2023-01-15
• The Psalms give us words and postures of heart for an interactive life with God.
• For Israel and for the Church, the Psalms, through the ages, form the core of our understanding and expression of our inter-active life with God. The Psalms give us words and show us postures of heart that help us enter a deeper fellowship with God.
• Over the next three weeks, we will be attentive to God encouraging us through Psalm 40, Psalm 27, and Psalm 84.
• Psalm 40 encourages to remember the marvelous things God has done for us in our past. It stirs our faith to expect that God will be as faithful to us now as He has been in our past.
• *Psalm 27 encourages us in the confidence we have in the LORD amid difficult circumstances. No matter what comes our way; the LORD will always come through for us.
• *Psalm 84 encourages us to act upon the God-Given desire to come into the Lord's presence.
• *One scholar says that the purpose of the psalms is to give instructions for an abundant life and the message of the Psalms is "The Lord Reigns." That purpose and message run through each of our three Psalms.
• [Slide - Today Message Don't Read]
• *This morning, as we peer into Psalm 40, we see King David asking God to do for him again what He has done for David in the past. This is a song of encouragement for us because it reminds to remember what the marvelous things that God has done for us in our past. But more than this, Psalm 40 teaches us that God is just as concerned for us in our present troubles and difficulties. It stirs our faith to expect that God will be just as faithful to us now as he was in our past. Although our Scripture reading was verses 1-11, I will preach from the entire Psalm. It is helpful to follow along in your pew Bible or if you have a Bible on your phone, follow along there as well.
• [Slide] What are Psalms?
• The Psalms are poems intended to be sung as songs, usually accompanied by instruments. They were literally the praise and worship music of ancient Israel!
• The Psalms are not spontaneous or informal expressions of personal piety, though many are personal in tone, rather these well-crafted poems contribute to the liturgy of Israel's corporate worship.
• In interpreting the Psalms, it helps us to be attentive to their poetic structure. Each line of is a combination of two or more sub-elements called a "colon."
• [Slide: Colons and line]
•
• Let's look at Psalm 40:1 as an example.
I waited patiently for the Lord; (colon a)
he turned to me and heard my cry. (colon b)
• I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. (1 line)
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• The two colons of a line of Hebrew poetry have a correspondence with each other.
Colon a., "I waited patiently for the Lord,"" corresponds to "He [the LORD] turned to me" in colon b.
• Two other features of Hebrew poetry are imagery and parallelism. In this verse, the imagery is "The Lord turning". It's as if the Lord is walking by and David cries out and the Lord turns to look at him.
• The parallelism occurs when the two colons imply similar things, but there is a difference in the second colon.
• In the first colon, David waits patiently for the Lord; In the second colon, the Lord turns to David, which is what David is waiting for, but the Lord does so in response to what? His waiting on the Lord? Yes. But more than simply responding to passive waiting, the Lord responds to David's cry.
• So David uses the structure and the imagery of this one line to show us that waiting on the Lord is not just a passive waiting or a passive desire for God to do something. No, the waiting David is talking about involves the action of crying out to the Lord. It also contains an implicit promise, which is when one waits on the Lord by crying out to Him, the Lord will turn to you and he will hear your cry. To say "the Lord heard my cry" as a way of saying the Lord answered my cry.
• Your cry may be an anguished, desperate cry over a long time, but the Lord will hear and he will answer your cry.
• The ability to wait on the Lord is key to the understanding the message of this and other Psalm. Just in looking at this one verse, we know that waiting on the Lord is not passively waiting for God to do something we want. Rather, to wait on the Lord is to cry out to him, to tell him exactly what we need, to communicate to God our desperation for Him to do for us what we can never do for ourselves. There is trust in the Lord will hear our cry, which grounds this kind of active cry to the Lord. For the Lord to hear our cry is the same thing as the Lord taking action to deliver us from that which causes our distress.
• [Slide: Crying Out is Waiting on God]
• Therefore, we need to look more deeply into what it means to cry out to the LORD as the manifestation of the act of waiting on the Lord. The book of Psalms richly explains what it means to cry out to God. Let's look. First of all . . .
• Note
There is one slide for each Green heading
• Crying Out to the Lord
Is Waiting on the Lord
In Psalms
Who Should Cry Out?
Everyone who is afflicted and in need
Psalm 10:17
You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
Psalm 72:12
For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help.
Psalm 106:44
Yet he took note of their distress when he heard their cry;
The righteous who are in trouble
Psalm 34:15
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry;
Psalm 34:17
The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.
What is the posture of heart for crying out
Longing
Psalm 84:2
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Worship
Psalm 29:9
The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, “Glory!
When do we cry out?
Day and Night
Psalm 119:147
I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word.
Psalm 55:17
Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.
When the answer still has not come
Psalm 22:2
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.
What to Cry for?
Help
Psalm 5:2
Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.
Psalm 18:6
In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.
Psalm 39:12
“Hear my prayer, LORD, listen to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. I dwell with you as a foreigner, a stranger, as all my ancestors were.
Psalm 6:9
Psalm 102:1
Hear my prayer, LORD; let my cry for help come to you.
Mercy
Psalm 28:2
Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.
Psalm 86:6
Hear my prayer, LORD; listen to my cry for mercy.
Psalm 130:2
Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
Psalm 140:6
I say to the LORD, “You are my God.” Hear, LORD, my cry for mercy.
Psalm 142:1
I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.
Psalm 31:22
In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!” Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.
Justice and vindication
Psalm 17:1
Hear me, LORD, my plea is just; listen to my cry. Hear my prayer— it does not rise from deceitful lips.
Psalm 57:2
I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me.
Understanding
Psalm 119:169
May my cry come before you, LORD; give me understanding according to your word.
What words can we use?
Psalm 61:1
Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.
Psalm 88:1
LORD, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you.
Psalm 88:2
May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry.
Psalm 88:13
I cry to you for help, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Psalm 130:1
Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD;
Psalm 142:5
I cry to you, LORD; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”
Psalm 142:6
Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.
Psalm 143:1
LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.
What do we say when the answer comes?
Psalm 22:24
For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
Psalm 145:19
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.
Psalm 28:6
Praise be to the LORD, for he has heard my cry for mercy.
Psalm 116:1
I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.
• Now we know more fully what it means to wait patiently for the Lord by crying out to him. Now we can see Psalm 40 itself as David's expression of waiting patiently for the Lord by crying out for him, and trusting that God will hear his cry and deliver him. This is David's song of encouragement for us. In this song, David reminds to remember what the marvelous things that God has done for us in our past. Beyond this, David teaches us that God is just as concerned for us in our present troubles and difficulties, as he was with our past distresses. David's song stirs our faith to expect that God will be just as faithful to us now as he was in our past.
• Let's take a deeper dive into this encouraging song.
• David remembers God's deliverance in the past.
• a hymn of praise to our God.I waited patiently for the Lord; (not an immediate visible response)
he turned to me and
[he] heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock and
gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
• The impact of God's deliverance in David's life in the lives of others who observe God's deliverance.
• to those who turn aside to false gods.Many will see
and fear the Lord and
put their trust in him.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
who does not look to the proud,
• David praises God's wonders and declares his faithful in telling those wonders to others (David is not content with observation alone)
• they would be too many to declare. skip to I waited Patiently for the Lord > ^78efb0Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done,
the things you planned for us.
None can compare with you;
were I to speak and tell of your deeds,
• David commits himself to be faithful to God
• Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—
but my ears you have opened—
burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.
Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—
it is written about me in the scroll.
I desire to do your will, my God;
your law is within my heart.”
Note
The second (it is written about me in the scroll) means that God’s law explains how people are to live, and the psalmist intends to be the kind of person there described. In the case of David and his successors, there is a very specific law for the king, in Deuteronomy 17:14–20; but it includes within it the rest of the law also. This, he claims, is within his heart. He has not only the duty to know it, but the desire to obey it.[1]
• Go to David asks for God's help in his present crisis.
• vv.9-10 I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly;
- I do not seal my lips,
- Lord, as you know.
- I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
- I speak of your faithfulness and
- your saving help.
- I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness from the great assembly. ^474719
- (Go back to David commits himself to be faithful to God
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• David cries out for God's help in his present crisis.
• “The Lord is great!”Do not withhold your mercy from me, Lord;
may your love and faithfulness always protect me.
For troubles without number surround me;Troubled by his own sin
my sins have overtaken me,
and I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails within me.
Be pleased to save me, Lord;
come quickly, Lord, to help me.Troubled by people who want to kill him so . . .
David prays for vindication
May all who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.
May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” be appalled at their own shame.
But may all who seek you rejoice
and be glad in you;
may those who long for your saving help always say,
• David ends in humble hope
• do not delay.But as for me, I am poor and needy;
may the Lord think of me.
You are my help and
my deliverer;
you are my God,
• [Slide] Basic Principle and Application
• In Psalm 40, David want us to see that knowing how to wait on the Lord by crying out to him in the expectation of God's sure deliverance is one of the secrets to an abundant life as a child of God.
• Here's the basic principle and how to apply the message of this psalm
• [Slide]
• Remember what God did for me;
cry to God for what I need.
God proved faithful in the past;
I trust His faithfulness now.
• Jesus shows us how much God wants to respond to our cries of mercy in this story.
• “Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” (Mark 10:46–52, NIV)
• Jesus is passing by today. In fact Jesus is here today. Will you cry out to him, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" When Jesus hear's your cry and turns to you and says, "What do you want me to do for you?" What will you say?
• Let's pray.
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• Michael Wilcock, The Message of Psalms: Songs for the People of God, ed. J. A. Motyer, vol. 1, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2001), 144.↩︎