WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.040 So, I believe that you've been looking at some of the Psalms in the evenings. 00:00:06.040 --> 00:00:10.919 In Esk Valley, we've been looking over the summer at some passages in the Bible that 00:00:10.919 --> 00:00:12.919 help us think about prayer. 00:00:12.919 --> 00:00:15.280 So tonight, I thought I'd just put the two together. 00:00:15.280 --> 00:00:23.120 We're going to use some of Psalm 37 to help us think about one aspect of prayer. 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:27.600 And it may well be an aspect of prayer that if you've experienced but not necessarily 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:32.439 found easy, and that is waiting prayer. 00:00:32.439 --> 00:00:41.760 So is waiting, I mean, we've all experienced waiting in one way or another, is waiting 00:00:41.760 --> 00:00:46.000 always a chore for you? 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:52.439 Secondly, is waiting in prayer ever a good thing? 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:56.920 I mean, you know the experience, maybe even if you're not a Christian, sometimes people 00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:02.640 who are not Christians speak about throwing out a prayer, where do they go? 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:04.359 How long do you wait for? 00:01:04.359 --> 00:01:06.120 What happens in the interim? 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:08.680 And how do we feel about it? 00:01:08.680 --> 00:01:13.439 It's not always an easy process to understand or to live with. 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:18.480 Now this Psalm, as you may well know, as one of the Psalms and as they all are, is very 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:19.480 old. 00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:26.320 And yet, it speaks exactly into that kind of scenario because it's a human scenario. 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:29.319 It's experienced by people thousands of years ago. 00:01:29.319 --> 00:01:35.359 It's experienced by you and I tonight, whether you're just waiting for a bus, frustrating, 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:42.399 whether you're waiting for the end of an interminable car journey with your children, even more 00:01:42.399 --> 00:01:46.199 interminable perhaps for them, or whether you're waiting for something that you prayed 00:01:46.199 --> 00:01:49.159 for and you don't know how to process it. 00:01:49.159 --> 00:01:54.119 What I hope as well as as we look at this passage, we're led into what God wants us to 00:01:54.120 --> 00:02:00.320 understand about prayer in His presence and gospel truth as well. 00:02:00.320 --> 00:02:04.960 So we're going to try and use this ancient song, prayer, Psalm, and connect it to what 00:02:04.960 --> 00:02:12.480 Jesus has to say to you and I about the experience of prayer that He wants you to know is so 00:02:12.480 --> 00:02:18.680 necessary and meaningful for your tomorrow and all your daily life stuff. 00:02:18.680 --> 00:02:24.560 So briefly, here's the three things that I want us to look at, all sees, don't always 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:26.920 do that, but I just decided to tonight. 00:02:26.920 --> 00:02:29.560 Hopefully it'll help us remember what we're going to be thinking about. 00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:34.200 We want to think about the context of the Psalm, specifically the angst that's going 00:02:34.200 --> 00:02:39.580 on at unrighteous people who seem to be doing better than we are. 00:02:39.580 --> 00:02:43.879 So the Psalm is born out of a sense of frustration and waiting to see what God is going to do 00:02:43.879 --> 00:02:44.879 about it. 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:49.240 So the context, secondly, the core of the Psalm and really what I want us to think about. 00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:53.840 And I think the core for us tonight at least is in verse 7. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:59.159 In verse 7, it says, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. 00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:02.759 So that's kind of the epicenter of what I want us to be thinking about. 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:06.000 And thirdly, the comfort or the consolation. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:07.400 How does it help? 00:03:07.400 --> 00:03:11.439 What difference does it make to us? 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:17.560 And in brief, the comfort that we receive is the knowledge that God's long-term plans 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:20.240 benefit the faithful. 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:22.759 So that's more or less what we're going to look at tonight. 00:03:22.759 --> 00:03:23.759 Context. 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:25.439 Let's spend a little bit of time thinking about the context. 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:29.879 Now this is a Psalm written by David, if you don't know anything about David. 00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:33.280 He is a big player, if you like, in the Old Testament. 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:38.680 Famous king wrote many Psalms, a bit of a hero of the faith in the Old Testament. 00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:43.599 And yet he didn't always find things easy and also his life wasn't always smooth because 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:46.040 he himself didn't always get things right. 00:03:46.040 --> 00:03:48.960 In fact, he made a mess of certain situations. 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:51.560 So he's somebody who in many ways is not like us. 00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:55.600 He was a king of ancient Israel, but he's a human being. 00:03:55.600 --> 00:04:00.120 He lived with sin and he lived with trouble. 00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:04.760 And he's writing this Psalm out of a sense of real angst. 00:04:04.759 --> 00:04:10.399 And the angst is what is sometimes a bit of a shared experience in the Old Testament. 00:04:10.399 --> 00:04:17.839 How come the unrighteous, if we, it sounds trivial to say, the bad guys prosper when I 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:20.599 feel like I'm getting nowhere. 00:04:20.599 --> 00:04:24.759 Now you don't have to be a Christian to understand what that's like. 00:04:24.759 --> 00:04:27.399 Again, that's a human experience. 00:04:27.399 --> 00:04:32.399 People in all kinds of scenarios can find themselves saying, things aren't going the 00:04:32.399 --> 00:04:33.519 way I thought they would. 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:37.199 I thought if I came to this place and worked really hard, I'd be further up the ladder 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:38.199 by now. 00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:39.959 How come they're further up the ladder? 00:04:39.959 --> 00:04:46.199 Or however you apply that socially in your street, in your neighborhood, no matter how 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:50.839 hard you try, whichever dinner party you throw, you always get a feeling that people are a 00:04:50.839 --> 00:04:56.000 little bit reticent to accept the invite or maybe you're the last one to be chosen, as 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:57.799 we were hearing about from Corey earlier. 00:04:57.799 --> 00:05:02.159 All of these kind of things can make us feel really bad because again, we're human and 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:04.200 these kind of things matter to us. 00:05:04.200 --> 00:05:10.880 Now the specific context that this frustration is borne out of in the Old Testament, and 00:05:10.880 --> 00:05:16.600 we need to understand this a little bit, the Old Testament in some ways worked a bit more 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:22.200 black and white in terms of how you might expect life to go if you were a faithful one, 00:05:22.200 --> 00:05:29.640 a believer in God, one of God's people, the Israelites, in that God would say to his people, 00:05:29.639 --> 00:05:36.519 things like, if you will obey me, I will bless you, but if you disobey me, you'll experience 00:05:36.519 --> 00:05:40.639 a curse of some kind or trouble in your life. 00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:46.560 That's a very broad brush statement, but sometimes we find that kind of content in the Old Testament 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:51.279 because in the Old Testament in particular, God was working in a particular time and space 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:58.719 to do a particular thing with these people in that after the fall, the breakdown, the 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:05.160 calamitous breakdown in our world history which led to our estrangement from God, even 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:11.880 our enmity with God, God was working with this particular people to put them in a particular 00:06:11.880 --> 00:06:19.800 place under his governance for their good so that they could be at peace, so that they 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:24.680 could know the blessing of worship, the knowledge of God, and they could freely express worship 00:06:24.680 --> 00:06:25.680 to him. 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:30.800 And he was saying, look, listen, if you follow me, if you know me, if you trust me, if you 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:36.560 live the way that I want you to, so as to honor me, which is what you were made for, 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:38.680 then you'll be blessed. 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:42.360 But what we find sometimes in a Psalm like this, which we might call a wisdom Psalm, 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:47.840 but it's one of the kind of categories of the Old Testament in particular, is an entry 00:06:47.840 --> 00:06:53.800 into the kind of gray areas where it doesn't always seem to work like that, at least certainly 00:06:53.800 --> 00:07:02.720 in the short term, where the Sammest or whomever may say, but those bad guys, those unrighteous 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:06.960 who care nothing for my beloved God seem to be prospering. 00:07:06.960 --> 00:07:13.720 And I'm surrounded by disappointments, and my life plan is stuck at stage two, and I 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:15.560 thought I'd be at stage 10. 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:20.560 Now, without going into all the detail, David faced a lot of trouble in his life at times 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:25.439 literally fleeing for his life, so you can get a sense of why at times he might have 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:30.519 felt like that and expressed the kind of feelings he does in the Psalm. 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:36.879 Just to take note of the feelings, and again, to delve into the Psalm, what actually happens 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:38.399 when we feel like that? 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:40.560 Again, this is such a human experience. 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:45.840 So like what goes on in our hearts and our minds when we perceive that others seem to 00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:48.040 be doing better than we are? 00:07:48.040 --> 00:07:52.200 We don't really have to go much further than verse one, so take a look at verse one with 00:07:52.200 --> 00:07:53.360 me. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:57.520 He says, first of all, fret not. 00:07:57.520 --> 00:08:01.840 So the Samm uses the word fret quite a few times. 00:08:01.840 --> 00:08:06.879 If you don't usually use the word fret about yourself or people around about you, you may 00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:13.560 use a word like stop stressing, or you can think of an alternative. 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:14.920 Because worry is a human condition. 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:18.160 Again, we've already thought about that to a degree, haven't we? 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:24.080 Fear, worry, anxiety, that's something that we have to take very seriously, and that's 00:08:24.080 --> 00:08:25.080 a good thing. 00:08:25.080 --> 00:08:27.200 Workplaces care for their employees. 00:08:27.200 --> 00:08:28.960 We care for our family members. 00:08:28.960 --> 00:08:30.840 We talk about self-care. 00:08:30.840 --> 00:08:36.080 Okay, because we need to, because we're vulnerable people and we have all kinds of fears and 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:37.080 anxieties. 00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:42.360 But the fretting that's going on in the Psalm isn't just the kind of stress, because like 00:08:42.360 --> 00:08:49.360 I'm not getting ahead in life as far as I thought I would do, like that fella over there 00:08:49.360 --> 00:08:52.120 who's stolen my thunder. 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:55.039 The word has a kind of anger behind it as well. 00:08:55.039 --> 00:08:58.440 So this is, the Sammish is saying, listen, be careful. 00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:02.879 Don't go down that route where you get all torn up inside. 00:09:02.879 --> 00:09:04.639 You know what it feels like? 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:05.639 You know what it feels like? 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:09.519 Because sometimes, despite our best efforts, we find ourselves still awake at one in the 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:14.840 morning, turning over that thing that happened with that person. 00:09:14.840 --> 00:09:18.159 And we think, no, no, no, I don't need to, it's dealt with, I'm better than this, I can 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:19.159 move on. 00:09:19.159 --> 00:09:21.960 And the next night, we're still awake at 1 a.m. because we're still turning over that 00:09:21.960 --> 00:09:23.720 thing that happened with that person. 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:27.360 And we're mad about it because it's unjust. 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:31.840 And maybe, for David the Sammish, it was unjust, the thing that happened to him. 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:38.799 And maybe for you, you've experienced injustice, things that really, you do bring to God in 00:09:38.799 --> 00:09:39.799 there. 00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:43.959 And you say, God, help me with this, because I don't know how to deal with this in my heart. 00:09:43.959 --> 00:09:45.479 It's really tearing me apart. 00:09:45.479 --> 00:09:48.559 So fret not yourself. 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:51.599 And in the second line of verse one, we see another one. 00:09:51.599 --> 00:09:54.199 Be not envious of wrongdoers. 00:09:54.199 --> 00:09:55.199 Envious. 00:09:55.199 --> 00:10:00.319 Why would we be envious of the person that we're internally criticizing? 00:10:00.319 --> 00:10:04.319 Well, because envy is very subtle. 00:10:04.319 --> 00:10:08.479 And doesn't it just affect our hearts in all kinds of ways? 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:14.039 So that even while we're feeling self-righteous and slightly mad about the person who we feel 00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:21.120 has what we think we should have, we're yearning after that prestige or that social kudos or 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:27.440 that salary or whatever it is that we don't have. 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:31.440 Or we're envious of the Christian who seems to be doing well, maybe seems to be getting 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:33.680 lots of answers to prayers. 00:10:33.680 --> 00:10:37.560 And we feel like we're still waiting. 00:10:37.559 --> 00:10:38.559 Maybe he's very subtle. 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:42.799 And the psalmist wants to enter into that and say, I know. 00:10:42.799 --> 00:10:45.319 David probably experienced these things. 00:10:45.319 --> 00:10:50.799 And he can say to us, from down through the centuries, take care, guard your heart, and 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:55.679 watch out for these things as they take root in your life. 00:10:55.679 --> 00:10:59.239 The point is that when we enter into the psalm and think a little bit about the context, 00:10:59.239 --> 00:11:04.319 we're not thinking about context so much in terms of political, social issues going on 00:11:04.319 --> 00:11:05.479 in David's day. 00:11:05.480 --> 00:11:09.080 We're thinking about issues that go on in the human heart constantly down through the 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:10.080 centuries. 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:16.600 And so I think we can immediately tap into the feelings that are coming out in the psalm. 00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:20.480 So context, that's the kind of the baseline context. 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:25.800 But the second thing I want to take you into now is where David goes with all of that. 00:11:25.800 --> 00:11:32.639 Because he's not just saying, this is rubbish, and sort of throwing out all his complaints. 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:38.360 As a man of God, which is what David was, someone who throughout his life wrestled with 00:11:38.360 --> 00:11:46.319 his own problems, but yearned for, I think, the company of the Good Shepherd, he takes 00:11:46.319 --> 00:11:52.240 us into the core of what it means to enter into this problem with God in prayer. 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:54.840 And I think we can say this is about prayer. 00:11:54.840 --> 00:11:56.639 Let me take you to verse 7. 00:11:56.639 --> 00:12:01.200 As I said, I think verse 7, at least for tonight's purposes, acts as the core of this 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:03.480 passage that we've been looking at. 00:12:03.480 --> 00:12:06.360 What do we do when our hearts are like this at one in the morning? 00:12:06.360 --> 00:12:09.600 What do we do when we go to work and we can't stop thinking about whatever it is that's 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:10.600 on our mind? 00:12:10.600 --> 00:12:14.920 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. 00:12:14.920 --> 00:12:19.759 Frighten not yourself over the one who prospers in His way, over the man who carries out evil 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:22.800 devices. 00:12:22.800 --> 00:12:28.960 He's saying take up waiting prayer before the Lord. 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:32.240 There's a couple of ways, there's probably more, but here's a couple of ways we can think 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:34.720 about prayer and waiting. 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:42.840 The first is if you simply ask a petition of God, like you say, God, I need this, and 00:12:42.840 --> 00:12:45.400 then you wait to see God's answer. 00:12:45.400 --> 00:12:46.879 There's a lot we could say about that. 00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:51.480 It's a complex interaction, and maybe you have experience of it right now. 00:12:51.480 --> 00:12:55.280 You're waiting for something, but often that is a kind of... 00:12:55.279 --> 00:13:00.360 You're reaching outside of yourself to someone who you believe can help God, and you're asking 00:13:00.360 --> 00:13:04.839 about something outside of yourself, circumstances. 00:13:04.839 --> 00:13:11.039 But the second experience of waiting prayer I'd like to suggest we see more of in this 00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:19.199 Psalm and for tonight's purpose is the kind of waiting prayer where we place ourselves 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:27.480 at God's feet and sit there, and we say, God, I need to be in Your presence. 00:13:27.480 --> 00:13:32.480 And the difference, they're very closely linked, but the difference, and in some ways why this 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:38.200 takes us deeper into the heart of prayer and into the knowledge of God, is because what 00:13:38.200 --> 00:13:45.879 happens here is that we're changed, or at least that's what God wants to do in our hearts. 00:13:45.879 --> 00:13:49.759 So both are valid, we reach out to God and ask Him about things that are going on in 00:13:49.759 --> 00:13:50.759 our lives. 00:13:50.759 --> 00:13:52.720 He loves to hear from His children. 00:13:52.720 --> 00:14:01.000 You can take your prayers to God within His will, of course, praying for entirely selfish 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:02.439 or sinful things. 00:14:02.439 --> 00:14:04.559 God doesn't give us permission to do that. 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:09.759 But this kind of prayer I think is being suggested here in verse 7 is where we take ourselves 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:15.559 into the presence of God, and we say, I'm struggling to deal with the stuff that my heart can't 00:14:15.559 --> 00:14:16.559 deal with. 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:22.719 It's going to overtake me and submerge me in all kinds of bitterness or whatever. 00:14:22.719 --> 00:14:24.839 I need to sit at Your feet. 00:14:24.839 --> 00:14:29.279 I need to wait in Your presence, and You need to change my heart. 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:32.959 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. 00:14:32.959 --> 00:14:34.679 We plug into God. 00:14:34.679 --> 00:14:41.279 If you take your device and plug it into a socket, you do that for a reason. 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:43.879 Your device needs charge. 00:14:43.879 --> 00:14:45.519 You get something. 00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:48.559 You receive from the current, and it benefits you. 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:51.159 You can use your device again. 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:54.319 Human beings need to plug into God to receive. 00:14:54.319 --> 00:15:00.960 At times we need to ask Him for help with things, but we at base, crucially, just need 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:02.799 Him. 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:05.879 And that's what I think the psalmist is suggesting here. 00:15:05.879 --> 00:15:08.960 That's this deeper level, if you like. 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:15.480 Not saying the other isn't important, but here we find help then and perspective to 00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:19.720 look back out on our lives and deal with the stuff that we've got to deal with. 00:15:19.720 --> 00:15:23.480 There are a number of different wisdom suggestions in this part of the psalm. 00:15:23.480 --> 00:15:27.480 I've zeroed in on verse 7, but let's just take a look at some of the other ones and 00:15:27.480 --> 00:15:29.560 notice what they are. 00:15:29.560 --> 00:15:35.080 But I'd like to suggest that as we just touch on them, verse 7 is crucial for them all. 00:15:35.080 --> 00:15:38.159 For example, verse 3, take a look at verse 3. 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:44.200 It suggests you trust in the Lord and do good. 00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:49.280 You will know what is good when you know the Lord, but you will also be able to trust in 00:15:49.280 --> 00:15:51.280 Him when you know Him. 00:15:51.280 --> 00:15:57.360 How do you know tonight here, Edinburgh, middle of the fringe, that God is worthy of your 00:15:57.360 --> 00:15:58.360 trust? 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:03.680 Well, I suggest you know Him, and He wants you to know Him. 00:16:03.680 --> 00:16:09.320 And one of the ways you can do that is to sit at His feet, so to speak, to enter into 00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:12.360 His presence, to say, Lord, I want to know you. 00:16:12.360 --> 00:16:15.039 I want to spend time in your presence. 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:17.480 Help me to trust in you. 00:16:17.480 --> 00:16:19.080 I'm just touching on these. 00:16:19.080 --> 00:16:22.840 Verse 5, commit your way to the Lord, very similar. 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:24.560 Not going to say much more about that. 00:16:24.560 --> 00:16:29.560 Verse 4, back up to verse 4, delight yourself in the Lord. 00:16:29.560 --> 00:16:32.480 Delight yourself in the Lord. 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:39.320 Now to a society or a culture which thinks of God as largely irrelevant and perhaps even 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:44.720 verging into the bad for society, this is counter-intuitive. 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:47.560 You might receive quite a lot of pushback from a friend who wasn't a Christian. 00:16:47.560 --> 00:16:50.360 If you're not a Christian here tonight, you might be thinking, that's crazy. 00:16:50.360 --> 00:16:53.960 How can I delight myself in God? 00:16:53.960 --> 00:16:54.960 Do you know Him? 00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:55.960 Do you know Him? 00:16:55.960 --> 00:16:58.360 Do you know what He's like? 00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:03.160 All the ways in which He's revealed Himself, as Corey said earlier, His story revealed 00:17:03.160 --> 00:17:07.440 to us of all that He's done in His world over the years and all the ways in which He's worked 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:14.600 in many people's lives and is still working in people's lives to transform our lives, 00:17:14.600 --> 00:17:20.279 to redeem us and to forgive us, to put us back again on our feet and remake us in the 00:17:20.279 --> 00:17:26.519 likeness of Jesus, the brilliant one, what a good thing God is doing. 00:17:26.519 --> 00:17:27.840 And we will be able to do this. 00:17:27.840 --> 00:17:33.000 We'll be able to delight in the Lord in the middle of your Wednesday which is going pear-shaped, 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:34.920 if I can put it like that. 00:17:34.920 --> 00:17:40.200 And you just need five minutes to re-center and recapture a sense again of who am I, what's 00:17:40.200 --> 00:17:41.800 going on in my life? 00:17:41.800 --> 00:17:46.680 Delight yourself in the Lord because He is delightful, because He's the covenant God 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:52.960 who has come good on His promises, who has sent His Son to be our redeemer. 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:59.039 So all of this centers around, I think, or at least it flows out of our deeper practising, 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:04.880 or at least our trying, because you know the great thing is God won't befriend you or 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:09.400 saved you, save you, depending on how well you do about this. 00:18:09.400 --> 00:18:15.360 But He gives you this so as you have access into His presence so that you can see all 00:18:15.360 --> 00:18:18.080 that He has done for you. 00:18:18.080 --> 00:18:22.840 Be still before the Lord so that you can delight yourself in the Lord. 00:18:22.840 --> 00:18:24.320 So again, this is wisdom. 00:18:24.320 --> 00:18:25.840 This is biblical wisdom. 00:18:25.840 --> 00:18:30.360 And this is saying, put yourself in God's way. 00:18:30.359 --> 00:18:35.599 Put yourself in the way of seeing His glory, His goodness, hearing His story. 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:39.719 And you know, that will be the mechanism, if you like. 00:18:39.719 --> 00:18:46.639 That will be the feeder to help nourish you through your days when you deal with all the 00:18:46.639 --> 00:18:50.799 other stuff that you may be petitioning about, asking for help with. 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:56.079 And it will also help give you patience because you will know more and more the character 00:18:56.079 --> 00:18:58.959 of the God to whom you ask. 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:04.319 So we've seen a little bit about the context and also the core of the Psalm where we're 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:09.079 called into sitting before the presence of God. 00:19:09.079 --> 00:19:15.200 And as I said, in many ways, what we're seeking here is that God would change us. 00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:17.600 God would change us. 00:19:17.600 --> 00:19:19.240 He is at work. 00:19:19.240 --> 00:19:21.920 We get a hint of this in this Psalm. 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:28.640 You see the way in which it says, delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:30.600 the desires of your heart. 00:19:30.600 --> 00:19:35.160 Verse five, commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will act. 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:38.080 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light. 00:19:38.080 --> 00:19:45.080 God has always been active in His world, bringing a people to know Him so that they can delight 00:19:45.080 --> 00:19:46.080 in Him. 00:19:46.080 --> 00:19:48.280 It's what He made us for. 00:19:48.280 --> 00:19:55.100 He is still doing that, and we are called to trust in His process in our lives. 00:19:55.099 --> 00:20:00.839 Because we use that phrase, sports, like I hear it all the time. 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:04.079 I hear it in context with my football team who are terrible at the moment. 00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:12.519 And sometimes when, you can't see any short-term wins, and the fans are feeling fractious. 00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:14.719 Management say, trust the process. 00:20:14.719 --> 00:20:15.719 We've got a plan. 00:20:15.719 --> 00:20:19.000 In other words, management say, well, we're doing some scouting. 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:20.839 We've got some recruitment on the go. 00:20:20.839 --> 00:20:26.959 We've got a 20-step plan to improve the team, but you think to yourself, and the fans are 00:20:26.959 --> 00:20:32.480 all thinking similarly, I don't know if I can trust you, because all the other teams 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:37.839 have got 20-step plans and better players, so they're obviously going to win. 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:40.000 Human plans are fallible. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:42.319 They succeed, and they fall. 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:45.039 And we don't always know which way it's going to be. 00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:50.599 But what this helps us do, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him, is to 00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:57.959 say to God, God, remind me of the fact that your master plan has been fulfilled in Jesus 00:20:57.959 --> 00:21:06.159 and is and will be continually worked out in my life and across the globe until the day 00:21:06.159 --> 00:21:10.799 that Jesus comes again. 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:18.959 So context and the core of the Psalm, but thirdly and finally, comfort. 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:22.120 Still you might be saying, what difference does this make? 00:21:22.120 --> 00:21:23.279 How does this help? 00:21:23.279 --> 00:21:26.799 So let's spend a bit more time thinking about that. 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:31.880 What actually changes when we wait upon the Lord, when we come into His presence in this 00:21:31.880 --> 00:21:34.880 kind of praying and plug into Him? 00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:40.880 Well, firstly, how does the psalmist say He will be helped? 00:21:40.880 --> 00:21:45.440 He uses a particular phrase about a particular desire that might have seemed a bit strange 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:46.440 when we read it through. 00:21:46.440 --> 00:21:49.240 I thought, what's that all about? 00:21:49.240 --> 00:21:52.440 And you see it in verse three and verse nine. 00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:58.200 Verse three, trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:00.559 Dwell in the land. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:07.920 And verse nine, for the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:10.400 inherit the land. 00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:11.400 There's that land again. 00:22:11.400 --> 00:22:14.440 What's He talking about? 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:19.000 Selfful to remember again that we're delving back into an Old Testament context with all 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:23.360 that God was doing in that time and space. 00:22:23.360 --> 00:22:30.200 And if you remember God's people in God's place under His rule being blessed, His promise 00:22:30.200 --> 00:22:35.920 to them was that if they were faithful, He would secure essentially a safe space for 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:44.120 them where they could delight in His presence, where they could be secure, where life would 00:22:44.119 --> 00:22:45.119 be good. 00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:48.959 I mean, they wouldn't be free from all of the bad things that happen, from death, from 00:22:48.959 --> 00:22:54.439 fear, from trouble, but essentially God promised them that He would establish them and give 00:22:54.439 --> 00:22:57.599 them a safe space to worship. 00:22:57.599 --> 00:23:04.239 But what we need to do just now is, as we see the psalmist calling back that promise again 00:23:04.239 --> 00:23:07.919 of all that God was going to do and had promised to do, we need to take that. 00:23:07.919 --> 00:23:13.119 And if you like, pull it into our age, but particularly into the New Testament and in 00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:17.399 the fulfillment that Jesus brings to that promise. 00:23:17.399 --> 00:23:21.119 And into a particular passage that if you've got a Bible you might want to turn with me 00:23:21.119 --> 00:23:28.959 too in Matthew chapter 5, and a famous sermon that Jesus preached, which in many ways confounded 00:23:28.959 --> 00:23:31.159 the expectations of His hearers. 00:23:31.159 --> 00:23:35.839 Jesus said things in such a way that people were shocked actually, the kind of priorities 00:23:35.839 --> 00:23:41.399 He talked about, the character of disciples He was looking for, the kind of life that 00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:46.440 people would get if they followed Him, and the extent of the blessings that He was promising 00:23:46.440 --> 00:23:48.960 really shocked people in Jesus' own day. 00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:53.240 And I think it really would shock a lot of people today if they understood what it was 00:23:53.240 --> 00:23:57.080 that Jesus, what it is that Jesus is talking about. 00:23:57.080 --> 00:24:02.080 The psalmist has spoken about the land and the blessing, the reassurement, reassurance 00:24:02.080 --> 00:24:05.680 of knowing that with all of this stuff in life that's going on and with all of my sense 00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:14.480 of disappointment, remember the promises of God, and Jesus says, calling people to Himself 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:19.880 and saying, I am the one you must follow, I am the sent one of God. 00:24:19.880 --> 00:24:25.759 He says, Matthew 5 from verse 2, He opened His mouth and He taught them saying, blessed 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:31.920 are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:36.120 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 00:24:36.120 --> 00:24:44.440 So He doesn't say, blessed are those who are feisty and kick all the naysayers out of their 00:24:44.440 --> 00:24:49.640 paths or blessed are all the people who follow Me because I'll just give them what they want 00:24:49.640 --> 00:24:51.600 in life. 00:24:51.600 --> 00:24:55.840 He says, blessed are those who mourn, for they'll be comforted, because blessed are 00:24:55.840 --> 00:25:00.279 the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 00:25:00.279 --> 00:25:01.279 They will inherit the earth. 00:25:01.279 --> 00:25:02.279 So almost identical. 00:25:02.279 --> 00:25:08.119 In fact, I don't think we can think of Jesus preaching this sermon without His own internal 00:25:08.119 --> 00:25:11.440 reference to verse 11. 00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:14.720 The meek shall inherit the land. 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:18.399 In other words, Jesus is saying, and we need to understand, as we build a bridge between 00:25:18.399 --> 00:25:24.000 the Old Testament and the New Testament context, in the days after Jesus lived from the birth 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:28.920 of the church as it went out and the acts of the apostles into our own day, we no longer 00:25:28.920 --> 00:25:33.800 look for the geographic land, do we, that we want God to situate us in, and there will 00:25:33.800 --> 00:25:37.160 be fine and safe and we can worship God. 00:25:37.160 --> 00:25:43.279 We worship God in His growing spiritual kingdom, which covers the globe, is made up of people 00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:46.000 from all kinds of backgrounds, even in this room tonight. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:48.840 There are people from all kinds of different backgrounds. 00:25:48.840 --> 00:25:55.759 But the point is where those people are, He is, and there they know blessing. 00:25:55.759 --> 00:25:58.680 And that happens because Jesus came. 00:25:58.680 --> 00:26:06.799 Jesus came, Himself became the sacrifice for sins to pay the penalty for our wrong, so 00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:13.680 that by faith in Him, we could be included into the family of God and could know His 00:26:13.680 --> 00:26:17.960 presence with us wherever we are. 00:26:17.960 --> 00:26:24.039 Any place you find yourself, God is with you if you look to Him and trust in Him. 00:26:24.039 --> 00:26:30.319 But of course, this anticipates a future promise that Jesus, another biblical writer, speak 00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:38.319 about elsewhere, that there is an eternal place that God has in store for you, which 00:26:38.319 --> 00:26:42.240 you need to know about maybe on your chaotic Wednesday. 00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:47.240 And remember that even if things feel terrible right now, you hold fast to that promise of 00:26:47.240 --> 00:26:54.839 Jesus that He is with you now and He has a place for you for all eternity. 00:26:54.839 --> 00:26:55.960 And what does He promise you there? 00:26:55.960 --> 00:26:56.960 He promises you peace. 00:26:56.960 --> 00:27:04.160 I mean, He promises you His peace now in that God is at peace with you and you will know 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:09.160 peace forevermore in the new heavens and the new earth. 00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:16.200 And so, King David didn't have a full vision of that, but we're told it in the Scriptures. 00:27:16.200 --> 00:27:20.440 We have the blessing of the promises of Jesus and the knowledge of all that He has done, 00:27:20.440 --> 00:27:24.279 the way in which He fulfills these kinds of promises for us. 00:27:24.279 --> 00:27:28.759 And what that means is that even when we do feel maybe at a human level that we're not 00:27:28.759 --> 00:27:36.240 quite as far ahead as others or maybe God doesn't listen to us after all, we're counseled 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:38.120 otherwise. 00:27:38.120 --> 00:27:42.840 And it means that we live with a different currency. 00:27:42.840 --> 00:27:44.880 We live with the promises of God. 00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:48.800 We live with the presence of God. 00:27:48.800 --> 00:27:51.000 And that makes us rich. 00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:56.580 It means you may overflow with blessing because you know your Creator. 00:27:56.580 --> 00:27:58.560 You have deep fellowship with the Father. 00:27:58.560 --> 00:28:00.980 You can call out to Him any time of day. 00:28:00.980 --> 00:28:07.880 You have His healing balm, His gospel balm ready for your soul and you have the eternal 00:28:07.880 --> 00:28:09.640 promises that He gives to you. 00:28:09.640 --> 00:28:13.800 And as we start to see this wonderful fruit of the gospel, I think just in finishing it 00:28:13.799 --> 00:28:18.119 highlights gospel realities in this Psalm that we can just touch on. 00:28:18.119 --> 00:28:21.839 So you know, if you get time, go home tonight and just read this through again and see the 00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:25.440 way in which the gospel comes out in this Psalm. 00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:28.480 Verse 4, delight yourself in the Lord. 00:28:28.480 --> 00:28:33.960 You are enabled to do that as you sit at the feet of Jesus because He says, and let me 00:28:33.960 --> 00:28:41.079 just read, in John 15 He says, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. 00:28:41.079 --> 00:28:42.079 Abide. 00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:43.440 Stay there. 00:28:43.440 --> 00:28:46.640 Be in the presence of Him, abiding in His love. 00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:52.759 These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be 00:28:52.759 --> 00:28:53.759 full. 00:28:53.759 --> 00:28:55.960 Now, we struggle to grasp that. 00:28:55.960 --> 00:28:56.960 Sure. 00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:02.720 And we'll always struggle to grasp it in this world, but we're counseled to go to Him and 00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:04.120 ask. 00:29:04.120 --> 00:29:06.880 Also, delight yourself in the Lord. 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:10.680 Verse 4, let me just touch on one final one. 00:29:10.680 --> 00:29:16.680 You've really already looked at it, but verse 11, the meek shall inherit the land and delight 00:29:16.680 --> 00:29:21.440 themselves in abundant peace. 00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:27.279 Jesus also in John chapter 17 says this, in His prayer, we sometimes call it His priestly 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:33.799 prayer to the Father, speaking about His disciples in all their vulnerabilities. 00:29:33.799 --> 00:29:40.960 Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see 00:29:40.960 --> 00:29:47.960 my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world. 00:29:47.960 --> 00:29:52.240 You are offered a different currency. 00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:55.359 It's better than all the riches the world can offer you. 00:29:55.359 --> 00:30:02.399 It's the comfort and counsel, the consolation, the peace, the love, the forgiveness of Jesus, 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:08.840 the Son of God, who also promises you, if you put your faith in Him, to prepare a place 00:30:08.840 --> 00:30:16.680 for you for all eternity where you will know as the book of Revelation tells us freedom 00:30:16.680 --> 00:30:21.920 and peace and rejoicing forevermore. 00:30:21.920 --> 00:30:24.000 Let me close there. 00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:28.200 I pray that as we finish, God will help us as we consider the week ahead with whatever 00:30:28.200 --> 00:30:36.559 it holds, that God will help us to consider how we may sit at the feet of Jesus and seek 00:30:36.559 --> 00:30:37.559 His help. 00:30:37.559 --> 00:30:40.360 Let's pray. 00:30:40.360 --> 00:30:43.440 Help us, dear Lord. 00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:50.720 Thank you that you foreknew us, and so as it were, knew what you were getting into. 00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:59.839 You know all our characters, all our stresses, all the even angry fretting that we do. 00:30:59.839 --> 00:31:06.120 Sometimes we can be so justified because life can be so harsh, sometimes so self-righteous, 00:31:06.120 --> 00:31:08.480 sometimes downright sinful. 00:31:08.480 --> 00:31:11.759 Counsel us in those moments, we pray. 00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:16.680 And we speak the words of Psalm 130 as we conclude this prayer. 00:31:16.680 --> 00:31:18.720 I wait for the Lord. 00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:22.360 My soul waits, and in His word I hope. 00:31:22.360 --> 00:31:26.720 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchman for the morning. 00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:29.240 More than watchman for the morning. 00:31:29.240 --> 00:31:49.359 Amen.