When life comes at you fast…worship.

Psalm 59

May 30, 2010

First response

Which of the following is going on right now in your life?

1.      Someone is trying to hurt you.

2.      You have been betrayed.

3.      You feel trapped.

4.      Your relationship with your teenage or adult children is not exactly what you want it to be.

5.      You’re feeling used up, dried out, and alone.

6.      You thought you were on top of things, but on the heels of victory you got slammed with a new challenge.

7.      You are feeling very guilty over a wrong you committed.

8.      Everything’s going pretty well right now – no immediate, pressing challenges.

9.      You have a concrete dream for the future, but you realize it won’t be fulfilled in your lifetime.

I would be surprised if at least one of those items doesn’t have your name on it.  At some point in life, probably all of them apply.  Collectively, they’re called “life.”

What is your first reaction when one of those happens?

1.      Deliberate hurt – avoidance.

2.      Betrayal by a friend – revenge.

3.      Trapped with no way out – escape.

4.      Disappointment with kids – anger.

5.      Loneliness in the desert – self-pity.

6.      Challenge after victory – weariness.

7.      Well-deserved guilt – self-abuse.

8.      Problem-free present – apathy (or fear).

9.      Unfulfilled dream – (midlife) crisis.

For the next few weeks, we’re going to watch ancient Israel’s greatest king and poet turn all these experiences of life into worship.[1]  We want to tell the story of David’s life, but we want to do it not so much through the events, but through David’s response to those events. 

David’s response paraphrases a commercial for insurance.  “When life comes at you fast…worship.”

Song titles

In order to read the psalms this way, we have to pay attention to a part of the psalm easy to overlook – the title.  This is comparable to reading the top of the page when you sing a hymn out of the hymnal.  Look at your bulletin insert.  Today’s closing hymn, “God Of Our Fathers,” is under the caption, “The Nation,” which is the section of the hymnal.  The words were written by Daniel C. Roberts in 1876, which you will immediately recognize as our nation’s 100^th birthday. 

Ironically, the words Daniel Roberts originally wrote were sung to a tune called “Russian Hymn.”  Somebody thought that was inappropriate, so a decade or more later an organist named George Warren wrote a tune called “NATIONAL HYMN” that we use today.  (Warren, the way, was such a great organist that when he died, nobody played the organ at his funeral because they felt no one was worthy.)  You also note in the title the meter (how many syllables in each line), 10.10.10.10., and also a note to sing the hymn “in march rhythm.”

Something like that appears in many of the psalms – although not all of them.  Look, for example, at Psalm 59.

“For the director of music.  To the tune of ‘Do Not Destroy.’”  Actually, in the Hebrew original the words “to the tune of” do not appear.  That may be the name of the tune (like “NATIONAL HYMN”), but David also might be telling his choir director, “Keep this one.”

“A Miktam.”  No one knows exactly what that means.  It describes the poem in some way.  One guess is “a golden psalm.”  But an equally good guess it that it means “a silent prayer.”  This is one of several of David’s psalms composed in dangerous settings.

The particular dangerous situation is then described – “When Saul had sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him.”

Success elicits rage

The story is told in 1 Samuel 19.  That is only a couple of chapters removed from where we were last week, when David was anointed by Samuel as the next king of Israel (1 Samuel 16).  It happened right in front of his brothers and father, although they probably missed the significance.

Immediately after that story, David went into Saul’s service to soothe his troubled soul by playing the harp (16:14-23), and then we get that great story about David fighting Goliath the Philistine giant (ch. 17).  The Israelites then routed their nemesis and plundered their camp.

You would think all this would be a positive turning point in David’s relationship with King Saul, but when the victorious army returned to a victory parade, the women of Israel danced and sang, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands” (18:7).  From that time on, Saul was jealous of David (18:9).

It wasn’t long until Saul hurled a spear at David during one of the harp sessions (18:10).  Saul made David a military commander, and David continued to succeed (18:13-14).  That made Saul only more insecure.  In another attempt to kill David, Saul used his daughter, Michal.  She had fallen in love with David, so Saul told David he could marry Michal if he killed a hundred Philistines and brought their foreskins to Saul (18:24).  Saul figured David would never survive the attempt (18:25)!  But David killed 200 (18:27) and got his bride.  We’re not told what Saul did with the bag of foreskins.

Another war followed with the Philistines, and David once again led the Israelites to victory.  That made Saul only more secure, and led to another attempt to pin David to the wall with a spear (19:9).  David escaped yet again.

Then 1 Samuel 19:11 says, “Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning.”  During that time – maybe even that night – David turned that horrifying set of disappointing circumstances into a song.   Life became worship.

Passion, purpose, plans (Pastor Paul)

The psalm begins and ends differently.  It’s truly a 180.

“Rescue me from my enemies, O God. Protect me from those who have come to destroy me….O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, wake up and punish those hostile nations. Show no mercy to wicked traitors” (vv. 1,5).

O my Strength, to you I sing praises, for you, O God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love” (v. 17).

One of the things you can never accuse David of is a lack of passion.  He is the originator of turning despair into worship. 

We don’t pray with that kind of passion.  Does your diary look like this…. “The IRS has ravaged me.  Tear out their coffers.” 

Usually our response is more like, “Darn.” Or when things are great and prayer is answered, “Good job, God.”

David is an emotional nut.  People would think we were crazy if we went around like David does.

When you are full of the Holy Spirit you pray with passion.  When you go down to the depths, the Holy Spirit turns that into being a vessel of worship.  When you go to the heights, the Spirit turns that into praise, into worship.

One thing the church today doesn’t have is passion.

David is a vessel chosen to represent God so that his people might fall in love with God and worship him.

David doesn’t take this lightly.  Every step he pursues that purpose with passion.  The Holy Spirit gives him this passion.  That is why thousands of years later we’re not talking about other kings; we’re talking about David.

My father has a pond on his piece of country property.  It has a massive infestation of algae.  Most people would kill the algae and then put fish in the pond.  Not my Dad.  He put fish in the pond and then we tried to kill the algae.

I love killing stuff.  We did random things, like skimming algae with a board.  I thought that was really funny until I saw my daughter Hannah.  Hannah stands on the shore with a stick and stabs the water, saying, “Die!” 

I asked her, “What are you doing?”

Hannah answered, “Killing the algae.”  She had passion and purpose, but no plan.

This world is full of turmoil.  We need David’s heart.  Our purpose is to represent Jesus Christ to this world.  Paul says what we believe seems like foolishness to the world.

We have a purpose, but the problems of the world overwhelm our passion.  We stand back and say, “Where is Billy Graham where we need him?”

I’m convinced God would rather have those who stand with a stick and stab the water – those who don’t have a plan, but have passion and purpose.

David wants his people to fall in love with God.  Our purpose is to represent him to the world.  God’s love is “crazy love,” and if we can’t respond to that love, our hearts are like stone.

We need all three “P’s” – passion, purpose, and plan.

Worship is serving God with all he has given us.  We tend to respond with waiting…not for God, but for someone else to step up.  I pray that as we study David and see the calamities in our nation and all around us (jobless, economy, poor, sick, those who don’t know Jesus), we would respond with passion according to God’s purpose.

We need to respond like Isaiah, “Here am I, send me.”

Our response needs to be, “O my strength, to you sing I praises.  The God who shows me unfailing love.”

God’s plan of love doesn’t fail.  We’re being called on a journey, on an adventure.  It’s time to get off the bench and get into the game.  James says, “Be doers of the word, not hearers only.”

Beth Moore says David has “a heart like his.”  I say, “God give that heart to me, too.”