Pentecost 16
“Four Gems the LORD Wants You to
Possess”
Psalm 116:1-9, 15
1 I love the LORD, for he heard my
voice; he heard my cry for mercy. 2 Because he turned his ear to me, I will
call on him as long as I live. 3 The cords of death entangled me, the anguish
of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.
4 Then I called on the name of the LORD:
“O LORD, save me!”
5 The LORD is gracious and righteous;
our God is full of compassion. 6 The LORD protects the simplehearted;
when I was in great need, he saved me. 7 Be at rest once more, O my soul, for
the LORD has been good to you. 8 For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from
death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, 9 that I may walk before the
LORD in the land of the living.
15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is
the death of his saints.
When we are young, we are sometimes under the
illusion that there is isn’t one single thing that we can’t do. The future is
bright and we are full of youthful optimism. Wanna travel the
world? Go for it! Wanna buy a
motorcycle? Sure! Make a whole bunch of money, more than you
ever thought you’d be able to make? Of
course! Live life to the full. Do whatever it takes to make your dreams come
true. But the older a person gets, the
more we realize that we’re not as strong, powerful, wise, and invincible as we
once thought we were. Life is not as
easy as it used to be. Things don’t
always go our way, and it hurts when our dreams come crashing down.
-A job that had been so lucrative and rewarding is suddenly at risk because of
layoffs…
-A body that once was so healthy and strong is now threatened by disease…
-A nest egg that had been so invincible is dwindling fast…
-A difficult family
relationship seems to be getting worse, and it seems like it will get worse
before it gets better. You have no idea
what is going to happen next.
The list could go on. In life, we face a problem that is so enormous and
insurmountable that we feel absolutely overwhelmed by it. We want it to go away but it won’t. We close our eyes at night and try to rest
but we wake up feeling more tired than when we laid down. It is easy to become
cynical and disillusioned with life. Am
I living a dream that has suddenly turned into a nightmare? And will it get worse before it gets
better? There are few feelings as
terrible as knowing that something bad is going to happen and being powerless
to stop it.
The author of Psalm 116 went
through some kind of a living nightmare and lived to tell about it. The psalm is anonymous, so we don’t know who
wrote it and we don’t know the exact circumstances under which he was
writing. But as he writes in verse
three, “The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave was upon me;
I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.”
There is no greater obstacle than death itself. There is no dilemma more
universal. To the writer of the Psalm, it seemed as if death itself had become
a living being and was reaching up with its cords to entangle him. The anguish,
grief and sorrow he felt in his soul was more than he could bear.
But even through an obstacle
like this, there were some glowing gems the psalmist wanted to pass along; gems
that were very precious to him. He uses
very personal language- the word “I” is used a lot. As we read this Psalm, it
is not difficult to imagine a friend sitting down over a cup of coffee and
telling us about a personal, overwhelming problem that was devastating – and
yet they learned to rejoice through it!
Through dark days, God loosens our grip on “gems” of this life we call
dreams and helps us appreciate the real gems he has to offer us. Listen to the author of Psalm 116 describe four
gems the LORD wants you to possess…
1. An audience
and answer from the King.
What do you do in such a
situation? How do we handle our predicament? There is nothing we can do. There
is no way we can handle it on our own! Our only hope is for someone else to
help us.
Here is an illustration that describes the help we have available to us. A little boy was tugging at a big rock and
doing his best to lift it. He was grunting and pulling at it but it didn’t
budge. His father came along and asked him if he was having any trouble. He
said, “Yes, I am trying and trying and can’t move the rock.” The father said to
him, “Well, son, are you using all available energy?” The boy replied, “Yes,
Father, I think I am” Then the dad looked at him and said, “No, son, I don’t
think you are, for you haven’t asked for my help.” (Roy B. Zuck;
“The Speaker’s Quote Book” pp. 116-17)
We have an audience with the
King of Kings and we can ask him for his help.
He has generously invited us to come into his office anytime we want; he
has promised he will actively listen to every concern we might have, if it is
something small, or if it is the cords of death wrapped around our necks. We have an open invitation for an audience
with the Lord. We don’t have to make an
appointment first. We don’t have to go
through a secretary. We don’t even have
to wait. Jesus loves us so much he begs
us to pray to him. And not only do we
have an open invitation to talk to the Lord, we also have a guaranteed promise
he will answer us in the best possible way.
God will never slam the door in our face. God will never refuse our requests. He has given us an audience and promised an
answer. The Psalmist realized how much
of a gem that was, especially during a time when he needed it the most. 1 I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he
heard my cry for mercy. 2 Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him
as long as I live. 3 The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave
came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. 4Then I called on the name
of the LORD: “O LORD, save me!”
2. Protection
for the simple-hearted
Gem #1 is an audience and answer from the King.
Gem #2 is protection for the simple-hearted. Listen to God’s promises in verses 5-6. 5 The LORD is gracious and righteous; our
God is full of compassion. 6 The LORD protects the simplehearted;
when I was in great need, he saved me. What
animal are believers compared to very often in Scripture? Sheep.
Sheep are simplehearted. Sheep are not able to handle major
problems. Sheep are not able to give
many answers. Sheep are not able to save
themselves from any predators. Sheep are
only able to follow and trust. It is not
blind foolishness to say, “The LORD will sort this out.” Rather, when we are devastated by a problem
that we cannot handle, it is a gem to be able to follow and trust, to know that
the compassionate Savior is handling all of our problems and offering
protection for sheep like us who cannot protect themselves.
3. Rest for the weary soul
The third gem the LORD wants
you to have is rest for the weary soul.
You cannot buy this at Wal-Mart.
You cannot find this at the top of the corporate ladder. You cannot earn soul-rest with hard
work. No, the one and only place to find
rest for the soul is with the Lord. He
has wiped our sins away. He has
patiently sown the words of life into our hearts. He has quietly soothed us with his
promises. That is a gem. 7 Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the
LORD has been good to you.
4. A walk in
the land of the living
8 For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul
from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, 9 that I may walk
before the LORD in the land of the living.
It’s funny. The people I hear saying, “God has been good to me” are often
people you wouldn’t expect. They are in nursing homes. They have known tragedy.
Their life has been hard. But perhaps when life is the hardest we can taste the
walk in the land of the living. We can
see heaven just around the corner. When
we are living young, invincible-types of lives, heaven is a distant
thought. But not in a nursing home. God has delivered us from all death, tears
and problems and given us a walk in the land of the living – where there will
never be even a hint of death, tears or stumbling.
Paragraph on “precious in the
sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
Conclusion…The dreams of our youth may come crashing down, but God’s gems will
never crash. That’s because God’s gems
are not dreams. They are facts and they
are yours. You hold the gem of an
audience with and an answer from the King, you hold the gem of protection for
the simple-hearted, you hold the gem of rest for your soul, and you hold the
gem of a walk in the land of the living.
Remind yourself and your loved ones – often – that you hold these
gems. Amen.