Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Opening Illustration: Parenting

Being a Dad is one of the greatest joys and also greatest challenges of my life.

As a parent, our aim is not just to raise good kids that are well behaved take their garbage out.

(Though on really bad days we might dream if we could just make it that far).

No, we have a much larger vision.

Our daily prayer is that all three of girls would grow up to know and love the Lord, to be disciple-makers themselves.

Anyone who has children knows that kids make a lot of mistakes.

Sometimes those mistakes are quite innocent.

Other times, as children grow, they are not so innocent.

Sometimes, believe it or not, they choose to deliberately disobey their Father’s commands.

While this sounds cute, its actually deadly.

See I know the Scriptures and what will happen if my children develop a habit of disobeying their authority.

Ephesians 6 says:

Ephesians 6:1-3 “1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.””

See I love my kids desparately.

And because of that I don’t let disobedience go as if it doesn’t matter.

No I want it to go well with them, I want them to live long in the land.

And so my Fatherly discipline is always one of incredible love and long term tenderness even though in the moment, they can’t see the bigger picture.

Personal

Like a good earthly Father, our heavenly Father will discipline us when we begin to form habits of sinful disobedience.

Today we are going to be discussing the way the Lord disciplines us. in fact Hebrews 12 makes that exact comparison.

We read,

Hebrews 12:8-11 “8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

That text tell us that all legitimate children will be disciplined by God throughout the course of their life.

Have you ever been disciplined by God? Do you know what to do when you are in the midst of discipline by God?

And do you know what to do once the disciplinary hand is removed from you?

Each of these are vital questions that we must be able to navigate if we are to be faithful, growing servants of the Lord?

Contextual

Today we continue through our sermon series in the book of Psalms.

As a reminder the Psalms are the song book of the Old Testament.

They are quite literally the worship songs that Jesus would have sung.

These Psalms are meant to be internalized.

They are poetry which attempts to grab the heart and shape it and mold it.

The tone of this Psalm is one Joy, despite having come through hardship.

When you immerse yourself in this Psalm you walk away with the sense no matter what you endure, God is good, and being underneath His favor is the most precious gift a person can have.

The Main Idea I’m going to navigate today is this: God will graciously destroy that which is destroying you.

We are going to work through that by answering three separate questions.

Let’s begin with the text.

Psalm 30 “A Psalm of David.

A song at the dedication of the temple. 1 I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. 2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. 3 O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit. 4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.

5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”

7 By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed.

8 To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: 9 “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit?

Will the dust praise you?

Will it tell of your faithfulness?

10 Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!” 11 You have turned for me my mourning into dan…”

Move 1: Examine The Text

Language that Hints at Enduring Disciplined

At a first glance it is difficult to see the the story behind this Psalm.

But, the more you consider the words and reflect on what they mean, the narrative begins to emerge.

The first three verses give strong indicators of some incredibly hard event that David has recently come through.

Psalm 30:1 “...for you have drawn me up...”

Psalm 30:2 “...I cried to you for help...”

Psalm 30:2 “you have healed me.”

Psalm 30:3 “O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol…”

Psalm 30:3 “...you restored me to life...”

David Was Sick Near Death

What seems to be the case from this language and what most commentators agree upon is that it seems that David had fallen deathly ill, nearly to the point of dying, and God had miraculously healed him.

What was the cause of this illness?

There are perhaps more clues in the text though.

Verses 6-7 are the turning point of this Psalm.

In these verses David confesses to a sin.

He says,

Psalm 30:6-7 “6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”

7 By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed.”

David’s Sin Was Pride

Remember this is poetry, this is music.

He’s communicating a deep moment of his life through the beauty of poetry.

What’s he communicating.

It seems that he’s saying something like this, “I got to a place in my life where I was so secure.

I was a King.

People loved me.

I had gardens and servants.

I was defeating my enemies.

The rumors about were all good.

And in my heart I began to think, ‘I’m really something.’

I forgot that it was you God that gave me everything.

It was you God that anointed me to be a King when I was just a shepherd boy.

It was you God that gave our land peace and security from our enemies.

And there came a moment, when as a result of my foolish heart posture of pride and a lack of God-centeredness, God you “hid your face from me.”

And it crushed me.”

Summarize David’s Situation

David allowed the sin of pride to sit idly in his heart.

We saw this play out in numerous times in David’s life.

Pride was nearly his total downfall.

It was pride that caused David to want to number Israel in order that he might know how grand his Kingdom was.

David was a human, just like you and me.

He struggled with pride, like you and me.

And it seems from this Psalm that God in his tender mercy desired to root that pride out of David’s life.

And the way he did it was that at some point in David’s life God sent a sickness on David.

Some kind of of illness that brought him nearly to the point of death.

This sickness was not accidental, it was not random.

It was God’s discipline for sin.