The Prayer of the Afflicted

There are There are Bibles right in your seat if you don't have a Bible.
This morning we are at Psalm 100 and two.
Our series of Psalms in the summer.
This This year we've been mostly in book four of the Psalms.
Psalm 100 a couple of weeks ago uh instructed us to make joyful noises to the Lord.
Come to his presence with singing.
It was wonderful, joyous, great.
You were encouraged to know the Lord.
Last week, it was kind of a segue.
Went right to Psalm 101.
Psalm 101, David recounts all that is necessary for him to rule and the type of people that he longs to have in his home.
People he dwells with, the people that give him advice.
It seems almost weird that we get to 102 in these kingly Psalms and we get to Psalm 102.
Um, but how wonderful that these are all kind of put together and there's arguments about is this a kingly Psalm, is it a penitent Psalm, is it even possibly a lament?
But all of these deal with people who are either looking for a king, are the king, want to be the king, or longing for a better one.
Uh, Psalm 102 is really it is an amazing gift to us.
And and even before we read it, you know, I I've invited you the last few weeks as you look at the songs, you just consider who our God is.
Uh and at the time this was written, the pagan gods were nothing like this.
They were not a God you would go to in affliction, in weakness.
They were not a God you would dare approach when you had broken his word and sinned against him.
When we read this, I think that's it's appropriate for us to say, "Thank you, Lord, for this song.
Thank you, Lord, for who you are.
Thank you, Lord, that there are not seven pillars that we have to do.
That we don't have to fight with our other brothers and sisters to be part of the 144,000.
That we're not working our way up to you.
Thank you, Lord, that this song is an intimate prayer between one who is afflicted and you.
Thank you, God, that this song gives us a picture of Jesus Christ himself in suffering for our sins.
Psalm 102.
This is the word of the Lord.
Please stand.
I want to remind you in your Bible, sometimes there are editorial notes and other times there are things like this.
This Psalm has a super script and that super script is not an editorial note put in by the ESV interpreters.
It's part of the Masoretic text.
It's part of the Hebrew text.
And so our Psalm actually starts with that super That's superscript.
A prayer of one afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord.
Hear my prayer, oh Lord.
Let my cry come to you.
Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me.
Answer me speedily in the day when I call.
For my days pass away like smoke and my bones burn like a furnace.
My heart is struck down like grass and has withered.
I forget to eat my bread.
Because of my loud groaning, my bones cling to my flesh.
I'm like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places.
I lie awake.
I'm like a lonely sparrow on the house top.
All the day my enemies taunt me.
Those who deride me use my name for a curse, for I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink because of your indignation and anger.
For you have taken me up and thrown me down.
My days are like an evening shadow.
I wither away like grass.
But you, oh Lord, are in throne forever.
You're remembered throughout all generations.
You will arise and have pity on Zion.
It is the time to favor her.
The appointed time has come for your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust.
Nations will fear the name of the Lord and all the kings of the earth Earth will fear your glory for the Lord builds up Zion.
He appears in his glory.
He regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.
Let this be recorded for a generation to come.
So that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.
That he looked down from his holy height, from heaven the Lord looked at the Earth to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die.
That they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord and in Jerusalem his praise.
When people's gather together in kingdoms to worship the Lord.
He has broken my strength strength in mid-course.
He has shortened my days.
Oh my God, I say, take me not away in the midst of my days.
You whose years endure throughout all generations.
Of old you laid the foundation of the earth.
And the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you will remain.
They will all wear out like a garment.
But you will change them like a robe, and they will pass away.
But you are the same.
And your years have no end.
The children of your servants shall dwell secure their offspring shall be established before you.
Grass withers, flowers fade, the word of our God will stand forever.
This is the word of God.
Thanks be to God.
You may be seated.
Oh Father, we thank you for your holy and earnest inspired word.
What a wonderful gift to us, your people.
May it permeate our very being, affect not just how we think, Father, but what we love, how we react, how we go about our day-to-day lives, how we are under affliction, and how we are when we feel blessed.
Ask this in Jesus name and for his sake.
Amen.
The Christian is to cry out to the immutable God.
We're going to talk about what it means to be immutable, but we talked about it actually when we did our question of faith.
What is God?
The Christian is to cry out to the immutable God amidst every affliction, but he never cries out alone.
Uh, this Psalm, we know the context.
Sometimes you try to figure it out.
People think it might have been written by David, probably not, but could have been written by someone in his court.
Could have been written by someone who observed the fall of Jerusalem and then put it in.
Um, but we get what we need.
It is a prayer of someone who is afflicted.
It is a prayer of someone when they feel faint and they pour out their complaint before the Lord.
It is a prayer.
Many of our Psalms are songs.
They're told, hey, here's the tune, here's how it's to be sung.
This is a prayer, four times in here.
It's the prayer, my prayer.
It's a prayer.
The Christian cries out in prayer to the immutable God amidst every affliction.
So immutable Doesn't mean you can't turn off their mic.
It is not necessarily a static frozen existence of God.
It's the ultimate anchor of our faith because God's nature and his promises do not shift.
Believers can perfectly trust his word and they can rely on his enduring mercy, knowing that he'll never become capricious or abandon his people, unlike humanity which is constantly becoming.
You're not immutable, you should be changing.
Hopefully, you're changing for the better.
God cannot change.
He cannot be improved.
He is not upgradeable.
There are no latent possibilities in his person or his nature that we need to unlock, we need to add to or that can be subtracted from.
His character is constant.
His perfection such as is his holiness, his love, his justice, his grace, his mercy.
They are eternally complete.
He is always fully what he is.
His decrees are removable.
He interacts with his creation for sure, he responds to human actions, but his ultimate plan and eternal decrees are fixed and sovereign.
Do you know that all this theology is expressed in this song?
These theological concepts that we boil down into various confessions and catechism questions is boiled down into this Psalm.
So, we're going to work through it.
It's quite long.
We're going to kind of run through it quickly this morning, but the introduction from the superscript of verse two, the Psalm says, "I'm seeking your face.
My situation is I'm afflicted.
I have no energy.
I can't even sleep.
I'm faint, but I'm not able to sleep." And he cries out, "Do not hide your face from me." You know, thought in my mind is when you drive through Tulsa and you see someone with a cardboard sign at the stoplight, right?
And you may not want to look in their face.
There may be many reasons you don't want to look in their face.
You may not want to look at their face because like if I look at them and we make eye contact, I'm going to feel obligated to give them something and I don't know if I should give them something.
I don't know what they've done.
I don't know how they got here.
You know what?
I give to the Deacon's Fund at our church and I trust them to rightly so take the needs of our congregation.
in our community and spend wisely.
Could be that you got a $7.50 Starbucks that you're drinking and you feel a bit guilty about it.
But here, the psalmist is saying, "Oh, don't turn your face from me.
Look at me with your face.
Turn it towards me, your gaze, your ear, hear me see me.
Why does he say that?
Because amidst our affliction, we are tempted to think God isn't paying attention.
God doesn't know what's going on.
God hasn't seen my face.
If he were just to look in my face, he would know the hurt, the pain, and the affliction.
And the psalmist cries out, "I must have your attention, oh God.
I first plead, I must have your attention.
Hear me, see me, look at me.
I'm going to ask you to take pity on me.
Direct your face to me, incline your ear, an emphatic, active listening, and then answer me speedily, he says.
It is as though the affliction has this time limit.
If you don't answer me right now, if you don't come to my help right now, things are going to get much worse.
The window of you being able to help is so short.
The psalmist says, "Look upon me.
Don't turn your face upon me.
And in disgust.
I need you.
I need your presence.
I need to know that you see." And then he talks in verses 3 to 11.
We talk about theology and this is the theology of a the transient realities of a disciplined child if you're a note-taker.
Uh, the word discipline goes in here.
And so it's interesting verses 3 to 11, this whole transient nature.
All right?
So that starts with this four, verse three, four, right?
He's It's like, here's what I want.
And then in verse three, here's why I want it.
Here's why you must answer me, oh God.
Here's why your face must turn towards me.
Here's absolutely, let me tell you about who I am.
Charles Spurgeon writes about this.
He goes, "There is as much love in the blows of his hand as in the kisses of his mouth." Verse 10 is probably the climax.
We'll get to it in a minute, but verse 10, the psalmist is declaring that it's because of what I've done.
You're into nation is poured out upon me.
At least partially, it's some of it is my fault.
Transient realities of a disciplined child and yet, he knows he never cries out alone.
In this Psalm, you can actually feel the prayers and the cries of Christ himself, even Christ as he hangs on that cross.
Transient nature of humanity.
Look at the images that he uses.
In verse 3, it's like my days I'm I'm kind of like smoke.
I I I I am as fragile as a puff of smoke.
I'm here right now, but I may not be around in minutes.
My bones, the things which give me strength and stability, both in verse three and verse five, they're wasting away.
They burn like a furnace.
They cling to my flesh because of my crying out.
I forget to eat bread.
I'm worn out.
And my bones bones are frail.
Verse four, I'm I'm like grass that withers.
Same thing in verse 11.
I'm like grass that withers about to be burned up, blown away.
This is my state, oh God.
I I really have nothing going for me.
Verse 11, he says like I'm an evening shadow.
Like you can see me, but the night is about to overtake and and who knows what will be left of me.
Human frailty.
Then verse 6, it switches.
Christ switches out a bit different.
Now there's this from frailty to loneliness.
Verses 6 to 8, he he he he he's he's not just suffering, he's suffering alone.
Again, it harks back to this cry, "Lord, turn your face towards me.
I'm all by myself here." Like an owl or a desert owl.
Um, owl be the best interpretation, but definitely it was intended as an unclean bird as it dwells in the wasteland.
Maybe like a solitary, lonely vulture.
I lie awake even in this awful state of exhaustion.
Sleep eludes me.
Like a lonely sparrow on a housetop.
vulnerable, not singing.
My only company, he says, is comprised of those who would taunt, deride me.
I eat ashes like bread and wine mingled with tears.
And all of this in verse 10 is because your indignation and your anger.
I understand my state.
You have taken me up and you have thrown me down.
I'm going to pause here for a moment.
In this Psalm, the Psalmist never cries out.
This is unfair.
Never claims innocence.
Right?
It's your indignation and anger.
I am feeling it.
Oh God, I am in this state.
You have taken me up and thrown me down.
Now that's quite a Christological statement there in verse 10, isn't it?
Son of man is taken up cast down.
Hebrews makes a lot of this Psalm in chapter one, the writer uses a portions of this Psalm to talk about the divinity of Christ in chapter 13 talks about Jesus suffering outside the camp.
Here the Psalmist is saying I have been taken up and discarded and and that word for discarded is used like a waste Job uses it, Jeremiah uses it for the wicked that are discarded, like thrown in the trash.
We pray for our fellow sufferers.
Maybe we've felt this, maybe this has been us, but we know there are those around us who feel this.
In the next section, he's going to mention Zion.
It's one of the reasons some people think that Maybe it was during the exile or the fall uh that that someone wrote this.
Um but it is amidst the suffering, some of it his own fault.
Um my son Luke works uh manages a party rental company.
So, they rent out tents, tables, chairs, all that stuff for weddings and big large picnics and family gatherings.
Uh he records phone calls.
I think it says when you call it, you know, this call's being recorded for quality assurance.
But about every three weeks or so, I get a text message with one of the calls.
And usually they're hilarious.
So, if you're at the office sometime and you see me playing something, it it most likely it's from the uh the call center at his company.
Recently, he got a call and And um this was amazing.
Got a call from an irate customer.
She had booked a tent for a big party, husband's 50th.
But she didn't book a tent with any walls.
Just a just a tent, right?
And uh the forecast was for rain.
And uh she called irate.
She's cursing at my son.
Why would I want a tent without any walls?
It's going to rain.
You guys not look at the weather?
This tent's going to get we're going to get soaked.
It's my husband's 50th.
And lots of profanity's coming out.
My son Luke calmly says, "Ma'am, we sent you a text message with pictures of what you were renting.
We sent you an email with pictures that you were to sign off on what you were renting.
First of all, if you would like our help, you will not address me like that.
Secondly, great.
It's all your fault.
It's all your fault.
I love it.
I said, "Yeah, you need to send that to AT&T.
They will make you VP of customer relations like that." And she responds, "I'm sorry, Luke.
Can you help me?" And I I just loved it.
Because I feel like that's the song.
And you get to verse 10.
Oh Lord, all these things.
Now again, people suffer without it directly being effect of their sin.
I I don't want to say that all of your suffering and all that but but here he's saying it it's your anger and your indignation against me.
And for Zion, specifically it was.
Our God sent them warning after warning after warning.
He sent them text messages, he sent them prophets.
He said, "This is what's going to happen.
Take note, these are things are going to happen." And then they cry out, "Oh God, why have you forsaken me?" And God says, "It's your fault." Own up to it.
Receive my mercy and my grace.
It's interesting.
He sometimes doesn't really ask for help.
Sometimes we ask God for help and I I think when we ask God for help we're saying, "I got 50% of this God.
I just need you to help me get over the edge.
I'm all good." And it's easier to ask for help than it is for pity, isn't it?
I I if you pity someone, it it's really a humbling to them, isn't it?
You might yourself might have said this before.
I don't really want your pity.
Well, hey Christian, you want God's pity.
You absolutely want God's pity.
Pity is such a beautiful thing from the savior, isn't it?
Pity is saying, "You can't get yourself out of this.
You put yourself in this.
You can't get yourself out of this.
I will come to you in pity and in love and mercy." There's a great but in chapter in verse 12.
In chap In verse 12, uh his his focus in shifts, doesn't it?
It It's interesting.
And you see these breakups in your in your translation where they have spaces and all.
Sometimes that has a whole different thought.
Sometimes uh the pronouns will change or me and I to you and that's exactly what happens here in verse 12.
In 12, you have this but you oh Lord.
Now, you know when you're talking to someone and they say uh everything that's said before the word butt doesn't count like, hey, you're a really good pastor and really good preacher and all, but here it comes, right?
Uh and so here he's he's looked at himself, he's laid it out before the Lord, turn your face toward me, see all of this, your anger, your indignation is well deserved, it is against me, but you, oh Lord.
Oh, and it's so beautiful and it is so refreshing.
Look at what he says.
Look at all these things.
He says, "You, oh Lord, number one, you're in throne forever.
You're remember through all the generations in verse 12.
You're going to arise and you're going to have pity on Zion.
Zion stands for the people of God.
The whole community of God.
You're going to have pity on Zion.
You know why?
Because that's who you are, oh God.
I know this.
Even in the midst of this terrible affliction, you're going to have pity on Zion.
Oh, the servants who hold their stones, dear, you're going to have pity on her and the dust.
Uh, the stones and the dust.
Uh, my my father was born in Holland, uh and his village, Arnhem, was destroyed in World War II when there were refugees, uh moved to the United States when he was uh like early 30s, and um when the Berlin Wall came down, I came to visit him, and he was sitting in front of the TV just tears rolling down his face.
And we got a piece of the Berlin Wall for him.
We could buy uh probably was not true, but anyway, we paid the money.
We got a piece We got got a piece of the Berlin wall.
And I gave it to him.
It was a reminder of the work of our God at taking down laws of separation.
And here they're they're holding on to the stones and the dust.
Again, one of the reasons they think it might have been after the fall of Jerusalem, they're holding on to the remnants of what was there.
But you, oh Lord, your servants, take pity on them.
You, oh Lord Lord, the nations are going to fear your name.
And all the kings of the earth will fear your glory because you will build up Zion.
He regards the prayer of the destitute.
Look at verse 17 and does not despise their prayer.
He pulls up in his great chariot of fire and he seizes us on the side of the street and he does not does spare.
He does not despise our prayer.
He does not say over and over Again, I've told you this, I'm not listening to you anymore.
Our God takes pity.
Here again, we must remember as all the Psalms to make sure that we let God be God.
Not let in the sense that he can't be if we don't let him.
But But in our mind and in our thinking, he is God.
We don't create him in our own image.
We don't like pity.
We don't like needy people.
We despise the cry of those who have their own actions and rebellion and it's called cause your own affliction.
It's your fault.
You did this.
You need to suffer.
Praise God that he's not like us.
As far as the heavens are from the earth so far as he removed our iniquities from us.
transient human being to the immutable living God verses 18 to 26 you have these documented realities.
We're going to have to race through this.
But you know we celebrated in our call to worship what verses 18 to 22 say.
These things were written down.
He looks at his own troubles, he looks at the living God and then he takes notice.
Hey, you know what?
What I I'm going through is going to bless the world.
Hey, you know what?
What I've gone through and how you have answered me in my affliction is going to lead to your worship.
Now, we often don't get that view in our lives.
We suffer and we wonder why.
Right?
We suffer and we confess and we repent.
We're like, Lord, why is it so hard for me and not for them?
Sometimes we don't know why.
The Psalmist here says, "I know what's ultimately going to happen.
You're going to rescue your afflicted people." I know that while Zion lays in ruins, you will rebuild it.
I know that there is a king coming.
I'm not sure what it means that he'll be taken down, put up and cast out, but I know all of this is going to happen.
And I want people to remember my prayer.
And I want people that are in my circumstance to know we've suffered before and our God has answered.
The Lord near the broken-hearted, he saves the crushed in spirit.
Many of the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.
He keeps his bones, none of them is broken.
Christological, affliction will slay the wicked.
Those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
This is Psalm 34.
David is saying the same thing in Psalm 34 that the psalmist is saying here.
Affliction for the wicked destroys them.
Affliction for the righteous leads to worship.
Now, that may be a stretch for some of you in your affliction, but that's what he is saying and therefore he gives thanks.
My affliction will bring about not only my own worship and the glory of God, but those around me and brothers and sisters.
I tell you That's why we have to be in community.
One of the things that happens as Trinity grows in numbers is your community group is going to become more and more important to you.
You're going to need brothers and sisters to share your affliction with, to share your joys with, to pray together so that you don't suffer alone, but also so that you don't rejoice alone.
Let this be recorded for a generation to come.
Our psalmist says, "So that" There's that word, "So that." In order that here's the that are people that aren't created.
Take note that the Lord looked down from heaven.
And they'll declare in Zion the name of the Lord.
He broke my strength mid course it says in verse 23.
He's shortened my days.
Oh my God, don't take me in the midst of my day, you whose years endure through all generations.
His suffering doesn't happen in a void but in order that.
God may receive praise and that others will come after.
him might put their trust in you.
Verse 27 and 28, we conclude again with his immutability.
You are the same and your years have no end.
The children of your servants shall dwell secure and their offspring shall be established before you.
The immutability of God is an anchor of our faith.
Christopher Ash writes in his commentary on this Psalm, no Christian suffering is purely individual.
Each grown, each troubled day, each lonely night is part of the sufferings of Zion, the church of Christ.
The assurance doesn't simply apply to Zion as a whole, but to each man, woman, and child who belong to Zion, that is whoever is in Christ.
Oh, the same God who rescued this psalmist is here to rescue you today.
The same God who offers pity to Zion, offers pity to you today.
Oh brother and sister, will you not turn your hearts toward him?
But we sometimes play this silly game.
I'll I'll give you praise as soon as my affliction is over.
I'll honor you and give you this place, but God, I've done all of these things.
You need to heal this person that I love.
Oh, brothers and sisters, can you in faith look at this Psalm and look at the living God who is unchangeable?
changeable and say, I will yet praise him in the midst of affliction.
Our offertory is changed from what's in the bulletin.
My fault.
Our offertory is Pass Me Not Gentle Savior.
Some of you may have grown up singing that F**** Crosby hymn.
Um I'm going to pray and then we'll have an offering and Melanie will play Pass Me Not Oh General Savior.
It'll probably be jazzed up a little bit because you know that's Melanie.
Let me just read you some of the words in case you don't know these words that you might even hum them while we're giving the Lord his ties and offerings.
Let me at the throne of mercy find a sweet relief kneeling there in deep contrition help my unbelief.
trusting only in thy merit, would I seek thy face, heal my wounded, broken spirit, save me by thy grace.
Thou, the spring of all my comfort, more than life to me, whom have I on earth besides thee, whom in heaven but thee?
And then the refrain.
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry, while on others thou art calling.
Do not pass me by.
Let's pray.
Oh Father, look upon us in our affliction.
Use our affliction for your glory and for our growth.
May we share what is appropriate and necessary with our brothers and sisters that they too may carry the burden and they too may rejoice at your sufficiency.
May our hope always be anchored in you, the immutable, eternal, unchangeable God and savior.
We ask it in Jesus name.
Amen.

Sermon transcript is computer generated.