It is a sad reality of the human condition that life is often full of disappointments!
Something we don’t want to happen does. Or we have a hope or expectation or longing for something but what we want to happen does not!

We can experience disappointments with LIFE in general. These can begin in school with exam results, or in hobbies or sports matches or music performances. We can also experience disappointment in our work lives – overlooked for promotion once again, or even getting fired. Sometimes disappointment comes because our expectations were unrealistic. But sometimes disappointments are unexpected and undeserved.

We can have disappointments with PEOPLE. At work, in friendships, in romantic relationships, even in church life, we can find ourselves disappointed with people. Sometimes it’s the other person’s fault. Sometimes it is actually our fault.

Sometimes we can feel disappointed with GOD. If life not working out as we hoped. Maybe we looked for God’s blessing and the blessings did not come. Perhaps our prayers were not answered in the way we would like. Believers and non-believers can all find ourselves disappointed with God sometimes.

Disappointment can affect people in a variety of ways. Mentally. Emotionally. Socially. Even physically. We can be disturbed, distressed, discouraged, dismayed, disheartened, depressed, distraught, disaffected, disillusioned, downright dismal, even (as Edmund Blackadder would say) discombobulated (real word = disconcerted and confused).

Disappointment can lead to pessimism and a negative view on life.

We can become cynical – Murphy’s Law – general laws of life:
“Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time,”
If you think there’s nothing wrong, you havent understood the problem.
“Make something idiot-proof, and they will build a better idiot”.
Specific laws – The odds that the falling toast will land jam side down are directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.
If you’re running late the bus will be early.
The odds are six to five that the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of an oncoming train.

It’s sad when people get disappointed by life. Disappointment makes us not want to try again – not want to hope. We discussed this when we talked about coping with failure. Disappointment traps us in our comfort zones – we aren’t prepared to take any more risks. We don’t like to hope because we fear our hopes will be dashed. Alexander Pope said, “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he will never be disappointed!”
When we talked about how to cope with experiences of failure, we said that Christians are not immune from failing. We reminded ourselves that it is entirely possible to make no errors and still not to succeed. We said that it is important not to allow fear of failure stop us from trying again in the future. And we shouldn’t let our self-esteem be tied to succeeding in life. Instead we should find our self-worth in the infinite love God has for us.
We also talked briefly last week about how disappointments can lead us into grief. If our dreams and aspirations are crushed, we will experience grief. In some cases this is anticipatory grief, grieving not so much for what we have lost as for what might have been. In many ways we need to deal with disappointment in the same way as we deal with grief.

It’s also very sad when people get disappointed by other people. If our relationship with another person breaks down, this will bring us disappointment, and even more so if they let us down or fail us or betray us in some way. The loss of relationship can be like a bereavement and so, again, everything we said last week about how we can deal with grief comes into play. Disappointment can also make us close in on ourselves. It can stop us from taking the risk of trusting other people and makes us rely on ourselves. Disappointment can stop us from putting ourselves in a place where we might get hurt again.

It’s very sad when people feel that God has disappointed them

Disappointment stops us from praying bold prayers – we only pray “safe” prayers. It stops us from stepping out on a limb in faith for God – we won’t risk being disappointed again. It stops us expecting miracles from God! It stops us from getting excited about God!

In this situation there is something very important to say. God does not disappoint people! So if we are disappointed it may be because we misunderstood God, or because we did the wrong thing or asked for the wrong thing. Often God is trying to teach us patience and faith but we want him to give us patience immediately – right now. God does not disappoint us.

Are you feeling disappointed about anything tonight? Disappointed with life? Disappointed with other people? Disappointed with God?

ANTIDOTE TO DISAPPOINTMENT
1. Take your disappointments to God

PSALM 31 1 In you, LORD, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.
2 Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
9 Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am in distress;
my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief.

If life has disappointed us – if people have let us down – take it to God in prayer.
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy-laden, Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge, Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee, Thou wilt find a solace there.

God longs to help us and heal us and give us his peace. We need to put our trust in God.

We need to take our disappointments to God, then you need to
2. Put your trust in God

When life has disappointed us or people have disappointed us, we should put our trust in God.
14 But I trust in you, LORD; I say, ‘You are my God.’
15 My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
from those who pursue me.
16 Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
17 Let me not be put to shame, LORD, for I have cried out to you;

24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.

Sometimes people can feel that it is God himself who has disappointed us.

Isaiah28:16 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;
the one who trusts will never be dismayed. Will never be disappointed. (NIV 1984)

That verse is so important that it is quoted at least three times in N.T. Roman chapter 9 and chapter 11 and also in
1 Peter 2:6 “Look! I’m setting a stone in Zion, a cornerstone in the place of honor.
Whoever trusts in this stone as a foundation will never have cause to regret it.” MESSAGE

Christ is the cornerstone! If we build our lives on Him He will never let us down. He is the sure unshakeable foundation. He will NEVER disappoint us! No disappointments!

We take our disappointments to God and put our trust in God and then
3. Put your hope in God

There are no hopeless situations – only people who have lost hope!
“Hope is not a passion for the possible, but a passion for the promise!”
With God ALL things are possible. If we will only trust in God’s promises.

Psalm 25 1 In you, LORD my God, I put my trust.
2 I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
3 No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, (will EVER be disgraced!)

ISAIAH 49 23 ,,, you will know that I am the LORD;
those who hope in me will not be disappointed.’

These are the promises of the ALMIGHTY all powerful Sovereign God who is MORE THAN ABLE to keep his promises. These are the promises of the HOLY and JUST God who is totally righteous and would never break His promises. These are the promises of the ALL-LOVING God who IS love – who loves us so much that he gave His Son Jesus Christ to redeem us – who loves us so much that He would NEVER let us down! So we put our hopes in God.

ROMANS 5:3-5 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

If we are suffering disappointment or discouragement or even persecution – don’t give up! True hope in God WILL NOT disappoint us.

MESSAGE ROMANS 5v 5 … we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

Those who hope in me WILL NOT be disappointed!
No-one whose hope is in you will EVER be put to shame!

You may be disappointed about something tonight. Something small. Something big. Something overwhelmingly crushing huge! Disappointed with life. Disappointed with people. Disappointed with God. Take the antidote to disappointment tonight.
1.Bring your disappointments to God – open up – tell him how you are feeling.
2. Put your trust in God again. Take a leap of faith. He is completely worthy of our trust.
3. Put your hope in God again. Pray prayers of faith daring to expect God to do great things. You may have asked for blessings before and the answer has been “no”. Pray again tonight – dare to hope that this time the answer will be “yes”. No disappointments!
Those who hope in me WILL NOT be disappointed!
No-one whose hope is in you will EVER be put to shame!

But then, what else can we do when it is another person who has upset us? When they let us down? When they break their promises? When they say things which are spiteful or untrue? When they do things which damage us physically or mentally or emotionally or spiritually? What do we do when somebody hurts us?

In such circumstances it is perfectly natural to be angry with the other person. We have talked before about coping with anger and how sometimes some people deal with their anger in unhelpful ways. Sometimes people respond with aggression, or by becoming passive-aggressive. Sometimes the anger is displaced onto innocent bystanders or the anger turns inwards and gets bottled up.

Ephesians 4 26 ‘In your anger do not sin’: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.
Good News Bible If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin, and do not stay angry all day.
New Living Translation: “don’t sin by letting anger control you.”
In our session on dealing with anger we said these things.
Step 1 – take things slowly.
James 1 19 … everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires
Step 2 Pray

Step 3 Find ways forward – which will normally mean forgiving the other person. The Bible calls Christians to forgive people who offend us or hurt us or disappoint us.

Colossians 3 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

C.S.Lewis has said, “Everybody agrees forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have something to forgive.”

The essence of Christian forgiveness is that God makes a way for us to be forgiven BEFORE we repent.

“It was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) As Jackie Pullinger puts it, “Jesus didn’t wait for me to make good before he died for me.” The Father is out looking waiting for the prodigal to return BEFORE the prodigal comes to his senses and returns to his Father and confesses and repents. (Luke 15) The paralysed man in Mark 2:5 and the woman caught in adultery in John 8:11 are forgiven BEFORE they repent. God forgives us BEFORE we come to him and ask for forgiveness. So in the same way we should seek the grace to forgive others before they repent, before they apologise, even if they never do admit their wrongdoing or say sorry.

Remember the words Jesus spoke as he was dying for our sins. “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” Jesus sets us an example of God’s kind of forgiveness. Jesus calls us to forgive all those who have harmed us – not for their sake but for our own.
George Herbert wrote, “He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven, for everyone has need to be forgiven.”
We pray, “forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”

God’s love forgives AND forgets. 1 Corinthians 13:5 Love keeps no record of wrongs.

There was once a woman who was never known to hold resentment against anyone. One time a friend reminded her of a cruel thing that had happened to her some years previously. The woman seemed not to remember the incident. “Don’t you remember the wrong that was done you?” the friend asked. The woman answered calmly, “No, I distinctly remember forgetting that.”

So God calls us to forgive each other as He has forgiven us.

The story goes that when Leonardo da Vinci was painting the Last Supper, he had an intense, bitter argument with a fellow painter. Leonardo was so enraged that he decided to paint the face of his enemy into the face of Judas. That way the hated painter’s face would be preserved for ages in the face of the betraying disciple. When Leonardo finished Judas, everyone easily recognized the face of the painter with whom Leonardo quarrelled.
Leonardo continued to work on the painting. But as much as he tried, he could not paint the face of Christ. Something was holding him back.
Leonardo decided his hatred toward his fellow painter was the problem. So he worked through his hatred by repainting Judas’ face, replacing the image of his fellow painter with another face. Only then was he able to paint Jesus’ face and complete the masterpiece.

So if somebody has disappointed you or hurt you in any way, pray that you will be given God’s grace to forgive them from your heart. Take your disappointments to God. Pray. Put your trust in God. Whoever trusts in him will never be disappointed. And put your hope in God.
Those who hope in me WILL NOT be disappointed!
No-one whose hope is in you will EVER be put to shame!

There is an old saying – familiarity breeds contempt. Sadly that can be as true of Christians as anybody else when it describes our attitude to God. The whole of church history has never seen a generation of Christians more familiar, more casual, more relaxed, more intimate with God.
This could be a very good thing. If we are able to be familiar with God because we have realised the tremendous privilege of coming to God as our Father instead of our judge, if it is because we have truly appreciated all the riches of blessing we enjoy as children of God through Jesus Christ our Saviour, then that closeness to God is a good thing.
But on the other hand the whole of society has become more casual. People have become much more familiar in their approach to traditional authority figures like police – or teachers – or bosses – or clergy. The days of giving respect where respect is due have almost gone, and the church is no different in that. So maybe many people are so relaxed in their approach to God because they have never learned how to show proper respect to anybody, and that’s NOT good.
But as well I fear that some Christians behave in such a familiar way towards God because they don’t recognize how great, how awesome, how majestic, how wonderful, how glorious, how ALLmighty God truly is. So for tonight my text is the very simple phrase which begins Psalm 97. We sing it so often it comes easily to our lips. The phrase has become familiar to us – but perhaps so familiar that we don’t truly know what it means and what it implies. I want to remind us all tonight,
The Lord reigns, our God reigns!
Psalm 97:1 ¶ The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.
We find the same glorious declaration elsewhere in the Psalms.
Psalm 93:1 The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed in majesty and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
Psalm 96:10 Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.
Psalm 99:1 The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim,
let the earth shake.
The Lord reigns! We can get confused because the title “Lord” has a number of different meanings in the Bible. Throughout the Bible the title “lord” spelled without any capital letters is sometimes used where in English we would use the word “sir” or perhaps “master”. That is quite a weak word – just a polite form of address.
But the name the LORD spelled with Capital letters throughout, is used 6551 times in the Old Testament. That is our translators’ way of writing the name of Yahweh, the name God revealed to Moses at the burning bush, “I am who I am,” “tell them, `I AM’ has sent you.” The LORD Yahweh is definitely not a weak word!! The Jews in the time of Christ held God in such awe and respect that they wouldn’t dare to speak God’s name aloud. They would substitute it with a phrase like “the Name”. That’s how much respect they had for God’s name!
So to make sure there is no confusion, let me just repeat, it is THE LORD who reigns. It is Yahweh the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who reigns. It is Yahweh, Israel’s God who reigns. Yahweh is the Lord of all.
Then there are many places in the Old Testament where “Lord” is used to translate names for God, with just a capital L, in phrases such as “the Lord Almighty” or “the Lord of hosts” or “supreme Lord”, or “Lord of all”. In those places, Lord is certainly not a weak word! And in the New Testament the title of Lord is sometimes applied to the Lord Jesus Christ with all of that meaning, “supreme Lord, King of Kings and Lord of Lords!”
When we call God “Lord” that should never be a weak word, or an overfamiliar word. Christians in the Early Church were martyred for denying the authority of the Roman Emperor and holding to their profession of faith, “Jesus Christ is Lord!” When we say “Jesus Christ is Lord” we are declaring that Jesus Christ is the supreme ruler of the whole universe.
Ephesians 1:20 (God raised Christ) from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,
Jesus is Lord. That means, “There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not declare, ‘This is mine! This belongs to me!’”
The Lord reigns – our God reigns – Jesus Christ is on the throne – He is Lord of all!
“The Lord reigns” is rallying cry to
AWE AND WONDER FOR ALL PEOPLES!
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.
I am not sure that most Christians have grasped this high view of the God who is awe-inspiring, and even terrifying. Our God is too small! Let us make no mistake. As the children were told in the Narnia books, ASLAN IS NO TAME LION!
Psalm 18:11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him- the dark rain clouds of the sky. 12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
Micah 1:3 Look! The LORD is coming from his dwelling-place; he comes down and treads the high places of the earth. 4 The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.
Bow down and worship – for this is our God! These verses remind us of the time the LORD descended on Mount Sinai to reveal the Book of the Law to Moses, and the earth shook!
Exodus19 16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. 19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
This is the God of the Bible. We must beware of becoming too familiar with this King of King and Lord of Lords, Creator of heaven and earth. The letter to the Hebrews gives us a solemn warning.
Hebrews 12 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.
Reverence and awe! Because our God reigns!
Then Psalm 97 goes on to tell us that the declaration “The Lord reigns” should bring
TERROR TO GOD’S ENEMIES
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all peoples see his glory.
7 All who worship images are put to shame, those who boast in idols – worship him, all you gods!
Remember the FIRST TWO of the TEN COMMANDMENTS
Exodus 20 And God spoke all these words:
2 ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 ‘You shall have no other gods before me.
4 ‘You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

God is a jealous God. We live in a world full of idols. The false gods of money and shopping and entertainment and celebrity. But the God of the Bible is a jealous God and will not tolerate people worshipping idols and false gods.
There is a book of the Old Testament which people very rarely read because it is a warning of judgment which is frankly terrifying!
Nahum 1:1 A prophecy concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies.
3 The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and dries it up; he makes all the rivers run dry.
Bashan and Carmel wither and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.
5 The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away.
The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it.
6 Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.
7 The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him,
8 but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh;
he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.

The Lord reigns! That declaration should strike terror into all of God’s enemies – whether they are his enemies because they do acts of unspeakable evil or whether it is because they simply reject and ignore God and act as if He doesn’t exist. A day of reckoning IS coming! The Lord reigns!
But then also “The Lord reigns” is a declaration of
COMFORT TO GOD’S FRIENDS
Psalm 97:1 The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.
8 Zion hears and rejoices and the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments, LORD.
9 For you, LORD, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.
10 Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones
and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light shines on the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.

God is on the throne. And that brings great comfort and peace to God’s children. We can put our trust in Him, and call on him, and rely on him for help. Whatever is happening in our lives we can put our confidence in the certainty that the Lord reigns.
C. H. Spurgeon said “There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought to more earnestly contend to than the doctrine of their Master over all creation—the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands—the Throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne…for it is God upon the Throne whom we trust.”
“The Lord reigns!!” This is not just a theoretical declaration, relevant to those of us who have put our trust in Jesus Christ but disconnected from everyday life. The truth that “the Lord reigns” changes absolutely everything – for everybody! This week of course our thoughts are with Afghanistan as the Taliban has taken control. We are saddened for all who are left in the country, not least for the women whose rights will once again be trampled, but especially for Christians who will lose any freedoms they might have had to worship or evangelise. As well as a humanitarian crisis we recognise the great risk of more acts of terrorism spreading out from that country across the globe. Elsewhere there are still conflicts in places like Syria and Yemen, and the aftermath of an earthquake in Haiti. Things seem to be getting worse again with Covid in this country, but across the world there are very many countries where only a few percent of the population have been vaccinated so far. And we should not forget the long-term dangers of global warming. In such a troubled world when we see so many natural disasters and instances of man’s inhumanity to man, it brings us great reassurance to be able to declare, “The LORD reigns! Our God reigns!” The fact that the Almighty and Eternal God, the Judge of all the earth is on the throne should bring us peace in the midst of the troubles of the world. The Lord reigns! God is in control.
Psalm 97:1 The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.
9 For you, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.
11 Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.
The Lord reigns. That truth should put fear into the hearts of those who have rejected God. But for those who are his chosen people, his children, the fact that God reigns brings us great comfort and peace. Whatever problems we and our loved ones may be facing – God is with us. The King of Kings and Lords of Lords will defend and protect us. He will deliver us! Praise God – the LORD reigns. Our God reigns!

LONGING FOR GOD
1 How lovely is your dwelling-place, LORD Almighty!
2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

We have seen the same longing for God in earlier Psalms.

Psalm 42:1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

The Psalm writers were desperate in their longing and in their thirst for God. They wanted so much to meet with God and spend time in his presence.
Psalm 63 1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Every experience of God led the Psalm writer to want to experience more and more of God’s glory.

2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

Spending time with God was better than a banquet. No wonder the Psalm writers want to be in God’s presence.

2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD;

If only more Christians were filled with the same longing for God. If only we could be so passionate about God.

my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

The Psalm writer is obsessed with being in God’s presence.

3 Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—
a place near your altar, LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

The Psalm writer longs to be in God’s presence so much.

Psalm 27 4 One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.
7 Hear my voice when I call, O LORD; be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek.

The Psalmist longs to be in God’s presence, to seek God’s face. So he sets out on a journey to meet with God.

PILGRIMS ON THE WAY TO GOD

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

The practice of making a pilgrimage is common in many religions. It is a specific journey to a place of some religious significance – for the Psalm writer, the Sons of Korah, it is a journey to worship God in Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.
Psalm 122 1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
2 Our feet shall stand Within thy gates, O Jerusalem.
Psalm 122 1 I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.” (NIV)
It was the hope of every Jew to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem at least once, and especially to celebrate the Passover there. For centuries the Jews have finished their Passover meal declaring, “Next Year, in Jerusalem.”
Since the 4th century, Christian pilgrims have gone on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Over the centuries, many have made pilgrimage to Rome, or to Canterbury, or to other holy sites. Pope Benedict XVI explained the purpose of Christian pilgrimage like this.
“To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendour and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe.”

A pilgrimage can be a physical journey, but it can also be a metaphorical journey of faith, as the person seeks to draw closer to God. John Bunyan’s book Pilgrim’s Progress describes different stages in a believer’s life as a pilgrimage. And in many ways every Christian is on a lifelong spiritual journey to come to know God better. In that sense, this Psalm speaks of the experience of all of us.
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
As we go through life it is right and good that our hearts and minds are set on drawing close to God. It is right and good that we depend on God’s strength to continue faithfully in that pilgrimage and ultimately reach that blessed destination. But the journey can often be difficult and challenging and even painful.

6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

Nobody knows the location of the Valley of Baca. Some people think it could refer to balsam trees, and link it to an occasion when King David had to make a difficult journey through a valley of balsam trees.
2 Sam 5 22 Once more the Philistines came up and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim; 23 so David inquired of the LORD, and he answered, “Do not go straight up, but circle around behind them and attack them in front of the balsam trees. 24 As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, move quickly, because that will mean the LORD has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.”

So the valley of Baca could be physically difficult terrain. Or it could be a metaphorical place. The word Baca means weeping, so the valley could symbolize a difficult place to travel. But God provides for his people even in the difficult places.

6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

When God’s people are on a journey to find him, he will provide for all their needs. Water in the desert. All the strength then need to be able to persevere until they reach their goal.

7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

All the pilgrims is to depend constantly on God in prayer.
8 Hear my prayer, LORD God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob.
9 Look on our shield, O God; look with favour on your anointed one.

And there will be times along the way when the only thing which will keep the pilgrims going is the hope of the blessings which are waiting for them at their destination. They set their hearts on the joys of finally entering into God’s presence and resting with him.

THE PROMISE OF BLESSINGS IN GOD’S PRESENCE
10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

We miss the point if we think that the position of doorkeeper in God’s house was some menial position.

1 Chronicles 23:1 When David was old and full of years, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.
2 He also gathered together all the leaders of Israel, as well as the priests and Levites. 3 The Levites thirty years old or more were counted, and the total number of men was thirty-eight thousand. 4 David said, “Of these, twenty-four thousand are to supervise the work of the temple of the LORD and six thousand are to be officials and judges. 5 Four thousand are to be gatekeepers and four thousand are to praise the LORD with the musical instruments I have provided for that purpose.”
The priests of Israel came from the tribe of Levi. But not every Levite was a priest. The rest had other tasks in the worship of God. Some were involved in the physical construction and maintenance of the Temple. Others made up the worship band. Equally important, being a doorkeeper in the Temple was an important duty given only to the tribe of the Levites, the priests of Israel. It was a great privilege to be a doorkeeper in the house of God.

11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favour and honour;
no good thing does he withhold from those whose way of life is blameless.

God pours his blessings on those who put their trust in him. Hear these wonderful promises from the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah 60 18 No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders,
but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.
19 The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
20 Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more;
the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.

Longing for God – the promise of wonderful blessings in God’s presence. No wonder the Psalm writers long to be in God’s presence so much. No wonder they set out on pilgrimage to come and rest in his presence.
12 LORD Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

Some sermons are not online as text, but instead as videos. Here is the first.

This was the Powerpoint of the message

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
(Psalm 119:105)
‘The Word of God?’ Or ‘The Words of God’?
‘The Word of God?’ OR ‘Contains the Word of God’?’
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11)
Does quoting the exact words matter?

You can watch the video on Facebook by following this link.

I was on the point of missing out the next dozen Psalms from this series because they seemed to be almost boring in the way the Psalm writer poured our complaint after complaint about how hard his life was. Then I remembered that these Psalms of Lament make up the greatest proportion of all the Psalms. There are actually 42 Psalms of Lament in the Bible – that is more than a quarter of the total. 12 of those are corporate lament but 30 are individual and personal laments which make up one fifth of all the Psalms. So although when we think about different kinds of prayers they don’t immediately spring to our minds, obviously these kinds of prayers of lament are actually very important in the life of faith.

Laments may be statements of personal despair, like Psalm 22, or communal cries in times of crisis, such as Psalm 137. Lamenting personal suffering 69, 38 or complaints against enemies 109. Some are complaints against God 22. They sometimes describing distress or misfortune Psalm 22:6-18 and cry out for deliverance. Some protest innocence Psalm 59, or express wishes or curses Psalms 55:15, 61:4, 106:6, 30.

Psalms of Lament are simply cries for help. They teach us how we can pray when our life gets tough and we are facing problems of every kind. This is particularly the case with the Psalms of Individual Lament where the writer is pouring out his heart to God in the crisis he is experiencing. Psalms of lament tend to contain the same elements in the same order

Calling on God, Describing our suffering. Anger and blame against those causing the suffering
. Calling on God to intervene and to help. Expression of faith and confidence in God. Anticipating God’s help. Thanksgiving for God’s help and promise of commitment.
For each of these elements we’re going to start by looking specifically at Psalm 54. A couple of years ago we spent an evening of reflection on Psalms 3, 5 and 6 and I will remind us of what those Psalms said as well. And but I will also point to other examples of the different elements because they are all there as well in Psalms 55 through to 63.

Calling on God

54 1 Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might.

Psalms of Lament usually begin with a declaration of faith in God as the writer calls on God to help. They often include an appeal to an aspect of God’s character, to God’s name as the holy and righteous and unchanging and all-powerful Almighty God.

55 19 God, who is enthroned from of old, who does not change—
he will hear them and humble them, because they have no fear of God.

57 1 Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.
2 I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me.

Or some Psalms make an appeal to God’s loving-faithfulness, his covenant loyalty.

5 7 But I, by your great love, can come into your house; in reverence I bow down towards your holy temple.

6 4 Turn, LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.

Some Psalms describe God with words like shield, rock, refuge, fortress and tower.

3 3 But you, LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.

59 1 Deliver me from my enemies, O God; be my fortress against those who are attacking me.
9 You are my strength, I watch for you; you, God, are my fortress,
10 my God on whom I can rely. God will go before me
62 1 Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him.
2 Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I shall never be shaken.

When it comes to praying about the problems we are facing, the Psalms of Lament teach us that it is important to start with God himself. To begin by taking our eyes off our problems and fix them instead on the Almighty and Eternal God and his loving faithfulness. The grounds for all our prayers will always be the character of God, and his love expressed to us in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Describing our suffering

54 3 Arrogant foes are attacking me; ruthless people are trying to kill me— people without regard for God.

5 9 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with malice.
Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they tell lies.

6 2 Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint; heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in deep anguish. How long, LORD, how long?

55 4 My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen on me.
5 Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.

56 1 Be merciful to me, my God, for my enemies are in hot pursuit; all day long they press their attack. 2 My adversaries pursue me all day long; in their pride many are attacking me.

57 4 I am in the midst of lions; I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts— men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

We should never be afraid of telling God how we are feeling. It is alright to complain to God about the situations we are facing and it is acceptable in prayer to spell our the details of our problems. We can be completely honest with God.

Anger and blame and even cursing against those causing the suffering

54 5 Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.

3:7 Arise, LORD! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.

58 6 Break the teeth in their mouths, O God; LORD, tear out the fangs of those lions! 7 Let them vanish like water that flows away; when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short. 8 May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along, like a stillborn child that never sees the sun.

The Psalms of Lament are clear that we are allowed to be angry with people who are threatening or hurting us or those that we love. We saw this especially as part of our Survey of the Old Testament last summer when we looked at what are called the imprecatory Psalms. Some passages call down judgment on Israel’s enemies, like just then Psalm 58:6, Break the teeth in their mouths O Lord, or Psalm 139:21-22, ‘Do I not hate them that hate thee, O Lord? … I count them my enemies.’ Perhaps the most extreme example is Psalm 137:8-9 recalling the destruction of Jerusalem and of Solomon’s Temple by the invading Babylonians and crying out for equally brutal retribution.
Psalm 137 8 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. 9 Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

In passages like these the Bible is not telling us that God approves of such curses. But it does teach us that it is alright to express our true feelings to God in prayer. We do not have to dress up our appeals in politically correct language. With God we can tell it like it is.

Calling on God to intervene and to help

54 2 Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.
54 4 Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.

3 4 I call out to the LORD, and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5 1 Listen to my words, LORD, consider my lament.
2 Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.

In prayer we do not just complain and tell God how we are feeling about our problems. Part of prayer will surely be to ask God to help us, to rescue us and deliver us. Even though God already knows what challenges we are facing, our requests should always be specific. Telling God the actual ways in which we need him to help us is a way of expressing our dependence on his grace minute by minute and day by day.

But at the same time true prayer comes from a certainty that God will indeed help us in our hour of need.

Expression of faith and confidence in God

3 6 I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.

55 22 Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous be shaken.
23 But you, God, will bring down the wicked into the pit of decay;
56 10 In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise—
11 in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?

When we bring our concerns to God in prayer, we should have the faith to trust that he will indeed act on our behalf.

Anticipating God’s help

54 7 You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.

5 3 In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.

6 8 Away from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my weeping.
9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish; they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.

55 16 As for me, I call to God, and the LORD saves me.
17 Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.
18 He rescues me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me.

56 3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

Often in the Psalms of Lament, the writer is so confident of God’s help that he gives thanks in anticipation even before his prayers are answered and he has received the help he needs. At other times he makes promises that he will bring thanksgiving, or praise, or sacrifices when God has answered his prayers. All our requests to God should always be accompanied by thanksgiving to God, for what he has already done and for everything he is going to do.

Thanksgiving for God’s help and promise of commitment

54 6 I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you; I will praise your name, LORD, for it is good.

5 11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy.
56 12 I am under vows to you, my God; I will present my thank-offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before God in the light of life.
57 7 My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.
8 Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.
9 I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.
10 For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.

59 16 But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.
17 You are my strength, I sing praise to you; you, God, are my fortress, my God on whom I can rely.

So here are the elements of the Psalms of Lament. Here is how we also should pray in times of trouble. Calling on God, remembering that the grounds of our prayers are his divine character. Describing our suffering, telling God how we truly feel even if that involves anger and blame against those causing the suffering. . Calling on God to intervene and to help. Expressions of faith and confidence in God which anticipate God’s help. Leading to thanksgiving for God’s help and promises of commitment.

As David said in 2 Samuel 22 4 ‘I have called upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised. So I have been saved from my enemies.

We come this evening to Psalm 53, which as it happens is very similar to Psalm 14. The first four verses are almost identical to Psalm 14:1-4 and verse 6 is identical to Psalm 14:7. The first verse of both Psalms contains one of the best-known sayings in Scripture.
1 The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’
Christian Standard Version reads, The fool says in his heart, “God does not exist.”
There have always been plenty of people in the world who say that God doesn’t exist. The Bible calls those people “fools”. But the verse is often misunderstood, and I confess I have sometimes interpreted it incorrectly myself. What behaviour is it which this verse condemns as foolish?
Some people think that “fool” here means somebody who is just lacking in intelligence, or somebody who might be described as simple-minded. But that is not the Bible’s idea of a fool. Many atheists are very clever people. Foolishness in rejecting God is nothing to do with intelligence. We need to look at the rest of the verse, and as is often the case in Hebrew we see a pattern here called parallelism. The second part of the verse explains the first part.
The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’
They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.
When the word “fool” is used in the Psalms and elsewhere in the Bible it typically refers to someone who lives in ways which are morally opposed to God’s teachings. This saying is not related to intelligence, but to morality. The word fool implies being “morally deficient” or “reprobate” or “immoral” or “sinful”. The assertion, “there is no God” is a gesture of defiance. The fundamental reason many human beings reject the existence of God is because they want to feel free to live without the constraints of morality. People refuse to accept that God exists because if they do accept that then they have to acknowledge that they are sinners. That is what is foolish.
They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.
3 Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt;
there is no one who does good, not even one.
It is foolish to live corrupt evil lives rather than to seek to do good. The wise person seeks God – the foolish person ignores God and runs away from God. That is what is foolish. All through the Bible human beings are described with words such as “perverse, wicked, evil, bad, wayward, crooked, deceitful, unrighteous, rebels and lawbreakers. It is these patterns of behaviour which make human beings fools.
The apostle Paul quotes these verses in his argument in Romans 3 to demonstrate the fallen nature of human beings.
Romans 3 10 As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good, not even one.’
18 ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’
23 …. all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

It is their rebellion and rejection of God which makes human beings fools. People rebel against the existence of God despite the witness of Creation and of their own consciences. Belief in a divine Being carries with it a sense of accountability to that Being. So, to escape the condemnation of conscience, which itself was created by God, some people simply deny the existence of God. They tell themselves, “There is no one overseeing of the world. There is no Judgment Day. I can live just as I please.” The issue is not a lack of evidence of God’s existence, but a desire to live free of the moral constraints God requires and to escape the guilt that accompanies the violation of those constraints.
The foolish person says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ because he chooses to reject all the evidence which so clearly demonstrates God’s existence. Those who deny God’s existence are not reaching logical conclusions on the basis of evidence. They are actually going against all the evidence. As one preacher said, “there is no fool like the fool who refuses to believe what is staring him in the face every single day.”
We have said before that the truth is that anybody who confidently declares “there is no God” as if that was a proven fact is making a fundamental mistake. It makes no sense to categorically deny the existence of God who is generally unseen even by those who do believe He exists. It is not meaningful to say that something which possibly could exist absolutely does not exist. All anyone can reliably say is, “if there is a God I haven’t seen evidence of his existence yet.” People who say “God does not exist” are only expressing their own personal belief. As a teenager I used to argue vigorously that God couldn’t exist. Then God proved me wrong. Someone who declares that God cannot possibly exist is making the same mistake as someone who insists that Australia cannot possibly exist, just because they haven’t personally been there yet. They are being as foolish as people would be if they said, “the Queen doesn’t exist”, because they have never met Her Majesty, and refuse to believe the photographs or the Christmas broadcasts or all the people who claim that they have met the Queen. It is indeed foolish to say, “there is no God.” End of philosophy lesson.
Christians can never prove to other people for certain that there is a God. But when Christians and seekers look around the world with the eye of faith, evidence for God’s existence is everywhere. Let me remind you of four areas which we can point to as evidence for the existence of God, in order of increasing importance.
We might begin by pointing to
The BIBLE and the CHURCH
Some people are struck by the impact and the uniqueness of the Bible. Most people who say “the Bible isn’t true” actually haven’t read the Bible. So we can encourage our friends to open Scripture and rely on God speaking to them through His word. I’ve quoted Spurgeon before. “Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself.” We need to unchain the lion and encourage our friends to read the Bible.
We can also talk about the historical impact of the church on the world, and the influence of Christianity on society today. We can talk about all the good things Christians have done and are doing in caring for the poor and working for justice and peace, from William Booth and Lord Shaftsbury to Mother Teresa and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, from Food Banks and CHESS to Christian Aid and Operation Christmas Child. These things point beyond the individuals to the living God working through them.
Then we can point to the many ways God has revealed Himself in
CREATION
We thought indirectly about this a couple of years ago in an evening of reflection and meditation.
Psalm 19 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
3There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
God has revealed Himself to the world in all He has created. In Romans 1 Paul argued that the existence of God is self evident to all human beings.
Romans 1 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
So the Bible tells us that God’s eternal power and His divine nature can clearly be seen. There are many different aspects of the created world which reveal God if we look at creation with the eye of faith. We can point to beauty and majesty in Creation. Sunsets and starry skies, waterfalls and flowers. It was the inventor of the process we use to preserve milk, the French biologist Louis Pasteur who said, “Posterity will someday laugh at the foolishness of our modern materialistic philosophy. The more I study nature the more I am amazed at the Creator.”
Those of a more scientific mind may appreciate the beauty inherent in mathematics and physics. The way creation works is marvellous to unravel! The 20th century British physicist Paul Dirac once said, “it is more important to have beauty in one’s equations that to have them fit experiment.” We can point to evidence of design in Creation. Biologists can point to the way eyes work, and memory and thinking in the human brain, and the complex interactions of DNA and RNA and proteins in the process of inheritance, which doesn’t happen if even one ingredient in the process is absent. Physicists talk about the “fine tuning of the universe”, the way that the laws of physics, the rate of expansion of the universe and the values of the fundamental constants all fit together in exactly the right balance to make life possible. If any of those were slightly different, no life could exist. All this is evidence of design in the natural world, and design points beyond itself to the Designer.
We can point to the universal spiritual experience of human beings. We are the only animals that pray or worship. When we answered the question, “What is the point of life?” we spoke about the “God shaped gap” in our lives. As Augustine said, back in the fifth century “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Another common experience of all human beings is conscience. Morality is a consequence of us all being created in the image of the holy and righteous God.
Romans 2 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15 since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
Our human conscience is evidence for the existence of God.
Finally from creation one of the classic “proofs” of the existence of God is the “cosmological argument.” Once there was nothing, no space, no time, no matter, nothing. Then there was something. The universe came from nothing – life came from not life and that requires a first cause, a first mover, something which started the whole thing off. And that first cause was God. None of these pieces of evidence for the existence of God are irrefutable knock-down proof that God does exist. But together they do give us grounds to claim that believing in God is reasonable and rational.
“God is not discoverable or demonstrable by purely scientific means, unfortunately for the scientifically-minded. But that really proves nothing. It simply means that the wrong instruments are being used for the job.” J. B. Phillips (1906–1982)
“Science without religion is blind. Religion without science is lame.” ALBERT EINSTEIN
God has revealed Himself in the Bible, in the church and in creation. But we can also point to evidence for God’s existence in human experience.
CHANGED LIVES
We can point to the changed lives of the first disciples. One day they were hiding away terrified that they would be next to be crucified. The next day these ordinary men and women were preaching a message which would turn the world upside down. We can point to countless inspirational Christians through the ages. We can talk about Christians we have read about but even better we can talk about the differences we have seen that Jesus makes in other people’s lives. Best of all we can talk about our own personal experiences of the difference Jesus makes in my own life. Answers to prayer. Miracles of grace and of healing. Experiences of peace and joy and forgiveness. We know God exists because we have experienced Jesus in our own lives. And then finally we know that God exists because of
JESUS
We can point to the uniqueness of Jesus. Jesus’s birth, his teaching, his ministry and to his death on the cross all set him apart from all the other leaders of all the other religions. Then we can point our friends to the love Jesus showed and to his perfect character. We know God exists because we have met God in Jesus.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” …. 9 “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
We believe in God because we have met God in His Son Jesus Christ. And in all of this the most important evidence for God’s existence is found in one historical event – the historical event of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
1 Corinthians 15 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
Everything rests on the resurrection of Jesus. That was the heart of the gospel the first Christians preached and it is the heart of our gospel today. Jesus is not dead. Jesus is alive. The resurrection is God’s proof that everything that Jesus claimed about Himself is true. It is God’s proof that Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus is indeed King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And the historical fact of the resurrection is the ultimate proof that God exists. The resurrection is that important!
So God has revealed Himself in the Bible and in the church, and in Creation. God has revealed Himself in human experience, the experiences of other people and our own personal experiences. But ultimately we believe in God because of Jesus and supremely because of the resurrection. Jesus is alive! That is the good news we have been given to proclaim and the evidence for God’s existence which we can share with the world.
So there is so much evidence for the existence of God. The problem is not ignorance but rebellion. Here is the challenge for the church going forward especially in the new normal “post-Covid”. Social distancing will be with us for months and possibly for years. Restricted to meeting with only one other household or social bubble at a time. How can we challenge the foolishness of the world? What should Christians be doing to demonstrate to everybody that God exists?

We don’t know for certain when the Psalms were written. Just half of the Psalms, like Psalm 52 are ascribed to David, and I take the traditional view that in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, David the shepherd and musician probably wrote them soon after 1000 BC. The titles or introductions at the beginning of most of the Psalms were probably added a long time after the individual Psalms were written. Most people believe that the collection of Psalms as we have them now was put together as late as after the return of the Exiles to Jerusalem in the period after the Second Temple was built, so roughly 500BC. But the context suggested in the title to Psalm 52 certainly fits with the content, so let’s take a moment to look at that introduction.
For the director of music. A maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: ‘David has gone to the house of Ahimelek.’
Doeg the Edomite was not a nice man. You may remember how David was anointed by Samuel to be King of Israel and then he defeated Goliath. But then the reigning King Saul tried repeatedly to kill his rival to the throne. So David went to the town of Nob and hid with Ahimelek the priest. That was when Ahimelek broke the rules and gave David and his men the consecrated bread to eat and he also gave him Goliath’s sword which was kept there. It happened that one of Saul’s servants, his chief shepherd Doeg the Edomite was also there and saw what happened. Doeg blabbed to Saul who sent for Ahimelek and all his family. Saul accused Ahimelek of conspiring against him with David but the priest defended David so Saul condemned his whole family to death. Saul’s guards refused to murder the priests. But Doeg the Edomite had no such scruples and he murdered 85 priests. He then went on to massacre the whole town of Nob. Not only had he betrayed David – Doeg was also a mass murderer. But without doubt that made him very important and very rich in Saul’s court. That is the backdrop suggested for this Psalm by David.
The second thing to point out by way of introduction is that we don’t often take much notice of the fact that the Psalms are songs or poetry. But we will tonight because it is significant. We talked about structures in Hebrew poetry when we talked about parables last year. We pointed to different parables, such as the Prodigal Son, where the order of events unfolds in a symmetrical pattern known as chiasmus. We have also mentioned that structure in the story of Noah and the Flood. Events at the beginning are mirrored by events at the end. The second section is mirrored by the second-to last section and so on. So the structure could be summed up as A B C B’ A’. In the middle of the poetry is the hinge or turning point, and the central location in the poem marks out the most important point in the whole piece. In the parable of the Prodigal Son that is when the son “came to his senses”. In the Flood narrative the hinge is the wonderful phrase, “But God remembered Noah.” We can see a similar chiastic structure in Psalm 52.
It begins and ends with alternative things in which people find their security – in doing evil or in God.
1 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero?
Why do you boast all day long,
you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?

Some people live by the motto, “the end justifies the means”. Doeg the Edomite achieved power through doing evil – by betrayal and murder. His title is ironic. He is only a “mighty hero” in his own eyes and in the eyes of other people who are also ignoring God. Doeg broke the sixth commandment – you shall not murder.
Then verse 7 recounts more of this evil man’s sins.
7 ‘Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold
but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!’
Rejecting God and looking to his wealth for security. Growing strong by destroying others.
In contrast the writer looks to God for his eternal security.
8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God;
I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.
9 For what you have done I will always praise you in the presence of your faithful people.
And I will hope in your name, for your name is good.
The Psalm writer, let’s assume it is David, puts his trust in God’s unfailing love. God’s steadfast love is the most important aspect of God’s character revealed in his covenants with Abraham and with Israel and with David. The Hebrew word is HESED and it occurs 100 times in the Psalms. It speaks of God’s unfailing loyalty and faithfulness. It is the attribute of God’s character which guarantees the covenants and makes them strong and durable. It is because of God’s steadfast love that the Psalm writers know that He will answer their prayers and rescue them in times of trouble. And they know that God’s love will keep them safe not just in this life but forever more. So David continually praises God for his faithfulness and he puts his trust in God who is the source of his hope forever.
The second motif which recurs before the end is use of the tongue, to destroy or to rejoice. The evil man is a liar and deceiver. Breaking not only the sixth commandment but the ninth as well.
2 You who practise deceit, your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor.
3 You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
4 You love every harmful word, you deceitful tongue!
Evil words often accompany evil actions. In fact sometimes evil people don’t even need to do anything bad. Their words alone can do terrible damage to others. In contrast good people will not use words to harm others. They will simply declare the truth.
6 The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at you, saying,
7 ‘Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold
Can you see the symmetrical structure? Beginning: security then the tongue. Ending: tongue then security. And right in the middle of the Psalm we find emphasised the most important point, the turning point: Divine action!
5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
he will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.
The evil person who murders and deceives and puts their trust in their wealth is forgetting one thing. They are forgetting God. They may be getting away with their sins for now, but in they end they will have to pay for them. The God of justice will bring judgment and the well-deserved punishment of everlasting ruin. The evil man will be like a tree uprooted from the land. The exact opposite is true of the righteous man who puts his trust in God.
8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God;
This Psalm teaches us where we can look to find true security. It inspires us to put our trust in God. But from the introduction it also tells us what we can do when other people let us down or hurt us as Doeg the Edomite hurt David. David did not pursue revenge. Nor did he call down curses. David simply pointed out that God would bring judgment on his enemies and put his trust in God’ unfailing love. And we should do the same.
What somebody has upset us. Or let us down. When they have broken their promises. When they have said things which are spiteful or untrue? When they have done things which damage us physically or mentally or emotionally or spiritually? What do we do when somebody hurts us? We read this morning in
Ephesians 4 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. 5 1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
George Herbert wrote, ”He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven, for everyone has need to be forgiven.”
If life has disappointed us – if people have let us down – take it to God!
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy-laden, Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge, Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee, Thou wilt find a solace there.
God longs to help us and heal us and give us his peace. If we are discouraged, even if we are suffering or persecuted, we should not give up! True hope in God WILL NOT disappoint us. His steadfasr love will never let us go. The wicked will ultimately be plucked from the land. But the righteous who put their trust and their hope in God will flourish into eternity.

We have looked at Psalms which are prayers of praise and thanksgiving and adoration. We have seen others which are prayers of confession or intercession. Last week we looked at Psalm 49 which would not have looked out of place in the book of Proverbs, or among the Wisdom Literature of Ecclesiastes or Job. Psalm 50 is a different kind of Psalm again. It could so easily fit into one of the books of the Prophets, like Isaiah or Jeremiah or so many of the Minor Prophets like Amos. This Psalm contains the words of God himself to his chosen people Israel. It is ascribed to Asaph who was known as a prophet. And the Psalm brings words of challenge and warnings of judgment.

The Psalm is a message from God, the almighty, the Creator and Sustainer and Ruler of the whole earth, all the time and everywhere.
1 The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to where it sets. 2 From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.

At the same time God is the Holy and Righteous God who brings justice and judgment.

3 Our God comes and will not be silent;
a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages.
4 He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people:

The nation of Israel are God’s chosen people, set apart from the other nations out of all the earth. God rescued them from slavery in Egypt. And He made a covenant with them on Mount Sinai. He gave them the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and the Temple in Jerusalem so that they could offer sacrifices acceptable to Him. But now God is speaking words of judgment even on Israel.

5 ‘Gather to me this consecrated people, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.’
6 And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice.,

Israel were God’s chosen people, set apart and belonging to Him. But they were failing to keep their side of the covenant. And this Psalm brings them solemn warnings.
7 ‘Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel:
I am God, your God.
Of all the nations of the earth, only Israel could call upon the one and only God as their God. But it is clear that at the time the Psalm was composed, God’s people were disobeying him in two specific ways. In the first place some Israelites had descended into ritualism.
8 I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices
or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
9 I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens,
10 for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.
12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

So here was the sin of ritualism – putting their trust in rituals instead of in God. Some Israelites were thinking that all God cared about was that they offer the right sacrifices at the appointed times. That as long as they kept up the outward practices of their religion, nothing else in their lives mattered to God. They were making the ridiculous mistake of thinking that God needed their sacrifices in some way. That God needed their sacrifices to feed him and that he would go hungry if they didn’t offer the sacrifices. That God in some way needed to be worshipped.

We can make the same mistake if we think that God actually needs us to do his work in the world. That God is powerless to save the world without using his children the church. Of course God does not NEED us in any way at all. It is God’s good pleasure to allow Christians to play a part in his cosmic masterplan of salvation. God graciously allows us to share in his work by loving each other and loving our neighbours and proclaiming the gospel. But that is a very different thing.

The purpose of the Old Testament sacrifices, of course, was not to meet some need God has of being worshipped. The purpose of the sacrifices was to keep reminding the Israelites of their dependence on God. The sacrifices only had any meaning if they came from genuine heartfelt gratitude.
14 ‘Sacrifice thank-offerings to God, fulfil your vows to the Most High,
15 and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honour me.’

The Israelites should have been offering thank-offerings as an expression of their gratitude to God. The ritual of sacrifice without heart-felt gratitude was empty and worthless. Sacrifices were a way of fulfilling their covenant obedience to God. If they were not recognising the covenant, the sacrifices themselves were meaningless. Sacrifices were a way for the people to call on God and acknowledge their need of him, in days of trouble and every day.

But the Israelites had descended into ritualism – they thought the sacrifices themselves were what mattered. They had forgotten gratitude and obedience and dependence. Without those things the rituals of sacrifice were not honouring to God in any way at all. And it is the same for us today. God does not need us to worship him or pray to him. Worship and prayer are not for God’s benefit but for our benefit. Reading our Bibles. Praying. Worshipping God. Even loving our neighbours and talking about Jesus are all just empty words if our hearts are not in them. Without attitudes of gratitude and obedience and a recognition of our total dependence on God for everything, the things we say and do have no meaning. They are not honouring to God at all. The risks of ritualism.

It is difficult to find a single word which sums up the second sin which God rebukes the Israelites for in Psalm 50. One commentator describes it as credal formalism, people who are careful to say all the right things but whose life contradicts their profession. Perhaps a simpler word would be hypocrisy.
16 But to the wicked person, God says:
‘What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips?
17 You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you.
18 When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterers.
19 You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit.
20 You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother’s son.

Some Israelites were being very careful about saying all the right things. Reciting the laws and professing their faith in the covenant of Moses. But then they were completely ignoring the laws and doing whatever they wanted. Breaking the eighth commandment by stealing and breaking the seventh by committing adultery. Breaking the ninth commandment by lying and bearing false witness. The people were thinking that as long as they knew what the Law of Moses commanded and said all the right things then they could do whatever they liked and live however they wanted. Again here is a challenge for all of us. It is not enough to know what the Bible says. We have to obey the Word of God! As James 1:22 says, we must be doers of the word, not hearers only.

James 1:22 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

MESSAGE Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!

Be doers of the word – not hearers only. Although he is talking to the Israelites, his chosen people, God’s judgment is that anybody who says one thing and does the opposite is a wicked person. And for them there is a solemn warning of judgment coming.

21 When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you.
But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you.

Many people make the same mistake as the Israelites were making. Because God had not intervened and brought punishment on them so far, they assumed he didn’t care about their sins. They were wrong. The warning is clear. Judgment is coming. But the Psalm keeps the door to salvation open. There is still hope.
22 ‘Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
23 those who sacrifice thank-offerings honour me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.’

Psalm 50 was calling the Israelites to make very important choices. Those who have fallen into empty ritualism have forgotten God. Hypocrites who keep the law on their lips but ignore it in their lives have forgotten God as well. And they will face the judgment of God. But even they can repent and find forgiveness and salvation.

23 those who sacrifice thank-offerings honour me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.’

Everyone can repent. Everyone can bring thank-offerings which honour God when they come sincerely from the heart. Everyone can change their ways and find forgiveness and be made blameless and experience God’s wonderful salvation. The Israelites had a choice to make. And God’s people in every age have our own choices to make.

Psalm 49 is different from most of the Psalms we have looked at so far. It is not a song of praise or thanksgiving. Nor is it a prayer. Instead it is much more similar to parts of the book of Proverbs and the Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament like Ecclesiastes and Job. It uses poetry to reveal wisdom from God.
1 Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world,
2 both low and high, rich and poor alike:
3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the meditation of my heart will give you understanding.
4 I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle:

This riddle, this message of wisdom declares the mystery that faith in God is more important than wealth or riches.
5 Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me—
6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?

Even when he is oppressed by rich and wicked people, the Psalm writer knows he is safe in God’s hands. The truth is that death the great leveller will come to everybody one day. Those who have put their trust in money will die just as much as the wise who are trusting in God. And then into eternity all the wealth the rich have spent their lives accumulating will count for absolutely nothing.

10 For all can see that the wise die, that the foolish and the senseless also perish,
leaving their wealth to others.
11 Their tombs will remain their houses for ever, their dwellings for endless generations,
though they had named lands after themselves.
12 People, despite their wealth, do not endure; they are like the beasts that perish.
People who have put their trust in their wealth die just like the animals in the fields. You may have seen the film on television last week, “All the money in the world” about the kidnapping of the grandson of the billionaire John Paul Getty, the richest man in the world,. After Getty died two people were talking on a bus. “How much did he leave?” one asked. The other replied, “Everything”.
It’s true what they say, “you can’t take it with you.” Wealth and possessions only last for this life. After that, we all face death.
13 This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings.
14 They are like sheep and are destined to die; death will be their shepherd
(but the upright will prevail over them in the morning).
Their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions.

But the Psalm writer reveals that his hope is not in wealth or possessions. His hope is in God alone and he is certain God will not let him down.

15 But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself.

The Psalm writer is not impressed by the wealth of others. There are things which seem to be important in this life, which so many people chase after. But big houses and lots of money and possessions are ultimately worthless. The Psalm writer will not be lured into joining the rat-race. There is no point. Instead he puts his trust in God.

16 Do not be overawed when others grow rich, when the splendour of their houses increases;
17 for they will take nothing with them when they die, their splendour will not descend with them.
18 Though while they live they count themselves blessed— and people praise you when you prosper—
19 they will join those who have gone before them, who will never again see the light of life.

All the money in the world is of no use to anybody when they are dead. Those who put their trust in money and possessions will never see the light of life again. The fool goes to a lost eternity. The wisdom in Psalm 49 is the same central message as Jesus’s parable of the rich fool who was prospering and tore down his barns to build bigger barns to store all his grain in.
Luke 12 . 19 And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ ”
20 ‘But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
You can’t take it with you. So the Psalm ends, 20 People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish.
No better than the wild animals. But the future of those who put their trust in God is altogether different. Back to verse 14
(The rich fools) are like sheep and are destined to die; death will be their shepherd
(but the upright will prevail over them in the morning).

There is a different destiny waiting for those who live upright lives and put their trust in God.
15 But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself.

God will take his upright and faithful servants to himself. This was David’s hope at the end of Psalm 23
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
So all human beings have a choice. To chase after money, which will ultimately lead them nowhere. Or to pursue God. There is the wisdom the Psalm writer shares with us all.
But did you notice in the middle there another thread of wisdom which points prophetically to the wonderful way of salvation God will provide. The Psalmist knows that money cannot rescue anyone from death.
7 No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them—
8 the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—
9 so that they should live on for ever and not see decay.

The Psalm writer is absolutely correct. All the money in the world cannot redeem a person or bring them everlasting life. The ransom for a life would be too high. Jesus said exactly the same thing.
Matthew 16 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
So what would be a sufficient ransom? What can anyone give in exchange for a soul?
Jesus said in Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
All the money in the world would not be sufficient to pay the ransom for a single life and rescue a person from death. But the life of Jesus Christ the Son of God would be sufficient. Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many. We have seen before how that saying by Jesus echoes the prophecies of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53
Isaiah 53 10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
On the cross, Jesus became a sin-offering for us. Jesus has paid the ransom for our sins. The first letter of Peter spells it out.
1 Peter 1 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
We rejoice, because we know that no amount of money could have paid the price for our sins. But Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, paid the ultimate price and laid down his life for us.
Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood: Hallelujah! what a Saviour!
Guilty, vile, and helpless, we; Spotless Lamb of God was He:
Full atonement—can it be? Hallelujah! what a Saviour!
So the wisdom in Psalm 49 makes it clear. Death is the ultimate statistic – one out of one die. Death comes to everybody – but we face a choice. There is death without hope, or there is death which is full of hope. Die like the beasts, or die with understanding and wisdom and faith in God. And the Psalm poses a prophetic question when it reminds us that no amount of money would be enough to redeem the life of a sinner.
7 No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them—
8 the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—
9 so that they should live on for ever and not see decay.
Thanks be to God – Jesus has paid the price for us!

We looked last week at Psalms 46 and 47. Those two Psalms gave us a number of reasons why we should put our trust in God.

1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Because God is creator and sustainer of all things we need not fear natural disasters. Even if the whole earth should come to an end, God is in control!
And God is also the Ruler over all the nations, the awesome great King over all the earth. So God’s people do not need to fear anything that other people can do to us.
God has made his chosen people into a great nation and God is always working out his cosmic masterplan of salvation through his chosen people. We are never alone. The ever-present God will never fail us or forsake us or abandon us.
So God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. NLT

Psalm 46:10 He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’

God is ALREADY exalted all over the earth and among all the nations. And God ALWAYS WILL BE exalted and honoured over all the earth and among all the nations.
So what we need to do is, Be still and know that I am God.
1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

So on to Psalm 48. We said last week that many theologians link Psalms 46 and 47 together with Psalm 48 with the suggestion of an annual ritual drama performed in the temple. They think it was part of a celebration of the Lord’s kingship over all the earth. Psalm 48 focuses on one particular way in which God keeps his chosen people safe. This way was a vital expression of the salvation God provided for Israel.
Psalm 48 1 Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
2 Beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.
3 God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.

God expressed his love for his chosen people in his Holy City Jerusalem. Built on Mount Zion, Jerusalem was the political and military capital city of the nation where the King had his palace.
At the same time Jerusalem was also the spiritual centre of Israel because it was the location of Solomon’s Temple. That was where sacrifices were offered day by day and particularly year after year at the great Festivals celebrating Israel’s faith. The nation believed that God was especially present in his Temple and in His Holy City and that as a consequence He would always protect Jerusalem.
So the Israelites found God to be their refuge and strength especially within Jerusalem.
For God’s chosen people, the city of God is the most beautiful and glorious place in the world.
Psalm 48 1 Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
2 Beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.

Because God in in his Holy City his people are safe there.

3 God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.

Verse 8 8 As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD Almighty,
in the city of our God: God makes her secure for ever.
The Israelites were convinced that God would always protect His Holy City and defend her against any attacks from other nations
4 When the kings joined forces, when they advanced together,
5 they saw her and were astounded; they fled in terror.
6 Trembling seized them there, pain like that of a woman in labour.
7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind.

God will keep Jerusalem safe because his Temple is there. The God who is Lord of heaven and earth has chosen to make Jerusalem his home
9 Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.
10 Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments.

Because God is in His Temple he will keep the whole city and of his chosen people within it safe forever.
12 Walk about Zion, go round her, count her towers,
13 consider well her ramparts, view her citadels,
that you may tell of them to the next generation.
14 For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.

God is especially present in His Temple and in His Holy City and so he is the strength and refuge of all His chosen people there.
Psalm 46 7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

This is another of the Psalms written the Sons of Korah. We can be pretty sure it was written in the tenth or ninth centuries BC, long before the time when God would allow the Babylonians to tear down Jerusalem and destroy the Temple and take the few surviving Israelites off to exile scattered across Babylonia. It expresses the complete faith the Israelites had in their God’s care and protection. They still trusted God in the face of overwhelming opposition.
As Christians, we view Jerusalem differently. The geographical city of Jerusalem has an important place in the history of the Jews and equally in the history of the church. Our Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again in Jerusalem. The church was born and grew out from Jerusalem. But Christians don’t attach the same importance to the city or to the ruins of the Temple there as the Jews still do.
For us there is a new Temple. The church is God’s new Temple. We are the living stones being built into a holy Temple and God lives in us by His Holy Spirit
For us there is a new city of God, the new Jerusalem. The church is the new city of God, now scattered throughout the earth but waiting one day to be revealed in glory.
Revelation 21 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
Verse 9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel.
So the Old Testament city of God, Jerusalem, has been replaced by the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ, the Church. The old Temples lie in ruins but we are the New Temple where the Holy Spirit lives. These ideas are summed up in a number of well-known hymns.
GLORIOUS THINGS OF THEE ARE SPOKEN, Zion, city of our God!
He whose word cannot be broken Formed thee for His own abode.
On the Rock of Ages founded, What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded, Thou mayest smile at all thy foes.

See! The streams of living waters, Springing from eternal love,
Well supply thy sons and daughters, And all fear of want remove;
Who can faint, whilst such a river Ever flows their thirst to assuage?
Grace which, like the Lord, the Giver, Never fails from age to age.

Round each habitation hovering, See the cloud and fire appear!
For a glory and a covering, Showing that the Lord is near.
He who gives them daily manna, He who listens when they cry:
Let Him hear the loud hosanna Rising to His throne on high.

The church is the new city of God. We are the new Temple. So what does Psalm 48 have to say to us today? Something which I think is very important.
For us as Christians, Jerusalem and Mount Zion are now metaphors and symbols. God is still our refuge and strength. God is still our fortress. But our safety does not lie in some physical city on Mount Zion, or anywhere else. Our safety DOES still lie in the New Jerusalem, the church.
Let me put it another way. God wants us to experience peace and security. These come to us in our relationship with Him. But God’s peace and security also come to us through other Christians in our shared life in the church. We experience God caring for us, as Christians care for each other. We experience God helping us, as Christians help each other. God keeps us safe, as we keep each other safe.
Many folk have been saying to me during these hundred days of lockdown how much of a help and comfort the church family have been to them. We have been appreciating our fellowship and our common life together more and more. God has been our strength and refuge, and we have experienced that in the community of the church.
Jim Wallis and his organisation the Sojourners, is an influential advocate of Biblical community. In his book, Call to Conversion, he wrote “The greatest need of our time is for koinonia, the call simply to be the church, to love one another, and to offer our lives for the sake of the world … the creation of living, breathing, loving communities of faith at the local church level.” Wallis argues from Ephesians that such a life of love is central to God’s purposes for the church, which should be a family rather than an institution or an organisation. “Community is the great assumption of the New Testament.” Community life, he says “is both the lifestyle and vocation of the church.” I like this bit. “At a minimum the church should be known as the kind of community that makes it more possible, not less possible, to follow Jesus.”
So God is our strength and our refuge and this comes to us in large part through our experience of the common life of the Christian community, the church. I can’t find the exact quote, but Jim Wallis wrote that in all the crises which life can bring us to, he would rather have the support of the community of the church than the biggest Swiss bank account in the world.
God is our strength and our refuge. The God of Jacob is our fortress. And as Christians God wants us to experience those blessings through the fellowship and community of the church.
1 Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
3 God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.
8 As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD Almighty, in the city of our God: God makes her secure for ever.