Word of Salvation – Vol.39 No.21 – June 1994

 

Resting In God

 

Sermon by Rev. M. de Graaf on Psalm 4

Reading: Luke 24:13-35, Psalm 4

 

Brothers and Sisters,

Most of us are basically creatures of habit.  Most of us like to live our lives according to certain patterns and certain ways of doing things.  We have certain assumptions about how it should work and we feel safe when it goes the way we think it should.

We like the idea of an adventure, or something unusual happening from time to time.  We are willing to take some risks (for example – migrants might go to another country.)  We can tolerate some change.  But we don’t want it to be too big or too dramatic.  When we as migrants get to the other country we work hard to re-establish the things with which we were familiar.  I guess at heart, most of us, like the idea of things being within our control.  We like the idea of being comfortable with what is going on.

Only trouble is of course, that no matter how hard we try to remain in control, we can’t guarantee that our lives are going to operate in this way.  There are times in our lives when the foundations on which we have built our life can shift.  Our comfort is shaken.  It could be a very dramatic thing like the death of a loved one, or a war, or a marriage breakdown or a child rebelling and leaving home in anger.

Or it could be something smaller, but no less painful, like a period without work or a time of sickness.

Then the pattern of our days is broken.  Our usual way of doing things is gone.  We need to adjust, we need to re-coup ourselves.  And we find that hard.  Even positive things can shake our comfort.  Ask the bachelor who marries after many years alone, or the couple who have a new born baby in their home after being used to living just for each other.

We cannot always be in control.  And when those times come we feel a sense of dislocation; we’re on edge, our confidence is shaken.  We get moody, irritable, and withdraw into ourselves.

In Psalm 4 David speaks of a time of distress.  He says in verse 2 that his glory (the things in which he had felt pride and certainty, the things that had given him a sense of identity) had become objects of shame.

We don’t know the exact circumstances of the Psalm.  It may have been a time of war, or possible drought.  Maybe David was wrestling with some personal problem.  Some commentators think it may have been written during the time when David was running away from his son Absalom.

Whatever the situation, the man is suffering and you get the hint in a few places that he is facing many sleepless nights as he wrestles with the overwhelming issues in his life.

One of the things he does is look around him and he sees how other people respond in this type of situation.  In verse 2 he speaks of those who pursue false gods and in verse 7 he makes a reference to times of material wealth when the harvests are good.

These things ring a bell with us, or they ought to.  We find it so easy to look for comfort in the things close by; the things we can touch, as we see when we look at the subject of addiction.  There are so many false gods in our age; so many things that we turn to give us comfort.  Drugs like nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, and the rest are just the starting point.  We hope our relationships will wipe away all our feelings of insecurity and loneliness and we get upset when it does not happen.

In Israel, Baal and Asherah were popular and they are still with us today.  Baal promised material wealth and Asherah offered comfort through sexual pleasure.  You just turn on your television, or listen to the radio, or watch your own imagination and you see the hold these gods still have.

How many of us fantasise about the new home, the bigger car, the well-paying job, the million dollars in the mail.  We hope for power, and influence.  We dream of being seen as someone significant by all around us.

And we believe the lies that tell us that somehow these things will meet our deepest needs.

In our text David says: “Many are asking, ‘Who can show us any good?’”

And we see a world filled with people asking the same question, especially during times of difficulty and dislocation.

But instead of pursuing the false gods of the age, David makes it clear that he feels these things are nothing more than a chasing after the wind.  They will lead you nowhere.

In verse 4 he says that as you lie on your beds, instead of tossing and turning, trying to find some new false god to deal with your struggles, be silent!  Listen to your hearts!

Allow the pain to be.  Don’t run from it.  Instead, offer it up, lay it at the feet of the only Person who can give any real answer to you.  Don’t feel as if you have always to find a solution in your own strength.  That way can easily lead you into sin.

He speaks of trusting in the Lord.

You know, that’s the exact opposite of always being in control; of always seeking your own way out; of always feeling as if you must grab everything to yourself.

Trust is the same as having faith.  It means opening your hands to God.

David prays: Let the light of your face shine upon us Lord.

That’s quite a common prayer in the Old Testament.  It speaks of the loving way a father looks at his beloved child willing to give what the child needs.  It is the love that reaches out to protect and nurture.

In verse 7 David makes it clear that anything the false gods might temporarily offer, the quick thrill, the veneer of comfort, means nothing in the light of that face.  In the light of the nearness, the embrace of His God, his heart is filled with the greatest joy.

The things the world looks to for comfort – the big harvest, the new wine, the latest fashions, the fancy stereo equipment, the beautiful woman, the handsome man – they pale into insignificance in the light of that greater joy that God brings.  He gives us the joy of knowing His love, his nearness.  Because of His grace I may know that I am a special person; a person who need not be afraid of anything that this world might send my way.

In the last verse David speaks of sleeping soundly, resting comfortably in the love of God.  At last finding the peace that each one of us wants.  At last finding a place which we can truly call home.  A place where we feel totally accepted.  A place where we don’t have to earn anything, or be afraid that anything might separate us from this love.  We are safe, we are home.

No wonder his heart feels filled up.  At last the sense of emptiness, so many of us wrestle with, is gone.  Like the disciples in Luke 24, our hearts feel like they are burning within us at the excitement of what God has done and continues to do every day of our lives.

You know this Psalm is a great wedding text.

On our wedding day we find it easy to believe the lies of the evil one.

We’re so filled with enthusiasm and starry-eyed joy in each other.

It’s easy to believe that all we need is the new house, the good job, each other’s love and all will be fine.

Yes, David’s words are good to hear on our wedding day.  The joy that the world offers will come and go.  It’s a shaky foundation at the best of times.  There is a greater joy; something that will stand when the false idols have been stripped away.

Jo and Coby van Aken heard these words over sixty years ago in the small town of Wassenaar in the Netherlands – and the youngest married couple in our church heard them only six months ago.  The words are just as true for both of them.  They are just as true for all of us.

In their marriage they will and they have faced quite different kinds of challenges.  The van Aken’s have faced depression, war, the death of a child, times of great illness.

The Hellema’s are building a marriage in an age of increasing materialism and self-centredness.  They live in an age where marriages are finding it harder and harder to survive.

How can the van Aken’s or the Hellema’s or any of us hope to stand in our own strength or the so-called strength the false idols of our age promise to give?  No wonder we find ourselves calling out along with our neighbours and our friends and this whole hurting world, “Who can show us any good?”

There is only one answer: Let the light of your face shine upon us.  Lord help us to turn, and to give, and to trust.  Only then can our hearts be filled with the greater joy … only then can we sleep in peace, for you, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

AMEN