Text: Psalm 27:1-14, Title: Mixed Emotions, Date/Place: NRBC, 11/14/10, AM
A. Opening illustration: China 1984, Brother Yun had just been beaten, electrocuted, tortured, kicked, frozen, starved, and transported to the second prison of his first stent in the big house, and as he prepared for another interrogation and torture, he meditated on this psalm, so that he wouldn’t become a Judas! Mar 9:24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"
B. Background to passage: all we know is that this is a psalm of David, no details about time and place or circumstances provided. But we do know that David experienced plenty of attack from his enemies. And so he does two things in this psalm as he cries out to the Lord.
C. Main thought: confidence and desperation intermingle beautifully in your prayers and walk with God
A. Steele-belted Confidence (v. 1-6)
1. David here, though under attack from enemies, says that God is his light and salvation (deliverance). And knowing this truth, he declares that there is no one to fear if God is on your side. Don’t know if he is reminding himself, his men, his family, or proclaiming/rejoicing in this truth. He says that because of the Lord, all his enemies have failed. Even if an army is surrounding him, his confidence was in God. He let this knowledge guide and guard his heart. And not only knowledge that brings confidence, but presence. David wanted to be where God was. The one thing that he said he wanted. He wanted to be in the temple, hidden close to Him in worship, enraptured by the beauty of the God of Israel. Notice the “for” in the first of v. 25. He knew that in God’s presence, he would stand on the rock regardless of the outcome. He wanted to feel the Spirit of God as he sang and offered sacrifices. With God he was head and shoulders…
2. Ps 18:10, 46:1, 56:2-4, 118:6, Rom 8:31, Jer 20:11, 2 Kings 6:17,
3. Illustration: this is the confidence that Luther faced the diet of Worms with, that Judson faced the rat infested prison in Burma, that John Huss faced burning at the stake after he dared to translated the word of God into the common language, that same confidence that has gotten millions of believers through cancer, death, divorce, sickness, starvation, betrayal, injustice, prejudice, oppression, murder, child molestation, the gallows, the drowning tank, the guillotine, etc. “I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath--these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely--these are my native air” “He’s still in the fire, and he’s walking in the flames…” Satan don’t start your party, don’t start your dance, laugh all you want to… Brainerd’s diary, p. 50,
4. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever! He is the one who makes the mountains melt like wax before His face. He is the one who no one can frustrate or restrain His hand. He is the one that holds the heart of kings (and every other individual) in His hand. We must let our theology permeate our hearts, and boldly, confidently proclaim truth over our fears, doubts, anxieties, worries, depressions, pains, problems, circumstances. You may have to preach to yourself, remind yourself, read it, memorize it, speak it, pray it, hear it, read it. You may have to resist the tempter, flee from him, bring your mind and heart into submission, taking thoughts captive. When you are hurting, if you want to recharge your batteries with fresh confidence in Him, WORSHIP GOD! He has promised to meet with his people, so don’t run from the church, but to her. Surround yourself with other people of faith and feed from God in them.
B. Heart-felt Desperation (v. 7-12)
1. So David shifts gears a little, and at the same time that he is declaring his confidence in the Lord, he pleads with God to do what he had already said he knew God would do. (Just a note by the way about prayer: God works according to His character, and we pray for Him to work according to His character, means of grace.) Don’t think about it as suddenly being overcome with doubt or fear, but simply the two things existing together at the same time. David, while confident an ever-present, fearless, sovereign God, feels absolutely dependent upon Him everything. So he makes 10 petitions of God in these verses, most of them dealing with the presence of God being with him. Because if God (the God described above) is there with him, he has nothing to fear. David’s confidence and dependence is not on self, power, riches, wisdom, other people, but in God alone.
2. 2 Cor 12:7, Psalm 73:25-26, 63:1-3,
3. Illustration: David Brainerd is flying as high as he has ever been with God on one particular morning, and later than evening he is overwhelmed with his sinfulness and feels like God could be no where near him. Jim Cymbala began at the Brooklyn Tabernacle as an ill-equipped, under-educated, time-strapped preacher who led a second congregation in New Jersey. The Brooklyn church had no money to pay him, a ramshackle building, and barely enough attendance to bother with weekly meetings. Today, the Tabernacle hosts around 6,000 spirit-filled worshipers. The difference came when Jim, in a moment of desperation, set aside his planned message and called the church to pray. The weekly prayer meeting, not the Sunday worship, became the focal point of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Jim’s belief that "God can’t resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need him"
4. There is a balance to be achieved between confident declarations of faith and declarations of our own inabilities and dependence on Him. But we need both. Many times we are susceptible to extreme lows after mountaintop experiences with God. This is to keep us humble. So if you are in a spot that you can’t get yourself out of, that all avenues are closed, that the walls are falling in, and you are forced to depend wholly upon God because there are not other options; you are in good place. God works much to get us to the point that we call out to Him desperately. The rest of us just need to realize it before we have to go into one of those situations. Because the reality is that we are absolutely dependent on Him. And whether we realize it or not, we will be most satisfied and most rewarded when we are totally reliant on Him.
C. Patiently-enduring Hope (v. 13-14)
1. After His plea for God’s presence to satisfy and deliver him, David expressed his belief that he WILL see the goodness of the Lord upon his life soon. He has believed that God can deliver, he has called on God to deliver, and now believes that God WILL deliver. Hope is the emotional component of faith, and therefore David hopes (not wishes, but trusts/believes/expects) God to move. And he is determined to wait until He does.
2. Jer 1:19, Matt 14:31, 13:58, Ps 42:11, 1 Pet 1:13, 21, Heb 10:23, 6:19, Philip 1:19-21, Rom 8:24-25,
3. Illustration: Gladys Aylward, missionary to China more than 50 years ago, was forced to flee when the Japanese invaded Yangcheng. But she couldn’t leave her work behind. With only one assistant, she led a hundred-plus orphans over the mountains toward Free China. During Glaydy’s harrowing journey out of war-torn Yangcheng - she grappled with despair as never before. After passing a sleepless night, she faced the morning with no hope of reaching safety. A thirteen-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. "But I am not Moses," Gladys cried in desperation. "Of course you aren’t," the girl said, "but Jehovah is still God!"
4. Sometimes we pray, knowing that God can do something, but not really thinking that He will do it. Most of the time we never step out of the boat, but just wait on him to come, watching the miracle from a safe viewpoint. Endurance and patience is something that we normally lack. We want God to fix it now. Most of us do not have a well-developed, biblical view of suffering. We do everything to avoid suffering at all costs, and when it does come, we spend all our time and effort to get out of it. We never rest in Christ patiently while the storm rages. God has a purpose for suffering in your life. And sometimes we must endure for a long time before we see deliverance, and that deliverance may look a little different than we prayed for. Death maybe our deliverance. Therefore we refuse to complain, we rejoice; we refuse to stay down, we get up; we refuse to despise hardship, but we receive it. God is wholly in charge of whatever suffering you are going through right now. And He will give you grace to endure and believe in His deliverance. Let me encourage you to keep a steady course of determined faith through lengthy trials.
A. Closing illustration:
B. Recap
C. Rom 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
