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This morning, I want to invite you to Psalm 102 as we’re going to be at together today, Psalm 102. And this is a very important psalm to learn, not only in its the particulars of what this Psalm is about, but also the genre it represents. And, and kind of giving us a little bit of a backdrop to understanding the significance of the psalm one particular time period in history that really, really highlighted the importance of the psalm was during the time period known as in the 14th century, that was categorized as the time of Black Death or the Black Plague. And if you’ve ever learned about that in history, in school, it was didn’t last a very long period of time. It was just about five years that the the Black Plague took place. But during that time period, one third of Europe’s population passed away. And it was during this time that there was a particular part of Scripture that individuals in the Lord would gravitate towards, especially during a time where predominantly ministers and monks were doing funerals more than anything else, that there was this, this category of, of, of the Bible and specifically in the Psalms that people gravitated towards that are known as the Lament Psalms. Over 25% of the Psalms are categorized as as lament Psalms. And one particular psalm that really took precedent over all the Psalms during this time period was Psalm 102. Psalm 102 was the psalm that really gave gave expression to to the grief and confusion people were experiencing during this time period.
But but not only that, it it helped them also discover the unchanging presence of God despite the circumstances they found themselves in. And that’s that’s critical for all of us. When we go through seasons of life, like we realize this world is a sin cursed world, and so there’s going to be some adversity. But then there’s the truth of who God is. And so how do we walk in our relationship with God in light of that? What does that mean for us? And and during the 14th century, there was one monk that remained anonymous to us today that he was reflecting on this psalm. And in his journal he sort of wrote for that day he said this I am like a desert owl of the wilderness. Like an owl of the waste places. This is how my soul feels alone while death visits the houses of my brothers. And so you see, and he’s reflecting on this Psalm, and at the same time expressing how he feels that this, this Psalm is giving voice to to his experience in life. And I told you that the Psalms are such an important book to understand in that way. When when you read the Bible, you discover we we learn a lot about the Lord in the Bible. And and for the most part, 65 books of the Bible.
It’s it’s it’s God teaching us about him. But what makes the Psalms unique is that the Psalms are are man’s response back to God. It’s helping us learn, then, to express worship to the Lord in light of the situations we find ourselves. The circumstances of life and psalms are important to to teach us what it means to then respond to God in the place I find myself in light of who he is, as I engage him in my circumstances. In Psalm 102 is one of those Psalms that, especially during the 14th century, that that people found found solace in this was and it became such an important psalm that even even during this time period, that monasteries would often begin their day by reading this psalm. And they found that this gave language to to their despair while while still affirming God’s eternal reign. What does that look like for? For you and for me. And so with that kind of backdrop, as we get ready to engage this Psalm, no doubt you begin to understand that this is certainly not a tidy psalm. It’s messy and it’s its human element. And the struggle that people have have gone through in the way that this, this author of this psalm is expressing his own personal experience and in light of who God is. And it’s one of these these prayers that we discover in the Bible that just helps us make sense of our circumstances when when things don’t always make sense.
God, help me understand how you’re good in light of what we’re going through. And so this this psalm has often been used to give voice to people’s pain when when answers aren’t always easy. And and with that, then to just come with before God with this raw honesty Of what you’re you’re going through in light of his eternal faithfulness, that God. How do those two things connect? And a lot of the Christian journey is discovering experientially. It’s one thing to learn about who God is, but then experientially understanding how all of that connects to me in the here and now. What does what does that look like? And and this particular Psalm helps us understand that this is a lament in the struggle of life. And one of the things I find very endearing for me in this psalm, kind of enriching for my own soul. At first I was, when I’m looking at this Psalm, was frustrated in the beginning because I like as much detail as possible when I’m studying some of the backdrop of of Scripture. But then there are some places you come to in the Bible where we don’t have a whole lot of backdrop. And then for me, I’m like, oh, it’s frustrating. Like, how do you express this as a teacher without a lot of backdrop? But then but then I started to discover that this was actually a little bit more enriching to me that this Psalm, the author of this Psalm is, is anonymous.
And therefore the historical backdrop to this psalm is anonymous. And and the reason that I found that a little bit more appreciative than usual is, is because when we go through a difficulty in life, I find that we feel that way. Right. We might know that, that that’s not true, that we’re we’re anonymous, but we often feel that way, like we go through situations in life and intellectually we might know, you know, I’m not the first person to go through this, but but we can feel on the inside like this I am the only person on the planet going through this right now, right? There’s this this disconnect in our being where we just feel isolated. We have that anonymity. And in that kind of moment, it doesn’t feel very comforting. And looking at this psalmist and realizing he’s going through a struggle in this Psalm, Psalm is is anonymous to us, the authorship of it. It kind of leans into that, that that feeling that we often have when we go through that struggle. But what you discover when you look at this psalm is, while we may feel that way, you see the presence of God going with this, this going with him in this journey. And so as we look at this Psalm today, we’re going to talk about two truths to hold to in the struggles of life.
And normally I like to give at least three points when we go through a sermon. But today I thought it was especially important to kind of limit the thoughts that I wanted to to share. Because if anyone this morning is going through adversity, I want you to. I just don’t want to bombard you with with a ton of things to keep in mind. Just just going down to just a couple of raw thoughts for our lives, I think becomes important for us. And the takeaways. So I’m just going to keep it simple in two thoughts. And I want you to know, when we look at this psalm, there’s 28 verses to the psalm. And we’re not going to go through every verse of the psalm. I love to do that when we do that in Scripture, but you’ll see we’re going to look at the first seven verses of the song. We’re going to look at the last 4 or 5 verses of the psalm. And, and really the beginning and end of the psalm encapsulates all the idea that vacillates back and forth that the author expresses. And so, as we look at these beginning thoughts that he shares, we look at the concluding thoughts that he shares. We’ll get the the concept, the idea of of the way this author is engaging God in the adversity that he’s experiencing.
And so at the very beginning of Psalms, Psalm chapter 102, verses 1 to 7, I just want to look at some of the thoughts he’s expressing here to to understand what he’s he’s stating to us. He says this. Hear my prayer, O Lord, let my cry come to you. Which is critical for all the Psalms to know, right? I told you the Psalms is a book of worship teaching us how to engage God in light of who he is. And so it’s it’s our response back to the Lord. And so the psalmist is coming to God that way. He just is emptying himself, pouring himself out. Even on a day like today. I hope that as we gather together collectively, this is something that yearns within our own heart that if if there is a creator who made us and more than that, he wants to recreate us in Jesus, that that that the inward posture of our life is to surrender to him ourselves, to him in that way. But then the psalmist goes on from there, and he he gives more thought to this. He says, do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. So. So now we’re beginning to understand that as he’s coming to God in worship, which we should all do, what’s really driving him, motivating him in this moment, it’s the distress he’s finding in his life.
And he says, incline your ear to me. Answer me speedily. In the day when I call for my days pass away like smoke, my bones burn like a furnace. He’s very aware of of the brevity of life. And he says, my heart is is struck down. So he’s in this place of being hopeless. So he’s got this distress. But even greater than just this distress, it’s he’s even looking for a bright light at the end of the tunnel. And he says, like grass has withered. I forget to eat my bread. So, so he’s he’s maybe even a place of hunger, but he doesn’t even have the drive to eat. And when I when I read that thought in between that, like the the heart struck down hopeless. The fact that he’s not eating that phrase that like the grass has withered. He says this a few times in this chapter, and I gotta, I gotta tell you, like, for me, for the first 20 years of my life, that really didn’t mean a whole lot to me until I moved out west. Like, I’m. I’m from the east. Right where? Like, we have to regress twice in a week sometimes because it just never quits growing. Like, I remember as a kid, like my my friends, you know, mowing the lawn as a young man, like they’re probably greatest prayer was like, God, make all of my yard concrete one day, right? Like.
And then I moved out west where I’m like, you guys pay for this stuff. Like, I don’t I don’t even know, how do you do this? And then and then even this week, I met my frustration of this verse. This verse became very tangible to me because I remember even yesterday, parking in my driveway and walking on my sidewalk into my house. And as I’m turning the corner between my driveway and sidewalk, there’s right there on the corner. There is a sprinkler. But then right next to the sprinkler, it’s brown grass. I’m like, how? How does not. Does that happen? Right? You are literally touching the sprinkler. Right. And it’s it’s just brown. And you begin to learn like our landscape is much like Israel. And in the early spring, you might get that, that nice green grass. But it doesn’t take long for. That that sun just to zap life right out of it. And so you just got to maintain that or make. Sure. If you if you want to pay for your grass right. That you keep up with it. And he and he’s comparing this to the human soul and just the frailty of our life. And then verse five, because of my loud groaning, my bones cling to my flesh. I’m like a desert owl of the wilderness. Like an owl of the waste places I lay awake.
I am a lonely sparrow of the housetops. So here he is, lying awake, and no doubt he’s tired. But even though he’s tired, he can’t sleep. I mean, you put all this together. You think about what this individual is going through, this place of hopelessness, this place of not eating, this place of being tired and not sleeping. I mean, this is this is depression 101. And so this, this individual is, is in the midst of the fire. And, and I think this is important for us to know, right. When you think about the Psalms of lament, it’s critical to know that this section of your Bible exists and that you’re able to engage God in worship as a follower of Jesus this way. Like, both of these things can coexist, and this is significant for our lives to understand. I mean, even in a in a practical way, as a, as a pastor, you know, sometimes people go through difficult periods and I’ll get a phone call and I’ll get opportunity to go be next with a family when they’re going through some, some difficult times and to pray with him and to try to encourage them and, and share the comfort of Jesus as, as, as they’re going through that. But, you know, when, when those types of situations hit us and they’re new to us, right? Like we’ve not walked through that. Sometimes in people’s minds, I’ve found that there is this wrestling or struggle where they almost feel like they need to be apologetic to me, like, like I’m Jesus or something like that to be apologetic to me.
And I understand where it’s coming from, because there is the struggle of, well, a Christian’s got joy in the Lord. But but here I am in my trouble. And and because I’m in the wrongness of this trouble, it’s like I almost, I almost have to apologize or I feel like I have to apologize because of the way that I’m feeling right now. And to be honest, I’ll say, and sometimes in going through that journey and, and and it catches us by surprise, sometimes we’re just not ready for that. And and sometimes our, our language gets a little bit more expressive, maybe a little bit more vivid as we’re just in the raw experience of that emotion. And I think it’s important for us to know that, God’s big enough to handle that. And that’s what these Psalms are reflecting for us. This is why the believers during the 14th century and even throughout history, when they were going through adversity, they they came to these, these particular psalms and, and they found themselves resting in these Psalms to give voice to the way that they were moving through life and trying to understand who God was in light of that. And and not only do you find that in these Psalms, really, you find that idea echoed throughout the Bible.
When you come to passages that like, for example, the apostle Paul, when he’s expressing his own Christian journey, he’s helping us to, to to learn that idea that that you can you can battle with depression and you can follow Jesus. Both of those things can be true at the same time, and you can even have emotion of struggle and joy in the Lord. Right? And when you look at Second Corinthians six, Paul said it like this of of his Christian life, it’s almost like the, the idea of a doctor Jekyll Mr. Hyde for a minute, if I could use that kind of an illustration. But he says it like this. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance and afflictions and hardships and calamities and beatings and imprisonments and riots and labors and sleepless nights and hunger. Now, no doubt, Paul is not telling us all the emotion that goes with that. But you can imagine if if you’re going through things like this, that there there are some ups and downs of inner turmoil and the experience that you’re going through. And so verse six, he says it like this, though he says, by purity and knowledge and patience and kindness, the Holy Spirit and genuine love by truthful speech and the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left.
And so he’s beginning to acknowledge, here’s the struggle. And and here’s the reality of, of who God is that transcends this. And verse eight, through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as impostors, yet are true as unknown, yet well known like. So what I’m saying, like, sometimes we feel like we’re all alone. But then we know God’s promise is that he’s with us. And as dying and behold, we we live as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing as poor, yet making many rich as having nothing, yet possessing everything. I mean, it’s just a little bit of an uncomfortable mess. And seeing the struggle here and even even Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed, the way that he came to his disciples, and being honest about the struggle they were about to go through, but also expressing hope beyond the situation and one of the most beautiful passages of the Bible. And I know I reflect on this often, but chapter 13 to chapter 17 of the Gospel of John, we’re in the final moments of Jesus’s life. He’s in the upper room with his closest followers, sharing some of the most intense and personal thoughts from Scripture on what it means to be a follower of Jesus and the disciples are reeling with feeling like they’re losing everything because they have given up everything to follow Jesus for these last three years.
And now Jesus is telling them that that he’s about to die. And now they’re worried about their own life because they’ve been recognized as followers of Christ. If that’s what’s going to happen to him, what’s going to happen to us? And so they are just reeling in this situation. But Jesus, again and again, in those moments, his composure never changes. Even knowing he’s about to face his own death, he loves his followers until the end and even his own enemies. He washes the feet of Judas hanging on the cross. He says, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And Jesus, in those moments with those disciples in that place of anxiety getting worked up, Jesus says this in John 1633 he said, I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. Very important for the life of the believer to know where true peace comes from. Right. Not in things of this world, but in him. We have peace. And then he acknowledges, in this world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome. So he’s helping us learn not, not not to ignore our struggle, but to recognize the goodness of who God is through the struggle. So we can we can battle with things in this world. And there’s the reality of who God is. And learning how those connect in the Christian life is critical to to living faithfully in him.
Now, it doesn’t mean things won’t be hard in following Jesus. In fact, they are. They can be. But then recognizing what what we do in light of that. And so when you look at this Psalm again, reflecting on this psalmist, we start to get an idea of what he’s going through. Right. And he he states some ideas to us in these first seven verses that he. He then repeats throughout the Psalm. Right. I think even verse 23 is probably the most critical in understanding what he’s going through. But I just have the first seven verses up here. And when you look at this and look at the way he’s describing his life, verse three, he says, my days pass away and my bones burn like a furnace. Right. And again that, that grass is withering. And then verse five, my bones cling to my flesh. I mean, no doubt what this what the psalmist is beginning to help us understand is that he’s he’s likely near the end of his life that he’s he’s he has some sort of ailment that now that ailment is leading to the end of his days. And so in that place of despair and struggling with the the frailty of human life and, and knowing that our, our days are always numbered in this world, he’s then trying to come to terms with that as he connects to his creator and his Redeemer.
And I want you to know, as we look at this, guys, like we’re seeing what the psalmist is going through, the trial that he’s experiencing. This this is is not the problem in itself, but rather this is this is what’s amplifying the greater problem that all of us face. And what I mean by that is when we go through difficulty in life, we might look at that difficulty as the problem. But truthfully, a difficulty ultimately points us to deeper problems, right? And let me give you an example. Like if in relationships we have some tension, in relationships we are very quick to say it’s their fault, right? Like James chapter four verse one, what causes quarrels among you? And, and James says, isn’t it often that we blame other people? But then he points out in verse four to chapter four, verses 1 to 3 that but really, the true wrestling is what’s happening within us. Like circumstances simply highlight the battle in our own soul. Because here’s what we recognize about this psalmist. That’s true for all of us. We’re all dying. We are all dying. And so therefore, we need a hope that endures. But for this psalmist, his situation has has certainly enhanced the recognition of that. But there is a a greater problem that lies under that. Like, yes, maybe he’s in a more intense situation.
But the reality is we all face that. So what we do with that matters, and learning how to connect with God in that this is what this Psalm is, is teaching and expressing for us is this life is messy because the the brokenness of sin. And we just want to quickly move past those things sometimes and just try to ignore it, put it on a shelf, run away from it, and we know one day it’s going to catch up to us. But we think, well, I’ll just deal with it when it comes. But it’s far more important to learn the significance of who God is now in relationship to all of this. So, so in light of this Psalm, let me give you point number one. Number one is this. And this is why these these Psalms are important, especially Psalm 102. A loving God gives voice to my pain. A loving God gives voice to my pain. Sometimes in our struggles, we get all worked up in our anxiety and we we can quickly lose sight of that. We start worrying about the the days in front of us, and sometimes we’ll imagine things that haven’t even happened yet and start stressing out about things that don’t even exist. We don’t even know how it’s going to play out, but we get just so worked up in the emotion that we quickly forget that. That God is a God who gives voice to our pain.
This is why the during the, the, the plague and and other times in history as Christians have struggled, they they run to these Psalms because it helps them learn how to connect with God in this way, that God is a God who who gives voice to our pain, which is so important here because this, this is saying to us, this, this is more than just an intellectual exercise. This is about learning to meet God in the in the real experience of life, the role of the emotion that God is this way. And and I want us to know that this, this thought that, that that God gives voice to my pain is important, right? That is important. But that’s not a thought to leave in and of itself. Because if we know God’s loving and God cares about us, God gives voice to our pain. It has to be aligned with another attribute of God. Because if all God does is, you know, guys, I really care about you. Let me just give voice to your pain. But he doesn’t lack the power to do anything about it. Who cares? Because what that puts us in is people. Is this this ultimate place of despair where we’re still reeling. Like, I’m glad that you want to listen. I’m glad you want to comfort. And we can do that for each other. But where’s the light? At the end of the tunnel? Right.
So? So you need both of these things. We got to come to an understanding of. Is God a powerful God? Right. Is he capable? And also is he loving? Because both of those things match helps helps to understand the intimacy of your relationship with God and the way that impacts me in the circumstance of a broken world, as Jesus said in John 16, right? He has overcome. Therefore, the piece that we discover is is found in him. And so learning how we do that becomes critical for our life and not just intellectually, but experientially. Like the Bible helps us know this intellectually. I mean, when you read scripture, you see stories like this again and again how people in their struggle of knowing the frailty of human life and the condition of the soul apart from God, and then finding ultimate hope in who he is, That gives them a joy that supersedes any circumstance in this world. We we can know that intellectually, but I certainly need it experientially. Sometimes we might even have in life a friend that we might think of that went through a difficult road. And maybe they’re even a follower of Jesus. And and they went through a difficult road. And in Christ, the way they followed Jesus through that circumstance, you just marvel at it. You think, man, I don’t know how they do that. I mean, the sweetness of Jesus seemed to get stronger as the adversity built in their life.
And then you think about your own life and you think, man, I don’t even know that I could do that. And you start to imagine, like, if that situation happened to me, how could I ever expect that I’m going to be? And we just kind of even as some maybe, maybe a circumstance that’s never happened to me. We start reeling in that thinking. I don’t even know if that’s possible for me. Like, I don’t even know how I can do that. And so we know intellectually what happens with with what God says in the Bible. But then experientially, what about me? Is that the same God that’s going to be faithful to me the way he was in the Bible, maybe even in your own Christian journey? Like if you think about the time you put your faith in Jesus, or maybe you’re sitting on the fence right now thinking, should I put my faith in Jesus? Right there comes this place in Christianity where we see who Jesus is, what Jesus says, and even historically, like the idea of Christianity is so, so validated historically in who he is, that there, there comes this place. I even remember in my own life where examining the historical reality of Jesus and realizing, oh my gosh, this guy is who he says he is. And I gotta tell you, like in my own faith journey, like my my first encounter with Christians, majority of them I did not like.
Right. Like that’s probably not nice to say, but I did not like like a meta version of Christianity, which was really legalism masked behind Christianity. I’m like, man, if that, if that, if Jesus is real like that is not in that place because I don’t I don’t want to follow that, that brand of Jesus that does not look good to me. But but as I studied historical Jesus, I began to realize, man, Jesus is exactly what the Bible says about him. And then it became for me this place of integrity. Am I going to put my trust in it or not? Am I am I going to acknowledge the reality of that, the truth of that and walk in that? Or I’m just going to continue to live my life selfishly. But but here’s where my battle ended. As I came to this place where I recognize I’m going to experience, experience, trust Jesus for what he says, meaning, as I put my hope in Christ, I am going to trust that he will be sufficient for me every step of the way. And the reason I have scriptures today. One of the reasons, not the only reason, is again and again, the Bible tells me that Jesus was faithful over and over to his people Pool, and particularly when you see the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, it’s screaming at me the faithfulness of God.
In fact, you find this repeated in the Bible in stories like with the Apostle Paul, if you remember in Second Corinthians 12, this is the thorn in the flesh where Paul prays. It says in verse eight three times he plead with God to be taken away from him. And he refers to this thorn in the flesh as messengers of Satan. Right? This was given to him. And when you look at this, this thorn, many people have looked at this throughout history and thought, man, what is this thorn? They speculate that it could be an ailment Paul had. It could have been the way Paul suffered from certain beatings that caused certain afflictions to his body. I’ll tell you my opinion on it. I think it’s people like, because if you read chapter 11, you see Paul referring to people as, as messengers of Satan, and then he refers to this thorn in the flesh as a messenger from Satan. And so I think Paul’s recognizing that people have followed him on his missionary journey, continuing to cause trouble for him everywhere he went. And as he’s going through this, this is what he’s discovered experientially, right? He knows it truthfully in God’s Word. But but he’s also found this in the Lord that. But as he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insult and hardship and persecution and difficulty. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul’s actually learned that it’s the challenges of life that actually birth forth strength in his own journey with Jesus, because he learned not to trust in things of this world, but to rather see God as sufficient for what he needed. And so sometimes we look at obstacles before us and we think, how in the world? But then as we continue to walk faithfully with Jesus, we discover a God who meets us there, that his grace is sufficient for the moment. And here I am always stressing about about about what tomorrow holds about. But I readily often forget that the one who holds tomorrow. That he is faithful to be there with me every step of the way. And this is what Paul is saying, these Psalms there. They’re giving language to the struggle of life. But here’s what we find is that through each struggle, as we as we walk with Jesus, he is faithful. Again and again. And both those things can be true the hardship of the world and the faithfulness of God. We need to know a loving God gives voice to our pain.
But. But we also need to know who this God really is. And one of the stories I also love in Matthew 14. If I gave one more illustration, I’ll give you the next point here in a minute. But Matthew 14 is the story of of when Peter walks on water. If you remember, the disciples are out on a boat and Jesus isn’t with them. Jesus told him to go on. And this great storm comes. And in the midst of this storm, they see someone walking on water and they think it’s a ghost, like they’re about to lose their life. And now they’re really freaked out. And then Peter, who always shoots off at the mouth, yells out first, who are you, weirdo? You know, I don’t know who said that, but. But he said something and and then and then Jesus calls out and he says, if you’re really Jesus, like, let me come out of the boat and Jesus and Peter gets out of the boat and he he’s walking on water. And, you know, Peter, he’s the one that acts first, thinks later. It’s what gets him in trouble so much. And then after a few steps, he begins to realize, oh, I’m walking on water. This is not normal. And he panics, right? He panics and he begins to sink. And then he cries out to Jesus. And do you know when Jesus responds? Matthew 14 tells you in the story he tells us in verse 31, Jesus responds immediately, immediately.
I think that’s critical for all of us to recognize. I mean, that’s that’s the expression of these lament Psalms. But but here’s what’s also important to recognize. Do you know when Jesus stops the storm? It’s not until they both get back into the boat. Immediately Jesus reaches out for Peter and pulls him up from drowning. But it isn’t until both of them have walked back to the boat that Jesus calms the storm. And I think that’s important for all of us to to recognize in terms of our own faith journey. That God’s not primarily interested in the storm, but rather what God is interested in is the heart of the believer going through the storm, finding sufficiency in him in all things. The storm is is just a a small trial in comparison to the greatest greater problem that we all face, which is the destruction, the ultimate destruction, that sin brings death to each of us. But there is a greater hope to be found in the Lord. And so, while a loving God gives voice to our pain is good to know. We need to know more than that. And the second thought then in your notes, is this an immutable God gives hope to my future. An immutable God gives hope to my future and to work through adversity in life. What you need to have, what all of us need, is to root ourselves in good theology, and we need to really understand who God is.
Meaning we got to understand the truth of who God is and what I believe. And sometimes those aren’t the same things, right? I mean, that’s why we gather together as God’s people and study God’s Word because we want those things to be the same thing. I mean, everybody in this room, most likely, we think our theology is correct. Theology. Right? And we don’t realize the places that what we what we believe isn’t true. Like, there’s there are things there’s nobody in this room that has 100% theology. Correct. And so we we want to churn through Scripture to help us learn, whether intellectually or experientially, we always have some disconnect. We’re not fully trusting in the idea of who God is. And so we’ve got to learn good theology, which helps us get a foundation Asian for for circumstances we might go through. And even bigger than circumstances, just healthy to know who God is, because good theology becomes that foundation to not only understanding the truth of God, but then helping me understand what I believe then determines how I behave. I’ll act in light of that, and if what I believe is in line with who he is, I need to change what I believe. And in terms of immutability, this this expresses to us that that God not only is unchanging, that’s what the word immutable means.
He’s an unchanging God. But but that therefore he would have the power to supersede all things, which gives him the ability to be unchanging. And so if your God is a is a changing God, or a growing God in any capacity, he he is an inadequate God. And therefore always there’s always the possibility of him disappointing you somewhere, some way. But if he is an unchanging, immutable God, It brings us a place of of security and and a place of of peace and assurance and and a place of knowing God’s justice will be true, that he has this permanence of power, that when you come to him, even prayerfully, you can carry this certain level of confidence, because one he’s loving, he cares about you. And two, he’s immutable. He’s unchanging. And so for for us, it offers this, this place of security. And I want you to see how the psalmist, when he ends the psalm, this is the expression of his life, right? He’s he is saturating himself in the greatness of who God is in light of his circumstance, because he knows that is what sustains, right? So verse 25 of old, you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens, and the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away.
But you are the same, and your years have no end. And God you endure. And because of who you are, it helps me find a foundation. Can I just tell you in all of this, the most critical word in helping us pull all of this together is that the last verse of the psalm, verse 28, which isn’t on the screen yet, but verse 28 helps us recognize who we are in light of who he is. So, so here in verse 25 to 27, you see the the greatness of this God. He he sustains all things, supersedes all things, is consistent through all things. He is immutable. This unchanging force that everything else bows down, down to and gives way to. And then in verse 25, in light of all of that, it gives you a picture of who you are with him. And he says it like this the children of your servants shall dwell secure, Or their offspring shall be established before you. So here’s what he’s saying. It’s like, notice everything else will pass away. Everything. Verse 25, the foundations of the earth and the heavens will pass away. But you, you are unique to all of his creation. God’s people endure forever. And when Jesus talks about peace, when I when I think about in John 16 that we read together with Jesus coming to his disciples and offering peace and comparison to the Psalm, one thing that I find unique is, you know, this Psalm is before the promises of Christ were fulfilled.
So the psalmist is still looking forward to that Messiah who was ultimately going to deliver. But now in the New Testament, we have that deliverance in Christ. And so it’s it’s painting even more significant for us, our true appreciation for where we should find ourselves in, in Jesus, in light of him. So let me give you just a couple of thoughts as we close. There’s some famous missionaries from the 1950s. At least they started to become famous in the 1950s. 1956, A group of missionaries, five families, moved to Ecuador in order to meet a tribe known as the Waodani tribe. They wanted to be the first to to deliver to them the gospel. And you know some of those missionaries, a man by the name of Jim Elliot and Nate Saint were some of the those famous missionaries that flew in to meet the Waodani tribe. Their whole families moved to Ecuador, wives, kids moved to Ecuador to minister to this tribe to share the gospel with them. Finally, the five men got on a plane and decided they were going to make first contact. They landed the plane and as soon as they got out of the plane, they met the end of their life at the end of a spear. All of them speared to death martyrs for their faith in Christ.
And and the ladies received this news in 1956 that all of their husbands had passed away. They sent search parties trying to find them and not successful. They eventually recovered some of their bodies. I don’t think all of their bodies were discovered. And the ladies get that news and they’re devastated. If you know anything about Elizabeth Elliott, she’s written several books and and she’s described many of the things that she went through, whether her struggle with grief and doubt and, and God’s mysterious purposes and how all that works together. And and she wrestled with all of that. And but here’s what’s even more incredible about two of these ladies. On the left is Elizabeth Elliott and Jim Elliott’s wife. And on the right is Rachel Saint, Nate Saint’s wife. And when these missionaries went down originally, they were in their, I want to say, mid to late 20s, at least most of them were. And and so this picture on Rachel of Rachel Saint, she’s much older than, than her 20s or a little bit older, I’ll say at least. And then her, her mid 20s. And the reason I wanted to highlight this particular picture of her is because of what it represents about her life. 1956 these missionaries died. By 1958, Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint had moved in with this particular tribe and were ministering to them. Now you look at something like that, and we could say to ourselves, how in the world could you know that your own husbands died horrific deaths at the end of a spear, and within two years move in with the very tribe that took their lives? Rachel Saint went even above and beyond that, not only just living with that tribe.
She spent the rest of her life ministering to that tribe. How in the world could someone ever do that? Can I just propose to you two thoughts? It’s learning to discover the love of God in the midst of your anguish. And that God gives voice to our pain, and at the same time, the immutable, powerful presence of God in the things that we go through. I mean, I think Elizabeth Elliott encapsulated beautifully by saying this one thing. I am perfectly sure God’s story never ends with ashes, because I would say for her, it’s taking the theology of those two thoughts and experientially just walking through that. It’s hard. It is hard because the brokenness of this world, there’s pain in that. But but there’s also a God who transcends it all. And he knows where I am, and he gives me a peace that passes this, those circumstances. He meets me in the midst of that struggle. That is the only way, in the most healthiest of terms you could walk through such a circumstance. And more than that, pour your life out for Jesus to the very people that were your own enemies.
To know it is important, but to experience it critical for the soul. So. So let me just say this for us. In closing. How do I know? How do I know that these stories are not just stories, but God still meets me in that way. Can I just tell you? For us, the universal answer always. It’s the cross of Christ. Because the cross of Christ is the place that says not only. Not only does God meet us in our pain and walk with us in the pain of this life by becoming flesh for us, but he does it when we are the enemy. I mean, he does it when we war against him, that he is willing to sacrifice his own life, that we could experience true peace in him. That not not when, not when the outside is enemy against us, but when we declare ourselves the very enemy of God and the things that we do that are adverse to him, he is willing to meet us in that struggle and give his very life and save from the cross. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, so that we would have the opportunity to know Jesus in that way as well.