The Village Church
"How Long, O LORD, How Long?" - Psalm 13 - 2024/07/28 - Audio
Welcome to the Village Church, where our mission is to know Jesus, to enjoy Jesus. I really like that part, and to glorify Jesus. We want to welcome our first time guests. We have a QR code on the very front of your guide, so if you'd like to scan that, I can take you to our link tree that can give you a lot more information about our church, and you can fill out a guest form, and it allows us to connect with you, and for you to get to know us. So if you haven't done that, we would love for you to do that. Here's some of our announcements. If you open up your guide where it says "Life Together," there's a lot of different events that we're going to have this week to make note of. Today we welcome and to our pool pit Dr. Thurman Williams and his wife, and so we're so glad that you guys are here with us today, and that's a privilege. One reminder we have is our Women's Ministry, Summer Socials are in need of hosts sign-ups. So if you'd like to host a favorite spot, like if you just really like a certain restaurant or you like to go putt putt or something like that, you can go on there and you can sign up and say, "Hey, look, my schedule looks like Thursday would be good," and just invite some friends to come with you with the sign-up. That would be great, and we can get to know each other a little bit better. And so one other thing about that is you can contact Alia for questions. There's a flock note to see all the links and all that stuff about that. One last announcement is, and his school is starting very soon just around the corner, and so sometimes putting meals on the table when you're getting back into that routine is a little bit hard. So our Uganda mission team has this next week. We're going to make a bunch of freezer meals. We're making the Pioneer Woman chicken spaghetti, and we're going to freeze them and have them here, and so we're going to sell them and bring money for our mission trip coming up. And so I sent a flock note out last night to the women, but hopefully we'll get it to everybody else too, just for you to be able to sign up for that meal if you want to. We'll have them at the church on August 11th for you to pick up and bring home with you, and you can either stick them in your freezer for later, or you can stick them in your oven right from the church for lunch that afternoon, but anyway, it would be a good way to support our Uganda mission trip team that's coming forward. Well, these are our announcements. We also want you to know that at the Village Church, we believe giving ties and offerings is a form of worship, so there are some different ways that you can give at our church. One is through online, you can do that, or you can mail a check to our address, and that address is on your worship guide. Or there's a little box in the back of the sanctuary that you can just listen in if you like to do that. So we're glad that you're here again. We're glad to enjoy and worship and glorify Jesus together today, and I'm excited to be in the house of the Lord, amen. [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] Hello church, how are you guys today? Good morning, we're going to be doing our call to worship. I'll speak, and then you guys can repeat after me. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. [silence] Who is like you, O Lord, among the guys? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? [silence] [silence] Lord, bless the reading of this word, amen. [silence] Good morning, family. Can we all stand to our feet this morning and give God some praise in this place? This song just says, "Great, all you Lord." And I believe that he's a great God, so let's just sing our praises here this morning. [music] You give light, you are love, you bring light to the darkness. You give hope, you restore every heart that is broken. The great are you, Lord. Oh. The great are you, Lord. Let's try that again for the top, family. You give light, you are love, you bring light to the darkness. You give hope, you restore every heart that is broken. The great are you, Lord. Oh. The great are you, Lord. The great are you, Lord. Let's try that again for the top, family. The great are you, Lord. Let's try that again for the top, family. You give light, you are love, you bring light to the darkness. You give hope, you restore every heart that is broken. The great are you, Lord. Oh. The great are you, Lord. Let's sing our songs together. It's your bread and our love, so we pour out our praise. So we pour out our praise, it's your bread and our love, so we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise, it's your bread and our love, so we pour out our praise. Let's try that again for just one more time, it's your bread, sing it out, and our love, so we pour out our praise. So we pour out our praise, it's your bread and our love, so we pour out our praise, it's your only. So church, there's a Bible process that says never would I let a rock cloud in my praise. So for this next section for this bridge, I wanted to sing this part out. Let all the earth, let us shout out to God our praise at this point. Hallelujah. Oh, the earth, with all the earth, will shout your praise, our hearts will cry. These bones will stay. Pray on you, Lord. Oh, you stop the church, you know, with all the earth, will shout your praise, our hearts will cry. These bones will stay. Pray on you, Lord. Oh, the earth, will shout your praise, our hearts will cry. These bones will stay. Pray on you, Lord. Oh, it's all over time, church, all the earth, all the earth, will shout your praise, our hearts will cry. These bones will stay. Pray on you, Lord. I'll be able to church, it's your bread and our love, so we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise, it's your bread, and our love, so we pour out our praise. We pour, it's your bread, and our love, so we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise, it's your bread, and our love, so we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise, it's your bread, and our love, so we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise, it's your bread, and our love, so we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise, it's your bread, and our love, so we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise, it's your bread, and our love, so we pour out our praise to you, only. Oh, we thank you, Jesus, great are you, Lord. For everything you've done, great are your Lord, Church. Great are you, Lord. Just think of everything you've done for you and your life, and lift your voices in great are you, Lord. That is time, Church. Great are you, Lord. We put our hands together for Jesus. He's the great King. He's the great Lord. He's majesty and honor. It's worthy to be praised. Hallelujah. This next song, this is in the anthem, and this is Hallelujah. Hallelujah is the highest praise, Church. Hallelujah to your name, God, because you've won the victory. Despite what we do sometimes, despite what we follow away, his victory, his greatness, his glory is consistent. It never ends. Hallelujah to your name, Jesus. Hallelujah, you have won the victory. Hallelujah. You have won it all for me, and death could not hold you down, because you are the risen King. You were seated in majesty. You are the risen King. You are the risen King. You have won the victory. We thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. You have won it all for me, and death could not hold you down, because you are the risen King. You are seated in majesty. You are the risen King. You have won it all for me, and death could not hold you down. You are the risen King. You have won it all for me, and death could not hold you down. You are the risen King. You are the risen King. You are seated in majesty. You are the risen King. ♪ Our God, our God is risen ♪ ♪ He is the light ♪ ♪ He's won the victory ♪ ♪ He reigns on high ♪ Stick it out. ♪ Our God is risen ♪ ♪ He is the light ♪ He conquered them church ♪ ♪ He won the victory ♪ ♪ He reigns on high ♪ ♪ Our God is risen ♪ ♪ He is the light ♪ ♪ He's won the victory ♪ ♪ He reigns on high ♪ ♪ Our God is risen ♪ ♪ He is won the light ♪ ♪ He won the victory ♪ ♪ He reigns on high ♪ ♪ He won the victory ♪ ♪ Our God is risen ♪ ♪ He will have won the victory ♪ ♪ He will have won the victory ♪ ♪ He will have won the victory ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He is risen ♪ ♪ One time to yourself and I won't you ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before you ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ ♪ He will have won it all before me ♪ - How many of you guys have something to praise God for, raise your hand? All right, I was watching Ben Carson one day and he went to this thing about what it actually takes for us to just raise our hand. It's like a hundred different things. When I bring the signal to different parts of our body and a hundred different things at least have to happen before we are able to raise our hand. That just shows some of the things that we just take for granted. We have so much to praise God for. The fact that we opened our eyes this morning. The fact that our legs work so we can actually get here. The fact that every component in our body had to function in the right way and order for us to be here today. So we truly have some things to praise God for. And it's not just us, it's with our families and all sorts of other things that God continues to sustain for us to operate on a daily basis. So we have so much that we can actually praise God for. So I'm going to go ahead and pray and we can spend a few minutes, a few, a couple of seconds just praying and silence about the things that God has done for us. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you for waking us up this morning. We know that everybody that went to sleep last night didn't wake up this morning. So we praise you and we thank you for doing that. Thank you for continuing to sustain us throughout the years and throughout the decades and the time that we have had on this program. Thank you for continuing to provide for us and making sure that we had all the things that we need in order to carry out your work. Thank you Lord for just all the things that we specifically take for granted. The fact that our bodies work and continue to work on a daily basis without us consciously thinking about them or making them happen on our own. Thank you for the peaceful and sleek nights that we actually have to sleep to rejuvenate our bodies so we can function throughout the day. Thank you for the jobs and the transportation that we have and just all the support that we have to in order to continue to advance your kingdom. We just want to praise you and thank you for all that you do and do your name, amen. Now for our confession of sin but the Lord said to Moses, whomever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. Now church, that is a scary thing. How many of us have sinned against God? All of us but the beauty of it is is that when God looks at us he doesn't see our sins, he sees his son. So therefore we are not blotted out. So we're going to have some quiet meditation and just think about and be thankful how the Lord has covered our sins. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) And for our assurance of pardon, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving, forgiving iniquities and transgressions and sins. Dear Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you for the reading of this word, amen. (gentle music) So the song of reflection, it might be new to us this morning but it's Psalms 23, take me from Psalms 23 and this is I am not alone. So it's very easy song, it's very intentional about the words, come straight from scripture but this song just talks about how we are not alone because the Lord is our Shepherd. We lack nothing, never alone, church family. So if you know it, sing it along with me, if you don't know it, let's learn it together but Psalms 23, I am not alone. (gentle music) ♪ The Lord is my Shepherd ♪ ♪ He goes before me ♪ ♪ He's vendor behind me ♪ ♪ I won't fear ♪ ♪ I'm filled with anointing ♪ ♪ My cups overflowing ♪ ♪ No weapon can harm me ♪ ♪ I won't fear ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ I am not alone ♪ ♪ He says he's my comfort ♪ ♪ He's my comfort ♪ always holds me close. That's the most powerful church. Let's start with the topic in the Lord's My Shepherd. The Lord is My Shepherd. He goes before me. He goes before me. He's heather behind me. He's heather behind me. I won't be against this, but I won't see. Don't look for joining, I'm filled with the noise. I'm so good, I'm so bad, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And know what the good ones know what they've been, and the world I need. I won't be, I won't be. I'll just get out the kind of highest praise I'll know you. I'll let them move you, I'll let them go. Oh, and please, my, please, my country always holds me loose. He always got me, he always got extreme. He always accepts you, church, and everything, through bouts and badly. His joy is refreshing, his joy is refreshing. He always gets the voice, the voice, the voice, the voice. First of the present, first of the end, good news. Here's to me as long as I can see, and I'll see his glory, and I'll see his glory. Please, my, please, my country always holds me loose. He's the highest praise, he's my country. He is my country always holds me loose. 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And then he gives us places like the Psalms. Poetry. Songs. Right? Art. He gives it to us to communicate about who he is. And what the Psalms do, one of the things they do, you know what? They show us when we should pray. When should we pray? All the time, how about when we say it? Should we pray then? How about when we're joyful? Should we pray then? How about when we're depressed? Should we pray then? How about when we're anxious? Should we pray then? Any time, right? You can think of we should pray and so the Psalms show us that. But then also they give us language. Does anybody ever feel like, you know what? I want to pray, but I can't even get the words out of my mouth. I don't even know what to say. Sometimes you're going through stuff and you can't even get the words out. And the Psalms show us. They give us words to be able to say. This Psalm, Psalm 13, is one that they call a lament. Right? And I've heard a definition of that and I'll get into this a little bit. But one definition is it is a prayer in pain. Anybody in pain this morning? Anybody watching at home in pain? It's a prayer in pain that ultimately will lead to trust. And the Bible is full of laments in these Psalms. Maybe a third of them are Psalms of lament. And that's good news. God knows we need that. We need words to say and He gives that to us. And He gives us to us in this Psalm. And the theme I'm just taking right from the first line of the Psalm. The theme of the message is how long, Lord? How long? How long, Lord? How long? You're now the reading of God's Word as we begin. How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy prevail be exalted over me? Consider and answer me. Oh Lord, my God. Light up my eyes. I sleep the sleep of death. Let my enemy say I have prevailed over him. Let my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me. This is God's Word. Let's go to God together in prayer. Father, we thank You for Your Word. Your Word testifies about itself that it's God's Word and that it's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training and righteousness. Thank You, Lord, that every part of Your Word is God's Word and useful for these things, including the Psalms. We're so grateful for that. Lord, many of us might be coming today saying in our hearts how long, Lord? How long? And if we're not saying that today, we might be tomorrow. Certainly we were in the past. We might be in the future. And so we come and we ask You to teach us through Your Word in this time. Holy Spirit, we thank You for Your presence in this place already and we pray that You would continue to have Your way among us. Open our eyes, open our hearts to receive what You have for us. And not only that, we pray that You will fill us with Yourself, fill us with life, fill us with power so that we might be able to live in light of what You call us to. We ask all these things for the glory of God. We ask Him in Jesus' name and all God's people said, Amen. I'm sorry. I didn't know I was supposed to have you stand. Amen. That's awesome, though. All right, y'all know, y'all got it. That's great. But that shows great honor and respect for God's Word. I was at a conference last year in the spring of 23, and I heard this speaker. I'd never heard him in person before, Chris Brooks, who's a pastor in Detroit. And man, he was good. He was amazing, an amazing speaker. But one of the sessions that he had with us, he really shared some vulnerable things. And he spoke about this Psalm, Psalm 13, and how much that Psalm had meant to him through all that he was going through, and he was still in it. And he began to share with us just the depth of the pain that comes from being a parent who's lost their child. His child, one of his sons was in his early 20s and died, and he was just continuing to work through the pain of that. And that idea, that hit us hard in our community in the West and in St. Louis, because also in 2023, we're a church plan. We're only five years old. But in our congregation last year, there were three families where parents had to bury their children. Amazing, amazing pain and suffering and loss in that. And even as I'm scrolling through my Facebook this week, and I see, and whenever I see a post where it says, say their name. And it says, Sonia Massey, and I hadn't heard what happened, but I know what that means. That means that somebody has lost their life, probably in an unjust and tragic way. And I wondered what her parents might be feeling like they all might be saying, how long, Lord, how long, how long. Well, as Pastor Brooks was sharing with us, he let us know about this book, written by another pastor who was struggling, named Mark Brogop, who's a pastor in Indianapolis, and the book is called Dark Cloud's Deep Mercy. And it's just the subtitle is discovering the grace of lament, writing talks about the idea, maybe in our country, right? We maybe have lost a little bit of that sense of how important it is to be able to lament. Remember what I said, a definition I got from him. It's a prayer and pain that leads to trust. But why is that so important? But what happens, y'all, if we don't learn how to lament? What happens? We might just have a surface level fate that's not able to stand up when hard things come in our lives if we don't know how to lament. Or we might develop a faith that is just unfeeling, that we just shut ourselves off because we don't want to hurt anymore, it becomes stoic and fatalistic. Or maybe we know people like this, maybe we've been like this, we just walk away altogether. And so we need to be able to understand the grace of lament and what's found here in this passage. And we see all of these different things in the book. He talks about four elements or components of lament, and I'll share them with you. It starts with turning to God. Second is bringing the complaint, whatever it is, whatever is going on in your heart, the second part is bringing that complaint to God. The third is boldly asking for help, boldly asking God, help. And then the last part is choosing to trust. And I'll say those again as we go through, but that's kind of the process. And you find all of them right here in this one Psalm, it's only six verses, Psalm 13. And so we just want to look at that today to find three things to help us. And so we will find three things to help us in our moments to be able to say how long, O Lord, how long. The first thing we look at here is the psalmist pain. The psalmist pain. And can't you feel it just in his verses? I don't know. Did you hear that over and over again? How long? How long? How long? How long? Just in those first two verses, it says it four times. And have you ever been there? You can feel the pain that the psalmist is coming with. And I wonder again as we come today, what is it that's causing you to say how long, Lord? How long? How long? How long? What does he do with the how longs first? The first two, they're addressed right to God and then look at his verse one. How long, O Lord? And then listen to what he says, will you forget me forever? And that second line, he says, O Lord, how long will you hide your face from me? Has anybody ever been ghosted before? You've been ghosted. Right? That's hard, isn't it? That hurts, right? It's different. It's difficult. It hurts. Especially, well, I guess if it's people you don't really know, you might not even know that they're ghosting you. But if it's somebody close to you, somebody that you have a relationship with and they ghost you, doesn't that hurt? Well, what the Psalmist is saying here is I feel ghosted by God. Have you ever felt like that? Like God has forgotten you? Like look at the language, listen to the language, how long will you hide your face from me? Like that's saying that he's doing it on purpose. Right? It's not just God just is like something kind of nutty professor. Oh my goodness, I forgot all about them. That's not what he's saying. You're deliberately God turning away from me and not listening to me, not hearing my cries. You're on purpose forgetting about me and hiding your face from me. And he's saying that right to God. Now maybe you're here and you're like, man, I'm a little uncomfortable with that language. How can he say that to God? This is the king. He's a man after God's own heart. How can he say that? Let me know about the Bible way. It says, I will never leave you no forsake you. Or I'm going to be with you always, even to the very end of the age. Or when the prophet writes about I've got you engraved on the palms of my hand. Don't you know what the Bible says? Yes, he knows what the Bible says. But he's not feeling it in that moment. Have you ever been there? You know the right answer. Right? You know the truth. You know your theology. You know about the omnipresence and the omniscience and what is it? The omnipotence of God. You know about all those big words. But when you're in that place where you feel like God doesn't see you. God doesn't see him. God's not there. What do you do then? What he shows us is that we can bring it to God. He might say, well he's just losing his faith. Actually, maybe it's really an expression of faith. That he feels so secure in his relationship with God. That he can just bring that to him. And that's what he does. So he brings this to God. But the second how long it's addressed to God. But he begins to talk about himself. And I wonder if you've ever been in this place. Where he says, how long in verse two must I take counsel in my soul? He said, God, you ain't listening to me. So I must start talking to myself. Anybody ever been there? Right? And usually doesn't turn out too good when you become your own counselor. But that's what he feels like he has to do. And then listen to how he expresses and have sorrow in my heart all the day. Have you ever felt like that? You wake up with sorrow in your heart. You go to bed with sorrow in your heart and you got it all those moments in between. You feel like you can't do anything, man. That's what he's talking about right here. He's talking about feeling depressed. But he brings that to God. And then he starts to talk about his enemies. There, how long at the end of verse two shall my enemy be exalted over me? Now, what enemy is David talking about? I don't know because he had a lot of it. It could be, it could be several different things. Right? It could be somebody coming at him from the outside like the Philistines. They're always after him. Right? It could be that from the outside. It also could be from the inside. But remember soul. The person, the king that he's assigned to you. The king that he's going to succeed. Who's trying to take his own life, his father in law. Or it could be his son. Who's trying to take his life and he's running for me. It could be any of those things. And we experienced all of those right from attack from the outside. Could be attacked from the inside. And what does he do with that pain, y'all? Where does he take it? He takes it to the Lord. This is the psalmist pain. And so what is that saying to us? What is that saying to us in our pain today? What is that saying to us in the pain that maybe we don't feel right now? But you might be feeling next week or next year. Where do you take that pain? You can take it right to God. Whether you're struggling with your relationship with him or whether you're struggling with your relationship with yourself. Or with enemies from the outside or the inside. You can bring those things to God. And he's got those first two elements of lament there, the turning to God and the bringing of the complaint. He's bringing that pain to God. And I say that to you to say that whatever it is today, you can bring that to him. Please, that's the place to bring it. And he gives us language to be able to do that. Bring your pain. You're a psalmist too. Bring your pain to God. Well, not only do we see the psalmist pain, but secondly, we see the psalmist's plea. And this is that component of lament that I was calling asking boldly for help. And that's where he turns in verse three. And as wild as you're studying that, because the please actually match up with the pain that he was talking about before. You remember back in verse one, he said, God, you've forgotten me. God, you're hiding yourself for me. But here in verse three, he starts out with consider. And that word it literally means in the original language, it means see me. See me, God. Before he said, God, you've forgotten about me. You're hiding from me. Now he says, God, see me. I need you to see me here. And remember before he said, God, you forgot me. But here he's saying, answer me, God. Don't hide from me anymore. I need you to answer. You see, he's boldly coming to God. God, see me. God, I need to hear from him. And that's showing us that we can too, that we can come. You remember earlier, he was talking about taking counsel in his soul. But here in verse three, he says, light up my eyes. Lest I sleep the sleep of death. What a powerful image. Do you know when you look in somebody's eyes, doesn't that communicate a lot? Right? You can tell if they're joyful by their eyes, right? You can tell when somebody said to can't you. It's just looking at their eyes. You can tell when they're tired. You can tell when they're zoned out, right? When they're not even there. Just looking in their eyes. They ain't got to say nothing. But he's saying, what I've got in my eyes right now is death. Lord. And I need you to show up. I need you to come. I need you now. He's saying. And then you remember at the end there, he was talking about his enemies feeling like they're exalted over him. When we get to verse four. He says, let's my enemy say, I have prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice because I'm shaken. He doesn't want the enemies to have the last word. He doesn't want the opponents of God to be able to say, yeah, look at what we did. We beat not just David, but David's God. And so he brings that to God. He says, I don't want them to be able to say, I have prevailed over him. I don't want them to be able to rejoice because I'm shaken. And so he brings these pleas to God. God see me. God answer me. God light up my eyes, Lord. God hear what they're saying about me and come and answer and come and deliver. He brings that plea to God. This is his plea. And so what's your plea today? And so I invite you, whatever that is, bring it to God again. Right? That's the application. Come to God. And there's some great examples of that in scripture, right? One of my favorites is in 2 Corinthians, when they're possible, right? This great stalwart of the faith is struggling. And he's got what they call what he calls a thorn in the flesh. Anybody know what the thorn in flesh is that he's talking about? Nobody knows what it is. Come on, you got one. Oh, all right, there you go. There you side. Lord have mercy. A sciatic nerve. Maybe that's what Paul had, but he doesn't tell us. It could be that. It could have been a sciatic nerve. It could have been some physical ailment. It also could have been spiritual attack. Or it could have been a tax from his opponents, but he doesn't say. And that's probably a good thing because it could have been any of those things. And don't we go through all of them? You're going through them right now. Don't we go through all of that? Well, what did Paul do with that thorn in the flesh? He pleaded with God. See there in verse eight. Three times, he says, and that's talking about three sustained, intense times of prayer. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me. But you know what's wild? How come it's just three times? What that's implying is at some point, he stopped pleading that. What's implied is he got an answer from God about that. And you know what the answer was he got from God? No, the answer was no, Paul. I'm not going to take it away because I've got something that you need more than a change in circumstances. And in verse nine right there, he says, but he said to me, my what? My grace is sufficient. That means it's enough. That's what you need. What you need is not for me to take away your sciatic nerve pain necessarily. It might be. I can't say that for you, DiMarco, but I'm not going there, but Paul can say what God said to him is my grace. It's sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. He's saying that the power of God is seen most not in his giftedness, but in his weakness. And the same thing is true for us. And I bring that up just to see what Paul does. On the one hand, he's coming boldly to God. God, come on, man, come on, answer this. And then God says, no. And he's like, all right, cool, I got you. I trust you because I know you love me and you're wiser than me and more righteous than me. And I don't understand what you're doing, but I know that you got me. And so I can trust you with that. Jesus himself models this better than anybody else. Do you remember him pleading with God in the garden? Father, if there's any other way, he also prayed three times, didn't he? And he also was told, no, wasn't he? But what did he say? Yet not my will, but let your will be done. Do you see that? This is what I would call a bold humility that they come with. They recognize that God is God. But they also recognize that he's my daddy and that I'm going to come and I'm going to ask him. You know, I don't know about your kids, but we had one of our kids was deathly afraid of bugs. And I can remember at night, sometimes I'm sorry, I don't want to make it about uncomfortable, but I'll tell you. Sometimes she would come knocking on our door. One, two, three in the morning. Daddy, dad, there's a bug on my wall. And I wake up and I hear and I got sleep in my eyes and just groggy and irritable anybody else irritable when they get woken up. That's me. And so I get up and stumble down the hall into the room and kill the bug and go back to the room because I love my daughter. And so even though I'm irritable and cranky and all that stuff, I still get up and go kill the bug because it was for my daughter. Well, listen, if I will get up, if me a cranky dad, sleepy and don't feel like getting up will still get up and stumble down the hall and kill that bug for my time. Won't your God get up when you call on to calm and answer you when you plead with him? He's not a cranky old God would sleep in his eyes because he doesn't sleep or slumber, but he will come and calm and kill that bug or whatever it is that you need. At one, two, three, four o'clock in the morning, whatever time it is, you can bring that plea to him. Do you believe that today? You can bring that to God. Do you believe this right there? Amen. Look at God. So that's the psalmist pain and that's the psalmist plea. And I say that to say you can bring your plea to God. And then lastly, we want to end looking at the psalmist's praise. We want to look at the psalmist's praise. And here we see that final component of a lament, right? We said a lament. It has a turning to God and it has a bringing that complaint to God and it has a boldly asking for help. And the last part is choosing to trust. It's choosing to trust. Did anybody else notice in verse five, it took a turn in it from where he was in the first four verses, but it says, but I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he's dealt down and flee with me. Where did that come from? He's all upset at the beginning, right? He's saying, God, where you at? You're not answering me. You're hiding from me. God, my enemies, they're going to gloat over me. I don't want to sleep the sleep of death. God help me. But I have trusted in your steadfast love. What's going on with him? I was reading some commentaries and they don't know exactly what's going on with David. There was at least three different options that I saw as I was reading. One, they said, maybe when David prayed, one of the prophets of the priest came and told him. He said, listen, God has heard your word. He's going to answer your prayer. David said, amen. I'm going to bless God right now. Or maybe David is writing verses five and six after God has answered the prayer, so verses one and four. Maybe that's what it is. Or maybe he hadn't answered it yet, but he just knows how God is and that he's a good God. And his steadfast love endures forever. And so even if he doesn't see it right now, he knows that God is working. And so even though he's in pain right now, even though he's in silence right now, even though he's hurting right now, he knows God is good. I don't know when he's going to show up. I don't know how he's going to do it. Oh, but I know he's good. Won't he show up when you need him? Maybe that's what it is. I don't know exactly. But he knows who's God is good. And this is instructive. This is where he chooses to trust. What is he choosing to trust in y'all? Is he trusting in his own ability to endure? Is he trusting in somebody else is going to come along to help him? What is he trusting in? I have trusted in God, but what did it say there in first five in your steadfast love? And that's word. Do we have any Hebrew scholars in here? Good, because I'm going to pronounce the word wrong and there we go. It's called I call it Hesse. It's talking about God's loyal covenant love. That's the same word, right? We heard it in our words of assurance, right? That Pastor Lou Rick, or you Pastor Lou, or maybe I'm speaking something. I don't know, and it exists. But from Exodus 34, which says the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Right? We sang the song in Psalm 23. Do you remember how it ends? Surely goodness and mercy, that word that's translated mercy is the same word. It's goodness in your steadfast love. Shall follow me all the days of my life. We're going to sing great is not faithfulness after this is over. Do you know where that comes from? Lamentations 3, which says because of his great love, we are not consumed because his mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. It's that same word that's in there when it's talking about his mercies that are new every morning. It's the steadfast love of God. One of my favorite preachers, he says what it means is God won't change his mind about you. Even though you might change your mind about him. He's got a hold of you. We live in St. Louis now, but when we lived in Baltimore, we lived in a row homes of y'all seen those before the row home. So the way a row home is is you've got your front door, right? And you've got your front steps, your suit. And then you've got the sidewalk and the street. You ain't got no front yard, right? It knows. It's the sidewalk and then it's the street where cars are going up and down the street. And so it's very important if you've got young children, right? You've got to cross the street with them. You've got to teach them how to cross the street properly, right? And so when they're little, you grab them, right? They'll cross the street with them, but you don't just hold their hand like this. You grab them and hold their whole arm like this, and they hold you. And why do you do that? Because even when they might let go of you, you're still holding on to them. That's steadfast love. That's what God has with you, even when you're letting go of him in your pain with your please. God is still holding on to you. And David says, that's what I can trust in, in your steadfast love. And David says here that my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. Do you remember what he said earlier? He said, I got sorrow in my heart all the day. But now he said, my heart is going to rejoice in your salvation. And verse 6, he says, I'm going to sing to the Lord. I've been complaining to the Lord. I've been calling out to the Lord. But guess what? I'm going to sing to him later on. Why? What does he say at the very end? Because he has dealt bountifully with me. Do you know what they call that sometimes? They call it a prophetic perfect. What that means is he's talking about something in the future as if it's already happened in the past. Isn't that why? He's saying for he has dealt bountifully with me. He hadn't done it yet. But he said, it's already done. See, that's a prophetic perfect. That means if God said it, it's already done. It might happen right now. It might happen in the future. But it's going to happen because God said it. And he said, I'm going to go ahead and start the praise party right now. I ain't even got to wait for him to change it. Because I know that he's going to. And he can talk about something God is going to do in the future in past him. Because God is that good. And literally, when it says he's dealt bountifully with me, literally it says, God has been good to me. I wonder if anybody knows that song where she says, all my life, you have been faithful. All my life, maybe somebody can testify about that. All my life, you have been good. And so as a result, with every breath that I'm able, I'm going to praise the goodness of God. Oh, is there anybody that can praise the goodness of God today? Oh, is there anybody? Maybe you're in your pain. Maybe you're feeling ghosted by God. But is there anybody here that can praise the goodness of God? Because all your life, he's been faithful to you. When you weren't faithful to yourself, when you were ready to give up on him, God still had a hold of you. Can anybody testify about the goodness of God today? And this is not a false praise, right? This is not David working himself up, right? Getting himself psyched, right? It's college football season. And so he's pumping himself up. Now, what he's done is he's gone through a lament. Remember how you start, you're turning to God, and you're bringing that complaint, and you're boldly asking for help. And then you're choosing to trust. That's what he's done. And so because of that, he can praise God. How about you? Can you praise him today? Can you praise him for what he's done? Can you praise him for what he's about to do? You can bring not only your pain and not only your plea, but you can bring him your praise. But maybe you're here and you say, well, that's great for David, pastor. But I ain't know David. David got through his pain, but how am I going to get through your mind? Well, the wild thing, you know what the wild thing is, is we actually know more sitting here than David knew at the time in that while. And you say, well, what do we know more about? What we know more about is we know the greater David. We know Jesus Christ. We know the one to whom this psalm and all the psalms and all the scriptures and all of history points to our Lord Jesus Christ. And we can even see how this psalm can apply to him, right? He also, the greater David also knew what it felt like, didn't need to be forgotten by God and to feel like God was hiding his face from him. The greater David knew what it felt like to have sorrow fill his heart, didn't he? Because he's a man of sorrows who's familiar with suffering. The greater David knew what it was like to feel that his enemies were exalted over him. The greater David, even though he's the light of the world knew what it was like to sleep the sleep of death. And he did that for us for our sins, not for his because he didn't have any, but he did that for ours. And thanks be to God that the greater David didn't stay with the sleep of death. He got up. He woke up on the third day and rose with all power in his hand and he prevailed. Overall, he is an all over our greatest enemies over sin and Satan and even death itself. He is the ultimate expression of the steadfast love of God. When Paul writes in Romans 8 when he's talking about there's nothing that could separate me from the love of God, he said if God is for us, who can be against us? What's the evidence that he points to? He says he who didn't spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Do you know him today? You can and have your sins forgiven so you can have a salvation to rejoice in. Through faith in Jesus Christ. And if you've got that today, then you can rejoice in your salvation no matter the pain that you're going through. He can also sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully. He has been good to us. And because of that, you can cry out today, how long, Lord, with whatever you're going through, how long, Lord, how long, bring them all your pain. Bring them all of your peace. And won't you bring them all of your praise? Let's pray. So we thank you for that you're good, and that your mercy endures forever. We thank you that your faithfulness is great. And because of that, Lord, we can come to you with whatever pain that we have, with whatever plea that we might bring, we can come and bring it to you. And we thank you that you are worthy of all the praise. So Lord, I don't know what each person is going through in this room, but you do. And so I pray that you administer to them. Even now, Holy Spirit, let them feel your presence, showering them and filling them and healing them and moving in their lives, convicting if need be comforting whatever they need. And Holy Spirit, if there's anybody here that doesn't know you, anybody listening or watching online doesn't know you yet. I pray even right now, they might call out to be saved through faith in Jesus Christ, the one who has lived and died and been raised against so that we might have life, that we might be forgiven and restored and changed and made righteous. So Lord, continue to help us to do that. We cry out to you how long, Lord, how long? We ask this in Jesus name and all God's people said, Amen. So I'm great as life, faithfulness. Great as life, faithfulness. Oh God, my Father, there is no shadow of turning within. Now change is not like the wrong pleasures they will not, as thou hast been, thou more in ever with thee altogether. Great as life, faithfulness. Great as life, faithfulness. I pray that life, faithfulness, morning, by morning, over season I speak. All I have been in thy hands, I pray that it. Great as life, faithfulness. Lord, our true peace and mercy, summer and winter and springtime and darkness. So my moment, stars and friends, who are still alive. So I'm with all nature and heaven for good and best. So I pray that life, faithfulness, mercy, ever once in a church, will pray with my people as. Great as life, faithfulness. Morning, by morning, over season I speak. All I have been in thy hands, I pray that life, faithfulness. Lord, our true peace and mercy. Great as life, faithfulness. Great as life, faithfulness. Morning, by morning, over season I speak. All I have been in thy hands, I pray that life, faithfulness. Great as life, faithfulness. And now receive the benediction. And now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy. So the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and dominion both now and forevermore. Amen. Go in his peace. [inaudible]
Welcome to The Village Church, where broken people come together to embrace and extend Christ's love.