Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
It's our hope that these sermons will draw you
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sermon. God bless. Let me pray again. Lord God
we thank you again for your word Lord. We thank
you for the beauty of it and the depth of it
and How it speaks to so many different experiences
of our lives, but we thank you especially for
the Psalms this This insight into our hearts
I think of the great John Calvin saying that
it spans the whole gamut of emotions that all
of them can be found here in this this song book
that we have in your word. Oh God, I pray that
as we turn to it this morning, that we would
see its beauty, but more than that, your beauty.
Pray in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so when Melissa
and I first went out on a date, I'm not going
to tell you all about it. It's so good. You all
have heard stories, I'm sure. Hopefully. It's
worth telling for another day. When we first
went on a date, she told her parents that she
went on a date with Peter Rowan. This guy, Peter
Rowan. So as wise parents do, they got on the
computer and googled, who is this Peter Rowan?
And we were living in Richmond at the time, so
they googled Peter Rowan, Richmond, or something
like that. His picture popped up Born in 1942
Recently inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of
Fame You know of famed Actually, he does a lot
of Hawaiian folk too. I hope you all know who
Peter Rowan is He's one of the greatest bluegrass
guitar players, and he's not me Some of you may
know this, there's a little boy whose picture
is on the front of two of U2's first albums,
actually the first and the third album. The first
album is the album Boy, and the third album of
U2 was the album War. Interestingly, that boy
actually made a, there was an EP that came out
before their first album. in 1979 and he was
also on the front cover of that. That little
boy's brother was good friends with Bono. That
little boy's brother fronted a punk band out
of Dublin called the Virgin Prunes. And that
little boy and his brother were neighbors with
Bono growing up. And so they asked this six -year
-old little boy, can we take your picture for
our album? And according to the article that
I read, he was like, I didn't even really know
what was going on. It was fine with me. And now
he's famous. That little boy's name is Peter
Rowan. And I have been asked if I was bound for
musical fame. You all know the answer already.
The answer's no. The interesting thing, as I
think about that story with Melissa's parents,
is that confusion around rather simple things
can be sort of easy, and yet there's also a clarity.
There can be a simplicity and a clarity to things.
One of the greatest, one of my favorite songs
by U2, and I think actually it may be Chris Gazy's
favorite song, he's not here this morning so
I can't hear or see a nod from him, but we've
talked about this before, is U2's song 40, which
is on that third album, War, where Peter Rowan
is on the front cover with the little helmet.
Maybe you know it, it's actually from Psalm 40,
it's the first three verses of Psalm 40. I waited
patiently for the Lord, he inclined and heard
my cry. He lifted me up out of the pit, out of
the miry clay. I will sing, right, sing a new
song. And it keeps going. I will sing, sing a
new song. How long to sing this song. And it
keeps going. It's a beautiful song, recounting
those first few verses of Psalm 40. And it says
this again and again throughout the song. I will
sing, sing a new song. How long. And in some
ways I want to say that this refrain there is
basic to the idea of Christian faith. That God
meets us in our waiting, hasten oh Lord, don't
tarry. He saves us in our calling out to him
and he gives us new life and a new song. He puts
a new song on our lips and our mouths. You could
also say this is a fundamental human cry, and
actually this is what I'd like to suggest to
you, if you're not a Christian this morning,
that this sort of Christian cry of save us O
Lord is actually a fundamental human cry. How
long will life be like this? Would something
please change? How long? Please put a new song
in my mouth. It's a fundamental human cry, it's
a fundamental religious cry. It's part of the
way. sort of human existence, religious existence.
I know, because I've existed in the church all
my life, that there are different thoughts and
feelings about songs that repeat themselves a
lot. I don't remember when I first heard this
phrase, but it's not gonna be lost on any of
you, that there are songs that you can... term,
and this is most often used dismissively, unfortunately,
as 7 -11 songs. Y 'all know this? These songs
have seven words and you sing them 11 times.
They're 7 -11 songs. But here's what I want to
tell you also is that there's something deeply,
deeply powerful about these songs that we sing
again and again. They shape us and they give
expression to what's happening deep within us.
You know, I will sing, sing a new song. How long
to sing this song? How long? That repetitiveness
in a way and that repeating that same idea is
getting at something. Why, you know, this is
so fundamental to our hearts cry and our human
desires. So today we're in Psalm 70. And Psalm
70 is nearly an exact quote from Psalm 40 verses
13 to 17. It's almost exact. Both are of David.
And it's sort of as though David is looking at
Psalm 40 and he's thinking that's a great song.
And you know what? This part right here needs
to be sung by itself again and again. He's saying,
sing it again. Don't rush past this. Don't speed
through it. Let it sink in. Sing it again. It's
as though David's actually hearing you two sing.
How long to sing this song? And he says, well,
a little bit longer. Keep going. So what's this
song that's in Psalm 70 that's a repetition of
the last verses of Psalm 40? What I wanna suggest
to you is in some ways that this song is just
this very fundamental human cry for help. And
it's saying that this fundamental human cry that
we all have for the world to be right, for us
to be helped is only met in the Lord. Okay, so
the human cry for help. Look with me there at
the first few verses. Make haste, O God, to deliver
me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be
put to shame and confusion who seek my life.
Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor
who delight in my hurt. Let them turn back because
of their shame who say, aha, aha. What I'm suggesting
is that this is a very fundamental idea, not
necessarily that you're crying out to the true
God who brings true salvation, but there's a
fundamental thing that says, help. The world's
not right, help. Near the beginning of most of
the great traditions of Christian prayer, right
at the beginning of morning prayer, the minister
leads the people with what I led you this morning.
Oh Lord, open our lips. And the people say, yeah,
yeah, a few of you got it. I took you off guard.
You can turn with me to the beginning now. Let's
just do it again together quickly. Oh Lord, open
our lips. That is from Psalm 51. Those two lines
are from Psalm 51. And then the next part is
this. Oh God, make speed to save us. Yeah, that
is from Psalm 40 and Psalm 70 fundamental beginning
Christian prayers Said again and again day in
day out hour out hour in hour out and I want
to suggest to you that was in the wisdom of the
great prayer tradition because this is a Fundamental
human cry something that is on our lips constantly
a refrain that keeps coming up Most of our days
and hours and minutes most of our energy is actually
spent in the cry for deliverance And that's not
I don't think that's hard to think about why
that's the case It's not hard to kind of look
out in the world and say things are not right
Things are not as they should be Elise and I
and the kids We're talking with a woman this
week who had worked downtown for years at Nocturnal
as a bartender and she was telling us why she
left and how much she wanted to leave though
she had worked there for years. She told us some
crazy stories about what had been happening out
on Second Street between two and five in the
morning. Some sad stories and some honestly sort
of scary stories. But here's the thing, we know
that it's not just late night, right? Not just
late at night, but we look out at the world and
we say the world is not right. God, deliver us.
Make things right. When we hear verse two, let
them be put to shame and confusion who seek my
life. We might think of things like downtown
at two a .m., second street at two a .m. Or we
might think of, I don't know, politicians that
we can't stand, or you know, you have kind of
your vague others. But often I think we think
of actually closer relationships. We can actually
think often of how sometimes marriages fall apart
because it seems as though the spouse is the
one who's seeking your life, engaging with the
other as though they are the enemy. to be put
in their place. The other is out for their harm.
Sometimes they're using life and using you for
their own ends. And you just can't live in that
kind of space. That's true often, sadly. Another
thing that is true is that spouses sometimes
often engage with one another as though they're
supposed to be the savior. They're there to make
the money, to provide for children, to provide
someone with children, to meet all of the emotional
needs. And when they don't, right? When they
don't, let them be put to shame and confusion.
It seems like they're seeking my life, or they're
not giving me the life that I want. The world
is simply not quite right. We often look to one
another as though others are out to seek our
life or our harm. or they're supposed to be our
saviors and when they're not we act as though
we are out to get them. Maybe it's not marriage
relationships that come to your mind. Maybe it's
your neighbor relationship. It's not easy to
share a wall with others. We have some of those
relationships. It's also not always easy to share
a lawn that abuts with another or just a property
line. My parents grew up on three and a half
acres and the cops were called on us a lot Probably
because our neighbor was schizophrenic and claiming
that we were naked in bed or naked out on her
front porch when we were asleep In bed and weird
stuff like that, but you know that's what I'm
saying like there's just like what what's happening
the world's not right Now you want to hear that
story. It's for another time You know, maybe
it's the boss who somehow and you genuinely don't
know how you got put on their bad list. It's
just not that hard to look out in the world and
say like, this is not how it's supposed to be.
God, save, make haste, come to our aid. I think
about this next line, okay, verse three here.
Well, actually, the second half of verse two.
Okay, let them be turned back and brought to
dishonor, who delight in my hurt. Delight in
my hurt. Last week we were looking at Psalm 69
and we talked about how the hurt actually in
Psalm 69 seems to be coming from those with inside
the community of faith. It's like those who are
in church with David. There is a lot of hurt
that happens in the Christian church. Some of
it's really, really serious hurt. Physical abuse
and sexual abuse. Spiritual abuse seems to run
rampant. There's too much harm in the church,
that's for certain. I recently learned of a pastor
that I know, a friend of mine, somebody I've
traveled with. who was deposed because he embezzled
a lot of money from his church. It's just common.
It's painful. And what does that do to the person
in the pew, right? Horrendous things for one's
faith. Hurt should never be diminished. There's
crazy stories of hurt. But you know, there's
those extreme examples. Then there's just like
the normal kind of thing that happens in a lot
of churches where people stop talking to each
other and stop really engaging with one another
because they parent differently. Or you send
your kid to that school. You send them to a Christian
school. You send them to a public school. You
homeschool your kids. And there's just this distance
that's created who delight and hurt. They bring
shame on others. People that delight in their
own gain, the misfortune of others, maybe all
the delight and gain that they receive is just
simply parental superiority. That's so common.
Parental superiority is just unbelievably rampant.
It's common in the church. These are a lot of
things that David is crying out against in Psalm
69. But then, last week we considered a little
while, for a little bit, the end of David's complaint
and his wish of misfortune on the others who
were doing these things to him. And I got a few
questions about this last week, so I sorta wanna
talk about it a little bit in this sermon, and
I also think it kinda makes some sense here in
Psalm 70. And that's this, what do we make of
David writing things like this? Let them be blotted
out of the Book of the Living. And I know I got
a number of comments saying, people saying, did
you use a swear word last week in your sermon?
I did, but if you listen, it was used appropriately.
I hope you didn't have to have some hard conversations
with your children about that, you might have.
Anyway, let them be blotted out of the living,
as though, dismiss them, do away with them entirely,
and in terms of their salvation. And then also
we know in 2 Peter chapter three that we say
the Lord does not desire that any should perish.
So what do we do? And I think we can say a few
very important things, and I wanna say these
things here, okay? I think we can say some important
things about this. The first thing that I want
you to hear is that the Lord, this is one of
the things that we learn in the Psalms. The Lord
wants your unvarnished self. Okay? God wants
you raw. Meaning he doesn't want you to hold
back anything from him. He wants you to come
to Him even in your deepest indignation, even
in your deepest places of rage. And in His perfect
love, He will cast out fear. Perfect love that
casts out fear invites you to be present in who
you are completely. And that's part of what the
Psalms are telling us. Bring all of you to Me.
Even the places of your deep rage. Come and share
to Me that experience. Don't hide anything. But
we can also say, and this is part of what I was
saying a little bit last week, but I wanna say
this again this week, because I think it does
tie in a little bit here. While God wants us
raw, and why he wants our unvarnished selves,
he does not want to leave us that way. You get
that? He doesn't want you to sit in that kind
of anger that says to another, you should have
your name removed from the book of life. Let
them be blotted out of the book of the living.
And partly why he doesn't want to leave us that
way is because it's not good for us. It's not
good for us if we dwell in that place. Proverbs
11, 17 says this, a man who is kind benefits
himself, but a cruel man hurts himself. It's
like Thomas Chalmers saying, unforgiveness is
the poison you drink, hoping another will die.
Proverbs 25, 28 says, a man without self -control
is like a city broken into and left without walls.
That doesn't want to leave us in those places.
And I bring all this up because here's the thing.
Sometimes it's easy to say the world is not right.
and look at the havoc that comes about because
of it. And you look at the big picture and you
look out there and you say, ah, second street
at 2 a .m. Or you look at sort of just your spouse
or you look at the other people around. And one
of the things that the Bible says very clearly
is that often you have to actually say, Lord,
save me from myself. God wants you, all of you,
real and raw, you. But often we're the ones that
are saying, aha, aha, to our own detriment, to
our own harm. So what do we do with all of this
need for saving? Well, of course I'm gonna say
that the Christian life says, go to the Lord.
Cry out to him. And when you do so, you will
say, oh, great is our God. But I suggested that
we often, you know, we look out in the world
and we see what's wrong and we see what's wrong
in our spouses and we see what's wrong with our
neighbors. And sometimes we see what's wrong
with ourselves. And what we're doing is we're
seeing this need for something to change, for
salvation to come. And what I wanna suggest to
you is that that's just a human experience. That's
not a Christian experience. That's not unique
to somebody that says Jesus is Lord and great
is God. Everybody actually has that experience.
Everybody has the experience of saying something
needs to change. And sometimes they say, I need
to change. The world is not right. And sometimes
when we see that, when we know our need for salvation
and our need for God to be present, to do something,
Sometimes we move to places that we should move
to, human relationships that can bring a degree
of healing. That's true. Human relationships
can be amazingly healing and helpful. God made
us for community, that's true. Sometimes though
that healing and that help grow in us to the
temptation to think that we can kind of figure
it out. We can do it just each other. Sometimes
Sometimes we go to salvation towards others and
we end up looking just for their own approval.
Think of the girl in middle school who's just
desiring that somebody else say, hey, you look
good today. Or other classmates, primarily. That
would be their salvation for the day. And that
salvation is fleeting. Do they think I'm all
right? The nagging communal question. We look
to our children to validate our adult selves,
don't we, parents? With words like this inside,
at least. I'm a good enough parent that my kids
still talk to me. And those words sort of bring
this sense of maybe something at least somewhat
is right. But our human relationships can't be
our saviors. So what we often do is we seek control,
don't we? We do this either through just organizing
everything, making sure everybody says the right
thing is on time and external control. Oftentimes
we do this by simply being stingy and not giving
away too much. Stingy with our emotions and our
time and our energy. We've been hurt too much.
So if you know Lewis saying, what you do often
is you put yourself in a casket and what happens
is you become hardened. in that kind of scenario,
which adds only to the brokenness and the need
for salvation. Sometimes we seek control by power,
right? Salvation by legislation. Man, that is
a popular one. And I don't care what side of
the aisle you are on, you are tempted to think
that that is what will bring your salvation.
What often we do with our need to be saved where
we often go with this need to be saved is actually
sort of throwing up our hands and Saying I can't
do anything and I don't know who can do anything
and so what I just need to do is just be sedated
We can't take all that is wrong in the world
we can't bear it we can't sort of deal with it
we don't know what to do with it and so like
Dave Matthews sings in the song, Too Much. And
yes, I did have this thought as I was listening
to him this week. I eat too much. I drink too
much. I want too much. Too much. And we just
do it again and again and again. And of course,
we can admit that shopping therapy gives us a
little boost, a little bit, right? I felt good.
Ah, that food met some of my need. but often
those become our sort of sedatives or distractions,
things that numb us from the incessant need for
salvation from all that is wrong in the world.
I want to say again that this Psalm is a fitting
refrain for the church. It makes sense that the
beginning of this Psalm is that beginning prayer
of Christian communal prayer, right? Oh Lord,
make speed to save us. Lord, hasten to us. Because
what Christians say is that it's true, we're
tempted to go in all these other directions,
and we do this so often too, right? It's partly
why we have times like confession. What do we
do with our sin, with the sin of others, with
the massive need of salvation? Well, we Christians
do this thing. We try to control other people.
We try to use other people. Maybe their affirmation,
their words can make us feel better about the
world and ourselves. Maybe we can just, we sedate.
And yet we need to say again and again, the Lord
alone is our salvation. He alone comes to us
properly in our aid or in our need and comes
to our aid. So John Cassian, maybe you read through
the meditation quote, but I'm gonna read parts
of it. He's writing in the early fifth century
and he says, meditate constantly on this verse.
By the way, this verse is Psalm 70 verse one.
Make haste to God to deliver me. Oh Lord, make
haste to help me. Meditate constantly on that
verse in your heart. You should not stop repeating
it when you're doing any kind of work or performing
some service or on a journey. Meditate on it
while sleeping and eating and attending to the
least needs of nature. This is all the time.
because the temptation of our hearts is to look
elsewhere for salvation and it cannot be found
anywhere else. He says this, it contains an invocation
of God against every danger. It contains humble
and pious confession that we cannot do. It contains
the watchfulness of anxiety and continual fear.
It contains the thought of one's own weakness,
confidence in the answer. and the assurance of
a present and ever ready help. What I'm suggesting
to you is this psalm that David in his great
wisdom being led by the Holy Spirit took out
of this other psalm in a way and said we need
to sing it again is the psalm, the song, the
cry of life. God save me. God help me. And the
response is that God does. He comes to us in
our need. He always meets this cry. In his perfect
timing, you think of Mary and Martha, if only
you were here, Lord, brother went to die. God
comes to us always in our need in his timing.
Friends, here is the song, the song of our lives,
this cry for salvation. I suggested that kind
of all religions in some ways are based on this
idea, the world is not right, something needs
to be done about it. And that's because this
is simply a human response to wrongdoing in the
world, a human response to our own wrongdoing,
the ways that we've been sinned against. This
is a human thing, a cry for salvation. The cry
for salvation will not go away. And that's of
course why we see it all over the world still
today. Some people have written rather recently
about the diminishment of religious practices
in the United States has actually been, it's
corresponded to the increase of engaging with
politics as your religion. And so the religious
fervor actually just transfers to political fervor
because it's a human thing. We long for salvation,
for the world to be put to right. The heart that
seeks salvation is not changing. This is also
why David Foster Wallace says, there is no such
thing as atheism. There's no such thing as not
worshiping. But for Christians, we have the same
cry as everybody else, but it's directed God
word. It's directed towards the true and the
living God who's revealed himself in Jesus Christ.
The Christian song is a cry for help. that is
met with the cross and the resurrection of Christ
Jesus. What we have in Christ is that God answers
this prayer, this deep human longing with his
very self. And this is unique. Other places that
you go to for salvation, they'll eat you alive.
Wallace says, the Apostle Wallace says, they
eat you alive. But the Christian God says, I
will give you life where there was once death.
When other forms of salvation say, you know,
give me this, give me this, give me this, Christianity
says, I'm gonna give you up myself completely.
This Psalm is the refrain of the Christian life.
Here's the interesting thing. that in a way,
this song is gonna be sung again and again and
again, not as the present need for help, but
the fact that God has helped. In the new heavens
and the new earth, in the little glimpse that
we have in Revelation, we have this song being
sung by the multitudes of heaven saying, worthy
is the lamb who was slain. Worthy is the lamb
who was slain. Which is say, worthy is the God
who heard our cries for help and gave his life.
that we might have life. Let me circle back for
a minute, then I'll close to Peter Rowan, not
me. The one whose name is spelt wrong, R -O -W
-E -N, which is the one that's on the U2 albums.
So I was reading about him this week, and he's
a photographer. He was six years old. He was
asked to be on the front of these covers and
he says I don't really even remember it that
much You know, it's just like my brother's buddy
who's starting a band and nobody knew about you
two anyway And you know, we were just I was just
taking pictures, but he said that that beginning
thing Actually, this is the interesting. He's
he he still takes pictures for bands One of his
main things is being a photographer for musicians
But here's here's here's the interesting thing.
I want to leave you with this that thing which
started the his life in a way early on just a
six -year -old is still in a way defining him
it's still orienting his life and friends that
is this song this is the beginning of the christian
life lord help me and god says amen i'll help
you that's what this psalm is lord i need you
make haste to help me god's this song saying
god's going to come to you this is the beginning
of the christian life This is the way of the
Christian life. This is the end of the Christian
life. Oh Lord, make haste to help me. And God
comes. Let me pray. Lord, thank you for the Psalms.
Thank you for Psalm 70. Lord, thank you that
in your perfect providence through the working
of your spirit, David took those other verses
and said, give your attention to this. God, thank
you for the refrains of Christian singing. Thank
you for the repetition of you two's song, How
Long, How Long, How Long, that helps us to ache
a little bit more because we've sung it again.
And God thank you that in this song is our life
and how you meet us in our need in our Lord Jesus
Christ. So in his name we pray, amen. Thank you
for listening to Second City Sermons podcast.
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