I want to thank you for this opportunity to share from God’s word with you today. KC and Simone send their greetings as well but they could not be here today. They’re probably sleeping right now.
I have come to appreciate my being here with you all at SEFC more and more. The adjustment to another country and culture has not been easy and I am still in the process of adjusting to it. Yet I have appreciated how everyone has been so helpful. Plus I can say that God has taken care of me.
Most of you know that I hate bananas. There is no food I don’t like any worse than a banana. A couple of weeks ago I shared at the women’s luncheon and we went around the room with each person having to tell us something she liked and something she did not like.
While it may not be eating a banana for you, it might be something equally unpleasant, that if you could have your way, you would rather not have to deal with. While in the Christian life many times things are going very well for us, there may be those times when things are not going so well. It might be like my having to eat bananas the rest of my life. We don’t get it. When I say we don’t get it it means several things; we don’t understand it. It’s not making any sense to us. We don’t get it. Have you ever felt this way? You’re doing what you believe to be God’s will for you. To the best of your knowledge, there is not any unconfessed sin in your life and your number 1 desire is to obey God and be faithful to Him. And yet what you know to be true about a loving and holy God does not make any sense in view of what you are facing in your life right now.
Psalm 77 addresses this question. I guarantee you that you will not be the first person to ask the questions we’re going to look at. But this Psalm also addresses what to do in these circumstances. I want us to look at several things.
Before we go further into this Psalm I want us to understand that discouragement, sufferings and things that we don’t understand, are part of the Christian life for all of us. This is my first point. When these things happen to you, it is not mean you have sinned or God is punishing you. The problem, as we shall see later is when we choose to dwell on these things.
Psalm 77 was written by Asaph in a time of great personal distress. Although the specific nature of the distress is not given here, from just reading the first 9 verses, we can see that he is very troubled and distressed at what is happening in his life right now.
In verses 1 and 2 we see him crying to God in his distress but with no relief. If we continue in verses 3 and 4 he can’t even sleep. And in verses 5 and 6 as he looks back on how God had previously dealt with him, he is probably thinking, “God I don’t get it. Why is this happening in my life?” “I thought you loved me.”
As I mentioned just a minute ago, these experiences are part of the Christian life.
My next point is that when you feel the same way the Psalmist did, go to God with your problems. Tell Him how you feel. You won’t be the first person who has felt this way. And God knows it and understands.
I felt like this 3 years ago. I’m single although I don’t want to stay that way forever. And I met a nice young lady at my church and she said she would like to get together sometime. So we did and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening with her. I remember her saying how it would be nice to have somebody to do something with, like go to a movie. I couldn’t agree more. And so I had hopes of spending more time with this woman and for a relationship to develop. However when I saw her at church a couple of weeks later and I could tell, after a few minutes of talking with her, that she was not interested in me, I felt despair, just like the Psalmist did. And I remember sharing with a friend later that day, how this didn’t make any sense what was happening. It was like God has given me a desire for a special relationship but it is not happening. I didn’t get it. But God did.
Sometimes we can talk ourselves into believing that we shouldn’t feel this way, and that God will not like it if we come to Him like this. I believe nothing could be further from the truth. If we’re distressed it is okay to come to God like this. Even if we don’t get it he does.
If we look at verses 7-9 we notice Asaph asks God some very pointed questions. I won’t go into the details of each one, but Asaph feels like God has rejected him, He has stopped loving him, and because God is angry with him, He is no longer showing him mercy and compassion.
Have you ever felt this way? It is one thing to be rejected by someone, but it is quite another thing to feel rejected by God like this. Yet what Asaph is doing, and what we do too is when we have unpleasant circumstances in our lives, they often give us a negative view of God. Now I don’t believe there is anything wrong if we have the same questions Asaph did. The problem is when we continue to focus on our own problems and think thoughts of God like this. There is a way out of it, and that’s what we are going to look at next. That will be my third point.
Because there is nothing wrong with the above questions when you don’t get it. But what we are about to see is that Asaph will begin to turn his attention from his problems to God’s power and ability.
In verses 10-15 we’re going to see how he starts to look back at all God’s past dealings with him. He focuses on God’s previous works and miracles in his life. And that is my third point. I think it’s important for us to do the same, because we take the focus off of ourselves and focus on God. I think if most of us were honest we can look back to times when God really was blessing us and how great it was to fellowship with Him day by day and follow His ways. He has worked mightily in our lives. When we do this we come to the same conclusion Asaph did in verses 13-15; that God’s way is holy. That word can have many meanings. Other translations read, “Your way, O God is in the sanctuary.” God’s way is pure and perfect for us. It is different from the ways of man. It is far above the ways of man. Isaiah 55:9 tells us that God’s ways are higher than mans ways. And it might not look great to us. We still may not understand it. We still don’t get it. But God does get it. His way for us is holy. His way for us is best for us.
When we stop focusing on our problems, and look back on God’s workings in our lives then we too can come to the same conclusion that Asaph did; God’s way is holy. Notice that now he is boasting on God’s mighty power and miracles. We can do the same thing too. Notice how in the first 9 verses his focus is on himself and nothing else. He uses I total of 11 times. Now look at what he is focusing on.
And to show how great God is, Asaph is going to focus on God’s biggest act of deliverance yet; God’s leading Israel out of slavery to freedom with the crossing of the Red Sea. I won’t go into it in detail; you can read the account in Exodus 14. God’s people had been under Egyptian slavery for over 400 years. Under the leadership of Moses and Aaron, God took them out of Egypt to safety. At Moses command, He parted the Red Sea, and then He closed it back over the Egyptians, where none of them made it through.
In the rest of this Psalm, verses 16-20 we see Asaph describing what it would have been like to be there when God parted the Red Sea. Look down at verse 19 and that brings me to my fourth point; God’s way is in the sea. We often want God to take the problems or difficulties away. We would rather not have any problems or difficulties at all. But Gods way (remember it is holy) often includes problems. But He doesn’t leave us there. He takes us right through to the other side. He is our deliverer. That is my last point. Look at verse 20, and God cared for His people through Moses and Aaron. He does this to show us He loves us and cares for us. No matter what situation we may be facing God does understand. He does get it and He is the one who will still care for us and safely see us to the other side. This is what He did for Israel. This is what He will do for you and me. I think we can all give testimony to that.
Last August I had a long weekend so I came to Tokyo. I called a friend and we were going to go into downtown Tokyo that afternoon. We decided to meet at the Tsudanuma train station at 2:00PM. She lived in Chiba and I was staying at a hotel by Narita airport; so I could watch the 777’s. And as I waited for some time in the Tsudanuma station and my friend was not there I became concerned and begin praying. I didn’t know if I should continue into Tokyo by myself or go back to my hotel. And after over 1 hour of waiting I decided to walk around the station one more time. As I went outside I noticed a group of 7 or 8 people singing. I was not familiar with the songs they were singing but I noticed one of the girls had a tambourine with a cross on it. After a few songs she came up to me and I took the tambourine and asked if she was a Christian. She said she is. She spoke a little English, so I shared about my desire to come to Japan and serve as a missionary. She shared with her group in Japanese then turned back to me and asked me to pray for her group. And after I prayed for them she told me they would like to pray for me now. The group concluded with one more song, and then she told me she hopes I do come back to Japan. Here I am.
You may be wondering what happened with my friend I was supposed to meet. I showed the Christian group where we were supposed to meet. It turned out that my friend and I were supposed to both take the Keisei line. I took the JR train. No wonder we did not find each other. However we were able to meet later than night for dinner. I shared with her how I believe God had me take the JR train just to meet up with that group in the Tsudanuma station. His way was holy. His way was best. He took care of me in the train station.
I don’t know what is happening in each of your lives. But I can tell you that when you are in despair or discouragement, and you don’t get it, tell God you don’t get it. It’s okay if you have questions. But instead of keeping your focus on your problems, look to Him. Look at how He has been faithful and taken care of you. He still does. And even though what is happening to you makes no sense, it does to God. When you don’t get it, he does get it. Then you will be able to write a Psalm of praise for his faithfulness and deliverance in your lives as well.
