(upbeat music)
- Hi, this is Pastor Tom.
I want to welcome you to our look at Psalm 85
in drive time devotions.
Psalm 85 starts by expressing a desire to be close to God.
And I hope that's your desire today.
Psalm 84 talks about that desire.
But then later it talks about those
who may be struggling with that desire.
First, the desire, verses one to seven.
You showed your favor to your land, O Lord.
You restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your people
and you covered all their sins.
You set aside all your wrath
and you turned from your fierce anger.
Restore us again, O God, our savior,
and put away your displeasure towards us.
Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong your anger throughout all generations?
Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your unfailing love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
So it talks about at the beginning wanting to be restored.
I need to be restored 'cause I feel far from God
about needing to be revived
because I feel like God is angry with me.
I feel separated from God.
I want to be restored.
I need to be revived.
So this is a psalm about what to do
when you feel far from God.
When there's a feeling of distance
or lost connection between you and God,
it might be over an unresolved guilt.
Even more often, I find in my own life,
it's over a feeling of apathy.
I read the Bible.
I just don't get much out of it
and I don't know why sometimes.
I go to church and it feels like
I'm just watching the people around me singing
rather than singing myself.
And I'm not sure why sometimes.
Is it something I've done, some circumstance I've been,
something to do with my physical or emotion?
What's going on?
I just know that I feel far from God right now.
What do you do when you feel this way?
Psalm 85 tells us the answer starts,
it starts with who we're choosing to listen to.
Verse eight says, "I will listen
"to what God the Lord will say.
"He promises peace to his people, his saints,
"but let them not return to folly.
"I will listen to a God who promises."
Listen to God's promises.
That's what to do when you feel far from God.
Listen to God's promises.
A feeling of disconnection from God
is an invitation to take some time
to listen to God's promises.
Now, in order to build on God's promises,
you have to know God's promises.
The way that you know God's promises
is by listening to God's promises.
Now, it's interesting, the Hebrew word for listen
that's used here, shama,
that word means to listen with attention.
Listen with intention to obey.
To listen with attention
and to listen with intention to obey.
To listen carefully.
Now, this is very convicting to me
'cause I do not always listen carefully.
I don't always listen carefully to the Lord.
Sometimes I read through verses too quickly
and don't listen.
I certainly, I will confess,
do not always listen carefully to my wife, Shondel.
Shondel's like headed out the door
and she says to me,
"All right, make sure you put the cake in the oven
at 325 at seven o'clock."
And I say, "Great."
Like I heard everything that she said.
And then maybe 30 minutes later I realized,
I have no idea what she just said.
Did she say the cake in the oven
or the clothes in the dryer?
And then, you know how it works,
I have to make that embarrassing call.
What time?
What temperature?
Where is that cake?
And I'm afraid that for myself and a lot of us,
we're often like that with God's promises.
And so we're making guesses.
We didn't listen carefully.
We're making guesses
about the key building blocks in our lives.
So here's the question.
What promises do you need to listen to?
Well, there are thousands in the Bible.
We can make drive time devotions
just all about listening to God's promises
and list them for the next seven, 9,000 sessions.
But we're just gonna look at this Psalm
and what it has to say.
This Psalm points to five specific promises,
points beautifully to five specific promises.
So listen to these promises for your life today.
If you're feeling far from God right now,
listen to these promises for your life today.
If you're feeling close to God right now,
you want to stay there, so listen to these promises.
First, listen to God's promise of salvation.
Verse nine says, "Surely his salvation
"is near those who fear him,
"that his glory may dwell in our land."
So listen, God will rescue you.
Salvation means rescue.
God will rescue you.
Now that does not mean that he will keep you
from every problem in this world.
He doesn't promise that kind of rescue.
In fact, he tells us the opposite.
We're gonna face trials in this world.
But he will rescue you in the midst of those problems,
rescue you from doubt, rescue you from temptation,
rescue you from despair.
And he will rescue you one day from your sin
and the sin of this world
to live with him in perfect holiness.
That's why Jesus died on the cross,
so that God could offer us that salvation, that rescue.
So listen to that promise.
That promise might be familiar to you.
You may have heard it many times before.
Listen to it carefully today, with careful attention
and with an intention to obey,
to let that promise of salvation
be what marks your life today.
And then there are four promises
that are intertwined in verses 10 to 13.
The promise of love, the promise of faithfulness,
God's promise of peace,
and God's promise of righteousness.
And I love the beautiful way that these verses show
how God's promises work together
and strengthen each other all through our days.
Listen to verses 10 to 13.
Love and faithfulness meet together.
Righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The Lord will indeed give what is good
and your land will yield its harvest.
Righteousness goes before him
and prepares the way for his steps.
So listen to these pictures.
Sometimes you need to listen to pictures.
And by listen, I mean open up your heart,
open up your soul to take the truth into yourself.
Don't just see it with your eyes.
Take the truth into your soul.
These pictures, love and faithfulness meeting each other.
God's love is caught up in his faithfulness
and God's faithfulness means he will never stop loving you.
And righteousness and peace kissing each other.
This picture of truth springing up from the earth,
of righteousness smiling down from heaven.
This picture of righteousness going before God
as a herald preparing the way.
Listen to these pictures.
Here's God's promise to you today.
His love is promised to you.
That promise is sealed through the cross
and the resurrection of Christ.
It's sealed in history.
But before it was sealed in history,
it's been in the heart of God for all eternity,
his love for you.
God has never not loved you
and God will never stop loving you.
That's God's promise to you today.
And God's promise is that his faithfulness flows
from his love.
Love is met by faithfulness.
God cannot be anything but faithful.
That's who he is.
And so God will not fail you.
He will never stop loving you and God will not fail you.
You may often feel far from God,
but in Christ you will never be far from God
because he is inevitably faithful.
And so his faithfulness springs from the earth.
It is there for you today,
whether you feel it or not.
It is there for you today.
And his righteousness,
his righteousness is looking down from heaven upon you
right now.
His rightness, his goodness, all of who God is,
it is going before you.
The goodness of God is going before you
as he prepares his steps for your life.
Inevitably.
You can count on this.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
and also go before me all the days of my life.
And that righteousness, it kisses, it gives embrace.
The goodness of who God is, it kisses,
it gives an embrace to all the promises
that God has for your life.
God embraces all that he has for you,
the peace that he has for you in Christ.
He embraces that through his righteousness.
Now God's peace is not an emotion.
It is a promise based on God's character of righteousness.
And that promise that he has given to us
and the righteousness of Christ guarantees his promise.
All the promises of God are yes in Christ.
So in that spirit of listening,
let's open our hearts to God right now for a moment.
And in this moment, would you listen to your salvation,
God's promise of salvation?
He has rescued you.
And in that spirit of listening,
would you listen to God's love for you?
Always has loved you, will never stop loving you.
Listen right now to God's faithfulness.
Never fail you or forsake you.
That is who God is, that is his promise.
Listen to God's righteousness, his goodness,
poured down upon you, all the riches of his goodness
given into your life by Christ.
That's God's promise.
Listen to that truth about who you are.
And right now, listen to God's promise of peace.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I leave with you.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I leave with you.
I'll never fail you or forsake you.
Jesus's peace is with you today.
Father, it's so easy for me to get busy.
It's so easy for me to talk,
to think about what's on my mind.
I pray that more and more you'd give me
a listening heart towards you.
And we pray it together in Jesus' name, amen.
(upbeat music)