St Michaels Church Podcast
Reminders From The Psalms | Liz Parker | 30.06.24
Good morning, today we'll read from Psalms 103 verse 1-14, "Praise the Lord my soul, all my enmose being, praise His holy name, praise the Lord my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse nor will he harbor his anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay as according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, for he knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust. This is the word of the Lord. All right, good morning St. Michael's. It's lovely to be here. My name is Liz and it's an absolute honour to stand here and share the word of the Lord with you today. This is a pulpit where I have heard many a sermon and it's built me up and encouraged me and I'm so grateful for what has been faithfully preached here from this pulpit and it's really built me up. So it's an honour to be able to come today and share the words of the Lord with you. So before I start, let's pray together. Lord God, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the gift of your Bible that we have it freely available and I thank you for your Holy Spirit that speaks through it and I just pray that you would encourage our hearts today and help us to hear from you as you direct. In Jesus name, amen. All right, so we've just heard from Psalm 103 and I'm just going to share with you a little bit this morning how the Psalms have reminded me of two things. Who God is and what God does for us and it's just a bit of a testimony so I hope it can encourage you this morning but before I go any further on the next slide I have a question for you. So what is your favourite book? So I'd like you just to have a chat with your neighbour just a few seconds we're just going to say what book have you read that has really engaged you or encouraged you or challenged you? So please have a chat with someone around and just for the next few seconds tell them a book that has really been something you've enjoyed. All right, any takers? Anyone want to share a favourite book? Anyone sitting here this morning? Who's got a favourite book they could tell us? Yeah? Jane Eyre? Oh yeah, very good. That's very scary and engaging. Any others? Jane Eyre? Good classic? Say? The satsuma complex, not one I am familiar with. Why do you like it? Very funny. Okay, so it gets you laughing. Good job. All right, so I've got a favourite book which I'm going to share with you this morning and if we can go to the next slide. My favourite book of course is the Bible but within the Bible I have a favourite book within all of these books. I can't remember how many books in the Bible but it's a lot and the Psalms is the one that really speaks out to me. Now I am a primary school teacher by profession but I find that as I get older my memory of what I need to do, who I need to speak to, is often failing me and I've developed quite a dependence on little post-it notes which is what I've got a picture of there on the screen. I love post-it notes. I have them on my computer, I have them next to my computer, I have them on my fridge, on my kitchen counter. It's something that helps me remember what I need to do, who I need to speak to and it's the same spiritually speaking. I find that the Psalms is like a giant memo, a giant post-it book for me. It reminds me who God is and what He's done for us. So I'm just going to unpack that a little bit this morning, just the things that I've learnt recently through rereading the Psalms. I started reading them again back in November, I finished them recently and I just find them such an engaging way of reminding myself what God has done and who He is and this morning straight away we had two of those truths come out to us in Psalm 103. It says, "Who is the Lord? The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding enough and that God also asks us to do something. He says, "Forget not His benefits" and that's what I'd like to just look at a little bit this morning. So the first reminder from the Psalms that really speaks of the the cusp of my faith is that God is gracious. So I've taken a picture there of a cross that was put up in Kampala during COVID in a very strong lockdown in Kampala. When we were there somebody put this cross up on the top of the hill who wouldn't cross with holes bored through and people could come and put flowers. So I put that picture up there just to kind of sum up what I would like to say about the reminder from the Psalms that God is gracious. So I first discovered this when I was about 13 years old. I'd had a bit of a blow out with one of my siblings. I was feeling angry, I was feeling frustrated, all those teenage frustrations and I knew that I'd been in the wrong and I remember rushing to my room with a very dramatic slamming of the door and suddenly as I kind of felt those emotions I started to pray and I suddenly had such a clear picture of Jesus dying on that cross and just God's voice saying to me you know what Liz yes you're angry and you feel sorry for what you've done but I have taken that sin I died in your place and you can be free and I just had such an overwhelming sense of the great love of God and the great grace that God gives us in forgiving us and again Psalm 103 reminds us of those truths it says he does not treat us as our sins deserve all repay us according to our iniquities and the next verse in verse 11 it says for as high as the heavens are above the earth and I know Andrew flies aeroplanes but this is going a lot higher than that and so great is his love for those who fear him so when I trust in the Lord he removes my sin what a gift an amazing gift and I just remember that was the moment I think I've fully committed my life to Jesus and said you know what Jesus that's amazing I can't believe you love me that much and all those wrong things I've been feeling all those strong emotions you're big enough to take them and you nail them on the cross in my place and I can be free to follow God so that was a pivotal moment for me and when I read Psalm 103 I just go wow isn't that amazing God is so gracious to us and then of course 13 is very young I'm a lot older now you go through life you make choices you make mistakes you've done all the time we're doing things that fall short of God and yet within that it says in verse 12 as far as the east is from the west that's how far God removes my sin or my transgressions so I do things wrong but I can always come back to God and in church we come together don't we and we pray a confession and we ask the Lord to relieve us of that sin and just kind of set to reset to zero and start again with him and it's such a gift it's not something that the Psalms remind us it's not something to take for granted God is gracious and he removes our sin as far as the east is from the west that's about I think if you fly for as far as the east is from the west and you might correct me if I'm wrong and you but I think you kind of just start again don't you just can't it's just so far that if you fly as far as the east is from the west you kind of can't go you'd have to have to start coming back again and it's just so incredibly far that it kind of has no end and that's how far God removes my sin so if I've done something wrong and I've confessed it it's just it's just gone it's just a and non-entity God is so gracious he takes those things away and that is such an encouragement for me and I've also discovered through another verse in just put my glasses on for this one Psalm 86 verse 5 says you Lord are forgiving and good are bounding in love to all so this is not just in Psalm 103 it's over and over God is gracious he's forgiving and he loves us the next reminder that I'd like to just look at over the years Andrew and I have been in four countries with MAF and and he's guided us to different places now I originally come from Liverpool which is why I snapped this photo when I came across this bus in Tanzania and I just thought it was a good reminder of my roots of where I came from and we've got the lovely separation there of liver and pool but obviously and on the bottom there's a Swahili slogan that says the greatest thing of all is love so it's a it's a lovely reminder of where God took me from and how he took me to Tanzania along this journey and it's just another reminder God is our guide and I think you know having God as our guide again is a gift because God is good so listen to this from Psalm 25 verse 8 it says good and upright is the Lord therefore he instructs sinners in his ways so it doesn't say good and upright is Liz she's so fantastic that I'm gonna instruct her in my ways it says good and upright is the Lord so because he is good he therefore instructs us in his ways instruct sinners like me and that can bring us to the question of how does he do it well there's various ways I'm sure as Christians sitting in church we could talk many ways about the way God has guided us but one of the key ways is through his word and again the song reminds us of this Psalm 119 verse 105 says your word is a lamp for my feet isn't it a gift that God has given us his word and speaks through his Holy Spirit to guide us and encourage us both to teach us his ways so we know how to live and also speaking very specifically to us like Andrew says the Spirit can take the word and speak the same thing to us in different ways according to our situation in life so I remember when we first felt the calling to math it was very exciting we actually the song that we had this morning was a song about I'm the Lord of sea and sky and it says I will go Lord we had sung that song instant Michael's as a couple when we were newly married and then we just felt that call to the Lord and we said Lord if you want us to go overseas if that's the call for us we'll go but it wasn't an easy yes I'm quite a home girl coming from Liverpool my family we're quite close and it was hard to make that decision to say hey let's just pack everything up and go to East Africa and take our children away from grandparents and I remember getting quite upset and thinking oh I'm really gonna miss everybody I'm gonna miss my job and yet I came across this Psalm at that time and again the Lord is so good in giving his word and God just comforted my heart and this is from Psalm 126 verse 5 and 6 those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy those who go out weeping carrying seed to sow will return with songs of joy carrying their sheaves with them and I just felt comforted Lord sees he sees when the calling is hard sometimes it's it's steady and easy but sometimes it's tricky but the Lord sees he sees our tears he knows and he will give me those seeds to sow and when the times right he'll bring me back and it was just a timely reminder so again just seeing God as our guide and going on to the next slide within that when God gives you anything whether it's a relationship or a work a placement or job or whatever stage we're at school work he also gives us the strength to fulfill what he's asked us to do so I have a photo there of what we do in East Africa with math so there's a photograph of an airstrip in South Sudan that I took on a flight with Andrew excuse my voice is really funny this morning excuse me and then on the other side there's a photo of me in my classroom in Uganda taken about a month ago with my cute little seven-year-olds and within that those two roles I have as Andrew's wife with math and as a teacher God is the one who gives me strength and there is a photo of me at my ladies fitness class in Kampala doing on weight bearing but God is the one that gives me spiritual strength so he gives us the strength to do what he's asked us to do and again from the Psalms God is our strength and I recently came across Psalm 28 verse 7 which says the Lord is my strength and my shield my heart truss in him and he helps me and I just find that whole thank you thank you I just find that whole concept so encouraging from the Lord's word that he's the one that gives us strength and as Andrew mentioned we're in a funny situation at the moment where our young our oldest daughter is going to be remaining in the UK while we got on an aeroplane and go back to Uganda and I'm kind of not looking forward to that moment but I know I can do it because the Lord is my strength and also in it's hard to leave my parents again we're at a different stage my dad's been diagnosed with dementia mum is struggling a little to look after him and just it's a lot of work and yet I can look at that verse the Lord is my strength but he's also my mum's strength the Lord is my strength and my shield but he's also Esther's shield while I leave her here I can't look after her when I'm far away but the Lord come my heart will choose to trust in him he will help me he will help my mum he will help my dad he will help my daughter what a gift so just it's such a wonderful reminder to me to look into the Psalms and see that God is with us every stage so going on to the next slide another thing that the Psalms has brought alive for me is the characteristic of God as our Creator and it seems like an obvious one and there's a little photo taken maybe half a century ago and I'm coming up to quite a significant birthday so I thought that I could just pop that photo in there and throughout all those years God has been with me and God has loved me faithfully and why is that because he's my Creator so I work as a primary school teacher and one thing I've observed with little kids is when they make something or when they write a story or when they complete a mathematics task they want to show you and they say look what I've done look what I've done do you want to read my story look at this model look what I've made and I think that God is the same he made us and it goes look what I've done I've made I've made a liz I've made a whatever and he's he's pleased with what he has created but if we lose sight of God as our Creator if we forget that he's the one that made us we can forget to be close to him we can forget to appreciate him we can forget to ask him what he wants us to do so I think it's a spiritual battle that we are often under attack and being kind of bombarded with information about who we are but at the crux of all we are God's creation God made us and he loves us and it says in Psalm 103 he knows how we are formed in verse 14 and in verse 22 it says we are called to praise him because we are part of all his works and within that God is our compassionate father he made us but he also loves us he knows that we're temporary it says he remembers that we are dust in verse 14 of Psalm 103 and yet it also says in verse 4 he crowns us with love and compassion isn't that amazing the Creator who made us crowns us with love and compassion now we've just sung this morning a couple of songs have mentioned that the Lord is king of kings he's a he's royal he's majestic and in that he's sharing that crown with me he's saying you know what you're part of my royal family I crown you with love and compassion which is a huge huge privilege and then I came across this verse in Psalm 149 verse 4 which confirms it it says and for the Lord takes delight in his people he takes delight he made you he made us he takes delight in his people when we walk with him he's pleased with his creation it's what he made and yet within that he loves us so much that he gives us love and compassion but this first goes on to say the other crown we receive is he crowns the humble when we recognize him as Creator he crowns us with victory and we also sang again this morning one of the first songs said Jesus the victor he's the victor he died for us but he rose again he took our sin and yet he's crowning glory with God and it says he crowns the humble with victory he's placed us on the winning team and for me that's such an amazing reminder we live in times where people are often turning their back on God but we don't need to worry about God's position God is the victor he crowns us with victory what he's saying to us is you're on the winning team you're on the right team you're on the winning team trust me and I think that's such an incredible reminder to me God is my Creator and he's placed me on his winning team in a royal position and when we trust him he uses our lives for his glory in such a privilege so just moving on to the next slide there I found that reading the Bible really helps me what walk with the Lord it's a daily thing it reminds me that God is gracious that he's gives me a guide in many ways particularly through his word that they then provide strength for what he tells me through his word and that he there is also my Creator my Father and he has given us works to do for him so in this spiritual battle in which we live in 2024 when we read the Lord's Word we are equipping ourselves for that battle we're finding out who God is he's telling us what he does for us and what he's done for his people before and I'm just going to ask the question to you know and to think about in a minute well what have you read recently that has encouraged your heart in your work walk with the Lord and what passages or verses through the years have kept you with your in your walk with the Lord kept you close to the Lord and helped you to fix your eyes on him when I take my eyes off him I'm a mess when I put my eyes back on him he gives me strength for the journey let me just pray for us all now before we have a song where we can just think about how the word of the Lord has encouraged each of us through the years so from Psalm 84 there's some lovely verses and let me just pray one of those is a blessing over each of you this morning Lord God it says in your word you are a son and a shield that you bestow favor and honor on those that you love that might not look the way we wanted to but it looks right when it's in your kingdom we are victors in you we are crowned with love and compassion and no good thing do you withhold from those whose way of life is blameless so Lord Almighty I pray a blessing on each of the members of St. Michael's each of the people here this morning and on the children as well Lord you bless those who trust in you so we pray that blessing over each of us. Amen