Always Safe in the Hands of Your Everlasting Father - Psalm 6:1-10

Psalm 6 INTRO Always safe in the hands of your Everlasting Father. The bookmark I use for my Old Testament reading finds itself currently in the book of Genesis. I’m not sure if you’ve been through the stories of some these Patriarchs of our faith recently, but for me, every time I study through them I find myself thinking, “man...these guys were Jacked up.” “Decorated for their faith ‘YES’ but scandalous on so many accounts.” There’s deceit, ungodly fear, doubt, selfishness of the most despicable type and more so. YET, they were commended for their faith and remained holding on to the promises of God’s covenant with them...to the end. And, I got to thinking, “What held them together?” “How is it that they made it to the end?” “Battered by sin..BOTH their own and the sin of others, BUT, in the end, sustained to finish the course God had for them. “I feel quite battered at times. As I consider the sins of my youth, I can identify with some of the deplorable acts these men were guilty of. My own current battle against sin and the affects of other's sin often brings me to a state, such as the accounts of these men portray, who were drained....yet sustained to the glory of God. Can I be assured of the same?” I believe so, in fact, I believe every child of God, true child of God does.... It’s NOT a, some do and some don’t. NO, it’s a universal truth for every born again christian. Listen to the words of JESUS in (John 10:27-30) “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand”....watch this next verse..... “I and the Father are one.” Do we need anymore security then what JESUS just stated for us? There is no safer place in all the world. A christian is always safe in the hands of The Everlasting Father. It was God’s hands that formed man out of the dust of the earth. It was His hands that made the first sacrifice for sin when He provided animal skins as clothing for Adam and Eve at the Fall. It was God’s hand that pointed to the stars above when He first made a covenant with Abram saying... “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” ........., “So shall your offspring be.” (Genesis 15:5) It was by God’s mighty hand that He delivered His people from slavery in Egypt and drove out the nations before them as He led them into the promise land. It was God’s hand that wrote The Ten Commandments on the tablets of stone. By God’s hand the Covenant promises were kept despite failure upon failure of God’s people to keep their end of it. God, in His steadfast love, held to His promises unchangeably. As promised, He sent the Messiah, the hope of Israel, His only begotten Son to bless all nations, so that all people, Jew and Gentile alike may be reconciled to God because it was Jesus’s hands that were spread wide and nailed to the cross by which anyone, anyone can come to God through faith in Him and receive forgiveness of sins. Those same very hands of the Father and the Son, holding us, carrying us through this life, guiding, protecting and directing us are always safe and trustworthy..... Especially when fatherly discipline is being administered. I didn’t forget that hand of God. The one that administers Fatherly discipline towards His kids. We see this throughout the dealings of God with His people in the Old Testament. Time and time again, God would send judgment for His people’s sin in either the form of a sword,...where other nations would rise up against the Israelites and defeat them and also by the means of famine or pestilence. All purposed to correct their waywardness, to humble them that they would turn back to a faithful covenantal relationship with Him. In short....that they would repent of their sin. —— God relates to His redeemed as a FATHER and they are eternally safely secure in His hands....hands that administer, along with caring for, providing, keeping, guiding, protecting and more...they also, to His praise and our benefit, they also...administer loving fatherly discipline. Everyone of God’s kids. Every christian. And Therefore - A christian is always safe in the hands of The Everlasting Father. This is what King David is depicting here in Psalm 6. A penitent, an apologetic Psalm according to The Sheminith - as the header of the Psalm indicates - which is thought to either be an eight-stringed musical instrument or a musical notation such as an octave....this he penned either during or shortly after he had been suffering for a time from some illness that brought him near death or some other life threatening crisis. And scholars are not able to associate this Psalm with any known event in his life...SO all that is known is that he, DAVID, from this suffering, reached the realization that it was a result of sin in his life. And we’ll see him, always safe in the hands of God, working through this process as a child of God being disciplined by God for sin. And before we pick up in (verse 1) of (Psalm 6), there is one other passage I feel compelled to bring before us before doing so. And I know this has been a lengthy intro....BUT I sooo want you to get this... I want you to dive head first...get fully submerged...completely and perpetually committed to this holy dynamic relationship we are able to have with the Everlasting Father through Faith in Jesus Christ. SO, to crystalize my efforts in doing so, let’s read from (Hebrews 12:6-11). You can turn their if you’d like. Listen intently to this. After the author tells his readers to “consider Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith...who endured from sinners such hostility against himself” ......the author of Hebrews then exhorts christians in their struggles against sin (verse 6-11) - read WE as parents and children, we get this. The author even uses it as an example. Parents try their best to train up a child in the way they should go. Imperfectly yes, but out of love, through pain and toil, we do our best to train up our children. How much greater the training undertaken by God who raises His kids to be Holy. That ‘is’ the chief aim He has His crosshairs on of those whom He receives into His hands. To conform them to the image of His Son who ‘is' Holy, Blameless that they also themselves would reflect God The Father in heaven whose image they bear. NOW, any form of training takes - work, correction, instruction, encouragement, patiences, opportunity.....and....the loving discipline administered by Our Heavenly Father,... exhibits this supremely with perfect care and precision. —— All of which we don’t deserve. Let’s not forget that. If we don’t experience the discipline of God, then we don’t belong to Him. Plain and simple. We are illegitimate children....meaning....we are not His kids and therefore not disciplined by Him and still dead in our sins and destined for hell. “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.” Receives into His hands, the hands that no one, absolutely “no one will be able to snatch them out of.” HANDS that administer loving fatherly discipline. “It is for discipline that you have to endure”...It’s not a pleasure Cruise...BUT...the end result... “that we may share in His holiness.” Craziness... One deserving to receive the fullness of God’s righteous wrath... punishment in hell for all eternity for their sinful rebellion against Him....may share in His holiness...be brought into the perfect communion, love and fellowship shared by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Words fail to adequately describe this grace christians receive through faith in Jesus Christ. —— And so, a christian, aware of this highest privileged status they have as a child of God, experiences something in life like no other. And that is the realization that a current suffering, whether it be financial, an illness (such as the case here with David in this Psalm), circumstantial suffering or whatever form a suffering specific to you may take,....only a christian can come to the realization that it is related to your own SIN that your Heavenly Father is lovingly addressing by administering fatherly discipline. Now let’s be clear about something. All suffering is NOT, by default, to be understood as GOD disciplining you. NO, “it rains on the just and the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45) We live in a fallen world, where there is loss, pain, sickness, calamities....a plentiful variety of sufferings that are not related to GOD disciplining you. Let’s be clear on that. Fallen humanity - suffering in life. They go together. WHILE, there is, for a child of God, a Bible believing and living born again christian, parental dealings of a loving Father in heaven towards His kids. Parental dealings purposed to be Christ formative. This Psalm captures such a situation quite vividly. Something we can all identify with and learn from this morning as to how one rightly works through it....OR in the words of Hebrews 12:10 “is trained by it that it may yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness in our lives...” i.e. share in His holiness. This glorious truth assures that every true christian is always safe in the hands of The Everlasting Father. So we’ll move through this passage in 3 steps...beginning with the Penitent heart. Our First point BODY 1) FIRST POINT - (Psalm 6:1-3). Penitent heart - read Does not David sound good here...rather quite drained? He is in a miserable state and it’s clear from the text that it’s a result of his own sin. We don’t know at what point this realization came for David BUT came it did and it was unbearable. Can you hear his heart cry for relief? He is in a desperate place and is pleading with God as to how long this will go on for. LIKE, “I don’t know if I am going to be able to make it.” “How long O’Lord are you going to be allowing this suffering as discipline for my sin?” David had a penitent heart. For the Penitent heart is the heart that realizes their current suffering is directly related to being disciplined by GOD. - Only by a penitent heart will a christian come to this realization. PENITENT...meaning: Are you sensitive to sin? How is your sin-o-meter? Does your heart register sin at it’s slightest encroachment upon your soul? Do you pray to God that it will? We ought to. Consider David who prayed... “search me, Oh God, and know me! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24) Why does David pray like that? He despises sin and wants rid of it same as His God does.... .........What is your attitude towards sin?....Are you troubled by it?.........Do you abhor sin?....OR,......is it thought lightly of....where you are willing to tolerate it? Such an attitude of heart is NOT a becoming reflection of one who is truly a child of God. God is merciful and forgives sin....Christ paid it all.... ALL glorious truths.....BUT do you carry with yourself a flippant attitude about sin in light of that? Conviction of sin comes to a penitent heart. The Christian realizes their state of suffering is a result of sin in their lives and it breaks their heart. The realization crushes them. They experience deep lament as expressed by David here. Feeling it in your flesh, being disturbed to the point of restlessness or sleepless nights so long as the sin goes unconfessed. GOD, whom they love and who loves them with an indescribable steadfast love, ...is displeased with them because of unrepentant sin and WILL NOT let them be okay with IT. In one shape or form the christian will be suffering and the longer the sin goes un-repented of,....the greater the measure of loving discipline will be administer by the Everlasting Father’s hand who loves them. May it only be the slightest disturbance in our hearts that brings us to an awareness of sin to repent of and not greater measures of discipline. Which ever one it would be, if you find yourself in such a place as David does here... do what he does...gooo to GOD, .....not away from Him, Go to Him and plea to Him from your heart that He would come to you. Which is our second point to give attention to as we continue through the passage. David already began his pleading from the start,..but now he presses on further, going to God, asking for God to come to him. 2) SECOND POINT - (Psalm 6:4-7) - Pleading heart felt prayer - read Aware of his state, David pleads to God from his heart. Asking God to turn back to him and deliver him from this state He is in. You see, David feeels the worst suffering of all...and that is....God is not pleased with David because of David’s sin. David feeeels the absence of God’s face shining upon him as one of His anointed children. YOU SEE - God doesn’t look upon His children with ‘favor’ who are in sin. He doesn’t. Those don’t go together. The light of God’s countenance will not reflect off of us when we are in sin. And this isn’t lofty speech. Many here know what I’m talking about. We’ve seen it on the faces of those who have been in sin and the distinct transformation that comes with repentance. It’s visibly clear to the Spiritually discerning. Personally we have experienced this as well same as David here. This is what David is aware of. God is not looking upon him as one pleased...God is angry at David’s sin and DAVID...I love this...David goes ‘to’ Him. That’s the heart I want and the heart I long and pray to see further cultivated here at Pillar. Sensitive to the absence of God’s favor upon us when in sin and pressing in toward with a penitent heart, pleading that God would turn back and look upon us once again. Expressing to Him with pleading heartfelt prayer your self caused anguish and the trouble it causes you. ‘OH’ to be released from this state and feeel once again the warmth of His countenance reflecting off of your face. Such a grace FAR exceeds the sun kiss experience by the early morning rising sun. As sweet as that is it is only a far glimpse of the blessing we, as christians, can experience when God is pleased with us. There is no comparison and David is on the brink of despair knowing that it is NOT present. “Be gracious to me, heal me, O’ Lord - how long? Turn, O’ Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love....and that is dynamite. Do you see what David appeals to? David appeals to God’s Steadfast Love. Saints, that is what you appeal to.....not anything else...appeal to God’s Steadfast Love of which alone you can BANK on because of the work of Christ who seals it with His blood. Christ came and saved you when you were dead in sin...when you were an enemy of God. Fulfilling the Father’s plan according to His Steadfast Love, Christ rescued you and it’s that same Steadfast Love of His you appeal to when you are going to God to be restored into Fellowship with Him. For if not restored....David gives strong language about such a state in (verses 5 - 7). Look at that again. - read - If I die in this state, David is saying in essence, unforgiven, removed from Fellowship with the Father...then the thought of NOT being in the presence of those who worship you and joining in that immense delight of giving you continual praise makes him moan in agony having sorrow upon sorrow, to the point where his sleepless eyes, the window of the soul, wastes away over the grief of being separated from the life giver of His soul because of His OWN sin. “it” David says....linked to his life he is pleading to God to be delivered (verse 4). ‘it’, my life, grows weak because of all my foes.” Does God Deliver David?..........Before we go there. Let’s consider David’s example and look inwardly. DO you...go to God in this state of being disciplined by HIM...and...NOT away from Him? Do you cry out to the very one issuing the discipline? The hand that is spanking you...do you reach out for it to lift you out of your sin to be pulled in close to HIM? That you may lean into His bosom and bring that hand close up against your chest and weep over your sin as you pour your heart out to Him about it. Is that what you do OR do you believe the lies of the enemy who would say that “it’s not safe to do so.” “The Father won’t accept you.” “You’re too filthy of a sinner...“it will only make things worse.” Are you believing those lies? - CHILDREN - Youth here...please listen carefully....the enemy wants you firmly to believe that it is not safe to go to your parents on any given topic. Any given topic. OH..He won’t raise a fuss about everyday topics...such as school, sports, various innocent interests..the weather...things like that...he is fine with it... “talk away”, he says....BUT when it comes to topics of a sensitive nature....you’ve told a lie and other lies to prevent the first lie from being FOUND OUT and it just gets bigger and bigger, you feel trapped and don’t know what to do; You’ve stolen something and now feel bad about it and aren’t sure how to make things right. —- TOPICS on sensuality, interest in those of the opposite sex, drugs .... alcohol...things like these. Satan and his lies are all about preventing those conversations from happening. He wants to keep those hidden...or, if it is spoken of...only to be taken place amongst your peers who are just as confused and inexperienced as you are and are pulling from the cesspool of recourses the world has to offer on those topics. Staunch with lies and empty promises. Don’t believe those lies, Don’t even listen to them. Go to your parents. Please heed these words. There is no safer place to have any and all conversations with,...than with your parents who love you and are for you and can handle any topic you desire to bring up with them. Please trust me on this. Lets be real too. Maybe your home isn’t safe. We won’t be naive about that reality. Likely not represented here, but maybe a friend of yours, a neighbor, a classmate whom you know is struggling in any one of these topics and feels like they have no one they can turn to. Encourage them, plead with them to talk with a pastor, your pastor if they don’t have one, invite them to speak with your parents whom you can val-i-date is safe to talk with...about...anything..... tested and approved by you as trustworthy resources that are available for godly support and council. I beg of you to not fall prey to satan’s lies. DAVID didn’t here...and God....restores him; GOD does deliver him from this state....his poise of heart.....is regained. Our 3rd and FINAL POINT. 3) THIRD POINT - (Psalm 6:8-10) Poise of heart regained. - read David is restored. The very hand administering the Fatherly discipline is applying healing ointment on the very afflictions God permitted to humble David that he would repent. And NOW that repentance is complete and forgiveness for David’s sin has been given by GOD, David’s countenance, reflecting that of God’s who is NOW pleased with Him, is changed.... Evidenced by His Poise of heart regained in how he closes this PSALM. David, with renewed confidence in the Lord now that HIS fellowship with God has returned, boldly orders all those foes mentioned at the end of (verse 7) who were taking advantage of or exploiting David’s condition, DAVID, once ashamed and troubled over his sin, NOW....restored with poise of heart regained, orders them to be removed from his presence saying that they will be ashamed, greatly troubled and put to shame in a moment. —- DAVID has never left the safety of the Everlasting Father’s hands. DRAINED by his own sin, TRAINED by God’s Fatherly hand of discipline and SUSTAINED by God’s hand who heals every bone that He breaks. “Let the bones the you have broken rejoice!” as David says in (Psalm 51). Through it all, always safe in the Everlasting Father’s hands...never a moment less safe and forever to be safe just As God promised. CONCLUSION The christian, here and now, experiences the same care all through life. Poise of heart regained. You’ve returned to God. Back in fellowship with Him once again. You know your heavenly Father has heard your prayers to HIM and accepts them as coming from a penitent heart and therefore returns His countenance of favor toward you. You experience the healing blood of Christ wash you thoroughly from the stain of sin. With humble boldness you make sharply known for all evildoers to depart from you. Just like your dad above where no presence of evil can exist...you yourself want nothing to do with any form of evil. Participating with him in Actively removing it or the threat of it from your life. “Depart from me all you workers of evil!” FRIEND - Take His hand, the hand of which no one is able to snatch you out of, the hand that is perfectly and persistently at work in our lives...ridding us of sin and infusing in us the life of His Son that we may... “share in His holiness” (Hebrews 12)... “be partakers of the Divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Take his hand of which the christian is always safe in and let Him lead you all through life in obedience to Him from the heart (Romans 6:17)..that which alone expresses ‘HIS’ Divine nature in you. .......pray COMMUNION If you are here this morning and thinking, “Pastor, I don’t know what you are talking about.” "Is this for real?” I assure you it is and invite you to have a conversation about it with any one of the elders or deacons here. They would love to introduce you to a life lived for Jesus. If you are a professing christian here and this doesn’t resonate with you. Where you haven’t experienced torment of soul because of sin in your life. I urge you then..to not be settled there. Pursue God, press on further till this holy dynamic relationship is experiential and keep pressing on still further once it is...don’t back off...go deeper...He calls us deeper and there is no greater reward than getting more of Him. And this is all made possible because of Jesus - who on the night before his crucification, it was his hands...Jesus’s hands that took the bread and broke it....and lifted up the cup as He gave instructions regarding the elements represented his body that was broken and his blood shed as the one who is the mediator of the new covenant whereby we may be forgiven all our sins and come to the Father as His redeemed child by faith. These elements, Jesus gave to them saying, “Do this in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” The elements of communion are prepared this morning. This meal is for the christian, who, after a time of examination within, confessing any sin the Holy Spirit places His finger on, then comes forward and partakes. As the music team leads us in song, when ready, come forward and partake. Benediction DEUTERONOMY 4:35-36a y l i m Fa 23-25 Table Talk June 16, 2019 GOD’S TRUTH God raises his redeemed children to be Holy Family Discussion 1. Time to share about the BIGGEST sliver you’ve ever had to remove from your body. How big was it? What caused it to imbed under your skin? Where in your body was it? Did you remove it yourself or did you need assistance? 2. Now recall a time you had a sliver you could barely see. You know, the ones you wouldn’t know were there except for the constant irritation it causes you. 3. Sometimes, sin in our lives can have a similar effect. Not seeing it with our own eyes while being persistently bothered by it. 4. God, who sees all sin, is persistently working to rid us of sin with a Father’s love and doesn’t permit his kids to be untroubled by unrepentant sin. Search through the pages of scripture listed in the Table Reading to see this truth portrayed. 5. Equipped with the Spirit of Christ within you and God’s sanctifying word of Truth. “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no none will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14) Key Verse “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11 ESV TABLE READING Lead your kids into God’s Word... • Exodus 20:20 • Deuteronomy 1:30-31 • Ezekiel 18:30-32 • Romans 8:14-17 • 2 Corinthians 7:1 • 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 • 1 John 3:1-3 Scripture Memory: Psalm 1:3-4 “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” - Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (ESV)