Well good morning. It's good to see you all.
I am especially glad to be here this morning.
We have just in the Thomason house, we've been
battling sickness the last week and a half and
all week I knew I'd be preaching and Joe kept
texting me, how you feeling, how you feeling?
I'm okay. I'm okay. I think maybe I pushed a
little bit at the end of the week and didn't
feel great yesterday, so pray for me. Just been
a weird battle in our house with some sickness
this week, so that's the bad news I guess on
one breath. And I'm gonna ask the forgiveness
of the young adults who... heard me preach on
this because I had to call an audible in light
of not feeling well. And we'll get to this on
the faithfulness of God. So that's the bad news.
The good news is I have some news to share with
you. If you hadn't heard, a baby was born this
week to Daniel and Sarah Tavern. And little baby
baby boy Rad Kitt Tavern. I know. I know. If
you think that's a wow, ready for this, the stats
on this baby. 10 pounds, 3 ounces, 22 .75 inches
long. That's a big boy. So you can tell Sarah,
great job when you see them. I'm so excited for
them. I didn't have time to get the picture up.
He is just a big boy and he is awesome and we're
praising the Lord with them for God's kindness
and faithfulness to them and so you can pray
and I'm sure there'll be a meal going out, meal
train going out for them. Well, why don't I do
this? Kind of start us in prayer. Let me just
pray and thank the Lord and we'll seek his help
today. Lord so grateful for a little baby rad
as we think about New life and we're just grateful
for him. We praise the praise you with the taverns
For that little one and just pray for your blessing
on them as they adjust now to having the two
little ones and Ask your blessing on them Lord.
Give me grace this morning as I open your word
and seek to Even unpack and make clear from your
word your faithfulness. So help me do that by
your grace your power praying in Jesus name.
Amen Well, maybe we can just begin by a little
bit of word association Sometimes, you know,
we throw out a word we say what's the first thing
that comes to our mind? I just want to ask you
that in relation to the word faithful What's
the what's the kind of the first thing? that
kind of comes to your mind as you consider someone
or something being faithful. I know for me, it's
not uncommon in our culture. We think of a faithful
dog, right? A dog that stays by your side. I
had one of those growing up. His name was Sparky.
Really original name for a dog. And he was my
dalmatian. And essentially growing up, we were
inseparable. me and Sparky. And he was always
by my side. He was the Robin to my Batman. So
much so there was a photo of that hung of me
and Sparky, a portrait, a studio portrait that
hung of me and Sparky in my house. Me wearing
a Batman shirt and Sparky wearing his black spots
and Batman and Robin. Faithful dog. Maybe you
think of Old Faithful, right? That geyser in
Yellowstone National Park. You know, it's so
named because of its consistency of blasts of
hot water that rise, I think, up to 100 feet
in the air. Old Faithful. You might think of
a faithful friend, right? Someone who's been
by your side through thick and thin, through
highs and lows, through the fires of life. Maybe
someone who's walked with you and been a constant
help and companion. I mean, everybody needs a
faithful friend, right? You think of in the scripture,
Jonathan and David, you think of maybe Paul and
his companions, Timothy and Epaphroditus, faithful
comrades in ministry, men that he could trust,
faithful partners in ministry, right? These are
vital. You could say the same of marriage, right?
I mean, to be married. And to covenant before
God and friends and family means that we are
pledging to be faithful My father -in -law he
he actually transcribed my entire wedding but
of course my vows were and he gave that to us
as a gift on our first anniversary and and of
course the vows I Shay take thee Bethany to be
my wedded wife and Do promise and covenant before
God in these witnesses to be thy loving and faithful
husband And of course, her to me to be my loving
and faithful wife. I mean, it's one of the hallmarks
of marriage, right? Faithfulness is just part
of the commitment in trusting ourselves to someone
else to seek to care and love them. It requires
faithfulness. I mean, I mean, these are just
some of the images, right? You may have others
that have come to your mind. Those are some that
come to mind, but to my mind. But we also might
think of even faithlessness. Unfaithfulness.
I mean, there's other images that come to our
mind. We really do live in a world of unfaithfulness.
I think I have a slide for that. I mean, we live
in a world where trust is low. I mean, it's often
a day doesn't go by right where we don't feel
the reality of this. I mean, I even said this
to the to the ambassadors group and had an opportunity
to talk on this back in early November. At that
time, Amazon was announcing a round of layoffs
and the CEO came out and he said, you know, it's
not because of AI. It's actually because of company
culture. We're announcing tens of thousands of
layoffs. and it wasn't just two or three days
later, he said, actually, haha, just kidding,
it actually is because of AI. And I thought,
man, you're the CEO of one of the largest companies
in the world. And one day you say one thing,
another day you say something else. How could
we trust you? It's actually interesting, this
week they announced another round of layoffs.
And they made this quote, I read it on their
blog, that this isn't going to be a new rhythm
of laying people off every few months. You're
kind of like, how can we trust you? We don't
know that's true now some of you may be employed
or hopefully still employed at Amazon and I'll
pray I'll pray that that would not be true But
but right we right right tech companies do this
and and we see that there's no faithfulness to
their word We say the same thing in politics,
right? This idea of of just simply lying so -called
have truths have become the norm No faithfulness
to their word or same is true for marriage I
mean, the marriage vows anymore seem to be more
optional than permanent, right? Divorce is easy
and apparently commitment isn't a big deal. Till
death do us part has become till I feel like
I don't love you anymore. We live in a world
of unfaithfulness and it's not just in our culture.
It's also made its way into the church. into
the church. So many churches today claiming to
be Bible believing and Bible teaching churches
have been found unfaithful to Christ. We see
it in their lack of commitment to the Word of
God. They come and they've abandoned the Word
of God in the name of progress, in the name of
being affirming of what the Lord has called evil,
even at times propping up false teachers. propping
them up and saying that they're people that we
should follow that are actually contrary, that
are unfaithful to the Word of God. I mean, I
could go on and on. The reality is we do live
in a world of unfaithfulness, a world of lying,
no one keeping their word. We live in a church
culture where we've abandoned the Word and the
Lord Jesus and been unfaithful to Him and His
Word. And the question becomes, what do we do?
What can we do? Is there anyone that we can trust?
Is there anybody truly faithful that we can rely
on? And of course, I think you know the answer
today is found in the Word of God. So if you
don't have your Bible open already, I would love
for you to open it to Psalm 36. Psalm 36. It
seeks to answer this question, who can we trust?
Is there anyone faithful, and I love how it does
it. It does it in such a beautiful fashion. Maybe
as you turn there, I can just tell you some press
on this psalm, what the commentators, multiple
commentators at least that I was looking at have
said about this psalm, and I'll have a slide
for this. It's some call it a composition of
rare excellence. One commentator said it's one
of the finest psalms in the whole collection.
And Jim Hamilton, in his commentary, he says
David's poetry soars to unmatched heights in
Psalm 36. I mean, this Psalm is kind of a lament
Psalm. It's lamenting the reality here at the
beginning of human sinfulness, but at the same
time, it's reorienting our heart in light of
the character of God. You see at the top of your
psalm right there. It's a psalm. It says of David
of David and it's in its full here of contrast
David is telling us the difference between man
and God and He gives us these incredible these
contrasts and in in in the middle of these contrasts
We're gonna get incredible truth about who we
can trust and who we can rely on So we can break
this psalm up real simply into three simple sections
You have the the first section verses 1 to 4
you have the wicked the wickedness of the wicked
the wickedness of the wicked secondly you have
the faithfulness of God in verses 5 through 9
and Then finally in verses 10 to 12 you have
the prayer of the pious the prayer of the pious
We're gonna start there. We're gonna start there
with the wickedness of the wicked look down in
your Bible at verse 1 Says this David says this
transgressions speaks to the wicked deep in his
heart There is no fear of God before his eyes
for he flatters himself in his own eyes That
his iniquity cannot be found out and hated the
words of his mouth are trouble and deceit He
has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots
trouble while on his bed He sets himself in a
way that is not good. He does not reject evil
Right here, at the very top, at the very beginning
of the psalm, we have a description of those
who are godless. Of course, David is going to
get to God, but before he starts with man, and
he starts with the wickedness of man. And you
should have to consider just how he describes
them. He says first and foremost that they have
no fear of God. No fear of God. I mean, I don't
know what... comes to your mind when you hear
the fear of God, you might be thinking of the
idea of reverence. Reverence, not a wrong way.
That's usually how we understand the fear of
God, and that would be true of the wicked. They
don't have a reverence for God, but the language
here is a lot stronger. It means they literally
have no terror, no dread of God. They have no
fear of His judgment. They don't even think about
God that way. It's fascinating. Paul actually,
in Romans 3, quotes from this Psalm in Psalm
36. You don't have to turn there. It'll come
up on the screen. Let's just follow along as
I read this. He says this. Does Paul? None is
righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No
one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together
they've become worthless. No one does good, not
even one. Their throat is an open grave. They
use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps
is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood and their paths are ruin and misery and
the way of peace they have not known. And here
it is. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Paul, of course, is unpacking the reality that
everyone is a sinner. Everyone has missed the
mark. Everyone has been proven in that sense
unfaithful to obey the law of the Lord and are
now for now therefore condemned under judgment
by a righteous God. His point in Romans further
is that even. Even all humanity. No matter what
they do, no matter how much they try, are wicked
deep down and they are desperately in need of
Christ. In need of Christ. The wicked have no
fear of God. And this is bad news. Because as
one commentator put it, when a man has no fear
of God, he is prepared for any crime. He's prepared
for any crime. And that's essentially what David
here is laying out in verses one to four. In
fact, some commentators would even see maybe
stages of sin. I'm gonna put these up for you
so you can see them. I mean, it might even start
here with self -deception, verse two. For he
flatters himself in his own eyes. I mean, he's
right in his own eyes. So he can't even see his
own sin. He's self -deceived, is the wicked.
Even there, and secondly, insensitive to sin,
verse two. Can't see it and root it out and can't
repent of it, right? It says that his iniquity
cannot be found out and hated. He's insensitive
to sin. Maybe a stage of sin here. Then further,
can't help but sin. Everything that comes out
of his mouth is wicked and deceitful. He doesn't
do anything that would be considered good. Verse
three, the words of his mouth are trouble and
deceit. Further, just going down in these stages
of sin, he plans and prepares for sin. He is
committed to it, even planning for it. Verse
four, he plots trouble while on his bed, just
laying there going, man, what can I do? Finally,
unable to reject sin, just simply will not lay
it aside. The latter half of verse four, he sets
himself in a way that is not good. He does not
reject evil. It's a lot going on here. And David
is trying to set us up for something. He wants
us to understand the wickedness of the wicked.
They have no fear of God. They have no trembling
before him. They're utterly marked by wickedness.
And here's the thing here. Because of that, their
lives are empty. That's essentially the result
of their lives. They might look like they're
having fun day in and day out, but they go home
and they're joyless. laying in their beds, thinking
about what evil they could do next. And because
of this, verse 3 says, they've ceased to act
wisely. They're simply fools. Fools. And one
day their lives will come to an end, and the
true fear of God will be before them in judgment.
I mean, it's a sad state to be the wicked who
are described here. And yet it is a description,
we know this, of all people who are apart from
Christ. All those who have no relationship with
God, in deep need of the grace of God that's
only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe that's
you this morning. Maybe as you read even these
stages of sin and you read these descriptions,
you think, man, I could see myself here, no fear
of God, planning out and seeking sin, not rejecting
evil. If that's you, I want to introduce you
to the God of the Bible. I want to introduce
you to the man Jesus Christ who we just saying
about a few minutes ago that we as believers
can call our treasure and seeing about him being
our treasure he is a true and faithful God and
he died for your sin and my sin on a cross and
he was raised up we just saying about it and
while the reality of the gospel is not found
here in Psalm 36 we're always being pointed that
direction aren't we Always being pointed towards
the cross of Christ, but but one of the descriptions
that we have here of God I would even say Christ
is that he is faithful. He will not leave you
empty like sin will He will not leave you wanting
the way sin always does He will never fail you
always give you real life and real joy Which
takes us from the wickedness of the wicked to
the faithfulness of God the faithfulness of God
look down in your Bible at verse 5 Your steadfast
love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. Your faithfulness
to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the
mountains of God. Your judgments are like the
great deep man and beast you save, O Lord. How
precious is your steadfast love, O God. The children
of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your
wings. They feast on the abundance of your house
and you give them drink from the river of delights.
For with you is the fountain of life. In your
light do we see light. We started this morning
by asking that question in a world full of unfaithfulness.
Who can I trust? The psalmist is now answering
this question in stark contrast to the the wicked
described in verses one to four. who are always
set to do evil, I would dare I say faithful to
being evil, who you can't trust, who you can't
rely on, there is a God who is completely and
utterly faithful in everything that He does.
Because His character is totally and altogether
faithful. This is what David is trying to show
us, and he's starting to stretch the imagination
with his language, trying to find the loftiest
and highest words to build this contrast. Look
down again at verse five. Your steadfast love,
O Lord, extends to the heavens. Your faithfulness
to the clouds. If you were in our Bible study,
our men's and women's Bible study this week,
we talked about in the Psalms this idea of synonymous
parallelism. It's in the Hebrew poetry where
the second line essentially repeats the idea
in the first line. And that's what we've got
going on here. And the first line, he speaks
there in verse five of God's steadfast love.
And he repeats that word in verse seven, and
he repeats it again in verse 10. It becomes a
kind of theme over this song. In fact, the phrase
steadfast love appears at least 120 times in
the Psalms alone. That's why I love that one
brother in our church this week said, hey, I'm
starting to underline every time I see the word
steadfast love. Stay at it. Keep going, brother.
Do it. You should too. That word steadfast love
is one word in Hebrew. It's hesed, hesed. It's
sometimes translated loving kindness, loving
kindness. It means unfailing love. or loyal love.
This is who God is. He is loyal and unfailing
in His love for His people, unlike the marriages
that we find today, where people fall in and
out of love, the relationships that we see. God's
love is nothing like that. His love is utterly
faithful. He is unfailing in His love. He doesn't
fall in and out of love with His people. He remains.
He is faithful to His covenant, which is the
sense of that word hesed. That's why David says
it extends to the heavens. Its reach is endless.
Don't we talk like this? Even in our children's
books? Guess how much I love you. I love you
to the moon and back. We read these things to
our children. And here we see it as a description
of our God, God's love extending to the heavens,
to the moon and back. That's the second part
of verse five. That's he repeats the same idea.
Your faithfulness to the clouds. Right, it's
very similar word faithfulness to the word steadfast
love. It means steadfastness, faithful, trustworthy,
honest. It's saying here that God doesn't waver,
that God doesn't fail, that He is reliable. Or
how about this one? God doesn't lie. In and out
of sleep this week when I was resting from being
sick at one point for some reason I texted my
friend Nate. Nate works in tech. He lives in
Texas. He runs his own company. He's kind of
always on the cutting edge of technology. And
I was asking him a question about chat GPT. You
know that AI software? I feel like every time
I preach, I'm talking about AI now. So sorry
about that. But it's not something I use. And
I've just been wondering about it. I said, Nate,
do you use chat GPT? He said, well, I got my
stats at the end of the year. that they sent
it to me how much I use chat tbt and I said okay
how much he goes I'm in the top 1 % of users
he said I use it constantly I said man I gotta
be honest I'm still a little skeptical I I don't
know that I trust it he goes yeah that's good
and he said this he goes it's it's helpful as
far as it goes he actually told me how he he
spent eight hours with it one day helping him
fix like an engine at his house but then he said
this to me But it will also just lie to you confidently.
Lie to you confidently? How can you people trust
it? I don't know. I mean, it's like shocking
to me. And you think, who can we trust? What
can we trust? I like the way the late John MacArthur
answered that question. Quote should come up.
It says, the only one we can trust without reservation
is God. Because of his character, he cannot lie.
Whatever he says or does is absolute truth. He
has no ability to contradict himself. When he
makes a promise, he can't help but keep it. He
never deviates from his will or his word. He
goes on to say this, because God is trustworthy,
we can be sure that he is always faithful toward
his own children. That's why you can trust him
no matter what happens. Although you may be experiencing
adversity, you can know that he is reliable.
I don't know what you're going through right
now. I don't know what adversity might have come
into your life. And you might be going, man,
who can I trust right now? Where can I turn?
The simple answer of Psalm 36 is you can turn
to a loving and faithful God that you can always
trust way more than chat GPT way more even than
that close friend way more than Fox News or CNN
News because he's always faithful you can run
to turn to and trust in your faithful God I mean
God's faithfulness is an absolutely incredible
mind -boggling attribute If you really think
about it, I mean, it's part of His infinite perfections.
I mean, we understand this. It means that even
in His infinite, it's out of reach for us. That's
a little bit of what David's trying to say. There's
something unique about our God. Part of that
is that He is faithful. That's why His faithfulness
is to the clouds. Mean I would told this to the
young adults and I'll share it with you I mean
it seems like every time we study an attribute
of God You ever done this you start studying
an attribute of God you start thinking man. This
must be a supreme attribute Like you start studying
his love and you're like, that's it It's his
love and then you go to his grace and you're
like, it's got to be grace. It's everything and
you go to mercy It's it's mercy and you come
to faithfulness. You're like it has to be This
has to be some kind of ultimate attribute. I
mean We know that God is not parts, but he's
whole all of his attributes are one But maybe
you would agree with this statement from Mark
Jones He says this about God's faithfulness in
his book on attributes. He says God's faithfulness
is the very ground of our Christian religion
He goes on God's faithfulness makes his decree
sure indeed all his attributes Presuppose his
faithfulness God remains unchangeable holy wise
good eternal Omnipotent and so forth and therefore
he cannot be but faithful in what he says and
how he acts denying God's faithfulness means
denying him end quote Feels that way doesn't
it if God is not faithful, then he can change
Which the Bible says of course he can't because
he's faithful He will not change. Same goes to
any of his attributes. He's totally faithful.
That's why, again, David uses heavens and skies
and clouds and mountains and the great deep.
He's stretching the contrast from the greatest
heights to the greatest depths. And listen, you
say, okay, Pastor Shea, what does this mean for
me, though? How does this affect me on my day
-to -day life? Let me give you a few realities
of your life that rest on the faithfulness of
God. Here's a few things that rest on the faithfulness
of God. We'll start with the first one here.
The first one is your salvation rests on the
faithfulness of God. Your salvation rests on
the faithfulness of God. Apart from a faithful
God, no believer has hope for eternal salvation.
That's what Titus 1 -2 says. In hope of eternal
life, which God, who never lies, promised before
the ages began. God doesn't lie. Whatever promises
he makes, he keeps. Paul can write of the hope
of eternal life simply because God is faithful.
And this isn't the kind of hope that we think
of, right? Like, I hope that's going to happen.
I love my ESV study Bible. Sometimes a good study
Bible will just tell you the point. It says this,
hope is not wishful thinking, but certainty.
Certainty. The hope of eternal life. You can
bank on your eternal life because you've trusted
in a faithful God. Hebrews 6 .18 says it this
way, it is impossible for God to lie. Have hope,
brother or sister. Have hope because when you're
unfaithful, God is totally faithful. Your salvation
rests on God's faithfulness Hebrews 2 17 says
it like this Therefore he had to be made like
his brothers in every respects that he might
become a merciful and Faithful high priest in
the service of God to make propitiation for the
sins of his people again Mark Jones helpful as
a faithful and high priest He remains more concerned
than we are About maintaining us in a state of
grace His faithfulness, not ours, guarantees
our inheritance in the heavenly places with Him.
You ever doubt your salvation? You ever have
a moment? You go, man, I feel the accuser coming
after me right now. I would just remind you of
the faithfulness of God. Your salvation does
not rest on your work, but on the finished work
of Christ and God's faithfulness. Related to
that, there's another thing that rests on God's
faithfulness. It's your sanctification. Your
sanctification rests on the faithfulness of God.
It's not here in this specific text, but we can
read it in the New Testament in Philippians 1
6. When Paul talking to Philippians, he says,
and I'm sure of this, that he who began a good
work in you will bring it to completion at the
day of Christ Jesus. You're wondering whether
you're gonna make it to the end. You can trust
that God will complete the work in your heart
of making you more and more like Jesus Christ
every single day because he's faithful. He's
faithful. Aren't you glad for that? I mean, God's
working right now in you. He's doing something
faithfully. You can bank your sanctification
on the faithfulness of God. Third, you can also
trust the Word of God because God is faithful.
You can trust the Word of God because God is
faithful. We just read a couple scriptures that
speak of God not lying and being unable to lie
because lying would be against His character.
That's why the scripture says in Isaiah 14, the
Lord of Hosts has sworn, as I have planned, so
shall it be. As I've purposed, so shall it stand.
He always accomplishes what He says. Consider
Numbers 23, 19. God is not a man that He should
lie. a son of man that we he should change his
mind he has said and will he not do it or Has
he spoken and will he not fulfill it? Of course
not God will do what he's planned because he's
faithful. He will fulfill every promise I've
been telling people that I've been reading a
biography on Dawson Trotman Dawson Trotman or
sometimes called Dawes He was the man who founded
the Navigators ministry Navigators ministry a
global ministry Huge commitment to the scriptures
part of it's just the way that Dawson got saved
he was memorizing scriptures to try to win in
contests and win win a contest at a church and
win the heart of a girl who was at the church
and while memorizing scripture the Lord saved
him and God used him to start a global ministry
eventually would become a global ministry, but
one of the things I've noticed while reading
about Dawson Trotman is He believes that every
promise of God is for him Almost to a fault where
it's like actually that's for Israel. It's not
necessary for you But you got to love his heart.
He opens his Bible and he looks the promises.
Isn't this for me? This is a faithful God and
And I've been convicted by that man Shay. Why
don't you believe that God will always keep his
promises? He's utterly faithful I mean, His Word
is utterly faithful. That's why Psalm 119, I
did, I spent some time this week just reading
all of Psalm 119. It's an incredible text. You
should absolutely read it. Maybe we can preach
through it at some point. But in Psalm 119, verse
86, it says this, all your commandments are sure.
That word sure is the exact same word we have
for faithfulness in Psalm 36. All your commandments
are sure. They're faithful. Why? Because they
come from a faithful God. I just want to ask
you, do you trust the commandments of the Lord?
When he says something, do you fight it or do
you trust it? Do you believe it that he will
do it? Psalm 119, 138, you have appointed your
testimonies in righteousness and how? And in
all faithfulness, in all faithfulness, everything
God says reflects his character. You want to
know how to live and please God? You have no
greater source than the word of God. It will
bless, it will convict, it will guide you into
all holiness. You need God's faithful word to
do his faithful work in your life. Entrust yourself
to God's word and to God. Maybe one more. It's
kind of, it's different than the other three,
but even nature itself. Have you noticed this?
relies on the faithfulness of God. Nature itself.
Something we don't think about too often. But
I appreciated Terry Johnson. He's got an incredible
book on the attributes of God. It's called The
Identity and Attributes of God. He says this,
and don't lose the point. He says the laws of
nature, he puts that in quotes, are merely human
observations, human descriptions of how God orders
and regulates the universe. The dependability
of those laws is a testimony of God's faithfulness.
Right, we're merely making observations about
what God's faithfulness is doing in nature. Then
Terry Johnson quotes that hymn, great is thy
faithfulness, summer and winter, springtime and
harvest, sun, moon and stars and their courses
above, join with all nature and manifold witness
to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. Terry
Johnson will go on to say that all the order
that we see in nature all the seasons all the
rising of the setting sun They all testify to
the faithfulness of God if God stops making the
world turn. It'll stop turning If he stops bringing
the sun up, it will not come up. He makes everything
work in the way he wants and he's ordering and
preserving everything because of his faithfulness.
It cannot be denied God's faithfulness because
we can see it every single day, every single
night and in every season. This is our God. This
is who he is. We're kind of looking if we're
looking at God we think about God being a prism
and all the colors that come We're looking at
one of the colors right now one of those being
his faithfulness That's why back in Psalm 36
these truths about God are so precious to his
children They can rest. They can take refuge
in God because he will faithfully accomplish
what he says. They don't have to fear because
they know he is faithful and he'll faithfully
work. If you look back in Psalm 36 in verse nine,
look what it says. He says, for with you is the
fountain of life. I mean, true life is found
in God's faithfulness and God's care and His
love. He is the true old faithful, isn't He?
Gushing out His goodness and His life. What a
contrast from the wicked who have no life and
whose lives are empty. They are left empty, but
the children of God in verse 9 are full of God.
Full of His goodness. Let me ask you a question
just based on even verse 8. Have you considered
this? Have you, in that sense, feasted on the
abundance of God's house? Have you enjoyed the
sustaining blessings and sustenance that God
gives? He has, the rest of the verse says, rivers
of delight. These are not future promises. They
are right now, present, found in the character
God and he keeps flowing these to his people
life and light are found in him alone He's faithful.
He sustains and he is endlessly this way Well,
we've looked at the wickedness of the wicked
the faithfulness of God now Let's take it to
the last section here and look at the prayer
of the pious the prayer of the pious look down
at verse 10 He says ho Continue your steadfast
love to those who know you and your righteousness
to the upright of heart. Let not the foot of
arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked
drive me away. There the evildoers lie fallen.
They are thrust down, unable to rise. This last
section is just a simple prayer. It's a prayer
of protection from the wicked that David is praying
from those people he described in verses one
to four. And it's a prayer that the God of verses
five through nine would continue to pour out
his faithfulness onto his people. He knows that
the Lord is the fountain of life, so he prays
more to drink from that fountain. I want more
of you, Lord. He prays that God would continue
to reveal himself. And I'll just ask that question.
Is that how you pray? Is that how we pray? God,
would you show us more of your faithfulness,
more of your character, more of your steadfast
love? Listen, you're going to need it, as David
did, when you come up against wickedness, both
in your own heart and wicked people. That's why
in verse 11, he's praying for protection against
those who would cause him to stumble. Did you
catch that? Look at verse 11. He says, Let not
the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand
of the wicked drive me away. Drive me away. You
know that word. It's kind of one word there.
He doesn't want the wicked to overtake him to
the point where he's just wandering around. He
doesn't want to be like an exile just you know
wandering around because of what the wicked have
done I mean makes you think of that old him right
come now found That line that always kind of
just like ooh Prone to wander Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love those words were
written by Robert Robinson who even later in
life would Struggle with a wandering heart and
a wandering faith. Of course, praise God for
his faithfulness. Praise God for his faithfulness
who can keep us from wandering. I appreciate
Paul Tripp. He says the faithfulness of God confronts
our wandering hearts, confronts our wandering
hearts. So so we can come back and we can sing
the other parts of Come Thou Found. and pray
these words come thou fount of every blessing
tune my heart to sing thy grace streams of mercy
never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise
that's similar to what David is praying here
at the end of Psalm 36 that God's faithful love
and protection would be over him and against
the wicked and that he would shower his people
with his love and his care And the Psalm ends
on a very serious note. Did you catch it in verse
12? There the evildoers lie fallen. They are
thrust down, unable to rise. I mean, he kind
of puts a period on the end of this. He talked
about the wicked. He spoke of the evil, the evilness
and the wickedness. Sorry, he talked about the
wicked. He spoke of God's faithfulness. And he
prays that God would continue. And he puts a
period on it saying, listen, this is the fate
of all those who never drink from the fountain
of life. This is the fate of all those who do
not know the God that David is praying to. They
lie fallen, unable to get up, no light for them,
only darkness. Another incredible contrast from
the children of God who have light and life and
vitality. the end the wicked in verse 12 get
eternal destruction it is a statement of fact
it is certain this is their fate why do we know
this how can David say that well we can know
that because God is faithful he's even faithful
in his judgment of the wicked and for some that
will strike fear and for others that will strike
confidence that God will do what he says Similar
language is found in Psalm 1 we looked at this
on Thursday with the men Therefore the wicked
will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in
the congregation of the righteous Listen, there's
encouragement there for believers. The wicked
will not have the ultimate say The wicked will
not be able to ultimately overcome And that's
why I can appreciate Dane Ortland in his little
Devotional on the Psalms. He says this David's
prayer in this psalm then Is for the Lord's faithfulness
not the evildoers treachery to determine his
life and rule The wicked are set against him.
The Lord is set for him You gotta love that who
will prevail with this psalm David brings us
with him into a renewed settled confidence That
it is the Lord who would triumph in our lives.
He will care for us. He will get the last word
end quote It's true because the Lord is faithful.
This should bring us hope. It should encourage
our wandering hearts, shouldn't it? He is faithful.
Maybe I can close with a personal story. The
young adults heard me share this. Back in late
October, I got a package in the mail. It was
a binder full of all of my like childhood report
cards and things I'd drawn. My mom has been cleaning
house. My dad died a couple years ago. My mom's
been kind of cleaning up. She's kind of downsizing
and she sent me this package of all these things.
I'm looking through soccer awards and photos,
even some random homework that was in there.
And I came across two report cards for my junior
high days. One that was at the end of the first
semester just before Christmas. One that was
at the end of the year, maybe late May. And I
was staring at that I looked at a first report
card before Christmas that year my seventh grade
year and I had mostly A's and B's and mostly
positive comments from the teachers and Then
I I held up the other report card and That report
card showed nothing but D's and F's and I say
that plural F's in one class in my English class.
It said I had an 18 % the comment from the teacher
said student says he doesn't care and I it's
hard not to to feel the emotion of this because
I remember the difference between the first report
card and the second report card you want to know
what happened between those two things some of
you guys know my story it was the day after Christmas
that it was revealed that my dad had been unfaithful
to my mom part of that the sting of that at that
time was finding out that my dad had been living
a double life and part of the reason that my
mom found out is my dad had bought me for that
Christmas a brand new computer that his girlfriend
paid for and so from that point on there's a
defining moment in my life at that point and
that seventh grade year I don't remember doing
any schoolwork obviously I wasn't doing English
had an 18 % you can just show up and get an 18
% I think But for the next years of my life,
it was up and down traveling all over living
with friends I mean my my parents marriage an
absolute mess I mean even my dad's unfaithfulness
obviously leading to my own unfaithfulness and
my studies Not not doing the things not caring.
Obviously the teachers understood that and I
started to look at those papers and I was struck
with a contrast of a young man who I looked at
and go man I'm glad this still isn't true of
me. Because I can look back at 30 years of my
life and I can see nothing but the faithfulness
of God. Nothing. I know it seems like every time
I preach I cry. Ah, I'm trying not to. But you
guys, does it, we can look back and we go listen,
God put families around me at that time. Even
that very day, the moment I remember hearing
the words that this was coming out, the phone
rang and my friend said, hey, do you want to
go to a movie? I said, yes. I don't remember
what movie. I mean, I remember the movie, but
I don't remember what happened. I just remember
sitting there in the theater crying, but I was
glad I wasn't at home. And then God graciously
brought more families, more people in the church
that loved me, more people who would care for
me in His faithfulness. More people who would
come around me and be the dad that I needed in
that moment be the mom that I needed in that
moment and Then from there called me into ministry.
How amazing is this? To be to be a servant of
the King eventually my senior year between my
junior senior. He would save me And rescue me
from my sin. My parents eventually would reconcile.
That's just a cherry on top It's incredible his
faithfulness. He brought me Bethany. We've had
20 years of incredible marriage Yes, we've had
our ups and downs, but he's been faithful I don't
know what God's doing in your life right now.
It's easy for me to look back with with clear
eyes. I Don't know what he's doing in your life
right now, but would you rest in the faithfulness
of God at this moment? He can do it. He can rescue
you from whatever thing is going on. I Mean the
Lord Give me five amazing kids. He's been faithful.
I haven't truly wandered to the point of being
the wicked described in verses one to four because
I have had the experience of verse eight of drinking
from the river of his delights. His faithfulness
truly does extend to the clouds, doesn't it?
That's why In Lamentations, you'll come up on
the screen. Jeremiah can write this, the steadfast
love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never
come to an end. They are new every morning. Great
is your faithfulness. And why the hymn writer
can say great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy
faithfulness. Morning by morning. Isn't this
true? New mercies I see. All I have needed thy
hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness,
Lord. Unto me. Can we pray to the faithful God?
Let me pray. Lord. Obviously wasn't expecting
to have some emotion here. And yet, how could
I not when I think about your faithfulness? Lord,
we can read about it in our Bibles. And we experience
it. Day in and day out week in and week out month
in and month out year after year your faithfulness
Even just by looking at the Sun coming up and
going down But we see it in our own lives The
way that you move in the way that you change
things in our lives It's all part of your faithfulness
and your plan and you bringing to fruition The
things that you want Lord, I pray for my brothers
and sisters here this morning that they would
rest in your faithfulness. Maybe they can't see
it right now. Lord, show more of it. Protect
them from the wicked. Protect them even from
their own wicked heart at times that wants to
wander, that wants to be driven away. Lord, bring
them back and allow them to experience those
rivers of delight and the life and the light
that comes only through you and your faithfulness.
And I pray in Jesus' name, amen.