Resting In The Lord Series

RESTING IN THE LORD

Psalm 37:7

Part 2

Introduction: Last week we picked up this Psalm and saw the promises of Our Great God. When I reflect on the promises of God, my heart has this song in its heart. "How Great Thou Art" Our God is great. He is great because He is not with our hands. He is great because He is everlasting. He is great because He sees our problems and is with us in all of them. HE is great because He provide a Saviour for us and saves everyone that comes unto Him.

His promises are real. His promises are righteous. His promises are realistic. His promises proclaim His faithfulness, His love and strength. His promises are backed by His names. "Great is the Lord and greatly to praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King."(Psalm 48:1-2)

Remember what Dwight Lyman Moody said about the promises of God. "Take the promises of God. Let a man feed for a month on the promises of God and he will not talk about how poor he is. You hear people say "Oh my leanness"; it is their laziness. If you would only read from Genesis to Revelation and see all the promises made by God to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to the Jews and to the Gentiles and to all His people everywhere- if you would spend one month feeding on the precious promises of God. You would not be going about complaining how poor you are. You would lift your head and proclaim the riches of His Grace because you could not help doing it."

This week we will pick up another or more timeless truth that we ought to rest. The Hebrew word "rest" means to be dumb. This does not mean stupid but a quietness that shows a confidence in the one the person rest. When our little one Hannah was about a year old, she would crawl up in Wanda’s lap and laid her head upon Wanda and rest. She was not worried about being too hot or too cold. She was not worried whether or not Wanda would drop her. Why? She was resting on Wanda.

The rest of the definition of rest in the Hebrew means to hold’s one peace, to be silent, to be still or tarry and wait. This Psalm shows the contrast of the righteous and unrighteous. The righteous are not so in their own merit but find their righteousness in the Lord. The unrighteous are those who have never put their faith and trust in the Lord God.

Sometimes we violate this Psalm. We violate it with our fretting. To fret means to glow or grow warm or figuratively blaze up with anger or jealousy. This must have been very important for us to know for the phrase "fret not thyself" is found three times in this Psalm. Vs. 1

“Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.”

Vs. 7

“Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.”

Vs. 8

“Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.”

God sees the righteous and unrighteous. He is sees the seemingly injustice that prevails. He sees the children who are driving almost and new cars while we are trying to serve God have cars that have seen their better days. One day the justice of God will prevail. We are not doing the work of God for earthly rewards. We should be working for those things that are not seen by the naked eye. God knows our plight.

By the way, many of us find ourselves better off than we began it this life. What right have we to complain? Our God is good to us. We are supposed to be resting in Him.

Let me go on with this message of resting in the Lord.

RESTING IN HIS PROTECTION

What should we rest in His protection? We should rest in His protection that there are many situations that vain is the help of man.

God may choose not to deliver us. Whatever His divine purpose is, we should and must rest in the fact He knows what is best. How many Christian young men who were in the service lost their lives for our country? God only knows. Could He have protected them from harm? He had so chose he could have done so. Since we do not see beyond today as God sees, we must in rest in the fact that God knows what is best.