Sermon Tone Analysis

Has it ever happened to you…Have you been abandoned, and found yourself alone?

Alone, all alone, by yourself with no one to turn to, with no one to call on, with no hope and with no help?

Looking for answers to questions that seem to have no answers…

Here in our text, David cries, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Have you ever felt like these were your words, more than David’s words?

That these were Your thoughts…your feelings…the story of your life?

Are there things that have happened to you…Things you can’t change…Things you can’t let go…

1.

There are those who believe, David wrote this psalm at a time in his life when his whole world was upside down…Nothing was going right…Nothing was working out the way he had planned it.

And he found himself at the lowest point of his life…

2.     And there are those who say this psalm has to be a psalm of prophecy, of the coming Messiah…who would suffer for the cause of the people of God…And there is good reason to believe that the Messiah is in view here…

When the New Testament was written, it was this psalm more than any other which was used to portray the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

It is quoted in the gospels, at least five times, and it describes with such great detail, so many aspects of the crucifixion.

If you only imagine for a moment, You can see with vividness, Jesus hanging on the cross…

I.    Separated from God.

Everybody has felt forsaken, and abandoned at one time or another…It doesn’t matter if it’s the king…The queen…The subject or the priest …Everybody has felt alone…

We know of David’s public persona…but this speaks of his private world.

We know some of his highest achievements…We know God’s word calls him the apple of His eye…We know of His victories on the battlefield…His triumph over Goliath…

We know his psalms of inspiration…

1.

The Lord is my shepherd…I shall not want…

2.     The Lord is my light and my salvation…Whom shall I fear

We know of his psalms of hope and assurance,

1.

The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; we know he said…I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

2.     In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple,

David had hope in God…David praised God in humble adoration…For he realized that God had been there for him… with him…Every step along the way…In his moments of strength and in his moments of weakness.

In moments of joy, and in moments of pain.

So David said,

1.

I will bless the Lord at all times… His praises shall continually be in my mouth…My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad…

And Church, in your life…In your private world…In your corner of the universe…no matter what comes your way, Let HIS presence come alive, and become a part of you...

At church...At home...At work...At school...On the streets, Here there and everywhere.

You have to learn to bless the Lord at all times.

You need to know that you’re HIS child,

that Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life...even when you feel separated,

Powerless...cut off--- disconnected, detached from God, even when it feels like there is no fellowship,  no relationship and no communion with God,

When nothing works right...Nobody acts right...Nothing looks right...And nothing feels right...

Even when you just find yourself abandoned and alone… crying…/My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me./

Don’t give up, But keep on pressing your way...For God has given us His assurance, that he will never leave you nor forsake you...

He says, I will come to you...It doesn’t matter where you are today, Or what’s going on in your life…You must never forget,

1.     God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

We will not fear, though the earth be moved, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.

2.     He says, Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Now, I know there are times, when it looks like everybody is making it but you…Sometimes it looks like the more you try to do right, the more evil comes your way…

You’re the one who is struggling just to make it…Working all the time, Trying to keep your head above water, With no money in your pocket…Bills in the mail…Creditors on the phone…

And some hoodlum on the corner has a pocket full of money…Or, Is driving around in big shiny car…Living large in a house on a hill…And wearing the finest clothes…

It makes you wonder, /My God, My God… why hast thou forsaken me…/

He’s happy all the time, while you are the one who is in church every Sunday, Paying your tithes…Giving the best of your service…Trying to live right…

Yet you find yourself, living from paycheck, to paycheck…

But your neighbor who doesn’t even go to church…Who uses the name of the Lord in vain…Who scoffs at you and laughs at you, seems to be enjoying the good life…while you struggle just to make it…

And you find yourself asking, /My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me…/

Maybe you’ve been completely faithful to your family…Washing the clothes, cleaning the house, bringing home the bacon…Taking care of the children…Running yourself into the ground…

But your husband is running around on you….Or your wife is constantly complaining or bickering with you…

Maybe You’ve been faithful to your job, But everybody else gets promoted ahead of you…

Maybe you’ve been faithful in the church…But nobody even remembers what you do…Nobody says thank you…Nobody says, can I help you…

But you feel so all alone…And find yourself, Asking the Lord, /My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me…/

But let me encourage you today…don’t you give up…God knows what you’re going through…God sees you, even in your darkest hour…

A Cry of Assurance.

David’s plea sounds like a desperate plea…David’s cry, sounds like the cry of hopelessness…But I don’t believe that’s what David meant here…

I don’t believe, this was a cry of desperation, But a cry of assurance… a cry of hope.

Because David knew what God could do…David trusted in God… and he believed the Lord would hear his cry…David had seen God move before…David had seen God come to his rescue…In his own life, and in the lives of so many before him…

You know Daniel didn’t wait till he got in the lion’s den to learn how to pray…But Daniel prayed three times every day…

Shadrach, Meeshach and Abednego didn’t wait until Jesus met them in the fire…To believe my God is able…But they trusted in God every day,And I hear them saying, even if he doesn’t…*/He is Able/*

But you’ve got to have faith in God…You’ve got to trust him… and take him at His word…He says, I’ll never leave you…Nor forsake you…And he means just what he says…

Some only want to trust AFTER.

1.

After they have been delivered…

2.       After He has brought them out…

3.

After things get better…

4.       After he heals their body…

5.

After they get the lights back on…

6.

After the rent gets paid…

But I want to remind you today, God is Good….

All the time…In the best of times and the worst of times…

God is good…

1.

Even in the midst of controversy and adversity…

2.

Even in times, when we cannot control the circumstances of our lives…

3.

Even in the midst of pain and aggravation…

4.

Even when it looks like the past is haunting us,

The present is worrying us…And the future is more than we can bear…We may not be able to change the past…We may not be in control of the present…And we can be sure that the future is out of our hands,

But don’t you ever forget that God is in control…even in the darkest hours of your life…

 

\\ Conclusion:

A.    The Reason the Psalmist sings.

1.     Title of the Psalm.

And that is the secret of this psalm…That’s the hope that springs eternal…That’s */the reason why the psalmist sings/*…It is all revealed… right there in the title, the title says, To the chief Musician upon Ayieleth Shahar,

2.     Ayieleth Shahar literally means, on the hind of the morning or the first light of the morning…it holds great spiritual significance for us.

B.    It is a psalm of suffering.

No question about it…This psalm does tell us about the suffering of our Lord and Savior…It does tell us about His darkest hour…It does give us a preview of the three long hours, he would hang on the cross…In pain…In agony…Nails in His hands…Nails in his feet…A spear in His side…Thirsty…Decimated, dehydrated…Alone…

2.     With No friends and no loved ones…On a roman cross…On a hill far away…the Sun will go down at noonday…Skies got dark…Birds stopped singing…And in the dark… we hear Jesus say, my God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me…

But that’s not all the title says, there is more here than the agony… the pain… the misery and the affliction…There is an Ayieleth Shahar here…A ray of hope…A flicker of light in the deepest, gloomiest, most forsaken hour of the night…

The title talks about after the darkness…The other side of midnight…The first light of morning…And in your life, The first light of morning will come…No matter how dark…No matter how hard…No matter how long…No matter how much…The morning light will come… It might be dark…But you need to remember, that even when you can’t see your way, God sees you...Even when you don’t know what to do...When to do it, or how to do it...God sees you.

He sees the tears you shed…He feels the pain you feel…He knows what you are going through…He Aches where you ache...He Endures what you endure....

Hebrews tells us, That he was in touch with the feeling of our infirmities; That he was in all ways tempted we are, yet without sin.

(4:15)

He was tried just like you’re tried...Persecuted, just like you’re persecuted...Lied on, Talked about....Beaten...Laughed at, Spit on....

But for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame...and is set down at the right hand of God.

I sing, because I’m happy…

I sing because I’m free…

His eye is on the sparrow…

And I know he watches me…

Why should I be discouraged…

Why should the shadows come…

Why must my heart be lonely, and long for my heaven and home,

When Jesus is my portion,

A constant friend is he…

His eye is on the sparrow… and I know he watches me…