My Life is in His Hands - Part 2
Introduction
Psalms 71:5-24
“For You are my hope, O Lord God;
You are my trust from my youth.
By You I have been upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother's womb.
My praise shall be continually of You.
I have become as a wonder to many,
But You are my strong refuge.
Let my mouth be filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all the day.
Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.
For my enemies speak against me;
And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together,
Saying, "God has forsaken him;
Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him."
O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me!
Let them be confounded and consumed
Who are adversaries of my life;
Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor
Who seek my hurt.
But I will hope continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.
My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And Your salvation all the day,
For I do not know their limits.
I will go in the strength of the Lord God;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.
O God, You have taught me from my youth;
And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.
Now also when I am old and grayheaded,
O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to everyone who is to come.
Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high,
You who have done great things;
O God, who is like You?
You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,
Shall revive me again,
And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
You shall increase my greatness,
And comfort me on every side.
Also with the lute I will praise You —
And Your faithfulness, O my God!
To You I will sing with the harp,
O Holy One of Israel.
My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You,
And my soul, which You have redeemed.
My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long;
For they are confounded,
For they are brought to shame
Who seek my hurt.”
The Psalmist opens his prayer to God in verse 1 with a request.
Psalms 71:1
“In You, O Lord, I put my trust;
Let me never be put to shame.”
Note he ends his prayer in praise.
Psalms 71:24
“My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long;
For they are confounded,
For they are brought to shame
Who seek my hurt.”
David’s desire is that of “finishing well.”
Display the Baseball picture. The professional photographer takes pictures of people hitting home runs and rounding 3rd base. He says it is the perfect analysis to what Heaven looks like when we are about to enter the gates.
The last thing we want to happen is to come to this place and have a life full of regrets.
Alex Vann-Daily Devotions
1. Regrets is found where discipline is absent
Proverbs 5:12-13
“And say:
"How I have hated instruction,
And my heart despised correction!
I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me!”
If you want to live a life filled with regret then ignore discipline and reject correction. If you want to keep looking back and thinking to yourself, “if only…” then don’t add anymore disciplines to your life.
2. Regret is the state of sorrow you enter when you wish you had done things differently.
Regret is different than disappointment, although both contain a strong feeling of sorrow, because regret has to do with decisions that you personally make or didn’t make. Regret has to do with things completely or primarily in your control.
3. Regret is always a backward look. You don’t regret forward.
A child goes off to college and the parents look
back and regret that he/she didn’t spend more time with them.
A spouse says too much when angry and regrets the words that wound the mate.
4. Regret reminds us that we can’t go back and get a “do-over.”
The fruit of discipline is self-control.
The fruit of listening to wise counsel is sound-judgement.
Self-control and sound-judgement are glaring absences from many Christian lives today.
5. God listeners have fewer regrets.
Regret comes in things you didn’t do that you later wished you had and things you did do you wished you hadn’t.
Surround yourself with teachers and instructors.
EXAMPLE:
Samson - no friends mentioned.
David - too many friends to mention.
6. Uncharted Life will lead you to regrets.
Chart your life by the Word of God.
Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.”
A life absent of listening and discipline will be a life present with regret.
One of David’s prayer request is really mine also.
Psalms 71:9
“Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.”
Psalms 71:17-18
“O God, You have taught me from my youth;
And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.
Now also when I am old and gray headed,
O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to everyone who is to come.”
I. DELIVERANCE 1-4
II. PRAISE 5-8
Praise Him that He is my Hope, Trust, Sustainer 5-6
His present confidence was encouraged and strengthened by past experience.
Ecclesiastes 12:1
“Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come,
And the years draw near when you say,
"’I have no pleasure in them’":
Youth looks forward to the future in hope while the aged looks back over the past in memory.
V7 “wonder” – a special display of God’s power. His life was a testimony to the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord.
Psalms 71:20-21
“You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,
Shall revive me again,
And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
You shall increase my greatness,
And comfort me on every side.”
Like Samuel the Psalmist created his own Ebenezer “Thus for the Lord has helped us”
(1 Samuel 7:12). STONE OF HELP
Remember “wonder” denotes something that is uncommon, extraordinary, unusual and an amazement to the world. A genuine believer is a puzzle to the unconverted.
John 15:19: “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
NOTE: Psalms 71:8
Psalms 71:8
“Let my mouth be filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all the day.”
III. NEARNESS 9-13
A. His Request 9-11
Fear can creep in; old age, God may not be there. Don’t cast me off; perhaps illness is causing him to feel God is far from him. Strength is failing (emotional drain).
Enemy is pressing hard.
Psalms 71:10-11
“For my enemies speak against me;
And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together,
Saying, "’God has forsaken him;
Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.’"
1. Slanderous
2. Subtle
3. Savage
B. His Desire 12-13
V13 The Psalmist’s desire is that his enemies might be confounded (ashamed), and fail and that they would be covered with shame and disgrace. He does not ask for their destruction, but that their plans would be frustrated.