How well do we suffer?
Notes
Transcript
Today we get to read a of a reality in Psalm 119 that is the reality of the Psalm as a whole of course and really throughout the entirety of God’s Word.
I love what Craig said this last week about trials. This life is one where you will go through trial after trial. We are never going to come to a point here on this side of glory where we are going to be free of trials.
It is what God uses through sin to bring about sanctification here on this earth to prepare us for an eternal weight of glory. as we read in 1 Cor. 4.
The hard truth we learn from scripture is that God transforms those who are going through tribulation.
Tribulation, trials, suffering: This is the arena in which transformation happens and in which we see God do miraculous work in His children in the scriptures.
This is also the arena in which we have seen God’s grace bring millions of people to come to know Him through His Son Jesus Christ since the words of Jesus, “Come follow me.”
This is the arena in which we have seen God do miraculous things through His church over the years. Great awakenings have come out of trials, tribulations, suffering. Massive revivals have began from such events. The church, the bride of Christ historically actually blossoms when faced with such persecution and sufferings.
On the other side, the church historically atrophies when surrounded by comfort, freedom from persecution or trials and is able to live without much struggle.
Trails, tribulation, suffering… is the arena in which God uses for His glory on this side of eternal glory.
We see this in this section of Psalm 119 really even more than before, the last strophe of the first half. The writer brings it to a climactic expression of the psalmist’s need for God.
I love reading through Psalm 119 because it shows, in every single stanza, the dynamic between suffering and affirmations during the struggle for our love of God and His Word.
Even to which in the previous stanza’s, the author of this Psalm recognized that it was good for him to be afflicted; he recognized that affliction enabled him to know God’s decrees, and that it was the Lord who in faithfulness allowed affliction to come into his life.
Here in this stanza:
The writer is being honest with God and letting Him know He is at the end of his rope; He can’t go any further, and yet, during this whole struggle, during his suffering… he continues to remind himself that GOD’S WORD REVEALS HIS PROMISES, WHICH GIVE US HOPE FOR A RENEWED LIFE AND ULTIMATE SALVATION.
As we read this together, we can ask ourselves this hard question.
How well do I suffer?
I realize this is a kind of oxymoronic phrase.
To our culture this doesn’t make since.
Pastor, what do you mean, do I suffer well? I shouldn’t have to suffer. Or have very much of it at least.
We live in a culture where we try to eliminate as much struggle as possible. We tend to get into this mold and rut and believe this is what is best for us. No struggle. And so when it does come, we can fall into the trap of thinking “Why God? Why me?” Why are are you making me go through this.
We must come to realize that the word discipline is a “love word” before it’s a “trouble word”.
Just as a loving father should allow their children to go through struggle on this earth, so is our Father in heaven. Who know’s we must go through it to become more and more like Him.
11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
How well do I go through the tribulations of this life.
We see here in this Psalm I believe a blue print to how to go about suffering.
Being honest with the Lord. (Don’t feel like you have to pray these nice and neat prayers).
Bringing up your calamities. Your sufferings. Your questions. You honest thoughts. Your emotions. The places in your life where you have lacked faith or where you just don’t understand.
During or in between those instances, re-affirm our love for God and His word, remind ourselves of His promises and the realities that in Him there is new life as well as current and eventual salvation.
Reaffirm/Re-live the Gospel every day, knowing that the Love of God is sufficient.
Let’s dig in this evening…
81 My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word. 82 My eyes long for your promise; I ask, “When will you comfort me?”
81 My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word. 82 My eyes long for your promise; I ask, “When will you comfort me?”
The writer begins this section and prayer with an affirmation and longing for the salvation that can only come from God.
The word here in the Hebrew for the writer ‘longing for His salvation’ brings with it this sense of completeness in the end. A time when it is finished.
Reminds you about when Jesus, nailed to the cross with His last breath in John 19:30 after receiving the sour wine saying the words, ,”it is finished.”
The writer is longing for a salvation both in the here and now if God wills it but also this salvation in the future.
This is pointing forward to Christ… to a time when this salvation will be provided through God Himself in flesh.
The writer understands that this salvation that he speaks of is given to us through God’s Word.
The promises are there in what the writer would have had at his disposal even then.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The protoevangelium (or first gospel). Pointing forward to Jesus’ birth, His redemption and victory of Satan.
It is God’s Word that gives us this hope in the midst of our sufferings.
Even in the midst of these sufferings, knowing and being confident that the Lord can rescue him from his situation.
EVEN IN THIS LONGING FOR SALVATION AND PROMISE…
He still ask the question… Lord, when will you comfort me?
“Lord I see this eventual end of suffering, but I need comforting now.”
One commentator states that the adverb here “when” is often used in laments and it typically expresses impatience that the Lord has not yet put an end to the suffering right now.
Even the writer here in Psalm 119 is wondering why…
we often will wonder why… how long??
C.S. Lewis said,
“I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth – only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair."
C.S. Lewis and the writer, understands in the midst of these feelings to be hoping in God’s Word and searching for the truth found in it. The absolute truth that we are given.
You read about this dance going on between the writers lamenting for comfort right now but reaffirming his hope in the salvation of the Lord.
83 For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, yet I have not forgotten your statutes. 84 How long must your servant endure?
83 For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, yet I have not forgotten your statutes. 84 How long must your servant endure?
“How long must I wait to be comforted Lord, for this is the truth of how I feel.”
To some of us, myself included. It can be difficult to understand what the writer is talking about here. We don’t really come around wineskins very often if any.
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t had wine out of a wineskin… ever. (Although that would be kind of cool)
What happens when a wineskin has been set in smoke for a long period of time?
Well, wineskins would become parched, dry, dark and stained from the soot of the fire, shriveled from the heat and smoke.
A “wineskin in the smoke” became symbolic of suffering to the point of shriveling up with sorrow.
John MacArthur explains it this way: “Just as smoke will dry out, stiffen and crack a wineskin thus making it useless, so the psalmist’s affliction has debilitated him.”
The FULL WEIGHT OF AFFLICTION has now pressed in.
I think many of us have ran into times like these. Even as believers. If somebody tells you they haven’t, well they have not lived much or they are sinning because they are lying.
Lord I am currently brittle, I am weak, I am shriveled to the point to where I feel like I am about to be destroyed.
(THIS CAN BE FROM ENEMIES, OR THIS CAN ALSO BE SELF INFLICTED.)
“Yet I do not forget your statutes.”
He continues to remember what the Lord has said.
He draws his strength from what the Lord has decreed and declared.
The writer understands a reality of emotions…
That
“God designed emotions to be gauges, not guides.”
This is why Paul wrote
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
The writer continues his lamenting…
When will you judge those who persecute me? 85 The insolent have dug pitfalls for me; they do not live according to your law. 86 All your commandments are sure; they persecute me with falsehood; help me! 87 They have almost made an end of me on earth,
When will you judge those who persecute me? 85 The insolent have dug pitfalls for me; they do not live according to your law. 86 All your commandments are sure; they persecute me with falsehood; help me! 87 They have almost made an end of me on earth,
The psalmist again goes into a expression of questioning why? And when saying
“when will you put these people through your ultimate judgment?”
“They lay traps for me everywhere I go.
Even though they are not hunted down, even though they have these easy to live lives. (For our context we can say has money, lives without struggle, lives without worry, lives without disease or affliction)
They themselves do not live according to your law like I strive to do!”
…this can hit a little bit closer to home for some.
We ourselves have come across those who mean to do us harm and at the same time act like they are the law unto themselves.
Or they’re lives seem free of struggle.
We say to God…
They do not live according to your law!
The Psalmist says…
I do… and they are SURE! (Your commandments are Steadfast, trustworthy, faithful.)
(This is a contrast to the arrogant)
The arrogant speaks lies, but the Lord speaks truth.
But they! They come at me with lies and falsehoods!
I am almost at my end!
This church, is a further explanation of him explaining to the readers that is like a wineskin in the smoke.
The writer is in a tough place, in between knowing God’s promises and the fulfillment of His promises.
One writer said this…
Psalms 73–150 כ Kaph
In a manner similar to Ps 73:25–28, he looked beyond the present problem to the future solution; and he shifted his focus from the distress on earth to his deliverance in God.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
but I have not forsaken your precepts. 88 In your steadfast love give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.
but I have not forsaken your precepts. 88 In your steadfast love give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.
His enemies have pushed him to the breaking point.
But his faith in the Lord did not crumble.
Their lies did not deceive or defeat him BECAUSE his commitment to God’s Word kept Him through the conflict.
He looks beyond the present problems to the future solution.
THIS, shifts his focus from the distress on earth to this deliverance in God.
And so I will ask you the question again…
HOW WELL DO WE SUFFER?
Is it pretty? No
I’m not asking how pretty it is. That’s not what i’m implying here.
Suffering, trials, tribulations.
They are never going to be pretty, your prayers are never going to sound good (they may sound angry, they may sound faithless, they may sound un appreciative to the outside listeners
, you’re not really going to sound good to friends as you tell them of what’s happening in your life.
Often times quite frankly this can be ugly.
I ask… How well are you suffering as in, during that suffering, trial… how well are you humbling yourself to the will of God here on this earth all the while allowing God’s Word to sustain you.
Some have different reactions when they come to a point in life to where they’re feeling like wineskin in smoke.
And we may even have different reaction in different seasons of our lives…
Some murmor and complain against God.
But many times, through murmuring and complaining, people bring God’s anger and righteous judgment on themselves, especially as they complain about God’s providence in their lives. Old Testament Israel stands as a tragic example of a group of people, who, in the time of testing, in the dark times of their national life, complained bitterly against God.
Others who reach a low point in life, stoically look to themselves for strength. They hold to the old adage, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” and they plan to tough it out on their own.
Let it it not be with us!
Let this be a reminder that this is not the way in the face of suffering.
Spurgeon said this in his commentary to close this stanza out…
We ought greatly to admire the spiritual prudence of the Psalmist, who does not so much pray for freedom from trial as for renewed life that he may be supported under it. When the inner life is vigorous all is well. David prayed for a sound heart in the closing verse of the last octave, and here he seeks a revived heart; this is going to the root of the matter, by seeking that which is the most needful of all things. Lord, let it be heart work with us, and let our hearts be right with thee.