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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
As we keep reading through the Psalms today, we're gonna be in Psalm 78 and we're gonna start at verse 56 going through the end. But they kept testing and rebelling against the most high. They did not obey his laws. They turned back and were as faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a crooked bow.
Morgan Teruel:They angered God by building shrines to other gods. They made him jealous with their idols. When God heard them, he was very angry and he completely rejected Israel. Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the tabernacle where he had lived among the people. He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured.
Morgan Teruel:He surrendered his glory into enemy hands. He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword because he was so angry with his own people, his special possession. Their young men were killed by fire. Their young women died before singing their wedding songs. Their priests were slaughtered and their widows could not mourn their deaths.
Morgan Teruel:Then the Lord rose up as the waking from sleep, like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor. He routed his enemies and sent them to eternal shame, but he rejected Joseph's descendants. He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim. He chose instead the tribe of Judah and Mount Zion, which he loved. There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens, as solid and enduring as the earth.
Morgan Teruel:He chose his servant David calling him from the sheep pens. He took David from tending the ewes and lambs and made him the shepherd of Jacob's descendants, God's own people, Israel. He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands. This entire Psalm is a historical recounting of different lessons learned and passing it on to future generations. And there's so much in here that is really hard to read.
Morgan Teruel:It's hard to grapple with. But I think the theme that I see throughout this Psalm is that during these struggles and through all these lessons learned, this gives us a chance to see the bigger picture of how God was at work. Because despite all of these terrible things happening, the end of the Psalm ends with God choosing the line of David to bring about his heir. Ultimately, that heir was Jesus and generations and generations following. So when I look at this Psalm and when I reflect on it, think it gives us a picture of being able to go, God, I don't know how you're always working, but I believe that you're preserving us and for something, for what?
Morgan Teruel:We don't know yet, but something beautiful is to come. There's a sovereignty, there's a power and there's a preservation to the work of God that we don't understand in the moment, but there's a behind the scenes work happening. And so may that give us faith today as we exercise a faith in Jesus where we don't see the big picture, but we can trust that he will be doing something beautiful. Lord, we come before you today, no matter what our current circumstances are, no matter what our current emotional state is, maybe we're experiencing frustrations, maybe we're experiencing mystery. And God, if we're wondering where you are, would you allow us to remember and would you remind us that there is a bigger picture at work here?
Morgan Teruel:That there is a bigger work and you are behind the scenes orchestrating every detail of our lives. Lord, we remember that you direct the steps of the godly and that you delight in the details of our lives. So we'd we focus our eyes on that today. When we start to wonder, when we start to doubt, would you bring us back to the fact that even in a Psalm like this, we can see terrible things happening, but also the promise of a future era as you chose the line of David to produce Jesus. God, love you and we want to have faith that grows and hope that is confident in you.
Morgan Teruel:Amen.