Psalm 31

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Hey, hey, welcome to Coffee and Devotions.
It is Tuesday morning. It is February 9th. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we get into God's word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. Well, this morning, we are at Psalm 31.
Why don't we go ahead and have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day, and we thank you for your word. We pray now that as we read your word, you would apply these things to our hearts, that we might know them and believe them, that we might follow you and love you. In Jesus's name, amen.
All right, here we go. Psalm 31, let me go ahead and pull this up for you there. While you're getting there, why don't you go ahead and hit that like button? Let's let Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, everyone else know that this is something valuable and they should show it to others. Here we go, Psalm 31. to the chief musician, a Psalm of David.
In you, O Lord, I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in your righteousness. Bow down your ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be my rock of refuge, a fortress of defense to save me. For you are my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for your name's sake, lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for you are my strength.
Into your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. I have hated those who have refused useless idols. but I trust in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy, for you have considered my trouble, you have known my soul and adversities, and have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a wide place. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble.
My eye wastes away with grief. Yes, my soul and my body. For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity and my bones waste away. I am a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and am repulsive to my acquaintances. Those who see me outside flee from me.
I am forgotten like a dead man. I lost my place here. I'm sorry. I am forgotten like a dead man. Wow, I've never lost my place this bad before. I'm so sorry. We're just going to pick up at verse 10. For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. I am a reproach among all my enemies, and especially among my neighbors, and am repulsive to my acquaintances, those who See me, flee from me. I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind. I am like a broken vessel. For I hear the slander of many. Fear is on every side. While they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life.
But as for me, I trust in you, O Lord. I say you are my God. My times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. Make your face shine upon your servant. Save me for your mercy's sake. Do not let me be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon you. Let the wicked be ashamed. Let them be silent in the grave.
Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proud and contemptuously against the righteous. Oh, how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men. You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence from the plots of man. You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
Blessed be the Lord, for he has shown me his marvelous kindness in a strong city. For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before your eyes. Nevertheless, you have heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to you. Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints, for the Lord preserves the faithful and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord." What a beautiful psalm.
We need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? This is a long psalm, 24 verses, not as long as 114. We're going to get there, or 119. We're going to get there in a while. But when we come to the psalm, we find David crying out to God.
Once again, he finds himself surrounded by enemies. And it's interesting the different things he says. Look with me at this first part here, what he says. He says that God is a rock and a fortress to him, that he is crying out to God that God might bow down to him. Not bow down in a reverential way, but God who is up above in the heavens might descend and lean in like a father would get down on his knees. look his child in the eyes, get eye level with him, and pay careful attention to him. That's what he's asking God to do as he's praying. And then he says to God, you're my rock, you're my fortress.
For your name's sake, lead me and guide me. He's asking God to be his strength, to be his comfort, to be his hope, to be his safety, but also to be the one who would show him what he should be doing. Pull me out of the net, which they have secretly laid for me. He's saying all these things because he wants God to be his strength. He commits himself into God's hand. You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. It is God who is watching after him, who is caring for him, and it is God who is there for him. And so as he is crying out to God, he also says something that's interesting.
He talks about the wicked, right? I have hated those who regard useless idols. And we might think like, oh, once again, Jesus tells us that we're not supposed to hate. So how does this work? I'd like to talk about this in more of an anecdotal story way. There's this pastor that I know who has a list of men that he prays against.
These are powerful men in our nation who have massive amounts of resources, and in a humble way, with an eye towards God's kingdom, he just prays, Lord, let their kingdom come to an end. Father, there are these men in our country who wield vast wealth and vast power, and they are dead set against Jesus Christ and against your kingdom. Lord, please let them stop. Father, please bring your kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.
Stop whatever they're doing. I think this is what David is calling out here. But notice what he says after this. Look at verse 10. For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing. My strength fails. Why? Because of my iniquity and my bones waste away.
See, David is not praying this in self-righteousness. David is praying this knowing he is righteous, not in of himself, but only because he fears the Lord. And it's those who fear the Lord who are able to come to him and ask him to hear them like a loving father. It's us who fear the Lord who are able to openly admit our guilt, admit our sin, admit our transgressions, and follow after his ways.
Not perfectly, no. Right? We're never going to be perfect, but we're actually honest about that. He asks, he just tells God that. Right? And he tells him the grief of his soul. Right? People are slandering him. People are mocking him. People reproach him. People are repulsed by him. They don't even want to be near him.
But as for me, I trusted in you, oh Lord. I say you are my God. At this point, I'm going to switch us over here. And instead of looking at this so much, I want to talk to you about, do you think you're righteous? Do you confess your sins? Your sins might make you repulsive to others. Maybe you've sinned and now people don't want to be near you. Maybe there are people who mock you and people who make fun of you. Where do you go for strength? Where do you go for comfort? Where do you go for hope? When the breakers of the waves of this life crash upon you, where do you go?
Well, the psalmist here is declaring we go to the Lord. The Lord is our strength. You are my God. My days are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, from those who persecute you. Make your face shine upon your servant. Save me for your mercy's sake. Maybe today you need to cry out to God, save me for your mercy's sake. Maybe you need to cry out to God, Lord, save me. Oh, how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men. There is blessing in following the Lord. There is comfort. There is hope. There is joy. There is peace.
Oh, love the Lord, all you his saints, for the Lord preserves the faithful and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage. He will strengthen your heart, all you who hope. in the Lord. I pray that God's face would shine upon you this morning, that you would take hope in the Lord, and that you would find strength in the God of your salvation. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you that in the midst of our trials and of our grief, we know that you bow your ear down to us, that you hear our pleading for the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, we do confess our sins to you. Lord, our sins are many. Father, if you should count our iniquity, we couldn't stand, for we fall short. But we thank you that Jesus Christ does not. And we thank you that he makes our prayers perfect, and that we stand in his righteousness. So Lord, we confess our sin to you, and we pray that you would let us walk after you. In Jesus' name, amen. May the Lord bless you today. May you go in the joy and strength of Jesus Christ as you follow after God, fearing Him and hoping in Him.
We'll see you tomorrow. Bye. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.