WEBVTT 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:13.279 Visit us online at GatewayFrickwink.com. 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:16.000 And now here's this week's message. 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:23.359 Well happy uh 250th. 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:28.960 None of you look that old, but uh but but congratulations to you for doing it. 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:31.199 I was 12 at the bicentennial. 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:32.719 I still have I got a little liberty bell. 00:00:32.799 --> 00:00:35.679 I grew up in that area anyway, so I got a little liberty bell. 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:41.439 I've got um I've got my parents gave me a constitution that's kind of etched in bronze. 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:44.240 It's it it's uh it's really, really cool. 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:47.520 Um and I still have a lot of bicentennial coins. 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:52.240 Uh they had stamps, they printed stamps in the bicentennial, so I had I have some stamps. 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:56.320 I'm keeping them, hoping someday um I can sell them. 00:00:56.479 --> 00:00:58.880 But uh but happy. 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:01.920 This is a good picture for for a holiday weekend I want to show you. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:03.679 This is Walker Cruz. 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:05.280 This is Walker Cruz. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:06.959 Walker Walker's our newest gateway. 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:09.280 Walker is about four and a half weeks old. 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:12.239 Walker was born three months premature. 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:14.400 Three months he was two pounds-ish. 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:19.840 Uh he was about yay long when I put my hands in to pray to pray for Walker. 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:24.640 Um, but he's just a few ounces away of being able to be moved out of the NICU. 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:32.400 He's been in there for that four, four and a half, five weeks, and Lauren is doing well, and and Justin is doing well, and I wanted him to say hi to you today. 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:33.760 I got that picture this morning. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:36.560 That's what and that the hat the hat made it. 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:40.719 I said, I gotta I the uh the the NICU nurses at St. 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:42.719 Thomas are amazing. 00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:51.519 Um I'm sure that they would appreciate Justin and Lauren appreciate me shouting out to them and all they've been able to do for them as a family. 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:54.879 Um for for our first time guests this morning, we're in a series. 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:00.400 I called it a summer series, and then I said that it probably will last longer than the summer. 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:03.599 I've already got a plan of how to change the graphic out in the great room. 00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:07.040 I'm just gonna cross out summer, and that's a pretty good plan. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:13.599 And um we're going through the Psalms of Ascent, so Psalms 120 to Psalms 134. 00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:19.840 Um, these 15 Psalms were were compiled as pilgrimage songs. 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:22.960 And um I contrasted that early in the series. 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:29.360 I contrast contrasted the side that we're on a pilgrimage versus the kind of the adage we talk about being on a journey. 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:36.639 And a new kind of metaphor I have for that is a journey, I think, is more like being a pinball in a pinball machine. 00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:40.000 I I loved playing pinball um growing up. 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:46.000 So so a pinball, you you the ball gets knocked around by someone else, something else's actions. 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:49.919 Um it hits plenty of obstacles, those obstacles hit back. 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:57.120 Um you get you get forced down holes, you don't know where you're gonna come out, and then you get thrown around ramps with no guardrails. 00:02:57.199 --> 00:03:01.120 And so that that's my take on pinball. 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:22.000 And I think when we talk about life being on a journey, it feels more like that, that we're really kind of reacting to things more than we are kind of responding to things, which on a pilgrimage, I liken a pilgrimage to as a process of being shaped into the image of God through the person of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:23.759 So that's intentional. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:29.280 A pilgrimage moves towards a determined destination, not a random landing place. 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:32.800 And our destination has two particular facets. 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:38.639 We're aiming to be in the presence of God now and the presence of God for eternity. 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:43.599 So it's a different way to look at our lives as being a journey versus a pilgrimage. 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:54.400 Um, as a reminder, these these 15 psalms were sung as a part of the journey, the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for three annual feasts. 00:03:54.479 --> 00:04:02.000 Now, the annual feasts were were they were seminal, they celebrated seminal moments in Israel's history, but it's more than that. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:04.400 They were more than just an historical gathering. 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:08.800 They were really what they were doing was celebrating seminal God moves. 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:14.800 And so when you look at the three um the three festivals, this is what they really were celebrating. 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:18.800 The God who delivers was who they were celebrating around Passover. 00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:25.759 The God who guides and empowers life and mission was what they were celebrating in the feast of Pentecost. 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:30.079 And then for Booths, the last one is the God who provides and sustains. 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:34.800 So that's the that's the God they were celebrating in those feasts. 00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:38.000 And so that's what made them special on those trips. 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:44.160 Now, it's no secret that in the Weir family, our our favorite vacation spot is the beach. 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:54.079 And and especially early on as a young family, you know, three and four days away at the beach, that that was about all we all we could afford, right? 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:58.720 And so um we it was important to start what my daughter called vircation. 00:04:58.879 --> 00:05:01.920 It was important to start vircation as early as we could. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:07.759 So I'm in this one particular year, we went and bought this double CD set of Jimmy from Jimmy Buffett albums. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:18.160 And so what we wanted to do is we wanted to smell and smell the salt air and taste the salt air before we actually got to salt air, right? 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:20.319 And so so those were the songs that guided. 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:23.279 We I I probably wore those CDs out as we were. 00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:25.600 We only played them when we were going to the beach. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:30.319 Um so the so here's here's the and here's the connection I want you to make. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:39.600 So the Psalms of Ascent were the double CD album of getting the pilgrims to Jerusalem. 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:51.120 Now, because they wanted to, even as they were going, they were they were celebrating where they were going, they were celebrating why they were going, they were celebrating who they were going to. 00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:53.680 And it extended out what this trip was about. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:57.839 They weren't um vacation songs to change a vibe. 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:02.639 Um, they were to really shape uh who these people were becoming. 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:09.279 Um in the introduction of the series, I told you that a number of these psalms just kind of leave you hanging. 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:10.480 They're called laments. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:16.639 They don't, they just express this mood, but they leave you in that place. 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:20.399 Um, and because it was a holiday weekend, I didn't want to leave you in that place. 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:22.560 So I added a psalm of thanksgiving too. 00:06:22.639 --> 00:06:24.879 All right, so it's a two-for-one holiday special, right? 00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:29.120 We're gonna do we're gonna do Psalm 123, we're gonna do one Psalm 124. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:34.480 So we're gonna we're gonna sit in the lament, but we're gonna end in the thank in the Thanksgiving. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:37.040 So if you have your Bibles, we're gonna do 123, 124. 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:38.399 Scripture will be on the screen. 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:40.000 Here they here it begins. 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:58.079 I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven, as the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God till he shows us mercy. 00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:04.480 We have endured no end of ridicule from the arrogant, of contempt from the proud. 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:08.639 And aren't you glad I added Psalm 124 today? 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:10.079 There's a song of lament. 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:17.920 So in our beginning year fast, I tell you that our fast is uh has a double ring to it. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:20.800 Uh ring number one is for us as a church. 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:23.519 Ring number two is for you as a family. 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:28.240 It's it's important to read the Psalms of Hussain in a very similar mindset. 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:33.680 There's actually three rings because one would be for the nation of Israel. 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:36.000 It still rings for the nation of Israel. 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:36.480 Okay? 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:41.759 The second ring is because we are Christians who live in America. 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:48.800 Um there is, I think there's a national ring that we can carry as well, like any other nationality reading these Psalms. 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:51.519 And then the third ring is for us personal. 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:57.600 So you kind of listen to these psalms ringing these kind of these kind of uh bells. 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:00.319 Now, Psalm 123 is a psalm of lament. 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:02.319 So here's how I define lament. 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:11.360 Biblically, a lament is more than an expression of sorrow or grief, it is a prayer in pain that leads to trust. 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:16.879 The goal of a biblical lament is restored hope and faith in God and his promises. 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:21.759 Laments are a faithful response to pain, suffering, and injustice. 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:22.879 Leave that up, Caitlin. 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:23.199 Right? 00:08:23.279 --> 00:08:33.759 So that's different than just than just a woe is me kind of prayer moment, which we all, if you're a follower of Christ, there isn't one of you exempt from a woe-is me prayer moment, right? 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:35.279 No issue with that. 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:48.799 But I think when you can put it in the context and start learning what a lament is, it gives us room, it gives us room to have that woe-is me moment, but it doesn't leave us in that moment. 00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:49.600 Right? 00:08:49.919 --> 00:08:53.120 Because who are we praying to in this lament? 00:08:53.679 --> 00:08:55.600 And so that should carry us forward. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:09:00.080 So, Psalm 123, let's look what what is the psalmist lamenting? 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:05.039 And what I found when I was studying this, that it's easier to understand this psalm going backwards. 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:09.679 It's kind of like the maze when you get, you know, the little maze at the dinner table or at the restaurant. 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:14.399 And you you it's easier sometimes in that maze to start at the last point to find your way to the beginning point. 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:16.320 So I think that's the way we're gonna do this psalm. 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:18.240 I I don't think I that's how I wrote it. 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:19.279 So we're gonna do it that way. 00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:21.360 So here's here's verse four. 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:28.960 We have endured no end of ridicule from the arrogant of contempt from the proud. 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:31.679 This is what this is what the psalmist lamenting. 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:35.919 So let's put it in the context of the nation of Israel because that's what that's what he's lamenting. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:36.480 All right. 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:42.559 So, Israel, no other nation had a living God directly involved in their day-to-day lives. 00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:43.840 No other nation. 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:54.639 No other nation had been birthed from generations of slavery into a nation living in the most desirable land of the region, where they were thriving beyond what was humanly possible. 00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:58.879 When Israel was in a right relationship with God, everything worked well. 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:04.240 When they were, what I called last week, when they were participating in worship malpractice, right? 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:08.240 So when the worship was sloppy, it was heartless, without intent. 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:10.240 That's the only time they ran in a ditch. 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:14.799 But even when they ran their cart in a ditch, they still carried the moniker of God's people. 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:21.519 And that was enough, that was enough to endure the contempt from other nations around. 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:22.720 You know this, right? 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:23.840 We've known this since we were kids. 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:28.559 If you have something nice and someone else doesn't have something nice, they want to ruin your what you have something nice. 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:39.679 I mean, there's a there's this level of contempt, and and what what the psalmist is is is sitting in is that's where that's where this the nation of Israel was when he writes this. 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:45.360 And while it was compiled, what we learned is um Israel stays in that spot, it seems. 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:49.919 When I read the words ridicule, that's an action. 00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:56.320 Arrogant, contempt, and proud, those are um those are emotions, those are a manner. 00:10:56.559 --> 00:11:02.159 My mind goes to, if you haven't read the book of Nehemiah, it's a short read, it's a great book in the Old Testament. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:16.399 Nehemiah goes from a play, a position of power in the Babylonian government who had taken over and destroyed the temple and had brought most of all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem back into Babylonian captivity. 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:29.200 So Nehemiah is a man who was probably possible he was born in that, and he's and he's and he's raising up in the palace of that, but he has God puts this burden on his heart to re-establish Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:38.720 So he leaves his post of prominence, he goes to Jerusalem, he assesses the situation, he puts together a plan, they begin executing the plan. 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:47.679 And there's two regional leaders named Sembalat and Tobiah that come into the area, and all they're doing is trying to stop the work of God. 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:51.519 And the only way they know how to do it, the only way they can do this is through threat. 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:53.360 So they threaten them. 00:11:53.600 --> 00:12:02.559 Um, and then as their threats did not stop the movement of the walls halfway through, uh, they enter the town and they said, Oh, what are you doing? 00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:03.279 This is awful. 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:05.039 This your work is shoddy. 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:06.960 You're working with terrible materials. 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:10.240 Even if a fox climbed on top of this thing, the thing falls. 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:16.799 And the intent was to deride the work, to discourage the people to stop everything that's going on. 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:20.720 That's what the enemy always wants to do to the people of God. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:34.320 Threaten, ridicule, demean, comes across arrogant, um, contemptful, putting you down, trying to get any place without why even try anymore? 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:36.639 Why, why, why work forward anymore? 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:38.399 It's it's not going to mouth or anything. 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:43.120 The enemy's always out to stop or slow down the work of God. 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:50.240 And this is a manner in which the the psalmist is experiencing um coming against the nation. 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:53.039 This is how he's experiencing it right now. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:13:11.840 Now, now when I when I read this from an American national Christian standpoint, you understand that it it isn't, it's not just America, but but the but the the kind of the chant is if it would if if religion went away, the world would be better off. 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:16.559 That religion is what is causes the world's problems. 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:17.200 Right? 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:23.519 And so the current aspects of our culture is blaming the church for the source of society ill's intention. 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:24.799 And here's how I see it. 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:30.080 They just want us to sit down and shut up about that all life is sacred. 00:13:30.639 --> 00:13:40.799 If we'll just sit down and shut up that all life is sacred, that life isn't a choice, that life is a choice, isn't a choice, life's life is a gift, they want to shut that down. 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:48.399 That God is the if we would just sit down and shut up about God being the creator and the determiner of biological sex. 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:54.399 We're causing too much problems holding to a biblical worldview of man and woman. 00:13:54.639 --> 00:14:06.720 If we just sit down and shut up that God has set a boundary for sexuality between one man and one woman, and that boundary is for our good, if we would just sit up, sit down and shut up about that, every the world would just be a just more peaceful place. 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:13.840 If we would sit down and shut up that parents are the most effective in parenting, not the state and federal governments, everything would just be fine. 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:20.399 And you recognize that all of those things, and those are the quarrel, there are others biblical truths and biblical morality that's being opposed. 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:26.240 But those are kind of the the call sign right now of culture. 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:29.600 And do you recognize that all those deal with generation? 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:32.480 It's all about generation. 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:42.000 If we can stop this generationally, if we can just put a some barrier here, then it won't continue to flow on. 00:14:54.159 --> 00:15:01.120 The very people that have throughout history stepped in to cure ills of society, right? 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:04.399 No hospitals without Christians, universities. 00:15:05.519 --> 00:15:15.360 Stepping in Rome, well, they told you that the Rome, the Christians in Rome, they gained the reputation of going to get the children that were just left to die in the city square. 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:20.559 All right, so so society uh has got it wrong completely. 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:24.960 So um verse three is the ask. 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:29.600 All right, verse four was we're just we're living under contempt. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:31.679 The ask is mercy. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:34.080 Have mercy on us, Lord. 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:38.320 Have mercy on us, for we have endured no end of contempt. 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:39.600 So let's start backwards again. 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:40.639 No end of contempt. 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:47.600 The Hebrew is carries the connotation of that we have absorbed, we have absorbed all that we can absorb. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:50.240 We've had our fill of this. 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:57.360 Now, um, you think about we haven't gotten a lot of rain this year, but Nashville knows rain, right? 00:15:57.519 --> 00:15:59.440 And we know flood and we know all that. 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:07.519 All right, so when when water doesn't absorb into a terrain, it doesn't absorb for one of two reasons. 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:12.639 One is it's moving so fast, it's moving so fast that it doesn't absorb. 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:21.200 The second is when the ground has already absorbed everything it can't absorb, it's soaked up everything it can, and then the water runs off. 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:25.120 This is the connotation that the psalmist is giving us. 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:29.600 The water has been running, we can't take any more water. 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:33.759 It's not possible for us to hold any more of this contempt. 00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:39.440 It has come in its full, it's come in a deluge, and it is just coming out all over the place. 00:16:39.519 --> 00:16:40.480 We can't handle it anymore. 00:16:40.559 --> 00:16:42.559 So, what is the what is the ask for? 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:45.120 He asks for mercy. 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:58.159 Now mercy generally we think of mercy as not getting what we deserve. 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:07.279 So kind of an easy definition of mercy and grace is mercy not getting what I deserve, grace getting something I could not obtain myself. 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:07.920 Okay. 00:17:08.640 --> 00:17:11.920 So that's one connotation of mercy with salvation. 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:15.279 That's not the kind of mercy the psalmist is asking for. 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:18.960 The other connotation of God's mercy is strength and power. 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:21.599 That's what he's asking for. 00:17:21.839 --> 00:17:27.279 So he's not asking for, oh God, would you just kind of come down and kind of console me a little bit? 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:31.119 You know, kind of put your arm around me and make me feel better. 00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:36.240 He he's asked, he's asking for, we have had enough. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:39.680 We can't take any more. 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:44.000 You can almost hear it now more than nationally, you can kind of hear it as a family. 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:48.000 I one more, I can't take one more thing. 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:52.720 One more thing is just gonna I I'm just juggling as much as I can juggle. 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:54.880 One more thing is just gonna crush me. 00:17:56.079 --> 00:18:00.240 Would you would you give would you give me mercy? 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:01.680 What a great ask. 00:18:01.839 --> 00:18:02.799 What a great ask. 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:04.720 Give me your mercy. 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:09.039 Um, and all this works back to us on verses one and two. 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:27.519 Um I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven, as the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female slave look to the hands of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God till he shows us mercy. 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:27.839 Right? 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:28.880 This is how it begins. 00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:31.119 Now, this is there's a lot in here to unpack. 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:31.680 All right. 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:34.400 Let me unpack this uh first thing. 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:38.720 Um when I first when I first read it, I lift my eyes to the Lord. 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:40.799 I go, Yeah, I mean that makes sense. 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:42.160 I lift my eyes to the Lord. 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:46.960 Um that is a that reads cleaner than the Hebrew. 00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:53.279 The Hebrew reads um to you I lift my eyes. 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:55.759 Now the grammatically, the sentence is still the same. 00:18:56.079 --> 00:18:59.039 God is still the subject, but it feels different to me. 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:03.359 I look, I look, I look to you. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:06.559 I lift my eyes to you. 00:19:06.799 --> 00:19:10.079 Feels so I lift my to you, I lift my eyes. 00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:11.839 It just feels different to me when I read it. 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:15.680 I might not be able to convey it to you in the way that it hit me. 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:19.599 One is so personally focused. 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:24.880 I'm personally I'm so wrapped up into what the only thing I know to do is lift my eyes to you. 00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:30.319 The other one seems to be a little bit more aware of where the hope comes from. 00:19:31.200 --> 00:19:33.119 To you I lift my eyes. 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:43.599 Now in scripture when when when you read, um, it doesn't always point out male and female when you read. 00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:50.559 Sometimes when it's using some male language, it's it's in reference to just the whole name, all of mankind, right? 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:53.599 It's no slight, it's just that's just the language. 00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:58.960 And I find it fascinating in this psalm, he addresses both man and woman. 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:10.480 Says to the man, look, I'm gonna get to the enthroned heaven apart, but he says to the man look to God like your master. 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:14.799 And to the woman, look to God like your mistress. 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:16.480 Like I don't have anything. 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:23.200 If I if I'm a servant to a master in this century, right, everything I have comes for you. 00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:33.759 I don't have clothes without you, I don't have food without you, I don't have shelter without you, and and this is the context he's putting this in. 00:20:34.400 --> 00:20:39.440 This is how we're to look and lift our eyes to. 00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:43.839 Like we have no other recourse other than him. 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:44.559 Right? 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:49.279 When when you have a different recourse, in most cases, right, we try it. 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:55.519 And it's it the psalmist is trying to get us to skip this piece. 00:20:56.319 --> 00:21:00.799 Skip it in the sentence saying, You don't you don't have the mercy that's necessary here, right? 00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:02.400 Because you're you're already full. 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:03.920 You're you're absorbed. 00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:07.119 We have to lift our eyes to the one enthroned at heaven. 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:12.240 Now, Psalm 120 said, I call to the Lord in my distress, and he answers me. 00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:12.480 Right? 00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:14.480 It was the verbal, I call to the Lord. 00:21:14.559 --> 00:21:19.440 And I told you that distress there, the Hebrew meant uh uh the uh in a tight place. 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:21.920 So I call to the Lord when I'm in a tight place. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:25.440 And then the the MO of God is to bring us into spacious places. 00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:30.160 So saying I call out to God in a tight place, and God answers me. 00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:32.319 The answer is I bring you into spacious place. 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:38.160 Here he's saying, I'm lifting my eyes to you, and he says, to the one enthroned in heaven. 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:39.680 Now that's a big deal. 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:47.920 So I told you that Jerusalem and I showed you the temple last week, and I said, This is God's address, because God said, This is where I put my name forever. 00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:53.119 Um, this is where I will not take my eyes off on the dedication of the temple back in the Old Testament with Solomon. 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:59.039 But there was times in Israel's history, one included I mentioned, Israel was no more. 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:00.880 I mean, are Jerusalem was no more. 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:02.079 The temple didn't exist. 00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:02.880 It was destroyed. 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:03.920 Walls are down. 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:10.640 So anytime we just limit God to a place, we're always limiting God. 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:13.920 We're always limiting God to a particular action. 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:16.319 Well, this is the way God should respond here. 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:17.279 We're limiting God. 00:22:17.359 --> 00:22:21.599 Every time you put a limit on God, actually we're the ones that get limited by it. 00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:33.359 And so this would have been real important throughout a bunch of time in Israel's history that the psalmist would say that his address is enthroned in heaven. 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:36.160 That it's not just essentially located in one place. 00:22:36.319 --> 00:22:38.400 No, this is kind of strange because they're going to a place. 00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:45.440 But when they couldn't get to that place, God still sat enthroned in heaven. 00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:49.680 Now so he didn't just sit there in a camping chair in heaven. 00:22:50.799 --> 00:22:52.319 He's on a throne in heaven. 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:54.480 He's the king of heaven. 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:06.799 So even the acknowledgement of who he is and where he is and what he's done, this is encouraging, it's encouraging to the psalmist. 00:23:28.799 --> 00:23:31.440 So our eyes look to the Lord, our God. 00:23:50.480 --> 00:24:06.960 So we we we read it backwards so that you could sit somewhat in the emotion of what it felt like to be ridiculed to the point that you couldn't take anything else to be held in contempt by arrogant people. 00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:14.400 And you didn't know what to ask for, but you knew who to ask. 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:35.279 So let's shift to the a Psalm of Thanksgiving, because I believe these two actually probably were linked, were linked together. 00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:50.000 If the Lord had not been on our side, let Israel say, if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us. 00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:55.839 The flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging water would have swept us away. 00:24:56.079 --> 00:25:00.880 Praise be to the Lord, who has not let us been be torn by their teeth. 00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:03.839 We have escaped like a bird from the fowler's snare. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.079 The snare has been broken and we have escaped. 00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:09.920 Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. 00:25:11.279 --> 00:25:14.319 All right, so now we get resolution for the problem. 00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:15.599 Let Israel say. 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:17.839 That's a great line in there. 00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:18.640 Let Israel say. 00:25:18.720 --> 00:25:20.480 He's leading a cheer of sorts. 00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:21.200 Right? 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:24.000 If God had not been on our side, let Israel say. 00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:31.200 My grandson's only a couple months away from um being two, but he's already been to two monster jams here in Nashville. 00:25:31.599 --> 00:25:33.039 And they came back from the second one. 00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:36.720 And my daughter and son-in-law got him had him jam. 00:25:37.359 --> 00:25:41.920 When I say monster, you should say jam, monster jam, monster jam. 00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:46.559 And he's he's he's 18 months going, monster jam, monster jam. 00:25:46.799 --> 00:25:52.000 I mean, this this is kind of this is kind of what this almost is coming into. 00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:55.680 Like hey, I know, I know the pressure. 00:25:56.400 --> 00:25:58.480 I know where we sit with the man. 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:10.960 Let's let's get let's get a hold of ourselves, let's take a gauge of things because we wouldn't have been swept away. 00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:17.359 That's pretty that's pretty sure. 00:26:28.079 --> 00:26:29.039 Gods on our side. 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:33.440 We've been swallowed up, but we're not swallowed up. 00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:41.839 Using the same the same kind of visual surroundings that they would have had, this idea of water rushing through areas. 00:26:43.759 --> 00:26:48.400 Where Jerusalem and that that terrain that would have been water coming down from mountains, you wouldn't necessarily know. 00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:49.599 Here comes a flash flood. 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:55.440 The flash flood comes in and takes up these waddies that were dry and couldn't hold a lot of water, couldn't absorb a lot of water. 00:26:55.519 --> 00:27:00.079 And we we would have been absorbing it and swept away if God had not been on our side. 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:01.279 But guess what, folks? 00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:04.400 God is on our side. 00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:09.200 It's okay. 00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:13.599 It's okay to go and walk and reflect on what's been hard. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:15.279 Those seasons are real. 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:17.519 You have to live through them or you're living through them. 00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:18.400 That's that's real. 00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:27.839 He's not saying anything to try to uh get you to deny that that's what the case is or or that or the pain that that's extracted, but he's joined in the Psalms of Thanksgiving. 00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:38.240 So you you can sit in that as long as that lament is looking to God and not just being swallowed up by that grief and that pain that you're in, because God's on your side, right? 00:27:38.559 --> 00:27:41.759 And so now he moves to this, he moves to the psalm. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:48.559 Um praise be to the Lord who has not let us be torn by their teeth. 00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:51.920 We have escaped like a bird from the fowler's snare. 00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:54.319 The snare has has been broken. 00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:55.519 We have escaped. 00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:58.720 Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. 00:27:58.799 --> 00:27:59.680 Now let's break this down. 00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:04.400 Who has not let equals who has intervened? 00:28:06.319 --> 00:28:10.240 We have escaped equals this will not be our end. 00:28:12.400 --> 00:28:14.000 The snare has been broken. 00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:16.880 Equation of our weapons have been shattered. 00:28:18.319 --> 00:28:21.599 Its correlation is no weapon formed against us would prosper. 00:28:21.759 --> 00:28:24.799 This would be the old testament version of that sentiment. 00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:29.279 And then our help is in the name. 00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:38.000 When that word is used, it's talking about God's reputation, his renown, his fame, his character. 00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:40.720 He said, Our help is in the character of God. 00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:43.519 Our help is in the reputation of God. 00:28:43.759 --> 00:28:47.920 He has earned a reputation of deliverer and power. 00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:52.559 He's earned that reputation, and our hope is in that reputation. 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:54.559 Our hope is in his character. 00:28:54.960 --> 00:28:56.240 Our hope is in the name. 00:28:56.799 --> 00:28:59.359 And then he is the one that sits in heaven. 00:28:59.920 --> 00:29:01.839 Um he is the maker. 00:29:01.920 --> 00:29:10.400 So we have him enthroned in heaven in verse 123 or chapter 123, and we have him a maker of heaven and earth in 124. 00:29:11.039 --> 00:29:12.799 So let me repeat what a lament is. 00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:16.160 A lament is more than a sad song. 00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:17.200 Come on up, team. 00:29:17.599 --> 00:29:19.599 A lament is more than a sad song. 00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:25.519 It is it is a faithful response to pain, suffering, and injustice. 00:29:26.480 --> 00:29:29.119 A thanksgiving psalm is more than a cheer. 00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:30.720 It is truth. 00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:32.960 It is hope set to melody. 00:29:35.759 --> 00:29:37.680 God is on our side. 00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:51.440 What has struck me as I've been going through these psalms is it's made me pay more attention to the mechanics of what they had to do three times a year to go to Jerusalem for these festivals. 00:29:52.240 --> 00:30:00.480 And I think in one of the messages I told you that they they were, they I think it was last week, they looked forward to this, and I and I just get lost in the logistics of it. 00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:07.519 You know, I gotta stop this, I gotta stop this, I gotta budget for that, I gotta get everybody rounded up, and I look weren't we just there? 00:30:11.119 --> 00:30:14.480 But that's not how they approached these pilgrimages. 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:23.200 These pilgrimag were were hope-filled because they knew why they were going, they knew who they were going to, they knew where uh who was going to be there when they got there. 00:30:23.839 --> 00:30:30.160 Um 74 times in the book of Psalms the word enemy is used. 00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:33.200 It's three times more than any other book in the Bible. 00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:41.440 That's why when you read you read so many laments in the Psalms, they feel kind of under attack. 00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:47.519 And life didn't stop for everyone when it came time for a festival, right? 00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:52.240 So we're having a real struggle, and it's like, oh, struggle stops because guess what? 00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:53.599 We're going to Jerusalem. 00:30:53.759 --> 00:30:54.799 Everybody start singing. 00:30:54.880 --> 00:30:56.240 Let's just start singing the songs. 00:30:56.319 --> 00:30:58.240 Let's just let's just round everybody up and it. 00:30:58.319 --> 00:31:02.720 No, it just they came at all all different seasons of their life. 00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:09.359 And I imagine there's certain seasons of their life, certain of these psalms that have sat just struck a chord with them. 00:31:09.599 --> 00:31:12.880 And others, they just kind of ran through. 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:18.480 And I and I bet that happened throughout the life and throughout the generation of them. 00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:22.720 Sometimes they fell under attack, sometimes they didn't. 00:31:23.839 --> 00:31:28.400 But these psalms were to communicate some very important facts. 00:31:28.799 --> 00:31:34.079 To find comfort in God in your times of war, you have to believe three things. 00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:38.000 You gotta believe that God sits over everything and everyone. 00:31:39.440 --> 00:31:46.000 You gotta believe that God is the mercy giver, and his mercy overwhelms that which is overwhelming. 00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:49.599 And you have to believe God is on your side. 00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:53.119 Leave that up, Caleb. 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:59.440 To find comfort in God at your times of war, you have to believe those three things. 00:31:59.599 --> 00:32:03.440 God sits above over everything and everyone. 00:32:04.400 --> 00:32:07.759 That God is the mercy giver, and his mercy is sufficient. 00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:13.440 Well, his mercy overwhelms that which is overwhelming, and that God is on our side. 00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:20.319 God answers laments with powerful actions that result in thanksgiving. 00:32:21.599 --> 00:32:26.400 Um I would say that Lamentations is one of my favorite books, and it's not. 00:32:26.799 --> 00:32:30.160 Um, but Lamentations is an amazing book. 00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:33.119 There's a whole book just called Lamentations. 00:32:33.440 --> 00:32:35.440