[0:00] Great, we're going to be in Psalm 30 tonight. So if you want to turn to Psalm 30, I'm going to read it for us and then I'm going to pray and hand over to Clifford who's going to preach for us from Psalm 30.
[0:16] Let me read it for us. A Psalm, a song for the dedication of the temple of David. I will exalt you, Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
[0:32] Lord, my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead. You spared me from going down to the pit.
[0:42] Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people. Praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime.
[0:57] Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. When I felt secure, I said, I shall never be shaken. Lord, when you favoured me, you made my royal mountain stand firm. But when you hid your face, I was dismayed.
[1:18] To you, Lord, I called. To the Lord, I cried for mercy. What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
[1:31] Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me. Lord, be my help. You turned my wailing into dancing. You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
[1:47] Lord, my God, I will praise you forever. Let me pray as Clifford comes to speak. Father, we do pray just with thankfulness for Clifford and even more for your word.
[2:01] And we pray, please, that you would help Clifford now to speak clearly and faithfully. Give us ears to hear what he has to say and you have to say through him. In Jesus' name. Amen. Good evening.
[2:16] I suspect that if I had a choice, I would perhaps be in my shorts in my back garden looking at my tomatoes. In the sovereignty of God, however, I'm here to share God's word with you. Let's pray together.
[2:31] Amen. Amen. And so, Father, we feel hot and bothered. And there's a sense in which we are not fully able to concentrate on your word.
[2:43] But thank you that you are able to concentrate on us. Meet with us as we meet around your word now. And speak to us through your word.
[2:54] Your written word that speaks about Jesus, the living word. In his name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Sometimes it's difficult to try and convey to you what privileges I feel in just standing here preaching to you.
[3:16] Having preached for 40, 45, 50 years in Scotland and in England. And I felt that my ministry had come to an end until it was kicked into being again by Steve.
[3:30] So thank you. As we look at this psalm this evening, the psalm of praise and thanksgiving from the first standard to the last. This praise is expressed six times in the psalm.
[3:45] The psalm is remembering the psalm. The psalm is remembering the greatness of God at a great event.
[4:00] The psalm is remembering the psalm. The psalm has an unusual title, dedication to the temple of David. But some evangelicals, commentators believe that this psalm was written prophetically for the dedication of the temple which David prayed for, but for his son Solomon, who actually built it.
[4:24] But in the context, it would seem to me that the psalm was actually written for the dedication of David's palace, not the temple.
[4:36] Please note that there is nothing in the psalm which describes the palace in any way. What is described is the greatness of God in his deliverance of David.
[4:50] So in fact, the dedication of David's house, he wanted God to be praised, not himself. He didn't want the architect to be praised or the builder, but he wanted God to get all the praise.
[5:08] The background to the history of David's policies, its completion is found in the book of Samuel. In 2 Samuel 5 and 11 to 12, it says this. Now Haram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with the cedar logs and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David.
[5:31] Then David knew, emphasis, that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and established his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.
[5:43] Now that's a very foundational and an important background or backdrop to the psalms that you need to have whole intention as we look at the psalm.
[5:55] So David, at the dedication of his house, is quite clear that he was not asking anyone to focus on himself.
[6:07] What perhaps could have been perceived as a monument to himself and his personal achievement, when David could have show off and said, look at me, look at my strength, look at my ability, look at my wealth.
[6:23] Look at my wealth. Look at my kingdom and look at my kingdom and look at the palace that I was able to build because of my ability. In influence, and to gather all the workers and materials from every part of the kingdom.
[6:39] And so what might have been a monument to man's achievement, instead became an occasion for David to praise God. So in this statement that we find in 2 Samuel chapter 5 and verse 11 to 12, David, in fact, knew three things that made the reign of David great.
[7:04] The reference is 2 Samuel 5, 11 to 12. So in this statement, David knew three things that made the reign of David great. David knew, one, that the Lord had established him as the king over Israel in verse 12.
[7:22] David knew, secondly, that the Lord had established his kingdom. And thirdly, David knew that God had made him king and had made and exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people.
[7:39] You see, David knew that God wanted to use him as a channel to bless his people. And one of the joys of being here and seeing the changes and so on.
[7:50] And of course, we're coming up to leadership and so on. One of the things that we need to be aware of is we want people who are aware of their being called by God to be used, not to promote themselves, but to bless the people, to serve the people.
[8:11] And if I understand correctly, this psalm, David is trying to make what I would call pertinent points that we need to hear, we need to understand, and we need to embrace as a fellowship and as a leadership.
[8:36] He says it was not for David's sake or his family that he was lifted up by God. But for the sake of the benefit of God's people. What a beautiful picture then, brothers and sisters, we have in 2 Samuel 5, and verse 11 to 12, or if you say 1 to 11, what about?
[8:59] About the establishment of David's house. No wonder then that we begin to see the reflection in David's heart in Psalm 30, as he wrote Psalm, I will exalt you, Lord, for you filled me, you lifted me out of the depths.
[9:18] And this explains to us the core reason of David's praise to God. My brothers and sisters, this evening, it will seem to me that David knew that his governance and status in Israel was not himself or his kingship, but the hand and work of God.
[9:43] You see, this does not mean that David passively did it all by himself. But even in his action and use of abundance and of energy, David was acutely aware that he was able to do all that he did because of God.
[10:08] And it is that acute awareness that we have reflected in the Psalm of Praise. Charles Spurgeon, in his commentary on the Psalm of David, he's not my favorite commentator, but I'll quote him.
[10:26] He writes, Grace has lifted us up from the pit of hell, from the ditch of sin, from the flow of despondent, from the bed of sickness, from the bondage of doubts and fears.
[10:44] Have we no song to sing a Psalm of Praise to our God? If God, in other words, he's saying, if God has done so much for us, have we not something to praise God, to give God thanks for, to exalt God for?
[11:00] You see, David understood in the context of the Psalm that God had lifted you up from the depths. He had sung. Deaths he had fallen, and he sung, and he sang, and he wrote the Psalm of Praise to God.
[11:19] In 1b, David says, You did not let my enemies gloat over me. And when I had to laugh, when I was looking at this, I could imagine some of David's enemies looking over the wall and mocking him.
[11:36] And what David is saying here is, God did not allow his enemies to look upon his misfortune or downfall with smugness and harmful pleasure.
[11:48] You know, sometimes you warn someone about something, and when it eventually happened, yeah, yeah, you know, that kind of mocking. David is saying, God did not allow his enemies to do that to him.
[12:08] He speaks about healing here, speaks about, and reflects upon the value of God's help to David at any time he had a need. And what we're speaking about here is not, may not have been physical healing, but many of the commentators believe that David is reflecting here about the time in his experience when God saved him from life-threatening illness.
[12:33] So he thanked the Lord in a variety of ways for God's dedication to his own place and his own life and service.
[12:55] And brothers and sisters, it's not so much the building that David is worried about. It's about the relationship that he had with this God and the relationship was found on the life that he lived with this God.
[13:14] No wonder then further on in the psalm, David would have us. I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned me and he heard my cry. He lifted me out of the timey pit, out of the mud and mire.
[13:29] He set my feet on the rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth and a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.
[13:45] In Psalm 40, 1 and 3, David is saying the same thing in a different way. So if verse 1 and 3 is a remembrance of the greatness of God, at the dedication of David's house, and a great event in David's life, I would suggest to you then, verse 4 and 5, we see a dawning of a new day.
[14:14] You see, in 4 and 5, we clearly see that the psalm is not only David's personal expression of praise, worship, and thanksgiving, but it was also used by the congregation to worship.
[14:27] And here David encouraged them in the words, sing praise to the Lord, you as faithful people, praise his holy name. Mark, defy the Lord with all with me, and let it exalt his name, is the AV.
[14:41] Personal praise and worship to a God of the Bible, what does not enrich you and me, and bring praise to God, becomes self-centered and self-indulgent.
[14:57] Perhaps can even lead us to thinking that we notice God better than anyone else. And one commentator said, it can lead us to pride.
[15:10] Verse 5, his anger lasts for a moment, but his favor lasts for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing tarries or comes in the morning.
[15:26] Each morning, God's mercies are new to us, as so is his faithfulness. In Psalms 46 and verse 5, David asserts, God is in the midst of her.
[15:40] He shall not be moved. God shall help her at the break of dawn. In Psalms 59 and verse 16, David writes, I will sing of your power.
[15:53] Yes, I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning, for you have been my defense and refuge in the day of trouble. Of course, a verse that we know very well, Jeremiah says in Lamentation, though the Lord's mercies or through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed because his compassions fail not.
[16:18] They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Just by way of aside, someone, a complete stranger to me, reflected yesterday and commented on the singing at the wedding.
[16:36] And they felt that there was something different about it. God's compassion, God's faithfulness. God was here with us yesterday as we celebrate.
[16:50] You see, the realize of God's mercy and compassion and faithfulness generated hope in David's soul, turning his faith arm, his contemplation of trouble into a confession of faith.
[17:03] Because the Lord loves us, he chastened us, but he does not consume us. But his chastening is only temporal. His discipline is but he does not destroy us.
[17:17] He disciplines us, but he does not destroy us. Which would lead us to despair. But the word of the Bible does not lead us to despair.
[17:29] He is to compassionate for that. He wants us to recognize. You see, his unbelief causes us to look to a God through the lens of circumstances.
[17:44] And this creates feeling of a sense of hopelessness, does it not? But faith enables us to look at our circumstances through the reality of God's promises.
[17:56] And this gives us hope. when we look at our reality of our circumstances through God's lens, we see things through different eyes.
[18:07] We see them through the eyes of faith. And this is what the psalmist is talking about. This kind of hope that the psalmist is speaking about is the resurrection of our Lord brought at the dawning of the new day for all who trust in him.
[18:22] So weeping comes every often as an unwelcome guest. But God's gracious favor is with us and is for us for a lifetime and into eternity.
[18:36] The grace that God extends to you today is not only until you die. Psalmist said, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
[18:48] Why? For thou art with me in life and in death. And he brings comfort. And that's to encourage us even on a warm sticky day.
[19:03] That's to encourage us. My brothers and sisters, I believe that this is what Paul is referring to when he wrote to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 16 and 18.
[19:17] Therefore, we do not lose heart though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day for light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far awaits them all.
[19:35] And so what do we do? He says, we fix our eyes on Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I tell you, we can't afford to lose sight of him even in tragedy.
[19:52] The 29th of December last day, I had the shock of my life when I had a telephone call to tell me that my nephew died in an accident.
[20:04] He died instantly. The other guy was thrown through the windscreen. And that very moment, I said to my wife, let's pray to God.
[20:22] And I know how you feel. You've got my sympathy. Paul said, we don't lose heart.
[20:36] we keep our eyes fixed. And Jesus, the one who is the author, and finisher of our faith. So we don't look at what is seen, but we look at what is unseen.
[21:02] Because what we see is temporary, transient. But what we see, is eternal in Christ. Is that not this what Jesus explained to his disciples in John chapter 16, verse 20 and 22, most surely I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.
[21:28] You will grieve, but your grief will turn to God. My brothers and sisters, I have never given birth. I am privileged to be in a family of 15, 10 boys and five girls.
[21:44] But I know a little about childbirth, because I know my grandma used to come in the evening, and in the morning we'll hear, yeah, yeah, that means the child was born. A woman giving birth to a child has pain before time has come.
[22:03] But when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish, she forgets my brothers and sisters, the pain, because of her joy.
[22:14] That the child is born into the world, and in the child, a hope is realized. And we heard the story about the Lord Jesus Christ, unto a child is born, unto a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and so on and so on.
[22:39] And that child went to a cross and died in your place, in my place. all the sins. We have to be careful here because my pastor told me I've got 45 minutes and I wouldn't take 50.
[22:57] So I have to be careful. So I have to be careful. And as with the hope that is found in the child with the mother, so it is with you, says Jesus.
[23:15] Now it's your time of anguish, of grief. But I see you again and you will rejoice and no one will take away your joy.
[23:29] God's anger lasts only for a moment for its favor towards us last lifetime. In verse 6 and 10, we have a new day and although weeping therefore may stay for the night, but we have rejoicing that it's coming in the morning.
[23:51] And then we have verse 6 to 10, a new heart from pride to humility. In verse 6, David said, when I felt secure, I said, I shall not be shaken, moved.
[24:04] And the aviates said, it's now in my prosperity, I said, I shall never be removed. Prosperity here means careless ease, living carefree and self-assured life because things are going well with you.
[24:21] this is frequently seen in the life of the unconverted. In Psalms 10, 6, he says to himself, nothing will ever shake me and he swears that no one will ever do me harm.
[24:38] In Luke 12, 16, 21, where Jesus told his disciples the story of the rich man who yielded an abundant harvest. And he said to himself, this is what I will do.
[24:51] I will tear down my barns, build buildings and build bigger ones and there I will store my surplus grain. And I will say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years.
[25:04] Take life easy. Eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, you fool. This very night your life will be demanded from you.
[25:17] Then you will get what you have prepared for yourself. this is how it will be whoever saw up things for themselves, but is not rich towards God. But this not only applies to the unconverted, it's a content temptation for Christians also.
[25:37] When we look at the prosperity of others, we can begin to be jealous and envious. Psalm speaks about it in Psalm 73. Here then is a clear warning that we ought to be aware.
[25:49] David says, surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, David said, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold.
[26:04] He says, for I envied the arrogant when he saw the prosperity of the wicked. Verse 3, they have no struggles, their bodies are healthy and strong.
[26:16] Verse 40, they go to the gym every day. I see them. They are free from common human burden. They are not plagued by human ills. Therefore, pride is in their necklace.
[26:26] They clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity. Their evil imaginations have no limit. They scoff and speak malice with arrogance.
[26:39] They threaten oppression. And he goes on and goes on. Verse 12, we conclude, this is what the wicked are like. Always free of care, they go on assigning wealth, assimilating wealth.
[27:02] But the subject of prosperity is never without peril. the prosperity with him to affect David in an adverse way.
[27:15] In Psalm 30, he was not strong enough to stand his temptation. Unless we look down on David, I wonder how many of us are strong enough to stand this temptation.
[27:28] You see, David had become proud and self-confident. he said in his heart, when I felt secure, I said I should never be shaken, not be moved forever. In the context of David's confidence as the king of Israel and the leader of his people, no doubt he was.
[27:45] but you see, his heart was lifted up in the wrong way, not to God, to himself. And in the spirit of self- glorification, David commanded the commander Joab to number the people of Israel, as documented in 2 Samuel 24.
[28:06] And as a result of that action, 70,000 Israelis died. they perished.
[28:20] See, David became proud and wanted to magnify his own achievement rather than glorifying God. And Joab, the commander of the army, advised the king not to take the census.
[28:31] And he was dismissed. And his advice in 2 Samuel 24. Verse 3, when he said to the king, now may the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over.
[28:43] May the eyes of my Lord the king see it. But why does my Lord the king desire this thing? Why? What is going on in your heart?
[28:57] And David took the census of the people of God without due inquiry by means of the oracle of God according to what God had commanded him to do and the people of Israel.
[29:12] And his chronicle for us in God's worth. According to Exodus 30, 11, 16, God was against the numbering of Israel. God was not against the numbering of Israel, but there was clear conditions in which sentences had to be taken.
[29:27] I don't want to bore you with the details, but it was enough for me to tell you, each person over twenty must pay half a shekel to the Lord for the ransom of life.
[29:38] The rich and the poor pay the same. The money received was to be used specifically for the service of the tenth of meeting. And being used in this way, it becomes a memorial for the Israelite before the Lord, making a tone for their lives.
[29:59] But it would seem to me that David seemed to forget this command of God to Moses, who told them before the hand, that if the multitude were numbered, they should pay on this money.
[30:14] And by its very omission, the price of an offering, David invaded the rights of the supreme king of Israel. set aside the positive command of God.
[30:28] And I say to you, my brothers and sisters, as I reflect on that, and I'm going to close in a minute, as I thought about it, I thought about what is God's will?
[30:41] What is God's purpose? I don't know if I've told you, but I've certainly told Steve, we've got two sons daughters, and both are ministers.
[30:56] And when John, who is eight years older than the oldest one, James, came and approached me and told me he wanted to go into ministry, if I'm to be honest, my knees buckled because I didn't want him to follow me.
[31:14] My interest is that he was following the Lord. And after questioning him several times, I said to him, I will pray for him.
[31:29] He's in ministry today, and he's pursuing what he believes, God's will is. What compiled the problem is James was a secondary school maths teacher, doing very well, and was due for promotion after five days.
[31:45] And he came and said the same thing to me. Well, no wonder I've lost all my hair. Didn't make the problem any easier.
[31:59] And I said to him, I don't leave him's job until he's certain that he's heard not from me, but from God. And James currently is working in duty.
[32:16] I link the story with this, you see, because it's God's will is important above all it's. And I know Nathan is on the road, not to Damascus, but to follow the Lord.
[32:32] And I say to you with encouragement, Nathan, hear God's voice. Steve is important, and I'm less important.
[32:45] The God is super important. He is voice. I'm going to close now because I feel Steve is getting itchy. So I'm not, I'm going to finish now.
[33:03] How do I finish this now and have credibility? My brothers and sisters, as we look at this psalm, there's so much in the psalm that I cannot do justice.
[33:17] So I go to, as I finish now, in verse 11 and 12. I would like to draw your attention to something that I think is important as we read the psalms.
[33:33] I want to draw your attention to the fact that seven times in this psalm, David reference that it was God who was at work in his life. In verse 1, you lifted me.
[33:44] Verse 2, you healed me. Verse 3, you brought me up from the realm of dead. Verse 3b, you spread me. From going down to the pit, you spared me. 7a, you favored me.
[33:55] 7b, you made my royal mountain stand. 7c, you hid your face. in this reference, and I particularly wanted to reference him this evening, David was bringing witness to the strong and gracious hands of the Lord, working in his life on his behalf to bring glory to himself.
[34:20] That is the emphasis of the psalm. That is what Tom is trying to say, but he's going to say something else. Even God chastening and discipline was an expression of God's love for David.
[34:36] And the writer to the Hebrews reminds us of this, that in our struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding of blood, and have yet completely forgotten his word of encouragement, the emphasis that addresses you as a father, addresses his son.
[34:59] The word of encouragement addresses you and me, from God as a father to sons and daughters. And he went on to say, my son, do not make light, the Lord discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord discipline the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.
[35:22] And so please know that David knew he was forgiven, he was moved from the funeral mode to rejoice in his forgiveness. He removed the sackcloth and sadness which made him sad, and everything about him in scripture in the Old Testament, we see a dramatic change, an alteration of one life was often marked by a change of clothing in the Old Testament.
[35:51] and be calm now. We notice in this psalm of twelve verses, tanzas, or trophies as they call it, you notice that he mentioned the Lord nine times, and I think that is significant.
[36:11] You notice he speaks about his Lord in verse one, Lord my God in verse two, Lord in verse three, Lord in verse four, Lord in verse seven, Lord in verse eight twice, and Lord in verse ten, and Lord my God in verse twelve.
[36:32] Now close now, Lord in capital represents Jehovah in the Hebrew, as I'm told, is interpreted Yahweh, the self-existent one. this is the supreme name of God, and I am told that the Jews avoided pronouncing out of respect because of their interpretation of Leviticus chapter 14 and verse six, which state that anyone who uses the name of the Lord blasphemously is to be put to death.
[36:59] Now then, it is this understanding, understanding, it is this understanding that David is bringing to the psalm, that the psalm is about the Lord.
[37:13] It's about him and him only. This is not what Paul is talking about in Philippians chapter 20. Therefore God exalted him to be the highest place and gave him a name that is above every name, that of the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
[37:42] Brothers and sisters, as we gather around the table, this is evening. It is known in scripture that the names that we describe very aspects of God's nature in the Lord's Supper, but supreme, it is called Eucharist.
[38:03] Many other idioms that are used, but the Lord's Supper. It is the Lord's Supper. He's the one that Isaiah saw in chapter 6. Saw the Lord and his train filled the temple.
[38:19] And you know the rest of the story. He's the one David wrote about in the Psalms and reference nine times. He's the one who Mary Magdalene saw and testified to the disciples in John chapter 20 and verse 18.
[38:33] She had seen the Lord. And he's the one who invites us to come to his table this evening and to share the bread and wine that speaks about his body and his blood.
[38:50] May the Lord bless us. Amen. Thank you.