Insecurity – Psalm 33

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If you want to follow it on the church Bibles, it's on page 560 and it's psalm 33.

Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous. It's fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp. Make music to him on the ten strength lyre. Sing to him a new song.

Play skilfully. Shout for joy. For the word of the Lord is right and true. He's faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice.

The earth is full of his unfailing love. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars. He puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord.

Let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke and it came to be. He commanded and it stood firm. The Lord foils the plans of the nations. He thwarts the purposes of the peoples.

But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever. The purpose of his heart through all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. The people he chose for his inheritance from heaven. The Lord looks down and sees all mankind from his dwelling place.

He watches all who live on earth. He who forms the hearts of all who considers everything they do.

No king is saved by the size of his army. No warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance. Despite all its great strength, it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him.

On those whose hope is in his unfailing love to deliver them from death and to keep them alive in famine.

We wait in hope for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you. This is the word of the Lord.

Good morning, everybody. Let me add my welcome to that of Chris's. My name is Sam and I'm a member of the church family here at All Saints Totley. It's great to be here with you today as we open God's word together and see what he has to say to us today. If you've been with us over the summer, you'll know we've been looking at this series of us together with God.

Looking at some of the psalms and thinking about how we can bring our big emotions, those feelings that can sometimes overwhelm us. We can bring those to God. And we see in the psalms that they're quite helpful ways of helping us express those feelings, those emotions, and then showing us great truths about our God that help us deal with those as well. So let me just pray as we start today. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that you speak to us, Lord, that even though you are above and beyond anything we can imagine, you have come down to earth and made yourself known to us in Jesus.

And you have chosen to show us who you are. And we pray today, as we look at your words, you would again open our eyes to see more and more of who you are. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, if we could have the next slide up, please, Helen.

So far in the summer, we've looked at some of the emotions. We've thought about apathy, we've thought about abandonment anxiety, seeing how those psalms, they can help us express those different feelings. And today we're going to think, as Chris has said, about insecurity, about those times. We worry, we feel that things are not going as we planned, that things are spiralling out of control. So to start with, I just wondered, what are the times that make us feel like that?

What situations do we find it hard to trust God in? It might be you're preaching and your wife's away and you've got your kids left in the corner to keep themselves to themselves. Or it might be bigger things as well. But I wonder how you would complete this sentence if we have the next slide. Helen.

So in those times where we feel like things are spiralling out of control, how would we finish this sentence? I'll be okay as long as I've got. Now, I am looking for answers here. If anyone's happy to share, share an answer to that, how they would complete that sentence. Health, family, and friends.

Thank you. Nikki, you had your hand up.

As long as you've got your painkillers. Yeah, absolutely. Anyone else? Your phone? Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. I'm sure there's plenty of people over here who can relate to that. Hi, I have you got one, your dog. Dog, yeah, absolutely. Pets?

Yeah. Family, friends? Pets. Yeah. It's brilliant.

These are all the answers I would give as well. A big one for me would be just as long as I've got my comfort. And that incorporates a whole lot of things, you know, house, friends, family, just feeling secure. We sort of all know the answer to that question should be God, don't we? It's often not.

There might be times when we genuinely do feel like that, and that's a great blessing when that is the case. But often our answer is not God, but it's something that is more tangible, something we can see. It's hard to trust what we can't see. And if we have the next slide up, I'm not sure how well you'll be able to see that. Does anyone know what that picture is?

It's a bit dark and dingye. Sorry. There is a cliff involved, definitely. It's from a film. Chris, you might have Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Indiana Jones and the last crusade, that's right. So this is very dark. It's not the best picture, so I apologise. But there's basically a huge chasm in the middle of this cliff where Indiana Jones has got to get from one side to the other, and he can't see a way of getting across. But in his wonderful little diary that gives him all his clues.

It's about stepping out in faith. And so he closes his eyes and he steps out into this chasm and it turns out there's a path that goes across. Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones. I'm not Indiana Jones. I wouldn't be able to do that, certainly, but it's hard to trust what we cannot see.

And so when we find it in those situations where things are spiralling out of control, it's a lot easier for us to turn to things like friends, family, money, achievement, success, popularity. All these things that feel more real, that we can see, that we can touch, we can feel them. We so easily forget who our God is and the promises he's made for us. We're not very good at waiting and if we can have the next slide, Helen, there. Here's some impatient people for you.

We're not good at waiting. And while this is hopefully what our psalm will help us with today, when we feel like things are out of control, this psalm can help us to wait better. And it does that by the psalmist, shows us who our God is and helps us build a better perspective and a deeper security and trust in him. So if we can have the next slide. Helena, we saw the psalm starts with a call to a celebration, and you might think this is maybe a bit odd.

We're talking about insecurity. Why on earth would the psalm start with celebration? But he starts, sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous. It is fitting for the upright to praise him. See, the psalmist, he wants us to gather together and to praise God and to praise him joyfully.

He wants us to enjoy who God is and it's a key part of coming together as a church family to encourage one another as we praise God and remind each other of who he is. And while the psalmist doesn't stop there, if we can have the next slide up. Thanks, Helen. The psalmist goes on to tell us why we should praise God, what reasons there are for it, for the word of the Lord is right and true. He is faithful in all he does.

See, we're not called just to praise God for no reason or just out of duty. There are endless reasons to praise God and the psalmist picks up a few here. See, our God is the faithful God. He is the one who keeps his promises. He acts faithfully, he acts truthfully.

He is the source of all goodness and all truth. And he's also the God who created all things. If we can move to the next slide, please, Helen. Thank you. See, in verse eight we see by the word of the Lord the heavens were made their starry hosts by the breath of his mouth.

See, all creation is under God's control because all creation is his. And it's not just creation, the psalmist goes on, but the plans of the Lord stand firm forever the purposes of his heart through all generations. See, God is in control just by his words. Was all of what we see around us created? And he's not then just left his creation.

He's not made it like we perhaps would a Lego model. Make it move on, leave it on the shelf to get dusty. God made the creation and he stays involved in it and he's still in control. It is his plans, the psalmist says, his promises that will come to pass and they will stand not just for our lifetimes, but forever and, well, that sounds pretty good. As we are, we've got this God.

We know, he's the creator God. He's faithful, he is good, he is true. But this gets even better for us if we have the next slide up, Helen. The psalmist goes on, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. See, all the goodness of this God, all the power, the might, the creativity of this God are directed towards his people.

They're directed towards you and me, his chosen people. See, he doesn't abandon us. He doesn't leave us in our anxiety or security, insecurity. No, instead he purposefully, he watches over us. He's still involved and he cares so deeply for us.

See, we're never left alone to struggle and toil through difficulty. We're never left to despair. But we have an endless source of help. There is this reservoir of love that is always full, no matter how much is drawn out of it, it never loses any of its water.

And it certainly is tempting. I know. As we said before, and as Chris has said as well, when we gather in those times where things feel so out of control, it is so tempting to look elsewhere to those things around us that we can see and put our trust in those. But these things will never provide the security our God can. And the psalmist moves on.

He gives us some examples to show how futile, how useless some of these alternatives can be. See, no king is saved by the size of his army. No warrior escapes by his strength. If we could have the next slide up, please, Helen. See, there is a king, this guy over here on the left, obviously.

And this king, he had a big problem. He had some enemies. Now, in a battle, I imagine none of us have really faced many battles in life like this. But this king had a real enemy, an enemy who wanted to come and destroy him. And so he was worried.

And so what did he do? What did he put his trust in? Any ideas from any of the younger people here today? What do we think the king might have put his trust in? The answer is not God, Henry.

I'm afraid he should have done, but he didn't else his army. That's right. Yes. The king thought, surely I'll be okay if my army is the biggest and the best army. So he kept counting all his men, gathering more men to him so he could feel safe and secure.

But that won't save him. No king is saved by the size of his army. If we have the next slide up, please, Helen, please don't get confused. That's not me in the picture. But here's a strong man.

And this strong man, he had another problem. See, some people wanted to come and beat him up. And so what do you think? He trusted in his strength. That's right, Henry.

I'm sure I'll be safe if I'm the strongest. So he spent all his time down at the gym working out, building up his muscles, eating his protein. Also, he could feel safe, but that won't save him. No warrior escapes by his great strength. See, instead we see it's God who is always in control, and he is the only one who can save a.

If we could have the next slide up, please, Helen. We sang earlier in our first song today about our God, who is mighty to save. And our psalmist goes on to say these words, but the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him to deliver them from death. See, our God is the only one who can rescue? He is the only one mighty enough and powerful enough to save us and provide us with all that we need.

And so what about us then? What is it that we put our trust in when we have a big problem? Maybe it's our friends, our family. I'm sure I'll be okay if I'm with the cool kids, if I stay popular. So we follow the crowd to feel safe.

But that won't save us. Or some of us will rely on ourselves. If I work hard, if I pass my exams, if I complete this race, then I'll be okay. So we try really hard at school. We work really hard at work or our sports, but that can't save us either.

See, all these things are good things. Friends, family, hard work, strong bodies, they're all really great things that God has given us. But they can't look after us when life in this world is hard. They can't save us. Only God has the power to save us.

And the great thing is, not only is the one who has the power, but he is also the one who loves us perfectly and fully all of the time. He's the one we can trust when we wait and the psalmist moves on, if we can have the next slide. Heaven. Thank you. The psalmist finishes with these verses and he says, we wait in hope for the Lord.

He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you, do you imagine the difference it would make to that king, to that strong man, to each of us here, if we remembered these truths? That God loves us and is looking after us all the time? See, God has made us his.

He did that through Jesus dying on the cross. Now that was certainly a situation which seemed well out of God's control. But it wasn't. God hadn't lost control. Instead, he was working a way to make us his, to bring us into his family.

And he doesn't then give up on us. He doesn't abandon us or leave us. And even when life is hard, God's plans for us have not failed. He will do what he has promised. He will bring us into his kingdom.

He will keep us going until the day we see him face to face. And that is a great truth that this psalm encourages us with today. So as we finish, I thought we would pray together by reading these verses that are still up on the screen and read them as a prayer together. So if you join with me, as we read these together, we wait in hope for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.

In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you. Amen. Well, we're going to sing a song again now. We're going to sing a song that's called Christ is enough.