Seeking God Through the Psalms


08/29/2004 - Trails to God



Bear Story

Some of you may know that my family and I recently returned from a two week camping trip in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. Some of you also heard exaggerated rumors that we were attacked by a bear.

The truth is that on our first morning in the Adirondacks we cooked up some bacon and pancakes for breakfast on a propane griddle setting on the picnic table under our screen tent. After breakfast we got ready to head off in the van to find the nearest town to buy groceries. We cleaned up all our food like you're supposed to do when there are bears around but forgot to empty the grease reservoir under our propane griddle.

While we were in town a young, one year old bear smelled the grease and decided to find a way into the screen tent so he could have a taste. Apparently, the bear never discovered either of the two zippered doorways so he just knocked it down and proceeded to create his own doorways through the nylon screening. By that point, the rangers had been notified of a bear in the campground and they came and chased him away.

All this was going on while we were lollygagging around Lake Placid. When we returned to the park that evening, the ranger at the front gate forewarned us of the mess waiting for us at our campsite. We went back to the campsite, rigged up the screen tent, sewed up all of the bear's creative entry ways, and continued on with our camping adventure.

The whole thing was kind of anticlimactic because we never actually saw the bear ...

Introduction: Different Kinds of Trails

All of that has absolutely nothing to do with today's teaching but this does: We did a lot of hiking while we were in the Adirondacks . We also did a lot of hiking last summer while camping in Canada in the Algonquin region of northern Ontario. We discovered that the trails in the Adirondacks were very different than the trails in Algonquin.

In Algonquin last summer, the trails were very well marked, very well defined. When we arrived at the starting point of a trail there were illustrated trail guides available describing various highlights along the way. You always knew where you were and how far you had left to hike.

The trails in the Adirondacks this summer were hard to find and difficult to follow. There were no trail guides, no maps - just a general idea where the trail started and how long it was from start to finish.

An Unmarked Trail

One day we went out looking for a trail that promised "dramatic rapids, waterfalls, gorges, and rock outcroppings along the Racquette River. We followed the sketchy directions until we found a sign right next to an electric power plant indicating the beginning of the trail. It seemed an odd place for a trail to begin but we parked the van, grabbed our backpacks, and set off anyway.

Rather than plunging into the woods the trail seemed to follow the perimeter of the woods and before we knew it we were walking alongside a huge pipeline. The last things we wanted to see on an Adirondack hike were high voltage wires and pipelines.

From time to time we would stop and listen to the distant sound of rushing water resounding from somewhere deep in the woods. Finally, after hiking over an hour with a pipeline on our right shoulder, we stopped and debated whether to just return to the van and write this one off or find an opening in the woods and set off on our own search for the river. We decided on the latter, backtracked to a small, unmarked trail that looked more like a deer run, and ploughed into the woods.

Before long the sounds of the river grew louder. Then one of us noticed a trail marker. All of a sudden we were getting somewhere and before long we found ourselves hiking along the wild, rocky, thunderous Racquette River.

Trails to God

The title of the teaching series that we have been enjoying this summer is called "Seeking God Through the Psalms." No matter where we find ourselves in our spiritual journey this morning, we are all seeking God. Every day of our lives we are seeking God. Some days the trails are well marked, familiar, easy to follow, and lead us straight into the loving arms of our Father. But other days the trails are difficult to find, impossible to follow, and seem to lead us nowhere.

A Friend's Struggle

I was talking to a friend recently who had just sort of fallen of a cliff in her seeking after God. She was just coming off a powerful, top of the mountain experience with God when her whole life started to take a nose dive. In her panic, she turned to the things that used to console her before she knew God and in less than a week she was fearing for her very life. As she described her tragic turn of events she said, "I tried reading my Bible and praying, but it didn't work."

We all experience days when we start off down an often visited trail like "reading the Bible" or "prayer" and find that the trail takes us nowhere. That doesn't mean those trails are not good trails. Nor does that necessarily mean there is something wrong with us.

I'm beginning to realize that on those days when the familiar trails seem like "dead ends" our wild, unpredictable God is inviting us on an adventure to find another trail, perhaps an unmarked trail or a more difficult trail, but a trail with views of God along the way like we've never seen before.

Psalm 66 is going to introduce us to some of those other trails that will lead us to intimacy with God ... trails that may not always be so well-marked ... trails that we sometimes forget about or take for granted.

The Trail of WORSHIP

The first trail to God found in Psalm 66 is the trail of WORSHIP ...

1Shout with joy to God, all the earth! 2 Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious! 3 Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. 4 All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name."

I think this is a trail we often take for granted.

Often when we feel lost or distant from God we will find him waiting for us at the end of the worship trail. The trail is most difficult when we are struggling . It is so hard to tell God how awesome we think He is when we are wondering where He is and if He has any idea what we are going through.

But even when the trail is difficult is it worth it. If you are finding it impossible to worship God on your own then find some others to worship with you. That's why are gatherings here at the Y are always so powerful. We are helping each other along the worship trail and every week we discover magnificent views waiting at the end.

Make his praise glorious!

I love this line. Every time we have a chance to express our worship to God we need to make it glorious ... not the same thing every time but different, creative, unique. It's like throwing a surprise party for God every Sunday.

Look at the different verbs describing worship in these first four verses ... "shout," "sing," "make," "say," "bow" ... there are so many different ways to express our worship God.

What I love about what God is doing at Valley View is that we are learning to appreciate the variety of ways to express our praise to Him - to "make his praise glorious!"

Explore the WORSHIP Trail

I want to encourage all of us to continue to explore this fascinating trail. I want us to be more and more comfortable with the diversity of expressions of worship that are offered up to God here. I want each of us to find the ways of expressing worship that are unique to each one of us.

Sitting, standing, dancing, singing, shouting, crying, raising hands, lifting banners ... all of these expressions and hundreds more are valid and delightful in the ears and eyes of our God.

Be yourself in worship. Let it be between you and the Lover of your soul. Don't allow your attention to be diverted for one moment to how someone near you might be expressing themselves. Don't let someone try to tell you HOW to express yourself to God.

The Trail of OBSERVATION

The second trail to God found in Psalm 66 is OBSERVATION

5Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man's behalf! 6 He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot- come, let us rejoice in him.

7He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations- let not the rebellious rise up against him. Selah

This is one of those unmarked trails ...

Remember the Good Times

Come and see what God has done ... we need to pay attention to the hand of God in our lives in good times and bad.  Look at what the psalmist observes. God, you turned the sea into dry land and allowed us to escape the bondage of Egypt .

When you find yourself in one of those desperate times when God seems so far away, look for ways that he is working or remember ways that he has worked in the past and revisit those times ... take time to remember God's awesome works.

We don't know who wrote this Psalm or when it was written or for what occasion. The miracles of the Exodus could have been 100 years earlier or they could have been 500 years earlier. What is amazing is that the psalmist is writing as if it just happened yesterday.

A Church that Observes and Celebrates

This is critical for the spiritual health of Valley View. We are still a very young church, just finishing up our 11th year. Some of you have only heard stories about the provision of an oak tree, the miracle of the barn, the resources to restore the big old house in Phoenixville, the miracle of this YMCA ... of course, we are all here to marvel at God's awesome provision of the Sunnyside property.

If we ever stop observing and celebrating God's supernatural provision we will grow spiritually cold and distant from God and from each other. We will become a church that exists for itself and the wonder and the power will gradually fade away to a distant memory.

Observing God in the Difficult Passages

While we are observing him we must also remember to replay the difficult passages ... the desert experiences, like the stories we heard last Sunday.

8Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; 9 he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. 10 For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver.

11You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. 12 You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.

Verse 9 recounts that God has "preserved" our lives. The psalmist talks about being tested and refined, being in prison, bearing burdens, with men riding over them, passing through fire and water ... "but you brought us to a place of abundance."

Our Father in heaven is very aware of the difficult passages that we experience. So often we turn away, throw up our hands, our hearts grow cold and distant from God when we should be marveling that he is with us ... he is pulling us through.

Whining and Sulking

I was feeling sorry for myself last weekend. I came home from vacation to a pile of work. I was feeling like vacation was a time when you had to work like crazy to get away and then work even harder to catch up when you returned.

The more I whined and sulked the more distant I felt from my Father in heaven ... the more I blamed him for the unfairness of my situation ... all the while I was oblivious to his loving arms reaching for me, wanting to preserve me through the pressured times.

I was so moved last Sunday by the stories of Mark, Scott, Paula, Marcia, and Rick. After hearing about their struggles, many of which are ongoing, I was brought up short. I thought about how ridiculous my behavior had been. I felt like God was with me, trying to rescue me, pulling me through. But rather than thank him and all I could do was blame him for the unfairness of it all.

The psalmist observes that God "preserved our lives" through prison and burdens, fire and water, and, finally, to a place of abundance.

The Trail of OBEDIENCE

The third trail to God found in Psalm 66 is OBEDIENCE ...

Bear Mountain

There was one trail in the Adirondacks that we kept putting off. That was the Bear Mountain trail. It was the closest trail to our campsite and by far the most well marked trail. But it was a climb ... a hard climb ... a stop and rest every 15 minutes climb ... but it was worth it at the top.

The Trail of OBEDIENCE can be a hard, rocky, uphill trail.

13I will come to your temple with burnt offerings and fulfill my vows to you- 14 vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.

15I will sacrifice fat animals to you and an offering of rams; I will offer bulls and goats. Selah

I will come ... and fulfill my vows to you ... I will do what I promised you I would do.

Obedience

I am reading a book right now called Finding Faith: A Self-Discovery Guide for your Spiritual Quest by Brian McLaren. Chapter Nine is called "How Might God be Experienced?" and one of the ways McLaren suggests is "Obedience/Self-Denial." Here's an excerpt from this section of the book:

Oddly, saints and sages throughout history will tell us that God is often found through our doing things we don't want to do, or not doing things we want to do ...

There are certain defining moments that can occur unexpectedly in our lives.

  • A new coworker makes sexual advances toward you, and you are tempted to break your marriage vows, compromise your integrity, and put your whole family at risk through an affair.

  • You are driving down the road, in a hurry because you're already late for an appointment, and you see a car broken down. Inside an old woman has her head leaning on the steering wheel, and it's clear she's crying.

  • A relative has begun drinking too much, endangering his and others' safety when he drives and threatening to sabotage his marriage and career. Someone needs to speak sensitively but firmly to him about it, but everyone, including you, is too afraid. Or maybe the relative is you, and someone has just intervened and spoken to you, and you have a decision - to admit you have a problem and get help or to continue in your denial.

  • Or maybe in each of the above situations, you made the wrong choice - and immediately after making it, another choice presents itself: to admit that you've failed and done the wrong thing, or to make excuses.

In these moments, we make choices. Too often, we'll all admit, we make the wrong choices. But people commonly agree that when they make the right choice (including the right choice of admitting our past wrong choices), a new experience of God often begins. There is a humility involved - realizing how vulnerable we are to doing wrong, to becoming bad people. There is also a kind of courage involved - to do the right thing even though our lust, our fear, our pride, our greed, or our laziness is crying out against it.

In John 14:23, Jesus said, If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. When we hike the hard trail of obedience we will find an amazing community with the Father and his Son.

Hidden Sin

17I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue.

18If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; 19 but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer.

If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. From childhood that verse has disturbed me. The church that I grew up in used to badger us with that verse. I can remember thinking, "what's the use? God will never hear my prayers because I always seem to have some sin issue in my life.

If that were true, we would all be doomed to a life of total communication breakdown with God. He would never listen to our prayers because we are constantly fouling up.

But that's not what the psalmist is saying. He says if I had "cherished" sin in my heart. If I have some behavior or practice that is disobedient to God that I am holding on to ... not willing to let go of ... hiding ...

Nothing breaks the intimacy of a relationship faster or more destructively than secrets. We can always tell when a close friend or loved one is holding something back. It is true in a friendship, in a marriage, in a partnership, and even more in our relationship with Christ.

The trail of obedience requires its travelers to pull out all the cherished sins ... the things that we love more than Christ ... the parts of our lives that we are holding onto ... trying to hide.

The trail of obedience is a hard, uphill climb but it is worth it.

Conclusion

I have known that I was scheduled to teach this Psalm all summer and have so enjoyed exploring it week after week. But more than the Psalm I have been challenged to explore these amazing trails to God, the trails of worship, observation, and obedience.

Keep seeking God every day. Never give up. And if a familiar trail seems to be blocked, look for one of these other trails. They may seem harder to find or more difficult to explore but they will be worth it when they lead you to a fresh new encounter with your adventurous God.