WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:19.440 This is the colour. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.719 My name is Ben, if you don't know me. 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:29.120 And uh yeah, just keep your passage, keep your Bibles open or your phone app there, ready to go with that passage there. 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:32.159 We'll be taking a look at Psalm 57 here. 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:37.280 Uh Psalm 57, we like to talk about Psalms being part of different genres, right? 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:44.240 There's Psalms of Lament, and there's Psalms of Thanksgiving, and there's Psalms of prayer and wisdom and all of that good stuff. 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:51.920 Psalm 57, however, um as as we saw from the superscription, was written during a time of great crisis. 00:00:52.159 --> 00:00:59.520 So we're gonna we're gonna have some sense that this is gonna give us an idea of a Christian's response to crisis. 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:08.640 So if you know anything about crisis management, I mean this is this will be a great psalm for you to think on, but uh just because all of us are gonna go through crisis this morning. 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:13.599 I don't know if any of you heard it, but there were there was a major uh car accident just right here at the top of the street. 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:22.719 And I don't think any of those folks uh who were involved in that had the sense this morning when they woke up that you know there was gonna be an accident that they were gonna be involved in. 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:24.159 So we just never know. 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:25.359 That's that's life. 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:31.040 But psalms give us a window and a lens to view the experiences of the human life. 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:33.040 So that's what we're gonna try and do this morning. 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:36.400 So let's uh let's go to the Lord and and ask his help as we do. 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:51.120 Uh Father God, we thank you for your word, we thank you for the psalms and just the just the ways in which they help us to contextualize all these different experiences that we have as as people, as human beings. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:02:06.000 Thank you that uh as we begin to see crisis as you see it, and as uh as as it works out in your in your word, we can see that you are uh working your purposes in all of these things. 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:15.759 Help us as we listen as and as we uh as we see from your word uh what you have, that uh you would be using it to shape us and to change us and to grow us up. 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:17.680 I pray this in Jesus' name. 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:18.400 Amen. 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:20.400 All right. 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:31.520 21st of January, 2012, uh, in the middle of the night, my parents were in their house sleeping, and they woke up and found that their house was on fire. 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:35.280 Um I think we'd agree that's a crisis situation. 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:44.319 Um it was very traumatic, obviously, and you figure through that we can see some of the different stages of crisis management. 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:44.960 And we'll see. 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:57.360 So we'll be referring back to my parents' fire as well as the uh as well as the psalm here, but um we're gonna look at three main stages of crisis management uh in the sections of this psalm. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:07.280 So when my folks woke up and found out their house was on fire, you know, smoke alarms blaring and you know, smells and sounds and everything going on, that's the reaction phase, right? 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:15.680 So this is this is fight or flight, this is reflex, this is immediate, this is you know, surviving for the next 30 seconds kind of thing. 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:16.240 All right. 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:21.759 The next day, after the flames were out and they were started to sift through the ashes, I suppose. 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:24.719 That's what we call the response phase. 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:34.960 So this is where you're really taking a taking a hard look at what's going on and trying to get a sense of what's been lost, mourning, grieving, celebrating as appropriate. 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:39.520 And then at some point you get to a third phase, which is called resolution. 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:52.080 Resolution is where you've kind of started to move beyond the crisis, and you know, it's still there's still pain and there's still difficulty with it, but you're starting to look forward to, you know, what are you gonna change now? 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:55.439 How is this crisis gonna have a long-term impact on you? 00:03:55.919 --> 00:03:57.439 What have you learned? 00:03:57.759 --> 00:04:01.919 And how maybe would the crisis open up new opportunities? 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:02.479 All right. 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:07.120 So we're gonna look at those, the the three sections of the psalm in front of us here. 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:11.360 Let's start with the first one, uh, which will be verses one to three. 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:13.120 We'll look at reaction. 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:23.839 But before we dive into that, let's just take a look real quick at what the actual crisis was, because we have a sense from the from the superscription up at the top of what was going on. 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:24.959 So let me let me read that. 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:26.800 It says a micdom of David. 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:34.160 But it says, when he fled from Saul in the cave. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:44.959 Now that sounds very uh compelling and interesting, but if you're not familiar with the story of David and Saul, you can go back to the Old Testament uh book of 1 Samuel, of 1 Samuel. 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:49.920 These are events that took place about a thousand years before the time of Jesus. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:53.519 But uh I'll just I'll just give you some bullet points to be thinking about here. 00:04:53.680 --> 00:05:01.920 Um Saul was the king, Saul was on the throne of Israel, and he had all the resources and all the manpower that a king would have. 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:05.439 And he had ultimately begun to go his own way. 00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:07.680 See, he was he was meant to be God's king. 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:20.000 He was meant to be ruling as God would have him rule, but he had he'd gone his own way, and so God had ultimately rejected him and said, You're not going to be able to be king anymore, Saul, because you your heart is not for me. 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:25.759 And David was the guy that God had chosen to be king in Saul's place. 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:30.079 So, as you can imagine, there was there was tension between the two men. 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:39.040 And um a lot of the chapters of 1 Samuel talk about David fleeing from Saul, who was seeking to put him to death. 00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:44.240 So, highly recommended, check it out, uh, read that in your spare time, uh, 1 Samuel. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:57.120 But uh, if we put ourselves in that circumstance, if we think about what that's like, what that might have been like to be pursued by the most powerful man in the country, and also if he's hiding in a cave, right? 00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:00.160 Hiding in a cave is different from hiding in a lot of other places. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:06.319 He's not hiding in a house, he's not hiding on a farm, he's not hiding with friends or family or in a city or in a town. 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:12.160 His his uh situation is desperate enough that he is out in the wilderness hiding in a cave. 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:15.279 So that's definitely a crisis situation. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:19.120 We may not find ourselves in that sort of crisis situation this morning. 00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:25.600 Um, but I think it gives us a lot that we can see on how to how to respond to the crises that we may face. 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:28.319 So our first point, there are gonna be three points this morning. 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:34.639 Our first point, which we will look at in the reaction phase, is that God is our refuge. 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:38.480 All right, so if we look at at verses one to three, we'll really get a sense of this. 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:39.839 God is our refuge. 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:53.360 When you read these, read these verses, you can really just imagine them being prayed and almost like a rough whisper, you know, very, very eagerly, very, very uh acute moment of crisis. 00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:56.639 You know, this is this is when it's it's all come down. 00:06:56.720 --> 00:06:59.600 There's no turning back, there's no getting out of this crisis. 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:06.399 In the example of my parents and their house, this is when you wake up in the night and you find out that your house is on fire. 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:07.519 This is the moment. 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:10.480 This isn't the time to be philosophical. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:14.720 This isn't the time to kind of figure out, oh gosh, I wonder why there's a fire right now. 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:15.839 I wonder what happened. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:22.000 This isn't this isn't the time to lament, oh, woe was me, what's gone wrong that our house is on fire? 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:25.279 This isn't the time to wonder about what might happen tomorrow. 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:26.959 This is this is survival. 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:28.079 This is reflex. 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:30.160 This is you know, fight or flight. 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:32.879 Now, what does what does David's example show us? 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:34.959 What kind of reflex does he have? 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:38.240 Well, he cries out to God right from the very first. 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:41.680 Verse 1, he says, Be merciful to me, O God. 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:46.480 Be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge. 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:49.120 Now we say God is our refuge. 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:53.199 That's kind of a Christian-y kind of word, the kind of phrase that we that we use. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:55.360 What does it mean to take refuge? 00:07:55.600 --> 00:07:59.360 Well, a refuge is really a place of safety. 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:05.519 And we might be tempted to think David thought of the cave that he was hiding in as his as his refuge, right? 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:08.399 He's he's in this cave, he's he's hidden in it for a reason. 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:12.000 He might be thinking, well, this cave is my refuge. 00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:23.600 But if you think about hiding in a cave, it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be a long distance from going to this cave is a safe place where I'm protected to, I am stuck here, I am trapped here. 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:27.920 The difference between a cave and a grave is only a couple of letters, right? 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:32.480 So you would have really felt, would have really felt trapped after a very short time. 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:39.759 So the cave David recognized was certainly not his refuge, not in any meaningful sense. 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:43.759 He recognized this and he put his hope and his trust in God. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:51.759 If you go on with verse one, it says, In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge till the storms of destruction pass by. 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:55.519 So David is actively trusting. 00:08:55.679 --> 00:09:00.159 He's actively trusting God, but he's not relying on his own efforts to get through. 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:06.720 He's not saying, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take refuge in the shadow of your wings until I sort out my next move. 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:13.120 He's not saying, I will take refuge in you until I figure out a way out of this. 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:17.840 No, he's saying, I'm gonna hang here until the storms of destruction pass me by. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:26.080 This means that David was not looking at taking refuge in God as some kind of backup plan or, you know, second, second place or anything like that. 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:27.440 This was his only plan. 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:32.559 We see it, we see this very clearly if you jump down to verse 3 here in the section. 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:37.039 He lists out three things that he expects uh and trusts that God will do. 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:41.039 It says, He will send from heaven and save me. 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:50.480 He will put to shame him who tramples on me, and God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness. 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:57.440 So these are all things that he is he is anticipating, that he is expecting God to do. 00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:05.440 The last one there is especially powerful, I find, uh, this idea of God's steadfast love and faithfulness. 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:06.799 This is God's character. 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:08.720 This is this is who God is. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:13.360 This this uh steadfast love is a is something that we see in the Old Testament a lot. 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:21.600 It's a term in the Hebrew, and it has this connotation of being a very fervent, very passionate, very active love. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:24.559 And this is this is God's character. 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:28.240 So of course David recognizes that God is going to act. 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:31.840 To do otherwise would be inconsistent with who he is. 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:46.480 We can look into the New Testament, we can see in the book of Acts, uh, Acts chapter 12, I think it is, uh, the apostle Peter has been, you know, arrested and he's about to be put to death by Herod, and it's gonna be this big public spectacle. 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:48.320 It's gonna be a huge thing. 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:54.559 And we and we find Peter in the narrative in Acts 12, the night before this is all supposed to go down. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:56.000 And what's he doing? 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:57.840 Well, he's sleeping, right? 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:02.720 He's got such a trust that uh Jesus is not done with him. 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:08.559 Uh, he he was told by Jesus when he was when Jesus was on the earth that he would live to old age. 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:11.360 So he didn't really have anything to worry about there. 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:16.159 We see this idea echoed in verse 2, which we skipped over there in the middle there. 00:11:16.240 --> 00:11:19.759 It says that God fulfills his purpose for me. 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:21.679 So David knew. 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:23.200 David knew God had a purpose for him. 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:26.559 David knew that God had anointed him to be king over Israel. 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:28.720 You can't be king if you're dead. 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:36.559 So he he was fairly confident there that God would work that out, that God would sort out what that needed to look like. 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:42.320 We might look at this and say, gosh, we don't always know what our specific purpose is. 00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:49.679 We know the same chapter in Acts that I was just talking about, where Peter got delivered, uh, the apostle James was put to death. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:57.039 So how do I know in any crisis, any situation, am I the Peter in this story or am I the James in this story? 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:05.120 But really the hope that we have in the gospel is that God's purposes are worked out, whether we're the Peter or the James. 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:07.600 God is working in all circumstances. 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:20.480 We see Romans chapter 8 might be familiar to a lot of us, but uh the Apostle Paul wrote that God works all things, all the circumstances of our lives, together for the good of his people. 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:24.240 To those who love him and are called according to his purposes. 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:33.279 See, God is not some kind of distant, cold taskmaster kind of moving people around like pawns on a chessboard. 00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:35.200 That's that's not the God that we serve. 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:40.399 We we see this idea of this steadfast love, this faithfulness. 00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:47.919 So God is at work for the good of his people in all of these different difficult circumstances that we face. 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:55.600 We see in the in these first three verses of this psalm that God is our refuge right at the very point of our need. 00:12:57.039 --> 00:13:01.360 Now, how might this apply in our lives if we think about God being a refuge in our lives? 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:06.879 Well, David gives us a really great example because from verse one, he's praying. 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:10.320 He's calling out to God, he's going straight to him. 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:13.120 This is his instinct, this is his reflex. 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:20.720 And my challenge for all of us, myself perhaps most of all, how often is it our response? 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:29.519 How often is it our reaction when things go south, when things are challenging, to go to God in prayer, to trust that he's got it worked out? 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:36.080 How often do we only cry out to God after one or two things we're trying haven't worked out? 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:41.519 Or after we've gotten down the road and been thinking it through in other in other contexts. 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:44.240 For David, there was no other option. 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:45.919 There was no other plan. 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:49.840 God is his refuge and his kind of first point of call. 00:13:50.159 --> 00:14:00.000 The second uh thing that we can see here is we all have caves in our lives, things that we would maybe think to put refuge, put our refuge in, find our refuge in. 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:06.320 We can challenge ourselves by answering, you know, by filling in the blank here. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:11.200 You know, all I need is blank and I'll be okay in life, right? 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:14.639 All I need is this relationship and I'll be okay. 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:17.679 All I need is this job and I'll be okay. 00:14:17.840 --> 00:14:22.159 All I need is my kids to turn out the way that I think they should, and I'll be okay. 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:33.440 Any of those things may look like great things, and they may offer, you know, this sense of refuge, but they crumble and they quickly go from being a cave to being a grave. 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:42.960 When things don't work out the way that we expect them to, we can really feel like our sense of self is really crumbling. 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:48.799 But when we put our hope and our trust and we seek our refuge in God, God is unchanging. 00:14:49.440 --> 00:15:04.320 And because God is unchanging, and because we can trust that he is at work for his purposes, for our good, in all of the circumstances, we can we can recognize that that steadfast love is ours, even if we don't understand why. 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:09.679 So to take to take that first point back again, yes, God is our refuge. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:14.799 Second point, we're gonna go to the next section here. 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:18.480 We'll look at it in terms of the response phase. 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:22.960 And this is that God is bigger than the crisis. 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:26.399 Now, this does not mean that the crisis doesn't matter. 00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:32.960 This doesn't mean that the crisis is something that we should ignore or minimize or pretend that it's not there. 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:37.440 But this is the phase where you're sizing things up. 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:38.320 Alright? 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:40.559 You take a look at verses four to six. 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:41.919 You there's there's a rhythm there. 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:44.080 Verse four, the crisis. 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:45.840 Verse five, God. 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:54.399 Verse six, the first part is a reflection on those causing the crisis, and the last part is a reflection on God's work to resolve it. 00:15:54.639 --> 00:16:00.399 There's a sense where David is kind of weighing out these opposing forces and trying to see what's what. 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:03.679 If we go back to the example of my parents and their house, right? 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:11.039 I remember this phase because this was after the fire had been put out, and now it's just time to take a look at it in the cold light of day. 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:21.759 And it was really, it was probably the hardest phase for them because it was just digging and searching, and you know, here's a here's a bunch of old family photos that are destroyed. 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:22.720 That's terrible. 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:26.000 Here over here, there's something else that we didn't expect to make it, but it has. 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:26.639 That's great. 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:30.639 So there's joy and there's sorrow, and there's all those things mixed together. 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:34.399 How does David size up his situation? 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:38.320 Well, once again, he doesn't omit the difficulties. 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:45.519 We see in verse 4 it says, My soul is in the midst of lions, and I lie down amid fiery beasts. 00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:52.799 He's not kind of squinting at the situation or, you know, trying to block out seeing what it really is. 00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:58.159 If you look at verse six, it says, My soul was bowed down. 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:03.600 So everything, everything that's happening is just like a weight on his inner self. 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:07.279 But in between those two thoughts, you have verse five. 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:10.400 And verse five comes out and it's it's almost jarring. 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:15.920 It says, Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, let your glory be over all the earth. 00:17:16.720 --> 00:17:28.720 So David is taking a breath here and he's looking at all that's going on, but he's also recognizing that God is there and God is worthy, God is exalted, God is above the heavens. 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:33.279 This is that idea of the lens that I was talking about. 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:40.799 David is choosing to look at his problems, but to look at them through the lens of God's faithfulness, through the lens of who God is. 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:46.720 So he's letting God speak into how he sees his experience. 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:47.279 Right? 00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:51.119 It's very easy for us to let our experience shape the way that we see God. 00:17:51.200 --> 00:17:53.920 You know, this terrible thing is happening, God must be awful. 00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:57.599 But to recognize and start with the fact that God is good. 00:17:57.759 --> 00:18:01.039 And so whatever's going on must also be good. 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:03.440 So that's that lens. 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:08.480 So we're looking at this God who's exalted above the heavens, right? 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:13.440 So the highest, most powerful, most great, most worthy of praise. 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:17.680 And we're looking at this God whose glory is over all the earth, right? 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:23.440 So he's both big enough and near enough to speak into these crises. 00:18:24.559 --> 00:18:26.480 And this idea is really paid off. 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:28.720 It's really, it's really fulfilled in Jesus. 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:35.599 When we look ahead to the New Testament, we can see uh Jesus coming, Jesus himself, fully God, right? 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:40.640 Uh Philippians 2 says that Jesus has the name that is above all other names, right? 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:42.559 Exalted to the highest. 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:46.960 But we also see that Jesus became flesh, right? 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:49.359 He came near to us that he might save. 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:54.559 We see this idea in John chapter 1, a similar language to what David's using here. 00:18:54.799 --> 00:18:58.240 David's talking about, you know, your glory be over all the earth. 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:03.839 And uh John talks about it and says that Jesus is a manifestation of the glory of God. 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:05.119 Right? 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:10.400 It says in Jesus we saw glory as of the only Son from the Father. 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:17.039 Paul writes in Colossians that in Jesus the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:24.240 So this same God who is exalted above the heavens, whose glory is over all the earth, came near. 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:30.240 This is the best fulfillment, the best example of how verse 3 pays off, right? 00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:34.559 Where it says that God sent from God will send from heaven to save, right? 00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:38.559 God sent from heaven, sent Jesus to save us. 00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:41.920 Take a look at verse 6. 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:47.039 It says, They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves. 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:49.759 Now, this isn't this isn't karma, okay? 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:51.200 This isn't irony. 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:54.000 This isn't an Alanis Morissette song. 00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:58.480 This is the work of a loving God to bring forth his purposes. 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:07.039 You know, we talked about this in the last section that the difficulties that we face in life, they're not wasted, they're not meaningless. 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:15.519 By them, God is shaping us, helping us to see that he's faithful and we're learning to trust him in all these circumstances. 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:22.640 We also see that all the all the bad things that happen in the world, all the evil is not throwing off God's plan. 00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:23.519 Right? 00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:32.319 God's plan is moving forward despite and even including all the bad choices that people make, including our own bad choices. 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:33.519 Isn't that a relief? 00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:38.079 Even where I am unfaithful, and I'm unfaithful a lot, guys. 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:42.559 But even where I'm unfaithful, it's not a match for God's faithfulness in my life. 00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:45.759 Don't forget where the psalm began. 00:20:45.839 --> 00:20:47.440 Look at verse one again, just real quick. 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:50.000 It says, Be merciful to me, O God. 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:55.680 Mercy means, you know, help me even though I don't deserve it, basically. 00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:03.279 David was not coming to God as a perfect, perfectly moral man who God owed a favor to. 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:04.960 David himself was flawed. 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:11.119 And if you read the whole 1 Samuel narrative and into 2 Samuel, you'll see he was flawed profoundly. 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:15.200 Did a lot of bad stuff, but his heart, his heart was God's. 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:18.319 The Bible says he was a man after God's own heart. 00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:26.640 So he approached God based on God's grace, not on his moral perfection. 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:29.359 So we can see this in our own lives. 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:32.240 God is bigger than the crisis, though, friends. 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:38.720 And the way that this pays off for us, the way that this applies in our lives, is that it changes how we see the crisis. 00:21:39.680 --> 00:21:52.880 If we see God as kind of, you know, this well-intentioned friend in the sky who really is pulling for us, but is, you know, impotent, then he's not much comfort in time of crisis. 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:59.519 If he's not able to save, if he's not able to help, then there's not a lot of comfort for us in our time of crisis. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:05.839 But David's weighing all of this out, and he's seeing it that there is this power to save. 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:09.519 And in our moments of reflection, may we see God's power. 00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:14.319 May we let him speak into our understanding of the crisis. 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:15.759 Finally. 00:22:16.160 --> 00:22:17.759 Final point here, guys. 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:24.240 We've talked about how our reaction to crisis is to remember that God is our refuge. 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:29.279 Our response is to affirm that God is bigger than the crisis. 00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:33.759 And now we come to the third and final point, which we'll see in the last section. 00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:36.319 God is worthy of our praise. 00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:43.119 To put this in the context of crisis management again, this is where we're into the resolution phase. 00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:48.799 This is where we're starting to focus on the aftermath and how we're moving forward. 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:53.200 In my parents' example, they they looked and found out what caused this fire. 00:22:53.279 --> 00:22:55.279 Well, it was a problem with the wiring. 00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:57.039 So they got the wiring fixed. 00:22:57.200 --> 00:22:59.759 So that's the change that came out of it. 00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:05.279 But more than that, they looked at ways that they could turn the crisis into an opportunity. 00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:07.759 And they found things that they probably never would have done. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:11.599 See, when they bought that house, when we moved into that house, I was 13. 00:23:11.759 --> 00:23:14.079 My two younger brothers were seven and eleven. 00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:15.680 We were doing our thing. 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:16.640 We were kids. 00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:19.920 This was 20 years later, 21 years later. 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:25.680 So, you know, two of us had grown up and moved out and started families of our own. 00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:27.279 So there were empty rooms. 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:31.359 My parents said, hey, what if we reimagined the floor plan here? 00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:32.799 What if we did something different? 00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:40.319 What if instead of having, you know, bedrooms gathering dust, we put together something that we would actually use in our home? 00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:45.279 And so we can see this idea in the way that God works in our lives too. 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:54.640 Oftentimes crisis is a time for us to let go of things that were that are not good for us, that are not working for us, right? 00:23:55.279 --> 00:24:00.640 Ways that we are maybe relying on self or seeking refuge in other places. 00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:05.839 Let those things get stripped away and instead we're we're left with ourselves and God. 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:15.039 And we see that God uses that not to shame us, not to tear us down, not to make us feel bad for having the wrong thinking, but to build us up. 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:24.720 God has this wonderful plan, and it's not just like bad stuff happens and God has to adjust and recalculate and try and find something that'll be okay. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:25.279 No. 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:40.240 God's plan for us is so much bigger than we can understand, because it involves all the good and all the bad, and uses it all for his purposes, his glory, and for our good. 00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:54.000 So in as we reflect on God here, as we see all of this stuff coming together, we could spend years of our lives trying to figure out why or how or what's God doing, what's the next thing. 00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:56.319 But that's not what David does here. 00:24:56.720 --> 00:25:02.960 He recognizes that in joy and in sorrow, God is worthy of our praise. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:12.000 Now we could very easily just take and kind of cover up verses one to six and just pretend that verses seven to eleven are the psalm for the morning. 00:25:12.079 --> 00:25:16.319 And this is this is a pretty enthusiastic psalm of praise all by itself. 00:25:16.559 --> 00:25:18.880 We might be thinking, gosh, maybe that's what David's doing. 00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:23.759 He's looked at all of this, and now he's like, I don't want to deal with that, just let me write this psalm of praise now. 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:34.240 But I don't think that's what he's doing, and I challenge us to look at it in context and recognize that all of this praise comes in light of the crisis. 00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:37.839 So it's even more profound in that. 00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:42.960 This is not David kind of denying what's gone on. 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:47.920 This is the path forward through and out of what's gone on. 00:25:48.240 --> 00:25:49.440 Take a look at verse 7. 00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:54.240 It says, My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. 00:25:54.559 --> 00:26:00.319 And this comes exactly one verse after verse six where he said, My soul is bowed down. 00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:11.680 But the more he's looking at his situation through the lens of God's faithfulness, the more he's feeling void up, the more he's floating on it. 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:16.000 And the result of this is that he's just bursting at the seams to sing praise. 00:26:16.079 --> 00:26:21.759 Take a look at this verse eight awake, my glory, awake, harp and lyre, I will awake the dawn. 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:28.400 I think of somebody just like flipping all the switches and turning all the volumes up to 11 and just getting ready there. 00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:42.000 Verse 9, I really think there's uh something here for us as well, because it says that David is thanking and praising God among the peoples and among the nations. 00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:47.359 And there's so many Psalms where it talks about I'll praise God in the sanctuary. 00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:55.200 I'll praise God in the temple, I'll praise God in Zion, very specific places within the nation of Israel. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:57.440 And there's nothing wrong with those. 00:26:57.519 --> 00:27:06.880 You know, certainly the temple was created to be a place where uh where God would be worshipped particularly, but it's almost like David is looking and seeing that God is so much bigger than all of that. 00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:10.640 God is not just limited to this geopolitical entity here. 00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:16.640 He is Lord of all, every person, every place, everything. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:20.559 And he really ties it together in the last two verses. 00:27:20.640 --> 00:27:23.680 We see ideas that are coming forward from other parts of the Psalm. 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:26.880 Verse 10, we see God's steadfast love and faithfulness. 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:30.799 We saw that uh referenced in the middle of the crisis back in verse 3. 00:27:31.519 --> 00:27:35.759 And verse 11 is a direct repeat of verse 5. 00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:41.119 So we're pulling stuff from the other sections here and we're tying it all together here. 00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:48.400 David said it and meant it, and now it's just becoming all the more real as he's working through it. 00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:52.640 So all of this praise and worship that we're seeing in here is not out of place. 00:27:52.799 --> 00:27:57.680 It's not isolated, it's all in context of what's come before. 00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:02.400 So, generally speaking, friends, I'm wrapping it up here. 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:04.160 I know it's quite warm in here. 00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:07.359 That's our own crisis for the morning, but we'll get through it. 00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:13.599 When we're planning and we're we're thinking about crisis, it's usually dependent upon time. 00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:20.720 You have your reaction right at the moment of the crisis, and then you have your response when you're going through it, and then after that you work toward towards resolution. 00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:23.759 But what's the story with David here? 00:28:24.480 --> 00:28:25.839 Nothing's changed. 00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:28.559 He's still in the same circumstance. 00:28:28.720 --> 00:28:36.480 We don't, the the heading on the psalm doesn't say when David escaped or when he when the that when there was danger, and then that went away. 00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:38.319 It just says in the cave. 00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:48.480 Nothing's changed in terms of his circumstances, and yet reading the psalm from the beginning to the end, you get a sense that there is a huge change that's taken place. 00:28:49.119 --> 00:28:54.319 And really what we see there is it's David's approach to the crisis. 00:28:54.559 --> 00:28:55.920 It's that lens again. 00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:57.759 He's seeing it differently. 00:28:58.079 --> 00:29:04.000 He lets what he knows about God speak into his crisis, and suddenly he sees it very differently. 00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:08.480 This fear, this lament give way to praise. 00:29:10.319 --> 00:29:13.200 So, what can we learn from David in this psalm? 00:29:13.680 --> 00:29:18.400 Well, we've talked about how, you know, our first reaction should be to cry out to God. 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:22.160 We've talked about seeking refuge, not in the things of the world, but in God. 00:29:22.319 --> 00:29:26.480 We've talked about letting God shape our view of the crisis and not the other way around. 00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:30.960 We've talked about God being worthy of our praise no matter what the circumstance. 00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:39.359 But there's one bit, anybody who's done a crisis management course, you'll you'll you'll know we've we've missed a step, right? 00:29:39.839 --> 00:29:43.200 I used to be in, I used to be in business and we talked about crisis management. 00:29:43.279 --> 00:29:50.000 And the things that you always know is that you don't plan, you don't prepare in the midst of crisis. 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:51.440 It doesn't work, right? 00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:56.720 If you're if you have a crisis strike that you're not ready for, you're not going to suddenly become ready for it. 00:29:56.880 --> 00:30:01.279 So that's why they always want you to start with step one, which is preparation. 00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:06.000 Before the reaction, before the response, before the resolution, you have preparation. 00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:12.000 And while that is not explicitly spelled out in this psalm, it is sprinkled all over. 00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:20.240 Because David didn't come to these ideas of who God was, of who God is just in the moment. 00:30:21.839 --> 00:30:25.519 He didn't stumble upon it and say, okay, well, here we go. 00:30:25.839 --> 00:30:29.920 No, we we might say this was part of his emergency response plan. 00:30:30.559 --> 00:30:36.880 As we seek God, as we grow in him, we are made ready for the next crisis. 00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:46.640 And as we trust God, as we seek refuge in him through the crisis, we come to find that he is all the more worthy of our praise. 00:30:46.880 --> 00:30:47.839 It's a cycle. 00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:50.640 And as we walk through all of this, uh we just grow. 00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:51.599 That's what it's about. 00:30:51.759 --> 00:30:54.160 So let us be in prayer together. 00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:56.160 Let us be in the word together. 00:30:56.400 --> 00:30:58.000 Let us gather in fellowship. 00:30:58.079 --> 00:30:59.920 These are like fire drills, right? 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:02.160 This is how we prepare for crisis. 00:31:03.119 --> 00:31:10.240 And you'll remember from the fire drills of uh you know primary school, you gotta have a buddy, buddy system, right? 00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:25.440 We read in in 2 Corinthians, which we just finished up a few weeks ago, that God has given us his comfort so that we can share his comfort with others in their time of crisis. 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:27.359 May we as a church know this. 00:31:27.519 --> 00:31:34.400 May we seek to encourage one another along this walk as we're all going through different crises at different times. 00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:40.079 May we know the comfort of God through his word, through his spirit, and through his people. 00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:42.079 Let's pray. 00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:51.519 Father God, we do thank you for your word and we do thank you that you encourage us and you grow us and you shape us through it. 00:31:53.599 --> 00:32:07.200 Lord, I pray that in this uh in this afternoon uh that you would speak to us and that you would uh just be at work that we might be ready to face crisis in the way that is is uh drawn up here. 00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:09.599 Thank you for the example of David, Lord. 00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:19.519 We know he didn't always set a good example, but thank you for this psalm where we can see reaction and response and and resolution uh to your glory. 00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:21.759 We ask this in Jesus' name. 00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:22.720 Amen. 00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:34.640 Now, part of our preparation, part of the way that we can help to prepare and to be on course is to be reminded of the goodness of our Lord. 00:32:34.799 --> 00:32:40.160 And so as we approach the Lord's table this afternoon, um we can think that through. 00:32:40.480 --> 00:32:48.000 Because in the Lord's in the Lord's table, in the in the bread and in the juice and the wine there, there's an immediacy. 00:32:48.319 --> 00:32:51.359 There's there's it's right here, right now. 00:32:51.599 --> 00:33:00.240 And in the same way, that points us to the fact that in our crisis, in our uncertainty, that God is right here and right now.