Sermon Tone Analysis

Service Notes

Special time of prayer for the regional directors as they meet about the future of VBM

Give information about Easter Sunday

Picture of the John and Romans headed to Norcross

Sermon Introduction

I am going to read to you from Psalm 57:7-11 and Psalm 60:5-12

You should follow along in Psalm 108

Recently been reading Flags of our Father.

I had no idea what awaited those 6 men after the picture of the raising of the flag.

One of the men said “it was the happiest moment of his life.”

The battle that had begun down on the shores in the distant would be of historic proportions.

That pre-battle moment is where we find David in this Psalm.

You should have only noticed only a few deviations.

Verses 1-5 are almost identical to Psalm 57:7-11

Psalm 57:7–11 (KJV 1900)

7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

8 Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.

9 I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations.

10 For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, And thy truth unto the clouds.

11 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: Let thy glory be above all the earth.

Verses 6-13 are almost identical to Psalm 60:5-12

Psalm 60:5–12 (KJV 1900)

5 That thy beloved may be delivered; Save with thy right hand, and hear me.

6 God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, And mete out the valley of Succoth.

7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;

8 Moab is my washpot; Over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me.

9 Who will bring me into the strong city?

Who will lead me into Edom?

10 Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off?

And thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies?

11 Give us help from trouble: For vain is the help of man.

12 Through God we shall do valiantly: For he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

What you may not notice is the order.

This is not insignificant “God's truth is deployed in many different ways, and different circumstances and situations bring out to our understanding new aspects and applications of God's one truth, so that one truth spoken in one situation, spoken into another situation comforts us, convicts us, instructs us, encourages us in different ways.”

David takes the material and he puts it together in a new song.

Might call it a remix.

Most commentaries just refer you to Psalm 57 & 60

Psalm 57 starts with the battle of discouragement [Psalm 57:1 Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: For my soul trusteth in thee: Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, Until these calamities be overpast

Psalm 57 ends with this heartfelt resolution.

Psalm 57:7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

Why are we needing to read or hear this twice?

We will do well to not skip over this or any passage because we believe are have already heard it.

“This song is to be sung jubilantly as a national hymn or solemnly as a sacred psalm.

We cannot find it in our heart to dismiss this psalm by merely referring the reader first to Psalm 57 and then to Psalm 60, though it will be at once seen that these two portions of Scripture are almost identical with the verses before us.

It is true that most of the commentators have done so, and we are not so presumptuous as to dispute their wisdom, but we hold for ourselves that the words would not have been repeated if there had not been an object for doing so, and that this object could not have been answered if every hearer of this psalm had said, ‘Ah, we have heard that before, and therefore we need not meditate upon it again.’”

- Spurgeon

We must believe their is intention in this being repeated for us.

“The Holy Spirit is not so short of expressions that He needs to repeat Himself, and the repetition thus cannot be merely meant to fill up the book.

There must be some intention in the arrangement of two former divine utterances in this new connection, whether we can discover that intent is another matter.

It is at least ours to endeavor to do so, and we may expect divine assistance therein.” - Spurgeon

We are very blessed to have this recorded for us

“We have before us the warrior's morning song, with which he adores his God and strengthens his heart before entering upon the conflicts of the day.

Warrior’s Morning Song

From the very outset, you can sense that there is some trouble in the future, and so there is some reason why the psalmist has to prepare his heart to be determined to worship God because there's danger on the horizon.

In this Psalm we do not awaits on the battlefield for David until after the declaration of confidence in God.

Psalm 108:10-12 Who will bring me into the strong city?

Who will lead me into Edom?

11 Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off?

And wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?

12 Give us help from trouble: For vain is the help of man.

But does it really matter what the problem is when the answer is always the same.

We need help from God or we are hopeless!

David was fully, determined to worship God despite what the day might hold.

Our hearts should be fixed.

Psalm 108:1 (KJV 1900)

1 O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, Even with my glory.

In contrast to a heart that bows.

Psalm 57:6 They have prepared a net for my steps; My soul is bowed down: They have digged a pit before me, Into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves.

Selah.

Have you ever had a soul that was bowed down?

David is confidently anticipating coming through his trial and giving God thanks and praise.

The anxiety of life makes every place a battlefield.

Why?

Should we be confident before the battle.

The psalms never ask you simply to worship God; they tell you why you ought to worship God.

Psalm 108:4–5 (KJV 1900)

4 For thy mercy is great above the heavens: And thy truth reacheth unto the clouds.

5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: And thy glory above all the earth;

Because of God's love and faithfulness, he is determined to worship God.

Not because of the help they expect to receive in the battle.

David awakens the dawn and the instruments so they will praise God.

Psalm 108:2 (KJV 1900)

2 Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.

Wakes himself before the early dawn.

Then his instruments.

Can you imagine Jonathan Sykes talking to his guitar like this?

It is not just the instruments he wants to awaken to praise God.

Warriors say “This is why I'm going to worship You, Lord.

I'm going to worship You because of Your love and Your faithfulness.”

Our praise should be directed towards the nations.

Psalm 108:3 (KJV 1900)

3 I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: And I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.

Psalm 108:5 (KJV 1900)

5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: And thy glory above all the earth;

David is not satisfied with God being exalted in his life alone or God being exalted in Israel alone.

Paul references verse in Romans 15:9 And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.

Is that something that you think about?

Does it matter to you that God is glorified among the nations?

Warriors say “My heart is fixed to worship God and my feet are directed toward the nations.

He deserves to be worshipped by them!”