Psalm 31 - David Gets Bold

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Hello, and welcome to another week of Tabernacle Talk. We are in Psalm 31 today. And this is really one of my, this is one of my favorite Psalms.

I was given a guitar by my grandfather, my grandpa Hancock in for my 16th birthday. And I had been around music pretty much all of my life.

But when I was about 16 years old, kind of took a little bit of a renewed interest in it, in earnest and began writing some songs. And some of you have seen maybe some of the videos on my YouTube channel with some songs that I've written.

And I had some that kind of came out of seasons of my life that God had worked in me and comforted me. And so I wanted to express it in song.

And there were some songs that I read in the scripture, and I was like, man, I really want to sing this to God myself. Like I want to express it back to him because I feel these emotions.

I know what the writer here is saying, and I want to sing it back to God. So I've written songs from Psalm, it was either five, six or seven. I think it's Psalm seven, Psalm 31, Psalm 32.

There's a few others kind of spattered throughout. But this one in particular, I wrote maybe 10th or 11th grade and got my youth group sang it a few times and really, really enjoyed singing it with them.

There's actually a recording that I've linked in the description to this video of my sister and then one of my best friends who's now a youth pastor and a music pastor in Tennessee, Eric Ione, and they recorded a version of this song.

It's super simple. It's just voices and guitar. It's nothing flashy.

But I put together a lyric video, just uploaded it yesterday to the Tabernacle Baptist page and hope that it would be an encouragement to you. We're going to go through the psalm now.

And then if you want to go listen to the song, I would encourage you to do so. And I know at least for me, it was helpful to put all of these ideas of this psalm into something that was kind of familiar to my context. So here there's lots of verses.

There's lots of thoughts. But for kind of my rendition of it, I went, all right, what's the core of this song and what really jumps out at me, words that I really relate to in my relationship with God. And so I would encourage you with that.

Reading here from the New King James version. This is pretty close to the King James version that I originally wrote the song out of. And this particular edition is Thomas Nelson's Premier Collection single column.

And this is a great little readable Bible. It's one of the most beautiful ones that I've seen on the inside. Amazing layout.

I think I've mentioned before, you can get these for 20, 30 bucks, or you can get like a nicer cover or something on them. But it starts off like this. To the chief musician, a Psalm of David.

In you, O Lord, I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in your righteousness.

Bow down your ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be my rock of refuge, a fortress of defense to save me.

For you are my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for your name's sake, lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net, which they have secretly laid for me.

For you are my strength. Into your hand, I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

I have hated those who regard useless idols, but I trust in Yahweh. I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy, for you have considered my trouble. You have known my soul in adversities, and have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy.

You have set my feet in a wide place. Have mercy on me, O Yahweh, for I am in trouble. My eye wastes away with grief.

Yes, my soul and my body. For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.

I am a reproach, a despised thing among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors. And I'm repulsive to my acquaintances. Those who see me outside flee from me.

I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind. I am like a broken vessel, for I hear the slander of many. Fear is on every side.

While they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life. But as for me, I trust in you, O Yahweh. I say, You are my God.

My times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. Make your face shine upon your servant.

Save me for your mercy's sake. Do not let me be ashamed, O Yahweh, for I have called upon you. Let the wicked be ashamed.

Let them be silent in the grave, which speak insolent things, proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.

Oh, how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men. You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence from the plots of man.

You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Blessed be Yahweh, for He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city. For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before your eyes.

Nevertheless, you heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to you. Oh, love Yahweh, all you His saints. For Yahweh preserves the faithful and fully repays the proud person.

Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in Yahweh. Love this song. I think as we've gone through, that maybe you've learned a few kind of tricks of the trade as we've been going through.

I hope you notice some of the things now, especially as you read the Psalms, that it's sticking out to you when stuff sounds like Jesus.

Like verse number five, Jesus literally quoting this psalm in his last words from the cross, into your hand I commit my spirit. And what an incredible thought.

As we look here at those that have attacked this chosen one of God, the ones that schemed against him, that lied against him, that wanted to take his life, this one that was a reproach among all his enemies, especially among his neighbors, the one

that was repulsive to his acquaintances. This was Jesus, what he experienced, abandoned and forsaken by every one of his disciples in his final moments.

There you have, you know, the women that are at the foot of the cross worshiping him, but the men that he had committed himself to daily for three years were nowhere to be seen except John and maybe some others from kind of a little bit of a

distance. So I want us first to see Jesus, that he is both the one who God rescued. He was the one that Jesus entrusted, committed his spirit to upon his death, and God saved him, God raised him from the dead.

1 Peter 1 talks about that, that God faithfully raised Jesus, took his physical body, obviously, his spirit, his soul could not be destroyed by any person, any demon. There's no one that could destroy our God.

But obviously, they did destroy his body, and God saved obviously his soul, his soul was safe, but God resurrected his body. And what an incredible thought there. So here, Jesus is like David in that way.

David's the one praying all of this. But Jesus is also the God who rescues us when we are like David, when we feel repulsive to those around us, that maybe we've been sick, maybe we have fallen into some sins.

And so as a result of sin, we feel like we're not in great relationship with other people, that maybe people are looking down on us.

And in those moments when we feel low, when we need safety, when we need a refuge, when we need a rocking mountain fortress to hide in, Jesus says that for us. He's the one that defends us before the accuser.

He is the one that ever lives to intercede for us. He's the one on the right hand of the Father, who when the Spirit takes our prayer request to God, Jesus is basically like, hey, you can answer this prayer. It's on my account.

These are my people and I'm good for it. There's just so many wonderful truths about the fact that Jesus is our God and he is a shelter in the time of storm, as one beloved him would put it.

I want to go through here fairly quickly, just look at some highlights from each of these sections. There are some Psalms that we've looked at that are like, you know, two paragraphs and maybe some ones are bigger.

I think the one that we looked at at the end of last week was, you know, three or four. This one has three, four, five, six, seven, has nine paragraphs. So there's a lot going on.

He's got a lot of thoughts and it's wonderful. But want to want to look at some of these. So first paragraph where he's telling God, God, I'm committing myself to you.

And if I'm going down, I'm going down because if you will, God, let me out. He says, I'm putting all my eggs in the basket of the Lord. And so he tells God, let me never be ashamed.

Deliver me in your righteousness. He says, all my eggs are in your basket. God, so if I if I succeed, it's only because of you.

If I fail, it's because here again, let me never be ashamed. Don't don't don't make me ashamed that I took up with you. Then in verse number two, he says, bow down your ear to me.

And sometimes, sometimes it does feel like that, like we're the little kid. We're you know, for me, it's Brian or Evelyn that I'm leaning down to kind of hear because they're like, hey, I want your attention.

If it's Evelyn, it's going, eh, eh, just little noises or sometimes mama. And I'm like, no, I'm not mama and dad. And so it's bowing down our ear.

It's it's listening. It's paying attention to him. What a comfort that the Almighty God of the universe bends down proverbially to hear us that he cares about us.

He says, deliver me speedily, be my rock of refuge, a fortress of defense to save me.

We've talked much about David, his wanderings in the wilderness and how he would often take refuge in caves in the Judean wilderness so that Saul could not find him. And he says, God, that's who you are for me. You're my place of refuge.

Verse number three, you are my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for your namesake, lead me and guide me. He says, God, everything I am, it's it's for you.

So if I look, basically saying, if I look dumb, if I am unled and unguided, he says, God, they're going to go. Oh, yeah, God doesn't really take care of his anointed king. So he says, God, I'm all yours.

Whatever, wherever you lead me, wherever you guide me, I'm going. And it feels even as I read the passage, it goes so contrary to how I would think about my interactions with God. I think, OK, God, I will be very reverent and I will obey you.

I will go wherever you go. And here, David's gone. Hey, God, for your namesake, like because of your reputation, you should lead me and guide me, he says, because I don't want you to look dumb.

And I don't want people to say, oh, the one that trusts in God, like they they don't have a good life. Like they aren't led, they aren't guided. And so David says, hey, for for your namesake, for the sake of your reputation, lead me and guide me.

What I think is so interesting about that is that many of us. We say, God, for for your reputation, like lead me and guide me, because I'm going to think bad of you if you don't fix this in my life.

I'm praying this prayer, and for the sake of your name, you should answer it in the way that I'm praying. Otherwise, you know, not really going to follow you anymore.

I think what's so incredible here is David's going, No, everyone knows I'm yours, God, because I keep telling people about you, and I keep saying, No, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to pursue that.

I'm not going to follow that evil way because I'm following the Lord. So he says, God, everything I am, it's with you. You lead me or it might look bad on you because they'll say, Okay, what's up with this person?

David's saying, I'm following you and I'm talking about you, whether or not you lead me or guide me. So you should do it. And I think that takes some holy boldness for David to say that.

And I think it's something that we can take to our heart. Will we choose to follow God? Will we choose to be so identified with God that God's reputation is affected by how we live intentionally?

It's not, oh, OK, I see. That's how Christians act. I see.

Oh, I didn't realize that was OK for Christians to do. Not not that kind of thing, but just, oh, wow. OK, Christians are like really sold out for this whole loving Jesus thing.

Christians are really sold out for this whole like loving people thing. I could never love someone that's not my political party like that. I could never love someone that's not my same, you know, ethnic, whatever.

I could never love someone that is in this different financial category, whatever the case may be. I think it could be incredible if God's people decided, Lord, I'm following you no more out of what? And everyone's going to know I'm a Christian.

And so your reputation is in part based on how you guide me in my life. And I think God is happy to answer that request. Then we already mentioned that into your hand, I commit my spirit.

I think that can be done even before death as well. That just says, God, my attitudes, my innermost being is completely sold out for you. And it's yours.

Whatever you want to do with it, whatever trials you put me through, I'm okay. God, whatever difficult life circumstances that you put me in, relationships with other people, God, I'll go through it for you. And I'm yours.

And he says, you have redeemed me. You have bought me back. That I was sold out to my own way.

I was sold out to Satan. I was sold out to the world. And you bought me back from all of it.

And so I'm yours forever. I'm entrusted to you. Verse number six through eight.

He says, I've hated those who regard useless idols. He says, I'm not following those that are following other gods. He says, but I trust in Yahweh.

He says, I'll be glad and rejoice in your mercy. His happiness is joy, a description of how you live your life. He says, you've known my soul in adversities.

God, you know what it's like on the inside when I'm going through hurts and sadnesses and illnesses. And what a comfort that is, that God has not forgotten you, has not abandoned you. He knows you in your adversities.

He says, God, you haven't shut me up in the hand of the enemy. You haven't given me over to them. You haven't allowed me to be caged in by the enemy.

You have freed me. He says, you've set my feet in a wide and an open place. Verses 9 through 13, where he's talking about all of his difficulties.

He says, God, I've been crying. I physically feel like my body, my illnesses, I'm just like wasting away. And after all of that, saying everyone hates me, my body is going down.

I hear people talking trash about me. Verse number 14, he says, but as for me, I trust in you. Oh, yeah, I say you are my God.

And then verse 15, he says, my times are in your hand. This is God. What I go through when I go through it, when I was born and when I die, all of it is in your control.

So, God, I can trust. I can go through all of these circumstances and difficulties because I know you have a plan and that this life is not where it stops because you have created me to be forever in your presence.

This life is just one little pit stop along the way. So, yes, there might be difficulties, but they're not forever.

And so I can trust that if you're bringing me through a difficulty, it's because there are incredible rewards on the other side of death that our death just brings us into new resurrected life, just like Jesus.

He had more limitations before death than he did after death. And after death, he's walking through doors. He walks for eight hours with some individuals.

He sits down and eat with them. He opens their eyes to reveal like, oh yeah, it's the risen Christ. And all of a sudden he just evaporates out of their presence and goes to another place.

He's still able to eat food in his resurrected body. There is no beginning to be able to explain to you, or truly for myself to understand what God has in store for us in resurrection life.

So this is David going, my God, I'm going through things, but I know that my life is in your hand. Like you're in control. You might have me go through some sorrows and some difficulties, but I'm all yours.

I'm not going back on that. Verse number 19 expresses that, oh, great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you. Laid up is stored away, treasured.

You've got some amazing things in store for those who fear you. This is what you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men.

When I read that verse, verse 19, I think of the truth from 2nd Timothy, where it says that if we died with him, we will also live with him.

If we, here, once I am going to turn over there real quick, just that way I don't completely mess up the quotation. It says this, if we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him.

If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he will remain faithful. He cannot deny himself.

And they are paired with this verse, which you have prepared for those who trust you in the presence of the sons of men.

We cannot live our lives denying God and then expect at the end of our life that God will pretend as though denying him is a good thing to do and that he will welcome us in.

And I would encourage you, if you have, up until this point, denied Jesus in your life, choose today to accept him, to choose his way, to say like David said here, to God, you are my God.

You are not just a God, you're not someone else's God, you're not dad's God, you are my God. And you can choose that today through what Jesus has done. He was sacrificed for your sin.

He laid down his life willingly, taking on your punishment for the sins that you have committed all throughout your life and your thoughts and your words and your actions. And he rose from the dead and he said that the sins are conquered.

The punishment has been taken. And now he invites you into this sort of relationship with him. If you have never entered into that, I would invite you to today.

I think our last thought I'll say from verse 23. Love Yahweh, all you as saints, for Yahweh preserves the faithful, says and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart.

All you who hope in Yahweh. Will you hope in him today? Will you express your love for him?

Will you tell other people about him? Will other people's opinions of God be shaped by your words and your actions and your attitudes? Thanks for tuning in.

Tomorrow we are on Psalm 32.