Psalm 27 - When the Going Gets Tough

I want to speak to you today on the subject of when the going gets tough. I remember using that expression in a sermon a few years ago here and I paused after that expression for someone to finish it and I said when the going gets tough and a voice from the audience said the tough go shopping. No, no, that's, you know that's not the way it's supposed to end. When the going gets tough the tough get going. That's the expression we're familiar with. However that expression can leave you disheartened. What if when the going gets tough you don't have the strength to get going. You don't have the hope to get going. It's beyond your resources and ability to get going. It's not like you can just you know buck up and go on. You just can't anymore. There's no strength left. There's no hope. No possibility that your resources are enough to carry you through any longer. What happens when you get that low? Well David often found himself that low and Psalm 27 is his counsel for when the going gets tough. Here's what the Bible says we should do when the going gets tough. Here's from David's own experience what we should do when the going gets tough. Now we know it was a tough time in David's life. If you have your Bible open to Psalm 27 and you just glance at verses 2 and 3 he's talking about evil men advancing against him. He's talking about enemies and foes attacking him. He's talking about armies besieging him, war breaking out against him. This is a time of crisis in David's life. It's a tough time. Now some Bible scholars believe that this probably was written during the time that David was running from Saul. He had already been anointed king by Samuel but had not yet taken the throne. Saul was still on the throne and Saul was chasing him to try to kill him. And David is running from him, hiding in caves in the wilderness and that kind of thing. That may have been the time. But I think it may have come at a later time in David's life. Other Bible commentators believe that this came at the time when David was driven off of his throne by his own son, Absalom. At a time when his own son turned against him in treachery, stole the throne from him and David was forced to flee his beloved city and the place of worship and his home. And as far as he knew, everything had been taken away from him. I think it may have been at that time in his life that David pinned these words. The going was extremely tough. So what does David do? And in seeing what David does when the going gets tough, I think we can find encouragement for us when the going gets tough. So when the going gets tough, number one, trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. That's what David says in the first three verses. Now, if I could summarize what I mean by trust the Lord, it's this. Understand who God is and that you can depend on him. That's what trusting the Lord is all about. It begins with understanding who he is and then knowing that you can depend on him. That's trusting the Lord. So David begins by telling us who the Lord is. In fact, he starts by assuring us of the object of our trust. The object of trust is no less than God himself and he is described with three word pictures in the first verse. Notice, verse one, the Lord is my light. So he is the God who guides. What do you need a light for? What do you need a flashlight for? You need it to dispel darkness and show you the path you're to walk. Occasionally, I'm the last one to go to bed in our home. And when all the lights are out and I'm trying to find my way back to the bedroom, I'm knocking knees on furniture and stubbing toes and tripping over stuff and all that because of no lights on, it's dark. What I need is a light to show the right way, to show the impediments and the obstacles and how to navigate those. So the Lord is my light, David says. The Lord is my guide. He helps me through those dark places in life. He is worthy of our trust. Secondly, David calls him my salvation. The Lord is my light and my salvation. So not only is he the God who guides, he is the God who delivers and rescues. Salvation in the Bible obviously has a spiritual element to it. He saves us from our sin and despair and gives us a home in heaven. But salvation also has, especially in the Old Testament, a very physical dimension to it. That means he rescues us. He delivers us from difficult times and places. And I think that's what David's talking about here. He is the God who guides. He is the God who delivers. Thirdly, David says, he is my stronghold. The Lord is the stronghold of my life. So not only is he the God who guides, the God who rescues and delivers, he is the God who protects. You know what a stronghold was? A stronghold was a natural defense or a natural fortress, usually a large rock or rock system or cliff or mountain where you could hide either in a cave or high up away from the enemy and be able to see him from afar. That was what the Bible calls a stronghold in the Old Testament. And David was very familiar with strongholds. David was familiar with those caves and those high mountains and those out of the way places in the wilderness where he could hide from Saul. He knew what that was all about. And he's reflecting back on those times here. In fact, one of the places that David used as a stronghold is probably the most familiar site in Israel today, outside of Jerusalem. And that is Masada. We've got a picture of it for you. That's Masada. It's a huge mountain that is out in the middle of nowhere, right by the Dead Sea. It is a natural fortress. It's hard to get up to. I know I've hiked up Masada. It is not easy to climb. And it's difficult once you get up there for anything to happen to you. You can see on those three levels ancient buildings or ruins, those are one of Herod's palaces. Herod saw that as such a great natural defense, he built a palace, a three tiered palace to be a kind of a last resort if he was being hounded by the Romans or anybody else that he could get away and defend himself there. Masada was the last place the Jews hold up to defend themselves against the Romans in 70 AD. 900 Jews made it to the top of Masada and held out for three years while the Romans finally built a sea-drampt up the side and finally took it. But that's a stronghold. We're not talking about some little, like you see in the Westerns, in the movies, little rock that the guy gets behind shoots he's gone from. That's not a stronghold. This is a stronghold. That's a stronghold. So when David says, the Lord is my stronghold, he's talking about a massive rock where we can be safe. I want to ask you, what is your stronghold in life? Who do you turn to when the going gets tough? You turn to family, turn to friends, turn to a pastor. That's fine and all of those folks can be helpful, but all of them may fail you at times too. And when they do, there is one stronghold that will never fail you and that is our Lord, our God. He is a stronghold, the stronghold of my life. David says, in other words, God is a reliable source, a reliable object for our trust. We really can trust Him. Now I understand, and this is Veterans Day weekend, so let me talk a little bit about the Navy. I've never been in the Navy. How many of you were in the Navy? Those of you who are military guys, okay, several of you have been. I understand that it is not unusual for a ship or submarine to depart in what's called under orders. And that means that the captain has a sealed envelope. And once they leave the harbor, he opens that envelope and it does not tell him his final destination. It just gives him two coordinates. Longitude latitude, this is where you're to go. And he takes the ship to that location, then he radios back for further instructions, and then they go somewhere else. And there may be three or four or five steps in that process of kind of concealed undercover movement of that ship before they get to their final destination. Now that requires that the captain of that ship have confidence in his commanding officer to know exactly where he's going and what he's going to be doing. Now I see life a lot that way. Isn't life really like that? We get it in an envelope a step at a time and we know that, okay, today this is where we're going to be. We don't know about tomorrow or next week. So we have to be able to have someone we trust, a commanding officer, a commander in chief that we trust that can give us the final destination and get us there. And that is our great God. He is our stronghold, his worthy of trust, his salvation, his light, the object of our trust. But notice if you will what David says about the result of trust. The result of trust, first of all, is that it dispels fear. It drives out fear. Three times David says that. Verse one, he says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall, though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear. Three times he says, if I trust God, if I recognize him as my light, my salvation and my stronghold, fear is gone. Those two are opposites. Faith and fear are opposites. Now I know that there are a lot of folks here who struggle with fear. In fact, probably all of us, in some way or another, at some time or another, struggle with fear. It was an interesting article about a year ago, it was December 6, 2004 issue of U.S. News and World Report. And they talked about the irrational fears of people. They said in that article that 14 million, 14.8 million American adults suffer from irrational fears, these phobias that are often talked about. And they listed some famous people that had struggled with various types of fears. Did you know that Donald Trump has a fear of shaking hands? It does. I mean, he'd be glad to point out, you can say you're fired, but he has a fear of shaking hands. Napoleon Bonaparte had a fear of cats. Sigmund Freud had a fear of crowds. Howard Hughes had a fear of germs. Queen Elizabeth I, a fear of flowers. And then that article went on to name another of other kinds of fears that people struggle with that are unusual, not your common ordinary household fears. There is a euphobia. You know what euphobia is? Fear of teenagers. That's what it is. A lot of youth pastors have that. No, not ours. Our youth pastor doesn't have that fear. They talked about another fear. Enupaphobia, the fear of staying single. And then gamophobia, the fear of marriage. By the way, you're in real trouble if you have both of those phobias. Real trouble. Here's one, I'm not even sure I can pronounce. Arachabutrophobia. You know what that is? It's an identified irrational fear in America. You know what it is? It's the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Okay? Here's my favorite. My favorite is homophobia, fear of sermons. Hope nobody has that here today. A lot of people struggle with fears. And some of those fears may seem irrational to others, but they're very real to the person who has them. You know, we've laughed at some of those, but there may be someone in this audience today that struggles with some of those very fears. And if you do, my friend, I will tell you this. The only antidote to fear is trusting the God who promises to be our light, our salvation, and our stronghold. In fact, David would say, I am so confident of this. I am so convinced of this at the end of verse three that though an army besieged me, my heart will not fear. Though war breaks out against me, even then will I be confident. I can rest secure in my Lord if I'm trusting Him. No matter what is going on around me. No matter what enemies are doing, David said in Psalm 56 and verse three, he said, what time I am afraid? I will trust in you. Fear and faith are polar opposites. If you have fear, faith is the antidote. If you have trust, it drives out fear. So that's the result. That's the result of trust. The second result is not only the dispel of fear, but the defeat of enemies. Notice, David says whether they're individual enemies in verse two, evil men, enemies, foes, whether they're individual or national enemies, verse three, an army besieging me, war breaking out against me, whether they're individual or national enemies, they are defeated by our trust in our great God. He says, I am confident they will stumble and fall. They will stumble and fall. Let's think of that. The enemy will stumble and fall when we trust God. So when the going gets tough, what do you do? Trust God. Trust the Lord. Secondly, when the going gets rough, focus on the Lord. Now what I'm talking about there, and we'll talk about it in verses four through six in just a moment, but to get the idea, focus on the Lord means to keep your attention clearly on him, don't let anything distract you from your focus, your attention being on the Lord. And that's part of what it means to trust him, obviously, but your focus is on the Lord. You know, there are times when focus is absolutely critical to be able to focus on something. Absolutely critical. April 3, 1998, there was a near disastrous plane crash at New York's LaGuardia airport. An air traffic controller, in fact a supervisor had spilled coffee, and the air traffic controller beside him said, can I help you clean that up? And he did a little bit to hub him clean up. His eyes off of his screen for no more than 30 seconds. And when he got back to the screen, he realized he had missed something that was taking place. An air candidate jet was landing. A U.S. airways jet was taking off, and the air candidate jet was supposed to abort the landing, and that command was supposed to have been given from the air traffic control tower. And he missed that. They came within 20 feet of each other. The U.S. airways jet 20 feet underneath that other jet almost, almost a terrible airline disaster because someone lost focus for 30 seconds. There are times when it is critical to maintain focus. And one of those times is when the going gets tough. When there are really difficult trials in your life, it is important to maintain focus. And what we focus on, biblically, is we must focus on the Lord. Now, I want you to see what David says about this focus. First of all, the priority of this focus, verse 4. One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek. I love that. That's focus, isn't it? It's not like, well, there are five things I kind of like to ask you today, Lord. Maybe even three things. No, there's one thing. One thing. That's a single-minded focus. That's a single-minded commitment and focus on the Lord. Believing that God will work, that's the priority of this focus. It's like Peter when he was walking on the water. I remember Jesus came across the sea of Galilee to the midnight. They're out in the sea in the middle of the boat, in the middle of the sea, and they're going to storm and they think that he's a ghost walking across the water. Jesus says, don't be afraid. It's me. Peter says, Lord, if it's really you, then bid me to come to you on the water. The amazing thing is Peter steps out of the boat to walk to him on the water. And it was okay. Everything was okay as long as he was looking at Jesus. The Bible says, when he began to notice the waves and the field of wind and all the tempest that was going on around him, he began to sink. When he lost his focus on Jesus Christ, that single-minded focus on the Lord, he began to sink. And we will do the same thing in times of trouble and trial. We will sink under the weight of the trial if we don't maintain our focus on the Lord. That's got to be a priority, a single-minded focus in times of trial. But notice the passion of this focus, in verse 4. What is the one thing you want to ask? What is the one thing he's seeking? Well, he says it in three ways in verse 4. He says that I'm a 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. This is the one thing he's asking, one thing he's seeking. And that is the passion of this focus. What is he so passionate about? Well, he describes it first of all as dwelling in the house of the Lord all the days of his life. That basically means, Lord, I want to spend time in your presence. I want to sense that you are near me. I want to be as though I were in your house, your temple all the days of my life. What he's really saying is, Lord, I want to sense your presence with me. In this time of trial, I need to know that you are near. I need to sense your presence. I want to dwell in your house all the days of my life. Now, you know the wonderful thing. God has promised us that we have his presence all the days of our life. He has promised that he is with us 24-7 every day of our lives, for the rest of our lives. If you know Christ is your Savior. Jesus promised that in John chapter 14 and verse 16, when he said, and I will ask the Father and He will give you another counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. And a little bit later down in verse 23, He actually says, and I will come to you and the Father and I will both make our abode with you and remain with you. So get this. What he's promising is the Holy Spirit is with you every day of your life. I am with you and the Father is with you. The whole Trinity is promised to be with you forever. And what we need to ask God whenever we're going through difficulty in trial is, Lord, I know you are with me. I don't need to ask you to be with me. You've already promised that. I need to sense your presence. Like David, I need to sense it. I'm in the house of the Lord. I'm in your presence. Now the second way David expresses that passion to sense the presence of God is this. And this is a very interesting expression. He says, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. Now when the Bible talks about the beauty of the Lord, it's not talking about physical beauties, not talking about attractiveness. It is talking about what's often called his moral perfections. Things like God's long suffering, his love, his compassion, his mercy, his grace, his holiness, but specifically those sides of his character which have to do with helping us in time of need. You see Moses asked the Lord one time, a bold request in Exodus 34. He asked the Lord to show him his glory. Lord show me your glory. I want to see you. And God said, okay, Moses, I'm going to hide you in a cleft of a rock and I'm going to pass by in a form that you can take. This is what happened. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses and this is what Moses saw, most proclaiming the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. When God wants to show us who he is, when he wants us to gaze on his beauty, that's what he wants us to see. Moses asked the same and God said, okay, I'll show you who I am. To gaze on his beauty is to see his compassion, his graciousness, that he slowed anger with us, that he abounds in love and faithfulness. And when David said, Lord, I'm in trouble, I need to gaze on your beauty. The passion was, Lord, not only do I need to sense your presence, I need to know that your love and your compassion are reaching out to me at this moment. It's the passion of that focus on the Lord. But then he describes it in a third way at the end of the verse, he says, and to seek him in his temple. The word in the Old Testament translated seek here means literally to inquire, to ask of. But it has the idea also of listening with a commitment whenever God answers us. So it's the idea of, Lord, I come to seek, I come to ask and inquire, but I'm also ready to do whatever you say. That's the attitude that goes along with this word seek. And so put all this together and David is really saying one thing. This is the passion, the heartbeat of his focus on the Lord in times of trouble. And that is, Lord, I need to sense your presence, I need to know that you love me, that you're compassionate in this time of trial. And Lord, I'm seeking you in whatever you tell me, I'm going to listen, I'm going to do, have that commitment. That is the passion of our focus on the Lord in times of trial when the going gets tough. David not only describes the priority of this focus and the passion of this focus, he describes the place of this focus. Do you have to go to a special place to find the Lord this way? Do you have to go into church? Is there only one hour a week where you can find this? Once you notice, David talks about five different places. Five different places, look at it. In verse four, middle of verse, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. That's just a general reference for the presence of God. Sometimes referred to in the Old Testament, it refers to the temple or the tabernacle, the place where God dwells. But in a general sense, wherever God dwells, and then he says at the end of verse four, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple, the temple hadn't even been built yet, but David had the plans. And he was going to pass him on to his son, tell his son what to build. So David knew that there would be a worship center at some point where people would come to seek God and choir him and ask him what to do. And then in verse five, in the day of trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling. The word dwelling means a tent, probably referring to the tabernacle. Probably referring to that place that was designed to be only a temporary residence for the presence of God. And then notice the fourth place, he says at the end of verse four, he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle. Now that word simply means a shelter, probably referring to the little shelters that would be built by the Israelites when they would come to Jerusalem and observe the feast of tabernacles. Now there was one feast in the year when they would come to Jerusalem and they would build these little lean two huts and live in them for the whole week they were in Jerusalem and it was to remind them of what it was like to travel through the wilderness and be intense all week. So even if it's that rustic, in that rustic place, out in the wilderness or being reminded of that, you can seek God there, find him there. And then the fifth place, he mentions at the end of verse five, and set me high upon a rock. Now that rock is the stronghold again. That's the place out in the wilderness where you're hiding. You know what the point of this is? I think David is looking back over his life and saying, you know, whether it's a little shelter in Jerusalem or the tabernacle or just the house of the Lord, whatever that is, or if it's out in a rock hiding from Saul, I can find God wherever I am. The place of this focus is that you can focus on God wherever you are, whenever at a time of need you have need of the Lord, you can focus on him. The place is not important. You don't have to find a church somewhere and come inside a building wherever you are. But even if it's on a rock, you can find the Lord. He will be available to you. He will answer you in that place. If you will, the protection of this focus in verses five and six, four things, David says about being protected. He says in the day of trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling. Secondly, he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle. Thirdly, he will set me high upon a rock. Fourthly, my head will be exalted above my enemies who surround me. Those four terms keep, hide, set, exalt, all indicate God's protection in trouble. Now please understand, he's not saying I'll be taken out of the trouble. God never promises that we won't have trouble in life. He never promises that we'll be removed from trial and difficulty. What He promises is when you're going through that trial and difficulty, I'll hide you. I'll cover you. I'll protect you. I'll exalt you in the presence of your enemies. I will take you through that time of trial with my strength and my grace and my protection. That's the protection of this focus. When all that happens, there's only one thing left at the end of verse six. That's the praise of this focus. Notice what David ends up doing at the end of verse six. At his tabernacle, will I sacrifice with shouts of joy? I will sing and make music to the Lord. You see the result of understanding and knowing that God will hide me and protect me and set me on a rock and exalt me above my enemies. If I'm trusting Him, if I'm focusing on Him, he will take care of things. The result of that is that the overflow of your life will be one of exuberant praise with shouts, he says. That's a victory shout. That's a triumphant shout of worship. Joyful worship, singing songs of praise to the Lord. That's the result. That's the praise that comes from this focus on the Lord. I can guarantee you anytime you focus on the Lord when the going gets tough, you're going to end up singing and sacrificing to the Lord and praising Him in worship when it all said and done. That's where the focus on the Lord leads. So when the going gets tough, trust the Lord. Focus on the Lord. Thirdly, David would tell us, seek the Lord. In verses seven through twelve, the Psalm changes. It changes to a direct address to the Lord in prayer. Up to this point, he's been talking in third person. The Lord is my light, my salvation. He does this, he does this when I trust Him. But now, he directly addresses Him in prayer. And so he's actually giving us a model for what it means to seek the Lord in a time of trouble. What we're talking about is prayer here. To directly address Him, to seek Him in prayer. And as David prays, and we're just going to listen in on his prayer for a few minutes, and find out what it means to pray in a time of trouble. There are wonderful lessons from these verses. I'll give them to you quickly. Verse six, or verse seven, we need to pray with earnestness, earnestness, sincerity. Verse seven says, hear my voice when I call, O Lord, be merciful to me and answer me. He's calling out to God. And I think he's doing it out loud. Hear my voice. I think he's speaking out loud. There is an intensity here. There is an earnestness, an eagerness here that speaks of David from his heart, crying out to God. Crying out loud. I've often found that in my own times of prayer, when I pray out loud, there's a better focus and a more earnest appeal to the Lord. If I'm able to do that, you're not always able to do that in every place you are. But what David is talking about here is an earnestness. That is, like the Old Testament expression, grabbing hold of the horns of the altar, not letting go. You know, there's an earnestness here about this prayer. Hear my cry. Hear my call. My voice, as I call out to you. So pray with earnestness. And then secondly, pray with sensitivity, verse 8. My heart says of you, seek his face. Your face, Lord, I will seek. Now the idea here is, when your heart prompt you to pray, then respond like David did. Pray. Now I know this can kind of get mysterious and mystical. I don't mean to get too mystical on you here. But there are times when you just sense in your heart, you need to pray about something. You may not even know what it is, but you need to pray. And when God prompts you like that, when the Holy Spirit prompts you to pray, do like David says, when his heart said, seek his face. I mean, there was this inner prompting from his heart, David, you need to seek his face. Then David's response is, your face, Lord, I will seek. I'm ready to pray. If you're prompting me to do that, I'll pray. That's sensitivity to the Lord. And all of us probably have since those times in our lives, when we just felt this overwhelming burden to pray, our heart was telling us, you need to be praying right now. And what do we do with those moments? What do we do with those times? Robert Bingham, I guess it was his last name. Robert Bingham was still is, a Southern Baptist missionary, actually a leader of what's called commission. It's a publication that Southern Baptists have for their churches and missions. And he was in the far east a few years ago in Asia doing a prayer retreat for some missionaries in that part of the world. And the lead missionary that he was working with, they would always go out for breakfast and pray together and talk about the events of the day and what they had planned for the retreat or the ministry events of that day. And there was one day when Bingham said to his host, he said, I just don't feel like following the agenda today that we've already laid out and we're firming up here at this breakfast. I just sense an overwhelming burden to pray today. And so they prayed while they were eating their breakfast. And then when they got to the place where the retreat was being held for other missionaries, Bingham shared his heart with the other folks there. And he said, I don't know why, I don't understand. But I just sense there's a heavenly warfare going on and we need to commit ourselves to prayer today. And so the refreshments went untouched. When lunch was brought, nobody ate, they just prayed. And they prayed all day. And they sang some and they read scripture some and they spent more time in prayer and they just kept praying. They still didn't know why the Lord was pressing this on their hearts, but they just kept praying. After the meeting was supposed to let out that evening, Bingham and his friend were on their way to the place where they were staying, they decided to stop in a little place and get something to eat. And the owner of that place recognized that they were probably Americans and he said, if you heard any news today and they said, no, you so come here, took him back to the back room. It was 9-11 and the towers had just fallen. And then they understood why God had prompted them and their spirit and their heart to pray. And thankfully they were sensitive to that. Now who they prayed for, what they pray, they didn't even know. So how that all works, I don't know. God knows. But I do know this. I think it's wise to do like David says, when my heart says to me, seek your face, I will seek your face, Lord. Be sensitive to those promptings that the Lord sends your way. Be sensitive to those and when he's putting on your heart to pray, pray, you may not even know what you're praying for, but pray. Pray with sensitivity. Thirdly, David's prayer reminds us to pray with humility, verse 9. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger. You've been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, oh God, my Savior. When you read that, you recognize David is so conscious of his sinfulness and he realizes that God could judge him if he wanted to. And he's asking, Lord please, I humble myself before you. Show me mercy. Don't cast me away. Show me mercy. I'm weak. I'm sinful. I need your mercy. That's praying with humility. So pray with humility. Verse 10 tells us to pray with confidence. Verse 10 says, though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me. That's not saying that David had actually experienced that. It's not that he'd actually experienced his father and mother forsaking him, but his point is this. Not necessarily that I'm actually disowned, but beyond the breaking point of even those who love you the most, God's love continues. Those who love you the most, your mother and father who would give their lives for you, those who love you the most, even beyond their breaking point, God's love continues. Even if every human love fails you, God's love will never fail you. So you can pray with that kind of confidence. God is not a resistant God waiting in heaven with arms folded for you just to push the right buttons. He is a loving father who wants to help you and whose love goes beyond any human love you've ever known or experienced or could experience. So pray with that kind of confidence. And then fifthly, pray with submission. Verse 11, teach me your way, O Lord, lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors. See David's desire to know God's way and to be led in a straight path. He brewed word literally means a level path and it's not talking about an easier, convenient path. It's talking about a level or straight path morally. Lead me in the path of righteousness, Lord, like we saw in Psalm 23, in the right way. David has a commitment to learn God's way and to walk his path. That's the kind of praying we need to do, Lord, I pray in submission to you. Teach me your ways, I'll learn. Lead me show me your paths, I'll follow that kind of commitment. Submission. And then sixthly, pray with urgency. Look at verse 12, do not turn me over to the desire of my foes for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence. Whoever these enemies were, it's clear that they were intent on harming David. They were intent on undoing the work of God in and through David's life and in his kingdom. They were intent on violence against him. And David says, Lord, it's either their desire or my desire. Are you going to fulfill their desire? Their desire is to harm me. Here's my desire, my desire, Lord please, don't turn me over to the enemies. Don't turn me over to their desire. They're breathing out violence against me. And that's an urgent prayer. I mean, that's kind of like Lord, the stakes are high. They've got this desire. If their desire gets granted, I'm gone, I'm done for. This is my desire, Lord, I urgently present to you my desire. That's praying with urgency. What David is saying is seek the Lord and you may be amazed at the ways that God will work. So when the going gets tough, trust the Lord. Focus on the Lord. Seek the Lord and finally wait on the Lord. Verse 13 and 14. Verse 13, David gives us the motivation for waiting. The motivation is this. David says, I am still confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. What he's saying is after I have trusted in the Lord and focused on the Lord and I've sought the Lord earnestly in prayer, it gives me confidence. It gives me the confidence to know that I will see the goodness of the Lord. I will see the good things that God will give me and bring me and answer to that focus on him and trust in him and seeking him. I will see his goodness in the land of the living. That phrase is used 15 times in the Old Testament every single time it means in the here and now. He's not talking about an eternity. He's talking about I am confident that God will bless and answer prayer and meet my need now, here and now. I'm confident of that. Now that's the motivation to wait on the Lord. But in verse 14 he talks about the meaning of waiting. Because he is confident, because he has that motivation to wait, he says in verse 14, wait for the Lord, be strong and take courage and wait for the Lord. What's the meaning of waiting on the Lord? Was that me? Well, quite simply it means this to expect his answer in action. It means to expect that God is going to answer and God is going to act. But there is a little bit more to this word. There is a sense of tension, of anxiety, of expectancy. I like the way one commentator says it. He says the word means to an alert on your toes kind of expectancy. Another commentator says that it means to be on the edge of your seat kind of expectancy. In other words, the idea is this, knowing that God is about to work, your confident of that, and you just can't wait to see how he's going to do it. That's waiting on the Lord. Now, the problem with that is that's hard to do. With our impatience, it's hard to wait on the Lord. I've told you the story before having about the trapeze artists and how they work. Henry Newell in one of his books called sabbatical journeys tells of good friends that he has that work for the circus. And they're called the Rondeiras, I believe, Rudeiras. Now the Rondeiras were a singing group, weren't they? Rudeiras, I believe, was their name. And he said in any kind of trapeze artist, there is a flyer and a catcher. The flyer gets up ahead of steam, you know, really swinging big time, and then all of a sudden let's go and flies through the air with these arms out like this. The catcher has timed his swinging to be just so that at the right time when this guy let's go, he's up here and he reaches out and catches the flyer and then they go together. Now from what those people say, the flyer is not supposed to move at all. Once he leaves his trapeze bar and is floating in the air, he's just out there with his hands up and he's supposed to wait. It's not his responsibility to find the catcher, it's the catcher's responsibility to find him. Now I don't know about you, but I think if it were me, I'd be flailing around and say, where is that guy? I can't find him, where is he? You know, I'd be in a panic, but you've got to stay still, you've got to wait, you've got to hold your arms up and trust that the catcher will be there at the right time to grab your arms and take you in. That's what waiting on the Lord is. Waiting on the Lord is saying, God, I can't do anything about this and if I flail around try to find you somewhere, I'm going to get in trouble, Lord, I just need to wait. I need to wait expectantly believing that you're going to answer, believing that you're going to work, but I wait on you, I wait on you. That's hard to do and that's why David says, be strong and take heart. I love to talk about that expression of wild, use 12 times in the Old Testament, every one of them are used in times of facing a battle except two. The idea is you're heading into something very difficult, you've got to be strong, take heart and waiting on the Lord takes that same kind of courage to just wait on the Lord and believe that he's the catcher that's going to get you before you crash to the ground. What David is telling us here is no matter what kind of trouble you're in, no matter what kind of trial you're facing, when the going gets tough, if for you that means a physical problem, a doctor's report that looks very bleak and gloomy. If for you that means an emotional difficulty you're going through right now that's just tearing your insides out. If for you the going gets tough means a financial struggle, you don't know if you're going to make it through or not. If for you it means a vocational challenge, you don't know if your job's going to be there tomorrow. You're not sure what's happening to the company you're working for. You don't know what your future's going to be. If for you it means a relational problem, a deep valley in your relationship that you're not sure you can get through. If for you it means a spiritual battle that's so deep and so intense, you're not sure about your faith anymore. If for you it means a personal struggle, you're just fighting all kinds of personal demons. Whatever it means for you when the going gets tough, what do you do? I want to tell you God is enough. God is enough. Trust the Lord. Focus on the Lord. Take the Lord. Wait on the Lord. That's David's counsel. That's God's counsel for when the going gets tough. Let's pray together. Father thank you for giving us your self and giving us your heart for letting us know that when the going gets tough we can come to you. It's not like we have to get our upper lip stiff and just tough get going. Lord we thank you that it's not that way for the Christian. We can trust you. Focus on you and seek you and wait on you and we can have the same confidence that David did when he did that. Lord I pray for those who are going through deep times there's no doubt in my mind Lord that there are folks here who are hurting deeply and I pray that today the Holy Spirit will just show up at their seat and help them to see what it means to look to you in this way in their deep trial. I ask in Jesus name. Amen.