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Discouragement & God's Word

God's Holy Book

Feb 26, 2017


by: Jack Lash Series: God's Holy Book | Category: Scripture | Scripture: Psalm 119:25, Isaiah 33:5–6

I. Introduction
A. Last week’s meeting
B. Psalm 119:25 My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!
II. “My soul clings to the dust”
A. One of the battles every person fights is the battle with discouragement.
1. We don’t function well.
2. Discouragement paralyzes
B. Causes of discouragement
1. Circumstances
2. Physical effects – some of God’s greatest servants have struggled:
a. Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah
b. Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon
c. The writer of Psalm 119 – “MY soul”
d. Even godly men sometimes get very down.
C. “clings” – The wording implies that attempts have been made to lift oneself up, but to no avail.
1. Digging up a stump
III. “give me life”
A. Dying inside
B. “revive me according to Your word”
C. Here the psalmist teaches us that God is the One who revives, that we must look to God to help us when we're down. We must not just try to get up ourselves.
D. It is not just something which happens automatically. It needs the work of God. That’s why we must pray.
IV. “according to Your word”
A. There is a means by which God revives our souls. It is His word, His truth.
B. There is a tool by which we should expect God to rescue us from our discouragement. We should expect that God will revive us according to His word.
C. You can take a walk, you can exercise at the gym, you can eat a good meal, but the primary way God lifts the spirits of believers is through the truth of His word.
D. It tells us that Jesus Christ is on the throne, ruling over all things for good.
E. It tells us that Christ has paid for our sins upon the cross so that we have been delivered from our guilt and from God’s wrath, which are our real problems.
F. It tells us that He is risen and has conquered death.
G. It tells us that since God is for us, nothing can be against us.
H. It tells us that although God sends us suffering, sometimes more than we feel like we can endure, it is not to harm us but to teach us not to trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.
I. It tells us that those who continue to serve Him faithfully in spite of the hardships and frustrations will reap a harvest of unspeakable joy.
J. It tells us that there is great comfort for us in Christ when we suffer.
K. It tells us that we have been given His Spirit to
1. Be the Spirit of Sonship, crying out in our hearts Abba Father! to God
2. Live in our hearts as the first piece of the glorious inheritance which Christ won for us.
3. Conform us to the image of Christ
4. Empower us to serve His church
L. It tells us that Christ will one day return, and call all of His children to Himself. And He will recreate the heavens and the earth, and we will live with Him in glory, with no more sorrow, no more pain, no more sin, no more discouragement.
M. Isaiah 33:5–6 The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, 6 and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.
1. Setting: Assyria rising, its neighbors (including Judah) shuddering in fear
2. “The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high” — It looks like Assyria is ascendant, but really the Lord is the exalted One, dwelling on high. He is the king of the hill. He, not Egypt, is the One who has the capacity to make His people prosper.
3. “he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness”
4. “He will be the stability of your times”
a. Like Peter stepping out onto the water. The waves and the wind were scary, but the Lord was His stability, both before He sank and after.
b. Psalm 46:1–3, it would seem, was written in the same historical context: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”
c. The Lord is the stability of His people.
5. “he will be...abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge”
a. In the face of threatening dangers, we need salvation. He is that. We need wisdom. He gives that.
b. And we need knowledge, for knowledge wins wars (that's why every war is a battle of knowledge). What do we need to know to win our battle? We need to know the Lord.
6. “the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.”
a. What a strange statement — but how precious and how true!
b. The fear of the Lord is the thing which is our rescue from the panic and fretting of worldly fears.
c. Here they are watching the rise of Assyria and the whole world is trembling in fear — everyone except those who fear the Lord.
d. They are delivered from this panic by their fear of the Lord. Their fear of the lord puts the danger of Assyria in perspective. They know that the One who must truly be feared, the One who truly is fearsome, is the One who loves them most, the One who chose them for Himself, the One who calls them His treasure.
V. Application
A. Does your soul cling to the dust? God has given you a treasury of help.
1. The Bible is an inexhaustible ocean of truth like this, to counter discouragement, temptation, pride and many other dangers.
B. But it’s not effortless. It’s like learning to cook.
1. Being fed and being able to feed yourself and others.
2. And even if you put in effort, there’s no guarantee, is there?
C. But even our effort doesn’t guarantee that we will be strengthened. That’s why we cry out to the Lord to revive us according to His word.
1. When you come to God’s word in need, like when your soul is clinging to the dust, get down on your knees and beg Him to speak to you and give you the grace you need.
a. And if it doesn’t work, then ask again and again and again.