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Experiencing the Psalms 7 – 05/09/26 (Psalms 131, 23, 16, 3, 31, 46)
We’re studying the Psalms and they carry all sorts of different messages. The three we looked at last week, for instance, all talked about God’s protection. Today’s theme is similar, but subtly different. It’s Resting in God's Care no matter what is going on around us, and we’re going to be dipping into 6, no less. So, fasten your seat belts and let’s pray …
So “what’s the recipe today, Jim?” as Terry Wogan used to say every morning to Jimmy Young on Radio 2.
Psalm 131 -- I have calmed and quieted my soul (A psalm of David)
Psalm 23 -- The Lord Is My Shepherd (A psalm of David)
Psalm 16, that Brigit just read, -- You Will Not Abandon Me to the Grave (A psalm of David)
Psalm 3 -- I Lie Down and Sleep (A psalm of David)
Psalm 31 -- Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit (A psalm of David)
And lastly, the one that Carolyn just read, Psalm 46 -- Our Ever-Present Help in Trouble (A psalm of the Sons of Korah)
The first one of them, although it only has three verses, carries a BIG message. It’s about humility and trust because, as we all know, only too well, we can't rest when we feel we have to be in control. We can't relax when we have to feel like we're in charge.
I’m currently reading a book called The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsorrat. It’s about a naval corvette protecting Atlantic convoys in WW2. At one point its captain fell out of his bunk in high seas and broke a rib, so the young and relatively inexperienced first officer had to take command of the ship, and, eventually, of the whole convoy. Naturally, he couldn’t relax and had to stay on the bridge all the time.
But David’s attitude here is quite different. My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
“Like a weaned child”, who, because it’s weaned, is no longer grasping for its mother, no longer so insistent, no longer so impatient, no longer demanding so much attention, moving towards maturity.
“Let go and let God” is a great expression that I sometimes resort to. As the Apostle Paul said in Philippians "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances"
And so David concludes this little psalm O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore. “Hope” carries the idea of trusting with confident expectation. When we are expectant that God will act on our behalf, that expectation gives us confidence, and that confidence allows us to rest. Our attitude is no longer one of insistence, but one of trust. Do you see the difference?
And that brings us on to perhaps the most popular and beloved psalm of all, Psalm 23 -- The LORD Is My Shepherd. This too is about
resting and trusting.
I don’t want to spend too long on this one because I’m sure you’ve all heard many sermons about shepherding, and about Psalm 23, but let me just say that in those days a shepherd, although often a younger family member, was expected to do four basic things:
- Lead the sheep to watering holes and fresh green pasture, providing refreshing and restoration, guiding them along safe paths
- Provide protection and assurance from dangers such as wolves, lions, and bears.
- Heal the sheep when they were injured and help during lambing.
- Rescue the lost sheep. If a sheep wandered off, the shepherd would look for it until he found it, restoring it and giving it fresh hope.
David had been a shepherd and knew this intimately, so when he said “The LORD (in small caps) is my shepherd” it would have been, for him, full of meaning and emotion. “Yahweh is my shepherd, Yahweh is my shepherd, I shall never be in need of anything.
And because David could say that, with complete 110% confidence, he could also say, as we just heard Brigit read in Psalm 16, “You will not abandon me to the grave”. The Christian’s hope is that of eternal life. We say every week, in the second paragraph of the prayer on the last page of our service sheet “Thank you for assuring us of your goodness and love. Renew us by your Holy Spirit, and bring us with all your people into the joy of your eternal kingdom.”
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices, David says, my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
“Your faithful one” or “your holy one”, depending on the version, was interpreted both by Peter in his Pentecost sermon, and by Paul in his sermon in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch, as referring to Jesus only spending 3 days in the tomb.
How can WE rest in the Lord at OUR deathbed, or at the bedside of someone we love?
By having the confidence, that death is not the end -- resurrection is! Listen to David’s expectation of eternal life: You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Moving on again. While he was fleeing from his son Absalom he penned another beautiful song that also demonstrates his total confidence in God as his shepherd. It’s Psalm 3.
But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.
To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill.
I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.
I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.
We Christians have a great hope, both in this life and beyond the grave! And because we have that confidence, we can rest in God. We can relax in his care.
Since you are my rock and my fortress, David can now say in Psalm 31, as he was trying to find a place of rest amidst the machinations of his foes:
Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.
What’s he saying? He’s saying “YOU, Yahweh, are my refuge.”
Luke tells us that even as Jesus was dying, quoting this very psalm, cried out with a loud voice, … 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.' Having said this, he breathed his last." (Luke 23:46)
What an example for us. Jesus, whom the writer to the Hebrews describes as “the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2)
even showed us how to die.
And now to conclude, the final psalm I want to consider is Psalm 46, attributed to a school of temple singers called "the Sons of Korah".
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
What I like is that they’re not saying that believers are free of trouble, quite the reverse, but that when we do have trouble, and we do, don’t we, God is “a very present help”.
He’s right there. All knowing, all powerful, all loving, even if the earth were to give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
This image expresses so vividly the turmoil, agitation, confusion and chaos that we often experience these days. Sometimes life seems to be spinning out of control around us. But the psalm also assures us that there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
It reminds us of the "still waters" of Psalm 23, and of the fabled river, pictured in Ezekiel 47, flowing out from under the threshold of the temple and bringing life to whatever it touches. It reminds us, too, of the river in Revelation 22, that flows in the Heavenly City. I quote: Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
That water of life is God’s provision to refresh US and to sustain US.
The psalm concludes prophetically with God saying to us Be still, and know that I am God; one day I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. And then, its final comment The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
So to sum it all up, the only way to have peace in this troubled world, is to have a clear vision of who God is, and faith that He is completely in charge. Outside, life may be full of confusion, but in God's presence -- in the City of God, in his Hiding Place, in the Shelter of the Most High -- there is peace, there is rest, there is security -- for each of us!
Prayer. Lord, we worry so much. I pray that you would teach us to rest in you in faith and confidence. Help us to unload our fears at your feet. Help us to put our burdens, both big and small, down before you and rest the weight of our lives upon You. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
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