Penitence
The Psalms • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsThe guilt and struggle of our sin brings us into the midst of despair but we can cry out to God who hears us and is our only source of strength.
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The guilt and struggle of our sin brings us into the midst of despair but we can cry out to God who hears us and is our only source of strength.
Intro
Hide and seek is a fun game as a kid, maybe even as an adult. I mean what kid doesn't like to play hide and seek. I have been told a story once about a time my sister probably told me she wanted to play hide and seek with me. I was to young to remember this though. I am not sure what was going through her head, but she hid me in my grandparents car in the middle of a hot summer and locked the doors. My parents eventually found me soaked with sweat. There may have been a time when a cat got hidden in a freezer as well. Hide and seek was always fun.
As adults Hide and seek is a game we tend to play as well, but in a different way. People have an amazing ability to hide what is going on inside, to pretend everything is alright even though really inside they are hurting. There is a song by a Christian band called stained glass masquerade that describes this well.
Is there anyone that fails? Is there anyone that falls? Am I the only one in church today Feeling so small? 'Cause when I take a look around Everybody seems so strong
I know they'll soon discover That I don't belong So I tuck it all away like everything's okay If I make 'em all believe it Maybe I'll believe it, too So with a painted grin
I play the part again So everyone will see me The way that I see them
Whether it be hiding from our church body or hiding from God, we always seem to want to hide what we are going through for fear of either what people will think of us, afraid to deal with it with God, maybe we like our sin a litte to much to deal with it quite yet, or we dont know how.
What we are going to go through today is a Psalm of Penitence. Crying out to God to save us from our sin. How sin affects us mentally and physically, yet we can turn to God for strength. The guilt and struggle of our sin brings us into the midst of despair but we can cry out to God who hears us and is our only source of strength.
Help Me - 1-2
The imagery behind a struggle with sin and crying out to God for strength hits home for me at least. Some have understood this Psalm as a person asking for help who is ill. But the Psalms being poetry I believe this is a depiction of how the guilt of sin can affect us both mentally and Physically.
1 Lord, do not punish me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. 2 For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has pressed down on me.
We start simply with a plea, a cry out to God in the midst of despair. Lord do not punish me, in your wrath do not punish me.
the arrows of God, the hand of God pressed down on us. God does discipline us in our sin so as to dray us to himself. The question though that we ask many times is why would God do this? In the midst of our struggle with sin the last thing we want to do is seek God, at least most of the time. I was like this at one point. Not living for God but pretending I was. The only way for the Lord to finally get my attention was to bring me to my knees, to a place where i had but one choice and that was to look to Him.
The intensity of the discipline of the Lord has affected the Psalmist here as well we see. He never questions the justice of the Lord but is going to the Lord to ask for help from where he has gotten himself.
Description of suffering - 3-8
3 There is no soundness in my body because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.
Because of the sin of the Psalmist the Lord is trying to bring him back to Himself. It is because of the sin. in this passage we get the physical and mental struggle that comes with a life lost in sin.
you may think, how is this the case? How is God angry at sin?
5 Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.
J.I. Packer summarizes: “God’s wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil” (Knowing God, 151).
4 For my iniquities have flooded over my head; they are a burden too heavy for me to bear. 5 My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness.
So knowing this then, it brings us to why we sometimes feel the way we do when we just can not battle through the sin that we are dealing with.
Like a flood that is overtaking us. Trying to tread water but all we do is get farther under, a burden to heavy for us to bear weighing us down. Like festering wounds that just wont heal.
We feel the weight of what we are going through but we just cant seem to do anything about it so we hide behind a mask, we hide behind alcohol and drugs, we hide behind false idols.
6 I am bent over and brought very low; all day long I go around in mourning. 7 For my insides are full of burning pain, and there is no soundness in my body.
8 I am faint and severely crushed; I groan because of the anguish of my heart.
The description of suffering in Sin, how it affects us, how we cry out in despair for all that we have gone through hits home for me.
It is what we do when we are lost in sin that counts. I do believe that the Lord will discipline those that He loves to draw them close to Himself again. That is what I believe was happening here.
Because of the sin of David, He was being disciplined by God for what He had done. How many of you, if it where not for the hardships that come with a life of sin would never turn back to God? Sometimes it is due to the mourning, the feeling lost, the weight of sin that causes us to realize that we need God.
I pray that for you guys as hard as that is, that when you are struggling in Sin that the Lord would do what it would take to get your attention back on Himself again.
Wishes lifted to God 9-10
We wish, we long for forgiveness from the Lord. Maybe it is that we do not know why what is going on is happening, we maybe do not recognize that what we are doing is sin. But th desire that we have needs to be that God would forgive us from what we have done.
9 Lord, my every desire is in front of you; my sighing is not hidden from you. 10 My heart races, my strength leaves me, and even the light of my eyes has faded.
In our state of depression, of feeling lost in the state of sin it is not always easy to communicate meaningfully with the Lord.
Through groaning even do we make our wished known to God, that is our desire to make right with God what we have done, knowing that is the only desire that will change what we are going through.
Though even in our pain we never need to doubt the relationship with God, though we need to deal with our sin, a struggle with sin does not mean that we have lost our salvation, just that we have work to do. It is not necessary to verbalize the longings of our heart to God, our longing for forgiveness and reconciliation, as we struggle we need to know the Lord hears our longings and will answer our groans for reconciliation with Him.
Our wishes, our desire needs to be reconciled with God because of our sin. Even if we cant find the words to say we need to reach out to God in repentance, even the groaning of our heart will be heard.
Feeling alone 11-14
Yet through it all we feel alone, like no one is there for us, like we are going through it without the help of our family and friends.
11 My loved ones and friends stand back from my affliction, and my relatives stand at a distance. 12 Those who intend to kill me set traps, and those who want to harm me threaten to destroy me; they plot treachery all day long.
David felt lost and alone. I am not sure that this is the case so much as we tend to alienate ourselves.
When we are dealing with sin and it’s consequences, people feel like no one cares for them. I think that it has more to do with the fact of our fear of what people will think of us when we share with them. And yes maybe the people around us will back away sometimes, at least the ones that we have affected. The earthly consequences of our sin still applies.
13 I am like a deaf person; I do not hear. I am like a speechless person who does not open his mouth. 14 I am like a man who does not hear and has no arguments in his mouth.
This should give us pause. This is what it feels like when we are lost in sin and feel like there si no way out. Like no one hears or cares.
At some point there is cause to cast the person out, but at the same time we are to show love and grace. If someone comes o you with what they are dealing with then lovingly point them to Jesus.
Wishes lifted to God 15-20
15 For I put my hope in you, Lord; you will answer me, my Lord, my God. 16 For I said, “Don’t let them rejoice over me— those who are arrogant toward me when I stumble.” 17 For I am about to fall, and my pain is constantly with me.
18 So I confess my iniquity; I am anxious because of my sin. 19 But my enemies are vigorous and powerful; many hate me for no reason. 20 Those who repay evil for good attack me for pursuing good.
our hope alone is in the Lord we need to remember that, in the midst of our battle with sin our hope is in the Lord alone, He alone can pull us out of the depths of despair.
Though we are feeling like we are about to fall, our hope and our strength is in the Lord. Wr must confess our sin to Him. though we are attacked for doing good we must come to the Lord with our sin. SO let us confess our sin to the Lord and see the hope we have in Him.
Help me 21-22
21 Lord, do not abandon me; my God, do not be far from me. 22 Hurry to help me, my Lord, my salvation.
Not that the Lord is going to abandon us if we are his children, but it does feellike it sometimes. we need to remember to cry out to God, even if it feels like He is far away from us.
It is not that God is fr from us but rather that our own actions have drawn us farther away from God. Our gaze has gone from God almighty to ourselves. That ius when we need to remember to cry out to God in the depths of despair we are facing. God is our salvation we must hurry to Him.
So What?
How often do we miss the signs of people that are struggling alone with their pain. How often do we fail to point people to Jesus sour only hope from the despair of sin. There was a musician who took his own life a while ago who put his despair into muscian and no one seemed to notice.
some of the lyrics are: I don't know what to take
Thought I was focused, but I'm scared
I'm not prepared
I hyperventilate
Looking for help somehow, somewhere
And no one cares
I'm my own worst enemy put me out of my misery
No one really understood, they thought it was just artistic musings. so what do we take from this?
Cry out to God in the midst of despair.
Cry out to God in the midst of despair.
This Psalm is just one long cry out to Jesus amidst the pain and the suffering, amidst the despair of being lost in Sin. I am sure you have felt this way before, felt like you where drowning, burdens to great to bear.
We try to break the chains of addiction and sin in our lives, maybe it is not something that we have done but something that has been done to us. we cant do it anymore, we cant hide the pain anymore.
Like David says here, we need to cry out to Jesus in the midst of it all. He is the only source of hope for the helpless, rest for the weary, strength for the broken. Cry out to God He will hear you.
Help others and listen when they are lost
Help others and listen when they are lost
Are people around you struggling? There is a difference between knowing you are sinning and not wanting to do anything about it and being lost and not know how to get out. Someone around you may fear a response of hate and reviling. There is a line between the blatant sinner and the lost one who wants escape but cant find it on their own.
So I tuck it all away like everything's okay
If I make 'em all believe it
Maybe I'll believe it, too
So with a painted grin
I play the part again
So everyone will see me
The way that I see them
David here cried out for help To God in the midst of the weight of sin. First and foremost cry out to Jesus with your pain and sorrow. People will fail you but God never will. But that doesn't let us off the hook. Show grace and love where needed and point others to Jesus.
if you feel as the Psalmist did maybe God might be trying to get your attention
if you feel as the Psalmist did maybe God might be trying to get your attention
Lastley we need to remember that God’s wrath will be poured out on those that are not children of God. Because of that as a child of God He may be trying to get your attention if you feel distant from God, if you are struggling