Psalm 40-From the Mess to the Mission

Key Elements

In Psalm 40, the Psalmist communicated that in the deepest pit of his life, God was there to deliver him, restore him, and use his testimony for the purpose of bringing glory to Him and drawing others to Him.

Main idea of the message: In the middle of our mess, God is always there—lifting us out of the pit, setting us on solid ground, and calling us to live with bold trust, faithful obedience, and a story that points others to Him.

I want my audience to learn to trust God no matter what they are facing in their lives knowing that God is there and is using the pits of life for His glory.

Intro

You’ve got to love technology right? We all know from experience with our phones, computers, cars, or any other modern device that technology can be our best friend or our worst enemy. And usually, all of those devices work great until we find ourselves in a situation where we really need them to and it’s at that point that they malfunction or glitch. Kristi and I watch a lot of television. We love movies and different shows we have found on Netflix and Amazon Prime. And now that it’s summer time, there’s not much on regular television. So, lately we have found ourselves watching different shows on the streaming services we have. And the expectation is that because you pay for these services and the internet that causes them to function, when you click on that app, the expectation is for it to come on and for you to be able to watch your show. But sometimes that doesn’t happen. Like this past week, we were getting ready for bed and there’s a food show on Netflix we watch when we go to bed at night just to take our minds off of everything. So, I go to Netflix, I click on the app, it comes on, I go to the show, I click on the next episode, and it freezes and then kicks me out of Netflix. So, I repeat the process again, and it kicks me out again, I repeat the process a third time and it kicks me out again. And after the fifth time, I look at Kristi and say “you try it, it doesn’t like me.” She tries it and it evidently didn’t like her either. So, now I’m determined. It’s 11:00 at night and I’m going to get Netflix to work because we pay for it and it should work. So, we try it a couple of more times, no luck. Now, I’m frustrated and determined. So I google the problem. Because evidently I’m not smart enough to fix it myself. And google walks me through what to do: uninstalling the app, reinstalling it, and then re-signing in. So, I go through all of that and it finally works. By this time it’s almost midnight and I’m too tired to watch the show, so I go to bed. So, what was the problem? Well, I had exhausted every answer I knew to fix the problem but nothing was working and, after coming to the end of my options, I had to resort to someone who had a greater knowledge about how to resolve the issue.

And a lot of times, for all of us, life is like that. In fact, more times than not, we find ourselves in that kind of situation. We hit moments in life where we find ourselves in a mess, either from our own doing or from the actions of others, and no amount of trying or thinking or action on our own can get us out. We find ourselves stuck in the messes that life brings. And this morning as we look at Psalm 40, we are reminded that in the midst of the messes of life, God doesn’t leave us there. In the midst of the messes of life, God steps in. For it’s here in this psalm, that David reminds us that in the deepest pit of his life, God was there to deliver him, restore him, and use his testimony for the purpose of bringing glory to God and drawing others to Him. You see, the ultimate truth that Psalm 40 communicates is that there is purpose in the pits of life and that God desires to take us from the mess, whatever it is, to the mission He has called us to and created us for. So, no matter what you have been through in your past, no matter what you are going through right now, and no matter what you will face in the future; today, God wants us to realize that we can trust Him no matter what we are facing because He is there and He is using the messes of our lives to put us on mission for Him.

Message

So, here’s our main idea for today: In the middle of our mess, God is always there—lifting us out of the pit, setting us on solid ground, and calling us to live with bold trust, faithful obedience, and a story that points others to Him.

Psalm 40 reminds us that God doesn’t just meet us in our mess but He leads us through it and gives us a mission on the other side. The journey from the pit to a life of purpose begins with patience and surrender resulting in a testimony worth sharing. From our text today, we are going to look at four ways God moves us from the mess to the mission.

1. God calls us to patiently wait on Him. (vs. 1-3)

Now, how many of us love to wait? Surprisingly, no one raised their hand. And that’s because none of us like waiting on anything. If you did raise your hand and I just couldn’t see it, you just lied in church. The truth is that none of us like to wait. But the truth also is that life is full of waiting. There are some things in this life that are instant, probably more than there used to be. But most of the time, we are going to find that we are waiting on something. And what’s interesting is that when we look at the Psalms as a whole, the idea of waiting on the Lord is a pretty common theme. David, in the psalms he has written, talks a lot about waiting on God. In Psalm 25:5 “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; I wait for you all day long.” In Psalm 25:21 “May integrity and what is right watch over me, for I wait for you.” In Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart be courageous. Wait for the Lord.” Psalm 37:7 “Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for him;...” Psalm 37:9 “For evildoers will be destroyed, but those who put their hope in the Lord will inherit the land.” Over and over again, the psalmist says “wait on God.”

And here in Psalm 40, that’s where he begins again. Look at vs. 1… Literally, “waiting, I waited.” Not only is he waiting on God but He is waiting patiently. He is quiet, He is still before God, He is hopeful and confident knowing that eventually in His time God will come through. This is not a “waiting on pins and needles” kind of thing, this is not waiting and in the back of his mind there’s a bit of doubt. No, this is confident hope that eventually, in the midst of the mess that David finds himself in, God will show up and will step in and take action. It’s a waiting that perseveres in the midst of the mess.

He says...(vs. 2-3)

Whatever situation that David finds himself in is so bad that he describes it as a “desolate pit.” It’s a situation that he has gotten into and can’t get out of on his own. He’s trapped, he’s stuck, and in his own power there is nothing he can do to escape the situation he finds himself in. Does this sound familiar? I think for most of us it does. It’s that situation that has entered our lives that we expected or maybe we didn’t. And no matter what we do to try and escape, despite our best effort, there’s no getting out. Despite all of the resources at our disposal, there’s no relief coming. And in that situation, we, like David, are called by God to patiently wait on Him. We are called by God to confidently wait on Him.

And, here’s the promise, when we wait, God moves. This is an incredible picture of rescue that David communicates here. It’s God turning His attention, His full attention to our situation. It’s the God of the universe using all of the resources at His disposal (which are endless) to come to our rescue. It’s our Heavenly Father hearing our cry for help and not only rescuing us from the mess but placing us on a firm foundation. It’s God giving us a new direction and David says as a result of this rescue, His life testifies of the grace of God that he’s been shown.

Now, the temptation for us is to read these verses and think that when we struggle, God is going to automatically bring relief, that He is going to automatically solve our problems and pull us out of the mess we find ourselves in. And sometimes He will, but what about when He doesn’t? What about when you’re in the middle of the mess and your view is so narrow? Even at that point, especially at that point, we wait on God. We trust in Him. We resist the temptation of rushing to fix every problem and control every outcome. Our confidence remains in Him because we know that at some point, God will move. And until He does, He gives us the grace we need to wait and to trust in Him. You see, the mission that God has created us for and called us to is realized in the midst of the mess because it’s in the midst of the mess that God is preparing us for the mission.

So, God calls us to wait patiently on Him. Second,...

2. God calls us to complete surrender. (vs. 4-6)

Not partial surrender or conditional surrender but complete surrender. It’s a surrender that’s not selective but one that yields every area to God. And this complete surrender is what we see coming forth in the psalmist’s life. He says in vs. 4… Basically, everything he has testified about God in the first three verses that he knows to be true in his own life, he proclaims will be true in the life of all who completely surrender their hearts and lives to the Lord. The personal testimony in vs. 1-3 now becomes a universal truth in vs. 4-6. Because what’s the alternative to complete surrender and trust in Lord, it’s trust in ourselves? When we turn from trusting in God, we turn to trusting in ourselves. We actually put ourselves in place of God in our lives. Now, I don’t think any of us are brave enough to say that out loud, but it’s what we do. When we live in partial surrender to God and not full surrender, what we are saying to God is “I trust you with this part of my life but I don’t know if you can handle this other part. So, I’ll control it myself.” And the psalmist is proclaiming that the best way for us to live is in complete surrender to the only One who is worthy of our trust.

And vs. 5 shows us why… He says… The reason God is worthy of our trust and surrender is because He has come through every time and even when He moves in ways we don’t expect or are different than we thought, He’s right on time and His grace is sufficient. And for those of us who know Jesus as Lord and Savior and have surrendered our hearts and lives to Him, we echo what the psalmist proclaims. That God is good, and faithful, and is always working for His glory and our good.

One commentator frames it well for us when he says, “The past is full of the Lord’s blessings, the present is complete with His care, and the future is abundant in His plans.” (Akin) This is our God who is worthy of our complete surrender.

And complete surrender means we prioritize obedience over ritual. When we think about how faithful our God is and that He is worthy of our trust and surrender. And we begin to recount and remember His faithfulness and His grace in our lives, the multiple times He has provided, so many times that we cannot even recall all of them, obedience is the only response. And obedience flows from the relationship that is built on the trust we have in our Heavenly Father. Look at vs. 6… When we come face to face with the faithfulness of God in our lives, religious ritual is an inadequate response. The only response is to bring our entire selves to God in surrender. It’s no longer about religious games and religious sacrifices, it’s about an obedient relationship with God because He is so good. It no longer is enough to do the minimal religious activity once or twice a week; but our heart’s desire is a life lived in obedience to our great God.

The psalmist says to move from the mess to the mission requires complete surrender. And in vs. 6, he emphasizes that willful surrender that is required of true followers of Jesus. David says, “you open my ears to listen.” Now, in modern times that sounds to us like God is opening the ears of the psalmist so he can hear what God is saying, but when we dig a little deeper and read it in context, we find there is more to it, there’s a deeper meaning. So, another translation of this verse is “but my ears you have pierced.” And that translation brings a little more clarity to what David is referring to here. In Exodus 21:6, a law had been established in Israel concerning servants who were serving in households of people they owed a debt to. In that day and time, people became servants or slaves for different reasons but a common one was that they owed money to someone and couldn’t pay the debt in full. So, to satisfy the debt, they agreed to become that person’s servant in their house for a certain amount of time. Usually the time was 7 years and then the debt was considered satisfied. But if a servant came to the end of his time and the debt was satisfied and he found himself in a really good position. His master was a good man who provided for the servant and his family. They found themselves well taken care of, maybe better than he could do in any other job. If that was the case, the person who was serving could approach his master and choose to become a life long servant. If the agreement was made, then there was an ear piercing ceremony that would occur where the servant was taken to the door of the house and a sharp awl was used and the ear of the servant was “marked or opened or pierced” and that servant was voluntarily attached to that house for life. It’s a person saying that “they know they have fulfilled their obligations to their master and they have served what they owed. But they love their master so much and they are so grateful for what he has given them that they will gladly obligate themselves for life, not out of debt or shame but out of love.” And this is what David is saying. This is his heart towards God. Complete surrender of himself, willful obedience to His God that goes beyond any religious action or ritual or obligation but is done totally and completely out of a life of surrender. David is saying “sacrifices are not enough, it is the heart and life of a person that God wants in surrender to Him.”

And ultimately, the psalmist is pointing his readers and us to Jesus Christ, the ultimate sacrifice for sin. The one who is the ultimate example of surrender and obedience to the the will of God the Father. The one who perfectly shows us what it means to live in complete surrender. Who set the ultimate example by going to the cross to pay the ultimate price for our sin once and for all.

And as we look to the example of Jesus and completely surrender our lives to Him to be used for His glory, it changes everything for us. It causes us to live holding nothing back from God. It causes us to yield every area of our lives to Him knowing that complete surrender is the best way for us to live. And it changes our outlook on church. We begin to see church and the things we do here not as an obligation or something we do once or twice a week to fulfill some kind of religious quota but this is all part of how we live our lives and it fuels our relationship with God. And we live in obedience to God, serving Him not out of obligation or duty but out of a love for God that runs deep within us. And as we live in complete surrender, sometimes that being more difficult than others, and as we prioritize obedience over obligation or duty, God moves us more towards the mission He is calling us to. Because it’s in that surrender and obedience that we are being molded and shaped by God and used by Him to advance the Gospel in the lives of those around us.

God calls us to complete surrender. And...

3. God calls us to tell our story. (vs. 8-10)

And this is where we begin to move from the mess to the mission. This is where we find purpose in the pits of life. If we wait patiently on God in the midst of the mess, if we completely surrender and live in obedience as we walk through every situation of life, then we begin to realize, on the other side of the mess, that this is God’s purpose. That the situation we faced or are facing, however it turned out was and is and will be used for the purpose of us proclaiming what God has done and is doing to all people. It’s all part of the story of our lives that God is writing. And this is what the psalmist has come to realize as he has walked through this situation and experienced the faithfulness of God. Look at what he proclaims in vs. 8-10...

David says “as a result of Your faithfulness and grace I have experienced in the midst of this time in my life, I will tell my story and proclaim it for all to hear.” He says “I delight to do your will, you Word is deep within me.” In the midst of this hardship in his life, David continues to seek God and hide His Word in his heart. And as a result, “I cannot keep quiet about who the Lord is and how faithful and holy and righteous He is.” He testifies about God among the people of God and He testifies about God among to anyone who will listen. He recognizes the goodness of God so much in His life that he is obligated to tell everyone.

And that’s what God has called all of us as followers of Jesus to do. There’s a phrase I love that a friend of mine said to me a while back and he heard it from someone else. It’s this “God never wastes our pain.” Think about that. What does that even mean? Here’s what that means, there is nothing you or I will ever go through in this life, no matter how painful and difficult it may be, that God will not use for His glory. Listen to me, you have a story, you have a testimony that God is writing and part of that story is the difficult things, the messes of your life; and God takes even the most difficult things in your life and mine, as part of your story, and uses that to advance the Gospel in the lives of others. The last two weeks, I’ve had conversations with two different people who have experienced some painful things in their pasts and both conversations have been about how they have surrendered to God and been obedient to Him and how God has shown them through sharing their story that He is using their painful past for His glory. God never wastes our pain.

But the tendency we have, even as followers of Jesus, is not to share those parts of our story because of shame or embarassment. And when we do that we miss the incredible opportunity God is giving us to be used by Him to be a part of the mission He has called us to. You see, the rescue we have experienced through Jesus Christ in our lives is never just for us. No, we testify of God’s rescue so others find hope. I always tell people who are going through difficult times that part of the goodness and the grace of God in the midst of that difficulty is that one day you will sit on the other side of the table from someone who is experiencing the same thing and you can look at them and tell them it hurts and it’s difficult but with and because of Jesus you will make it through. And God will use it for His glory. God calls us to tell our story because in the midst of our story is a personal testimony that is astonishingly powerful and real.

This is the mission that comes from the mess, that God uses our story of His rescue in our lives to give others the hope that only He can give.

Finally,...

4. God calls us to daily dependence. (vs. 11-17)

Here’s what we see that the psalmist comes full circle. Just because he has experienced the deliverance and the faithfulness of God in his life before doesn’t mean he won’t face hardship in the future. As long as we live in this sin filled world, difficulty will come. And the longer we live, the more we will face. This is the reality the psalmist faces, so he turns to God again in vs. 11-16 and in confidence he says...

You see, even after we experience the faithfulness and the rescue of God, life is still hard which means we never run out of our need for Him. We will never get to the point in our lives where we won’t need God’s help and grace in our lives. Because of our own struggle with sin and because of the sinful world we are surrounded by, we daily depend on God. We cannot make it on our own. And that’s such a good place to be. In fact, it is the best place to be. So, we constantly trust God relying on His help and grace. Because He is the only one who can save and deliver and rescue us. And as we live in this daily dependence on Him and rely on His constant rescue, He proves over and over again that He is faithful and He is good.

Closing

Last week, was probably one of the most difficult Sundays for me that I’ve ever experienced since I have been your pastor. I had gotten back from Honduras a couple of weeks before and had gotten a cold and the Sunday before my voice was a little weak but I still had it but as that week began to progress it got weaker and weaker until I really didn’t have one. I went to the Dr. and go meds, I tried not talking, I googled what to do, tried all kinds of different things and nothing was working. So, I had given Bryce a copy of the sermon and said you might have to preach it. Last Saturday night, I was stressed and a little worried because honestly, I didn’t want to be a distraction from what God wanted to say last Sunday. So I prayed and prayed, I got here early Sunday morning like I usually do and my voice was still weak. I drank water and hot tea and nothing was working. And even during the service as we were singing, I considered handing Bryce my sermon and giving him my mic. I was at the place where I had no voice, I was totally stripped of everything in my own ability, and I was totally dependent on God. And that morning before I walked up to the pulpit, the Lord said, that’s right where you need to be. Not just this Sunday but always. In every situation of life. Daily dependent on Me.

And that’s really the heart of Psalm 40. That in the midst of the messes of life, God desires to move us from the mess to the mission and get us to the point where we realize that we are called to wait patiently on the Lord, we are called to completely surrender to Him, we are called to share our story the God is writing, and ultimately, we are called to daily dependence on Him.

May we join with the Psalmist in saying (Psalm 40:17 )“I am oppressed and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my helper and my deliverer; my God, do not delay.”

And so, the question for us today is this: Do you know the great Deliverer of Psalm 40? Is He your Savior and Lord? Do you know the Savior that gave His life for you so that you would live the rest of your days testifying of His rescue in your life? This morning, if you’ve never placed your faith and trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord, we want to give you that opportunity.

You can know this great God who loves you and created you for a relationship with Him.

And even when our sin and the mistakes that we made separated us from Him and

There was nothing we could do to remove our sin and make us right before a Holy God,

He sent His Son Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sin to pay the price for our sin, to die on the cross, He was buried in a grave, but on the third day He rose and is alive today.

And today if you will repent of the way you’re living your life, admit that you cannot make it without Him and trust Him as your Lord and Savior, He will save you.

You’ll have eternal life in heaven when you leave this earth but the greatest part of all of it is that you will have a relationship with God who by His Holy Spirit comes to live in your heart to forgive you of your sin and to walk with you for the rest of your days.

So, this morning, I would ask everyone with heads bowed and eyes closed if you’ve never surrendered your heart to Jesus, we want to give you that opportunity. Right now, where you are sitting, just tell Jesus that you know you need Him. That you repent of the way you’re living your life. Tell Him you surrender your heart and life to Him as Savior and Lord. That you want Him to save you and forgive you and you want to live for Him the rest of your days. Then tell Jesus “thank you for saving me.

With heads still bowed and eyes still closed, if you just prayed that prayer and became a Christ follower. In just a moment we are going to conclude our time together with a time of worship and commitment and if you made a decision to follow Jesus today, I want to invite you to come this morning and let us pray with you. The altars will be open for whatever step God is leading you to take. Please be obedient to Him today.

Maybe you’ve already taken that step but as a follower of Jesus you’re walking through something difficult and today you need to come to the altar and lay that situation before your Heavenly Father today. Knowing that He is there and He will move and while you’re waiting on Him be reassured that He will give you the grace you need to sustain you.