Faithfully Responding to Suffering
Psalm 13
Faithfully Responding to Suffering
Psalm 13
Main Idea: We can respond faithfully in suffering through honest complaint, bold prayer, and choosing to trust.
Lament is how we bring our pain and sorrow to God. It is how we live between the reality of our hard life and our trust in God’s goodness.
Lament is a neglected dimension of the Christian life for many Christians today. We need to recover the practice of honest spiritual struggle that gives us permission to vocalize our pain and wrestle with our sorrow. Lament avoids trite answers and quick solutions, progressively moving us toward deeper worship and trust.”
- Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy
I. Honest Complaint (13:1-2)
We can honestly and transparently come to God with our pain. Our pain and suffering are real. We do not need to “suffer in silence” before God. God gives us permission to lament.
We bring our complaints to God, because we seek to move “upward and inward”, to move further towards Him. So, our complaint actually opens the door to the next part of lament, and that is prayer.
II. Bold Prayer (13:3-4)
We should not hesitate to ask God specific, bold requests in our suffering.
The various trials of life can become a platform to reaffirm our dependence upon the Lord. The requests of lament can become the place where we celebrate our need for God’s help. In this way, our requests become more than just expressions of need. These petitions are prayers of faith anchored in what we believe about God . . . . The point of those requests is not only to meet a need. The point is to rely upon God.
- Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy
Pray boldly and specifically. Don’t give up. We pray because we are not self-sufficient. By our prayers we show that we depend on God – He is worthy of that trust.
III. Choosing to Trust (13:5-6)
Rather than focus on his perceptions of God’s neglect – David chooses to trust in the reality of God’s salvation.
Our hope in suffering is not because we know when our suffering will end, or even if it will end in this life, but because we know and trust the character of God.
It is not “my faith” that is my strength and my salvation; it is my God. It is not the strength of my belief; it is the strength of the One in whom I believe.
Three things about God that David places his faith in:
1. David places his faith in God’s character
Hesed is translated by different versions as: faithfulness, lovingkindness, steadfast love, mercy, unfailing love, faithful love.
Exodus 34:6-7: “The LORD passed before him [Moses] and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”
2. David places his faith in God’s covenant promises
Exodus 6:5-8: Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’”
But, God is not interested in a market transaction, a contract whereby He will do something if only we will do something. Instead, God is interested in the relationship, the covenant that he has already established with us. And, our response to His covenant with us, in the midst of suffering, is not to look to our performance, but to trust in His grace.
3. David places his faith in God as the true and ultimate source of his salvation
Awesome Wonder in the Majestic God-Man
Psalm 8
Awesome Wonder in the Majestic God-Man
Psalm 8
Main Idea: Psalm 8 invites us to renew our wonder and joy in the majesty of Christ seen in His condescension for us through the old and new creation.
“Through the dark valleys of lament and pleas for deliverance of Psalm 3-7, we arrive at the crest of Psalm 8 to a welcome prospect of breathtaking beauty and awesome delight. Psalm 8 introduces us to the first experience of joyful praise and adoration in the Psalter. Here in Psalm 8 if just for a moment, darkness and suffering are driven away by the commanding vision of the sovereign God of the created universe and His unfathomable care for humanity.”
- Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms, Application Commentary
I. The Majesty of God Displayed in the Universe (8:1)
David uses the art of contrasting 4 times in Psalm 8. This is the first contrast. David contrasts God’s glory in the earth and His glory above the heavens (1 Kgs 8:27)
II. God’s Majesty Displayed in Using Weakness to Defeat Strength (8:2)
David contrasts the seeming power of His big enemies with the small, helpless and weakest humans on earth.
This verse has both a literal and a figurative meaning (Mt. 21:14-16; 1 Cor. 1:28-29)
Matthew 21:14-16: And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”
III. God’s Majesty Displayed in Using Weakness to Defeat Strength (8:2)
David contrasts the creation of the space with the creation of mankind and it causes him to feel with fresh forcefulness his smallness compared to the bigness of God.
IV. God’s Majesty Displayed in the Rule of the Second Adam (8:5-9)
The final contrast is seen in how God uses lowly men to rule his world instead of mighty angels.
The big picture here is God becoming man to fulfill Genesis 1:26-31 to bring all things under the subjection of man through Jesus. The apostles of the New Testament applied these verses to Jesus (Heb. 2:5-9; 1 Cor. 15:25-28).
Hebrews 2:5-9: For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
“It costs God nothing to create nice things: but to convert rebellious wills cost Him crucifixion”
- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
A Tale of Two Kingdoms
Psalm 2
A tale of two kingdom
Psalm 2
Main Idea: Jesus offers the raging enemies of this world refuge in Him and residency in His heavenly kingdom.
I. The Raging Rebels and the Laughing Lord (2:1-6)
The Posture of the Nations
The Position of the Lord
Acts 4:23-31: When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
II. Divine Decree and Refuge in the Son (2:7-12)
The Position of the Lord
Hebrews 1:1-5a: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you?”
Acts 13:33-34a: …this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, ”You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption…
2. The Posture of the Nations
There is no refuge from him, only in him.
~ Derik Kidner
Two Ways
Psalm 1
TWo Ways
Psalm 1
Main Idea: Blessing is found in Christ by walking in his way, delighting in his truth, and experiencing his life.
I. The Way of Blessedness (1:1-2)
As the introduction to the entirety of the Psalter, Ps. 1 is a “wisdom” song, inviting us into a life that is truly “blessed” or “flourishing” before God. The blessed person (1:1):
Walks not in the counsel of the wicked
Nor stands in the way of sinners
Nor sits in the seat of scoffers
“A seat is a place to deliberate, to make judgments, to render decisions… They sit in the company of know-it-alls. A place of cynicism, gossip, and superficial witticisms. They hold nothing in authority but their own cleverness. No judge sits over them; no counsel informs them. They are intoxicated with verbal wine and drunkenly survey the world, blearily reading into it their own confusion and malaise.”
~ Eugene Peterson, As Kingfishers Catch Fire
Instead, the blessed person delights in the law (‘torah’) of the Lord, and meditates upon it day and night. God’s Word is their “daily bread” and their guiding light at all times and in all circumstances (Ps. 119:11).
II. The Way of Rootedness (1:3-4)
The Psalmist gives two pictures of these contrasting ways of living:
1. A Deeply Rooted Tree (1:3)
Through delight and meditation on God’s Word, the blessed person has access to a deep reservoir of gospel nutrients. This leads to a life of stability, fruitfulness, endurance, and prosperity, even through seasons of “heat” or “drought.”
Jeremiah 17:5–8:
Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
“Blessed is the man who has such a promise as this. But we must not always estimate the fulfillment of a promise by our own eye-sight… For though we know our interest in the promise, yet are we so tried and troubled, that sight sees the very reverse of what that promise foretells. But to the eye of faith this word is sure, and by it we perceive that our works are prospered, even when everything seems to go against us. It is not outward prosperity which the Christian most desires and values; it is soul prosperity which he longs for... Our worst things are often our best things. As there is a curse wrapped up in the wicked man’s mercies, so there is a blessing concealed in the righteous man’s crosses, losses, and sorrows.”
~ Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David
2. Chaff
As the grain harvest was collected it would be brought to a “threshing floor,” where the grain would be separated from the chaff; the chaff (dried husks) would either be blown away by the wind or burned up. No matter what it may look like (cf. Ps. 37:35-36, 73:3), the unrighteous have no substance or root; they are “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph. 4:14).
III. The Way of Righteousness (1:5-6)
Because the wicked are life ‘chaff’ they will not withstand the judgment of God, nor join the congregation of the righteous. Their “way” will perish (cf. Prov. 14:12). However, the Lord “knows” (intimately) the “way” of the righteous, and he will lead us to life and life abundant (Jn. 10:10).
John 14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
“[Christ] himself is the only gate by which we can find admission, and the way to enter in through Jesus Christ is not by working, but by believing. Then, as to the strife we are urged to carry on, it is an earnest endeavor to steer clear of all the rocks, and shoals, and quicksands of popular fallacies and deceitful traditions, and to sail in the deep waters, with his covenant for our chart, and his Word for our compass, in simple obedience to his statutes, trusting him as our pilot, whose voice we always hear, though his face we cannot see.”
~ Charles Spurgeon, “The Strait Gate”