We are in Psalm 62. As we continue our, our study, I've asked Brandon to hang on up here for a moment and to lead us in a song that's gonna help us a little bit. Um, in, in understanding what a, a Psalm is. But I thought I'd begin by just asking a question and seeing a show of hands. How many are fans of a manicured lawn? Yeah. Lots of hands. How many are fans of financial health? Lots of heads. Um, how many are fans of Kurt? I thought you were gonna throw this out there. You told me to how many are fans of completely trusting Christ in difficult times? I, I will tell you this, I, I am a fan of a manicured yard. Um, I, I have my wife and I have moved a few times and so we've had different houses and, and I can tell you that I've never had a manicured lawn, but, but I grew up in a home where we had a manicured lawn and, and my father had three boys and a girl and none of us took care of the lawn. We might mess it up So he had three boys, we could play catch in the backyard as long as our feet didn't stay in the same place too long. And we certainly couldn't put bases out where you ran because that would mess up the lawn. See, there, there's a commitment that it takes to have a manicured lawn and, and in terms of financial health, I've always been a fan of financial health, but you know what, I'm not a fan of a personal budget, you know, II, I remember when I oversaw the finances of the last church, I was in a and the staff would say, man, you are so strict and, and I was, but when it came to personal budget, I, I mean, I came to the conclusion, maybe some of you have came, came to the same conclusion was that if your, your food budget is out and the refrigerator is packed with leftovers, but you're walking by the Cheesecake factory that, you know, budgets mean nothing. And when it comes to completely trusting in Christ, it isn't during the easy times that we trust in Christ. It's in the tough times. And, and so Psalm 62 is a Psalm. Uh and John began the series in Psalms by telling us that it's the greatest hits. It's, it's a group of songs. Um And there is a song that I thought of as I was looking at this passage and, and it was a, a song that was similar to this passage, but it's a modern day song. It was uh I think five or 10 years old and, and it has the chorus and a verse and a chorus and a verse and, and it helps us understand what it might have been like to hear David sing this song. And so Brandon could you uh lead us in that song? And what I would like us to do is instead of standing up, it's really a prayer. So I'd like us to join him in singing but to have an see, be seated and have an attitude of prayer. Thanks Brandon that the all the earth would care to know my name. I would care to feel hm. That the bright and morning would choose to lie. OK. Doing hard. Not because of who. Yeah, but because of what you now because of what but because a flower quickly fading here today. Oh, wave us in the ocean. You when I'm calling Lord, you catch me when I'm falling, you show yeah, I am that the eyes that see must sin, look on me with and watch me rise again. You got the voice that would calm the storm, not because of who I am, but because of what you've done. Not because of what I've done, but because of who you are and quick here today and got some more awaits us in the ocean in of did me when I'm calling Lord, you catch me when I and you show me who I I am. I am your not because of, but because of what you've done. Not because of what I've done. But because, and on all those for you, when Lord you catch me on, shown what? Yeah, I am your Oh Brandon. Thank you. That's the idea of a song. And David is going through an experience, a difficult experience, a hard time. And he, and he writes a song that describes it has a chorus and he comes back to the chorus and then he concludes with the chorus. But each time the chorus just expands. And so the, the point, the big idea that we're going with this morning and that we're trying to communicate I is that comfort comes from consistent confidence in God's concern for you. It, it's having that consistent confidence. And so he begins with the chorus and the chorus communicates my soul finds rest in God alone. Listen to verse one and two. My soul finds rest in God alone. My salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress. I will never be shaken. You know, it's, it's interesting to me that um David's situation, commentaries, commentators tell us that the situation that caused David to write this song was that he had a rebellious child, he had a rebellious son. Um No, we don't need a show of hands but have any of you ever had a rebellious child. Here, here's the deal. Well, we did have a hand go up but, but to be truthful as I looked around, II, I think that there's some of you who were rebellious child, you were the child. And so the situation with, um, David is that absalom, his son had become rebellious and David was now out in the wilderness and we'll talk about how that happened. But he, he was out in the wilderness and he was, David was separated from him, a son that he loved that he cared about. And I, I can imagine that for you and I that in a group this size and when we talk about you multiply it times two because we have another service that the number of people who come to Mission Grove who have a hurt and a pain, then you're going through a tough time right now. Um II, I think it would be tremendous. We talk about our country. It is interesting to me that our former president uh tweeted out or Xed out or however you do it. Something about God alone protected him. And when we get protected, we go. But there was a man who died, the there, there were two who were severely injured. There, there is a family of a 20 year old son that, that is their guts are bleeding everywhere. Does God alone rescue even in the midst of that? And so you may be sitting in a really difficult time. Right now. You may have gone to the doctor this week and you went in with a little bit of a pain. I had a friend who a couple of weeks ago did that. He went in with a little bit of a pain. It, it had been irritating him for a while and he went in and, and the diagnosis was that you have pancreatic cancer and you have eight weeks to live. Is, is God still good? Is it God alone? And, and the some of you may be going through a relationship problem. You may be going through a difficulty with your spouse. And all of a sudden words are coming up in your marriage that you hadn't heard before. That's, you know, maybe this isn't gonna work out and you're, you're hurting. I need you to understand that when David wrote this psalm this song, he was hurting. Likely he was in a cave lately. He was pretty much alone and he said all I have is God alone. And so my question for us today and David's gonna go through and tell the story of what happened. And he's also gonna talk about what we turn to sometimes in, in trying to find solutions. And David keeps coming back to God alone. And I, I just share with your friends that it is in the midst of your hardest times. Your most difficult times that when you can say God, it is in you alone that I trust that you will see great things happen. That's why James. James said in James chapter one, verse two, many of you have heard it. So consider it pure joy when you go through various trials, some of you are going, how do you, how do you do that? How do you, how do you consider it pure joy when you're going to trials? So in order to see what James meant, you have to go further down in the book of I in the first chapter, James chapter one verse 12. And we discovered that what James is saying is that it's in the midst of the difficult times, the challenges, the really hard times that I have an opportunity to show God that I trust him only, it's in the tough times that I get to do that. It's not in the easy times, you know, it, it's not in the easy times when you, you get called into the boss's office and you go, oh, no, I know they're doing cutbacks. I wonder what's gonna happen. And the boss says I just need to tell you, you've done such a great job. We're gonna give you a promotion. You go. Yes. Yes. God is good. But is that the only time he's good? Is that the only time you can count on him or when, or when you, you go to get that doctor's report and you're going, that really has been concerning me and the doctor does some tests and he says, I just need to tell you that you're perfectly healthy. You probably worked in the yard and pulled a little muscle, but you're, you're in great. Yes, God, it's so good. Is God good all the time. David is going through the toughest time of his life. And he says, he says, my soul finds rest in God alone. And so he begins with the chorus, but then he goes to the first verse and the first verse is there is an opposition committed to your ruin. And maybe that's where you are right now. Listen to what he says in verse three and four. How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down this leaning wall, this tottering fence, they fully intend to topple him from his lofty place. They take delight in lies with their mouths. They bless, but in their hearts, they curse. Here is the picture of what's going on. David had multiple wives and by the wives, he had multiple Children and one of his Children was named Absalom and another one was named Abdon. And the abnormal, um one day he, he, he called in his half sister, Absalom's full sister called her into his room. And when she came into his room, he raped her. And the Bible tells us that when David found out about it, he was furious and that's how it ended. David got really mad, but Absalom didn't get mad. Absalom says, I'm going to take care of this problem. And so he waited and he devised a plan. And one day, a couple of years later, he had a party and invited all of David's sons to the party and they all came in and with all of them there, he killed ABN and he said, now we're even, but he ran away and he hid for a while. Eventually David called Absalom back into town, but just kind of kept him at arm's length. And Absalom began, it tells us in the book of Sam second Samuel that Absalom would sit outside the city and as people would come in, he'd go, how are you doing? How are things going with the king? Oh, he's not really that good to you. Oh, man. If I were your king, I'd be better to you. And all of a sudden he began to collect more and more people who were followers and then one day they revolted and they said we're going to take over in caps. Absalom said, I'm gonna be the king and I'm gonna kill my father. That's a rebellious child. And so he, he's gonna, he's gonna kill David. Now all these verses make sense. How long will you assault a man? He asks, would all of you throw him down this leaning wall, this tottering fence, a leaning wall, the, the Hebrew version of it is an army. When they would come on a city, the city had a wall around it and they would push and push and push on the wall until they could find a section that they could topple down and then just come in and conquer. And David describes himself as just this, this tottering wall, this tottering fence that's just about ready to collapse. And he says, how long are you gonna assault me? How long are you gonna push on me? Um And he says, they make delight in lies with their mouths. They bless. See, that's what Absalom was doing. He was saying, oh yeah, my father, yeah. Good king, good king. Gosh, not the best but, but he's good. And it says they bless but in their hearts, they curse. This is a song. This is a song that David's singing that this is about his son. And then at this point, he goes on to his chorus again and, and the chorus is my soul finds rest in God alone alone. Nothing else in verses five through seven. Find rest the in, in the first part he's saying with confidence, my soul finds rest. But here he says, he's now talking to himself. He's talking to his soul. And he's saying, find rest, oh my soul in God alone. My hope comes from Him. You know, when we, when we talk about hope, what, what does hope mean for you or for a lot of us in, in the English. Hope is sort of cross your fingers and go. Oh, I hope. It's, it's kind of the prayer we say when, when the lottery gets up to a billion dollars and we buy our ticket and we go, 0000 God. I, I, I'll give you 10%. Yeah. Hope in the Bible is not crossing our fingers and hoping. Hope in the Bible is our confidence that Paul writes to Titus. I, in his letter to this young pastor, he says, our blessed hope, the coming of Christ. Blessed hope, hope is not. I wonder if he's coming to picture literally is to lean forward in great anticipation of what's coming. The only illustration I could come up with one time was the idea of a cross country racer. I don't know if any of you have been cross country racers or if you have kids who are cross country racers um that you stand at the finish line and you don't go well, I hope my kid shows up one day. No, that's not what you're doing. You have this confidence. I can't wait to see my child come. Do you get that picture of the confidence? That's what David's saying. He's saying God is his confidence. Then he has all of his trust in him. He goes on to say He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress. I will not be shaken my salvation. And my honor, depend on God. He is my mighty rock and my refuge. You know, have we identified who our opposition is? Because a lot of times in a relationship, we, we think it's the other person and in reality, many times it's our pride or our ego or what we want. And we can't hand that over to God until we can identify it. David identified his opposition as his son, this guy who was gonna attack him, but David didn't hate his opposition. David loved his son still. And so can we identify our opposition? What is it that's wearing us down? What is it that's taking the energy out of our life? And I know that there's some of you here who are going. I have no idea what this message is about. My life is so good right now. Everything is going so good. Praise the Lord. That's the time to write your song. That's the time to say, man, I am going to trust in you Lord no matter what, no matter when the difficult times come. Because I guarantee you that each of us will face difficult times. Each of us will face those hard times where we, the next verse tells us where we can go look for other solutions. Listen to what it says here. It says that the next verse is about places that people look for support, but they don't find it. Here is what verse 89 and 10 say trust in Him at all times. Oh, people pour out your hearts to Him. For God is our refuge. Lowborn men are. But a breath, the high born are but a lie. If weighed on a balance, they are nothing together. They are only a breath. Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them. Where do people turn if they don't turn to God alone, if they don't say God is my solution, where do people turn? Sometimes they turn to other people. Uh And what David says is, he says, lowborn people, people who don't have, um, high positions, they don't have, have a lot of authority. They're, they're low born or high born people in high positions. He says you take those two groups and you put them together, you get them all bundled up and you take them over and you hang them on a scale and they weigh exactly nothing. Nothing. He, he describes them as a breath that they're in his hand and you go and they blow away. But how many of us when we are going through? Tough times think I just, I just, I need to find another doctor's opinion. I need to find a financial counselor who will fix everything I need to find and you turn elsewhere to people. Another opinion on a physical matter is probably a good thing. But if that's where your hope is if you're going, if I just get, if I go to enough doctors, somebody's gonna tell me I'm ok. Your hope is gonna be dashed. If your, if your hope for financial success is just based on, I need one more person to tell me the right thing. I just need to keep going and you're always looking for someone else to solve your problem or you think, you know what? I, I have enough money. I can pay somebody to do the tough stuff for me, Charles Coulson in his book, Born Again, wrote that the hardest group of people to reach for Jesus Christ are upper middle class Americans. The hardest people, upper middle class Americans. Could you do me a favor? Turn to somebody that, you know, don't turn to a stranger, turn to somebody, you know? You know, and say you're an upper middle class person. Ok. Ok. Just, just, and, and some of you are going, have you seen our finances? I don't think so. But the reality is in the world, see in the world, if you own a car, you're probably in the top 10% of wealth in the world. And some of you are going well. What if you own four? Ok. And we, we, we turned to people, oh, by the way, for those of you who spoke up now, the other person turned to them and said you're an upper middle class person too. Oh, except we have one family over here who both spoke to the. So, uh the whole point being is that if we are looking for others or we're looking, sometimes we just feel like we can write a check. That's what David is saying. He says, do not trust an extortion or take pride in stolen goods. Don't, don't take pride in what you can collect though. Your riches increased. Do not set your heart on them. Some of us have set our heart on the fact that I have enough. I've acquired enough that no matter what problems I face in life, I can write a check and solve my problem. I can make my problems go away just by just by paying someone. The whole point of the song. My friends is that our trust has to be in God alone. Are we, are we at that place? He concludes by even expanding the chorus a little more. And he says this time, God has promised to be strong and loving. Do you believe that? Do you believe that even in the middle of the very difficult time that you're going through right now that God has promised you that He is strong and loving? Here's what he says. One thing God has spoken two things I have heard. That's, that's a Hebrew way of, of say, piling things on top of each other. So we would say more and more. It's, it's, it's um boy, you know what uh this person can. He gave me so much. In fact, he gave me more and more than I ever. Um There, there is a proverb that says, there are six things that God hate seven that he detests. That's just a Hebrew way of writing that says we're piling it on. It's more and more so he says that one thing God has spoken, two things I have heard that you owe God are strong and that you o Lord are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done. Now, do you believe that? Do you believe that by putting your confidence in Him that he's gonna reward you for that? I, I've shared in our men's group on Saturday mornings um a few times that Polycarp and ancient um church father, one of the, the, the early, early leaders in the church during a time of persecution and difficulty, they took him and they, they put him on at the, tied him to a stake, put wood all around it and said, we're gonna set you on fire. All you have to do is deny your faith. And Polly Karp's response was you do realize you're threatening me with paradise. You're threatening me with p if you don't deny Christ, we're gonna kill you and send you to heaven. OK. I'll go with that option. Uh Do we get devastated by the challenges and difficulties we face or in the midst of those challenges? And difficulties. When you get the call from the school that your child's involved in drugs, when you have the doctor give you a bad notice. When you get some financial challenge is your response to cry. Why God, what is your response to say God? I am going to trust in you alone. You are my rock, you are my salvation. I will trust in you alone. You know, Kurt is always um after services up in front, willing to meet with people and pray with them this morning. He's gonna be on this side. I'm gonna be over here and we're, we're gonna end just a little different. We're, we're not gonna end with a song. We're just gonna end in prayer and, and then the guys in the booth are gonna play a song and we could just exit. But I, what I would like for you to know is that we are up here and if right now you're facing one of those tough times and you go, that's what I wanna do. I wanna say it's in Christ alone. It's in God alone. He's my rock and I'm shaky right now. I just need to talk to somebody who can reassure me. Uh, we are here. And so if you're going through that tough time and you need to talk to somebody, we would like to talk to you. So I'm gonna ask us to just stand and we're gonna close in prayer and, and and then as the music is playing, just greet each other um and be dismissed. But if you're at the place that says, you know what? I really need some prayer, just know that at least the two of us are up here. There might be others who, who come forward. Um But we want you to know that we can truly trust in God alone. Father. I thank you for this group of people. I thank you for their, their uh wonderful attentiveness. I thank you that Lord, you are a God that we know loves us. You're strong enough to take care of us and whatever we face, we do not face it alone, that we face it with you. I agree. Lord, that we need to pray right now for our country. But it will not be a politician that saves us. It will not be our money, our riches that save us. It will be you and you alone. And so Lord, we have that confidence. Thank you Jesus. It's in your name. We pray. Amen.