I said growing up, one of the most difficult times in my life.
This is like when I was a teenager.
So it might seem like not a big deal now, but at the time it was
a big deal, right? Teenagers, everything is a big
deal. So I was like in middle school
and high school, and my dad was leading a church.
He was a church planter. And so the first few years were
really good. Like, we had, you know, a good
number of people. I had friends, a lot of kids.
But then after that, after the first couple years, it was like
a slow death, OK? And eventually a lot of people
left and literally all my friends left the church.
So I come to church on Sundays and it's just me and my mom
doing Sunday school, right? My mom's like my teacher.
It was so fun, so fun. But anyways, that was church.
And on the weekdays, like my parents obviously dealing with a
struggling church plan, financial issues.
So it was just fighting every day, every night.
It was just terrible, OK? And I just remember feeling so
miserable, so lonely and just very hopeless every day.
And my escape was to just be in my room by myself, reading books
and comics and drawing for hours and hours a day.
Even on Sundays, I'd be like in my own little corner, just
drawing and reading, right? And I just remember, like, my
prayer at that time was just, God, Get Me Out of here.
Get Me Out of this situation. I don't like it.
And, you know, looking back, it doesn't seem like a huge deal.
But I think that feeling of wanting to escape a difficult
situation is something I'm sure that we can all relate to.
When we're desperate, when we're in an uncomfortable or harsh
uncomfortable situation or a hardship, our first instinct is
to escape, to try to fix it, to find a way out.
And, but interestingly, it's usually in these difficult
situations that God meets us. And that's what happens in
today's passage in Psalm 63. And a little bit of background
of Psalm 63. David here is on the run.
He's running for his life. Some scholars are a little
divided about who he's running from.
There's two periods of his life where he's on the run, and one
of them is, you know, early on in his life, he's running from
salt or Saul wants to kill him because Saul is a king.
David is a point like anointed to be the next king, and he's on
the run. But he also is on the run for
his life later in life from his son Absalom, who's also trying
to kill him. So we don't know exactly which
period of time this is, but we know regardless that David is
running for his life and he is in the wilderness of Judah.
He is far from comfort, far from safety.
He is far from everything that made his life good and safe.
And it's in this wilderness that he prays this song.
And he doesn't express a desire to escape his situation.
Instead, he expresses a desire for God.
He expresses hunger and thirst for God.
And I think that kind of a contrast to how I might handle
the situation. I would be praying God Get Me
Out of here, like save me from this wilderness.
I want to go home. I want to eat good food again
and see my family. But David doesn't do that.
He desires God. So the question I want us to
delve into is how can we be like David?
How do we cultivate our desire for God in times of hardship?
How do we cultivate our desire for God and times of hardship?
The first point is by recognizing our need for God,
recognizing that our need is for God.
So let me read the passage, Psalm 63.
It's just 11 verses, so I'll just read the whole thing,
right? This is God's word.
God, You are my God. I eagerly seek you.
I thirst for you. My body feigns for you in a land
that is dry, desolate, and without water.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength
and your glory. My lips will glorify you because
your faithful love is better than life.
So I will bless you as long as I live at your name.
I will lift up my hands. You satisfy me.
As with rich food, My mouth will praise you with joyful lips when
I think of you as I lie on my bed.
I meditate on you during the night watches because you are my
helper. I will rejoice in the shadow of
your wings. I will follow close to you.
Your right hand holds on to me. But those who intend to destroy
my life will go into the depths of the earth.
They will be given over to the power of the sword.
They will become a meal for jackals, but the king will
rejoice in God. All who swear by him will boast,
for the mouths of liars will be shut.
Amen. So how do we cultivate our
desire for God? By recognizing our need for God.
So then these verses, right off the bat we see that David knows
that who he's hungering for and thirsting after is God, right.
He says, God, you are my God, I eagerly seek you, I thirst for
you, my body feigns for you. Very vivid imagery of his body
just craving God, right? He knows that only God can
satisfy him, not just medium satisfaction, but abundantly.
And that's why he uses language like God's love is better than
life, right? He's satisfying me as with rich
food, not just regular food, but rich food.
This is talking about like the richest, fattiest, most filling
food you can find. So David is experiencing not
just physical hunger and thirst, but spiritual ones.
He's not just in a physical wilderness, but a spiritual
wilderness. And so I think we can all
probably relate to feeling like we're in the wilderness
sometimes. And by wilderness, we're talking
about like a time of deprivation where we feel empty, like we
have nothing left in life, nothing good.
Maybe all the good things have been taken away by some kind of
hardship or trial. We just feel dry, no sense of
purpose. We're just floating.
But here's the difference between US and David.
David realizes that this hunger is spiritual, and so he goes to
God immediately. But I think for us, many times
we don't always recognize that what we need is to go to God, at
least not right away. So we we're in this season of
the wilderness, we start feeling empty and then we go looking for
something and instead of going to go to fill that need, we fill
it with something else. It could be whatever the world
tells us we need, success, relationships, comfort,
distractions. The world has taught us or even
conditioned us to think that these are the things that will
fill our hunger. And over time our spiritual
senses become dull and we don't even realize that God is who we
need. So we even come to church with
these misdirected desires. We come to church out of a sense
of duty instead of love. We come simply to make friends
and have community, which are not bad things.
These are all good things, but they are not the ultimate
things, right? We come to church to be in God's
presence. We come to church to satisfy
ourselves, not with more relationships with people, which
is a good thing too, but first and foremost to be satisfied
with the presence of God. The other things will follow.
And the problem is that a lot of these things the world throws at
us, they don't truly satisfy us. It's kind of like they're kind
of like sweets, OK, sugar. We all like sweets.
Who doesn't have a sweet tooth? I'm sure, I don't know.
I I have a sweet tooth. My husband has a major sweet
tooth. But what is it about sugar,
right? We crave it, we want it, we eat
it and then it's so good and then it's gone.
Get the sugar high and then we crash and then we chase after it
again and again and there is no nutritional value.
It doesn't satisfy us. There's this kids nutritionist I
follow and she kind of talks about how we don't want to
villainize sugar, but we should talk about it in this way, like
to kids, right? Like, oh, that candy will give
you quick energy, but food like chicken or pasta and vegetables
will give you long term energy, energy for a long time, right?
And that's God. God is the good protein, the
good carbs, the veggies. He satisfies us forever.
The thing that the world offers us, that's the sugar, the sweets
that satisfies us briefly, but it doesn't truly last.
When we go to God, His love, His presence is truly all we need.
So instead of chasing after achievement after achievement,
we can rest in Christ's achievement for us.
And instead of striving for more status, we can rest in the
status that God gives us. And instead of looking for a
love in all the wrong places, we can rest and find comfort and
confidence in the love that God gives us, which never changes
and never shifts. And I think, you know, this is
one of the reasons we go after what the world offers us.
And it's because it is, honestly, it's easier and maybe
more convenient is what we're used to.
It's more natural to us. And when we are in like a season
of wilderness, we're not always on guard.
We let our guards down. We kind of just let our hearts
wander and we do what's easier for us.
Because honestly, going to God does require intentionality.
It does require some effort on our part, right?
We have to search our hearts. We have to pray.
We might even have to wait. We might have to like, have some
hard conversations with people. The world's options are easier
because we're so used to it. We've been doing it for so long
and that becomes our default. And another reason that we go
after these things is honestly, we forget that God is better.
We just forget that God is so much better than what the world
has to offer us, right? Verse 4, David says, you know,
your love is better than life. I think about that.
Your love is better than life. How many of us right now can
truly, honestly say that about God's love?
That His love is truly better than life?
David's life is on the line, right?
Like he doesn't know if he's going to live the next day,
right? People want to kill him.
He's in the literal wilderness. And yet he is able to rest and
be confident in God's love because it is better than life
for him. And David shows us what it means
to see God first, not as a last resort, but as the only source
of life. And he does something in this
passage. And even just throughout the
book of Psalms and first, second Samuel, you see him doing
something to combat, to fight against forgetfulness, OK,
Something that helps him keep God at the forefront of his mind
always. And he cultivates his desire for
God. And how does he cultivate his
desire for God? He does it through remembrance
and meditation. So that's the second point.
How do we cultivate our desire for God, the remembrance and
meditation? So when we think about the
wilderness, typically, we usually think about bad things,
right? Wilderness is equated with the
suffering, deprivation, harshness, danger.
And so in these seasons of life, when everything feels dangerous
or harsh or empty and we're suffering, it's easy to forget
God's goodness, his, his love. So much easier to just focus on
the bad. And that's what we have to learn
to remember. And David does this by
remembering the Lord of the past, what the Lord has done for
him in the past. And this is really important
because right now he's far from the Tabernacle.
He can't just go to church and worship God.
So he needs to like bring God to where he is, right?
And so he has this longing for God and he turns that into
practice of remembrance. And so we see him doing that in
verse two. I gaze on you in the sanctuary,
right? He's remembering the time he
worshipped God with, you know, God's people in the Tabernacle.
He's being reminded of God's strength and glory.
He's recalling the joy of being in God's presence in the
sanctuary, right? And he says in verse 3, your
faithful love is better than life, right?
So he's remembering the way God has been faithful to him through
how it is whole life. And he talks about even at
night, right in verse 6, I lie on my bed, I meditate on you
during the night, watches, right?
Even in his sleep, he's stressed out, he can't sleep.
So what is he doing? He's thinking about God.
He's remembering and reflecting. And as he remembers the past, it
shapes how he views and how he deals with the present, right?
So remembrance shapes how we view the present.
So for David, as he remembers the past in the present, right,
the wilderness, it becomes a sacred space for him to
encounter God. Usually in the wilderness, we
just want to escape, right? We want to get out of there, go
back home, eat food and drink water.
But what we see often in Scripture, just throughout
Scripture, is God's plans usually go beyond just escaping
from our problems, right? The wilderness becomes an
opportunity for us to meet God in a powerful way.
And this is something we see in Scripture just in a lot of
places. The wilderness is a very
significant place in the Scriptures.
God meets his people often in the wilderness.
We see that with Moses. He's in the wilderness, He sees
a burning Bush, He meets God. He's a changed man.
Even Hagar, if you guys remember the story of Hagar, she's, you
know, on the run from her, from Sarah and she's dying, her son
is dying and God meets her, shows his love to her.
Even Jesus went to the wilderness to pray to his
father. The Israelites wandering the
wilderness, encountering God, experiencing his miracles, and
David here meeting God. They all meet God and experience
God satisfying their needs in the profound way.
But what we often do is we chase after other things, fill our
hunger with other things, and then we miss out on the
opportunity to be satisfied by God.
So we need to learn to remember. I think one of the 1st movies
that came to mind as I was preparing this sermon was as a
child of the 90s. My favorite movie was Lion King.
OK, not the remake, like weird CGI one, but the original real
animation, OK. And I I'm sure you guys remember
the scene. If you've seen the movie, you
know there's like this pivotal moment for Simba, right?
The main character, the little lion, his father shows up to him
in like a dream or a vision. And he's like Simba and the
stupid voice, right? Remember who you are.
You are my son, the one true king, right?
Remember who you are, right? Simba had like allowed his
tragedy, his guilt to like shape his life and he ran away from
his life and he just want to escape.
But he remembers who he is and he it brings him back to his
true purpose, right? And he goes back home and he
lives out his role as a king. And I know that's just like a
cartoon illustration, but I think that really shows the
power of remembrance. So some of the ways that we can
practice this is remembering God in our daily devotionals.
When you come to read the Bible and meditate on Scripture,
that's you remembering what God has done in history or you
reflect on the gospel and what Christ has done for us on the
cross and in his resurrection. That's remembrance.
And something that I've been learning to do is also
practicing affirmations. Maybe if you've done therapy,
maybe you know what this is and you've read about it, but
affirmations is simply repeating truths to yourself, right?
And I remember when I was preparing to give birth to my
two kids, I would try to like practice affirmations and but I
ain't made to do this. My body is made to give birth.
And it's all like remembrance of what my body is capable of doing
or whatever. But lately what I've been
telling myself is God loves me unconditionally.
I am fearfully and wonderfully made every day, every morning,
right? These are biblical truths that I
repeat to myself every day to remember who God is to me and
who I am to him, right? These ways of remembrance shape
our thinking, shape our beliefs, which in turn shape our actions.
And the result for David is joy. It's praise.
He's able to worship in the wilderness.
And going back to my little story and the introduction, you
know, my teenage loneliness years or whatever, fortunately,
I was going to a Christian School at the time, and I didn't
really have, you know, a good community at church, obviously.
But fortunately, through my Christian School, I had the
resources to learn about the Bible and I learned to direct my
desires to God. I'm really thankful for that
time. I had great teachers and we have
worship times. I learned to study the Word.
I learned to do devotionals. And as I meditated on who God
is, I was able to find hope and joy in the midst of my hardship.
And they made it possible for me to face the future, to face each
day with hope. And that is why the wilderness.
There's so much potential for growth, you guys.
And that is how it also impacts the way we face our future.
So for David, you know, wilderness became the sacred
place to meet God. He praised him and then he also
found the confidence to face his future, right?
And verses towards the end of the passage he talks about,
that's verse 9, right? He talks about his enemies,
right? Those who intend to destroy my
life will go into the depths of the earth.
They'll be given over the power of the sword.
They'll become a meal for jackals.
It's not kind of mean, OK? He's obviously having a hard
time with his enemies, but it's not about him taking vengeance
on his enemies, right? David is the guy who did not
kill someone he had the chance to.
So what David is is experiencing here is confidence that God will
take care of his future for him. He will deal with his enemies.
And so therefore David can face the future with hope and with
confidence. Remembering God of the past
effects, his present and his future.
He is able to trust God's character, his love, his power,
and his justice now and for the future.
So when we remember God, when we practice remembrance, He meets
us where we where we are and strengthens our faith so that we
can endure. To continue living the life that
God has called us to live. And I think This is why
intentional worship, learning how to intentionally worship God
each day, is so important. Worship is remembrance.
We're all here today to worship God.
This is the time when we get to remember Him.
It impacts our relationship with God right now.
It shapes our trust in Him and it helps us live for the future.
So even if you're in a good season of life, maybe you can't
relate to David. Maybe you're everything's going
well, right? But it's important for you to
know how to remember God now so that when you do encounter the
wilderness, you will find yourself hungering and thirsting
for God, and you will know to satisfy yourself with God alone.
And there's two ways we worship God, right?
Just really briefly, corporate worship.
This is what we're doing right now with our brothers and
sisters, the family of God. We come to church, this
dedicated time and space, no distractions, just you, God, and
God's people. We meditate on who God is, the
prayer, the community, God's words, the gospel.
This is why we sing the songs that we do.
I know our praise leaders, like they intentionally pick songs
with good lyrics that actually teach us about who God is.
So next time you're singing a praise song, like after, you
know, when we do the response, pay attention to the lyrics.
Don't just enjoy the melody, pay attention to the lyrics.
It's about God. It'll point you to God.
And when you listen to a sermon, right?
Do are you trying to like see God more clearly, right?
That's why we listen to God's words, know God, to meet him, to
encounter him. And the reason why we have our
CGS, why we have to like hang out with other people at church
is so that we can see God working in their lives.
And they're the testimonies of other people.
We can remember God as well. And then in our daily private
worship after Sunday is over, how are you spending your days?
Are you making time each day to spend with God in His words to
remember Him, to remember His goodness, to reflect on what He
has done for us on the cross? Are you going to your C GS so
other people can help you remember as well?
So this is my challenge to all of you and to myself.
If you're going through something and you've been
feeling empty, you're feeling spiritually hungry for
something, don't ignore that. Don't ignore your hunger, your
thirst, your emptiness. It could be your soul hungering
and thirsting for God. God is presenting you with an
opportunity to meet Him in a deeper way.
Your wilderness can become a sacred space for you to
encounter God. So instead of going after
whatever you normally go after to fill your hunger and thirst,
go after God. Seek God because our souls were
made to be satisfied by God and God alone.
So how do we cultivate our desire for God?
Our main point today is our desire for God grows as we
remember His loving faithfulness and seek His satisfying
presence. At this time.
Let's go into time of prayer.