1 / 21

A Prescription for Life’s Pressures

A Prescription for Life’s Pressures. Psalm 31 Summer Series in the Psalms. For the choir director. A Psalm of David.

MikeCarlo
Download Presentation

A Prescription for Life’s Pressures

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. A Prescription for Life’s Pressures Psalm 31 Summer Series in the Psalms

  2. For the choir director. A Psalm of David. 1 In You, O Lord, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Your righteousness deliver me. 2 Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly; Be to me a rock of strength, A stronghold to save me. 3 For You are my rock and my fortress; For Your name's sake You will lead me and guide me. 4 You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength. 5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth. Psalm 31:1-5 A Prescription for Life’s Pressures

  3. 6 I hate those who regard vain idols, But I trust in the Lord. 7 I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness, Because You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul, 8 And You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a large place. Psalm 31:6-8 A Prescription for Life’s Pressures

  4. 9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body also. 10 For my life is spent with sorrow And my years with sighing; My strength has failed because of my iniquity, And my body has wasted away. 11 Because of all my adversaries, I have become a reproach, Especially to my neighbors, And an object of dread to my acquaintances; Those who see me in the street flee from me. 12 I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel. 13 For I have heard the slander of many, Terror is on every side; While they took counsel together against me, They schemed to take away my life. Psalm 31:9-13 A Prescription for Life’s Pressures

  5. 14 But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord, I say, "You are my God." 15 My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. 16 Make Your face to shine upon Your servant; Save me in Your lovingkindness. 17 Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I call upon You; Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol. 18 Let the lying lips be mute, Which speak arrogantly against the righteous With pride and contempt. Psalm 31:14-18 A Prescription for Life’s Pressures

  6. 19 How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear You, Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You, Before the sons of men! 20 You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues. 21 Blessed be the Lord, For He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city. 22 As for me, I said in my alarm, "I am cut off from before Your eyes"; Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications When I cried to You. Psalm 31:19-22 A Prescription for Life’s Pressures

  7. 23 O love the Lord, all you His godly ones! The Lord preserves the faithful And fully recompenses the proud doer. 24 Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:23-24 A Prescription for Life’s Pressures

  8. The best cure for dealing with life’s pressures is trusting in the all-sovereign and personal LORD. The Big Idea Psalm 31

  9. The godly must realize that in a fallen world, stress is a reality. • A. Stress results in a number of emotions • David felt shame (1, 17) • David felt fear (13) • David felt grief, sorrow, sighing (9-10) Prescription for Life’s Pressures Psalm 31

  10. In verse 7, he is rejoicing and glad in the Lord’s lovingkindness. • In verse 19 he bursts forth in praise because of God’s great goodness that He has stored up for those who fear Him. • In verse 21, he blesses the LORD because He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to David even while he was under siege. • In verses 23-24 he bursts out in a grand word of praise, exhorting all of God’s saints to love Him, to be strong, take courage, and hope in the LORD. How David “tempers” his emotions Psalm 31

  11. The godly must realize that in a fallen world, stress is a reality. • Stress results in a number of emotions • Since stress is a reality, it must be prepared for Prescription for Life’s Pressures Psalm 31

  12. God is a refuge and shelter (vv. 1, 19, 20). • God is righteous (v. 1) and will judge righteously (v. 23). • God is a rock of strength (vv. 2, 3). • God hears and answers prayer (vv. 2, 22). • God is a stronghold and fortress (vv. 2, 3), • God is David’s source of strength (v. 4). • God is the God of truth (v. 5) • God is the God of lovingkindness (vv. 7, 16, 21). • God is all-knowing (v. 7) • God is gracious (v. 9), [in that God forgives and does not cast off the rejected (implied in vv. 9-13)]. • God has unlimited storehouses of goodness for those who fear Him (v. 19) David’s Lists of the Attributes of God Psalm 31

  13. The godly must realize that in a fallen world, stress is a reality. • Stress results in a number of emotions • Since stress is a reality, it must be prepared for • The stress of personal sin does not negate taking refuge in God • God never allows more stress than we can bear - if we trust in Him “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted [or, ‘tried’] beyond what you are able.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 Prescription for Life’s Pressures Psalm 31

  14. The godly must resolve to look to the sovereign, personal God as a rock of refuge during times of stress. • God is a rock of refuge (1-4; 20) • God is sovereign (15) • God is personal (14) Prescription for Life’s Pressures Psalm 31

  15. “But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 5:9-11 A Prescription for Life’s Pressures

  16. The godly must resolve to trust continually in the sovereign, personal God during times of stress. • Determination to trust the Lord Prescription for Life’s Pressures Psalm 31

  17. The godly must resolve to engage in exuberant praise during times of stress. • Determination to praise the Lord Prescription for Life’s Pressures Psalm 31

  18. Nor is his exhortation to courage and firmness unnecessary; because, when any ne begins to rely on God, he must … arm himself for sustaining many assaults from Satan. We are first, then, calmly to commit ourselves to the protection and guardianship of God, and to endeavor to have the experience of his goodness pervading our whole minds. Secondly, thus furnished with steady firmness and unfailing strength, we are to stand prepared to sustain every day new conflicts. John Calvin A Prescription for Life’s Pressures

  19. The prophet Jonah echoed a phrase from this psalm when he cried out to the Lord from the belly of the great fish (Jonah 2:8 to Psalm 31:6a). • The prophet Jeremiah, whose message was rejected and whose life was often in danger, borrowed regularly the phrase, “terror is on every side” (Psalm 31:13) in Jeremiah 6:25; 20:3, 10; 46:5; 49:29; and Lamentations 2:22. • As an old man, the author of Psalm 71 (perhaps David himself), took solace in God by praying the words of Psalm 31:1-3. • The Lord Jesus had meditated on this psalm so often that His final words from the cross were a quote from Psalm 31:5: “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). Remarkable features of Psalm 31 A Prescription for Life’s Pressures

  20. “It doesn’t matter, really, how great the pressure is; it only matters where the pressure lies. See that it never comes between you and the Lord—then, the greater the pressure, the more it presses you to His breast” Hudson Taylor – Missionary to China A Prescription for Life’s Pressures

  21. The best cure for dealing with life’s pressures is trusting in the all-sovereign and personal LORD. The Big Idea Psalm 31

More Related