Psalm 119, Part 2 - A Pilgrim’s Plea: Struggling in a Strange Land
Notes
Transcript
A Pilgrim’s Plea: Struggling in a Strange Land
Opening story of pilgrimage or being a stranger in a strange land and it being hard.
I did much of my international travel during my earlier adult years. That, of course, means that there was no Google Translate, Google Maps, GPS, or anything else that makes international travel easy today. I was truly a stranger in strange lands. I didn't speak the languages. I barely knew the culture. I had to figure out what to do if things went wrong. I got lost a lot.
The one thing I had was a map. I never left the hotel without it because at the very least, I could point to where I wanted to go and have someone trace their finger along the route I needed to take. It was sometimes hard. There were a few times I just wanted to go home because I was lonely or the native people didn’t like American tourists. But I couldn't until I finish what I was doing and it was time to board a plane.
I have experienced those feelings throughout my life just getting by day-to-day. I look around at people embracing things I don’t understand, dealing with problems I don’t have solutions to, and people who didn’t like me being here and wishing I would go away. Those things lead to frustration, anger, hurt feelings, even anxiety and depression.
You’ve felt it, too. Those times you just long from Jesus to come back and make everything right. Those longings are indication that we know we’re not home.
The Bible is clear that we, as followers of Christ, are pilgrims in a strange land. That this isn’t our home.
· Hebrews 11:13 – in reference to the “Hall of Faith” of Hebrews 11
13 These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.
These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.
· Philippians 3:20
20 Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
· 1 Peter 2:11
11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.
Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.
I’ve been meditating this week on John 16:33: “ I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”
33 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”
He said this on the heels of explaining that He was about to go away and they would be scattered and they would mourn. But in spite of the circumstances surrounding his death, or the trouble that would come following his ascension, their peace would not come through anything in this world. It would come through Jesus, alone.
We are Kingdom citizens and we have to consider how we live through the “suffering” with victory.
The psalmist deals with this theme in Gimel and Daleth and gives us some helpful insight in how to live victoriously: Gimel deals with external challenges and Daleth with internal chaos.
I. One of the first things the psalmist helps us realize is how naturally ill-equipped we are to live here as Kingdom citizens.
Because of our fallen nature, we are very suited and skilled for living in a fallen world. Our every natural inclination is to fall in line with it. Not so much when it comes to a land so unlike this world.
The first thing we need to realize is that we are really good at living defeated lives in a fallen world as fallen humans, but we need something more to live joy-filled lives as Kingdom citizens in a fallen world.
In John 10:10, Jesus said the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I’ve come that you may have abundant life. Do you feel like you’re experiencing abundant life.
10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
It’s freedom. Freedom from worry, and guilt, and depression, and sin.
I don’t want to oversimplify anything or the struggles that we’re dealing with. I know just how hard those things are to defeat – but I also know that some of those struggles wouldn’t be nearly AS hard, if we had access to all the resources of heaven we’ve been promised.
Peter said (2 Peter 1:3), “His divine power has given us everythingwe need for life and godliness through our knowledge of himwho called us by his own glory and goodness."
3 His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
We already have all we need. Paul said, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." — Romans 8:37
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Do you feel like something is missing that’s keeping you from experiencing what these apostles are talking about?
It may be treasure that’s hidden in plain sight.
ILLUS: Without my glasses, you could put a treasure box in the middle of the floor and I wouldn’t see it.
But put my glasses on, it’s mine!
Maybe it’s not that we don’t have all we need to be overcomers. Maybe we just need the right glasses to see what’s already there!
That’s what the Psalmist is talking about. He has the Law, but He needs God to give him the special glasses to see what’s life-giving about it.
17 Deal generously with your servant so that I might live; then I will keep your word. 18 Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wondrous things from your instruction. 19 I am a resident alien on earth; do not hide your commands from me. 20 I am continually overcome with longing for your judgments. 21 You rebuke the arrogant, the ones under a curse, who wander from your commands.
Deal generously with your servant so that I might live; then I will keep your word.
18 Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wondrous things from your instruction. 19 I am a resident alien on earth; do not hide your commands from me. 20 I am continually overcome with longing for your judgments. You rebuke the arrogant, the ones under a curse, who wander from your commands.
He sounds desperate. Needy. Incapable of following after God in a foreign land. He understands this isn’t his home and that changes everything.
If you don’t understand that fact about yourself, nothing will ever change. You can’t keep calling yourself citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven while continuing to live according to the standards of this one.
Notice what he asks for:
For God to reveal His judgments. What does that mean?
He wants to know what God has judged as right and wrong. What God says about how to live a pure, holy, joy-filled life. How to deal with the struggles and attacks that are part of this broken world, because he understands what happens to those who don’t: they are under a curse.
So, knowing God’s righteous judgments that lead to blessing is treasure to him!
Do you long for this kind of treasure to experience God’s blessing and not His curse?
If we repent of our sin and believe on the Lord, Jesus, we will be free from the curse of death, but that doesn’t mean we will experience all the blessing He has for us here and now.
If you aren’t reading your Bible, you’re not even looking for it, and you won’t find it.
But if you are, are you asking God to give you the insight to understand; for the Holy Spirit to make it come alive to you and understand who God is and how powerful He is there to work in your life every day?
I’m really grateful for the rest of this text because it shows us two circumstances that threaten to steal our joy and approach to each. This is ours according to the riches provided by the Holy Spirit who has given us everything we need for life and godliness.
22-24 show us the psalmist attitude and response to external attacks, and 25-32 show us the process the psalmist goes through in dealing with internal turmoil, anxiety, and depression.
1. External
(Psalm 119:22-24)
22 Take insult and contempt away from me, for I have kept your decrees. 23 Though princes sit together speaking against me, your servant will think about your statutes; 24 your decrees are my delight and my counselors.
22 Take insult and contempt away from me, for I have kept your decrees.
23 Though princes sit together speaking against me, your servant will think about your statutes; 24 your decrees are my delight and my counselors.
Clearly, there is a situation where he’s been slandered or criticized. How he responds is so helpful!
First, we need to point out that the more faithful we are to Christ, the more we can expect insults and contempt (and can come even from within the church, which is one of Satan’s favorite tactics).
How he responds:
1.) 2nd part first: I have kept your decrees
He makes certain he has been faithful in following God’s “judgments”.
2.) He takes the problem to God and leaves it there.
a.) (22) He asks God to take it away.
b.) (23) He ignores it, remaining committed to God’s Word
“The best way to deal with slander is to pray about it. God will either remove the slander or remove the sting... you be quiet and let your advocate plead your cause.”~ Charles Spurgeon
We need not be bothered by false slander. Instead stay focused on, as the Psalmist says, “thinking about God's statutes, and delighting in his decrees.” They are our counselors.
Let Him fight the battle!
X Exodus 14: 14
14 The Lord will fight for you, and you must be quiet.”
It was the princes delight to slander, and the psalmist’s delight to meditate.
Illustration: focusing on Scriptural Truth and taking it to God is like noise cancelling headphones
2. Internal – when the attacks come from within
Understand this truth: Even with the resolve to trust the Lord, we are still prone to feel the weight of life in a broken world. We are not immune to anxiety or depression.
Illustration: my own battle with anxiety and depression. Charles Spurgeon battled with it as well.
25 My life is down in the dust; give me life through your word. 26 I told you about my life, and you answered me; teach me your statutes. 27 Help me understand the meaning of your precepts so that I can meditate on your wonders. 28 I am weary from grief; strengthen me through your word. 29 Keep me from the way of deceit and graciously give me your instruction.
Notice how deep the psalmist is in depression: (25, 28a)
The psalmist says his life is in the dust. This conveys a lot of meaning according to Israelite culture of throwing dust on themselves when they were in deep sorrow. He is weary from grief. His soul melts with sorrow. Whatever the psalmist is dealing with it is of the deepest struggle.
Notice what he does: He runs Home (25-29)
Today is Father’s Day and it’s a good reminder that we have a Father who deeply cares for us and He wants us to run to Him when we’re falling apart.
ILLUS: My first year of Scout camp, stuck in a tent with the bully of the troop. Ran crying to my parents and jumped in my Dad’s arms.
Notice what he does when He goes there:
(25) a) He doesn’t plead for comfort or relief. But Life!
He has no strength; he needs more life. ABUNDANT LIFE!
Remember John 10:10b “…I have come to give abundant life!”
If you’re in despair, despair to God. Cry to Him! Keep asking, seeking, and knocking!”
ILLUS: Parable of Unjust Judge
1 Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up. 2 “There was a judge in a certain town who didn’t fear God or respect people. 3 And a widow in that town kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or respect people, 5 yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice, so that she doesn’t wear me out by her persistent coming.’ ”
6 Then the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 Will not God grant justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay helping them? 8 I tell you that he will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
What does he say is the conduit or channel of that life? THE WORD!
Psalm 19:7a
7 The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one’s life; the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy,
making the inexperienced wise.
3 He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your ancestors had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
16 Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became a delight to me and the joy of my heart, for I bear your name, Lord God of Armies.
2 Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation,
(26) b) Honest confession-- “this is how I feel.” or “this is what I've done.”
God knows already. It is an act of faith to tell him, believing He can do something.
Strips us of pride when we understand our condition and are prepared to lay it bare before God.
(26b) God heard and responded
· Psalm 34:18
18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit.
· Matthew 5: 3
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
( 27 ) c) Cry for understanding. Help me understand the practical meaning of your word.
As I read, let me hear your voice. I need you.
Illustration: Todd’s last request of me. Let me hear and let me believe everything this says.
( 29 ) d) Plea for protection
keep me away from deceit.
Keep me from the lies of the accuser.
When you are depressed, you are vulnerable. Call for protection:
X Romans 12: 1-2
1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Illustration: The Spirit uses the Word as a firewall of protection from the lies of the Enemy, renewing our mind as we re-focus our attention onto the Truth that we know.
Strengthens his resolve to take action: (30-32)
( 30) I choose to be faithful so I must stay focused on the word.
( 31 ) “cling” to the truth it conveys; Hope in it.
( 32 ) pursue deeper understanding, knowing God will honor that.
It's not a magic formula to overcome depression or anxiety. It is the way in which God tells us to walk that leads to his speaking into our situation and bringing abundant life.
This doesn’t mean there’s no place for medication in certain circumstances, but don’t do go looking for other remedies at the expense of going to the great physician and what he has already said.
Conclusion
