Sam Sam Hes our Man, If He Cant do it, no one can!

engage:

Good morning Church! Its great to be with you again in the house of God.

tension:

Have you ever been to a sporting event where you heard this, or maybe remember as a kid saying this, the short cheer in the form a song, “Sam, Sam, he’s our man, if he cant do it no one can!”.

It motivates the player, and it also motivates the fans as well.

Today we are going to look at a similar song in the bible, words that were written as encouragement for people who are being attacked by powerful people with money and influence, and who don't care how they get things done, they will use any means possible to hurt, or kill someone.

truth:

Turn with me to Psalm 62.

While you are turning there, let me read you the backstory.

2 Samuel 15:13–14 (ESV)

And a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom.” Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go quickly, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down ruin on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”

We are not 100% sure of the timing of the song we are going to look at today, but one could easily assume it was during the time period where David was being chased by Absolom, who was out to track David down and kill him, and bringing all the people along for the hunt.

Lets look at psalm 62, starting at verse 1.

A — Testimony of trust

Psalm 62:1 ESV

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

Psalm 62:2 ESV

He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

In verses 1 and 2, we see a surprising statement from David. Even though he is being hunted down, he is setting the standard that he will wait in silence while God saves him. This is of course surprising because there are literally people hunting him down like a turkey around Thanksgiving.

Verses 1 and 2 are pretty confident, but we see David do a little flip flopping as we go through the Psalm.

B — Pessimistic complaint

Psalm 62:3 ESV

How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

Psalm 62:4 ESV

They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah

Now David does not want information here. What he wants is to acknowledge to God that this situation has been going on for far too long now, and he wants to know what God is going to do about it! I get the impression that if God doesn't act soon, David is going to take matters into his own hands and perhaps go after the men who hunt him before they can find him.

But again, David flip flops in his thinking.

C — Testimony of trust.

Psalm 62:5 ESV

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.

Psalm 62:5 ESV

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.

Here David tells himself that he needs to wait. He set the standard in verses 1 and 2, but now he is talking to himself, telling himself that he has to trust in God and not himself. He has to have confidence in the Lord for his salvation.

application:

As David flip flops in this Psalm. We pull ourselves out to our current day.

We are reading the words of a king who is being hunted by another king. His son even.

Now I don't know about you, but I have never been in a situation like this, and I am not sure that I ever will be.

Its just like when I was a kid, I remember vividly watching tv shows about what to do when you get stuck in quicksand. I remember thinking, this is something I need to remember for when this happens to me. They made it seem like this happened every day and we all had to know how to survive.

Just a week or so ago, I saw on Facebook there was an article about how to survive when you fall into a corn silo. Now I know that I will never be in this situation, but I read the article anyway, because I really wanted to know in case it ever did happen to me!

As we read David’s story, I don’t think any of us will ever be in this situation, but as Disciples of Christ, we are put into situations where we are tempted to take matters into our own hands, to tell God to hurry up or we are going to take care of it ourselves.

When Disciples are faced by worldly opposition, it may seem easier to hide in despair, or to seek security in money, power, revenge. But this is not the way God wants it to be. It is not his will for us.

So what can we do in these situations? How do we have confidence enough to wait in silence for God to save us?

How can we have the testimony of trust that David talks about in verse 7?

C — Testimony of trust

Psalm 62:7 ESV

On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

David goes on to tell us how we can have this kind of trust in God.

He shifts from talking to himself and to the attackers, to talking to the people in the congregation who are singing with him.

Psalm 62:8 ESV

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah

Here David give us a few ways to develop our trust, our confidence that God will bring us salvation, or rescue from a situation.

The first thing is that we have to know what we are aiming for.

We aim to have trust in God at all times. Not just when things are going well, but even in the hard times. Even when we are being hunted down.

We cant be fair weather fans of God, we have to commit All Times to Him.

So the first step is decide to make a commitment to trust him, which is hard, so we need to follow it up.

We have to pour out our hearts before God.

In order to pur out our hearts to anyone, we have to first learn to trust them. This isnt an overnight thing for most people. We have to earn trust. We have to know that they are not going to hurt us. We have to know that they can help us, and most importantly that they will help us.

We have to size up the situation.

David does this in verse 9.

B — Pessimistic complaint

Psalm 62:9 ESV

Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.

David considers the pros and cons of the situation. He looks at reality, not just his perception of reality.

He notes that their are people who are poor who have no influence and no power, and there are people who are rich and think grand things about themselves that more than likely are not true, or at least not good.

If you added both of these people together, their works, their strength, their power, their influence, their abilities would be lighter than a breath. Nothing more than hot air.

David has to be considering what God is capable of at this point. He has seen many things in his life time, but he also knows what God has done in the past for his ancestors. He is setting the scene for a decision he has to make.

Psalm 62:10 ESV

Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them.

Verse 10 is David encouraging the congregation to avoid doing the same things that the attackers are doing to him. He tell them they will be no better off than the attackers if they lower themselves to this level.

How can he be so confident of the ability and the willingness of God to save him, so much so that he does not have to resort to his own means and his own power?

A — Testimony of trust

Psalm 62:11 ESV

Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,

God indeed has the power needed. With the once, twice pattern, he is saying this is a sure thing. It is guaranteed. He knows it as a fact that God has the power to save him.

Psalm 62:12 ESV

and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.

And along with the power, God has the desire to save him. He has steadfast love for his children and desires to save them.

God will judge each of us on the amount of trust we put on him.

Trust in God will manifest itself in a life of love for God and for others.

We have to have trust that God has everything in his hands.

He is not up in heaven going- “man i don't know what i have gotten myself into this time”

He is not afraid because we lost the battle for abortion years ago, or the definition of marriage as one man and one woman, or that prayer and bibles were taken out of schools. He is not sitting on the throne wondering what his next move is.

David knows this.

Author of Proverbs 24:12 knew this.

Proverbs 24:12 ESV

12 If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?

Paul knew this as well.

Romans 2:6 ESV

6 He will render to each one according to his works:

inspiration/reflection:

As Disciples in our modern age, especially here in America, we are most likely never going to be hunted down for anything. We may feel that we are being persecuted, but we are not. There are countries today that this is a legitimate fear, that someone will want to kill us either for what we believe, or just because we are in the way. They, just like Absolom, will do anything they can to kill and destroy.

David has the confidence to trust God to save him and bring justice- a theme that Paul would later write about in Romans 12.

Romans 12:19–21 ESV

19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This is also true when the enemy is yourself.

This is where I struggle with this the most. I don't have enemies trying to kill me, but I do have a mind that is always trying to defeat me, and I know that I cant be the only one here that has felt this way.

We are sinful humans who have inherited a sinful nature. It is not natural for us to trust God, to trust others, or to even trust ourselves.

We have to work at it, just as David did. He flip flopped back and forth, weighing the situation and the pros and cons, but he ended up firmly deciding that God was able and willing to bring salvation to him.

next steps:

We can demonstrate the same faith, the same trust in God that David did in Psalm 62.

We can set our minds to trust in him.

We can pray openly and honestly to him, showing how much we trust him because he is worthy of our trust.

and we can remember that he has all power. He is capable of saving us.

And he has steadfast love for us, so he is willing to save us.

The ultimate display of this steadfast love and power to save is shown by God sending his own son Jesus to us as a sacrifice for our sin.

This is evidence that David didn't have, but he had the promise of the coming Messiah and the trust that God’s will would be done no matter what happened, as long as he remained faithful and trusted in God.

Psalm 62 can be sung, or quoted, just as our “Sam, Sam He’s our man if he cant do it no one can” song, to encourage us, and to remind us that it is OK to doubt God, its OK to have fears and anxiety, but its not OK to take matters into our own hands and pull them out of God’s fully capable and fulling willing hands.

prayer:

Lets pray,

Father, in our hearts, we bow down in order that we might sit underneath the instruction of your Word.

In today’s Psalm, we read about David and his trust in you as his rock and salvation. How he trusted in you alone for everything.

We read about his enemies and how they trusted in their own strength or riches, and how he warns the congregation that you are all powerful and ever loving and you alone can bring lasting security.

Lord we have been reassured that we can have confidence in your protection and our eternal salvation through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for us.

Lord we praise you that you are our rock, our fortress, our salvation.

We praise you that you are our hope when we are distressed.

We praise you that you are all powerful, full of steadfast love and that you are the perfect judge.

Our souls want to wait in silence for you. We confess that there are times we did not wait. Forgive us of those times, and help us to further trust in you in the future.

Help us to follow your ways, and not the ways of the world.

Thank you for being our rock, our fortress, our salvation.

In your son Jesus’ name we pray,

Amen.