Psalms in the summer: Psalms of Confidence / Trust
Readings. Psalm 62, Matthew 16: 24-27
Over the summer, we have been looking at the Psalms and how they can speak for us at different times in our lives:
· There are times in our lives when we come to God wanting to praise Him – Psalms of praise give us the words.
· There are times in our lives when we come to God in despair – Psalms of lament give us the permission to do this, to come before God honestly.
· There are times in our lives when we come to God in gratitude for what he has done – Psalms of Thanksgiving lead us to declare what God has done in words of thanksgiving and praise.
· There are times when… we just get on with life... The ordinary... The day-to-day. The Psalms teach us that in these times we can have confidence in God. Trusting Him. This final group we are looking at today.
These Psalms of Confidence, or Psalms of Trust, are defined by their “mood”.
· They generally refer to God in the third person – building on the confidence in God that has been expressed in the Psalms of Lament and Thanksgiving.
· They say “this is how it is”…. “this is how I, or we, stand before God”.
· They remind us of who we are… we matter to God… We have a place with Him in which we live our lives – sometimes using metaphor – Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd”, is probably the most well-known, showing God as a protector, a provider of pasture for the sheep.
Today, we’re looking at Psalm 62. This is, at its heart, an expression of trust in God, complete reliance on him. It talks of resting in God no matter what may come, no matter what threatens.
It starts:
Truly my soul finds rest in God;
(Psalm 62: 1 NIVUK)
By ‘soul’, it doesn’t mean here a ‘disembodied spirit’, nor even ‘inner being’, but more ‘whole being’. The Psalmist is talking about his entire self, his entire being.
1 Truly my soul finds rest in God;
my salvation comes from him.
2 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I shall never be shaken.
(Psalm 62: 1-2 NIVUK)
This is a declaration of complete trust in God for protection.
This psalmist’s well-being will not be shaken; their security will not be destroyed. Not because he is strong; he refers to themselves as
this leaning wall, this tottering fence
(Psalm 62: 3 NIVUK)
He knows he has enemies; he comes back to God; this is where he finds his hope, his strength. He knows and declares God as powerful, as loving:
11 One thing
God has spoken,
two things I have heard:
‘Power belongs to you, God,
12 and with you, Lord, is unfailing
love’;
and, ‘You reward everyone
according to what they have done.’
(Psalm 62: 11-12 NIVUK)
He knows God is capable of protecting him, and will do so. His confidence is in God.
This Psalm may have been written by a king – King David – even a king knows his own fragility and trusts in God and not in himself.
Perhaps we might identify as ‘a leaning wall’ or ‘a tottering fence’. We might be weak. Others might point to our faults… but when we don’t rely on ourselves, but rather we rely on God, we will find rest.
It’s easily said – ‘trust in God’, but that can be hard when life around us is difficult. When health or finances fail. When friends let us down. When people die. We are all challenged about what we rely on, where we find our security. This might be money, institutions, our own abilities. There’s nothing wrong with these things, but we are not wise to ‘set our heart on them’. Our trust is in God.
In our reading from Matthew, he recounts what Jesus said to his disciples. He said that life would be hard. He used the phrase that his followers should ‘take up their cross’
‘…Whoever wants to be my disciple must [not should, must] deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’
(Matthew 16: 24 NIVUK)
That’s a strange phrase, ‘take up your cross’; it means to accept the challenges that come with following Jesus. It means putting Him first. It means being prepared to face difficulties as part of following Jesus and living a Christian life. It means putting ourselves last. At that time, the cross was a symbol of death, not a piece of jewellery. Jesus is using it as an example of the total commitment needed.
How do we apply this today? In this country, we are unlikely to ever physically face death because of our faith. Maybe ridicule, more likely indifference, but not death. I believe the challenge to us is our priorities. Each of us will decide
· What we want to achieve with the rest of our lives.
· Where we look for truth.
· Where do we look for guidance?
· How do we spend our time?
· How do we spend our money?
· How do we approach temptations and challenges?
· Which path do we follow when presented with a choice: good or bad? Or perhaps something more subtle, where things are a bit grey.
This is a difficult thing to preach. It can make us feel uncomfortable.
‘We don’t want to be made to feel bad, especially by you vicar’. But Jesus said difficult things. He didn’t water them down. Sometimes this made people angry or sad, and they didn’t go away happy. I am not going to water down what Jesus said. I hope this doesn’t make anyone here angry or sad. But it may well challenge you.
But ‘where is the good news? You are always talking about vicar?’ It’s right there.
Matthew 16: 25b (NIVUK):
‘…whoever loses their life for me will find it.’
Jesus promises life, and tells us how to get it: Put him first. Not ourselves, not even the church, but Him. And we will find life. We will know life.
At the ‘Men’s Breakfast’ group yesterday we are working through a book by Sam Allberry: “Lifted. Experiencing the resurrection life”. In it, he writes:
The Christian is not just someone who ‘votes Jesus’ from afar. By faith in Jesus we are joined to him and have union with Christ. We are bound up in him, united to him in his death and united to him in his resurrection. Paul, for example, can say that we have ‘died with Christ’ and have been ‘raised with Christ’. Christ’s fortunes are our fortunes. We are inextricably linked now. His resurrection means our resurrection, and that means change.
(p47)
Christianity isn’t just a set of beliefs we pick and choose from to include in our lives. The church is not some kind of faintly superstitious social club we go to when it suits us. It is about a new life, bound to Jesus, trusting in God first and foremost.
This echoes the Psalms – ‘trust in God’. If we find we lack peace, or can’t seem to find rest in our lives, then, going back to the Psalms, we will find rest in God. When we place our hope and trust in him.
The Bible is about God’s relationship with people, people who find forgiveness and reconciliation with him. Who then find their place in this corporate body we know as the church.
Sometimes the challenges and problems of our lives mean we lose this perspective; we get caught up in ourselves, our own problems… our view of God becomes so small…
The Psalms help us put into words the things we find difficult to put into words – to speak for us more than they speak to us.
The Psalms invite us to come to God. They teach us how to pray. They show us how; they give us words when we can’t find them.
· They give us the words to praise him for who he is.
· They give us permission to be honest, to call out to him in our despair, knowing he hears us, even in our darkest times.
· They show us how to be thankful, witnessing to what God has done in our lives.
· They also tell things as they are, inviting us to put our trust in Him into words.
The Psalms teach us how to live in the light and knowledge of God within this body.
This is the last week of this short series. I could have extended it; there are other types of Psalms as well:
· Royal Psalms – which talk of the relationship between God and the king.
· Wisdom Psalms – that address ideas and help us to consider the meaning of life and examine issues around good and evil.
· Torah Psalms – that meditate on the laws God has given.
The categories are debated and are, ultimately, subjective. Some Psalms fit into more than one category. They are certainly related. God has given us the Psalms, not to examine or write essays on, but to use them to teach us how to worship and pray… to lead us in our prayers to, and praise of, Him; to lead us to Him. Just as they led the people of Israel in worship thousands of years ago.
It is good to read them, both individually and as a corporate body. To declare who God is and how we stand before him. To say them out loud – so we can hear, and others can hear, that it is God on whom we depend. We trust in Him. And only in Him as we just get on with life... the ordinary... the day-to-day.
Revd Kevin
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.