Longing for Salvation

Victorious God

[Scripture]

For today’s message, let us turn to the book of Psalms 70:1-5. Let’s all recite it together. On the count of 3. 1, 2, 3. 시편 70:1–5

“1 Hasten, O God, to save me; come quickly, Lord, to help me.

2 May those who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.

3 May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” turn back because of their shame.

4 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who long for your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!”

5 But as for me, I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer; Lord, do not delay.”

Amen

[Sermon]

Good evening PW. Welcome to Surf worship service. Let’s take this time to greet one another. Let’s turn to our friends and say, “We’re in this together.” What are we in together? We’re in this journey, this life, this battle together. Not to compete with one another but to support and to be together to be victorious in our lives as the followers of Christ Jesus. Amen? Amen.

I truly hope this is what PW is about for everyone. Not only a place for worship but to be a place to find true fellowship in Jesus.

Before we dig deep into Psalm 70:1-5, I want to us to read Psalm 40:13-17. Let’s read it together on the count of 3. 1, 2, 3.

13 Be pleased to save me, LORD; come quickly, LORD, to help me.

14 May all who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.

15 May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” be appalled at their own shame.

16 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who long for your saving help always say, “The LORD is great!”

17 But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; you are my God, do not delay.

It is very similar the only big difference you could see in the two Psalms is that in Psalms 40 there is “Thanksgiving” whereas in Psalm 70, there is none. Because of this the omittance in this poem we see the urgency that this poet is going through right now. He has not time to even thank God. He gets right to the point of saying, “God! God come quickly and save me.”

But save him from what?

2 May those who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.

3 May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” turn back because of their shame.

This guy at the moment is being threatened. He’s life is on the line. The enemies are out there to ruin his reputation, and they are finding Joy from doing all this.

So this narrator is saying, “God stop my enemies! Have your vengeance upon them!”

4 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who long for your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!”

5 But as for me, I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer; Lord, do not delay.”

Refer Psalm 40.

2. Outline:

1) Urgency

2) For God’s Help

3) Situation: Enemies are out there to get his life and to ruin him for fun.

4) Praise the Great God.

5) For I need a great God. Poor and needy.

Genre: Lament (It is a cry out to God to show his Greatness)

40 is the basis of this genre and 70 is the changed version with an intention. That intention shows how God intervenes in the times that he is needed.

3. What is this Psalmist trying to say?

What is the message that he is trying to send out to the readers. Is it ask God to condemn and judge our so-called enemies?

I said that it is a lament. A lament with urgency.

So in other words The poet is asking God’s help to come quick so that he could praise and honor him.

Now, I want to ask you all this question. What do you do when you are in need of an immediate help from God. Actually what do you do when you need help in your life. Do you seek God. Or do you do nothing about it?

For me, it takes me a long time but I end up asking God. I say I end up doing so because, I do everything I can do with my strength and ability to solve the problem that I am facing. Why? Because I am arrogant. I am arrogant to a point where I say, I have control over my life! It just shows how dumb I am. Because all my life was about was God telling me that I have no power over my life.

The most difficult time in my life is when I went through my break up with my first girlfriend. She came to me with a scripture from Isaiah saying that, she needs to love her self more to love me. “I love you but I have to break up with you.”

Do you know how miserable you feel? Guys if you don’t like the person your dating, tell them upfront! There is nothing more dehumanizing that blaming it on others. I felt my hear tear into pieces. I couldn’t sleep and eat. I would think and go over the reasons of the break up. But still, I couldn’t put anything back together.

Because I tried to make my wounds heal. Because I tried to recover the relationship. I had to carry this pain for such a long time. She said that it was all because of God. But because it is God, I couldn’t blame him. But when I let that tension go and came true with God, there was healing.

No matter what the issue is, What this Psalmist is saying, give it to God and you will see the great God. For he is going to take care of everything Period.

Studies, ask God’s help. Your relationship with God? Come clean with him. Your dreams goals and identity. Come clean with God. Like our Sunday’s sermon just follow JEsus and find rest in him. That is all we need to do.

No matter what our situation the great God is going to take care of everything and he is going to give us victory.

Repeat after me. Help me God.

That is all we need to do. And through this despair God is going to pull us through.

Just a funny story, in the beginning of the year my wife she had three prayer points.

Goodness of God.

God is a Good god and like how he has been good to us by giving us salvation he is going to give us his strength when we need him. God! I need the good god in my life reign on me and help me through my chaos like life.

Hope in God.