Sermon Tone Analysis
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Watchmen Waiting for the Dawn
I. Introduction
A. Our text this morning is
B. John Milton (anecdote)
1. Studied languages, philosophy, theology, studied to be an Anglican priest
2. Started college at age 17 in 1625.
Earned his bachelors, masters, and then studied for six more years to prepare for a life of service to God and country.
After some tours through Europe to study and expand his horizons, he was ready to take on the world by about 1640.
3.
By 1652 he was blind as a bat.
Ironically 12 years of study, then 12 years in the political arena before he was blind.
4. Wrote “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent” in 1655
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide;
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
a.
Here he is: a blind book-man, and he’s spent half his life investing that one Talent which is death to hide[1]
b.
Lodged with me useless: it’s lodged in his brain!
He can’t see to read or write.
How is he going to be useful?
c.
Will God require from Milton what he doesn’t have?
What can Milton do here?
d.
The first half of a sonnet presents a problem.
This is Milton’s problem, his trial.
d.
Milton, I have no doubt, considered in order to finish his sonnet.
And so will we, and see how he applied it to find encouragement in the depths of his trials.
II.
Brief Explanation of [Read ]
A. Outline – 4 stanzas, 4 sections
1. Crying out in Confession
2. Affirming God’s Forgiveness
3. Watching and Waiting
4. Holding on to Hope
B. Crying out in Confession
1. Out of the depths I cry to you (v1)
a. “Depths” are often of despair, they’re trials, persecution, could be loneliness or disappointment, defeat by an enemy, some great loss
b.
In this Psalm, these are not the depths of persecution, or an outside enemy.
We find out in the next two verses that these are the depths of sin
c.
Indeed, the psalmist’s enemy is not surrounding him; his enemy is within him.
And such is his state that it calls for an appeal to God.
d.
Appeal to Yahweh and Adonai
1) Throughout the Psalm, God is referred in a poetic pattern as LORD (all capitals) and then Lord (lowercase).
2) Yahweh, “I AM,” the God who is, and always will be.
a) The God of presence, the self-sustaining one, the omnipresent and eternal God
b) He is “eternal” not only in the sense of time, but also of scope.
As eternal as He is from beginning to end, He is likewise eternal in mercy and love, in justice and righteousness, eternal from height of heights to uttermost depths.
b) The Psalmist is reminded that there is no depth from which God does not hear our cries
3) Adonai, “Lord,” Master and Provider, Sustainer and Help
a) lords provide
b) This Title reminds the Psalmist that there is no depth from which God cannot redeem us.
4) The great I AM was with Jonah at the bottom of the sea (literal depths!),
He was with Jonah in the belly of the fish, and He is a powerful Lord and Master who sustained and cared for Jonah through all of that
3. Appeals to both names, asking God to hear his pleas for mercy
a.
Here is where we realize this is a penitential psalm, crying out from the depths of sin
b.
Psalmist is aware of his sin
c.
He’s also aware of his dependence on God
d.
He’s not asking for something that is due him
e.
He is certainly not demanding something owed him
f.
He’s pleading for mercy, dependent on God’s compassion
2. If you should mark iniquities, who could stand?
a. NIV “If you kept a record” of sins
b.
NET “If you were to keep track” of my sins
c.
NIRV If you “kept a close watch on sins … who then wouldn’t be found guilty?”
d.
Like Milton’s sonnet, the psalmist has presented a great problem up to this point.
He is in the depths, he’s crying out, and he’s totally dependent on God’s mercy.
If God kept record of every sin, none could stand.
B. Affirming God’s Forgiveness
BUT.
1.
But with you there is forgiveness (v 4)
a. Spurgeon writes, “What a blessed ‘but’ this is!
One of the most blessed … in the Word of God! ‘But with you there is forgiveness.’”
b.
This line is the crux of the poem, the turning point
c.
If it ended before this line, the poem would be death, and despair, and hopeless failure, and it would still be just
d.
BUT, with God, there is forgiveness.
1. with the Lord there is steadfast love (v 7)
2. with Him is plentiful redemption (v 7)
3.
He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities (v 8)
4. there is forgiveness … that God may be feared
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