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Back to Sermons Index Back to Home Page 12th November 2006 AMOUR JOYFUL HOPE IN GOD Pastor Colin MeadowsPivotal Psalms for Faithful Living Bible Readings: Psalm 16, Acts 2:22-33
Ø Psalms - the Prayer Book of the Believer: For believers in earlier days, the book of psalms was their praise and prayer book. What about us? Do you at times want to praise God yet are not sure what to say? Look to the psalms. Perhaps at other times you are grappling with life and want to pray but the words won’t come? Look to the psalms. The psalms should be the praise and prayer book of the believer. Psalm singing was a strong feature of the early church. Such was the importance attached to knowing the psalms that many years ago a candidate who wished to enter the priesthood in certain orders needed to be able to recite the entire book of psalms! The psalms, primarily written as poetry, seek to tell in vivid and concrete language just who God is and how we can commune with him. They further give us insights into the hearts of God’s people. They often appear to be wet with the tears and blood of the writers, such is the emotions found there. Using simile, metaphors and rich images, the psalms bubble with life and vitality. Each has its own flavour and focus. As we approach Psalm 16 we find this psalm is focused on how we can have a joyful hope in God! Written by King David, it has the form of a personal testimony of God’s goodness to him over many years. Let’s look at some of the key elements embedded there. David quietly reflects on some key elements of his faith that apply to us all. Ø Recall that the LORD is Lord: Whenever the word LORD appears in capital letter s in the OT it is referring to God’s personal name, Yahweh. This is the wonderful name that speaks of the God who longs for relationship with his people. Ps 16:2 “I said to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.’” This name LORD lit. means “I am He who is” or ‘He who will be”. When God speaks of himself he says “I am”. When his people speak of him, they say “He is”. He is all powerful, all loving, and all trustworthy. He is the dependable and faithful God who desires the full trust of his people. The LORD of relationship, is also Lord or master or sovereign. As we remember so we will have a joyful hope in God. Ø Remember your fellow faith travelers: David looked with fondness and respect on those who also walked with Yahweh. Ps 16:3 “As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.” David’s relationship with his fellow believers was strong. What about us? Do we hold in high esteem other believers who are traveling the road of faith with us? Do we seek to encourage them, just as they encourage us? We really do need each other! Let us thus seek to walk together in faith with God’s people. Being part of a small Bible study group is such an important part of this journey. Why not consider joining up with one, if you are not already in a group. Yes, remember your fellow believers. Ø Resist the worship of other ‘gods’: Down through history nations have tended to have their own gods whom they worshipped.. The Egyptians for instance worshipped Amon, Ra and Ptah. The Assyrians worshipped Assur while the Babylonians had Marduk as head of their pantheon. The Jews at the time this psalm was written were thus living in a world awash with polytheistic beliefs. There were many gods whom they could worship and many times they did just that. God had revealed himself to them through Moses as Yahweh, the one true God of the universe, but often the temptation to bow the knee to other gods was too strong. Ps 16:4 “’The sorrow of those will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips.” What about us today in Australia? God the LORD is the one true God and he alone should be worshipped.. We today must make a choice. Have we set the LORD as our Lord, or do we have others in his place? There has been in Australia resurgence in interest in other religious faiths - Buddhism, Hinduism, Bahai Faith, the list is very long. Maybe we don’t worship other ‘gods’ as such but have we placed family as number one in our lives? Perhaps it is wealth that we hold supreme, real estate, our job, our status, our children, our home. I was struck recently with some of the sentiments expressed concernng the importance of sport in Australian life. During the memorial service for Wally Foreman, numerous comments were made about how much sport means to Australians. I sense at times it means too much to us, just going on my own experience in the past. I recall the statement that appears at Challenge Stadium in Perth, home of so many sporting events. “Sport is the religion of Australia and Saturday is the day of worship”. What or who really stirs your heart and tugs at your inner being? For David, it was the LORD. Resist the worship of other gods. Honor God alone as you seek to build a joyful hope in God. Ø Accept the cards you have been dealt: David accepted what God had allowed into his life. Ps 16:5-6 “LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” You might respond that this was OK for David for life had been good for him. Life for you may be tough, with difficult relationships, financial problems, health issues, etc. But wait a moment…. It had not always been easy for David. Born as the youngest son in the family, ignored by his brothers, later chased into exile by King Saul, his closest friend Jonathan killed, on the run in fear of his life for long periods of time, forced to find refuge amongst his people’s enemies, the Philistines, became king but still had numerous enemies, his sons often fighting amongst themselves, with Absalom finally killing Amnon, Absalom later forced David to flee from the city. Then Absalom his son is killed. No it wasn’t all easy for David but he accepted the cards God had dealt him. Amy Carmichael felt called by God to go to Asia as a missionary. Had very bad health and was rejected by the China Inland Mission. Finally went to Japan but illness forced her to go first to China to recover and then to India. Set up orphanages for children to rescue them from prostitution, but struggled often with ill health. Later she had a bad fall that caused her to be bedridden for the last 20 years of her life. She once said “In acceptance lies peace”. When asked what she meant by this she said she had found peace by being content with the unexplained. Peace is to trust God, to accept that He knows best, to accept the cards that we have been dealt. We can expend huge amounts of energy in frustration and anger about how life has turned out for us or we can choose to be thankful, to trust God no matter. This is not being fatalistic but rather acknowledging who we are and what our circumstances are and then seeking to move on in faith. Yes, have a joyful hope in God as you accept the cards you have been dealt. As you do this…. Ø Allow God to guide you Each day seek to walk in the pathway God has set for you. Ps 16:7-8 “I will praise the LORD who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. Because he is at my right hand I will not be shaken.” David sought to listen to God’s quiet voice. Each day his heart was open to what God would say to him. It might have been as he meditated on God’s Word, or as he listened to the advice of trusted friends or through the circumstances of life. Or it might be through the quiet witness in his own heart of the Spirit of God. Let us be people who seek to listen to God’s quiet voice in our lives. Tune out the static of a noisy world and quietly reflect and listen. As we do that then our lives will be strengthened and our fears diminished and we will not be shaken. Then you will have a joyful hope in God. Even in these things, we need to remember something so very important to keep things in perspective… Ø This life here is just the beginning! As we trust God for the present, let us look to God in hope for the future. Just as he will sustain us in the present as we daily put our trust in him so we can have confidence that he will keep us in the life to come. Eternal pleasures await those who trust in God. Death for a Christian is not the end, it is just the end of the beginning! Ps 16:9-11 “Therefore my heart is glad and my tongues rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” There is coming a time when we will move on, says David. At that time we can have confidence that God who sustained us in life here on earth with give us eternal pleasures with Him. Death will be conquered and life in all its fullness will at that time be experienced in God’s presence. Just what did this mean? At the time of writing David perhaps did not fully understand the implications of what he was saying. The Apostle Peter many centuries later took up these same verses in his first message to the fledging church and applied these words to Christ. In Acts 2:25-28 he quotes the latter verses of Psalm 16, speaking of how David died looking to a future resurrection, the resurrection of the Christ. Now that Christ is raised, all who hope in him will be raised. He was speaking about life everlasting or eternal life, as Jesus referred to it. If we believe in Christ, he said, we shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Yes, this is only just the beginning for life eternal lies ahead. Let us thus live by faith in the present, with a joyful hope in God as we anticipate the future. But what if we don’t yet know of this walking with God story…. Ø What should we do if we don’t know God? What an amazing future lies ahead for all who put their trust in Christ! We can have confidence in the resurrection from the dead and life eternal because of what Christ has done for us. That is the amazing story of the gospel. Jesus has been raised to the right hand of the father and has been made both Lord and Christ. But what if we don’t yet know this Christ? When the people in Peter’s time heard these words they asked what they should do. Acts 2:38 “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of you sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” Just as the people on that day repented and submitted to Christ as Lord, so too today we have the opportunity to do likewise. Have you made that vital step of faith in your life? Can I encourage you to do so today? For when we have done that then the very first verse of the psalm makes sense. Ps 16:1 “Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.” Let’s pull this all together now. · Acknowledge the LORD as Lord. · Walk with God alone, rejecting all substitutes · Accept the cards you have been dealt in life for in acceptance lies peace. · Listen to God’s quiet voice – his Word, his people, to life’s circumstances · Remember the wonderful future that lays ahead, everlasting life! · Each day take refuge in God! · As we do that we will have a joyful hope in God! |