(upbeat music)
- Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you
to our look at Psalm 61 and drive time devotions.
You know, I think every one of us knows
that not everything is in our control.
In fact, most things are not in our control,
but there are a few things that you do have control over.
And your choice with those few things,
it makes all the difference in your life
and even in your eternity.
Psalm 61 talks about three things,
three things that you control today
that will cause you to recognize God's control
in every circumstance.
And they're all built around the word my.
We're gonna look at the word my in this Psalm
and what it has to say to us about these three things,
my cry, my refuge, and my vows.
First of all, this Psalm talks about my cry.
And the truth is, you decide who you're gonna cry out to
when you have a need.
Listen to verses one and two.
Hear my cry, oh God, listen to my prayer.
From the ends of the earth, I call to you.
I call as my heart grows faint,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
You're gonna face needs every day of your life.
Right now, you may be surrounded by these everyday needs,
or you might be in the midst of facing
one of the greatest needs you've ever faced.
The question is, who are you gonna cry out to
with that need?
Are you gonna cry out to no one?
Just handle it yourself?
That's the way you've always done it?
Or are you gonna cry out to other people?
Other people who might have the resources
or the position to help you?
Now, God might want to use other people in your life,
but they're not the ones to cry out to.
This Psalm reminds us you cry out to God.
Back in Psalm 57, verse two,
I cry out to God most high,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
And we cry out to God because God is the rock,
the rock that is higher than we are.
Depending on anything or anyone else in your life
as your life's foundation,
it's like trying to stand on jello when God is the rock.
Just think of any problem that you're facing right now.
I can promise you this, God is bigger than that problem.
Also, think of any great success you might have had.
I can also promise you that God is bigger than that success.
Sometimes we can feel more overwhelmed by success
than by struggles.
We start to think, how am I gonna hold it together?
How am I gonna keep it going?
God is bigger than even that success.
He is your rock.
There's so much to life that we don't control.
Life is unfair and we feel threatened in life
and things fall apart around us.
And sometimes everything seems unmanageable.
Has your world, let me ask you this question,
has your world been shaken recently?
I want to encourage you, call out, cry out to God as your rock.
Don't waste any time.
When you feel yourself slipping, you call out for the rock.
When you're about to go under,
you cry out for a rock to stand on
and God will be that rock.
God is your rock.
You know, I've always wondered sort of why
we have this great fascination with rocks as human beings.
We collect them and we climb them
and we travel across continents
just to see the largest of them.
And the truth is, it's just a rock.
Rocks don't do much, they just sit there.
So what's the excitement?
They don't move, they don't do anything.
Well, that is the excitement.
They don't move.
They're very dependable and some are huge.
They are noticeable.
Wow, that's a rock, yep, that's a rock
and it never moves.
God obviously understands our heart towards rocks.
It shouldn't surprise us that one of his favorite ways
to describe himself is as our rock.
A rock, solid, secure, big,
able to make a noticeable difference.
All of that is who God is.
God wants to be today, that needed rock in your life.
And when you cry out to God,
it leads you to this rock that is higher than you
and that leads us to the second my statement in this psalm.
First, my cry.
Second, my refuge.
The truth is you decide where you're gonna run
when you need shelter for your soul.
What's gonna be your refuge in life?
Verses three and four.
For you, God, have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the foe.
I long to dwell in your tent forever
and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.
So there's these pictures when God is my refuge.
When God is my refuge, he is my strong tower,
this psalm tells us.
A strong tower is a place that the enemy cannot attack.
It is so high, it is so perfectly placed,
the enemy cannot make its way into that tower.
God is that strong tower in your life.
It also says that God is your shelter.
Notice, take refuge in your tent, it says,
in the shelter of your wings.
This is talking about the tabernacle.
Talking about the Holy of Holies,
the place of God's presence.
God's tent is the tabernacle.
And the wings where the two angels met
which stood above the Ark of the Covenant,
that's the shelter of your wings.
This is the place of God's presence.
So we've talked about the pictures of a rock
and now a tower and now these wings.
They are the pictures of what God wants to be
and do in your life today.
The rock is a picture of God's power.
The tower is a picture of God's protection.
The wings are a picture of God's presence.
And you take refuge in that right now.
God's power, God's protection, God's presence in your life.
In your heart right now say, God, that's my refuge.
No thing else, no other place.
And you can always go to God as your refuge.
My cry, my refuge.
And then the Psalm talks about my vows.
When it comes to my vows, that reminds us
that you decide the commitments
that you're gonna make and keep.
One of the greatest decisions that you can make
when everything seems out of control
is to keep your vows, your commitments to God.
It changes everything.
Listen, beginning in verse five.
For you have heard my vows, O God.
You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
Increase the days of the king's life,
his years for many generations.
May he be enthroned in God's presence forever.
Appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him.
And then will I ever sing praise to your name
and fulfill my vows day after day.
So when things seem out of control,
you look for how can I fulfill my vows to God.
If your time seems out of control,
you keep your commitment to spend time with God.
If your marriage seems out of control,
you keep your commitment to unselfish love.
If your finances seem out of control,
you keep your commitment to give to the Lord.
That's the way that you and I trust God
in the midst of the realities of life.
You keep your commitments to God
when things seem out of control.
That's what reminds you that God is in control.
You see, you don't need to get it under control.
That's not your most important need
or my most important need.
Our most important need is to remind ourselves
that God is in control.
'Cause if we think we can somehow tell ourselves
that we can get it under control,
we know we're lying to ourselves
'cause we can't control everything,
but we know that God does control everything.
In verse five, he says, "You've heard my vows."
And then in verse eight, you might have noticed he says,
"I fulfill those vows."
I want to look at what happens between those two verses,
verse five and verse eight.
They are the reminders that help us to realize
how do I keep my vows?
How do I fulfill those vows?
How do I know that I'm not just wanting
to do great things for God,
but I'm choosing to do those things?
And he talks in those verses about a couple of things.
First, he talks about the heritage
of those who fear your name.
And he's reminding us there
that in order to fulfill your vows,
you need to look back to God's blessings.
The blessings that have come to those
who've kept their commitments to God out of their love
and respect for God.
So you read chapters like Hebrews 11
and read the blessings that came into the lives
of those who kept their commitments to God.
That's the heritage of those who fear your name.
And then he also talks about this prayer
to appoint your love, I love this prayer,
to appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him.
So you look back to God's blessings
and then you look forward to God's protection.
God, appoint in the future.
I'm looking forward in the future
to your love and your faithfulness protecting me.
Look forward to God's faithfulness in your life.
Look forward to God's love in your life
'cause it will never fail you.
Now, the truth is there is a lot that you don't control,
but you do get to choose today who you call out to,
who you look to for refuge.
And you do get to choose the commitments that you will keep.
So let's talk to God about that.
And Father, we come to you
and first we bring to you
all that seems out of control in our lives.
And we say we want to recognize
that even though it seems out of control,
you are in control and we need your strength.
We need you as our rock.
So God, we do exactly what you called us to do in this song.
We call out to you.
We call out to you as the rock that's higher than we are,
higher than any circumstance we're facing.
And we look to you for refuge.
You're the tower, you're the shelter that we need.
Help us not to run away from you,
but to run to you right now.
And God, we choose today the commitments that we will keep.
Even those things seem confusing around us.
We're not confused about what you've asked us to do
in the most important areas of life.
And so God, right now we're choosing
that we're gonna follow you, Jesus.
We're gonna follow you.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Well, tomorrow we're gonna look at Psalm 62,
which talks about where your soul can find rest.
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music)