Sermon Tone Analysis

Providence

A few months ago I preached on the reason why believers go through troublesome times.

Tonight I want to show you from Scripture how a believer must respond if they in trouble.

Turn with me to Psalm 57

Now this Psalm was penned by David while he was hiding from Saul in the caves of Adullam.

David at the time of penning this Psalm was fleeing from one end of Israel to the next.

Saul was not merely trying to catch up on him and have a chat...he was trying to kill David.

In fact, though Saul did not know it, he had David trapped in the cave.

David, understandably, was in fear of his life and had nowhere to turn.

I don’t have to tell you that we all go through times like these.

We might not have someone trying to kill us, but our distress is as intense as what David experienced.

The world we live in is in a desperate situation:

·        From nature in upheaval with global warming.

·        To tension between nations like India and Pakistan.

·        The Global credit crunch and national economies in serious danger of collapsing.

·        Closer to home our own economy is in decline with banks failing, pension funds with “black holes” where funds should have been

·         Giant companies in trouble whose collapse could affect us all.

·         Some of us fear for our jobs, our “security” in jeopardy.

Interest rates are falling causing those who depend on income from investments, to despair as their income dwindle.

The cost of living is souring.

Add to this turmoil the risk from terrorism, the degrading of society and suddenly our security seems very fragile.

Frankly, we do not know what tomorrow will bring and a lot of us are extremely worried about the future with some even on the point of despair.

Exactly the emotions that David experienced trapped in that cave.

How did David handle the situation?

What can we learn from that godly man when we experience the same distress?

Note that David did not deny the fact that he was troubled.

The whole Psalm gives the very real impression of a person in desperate need!

Though he was a man of God, the anointed king, no less, still he was experiencing severe turmoil.

His distress was real!

What this Psalm shows is that in the mist of his distress, he did not despair:

I intend to show you tonight how Psalm 57 gives us 3 important steps in handling a difficult situation; three spiritual principles believers have to apply in order to stand firm when things go against you, with an emphasis on the providence of God

No 1 David PRAYED to God and number 2: He Trusted God 3: He PRAISED God.

 

*PRAYER** *

Now most people, even if they are not believers, respond the same when they are in deep trouble: have you not noticed that most people would cry to God for help?

You see, it is natural to turn to God for help when things are outside of your control, but most would ask God to do what *they* want; what they cannot do they expect *God* to do.

God for them is nothing but an impersonal being to help them out of trouble.

David also turned to God, but with a difference:

He starts: Be gracious to me, God! My soul takes refuge in You.

He does not merely say: “help me out of this mess, God!” His *soul* took refuge with God: it is the picture of his soul bonded with God’s.

David had the relationship with God before he was in trouble.

His soul did not take refuge in God only because he was in trouble, but, because his soul took refuge in God beforehand, he could legitimately cry out: “Be gracious to me” and confidently say : “in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge until the trouble is past”.

You see: God is not the genie that you rub the lamp when you want three wishes.

David did not pray to God to provide the way out when he could not handle it any more but his relationship with God naturally made him move closer to God when there was danger.

You see a small child holding his dad’s hand, INSTINKTIVELY move closer to his dad’s protection when a large dog for example makes the child feels threatened.

That’s the picture of dependency David conveys here: His soul was already bonded to God to whom he now turns for protection.

Look at verse 2: “I will cry to God Most High, To God who fulfills his purpose for me”.

He did not cry to an impersonal god: He cries to “God most High” using the Hebrew words: “/Elohim ’elyon” /meaning the God that is all-powerful, transcendent!

Far above anything He created: “God Most High!” David was acknowledging God’s Sovereign power.

He, in effect was saying: “the all-powerful Sovereign ruler is in control, to Him I will cry out for deliverance!”

But David did not only see God as the God most High, far removed from what He created.

Someone to whom he had to beg to pay attention to his distress: he knew that God was also involved in his life in an intimate, personal way.

He says: “I will cry to God Most High, to God who fulfils His purpose for me” The NASB renders the verse: “God who accomplishes *all things for me*”.

The Most High God, cares for each of us individually!

He is involved in the minutest details of our lives.

Note that David did not say that God did some things for him, no...he realized that God accomplished ALL things, Everything for him.

All God’s purposes are fulfilled!

In this verse there is contained an amazing doctrine that allows you to remain calm in the most distressing of circumstances.

As David knew, you can know this: “God is in control of everything in your lives.

The God Most High accomplishes all things for you.

That, my friends is the doctrine of GOD’S PROVIDENCE.

David understood this when he cried to God for help.

He realised that God rules everything by the power of His WILL and that all that He will is fulfilled.

Scripture is abundantly clear of God’s providence, both in the OT and NT:

·        God providentially allowed Babylon to take Judah into captivity as his judgement on the adulterous nation.

·        We see how God providentially protected the Davidic lineage against destruction throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles.

·         We see how Ruth providentially gleamed wheat in Boaz’s field, who was Naomi’s kinsman redeemer and became the grandmother of David, from whom Jesus would come.

·         How Esther was placed as Queen inside the royal court of Xerxes so that she could protect the Jews from alienation when Haman wrote the decree to that effect.

·        God providentially provided the great fish to swallow Jonah and return him to dry land.

·        In the NT we see Herod’s Census providentially timed so that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem instead of Nazareth to fulfil the prophecies.

·        Provisionally there was the grave that no one had used before to take his body

·                                           In modern times we see the English Channel being calm for the days needed to remove the soldiers from Dunkirk.

·                                We see the right man with the right background to be prime minister when the credit crunch came.

·                                You see: just look with believing eyes at the big picture and God’s providential care becomes obvious.

·                                Look a bit closer to home: Rick was available at the right time when Ted retired.

At that point, providentially, we could afford to pay him the stipend when before this was impossible.

God provided the funds at the right time.

Take it closer still:  *your* life.

I for one can see God’s providence in the meeting of Lynette when neither of us used to go to the place we met;, not before nor since; The timing of the meeting, the circumstance thereof.

But it goes so much further than that: He is involved in the most minute detail of your life...the smallest detail thereof is controlled and ordained by His Sovereign will.

There is not a place you can turn to be away from God’s gaze.

Remember Psalm 139?

O Lord, You have searched me and known /me./

     2           You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

You understand my thought from afar.

3           You scrutinize my path and my lying down,

And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.

4           Even before there is a word on my tongue,

Behold, O Lord, You know it all.

5           You have enclosed me behind and before,

And laid Your hand upon me.

6     /Such /knowledge is too wonderful for me;

It is /too /high, I cannot attain to it.

*7*     Where can I go from Your Spirit?

Or where can I flee from Your presence?

8     If I ascend to heaven, You are there;

If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.

9     If I take the wings of the dawn,

If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,

     10     Even there Your hand will lead me,

And Your right hand will lay hold of me.