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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a psalm a day. We started in January 1st and every day you're gonna get a new psalm, but the opportunity to read the psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the psalms.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you, and so would you join us. Grace and peace. As we continue in praying the Psalms, we are in Psalm chapter 7. David writes these words starting in verse 1.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Lord, my god, I take refuge in you. Save and deliver me from all who pursue me, or they will tear me apart like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me. Lord, my god, if I had done this, and if there is guilt on my hands, if I have repaid my ally with evil or without cause have robbed my foe, then let my enemy pursue and overtake me. Let him trample my life to the ground and make me sleep in the dust. Arise, Lord, in your anger.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Rise up against the rage of my enemies. Awake, my God. Decree justice. Let the assembled peoples gather around you while you sit enthroned them on high. Let the Lord judge the peoples and vindicate me, Lord, according to your righteousness.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Down in verse 10, my shield is God most high, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, And the trouble they cause of the evil one, they will have their violence come down on their own heads, David prays. And then there in verse 17, he ends, I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness, and I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord most high. What I want us to reflect on is, David's ability just to say unashamedly, look look, God, if I had done something wrong, then let this happen to me. But David is drawing attention to the fact that things are happening to him, people are in pursuit of him, and yet he's done nothing wrong, at least nothing wrong to his knowledge.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so he is without any kind of shame just calling on God there in verse 6, like, to be angry, Lord. Like, have you ever prayed like that? Have you had a moment where you asked God to get angry on your behalf? We see David doing that. And also in verses 15 and 16, we have him, I think, giving us an accurate picture that though evil appears to have its day, though things that are wrong in the world from our vantage point appear to continue without any kind of justice being done, they will recoil.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The the the pit that they dig, they will fall into. Right? In other words, David reminds us in this Psalm and in this prayer that evil will have its day before just God. And so the reflection then leads us to a place where we can rightfully return to God justice in what is fair. And there is, I think, an invitation for us to respond to Jesus in prayer today, remembering that he is the just one.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so we no longer have to have the sword in our hands, knowing that Jesus himself will make all things right. And so, Lord, we commit to you today, all that is wrong in the world, and we entrust ourselves to you. And even with the confidence of David, say, Lord, get angry at the evil and please do what is right. And would you help us by the power of your spirit to release our need and desire to take justice into our own hands, but rather to call on you, the one who can get angry with a sense of righteousness. We entrust our lives to you, God.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We entrust our problems to you and ultimately this world knowing that you will be and you are the just God today. Amen. Grace and peace. Stay tuned for Psalm 8. And cut.