Father, we confess before you that...
Father, I guess I'm sort of forcing us to confess before you
that most of the time we think we know who we are
and we sort of recognize ourselves.
But, Father, you know that many times we, in fact,
don't really understand or recognize ourselves.
And we ask, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would do a very gracious
but powerful and gentle work in each one of our lives
and in the life of our church as a whole,
that your Holy Spirit would work in our lives,
that you would bring this word deeply into our hearts
and that you would bring the gospel deeply into our hearts
so that we would see who we really are
and that in seeing who we really are,
we would call out to you and flee to you for refuge.
And we give you thanks and praise, Father,
that when we find refuge in you,
we start to become as you truly intended us to be
and you fit us for heaven.
So we ask, Lord, that you would do this gentle
but merciful and powerful work in our lives.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus,
your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
Actually, it's sort of a very fitting analogy for the sermon,
but this is very unbalanced and it's very, very disconcerting,
which I'll try to ignore.
But it's probably just in the providence of God
that it's here like this because it sort of fits with the sermon.
As many of you know, or some of you know,
I spend a lot of time in coffee shops and I work on my sermon
and eventually get into different conversations with people about that
where they find out I'm a pastor
and they'll ask me questions about what it means to be a pastor.
It's very common when I speak to people who are under 40
that they have never been to a church service,
like in their entire life.
The little tiny things they might know about churches
is if they happen to watch a church,
something in the movies or television
that shows a bit of a church service,
but they've never been and they don't really know what goes on.
So sometimes they'll ask me, like, what I do?
What do we do on a Sunday morning?
Like I always invite them to come or to watch online
and maybe one of them are watching online today.
And so one of the things sometimes I try to describe a sermon to them
and I have to confess most of the time I flub it.
I don't do a good job.
So it's after I've failed
and I try to sort of recalibrate in my mind how to talk about it.
And so sometimes what I say is I'll say something like this.
And I'd say a different thing if I'm talking to a devout Buddhist
or a devout Jew or a devout Muslim.
They have sort of different categories that I have to try to talk to.
But often what I'll try to say, if I have my wits about me,
is I'll say something like,
it might surprise you to know that we Christians agree with agnostics
and skeptics about something very, very important.
We're in 100% agreement with them.
We're in 100% agreement with agnostics and skeptics
that the idea that human beings, mere human beings,
could somehow ascend up to a big transcendent God
and somehow or another come up with terms and ideas
and concepts that sort of fit or capture him,
that that's sort of like a vain type of thing
in terms of it's vain you think you're special,
but vain because it's fruitless.
It can't possibly work.
If God is this big transcendent God,
there's just no way that we human beings could actually reach
him, her, it, or whatever.
And I said, we actually Christians,
it's probably going to surprise you.
It usually does surprise them, actually.
They don't expect me to say that we agree
with agnostics and skeptics about that.
But then I say, but the difference is,
and I said, if you think about it for a second,
it makes sense.
The difference is that we think that God has spoken to us.
Like, if you think about it,
if God is really that big and all-knowing,
it's possible that he could speak to us.
He could pick the right words for us to know.
And then I say, you know,
some other time we can talk about why we believe that,
but that's what Christians believe.
So I said, if you think about it,
it makes sense that when we gather together,
that part of what we do when we gather together
is actually take something that God has spoken to us
and try to think about it
and see how it applies to our lives.
And often people say, oh, like,
I mean, obviously they've never thought about it.
They've never been to a church in their entire life.
And they go, oh, I mean, that's sort of,
you know, different.
And so, you know, and then I'll say,
but there's a bit of a problem.
And I said, part of the problem is,
because they'll maybe say,
well, I thought the Bible was written long ago.
And I'll talk a little bit about how,
if you think about it,
that if God really is,
if there really is a God,
like the triune God,
that's big and all-powerful and all-knowing,
then it's possible for him to say words
that could speak to every generation
and every people group.
And I said, but then sometimes,
in fact, I just recently had a bit of a conversation
just a couple of weeks ago with somebody.
I said, so part of the thing that we need to do,
I said, is you sort of have to make a bit of a bridge.
And I said, you know,
and it's not that surprising,
because sometimes, you know,
people say things,
and we don't think it really applies to us.
And then later on,
we realize it really does apply to us.
And I said, so part of what I do,
when you see me here trying to look up in this space,
trying to, looking a bit confused,
and all of that,
I'm trying to think of how do I bridge,
how do I get that piece of what God has said
that might have been written a long time ago,
and how do I get people
who are sitting in Ottawa in 2022
to realize it's speaking to them?
So, for instance,
like if you put the,
we're going to look at Psalm 2,
you're going to see instantly what I mean
as a perfect example,
if we just look at Psalm 2,
which is the psalm I'm looking at today,
it's the beginning of a summer series,
or sort of the,
yes, in many ways,
the beginning of a summer series,
we're going to look at different psalms
over the summer.
And if you turn to Psalm 2,
here we're reading something
that was written 3,000 years ago,
give or take a couple of years,
3,000 years ago,
and you listen to it,
and here's how it begins.
Verse 1,
Why do the nations rage,
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord,
and against his anointed,
saying,
let us burst their bonds apart,
and cast away their cords from us.
Like, look at verse 1 again,
why do the nations rage,
and the peoples plot in vain?
So, if you think about it,
just for a second,
take off your holy hat,
take off your holy clothes,
and it just doesn't seem true.
Right?
I mean, it just doesn't seem true.
Or maybe you think of it,
and you say,
you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that describes,
that describes the MAGA Trump people.
Or, depending on your other,
you know, that describes
all those people going out
and demonstrating right now,
you know, against Roe versus Wade.
Yeah, that describes them.
Like, and so maybe we look at it
and think about how it describes them,
but we don't look at it
and think about how it describes us.
It seems like it's too big a gap.
It doesn't seem like a realistic thing to say.
Okay.
Well, here's the thing.
Now, I meant to have my service,
my phone,
my family brought me my phone
just at the very start of the service,
so I didn't have a chance to look it up,
but it maybe is even better
that I don't look it up.
There's a song
that if I start to say the words to it,
it is so well known to you
that, in fact,
if I started to sing the first verse,
most of you could sing along with me
even though the words aren't up on the screen.
And even though I didn't have my phone with me,
if I had a whiteboard,
I'd probably by myself
be able to put down
most of the lyrics to the song,
but I'd be willing to bet $100
that with none of us looking at our phones,
we could put all of the lyrics of the song
up on the whiteboard
within about a minute or two,
and we could do it effortlessly.
And it's a song
which virtually every Canadian knows,
and my guess is
that almost every single one of you knows,
and you know it very well.
Imagine there's no heaven.
It's easy if you try.
No hell below us.
Above us, only sky.
Imagine, and it goes on.
Am I not correct?
Imagine there's no heaven.
It's easy if you could all join up with me in singing it,
and we'd all be able to put it up on the screen.
And here's the other thing about that song.
And I...
It's not just that we know the lyrics to the song,
but that most people,
when they sing the song,
have a deep emotional connection to that song.
In fact, in an odd way,
there's almost something transcendent
or religious
about that song.
It moves you.
It tugs at your heart.
Imagine there's no heaven.
It's easy if you try.
No hell.
No hell below us.
Above us, only sky.
It speaks to us
at a very deep level.
But that song
is actually saying
what verses 1 to 3 said
in a modern singable form
that tugs at your heart.
Why do the nations rage or plot
and the peoples plot in vain?
That's God's comment.
We work together,
but the bottom line is,
verse 3,
let us burst their bonds apart,
that is the God,
that is the Lord
and is anointed,
and cast away their cords from us.
Let us live.
Let us live
as if
there is no God,
there is no hell below us,
there is no heaven up above,
there is just us.
Let us live in that way.
And when we sing
or hear that song,
it tugs at our heart,
it speaks to us.
In fact,
that song shows
that verses 1 to 3
of Psalm chapter 2
are deeply true.
Not only are they deeply true
of most Canadians,
it is deeply true
of you and me.
Because if we're honest,
there's something in that song
that tugs at our heart too.
To cast,
to live as if God does not exist,
to cast off his bonds,
to cast off his cords.
Now one of the things
about the Bible
is that as I,
I think I learned it
from Jackie Hill Perry
that the Bible
is both a window
and a mirror.
And it's a window
in the sense that
it opens up the door,
the window to us
to start to understand
and see the world
as it really is.
And it's a mirror
because it begins
to reveal to us
what we really look like
and what we're really like
at the level of the heart
in the context
of the living God.
And that's what this psalm
does in a very,
very powerful way.
It's a psalm that,
with this,
with Psalm 1,
which we're going to look at
next week,
it's the introduction
to the Psalter.
It tells us how to enter
into the Psalter.
The Psalter is the book of Psalms
and the book of Psalms
are the songs
that God wants us to sing.
They're the prayers
that God wants us to pray.
And at the same time
they teach us
and they inform us.
And one of the reasons
that we can see
why this psalm
is here right at the beginning
is it teaches us
that while we're trying
to learn how to sing
the songs that God
wants his people to sing
and to pray the prayers
that God wants us to pray,
there is a part of us
that doesn't want God
to exist.
Pascal,
who wrote a famous
sort of collection
of thoughts
of apologetics,
I think it was
in the 17th century,
but I can't remember
if it was the 17th
or the 18th century
in France.
He has this very powerful thing
where he says
that if you want to talk
about the Christian faith
to people who are
outside the Christian faith,
you have to deal
with two issues.
One issue is that
everybody has reasons,
often very good reasons,
why the Christian God
cannot be true.
But the other thing,
which most people
don't recognize,
is that most people
don't want
the triune God
to exist.
They don't want
Christianity to be true.
They will accept
just about anything
other than accept
the Christian faith.
And Psalm 2
is expressing that to us
as a way for us
as we enter into
worship and prayer
is to acknowledge
that there is part of us
that likes to cast off
God's bonds
and his courts.
So how does God react?
That we wouldn't
want him to exist.
All of verses 4 to 12
talk about it,
but we'll look at it
in chunks.
Let's look at the first thing
is going to be very surprising.
And actually,
many of us find it troubling
and many of us
probably find it offensive.
Look at verse 4.
He who sits
in the heavens
laughs.
One moment.
So some of us
don't want to recognize
the fact that we
have part of us
that really
the song imagined
speaks to us
at a deep level.
And others,
of course,
would be very,
very public about,
you know,
I've seen people
about saying
how they're looking
forward to going to hell
because all the cool people
and their best friends
will be there.
And people can be
very sort of,
you know,
ha-ha about it.
And that's fine.
But the surprising thing
here is what the psalm
reveals is that
God laughs at this.
But look,
and it's a bit offensive.
Look,
again,
verse 4,
he who sits
in the heavens
laughs.
The Lord holds
them in derision.
I mean,
he just,
he laughs
like because
it's ridiculous.
Verse 5,
then he will speak
to them in his wrath.
And that's a troubling
idea for Canadians.
And terrify them
in his fury,
saying,
as for me,
I have set
my king
on Zion,
my holy hill.
So it's interesting
that this verse
4 to 6,
it begins with a picture
of heaven laughing
and it ends up
with God's response,
not just as laughing,
but there's also anger
at what's going on
by whether we human beings
would live in this.
And his response
is that he sends
his king
to the earth.
It begins
with something
transcendent
and it ends
with something
very,
very much
among us.
But we're bothered
by some of this stuff.
Well, in terms of,
let's look at the thing
about the laughing.
We think this is
sort of wrong for God,
but it's something
that we can actually
deeply relate to.
Imagine for a moment
between the two services
the places may be empty.
And that's what it's like.
We have a service
at 8,
very small little,
very 1662,
book of common prayer,
the,
thy,
thou,
dost language.
And then there's
a period of time
when there's nobody
here between the 9
and the 10 o'clock service.
And let's say Barbara's gone.
And I think I'm here
all by myself.
And I start to do
my best imitation
of U2's Bono singing
interspersed with how,
what's the guitarist's name?
Slash or something like that.
How Slash plays his guitar.
So I'm up here
singing away,
thinking I'm all by myself,
playing the guitar,
doing all the moves.
And all of a sudden
I discover that the
more needs have all
come in very quietly
and are watching me.
They could turn off
all the lights,
the room would be
a bright red
from the color of my face.
Now they wouldn't
all laugh at me
because they're very nice,
but imagine it was
somebody else.
And they would just think
I'm completely
and utterly ridiculous.
Here I am,
a man of a certain age,
acting as if I'm
a super rock star
and it's just ridiculous
and you would laugh
and you all understand it.
Well, that's,
now you understand
a little bit about
your pretension and mine
that I don't need God,
I don't need a creator,
I don't need a sustainer,
I don't need oxygen.
Whoa, whoa, whoa,
that's wrong.
Yes, you do.
I don't need gravity.
I'm just the God
of the universe.
No, no wonder God laughs.
And what about the anger?
I was talking to somebody
about this just about
a month or so ago
and I said,
imagine,
I said that you had
had some kids
and they're your kids
and so, you know,
you changed their diapers
when they were young,
you, you know,
you cared for them,
you got them to school,
you gave them sporting events,
you gave them allowance
and then for whatever reason
you're very wealthy
and you just continue
to give them money
and they don't work
and you put them up
in a very, very fine house
and they get all the money
they want every time
they go to their bank account
the money's there
that they need
and they live in a house
and every single thing
is coming from you
and you are completely
and utterly supporting them
and then you discover
that what they do
is they go around
telling people
how bad and evil
and how much you suck
and how they're responsible
for all this money,
they're making it,
they're sustaining it
and you might be
very angry at them.
In fact,
if you would be
like most people,
if you hear how much
they're disparaging you
and saying how they,
you know,
they're an orphan
and that you're dead,
they don't even have a dad,
like you might just say,
well, I've had enough
of them,
I'm going to cut them off,
you'd be angry at them.
So God's response
to human beings
thinking that we can
be our own gods
is actually very,
that makes,
like that's not
an outrageous thing
for God to do.
But it isn't just
that he laughs
and it isn't just
that he's anger,
there's something deeper
that's going on here.
Now, just before I read
the next bit,
and if you have your Bibles
you can already see it,
but if you're just looking
up on the screen
you have to wait.
You know what I tell
my Jewish friends is,
you know,
we Christians accept
what you call the Tanakh
and we call it
the Old Testament
and we accept
that that's God speaking.
but we obviously,
we believe that
because of Jesus
and his coming,
because he is the Messiah,
the anointed one,
that there's also now
more words
that God has spoken to us
and we call that
the New Testament.
And you might or might
not know this,
but what we call
the New Testament
quotes parts
of the Old Testament
or makes allusions to it.
And the Bible text
in the Old Testament
that's most quoted
in the New Testament
is Psalm 110.
It is found
directly quoted
or alluded to
far more than
any other text
in the Old Testament.
And the second most quoted text
in the New Testament
from the Old Testament
is Psalm 2.
Well, look at these
next few verses
and you'll understand why.
Look at verse 7.
So this is the king, right?
As for me,
I have set my king
on Zion,
my holy hill.
And the king is now saying,
I will tell of the decree.
The Lord said to me,
you are my son.
Today I have begotten you.
Ask of me
and I will make
the nations
your heritage
and the ends
of the earth
your possession.
You will break them
with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel.
Now you can,
those of you
who are Christians,
you can see that
Jesus quotes that directly.
It's part of the text
in the New Testament
to use about
the divinity of Jesus.
A riddle,
a puzzle
which is there
in the Old Testament
that only Jesus
actually answers.
But we're very bothered
by this idea
that the coming of God
and of his Messiah
to earth
would lead to things
being smashed.
But here's a way
to see it.
In fact, actually,
I've sort of jumped ahead
a little bit
in terms of the overall sermon.
The sermon,
the big idea
of the sermon
is that human rebellion
against the triune God
will only have
one of two ends.
Ruin,
you are ruined,
or you seeking refuge in him.
You are ruined,
or you realizing
that you're heading to ruin,
you seeking refuge in him.
So imagine for a second
you don't like
the law of gravity.
You hate the law of gravity.
You find the law of gravity
deeply offensive.
You think it shouldn't be there.
You think that by your power
of your mind
that it should not be there.
You should be able to fly.
You should be able to soar.
You should be able to be like a god.
And you can say that
as you step off
of a 12-story building.
And you can shake your fist
at gravity
all the way down.
You can scream at gravity.
You can curse gravity.
You can pretend you're flying.
But you are falling.
And you will end
dead on the ground.
The fact of the matter is
that if in fact
the triune god
does exist
and because every human being
will die
coming face to face
with the triune god
is an unavoidable reality.
And you will either
crash
against that triune god
in fact actually
if up until now
up until the end of verse 9
all you can see
is the only option
is smashing.
That you have your pretensions
about God not existing
and whether or not
that's very conscious
or whether or not
it's something unconscious
that you never recognize
others might see in you
or at times
you start to realize
that you don't
you know
like this is my body
you know my body myself
good grief
I mean
my body myself
and if the psalm
was just to end
at verse 9
it would present
a very bleak
and despairing
view
of the human
project
that all we human beings
can do
is to rebel against God
whether conscious or not
wish that he wasn't there
and at the end of the day
really all we are
is people falling
from a 12 story building
railing against
gravity
and we lose
gravity wins
and we will be ruined
but the psalm
doesn't end
at verse 9
it has one more section
one more trio
of verses
let's look at what they are
now therefore
verse 10
oh kings be wise
oh there's a possibility
of wisdom
be warned
oh rulers of the earth
serve the lord
with fear
and rejoice
with trembling
kiss the sun
lest he be angry
and you perish
in the way
for his wrath
is quickly kindled
and what's the final word
blessed are all
who take refuge
in him
what is the final word
before you start
to read the rest
of the psalter
is blessed
are all
who take refuge
in him
now
one of the things
that the rest
of the psalter
you know
many of us
and this is where
that song
imagine
is so powerful
right
imagine there's
no heaven
it's easy
if you try
no hell below us
above us only sky
and you go on
and on and on
imagine all the people
and you know
all of this
etc etc
and the idea
of serving the lord
with fear
and rejoicing
with trembling
is deeply offensive
that's not what
we want to hear
and one of the things
that the rest
of the psalter
will make clear
to us
is that human beings
don't have a choice
about serving
and the other word
for serving
is worshipping
that the fact
of the matter
is
is that I don't
have a choice
between serving
the triune god
and not
the choice
between me
is that I'm
going to serve
somebody
or something
I can't help
but serve
something
or somebody
and I might be
serving my ego
I might be serving
my career
I might be serving
art
I might be serving
money
I might be serving
my politics
I might be serving
a certain type
of ideology
I might be serving
technology
or science
or whatever
I might be serving
my wife
or living in
complete and utter
terror about what
my kids
or my neighbors
say
and I am serving
something
so the question
isn't will I serve
or not
is what are you
in fact serving
and the rest of the
Psalter will start
to make that
very clear
as you read
through it
and as you pray
through it
and as you sing
through it
and this particular
thing of kiss the sun
one of the things
here which the psalm
is remembering
and one of the
problems I have
sometimes when I'm
talking to people
about the Christian
faith is I realize
I can start to talk
about the Christian
faith as if it's
just ideas
if it's just
principles
it's just certain
things about how
culture or morality
or philosophical
types of ideas
but it's not
it's about a person
I mean it is about
those things
there are ideas
there are concepts
and precepts
and practices
and processes
and that matter
but at the end of the day
it's a person
and this word
kiss the sun
it's an image
of homage
of acknowledging
your sovereign
lord
to whom
it is
proper for you
to serve
and bring glory
and to listen
to and to follow
and it's an intimate
image
I had
some people
who were from
a French background
who were at the
earlier service
and I shared with them
and I said
in a French culture
you don't just
sort of say
you know
like this
or shake your hand
it's the
the kiss
on either side
it's close
it's personal
you're in their space
it's a sign
of the fact
that you're willing
to be completely
and utterly
defenseless
and close
and that's the image
the psalms
when they're prayed
and as they're
sung
and as they're
reflected on
it's not just ideas
there's a king
who creates a kingdom
and his kingdom
is all centered
around him
and it's
it's relating to him
it's not a kingdom
where you just
sort of do things
as if the king
is gone
that's the beginning
of the psalm
casting his bonds
asunder
there's always a king
that we are to be
close to
and intimate with
and that we are
to pay homage to
and when it says
that his wrath
in verse 12
is quick
that we might
get
we experience his anger
that we might perish
and that's the thing
about the ruin
and then his wrath
is quickly kindled
the image there
isn't that God
is very very thin
skinned
can fly into a rage
in a moment
the issue is this
that in the next 30 seconds
I could have an aneurysm
and to your shock
collapse dead
that we don't know
when we will appear
before God
face to face
we might think
we know
I might think
you know
I'm having to plan
eventually for my retirement
and all
and you know
I think I'll plan
a retirement plan
until I'm 95
and all of that
type of stuff
but I don't know
I don't know
if I'm going to die
on my way home
I don't know
part of the thing
that gets people
like if you
in Acts chapter 5
there's this sort of
scary story
of a man
by the name
of Ananias and Sapphira
who dropped dead
and it's a whole other topic
for another sermon
but one of the things
that commentators
and all try to do
is try to make it look
like what
what Ananias and Sapphira
did was so unbelievably
terribly wrong
that God had to kill them
but that is not
the point of the story
the fact of the matter is
is that it was
a garden variety
type of bad thing
just garden variety
the simple little
white lie
that you or I
take or make
and we never even
give it a second's thought
and the point
of the story is
you never know
when you're going to appear
before the living God
you just don't
it can spring up
in a moment
and you're there
I'm driving along
thinking how
I'm going to do this
I'm going to do that
I'm so great
I'm do this
and the next thing I know
I'm before the living God
I'm before him
all of a sudden
in the blink of an eye
in the twinkle of an eye
but notice how the psalm ends
right now George
if you are outside of Christ
you are a man
who stepped off
of the tallest building
in the world
and you are falling
and you might think
you're God
you might think
you're flying
you might shake your fist
at the true and living God
but the fact of the matter is
is that you only have
one destiny
and that is to land
in the ground
but the psalm said
there is another option
why did God send
his son
his anointed one
to his anointed
to his Zion hill
the hill where he died
why did he send
his only begotten son
why did he send
our king
and he sent
his king
that he might drink
the cup
that you deserve
he sent his son
and his king
that you and I
might find refuge in him
you and I
by simple act of faith
might find our refuge
in him
just as I sort of bring
the sermon
to a close
what if you think
back to verse 2
let us burst
their bonds
apart
and cast away
their cords
from us
what is it
you discover
when you come
to the Lord
for refuge
what are those
cruel
and irksome
terrible bonds
and cords
that the Lord
has for you
and me
truth
the Lord wants
to bind us
with truth
what do I want
in the vanity
of my imaginations
I want lies
he wants to bind
me with the truth
he wants to
bind me with love
when I want to hate
he wants to bind
me with goodness
when I would
rather do things
which are purely
and utterly
pursuing my ego
he wants to
bind me with beauty
when I want to
choose ugliness
ugliness from my lips
or ugliness
in my mind
or in my imagination
he wants to bind
me with beauty
he wants to bind
me with justice
when I would
rather have
injustice
he wants to
bind me with mercy
when I would
rather show
no mercy
he wants to
bind me with the gift of forgiveness, when I would rather show no forgiveness but show resentment.
Those are the terrible, terrible, terrible, atrocious things that the living, true and
living God wants to bind you and me with. Those are the cords we want to cast away.
And the Lord looks at you and me and says, gosh, George, you need to find refuge in me,
the way, the truth, and the life, the true, the good, the beautiful. I who am just yet merciful,
whose goodness is beauty and whose beauty is goodness. And we need that. We don't need to
have those cast aside. I need those to bind me. And you know the wonderful thing? I was sharing
this with somebody. We got on a bit of a sidetrack. This is a non-Christian. This is a couple of
months ago. And I said, you know, one of the wonderful things about the Bible and things
like this is if you think about it for a second, all the Bible says is you shall not tell a lie.
And my implication is it tells you you should tell the truth. But you think about it for a
second. You can sing. You can write poetry. You can write a novel. You can write laws.
Just don't tell lies. Just don't tell lies. Like it's not free. It's not like it's so
binding me as if I can only say one thing, you know, quack, quack, quack, quack. No,
the whole universe is open. Write about economics. Write about statistics. Write beautiful songs
and sing them. Just don't tell lies. Speak the truth. It doesn't tell you how to love.
Love your children one way. Love your husband or your wife another way. Love your neighbor
another way. Love the barista who's serving you another way. It doesn't tell you how to.
You see what I mean? It's like these things aren't things which bind us. And that's the thing
which the Psalms are going to now unfold. That now that you realize, okay, I have a sin problem.
There's something in me. There's some significant part of me that's always going to be rebelling
against God. That my refuge in him is a work of his grace, not of my accomplishment. And now the
Psalm is going to help me to sing out of finding refuge in him and wanting to have deeper refuge in
him and understanding how these chords and bonds that his word provides are completely trustworthy.
And do not destroy me, but make me more fully myself and make me free and whole.
We are all on one level. Fundamentally, we know that we are more ourselves in truth than in lie,
more ourselves in goodness than in evil, more ourselves in beauty than in ugliness,
more in ourselves in justice rather than injustice, more ourselves in mercy rather than in hatred.
And that is what the Lord calls you and me to invite you to stand.
Let's bow our heads in prayer. And just before I pray, if you're here or if you're watching online,
if you either maybe you're not sure where you are with the trying God, but after hearing this,
you realize there's been a tug in your heart that you don't want to have imagined tug on your heart,
that you'd rather have the true and living God tug on your heart, that you'd rather not want to cast off his bonds,
but you want to find refuge in him so that the bonds of truth and love and goodness and mercy and beauty and justice
are the bonds that begin to actually keep you together and whole.
There is no better time than right now to just call out to the true and living God and say,
Jesus, please be my Savior and Lord, and I want to find my refuge in you and never let me go.
And there's no better time than now just to call out to him and say that.
Let's bow our heads in prayer.
Father, we thank you that your word makes clear who we are.
And we ask, Lord, that you create within us a hunger for you, a hunger for Jesus,
that the message of the gospel and of your mercy, that it humble us,
that it helps us to die to our pride and vain glory.
We give you thanks and praise that you want us to find refuge in you,
that you are our refuge, and that when we find our refuge in you through your grace,
that, well, Father, that from the perspective of your grace, as we hear your words,
we begin to understand that you just want us to be bond.
You want to bind us with truth.
You want to bind us with love.
You want to bind us with joy.
You want to bind us with peace and mercy and justice and beauty.
And so, Lord, we ask that you create not only a hunger and longing and yearning for you,
but a hunger and longing and yearning for your word,
hunger and longing and yearning to know the psalms and have the psalms form us,
to guide us in our prayer and the singing of our praises.
We ask, Lord, that your word have a deep hole and root in our lives.
And we ask all of these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.