We Are Safe In Christ Series

We Are Safe in Christ

Psalm 4:1-8

- We’re continuing our study through the book of Psalms, and we’ve made it to chapter 4.

- When I was a kid, I loved playing tag with my friends.

- We’d find as many kids as we could, and we’d find big fields to play in.

- Every game we played, we had to determine where the safe zone would be.

- The safe zone was the place you could run to when you were being chased by whoever was “it.”

- If you got there before they tagged you, then you were safe, and they had to go chase someone else.

- As Christians, the enemy is always “chasing” us around, but thankfully, we have a safe-zone we can run to…our Lord Jesus Christ.

- So let’s look at 3 reasons we are safe in Christ.

I.) We are safe because He hears us- Vs 1-3

- Years ago, there was a big news story about a little baby girl that got stuck in a well in Texas.

- Her name was Jessica McClure.

- For 58 hours, rescuers tried to get her out of the abandoned well, where she had fallen in to an 8-inch opening.

- She was 22 feet below the ground and it was extremely difficult to get to her.

- But the rescuers heard her singing about Winnie the Pooh, and that gave them hope, and motivation to keep working to get her out of the well.

- Although little baby Jessica was deep below ground, trapped in the well, she was safe because she could hear the rescuers, and the rescuers could hear her.

- As long as they could hear her, they knew she was alive, and their efforts could still save her.

- And finally, after 58 hours, baby Jessica was rescued from that well.

- Just like baby Jessica knew she was safe, King David understood that he was safe because he knew that God heard him, whenever he called out to Him.

- Here, we see his impassioned plea, as he says, “Hear me when I call, Oh God of my righteousness!”

- Obviously, David knew that God heard him, regardless of whether he asked Him to or not.

- But this plea shows us how close to the Lord he truly was.

- He’s stating it more as a fact than as a request…

- “You hear me when I call, Oh God!”

- That’s because David understood that he couldn’t demand anything from God.

- He had no right to do that…

- But he also knew that God loved Him, and He knew that He could go to God, and God would listen because He’s God, and He’s loving and merciful, and generous.

- David knew that God heard him when he called because God loved him, not because He was somehow obligated to listen.

- Notice that David addresses God with a title…Oh God of my righteousness!

- Once again, we’re really seeing David’s humble heart…

- He doesn’t say, “Hear me God because I’m righteous…”

- No, He says, “Oh God of my righteousness…”

- David recognized that outside of God, he was nothing but a filthy, lost, unrighteous sinner.

- He recognized that even though he might be an earthly king, that in no way made God his subject, and God didn’t have to obey his orders.

- David obviously was used to people obeying His orders, but from this we can see his humility…

- When he came before God, he didn’t view himself as “Mighty King David…”

- No, he was humble, coming before God as His unworthy servant…

- One of the things I love about David is that he’s called a man after God’s own heart, but he doesn’t go around bragging about that to everyone.

- He also doesn’t go before God and say, “Hey God, it’s me, you know, the man after your own heart…I’ve been really good again, so add it to my list!”

- No, David’s heart was humble, especially when he was praying to His Lord.

- Notice that next, he says, “You have relieved me in my distress, have mercy on me and hear my prayer.”

- Don’t miss what he just did.

- He pointed back to previous times when God relieved him in his distress, when God was merciful to him…

- He pointed back because those times of deliverance were times he was safe in God’s hands.

- God did it then, and David knew He could do it again, and He would do it again, simply because He is God!

- One of the things we can do to remember what God has done for us is to write about it…