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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 Jan.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: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
Pastor Fredo Ramos:the Psalms. This has been
Pastor Fredo Ramos: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.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:As we continue praying the Psalms, we come now to Psalm 39. David writes, I said to myself, I will watch what I do and not sin in what I say. I will hold my tongue when the ungodly are around me. But as I stood there in silence, not even speaking of good things, the turmoil within me grew worse. David's is he's in a difficult place.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The more I thought about it the hotter I got igniting a fire of words. Lord remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you at best.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Each of us is but a breath. We are merely moving shadows and all and all our busy rushing ends and nothing. We heap up wealth not knowing who will spend it. And so Lord, where do I put my hope? My hope my my only hope is in you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Verse eight, Rescue me from the my rebellion. Do not let fools mock me. I am silent before you. I won't say a word for my punishment is from you. Notice David in this difficult place, but please stop striking me.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I am exhausted by the blows from your hand. When you discipline us for our sins, you consume like a moth what is precious to us. Each of us is but a breath. Notice that that tone again is repeated. Hear my prayer, oh Lord.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Listen to my cries for help. Don't ignore my tears for I am your guest, a traveler passing through as my ancestors were before me. Leave me alone so I can smile again before I am gone and exist no more. What a prayer. I wanna note that Psalm 39, like Psalm 88, which we'll get to, doesn't necessarily end on a high note.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You know, oftentimes a prayer of David or anyone else here in the Psalms might kind of begin in darkness and in pain, but then, you know, ends in light and in hope. But Psalm 39 kind of just maintains this, this somber feeling of man, my life is but a breath and we might be feeling that today. Today. And even David, appears to be saying to God like, Lord, You're, you're striking me. And so there's this desire for, for, for David just to be left alone.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:If I had to summarize this I would use the word desperate. And maybe for those of you today, this would be a a powerful invitation to lean into whatever feelings of desperation you might be having, knowing that Psalm 39 is a beautiful example of why this prayer is preserved for us in scripture. Though it might say things that are hard for us to, you know, embrace in our own lives, it's important for us to remember that God is not intimidated by how we're feeling in prayer nor is he intimidated by our desperation. In fact, God knows exactly what you sound like and what I sound like when we are desperate, and he welcomes us to continue to speak to him. And so even though, again, this Psalm might not end with this kind of climax of hope and that God will help us, it is clear.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:David confesses, my hope is only in you even though my life is a breath. And so, God, we we come before you and Jesus, we hear your invitation to just be honest in prayer. We confess our our need for your help. And Lord, we we man, we we hope that there would be a place for us to just speak our honest desperation before you. And would you meet us there in that place?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And would you, in your timing, lift us up? And so, God, help us all to be able to pray not just what we know, we should say, but help us to pray what we need to say, even if it's our desperation. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.