Psalm 31
All right, let’s begin by reading
Psalm 31, verses one through five. It says, in you, O Lord,
do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame.
In your righteousness, deliver me. Incline your ear to me and
rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me and
a strong fortress to save me. For you are my rock and my fortress.
For your namesake, lead me and guide me. You take me out of
the net they have made for me. For you are my refuge. Into your
hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord,
faithful God. We’ll stop there and look at
that as the first section. Now, David, over and over and
over, calls God his refuge, his shelter, his fortress. He calls
him his rock, he calls him his shelter, his hedge of protection,
his overhang, so to speak. If you find yourself in the middle
of a storm, you’re gonna seek shelter, and that’s the idea
that David speaks of. Now, every Psalm has a story. Now, every Psalm has a story,
and sometimes we know the story, sometimes we don’t. Remember
last week, Psalm 30, King David was sick, even unto death. Well, this story is, he’ll speak
of being sick, but it’s, the real case is he’s surrounded
by enemies. He’s surrounded by people that hate him and want
him dead, and it causes his body great injury. We’ll look at that
a little bit later. But he’s on the run, maybe from
King Saul. He’s hiding in caves. And can
you imagine sitting in a cave seeking shelter from the night
and praying to God and saying, you are my refuge. And you’re
sitting in a cave with some covering. You can peek out and see the
stars. You can maybe even hear the wolves howling in the night. But his prayer is that God would
be a greater refuge than that cave. And so it’s very interesting
though. Notice what he says in these
first five verses. He says about God, you are a
rock of refuge. In you I do take refuge, that’s
verse one. And then in verse two, his request
is be a rock of refuge. Have you ever, we’ll go at it
from one angle. Okay, Lynn’s having surgery tomorrow. And so we can pat Lynn on the
back and say, Lynn, it’s going to be all right. You know, a
little Romans 828, salt and pepper on her. And we go get in our
car and go home. But Lynn has to go home tonight.
And Lynn has to get in bed and think about all the things she’s
going to think of. And she has pillow talk with Ed. And he pats
her on the head and says, it’s going to be all right. And all
those things we can say to her, whether it’s us or Ed, are true,
right? But somehow it has to be true to Lynn. Right, you’re
gonna face that, right? And so you understand what it
is. It’s one thing to say, God is my rock and refuge. And it’s
another to say, God be my rock and my refuge. Make the reality
of the truth about you real. You see what David is doing?
You see what Lynn faces? You see what we face? It’s one
thing to pat somebody on the head and say, God works out all
things for the good of those who love you and walk according
to your purpose. We can pat people on the head
and say nice little Christian things. but it’s really real
when God makes it so. And that’s what David is saying
in this psalm. I know what is true about you,
but I want to experience it. And what a great comfort it is
when you come to verse five and you see, into your hand I commit
my spirit, you have redeemed me, oh Lord faithful God. We
remember those are the words of Christ. Even Christ trusted
his life in the hands of God Almighty. And that’s a good comfort
for us. There are things we cannot control
in life. We can’t control who’s president. We can’t control who’s
dictator across the ocean. We can’t control jobs and financial
markets. We can’t control any of those
things. We can’t even control the cells
and the organs of our body, but we can completely, in a sense,
do a free fall into the arms of God and say, I trust you. Whatever happens, I can completely
trust you. Jesus was able to do that. In verse five, if you’re looking
for some last words, planning your exit, and you want to go
out with a bang. Verse five have been, have been,
I’m sort of making a joke there, but verse five have been famous
last words of many people. Remember John Huss in the, what,
1300s? 100 years before Martin Luther? When he was burned at the stake.
He uttered these words, into my, into your hands I commit
my spirit. Martin Luther, when he passed
away, said the same words, Philip Melanchthon, Luther’s, counterpart,
his partner in crime in the Reformation. And many, many others have used
those words of Jesus as last words, but they show our trust
and our resting in Christ for our salvation. So verses one
through five, God is my rock of refuge. Let’s read six through
eight. He says, I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols.
but I trust in the Lord. I will rejoice and be glad in
your steadfast love because you have seen my affliction. You
have known the distress of my soul and you have not delivered
me into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a broad
place. So after David has expressed
his trust in God for him to be his refuge, he now says, I trust
the Lord and he gives four tangible reasons that he trusts the Lord.
He utters just a few words, but he says, God knows my predicament. God sees my predicament. God does not hand me over to
my enemies who have laid a snare for me. And then he says, you
have set my feet on a level place. Those are specific things that
God has done for David. And he recounts them. He’s a
man of a few words here, but he’s in a sense saying to himself,
How do we say that little phrase I’ve been there I’ve done that
and I’ve got the t-shirt we say that right That’s kind of what
David is saying here. I’ve been there and I’ve done
that and I’ve seen God work and he Knows my problem Where does
he say that verse six? He says I trust in the Lord For
seven I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love. So why
does he trust? Why does he rejoice you see my
affliction? You’ve known the distress of
my soul. You haven’t delivered me into the hand of my enemy,
and you have set my feet in a broad place. He’s not gonna stumble
and fall, for God has set him up. Well, then you move on to
verses nine through 13, and you see David in sort of the trough. If you look at the Psalm and
put it on a little up and down meter, David goes, up, up, up,
praises God, then he goes down into a trough of lament, and
then he goes back up again. You could kind of register it
on some sort of meter. And verses nine through 13 are
where he sort of gets down a little bit. He says, be gracious to
me, O Lord, for I am in distress. My eye is wasted from grief. Imagine he’s got red eyes. He’s
cried so many tears. My soul and my body also. For
my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing, my strength
fails because of my iniquity, my bones waste away. Because
of all my adversaries, I have become a reproach, especially
to my neighbors. Now who’s speaking here? Just stop and think about
it. This is King David, the King of Israel. Remember Solomon would
come after him, but they built a nation so great. And who came
to see all that they had done and built? the Queen of Sheba
and every surrounding nation. So this is that great king saying
that. Because of all my adversaries, I’ve become a reproach, especially
to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances. Those
who see me in the street, they flee from me. I have been forgotten
like one who is dead. I have become like a broken vessel.
It’s no good, so it gets thrown out. I hear the whispering of
many, terror on every side. They scheme together against
me as they plot to take my life. And you see David here, he’s
going through such affliction that it’s causing trauma to his
body. You remember Jesus, the night
before he was crucified, he was in the garden praying. Remember
his disciples would fall asleep, he would pray, wake him up, they’d
fall asleep, pray. But you remember what physical
trauma manifested itself in Jesus’ body. His sweat, the thromboid,
the droplets of blood, his body was so traumatized by grief.
And we can get to a low place like that, where we just absolutely
don’t know what to do. No philosophy can dig us out
of that hole. No coaxing from friends or parents. And we just find ourselves deep
down in a hole. No strength, eyes and bones weak,
body weak, full of grief. And We feel like we’re gonna die.
That’s what David is experiencing here. He says, I’m surrounded,
I’m conspired against. There is no way out of this mess. There’s no way out of this spot
I’m in. I’m scorned, I’m deserted. And
you might could say he’s exaggerating. He’s saying it in a little bit
of a strong way, but you can imagine what it must be like
to be on the run from King Saul or to be surrounded by your sons
as he was later by his son Absalom People want him dead. But this
is King David lamenting. And then as you make your way
to verse 14 through 18, you find his trust level is back up again.
He says, but I trust in you. Okay, yes, I’m surrounded. Yes,
there are people plotting for me. They’ve got a noose ready
for my neck or there’s a bullet with my name on it or whatever
the case is. Didn’t have bullets back then.
And he says, but I trust in you, Lord. And I say, you are my God. My times are in your hand. Rescue
me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors. Make
your face shine on your servant. Save me in your steadfast love.
Oh, Lord, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you. Let
the wicked be put to shame. Let them go silently to the shield.
Let the lying lips be mute, which speak insolently against the
righteous in pride and contempt. Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you. Got half a verse ahead, but verses
14 through 18 show us David is trusting God. Yes, everything
is bad, bad, bad, but he trusts. Do you ever sit down with somebody
or listen to somebody? And they kind of got the Eeyore
Complex, life is terrible. It’s only gonna get worse. And
then from there it’s gonna get even worse and then I’ll probably
just die. And this person’s a Christian, or they go to church with you,
right? And you want to say something truthful to them, but you don’t
want to hurt their feelings. You want to say, would you shut
up? Would you consider the lilies
of the field? Would you look at how bad off
others have it? You want to say something, but
you don’t want to hurt their feelings. Well, a person of faith,
despite their surroundings, despite their circumstances, keeps perspective. And sometimes we have to help
one another. Sometimes we have to say, look, it’s not that bad.
Or it could be worse. Or God hasn’t let you go as far
as He could have. His mercies are great. We can
say something. But here David is basically saying
that. He’s saying praise is due God. Yes, there’s a time for
lament and sadness, but if you look at David’s little crest
and waves and measurements of up and down, his trust is on
the rise, and it’s gonna end in praise when you get to verses
19 and 20. But his confidence is moving
up. Now, how many of you believe, you can raise your hands or say
it out loud, that God made the world and everything in it, and
by that same powerful word, He upholds the world and everything
in it. How many of you believe the Heidelberg Catechism we recited
this morning, that not a hair can fall from your head without
it being the will of God? Okay, even I believe that. It’s
a challenge the top of my head is getting lately. We rest in
the providence of God, but you see so many Christians, they’re
wringing their hands. Well, I don’t know if this problem
is Where’s God in this? Well, you know where God is in
every moment of every day? He’s right there. He’s in the
storm. He’s in the cloud. He’s in the
sunshine. He’s in the rain. He’s in the waves. He’s in the
wind. And what did we learn from Jesus when he’s with the disciples
in the boat? We need not fear. We need not be faithless. And
that’s the example that David gives us here in these verses.
Yes, life is full of ups and downs. The stock market is gonna
rise and fall. It’s gonna have its troughs and
its peaks. Every moment of every day is gonna be a little different. But God is with us in every season
of life. And now this is where we wanna
get out the salt and pepper shaker and remind ourselves of Romans
8.28, but remembering that it’s true. Okay, it’s not just a cute
little verse to post on Facebook. something to put on the wall
or over the bathroom mirror. It is a real verse that means
something real to us, that God is at work in our lives. All
things work together for the good of those who love and are
called according to the purpose of God. It really is true. And
so we can say like David, in your hands I commit my spirit.
My times are in your hands. My days are yours, Lord. And that’s true of The good days,
the bad days, and the in-between days, our times are in God’s
hand. And so, next time something falls
upon you, you can have peace. Lynn’s been a good example every
time I’ve talked to her. She’s a pretty peaceful gal. Maybe
she’s hiding something, who knows? But that’s a testimony to the
rest of us. For somebody to say, I can walk
into this storm with confidence. I know that God is great, God
is good, And even to hear your thanks tonight that God’s allowed
you to walk through this. I mean, what a blessing that
is, but that’s what David teaches us here. We can be settled because
we trust God. And then verses 19 through 20,
sort of riding the top of the wave here. He says, how abundant
is your goodness? This is David’s praise. How abundant
is your goodness? Now God may not have solved his
problem yet, How abundant is your goodness which you have
stored up for those who fear you, and worked for those who
take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind. In
the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men,
and you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues. I
can’t help but think what our brother is going through in Pakistan,
or in Turkey in prison. I mean, it’s one thing to be
in the Alamance County Jail, I mean, I probably wouldn’t want
that. It’s another thing to be in maybe a state penitentiary
in Raleigh, but could you imagine being in prison in a country
where the standards of law are not what they are here, and where
you don’t know what you’re going to get? Remember that terrible
prison in Iran that many, many people have suffered through?
That’s, in a sense, what David speaks of here, just being in
utter anguish, because from human eyes, you’re done for, your goose
is cooked, so to speak. But we can praise God, for we
know that he works out our salvation with fear and trembling. If you
go through a difficult, even impossible human experience,
my mom used to say that my grandmother had a little saying, people can
kill you, but they can’t eat you. You know, she meant by that
is somebody can take your life, but they can’t take away your
eternal life. They can’t take away your salvation. Somebody
can do their worst to us in this world, but they can never ever
take away our home in heaven and the presence with God. But
here’s something interesting in this couple verses, in verses
19 through 20. It speaks of God’s goodness,
and other people will see God’s goodness to us. I mean, we can
look at each other’s lives, we can know of answered prayers,
we can know how God has been good to us. Even the world can
look at the goodness of God to us and say, wow, those people
are blessed because God loves them. But there’s also a sense
where they cannot even begin to understand, they cannot even
begin to understand why we might have confidence to be able to
say, Lord, in your hands I commit my spirit. Because we know, they
may not know, but we know our eternal home and the goodness
of God that is yet to be ours in the new heavens and the new
earth. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, said
of these verses that in this life, we have a little bit of
trickle of the blessings of God, but when we get to heaven, we’re
gonna have the true fountain, the source of those blessings. And so we can live happy and
holy and confident lives because of these truths. Well, the last
two verses, verses 21 and through 24 the last four verses I suppose
says blessed be the Lord For he has wondrously shown his steadfast
love to me When I was in a besieged city Maybe these are reflections
on past days. I said in my alarm. I am cut
off from your sight But you heard the voice of my plea for mercy.
I cried to you for help and then he calls the people of God to
worship. Love the Lord, all you his saints.
The Lord preserves the faithful, but he abundantly repays the
one who acts in pride. So he calls them to praise and
then he encourages them, be strong and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord. Very sadly, I think we treat
God like a, what is it, a jackpot machine, lottery machine, What
is that you play if you go to Las Vegas, you put your money
in and you pull it? Slot machine. Okay, some of y’all
know a little too much. But we treat God like a vending machine
or a slot machine. He’s there when we need him.
We put our coins in and we expect a product that will bless us.
But do you know God is active and available every moment of
every day. And so when you wake in the night,
When you rise in the morning, when you work in the day, when
you rest in the afternoon and evening, we don’t have to treat
God a la carte. You know, like we walk through
the cafeteria and we get a piece of pie and we get a little sweet
potato and a meat and a vegetable or two. And if we feel like splurging,
we’ll get the sweet tea. We don’t treat God a la carte.
He gives us his full blessing and presence and active hand. every moment of every day and
that’s what David is reminding us of here. God is our refuge.
He is our strength and he is to be praised and trusted. And so may this bless our hearts
and our minds. Let’s pray together. Our great
God, we thank you that we can live life confidently knowing
that you’re in control, that you’re at work, and that your
character, your actions, and even your promises, they’re yet
fulfilled are to our benefit we pray father that we’d not
live like paupers who are broke and poor and have no resources
but that we live like the wealthy children of a great king who
has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
you’ve given us every resource to live life in this world and
yes the world and The brokenness of it, the sin of our own lives
and the lives of others, it certainly affects us. But in you, we are
greatly blessed. And so help us not to forget.
And may we be full of praise and courage. In Christ’s name,
amen.