Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.highlandparkbaptist.net/sermons/97359/from-peril-to-praise/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] Welcome to Built on God's Word, the preaching and teaching ministry of Highland Park Baptist Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.! Pastor Mike Scrivani preaches on Psalm 34.! Psalm 34 is our text this morning. If you would stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word together. [0:20] of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech so that he drove him out and he went away. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. [0:38] My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. [0:52] Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall not be ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. [1:06] O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. [1:17] The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me. I will teach you to fear the Lord. [1:30] What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. [1:42] The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears towards their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. [1:58] The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. [2:09] He keeps all of his bones, not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants. [2:20] None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. Would you please be seated? David. The superscription again of Psalm 34 says, Of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech so that he drove him out and he went away. [2:44] David was driven into this perilous situation by King Saul who envied him. Saul knew that God removed him from the throne and would give his kingdom to another. [2:58] Saul knew that the Lord was with David, blessing him with success after success on the battlefield. Saul perceived David as a threat, the one who would replace him and who would take his throne. [3:15] So he tried to get rid of David and cause him harm in ways that ultimately failed. [3:27] David knew that God had chosen him to be Israel's next king, but so long as Saul was alive, David chose to do good to Saul. [3:38] He would not lift his hand to strike the Lord's anointed. Saul's hatred of David escalated to the point where Saul aimed the point of his spear at David and threw it at him with murderous intent. [3:54] And that happened on three different occasions. Saul's third attempt to spear David is recorded in 1 Samuel 19, 9-10. Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. [4:10] David was playing the liar. And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul so that he struck the spear into the wall. [4:22] And David fled and escaped that night. David fled and he escaped to different Israelite cities. But being Israel's king, it wasn't long before Saul received information about David's whereabouts. [4:35] And then he would send a team of assassins out hot on David's trail. So David decided that he would go to the one place where Saul would not expect him to go. [4:48] The one place where Saul would not expect to find him, the Philistine city of Gath. David had vanquished the Philistines in battle after battle. [4:58] In fact, the Israelites greeted David's return from the battlefield singing about how he had struck down tens of thousands of Philistines. Not only was David seeking shelter in enemy territory, but Gath was the home of Goliath. [5:15] And to make matters worse, David was carrying Goliath's sword, which he had used to cut off the giant's head after nailing him in the forehead with a stone from his slingshot. [5:31] To be executed in public with your own weapon was the ultimate humiliation for a warrior like Goliath. So these people in Gath knew who David was and they knew what David had done. [5:47] I'm from Kansas City and Kansas City, most people are pretty nice and genuinely hospitable. Midwestern hospitality, unless you are wearing the other team's jersey at a Chiefs game. [6:00] Then they are not so nice, especially in the rare occasion when their team is beating the Chiefs. But Philistines were not nice people. [6:13] They were aggressive, warmongering pagans who vehemently hated the nation of Israel. Israel was their greatest rival, their chief enemy, and David was Israel's star player. [6:28] The man who killed many of their brothers, their fathers, and their champion in battle. It didn't take long then for the people of Gath to recognize David and report his presence to their king. [6:43] And 1 Samuel 21, 10 through 15 records what happened next. And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish, the king of Gath. And the servant of Achish said to him, Is not this David the king of the land? [6:57] Did they not sing to one another of him and dance his? Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands. And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. [7:09] So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and make marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, Behold, you see, the man is mad. [7:21] Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? Instead of being executed, David was expelled from Gath and took refuge in the cave of Adullam where he was eventually joined by his friends and his family who supported him and took his side against Saul. [7:49] The Lord rescued David from a perilous situation and inspired him to compose Psalm 34, a song of praise expressing his gratitude for how the Lord had preserved his life. [8:04] And so the main idea for this morning's sermon is that perilous times inspire heartfelt praise in our Lord who preserves our lives. [8:16] Perilous times inspire heartfelt praise in our Lord who preserves our lives. David composed this psalm in an acrostic format with only two exceptions. [8:29] Each verse begins with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Why would David do this? Well, putting this psalm in this format made it easier for people to learn and to remember. [8:46] David wanted God's people to learn and remember that the Lord preserves his people in perilous times. And like David, that truth should inspire heartfelt praise of our God who is our Savior. [9:03] The Bible is full of examples where God preserves the lives of his people and then commands them to remember his preservation, his deliverance, his saving acts to rescue them from perilous times and perilous situations. [9:21] One of those perilous situations that God's people were to continually remember was his mighty acts to deliver them out of slavery in Egypt. [9:32] Deuteronomy 16, 2 through 3 says, And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God from the flock or the herd at the place that the Lord will choose to make his name dwell there. [9:43] You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction. For you came out of the land of Egypt in haste, that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. [10:00] David alludes to some of these Exodus events in Psalm 34, indicating that David learned and remembered how God preserved the lives of his ancestors and saved them, and now he had experienced that for himself. [10:18] Sometimes God commanded people to build physical reminders, memorials for his people to remember and to teach their children that he is a God who miraculously interceded in perilous times to preserve his people's lives. [10:40] After God miraculously parted the Jordan River to save the Israelites, he commanded them to set up twelve stones as a memorial. Joshua tells the people in Joshua 4, 6 through 7, that this may be a sign among you. [10:57] When your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. [11:07] When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever. In the New Testament, Jesus commands his followers to continually remember his ultimate life-preserving, life-saving act, his sacrifice on the cross, giving himself to atone for our sins. [11:34] Jesus told his disciples in Luke 22, 19 through 20, he took the bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. [11:46] And likewise the cup after they had eaten saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. In Psalm 34, David's heart is filled with praise as he remembers how the Lord preserved his life in a perilous time. [12:02] And he invites his readers to learn from his experience and to remember that the Lord is a God who preserves and who saves the lives of his people. [12:15] And so in the Psalm, we see four principles for us to remember when we face perilous times and situations that tempt us to succumb to fear or to think that hope is lost. [12:29] And you may be facing a perilous situation this morning. You may think that there's no way out or that there's no good option available to you, that there is no escape. [12:45] You may not feel like praising the Lord this morning. You may not want to truly be here. It's hard to sing about good things when so many bad things are happening or have happened to you. [13:03] Brother, sister, friend, God sees you. God hears you. He knows your situation. And he loves you. [13:15] And he's brought you here to hear this message, to direct your attention away from your troubles, away from your overwhelming circumstances to him who has overcome. [13:31] He's brought you here that you will hear his word and remember these principles that will help you by reminding you of the eternal hope that you always have in Jesus Christ. [13:46] So again, there's four principles to remember when you face a perilous situation. The first principle comes from verses 1 through 3. Remember to praise the Lord. [13:57] Remember to praise the Lord in perilous situations. Again, verse 1, David had experienced many victories up to this point in his life. [14:12] He was a brave person. As a boy, he defended his family's sheep from a lion and a bear. As a preteen, he defended God's honor by meeting the giant and killing him in battle. [14:25] As a man, his victories over the Philistines earned him fame among his peers. But the inspiration of this psalm didn't come after a high point in David's life, but a low point. [14:40] David was reminded again here that there are some battles that only God can fight and that only God can win. Perilous situations when we feel overwhelmed and powerless are often situations where God overcomes and reveals to us his awesome power. [14:59] When we face perilous situations, we are reminded of our limitations. We are reminded of our vulnerability. We are reminded of how quickly things can take a turn for the worse. [15:12] We are reminded that there are some battles we can't fight, and there are some battles that we can't win. We are reminded of how fragile we are. [15:24] Our perilous situations teach us humility, bringing us to our knees, bringing us to tears, bringing us humbly before the Lord as we cry out to him for help. [15:42] In verse 2, David makes the point that this psalm is not for the prideful, but for the humble. He says, My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. [15:55] In verse 3, David specifically invites the humble to join him in praising the Lord. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. To magnify is to enlarge something or to promote something. [16:10] To exalt something in the Hebrew means to lift it up or to raise it up. It makes me think of raising a flag or a banner. It's something we celebrate and want others to see. [16:24] It's like a championship team raising a banner in their stadium or a nation raising their flag after a victory in the battlefield. [16:34] The banner, the flag symbolizes a shared victory, not an individual achievement. David doesn't say, Oh, magnify me with me. [16:45] Let us exalt my name together. The Lord is the object of his praise, not himself. Humility promotes praise because it provokes within us a gladness for the one who is truly worthy of our praise. [17:01] The Lord who enters our peril, who overcomes when we feel overwhelmed and who shares his victory with us, reminding us that he is a God who will not leave us and who will never forsake us, reminding us that he is a God who loves us and who teaches us to live in humility before him. [17:24] The opposite of humility is pride. And pride is an obstacle to praise because it seeks to be the object of worship. Sinful human beings may want to be God, but they aren't good at being God. [17:39] Prideful people think that they can give their lives meaning and purpose, but ultimately find themselves unsatisfied, empty, and angry. We all feel the need for our lives to have purpose and want to feel that there is meaning in our peril. [18:01] There's a pond in our neighborhood which is home to a lot of geese. And a few months ago, a couple of those geese, a male and female goose, because that's how biology works, had five goslings, five fuzzy yellow little baby geese. [18:20] And just about every time our family drove home, we took the long way over by the pond to see our little goose family in ooh and aah over their five adorable little babies. [18:36] We'd stop the car if we could. If no one was coming behind us, we'd look out the windows and we would count them. One, two, three, four. Oh, there's number five. Well, one day, we only counted four. [18:51] We expressed our hopes that, you know, well, maybe baby number five is just out of our sight, or maybe it's down at the pond and we can't see it. [19:01] But as time went on, we realized that baby number five was gone for good. We wanted to know what happened. [19:14] Did it get sick? Did it get run over by a car? If so, who did that? We want to find out who they are. Was it eaten by a predator? We wanted to know what happened to that poor little goose. [19:30] We cared. You know who didn't care? The other geese. And you know why they didn't care? Because they're geese. [19:44] And they aren't created in the image of their creator like we are. We want to know why we suffer. We want to know why others suffer. [19:58] We want to know why this world is so full of trouble. We need to know why all of our attempts to make this world a better place, a safer place, continually fail. [20:13] But getting those answers requires humility. It necessitates an honest evaluation of ourselves. It means being brought low. [20:25] It means admitting we don't know. And we need to seek the one who does know for answers, our creator, our Lord, our God. [20:38] Perilous situations often bring us to a place where we reach the end of ourselves, and that place is a good place for God to teach us things about himself that we otherwise wouldn't learn. [20:51] One of my favorite movies growing up was The Karate Kid, and I'm talking about the original Karate Kid. And there's a scene where Daniel is fed up with Mr. Miyagi's training. [21:05] Mr. Miyagi had entered Daniel into a karate tournament where he'd face the kids who were bullying him at school, and those bullies were a lot bigger than Daniel, and they knew karate. [21:18] For the first four days of Daniel's training, Mr. Miyagi had Daniel paint the fence. Then he had Daniel sand his floors, and then he had Daniel wax his cars. [21:30] And Mr. Miyagi was very specific about the technique that Daniel was to use as he performed these chores. And Daniel worked hard over those four days, and after four days, he's exhausted. [21:45] And he's felt like he hasn't learned anything from Mr. Miyagi that's going to help him fight. He's had enough, and in a fit of rage, he quits. [21:57] And he turns his back on his master, on his teacher. Mr. Miyagi yells at him, Daniel, come back here. Then he says, Daniel, show me the techniques that I taught you. [22:11] Show me paint the fence. Show me sand the floor. Show me wax on, wax off. And as Daniel is performing those techniques, Mr. Miyagi is hurling punches at him, left and right, and Daniel is able to block each one and defend himself easily. [22:26] Mr. Miyagi used those humbling chores to teach Daniel how to fight. There was a purpose in it that Daniel couldn't see as he was suffering doing those chores. [22:44] One of the purposes of David's perilous trial was to teach him that there are some battles he can't win, and more importantly, that God's victories in our lives are meant to be shared with others. [22:56] Jesus is the object of our praise because only he could conquer the enemies that we could never defeat. Jesus Christ is the hero of our testimony, and we need to be people who talk about the goodness of our Lord out loud. [23:15] Our families, our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers need to hear from us the good news about who Jesus is and what he's done in our lives, who humbled himself to save us and who shares his victory with us. [23:34] Philippians 2, 5-11 says this, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [23:56] Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. [24:11] When you are in a perilous situation, remember the greater peril that Jesus endured to save you from the enemies that you could not defeat. Remember, perilous situations are teaching moments where God is at work in your life in ways that you may not understand, but I believe one day you will. [24:33] He's working all things, including the perilous times, for your good because he loves you, Romans 8, 28. [24:44] He's making you more like Jesus. He's preparing you for heaven. That's reason, to praise him. Remember to praise the Lord and while your circumstances may not change, your perspectives will. [25:01] praising the Lord magnifies him over our problems. It helps us remember what we have in the Lord, the hope that we have, the joy that we have, the purpose that we have, the love that we have in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. [25:20] Now the second principle to remember in perilous times is remember the Lord's provision. In verses 4 through 10, David boasts in the Lord by sharing how the Lord provided for him. [25:33] In verse 4, David says, the Lord provided answers when he prayed in deliverance from his fears. He says, I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. [25:44] In verse 5, David remembers how the Lord provided for him with a sense of his presence. Verse 5, he says, those who look on him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. [25:57] Those who look on God are radiant as we saw in Psalm 27 last week. God is light. Those who look to the Lord reflect his light. David here seems to put himself in the place of Moses who after spending time with God on Mount Sinai came down with a supernatural glow on his face which eventually faded over time. [26:20] The point is, that when you earnestly seek God, especially in times of trouble, when you look to him and you trust in him, he will transform your inner anxiety into a joy and a confidence that radiates from your face. [26:40] Spending time with the Lord in prayer and studying his word gives us a peace that surpasses understanding and a joy that comes from trusting in him. In verses 6 through 7, David says, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. [26:57] The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Here David remembers how the angel of the Lord moved from the front of Israel's camp during the Exodus to stand between Israel and Egypt behind them. [27:14] David trusted that God was at work providing protection for him though he couldn't see it at the time. He is reminded of what God did in the past to provide for his people and he trusted that God would do the same thing for him and will do the same thing for those who fear him. [27:37] God provides great provision which David invites his readers to partake of in verse 8. He says, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. [27:50] My favorite dessert is cheesecake and the best place to eat cheesecake is the Cheesecake Factory. I also like pie and the best place to eat pie is the Copan truck stop. [28:02] Amen. Whenever I go to either of those places with my family we'll order a couple of desserts and we'll invite each other to to take a bite to enjoy the deliciousness. [28:23] We'll do that even when we go out to eat. You may do that with your spouse or with a family member or a close friend and say, hey, take your fork and take some of this off of my plate. [28:34] I want you to taste and experience how delicious this food is because joy is best experienced when we share it with others especially those who we love. [28:50] Perilous situations remind us of just how bitter this world cursed by sin is. They make us more aware of an internal God-given desire to taste something better. [29:04] When you taste God's goodness in salvation to save you when you taste God's goodness in sanctification as He works in you transforming you making you like Jesus preparing you for the sinless world to come you savor your hope in Him and your love for Him which the Bible says casts out all fear. [29:30] You know that He is the only one who can truly satisfy the deepest longings of your heart and your soul. You want others to experience this to taste that goodness to receive the Lord's provision His grace His mercy His love which never runs out. [29:51] Verses 9 through 10 David says Oh fear the Lord you His servants for those who fear Him have no lack the young lion suffers want and hunger but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. [30:03] You know friends we often fear the wrong thing don't we? We often seek the wrong things for satisfaction. [30:14] We often look to the wrong things for provision. When we fear people more than God we show that we don't really trust God. [30:27] when we seek safety in earthly treasures thinking those things will alleviate our fears we show that we don't truly fear or trust in God's provision. [30:41] The fear of God described here is a reverential fear. Proverbs 1 7 says it's the kind of fear this kind of fear is the beginning of wisdom. [30:53] When we fear God we are wise because we are trusting in him we are trusting in his provision and so we don't turn to other things that can't satisfy the deepest longings of our heart and that can't save us from the thing that should cause us to truly feel fear about which is being eternally separated from God's presence and his goodness and his grace and his eternal provision. [31:25] Jesus said in Matthew 10 28 through 33 do not fear those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell are not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father but even the hairs of your head are all numbered fear not therefore you are of more value than father who is in heaven but whoever denies me before men I also will deny before my father who is in heaven so remember in perilous times that God is a God who provides and ultimately he's provided his best for us his only son Jesus Christ who again won the battle for us that we could never win on our own we need his righteousness we need his sacrifice we need his him we receive forgiveness we receive grace we receive [32:30] God's love we will receive resurrection we will be with him eternally as his citizens in his eternal kingdom if you truly fear God you will fear nothing else but if you don't fear God you will fear just about everything else remember God's provision fear him pursue him in times of peril and that brings us to the third principle remember to pursue righteousness in times of peril remember to pursue righteousness verses 11 through 14 say come oh children listen to me I will teach you the fear of the Lord what man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good keep your tongue from evil and your lives from speaking deceit turn away from evil and do good seek peace and pursue it when people face perilous circumstances they are tempted to complain to feel sorry for themselves to return evil for evil and become angry and bitter and you know none of those things actually help they don't change our circumstances in fact they cause us to sin and sinning ultimately adds to our misery perilous situations aren't a time for us to take a time out from pursuing! [34:07] righteousness but a time for us to press on I'm going to share a story with you and I'm about to break one of the rules that I tell anybody who preaches never be the hero of your own illustration and I've prayed about this and I hope that you know that I am not trying at all in any way to be the hero of the story it's the Lord but I feel like it's a good way for me to share with you just a personal experience that will hopefully make this truth just penetrate your heart and see how it's helped me I remember a time in seminary Danny and I were living in safest place to live I should say I don't remember all the circumstances that happened during that time I think this was my first year as a seminary student but life was hard we didn't have much and it felt like for us our lives were on pause but our friends those who we had graduated from college with were starting their careers they were starting their families they were buying houses they were going on vacations and we were the poor couple that they couldn't invite to anything because we didn't have any money to do anything [35:28] I think it was a Saturday morning and we were kind of just down in the dumps I was in a missions class and we had weekly assignments to go share the gospel just go share the gospel record those conversations and then we bring those into our teachers share those encounters and we didn't have much but we had enough to buy a loaf of bread a jar of mayonnaise and a package of lunch meat and paper sacks to put the sandwiches in and we drove downtown! [36:10] we pray Lord who do you want us to share the gospel with who needs this sandwich and then we would get out of the car and we would go take that sandwich to them and try to share Jesus with them and that changed our perspective we came home different we came home joyful we realized the Lord had shown us that we had a lot more than we thought that we did and we had a lot of good news to share and we were thankful to be able to share it Jesus said true prosperity is found pursuing righteousness not earthly treasures Matthew 6 31 through 34 Jesus says therefore do not be anxious saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the [37:13] Gentiles seek after these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them all but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself in other words you have no power to affect anything about tomorrow so why worry about it sufficient for the day is its own trouble now the fourth remembrance in times of peril remember the Lord's proximity to you remember the Lord's proximity to you verses 15 through 22 the eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous and his ears towards their cry the face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut them off from the memory of them from the earth when the righteous cry for help the Lord hears and delivers them out of their troubles the Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit many are the afflictions of the righteous but the [38:13] Lord delivers him out of them all he keeps! of his bones not one of them is broken affliction will slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous will be condemned the Lord redeems the life of his servants none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned so what do we read here God sees God hears God is near to the broken hearted though our afflictions are many as we read here as well the Lord we also read preserves us in them and will bring us through them unbroken David's experience here reminds him of the Passover lamb whose bones were not to be broken and whose blood was used to cover the doorposts of the Israelites as God redeemed his people from slavery as the angel of death passed over their homes and they were saved [39:18] David seems to be placing himself here in the place of the Passover lamb when he is brought through this peril with unbroken bones just as the nation of Israel was brought through its peril with unbroken bones those who like David who belong to God experience his redemption in his salvation ultimately we know that the experience in the exodus and David's experience served as types foreshadowings of the ultimate coming of God's true Passover lamb Jesus Christ who offered himself as a sacrifice to atone for our sins and we are likewise on an exodus of sorts in Christ we have been set free from slavery to sin we are journeying through this world as foreigners as citizens of a better country ruled by a better king whom we are awaiting his return and are going to be with him and so we endure afflictions but we do so knowing that the [40:36] God who has saved us will keep us and will preserve us but this is not true of the condemned as David points out at the end of this psalm only those who have been saved only those who have been trusted in Christ as their Lord and Savior are those who are saved who are redeemed only those who have trusted in Christ who have received his righteousness who have repented of their sins will ultimately experience the rescue of God from this sin cursed world and if you don't know him he's brought you here to hear this good news friend there is a battle you cannot win even if you had it all you'll lose it all there's a battle that you cannot win there's a battle that only [41:36] Jesus could win Jesus the eternal word of God the son of God entered into our perilous situation adding a human nature to his divine nature doing what none of us is capable of doing living a sinless life and then willingly going to cross where he sacrificed his life for our sins where he shed his blood where he endured the wrath of the father for the sins that we've committed against and he died and on the third day he rose again as proof that he is who he said that he was and that he has won all the battles that he said that he came to win and he shares that victory with us and he wants to share it with you if you don't know him he's brought you here to hear that truth to call out to him to cry out to him to save you from the peril of your situation what it's done to you and what it means for you and to turn to him and he'll save you and he'll redeem you he'll rescue you he'll forgive you and you will experience a joy unlike any other that helps us get through our perilous situations in this world because we have a hope in [42:48] Christ that overcomes all things so how do we adjust as believers to what we've heard in the psalm I think there's at least three adjustments here pray then praise and then proclaim if you're in a perilous situation pray for God's help in humility seek the Lord go to God in your prayers go to God in his word ask for his help and you know what's a wonderful thing about the Lord has given us is the church he's given us each other and there are people in this church that you can go to and to ask them for advice to ask them to pray with you or for you and I believe that in this church we have people a lot of people who want to do that so pray in humility ask God for help second praise God when you're in a perilous situation what you need to do is to continue to fill your mind and your heart with songs of praise remembering the things [43:55] God has brought you through in the past and others through in the past again remember what God has done and what he has taught you in his word fill your mind and your heart with good things praise for God and third proclaim his goodness as I said last week when Christians are in a perilous situation it's like the Lord turns the spotlight on them and the unbelieving world who knows them is watching to see what they're going to do what are they going to say and in those moments God gives us the ears of those who otherwise may not want to listen to us an opportunity to proclaim the goodness of Jesus Christ and the hope that we have in him that has overcome all things including what overwhelming situation we might find ourselves in and I know for me Romans 8 is one of my favorite chapters in the [44:56] Bible and it's the one I often find myself going to in perilous situations and perilous times and so God's word will have the last word this morning and I pray that this will be a comfort to you Romans 8 31 through 39 what then shall we say to these things if God is for us who can be against us in other words if God is for us it doesn't matter who's against us he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give us all things who shall bring any charge against God's elect it is God who justifies who is to condemn Jesus Christ is the one who died more than that who was raised who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written for your sake we are being killed all the day long we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered no in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for [46:07] I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord praise God let's pray Lord thank you for this time that we've had this morning to gather and to worship you and to sing your praises and to be reminded of your good goodness of your graciousness of your loving kindness and of your provision Lord thank you for psalms like psalm 34 where we're able to in a way put our feet in the shoes of David and God though we may not be in a similar situation where people are actually wanting to kill us we have experienced situations in life where we feel like we're dying and we feel like hope is lost to go on but [47:14] Lord you've told us time and time again in your word that you are a God who preserves us in our peril that you are a God who has a purpose for all the things that we go through and ultimately Lord you are making us more like Christ you are preparing us for a kingdom that is without sin the place Lord that we long to go that has the kinds of provisions that this world cannot satisfy us with. And so, Lord, I pray for those who have heard this word. God, you know their situation, you know their peril, and I pray that in your goodness and your grace, you'll continue to remind them of your provision and of your love, and that, Lord, in Christ, you have overcome the enemies that we could not defeat, and you share our victory. And, Lord, I pray that that would give them hope. And, God, we know that you told us in this world we will have trouble. There's no escape from it. So, Father, when we face trouble, may we be reminded of what you have called us to do during those times and what you've enabled us to do by the indwelling of your Spirit, to be people whose hearts and minds are continually declaring your praises with our mouths in the hopes that more would hear, in the hopes, Lord, that more would be saved. And we anticipate that day, Father, when you bring us out of all of our perils. Until then, we know that you've given us a mission to do. And so, Father, help us to not be afraid of men. Help us not to be afraid of others. Help us, Lord, to fear you and you alone, and that we would be a people who pursue you fearlessly and proclaim your truth fearlessly as well, that you would get all the praise because only you are worthy of it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. [49:01] To learn more, visit us in person or see the website at highlandparkbaptist.net.