God in the Storm

Introduction - Horatio Spafford

Story

Peace is not something that’s natural

Look at our world and how we react—across the globe—to the issues we face

What we see in the Psalm is David bringing both his pain and peace to the table

Having It Out

Extreme Emotion - What do we do with our pain?

To say that David is upset is akin to saying that the Grand Canyon is a big hole in the ground

We don’t know the specific circumstances, but we can tell that David has been wrestling with an issue or thought or anxiety for some time now

Begins with a fragment - so upset he can’t finish his sentence

Four times of “how long”?

It feels as though God has been ignoring him, and this isn’t an uncommon experience

David senses it here

numerous psalms

I’m going to guess that you have had moments, days, even seasons when you’ve felt like God has just turned away

David doesn’t blame God; he assumes this as part of the world

The Big-Shouldered God

What he does is bring his complaint—with its full-bored emotion—to God

The issues aren’t superficial, either; there’s some real sense of mortal danger and permanent injustice

We can bring our complaints, full-bored, raw, persistent to God

But he doesn’t leave it there.

Peace

The second part addresses the thorny question of what we do in hardship, especially if it persists

This is the part where we might expect David to walk away

Too often this is our response to things in life; take it or leave it

If I don’t like my cable provider and there are other options, what am I going to do?

If I don’t like my mechanic, I’ll find another

If we don’t think our diet is working, we’ll try another or give it up altogether

And when God doesn’t act the way we want him to, either we walk away or we change who we think he is

But David doesn’t walk away; he places his trust solely in God

he doesn’t find fault in God’s love; on the contrary, he calls that unfailing

his hope is unshakeable in God’s deliverance

Like Dwight Moody telling Spafford not to believe a word of his death

Like Spafford writing It is well when approaching the place his daughters died

David wants us to recognize with him that the problem isn’t in God’s love but in our world

Our world is broken and afflicted; we made it this way

David knew not as a story but as reality, and if we don’t know that deep in our souls, then we will never get to verse 5 in our complaining

Do we

When we know God and understand our world, peace can be found in pain

This is a value of the citizens of God’s kingdom

We see Jesus talk about peace in John’s gospel

We heard Paul exhorting the Philippians to bring their anxieties and concerns to God, trusting in God’s unfailing love

What are the anxieties and fears you need to bring to God today? What are the nagging doubts and concerns that are ever present? What troubles do you need to exchange for trust?

When we exhibit peace, we demonstrate to the world that our citizenship is somewhere else, and we’re able to testify to the hope we have in Jesus Christ