Sermon

Psalms for the Summer: I Cry Aloud to God : Psalm 77

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  1. Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

  2. a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

  3. It's our hope that these sermons will draw you

  4. more into the life of following God, Father,

  5. Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and

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  9. Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this

  10. sermon. God Bless. Lord, thank you for your holy

  11. word. Thank you that you give it to us out of

  12. love, to guide us in your paths, to teach us

  13. of you, to teach us about ourselves. God, I pray

  14. that this morning we would know you better, that

  15. we would look to you. Maybe that we would do

  16. some good self -assessment and that we would

  17. see Jesus. God, bless now the words of my mouth.

  18. Bless the meditations of our hearts. Would they

  19. be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and

  20. our Redeemer? Amen. All right, we are back in

  21. the Psalms. Actually, you all were back in the

  22. Psalms last week, but we are back in the Psalms

  23. together. And actually, this is the 12th summer

  24. that we've been in the Psalms together. My first

  25. Sunday with you all was the last Sunday of June

  26. in 2015. That makes this the 12th summer. And

  27. we began with Psalm 1 long ago. I've told you

  28. this in the past, but I'll tell you again, there's

  29. a few different reasons why we've done this.

  30. Some of them are practical reasons. Let me give

  31. you a couple of practical reasons why we do the

  32. Psalms in the summer. One of the practical reasons

  33. is because the Psalms are kind of one -offs,

  34. meaning that if you look at Psalm 76, you don't

  35. necessarily have to jump to 77 to understand

  36. 76. Actually, you don't really have to do that.

  37. You know, but if we're looking at many of the

  38. books in the Bible and you, oh, I don't know,

  39. you're on vacation for a week or two or three

  40. or however many times you're gone during the

  41. summer, it's going to be hard to follow that.

  42. It's going to be hard to follow kind of the argument

  43. that's being made in a given book of the Bible.

  44. But with the Psalms, they're good. It's a good

  45. series for vacations. You guys, you know, you're

  46. going to be gone. I was gone last week. We can

  47. kind of jump back in. So that's one practical

  48. reason. Some Psalms go together, Psalm 1 and

  49. 2, Psalm 9 and 10. Some Psalms, so the people

  50. think those were actually written to go together.

  51. Some Psalms just work really well together. Psalm

  52. 104, 105, that kind of thing. But many of the

  53. Psalms are one -offs. And so it invites the summer

  54. kind of life of in and out that so many of us

  55. live in. But there's another reason, another

  56. practical reason is, and that's that most preachers

  57. have preached a Psalm. And so for me, sometimes

  58. I have a hard time finding somebody to preach

  59. for me, not so much now that Jed's around and

  60. Dale's here. Sometimes it's been really hard

  61. to find somebody. Like last week, I asked five

  62. different people about serving communion. We

  63. believe that the Bible teaches that ordained

  64. ministers are ordained to word in sacrament and

  65. the sacraments are to be administered by pastors.

  66. And so I can't find anyone. And sometimes that

  67. actually has happened in the past with preaching.

  68. Jonathan knows this because it's happened. It's

  69. been kind of stressful for the session. What

  70. do we do? Peter plans to be away. We can't find

  71. anybody. Well, oftentimes I can call somebody

  72. and say, hey, all you have to do is just bring

  73. your psalm. And they're like, oh, good. OK, I've

  74. got that. So it's kind of practical. Anyway,

  75. as practical as some of the reasons are, there's

  76. also just some theological reasons, some spiritual

  77. reasons why we come back to the Psalms each summer.

  78. And partly I just want to say it's for our spiritual

  79. good that we sit in the Psalms. Two quick reasons

  80. why it's for our spiritual good. One, I think

  81. it's a good healthy diet of the Bible. Right

  82. the fall we do Old Testament New Testament from

  83. about Christmas to Easter. We're in the Gospels

  84. We do a series like ten commandments and we come

  85. back to the Psalms and part of that is is just

  86. like how in our in our Services we have the Old

  87. Testament the New Testament and the Gospels in

  88. the Psalms That's often how the Bible is broken

  89. down into these like major categories. The Psalms

  90. are its own category often and So to have a healthy

  91. diet of scripture is to at least spend some time

  92. in the Psalms. We believe that all scripture

  93. is given by God and it's useful for us for our

  94. correction, for our training in righteousness,

  95. for all the rest that we would be equipped for

  96. every good work. And all scripture, and a big

  97. part of all scripture is the Psalms. So one spiritual

  98. reason is it's a Bible diet. Another spiritual

  99. reason is that the Psalms are the devotional

  100. book of the Bible, devotional book in church

  101. history for sure. They are songs. Actually, this

  102. one, did you notice that it was given? It said

  103. that it's a song and that it's according to Juddathan,

  104. which is probably a tune. Sounds like kind of

  105. a funny tune name, but it's a song, it says,

  106. and it's actually written for a specific tune,

  107. which is kind of interesting, but they're songs.

  108. which is say that this is a hymn book, but it's

  109. also a prayer book. People have always said that

  110. this is the great prayer book of the Bible. We

  111. say this is the great sort of devotional book

  112. of the Bible. One thing that we were at a camp

  113. this week, a family camp, Christian family camp,

  114. and the speaker actually referred to the Psalms

  115. as the journals of the Bible. He said they're

  116. journals for the journey. They go all the way

  117. through the journey of life. So I hope that that's

  118. what problems are for you, that they actually

  119. kind of give voice to the different experiences

  120. that you have in life, because God wants us to

  121. bring all of life to Him, all of it. He wants

  122. us to live all of our lives with Him, which means

  123. that, you know, the days that you want to just

  124. roll the windows down, driving down Front Street,

  125. or if I don't think any of you have a convertible,

  126. but it's, you know, the days where you just want

  127. to have a convertible and you want to turn up

  128. the tunes and you want to sing. I'm gonna have

  129. a, oh wait, how's it go? Thank you, that's what

  130. I was thinking. That's what I was thinking. I'm

  131. about to have a good day in every single way.

  132. You know, just like, yeah. But also the days

  133. when you're like, I don't want to get out of

  134. bed. I don't want to get out of bed today. You

  135. know, Psalm 13, I'm sleeping the sleep of death.

  136. That's what it says. Because God, where are you?

  137. How long? Why have you forgotten me? That's all.

  138. Because God wants you to bring all of your life

  139. to Him, all of it. And that's my desire for you

  140. is to kind of learn this summer in, summer out.

  141. God is always saying, bring it all to me. Live

  142. your life with me. That you will have this in

  143. your bones, this devotional life with God, that

  144. you'll find it your joy to live all of your life,

  145. even the stuff you want to hide. with God. So

  146. journal entries. It's one way to think about

  147. the Psalms. And I like that because I do think

  148. there's a temptation to think that you need to

  149. go to God as a good Christian. You know, do you

  150. know this? Like, I'm feeling good about my life

  151. and so I'm going to show up to church. I think

  152. I can bring myself to God today, even though

  153. we confess our sins every week, right? We kind

  154. of feel like we kind of... We've got to go to

  155. God as good Christians. That's what we sometimes

  156. think. It's kind of like how we post on social

  157. media, right? We normally post... We don't post

  158. the sink full of dishes pictures. We don't post

  159. the pictures of ourselves after we've had too

  160. much pasta and you just feel kind of bloated.

  161. That's not going up on social media, right? It's

  162. like, I got a nice fresh dew. I'll do that. Okay,

  163. that sounds better. And we're tempted to kind

  164. of go to think of our life with God like that.

  165. I'm not going to show him this stuff. I'm going

  166. to show him that stuff. But the Psalms invite

  167. us to bring all of it, all of it to him. All

  168. of our doubts and our struggles and our questions.

  169. That's part of what's in Psalm 77, our questions.

  170. Some of our struggles with not having maybe sufficient

  171. answers for some of the big questions in life.

  172. just all of it. God wants us to bring all of

  173. it to Him. And so we come to Psalm 77. It's kind

  174. of a long introduction back into the Psalms,

  175. but also to this Psalm. We come to this Psalm,

  176. and Psalm 77 is a Psalm of lament. Lament. What's

  177. lamenting? Lamenting is expressing sort of sorrow,

  178. maybe frustration. questions about the pain and

  179. the wrongness of things, the wrongness of the

  180. world, the wrongness of our lives. Lament gives

  181. voice to the reality that things are not as they

  182. should be. And I don't know, if you're a new

  183. Christian, maybe this would surprise you. Maybe

  184. if you've been a Christian a long time, maybe

  185. you haven't heard this, but lament is the largest

  186. category of the Psalms. Isn't that interesting?

  187. When you come to sing to God, don't you often

  188. think you come and you sing song? songs of praise.

  189. Lord, we worship you. You know, we want to clap

  190. our hands. That's in the Psalms too. But the

  191. largest category of Psalms are, what's going

  192. on here? Why is it like this? Lament. There's

  193. actually 65 Psalms of lament, and there's 150

  194. Psalms, so it's almost half, like 40 % or so,

  195. a little over 40 % of the Psalms are Psalms of

  196. lament. And this is one of those And I think

  197. there's just something to learn just in that,

  198. okay, before we actually look at Psalm 77. There's

  199. something to learn in this. God wants your laments.

  200. He desires you to share them with him. God, why

  201. did this happen? And why am I so full of questions?

  202. Why do you seem so far off? Those are all in

  203. the Psalms, those questions. He gives us words

  204. to express back to him. how we lament that things

  205. are not as they're supposed to be. Yesterday

  206. we were driving home from the Adirondacks. It

  207. was raining the whole time. And one of my kids

  208. asked me quite a bit, how long, Dad? How long?

  209. How much longer? I was like, there's a Psalm

  210. for that. There is a Psalm for that. It's actually

  211. the same one I mentioned earlier about sleeping

  212. the sleep of death, Psalm 13. How long, oh Lord,

  213. will you forget me forever? How long are we going

  214. to be on this car ride in this rain? Anyway,

  215. Psalm 77 is a lament psalm. And this psalm is

  216. broken down into two main sections, but you probably

  217. heard when I read it that it's actually broken

  218. into four sections, because there were three

  219. times that there was that word salah. Why that's

  220. salah and not an English word is because we actually

  221. don't necessarily know what it means. We think

  222. it means something like rest or peace, but we

  223. don't know. That's why it's not translated. But

  224. it makes sense. A lot of times the psalmist use

  225. it as a break. So it's probably like, hey, pause

  226. here for a guitar solo, and then we'll get back

  227. into it. It's instrumental pause possibly. We

  228. don't totally know. But it's broken down into

  229. four sections, but it's two main sections. And

  230. I want to suggest that these two main sections

  231. first talk about our cries of remembrance, so

  232. our lament of remembrance, and then actually

  233. our confession of remembrance, okay? Our cries

  234. of remembrance and our confession of remembrance.

  235. So first, our cries of remembrance. And the first

  236. little section here, the first part, one to three,

  237. leading up to the first salah there, is cries

  238. in the night, cries in the dark places. It cries

  239. when you're kind of alone. So here's what it

  240. says, I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he

  241. will hear me. In the day of my trouble, I seek

  242. the Lord in the night. My hand is stretched out

  243. without wearying. My soul refuses to be comforted.

  244. When I remember God, I moan. When I meditate,

  245. my spirit faints. It's actually kind of interesting.

  246. Commentators say this is kind of a tricky thing.

  247. Is he crying aloud to God and being heard or

  248. not? Well, it seems like as you walk through

  249. it, he's crying out to God and he's saying, actually,

  250. I'm not getting any response here. I'm just moaning.

  251. Where are you, God? What seems to be the case

  252. is that Asaph here isn't seeing God responding,

  253. isn't hearing him responding, isn't seeing him

  254. at work in his life. In the day of my trouble,

  255. I seek the Lord at my night. My hand is stretched

  256. out without wearing, meaning it's not stopping.

  257. He's reaching out to God. Reaching out your hands

  258. in the Bible is oftentimes, at least towards

  259. God, is the posture of prayer. That's partly

  260. why we often pray raising our hands. It's one

  261. of the great postures of prayer in the Bible.

  262. By the way, actually, the Bible never mentions

  263. people praying seated. Isn't that interesting?

  264. but most often they're praying stretching out

  265. and so he's doing this he's doing it without

  266. weary but he keeps reaching out and it seems

  267. as though god is not answering his prayer that's

  268. what that image is my soul refuses to be comforted

  269. he keeps reaching out and he's saying god where

  270. where are you when i remember god i moan um his

  271. spirit is fainting in his meditation Because

  272. though he's reaching out, he's going, God, where

  273. are you? Reaching out, saying, God bless me,

  274. like we often do at the end of our services,

  275. right? During the benediction, you reach out

  276. and you say, Lord, please bless me. It's like

  277. he's doing that. God, please bless me. And he's

  278. saying, I'm just crying out here in the night.

  279. And it seems as though I'm all alone and you're

  280. not showing up. My spirit is fainting. Now I

  281. want to say, I hope that you find that there's

  282. something deeply refreshing actually about this.

  283. It's kind of raw, the idea of moaning before

  284. God, but also, so it's kind of wild that this

  285. is there, but it's also very refreshing that

  286. this is in the Bible, that the Bible actually

  287. knows our experiences, right? It's not trying

  288. to just sugarcoat things and say, ah, everything's

  289. going to be fine all the time. Don't worry about

  290. it. God actually knows our experiences, and he

  291. gives us words to express them back to him. There's

  292. an Old Testament scholar, Herbert Leupold, he

  293. said, Why does God let things go on as long and

  294. as tragically as they do without giving any tokens

  295. of His interest and concern? Isn't it just kind

  296. of nice to know that there are people who are

  297. committed to following the Word, who love the

  298. Lord, and who know that that's part of our experience

  299. in life? I mean, an Old Testament scholar is

  300. saying sometimes it seems as though God doesn't

  301. have concern for the trials that we're experiencing,

  302. and Asaph is giving us voice words from Holy

  303. Scripture themselves to express that to God.

  304. Of course, this psalm, because of this reality,

  305. has resonated with lots of Christians over the

  306. years. So if you know of the great British London

  307. preacher, Charles Spurgeon, he was preaching

  308. in the latter half of the 19th century. He wrote

  309. three volumes on the Psalms. I consult them pretty

  310. much every time I'm preaching the Psalms. It's

  311. called the Treasury of David. And he worked on

  312. that for 20 years from 1865 to 1885. Well pretty

  313. much that whole time he was incredibly ill. He

  314. had a lot of illness in his life. He had horrible

  315. health and it actually led to his death eventually

  316. in 1892. So about seven years after he finished

  317. his work on the Psalms. He had neuralgia, gout,

  318. he had terrible headaches, probably like migraines,

  319. and he had unbelievable deep, long bouts of depression.

  320. And a lot of people think that depression was

  321. so related to his health. But anyway, in Psalm

  322. 77, this is part of what he wrote about Psalm

  323. 77. He said, some of us know what it is, both

  324. physically and spiritually, to be compelled to

  325. use these words. this idea of moaning before

  326. God. No respite has been afforded us by the silence

  327. of the night. You want to get some rest at night

  328. and you can't? Our bed has been a rack to us,

  329. our body has been a torment, and our spirit is

  330. in anguish. It's one of the greatest preachers

  331. of the 19th century. He knows the experience

  332. of your spirit being in anguish. Alas, my God,

  333. the writer of this exposition, meaning himself,

  334. well knows what thy servant Asaph meant for his

  335. soul, meaning his own Spurgeon's, is familiar

  336. with the way of grief, deep glens and lonely

  337. caves of my soul's depressions. My spirit knows

  338. full well your awful glooms. I was one of the

  339. greatest preachers alive in the 19th century.

  340. knew the experience of this psalm. So there are

  341. cries in the night. There are cries of remembrance.

  342. God, why? What's going on? I'm trying to remember

  343. you and I just feel like I'm moaning and my spirit

  344. is fainting. And then the second part actually

  345. moves towards the cries of remembrance, but they're

  346. remembering former days. So the next section.

  347. You hold my eyelids open. I'm so troubled that

  348. I cannot speak. I consider the days of old the

  349. years long ago. I said, let me remember my song

  350. in the night. Let me meditate in my heart. Then

  351. my spirit made a diligent search. Will the Lord

  352. spurn forever and ever again be favorable? Has

  353. His steadfast love forever ceased? are his promises

  354. at an end for all time. Has God forgotten to

  355. be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?"

  356. So he's saying, let me remember what God has

  357. done. But then when he goes to remember it, he's

  358. crying in the present because he's saying that

  359. was back then. And I don't know if that's actually

  360. still the reality. Of course, as he does this,

  361. he then goes into these questions, right? These

  362. questions that you heard in seven to nine, but

  363. let me read them again for you. Will the Lord

  364. spurn forever and never again be favorable? Has

  365. His steadfast love forever ceased? Are His promises

  366. at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to

  367. be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His compassion?

  368. I mean, just this lament of where is he? Has

  369. he changed? Does the Lord reject us? Can he cease

  370. to love the ones that he once loved? Has his

  371. character changed? And the answer, the right

  372. answer is no, right? No. But he's sitting in

  373. this, he's sitting in all these questions. And

  374. I think that, again, there's just something almost

  375. refreshingly powerful about this being in Holy

  376. Scripture. So honest. It's honesty that's directed

  377. God -ward. So, I actually don't have this in

  378. my notes here, but I want to pause here. Please,

  379. in your times of deep doubt, please go to God

  380. with them. Even if you're like, God, I'm not

  381. even sure that I believe you're around, that

  382. you care. You know, the big questions of religion,

  383. is God there? Does He care? I don't know if I

  384. believe those, but please ask Him that. Tell

  385. Him that. That's part of the invitation of the

  386. Psalms. That's part of this invitation right

  387. here. One writer wrote this, doubts are better

  388. put into plain speech than lying diffused and

  389. darkening. Just let it sit there give voice to

  390. it Like poison like poisonous mist it says a

  391. thought be a good or bad can be death Sorry dealt

  392. with when it's made articulate I Give words To

  393. this experience and give them God or that's the

  394. invitation of this song Bring your cries to God

  395. Bring your sleepless nights to God Bring your

  396. remembrances of how, man, and back then it felt

  397. like communion with the Lord was so sweet. I'm

  398. not feeling it now. Bring it to God. Bring your

  399. questions. Bring your doubts. Bring all of it.

  400. But here's something that this psalm is also

  401. doing. It's saying, you know, it's giving us

  402. these cries of remembrance of what's happened

  403. and it's inviting us to cry out. But it's also

  404. saying, bring your confession of remembrance

  405. also. There's this shift that happens. So verse

  406. 10, I'm gonna actually read this a couple of

  407. times, but verse 10 says this, then I said, there's

  408. a shift after that second silah, I will appeal

  409. to this, to the years of the right hand of the

  410. Most High. So he's saying, wait a second, then

  411. let me remember this other reality. Let me remember

  412. the confession of who God is. Verse 11, I will

  413. remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember

  414. your wonders of old. And then he starts confessing.

  415. He's not just crying out about his estate, but

  416. he's confessing who God is. And I want you to

  417. know something that is really important about

  418. this Psalm and really important about our our

  419. personal experiences that I think you'll notice

  420. if you sit in the Psalm for not very long, but

  421. when we just read it quickly and then I start

  422. talking about it, maybe you didn't notice. But

  423. for the first half of this Psalm, large ASAP,

  424. do I need more batteries? Is this coming in and

  425. out? You're following me fine. For the first

  426. half of this Psalm, ASAP is largely talking about

  427. himself. It's just his experience. He's just

  428. looking at his situation and there's a whole

  429. lot of I's, there's a whole lot of me's, there's

  430. a whole lot of my's. In fact, in those first

  431. six verses, the first person pronouns are used

  432. 18 times and God is mentioned six times. And

  433. I was reading this over and I was thinking about

  434. this and Listen to this, for example, verse six.

  435. I said, let me remember my song in the night.

  436. Let me meditate on my heart. Do you see how just

  437. directed it is towards himself? He's in this

  438. dark, deep place and he's wondering where God

  439. is, but he's so focused on him. So eight times

  440. first person pronouns. Sorry, 18 times in those

  441. verses, in those same verses, six references

  442. to God. And if you are looking at yourself three

  443. times as much as you were looking at God, this

  444. is often where you end up. Actually, let me say

  445. this. When I am looking at myself three times

  446. as much as I'm looking at God, this is often

  447. where I end up. In a dark place, sleepless nights,

  448. wondering, God, what's going on? Why this, why

  449. that, what's going on? That kind of self -orientation

  450. often leads down this road, okay? And the turning

  451. point in this Psalm is when he begins to look

  452. more at the Lord, who he is, his character, what

  453. he's done, his redemption. So it says, I'll remember

  454. verse 11 and 12, I'll remember the deeds of the

  455. Lord. Yes, I'll remember your wonders of old.

  456. I will ponder all your work. and meditate on

  457. your mighty deeds." So His character and His

  458. redemption. A few things about God's character

  459. that we have mentioned really explicitly here.

  460. One, if you look down at verse 13, it's read

  461. at 11 and 12. First, He says, God is holy. And

  462. of course, there's lots that could be said about

  463. the holiness of God. There's a whole book that's

  464. titled, The Holiness of God. But for this psalm,

  465. and I think the point of this psalm, it's enough

  466. to say that the holiness, God's holiness, has

  467. to be, has to do with His being set apart and

  468. altogether distinct and different. Which is to

  469. say His ways are not our ways, right? His paths

  470. are not always our paths. Maybe you've heard

  471. pastors say this jokingly, I think. God loves

  472. you and I have a great plan for your life. God

  473. loves you and I have a great plan for your life.

  474. It's called the hospitality team or something

  475. like that. But we actually like to say God loves

  476. me and I have a great plan for my life. But instead

  477. it's God loves you and he has a plan for your

  478. life. And his plan for your life is so often

  479. so different than what you expect because he's,

  480. of course it is, he's holy. He's different. He's

  481. beyond us. His ways are beyond our understanding.

  482. God is holy. He's sacred. He's set apart. God's

  483. ways can be trusted. We can walk in His paths

  484. and we can sometimes wonder what's going on with

  485. them, but His ways are holy. They're sacred,

  486. set apart. And often it's actually looking back

  487. on where he's brought us that we see that to

  488. be the case. So part of the ways that Asaph here

  489. remembers God's characters, he remembers his

  490. holiness, his otherness, his sacredness, his

  491. beyond us -ness. The other thing that he mentions

  492. actually again there in verse 13 is that God

  493. is great. What God is great like our God. All

  494. right, that's a good question to ask. What God's

  495. great like our God? And the answer, of course,

  496. is there's none other God that's great like our

  497. God. So verse 14 says, you're the God who works

  498. wonders. You've made known your might among the

  499. peoples, which is to say, when you say God is

  500. great, what's to say? God is able. What's he

  501. saying? God is holy. His ways are not my ways,

  502. but he's able. He's great. He can do as he pleases.

  503. God is able to take us through the deepest, darkest

  504. valleys of the shadows of death, the places where

  505. we want to lay down to sleep and be our last

  506. sleep. He can take us through the deep valleys

  507. and glens, as Spurgeon said, of depression, of

  508. darkness. There are things in this life, in our

  509. lives, like Asaph's life, that cause us to ask

  510. all the first questions that come up in this

  511. psalm. But it's the greatness of God that causes

  512. us to go, okay, you are able. You are able to

  513. take me through. God is great. The other thing

  514. that we see here is that God's caring. He's a

  515. caring God. Verse 15, you with your arm redeemed

  516. your people, the children of Jacob and of Joseph.

  517. And if you're, what you should be thinking about

  518. there is the Exodus story. Remember, the people

  519. of God were down in Egypt for 400 years. And

  520. they were crying out to him, right? Come and

  521. redeem us. Bring us into the land that you promised

  522. our forefathers. And in some ways they were experiencing

  523. this dark experience that Asaph has. And God

  524. remembers and he redeems and he cares. He acts

  525. in love for the redemption of his people. God

  526. is caring. God is holy and he's great and he's

  527. caring. But after this last Salah, it kind of

  528. moves into this final section, this final section

  529. here, and listen to this again, okay? When the

  530. water saw you, O God, when the water saw you,

  531. they were afraid. Indeed, the deep trembled.

  532. The clouds poured out water, the skies gave forth

  533. thunder, your arrows flashed on every side. The

  534. crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind, your

  535. lightning lighted up the world. the earth trembled

  536. and shook. Your way was through the sea, your

  537. path through the great waters, yet your footprint

  538. was unseen. You led your people like a flock

  539. by the hand of Moses." And so this last stanza

  540. is Asaph remembering, so the last one was the

  541. character of God, but actually this is the acts

  542. of God, the mighty acts, the redemption. The

  543. story of redemption in the Old Testament is this

  544. right here. God brings his people out from Egypt.

  545. But the interesting thing about this little snippet

  546. that we have right here is what he's calling

  547. to remembrance is how the people were brought

  548. out from after the 10 plagues and Pharaoh finally

  549. lets them go and they're leaving and they get

  550. to the water and they've got chariots behind

  551. them. It's the place where they get to and they're

  552. like, we have no hope. We thought we were finally

  553. saved and Now you brought us out to the Red Sea

  554. and we've got Pharaoh on our back and things

  555. pretty much couldn't be worse Right that the

  556. part of the story that he's remembering is the

  557. part where they're probably going oh my word

  558. we thought that we were finally out of this and

  559. Now we're in this situation where there's chariots

  560. coming after us and there's water in front of

  561. some wheat. We're not gonna make it through He's

  562. remembering that time where it's like all hope

  563. is pretty much lost. And what does he say? When

  564. the water saw you, O God, when the water saw

  565. you, they trembled. Which is to say there's nothing

  566. that the Lord couldn't take his people through,

  567. right? That's what he's saying. In the darkest

  568. places of my life, in the place where I come

  569. to and I go, oh my word, there's cherries behind

  570. me, there's water in front of me, I'm gone. God

  571. made a way. The waters themselves, they tremble.

  572. The sky commands it all. It's as though Asaph

  573. was saying, of course he can care for me. When

  574. I'm laying in bed and I'm just thinking about

  575. how awful things have been and where God seems

  576. so absent. I mean, He's great. He's holy. He's

  577. caring. And He can part the Red Sea. I can trust

  578. Him. Now, of course, if this is the great redemption

  579. story of the Old Testament, which it is, which

  580. is why the Old Testament authors always are going

  581. back to the Exodus story because it's the great

  582. story of salvation. God giving his people freedom

  583. and new life when they were once slaves. But

  584. now we get to look back upon the cross of Christ.

  585. I mean, in our deep places, when we are actually

  586. crying out like Jesus does on the cross, my God,

  587. my God, why have you forsaken me? We get to think,

  588. we get to remember that there is nothing that

  589. can separate us from the love of God. And if

  590. God is for us, who can be against us? And why

  591. can we say that even in those nights? Because

  592. he who did not spare his own son, how much more

  593. will he not give us all things? If God himself

  594. takes on flesh for you, if he goes to the cross

  595. and conquers Satan's sin and death for you, go

  596. to him. in the dark night of despair. Cry out

  597. to Him. Share with Him your deepest, darkest

  598. places, your doubts that overwhelm you. And then

  599. remember that His ways aren't your ways, that

  600. He is able, that He's caring, and all of that

  601. is seen most fully at the cross. All of it. That's

  602. where you see the love of God. That's where you

  603. see his character most known. That's where his

  604. mighty acts are revealed in their gratefulness.

  605. And that's where he shows us that he loves us.

  606. We are often wondering about that. That's where

  607. we see it. The cross. Let me pray. Lord, thank

  608. you for the Psalms. These words that we get to

  609. sing to you, to pray to you. God, we're so grateful

  610. that the Psalms don't shy away from places where

  611. we're just questioning everything. We're questioning

  612. what you're doing, your character, all this.

  613. That you invite us to live honestly before you,

  614. to live openly before you. God, that doesn't

  615. offend you at all. God, I pray that we'd hear

  616. that. But Lord, I prayed this morning also that

  617. we would hear that the turning point for Asaph.

  618. And the turning point for us is to look to Jesus,

  619. to look at the cross and the resurrection, the

  620. empty tomb, to look at the love that you have

  621. for us, that you won't even spare your own son,

  622. but you'd give him up for us. God, please, Lord,

  623. I pray that we would be a people who fix our

  624. eyes upon Jesus. God, we are so prone. to navel

  625. gazing. We are so prone to just looking at ourselves

  626. and our state, our place in this world. I pray

  627. that you'd lift up our eyes, please, to the cross,

  628. that we would fix our eyes upon Jesus and that

  629. you'd meet us in that movement, that you would

  630. meet us there and that you'd lift us out of these

  631. deep dark Places that we so often find ourselves

  632. in Lord. Thank you for your word Thank you for

  633. these words Thank you for the word made flesh.

  634. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen Thank

  635. you for listening to second city sermons podcast

  636. We hope this sermon has encouraged you to worship

  637. God and to celebrate the gospel of Jesus Please

  638. consider subscribing to this podcast and joining

  639. us in person each Sunday at 10 a .m You can find

  640. us online at secondcitychurch .org and on Instagram,

  641. Facebook, and YouTube. Thanks again for listening.

  642. God bless.