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[0:00] Let's go ahead and find our spots here quick. We'll get started on Sunday School Hour as we turn back to Psalm 56 here this morning.! Psalm 56 is looking at choosing to trust.

[0:14] A faith that triumphs has a lot to do with the choices that we make in choosing to trust God. Because, you know, we began last week with that question, you know, do you trust God?

[0:26] Because that's really an important question in our life as we consider. And oftentimes we would say as a believer, well, yes, of course I trust God. But is it more I intend to trust God than the fact that we walk trusting God?

[0:44] Because I think most of us could say we always intend to trust God. But when life happens, it is where it comes out. And we realize do we really trust God in the circumstances of life?

[0:58] And we see that depth of our trust. And so we're going to be looking here at a faith that triumphs. And we saw with David here, as we see in Psalm 56, let's read the text here this morning.

[1:11] As we begin here, it says, Be merciful unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up. He fighting daily oppresses me. Mine enemies would daily swallow me up.

[1:25] For they be that fight against me, O thou most high. What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word.

[1:38] In God I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Every day they rest my words, and all their things are against me for evil. They gather themselves together to hide themselves, and they mark my steps when they wait for my soul.

[1:57] Shall they escape by iniquity? In thine anger cast down the people, O God. Thou tellest my wanderings, But put thou my tears into thy bottle, That they be not, and are they not in thy book.

[2:13] When I cry unto thee, when mine enemies turn back, This I know, for God is for me. In God will I praise his word, And the Lord will I praise his word.

[2:26] In God I put my trust. I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. Thy vows are upon me, O God. I will render praises unto thee.

[2:38] For thou hast delivered my soul from death. Wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling, That I may walk before God in the light of the living? Let's pray.

[2:48] Heavenly Father, as we just look here today about trusting you in the life, Through the life of David, And the challenges and things that he had, That he experienced that we see the necessity, But also the choice that we make and who we trust.

[3:08] To trust in you, to trust in the truth of your word, Or to trust in self. Trust in the wisdom of the world. You know, we make a decision on whom we're going to trust.

[3:20] Lord, help us today as we'd spend a few moments to look at the principles here. From your word, Lord, it might not just be hearers, But doers of your word.

[3:32] And Lord, we just ask it all in your precious name. Amen. You know, we've seen here as we began last week, Looking at the life of David. And we know David here was on the run, And he had ended up in Gath.

[3:46] We talked about that last week. Gath was the hometown of Goliath. And so here's David going to the very place where, You know, people were going to give him a warm reception, right? We know it was a challenge.

[3:58] We know that it was a dynamic that even stirred his heart. And we see these things taking place. But we see here that David, Though he was a man after God's own heart, The Bible tells us, David's writing Psalm 56 Against the backdrop of his experiences, Along with fear is vulnerability in his season of life.

[4:28] You know, those things are a challenge for us. And we see here that David sees first that reality of fear. We looked at this last week. There in verse 3 where it says, What time I am afraid, I will what?

[4:41] I will trust in thee. Because I want you to understand, As a believer, As one that trusts God, Doesn't mean there's not going to be things that cause you to fear. Fear is part of life.

[4:52] You know, sometimes, Well, I'm not scared of nothing. You know, if somebody tells you they're not scared of anything, It's probably pretty fearful. Because they're trying to bolster themselves up To think that they're powerful enough Not to be afraid of anything.

[5:06] Now, we learn through life, There's things we don't have to be afraid of. You know, if you remember as a little kid, Little kids might be scared of the dark. You know, darkness itself is not something to be afraid of.

[5:20] When the lights go out, We understand that that just helps you get a good sleep. Instead of freak you out as a little kid. You know, the little kid gets panicky when it gets dark. Why? Because they have a misunderstanding Of what does it cause them to fear.

[5:35] They have these fears that come upon them. And oftentimes, It brings us to that reality Of a fear in our life. What time, When we look at David here, And we looked at the time that he was afraid here, Because he had a genuine fear.

[5:53] He was afraid of his life. There were people trying to kill him. Not figuratively, But physically. That dynamic was what he was facing In the presence of enemies.

[6:07] And we understand that, Look at verse 2. It says, My enemies would daily swallow me up. You know, David had some things to be afraid of. And we understand that ultimately, As a believer, The devil's going to put out some things.

[6:23] The devil's our adversary. He's going to put some things that cause us to fear. The question is, What are we going to do with fear? Because really, That's the statement that David makes. He says, What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

[6:42] David's making a decision of what to do with fear. And we're going to see here, That he has those enemies, And the plot of those enemies, We saw there.

[6:52] You know, The untruthfulness. You notice in verse 5 of Psalm 56, It says, They rest my words. You know, In other words, They're wrestling his words around, Trying to make him say something different From what he meant them to be.

[7:06] And we understand the importance Of how people try to twist The things of scripture. I mean, Today, I'm amazed at the twisting of scripture That goes on. I'm amazed at how much it's twisted, But what I'm amazed more Is people who say they know the word of God Get caught up in it.

[7:22] There's, I mean, One thing about X And Instagram And Facebook, There's more What you might say Soundbite theology Floating around out there That's wrong.

[7:35] They rest the word of God. You know what they do? They rest the word of Christians too. Trying to make, Well, So you mean this or that, You know, Or it's like today, Let me give you an example Of how they rest words, You know, You can tell them that God calls something a sin And how do they reply?

[7:51] Why do you hate? What are they doing with what's said? They're wrestling those words, They're twisting those words To what they want it to be And not what was said.

[8:04] Because it's true, God hates sin. There's some things that God Has declared that this is wrong. It's not hateful, But loving to tell you Where the danger is.

[8:16] But we see here also They were unscrupulous, You know, They were ruthless. Notice in verse 6, They gather themselves together, They hide themselves, They mark my steps, And they, When they wait for my soul, I mean, These guys are out to get him, You know, And we see David walking through this, And they were just waiting For him to mess up.

[8:36] You know, Another good biblical example Of this is Daniel. You know, We talked about that a while ago, Daniel chapter 6, And we see how Daniel Had those other leaders Trying to watch and observe him To find anything They could catch him up in Or to twist.

[8:54] So I want you to understand, Those are things That happen in life, And sometimes those things Can cause us to fear, But we have to also be like David And say, I'm going to trust in God. Make a decision to do that Because notice here, Not of the renewal Or the reality of fear, But the renewal Of trust.

[9:13] The renewal of trust, And we looked at this A little bit last week, And we saw here That when David said, What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

[9:25] David's saying He made a voluntary, A volitional choice Of what was going to direct him Through the situation. How was I going, What things am I going to apply To guide me through this?

[9:39] That's a volitional choice. It's a voluntary choice On your part. Because we have lots of voices We can listen to That we can choose from. We have our voice, You have somebody else's voice, You have the wacko On the internet voice, You have the voice From somebody in a book, You have voices all over.

[10:00] But when David says, I will trust in thee, You know what he's saying? He says, All these other voices, Including my own, I'm going to set aside And I'm going to listen To yours. To put that as a priority, That trust, You know, We understand that He's not going to fear, Notice in verse 56, In verse 4, At the end there, In chapter 56, It says, I will not fear What flesh can do unto me.

[10:26] You know what David's saying? Hey, These guys have some authority And power And some influence, Influence, But they don't supersede Who you are. David doesn't negate The fact that these people Had ability to do something.

[10:41] When you trust God, Just says, I trust the one who is above And has more power Than they do. To trust in God In that, And trust, And when we trust in God, We're not trusting Everything's going to work out For the best In the way we think.

[10:58] You know, I think that's another falsehood That people have been told. It's like, Just trust God And it'll all work out for you. The problem with that is, It'll all work out The way you think It's going to work out.

[11:09] And you know what? After you've lived a while, You'll find out That life doesn't always work out The way you think it is. We set plans, We do things, We set a course And think this is the way Everything's going to be And we've got a smooth road And life turns it upside down And then we get confused.

[11:25] Why? I trusted you, Lord. No, we trusted in what we wanted And what we expected, Not in what, Who God is And what God has said. There's a difference In that, To trust Him.

[11:40] You know, We understand that reality Of trusting Him And we, Even this morning, You know, The idea that it leads To praise, To thankfulness.

[11:52] You know, That choice involves A deliberate decision To praise God And His word. Look at verse 4 here In our text. It says, In God, I will praise His word.

[12:04] Look down in verse 10. In God, Will I praise His word. In other words, What's David saying? The decision is, I'm going to focus, I'm going to be thankful That God has given me things To give direction In my life To deal With these things.

[12:22] And we see here, As we understand, Psalm 33 verse 4 Says this, For the word of the Lord Is right, And all His works Are done In truth.

[12:32] You know, When we understand The word of God, When we praise God's word, We ultimately praise God Himself For who He is.

[12:44] And, You know, As you think about that, You know, Have you ever stopped To consider What are the things of God You can praise Him for? You know, Think about who God is. You know, Oftentimes we mention God, But have you spent much time Thinking about who God is?

[12:59] What does the Bible say about Him? What's revealed to us About who God is? You know, When you think about That God is eternal, The immutability of God.

[13:10] I mean, You can get a lot of Big terms you might say, But I want you to understand That things of God Being changeless, That God is always faithful. Have you ever considered That God is independent Of His creation?

[13:22] His creation depends upon Him. He doesn't depend On His creation. He stands alone. How about God being intelligent? You know, The Bible says That knowledge and wisdom, You know, He's the author of knowledge.

[13:38] He's the author of wisdom. You know, Think about morally. I mean, Today, Oftentimes people Try to paint God As immoral. Bible tells us That He's holy, That He's just, That He's loving.

[13:49] He's the one That sets the parameters. You know, When we understand this, He's merciful, He's gracious, He's long-suffering, His goodness, His truth. You know, We could talk a lot About the different things Of God and who He is.

[14:05] Sometimes it's good To stop and think about Who's the God that we praise? Why is He worthy to be praised? You know, When we think about Why is God And His attributes Of His, That are revealed in His word?

[14:20] When we understand Who God is, We understand The necessity To honor Him, To praise Him. When we understand The importance Of praising God's word, God has given us What we need In our life.

[14:34] You know, We understand That scripture Is necessary To understand God. You know, You have a movement today That people want to Make God Who they want Him to be. You know, They want God to be How they want Him To be formed Or thought.

[14:47] And they'll look At the Bible And say, Well, I don't believe God is that. You know what they're saying? I want to build a God That I want, That I want to design. I want a designer God. That fits my image And what I expect.

[15:03] And the reality is God says, I am. Here who, This is who I am. And in the Bible, God reveals who He is.

[15:16] Not who we want to try To make Him to be Or try to understand Him to be, But who He is. Now you might say, Preacher, That's a little heavy, But, you know, I want you to understand It's important.

[15:27] Because it goes back To the message this morning, How we think Impacts us. When we think correctly, Things fall into line Because when we understand That Scripture is sufficient For every need.

[15:43] You know, When we understand That God has given us His Scripture To understand How to walk through this life. You know, Scripture is clear And provides clarity.

[15:54] You know, Deuteronomy 30 In verse 11 Says this, For this commandment Which I command thee This day, It is not hidden from thee, Neither is it far off. A few verses down From that in verse 14 In Deuteronomy It says this, But the word is very nigh Unto thee in thy mouth And in thine heart That thou mayest do it.

[16:14] In other words, God's not mysterious. God gives us instructions On what we ought to do. The question is, Are we going to follow Him? David, When he says, I trust in God, I'm going to trust God, He says, I'm not just giving it A verbal, He says, I'm going to trust What God says about it.

[16:32] That's the principles And the application Of life That Scripture Has authority. You know, Oftentimes we forget That Scripture Carries authority.

[16:44] Authority Isn't in a commentary. Authority Isn't in What some preacher Says about it. The authority Is in the Word of God. What does God Have to say about it?

[16:55] And what must How do we need To adjust to that? We need to be fixed Upon the things Of God. A little later In Psalm 57 In verse 7 The Bible says this, My heart is fixed, O God, My heart is fixed.

[17:10] I will sing And give praise. You know, When we understand That's a choice That we make. It's volitional. But it also Has to do With conviction.

[17:23] You know, We talked earlier About the two aspects Of choosing To trust God. There's the Volitional aspect, But whereby We make a conscious Decision To place our trust In Him.

[17:35] Notice back In our text, Look at verse 3 again. What it says, What time I am afraid, What's that next phrase? What's the next two words?

[17:48] I will. That's a choice. You know, Today I want you To understand You have a choice Of whether you're Going to follow God Or not. Whether you're Going to submit To the things And principles That God has Laid out or not.

[18:01] When you're afraid, It says you can Trust Him. That's a principle That we know From God's word Because David Chose to trust God Because he was confident That God was able To help him.

[18:15] You know, He had a conviction He was understood Solidly that God Was able to help. To trust God. To cast down Those that had Plotted against To take his life.

[18:29] You know, Look at verse 7 Here in our text. It says, Shall they escape By iniquity? In thine anger Cast down the people. Oh God. We see David Affirm that God Is able To deal with those That he's fearful of.

[18:45] He's saying God's able To deal with the situation. The question is Are we willing To let God Deal with the situation? Now, I'll be honest with you As people, What's our first response?

[18:57] Let me take care of it. I can do What I want to do And we make this All work out But the reality is Is that we need To trust God To say, God, I need to trust you That you Have the authority And the power To take care of the situation.

[19:14] To work through Those things And we see here Whether David Was facing The rage of Saul Or the Taunts of the Philistine giant Goliath David recognized That the battle Was not his fight But it was the Lord's.

[19:31] You know, David made that clear In 1 Samuel 17 If you remember We went out to Getting ready To go out To fight Goliath And he makes This statement He says, For the battle Is the Lord's And he will give you Into our hands.

[19:49] It's interesting David didn't say He's going to give them Into my hand He said, Into our hands. In other words, He says, God, I'm trusting you. The same is for us today No matter What battle we face Or the dynamics Going on We understand That God Is over Those things.

[20:08] You know, Take a look over To Psalm 24 For a moment. Psalm 24 Look down at verse 8. Psalm 24 In verse 8 The word of God Says this, Who is the king of glory?

[20:18] The Lord Strong and mighty The Lord mighty In what? Battle. Now I want you to understand That's just not On the battlefield Of wartime But that's in the battles We face in life.

[20:34] That God is mighty In battle. He knows how to deal With the situation. You know, To be victorious In battle You need to know Your enemy And you need to know How to overcome The enemy.

[20:46] You know what? God ultimately Is the one That knows both. He knows all there is To know about the enemy And he knows exactly How to defeat him.

[20:57] When we understand That David Recognized this That God Would secure The victory On his behalf What he's saying When I trust in thee God I know You're going to Secure the victory.

[21:11] It doesn't mean David understood How that was going To come about All the details. You know His old saying That you know The devil's in the details There's a lot more Truth to that Because sometimes We get caught up And the devil Gets a hold of us Our fear In things As the details Work out Because it's not Working out In our expectation.

[21:26] David said I'm leaving Those things Up to the Lord As we walk through Because notice Here look at verse 8 Thou tellest My wanderings Put thou My tears Into thy bottle Are they not Are they not In thy book?

[21:44] You know Here's David Feeling a little bit Overwhelmed David said That he This caused him To weep. You know I want you to understand That's a pretty Powerful dynamic. I remember David had killed The song about David That got him in trouble Was Saul killed His thousands And David his Ten thousands Here's a hardened Warrior Crying before God Pouring his heart Out to God Saying I don't know What to do Life is feeling Overwhelming But I'm going to Trust you To trust him And we see That throughout Scripture God cherishes Those things And the prayers Of the saints Are important To the Lord And the solution To our problems You know Sometimes don't Come quickly Or easy We know That God Sees Our tears He cares For our needs And is able To comfort us I want you to understand As you read Through Psalm 56 David says

[22:44] When I trust in thee It was years yet Before God Overcame all those enemies David didn't cry Unto the Lord And get resolution The next week It took a walk Of trusting with God Through the circumstances And the situations To say God I'm going to walk With you Because we have That reality of fear But a renewal Of trust But also the rest Of faith The rest that we have In him The rest for the soul You know Because faith in God Gives us the ability To stand with confidence And the strength To continue In the battles We face Knowing that our Ultimate victory Is secure You know We talked about that A little bit this morning In the morning message Of trusting God And it causes us To be thankful Knowing that God Has things under control We can confidently Place our trust in God Because we know That he's on Our side

[23:45] Because we cannot Just have the peace Of God Our peace with God But we can experience The peace of God In our life That rest of faith Has to do with The peace That God gives to us In the situations Of life When life seems like I don't know what to do Or how to do it Or how it's going to overcome It's trusting That says God has given me Help and instruction And guidance And the things That are needed To accomplish it That confidence But also a continuance Trusting God Is not a one time thing Salvation is one time But trusting God Is a continual I want you to understand To choose to trust God You don't just wake up One morning And say Okay I'm going to trust God For the rest of my life It'd be nice If it was that easy But you know what You can get up And say that But you know what

[24:45] Pretty soon Life's going to happen And you're going to be Faced with dilemmas And situations And dynamics That you're going to Have to say Do I trust you God Or not Lord do you really Have this situation Or not Because trusting him Says God knows About your situation He knows the details About it And you know God can bring you through You know Consider Look down at verse 11 In our text For a moment David says this He says In God have I put My trust I will not be afraid What man can do Unto me You know what he's saying He says I'm going to continually Trust God Not just intellectually But practically I think this is the Problem we have Because there's two Dynamics with trust There's an intellectual Trust And then there's A practical trust Practical trust Says God I'm going to look

[25:45] For the principles In your word That apply to this Situation And I'm going to Put them into practice Knowing that you have What's needed For the situation An intellectual trust Says God I trust you And then you go about Doing your own thing We can have an Acknowledgement of God's trust But that continual trust Says I'm going to rely Upon you Not myself I'm going to follow Your principles You know sometimes That takes some effort You know to actually Look into God's word Or to get some counsel And say what does God Say about this How should I deal with it Maybe it's dealing With relationships You know if Any relationship I'll put it this way I believe any relationship Can be mended and healed If both parties Practice God's principles You know the problem With most of it Is even amongst believers I trust God But I'm not going to Do what God says They intellectually Trust God But practically It's like I can't I mean let me Give you a good example In relationships

[26:45] Sooner or later If you hang out With somebody long enough They're going to Make you mad They're going to Hurt you Intentionally Unintentionally I'm surprised All the ladies Aren't like Yeah Just remember You chose that Lunkhead He chose you But you know Often I cannot Forgive them You know the problem Is Christ says That we ought to Forgive others Because he forgave us When we understand That God says How can I forgive Because when I Understand who God is And how he forgave me I can let go Of that bitterness And anger Towards the other person There's a practical Thing saying I trust God But you know What most people do They say I trust God But I will not forgive Because I want you To understand The problem is The devil loves To mess that up I'll just clarify Something Because forgiveness Doesn't mean It didn't happen Both parties Might need some Other principles In there Because sometimes The hurt needs Dealt with Scripturally What caused The hurt And both parties

[27:48] In order for Things to heal Forgiveness Is the salve That's put on To allow Something to heal Forgiveness Is what is Available To heal But then you Have to put Into practice The things That cause The offense What does God Say about Those things That's trusting God To say I don't I might not Be comfortable With it But God Says this What I need To do Therefore I'm going To put it Into practice Knowing that God says That it's going To work out For the best If I follow His word Not it Work out For the best If I choose To do my own Thing And I want you To understand You can choose To do the right Thing But somebody else Might not And it might Not turn out The way You think It ought To But it Doesn't Mean God's Wrong It just Means somebody Failed to Trust God Or trust Christ And God Still got you David says That when we Walk with God You can have That trust That's built That continual Dynamic Knowing God Is there You know The devil Loves to try To get us To fear Saying God Doesn't care

[28:48] About this Situation Let me give You something Practical What time I am afraid I will trust In God You know What it Practically It means It's this When the Presence Of fear In my Life Comes I need To make Another Conscious Decision To say I'm going To trust God Right now I'm going To trust God In this Situation You know Look down In verse 13 Of our Text For thou Has Delivered My soul From death Wilt thou Not deliver My feet From falling That I May walk Before God In the Light Of the Living As David Is here At the End of This Psalm He makes A particular Helpful Observation For us That God Has delivered His soul So that he Could confidently Walk in this Life He says that This life Is still in the Context of What God Has You know I want you To understand There's some Areas we Need to Trust God The first Area you Need to Trust God Is for Eternity For salvation You know

[29:48] When the Bible Tells us For God So loved The world That he Gave his Only begotten Son That whosoever Believeth in Him Should not Perish But have Everlasting Life You need To trust God For your Eternity You need To trust God For your Identity Who you Are Who God Made you You know Psalm 139 Tells us This It says I will Praise thee For I Am fearfully And wonderfully Made Marvelous Are thy Works And my Soul Knoweth Right Well You know For who You are That God Made you From the Point of Conception Who you Are God knew Everything About you You can Have confidence That God Didn't make Messed up Choices That they Try to Condem God With I want You to Understand Most of The time Especially David There's a lot Of problems With identity Because people Don't Trust what God

[30:48] Has said They don't Put into Practice what God Has said How about For your Provisions I mean Philippians 4 19 But my God Shall supply All your Needs According to His riches In glory By Christ Jesus You know How about For your Family And you Think about Hannah Who prayed In First Samuel That This child That she Prayed for You know She Wanted God To Give Her A Child And And when She Gets The child If you In First Samuel Chapter 1 It's Interesting If she Tells God Give me a Child That I Will Give him Back To you You know It tells You know It tells You that She Understood Something Very Important That The child God Gives Is still God's For your Service You know What you Do You know As we Trust God It's Important To walk With him To trust Him But to Understand That you Need to Make a Choice When life Comes at You And fear Comes upon Because Fear Presents Itself In a lot

[31:48]  Of Different Ways But in That moment You need To say I'm Going to Trust God I'm Going to Find out What God Says about The situation And that's What I'm Going to Put into Practice Because trusting God isn't Just intellectually It's practical In our Life In whom Do you Trust Do you Trust God Let's Pray Play