I praise God for His blessing us beyond measure. We as a church are very blessed and enjoy a peace and calm that many churches never experience. Last night was a wonderful experience where we were blessed by a great group of young people and young adults at our Valentine Banquet.
Tonight’s message is one I would liken to a wellness visit or check-up at the doctor’s office. There are times when we must receive a check-up even though we are not experiencing any symptoms because it is the very fact of our feeling well that may lull us into complacency while a serious illness may lurk just below the surface.
King David is just such an example of a person who began to trust in his own goodness and strength and success and began to live life as if he was in control. The deliverance of which David speaks in Psalm 30 is occasioned by God’s judgment of David being stayed after he had sinned by numbering the people and trusting in the arm of man. (1 Chronicles 21:1-17)
Few of us can bear unmingled prosperity. Sooner or later we are tempted to believe we are the cause of the victory or the provider of the peace, when in fact, God is the one who is in control.
This Psalm of praise is looking forward to the temple being built. God didn’t allow David to build the temple but David is still preparing for the building so Solomon would have something to work with. As we look at this Psalm we find the need for humility and trust in the midst of victory and prosperity.
I. Our God Specializes in Deliverance (1-3)
A. David feared most the judgment of man. (1)
1. Could the world find any fault in you?
a. Our speech? – negative, harsh, gossip… (Ill.) “But the tongue is as volatile as it is vital. It was Washington Irving who first said, ‘A sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.’ It was James, the half brother of Jesus, who first warned: The tongue is a fire…a restless evil and full of deadly poison (James 3:6,8). Verbal cyanide. A lethal, relentless flaming missile which assaults with hellish power, blistering and destroying at will. And yet it doesn’t look anything like the brutal beast it is. Neatly hidden behind ivory palace gates, its movements are an intriguing study of coordination. It can curl itself either into a cheery whistle or manipulate a lazy, afternoon yawn. With no difficulty it can flick a husk of popcorn from between two jaw teeth or hold a thermometer just so. And it is tricky! It can help you enjoy the flavor of a stick of peppermint as it switches from side to side without once getting nipped. Moments later is can follow the directions of a trumpeter, allowing him to play ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ without a single miscue. But watch out! Let your thumb get smashed with a hammer or your toe get clobbered on a chair and that slippery creature in your mouth will suddenly play the flip side of its nature. (Charles Swindoll, Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life)
b. Our purity?
c. Our character?
B. God stayed His judgment because David repented. (2)
C. God is a merciful God. (3)
1. He could have taken David’s life.
II. If We Repent, God Will Turn Our Weeping into Joy. (4-5)
A. God expects our songs of praise. (4)
1. Only the saints are worthy to praise God.
2. We should not have to be begged to sing unto the Lord.
3. Our songs should be songs of thanks also.
B. God’s chastisement is sure, but also short, if we repent. (5)
1. Our repentance must be real. (Ill.) Daniel L. Crocker, 39, turned himself in. As a Christian, he said, it was the right thing to do. Mr. Crocker lived with his wife of 11 years, Nicolette, 36, and their two children in a quiet community near Dulles Airport in Virginia. He was a warehouse manager and his wife was a stay-at-home mom, home schooling Isaac, 9, and Analiese, 8. They had come to the area from California seven years earlier. They were active in Fairfax Assembly of God church. But Mr. Crocker was living with a terrible secret. When he was 19 and on drugs in Kansas City, Kansas he sexually assaulted and killed 19 year-old Tracy Fresquez. He told his wife before they were married, blaming it on the drug influence. Over the years, they struggled with how to reconcile the slaying with their faith. He had asked God’s forgiveness, but the burden seemed to get heavier as time passed by. The showdown came when Mr. Crocker began ministering to an inmate as part of his church’s prison outreach. “How can you go and visit this man and tell him all about God, and you know in your heart that you should be there too?” Mrs. Crocker asked him after one of the visits. For the next several weeks Mr. Crocker deliberated over how he should turn himself in. Then, with the help of a Prison Fellowship official, Kansas authorities were contacted and Crocker surrendered. He quit his job and explained to his children what had happened. The family prayed together and read from the Bible. The children cried and begged their daddy, “Don’t do this.” Tearfully, Crocker tried to explain to them. “Daddy was wrong for taking the life of another person. I have to go. I’d be a hypocrite if I raised you by the Word of God and I didn’t do this. I can’t live with that.” He boarded a plane alone on September 22, and that night confessed the crime to police in Kansas. He made no deal with prosecutors, who charged him with first-degree murder. If convicted he could face a life sentence, but be eligible for parole in 15 years. –World, Oct. 17, 1998
III. Pride and Self-Sufficiency are sure to lead to chastening. (6-7)
A. Our toughest time for temptation is when things are tranquil.
1. When we think everything is OK, that’s maybe when we need to worry. (Ill.) As a senor citizen was driving down the freeway, his car phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife’s voice urgently warning him, “Herman, I just heard on the news that there’s some nut going the wrong way on 280. Please be careful!” Herman replied, “It’s not just one car. It’s hundreds of them!”
B. We must never take credit for what God has done in our lives. (7)
True repentance is necessary when we fail God. Only true penitence will bring revival. (Ill.) The church is a powerful church only when it is a penitent church. A comfortable, easy-minded church has no power to stir the world either to salvation or to opposition. (Leon Morris)
