Practicing the Presence of God: The Pathway to Christ through Psalms

Introduction: Do you ever feel like God is distant? that He feels far away from you, like he is hiding himself, or withholding His presence. Your spiritual life feels dry, and you are desperate for a sense that God is still with you, that He still cares about you, & this situation that you are in. If this is your experience you are not alone, & there is something you can do about it.

I recently rediscovered God’s presence, in an obscure Bible verse.

2 Kgs 5:16 “But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused.” The CSB uses the wording- “in whose presence I stand...” That phrase has been sitting with me for several weeks. (Background of this verse, the story of Naaman, the commander of Aram healed from a skin disease)

Notice that Elisha did not say that God was standing in his presence, but that he (Elisha) was standing in God’s presence. This means something for us, that I think most of us are missing out on.

It became clearer the next day, when I read Jonah 1:3, “But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, & found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, & went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” Elisha described himself as standing in the LORD’s presence, but Jonah is said to be fleeing from God’s presence. i.e., Elisha embraced the presence of God, but Jonah fled from the presence of God.

We are either standing in God’s presence or running away from God’s presence,but there is NO in-between. We’re either cultivating the presence of Godin our lives or we’re cutting it off. We’re either practicing the presence of God or pulling away from Him. Now, which one are you? If God seems distant to you, you can recover His presence.

At least 25 times the Psalms talk about God’s presence. Psalm 139:7-10, Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, & Your right hand shall hold me. If you feel distant from God, like you are far from Him, may I suggest to you that you spend a little time in the Psalms.

They say practice makes perfect. The Psalms give us 5 practices to help us practice the presence of God.

1. We need to Practice WALKING with Him. Psalm 1

There are 150 Psalms organized into 5 Books, i.e., volumes, or hymnbooks. Most scholars think this division corresponds to the 5 books of Moses…

Ancient Jewish commentators said, “As Moses gave five books of laws to Israel, so David gave five books of Psalms to Israel.”

Jesus said, “all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses & the Prophets & the Psalms concerning Me” (Luke 24:44).

Psalm 1, Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. 4The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. 5Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Psalm 1 teaches there are two ways of living: 1) the way of the righteous, & 2) the way of the ungodly. God knows the way of the righteous, the way of the ungodly leads to death. How do you know which way you are on?

ILL: We often conceive of these 2 ways to be 2 separate paths,but they are not. We imagine ourselves to be on a neutral path, & we come to a fork in a road, & on one side is the path of life, & on the other is the path of death, & we must choose. But I don’t think it is that way at all.

According to the Bible, we are all already on the path to death because we are all sinners. Rom 3:23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Rom 6:23, For the wages of sin is death… Eph 2:1says we are all dead in trespasses and sins & are walking according to the course of this world… Jesus said in Matt 7:13broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it, but there is a narrow way...

ILL: We are walking this broad way, & a lot of people are on it. As we walk this way, we meet somebody walking towards us- it’s Jesus. We meet him in this way, & he changes the course of our life. He changes our direction & with it, our destination. One way leads to destruction, the other to eternal life.

The psalmist is telling us that the one on that path, the one walking with Jesus, is blessed. We no longer listen to the counsel of the ungodly, but to God’s Son; no longer stand in the path of sinners, but stand with the Savior; no longer sit in the seat of the scornful, but our place is with the saved.

DISCIPLESHIP IS DIRECTIONAL. It begins when you start walking with Jesus & continues as long as you are walking with Jesus. But if you stop walking, or turn back, or sit on the sidelines, you have left Jesus’ side, He has not left you.

How do you keep walking with Jesus?‌ Ps. 1:2, “delight in the law of the Lord & meditate on it day & night.” You need to get in the Word & stay in the Word until the Word gets in you. Col 3:16, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Have a daily Bible reading plan, & read the Psalms too. If you want to practice the presence of God, you need to practice walking with Him in the Word.

2. We need to Practice TALKING with Him. Psalm 42

Psalm 42begins the 2nd Book of the Psalms (42-72). Psalm 42 is an individual lament psalm. A lament is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. It means the person who wrote Psalm 42 was going through a hard time.

Have you ever gone through a hard time? He was wrestling with trusting God in his suffering. He felt all alone. Have You ever felt like all alone? In this state the psalmist prays & puts his hope in God. Ps. 42:1-2, As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Vs. 8, 11, The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me— A prayer to the God of my life…11Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.

When you are suffering, mourning, lamenting; when your soul is cast down & disquieted within, what do you do? Phil 4:4–7, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer & supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Today, we are mixing our musical worship with our study of the Word. The quartet will lead us in “Just a Little Talk with Jesus” (4 min.) SONG

To practice the presence of God, we need to walk with Him in the Word & Talk with Him through prayer. The 3rd practice is to tell others about Him.

3. We need to Practice TELLING OTHERSabout Him.

Psalm 73 is the beginning of the 3rd book of Psalms (73-89).

The title (inscription) says it is “a Psalm of Asaph.” More than half the psalms are attributed to people- 73 of David, 12 of Asaph, 11 of sons of Korah, 2 of Solomon, 1 of Moses, 1 of Heman, 1 of Ethan. The phrase “of” does not always mean it was written by them, it could mean that it was written “to, for, by, or about” the one it is attributed to. In Book 3, 11 psalms are attributed to Asaph. He was a worship leader appointed by King David; he played the cymbals, sang, & was in charge of music when the ark of the covenant was brought to Jerusalem. Asaph’s descendants ministered in the Temple.

Like Psalm 1, 73 is a wisdom psalm. It contrasts the tragedy of the wicked with the blessedness of trusting in God. The psalmist had a problem. He was walking a slippery slope because he was envious of the wicked. Have you ever been there? Have you ever seen a terrible person get ahead in life, get all the things, everything seems to go their way, & you wonder- why not me?

Have you ever thought, why am I trying to live right?Why am I following God? If it’s going to be this hard for me but so easy for them, I might as well just join them. That emotion is what this psalm is dealing with- envy & pride.

The psalmist felt that way too until he went to God & then he understood- the wicked are on a path to destruction, God will bring them to desolation. That’s when he admits (vs. 22), “I was so foolish & ignorant; I was like a beast before you.” How dumb it is for us to envy the arrogant & the prosperity of the wicked. We need to be reminded of where their way ends, & where God’s way ends. We need to keep walking with God, keep talking to God, & when we don’t understand, we need to keep trusting God.

Ps 73:25–28, Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. 26 My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry. 28 But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God, That I may declare all Your works.

Trusting God leads to telling others about Him. If we want to practice His presence, we won’t shy away from telling others about Him.

ILL: My granny had a blue 1979 Ford Gran Torino- the front license plate said- Let me tell you about my grandchildren. Why? Because she loved us…

If we love God, if we walk with Him, & talk with Him, we will tell others about Him. While we are traveling with Jesus, we’re passing by people headed towards destruction. Some of those people catch our eye. We think they must have it all, they don’t (aside- social media has made this temptation so much more accessible, & it’s so easy to like & follow someone).

Our desire should not be for them, & the best way to break that stronghold is to trust God & tell them about Him. We trust Him & we tell them. We practice His presence by telling others about Him.

4. Practice COUNTING our Days & MAKING Our Days Count

Psalm 90 is an interesting and ancient Psalm. The inscription attributes it to a prayer of Moses, the man of God. It is the first Psalm of Book 4 (90-106).

This is a corporate lament psalm (Ps. 42 was an individual lament), this psalm was meant for a group, the community. It emphasizes the frailty of human life in contrast to the eternality of God. He focuses on God’s unchanging nature (1-2) in comparison with the brevity of human life (3-12).

God is forever like mountains seem to be, but people are like grass- vs. 6, “in the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down & withers.” The psalm ends by asking God to have compassion on His people, satisfy us with His mercy, & make us glad for the time we have, short as it is.

Ps. 90:16-17, Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children. 17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands.

Have you ever prayed that prayer?I’ll bet you have. I would be surprised if you’ve never asked God to bless what you are doing. That’s pretty basic.

But have you ever asked whether or not what you are doing is blessing God?Because you see that sentiment is at the center of this psalm.

This psalm reminds us- Ps. 90:10, “The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”… Vs. 12, So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Wisdom is learning that life is short, and we better make it count. All of us are going to spend our days doing something, but what is the something we are going to spend our days doing? We need to count our days so that we can make our days count. How do we do that? By practicing the presence of God- walk with Him, talk with Him, & tell others about Him.

The praise team will lead our next song- Yes I Will (4 min). SONG

‌‌Let’s Recap- we are studying the psalms because we want to learn how to practice the presence of God so that we can lean into the presence of God- walking with & talking to Him, trusting Him & telling others about Him, counting our days & making our days count. Our last practice is giving thanks.

5. We need to Practice THANKSGIVING. Psalm 107

‌Book 5 begins with Psalm 107 (107-150). Psalm 107is a praise psalm that recalls Israel’s history- how God redeemed His people from various locations and difficult situations. Vss. 4-9, wilderness wanderings; 10-16, imprisonment & exile; 17-22, suffering because of sin; 23-32, seas & storms.

In each scenario, there are two lines that are repeated 4 times each. Ps. 107:6 “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.” Repeated verbatim in vss. 13, 19, & 28.

Vs. 8, Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!Repeated in vss. 15, 21, & 31.

Recalling each of these painful memories was to remind them, & us, to give God thanks for His redemption. Vs. 1- “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”

Mercy- is one of God’s essential characteristics, it might better be translated “faithful love” or “loyal love.” It tells us that God is absolutely dependable to keep His promises to His people. In Ps. 107:35-42, the psalmist talks about God’s provision, and blessing, and favor, but then he ends with vs. 43- Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. Do you understand the Lord’s lovingkindness? Do you know the goodness of God? Have you experienced His redemption? Have you cried out to Him in your distress and been delivered? If you haven’t cried out to him for deliverance, then you need to do so today. But if you have, how can you not praise Him? How can you not give Him thanks?

Every day I try to thank God for at least 5 things: 1) Who He is, as our God & King, 2) for His Son & our Savior- the Lord Jesus; 3) for the gift of the Holy Spirit, 4) the forgiveness of sins, and 5) the hope of eternal life. Thanksgiving is an essential part of practicing the presence of God.

Practice makes perfect! To stand in God’s presence, we need to practice it.

Over 300 years ago, a book was published called “The Practice of the Presence of God” (see QR code in bulletin). It is a collection of letters & conversations by a monk named Brother Lawrence. Brother Lawrence’s birth name was Nicholas Herman. Born around 1610, he was a young soldier in the Thirty Years War. During the war, Nicholas sustained an injury that crippled him and left him in chronic pain for the rest of his life. He lived to be 81.

Somewhere around middle age, Nicholas became a monk in a Paris monastery, & took the name Brother Lawrence (his beloved childhood tutor).

Brother Lawrence was assigned to kitchen duty. He prepared, cooked, & cleaned up for 100 people every day. Later he repaired sandals in the sandal repair shop. He spent his life doing menial tasks- cooking, cleaning, repairing sandals; but he believed God could be invited into everything he did, and His presence could be enjoyed anytime. Instead of just doing the dishes or cooking the meal, he enjoyed an on-going conversation with God.

He said- ‘I began to live as if there were no one except God and me in the world.’Together, God and Brother Lawrence cooked meals, ran errands, scrubbed pots, and endured the scorn of the world; they did it together.

Brother Lawrence knew the secret about something that you and I need to learn and practice- God is omnipresent, so that means He is with us all the time, but we are not present with God all the time. God is present everywhere, so He is already here with us, standing in our presence. The question is, are we standing in His?

The difference is living on another plain of His reality, living in the spiritual realm of His presence so that He is real to you, & you are really with Him.

Do you want to practice His presence, not just every day, but every hour of every day, every minute of every hour, every second of every minute? It’s not impossible. We can stand in the presence of God; we just need to practice it.

· Walk with Him; Talk with Him; & Tell others about Him

· Make every moment count by spending every moment with Him

· Give Him Thanks in all things.

If you practice these 5 things, you will practice the presence of God, & He will become more real to you than you can possibly know.

INVITATION: We invite you to step into the presence of God by turning from your sins & trusting in Jesus. Because of Jesus we can draw near to God with “a true heart in full assurance of faith.” If you have never turned from your sins and trusted in Jesus, we invite you to do so today. (Church home, prayer)

Pray: If you want to begin practicing the presence of God, there’s no time like this time. The front is open for you to come & start a conversation with God through prayer. Someone will come pray for you…

Church Home:You want to walk with God, but right now, you feel like you are walking all alone. Pathway is the church where you have a friend. We’d love for you to join our church, connect with a life group, & get in a d-group. You’ll never have to walk alone again.

2nd Invitation is for those who want to practice the presence of God. You recognize that God is always with you, but you are not always with Him. Do you want to grow in your relationship with Him? We want to pray for you.

We can also help you with reading the Bible, teach you how to pray, and equip you for service and evangelism. Let’s pray, church.

END OF SERVICE ORDER:

ALL THE KIDS NEED TO BE TOLD TO GO UP TO THE BAPTISTRY AT THE START OF THE INVITATION, SO THAT WAY THEY ARE THERE & READY

AT THE START OF THE 2NDINVITATION, RICHARD WILL GO TO THE BAPTISTRY TO DO THE BAPTISMS.

AFTER THE BAPTISMS, WE WILL PLAY THE VIDEO FOR THE RAYMONDS, RECOGNIZE SETH & HALEY, & THANK THEM FOR THEIR SERVICE TO THE CHURCH. WHEN RICHARD LEAVES TO GO OUT, THEY WILL GO OUT WITH THEM. THERE WILL BE A RECEIVING LINE IN THE FOYER FOR THE CHURCH TO RESPOND TO THEM.

WE WILL CLOSE THE SERVICE WITH PRAYER & WITH A SONG- I STAND AMAZED IN THE PRESENCE…