How to Pray for Justice - The Book of Psalms

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How to Pray for Justice - The Book of Psalms

Psalm 137

July 4, 2021 • Andrey Bulanov

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Main idea:
When we look at the curses in the Psalms we learn that, rather than being a problem to christians, these passages give us a strong cord of hope that we can hang on to in a world that is full of pain and evil. They give voice to our fears and worries. And they provide a healthy pathway for us to be rooted in God's power and justice.

Outline:
1. See the full story of the Psalm
2. See the posture of the author
He seeks God's kingdom, not his own
He submits himself to God's judgment
He turns to God for justice, not his own desires and abilities
He acknowledges the very real power of God's wrath against sin
3. Connect the Psalm to the big story of the Bible
The promise to crush the head of the snake
The promise to build an everlasting kingdom
The plot twist of the Son of God who was crushed for us

Scripture references:
Psalm 137
Psalm 118:10
Psalm 109:26-27
Psalm 139:19-24
Genesis 3:15
Psalm 2:7-9
Revelation 18:1-2; 8
Isaiah 53:5

Application:
How do you respond to anger, pain and injustice? Do you recoil into yourself and your thirst for revenge?
Do you see the danger of your own sin in the midst of pain?
Do you trust the justice of God above your own sense of right and wrong?
Have you ever dwelt on the terrible reality of God's wrath against sin?
Do you have a daily awareness of the beauty of the price Jesus paid to set you free from punishment? Do you walk in the joy of this freedom?
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One of the biggest objections to the Christian faith is the reality of evil, pain and suffering in the world. There is a universal desire built into all of us to see a solution, to see justice against all the terrible things that happen in the world.

Some of us are unbothered by this because we have had pretty easy lives. Some of us have faced very very dark and difficult things. Anyone who takes a moment and considers the amount of evil and suffering around us in the world will come to the same conclusion: how do we cry out for justice for the terrible things that happen to us or the people around us? How do we give voice to the anger and rage that sometimes fills our heart?

More importantly, does God care? Is he present? Does he hear the pain? What is his relationship to it?

Unfortunately, the people who are supposed to represent God in this area have failed miserably. Church leaders have often responded to evil and injustice with simplistic answers or solutions that have hurt people.

Now, when it comes to how the Bible responds to these issues - that becomes an issue in and of itself. Many passages, especially in the OT seem to present God and his people as cruel or vengeful.

One of the most common accusations against the Bible is, "How can you say that God is about love and peace and mercy when he is so vengeful and wrathful? How can it be right that so many passages in the Bible have God's people saying or doing things that do not seem to follow the words of Jesus to "turn the other cheek"?"

One of the biggest areas that this is seen is the Psalms. Numerous Psalms include curses that the author expresses about his enemies and calls for God to judge and punish them.

So, on the one hand, we want to see God execute justice against evil, we want to see that God is NOT detached or indifferent to suffering in the world. On the other hand we have a really hard time with passages that present harsh judgement.

This is a very important problem for us in how we see the Bible and how we see God. Today, we want to look at one of the most difficult passages in the Bible, and to try to untangle this knot.

Psalm 137

That last verse to me is one of the most difficult and shocking statements in all of Scripture.

Many people try to "fix" these passages in a variety of ways:
• some say this is an example of the authors selfish and sinful desires
• some say these passages dont apply to us at all because Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek
• some just avoid such passages
• more examples?

We never have to shy away or avoid anything in the Bible - even the parts that seem complex or contradictory. If the Bible is really God's word, then there is a richness and treasure in all of it. And it truly pays off to dig and to ask the hard questions because we often learn in this process that it was OUR OWN bias or false assumption that lead us to misunderstand it in the first place.

When we look at the curses in the Psalms we learn that, rather than being a problem to christians, these passages give us a strong cord of hope that we can hang on to in a world that is full of pain and evil. They give voice to our fears and worries. And they provide a healthy pathway for us to be rooted in God's power and justice.

1. See the full story

It's easy to see one line and be stuck on that.

"crush them in your anger Lord"

"blessed is he who dashes their infants on a rock"

These words are terrible and painful to see! How could he say such a thing??

We live in an age of one liners, of misquoting and misunderstanding. And we need to learn to get the fuller picture of what we are reading. What is truly going on here in this passage? What is the story?

- the Psalm starts with a note of sadness and heartbreak - the authors are captives in a foreign land
- their captors are mocking them in their pain and asking them to sing the songs of Zion (another name for Jerusalem)
- they experienced brutal suffering, the kind that none of us have ever seen. Later in the Psalm we see that their neighbor city, Edom, which was supposed to help them, allied against their enemies and we excited to city them completely destroyed.
- We see this in the exciting cheering "Destroy it! Destroy it down to its foundations!"
- Ancient Near Eastern war practices were very very brutal - and Babylon was know for their merciless brutality
- They experienced brutal and bloodthirsty betrayal

2. See the posture of the author

At first glance these kinds of passages may seem to be driven by a selfish thirst of revenge and anger. But when we look closely at the thought process in these kinds of Psalms, we see that they are actually processing their pain and anger by submitting them to God.

The fact alone that this Psalm is showing us that this author, even though he is going through very intense pain and anger, he is not off brooding and scheming somewhere in a dark corner about his revenge. He is talking to God about it. He is opening his heart to God and seeking his guidance in this painful experience.

Notice a few characteristics of this prayer, which are also present in many other Psalms of a similar nature.

• He seeks God's kingdom, not his own

When the OT saints talk about Zion or Jerusalem, it is important for us to see what they are really saying. They are NOT just being patriotic about their own country and hateful of other countries (this is a common assumption of modern readers).

In the OT, God's promise of land was inseparable from his promise of his presence, living with and blessing his people. The center and focus of Jerusalem is not the palace, but the temple, which is the place where heaven meets earth, where God lives among and leads his people.

When the author is expressing heartbreak over Jerusalem, is not just that he is sad that his favorite city is fallen. The fall of Jerusalem means the fall of God's kingdom purposes in the world. His desire to remember and restore Jerusalem is fueled by his desire for God to work in the world, for God to show himself in the world, for God to be exalted in the world.

This is seen also in other Psalms when the author asks God to give him strength to crush his enemies.

Ps. 118:10
"All the nations surrounded me;
in the name of the Lord I destroyed them."

Ps. 109:26-27
"Help me, Lord my God;
save me according to your faithful love,
so that they may know that this is your hand
and that you, Lord, have done it."

Very often our first response in the midst of evil, pain and injustice is to focus on ourselves and how this will impact us. But even as he is speaking curses on the enemies, the Psalmist is doing that from a very specific perspective - he hates it when evil triumphs. He has a deep desire to see God work HIS victory, build his kingdom, so that all may see God's glory.

• He submits himself to God's judgment

"5. If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
6. May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!"

Instead of playing the victim card, the author understands his own danger to sin, he understands his own brokenness. He submits himself to the judgement of God before he submits others. He acknowledges that there is a danger that HE will forget the beauty and glory of God's kingdom and God's promises. He admits that he is in danger of losing hope.

This is very common in other Psalms as well. As the author is praying for judgement on others, he is also bringing his heart to God and inviting God to inspect his heart.

Ps. 139:19-24
19 God, if only you would kill the wicked—
you bloodthirsty men, stay away from me—
20 who invoke you deceitfully.
Your enemies swear by you falsely.
21 Lord, don’t I hate those who hate you,
and detest those who rebel against you?
22 I hate them with extreme hatred;
I consider them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my concerns.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me;
lead me in the everlasting way.

One of the biggest areas that we are tempted to fall into our own sin is when we are being sinned against. Sinners respond sinfully to being sinned against. In the moments when we have experienced pain, betrayal, physical suffering, we often feel a sense of entitlement to let our own sin go full throttle.

In one of the stories we have read with the kids lately, there is a character who was wrongfully separated from the woman that he loved because he was not of a noble enough family. He suffered great pain even though he committed no wrong. But then that pain took hold in his heart and grew into a darkness that made him an even greater villain and monster than anything that was done against him.

The Psalms teach us that even in our pain, we must come to God with an awareness of the danger of sin in our own hearts.

• He turns to God for justice, not his own desires and abilities

Verse 7 is when he gets to the final section of the prayer, and notice how it starts:

"Remember, Lord..."

you remember and you do something about it.

"Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction..."

That is an interesting phrase. How does he know that Babylon is doomed to destruction?

When we read Jeremiah and Isaiah, they both tell us that God will destroy Babylon for what they did. This is where the author is pinning his hopes.

He is quoting God's promises back to him. He is allowing SCRIPTURE to shape his pain and anger.

Isaiah 13 - a terrible and brutal chapter that talks about the judgement that will fall on Babylon, and it includes the same prediction that this will happen to them, what they did to other nations.

In the midst of his pain and his cursing he is praying God's promises back to him, that God will come and God will judge evil and wicked people.

To be clear, in the OT, God never presented this practice of killing babies as correct. It is always presented as the horrible and wretched thing that the pagan nations do in war. And here is this statement, God is saying, these terrible things that they committed to others will come upon them.

This Psalm gives us a poetic statement of a terrible fact: they will be destroyed by the very same evil that they poured out on others.

Even as the author is reaching the peak of his anger, he is not speaking from his own imagination - he is quoting God's own promise that GOD will bring justice upon the enemy.

• He acknowledges the very real power of God's wrath against sin

When we say we want God to destroy and punish all evil, what do we mean? Do we mean God should punish the devil and all his spiritual forces of evil? Should God punish the evil people that have followed the devils program? People who have chosen to do unspeakable terrors?

Yes. And yes.

But the problem is that we recoil in horror when we think of that punishment actually happening. We want God to show justice against evil. But we don't want anyone to get hurt in the process. We want "evil" to be some mythical fairytale villain that we can punish and feel no sense of remorse or tragedy.

And we don't realize that the villain lives in all of us!

We often hear the phrase "love the sinner, hate the sin", and that is definitely true. We see that in the life of Jesus.

But there is also a very real sense in which the sinner becomes the sin. God punishes sinners for their sin because it is the people that do that terrible things.

Sin turns all creation into a terrible darkness. And worst of all, sin turns people, God's image bearers, into monsters, through their own choosing.

When we read of infants being killed, it is like nails on a chalkboard, in sends a shiver through your spine, it causes us to recoil in horror. And this is why the Psalmist uses this phrase - to give us a tiny spark of the grave and terrible power of God's wrath on sin. And that wrath is coming.

All sin is an attack on the glory of God. All sin is a rebellion against God himself. And sin turns image bearers into monsters. Sin is dangerous and evil. And God comes at all evil and all sin with a fury and a wrath that we can't even imagine.

As he is praying, this Psalmist knows that deep down. He knows that his anger is nothing. The truly frightening thing, the truly terrible thing is coming at these evil enemies and it is God who they must be afraid of.

3. Connect the Psalm to the big story of the Bible

The authors of the Bible are constantly alluding and hinting at one another. They are always writing in the company of the rest of Scripture.

We have not faithfully read any part of Scripture unless it connects to the rest of the story.

James Hamilton makes the observation that in this text, we see the echo of a promise that hangs over all the Old Testament and over all the story of the Bible. A promise made in the garden at the moment of the greatest tragedy. A promise of justice that is to come.

Genesis 3:15
"To the serpent God said:
I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."

Ps. 2:7-9
7 I will declare the Lord’s decree.
He said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.
8 Ask of me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will break them with an iron scepter;
you will shatter them like pottery.”

Revelation 18:1-2; 8
After this I saw another angel with great authority coming down from heaven, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. 2 He called out in a mighty voice:
It has fallen,Babylon the Great has fallen!She has become a home for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird,
...
"For this reason her plagues will come in just one day—
death and grief and famine.
She will be burned up with fire,
because the Lord God who judges her is mighty."

Notice that these are the careful lines of story that the authors of Scipture are weaving together. When we read our Bible as a unified book we start to see this lines of connection and it starts to make more and more sense.

How do we see the curses against Babylon in Psalm 137? At NT believers, we see that the historic Old Testament era nation of Babylon also functions as a type, or a predictive character that represents all the enemies of God.

When the author speaks of the blessed on who will dash the babies of Babylon he is not actually saying that he is excited to see babies get smashed. He is using poetry, he is using God's own promises, he is using strong language - to present the reality of God's fierce and total justice that is coming on the enemies of God.

As NT readers we see from the very beginning that God promises to crush the head of the serpent and his offspring, we see how God promises that a King will arise who will restore order and life to the world, who will smash all evil and darkness once and for all. A King who will restore truth and peace.

And yet there is also the key event in the middle of how it all takes place, the plot twist that no one expected.

Isaiah 53:5
"But he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds."

The King who came to restore the world, came to bring that restoration by giving himself - the Son of God who is crushed for our sins. He is the precious, perfect and truly innocent Son who was stricken and destroyed by the vilest of men.

The same Lord who will one day bring fierce judgement upon his enemies is the Lord who came to bleed for his enemies to be saved. This is the power and wonder of the cross! The very God who will pour our judgement on the world in the end is the God who came to drink that judgement in their place, to make a way, to call them back to himself!

To reject this King, to reject the Son who was crushed in our place is to seal our own doom with our own hands. And he will be glorified in his justice just as he is glorified in his mercy. His mercy makes more and more out of his justice.

As NT believers, because of Jesus, we have the freedom to live in this paradox - to call for God's victory over evil, over darkness, over the enemies of God, AS WELL AS to call all his enemies to turn and repent and come to him who took their place.

• We have the right to have hope - because God's greatest victory over evil was accomplished in Jesus' death and resurrection.
• We have the right to look forward to God's full and total justice against evil, that a time is coming when every enemy will be punished and every tear wiped away
• We have a right to have courage to bear witness about God in the face of his enemies, to call them to turn to him before he comes
• We have a healthy way to process anger, pain and grief as we are welcomed into the presence of God. He knows the deepest betrayal. He knows the frightening reality of the deepest evil. He knows what its like to be trampled and crushed. And he knows the victory that he alone is bringing.

Application:
• How do you respond to anger, pain and injustice? Do you recoil into yourself and your thirst for revenge?
• Do you see the danger of your own sin in the midst of pain?
• Do you trust the justice of God above your own sense of right and wrong?
• Have you ever dwelt on the terrible reality of God's wrath against sin?
• Do you have a daily awareness of the beauty of the price Jesus paid to set you free from punishment? Do you walk in the joy of this freedom?

The Lord Who Reigns! - The Book of Psalms

August 29, 2021 • Andrey Bulanov • Psalm 97

Main Idea: • Real faith is rooted in seeing God for who he really is: as exalted, mighty and holy King over all things. This vision of the true God must make us both tremble and rejoice. 1. See the glory of the King a. God is all powerful and has full control b. God is holy 2. See the judgement of the King a. He Works Unstoppable Justice and Righteousness in the World 3. See the gladness of the King Scripture references: • Psalm 97 • Romans 1:21-23 • Ps. 33:10-11, 13-16 • Ps. 99:1-3 • Hebrews 12:28-29 • Rev. 6:15-17 Key Concepts: • God's glory • God's lordship and sovereignty • God's holiness • God's total justice and judgement against sin • True peace, joy and gladness only comes to those who tremble at his glory Application Questions: • What is your view of God? ○ Does your view of God bring BOTH trembling and fear AND gladness and joy? ○ Here's the thing - unless he is a God that makes you tremble, he is also not going to be a God that makes you rejoice, because he is not powerful enough. ○ But also, unless he makes you overflow with gladness and joy, then you have a wrong view of his holiness, power and justice. If all you do is tremble and fear - but have no joy in this God then you failed to see that he is the God who has USED HIS POWER to come to your rescue. • Do you worship this God? Do you view the Jesus of the gospels as also the exalted LORD of the universe? • Do you base your christian on your emotions? Or do you allow the unstoppable FACT of his power and glory to be your foundation? ○ Yes, the resurrected Jesus is not sitting physically with you at the breakfast table to have a cup of coffee - but do you realize that his Lordship and Reigning presence as your King is JUST AS PRESENT?? ○ The fact that we fail to see him as King in our daily lives does not make him less so. • Is your view of God reflected in the dangers and threats that surround you in life? ○ All the hype today is the laws, the government overreach, the fear over vaccines and COVID. Yes lets talk, let's do our homework, let's think and do our best to make decisions - but let's not allow these things to cause us to change our view of God - Jesus reigns supreme, he is holy, righteous and unstoppably in control. He comes to the rescue of his saints. He brings gladness to our hearts. ○ Learn to bring in the power of this truth into those battles, into the greatest troubles of your heart. ------- We live in a time when it is very popular to talk about self improvement. Fitness, health, therapy, diet, supplements - its popular to talk about how you can take control of your life and how your whole life flows out from the choices that you make. And this is true to an extent. But it's not the full truth. The Bible teaches us that "the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom/knowledge". In other words, our view of God, our relationship to him and our perspective of him is the beginning of all correct thinking and living. In other words, deep down at the foundation of all of your behavior is your perspective on God. Speaking of the work of sin and sinful motivation in the human heart, Paul says this in Romans 1 "21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles." Notice how the whole outflow of idolatry in the human heart flows out of a knowledge of God, and a desire to avoid giving him thinks and worshipping him. As human beings we are born with a built in awareness of God and his law - and everything that we do, every one of our actions is in some way connected to that knowledge. For example, when we say something like, "You know, of course I believe God is holy and he is King, that he is the most important one, but I just don't read my Bible or pray much because its just really hard to stay focused and honestly I just get bored with the Bible" - you are actually telling me a lot about what you think of God. You believe he is important, but not THAT important that he gets your attention. If I live my life with a very shallow intake of truth, and I have not deep alarms in my heart, I am actually showing that even though God and his truth is important, I am OK without it. You would never admit that or even agree with it verbally, but the undeniable evidence is in your daily behavior - if you are living your life and you feel OK you are proving that you actually think its OK to live without submitting to God and his truth. This is also connected to a false view of our emotions. We think that if I try to read the Bible, and if I am bored, then that is just a fact - the bible is boring, and I can't really change what I feel about it. YES YOU CAN. Your feelings only flow downhill from your convictions. Your feelings are not as permanent as you think. Here is a simple test - if Jesus appeared to you in the flesh as you are making your morning coffee and asked to join you - your feelings would get in line really quickly. You would not be bored. All of a sudden you would not think your phone is so distracting. You are confronted with a fact - and your feelings get in line with it. EVERYTHING we do is a reflection of what we think about God. We are ALL theologians - we all have a view of God that makes our lives possible. Our tendency as sinners is to make God small - to make him fit into a box that allows us to live as we want. This is why when the Bible calls us to see God for who he is, to renew of vision of God - it calls us to look up, to see his greatness, his power, his authority, his supremacy. We have a deep need to be confronted with the fact of God's exalted and holy nature. We need our perspective to be invaded with the greatness and power of God. 1. See the Glory of the King 1 The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice; let the many coasts and islands be glad. 2 Clouds and total darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3 Fire goes before him and burns up his foes on every side. 4 His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles. 5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord— at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness; all the peoples see his glory. Notice how this whole Psalm is revolving around the proclamation of a FACT: The Lord reigns! In many ways this is the message of the whole Bible. The Bible is not trying to sell us the idea of God and his kingdom. Its trying to warn us about the unstoppable reality of it. Most of the time, God's immediate glory is not visible to us. The Psalmist is trying to give us a series of human images that give us a sense of what would it be like to come into the presence of the pure and unstoppable power of the God of the universe. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to face the power and glory of the God who created and upholds all of reality? The molecules that make up your face, your hands and your brain - are held together by SOMETHING. And that something is the God who created it all out of nothing. God is presented here as the Lord who reigns - the absolute King who sits on a throne above all creation. Clouds, darkness, fire and lightning. It's like, when you just a glimpse of who he really is, the very fabric of reality begins to be torn apart and starts to melt. Mountains turn to wax. The earth trembles. The Psalmist is emphasizing two things about God here: a. God is all powerful and has full control. Clouds and total darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3 Fire goes before him and burns up his foes on every side. 5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord— at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. when have you experienced power in your life? • a fast car • a big check • an AR-15 Imagine pure, total, infinite and unstoppable power. God's power is unstoppable. He is the true King over the world and no one and nothing can stand in the way of that. It is easy for us to think that we live in a world of choas. It is easy for us to beleive that governments have power. Its easy for us to be overwhelmed today by the various powers that surround us in the world. Nuclear weapons, billion dollar companies, artifial intelligence, terrorist groups... But on a very foundational level NONE of them really have any power. There is only One who is in charge. There is only One throne in the whole universe - and God sits on it. Ps. 33:10-11, 13-16 10 The Lord frustrates the counsel of the nations; he thwarts the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart from generation to generation. 13 The Lord looks down from heaven; he observes everyone. 14 He gazes on all the inhabitants of the earth from his dwelling place. 15 He forms the hearts of them all; he considers all their works. 16 A king is not saved by a large army; a warrior will not be rescued by great strength. Fire goes out on all sides and consumes his enemies. The mountains melt like wax. The earth sees and trembles. Of course we do not understand all his ways. Why does he allow evil leaders and governments to prevail at times? When will he execute justice? We don't know. But part of our submission to him as Lord is submitting ourselves to him even though we don't see all the answers. Our God is a God of pure and completely unstoppable unending power. We are small. God is King over all creation. He rules all things. He sees everything. There is no escape from his power and dominion. b. God is Holy This is a concept that is often foreign to us today. The biblical concept of holiness has two parts - something that is totally separate and above everything else, AND something that is totally pure and perfect. "clouds and total darkness surround him..." A lot of the images in this Psalm are directly pulling from the story of when God showed up to meet with the people of Israel in the desert - he descended onto Mount Sinai in a trembling cloud of darkness, fire and lightning. When the people saw this they fell to their faces and were sure they would die. God totally unlike us - he is totally and utterly pure and perfect in every way, and he is completely other, he is nothing like us or anything in the world - he MADE all of reality. He is totally outside of everything that is made. He is not constrained by anything in this world - and when he ENTERS into it with even a slight hint of his true self - the creation starts to fall apart. Ps. 99 "1 The Lord reigns! Let the peoples tremble. He is enthroned between the cherubim. Let the earth quake. 2 The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted above all the peoples. 3 Let them praise your great and awe-inspiring name. He is holy." “The clearest sensation that a human being has when he experiences the holy is an overpowering and overwhelming sense of creatureliness. That is, when we are in the presence of God, we are humbled and become most aware of ourselves as creatures. This is the opposite of Satan's original temptation, "You shall be as gods.”" R. C. Sproul, The Holiness of God Isaiah's vision of God's holiness in Isaiah 6 reminds us of this as well. I am just a creature. I am made. I am dust. And I am dirty. He is creator. He is eternal. He is perfect. Have you ever had that moment of realization of God's holiness? 2. See the Judgement of the King a. He Works Unstoppable Justice and Righteousness in the World Because he is a King of total power and perfect holiness it is inevitable that he has a response of perfect justice and judgement upon all who stand against him. "3 Fire goes before him and burns up his foes on every side. ... 7 All who serve carved images, those who boast in worthless idols, will be put to shame. All the gods must worship him." it is the nature of God that cuts all creation into two categories: those who acknowledge him and those who do not. Blessing and judgement. Idolatry: not just actual idolatry. If you do not see God as Lord, if you do not see him as the Holy King who is over you - you will automatically be bowing down to something else, some other thing that takes control of your heart. Notice the emphasis here is not JUST that all those who worship idols will be judged. Verse 7 ends with a declaration: all gods must worship him! gods: supernatural beings - angels, spirits, demons. Notice that the emphasis here is, Just like his power and his holliness is UNSTOPPABLE - it means that ALL will come face to face with him. All WILL acknowledge him sooner or later. The massive difference is the timing and the outcome: See him today, bow to him, worship him - and live in his gladness and joy. Or you run from him - and you still meet him. But then there will be no where to run. And it will end in judgement, death and destruction. All the gods will worship him - all the spirits, all the powers, all the angels, all the rebels, all the governments, all the rulers. Hebrews 12:28-29 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire. Rev. 6:15-17 15 Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the generals, the rich, the powerful, and every slave and free person hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 because the great day of their wrath has come! And who is able to stand?” There is no neutrality here folks. There is no such thing as "almost christian" or "kind of christian". You are either worshipping the king, or you are worshipping idols - your selfish desires, your pride, your plans. Kids - especially those who grew up in the church: do you understand that Jesus is not just Savior who calls us, he is also the Holy Lord who rules all things? Do you understand that you are either following Jesus or you are following sin? Do you understand that you are either worshipping Jesus or you are rebelling against him? Jesus is not just a product that we are trying to sell. He is a Lord, a King who is COMING and we are trying to warn everyone! Run to him today before its too late! One of the reasons we think that our temptations are so big and powerful, one of the reasons we think our desires are so hard to battle - is that we have forgotten the justice of our holy God. He is HOLY. He is with us always. He sees all. And he will come to judge all sin. In his presence none can stand. In his presence all our stupid and foolish desires melt away. what is your view of God? If your view of God does not make you tremble, you've got the wrong god! 3. See the Gladness of the King One of the ironic things about this Psalm is that even though it is presenting God in this terrifying and powerful sense - the response that it calls out in those who believe in him is gladness and joy. Yes we fear this God and yes we tremble - but that trembling and fear is also accompanied by the mind-blowing realization that this God, this King - is OUR King. What does God use his power, lordship and strength for?? He uses it to save. To redeem sinners to himself. To bring lost sheep home. To rescue the weak from the evil. He is OUR rescuer. He is our hope. He is our protector. "10 You who love the Lord, hate evil! He protects the lives of his faithful ones; he rescues them from the power of the wicked. 11 Light dawns for the righteous, gladness for the upright in heart." Yes the night is dark, yes we will face evil and difficult things. Yes we will have to endure battles. But know this - as certain as the rising sun - light dawns on the righteous. What is the meaning of a sunrise? it is to remind you that victory is coming. Your King reigns. As those who read this Psalm from the perspective of the NT and the death of Jesus we see an even richer encouragement - every sunrise reminds us of the sunrise of the third day, when Jesus rose in victory over death. His resurrection is the gaurentee of ours. The King who reigns as Lord over all creation, the Holy and untouchable one - is the King who left his throne to suffer in our place. This might Lord is the one who paid for us with his own blood. This is a King who makes us tremble. But more than that, this is the King who fills our hearts with the song of gladdness, freedom and joy!!!!! Application: • What is your view of God? ○ Does your view of God bring BOTH trembling and fear AND gladness and joy? ○ Here's the thing - unless he is a God that makes you tremble, he is also not going to be a God that makes you rejoice, because he is not powerful enough. ○ But also, unless he makes you overflow with gladness and joy, then you have a wrong view of his holiness, power and justice. If all you do is tremble and fear - but have no joy in this God then you failed to see that he is the God who has USED HIS POWER to come to your rescue. • Do you worship this God? Do you view the Jesus of the gospels as also the exalted LORD of the universe? • Do you base your christian on your emotions? Or do you allow the unstoppable FACT of his power and glory to be your foundation? ○ Yes, the resurrected Jesus is not sitting physically with you at the breakfast table to have a cup of coffee - but do you realize that his Lordship and Reigning presence as your King is JUST AS PRESENT?? ○ The fact that we fail to see him as King in our daily lives does not make him less so. • Is your view of God reflected in the dangers and threats that surround you in life? ○ All the hype today is the laws, the government overreach, the fear over vaccines and COVID. Yes lets talk, lets do our homework, lets think and do our best to make decisions - but lets not allow these things to cause us to change our view of God - Jesus reigns supreme, he is holy, righteous and unstoppably in control. He comes to the rescue of his saints. He brings gladness to our hearts. ○ Learn to bring in the power of this truth into those battles, into the greatest troubles of your heart. The key to maintaining sanity in our crazy world is to tremble and be glad before our King.

The Lord is my Shepherd - The Book of Psalms

August 22, 2021 • Aleksey Khizhnyak • Psalm 23

Sunday Service - Aug 22nd

The Psalmist’s Prayer Habits - The Book of Psalms

August 15, 2021 • Andrey Bulanov • Psalm 62:8, Psalm 22:14–15, Psalm 139:23–24, Psalm 42:5, Psalm 6:4–5

Main idea: We must learn to look to Scripture of a living model for our spiritual life, especially our prayers. When we learn to follow the habits of the Psalmists, we invite God into a deeper walk with us and enrich our experience of his presence. Outline: Full transparency - bring to God the entire contents of your heart Internal awareness - examine your heart in the presence of God God centered orientation - pray for his glory and his kingdom in all your requests Application Questions: 1. What are your prayer habits? Have you ever examined them? 2. Are there parts of your life that you don't tell God about because you think they are insignificant? 3. Do you tell God everything? Do you act like he is your Father, who is looking over your shoulder at all that you do, with a desire to guide and lead? 4. Do you see God as the only one who can truly help you see yourself and your blindspots correctly? Do you invite him to do this regularly? 5. Do you think of God's will as something separate or detached from your everyday interests and concerns? 6. Is your greatest goal in life to live with a confidence that you are running fully in line with God's callings for you? Key Concepts for Discussion: • Our experience of God's work in our lives • Prayer habits impact our relationship with God • Developing a deeper awareness of our hearts tendencies and battles • Emptying our hearts to God • Seeing God as the only source of self knowledge and understanding • Having a correct relationship to God's will Scripture references: Ps. 62:8 Ps. 22:14-15 Ps. 55:4 Ps 57:7 Ps. 139:23-24 Ps. 19:12-13 Ps. 42:5 Ps. 6:4-5 ------------------------ Perhaps one of the biggest ways that we miss out on a deeper spiritual life is in the area of prayer. One of the typical responses that we have to various issues is: "Just pray about it." But perhaps one of the things that we don't think about as often is a lot of our prayer habits themselves may be unhealthy. We pray, but HOW do we pray and WHAT do we pray for? This is why we often have a disconnect in our knowledge ABOUT God and our daily experience OF God. We say we believe he is Lord over all things. We say we believe that the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts at all times. But our lifestyle often feels distant from him. Why? One of the answers to that is our practice of prayer. The question is not simply how much we pray, but also HOW we pray. The beauty of the psalms is that they are a massive opportunity for us to learn from many many different examples of genuine prayer and genuine people working through struggles, that are also God's revealed truth. Think about that. This is what makes the Psalms unique. I think sometimes we read out Bibles as a sterile display item. But the Psalms especially, remind us that the Bible is written by real people, in the midst of real difficulty and real joy - expressing all that to God. And at the same time as being deeply human, the Psalms are God's Word - they are the work of the Holy Spirit guiding the true experiences of men, in such a way that the result is real human words, as well as genuine Words from God. We see this very perspective in Jesus when in Matthew 22:43 he says that David wrote the Psalms under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Wouldn't it be amazing to be able to listen in on the prayers of Charles Spurgeon, Augustine, Calvin - the apostle Paul? That would be truly instructive and fascinating. Perhaps some of their prayer habits - exactly WHAT they pray about and how they talk to God. But in the Psalms, we have a whole book collection of prayers of saints, prayers that also inspired by God himself, prayers that are perfect because they are the work of the Holy Spirit through men. If we understand this we can have a different habit as we read the Psalms throughout our lives - we listen in more carefully on how they pray and we learn to pick up on them more specifically. Three characteristics of the prayers in the psalms: 1. Full transparency - bring to God the entire contents of your heart Ps. 62:8 "Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before him. God is our refuge." One of the most encouraging thing about the Psalms is the depth of transparency of emotions, experiences, worries, needs and joys. In this verse David is calling the nations to trust in God, but then he gives a very specific expression of that trust. He doesn't just leave it at that. He says, trust in him at all times and pour out your hearts before him. Notice the call here. Pour out your hearts before him. This is the very opposite of a set of rules or formulas. Thats one of the problems in prayer is that we get into specific formulas, specific topics or areas of our lives that we talk to God about, but the rest we just never go into. Here he is inviting us to dump out the full contents of our hearts. Is there stuff that we are or are not allowed to say? What is the stuff that we tend NOT to say to God? But does he really care about all the small stuff? Does he really care about the details? Who told you that he doesn't?? This is one of those areas that we run into a flaw in our theology that we might not realize we have. We say we believe God is sovereign and Lord over every detail of life. But when it comes to the smaller daily details or life or our inner world, we assume he has nothing to do with them. Notice how the Psalmists consistently bring a total emotional transparency to God. Ps. 22:14-15 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; 15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. Ps. 55:4 "My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me." Ps 57:7"My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody!" I am not saying we sit on the side of the bed and ask God which sock we should put on first. I am talking about bringing him into every aspect of our true concerns and experiences. If we are honest, we will find that we live a lot of our lives in a functional atheism. We bring God a lot of our main concerns but we don't pray in little moments. But the issue is that most of your life is little moments! “Kingdom praying and its efficacy is entirely a matter of the innermost heart's being totally open and honest before God. It is a matter of what we are saying with our whole being, moving with resolute intent and clarity of mind into the flow of God's action.” Dallas Willard What about pouring out to him moments when we feel like our hearts are not right - when we are deeply angry, or frustrated, or impatient...? The sin grows when it is isolated from his presence. but it is sanctified and transformed when brought to him in honesty. Think about the difference between your 5 year old child stomping away to their room in anger, or sitting next to you telling you about how angry they are. When we withdraw from God in our worst moments the darkness grows. But when we learn to freely be his children in his presence, his Fatherly care has a way of both convicting and restoring us in grace. Think about Jesus in the garden. In his humanity - he did not want to go to the cross. He got to the worst moment and he said, "Please if there is any way to avoid this, let's avoid this." Was that wrong for Jesus to pray? Of course not. The problem is that we often feel embarrassed to be our full selves in the presence of God. We think we offend him by bringing our messy frustrations and emotions and weaknesses. Are you angry? Hurt? Frustrated? Stressed? Joyful? tell him about it. talk to him. be angry in his fatherly presence. Don't think that you need to transform your emotions into a perfect state before you can pray. Don't be embarrassed to be a messy child in the presence of your Father. God is an infinitely more caring and present Father than we can ever be to our kids. Learn to pour out your hearts to him! 2. Internal awareness - examine your heart in the presence of God Ps. 139:23-24 23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way Ps. 19:12-13 12 Who perceives his unintentional sins? Cleanse me from my hidden faults. 13 Moreover, keep your servant from willful sins; do not let them rule me. Ps. 42.5 Why, my soul, are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God. One of the greatest paradoxes of being human is that we are so often a mystery to ourselves. We are very bad at diagnosing our own problems. We are very bad at interpreting our own states. We tend to be very blind to our biggest flaws. This is the danger of sin - it disrupts, not only the knowledge of God and the world - but also knowledge of self. What is the solution? Notice the psalmists consistently find clarity on self in the presence of God. They are aware that they do not fully know themselves, and they know it is only God who can clearly show them who they are. We live in an age of psychology that always promises various kinds of tests to give us clarity on ourselves. The latest trend in pop culture is psychedelics. In the 60's the hippies were advocating drugs as a means of escape. Today the rhetoric is COMPLETELY different - drugs are a way of deeper knowledge of self. The psalms consistently show us that we must learn to come to prayerful, Scripture soaked reflection of ourselves in the presence of God. The difference between this point and the previous one is that in the previous point, we were saying that we need to come to God to pour out our whole heart, to welcome him in to every struggle. The attention is God. Here we are saying that we need to come to God even to get a proper perspective on self. There are two forms here that we see. Firstly we see a prayerful invitation for God to teach us to expose to us our blind spots - for him to expose the since and problems that we are unaware of. We admit that we are our own greatest danger and we admit that we can't even figure ourselves out. We want to live in a lifestyle where one of our prayers is for the Lord to work in us, to help expose our issues and give us that ability to walk in the light. The second form here is of biblical self examination. "Oh my soul, why are you so depressed? Hope in God for I will still praise him!" Here the author is pausing, in his prayerful state, to ask himself some questions - why am I so upset? Why am I so stressed? What truths am I missing in my life?" And then he is supplying biblical truth into his self reflection - "Hope in God, for I will again praise him..." He is interrogating his own heart, in the presence of God and his truth, he is trying to get a deeper sense of why he is not living out the truth that he says he believes. This has been a very helpful habit for me to get into. Personally I am not super good at looking at my struggles. Certain aspects of my life I am constantly analuzing - my productivity and stuff. But when it comes to pressure points or weakness, I really have to stop and ask myself - why am I struggling with this? Whats going on in my heart and life? There was a season a few years ago when I was much more prone to getting frustrated at home with kids were being loud and disobedient. Just in time for that there was an assignment in seminary that made me take a closer look at one area of my life. For me this was very helpful because it helped me see that I was seeing home life as a retreat and source of comfort in way that was becoming unhealthy. Therefore, when I came home from work I wasn't coming with a mind to serve and give but to rest and receive. Its been very helpful to include in my prayer and Scripture reading a routine of regularly asking myself what my struggles are and pausing on that to invite God's truth to give me clarity. Is this going to make us fully aware of all our problems? No. We will always have blind spots! And this brings us to the first reason why it is so important to cultivate a prayerful self awareness. One of the most powerful realizations we can ever come to is how deeply broken we are - and yet that our heavenly Father is here to guide us through life. Secondly, it cultivates a deeper sense of our basic sins and struggles. We need to know our battles. We all have our own battles. We need to watch the battle zones and pray for God's healing work. We need to walk carefully in those areas of life. Thirdly it teaches us that God is the only one who can teach us who we are. The light of his Word and his Spirit - thats the only source of self knowledge. When we cultivate internal awareness in our prayers, when we routinely ask God to show us our hidden faults, when we routinely ask ourselves as we read our Bibles - whats going on in my heart this week? - this teaches us to cement the conviction that the Lord is the only source of understanding for ourselves. 3. God centered orientation - pray for his glory and his kingdom in all your requests We know that we need to learn to pray according to the will of God, but what does that mean? How does that look? What is the point of praying for any of our needs, if at the end of the day the only thing we pray for is the will of God? Why not just cut to the chase and pray for his will? These questions expose the fact that in our hearts, there is often an undetected flaw in our prayer - we view God's kingdom purpose and our own life purposes as two separate things. So i pray for my stuff, but then at the end i just say, "But not my will by your will be done." And in the chance that my desires intersect with Gods, lucky me! he will answer my prayer. This exposes the fact that we view God's kingdom purposes as totally separate from the things that we are genuinely interested in and the things that we care about. When we say that we need to learn to pray according to God's will we are saying that we need to reexamine OUR whole set of goals and objectives for life, and we need to realign our goals with the goals of God's kingdom. when we see the Psalmist asking God for help, they are not just saying, "your will but done.." Instead, they see God as actively working his kingdom purposes in and through their lives, in the daily battles and struggles that THEY are facing. And they are asking for God's help, because they believe that by helping them, he is working his work in the world - he is accomplishing, not just THEIR goals but also HIS goals. Ps. 6:4-5 4 Turn, Lord! Rescue me; save me because of your faithful love. 5 For there is no remembrance of you in death; who can thank you in Sheol? This kind of prayer is ALL OVER the psalms. "God, please help me! If you don't help me, then I can't glorify YOU in my life!" Notice there's two elements here. First of all, we understand that as those who are saved and redeemed by God, he is actively at work in our lives TODAY. He has put you into the life that you live , the family, the friends, the church, the interests that you have - and its all their for a unique way that he is using you and inviting you in following him daily. The second aspect here is that we are his people, are actively adjusting our daily goals and interests more and more closely to God's kingdom purposes that he has clearly revealed in his Word. Why do you want your kids to be saved? Your business to grow? Why do you want to get married? why do you want the things that you want? - is it so that God's purposes may be magnified through your life? One of the biggest misconceptions is that seeking God's will and living for his kingdom is some totally disconnected, far off thing that is completely separate from our real lives and interests today. “Many people have found prayer impossible because they thought they should only pray for wonderful but remote needs they actually had little or no interest in or even knowledge of. Prayer simply dies from efforts to pray about ‘good things’ that honestly do not matter to us. The way to get to meaningful prayer for those good things is to start by praying for what we are truly interested in. The circle of our interests will inevitably grow in the largeness of God’s love.” Dallas Willard God's will is for you to be an agent of his grace and love right where you ARE. Every daily battle we face we are either seeking our own kingdom and comfort, or God's. When you are parenting your kids and you're praying for God to make them obedient - is it just for your sake and your comfort? or is it for him to be glorified in their lives? When you are trying to get a work deadline met, are you praying for you to just have less stress and more comfort? Or are you praying for God to make you successful and fruitful so that you can be a witness in the community to his goodness? When you are for a godly husband or wife - are you praying that for your own sake and comfort? Or are you praying because you are honest with God about your desire for a family and you want to fulfill your God-given calling to glorify God and enjoy him in the beauty of family life? Praying for God's will is not just about praying for mission and evangelism in other nations or things like that - it is about learning to see your everyday life as a battlefield for his kingdom and glory versus your own. It teaches you to think about all your needs and your whole lifestyle in a new way. And it teaches you to have a habit of constantly coming to God and asking him to work HIS purposes in your life. This truly sets you free from the anxiety or stress of expecting certain results. But it also gives you boldness to keep going - to pray for guidance, to do your best and keep working. This is what gives the Psalmist the boldness to argue with God "Why would you let me die? How will I praise you when I am dead??" This exactly what Jesus did in the garden. "Father, if there is any other way - pass this cup from me. Yet, not my will but yours be done." He is actively submitting his desires in the moment to the bigger will of the Father. Only because he did that, there is such a thing as resurrection. The beauty of his victory was the product of his self conscious submission to give himself for the purposes of the Father. This is what we are called to do everyday. Do you want to see resurrection power in your life? Do you want to see God working through difficult situations and changing your life and the lives of people around you in beautiful ways that you never thought possible? Learn to align your hearts desires and interests with his. Make his passions your passions. Make his values your values. Make his dreams your dreams. Application: 1. What are your prayer habits? Have you ever examined them? 2. Are there parts of your life that you don't tell God about because you think they are insignificant? 3. Do you tell God everything? Do you act like he is your Father, who is looking over your shoulder at all that you do, with a desire to guide and lead? 4. Do you see God as the only one who can truly help you see yourself and your blindspots correctly? Do you invite him to do this regularly? 5. Do you think of God's will as something separate or detached from your everyday interests and concerns? 6. Is your greatest goal in life to live with a confidence that you are running fully in line with God's callings for you? When we learn to adjust our prayer habits (not just do this once) to what we see in Scripture, we will also experience a thicker sense of God's guiding presence and lordship in our lives.