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Keeping Our Zeal · Stornoway Free Church of Scotland - Sermons

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Psalm 69 at verse 9. We're looking really at verse 5 through to verse 12 together this evening.
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But verse 9 we can take together just now.
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For seal for your house has consumed me and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
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The psalm we just sang, Psalm 44, is again an experience of the psalmist going through so many different trials in this experience.
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When you see words like crying out, awake, O Lord, arise from sleep, it gives us an indication that for the psalmist, God feels very far away in his affliction.
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And Psalm 69 is another psalm that shows us that kind of experience as well.
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As you see at the beginning of the psalm, the psalmist is feeling overwhelmed in so many ways.
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He feels the waters have come up to his neck. He is sinking in the deep mire where there is no foothold.
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He's being overwhelmed by it all.
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And so how in the midst of these kinds of experiences do people keep a seal for the Lord?
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How would we be able to say for seal for your house has consumed me even in the midst of great trials?
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Well, it's really what we are doing together this evening and what we do by ourselves as we worship God,
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when we come together to worship God.
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It's by focusing on his word and how precious his word is, how many promises we find in his word
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that helps us through all our different experiences.
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Last time as we began to look at this psalm, we saw David in this grim situation.
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There's enemies all around him and they're hounding him, they're slandering him.
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But his greatest concern is that they're dishonouring God,
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that everything that they are doing is bringing dishonour to God.
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And we noted in the psalm that this is a prayer of David.
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He's crying out to the Lord in this situation.
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And at the beginning of the psalm, you think it's a prayer that's just a little chaotic.
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It seems to be all over the place, disorganised in so many ways.
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He's jumping around in all different kinds of ways.
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In many ways, it's maybe a prayer that doesn't seem to make sense at times.
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And yet, when we think of our own prayer life, how often are we praying in that same way?
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We're praying maybe where our minds are just so distracted.
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We're jumping from one thing to another.
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We're just not settled depending on our situation.
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It's wonderful to come and be still before God
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and come with a sense of calmness and peace in our experience.
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But as we often know, it's not always the case.
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But that doesn't mean we don't come to God in prayer.
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It's at these times that we maybe more often should come to God in prayer.
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So what do we see in this psalm that can help us in our experience?
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The psalm is one of the most quoted in the New Testament.
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And in the New Testament, it's always pointing us towards the Lord Jesus Christ,
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what he has done for us and how we can trust in him.
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And as we continue to go through this psalm,
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we see how important prayer is in our own experience,
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how important it is to focus on ourselves in prayer,
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not just looking around as David could so easily do here
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and seeing all the enemies and praying against them.
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But David begins this prayer by looking to himself.
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He begins with a confession in his own heart
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that he knows his sin.
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He knows he's not always right with God.
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But what his prayer is, it's a wonderful prayer.
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He says, even in this experience where I know I'm not right,
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he says to God in verse 5,
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O God, you know my folly.
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The wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
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He's confessing this before God.
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Then he says in verse 6,
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Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me.
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He's got this longing that God will be glorified even despite his sin.
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And let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me.
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It's like he's saying,
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Don't let those who are already yours be put off because of me.
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And don't let anyone who is seeking you be put off because of me.
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So he has this wonderful confession.
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But there's also, as we see this evening,
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we're going to look at three other lessons we can take from the psalm in verse 5
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through to verse 12.
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Lessons for ourselves as we go on on our own journey.
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And there's three things.
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And these three things I want us to take this evening are David's recognition of God.
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How he recognises God in his experience here.
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And then secondly, we see his reproach because of his faith in God.
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And then thirdly, we'll see his seal for the Lord, his God.
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So the first thing we see that in his prayer,
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there is this recognition of God.
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The psalm doesn't introduce us to what the problem is immediately.
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We don't just know exactly what the troubles that are in David's life.
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But we know that there are enemies all around him.
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And how this is leaving him feeling.
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And a feeling of being overwhelmed.
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And so he comes to God in prayer.
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His prayer is not polished.
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It's not perfect.
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But the key is that he's drawing near to God.
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He is praying to God.
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And it's as we pray to God that we are led to this nearness with God.
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That we come to experience and know who God is more.
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We experience what he can do for us in prayer.
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How he is able to change.
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Maybe not the situation.
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Maybe not always the way we would want it.
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But the way he's able to give us a calm and a peace in the midst of a situation.
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To know the nearness of God.
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And so we see this kind of change coming over David in this psalm.
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From a feeling of being overwhelmed,
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we see where he's turning to.
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And who he is turning to.
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And his recognition is of God as his only hope.
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In verse 5 you see there,
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Oh God, he's crying out,
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Oh God, you know my folly.
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He recognizes there's nothing hidden from God.
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And therefore he must come to him as the God who knows all things.
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There is this recognition of God.
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You know everything.
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Nothing is hidden.
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And then as it goes on,
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you see in verse 6 how he describes God further.
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He says,
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Oh Lord God of hosts.
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He says,
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Oh God of Israel.
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And he has this way of describing God.
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As you go through this psalm,
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His recognition is always towards God and who he is.
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It may just seem like a few words when he's saying,
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Oh God,
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Oh God of hosts.
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Or Oh God of Israel.
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But there's so much behind these words.
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He is God,
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the living God.
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He is the one who hears prayer.
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He is the Lord of hosts.
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He is the one who has made and created all things.
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He is the one who sustains this world and all its people.
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He is,
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Oh God of Israel.
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He is talking here about God's promise,
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His covenant relationship with His people,
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that He will never leave His people.
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He's crying out to God in this way of recognition,
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calling to the living God.
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And the shorter catechism reminds us of this very thing as we pray.
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The question is asked in the shorter catechism,
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What is prayer?
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And the answer is,
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Prayer is an offering up of our desires to God
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for things agreeable to His will.
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In the name of Christ,
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with confession of our sins
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and thankful acknowledgement of His mercies.
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That is the way David is praying here,
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in recognition of God in all of these things,
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that God's will be done,
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that there is confession,
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that there is thankful acknowledgement of His mercies,
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that He is the God who is able to save.
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It used to be,
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and it's not so much now,
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that you would hear in times of grief and tragedy,
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that they are in our thoughts and prayers.
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And more so now,
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all you hear is that they are in our thoughts.
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Even the word prayer isn't added on now.
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And perhaps it's maybe just a swell
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when people who know nothing of God
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say you're in our thoughts and prayers.
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Because who are they praying to?
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We hope that people would cry out to the God of David,
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the God of hosts,
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the God of Israel.
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But so often it's just a token gesture.
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But for the Christian, it's so different.
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If you are saying to anyone,
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you are in our thoughts,
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and more so it is,
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you are in our prayers.
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We are committing you and ourselves
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to the living God.
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And so we should never fail to pray.
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We should never fail to confess our sin.
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But we should never fail to remember
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who it is that we are praying to.
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Recognizing God for who he is.
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That is the God who David is crying out to here
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in the midst of his trouble,
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in the midst of his affliction.
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That is the God we cry out here to this evening
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for others and for ourselves,
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to the living God,
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the one who can do so much for us,
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so much more than we ask or imagine.
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We don't forget God.
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We don't forget God.
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Even in the midst of our most difficult experiences,
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we acknowledge to whom else can we go.
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There is no one.
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We come to God through Christ our Lord,
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the one who has the words of eternal life.
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And so we come first in recognition.
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Recognizing who he is and trusting in this God.
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The second thing we see here is the reproach
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that David experiences in his life.
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In verse 9 and 10,
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he speaks about this reproach.
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The reproach is of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
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And when I wept and humbled my soul with fasting,
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it became my reproach.
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So we're seeing a little more of what the turmoil
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of his life experiences is here.
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It's suffering reproach.
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But what is reproach?
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You maybe hear the phrase when someone is above reproach.
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They're said they don't deserve blame or criticism
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in what they have done.
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They're above reproach.
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But what about when someone is under reproach?
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I have been reproached, David is seeing here.
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The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
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So he's feeling this sense of burden, of reproach.
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But what is it?
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Well, we see it in so many different ways throughout the scripture,
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just what reproach is.
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It's criticism.
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It's taunting.
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It's ridicule.
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It's all of these things.
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But it's not just something light.
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It's not like we see today when people are so easily offended
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by something you say.
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There's so much more venom behind this reproach.
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It's a reproach of many.
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The reproach of all around him.
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There's this just attack that David is experiencing.
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It's coming at him from all kinds of different directions.
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Why is David hated so much?
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Well, we see here in verse 7, why?
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For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach.
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The dishonor has covered my face.
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The very reason that they hate him is because he is identifying himself with this living God.
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He's crying out in recognition of who God is.
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And this love for God has brought reproach.
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Is it justified?
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No.
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Is it deserved?
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No.
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But it's there.
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And what does reproach look like?
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We see it in another psalm, in Psalm 42.
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The psalmist there says in verse 10,
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As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me or reproach me.
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It's a word used there.
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While they say to me all the day long, where is your God?
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That is the reproach the psalmist was feeling there.
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This cry, where is your God?
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This taunting, this reproach that they were under.
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And it's a taunt, it's a reproach we see so often today.
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We may not get it directly spoken to us, but I'm sure many of us do.
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Ridicule for believing in God.
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Where is this God of yours when there's so many things happening in this world?
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So many cruelties, so much sadness, so much sorrow.
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Where is your God?
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You see it in the media so often.
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You see more and more nowadays people are so willing to put themselves up there and say,
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There is no God.
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Ridicule from those who are in famous positions.
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I've seen over the last few years people like Stephen Fry, Ricky Gervais, even Lorraine Kelly,
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taunting, reproaching God's people saying,
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Your God's not real.
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Where is your God in a mocking way?
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And we should feel that pain when we see other Christians suffering.
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And when we hear these reproaches, these taunts being spoken.
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It should hurt us.
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But we should not be cast down.
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Because in Psalm 42, this question is asked,
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Where is your God?
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There's this mocking.
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The psalmist says,
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Why are you cast down, O my soul?
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And why are you in turmoil within me?
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Hope in God.
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For I shall again praise him.
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My salvation and my God.
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There is this confidence.
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And this confidence we see coming through more and more as we go through Psalm 69 as well.
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Well, we haven't come to this evening, but in verse 13 it says,
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But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.
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At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me in your saving faithfulness.
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There's this confidence in God.
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Yes, there is reproach.
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But what does it remind us of?
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Well, it reminds us of the one who has borne all our reproaches.
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Paul takes this psalm in Romans chapter 15, where he's speaking to the people about bearing with each other's weaknesses.
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And he says there in verse 3,
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Quoting this psalm, applying it to Christ.
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Christ our Lord, the one who was innocent, the one who bore our reproach on himself,
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who took our sin on himself.
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The spotless lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world.
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The one who was innocent and yet condemned for us.
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And it's a wonder how you see this psalm again and again in the New Testament context,
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always pointing us towards Christ.
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Teaching us about him and our need to rest and abide in him.
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We suffer reproach, but he has suffered all our reproaches.
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They've all fallen on him.
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And so the third thing, the final thing that we see in this psalm is the seal then that David has.
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And the seal that we should have.
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In verse 9 it says,
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For seal for your house has consumed me.
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Although the day was hard, although the attacks on the enemy, they were many.
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We see David with a great seal for God and for his house.
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And look at the way he says it.
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The seal for your house has consumed me.
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It is everything to me.
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You, Lord, are everything to me.
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I love your house.
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I love your worship.
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I love your kingdom.
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I love your people.
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Seal for your house has consumed me.
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Even in the midst of my sufferings.
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Therefore you're sick.
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Because I love you with all my heart.
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As we read in the Gospel of John, we see there how it picks up these very words.
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In the context of Christ's cleansing of the temple.
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When he sees his father's house becoming a den of robbers.
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My father's house, a house of trade.
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It says, as he turns over all the tables, his disciples remembered that it was written,
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Seal for your house will consume me.
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And how our Lord served his father.
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Seal for his house consumed him in every way when he saw the sin of this world.
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He not just cleansed the temple in that sense.
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But as he went on to speak in that passage, he said, destroy this temple and I will build it again in three days.
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How he was speaking about his body.
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How he would lay down his life for his people.
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How he was consumed with a love for his people.
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Jesus came not to be popular in this world or to be friends with all.
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He came to serve his father and seal for his house consumed him.
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And it's the disciples remembering that it was written, that it was written.
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These words in Psalm 69.
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For seal for your house has consumed me.
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And we ask ourselves, is that how we live?
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Is that the seal that we have?
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Is it for God's house?
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For God's people?
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And for God's cause?
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Are we trusting in our God in this way where seal and love for him consumes us?
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And it shows in us that we have a passion for Christ.
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We have a passion for his word.
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We have a passion for his cause.
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Are we consumed by seal for him?
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There's a story told of a famous English actor.
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And he met a well-known preacher.
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And the two of them struck up a conversation.
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And the preacher, he said to the actor, I wish you would explain to me something.
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And what is it?
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Asked the actor.
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I don't know what I could explain.
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How I could explain anything to a preacher.
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And the preacher said, what is the reason for the difference between you and me?
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He went on to say, you are appearing before crowds night after night with fiction.
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And the crowds come wherever you go.
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The preacher went on saying, I am preaching the essential and unchangeable truth.
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And I am not getting a crowd at all.
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The actor, he thought about it for a minute and he said, well, the answer is quite simple.
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I can tell you the difference between us.
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I present my fiction as though it were true.
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But you present your truth as though it was fiction.
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There was no seal for the word.
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There was no seal that this was truth.
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That it was essential truth.
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That everyone needed to hear.
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And what should mark every Christian is with a zealous seal for the truth of God.
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That we are trusting in the precious word of God.
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That we are trusting in a saviour who came for his people.
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That we are trusting that he is going to come again.
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That we are trusting that everything that is said in the word of God is true.
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When you look down through the generations of God's people.
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What stands out is the seal of God's people.
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Whether you think of Stephen as he was stoned by those around him and a seal for the people.
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When you think of Paul and his own experiences throughout the New Testament.
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When you think of people throughout our own history in our land here.
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The Covenanters.
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When you think of preachers like Spurgeon or Martin Lloyd-Jones or many others.
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You can think of famous people.
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But it's also marked in faithful Christians in every walk of life.
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Seal for the Lord consumes them.
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And it's all because they see in Christ the seal that he had for them.
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And that is how we are to be ourselves as well.
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How Christ came to take away the sins of this world.
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Seal for your house has consumed me.
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Can that be said of us?
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Can that be said of you?
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Can it be said of me?
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A seal for the Lord is what consumes us.
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It is what's keeping us going.
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As we think of the recognition we give to God.
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Who he is.
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As we think of the reproach.
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The taunts that his people suffer.
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You and I included.
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As we think it's our seal for him.
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Who bore our reproach.
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And it was consumed by seal for his people.
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May this word go with us day by day.
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Reminding us of who we worship.
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Who we pray to.
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What he has done for us.
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The seal that he has for his people.
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And the seal that we should have for him.
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Let us pray.
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Lord our gracious God.
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We thank you for your word.
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We thank you how it directs us in the paths of life.
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How it is a life giving word.
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How it reminds us that no matter our troubles in this world.
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That we have one who has borne our grief.
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We have one who has taken away the sin of this world.
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As we put our trust in him.
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And we pray Lord that as he speaks of seal that consumed him.
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That we too would have a seal for the house of the Lord.
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And for the Lord's people.
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And for his cause in every way.
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We pray Lord that you will continue to bless us.
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And to guide us as we ask all these things.
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Asking the forgiveness of our sin.
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In Jesus name.
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Amen.
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We're going to.