Just bow your heads in prayer.
Father, I've made my voice all croaky from leading singing,
and so I ask that you help my throat to be fine for the rest of the service.
Father, a small prayer, but we know that you care about even the small things in our lives.
Father, far more importantly,
you have written a text of the Bible that
we turn our eyes and our ears and our mind away from.
At best, we think it applies to others and not to ourselves.
And so, Lord, we ask that you would do a gentle but wonderful work of mercy and grace in our lives
and bring this word deep into our hearts,
that we might know the full warning and the full promise,
the depths of both in our lives,
claiming, heeding the warnings,
believing the promises,
and growing in liberty and freedom as we live to bring you glory.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
Amen.
So, true story.
I once, once was invited to give the commencement address for the graduating class,
the graduating ceremony at a small Christian university.
And so I was thinking about what to say,
and they think I could say whatever I wanted.
And I don't know, like me being me, a bit angular, I guess,
I chose the Acts 17,
which is the story, the part of Acts 17 where Paul goes to Athens.
And the message I gave them was that there's only one place in the Bible where it talks about the city or the area being completely and utterly full of idols.
And the one place in the Bible where it says that there are many, many, many idols is the functional equivalent of the modern university or college.
And then I went on to talk about idolatry, and I've never been invited back to give a commencement address.
Probably what they were hoping I would talk about would be something like the normal commencement addresses,
probably at Christian universities, but definitely if you go to the University of Ottawa or Carleton or Queens or some other university,
McGill, you go to a high school or junior high, and usually when there's a commencement address,
they say that you need to know yourself.
You need to be true to yourself.
You need to, only you can do you.
You need to follow your dreams, follow your desires, that you need to go and change the world,
that you've now been equipped to do great things and good things,
and you should pursue that, and you should go for that, and you should do that.
And that is probably what they were hoping that I was going to say to the Christian university students
who are graduating and their family and the current students and the professors,
and I neglected to do that.
But if I had done that, I would probably, maybe I would have gotten invited back.
The thing that I should not have done if I was to give a talk like that was to actually use Psalm 36 as my text,
because Psalm 36 says that all of that advice is rubbish.
And not only rubbish, it's actually quite dangerous.
So let's look at it.
Psalm 36.
And it's, in fact, not what we'd like to hear, but it's what we need to hear, because it's true.
So Psalm 36, what does it say?
It begins like this.
Remember I said the normal commencement address would be, you know, look deep within,
you know, figure out your desires, pursue your desires, be you, all of these types of things.
And Psalm 36, verse 1 begins,
Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart.
There is no fear of God before his eyes.
Now, if you're interested afterwards, you can talk to me.
There's some translation issues with chapter, you know, one, Psalm 36, verse 1.
One of the things that the original languages do sometimes is they have bad grammar.
It's almost as if the writers were looking down the ages and wanted to speak like Yoda occasionally,
in Yoda-like sentences.
And modern translators don't know what to do with stuff like that, so they try to smooth it all out
and make it good English.
And that's sort of what's going on there, which is why the NIV and others have, you know,
slightly different translations.
There's a Yoda-like moment at the beginning.
But if you're looking at your own Bibles, you'll see the little note.
And, in fact, the better translation is that this is a psalm of David.
It's meant to be sung, believe it or not.
Well, and it's not only meant to be sung, but he describes himself as a servant of the Lord.
And it actually should say, transgression speaks to the wicked deep in my heart.
So he's not talking about other people.
He's talking about himself.
And he's just described himself as a servant of the Lord.
Transgression speaks to me deep in my heart.
And the word for transgression is a word that's not just sort of stepping over a boundary you shouldn't step over.
But it's a word that implies, it's like a military term, and it implies rebellion.
It implies revolution against lawful authority.
I guess it's sort of what Trudeau thought was happening with the bouncy castles on Parliament Hill
and brought in the equivalent of the War Measures Act.
But, you know, that this was something rebellious against lawful authority.
And that's what he's saying.
Actually, you know, Claire, I was going to do this after the second verse.
Could you put up the first point, please?
That would be very helpful if you did now.
What the text is saying is that transgression, this rebellion,
speaks to you and to me all the way down to your depths.
Transgression.
That right down to your depths.
Transgression.
Most of the time it's just whispering.
George, did God really say?
That's not really wrong.
George, it would be way better if you did this.
I mean, sometimes, as we all know, with transgression, it shouts at us, grabs us by the collar, and makes us come.
But it's always speaking to us.
The deeper we go, it's still there.
And then it has this really weird line.
Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart.
There is no fear of God before his eyes.
And, you know, if you were to ask most Canadians what would their criteria be for God to exist
and for him, she, or it, or they to be worshipped,
I think the average Canadian would say that you should never fear them.
That's like a criteria for the average Canadian to define their God.
And actually, the text here is even worse in the original language than it is in English.
The word, we've been reading a book on the fear of God,
and that's not the Hebrew word which is used here.
Actually, more literally, it says the dread of God.
There is no dread of God before his eyes.
Now, I'm not going to talk about that right now,
but I am going to talk about it in a couple of verses,
and hopefully I don't forget.
If I do forget, make sure you talk to me afterwards.
But this is how the psalm describes you and me as human beings.
It describes us.
In fact, it gets even worse.
Look at verse 2.
So, you know, verse 1 is,
transgression speaks to the wicked deep in my heart.
There is no fear of God before my eyes,
for his eyes.
For he, and this is where the Hebrew gets word,
because he uses my in that first thing, doing the Yodism,
and then he goes back to his.
That's why they have trouble translating it.
Verse 2,
For he flatters himself in his own eyes.
That his iniquity.
Iniquity means here, evil that you do that troubles others.
That's what iniquity means.
Evil that you do that troubles others.
That his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
And obviously, others know that you're doing evil, but that you flatter yourself so that when you're doing troublesome things to others that are wrong,
you don't see that you're doing that.
You flatter yourself that you're doing something different.
Yes, it was good that I shared that slander.
It's going to be very helpful to people if I share that slander.
It's very good that I tore a strip off of that person at the office in front of other people,
because now everybody will learn,
and it was a really important, helpful piece of feedback,
which is only going to make them perform.
We find ways to flatter ourselves to not actually realize what we're doing.
In fact, if you could put up the second point,
what the psalm is saying,
to your depths,
you are defined by self-flattery.
To your depths,
to my depths,
in and of myself,
I am defined
by self-flattery.
Now, the Bible has a lot more to talk about
about our inner life than this,
and there's balancing texts,
but even for many of us who deal with despair about ourselves,
part of our despair is that at certain times,
it's impossible for us to flatter ourselves
as much as we've been flattering ourselves,
and our inability to flatter ourselves in this situation
can lead us to a moment of crushing despair.
But most of the advice that we get about how to deal with it
is ways to appeal to us to be able to flatter ourselves out of the issue.
Now, most of you are probably thinking,
this all seems a little bit extreme,
and I'm going to give you an example
about why on one level we know this is true,
but we don't want to acknowledge that we believe it's true.
In fact, I'm going to give you an example in a moment
that Hollywood knows that this is true.
Tinseltown.
But it both knows it's true
and actually models verse 2
in a very, very subtle
and a way that we can easily drink down,
and so we understand this about human beings,
but we do it in such a way
that fills us with self-flattering pride.
But before I do that,
let's look at verse 3 and 4,
and then we'll go back.
Look at verse 3.
It goes like this.
It continues.
The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit.
In other words, they're not true.
They deceive.
He has ceased to act wisely or prudently and do good.
He plots trouble while on his bed.
He sets himself in a way that is not good.
He does not reject evil.
And those last three little lines,
which all sort of connect with each other
in the Hebrew poetry,
is that even while we're on our bed,
before we go to sleep,
or in the morning when we wake up,
we think about ways that we can get even
or we can make that deal
or we can talk in such and such a way
that we're going to get what we want
or get out of trouble or whatever.
And then the second one,
he sets himself in a way that is not good.
It's that there's times that we just,
we're not going to move.
We're not going to change.
You know, on one hand,
others might say what you're doing isn't right.
It's not helpful.
It's wrong.
But we set ourselves in that way.
We're not going to budge.
We're going to be persistent in it.
And then the final one is that we don't reject evil,
either when we're plotting or thinking about
or scheming about what we're going to say
to get what we want or to get out of trouble
or to gaslight people
or to do some other type of thing like that.
But we don't want to,
we sort of don't want to reject anything
that actually might be wrong.
Now, as I said,
many of us probably think that this is too extreme.
But here's a couple of things to consider.
First of all,
every single one of us, if we're honest,
knows somebody who this has described.
That often what we describe now,
it's a common problem,
is flaming narcissists.
And probably every single one of us
knows somebody that's a narcissist.
And they're causing trouble in their own life
and they don't seem to see it.
And one of the things about people like this,
like these narcissists,
is if they were to hear a text like this
without me talking about it,
or maybe I'd just say a couple of very simple things about it,
they'd say,
oh yeah, I know somebody that that describes.
You know, one of the funny things
about the narcissist who thinks it describes another person
is that they don't think it describes themselves.
But what if others,
what if you were to,
after church,
you were to discover,
or, you know,
after you've left your coworkers or whatever,
if you were to discover
that your coworkers were talking about you
and say,
you know,
there's a lot of ways that describes,
you know,
Bob,
there's a lot of ways that describes Sue,
there's a lot of ways that describes George,
you know,
he won't bend,
he won't change,
even though it's wrong.
And he seems completely blind about it
and he sees it in others,
but doesn't see it in himself.
Like,
what about that if that's a possibility?
If we all know people
that to some degree
this describes them,
is it in fact possible to our horror
that there are people in the world
who think that this text describes you and me?
Wow.
One moment.
You don't want to think that.
Why?
Because we flatter ourselves.
But here's how Hollywood shows
that we are,
that this text is true.
there's lots of examples.
I'll just give one.
But you see,
one of the things that we'll say,
well,
George,
that might be true.
You know,
that there's a type of superficial thing
that we do that's sort of wrong.
And it's superficial,
but,
you know,
deep down,
like one of the things that,
I don't know if Jordan Peterson still says this,
I don't follow Jordan Peterson really closely
or anything like that.
But,
I mean,
one of the things that he talks about all the time
is the divine spark,
which implies that there's very,
very deep down at the very center of us,
there's some type of divine spark,
which is good.
And it's a very,
very common,
in other words,
what Psalm 36 says
goes against what Jordan Peterson says.
It's a weakness in his thinking.
And,
but maybe he's changed.
I don't know.
Maybe that's from a couple of years ago.
But,
you know,
many people will say,
well,
George,
you know,
but maybe at the superficial level,
you know,
we say things to hurt people,
but deep down,
deep down,
we're not like that.
But think of disaster movies,
or like movies where,
like the world is about to end in some way.
On my holidays,
one of the things I did at the beginning of my holidays
was re-watched the Brad Pitt film,
World War Zed.
Nothing like zombie invasions to get the,
to say you're on holidays.
And in lots of ways,
I really liked the movie.
By the way,
if you're curious,
the book is a hundred times better.
But,
you know,
it's a fun movie.
But,
but what are movies like that show?
What are movies like,
you know,
the aliens have invaded,
the virus is spreading,
the zombies are invading,
the world as we know it is about to come to end.
It always features two things.
And one of the things it features is this,
that when it comes down to your self-preservation,
and all the external things are gone,
we reveal ourselves as we really are.
And what we really are is looting,
violent,
raping,
transgressive people.
Take away the veneer,
take away the worry that if I was to fully act on that,
I'd be fired from my job,
and people wouldn't like me,
and my wife would divorce me,
and my kids wouldn't want to have anything to do with me.
Take away all of those external things
that sort of keep me under some type of control,
and deep down,
every one of those zombie virus,
alien invading movies,
Hollywood is saying,
we will just become these violent people.
Grasping.
And one of the reasons those movies are popular
is because we say yes.
That is what people are really like.
Good grief.
They're saying transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart.
There is no dread of God before their eyes,
and they flatter themselves in their own eyes
that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated,
and their words are trouble and decease.
They've ceased to act wisely and do good.
They plot trouble on their bed,
set themselves in a way that is not good,
and they do not reject evil,
and they say that's actually true.
It's what World War Z says.
But then it flatters ourselves,
because why do we watch movies like that?
We watch movies like that
because inwardly we think,
I'm not those bad people.
I'm Brad Pitt.
I'm the noble one protecting my family
who's going to save the world.
What have we just done?
You see, that's what Hollywood does.
It says this is what human beings are like,
but then it provides a means by which we say
that's what all the other human beings in the world are like.
But I'm Brad Pitt.
In other words, I'm saying,
what's going to happen to all of you,
the zombie thing,
you're all going to turn into those types of people,
but not me.
I'm Brad Pitt.
And you're thinking to yourself,
George, that's completely ridiculous.
I'm Brad Pitt.
You're going to be one of the guys out there
doing all those terrible things.
And we're all thinking that.
And in an odd way,
movies like World War Z
show that we actually believe that this is true
and that we actually act on it.
In fact, if you just think about it at work,
if you think about it,
the other co-workers and stuff like that
or your neighbors,
and you think,
really?
You think you'd be the one who'd be Brad Pitt?
No way.
You'd be one of the first people out there
doing all the bad things
and hoarding things.
Now,
if the sermon
and the psalm
just ended right there,
I say,
go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
It's just a pretty depressing type of thing.
But the psalm
does something which is very different.
And what we expect now
from our culture
and our hearts
is we expect now
the psalm,
if it's going to continue
to do certain types of things.
We expect
that now it's going to extol
the virtue of mindfulness
or yoga techniques
or it's going to talk about
how you should go to mass
every Sunday
or how you should
homeschool your kids
or how you should listen
to a show
on Christian radio
on a Sunday afternoon
that will tell you
the four types of steps
that you need to do
to have success
or it's going to talk about
how beside your mirror
you need to have a Bible verse
that says,
you know,
I can do all things
through him
who strengthens me.
I love the Bible,
Babylon B meme
that says
I can do all things
through a Bible verse
taken out of context.
But that's,
those things sell
lots of books
and make lots of money
and that's what we expect to do.
But the psalm
does something
completely and utterly
unexpected.
well,
let's look.
Verse 5.
So verses 1 to 4,
it's been this
sobering reflection
that transgression
speaks to you
and me
all the way down
to your depths
and it speaks
to my depths
and that to my depths
I am defined
by self-flattery.
and then that the psalm
goes like crazy.
Verse 5.
Your steadfast love,
O Lord,
extends to the heavens.
Your faithfulness
to the clouds.
Your righteousness
is like the mountains of God,
the greatest mountains.
Your judgments
are like the great deep.
Man and beast
you save,
O Lord.
Completely different direction
from what we're expecting.
You know,
all of a sudden
it says
your steadfast love
and steadfast love
means
it means that God's love
is steadfast.
It means it's unfailing
and
it means that it's pure
and it's also
a type of love.
that word
it's a type of love
that's relational love
that includes human beings.
It's a love
that's described
that's of God's very nature
that he extends
to
the human beings
described in verses 1 to 4
and that he will make
a covenant with them.
and this steadfast love
extends to the heavens.
In other words,
as far as you can go,
as high as you can go,
you will never go so high
that what characterizes
the triune God
is steadfast love.
It doesn't matter
how high you go into God.
It doesn't matter
how further in
and higher up
you go into him.
At every moment
that you go higher up
and higher up,
all you see
is the steadfast love
of the triune God.
And then it says
your faithfulness
and the word faithfulness,
that faithfulness
is a good word,
but in Hebrew
it also has this
aspect of dependability,
of solid ground.
It would be as if
you know,
in February
and March
in Ottawa,
it's hard to believe,
but we'll have
a big snowfall
and then after
the snowfall
it'll get warm
and they haven't
plowed the sidewalks yet
and so everything
is sludge.
You know that
when you're trying
to walk through
that snow
that's like this,
it's just all sludge.
And then finally
you get off of that
onto something solid,
something you can step on
and stand on
and walk
and you just like,
you feel like
you have an energy boost
because you can step
on something
which is solid,
dependable,
and that's what
the word faithfulness
means about God.
That the triune God
is,
this is what
characterizes him
and once again
it doesn't matter
how high you go
that you'll always
meet this about God.
And then verse 6,
your righteousness
is like the mountains
of God.
In other words,
the hugest mountains.
It's like being
in Vancouver
or in Canmore,
Alberta
and the mountains
are just there
and they're obvious
and they're huge
and they're majestic
and they're awe-inspiring
and they're immovable
and you can't ignore them
and they're hard
and unbending
and if you crash into them
it's just going to hurt you
not the mountain.
You try to,
you know,
you can say
you're a Chuck Norris
type of joke
but Chuck Norris
runs into the Rockies
it's him who's going to get hurt
not the Rockies.
Like that's just the way it is
and that's what God's righteousness
is,
goodness,
his justice,
that's what it's like.
It's this reality
which is just so hard
and solid
and judgments
is not only the fact
that God makes decisions
out of his steadfast love
and faithfulness
and his goodness
and his mercy
and he makes judgments.
It's the word there,
judgments,
in the Hebrew is
I know there's at least
one lawyer in the room,
maybe there's at least
two lawyers in the room
and that's when
the judge has made a decision
and it's written down
and it implies both
everything from the fact
that they make decisions
and that it's like the Bible.
It's been written
and we can read it
and we can know it
and then the way
that we know
that all of these things
are true
is that God saves us.
If you read the New Testament,
if you read John's Gospel
in particular,
it's very, very clear
that the way God
is most perfectly known
and understood
is when you see Jesus
dying on the cross.
that's when you know
most perfectly
and completely
that he's good.
If you could put up
the third point,
that would be very helpful.
The triune God
is real and true
and he is love,
goodness,
justice,
and mercy.
And in a sense,
you cannot think
about God enough.
The real God.
And then the fourth,
if you could put up
the fourth point,
you need to be saved
down to your depths
and he can
and will save you.
I have here
the 1662 Book of Common Prayer,
which is basically unchanged
from 1552.
1552.
And we're a church
of the English Reformation.
And in a communion service,
these are after you've confessed
your sins,
these are the four words,
the four scripture sentences.
It's called the comfortable words.
that was part of
to be the weekly life
of Christians.
1552.
Here are the four words.
Hear what comfortable words
our Savior Christ
saith unto all
that truly
turn to him.
Come unto me
all that travail
and are heavy laden
and I will refresh you.
In other words,
for those of us
laboring
under the ways
that verses
one to four
of this psalm
bend us out of shape
and beat us up,
he quotes a word
of Jesus saying,
I know
that is what
who you are.
Come to me
and I will give you rest.
Listen to the second word.
God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son
to the end
that all that believe in him
should not perish
but have everlasting life.
Hear also
what St. Paul says.
This is a true saying
and worthy of all men
and women
to be received
that Christ Jesus
came into the world
to save
sinners.
And finally,
hear also
what St. John says.
If any man
or any woman
sins,
we have an advocate
with the Father,
Jesus Christ
the righteous
and he
is the propitiation
for our sins.
And propitiation
means
that act
of God
that takes away
his anger
at sin.
You need to be saved
down to your depths.
He can and will save you.
Now,
we're going to wrap up
in a couple of minutes
by looking at the other
verses quite quickly
but I want to go back
to that earlier thing.
I said to you
the very first verse
was transgression
speaks to the wicked
deep in their heart.
There is no dread
of God
before their eyes.
And
this is
profoundly
anti-Canadian
Canadians
would say
this is
completely
and utterly
wrong-headed.
So,
well,
here's the thing.
My wife
just stepped out
for a moment.
We have some
grandkids visiting.
Probably have to go
to the bathroom.
If I was to tell you
while she's out
of the room,
you know,
my wife and I
have been married
for over 40 years
and she's never
been mad at me.
I can't even say it
without laughing.
Like,
how many of you
would,
let's say I could
do it with a,
like,
like a straight face,
like Matt Walsh
interviewing people
in what is a woman
and I can't believe
he wouldn't laugh
actually.
And,
and,
you know,
my,
my wife,
she's never been
mad at me
in 40 years.
You'd just say,
George,
you're lying,
you know,
or if it turned out
it was true,
you'd think,
what's the secret
to how you gaslight her
so that she never
actually,
she gets talked
out of her anger
all of the time.
And,
and,
you know,
one of the problems
that people have
is they,
especially,
I mean,
I know,
I know they're,
they're single people
in the room.
Part of the problem
that we,
when you're single
you have is that
when you think
of your girlfriend
or your,
if you're a guy
and you're thinking
of your future girlfriend
or your future wife
is it's very easy
to have an imaginary,
like an image
of what they're going
to be like,
which is imaginary.
And one of the differences
between an imaginary girlfriend
and a real girlfriend
is imaginary girlfriends
never get upset with you.
Just like the difference
between an imaginary wife
and a real wife
is that the imaginary wife
never actually gets mad at you.
And not only
do they never get mad at you,
it's not that they've,
they're right to be mad at you
as well,
which is the other thing,
right?
You might think of them
being mad at you
but then you win them over
but you're really good guy
and good heart.
But in real world
you do things
and they have every right.
In fact,
if my wife was to tell you
some of the things
I'd done
and she got mad,
you'd go,
you go girl,
like you're right
to be mad at George
if he did something like that.
And so it's a bit
of a shocking thing
but if,
if,
if the real God,
his steadfast love
extends to the heavens,
his faithfulness
to the clouds,
his righteousness
is like the mountains
of God,
his judgments
are like the great deep.
And if that's true,
you and I
do things
that means
there's going to be
consequences
and we should dread them.
I don't recommend
watching Peaky Blinders
but I just finished
the sixth season
and there's a scene
towards the end
where one character
says to the main,
the main guy
after he's killed somebody
that,
he says,
I'm going to,
there's some swear words
in it
which I won't say
but basically
he says to them,
I can see how other people
are going to go to heaven
but you,
I think you're royally
and you can finish
the sentence
and we should dread
the consequences
of our action
if God is real.
See,
the fact of the matter
is that the average
Canadian,
what they long for
is an imaginary God
not a real God
because just like
a real
wife or girlfriend
will get mad at you
because you will do
things which are wrong
and they will be right
to be mad at you
if there is a God
who's at all described
by justice and goodness
and mercy,
you are doing
and have done things
that mean that
you will have consequences
and you should dread that
and what describes
the average Canadian
is that if I was
a stand-up comic
and I got up
and began,
you know,
lately I've been,
you know,
worried about how God's
going to treat me
for some of the things
I do
and everybody would laugh
because it's ridiculous
to even think like that
and they'd know
they'd go on
and make fun of,
you know,
whatever the priests
or the Bible
or whatever types of things
and that's what Canadians
are like.
We don't have anything
that makes us think
that this is wrong.
You know,
one of the things
which is so brilliant
about this text,
remember the first four verses
are so hard on us
but so accurate
that there's,
transgression speaks to me
down to my depths
all the way down
and that self-flattery
is true of human beings
all the way down
and then we have this God
who really does exist
and no matter how deep you go,
he's the same
and no matter how high you go
or broad you go,
he is the same
and he's real
and he's like that fixed stuff,
not like,
not like the sludge
and the slippery stuff
but the stuff you step on
that's solid
and you're glad
you're stepping on
something solid
and one of the things
that this text does
is you see that
we human beings
left to ourselves,
we look in
and we're consumed
with ourselves
and it's as if
the psalm is saying
there's a,
not only is,
are you not the only person
in the universe,
there's a person
in the universe
that you need
to take account of
and he's big
and you know,
the life of trying to,
of justice
and of goodness
and of mercy
and of beauty
and of truth,
it's big,
there's this big world
out there
which is real
and the sun shines,
well,
and look at the other things
it's going to describe,
verses seven to nine,
this is after you've been saved,
how precious
is your steadfast love,
O Lord,
precious means
of great value,
it's as,
you know,
if,
it's just of,
you know,
great incomparable worth,
your steadfast love
to me,
O God,
is precious,
the children of humanity
take refuge
in the shadow
of your wings,
it's just this image,
remember verses one to four
are all there
but it's as if
to know that God,
once God saves you
to realize that
his longing for you
is that not only
do you need sanctuary
from others,
you need sanctuary
from yourself
and there's this image
of being covered
by his wing
and pressed up
against his side
and you can,
you get his warmth
and you can feel
his heartbeat
and you can hear
his breath
and the children
of mankind
take refuge
in the shadow
of your wings,
they feast
on the abundance
of your house
and you give them
drink from the river
of your delights
and a more accurate
way of translating
and delights
is pleasure
that you give them
drink from the river
of your pleasure
for with you
is the fountain
of life
in your light
do we see
light.
If you could put up
the next points
that would be helpful,
Claire,
you need to feed
and drink
from his hand
in his presence.
Yeah,
I'll end up,
you know,
and then the next
thing is,
you know,
you need to feed
and drink
from his hand
in his presence.
It's,
sure,
that's,
there'll be ways
that I'll flatter
myself and all
of that,
but you see,
here's the thing
about it.
I need to be
nourished.
I need to,
I need to know
his delights.
I need to be
fed by him
and to drink
and have him
provide me
drink.
And yes,
there'll be ways
I flatter myself
and all of those
types of things,
but,
you know,
it's not about,
it's not about me.
It's about the
greatness of God
and his love
and compassion
for me.
And,
and,
and he's,
he's,
all those other
things,
you know,
he saved me
from them
and it's to receive
this nourishment
in this,
at his hands
that I,
I need.
So I can,
in fact,
even if I twist
it for my own
flattery,
but it's still
good that's done
and it's still
truth which is said
and it's still
love that's shown
and forgiveness
that is practiced
and hope
that is restored
and justice
which is done
and beauty
which is
performed
and spoken
and appreciated.
And if you could
put up the final
point,
the final three
verses end
with a prayer,
David conscious
of the fact
that on one
hand,
verses one
to four
describe him,
on the other
hand,
verses five
to nine
are true
and God
is who he
is and he
saved me
and in his
saving of me
he calls me
and beckons me
to eat of him
and to drink
at his hand
and eat at his
hand.
And so the
final point
is this prayer,
Lord help me
remember who I
am.
who you
are
and pray
with trusting
confidence.
Lord help me
remember who
I am,
who you
are
and I guess
I could add
what you've
done for me
and are doing
for me.
Help me to
remember that
and to pray
with trusting
confidence.
Listen to how
it ends.
It ends with a
prayer.
Verses 10
to 12
Oh continue
your steadfast
love to
those who
know you
and your
righteousness
to the
upright of
heart.
He's saying
just continue
Father to
send that
to me.
I desperately
need,
given how
true verses
1 to 4
are,
I need your
steadfast love
and your
righteousness
to continue
to come to
me.
You see,
at the end
of the day,
it's only
if it's as
verses 5 to
9 become
more real
to our
heart,
that we
have a
place to
stand to
consider
verses 1
to 4
in our
lives.
It's only
as verses
5 to 9
become more
real to
our heart
and our
imagination
and our
affections
that we
can have
the courage
to see
how verses
1 to 4
are true
in our
lives.
So he
begins by
praying,
verse 10,
continue your
steadfast love,
continue that,
have it come,
Lord, I
need it,
have your
steadfast love
to those who
know your
righteousness
to the
upright of
heart.
Then he
says,
let not
the foot
of arrogance
come upon
me.
In other
words,
don't let
arrogance,
the image
is of
somebody who's
conquered another
person and you
have their
foot on their
net.
He said,
don't let
me be defeated
by arrogance
or the
arrogant.
And then it
says,
nor the
hand of the
wicked drive
me away.
Don't let
me be so
completely and
utterly consumed
by my
culture that I
turn my
back on you,
that I think
that I want
to turn my
back on
following you
and trusting
you.
Don't let
that happen.
And then the
very final
verse is
in the
original
language.
It's a
prophetic perfect.
It's a
way of
expressing the
future as
being so
certain that
you can use
the past
tense.
And that's
what it is in
the original
language.
The last
verse,
it's something
so certain
about the
future that
you can use
the past
tense.
There the
evildoers
lie fallen.
they are
thrust down,
unable to
rise.
They begin
by describing
the wicked
as saying,
we have
nothing to
dread.
Judgment
of God.
Good
punchline in
a comedy
routine.
But the
psalm ends
with this
prophetic
insight of
the future
which is so
certain the
past tense
can be
used.
But the
point of
this is
not,
the point
of this
is to
have us
say,
Lord,
I want
to 5
to 9,
5 to 10,
5 to 11,
Lord,
have mercy
on me.
Have mercy
on me and
may that be
the story of
my life and
help me to
grow in that.
And that's
what God
wants.
That's why
the scripture
has been
revealed.
I invite you
to stand.
And close
with prayer.
Let's pray.
Father,
it's a
sobering
truth to
be told
how
transgression
is
something that
speaks to
us,
even to
our very
depths.
And that
self-flattery
is something
which we
do,
even to
our very
depths.
And Father,
we give
you thanks
and praise
for your
kindness that
you both
warn us
of our
situation.
But then,
rather than
just warning
us and
leading us
to destruction,
in your
mercy,
you reveal
who you
are and
you act
to save
us.
And you
let us
know that
your heart
for us,
even though
one to four
is all true
of us,
that your
heart for
us is
that we
would come
to you
and we
would allow
ourselves
to be
saved by
you,
that we
might enter
into a
covenant of
love with
you,
that you
would be
our
Father in
heaven who
is sovereign
over all
the earth,
but you
are still
our Father
who loves
us and
cares for
us and
who will
feed us
and give
us drink,
that we
might know
the liberty
of knowing
you,
both beginning
now in
this world
and until
the very
end of
the end
of the
end when
you bring
in the
new heaven
and the
new earth.
And so
Father,
fan into
flame within
us these
deep
longings.
Help us
Father to
have Psalm
36 rule
in our
hearts.
And we
ask this in
the name of
Jesus,
your Son
and our
Savior.
Amen.