A Blast From The Past Pt.2

PSALM 116:9-17     “A BLAST FROM THE PAST  PT. 2”

INTRO: BOB’S MARATHON STATION  (GOOD, BAD, JOY, PAIN.)

REMEMBERING THE PAST HELPS US DEAL WITH PRESENT, REMINDS US WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US.  IN THIS TEXT, WE FIND THE PSALMIST REMEMBERING WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR HIM, HE HAS PUSHED REWIND ON THE TAPE OF HIS LIFE AND RECORDED IT FOR ALL TO SEE. THE RE ARE TWO BASIC MOVEMENTS IN THIS TEXT THE FIRST BEING THE REASONING FOR THANKSGIVING.

1)      God reached out to him when he was in trouble (vs. 1-4) (resume for trouble)

2)      God rescued him in spite of himself (vs. 5-6)

3)      God gave him rest (vs. 7-8) ( salvation, sadness, and stumbling)

I)                   THE RESPONSE OF THANKSGIVING

1)      What should the response be to what God has done for us, the psalmist asks himself; “what shall I render unto God for all his benefits towards me?”

2)      To fully understand the response, it is summed up in one word “render” one word two meanings. Give back: (what I need to do,) draw back: what I need to stop from doing) one cannot really respond to God unless they draw back and give back!)

3)      The psalmist comes up with this response:

a)      I will walk before the Lord (vs. 9) ( in other words, I will walk carefully, constantly, in the presence of the Lord (under his watch, eyesight) in the land of the living. (living: revival, renewal) So in essence, it is not just because I’m living, it has more to do with how I am living. (how’s your walk today is it straight? (ill: My mother always sent me to the store with this clause: go straight there and come straight back. It wasn’t because she didn’t think I would make it to the store, she was more concerned with my route to and from the store. Moral: God knows that you are at church, Bible Study, but he is more concerned with how you are living between Church! (you got to walk!)

b)      I will take the cup of salvation (vs. 13) Listen to the psalmist, he states that he has chosen to take and drink from the cup of salvation. There are many cups in the Bible, but I will contrast from the furthest extremes. There is the Cup of Salvation (salvation: deliverance, full of God’s grace) then there is the Cup of Desolation (full of God’s wrath)

The believer was meant to drink only from the cup of salvation. Notice what the psalmist says: “I will take” (take: bear, endure, there will be some suffering and pain with the cup of salvation.

The question of the hour is; “are you drinking from somebody’s else’s cup? Practical and spiritual danger in doing this (germs, backwash, sickness and suffering)  (are you drinking from the cup of salvation or the cup of desolation?  (how can you tell pastor? It’s all in what you are suffering for? You are suffering for righteousness, or for selfishness?)  

The Bible says in Ezekiel 23, the parable of the two sisters: Contrast : one sister was Samaria, the other Jerusalem they were described as wicked and harlots. God allowed one of the sisters to be killed by the enemy to warn the other sister. Instead of talking heed to what happened to her sister, the other sister kept on with her wicked lifestyle so God said; I will cause her to drink from her sister’s cup Moral: Some of us have seen how sin has destroyed the lives of our loved ones and other people, but yet some of us continue to go down the same path. So God lets us taste of somebody’ else cup!  (ill: Guyana Tragedy some of the folk at the end did not want to taste from the cup, so there were 13 people who were trying to get away from the cup, however they were gunned down in this process. Moral: I rather die trying to live for what’s right than to die drinking from the wrong cup!)

c)      I will pay my vows to the Lord (vs. 14) (in other words, I will make good on my promises that I make to God. (two ways: The promises that I make in private, I will make good in public. But the promises I make in public, I will make good in private! (some of us like to make promises in public that we don’t intend to keep, God says it is better that you don’t make a vow at all than to make one and don’t keep it for God takes no pleasure in fools. (don’t let your mouth cause your flesh to sin!) (I will pay!)

d)       I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call on the name of the Lord.

The psalmist wraps it up his resolutions in a nice, neat bow, I will walk, I will take the cup, I will pay! He put them together and gives it to the Lord, lays all he has at the Lord’s feet!

(see illustration)