Scripture: Psalm 25:1-10 (Cf. verses 4-5)
Theme: When Life Falls Apart
1. Yada Darek Jehovah – Seek God’s Will
2. Let God Do A New Work in and through You
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Have you ever had one of those times in your life when it seems like everything has fallen apart?
+Perhaps at work it seems like there are those who would love for you to be pushed out the door.
+Perhaps at home it seems like there is a great deal of chaos, noise and division.
+Perhaps the bills are piling up, your health appears to be taking a downhill turn and you begin to feel like you are alone even though you know that you are surrounded by a whole group of friends who love you and care for you.
+Perhaps that is not your situation, but you know someone who is going through a very depressing and difficult time in their life.
Thankfully, this morning the Bible shares with us how we can find help for ourselves and/or for our friends that are going through some difficult times.
Our passage this morning is not just a collection of words from a poet sitting on a nice hill somewhere overlooking a pleasant valley being inspired to write lofty phrases.
They are not the words that were penned by a person lying in the grass looking at the clouds and feeling that life could not be any better than this.
They were written by a man in his late 50’s/early 60’s whose whole world had collapsed around him. They were written by King David when he was running away from his son Absalom who was doing his best to murder his father and become the new king of Israel.
These words were written in the wilderness outside the city of Mahanaim (????????? Ma?anayim).
If you remember that was the same area where Jacob had his epiphany; where God’s angels visited him (Genesis 32:2) right before he was supposed to meet his brother Esau. You also may remember that Esau had said that when he was given an opportunity, he would murder Jacob for stealing his birthright and his blessing.
Now, here is King David at the same place with Absalom seeking to kill him. He and the rest of the family had barely gotten out of the city of Jerusalem before Absalom and his troops could captured them and put all of them to death.
I can’t imagine all the things going through David’s mind.
+How is it possible that my own son wants me dead?
+Is this the way my life and the lives of my wives and children end – by being captured and put to death by their own brother?
+Has the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY forsaken me?
+What should be my next move?
Let’s look at verses 4-6 this morning for in just those three verses we see how David handled what had to be the darkest chapter in his life. Darker than having to run from King Saul, darker than having to deal with the mess he had made with Bathsheba or anything else.
How mean, how much worse could it be than to have one of your own children doing their very best not only to take your job, but passionately desire to see your dead body hung on some gate so that everyone knows that your time is over.
Let’s see what David has to say to us – especially in verses 4-6
I.
The first thing David did was to find a safe space – and that was this wilderness outside the city of Mahanaim (????????? Ma?anayim).
David knows that he cannot keep running. He and his family and friends are exhausted. They are almost out of resources. They need a safe spot to regroup and to think things through before everything is lost.
I believe God directed David and his family to Mahanaim (????????? Ma?anayim).
Again, this city dripped with the history of Jacob, who was later called Israel. It dripped with the story of how God reassured Jacob that he would be safe back in the Promise Land. That Esau would not kill him and that his family along with the rest of his staff would live in peace.
This was a place where angels had visited. This was a place of supernatural revelations. This was a place where Heaven and Earth met. This was a place of grace and mercy. This was a place where a person could find God given answers and God given directions.
David was going to stay here and talk to God. He was going to use a well-placed time out to get some revelations, some corrections and directions.
Look again at verse four –
“Make me to know your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths.”
Part of the Hebrew in that verse reads this way – YADA DAREK JEHVOAH
+YADA – Know – Know as sure and intimately as humanly possible – as a Father knows his children – as a man knows his spouse.
+DAREK – the path, the direction, the right way to live.
+JEHOVAH – Yahweh – God’s Proper Name – the One that God shared with Moses at the Burning Bush – the God who Rescues and Redeems, who Sustains and Renews. The God who is Holy and full of Mercy, Grace and Love.
David knew that he had gotten off God’s path. He had gotten lazy. He had stopped watching what was going on all around him. He had allowed Absalom to undermine his rule and authority.
Now, Absolom wanted to kill him.
+A son that he had held in his arms.
+A son that he had helped learn how to walk, how to talk, how to be a king’s son, a warrior and a diplomat.
+A son who should have been loyal was now doing his best to kill him, his family and loyal friends.
David knows fully well that he had either missed or ignored all of God’s signals.
+He is asking God to help him regain his footing.
+ He is asking God to help him understand what his next steps should be in this matter. His life, his children’s lives, his wives’ lives and others were on the line.
David goes on to write in verse five – “For you I wait all the day long”
This was not an easy time for David. He couldn’t get this wrong. There was too much at stake. He would wait as long as needed to hear from the LORD.
While you and I may never have to quite face the same ordeal as King David; there are times in our lives when we find ourselves under attack – we find ourselves behind the 8 ball so to speak. We find ourselves backed into some type of corner – be it physical, financial or emotional or even spiritual corner.
What do we do? Where do we go for help?
If we are smart, we do what David did here in this psalm-
+We find somewhere safe – a place that has great meaning to us. We go to where we know God has spoken before and will again to us.
+We call out to God; we pour out our soul before the LORD. We hold nothing back. We bear our souls to the LORD.
+And we wait until we hear from God.
At times that is the rub of things – the need to wait.
We must understand that we are not just seeking for a way out but a way forward.
We are not asking for an escape route but a way forward to enjoy God’s favor and blessings once again.
This is a vital key – David was not asking for an escape – he had enough allies in the countries that surrounded him that he could have sought safety in several places – Egypt, Northern Palestine and even east towards Assyria and Babylon who at the time were allied nations.
David was not looking to escape; he was looking for a path forward.
David’s son Solomon would later pen these words:
“All one’s ways may be pure in one’s own eyes, but the LORD ALMIGHTY weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the LORD and your plans will be established.” – Proverbs 16:2-3.
David knew he was in trouble. He knew that He needed God to reorganize his life, his priorities. He knew that he had no one to blame but himself. And so, he reaches out to God and says:
+God – I need a course correction – I need Your Plan
+I will wait all the time necessary for your plan to be revealed to me.
+I will follow Your plan all the way.
Again, it is crucial for us to remember that David is in the same place where Jacob was in a similar situation. Jacob had left Laban and was coming home to Israel. But he was coming home to where his brother whom he had cheated was coming towards him with an army of 400 armed and highly skilled warriors. Jacob was desperate to know God’s direction. Jacob was desperate to be in God’s favor. Jacob was willing to do anything to straighten out his life and save his family.
Sometimes when we find ourselves out of balance and having to face something that we feel is life threatening it can be the very time we need to allow God to refocus us, to renew our passion and to get us back on the right path.
It is not always fun.
No one wants to feel like they are being hunted. No one wants to know that something or someone wants to push them out of the way or dismiss them. That is especially true as we age, as we deal with sickness or as we deal with all of life’s problems.
While we may not have an Absalom in our camp, we might have a health condition be it with our heart, cancer or a hundred other health issues that threaten our health and the health of our family and future.
While we may not have an Absalom there can be issues at work and at home that can threaten to tear apart everything that we have worked so hard to build up.
And while we may not have any of this going on around us, we may work with someone or have a friend that is going through such a time.
David shows us the right way to handle these situations:
+Get totally reconnected with God. Allow God to examine our hearts, our minds and our spirits. Allow God to correct our ways.
+Let God reveal to us whether we have allowed problems to arise or we simply were not watching and paying attention. Wait for God’s answers. Don’t get ahead of God.
+Understand that we are not trying to find an escape path – but God’s path forward.
That is part of what David did. We also see that David:
I. David invited God to do a New Work on Him and in Him and Through Him – His Heart, Soul and Mind
“Lead me in Your Truth and Teach me” – verse 5
How many of us want God to teach us during our pain, our battles and our struggles?
Most of us want God to rescue us and then after everyone and everything is safe and stable then we will then sit down and listen to Him, His words and His will.
David chooses the little word – LAMAD in verse five – it means both to teach and to learn.
In the Hebrew culture a teacher has not really taught anything until the student begin to actively put what they have been hearing into practice. The way you know you are teaching is when your student is living out your teaching.
David is writing to himself, to others and to LORD GOD ALMIGHTY that he (David) is learning his lessons. He understands where he needs to adjust his life and even in the midst of all this mess, he is already doing his best to begin to live a changed life.
David understood what all of us that have some years on us understand. It takes a lifetime to make a good human being.
In fact, if we understand life correctly then we begin to catch on that our best and deepest learning does not happen the first 20 years of our lives but in the last 20-30 years of our lives.
The more candles on our birthday cake are supposed to be a constant reminder that our best years are yet to come. Our best years are those years where we finally learn what God has been trying to teach us by actually doing what God has been telling us to do.
As a wise old king – King Solomon reminds us that there are still things to learn:
“Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand:
+The way of the eagle in the Sky
+The way of the snake on a Rock,
+The way of a ship on the High Seas,
+And the way of a man with a woman (virgin). – Proverbs 30:18-19
What King Solomon was trying to say was that knowledge, understanding, wisdom and discernment are so vast that we can always learn something new and deeper with each day we live.
J. J. Packer one of the great minds of our century wrote these words:
“Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place on their own accord.”
“Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. That way you can waste your life and lose your soul.”
Those are strong words, but they are accurate words.
David took the time to wait – to wait for God to tell him what to do and then he lived a life to show God that he was actively listening by doing.
David took the time to tell God:
I am ready to listen and to obey. Whatever you say – not only will I listen, but I will also do what you say without reservation.
The Bible tells us that just a few weeks later David was able to retake the throne as Israel’s king. He spent the remainder of his life doing his best to build up the Kingdom spiritually, financially, mentally and socially. He did his best to be the best King Israel possible.
It all happened because David came to understand that he needed a course correction – He needed to make sure that he was going the same way God was going. He needed to reopen his heart, his mind and soul and see the new things that God was wanting to teach him.
This morning, as we close – there is a beautiful song that I would like for to experience. It’s a song that enables us to take some time this morning to ask God to help us with any course correction we may need or to pray for someone we know who needs God’s help.
It is easy to find ourselves in a mess. What do we do once we find ourselves in a mess.
It is easy to know someone who is in a mess. What can we do to help them?
We can share with them Psalm 25 and we can pray for them, encourage them, support them and be their prayer partner.
This morning I would like for us to close by listening to an amazing song. The name of the song is Come to Jesus by Jordan Kauflin and Matt Merker.
As you listen to the words allow them to lead you to open up your heart, your mind and your soul to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Allow this to be a time to begin the process of allowing God to show you the way forward or begin to pray for a friend that needs the words of Psalm 25 and what David shares with us how we can repent, reconnect with God and begin to make a beautiful future in the midst of hardship and tragedies.
