Psalms 40 Shutdown Sunday 3_15_20

“Walking Through Your Trial”

3/15/20

Psalms 40:1-3 NKJV “I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. 2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. 3 He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.”

Now here we have David in the midst of a great trial.

It is so bad that he calls it “a horrible pit” and compares it to “sinking quicksand.”

And in this psalm he will walk us through the steps he himself experienced by telling us how he responded to the trial, and How God in turn responded to him.

Perhaps today you’re in a great trial of your own—you could even call it a horrible pit.

It might be a pit of depression,

or the pain of abandonment,

or the loss of a job,

or a bad doctor’s report.

Or maybe it’s something like our nation is in where you are battling fear and anxiety over the Coronavirus—which has become for America like a horrible pit.

The good news is this psalm brings a shout of hope to everyone going through a trial of any kind, and encourages us to take hold of the hand of God—who alone can pull us to safety!

So let’s unpack this powerful psalm.

First we see David exercising:

Patience and prayer IN the trial...

“I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry.”

David cried out to the Lord in prayer, and then he mixed his faith with patience.

In the Hebrew language this literally reads, “In my waiting, I waited.”

It reads that way to give it a double emphasis—in my waiting I waited expectantly, hopefully, in faith that God had heard my cry.

He didn’t wait impatiently, or angrily, or doubtfully.

But in his waiting he waited confidently that God had heard him.

And indeed He had, for the psalmist testifies, “And He inclined to me and heard my cry”

Again, the Hebrew language is beautiful here because it means, “He bowed and bent His ear toward me.”

In other words, my cry of faith in the place of prayer grabbed God’s ear and He turned my way!

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And David says God answered! “He heard my cry” and moved on my behalf!

We don’t know how long it took between David’s prayer and God’s answer, but we DO KNOW that God acted mightily on his behalf!

So in your trial have you cried out to God, and then mixed your faith with confident patience?

Are you waiting on God in faith, leaving the timing of His answer to Him?

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So first we see patience and prayer IN the trial.

Next, we see:

II. Deliverance FROM the trial...

“He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay,” (vs 2 NKJV)

Now the original language here for “pit” means “a pit of noise,” and the word for miry clay is “slime.”

What we have here is a graphic picture of a trial where there is no peace, only noise and unsettledness....

And it feels like you’re sinking down into something that is slippery where you can’t dig yourself out——you keep slipping back in when trying to crawl out.

In David’s time these slippery pits were called quagmires and were described as “treacherous to the last degree.”

So David says “I was in a pit of destruction that was impossible for me to pull myself out of.”

This was his day of trouble, his midnight hour, his dark valley of difficulty and testing.

Ever felt that way? I have!

You feel like you can’t change your circumstances and the more you try, the more you seem to slip further down into them.

There is no peace, only noise—a time of tumult and warfare.

But the psalmist testifies that, what he couldn’t do for himself, God did for him!

“He brought me out...!”

And today friend, don’t fear—God is mighty to pull you out of your impossibility!

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So first there was patience and prayer IN the trial, Then deliverance FROM the trial...

And next we see:

III. Stability and joy AFTER the trial

“and (He has) set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. 3 He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; (vs. 2-3 NKJV)

The picture of being set upon a rock is about stability.

He HAD been sinking and slipping into a pit of destruction with no place to plant his feet.

But NOW he has been pulled out of the pit and placed on a rock!

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Now, you can’t talk about a rock in the Bible without thinking of Jesus, the ROCK of our salvation.

So for us in the NT reading this psalm, the implication is clearly that God delivered him from a pit of despair and placed him securely on the Rock, Jesus Christ.

Whereas his life had been unstable and terrifying, not he’s stable and full of joy!

“He has put a new song in mouth, even praise to our God!”

Not only has he been stabilized, he’s been joyful-ized!

God has done a miracle in his life—a miracle not only of deliverance, but also of restructuring his life from instability to stability, and from the jitters to joy!

THIS is what the God of the Bible will do for anyone that calls to Him from a pit, ANY pit!

the pit of lostness,

the pit of backsliding,

the pit of bad decisions,

the pit of confusion or bondage

He bends His ear to your cry,

He delivers by His great power,

He stabilizes you through the teachings of His Word

And He replaces the spirit of heaviness with the “oil of joy.”

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So we see patience and prayer IN the trial, Then deliverance FROM the trial, then stability and joy AFTER the trial...

And finally in closing we have...

IV. A testimony ABOUT the trial

“Many will see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord” (vs. 3).

The LB says, “Now many will hear of the glorious things he did for me, and stand in awe before the Lord, and put their trust in him.”

Here we see how God uses EVERYTHING we go through for the benefit of others.

Remember as I like to say—A testimony comes from being tested and doing some moaning.

Notice how the WHOLE TIME we’re going through our trial, God is creating a testimony.

So that we learn a very important truth here—Someone in need is always waiting on the other side of your trial.

When you emerge on the other side of your valley, you come out with a life-changing testimony.

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Listen again to what David’s testimony resulted in in the lives of others:

“Now many will hear of the glorious things he did for me, and stand in awe before the Lord, and put their trust in him.”

Some will be encouraged, some will get a stronger revelation of God’s power, and still others will “put their trust in Him” and be saved!

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So whatever you’re going through today, let’s do what David did and mix prayer with patience.......KNOWING our cry will bend God’s ear our way.

And let’s expect Him to do what He does best—deliver us, stabilize us, joyful-ize us, and use our testimony to touch a dying world with Jesus Christ!

LET’S PRAY