Thank you.
When others seem to be against you and there's nothing you can do to change it, when you
feel that there's no easy escape from the difficulties you are facing, what do you do?
How do you respond in hard circumstances?
And you know, your circumstances may be severe or they may be trivial.
You may be facing a life-threatening illness or you may have spilled your coffee all over
your clothes five minutes before you walked out the door to come to church this morning.
But no matter how serious or how trivial your circumstances, when they are difficult, when
they are hard, things aren't going your way.
How do you respond?
I don't know if you're like me, but I know that I have an unerring heart response to it,
and that is that I want to fix it.
And I might fix it by trying to correct it and make it right, or I might want to fix it
by escaping it and simply getting out of it.
But whatever I'm trying to do, my heart cry is, make it stop.
Whatever the circumstance I'm facing, I want to make it stop, either by making it right or
by removing myself from it.
And you know, I don't just simply want to make it stop, but I become consumed by it.
I find that this then becomes my number one priority when life doesn't go the way I think
it ought to, is how do I fix it?
And in doing this, then all of my life energies and all of my thoughts, and in fact, the very
affections of my heart, become focused on this task of somehow addressing my situation, my circumstances.
I become distracted from everything else by this.
And you know what I find?
I become a fairly joyless person when I do this.
When I am trying to fix my life one way or another, I am not a joyful person.
Maybe you, like me, are tempted in those situations to run, to escape somehow, to find some pleasure of the world,
some distraction, some little entertainment.
Some little entertainment to take the sting out of your disappointment.
Some of you may have the impulse to become the crusader, to not only fix it in your life, but to fix the whole world so it will never happen again.
But whatever it is, the driving force is, in the face of hard circumstances, to want to fix in some way or another.
And where is God in this?
Where is God in this process of wanting to fix the world?
Well, it seems that often, as circumstances are hard, as things don't go our way, as it builds up over time, our hearts turn to bitterness, resentment.
We question God.
We ask God, God, why does it have to be so hard?
And that's if we account for God at all.
Sometimes, in the midst of a circumstance that we want to fix, we just exclude Him altogether.
And in our frustration and our drivenness or our escapism or whatever it is, we end up actually living in despair because there's no God in there at all.
It's just us and our circumstances.
Well, as we turn to Psalm 57 this morning, we will find that there is another way.
I forgot to note it, but it's in your bulletin.
It's probably right in the middle of your Bible, Psalm 57, if you want to turn there with me.
And as we turn and look at that together, this psalm is going to point us beyond our circumstances.
It's going to point us to something else.
Today, our psalm points us to the glory of God.
And so, let's read it together and then explore it.
Psalm 57.
Be merciful to me, O God.
Be merciful to me.
For in you, my soul takes refuge.
In the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge.
Till the storms of destruction pass by, I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me.
He will send from heaven and save me.
He will put to shame Him who tramples me.
God will send out His steadfast love and His faithfulness.
My soul is in the midst of lions.
I lie down among fiery beasts, the children of man whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let your glory be over all the earth.
They set a net for my steps.
My soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my way.
But they have fallen into it themselves.
My heart is steadfast, O God.
My heart is steadfast.
I will sing and make melody.
Awake, my glory.
Awake, O harp and lyre.
I will awake the dawn.
I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples.
I will sing praises to You among the nations.
For Your steadfast love is great to the heavens and Your faithfulness to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let Your glory be over all the earth.
Let's pray.
God, we pray this morning that You would show us Your glory.
Even as Moses long ago stood on the mountain and pleaded for You, saying,
Who will we be, God, if You do not go with us?
So go with us and show us Your glory.
God, we pray this morning that You would show us Your glory.
That our hearts might be captured by all the greatness of who You are.
Spirit, we pray that You would open our hearts to the truth of Your Word this morning.
I pray that You would give me words to speak.
That You would be exalted, O God.
That Your glory would be seen.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
When you look at the superscription, you realize the situation that David is in.
Remember, this is David who at the tender age of, we don't know, young,
he was anointed to be the future king of Israel while he was still a shepherd of his father's sheep.
We know that he was the one who God led to the front lines in the battle against the Philistines
and won a tremendous victory over the giant Goliath and sent the enemies of God's people scattering.
This is the David who was brought in to the king's house,
who was made a leader and a captain in the army and who had great success.
And yet, as we see in the superscription, he is now in a cave pursued by that very king.
Saul is now seeking his life in his jealousy, in his hard heart.
He has now spent time pursuing David, and David is on the run.
David's army is outmanned six to one probably.
A small band against a large army seeking to capture and destroy him.
And not only that, but David has become poison to others who seek to help him.
Earlier in the account in 1 Samuel, if you remember a couple weeks ago,
Pastor Nick preached on the psalm that talked about Doeg the Edomite.
Those who helped David lost their lives because of the vengeful wrath of Saul.
His circumstances were dire.
You see how he describes them in the psalm.
In verse 1, he says, they are like a storm of destruction.
Verse 2 says, they want to trample me.
I'm sorry, verse 4.
They want to trample me.
It says that they are like…
He is surrounded like a man camping out in the wilderness
where he knows that there are dangerous wild beasts
and that he's encircled by these lions prowling.
Imagine him putting his head down every night,
and every snap of a twig,
every sound that he doesn't know what it is
will make him jump.
That's the kind of danger that he is in.
They're like hunters laying traps with nets and pits
to capture him and to destroy him.
They seek his death.
And in the midst of these most difficult circumstances,
and in the face of the disappointment that he must be feeling
and at times he must have, you would have thought,
humanly thought,
God, what are you doing?
I'm going to be the anointed king,
and I'm hiding in a cave.
In the midst of this,
David does not seek to fix his circumstances.
He does not seek, in fact, to escape his situation.
But instead, he employs a different strategy
to respond to his circumstances.
Rather than fixing his circumstances,
he fixes his heart and his eyes on the glory of God.
And this is what I want us to hear this morning,
is that it is not in fixing our circumstances,
but in fixing our eyes on the glory of God,
that there is real help for us today.
Want to unpack the word glory?
John already did it some at the beginning of the service,
but just to take it one step further,
in the Old Testament,
according to a biblical scholar,
the Old Testament,
the word translated glory
was originally expressed in the idea of weight.
And so glory came to be applied
to the characteristic of a person
that makes him weighty,
that makes him…
that is, that in the eyes of other people,
they are seen as weighty,
and it prompts them to honor him.
And to respect him.
So it is the characteristics of a person
that makes them honorable or praiseworthy.
And that's what glory is.
And you see in this psalm,
this refrain in verse 5 and verse 11,
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let your glory be seen over all the earth.
And this is David's cry in the midst of his circumstances.
And as we see that refrain frame our psalm,
we see it gives us our structure as well.
The first part of the psalm gives us
David looking to a God
whose glory fills him with confidence.
And the second part from 6 to 11 is
David looking to a God
whose glory fills him with praise.
So first,
a God whose glory gives him confidence.
One of the things that struck me
is that this psalm starts out like a lament.
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful.
And many other psalms will continue in this strain
for long…
for verse upon verse upon verse.
But David almost immediately in this psalm
turns to statements instead of confidence.
He knew how needy he was
and how dire his circumstance was.
He said,
God, I need your mercy.
I need your grace.
I need you to save me
because I can't save myself.
I need you to be my refuge
because I don't have the wherewithal
to be my own refuge.
And yet, in the midst of all of that neediness,
he says,
God, I am confident in you.
Look, in verse 2, he says,
I am confident that you are a God
who will fulfill your purposes in my life.
My life is in your hands
and I won't be let go.
Verse 3 is confidence.
He will send from heaven and save me.
He will send his steadfast love
and his faithfulness.
He will put to shame those who trample me.
He had confidence in God
that he would do all of these things.
He had confidence because he knew
that God was a God
who was able to do all of these things.
Think about David's story.
Think about what he could remember.
In his past,
he saw God help him
as he was a shepherd
fighting against lions and wolves
and God preserved his life.
He saw God preserve him
as he walked onto the battlefield
against Goliath.
He saw God preserve him
when Saul tried to kill him
while he was still living
in the palace.
David had seen God's faithfulness
and there was a track record of it.
There was also a promise.
There was a promise of the anointing
that David had received
that Samuel came and anointed him
and said,
you will be the king one day.
How will God anoint him
and then kill him?
He will live.
To reign on the throne of Israel.
And not only that,
but David's confidence
is in the steadfast love
and faithfulness of God.
You see it in verse 3.
And friends,
any Hebrew reading this text,
these words,
steadfast love and faithfulness,
will resound.
And I'm hoping you will hear me
say this enough from this pulpit
that you'll begin to see it
for yourself.
Steadfast love and faithfulness,
these are the words
that God used on Mount Sinai
when Moses cried out,
God, show me your glory.
God said,
you can't see my glory and live,
but I will put you
in the cleft of the rock
and I will pass by
and I will declare to you my name.
And the name is the Lord,
the Lord,
slow to anger and abounding
in steadfast love
and faithfulness.
This is who God is.
And David knew that.
And so both from the past faithfulness of God
and the future promises of God
and the covenant reality
of who God is
and how he has revealed himself,
David faced his situation
with great confidence.
Now some of you
may be sitting there and thinking,
how could he do that?
I mean, really,
how could God
be trustworthy
if all these terrible things
are happening to David?
And maybe you're asking that question
because that's a question
you ask in your own life.
How can God be trustworthy?
How can this glory be so wonderful
if my life is so messed up,
if my life is so hard,
if my circumstances
don't get better?
How can God be good?
Friends, that's a huge question.
I can't give you the full-blown answer.
But what I want you to see
is that David's confidence
and our confidence,
while it may not be watertight,
it is reasonable.
Because we too can look back
and see God's faithfulness.
For many of you,
you can think of instances
in your life
when God has provided for you,
when God has protected you,
when God has taken care of you
in particular ways.
And God wants you to remember
those times
and cling to them
when you don't see Him
doing it right now.
There are promises
that God has given
to His people.
I will never leave you
nor forsake you.
Though you die,
yet you will live
if you have believed in Me.
There are promises
that God has given.
He is a heavenly Father
who knows what you need.
He will not give you stone
when you ask Him for bread.
And so there's both
past faithfulness
and future promises
that are yours
as much as they are
for David.
And so there is a reasonableness
to trusting in God
even when right now
you can't see it.
because the glory of God
has been revealed
in so many various ways,
in so many rich ways,
that David's confidence
is reasonable.
And I say to you,
it is reasonable as well
for you
to have confidence
in this,
in this God,
in this God
who has shown His glory
in so many ways.
most of all,
and we'll return
to this later,
in the cross
of Jesus Christ,
He who loved us enough
to die in our place
and to take our sin
and to rise again,
God would not let
His anointed one
see death,
but He would let Him live.
He would raise Him again.
And that is the ground
of our confidence
because that is the display
of the glory of God.
And so for you this morning,
the question I wanted to ask is,
do you let your circumstances
define you?
Have you allowed your desire
to fix your circumstances,
to consume you,
and to distract you?
Father,
friends,
our psalm this morning
points us to a different way,
to confess your need for God,
to rehearse His faithfulness
and His promises to you.
And it is okay
to cry out for help.
It is good to say,
God, will You help me
in my circumstances?
Will You heal me?
Will You reconcile
this situation?
It is okay to cry out
for those things
and to ask God
to do them.
But ultimately,
our confidence
is not in God
doing those things,
but in the glory
of God Himself.
That He is a God
who can save you
from every circumstance.
And if He can,
if He will,
He can.
He can save you
and so we set our heart
and our hope
on Him.
The second half
of the psalm
moves beyond
just this statement
of confidence
in God
to an even,
perhaps,
more surprising
response.
For we see
David
fixing his eyes
on a God
whose glory
fills him
with praise.
in the midst
of his circumstances,
he is in the back
of the cave
and likely,
not only is he
in the back
of the cave,
but Saul
and his army
are camped
in the front
of the cave
between him
and the exit.
David is not
filled with worry
or fear.
Instead,
he is filled
with praise.
Look with me
again at the psalm
starting in verse 7.
My heart is steadfast,
O God.
My heart is steadfast.
I will sing
and make melody
to you.
He calls
to his heart,
awake!
He calls
to the instruments,
awake!
He says,
I will be up
before the dawn.
I will awaken
the dawn
with my praises
to this God
in the middle
of these
incredibly hard
circumstances.
He would be
the one singing,
crown him
with many crowns,
the Lamb upon
the throne.
Awake,
my soul,
and sing
of him
who died
for me.
This is what's
happening
in David's heart.
He's not looking
at his circumstances.
He's looking
up at the glory
of God
and his heart
is filled
with praise.
And we see
again in verses
9 and 10,
thanksgiving.
I will give
thanks to you
among the peoples.
I will sing
praises to you
among the nations.
Why?
And I don't have
to explain this
to you, right?
I just did it.
For your steadfast
love is great
to the heavens
and your faithfulness
to the clouds
because you
are a God
who has made
a covenant
with his people
and you
in your glory
will not forsake me.
And so,
instead of seeing
my circumstances
and being consumed
with worry,
being consumed
with fear,
trying desperately
to fix it,
in fact,
interestingly,
in this account,
if we place it
right in the story,
David had a chance
to kill Saul
and to fix
the situation himself
and he didn't
because Saul
was God's
anointed one
and David
chose to honor God
and to honor Saul
because of what
God had done
for him.
And he chose
not to fix
his circumstances
when he could
because of his
commitment
to God
and God's glory
in all that he did.
and so he did not
try to fix
his circumstances
but he fixed
his heart
on the glory
of God
and up from
his heart
welled
steadfastness,
joy,
praise,
thanksgiving.
And again,
our refrain,
be exalted,
O God,
above the heavens.
Let your glory
be over
all of the earth.
God,
may the world
see
your grace
and mercy,
your power
and strength,
your steadfastness
and faithfulness,
your righteousness
and justice,
your right
to be honored
and worshipped
and served.
May all the world
see it.
That is my heart's cry.
That is my greatest
desire.
God's cry.
So again,
friends,
maybe some of you
are thinking,
well this sounds like
a whole lot of
really religious
self-talk.
Isn't this just
the power of positive thinking?
I think things
are going to get better
and I believe in God
so I'll sort of
pin it on Him.
But isn't this just
trying to hope
that things are better?
I don't know
if you've ever read
Voltaire's Candide.
There's a character
in it named Pangloss
who walks around
the world saying,
this is the best
of all possible worlds
in the face of
dire circumstances
and terrible suffering.
And do you know what?
Voltaire was making
fun of the church
and the church's hope
in God
as he wrote that.
And maybe you think
that too.
Maybe you're sitting
there going,
this is just
a bunch of
hopeful,
unbelievable,
like mysticism.
You think that
the world is going
to be better
just because you
hope it will be?
And you pin it
on God?
No,
I don't think
it's that.
That's a straw man.
That's an empty picture.
Because the amazing
thing is that David,
and note this,
David did not say,
my circumstances
are fine.
I'm great.
This is not hard.
This is easy.
We rehearsed it earlier.
David walked through
how dire his
circumstances were.
He said,
the storms of destruction
ride over me
again and again
and again.
The men who seek me
have these sharp teeth.
They're seeking
to devour me
and trample me.
David is not saying
the world is not hard.
He is not saying
that your circumstances
are not dire.
He is not saying
that the world
is going all
as it ought to be
in ease
and comfort.
What David is saying
is in the midst
of the very hard things,
in the midst
of the most dire
circumstances,
as well as the most
trivial inconveniences,
there is something
greater
that we
were made for.
There is a deeper
reality of God
and His glory
and His kingdom
and His purposes
in the world.
And this
is the foundation
upon which
then we experience
our circumstances.
And when we see
that foundation,
it undergirds
and shapes
not only
what these circumstances
truly are,
but also how we
can respond to them.
David says
we can look
beyond the circumstances
to the eternal
weight of glory
of a God
who is faithful,
of a God
who is love,
of a God
who sets
His strength
and His power
to do right
and to do good
in the world.
Not to fix it,
but to bring glory
to Himself.
Do you remember
the story?
Tragedy happens
and they ask Jesus,
Jesus,
why did this happen?
Who sinned?
Who is to blame
that this was
God's judgment?
Jesus said,
no,
you're thinking
about this wrong.
This happens
so that you might
see the glory of God.
So you might see
a God
who is able
to save.
So you might
see a God
who is able
to redeem
out of the pit,
out of the most
difficult circumstances.
Friends,
when we see
this kind
of a God,
we are able,
like David,
to be steadfast,
not consumed
with worry
or anxiety,
not pursuing
our strategies
of escaping
or correcting,
not fixing them,
but in the midst
of them,
fixing our eyes,
fixing our eyes
on God
whom we were
made for.
The Westminster
Catechism tells us
that the chief
end of man,
that is,
the reason
for which
we were created,
is to glorify
God
and to enjoy
Him forever.
That is,
to see Him
in all of His
manifest glory
and to reflect
back to Him
the praise
and the honor
and the worship
and the service
that is due.
And in doing that,
we enjoy Him
and we are satisfied
at the very
core of our soul.
And we no longer
seek the satisfaction
of a comfortable life,
of an easy life,
of a life
where our circumstances
are not hard.
But instead,
we seek this God
and with Paul
we can say,
whether we live
or we die,
our greatest desire
is that God
would be glorified
in us.
In us.
this is my greatest hope
for us
as a church
as well as for each
of us individually.
My hope is that
in our circumstances,
when they are hard,
we do not
become
distracted
and consumed
with fixing
all the little things
that don't go
just as we planned.
Oh, we want
to pursue excellence.
Oh, we want
to pursue goodness.
We want to pursue
good things
in our midst.
But friends,
if we are a church
that is consumed
with the glory of God,
if we lift our eyes
out of our circumstances,
what God will do
in us
and through us,
how God will make
the glory of the gospel
shine in us,
resound
in us.
And friends,
of course,
we,
even more than David,
have
a greater reason
to fix our eyes
on the glory of God
because we have seen Him.
We have seen Him come.
John 1.14,
the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us
and we have seen
His glory,
the glory of the
only begotten One,
the One who has come
from the Father.
We have seen His glory.
And the passage,
it was read earlier
from John 12.
If you ever want
to read the book of John,
watch this.
Jesus says,
my hour has not yet come,
my hour has not yet come.
And then in chapter 12,
He says,
now has the hour
have come
for the Son of Man
to be glorified.
He says,
unless a wheat of grain
falls to the ground
and dies,
it cannot produce fruit.
Where is the greatest glory
of God?
Where have we seen
God show
His past faithfulness
and His future promises
and His covenant love
most clearly?
You know the answer
to this already.
It is at the cross
of Jesus Christ
and in His resurrection
where He did not
forsake His justice,
but also committed
to showing grace
and mercy
to sinners
like you and me.
He sent His own Son.
Jesus displays
this glory
by taking the punishment
for our wrath,
by taking the alienation,
He who was separated
from God
so that we might be
brought back to God.
He who faced
the worst circumstances
ever on this earth
as God poured out on Him
the wrath against
the sin of the world
so that we might not,
so that we might be saved.
This is where we see it.
And you know what?
This glorious Christ
who has died
and risen for us,
He does not promise
to fix our circumstances
in this life.
In fact, He says,
if I suffered,
you will suffer too.
If they persecuted me,
they will persecute you too.
The message of the gospel
is not that it will
make your life easier.
In fact,
it often means
your life will be harder
and your circumstances
will be filled
with greater opposition
and difficulty.
And yet,
in that,
as Paul says
in Corinthians 4,
we carry around
the death of Christ in us
so that the very life
of Christ
may also be manifested
in our mortal bodies.
The glory of Christ
is that
the worst circumstances
here on earth
cannot shake the glory
that God has set
on us
and that we have Christ in us,
the hope of glory,
and we know that one day
Christ will return
and He will make
all things right
and we will be raised
with Him.
And finally,
God will fix
the circumstances
of the world
in His judgment
on evil and sin,
in His exalting
of those
who have put their faith
and trust
and confidence
in Christ.
So, friends,
this morning,
if you are here
and your circumstances
are hard,
I appeal to you.
This psalm
gives you language.
It gives you words
to cry out to God
with.
And it may be
a cry
that has no heart
behind it
when you first say it
because you're so overwhelmed
and so filled.
But I pray
that you would
take this psalm
and put it on your lips
this week.
Be exalted,
O God.
Be exalted
in my life.
Be exalted
in our church.
Be exalted
in our city.
Let your glory
be seen.
Awake,
my soul,
and sing.
I will give thanks
and sing praises
to you.
This psalm
gives you language
in the worst
circumstances.
And friends,
if you're here
this morning
and you've never
trusted in Christ,
I hope that you
will look at His glory
at the cross
and you will think
this is what you
were made for
and this is the only
place where your
circumstances
ultimately
can be made sense of
and can find
ultimate hope
and resolution in.
Amen.
I want to end
with a quote.
It's from a
book called
Shattered Dreams
written by Larry Crabb.
This is a testimony
of a man
who he had
been counseling
as he worked
through it
and I want to leave
these words with you.
Faith,
as I'm growing
to understand it
more,
is about looking
beyond my circumstances
to a person.
To have faith
in better circumstances,
even in God
creating better circumstances
is not true faith.
I want to be
the kind of man
who can watch
every dream
go down in flames
and still yearn
to be intimately involved
in kingdom living,
intimately involved
with my friend,
the King,
and still be willing
to take another risk
just because
it delights him.
And my flesh shivers
to think about that.
Friends,
if all of your dreams
go down in flame,
will you fix your heart
on the glory of God?
Will you continue
to trust in Him
and have confidence in Him?
Sing praises to Him
because He's loved you
so well.
Let's pray.
Amen.
Spirit, we ask
that you would show us
where we have been
committed to fixing,
committed to trying
to correct
or to escape
our circumstances
in pursuit
of an easier
or a more comfortable life.
God, we pray
that as you show us this,
that you would,
Lord, remind us
and show us
your glory.
Lord, capture our hearts.
Lord, for we can't
simply will
ourselves to do this,
but we plead for you.
Capture our hearts
with your glory,
with your steadfast love,
with your faithfulness,
so that we might be filled
with confidence
and songs of praise.
We pray these things
in Jesus' name.
Amen.