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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
We continue our journey through the Psalms today by reading Psalm 60. You have rejected us, oh God, and broken our defenses. You have been angry with us. Now restore us to your favor. Right right off the bat, I think that this is already a very relatable Psalm.
Dani Crowley:We've probably all maybe felt that like, God, where are you? Where are you in this? You've shaken up our land and you've split it open. Seal the cracks for the land trembles. You've been very hard on us making us drink wine that has sent us reeling.
Dani Crowley:Meaning there's been, hard lessons that we've had to learn through this situation. But you have raised a banner for those who fear you, a rallying point to the face in the face of attack. I think about that idea of a banner, you know, when you're in the middle of a battle or maybe you've like seen one of those, like, Lord of the Rings movies or something and there's so many they throw up this flag or they throw up this banner. And, amidst the crowd, it's the the rallying point. It's like a a recentering place.
Dani Crowley:And we find that for us as believers, the banner over us is truth and it's also prayer. So let's continue to read to, to see that. Verse five, we pick up and it says, Now rescue your beloved people. Answer and save us by your power. This is the prayer that I'm talking about.
Dani Crowley:David is praying. God has promised this by his holiness. I will divide up Shechem with joy. I will measure out the Valley Of Sukkot. Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine too.
Dani Crowley:Ephraim, my helmet will produce my warriors. And Judah, my scepter will produce my kings. But Moab, my wash basin will become my servant and I will wipe my feet on Edom and shout in triumph over Philistia. Who will bring me into the fortified city? Who will bring me victory over Edom?
Dani Crowley:Have you rejected us, oh God? Will you no longer march with us and our armies? Oh, please help us against our enemies for all human help is useless. But with God's help, we will do mighty things for He will trample down our foes. What's really interesting about this passage is it starts with, God, where are you?
Dani Crowley:Have you rejected us? You've essentially made us learn some really hard things, and we are totally destitute. And David begins to pray, and he hears from God. God's voice, it it it shouts out through this moment of despair, and he is reminded of the promises that he's made to David about what's gonna happen to this kingdom, this kingdom Israel. And so we hear from God, but then it again ends with, but God, have you rejected us?
Dani Crowley:And I think that that's so interesting that it's bookended with this idea of, God, where are you? And I really think that this means for us that we are not done in prayer. That, it's very, very relatable and it's very much okay for us to come to God and say, god, I feel like you've rejected me. Where are you? Would you show it yourself?
Dani Crowley:Would you would you speak? I need to hear your voice. But we can't grow complacent when we do. We must continue to come back in prayer. God, where are you?
Dani Crowley:I need to see you again. Have you rejected us? I think that this kind of relating to God with such vulnerability and with also just such authenticity, such a trueness to what we are experiencing, what we are feeling, what we are walking through, and actually bringing that to God, not bearing our heads in the sand, but coming to God with what we are actually feeling, and asking for him to speak and to even just remind us of things that he has once spoken to us before, but to say them again so that we can be reminded of his promises of what he has said to be true and, our our our faith and our hope can be renewed. So we just, we pray now and we ask you, God, that you would speak. We confess that there are times where we, we can't see you, at work.
Dani Crowley:Maybe our attention is elsewhere or we're distracted or our faith is just so weak. God, we we struggle to see where you are at and and how you're moving and and we feel like you've rejected us at times. But, god, I thank you that you are a god that is kind and tender. You're an you are a God that is never absent and sometimes we feel like that is true. But even in that, you are kind to renew a sense of awareness to you.
Dani Crowley:And so I ask that today that you would do that for us, that you would renew in us a sense of awareness to where you are and how you're working and also the truth that you've spoken over us. God, that it would raise up over your people like a banner, that truth would prevail, that it would be the rallying point for us, God, as we, come to you in prayer to seek your truth and to hold fast to it in very difficult seasons, in times of battle, of fighting, of war, both literally or even figuratively in our life. God, we need you, and that is the truest thing that we can say today. So would you come in power? We ask this in Jesus' name.
Dani Crowley:Amen.