WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.199 And this psalm was written either at the time of or in thinking back to the time when David was in the cave fleeing from Saul. 00:00:08.540 --> 00:00:11.460 So 1 Samuel 24, 1-3 describes that time. 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:16.059 It's not the only time he's fleeing from Saul in a cave, but it is a time. 00:00:16.879 --> 00:00:23.580 And when he was in the wilderness of En-Gedi and Saul was literally hunting him down. 00:00:23.579 --> 00:00:31.519 But if you read the psalm, though, without that subtitle in mind, the description of the trouble that David is in is actually pretty generic. 00:00:32.339 --> 00:00:41.459 And I think that's helpful because the generic descriptions make this psalm applicable to a whole variety of situations that we might find ourselves in. 00:00:41.719 --> 00:00:48.920 Whether it's physical trouble, emotional trouble, vocational trouble, relational trouble, or spiritual trouble. 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:54.120 And it teaches us how we should cry out to God. 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:58.400 It says in our troubles that we should cry out to the Lord who is our refuge and portion. 00:00:59.300 --> 00:01:02.079 Verse 3 describes David's plight this way. 00:01:02.179 --> 00:01:05.640 When my spirit faints within me, you know my way. 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:09.120 In the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me. 00:01:09.719 --> 00:01:11.740 So here the psalmist is depleted. 00:01:11.960 --> 00:01:13.740 He feels like he's fainting. 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:15.040 He has no strength left. 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:24.980 And the metaphor of a trap being hunted down suggests panic and fear and feeling like you're being pursued by an adversary. 00:01:25.740 --> 00:01:28.840 And what makes all of this worse is that David's going through it alone. 00:01:29.600 --> 00:01:30.760 He says in verse 4, 00:01:31.320 --> 00:01:32.620 Look to the right and see. 00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:34.740 There is none who takes notice of me. 00:01:35.219 --> 00:01:36.680 No refuge remains to me. 00:01:37.160 --> 00:01:38.680 No one cares for my soul. 00:01:38.680 --> 00:01:42.920 Similarly to the way we use the expression right-hand man, 00:01:43.620 --> 00:01:48.000 because right side is the dominant side for most people in the world, 00:01:48.580 --> 00:01:52.040 right side is where people expected help to come from. 00:01:52.100 --> 00:01:53.960 So it's a metaphor for where help comes from. 00:01:54.620 --> 00:01:58.880 And also when you stand in court, you can see this in Psalm 109 verse 31. 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:03.400 The witness for the defendant stood on the right side. 00:02:03.400 --> 00:02:10.719 And so this is someone that is supposed to help you, be there for you, have your back, come to deliver you. 00:02:11.219 --> 00:02:13.759 But when David looks to his right, there's no one there. 00:02:15.020 --> 00:02:16.480 And so he is all alone. 00:02:17.040 --> 00:02:20.980 He has no refuge, he says, which is a way of escape. 00:02:21.980 --> 00:02:24.000 And his soul is in jeopardy. 00:02:24.060 --> 00:02:26.140 His life, his very life is in jeopardy. 00:02:26.139 --> 00:02:33.619 And so he cries out to the only person who is still there, who is still for him, and that's the Lord. 00:02:34.419 --> 00:02:38.539 The word cry out and other similar verbs are repeated throughout the Psalm. 00:02:38.679 --> 00:02:39.659 Verses 1 to 2 says, 00:02:39.739 --> 00:02:41.979 With my voice I cry out to the Lord. 00:02:42.359 --> 00:02:45.239 With my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. 00:02:45.679 --> 00:02:48.079 I pour out my complaint before him. 00:02:48.399 --> 00:02:50.119 I tell my trouble before him. 00:02:50.779 --> 00:02:52.519 Verses 5 to 6 also says this, 00:02:52.519 --> 00:02:53.899 I cry to you, O Lord. 00:02:54.079 --> 00:02:55.979 I say you are my refuge. 00:02:56.579 --> 00:02:58.259 My portion in the land of the living. 00:02:58.919 --> 00:03:01.959 Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low. 00:03:02.519 --> 00:03:05.339 Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. 00:03:06.359 --> 00:03:13.479 The word refuge repeated from verse 4 and verse 5 are not the same words in Hebrew, but they're synonyms. 00:03:14.279 --> 00:03:19.679 And so you can see kind of how the psalmist goes from recognizing that he has no refuge, humanly speaking. 00:03:20.060 --> 00:03:21.319 No place to turn to. 00:03:21.839 --> 00:03:24.939 And yet in God he has a refuge, a place he can go to. 00:03:24.939 --> 00:03:27.199 And so he cries out to him. 00:03:27.939 --> 00:03:33.120 And I love that expression because I think in English it's very emotive, right? 00:03:33.180 --> 00:03:35.079 To say you're crying out for someone. 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:41.039 It has that kind of visceral desperation, that feel. 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:44.500 And the Hebrew words used here has this similar sense. 00:03:45.099 --> 00:03:47.680 They're very emotive terms. 00:03:47.680 --> 00:04:00.200 And it reminds me of like an infant who cries out because she's completely disposed to the will of others. 00:04:00.740 --> 00:04:03.560 Completely helpless to do anything for him or herself. 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:07.599 There's nothing the infant can do but to cry out. 00:04:08.920 --> 00:04:14.800 Whenever she needs food, whenever she needs diaper change, whenever she needs anything, that's all she can do is cry out. 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:19.259 And really that's the kind of dependence that David is in here. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:23.520 And that we are called to be in with the Lord, to cry out to him, saying, 00:04:23.660 --> 00:04:24.660 I have no other helper. 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:27.920 I have no other refuge but you, O Lord. 00:04:28.120 --> 00:04:29.120 So I cling to you. 00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:30.120 I turn to you. 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:41.519 And that idea of God being our unique refuge is further emphasized with the word that he uses in verse 5 when he says, 00:04:41.660 --> 00:04:45.959 You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:53.959 If you look at Numbers 18, 20, God tells Aaron and his descendants that basically, 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:58.879 You shall have no inheritance in the land, neither shall you have any portion among them. 00:04:58.879 --> 00:05:03.959 I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel. 00:05:04.159 --> 00:05:10.920 So that language of calling God our portion comes from the priests, basically, 00:05:11.079 --> 00:05:15.719 who had no land in the promised land in Israel. 00:05:15.899 --> 00:05:18.180 They had no earthly portion. 00:05:18.420 --> 00:05:19.980 Nothing they can call their own. 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:22.959 But they were completely dependent on God to provide for them. 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:25.360 And they could only say that God is our portion. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:34.360 And that's really, I guess, the spirituality and the dependence that should characterize every Christian. 00:05:35.060 --> 00:05:37.300 That we don't have anything. 00:05:37.780 --> 00:05:39.639 We don't have a portion in this life. 00:05:39.900 --> 00:05:41.400 We don't have a portion in this world. 00:05:41.840 --> 00:05:43.120 All my portion is the Lord. 00:05:43.540 --> 00:05:44.480 He is my inheritance. 00:05:44.759 --> 00:05:45.740 He is my refuge. 00:05:46.259 --> 00:05:48.400 And to him, I will cry out. 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:56.219 And that's the way we relate to our Lord Jesus, who fulfills this psalm. 00:05:56.220 --> 00:06:01.820 When he enters the synagogue in Luke chapter 4, 18 to 19, 00:06:02.220 --> 00:06:07.120 he reads from Isaiah 61 and says that that prophecy is fulfilled in him. 00:06:07.760 --> 00:06:10.000 And among the things that it says, it says that he came, 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:14.160 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. 00:06:14.660 --> 00:06:18.840 He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, 00:06:19.280 --> 00:06:23.200 to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the ear of the Lord's favor. 00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:25.819 That's what Jesus came to do. 00:06:25.939 --> 00:06:29.420 And this is what David anticipates God will do for him in verse 7. 00:06:29.959 --> 00:06:33.300 Bring me out of prison that I may give thanks to your name. 00:06:33.819 --> 00:06:37.139 The righteous will surround me for you will deal bountifully with me. 00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:42.899 The language is metaphorical there as is the case with our redemption in Christ. 00:06:43.099 --> 00:06:44.759 That we are imprisoned. 00:06:45.159 --> 00:06:48.599 We are prisoners enslaved to sin. 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:52.900 But because Jesus dies for us, our sins on the cross, 00:06:53.080 --> 00:06:58.480 he breaks the bondage of the evil ones and the spiritual rulers, 00:06:59.640 --> 00:07:01.720 the hold that they had on our lives. 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:04.340 And in doing that, he redeems us. 00:07:04.460 --> 00:07:10.140 He frees us from our prison and sets us at liberty. 00:07:10.139 --> 00:07:14.399 And because of that, like David who says, 00:07:14.500 --> 00:07:18.180 the righteous will surround me for you will deal bountifully with me. 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:22.399 Hebrews 12 also says that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. 00:07:23.060 --> 00:07:26.139 All these people that God has redeemed who are waiting for us now 00:07:26.139 --> 00:07:31.159 and watching us as we run this race to finish this race to get to the Lord. 00:07:31.899 --> 00:07:34.120 And so whatever situation you might be in, 00:07:34.199 --> 00:07:35.719 whatever troubles you might be facing, 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:40.600 I just want to encourage you to cry out to the Lord who is our only refuge, 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:43.200 our only portion in this life. 00:07:44.200 --> 00:07:46.560 And with that, let's turn to...