(I want to listen to this sermon)

Reading:                  vv.1-4

                                   vv.5-18

                                   vv.19-37

                                   vv.38-52

When things go wrong

What do you do when things are all seeming to go pear-shaped? How do you react when you just can't see how anything good can come out of your circumstances? What do you do when it looks as if God has decided not to keep His promises any more?

The Bible is such a helpful book because it doesn't only deal with what life should ideally be like it also addresses life as it is, life as we experience it to be!

The Christian life for us as believers is certainly the only life worth living but when we're honest with ourselves and with God our lives are not carefree or worry free zones. Things happen that cause us much heartache and our lack of understanding can cause us a great deal of pain as well. Some of the questions we may ask or feel like asking may not have easy or ready answers.

Well the Psalmist knew all about such matters. This psalm was occasioned out of just such distress. As he contemplated the situation that prevailed in his day it seemed to him that God had simply stopped keeping His promises. The way the psalmist handles it all provides us with a good model to imitate, a good example to follow.

The psalmist is not renouncing his faith and we don't hear him reacting with hostile and faithless accusations against God. In fact it is because he has a strong faith that he is so troubled by what he observes! Throughout the psalmist maintains a humble spirit and never allows himself to become bitter.

As we approach the psalm we need to realize that there is a very real problem confronting the psalmist – we will come to the detail of just what that is a little later – but the psalmist coming into the presence of God doesn't begin there!

The psalmist rush into prayer with his mind full of his problems – of course he hasn't forgotten them and he will in due course plead most passionately for God to make Himself known and to act – but he begins with a statement of intent. He is determined to praise the LORD and make Him known to others.

Circumstances may well be confusing him but this he knows and this he maintains – God is good! Copious reasons are brought to the fore in the opening verses and these become the themes that the psalmist will pick up and develop as his psalm unfolds.

vv1+2. The steadfast love of the LORD and His faithfulness with which the psalmist begins will be developed further vv.5-18.

vv.3+4. The Covenant that the LORD has established with David and David's successors becomes the dominant theme of vv.19-37.

vv.1, 2+4 The word "Forever" appears in each of these verses and reappears in vv.28-37 in relation to the covenant theme before being employed in prayer v.46 and finally praise v.52.

We must look to each section in turn.

The psalmist doesn't begin with his difficulties and then bring God in later once the problem has expanded to dominate his horizons he begins with God.

He focuses upon:

God's Majesty (vv.5-8)

There is absolutely no-one who can be compared with the LORD in any way. The psalmist isn't comparing the LORD with people of earth whereby the comparison might be obvious; he is comparing the LORD with the most exalted of the inhabitants of the spiritual realms and his answer is simply no contest!

God's Mastery (vv.9-13)

The LORD controls and totally dominates over everything there is. He is mighty and rules over the seas v.9 – the Israelites were particularly impressed by the seas which goes some way to explaining just how impressed the disciples were when Jesus demonstrated His authority:

Mk.4:41 "And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?”"

             The rest of creation is similarly under His control vv.11-13

But the psalmist goes further and asserts the LORD's total dominance over the world of men and the power of the nations v.10. Rahab is used as a nickname to refer to Egypt which becomes clear in Is.30:7 and 51:9. Rahab actually means insolence or pride and so the psalmist is declaring that the pride of the nations is mere blustering before the LORD who remains in sovereign control

God's moral grandeur vv.14-18

If a God who ruled without such absolute and challenged power were to prove a tyrant what a dreadful world we would be condemned to live in exposed to the constantly changing whims of an evil potentate. But such is absolutely not the case. The LORD the psalmist knows and worships and trusts so confidently is a God who is characterized by a most wholesome and positive nature:

Righteousness – justice – steadfast love – faithfulness: these are the firm foundations on which His throne and reign are established.

What a glorious God this is! Small wonder then that the psalmist declares the blessedness of those who know the LORD and who know how to acclaim Him with praise and worship – that is the meaning of the phrase 'the people who know the festal shout'. How wonderful that a God of this grandeur can indeed be known! How wonderful then to walk in fellowship with Him (vv.15-16) the NT expresses such truths in similar vein:

1Jn.1:3, 5-7 "our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ…God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."

The psalmist brings this section to a close by referring to the fact that their king belongs to this God. He will then go on to tell us how this came to be.

As the psalmist moves on to consider the status of the ling his mind is still firmly focused upon the LORD God. Throughout this section the LORD is portrayed as being the dominant actor in the covenant established with David and his successors after him.

It is the LORD who chooses vv.19-21. (The godly one (or godly ones) refers most probably to Samuel and Nathan and the promise given to King David concerning his descendants:

2Sam.7:14 "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.”’"

It is also the LORD who exalts the king and gives him success vv.22-27 (vv.26+27 are truly remarkable in the status graciously granted to this king.)

David is by no stretch of the imagination to be seen as a self-made king. If he is king at all it is down to the LORD as is any success enjoyed! The very language that is used to describe the honour and success of the king echoes the language employed earlier to speak of the LORD's own honour and might. In this way the psalmist is making it clear that their king is ruling over them as God's representative.

If the LORD has chosen and the LORD who has exalted the king it is also the LORD who has promised blessing forever! Now sometimes the word which is translated "forever" means "a long time" or "for a lifetime" but here in this section the psalmist makes it clear that the full strength of the expression is meant:

Cf. v.29 "I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens."

Cf. v.36 "His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me."

Cf. v.37 "Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.”

And this leads us right up to the psalmist's problem which he expresses in the following section.

Immediately the section begins with a contrast:

"But now…"

Back in v.19 the psalmist had referred to what God had done in the past. This is translated variously as "then" "of old" "once" here in v.38 there is the stark contrast "But now…"

And the psalmist expands to describe what the current situation looks like to him. We should take careful note too of the fact that just about every verb that follows in this section has the LORD as its subject.

As the psalmist sees things the LORD has cast off and rejected His anointed. It is the LORD who has renounced, or despised, His covenant. It is the LORD who no longer exalts His anointed but His enemies. In the place of honour and success the LORD has caused defeat and brought shame.

Do you feel something of the anguish that the psalmist feels? He knows who the LORD is and he knows what promises have been made but those promises are not being kept in his day; he doesn't see in his experience the accomplishment he so fully and rightly expects.

Believers are not immune from such troubles. But how should we react when we find ourselves confronted with similar problems and difficulties in our experience?

Well we've already been taking note of how the psalmist proceeded. I want us now to further notice that the psalmist does not his plight as a reason from throwing his faith aside. He doesn't descend into a negative accusatory frame of mind which leads him to blame God and to abandon faith. No, his very faith keeps him coming back to God and he pleads with God.

The commentators are divided as to the exact historical events that precipitated the writing of this psalm. Some suggest Rehoboam, Solomon's son while others argue for Jehoiachin who was almost the very last king in Jerusalem. The fact that it is not obvious allows indeed invites us to apply the psalm to more that just one historical event.

The psalmist having laid out his problem turns to urgent petitioning prayer.

The throne is empty and this should not be – so the psalmist prays. The very emptiness of the throne perhaps invites reflection on the very nature of kingship – how would the Lord's Anointed actually reign?

As the psalmist prays he begins to assemble some of the fragments of an outline that will not become clear until the coming of the NT Messiah our Lord Jesus Christ. It is perhaps helpful for us to realize that the psalmist did not get a satisfying answer to his questionings. Those satisfactory answers would not come until the dawning of the gospel era. Even then the LORD's anointed was to be treated shamefully and everything seemed to have gone wrong then:

Lk.24:21 "But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel…." It wasn't until the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead was understood that hope returned.

The psalmist was right not to have lost his faith as his experience of life was at variance with what God's promises had led him to expect. And yet the psalmist didn't see what the LORD was going to do and just how He was going to accomplish His purposes by exalting His own Son, giving Him all authority, raising Him up to the place of highest honour and giving Him the power of an indestructible life (Heb.7:16). And yet it all happened!!

Perhaps we should learn from the psalmist's humble spirit to come the same way to God and with this added confidence that just as the psalmist's seemingly intractable and unanswerable questions finally did receive undreamt of and highly satisfactory answers so will our own!

To God be the glory.