CONSIDER MY SITUATION
May 22, 2005 AM
Sermon Outline
PS 119:153,154,159
INTRO: One of the things I so appreciate about the book of Psalms is the way the psalmist prayed ... and pled ... with God. While there is always deep reverence, there is wonderful openness. The psalmist is never fearful of laying out before Almighty God his deepest feelings ... positive or negative. It is from the psalmist that I have come to the conclusion that whatever is on my mind, whatever may be troubling me, is acceptable subject matter for prayer. In the brief petitions I have read as a text for this study I hear the humanness of his prayer. If the psalmist can pray in such a fashion as this, surely, so can I!
1. My affliction
a. almost all of us have a situation which is very much on our minds
b. the most obvious might be a troublesome illness
c. we might have a parent whose aging is beginning to present difficulties
d. we might have a child for whom we have deep concerns
e. we might have some threatening problem we see no way to resolve
f. one does not search long without realizing may are in a situation
2. Consider - we want Gods attention for our situation
a. and this is not necessarily a selfish desire - give us...our daily bread
b. or, let this cup pass from me (Mt 26:39)
c. or, let your requests be made known unto God (Phil 4:6)
d. Ps 69:20 - hymn says, Where could I go but to the Lord?
e. Neh 9:32 - ...let not all the trouble seem little before thee...
f. Ps 40:17 - as insignificant as I may feel, the Lord thinketh upon me
g. Isa 63:9 - the sympathy of God with His people - ...He was afflicted...
3. Plead my cause - here is where we have such great assurances
a. the psalmist saw himself as needing an intercessor!
b. I assume that in his affliction he sought Gods intervention
c. you and I, Christians, have so much more affirmation of intercession - and the nature of it
d. Heb 4:14-16 - v. 15 is especially comforting and important to me - I have an intercessor with God Who knows just how I feel!
e. Heb 7:25 - ...seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them
f. Rom 8:34 - ...who also maketh intercession for us
g. 1 Jno 2:1 - ...we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ...
h. Heb 13:6 - here is the assurance, the confidence we have as Christians - I suggest it is a confidence based on far difference assurances than those enjoyed by the psalmist
4. Deliver me - the practical, simple petition
a. the word used here suggests the intercession of the next of kin
b. in other words, the psalmist thinks of the Lord in the closest possible way ... and pleads for deliverance, redemption based on the traditional obligation of that kinship
c. a fact we enjoy: God is able to deliver, to redeem
d. Dan 6:20-22 - ...is thy God...able to deliver thee...?
e. 2 Cor 1:9-11 - God, who raised the dead, is well able to deliver - notice here that others were helping together by prayer for us...
f. deliverance from the curse of sin has been accomplished by Jesus death
g. but the deliverance we so often seek from our afflictions is an ongoing petition - one answer we may need to consider is 2 Cor 12:8,9
5. Consider how I love thy precepts
a. earlier, he had said, Consider my affliction - now, his prayer is, Consider my affection
b. the psalmist has every right to pray, to plead - 1 Pet 3:12
c. his life is evidence of his love for all that God has revealed, commanded
d. his prayer here is certainly not one in which he is suggesting his life merits God answer to his prayer
e. it is most assuredly acknowledgment of his affection and his acceptance of the sovereignty of God
f. but there is a reminder here for us, too - the basis for our pleas, our prayers presupposes that we do not forget His law
g. he is not afraid to be known as a lover of Gods law!
CLOSE: I would hope that times of affliction are not the only times that we prayer. But I recognize that it is at such times that our human needs can virtually overwhelm us. And at such times we should pray to our Father with the assurance that He, as our near, near Kin, is concerned ... and able to deliver us.
Cecil A. Hutson
May 22, 2005