Break Away from Our Culture: God-Reliance vs. Self-Reliance

[0:00] Please take your Bibles and go to Psalm 30.

[0:18] The last time for a while that we'll be in the Psalms. Aw. You can never go wrong with the Psalms.

[0:29] They've just been so helpful to me personally, hopefully to you as well. Psalm 30, page 403 in that black Bible.

[0:41] Psalm 30. Psalm 30, you're gonna dive in this morning to Psalm 30 and see what God has to say to us this morning.

[0:53] Psalm 30, a psalm, a song at the dedication of the temple, excuse me, of the house of David. I will extol you, extol you, O Yahweh, for you have lifted me up.

[1:09] You've not let my enemies rejoice over me. O Yahweh, my God, I cried to you for help and you healed me. O Yahweh, you brought up my soul from Sheol.

[1:21] You kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. Sing praise to Yahweh, you, His godly ones, and give thanks to His holy name.

[1:32] For His anger is but for a moment. His favors for a lifetime. Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.

[1:43] Now, as for me, I said to my prosperity, I will never be moved. O Yahweh, by your favor, you made my mountain to stand strong.

[1:54] You hit your face. I was dismayed. To you, O Yahweh, I called. And to the Lord, I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood if I go down to the pit?

[2:07] Will the dust praise you? Will it declare your faithfulness? Hear, O Yahweh, and be gracious to me. O Yahweh, be my helper. You've turned for me my mourning into dancing.

[2:22] You loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. That my soul may sing praise to you and not be silent. O Yahweh, my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

[2:40] A British actor, Michael Wilding, was once asked if actors had any traits which set them apart from other human beings.

[2:56] Without a doubt, he replied, you can pick out actors by the glazed look that comes into their eyes when the conversation wanders away from themselves.

[3:08] The American dream is about being self-sufficient. Self-reliant is all about me. The focus is upon self.

[3:24] That is so much a part of our culture to the extent that a person must call another person who is a male a female or vice versa. Based on feelings.

[3:36] And if you don't call him a her or her a him, then you're a bigot. You're hateful. You're abusing that person. All the while the real issue is that that person is completely self-consumed.

[3:48] And demands that other people buy by their own self-consumed demands. What has happened to our culture? It relies on self.

[4:03] It puts self first. Not God. Not the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Our culture does not have anything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ.

[4:17] And so today as we come to the Psalm, Psalm 30, this is how we can title it. Break away from our culture. God-reliance versus self-reliance. Break away from our culture.

[4:31] God-reliance versus self-reliance. Or you can say a God-relying life versus a self-relying life.

[4:42] Break away from our culture. Break away from the culture. The culture which relies on self. Not on the Lord Jesus Christ.

[4:53] A culture which relies upon being self-consumed instead of God-consumed. Instead of consumed with Christ.

[5:03] Break away from our culture. Break away from our culture. God-reliance versus self-reliance. Listen.

[5:14] God will chisel away everything in our lives if He needs to in order to get us to solely rely upon Him. He'll chisel away everything in our lives if He needs to in order to get us to solely rely upon Him.

[5:35] In loving discipline, He prunes us back. He lovingly disciplined David for his sin of self-sufficiency. You'll see that from the text.

[5:47] He experienced sadness but is restored to joy. Another way to put this psalm in a sentence.

[6:00] The Lord will graciously discipline us, bringing us to broken repentance. We will see how insufficient and weak we are and embrace His total sufficiency and reliability.

[6:14] That's what He'll do. He'll strip everything away, bringing us to broken repentance. So we'll see, I'm so insufficient.

[6:25] I'm so weak. We'll see that in ourselves and then embrace Him. He's totally sufficient and He's completely reliable. So now what is the time frame of the writing of this psalm?

[6:40] Because notice it begins, a psalm, a song at the dedication of the house of David. What dedication? Was it the time the property or the materials of the temple were dedicated?

[6:53] Was it the time the dedication of David's palace? Was it when property was purchased after the plague from 2 Samuel chapter 24? Was it the dedication of new palace in Zion from 2 Samuel 5?

[7:08] Was it sometime after Absalom's rebellion? We don't know. We're not told. But it seems something happened and David began to move towards self-sufficiency, relying on himself, and he ended up suffering some kind of sickness, illness.

[7:31] And what he'll do, he will contrast for us a life that relies upon God and a life that relies upon self and how Yahweh disciplined him for it.

[7:43] He's going to show this contrast. So here's five aspects of a life that relies on God. He's going to give us five. And then in the middle of that, he's going to move into how he didn't do that.

[7:56] He started relying upon himself. So first aspect, a God-reliance life proclaims praise and thanks to Yahweh. A God-reliance life, a life that relies upon God, proclaims praise and thanks to Yahweh.

[8:13] You see that in verse 1 and then verse 4. He says, I will extol you, O Yahweh. Rise up. I will rise you up.

[8:24] I will exalt you. I'm going to set you on high. He's setting God up on high, not himself. He wanted Yahweh God to be lifted up.

[8:39] Verse 4. Sing praise to Yahweh, you His godly ones, and give thanks to His holy name. He called all the saints to sing to Yahweh and give thanks to His holy name, literally to His holy memorial.

[8:54] Holy memorial. He is worthy of remembrance by His works, which display His glory. So here David, he called all of God's people. Give Him praise.

[9:06] Set Him up on high. The whole history of redemption is the unfolding of the name of Yahweh. The whole history of redemption is the unfolding of His name in that He sets up a monument of Himself reflecting not only His holy righteousness and justice, but His grace and mercy.

[9:32] Yahweh God has been so merciful to us through the Lord Jesus Christ, has He not? That is the sole reason to give Him praise and thanks. So God reliance life, it proclaims praise and thanks to Yahweh.

[9:47] That's number one. Here's the second one. Number two. A God reliance life pleads for help. When you rely upon God, you cry for help.

[9:58] You plead for help. Verse two. Oh Yahweh, my God, I cried to you for help and you healed me.

[10:11] A God reliance life pleads for help. You're my God. You belong to me and I cried to you for help. Notice how He resorted to prayer. It was a prayer of desperation, urgency.

[10:25] One who focuses and relies upon Yahweh God depends upon Yahweh God. You are my God. I depend on you.

[10:37] Similar to this Psalm 43, verse four. Then I will go to the altar of my God. To God my exceeding joy and upon the lair I shall praise you.

[10:50] Oh God, my God. I'm leaning upon you and I'm pleading for help. One who focuses and relies upon Yahweh depends on Him.

[11:03] And notice, a God reliance life pleads for help. Pleads for help because of deliverance that Yahweh brings. Verse one, verse two, verse three. Verse one, He says, you lifted me up.

[11:17] You've not let my enemies rejoice over me. Lifted me up to drop like drying water out of a well. That's what that means. There was some near-death experience when David's enemies were coming after him.

[11:33] But Yahweh drew him up out of the death grip of his enemies which would allow his enemies to gloat over him. He says, something is said similar in Psalm 3, verse three.

[11:50] You, O Yahweh, are a shield about me, my glory, and the one who lifts my head. Even in 25, verse two, we looked at that a few weeks ago.

[12:03] Oh my God, in you I trust. Do not let me be ashamed. Do not let my enemies exult over me. And notice from Psalm 30, verse two, where he says, I cried to you for help and you healed me.

[12:19] He suffered some kind of sickness or illness or maybe it was some physical threat. So when he put his trust back in Yahweh in repentance, Yahweh was gracious to him and healed him.

[12:35] Look at verse three. Oh Yahweh, you brought up my soul from Sheol. You kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. This reminds us of verse one.

[12:49] You lifted me up. You brought up my soul. You brought it out and this parallels with you kept me alive. You let me go down to the pit. So this denotes some kind of death, near death type of experience.

[13:03] Yahweh preserved him and brought his soul out of Sheol. Synonyms to denote certain death, Yahweh delivered him. Similar to what he says in Psalm 28, verse one.

[13:15] If you're silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. He's talking about death, not hell. When you see the word Sheol doesn't necessarily always mean hell.

[13:25] Here it means death. And maybe this death was from sickness or maybe the death was from his enemies. We're not told. But it was definitely something leading towards death and yet God delivered him.

[13:41] So God reliance life pleads for help because of deliverance but it pleads for help also because of favor, Yahweh's favor, which you see in verse five.

[13:55] God reliance life pleads for help for, verse five, his anger is but for a moment, his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may last for the night but a shout of joy comes in the morning.

[14:11] Notice, anger is for a moment, coincides with weeping and night. Notice, favor, lifetime, coincides with shout of joy in the morning. There's parallel, strict parallelism.

[14:23] God's anger will only last for a short period of time but his pleasure or his favor or his delight lasts throughout life.

[14:36] Psalm 103, verse nine, David says this, he will not always strive with us nor will he keep his anger forever.

[14:47] and then we read Isaiah 54, he's talking to Israel, Yahweh God's talking to Israel in Isaiah 54, verse seven, for a brief moment, I forsook you but with great compassion I will gather you in an outburst of anger I hid my face from you for a moment but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, says Yahweh your redeemer.

[15:15] just as the morning rises after the night so God will sweeten our affliction with consolation afterwards, soon afterward.

[15:31] Now it might be a long night, a long night, but there's joy that comes in the morning. He gives us joy, you're going to see that in verse 11, he's going to bring that up there in Psalm 30.

[15:45] Weeping comes as a guest for the night, by morning though, weeping has disappeared and joyful praise, literally he means a ringing cry of praise comes in its place.

[16:01] A God reliance life pleased for help because of God's eternal favor and it's that favor that comes to us only in Christ. Interesting, this is the message of the cross, weeping for a moment, joy later.

[16:19] Weeping at his death and then he rose from the dead. Weeping over our sin but then he saves us. God poured out his wrath upon the son but he brought him back to life to vindicate him saying, I am pleased.

[16:33] Listen to what Calvin says here, quote, but however much God may terrify and humble his faithful servants, his manifold signs of his displeasure, he always besprinkles them with the sweetness of his favor to moderate and assuage their grief, end quote.

[16:58] That's good. So how much more so will we see his great favor when Jesus comes again and vindicates us as his people? David spoke here in these first five verses with humility, with brokenness and yet, such satisfaction, this focus upon Christ, upon Yahweh God and now things change here in verse six.

[17:24] Now David, he's gonna speak how he didn't always have this mindset. He had resorted to self-reliance. There's a contrast here because now notice he stops and he starts talking to us about a self-reliant life.

[17:42] A self-reliance life promotes self. A self-reliance life promotes self. Look at verse six. Now as for me, I said in my prosperity, I will never be moved.

[17:59] Notice, he got his eyes off Yahweh God and put his eyes upon himself. Look at the selfishness. As for me, I said in my prosperity, I will never be moved.

[18:12] Notice the I, I, I, I. I. Some people think that maybe this was from 2 Samuel chapter 24 when David decided to number Israel to see just how great he was, just how big Israel was.

[18:32] Yeah, how powerful we are. Maybe this was the time. Some people think that. But look at how a self-reliance life promotes self. Here's a second one. A self-reliance life promotes physical blessings.

[18:46] I said in my prosperity, I will never be moved. David had forgotten his mutable, mortal condition as a man, as a creation.

[18:59] He shunned. He thought he was immovable. He had careless ease. He trusted in his own security.

[19:11] He trusted in his own status. He only relied on himself instead of confiding in the giver of gifts. Instead he confided in the gifts.

[19:24] Ah, this is so easy for us to do, isn't it? We're so delighted with God's blessings instead of God the blesser. We can be so delighted with forgiveness, with adoption, with election, knowledge, nice things, serene safety, that we forget the God who gave us those things.

[19:51] And this is the essence of the prosperity gospel, to name it and claim it. Name it and you'll be rich. Do this and God will make you rich and prosper you.

[20:02] Now the focus is on the riches. It's not on the God who might want to give you riches might not want to give you riches. It's not that forgiveness and adoption, election, it's not that these things are bad things, but good things can end up becoming God things, which is not a good thing.

[20:20] That's a bad thing. You want a wonderful marriage, wonderful kids, grandkids, wonderful health, wonderful church, wonderful relationships.

[20:32] Those are bad things. But they can become bad things if that becomes the focus. The motivation of this was David's sense of pride and carnal security.

[20:48] Uninterrupted success bred a spirit of security which had lulled him to sleep. He was just going off his feelings. We must be on guard when we are in prosperity because we end up putting our confidence in our uncertain and transitory prosperity instead of the God who gave us that prosperity.

[21:14] Interesting. As I was studying this, I thought about the warnings in Deuteronomy and how the Lord said to Israel, when you're going to have rest from all your enemies, rest there in the land, you're going to forget me because you're going to see all these things I've given to you and you're going to focus on those things and you're going to forget about me.

[21:41] And that's what happened to David. Self-reliance life, what is a self-reliance life? It promotes self, it promotes physical blessings and then, here's the last point, there's three aspects to this, a self-reliance life, a self-reliance life produces discipline.

[22:03] Look what happens here in verse 7. Oh, Yahweh, by your favor, you made my mountain to stand strong. You hid your face.

[22:16] I was dismayed. David admitted to shame that it was God who made his mountain strong. A solid support shown here in this conquering of Mount Zion.

[22:31] David's kingdom was all undeserved favor. Remember what he said in verse 5? All undeserved favor from God, yet David had forgotten this, so what did God do?

[22:44] Again, the end of verse 7. You hid your face. This hiding of God's face means he's turned his way, he's turned away from David.

[22:57] I'm hiding my face from you, so that presence of God and his favor, it was hidden from David, and then he experienced how frail and weak he truly was by God withdrawing his favor from him.

[23:11] And he was dismayed or terribly shaken in himself. He faced the gracious, kind, disciplining hand of the Almighty God.

[23:27] His mind was purged of its self-centered confidence when God turned his face from him. darkness is used to bring light.

[23:40] That's why many times our Lord needs to resort to corrective measures like this, so we will soon remember that we are mortal, easily replaceable, and totally dependent upon him.

[23:58] Similar to what Paul had to experience in 2 Corinthians 12.

[24:09] I mean, he had visions being caught up into paradise. He heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak. And then he says in 1 Corinthians 12, and because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there's given to me a thorn in the flesh.

[24:29] He might not experience disciplining, God wasn't disciplining him, but it's keeping him humble. And then he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.

[24:43] Most gladly, therefore, I'll rather boast about my weaknesses than that the power of Christ may dwell in me. So God resorts to corrective measures. If we're focusing on prosperity, we're focusing on self and relying on self, God will strip things away and then he'll say, okay, it's time for you to focus on me.

[25:01] It's time for you to rely upon me. It's time for you to confide in me. Not in the things I've given to you. He wants us to remember we're mortal, easily replaceable, and we must be dependent upon him.

[25:18] So David, he's going down this road, God reliance life, and he stops, he says, this is what I had to learn, self-reliance, this is what I did. And then now he goes back to God reliance.

[25:33] This is now point number three in God reliance. A God reliance life pleads for God's favor. Look at verse eight and nine. To you, O Yahweh, called, and to the Lord I made supplication.

[25:47] He was awakened by fear and terror, so he cried out to God for help and deliverance. Notice the connection with verse five.

[25:58] His anger is for a moment. Weeping's in the night. So God's corrective measures, there's this anger against him, his disciplining hand, there's weeping that's taking place.

[26:10] So what does he do? He pleads for God's favor. The one who is chastised by the Lord, chastened by the Lord, prays fervently.

[26:23] The only way to flee from God is to flee to God. When his corrective measures comes against you, the way to flee from God is actually run to him.

[26:37] Don't run away from him. Run to him. That's what David does. And then he says, and to the Lord, to my Lord, my Adonai, I sought favor, supplication.

[26:52] In the midst of the great disciplining hand of God, we can still regard him as my Lord. We run to him and he welcomes us. God doesn't go, no, no, no, no, no, you're doing that, no, no, I don't want to talk to you, give me like three weeks, then, no, no, no, no, I don't want to see you, I'm done with you, give me a couple of months and then maybe we'll talk.

[27:15] Maybe. That's not how God does things. He welcomes us. Just like the father with his prodigal son, he saw his son coming, he ran to him. Father, I've sinned against you.

[27:28] Come on, come here. Like he did in Luke chapter 15 when Jesus gave that story of the prodigal son. That's how God deals with us. He welcomes us.

[27:39] We plead for favor. As iron which is contracted rust cannot be put to use until it's gone through the fire, so we must be softened by affliction to see the glory of the cross, giving ourselves to desperate prayer, remembering and seeking God's undeserved favor.

[28:01] Do that. That's a life that relies on God. And then he says, he's given this supplication.

[28:13] He says, and it's in verse nine, what profit is there in my blood if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it declare your faithfulness? What does he mean by this?

[28:25] Oh, some believe that David was saying that there would be no further opportunity to sing praises of God if he were to die. I don't think he's saying this. I don't believe this to be the case.

[28:38] This is something similar to what Moses does twice. You see in Exodus chapter 32, nine through 14, Numbers 14, 11 through 21, where the Lord says, that's it.

[28:50] I'm destroying Israel. I'm gonna make you into the great nation, Moses. And Moses says, no, Lord, don't do this. Your character's at stake. Your glory's at stake. Don't do this.

[29:01] Or else the nations will see that you're not faithful. No. So what's going on here in verse nine? This is what's going on. David requested his life to be spared for the glory of God else his enemies would gloat, verse one, and God's character would be marred.

[29:21] I don't want your character marred. I want to declare your faithfulness. If this happens to me, if I go down, then your character goes down. I don't want that to happen. David asked the Lord not to destroy him because he would not, the Lord would not receive as much glory in fulfillment of the Davidic covenant if David were to die.

[29:45] No. David desired to praise God and for God to preserve him. That would display God's faithfulness. He pled for mercy based on the glory of God.

[30:01] Similar to Psalm 6, verse 5. Because he says same thing. Verse 4, Return Yahweh, rescue my soul.

[30:13] Save me because of your loving kindness for there's no mention of you in death. And Sheol, who will give you thanks? He requested God to spare his life for God's glory, not for himself.

[30:29] Because he was consumed with the character of God to be magnified. That's what he wanted. He wanted God to be magnified, not himself. It's not about him.

[30:39] David, he saw that. He was in that already. He saw that prosperity mindset he had in a self-reliant life. He's like, I don't want that. I want you to be glorified.

[30:50] That's what he wanted. A God-reliance life pleads for favor. Here's number 4. A God-reliance life pleads for help.

[31:01] That's what you see in verse 10. He abandoned all confidence in himself. He looked to Yahweh alone. Notice, hear, oh Yahweh, be gracious to me. Be my helper.

[31:12] Look it. Hear, gracious, help. God's chastisement had shaken out all his self-confidence.

[31:23] True God-reliance depends on Yahweh. A God-reliance life pleads for help. A God-reliance life pleads for God's favor.

[31:35] A God-reliance life pleads for God's help. And notice, plead for God's help because of Yahweh's deliverance. He says this in verse 11.

[31:46] For you've turned for me my mourning into dancing. You've loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. Girded means to clasp. So he's been clasped with joy and pleasure.

[32:00] Sackcloth denotes mourning with repentance. Repentance. So David repented of his sin. Of relying upon himself. And his joy returned.

[32:14] Under great affliction, he cried out to God in sorrowful repentance. Similar to what he says in Psalm 4 verse 7.

[32:25] You've put gladness in my heart more than when grain and new wine abound. Notice, God turned this around. Not David. God did the work of bringing joy back to him.

[32:38] God is the one who loosens the belt. God is the one who removes mourning. God is the one who substitutes it with joy in himself. You've done that. You see that? His response of repentance and then God moves.

[32:53] And that's what happens. There's sin. We repent. God moves. There's sin. We have repentance. God moves. God brings that.

[33:05] When we humble ourselves before God proclaiming our dependence on him and not ourselves, deliverance comes to us.

[33:16] Is that not the essence of the gospel? The essence of the gospel is God is just and holy. I am a sinner. I'm proclaiming I should be condemned.

[33:29] And yet Jesus came, died, and rose. I confess my sin. I repent. Turn from that sin. Jesus, I trust in you that you died for my sin in my place.

[33:39] Isn't that not the gospel? I trust you, Jesus. Repent and believe. When we humble ourselves before God proclaiming our dependence on him and not ourselves, God brings deliverance.

[33:53] He loves to do that. So God reliance life from the beginning proclaims praise and thanks.

[34:04] God reliance life pleads for help. God reliance life pleads for a favor. God reliance life pleads for help again from verse 10. And then last, which is repeated again, God reliance life proclaims praise and thanks again.

[34:21] Verse 12. So God's done this in order that my soul may sing praise to you and not be silent. So he's connecting this back to verse 1.

[34:34] I extol you that my soul may sing. My soul may sing praise to you. And soul literally and soul literally is the word glory which refers to David's tongue.

[34:51] May my tongue sing praise and not be silent. Because with our tongues we can glory in ourselves but he's saying I want to use my tongue to glorify you.

[35:04] He would not be muted. He would give thanks to Yahweh. A God reliance life does this. Psalm 108 verse 1.

[35:17] My heart is steadfast O God I will sing I will sing praises even with my soul with my tongue with my glory. He decidedly determined to render to God thanks forever for preserving him from death.

[35:33] Notice O Yahweh my God I will give thanks to you forever. The deliverances of God give us many occasions to give him abundant thanks. Interesting.

[35:45] Little did David know that in the eternal state he would be praising him forever. Little did he know maybe he did know some he knew he would be with God with Yahweh forever and he would be giving him thanks forever.

[36:02] God's mercy should fill us with absolute praise for who he is and thanks for what he's done. May this challenge us to have a God reliance life fighting against our culture.

[36:18] Everything that's pumped out of our culture from Facebook Instagram television everything is just wants you to be relying on yourself.

[36:30] and the Bible conflicts with that. And our lives we're tempted to adhere to the world to listen to all the lies of our culture and in doing so we end up disobeying God's command.

[36:47] What's his command? Rely upon me completely and solely. This is what God's going to do. Graciously he'll chisel away everything in our lives if he needs to in order to get us to solely rely upon him the Lord graciously discipline us bringing us to broken repentance so we'll see how insufficient and weak we are and embrace his total sufficiency and reliability.

[37:15] I find it interesting that we end our short little study on the Psalms and this is going to be the essence of Zephaniah where God's disciplining hand upon his people he's going to bring judgment upon all the earth but he's judged his people but he's going to restore them.

[37:33] He's going to bring restoration to his people. He's going to bring them to a place where they see he is sufficient and we must rely upon him solely.

[37:46] That's the goal. I'll read you this short little prayer that I put together. Yahweh we praise you for your gracious interventions in our lives.

[38:00] When we've cried to you you've heard us bringing healing sometimes physical always spiritual. We give thanks to your holy name knowing that for us your people your anger lasts only for a moment but your pleasure endures throughout eternity.

[38:18] Thank you for this favor that is ours in the gospel because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection from the dead for us because of his sacrifice our sadness has been turned into gladness.

[38:35] Let's pray. pray. And that's what we pray oh father help us to rely more and more on you.

[38:47] Here we are as a church there's been things stripped away from us so we cry out to you we plead for help we plead for your favor and we proclaim praise and thanks to you as we're crying to you to come hear oh so God we pray bring to our minds the times where we have been relying upon self we've allowed the culture to influence us help us we pray and I encourage you please take these few moments between you and the Lord that you will fill your mind with his word fill your mind with his truth and what we've seen from

[40:01] Psalm 30 this morning and we'll sing together take these few moments between you and the Lord to ponder what we've seen from his word please do that now like and the and and из