Psalm 60 • When there’s nowhere else to turn

Psalm chapter 60 this is as I mentioned a psalm of David it says in the kind of the prologue there it's intended for teaching probably to instruct you know present and future generations about relying on the Lord we don't have any kind of a biblical event to connect this particular Psalm to but what we can gather from what we read here it was a time in Israel's history well when David was obviously in charge where the the the armies of Israel felt like the Lord was no longer going with them into battle and so David used this opportunity to cry out to the Lord now you know the the connection for you and I here is when we're facing challenges of many kinds but we're just not sensing the Lord's presence in fact we're wondering if the Lord even knows that we're going through a difficult season so what would you do at a time like that David uses this opportunity to come to the Lord and he says in verse 1 O God you have rejected us broken our defenses you've been angry o restore us you've made the land to quake you've torn it open repair its breaches for it totters you have made your people see hard things you've given us wine to drink that made us stagger and that's usually referring to the wine of some kind of judgment you have set up a banner for those who fear you that they may flee it from the bow that your beloved ones may be delivered give salvation by your right hand and answer us God has spoken in his holiness with exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the veil of zukov Gilead is mine Manasseh is mine Ephraim is my helmet Judah is my scepter Moab my is my washbasin upon Edom I cast my shoe over Felicia I shout in triumph I want you to stop there for just a moment because this is interesting as David gets into this Psalm you can see that he begins by saying to the Lord you know you've rejected us you're not going out into battle with us and then he begins to speak about how God has established a banner for those who fear Him in verse 4 that all that all the the beloved of the Lord might be delivered and and so forth and then he begins to allow the Lord begins to speak in the first person through David so this is obviously a prophetic speaking forth and in verse six he begins to say God has spoken in holiness and then he begins to talk about the fact that all Israel and the neighbouring nations belong to the Lord did you notice that he begins in verse six by saying with exaltation I will divide up Shechem you know portion out the veil of sakkath and what he means here is he is reciting the the heart of the Lord saying this is the land of Israel and I will which was originally you know before that it was the land of Canaan and he's basically being reminded by the voice of God I'm going to divide this land for my people see the whole point of the statement is to remind us that the Land of Israel belonged to Israel okay and that's why the he goes on to say in verse eight or actually in verse seven gilli at his mind Manasseh is mine Ephraim is my helmet Judah my scepter or in other words the place from which I rule Moab my washbasin da-da-da-da-da he's talking about the land of Israel and then even some of these neighboring nations and saying they're mine they're mine so what is the reason for this why is David reciting this in his prayer through the voice of the Lord well this is a reminder this is a reminder for David as he goes into this time that God hasn't gone back on any of his promises that the lands still belongs to the Lord okay that's the point because you see when we're going through a difficult time in our lives and we feel like the Lord isn't with us we tend to then begin to question the promises we'd received earlier right that's what we do it's just human nature I begin to question does God really love me does God really hear my prayer you know is this really true is this the deal and and and we begin to throw the whole thing up in the air as if to question it once again and so in this prayer of David which starts off on kind of a low note Lord you've rejected your you're no longer with your armies when we go out we can tell you're not there and we've seen some hard things as a result it probably lost men in battle and that's one of the ways they knew that the Lord was not with them when they would lose men in battle and so they recognize that this isn't working so David spends this time reminding himself that God's promises are still sure he said when you guys get into the land I'm gonna divide this land up it will belong to you that is a promise and that promise stands and so God you know David is speaking here of the fact that the the land is theirs by divine right and there's an assurance that goes with that so then David goes on to ask in verse 9 look with me there in your Bible who will bring me to the fortified city in other words who will who will lead me up against the enemies you know that we go against who will lead me to eat them have you not rejected us O God and then he repeats again look at this you do not go forth Oh God with our armies you're not we can tell Lord that you're not with us you're not you're not guiding us in battle and so he says Oh grant us help against this foe look at this for vain is the salvation of man or if you will again I've told you many times the word salvation means deliverance vain is the deliverance of man what is David saying here you need to go up with us Lord because it is our own deliverance is an empty thing were we to try to deliver ourselves it would be an empty thing now once again we come back to our natural response when we're feeling like the Lord isn't with us and he's not standing with us in the battles of life what do you do how what do I do what is our response to that we typically get angry we become sullen and we just figured well I got to do this myself I guess I just have to do this myself God's not helping me God's not answering me so I guess I got to do this I mean what am I gonna do right I got to do it you know what David was say in response to that vain is the deliverance of man but see that's something that you and I haven't necessarily learned and so what we do is we keep trying to affect our own deliverance and we have to learn systematically how vain it is that word vain in the scripture means empty okay and once we learn that we usually come back on our knees to God and we say Lord forgive me for being such an idiot forgive me for trying to fix this thing on my own forgive me Lord for stepping out apart from your will a start apart from your power forgive me Lord for thinking that I could do it myself and then we come to that statement so vain is the deliverance of man vain Lord God is my own deliverance we need to learn to say that Lord my deliverance is vain it's empty oh how we would save ourself so much grief if we would have that in our heart and then verse 12 this is very important because we really kind of get the lesson of the psalm here in this final verse he says with God we shall do valiantly it is he who will tread down our foes and that and the point there is it's not you it is he who will tread down your foes ok and with the Lord we will do valiantly alright so here we go the lesson or the message of this psalm is really pretty simple David again was sensing the Lord's withdrawal from the armies he was sensing the Lord's rebuke over Israel but instead of pouting about it which is what I'm more likely to do instead of insisting that you know the the armies just kind of suck it up and let's be men about this thing come on guys all right so God's not listening to us well alright let's just let's get this thing done we just we got to do this thing he didn't do that instead David first of all begins by reminding himself of the Lord's decree which is his promise concerning Israel that it all belongs to the Lord and then he concludes after all of that with verse 12 by saying that with God we shall do valiantly in other words there's nowhere else to turn that was that's the lesson that's the lesson it's a simple lesson but it's hard to learn the the lesson is there's nowhere else to turn so if it's not working if it's not happening if your prayers aren't being answered if you're going into battle and you're getting the snot beat idea let me just give you a little piece of advice there's nowhere else to turn you just keep coming back to God that's what David is doing here we don't go to plan B what David is saying is there's no plan B there's no other solution the deliverance of man is vain it is stupid it's empty I'm not going there I refuse to go there you know there's nothing left for us to do but come back to the Lord and trust him for the victory yeah but God's not answering me yeah but you know what there's nothing left to do but to go back to the Lord and trust him for the victory yeah but yeah but yeah but yeah but but you know what there's nothing left to do but go back to the Lord and trust him for the victory kind of sounds like beating your head against a rock but it's not because there is no plan B and once we come to terms with the reality of that statement our prayer life takes on a new vitality as we press in to say hey Lord you need to understand me here I have no plan B I have no foot in any doors I have nothing else available to me okay I'm counting on you and you alone and you know this all kind of reminds me about a passage frankly in the New Testament and there there were times you know that Peter said some amazing things there were also times he said some really dumb things but once in a while Pete would come up with some statements that are really amazing and it usually it was when he was speaking by you know the inspiration of the Holy Spirit but but there was a there's a situation that's recorded for us in John chapter 6 where Jesus is saying some really hard things to the Israelites to the Jews and he knew they were hard things and he and the reason he knew they were hard things is there were a lot of people that were listening to Jesus when they heard those hard things they said yeah okay I'm out of here and they turned to they left let me show you this passage John chapter 6 and he said this is Jesus talking this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my father look at this after this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him so jesus said to the twelve do you want to go away as well Simon Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God this is one of those times when Pete nailed it because there are situations that are very very difficult when our natural man is gonna want to bail turn around go the other way you know what I think this is just too much but if we really investigate the situation thoroughly and we understand what David and Peter both understood in this situation we come to the simple conclusion Lord where are we gonna go where am I gonna go you're you are the way the truth and the life you're really just a way you are the way you're not just a truth you are the truth you know so and where are we gonna go you know what's plan B am I gonna am I gonna settle for something less then the life absolutely not so until I I really believe that until we've adopted this attitude the David projects in this Psalm and that Peter reiterates there in that record of John chapter 6 I think we're gonna continue to have trouble in our walk with the Lord we're gonna continue to struggle you and I until we get this down until we realize there's no there's no plan B there's no there's there's no curtain number you know B or C or D or number two it's just Jesus because here's the point guys when you and I get into trouble and it doesn't look like God is responding the way our expectations think he should our natural tendency is to default to the only other Savior we've ever known and that's me myself and I write it's the only other Savior I've ever known and believe me I've relied on him a lot although I've learned over the years that vein is the deliverance of man my own deliverance is vain but you know what I keep defaulting to that same old Savior small s because I find myself sputtering in this attitude that David has that says Lord it's you and you only and there's nowhere else for me to turn but you know when you finally get it when you finally realize that there are no other options there are no other answers and there are no other solutions then you're finally able to say with David what he said in verse 12 with God we shall do valiantly and understand what it means with God we shall do valiantly you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

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Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament, Psalms

Id: j_E3_cqcTIg

Length: 17min 12sec (1032 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 21 2019