If you have your Bibles, if you want to join me in Psalms 119, Psalm 119, we're going to be reading verse 73 down to 96, Psalm 119. And this is getting into the middle section of this great psalm. I've so enjoyed this and this is a part two of a message we looked at last week in the last section of Scripture here dealing, he gets into affliction, dealing with hardships. And one of the things I so appreciate about the Psalms is they don't ignore trials in life, they don't ignore the difficulties we face. Life is tough and that's one thing that is a blessing. When you come to the Bible you find people that went through difficulties and they weren't afraid to come to God and say, God I don't know why I'm going through this. Where are you at?
Why do you seem silent and distant? I need help. And they would just pour out their heart to God and we can understand life through the lens of Scripture, but it's also nice to know that they didn't live in some ivory tower that we can't comprehend. So let's continue in this study. Verse 73 says, Thy hands have made me and fashioned me. Give me understanding that I may learn Thy commandments. They that fear Thee will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in Thy word. Let's read verse 75 together. I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.
Isn't that an interesting verse? He said, Let I pray Thee, Thy merciful kindness be for my comfort according to Thy word unto Thy servant. Let Thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live for Thy laws my delight.
Let the proud be ashamed, for they dealt perversely with me without a cause. But I will meditate in Thy precepts. Let those that fear Thee turn unto me, and those that have known Thy testimonies. Let my heart be sound in Thy statutes, that I be not ashamed. My soul fainteth for Thy salvation, but I hope in Thy word. My eyes fail for Thy word, saying, When will Thou comfort me?
For I am become like a bottle in the smoke, or a wineskin in the smoke would probably be better translated. Yet do I not forget Thy statutes. How many are the days of Thy servant? When wilt Thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? The proud have digged pits for me, which are not after Thy law. All Thy commandments are faithful, and they persecute me wrongfully.
Help Thou me. They had almost consumed me upon the earth, but I forsook not Thy precepts. Make me alive or quicken me after Thy loving kindness. So shall I keep Thy statutes or testimonies of Thy mouth." If you'd read verse 89, well-known verse also with me. Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. He goes on to say, Thy faithfulness is unto all generations.
Thou has established the earth, and it remains or abides. They continue this day according to Thine ordinance, for all are Thy servants. Unless Thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in my affliction. I will never forget Thy precepts, for with them Thou has made me alive or quicken me. I am Thine, save me, for I have sought Thy precepts. The wicked have waited for me to destroy me, but I will consider Thy testimonies.
I have seen an end of all perfection, but Thy commandment is exceeding broad. Father, Your word is is our delight, and so tonight we come to it with anticipation that You would feed our hearts. Lord, I pray that You would center us in Your truth, that You would lead us into the truth, that You would remove from our eyes and our hearts anything that would pull us away from You, and may we love You exceedingly and follow You with all of our heart. And I pray tonight if anyone in our teens or kids or adult service doesn't know Christ, that tonight would be the night of their salvation, and may the peace of God that passes all understanding be upon the hearts of Your people. We ask it in Jesus' name, and God's people said, Amen.
You may be seated this evening. Well tonight again we're continuing in a message from last week in the last 20 or so verses that we looked at last week dealing with affliction, growing through affliction, growing through affliction, and that's kind of what the pruning process does. If you work with different plants and foliage, you would prune off the pieces that are hindering the growth and removing things, and so sometimes God in our life will bring us through different testings, challenges, but they produce great growth in our life. The truth is life can be tough. I mean it can be very tough. There can be mental strains, there can be emotional strains, there can be relational difficulties. We looked at divorce this past Sunday, walked through some of those difficulties. We looked at forgiveness for the prior three weeks before that, and we know that life can present to us some challenges that can really be heavy at times. There can also be physical pain, and I think sometimes when you go through a lot of physical pain, it's hard not to get negative a little bit. Anybody ever found that to be true? You can be somewhat of a positive person, but when you hurt enough, it's like, you know what, I'm grumpy.
I rolled out of the right side of bed and I feel wrong, man. You know, you can really get that way, and I know kind of healing up from a pretty major surgery a few years ago, I just, it was hard not to get irritable sometimes. You just, you get so sick of hurting on something, and so life can present a myriad of these different challenges. We live in a fallen world, we have a fallen body, and these are the things that we must take in life, and it's critical that when we go through trials that we have the right outlook so that we can have the right outcome in those situations. If Christians do not learn to see trials correctly and respond to them biblically, you need to know that those things will throw you off. They're actually such a big issue that in Matthew 13, when Jesus is going over the true believers compared to those who are false believers, he gives three different soils that are false believers and then three that are true. He said some seeds were planted in the rocky soil, some were on hard soil, and then some were in the thorny soil, but the rocky soil was that which grows up and it's a thin layer of bedrock that doesn't allow the roots to grow deep, but then the sun begins to scorch it, there's different hardships that that little plant faces, and it withers away, and it's a picture of the believer who makes a profession of faith but not a true reception of the faith, and when those difficulties come they fall away, the Bible says. And trials, one of the blessings you must see is when you go through affliction and you last, it shows not only what you see in your temporal faith lasting is a reflection of your eternal faith lasting, that Christ will keep you, and if you can persevere through the temporal things, then that's an evidence that you really belong to him, because what it shows is that you're not following him based on the temporal, you're following him based on the eternal. In other words, God, you're good not because life is easy, you're good because you're my Savior, and I worship you because of what you've done for me spiritually and eternally, not because I have a good physical day. But that's what the fallen world wants, isn't it? They want happiness based on positive happenings, and that's not what God's called us to. One very insightful portion of Scripture that I really appreciate is Psalm 73. Who has found some solace in Psalm 73 before?
You know what I'm talking about. Psalm 73 is a psalm about a guy who is a believer in God, obviously, and he is writing about his faith that gets uprooted almost, like he's on the verge of falling away from God because he sees the prosperity of wicked people, and it just chafes him. It drives him crazy, and it's just, listen to some of the things he says as we kind of launch into some thoughts. Psalm 73 verse 1, he says this, truly God is good to Israel, even to such errors of a clean heart. But as for me, he says, my feet were almost gone.
My steps had well nigh slipped. He said, I was envious at the foliage when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. And he begins to talk about how, man, they never have pain in life. I mean, everything they do prospers. I'm over here, you know, doing all this, and all these bad things are happening. Listen to what he says in verse 12, Psalm 73. He said, behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world.
They increase in riches. And he says, verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency, for all the day long I have been plagued and chastened every morning. He's like, man, they seem like all the blessing of God's dumping on them, and I'm only getting the difficulty.
They're living and eating, and I'm out here in the desert. I mean, he is just bruised by life, and he turns frustratingly against God with these complaints and discontentments. But at the very root of this, what the problem is, is he's basing God's goodness on the temporal and not on the eternal. You think they're riches make them blessed? You think, listen, you can be earthly rich and heavenly poor. The true riches are what God offers. And if it were not for our difficulties in life, we probably wouldn't always come to the true riches. And it's very likely that God has kept some of us from being too wealthy because the wealth would overwhelm us. We can handle the trial a lot more than we can handle the treasure.
Is that true? Right? We're like, I don't know, I'd like to try the other side sometime, right? It's like, oh man, I love that guy. What's that movie with the Jewish guy in Reptavia?
He's like, curse me with the riches, strike me with the riches. You guys know what song I'm talking about? So yes, what's it called? Fiddler on the Roof. Yes, yes.
My mom would make me sit down and watch these movies. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, who knows that movie? Not bad, not bad. But he was at such a low point in his life. Listen to what he says in verse 16, and I just, I think it's good for us to press into this guy a little bit. He says in Psalm 73 16, he said, when I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. He felt like God was not being fair to him. And I'm sure most of us have felt, in some sense, like that at some point.
And like, God, I don't feel like you're just. They may not say that out loud, but that's what the discontentment of their heart is getting at, and the frustration that they're feeling, the lack of thankfulness. Psalm 73 17, what would liberate his soul from this? What would snap him out of this wrong thinking, this raging battle in his heart? He said in verse 17, until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I therein. The moment I went into the house of God, my eyes were opened once again. I went from earthly perspective to eternal perspective, and I got it.
Snapped him out of it. The end of the lost is eternal misery. The end of the saved is eternal joy. That's why, that's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 18, he said, we don't look at the things which are seen. The thing which, the things which are seen are temporal. The things that are not seen are eternal. And we must remember that in times of life when we feel like things are not fair.
I heard MacArthur say one time, and it's true, and I've repeated it, that in this life we lose physically. Christians many times have lost throughout all these centuries. They die, they're persecuted, that life treats them extremely unfair. Just read Fox's book of martyrs. Christians aren't on the winning side, physically speaking, right?
I mean, they're the ones getting persecuted, sawn in half, like Hebrews 11 talks about Isaiah, that happened to him according to historical records that one of the kings had him sawn in half. I mean, just the injustices that have happened to Christianity. And so we cannot base God's goodness on the temporary. Again, I've compared it to like a timeline from say that door to that wall and it's a billion years and, you know, we're gonna live forever in the eternal perfect paradise and a new body, like in the Christ body, and if you think about 70, 80, 90 years would be like a little tiny speck on that time frame. God's goodness isn't based on the speck. It's based on eternity, isn't it? And you know what Satan wants to do?
He wants to get us focused on the speck. It's literally like living in the Garden of Eden. He's like, look at that little piece of fruit! You're gonna tell me God won't let you eat of that? And you're like, there's like 10 billion pieces of fruit hanging around and you you want me to be discontent for that one, but if you listen to him long enough he'll rob your joy with discontentment.
It makes people that have more than they could ever deserve unthankful for what they could never earn. Now the conclusion, Psalm 73, which is not the song we're going to talk about, this is an introduction, but it sets the stage. Psalm 73, 22, he says, So foolish was I and ignorant. I was a beast before you, God. Nevertheless, I am continually with thee. Thou has holden me by thy right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory.
He's like, I was like a dumb animal. Now last week, again, we looked at three vitally important questions and I want to repeat these questions as you consider. How do you view trials and afflictions you go through? When you go through them, do you see it just as an affliction or do you see it as a potential to glorify God and to grow spiritually? I want you to think about that. What did you go through this last week and maybe what are you going through today or this week?
Do you see that as a positive? Is God sovereign? You remember the question I asked that I would present to you and I don't know if I asked this on a Sunday or Wednesday so I'll repeat it. Whenever you're in a situation, always ask the question, how would I view this differently if I knew God wanted it in my life? God, if I knew God wanted this difficulty, yeah, but God would never bring somebody like that to give me such an irritation. Again, 2 Corinthians 12, right?
Messenger and the messenger of Satan, the Buffett Paul. Second question is, what is your view of God when you face hardships in life? How do you view Him? Do the present trials make God less godly, less good, less glorious? I think God touches us and heats up our life just to see, will we still glorify Him based on Him or based on how easy life is? And then thirdly, how do trials and hardships affect you spiritually? Does it push you farther from God or draw you closer?
Do you, what happens to you spiritually? When you go through difficulties, do you find yourself praying more, reading more, seeking God's truth more, seeking counsel? And so last week we saw the reality of affliction, how he got comfort in affliction, and then why afflictions can be good. He said back in verse 71 and 2, he said, it was good that I was been afflicted.
And tonight I want to look at a part two of this, same theme as he rolls through these verses. And so the first thing we see is the faith of the afflicted in verse 73. His faith, his faith.
He said in verse 73, thy hands have made me and fashioned me. Now I want to ask this question, why is it important to consider God as a Creator when you're in the middle of difficulty? Again, when you're in like that Psalm 73 difficulty, when your heart is overwhelmed, when your internals are raging and you're so frustrated and overwhelmed, why would it be good to consider God as the Creator of your life?
One of the great reasons is to know that you're not just going through this by bad luck. If you're created on purpose, you live for a purpose, right? You're not an accident.
It didn't just happen. God's not like, hey let me just make them and kind of send them off. No, he is intimately involved in the details of your life. I love Ephesians. I've been going through that book and trying to get it down in my memory bank in chapter 1 verse 4. He says, according as you have chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holding without blame before him in love. God has chosen us in Christ for ordained us to be in Christ before the foundation of the world. He had a plan for me before I was in existence.
This is Psalm 139 in action as well. And he has ordered our days. He has called us for an eternal purpose. In his affliction, he was not only remembering God as creator, but he goes on and thinks about God as his teacher. He says, your hands have made me and fashioned me. He says in verse number 73, give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments. God, not only are you my creator, but you're also my teacher. And if you gave me a body and a spirit and a mind, then you can also give me understanding for that mind, right?
So let's go back to God as our creator when we are in an affliction. Verse 74, he says, they that fear thee will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in thy word. What you see here is the psalmist had many people who seems to have known that he was going through this trial. They knew that the difficulty he was in, it may have been reflective of how Paul would have been facing difficulties. And you see this in the church at Ephesus. You see it in 1st, 2nd Corinthians. You see it in Philippi, Colossians.
He said you'd pluck out your own eyes for me. They were burdened because of the trials physically that Paul was going through, and it seems that they were also feeling this. But he says they will be glad when they see me, because I am not controlled by my affliction, I'm controlled by his truth. And people will see that. What has it done to your faith when you've seen someone who should have been overcome by their trial, overcoming their trial with great victory? Isn't it incredibly powerful? I mean you see that and you're like, man, that's just inspirational. It is edifying, it is encouraging, it is uplifting.
Some of you have faced difficulties that are far beyond anything I've ever faced. And for me to know that and then to see your faith and faithfulness, I can tell you it builds up your pastor, it encourages the people around you. I think about Paul when he's writing Philippians chapter 1. He says in verse 12, but I would, you should understand brethren, that the things which happened unto me, he says, have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. He said so that my bonds in Christ are manifest or made known in all the palace and all other places. And many of the brethren, he says, waxing confident my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Because what he was going through, they were burdened by, he says, listen, I am not defined by my chains. They're actually giving me an opportunity to be a bold example for Christ. And now many of the brethren are much more courageous because they're seeing how I'm handling my affliction. And it's interesting when he gets to the end of the book in chapter 4, he says, salute all the brethren in Christ Jesus, the brethren which are with me greet you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. Philippians 4 22.
He's pointing to believers in Caesar's household that are actually becoming believers because of the bonds that Paul was dealing with. Now faith encourages faith. But you know, faith is invisible, isn't it? You can say, I have faith, and it's like, where?
What is it? It's invisible, isn't it? Faith is the evidence of things, what?
Right? So how do you make it visible? You make it visible by saying, hey, Philip, where shall we go that we may buy bread to feed all these people? And the Bible says Jesus knew what he was going to do, and Philip's like, you know what, that's a good question. And it very, very well likely was that Philip was the the person that may have been in charge of like orchestrating meals and things for the group.
He may have been the guy that kind of knew, he knew that region, he was actually in a region during that time if you study the life of Philip, so he would have known the local areas. And so he's running the numbers, he's running the calculations, and he's, you know, so many pennies worth would not be enough to, and the Bible says Jesus knew what he was going to do, but he sets out a challenge to him to see where his faith would land. So he's like, hey, how can we do this? And Philip's like, well, we can do this, and his faith only goes a little bit.
So in our life, I think there are things in life that God will turn up the heat, turn up the challenge, and what that does is it begins to expose what we really believe. We can say, I kind of shook me for a moment. It's the second time I've been scared on stage.
I was just talking, it's funny because before service, this has nothing to do with the message. There was a guitar one time when a guy left like right here. It was a black guitar, and I was preaching, and I didn't know it was there, and I felt like, you ever feel like something's like right next to you? This happened to me growing up, you know, my kids were little. There were a couple times I woke up, I'm like, I feel like somebody's standing right next to me, you know, and you wake up and your kid's right there, you're like, wow, you know, don't do that to me. Happened a couple times to me, and that guitar was right there, and I kind of jumped, and I was like, you kind of play it off, you're like, I had an itch on the back of my head, you know. I was scared of a guitar, you know. So don't make that sound again, little scratchy sound system. But faith encourages faith, and I think it's, I think it's important to remember this.
This will mean something to many of you. You will be at a place in your life where you will ask the question, why does God still have me around, and I'm going through such a physical difficulty? Why doesn't He just take me home? Why am I going through this physical trial?
Why am I going through these difficulties? You know why? Because He's using your faith to be a light to people around you. You're a testimony of the glory of God in the trials of life. It's, you know, there will be a day if time lags on throughout life that all of us will face those seasons, and just know that God is working intimately in your affliction for His glory and your good and the advancement of your faith and His name. Verse 75, he says, I know, O Lord, I know this, O Yahweh, that Thy judgments are right, or they're righteous, is the the idea there, and that Thou in a faithfulness has afflicted me. So he attaches the current scene of injustice that seems to be coming upon him as something that God has done to him. I think it's just an incredibly mature, spiritually mature thing for this psalmist to get that. You know, pride in us causes us to think we never deserve any troubles or afflictions in life, that any negativity that happens is unfair, that God is not just to allow that. But the psalmist looks at this and says, Lord, I know that you're righteous to allow these things.
You're not unrighteous, you're not somehow diminished by these trials, but you're great because of them. That's why that's why I say, what if God wanted that thing in your life? How would that affect it?
How would that affect it? Instead of somehow God being unfaithful, it's through these seasons. And I think about Job, you know, he worshiped God in that season, didn't he? So faith of the afflicted. Secondly, let's look at the prayer of the afflicted.
He gives four requests here. His first request in verse 76, he said, let I pray thee thy merciful kindness be for my comfort according to thy word and to thy servant. Spurgeon says, our prayers are according to the mind of God when they are according to the Word of God. And that's what he prays here. He is praying according to the Word of God. And so instead of trying to comfort himself or to turn to others for comfort, he seeks the faithful love of the Lord to comfort him.
I love 2nd Corinthians chapter number 1 verse 3 and 4. Psalmus comes, or not Psalmus, but Saul comes, the Apostle Paul, and he says, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He says, who comforts us in all of our tribulation. And notice what he goes on to say, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we have also ourselves are comforted of God. We're able to give others what we've received.
We can dispense what we have. Sometimes people say, you know, what's some of the things you need for biblical counseling, like counseling people? Well, number one, you need to know the Word of God. And number two, you need to see how the Word of God is played out in your life, in your circumstances.
Your life becomes a counselor. As you begin to receive the Word of God, see a work in your life. Isn't that what the Bible says, let the older women teach the... what are they doing?
They're taking the Word of God and life experiences and saying, this is how they've worked out. Let me pass on wisdom to you now. This is proverbial wisdom. This is really an idea of biblical counseling. Verse 77, Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live, for thy law is my delight. He says, the mercies of God are here, tender mercies. They're like a father giving such gifts to his children.
They're tender, they're compassionate. And he also prays, secondly, that the proud would be ashamed for what they did to him in verse 78. So he says, God, let your mercies comfort me. Verse 78, he goes on and says, let the proud be ashamed.
But this is not vindictive. The prayer is really attached to the idea of Psalm 83 16. He says, fill their faces with shame, that they may seek thy name, O Lord. We desire that the ungodly, those who would rebel against the things of God, would be brought to a place of shame, not just so that they would loathe in shame, but they would bring humility in their life and they would see their need of God. Shame is a good thing. I don't know that we have much of it anymore in this culture. Used to be a time when my mom would say, you should be ashamed of yourself. Anybody have a parent that would say something like that? You should be ashamed of yourself. Yeah, you know, the Bible talks about a stiff-necked people as a people who have no shame.
It talks about the harlot woman who, you know, her forehead is broad, she just doesn't feel bad about anything. It's amazing sometimes what people can say and you're just like, how do they even say that? Like just, but we live in that kind of a culture. He says, for they have dealt perversely with me without a cause. They have been dishonest. They lied about the psalmist. They treated him in a way that was unfair. They distorted the truth about him.
They dealt with him in a perverse way. And notice what he goes on to say there. He says, but I will meditate in thy precepts.
This is very telling of him because what often happens when somebody's lied about us, treated us in an unjust way, you know what our mind does? It dwells on the injustice. We think on it.
Anybody with me? I mean, does that happen? Like, I can't believe they'd say that. We get worked up and then we think. The more we think about it, the more we get frustrated. The more we get frustrated, the more we think about it.
It just is this vicious cycle. But he says, but while they dealt perversely with me without a cause, he says, I will meditate in thy precepts. The word meditate there means to speak of it, talk of it, ponder it, commune with it. Instead of talking about or dwelling on the person or the situation, he says, I will dwell upon your truth. I tell you, if there's ever a time we need to dwell on the truth, it's when we've been through a difficult affliction of some kind, especially if somebody treats you in an unfair way, right? Also, when you are treated unjustly, trust God for that. Romans 12 18 says, if it is possible as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. Don't, and he goes on to say, don't avenge yourself, but give vengeance to God.
God will repay. And God says, let that, let that hammer be mine, but you, you don't be overcome with evil. Overcome evil with good. And he says, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him to drink. Don't be overcome with those kind of things.
So you have to meditate on like a Romans 12 in those seasons. And I don't know, we have. I just sat down with somebody not too long ago who had gone through some serious injustices, and they said, they asked me, they said, what do you think I should do? I said, well, you heard the sermon Sunday. I already gave a 50-minute answer on this, probably a 55-minute answer. And they said, oh, I know. I said, so you just want me to be here for accountability or what? So I said, when are you going to get it right? Well, I just don't think I can.
I said, well, I think you can. You just have to love God more than you dislike the person. You got to love obedience more than you like disobedience. Make God more worthy than yourself. And it was so encouraging when they came to me Sunday and they said, you know, I did what God wanted me to do.
I said, that's awesome. That's the act of love. God, I don't love you when I can sing a song or read a verse or say, amen to something I agree with.
I love you, those are acts of love, but I love you when I show it when it's really difficult, when I don't want to do it, and the only reason I do it is because I love you more than I dislike them. Does that make sense? So verse 79, he goes on, he says, he prays for the godly companions. He prays for godly companions.
He says, let those that fear thee turn unto me and those that have known thy testimonies. Boy, I can tell you, when you go through difficulties in life, you need people around you. That's why God's not called us to live in some isolation in a bubble. We need fellowship, we need communion, we need the body of Christ. That's why if you're watching online and you can't be here tonight, we're so thankful you can do that, but if you are only watching online and you never come physically to be a part of the church, you need to be a part of the body, and the reason for that is because people need you to pray for them, encourage them, and you need also to be available to receive that.
Loneliness is a very, very painful and terrible thing. God's never called us to that. And then a fourth prayer he makes here is he prays for a good testimony through the affliction. He said, let my heart be sound and blameless in thy statutes that I be not ashamed. Let my heart be blameless. How easy is it to respond to things and not be blameless? I shouldn't have said that, I shouldn't have acted that way.
We get pulled down by the attacks of the enemy. Jesus said in Luke 6 32 through 35, he said, if you love those who love you, he said, even unbelievers can do that. He says, but when you can love your enemies and do good for them, hoping for nothing in return, he said, that is a reflection of that you're born of your Father. I would ask you, what does your response to those who treat you wrong say about your faith? Four questions he makes in this time of affliction is that God's mercies will be his comfort, that the proud will be ashamed, that he prays for godly companions, and he prays for a good testimony.
Thirdly, the struggle of the afflicted. Verse 81, he comes into the 11th stanza. It is interesting that this 11th stanza is a Hebrew word kaf.
It would look like a U, and to the Jews they believed that it would be like this, holding your hands out to God. If you study that little Hebrew letter, that you're holding your hands out to receive something, a gift or a blessing from God. And in verse 81, he holds out his hands, if you would, and he says, he is praying to God. He says, my soul fainteth for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word. The word faint here has the idea of coming to an end. It's the same verb in a slightly different form used in verse 87 when he says, they almost made an end of me. He is at a place that's so weak, so empty of strength, he would be the, it's the idea of you're not even able to stand. This is, again, this is the struggle of the afflicted, and really verse 81 through 88 show you how difficult this guy has it.
In verse 82 he says, mine eyes fail for thy word, saying when wilt thou comfort me. Have you ever studied so long that your eyes are just so tired? You're like, yeah, last night watching the TV. Who stayed up past your bedtime? Who's went to bed and said, it'll just happen, whatever it happened? And then you're like at two o'clock in the morning, like, should I check my phone? Who checked their phone at two in the morning?
Who was happy at two in the morning? But we, what you find here in verse number 81, or 82, is his eyes are just exhausted. His eyes are exhausted from reading the Word and seeking comfort from God, and he says, when will you comfort me? I am exhausted, I am, I am frail, I can't even stand. Psalm 69 verse 3 says, I am weary of my crying, my throat is dried, my eyes fail while I wait for my God. You ever been there just waiting, wondering when will, when will God bring relief?
Let me say he will, not always on our time. Can I give you a couple examples to how far this can stretch? I mean, the example of Christ, 40 days without food? 40?
40. You and I, especially if you're part of this church, four days you're done. Say you can live two or three weeks without food, not the people here, man. We're going down fast, right? We'd be in the wilderness, we're like, Lord, we don't need three days without water, three days without food, we're finished. I mean, we would one day without water and we'd be complaining, right?
Send us back to Egypt, we'd be rebellious much faster. 40 days, and you know what's interesting, what it says at the end of that in Psalm, or Matthew 4-11, then the devil leaved, leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. I think Jesus was at a point of such physical exhaustion, he needed angels that literally came and aided him physically, probably brought him food, nourishment, care, just like they did to Elijah in the Old Testament. Jesus, couldn't he make food? Yes, he could, but he subjected himself so fully in his kenosis or his self-empting of what Philippians 1, Philippians chapter 3 verse 7, I don't even need to mention this, 2 verse 7, but his self-empting that he gave himself over to the Father's will, even to the point of almost dying. And you see this repeated in the garden when Jesus was sweating great drops of blood, and he's just pouring out his heart to God, and listen what happens in Luke 22 42, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will, but thine be done. And it says, and there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
Isn't that interesting? God sent that angel because he knew Jesus needed it at that point. You won't be tempted above what you're able to bear, because when you get to that point, God's going to help you, he'll intercede for you, he will strengthen you, but it can stretch you.
Just know that, and faithfulness does it. You know, when somebody trains for a marathon, they push themselves, don't they? Their lungs are burning, their legs are on fire, they don't feel like they can take another step, but they train like that. I don't train like that.
Braden would train like that. Verse 83, For I am become like a bottle or a wineskin in the smoke, speaks about a bottle of skin or leather, which was the only kind they used then, which they would hang up and they would smoke it, and allow the heat and smoke to parch and dry the wineskin, represents the person I think so well that their moisture is being dried up, their withering, their condition is getting worse day by day. But what does he do in verse 83? He says, Yet do I not forget thy statutes. He just depended upon the Lord, he didn't forsake God.
And that's why I love this psalm, is because we're able to rub shoulders with somebody who's in it, and writing about it, and showing us what he does. And this is again the agony struggle that he's going through. Verse 84, he says, How many are the days of thy servant? How many days do I have left, is what he's saying.
My life is nearly over. When will thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? He says in verse 85, The proud have digged pits for me, they have set traps for me, they do things that are against your law, God. Verse 86, he's telling him, God your commandments are faithful, they are persecuting me wrongfully, I need your help. Verse 87, he says, They have almost consumed me, but I didn't forsake your precepts.
And in verse 88, he says, Make me alive or quicken me after your lovingkindness, so shall I keep thy testimonies. So how does he survive these struggles and afflictions, these persecutions, these slanders, these hardships? Well in this struggle, I want you to show you, first of all, he prays very specifically. He was a detailed person in his prayer. They weren't general prayers like, I am struggling. He's like, I was lied about, I've been persecuted in this way, they've done me wrong here. He gets very specific, and I think it's important when we come to God, we need to pray specifically, so that if God answers it, you know that he answered it specifically. Secondly, his prayers were real and authentic. He expresses very clearly to God the nature of his struggle.
He says, My soul fainteth, my eyes fail, I am like a bottle in the smoke, they had almost consumed me. Be open and real about your struggles with God. Lord, I am struggling with this. I don't understand why I'm going through this season. You say, oh that's questioning God.
Come to him with your questions. Lord, I don't understand why my health is like this. I don't understand why I'm going through this financial thing, a relationship. I don't know why I'm having these mental struggles.
I don't know why that I feel this pressure in life. Whatever you may go through, bring it to God who cares. Cast your care on the Lord because he cares for you. We need someone who can listen and answer us, and the Lord is the first place for that. His prayers, thirdly, were for God's help. He knew God was his help, so he was specific, he was authentic, and he prayed for God's help in that. And then in his struggles, the psalmist turned to God's Word in verse 81. He says, I hope in your word. He just constantly kept going to the Word of God, verse 83, I don't forget your statutes. Verse 87, I forsook not thy precepts. What you find is the seed that brought him life he kept holding to. And when you hold the Word, the Word will hold you.
I like what Spurgeon said about this as I wrap up this third point. He says, Beloved, let none of us give way to despair. No doubt Satan will tell us that it is humble to despair, but it is not. The pride of despair is terrible. I believe that when a man altogether doubts the power of God to save him and gives himself up to sin because he thinks he cannot be saved so far from being any humility in it, it is the producer, prouder action that depraved flesh and blood can perform. Man, how dare you say that there is no hope for you. So don't be a person of despair. Well, this is just how I am, this is just what I... No, no, no.
That's not a humble response, that's a proud response. Your weakness is not more powerful than God's strength. And then number four, and we'll wrap this up, is the conviction of the afflicted. And the twelfth stanza, lamed, is the Hebrew word or letter. He has four different convictions here as we wrap this up. First of all, his conviction was, God, your word stands forever. Verse 89, I'm gonna hold to this because my flesh will fail, but your word won't. Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.
The unshakable life is the life that holds on to the unshakable word. Secondly, God is faithful. Verse 90, Thy faithfulness is in all generations. Thou has established the earth and it abides. They continue this day according to thine ordinance, for all are thy servants. God, you're faithful. You know, in trials we need to stop and remember that God's faithful. I love Lamentations 3, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion's fail not.
They're new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with me, with thee. Thou changest not thy compassion's.
They fail not as thou hast been. Thou forever will be. Great is thy faithfulness.
We need to sing that to our hearts, don't we? Number three, God's Word is the reason he was sustained and he saw that he was convicted with that. Look what he says in verse 92. He said, unless thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in my affliction.
That is so central. You have to have that conviction that, God, if I don't have your Word as my delight, I would be overwhelmed in my affliction. He says in verse 93, I will never forget thy precepts, for with them thou hast made me alive.
I'm just using common language. What a conviction. I will not forget them. A fourth thing he had a conviction about was that he belonged to God in verse 94. He said, I am thine, save me, for I have sought thy precepts.
In trials, remember you belong to God. Isn't Romans 8 just the best chapter? If you've ever wanted to memorize a chapter, memorize Romans 8. We're setting up this next year some memorization for the church. We're creating a little book with, we're calling it the top 52, and we're going to be providing those. It'll be just a couple of dollars for those little books, but what we believe will be the top 52 verses you need to memorize. You say, I can't memorize.
Well, you need to know them very well then. And then the next year what we would like to do is have the top 52 passages. We've already gone through this. And then we would have the top chapters that you should memorize, maybe about 10 chapters that year to memorize. And then the fourth year we would like you to try to work on memorizing a book of the Bible. Does that sound exciting? Doesn't that be nice? You can do it.
I promise you, you can do it. Wouldn't it be great at the end of the year knowing that you memorized the top 52 verses in the Bible that would be very beneficial to you? There may be differences of opinion on what the top 52 because, I mean, there was a lot. We sat down and we're like, let's just think about this for a minute. In about 15 minutes we had about 80 verses.
And so we try to trim those down to 52 and that is not easy. But hiding God's Word in my heart is so central. You want to be sustained, that sustains you. Romans 8 31, What shall we say then to these things if God be for us who can be against us? He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?
Does it get much better than that? For my mind to think about he didn't spare Jesus for me, what else would he hold? If he gave the best up front, why am I worried to pray for anything at that point?
I mean, he is so gracious. I belong to God. And then I said there was only four but there is a fifth. He says in verse 95 and 6, his conviction was he believed God's Word over man's limitations. He said, The wicked have waited for me to destroy me but I will consider thy testimonies. I have seen the end of all perfection. In other words, I've seen the end of their boundaries, what their abilities can attain, but thy commandment is exceeding broad. Your Word extends for its boundless. I know what their perfect abilities, I know their limits.
They can't stretch beyond the physical realm. This is Jesus saying, Don't fear the people that can kill you. What big deal is that?
We're like, well, that's a pretty big deal. He says, But fear the one who could destroy both soul and body in hell, right? And so we come to God and say, God, I just, when your fear is vertical, your life is peace horizontally and you don't fear the things of life. And that's found in the Word when you soak it in.
I tell you, all of us should be filling our hearts up with the Word of God. As many afflictions that this thing can bring your life. I left this with somebody accidentally in their car the other day. I didn't have it for like a day. I was like, oh man, I left my phone. I was like, oh, I left my phone.
And then you're like, oh, there's this many texts and there's the calls and then the emails or whatever. But as much as your phone could weigh on you, you can you can listen to sermons, to reading Scripture. You can just soak it in all the time.
Soak it in all the time. Now that the election's over, soak in the Word of God. Amen? And so in conclusion, what kind of trial are you going through? You know, God doesn't bring and allow trials into our life without, in the same way, allowing you an opportunity to grow and to glorify Him through it. What do the afflictions say about your faith? The prayer of the afflicted was that, God, your tender mercies would cover me.
Bring them to shame who come against me. He prays for godly companions. He prays for a good testimony. Your testimony is a big deal through trials. We saw the struggle of the afflicted.
He was severely pressed down. But then his convictions were, God, your Word is how I stand. You are faithful. And so many strong convictions he had that God's Word would sustain him.
He belonged to God and he believed in God's Word over man's limitations. Don't be like the man in Psalm 73 who based God's goodness on his temporary circumstance and not on God's eternal glory. You're gonna face it.
I'm gonna face life. Jesus faced it, but greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world, right? And if he brought me to it, he can bring me through this. And so make sure that you have yourself connected to people in life and that you're also connected to the Word of God. That's why every morning you should wake up, spend time in the Word of God, prayer, so that when you face things in life your mind is set where it needs to be in the Word of God. If you seek Him early, you'll seek Him later, right? And so hold His Word tightly. Let's all stand this evening.
