Our Help & Our Deliverer
Download MP3Good morning. If you have a Bible, you can go ahead and turn with us to Psalm 40. That is where we're gonna be spending our time together this morning. So hear these words from Psalm 40 and listen closely, for these are the very words of our god. I waited patiently for the lord.
Chase Able:He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction out of the miry bog and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our god. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the lord. Blessed is the man who makes the lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud to those who go astray after a lie?
Chase Able:You have multiplied, oh Lord, my God, your wondrous seeds and your thoughts towards us, none can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. And sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offerings you have not required. Then I said, behold, I have come in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
Chase Able:I delight to do your will, oh my god. Your law is within my heart. I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips as you know, oh lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my hearts.
Chase Able:I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation, and I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. As for you, oh Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me. For evils have encompassed me beyond number, my iniquities have overtaken me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head and my heart fails me.
Chase Able:Be pleased, oh Lord, to deliver me. Oh Lord, make haste to help me. Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life. Let those be turned back and brought to disorder who delight in my hurts. Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
Chase Able:May those who love your salvation say continually great is the Lord. As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer, so do not delay. Oh my God. This is the word of the Lord.
Cole Ragsdale:Thanks, Chase. Well it was June 2018 and the whole world was holding its breath for 18 days, as 12 middle school soccer players and their coach were trapped a mile and a half deep in a cave in Northern Thailand, What started as a birthday celebration for 1 of the boys turned into a worldwide emergency as a surprise thunderstorm came, filled the caves with water, trapping the 12 boys and their coach, or a mile and a half deep, in an underwater cave, a mile and a half that's almost like pepper place and halfway back here, to kind of give you a frame of reference, that they are, in a desperate situation, that they are stuck, that they are in great need. A few of the different accounts, would say that this cave, just in its sheer look, was staggering in its intimidation. That it was almost a darkness, that would consume you, that would invite you in and take over. These boys and their coach were helpless, they were trapped, they were in need of rescue, that they needed someone from out there to make their way in here, to help them get from in here out there, because there was no way in and of themselves that they could get from their current situation to the life that they were made for.
Cole Ragsdale:Why do I start there this morning? While I can probably assume that you've never been trapped a mile and a half deep in a cave in Northern Thailand, I can assume that you have experienced what is so normal of the human condition of feeling helpless or maybe even feeling trapped. Those moments in life when the situation seems so staggering and intimidating or when the darkness seems so big that it's all consuming. It's that feeling of being trapped in that habitual sin that you've promised to God we would finally get over. It's being trapped in some form of addiction that you've fought.
Cole Ragsdale:It's being trapped in the ever increasing wheel of grief time and time again. It's that this that disease or that diagnosis that you weren't expecting. It's that job that seems to be sucking your life out of you 9 to 5 each day. It's that relational strife, the marital strife, the wayward child. We could go on and on, but we certainly know that the human experience is filled of these moments of feeling trapped.
Cole Ragsdale:Imagine that those 12 boys and their coach, you know, 18 days, it's a long time, and as they waited, maybe around day 3 or 4, I don't know, the questions would begin to surface. Is anyone coming for us? Is anyone even able to rescue us? And so not only is the externals seem dire, but the internals become dire. I don't know, maybe you've been in a spot like that where you begin to maybe ask the question, I'm in a situation that I seemingly can't get out of and I need someone or something to come and rescue me and maybe you've asked the same questions.
Cole Ragsdale:Is anyone coming to help me? Is anyone able to help me? Thankfully, the bible is not silent on things of this nature. In fact, Psalm chapter 40 is going to answer that question for the believer with an emphatic yes. So if I was to title this morning's message it would simply be our help and deliverer, and we'll walk word by word, verse by verse through Psalm 40, and I think that the psalmist, that the Holy Spirit through David, is gonna invite you, invite me, to 3 things in particular, that this Psalm is gonna invite us to remember.
Cole Ragsdale:But not only is it gonna invite us to remember, it's gonna invite us to proclaim. And then lastly, and maybe most importantly, this psalm is going to invite us to cry. To remember, to proclaim, and to cry. But before we go any further, I'd love for us to pray together and ask for God's spirit to speak through God's word. So if you would, would you join me in prayer?
Cole Ragsdale:Our father, I thank you for sacred moments like this, where your people gather around your word wanting to hear from you. And so Lord we ask just plainly and boldly would you speak to us this morning through your word? And if you would be willing in your own seat, would you pray and ask for God to speak to you through his word? And, if you'd be so kind, would you pray for me? That I would be helpful to you in that task.
Cole Ragsdale:And so, Father, we just say together that you are the potter and we are the clay. Have thy way, Lord, have thy way. We pray these things through the Son and by the Spirit, amen. So last week Joel kicked off our summer in the Psalms and he started in Psalm 1 where we learned that blessed is the man who does not walk in the way of the wicked. And we learned that that the Psalms are the hymn book of God's people.
Cole Ragsdale:It's the prayer book of God's people, that for generations and generations, we've been praying and we've been singing the Psalms. Why? I I think it's important for us to see is that the Psalms, they present us with real, gritty, human experience, like this of being in distress and in need, or it's gonna be praising of joy, or crying, or even praying against your enemies, that the Psalms are kind of the the nitty gritty, the PG 13 of of the real life in the bible. But not only that, but the Psalms seem to grapple with profound problems that we struggle to put words to. That poetry has a way of doing that.
Cole Ragsdale:But not only does it grapple with profound problems, but it also begins to present some really big ideas and realities about our relationship with God. One commentator would say that there that a psalm is like a flower, that it had there's a flower for every soil and season of life. That regardless of where you find yourself, that there is a psalm that shows this beautiful flower how how to flourish and live in challenging times. So let's look together at the soil and the season of Psalm 40. We'll look at the first four verses to start.
Cole Ragsdale:If you've got your copy of the scriptures, I invite you to read with me. I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
Cole Ragsdale:Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie. It's in these first four verses that we get a picture of David's testimony of deliverance. That David is recalling to mind what God has done in his life. That it's here in verse 1, we see that I waited patiently. This is the Hebrew construction that literally says, waiting, I waited.
Cole Ragsdale:Like like David is like, waiting, waiting, waiting, and waiting. Other translations would say, relying, I relied. Relying, I relied. And this isn't just a Psalm 40 concept, but in fact, Psalm 37, Psalm 38, Psalm 39, have all been about David waiting, no response. David waiting, no response.
Cole Ragsdale:David waiting, no response. But here in Psalm 40, we see that David's patient waiting for the Lord comes to fruition. It says that the Lord inclined to me and heard my cry. This idea of inclined is is like the Lord literally bending down to David. He he he's entering David's world and he hears David's cry.
Cole Ragsdale:It's good news that we have a God who bends down to us and who hears our cries, but not only that, but then in verse 2, David gives us a picture, a very visual picture of his current situation. He says that he drew me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog. This pit of destruction, it could literally be translated the cistern of roaring. That David has found himself in a water hole that is loud, that is roaring in his face. It's almost like you can imagine those moments in your life when things get so out of control that life just feels so loud, or that season of grief in which your grief feels so loud that you can barely speak a word, or that your anxiety gets so loud doing just normal tasks seems impossible.
Cole Ragsdale:David finds himself there. But he not only describes it as the cistern of roaring or the pit of destruction, but he calls it the the miry bog. It's the mud of mud. It's the it's that kind of mud that sticks to you and sticks to everything that the harder you try to climb your way out, the deeper you go. It's like when your tires of your car gets stuck in the mud and the more that you spin, the further you go.
Cole Ragsdale:That David is in the cistern of roaring, the mud of mud, and he is sinking lower and lower and lower. You know, but thankfully, according to verse 1, David is not waiting patiently for good advice. David is not waiting patiently for, for, just another struggler along the way. David is not waiting patiently for karma to catch up. David's not waiting patiently for good vibes or good energy.
Cole Ragsdale:David is waiting patiently for the Lord. And because the Lord is the one he waited upon, he sets his feet upon a solid rock and he makes his steps secure. That the Lord here, I just wanna even just a quick moment, the Lord, capital l, capital o, capital r, capital d. If you see that in your Bible, anytime that you see that, that is the personal name of God, Yahweh. That this is not just some idea about of God, or or even like Lord being master, but this is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Cole Ragsdale:The covenant making, covenant keeping God that David is saying, I wait for you. And because that is the case, he has put his feet upon a rock, making his steps secure, that David was on something that was once unfirm, unsure and unreliable. And now he stands upon something that is firm, fast and fixed, that the Lord Yahweh has delivered David. This is a testimony of David's rescue and I hope this morning that you are even hearing a glimpse of your own story in Psalm 1 through 4. That friends, this is the the gospel according to Psalm 40.
Cole Ragsdale:That, and to put it put it in our, the gospel in Psalm 40 in our words is that we believe that God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. That he's eternal, infinite, and unchangeable, and his power and perfection, his goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth. That nothing happens except through him and by his will. That this God created everything and he created us, he created you to know him and to make him known. It is what we were made for.
Cole Ragsdale:But instead of representing God, each and every one of us have chosen instead to rival God. And in that moment, it looks different for all of us, we took a step away from God, and you know where that step landed us? The pit of destruction, the miry clay, the cistern of roaring, the the spinning down, the harder we try to get ourselves out, we can't, that we are helpless. That we need someone from out there to make their way in here, so that we don't have to be in here anymore, and in fact that we could get out there. And God in his love and his mercy and his kindness heard our cries and he bent down to us, he inclined to us in the person of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man.
Cole Ragsdale:And the only way that we could get out of the pit was for us to trade places with him. That as he pulled out, he went in. And now he we have been set on the solid rock, and he is in the mud, that he is covered in our mud. He is in the pit of destruction. In fact, that pit of destruction, the cistern of roaring, it swallowed Jesus.
Cole Ragsdale:But then in 3 days, Jesus silenced the cistern of roaring when he rose from the dead. And now we stand on the solid rock that is Christ and his righteousness, and he is, as verse 3 would see, has put a new song in our mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. That not only has God rescued us, he has secured us. But not only has he secured us, but now we celebrate. This is the gospel according to Psalm 40, and it is really good news.
Cole Ragsdale:But I'm talking about capital s salvation here, you know, spiritual death to spiritual life. But I think that David's also referring to a very real current felt experience in his own life. And the same can be true for us is that we need to remember, yes, our capital s salvation from death to life, but we are also called the invitation of this text is to remember our deliverance of lowercase s Salvation, of where God has come through for us, where God has come through for our families, and it's good for us to remember. I mean even think about this, all throughout the old testament God is calling his people to remember his acts of old. That we see in Joshua 4, hey set up stones of remembrance.
Cole Ragsdale:Why? So that when future generations come, they'll point and look and say, why are those rocks stacked that way? And they would say, because God delivered his people. Or even in sec or First Samuel 7, it says, erect an Ebenezer, which is a church word for, hey, like a statue of of commemoration of, like, for you to know that the Lord is our help. You will look to it and you will remember.
Cole Ragsdale:Now why do you think God's making a big deal of remembering? I think there's 3 things. I think that remembering connects us, anchors us, and shapes us. That when we remember, it connects us to the past. That it connects us to what God has done.
Cole Ragsdale:But not only does it connect us, but it anchors us, that it gives us footing in the current situation and circumstance that we find ourselves in. It gives us eyes to see, ears to hear amidst all of the noise because we know who God is. But only does it connect us, but it shapes us. That the way that we will live forward in the future when we remember what God has done will be radically different. The first invitation of this text is to remember your deliverance.
Cole Ragsdale:I wanna try to be as wildly practical this Sunday as possible, so how do we do this? I would love to invite you, this week, whether or not it's over your morning cup of coffee or if you're a tea guy or gal, or if it's the drive to work or dropping off the kids to turn down the podcast, turn off the news, and just call to mind how the Lord has delivered you. Just sit there and reflect on the beauty of it. Lord, I was in a pit of destruction. Lord I was in the miry clay and you set my feet on a rock.
Cole Ragsdale:Lord, you took me from death to life. Would you just take some time this week to remember your deliverance like David does here in these first four verses? But David doesn't just remember the deliverance, David then begins to proclaim this deliverance. Let's look together in verse 5. The text says, you have multiplied, oh Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us, none can compare with you.
Cole Ragsdale:I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. We see in this section that David's response to the rescue is twofold. The first is praise. The second is dedication. Praise and dedication.
Cole Ragsdale:Praise and dedication. Let's look at the praise piece first. That in this section of verses 5 through 11, David makes 8 I repeat, 8 references to proclaiming the deliverance that God has given him. Don't trust me. Let's look at the text.
Cole Ragsdale:Like like verse 5, I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. Verse 9, I have told the great news of your deliverance in the great congregation. My lips, as you know, have not been restrained, nor have I hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
Cole Ragsdale:That David's response to deliverance is proclamation with his mouth, That he tells of what God has done. That he has had an experience in his life that he refuses to be silent about, that nothing will keep him quiet. Yes, he was remembering privately but now he is proclaiming publicly that it is this rescue is ever on David's lips. Praise is the right response to deliverance. But it's not only praise, but it's also dedication.
Cole Ragsdale:In verses 6 through 8, we see this there. David says, in sacrifice and offering, you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering, you have not required. Verse 7 is an our our key here. Then I said, behold, I have come.
Cole Ragsdale:In the scroll of the book, it is written of me. I delight to do your will, oh my God. Your law is within my heart. That David knows that the system of the day is to bring sacrifice and to bring offering, but what he sees is that God is saying, hey, I don't I'm not just interested in your external ceremony or your or just the or just lip service, I'm interested in your heart. David, I I I don't just want external ceremony, I want you.
Cole Ragsdale:And friends, the same is this is true for us, that God does not just want our external ceremony, he does not just want our lip service, he wants us. He wants a dedicated life, he wants a dedicated heart in which it would be true of us to say I delight to do your will, oh my God. Your law, what you have commanded is in my heart. Praise and dedication are the right ways for us to proclaim our deliverance. So working, with so many college students, I have a lot of conversations about how they want to be married yesterday.
Cole Ragsdale:It's a blast, don't blame them. I was the same way, you were the same way, don't hate. And, it's always funny about how there seems to be one side of this equation, but not the other, that they are big on the praise of their person, not big on the dedication, commitment piece of their person. It's part of the reason why I think engagement rings are so expensive is, like, hey, if you ain't willing to pay the price, like, you're not gonna get this thing. And so it's interesting to see that it's both.
Cole Ragsdale:That right relationship with God, covenant relationship with God is, yes, we praise him for who he is but we also pay the price of our lives, that we commit to him, that weddings are a beautiful place of praise in which there are flowers and delicious food and beautiful music. There's also covenant vows in which a man and a woman commit themselves to another, that they dedicate themselves to one another, that that a wedding without vows is just a party. In the same way God has called us to proclaim our deliverance with praise and with dedication. John Piper says it this way, you can't commend what you don't cherish. You can't proclaim what you don't prize.
Cole Ragsdale:And so the goal would be that as we remember our deliverance, that we would begin to prize what God has done in our life and then we would proclaim it. That as we consider, man, God, you have continued to come through for me time and time again, and so therefore, I will commend it to all. It's very interesting. Two times here in verse 9 and in 10, David specifies a certain audience of his proclamation. I think it's really, applicable for us today.
Cole Ragsdale:In verse 9 it says, I've told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation. And in verse 10, I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. That David is proclaiming God's deliverance, yes, to everyone, but specifically to his sisters and his brothers in faith. And I think even Lauren has said it today is that there are moments and there are coming moments in which it's going to be really hard to sing some of these songs and so we allow for our brothers and sisters to sing them over us. That there are moments that it is hard for us to believe so we borrow our sisters and brothers' faith.
Cole Ragsdale:That the great congregation that David is proclaiming the deliverance, yes, it is for God's glory, it is also for his people's good. And so we have a command to proclaim this deliverance because there are people who need it. There may be someone sitting right next to you right now that needs to hear your voice. So, like I said, I'm gonna try to be intensely practical today. There are some of you who are probably gonna go to lunch after this or maybe you're just gonna drive home and make a p b and j, respect the frugality.
Cole Ragsdale:I would challenge you today. Proclaim your deliverance at lunch. Sit around the table and tell of what God has done. Or maybe a prompting question, a conversation card if you will, how has God delivered you in the past 6 months? And answer that question and I will almost guarantee there's gonna be someone at that table who needs to hear those words.
Cole Ragsdale:That person might be you. So second invitation, proclaim your deliverance. So, Psalm 40 has always meant a lot to me, it's the reason I was very gracious and then allowed for me to select it. I had a baseball coach, share this Psalm with me. I chose the number 40 in college.
Cole Ragsdale:I, I had this I read this Psalm when I proposed to my wife. This Psalm was read at my wedding. I love this Psalm, but to be honest with you, I've never really liked verses 12 through 15. I felt out of place, it felt kind of awkward. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that about this, you know, it wasn't it wasn't my thing, but it wasn't until 2018, that we lost my dad suddenly in a car accident, and the grief that resulted from that and then the anxiety that resulted from that, and then picking up the pieces of, like, my life and relationships that resulted from that, that I'm really grateful that verses 12 through 14 are there.
Cole Ragsdale:Let's read it together. For evils have encompassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs on my head my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me.
Cole Ragsdale:O Lord, make haste to help me. Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, uh-huh, uh-huh. In this pat- in this bit, we see David begin to cry.
Cole Ragsdale:That he has a passionate plea to the lord for help. And we're not really sure exactly what it is. It could be, personal sin as we see in verse 12, my iniquities have overtaken me, or maybe it could be physical ailment. It says that my heart, my body fails me, or or maybe it's in verses 13 and 14, his persecuting enemies, that there are these people who are coming against David. But regardless, we hear David cry, which is our 3rd invitation of this text, which is for us to cry out for deliverance.
Cole Ragsdale:It's interesting that this psalm started with David recounting rescue from the miry clay in the pit of destruction and then just 12 verses later David seems to find himself back in the pit. David seems to find himself back in the miry clay. I'm grateful it's there because that just seems to be the Christian experience. That as followers of Jesus, suffering should never be a surprise. In fact, it should be expected.
Cole Ragsdale:That God, I don't know if you've heard, that God has not promised that you will not suffer. He has promised to expect it and that he'll be with us in it. And maybe part of the problem is sometimes is that maybe you've heard you're hearing this psalm or I hear this psalm of God delivering but you have been through situations in which God has not delivered, in which he has not come through. Some of my favorite and least favorite moments in ministry have been leading a grief share class, sitting around tables with women and men or on zoom calls where the worst case scenario has become a reality, where God didn't deliver from the cancer, where the wayward child passes away, where the friend does overdose. It's in those moments that we cry out with honesty, God, why?
Cole Ragsdale:And we have to say the hard but beautiful truth that God has not promised to get us out of every situation, but he has promised that he'll see us through. That God has promised that he will be with us in the mix, in the mess, and that he will see us through. There is only one deliverance that God has promised and it's the ultimate deliverance against sin, death, and hell. The rest we rely on him and his mercy. And so as we close, I want us to look at verse 16 and 17, that while David seems to have returned to the pit of destruction, to the miry clay, maybe even the same pit, I don't know, David seems to be different.
Cole Ragsdale:Verse 16, but may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who continually love your salvation say continually, great is the lord. Let's hone in on verse 17. As for me, I am poor and needy, but the lord takes thought of me and then you are my help and my deliverer. There are 5 words that seem to contradict each other.
Cole Ragsdale:As for me, you are. David fills in the blanks, as for me, I am poor and needy. How would you fill in those blanks this morning? As for me, I'm frustrated, I'm disappointed, I'm depressed. How would you fill in the blanks?
Cole Ragsdale:Regardless of how we fill in the blanks, if as for me, we cling, we rely, we trust on the words of you are, that you are my help and my deliverer. You are my help and my deliverer. You are my help and my deliverer. That regardless of the circumstance we find ourselves in, that we have a deliverer. The invitation here is to cry out for your deliverance.
Cole Ragsdale:It's really just to bring your distress to the deliverer. To bring it to him, mess and all, sin and all, to bring your distress to the deliverer. For 18 days, 12 boys and a coach were in that cave and it was the end of that 18th day that they came out of the water, saw the sun, and breathed their first breath. And the questions were answered. Is anyone coming for us?
Cole Ragsdale:Yes. Is anyone able to rescue us? Yes. And believer, the same is true for you. Does anyone care for you?
Cole Ragsdale:Yes. Is there a deliverer who is reaching down to you? Yes. And is he able to deliver? Yes.
Cole Ragsdale:That's good news. Let's pray together. Our father, we thank you that you are a delivering God, that you have taken us from sin and death and have set our feet on the solid rock that is Christ. And father I pray for my sisters and brothers today, my church family, that they would remember, Lord, their deliverance. Lord, that even now the spirit would call to mind the way you've come through time and time again and, Father, as they remember I pray they would be, Lord, I pray that their affections would be stirred for you and they would be ready to worship and to proclaim.
Cole Ragsdale:But, Lord, for my sisters and brothers who are in the room who are in a moment of distress, I pray that these moments of worship and even this prayer right now would be an opportunity for them to bring it to you because, Lord, you are alive and active and well and you care for your people. Be with us now. We pray this through the Son and by the Spirit. Amen.
