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- Welcome back to our look through the book of Psalms.
We're looking at Psalm 79 today.
It's a Psalm written when Jerusalem fell to Babylon,
one of the worst days in the nation of Israel.
Verse one, "Oh God, the nations have invaded
"your inheritance.
"They have defiled your holy temple.
"They have reduced Jerusalem to rubble."
This was the worst of circumstances
for the nation of Israel.
You can read the history of it
in other parts of the Old Testament,
but Jerusalem falls to Babylon, to world powers,
because of their unfaithfulness to God.
It's a Psalm that talks to us
about the worst of circumstances.
Personally, the worst news that you have gotten
in your life.
Maybe it was even this week.
News from a doctor,
or the unexpected call about someone you love who's dying,
or the total loss of a dream,
or the falling apart of a relationship.
The question of this Psalm is,
when things get bad, when life doesn't work out
as I would have scripted or expected,
who am I gonna trust?
And in those moments where it's all falling apart,
you can try to run from the reality,
but that gets you nowhere.
Believe me, I've tried this one.
I can give a testimony.
It gets you nowhere.
You just run right back to where you were eventually.
This place of facing the reality of your loss,
and deciding, who am I gonna trust
in this real place of loss?
Now, for some of you, as we talk through this Psalm,
it's a loss that you're facing right now.
Others of you, you might think of a loss
that you faced in the past
that you haven't really dealt with yet with the Lord.
And for all of us,
this is a truth we're gonna need in the future,
'cause through this life, we're gonna face loss.
In heaven, there's no more loss or pain,
but through this life, we're gonna face loss.
And Asaph, throughout this Psalm,
he gives us an example of how to face reality with faith,
not deny reality with our faith.
A lot of Christians try to do that.
Oh, it's gonna be okay, Lord.
It's not all okay.
It's all falling apart.
So how do I face the reality and have faith?
Our Christian denial often leads us away
from the Lord in the end.
Let me say that again.
Our Christian denial, saying it's all gonna be okay
and not facing the reality,
leads us away from the Lord in the end.
A month later, a year later, five years later,
because we haven't dealt with it,
we've started to slowly but surely
feel like God can't be trusted.
Well, God can be trusted.
I just haven't talked to him as a trustworthy one.
I haven't trusted him with this problem.
So how do you trust him with the reality?
And Asaph gives us these pictures of how to do that.
He talks, first of all, about devastation without denial.
Now, this is not just a daily disappointment he's facing.
This is the most devastating thing
that they will go through in their lives.
And when you think about your life,
you can remember what that has been for you.
Maybe you're going through it right now.
He talks about the devastation.
He talks in verse four about how people looked at him
because of the devastation.
We are objects of reproach to our neighbors,
of scorn and derision to those around us.
If the devastation is public
and it often is on our worst of days,
when you've been trampled on,
other people like to make fun of you.
I don't know why it is.
It's human nature.
And you can start to believe the message they're giving out,
that you are worthless.
You are not.
Remember, you are still his child.
It's not, in this psalm we're reminded,
it's not as though it's your honor that's at stake
in what you're going through.
It's the Lord's honor.
You are God's inheritance, the Bible said.
You are God's holy temple.
You are God's servant.
You are living under the name of Christ.
So instead of denying God,
Asaph has the courage to face the reality
and turn to God.
When things are at their worst,
you're either gonna deny God in the end
or turn to God in the end.
That's the message of the book of Revelation.
And Asaph, he prays for two things
on this day of destruction
that helps him to face the reality.
First, he prays that the offender will be punished,
verse 10.
Why should the nation say where is their God
before our eyes make known among the nations
that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants?
He prays for that.
And then he also prays
that his own sins will be forgiven.
Do not hold, in verse eight,
do not hold against us the sins of the fathers.
May your mercy come quickly to meet us,
for we are in desperate need.
Help us, oh God, our savior,
for the glory of your name.
Deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake.
So he sees both.
He sees the fault in the offender,
but he's also honest enough
to see the fault in his own life.
That's reality.
So he expresses to God both his anger and his repentance,
both his desire for judgment
against the one who has come against God's people,
but also repentance for his part in it.
That's being real in the midst of the devastation.
And he gets there quickly.
He also expresses to us a second way
that we deal with reality.
He talks in these verses about confusion without doubt.
Why was this happening?
Why was Jerusalem being destroyed?
Why was the temple, the temple of God,
why was it being allowed to be torn down?
Asaph was confused.
So how do you keep your confusion from turning to doubt?
Here's how.
You express your confusion to God.
You tell him how you feel.
You go to him with your questions.
You don't just ask the questions.
You go to him with your questions.
Verse five.
How long, oh Lord, will you be angry forever?
How long will your jealousy burn like fire?
Now, just asking the questions of God
has the power to build your faith.
Instead of just letting them revolve in your mind,
you make it a conversation with God.
And as you do that, you remind yourself
that God will not answer all of your questions.
God will hear all of your questions.
And out of your sharing those questions,
there will often come an assurance,
even when there's no immediate answer.
Many of the questions I have, you have had,
there is no immediate answer in this life at all.
We're not gonna know until we get to heaven
if we need to know then.
Many of the questions I've had in this life,
the answer wasn't immediate, but it sure was clear later.
I couldn't have understood it at the moment.
And so God just waited.
So confusion without doubt.
Confusion turns to doubt when we're silent.
Confusion turns to doubt when we just speak
to ourselves or to others.
But confusion turns to faith when we ask God our questions.
And then there's a third thing that he talks about
in this Psalm that you and I need to struggle with,
struggle through in order to face a time
of devastation with reality.
He talks about grief without despair.
In verse 11, may the groans of the prisoners come before you
by the strength of your arm,
preserve those who are condemned to die.
And then verse 13, then we your people,
the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever.
From generation to generation, we will recount your praise.
So he talks about groaning in verse 11,
and he talks about praising in verse 13.
Did you see that?
So which is it?
It's both.
It's both.
The New Testament reminds us that we do not grieve
as those who have no hope.
We grieve with hope.
It's not either grief or hope.
It's both.
We have grief without despair because we have hope.
Three things are able in these few verses,
are able to put our grief into perspective.
Did you notice what he talked about?
Even in these few verses,
who we are, what we will do, and how long we will do it.
Who are we?
He says, we're your people.
We're the sheep of your pasture.
So you deal with this issue of your identity.
And what will we do?
We will praise you.
So you act in a different way.
You act in praise towards God.
How long are we gonna do it?
From generation to generation and forever.
You put it into eternal perspective.
Now there's a whole sermon there
we don't have time to look at,
but there's some truths that are worth chewing on forever.
You may not have a happy ending even in this life,
but you are promised a glorious eternity.
So the Lord inspires Asaph.
He's the writer of this song.
To write a song that expresses grief to God and hope in God,
even as Jerusalem is facing destruction.
The story of Asaph and his family, it doesn't end here.
142 years later,
Nehemiah, after the people of Israel
are taken off into captivity,
after they live in captivity for many years,
142 years later, Nehemiah returns to rebuild the city,
the city walls that are being destroyed on that day.
And we're told in Nehemiah chapter seven
that returning with them for this rebuilding
were 148 singers.
And guess whose family those singers were from?
The family of Asaph.
Nehemiah seven, 43 and 44.
These are the Levites who returned from exile.
The families of Jeshua and Cadmele, 74.
The singers of the family of Asaph, 148.
What an incredibly powerful picture
of how faith and hope endure.
142 years later,
148 descendants of Asaph are still singing his song.
When it all seemed like it was lost,
Asaph was singing, "We are your people.
"We're the sheep of your pasture."
And generations later, generation after generation,
generations later, when they're rebuilding the foundations
of the city that was destroyed in those days,
his family is looking back on his legacy of faith
and they're continuing to sing,
"We are his people, the sheep of his pasture."
Well, I want to be an Asaph.
I want to be one who faces the realities of life with faith
and builds a legacy of praise to God out of that.
And Father, as we pray today,
as we turn our thoughts to you, we all want that.
We want our legacy to be faith.
Our reality is tough sometimes.
It may be tough right now.
Father, help us to face the confusion and the devastation
and the struggles that we're going through with faith.
And as those who are around us,
even our own family, see the song of faith
that's in our lives, it's our prayer
that that song will speak into their hearts,
into their lives, that generation after generation,
we, your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Well, tomorrow we're gonna look at Psalm 80.
Psalm 80 has some more hope for even the darkest days.
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