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Selected Psalms May 23rd, 2010 Lee Tankersley Click here for Print Friendly Version! Audio Version Psalm 55 
ne of the reasons we find difficulty in applying the truths of Scripture to our lives is the distance we find between ourselves and those whose lives are actually contained in the biblical storyline. That is, we trust that Paul’s ability to be content in laboring without a family in whole-hearted devotion to the Lord is easier for him than for us because he saw the risen Christ in the sky. So, we think, “Sure, I could find contentment in my situation if Jesus spoke to me in the sky and told me his mission for my life, but I’m no Paul.” Or, we think, “Certainly I would trust in the Lord’s provision if Jesus multiplied fish and loaves before my eyes like he did with his disciples, but I’ve not seen that like they did, and so I have trouble trusting the Lord.” And we could multiply these kind of examples a hundred times over, couldn’t we? It’s this distance we sometimes feel from those individuals who walked and talked with Jesus or who had great experiences that makes it feel difficult to walk by faith as they did.
However, if that’s a struggle you have, then I have good news for you this morning. There are a number of individuals in the Bible that you will have no problem identifying with. These individuals I’m referring to are those who have written one or more of the sixty-seven lament psalms that we find in the Psalter. Lament psalms are those psalms where the psalmist cries out to the lord in pain and heartache and frustration and confusion because he finds himself in such a difficult and trying situation that he knows his only hope is God. Therefore, if you’re facing a difficulty or great pain or frustration right now, then you can rejoice that you can directly identify with a number of biblical authors. And I know a lot of you are dealing with great pain and difficult challenges right now. I know that because I know much of what’s going on in your lives, but I also would be able to say that even if I didn’t know you simply because of the fact that we live in a fallen world. We live in a world where people get cancer and Alzheimer’s, children rebel against their parents, people lose their jobs, people you love and long to be loved by reject you, and on and on and on. We live in a world where pain and sadness is common to life. I think this is why a majority of the psalms are psalms of lament, and if you break down all the categories of psalms, lament psalms hold a commanding lead. As I’ve mentioned before, one reason the Lord has no doubt given us so many examples of lament is because he knows we need help in handling our sadness and pain and frustration and disappointment. Some might argue that lament is easy. After all, children express their sadness and disappointment rather naturally, it seems. But lamenting in such a way that we do not sin and in such a way that it does not plunge us into greater despair is, I think, a great challenge. Therefore, the Lord has given us numerous lament psalms to read, study, and emulate, and one of them we come to this morning as we look at Psalm 55. So, what is it in David’s life that leads to this lament? What leads to the writing of Psalm 55? Well, we don’t know exactly. We do have some clues, though. We know from verse 3 that he is affected by some he labels as the “enemy” and we know from verses 12-14 that he has been betrayed by a friend, one with whom he used to have sweet companionship. Other than that, we don’t know. But, as we’ve mentioned before in dealing with psalms, it is a helpful thing sometimes not to know the circumstances that brought about the lament. After all, if we did know, we might be willing to apply the lessons of lament from this psalm only in situations that we think fit exactly the kind of circumstances David was facing. But I think one intent of these psalms remaining vague about the exact setting is so that we might look to them and be aided in lamenting before the Lord. Therefore, this morning I simply want to highlight a few things David does in his lament before the Lord in this psalm and then see how we might do the same. And the first of these is that David simply turns to the Lord. David turns to the Lord (1-3) You see, this isn’t simply a long poem of complaint or frustration like someone might write in a diary or journal. This is a prayer. David makes that clear in verses 1-3, as he writes, “Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy! Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan, because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they drop trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me.” David makes clear that he is turning to God in prayer. He is making a plea for mercy. He wants God to hear him and answer him because of his enemy that seemed to be threatening him. Now, why would David start by saying “Give ear to my prayer . . . hide not yourself from my plea”? Perhaps it’s because to this point the Lord had not provided deliverance. That is, this is probably not day one of his struggle. It seems more likely that whatever is causing David pain and heartache had gone on for a while without the Lord intervening to stop it, and now he is crying out to God. Does that then mean that David had waited until things got bad before he turned to the Lord? I don’t think so, because in verse 17 David says, “Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hearts my voice.” That is, David probably had set times for prayer. It seems he probably had three times a day that he set aside for prayer. He prayed in the evening, in the morning, and at noon. Now, I don’t think this means that he didn’t pray at other times as well. No doubt, he would have prayed in the afternoon had a need arisen. But it does mean that he had three times in the day that he had established to be in prayer before the Lord. Therefore, perhaps this is one of those times. Maybe this is late in the evening as David goes to the Lord in prayer, and this is his prayer. We do not know. I think it is instructive in this, though. If we want to be a people who naturally turn to the Lord in prayer, we must become a people who discipline ourselves to pray. But isn’t the temptation always to want some result without the discipline. We want to perform exceptional in our classes without the discipline to study. We want to be able to quote long passages of Scripture without the discipline of memorizing. We want to be able to be in great shape without the discipline of eating right and exercising. We want to have books published without the discipline of researching and writing them. And we could go on and on. But one that we could probably mention in that list is that we want to be someone who naturally and easily communes with the Lord without disciplining ourselves to set aside times for prayer. But it simply does not happen like that, and to expect yourself to default to prayer naturally and to be able to devote yourself to crying out to God without disciplining yourself to pray regularly is like expecting yourself to pass a test you’ve not studied for. With prayer, as with so many other things in like, quality oftentimes is found only in the midst of great quantity. That is, the ability to commune with God from the depth of your heart is most likely found in the midst of continually setting aside time for prayer. So, what looks like spontaneity on David’s part in this psalm is anything but, I believe. Therefore, looking at David, let me encourage us to discipline ourselves to give ourselves to set aside times for prayer. And if we give ourselves to the regular discipline of prayer, I believe we will less often find ourselves complaining that our prayers before God feel dry and meaningless. Second, we see that David exposes his heart to God. David exposes his heart to God (4-8; 12-14; 20-21) You cannot read verses 4-8 as a measured and calculated confession of pain. David is exposing his heart to God, his true feelings, his pain and longing. He says in 4-8, “My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me. And I say, ‘Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness.’” This is honest lament before God. David is in anguish. He is afraid. He is overwhelmed and feels paralyzed. He would love just to run away. And he tells all of it to God. Nothing is off-limits with the Lord. He knows our thoughts anyway, doesn’t he? In verses 12-14, David talks with the Lord of how he could bear it if the hurt came from an adversary, but he says, “But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng” (vv. 13-14). Again, David is hiding nothing before God. He’s allowing his hurt to be heard clearly. He is hurting. He’d like to flee the situation, and the reason his pain is so deep is because he’s been betrayed by a friend. And, this should not be surprising to us since it is those whom we love most who can hurt us most deeply. Therefore, David even describes his friend’s actions in 20-21, noting that he’d violated his covenant, speaking to David kindly while the whole time intending to bring harm and hurt to him. Again, the point I want us to see here is that David unveils his heart clearly, without masking his struggles. Therefore, as I’ve already stated, the lament psalms remind us that nothing is off-limits with God. In fact, let me give you a warning, if you are not open and honest in your lament with God, it can result in bitterness. Some of you here this morning might even have some bitterness toward the Lord concerning things that have happened to you or to others whom you love, offenses that you’ve held onto, and it’s produced bitterness in your heart, even – or especially – toward the Lord. Perhaps you’ve held onto your hurt, saying nothing to anyone, or you’ve simply addressed it to others. But what you need to do is to address it to the Lord. Look at David, a man after God’s own heart. He knows that God can handle his complaint. He does not hide his fears and frustration before God. He is real with his Lord. Nor do I think that he exposes his heart and his complaint before God simply because he needs some kind of release. Rather, it’s because he knows that God is his hope, his only hope. That’s why he says in verse 22, “Cast your burden on the Lord.” Peter picks this up in the New Testament and tells us to do the same thing, adding that we should do it because God cares for us. Some of us this morning may need to repent of bitterness we’re holding in our hearts. And for some of us that repentance needs to take the form of lamenting before God. Tell him your pain, explicitly lie out before him your hurt and disappointment. He knows it already anyway, so you can’t hide it from him. And, better, he cares for you. He actually loves you and is working things together for your good. Therefore, we see David turning to the Lord, and we see David fully exposing his pain and hurt to God. That is something that must be a standard practice in the life of someone who walks closely with the Lord. And I would say that some of the richest times in my own walk with the Lord have come in times of lament before him. But David doesn’t just turn to the Lord and expose his pain and hurt and fears. He also cries out for the Lord’s intervention David pleads for the Lord’s intervention (9-11; 15) Listen to David’s prayer after he tells God that he would like to run away. He says, “Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues; for I see violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it; ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace” (vv. 9-11). Then, again in verse 15, “Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive; for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.” This is David crying out for justice. He is saying that the wicked men are opposing God by seeking David’s harm, and he prays that God would bring justice to the situation. He prays for God to judge the sinner. That is David’s request for intervention, since men are opposing the Davidic king, who rules as the one who exercises divine justice on the land. For David, he prays that divine intervention will come in the form of a request that God will judge his enemies. So, the question then arises, when we lament before the Lord concerning hurt from people against us, can we pray for their judgment? That’s a good question, and before coming down definitively, I want to say a couple of things. First, we need to keep in mind that our primary enemy is not flesh and blood but Satan, sin, and death, and we have been assured that all of these will one day be judged. And, second, I think there is nothing wrong for praying for God’s justice to be exercised through the hands of authorities. That is, it is fine and good and right to pray that a murderer might be caught and judged according to the law, for this is a proper means that God has provided in our world for justice. However, I think that our ultimate prayer when we lament and bring up our enemies before the Lord should be aimed at their repentance. After all, what we most long for is that our enemies might turn from being our enemies, and should they repent, that meets the cry of our heart. And, if our hearts long for justice, then realize that if indeed our enemies repent and are forgiven, it is only because God has allowed his Son to take the judgment for their sins, even as he has ours. Therefore, what will free us to forgive those who have hurt us is the fact that God did not spare his own Son for us so that we too might be forgiven. Therefore, like David, we do not lament merely to cast our burdens on the Lord but to petition him. There is nothing wrong in asking for God to intervene in your circumstances. It is in fact a good thing and modeled throughout the Bible. So, as we lament, let us remember, like David to ask God to intervene. Right now Lili and I are a bit anxious about our son whom we’re trying to adopt. The delay in getting him has been a source of lament before God by me. I’ve expressed my pain that it has taken a while, my fears that our little boy will be greatly affected by the neglect he’s suffered, and ached before God, sharing all my anxieties and pain. But I’ve also prayed that God might intervene and work miraculously in this little boy’s life, and I can do that because God the one who knit him together, the one who calls out the stars by name, the one who redeemed us and remained just in doing so. Therefore, we cast our cares upon God, but we also ask him to respond to them. Finally, David expresses his confident trust in the Lord David expresses his confident trust in the Lord (16-19; 22-23) There are two different occasions in the psalm where David expresses his confident trust in the Lord. We see it in verses 16-19 where he writes, “But I call to God and the LORD will save me. Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me. God will give ear and humble them, he who is enthroned from of old, because they do not change and do not fear God.” Then again in verses 22-23: “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. But you, O God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction; men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.” In both cases, David expresses extreme confidence in the Lord. But how does he become so confident? What is the root of his trust? I think the key is that he sets his eyes on what God does. God keeps his promises, and he has told David to obey his Word and that he would not remove his Spirit from him. David knows that God will judge the wicked and sustain the righteous. That is, David is setting his focus on things he knows to be true. This, I think is instructive for us as well. It does not mean that every petition we make before God we can be certain that he will grant. That simply is not the case. If it were the case, then we’d never see our loved ones die, would never get sick, etc. How then do we express such confidence in the Lord? Well, for one, we remember the promises of God. That is, we can lament, expressing confidence that God will work the very source of lament together for good in our lives. After all, he promised it. We can pray confidently about his provision for us, even as he tells us not to be anxious but to remind ourselves that he feeds the birds and clothes the lilies and cares for us much more than them. And, the other thing that we can do is to set our circumstances in perspective in light of the gospel. That is, though we may remain unsure whether or not God will heal or cancer or will provide us good health, we can be sure that we will one day be raised from the dead because Christ lived, died, and was raised for us. My dad’s mom had a stroke a few years before she died that paralyzed her on one side of her body and left her largely unable to communicate. Her husband had died a few years prior, and so she was alone when this happened. After the stroke and before her death, we watched her suffer. Perhaps most difficult was her emotional struggle. I actually remember her communicating clearly to us on one occasion, telling us that she wished she would have died. Believe me, the final years of my grandmother’s life caused us to lament much before the Lord, as we saw the toll of sin and death on her. However, in the midst of our lamenting we knew that one day, regardless of how destructive sin and death were on her, the Lord Jesus Christ would descend from the sky and say, “Robbie Tankersley, you rise.” And she would rise. One day she will indeed rise. You see, the gospel is an anchor for our confidence in the face of sin and death in this world. And no matter what we face in this life, we can hold to those certainties that are ours in Christ. Therefore, let us turn to God as David did, expose our pain and hurt in lament before him, make our requests known to him, and then confidently trust him because of the glory of the gospel. May we even remind ourselves of why our God can be trusted as we come to the table. Amen. 3720 North Highland Avenue Jackson, TN 38305 731-664-3295 Contact the Webmaster
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