LOVE YOUR SALVATION
Psalm 40:1-17
INTRODUCTION: Verse 16 is at the heart of my focus for this psalm-love your salvation. And in this psalm, I see some of the things we will be doing if we love our salvation.
How do we love our salvation?
• We remember what God did for us (vs.1-2). Sometimes, if you’ve been a Christian for a while you can forget what you once were and where you once were. We can forget that we were once poor, helpless sinners who were in the stinky, slimy pit of sin. We were sunk in mud and sludge of our old nature. We were covered in filth; drowning in putrid waste. We needed rescuing. David said, “HE lifted me out…” He couldn’t pull himself out, he needed God to pull him out. So, we become saved, we move along in our salvation and we grow stronger and the things of the Spirit grow more common to our character. And in doing so we can forget what and where we once were. We can forget how desperate we were, how dangerous our ground was; the sinking sand we were in. We forget what it was like to be rescued. We forget the relief, the joy, the gratitude; the love. David reminded himself how God pulled him out. David recalled what exactly God did for him in his moment of despair; in his time of desperation. We need to remember that too if we are going to love our salvation.
• We sing a new song (vs. 3). Whether we can do it well or not, most of us like to sing along to our favorite songs. Whether we’re just a shower singer or an opera singer we enjoy belting out the songs we enjoy. When we were saved God placed a new song in our hearts. A song of deliverance, a song of gratitude, of thanksgiving, of joy. And when we love our salvation we will come before him and sing that new song. When we sing worship songs here on Sunday morning or on Wednesday night we are singing new songs. Songs we weren’t singing before our salvation. Songs about our salvation and our hope. Songs of recognition of our great and awesome God. Perhaps you’re here today and you’ve been born again but when the congregation sings you don’t. Perhaps you’re nervous singing in front of others. Okay, but are you trying to overcome that nervousness? Where is your heart? Is the desire there? You may need to ask yourself, ‘where is the joy of my salvation? Where’s my love for my redeemer?’ Where did it go; why isn’t it there? Am I not singing that new song because I’m not happy with how the Lord is handling my life? Am I discontent, always found wanting what I don’t have? Am I allowing the imperfections of life to take the focus off my life in Christ? Has the Lord snatching me from eternal damnation become old news? Maybe we’re too much like the Israelites. When God delivered them out of Egypt they soon after started complaining when times were tough in the desert. “Hey, Moses, there’s no water out here. What did you do, bring us out into the desert to die of thirst? We might as well go back to Egypt; at least we had food and water there.” We can be like that. We can become dissatisfied with salvation when it doesn’t seem like our life is much better than it was before. We can foolishly think we had it better before when we were slaves under a ruthless master. The Israelites were fickle, impatient people and oftentimes we’re no different. However, if we love our salvation, instead of songs of anger, hatred and complaint there will be songs of glory to God, songs of blessedness, songs of peace. This will be the music in our heart. This will be the song of our heart. If we love our salvation we will have a new song in our heart and it will come out of our mouths. [Shaun singing worship songs]. As a father, that brings such a joy to my heart to hear him do that. How much more so will it bring joy to our Father’s heart when he hears us praise him? How much does it grieve him when we don’t? If we love our salvation there will be music in our hearts and on our lips.
• We trust God (vs. 4). If we love our salvation then we will have trust in God and in his abilities. We’ve decided to trust him with our eternal life and we’ve decided to trust him with our everyday life. Because of our love for God and his salvation we’ve decided to no longer trust in our own understanding. We’ve decided to no longer trust in anyone who isn’t in line with God. We’ve decided to trust God with our lives and decisions. We’ve decided to lean on God’s wisdom and foresight and knowledge. Psalm 62:5-8. Where is our salvation? In God alone. Where is our trust placed? In God alone. We don’t trust in riches, we don’t trust in falsehood, we don’t trust in anything in this world. If we love our salvation we will trust in God.
• We are in awe of God (vs. 5). When we love our salvation we will have eyes to see the wonderful works of God not only in our lives but in the lives of others. We will recount the many blessings we receive every day. We will think about the wonders of his grace and mercy upon our lives. We will wonder over how patient and loving he is with us. Our love for our salvation will produce many declarations about every aspect of his marvelous character. We will see that his ways and thoughts are so far above ours. We will see him in the magnitude of his holiness. We will see him in a way that we’ve never seen anyone before. We will recognize how amazing our God is when we love Him.
• We give ourselves to God (vs. 6-8). “My ears you have pierced”. This means, “my ears you have opened that I may hear and listen.” Part of giving ourselves over to God is opening our ears to his voice. One of the reasons we’ve lost our first love is because we’ve stopped listening. We’ve ‘blocked our ears up’. We’ve stopped listening to God and we’ve started listening to others who don’t know or love God. We listen to the evil one and we’ve silenced the holy one. “Here I am”. When we love our salvation we will give ourselves to him. We can go through the motions. We can come to church and bible study. We can put a couple bucks in the plate. We can even do some service for him. But, have we offered him ourselves? We can offer things without love. We can offer God things without offering him ourselves. If we love our salvation we will say, “Here I am, Lord what do you want me for?” “Yes, Lord, whatever you want.” God doesn’t want your offering if you’re not offering yourself to God. David realized what was more important to God. We can get this confused too. [meditation about not confusing our service for God as having a good relationship with God] If we love our salvation we will seek to know God intimately. “I desire to do your will”. If we love our salvation we will want to do God’s will. Psalm 1:1-3. We will not lean on our own understanding, we will not trust in the counsel of the wicked we will not listen to fools and mockers, we will delight in the Lord and his word. We love salvation when we give ourselves to God.
• We tell others (vs. 9-10). Our testimony is powerful. Especially when we tell someone hos we were rescued out of the slimy pit. We tell the story of our deliverance from addiction or sin or depression and we tell of the wonderful power of God and people are inspired. They will see our passion and love for what God has done for us and they will want to know how they can get this salvation. Interestingly, one of the ways we tell others of our love for God’s salvation is by singing the new song that’s in our hearts. Isaiah 12:1-6. When others hear us praising God in song it can have a wonderful impact on them. It was Christmas Eve 1875 and Ira Sankey was traveling on a Delaware River steamboat when he was recognized by some of the passengers. His picture had been in the newspaper because he was the song leader for the famous evangelist D.L. Moody. They asked him to sing one of his own hymns, but Sankey demurred, saying that he preferred to sing William B. Bradbury’s hymn, "Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us." As he sang, one of the stanzas began, "We are Thine; do Thou befriend us. Be the Guardian of our way." When he finished, a man stepped from the shadows and asked, "Did you ever serve in the Union Army?" "Yes," Mr. Sankey answered, "in the spring of 1860." "Can you remember if you were doing picket duty on a bright, moonlit night in 1862?" "Yes," Mr. Sankey answered, very much surprised. "So did I, but I was serving in the Confederate army. When I saw you standing at your post, I thought to myself, ’that fellow will never get away alive.’ I raised my musket and took aim. I was standing in the shadow, completely concealed, while the full light of the moon was falling upon you. At that instant, just as a moment ago, you raised your eyes to heaven and began to sing...’Let him sing his song to the end,’ I said to myself, ’I can shot him afterwards. He’s my victim at all events, and my bullet cannot miss him.’ But the song you sang then was the song you sang just now. I heard the words perfectly: ’We are Thine; do Thou befriend us. Be the Guardian of our way.’ Those words stirred up many memories. I began to think of my childhood and my God-fearing mother. She had many times sung that song to me. When you had finished your song, it was impossible for me to take aim again. I thought, ’The Lord who is able to save that man from certain death must surely be great and mighty.’ And my arm of its own accord dropped limp at my side." If we love our salvation others need to know it so that they can be saved and love God too.
• We recognize our sin (11-13). We’ve been saved; we’ve been lifted out of the pit. But, somewhere down the line we slip back. We go back to Egypt and ‘our sins find us again’. Now we’re back in the pit and we’re in trouble. David was in trouble spiritually as well as literally. However, he recognized this and called on his deliverer to help him out yet again. If we love our salvation we won’t abuse God’s grace and sin as much as we please and be fine with it. When we love our salvation, we will recognize that we have sinned, we will become convicted about that sin (our hearts will fail within us) and we will humbly seek out the mercy of our great God and Savior.
• We want God to deal with those who don’t love him (vs. 14-15). We who love God’s salvation are righteously angered at those who despise it; those who mock it; those who seek to tear it down and destroy it. We shouldn’t want them to be destroyed, we should wish that they repent and are saved themselves. But our passion for salvation compels us to be repulsed by any antagonism toward God. So the question is, ‘does evil disgust us’? Are we bothered by the sin in the world? Are we numb to its ugliness? Do we laugh at dirty jokes? Do we support those who do evil? If we love our salvation we will detest what God detests and defend what he stands for.
• We acknowledge our love for God (vs. 16). If we love our salvation we will seek his face. We will rejoice; we will be glad in him. If we love our salvation the continual mindset we will have is “The LORD be exalted! If we love our salvation we will want the Lord to be glorified. Our attitude will be ‘let the Lord be elevated and myself lowered’. Our lips will say, “May the Lord be forever praised”! If we love our salvation God will always be respected and admired. He will be highly honored and esteemed. If we love our salvation then he will always be our object of worship and nothing else. And if we love our salvation, we will declare that God is deserving of it all.
• We continue to recognize our great need for God (vs. 17). If we are grateful for our salvation we will recognize that we don’t deserve it. We will recognize our continual need for God. Some people recognize their need for salvation but once they’re baptized they forget God as if they don’t need him anymore. “I’m saved now; I’m good to go”. They want God to save them but not sanctify them. This is not love for salvation. If we have love for salvation we will have the desire for God to purify us; to change us. We won’t want to stay as we are. We will recognize our need for him to create in us the character of himself. And yes, we will have the power of the Holy Spirit working in us and through us but that doesn’t mean we are any less dependent on God for all our needs. We will not be haughty or boastful, we will recognize we are still poor and needy and we will be thankful that the Lord thinks of us. We are not all that because of our salvation; we are simply sinners saved by His unmerited grace. What’s not to love about that?
