Father, we thank you that we can trust you.
We can know you and we can trust you.
Father, we love you and thank you.
Amen.
You can be seated.
Just because it's never remiss to read the Bible again,
let's turn back to Psalm 63 and read it one more time.
So that's Psalm 63.
O God, you are my God.
Earnestly I seek you.
My soul thirsts for you.
My flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live.
In your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food.
And my mouth will praise you with joyful lips
when I remember you upon my bed
and meditate on you in the watches of the night.
For you have been my help.
And in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
My soul clings to you.
Your right hand upholds me.
But those who seek to destroy my life
shall go down into the depths of the earth.
They shall be given over to the power of the sword.
They shall be apportioned for jackals.
But the king shall rejoice in God.
All who swear by him shall exult.
Since Kendra and I got married a few years back,
we've tried to go camping as much as possible,
as frequently as possible.
And it usually ends up being a couple of times a year.
I mean, that's just how life goes.
Hobbies can't be daily life.
Most years we've been married,
what we'll do is every year we'll go out
and buy one more piece of equipment
to make our camping experience better or easier
or more fun or some other thing.
One of the first years we went out
and bought a nice little tent,
one that you could pick up and carry easily,
you could put in your backpack.
Another year it was a water filter
because, you know,
you don't want to drink the bacteria out there.
One year it was a stove.
So every year just something new,
slightly better outfitted to make camping
a more enjoyable experience
because there's almost nothing as bad
as being improperly equipped for a camping trip.
A little bit of rain is a big deal
when you're out there
and your tent is full of holes or whatever it is.
You don't have enough shelter.
Anybody who's been camping
probably has a story about getting rained out
and wishing they could quit
and, you know, being too far to get anywhere,
get home to shelter or whatever.
Bill Mason, who is a Canadian outdoors guru,
avid canoeist,
he was a filmmaker with the NFB.
He had a lot of writing about camping done.
And one of the things,
one of the distinctions that he liked to make
about his camping experiences
was that when you were camping,
you could either find adventure or adversity.
Adventure happens when you're well prepared,
when you have a tent that's not full of holes,
something that will keep out the elements,
when you're not finding bugs everywhere,
when you're having enough to eat,
when you have enough to drink.
You can really enjoy being out in the sunshine.
You can really enjoy
chomping through a moist forest
or you can enjoy racing across a lake in a canoe
or whatever it is that you find attractive.
Adventure is sitting,
taking a nap by the edge of a lake.
Adventure is the reason
you might go camping in the first place.
Adversity is what happens
when your tent floods in the middle of the night
or when it falls down,
when you run out of food or water or too cold.
Adversity is misjudging the length of your hike
and having to hike in the dark.
Bill Mason would say that enjoying the outdoors
is all about finding adventure,
avoiding adversity.
There was one time that I was a kid
that we were out camping in a place called
the Gran Sabana.
So I grew up in Venezuela.
A number of people asked me that last week.
It's not a secret.
I grew up in Venezuela.
Gran Sabana translates Grand Savannah.
So it was lots of open space,
grass, shrubs, sand.
So there's very few places
if you wanted to keep your tent cool
during the day to pitch it.
So you look around.
We finally found an area where we could camp
and there was a tree
that we could put our tents underneath.
And the sky was clear.
There was no bugs.
There was as many elements
that would make it an adventure as possible.
There was no rain in sight.
Everything seemed perfect.
Our trip was an adventure.
And so we bedded down for the night.
There was no mosquitoes.
The rain didn't happen in the middle of the night.
The tents didn't fall down.
When morning came,
my parents woke up and started to stir
and then started to get bitten.
And as they got up,
they noticed that their tent
was full of little red bugs.
Little dome tent full of red bugs.
And as they got up,
they realized that they had pitched their tent
right on top of the entrance to a fire ant nest.
So, as they stirred,
they bothered all the ants
that were very hungry
from a night alone in the tent
trying to find a way out.
They actually weren't bitten that badly,
believe it or not.
But it could have been a lot worse.
Nonetheless, for my parents,
that easily crossed the line
between adventure and adversity.
And for the right or the wrong sort of person,
a thought like a tent full of ants
probably makes you queasy enough
to not think about anything else for a minute.
Maybe shudder.
And that's often what turns adventure
to adversity.
It's something that you can't take out of your mind.
These are the sleepless nights
moments of our life.
And this is the reason
I've never gone winter camping.
Never been able to drag myself
out into the cold.
Because I know that if I go out winter camping,
it'll be instant adversity for me.
I'll be able to think about
nothing for the cold.
And who wants to spend an entire weekend
thinking about how cold you are?
Now, David is writing this psalm,
Psalm 63,
from the desert.
Helen read the introduction
to this psalm of David
when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
A lot of people like to speculate
that this is when he was being chased by Absalom
in a big rebellion.
But there's not a ton of evidence for that.
It's mostly speculation.
But we do know that he was writing
in or about the desert.
And the first verse just sounds thirsty,
doesn't it?
Our God,
O God,
you are my God.
Earnestly I seek you.
My soul thirsts for you.
My flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
When you're in a desert,
thirst quickly becomes
the only thing you can think of.
Just like winter camping for me,
deserts are prone to becoming
instant adversity.
And yet David is
pointing his desperation,
his need to God.
And that's a great lesson
to learn from David,
and one that I talked a little bit more
about last week.
In our need,
in our desperation,
we can turn to God
and expect him to respond
in his nature.
We can expect a response
that's good,
and merciful,
and sovereign.
Our desperate times
are often the ones
that we are more apt to call out
in the first place.
Our desperate times
are ones that often
God responds most dramatically.
These desperate times
are often times of adversity,
where you can't think of anything
but your problems.
The times that you have
those sleepless nights.
Where David says,
my flesh,
my flesh faints for you
and my soul thirsts for you.
Where we might say,
God,
if there was ever a time
where I needed your help,
it's now.
But there's another kind of desert.
The desert beside the one
where you're worried
for your safety,
or the one that you get chased into.
Where your enemies hoped you would die.
You probably know something
about what I'm talking about already
because desert is almost synonymous
with a place
where what we need to survive
is lacking.
Desert is such a common metaphor
for this
that sometimes
we use it without thinking
for a time and a place
where we can't see God
in our life.
We can't see him working.
We don't hear him speaking.
And I'm afraid to say
that more often than not,
it's not a place
that I am chased to
so much as it's
a place that I walk to
of my own accord.
It frequently takes me
a long time
to even realize
that I've gotten to that place,
that I am desperate.
A long time to see
that I'm not turning
to God enough
to even realize
that I'm there.
That I'm even thirsty
for God's presence
until I'm scared
and freaking out
and saying,
my God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?
So here's David
in the desert.
He's in a place
of adversity,
a place where
he's thirsting for God.
He's thirsting for God
and that's all
he can think about.
It's coming to the forefront.
And what does he say next?
He says,
verse 2,
so I have looked upon you
in the sanctuary.
David looked back
to a time
where he did see God,
to a time
that he was in the tabernacle
in the tent of meeting.
So how do we trust
a God that doesn't appear
to us at every instant
of our life?
Well, David looks
to times
where he has seen God.
David knew
that his fathers
had seen God act
when they needed him.
David knew
that from his own birth
he had seen God act
when he knew,
when he needed him.
And so he had reason
to trust
that God would be with him
in whatever situation he is.
David is thirsty for God
when he's in the wilderness
and he's looking back
to a time
when he saw him clearly.
One of my favorite shows
to watch
when I have the time
is a show called
Man vs. Wild.
And the premise
of the show
is pretty simple.
There's a fellow
named Bear Grylls
and he's a special forces,
an ex-special forces soldier
whose job is to survive
in extreme situations.
And the whole premise
of the show
is that Bear Grylls
jumps out of an airplane
and parachutes
into some forsaken location.
It's frequently
a mountaintop
or the Australian outback
or some inhospitable place
where there's nothing
but adversity.
And the whole show
is him working himself
and his cameraman
out of whatever adversity
they find themselves in.
So off he goes
trekking through
whatever wilderness
he's in
doing cool stuff
making it all seem easy.
Usually dispenses
little bits of survival advice
as he's going along.
If you've ever been
camping with me
I'll usually try
to impress you
with a trick or two
I've learned
from the show.
It doesn't usually work.
At some point
in time during the show
almost every week
there's a point
where
you will see a sunset
or
a very pretty flower
or
a waterfall
that's just breathtaking.
And the show
will normally just
pause for a second
and Bear Grylls
the presenter
will frequently sit down
and
he'll often say
something to the effect
that a big part
of survival
is
getting your eyes
off the problem
for a minute
keeping your spirits up.
Now Bear Grylls
is a Christian
and frequently
he'll say something
to the effect
that he understands
that worshipping God
is a way that
Christians find
ways to get
through adversity.
And you hear
a similar
refrain from people
who George likes
to call
spiritual but not
religious.
There's usually
statements made like
nature is my church
or
I feel closest
to God
when I'm in nature.
And certainly
David sees
God's glory
in nature.
There are
lots of psalms
in the book
that describe
God's glory
in terms of
nature
and what he sees
surrounding him.
Psalm 19
is quite explicit.
The heavens declare
the glory of God
and the sky above
proclaims his handiwork.
There's an explicit
declaration
that God's glory
can be seen
in nature.
And certainly
there are aspects
of that thought
that God's glory
can be found
in nature
that are true
and good
but that's not
where David goes.
David recalls
a time
in the tabernacle
in the sanctuary
of the tabernacle
which is almost
the complete opposite
of looking for
God in nature.
Instead of looking
for God the huge
God the expansive
the God
who rolls out
the sky
David is looking
for the God
at the center
of Jewish
organized religion.
David's psalm
is directed
to a God
who he is seen
in a particular
place
in a particular
tent
at a particular
time
a tent made
by particular
people.
God
the God
that David
is looking for
is not just
creator God.
He's looking
for God
who doesn't
just work
on the greatest
of scales.
He's looking
for Jehovah
the God
who spoke
to Moses
directly
and David
has known
from his
childhood.
One of our
mistakes
when we find
ourselves
in the desert
is sometimes
to just go
looking for
this gigantic
God
for this God
who called
an entire
nation of Israel
out of Egypt
for the God
who creates
the intricacies
of our world.
We go looking
for his glory
in the biggest
things we can
find.
We can see
God's glory
in a wide
open sky
so that's
where we
look.
We can see
God's glory
in a piece
of finely
written music
and so that's
where we look.
We can see
God's grandeur
in the intricacy
of our world
so that's
where we look.
And you can
fill in the
blanks with
whatever you
find.
You can see
God's glory
in the creation.
But don't
get me wrong.
The mistake
isn't looking
for God's glory
in creation.
That's not
the mistake
at all.
The mistake
is looking
for God
in those
places
when we
should be
looking for
God
in the
place
that he
chose
to meet
us.
Our God
is not
just creator.
Our God
is not
just the
sustainer.
He's not
just holy
and he's
not just
awesome.
Our God
is also
a very
particular
God
who has
chosen
to show
himself
to his
creations.
He's not
just chosen
to be
visible
in his
glory
in creation
although he
is that.
He's chosen
to create
a relationship
between himself
and us.
So when our
God created
the universe
and he
rested,
some of the
first things
he did
was to
talk to
his
creations.
Right from
the start
our God
has shown
a desire
to be
more than
arm's length
with his
creation.
He has
always wanted
to speak
to individuals.
As much
as we see
the character
of God,
his faithfulness,
his mercy,
his sovereignty
played out
on the
grand scale
of God's
relationship
with Israel
as a whole,
we also
see all
of those
things
reflected
in individual
relationships
with God
like David's.
In this
case,
when David
is far
from home
and under
physical duress,
he's not
looking at
the bigness
of the desert
around him.
He's not
looking at
a God
who is even
greater than
that desert
and created
it in the
first place.
He's not
looking at
how huge
that makes
God.
David is
looking towards
the tabernacle.
He's looking
to the
relationship
with God
that is
represented by
it.
The glory
of the
tabernacle
is not
the glory
of the
massive
God
of the
desert.
It's the
glory
of a
God
in covenant
with his
people.
It's the
glory of a
God who
would stoop
to speak
to Abraham
and stoop
to speak
to Jacob
and Moses
and David
started all
when they
were all
weak and
worth very
little as
far as the
people around
them were
concerned when
God started
to speak.
Certainly none
of them were
worthy of
attracting the
attention of
almighty,
gigantic,
glory-filled
God, the
God who
created the
universe.
After David
looks to the
sanctuary, to
the place that
represents his
relationship with
God, he
names an
attribute to
praise God
for.
He names
a part of
God's
character that
is steadfast
love, loving
kindness as the
older versions
say.
The original
word that David
would have
written is
one that
oddly enough
comes up in
all the
commentaries.
Everybody
argues about
what it
means.
The reason
they do
that is
because as
it comes
up in the
Old Testament,
it has a
whole lot of
nuanced meanings
to it.
It gets
translated a
lot of
different ways,
sometimes as
kindness,
sometimes as
mercy, sometimes
as grace,
sometimes as
love.
In some
places, the
context seems
to indicate that
it's all of
those things
wrapped up in
one.
That's the
attribute that
David is
looking at.
The story goes
that at one
point there
was an
English
translator who
decided that
he didn't
want to
translate all
those words
differently.
He wanted to
choose one
word and so
he just said,
all right,
loving kindness,
that's the
word that I'm
going to
choose.
That is the
attribute that
David is
praising, all
those words.
That word
loving kindness
sometimes gets
used for God's
love towards
people.
Sometimes it's
used to
indicate his
favor towards
people.
Sometimes the
word is
emphasizing God's
commitment to
particular people.
Sometimes it's
indicating the
sort of promises
that he makes.
Sometimes it's
indicating the
kindness that
he shows in
action.
And you can
see that a
mix of all
those various
things just
doesn't occur in
English, right?
But nonetheless,
that's the
character that
David is
praising in
God.
God's steadfast
love, his
loving kindness,
is deeply rooted
in the relationship
that God has
created with
David and that
David has
fostered.
It's not ever a
word that would
be used by a
disinterested
party.
By its nature,
it is used by a
party that
God is so
interested.
And God is so
interested that
he would make
promises in his
covenants to
stubbornly love
Israel, to
stubbornly show
favor that doesn't
waver easily, and
to act on their
behalf through all
situations.
That's the
steadfast love of
God.
And it was the
steadfast love of
God that followed
Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob from their
journey from Babylon
all the way to
Egypt.
And even though in
Egypt, Israel
completely forgot about
God, it was that
loving kindness that
drew God to pull
them back out
again.
It was the loving
kindness of God that
brought him to be
merciful to Israel
throughout centuries of
rebellion.
Although they rebelled
over and over and
over again, it was the
loving kindness of God
that brought him to
mercy.
And as we were reading
through the book of
Revelation over the last
few months with
George, it was clear
that Israel still plays
a role in God's plan
right up until the end
of days.
That's the loving
kindness of God.
And those are the
promises that David is
appealing to, the
promises for love and
for mercy and for
kindness and for grace.
And those are the
promises that are
extended to us in the
exact same way.
Those are the promises
that are extended to us
through Jesus.
Those promises of
steadfast love the
same way that he has
steadfastly loved Israel
that he has showed
loving kindness are
extended to us.
That's part of the
good news.
That's part of the
gospel of Jesus.
And perhaps you might
feel like you're in a
desert and it doesn't
really matter how you
got there.
It doesn't matter if
you walked there
yourself or if you
were driven there by
adversity.
It doesn't matter how
you got to the dry
and thirsty land.
Because that same
loving kindness is
offered to us.
that same loving
kindness that drew
God to mercy time and
time again.
And the same loving
kindness that drew
God to favor over and
over and over again.
It doesn't matter
because it's the same
loving kindness that
David appeals to.
And you can look to
the sanctuary where
Jesus now stands as
our advocate and appeal
to that same steadfast
love of the Father.
So if that is you, it
doesn't matter how you
got there.
You can still appeal to
the loving kindness
of God.
Let's pray.
Father God, we thank
you that we can know
you and we can see
your mercy and we can
see your kindness and
your love.
And Father, we thank
you that your loving
kindness is beautiful
and fantastic and
brings you glory.
Father, we thank you
for all these things.
We thank you in Jesus'
name.
Amen.