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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 1, and every day you're gonna get a new Psalm with 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 praying the Psalms, we come today to Psalm 41. David writes, oh, the joys of those who are kind to the poor.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The Lord rescues them when they are in trouble. The Lord protects them and keeps them alive. He gives them prosperity in the land and rescues them from their enemies. The Lord nurses them when they are sick and restores them to health. Oh, Lord, I prayed.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Have mercy on me. Heal me, for I have sinned against you. But my enemies say nothing but evil about me. How soon will he die and be forgotten? They ask.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:They visit me as if they were my friends, but all the while they gather gossip, and when they leave, they spread it everywhere. Put an image. All who hate me whisper about me, imagining the worst. He has some fatal disease, they say. He will never get out of that bed.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Even my best friend, the one I trusted completely, the one who shared my food has turned against me. Lord, have mercy on me. Make me well again so I can pay them back. I know you are pleased with me for you have not let my enemies triumph over me. You have preserved my life because I am innocent.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You have brought me into your presence forever. Praise the lord, the god of Israel, who lives from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen. By way of reflection, it's clear that this is a Psalm in which David is declaring and not really asking for mercy. Apparently, he's maybe sick, dealing with some ailment, but I think that the deeper illness and maybe even the deeper pain is not so much what he's physically experiencing, but what he's emotionally and spiritually experiencing.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:His friendships have now gone. And it's interesting to me interesting to me that he contrast that with this opening statement that the joy of those who are kind to the poor, because the Lord rescues all of them. So he begins this prayer with an announcement that God is in the details of our lives, especially in the details of the lives of those who we would easily neglect, like the poor. And he says there's joy for people whose eyes are opened to the details of your day today because God desires to meet those needs. And so he connects that with the reality of his own need for mercy, and he's confessing and acknowledging the sting of losing friendship.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so what an opportunity maybe for us today as we consider, the ways that maybe we are in isolation, and we just name that to God in prayer. Lord, as we think about our day and as we think about our relationships, we hear you inviting us just to acknowledge before you maybe the people in our lives who have fallen away for whatever reason. And we ask god that you would have mercy on us. That maybe even in our isolation and in our hurt, you would draw close to us. And that we would be reminded of your care for those who are in need.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You are the guide of the details of our lives today. And so would you, Holy Spirit, give us eyes to see the needs of other people so that even in our hurt, we might extend a hand to help somebody else. May we do this in the name of Jesus. Amen.