WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.960 This is one of my favorite Psalms. 00:00:01.960 --> 00:00:03.520 I've never preached on it before, 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:06.080 so I'm glad to get the chance to do that. 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:08.199 There's lots of different ways you could explore the Psalm, 00:00:08.199 --> 00:00:11.000 you could look at the Psalm, lots of angles, 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.740 lots of things to draw out from it. 00:00:13.740 --> 00:00:16.359 But I think one of the very centerpieces of it, 00:00:16.359 --> 00:00:18.240 the most, one of the most important subjects 00:00:18.240 --> 00:00:20.920 that arise in it is the problem 00:00:20.920 --> 00:00:23.240 that every single human to some degree faces, 00:00:23.240 --> 00:00:26.160 and that's the problem of anxiety, of anxious thoughts. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:28.679 So I think that's very, very clear here in Psalm 27. 00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:32.399 We're in a summer series on various Psalms 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:34.960 that basically allows for different guest preachers 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:37.439 to come in and preach from the Psalms wherever they like. 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:39.600 And one of the things that's great about that 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:41.960 is that no matter where you go in the book 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:44.519 across all five books of the Psalms 00:00:44.519 --> 00:00:47.480 is that you realize the Psalms are here for us, 00:00:47.480 --> 00:00:51.039 that they really are God's gift to every single one of us. 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:54.159 One of the reasons for that is because they very frequently 00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:56.359 and typically deal with the emotional life, 00:00:56.359 --> 00:00:58.200 with our emotional lives. 00:00:58.200 --> 00:01:03.000 And it's important just to say that we are emotional. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:06.680 Now I don't mean by that always melodramatic or something. 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:09.640 You can be emotional to varying degrees, 00:01:09.640 --> 00:01:11.040 but we're all emotional. 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:13.640 There is never a time in life where you are not emotional, 00:01:13.640 --> 00:01:16.560 and that means a person that is exercising emotion. 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:18.760 You can never get away from being emotional. 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:20.640 It's what we are, it's what a human being is, 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:23.320 it's part of the faculties of our soul. 00:01:23.320 --> 00:01:25.520 And so we are always either happy or sad 00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:26.359 or somewhere in between. 00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:29.799 We are always either in peace or in turmoil. 00:01:29.799 --> 00:01:31.799 We're angry, we're calm. 00:01:31.799 --> 00:01:35.400 There's never a time where we're not experiencing emotion. 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:37.159 And so the Psalms give us this gift 00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:39.680 of telling us how to deal with our emotions, 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:41.879 of showing us that there's a Christian way, 00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:44.599 a right way of dealing with your emotions. 00:01:44.599 --> 00:01:46.480 The second great gift that we get here 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:47.920 is that when you read the Psalms, 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:50.960 one of the things you realize is that the problems 00:01:50.960 --> 00:01:55.359 that ancient people faced are the problems we face. 00:01:55.359 --> 00:01:57.159 And the problems that modern people face 00:01:57.159 --> 00:01:59.560 are the problems that ancient people faced. 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:01.159 That because we're all human, 00:02:01.159 --> 00:02:03.879 we pretty much have the same problems. 00:02:03.879 --> 00:02:06.680 Just in different registers, in different contexts, 00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:08.719 to different degrees for different reasons. 00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:10.120 And so just very simple. 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:13.360 One of those is very clearly the problem of anxiety. 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:15.800 It's a problem that human beings have been dealing with 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:17.400 since Genesis chapter four. 00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:22.719 Now we did a long series on anxiety in 2022, 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:25.560 but I just wonder if anybody in here 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:27.319 has been anxious since 2022. 00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:30.879 That's a reason to come back to it again. 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:32.360 We'll never graduate from talking 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:33.639 about the problem of anxiety. 00:02:33.639 --> 00:02:37.079 It's one of the premier issues of the modern person. 00:02:37.079 --> 00:02:38.840 And so here we are back again. 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:42.240 Let's think about David's anxiety here 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.479 and what it says about our anxiety. 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:46.280 And then secondly, I think the Psalm 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:49.039 gives you very briefly, very quickly, 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:52.280 a few helps on how to deal with the problem of anxiety 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:55.240 across the whole spectrum of your lifetime. 00:02:55.240 --> 00:02:58.520 So first, David's anxiety 00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:00.439 and what it says about our anxiety. 00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:02.400 So one of the things to see is just the reality, 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:05.120 the fact, the presence of David's anxiety in the Psalm. 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:07.039 So this is a Psalm from David. 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:09.360 And in verse one, he says, 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:11.520 "'The Lord is my light, my salvation.' 00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:12.560 And then he asked this question, 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:14.360 "'Whom shall I fear?' 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:16.120 Now if you just scan your eyes 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:18.840 from verse one through verse six, 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:23.120 you will see that David is talking to himself 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:24.479 in the first six verses. 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:26.640 So he's not talking to God yet. 00:03:26.640 --> 00:03:27.480 He's talking to himself. 00:03:27.480 --> 00:03:29.640 So he says, "'Whom shall I fear?' 00:03:29.640 --> 00:03:31.039 For example, verse two, 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:34.000 "'When evildoers assail me.'" 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:36.439 He's talking to himself over and over and over again. 00:03:36.439 --> 00:03:40.520 And so the big theme of what he's talking to himself about 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:41.680 is in this question, 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:43.920 "'Whom shall I fear?' 00:03:43.920 --> 00:03:45.120 And then the very next sentence, 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:47.480 "'The Lord is the stronghold of my life.'" 00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:48.879 And here's the parallel question, 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:51.159 "'Of whom shall I be afraid?' 00:03:51.159 --> 00:03:53.159 Now the second time the word fear shows up, 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:54.000 "'Whom shall I fear?' 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:55.879 And then, "'Of whom shall I be afraid?'' 00:03:55.879 --> 00:03:56.799 In the second question, 00:03:56.799 --> 00:03:58.879 it's not the same word in Hebrew. 00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:00.000 And the first of whom shall I fear 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.399 is the very normal typical word for fear. 00:04:02.399 --> 00:04:03.599 And then in the second, 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:06.319 the Hebrew word is the word shiver. 00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:09.159 So he says, "'Of whom shall I fear?' 00:04:09.159 --> 00:04:10.000 Who shall I fear? 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:13.199 Of whom, who makes me shiver? 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:14.839 Who makes me tremble? 00:04:14.839 --> 00:04:16.240 Who makes me shake in my boots?' 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:18.280 You know, that's what he's saying in the second question. 00:04:18.280 --> 00:04:20.600 And that means that we know that he's talking about 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:24.720 some situation in his life that is making him very afraid. 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:25.560 What's the context? 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:26.400 Why is he saying this? 00:04:26.400 --> 00:04:27.600 Because he is afraid. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:29.120 David is very afraid here. 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:31.600 He is shaken in his boots. 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:34.000 And so he's talking to himself 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:35.600 to try to deal with this problem 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:37.360 that he faces, the problem of fear. 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:39.960 What is it that's making him afraid? 00:04:39.960 --> 00:04:42.160 Verse two, we learn, he says, 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:45.519 "'When evil doers assail me to eat up my flesh, 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:48.159 that's a metaphor for a pack of dogs 00:04:48.159 --> 00:04:49.519 or a pack of animals. 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:52.079 It's a metaphor for people that are chasing him.' 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:55.799 He says, "'Like animals trying to eat up his flesh, 00:04:55.799 --> 00:04:57.959 like animals would.' 00:04:57.959 --> 00:05:00.039 And then he goes on and on several times. 00:05:00.039 --> 00:05:02.039 Verse three, "'And though an army, 00:05:02.039 --> 00:05:04.519 if maybe an army encamps against me, 00:05:04.519 --> 00:05:06.279 goes to war against me.'" 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:08.359 And the list goes on like that. 00:05:08.359 --> 00:05:12.079 And you get the sense that David is facing a fear 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:14.240 where somebody's trying to take his life. 00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:18.960 And it seems like he's both afraid of a real threat. 00:05:18.960 --> 00:05:20.079 Somebody's trying to take his life. 00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:23.280 And also there's something more going on than that. 00:05:23.280 --> 00:05:26.600 Now, let me say this, fear is good. 00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:28.840 So one of the things that's happening in David's life 00:05:28.840 --> 00:05:30.519 and that happens in all of our lives 00:05:30.519 --> 00:05:32.519 is we get afraid sometimes. 00:05:32.519 --> 00:05:33.879 Fear is good. 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:37.879 God gave us the gift of fear 00:05:37.879 --> 00:05:40.120 from the moment of Genesis 3, 4. 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:42.560 But even before that, we know that the fear of the Lord, 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:44.759 there's a good type of fear, the fear of the Lord, 00:05:44.759 --> 00:05:45.759 the beginning of all knowledge. 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:48.000 And there's other good types of fear as well. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:52.600 So if you are out and about right now during the fringe, 00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:55.319 and you're trying to cross over the royal mile, 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:56.920 right outside our doors, 00:05:56.920 --> 00:06:00.199 one of the things that has undoubtedly happened to you 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:03.199 is that you've stepped out and you've realized 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:07.920 that there is either a taxi or a giant bus 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:10.759 trying to push the people out of the way, right? 00:06:10.759 --> 00:06:12.160 Honking the horn. 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:14.160 And you've had to, at some point in your time 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:16.560 around St. C's, back up. 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:18.040 Right, and in that moment, 00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:20.880 your autonomic nervous system triggers. 00:06:20.880 --> 00:06:23.120 And you know, I need to get out of the way 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:26.520 or I'm going to lose something here, right? 00:06:26.520 --> 00:06:29.000 Now that's good, that's very healthy fear. 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:29.840 You need that fear. 00:06:29.840 --> 00:06:33.120 If you don't have that fear, you won't stay alive. 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:36.360 Right, so God actually gifts us the gift of fear. 00:06:36.360 --> 00:06:38.920 So there's good fears and there's bad fears. 00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:40.920 And sometimes fears are not healthy. 00:06:40.920 --> 00:06:43.319 Sometimes fear is not good. 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:44.879 And I think what's happening in this passage 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:48.040 is David is experiencing both good fear and bad fear. 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:49.600 On the one hand, the good fear, 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:52.240 there really is somebody clearly chasing him 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:53.480 and trying to kill him. 00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:55.840 And when you have that type of real objective threat 00:06:55.840 --> 00:06:58.840 in your life, a threat that I'm imagining most of us 00:06:58.840 --> 00:07:03.120 have never experienced, it makes total sense to be afraid. 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:06.639 And to seek refuge and protection, right? 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:08.120 And on the other hand, what's happening here 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:12.480 is David seems to be maybe in the quiet of the night 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:16.439 doing what all of us do in the quiet of the night. 00:07:16.439 --> 00:07:19.280 And that's putting his head down on a pillow 00:07:19.280 --> 00:07:24.120 and letting that very real threat become more than just fear, 00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:29.120 good fear, but a sense of dread and fearfulness 00:07:29.240 --> 00:07:33.000 that has the ability to go out of control. 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:35.920 In other words, to catastrophize in every direction. 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:37.480 And one of the reasons we can say that 00:07:37.480 --> 00:07:41.400 is because when you get down to verse 10, 00:07:41.400 --> 00:07:45.720 he says, my mother, my father, my mother, 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:49.240 they have forsaken me, but the Lord would take me 00:07:49.240 --> 00:07:51.280 or will take me, would take me in. 00:07:51.280 --> 00:07:53.480 Now, there's a couple of ways to translate that, 00:07:53.480 --> 00:07:55.000 but one of the ways you can translate it 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:57.080 is that it very well could be saying, 00:07:57.080 --> 00:08:02.080 if even my mother and my father forsake me, 00:08:02.439 --> 00:08:05.240 the Lord would take me in to his house. 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:07.560 Meaning he is thinking very probably here 00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:11.160 about a hypothetical, that if this got so bad 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:14.360 that my own parents reject me, 00:08:14.360 --> 00:08:17.360 because somebody else is clearly rejecting them, 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:19.319 then I would at least have the Lord. 00:08:19.319 --> 00:08:21.600 He's talking to himself and he's construing 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:23.519 hypothetical circumstances of loss. 00:08:24.699 --> 00:08:25.540 And what is that? 00:08:25.540 --> 00:08:27.879 That's called anxiety. 00:08:27.879 --> 00:08:29.699 You see, there's good fear in our lives, 00:08:29.699 --> 00:08:32.080 the fear of the Lord and the fear that keeps us alive. 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:35.400 And then there's a state of fearfulness. 00:08:35.400 --> 00:08:38.000 And anxiety is one of the types of bad fear, 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:39.480 it's a state of fearfulness. 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:44.480 Anxiety is anytime we allow real threats 00:08:44.759 --> 00:08:48.040 that do beget, produce fear in our lives 00:08:48.040 --> 00:08:50.520 to become states of fearfulness, 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:56.440 where we construe hypothetical circumstances of loss 00:08:56.480 --> 00:08:59.000 that don't actually exist. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:02.120 So another way to say it is anxiety is the act 00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:06.279 of playing the prophet or catastrophizing. 00:09:06.279 --> 00:09:08.600 We take real threats in our lives 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:11.360 and we take them to the uttermost extreme 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:14.360 and play the prophet, hypothetical imagination 00:09:14.360 --> 00:09:18.259 of things that we could lose if this goes all the way, 00:09:18.259 --> 00:09:21.080 if this gets as bad as it could get. 00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:25.120 And that's a basic definition of common anxiety. 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:27.960 Now David here is clearly, to some degree, 00:09:27.960 --> 00:09:31.879 fighting, struggling with the threat of anxiety. 00:09:31.879 --> 00:09:34.920 And boy, it's a problem that we face, 00:09:34.920 --> 00:09:36.920 all of us to some degree. 00:09:36.920 --> 00:09:39.920 I think I've met a couple people in my life 00:09:39.920 --> 00:09:42.460 that are not anxious, that don't have anxiety. 00:09:43.920 --> 00:09:46.740 But the rest of us, we struggle with it. 00:09:48.519 --> 00:09:50.560 According to the National Institute of Health 00:09:50.560 --> 00:09:55.480 and a bunch of other bodies that have done a deep dive 00:09:55.480 --> 00:09:59.840 into the issue of modern anxiety, anxiety diagnoses 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:03.360 have steadily increased in the Western world, 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:05.759 in the Anglophone, the English-speaking world, 00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:09.300 since about 1955 and forward. 00:10:09.300 --> 00:10:12.120 And today, the National Institute of Health 00:10:12.120 --> 00:10:14.039 in the United States, which is one of the biggest bodies 00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:15.800 of health research in the world, 00:10:15.800 --> 00:10:17.840 National Health Institute, I should say, 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:21.039 says that one in five people in the Anglophone world, 00:10:21.039 --> 00:10:22.639 the English-speaking world, in Great Britain, 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:27.639 in America, in the West suffer from a diagnosable anxiety 00:10:27.639 --> 00:10:28.480 disorder of some kind. 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:31.319 Now, there's all sorts of ways to look at the stats. 00:10:31.319 --> 00:10:33.039 But one of the things that's really clear, 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:35.120 no matter what you look at, at what angle, 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:38.639 where you're standing, is that people are more and more anxious 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:40.199 than they've ever been. 00:10:40.199 --> 00:10:42.080 It's an ancient problem, but it seems to be 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:44.559 an increasing modern problem, a modern problem 00:10:44.559 --> 00:10:47.759 that won't go away, that's getting worse and worse. 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:50.039 We are more comfortable than we've ever been. 00:10:50.039 --> 00:10:54.039 We suffer less than any other people in human history, 00:10:54.039 --> 00:10:56.279 and we're more anxious than ever. 00:10:56.279 --> 00:10:58.639 We're more anxious than any generation. 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:00.480 And I don't know if you've got the chance 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:03.599 to see one of the New York Times bestselling books, 00:11:03.599 --> 00:11:06.839 Jonathan Heights' recent book, The Anxious Generation, 00:11:06.839 --> 00:11:10.159 a wonderful new book, where he explores the reality of this 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:13.079 through the lens of a case study in Gen Z 00:11:13.079 --> 00:11:15.879 and why it is that people are so much more anxious. 00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:18.519 And he talks about the issue of the smartphone 00:11:18.519 --> 00:11:20.519 and the creation of the iPhone, 00:11:20.519 --> 00:11:22.559 the social media like button, 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:25.159 the call that we are all made in this modern world 00:11:25.159 --> 00:11:28.120 to curate our identities in the public square. 00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:31.079 So many issues, so many ways you could get at it, 00:11:31.079 --> 00:11:33.399 but one of the things I think it's very important to say 00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:36.159 is that while anxiety is increasing, 00:11:36.159 --> 00:11:38.159 it is a problem that has been around 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:40.159 since sin entered the world. 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:42.559 And we see it right here in Psalm 27. 00:11:42.559 --> 00:11:44.519 And one of the great things is that the Bible, 00:11:44.519 --> 00:11:46.960 long before the psychologists, long before Freud 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:50.720 ever existed, the Bible, God's word comes 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:54.080 and gives us help to deal with the deepest part of our souls, 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:56.160 the psychological issues that we face. 00:11:56.160 --> 00:11:57.920 And that's what the Psalms do so often. 00:11:57.920 --> 00:12:01.879 All right, second, let's ask, how does the Psalm address, 00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:03.879 how does the Psalm offer some help? 00:12:03.879 --> 00:12:06.720 Just very briefly and we'll be finished. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:09.280 Let me give you five ways, I'll run through these. 00:12:09.280 --> 00:12:12.800 Five ways this Psalm tells you that it gives you 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:17.039 an opportunity, a chance to deal, to fight anxious thoughts, 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:20.039 to fight the sense of dread and angst 00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:22.079 that can overcome the soul. 00:12:22.079 --> 00:12:25.359 Five ways, and it really is something we have to fight for. 00:12:25.359 --> 00:12:27.879 The first is this, we learn at the very beginning 00:12:27.879 --> 00:12:29.439 of the Psalm verses one to six, 00:12:29.439 --> 00:12:31.079 I've already pointed this out, 00:12:31.079 --> 00:12:33.000 but let's make it into an application. 00:12:33.959 --> 00:12:35.399 One of the first things we see David do 00:12:35.399 --> 00:12:37.479 is as soon as anxiety comes into his life, 00:12:37.479 --> 00:12:41.000 fearfulness, he talks to himself. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:43.080 And one of the things that you've got to do 00:12:43.080 --> 00:12:44.320 when anxiety comes into your life, 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:46.159 this right here in the scripture, 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:48.279 is you've got to talk to yourself. 00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:49.720 And that's what he does, and you see that, 00:12:49.720 --> 00:12:52.639 he says, he's talking to himself, whom shall I fear? 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:55.159 He's talking, he's looking at his own heart 00:12:55.159 --> 00:12:58.679 and saying, heart, what are you doing? 00:12:58.679 --> 00:13:00.039 Why are you so afraid? 00:13:00.039 --> 00:13:01.399 Why are you so fearful? 00:13:01.399 --> 00:13:03.960 He's talking to his own heart, he's talking to himself. 00:13:03.960 --> 00:13:05.320 We say it more commonly today, 00:13:05.320 --> 00:13:07.519 you've got to preach to yourself, 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:10.840 he's preaching to himself here at the very beginning. 00:13:10.840 --> 00:13:13.360 And another way to say this, 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:15.600 this is, the Puritans talked about this a lot, 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:17.040 but it's right here in the Bible as well, 00:13:17.040 --> 00:13:19.759 in Psalm one and Joshua one, 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:24.840 there's this word that's translated meditation in Psalm one, 00:13:24.840 --> 00:13:26.960 and meditation in Joshua one, 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:29.680 which are both the starts of new sections of the Bible. 00:13:29.680 --> 00:13:32.120 You've got the law, the first five books, 00:13:32.120 --> 00:13:34.280 and then the next section, the prophets, 00:13:34.280 --> 00:13:37.120 in the original Hebrew Bible, which begins with Joshua. 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:39.160 And the very first thing you're told on chapter one is, 00:13:39.159 --> 00:13:41.399 meditate on God's word. 00:13:41.399 --> 00:13:42.719 And then you come to Psalm one, 00:13:42.719 --> 00:13:44.600 and the very first thing you're told in the third 00:13:44.600 --> 00:13:46.319 and final section of the Bible is, 00:13:46.319 --> 00:13:48.240 meditate on God's word. 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:51.159 This word meditate, meditation, what is that? 00:13:51.159 --> 00:13:52.679 Meditation, Christian meditation, 00:13:52.679 --> 00:13:54.240 this command we're given, 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:58.000 is something between reading scripture and prayer. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:13:59.839 It's something in between. 00:13:59.839 --> 00:14:02.759 And it's where you take what God has said, 00:14:02.759 --> 00:14:05.600 and then you talk to yourself about it. 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:07.679 And then you allow talking to yourself about it 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:09.479 to roll into prayer. 00:14:09.479 --> 00:14:12.319 That's meditation in Psalm one and Joshua one. 00:14:12.319 --> 00:14:14.599 And here it is, David's doing it. 00:14:14.599 --> 00:14:17.679 It happens, check out Psalm 103 for another great example. 00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:20.959 It happens all over where the Psalmist 00:14:20.959 --> 00:14:24.039 talked to themselves, and we've got to talk to our hearts. 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:28.959 I read a story this week about a man who was fired 00:14:28.959 --> 00:14:33.279 from a very successful tech firm in the United States. 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:36.719 He had worked his way up the ranks in the tech firm, 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:40.120 and he had gotten just below the very top. 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:44.000 And he thought that he was going to get everything. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:46.279 He thought, and he went into a job interview, 00:14:46.279 --> 00:14:48.360 he went into the moment where he thought 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:51.040 he was about to receive the pinnacle job of his career, 00:14:51.040 --> 00:14:52.040 and they fired him. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:57.279 And he wrote an article, and he talks about how, 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:00.120 because he had been so high on the corporate ladder 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:03.800 in this tech firm, when he lost his job, 00:15:03.800 --> 00:15:06.200 for two years he couldn't get another job. 00:15:06.200 --> 00:15:09.600 And the reason is because he was too successful 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:14.600 for starter jobs, and yet he had got fired at the top, 00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:17.360 which means nobody else wanted him at the top. 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:20.800 And so he was in a strange place where nobody wanted him. 00:15:20.800 --> 00:15:23.520 Everybody interviewed with, you've got too much 00:15:23.520 --> 00:15:26.360 on your CV for us, or I'm sorry, 00:15:26.360 --> 00:15:27.680 but we're not going to put you in a position 00:15:27.680 --> 00:15:29.800 you couldn't get at the other firm. 00:15:29.800 --> 00:15:32.879 And he writes in this article, that was the context. 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:33.920 What he says in this article is he said, 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:36.360 every day I started after a couple months to get up, 00:15:36.360 --> 00:15:38.879 look in the mirror, and say to myself, 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:41.839 you're a failure, you're a failure, you're a failure. 00:15:41.839 --> 00:15:45.039 And he said, boy, he said, I'm not an emotional man, 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:48.639 but the power of that language, 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:51.159 talking to myself day after day and saying, 00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:53.199 you're a failure, you're a failure, you're a failure. 00:15:53.199 --> 00:15:55.159 He said, I really believed it. 00:15:55.159 --> 00:15:57.639 He said, it was the fundamental core of my identity. 00:15:57.639 --> 00:15:59.279 He said, it defined my soul. 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:04.279 Now look, talking to yourself has real identity-shaping power. 00:16:04.600 --> 00:16:08.839 And we see that, it happens all over the Psalms. 00:16:08.839 --> 00:16:10.679 And the beauty of the Bible, 00:16:10.679 --> 00:16:14.240 the beauty of what's on offer here is this, 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:19.240 that he was experiencing low self-esteem. 00:16:20.199 --> 00:16:22.519 And if he came to talk to the psychologist, 00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:23.799 they would say, well, you know what you need, 00:16:23.799 --> 00:16:25.839 you need high self-esteem. 00:16:26.839 --> 00:16:28.000 So you need to wake up every day, 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:29.279 and instead of saying, you're a failure, 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:30.200 you're a failure, you're a failure, 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:33.080 you need to wake up every day and say, you're a success. 00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:34.480 You've got what it takes, you know? 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:37.480 You can really do it, you can win, you're the best. 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:40.960 And the Bible says, you don't need low self-esteem, 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:41.960 you don't need high self-esteem. 00:16:41.960 --> 00:16:43.279 Low self-esteem, of course, is bad, 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:45.480 but high self-esteem won't help you either. 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:49.960 And there's this beautiful moment in 1 Corinthians 4, 00:16:49.960 --> 00:16:54.240 where Paul says, I care not about 00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:56.399 what the human courtroom says about me. 00:16:56.399 --> 00:16:58.439 So he says, if I ever go before the court, 00:16:58.439 --> 00:17:03.360 and I'm convicted, he says, I care not what they say. 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:05.160 You know, what I've done, what they say about me 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:06.879 is not the core of my identity. 00:17:06.879 --> 00:17:08.359 And then he turns around on the flip side, 00:17:08.359 --> 00:17:12.200 and he says, and I don't care about what I say about me. 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:14.639 Paul says, I don't care about what the court says, 00:17:14.639 --> 00:17:16.279 I don't care about what I say, 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:18.680 the only voice that matters in my life 00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:20.200 is what God says about me. 00:17:21.599 --> 00:17:23.160 And one of the very first things we learn here 00:17:23.160 --> 00:17:26.000 is that when you are beginning to feel anxious, 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:28.440 fearful thoughts, you've got to talk to your heart, 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:29.640 and you've got to tell it, 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:32.799 the only thing that matters right now 00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:34.319 is what God says about you. 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:37.960 The only thing that matters is not, 00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:39.839 what's not what the people out there say, 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:44.240 it's not what you say, because you will condemn yourself. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:47.400 What matters is what God says, 00:17:47.400 --> 00:17:49.119 and what does David do, and he's saying, 00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:50.839 in the midst of this dread, he's saying, 00:17:50.839 --> 00:17:53.279 the Lord is my light, he's told me that, 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:55.599 the Lord is my salvation, he's told me that, 00:17:55.599 --> 00:17:57.399 the Lord is my refuge, he's told me that, 00:17:57.399 --> 00:18:00.799 if my father and mother forsake me, 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:04.879 the Lord has told me, I will let you in my house. 00:18:04.879 --> 00:18:06.240 You got to talk to your heart about God, 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:07.079 that's the first thing. 00:18:07.079 --> 00:18:08.480 Now we'll be brief for the next few. 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:11.919 The second one, the second one we learn here, 00:18:11.919 --> 00:18:13.399 is that just simply means, secondly, 00:18:13.399 --> 00:18:15.240 that we learn here that the inner life 00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:17.919 is the most important thing that we need to deal with 00:18:17.919 --> 00:18:19.639 in our day to day lives. 00:18:19.639 --> 00:18:22.359 The inner life is more important than our circumstances. 00:18:22.359 --> 00:18:23.799 One of the things I think you read 00:18:23.799 --> 00:18:25.599 across the sense of this Psalm, 00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:28.279 is that God is not promising here, 00:18:28.279 --> 00:18:30.279 that he's gonna get David out of this mess, 00:18:30.279 --> 00:18:32.200 whatever the mess it is here. 00:18:32.200 --> 00:18:34.399 And you can see it in verse five. 00:18:34.399 --> 00:18:36.960 In verse five says, he's talking to himself there, 00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:40.200 he says, God will hide me in his shelter, 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:42.759 in the day of trouble, he will conceal me 00:18:42.759 --> 00:18:44.599 under the cover of his tent, 00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:46.799 he will lift me high upon a rock. 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:48.480 Now do you think that David means there, 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:51.079 in the midst of his bad circumstances? 00:18:51.079 --> 00:18:53.319 He says, look, I know if things get really bad, 00:18:53.319 --> 00:18:56.319 God is gonna hide me somewhere in the tabernacle. 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:59.240 That's the first line, he will conceal me in the tent. 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:01.639 You know, he's saying God is literally gonna tuck me away 00:19:01.639 --> 00:19:03.960 inside the tabernacle somewhere and keep me safe. 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:07.200 No, it's not physical, it's not literal. 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:08.759 God is gonna lift me high upon a rock, 00:19:08.759 --> 00:19:11.000 he's not saying, you know, if it gets really bad, 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:12.639 God's gonna put me up on that tall rock 00:19:12.639 --> 00:19:14.039 where they can't get to me. 00:19:14.039 --> 00:19:15.960 That's not what he's saying, he's saying, 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:17.240 what is he saying, he's saying, 00:19:17.240 --> 00:19:19.039 God will conceal me in his tent, 00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:22.679 meaning God will be present with me no matter what. 00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:24.480 The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:28.440 God will be present with me no matter what happens to me. 00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:32.000 That's the promise, that's the hope here. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:33.720 The inner life is the most important thing. 00:19:33.720 --> 00:19:37.519 There's no expectation here that casting your anxieties 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:40.720 before the Lord is gonna get you out of hard circumstances. 00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:43.200 Circumstances of fear, not at all, not at all. 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:44.440 Just look at the life of Jesus, 00:19:44.440 --> 00:19:46.200 look at the life of the apostles, 00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:47.360 and we know that that's not the case. 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:52.359 Instead, here the promise is that he can protect your heart. 00:19:52.719 --> 00:19:54.639 Taking your heart to God, 00:19:54.639 --> 00:19:57.000 talking to your heart about what God says about you 00:19:57.000 --> 00:19:58.959 will be protection and peace for your heart. 00:19:58.959 --> 00:20:00.639 That's the promise of Christianity. 00:20:00.639 --> 00:20:05.479 Third, just like you've got to talk to your heart, 00:20:05.479 --> 00:20:06.799 you gotta inner dialogue, 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:09.679 you gotta talk to yourself about what God said about you. 00:20:09.679 --> 00:20:12.599 The third thing we learn here is you gotta talk to God 00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:14.719 about what's going on in your heart. 00:20:14.719 --> 00:20:16.919 So from verse seven all the way down, 00:20:16.920 --> 00:20:20.000 what we see here is that David, he prays. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.320 So the first six verses is him talking to himself. 00:20:24.320 --> 00:20:27.240 Verse seven to 14 is prayer. 00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:28.060 So he says, 00:20:28.060 --> 00:20:30.759 Hero, Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious unto me. 00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:34.160 So after he's talked to himself, he turns to prayer. 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:36.519 Psalm one, read the word of the Lord day and night, 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:40.279 meditate upon it, talk to your heart about what it says, 00:20:40.279 --> 00:20:41.600 and then turn to prayer. 00:20:41.600 --> 00:20:44.080 So that's the exact method that we see here, 00:20:44.080 --> 00:20:46.519 the exact way that we see here. 00:20:46.519 --> 00:20:48.279 So it's just very simple. 00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:49.920 One of the most important things you can do, 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:52.200 the most important thing you can do with your fears, 00:20:52.200 --> 00:20:55.079 with your anxiety is pray them. 00:20:55.079 --> 00:20:56.879 Take them straight to God. 00:20:56.879 --> 00:21:00.099 As soon as you experience fearfulness in your life, 00:21:00.099 --> 00:21:02.859 pray, take it straight to the Lord immediately. 00:21:02.859 --> 00:21:04.940 That's the most important thing. 00:21:04.940 --> 00:21:06.799 I came across this week, 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:10.759 a study also from the National Institute of Health 00:21:11.879 --> 00:21:14.599 in their journal where someone, 00:21:14.599 --> 00:21:18.879 a few scholars had written up a scholarly article 00:21:18.879 --> 00:21:21.599 about the relationship between prayer and anxiety. 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:23.159 Very interesting. 00:21:23.159 --> 00:21:26.639 Most often religion, spirituality is completely separate 00:21:26.639 --> 00:21:28.679 from the sciences in the modern world, right? 00:21:28.679 --> 00:21:30.119 But here they had said, 00:21:30.119 --> 00:21:33.159 we want to understand biological science 00:21:33.159 --> 00:21:36.119 and psychological science in relation to spirituality. 00:21:36.119 --> 00:21:38.679 So they did this exploration of prayer 00:21:38.679 --> 00:21:40.419 and its effects on anxiety. 00:21:40.419 --> 00:21:43.759 So they used the Baylor University Religion Survey, 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:46.000 which is a really big religion survey 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:49.279 that gets conducted in the US from time to time. 00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:50.119 And this is what they said. 00:21:50.119 --> 00:21:52.920 They said, they asked, does prayer help 00:21:52.920 --> 00:21:56.160 in cases of diagnosed anxiety? 00:21:56.160 --> 00:22:01.160 And the conclusion they drew was sometimes, not always. 00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:03.519 Okay. 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:05.440 But then here's the interesting conclusion. 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:07.180 Here's what they said the data showed. 00:22:07.180 --> 00:22:08.720 The reason it's sometimes not always. 00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:12.759 They said, what we found was prayer 00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:15.599 consistently helped lower anxiety 00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:18.480 and heal those who suffered from it. 00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:21.119 When four conditions were met, 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:26.119 they wrote when the person had a life of prayer 00:22:26.920 --> 00:22:30.319 that met with some certainty of frequency. 00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:33.119 Secondly, when there was an expectation 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:36.220 that they prayed to a God who actually heard them. 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:41.940 Third, when they prayed prayers of praise, 00:22:41.940 --> 00:22:44.640 prayers that included worship. 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:47.140 And then fourth, they wrote, 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:51.840 I don't know, I only wrote three down. 00:22:53.320 --> 00:22:55.680 I had a fourth, it's not here. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:22:58.019 But that's a good three. 00:23:00.519 --> 00:23:02.320 But do you hear what they're saying? 00:23:03.559 --> 00:23:05.160 They said, sometimes it works. 00:23:05.160 --> 00:23:06.080 Well, what were the conditions? 00:23:06.080 --> 00:23:09.320 It was when a person prayed without ceasing, 00:23:09.319 --> 00:23:13.480 prayed to a God who actually listens, a personal God, 00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:16.799 and prayed not only prayers for their circumstances, 00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:18.439 but prayers of praise and worship. 00:23:19.399 --> 00:23:21.359 Now, they noted at the very end 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:24.000 that most frequently out of all the religions 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:26.039 they surveyed, Christians were the one 00:23:26.039 --> 00:23:28.359 that came back with a positive response. 00:23:28.359 --> 00:23:30.079 Now look, the point here is not to say, 00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:31.799 is not to say, oh, you should pray 00:23:31.799 --> 00:23:33.720 because it's good therapy. 00:23:33.720 --> 00:23:35.039 No, not at all. 00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:36.319 Instead, it's the exact reverse. 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:38.599 It's to say that if God is real 00:23:38.599 --> 00:23:40.799 and God actually hears and God says, 00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:43.599 here's how you can deal with your soul, 00:23:43.599 --> 00:23:45.240 you pray real prayer to the real God 00:23:45.240 --> 00:23:48.399 with real expectation that it makes sense 00:23:48.399 --> 00:23:49.759 that it does help heal you. 00:23:51.279 --> 00:23:53.719 Not because prayer is some type of subjective therapy, 00:23:53.719 --> 00:23:57.839 but because prayer is real and God is real. 00:23:57.839 --> 00:23:58.679 You see, that's the point here. 00:23:58.679 --> 00:24:02.639 You gotta talk to God about what's going on in your heart. 00:24:02.639 --> 00:24:04.639 All right, fourth of five. 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:08.099 We learned here in verse six. 00:24:08.099 --> 00:24:10.039 It's very subtle, it's very brief. 00:24:10.039 --> 00:24:12.599 Verse six, he says, my head will be lifted up 00:24:12.599 --> 00:24:14.480 above my enemies all around me 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:18.079 and I will offer in his tent sacrifices 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:20.799 with shouts of joy, shouts of joy. 00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:24.000 I will sing and make melody to the Lord. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:25.959 He talks to his heart about God. 00:24:25.959 --> 00:24:27.719 He deals with his inner life. 00:24:27.719 --> 00:24:29.959 He lifts up his heart to God in prayer 00:24:29.959 --> 00:24:32.279 and then he says, and I go straight to the tent 00:24:32.279 --> 00:24:35.839 and I shout with joy and I sing and make melody. 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:38.319 He's saying that he goes to worship to sing. 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:40.319 So one of the biblical prescriptions 00:24:40.319 --> 00:24:44.679 for fighting anxiety, this is not a secret, 00:24:44.679 --> 00:24:48.639 it's not, it's a lifetime, a lifetime fight, 00:24:48.639 --> 00:24:51.480 is to sing into praise and into worship, 00:24:51.480 --> 00:24:53.679 to make melody before the Lord. 00:24:53.679 --> 00:24:55.699 He's talking here about the sacrifice of praise, 00:24:55.699 --> 00:24:58.799 that's how Paul puts it in the New Testament. 00:24:58.799 --> 00:25:00.279 He says that he lifts up his head. 00:25:00.279 --> 00:25:03.000 He's literally talking about there about his heart. 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:05.220 My head lifts up, meaning metaphorically, 00:25:05.220 --> 00:25:08.319 my heart is raised up when I come into the tent 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:10.319 and I sing praises and I worship 00:25:10.319 --> 00:25:13.000 and I lift my heart before the Lord. 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:14.279 We learn here that David just says, 00:25:14.279 --> 00:25:16.039 look, you gotta sing. 00:25:17.100 --> 00:25:18.079 Are you singing? 00:25:19.600 --> 00:25:20.440 Are you singing? 00:25:20.440 --> 00:25:21.880 Do you sing? 00:25:21.880 --> 00:25:23.680 Do you sing praises to the Lord? 00:25:23.680 --> 00:25:27.759 It's a prescription of God's holy word to sing 00:25:27.759 --> 00:25:30.200 and that singing changes your life. 00:25:30.200 --> 00:25:32.240 We said this last week, but singing 00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:34.120 is the highest form of language. 00:25:34.119 --> 00:25:38.479 Poetry is elevated prose and music is elevated poetry 00:25:38.479 --> 00:25:40.759 and there's a real reason why in both the Chronicles 00:25:40.759 --> 00:25:44.839 of Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien's mythology 00:25:44.839 --> 00:25:46.599 of the origins of Middle Earth, 00:25:46.599 --> 00:25:50.479 both of those spaces come about how through singing, 00:25:50.479 --> 00:25:53.159 music is what brings those creation orders into being. 00:25:54.439 --> 00:25:56.319 It's very important, I think, in our tradition, 00:25:56.319 --> 00:25:57.839 in our context, I was thinking about this 00:25:57.839 --> 00:26:00.519 as we were singing tonight a little bit. 00:26:01.399 --> 00:26:03.759 Just to make a careful distinction, 00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:06.519 that giving yourself away to emotion 00:26:06.519 --> 00:26:10.180 in the midst of worship and singing is not emotionalism. 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:14.740 Not when you're singing words of truth, goodness, 00:26:14.740 --> 00:26:16.960 that are also beautiful. 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:20.680 When you have truth and goodness combined with beauty, 00:26:20.680 --> 00:26:24.099 which we did tonight, thankful to these folks over here, 00:26:24.099 --> 00:26:26.079 then it is a good thing to let your emotions 00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:27.599 pour before the Lord. 00:26:27.599 --> 00:26:28.559 That's not emotionalism. 00:26:28.559 --> 00:26:30.920 Emotionalism is when you're emotional 00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:33.119 without truth, goodness, and beauty. 00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:35.639 But coming to worship with truth, goodness, and beauty, 00:26:35.639 --> 00:26:37.599 and pouring your emotions, that's a good thing. 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:39.759 And David does that here with shouts of joy. 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:41.679 It's one way to fight the problem of anxiety. 00:26:41.679 --> 00:26:45.139 Fifth and finally, and this is the most important. 00:26:45.139 --> 00:26:46.699 So just if you have a Bible, 00:26:46.699 --> 00:26:49.519 just take one minute with me to look at a few verses. 00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:52.359 Verse four, what is the most fundamental point 00:26:52.359 --> 00:26:54.479 of fighting anxiety in Psalm 27? 00:26:54.479 --> 00:26:56.079 One thing that I've asked of the Lord 00:26:56.079 --> 00:26:57.719 that I will seek after, 00:26:57.719 --> 00:27:01.359 that I could dwell in the house of the Lord to do what? 00:27:01.359 --> 00:27:04.359 Gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. 00:27:04.359 --> 00:27:07.599 Verse four, and then if you look down at verse eight and nine, 00:27:08.599 --> 00:27:10.719 you have said, God, here's the command of God, 00:27:10.719 --> 00:27:14.379 seek my face, and my heart says to you, God, 00:27:14.379 --> 00:27:16.479 you are face, Lord, do I seek? 00:27:16.479 --> 00:27:17.799 I do seek. 00:27:17.799 --> 00:27:20.039 Don't hide your face from me, God. 00:27:20.039 --> 00:27:20.919 Don't turn me away. 00:27:20.919 --> 00:27:22.479 Don't hide your face from me. 00:27:22.479 --> 00:27:25.639 And then if you look down finally at verse 13, 00:27:25.639 --> 00:27:28.799 I believe, the number one way that he fights anxiety, 00:27:28.799 --> 00:27:32.799 he says, I believe I will look upon the goodness of the Lord 00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:34.759 in the land of the living. 00:27:34.759 --> 00:27:36.519 The number one way David says, 00:27:36.519 --> 00:27:38.319 you can fight anxiety as a Christian, 00:27:38.319 --> 00:27:40.659 is to hope and believe and know 00:27:40.659 --> 00:27:43.639 that you are going to one day see the face 00:27:43.639 --> 00:27:44.919 of the living God. 00:27:46.879 --> 00:27:48.720 We've been talking about the subjective 00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:50.680 that David here deals with, 00:27:50.680 --> 00:27:51.839 the subjective problem we face. 00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:54.519 How can my heart not sink to the bottom of the ocean 00:27:54.519 --> 00:27:56.419 in the midst of bad circumstances? 00:27:56.419 --> 00:27:57.259 That's the first four ways, 00:27:57.259 --> 00:28:01.039 but in the fifth way, it's not subjective, it's objective. 00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:04.940 So Christianity doesn't come, so important. 00:28:05.799 --> 00:28:10.119 So many pathways, philosophies, and religions of 2024 00:28:10.119 --> 00:28:13.259 come and say, we can help you feel better. 00:28:14.299 --> 00:28:17.279 We can give you therapy, we can help your psychology. 00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:18.759 Christianity can do that, 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:22.879 but not because it's grounded in subjectivity. 00:28:22.879 --> 00:28:25.079 The promise is objective. 00:28:25.079 --> 00:28:26.720 The greatest fights, the greatest joy, 00:28:26.720 --> 00:28:28.400 the greatest hope of fighting anxiety, 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:32.319 the greatest way to heal is to know objectively, 00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:34.519 I will see the face of the living God 00:28:34.519 --> 00:28:36.279 in the land of the living. 00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:38.120 You see, four times David says it, 00:28:38.120 --> 00:28:41.480 that his greatest hope in the fight against his fearfulness 00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:43.759 is no matter what happens in my circumstances, 00:28:43.759 --> 00:28:46.240 one day I'm gonna look at the face of God. 00:28:47.240 --> 00:28:48.640 Now let me ask you tonight, 00:28:49.960 --> 00:28:52.000 is that the heartbeat of your faith? 00:28:53.360 --> 00:28:56.079 Have you really registered that the Christian faith 00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:58.599 is most fundamentally one thing, 00:28:58.599 --> 00:29:02.359 and that's that you were made to see God in Christianity, 00:29:02.359 --> 00:29:07.359 the work of Jesus is all about giving that to you objectively. 00:29:07.559 --> 00:29:10.000 Do you long to seek his face? 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:12.960 David says, here, you've got to say to your heart, 00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:14.199 you've got to say, what do you say to your heart? 00:29:14.199 --> 00:29:18.159 You say, okay, heart, not loving the circumstance, 00:29:18.159 --> 00:29:20.439 you're very afraid, you're entering a state 00:29:20.439 --> 00:29:23.299 of fearfulness and anxiety, will you remember, 00:29:23.299 --> 00:29:25.559 will you remember heart, will you look, 00:29:25.559 --> 00:29:27.319 lift up your head and remember that one day 00:29:27.319 --> 00:29:28.720 you're gonna look upon the face of God 00:29:28.720 --> 00:29:30.159 in the land of the living? 00:29:30.159 --> 00:29:31.559 What do you have to be afraid of right now? 00:29:31.559 --> 00:29:34.000 What is it that's taking you so far into the path 00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:37.119 and ocean of fearfulness right now, if you have that? 00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:39.119 I'll conclude with this. 00:29:39.119 --> 00:29:43.359 In the book of Exodus, the Israelites came to Mount Sinai, 00:29:43.359 --> 00:29:44.720 to the mountain of God, 00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:48.519 and when they did that, remember that Moses came to the top 00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:50.599 and the Israelites stayed at the bottom, 00:29:50.599 --> 00:29:53.119 and God said to Moses, and he said to the Israelites, 00:29:53.119 --> 00:29:55.460 do not get any closer to me. 00:29:55.460 --> 00:29:56.640 Do not touch the mountain. 00:29:56.640 --> 00:29:59.039 If you touch the mountain, you're going to die. 00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:02.400 You were, every single person, every single one of us tonight, 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:05.000 every single person in the city was made to see God 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:07.880 face to face, and when we open the scriptures, 00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:10.240 one of the things we realize is that God says 00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:13.920 because of our sin, don't get any closer. 00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:15.120 You cannot see me. 00:30:15.120 --> 00:30:17.799 You know, Moses says, please Lord, let me see your face. 00:30:17.799 --> 00:30:20.279 I know this is what I was made for, 00:30:20.279 --> 00:30:22.960 and he said, I will hide you in the cleft of the rock 00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:24.920 and you can look at my back. 00:30:24.920 --> 00:30:26.960 You cannot see what you were made to see. 00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:29.080 You cannot see my face. 00:30:29.080 --> 00:30:31.680 And David here in Psalm 27, 00:30:31.680 --> 00:30:34.279 knowing what has happened all throughout the Old Testament, 00:30:34.279 --> 00:30:37.920 is sitting here saying, I know that one day, 00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:40.720 I will see the face of the Lord in the land of the living. 00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:41.720 What was his hope? 00:30:42.840 --> 00:30:43.680 What was his hope? 00:30:43.680 --> 00:30:45.680 David had, in some way, some sense, 00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:48.200 by the spirit had to have known. 00:30:48.200 --> 00:30:49.960 The promise of the covenant. 00:30:49.960 --> 00:30:51.640 You know, you open up Matthew one-one, 00:30:51.640 --> 00:30:54.279 and the very first description of Jesus Christ 00:30:54.279 --> 00:30:56.619 is son of David. 00:30:57.839 --> 00:31:00.480 Great David's greater son, Jesus Christ, 00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:02.639 the son of God who came into this world, 00:31:03.559 --> 00:31:05.319 the God that you could not see, 00:31:05.319 --> 00:31:06.759 the God that you could not step towards 00:31:06.759 --> 00:31:09.519 because of your sin, Jesus Christ has made him known. 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:14.160 When you could not go toward the Lord, 00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:16.559 the Lord took on human flesh and came to you. 00:31:17.759 --> 00:31:21.680 And you've got to know that in the middle of human history, 00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:26.680 when he said, whom shall I be afraid of? 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:28.880 When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross 00:31:28.880 --> 00:31:33.880 and he lifted up his head, and his enemies chased him. 00:31:34.680 --> 00:31:38.759 And he said, will I see the face of my father 00:31:38.759 --> 00:31:39.960 in the land of the living? 00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:43.759 He was forsaken in that moment. 00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:47.720 He bowed his head, and he went down, down, down, 00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:49.200 all the way to the pit of hell. 00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:53.200 He experienced hell so that when he arises, 00:31:53.200 --> 00:31:58.000 you could say with David, I know, I know, 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:00.259 I will see the face of God himself, 00:32:00.259 --> 00:32:03.000 the face of Jesus Christ in the land of the living. 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:04.600 Now here's literally the final sentence. 00:32:04.600 --> 00:32:09.600 Will you make the vision of God your greatest hope 00:32:10.240 --> 00:32:11.640 in this life? 00:32:11.640 --> 00:32:14.559 It doesn't happen in 24 hours. 00:32:14.559 --> 00:32:18.880 It is a day by day by day by day fight to say, 00:32:18.880 --> 00:32:22.400 I was made to see God, and that is the desire 00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:24.440 I actually want to have. 00:32:24.440 --> 00:32:27.920 To the degree that you can find your desires, 00:32:27.920 --> 00:32:30.160 your hope in seeing the face of God, 00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:34.640 you will see a proportional decrease in your fearfulness. 00:32:35.680 --> 00:32:36.520 That's a promise. 00:32:36.520 --> 00:32:37.360 Let's pray. 00:32:37.360 --> 00:32:40.920 Father, we thank you that you deal with the problems 00:32:40.920 --> 00:32:42.800 of our psyche, of our psychology. 00:32:43.720 --> 00:32:45.320 And Lord, we are anxious people. 00:32:45.320 --> 00:32:46.360 We are fearful. 00:32:46.359 --> 00:32:49.039 We today, tonight, some of us are fearful, 00:32:49.039 --> 00:32:52.599 fearful, fearful about something this week, 00:32:52.599 --> 00:32:54.719 about unmet hopes. 00:32:55.839 --> 00:32:57.759 We fear that they may never be met. 00:32:58.799 --> 00:33:02.279 About the job we will never get, but we always wanted, 00:33:02.279 --> 00:33:03.679 and we fear that we are failures, 00:33:03.679 --> 00:33:08.679 about the relationship that we may be about to lose 00:33:08.679 --> 00:33:09.879 or have lost. 00:33:11.119 --> 00:33:13.799 And we fear in our anxious thinking, 00:33:13.799 --> 00:33:16.440 if I don't have that, who am I? 00:33:16.440 --> 00:33:19.000 That's a few examples, Lord. 00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:21.599 You know the real life example of every single heart 00:33:21.599 --> 00:33:25.119 in this room, and so give us, give us, give us, Lord. 00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:28.000 We pray a desire to see the face of Jesus 00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:29.919 in the land of the living more 00:33:29.919 --> 00:33:31.720 than the things we're afraid of losing. 00:33:33.079 --> 00:33:35.359 We ask for that in Jesus' name. 00:33:35.359 --> 00:33:44.199 Amen.