Psalm 77

Good afternoon brothers and sisters in many places. Thanks very much for joining today Caleb has kindly asked that I share a brief message with you an opening for David valence and it's my honor to do that. But just before we read from the scriptures, we'll take a moment to pray Father we bow in the name of the lord.

Jesus christ And we give thanks that despite Our circumstances of being isolated from one another we are never isolated from you and that there's always Access into the heavenly sanctuary to pray because of the blood of jesus And here it is the first day of the week and the most of us likely Have missed out on the privilege of gathering together to keep the lord's supper But we're thankful that we can still keep the lord. Jesus close in our thoughts help us always to treasure him Help us to treasure him through your word Keep us close to the cross and appreciation for what he has done for each one of us and dying for our sins So we give thanks for great blessings that we enjoy because of christ And we give thanks for fellowship with your people And for a time around your word. Thanks for technology that allows us to enjoy this today And we pray for your help that the scriptures will be a blessing to all of our hearts remember Local assemblies in all over the world and these challenging circumstances We pray for grace to preserve testimony and unity and strength.

We pray for overseers That you will help them in their work of shepherding the flock in these awkward circumstances and We just pray that you will draw near to them remember lonely christians Perhaps they don't have the privilege of being around family right now Our friends and we pray that they will experience your closeness as well And we pray for a needy world And amidst all of this chaos, we pray that people would come to grips with their own mortality And that many would turn to the lord jesus for salvation So we ask these things for your glory We pray that our time together now will be fruitful. We also also want to remember father doctors and nurses and the risk that they are Facing because of their closeness to people who are sick, but we give thanks for their work We pray for their wisdom and grace and strength and help as they serve a needy population We ask your blessing upon them and now your blessing upon us as we consider the scriptures together for your glory in our lord jesus name amen amen Now I hope you have a bible with you. We're going to turn together to psalm 77 the 77th psalm one of the psalms of asaph As is my general custom i'm going to be reading to you from the english standard version if you're holding a A king james version or something else you'll find that there's no great discrepancy.

There's just one verse in particular Well where I will point out a difference, but i'm reading from psalm 77 And we will read the entire psalm together to the choir master according to jediathan a psalm of asaph I cry aloud to god aloud to god and he will hear me in the day of my trouble I seek the lord In the night my hand is stretched out without wearying my soul refuses to be comforted when I remember god I moan when I meditate my spirit faints You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I cannot speak I consider the days of old the years long ago I said let me remember my song in the night. Let me meditate in my heart Then my spirit made a diligent search Will the lord spurn forever and never again be favorable Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has god forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion? Now notice verse 10 Then I said I will appeal to this Not likely a reference to his infirmity but an appeal I will appeal to this to the years of the right hand of the most high I will appeal to this to the years Of the right hand of the most high verse 11.

I will remember the deeds of the lord Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds Your way oh god is holy what god is great like our god You are the god who works wonders You have made known your might among the peoples you with your arm redeemed your people the children of jacob and joseph verse 16 When the waters saw you oh god when the waters saw you they were afraid Indeed the deep trembled the clouds poured out water The skies gave forth thunder your arrows flashed on every side the crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind Your lightnings lighted up the world the earth trembled and shook Your way was through the sea Your path through the great waters Yet your footprints Were unseen or unknown your footprints were unseen You led your people like a flock by the hand of moses and aaron Notice verse 16 when the waters saw you oh god, so the waters saw god, but the people didn't But the waters did And nonetheless god was there whether the people saw him or not. He was there and look at the end of verse 19 Your footprints were unseen no visible trace of god's presence with them remained But he was there God was not Self-isolating.

He wasn't practicing social distancing in the hour of his people's great need He was not visible to the eye, but he was with them as he is with us today So he doesn't need to self isolate to protect himself or to protect others who are impacted by the trouble He's leading us through the trouble Let's jump back to verses one and two for a moment because those verses Tell us that this is a day of trouble verse two in the day of my trouble. I seek the lord And these are days of trouble for us That degree of trouble likely varies from family to family assembly to assembly. It always does Some of you may still feel like uh, the trouble seems a little distant or impersonal But there are others of you and I think it's already hit close to home It could be your own health or the health of loved ones that are at risk Many have already experienced Employment loss or risk financial problems.

Maybe there's just things that you're missing out on could be Well coming up this time of year. It could be somebody's graduation Maybe your own or it could be conferences that you would like to be going to to see your friends and you cannot You're weary of being stuck at home Uh, maybe some of you I hope not but maybe some of you are weary of having your husband stuck home all day Maybe that's adding to some tension I hope that on the other hand, you're just of uh mutual comfort to one another But in various ways for local churches and for our entire societies These are days of trouble lots of uncertainty Lots of suffering and plenty of fear So the response of the psalmist to a day of trouble Is to cry that's what he says in verse one. I cry aloud there's plenty of crying in the psalms Crying or crying out is not an expression of faithlessness The issue is to whom are we crying to whom are we crying out to? And he says in verse one.

I cry to god. I cry Allowed to god in the day of my trouble verse two. I seek the lord Crying out to god is not a a lack of faith.

That is an act of faith crying out to god is an act of faith So he says in verse two. I seek the lord And of course, we're going to try to bear one another's burdens And uh ask others to pray for you if you're in need of prayer, there's nothing to be ashamed of in that but ultimately We cry out to the to the lord Remember the psalmist says in another place from whence does my help come my help comes from the lord Behold, he who keeps israel will neither slumber nor sleep So god is is neither sleeping Nor self-isolating at the end of verse one. It says He will hear me God is not self-isolating He will hear The thing is for the psalmist in these next few verses, it seems that that doesn't seem to change anything So in these next few verses after he says he's crying out to god.

His complaint is that god doesn't seem to be doing anything We can feel that way sometimes too. I cried out And the coronavirus is still here We've cried out But the business is still sinking We've cried out but god doesn't feel any closer So look at these questions that he asks in verses seven eight and nine will the lord spurn forever Are his promises at an end? What a question that is Has god forgotten to be gracious? When's it all going to end? Is he self-isolating when when we're in such need and verse 10 is the hinge On which this psalm turns and this verse 10 has been a great help to me Now there's quite a diverse array of thoughts that can arise out of verse 10 depending on the translation that you are using I will spare you the details of my adventures of nearly drowning in the deep waters of biblical hebrew But my my conclusion and my judgment of the context is just according to the reading that I gave you in verse 10 I will appeal to this to the years Of the right hand of the most high I think that's great The years of the right hand of the most high how many are those years from everlasting to everlasting You are god. So let's think for a moment about the steadfast strength and stability Of our god because this is what's been a help to me in particular in these days of crisis That nothing catches god by surprise He's been around a long time And he's seen it all before And our lives get turned upside down But the throne of god is still right side up and he's sitting calmly upon it Our schedules get thrown into chaos The schedule of the timeless god suffers no adjustment We're going through something that we've never faced before But there's nothing catching god by surprise.

He has seen he's seen a lot worse on planet earth God has dealt with things like this before He is sufficient So I will appeal to the years of the right hand of the most high And down through the ages god has seen his people endure a lot of things. It's health crisis It's times when they've been forbidden to meet not merely for health and safety, but because of persecution His people have lived through wars And god's people have seen a lot of pandemics And god is always stuck by his people He didn't self-isolate in the past and he's not going to start self-isolating now Nothing that he hasn't dealt with before or isn't able to deal with again So having contemplated this steadfast strength and stability of god the mindset of the psalmist is changed No longer are there these questions of verse number eight, but look at verses 11 and 12. I will remember Yes, I will remember I will ponder I will meditate he's recounting god's faithfulness He's choosing he is choosing to recount the faithfulness of god.

It's a choice beloved It's an exercise of faith. He's choosing to think upon god's work and activity in the past so when I say this, I I don't mean to to uh, Think lightly of the crisis or ignore stark realities But what the psalmist is showing instead of just continuing To wonder at god's seeming failure to act in the first half of the psalm He's choosing to set his mind Upon abundant displays of god's faithful faithfulness to his people throughout history Now I suspect all of you have times in your past When you saw god's faithfulness on display in a special way In the language of verse 19, you could say his footprints were unseen But he led you you knew he was with you leading you like a shepherd leads his flock So choose to reflect on those times Remember his wonders of old And remember brothers and sisters, that's why he's left you the the record of his word this book instills and sustains our faith This book instills and sustains our faith this volume is a a record of god's faithfulness to his people think of the The words of romans 15 reflecting on the old testament Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through patience endurance And through the encouragement of the scriptures We might have hope So when we read the history of god's people down through the ages What we're really reading is a testimony to the strong arm of god and that's That's the right hand by the way back in verse 10. The right hand is the place of strength I will appeal to the years of the right hand of the most high or verse 15 with your arm you redeemed your people So now in this final stanza the last few verses of the psalm He's reflecting on israel's redemption in the exodus how often the scriptures look back to that event don't they that was such a A great display a tremendous display of a non isolating god Remember what the lord said to moses in exodus chapter 3 I have seen the afflictions of my people I have heard their cry I know their sufferings and I have come down I have come down to deliver them not self-isolating but coming down To lead them like a flock Now i'll leave that shepherd metaphor to david valence who will follow but just key in for a moment on the end of the psalm verse 19 Your path was through the great waters yet your footprints were unseen the footprints of the lord So the lord went before his people he wasn't visible But he was walking with them and then when the waters returned, uh to their place his footprints were covered up That's the idea of the metaphor the waters come back in the red sea waters His footprints are covered up, but his people reflect back and they know that god had been with them Now when I read about his footprints being unseen it makes me think of a vital difference to the new testament era We appreciate an unseen lord.

He's the one whom having not seen we love but how precious it is to remember that his footprints Did not always remain unseen Because the lord of glory came down to deliver us And the footprints of god were seen in galilee and in samaria and in judea He didn't self-isolate In heaven in the time of his people's great need he came to where we were And when he came to peter's mother-in-law who was sick with a fever A symptom of a deeper virus or infection But he didn't practice social distancing. He had no fear of being contaminated He touched her hand the scriptures say And matthew tells us that is a preview of his ultimate purpose in coming down. Matthew says he fulfilled the scriptures.

He took our illnesses and bore our diseases It was anticipating a great victory at the cross so you can trace the footprints of the lord all the way to the cross He didn't self-isolate up in heaven. That's why there's a a salvation Available for you today if you haven't already got a hold of it and those footprints that were seen en route to the cross They were seen on the other side of the grave as well so the same lord jesus says Behold my hands and my feet See the nail prints in other words he's saying see that it is I myself a victorious Savior what god is great like our god in the words of verse 13? Now again, I know his footprints are unseen today And as the waters flowed back to their place in the red sea So the sands of time have covered the footprints of jesus of nazareth on earth But though those footprints are unknown his presence isn't He's not self-isolating. He wasn't fearful or practicing social distancing when he ascended up to glory He was going to a place of power and strength the father's right hand I will appeal to the years of the right hand of the most high His years knew no beginning And to the son the lord said your years will have no end He has always been And always been faithful to his people I'll just close with a reference to a well-known poem This reference in verse 19 to the footprints are what brought it to my mind.

The first stanza reads like this One night I dreamed a dream as I was walking along the beach with my lord Across the dark sky flash scenes from my life for each scene. I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand One belonging to me and one to my lord Then the author notices that at trouble times of trouble in his life. There was only one set of footprints He he's tracing his life.

He sees the two sets of footprints But as he sees parts of his life that seem particularly dark there was only one set of footprints And he asked did you leave me then lord? It's like verse 9 has god forgotten to be gracious And the lord replied when you saw only one set of footprints It was then that I carried you And he's carried others through times of trouble beloved and he can do the same for you and me so I commend you all to god and Not to fox news or to cnn or to cbc or bbc I commend you to god and to the word of his grace Which is able to build you up it instills and sustains our faith So stay close to the lord through his word. Thanks so much for listening I will hand things back to caleb for a moment before david valence continues