Thankful For Restoration

Good morning. There we go. Be a little more awake and ready to hear God's word, Lord willing, this morning. We're ending our psalm series on psalms. If you want to know where that is, you open a Bible and you go straight to the middle and there's where the psalms are. And the Psalms are unique for us. We usually think they're unique because they're poetry. Actually, many books of the Bible are poetry, written in the kind of Hebrew parallelism and poetry style. But what's actually unique about the Psalms is they're God helping us talk to him. If you think about that, it's pretty amazing to think about what God does for us. First, He talks to us. That is just a wonderful act of grace, so that we can know who He is, we can know who we are, we can know what we've done, how to be forgiven. We can know so many things about this world, and most of all, who He is. Because He has spoken. Our God speaks. And then, because it's so important, he teaches us how to talk back, how to respond. Because let's face it, sometimes it's easier to kind of listen and learn and consume when we actually have to express ourselves. It's difficult. And so the Psalms are just this wonderful grace from God that they lead us to know how to pray and sing and talk to God, to come and praise Him. We need help to know how to praise God. They help us know how to thank God. They help us to cry out to God in a difficult time. They help us confess sin. The Psalms do many things. There's different kinds of Psalms, and today we're coming to the end of our Psalm series. We've been looking at different kinds of Psalms. Again, we're in Psalm 30, page 461. If you don't have a Bible, please take that one with you in front of you. This is the word of God. It contains the words that can give you life. So here we see a psalm of thanksgiving and this is a different kind of psalm than the other psalms we've studied, we've considered together. It's a psalm that looks back and says, God, you answered me. Most of our psalms are, God, will you help me? In the middle of a trial, this is a psalm that we're ending on intentionally that looks back and says, God, you've answered me. And then it teaches us something very important about God. His anger is for a moment. His favor, his mercy, his grace, it's forever. And we've been singing this. You're full of love and you're slow to anger. Our sin is much, our sins are many, your mercy's more. We've been singing and reading of the truths we'll be studying today. Now this Psalm 30 is especially helpful for two kinds of people. First, if you're a believer, and right now you're in a trial, Right now you come with a heavy heart, you're going through some kind of difficult, your heart is empty, you're looking for mercy, you're confused, you're weeping. This psalm is for you. It's a wonderful message from David that declares, praise the Lord, his anger is but for a moment, his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. This is for you to know that God is good. He hears you. He's able to care for you. He's rich in mercy. He's abundant in mercy. So I pray you'll be comforted today if you're here with a heavy heart. Secondly, this psalm is for those who are prospering. You feel secure, everything's great, and you're not giving thanks to God. Your life is just on a trajectory Everything is fine, you feel like all things are in order, and you think you've earned it or deserved it, and you're not thanking God for his mercy that's given you that great blessing. That's going to be challenged today. That boasting that we've actually done something. So this morning we're looking at a psalm. I think there's something for all of us, because it's going to be teaching us how to praise God. If you're looking for just a short, simple summary of the psalm, it's this. God disciplines us for a moment to keep us in his grace forever. God disciplines us in a moment to keep us in his grace forever. Our first section is verses one to three, where David declares, I will praise God for his help. There's a commitment. If you're looking for a heading here, I will praise God for help, for His help. It's a commitment. I will extol You, O Lord, for You have drawn me up. You have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord, my God, I cry to You for help, and You have healed me. O Lord, You have brought up my soul from Sheol. You restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit. Now again, this is different than a lot of the Psalms we've looked at. Oftentimes it's, God, I'm crying out to you. Will you draw me out of the pit? God, I need help. Will you help me? No, this is looking back. God, you have helped me. You've healed me. You've brought me up. You've restored me. We need Psalms like this. To give us hope we're in the middle of the trial that I'm gonna be praying that one day and to remind us God's God's joy it comes with the morning Now I want you to see something that that's very important about this entire psalm Let's just go through and look at all the references to God verse 1 Oh Lord verse 2 Oh Lord my God verse 3 Oh Lord Verse four, he's actually commanded the saints to praise the Lord. And then we come back to the supplication, verse six, by your favor, O Lord. Verse eight, O Lord. Verse 10, O Lord, O Lord, be my helper. Well, over again, he's crying out to the Lord. Now, the Lord is in all caps, and this is kind of a funny thing about our Bible translation, so bear with me for a moment. God has given his covenant name, it's Yahweh. And because God's people were afraid of taking that name in vain, they've not put Yahweh in the text, they've given an all caps Lord. And so David is actually crying out to the given name of God. The name that he has specifically given to his people to call upon. Now, notice here, David isn't saying God whoever thou will be wherever thou might be if you can hear me if you're able and if you might care I Don't know why but whatever like I really feel really spiritual you use King James language thou God whoever that might be But we're not wondering who God is here David is not agnostic He's not wondering if God cares he's not wondering if God's able he's not wondering where God might be or if he will help him and He knows who God is because God has spoken. God has told us who He is. He's revealed Himself, and David has full assurance that Yahweh, the one true God, who's made many promises to David's people, us, is real, and He cares, and He's listening, and He's able. It's important here because we see there's not just some wondering is God really care about me? No, it's God's made promises. I'm with you. I'm for you. He's spoken and we can trust him. Also, look at the way he talks to him very personally. Be my helper, you, oh Lord. He talks to him as one who he knows loves him. There's a personal relationship. Now what is David specifically praying about or praising him for? He says here that you healed me, you restored me. It sounds like maybe there was a sickness that was leading to death. David was afraid of actually dying because his health was so bad. We can go to verse nine. Death seemed to be lurking. This could have been an enemy that was seeking his life, but most people think this is probably referring to some sickness. Whatever it is, he was in need, he cried out to God, and we can adapt, we get to pray this prayer with David. Here we see very specifically, David cries out for help, God is his helper. David is committing, I am going to praise you because you've helped me. Now I feel like we've gotta ask this question here before we move on. What if you ask for help or healing and God does not heal you? Is he still praiseworthy? Is God still praiseworthy if you have a sickness and he doesn't heal you? For instance, I've got a head cold. Maybe you can't figure that out, but I don't feel well. My throat hurts. And I was praying, God relieve this. He didn't. But still, He's praiseworthy. Because I know that all the things God has said, all the things God has done, He is a good God, who is a just God, who saves His people, who heals us from our greatest problem, that is sin. He is always praiseworthy, but here it's a specific kind of praise, there's a thanksgiving for what He's done. Now let's go to this next section. And the heading here, all people, David says. So David, he's praised him. I will exalt you, O Lord. And then he wants to invite his friends. And this is only natural, right? When something great happens, you call or you text your friends and say, hey, I've got to share something with you. I want you to rejoice with me. So David invites everyone who trusts the Lord to praise the Lord with him. It's a call to worship. He gives a commitment, I will extol you, I will praise you, and now there's a call to worship. Everybody come praise God with me. Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints. Now we need a pause here. What makes someone a saint? Are you a saint? Are you sitting next to a saint? We've confused this word because we typically think in order to be a saint you need some kind of shining light over your head. No. A saint is simply someone that God said, I love you, I'm going to take you out of the domain of darkness and put you into the kingdom of our beloved Son. So if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're a saint. After the service today, it's perfectly okay for you to walk up to others that you know are believers and say, hey, Saint Bill, Saint Jim, hey, great to meet you. That's weird, but it'd be okay. A saint is someone who believes and has been set apart by God. It's not a super spiritual person. Now, I do want to look at that word saint, and it's an odd translation, because I think it would be better translated if it were those who trust God's steadfast love. The focus here is that those who are trusting God, praise the Lord. Those who are trusting His steadfast love, praise Him. Come and join in this praise. give thanks to His holy name. And again, that name is very important. We know exactly who we're supposed to be praising. Now, verse 5 is the key verse of the passage. If you're looking to memorize a verse from Psalm 30, this is it. If you're a child and you're looking for that verse to write down, to think, to hopefully memorize yourself, this is it. For His anger is but for a moment, and His favor It's for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning. His anger is temporary for those who believe him. His favor is forever. Our weeping is only for the night. Joy is going to break in the morning. It's going to break out in the morning. There's two important things going on here. We're looking at God and what He does and what we experience. We're looking at God and how He is acting towards us and how we experience life. His anger leads to our weeping. His favor leads to our joy. And it's extremely important that we recognize that for believers, weeping and anger are temporary. Favor and joy are forever. Now let's look at this, because this passage should cause us to ask all kinds of questions. The first one is, what is God like? We've got, he's angry and he shows favor? He's kind? What kind of God is he that he speaks like this? Is it a kind of God where you don't really know what you're gonna get? Some days he's got good days and there's more good days than bad days, that's why joy is forever, but you never know what you're gonna get. He might be upset one day. Is he unpredictable like this? No. We can go back to Exodus 34. We can see how God has actually spoken about himself. On page 74, if you're using a pew Bible, this is one of those moments where Moses, this is the moment where Moses says, I wanna see your face, and God says, you can't, but I will. I will reveal to you my name. I will tell you who I am. Verse 5. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation See here is mercy is forever for those of belief What we see here is a God who's who's slow to anger. We sang that earlier. We see a God who's who's abounding in mercy What's amazing about God is he he's not like us His anger isn't some kind of emotion that controls him. No, his righteousness is what determines God and what he does. Against our unrighteousness or our obedience. We need to realize God is not like us. He literally says that. He's not like a man where he changes his mind. He's not compelled or controlled by different emotions. No, he's steadfast. We see here I think the basic point, God disciplines us for a moment to keep us in his grace forever. He's not an out of control emotional God. He doesn't throw tantrums. He's simply pulling back his grace so that he can teach his people, they're sinners. They need to repent of sin so that they can come and enjoy his grace and his love more. Now, as we look at this, and I'll try to walk through what favor is and anger is, but I wanna make it very clear, this particular healing and praise and thanksgiving has to do with a very specific sin of David. If it was sickness that was brought onto David, it was a consequence of David's specific sin that we'll get into in the next section. So not every trial is a specific consequence of our specific sin, but every trial, every suffering is under the sovereignty of God to help us see our sin so that we will rejoice more in His sovereign grace. So God's favor. What is God's favor? It is Him pouring out all of His blessings so that we experience the joy of all of His blessings. What is God's anger? It is God pouring out His disappointment. It's God revealing to us that we have sinned, that we have done something that is unbecoming of someone who calls upon the name of Christ or of Yahweh. There's no change of salvation here. There's no change of status of sainthood. There's no change from being in the day of darkness into the kingdom of God. Here, where you're going back to the day of darkness because of anger, no. It's the way you experience God because of what we've done. And therefore he disciplines us. Let me make it very clear, his anger is an expression of his righteousness. His anger is an expression of his righteousness. It's a temporary punishment for our sin in this Psalm. Secondly, I wanna say his anger is an expression of his love. He disciplines those he loves. But remember, he's not angry like we are. It's not an emotion that controls him. His righteousness and his love leads him to discipline us, to remove his favor so that we would come back to him. As we look at this, The anger is for a moment, the favor is forever. There's a great declaration that the way of the believer is one that's ultimately joyful and one that ultimately receives and enjoys the favor, but God does pull it back at times. There will be trials. They're under the authority of God, but what's important to remember, joy comes in the morning. Sometimes when we go through trials, it can feel like they're forever. The reason this psalm is important is, many of the psalms, whenever there's a trial, we cry out, how long, oh Lord? How long, oh Lord? And it's important to pray that because sometimes we can just wonder, God, is this the way my life's always gonna be? Am I gonna be weeping for the rest of my life? Will your favor be removed for the rest of my life? And David is here instructing us, no. Weeping is for the night. Joy comes in the morning. This is important for us to realize that God desires us to be truly happy, happy in Him. We're so easily tempted to do glory in everything but God, but God disciplines us. He helps us see what we've done wrong. He helps us see that we're trying to delight in something as if God, when it's not God, so that we will come back and enjoy Him. Anyone who's gone through a trial that you're crying out for help, you know how sweet the relief is when that joy breaks in the morning. Something else important here to remember as anger is temporary, favor is for a lifetime, even when you don't feel it, even when you're not experiencing the joy of God's love, He is with you, He is for you. Even when you don't experience it, even when you're not aware of it, even when you're crying out, help me, oh God, I don't know where you are, He is with you and He's for you. That never changes. It's simply the change in how we experience and enjoy. Now if you're a Christian, I wanna give you some encouragement. When you're in the middle of a trial, which I think this is what David's doing, he's trying to teach the saints, he's trying to teach those who trust God, here's something you can rely upon. Joy's gonna come. And in the midst of trial, it's your perspective, and so I wanna give you some directions you've gotta look when you're in the middle of a trial. First, in the midst of a trial, look up. Look up to God. Look up and know that your father has not withheld anything good from you. He sent his own son to die in our place. The father, his love is absolutely clear and sure because we know he sent his son so that our sins could be forgiven. His love is sure. Secondly, as we look up, we look to Jesus. Who we can glory in. We know He's paid the perfect penalty for our sin. We know our assurance is secure with the Father because of the Son. So first look up. Then look forward. Look forward and know that this is not the way it's always going to be. Look forward, knowing that God in His grace is going to heal you. He may not change your circumstances, but He's gonna change the heart. He might change the circumstances, but He's going to always change the heart so that joy will come. Look forward. Third, look in. Now, this isn't the first thing we do. This is the third thing we do. Look up. Look forward. Look in. Start praying, God, what is it in me that you're trying to refine? What's insufficient? What's failing? What's sin? What is it in me that needs to be purified by this trial that's pressing in on me? Then I want to encourage you, look back. Look back in your life and recount all the ways that God has remained faithful. Look back and think about all the times you doubted and God revealed himself to be mighty and faithful to you. Look back, intentionally count all the blessings that God has given you. And finally, look around you. This is what David's doing. He's trying to encourage the saints, hey, I can sympathize with you. I've gone through a trial. I can tell you that joy breaks in the morning, joy comes in the morning. Look around and ask for help. Don't let the pride of the trial keep you from asking for help. Look around you and say, can you give me a testimony of how God has brought you out of a trial to encourage me? So that hopefully someone will ask you the same question when God brings you out of a trial. If you're not a Christian here, so far I have not really talked to you. Because this is a message for Christians. For those who believe anger is but for a moment, favors for a lifetime. If you're not a Christian, I have to tell you that God's anger is going to be forever. God is a just and righteous God. And we, every single one of us, has sinned against Him. And God's only right response to our sin is righteous anger. And it will be on you forever unless, unless somehow that righteous anger can be satisfied by being poured up out on somebody else. Somehow it can be removed from you. And that's why God sent Jesus. Jesus was the perfectly righteous man. He never sinned. God's favor was always with him, rightfully so. But when Jesus died, he died as if a sinner. He died with the full anger of God, with the full righteous wrath of God being poured out upon him. So that all of us who believe we could receive God's favor because the righteous wrath of God is satisfied. The penalty has been paid. If you're a Christian this morning, if you're not a Christian, if you're not a believer, God's anger will be on you forever. Unless, here's the good news, unless you believe Jesus Christ died so that you can be forgiven for those sins. Jesus Christ died so that you would now be brought into the love of God, so that you can now enjoy and delight in God's favor. This is God's offering to you. You must believe. Let's look at our third point. If you're not a Christian this morning, please talk to somebody before you leave. Third, why David? David tells us why he asked for help, there's a confession. Look at verse six, he's contrasting himself with those who praise. He said, as for me, he's gonna go back in the past tense, he's gonna tell us what actually happened to bring about the probably sickness that needed healing. Look what he says. As for me, I said when I was secure in my prosperity, I shall not be moved. He's telling us of the specific sin. He's now making a confession. And this is one of the most amazing things about Christianity. This is one of the unique things about Christianity. Not only does God speak, He teaches us how to speak. He says, come and confess your sins. I'm thankful for Andrew and just the boldness in which he confessed our sins for us. Christianity is a place where we get to come and we, the church is a place where we get to come and confess to have that guilt removed. Here, David is confessing. He actually makes himself an object lesson on what not to do. I said, I shall never be moved. Now, it's pretty amazing. Whenever you're living well, it's just so tempting to think, wow, I've really done good for myself. I really deserve all these good blessings. Now, later on, David's gonna say, by your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong. You gave me that security. But this is what we do, even as believers. God, in his mercy, gives us a security. God, in his mercy, gives us a prosperity. And what do we do? We think, da-da-da, look what I've done. And it's his mercy alone that gives us any security. It's his mercy alone that gives us any prosperity. It's by God's grace alone that we can do anything good. This boasting, it just sounds right. It sounds like what we do. When I was prosperous, I gave no credit or no glory to God. I did not praise him, I did not thank him. I said, I am gonna remain prosperous because I did this. And then he recognizes verse seven. Lord, it was by your favor that you made me stand strong. He's now acknowledging what he should have said in verse six to four. He should have been saying all along, it's by your favor, oh Lord, that I was standing strong, but I boasted. And then he recognizes verse seven. When you hid your face, I was undone. All my security, all the things that I thought I had earned for myself, they were gone. We go so quickly from boasting to dismay when we do not give thanks and honor to God. Now it mentions here God's face was hidden. God's face is used throughout scripture to demonstrate his favor. And I believe this is a really helpful analogy for us, so that whenever he sees somebody's face, you can typically tell if they're happy or sad, especially someone you know well, like your spouse. You can walk in and you can kinda feel like, is that person welcoming? Are they kinda distant? You can see it on their face. There's so many things we communicate through the face. And so God's saying here, when my face is turned towards you, it's favor, it's joy, I'm giving you all the blessing, but when I hide my face, There's a distance. You can feel it. When God hides his face, it's another way of talking about his anger. He hides his face so that we stop experiencing all the blessings that he's intended for us. And it's for a good. David is now acknowledging that it was God's favor that put him on that strong place, and that it is his boasting that has caused him to lose it. Now let me say here, there is just something wonderful about a miserable Christian. When somebody confesses Christ and has started entertaining sin, it really demonstrates the powerful grace and love of God that they're miserable. Because he doesn't let us remain in sin. He does not let us remain in that place where we're trying to enjoy something else like it's God when we couldn't be enjoying Him, the one true God. It's actually just, it's wonderful. I love meeting miserable Christians because I get to say, don't you remember the joy you had in Christ? Repent, believe, and return to the joy that Christ has purchased for you. Something we need to realize here, God is not in the self-esteem business. He's not coming to David and saying, oh, no, you're doing a good job. You're standing strong. Keep it up, buddy. He's not in the self-esteem business. He's in the right perception business. He wants us to have an accurate understanding of Him, of ourselves. We're not good. We're not self-sufficient. We're not independent. We are dependent upon the Creator, and He's good. David's confessing arrogance here. Oh, I got this, I'm good. And God wants to make it very clear, no, David, you're mine. You depend upon me. You need my grace, and it is sufficient for you. Look at verse eight. I wanna read verse eight and 10 together. To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy. Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me. O Lord, be my helper. This is the humble prayer of somebody who's been dismayed, who's in dismay. Here we see he's calling out Yahweh, the God who has spoken, the God who has made promises, be merciful. What's mercy? It's receiving favor you don't deserve. Right, he's gone from saying, look what I've done in bringing my security to saying, God, I need help. I've got nothing. He's not making a deal with God. God, if you give me this, I'll give you that. God, I can do this for you if you'll just do that. God, be merciful. God, help me. He leads us to this place where we stop thinking we deserve what we have and that we deserve better. This is a glorious gift of God to be able to cry out for his mercy. Now what is he saying in verse nine? Because this is a little difficult. He's pleading with God, he's asking a request for mercy and then he talks about how he's saying there's no profit in my death if I go to the pit. Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Now, we need to recognize that David does not have a full theology of the resurrection as we have. The afterlife in the Old Testament is not developed. As far as David understands, I believe, he knows that God has created him, God created him for worship, and while he's living, he's supposed to be praising God. What he's saying here is that God, if I die, I can't keep Worshiping you and that's what you deserve. That's what I want to do It's not until the resurrection of Jesus that you have a confession that we can make For me to live as Christ and to die as gain We take for granted that that the Old Testament would have had this but no David is is simply saying in verse 9 He's pleading based upon what he knows about God. You deserve my praise. I want to live to to praise you Let's conclude with our last point, the conclusion. I praise you for helping. He says the same thing in verse 11 that he's already said in verse five. You've turned for me my mourning into dancing. You've loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. God's done all this. He's gone from weeping to rejoicing. The anger has gone. The joy has come. Here we see that he's expressing it in a different way. I was mourning and then dancing. I was weeping and grieving and now I'm exuberant with this praise. I had sackcloth and now you've clothed me. And notice who's doing all the action. You, O Lord, have done this. You have helped me. Verse 12, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. Oh Lord my God, I will give thanks forever. This is the healthy place to be as a believer. I'll praise you. I'll give thanks to you. I will not boast of myself. I will not assume I've deserved or earned anything. I'm going to praise you and I'm going to thank you. That is our posture and our responsibility, our calling. Let me encourage you this morning. If you're in a state of trouble, if you're in the middle of, again, a heavy heart, persevere in praise. Do not quit. Sometimes all you can do is cry out, help my unbelief. Plead for mercy. Lord, help my unbelief. Give me the mercy to continue and persevere through this trial. Let me assure you, his steadfast love is abundant. Look to God. This really, it requires humility. When we're in a place of dismay, we have to turn to God and recognize, I can't do this, I just need your mercy. Wait upon his healing. Again, I'm concerned about the two different kinds of people. First, if you're someone who embraces misery as a way of life, that's not the life God has called you to. If you're a Christian who constantly feels guilty because of the sin and the burden you have, this psalm is for you. God does not want you to continue in the darkness. God does not want you to continue in the weeping, tearing through the night. God has called you to a joy in Christ. Yes, you get it, your sin is bad, it's against God, it does displease Him, but you're not recognizing how full it is that Christ has paid the penalty for it. You're free. You're free of guilt, you're free to rejoice. Don't embrace misery as your forever. Long for the joy that Christ has given you. The second concern is the one who says there's no way God couldn't be pleased with me. Look how good my life is. No, if we're not praising him and thanking him, recognizing that it's his mercy that heals, it's his mercy that gives security, it's his mercy that gives prosperity, we're not really praising him. We're not truly pleasing him. God is a merciful helper who prospers us and delivers us. Praise and give thanks to God because He's with us in our trials. Praise and give thanks to God because His favor is forever. Praise and give thanks to God because He's merciful. He will deliver us. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for this word from David after a trial, after your healing, after your help. Lord, for those of us in trials, may we know that we can cry out to you and that you're a God who hears, who's able to help, and will help in your time. Help us to wait. Wait eagerly for that joy to break. Lord, if there's someone here who does not know you, who has not believed in you, help them, Lord, to see. your calling, help the Lord to see your face, calling them to know you as the one true God of love who has sent your son to die for our sins so that we might be forgiven. In his name we pray, amen.