A0400_Help in Troubled Times

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Date:      21st September 2008                                                              (Sunday AM)                                                                       Ref: A0400

Place:     Kambah P.S.

Title: Help in Troubled Times

Text:        & Psalm 3:1-3

Illust:     On our 1st trip to Israel, one of the highlights was going to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial - When Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, was established in 1953 by the Knesset, one of its tasks was to commemorate the "Righteous among the Nations". The Righteous were defined as non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Since 1963, a commission headed by a justice of the Supreme Court of Israel has been charged with the duty of awarding the honorary title "Righteous among the Nations."

Corrie Ten Boom , many may know her story a Dutch Christian Holocaust survivor who helped many Jews escape the Nazis during World War II. Ten Boom co-wrote her autobiography, The Hiding Place, which was later made into a movie of the same name.

The Germans arrested the entire Ten Boom family with the help of a Dutch informant. And ended up in the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany in September 1944, where Corrie's sister Betsie died. Before she died she told Corrie, "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still." Corrie was released on Christmas Day of December 1944 In the movie The Hiding Place, Ten Boom narrates the section on her release from camp, saying that she later learned that her release had been a clerical error. The women prisoners her age in the camp were killed the week following her release.

In December, 1967, Ten Boom was honored as one of the Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel.

I.                   Stormy Waters

A.               Snowballing

i.                 Our text tells us that this is a Psalm of David. – The first time this word “Psalm” is used
Hb: 4210 מִזְמֹור ~ literally means song, a melody with words. – Interesting that similar Hebrew words mean to prune, to trim, cut. – A picture of a song of short sentences, superfluous words removed. As one author wrote:

      "Let us learn from this, that in times of sore trouble men will not fetch a compass and use fine words in prayer, but will offer a prayer which is pruned of all luxuriance of wordy speeches."

ii.               The source of this Psalm is David’s anguish & pain as trouble has arisen in his house. His son, Absalom has rebelled & wants to seize the Kingdom, His trusted advisers, the people have turned against him. – Those closest to him, those he has helped, given his life to help & lead.

         2 Samuel 15:12 Then Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, from his city—from Giloh—while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy grew strong, for the people with Absalom continually increased in number. (NKJV)

iii.             David is in trouble and his troubles are multiplying & vs.1 - Snowballing

B.               Your own Household

i.                 The power of the psalms is that they meet us where we are at. They are real, they do not sugar coat anguish, sickness, pain or betrayal. – Deal in truth. The truth of real life. – Trouble comes.

ii.               You will go through times of trouble, times when nothing makes sense. People will come against you, maybe justly (David not long previously had sinned grievously with Bathsheba) but also could be wickedly unjustified.

iii.             As with David, it is when those closest to you turn on you that it hurts the most. Those of your own household, your closest friends, people you have trusted. – Ahithophel was a senior & trusted counsellor of David’s who sided with Absalom.

II.                 Where Are You God?

A.               Mocked

i.                 It is often in the heat of these times that others look & wonder – where is your God. – One of the most distressing & hard to cope with assaults is when someone close mocks God.

ii.               How do you answer them, you are being crushed by the burden of the turmoil you are going through & while in our heads we know God is real, but how to describe to family/ friends that God is there. – really.....

         Psalm 42:3 My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?” (NKJV)

iii.             David is in this place. & vs.2. ~ he has been there – Those with him, those against him – Shimei

         2 Samuel 16:8 The Lord has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and the Lord has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son. So now you are caught in your own evil, because you are a bloodthirsty man!” (NKJV)

B.               Faith on the Rocks

i.                 While others mock, question, you also feel a struggle. – Why? The anguished why? Where are you God. – The heavens are brass. Speaking about this specific struggle, when your faith is shaken – Charles Spurgeon wrote:

      If all the trials which come from heaven, all the temptations which ascend from hell, and all the crosses which arise from earth, could be mixed and pressed together, they would not make a trial so terrible as that which is contained in this verse. It is the most bitter of all afflictions to be led to fear that there is no help for us in God.

ii.               Think about this, if there is no help in God, if we begin to think that even the omnipotent, eternal, almighty God can’t help you, then there is no hope. – All hope is lost. You will spin out of control into the abyss of depression.

      When the believer questions the power of God, or his interest in it, his joy gusheth out as blood out of a broken vein. This verse is a sore stab indeed. William Gurnall.

iii.             Need to guard against allowing these thoughts / words of doubting God’s love for you, His power available to you from taking root in your heart.

III.              But You O Lord

A.               Defence

i.                 Praise God, this multiplication of enemies & the accusations of abandonment by God are not the sum total of David’s experience. Here is the truth that you can lay a hold of in the struggles of your own life & vs. 3 – God is a Shield

ii.               David was a warrior, understood the necessity for a shield to defend against the blows & darts of the enemy. A shield gave protection

         Psalm 119:114 You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word. (NKJV)

iii.             God is our protection, covers us, from assaults from every angle ~ Persuade yourself, with David, that the Lord is your defender, who surrounds you round about, and is, as it were, a "shield" that covers you on every side.

         Psalm 3:3 But thou, O Jehovah, art a shield about me; (ASV)

B.               Honour

i.                 “My glory” ~ David has been driven from his capital in contempt and scorn, yet he declares his faith that he will one day return in triumph, he looks upon God as honouring and glorifying him.

ii.               You & I need that grace (divine strength & favour) to see our future glory amid present trial & shame! – Looking forward to that time when we will come through with honour.

           More than one testimony where people have persecuted Christians viciously & then gotten saved & have nothing but honour for those whom they persecuted who by their persistent faith demonstrated Christs love. Honoured by others – Story of Corrie Ten Boom

iii.             You need to see that in fact there is a present glory in your afflictions, if only you would discern it; Paul tells us that it is a glorious thing to be afflicted for Christ for in this we are in fellowship with Christ in his sufferings.

         2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, (NKJV)

C.               Joy

i.                 “and the One who lifts up my head” ~ When we are in sore trial of sorrow, it is hard to lfit up the head, downcast, dejected head is bowed.

ii.               You need to lay a hold of the faith of David here, though I hang my head in sorrow, I shall very soon lift it up in joy and thanksgiving.

         Psalm 30:5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning. (NKJV)

iii.             When your trials & tribulations multiply & you begin to doubt God, lay hold of this verse & see with David that your God is a —defence for the defenceless, glory for the despised, and joy for the comfortless.

IV.             Altar Call

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