Genesis 37:1-50:26
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This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the evening service on March 29, 2009. In this installment of our series through the Old Testament we complete the book of Genesis with the story of Joseph.
The following resources are available from this service:
Presentation notes
Handout on Genesis 37:1-50:26
Psalm 121
This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the morning service on March 29, 2009. In this sermon we look at Psalm 121 and the assurance we have as believers of God as our sovereign deliverer, our steadfast foundation, our constant keeper, and our eternal protector.
Introduction
Today we are looking at Psalm 121, one of the Psalms of Ascent. The Psalms of Ascent go from Psalm 120 through Psalm 134. Pilgrims would sing these psalms of worship and praise while they ascended the mountain to Jerusalem, journeying to the temple to offer sacrifices to God.
Psalm 121
This Psalm has four parts that we will address in turn:
God is my sovereign deliverer
God is my steadfast foundation
God is my constant keeper
God is my eternal protector
Exposition
God is my sovereign deliverer
In verses 1-2 we learn that God is our sovereign deliverer. The Psalmist is evidently facing danger and is looking to see who his help is. Picture the Psalmist standing in a valley with the mountains rising high around him. There are dangers lurking everywhere. He doesn’t know where the next attack will come from but he is hopeful, expectant. He feels the terrible danger but he knows there is a protector, a deliverer. He lifts his eyes to the mountain, watching for his rescuer.
The scene that best captures this for me is in the movie Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers. I don’t like to do movie illustrations much but this one fits well. The human castle of Helms Deep is about to be overrun by a massive Orc army. The situation seems hopeless. Suddenly the warrior Aragorn remembers the promise of the great Gandalf that he would arrive at dawn from over the mountains. Aragorn rouses King Theoden and they lead the army on one last great charge into the Orcs. With such a massive force built up against them it seems a fool’s errand, a suicide run. But as soon as the charge is made, from over the mountain a sound is heard and they see the brilliant white figure of Gandalf leading a large force of horsemen. The horsemen rush, the Orcs are crushed, and the day is saved.
You who are in the valley, you who feel the crush of the enemy all around, you who know the dangers of the day, lift up your eyes to the mountain! Do not despair! Face the day! Charge the enemy! You have a promised help, a promised relief, and it is no human who comes to your aid, it is the Lord himself.
The Psalmist offers hope to battle weary saints. Your help does not come ultimately from those around you, from weakness of human flesh. Your help is God himself, Yahweh, the Lord of hosts who commands legions of angels and is in control over all that he has made. That is what the word sovereign means, he holds authority, rule, power, control over everything that exists. The hour seems dark, the enemy dreadful, all hope seems to be lost – but remember your redeemer! Your help comes from the Lord God, the very creator of all things! Who can defeat your foe, so mighty and horrific? The Lord can defeat your foe! The God who created your enemy can also defeat and destroy your enemy. And one day all enemies of God will be crushed under his feet.
You have a mighty help, a sovereign deliverer. Do not despair in the day of trouble, lift up your eyes to the mountain and serve faithfully the God who rescues you.
God is my steadfast foundation
God is my steadfast foundation. The Psalmist knows the doubts and fears of people. We know how great our God is, we talk about his limitless power, but we are prone to fear that sometimes God is not watching over us. He is busy with people elsewhere or perhaps has just gotten tired of us. But the Psalmist tells us in verses 3 and 4 that God’s attention never wavers from us: He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Like the foundation of a building it is the Lord who keeps your feet steady and he will do so without fail.
Oh how mighty are the persecutions of the enemy! But your foot will not be moved. You will not slip. The waters of the Red Sea are all about. You feel that if God turned away for a moment you would perish in the crushing waves. But God’s attention never wavers. Your God is mighty to save. He never slumbers, he never sleeps. He is steadfast to watch over you, to keep you secure. His eye is on every detail in his creation. Nothing escapes his power, nothing escapes his attention. He who keeps you neither slumbers nor sleeps. He is no daydreamer, no wool gatherer. Your God knows your trouble and he will not let your foot be moved. Why then does it feel like I am sliding into the pit? Why am I falling into the hands of the enemy? Trust in your God! There is no uncertainty in his promise to protect you. If you are his, you are safe. Always. No matter what.
God is my constant keeper
God is my sovereign deliverer, God is my steadfast foundation, and God is my constant keeper. Verses 5-6 describe God’s provision for his people: The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. Your keeper will provide for your needs. What is in mind in this context is that the Lord is your shelter. He will keep you safe from the elements, from the dangers of day and night. We can expand this to include what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, particularly Matthew 6:31-33: Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Our God will supply our needs.
But again looking specifically at the context, the kind of shelter and provision being promised in Psalm 121 is of the sort that the Psalmist is praying for in Psalm 61:1-4: Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings!
The Lord is your refuge. He is your strong tower. He is your fortress. He provides for you a safe place from the howling attacks of the enemy. The Lord is your constant keeper, he is your shade, he provides safety under the shadow of his wing. His refuge will never fail. The enemy can never scale his walls, never break through his gates. Raging storms break apart on him. He who controls the wind and the rain cannot be overcome by anything.
God is my eternal protector
The final assurance in this Psalm is that God is your eternal protector. Verses 7-8 tell us The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. His watch over you is never interrupted. For now and forevermore you are in his care.
The Psalmist does not tell us the Lord will keep you from some evil or tragedy, he will keep you from all evil. Of course this does not mean evil will never touch your life. It means evil will never overcome you. Whatever you do, whatever action you perform, you are in God’s hands.
What things are you afraid of? The Lord will keep you. What trial has its icy grip on your throat? The Lord guards you. How enduring is your suffering? The Lord endures all the more. What can separate you from the love of Christ? Absolutely nothing. What can remove you from his care? Nothing can.
So God is your sovereign deliverer, God is your steadfast foundation, God is your constant keeper, and God is your eternal protector.
Application
First
One word of clarification and warning. Sometimes the trials we face are of our own making, the consequences of our own sin. In his grace and mercy God will often protect us even from what we bring on ourselves, but do not mistake the source of your suffering. Don’t cry out that you are facing persecution when your persecution and suffering come from yourself. Cry out to God, yes, but cry out in repentance.
We all know people who cry foul every time they suffer from something they have caused. The first thing needed in this kind of suffering is confession and repentance. If you are the source of your trouble it will not change until you change. Let go of whatever the sin is. Confess and repent and seek strength from God to grow out of that sin. Your God is faithful! In his time he will equip you to get out of that sin. God will be faithful to you and will see you through even the consequences of your own actions.
Second
I also want to remind you that God will not always work out things the way we want him to. Proverbs 16:9 tells us: The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Many are our plans and desires but God is sovereign over all things and he ultimately determines our way.
This is where faith and trust come in. You know you have a good shepherd who never fails to give you attention. You know he is mighty, that he protects you and provides what you need. Will you trust him when your circumstances are not what you want? Looking back at what we said a moment ago, be sure your circumstances do not have your sin as their cause. After that, entrust your circumstances to the Lord.
Note also that I said he will provide what you need, not necessarily what you want. Our prayer is that his will becomes our wants. That is, our prayer is that we could live in Psalm 37:4: Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. When the Lord is your delight, when you desire what he desires, your desire will always be granted. Nothing can disrupt the plan of God. Desire his plan and you will always be satisfied.
What we need is not always what we think we need. God views need different than we do. What you need is that which will help you best live in the will of God. His will is not always comfortable for us but his will is best. Consider Jesus who endured one of the greatest moments of suffering in history. In Isaiah 53:10 we read that it was the will of the Lord to crush him… Then in Acts 2:23 we read that Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God… The cross was the will of God the Father for Jesus the Son. Before the foundations of the earth God had determined that the Son would die an excruciating death. This was not a comfortable plan for the Son. And yet the Son wanted to do his Father’s will. What the Son needed was strength, endurance, faithfulness. The Father provided them. Sometimes God’s will for you leads to your suffering. God does not promise material prosperity or an easy life, but when he calls you to suffer he will equip you to suffer. Trust in him. Trust that even this trial is being worked out according to the perfect will of God.
Third
Along that line I want to point you to Luke 21:10-19. In this passage Jesus is instructing his followers about the last days: Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.
These will be terrible, troubled times. Surely great loss of life will come with it. And yet in verse 18 we read that not a hair of your head will perish. This sounds like believers will escape unharmed! We will avoid persecution in the days of trouble. But if you back up a few verses we see this is not the case. In verse 12 we see that they will lay hands on you and persecute you and in verse 16 some of you they will put to death…
Is this a contradiction? Not a hair of your head will perish, but some of you will be put to death? There is no contradiction. The Lord your help, your salvation, your deliverer will protect you. Though your body may die your soul lives on with him. To some this sounds like insanity. The body is all there is! My body is all I’m worried about! But there is so much more to a person than the body that will pass away. We are not building our lives for what we have in this world, we are building for eternity.
In Matthew 10:28 Jesus instructs us …do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. We serve the one who has final authority over every life. He is the judge before whom everyone must stand. Do not fear men. What can they do to you? Fear God. Serve him and trust him. Be comforted with the assurance that he who is the greatest of all is at work to protect you and preserve you and provide for you. He is never weary, he never faints, and he will lead you home.
Conclusion
There is a war raging in the world. Satan’s followers are lined up against the children of God. They are charging the gates, they are massed against the walls. So often all seems like darkness. All around we see a world growing in its evil. Every day more people call evil good and good evil. More churches are turning from the gospel. More self-professed Christians are denying the instructions of the God they say has saved them. We see evil on the rise. We see wickedness abounding. But this is not a fair fight. The sides are not evenly matched. Lift up your eyes to the mountains! Can you see? Your help is charging over the side!
Psalm 18:4-19
There will be a special business meeting on Wednesday, April 1. Items under consideration are:
Nathan Creel will be ordained as a deacon during the evening service on Sunday, April 05. An ice cream social will follow the service.
Our church choir will present an Easter cantata during the morning service at 11:00 am on Sunday, April 05.
The following is our menu for the Wednesday evening fellowship meal on April 1st.
Pork chops
Mashed potatoes
Black-eye peas
Baked apple
Dessert
Roll
The meal will begin at 5:30 in the fellowship hall. Those unable to attend can still come at 6:15 for the prayer time and Bible study.
Cost for meals is $5.00 per adult or $3.00 per child.
Our next monthly meeting will be April 14th.
We are then planning to go and take the bus on May 9th to the Baptist College of Florida. They will present “Big River”, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Tickets are $5.00. Let me know if you would like to attend.
Be involved in all our Spring activities.
Martha
As Christians we sometimes have a hard time understanding that we are slaves of God. When we think of slavery our minds are filled with what we know: the practice of chattel slavery in America. Slavery was one of the darkest hours in our history. The practice of treating humans as property existing to serve the whim of their masters was horrific and inexcusable. Families were frequently ripped apart. Beatings, killings, and sexual exploitation was common. There was absolutely no reasonable defense for slavery and yet the practice continued for generations.
But we are slaves of God in a different sense. We are not considered property, we are considered children. We are not objects of our master’s capricious whim, we are servants of the wise plans of our loving God. In Romans 6 Paul says we were once slaves of sin but are now slaves of God. As slaves of sin there was nothing but death. As slaves of God we receive sanctification and eternal life.
In the context of a slave of God a Christian is to live not for his own desire and interest but for the desires and interests of God. We are not put on this earth to pursue our delights but to pursue God’s delights. When we stand before God we will not be asked how faithful we were to our hobbies and interests, we will be asked how faithful we were in following the will of God and carrying out his commands.
Live as obedient servants of Christ. Live as slaves of God. Live not for your own pursuits but for his. He is your good and loving Father, God and creator of all the universe. This world is passing away, along with everything in it. Serve that which lasts, that which leads to eternal life. You are slaves of God, live for his will.
Choir practice will begin at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, March 25th. Our normal Wednesday evening service will be truncated to make room for an extended choir practice.
Because of our joint worship service at 7:00 am there will be no discipleship training or evening worship on Sunday, April 12.
