Okay, Psalm 77.
If you have a look at verse number 10, it begins by saying,
And I said, This is my infirmity.
When I was meditating thinking about this psalm,
I was thinking, okay, maybe the psalmist has an infirmity as far as the sickness.
Maybe he's just not feeling well physically.
But as I got more to understand this psalm, I realized this is not a physical infirmity
that he's suffering from.
In fact, this is the infirmity that he speaks of that we all suffer from.
And so the title of the sermon tonight is, This is your infirmity.
This is your infirmity.
We have a certain infirmity when I'm not talking about the infirmity of sin.
Oh, you can apply sin to it if you like, but I'm not talking about infirmity,
as far as an unsafe person who is dying in their sins and needs a Savior.
Of course, the psalmist, he is a believer, he's a Christian already,
but he still speaks of this infirmity that he has in his heart.
And I think when you understand what that infirmity is in context of it,
the psalm makes a lot more sense.
Now in Psalm 77, it begins there in verse number one.
It mentions, if you have a look at the title, you should have a title there in the psalm.
It says to the chief musician, to Jonathan, a psalm of Asaph, a psalm of Asaph.
Now if you have a look at Psalm 76, just backtrack, it says to the chief musician
on Neganoff, a psalm or a song of Asaph.
So even last week's psalm that we looked at was of Asaph.
Psalm 75, to the chief musician, altar, chith, a psalm or a song of Asaph.
Psalm 74, a maestial of Asaph.
Psalm 73 begins by saying a psalm of Asaph.
So you can see so far, from Psalm 73 to 77, all the way to actually 79, I believe.
No, it continues to 81.
It just continues.
Asaph.
It continues Psalm of the sons of, anyway, at least to Psalm 83, it's a psalm of Asaph.
So, you know, I wanted to just briefly talk about who Asaph was.
I believe he also, I believe Psalm 50 is also a psalm of Asaph as well.
Just quickly have a look at that.
Psalm 50.
Yeah, psalm of Asaph, okay.
So obviously most of the psalms, most of the psalms we're familiar with are the psalms of David.
But I thought I would just quickly bring you up to speed on who Asaph was, okay.
So before we just get straight into the psalm, let's see who Asaph,
who was a writer of this psalm.
If you can keep your finger there in Psalm 77, come with me to First Corinthians.
Sorry, First Chronicles, First Chronicles, chapter six, please.
First Chronicles, chapter six.
We want to know a little bit about Asaph.
Now, of course, if Asaph is not just the author of this song, but he's also singing it.
If he's going to be serving in the tabernacle of the Old Testament days or the temple,
then the ones that were allowed to serve in the temple were Levites.
He had to be of the tribe of Levites who were to serve in the temple.
And so in First Chronicles, chapter six and verse number 31, it says,
First Chronicles 6 31,
And these are they whom David set over the service of song in the house of the Lord,
after the ark had rest.
Of course, the house of the Lord in this reference is the tabernacle, okay.
So David's organizing who's going to be in charge of the singing, right?
The service of the song.
Drop down to verse number 39.
It says,
And his brother Asaph,
so here's one that's been selected in this list,
and his brother Asaph who stood on his right hand,
even Asaph, the son of Barakiah, the son of Shemaiah.
All right.
So we learned that Asaph was one of these that were instructed by David to be in charge
of the music of the singing there in the tabernacle in the house of the Lord.
Come with me now to chapter 16 in the same book, First Chronicles 16.
First Chronicles 16 and verse number 4.
First Chronicles chapter 16 and verse number 4.
So let's just be a reminder for the song leader,
anyone that is involved in music,
if someone's going to learn an instrument and you want to play in the house of the Lord,
it's service to the house of the Lord, you know.
It's a responsibility.
It's something important that it's needed to worship the Lord.
There in chapter 16 and verse number 4,
First Chronicles 16 verse number 4 it says,
And he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord
and to record and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel.
All right.
So the purpose of these singers is to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel.
It continues in verse number 5 who it says,
Asaph the chief, Asaph the chief.
He's like the leading, the song leader, right?
He's the one in charge.
He's the coordinator.
He's the chief.
He's the one that's making sure the singers are in place.
So people know how to play the musical instruments,
making sure everyone's skillful at conducting themselves in the thanking
and the praise of the Lord God.
I'm not going to go through the whole list there,
but at the end of verse number 5,
at the end of verse number 5, the last phrase says,
But Asaph made a sound with cymbals.
So not only was he the coordinator or the chief,
he was also in charge.
He played the cymbals.
He played the percussion instruments there,
making a joyful noise unto the Lord.
All right, drop down to verse number 7.
Look at verse number 7 there in 1 Chronicles 16, verse number 7.
Then on that day, David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord,
look at this, into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.
So David would always go to the chief, the chief musician, right?
The chief song leader, if you want to put it, Asaph.
You know, every time he wanted to thank the Lord,
he got the musical guys together and goes,
Asaph, I need you to sing praises and thanksgiving to the Lord God Almighty.
So you can see that Asaph was definitely a man that King David trusted in, right?
That you're going to be able to be utilized to serve the Lord
and to thank him faithfully in his house.
Can you come now with me to 2 Chronicles?
Come with me to 2 Chronicles, please.
2 Chronicles 29, 2 Chronicles 29, 2 Chronicles 29.
I believe as I start showing you all this,
you're going to appreciate the Psalms even a lot more than you already have.
We know the Psalms are, you know, the word of God.
And we know it's a musical book of the Bible in many ways.
And it's a wonderful thing to be able to sing the Psalms if we have the ability.
But in 2 Chronicles 29 and verse number 30,
we now fast forward into history many hundreds of years later, okay?
In 2 Chronicles 29, 30, it says,
Moreover, Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites
to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer.
So if you say, look, we need to sing to the Lord, where are they going to?
They're going to the book of Psalms, right?
The book of Psalms has the songs of David, it's got the songs of Asaph.
But I want you to notice here how the Holy Spirit describes Asaph.
He's not just a chief musician.
He's not just a song leader.
He's not just someone that knows how to play the cymbals.
It says here, and Asaph the seer, which is another word for a prophet.
A prophet, a seer, being used by God and continues in that verse.
And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped.
So as we are going to now look at, you know, Psalm 77,
and I want you to remember this isn't just songs.
It's not just poetry.
It was written by a seer.
It was written by a prophet, okay?
This is a man being used by God.
These words are words of God.
But they're obviously in a very poetic expression, full of expression.
And the purpose, as we see, if we want to sing praise,
if we want to learn the Psalms, is that we would sing these praise with gladness,
and that we would bow our heads and worship God.
That's the purpose of these Psalms, okay?
Not just to go through the Psalms chapter by chapter,
because that's my tradition, that's my process,
but rather that we would be able to praise God,
and we'd be able to bow our heads in worship to God.
So as we come back to Psalm 77, I want that in mind.
That these are words of a prophet.
These are words of a seer.
You know, Asaph being used by God, a man who King David trusted.
And if you keep going through the Bible, even the sons of Asaph many times,
were still involved in the worship and the singing,
the praise and the music in the house of the Lord.
So let's start there in Psalm 77.
So these are the words of Asaph, okay?
He says in verse number one, he says,
I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice,
and he gave ear unto me.
So many Psalms start this way.
You know, the fact that he's crying, he's, you know, yelling out,
he's lifting up his voice.
You know, he's not just praying quietly in his heart.
He's actually opening his mouth, you know, speaking to the Lord.
And what's amazing about this verse straight away,
he recognizes that God gave ear unto him.
He recognizes God heard my cries.
God heard my prayers.
And that's a really good start.
And the reason I had to sort of go through this Psalm a few times in my heart,
like it really, this Psalm really touched my heart to be honest with you.
I had to go through it a few times because I wasn't sure,
like you start positive.
You say, you recognize that God has heard you.
The next Psalm, the next like verses are just,
they start to become more negative as it goes on.
More negative, more negative, more negative.
Asaph is not in a good place spiritually.
Okay.
Crying out to the Lord, we're going to soon see.
The reason he's crying is because he's got troubles.
He's got problems.
All right.
And you're going to notice as we keep going,
he thinks that God is doing nothing about it.
He thinks God is doing nothing about it.
You're going to soon see this.
As we go through this Psalm verse number two,
he says, in the day of my trouble, there it is, right?
That's why he's crying to the Lord because he's troubled.
In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord.
My soul ran in the night.
It ceased not.
He says, I've been seeking the Lord.
I've been praying to the Lord all night long.
I did not cease.
And what's, what really interested me in the Psalm is the rest of it.
That says, my soul refused to be comforted.
See what?
You're going all night to God in prayer.
And you're not saying that, you're not just saying that your soul's not comforted.
You're saying Asaph, that your soul is refusing to be comforted.
What that tells me brethren, and I'm going to prove this in a moment,
is that the Lord is trying to comfort him in his troubles.
The Lord heard the prayer.
The Lord is trying to come through and work in his life.
And he says, but I'm going to refuse the Lord.
I refuse your comfort at this point in my day, in my night, actually,
because it's nighttime that he's praying to the Lord.
You know, just in case I was kind of misunderstanding this phrase,
my soul refused.
I thought maybe, maybe he just means he's not being comforted.
Maybe he's just struggling to receive the comfort of the Lord.
But he says, no, no, he's refusing it.
He's refusing to be comforted.
Now, if you can, I just want to compare this sort of terminology
or this phrase in some other references in the Bible,
just to show you where this has kind of opened my eyes with this Psalm,
to really see where this man's heart condition was.
So keep a finger there and come with me to Genesis 37.
Come with me to Genesis 37.
Genesis 37 and verse number 35.
Genesis 37 is when we have a story of, you know, Joseph,
where he was sold into slavery, into Egypt,
and the brothers bring his coat of many colors
with the blood of, you know, of an animal, of a lamb, I think it was.
And they show the father.
So look, you know, Joseph's been killed, been killed by some wild animal.
And of course, that brings great distress on Joseph's father.
And it says here in Genesis 37, verse number 35,
Genesis 37, 35, it says,
And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him,
but he refused to be comforted.
And he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son, mourning.
Thus his father wept for him.
So you got your family, your sons and daughters coming,
Dad, you know, we're here for you, we're here, you know,
you know, you know, things will be okay.
The Lord's going to help us.
The Lord's going to see us through.
We're going to be okay as a family.
He says he refuses to be comforted because I'm going to go to my grave, mourning.
I'm never going to get over this.
I'm going to weep to the day that I die, is the response we see of Joseph's father.
Joseph's father was, I keep saying Joseph, Jacob, right, Jacob.
And what I'm trying to show you is that again, he refused to be comforted.
All right.
He refused to be comforted, even though there was comfort there.
You know, the sons and daughters are trying to provide him comfort,
but he refuses the comfort that they're trying to give him.
Can you come with me to another passage in Jeremiah 31.
Jeremiah 31 verse number 15.
Jeremiah 31 and verse number 15.
This is a very famous verse because it's used in the New Testament to speak of the great slaughter
that took place in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas
when King Herod tried to kill Jesus Christ.
Remember when children two years and under were slaughtered.
And it says here in Jeremiah 31 verse 15.
Thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in Rhema, lamentation and bitter weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children,
because they were not.
Because her children were slaughtered, her children were put to death.
Again, that phrase there is that she's weeping and refused to be comforted.
Now the New Testament, I'll just read to you from Matthew 2 18.
The New Testament repeats this verse, but phrases it a little differently.
In Matthew 2 18, it says in Rhema, was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping,
and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, look at this,
and would not be comforted because they are not.
Would not be comforted because they are not.
And I understand the great weep and the great sorrow of Rachel
and all the other mothers that lost their children in this time
when King Herod slaughtered these little ones.
I can fully understand their sorrow.
But I wanted to show you just how the Bible uses this phrase.
That's the only ones that I could find in the Bible,
where you're refusing to be comforted.
It's not that the comfort is not there to be given to you,
but rather you just rather go without it.
You're just in too much of a deep sorrow.
It's unsatisfying.
It's not going to meet.
The comfort's not meeting as it was the great burden,
the great grief that is found in that person's heart at that point in time.
And again, the phrase here, again, Jacob losing his son Joseph.
Have I got that right?
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of course.
Okay, I'm sorry.
For some reason, it's not saying it right to me
because Jacob's name is to Israel later on, something like that.
Anyway, Israel's son, like he believes he's lost his son
and Rachel, you know, believing she's lost or she has,
her children have been slaughtered.
And so when you go back to the Psalm and we look at Asaph,
I mean, his heart must be at a very similar level,
like a very similar grief, very similar troubles that is pressed upon him.
And he says that his soul refused to be comforted.
And this is when I started to realize what the problem is here.
You know, because I've often preached the need for us to go to God in prayer
and that's the right thing to preach.
And I often say that when we take our troubles,
we need to leave it with God and not pick them back up again.
And after we finish praying, we should leave with God,
not pick them up and carry them again, right?
But it's like he's gone to God.
It's like, no, Lord, you know, this is still a burden
that I need to place on my heart.
I'm not ready to just give it all over to you, Lord.
I refuse to be comforted.
I'm so cast down.
I'm so full of sorrow.
And I hope this kind of makes you start thinking about the title of the sermon.
This is your infirmity.
He says, this is my infirmity.
But we know he's speaking as a prophet.
He's speaking as a man who has the same nature as we do,
the same failings, weaknesses that we do.
So I want you to start thinking about what is this Psalmist speaking of?
Because he's gone to God.
He's wept all day.
Like he's opened his crying to the Lord all night long.
And let's continue there in verse number three, Psalm 77 verse number three.
He says in verse number three, I remembered God and was troubled.
Okay, I'm remembering God.
Remembering is like remembering your past.
I'm remembering God in my past and now I'm troubled by it.
It's like he's not in a good place.
I'll tell you what, look at this.
He goes, I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed, Selah.
He starts complaining to God.
But he's remembering God and was troubled.
Now, what I believe this is talking about is that this is just a classic example of God's will
not lining up with our expectation.
I preach not long ago about faith and that sometimes we feel faithless or are faithless
because our expectations are not lining up with God's will.
God's will is a certain way and you know, we just thought it'd be some other way.
Like not necessarily what God has shown for us or how God has, you know,
necessarily like he's thinking about the past.
Like, Lord, you've come through in the past, you've answered these issues in the past,
but I'm just not getting a satisfactory answer today.
And so he's troubled by this.
Like you've done it in the past but not today.
So he starts complaining, starts whining.
God, you've done it before, why aren't you doing it now?
But remember, he's refusing to be comforted.
Like he's venting to God, he's troubled.
My God, why are you allowing me to go through this?
Challenge is difficulty.
He says his spirit was overwhelmed.
He can't, like whatever's burdening him, whatever's troubling him,
it's too much for him to handle.
But we know that God will never tempt us with something that we cannot handle.
This tells me this man's not in a good position.
He's not, he's maybe backslidden.
That's because of that language.
He's going through just a spiritual downward spiral.
He's downcast, okay?
And he's complaining to God.
So, you know, probably God answered a certain way in the past.
He remembers God, how he did those things in the past.
And it's like, well, God, you've done it before, why aren't you doing it now?
And why aren't you coming through now?
You've done it before, God.
Have you ever felt that way?
God, you've done it before, why not now?
It's hard, right?
I want you to think about the title, you know?
This is your infirmity.
This is my infirmity.
This is the infirmity of the psalmist.
He goes, I've got a sickness.
I've got a problem in me.
And I was starting to see what that looks like here.
And he continues in verse number four.
He goes, thou holdest mine eyes waken.
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
His eyes are waking.
He can't sleep, right?
Have you ever been so burdened?
You go to sleep, maybe, maybe sleep for a couple of hours,
and then you just wake up at one o'clock in the morning,
two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning,
and you just can't get back to sleep.
Your troubles are on your mind.
They're on your hearts, you know?
In verse number four, he says, thou holdest mine eyes.
Like, God, you see my eyes awaken.
Like, why aren't you giving me sleep?
Why aren't you giving me rest?
But again, he refused to be comforted.
It's kind of like, it's such a,
what's the word I'm looking for?
A contradiction.
To whine and to complain, and to be so upset that all the troubles are keeping them up at night.
Have you ever had that, brethren?
I've been there, I've been there for sure.
I actually fall asleep very easily.
Praise, I thank God for that,
because often when I'm traveling to the city and back again,
I can get a few hours, like not a few hours,
but get at least half an hour of a little sleep on the flight, which helps me.
But yeah, I can sleep quite easily at night,
but then if something's a big burden, something's troubling me,
I might wake up at two o'clock and then I just can't sleep until the morning light shines through.
And you're like, oh man, where are the hours?
I've lost the hours.
He's so troubled.
He says that he cannot speak.
He doesn't even know what to say to God anymore.
It's like, he feels like God's let him down.
Like, what do I say?
I've had, I've said everything that I can say.
God, I can't say anything more to you.
I cannot speak and I cannot sleep.
Is that you?
Have you been there?
I mean, maybe it's not you right now, but maybe you've been in the past.
Maybe you'll be there again in the future sometime again, you know,
next time a great burden and great trouble falls on your shoulders.
It says in verse number five,
I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.
Now I think about that.
I've considered days of old.
I'm not sure if that's him speaking about his own past,
but actually, because he says the years of ancient times.
So it looks like he's just thinking about history in the past.
Maybe he's thinking about the Israelites of the past.
In fact, I know he's thinking about the Israelites of the past,
because at the end of this Psalm, he starts speaking about how God
saw the Israelites through, out of the deliverance out of Egypt,
through the Red Sea and all those things.
So again, on his mind is, you know, God, you've done things in the past.
You've done things for your people in the past.
The years of ancient times, so he's considering these things.
But it's still like, as we continue this, like that's actually a good thing
to think about how God has seen you through in the past.
But the right response to that is, well, if he's seen me through in the past,
he's going to see me through again.
Like that would be the right response, but as we keep going through the Psalm,
that's not the response that he's having.
And so I think though, his outlook to the past is not in the right spirit.
Again, it's not with the right attitude.
And what it reminds me of is a verse in Ecclesiastes.
I'll just read it to you.
In Ecclesiastes chapter seven and verse number two, Ecclesiastes seven, sorry.
Ecclesiastes chapter seven, verse number 10, sorry.
It says, say not thou, so don't say this, say not thou,
what is the cause that the former days were better than these?
For thou does not inquire wisely concerning this.
Ah, the good old days.
2024 is just so horrible.
Generation, is it A?
We're talking about this in the van.
This current generation, like what's wrong with people?
The days of old were so much better.
Like, look, I don't think there's anything wrong with looking back at the past
and enjoying and reliving some of the experiences, the good times that you had.
But that should give you joy.
That should give you joy.
Man, I had a good time in the past.
Things were great back then.
But if you're just looking at the past, if you complain about the present,
well, that's not a good way to look at the past.
The Bible telling us in Ecclesiastes, you're not wise concerning this.
You're just bringing yourself down.
You're just causing depression on yourself.
I know the good old days, but you know, they were bad old days too.
There was sin in the past as well.
Previous generations had great sins as well.
Okay, the world was wicked back then as well.
Say, well, what about this generation?
You know, this generation was raised by the previous generation.
And that previous generation was raised by that previous generation.
I hear people complain about this current generation and sometimes I did too,
but I'm the generation that's bringing forth this next generation.
If there's anyone to blame, it's the previous generation.
We should have pointed our kids to the Lord.
We should have pointed our kids to fear the Lord, to love the Lord,
to seek guidance and wisdom and direction in life through the Bible rather than their teachers.
So I don't think it's looking at the days of old in that, you know,
oh man, that's encouraging, so I want to be encouraged.
He's like, man, it was so good back then and now I'm miserable.
It's not like the past, the good old days.
So then verse number six says, I call to remembrance my song in the night.
Remember, he's a musician.
So he's remembering songs, old songs that he used to sing.
We know they're songs of praise, songs of thanksgiving.
So he's remembering those songs in the night.
He says, I commune with mine own hearts and my spirit made diligent search.
So again, as we keep going for the next verses, again, he's still downcast, okay.
So as he remembers these songs in the night, again, I think he's remembering
the days when he was just praising God, just thanking God.
He's on his spiritual high, you know, the Lord's always coming through,
the Lord's answering his prayers.
Maybe his expectations are lining up with God's will
and he's remembering those songs of the past.
But then he says, I commune with my own heart.
He starts thinking about himself, like he starts thinking about,
what's wrong with me now then?
If I could sing like that before, what's wrong with me now?
He says, my spirit made diligent search.
He's trying to figure out within himself, what is wrong with me?
And that's where later on, it's the, it's the iniquity.
Sorry, the infirmity.
This is, he identifies all this as an infirmity that he has in his flesh.
And this is an infirmity that we have as well in our flesh,
is when our expectations does not line up with God's will.
It's like, man, Lord, where are you?
Why have you let me down?
You've done great things for me in the past and now you've forgotten me.
And we start seeing, seeing that's what's happening with him.
Before I keep going, I just want to, I did read this passage earlier
when we're talking about Asaph and his, a little bit of his history.
But just as a reminder, in 2 Chronicles 29, 30, it says,
Moreover, Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites
to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer.
And they sang praises with gladness.
Does Asaph sound very glad right now?
His old songs were full of gladness and praises and all that.
He goes, man, I can't even do that now.
He seeks his own heart.
What's wrong with me?
What's wrong with my spirit?
What's wrong with my heart?
You know, why am I in such a bad place today
when in the past I've been doing so well with the Lord?
I don't know, can you relate to this Brevin?
I hope you can because, you know, the Bible's a mirror.
It shows us our infirmities.
It shows us our failings.
And Asaph's just a common man.
He's just a man.
A great man used by God, a Levite served in the Tabernacle.
You know, a great musician used by God.
Praises and gladness.
And sometimes musicians that play wonderfully
and have beautiful voices, sometimes they're elevated.
Man, that must be such a spiritual person.
They're just a normal person.
They've been given a gift to be able to sing praises to God.
Thank God for them.
But Asaph is still a man.
Asaph is a man who still has infirmities.
He still has troubles.
And sometimes he just gives up on God, right?
So he's got to do some diligent search in his spirit.
It says in verse number seven, look how bad he is.
Will the Lord cast off forever?
So he feels like God's cast him away.
And now he's like, is this forever?
Now we know that the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us.
We know that, don't we?
How bad do you have to get to be like God's forsaken me?
He's cast me off.
Is this going to be forever?
He's asking the question, is it forever?
And will he be favorable no more?
Is he showing me no more favor?
I thought I was his child.
I thought he saved my soul.
I thought he loved me.
I thought he knew my life.
Why isn't he coming through?
Why isn't he showing his favor to me anymore?
Why has he cast me off?
Has he cast me off forever?
Boy, that's a bad place to be.
I'll read verse number eight in a moment, but you know,
I assume he's been cast off.
He's not in the presence of the Lord.
He's not walking with the Lord.
He's cut off from the Lord.
Now we know we cannot be cut off from the Lord,
you know, in our position as a child of God, as a saved person.
We talked on Sunday about the new man.
The new man never sins.
The new man is in Christ Jesus, sitting in heavenly places.
But as we walk in our spiritual walk, we can be far from the Lord.
We allow the flesh to have a big chunk of our lives and sin against the Lord.
And you know, the flesh wants to do things that are contrary to the Lord's way.
If we walk in the flesh, you're going to feel like, yeah, the Lord's far away.
Bible says in 1 John 1-7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ
and his son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Verse number nine, if we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So if we want to have fellowship one with another, us ourselves and God,
with his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we must be without sin.
We must be able to confess our sins to the Lord and be forgiven for those sins
and be back in his presence.
I don't know where are you tonight, Brethren?
I don't know.
You know, are you in the presence of the Lord?
You know, do you feel like he's forgotten you, that he's cast you off?
Do you feel like you're no longer, he's no longer looking favorably upon you?
You know, his focus is with other people and other brethren and not you.
That's how the Psalmist is feeling.
Verse number eight, he says, is his mercy clean, gone forever?
Does his promise fail forevermore?
He says, God, you know, you're not even being merciful to me anymore.
Is that gone?
Is your mercy gone?
So the fact that he's referring to God's mercy,
obviously he recognizes that he's made a mistake, he's in sin.
God, where's your mercy?
Why allow me to go through these troubles?
Can't you deliver me out of these troubles?
Where's your mercy, God?
Is it gone forever?
Does his promise fail forevermore?
He says, look, what are the promises you made to me as your son,
that you're looking out for me,
that you know the things that I need before I even ask of you?
Have your promises now failed me too?
Oh, this is a bad place to be.
I don't know if, I don't think I've ever been this low that I'm reading this.
Like I've been pretty low in life.
I've been pretty cast down sometimes,
but I've never gotten to the point, not yet.
I hope not.
But to the point where like, Lord, I must be cast away.
You just must be forgotten me.
I don't, are your promises failing me too?
Your mercy is failing me too?
You can get to a closer point, I think, though.
I've been close to this desperation, not as far.
But I've been close to it.
I'm familiar with the sorrow that I can read about here in the Psalm.
And just as a reminder, Lamentations chapter three, verse number 22.
It says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed
because his compassion's fail not.
They are new every morning.
Great is thy faithfulness.
What is new every morning?
The Lord's mercies.
Wow, the Psalmist is forgetting this though.
But they're new every morning.
Like even if you think you used up all of God's mercies yesterday,
when you wake up today or when you wake up tomorrow,
it's all brand new again.
You can't run out of God's mercies, in other words, right?
It says his compassion's fail not.
Man, I know my compassion's fail toward other people.
I think I'm compassionate, I think.
But sometimes I'm like, man, okay,
if you want to destroy your life, just go ahead.
I've tried to help you, I'm done.
I get to that point sometimes with my fellow human beings,
but God doesn't let his compassion's fail.
He continues being compassionate toward us.
He continues showing his mercy toward us.
His faithfulness is great.
Great is thy faithfulness.
But the Psalmist is not seeing that at this point in his life.
Look at verse number nine.
Have God forgotten to be gracious?
Have he in anger shut up his tender mercies, Selah?
Have God forgotten to be gracious?
So grace, has God forgotten his grace?
It's by his grace that we are saved.
That God is still gracious even today in 2024.
God is still gracious.
People can still be saved.
But we need God's grace even when we sin after we're saved.
The Bible says in Romans 5-20 it says,
Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
That as sin have reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Bible is telling me here is that God's grace will continue through the righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
God's grace never ends.
Thank God.
It's eternal in Christ Jesus.
You can't fall out of grace.
Isn't that what people say when they believe you can lose your salvation?
But if you fall out of grace, you can't fall out of grace.
It's eternal in Christ Jesus.
The Psalmist has forgotten though, that God's grace abounds more so than his sin.
And so he says in verse number nine,
Have God forgotten to be gracious?
No, God's not forgotten, obviously.
But is in a bad place.
And then verse number 10.
As I said, this is my infirmity.
This is my infirmity.
This is the sickness that I'm suffering with.
He feels so far from God.
He thinks God has forgotten him.
What he expected in life is not what God is delivering.
He says this is a sickness.
I've got a problem in myself.
At least he's able to recognize that.
And brethren, this is your infirmity.
We sometimes, you know, get frustrated when God does not respond the way we would like him to.
Where we think God will do A, B or C and God instead does X, Y and Z.
It's like, God, that's not what I wanted.
I needed this.
And you get full of despair.
God, have you forgotten me?
Don't you love me?
Aren't you gracious toward me anymore?
Why aren't you being merciful toward me?
Why are you seemingly coming through for other people and have you forgotten me?
Boy, Simon's in a bad place.
He says this is my infirmity.
This is a sickness that I have.
And so the reason I like preaching these things is because when,
again, I get to talk to a lot of brethren.
And one thing that I come across more regularly than you think
is how hard believers can be on themselves.
And I failed the Lord.
Because we mess up.
We make mistakes all the time.
I failed the Lord.
And yes, it's good to have that broken and contrite heart.
But I want you to recognize instead of being so heavy upon yourself,
instead of like just tearing yourself into pieces,
just remind yourself the truth of this Psalm is that this is your infirmity.
Just a sickness we have.
Even in our Christian life, we can doubt the Lord.
We can forget the Lord or think he doesn't know what's best for us.
He's not coming through for us.
It's common to man.
It's a common infirmity to man.
So instead of just beating yourself up and I'm a lousy Christian,
we're all lousy Christian.
Welcome to the infirmity.
It's part of your life.
But when you remember when you're suffering with this infirmity,
the rest of verse number 10, this is the solution.
This is where the Psalm changes.
Verse number 10.
He says, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.
He's not just remembering the past in general.
He's now remembering the years when he was in the right hand of the Most High.
Another Psalm says in Psalm 16 11,
that will show me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy.
At thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.
He says, man, I've got infirmity.
I need to remember when I was in the right hand of the Most High.
When there were pleasures forevermore.
And so, like I said, it seems to me that
he's just, his infirmity is his discouragement.
His personal expectations are not lined up with God's will.
And the solution to infirmity is to remember what it's like to be in God's right hand.
To put yourself back into that position where there's fullness of joy.
Fullness of joy in the right hand of your Heavenly Father.
And then when he does that, verse number 11, it all changes.
It all changes, right?
Instead of him being full of sorrow, instead of him refusing the comfort of the Lord.
Instead of complaining about his troubles, he changes his outlook.
He goes from being negative, now he's positive minded.
In verse number 11, he says, I will remember the works of the Lord.
Surely I will remember thy wonders of old.
I will meditate also on all thy work and talk of thy doings.
Instead of meditating on his problems, on his troubles,
instead of waking up at one o'clock in the morning,
being burdened by all the problems and troubles he's going through,
he goes, I'm going to instead meditate on God's work.
Instead, I'm going to talk of your doings.
Instead of complaining, instead of whining,
I'm going to start talking about the good things, the wonderful works that God has done.
Now he's still downcast, the problems have not gone away,
but he's changing his response to his problems, right?
Instead of being overwhelmed by the problems, let me think about God.
Let me think about his right hand, the pleasures forevermore.
Let me think about the works that he's done in my life.
I want to think about God now instead of my problems.
I mean, you can see the change.
He's coming to the solution, the solution to his infirmity.
He's finding the medicine and the medicine to your infirmity is God.
Who God is, what he has done, how he has saved you,
how he has delivered you in the past, how he loves you.
That's the answer to your depression.
That's the answer to your problems.
God, so please, when you are going through this infirmity,
you need to decide to think positively rather than being in the dumps.
I know I've been in the dumps.
We've all been in the dumps.
You've got to pick yourself up.
All right, Lord, I need to change my approach because this is just sorrow.
This is just hurt.
This is just pain.
He says in verse number 13, thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary.
Who is so great a God as our God?
He goes, what is your way?
What's the answer?
What's the answer to my prayer?
What's the direction?
What's the way for me moving forward?
I love what he says.
He goes, oh, it's in the sanctuary.
The tabernacle, the house of the Lord.
He says, like, if he lives nowadays, his way, his answer is going to be at church.
I need to go to church.
I need to get the answer there.
I need to hear the preaching.
I need to sing those songs.
I need to be reminded the way, the direction, God, that you want me to walk in.
What I love, I love it.
I love it.
I love this Psalm.
He goes, man, it's in the sanctuary.
Who is so great a God as our God?
Verse number 14, thou art the God that do us wonders.
Thou has declared thy strength among the people.
Thou has with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and of Joseph, Selah.
Now, the rest of the Psalm, I believe quite strongly,
he's referring to the deliverance from Egypt.
The fact that he's referring to the sons of Jacob and Joseph.
Okay.
Because we know that Joseph was sold into Egypt and he never really left.
But eventually, his descendants would need to leave Egypt.
And he's referring to the deliverance, the strength, the redemption,
that he gave his people of old.
And so the fact that he's bringing up Jacob and Joseph here,
I strongly believe in light of the rest of the Psalm
that he's talking about the deliverance out of Egypt.
Now, many times the Bible does this.
So many times, when God is reminding his people of his work in the past,
he often takes them back to that deliverance out of Egypt on a very regular basis.
But this Psalm really openizes sort of another understanding to this,
which we'll get to toward the end of it, okay.
So we know they came out of Egypt and then verse 16 says,
the waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, they were afraid.
The depths also were troubled.
So I believe this is the Red Sea, the crossing of the Red Sea.
They come out, they've been delivered.
And, you know, that deliverance out of Egypt represents salvation.
They applied the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts.
And they were prepared to leave.
They had to be dressed.
They had to have their shoes on.
They had to be ready, right?
As soon as Pharaoh said, you can go.
Okay, that last judgment, that last curse that fell upon Egypt and Pharaoh said,
you guys can go.
God says, you leave immediately.
That deliverance out of Egypt represents our salvation.
They apply, you know, we apply the blood of our Passover lamb, Jesus Christ,
and we've come out.
And then we think it's going to be wonderful from this day forward.
We're saved, praise God.
We get to the Red Sea, dead end.
And this is where the Psalmist, I believe he's talking about.
This is where he is at.
Yeah, I'm saved, but I'm at a dead end.
How am I going to cross the sea?
Not only how are we going to get past this sea,
now we've got Pharaoh's armies behind us about to destroy us.
I mean, we don't even have time to think of a solution here.
No time.
Like either we drown in the sea or we get destroyed by Pharaoh's armies.
What a horrible place to be.
Imagine the fears of the people in that time.
And so the Psalmist is using that story
as an illustration of what he's going through.
And then obviously how God provided us a solution,
how God provided a way with how he then responds to that in the same way.
Well, God's going to provide me a way out of my troubles.
You can see in verse number 17, the clouds poured out water.
The skies sent out a sound.
Thine arrows also went abroad.
We know that after they crossed the Red Sea.
Look, verse number 17 is just about the weather.
But when we get to verse number 18, once again, it reminds me of this story.
Because in verse number 18, it says,
the voice of thy thunder was in the heaven.
The light means lightened the world.
The earth trembled and shook.
And that reminds me that after when they came out of the Red Sea,
they were then led to the foot of Mount Sinai.
Okay.
Now I just want to read a few verses to you from there.
If you can come with me to Exodus 19.
Exodus 19 and verse number 16.
Exodus 19 and verse number 16, please.
Exodus 19, verse number 16.
Exodus 19 and verse number 16.
You guys know what God did here.
Caused the Red Sea to part.
And the depths of the sea where it should be muddy and soggy.
It was dry ground.
They were able to walk on complete dry ground.
And then the Lord God drowned the soldiers of Pharaoh.
The armies of Pharaoh in the waters.
But they make it to Mount Sinai.
And in Exodus 19, verse number 16, it says,
and it came to pass on the third day in the morning
that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mounts.
And the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud.
So that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God.
And they stood at the nether part of the mount.
And Mount Sinai was all together on a smoke.
Because the Lord descended upon it in fire.
And the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace.
And the whole mount quaked greatly.
And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder,
Moses spake and God answered him by voice.
Boy, wouldn't that make you tremble to have God's presence come upon a mount?
I mean, God's still pretty far.
He's on a mount.
He's on top.
We're at the bottom.
These lights were at the bottom.
They're seeing the lightnings, the fire, the thunderings, right?
The earth starts to tremble, starts to shake.
Man, the fear of the Lord.
Coming to the next chapter, Exodus 20.
Exodus 20, verse number 18.
And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpets
and the mountain smoking.
And when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off.
And they said unto Moses, speak thou with us and we will hear.
But let not God speak with us lest we die.
Man, again, they're seeing the presence of God on the mountain, right?
And they start moving away.
We can't, no, we're going to be destroyed.
So much so when they heard God's voice, they tell Moses, can you stop?
Don't let God talk to us anymore.
You talk to us, Moses.
We can't handle his voice.
It's too great.
It's too powerful.
Can you talk to us, Moses?
When I thought about this, and I'm thinking about what the Psalmist is saying here.
The same God that makes you tremble.
He was complaining to him not longer.
Wow, whining, complaining, blaming God.
You forgot me.
Where are your mercies?
Where are your promises?
Have they all been forgotten too?
Wow, what a place to be.
And I think this guy has got the right for you now.
Like, it's like, whoa, I was saying those things to God.
And he's thinking about this time when the people of Israel had to come out of Egypt
and they stood there in the presence of God.
And still, like I said, a little bit far off, still on top of the Mount.
And they couldn't handle it.
He couldn't handle it.
The fear of God was so great.
And what I find in this chapter is that the fear of the Lord's just come back into his heart.
The way it should be.
And he's recognizing this is the great God, right?
Instead of being focused on his problems and issues.
And instead of being focused on the Red Sea, you know, the waters.
Man, I need to put my focus on God.
I mean, Moses was right, right?
Moses, when they got to the Red Sea, what did Moses do?
He goes to God.
And God is the one that provided the answer.
He provided the solution.
He provided the way that they were to walk through.
They were to walk through the sea.
What kind of crazy way is that?
You think, like honestly, if God sends you to a dead end, the Red Sea,
it's like, I mean, surely God, you got to send us boats or something, right?
God's not, let's open those waters up.
Dry ground, walk through.
It's like, that's not the way I expect.
That's not what I expect from you, God.
But he still does it.
He still provides a way.
A miracle.
Something that you never expect to think, that cannot be the way, Lord.
Yes, it's the way.
God's way.
And this is what he's come to realize that, man, he's at the Red Sea and
he needs God to open a way for those troubled waters that he's seen.
That's why if you go back to Psalm 77, verse number 19.
Psalm 77, verse 19.
He says, thy way is in the sea.
How can it be?
Lord, I'm going to drown.
That can't be the way.
We drown.
He says, no, no, thy way is in the sea.
And thy path in the great waters.
And what he says here is amazing.
And thy footsteps are not known.
It's like, I had no idea that you were leading me this way.
Like God's already walked the path that he wants us to walk.
God's already went, God already crossed the Red Sea.
Before they did.
They just did not know that was the way that God wanted them to go.
Thy way is in the sea.
Sometimes we ask God to deliver us out of problems or the troubles.
But God, no, no, I need you to go walk through your troubles.
You need to experience your troubles.
I'll make a way.
I'll make a path.
You'll get to the other side, but you've got to walk to the other side.
You've got to go walk through your problems.
You've got to walk through your troubles.
Can you imagine the Israelites when they see the Red Sea,
the waters split there and congealed on the sides?
I mean, I assume that they'd be surrounded by these waters.
I mean, I think there'd be some element of fear that those waters might fall on us,
but we've got to walk through it anyway.
Like that's an impossible way, but God opens the door.
And so it's not always God delivered me out of my problems.
Rather, Lord, can you create a miracle and make me walk through those problems?
Because I don't know your footsteps, Lord, but I need to walk in your path.
I need to walk in your way.
And then verse number 20, this is how it ends.
Thou lettest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
So he leads us, right?
He gives us the way.
He's walked away.
The way that he walked was not what we expected.
Okay.
It's a different way than we expect.
But not only does he do it himself, then he leads us.
He guides us.
He shows us the way out of our difficulties.
So what I learned out of this brethren is that without failure, he will always lead us.
Like when you go through your problems, you get to the dead end.
You go, Lord, I'm stuck.
That's it.
I'm done.
It's finished.
There's no answer.
There's no solution.
Red Sea, one way.
Pharaoh and his armies, the other side, we're done for.
He led me all the way here, Lord, but it's finished.
God's got footsteps.
He's got his paths.
They're just not known.
You just don't know yet.
Okay.
And that's for him.
Like he's got these problems.
He's got these turmoils.
He's got this infirmity in his flesh.
He realizes, man, I'm just lacking in faith.
I'm lacking in trust.
I don't know God's ways in my life.
Are you going to come through, God?
Where are you complaining to God?
You've helped me before.
Why aren't you helping me now?
You're helping others, but you're not helping me.
You forgot me, Lord, because you're at the Red Sea
and you don't realize that God's got a miracle up ahead for you
and he will lead you down that path.
Yeah.
What a great God that we serve.
My brethren title for the sermon was this is your infirmity
and this is my infirmity and it's not easy.
Who's going to say facing the Red Sea and facing Pharaoh's armies is easy.
It's not easy.
But instead of whining, instead of getting cast down and depressed
and losing sleep over problems, what are we to do?
To shift our focus at the right hand of God,
where there are pledges for evermore.
Remember who he is, what he has done,
and that he promises you to lead you out of your troubles.
All right, brethren, let's pray.