A Word of Encouragement: Psalm 37
Pastor: Rollan Fisher
Focus: We can have daily joy as we learn to delight in Jesus in the midst of a fallen world.
Delighting in the Lord
In the Midst of Suffering
Until Jesus Restores All Things
Delighting in the Lord
The key to joy in a fallen world is delighting yourself in Jesus.
Psalm 37:1-11
Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.
*Fretting steals your joy.
Do not get yourself in a huff because of what evildoers do or be envious of them.
Evildoers will not ultimately get away with anything.
God will make sure they get what they deserve in the end.
It’s our timetables of justice that cause us to become disillusioned.
Yet think of how many of us wouldn’t be here today if God didn’t express patience towards us in the midst of our sin to lead us to repentance and forgiveness at the cross (Romans 5).
God commands that we trust him, do good and focus on our responsibility to faithfully serve him while we wait.
God is ultimately saying, “Let me do me, while you focus on doing what I said to do.”
What does it mean to delight in the Lord?
*The key to walking in joy in a fallen world is to delight yourself in the Lord - joy is not getting all that your heart desires.
We often put the cart before the horse.
There will always be a tension between the good that we aspire to do in this life and the resolution that God brings to all things in the age to come.
You earthly reward is not your only reward.
Far too many people settle for what they can have now - in honor, in comforts, in wealth - not realizing that they are substituting these things for what could be theirs eternally in Christ.
Jesus’ sermon on the Mount speaks of these things (Matthew 5-7).
We lose focus on could be ours forever in Christ because we are distracted by what others presently enjoy.
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses
You must continually live in the hope of final justice at the judgment that allows you to persevere in well doing in the light of the rewards of the resurrection.
When we fret, it tends to lead to evil because we take our lives into our own hands, fending for ourselves, doing what we think needs to be done for our benefit because somehow we think that God won’t come through.
This is a tormenting place to live, where your mentality is you are on your own, outside of the reality of God caring for his faithful ones.
In the Midst of Suffering
Joy can be found in the midst of suffering.
*God’s care does not preclude suffering, because we live in a fallen world full of sin.
Psalm 37:12-33
The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright; their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will remain forever; 19 they are not put to shame in evil times; in the days of famine they have abundance. But the wicked will perish; the enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish—like smoke they vanish away. The wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives; for those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand. 25 I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. He is ever lending generously, and his children become a blessing. Turn away from evil and do good; so shall you dwell forever. For the Lord loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip. The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death. The Lord will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial.
*As long as we live in a fallen world, there will be sin and suffering.
*Jesus came to alleviate these things presently and eradicate them permanently at the resurrection for those who’ve turned to him in repentance and faith.
How do we know this?
This is how Jesus began his ministry:
Luke 4:16-21
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
This is how the apostle John summarized Jesus’ ministry:
1 John 3:8
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
The is is how God had John summarize what is to come:
Revelation 21:1-8
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
V. 23,24
*Temporary set-backs are not uncommon or your final destination in the Lord.
God has a long-term view of your life and destiny in Christ - “I was young, and now I am old”.
Trust in God and let contentment free you to do good.
What does doing good look like?
“If you asked twenty good men to-day what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love - You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance.
The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point.”
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
“He is ever lending generously”
“Better the little the righteous have…”
Without contentment, we withhold from God what he commands and begin to find pursuits void of Christ or the leading of the Holy Spirit to fulfill our desires.
This leads to frustration, lack of lasting satisfaction, ungodly practices and strife.
Contentment is the key to generosity and great joy in our souls.
Without contentment, we are stingy, hoarding and miserable because we always fear our own poverty while God says that even in famine, he will give you more than enough if you obey him.
“At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in.”
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Until Jesus Restores All Things
Christ’s work at the cross paved the way for eternal joy In a new world, where he would bring the restoration of all redeemed things at the resurrection.
Psalm 37:34-40
Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off. I have seen a wicked, ruthless man, spreading himself like a green laurel tree. But he passed away, and behold, he was no more; though I sought him, he could not be found. Mark the blameless and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace. But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed; the future of the wicked shall be cut off. The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.
**God is concerned with ultimate outcomes, not simply the benefits of this present world.
John 18:36-37
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Therein is where we find our present and lasting joy.
How do we enter this new world?
We do so through ongoing repentance and faith in Christ’s finished work at the cross followed by his victorious resurrection.
“If you had a perfect excuse, you would not need forgiveness; if the whole of your action needs forgiveness, then there was no excuse for it. But the trouble is that what we call “asking God’s forgiveness” very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses.
What leads us into this mistake is the fact that there usually is some amount of excuse, some “extenuating circumstances.” We are so very anxious to point these out to God (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the really important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which the excuses don’t cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget this, we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves with our own excuses. They may be very bad excuses; we are all too easily satisfied about ourselves.
There are two remedies for this danger. One is to remember that God knows all the real excuses very much better than we do. If there are real “extenuating circumstances,” there is no fear that he will overlook them. Often he must know many excuses that we have never thought of, and therefore, humble souls will, after death, have the delightful surprise of discovering that on certain occasions they sinned much less than they had thought. All the real excusing he will do.
What we have got to take to him is the inexcusable bit, the sin.”
– C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, 178-81
1 Peter 5:6-11
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher