Give Jesus My Hurt, He'll Give Me His Love Series

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

› Engagement

How many of you have heard the phrase “Hurt people hurt people”? While that phrase has been attributed to everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Pastor Rick Warren, the earliest recorded use of the phrase was in a local Texas newspaper in 1959 which was reporting on a speech made at a PTA meeting.

Regardless of its source, it does seem to me that there is a lot of truth in that statement. I know that has certainly been true in my own life at times. For me, that is even more likely to happen when someone hurts someone I love like my wife. Several years ago, Mary was treated very unfairly by someone who claimed to be a Christian. And for some time after that I spent a lot of time dreaming up ways to get back at that person and the organization he worked for. But looking back now I understand that the only person I was really hurting by doing that was me.

› Tension

I think this is one of the underlying reasons that it has become increasingly difficult in our culture to have a civil conversation with those with whom we disagree. Rather than returning a blessing for a curse as we’re instructed to do in the Bible, even those of us who are mature disciples of Jesus have a tendency to try and hurt others when we have been hurt. So what’s the solution?

› Truth

We’re going to explore that this morning in the second message from our current sermon series - The Great Gift Exchange. In this series we’re looking at four exchanges that Jesus offers to us that are made possible because Jesus is Emmanuel - God with us. Last week we began by discovering in Psalm 43 that Jesus wants to give us hope in exchange for our despair and that He does that when we seek Him rather than seek a solution.

This morning, we’ll look at another Psalm - Psalm 103 - which we read earlier. I’m going to be referring to portions of this passage and also asking for your help this morning in identifying some of the key ideas, so go ahead and turn to Psalm 103 in your Bibles and have that passage handy.

Let’s begin with a question. If I were to ask you, “What is the “love chapter” of the New Testament, what would you say? [Wait for answers]. That’s right - 1 Corinthians 13. Well, Psalm 103 is its Old Testament counterpart. It’s a Psalm that’s all about love.

The key phrase in this Psalm, as well as many other Psalms, is “steadfast love”. In Hebrew, it is just one word - hesed. That Hebrew word is used 245 times in the Old Testament, with over half of those uses found in the Psalms. It occurs 4 times in this Psalm - in verses 4, 8, 11, and 17 and it is central to this Psalm. So I think it’s worth a bit of our time to understand exactly what it means.

Four elements of “hesed”

There are four elements which characterize hesed. And each of them is important in helping us to develop the main idea in this Psalm.

• Relational

Hesed always exists within some kind of relationship - family, tribe, covenant, promise. There is always some kind of personal connection involved.

• Reciprocal

One commentator called hesed the “Biblical equivalent of an IOU”. There is a sense of mutual obligation. When God chooses to rescue us, we have an obligation to Him. As we’re going to see this morning, this Psalm reveals some of those obligations.

• Transitive

This is the idea that hesed is to be “paid forward”. It is to benefit those who were not part of the original bond. So that means that God’s love toward us should impact the way we treat others.

• Action

It is not merely a matter of feelings or beliefs. Hesed is demonstrated by action.

The Psalm breaks down into three distinct sections that describe how the steadfast love of God operates in three ever-widening spheres:

Personal (vv. 1-5) – How God has demonstrated His steadfast love to David personally

National (vv. 6-14) – How God has demonstrated His steadfast love to the people of Israel

Universal (vv. 15-22) –How God has demonstrated His steadfast love for all of His creation - from mankind to the heavenly beings to the creation itself