WEBVTT 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:19.440 Psalm sixty-three. 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:24.079 O God, you are my God, and earnestly I seek you. 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:31.760 My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:36.880 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:42.000 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:44.960 So I will bless you as long as I live. 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:47.840 In your name I will lift up my hands. 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:54.960 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:01:01.039 When I remember you upon my bed, my meditate and meditate on you in the watches of the night. 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:06.719 For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing my for joy. 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:11.599 My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me. 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:17.120 But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth. 00:01:17.599 --> 00:01:20.400 They shall be given over to the power of the sword. 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:23.599 They shall be a portion of for jackals. 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:33.359 But the king shall rejoice in God, all who swear by him shall exalt, for the mouths of the liars will be stopped. 00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:34.959 And so reads God's word. 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:56.159 But hopefully get to meet you over a cup of coffee after the service. 00:01:56.319 --> 00:01:57.760 We do psalms in the summer. 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:01.280 That's uh been our practice now for a number of years. 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:03.280 Uh, it started at Psalm number one. 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:05.599 Here we are at Psalm uh 63. 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:12.479 So if you've got uh it on your phone or if you've gone old school and actually have a physical Bible, you can turn that up. 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:18.560 Our mission, uh City Church, if you don't know what our mission is, I'm sure some of you here are ready just to repeat it with me, right? 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:31.039 Uh but if you don't know what our mission is at City Church, I'm gonna tell you our mission is to connect people to Jesus, to grow them to spiritual maturity, that they might serve the community and go to the nations. 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:33.840 There's four verbs there: connect, grow, serve, go. 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:34.800 That's how you remember it. 00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:53.840 We connect people to Jesus, that's our desire, that they might grow to spiritual maturity, that they might serve within the context of the church family, but also in any sphere that God might place them in, and then go as missionaries to those contexts with the good news of Jesus. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:57.599 That's what we're about, first and foremost. 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:09.199 It's not flashy, it's maybe not particularly trendy, but that is our mission as a church to see people come to know Jesus and in knowing him come to Christian maturity. 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:28.240 That second part, grow, of maturing as believers, is uh an important part of our mission because what we're not about as a church is just uh getting as many people as possible uh to make quick, uh, shallow decisions for Jesus. 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:39.919 We're not about trying to manipulate you into raising your hand or coming forward or uh or even uh praying a special prayer at the at the end. 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:42.960 We're not just about the quick decisionism. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:56.639 We want people to come to a genuine faith in Jesus and then to grow in that faith, as Paul would say in Colossians chapter two, about putting roots down into Jesus so that you might become like a tree. 00:03:56.800 --> 00:04:02.319 That's actually the image of Psalm 1, the very first Psalm, which is really the doorway to the whole book of Psalms. 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:09.439 The whole book of Psalms wants you, wants us to be maturing as followers of Jesus. 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:13.759 It wants us to be doing that grow thing. 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:25.680 We also think that it's it's good because a maturing faith, a maturing Christian, one who follows Jesus, is one who it brings honor and glory to God. 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:41.759 What doesn't glorify God is what we have seen in the past and the history of our country of just empty religion, just doing going through the motions on a Sunday morning or on a Saturday evening, but having no bearing on the rest of the week. 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:42.480 No, no. 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:48.720 The life that glorifies God is a life that doesn't just uh talk the talk but walks the walk also. 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:58.399 That actually is bringing the lordship of Jesus, the good kingship of Jesus to bear in every area of our lives. 00:04:58.879 --> 00:05:03.759 How we relate to one another, how we use our money, how we use our body are the decisions that we make. 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:11.759 That's the life that uh if you are a Christian, you should be aspiring to live because that's the life that glorifies God. 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:14.480 That's why we want you to grow as Christians. 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:19.920 We also want you to grow because actually we believe that it's good for you. 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:25.279 It's not just what God wants, what he desires for you. 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:28.000 He it is actually good for you. 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:30.800 He desires your good. 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:45.519 Because to grow in Jesus, to grow in faith, is well, it's first and foremost about growing in things like love, joy, peace, uh, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and and self-control. 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:51.680 And and doesn't uh everybody need a little bit more of at least some of those things? 00:05:53.120 --> 00:06:06.480 To grow in faith is good because, as we'll see from this Sam, it actually helps us to traverse and uh and persevere through some of the difficult and arid seasons of life. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:15.680 So many people are shipwrecked and destabilized and lose their hope because of circumstances and suffering. 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:28.319 Whereas actually being a follower of Jesus over uh a uh a long count of years, that steady daily obedience to him, it actually becomes like ballast in your boat. 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:29.279 You know what ballast is? 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:37.199 Ballast is the it's the it's the concrete slabs that are put in the bottom of a ship to weigh it down so that it doesn't capsize. 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:44.639 To mature as a Christian is to get more and more faith ballast in your boat, and that's what we want for you. 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:54.560 It's not only desirable because it honors God or because it's good for you, but it but because it is how we are that city on a hill. 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:57.199 It's how we witness to the world. 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:05.040 Because again, our world is looking for meaning and satisfaction, the longings to the deepest yearnings of our hearts. 00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:10.000 We're just signing that uh that line, our souls are restless until they find rest in you. 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:16.160 That's actually a quote from a man called Augustine, uh, who lived in the uh fourth, fifth century. 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:23.360 He said, and he tried to satisfy his soul with lots of things with wine, women, and song. 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:30.879 And he realized actually, my soul is restless and can only find rest in you. 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:35.519 And that's true of all of us, and we'll unpack that in just a second. 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:39.680 But as people look at your life, they see something different. 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:42.079 That's why maturing as a Christian. 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:45.360 I noticed this when we uh when we moved house. 00:07:45.519 --> 00:07:50.000 People who are my neighbors couldn't give a rip about uh about the doctrine that I have. 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:50.639 Not really. 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:55.920 They don't really interested in whether or not I can kind of begin to explain what the doctrine of the Trinity is. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:57.519 They want to know do I have integrity? 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:00.639 Am I talking the talk and walking the walk? 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:04.399 Is my life different because of what I say I believe? 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:09.600 Put it another way, am I growing in my faith in the Lord Jesus? 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:24.160 Psalm 63, as I was reading it this week, it's actually it's quite aspirational, it's quite challenged by it because David is saying things like, I'm I'm yearning for you above all else. 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:28.879 Your love is better than life itself. 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:35.519 I'll tell you right now, I read that and I think I want, I want, I want to get there. 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:40.799 I want to be more there than I am right now. 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:47.120 And I suspect that actually that will only be fully completed when I see Jesus face to face. 00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:54.639 But it is that is part of the journey of this life is journeying more and more into that. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:10.799 And so I invite you this morning to join me in that journey of becoming more and more dependent upon God, upon the Lord Jesus, of seeking to mature in Him. 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:14.320 Psalm 63, in that sense, is it's aspirational. 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:19.759 It's uh the maturing Christian's interaction with God in all circumstances of life. 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:33.840 As is so often the case, the evidence of our maturity is not shown when the sun is shining down on us, but actually when the dark clouds of suffering and trial have rolled in. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:37.200 That's what really reveals what we what we value. 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:38.639 Haven't you found that? 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:42.320 So why you why do you run when things are going wrong? 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:46.320 That reveals something of your of your heart. 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:57.440 But in that wilderness, in that time of trial, David gives us two images that are going to kind of filter down through our time this morning. 00:09:57.519 --> 00:10:03.200 And it is the image of fainting for God and of feasting on him. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:06.960 It's nice to have uh alliterative points. 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:12.159 Uh, it may help you remember them, fainting and feasting, but I haven't just plucked them out of thin air. 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:13.600 They're there in the text. 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:27.120 My flesh faints for you in verse one, and then down in verse five, he is talking about being satisfied with rich food, of uh, of delving deep, of feasting in this banquet of God. 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:33.200 So let's let's think about these two images of fainting and feasting. 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:39.039 First of all, fainting, fainting for God, yearning for him. 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:48.000 Again, as we have had in these last couple of weeks, we uh find ourselves in the wilderness with King David. 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:55.919 Again, he is facing uh trial and difficulty, as in Psalm 61. 00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:00.159 He's uh he's out of the city, he's pushed away, he's in exile. 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:04.639 There are people after his life, the king is is on the run. 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:11.759 And I'm really glad actually that David doesn't just give us a status update when when things are going well. 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:16.240 King David doesn't Instagram filter his life, he never has. 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:21.919 He's always telling us, uh you know, things are really bad right now. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:23.519 Uh, you know, and tweet. 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:28.240 There's something really honest and earthy about David. 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:31.200 He doesn't try and put a veneer on things. 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:33.840 If he's feeling angry, he speaks about his anger. 00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:36.080 If he's feeling overwhelmed with grief, he speaks about that. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:38.000 If he's joyful, he speaks about that. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:39.840 But he's not one-dimensional. 00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:45.279 And again, we find ourselves in the wilderness and he's telling us about his trouble. 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:50.080 Why does God put him in the wilderness? 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:53.919 Why does God allow the wilderness? 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:56.240 Why does God allow us? 00:11:56.559 --> 00:12:01.200 Maybe that's that's probably one of the first questions that you go to when you find trial. 00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:02.080 You go, well, why? 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:03.279 Why has this happened? 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:03.840 Why now? 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:06.240 Why has God allowed this? 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:11.600 Why does God put us in the wilderness? 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:31.919 I think part of the answer is that God tends to strip away everything because we have a tendency to become addicted to the gifts that he's given us rather than trusting him. 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:40.559 We fall in love, don't we, with money, with power, with sex and comfort, approval and control. 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:46.240 Why does God wrestle them from our grasp? 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:48.000 Why does he take them away? 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:49.679 Because he hates us? 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:51.120 No. 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:58.879 To show us that they are only shadows of the surpassing satisfaction that he offers. 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:00.480 To show us that they're gifts. 00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:05.440 We're so prone to falling in love with the gifts and forgetting the giver. 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:18.159 God in your life will sometimes turn out all the other lights so that you are drawn to the light of his goodness and grace. 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:19.200 Have you experienced that? 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:35.519 Or you feel like you feel like you're kind of holding on to this rock cliff and and and and every every handhold, the handhold of other people, or the the handhold of of money and comfort, or the handhold of a sense of control, they're all kind of crumbling in front of you. 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:36.639 You think, well, where can I go? 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:40.320 And Jesus is there, he said, I am the rock, grab that. 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:42.320 I'm the only one left. 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:56.879 As the old hymn says, when every earthly prop, that is the things that you would lean on, when every earthly prop gives way, he is still my strength and stay. 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:04.240 On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other grind is sinking sand. 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:10.480 God puts us in the wilderness so that we realize that all other ground is sinking sand, you see? 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:15.360 But it's interesting, David doesn't ask why. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:18.720 David doesn't ask why, instead, he asks who. 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:28.960 Instead of asking why God has done this, why that why God has allowed this to happen, he asks, well, okay, who is God? 00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:33.120 Who is the God who is with me in this? 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:35.519 And do you see his answer at the very start of verse one? 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:40.480 Oh God, you are my God. 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:44.480 You are my God. 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:50.080 He is drawn, first of all, to the relationship that he has with God. 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:52.639 You are my God. 00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:55.039 Remember our mission statement? 00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:56.159 What's the first part? 00:14:56.320 --> 00:14:58.639 We exist, city church exists to do what? 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:01.039 To connect people to Jesus. 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:10.240 That is, to establish that relationship between you and the God who made you so that you can sit here and go, yes, God is my God. 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:13.039 Jesus is my Lord. 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:14.639 Jesus is my savior. 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:16.080 He is my God. 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:19.519 I have a relationship, a connection with him. 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:21.759 That's my starting point. 00:15:22.080 --> 00:15:24.559 That's the starting point of all Christian maturity. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:28.080 That's the starting point of all wrestling through uh trials and suffering. 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:30.159 You remember, okay, who is God? 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:32.320 Is he bad and capricious? 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:33.440 Does he hate me? 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:36.879 No, because he's already shown me in Jesus that he doesn't. 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:41.279 Who is the God that is in the wilderness with you? 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:44.960 David doesn't faint and long for some distant deity. 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:54.879 He longs for the God who is his God, the God who knows him, the God who he knows because God has spoken. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:16:03.840 The God who has saved him, the God who has loved him, who has made him king, who has set his feet upon the rock. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:06.639 We have this interaction with God, don't we? 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:17.039 That God is the one who needs to show up when uh when things are going uh really badly, but we kind of park him to the side when when things are going well. 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:18.960 And they well, I've got this now. 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:21.840 No, no, God's not a superhero. 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:26.639 God's not like you know, like Thor or Superman or Batman. 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:34.000 Where you just can't, if you're a damsel in distress, you cry out and he swoops in, and then you thanks very much, God, and then he flies off again. 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:37.200 No, no, you have no relationship with the superhero God. 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:48.240 Now, this is a God of commitment, of covenant joining, of promise keeping. 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:49.919 I will not forsake you. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:51.200 And David starts there. 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:53.679 Oh God, you are my God. 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:54.320 Do you see? 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:56.960 He doesn't start with why, he starts with who. 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:06.240 Folks, one of the signs of Christian maturity is when you are in the pit and you're tempted to go, why? 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:07.680 Why is this happening to me? 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:09.279 What could I have done? 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:13.039 Those are the wrong questions to ask. 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:16.000 Start with who. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:18.559 Who is God? 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:24.240 David is in a physical wilderness. 00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:30.559 We know that from uh the little superscript above verse one, Sam of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. 00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:32.640 That is, he's away from Jerusalem. 00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:38.799 David's in a physical wilderness, a place of actual physical thirst and hunger. 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:48.960 But he realizes there that there are longings deeper than his present circumstances. 00:17:49.200 --> 00:18:08.240 And so he writes, the end of verse one, my not my mouth, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:14.640 Did you know you have a soul? 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:20.160 Did you know that you have a soul? 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:23.200 And did you know that that soul can thirst? 00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:32.319 That it needs to drink, that it has longings and yearnings. 00:18:37.599 --> 00:18:42.319 People tend to call these soul thirsts desires. 00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:46.000 People talk in terms of what they desire. 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:57.039 People are driven by the desire for love, for comfort, for meaning, for intimacy, for a sense of who they are. 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:03.599 You have one or more of those desires probably bubbling up to the surface even this morning. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:07.839 Where do those desires come from? 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:12.559 They're surely not the result of just a material universe. 00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:16.799 So why would somebody evolve to long for meaning and significance? 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:18.720 That doesn't make any sense. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:21.519 Maybe for a desire to reproduce. 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:26.319 Maybe you could justify it as a desire for sex, but surely not for meaning. 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:30.079 Surely not for intimacy or for comfort. 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:43.039 No, the desires that drive us every day are evidences that there is something more to you than just a meat machine. 00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:50.160 That there's something more to you, and you know it instinctively, that's part of probably the reason why you're here this morning. 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:54.880 They cannot quite be satisfied by those things. 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:59.200 Our hearts are restless until they find rest in you. 00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:04.960 You have a soul, I have a soul, and it thirsts and it longs. 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:08.480 So, what does David do? 00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:26.880 As we've seen before, he looks back to evidence of God's past satisfaction of him, and he projects that forward also. 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:28.720 So you have verses two and verse four. 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:34.799 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, that's the the temple, beholding your power and glory. 00:20:34.880 --> 00:21:02.400 So he remembers those past experiences when he was, in a sense, kind of at the very epicenter of God's presence as he understood it, when he felt like he was at the on those mountaintop sort of experiences, when he could hear the uh the crowds around Jerusalem replying to him as he led them in the in the worship in the liturgy of of ancient Israel. 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:08.799 When he heard the the cries of the prayer, Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and he was remembering all of those things. 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:09.680 Yes. 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:18.000 And that's that's nourishing him in a sense, but it's also it's also not quite enough because he's doing something else. 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:22.559 Yes, he remembers times when he met with God, but he doesn't stop there. 00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:33.440 And he doesn't say in verse 4, and I know that one day I'm gonna go back to the temple and we're gonna have a great worship service, and I'll be back on the mountain, and and there it'll be great. 00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:34.240 No, no. 00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:36.400 Look at verse four. 00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:40.480 So I will bless you as long as you as long as I live. 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:43.680 In your name, I will lift up my hands. 00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:49.680 Now, something that I I should have emphasized in verse two, because there's a little parallel going on here. 00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:54.960 This is why it's important for you to have the Bible in front of you, because we're gonna just be looking at it in a little bit of detail. 00:21:55.119 --> 00:22:03.519 So, verse two, so I have looked upon you where is In the sanctuary, in the temple. 00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:08.720 But in verse 4, Jesus does, or Jesus, David doesn't say, I'm going back there. 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:12.400 He says, No, no, I can bless you now in the wilderness. 00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:18.240 I can worship you now in this season of trial and of suffering, in this pit that I'm in. 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:20.319 In your name. 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:25.680 He doesn't wait to go back to the sanctuary to worship God. 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:29.599 He can he realizes his faith is growing, he's maturing, do you see? 00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:36.079 That he can worship God where he is in the circumstances that he finds himself. 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:50.079 It's not like, well, I've just got to wait until I start to feel a little bit closer to God, and then maybe I'll go back to church and you know I'll maybe go back to community group in September, but I don't really feel very close to God right now. 00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:51.839 Yeah, things aren't really great. 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:53.359 No, he doesn't do any of that. 00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:56.240 He doesn't wait until he's back into the sanctuary. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:22:59.839 He realizes that God is with him there in the wilderness. 00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:03.519 Again, it's a similar sort of thing that we saw in Psalm 61. 00:23:04.079 --> 00:23:08.880 That even though he's in the wilderness, he's no further away from the center of God. 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:13.359 He doesn't wait for the big mountaintop experience again. 00:23:13.599 --> 00:23:18.160 He brings, in a sense, his knowledge of God down into the valley. 00:23:18.319 --> 00:23:20.480 He says, I'm going to praise you right where I am. 00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:22.319 I'm going to seek you here. 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:24.559 I'm yearning for you now. 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:29.759 I need you to satisfy the longings of my heart's heart where I am. 00:23:32.880 --> 00:23:33.519 Why? 00:23:35.519 --> 00:23:37.920 Why does he look to God in this sort of way? 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:44.559 Why does he look to God as the one who can only satisfy the deepest longings of his heart? 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:47.200 It's because of verse 3. 00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:50.480 An amazing verse this is. 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:56.480 Verse 3, because your steadfast love. 00:23:56.559 --> 00:23:57.200 Let's stop there. 00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:09.839 God's steadfast love is a way of describing God's never-ending, never giving up, always and forever love, as the Jesus Storybook Bible calls it. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:10.960 It's not the Jesus Storybook Bible. 00:24:11.039 --> 00:24:12.160 Is it the Jesus Storybook Bible Phil? 00:24:12.319 --> 00:24:13.039 Yeah, it is. 00:24:13.279 --> 00:24:19.039 That's how that is God's steadfast, unbreaking, never giving up. 00:24:19.359 --> 00:24:22.640 God of the second chances, sort of love. 00:24:23.599 --> 00:24:32.720 Because your never-ending, never giving up love is better than life. 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:38.720 Just take a moment and reflect upon what David is saying here. 00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:43.519 Because your steadfast love is better than what? 00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:44.880 Better than sex? 00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:45.200 No. 00:24:45.599 --> 00:24:47.039 Better than money? 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:49.440 Better than a nice job? 00:24:49.680 --> 00:24:50.000 No. 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:53.759 Better than life. 00:24:57.920 --> 00:24:59.519 Man, I want to get there. 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:04.400 Because your steadfast love is better than life. 00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:08.319 And I imagine that. 00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:12.720 You may be sitting here thinking, does anybody really believe that? 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:15.839 Does anybody really buy that? 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:17.200 Does anybody buy that? 00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:19.839 That God's love is better than life. 00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:22.960 And then you remember, don't you? 00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:39.920 You remember the the countless men and women on down the the years and centuries who have been faced with that decision and who have said your love is better than my life. 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:46.960 And who have found themselves martyred for their faith in Jesus. 00:25:47.519 --> 00:25:57.200 For the commitment that God's never giving up, always and forever love is better than anything else in this world. 00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:03.279 You go on to churchandchains.ie or or open doors just for a moment. 00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:15.920 Those two websites that specialize in bringing news to you and me of the persecuted church, and you do a you do a just a quick scroll, and it's almost overwhelming. 00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:24.880 You see what is happening to brothers and sisters all across the world who are faced with that reality. 00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:29.759 Is God's love better than my life? 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:34.799 And they answer and they say yes. 00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:38.960 And they answer it at great cost. 00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:48.720 David realizes something that we all need to grow in. 00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:55.599 I guess that is the essence of Christian maturity and what it means to mature as a follower of Jesus. 00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:09.839 That in God, in having him, in him being my God, we have something better than anything in this world will afford us. 00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:22.640 That to know him and to know his love set upon us supremely in the Lord Jesus is better than our circumstances. 00:27:24.160 --> 00:27:27.920 It's better than the places that we find ourselves in. 00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:37.440 Because his love, it does not, it does not increase when things are good, nor wane when things are tough. 00:27:37.759 --> 00:27:43.039 It endures, whether we are in the sanctuary or in the wilderness. 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:59.200 This, brother, this is this is Christian maturity to to with ever increasing measure look at your life and to say that I would suffer the loss of that. 00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:08.400 If it meant that I could still see and savor and delight in God. 00:28:09.920 --> 00:28:19.599 That everything that I have is a is a is a gift given to me to steward with gentleness and generosity. 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:26.559 But it can go on the altar if God asked it for of me. 00:28:28.319 --> 00:28:31.039 There's huge implications of that, isn't there? 00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:42.000 It's worth asking yourself when it comes to your relationship with God, you know, are there are there non-negotiables? 00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:45.200 If God asked this of me, I'd be done with him. 00:28:50.480 --> 00:29:10.880 If you answered that, then there's something that you have or something that you want that is more significant than the love for God, love of God for you in your life, in your value system. 00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:16.319 Again, this is why we need the wilderness. 00:29:16.880 --> 00:29:19.759 The wilderness shows us what we truly value. 00:29:20.880 --> 00:29:25.279 The wilderness not only shows us what we truly value, it actually shows us what really matters. 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:29.119 You kind of experienced that a little bit during COVID, didn't you? 00:29:29.359 --> 00:29:31.440 When everything got cut off. 00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:34.160 We got cut off from one another. 00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:44.079 Our sense of control of our lives was just completely up-ended because it was always just a fiction, anyway. 00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:48.400 People lost jobs, people lost loved ones. 00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:52.720 There's lots of turmoil, difficulty. 00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:56.160 Why does God do that? 00:29:56.319 --> 00:29:57.519 Why did He allow that? 00:29:57.680 --> 00:30:08.480 Why does He allow these things that we rely upon to crumble away in order to show us the kind of solid rock that He is? 00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:15.839 I had this image in my mind, and I didn't write it down because I was like, oh, you'll not be able to explain it very well, but I've told you that I'm going to say it now. 00:30:16.240 --> 00:30:21.039 It's almost like, it's almost like you're standing in quicksand. 00:30:21.119 --> 00:30:30.240 You're that kind of that kind of mud that's just kind of dragging you down, and and you're you're you're crying out in the midst of that quicksand. 00:30:30.799 --> 00:30:37.119 And everything that you're grabbing on is coming away in your hand, and you find yourself getting deeper and deeper. 00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:52.559 And then suddenly you realize that as you cry out to God, there's a rock comes up from the center of the earth and it lifts you up out of that quicksand. 00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:55.119 I don't know if that helped you. 00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:56.720 That helped me this week. 00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:00.960 David faints for God. 00:31:01.039 --> 00:31:06.480 He has longings and yearnings that go far beyond his circumstances, that he knows that only God can satisfy. 00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:12.559 And then the image switches from verse 5 onwards. 00:31:12.720 --> 00:31:17.680 He goes from fainting for God to feasting on him. 00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:19.759 And that's our second point. 00:31:20.079 --> 00:31:22.720 Feast on God. 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:30.480 When David is far from God and in trouble, he cries out to him. 00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:37.519 And God meets him in that wilderness, and David feasts on him. 00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:38.559 Let's read verse 5. 00:31:38.720 --> 00:31:44.000 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. 00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:52.880 My mouth will praise you with joyful lips when I remember upon my bed and meditate upon you in the watches of the night. 00:31:53.119 --> 00:31:58.000 For you indeed have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. 00:31:58.240 --> 00:32:00.799 My soul clings to you. 00:32:01.279 --> 00:32:04.480 Your right hand upholds me. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:10.400 David isn't just looking for God, just to do enough, just to kind of help him. 00:32:11.599 --> 00:32:15.599 Just kind of, oh, if you could just kind of get me get me started, I'll do the rest. 00:32:16.079 --> 00:32:21.119 He isn't looking for a God who will just kind of set him back on the rock and then clear off. 00:32:21.839 --> 00:32:25.680 He isn't expecting some ration of grace from God. 00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:28.160 No, no, he's looking for he wants a banquet. 00:32:28.400 --> 00:32:33.359 So I want, I want all of you, all that I could take in. 00:32:33.599 --> 00:32:39.359 I want to feast upon your greatness, goodness, glory, and majesty. 00:32:39.599 --> 00:32:47.200 I want to, I want my soul to gorge itself on your perfections. 00:32:50.079 --> 00:32:59.359 And notice that as he feasts on God, it actually begins to reframe his circumstances. 00:33:00.160 --> 00:33:04.720 So he talks about in verse 6 about how he's he's tossing and turning on his bed. 00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:12.480 Some of you, my wife will attest that I don't really have this problem, but some of you will uh will struggle with sleeplessness. 00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:19.039 Uh I sleep as though God is sovereign, which he is, just 99, see in the morning. 00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:23.519 But others, uh you wrestle, you toss and turn. 00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:27.920 That's when they you know that's when the you know the monsters come at night, don't they? 00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:39.519 It's when you start believing lies, when you start playing things over in your head, or it just feels like you're wired and sleep has has fled from you. 00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:48.960 David here in verse six doesn't say, I feasted on you, and just like you know, you had a good meal, the next thing you want to do is take a nap, and so I fell asleep. 00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:49.839 He doesn't say no. 00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:55.440 He's feasting on him, but he's still sleepless, he's still restless. 00:33:55.599 --> 00:33:58.640 The circumstances haven't gone away, do you see? 00:33:58.880 --> 00:34:12.800 He's feasting, but he's still in the wilderness, and he's still feeling that that tossing and turning, that that anxiety, there's still pressures pressing in on him, but he's reframed that time. 00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:30.639 Because that time's no longer time for replaying conversations or strategizing how to fix something, or worrying about what the next day will hold. 00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:32.880 No, no, he's reframed it. 00:34:33.199 --> 00:34:36.800 That's all those times of sleeplessness are now times of praise. 00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:42.400 They're times of meditating upon who God is. 00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:45.519 Uh meditate, by the way. 00:34:45.679 --> 00:34:53.760 Uh people hear the word meditate and uh and think of kind of an Eastern notion of meditation, a kind of clearing of your mind. 00:34:53.920 --> 00:34:56.320 Biblically speaking, that's not that's not meditation. 00:34:56.480 --> 00:35:02.400 Biblical meditation, if you want a good image for medit for biblical meditation, go out into the countryside and look at a cow. 00:35:02.639 --> 00:35:11.760 A cow meditates when it's had a bit of a feed because it just chews and chews and chews and chews. 00:35:11.840 --> 00:35:14.639 And it chews the cud and it ruminates. 00:35:14.800 --> 00:35:16.000 That's biblical meditation. 00:35:16.159 --> 00:35:37.280 Biblical meditation is to sit there like a cow and just chew and chew and chew on who God is and what you know about him and how you have seen him uh work in your life in the past and what he has done for you in the Lord Jesus is not about clearing your mind, it's about filling your mind with him. 00:35:38.079 --> 00:35:43.119 Again, like I said last week, you're listening to voices all the time. 00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:50.239 And at nighttime, when you're tired, that's when the worst voices come out to play. 00:35:50.960 --> 00:36:09.039 And so perhaps that is the most important time that you need to begin meditating on who God is, on what he has done to combat those voices of lies with the voice of truth. 00:36:14.880 --> 00:36:15.840 You with me, Ben? 00:36:16.320 --> 00:36:17.679 Yeah, thank you. 00:36:22.719 --> 00:36:29.440 You see, sometimes God isn't looking to change your circumstances, but he's always looking to change you. 00:36:30.639 --> 00:36:32.559 And what does David feast upon? 00:36:32.719 --> 00:36:35.679 Well, he gives us some clues in the in the verses. 00:36:35.840 --> 00:36:39.679 He feasts on, first of all, uh, on God's character. 00:36:42.320 --> 00:36:55.199 My soul will be satisfied uh with fat and rich as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips when I remember you upon my bed. 00:36:55.760 --> 00:36:59.519 He remembers, he meditates, he chews over the character of God. 00:36:59.840 --> 00:37:01.199 That's a very important thing. 00:37:01.280 --> 00:37:06.960 Well, especially when you're tempted to blame God or to ask him, ask why something has happened. 00:37:07.039 --> 00:37:12.960 Well, remember the kind of God who is out there, the kind of God who has drawn you into relationship with himself. 00:37:13.039 --> 00:37:13.599 What's he like? 00:37:13.679 --> 00:37:15.519 Well, he's slow to anger. 00:37:15.840 --> 00:37:27.360 He's gracious, he's abounding in love, he's powerful, all-seeing, never-changing, sovereign, good, a God to the fatherless and the helpless, to the widow and to the orphan. 00:37:27.519 --> 00:37:30.719 That's the kind of God you wrestle with in the watches of the night. 00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:33.599 That's the kind of God you meditate upon. 00:37:35.039 --> 00:37:38.559 And so he chews over the character of God. 00:37:38.719 --> 00:37:48.800 Secondly, he remembers God's past help, verse 7, for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. 00:37:49.039 --> 00:37:51.760 He looks back and said, You haven't let me down yet. 00:37:52.159 --> 00:38:03.519 So I was in a cave running from Saul, and when I was in that cave, I remember then it looked like a canopy of wings that were sheltering me and keeping me safe. 00:38:03.679 --> 00:38:10.480 And it felt as though your wings were covering me and with me and sustaining me and protecting me. 00:38:10.719 --> 00:38:12.880 And I'm remembering that now. 00:38:13.360 --> 00:38:19.119 And as followers of the Lord Jesus, brothers and sisters, we are sheltered under eternal wings. 00:38:20.719 --> 00:38:28.800 That God will bring us safe, safe to that heavenly shore, to Canaan's side, where sickness and death will be no more. 00:38:28.960 --> 00:38:29.920 We are sheltered. 00:38:30.159 --> 00:38:38.239 God has done it through the cross and resurrection of his son, and he will bring us safe. 00:38:38.559 --> 00:38:44.719 And so he looks back and he draws faith and help from that. 00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:52.960 And then he thirdly calls to mind God's present help. 00:38:53.119 --> 00:38:58.320 Verse 8, my soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me. 00:38:58.480 --> 00:39:04.719