Don't Microwave the Fish | Psalm 120

This message explores Psalm 120 and asks a practical question: Where do you take your troubles? The psalmist is surrounded by conflict, dishonesty, and people who seem determined to create division, yet instead of hiding his frustration, he honestly brings it before God. The message reminds us that an honest prayer is a good prayer and challenges us to recognize the lies we sometimes believe—not only those told by others, but the ones we tell ourselves through fear, shame, pride, bitterness, and rationalization. Rather than seeking retribution when we’ve been wronged, we’re called to pursue righteousness and respond in ways that display God’s grace.

This message also identifies three places we tend to take our troubles: out on others, to the world, or to the Lord. When we bury our struggles, they eventually spill into our relationships, and when we look to the world for relief, its solutions ultimately fail to satisfy. Psalm 120 offers a better way: make prayer our first response rather than our last resort. Taking our troubles to God means actually trusting them to Him, surrendering control, and being willing to follow His direction even when it requires humility, forgiveness, or doing something we don’t want to do. Ultimately, this message challenges us to bring every trouble—big or small—to the Lord, trusting that His way is better and that He wants to help us through what we’re facing.

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Okay, so let's start with this. Has anyone ever experienced workplace drama? Yeah, okay. There were a few oh yes, like audible oh yes. If that person works with you and they're in the room, don't raise your hand. Put your hand down. Um that'll be awkward. Don't do that. But most of us, we've experienced workplace drama. And it comes in all shapes and sizes, right, for different people. And our psalm this week in Psalm 120, when you read it on the surface, almost sounds a little bit like a workplace drama rant or a complaint. And I was thinking about that because an article came out several years ago that uh highlighted a particular workplace drama experience that I found uh pretty funny. Several years ago, uh there was an office, and one of the coworkers came in and went into the break room. As we all know, offices will have a break room, a staff room, and usually there are some tables, maybe a vending machine, a refrigerator, a microwave, that sort of thing. And you can take a break, you can eat your lunch. And one day, one of the co-workers in this particular office had brought in his leftovers and went and heated them up in the microwave as you do with leftovers. Went, exited the break room, and went and ate his food. And not long after that, some people came in to take their breaks and they they walked in and they said, What's that smell? That smells horrible. And they go to the refrigerator and they pull it open, they're like, no, nothing in there. They find that the culprit is the microwave, and they discovered as they pulled the door open on the microwave, this wafting of microwaved fish. Just smacked them. And we all understand, like, and and and it depends on if you like seafood or not, but if you like seafood, there's a there's a bit of a threshold kind of um peak when it comes to, okay, the fish smells like fish. And that's a good thing. It's fresh. And then at some point the fish starts to smell like fish. And it crests over, and it's no longer pleasant. One of the turns there is usually found when you microwave leftover fish. And so this particular office was in an uproar. Who would do this? And so the next day, someone goes back to their desk and types out an email and sends it to everybody and says, hey, reminder, no fish in the microwave. Well, here's what happens. That co-worker came back the next day, but he hadn't eaten all his leftovers yet. He still had more leftovers. So you know what he did? He microwaved his fish again and knew better, so he went and ran and ate it in his car. And they're like, who did this? And they were, I mean, they were getting their Columbo on. They were trying to figure out like who microwaved the fish. And they couldn't figure it out. So they came up with an idea and they made a sign for the microwave, and it's a wonderful one. I'll show you what it says. This is the sign they made for the microwave in this office. This is a guide to eating fish in the workplace. And maybe this will bless some of your workplaces. I don't know. As you can see, we have two columns. We have acceptable and we have unacceptable. Acceptable fish in the workplace are goldfish crackers. That is acceptable. Or Swedish fish candy. Those are acceptable. What is unacceptable fish in the workplace? Every other type of fish. Now you might be wondering, what on earth does that have to do with Psalm 120? The first of the ascending psalms. Ascending psalms were songs of ascent, as they would be called. People would sing them as they would travel back to Jerusalem for different festivals or feasts. And the word you might hear used is pilgrimage. Pilgrimage is just kind of a fancy word for a journey for a purpose, like a journey with a purpose. And here's what would happen is folks would come back for different festivals like Passover or Pentecost or what was called the Festival of Tabernacles. In Jewish tradition, they do an outstanding job of commemorating moments throughout history where God has provided and done different things. And so, like Passover celebrates their uh freeing from uh being uh slaves in Egypt, as you will read in the Old Testament of your Bible in the book of Exodus. Even with Pentecost, it was this idea of bringing the first fruits to God because it acknowledged that everything in their lives was a gift from God. And so they gave back the first fruits of that and they celebrated that with the festival of Pentecost. And even the festival of tabernacles was another reminder for them that God would provide. And in those Psalms of Ascent or Ascending Psalms, Psalm 120 is actually the very first one, which is interesting because it was supposed to be these songs that would be sung of God's provision and lauding him with praise. But in Psalm 120, it's gonna sound a little bit more like a rant. Read it with me if you have it in your uh Bibles or your phones, you can follow along screen. Psalm 120, it says this I took my troubles to the Lord, I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer. Rescue me, O Lord, from liars and from all deceitful people. O deceptive tongue, what will God do to you? How will he increase your punishment? You will be pierced with sharp arrows and burned with glowing coals. How I suffer in far-off Meshech, it pains me to live in distant Kadar. I am tired of living among people who hate peace. I search for peace, but when I speak of peace, they want war. This doesn't sound very pleasant. This sounds like somebody microwaves some fish, and this guy is angry. That's what it sounds like. And we're gonna unpack some stuff, and I'm gonna use the board this week to help us unpack what to learn in this particular psalm, this first of many psalms of ascent. Because you're gonna read something here right at the beginning of this psalm, and it's gonna tell us something. It says, I took my troubles to the Lord. I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer. Now, this one's weird. It's a weird psalm because you almost have to learn it backwards. And so I'm gonna ask you a question, and then we're gonna learn some things. And here's the question, and I want you to seriously answer in your own head. Where do you take your troubles? Where do you take your troubles? Life is full of troubles. It doesn't matter what age or stage you are in life, it doesn't matter what your background is, it doesn't matter how much money is in your bank account, it doesn't matter what family you were born into, it doesn't matter how old or young or what you do for a living, life will have troubles. And most people take their troubles one of three places. And here's what we're gonna learn, and we're gonna learn backwards through this psalm. Because initially you're looking at it and you're thinking, okay, what do we learn from this thing? Because it's odd. I mean, this sounds like just, I mean, he's angry. I'm I'm tired of living amongst these people. Rescue me from these liars. I'm so frustrated at things, God. Have you ever prayed like that? Have you ever had, you know what you get here? It's honesty. This is honest. This is an honest psalm. Have you ever had those honest prayers? Sometimes I think we don't want to admit this, but we're afraid to be honest with God in our prayers because we think, well, he might think differently of me if I'm honest with him. Give yourself the freedom to understand God already knows. And get honest. We've in our own family, I pray with our kids every day, and we have the same kind of structured prayers that we do to build the discipline of prayer in our lives, but then we also collect prayer requests and we have these conversations. And over the years, as our our kids have grown, they're teenagers now, but as they've grown, you know, they would ask questions like, Well, Dad, you're a pastor, so you must be really good at praying. So how can we get good at praying? You know, and we do this, right? Maybe we're in a group and we get asked to pray, and it's it's one of those, like, ah, I don't feel very good at praying. And our kids would ask me, you know, Dad, what makes a good prayer? And I would give them the same answer every time. What makes a good prayer? An honest one. An honest prayer is a good prayer. And you get that here. You get honesty here in what seems like a microwaved fish complaint. God, I'm dealing with some frustrating people. There's tension here. You actually see something very powerful that poses the question where do you take your troubles? Because most people take their troubles to three places. You can take your troubles, I'll write it down, I'll leave it up for later if you want. You can take your troubles to the Lord, you can take your troubles to the world, or you can take your troubles out on others. So let's learn backwards, because most of us learn it backwards. Oftentimes I have found even in my own life, and I am sure others have as well, we have been guilty of treating prayer like our last resort instead of our first response. So oftentimes when troubles come our way and they're big and small, everywhere in between at different phases of life and seasons. And oftentimes, instead of initially taking our troubles to the Lord, we work backwards. We take them out on others or to the world. And if you read this psalm backwards, you're gonna actually see that. He talks about I'm sick of living, I'm tired of living among people who hate peace. I'm suffering in far off Meshech and Kedar. Those are just two people groups that are mentioned here that were essentially you would call them pagan people groups, which just is kind of a scholastic word historically for meaning ungodly people groups. These were not God-fearing, not God-pleasing, not God-believing in people. And apparently, as the setting of this psalm would tell us, the author here is living amongst these people groups that were, uh it seemingly would be hostile towards him. And as he would try to maybe insert peace or live in harmony, they didn't want that. And so he was eager to find peace among different people. He's struggling with frustrating people. And he's having a hard time with it because he's like, look, everybody else seems to be doing things poorly. I just want to get away from these people. This is so tough. And we can understand that sometimes, I mean, you go on the internet nowadays, and it's just, it is the wild, wild west of opinions and perspectives and anything you can find. And sometimes, like, watching the news or going online just makes you feel, ugh, I can't with this. And the psalmist can obviously relate here because he is amongst people and he's like, I just want peace. Why do people not value harmony the way they should? And he actually tees up his I'm sick of these people with calling them out. And you don't, you know, we oftentimes it's it's kind of frowned upon to call people out for stuff publicly. Because what do most people do? Most people just put something out there on social media and people just got to assume who you're talking about. Because, you know, that's nicer. We don't do that, do we? It's a little awkward when you start calling people out. He does. He does, because the initial part of this psalm says, What? Rescue me from liars. And if you're reading this, you're thinking, ooh, who's he talking about? Ooh, I wonder. You know, and then you get verse 5, and it's like, oh, you're talking about people of Meshach and Kedar. Oh, he named names. He did it. He called people liars. And sometimes we're so quick to do that, aren't we? Oh, yeah, Scott, I know there's people out there, they lie. Rescue us from liars. You felt it. You felt it. It's tough. We've been through enough as a society that we look out and we think, yes, please, the truth needs to win out. Please, for once, I'm so sick of liars, and there's a reality to life. People are gonna lie about you. And if that spoils something for you, I apologize, but welcome to earth. It's tough. Wear a helmet sometimes. People will lie about you, and it's not fun. But let's talk about something that is not often talked about. You ready for this one? And this is gonna make a lot of us uncomfortable because I'm gonna get in everybody's face a little bit, lovingly. Oftentimes, the most prominent liar in our lives is us. We are great at lying to ourselves because we know how to lie to ourselves. We're great at it. And we believe lies. We believe lies like nobody loves me, nobody cares about me. I'm not important. I'm gonna be judged for this. And we believe that instead of God wanting to instill in us this humility that allows us to trust Him and others with the real us and then understanding, look, if there are real deal people you want in your life, they are going to love you in spite of you. And if you're looking for love based on impressing people, the people who are going to come into your life are not the people you're gonna want in your life or need in your life as life goes on. You need to be real and authentic, trusting God and others with the real you that will bless your life. But we believe the lie that we gotta be a certain way so certain people will like us, and so no, nobody will like us unless we're like this. And we believe that lie. We believe the lies of anger and fear and shame. We believe the lies that are they go a little something like this. Yeah, I know I I struggle with this one thing, but here's the deal: nobody ever sees me do this thing, and it really only affects me, so it's okay. And you know what we do? We say, well, listen, if the sin in my life only really negatively impacts me, then God's okay with that sin in my life. And what do we do? We lie to ourselves, negative self-talk about ourselves. We believe. We lie to ourselves. No, God, uh this could never work out for me because nothing good ever happens to me. No, God, I'm afraid because, you know, I I experienced this and I've known loss and I've known tragedy, and so I can't know joy ever again. And we start to believe things or, or yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no. I look, I get it. I get it. I know this person they wronged me, and I know I'm supposed to forgive them. I know I'm supposed to be gracious, but uh, you know, but they gotta deal with themselves, and it's okay because that's on them, not on me. Yet you seem to be the one carrying it around in your life backpack and it weighing you down. What do we do? We often lie to ourselves. See, we think that liars are always an enemy at the gate, but oftentimes the threat of lying is already inside the house. It is easy to lie to ourselves because we know ourselves. And this is what we do. You know what we do? It's a common thing we practice in life. We rationalize. We come up with a way to convince ourselves of something that we want to be true. Do you know what happens when we rationalize? Here's what we do. I'll give you something to write down. We tell ourselves rational lies. See, it's easy to convince ourselves of something. So when we read the psalmist in Psalm 120, God rescue me from liars, we think, man, he must have been around some tough people. Here's an assignment for all of us this week. Check your own self. Are you lying to yourself in any area of your life? Be on guard for this. People don't like to talk about it because it makes people uncomfortable. But it's so helpful, and we've all done it on levels big and small, and everywhere in between are we checking that? Because shame will lie to us and prevent us from real God-honoring relationships because we think, well, people will judge me for my past or the decisions that I have made, and we undervalue the grace of God that He puts on display through the love of people. That's why we have Christian community so that we don't have to stay stuck in believing the lies that we tell ourselves, often about ourselves, or to convince ourselves that our sin is okay as long as no one else knows about it. Here's the challenge stop lying to yourself. And as it continues to work backwards, right, we see, God, I'm fed up. These people are liars. Please, please make it just take care of them. You notice he says that? I mean, it's right there in verse three. Oh, deceptive tongue, what will God do to you? How will he increase your punishment? Has anyone ever wronged you or done something you knew was wrong and you actually had that moment with God? God, punish them. They deserve to be punished. A lot of us, we don't want to admit it, but we may have done that before. You know why? You're a person. You're a flawed, imperfect human being. And so when people do things that wrong us, sometimes we think, God, I wish you would just set them straight. And we do that. You know why we do that? Because we want satisfaction for the wrong we've seen. It's normal. Breathe if that's you. This isn't getting up in your face, this is helping you see things for what they are. Because here's what most people do. And it's not what the psalmist does. Because you notice that he says these things, and if you work backwards, it sounds like a microwaveable fish office vent song. But that's not how it starts, is it? How's the posture of the psalmist start? I took my troubles to the Lord. So when he brings this seemingly complaining spirit to God, he's not bringing it to him. He's not bringing it before the Lord. He's not taking this trouble to the Lord so he can convince God to give him satisfaction for the wrong he's seen. He's bringing it to the Lord because he's trusting God with the troubles he has. And here's oftentimes what we do in life. We'll see wrong that's been done, we'll feel wrong that's been done to us. And instead of being concerned about righteousness, we're concerned about retribution. And there's a difference, and I want to explain it to you because I think a lot of us struggle with this. We see a wrong and we want retribution, which means this. Know what is right. Do you see the difference? One is about self-satisfaction and proving we were and they weren't. The other is about helping people understand what the righteousness of God looks like and wanting that for them in their lives so we can grow in our faith together. But we never get there unless we take our troubles to the Lord. But what do we do? We usually work backwards and we have to learn this one the hard way. What do we do? Most of the times we take our troubles, big or small, and initially, most of the times we take our troubles out on others. And you might think, well, I don't know that I do that because I don't really talk to people about my troubles. Here's what we do: something happens in our lives, we're struggling with something, and what do we do? I don't trust anyone or anybody with anything, so I'm gonna keep this to myself, I'm gonna lock it down, I've got it, I'll deal with it on my own. And then what happens? No, no, no. My pride is telling me I should have got this thing, and I want people to think I'm awesome, and I want people to think that I have this or or I do this or I'm like this. So I can't let them see any form of authenticity or vulnerability, and so I'm gonna lock that down. Or uh life didn't go the way I wanted it to. You know, I wanted this decision to be made for me, it wasn't. I wanted this promotion, it was given to somebody else. No, God, I wanted this, I wanted this dynamic in my marriage, and it's not going the way that I wanted it to go. Or, God, I wanted this for my family's future, and and now this these dreams that I have of a family have been kind of ruptured, and and now we've got a blended family, and there's pain, and we got to deal with things everywhere in between. And so I've got these troubles, and here's what I'm gonna do. I'm just gonna keep them to myself, and I'm gonna lock them down and never share them with anybody because no one else needs to know. I don't need to burden them with my troubles. I'll handle it on my own. And then what happens? You know what we do? We just make deposits in our soul bank of pride, fear, anger, shame, discouragement, and then you know what happens? Eventually, the lid pops off and it starts to seep out. And you find yourself in moments like this. Hey, we want you to come be a part of this group. Hey, why don't you go out with us? Hey, we'd like you to come over and you get healthy invitations to healthy relationships that honor God, focused on Jesus, and you say, No, because you're afraid that somebody might see some of your troubles. And so you end up taking that out on others by disassociating and avoiding people because you're afraid and you don't realize it, but you've taken your troubles out on others because you've tried to hide them. And so they're keeping you from growth. You know what else we do? Those angry moments in our lives, stuff at work, stuff maybe in our marriages, stuff that we see, stuff that bothers us, stuff from our past, guilt and shame that's maybe festered into anger. Maybe God did not do things the way you wanted him to do things. And next thing you know, you come home from work and you lose your mind. And you just spew venom on your family. And the reality is you're not that upset about shoes being left out in the living room for the 44th time. You're not really that upset. You know what you are? You're angry about so many other things. And you tried to just do it on your own. And so you end up taking your troubles out on others. And it comes out in angry outbursts, or you're afraid of things and you don't want to take that trouble to the Lord. You want to lock that down. And so then your fear comes out in your conversations and the way you treat people, and your pride comes out in your conversations and the way you treat people, and you think for a moment because you don't realize it, but you're actually taking your troubles out on others. Most of us do that, or we say, okay, well, that didn't work. I need to get a fix for this. So then we take our troubles to the world. And what do we do? What do we do? I'm hurting, I need to fix this. Okay, what can I do to fix this? Okay, what does everybody else say? Fixes this. Okay, well, life's been really hard. Scott, I've gone through some really tough stuff. You don't know. I've gotten a lot of no's lately, I've lost some people in my life, I'm having a hard time, and the world tells me that if I medicate enough or if I use this much of this substance, that I'll be able to forget my troubles. There are whole songs written about this. People try to solve their troubles at the bottom of a bottle. Pill or liquid. Yeah, we're going there. We're a big enough church. Don't be surprised. And what do we do? We look for satisfaction. We look for some type of help for our trouble in so many places. We say, oh, well, I see. If I can get retribution, if I can posture myself as the winner in all relational situations, then I will be satisfied. Doesn't matter who I gotta hurt in the process, as long as I am proved right, that trouble will be taken care of. And does it? No. Husbands, wives, can I get a witness? Sometimes you can be so right, you're wrong. Why? You know why? We're trying to take care of that trouble. And the world says win. The world says be right. And so if you are, it'll take care of that trouble. Does it ever? No. No. Because we end up having to chase it. You know what else we do? I want love. I want to feel important. I want to feel like I matter. Well, the world tells me if I have this much money, I'll be important. So I'm willing to go into all sorts of debt and abandon my responsibility to manage the resources God gives me wisely, because if people think I have a lot, then I'll feel like I'm enough in their eyes. What else do we do? Well, if I dress like this, people will think I'm cool. Well, if I behave like this, people will love me. If I make these decisions, I'm gonna be accepted. So I'll put this thing out on social media. I'll spend three and a half hours of my day applying filters, setting the stage, and making sure I get the perfect shot to make it look like I have the perfect life. I'll post it and then I'll spend the next three days of my life checking my phone 87 times a day to make sure everybody's liked it. Because if enough people don't like it, then I'm not enough and I need to try harder. I need to dress different. I need to put this out, I need to make sure I do these things. And what are we doing? We're taking our troubles to the world. I just want to be accepted. I want to be loved. I want to be liked. I want to feel seen so we do everything we possibly can do to make ourselves feel seen. And what do we realize? We take that trouble to the world and it satisfies for a second. And then we got to keep doing that. Where do you take your troubles? Do you take your troubles out on others? Do you take your troubles to the world? Or do you do what the psalmist does and take your troubles to the Lord? Now here's the sticking point for a lot of people. You ready? Because this is where we get theological without being too theological. It's not going to sound very deep, but it's real. You know why a lot of times we struggle to take our troubles to the Lord? Because we don't want to. You know why? If we take our troubles to the Lord, it means we have to acknowledge that God has a better way, and we might have to do something about that. It's not terribly theological as it sounds, but it's deeply theological on a practical level. You know why? It's called Christian living. The gospel is the first value we have as a church. We believe Jesus changes everything, and we follow the Jesus way of living. What happens when you take your troubles to the Lord? You trust your troubles to the Lord. And what happens when you trust someone with something? You give the something to the someone and you entrust their care of the something. See, when you take your troubles to the Lord, you acknowledge God might have something to say about this. And his way is probably better. But a lot of times it's hard for us to get there because we know there's always, we call them shoelace prayers. Meaning, I'm gonna bring this to God, and he's gonna say, Here's what you need to do. I'm gonna go to his word and I'm gonna bring my pride and my fear and my shame and my anger and my doubt and my selfishness, and I'm gonna bring this to God. I'm gonna bring these things to God. I'm gonna take my troubles to him and I'm gonna look at God's word and I'm gonna say, Oh, oh. Yeah, that's what I was afraid would happen, God. You want me to do something about this? And it's just real deal, feet-to-faith struggle for people. But what does the psalmist say in Psalm 120? I took my troubles to the Lord, I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer. Have you ever thought that God wants to deal with your troubles? See, we're told don't bring your troubles to people because nobody wants to hear about your troubles. No one wants to hear your life in a country song. We're told that. No, no, no. Keep your troubles to yourself. Or define yourself by your troubles. And you know what that teaches us? It teaches us to take our troubles out on others or take our troubles to the world to find satisfaction. Do you know what taking our troubles to God teaches us? How to trust God in all seasons and all situations. But taking your troubles to the Lord is going to require humility and practice. Because those things you bring to Him, He will show you His way. And it's up to you to do something with it. There's a reason why most people struggle to take their troubles to the Lord. And it's because it means we have to put feet to our faith. But there is no better help for your troubles than God. Nothing will satisfy. Like trusting the one who made everything with everything in your life. And he doesn't always do things the way you want him to, or at the time frame he wants you to do them. And there are still going to be troubles in your life. Don't think that you take all your troubles to God and then all of a sudden there's no more troubles. That's not how it works. It's a continued practice of trust. But you know what you do get? You get the peace that you don't get when you take your troubles out on others. You get the peace that you don't get when you take your troubles to the world. You get the grace that you don't experience when you take your troubles out on others or take your troubles to the world. You get the love that you don't get when you take your troubles out on others or to the world. You know what you get when you take your troubles to the Lord? You get him. You get him. More of his character starts to shape your character. It started with microwaving fish in the office. It ends with this question. Where do you take your troubles? Out on others? To the world? Or do you want to take your troubles to the Lord? Let's pray, and then we can linger in the lobby as we wrap up. God, thank you again for another day. Thank you for your word. I pray that it instructs us. And I pray that it shapes us, and I pray that it sends us. God, I pray that you give us the courage to take our troubles to you, to trust you in all seasons and in all situations. The courage to check ourselves when we want to lie to ourselves, when we want to take our troubles out on others, to be aware of that, or chasing love in all the wrong places, or satisfaction or gratification in all the wrong places, or peace in all the wrong places, trying to look here for solutions that are only temporary, God, but that we would build trust in you, grow in our relationship with you, because we take our troubles to you, knowing that you want to help us with our troubles. Your word says you are an ever-present help. So, God, lead us to take our troubles to you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

Thank you so much for joining us today at Sunrise Church. We hope this message encouraged you and blessed you. If one of the ways that you choose to worship with us here at Sunrise is by giving online, there's a link right here that you can follow and it'll take you to that payment portal. Everything that you donate helps not only go towards reaching people in the greater San Diego area, but also all around the world through our ministry partner. If you want to get further connected, whether in person or online, you can email this email right here, and either myself or some one of our team members will be there to answer it and help you get connected in any way that you need. Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you next time.