Twists & Turns

Twists & Turns

The theme verse this week for VBS comes from Psalm 25—which works perfectly with the current sermon series we are in from the book of Psalms. So tonight we’re going to take a look at Psalm 25 and hopefully get a better understanding of what we mean when we talk about the Twists & Turns of life this week.

Turn with me in your bibles to Psalm 25.

We have said for weeks now that the book of Psalms is a collection of the Poems, Prayers, and Promises of Israel and tonight is just that. It is a prayer but it is also a poem with a very strict structure. If you haven’t already, in your English & Literature classes in school you will learn about different types of poems that are defined by their structure.

Haikus are all about the number of syllables in each line.

Sonnets are all about the pattern of the rhyming couplets.

Limericks are jokes poems that are all about the meter of the verse.

In the same way that we have all these types of english poems with a very strict structure of what makes them a poem, Psalm 25 is a poem with a very strict structure. and it’s actually 2 structures at the same time.

It is an acrostic poem, where each line starts with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. and at the same time it’s a chiastic poem with these parallel topics covered in each line. So the first and last line are about the same thing, the 2nd from the beginning and the second from the end are about the same thing, the 3rd and the 3rd to last are about the same thing. 4 and 4 are about the same thing. and if you outline the whole psalm 25 and pair them up, matching the topics, the whole thing comes to this point in the middle. Where it’s gone point 1, point 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and then it turns around and answers everything that it has already said backwards, point 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

So if you had to guess, where we’re going to find the main point of psalm 25, see it splayed out like this, knowing the structure of the matching points. Where do you think the most important point is?

It’s right in the middle. Everything before it leads up to it, everything coming after is flowing out of it.

So the middle point of this psalm, can be found in verses 10 and 11. Typically when we read a section of the bible, just like anything else, we read. We start at the beginning, because that’s a very good place to start. But we’re going to break that rule this time.

Let’s read Psalm 25:10-11

Psalm 25:10–11 CSB

10 All the Lord’s ways show faithful love and truth to those who keep his covenant and decrees. 11 Lord, for the sake of your name, forgive my iniquity, for it is immense.

So if I had to summarize that, I’d say

God is faithful even when I’m not.

God is faithful- means that God will always stand by His people no matter what. God will never tell you one thing and then do another. God will never betray you. God will never turn His back on you. God will never change His mind about His people. God is faithful.

Even when I’m not- which means no matter what you do. No matter what your sin problems are. No matter how much you betray Him, He will never betray you. No matter who you are. No matter where you go. No matter what you do. No matter how many times you have lied to others, lied to God, or lied to yourself; God will never turn on you. God is faithful always. Even when you are not.

That’s the whole point tonight.

and if we understand that before we start reading from the top, we have a better idea of the context and what the whole rest of the chapter is trying to tell us.

Secretly, you can almost take every line of this psalm and add that at the end of it. Verse 1, yadda yadda yadda— because God is faithful when I am not. Verse 2, yadda yadda yadda — because God is faithful when I am not. verse 3 whatever, because you are faithful when I am not.

That’s the main point tonight. and I tell that to you at the beginning because I want you to see it throughout the whole chapter.

God is faithful even when I am not.

People will let you down. People will betray you. People will turn against you. God never does.

When I was in college we did a fund raiser every year to support missionaries. and we would play a game called assassins. It was a water gun fight like nothing you’ve ever seen before. You’d pay $50 to play and the game may go on for 3 weeks depending on how good everyone was.

You’d pay your money, and then at a pre determined starting time, midnight on the first day of the month you would get a text message from the game master with the name of your target. Each person in the game has a target to hunt down and a person who is hunting them. The problem is, you don’t know who is hunting you.

So maybe the game starts with 30 people. and whenever you shoot your target with a water gun, they die and they tell you who their target is; and now its your job to hunt them. and the game keeps going until the last 2 people are hunting one another and it’s just a game of who can shoot the other one first.

When I tell you that I have never seen so much backstabbing in my life. People would turn on their closest friends. Tell whatever lies they could to trick someone into telling them who was hunting them or to lure their target into the open.

The rule was, you can’t get someone while they are inside a building or a vehicle. and we would pause the game for church, an hour before and an hour after church events you were safe. But the rest of the time you had to watch your back.

My friend Matt and I had lunch every monday at chickfila for over a year. We knew everything about one another. We lived together for a while. This is one of my most trusted friends. I lied to him about who my target was for over a week in case he tried to stab me in the back and tell someone. He said he wasn’t even playing that year. We met up at the restaurant, I’m already inside when he gets there. We eat and I asked him if he would go out in the parking lot and take a look around to see if there was anyone we recognized waiting out there who might be trying to assassinate me. He said of course. He goes outside. walks around the parking lot, looks in all the cars. looks under all the cars. checks the bushes. Spends like 15 minutes searching this parking lot for me. He comes back in to get me and says. I think thats Kelly’s jeep across the street at starbucks. If she’s after you, she may have parked, run across 6 lanes of traffic, and hid out somewhere. Give me your car keys and I’ll go pull your truck up to the door so you can just jump in and go. Minimize your exposure. He pulls my truck up to the door. puts it in park. Opens the driver side door and gets out so I can run and jump in.

In the 3 feet between the door of chickfila and the door of my truck, Matt pulls a 20 cent water pistol from his pocket and shoots me in the side.

I’ve never been betrayed like that in my life. I’ve been lied to. Robbed. Cheated on. and had my phone bugged. but none of those betrayals have ever hurt like Matt Felts squirting me with that water gun.

People are unfaithful. People lie, cheat, steal. People don’t live up to their promises. They say they will be there and they fail. People are unreliable even when they want to help you. Even when they have the very best intentions, sometimes people will still let you down. But God never does.

Let’s jump into our text. Psalm 25:1-3 and remember our main point as we read all of this together.

God is faithful even when I am not.

Psalm 25:1–3 CSB

1 Lord, I appeal to you. 2 My God, I trust in you. Do not let me be disgraced; do not let my enemies gloat over me. 3 No one who waits for you will be disgraced; those who act treacherously without cause will be disgraced.

So King David, the author of this psalm, at this point in his life has been chased out of his own palace by his son Absolom. In fact the whole kingdom, all his people have turned against him except for a few close friends. and while on the run, hiding out in caves, in the countryside David prays this prayer to God. because David has no idea who he can trust here. he cant trust his family, his people, his armies. and he turns to God and says “I trust you. You’re not going to abandon me here God.”

Psalm 25:4–6 CSB

4 Make your ways known to me, Lord; teach me your paths. 5 Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; I wait for you all day long. 6 Remember, Lord, your compassion and your faithful love, for they have existed from antiquity.

So David asks God tell me what to do here. I don’t know who I can trust. Show me the way through this. Because I can’t trust anyone else. You, God are the only one who can save me. and David knows this because of what he said in verse 6. “remember your compassion and faithful love which have existed from antiquity, from before time began.” David has seen God stand by him before. This isn’t even the first time David was forced to hide out in caves while a fake king sent an army to hunt him down. David has been through this whole song and dance before and he knows that God will see him through it this time just like he did last time.

Now read verse 7 with me because this one is huge.

Psalm 25:7 CSB

7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my acts of rebellion; in keeping with your faithful love, remember me because of your goodness, Lord.

Have you ever been in a bad situation and had the thought “this might be God punishing me for something I did wrong.” and you start running through sins in your mind that you still feel guilty about and you’re like “I didn’t make the cheer squad. Is this God punishing me for vaping in the bathroom at school?” “All my friends got put in the same PE class this year except for me. I’m in there with my worst enemy…Is this God trying to teach me a lesson? Is this God punishing me for keeping that $20 I saw a guy drop? Or for cheating on that test?” and you start going through the list in your brain. Something bad happens to you and you start thinking through all the things you still feel guilty for and go “this must be God punishing me for all the bad stuff I’ve done.” First, stop. It’s not. That’s not how God works. God has 1 punishment for sins and that’s Hell.

and if you know Jesus you don’t have to worry about that. God punishes sins. But Jesus already stepped up and took the punishment for all the sins of all of His people. So if you feel like God is punishing you for something then either you’re saying that you’re not one of His people or Jesus’ sacrifice wasn’t good enough. Which is it? God doesn’t punish His people. He will allow you to go through some tough times to teach you a lesson and to help make you better for whatever plans He has for your future. It feels like punishment sometimes. but it’s not. If you have given your life to Jesus, I promise you, God will never punish you for anything you have done. Jesus already paid the penalty and took all your punishment for you. Put that idea out of your mind.

But if that’s a fear that you have a lot. You’re not alone. That’s a normal fear. We worry about it. and we freak out. and even King David here. He is saying God is faithful even when I’m not. God doesn’t turn His back on His people. I know that. God will see me through this. But at the same time the intrusive thoughts are winning and David is going “God please don’t let this situation be because of all the bad stuff I did. Don’t let this be about the time I got involved with another mans wife. Please don’t let this be about my sins.” He knows better but David is still terrified that his present situation is a punishment for what he calls “the sins of my youth”. I can tell you all day that God doesn’t punish saved people but those thoughts don’t go away that easy. It’s something that you have to remind yourself of daily.

God is faithful even when I’m not.

and as we keep reading we will see Psalm 25:8-9

Psalm 25:8–9 CSB

8 The Lord is good and upright; therefore he shows sinners the way. 9 He leads the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

He doesn’t punish His people, but He will do what needs to be done to show you the way. God’s not vindictive. He’s not trying to get back at you. He is faithful and He wants to guide you.

Psalm 25:10–11 CSB

10 All the Lord’s ways show faithful love and truth to those who keep his covenant and decrees. 11 Lord, for the sake of your name, forgive my iniquity, for it is immense.

Again, David knows God is faithful, even when my own sins and wrongdoing and iniquity are immense. That means super big. Lord forgive me when I have BIG SIN.

And that’s the center point of this chapter that we were working towards and now we work backwards through the points we’ve already covered, with a new perspective.

Psalm 25:12–15 CSB

12 Who is this person who fears the Lord? He will show him the way he should choose. 13 He will live a good life, and his descendants will inherit the land. 14 The secret counsel of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he reveals his covenant to them. 15 My eyes are always on the Lord, for he will pull my feet out of the net.

Right so, God offers help and guidance to the people who fear Him and respect Him and follow Him.

To go back to the theme verse of the week. God loves to make His ways known to people. He loves to teach you His paths. He would love to guide you in truth and to teach you. but that kind of guidance, that secret counsel of the Lord, as verse 14 says, is only for those who fear Him and are in a covenant relationship with Him.

and so if you’re afraid that that’s not you tonight, dog let’s fix it. Let’s make a change let’s get you into that covenant relationship with God. Because He would love to direct your steps.

Those of you who are here this week for VBS remember the blindfold game we played yesterday? You couldn’t see where you were going and didn’t know what to do. You needed to listen to someone else tell you where to step and what to do and where to go.

If you feel like you never know what God wan’t you to do and where to go. You have to listen to His guidance. But that’s only available if you have a relationship with Jesus. So if you’ve never given your life to Jesus. We can do that tonight and we can get you the relationship with God you need so that you can get access to His guidance and direction.

Psalm 25:16–19 CSB

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am alone and afflicted. 17 The distresses of my heart increase; bring me out of my sufferings. 18 Consider my affliction and trouble, and forgive all my sins. 19 Consider my enemies; they are numerous, and they hate me violently.

David is begging God. His enemies are everywhere. He doesn’t know who to trust. He is distressed and afflicted. He feels like his feet are trapped in a net. Like trying to walk with your shoelaces tied together. and with all of this fear and all of these feelings like everyone is out to get him David says.

Psalm 25:20–22 CSB

20 Guard me and rescue me; do not let me be disgraced, for I take refuge in you. 21 May integrity and what is right watch over me, for I wait for you. 22 God, redeem Israel, from all its distresses.

God is faithful even when you’re not.

Even when no one else is. God is always faithful. He never changes. He is constant. He is reliable. God is faithful.

So we believe that every time God’s Word is preached it demands a response from all of us. There’s no other choice. You have to do something with this information tonight. Even if you choose to ignore it. That’s something. You have to do something and only the Holy Spirit can tell you what to do, but I have a few ideas that might help.

Give your life to Jesus.

Stop thinking that God is trying to punish you.

Start turning to God for guidance instead of everyone else.

Maybe you don’t know Jesus. You know about Jesus. You’ve heard about Him for years. and you have this idea in your head that Jesus loves everyone, He’s always on my side I can live how I want to, act how I want to, make my whole life about me, and Jesus will get me out of anything because He has too because I go to VBS every year. But tonight you heard David saying a lot of stuff about how God only offers guidance and protection and help to people who fear God, His people in His covenant. and you’re scared because you’re not sure if that includes you? Do you fear God? are you one of His people? are you part of His covenant. If not we can fix that tonight. as soon as we close, I just need you to come talk to me. If that’s you. When we pray in a minute, as soon as the lights turn back on come straight to me.

Maybe you’ve known Jesus for a while now. You know He died a death you deserve to take the punishment for sins that you commited. you know that. But every time something bad happens to you, you get this little whisper in your ear that makes you think “Is God punishing me because I stole the cookie from the cookie jar?” Every time you don’t get the present you wanted for Christmas you go “God why are you punishing me? is this because I did XYZ?” If that’s you. Please stop. That aint nothing but the devil trying to play tricks on you and scare you until you stop trusting God. God doesn’t punish Christians. Jesus already died for your sins. There’s no punishment left.

Maybe you have no idea what we mean when we say that God wants to give you guidance. You have been asking everyone else for advice on all of your problems and listening to them, and things just keep getting worse. If that’s you, you have got to start asking for advice from the only person who actually knows everything and that’s God. And it’s as simple as praying and asking for help. but you can’t just do it once. You need to do it regularly so you know what His voice sounds like. You need to be reading the Bible regularly so you know what His voice sounds like.