WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:05.519 Find this passage in the Sanctuary Bible on page 835. 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:09.759 Please listen as I read God's word. 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:15.199 A song of David when he was in the desert of Judah. 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:18.239 You God are my God. 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:20.960 Earnestly I seek you. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:23.280 I thirst for you. 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:27.039 My whole being longs for you. 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:33.119 In a dry and parched land where there is no water. 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:40.399 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:44.079 Because your love is better than life. 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:46.880 My lips will glorify you. 00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:51.200 I will praise you as long as I live. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:55.280 And in your name I will lift up my hands. 00:00:56.880 --> 00:01:01.600 I will be fully satisfied as with the riches of food. 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:06.319 With singing lips in my mouth will praise you. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:10.239 On my bed I remember you. 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:14.879 I think of you through the watches of the night. 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:21.519 Because you are my helper I sing in the shadow of your wings. 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:24.799 I cling to you. 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:28.159 Your right hand holds me. 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:33.680 Those who want to kill me will be destroyed. 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:38.400 They will go down to the depths of the earth. 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:46.400 They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals. 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:50.959 But the king will rejoice in God. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:55.760 All who swear by God will glory in him. 00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:01.519 While the mouths of liars will be silenced. 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:04.640 Here ends the reading. 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:06.719 Morning everyone. 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:15.360 It is fall, but it is really warm out today. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:22.080 And uh just so glad to have a little uh a little extra taste of summer on this day. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:25.439 If I haven't yet had the chance to meet you this morning, my name is John. 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:30.639 I get to serve as the lead pastor here at Elmwood, and I'll be right out in the main uh lobby after the service. 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:34.080 Would love to connect with you, would love to uh get to know you a little bit there. 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:39.360 So uh if we haven't had a chance to connect, uh would love to do so this morning. 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:47.919 Uh before we get into the message today, I want to give just a very brief, uh very brief family, a bit of family business with you. 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:49.680 Sorry, I'm messing up my slides. 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:50.960 Let me try again. 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:52.000 There we go. 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:53.599 Here's the family business. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:03:00.240 These lovely people that you see in front of you, yes, you did just see that switch back and forth. 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:06.240 This is what happens when I ask for a picture and someone sends me uh both of these pictures, they will both get used. 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:09.919 So beware, if you send me a picture and it's a goofy one, it may end up here. 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:18.319 Uh, these lovely people uh have been through the membership process and they desire to become covenant members here at Elmwood. 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:30.879 They've been through the membership class and have been through an elder interview, and the next step in that process is for us to submit their names to you, the congregation, and uh do that for a two-week period of review. 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:42.879 Now, we as elders are unanimous in our affirmation of these candidates, but we leave that two-week period in case anyone has questions or you know concerns or anything for us, uh, we want to leave that space open for you. 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:48.000 So if you do have questions about anything about any of these uh people, we'd love to connect with you. 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:49.360 Uh reach out to me. 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:54.960 You can reach out to anyone on our elder team, and we'd love to uh just connect with you about that if you have any questions. 00:03:56.719 --> 00:04:07.759 We've been in a series of messages called Finding God in the Wilderness, and we have been looking at the experiences of God's people, sometimes individuals, sometimes the collective people of God. 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:11.599 We've been looking at their experiences in the wilderness. 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:25.600 And all throughout the Bible we see that the desert is uh it's an unpleasant place, and it is also one of the places, the unexpected places, where God loves to meet his people and do his good work among them. 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:36.639 And one of the things that I hope that we are taking away from this is that what we are looking at, these are not just examples of what God does or has done for or wants to do for other people. 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:50.000 My hope is that we see, we come away from this series knowing he wants to meet us, and he wants to even flourish us in the midst of those wilderness seasons that we find ourselves in. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:05:02.720 When we find ourselves in places that are dark, when we find ourselves in the valley, places that are lonely or dry or difficult, that is a place where God desires to meet each and every one of us. 00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:14.879 And so my hope is that you have been able to experience some of that yourself and to come out of the series knowing that he desires to encounter and to love you in the midst of those wilderness seasons as well. 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:32.720 So today we're looking at Psalm 63, and uh the reason that we're looking at Psalm 63 is uh you can see in the heading there, if you have your Bibles open, the heading of Psalm 63 says a psalm of David when he was in the desert of Judah. 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:37.439 So that gives us the set of circumstances that led to the writing of the Psalm. 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:39.920 David was in the desert of Judah. 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:48.959 And if you were to go back and read the story of his life from 1st and 2 Samuel, what you would see is that there are numerous times where David found himself in the wilderness. 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:55.519 And the most common reason that he ended up there in the first place was because he was being pursued by his enemies. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:06:05.120 So early in his life, he was pursued by King Saul, who wanted to have him killed because he was a threat to the throne that Saul was occupying. 00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:10.879 And so David fled from Saul into the wilderness and spent a considerable amount of time there. 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:22.720 You then see, as you look at uh the later portions of David's life, you'll see that he was pursued by his son Absalom, who demonstrated that he was willing to kill his own family members to get what he wanted. 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:32.000 And David stood in the way of him being on the throne, and so he was pursuing David, and so David fled to the wilderness and spent time there as well. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:46.000 Now we can't say conclusively which of these uh scenarios led to the writing of Psalm 63, but the uh scholars I was reading uh lean towards the situation with Absalom being the one that is behind Psalm 63. 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:51.439 But in the end, the most important thing is not how David ended up in the wilderness. 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:56.800 The most important thing we see in the Psalm is what he did once he was there. 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:00.959 And that's the same kind of thing, the same thing is true for us as well. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:14.079 The most important thing is not why we find ourselves in a season of the wilderness, whether it's something that happened to us from someone else or circumstances that were thrust upon us, or whether the wilderness we're in is one of our own making. 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:17.680 The most important thing is not how we got there. 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:21.439 The most important thing is what do we do once we are there? 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:33.680 And this psalm gives us some direction and uh it tells us uh three practices we can put in place that will allow us to thrive and flourish in seasons of the wilderness. 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:48.160 So we're gonna look at those three practices this morning, and as we'll see, each one, we're gonna summarize each practice with one word, and then there's gonna be a phrase that goes along with it that is uh an application, an application statement. 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:54.560 So let's look at each of these three practices for how to flourish in the wilderness that we see in Psalm 63. 00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:58.560 And the first one is this can be summarized by the word think. 00:07:59.360 --> 00:07:59.920 Think. 00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:10.560 We see in Psalm 63, verse 6, David says, On my bed I remember you, I think of you through the watches of the night. 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:29.040 So David here again is he's running for his life, he's living in fear and in danger, and as he's finding himself in the wilderness, he's living under an enormous amount of stress and pressure, so much so that he finds himself awake during the watches of the night. 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:33.440 Now, in the ancient world, the watches of the night could refer to one of two periods. 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.159 Could refer to the period between 10 p.m. 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:40.320 and 2 a.m., or it could refer to the period between 2 a.m. 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:41.600 and about 6 a.m. 00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:42.960 or sunrise. 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:45.039 So that's the watches of the night. 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:46.000 10 p.m. 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:47.039 to 6 a.m. 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:49.600 And David finds himself unable to sleep. 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:58.000 His mind is racing, his heart is racing, he's unable to sleep during those times because he simply can't turn it off. 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:05.360 He can't compartmentalize, he can't turn off the fear, he can't turn off the adrenaline, he can't make the stress stop or go away. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:10.639 So that's what he's doing is he's lying awake throughout the night in the night watches. 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:18.879 My guess is that you have also experienced a time in your life where there was something that kept you awake. 00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:21.519 Something that kept you up at night. 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:24.879 Maybe it was a problem at work that you were experiencing. 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:30.639 Could have been a relationship in your life that's gone off the rails that you uh want to get back on track. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:40.159 Could be a life-altering decision that you have to make, and you're wrestling with all of the information, and how do I make a good decision, and it's gonna affect other people in my life. 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:43.600 What am I supposed to do and it keeps you awake at night? 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:53.039 It could be that you're stressing about your grades or your GPA, or as some of you are right now, the upcoming midterms that you have or are in the middle of right now. 00:09:53.600 --> 00:10:05.200 It could be that you're kept awake at night with something to do with your children, maybe decisions that they're making, maybe a difficult parenting situation. 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:13.519 You could be kept awake at night by a medical condition, maybe that wakes you up in the middle of the night and doesn't allow you to go back to sleep. 00:10:15.279 --> 00:10:26.000 Might be something in culture, it might be something in politics, but whatever the case, I think we all kind of have a sense of what it's like to have to lay awake at night and think about things like that. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:30.240 What David is describing here is not some sort of generic insomnia. 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:38.559 It's an insomnia that's induced by stress and fear and anxiety, and he's literally running for his life. 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:48.000 When we are consumed by our thoughts, like David is here in the Psalm, what do we do? 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:52.000 And the answer to that question is we turn our thoughts to God. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:53.840 So we think. 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:55.840 We turn our thoughts to him. 00:10:56.960 --> 00:11:09.919 Now, when David says here, I think of you throughout the watches of the night, when he says that, this is not a passive thing he's describing. 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:12.399 This is active thinking. 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:16.080 This is purposeful, intentional thinking. 00:11:16.240 --> 00:11:28.879 In fact, this word you see here in verse 6 that's translated think is the same Hebrew word that is found in Psalm 1, verse 2, where it says that the flourishing person is the one who meditates. 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:35.120 Same word, meditates on the instruction of the Lord day and night. 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:44.080 So the same word is used in both places, and it's a word that literally means to murmur or to mutter something under your breath. 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:47.360 It means to repeat something over and over and over again. 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:51.840 It means to obsess over something, to become focused on something. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:58.159 And that's what David says we should do when we find ourselves in the watches of the night. 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:06.080 In those wilderness seasons, we are to actively fill our minds with thoughts of God. 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:09.360 Now, what does that what does that actually look like? 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:12.240 Because to me that still sounds a little bit vague. 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:14.240 Uh, what exactly do we do? 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:15.679 How does this look? 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:29.759 Well, I don't think the way that we are supposed to approach this is to say, okay, I'm going to forget the fear, and I'm going to ignore the feelings I have and just think about God instead. 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:42.159 I don't think that we're being that the idea here is that we should ignore the elephant in the room of all of our fear and all of our anxiety and all that's causing us, you know, stress and adrenaline, all that, and just think happy thoughts instead. 00:12:42.399 --> 00:12:45.200 Just think about God and everything else will just go away. 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:47.120 I don't think that's the idea here. 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:55.120 I think the idea is that we are supposed to filter our fears and filter our feelings through our thoughts of God. 00:12:55.919 --> 00:13:00.639 So here's uh here's three questions that uh I hope would be helpful for you. 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:08.000 As you find yourself, maybe, maybe you can't do this in the moment, but at a later time you can maybe do some thinking and process this. 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:10.000 What do I actually fear? 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:17.120 Like what is actually, when it comes down to it, what's the thing I fear? 00:13:17.679 --> 00:13:20.720 Is it that I fear I'm not going to be able to provide for my family? 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:28.399 Do I fear the loss of my reputation with friends or neighbors or coworkers or classmates? 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:32.639 Do I fear the loss of a comfortable life? 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:37.600 Maybe a certain standard of living that I've been able to achieve for myself, and maybe that's in jeopardy? 00:13:37.840 --> 00:13:41.840 Do I fear the loss of control of something or someone in my life? 00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:47.519 In those moments when you're pull on the night shift, what is it that I'm actually afraid of? 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:50.320 Second question, what do I feel? 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:53.840 What are the feelings and the emotions that go along with that? 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:02.559 Do I feel alone, abandoned, scared, angry, sad, anxious, depressed, discouraged? 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:06.639 Do I feel like what's happened to me is unfair or unjust in some way? 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:09.120 What is it that I actually fear? 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:11.360 What is it that I actually feel? 00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:14.559 And thirdly, what's true about God? 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:18.639 What is true about God in those moments? 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:27.039 Because that's what David does all throughout the Psalm here is you see him saying things like, God is worth longing for. 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:40.000 And that love is better than life. 00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:45.840 He says, God is satisfying, he is our help, he is our protector, he's just. 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:57.360 So, yes, here's David in the middle of these night watches, and he's penning this song that reminds himself and reminds us of all these things that are true about who God is. 00:14:57.600 --> 00:15:08.960 So David is not just like trying to forget all the bad things, he's taking all those things and he's writing this to remind himself of who God is and what God has done. 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:13.919 And so this is the first thing that we should do in the wilderness is we think. 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:17.759 We fill our minds with thoughts of God. 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:20.720 We turn our thoughts to Him. 00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:26.159 Secondly, the second practice is sing. 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:30.559 So first is think, second is sing. 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:37.840 Verse 7, David says, Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:42.080 Now, again, this psalm is an example of the very thing that David's talking about. 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:45.759 He talks about singing, and we have this song that David wrote. 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:48.559 So this is one of the things that he did in the wilderness. 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:57.200 And you'll notice as you heard the song read, that more than once he mentions singing in the wilderness, singing in the desert. 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:02.080 Now, we we all know that music has the ability to connect with us, right? 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:05.919 In the deepest parts of us in a way that almost nothing can. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:19.120 Music touches those deepest parts of us, and my guess is that you can imagine or think of a song or an artist that defined a certain period of your life. 00:16:19.679 --> 00:16:28.240 There are certain songs where when I hear it, all of my teenage years come flooding back into my mind, for better or for worse. 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:35.360 My guess is that you have something like that too, where when you hear that song or that artist, oh man, it takes you back. 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:40.320 Maybe a song that makes you think of your spouse or your children. 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:46.639 Maybe a song that was super important to you during a time of difficulty or suffering. 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:53.279 Maybe a song that was super important to you when you first came to know Jesus and it became sort of an anthem for you. 00:16:53.840 --> 00:17:00.480 Music has the ability to touch us and to connect with us at those deepest levels. 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:02.480 And I think it's instructive, isn't it? 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:10.000 That in the midst of living in the wilderness, one of the things that David chose to do was to sing. 00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:17.039 If we were to be thrust out into the wilderness, we might not think to bring a guitar with us. 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:27.119 If I got a pack and you know, leave with what's on with only what I can carry, David probably would have been like, I'm bringing an instrument because it's that important to sing. 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:34.640 And I think the application for us in this is that we should leverage the formative power of music. 00:17:36.079 --> 00:17:38.799 We should leverage the formative power of music. 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:44.400 Uh, there's so many different ways this could look and ways we could do this, but I'll just mention briefly a couple of them. 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:50.880 Uh, number one, find ways to get Jesus-centered and faith-inducing music into your life. 00:17:51.200 --> 00:17:54.559 Okay, this is like really not complicated stuff. 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:55.039 Okay. 00:17:55.599 --> 00:18:03.200 Find good music that helps you think of who God is and what he's done and listen to it. 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:04.720 Yeah. 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:06.720 Oh, wow. 00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:17.519 We live in a time, friends, where we have access to so much more music, good Christian music, that we can possibly ever consume in our entire lives. 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:17.920 Okay? 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:19.440 And please don't misunderstand me. 00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:22.640 I'm not saying you're only allowed to listen to KTIS. 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:28.000 I'm not saying KTIS is great, but uh I'm not saying that that's your only option, right? 00:18:28.160 --> 00:18:31.839 I'm not saying the only option is you can listen to even Christian music. 00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:38.480 But there's a formative power to music, and we should be the kinds of people that leverage that formative power in our lives. 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:40.960 I've got a Spotify playlist. 00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:44.640 Uh it I think it was created by Spotify because I didn't make it. 00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:46.640 Uh, it's called Release Radar. 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:56.319 And what it does is every single Friday it populates all these songs that Spotify and all the robots and the algorithms think I'm gonna like based on my listening history. 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:03.200 And every Friday I go through and I can listen, and I can find two, three, sometimes eight or nine songs where I'm like, that's great. 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:05.680 I want to put that on my regular listening rotation. 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:17.119 There's so much good music out there for us to listen to and to enjoy, and so find music that reminds you of who God is and listen to it. 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:24.960 It could be the radio, it could be YouTube, it could be Spotify, it could be CDs, cassettes, eight-tracks, I don't care what it is. 00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:28.480 Find good music and listen to it. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:31.119 Listen to good music and sing it. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:39.440 When you're driving alone in the car, sing awkwardly and loudly and badly. 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:43.039 That's like the only way I know how to sing is that. 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:48.880 So find ways to listen to and enjoy and sing good music. 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:54.319 So find ways to get that Jesus-centered faith building, faith-inducing music into your life. 00:19:54.480 --> 00:20:03.359 And the second way that we can leverage the formative power of music is be here in person to participate in the gathered singing of God's people. 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:17.119 Leveraging the formative power of music is not just something we do individually, it's something that God has designed us to do collectively. 00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:20.000 Listen to the book of Colossians, chapter 3. 00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:21.839 Paul writes this, we'll start in verse 16. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:37.839 He says, Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:46.240 So when Paul says he wants the message of Christ to dwell richly among a church, what should that church do? 00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:48.160 Sing. 00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:56.160 Songs, hymns, songs from the Spirit, meaning songs that are uh that are new, songs that are old. 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:09.759 All kinds of songs, Paul says that's one of the means that God has given for us to see the message of Christ dwell richly among us, and we should sing because the po the power that music has to form us. 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:14.880 Music plays a critical role in the life of God's people. 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:25.759 I'll tell you, there have been times, some of you have experienced this, there have been times where, for you know, a couple times over the years, I have not been able to be here in person. 00:21:27.359 --> 00:21:30.640 And instead I join on the live stream. 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:44.960 And the experience of singing together with God's people in the room versus listening to it on my iPhone is like it's night and day different. 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:59.039 And some of you who have who have maybe had children who are sick, or you've been on vacation or whatever, and you have gone back and participated in the service late at a later time, you know there is no substitute for being in person with God's people and singing together. 00:21:59.279 --> 00:21:59.680 It's one. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:07.279 Of the things that God has given us is a gift that can help form us and shape us into the kind of church that He wants us to be. 00:22:07.440 --> 00:22:14.559 So that means that loud and robust and trust-filled singing should be a defining mark of our church. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:16.720 And in a lot of ways it is. 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:20.160 I love singing with you all. 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:25.200 In fact, I was just at a it was just at a pastor's conference this last week. 00:22:25.519 --> 00:22:29.279 And, you know, at these things, they'll sing songs that we sing here. 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:38.559 And every time that I'm at a conference or I'm at some other church and I hear those songs that we would do here, my first thought is always, I wish I was singing this with our church. 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:42.000 I love singing with you. 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:45.359 I love the formative power of music. 00:22:47.759 --> 00:22:51.039 Find ways to get Jesus-centered music into your life. 00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:56.079 Be here in person to participate in the gathered singing of God's people. 00:22:57.599 --> 00:23:04.480 The third practice that can help us thrive in the wilderness is cling. 00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:06.720 So think, sing, cling. 00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:09.200 He says in verse 8, I cling to you. 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:13.440 Your right hand upholds me. 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:25.359 The question that comes to my mind when I hear David say, I cling to you, is what does it mean to cling to God? 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:32.640 How do you cling to someone that you can't physically see with your eyes? 00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:35.200 What does it mean to cling to him? 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:48.559 And I and I think the best way I can uh sort of put this is I I think it means the way that we cling to God is the same way we would cling to any other person we can't see. 00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:56.559 If you didn't know this about me, I enjoy uh World War II documentaries, uh other kinds of war as well. 00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:04.799 Uh I guess it's a middle-aged dad thing, is you start smoking meat and uh watching war documentaries, so guilty as charged, this is a thing I hear. 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:07.680 Uh, but I enjoy watching these kinds of documentaries. 00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:22.640 And uh inevitably, as you see stories of these soldiers who are on the front lines, you hear stories of them writing letters back and forth to their sweetheart, to their wife or their girlfriend who's back home. 00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:33.039 And as they're corresponding back and forth, you'll you'll you know, you'll you'll hear the the wife sends a message to her husband and says, I love you. 00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:35.200 I'm waiting for you. 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:36.559 I miss you. 00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:38.480 I can't wait to see you. 00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:43.440 And if they've got kids, you know, little Johnny took his first steps today. 00:24:43.680 --> 00:24:45.119 Man, he misses his papa. 00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:46.880 We can't wait to see you. 00:24:47.440 --> 00:24:58.559 And on the front lines of being on the battlefield, the only thing that any of those soldiers can do is cling to the word that was given to them by this person in their life. 00:24:58.799 --> 00:25:04.880 They can't, in the absence of a physical person to cling to, all they could do was cling to what was spoken. 00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:17.599 In 2 Samuel chapter 7, God made covenant promises to David. 00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:22.559 And he said to David, I'm going to establish your kingdom. 00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:27.839 Your kingdom is going to last and endure forever. 00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:34.160 God made those promises to David. 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:39.200 But here he is, he's in the wilderness, he's fleeing for his life. 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:51.839 And in this exact moment where he writes Psalm 63, what it looks like is it looks like God's promises that were made to David are in jeopardy. 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:55.119 It looks like the kingdom is going to be ripped from his hands. 00:25:55.680 --> 00:25:59.359 That's the case if Absalom is the one who is chasing after him. 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:05.200 But it looks like these promises are in jeopardy. 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:12.880 When it looked like everything was falling apart, David, all he could do was cling to what God had spoken. 00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:16.799 All he could do was cling to what God had promised. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:20.319 And I think this is the application for us too. 00:26:20.559 --> 00:26:27.359 Is in those seasons of the wilderness, we cling to what God has spoken. 00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:33.599 We cling to his promises, we cling to what he has revealed. 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:37.359 David did this in the wilderness. 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:47.440 We see that in this psalm, and this is why, as he uh as he clung to what God promised, this is why this is not a psalm of resignation, it's not a psalm of utter defeat. 00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:54.240 It's a psalm, yes, where he's longing for God and desires to be with God and desires to encounter God. 00:26:54.880 --> 00:27:00.559 He's longing for God, but it's also a psalm of confident trust in God's ability to deliver him. 00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:09.200 Every wilderness season provides us with an opportunity to cling to what God has spoken. 00:27:13.039 --> 00:27:17.119 Friends, we who sit here today are so privileged. 00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:23.599 We sit here today between 2,500 and 3,000 years after David lived. 00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:29.599 David and the rest of the Israelites, they had God's spoken word. 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:39.920 God revealed himself graciously and generously to his people by speaking to them through Moses, by speaking to them sometimes directly or audibly. 00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:43.920 He spoke to them in the Torah, he spoke to them through the prophets. 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:47.440 So God for generations has been speaking to his people. 00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:53.680 They had the audible sometimes word of God. 00:27:53.759 --> 00:27:56.400 They had the written word of God. 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:00.960 But we cling to something even better as we sit here today. 00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:07.519 We have the living word who's revealed to us in the New Testament as Jesus Christ. 00:28:08.319 --> 00:28:30.799 In the book of Hebrews, listen to how the author of Hebrews says it in Hebrews 1, starting in verse 1, he says, In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he also made the universe. 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:39.519 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. 00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:53.839 So what the writer of Hebrews is saying is that God has decisively and definitively and most clearly spoken to us in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:28:54.400 --> 00:28:59.119 He is the clearest expression of God speaking to his people. 00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:08.240 So in our seasons of the wilderness, we cling not just to the words of God generically, although we do. 00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:11.839 We cling to what's recorded for us in Scripture, yes. 00:29:12.559 --> 00:29:17.119 We cling not just to the words of God generically, but to Jesus who is the living word. 00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:23.039 As we look to the life of Jesus, we see He is the living water. 00:29:23.359 --> 00:29:25.839 Remember David in here saying, Man, I'm so thirsty. 00:29:25.920 --> 00:29:27.279 I thirst for you, God. 00:29:27.519 --> 00:29:30.079 I'm in the wilderness in a place where there's no water. 00:29:30.319 --> 00:29:32.559 I thirst for you, I long for you. 00:29:33.839 --> 00:29:42.640 And Jesus in the book of John says, I am the living water, the one who can satisfy the deepest longings of your hearts and your soul. 00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:45.839 He's the living water. 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:50.079 He is the one who embodied the covenant faithfulness of God that David talks about here. 00:29:50.319 --> 00:29:54.240 As he says, your covenant, faithful, loyal love is better than life. 00:29:54.400 --> 00:30:00.640 And we look to Jesus as the one who embodied the covenant faithfulness of God for us and to us. 00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:05.839 Jesus is the one who provides the greater deliverance. 00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:09.359 David here is longing for God to change his circumstances. 00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:14.240 He's longing for God to deliver him and to rescue him and to preserve his life. 00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:16.880 And it's good that David would desire that. 00:30:17.599 --> 00:30:22.319 But in Jesus we have an even greater deliverance, not just from bad circumstances. 00:30:23.440 --> 00:30:27.920 Not only from bad circumstances, but from sin and from death itself. 00:30:31.119 --> 00:30:33.759 So in the wilderness, friends, cling. 00:30:35.039 --> 00:30:41.440 Cling to what God has spoken, cling to what God has revealed, cling to what God has promised. 00:30:41.839 --> 00:30:46.799 And all of that comes to fruition and comes into clear focus in the person of Jesus. 00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:48.319 So cling to Him. 00:30:50.640 --> 00:30:53.920 So this is how we can thrive and survive in the wilderness. 00:30:54.480 --> 00:31:02.160 Turn your thoughts to God, leverage the formative power of music and cling to what God has spoken. 00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:11.279 One of the ways that we practice this, cling to him, is we come to the communion table, which is something we do each week. 00:31:11.519 --> 00:31:18.400 We come and we get to be reminded of our brokenness and our need for a savior and a deliverer. 00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:26.000 And we also come empty-handed to receive what God has done for us, and we see that most clearly expressed in Jesus Christ. 00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:36.400 And so as we come to the communion table today, we get to once again be reminded of God's amazing grace and his mercy towards us. 00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:43.440 So let me invite you to take a few moments for silence and confession, and then we will come and we'll remember Christ at the communion table.