Introduction:
Some people hate the Psalms, but I love them. Bring out some Psalms around Thanksgiving
WBTU:
This is an encouraging section in Psalm 36:5-9. It talks about the wonderful attributes of God. God’s love reaches to the heavens. How priceless is God’s unfailing love. God’s faithfulness reaches to the skies. God’s righteousness is like the mighty mountains.
In Vs. 7 “Men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.”
Luke 13:34- O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
There was a great fire and a mother hen was killed in the flames. When they moved the hen they found her chicks under her wings and the chicks were alive and well.
When we made Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord, in a sense we went under His wings to be protected from evil, from harm, from sin, from hell, from death, and from the devil.
Verses 7 to 9 are in the present tense. These are things to be enjoyed now. In the future in heaven for sure but also now. The Psalmist is not speaking of future blessedness, to be realized in some far off day to come, but of what is possible in this life.
Thesis: Under Jesus’ wings, there is satisfaction, sweetness, supply, and sight.
For instances:
Satisfaction (vs. 8- They feast on the abundance of your house)
Many of us will be doing something similar on Thanksgiving. We will eat and be satisfied.
More than providing food, God satisfies our every desire with the fatness of His house.
Proverbs 30:15- 16 says “There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, 'Enough!': the grave, the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says, 'Enough!” Give me some liberty here and we might add a 5th and that is human beings. They are never satisfied no matter how much they have. They are as thirsty for satisfaction as the desert sands but no matter how much is poured upon them, they can’t get no satisfaction. They are like fire than never consumes enough.
We want to be satisfied. We don’t like to have wants, needs, and desires unfulfilled. We have a desire satisfied in one area and we realize that we are unsatisfied in another. Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
an answer for our dissatisfaction. It is Jesus Christ. John 6:35 (Jesus) I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
Christ will satisfy all my longings and desires with His own great abundance or fatness. He does it in his own time but these things put within us will not go unfulfilled.
Fill my cup, Lord, I lift it up, Lord. Come and quench this thirsting of my soul. Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more; Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.
Psalm 23:1- The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
Isaiah 55:2- Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Some day He will satisfy me if I stay under His wings. Yes, in heaven but also today. Augustine said- "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, O Lord"
Sweetness (vs. 8- You give them drink from your river of delights)
This word delights (sweets, dessert) is translated as pleasures in the King James. In the hymn He Hideth My Soul- the first verse says, “He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock, Where rivers of pleasure I see."
Pleasure, delight, sweets, is not the way Christianity is usually described. It is described by some as a restrictive life. Let’s think of it as a group of children who are playing on top of a monadnock (Pilot Mountain) and around the point where the rock drops off there is a large fence. While the fence is there, the children play and run because they know that they are safe. The fence will keep them in the boundaries where it is safe. Take the fence away and the children do not run and play because they know that if they get carried away and don’t pay attention, they will fall off of the monadnock to their deaths.
Same way it is with us. While we are under Jesus’ wings, we are safe. When we leave His presence and come out from underneath His wings, we are unprotected.
Now to be honest Christian does have some sadness about it. There is the consciousness of our sin. There is also the battle with temptation. There is the awareness of the fallen state of man. This is how this Psalm opens with a description of the wicked (vs. 1-4).
The Christian life is a life of sweetness and joy. 1 Thessalonians 5:16- Be joyful always.
How can this be? Let’s think of it this way. Why do people use alcohol and drugs? Variety of reasons offered but one that sticks with me is that they are trying to drown their pain and sorrow. They want to be comfortably numb and not worry about their problems for a time. Cheers theme song- Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot Wouldn't you like to get away?
These people are miserable. They do ungodly things to escape their pain and have some fun. If these earthly “pleasures” are taken away or unavailable, they are miserable because that is how they really are. Proverbs 14:13- Even in laughter the heart may ache.
H. Christianity deals not with the symptoms but with the root causes of our pain and misery. Go to many counselors and they will give you drugs to deal with our pain. Not saying drugs are not necessary from time to time, but we need to deal with the root cause and that is sin.
Better to be sorrowful but rejoicing in our hearts, than to be glad on the surface but have a continual sorrow and unrest gnawing at our hearts.
I. John 15:11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Supply (vs. 9- For with you is the fountain of life)
We are all bound to God because he gives us life. He put his breath in us and we live. He takes his breath away and we return to Him.
This talks about more than physical life. Jesus said in John 10:10- I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
There are people walking around that do not have true life. These people are full of energy when it comes to worldly things, but they are dead to spiritual things.
Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Without water, life ends. Without the living water of Christ, spiritual life ends. The cool water of Christ is available to all.
Revelation 22:17- Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
Take a drink before it is too late! Think about that time so thirsty, how refreshing to drink.
Drinking at the springs of living water, Happy now am I, My soul they satisfy; Drinking at the springs of living water, O wonderful and bountiful supply. It is a never ending fountain of life.
Sight (vs. 9- In your light we see light)
God made all light and God is light; in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).
Without light we cannot see. Many animals loose their sight when in constant darkness.
Sunlight brings warmth and gives us food. Light is used a lot in Scripture. Light symbolizes God. Darkness symbolizes the devil and evil.
Under His wings we see light (unlike under a hens wings).
Where other eyes see only darkness, we see the King in His beauty. When others just see the physical world, we see so much more. We see the spiritual realities all around us.
2 Kings 6:17- And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
The light that we receive gives us guidance much like the light from the star with the Magi. Matthew 2:9- they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.
John 8:12- When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
May we be a person who searches out the light (the Bible) and through that may our eyes be opened. Mark 8:23-25: Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
Once I was blind but now I can see, the Light of the World is Jesus.
Conclusion and invitation:
In heaven, we will be satisfied at the wedding supper of the Lamb.
In heaven, all will be sweetness, all will be good, rivers of pleasure.
In heaven, all will be able to drink from the river of life and eat from the tree of life.
In heaven, all will be light, no darkness at all.
