Sermon Tone Analysis

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message.

The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

How many of you have heard the phrase “Hurt people hurt people”?

While that phrase has been attributed to everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Pastor Rick Warren, the earliest recorded use of the phrase was in a local Texas newspaper in 1959 which was reporting on a speech made at a PTA meeting.

Regardless of its source, it does seem to me that there is a lot of truth in that statement.

I know that has certainly been true in my own life at times.

For me, that is even more likely to happen when someone hurts someone I love like my wife.

Several years ago, Mary was treated very unfairly by someone who claimed to be a Christian.

And for some time after that I spent a lot of time dreaming up ways to get back at that person and the organization he worked for.

But looking back now I understand that the only person I was really hurting by doing that was me.

Tension

I think this is one of the underlying reasons that it has become increasingly difficult in our culture to have a civil conversation with those with whom we disagree.

Rather than returning a blessing for a curse as we’re instructed to do in the Bible, even those of us who are mature disciples of Jesus have a tendency to try and hurt others when we have been hurt.

So what’s the solution?

Truth

We’re going to explore that this morning in the second message from our current sermon series - The Great Gift Exchange.

In this series we’re looking at four exchanges that Jesus offers to us that are made possible because Jesus is Emmanuel - God with us.

Last week we began by discovering in Psalm 43 that Jesus wants to give us hope in exchange for our despair and that He does that when we seek Him rather than seek a solution.

This morning, we’ll look at another Psalm - Psalm 103 - which we read earlier.

I’m going to be referring to portions of this passage and also asking for you help this morning in identifying some of the key ideas, so go ahead and turn to Psalm 103 in your Bibles and have that passage handy.

Let’s begin with a question.

If I were to ask you, “What is the “love chapter” of the New Testament, what would you say? [Wait for answers].

That’s right - 1 Corinthians 13.

Well, Psalm 103 is it’s Old Testament counterpart.

It’s a Psalm that’s all about love.

The key phrase in this Psalm, as well as many other Psalms, is “steadfast love”.

In Hebrew, it is just one word - hesed.

That Hebrew word is used 245 times in the Old Testament, with over half of those uses found in the Psalms.

It occurs 4 times in this Psalm - in verses 4, 8, 11, and 17 and it is central to this Psalm.

So I think it’s worth a bit of our time to understand exactly what it means.

Four elements of “hesed”

There are four elements which characterize hesed.

And each of them is important in helping us to develop the main idea in this Psalm.

Relational

Hesed always exists within some kind of relationship - family, tribe, covenant, promise.

There is always some kind of personal connection involved.

Reciprocal

One commentator called hesed the “Biblical equivalent of an IOU”.

There is a sense of mutual obligation.

When God chooses to rescue us, we have an obligation to Him.

As we’re going to see this morning, this Psalm reveals some of those obligations.

Transitive

This is the idea that hesed is to be “paid forward”.

It is to benefit those who were not part of the original bond.

So that means that God’s love toward us should impact the way we treat others.

Action

It is not merely a matter of feelings or beliefs.

Hesed is demonstrated by action.

The Psalm breaks down into three distinct sections that describe how the steadfast love of God operates in three ever-widening spheres:

Personal (vv.

1-5) – How God has demonstrated His steadfast love to David personally

National (vv.

6-14) – How God has demonstrated His steadfast love to the people of Israel

Universal (vv.

15-22) –How God has demonstrated His steadfast love for all of His creation - from mankind to the heavenly beings to the creation itself

All three sections provide us with some insight into the main idea we’re going to develop this morning:

Jesus gives me love in exchange for my hurt when I choose to fear Him rather than those who hurt me

I think the underlying reason that hurt people hurt people is fear of the one who hurt them.

That was certainly true in my case when I feared that the person who had mistreated my wife could impact her career and ultimately that would impact me.

But we’re going to see this morning that the antidote to my hurt is to fear Jesus instead.

That is how we make the great gift exchange of my hurt for His love.

This Psalm is a bit different than the one we looked at last week.

David doesn’t really make any complaints here or ask God for anything.

He doesn’t mention any enemies that are pursuing him or any challenges he is facing.

We don’t know exactly when David wrote this poem, but it seems that he was at a pretty good point in his life.

But he certainly does look back to those times in his life when he was hurting and he recognizes that it was God’s steadfast love that carried him through those times.

David begins the Psalm by speaking to his soul, much like we saw in Psalm 43 last week.He commands his soul to bless God and he reminds himself not to forget all the benefits of God’s love.

God has forgiven his sin, healed his disease, redeemed his life, and satisfied him with good.

Then he proceeds to write about how God demonstrated His love for Israel.

In this section, David answers the question of how God can provide compassion and mercy to sinners and still be just.

Writing roughly 1,000 years before Jesus comes on the scene, David can’t possibly understand that is only possible through Jesus, but we certainly do see some things in this Psalm that point ahead to Jesus.

I’ll give you a few moments to scan through this Psalm and see if you can tell me who is the one carrying out all the actions here.

[Wait for answers] It is God, not David, not the people of Israel, not all of mankind or the entire creation that is acting here.

It is 100% God at work.

It is God who works justice and righteousness for the oppressed.

It is God who revealed Himself and His ways.

It is God who is merciful and gracious.

It is God who removes our sins and chooses not to deal with us according to those sins.

It is God that shows compassion.

It is God that rules over all.

Remember earlier we said that hesed is characterized by actions and not just words or emotions or thoughts?

We certainly see that here, don’t we?

We also said that hesed is reciprocal - that it obligates the recipient to respond in some way.

And we certainly see that in this passage.

Can you help me to identify the four times in this passage where David describes the obligation of those who are the recipient of God’s hesed?

I’ll give you a clue.

They all begin with a phrase like “to those...” or “toward those...”, or “on those...”

[Wait for answers]

That’s right.

The obligation to fear God is included three times - in verses 11, 13, and 17.

So right away I’m thinking that’s pretty important.

And the fourth obligation is in verse 18 - “to keep God’s covenants and remember to do his commandments”.

While that might seem unrelated to fearing God, I think it is actually an integral part of what it means to fear God.

Remember that in Hebrew poetry, which include the Psalms, instead of rhyming words like we often in our culture, the Hebrews rhymed thoughts.

So we often see them describing the same idea or concept by using different words to describe the same concept.

I think that is exactly what David is doing here.

Hopefully I’ll be able to demonstrate that even more clearly here in a moment.