Cry For Help

Good morning. This morning, we are going to talk about the benefits of complaining. It's amazing how when we take our complaints to other people, how quickly they resolve. You know, I go and I complain about debt, and all of a sudden, someone's paid the account. Or I complain about the cat, and all of a sudden, it does what it's supposed to do, kill the rodents instead of leave trash everywhere. It's wonderful how complaining just makes everything so much better. Thankfully that some are realizing I'm being completely sarcastic. That's silly. But we do it anyway, don't we? It's really hard for us to get past the lie that we believe that if I just complain about it enough, it'll get better. That lie that if I go and I grumble and I complain and I tell everybody all these other problems, somehow that makes me feel better, somehow that resolves the problem. Now, I say that jokingly because we oftentimes recognize we complain this way. We complain to one another, and it really resolves nothing, but it just causes other people to have a grumbling, complaining heart. But what's amazing is God actually prescribes for us to complain. Not to one another, to Him. God welcomes us, prescribes it even. In our psalm today, Come and tell me everything that's wrong. Come and tell me all the different burdens you have. And this is prescribed because God knows we have problems. God, knowing everything, that this world is no longer good as He created it, it's full of sin. It's full of sinners. It's full of trouble. It's full of difficulties. And so He says, not only you can come to Me, please, Come to me. It's a wonderful truth and a blessing as a Christian that we get to go to God and we get to complain to Him. He's eager to hear it. Now we take everything God gives us that's good and we mess it up. So words, they're given to us. The ability to communicate. What a blessing. To communicate to one another as we just have in song, singing the truths of the gospel to one another. It's just a wonderful blessing to do this with and for and to one another. But we also take His words and the ability to communicate and we mess it up. Instead of speaking truth, we tell lies. Instead of building up, we tear down. Instead of complaining the right way to the right person, we complain the wrong way to the wrong people. So this morning we're looking at the benefits of complaining seriously. We are. We're gonna look at how God in Psalm 69, which can be found on page 482, actually leads us to right complaining to the right person. So let's look at this in order. Complaint one. The first complaint we see here in Psalm 69 is talking to God about God. We're looking at verses one to three. Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink deep, I sink in deep mire, and there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters and the floods sweep over me. I am weary with my crying out, my throat is parched, my eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. He cries out. And notice in this psalm, you'll hear over and over again, he's complaining to the right person. Oh God, oh Lord, oh God, oh Lord. He's taking his concerns to God, the one who actually can resolve something. He says, save me, oh God. Well, from what? We don't get into the particulars of the details of the problem. He's more interested in making sure and articulating the depth of his despair. That's where the psalmist is found first. I'm sinking. There's nowhere to stand even, and even start to understand and get past the confusion. I'm drowning. The floodwaters, they're sweeping over me. I'm weary. Look at the way he talks about the weariness. My throat is parched. My eyes grow dim. It's causing a physical exhaustion. And look at the primary point of the first complaint. Save me, oh God, from waiting for you, my God. The heart of the first complaint is you're taking longer than I would like for you to take to fix my problem. I am growing weary on waiting for you. I'm being, I'm wasting away. I can hardly breathe. I'm wearing away, oh God, where are you? Why aren't you responding? It's amazing that God invites us to pray that prayer. God's saying, this is a good prayer to pray. This is okay. To go to God and ask, where are you? What is taking so long? He knows that our biggest problem is a lack of faith, and that does not deter his faithfulness. It's okay. We lack faith. That is our most basic problem. He is faithful. He is God. That's why he says, you can come to me. I'll help. We can pray this. in a social matter like the flood relief or the growing racism tension. We can look at that and just say, God, this feels overwhelming. How long until you resolve the problem? We can look at it when we're battling a sin. How long am I going to continue to be defeated in this temptation? Or when you just don't think things are fair. How long are you going to allow this injustice to take place? Now we're gonna go to the second complaint. And the second complaint focuses on a particular kind of injustice. It's the injustice of a false accusation. So complaint one is, where are you? What's taking so long, God? And then he gets into the details. I'm tired of waiting on you, God. Now I'm surrounded by my enemies. Look at verse four. More the number, than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause. There are many, there are also mighty. Mighty are those who destroy me, who attack me. And the end of verse four really shows the great burden that David is sensing with this particular problem with the enemies. What I did not steal must I now restore. The attack has a very particular sting to it. They're accusing David of some crime that he did not commit. So how does David bring restitution? How does he seek reconciliation? This is the real weight of a false accusation. There's a sense of drowning. There's just nothing you can do. to bring a resolution. There's a powerlessness. You cannot repent because you did not do it. You cannot restore because you didn't take it. You wrestle with guilt because of the kinds of things being said. It's an overwhelming feeling of self-doubt, fear, confusion. Which is why he's talking about sinking in the deep mire, and there's no foothold. There's deep waters. It feels like I'm drowning. Now David's saying, what do I do when I'm being accused of stealing something I did not steal? How can I restore it? But look at verse five. He's not pretending he's sinless. Oh God, you know my folly. He recognizes that God knows everything. He's not seeking to hide anything. You know my folly. You know what I've done. The wrongs I've done are not hidden from you. We see this acknowledgement, there's not a sinlessness, but there's still just no way of resolving whatever's taking place in verse four. Now David is a king. His responsibility is to represent God to his people. And he takes that responsibility very seriously. So we see here a supplication in verse six. Let those who hope in you, let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me. Lord God of hosts you who are almighty Do not let the people that you've put in my charge as a king. He says not those who hoping you don't don't let this Bring shame upon your name. Well, I know those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me. Oh God of Israel He's he's concerned about others Now whatever this is that he's being accused of, and again, this is kind of the beauty of the psalm, we don't know the exact details, we can kind of apply it to ourselves as the Spirit leads us sometimes, but also it leaves us kind of wondering, what's going on? David makes it pretty clear in verse seven, for it is for your sake that I have borne reproach. that his honors cover my face. For whatever it is, what David has done in zeal for the honor of God is being thrown back at him as a reproach. Verse eight shifts the focus ever so slightly. I become a stranger. There's social implications now because of these false accusations. Once something has been said, it cannot be unheard. And so now those who were his brothers, those who were the sons of his own mother, they're treating him differently. Skip down to verses 10 to 12. When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkard makes songs about me. Now, a byword. Whatever this is, whenever somebody does something wrong, they're saying, oh, you just pulled a David. His name has become a replacement for some kind of sin or mockery. Now, the gates with the drunkards. I am the talk of those who sit in the gate. That's kind of like the water cooler at work, where all the gossip takes place. Wherever you gather with other people and you gossip and you talk about one another, maybe you complain in that kind of wrong way, that's the gates of the city. We don't have gates in our city, but we have these places. You know where those places are? But then we get the drunkard. They sing about me. Now, we may not have the same exact gates, but I do want to say there's a place that's very similar to the drunkard who's singing a song at the gate. I want to make the comparison to our social media. Our social media. The modern-day equivalent of the drunkard at the gate is us taking our complaint to Facebook or Twitter to publicly say something we shouldn't. Now let me explain. What makes the drunkard so dangerous at the gate is he has no social inhibition, right? He isn't thinking about the consequences of what he's saying to other people because he's drunk. That's kind of the danger of the computer screen. Whenever we send our bomb over social media, all you're looking at is a screen, not actual human faces. It removes the inhibition that we should have when it comes to the consequences of what we say socially. It feels like you can say whatever you want to say without repercussions. It feeds that lie that there will not be consequences for our sin. So here a warning. Be careful what you say, no matter what you're looking at or who you're looking at. And here, it's not a matter of letting the whole world know what's been done. Pray to God. He's the one eager to hear. Let's go back to verse nine. For the zeal of your house has consumed me, and the reproach of those who reproach you have fallen on me. So David gets here to a specific point, and maybe 1 Chronicles 28 and 29 is the real context. Where David is trying to gather all the different materials so that Solomon, his son, can build the temple. There's a zeal for the temple that David has had, even though he knows he can't be the one who officially builds it. Those who reproach you, they're the ones who are now bringing dishonor to me. David's connecting himself here. And there's a real weight to this claim. David is bearing this burden because he knows that he is suffering for the cause of Christ. Now, if you suffer for being a jerk and there's consequences, that's just the reality, but when you're suffering for the cause of what you're doing for Christ, you really bring yourself into the psalm. Or Matthew 5, 10 to 11. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you and others who vile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Persecuting for the cause of Christ does not make the persecution any lighter. It just helps you see the reason. It helps you see past it to the reward in heaven. The murderers who had their eyes burned out, they still could not see afterwards. But they longed for heaven when they would see God face to face. Those who had burned their stakes suffered greatly and so did their families. But they knew their treasures in heaven so they would not deny Christ. Those who had their farms and businesses destroyed, they went hungry. But they trusted God and they praised him. Know here that when you're suffering for the cause of Christ, when you're going through the suffering for Christ, there's great reward. So we have two complaints. God, why are you taking so long? Two, enemies have surrounded me. The drunkard is at the gate using my name as a byword, they're singing songs about me, and then there's a change in verse 13. And this is the first commitment. We've had two complaints, now we have a commitment. And look at the change in the prayer that David makes. But as for me, my prayer is to you. I'm not going to go and complain around the city, I'm going to focus on looking up to you, oh Lord. And look at the change in just the posture from verses one to three. Instead of with waiting on you I grow weary God at an acceptable time he says But as for me My prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me in your saving faithfulness. Deliver me from sinking in the mire. Let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. Let not the flood sweep over me or the deep swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me. Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good according to your abundant mercy. Turn to me. Hide not your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Make haste to answer me. Draw near to my soul. Redeem me. Ransom me because of my enemies. You see there, the same feelings in one through three are there in 14 to 15. There's still a mire, there's still deep waters, there's floods, there's even a pit now. The difference is his personal posture. He goes from, I'm tired of waiting, to at an acceptable time I'll go. He's pleading, make haste, draw near, answer me. He's changed his posture. Why this change? Well I believe it's because as he's complained, he's come to conclusions that he needs to trust in the steadfast abundant love of God. Now, this actually helps me think about the way I've prayed and how God has made this change in my prayers. It reflects upon my own experience. It reflects true of what I think of my own experience. There's times where I get into a prayer and, well, it sounds like a long list of complaints. God, here's all the different things that are wrong in life that I really want you to know about so you can fix them. A, B, C, D, E, F. It goes into like Roman numeral A, Roman numeral II, so forth. But there's always this moment where God says, is that all you have to do? Is the only thing you can come to me with is complaints? Have you not counted the blessings you have? Have you not considered the way you've sinned and failed and the people could complain about you the same way you complain about them? Here's a scary thing. Look at the transition. The drunkards sing about me at the gates, but I will pray for you. The problem is we can sometimes sound like drunkards at the gates and are complaining. Here, there's a change. And I believe David has been confronted. He's complaining about the guys who are saying the same things that he's complaining about. He's been turned to the abundance of the steadfast love. If you're looking for that one memory verse, if you're looking for that verse to write down, it's verse 13. It's a commitment, it's a prayer, it's a reminder of who God is and what he does. But as for me, I'm not going to stand like the drunkard at the gate. I'm not gonna make my complaints. I'm going to turn to you, oh Lord. I'm going to make my prayer to you. God, in your time, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me. In your saving faithfulness. See, steadfast love is what God gives us. It's a unique word that God gives to David. David, I'm going to put my steadfast love upon you. It's never changing. You see, something about this particular word for love, this particular commitment, it isn't deserved in any way. God didn't say, David, I really fell in love with you because of how beautiful you are or how wonderful you are. He never said that. He simply said, David, I'm looking at you and I am placing, despite you, despite things about you that are unattractive, I'm going to place my love upon you. It was never earned, it was just given. God is abundant and steadfast in his commitment to us. His love is a choice. It's abundant, it's never changing, never failing, it's a forever love. When we see who this God is, we're willing to wait longer because we know he's almighty, we know he's perfectly loving. Look at verse 16, repeats very similar message as verse 13. Answer, O God, for your steadfast love is good. According to your abundant mercy, turn to me. This is that, again, that turn he's made. He's recognizing how good God has been. So in the midst of his despair, he prays, God of mercy, be merciful. The God of steadfast love remain steadfast in that great love. Friends, when we lack faith, he's still faithful. He's still hurting. He's still in need. He still is in the mire, in the muck, in the waters. These circumstances, they have not changed, but he's turned to distrusting the steadfast love of God. Now let's look at these last few verses here. Verse 18, draw near to my soul, redeem me, ransom me because of my enemies. Now here, he feels like he's trapped. Enemies, mighty enemies are numerous. They've surrounded him. So he's asking for salvation. He says, save me in verse 1. Here's where we're talking about ransom, redeem. I want to hit the opportunity here. If you're a Christian, what David is saying, you've already saved me because you've loved me from hell, from your wrath. Now save me from these enemies. But I kind of want to make sure we understand There's a greater salvation than the kind of enemies David's praying about right now. If you're a Christian, I have to tell you, it's kind of awkward, but God is your enemy, because you've rebelled against him. God has, his wrath is against you, and that's your biggest problem right now? But here's the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God created you to be with you. God created you so that you could know Him, know His love, and enjoy Him. But we rebelled, and that's why His righteous wrath is against us. And so to fix this problem, God wants us to be with Him, but we've removed ourself from Him. God sent His own Son. so that the wrath we deserve can be placed upon Him, so that His wrath is satisfied, He has to be righteous, and that we can be forgiven, and then come back into a right relationship of knowing God, knowing His love, enjoying Him. And the only way you can do that is by believing in Jesus Christ. As we've sung, He died even to forgive the ones who nailed Him to the tree. He died to forgive us who have hated Him. This is the great gospel of Jesus Christ. You must believe in Him. Well, if the psalm hasn't quite hit a stroke, this verse 19 and what comes next, it stands out a bit. This is the kind of passage that oftentimes makes us feel a little uncomfortable. We've gone from complaint one, God, how long are you gonna take? We've prayed that. God, it feels like there's people surrounding me. The troubles I have, they're all around. We've prayed that. I'm going to remain steadfast. I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna trust you. You're the one who's abundant, steadfast love. We've prayed that. Verse 19 to 28, I don't know. We'll see if you've prayed this. It's a request for retribution. Two complaints, a commitment, and now a request for retribution. You know my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor. My foes are all known to you. Reproaches have broken my heart so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none. And for comforters, but I found none. They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. Let their own table be for them, become a snare. And when they are at peace, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually. Pour out your indignation upon them. Let your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be a desolation. Let no one dwell in their tents, for they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded, and to the And to them, punishment upon punishment, may they have no acquittal from you. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living. Let them not be enrolled among the righteous." It's important here, we see David begins, you know. There's an ultimate trust, God, you know righteousness, and unrighteousness. You know what has happened. You know its effects. He's turning to God. He's crying out to him. And then he's talking about what they've done. They've broken my heart. They've given me poison for food. For my thirst, they gave me sour wine to drink. So 19 to 21, there's a you know what's happened, and there's a reciting of some things that have happened. And then verse 22 gets into a supplication. Pour out your indignation. Destroy their lives. Strike them down. Add punishment upon punishment. Take them off the role of the righteous. Now this seems harsh because it is harsh. A common misconception, though, is that this is not Christ-like. When Christ invited, He told the parable that He invited certain guests to come, and they didn't come, He declared judgment upon them. Christ does declare, forgive them for not knowing what they do on the cross, but there are moments where Christ does declare judgment. And so we can see, and I think we can all appreciate that God being the God of righteous wrath, Jesus Christ being righteous himself, he could pray this prayer as the righteous one if and when he wanted to, upon whom he wanted to. But are we supposed to pray like this? Should this prayer be on our lips like the other parts of this prayer were on our lips? I want to answer, I think so, with some qualification. First, I want you to see what this prayer is doing, first and foremost. This prayer is saying, I'm not going to take vengeance into my own hands. I'm going to trust you, God. It is praying very specifically to have vengeance, but what the psalmist is saying, what David is saying is, I'm not going to take it into my own hands. I'm not going to be the one who tries to execute justice. God, I'm going to trust you, the Lord who is righteous and just and will bring about the proper judgment. I'm going to take my hands off and I'm going to trust you to have justice. Now his particular prayer is where it's with some qualification. And I wanna make it also clear, in the real world, there's real evil. There's real evil that deserves real judgment. I don't think anyone actually questions that. The question is usually if we think we deserve real judgment. There's real evil that we should long to see God bring justice to. But here's the qualification. We need to be careful in thinking we can stand in our own righteousness and pray this. You see, Christ alone was the one who was truly righteous. He can pray this with a righteous wrath. He can pray this with a righteous judgment, but we are sinners. At the same time, we stand in the righteousness of God's word. According to God's Word, we can pray against murder, rape, abuse, the things that clearly break God's righteous rule. And we should want justice. Justice is not a sinful desire. God, in your time, according to your perfect will, we're going to trust you. Now, before we move on and think more about this particular request for retribution, I wanna give us a warning, okay? This prayer is designed for us when we're a victim. And there's real victims of real abuse here, among us. When we're victims, this is the kind of prayer that God's given to us to cry out to him, to wait upon him, to trust him, and to know he will be the just vindicator. We are victims of real sinful actions, all of us. And so God gave us this prayer when people sin against us. But we also have to recognize that God gave other people this prayer when we sin against them. We're not just victims, we're offenders. We're not just victims, we're offenders. We will always be really bad victims and not trusting God the way we ought if we do not first get to the point where we say we're first and foremost offenders. We deserve this list of actions of God's judgment. First and foremost, we have offended. We haven't just sinned against fellow man, we've sinned against God. Now, you may be asking, what have I done? What have I done that could have possibly caused this kind of prayer to be prayed against me? Well, as Mike mentioned earlier in a pray-through from John 19, we're all guilty of the Son of God, His death. We are all guilty of that. If we were there, we would have been mocking and spitting and murdering the Son of God apart from the grace of God. Our sinful actions led to His death. Really, as we look at this particular psalm, we can see how it's specifically focused on Jesus Himself. This is the most quoted psalm in the New Testament. That's what was actually chosen. So we can see how, especially the Gospel of John picks this up. If we go to Psalm 69, nine, we see that it's quoted in John 2, 16. In Jesus, he's told those who sold the, and he told those who sold the pigeons, Jesus told them, take these things away, do not make my father's house a house of trade. And then at that moment, his disciples remembered it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. Here, John is writing that the apostles, the first disciples, they recognize Jesus fulfilling that part of the psalm, that zeal for the Father's house consumed him as he cleansed the temple. Then in Psalm 69, 4, Jesus quotes it himself. He says, whoever hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my father, but the word that is written in the law must be fulfilled. And he quotes Psalm 69, four. They hated me without cause. So the disciples recognize that Jesus is fulfilling it. Jesus himself says he is fulfilling it. And then Psalm 69 21 was already quoted in our scripture reading John 19 After this Jesus known that he that all was now finished He said to fulfill the scripture. I thirst a jar full of sour wine stood there so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and Held it to his mouth when Jesus had received the sour wine He said it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit It's not quoted there, but it's clearly fulfilling, as John says, to fulfill Scripture, that the sour wine mentioned even in our retribution, that Jesus is taking that. Those enemies have done that to Him. So let's back up a moment. Jesus is the one who truly has a zeal for true worship of God. We have hated the true worship of God. That's why we murdered Him. But Jesus is the one who truly has a zeal for true worship. Jesus is the one who truly is innocent and is falsely accused. Jesus is the one who suffers hatred for righteousness sake. We need to be careful in coming to this prayer with a self-righteousness, thinking it's our prayer first, just as victims, when really this is first Jesus' prayer because of us, the offenders. We need to be careful in thinking that we and our zeal are the righteous one because if we're bad, if we don't recognize ourselves as offenders, we're gonna be bad victims. We're gonna wreak havoc in the kingdom of Christ. We must first see that we're offenders to pray this prayer. But we can pray this prayer to trust God who brings justice. It's also important that we make sure we pray this prayer to God. Again, we get back to the point, God asks us and He prescribes us, pray to me, come to me and complain. As Sam preached weeks ago, maybe months, when we tell ourselves all the things that other people have done against us, it grows bitterness. But when we go to God and we pray to Him about all the things others have done to us, it leads to a repentance, it leads to a recognition of His great love, it leads to a self-awareness of sin. We need to talk to God. because it leads us to a recognition of his abundant mercy. I also wanna remind us here something that's important as we think about this text. If we are to pray for justice, we might be praying justice for somebody's sin that Jesus died for. So if another Christian brother or sister sins against you and you want to pray for justice against them, what you have to realize is that Jesus has paid it and you cannot expect extra payment. He's paid it all. If a brother or sister has sinned against you, there's no more payment to be made. Jesus has satisfied. what that sin requires. And this just leads us to recognize when we expect others to make a payment for little sins against us, we're not recognizing how great of a sin we've committed. So here we have this complaint. One, God, where are you? Why are you waiting? Complaint two, they're all around me. A commitment, I will trust you. You're the God of steadfast love. A request, justice needs to be served. And we conclude with a commitment to. I will praise you. I will praise you, O Lord. This is really the beauty of the Psalms. They always end here. No matter what the complaint is when you begin, the Psalms always lead us to trust and praise. Look at the end of our Psalm. But I am afflicted and in pain. Let your salvation, O God, set me on high. I will praise the name of God with a song. I will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. When the humble see it, they will be glad. You who seek God, let your hearts revive. For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise His own people who are prisoners. Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them. For God will save Zion. build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it. The offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it." We return to a prayer of commitment. And there's a growing circle of this prayer. It first starts with me, David. David says, let me magnify you with thanksgiving. Then it goes out to those who seek you. And then it goes out to all the heavens and all the earth. But let's first look at verse 29. There's actually a play on words here. That word afflicted really can be translated brought low. And here he's simply saying, but I have been brought low and in pain. Let your salvational God set me on high. I have been brought low, O God, but you and your salvation, they set me on high. I will praise you, I will magnify you. Verse 31, this will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull or a horn or hooves. This reminds us what God expects is obedience more than sacrifice. to remain steadfast. Trusting the God of love, trusting the God of peace, trusting the God of commitment and promise. Trusting Him is more important than making a sacrifice. This is worship. Again, as the king, he's concerned about the people. Let the humble see it. Let them rejoice. Let them be revived. And then verse 34, there is no borders. All creation, heaven and earth, let it praise your name. Verse 35, he gives a reason. God will save. David may not ever see the particular problem that he's prayed about resolved. But he knows that God has made promises to build up a final city, Zion. He knows that God has made these promises that one day there'll be perfect peace in all the land. That one day all the cities of God will be at peace. No more sin. We now get to live somewhat in that world where God has these things called churches, where he's brought together those whom he's purchased and redeemed by the blood of Christ. We know more of the promise that God has made now than what David knew in verse 35. We have the reality that we can sing grace and peace. How can it be? We have the reality that we know God has loved us. He sent his own son to die for us. And yet we still wait. For when that King will come again, and he will crush all enemies, they will all be a footstool to his footstool. As we wait, we seek to go to Christ. Trust him as the one just God. Trust him as the Lord who has right vengeance. Trust him as the God who keeps us and saves us. Will you pray with me?