WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.879 Okay, we're going to look for a little while this evening at Sam 126, the Sam that we read 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:10.240 or that was read by Ross earlier on. 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:14.919 And if you're here for the first time over the last number of weeks in the evening, we're 00:00:14.919 --> 00:00:19.879 looking at the songs of Ascent, that is Sam 120, Sam 132, we're not looking at all of 00:00:19.879 --> 00:00:21.120 them, but most of them. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:26.839 And these were Psalms that were sung by the people of God on their way up to the various 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:28.400 festivals at Jerusalem. 00:00:28.400 --> 00:00:29.400 Okay? 00:00:29.399 --> 00:00:31.599 Songs for the journey, that's what they are. 00:00:31.599 --> 00:00:37.039 And we've seen that these songs for the journey in the Old Testament are still great application 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:39.079 for us in our lives. 00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:47.239 So as I said before, it is really helpful to see our lives as a journey and be reminded 00:00:47.239 --> 00:00:51.739 that the journey itself of life is not the goal. 00:00:51.739 --> 00:00:56.159 So that life itself is not the goal of life at one level. 00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:01.519 There is a destination of which living is a very important part. 00:01:01.519 --> 00:01:05.799 It's not just that we're kind of treading water until we reach a destination. 00:01:05.799 --> 00:01:06.959 The journey matters. 00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:08.920 The journey is really important. 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:15.319 But the whole of Christian living, the whole of our lives are revolved around the idea 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:19.799 of coming home, of coming home. 00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:29.120 That is a powerful reality that we are living our lives with a view to coming home, to fulfilling 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:35.679 all the deepest longings and desires of our hearts by when we find that in a relationship 00:01:35.679 --> 00:01:37.879 with Jesus Christ when we come home. 00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:42.439 And that's kind of highlighted at the end of the Psalm, Psalm 126, where he who goes 00:01:42.439 --> 00:01:47.759 out weeping, bating, the seed for sowing shall come home, shall come home with shouts 00:01:47.759 --> 00:01:48.759 of joy. 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:55.920 And there's that whole idea that there is a homecoming that is a focus of our lives. 00:01:55.920 --> 00:02:02.120 And the Psalms of Ascent feed into that in the sense that the people of God sung them 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:07.560 and they were on a tough journey, physically a tough journey because it came at the end 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:08.800 of that journey. 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:09.800 It was uphill. 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:11.960 We've seen a lot about the hills in these Psalms. 00:02:11.960 --> 00:02:14.879 Corey spoke about them and Callum spoke about them last week. 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:18.400 And I guess when you're just near the end of your destination, there's the hills leading 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:20.960 up to Jerusalem, then that was quite tough. 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:27.120 Although they were heading for the feast, they were focusing on God and who is worthy 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:28.639 and they were focusing together. 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:33.519 They were a community of people traveling together towards the feast. 00:02:33.519 --> 00:02:38.280 And these were songs of faith that they sung, songs to encourage them. 00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:41.719 So songs are great and they ought to be encouraging. 00:02:41.719 --> 00:02:46.039 It's a really terrible thing if you come to church and it's singing so really bad and 00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:48.280 awful that you're discouraged by it. 00:02:48.280 --> 00:02:49.840 Never happens, guys, here. 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:50.840 You're okay. 00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:52.520 So, but it is, isn't it? 00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:56.800 If you come and it's terrible, it's just out of tune, it's too high or too low or it's 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:03.319 just grating and even at a kind of technical level, it's great to enjoy and be blessed 00:03:03.319 --> 00:03:08.120 in the words and the songs and doing that together and what we can learn from it. 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:10.199 And this is one of these songs. 00:03:10.199 --> 00:03:15.079 It's a great song and it's a song that really has it all. 00:03:15.079 --> 00:03:22.359 Both as it was initially written or as it was originally written, but also as we take 00:03:22.359 --> 00:03:27.639 its images and realities for the Christian life and where God fits into everything, absolutely 00:03:27.639 --> 00:03:29.319 everything of our life. 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:36.280 There's so much truth, so much emotion in this Psalm, so much heart and it's all given 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:37.280 in poetry. 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:39.000 Now, I know it's difficult for us. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:44.080 It's really difficult to translate Hebrew poetry as a bit of a Hebrew expert. 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:51.479 I'll know, you know, these things that I find it difficult to get across that great poetic 00:03:51.479 --> 00:03:53.680 reality of the Hebrew. 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:58.759 The Hebrews are very, it's a bit more like Gaelic, John, you'd be better with it because 00:03:58.759 --> 00:04:03.120 it's more like, it's a very emotive and emotional language. 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:06.080 English is not, English is very stoic and flat. 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:14.600 And so it's difficult to get across the parallelism and the form and the poetry in the Hebrew. 00:04:14.600 --> 00:04:20.560 But all of this Psalm is written in tremendous poetry and it's a great thing. 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:23.240 And you know, we need more song in our lives, not less. 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:24.840 Song is hugely important. 00:04:24.840 --> 00:04:26.840 It touches our hearts. 00:04:26.840 --> 00:04:30.639 It's very powerful and it also informs our mind. 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:35.199 You think of some of you people here, as I can think of songs, I will hear a song that 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:41.279 I knew, I haven't heard for 35 years and I will be able, when I hear it, to remember 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:45.079 every single verse when it starts as I sing along with the singer. 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:46.639 We don't forget song. 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:48.599 We don't forget the words of song. 00:04:48.599 --> 00:04:50.199 We don't forget what is in song. 00:04:50.199 --> 00:04:52.919 It's tremendously important. 00:04:52.919 --> 00:04:54.360 Songs of our childhood. 00:04:54.360 --> 00:04:57.599 Songs that we remember truth from. 00:04:57.599 --> 00:05:05.039 And I think often we underestimate song in a rather cerebral, stoic, prosaic interpretation 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:06.040 of the faith. 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:12.720 Song and emotion and movement is hugely important and the Psalmist here is in poetry and in 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:16.680 song expressing the journey, the Christian journey. 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:22.560 And just say a little, can I say a little bit about the Psalm in its context? 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:27.640 Because what it's doing here, it's split into two verses one to three and then four to six. 00:05:27.640 --> 00:05:32.360 It's two kind of strophes, two verses, two stanzas as it were. 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:38.280 And there is recalling, a part of it, and he was recalling the Babylonian captivity. 00:05:38.280 --> 00:05:44.960 You remember the people of Israel were in the Promised Land and they were promised blessing 00:05:44.960 --> 00:05:48.319 and land flowing with milk and honey as they kept close to God. 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:53.120 But as they rebelled against God and as they turned away from God and as they worshiped 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:58.720 idols, then they knew God's judgment and they were taken from the Promised Land into captivity 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:04.640 and spent 70 years in captivity in Babylon, that great powerful nation who took them as 00:06:04.640 --> 00:06:12.040 slaves as they turned against their Lord and their Savior. 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:16.840 And it was a part of judgment and yet within that judgment there was promise for them if 00:06:16.840 --> 00:06:19.040 they returned. 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:26.080 And it's the theme of, you know, Second Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel that we know so well 00:06:26.080 --> 00:06:27.280 and Ezra and Nehemiah. 00:06:27.279 --> 00:06:32.439 They're all books of the Old Testament that speak about, speak into the captivity, speak 00:06:32.439 --> 00:06:40.079 into the separation between God and His people and the judgment that He brings onto them. 00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:46.399 And this first part of the Psalm is recalling their freedom from captivity. 00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:52.639 After 70 years they are taken from captivity back to the Promised Land. 00:06:52.639 --> 00:06:59.560 And it's not a great translation when it says the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion because 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:06.079 it gives us the idea of kind of fortune, luck, magic, whatever. 00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:13.360 But it really, practically, or literally means the Lord turned back our captivity. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:18.680 He brought us back from captivity, restored, and it's the idea of health and strength. 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:20.879 Lord gave us health and strength again. 00:07:20.879 --> 00:07:24.199 And I'm just going to, maybe you'll turn with me if you can find it because it's quite 00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:25.199 important. 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:31.519 Ezra and Nehemiah, if you go back before the book of Psalms or the book of Job, and then 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:32.920 there's Ezra and Nehemiah. 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:39.079 And these are, the prophets spoke into the situation that we've been looking at. 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:47.079 So in Ezra chapter one and verses one to four, there was a foreign king called King Cyrus. 00:07:47.079 --> 00:07:53.439 And King Cyrus wasn't a believer but he was used by God to release the Israelites and 00:07:53.439 --> 00:07:57.159 allow them to go back to Jerusalem and to build the temple. 00:07:57.159 --> 00:08:01.039 So in the first year of King Cyrus, the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might 00:08:01.039 --> 00:08:04.799 be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia, so that he made 00:08:04.799 --> 00:08:07.279 a proclamation throughout the kingdom and put him around. 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:12.240 Thus says Cyrus, King of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:16.919 of the earth, and he has charged me to build a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 00:08:16.920 --> 00:08:22.199 Whoever is among you of all, whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with 00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:26.600 him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 00:08:26.600 --> 00:08:28.439 These are slaves. 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:31.240 These are people who have been in captive for 70 years. 00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:34.680 And he says, let them go and rebuild the house of the Lord of the God. 00:08:34.680 --> 00:08:36.240 He is the God who's in Jerusalem. 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:41.120 Let each survivor in whatever place he sojourns be assisted by the men of his place with silver 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:45.159 and gold, with goods and beasts, beside free will offerings for the house of God that's 00:08:45.159 --> 00:08:46.159 in Jerusalem. 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:48.039 Okay, so let's put into context. 00:08:48.039 --> 00:08:52.679 That would be a little bit like Nicola Sturgeon coming into the church and saying here, you're 00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:53.839 the church planting church. 00:08:53.839 --> 00:08:56.240 I think you should go and build three or four new churches. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:00.799 We will fund all the church planners, we'll buy buildings for you, we'll allow you to 00:09:00.799 --> 00:09:03.079 go and we'll hope everything will be filled. 00:09:03.079 --> 00:09:08.319 It's kind of a bit like that, except a hundred times more unbelievable, that this foreign 00:09:08.319 --> 00:09:14.360 king who wasn't a believer sent this captive people back because he cried out to the Lord. 00:09:14.360 --> 00:09:20.440 He sent them back and gave them money and gold and silver to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:25.159 And it was incredible that people couldn't believe it. 00:09:25.159 --> 00:09:27.320 The Lord has restored the fortunes of Zion. 00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:29.480 We were like those who dream. 00:09:29.480 --> 00:09:33.840 Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:39.960 It was utterly unbelievable that they were allowed to return and return to the promised 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:40.960 land. 00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:48.400 And it was incredible joy and they give glory to God who allowed them to experience this 00:09:48.400 --> 00:09:49.639 as believers. 00:09:49.639 --> 00:09:51.120 So that's the first three verses. 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:58.040 And then the second three verses are a reminder that it is also an unfinished task. 00:09:58.040 --> 00:10:03.600 Not only does it say, the Lord has restored our fortunes, but then there's a prayer, restore 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:07.180 our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the desert. 00:10:07.180 --> 00:10:08.560 So there's an unfinished task. 00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:13.639 In other words, if you look back at the story in the Old Testament, you realize that not 00:10:13.639 --> 00:10:17.399 everyone returned at the beginning, unbelievably. 00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:20.239 Some stayed in Babylon, some stayed in Persia. 00:10:20.239 --> 00:10:22.199 It was a mixed return. 00:10:22.199 --> 00:10:24.159 There was still more people to come back. 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:27.000 There was still more captivity to be restored. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:36.679 There was still more joy to be received and a greater blessing to pray for and to ask for. 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:44.239 There was still patience and tears, but also hope and restoration of a rebuilt Jerusalem 00:10:44.239 --> 00:10:45.959 to look forward to. 00:10:45.959 --> 00:10:51.759 And probably thinking more forward to the messianic age when the Messiah would come 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:58.079 and they would enjoy the total blessings of the Redeemer. 00:10:58.079 --> 00:11:03.359 Okay, so that's kind of the story, the two parts of this chapter. 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:11.200 Now, they fit into our broad spiritual experience, because this is seen as a journey and we're 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:18.039 in a journey, and let's fit this Sam into our own spiritual experience, because as I 00:11:18.039 --> 00:11:23.600 said earlier, the Sam is full of contrasts, okay, extremes, extremes either end in many 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:25.960 ways with lots of experience in the middle. 00:11:25.960 --> 00:11:31.800 And we can apply these contrasts and we can see them in our own spiritual journey, and 00:11:31.799 --> 00:11:35.719 we can see that we take God and there's a reason for all of these things. 00:11:35.719 --> 00:11:38.799 So can I just go through one or two of the contrasts? 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:41.079 There's drought and abundance, isn't there? 00:11:41.079 --> 00:11:50.240 In verse 4, there's the desert, the Negev, the desert, and there's abundance when the 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:53.120 flash floods come into the desert and bring growth. 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:56.199 And so that's one of the contrasts. 00:11:56.200 --> 00:12:03.240 There's the idea of captivity and the captivity being changed into freedom. 00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:12.160 And so there's this whole idea of a spiritual desert in our lives when we run from God, 00:12:12.160 --> 00:12:14.440 because that was their experience as a people. 00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:18.200 It was dry, unproductive, and barren. 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:23.640 And it was only as they cried out to the living God and saw Him that as they saw their need 00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:31.000 of Him again and returned to Him that they knew abundance and blessing and harvest and 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:32.080 health. 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:37.240 That whole idea of restoring our fortunes, the idea of being strong and healthy and fruitful 00:12:37.240 --> 00:12:38.240 and blessed. 00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:40.360 Now that's very basic, isn't it? 00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:44.480 In the extremes of our Christian life, there's drought and there's abundance. 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:48.960 And sometimes the drought comes from turning our back on God, the spiritual drought. 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:52.799 The blessing comes as we turn back to Him. 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:55.039 And that relates to sowing and reaping. 00:12:55.039 --> 00:12:57.959 That's another contrast in the Psalm in verse 5. 00:12:57.959 --> 00:13:06.240 Those who sow and tear shall reap with shouts of joy. 00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:11.519 These extremes in the different parts of our journey, there's times in our lives spiritually 00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:18.599 when it all seems like it's sowing and tears, when it's hard where there's not much fruit. 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:23.279 There's very little evidence of life. 00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:30.800 I'm a bit of a gardener and I've got a little raised plot in the back garden where I sowed 00:13:30.800 --> 00:13:35.519 in tears, I sowed potatoes a few weeks ago. 00:13:35.519 --> 00:13:38.399 And for weeks and weeks and weeks I looked out the window every morning. 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:40.120 There was nothing there. 00:13:40.120 --> 00:13:43.279 It's just black soil, bleak, barren. 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:47.320 But then one day some green shoots. 00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:51.240 And now there's strong sheaves. 00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:53.400 Oh, not quite. 00:13:53.400 --> 00:13:57.600 There's no flowers on them yet, so I can't dig up the plants yet. 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:01.680 But you know, there's this, the different times, there's going to be a time when I can 00:14:01.680 --> 00:14:07.920 go out with my fork and dig up these lovely white fresh potatoes, real potatoes, and it 00:14:07.920 --> 00:14:09.560 will be great to do so. 00:14:09.560 --> 00:14:11.680 Sowing and reaping. 00:14:11.680 --> 00:14:12.920 Our lives are like that. 00:14:12.919 --> 00:14:18.240 So there's times when we're sowing and it seems bleak and dark and unproductive, and 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:24.159 yet there's other times when we see amazing answers to prayer and vitality in life and 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:27.839 even blessing as we share our faith with other people. 00:14:27.839 --> 00:14:33.679 And it's a recognition that there are these different times on the journey which is related 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:41.319 to the other contrast, tears and laughter and joy, both in verse 2 and verse 5, that 00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:45.040 our mouth was filled with laughter in our tongue with such of joy, those who are so 00:14:45.040 --> 00:14:47.080 in tears, reap with such of joy. 00:14:47.080 --> 00:14:54.080 This great reality that Christ comes into the emotion of our lives as a journey that 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:58.600 we're on and that we experience these things, don't we take? 00:14:58.600 --> 00:15:00.440 We know these things in our lives. 00:15:00.440 --> 00:15:05.040 We have times of celebration and times of great sadness. 00:15:05.040 --> 00:15:06.400 That's life. 00:15:06.400 --> 00:15:08.160 You will have these different experiences. 00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:12.759 And they may be the extremes, but within that there's times of sorrow and times of joy and 00:15:12.759 --> 00:15:17.799 times of mild happiness and times of mild discontent. 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:21.519 And we see that that is part of the journey of life. 00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:27.319 And it's important to legitimize the joy and the laughter as well as the tears before 00:15:27.319 --> 00:15:34.319 God, recognizing the need to take Him into all of these things. 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:42.240 And see, maybe particularly, no, not particularly, both in celebration and joy, because the celebration 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:45.960 and the laughter was a result of God at work, wasn't it? 00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:48.400 They were amazed at God at work. 00:15:48.400 --> 00:15:52.920 They laughed and they were joyful at the incredible restoration. 00:15:52.920 --> 00:15:58.920 And we need to celebrate God and laugh and be joyful as Christians. 00:15:58.920 --> 00:16:02.600 We're awful somber, awful solemn. 00:16:02.600 --> 00:16:05.600 We can feel gilly if we're laughing and joyful in church. 00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:07.639 Why should that be? 00:16:07.639 --> 00:16:16.080 But also recognize the place of tears in the Christian life and tears sometimes, because 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:20.519 we are distant from God, not necessarily, but it can be tears of repentance as we come 00:16:20.519 --> 00:16:26.080 back or it can be tears that we experience because we're far from God, or it can be tears 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:28.399 because we don't understand what we're going through. 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:35.039 Psalm 137, which is a very famous one made famous in secular society by Boney M many 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:39.879 years ago who sung the song by the rivers of Babylon, we sat down. 00:16:39.879 --> 00:16:43.480 How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? 00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:48.919 They couldn't sing, they were silenced because of their experiences. 00:16:48.919 --> 00:16:55.439 And the relation between joy and singing and being in God's presence was powerful and ought 00:16:55.439 --> 00:16:56.439 to be powerful. 00:16:56.440 --> 00:16:58.800 There were tears and laughter. 00:16:58.800 --> 00:17:04.960 And the last parallel is between not home and home. 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:10.799 You know, verse 1 says that we were captive, we were not at home. 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:14.200 And verse 6 at the end says, we come home. 00:17:14.200 --> 00:17:16.039 We'll come home with shouts of joy. 00:17:16.039 --> 00:17:23.920 And there's the reality of the Christian journey also being that we need songs for the journey 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:27.200 because with exiles we're citizens of heaven. 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:30.720 We belong here but we don't belong. 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:32.000 This is not our home. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:33.519 It will be our home. 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:39.800 Hebrews 13, 14, I think, says that for here we have no lasting city but we seek the city 00:17:39.800 --> 00:17:40.800 that is to come. 00:17:40.800 --> 00:17:43.840 We're sojourners, we're pilgrims. 00:17:43.840 --> 00:17:49.320 The journey, we await His return and the renewal of all things so that this will become our 00:17:49.320 --> 00:17:52.480 home in reality. 00:17:52.480 --> 00:18:00.640 And this is a really strong part of the imagery, a shadowy imagery that the Old Testament believer 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:07.319 had of being on a journey, sharpened for us in Christ and fulfilled as we have faith in 00:18:07.319 --> 00:18:13.640 Him and as we know what He's done and look forward to what is still to come. 00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:17.039 We're home but we're not home. 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:19.480 It's a journey of contrasts. 00:18:19.480 --> 00:18:21.440 So we have a broad Christian experience. 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:27.080 And we also briefly, as we look to conclude, we have a growing knowledge of God in this 00:18:27.080 --> 00:18:30.279 Sam. 00:18:30.279 --> 00:18:36.000 And it really is a remarkable paradox and I think a really important paradox for us to 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:40.120 understand in our Christian lives because it's one we often struggle with. 00:18:40.120 --> 00:18:46.720 As we face Him who is our destination, there's this great paradox in the Sam and in the Bible 00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:50.600 where there's suddenness and slowness. 00:18:50.599 --> 00:18:56.839 And there's the suddenness of God at work and the slowness of our experience as we 00:18:56.839 --> 00:18:57.839 wait on Him. 00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:00.919 Can I just say a little bit about that before we finish? 00:19:00.919 --> 00:19:03.719 Because I think it's very important. 00:19:03.719 --> 00:19:10.159 There's an expression in the Sam of the suddenness of God, His power which is beyond our comprehension. 00:19:10.159 --> 00:19:11.159 There's a couple of things. 00:19:11.159 --> 00:19:14.759 The first verse which speaks about the Lord restored our captivity. 00:19:14.759 --> 00:19:15.759 It was sudden. 00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:22.279 It was unbelievable after 70 years they were set free and they were given gold and silver 00:19:22.279 --> 00:19:24.000 and they were to go back to Jerusalem. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:27.079 It happened really quickly, really suddenly. 00:19:27.079 --> 00:19:36.240 And that is given a poetic expression in verse 4 which says, please do it again, restore 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:39.000 our fortunes like a stream in the desert. 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:44.720 That speaks about the suddenness of God working because it's a picture of flash floods, water 00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:48.319 that came from the south and gushed down these dry riverbeds. 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:49.759 I've probably told you the story before. 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:54.920 It's the only story I have of flash floods and it was from our honeymoon 29 years ago 00:19:54.920 --> 00:19:56.400 when we were in Rhodes. 00:19:56.400 --> 00:20:06.799 And every day we went back to our accommodation across a bridge and that bridge crossed a 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:15.079 fairly deep, empty, dry gully as we thought it was. 00:20:15.079 --> 00:20:25.919 And the last night of our holiday there was a humongous flood, rainfall, thunder and lightning. 00:20:25.919 --> 00:20:33.079 And by 4 in the morning there was this raging, roaring noise outside the window and we looked 00:20:33.079 --> 00:20:40.480 out and this dry, deep gully was filled with water so that trees were coming down it and 00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:46.359 trucks were coming down it who almost, trucks were hanging over the edge because it changed 00:20:46.359 --> 00:20:50.119 so quickly overnight into a river. 00:20:50.119 --> 00:20:53.319 And that's the picture of the streams. 00:20:53.319 --> 00:20:54.720 Streams not a good translation. 00:20:54.720 --> 00:20:57.799 Streams in the desert sound just like little dribbles. 00:20:57.799 --> 00:21:05.359 There was actually a raging torrent that would immediately bring grass and greenery and fruitfulness 00:21:05.359 --> 00:21:06.359 to the desert place. 00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:11.919 You know, you've seen it in some of these David Attenborough programs, how the desert 00:21:11.919 --> 00:21:15.680 changes so quickly into a place of fruitfulness. 00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:18.599 And that's the picture we have of God at work. 00:21:18.599 --> 00:21:19.599 He's quick. 00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:22.599 There's a suddenness. 00:21:22.599 --> 00:21:26.399 There's a great freedom here, a restoration. 00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:30.000 And the New Testament speaks of that in 1 Corinthians 15. 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.160 Behold, I tell you a mystery. 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:37.720 We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in the moment. 00:21:37.720 --> 00:21:42.080 In the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound the dead and will 00:21:42.080 --> 00:21:44.680 be raised impeccable and we shall all be changed. 00:21:44.680 --> 00:21:45.680 There's a suddenness. 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:51.080 There's going to be a suddenness of God at work and there's a suddenness in salvation 00:21:51.080 --> 00:21:56.080 where we are taken, we might not see it but we're taken immediately from darkness into 00:21:56.079 --> 00:21:59.679 light from the moment we believe from death to life. 00:21:59.679 --> 00:22:04.480 And we see it in the work of Christ in the cross where He says, it's finished, it's 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:12.359 done, it's a sudden work, a three hour work, maybe we can talk about it being in the darkness 00:22:12.359 --> 00:22:16.839 of the cross with all that had gone before it. 00:22:16.839 --> 00:22:20.720 And there's a great speed with a suddenness with which God works. 00:22:20.720 --> 00:22:21.879 He works in our life. 00:22:21.879 --> 00:22:23.879 You will know that and experience it if you're a Christian. 00:22:23.880 --> 00:22:27.600 There's times when God has worked suddenly in ways you haven't expected. 00:22:27.600 --> 00:22:29.440 He's powerful beyond our comprehension. 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:34.760 So the suddenness of God at work, but that's God's point of view. 00:22:34.760 --> 00:22:37.080 It's often not like that for us. 00:22:37.080 --> 00:22:42.800 We have to be patient because they were seventy years in captivity and there was a lot of 00:22:42.800 --> 00:22:50.200 tears and they didn't, it didn't seem like God was working quickly and suddenly to them 00:22:50.200 --> 00:22:51.200 in the journey. 00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:55.200 You know what it's like when we're on a journey, we're very like what it's like for little 00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:59.000 children who are going up to Inverness and you're not past the fourth or a bridge yet. 00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:00.000 Are we there yet? 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:01.000 Are we there yet? 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:04.400 And every two minutes they're asking, are we there yet? 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:07.160 Well, we're like that as Christians. 00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:14.279 We're always impatient and asking God, where is the suddenness that it is spoken of? 00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:21.519 Because it's a paradox because of His suddenness. 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:27.359 His suddenness is different from our understanding and we are to be patient because of the slowness 00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:34.720 often of our experiences through tears, sometimes joy, through repentance, through sewing and 00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:36.279 reaping, through restoration. 00:23:36.279 --> 00:23:39.599 It's, we can't manufacture God working. 00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:44.639 We so, we return to Him, He does the miracles. 00:23:44.639 --> 00:23:46.480 He's the one who works. 00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:52.199 So I think that's an important paradox to understand that God has His own clock. 00:23:52.199 --> 00:24:00.399 He has His own time and He can work suddenly and yet for us it seems very slow in our experience 00:24:00.399 --> 00:24:03.079 as we are asked to wait on Him. 00:24:03.079 --> 00:24:07.159 There is a paradox, I know there's a paradox in that, I recognize that. 00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:14.000 In 2 Peter 3, it's the last, you know, it speaks of that, the Lord is not slow in fulfilling 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:18.279 His promise as some count slowness, but He's patient toward you, not wishing that anyone 00:24:18.279 --> 00:24:20.440 should perish but all should come to repentance. 00:24:20.440 --> 00:24:25.160 So God's timing is different and sometimes we are very impatient with Him, but He asks 00:24:25.160 --> 00:24:31.200 us to wait and to trust and to believe that there will be, and you know one day we will 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:38.240 all be in glory and we will recognize the suddenness with which God is working in our 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:39.240 lives. 00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:44.840 So we are asked to be patient and as we are patient and trusting in Him, waiting on Him, 00:24:44.840 --> 00:24:46.920 then that's a powerful testimony. 00:24:46.920 --> 00:24:52.039 That's a really powerful testimony because we will see Him working in our lives. 00:24:52.039 --> 00:24:53.400 We will see it in our own experience. 00:24:53.400 --> 00:24:55.400 You know, the psalmist speaks of that. 00:24:55.400 --> 00:24:57.759 He says, you know, we saw God working. 00:24:57.759 --> 00:24:59.080 He restored our fortunes. 00:24:59.079 --> 00:25:01.519 We were like people who were dreaming. 00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:04.639 We couldn't believe God was at work in our lives. 00:25:04.639 --> 00:25:07.960 It's a bit like the disciples on the road to Emmaus. 00:25:07.960 --> 00:25:11.960 They couldn't believe that it was God that was there with them in the presence of Jesus. 00:25:11.960 --> 00:25:17.399 Or Peter, when he's freed from prison by the angel, Acts 12 verse 9, I think that maybe 00:25:17.399 --> 00:25:19.399 it's the last time I put that up. 00:25:19.399 --> 00:25:24.879 Yeah, Peter, he was released from prison by the angel and he didn't know that what was 00:25:24.879 --> 00:25:25.960 being done was by an angel. 00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:29.120 It was real, but he thought he was seeing a vision. 00:25:29.120 --> 00:25:35.240 Sometimes when we see God at work in an unexpected miraculous in our everyday lives, it brings 00:25:35.240 --> 00:25:42.039 great amazement and great laughter and great joy that God would deign to work in our lives 00:25:42.039 --> 00:25:46.160 and amazing that He should work in our ordinary lives. 00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:51.480 And it's a good thing to laugh and to be joyful when we are just taken aback by the suddenness 00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:57.279 and by the amazing reality of God working in ordinary people like you and me. 00:25:57.279 --> 00:26:03.200 And I think when we learn to lean on Him and learn His timing and learn to wait and be 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:11.000 patient, knowing that He will suddenly answer our prayers, it resonates and there's a great 00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:20.360 testimony in the world in which we live because the second part of that verse says that great 00:26:20.359 --> 00:26:21.719 things were said among the nations. 00:26:21.719 --> 00:26:23.599 The Lord has done great things for us. 00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:26.599 The Lord has done great things for them. 00:26:26.599 --> 00:26:35.599 People will see when we rest on God, when we wait on Him, when we trust in Him, that 00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:41.199 will turn people powerfully because God works in our lives when we wait on Him. 00:26:41.199 --> 00:26:47.439 And He works suddenly in our lives and He blesses the patience of faith. 00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:53.759 And your world, your nations, the people around you will see that and will acknowledge the 00:26:53.759 --> 00:26:56.160 greatness of God. 00:26:56.160 --> 00:27:02.480 So I think we learn about God's clock, God's timing in the Psalm, and it's good to sing 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:05.279 songs about God. 00:27:05.279 --> 00:27:09.279 And life is a powerful melodic testimony. 00:27:09.279 --> 00:27:14.400 It ought to be our lives, a powerful melodic testimony of God. 00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:22.200 It should be a sweet song, our lives, even in the tears and through the laughter. 00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:31.240 But do you remember that life isn't ultimately a destination, it is a journey towards the 00:27:31.240 --> 00:27:39.320 fullness of our relationship with God when we meet with God face to face and come home. 00:27:39.320 --> 00:27:40.320 Okay? 00:27:40.320 --> 00:27:41.320 It's good, isn't it? 00:27:41.319 --> 00:27:46.799 It's good to have that longing to come home, it's a good thing. 00:27:46.799 --> 00:27:51.679 And then we find in Christ that's multiplied a million times. 00:27:51.679 --> 00:27:53.000 We long just to be in Him. 00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:58.960 And we are asked to be patient and to trust and to wait in Him even when we don't understand 00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:01.319 what He's doing. 00:28:01.319 --> 00:28:04.119 I think that comes across very powerfully in the Psalm. 00:28:04.119 --> 00:28:09.879 They were surprised by joy as they did turn back to Him and saw the amazing reality of 00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:13.600 His salvation and of His work in their lives. 00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:42.359 Amen.