Text: Psalm 25:1-15
In life there are many things we trust, we can trust in our position in life, our families, the power of the military and defense force of our nation, we can trust in our education and experience to get us through situations, many people also trust in money, in particular we trust in money for our ability to care for ourselves in retirement or ill health. To me the great irony is that on our currency it states; “in God we Trust” but most people trust in the dollar more than they trust in God.
I want to challenge you afresh to trust in God, to look at the situations in your life and see what you need to place in the hands of God. Maybe you face an insurmountable challenge and you are in fear today, not sure what the future looks like, today I want to encourage you that you can put your trust in God, He is able, and he is faithful.
As we focus on Psalm 25 we notice that the Psalm has three distinct features or sections.
As David cries out to God he asks the Lord for direction and guidance. Then as David enters into the presence of God, he is drawn to repentance. And then David asks the Lord for protection against his enemies.
So we have three aspects, Protection, Pardon and Guidance.
I want to focus on the guidance of God today as we look at what it means to trust in him. (see Proverbs 3:5 and 6)
As we look at verse 4 and 5 of the Psalm we see that David is acknowledging that he doesn’t have the ability to move forward, he is coming and pleading with the Lord for direction; how often do we cry out to God like this for our future? “For You I wait all the day.” Do we know what it is to wait on the Lord? Or do we offer a 30 second prayer and then rush out and make our own plans?
But as David goes on we read in verse 9; “ He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.”
At first this sounds good and right, we know that in order to trust God we need to humbly come before him and acknowledge our weakness, but as I was studying this verse I found that the Hebrew Language here for the term humble can also mean afflicted or broken. So in that respect we can read verse 9 as; “He leads the humbled in Justice and He teaches the humbled His way”. We tend to think of being humble as a posture that we present to God in the way of our attitude, but rather David here gives us a picture of being afflicted and humbled by God. We don’t like the sound of that. But remember verse 4 and 5; “Make me know your ways… and lead me in your truth” David was pleading with God to teach him and the humbling process was the way God taught David dependence on him. And by God’s grace he does that to all of us, when we are brought to the place where we realize we have nothing to offer and are humbled in the presence of the almighty God.
Looking at verses 12 and 14 we see the familiar theme of the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom as we read in Proverbs 111:10. A respect and acknowledgment for who God is, will bring us into a position us understanding and wisdom, which is knowledge given by God. Acknowledging who God is, must be first and foremost in our lives as we seek to know his will for our lives and begin to trust him for the future.
It is very simple, if we are able to grasp just a tiny fragment of the Glory and Majesty of God and then compare it to the problem that we face, we will see how insignificant our problem is in comparison. God is awesome, fear God.
What Jesus did on the cross 2000 years ago paid the penalty. God raised him from the dead and in that earth shattering event, the hold of sin on mankind was broken. We have a risen savior that rules today at the right hand of the Father. Our struggles today are temporary and fleeting in the light of eternity. We look around and we see a nation that is very different to the one we knew 20 years ago, but let me give you a wonderful piece of news. Nothing that is happening today or will happen tomorrow will ever shake God or catch him off guard. And along with that, the church, the body of Christ that is built on the foundation of the Word of God and with Jesus as the cornerstone will never be shaken. I pray that we at Grace Point will be a church that is so grounded in the word of God as our foundation that we will never be shaken. Isaiah 40 is a wonderful prophecy about Jesus which John the Baptist quoted in Matthew 3, but these words are still applicable and a wonderful promise to us today. (see Isaiah 40:5-8)
Note, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah wrote; “the word of our God stands forever”, we can trust in the Word of God. In order to put our trust in the word of God, we need to know the word of God and meditate on the word of God. Every one of us is to be a student of the Word, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal truths to us and allowing us to have a sure foundation that will not be shaken in an ever changing world.
When we see the changes taking place around us, we need to be drawn to our knees as we are to pray for our country. We weep and mourn as we see changes that seem to be out of our control, but we are not a people without hope. If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are part of another Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven. This kingdom will endure forever. (see Psalm 145:13)
The Lord is Trustworthy! As children of the Kingdom of God we know two things for certain, it is an everlasting Kingdom and The Lord our God is trustworthy.
AW Tozer in his book “the dangers of a shallow faith” wrote; “Either God is Lord of all or He is not Lord at all.”
Is he Lord of all for your life today?