2021 Chapel #3

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Psalm 102

A prayer of one overwhelmed with trouble, pouring out problems before the LORD.

This Psalm is a clear lament by the psalmist as he goes through a time of devastation.
Not sure if you all have been here or not, I hope you never are, but for most, as we live in this world, we will be here at some point in our life.
Listen as we read through it, there is desperation in this Psalm, a recognition that if God doesn’t do something, then all hope is lost.
But where is God, is He there, is He listening??
Does He care? Will He help??
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1 LORD, hear my prayer!

Listen to my plea!

2 Don’t turn away from me

in my time of distress.

Bend down to listen,

and answer me quickly when I call to you.

Please Lord, I’m begging You, hear me.
Again the word for LORD is the all caps, covenant relational God, who cares for His people.
I need my Abba, Daddy, God right now, please hear me, see me.
Verses 3-11

3 For my days disappear like smoke,

and my bones burn like red-hot coals.

4 My heart is sick, withered like grass,

and I have lost my appetite.

5 Because of my groaning,

I am reduced to skin and bones.

6 I am like an owl in the desert,

like a little owl in a far-off wilderness.

7 I lie awake,

lonely as a solitary bird on the roof.

8 My enemies taunt me day after day.

They mock and curse me.

9 I eat ashes for food.

My tears run down into my drink

10 because of your anger and wrath.

For you have picked me up and thrown me out.

11 My life passes as swiftly as the evening shadows.

I am withering away like grass.

The Psalmist few remaining days are dispersing like smoke, vanishing into thin air
His bones burning up, his heart sick, he’s weak, and has no desire to eat.
So overwhelming is his trouble, his situation.
His physical wasting is made even more painful because of his great loneliness, like an owl in the desert and a solitary bird on the roof.
He feels as if he has no one, no one to help.
Not only that but what’s also making things worse are the taunts of his enemies and their mocking
If this doesn’t sound and feel bad enough, his wretchedness is further embittered by a sense of God’s anger and abandonment.
He, who once felt God’s favor, feels as if he’s been left for dead by God.
His end is near.
So where do you go from here? 2 choices, move away from God, abandon the one who feels as if He’s abandoned you,
or draw close to God, remember who God is in spite of our circumstances and what our feelings are telling us.
Verses 12-17
12 But you, O LORD, will sit on your throne forever.
Your fame will endure to every generation.
13 You will arise and have mercy on Jerusalem—
and now is the time to pity her,
now is the time you promised to help.
14 For your people love every stone in her walls
and cherish even the dust in her streets.
15 Then the nations will tremble before the Lord.
The kings of the earth will tremble before his glory.
16 For the Lord will rebuild Jerusalem.
He will appear in his glory.
17 He will listen to the prayers of the destitute.
He will not reject their pleas.
But you O LORD, who will reign forever.
Every generation will know of His greatness
The Psalmist knows God’s faithfulness will be true as He shows mercy on Jerusalem.
He has his tough circumstances, but looks outside of himself and remembers Jerusalem, God’s holy city.
He has promised to help and he will.

God will hear the city’s prayer, appear in glory, hear the groans of prisoners and the condemned. Other nations will note and fear; future generations, even peoples yet unborn, will praise God for his compassion upon Zion, when they assemble there to worship.

18-22

18 Let this be recorded for future generations,

so that a people not yet born will praise the LORD.

19 Tell them the LORD looked down

from his heavenly sanctuary.

He looked down to earth from heaven

20 to hear the groans of the prisoners,

to release those condemned to die.

21 And so the LORD’s fame will be celebrated in Zion,

his praises in Jerusalem,

22 when multitudes gather together

and kingdoms come to worship the LORD.

Unfortunately, as is in most circumstances, the Psalmist returns to himself, his distress is too severe.
23-28

23 He broke my strength in midlife,

cutting short my days.

24 But I cried to him, “O my God, who lives forever,

don’t take my life while I am so young!

25 Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth

and made the heavens with your hands.

26 They will perish, but you remain forever;

they will wear out like old clothing.

You will change them like a garment

and discard them.

27 But you are always the same;

you will live forever.

28 The children of your people

will live in security.

Their children’s children

will thrive in your presence.”

His strength fails,
He pleads for more time, let me live longer
Because you God are eternal, older than earth and heaven, and He will outlast them.
God is never changing, the same yesterday, today and in the future, He’s always the same.
God will be good to the children of His people, they will live in security because of His protection.
They will thrive in His presence.
If this is true of the children of your people, is it true for me.
That’s the question, right??
You see, we can remember things about God, even learn and know things about God, but how much do we really believe them?
How much do we trust them to be true for us??
How do we know??
The only way to know the God who is with us when we walk thru the valley of darkness, the valley of the shadow of death, is to walk through the valley of darkness and to feel His presence, to feel His comfort.
We can read about who God is and what God is like, but it’s only by going through the different challenges that come with life do we really get to experience God.
And by experiencing God we get to know God, we get to trust Him, and have more confidence in Him as we enter into our next challenging circumstance.
How do I know that God is the God who provides? Only by going through a time where I need God to provide or I won’t survive.
How do I know the God who promises to never leave me or forsake me? Only by going through a time where I feel all alone, abandoned like the psalmist here, and yet I sense His presence, feel His peace and comfort.
For so many of us, we pray for protection for us and our kids
We pray for everything to go well, which is natural, right, who’s going to pray for difficult circumstances.
But, while doing that, if God were to give us that, we’d be robbing ourselves, He’d be robbing us of knowing Him at deeper levels.
Nobody wants to go through tough times, but God in His goodness, allows them, not to torture us, but so that we can know Him.
It’s all over the Bible, from Abraham, to Moses, from King David, to King Jesus.
Think about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, alone, in anguish, knowing not only experiencing the wrath of God was coming, but also separation from His Father for the first time in His life.
But He endured the cross so we won’t have to, but we may have to endure other circumstances.
God uses these challenging times to change us, to transform us more into the likeness of Jesus.
Listen to Hebrews 2:9-10

9 What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone. 10 God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation.

The apostle Paul understood this, listen to his desires in Philippians 3:10

10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death,

This is not an easy place to get to, again, it’s natural to want an easy, comfortable life, where we get to enjoy life’s pleasures, but as we know, enjoying the pleasures of this world rarely helps us know God better.
For us, this is a perspective shift, not that we invite tough times, but we can’t live as if they are never going to come.
How are we going to respond when they do come??
Will this rock our world??
Will we blame God and move away from Him, or draw near to Him, looking to Him to comfort us, give us peace and guide us through it.
Last question for self-reflection,
Do we truly desire to know Him better and be transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus??
Let me pray
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