Sermon Tone Analysis

The Focus of the Home

Opening Thoughts...

At issue is the power, greed, and prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous.

It is an alphabetic Hebrew letter acrostic, with every 2 verses.

At issue is the power, greed, and prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous.

It begins with an Exhortation of Hope in the Lord’s Deliverance

It then moves to the comfort of Divine Retribution (vs.

7-11)

Then the contrast between the righteous and the wicked (vs.12-26)

Then comes a call to wise living in view of the belief in Divine Retribution (vs.

27-33)

And then the conclusion with once again, Exhortation of hope in the Lord’s deliverance.

Introduction: In a very moving way, David, the author of this Psalm, deals with issues of life and death, wisdom and folly, reward and punishment.

He speaks about power, greed, and prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous.

He is most sensitive to the question of the future and its rewards and suffering.

This is a Hebrew letter, Alphabetic Acrostic with every 2 verse.

There is no historical context that I could find to this particular Psalm, so I can only imagine that God is speaking to David and through him about how to respond to the issue of those who have used their means of power to become prosperous and continue to be greedy.

“Living Wisely in a Crooked World”

He states, “The Lord will sustain you in your faithfulness to him.”

The wise man must carefully watch his response to the wicked.

Verse 1 suggest that a person can get themselves all worked up over the way some people appear to prosper, which can lead to anger or Jealousy.

Today, like then, there are those who take advantage of the way they prosper… And those looking from the outside in can be angry, judgmental or envious.

God uses the metaphor of grass and green herbs.

They look beautiful for a season, but then they fade away and die… they are gone.

In other words, what they have and how they went about getting it will be of no lasting value or benefit.

God says, “Rather than destroying yourself with negative emotions, envy, anger, or jealousy, the godly must keep things in perspective (v.

1; cf.

vv.

7–8; ; ; , ).

Anger, resentment, and jealousy destroy “faith” in God’s goodness and justice and affect one’s inner attitude toward everything (cf.

).

VanGemeren, W. A. (1991).

Proverbs

Proverbs 24

The wise person develops a trust in the Lord.

(; “Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.”

Trust means having faith, especially in the more difficult time.

In a spirit of surrender; submission; trust in the Lord one finds joy and peace.

Opposite of the metaphor of withering grass and vegetables, he states that those who trust in the lord, will dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture, with the assurance of the Lord’s blessing upon them.

Trust is a full commitment to always “roll away” ones anger or to ‘cast’ ones resentment or jealousy on the Lord.

(;

d.

God calls us to trust and to give him our anxiety…

We do not always know when or how God is going to lift us up out of what may seem to us, a miry pit, but he will.

God calls us to trust and to give him our anxiety…

The wise person develops a trust for God

The Wise person Delights themself in the Lord.

Delight is a positive response and action, rather than jealousy over what others may have.

One learns to be content in how God provides… you may never have material wealth, but you will always be provided for.

Delight is a positive response and action, rather than jealousy over what others may have.

One learns to be content in how God provides… you may never have material wealth, but you will always be provided for.

This is the key to joy, peace, and contentment… To delight means to find a high degree of gratification; extreme satisfaction… in who you are and what you have.

The phrase “Delight yourself” lends itself to the thought of pampering yourself; to refresh yourself; to take ones pleasure in it or to make it a fun time.

ILLUSTRATE: When seasons change, such as Winter to Spring, some people just love getting outside for a nice walk; or when summer arrives, people like to take some time to sit on the deck or by the pool or on a beach.

Or when fall comes and moves into winter, people like to cozy up to a warm fire with a good book?

Well, that’s kind of what God is speaking to David about.

Take some time to delight yourself in me.

Pamper yourself - give yourself permission to stop and relax; enjoy the moment.

In this case it is delighting yourself in the Lord.

When you do, you discover the depth of love he has for you; you discover a peace that surpasses all understanding, even in the midst of challenging times and conflict.

We all know what it’s like to be busy at work or if you’re in that parenting stage, you desire to find some quiet time after changing diapers, or running to the doctor, or coming home from work, having to do laundry, fix a meal… it can seem like a never ending cycle and you wish you could get off the tread meal.

Well, God is saying, you can.

Give yourself permission; pamper yourself in my presence.

All those things you are worried about or anxious about - God is saying, come to me - delight yourself in me.

He gives an avenue of delight, and that is in “doing good.”

John Wesley wrote… “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, as long as ever you can.” John Wesley

Then God gives David (us) a promise in verse 4...

He will grant them the desires of their hearts (v.

4)

The wise person believes in the desires of their heart… desires that are healthy and from God.

It is important for us to know what God means by desires at this point.

From a worldly perspective, one my have the desire of a new car, new house, lots of money in your bank account with the ability to take a vacation to Europe or a cruse to the Caribbean.

All of these are fleshly desires.

Is it wrong to have a nice house or car?

No! The problem is, these things become our main focus or gods.

This is the moment we must ask ourselves, are my delights in line with what God wants or are they in simply my fleshly and worldly desires?

The key to experiencing the fulfilment of all your desires begins with...

and

God wants to bless you.

Here is what I believe happens when we delight ourselves in the Lord; he creates within us purer desires; not for the world, but for his will.

As we pamper ourselves in our relationship with God, he causes our priorities to change for the better; our desires to change, for the better; our will to change, for the better.

The person who trust in the Lord, will do good (vs.

3)

The person who delights in the Lord will dwell in safety (vs.

4)

The third things a wise person does is ‘Commits’ their ways to the Lord (vs.

5)

This isn’t a suggestion, it is a command.

If you want to really know God’s will and his way, for your life, it means you roll everything over into his care.

This isn’t necessarily the best illustration, but when you take money and move it from one financial planner to another, you commit it to that persons care.

In the case of God, you roll ‘Everything’ over to him, into his care and leave it there.

Just like the stock market, it goes up and down… life goes up and down, but if you keep your eyes on God, he will take care of what you have committed to him.

He will take what is right; what you have done by trusting in Him, delighting in Him, and committing to Him, and make it shine.

;

These are God’s promise to yo concerning your future.

The final element in a wise persons life is “Being still.”

(vs.

7)

There are a whole lot of verse that I could share with you at this time… I’ll put them on the screen, but don’t try to write them out.

Take the references and take time today to read them and re-read them

Ps 27:14; 40:1; 130:5; Isa 38:13; Hab 3:16; Ro 8:25

Ps 27:14; 40:1; 130:5; Isa 38:13; Hab 3:16; Ro 8:25

These are some amazing verse to cling to in life, remembering God’s faithfulness and why you want to trust him

These are some amazing verse to cling to in life, remembering God’s faithfulness and why you want to trust him

Every day, God encourages us to come to him and trust Him.

Take delight in him - pamper yourself, give yourself permission to stop and read your Bible, pray, thank God for his love for you, thank him for always wanting to bless you.

Give him your prayerful desires and ask him to shape them according to his will.

You will find blessing upon blessing from him in all things.

The “way” (v. 5) pertains to one’s whole life, including the negative feelings, nagging questions, and concerns of justice.

God expects his children to be children and to put themselves completely under his fatherly care.

The Lord is righteous and just!