Landing on the Firm Foundation

LANDING ON THE FIRM FOUNDATION

An Exposition of Psalm 77

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date:   March 29, 2020

Series: Covid-19 Talks

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Special Note to the Reader

The vast majority of my sermons are in manuscript form prior to the moment of preaching, then an edited manuscript is made available to the church family and to the wider public. However, during the season of time when churches were unable to gather together because of the Covid-19 crisis, no manuscripts were prepared. Therefore what follows is an edited transcript of the video message, which includes a general introduction, a pastoral prayer, and a sermon. For those who have read my manuscripts, don’t be surprised if this transcript sounds different than what you are accustomed to.

The Lord’s grace be with you as you read! 

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Good morning to South Paris Baptist Church and to anyone else who is tuning into this Lord's Day message for March 29th. Again, it's being recorded on Saturday, March 28th. I hope this is a blessing and encouragement to you as we continue to walk through the current crisis that we find ourselves in – and we want to walk by faith. We want to be putting our hope in the Lord.

I just want to begin our time together today by reading a short scripture passage and sharing a song that I hope is a blessing and encouragement to you. Isaiah 43 begins:

“But now thus says the LORD,

he who created you. O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

For I am the LORD your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (Isaiah 43:1-3)

Now let me share a song:

♪♪ “How firm a foundation ye Saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in his Excellent Word!

What more can he say then to you he hath said,

To you who for Refuge to Jesus have fled?

"Fear not, I am with thee, O Be not dismayed,

for I am thy God, and will still give thee Aid;

I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand. 

"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,

my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy Supply;

The flame shall not hurt Thee; I only design

thy dross to consume, And thy gold to refine.

"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,

I will not, I will not desert to its foes;

That soul, though all hell Should Endeavor to shake,

I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!” ♪♪ [1]

PRAYER

Let's go before the Lord in prayer.

Father, we thank you that you are a faithful God, and that you have promised to never leave us nor forsake us, but even through great waters and fiery trials you have promised to be with us and strengthen us and lead us home.

Father, as we come before you today, we lament our broken world. We lament that humanity's sin – past sin and present sin – has unleashed horrible things upon this world. Father, we lament that we are so weak and that we falter in the face of these overwhelming needs and calamities that visit us.

And Father, we pray for our very hurting world. Father, we pray for those who are suffering ill health or the loss of loved ones. Father, we pray that you would bring comfort and encouragement and grace into their lives.

Father, we pray for our leaders at every level of government and for health officials and doctors and nurses and medical staff. They bear a heavy burden during these difficult days and we pray that you would strengthen them. We pray that you would give them wisdom and skill. And we pray that they would do that which is good and right and that you would make them a blessing to the people.

Father, we pray that in this time of crisis, when in so many ways we are humbled and sober-minded and our lives have come to a halt – Father, I pray that the hearts of many people would turn to you. Father, we pray that you would have mercy and that in the midst of desolation or fear or loss, we pray that men and women would turn to the Lord.

And Father, we pray for the Church, Father, we pray that that the church would at this very moment be the light of the world. That we would show forth the hope, the confidence that we have in Christ.

And Father, I pray that we ourselves would grow in the grace of God – we have much to learn, there is much dross to consume. Father, I pray that we would be strengthened and purified and transformed through this fiery trial.

Father, as we have the opportunity now to look into your word – Father, I pray that you would give us insight and understanding. I pray that you would give us the anchor to hold on to, the firm foundation to stand on, the grace of God to cling to.

Father, we thank you that you are with us – and that you are with us, especially, as we hear and believe your Word. So, bless that Word to us now. In the strong name of Jesus, Amen.

INTRODUCTION TO SERMON

Well, I invite you to take your Bible and turn to Psalm 77.

Psalm 77 has 20 verses – and in the outline we're going to follow here, I've got four points. And you'll notice that the word Selah, which you'll see every now and then in the Psalms, occurs three times in this Psalm and so it kind of functions as a neat little break in the Psalm, and so we will take our divisions that way. Versus 1 – 3, and then Verses 4 – 9, and then verses 10 – 15, and then verses 16 – 20. And what I'm going to do, instead of reading the whole Psalm all at once, I'm going to kind of give you my heading for those set of verses and then I'll read it and then we'll reflect on it.

Okay, so Psalm 77, this is one of the Psalms written by a man named Asaph. I was just thinking that my wife, Charlotta, loves Asaph. Asaph is just a very honest, transparent man, who was very honest in his dealings with God and with his sufferings. And Asaph is a great gift to the church, especially at a time of trouble.

So, here we go.

In Difficult Days, Seek the Lord Continually (v. 1-3)

Here's my heading for verses 1 – 3: In Difficult Days, Seek the Lord Continually.

Now, let me read verses 1 – 3:

“I cry aloud to God,
    aloud to God, and he will hear me.
In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
    in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
    my soul refuses to be comforted.
When I remember God, I moan;
    when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah” (Psalm 77:1-3)

In difficult days, seek the Lord continually.

These are difficult days for Asaph – he refers to the day of his trouble and we don't know exactly what trouble he was dealing with. But whatever the circumstantial or external trouble may have been, he was also troubled inwardly. He was unable to be comforted. Even though he is engaging with God, he's remembering God, he's meditating – presumably on the things of God, and yet he's moaning, he's fainting, he's downcast.

But what is he doing? In the midst of that, he is seeking the Lord. He's stretching out his hand to the Lord without wearying. He's crying aloud to God. And it's really interesting to me that Asaph is confident that the living God will hear him – he says at the end of verse 1, “[God] will hear me.” There's a confidence there and yet this is not a quick-fix deal. This isn't like I'm going to pray about it for a few minutes and then trouble over, overwhelming comfort comes, and I go on the rest of my day, cheerful. It's not like that. It might be like that sometimes but it's not like that here. Here, even though he's confident that God will hear him, there is an unfolding process and struggle of engaging with God. He wants to be helped and strengthened by the Lord. But in the midst of this for a time anyway, we don't know how long. But often, you know, there's that phrase ‘how long?’ in the Psalms and elsewhere in the Bible – and sometimes the suffering and the trouble and the days without comfort can last a long time, certainly longer than we would like.

Of course, at this present time the entire world finds itself in a time of trouble, in difficult days with the coronavirus and fear and the economic and social implications, and there can be a lot of emotional disorientation and despondency during a time like this. We can and should be honest with the Lord about that and engage with him as we go through that trouble. And who knows what trouble you're dealing with? It might be related to this current crisis that we all find ourselves in – and in some way we're all caught up in that – but then in addition to that there's whatever personal or family or congregational or workplace troubles that you might be dealing with. In difficult days, seek the Lord continually.

In Troubled Times, Search for the Anchor

Now, let's go to versus 4 - 9. Here's my heading for verses 4 – 9: In Troubled Times, Search for the Anchor.

Verses 4-9 say:

“You hold my eyelids open;
    I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

I consider the days of old,
    the years long ago.
I said, “Let me remember my song in the night;
    let me meditate in my heart.”
    Then my spirit made a diligent search:
“Will the Lord spurn forever,
    and never again be favorable?
Has his steadfast love forever ceased?
    Are his promises at an end for all time?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
    Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah” (Psalm 77:4-9)

In troubled times, search for the anchor. And I say that very precisely – not search for an anchor, as if there are many possible anchors. There are many pseudo-anchors, also known as idols. But what I'm saying is, what this passage is encouraging us to say is, search for the anchor.

But just notice the process and struggle that Asaph is in. Even though he is stretching out his hand without wearying (v. 2), he is weary (v. 4). He can barely see – he can only see because the Lord holds his eyelids open. He's so troubled he can't speak. He's sinking, he's struggling, he's overwhelmed. He's trying to see his way through this. He's trying to get his bearings. He's trying to get something firm to lay hold of. He's scanning history. He's scanning the days of old, the years long ago. Perhaps – as we'll see later in the Psalm – perhaps he's just scanning God's dealings with his people and trying to get something firm to lay hold of. He’s reflecting on his own experience where there were once days when he had a song in the night, but those days are gone and now he has anguish and suffering and he's overwhelmed and yet he's trying to find something. He's trying to see some light. And then he does this, he says at the end of verse 6, “then my spirit made a diligent search.” And these questions that he asks in verses 7 to 9 are so important.

What do you see there? He's thinking about God's favor (v. 7), God's steadfast love (v. 8), God's promises (v. 8), God's grace (v. 9), God's compassion (v. 9). Those are basically synonymous concepts: favor, steadfast love, promises, grace, compassion. What do we have without the steadfast love of God? The psalmist elsewhere says that the “steadfast love” of the Lord “is better than life” (Psalm 63:3). When you turn to the New Testament, we were told that as believers we have come to believe and depend on “the love that God has for us” (1 John 4:16). There's the assurance of Romans 8 – that nothing will be able to “separate us from the love of Christ” (Romans 8:35; see also Romans 8:39).

The steadfast love of God is everything! “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) But – and this is the thought process and the questioning that Asaph is going through – might if God isn't for us? Well, of course, he knows and we know that if we are found in his grace, then he will always be for us and he will never forsake us. But when you put the questions the way that Asaph does (in v. 7-9), you start to realize the real heart of the issue: if it seems like God's favor has been withdrawn, or perhaps in some sense he has withdrawn his favor (if he's disciplining us, for example) – but if our experience is that God's favor is withdrawn and that his compassions are shut up and there are no evidences of his grace and his promises don't seem to be realized in our experience, then that's overwhelming because that's all we have. If it seems like God is against us, then it doesn't matter what else seems to be going for us. We need to know and have confidence and have a lively hope within us, that our God is for us, that he has not forsaken us, that he has not forgotten us.

There are those beautiful words over in Psalm 30: “For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” (Psalm 30:5) And similarly over in Psalm 103: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear Him” (Psalm 103:8-11).

In troubled times, we must search for that anchor – for the anchor! – which is the favor of God, the steadfast love of the Lord, the promises of God, his grace and compassion. That's what we need to get ahold of.

The question is: how are we going to get a hold of that? I can say to you – and I ought to say to you – with those beautiful words in Lamentations 3 that “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases” and that “his mercies are new every morning” and “great is [his] faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22, 23). Those words, perhaps some of the most beautiful words in all of Scripture, were born out of overwhelming suffering and grief. But we need help. How can we get a firm hold on the steadfast love of God?

Well, that takes us to the next section, verses 10 - 15.

In Present Distress, Remember the Lord’s Mighty Deeds of the Past

Here's my heading for verses 10 – 15: In present distress, remember the Lord’s mighty deeds of the past.

Let me read it:

“Then I said, “I will appeal to this,
    to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
    yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work,
    and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy.
    What god is great like our God?
You are the God who works wonders;
    you have made known your might among the peoples.
You with your arm redeemed your people,
    the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah” (Psalm 77:10-15)

The character of God, the mercies of God, even the judgments and the righteousness of God, are revealed especially by what the Lord does through his mighty deeds in history. And so that's where Asaph’s attention turns, to those things which the Lord Has done throughout the course of time and particularly in his dealings with the nation of Israel. “I will remember” (v. 11) – think about this important word: “remember”. And then in verse 12, “I will ponder… and meditate”. We need to let the deeds of the Lord teach us. We need to ponder his deeds and draw lessons and encouragement for us in our present distress. In present distress, remember the Lord's mighty deeds of the past. So, let's think about some of the Lord's mighty deeds of the past.

In the ancient world, the Lord brought a great flood of judgment upon the entire world. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights, and the waters covered the earth, and the waters prevailed on the earth for several months, and all of mankind had been wiped out except for Noah and his family. But the Lord remembered Noah, and the waters subsided, and a new day covered by the faithfulness of God came to be.

Or think about when the children of Israel sinned grievously with the golden calf. The Lord was angry enough with the people to wipe them out. But Moses interceded for the people of God.

In Numbers – in just the space of five chapters – in Numbers 21 and Numbers 25, the children of Israel again got into trouble. In Numbers 21 they grumbled against the Lord. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. And in Numbers 25, again the people committed idolatry, and the Lord sent a plague upon the people. But what happened in Numbers 21? The Lord told Moses to build and lift up a bronze serpent, and everyone who looked at it was healed. And in Numbers 25, Phinehas made atonement for God's people, and so God withdrew his wrath.

Or what about 1 Samuel 17? Remember when Saul and Israel were overwhelmed by the taunts of the giant Goliath. Here are the people of God and they are cowering in fear. But God raised up David, a man after his own heart a man, who trusted him. And the Lord brought a great victory through David.

These are things that teach us about the Lord.

One thing they teach us is that God is not safe! If you're familiar with C. S. Lewis and The Chronicles of Narnia and Aslan the lion who represents Christ, then you know what we learn about Aslan is that he's not safe.  Clearly a God who brings judgment upon the entire world or who sends fiery serpents or a great plague upon his people – clearly this God is not safe. But even though Aslan the lion is not safe, we also know that he is good. And God is good: “the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him” (Psalm 103:17). And so we put our trust in the goodness of the Lord.

Of course, the very particular mighty deed that Asaph is going to be focusing on is the exodus, that great moment in history when the Lord delivered his people out of slavery in Egypt. And even that, even the unfolding of that reality is instructive. You know about the time period described in the later chapters of the Book of Genesis, when a famine came upon the world and it affected Jacob and Jacob's sons and their families – and they're in grave danger. And yet there was grain in Egypt, and whom had God sent beforehand to Egypt? Joseph, one of Jacob's son. Through very adverse circumstances, the Lord sent Joseph to Egypt and ultimately raised him up as the prime minister of the land. And through Joseph the Lord provided for Jacob and the whole family and so they settled down in Egypt.

And then many, many years went by and they became slaves, and they suffered, and they cried out to the Lord. And the Lord heard their cry and he raised up a man, Moses, and sent Moses to deliver the people out of it, and that's what is in his mind in Psalm 77:15, when he says, “You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.” Our God has graciously redeemed his people.

But as we go into the final section inverses 16 – 20, we need to understand that the experience of redemption – the experience of God's intervention in our lives – is often overwhelming. In order to set this up a little bit, just remember that Israel is on their way out of Egypt. They are making their escape and Pharaoh and his army are pursuing the Israelites. But in front of the Israelites is the Red Sea and it seems like this is a dead end. The Egyptians are pursuing behind us. The Red Sea is before us. There's nowhere to go, we’re goners.

Well, let's look at verses 16 - 20.

When You Are Facing Turbulent Waters, Believe and Confess with All Your Heart that God’s Way is through Those Waters

Here's my heading for verses 16 – 20: When you are facing turbulent waters, believe and confess with all your heart that God’s way is through those waters.

Scripture says:

When the waters saw you, O God,
    when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
    indeed, the deep trembled.
The clouds poured out water;
    the skies gave forth thunder;
    your arrows flashed on every side.
The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
    your lightnings lighted up the world;
    the earth trembled and shook.
Your way was through the sea,
    your path through the great waters;
    yet your footprints were unseen.
You led your people like a flock
    by the hand of Moses and Aaron. (Psalm 77:16-20)

Think about this. If I were to come to a great body of water, a mighty river or a great sea or one of the oceans. let me tell you what does not happen – the waters do not tremble at my presence. The waters are not overwhelmed because I showed up. In fact, depending on the circumstances, I might be trembling, I might be overwhelmed. I want to take precautions. I don't want to be swept away by the tumultuous waves. So when the children of Israel were before the Red Sea, they were not comforted. It looked like a dead end. And the Red Sea did not tremble at their presence.

But listen to this: the waters and indeed the whole earth tremble at the presence of the Lord! When the Lord shows up, the waters tremble at their Maker. I mean, just think about the flood: if the Lord stirs up all of the atmospheric waters, and tells them to be poured out on the earth, then that's what happens. If he has a prophet named Jonah who runs away from the will of the Lord, then the Lord can stir up the great sea and put the whole sea into commotion. And yet, when the sailors threw Jonah overboard there was a hush. If God wants to walk on the water, then that's what he does! The waters – they either tremble or bow in humble admiration at their Maker.

Well here in verses 16-20, the whole picture is that the waters – the deep – trembled. And what you see is the realities of creation – the realities of nature – are in a sense coming unglued, so to speak, because they're overwhelmed at the presence of the Lord. There's the wind and the rain, there's the thunder and the lightning. Of course, we know that the Lord caused the Red Sea to part and these two great walls of water stood up so that the children of Israel could pass through. So, when facing turbulent waters, remember that God's way is through those waters.

I have a visual aid for you to see. I usually don't use visual aids in my preaching. I often do you use visual aids in my teaching – and today’s talk is kind of a combination of preaching and teaching. But here's the visual aid (which is not reproduced in the transcript): The top half represents how we would often like things to be – perhaps it represents how we would always like things to be: sunshine, green grass, no trials. But that is not reality, that is not life in this fallen world. And so, what you see on the bottom is the reality that we so often face: we have the Egyptians pursuing us from behind and we have an overwhelming great sea in front of us. There's nowhere to go. We’re all hemmed in. What are we going to do? It looks like this is going to undo us. It looks like this is going to sink us. And yet where is God's way? Where is God's way? God's way is through the sea. God's way is through the dead end. God's way is through the impossible looking situation. God's way is through the wilderness. God's way is through the fiery trial. God's way is through the suffering. We would often like to think that it is not so, but the truth is, that is so often the way it is.

And we will see that in the New Testament, too. For example, we are called to share in the sufferings of Christ. Sometimes those sufferings are specifically because we are Christians, and we suffer persecution. Sometimes those sufferings are simply because we share in the sufferings that are common to mankind. But those too – when we share in those common sufferings by faith, when we’re walking closely with Jesus and trusting in Him – then those too are sharing in the sufferings of Christ. And the New Testament tells us that through trials we grow and that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. God's way is through the sea. God's path is through the great waters. God’s way is through the very thing that threatens to sink us.

When we're in a context of trouble and there's no comfort and we’re overwhelmed – and we just want to be airlifted out – and ahead of us, there's a great sea of one kind or another. And it looks like there's no hope there, but God's going to take us through it. God's going to take us through the coronavirus crisis. God's going to take us through the economic crisis. God's going to take us through all of the various trials and tribulations that we face. He is with us in the valley, leading us to where he wants us to go.

Notice how things transition from verse 15 to verse 20. In verse 15, God graciously redeemed his people and now in verse 20, he is leading the people and he's leading those people by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

OUR GRACIOUS LORD JESUS CHRIST

Now think about this: we need something better than an ark. We need someone better than a Moses or Phinehas to intercede for us. We need someone better than a David to defeat Goliath. We need the Lord Jesus Christ. Our ultimate foe is sin and death, isn't it? How did God rescue us from that? By sending his dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the path of the Lord Jesus Christ is through the sea, through the suffering, and in fact, his path is through death. He entered into the reality of death, there bearing our sin and shame and guilt, and he conquered through it, through his sacrifice, through his shed blood, through his sacrificial love. He conquered and rose again. And now he invites us to follow him. Follow him through suffering to glory.

And so now as Asaph has traveled through this experience of Psalm 77, notice where he lands. In his commentary on Psalm 77, James Montgomery Boice pointed out how in the early part of the psalm, Asaph is thinking a lot about things in reference to himself and his own trouble, but as the psalm ends, he's not thinking about himself at all – now he's thinking about the Lord.[2] Now he's thinking about the Lord's steadfast love, consistently displayed to his people over the course of time. Now he’s thinking about the God who has graciously redeemed his people, the God who has graciously led his people, the God who will continue to lead his people. That is a place I can stand, that is the anchor I can hold onto, that is a pasture I can rest in.

And so, brothers and sisters, by the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of God and the word of God, our heavenly Father continues to lead us through the troubles and difficulties and trials of this life, and he is leading us home to glory.

I want to conclude today’s talk by singing a little bit more:

♪♪ “When through the deep waters I call thee to go,

The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;

For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,

and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.” ♪♪ [3]

♪♪ My peace, not the world's peace, I leave with you now,

For I've overcome and have put on the crown;

Though trouble afflict you, you are not alone,

Through the turbulent waters, I shall lead you home. ♪♪ [4]

May the grace, mercy, and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

ENDNOTES

[1] Four stanzas from the hymn “How Firm a Foundation.”

[2] James Montgomery Boice, Psalms: An Expositional Commentary – Volume 2, Psalms 42–106. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996: p. 637–643.

[3] A fifth stanza from the hymn “How Firm a Foundation.”

[4] I wrote this final stanza. It is meant to be sung to the “Foundation” tune associated with the hymn “How Firm a Foundation.”