Hasten to Me, O Lord

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

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Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this

sermon. God bless. Let me pray again. Lord God

we thank you again for your word Lord. We thank

you for the beauty of it and the depth of it

and How it speaks to so many different experiences

of our lives, but we thank you especially for

the Psalms this This insight into our hearts

I think of the great John Calvin saying that

it spans the whole gamut of emotions that all

of them can be found here in this this song book

that we have in your word. Oh God, I pray that

as we turn to it this morning, that we would

see its beauty, but more than that, your beauty.

Pray in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so when Melissa

and I first went out on a date, I'm not going

to tell you all about it. It's so good. You all

have heard stories, I'm sure. Hopefully. It's

worth telling for another day. When we first

went on a date, she told her parents that she

went on a date with Peter Rowan. This guy, Peter

Rowan. So as wise parents do, they got on the

computer and googled, who is this Peter Rowan?

And we were living in Richmond at the time, so

they googled Peter Rowan, Richmond, or something

like that. His picture popped up Born in 1942

Recently inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of

Fame You know of famed Actually, he does a lot

of Hawaiian folk too. I hope you all know who

Peter Rowan is He's one of the greatest bluegrass

guitar players, and he's not me Some of you may

know this, there's a little boy whose picture

is on the front of two of U2's first albums,

actually the first and the third album. The first

album is the album Boy, and the third album of

U2 was the album War. Interestingly, that boy

actually made a, there was an EP that came out

before their first album. in 1979 and he was

also on the front cover of that. That little

boy's brother was good friends with Bono. That

little boy's brother fronted a punk band out

of Dublin called the Virgin Prunes. And that

little boy and his brother were neighbors with

Bono growing up. And so they asked this six -year

-old little boy, can we take your picture for

our album? And according to the article that

I read, he was like, I didn't even really know

what was going on. It was fine with me. And now

he's famous. That little boy's name is Peter

Rowan. And I have been asked if I was bound for

musical fame. You all know the answer already.

The answer's no. The interesting thing, as I

think about that story with Melissa's parents,

is that confusion around rather simple things

can be sort of easy, and yet there's also a clarity.

There can be a simplicity and a clarity to things.

One of the greatest, one of my favorite songs

by U2, and I think actually it may be Chris Gazy's

favorite song, he's not here this morning so

I can't hear or see a nod from him, but we've

talked about this before, is U2's song 40, which

is on that third album, War, where Peter Rowan

is on the front cover with the little helmet.

Maybe you know it, it's actually from Psalm 40,

it's the first three verses of Psalm 40. I waited

patiently for the Lord, he inclined and heard

my cry. He lifted me up out of the pit, out of

the miry clay. I will sing, right, sing a new

song. And it keeps going. I will sing, sing a

new song. How long to sing this song. And it

keeps going. It's a beautiful song, recounting

those first few verses of Psalm 40. And it says

this again and again throughout the song. I will

sing, sing a new song. How long. And in some

ways I want to say that this refrain there is

basic to the idea of Christian faith. That God

meets us in our waiting, hasten oh Lord, don't

tarry. He saves us in our calling out to him

and he gives us new life and a new song. He puts

a new song on our lips and our mouths. You could

also say this is a fundamental human cry, and

actually this is what I'd like to suggest to

you, if you're not a Christian this morning,

that this sort of Christian cry of save us O

Lord is actually a fundamental human cry. How

long will life be like this? Would something

please change? How long? Please put a new song

in my mouth. It's a fundamental human cry, it's

a fundamental religious cry. It's part of the

way. sort of human existence, religious existence.

I know, because I've existed in the church all

my life, that there are different thoughts and

feelings about songs that repeat themselves a

lot. I don't remember when I first heard this

phrase, but it's not gonna be lost on any of

you, that there are songs that you can... term,

and this is most often used dismissively, unfortunately,

as 7 -11 songs. Y 'all know this? These songs

have seven words and you sing them 11 times.

They're 7 -11 songs. But here's what I want to

tell you also is that there's something deeply,

deeply powerful about these songs that we sing

again and again. They shape us and they give

expression to what's happening deep within us.

You know, I will sing, sing a new song. How long

to sing this song? How long? That repetitiveness

in a way and that repeating that same idea is

getting at something. Why, you know, this is

so fundamental to our hearts cry and our human

desires. So today we're in Psalm 70. And Psalm

70 is nearly an exact quote from Psalm 40 verses

Psalms 40:13–17

13 to 17. It's almost exact. Both are of David.

And it's sort of as though David is looking at

Psalm 40 and he's thinking that's a great song.

And you know what? This part right here needs

to be sung by itself again and again. He's saying,

sing it again. Don't rush past this. Don't speed

through it. Let it sink in. Sing it again. It's

as though David's actually hearing you two sing.

How long to sing this song? And he says, well,

a little bit longer. Keep going. So what's this

song that's in Psalm 70 that's a repetition of

the last verses of Psalm 40? What I wanna suggest

to you is in some ways that this song is just

this very fundamental human cry for help. And

it's saying that this fundamental human cry that

we all have for the world to be right, for us

to be helped is only met in the Lord. Okay, so

the human cry for help. Look with me there at

the first few verses. Make haste, O God, to deliver

me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be

put to shame and confusion who seek my life.

Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor

who delight in my hurt. Let them turn back because

of their shame who say, aha, aha. What I'm suggesting

is that this is a very fundamental idea, not

necessarily that you're crying out to the true

God who brings true salvation, but there's a

fundamental thing that says, help. The world's

not right, help. Near the beginning of most of

the great traditions of Christian prayer, right

at the beginning of morning prayer, the minister

leads the people with what I led you this morning.

Oh Lord, open our lips. And the people say, yeah,

yeah, a few of you got it. I took you off guard.

You can turn with me to the beginning now. Let's

just do it again together quickly. Oh Lord, open

our lips. That is from Psalm 51. Those two lines

are from Psalm 51. And then the next part is

this. Oh God, make speed to save us. Yeah, that

is from Psalm 40 and Psalm 70 fundamental beginning

Christian prayers Said again and again day in

day out hour out hour in hour out and I want

to suggest to you that was in the wisdom of the

great prayer tradition because this is a Fundamental

human cry something that is on our lips constantly

a refrain that keeps coming up Most of our days

and hours and minutes most of our energy is actually

spent in the cry for deliverance And that's not

I don't think that's hard to think about why

that's the case It's not hard to kind of look

out in the world and say things are not right

Things are not as they should be Elise and I

and the kids We're talking with a woman this

week who had worked downtown for years at Nocturnal

as a bartender and she was telling us why she

left and how much she wanted to leave though

she had worked there for years. She told us some

crazy stories about what had been happening out

on Second Street between two and five in the

morning. Some sad stories and some honestly sort

of scary stories. But here's the thing, we know

that it's not just late night, right? Not just

late at night, but we look out at the world and

we say the world is not right. God, deliver us.

Make things right. When we hear verse two, let

them be put to shame and confusion who seek my

life. We might think of things like downtown

at two a .m., second street at two a .m. Or we

might think of, I don't know, politicians that

we can't stand, or you know, you have kind of

your vague others. But often I think we think

of actually closer relationships. We can actually

think often of how sometimes marriages fall apart

because it seems as though the spouse is the

one who's seeking your life, engaging with the

other as though they are the enemy. to be put

in their place. The other is out for their harm.

Sometimes they're using life and using you for

their own ends. And you just can't live in that

kind of space. That's true often, sadly. Another

thing that is true is that spouses sometimes

often engage with one another as though they're

supposed to be the savior. They're there to make

the money, to provide for children, to provide

someone with children, to meet all of the emotional

needs. And when they don't, right? When they

don't, let them be put to shame and confusion.

It seems like they're seeking my life, or they're

not giving me the life that I want. The world

is simply not quite right. We often look to one

another as though others are out to seek our

life or our harm. or they're supposed to be our

saviors and when they're not we act as though

we are out to get them. Maybe it's not marriage

relationships that come to your mind. Maybe it's

your neighbor relationship. It's not easy to

share a wall with others. We have some of those

relationships. It's also not always easy to share

a lawn that abuts with another or just a property

line. My parents grew up on three and a half

acres and the cops were called on us a lot Probably

because our neighbor was schizophrenic and claiming

that we were naked in bed or naked out on her

front porch when we were asleep In bed and weird

stuff like that, but you know that's what I'm

saying like there's just like what what's happening

the world's not right Now you want to hear that

story. It's for another time You know, maybe

it's the boss who somehow and you genuinely don't

know how you got put on their bad list. It's

just not that hard to look out in the world and

say like, this is not how it's supposed to be.

God, save, make haste, come to our aid. I think

about this next line, okay, verse three here.

Well, actually, the second half of verse two.

Okay, let them be turned back and brought to

dishonor, who delight in my hurt. Delight in

my hurt. Last week we were looking at Psalm 69

and we talked about how the hurt actually in

Psalm 69 seems to be coming from those with inside

the community of faith. It's like those who are

in church with David. There is a lot of hurt

that happens in the Christian church. Some of

it's really, really serious hurt. Physical abuse

and sexual abuse. Spiritual abuse seems to run

rampant. There's too much harm in the church,

that's for certain. I recently learned of a pastor

that I know, a friend of mine, somebody I've

traveled with. who was deposed because he embezzled

a lot of money from his church. It's just common.

It's painful. And what does that do to the person

in the pew, right? Horrendous things for one's

faith. Hurt should never be diminished. There's

crazy stories of hurt. But you know, there's

those extreme examples. Then there's just like

the normal kind of thing that happens in a lot

of churches where people stop talking to each

other and stop really engaging with one another

because they parent differently. Or you send

your kid to that school. You send them to a Christian

school. You send them to a public school. You

homeschool your kids. And there's just this distance

that's created who delight and hurt. They bring

shame on others. People that delight in their

own gain, the misfortune of others, maybe all

the delight and gain that they receive is just

simply parental superiority. That's so common.

Parental superiority is just unbelievably rampant.

It's common in the church. These are a lot of

things that David is crying out against in Psalm

69. But then, last week we considered a little

while, for a little bit, the end of David's complaint

and his wish of misfortune on the others who

were doing these things to him. And I got a few

questions about this last week, so I sorta wanna

talk about it a little bit in this sermon, and

I also think it kinda makes some sense here in

Psalm 70. And that's this, what do we make of

David writing things like this? Let them be blotted

out of the Book of the Living. And I know I got

a number of comments saying, people saying, did

you use a swear word last week in your sermon?

I did, but if you listen, it was used appropriately.

I hope you didn't have to have some hard conversations

with your children about that, you might have.

Anyway, let them be blotted out of the living,

as though, dismiss them, do away with them entirely,

and in terms of their salvation. And then also

we know in 2 Peter chapter three that we say

the Lord does not desire that any should perish.

So what do we do? And I think we can say a few

very important things, and I wanna say these

things here, okay? I think we can say some important

things about this. The first thing that I want

you to hear is that the Lord, this is one of

the things that we learn in the Psalms. The Lord

wants your unvarnished self. Okay? God wants

you raw. Meaning he doesn't want you to hold

back anything from him. He wants you to come

to Him even in your deepest indignation, even

in your deepest places of rage. And in His perfect

love, He will cast out fear. Perfect love that

casts out fear invites you to be present in who

you are completely. And that's part of what the

Psalms are telling us. Bring all of you to Me.

Even the places of your deep rage. Come and share

to Me that experience. Don't hide anything. But

we can also say, and this is part of what I was

saying a little bit last week, but I wanna say

this again this week, because I think it does

tie in a little bit here. While God wants us

raw, and why he wants our unvarnished selves,

he does not want to leave us that way. You get

that? He doesn't want you to sit in that kind

of anger that says to another, you should have

your name removed from the book of life. Let

them be blotted out of the book of the living.

And partly why he doesn't want to leave us that

way is because it's not good for us. It's not

good for us if we dwell in that place. Proverbs

11, 17 says this, a man who is kind benefits

himself, but a cruel man hurts himself. It's

like Thomas Chalmers saying, unforgiveness is

the poison you drink, hoping another will die.

Proverbs 25, 28 says, a man without self -control

is like a city broken into and left without walls.

That doesn't want to leave us in those places.

And I bring all this up because here's the thing.

Sometimes it's easy to say the world is not right.

and look at the havoc that comes about because

of it. And you look at the big picture and you

look out there and you say, ah, second street

at 2 a .m. Or you look at sort of just your spouse

or you look at the other people around. And one

of the things that the Bible says very clearly

is that often you have to actually say, Lord,

save me from myself. God wants you, all of you,

real and raw, you. But often we're the ones that

are saying, aha, aha, to our own detriment, to

our own harm. So what do we do with all of this

need for saving? Well, of course I'm gonna say

that the Christian life says, go to the Lord.

Cry out to him. And when you do so, you will

say, oh, great is our God. But I suggested that

we often, you know, we look out in the world

and we see what's wrong and we see what's wrong

in our spouses and we see what's wrong with our

neighbors. And sometimes we see what's wrong

with ourselves. And what we're doing is we're

seeing this need for something to change, for

salvation to come. And what I wanna suggest to

you is that that's just a human experience. That's

not a Christian experience. That's not unique

to somebody that says Jesus is Lord and great

is God. Everybody actually has that experience.

Everybody has the experience of saying something

needs to change. And sometimes they say, I need

to change. The world is not right. And sometimes

when we see that, when we know our need for salvation

and our need for God to be present, to do something,

Sometimes we move to places that we should move

to, human relationships that can bring a degree

of healing. That's true. Human relationships

can be amazingly healing and helpful. God made

us for community, that's true. Sometimes though

that healing and that help grow in us to the

temptation to think that we can kind of figure

it out. We can do it just each other. Sometimes

Sometimes we go to salvation towards others and

we end up looking just for their own approval.

Think of the girl in middle school who's just

desiring that somebody else say, hey, you look

good today. Or other classmates, primarily. That

would be their salvation for the day. And that

salvation is fleeting. Do they think I'm all

right? The nagging communal question. We look

to our children to validate our adult selves,

don't we, parents? With words like this inside,

at least. I'm a good enough parent that my kids

still talk to me. And those words sort of bring

this sense of maybe something at least somewhat

is right. But our human relationships can't be

our saviors. So what we often do is we seek control,

don't we? We do this either through just organizing

everything, making sure everybody says the right

thing is on time and external control. Oftentimes

we do this by simply being stingy and not giving

away too much. Stingy with our emotions and our

time and our energy. We've been hurt too much.

So if you know Lewis saying, what you do often

is you put yourself in a casket and what happens

is you become hardened. in that kind of scenario,

which adds only to the brokenness and the need

for salvation. Sometimes we seek control by power,

right? Salvation by legislation. Man, that is

a popular one. And I don't care what side of

the aisle you are on, you are tempted to think

that that is what will bring your salvation.

What often we do with our need to be saved where

we often go with this need to be saved is actually

sort of throwing up our hands and Saying I can't

do anything and I don't know who can do anything

and so what I just need to do is just be sedated

We can't take all that is wrong in the world

we can't bear it we can't sort of deal with it

we don't know what to do with it and so like

Dave Matthews sings in the song, Too Much. And

yes, I did have this thought as I was listening

to him this week. I eat too much. I drink too

much. I want too much. Too much. And we just

do it again and again and again. And of course,

we can admit that shopping therapy gives us a

little boost, a little bit, right? I felt good.

Ah, that food met some of my need. but often

those become our sort of sedatives or distractions,

things that numb us from the incessant need for

salvation from all that is wrong in the world.

I want to say again that this Psalm is a fitting

refrain for the church. It makes sense that the

beginning of this Psalm is that beginning prayer

of Christian communal prayer, right? Oh Lord,

make speed to save us. Lord, hasten to us. Because

what Christians say is that it's true, we're

tempted to go in all these other directions,

and we do this so often too, right? It's partly

why we have times like confession. What do we

do with our sin, with the sin of others, with

the massive need of salvation? Well, we Christians

do this thing. We try to control other people.

We try to use other people. Maybe their affirmation,

their words can make us feel better about the

world and ourselves. Maybe we can just, we sedate.

And yet we need to say again and again, the Lord

alone is our salvation. He alone comes to us

properly in our aid or in our need and comes

to our aid. So John Cassian, maybe you read through

the meditation quote, but I'm gonna read parts

of it. He's writing in the early fifth century

and he says, meditate constantly on this verse.

By the way, this verse is Psalm 70 verse one.

Make haste to God to deliver me. Oh Lord, make

haste to help me. Meditate constantly on that

verse in your heart. You should not stop repeating

it when you're doing any kind of work or performing

some service or on a journey. Meditate on it

while sleeping and eating and attending to the

least needs of nature. This is all the time.

because the temptation of our hearts is to look

elsewhere for salvation and it cannot be found

anywhere else. He says this, it contains an invocation

of God against every danger. It contains humble

and pious confession that we cannot do. It contains

the watchfulness of anxiety and continual fear.

It contains the thought of one's own weakness,

confidence in the answer. and the assurance of

a present and ever ready help. What I'm suggesting

to you is this psalm that David in his great

wisdom being led by the Holy Spirit took out

of this other psalm in a way and said we need

to sing it again is the psalm, the song, the

cry of life. God save me. God help me. And the

response is that God does. He comes to us in

our need. He always meets this cry. In his perfect

timing, you think of Mary and Martha, if only

you were here, Lord, brother went to die. God

comes to us always in our need in his timing.

Friends, here is the song, the song of our lives,

this cry for salvation. I suggested that kind

of all religions in some ways are based on this

idea, the world is not right, something needs

to be done about it. And that's because this

is simply a human response to wrongdoing in the

world, a human response to our own wrongdoing,

the ways that we've been sinned against. This

is a human thing, a cry for salvation. The cry

for salvation will not go away. And that's of

course why we see it all over the world still

today. Some people have written rather recently

about the diminishment of religious practices

in the United States has actually been, it's

corresponded to the increase of engaging with

politics as your religion. And so the religious

fervor actually just transfers to political fervor

because it's a human thing. We long for salvation,

for the world to be put to right. The heart that

seeks salvation is not changing. This is also

why David Foster Wallace says, there is no such

thing as atheism. There's no such thing as not

worshiping. But for Christians, we have the same

cry as everybody else, but it's directed God

word. It's directed towards the true and the

living God who's revealed himself in Jesus Christ.

The Christian song is a cry for help. that is

met with the cross and the resurrection of Christ

Jesus. What we have in Christ is that God answers

this prayer, this deep human longing with his

very self. And this is unique. Other places that

you go to for salvation, they'll eat you alive.

Wallace says, the Apostle Wallace says, they

eat you alive. But the Christian God says, I

will give you life where there was once death.

When other forms of salvation say, you know,

give me this, give me this, give me this, Christianity

says, I'm gonna give you up myself completely.

This Psalm is the refrain of the Christian life.

Here's the interesting thing. that in a way,

this song is gonna be sung again and again and

again, not as the present need for help, but

the fact that God has helped. In the new heavens

and the new earth, in the little glimpse that

we have in Revelation, we have this song being

sung by the multitudes of heaven saying, worthy

is the lamb who was slain. Worthy is the lamb

who was slain. Which is say, worthy is the God

who heard our cries for help and gave his life.

that we might have life. Let me circle back for

a minute, then I'll close to Peter Rowan, not

me. The one whose name is spelt wrong, R -O -W

-E -N, which is the one that's on the U2 albums.

So I was reading about him this week, and he's

a photographer. He was six years old. He was

asked to be on the front of these covers and

he says I don't really even remember it that

much You know, it's just like my brother's buddy

who's starting a band and nobody knew about you

two anyway And you know, we were just I was just

taking pictures, but he said that that beginning

thing Actually, this is the interesting. He's

he he still takes pictures for bands One of his

main things is being a photographer for musicians

But here's here's here's the interesting thing.

I want to leave you with this that thing which

started the his life in a way early on just a

six -year -old is still in a way defining him

it's still orienting his life and friends that

is this song this is the beginning of the christian

life lord help me and god says amen i'll help

you that's what this psalm is lord i need you

make haste to help me god's this song saying

god's going to come to you this is the beginning

of the christian life This is the way of the

Christian life. This is the end of the Christian

life. Oh Lord, make haste to help me. And God

comes. Let me pray. Lord, thank you for the Psalms.

Thank you for Psalm 70. Lord, thank you that

in your perfect providence through the working

of your spirit, David took those other verses

and said, give your attention to this. God, thank

you for the refrains of Christian singing. Thank

you for the repetition of you two's song, How

Long, How Long, How Long, that helps us to ache

a little bit more because we've sung it again.

And God thank you that in this song is our life

and how you meet us in our need in our Lord Jesus

Christ. So in his name we pray, amen. Thank you

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