together. David asked the question
down in verse 23. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? You reckon God was really asleep? For the title of this, this one
and the last two before this one was to the sons of Corrie,
for the sons of Corrie. Korah. Remember Korah was the
one that God opened up the ground and swallowed him whole. But
his sons, they were all the singers. They were the singers for the
children of Israel. And they sang the Psalms. Now they may
have been the ones, one of them may have wrote this, they don't
know, but if it don't say exactly who it was, if it's Moses or
Solomon or somebody, we always attribute it to David. And they
were in a battle. These folks were in a battle.
And they suffered a great defeat. And they cried out to God for
help. But often times when we get in those situations, help
was slow in coming. And you know that they felt forsaken
by God. Look what he said down here in
verse 9. But God has cast us off and put
us to shame. And you don't go out and go forth
with our armies anymore. You don't go out with our armies.
You don't go out to fight for us. They felt forsaken by God. And then secondly, he asked the
Lord why they were defeated. And he asked Him to tell him
where we fell. Oftentimes, you know, when Joshua
was fighting Ai and they were losing at the battle of Ai, and
they couldn't win and they had to run and flee from AI and AI
chased them and killed several of them a whole bunch of Israelites
Joshua got down before the Lord and asked him, he said, Lord
why didn't you, why aren't you with us, what's happened? and
he said, get up off your face he said, there's sin somebody's
went and got the accursed thing and kept it and that's why that
happened But he asked the Lord, he said, God could point to that.
But he asked the Lord, why were they defeated? Why did they suffer
this defeat? And he asked God, where's my
failure? If I've sinned, I want to know
it. Where's my failure? Look what he says down here in
verse 20. If we have forgotten the name
of our God, or stretched out our hands to strange gods, shall
not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets of
the heart. God, you know us. If we have had winter under a
strange God, if we set us up in idol, and we've forgotten
the name of our God, won't you search us out? Won't you let
us know that? Won't you tell us that? You know the secrets
of our hearts. You knew what Achan did, and
you took them all the way down until you got to Achan. He knows
exactly everything that a man does. And he feels so forsaken,
then he asked the Lord, and he said, O Lord, why are you sleeping? He feels like the Lord is sleeping.
Such great distress. And this is up here in the title
of this psalm, it says, Meskel, Meskel, I think that's how you
say it. Meskel, Meskel. And that's a
psalm of instruction. It's a psalm that you're supposed
to learn from. And I think that we can learn
here how to react in trials the way that David did. And I got
three points to this message. I divided this psalm into three
divisions. First, in remembering God's preserving
care in the past. God preserved and cared for his
people in the past. Verses 1 through 8. And then
we're going to seek to understand God's providential involvement
in our lives. In the present, right now. God's
providence involved in our lives and then remembering God's preserving
care in the past. And I tell you what, in praying
for God's power to deliver us. But let's look here at remembering
God's preserving care in the past. Look what David said, We
have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what
work thou didst in their days and the times of old. And then
he goes on to say, how you drove out the heathen with your hand,
plant Israel there, and how you did afflict the people and cast
all of them out. And he says, and all of Israel,
they got not the land in possession by their own sword. They never
went in and took it by their own sword. Neither did their
own arm save them, but thy right hand, and thine arm in the light
of thy countenance, because thou had a favor unto them. And all
he did was remember, God, I tell you, everybody's told us what
a wonderful work you did, how you saved Israel, how you brought
them up out of Egypt, and you destroyed the Egyptian army in
the Red Sea, and you brought them up and you started taking
them in, and you destroyed them. Nation after nation after nation
out before them and you just kept giving the people the property
and giving them the land and moving them into other people's
houses, giving them other people's vineyards, giving them other
people's olive yards and all that. He says, they didn't do
it, you planted the people. They didn't have to go in there
by their own sword. He brought them into the land
and planted them, just planted them right there. And he afflicted
all the people and drove them out before. And I love this,
they got what they got, not by their own sword. We don't war
against flesh and blood. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal. Oh my, that's why our Lord told
Simon Peter, said, put up your sword, Simon. If you live by
the sword, you'll die by the sword. God's people don't live
by sword. We live by the word of God. We
live by what God said. And the only sword we got sits
in right here. And it's sharp enough, ain't
it? It's sharp enough. It'll kill you and make you alive.
It can split you wide open and reveal the secrets and intents
of your heart. And I tell you what, if you've
got this right here, that's what he said here. He said, oh my,
you brought them in, you drove them out. It was all of God's
doing. He says, you! by your right hand,
you by your arm, you by the light and presence of your countenance,
because you had grace for them, favor unto them. God did it all. And oh, and then David goes on,
he starts talking about all this while we heard it. Lord, everything
that we got, you gave it to us. Everything you destroyed, you
destroyed them. And then he goes down here and he says, look what
he says here, he begins to, talk of him to have great confidence,
and he says, Thou art my king, O God. Command and deliverance
is for Jacob, since you are the king. And Jacob gets in trouble,
you just command and deliverance is, and Jacob will be delivered.
You just say it, and it will be done. And then look what he
says here, Through thee, through the Lord, through what God does,
we'll push down our enemies. Listen to this, through thy name
we'll tread them under and rise up against them. We don't need
nothing but the name of God is what David said. We don't need
a sword, we don't need a gun, all we need is the name of God
and we'll push our enemies down. We'll tread them under our feet
and rise up against them. And that's why he said, I'll
not trust in the bow, neither shall my sword save me. He said,
I have a sword, I have a pope, but neither one of them can save
me. Oh, but thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put
them to shame that hated us. And I tell you, that's the way
God does. Whatever He does, He's going to do it in such a way
that He gets all of the glory. He's going to get all the credit,
He's going to get all the glory. He's going to bring glory to
himself. He's going to make us to say,
Lord, it's you that saved us. We had enemies, but you defeated
them. You know how the enemies that
are in this world, that's against us. I mean, Mary asked me the
other day, she said, what's sectarianism? And I said, sectarianism, I said,
we would be considered sectarians. And what that means is that you
hold to certain ideas, certain principles, certain beliefs.
And people say, well, they're sectarian. They're not broad-minded
like us. They don't have a worldview like
us. They don't consider Jesus like
we do. See, we're sectarian. That means,
beloved, that we hold to certain truths. We hold to certain principles. We hold to certain things that's
right and just and true. And we don't care what the world
calls us. And that's what David says, let them hate us! What
has that got to do with anything? He said, you put them to shame,
and one of these days they will be put to shame. They'll stand
up and they'll say, do you mean to tell me that that fellow that
I hated, that folks that believed in that predestination, believed
in election, and believed in God's sovereignty, and believed
that God ordained and predestined everything and is only going
to save just a few? You mean to tell me that those
folks was right and I was wrong? That's what's going to happen
in the last days. And oh beloved, and that's why David said this,
he said, in God, We boast all the day long. Verse 8. In God we boast all the day long. What are we going to boast about? Well, I killed 14 soldiers today. I really had a fight with him
and whipped him. Well, I tell you people say,
boy, I said, we went toe to toe with the devil and I defeated
the devil. No, no, no, I ain't no match for him. You hear people
say that all the time. I said, boy, I said, you got
to fight the devil. The devil's got all this power.
Well, listen here. In God, we boast all the day
long. Not what we've done, not what
we've accomplished. He said I ain't going to trust
my bow, my sword or nothing. What are we going to boast about?
We're going to boast about God. We're going to boast about His
grace. We're going to boast about His salvation. We're going to
boast about His blessed power. We're going to boast about His
preserving power. And praise thy name. How long
are we going to do that? David said forever. Forever. That's what we're going to do.
And when you read these opening verses, oh, how God blessed his
people in the past and how he saved them, how he gave them
the land, destroyed all their enemies, you would not expect
what's coming next. Oh, here they're going to suffer
defeat. And here's what's so bad about it. David even accuses
God of not caring. God being unconcerned. Oh, God, why are you asleep?
You're going to sleep on us? You've cast us off? You hide
your face from us? You hide and forget all of our
afflictions? And he said, God had done a mighty
work for Israel. He destroyed the Egyptians. He
displayed His mighty power in Israel when they took the land
of Canaan. But the psalm doesn't end at verse 8. Now David is
cast down. He's in despair after a humiliating
defeat. And I'll tell you that's what
he says in verse 9, it all listsen to what he says, But thou hast
cast us off and put us to shame, and goeth not forth with our
armies. You know that's not, that only happened there, but
that's happened to us over the time. That's happened to us ourselves.
You remember when our Lord Jesus, they was going across the sea.
And our Lord Jesus was tired and he laid down and went to
sleep. He was up in the hindered part of the ship, and there's
up in the front, he's laying over here sound asleep. Big storm
came up, and them fellas, you know, they got T totally scared
to death. They got scared. Now, here we
are, we're gonna die, we're gonna have, this ship's gonna sink.
And the Lord is asleep and does not care whether we live or die.
Then they run over there and grabbed him and said, Lord, wake,
wake, wake, wake up! That's what David said, Lord,
what are you doing asleep? Wake up! Don't you care that
we perish? You don't love us enough to understand
the situation we're in. You don't mean to tell me that
you're not interested in what's going on around us. That you're
just going to sleep and just don't care what happens to us?
That's what David's saying here. Oh my! God preserved them and
protected them in the past, but God wasn't with them now. Why?
How come? Oh my, let's try to understand God's providence.
And I tell you, perplexing. You know, God's ways are perplexing
at times. That's why Paul said, I'm perplexed. I'm in despair. I'm in distress. And oh, look what he goes on
to say here. Oh, but you've cast us off. Here we was. We're going to boast in you all
day. We're going to praise your name. And then all of a sudden,
you cast us off. You've just cast us off and put
us to shame. And you go not forth with our armies. Our armies go
forth and you're not with us anymore. It's like Samson got
up one day and shook himself after Delilah found out his weakness
and they shaved his head and he got up and shook himself one
day and the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. And that's
the way David's feeling like it here. And oh, he says, you
make us to turn back from the enemy. You make us have to run
from the enemy. You make us have to retreat from
the enemy. And they which hate us, spoil
us for themselves. They come and take what you gave
us, and they take the spoil from us. And you know what? You just make us like sheep,
and we're just their meat to eat. You scattered us among the
heathen. You just absolutely make us like
somebody. We're just nothing but a meal
to somebody. You've given us like a meal to
people. You scattered us. And look what
he says here. This is incredible. He said you
sell your people for nothing. What does he mean here? God didn't
sell his people, but he says, you sell us for naught, you let
us go off into slavery, you let us go off into bondage, and it's
for nothing. You get nothing out of it. And
when you sell us off as slaves and let the enemy do what they
want to us, you don't get anything from it. You don't get wealthy
from it. You don't increase your glory
by it. And then he says, you make us reproach to our neighbors
a scorn and derision of them that are round about us. All
the towns round about and all the people round about said,
boy, those folks used to be... God used to be with them people.
God blessed them people. God fought their battles for
them. And now look at them. They ain't got nothing. God ain't
for them anymore. They can't fight. And their neighbors
stick their head out and look over and say, oh, boy, what a
shake they've got in. And they scored and said, oh,
I know what is going to happen to them. I know what it was.
I know this is getting too proud. I know this is getting too high.
And then he says, you make us a byword among the heathen, a
shaking of the head among the people. They just walked by and
just shaked their head off. Oh boy, I tell you, you ever
done that to somebody, somebody does something, you know, and
you just shake your head and say, oh man, ooh, ooh, ooh. That's all you do, just shake
your head, ooh, ooh, ooh. You ever done that? Ooh, you
know, you know, it ain't no use, just stand back, just shake your
head and say, oh my, ooh, ooh, ooh. And that's what they said,
they done him. And they says, my confusion is
continually before me. Oh my. And all this has come
upon us. Yet have we not forgotten thee.
You know, God blesses us, and then all of a sudden the victories
are great, we rejoice in Him, and then something happens. Something
happens. You lose a job, go to the doctor,
he diagnoses the disease. Somebody you love dearly, you
know they're gone because of that awful disease, in spite
of all the prayers and tears you shed for them. A believer
gets old, they're put in a nursing home, their family forgets them,
friends are gone, all families are gone, they feel forsaken
and abandoned. And all the early believers,
you know, you know what I think the Romans would do for them?
They would stake them out in the Coliseum, they'd stake them
out, pour oil and pitch on them, make them face one another, and
then they'd set them on fire. And they'd look in one another's
eyes and say, it's being burned. And then the crowd would just
raise their hands and shout and have a great rejoicing at it,
to watch these people burn and suffer, watch them go on that.
Oh my, what does it mean when we get in this awful distress,
perplexed? And we pray and there's no apparent
answer. And that's what David says here.
Oh my. And this is what some people
think. They think maybe God really isn't involved. God is not involved
in our suffering. And there's lots and lots of
people that believe God really isn't involved in tragedies.
You know, a hurricane comes by and says, God ain't in that.
Flood comes, God's not in that. Hurricane comes, God ain't in
that. God wouldn't inflict such suffering. And they just say,
my God wouldn't do that. Floods, hurricanes, whirlwinds,
droughts, people say God wouldn't inflict such suffering. And this
is something that I learned. I heard a preacher say this the
other day, and I didn't know anything about it. And I looked
at it and I got a new thing that people are teaching now. It's
called open theism. You know what that is? That means
God is open to whatever happens. He's not absolutely in control
of anything. He can't even foresee what's going to happen. And He's
just caught as much by surprise as anybody else is when something
happens. They call that open theism. Poor
old God. He's just open to whatever happens.
Yes, like us, he just has to take it as it comes. And there's
people teaching that. You look it up or Google it.
When you get home, Google it. See what I'm telling you. I couldn't
hardly believe it myself. A fellow made a much better explanation
of it than I did. And sometimes people say, well,
God's indifferent. Or is it true that God is absolutely
involved in our lives, involved in this world? I know, and you
know, that God is in full control. He's ordained every situation,
every event, including David, saying, Oh God, why have you
cast us off? God cast them off for a reason.
God has a purpose in everything that He does. And look how many
times David uses this word, you, you, you, in what God did here.
He says there in verse Nine, you have. Thou, thou, thou, thou. Five verses in a row. You, you,
you, you. You did it. Circumstances didn't
do it. The enemy didn't do it. The devil
didn't do it. I didn't do it. You did it. You did it. He knows that God
ordained this situation. God is sovereign over winning
battles and losing battles. He's sovereign over whether you're
well or whether you're sick. And He's sovereign over whatever
happens to us. And that's what He gives. That's
God's no accidents, no confusion in our hearts and minds over
what happens. And that's why David says, you're
just giving us over. You make us to reproach. Yea,
it goes on down there saying in verse 22, Yea, for thy sake
we're killed all the day long. He says, you know, we're just
like sheep. He said, you know, people just consider us sheep.
And man, the sheep ain't fit for nothing but slaughtering.
And oh, I've spent lots and lots of time, sins have caused God
to deal with them, bring them down, but not this time. Look
what David says now here down in verse 17. All this has come upon us. Now
listen to what he says now. Everything he said from verse
9 down here. He said all this has come upon us. Look what he
says now. Yet have we not forgotten thee. We've not forgotten you. Oh no. Oh no, we ain't forgot you. And
all listen to what he says. Neither have we dealt falsely
in thy covenant. We dealt honestly. We faced your
covenant. We looked at your covenant. We
never tried to change it. Never tried to get anything different
about it. We dealt honestly in your covenant. We bowed to your covenant. We
are grateful for your covenant. And he said our heart is not
turned back. Our hearts not turned back to
an idol, our hearts not turned back to somebody else, our hearts
not turned away from you, neither have our steps declined from
your way. That's like what Job said, though
you slay me, I'm going to thirst you. Go ahead and do what you got
to do, I'm going to thirst you. Job, they just killed all your
children, just got... A hurricane, a lightning, a hurricane
comes through, a tornado comes through that and kills all your
kids. A lightning comes and kills all the cattle. And a bunch of
people come and carry the rest of them away. His wife walked up to him and
said, Job, just trust God and die. Job shaved his head, got
down in the dust. He said, the Lord gave and the
Lord's taking away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And that's what David said. Whatever happens, our hearts
haven't turned, neither have our steps went back from your
way. And he goes on to say, you've broken us sore. Sore broken us
in the place of dragons. You put us in places where lizards
and snakes and owls and everything in an old broken down place and
you've covered us with the shadow of death. That's what you've
done. But he goes, look what he says.
If we have forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our
hands to a strange God, shall not God search us out for he
knows our hearts? That's what he said is if God
knows that we have done something wrong, that we have forsaken
Him, turned back on Him, denied Him, sinned, raised our fist
against Him, despised His properties, He's returned to an idol or anything.
He said God would have known that, made us to know it. Because
He knows the secrets of His heart. And you know there in verse 22
says, Yea, for thy sake we are killed all the day. Paul said that in Romans chapter 8.
And you know why he used that in Romans 8.22? Because he used
that verse 22 right before he got to Romans 8.35. He said,
We are counted as sheep all the day long and sheep for the slaughter.
And then he says, but I'm persuaded. He put that there to teach us
and show us that we'll never be forsaken, nor forgotten, or
left off for God. We're counted sheep, but I'm
persuaded. That life, nor death, nor angels,
nor principalities. He said all that to show, no
matter what the world thinks about us, we're not going to
be forsaken. We're not going to be lost. God's
not going to forget us, nor forsake us to our enemy. And oh yes,
we suffer, but we're never forsaken. And God has a purpose. God says,
My ways are not your ways, neither My thoughts your thoughts. For
as the heavens is high above the earth, so are My thoughts
and My ways above you. And then look what He prays.
Look what He prays. He understands. And we understand
that whatever happened, and that's what David said to you. Lord,
you've done it. You've done it. You've done it.
You cast us off. You make us to turn back. You've
given us like sheep. You sell your people. You make
us a reproach. You make us a byword. You've
done that. I remember several times that
you get to talking to folks. You go and somebody be sick and
they'll say, Well, it's the will of the Lord, you know, it's God's
will for him to be like that. No, no, it ain't God's will.
It ain't God's will for people to be sick. They just ain't got
enough faith. When our Lord Jesus Christ suffered,
Paul the Apostle got sick. Epaphroditus was sick nigh unto
death. You reckon he had any faith? People, I tell you, they'll
just say anything. But look what he says now. He
prayed for God's powerful deliverance in the future. No, and I tell
you what, he prays with boldness. You talk about boldness. Look
what he says here at verse 23. Awake! Arise! Awake! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise! Cast us not off forever. Boy, you talking about boldness.
Oh my. And what he's doing, beloved,
this is the fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous man right
here. That's what this is. This is
a man who means to call on God and give God's attention because
of his affliction. And he says, Lord, why are you
sleeping, O Lord? God wasn't asleep, but David
is addressing Him that way. Why are you sleeping for God's
sake? Arise and don't cast us off forever.
Get up! Get up! Get up! We're your children,
we're your people, why do you hide your face and forget our
afflictions? And then he says, look what he
says, he tells God exactly what's wrong with him. He tells God
what he's suffering, look down at verse 25. For our soul is
bowed down to the dust, we are so low and so down, Down where
down into the dust was so cast down, and so discouraged, and
so distressed, and so defeated, our belly cleaneth unto the earth." Oh my! Our prayer should never
be weak, never be without emotion, especially when you're going
through an affliction. Now I'll tell you something,
he wasn't informing God of anything. God knew exactly where he was
and what was going on. But this is what fervent prayer
does. We lay our case open before God
and listen while he ends this song. Oh, he's got confidence. He's sure that the Lord is going
to do something for him. Arise for our help and redeem us. Redeem us. Why? For your mercy's sake. for your loving kindness sake.
You sold us, redeem us. Pay the price. Do what's necessary. And you know that's why Paul
said, I beseech you by the mercies of God. What a motive. God, because
of your mercy, redeem us. Because of your mercy, save us. Because of your mercy, get up
and do something for us. Not because I'm in trouble, but
for your mercy. Because I deserve to be in trouble. Then, oh Lord, I'm coming to
you. I'm looking to you. I need you. In this world, no
matter what happens to me, you're not going to increase your wealth
by me. If I go into poverty, it ain't going to give you any
wealth. But I'm going to boast in you all day anyway. That's
what David said. Arise for our help. Oh, arise for our help. Our Lord Jesus, oh blessed Savior. Your word is a fountain, a deep
fountain. And Lord, we sometimes get some
water out of the well, sometimes we don't. But Lord is there,
and I praise you for it. and ask you to bless it to the
hearts and minds and understanding of your people here tonight.
God, we need you. Whatever you call us to go through,
we may think you cast us off. But Lord, if you do, it's you
that does it. And you'll always take us to yourself. It's in
our understanding. It's in our feelings. It's in
our emotions. It's never what you do. God,
help us and have mercy on us. Be with your dear children. God
bless Kim and Darren as they go through this great trial that
they're going through. God strengthen them, encourage
them. Thank you for them. Read our names for Christ's sake.
Amen.