Sermon Tone Analysis

NLT - 1 Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not ignore my cry for help! 2 Please listen and answer me, for I am overwhelmed by my troubles.

3 My enemies shout at me, making loud and wicked threats.

They bring trouble on me and angrily hunt me down.

4 My heart pounds in my chest.

The terror of death assaults me. 5 Fear and trembling overwhelm me, and I can’t stop shaking.

6 Oh, that I had wings like a dove;

then I would fly away and rest!

7 I would fly far away

to the quiet of the wilderness.

Interlude

8 How quickly I would escape— far from this wild storm of hatred.

4 My heart pounds in my chest.

The terror of death assaults me.

5 Fear and trembling overwhelm me,

and I can’t stop shaking.

6 Oh, that I had wings like a dove;

then I would fly away and rest!

7 I would fly far away

to the quiet of the wilderness.

Interlude

8 How quickly I would escape—

far from this wild storm of hatred.

Have you ever found yourself in a place where you were just overwhelmed by the circumstances in your life?

It seemed like attacks were coming from everywhere and they just wouldn’t stop.

You go left and hit a wall, you go right and there’s a ditch.

You try to go up and over, but the ceiling is there and the only option you have left is to go through.

Well, I’ve come to tell you this morning, that feeling is not new, in this particular Psalm,

David, the shepherd boy,

David, Jesse’s baby boy

David, the one who killed a lion and a bear

David, the one who faced and killed Goliath with a slingshot and one smooth stone

David, the mighty warrior

David, the King of Israel

David, the one who sinned with another man’s wife

David, the one who committed murder

David, the one who had to encourage himself

David, the man after God’s own heart

And David the man who wrote this Psalm was having some trouble and he needed God’s help.

Sometimes your problem seems like an open sore that refuses to heal.

You think it’s getting better and WHAM! you hit it on the door…and just when the pain subsides, WHAM! someone grabs you right in that spot and just when the throbbing has finally stopped, WHAM! someone else reopens the wound.

Troubles aren’t usually troubles if they happen and go away, or are quickly resolved; they only become troubles when they linger; when you’ve tried to work it out, talk it out, walk it out, reason it out, bargain it out, sleep it out, shout it out, ignore it, worry about it, get angry about it and nothing seems to work so you finally get around to praying about it.

Now you may not go through all of those things before you get to praying about it or you may pray about it as you do all of those other things.

However you do it, it doesn’t seem to be working—whatever it is.

You may be one who wants to talk about it to your mother, your best friend, your pastor, your counselor or someone else, yet and still, no one seems to have the answer to your problem.

No one seems to have the solution for your pain.

While this type of situation may not be new, it may be new to you and you don’t know what to do, but what I really want you to know and find comfort in, is the fact, that you’re not the only person who has, is or will go through times when you feel overwhelmed.

You’re not alone in the belief that there have been times when you’ve prayed and you didn’t think God heard you or that He just wasn’t listening?

You want to say or you may just go ahead and say, God you hear me talking to you?

Have you ever prayed and you didn’t think God heard you or that He just wasn’t listening?

You want to or you may just say, God you hear me talking to you?

This is where David is in this particular Psalm, he’s praying because he knows that prayer is a salve for every sore and a relief to his spirit for every burden that he carries and so he begins this prayer with…Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not ignore my cry for help!

David wants God’s attention and he calls out to Him to get it.

When a child is in a room full of people and they get hurt or lost, they cry out MOMMY! and in a room full of moms, that child’s mother hears and knows her child’s voice, she knows her child’s cry for help.

It’s the same way with God, when we’re troubled on every side and we cry out like David for God to listen to our prayer, don’t ignore our cry for help…you can believe that He’s listening.

David goes on to say, Please listen and answer me… Why?

Because I’m overwhelmed by my troubles.

As we become increasingly overwhelmed by our problems, we sometimes lose our focus and all we can see is the problem, all we can see is the storm, all we can see is the trouble that’s in front of us; that situation blocks our vision and keeps us from seeing God who’s standing right there to help us, yet we panic, we stress and we cry out, God! Please listen to my prayer; answer me God, I need help!

God can you hear me, I’m calling you.

Now right here, I want you to think about a baby and what they call self-soothing.

When our children are born they’re utterly helpless.

They rely on someone else for everything and without someone there to clean, feed, warm, hold, soothe and rock them to sleep; depending on which necessity they lacked, they could develop attachment problems as they grow older or they could even die.

So to get your attention they cry and you answer.

But at some point, as they begin to get a little older, when they cry, your response time gets just a little longer, you don’t go right away.

When you know they’re dry, they’ve been fed and it’s time to either go to sleep or go back to sleep

you let them cry just a little bit longer;

you allow them the space to start to figuring some things out on their own.

You allow them time to grow,

to learn they can get themselves back to sleep without you rocking them,

to learn they can pick up their bottle and put it back in their mouth’s by themselves;

they can turn over by themselves,

they can walk by themselves,

they can figure it out all by themselves.

When we go through trials and tribulations down here, have you ever stopped to think, our heavenly Father, might just be allowing you to self-soothe?

That He’s letting you cry just a little longer, that He’s allowing you

to grow in your spiritual walk — so you don’t have to continue to crawl

to learn to pray for yourself — instead of always asking someone else to pray for you

to pick up your Bible on your own — instead of just when you come to church

to find and memorize your favorite Scripture — instead using the one you heard the person on TV using

to mature in your faith — instead of staying a babe

to find your own song — instead of waiting for the praise team to sing

to listen for and respond to His voice — instead of calling the pastor for an answer

Have you ever stopped to think that God just may be allowing you to self-soothe?

Yet when a parent is allowing their child to self-soothe they’re never far away and neither is God.

He hasn’t left you alone, He’s merely allowing you the opportunity to self-soothe.

David continues and he says, “My enemies shout at me, making loud and wicked threats.”

There will always be people who will shout at you, threaten you, withdraw from you, take things away from you to try to get your attention; to make you lose focus on what’s really important.

I’ve heard someone say, it seems like the closer they get to Christ, the more problems seem to come.

We sometimes find that those who are supposed to love us, those who are supposed to have our best interest at heart, don’t at all.

In fact, we discover they were only using us for their gain; they didn’t have our well-being in mind at all and it hurts.

But God.

We find that the storms seem to get worse, instead of better.

You would think, I’m walking with Jesus now, nothing can touch me, no one can bother me.

Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, the closer you get to God, the more Satan will attack, the harder he comes, the more he uses those closest to you.

Satan believes the closer they are to you, the more it will hurt when they let you down, betray or disappoint you and he’s right.

But God.

Our enemies will threaten but God can soothe us, when we can’t soothe ourselves.