Help! My World's Been Rocked

[0:00] Garrick, thank you for reading God's word. I'm not sure if you all noticed this, but when Garrick was reading, there was a particular word that got repeated in verse 2 and verse 6.

[0:11] It was the word shaken. Shaken. And I'm guessing this week you had your world shaken. And I don't know what on the Richter scale of shaking with which you were shook, but I'm guessing you got your world shaken.

[0:34] Maybe this is what it looked like. Something happens and you got really angry. You vented. You felt out of control. You felt disrespected.

[0:46] You lost your patience and you blew up. You were shaken. Or maybe you binged this week sometime.

[0:59] Eight hour straight of Netflix binge watching. $800 spent on your credit card. Binge buying. 8,000 calories of a comfort food.

[1:13] Binge eating. And the question becomes, what started it all? Why the binging? Chances are you got your world shaken. Or maybe you were lying in bed sometime this week, unable to sleep, and you were lying at 2 a.m. in that isolating silence of the wee hours of the morning.

[1:36] And you were lying in bed because you were anxious about something. You were replaying something in your head. You were trying to figure something out. You were afraid of some unknown or something that has happened to you.

[1:46] You got shook. And it's showing up in the middle of the night. We all experience varying degrees of the seismic activity of being shaken.

[2:00] And we need help. We need help when our lives get shaken, don't we? And Psalm 62 is good news for those souls who are being shaken. And so if you've come into the sanctuary this morning and you're like, I know what it means to be shaken, Psalm 62 is God's kindness to you.

[2:19] Here, let me sum it up by saying this. This is the summary of Psalm 62. When you, when your life is being shaken and you're feeling all alone and all out of control, you must learn to trust in God alone.

[2:34] When you're feeling all alone because you're getting your world rocked, you must learn to trust in God alone. And so in Psalm 62, there is this process.

[2:48] It's going to look like this. I'm going to draw it out a little bit later. It's, you're going to be shaken and then you're going to need to surrender and then you're going to find God as your shelter and then you're going to experience shalom.

[3:00] You're going to move from being shaken to having to surrender, finding God as your shelter and then experiencing shalom. But before we get to that, I just want to give you a brief overview of Psalm 62 and then we'll get into that process and bring it to bear on our lives.

[3:22] When your life is being shaken and you're feeling alone and out of control, you must learn how to trust in God alone. So let me give you a quick overview of Psalm 62. We learn in Psalm 62 in the very heading that this is a psalm of David, the king, which is a high position among God's people in Israel.

[3:42] And then this was written to the choir master. It's according to Jaduthin. Most likely it was some kind of melody.

[3:52] And so David's writing this psalm and he's saying, Hey, choir master, put this to that music. It'd be like putting Psalm 62, me saying to Kevin, Hey, Kevin, let's put Psalm 62 to the tune of Amazing Grace.

[4:09] For God alone my soul silently waits. We can do it. And the reason why it's to be put to music is because it's to be internalized and called out in singing to give our emotions an opportunity to call out to God.

[4:28] So this is a psalm by David meant to be sung. And there are two sections. Verses 1 through 7, we see David personally responding to something that has shaken his world.

[4:42] And you see what that is in verses 3 and 4. How long will all of you attack a man to batter him like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.

[4:53] They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. And what's going on here is there's a group of people that are seeking to verbally attack King David and undermine him and unseat him.

[5:05] Was it Absalom? Well, we're not told here. We're just guessing. But he's definitely having his world rocked. He's definitely being shaken. But what's interesting is what happens before and after.

[5:20] In verses 1 and 2, you see David say, For God alone my soul waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. And look at verse 5. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence.

[5:31] For my hope, my salvation is from him. And then in verse 2, He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly shaken. And then verse 6, He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.

[5:42] I shall not be shaken, period. And so what we see David doing, when there is his life being shaken, He surrenders himself to the Lord.

[5:55] For God alone my soul waits in silence. We see that both in verse 1 and verse 5. That silence I'll come back to in a little bit. But in both verse 2 and verse 6, He's talking about God as my rock and my salvation, my fortress.

[6:14] What we see happening here is David surrendering himself to God in order to surround this thing that is shaking his life. And then in verse 7, there is this summary declaration.

[6:30] On God rests my salvation and my glory, my mighty rock, my refuge is God. My, my, my, my, my, my. My God. God. He's gotten to a point here while he's now settled on the unshakable God he knows.

[6:50] And out of that comes this refrain, I shall not be shaken. That's a picture of shalom, peace. So in verses 1 through 7, David, being shaken, surrenders himself in order to purposely surround his enemies with the unshakable truths of who God is, his shelter.

[7:18] And as a result, he experiences shalom. But it doesn't end there because we got verses 8 through 12 in Psalm 62. So David turns from calling on God his refuge now to calling the people of God to God their refuge.

[7:40] He says in verse 8, Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. You see that in verse 7? My refuge is God. First end of verse 8, God is a refuge for us.

[7:54] He wants all of God's people to experience God as his refuge. God wants all of us to experience him as our refuge. But what's interesting then is where he goes.

[8:06] In verse 9, David says to God's people, Hey, don't find shelter in status. Whether you're of low estate or high estate, it's not going to matter.

[8:19] Shelter's not there. You can't find peace there. And then in verse 10, he says, Hey, don't look for shelter in extortion, manipulating people. Don't look for shelter in robbing people, gaining ill means.

[8:33] And don't find shelter in increased riches. Money's not going to give you safety and shelter. Money's not the source of shalom. Don't find shelter there.

[8:44] And then he lands it in 11 and 12. Once God has spoken, twice I've heard this. And he points to three things. Power belongs to God.

[8:55] God, that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work. He reminds us of God's unlimited power, his unrelenting love, and his unrivaled sovereignty.

[9:07] So there's a thumbnail sketch of Psalm 62. And the whole purpose of it is to help us understand that when we're shaken, when we're feeling all alone in the shake, feeling out of control, we must learn to trust in God alone.

[9:26] For the rest of the time now, I want to help you learn the process of waiting on the Lord when your world is being shaken.

[9:44] Four steps. You must recognize when you're being shaken. Second, Second, you must surrender control to God.

[9:55] Third, you must rest in God as your shelter. And then fourth, delight in the shalom.

[10:08] When your world is being shaken, you're feeling all alone and all out of control, you must learn to trust in God alone. So let's spend the rest of our time bringing this home.

[10:21] The first step in this process of learning to wait on the Lord is recognizing when you're being shaken. For David to say in verse 2, I will not be greatly shaken.

[10:36] And then in verse 6, I shall not be shaken, period. You know what that means? He was being shaken. He was getting his world rocked.

[10:49] And like I just said minutes ago, we know what it was. There was a group of people who were seeking to verbally assault David and undermine him and unseat him from his high position.

[11:07] And so, what we're recognizing there is David being shaken. But that's not the only way that God's people get shaken, is it? Verbal assaults, seeking to undermine, that's not the only way people will experience being shaken.

[11:29] I find it interesting that in verse 8, David's call to all the peoples is to trust in God at all times. Because being shaken shaken comes at any time.

[11:44] My sister lives in L.A. Recently, there was a couple earthquakes out there. And so, what you need to realize, if you're living in L.A., it's not a matter of if when you're going to get shaken, it's a matter of when you're going to get shaken, because you're living so close to the San Andreas Fault.

[12:01] If you're living close to a fault line, it's just a matter of time before you get shaken. We're all living close to fault lines.

[12:17] Fault line of relationships. Unpredictable shaking can occur, whether that's in your marriage, or in your parenting, or caring for your older parents, in a working relationship with your neighbors.

[12:36] It's a fault line that can shake us, isn't it? Your health. It's like a fault line. You get an unwelcome diagnosis.

[12:49] That'll shake your world. Employment changes suddenly. That's a shake-up. Sudden loss of finances.

[13:04] That shows up on the Richter scale. Questions about your future. Unknowns. What's going to happen? That can shake you.

[13:19] These areas represent different fault lines that range with different degrees of seismic activity because of its unpredictability.

[13:30] So let me ask you, my friends, what do you do when your world gets shaken? Where do you go?

[13:41] What do you look to? Do you get angry because you feel out of control and you want to attack? Do you withdraw?

[13:54] You want to hide, and so you binge. You don't lean on God's understanding. You're leaning on your own. brothers and sisters, where are you being shaken today?

[14:14] Where is it? And how are you responding? The first step in learning to wait on the Lord in the midst of seismic activity is to recognize that you're actually being shaken.

[14:31] The second step is surrender. To surrender control of your life to God when your world is being shaken.

[14:48] This is not as easy as it sounds because what's at stake is your well-being.

[14:59] What's at stake is who controls your life. So in order for you to surrender to God, you've got to die to yourself.

[15:16] Kyle quoted Jeremiah 17, 7 and 8. 17, 7 says, Blessed is the man whose trust is the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 17, 5 says, Cursed is the man who trusts the man who makes flesh his strength.

[15:34] When we get shook, it exposes our hearts. It exposes what we trust in.

[15:46] And if you're anything like me, when I get shaken, my first instinct is to trust in myself. I want to figure it out.

[16:00] I want to fix it. I want to control it. I want to define it. I want to plan it. And if it's not working out, I'm going to blame others. I'm going to want to hide.

[16:11] I'm going to want to throw a pity party. All of this is a way of exposing, trusting in yourself. But that's not how David responds in this song.

[16:25] He's getting verbally assaulted, undermined, people seeking to unseat him, and he doesn't turn to himself. He trusts God.

[16:38] He surrenders himself to the Lord. Look at verse 1. For God alone, my soul waits in silence. He's trusting God. Verse 5.

[16:48] For God alone, oh my soul, wait in silence. There's a difference between verse 1 and verse 5. Verse 1 is descriptive. For God alone, my soul waits in silence. And then in verse 5, for God alone, speaking to his soul, for God alone, oh my soul, command, wait in silence.

[17:08] Wait on him. When David is shaken, here, he does not turn to himself.

[17:20] He waits on God. And that means he must surrender himself to God. And it's not as easy as it sounds because you've got to die to yourself and you controlling your own life.

[17:35] Did you notice there's this waiting in silence? What does that mean?

[17:45] For God alone, my soul waits in silence. What does that mean to surrender this way? To wait in silence? Is there, does this mean that David is not saying anything to God?

[17:59] I don't think that's what it means because in verse 8, he's going to tell the peoples to pour their hearts out to God. In fact, what we see, what we read in 1 and 2 and 5 and 6 is David pouring out his heart to God.

[18:12] So I don't think this means he is saying nothing as he waits. I think this silence is more about what he is feeling.

[18:24] He's feeling isolated in the waiting. He's feeling alone as his world gets shaken. In the midst of the seismic activity of relational conflict, of unwanted health diagnosis, of unanticipated job change, of a sudden financial loss, you can all of a sudden feel the isolating silence of being all alone.

[19:00] It's amazing how silent my house gets at 2 a.m. in the morning. I can feel all alone. We all experience this.

[19:16] Many of us don't want to deal with the silence and so we turn up the noise to try to distract ourselves. But brothers and sisters, God's in the silence.

[19:31] He's there. He's using the whole thing to draw our hearts to him. David commands his soul to wait on the Lord in silence.

[19:45] Turn to the Lord, my soul. Why so downcast within me? Hope in God. Now, despite the silence, God's there.

[20:00] Essentially, what this is is a surrender of one's control, of one's life in the midst of being shaken. Oftentimes, it's the last thing you want to do, but it's the greatest thing to do.

[20:15] To pour out your God in the midst of being shaken, surrendering yourself this way. Verse 8, I already alluded to it. There's another way that we wait on the Lord.

[20:28] Verse 8, David says, to the peoples, trust in God at all times. Pour out your hearts to him.

[20:42] To pour out your heart is a picture of laying open your soul to God. And again, it is really uncomfortable. It is really difficult to pour out all that you're feeling to God before him.

[20:59] Oftentimes, what makes this so difficult is that when you're being shaken, it stirs up such intense emotions, it's difficult to unburden your emotions to God.

[21:14] You feel out of control. It's not easy. A lot of us are emotionally unaware. A lot of us are emotionally constipated.

[21:27] A lot of us are just emotionally afraid. Maybe no one has ever taught you or modeled to you how to deal with your emotions or your fears or your anxieties, your intense feelings in a way that is good and right and wise.

[21:44] And here we are being told how to do it. Pour out your heart before him. That's how we trust him. So this is what that looks like.

[21:56] When something is going sideways in your life and you're getting shaken, a way to surrender yourself to God is to say, God, I am so scared right now. God, I am so scared.

[22:08] God, I am so angry. God, I am so confused. God, I feel out of control. These are the stuff of laments. You see it all throughout the Psalms.

[22:23] This is how we surrender to God to lay control over to him. We do so honestly.

[22:41] The first step of waiting on the Lord when you're in the midst of seismic activity is to first recognize you're in seismic activity. Your world's getting shaken.

[22:52] And the second step is a hard one because you've got to die to yourself. It means surrendering yourself to the Lord through prayer, pouring your heart out, waiting on him in silence.

[23:07] The third way, the third step, after you've surrendered yourself to God is to rest in God, to trust in him, to come under him.

[23:25] when you get shaken and you're all alone and you feel out of control, you must learn how to trust in God alone.

[23:37] Not just to recognize it, not just to surrender yourself, but to actively trust to rest in God. Did you notice all the descriptions of God in this Psalm? I love it.

[23:47] He says my salvation four times. He's basically saying, God, you are my 911. rescue me. Come to my aid.

[23:59] You're my hope. He says twice in verse 2 and 6, my rock, verse 7, my mighty rock. If you look over to 61, 2, you see another reference.

[24:13] Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you've been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. It's a picture of safety, of shelter. If you've been down to the marina on a windy day and you're standing at a point where you can look at the lake and look at the marina, the boats and the slips at the same time, on a windy day, the water in the lake is just a mess.

[24:44] Splashing. It's all shaken up. Simultaneously, you look over into the harbor and the water where the boats sit is like a bathtub.

[24:58] Do you know the difference? Those mighty rocks piled up. It's a break. It's a jetty. It's a shelter.

[25:11] It's safety. So it's possible during a shake-up when everything else is going crazy, you can find shelter in God and your waters be still.

[25:28] My rock, my mighty rock, my fortress. I don't know what the Lord of the Rings, what that giant white city is up on those huge cliff face, but that's the fortress image.

[25:44] Safety, protection. God is my fortress. Verse 2 and verse 6. And then in verse 7, David says, God is my refuge, my shelter, and ever-present help in time of trouble, 46.1.

[26:00] All these descriptions point to God as an unshakable shelter. Rocks, fortresses, refuge, unshakable shelter.

[26:17] But let's ask a question. What makes God so unshakable? What is the stuff about God that makes Him unshakable?

[26:33] Why should I trust in God? Not because of how He's described. described. Why is He described that way? And in verses 11 and 12, we're told why.

[26:48] Once God has spoken, twice have I heard this. It's a Hebrew way of saying, listen up. That power belongs to God.

[27:01] Unlimited power belongs to God. Think about it. Genesis 1, creation. God speaks and things come into existence that never existed.

[27:15] That's power. Think of Jesus. John 11 walks up to Lazarus' tomb. It's been days. His corpse stinks. Jesus says, Lazarus, come forth.

[27:27] And Lazarus comes forth. Power! Unlimited power. Jesus on the seas. It's raging. He says, be quiet!

[27:39] Bathwater. Power. Jesus' own resurrection from the dead in which He has victory over sin, death, and the devil.

[27:51] Power! When Jesus comes back and He makes all things new and unshakable shalom in the new heavens and the new earth. Power!

[28:02] That's your God. love. That's your shelter. That's God and why you can trust Him. But that's not the only thing. And that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.

[28:18] Not only is our God, our shelter, a God of unlimited power, He's a God of unrelenting love. Unrelenting. It's steadfast love. It's the Hebrew chesed, His covenant loyalty.

[28:31] He binds Himself to a people and says, I'm going to be faithful to you no matter what. I'm going to be committed. I'm going to love you forever and ever and ever. The greatest example, of course, of God's unrelenting, steadfast love is the cross of Jesus Christ.

[28:48] But God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It's a demonstration of His love. And at the cross, God in Christ dealt with the greatest spiritual earthquake and threat we could ever experience, God's hostility towards us for our sin.

[29:11] And Jesus bore it all and brought peace for us because He loves us. I just want to remind you something.

[29:25] God doesn't love you, Christian, because of your obedience. God loves you, Christian, because He's God.

[29:37] It flows out of Him. It's not dependent on your obedience to Him. When you realize this kind of love, you just want to obey Him though.

[29:49] So don't think like you become a Christian, okay, God loved me to save me and then God turns off the spigot of His love. love. No, He saves you by His love and then He's faithful all the way through, all the way to the end because He loves you.

[30:04] Unrelenting, unstoppable. And His love governs His power. His commitment to you governs all of the power that He has for your good.

[30:22] That's our shelter. But there's one more thing I want you to see. For you will render to a man according to his work sovereignty.

[30:35] God's unrivaled sovereignty. God is in control of all things. Remember in our study of the book of Revelation, Revelation 1, Jesus has got the keys.

[30:47] He's got all the keys. He's got all authority. Jesus sits on the throne. Jesus breaks all the seals to that great scroll of God's plan for the fullness of time.

[31:00] He's over it all. All things under His feet. He's in control of it all. Which means this. He's even in control of what shakes you.

[31:17] He allows it or causes it and the reason why He does is because He loves you and He wants you to trust Him. Wants you to learn to come under His care, to pour out your heart to Him, to learn of Him.

[31:37] In God's economy of things, your heart being satisfied in Him alone is far more valuable to Him than your comfort. So He uses shake-ups to cause you to come to Him, to surrender and find shelter in the God of unlimited power, unrelenting love, and unrivaled sovereignty.

[32:05] Did you notice the word my? My salvation, my rock, my fortress, my refuge. this God is David's God. He has bound Himself to David, coveted Himself to David, and Jesus has bound Himself to us.

[32:25] He's made a covenant with us. He'll never leave us nor forsake us. That's why we can say He is my salvation and my rock, my fortress, my refuge. It's a blood-bought my.

[32:42] I just need to say this because it's in the text. David warns us, in light of your shelter, who it is, unlimited power, unrelenting love, unrivaled sovereignty, don't trust, verse 9, in status, trying to get a position.

[33:09] You're not going to find shelter for your soul there. Whether it's low estate or high estate, it's all lighter than a breath in God's economy things. He says in verse 10, put no trust in extortion, set no vain hopes on robbery, if riches increase, set not your hope on them.

[33:27] Hey, don't find shelter in you trying to manipulate something. Find shelter in God, unlimited power, unrelenting love, unrivaled sovereignty.

[33:45] Rest in your shelter. Trust in God's character and you will find shalom.

[33:57] You recognize when you're being shaken, you surrender to God in the midst of it and then you rest in God's character and as a result there is shalom.

[34:08] Shalom is the Hebrew word that means peace and it's just not the absence of hostility, it's the fullness of goodness, God's goodness, God's blessing. So when David goes from saying in verse two, I shall not be greatly shaken to saying in verse six, I shall not be shaken period, what that shows us is a progress in David's experience of God's shalom in his life.

[34:38] It should give you some encouragement. You can experience more of God's peace. What I want you to see here is that shalom is the result of trusting God.

[34:54] It's the result of trusting God. It's the result of finding shelter in your unshakable God. So when stuff goes sideways and you're like, oh Lord, just give me peace.

[35:06] God is saying, I want to give you me. I want you to trust me and shalom will come. Isaiah 26, three, you keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.

[35:26] Kyle's name and blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. That's what that's talking about. Shalom is the result of trusting in God.

[35:40] God. When your world is being shaken and you're feeling all alone and out of control, you must learn to trust in God alone.

[35:52] He is your unshakable shelter. shelter. When you do, you will be able to say this, because God is my refuge, I shall not be shaken.

[36:08] Though the lake waters rage, I'm in a safe marina. My waters are still.

[36:18] we live on the fault lines, brothers and sisters, and the best thing that you can do when you are being shaken is to recognize it, to surrender yourself, to find shelter in God the Most High, and then to give thanks for the shalom, because it's not going to last, because you live on fault lines.

[36:45] this side of Christ's return. This morning we've looked at four steps of what it means to wait on the Lord when there is seismic activity in your life.

[37:02] We live on the fault lines, and when our world is shaken, and you're feeling all alone, trust in God alone.

[37:13] and we help each other that way too. Brother, sister, trust in God at all times.

[37:28] Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Let's pray.

[37:40] God in heaven, thank you so much for Psalm 62. God, would you use these words now, and would you attend to the hearts in this room, those hearts that are being shaken.

[37:52] God, would you cause your word now to go and bring shalom, a shalom that is the result of trusting you, our great God and shelter.

[38:08] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.