Jehovah Machsi - The Lord My Refuge

Where are we?

Barbados is presently in a state of National Pause, punctuated this weekend by a National Stop , where we are under a stay at home order.

Why? Because we have a large number of COVID-19 positive cases, we are experiencing community spread, we have 30 plus deaths and the situation is dire. Yes, we now have a vaccination programme but the fact remains that people are still sick and people are still dying.

The medical fraternity is feeling the pressure, the pressure is increasing as now in 2021 there is a greater weight than we experienced in 2020. The season of pressure is not just continuing but seemingly intensifying. People are beginning to turn to God and cry out to Him for help and answers. Others are becoming synical and saying what sort of God would allow this? You would recall, that last year when we spoke about a season of pressure one of the things that God highlighted for us was the fact that the season of pressure will show us the Church if we really believe what we say we believe.

This messgae this morning is both for the Church (the Believers in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord) and the for non-believers.

A Reminder from the Lord in these times !

The Bible is God’s letter to us. The Bible reveals who Yahweh is and who we are. It shows us His unconditional love for us in that He sent His only begotten Son - Jesus The Christ to die for us and to reconcile us back to Himself in a redeemed relationship. God shows us that He is our Salvation and that through Jesus Christ we have the assurance of eternal life with Him. However, until we either cross death’s doorway or Christ returns, we continue to live in a fallen world. We live in a world where the flesh rules, where Satan roams for now, where the earth itself is in a state of decay all because of sin. In living in such an environment, living with and among a sinful people, struggling with keeping our old man under subjection to the rulership of Christ, we will face some rough and terrible times.

The Bible tells us, that as we near the end of time, in Matt 24: 4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

We know that we are living in days where it is going to be rough and the days demand a Church that knows her God. The Bible is also therefore, God’s letter of encouragement to us . For in it we see men and women of faith in Him, walk down some dark roads upon which the Lord is the only light. It is here that I feel constrained this morning to dwell, to bring a Word of stabilization and encouragement as Yahweh repositions us to minister in this season of pressure.

And so we turn to God’s letter to us, and we look to that Book in the Bible that captues powerfully the myriad of the human mind and emotions as we experience the ebbs and flows of life. We turn to the Book of the Psalms and together we cry out this morning speak to us Oh Lord.

The Message - Encouragement from King David

We turn to Psalm 40, verse 1-3.

1 I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me,

And heard my cry.

2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,

Out of the miry clay,

And set my feet upon a rock,

And established my steps.

3 He has put a new song in my mouth—

Praise to our God;

Many will see it and fear,

And will trust in the Lord.

This is a Pslam of David. It appears that King David penned this psalm, as a song, upon the occasion of his deliverance as a result of the power and goodness of God, from some great and pressing trouble, by which he was in danger of being overwhelmed. This song was a reflective song, it began with him reflecting on where he was, how he was where he was and how he got out from where he was. The Psalm really is a prayer in song and I encourage you to read all of it and see exactly where David was, his heart, how he dealt with the issue of sin, hope in the Lord, his enemies etc. But this morning, I wil be focsuing on the first three verses.

King David was in trouble, not just trouble but serious trouble, was feeling overwhelmed in spirit and emotion and was in danger of being actually overcome and defeated by his circumstances. The great King David, the man after God’s own heart, the greatest warrior of Israel. Barbados is in trouble. Barbados is in serious trouble. The Barbados upon which God has showered so many blessings and shielded from Hurricanes and storms and serious earthquakes for so many years, the Barbados that has a Church around almost every corner, the Barbados that acknowledges that the Lord has been the peoples’ guide. Is He still our guide or has He left us? Because we are in danger of being overcome; many people are feeling overwhelmed, the Church is feeling scared and overwhelmed in some quarters.

But hear the experince of the King, He experienced Yahweh and Yahweh Maschi - the Lord Our Refuge.

People of God and people of Barbados, as we go through this season and these times within this season, wait patiently for the Lord. The word wait there is not a passive sit down and throw up your hands in despair.

WAIT

The word wait is actually a word of strength. It does not mean to stop or remain stationary within the context of the Lord but it means that as you endure the situation you are in, there is a strength that one has in the midst of the enduring because we wait with a confident expectation of what and who we are looking out for. You see it is for the Lord that King David was waiting. It was not for the High Priest, it was not for his army or fighting men, it was not for his Abigail, it was not for his sons, it was for the Lord.

When we wait for the Lord, when we wait on the inside, when we wait in our soul, when we wait fixing our mind upon the Lord, when we wait in our spirit, He becomes our Yahweh Maschi and it is like this - in the place of the waiting - when we wait on Him, He comes into that place with us, and strengthen us in the midst of being in that place until He decides that enough is enough and it is time to come out.

The experience is like - Daniel 3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar lost his temper, and his face turned red with anger at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual. 20 And he commanded the strongest men in his army to tie the three men up and throw them into the blazing furnace. 21 So they tied them up, fully dressed—shirts, robes, caps, and all—and threw them into the blazing furnace. 22 Now because the king had given strict orders for the furnace to be made extremely hot, the flames burned up the guards who took the men to the furnace. 23 Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, still tied up, fell into the heart of the blazing fire.

24 Suddenly Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement. He asked his officials, “Didn't we tie up three men and throw them into the blazing furnace?”

They answered, “Yes, we did, Your Majesty.”

25 “Then why do I see four men walking around in the fire?” he asked. “They are not tied up, and they show no sign of being hurt—and the fourth one looks like an angel.”

When Jesus comes in the midst of our waiting, He brings deliverance to us even when we are in the furnace. Even in the middle of the furnace, where we were once bound and held fixed, Jesus can loose us even there while we wait for the ultimate deliverance out of the furnace.

Church, Barbados, as we wait, let us wait on the Lord or as the Scripture says let us wait for the Lord. We are in the furnace of COVID-19 and other things BUT as we wait in the furnace season , understand that there comes a strength to as the Lord enters the furnace with us and causes us to stand up in the midst of the heat. Read Psalm 27:14 - Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!

But we must wait in a particular way on the Lord. We must be patient. Why? We do not know how long we will be in the furnace. We do not know how long the pressure will last. We do not know how many will be afflicted. We do not know how many may die. But in the midst we must be patient.

The word patient there is actually a word picture and it qualifies the waiting. It paints the picture of a string, a string that is stretched out and this string has two definite points - a beginning and an ending. Therefore, we KNOW that the end is coming and the pateintly there is a heart position of hope in that we know the end coming so guess what - we keep looking for it. We keep looking for it because we know that Yahweh is bringing it. So we are strengthened because Yahweh comes into the furnace with us, we know there is an end to this, we keep looking for it because Yahweh will bring it to pass.

Hear me - this will end. Other challenges and trials will come BUT THIS ONE HERE, THIS ONE WE IN RIGHT NOW WILL END. WAIT FOR HIM. WAIT FOR THE LORD, FOR THE STRING IS STRETCHED OUT AND THE END OF THIS WILL COME. To the struggling mother in dealing with home schooling and the worried father in providing for his family, the string is stretched out and the end will come. WAIT FOR THE LORD. To the tired medical personnel and burden-carrying PM and Members of Government, to the scared business owner, the string is stretched out the end is coming. Declare over your soul I will wait patiently for the Lord - i am looking for the end, I am confident, I am expectant.

BUT KNOW THIS - TO BE TRULY IN THIS STATE YOU HAVE TO BE IN A COVENANT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST HIS SON!

Inclined to Me; Heard my Cry !

The Psalmist, in his prayer song testified that Yahweh inclined to him and heard his cry. This is a powerful image. King David was in a deep place, a pit. How do I know this? Read the next verse, and we will come to that momentarily. The image here is another word picture. It actually corresponds to the previous word picture of the stretched out string. The word incline means to turn aside towards, to stretch out oneself, to elongate and extend.

Yahweh first of all knew exactly where David was and second what was going on. David’s positon, experience or condition did not surprise Yahweh. Yahweh did not have to ask David to send Him a location pin; Yahweh did not need David to describe a landmark so as to Help Yahweh know not only where to find David but if and when Yahweh was getting close to David. Rather, Yahweh knew the pit, how far in the pit David was and stretched out out to David. In stretching out to David, Yahweh was listening.

He was listening to David, for from David there was a cry. David, in the midst of waiting patiently, looking toward the end and expecting Yahweh to show up, David was letting out a cry. This was not any old cry or plea, but this was a call for help to the only one who could help. David cried out to God in prayer and his prayer and cry was sustained. In other words, David cried out to God IN HOPE for the duration of the season; until the string came to an end. As he was looking for the end, expecting it,, he kept crying out to God.

It did not matter how far down in the pit he was, it was not that David’s cry had to travel to reach God, but it was that God reached out/ stretched out to David and heard David’s cry. David did not have to get God’s attention. God was already focused and being attentive to David. Hear me this morning, God knows where we are. God knows where you are. God knows. God cares. God is stretching out towards us in a deliebrate act, Yahweh is drawing near to us. His ears will and has picked up our cry; our call for help.

To the Doctors and staff at Harrison’s point, God is stretching towards you and hearing you; particularly to those personnel who know Jesus as Saviour and Lord, He knows your voice and He is hearing YOUR individual cry for help and as you cry for help, do not cry for help for yourself because HE is hearing , cry for help for others! God is stretching out towards His people as we are in a place of pressure and so let us make sure that as we cry out for help; we cry out for the Nation - for God is interested in the individual and the Nation.

God heard the cry - meaning that God understood the cry and God responded to the cry.

I want us to understand something here though - AND THIS IS WHAT MAKES US OR BREAKS US .

Our humanity MUST surrender to God’s DIVINITY AND SOVEREIGNTY!

Our expectations MUST surrender to GOD’S LONGEVITY!

Our prayer/cry for help MUST ENDURE THE TEST OF TIME.

Our prayer/cry MUST BE FIRMLY PLACED IN THE VESSEL OF FAITH!

What do I mean -

1) Israel was in Egypt 430 years/ - But God heard them . In Ex 3: 7 And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows’.” God saw, heard and knew but it still took hundreds of years. Israel did not give up on Yahweh, even though histroy and other accounts shows us that they started to embrace the Egyptian false gods, but there was still a remnant that not only cried out to God BUT passed on the cry !

SO IT MAY MEAN THAT WE WILL HAVE TO WAIT - BUT WAIT PATIENTLY ON THE LORD. IT MAY MEAN THAT FOR SOME OF US WE WOULD NOT SEE WHAT WE ARE CRYING OUT FOR, BUT WAIT PATIENTLY ON THE LORD AND PASS ON THE CRY TO THE NEXT GENERATION!

BROUGHT ME UP OUT OF A HORRIBLE PIT

King David testified that God brought him out. God is a deliverer. You see we can wait for the Lord because we know that there is a bringing out and to be specific a bringing out from the place of horror. David was in a pit, a horrible pit. The word there connotes a cistern, well that can be a prison or even a sepulchre. It meant a place that truly the living should not be in. It was a horrible place. The word horrible there speaks of desolation. So David is telling us that he was a place of great despair that had him trapped and was not a place fit to live in, but rather a place of death.

Perhaps you feel that way this morning. Maybe, it is not COVID-19 that has you, may be it is not the lock-down, maybe it is not the conspiracy theories, but maybe you are in a deep dark place due to some other circumstance. Wait patiently for the Lord - becasue the string has an end (remember?) Look for it. Yahweh will bring us to the end, not the end to us. The end is already set and He will bring us out of the horrible place.

God brought him out - the word brought is one we must rejoice over for it speaks to the fact that God caused David to rise, and God lead him out AND caused David to be strong, to overcome and to leave or DEPART FROM THAT HORRIBLE PLACE.

God strengthened David, caused him to rise up ( he may even have been lying on the bottom as he cried out looking for God with hope but yet being weak and spent by being in the pit) but God strengthened him, raised him up, lead him out and caused him to depart that place. God will strengthen this Nation, God will rasie us up BUT WE HAVE TO PUT OUR COMPLETE FAITH AND TRUST IN HIM AND BE IN A PLACE OF ACTIVELY WAITING!

We may be like where David was when he penned Psalm 69: 1 Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me. 3 I am weary with my crying; My throat is dry; My eyes fail while I wait for my God.”

We might be in mud so deep we cannot stand, the floods may want to over take me or even are over taking me, throat and eyes fail in the waiting and the crying out to God BUT hope thou in the Lord! When God brings us out , He changes our environment, changes our standing, and casues us to move.

For God picks us up so that we can move. Move to where He is leading us to and into what He is leading us to be. You see, when God brings you out of the pit, you are not the same. You have not walked for a while so He gotta establish you. To establish means to make ready, to fix , strengthen and direct. In the bringing out God makes our steps ready, He strengthens our ability to move forward and directs those steps. You see, the feet cannot sink anymore because they are no longer bogged down by the muddy clay. The feet are now on the rock.

For us the feet are in Jesus and in His Gospel and it is in that that we must receive strength to move.

This is where God puts in a new song - a song of delievreance , a song of freedom; we no longer are afraid. This is where we praise God like never before. May be while we were in the pit we were singing songs of faith, songs we know, songs and hymns that help us keep it together in the waiting,

BUT WHEN GOD COMES and brings us out - HE IS A GOD OF SONG - AND HE PUTS THE SONG IN OUR MOUTHS (LIKE HE PUT THE SONG IN MIRIAM’S MOUTH). Oh open up and sing the song of the Lord, Praise His name for those that are watching will see and KNOW that it is Yahweh who brought us out and they will fear Him and trust Him and serve Him. Their confidence will be placed in the Lord and in none other.

You see, when we wait patiently and endure, wait for God to bring us out , others will be saved.

Our WAITING and LOOKING TO YAHWEH while in a horrible PIT, MINISTERS TO THOSE WHO ARE WATCHING AND THEIR SOULS ARE SAVED IN THE WITNESS OF OUR DELIVERANCE.

Repositioning for ministry, may cause us to endure being in the PIT.

ISAIAH 40: 28

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the Lord,

The Creator of the ends of the earth,

Neither faints nor is weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the weak,

And to those who have no might He increases strength.

30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

And the young men shall utterly fall,

31 But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.