New Mercies and New Mornings

I hope you had a good night’s sleep and I am excited to be back with you in God’s Word this morning. I mentioned last night that everything that we go through this week is going to connect to what came before it. Last night we looked at Psalm 91 and we saw how God is our protector and He is ultimately our one safe place and what I wanted to do this morning is sort of show you what we looked at last night in action. I want to be able to show you how applicable Psalm 91 is from the best of circumstances to some of the worst circumstances and while I had a number of options at my disposal, I wanted to stay in the book of Psalms and look at Psalm 3. One thing that I want to emphasize is that I see these mornings as more of a discussion than a full fledged sermon so if you have questions, feel free to ask them as we go. Who knows who King David is? Even if you don’t know everything about him, you have probably at least heard his name before or some of the things that happened in his life. Maybe you have heard of his battle against the giant Philistine known as Goliath or maybe you have heard his story of becoming king of Israel. Or maybe you have heard of one of his not so greatest hits of the time when he stole the wife of one of his best soldiers, got her pregnant, and then murdered her husband. Now it is hard to bounce back from something like that but David has this great story of repentance in 2 Samuel 12 and Psalm 51. Despite being called a man after God’s own heart, David by no means had an easy life. In fact, 2 Samuel 15-20 is likely one of the most difficult times of David’s life. David’s family was a total mess. If you think your family is complicated, you just need to look at David’s family. His family is like one that you might find in a soap opera or something. One of David’s sons falls in love with his half sister and then his brother ends up having him killed. This son that killed his brother was named Absalom and David’s problems with Absalom did not stop at that point. Absalom rebels against his father the king and David has to go on the run. Eventually Absalom is killed in battle but before that happens, David writes Psalm 3. Like I said earlier, I think that Psalm 3 is Psalm 91 in action. It shows that trust which can only come from a steadfast devotion to the Lord. So, what is it that David writes in Psalm 3?

Psalm 3 NASB95

A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. O Lord, how my adversaries have increased! Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, “There is no deliverance for him in God.” Selah. But You, O Lord, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head. I was crying to the Lord with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah. I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustains me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God! For You have smitten all my enemies on the cheek; You have shattered the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord; Your blessing be upon Your people! Selah.

The Lord Who Sustains Me

Now based off of what we just read, what is going on in David’s life. Like if you were to not know about what I just told you about this problem he had with Absalom, what would you think is going on in David’s life? I think that if we were to just look at the first 2 verses, we would see a man that has a lot of enemies. We see a man that some would be tempted to say that the entire world seems to be against him. We may even see a man that appears to be in a position of hopelessness. Not only is he being physically attacked, he is being spiritually attacked and that is something that we will look at a little bit tomorrow night. It’s as if those that are rising against David are saying, “God cannot and will not rescue you.” To put it simply, David appears to be in a very bleak situation and that’s without knowing that it is his very own son that is rising up against him. Having enemies is horrible. When that enemy is your own child, I cannot imagine the pain as a parent. How does David go on? He goes by faith. “But You, O Lord, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.” That is what David says in verse 3. Do you remember what we talked about last night? Remember what the Psalmist said of God in Psalm 91:4? “He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.” Doesn’t that sound like the same thing that David just said here in verse 3? David knows and he really knows from experience because this is not the first time that David has been on the run, this is not the first time where the optics looked bleak for David, no David has been here before, so to speak. What is it that got him through those days? Well it is the very same thing, the very same One that David has faith in now. David will get through this day and Lord willing the next day because he knows the One that sustains him. You see it’s not the size of your faith that saves you but the One that your faith is in. However, the greater your faith, the surer your confidence. Martin Luther said, “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain, that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” What is it that Luther is saying here about faith? What he is saying is that faith in the living God is living confidently in the grace that God has shown us. It is a steadfast devotion that we would be willing to lay our life down over and over again because we trust that the Lord will provide and be able to keep all of His promises. It is by faith that like David we are able to lay down and sleep and wake up in the morning because we know that the Lord sustains us. Look, when you went to bed last night, did you have any doubt that you would wake up in the morning? Did you have any feeling that the night would never end? Probably not. At this point in your life, you know that every night has had a morning. You have woken up from every single sleep that you have ever slept and you probably have not gone into each night questioning whether or not this will happen. Now we know that some people do pass away in their sleep but they don’t pass outside of God’s sovereign will. But we don’t go into sleep questioning whether or not morning will come, we simply trust and assume that it will. God’s sovereignty is the pillow that we lay our head on and it is because of His sustaining power that we wake up in the morning. We must simply trust and assume that God will be God and it is when we come to an understanding of all this that we will be able to say confidently with David in verse 8, “Salvation belongs to the Lord; Your blessing be upon Your people!” Now is David talking about spiritual salvation or physical salvation or rescue? Sort of what we talked about last night, if God is able to save us spiritually, why should we worry about what happens to us physically? If the greatest hurdle in our life has already been taken care of by Christ, why would we question whether or not He could rescue us out of these smaller hurdles? James Montgomery Boice said, “If God has saved you in this great matter of salvation- why should you tremble before the lesser, physical dangers of this life, however imposing and frightful they may seem? You should triumph by faith in God, as David did.” So, how can we make sure that we go out today without forgetting this? I think it would help if we looked quickly at what Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3.

New Morning Mercies

Before we do that though, does anyone know who the prophet Jeremiah was? Jeremiah was a prophet to the nation of Judah during the final years before the nation fell to King Nebuchadnezzar and the nation of Babylon. He also went with some of the Jews to Egypt following the destruction of Jerusalem. While this was going on, Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations. Does anyone know what a lament is? Lamentations is a word that basically means, a loud crying out. It’s a crying out of mourning. When people lose a love one and go to the funeral, they are lamenting that their loved one has passed and this is what Jeremiah is doing for the nation of Judah. He is lamenting the destruction that is coming to his people and the loss of his homeland. Jeremiah is actually known as the weeping prophet and that is because he weeps over his people, very similar to how Jesus would eventually weep over Jerusalem when He came to it in the last week of His life. All of this background information on Judah and Jeremiah is important because of what Jeremiah writes in the middle of Lamentations 3. With all this grief, all this mourning, all this lamenting and loss of life and home, what is it that the weeping prophet says in Lamentations 3:21-26? He says:

Lamentations 3:21–26 NASB95

This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the Lord.

Do these words sound like the words of a man that has lost everything? The words of a man that has lost his home, his nation, everything? No this sounds like a man that is refreshed and renewed every morning. This is a man with hope! This is a man that possesses nothing but because he possesses the Lord, he possesses everything! Jeremiah’s in a great place to be because when you have God, you have everything and if you don’t have God, you don’t have anything. Every single day, the God of all grace gives us new mercies. His compassion, His love, His faithfulness come time and time again. Everything that you and I possess in this life is a testimony to God’s lovingkidness and grace. Charles Spurgeon said, “If every day brings its trouble, every day also brings its mercy. No one can say that so truly as the person who has known what it is to prove God’s great faithfulness in the midst of great affliction. Whatever else we have lost, we have not lost our God.” So friends as you go about this day, think of this reality. Think of how God has sustained you and has woken you up every morning and with each morning comes a new testimony to His grace, mercy, and provision. You didn’t doubt that you would wake up this morning. So, why would you doubt that God is in control? Jeremiah says that the Lord is good to those that wait for Him and who seek Him. Won’t you seek Him this morning? Know with full confidence that those who seek after God will find Him. And if we have God, what else could we possibly need? Like John Knox, the great Scottish Reformer said, “A man who stands with God always makes the majority.” Won’t you stand with Him today? Let’s pray.