Psalm 57

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, good morning, and welcome to Coffee and Devotions. It's Tuesday morning. 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, if you noticed, I haven't been on for the last couple days. Honestly, it's just been nuts. And maybe you've found that in your life before, too. Maybe you've just slipped out of doing your devotions. Now, thankfully, I've still been doing my private devotions. But have you ever done that before? Have you ever you know, had maybe in January. You thought, oh, I'm going to read the Bible this year, or I'm going to do such and such this year, and then you fall back. And you have to find yourself catching up, and then you might feel like, oh, I've gotten so far behind, I can't catch up.
Well, I'm going to give you an option, and that's what we're going to do this time. Adjust the schedule. So that's what we've done today. We've gone ahead and just adjusted the schedule for the next few weeks. Obviously, we want consistency, but The reality is sometimes we fall behind. And you know what? There's something better than just giving up. We can just reevaluate and keep going. Reset our goals and keep pushing forward. It's the consistency. And when you fall off the bike, getting back on.
Why don't we go ahead and pray and we'll have some coffee and we'll get into God's word. Father, we thank you so much for this day, and we thank you for your word. We thank you for the blessing it is to get to read it. We pray, Father, that you might work in our hearts that we would, Lord, that we would have this prayer, this cry to you as our cry. We pray that these would not just be words on a screen or on a page, but that you might inscribe them upon our hearts.
In Jesus' name, amen. All right, why don't we go ahead and have some coffee, and we'll get into God's word. Here we go, we're going to turn over to Psalm 57. Psalm 57. Today, I haven't asked you to do this for a while. If this is helpful to you, please hit that like button or subscribe, send it to someone who you think would find it helpful. It's really helpful for YouTube and Facebook and everywhere else to get a sense that this is helpful. And they'll share it with other people too. So here we go, let's go to Psalm 57. To the chief musician set to do not destroy. a miktam of David when he fled from Saul into the cave.
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for my soul trusts in you and the shadow of your wings. And in this shadow of your wings, I will make my refuge until these calamities have passed away. I will cry out to God most high. to God who performs all things for me. He shall send from heaven and save me. He reproaches the one who would swallow me up, Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. My soul is among lions. I lie among the sons of men who are set on fire, whose teeth are as spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Oh, be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be above all the earth!
They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They have dug a deep pit. They have dug a pit for me. I'm sorry. They have dug a pit for me. In the midst of it, they themselves have fallen. Selah. My heart is steadfast, oh God. My heart is steadfast. I will sing and give praise. Awake, my glory. Awake, lupine heart. I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing to you among the nations. For your mercy reaches unto the heavens and your truth unto the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth."
Did you notice? what happened there. Did you notice kind of a change? Verses 1 through 3, or verses 1 through 6, sorry, are this kind of whole section, this whole block there where it's looking at David's crying out to God. Do you remember this story? Have you heard this story before? David has been anointed to be the next king of Israel, but Saul doesn't like that. That means the dynasty is going to move from the house of Benjamin to the house of Judah.
And he wants to kill David. And he's chasing him around the desert. He's trying to find him. And David and his mighty men and the rest of his guys, they go into a cave and they hide there. And Saul is literally trying to execute him. And what happens? Right, what happens, David is there, and Saul comes into the cave, and he goes into the cave to use the restroom, but David sneaks up behind him and cuts off the corner of his robe, even though his friends had tried to encourage him to kill King Saul, he wouldn't do it. He feels bad even after that, just having touched King Saul.
So it's in this midst that he's sitting there and he's, God, People have sharp arrows, they've dug a pit for me, they want me to fall, they're trying to kill me. But where does David go when distress comes? Where does David go when trials are happening in his life?
This is interesting. In the midst of that whole section, verse five, be exalted, oh God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth. There's this little verse tucked right in there where we see that David knows that it's not about him, but it's about God's glory. It's not about him, it's about the Lord and what the Lord is going to do and who the Lord is. And his mourning is turned to rejoicing as he lifts up and he takes his eyes off his situation and realizes the Lord has everything under control. That's where he goes in verses seven through 11. David doesn't wallow in his misery, but his misery is turned to rejoicing when he remembers the Lord.
My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and give praise. Awake, my glory, awake, lute and harp. I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing to you among the nations, for your mercy reaches unto the heavens. and your truth unto the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above the earth. I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to highlight verses 9 through 11 in my Bible.
I think that's getting at the heart of what's going on here. So we have to ask ourselves, what are we called to do? Well, let me ask you, have you been focusing on your troubles? and not lifting up your eyes to God from whom all mercy flows. Our world is going to be filled with trials and chaos and trouble and things that dishearten us. But when we stop for a moment and we realize it is God who is merciful to us every morning and that His glory reaches unto all the nations Our hearts are recentered.
We're moved away from gloom and doom to glory and to praise. And so maybe this morning, let your troubles be known to the Lord, but don't just leave it there. Let your troubles be turned into rejoicing. God's got this in control. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. that you have such great love, that your glory fills the earth, and that you are merciful to us every day. Lord, we pray that we would follow you and love you. We pray that you would care for us and watch over us this day. Turn our sorrows and our troubles into rejoicing, knowing that you are a good and loving God. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you be filled with joy and peace as you rejoice and what God has done in Jesus Christ, and I'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.