Psalm 31, 1-5 LWML 2007

Pentecost 18

LWML Sunday

Psalm 31:1·5

September 30, 2007

“It is Well with My Soul”

 In you, 0 LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your-righteousness deliver me. 2 Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! 3 For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me; 4 you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. 5 Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, 0 LORD, faithful God. (ESV)

            Back in the 1800's a man named Horatio Spafford wrote a hymn, and in writing that hymn he penned a line familiar to many Christians. "It is well, it is well with my soul." Perhaps you are familiar with Mr. Spafford's hymn but you may not always identify with the refrain, "It is well, it is well with my soul." Is it really? It's not always well with my soul and I'm sure it's not always well with your soul. Sure, almost all of us put on a pius front when we come to church or when we are around other church folk. We act as if all is well, but most of the time it isn’t. We are in a world of trouble and a world of hurt, emotional, physical, and spiritual pain. Hopefully, if we understand properly, these are the very reasons that we are here. People didn’t gather around Jesus to give Him worship and praise, rather, they came to Him because they were hurting. We are hurting. Oh, that my soul felt well, rather than the anguish I'm now feeling! In your private times of prayer and when you come here for public worship, you don't always feel that it's well with your soul.

            King David was right there with you, as Psalm 31 tells us. "Be gracious to me, 0 Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also" (v. 9). Things weren't so well with David's soul. Whatever the details might have been, David's enemies were strong against him. 'They scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life" (v. 13). And it wasn't as simple as this:

Yes, my enemies are coming against me but at least I can count on my friends. No, the people that should have been strong with David were also troubling him. He says, "Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me" (v. 11 ). Then he says, "I hear the whispering of many" (v. 13). The people were talking about him, observing his trouble, but not willing to help. These were some of David's problems. We can sympathize with him.

            You probably don't have enemies plotting to take your life the way that David did. Al least I hope not. We are threat­ened in ways that previous generations were not. Islamic radicals certainly wouldn't hesitate to kill any of us, or all of us. But closer to our personal daily lives, we can identify with people being against us. David said, "Let lying lips be mute" (v. 18). People spoke lies about him. I’m sure that you have heard lying lips as well, saying things against you that are not true. Many times gossipers don't have a clue what they're talking about. They slander you, harm your reputation, put the worst construction on what you've done, or what they imagine you've done. They break the Eighth Commandment and there's not a whole lot you can do about it. Of course there are times when you or I have given them reason to complain. At these times we confess our sins. Still, even though we are forgiven because of Jesus Christ, our forgiven sins still tempt people to talk. Either way, this sinful world is very much with us, in our thoughts and heavy on our hearts, and so we have good reason to say, "It is NOT well with my soul. It is not."

            All that said, and complaining as we do about the injustices of life, look we must look past our situations to the one thing that matters. This is what David did. He says, "In You, Lord, do I take refuge.” That's his lead line in Psalm 31. "In You, 0 Lord, do I take refuge." If things weren't well with his soul, David knew right where to go to make it well. He went to God. "In You, 0 Lord, do I take refuge" and he follows this declaration with more expressions of his confidence in God. "You are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me" (v. 3). "Into Your hand I commit my spirit," "You have redeemed me, 0 Lord, faithful God" (v. 5), "You have seen my affliction; You have known the distress of my soul" (v. 7), and finally, "I trust in You, 0 Lord; I say, 'You are my God.' My times are in Your hand" (vv. 14-15). David expressed his confi­dence in God because God had helped David before and David knew that God keeps His promises to His people. He confesses his faith that the faithful God is there for him. David knew right where to go when things were not well with his soul.

            Now that was David. What about us? Wouldn't it be great to have that instinctive response? When life is ganging up on you, when not only your enemies but sometimes your friends aren't there for you, wouldn’t be great thing to turn immediately to God for help! Most people, when faced with trouble, turn to God or their concept of God. They turn to the great something out there in the great beyond, but they do not know Him or who he is. In the end there is no real comfort, only a misplaced hope in something outside of themselves. For Christians, it is different. We know who God is and we see him most clearly in the face of Jesus Christ. By God’s word and the Holy Spirit, we know the true and living God. He is a God that is not just out there as some impersonal force. His help is real in our times of trouble. He knows what trouble is and promises to go through it with us. This is His Word. This is His promise. We have born a new into the living hope of Jesus Christ. We were born again in the waters of Holy Baptism. In baptism God placed within us not just the instinct to turn to God in times of trial, but to turn to our Savior Jesus. When you were baptized you were redeemed from the greatest of troubles, from the guilt of sin, from the dread of death, and from domination by evil. In Baptism God brought you into His protection, into His safe place of forgiveness, hope and love…His love for you. What prompted David to turn to God has been put in you by your Baptism into Jesus Christ. And so you turn to God as David did and you confess as David confessed, "You are my rock and my fortress .... You are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, 0 Lord, faithful God" (vv.3-5). When the faithful God has led you again to such a confession, you say, "It is well with my soul. It is well." No matter what happens to me in this life, “It is well with my soul," for God my Savior will save me and spare my life. Isaiah’s words ring true, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you" (Isaiah 26:4). "It is well with my soul. It is well."

            I mentioned Horatio Spafford at the beginning of this sermon. In the 1800's Horatio Spafford was a successful Chicago lawyer, a rich man. But we all know wealth comes and it goes, no matter how hard we try to hold onto it. So it was for Horatio. The great Chicago fire of 1871 wiped out much of his wealth. Spafford and his wife decided to use some of the money they had left to get away from it all, take a break, rest, and make a new plan. So they planned a trip to Europe. When the time came to set out on their vacation, some last minute business detained Mr. Spafford but he sent his wife and four daughters ahead of him on the S.S. Ville Du Havre. On November 22 disaster struck. Their ship, the Ville Du Havre, was struck by an English ship and sank almost immediately. Horatio’s four daughters died; only Mrs. Spafford survived. When Horatio Spafford sailed across the Atlantic to join his grieving wife, the captain called him to the bridge and reported that they were at the place where the Ville Du would have gone down. Can you imagine the feelings? He did record his thoughts for us. Speaking of his beloved children, he wrote, “But you do not hold them. You grasped them for a moment, but my children escaped from this place. Their true Father holds them safe in His arms. Anna and I will see them again, for it is well with their souls.” It was then that the words for this hymn poured out of his heart…When peace, like a river, attendeth my way; When sorrows, like sea billows, role; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.

            God has promised that, all things work to the good of those who are in Christ Jesus. Dare I say that the difficult times can prove to be times of special blessing? I'm not suggesting that we should enjoy the difficult times. I don't think David got a kick out of his troubles. We don’t enjoy our own troubles. That said, it is often in the tough times, the times when the weight of the world is on our hearts, the times when our suffering is unjust. In times when we seem to be utterly alone and even abandoned, it is in these times when we really appreciate the One who was crucified for us on the cross. Jesus Christ knew what David went through. Jesus Christ knows what you go through. Jesus Christ went through that and much more. He took our sins and the sins of those who sin against us to the cross. He took all sins upon Himself and paid for them. Our Christian faith is not about glory, at least not yet. We live in a fallen and sinful world. We live in a world where it seems that evil rules and conquers more often than the good. Over and over God reminds us that He is our rock, our fortress, our resting place.  

            "Rock! Rest on Christ the King!" That's the theme this year for our Lutheran Women in Mission, the LWML. We go to God because God is faithful and cares for us, that is the heart of the LWML and its message to the world. As David used the thirty-first Psalm to tell people that God is rock and fortress, so the LWML is telling people the same thing today. The women of the LWML do that through their meetings and conversations. I want to highlight the literature they make available to all of us. Their "Lutheran Woman's Quarterly" has interesting articles and inspiring devotions. The LWML offers devo­tional books: "You Make a Difference," "You Are Precious," "You Are Special," "You Are Loved," and "One Cup of Water." In a world that is always beating people down, through the message of Jesuus Christ and His Gospel their only desire is to build up those that have been broken, and heal the hurting heart. This is exactly what Jesus Christ has done for us. For their ministry we Thank you, Lutheran Women in Mission, for all you do for us!

            In an issue of the "Lutheran Woman's Quarterly," Dr. LuJuana R. Butts tells how she learned to pray. Says Dr. Butts, "I remember learning how to pray on my knees beside my mother, saying the twenty-third Psalm, knowing that He was my Shepherd. No matter how much hunger was there, the growling, the stomach pains, or whatever, we were not going to be in want because He was there to take care of us." (Winter, 2006; p. 2) Dr. Butts learned as a child, the troubles of life, and in spite of it all, it was well with her soul. Now she shares that as a professor at our Concordia College in Bronxville, New York.

            Horatio Spafford knew that in the depths of grief, it was well with his soul and he has shared that with everyone who sings his hymn. And David knew it in the midst of his troubles. His words in Psalm 31 are God's inspired words to us today. Since God has brought you and me in the fortress of His care, a safe place where we now we are forgiven and loved, we can say an assured fact, "It is well with my soul. It is well" Amen.