" Good Christian Living"

Psalms 77

Today as I preach the last sermon for 2023 calendar year, I want to talk about what I pray for every person in this church. I want each and everyone to have Good Christian Living. So my hashtag today is #goodliving2024

So to convey this blessing, I have a responsibility. I must guide. Lead, encourage in a certain path towards that style of life. The answer or instructions are given in the Word of God. Or to some B.I.B.L.E. So to help us see God’s word this morning I want focus on the power of one book in particular. The book of psalm. Or also referred to as a book of songs

I want us to read from the book of psalms just like the New Testament Writers did. The early Christians looked first and foremost to the Psalms to understand more fully the significance of Jesus Christ’s the person and His work. But what they really gained was the Psalms were more than prophetic theological texts. They were Holy Spirit-inspired songs of joy and praise.

In other words, the early church or (New Testament christians) did not say, “Well, Christ, the Messiah, has come now, so everything written of old is out of date and unhelpful.” That’s something that we do in society always looking for the new and believing that we just arrived today. On the contrary, they saw Christ in the Psalms, and they saw their own experience in the struggles and triumphs of the psalmists. The book of psalms is quoted over 100 times in the new testament. In the opening line of the New Testament, Matthew declares that Jesus is “the son of David” and then uses 15 quotations from the Psalms to prove His Messiahship. During the Last Supper, Jesus evidently sang the traditional Passover psalms of praise (perhaps Psalms 113-118) with the apostles (see Matthew 26:30 and Mark 14:26).

So we should read the Psalms like they did. Christ didn’t come to abolish the old law, but to fulfil them (see Matthew 5:17). So we should read them as fulfilled, not as abolished. They should be fuller and richer for us, but not nullified. For example, when the Psalms call us to meditate on the Word of God we don’t say, “We don’t need to do that, we have the living Christ and his Spirit.” The psalmist is asking that by meditating on the word it hopes to bring more value to your worship. Rather we say, “We have a richer, fuller Word of God, including the Gospels and the epistles—the testimony of the apostles—as well as of Moses and the prophets.” So our meditation becomes richer and deeper.

The reason the book of Psalms is so highly exalted, is because when you read the Psalms you see yourselves so often. The experience of the psalmist is your experience. And that is no accident. God put the Psalms in the Bible not only to call us to great heights of praise and worship, but also to comfort us in very dark seasons of discouragement and doubt. The strategy of fighting this kind of darkness is what I want us to look at this morning. Indeed it’s the strategy of living the whole Christian life. That’s what Good living should consist of. The difference from the psalmist and us is that we now see so much more truth, more history and God reveals the mystery in the Old Testament of the coming of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. meaning, the design of the strategy is the same, even if our arsenal of truth is larger than theirs. So what am I saying?

Good Christian Living Means Living on the Word of God

We live on the Word of God. Day by day, the written Word of God in the Bible is the means of our relationship to Christ. We fellowship with Christ by knowing Him in the written Word of God. We talk to him on the basis of what we know of him from the written Word of God. We hear him speak to us through what he has shown us of His character and purpose in the written Word of God. Moment by moment, our vital union with Christ, is sustained and shaped by the Word of God.

What can become of you if you don’t read the Word and memorize the Word and meditate on the Word daily and delight in the Word and savor it and have your mind and emotions shaped by the Word, you will be a weak Christian at best. You will be fragile and easily deceived and easily paralyzed by trouble and stuck in many mediocre ruts. But if you read the Word and memorize important parts of it and meditate on it and savor it and steep your mind in it, then you will be like a strong tree planted by streams of water that brings forth fruit. Your leaf won’t wither in the drought and you will be productive in your life for Christ (see Psalm 1).

Christian living means living on the written Word of God, the Bible. In true Christian living, means our relation to the Word is intentional, not haphazard. It’s active not passive. We pursue it and don’t just wait for it to happen. The Christian life is a joyful calling that calls for action , aim, resolve and determination. It is not coasting or drifting or something that just happens to you like the weather. The Word of God, soaked in prayer, is the substance of that joyful calling. Our delight is in the Word of the Lord, and on this Word we meditate day and night (see Psalm 1:3).

Let’s see this way of life at work in Psalm 77 and then step back and do some planning for living this way in the Word in 2024.

Psalm 77 is a prayer. 650 chapters in the bible are prayers. I Know 66 men who prayed, because in 2 Tim. 3:16 “ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” If you are going to read it authentically, you read it as prayer. You pray it. I think this is the way all Scripture should be read. We read it in the presence of God. We read it as read before God and to God. We read it as praise to him or confessions to him or questions to him. God is always listening to his own Word in our mouths or in our minds and watching what we do with it in our hearts and in actions.

So we should be aware that He is listening to our reading and should acknowledge to him that He is there and that we want Him involved in the reading: helping us understand and helping us believe and receiving praise and thanks and petitions and complaints and cries and questions. The Word that we live on should always be in a prayer format. It should be Godward reading. Meaning we see the Supremacy of God in All of our life.

Psalm 77:1–3 (NKJV)

1 I cried out to God with my voice—To God with my voice; And He gave ear to me. 2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; My soul refused to be comforted. 3 I remembered God, and was troubled;

I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.

Faithlife Study Bible (Psalm 77)

77:1–3 Psalm 77 opens with a pained sense of desperation. The psalmist is unable to find any solace in his attempts to approach God or his examination of his personal experience of God. Last week we spoke about 3 gifts, do you remember them? The first was mercy- and we defined it as taking away our misery

77:2 In the day I have trouble In the Hebrew text, the psalmist sets up a day-and-night bookend to describe the constant nature of his ongoing crisis. meaning there is trouble on either side. You pick

At night my hand stretches out The psalmist portrays his crisis as something that dominates every moment of his life—he cannot find relief or sleep.

my soul refuses to be comforted The situation that troubles the psalmist will not let up—he cannot get away from it.

77:3 my spirit grows faint The psalmist cannot find solace even by focusing on God. That my trouble is bigger than the God I serve.

Psalm 77:4–9 (NKJV)

4 You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. 5 I have considered the days of old, The years of ancient times. 6 I call to remembrance my song in the night;

I meditate within my heart, And my spirit makes diligent search. 7 Will the Lord cast off forever? And will He be favorable no more? 8 Has His mercy ceased forever? Has His promise failed forevermore? 9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His tender mercies?

77:4–9 The psalmist tries to understand his suffering, but he finds no relief. His reflection culminates in a series of pointed questions about his difficulties (vv. 7–9).

77:4 You hold open my eyelids It is unclear whether the psalmist’s sleeplessness results from God’s direct action or from His inaction. Either way, the psalmist attributes his difficulty to God, and he begs for His help. Sometime we want to blame it on God when we need to blame it on ourselves

77:5 I think about the days from long ago The psalmist turns his attention to God’s help of Israel in the past.

77:6 and my spirit searches This is not a casual rehearsal of God’s past help to Israel, but a serious reflection, perhaps intensified by the psalmist’s pain.Then the psalmist told how he searched his spirit for comfort. As God troubled him by keeping him awake, he thought about the former days when he could sing in the night about God’s deliverances. But now he was perplexed (mused; cf. v. 3) because he had no occasion for praise.

77:7 the Lord reject us forever The first of a series of rhetorical questions in vv. 7–9. Yahweh will not reject the psalmist or His people forever; the psalmist implies that he finds hope by considering God’s faithfulness to Israel. 77:10–15 This section is the pivot point of the psalm. The psalmist makes two significant choices: He chooses to view his difficulties in light of God’s past help to Israel rather than his present anguish (vv. 10–11), and he chooses to interpret his struggles in terms of God’s relationship to the entire nation of Israel (v. 13).

So here is Asaph in Psalm 77 praying and struggling with darkness and discouragement and with a sense of the distance of God. Verses 7–10 are the essence of the misery:

10)Then I said, “It is my grief, That the right hand of the Most High has changed.”

Now there is a typical struggle in the Christian life. The feeling that God is not favorable. That his lovingkindness has ceased. That his promise is not reliable. That his compassion is rescinded. That he is a fickle God and has changed. I say that is typical struggle. Please hear me: I am calling you to the Word of God in 2024. Not because I don’t believe Christians rise above struggle by the Word, but because we never rise above struggle in this world and because the Word is our only hope to survive and come through our struggles with faith and hope.

So now, what does the psalmist do in this critical time of darkness and discouragement? What is his strategy of life? How does he live his life of struggle? How should we? The answer is in verses 11–12. But before I read them, let’s read verses 13–20 so that you can see the effect of this strategy.

13)Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God? 14)You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. 15) You have by Your power redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. The waters saw You, O God; 16)The waters saw You, they were in anguish; The deeps also trembled. 17)The clouds poured out water; The skies gave forth a sound; Your arrows flashed here and there. 18)The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook. 19)Your way was in the sea And Your paths in the mighty waters, And Your footprints may not be known. 20)You led Your people like a flock By the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Now he just didn’t imagine this in his mind. He had to have read something that inspired, encourage or gave him hope. What has happened between verses 7–10, when he was so low and uncertain and discouraged, and verses 13–20, which is worship and confidence? Worship has swallowed up his doubt, and boldness in God has swallowed up his fear. What happened? This is what we want to happen when we are in darkness and discouragement and doubt. What was the key?

Now let’s read his strategy of life in verses 11–12: “I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds.”

His strategy is remembering, meditating, and musing on the deeds and wonders of God in history.

I shall remember the deeds and wonders of the LORD. Reading of the word to know what is helpful in our dark times. The Bible redirects our lives away from sin and towards holiness. Finally, the Bible brings spiritual growth to our lives by showing us what is evil, sinful, and dishonoring to God. As it shows us what sin is, it also tells us what righteous living looks like.

I will Meditate on all Your Work

Is a form a of worship, which is derived from an Old english word weorbscipe, which is worthiness or worth-ship. So worship is a chance for us to show our worthiness. Worthiness was use to weigh gold and silver to see it’s value. If you go into a jewelry store today, they weigh the gold first before giving you the cost.

3. I will Muse on your deeds

Muse is defined as to absorbed in thought) means to use or exercise the mind or one’s power of reason in order to make inferences, decisions, or arrive at a solution .

So this is what the psalmist is saying that I read the word in order to give me something to meditate and believe and show God in my worship that His word has given me value. Therefore I will take action to apply spiritual judgement, based off the foreknowledge of God. Not only that each week when I return to worship I will have even more value because I chose to read more about His Deeds and wonders. This is what I am praying for us all in 2024. This is the way to live the Christian life. This is what I mean by living on the Word of God. The deeds of God and his wonders of old are available to our minds one way: by the Word of God.

The central Biblical strategy for coming out of darkness and discouragement and doubt is a conscious effort of the mind.

Notice these strong words of intentionality (even stronger in the Hebrew with the second verb in each pair a cohortative): “I shall remember … Surely I will remember” (verse 11); “I will meditate … and [I will] muse” (verse 12). These are conscious acts that he chooses to do. This is the fight of faith. This is the fight for delight. This is the opposite of passivity and resignation. This is a strategy of life.

All of us have said (or ought to have said) from time to time: “I know God in my head, but I don’t feel him in my heart. My knowledge is not rescuing me the way it did the Psalmist.” I don’t want to minimize physical and traumatic obstacles, but I do want to raise this question—mainly for myself, but for you too: When we say that we know facts about God in our head, but they are not making their way down into our hearts, emotions and making any difference the way they seem to for the psalmist, what do we mean by “knowing facts about God”?

Do we mean what the psalmist does by “remembering” and “meditating” and “musing”? If you come in here next Sunday and you feel spiritual worse than you do today, I believe you left out His deeds and Wonders. You

I am pleading with you to make 2024 a year with a new strategy of living. It is a strategy laid out in Psalm 77:11–12 and many other places. It is a life on the Word of God. Reading the Word and Meditating on the Word and musing on the Word. May the Lord help you to see that this is not marginal meaning this is not something that grows adjacent or next to us. This is not icing on the cake of Christian living. This is the appointed instrument of God by which he sustains and grows the faith and fruit of his children. In the Old Testament and the New Testament, the witness of those who knew it best said it was their delight. Psalm 1:2, “His delight is in the Law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.” John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” Planning to meditate on these words is the path of joy. This is the fight for delight.

Look to your neighbor and say Neighbor, I will remember Him more, I will Meditate on Him More, I will Muse on Him more, Why because I want my worth-ship to mean something to God and to you.