Trusting God in dark moments of our faith

We thank you in this moment for the great plus in our life. The character, integrity, sacrifice, and righteousness of Jesus Christ that has been placed into the account of our life. Lord, though much that we’ve added to the account has been negative, you’ve exchanged our sinfulness and weakness, and have proclaimed us righteous by our faith in Jesus Christ.

It’s beyond our imagination. It’s wondrous, but we thank you for it. In Jesus’ name, Amen. This is the last Sunday that together we look at this important area of, uh, the Psalms. The first ten Psalms we’ve chosen together for the summer. And we’ve talked about the Psalms as a laboratory of life, in which various writers—David and other writers—have said, “I want to invite you to come into the summers and winters of my life.

I want you to experience the drought of my spiritual dryness. I want you to know the floods of circumstantial happenings in my life. I want you to be with me in the hours when I can’t sleep, in the times in between promise and fulfillment, where I wonder if God will ever complete what He promised to say and what He promised He would do.”

And they’ve invited us to come into their lives with that very key understanding that God is doing something in those moments. Drought isn’t for drought’s purpose. Circumstantial floods aren’t for the purpose of circumstantial floods. It’s that something about God and me will be known. But vulnerably they’ve asked us to come in that moment.

So we come this morning to the tenth Psalm. Would you turn to it, please, with me? And you remember that Psalm 9 and 10 are actually together in the original Hebrew manuscripts. You will remember, for example, that this Psalm 9 is the first of the so-called acrostic psalms. In other words, every stanza or verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet from Aleph and Beth and on through Tau, the final alphabet figure.

And of course, that makes you a little suspicious about these two psalms because the first eleven alphabet letters of the Hebrew, the first nine Psalms, barring one (the fourth), and in Psalm 10, it picks up at the twelfth letter of the alphabet and goes through the final letter. So, between the two Psalms, you have the acrostic, A to Z, with the exception of the letter D missing in the first or ninth Psalm. So they obviously seem to relate to each other.

But I also want you to see a phrase. Look with me, please, at Psalm 9, verse 9, and then look at Psalm 10, verse 1, and you’ll see a phrase that’s repeated twice. It’s a very unusual phrase. I’m not sure that, in this wording, it’s ever repeated again in the Psalms. “In times of trouble.” Do you see that phrase? Referred to in chapter 10, verse 1, and chapter 9, verse 9.

Of course, in the ninth psalm, we’re dealing with the issue of the heathen, whereas in the tenth psalm, we’re dealing more with wickedness as a principle, or wickedness even among the Israelites or the people of God. The ninth psalm is a psalm of praise, while the tenth is a psalm of entreaty and lament.

And, of course, this missing section is unique and important. I want you to clearly hear me on this point, because I’ll come to it as a major issue in just a few moments. There is, from verse 3, chapter 10, through verse 11, chapter 10, a parenthesis. Now, let me tell you how I know that. The acrostic pattern is broken. The pattern of using a letter of the alphabet for every stanza goes through the first stanza of chapter 10 and then stops. In other words, it goes through verses 1 and 2 of chapter 10, and verses 3 through 11 are not in that alphabet row or in that acrostic pattern.

After verse 11, verse 12, it’s picked up again and completed until the end. It’s like a river that’s flowing and suddenly is dammed up. The dam, the blockage, is this parenthesis, verses 3 through 11. Now that’s very significant, lady, for you to know, because when we see what that parenthesis is about, I think you’ll come to understand it even more.

Will you stand with me now? We’re going to read. There is no biblical introduction to this psalm, and no author is given to this psalm, which makes both of those elements suspicious. I will read, and you follow. It’s a very significant reading. “Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”

The wicked, in his pride, persecute the poor. Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. Now here you begin this parenthesis. For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire. He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. The wicked, in his proud countenance, does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts.

His ways are always prospering. Your judgments are far above, out of his sight. As for all his enemies, he sneers at them. He has said in his heart, “I shall not be moved. I shall never face adversity.” His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression. Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. He lurks in the villages’ hiding places.

Watching the innocent, his eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. He lies in wait secretly, like a lion in his den. He lies in wait to catch the poor. He catches the poor when he draws them into his net. So he crouches, lies low, that the helpless may fall by his strength. He has said in his heart, “God has forgotten; he hides his face. He will never see it.”

Arise, Lord, O God, lift up your hand, do not forget the humble. Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, “You will not require an account,” but you have seen it. For you observe trouble and grief to repay it by your hand. The helpless commit themselves to you. You are the father of the fatherless; you are the helper of the fatherless.

Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Actually, it means destroy his strength. Take away his strength. Seek out the wickedness until you find none. In other words, burn thoroughly, burn everything until there’s no wickedness. The Lord is King forever and ever. The nations have perished from His land.