Traveling Through This World Of Sorrow

TRAVELING THROUGH THIS WORLD OF SORROW

TEXT: PSALM 20:1-2; 7

INTRODUCTION:

The song, “I Want to Know More About My Lord,” was written by Lee Roy Abernathy. I believe David, who wrote Psalm 20, would relate to this song. The first verse says, “While traveling through this world of sorrow, I’m on my way to Glory Land. I’ll not turn back for some tomorrow. My trials here, I’ll understand.” David was navigating a dangerous world. At one point in his life, he said, “I feel that there is but a step between me and death” (I Sam. 20:3).

But this world has always been a dangerous place for followers of the Lord. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19). The word “Hate” in the Greek is mis-eh'-o and means “detest.” Detest is a stronger word than hate and implies violent opposition.

Following Jesus got Stephen stoned to death. It got the Apostle James, John’s brother, killed with the sword on the order of King Herod Agrippa I. Following Jesus led to the violent death of all the twelve Apostles save John, and got Paul beheaded. In more modern times, we have such martyrs as the five American missionaries – Jim Elliot, Pete Flemming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, and Roger Youderian, who were killed by the Ecuadorian natives they were trying to reach for Jesus in the 1950s. Many Christians are martyred daily for their faith in countries such as China, N. Korea, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and other Muslim-ruled countries.

I want to read the first two verses of our text again: “The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion...” Verse 7 says, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”

I like J. Vernon Magee’s commentary. He said, “Israel, from the beginning, said this psalm spoke of the Messiah. The Targum…and the Talmud teach that the king mentioned in this psalm is the Messiah. The great [11th century] Talmud scholar, Rabbi Solomon Isaaci…endorsed this interpretation but suggested that it should be given up because Christians [were] making use of this psalm as evidence that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. I feel that this is a very good testimony to the fact that this psalm does refer to the Lord Jesus.”

Yes, while we as Christians are traveling through this world of sorrow on our way to Glory Land, we do not look to our own strength for help, nor to man, neither governments nor the might of armies to protect us. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ for our help in times of trouble.

I want to preach about the spiritual qualities we need, and that the Lord makes available to us as we travel through this world of sorrow. These are appropriated by faith. They are Reliance, Resistance, Resilience, and Recovery.

I. RELIANCE

A. The definition of Reliance is: “dependence on or trust in someone or something; a person or thing on which someone depends.”

B. My search in the KJV for rely on or relied upon brought up two references: I Chron. 13:18 and II Chron. 16:7. In both, the Hebrew word translated as relied is shaw-ann' and means “to lean on, trust in, support.”

C. In the first reference, we read of King Jeroboam. In 930 BC he rebelled against Rehoboam, son of Solomon, and took 10 tribes and formed the independent Kingdom of Israel in the north. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin set up the Kingdom of Judah in the south.

D. Several years later, when Abijah was King of Judah, Israel’s 800,000 men came against Judah’s 400,000 warriors. Before the battle, Abijah stood on top of Mt. Ephraim and called out to Israel, condemning them for their wickedness in departing from Jehovah, for creating a false priesthood, and for setting up golden calves to worship.

E. Abijah said God was the Captain of Judah’s forces, and Israel could not prevail in the battle. Jeroboam set half his forces in front of Judah and half behind, surrounding Judah. What did Judah do? Scripture says, “They cried unto the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets. Then the men of Judah gave a shout: and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. And the children of Israel fled before Judah: and God delivered them into their hand…and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers” (II Chron. 13:14-16; 18).