Sojourn New Albany Podcast

First, by providing clarity to the place of our pain

Second, through the future commitments that we make

Third, by stirring our hearts to pray for others

Explanation -- As Justin Shaffer taught us last week, this is a psalm where the writer has experienced significant hardship but the Lord has delivered him.  Because the Lord has acted on his behalf, he stops to thank God.  Look with me at verses 17-18, “I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done.  The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death.

Did you notice that the writer said that the Lord has chastened him?  Some versions say the Lord has disciplined him.  That is significant for a number of reasons.  For one, the psalmist is able to recognize the Lord’s hand when it comes to his pain and when it comes to ending his pain.   The psalmist is echoing Job when he said after he lost everything in life in Job 1 that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  He is echoing Job when after he lost everything in life but his good health and his wife, then he loses his good health in chapter 2 and then says that he has received both good and trouble from the hand of God.  And the writer of Job knows that people get hot and bothered about such statements and in both chapters states that Job did not sin when he made such statements about God.  

The psalmist echoes Job but reverses the order because he is coming from a different place.  The Lord has disciplined him severely but he didn’t give him over to death.  The psalmist is in a place where he can see that the Lord has brought pain into his life but at the same time, the Lord kept him alive.  The pain had a cliff.  A drop off.  An end to it.  The hurt came from the Lord’s hand while at the same time the ending of the pain came from the Lord’s hand.  

Illustration -- I was in an eye doctor’s office recently, which brought clarity to a few different places.  The first place that it brought clarity to was with a personal place that I had been.  I was brought to a place that I must leave my happy place of avoiding doing things I don’t want to do.  I had been avoiding the eye doctor since my last visit, I don’t know a decade or so ago.  When the eye doctor asked me what brought me in I said something to the effect of, “Well doc finally got over myself and came in.  I am stubborn like that.”  He just started laughing.  

The other place of clarity that I discovered was there are a number of these black letters at various sizes that are placed in such a way that I can’t see them very well.  At least not without glasses that is.  This doctor said, “You have 20-20 vision if you wear glasses.”  Then he asked me if I have ever been prescribed glasses before and I said something to the effect of, “Yes but you see doc not only am I stubborn but the second thing that I am is noncompliant.”  I don’t always follow the rules.  So he asked me the obvious question, “What brought you in to see us?”  And I said something to the effect that I was tired of straining to see things.  I was in a place where I had to embrace reality, I just needed to see what was in front of me.  Now that I am in a different place, I can see things in front of me a lot better… as much as I hate to admit that.  In fact, on the other side of the eye doctor’s visit, I can now look back and say, “You know you should have gone there sooner.”  

Argument -- Sometimes, you have to be on the other side of difficulties to really understand where you have come from.  Sometimes, you have to be far enough from pain to really gain clarity on the challenges that you have faced.  The psalmist here is in a place where he can say that it was the Lord that brought pain into his life but the Lord did not give him over to death.  And he is saying that from a place of gratitude.  This is a psalm that acknowledges pain and states that the Lord brought this affliction into his man’s life but he is not saying like other psalms, “How long will this continue Lord?”  He is in a different place.  Like Justin said last week, for some people the holiday stretch can be a time when it is easy to give thanks to God.  But for other people, the holiday stretch can be a time when it is hard to give thanks to God.  It depends on where you are in relation to pain.  

Application --  Where are you in relational to your pain?  Can you see it clearly?  Where is God in your pain?  Is he anywhere to be found?  

We learn from this that faithfulness means walking with the Lord through times of great trials.  And at the same time, faithfulness also means walking with the Lord through times of great deliverance.  But if you were paying attention, a word that I repeated here was time.  We learn that over time, God intervenes.  The question in other psalms, “How long of Lord?” is a question about time.  Specifically how long the pain will continue.  Time and distance can provide clarity to where we have been and where the Lord has been all along.  Let’s make it our prayer for the Lord to give us eyes to see his presence in our pain.  Let’s make it our prayer to God for us to see him working by faith.  For some of you, you are indeed years away.  Maybe just this past year.  But you are years away from the pain but you can’t see.  State that to God and ask him to help you see where he was and what he was doing.  

The psalmist was now in a place that he could say in verse 22-23, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”  It took time but the psalmist was able to recognize that a period of rejection was followed by deliverance and exaltation.  It’s like a stone that is passed over by builders that later is chosen to be the cornerstone of the whole building.  

Isn’t that what Christianity centers around?  This verse was quoted by our Lord Jesus about himself.  That though he would suffer on the cross.  Though he would be abandoned by God.  He would be raised from the dead.  We understand the cross in light of the deliverance of the resurrection by the hand of God.  We come to the cross from a different place.  Not starting on Good Friday but from the place of Easter Sunday.  And that is how we understand his pain.  And it is from that pain we understand our own.  

Explanation -- Look with me at Psalm 118:19, “Open for me the gates of the righteous; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.”  Did you notice that the psalmist gives a command to other people for a specific reason?  He commands others to open up gates and the reason is so that he can fulfill a commitment.  The gates are the gates of the righteous which are referencing the Temple, the place where the Lord’s presence was located in these days.  

The psalmist is fulfilling a commitment, a vow that he has made.  After the Lord delivered him, he said to himself, “I am going to travel to Jerusalem and give God thanks for what he has done.”  Now the psalmist is making a commitment to do something that as an obedient Old Testament believer, he is supposed to do anyway.  He was already supposed to give the Lord thanks and he was already supposed to travel to Jerusalem every so often and worship the Lord.  But now, he is going with a purpose.  He is going with some energy.  Why?  Because the Lord has done something in his life.  The Lord has delivered him from the hands of his enemies and he is happy about it.  And so, he says to himself, “I am going to make sure that I thank God for his goodness in my life.”  It wasn’t a commitment that was beyond his abilities and it wasn’t contrary to the usual life of faith for a man in his time.  He didn’t commit himself to climb the highest mountain in Asia in 3 hours and offer a sacrifice there.  That wouldn’t be possible.  He didn’t commit himself to get as drunk and as high as he could in celebration.  That wouldn’t please the Lord.  He committed himself to please the Lord by obeying what he knew was pleasing in his sight.  

Illustration --  TBA

Argumentation -- Have you ever committed to doing something?  What was that like?  Have you ever committed to doing something and you didn’t follow through?  I have.  This is the time of the year when people make commitments and we are starting the second week of the year so it is also the time when some people start breaking their commitments.  Sometimes they are breaking their commitments because they said that they do something that they do not have the capability to follow through on.  They committed themselves to something beyond their own power, skills, know how, or willingness to sacrifice for.  Sometimes they are breaking their commitments because it was not wise to make such a commitment to begin with.

The psalmists make these commitments often in their writings.  There are two things to consider about making a commitment to the Lord.  One, it is not required.  The psalmists didn’t have to make a vow.  And two, if the vow is made to God, the vow must be fulfilled.  There was one exception to this but outside of that, the seriousness of the vow is rooted in the character of God.  They made a promise to their Creator.  Ecclesiastes 5:4-6 says that it is wise to just not vow to do something before God.  But if you make a vow to God, you must fulfill it.  This is a wisdom book.  Meaning it is a book that considers how to live life in God’s world wisely and with skillfulness.  Ecclesiastes is saying to consider the seriousness of your commitments to God before making them.  

For Christians, there is a consistency between what they say and what they do.  Between their words and their actions.  It partly means that they avoid making rash commitments.  Don’t commit yourself to something that you can’t follow through on.  Don’t commit to being somewhere if you can’t.  

But it also means that they follow through on what they say they will do.  Even if it is difficult. So if you have committed yourself to be somewhere then be there.  But if you can’t be somewhere then don’t commit to it to begin with.  Our commitments or lack thereof, affect other people.  The wise Christian will take that into account so that at times, they bless others as well as so that they do not sin against others.   

Application -- This calls us to sobriety about ourselves.  To be honest about ourselves.  Before making a commitment, and namely a commitment that will affect other people, first ask yourself can you follow through on this?  Do you have the ability, the strength, the know-how, the whatever to follow through?  And second, ask yourself are you willing to follow through?  If things get hard or if things go great.  If you are not both willing and able to follow through, don’t make the commitment.  

Next, for some of you, you might not need to vocally make a commitment to the Lord to give him thanks in a public setting but you need to give him thanks in a public setting because it would bless other people.  The psalmist looked for an opportunity to share what God had done in his life with others.  Other people need to see and hear that the Lord does indeed bless his people.  Things might be so dark for them and they are questioning a lot of things, maybe faith itself.  Will you look for an opportunity to thank God for an answered prayer in the presence of others?  

Explanation -- Look with me at verse 25, “Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success!”  The psalmist with others now turns towards the Lord in prayer.  That is significant.  The psalmist doesn’t merely accept that the Lord has been good to him and this becomes the end of his attention.  He doesn’t merely say, “Well God has been good to me and that is all I have to say about that.”  The Lord’s past goodness motivates him to pray for others and to include others in his prayer.  He says to the Lord to save “us.” To give “us” success.  He has a concern for other people.  He has committed himself to give God thanks and this motivates him to then be concerned for others.  He wants God to bless other people.  Bless his people.  The company of believers that he belongs to.  

Illustration -- TBA

Argumentation -- Christianity is a faith that takes an individual and places them within a family.  A family of believers.  And so the apostle will say that Christians weep with those Christians that are weeping.  And they rejoice with those Christians that are rejoicing.  They are bound together by faith.  And the work of the Holy Spirit moves Christians to love other Christians.  To want to see God bless them.  And do good in their lives.  When one person experiences goodness from the hand of the Lord, this act of God is the means that others can also experience goodness from the Lord in due time.  The Lord does good to one person not so that his acts of goodness find their end but so that his grace will move from that person to other people.  When God answers our prayers the Holy Spirit will move us to look outward to other people and begin praying for them.  God blesses, intervenes, and acts on the behalf of one so that others will be blessed.  The Father raised his one and only Son from the dead for us.  God delivered the Son, raised him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand so that people like you and I can also share in the saving actions of God.  The Lord works in the heart of one so that his heart and the hearts of others will be stirred to call out to him and say what the psalmist said in the first verse and the last verse of this psalm, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever.” (Psalm 118:29)

Application -- TBA