‘But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.”  For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.’ (2 Cor 1:18-20)

‘Father of kindness,
You have poured out grace.
You brought me out of darkness;
You have filled me with peace.
Giver of mercy,
You’re my help in time of need.
Lord, I can’t help but sing.

Faithful, You are,
Faithful, forever You will be.
Faithful, You are,
All Your promises are Yes and Amen.
All Your promises are Yes and Amen.

Beautiful Saviour,
You have brought me near.
You pulled me from the ashes;
You have broken every curse.
Blessed Redeemer,
You have set this captive free.
Lord, I can’t help but sing.

I will rest in Your promises
My confidence is Your faithfulness
I will rest in Your promises
My confidence is Your faithfulness.’ (‘Yes and Amen‘, Chris Tomlin)

Most of us like receiving presents and free gifts are even more exciting (though sadly, they often don’t live up to their advertising hype!) Supermarkets frequently offer us ‘free gifts’:

Insurance companies may offer us ‘two months for free’, but usually the prices for the remaining 10 months more than make up for this offer! God’s free gift of grace is not like these offers, however!

Mark spoke from Rom 5:12-21 this morning, reminding us that God’s free gift of grace abounds to us all, and even where sin abounds, grace abounds so much more.

Grace could be said to stand for:

G – God’s Gift (God gave us Jesus, and whilst the cost of this gift is free to us, it cost Jesus everything)

R – Righteousness (God’s gift puts us in right standing with God; we are given robes of righteousness to wear)

A – Acceptance (Eph 1:6 reminds us we are accepted in the beloved; we are acceptable to God through grace. God accepts us just as we are.)

C – Continuous (God’s grace is always available to us; it overflows to us, like the Niagara Falls. 1 Tim 1:14 reminds us that grace is ‘exceedingly abundant’.)

E – Everlasting (God’s grace leads to everlasting life; there will still be grace in eternity!)

Yesterday at the Salvation Army there was a Pentecost Party as part of the ‘Churches Together’ services to celebrate Pentecost. Alison spoke about how the Holy Spirit came upon the early disciples on the day of Pentecost:

She also spoke about how the Holy Spirit brings community together. On the Day of Pentecost, people spoke in new languages as the Holy Spirit enabled them, unifying the division caused by the Tower of Babel. Our communities desperately need unifying and hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. We also need the love of God in our hearts, as symbolised by the ‘Love’ banner:

God also gives us joy and reasons to celebrate, hence the party theme:

Ps 130 is one of my favourite psalms. We begin by crying to God ‘out of the depths’ (referring to anything low, deep or profound, such as the ocean, a pit or a valley, all of which are used in the Bible to describe difficult times), but find a God who forgives, loves and redeems. In the meantime, however, there is a need for waiting and hoping, often quite long periods when nothing seems to be happening and all that is required of us is trust. Those times are not easy for impatient people who like instant answers!

Helping ourselves and others when we are in the depths of despair is not easy. Perhaps the first thing we can do is listen. Job’s friends identified with his suffering and sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, without speaking. (Job 2:12-13) Often, it is important simply to get alongside those who are suffering, even if we have no words to speak.

Secondly, the Psalms teach us to pray in all situations, however desperate they are. Prayer is not a ‘last-ditch’ effort to twist God’s arm. As we pray, we allow God into those situations which trouble, wound and upset us. So often, we try to keep Him at arm’s length, but in praying for ourselves and others, we invite God into our lives to help and heal, opening the door to His action and intervention.

Waiting involves ‘a wholehearted attention to the living voice of Scripture.’ (Michael Wilcock) It is not passive resignation; it is an active form of hoping in God, resting in all we know of His character. Each of the penitential psalms reveals to us facets of God’s character we are liable to forget in troubles:

• Unfailing love (Ps 130:7, Ps 143:8, 12)
• Goodness (Ps 143:10)
• Guidance (Ps 143:8,10)
• Forgiveness (Ps 130:4)
• Durability (Ps 102:12, 25-26)
• Sovereignty (Ps 102:12)
• Compassion (Ps 102:13)
• Faithfulness (Ps 102:17)
• Redemption (Ps 130:7)

Our remaining penitential psalms (Ps 102, Ps 130, Ps 143) do not seem, at first glance, to have much in common. Yet a closer inspection of all of them show a keen awareness of personal hurt and anguish (Ps 102:2-11; Ps 130:1; Ps 143:3-4). The Bible has much encouragement for us when we are in distress, discouraged and feel as though we are either in a deep pit or at risk of being swamped by the waves. There is tremendous relief simply to know that we are not alone in those feelings, that others before us have also walked a broken road. The causes of distress may well vary – loneliness, bereavement, pain, ridicule, opposition, to name just a few – but the feeling of desolation and isolation these things engender in us can cause our spirits to be faint within us. (Ps 143:4,7) Most of all, however, we are reassured and encouraged by the awareness that our Saviour is a ‘man of sorrows and familiar with pain’ (Is 53:5), that we do not have a Saviour who is unable to empathise with us in our weaknesses (Heb 4:15). Jeremy Camp captures this for us in the song ‘He Knows’, which declares:

‘He knows, He knows

Every hurt and every sting,

He has walked the suffering.’ (‘He Knows’, Jeremy Camp)

Another theme all these psalms deal with is the sense that we are lost without God’s mercy. Our own righteousness is not enough (Ps 143:2; see also Deut 9:5; Eccl 7:12; Rom 3:10, 20; Gal 2:16); if God kept a record of our sins, no one would be able to stand (Ps 130:3, John 8:1-11). The character of God – traced by forgiveness, mercy, unfailing love and full redemption – becomes our only hope. Each psalm may touch on despair, but each of these psalms also points to revelations of God’s nature which become our lifeline. God sits enthroned forever (Ps 102:12) and does not change (Ps 102:27); as Allen writes, ‘the assurance of God’s permanence is the answer to the psalmist’s overwhelming sense of transience.’ The fact that we can rely on God’s faithfulness (Lam 3:23, Ps 89:8, Ps 100:5) and righteousness (Ps 7:17, Ps 103:17, Is 33:5) ultimately sustains us, whether the trouble we face is caused by our own sin, by enemies or by the chastening hand of God. Our protection, salvation and deliverance come from God, in whom we can hide (Ps 143:9; Ps 17:8; Ps 31:20; ‘your life is now hidden with Christ in God.’ (Col 3:3))

At funfairs and amusements parks, there is often a hall or mirrors which distort images because of the different curves in the glass, making one’s appearance look radically different to reality. Distortion in sound is also possible, when audio signal processing is used to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments (most commonly the guitar.) It can be quite fun to play around visually and with audio in such a manner, but distorted perspectives spiritually are much more damaging.

Distress is well known to cause both medical and emotional problems. In Ps 102, the psalmist (described as ‘an afflicted person’) describes his distress in various poetical ways: ‘my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers’ (Ps 102:3), having a ‘blighted heart’ that is ‘withered like grass’ (Ps 102:4), complaining of physical pain (groaning aloud, being reduced to skin and bones, Ps 102:5) and emotional pain which leaves him feeling like a desert owl (a Levitically unclean bird.) Nonetheless, this psalm has clear Messianic references (Ps 102:25-27 is quoted in Heb 1:10-12 and the pain, isolation, suffering through divine wrath and a life cut short all foreshadow Christ’s suffering.)

Perhaps fixing our eyes on Jesus (Heb 12:2) is the only really effective cure for distorted perspectives. Heb 12:3 urges us to ‘consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.’ When we do this, we find that the ‘things of earth will grow strangely dim/ in the light of His glory and grace.’ (‘Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus’) That way, we can see things from God’s perspective and can be clear-eyed, even in the face of trouble.