Sermon Tone Analysis

Psalm-Worthy Faith

Psalm-Worthy Faith is faith that trusts so deeply in God’s sovereignty that it can honestly communicate every thought to Him.

A person with Psalm-worthy faith:

Has a relationship with God

Has Confidence in God’s Word

Faith in God’s Plan

David didn’t wait for others to write Psalms about him.

His Psalms are a record of one who had a relationship with God, confidence in his word and faith in His plan.

We talk a lot about relationships.

Relationships in the context of the church, in our marriages, with our children and community.

And we acknowledge that for truly deep and vulnerable and clear communication to happen, we must have a good relationship.

It is so often said that the biggest problem in Marriages is communication.

When we are not able to address a concern with someone for fear of what they may say or we fear how they may react to it, we are acknowledging that our relationship is not so great, and when we never get past the small talk to the real issue, we are not communicating because the relationship is not strong.

On the other hand, if the relationship is not strong, it is normally due to lack of communication.

We may blame bad communication on our relationship problems, whether at home, at church, or at work, but we can’t communicate without a good relationship.

It is a little like the dilemma of many young people who find themselves looking for a job, and all the employers want someone with experience, and they won’t hire someone without experience so the inexperienced person is left wondering what in the world they are supposed to do to get the experience.

Well, communication and relationship are the same way.

It is a bit of a conundrum, a dilemma, a quandary.

You see, you can not have truly great communication without relationship, and you cannot have a great relationship without good communication.

The solution for the person who needs experience to get the job is a job that offers training or apprenticeship.

And the employer who offers the inexperienced person an opportunity takes a risk with their own money, with the possibility that it won’t work out, or the person will be incompetent, but on the other hand, the person may be grateful and have a bond of loyalty to the one who gave them a chance.

Relationship and communication must go hand in hand.

You can’t have a relationship without communication, and communication does not happen without a relationship.

Now perhaps you are thinking to yourself that you can communicate and not have a relationship.

However, this is really not true.

I could go to a restaurant and place an order and not know the person who takes my order.

Yet we have a relationship, however superfluous it may be.

It is a transactional relationship.

I expect to state my order, pay the money and receive a meal.

It is not a deep relationship, but if I took time to have a short conversation, the relationship could grow just a bit, and if I were a regular customer, perhaps over time I could know that person well enough to develop a friendship.

Of course, this will not happen at many restaurants today, because we place our orders on an app on our phone and simply pick it up, often without even speaking to a real person.

Companies have decided in the name of efficiency and cost effectiveness, it is much better for them if they can get you to place your order on the app rather than actually interacting with a real person.

And as much as some of those conveniences are helpful, and during covid these things have exploded, it has taken away more and more of our interactions with people.

We have modern day hermits living among us.

Whether for concern of getting sick or for convenience, many people have given up more and more of the personal touch.

There’s a reason why hermits in movies and cartoons are always shown to be a little bit nutty, because that is what happens when you lose all face to face personal contact with people.

We must have a relationship to communicate, and we must have communication to have a relationship.

But not all relationships are equal.

A transactional relationship like I just mentioned is normally a very shallow relationship.

It is not a Marriage.

It is not a brotherhood, or sisterhood.

It’s just lunch.

(pause)

If we want to have a deep, meaningful relationship with God, we need to communicate well with Him.

He greatly desires that.

The chief end of man is to enjoy God and glorify him forever.

He created us to be in relationship to Him.

He wants to have a great relationship, and that means He wants 2-way communication.

That is love.

That means we listen to Him, respond to how he speaks to us through His creation, and through His word.

We do that by doing what we are doing now.

He speaks to you through preaching.

You need to do this every day, by reading His word, and you need to both speak and listen to him in times of prayer.

He has given us a great example of this in the Psalms.

The Psalms show us how a person with a deep relationship with God builds that relationship with faith that can honestly express to him all that we are going through.

Our fears, our disappointments, our frustrations, our pain.

And also, the Psalms show us how we can and must express to God our praise and honor Him with our lips.

The Psalms are wonderful for a person’s prayer life, for helping us to express ourselves to God.

This is why so many people will tell you their favorite verse is from the Psalms, or their favorite bible reading is in the Psalms.

So it is important for us to take a look at those Psalms, and as much as they can be meaningful to us, they can be even more meaningful when we know the circumstances that the Psalm writer was dealing with when those Psalms.

In other words, what was going through the head of the one who has written downtime Psalm?

This can help us in our sympathizing with the writer.

Our passage from 1 Samuel 21 gives us a wonderful opportunity to do just that, because 2 Psalms were written by David on the day of the events we are about to read, Psalm 56 and Psalm 34.

Background: Gath is about 25 miles SW of Nob, where David was previously.

He traveled from Nob, where Ahimelech had given him bread and Goliath’s sword.

Now he goes to the very hometown of Goliath, bringing with him that same sword.

It is a testament to the fact of the fear David had of Saul that he would seek to take refuge in what would otherwise be a really terrible place for him to hole up!

If anyone would have hated David, it would have been the people of Gath, who had seen their hero, Goliath, killed by David.

And yet David felt safer there than he did sticking around Saul.

It seems David would prefer to be in physical danger over dealing with the toxic Saul.

So David shows up there, and he is recognized.

Those who recognize him point it out to the king, so he decides to put on a little act.

He foams at the mouth, he claws at the doors.

We see here that sometimes acting like a crazy person is strategic.

So David is playing this part in order to save his life.

If he acts like a crazy person, the King will not see him as a threat, and that is just what happened.

Not only that, but there is a bit of humor here, since the king makes this comment about having so many madmen around, he doesn’t need another one!

This may be as close as we get in scripture to someone saying “I’m surrounded by idiots!”

Psalm-Worthy Faith is faith that trusts so deeply in God’s sovereignty that it can honestly communicate every thought to Him.

A person with Psalm-worthy faith:

Has a relationship with God Has Confidence in God’s Word Has Faith in God’s Plan

David didn’t wait for others to write Psalms about him.

His Psalms are a record of one who had a relationship with God, confidence in his word and faith in His plan.

Now let’s take a look at one of those Psalms.

Knowing what David went through that day, we see how he honestly communicates with God.

He has a relationship with God, confidence in God’s Word, and faith in God’s plan.

So we know the thing that was happening here.

We just saw how David, fleeing from Saul, goes first to Nob, then to Gath, and finds himself in danger there.

David just can’t catch a break.

Every time he turns around someone is trying to kill him, and he is on the run from Saul, the king he was loyal to, not to mention his father-in-law and the father of his dearest friend.

Here is David’s honest communication with God:

David’s example to us here is that though he already is aware that God knows his thoughts, he is pleading with God.

He recognizes his own need to speak these thoughts to God.

Someone said to me once that we should never complain to God.

Well, if that is the case, then the Psalms would be a poor example for us in our prayers, since they are filled with complaints, frustrations, and even frustration against God.

But the Psalms are a good example to us, since we can learn that we can speak to God honestly, even in our complaints, without sinning.

I think about 40% of the Psalms are imprecatory, meaning the person is actually asking God to punish his enemies through God’s active involvement in the current situation.

Yes, we can express our frustrations to God, but we must do as David did, and at the same time have faith in him:

David has stated his frustration and fear, and now he returns to a common declaration he makes again and again in his life, that he will trust in God.

We see here that David is now asking God to intervene to the harm of his enemies.