God doesn't
-
have concern for the trials that we're experiencing,
-
and Asaph is giving us voice words from Holy
-
Scripture themselves to express that to God.
-
Of course, this psalm, because of this reality,
-
has resonated with lots of Christians over the
-
years. So if you know of the great British London
-
preacher, Charles Spurgeon, he was preaching
-
in the latter half of the 19th century. He wrote
-
three volumes on the Psalms. I consult them pretty
-
much every time I'm preaching the Psalms. It's
-
called the Treasury of David. And he worked on
-
that for 20 years from 1865 to 1885. Well pretty
-
much that whole time he was incredibly ill. He
-
had a lot of illness in his life. He had horrible
-
health and it actually led to his death eventually
-
in 1892. So about seven years after he finished
-
his work on the Psalms. He had neuralgia, gout,
-
he had terrible headaches, probably like migraines,
-
and he had unbelievable deep, long bouts of depression.
-
And a lot of people think that depression was
-
so related to his health. But anyway, in Psalm
-
77, this is part of what he wrote about Psalm
-
77. He said, some of us know what it is, both
-
physically and spiritually, to be compelled to
-
use these words. this idea of moaning before
-
God. No respite has been afforded us by the silence
-
of the night. You want to get some rest at night
-
and you can't? Our bed has been a rack to us,
-
our body has been a torment, and our spirit is
-
in anguish. It's one of the greatest preachers
-
of the 19th century. He knows the experience
-
of your spirit being in anguish. Alas, my God,
-
the writer of this exposition, meaning himself,
-
well knows what thy servant Asaph meant for his
-
soul, meaning his own Spurgeon's, is familiar
-
with the way of grief, deep glens and lonely
-
caves of my soul's depressions. My spirit knows
-
full well your awful glooms. I was one of the
-
greatest preachers alive in the 19th century.
-
knew the experience of this psalm. So there are
-
cries in the night. There are cries of remembrance.
-
God, why? What's going on? I'm trying to remember
-
you and I just feel like I'm moaning and my spirit
-
is fainting. And then the second part actually
-
moves towards the cries of remembrance, but they're
-
remembering former days. So the next section.
-
You hold my eyelids open. I'm so troubled that
-
I cannot speak. I consider the days of old the
-
years long ago. I said, let me remember my song
-
in the night. Let me meditate in my heart. Then
-
my spirit made a diligent search. Will the Lord
-
spurn forever and ever again be favorable? Has
-
His steadfast love forever ceased? are his promises
-
at an end for all time. Has God forgotten to
-
be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?"
-
So he's saying, let me remember what God has
-
done. But then when he goes to remember it, he's
-
crying in the present because he's saying that
-
was back then. And I don't know if that's actually
-
still the reality. Of course, as he does this,
-
he then goes into these questions, right? These
-
questions that you heard in seven to nine, but
-
let me read them again for you. Will the Lord
-
spurn forever and never again be favorable? Has
-
His steadfast love forever ceased? Are His promises
-
at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to
-
be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His compassion?
-
I mean, just this lament of where is he? Has
-
he changed? Does the Lord reject us? Can he cease
-
to love the ones that he once loved? Has his
-
character changed? And the answer, the right
-
answer is no, right? No. But he's sitting in
-
this, he's sitting in all these questions. And
-
I think that, again, there's just something almost
-
refreshingly powerful about this being in Holy
-
Scripture. So honest. It's honesty that's directed
-
God -ward. So, I actually don't have this in
-
my notes here, but I want to pause here. Please,
-
in your times of deep doubt, please go to God
-
with them. Even if you're like, God, I'm not
-
even sure that I believe you're around, that
-
you care. You know, the big questions of religion,
-
is God there? Does He care? I don't know if I
-
believe those, but please ask Him that. Tell
-
Him that. That's part of the invitation of the
-
Psalms. That's part of this invitation right
-
here. One writer wrote this, doubts are better
-
put into plain speech than lying diffused and
-
darkening. Just let it sit there give voice to
-
it Like poison like poisonous mist it says a
-
thought be a good or bad can be death Sorry dealt
-
with when it's made articulate I Give words To
-
this experience and give them God or that's the
-
invitation of this song Bring your cries to God
-
Bring your sleepless nights to God Bring your
-
remembrances of how, man, and back then it felt
-
like communion with the Lord was so sweet. I'm
-
not feeling it now. Bring it to God. Bring your
-
questions. Bring your doubts. Bring all of it.
-
But here's something that this psalm is also
-
doing. It's saying, you know, it's giving us
-
these cries of remembrance of what's happened
-
and it's inviting us to cry out. But it's also
-
saying, bring your confession of remembrance
-
also. There's this shift that happens. So verse
-
10, I'm gonna actually read this a couple of
-
times, but verse 10 says this, then I said, there's
-
a shift after that second silah, I will appeal
-
to this, to the years of the right hand of the
-
Most High. So he's saying, wait a second, then
-
let me remember this other reality. Let me remember
-
the confession of who God is. Verse 11, I will
-
remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember
-
your wonders of old. And then he starts confessing.
-
He's not just crying out about his estate, but
-
he's confessing who God is. And I want you to
-
know something that is really important about
-
this Psalm and really important about our our
-
personal experiences that I think you'll notice
-
if you sit in the Psalm for not very long, but
-
when we just read it quickly and then I start
-
talking about it, maybe you didn't notice. But
-
for the first half of this Psalm, large ASAP,
-
do I need more batteries? Is this coming in and
-
out? You're following me fine. For the first
-
half of this Psalm, ASAP is largely talking about
-
himself. It's just his experience. He's just
-
looking at his situation and there's a whole
-
lot of I's, there's a whole lot of me's, there's
-
a whole lot of my's. In fact, in those first
-
six verses, the first person pronouns are used
-
18 times and God is mentioned six times. And
-
I was reading this over and I was thinking about
-
this and Listen to this, for example, verse six.
-
I said, let me remember my song in the night.
-
Let me meditate on my heart. Do you see how just
-
directed it is towards himself? He's in this
-
dark, deep place and he's wondering where God
-
is, but he's so focused on him. So eight times
-
first person pronouns. Sorry, 18 times in those
-
verses, in those same verses, six references
-
to God. And if you are looking at yourself three
-
times as much as you were looking at God, this
-
is often where you end up. Actually, let me say
-
this. When I am looking at myself three times
-
as much as I'm looking at God, this is often
-
where I end up. In a dark place, sleepless nights,
-
wondering, God, what's going on? Why this, why
-
that, what's going on? That kind of self -orientation
-
often leads down this road, okay? And the turning
-
point in this Psalm is when he begins to look
-
more at the Lord, who he is, his character, what
-
he's done, his redemption. So it says, I'll remember
-
verse 11 and 12, I'll remember the deeds of the
-
Lord. Yes, I'll remember your wonders of old.
-
I will ponder all your work. and meditate on
-
your mighty deeds." So His character and His
-
redemption. A few things about God's character
-
that we have mentioned really explicitly here.
-
One, if you look down at verse 13, it's read
-
at 11 and 12. First, He says, God is holy. And
-
of course, there's lots that could be said about
-
the holiness of God. There's a whole book that's
-
titled, The Holiness of God. But for this psalm,
-
and I think the point of this psalm, it's enough
-
to say that the holiness, God's holiness, has
-
to be, has to do with His being set apart and
-
altogether distinct and different. Which is to
-
say His ways are not our ways, right? His paths
-
are not always our paths. Maybe you've heard
-
pastors say this jokingly, I think. God loves
-
you and I have a great plan for your life. God
-
loves you and I have a great plan for your life.
-
It's called the hospitality team or something
-
like that. But we actually like to say God loves
-
me and I have a great plan for my life. But instead
-
it's God loves you and he has a plan for your
-
life. And his plan for your life is so often
-
so different than what you expect because he's,
-
of course it is, he's holy. He's different. He's
-
beyond us. His ways are beyond our understanding.
-
God is holy. He's sacred. He's set apart. God's
-
ways can be trusted. We can walk in His paths
-
and we can sometimes wonder what's going on with
-
them, but His ways are holy. They're sacred,
-
set apart. And often it's actually looking back
-
on where he's brought us that we see that to
-
be the case. So part of the ways that Asaph here
-
remembers God's characters, he remembers his
-
holiness, his otherness, his sacredness, his
-
beyond us -ness. The other thing that he mentions
-
actually again there in verse 13 is that God
-
is great. What God is great like our God. All
-
right, that's a good question to ask. What God's
-
great like our God? And the answer, of course,
-
is there's none other God that's great like our
-
God. So verse 14 says, you're the God who works
-
wonders. You've made known your might among the
-
peoples, which is to say, when you say God is
-
great, what's to say? God is able. What's he
-
saying? God is holy. His ways are not my ways,
-
but he's able. He's great. He can do as he pleases.
-
God is able to take us through the deepest, darkest
-
valleys of the shadows of death, the places where
-
we want to lay down to sleep and be our last
-
sleep. He can take us through the deep valleys
-
and glens, as Spurgeon said, of depression, of
-
darkness. There are things in this life, in our
-
lives, like Asaph's life, that cause us to ask
-
all the first questions that come up in this
-
psalm. But it's the greatness of God that causes
-
us to go, okay, you are able. You are able to
-
take me through. God is great. The other thing
-
that we see here is that God's caring. He's a
-
caring God. Verse 15, you with your arm redeemed
-
your people, the children of Jacob and of Joseph.
-
And if you're, what you should be thinking about
-
there is the Exodus story. Remember, the people
-
of God were down in Egypt for 400 years. And
-
they were crying out to him, right? Come and
-
redeem us. Bring us into the land that you promised
-
our forefathers. And in some ways they were experiencing
-
this dark experience that Asaph has. And God
-
remembers and he redeems and he cares. He acts
-
in love for the redemption of his people. God
-
is caring. God is holy and he's great and he's
-
caring. But after this last Salah, it kind of
-
moves into this final section, this final section
-
here, and listen to this again, okay? When the
-
water saw you, O God, when the water saw you,
-
they were afraid. Indeed, the deep trembled.
-
The clouds poured out water, the skies gave forth
-
thunder, your arrows flashed on every side. The
-
crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind, your
-
lightning lighted up the world. the earth trembled
-
and shook. Your way was through the sea, your
-
path through the great waters, yet your footprint
-
was unseen. You led your people like a flock
-
by the hand of Moses." And so this last stanza
-
is Asaph remembering, so the last one was the
-
character of God, but actually this is the acts
-
of God, the mighty acts, the redemption. The
-
story of redemption in the Old Testament is this
-
right here. God brings his people out from Egypt.
-
But the interesting thing about this little snippet
-
that we have right here is what he's calling
-
to remembrance is how the people were brought
-
out from after the 10 plagues and Pharaoh finally
-
lets them go and they're leaving and they get
-
to the water and they've got chariots behind
-
them. It's the place where they get to and they're
-
like, we have no hope. We thought we were finally
-
saved and Now you brought us out to the Red Sea
-
and we've got Pharaoh on our back and things
-
pretty much couldn't be worse Right that the
-
part of the story that he's remembering is the
-
part where they're probably going oh my word
-
we thought that we were finally out of this and
-
Now we're in this situation where there's chariots
-
coming after us and there's water in front of
-
some wheat. We're not gonna make it through He's
-
remembering that time where it's like all hope
-
is pretty much lost. And what does he say? When
-
the water saw you, O God, when the water saw
-
you, they trembled. Which is to say there's nothing
-
that the Lord couldn't take his people through,
-
right? That's what he's saying. In the darkest
-
places of my life, in the place where I come
-
to and I go, oh my word, there's cherries behind
-
me, there's water in front of me, I'm gone. God
-
made a way. The waters themselves, they tremble.
-
The sky commands it all. It's as though Asaph
-
was saying, of course he can care for me. When
-
I'm laying in bed and I'm just thinking about
-
how awful things have been and where God seems
-
so absent. I mean, He's great. He's holy. He's
-
caring. And He can part the Red Sea. I can trust
-
Him. Now, of course, if this is the great redemption
-
story of the Old Testament, which it is, which
-
is why the Old Testament authors always are going
-
back to the Exodus story because it's the great
-
story of salvation. God giving his people freedom
-
and new life when they were once slaves. But
-
now we get to look back upon the cross of Christ.
-
I mean, in our deep places, when we are actually
-
crying out like Jesus does on the cross, my God,
-
my God, why have you forsaken me? We get to think,
-
we get to remember that there is nothing that
-
can separate us from the love of God. And if
-
God is for us, who can be against us? And why
-
can we say that even in those nights? Because
-
he who did not spare his own son, how much more
-
will he not give us all things? If God himself
-
takes on flesh for you, if he goes to the cross
-
and conquers Satan's sin and death for you, go
-
to him. in the dark night of despair. Cry out
-
to Him. Share with Him your deepest, darkest
-
places, your doubts that overwhelm you. And then
-
remember that His ways aren't your ways, that
-
He is able, that He's caring, and all of that
-
is seen most fully at the cross. All of it. That's
-
where you see the love of God. That's where you
-
see his character most known. That's where his
-
mighty acts are revealed in their gratefulness.
-
And that's where he shows us that he loves us.
-
We are often wondering about that. That's where
-
we see it. The cross. Let me pray. Lord, thank
-
you for the Psalms. These words that we get to
-
sing to you, to pray to you. God, we're so grateful
-
that the Psalms don't shy away from places where
-
we're just questioning everything. We're questioning
-
what you're doing, your character, all this.
-
That you invite us to live honestly before you,
-
to live openly before you. God, that doesn't
-
offend you at all. God, I pray that we'd hear
-
that. But Lord, I prayed this morning also that
-
we would hear that the turning point for Asaph.
-
And the turning point for us is to look to Jesus,
-
to look at the cross and the resurrection, the
-
empty tomb, to look at the love that you have
-
for us, that you won't even spare your own son,
-
but you'd give him up for us. God, please, Lord,
-
I pray that we would be a people who fix our
-
eyes upon Jesus. God, we are so prone. to navel
-
gazing. We are so prone to just looking at ourselves
-
and our state, our place in this world. I pray
-
that you'd lift up our eyes, please, to the cross,
-
that we would fix our eyes upon Jesus and that
-
you'd meet us in that movement, that you would
-
meet us there and that you'd lift us out of these
-
deep dark Places that we so often find ourselves
-
in Lord. Thank you for your word Thank you for
-
these words Thank you for the word made flesh.
-
We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen Thank
-
you for listening to second city sermons podcast
-
We hope this sermon has encouraged you to worship
-
God and to celebrate the gospel of Jesus Please
-
consider subscribing to this podcast and joining
-
us in person each Sunday at 10 a .m You can find
-
us online at secondcitychurch .org and on Instagram,
-
Facebook, and YouTube. Thanks again for listening.
-
God bless.