Trusting God in Times of Trouble, Part 1

David Michael Jeremiah: Of all the resources that are in short supply these days, the most endangered seems to be trust. Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah explains that while many of us are leery of trusting our government, our schools, our leaders, even our neighbors, we have more reason than ever to put our trust in God. To introduce his timely message, Trusting God in Times of Trouble, here's David.
Dr. David Jeremiah: And I think we're about to begin a study of one of the most encouraging Psalms in the Bible. Psalm 37 has been a great blessing, and I have shared that Psalm by writing it in the books and Bibles that I sign quite often. I love Psalm 37. There are some wonderful truths here to tell us about what it means to rest and trust and love God. You will be totally, uniquely blessed by this Psalm if you let it roll over your soul, and we're going to do that as we open our Bibles together. During this month, we are making available a very special resource that coordinates what we're talking about on the air, but also our celebration of 250 years as a nation. This book is called 100 Bible Verses that Made America: Defining Moments that Shaped Our Enduring Foundation of Faith. 100 verses that powerfully impacted our leaders during defining moments in American history. This is put together by Rob Morgan, one of my favorite writers and a good friend. You will be blessed by these chapters. They're easily read, they're filled with incredible stories, historical information. Most of all, they honor the Word of God and show how this nation was put together by the principles that are in this book we call the Bible. This is our way of saying thank you for your gift to Turning Point during the month of July, which means when you send a gift of any size, ask for your copy of the book 100 Bible Verses that Made America, and it will be on its way to you before you know it. We're grateful to Rob Morgan for making this available to us, and we're grateful for you because your gifts make it possible for us to continue to do what we do every day. And now here is part one of Trusting God in Times of Trouble from the famed Psalm 37. In these days, when government agencies are failing us in significant ways, and wicked and evil schemes seem to succeed at an alarming rate, the question is posed to all of us in our hearts: Who in the world can we trust? We are in a credibility meltdown in our nation. I didn't bring you here today to give you a political speech, but I want you to understand that we are in a time that's different than any time we've ever been in. This is the most critical credibility crisis we've had in our nation. But it's not the first time something like this has happened. In fact, David wrote Psalm 37 at a time when his situation was hopeless. The wicked were gathered all around him, and they were exerting great pressure on him and the people of God. In fact, did you know that in Psalm 37, the word 'wicked' is found 13 times? This is a Psalm about the wicked. It says in verse seven, "the man who brings wicked schemes to pass." Verse 12 says, "the wicked plot against the just." Can I get a witness? Isn't that what's going on today? Verse 14 says, "The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent the bow, to cast down the poor and the needy, to slay those who are of upright conduct." It sounds like a commentary on today's situation. The word "wicked" here means to be morally wrong, to be guilty, to be ungodly. How are we to act, those of us who are followers of Christ, when all around us we feel the wicked influences of our culture, when the intentions of men are to destroy the righteous? How can David or anyone else for that matter meet the conditions of this world and be victorious? David helps us here. This is one of my favorite Psalms. It's one of the scriptures I often write in books or Bibles when people ask me to sign my name, because this Psalm is filled with encouragement. There are five things here that come right out of the context of Psalm 37 that help us to get our bearings in the uncertainty of our world. No matter what kind of problems we may be facing, whether they seem monumental or they're incidental, what we're going to learn from David will help us. David tells us there's some things that we can do ourselves in the midst of this upheaval. First of all, notice verse three, he tells us to trust in the Lord. Psalm 37:3 says, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness." The word "trust" is found here and also down in verse five. Notice, "Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him." It's also found in verse 40, and the Bible says, "And the Lord shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them, because they trust in Him." The word "trust" means to be confident. It conveys the idea of security, a sense of well-being which results from having something or someone in whom we can place our confidence, the feeling of being safe and secure in a relationship. The Bible tells us that when we're going through a confidence-credibility crisis, you need to go back to the one in whom you can confidently trust. Trust in the Lord. Say that with me. Trust in the Lord. He is one who is worthy of our trust. He has never out-promised Himself. He has never welched on anything He said He would do. He is always on time with His promises and He's worthy of our trust. In fact, He gives us a little formula here that's really interesting. If we didn't have anything else in the Psalm but these three thoughts, He says, "Trust in the Lord, do good, and feed on God's faithfulness." That's a pretty good formula right there. Notice first of all, trust in the Lord and do good. I like that, because when everyone around you is doing evil, you can get caught up in the analysis of the evil deeds of others, and if you do, you will get buried beneath the avalanche of it all. What David is saying is this: When you see the complication of evil in your world, when wicked men seem to be succeeding, trust in the Lord, and then do some good. Do something good. We all know about good works, that you don't get saved by good works, but you get saved for good works. I've just found that when you get discouraged sometimes and you wonder what's going on, if you can just get out of yourself and go find somebody to minister to, go find somebody to help, go find somebody to encourage. There's such a need for that in our culture today, is there not? When everyone out there is doing evil, we can do something about that. We don't have to sit around and curse the darkness, we can light a candle. We can do good. That's what David is saying. He says trust the Lord, do good, and then I love this: Feed on God's faithfulness. What He's saying is, meditate on it. When you feed on something, you eat it, you take it into your system, you make it a part of who you are. Wouldn't it be good if instead of complaining about all the bad stuff that was going on, we trusted the Lord, we found something we could do that was good, that gets us on the right side of the equation, and then we spend some time just meditating on how faithful God has been to us? So that's the first thing. He says trust in the Lord. David knew what he was talking about when he said this. Do you know when David wrote this? He had been through some terrible experiences in his life. When David was anointed to be the king of Israel, it was 15 long years after that before he actually became king. You say, so what was taking so long? Well, Saul was king and Saul didn't want David to be king, and so Saul was trying to kill David, and he chased him all over the countryside for 15 long years trying to take him out. David was living in caves and hiding and trying to be God's person in the midst of an enemy who was determined to destroy him. So what did David do? Well, he had a few glitches in his walk with God during that period of time, but primarily what David did is he trusted in God, he did good, and he fed on the faithfulness of his Almighty God. David knew what he was talking about. He writes out of experience. During all of that time, he trusted in God and he had not missed a meal, and now his enemy was dead and David, as he writes this Psalm, is sitting on the throne of Israel. He trusted, he did good, he fed on the faithfulness of God, and Almighty God saw him through. So the first one is trust in the Lord. Say that again. Trust in the Lord. Here's the second one. Look at verse four. Delight in the Lord. "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." So let's say the second one. Delight in the Lord. We've got two of them now. Trust in the Lord, delight in the Lord. You say, "Pastor, what does it mean to delight in the Lord?" Well, the word "delight" is an interesting word because it reminds us that when we're facing conflicts and the oppression of the wicked, we must never allow our hearts to become hardened and callous and filled with a desire for retaliation. A lot of God's people need this message today. He says when you're in the midst of all of this, you should find your happiness in the Lord. We're not going to find our happiness in this world, not even in the United States. Our happiness is not in where we are, our happiness is in whose we are. We're the Lord's, and our happiness belongs in Him. And the Bible says because that's true, make Him your delight and your desire. Here's a wonderful promise that I have claimed over the years. When I was trying to determine something about the will of God, someone gave me this simplistic little statement, and I thought it was naive, frankly. He said, "Well David, what do you want to do?" I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Well, here's how you can know where God's leading you and what He wants you to do in this situation. Here's how you do it, right? Commit your way unto the Lord, and then do whatever you want to do." I said, "Hold it, wait a minute, that doesn't sound right." "No, no," he said, "it's all right. Here it is. Because if you commit your way to the Lord and you delight in Him, you will never want to do anything that He doesn't want you to do." So here's the first thing: Are you delighting in the Lord? And if you are, the Bible says if you delight in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart. When you delight in the Lord, He'll probably change your desires, and He will give you the things that you really want that He really wants you to want, and when you get them, they'll be the things you always wanted. When you trust in the Lord and delight in Him, He will give you the desires of your heart. Oh, I could give you some testimonies about that from my own life. You say, "Well, that's true, Pastor. How does one delight in the Lord?" Well, I want to show you something that I think is a pretty neat little formula that will help you. That is over in the 119th Psalm, just a few pages over. I promise as you're heading there, I'm not going to read this Psalm. It's the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119. Somebody told me this is the Psalm you want to have read when they're about to execute you and they ask you, "Is there any scripture you would like us to read?" This is the Psalm you want to have read. But as you know, the 119th Psalm is all about the Word of God. The Word of God is mentioned in almost every verse. But interestingly enough, the word "delight" is found six times in Psalm 119. I want to run through these scriptures and you just, if you've got your Bible open, you can just follow because I'm going to take them in order. Notice verse 16: "I will delight myself in your statutes." Notice verse 35: "Make me walk in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it." Verses 69 and 70: "The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in your law." Verse 77: "Let your tender mercies come to me, that I may live, for your law is my delight." Verse 92: "Unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction." Verse 174: "I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight." Now let me ask this question, class, did you get it? What is the Psalmist delighting in in Psalm 119? What is it? The Word of God. He may call it the statutes, the law, he uses a lot of synonyms for the Word of God in this Psalm. But what David is saying is that he has found his delight in the Word of God. Now, here is the formula for what you do when you're trying to delight in the Lord. I know this will be a bit convicting to all of us, but let's just swallow this pill a little bit together and recognize it's the truth. Here it is: Your attitude toward the Word of God is usually a mirror of your attitude toward the Son of God. Your attitude toward the Bible is your attitude toward Christ. In other words, if you say "I delight in the Lord" and you never open this book, you're just fooling yourself, because where do you learn about the Lord? You learn about Him in this book, don't you? So when you delight in the Word, that's how you learn how to delight in the Lord. You know what will happen when you start to delight in the Word? You will see Him on every page, even in the Old Testament. He is prefigured and prophesied and pictured, and His typology is all over the book. When you delight in the Word, you will discover all of a sudden that you're delighting in the Lord. I don't know that you can do one without the other, because the Word of God, both the written Word and the living Word, are united eternally together. Do you delight in the Lord? When you're going through difficult times, get your focus off of your problems and your focus on your Savior and delight in Him. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon Him." Isaiah 26:3. Trust in the Lord is the first one. Delight in the Lord is the second one. Here's the third one: Commit your way to the Lord. This is verse five. "Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass." So we're going to say these three things together now, one right after the other. Are you ready? Here's our little formula: Trust in the Lord, delight in the Lord, commit your way to the Lord. Now, what's the difference between trusting in the Lord and committing your way to Him? Well, the word "commit" means to take something that you currently have and totally and completely release it to somebody else. Literally, what the Psalmist is saying is you should take your way, your life, and give it over to God. Commit your life to Him. Roll your burdens on the Lord. Give your stuff to God and don't hang on to it yourself. This is a common truth both in the Psalms and in the New Testament. Psalm 10:14 says, "The helpless commits himself to you, Lord; You are the helper of the fatherless." Psalm 55:22 puts it this way: "Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you." 1 Peter 5:7 is one of the first verses I learned as a little kid going to Sunday school and here it is: "Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." When we commit our way to the Lord, we take all of the issues that we're dealing with in our own life, we take the inequities that we see in the world where bad people get promoted and we get passed over. We take the financial things that happen to us when we trusted people we thought were good and we discover they're not. We take all of that, and while we try to do our best to manage it in the power of the Holy Spirit, there comes a point in time for all of us where we have to bundle all this stuff up and just say, "Lord, this is way too much for me. I'm just casting it all to you. I'm giving it to you." I was going through what my wife still calls Black May when I came here some years ago, many years ago now. We had one month that was probably the worst month of our life, just some turmoil that happened. It was just kind of one of those things. And I was overwhelmed. I was 40 years old. I'm telling you, this was a long time ago. And I didn't know what to do. I remember going into my office one day and walking into my office and seeing my chair sitting behind my desk. And I just kind of pictured, I said, "Lord, I'm not going to sit in that chair today. That's your chair. I don't know what to do with all this stuff. I'm just going to lay it out before you. I'm putting it on your desk, Lord, it's yours." I never felt such a sense of relief in my life to know these problems are not mine. I've given them to God. And when you commit your way to the Lord, He will help you. He will take you through. But here's the problem that we all have, and you see if you're not like me. I give it to God, and then about two hours later, I take it back. And I'm walking around thinking, "Lord, I thought I got rid of this." I found that you've got to keep doing that over and over. "Lord, I thought I gave this to you, but I took some of it back and here it is again." And you just do it until after a while, you begin to realize that you've committed your way to the Lord. When we commit our way to the Lord, we let Him tell us the direction we're going to go, we let Him tell us what we're supposed to do, and we let Him help us know what we're to do with the troubles that are in our life. Release all these things to Him. Let Him take them all. So trust in the Lord, delight in the Lord, commit your way to the Lord. Here's the fourth one: Rest in the Lord. And this is not about what some of you do in church. This "rest in the Lord" is verse seven. Notice what it says: "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass." To rest in the Lord is to be silent before Jehovah God, without clamoring or presumptuous indifference. I love this: Hush before God. Hush before Him. Sometimes you just have to get before the Lord, keep your mouth shut, and rest in the knowledge that He's in control. To wait for the resolution of the problem, knowing that God is in charge of the situation, and not only is He in charge of the situation and the solution, He's in charge of the timing too. And notice in this verse we have two ways we can deal with problems: We can either hush before the Lord or we can fret. Do not fret. How many fretters do we have here today? Any fretters? Oh yes, it's a common practice. It's kind of the indoor sport for evangelicals: fretting. Well, let me say just a word about that. The word "fret" is only found where we're told do not fret. It's in Psalm 37 three times and it's over in Proverbs once. I want to show you where it is in Psalm 37 because you're open to that passage right now. Verse one says, "Do not fret because of evildoers." Verse seven says, "Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way." And verse eight says, "Do not fret; it only causes harm." And then Proverbs 24:19 says, "Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the wicked." What David is dealing with is the same thing we deal with in our day today. He looked around at the world in which he lived and he was under tremendous pressure and pain, and it seemed like all the bad guys were just nothing was wrong. It looked like all the sinners were prospering and all the saints were suffering. And David didn't understand that and he was tempted to fret, and so he uses this passage to say wait a minute, don't do that. The English word for "fret" comes from an Old English word "fretan" which means to devour, to eat, to gnaw into something. The Hebrew word David actually used as he wrote this in the original language is the word "charah" which has at its root the idea of growing warm and blazing up. Now listen carefully to what this means. Put these two pictures together. Think of fretting as a rat inside your soul gnawing away at you. Think of Satan as an arsonist setting little blazes of distrust inside your heart. David is saying something like this: He said, "I have been young and I am now old. I have seen many things, I have suffered many burdens, I've learned many lessons. But based on a lifetime of experience, my advice is, kill off the rats and put out the fire." Do not fret. It only causes harm. When you think about gnawing and burning, what does it make you think of? Have you ever had an ulcer? Lots of people today, ulcers are just eating them up. I remember hearing someone once say to a patient, a doctor said to him, he said, "If you don't cut out your resentment, I'm going to have to cut out part of your intestine," because fretting is not only not a good thing spiritually, it's a very bad thing physically. And David said, "Fret not. Do not fret." Because if you put your trust in the Lord, you won't have to fret because God, you see, isn't finished with the wicked yet. And that helps us, doesn't it? It helps us to understand what God is about, what He's doing, how it fits into what's happening to us. We're going to have to put a bookmark here until Monday because we have to take time off for the weekend. But on Monday, we'll finish this up from Psalm 37. This series that we're doing, Making Sense of It All, is available in a study guide format and also on CD. You can go to our website which is davidjeremiah.org and there you will find this displayed, and it will explain to you how to order it and have it sent right to your home so you can take advantage of this truth and this teaching going forward. I hope you'll do that. This is a very special series as I mentioned earlier this week. It's a great series for small groups because it's so encouraging. Take advantage of it. Have a great weekend. Don't forget to go to church, and be sure to join us on Monday right here on this good station for the next edition of Turning Point.
David Michael Jeremiah: Our message today came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr. David Jeremiah, the senior pastor. Turning Point is also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn where you can find it, visit our website, davidjeremiah.org/radio. That's davidjeremiah.org/radio or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of Robert J. Morgan's inspiring book, 100 Bible Verses that Made America. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King James versions, available in your choice of handsome and durable cover options. If this ministry is helping you grow, let us know by writing to Turning Point, PO Box 3838, San Diego, California 92163. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday as we continue the series Making Sense of It All on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.