Now is the time for the reading and preaching of God's Word, and it's my joy and honor to introduce my friend Eric Raymond.
Eric is quite an accomplished pastor.
He's authored several books, including one entitled Chasing Contentment, Trusting God in a Discontented Age.
And he writes regularly for blogs and websites that I follow, like Nine Marks, Gospel Coalition.
He has a blog entitled Ordinary Pastor that's hosted by the Gospel Coalition website.
He is actually a Massachusetts native but moved to Nebraska because he was with the Air Force and came back to serve as the lead pastor of Redeemer Fellowship Church in Watertown.
I don't know how he finds the time for all the stuff he does, especially with six children, right?
Undoubtedly, he has an excellent helper in his wife, Christy, who's also here with him.
It's an honor to meet you, and I'm glad that you guys could all join us.
But more than any of those things that I've just mentioned, what impresses me the most about Eric is he's a faithful pastor.
He's a faithful, humble, local church pastor, as you can tell from his blog title, Ordinary Pastor.
And he's brought together a group of pastors in the area, and we're calling it the Charles River Pastors Network.
And with his leadership, that's been outside of our local church leadership team.
That's been the single most encouraging group that I've been a part of, extra local, but in this area.
So I'm really grateful for his leadership in that and for his example.
And so I'm really excited for you guys to meet him, to hear from him.
I'm really excited to hear from you, Mike.
So thank you, Eric.
Please come up and preach for us.
Thank you.
Well, thank you very much, Sean.
It's certainly a privilege to be with you guys tonight.
Thank you for the opportunity, and we rejoice with you at the birth of your new baby.
We're grateful to God for his blessing.
And I just want to, on behalf of Redeemer Fellowship Church in Watertown, just want to say we are grateful for you and your witness as a church.
We pray for you guys regularly.
And we're just so thankful for the fellowship in the gospel that we have together as brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's go ahead and turn in our Bibles to Psalm 94, the 94th Psalm.
And this will be the scripture reading for tonight.
I want to read the whole Psalm, and we're going to focus on one verse mainly tonight, and that is verse 19.
So if you go ahead and turn to Psalm 94.
I want to read the whole Psalm, and then pray, and then we'll consider God's word together.
Let's hear God's word.
O Lord, God of vengeance.
O God of vengeance, shine forth.
Rise up, O judge of the earth.
Repay to the proud what they deserve.
O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?
They pour out their arrogant words.
All the evildoers boast.
They crush your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage.
They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless.
And they say, the Lord does not see.
The God of Jacob does not perceive.
Understand, O dullest of the people.
Fools, when will you be wise?
He who planted the ear, does he not hear?
He who formed the eye, does he not see?
He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke?
He who teaches man knowledge, the Lord knows the thoughts of man.
They are but a breath.
Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord,
and whom you teach out of your law,
to give him rest from days of trouble,
until a pit is dug for the wicked.
For the Lord will not forsake his people.
He will not abandon his heritage.
For justice will return to the righteous,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.
Who rises up for me against the wicked?
Who stands up for me against evildoers?
If the Lord had not been my help,
my soul would have soon lived in the land of silence.
When I thought, my foot slips,
your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.
Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
those who frame injustice by statute?
They band together against the life of the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
But the Lord has become my stronghold,
and my God, the rock of my refuge.
He will bring back on them their iniquity
and wipe them out for their wickedness.
The Lord, our God, will wipe them out.
This is the word of God.
Let's pray.
Our Father, it is our prayer tonight
that you would take the reading of this word
and bless it to our ears,
and to our hearts, and to our lives.
Help us now, we pray, to hear this word,
hear the scriptures,
for they are life to us.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
As I mentioned, I want to focus on verse 19.
What we have in this verse here
is an abundance of cares
and sufficient consolation from God.
We have a psalm here
where the psalmist is enduring
some season of difficulty.
We're not sure precisely what it is.
It doesn't lay it out for us.
But we can be sure that the opposition
was directed at him personally
and in large part because of his faith in God.
That's this contrast between the wicked
and the righteous.
And really, what's helpful about this psalm
is that the precise circumstances
are not important for us to nail down,
to take application from it.
But rather, we can see how God helps him
amid his difficulty.
And what we'll see tonight,
really as our main point,
is that God consoles his children
amidst swelling concerns.
God consoles his children
amidst their swelling concerns.
And we see it in verse 19.
When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.
So it's really three progressions for us
in seasons of uncertainty.
And these progressions begin with the problem.
The overwhelming concerns.
The prescription,
divine consolations.
And the prognosis,
personal contentment.
So we'll see those three tonight.
First, the problem,
overwhelming concerns.
We see in verse 19,
he says,
when the cares of my heart are many,
this word that's rendered cares
could be worries.
So he could be saying,
the worries of my heart are many.
Or the anxious thoughts of my heart are many.
You get the idea.
It's what's heavy upon his mind.
It's what he wakes up thinking about.
What he goes to bed thinking about.
What occupies his mind
as his brain goes into neutral.
It's a disquieting concern
that he can't get off of his mind.
And for the psalmist,
likely there's some degree of personal attacks
that he's dealing with.
But really,
what issue he's facing
that really exacerbates the problem
is not primarily the issue
that he's facing with people,
but rather the issue
that he perceives
that God is not doing anything about it.
What really seems to vex him
is that he wants to see God act
in the midst of it.
And the lack of action,
according to his perception,
causes him to be discouraged
and even have anxiety multiplied.
And that's what ends up tying him in knots.
We see in the first seven verses
where he's making the case for God to act.
He's petitioning God.
He's calling him a God of vengeance.
And he's asking him to judge
and to deal with those who are proud.
In verses one through three,
he's basically saying,
God, you're a judge
who punishes those who do wrong.
And in then verses four through seven,
he's laying out the case for them
and their need for punishment.
He's talking about arrogant words,
evildoers,
crushing the people,
afflicting your heritage.
They're attacking those who you love.
They kill the widow.
They murder the fatherless.
And they even mock God
to say that the God of Jacob
does not see.
This is brutal stuff.
The psalmist's question is,
why isn't God doing anything?
There's many concerns.
Notice even the plural.
When the cares of my heart are many.
Multiple cares, many.
Swelling concerns.
I wonder if you can relate to the psalmist.
Many concerns.
Do you have any concerns?
Perhaps a concern to go with
every hour or every minute of the day.
Swelling concerns,
like bees buzzing around the head.
Insects that won't leave you alone.
These concerns that just seem to weigh on you.
Do you find it difficult
to collect your thoughts
and process through burdens?
Do you have any concerns tonight?
Do you have anxieties and fears?
Kind of expanding fears,
expanding anxieties,
crowding together.
Very difficult to subdue and rule them.
They just dominate.
We know really across the world right now,
with COVID-19,
there's swelling fears.
Constant concerns.
There's a spread of a virus.
There's health for yourself
and for others.
We're constantly hit with numbers
of cases and deaths,
spread, rates, hospitalizations.
We're always reminded of the stats.
And even the news anchors
and the news articles
and the websites
just seem to,
if you might be not having an anxious day,
seem to just throw gasoline on the fire
and cause it even to fan into a flame
of more anxiety and more concern.
There's economic impact of the virus.
There's political concerns
as a result of it.
There's anxiety multiplying
throughout our time.
That's just one issue
that happens to be served up to us
right now
that causes
a collective,
global swelling of concerns.
But then even in our lives,
I've been in pastoral ministry
to know that
in most churches,
there's relationship issues
even within the church
and within extended family
and friends in workplace.
There's relationship burdens
that we have.
We have friends that have suffered.
We have friendships
that have suffered.
We have people that have died.
Some have died
in the midst of this COVID time.
And it's very difficult
for people to grieve
and say goodbye
to family and loved ones.
There's wayward children
who grow up believing
and then walk away
from the faith.
Then there's personal concerns.
Your future,
school,
work,
marriage,
where the church is going to meet.
When is it going to go back to normal?
All of the things that we want.
These swelling concerns
that come up.
And then personal depression,
anxiety,
bitterness over the past,
uncertainty over the future.
And then there's the spiritual concern.
Guilt over personal sin.
What do I do with my sin?
Is God angry?
What about these evil thoughts
in my mind
or impure thoughts
that circle through the mind
like gnats?
Or anger or frustration
or doubts about God?
Or feeling personally
far from God
like God is withdrawn?
Hard time reconciling
what's going on in the world
with what we read in the Bible.
These are just examples
of swelling concerns
that could fill out
our personal prayer list
before the Lord.
And as of yet,
we're not intending
to solve the problem.
We're just trying to show
the commonness
of swelling concerns
at this point.
When the concerns
of our heart are many,
what do we do?
Well, that's the problem.
Overwhelming concerns.
Now, what do we do about it?
That's the prescription.
The verse says,
when the cares of my heart
are many,
the overwhelming concerns,
what is the prescription?
It is divine consolations
or sacred care.
This is the prescription.
If you have swelling concerns,
according to the psalmist,
it's divine consolations.
We need God
to care for us.
We're intended to see
the medicine
that handles
the sickness.
You see how it's
side by side
in verse 19.
Cares of my heart,
your consolations.
Many cares,
many consolations.
It's as if
there is a consolation
in God
for every one
of our swelling concerns.
This is an outstanding statement.
It's a bold statement
that God is able
to console
the cares
of every one
of his children.
Well, think about this.
The psalmist
is endeavoring
in this psalm
to understand
his circumstances
in light
of God's character.
See, this is a problem
we face often.
So often
when we get into
this analysis
of swelling concerns,
we're dealing
with the concerns
of our circumstances
or things
that are in our mind,
we look through
the lens
of our circumstance
and we see
God's character.
And we say,
based upon what
I'm dealing with,
God must be like this.
So for example,
if things are difficult,
we might feel like
God doesn't love us
because we expect
things to be easy.
So through our circumstances,
we look at God's character.
But the Bible teaches us
to look a different way.
Instead of looking
at our circumstances
and making judgment
upon God's character,
we're to look at
God's character
and then judge
our circumstances.
So we should evaluate
our circumstances
in light of the character
of God
and not the other way around.
Because when we do that,
we're always going
to have trouble.
And that's what
the psalmist teaches us
here in the psalm.
He goes to God
as the source
of His consolations,
His character.
And what are some things
that we see about God?
Well, in general,
just in thinking about
dealing with concerns,
we need to be reminded
of the fact
that God is sovereign.
God is in control.
The coronavirus
may have caught
the World Health Organization
by surprise,
the CDC,
the President
of the United States,
and many of us,
but it didn't catch God
by surprise.
He's sovereign
over everything.
He's in absolute control.
Psalm 115, verse 3,
Our God is in the heavens.
He does whatever
He pleases.
Isaiah 46.10,
He declares the end
from the beginning.
From ancient times
to things not done,
saying,
My counsel shall stand.
I will accomplish
my good purpose.
But not only is God
sovereign,
but He's also good.
I'm sure you see
the need for God
to be good
as well as sovereign.
If He was just sovereign,
He might be
a malevolent dictator.
But He's sovereign
and it's paired
with His goodness.
So His all power
is combined
with His all goodness.
Psalm 119, verse 68
says,
You are good
and you do good.
Teach me your statutes.
For you, O Lord,
Psalm 86.5,
are good and forgiving.
O give thanks to the Lord
for He is good.
Psalm 107, verse 1.
He's good
and He's sovereign.
He's also faithful.
He keeps His word.
If He makes a promise to you,
you can take it to the bank.
You can trust it.
You can cling to it.
Like an oak
that will not be moved,
God is trustworthy.
Psalm 25, 8, 9.
Good and upright
is the Lord.
Therefore He instructs
sinners in the way.
He leads the humble
in what is right.
We know the verse,
Romans 8, 28,
which says,
We know that for those
who love God,
all things work together
for good.
For those who are called
according to His purpose.
So God is a God who cares.
He's sovereign.
He's good.
He's faithful.
And we need to remember
these things
when we are dealing
with swelling concerns.
And that's what we end up
seeing from the text
is that the psalmist,
in the midst of his
pleading to God,
he finds himself instructed
and he's grabbing a hold
of God's character.
And what he's clinging to
is God's word,
His work and His worth,
who God is.
And he makes it very personal.
Did you notice when we read that
how many personal pronouns
he used?
He's dealing with himself
and the Lord.
Look at verses 16-19.
Who rises up for me
against the wicked?
Who stands up for me
against the evildoers?
If the Lord had not been my help,
my soul would have lived
in the land of silence.
When I thought,
my foot slips,
your steadfast love
held me up.
When the cares of my heart
are many,
your consolations cheer
my soul.
Verse 22,
but the Lord has become
my refuge
and the rock
of my refuge,
my stronghold.
So we see that God's care,
His goodness to His people.
And He does it in surprising ways.
These might be not ways
that you would think about God
caring for His people,
but it is in fact
what the psalmist grabs onto.
In verse 12,
He says,
blessed is the man
whom you discipline.
An evidence of God's care
for His people
is discipline.
I'm sure you can think
of a passage
in the New Testament
that teaches this,
Hebrews chapter 12,
that teaches us
that God loves His children
and He disciplines us.
One of the ways
that shows that He actually
cares for us
is He doesn't let us
ruin our lives
and the life of everybody else.
He cares for us
and disciplines us
like a loving
and faithful father.
And that's what the psalmist
is grabbing onto.
Blessed is the man
whom you discipline,
even Himself.
And then He teaches us.
Verse 12,
the second half of it,
He teaches us
out of His law.
He teaches us
from the Scriptures.
These are good gifts of God.
These consolations of God.
Verse 13,
He gives rest
in the days of trouble.
Those who are weary
and heavy laden,
He gives rest
for their souls.
Here in anticipation
through the pages of Scripture,
but ultimately
in Jesus Christ
He gives us rest.
He's also faithful.
Verse 14,
you will not forsake
His people.
This is the consolation
as He's dealing
with this swelling concern.
He's reminding Himself,
God loves me.
He disciplines me
because I am a son.
He teaches me His law.
He gives me rest.
He's faithful.
He will not forsake me.
Even verse 15,
justice will return
to the righteous.
He will vindicate you.
He's reminded
that God's going to care
for His people
and absolutely vindicate Him.
Verse 16,
He defends His people.
Who will rise up
for me against the wicked?
Who stands up for me
against evildoers?
The answer is God.
God will do this.
See how He's consoling Himself
upon God.
It's as if His soul
is restless,
but He's laying upon
the pillow
of God's character
and He's being consoled
and saying,
this is who God is.
this is what I need
to remember.
He's being brought back
to health
through His contemplation
of God.
Verse 17,
If the Lord had not been
my help,
my soul would have lived
in the land of silence.
He's reminding Himself
that God has helped him.
Has God helped you?
Has God been your defense?
Has God proven
His faithfulness to you?
Has God given you rest?
Has He taught you
from His Word?
Has He disciplined you?
Then verse 18,
He's the sustainer.
When I thought my foot slips,
your steadfast love,
O Lord,
held me up.
We're basically like,
we're like toddlers
walking on ice.
And God is like
the loving Father
with His arms
underneath our arms
helping us to move.
We'll make a hash
of everything.
But God is faithful.
And He's being reminded
that I didn't slip
not because I'm so good,
but because God is so good.
And because He's so faithful.
The consolations
of God
are cheering His soul.
And then verse 19,
He's the consoler.
When the cares of my heart
are many,
your consolations
cheer my soul.
They console
like a crying baby
that's been consoled
and cared for
by her mother.
That is the psalmist.
And even further,
you have God's character.
He's no ally of the wicked.
He will never partner
with lawless.
It says in verse 20,
the wicked rulers
cannot be allied with you.
He's a refuge
for His people.
Verse 22,
the Lord has become
my stronghold
and the refuge.
My refuge.
And He's the judge.
He is going to vindicate
His character.
Verse 23,
He will bring back on them
their iniquity.
He will wipe them out
for their wickedness.
There are limitations
to human justice,
but there is no limitation
to divine justice.
Everyone will stand
before Almighty God,
the judge,
and give an account.
You can take it to the bank.
He will vindicate
His righteousness
and judgment.
You may not see them
judged in this life,
but you will see them
judged in the age to come.
And that should console you
when you see evil people,
wicked people,
people who do great harm
to people,
oppressed and injustice
and hurt people,
go through life
and seemingly get off
scot-free.
They don't get off scot-free.
They will stand before
an Almighty judge
and that consoles
the psalmist.
It's not that God
has forgotten.
It's that God
is forbearing.
And there is a time
coming when He will
judge everyone.
And that reminds them
that God is good.
So you have the blessing
of divine care
for Him individually.
You have the blessing
of God's character.
And so in the midst
of this whole season
where He's working
through this difficulty,
He's reminded
that the preciousness
of God's consolations
is not in the absence
of difficulty
but in the promises
of God.
See, listen,
we oftentimes think
that if things are difficult,
that means that God
is angry.
Or if things are hard,
that means things
are not going the way
they should be going.
That's because we like
things to go easy
and we want things
to be comfortable.
But we just have to look
at the Lord Jesus Christ
and know that that's not
the way it works
even for the faithful.
Oftentimes,
difficulty comes to us
for the purpose
of strengthening us
and making us
more like Christ.
To endure suffering well.
The psalmist would not
have known God's consolations
if he had not felt
the provocations
around him
and the roaring sea within.
He's brought to be
consoled by God
because his soul
is disquieted
in the midst
of difficulty.
In other words,
your comfort in this world
is not primarily
an easy path
but a faithful God.
Your consolation
is God himself,
not an easy life.
If you're equating
God's love for you
with the absence
of difficulty,
you end up distorting
what the Bible says
about God
and what it says
about us.
And if we do so,
even subtly,
we are nibbling
at the hook
of the prosperity gospel
which teaches
that this life
is all about
our personal prosperity
and if we don't
experience that,
there's something wrong
with God or us.
That's a lie from hell.
Look at Jesus
and see what he went through.
We know that he was
the most faithful man
who ever lives.
Think of the hymn,
Fear not,
I am with thee,
O be not dismayed,
for I am thy God
and will still give thee aid.
I'll strengthen thee,
help thee,
and cause thee to stand
upheld by my righteous,
omnipotent hand.
He's with us
in the midst of it.
It wasn't ease
that made him smile,
but God's preciousness
to him.
Remember Herod
in Acts chapter 12,
he was scared
sitting on his throne,
but the apostle Paul
and Silas
were singing in prison.
On the one hand,
Herod had a guilty conscience
and he was terrified.
Paul and Silas
had a clean conscience
and they were rejoicing.
It's all about your respect
to God
one way or the other.
So what are some
practical examples?
Let's just think about this.
How do you practically
do this?
How do you take this medicine
on the day-to-day?
How do you do that?
We don't want to let anxiety
or fear live rent-free
in our head
where we're just constantly
going in this place
of anxiety and fear
and this constant
swelling concerns
of our hearts.
We want to be the landlord
of our mind.
We want to take
every thought captive
as 2 Corinthians chapter 10
verse 5 says
in obedience to Christ.
Take every example
you can think of
and take it
in obedience to Christ.
Is there suffering?
Take it into
obedience with Christ.
Think of this
the whole COVID crisis.
What is the root concern
that everybody has?
The root concern
is not contracting
the virus.
The root concern
why people are
freaking out
and so upset
is people are scared
to die.
That's the issue.
We're scared to die
as a people.
That's enslavement
to a fear of death.
Hebrews chapter 2
tells us that
in verses 14 through 18.
But the reality is
for the Christian
he says that he has
freed us
from slavery
to a fear of death
through Jesus Christ.
Or anxiety
about the future.
We trust in God
who's in control.
Jesus tells his followers
in Matthew chapter 6
basically take a walk
and look at the birds.
see them neither
laboring or toiling
but they're fed.
God knows how to
take care of the birds.
He can take care of you.
Is it grief or sadness?
Remember that this God
according to Psalm 56
verse 8
he puts our tears
in his bottle.
He doesn't have a literal
bottle where he catches
our tears
but it's a way of
communicating that
God is near to you
in the midst of your sorrow
gathering up your tears.
He loves you
and cares for you.
This is our God.
Is it doubt
over your own acceptance
with God?
Is that the cause
of the anxiety?
Do you believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Have you trusted in him?
Is he your Savior
and Lord?
Then he's yours.
He's your Lord.
He's your Savior.
If you trusted in him
if you turned from your sin
your sin is gone.
And listen to Romans 8
trying to nail this down
for us
verses 31 through 34
what shall we say
to these things?
If God is for us
who can be against us?
He who did not
spare his own son
but gave him up for us all
how will he also
not with him
graciously give us
all things?
Who will bring a charge
against God's elect?
It is God who justifies.
Who's there to condemn?
Christ Jesus
is the one who died.
More than that
who was raised?
Who is at the right hand
interceding for us?
As the hymn writer says
that soul
that on Jesus
has leaned for repose
I will not
desert to his foes.
That soul
though all hell
should endeavor to shake
I will never
no never
forsake.
That soul
that leans upon Christ
will never forsake.
So isolate
the source fear
that is causing
the raging concerns
and take the proper medicine
the divine consolation
find your rest
in God.
And then we see
the results
the prognosis
personal contentment.
You see swelling concerns
you see divine consolations
and then finally
personal contentment.
What I think is so interesting here
is that most of our concerns
that you and I have
are external to us.
We worry about all kinds of things
of natural life
and that's fine
that's right
God cares about these things
but the solution
to dealing with
most of our concerns
is internal.
God works from the inside out.
The medicine is applied
to the heart
the soul.
It's the storm
on the inside
that needs quieting
first
before the outside.
Just like the sea of Galilee
Jesus speaks a word
of peace
to our hearts.
You see the phrase
in verse 19
when the cares of my heart
are many
your consolations
cheer
my soul.
This word
cheer
means to delight
or have pleasure.
It expresses refreshment
and satisfaction
it's another word
for contentment.
It's even used
in Isaiah 66 12
to describe the care
that a mother
provides to a restless child.
Listen to Isaiah 66 12 and 13
For thus says the Lord
Behold I will extend
peace to her
that is his people
like a river
in the glory of the nations
like an overflowing stream
and you shall nurse
and you shall be carried
upon her hip
and bounced on her knee
that is the word
cheered
bounced upon her knees
as one whom the mother
comforts
so I will comfort you
you shall be comforted
in Jerusalem.
This is how God
deals with his people.
In the midst of
swelling concerns
the divine consolations
cheer the soul
like a baby's
crying eyes
go to laughing
on the mother's
bouncing knee.
The look of affirmation
love
care
acceptance
providing love
and just
being close
to one's mother
takes the swelling
concerns
to cheer
and that's what Isaiah
is saying
look at a mother
console her child
and see
that's how God's
consolations
cheer his people.
This is how God
deals with us.
This is superior
comfort
to our
issues.
See food
may nourish the body
wine
can cheer the heart
music
soothes
the ear
art
can captivate
the eyes
sleep
refreshes
the body
but the only
thing
that consoles
the heart
and soul
is the
consolation
of God.
That's the only
thing
that ultimately
brings rest.
And you know
if we think about
the Lord Jesus Christ
we could see him
in the midst
of this verse
when the cares
of his heart
were many
your consolations
cheered
his soul.
Do you remember
Jesus in the
garden of Gethsemane?
There when he
told his disciples
to pray
and he goes
and he said
his soul
was distressed
and dispirited
to the point
of death
and he fell
upon the ground
and he pleaded
with his father
pleading with him
to take the cup
of wrath
which was going
to be the judgment
upon our sin
which he was going
to bear.
He said
if it is your will
will you allow
this cup
to pass for me?
Nevertheless
not my will
but your will
be done.
In the midst
of great agony
in the garden
Jesus is faced
with the agony
of the cup
but his consolation
is ultimately
in the will
of God
and nevertheless
not my will
but your will
be done.
He rests
in God's will
in his character
as the swelling
concerns of his heart
were many
he was cheered
even by the will
of God
and that's what
we end up reading
in verses 1 and 2
of Hebrew.
Look to the Jesus
the founder
and perfecter
of our faith
for the joy
that was set
before him
endured the cross
despised the shame
and is seated
at the right hand
of God.
Jesus is the model
of being consoled
by God
and the joy
set before him.
He's also the motivation
for us to live
in that way.
We look at Jesus
the one who lived
for us
died for us
and was raised
on the third day
and we see him
in the way
that he bore up
under such anguish
and we're reminded
that God cares for us
because of what Christ
has done
and we find ourselves
clinging to him.
He is the consoler
for the weary soul.
We find our rest
in him.
We can be content
in God
because he supplies
our need.
So in the midst
of a pandemic
of fear,
anxiety,
and uncertainty
the soul's medicine
is God himself.
His consolations
cheer our soul.
So I trust
that today
and this week
in the midst
of constant alerts,
bad news,
difficult phone calls,
tough conversations,
personal,
spiritual,
relational,
physical issues,
that your reflex
is going to be
to worry
and to be filled
with anxiety
and just march
and step
with everyone else
that's filled
with anxiety.
But I trust
that you may remember
by God's grace
the kindness
of the Holy Spirit
if you be reminded
of this verse
that when the cares
of my heart
are many,
your consolations
cheer my soul.
Your soul
can be cheered
by divine consolations.
May God
be pleased
to make that so
this week
for all of us.
Let's pray.
Our Father,
we are very needy
people
and we thank you
that our neediness
finds your sufficiency.
Everything we need
and we lack
you have provided
for us in Christ.
Christ.
And so we thank you
for your wonderful grace,
your patience,
and your mercy.
And we do pray
that in the midst
of this time
in particular
that we would find
ourselves resting
upon you
and your consolations,
your character
and your commitment
to your people.
Forgive us
for the ways
in which we turn away
and we reflect
the old nature
and demonstrate
an unbelief
and a lack of faith.
We pray that we
would wear out
a new path,
one that goes back
to Christ
and we find
our rest in Him,
the one who is gentle
and lowly
and humble
and welcomes us
with a light burden
and a yoke
that is easy
to give rest
for our souls.
I pray that we
would rejoice
in our Lord Jesus Christ
and we would cling
to your Word.
And I pray, Lord,
for this church,
Trinity Cambridge,
that you would use
the people of this church
to be an encouragement
to one another,
to remind one another,
to speak the truth
and love,
reminding each other
of the divine consolations,
to cheer the souls
in the midst
of swelling concerns.
And I pray
for a faithful witness
to those outside
of Christ
in the church
to speak the good word
of the gospel
where one might find
hope and peace
in the midst
of their own
swelling concerns.
Thank you
for your sufficiency
in the midst
of our weakness.
Thank you
for your love
in the midst
of our great need.
We pray
in Jesus' name.
Amen.