Finding Help in Affliction

In This Sermon we see the Psalmist clinging to the merciful God of the Word so that we might learn the first of three insights about finding help in affliction.

1. Your Greatest Need is a Merciful God (vv. 153-54)
2. The Wicked are without Hope without the Word (v. 155)
3. God’s Abundant Mercy is the Foundation of our Hopeful Plea (v. 156)

Transcript:

Well, good morning. It's a joy to be opening the word of God again. Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 119. As you turn there, and even before we read, I want to note that I've titled today's sermon, "Finding Help in Affliction." And the subject of this sermon is suffering. In this life, we must be prepared to suffer. Suffering is unavoidable. People spend their whole lives trying to minimize or avoid suffering. They do everything they can, but it's truly an exercise of futility. You can't avoid suffering. Even though people run through life looking to avoid it, it's like running through a parking lot in the rain and trying not to get wet. You're going to suffer in this life. It's like going to the beach and trying to avoid sand. You're going to get sandy at the beach. In the same way in life, you're going to suffer. It's unavoidable.

2 Timothy 3:12 says, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." So you're going to suffer at the hands of others if you live godly. And persecution is not only inevitable, but as our Lord says in John 16:33, "In the world you will have tribulation." He says, "So God promises us not only persecution, but also tribulation." God is going to try us and test us, both from a sinful world, from the sin in this world, from the consequences of sin in this world. Suffering is inevitable. It's unavoidable. You can't avoid all of it. You shouldn't avoid all of it. You might be able to avoid some of it, but you can't avoid all of it. And that's by design. We recognize that God has put suffering in this world as a consequence for sin. As Ecclesiastes 7:13 says, "See the work of God for who is able to straighten what he has bent?" That's just the reality that God has bent certain things in his life. Sometimes he breaks things, sometimes just to punish sin, sometimes just to test his people, he breaks things and we can't fix those things. And that's a caution for us. And I think we would do well to listen to Solomon's advice here. There are things you cannot straighten that God has bent.

So we can't avoid suffering. And there's always going to be particulars in life that God has designed to be painful, uncomfortable, broken, in our words. And that's God's goal for our lives. It's not our comfort or our satisfaction, because God loves to afflict us. God often brings affliction on his children. He uses them to train us, to test us, to grow us, and he has a wonderful purpose for trials. We ought not to set our hearts too firmly on avoiding suffering. So if suffering is unavoidable, the question is, and if suffering is by God's design, then the question is, and the only question for the believer is, "How ought I to respond to suffering? How ought we to respond to affliction?"

And see, the believer, they don't avoid suffering. Rather, the goal of the believer is to learn to suffer well. The goal of the believer is to not avoid suffering, but to respond to suffering in a godly way. That's the goal of the believer. The Christian says, "How can I respond to God's providence in my life?" And I'll give you two examples. Throughout scripture, every time scripture talks about suffering, nearly, there's always this frame of, "How do I respond to this?" And there are different frames that scripture presents because there are different angles. Just like if you're playing a sport, If you're playing pickleball, sometimes you've got to do a forehand, sometimes you've got to do a backhand. You've got to learn different moves in pickleball. See the not so subtle pickleball illustration… There are times when you've got to learn different moves or techniques. In the same way with suffering, the Christian learns different aspects of suffering and different aspects of our response to suffering, particulars of suffering.

And I'll give you two examples. First, in Matthew 16:24, our Lord says, "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." And so, there's a kind of suffering a Christian is called to, called self-denial, the taking up of the Christian cross. That's part of repentance, part of putting off our agenda and submitting to God, and putting off our sinful desires and our just worldly desires and denying self. That's the cross, taking up the cross. So the believer, by suffering, imitates Christ. And so they're given this wonderful privilege of becoming a little Christ in this world. That's what Christian means, by the way, "little Christ." You get to imitate him by suffering. You take up your cross as a daily duty. And this is why we don't avoid all suffering. And the focus on avoiding suffering is wrong because it removes your opportunity to be Christlike, because Christ suffered. He suffered. If suffering was good enough for our savior, it's good enough for us. So that's one frame of looking at suffering. It's a very important frame: "Take up your cross, taking up the cross." And scripture abounds with examples of that.

Another example is in James 1:2-4, where James says this. He says, "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith brings about perseverance." And he says, "Let perseverance have its perfect work so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." And so James's response to suffering is, "Consider it joy because God is testing your faith." James looks at suffering in the manner of God's testing. And what we realize from James is that when God is testing our faith sometimes, it's a privilege because he's presenting you with a privileged opportunity, a privileged opportunity for you to prove that you trust him. It's an interesting way to look at a painful moment: a privileged opportunity. In those moments of deprivation, you are given an opportunity to show that you trust that God has a perfect plan for you, that you trust that what he did in Christ is far greater than whatever little thing, little, maybe not little to us, but little in God's eyes, "light momentary afflictions," as Paul describes it in Second Corinthians. It's an opportunity for you to see that in God's eyes and to pass that test in which God is testing your faith and your trust that he is good and has a good plan for you. So those, that's two angles to look at suffering.

Well, today we see a different angle, but I hope you see my point is that the Bible doesn't teach us to avoid suffering. So even as we talk about finding help in affliction, the goal is not, "Hey, how do I get out of this as quickly as possible?" I mean, that's an element, that's not wrong. It’s not wrong to say, "Hey, I don't want to be out in the rain." But in the same way, our goal is to respond to it in a godly manner, to respond to it as God would have us respond to suffering. So, every time scripture speaks about it, it's with that focus in mind that we are presenting Christlikeness in suffering. So, today we're going to see this different angle. We're going to see a different approach to suffering as we look in Psalm 119:153-160.

So turn with me, or if you aren't there, look at verse 153. This is what the psalmist says in verse 153. He says, "See my affliction and rescue me, for I do not forget your law. Plead my cause and redeem me. Revive me according to your word. Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes. Many are your compassions, oh Yahweh. Revive me according to your judgments. Many are my persecutors and my adversaries. Yet I do not turn aside from your testimonies. I see the treacherous and I loathe them, those who do not keep your word. See how I love your precepts, oh Yahweh, revive me according to your loving kindness. The sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous judgments is everlasting."

Let's pray and ask God to bless this time. Father, your word is truth. We come not to hear the wisdom of man or the insights of man, but the holy word of God. May its brilliant wisdom and its life-giving power be on display. May the gospel be proclaimed clearly. May today, and may we see better how to look to you when we suffer. Lord, we trust in your spirit. May he work in our hearts. May we hear? May he work through my preaching and give me clarity, Lord. But as we hear, may we understand your words, the words of eternal life, the words which alone can open blind eyes, free captive slaves to sin, and encourage weary and heavy laden saints. There's power in your word. Father, we pray that it would be at work, that your word would not go forth void as it never does. Lord, please save those who are unsaved and do not have ears to hear. Help those who are tired. Give them strength to bear with the sermon. Lord, cause the prideful to humble themselves before your glorious word that they may be able to understand it. Help us to listen to the scripture. May we listen as doers of the word and not as hearers only. And Lord, may you grant to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the full knowledge of him who called us. May Christ, your son, be more precious to us as a result of what we hear today. Fill us with delight in him and in you and in your spirit. May we hate sin more. May we hate pride and boastfulness, anger, lust, sexual immorality, envy, theft, gossip, slander, flattery, lies, and all other sinful deeds. May we hate them. And may we love Lord godliness, humility, meekness, purity, holiness, generosity, genuine praise, and all other virtues, Lord. So Lord, may you save the unsaved and sanctify the unsanctified today. Father, do your work. Build your church now even through your word. It is your work and not ours. So we trust in you, in the name of your wonderful and majestic son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

We’ve been in Psalm 119. We've been talking through this psalm about God's word and its power to help believers. It is a means of grace. This is to say that it's what God uses. It's his tool for sanctification. When you read God's word, it's one of the things that he uses to change you. And that's why we make use of God's word. So Psalm 18 is all about this principle, this idea of God's word as a means of grace. And every section talks about this from a different angle. People often make the mistake of reading Psalm 19 like it's a bunch of repetitive sections that just like all of scripture, we make this mistake when we read it that we think it is just saying the same thing over and over again. And that's because we're not understanding. We're not looking closely. And we don't have clarity. And that's why it's so important to read scripture closely and carefully because there's a lot of nuance. There's a very beautiful nuance. And we see that even in Psalm 19. I mean, we see it with his opening in the first eight verses. He talks about the happiness of those who obey the word of God. How happy are the people who obey the word of God. Their way is blameless, he says. And then he asks God that he would grant that he would be one of those people. That's his prayer in the first. And then in the second section, he talks about how God uses, how a young man can keep his way pure through the word. The word of God is that which purifies the life of the believer and transforms them. Think of a water bottle. Would you drink a water bottle that was full of gross and yucky water? No, you would want purified water. In the same way, the believer comes to the word of God in order to be purified. He reads the word of God because that's what allows him to please God.

In the next section, Gimmel in 17-24, he talks about how God preserves loyalty in his saints. He talks about how he's a slave and God deals and must deal bountifully with him and help him against internal and external pressures. And then in verses 25 through 32, he talks about how his soul clings to the dust, how weak he is, how he needs God to pick him up and help him to walk on this journey of life. In the next section, 33-34, we see the psalmist asking God for instruction. He uses the word "instruct me," the verb form of the word Torah, law. He's saying, "God, guide me. Give me direction. Point me in the way I should go. Show me how I should live." And so, we realize the word is divine direction for the believer. And in the next section in Vav, he talks about how the story of salvation comes to us through the word of God. And in Zion 49-56, he talks about how God remembers and how when he remembers, it causes us to be faithful and remember the word of God and to keep what he tells us to do. And in 57-64, he talks about how the word of God is our inheritance and God is our inheritance. And so the word of God presents us an inheritance in life. One might have the concern to ask, “what am I going to have at the end of life?" Well, you'll have God. He's the great inheritance of the believer. Or in 65-72, he talks about the goodness of God. How God is good even though we suffer. And this is important because this section, he talks about affliction. He says in verse 67, "Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word." And he says, "It is good for me in verse 71, that I was afflicted that I may learn your statutes." So he says, "God's word shows you that God is good even when circumstances are not." And in fact, the not good circumstances are proof of a good God because he disciplines us. He tests us. He helps us. That's what we see. And then in 73 through 80, we saw the hand of God at work. Saw the hand of God at work. He says, "Your hands made me and established me. Give me understanding." So we see throughout the psalms there are all these different angles. There are all these different angles that the psalmist wants to show us.

Well, today we're looking in verses 153 through 160 and we're talking about affliction. And we're not just talking about affliction. Rather, we're talking about how the psalmist wants to respond to affliction. He wants us to respond to affliction. And what we see when he talks about affliction here is he wants to teach us our need for a merciful God. He wants to teach you your need for a merciful God to show mercy to you. And that's notice how he opens. He says, "See my affliction and rescue me for I do not forget your law." So here is the disciple disturbed. The disturbed disciple is sitting here in affliction wanting to see God's mercy. And that teaches us to do the same.

Now, as you look at this,I first want to explain what's mercy, give us a definition, and then I want to show you how I got that theme from this section so you can see clearly for yourself. First, let's talk about mercy. Mercy could be defined as God's ready inclination to give help and show compassion to suffering creatures. God's ready inclination to give help and show compassion to suffering creatures. So mercy is all about God alleviating misery. God sees suffering and he wants to help. Now, people often use mercy as a synonym for grace and they use these terms. They throw them out together. That's fine because they are rather synonymous. They both speak of something unmerited and they both speak of, I mean, they're both representative of what we receive in the gospel. But I do want to distinguish just so you understand each of these terms is very distinct. That mercy, mercy can be distinguished from grace in that grace speaks of an unmerited favor or blessing to one who is undeserving. And grace emphasizes forgiveness and blessing, whereas mercy really emphasizes often the alleviation of suffering. And people oversimplify it. And often they'll say, "Well, grace is God giving you what you don't deserve, and mercy is God not giving you what you do deserve." And that simplification is fine, but it is an oversimplification. Because really, that doesn't describe mercy very well. It describes grace pretty well, but it doesn't describe mercy very well. Because mercy is not just non-action. It's not just God withholding his hand. It's not just God pulling his punches. What mercy really is is God seeing our suffering. Because grace emphasizes the sinfulness of its recipient, whereas mercy emphasizes their misery, their suffering. And that's the key difference. Both of them talk about the same things. But in terms of emphasis, in terms of emphasis, grace emphasizes forgiveness and blessing. And it emphasizes your unworthiness, whereas mercy, your suffering. Does this make sense? Perfect.

So, we recognize we need God's mercy. We see God's mercy as God is his tender affection. And I think one thing that's helpful is when you think about the word mercy, you understand the Hebrew word for mercy is related to the word for womb. The Hebrew word *raham* for mercy is related to the Hebrew word for *rehem* for womb. And so there is almost this motherly affection connoted by the word mercy. There's this very tender desire of God to help fallen creatures. And it's not because God is motherly, but because that's a reality that God has a tender affection for suffering creatures. He wants to offer a tender hand. He wants to show an affectionate hug. He wants to be a sympathetic shoulder. And I think that's something we can appreciate because if you've ever been in life, if you've ever suffered, you may sit there and you may go, "Oh man, I feel like I'm alone. I feel like this is terrible. What do I do?" And mercy is God's willingness to come alongside you in the gospel and to alleviate your suffering. It's his willingness to say, "I'm going to remove the consequences." It's when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, it was God's mercy and it was his grace that he didn't kill them. It was grace that he promised the suffering seed to the woman, the gospel. But it was mercy that clothed them where he took the skins of an animal and he clothed them. It was mercy that he still continued to allow them to enjoy the blessings of life. It's his mercy every day and his patience with unbelievers that allows them to experience blessings even though they're in rebellion against him. So this is the distinction between grace and mercy. And this is the essential nature of mercy. When you're afflicted, you need mercy.

So, as you see this theme, let's look at verses 153 through 160 and let's see how that develops. Let's see how that's actually in here. Notice he says, "See my affliction and rescue me, for I do not forget your law." We can see the mercy in there. But notice that three times he repeats the word "revive." In verse 154, he says, "Revive me." In verse 156, he says, "Revive me." And in verse 159, he says, "Revive me." In the midst of his suffering, he is suffering so deeply that he feels the need to ask God to revive him. The word there literally means either "preserve my life" or "cause me to live again." It's the causative form of the word "to live." So, it's God's causing him to live. Whether that's from raising him from the dead, metaphorically, spiritually speaking, or preserving his life, there's this, there's this need to be revived. He's like a man flatlining in the hospital who desperately needs God, that divine defibrillator to bring him back. He needs God's help. So, we see that theme of mercy there in "revive," the request for revival. But we also see it in verses in this whole section. And you'll see another word repeated three times. That's the word "see." You notice he says, "See my affliction." And so we see this idea of he asks for God's mercy. And then we see in verse 158, he says, "I see the treacherous and loathe them, those who do not keep your word." He says, "See how I love your precepts." And so from that repetition of the word "see," we actually notice a shift in the psalm. Did you catch it? He starts off saying, "Hey Lord, look at me. I'm suffering." And he ends by saying, "Hey Lord, look at me. I love your word." And so we see the transformation of one who has obtained mercy. We see the results and the effect of mercy on the people of God. That when the people of God received mercy, when you received mercy from God, when God saved you, when that moment happened, there was a change in you and suddenly this book that you thought was boring, these rules that you thought were restrictive, all of a sudden they become wonderful to you. And so that's the two major sections of the book. We see this transition from, "I need mercy" to "I love the word of the merciful God."

So we see these two sections, and in a way, this major shift from, "I need the mercy of the God of the word, the God of the Bible," to, "I love and I cling to the word of the God of mercy." Well, there's this transition and it's a beautiful shift, and we notice that this shift is supported by the fact that at the beginning in the first four verses, especially in the first two verses, he gives five imperatives. An imperative is a command. He gives five imperatives. And when you you give an imperative to God, it's not a command really. It's a request, but it's, it's worded like an imperative because it's so urgent. He says, "See my affliction." See, then he says, "Rescue me." Notice these are commands. You know, they're prayers really, but it's a command form grammatically. He says, "Plead my cause." He says, "Redeem me." He says, "Revive me." So, at the beginning, he's really urgently seeking God to act. But then you notice at the end, the tone has changed. The subject has changed. No longer is it God who must act. Rather, he's saying, "Look at me." When he says, "See," he's saying, "See how I love your word." So, there's a change. There's a very, very clear shift that happens in these two sections. At the beginning, he's saying, "I need your mercy." At the end, he's saying, "I want you to see how much I love your word that has transformed my life." That's the shift. That's the shift we're going to see. And these two sections, verses 153 through 156 is the first section and 157 through 160. Those are going to be the two, hopefully the two sermons for these two Sundays if we can get through everything. But the reality is that's, those are two sections.

But there's another point of structure and I just want to dive into this because this shows us how beautiful the word is. You'll notice there's actually a deeper structure even that shows a lot of nuanced literary skill and it's called a chiasm. You may go, "Chiasm, what's a chiasm?" Right? Don't you don't need to remember the term. I call it a literary sandwich. A literary sandwich. It's a, it's a structure of parallels that shows a reversal. And a common chiasm that everyone knows, You may have heard this quote from a famous president saying, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Notice how there's a reversal there, how he flips things where it starts with "country does you" and ends with "you do country." There are parallels there. There are three sets of parallels that show a reversal that flips the whole thing on its head. Chiasms are tools of reversal. At times they're also key tools of centering. There's a central point that kind of drives the whole thing. So that's the two literary effects of chiasm. And chiasms are common in scripture. They're so common that I would struggle to even give you examples because there are so many. I mean, the book of Hebrews has them. The psalms are filled with them. They fill scripture. Chiasms are very common. And we see a chiasm here. And you can see that just look at the text. Look at verses 156 and 157. For this chiasm, this is how you discover a chiasm. You first notice just an interesting fact. Both verse 156 and verse 157 of Psalm 119 open with the same word, "many." Notice that that's in Hebrew. They open with those same line. "Many. Many are your compassions and many are my persecutors." And you go, "Okay, well, maybe that's a coincidence." But if you examine it more closely, you see, "Okay, well, the psalmist is clearly doing something with this with just these two verses before we even get to the chiasm." We can tell he's doing something with this, which is that he's paralleling because parallel Hebrew, whenever you read the Psalms, it's all about parallels. That's, that's why you have two lines that say similar things. It's all the parallels. That's how you interpret it as you look at the two parallels. Proverbs, Psalms, Hebrew poetry works in parallels. But here he's paralleling two sections, two, two, two sets of two lines because many compassions help us through many adversaries. He's talking about his affliction which is people are persecuting him and he's showing how the abundant grace of God helps him with his abundant enemies. He's showing how the abundant compassion of God helps him with his many, many enemies. So, you see this kind of reversal where he's kind of, he's kind of playing off the fact that he has all these enemies and he's going, "Well, I got, I got a bigger, a God who's bigger and more compassionate than the wrath of my enemies." That's what he's doing there. He shows how, how his fear of God and his joy in God causes him to flip all that.

So, we see that we go, "Okay, that's interesting." But then you notice in verse 156, he's talking about his enemies. "Salvation is far from the wicked." All right? And it seems really random. You're like, "Why would you have a random comment about the wicked and then you go back to talking about God?" And then in verse 158, he talks about the wicked again. And so what we realize is those are two parallel lines that in the middle he has the "many," right? 156 and 157. But then he also has 158 and 155 paralleling each other. "Salvation is far from the wicked" parallels "I see the treacherous and loathe them." He talks about how the wicked are really the ones that are down and out in both of these lines. On the one hand, he says, "Salvation's far from them." On the other hand, he says, "I don't like them." So, we already see that shift from his view of them to his personal judgment about them. And then lastly, 153 and 154, they're both about "look." He uses the word "see" in both of these segments. First, he says, "Lord, look at me. I'm suffering." And then he says, "Lord, look at me. I love your word." And so we see there's a, there's a whole, there's a whole chiastic structure here. And I wanted to point that out just because the word is beautiful. And I think it's always good to read it closely. But it also shows us the technique he's using. He's showing the reversal how his, his consideration of the mercy of God changes his perspective on being persecuted. And it causes him instead of worrying about the persecutions to say, "Even though I'm being persecuted, I am unswerving in my love for your word." Even though I'm being persecuted, I'm unswerving. We see what the whole structure conveys. Even in the way he writes this thing, he's trying to emphasize the mercy of God helps me through trials. The mercy of the God of the word helps me through trials so that now I can love the word of the merciful God. Does this make sense? Great. Perfect.

So, today in verses 153 through 156, we're going to see the afflicted psalmist. We're going to see the afflicted psalmist clinging to the merciful God of the word so that we might learn three insights about finding help in affliction. We're going to see three insights about finding help in affliction by looking at the afflicted psalmist clinging to the merciful God of the word. 153 and 154 is our first insight: Your greatest need is a merciful God. And then in 155, we'll see our second insight: The wicked are without hope without the word. And then our third insight is God's abundant mercy is the foundation of our hopeful plea. Right? Our greatest need is a merciful God. The wicked are without hope without the word. And God's abundant mercy is the foundation of our hopeful plea. So let's, let's look at these, uh, look at these different truths. Starting with your greatest need is a merciful God. Look at verses 153 and 154. The psalmist says, "See my affliction and rescue me for I do not forget your law. Plead my cause and redeem me. Revive me according to your word." And we see here the psalmist asked God to show merciful regard for his situation so that he might mercifully intervene on his behalf for his salvation. The psalmist asked God to show merciful regard for his situation so that God might mercifully intervene on the psalmist's behalf for the psalmist's salvation.

So there's really two parts. One in verse 153, there's the merciful regard. He wants God to look at him. And in verse 154, there's merciful intervention. He says, "Plead my cause and redeem me." So notice that there's a merciful regard and merciful intervention. First, he wants merciful regard. He asked for God to show merciful regard for his situation. You notice that he's talking about his situation. Look at, look at my situation. I'm afflicted. This word "afflicted," the term for affliction, *ani* in Hebrew, refers to a humbling state of pain. And it's usually something that someone else, and I say usually, I really mean always, as far as I can tell, something that someone else does. And when it's an action, it's something that someone else does to bend someone else down, to submit that other person to them. It's a humbling act of affliction. And the verb form at times is used for oppression and abuse. So affliction, it really could be called oppression or abuse. Other times, it can be instructive like a parent chastising their children, humbling them, like God chastising his people. But often it's used for hostile people persecuting others.

So the Bible abounds with examples of affliction and very, and very real examples of affliction. That's because the Bible's a real book about real people. So it has very real examples. For example, in Genesis 29, there's an unloved woman, Leah, whose husband does not love her. She's afflicted by this humiliation of being married to a man who doesn't love her, who is also married to her sister whom he does love. That's affliction. It's terrible. That's affliction. Or Genesis 31:42 where affliction is a man, Jacob, being taken advantage of by his, taken advantage of by his father-in-law who cheats him, changes his wage, and tricks him into marrying the wrong woman and repeatedly, repeatedly takes advantage of him. Or Genesis 16:11, where a slave woman, Hagar, is afflicted by her cruel mistress. Or Exodus 3:7 where affliction is put upon the descendants of Israel who are enslaved in Egypt. They're put to hard slave labor. Or 1st Samuel 1:11, where affliction is a childless woman, Hannah, who is taunted by her rival wife, whose pain is unappreciated by her polygamous husband. That's tough. 2 Corinthians 14:26, where affliction is a nation oppressed by their neighbors to the point where there's no longer a distinction between freed men and slaves because everyone's degraded. Country has sunk so far down that there's no longer anyone who isn't a slave. There's no longer anyone who isn't oppressed. That's affliction. So the psalmist, like all these very real people, is suffering. He's being afflicted. He's being persecuted.

But not only this, he's faithful. He says, "I do not forget your law." And this is significant for him to say that, "Look at my affliction and yet I do not forget your law." Because earlier in Psalm 119, he said that God uses affliction to chastise him. So when he says it now, his point is, "I've learned my lesson. I no longer need it, Lord." In a very pious and humble way, he's saying, "Lord, I, I've learned my lesson and I'm obedient. And so according to the promises of your word, I, I should not be afflicted anymore." Especially important for the psalmist to say, "I've learned my lesson," though because Deuteronomy 8, which we don't have time to go to, I wish we did, but I've gone to before. In Deuteronomy 8, God gives a theology of trials and he uses both the word "forget" and the word "afflicted" which are used here. And his point is, "I afflicted you in the wilderness. Remember that because I had to teach you to depend and trust on in me. You to depend on me. You have to trust in me." And he says very, very strongly, "Don't forget that everything that you've received is from me. Don't forget that." And this is important because one of the things we have to think about as we look at affliction, a prerequisite for even talking about affliction or mercy, is that sometimes God has to afflict us. Sometimes he has to cause you to suffer in order to help you. Sometimes before God can show you mercy, he has to mercifully discipline you. That's something we have to keep in mind with affliction. Even as we plead to God for affliction, sometimes we can be, we can say, "Lord, even as I'm begging you for mercy, I, I'm grateful for this thing that made me realize that I need you."

And this is important because unbelievers especially, but all of us have this natural innate tendency toward pride. That is to say, a tendency to think more highly of themselves than they ought and a desire for self-elevation. And this leads us, this leads all people to naturally forget God. Prideful people forget that their entire life and everything they have is a gift from God. And so God's solution for his children is to afflict them. And if you're reading this and you go, "I want all the blessings of God. I want your blessings, Lord," and you're thinking about all the ways you're suffering in life, but you're not thinking about your dependence on God. You have a prideful heart that tends to forget God when you do well. Then perhaps there's a possibility that you don't even know God. Perhaps there's a possibility that you aren't saved. And one of the greatest signs is your both your response to affliction and your response to success. Do you get mad when God afflicts you? Do you, do you reach your fists towards heaven? Or do you, do you humbly submit to the trial? And when you, when you succeed, do you pridefully boast, "Look at me, look at what I did, look everyone, what, who I am?" Or do you, or do you humbly say, "Well, look, thank you, Lord. Look what God has done." So, this is important. This is a prerequisite for even talking about mercy. But if you're at the point where the psalmist is where he says, "See my affliction," then what the psalmist wants is for God to show him mercy. And this is the first step in mercy. This is the first thing. God has to have an inclination to even deal with you, which he does. And that is what we see in the word "see." The word "see" when he says "see my affliction," he's not just saying observe this because God observes everything. Obviously, of course, God sees it. No, what he means by "see" is, is, "Lord, have a regard for me. Lord, provide for me." We have in English a phrase "see to it." When you're going to make sure something happens. That's what he means. It's the "see" of "see to it." "Look to this." When he says, "God, look to my affliction," he's saying, "Lord, do something about this. Please have an inclination to help me."

And I think that's significant because all the examples I listed to you about affliction, just like the psalmist, all of them, I chose those ones very carefully because every single one of them, in every single one of them, God looks to his people. See, when Leah is an unloved woman, God looks to her and he provides for her. He shows his mercy in giving her six sons. When Jacob was tricked by Laban, God looks to him. God saw his affliction and blesses him and gives him Laban's wealth. When Hagar was abused by her mistress, God looked to her and gave her a son and promised her, "I have heard. I have heard and I will cause this man to grow up as a mighty warrior and a nation." That's Ishmael. And Ishmael's name, by the way, it means "God hears." God sees and God hears. That's his mercy. He has an inclination to see and to hear. God saw the affliction of Israel in Egypt and he redeemed his people. And that is, that is God's nature. That is his character on display. When you ask for God's affliction, for God's mercy, that's just, you're just asking God to be God because he has a natural innate desire to see affliction. He has a natural character that longs to help his creatures. He longs to help his children. He loves his children. The psalmist doesn't just say, "Look at my affliction." He says, "Rescue me." And that word "rescue," it's a Hebrew term *halats*, which literally means to extract or tear out. It's used of stones in Leviticus 14:40 and 43. It's used for removing infected stones from a house, like a controlled demolition. You pull those things out. So it's this idea of an extract or tear out. And the idea is if someone's in a tough spot, one way of rescuing them is to extract them. You send in a team and pull them out of that tough spot. That's exactly what he's talking about. He's saying, "God, I need an extraction team. God, I need, I need an extraction. I need pulled out. I'm at the drop zone. They're closing in." That's, that's what the psalmist is saying. He's saying, "See my affliction and pull me out of this thing. Get me out of here." That's what he longs for. He longs for God to regard him, for God's merciful regard. And he also longs for God's merciful intervention. He longs for God's merciful intervention. We see that in verse 154. He says, "Plead my cause and redeem me. Revive me according to your word."

So he asks God to plead his cause. And the word and the phrase "plead my cause" is a combination of two Hebrew words that are related to each other. So, and it's hard for us to translate this because we don’t have two related words like this. Also they're legal terms. The word "cause" is, it refers to a contention, but it's usually used for a lawsuit. And so, it'd kind of be like him saying, "Sue my lawsuit or take up the cause of my cause." Or maybe the best way we could say it is “contend my contention.” So he's saying, "Plead my cause." And this, this exact phrase is, is used throughout scripture to refer to executing or pursuing justice. It's what a good king or a good judge in Israel would do. You see, back then, judges weren't necessarily separated like we, like today in, in our society, judges sit and they wait for people to bring things to them. But in that day, a judge might take something up. Because a judge was less restricted. It's just a leader. The elders of Israel were their judges. Their king was their judge. The high priest was their judge. And so he might take something up himself. And so he's asking, he's asking God, "Lord, take this up. Take this case up. This is injustice. They're persecuting me. They're doing something that's against your law. Will you do justice? Will you enact justice in my case? Will you be my mediator, my advocate?" That's what he asks for. That's what he asks for. In 1st Samuel 24:15, David uses the same phrase speaking to Saul after he spares Saul's life. Saul had been hunting for him to kill him and he spares Saul and he says, "Therefore Yahweh be judge and execute justice between you and me." It's that same phrase. He says, "And may he see and plead my cause and execute justice for me to escape from your hand." So David says, "May God plead my cause." Or Proverbs 22:23, Solomon warns against doing injustice to the poor because he says they have the best judge. He says, "For Yahweh will plead their case and rob the soul of those who rob them." Or Proverbs 23:11, "For their redeemer is strong. He will plead their case against you." So even Proverbs 23:11, Solomon talks about executing justice for orphans and the afflicted. That God will plead the case for them. This is God. God is the advocate for those who are victims, for the weak, for the poor, for the oppressed, for the abused. People turn on the news and they, they see things and we see things in this digital age. So many injustices, so many evils, things that we are powerless to do anything about, powerless to pursue justice. And, and I just want to use this as my reminder to you that God is not powerless to do justice, and he will do justice. And there is no greater judge that you can appeal to than the one who sits on his throne ruling this earth because there are no jurisdictions with God. There is no, there's no time limit on when he can convict you and there's no stopping him. And even best, he doesn't miscarry justice. He never fails. And so if you want mercy, you, you can have no better advocate, no better lawyer than with God.

He doesn't just say, "Be my advocate," though. He also says, "Redeem me." And this is beautiful because he's combining two different ideas in scripture. On the one hand, he talks about the judge who judges justly and the advocate who intervenes on his behalf. On the other hand, he pulls in another term referring to mediation, referring to advocacy of the kinsman redeemer. This term "redeemer" is, is used in Leviticus 25. Turn with me to Leviticus 25:47-49. So Leviticus 25, verse 47, he says this. Moses says this, "Now if the means of a sojourner of a foreign resident with you becomes sufficient and a brother of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a sojourner who resides with you or to the descendants of a sojourner's family, then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him or his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him or if he prospers, he may redeem himself." So notice that and then he talks through all the details of the purchasing price and, and how much it will cost and how to calculate all of that in relation to the year of Jubilee which is the year when all slaves were supposed to go free. But what we see here is a provision in the law. And this is an important provision partly. You may wonder why is there slavery? Well, that's just because that was their way of managing debt. You, you worked off your debt. It's like if you went to a restaurant and you couldn't pay your bill, you go work in the back. In the same way they, they had slavery for that reason. It was hard, but life was hard back then. So, it's, it's God's gracious provision so people don't starve to death. So people can actually be loaned money because otherwise no one's going to loan anyone money if there's no way, no recourse to get it back. So they have people work for them. And so with that, if a foreigner purchases someone as a slave, if someone, if someone goes in debt to a foreigner and they can't pay him back, then what can happen is he says that there's, it's the, it's the duty and the right of a near relative to go and redeem his kinsmen, to go and pay the money so that guy can be free. And that was a provision in the law that, that every man has a duty to, to care for his family, his relative, his cousin, his uncle, his, his brother, his sister, and to redeem them from, from the humiliation of slavery.

That's a duty and a wonderful redemptive picture because what happens is, is that same redemptive picture is what the psalmist pulls upon. And he says, "God, may you be my redeemer. May you come and mediate for me. May you come and, and offer for me the redemption that I need." That's beautiful. It's a beautiful picture. I mean, it reminds me of, of the book of Job. In the book of Job is this horrible book where Job is suffering and he's, he's on trial from his three friends who are trying to say, "Well, we think you sinned because you suffered." Because they don't have a theology of trials. They don't realize God has a good purpose for suffering. So, they don't see God's purpose. So, they're trying to convict him and find out how he sinned. And Job feels as if he is even on trial before God because Job doesn't see God. So, as he's sitting here, he's going, "Well, Lord, what about me? How do I stand before a holy God? How do I stand before a holy God?" And you know what he, what he says? He says he, there's one moment where he offers a, a just a small sliver of hope. It's a ray of hope in the midst of, of a book that's full of despair until the end, till God shows up. And even as Job is saying, "Well, I don't understand God, how I could be suffering because I don't think I'm as bad as these other guys, and I don't, I don't understand this." Through all of that, he has this one moment of clarity. He says in Job 19:25, he says, "As for me, I know that my redeemer lives." And at the last, he will rise up over the dust of this world. And so Job says, "I know in spite of my confusion over this suffering," Job had heard some element of the gospel because he knew there was a man who would one day redeem him from the grave and, and he would rise again. So even, even in the midst of the worst suffering, the gospel gives Job hope. And I, and I think this is the same thing, the same reality what we see the psalmist longing for in verses 153 and 154. The mercy of God is, is exactly the same mercy that we long for in the gospel.

You long for God to see your affliction. Well, the Father saw our affliction. He indeed saw our affliction as a result of our own sin. You long for someone to rescue you. Well, that's what Christ will do when he returns. He's going to snatch us into the air. He's going to extract us from all this suffering. You long for someone who will plead your cause. That's what Christ does right now before the throne of glory. He stands before God offering up the blood of his sacrifice that he died on the cross and he says, "Look at me. Look at this. It is finished. I paid the price for this man's sin. I plead his cause. I will stand in the heavenly courtroom and I will, and I will say he is forgiven." And we do have a redeemer and he does live. He rose from the grave and he stands at the right hand of God. And he one day we will join him too. And that's compassion. That's mercy as we think about mercy. And, and I guess this is the only point we're going to cover today. But I just want to be clear on one thing even as we cover that. And you may not realize it, but you, you definitely need this mercy. And you don't just need this mercy for temporal things in life. We need this mercy. We need God's abundant compassion more than we need food. More than you need the meal we're going to eat after this. More than you need the sleep you got last night or didn't get last night. More than you need the oxygen you're breathing right now. You need God's compassion. You desperately need God's compassion. And this may sound a little harsh. Believe me, it may sound a little harsh, but it is said in love that you and I deserve every bit of suffering you've ever suffered. The Bible teaches that you deserve every bit of suffering that you've ever suffered because you're a sinner before a holy God. We deserve hell. You don't even just deserve the suffering you get now. You deserve hell. And any, any moment outside of hell in a life that still has some blessing, and a life that still has some blessing, is, is God's patience and grace to us. That's what we deserve. That's what we deserve because of our sin. Because we've sinned against a holy God. Because we've been prideful. Because we've lusted. Because we've been greedy. Because we've been selfish. Because we've lied. We've stolen. And we've, we've lived autonomously, independently of God, waking up in the morning with our own agenda instead of his as our first goal. So we deserve punishment. We deserve hell. And there's not a man, woman, or child on earth who is alive today who does not deserve eternal conscious torment. That's because we're all born sinners. So even as we think about affliction, we realize we deserve this. We deserve this.

Romans 3 says, "We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." You deserve this. We've sinned. This is God's holy standard on display. And you might think that you're a good person if you compare yourself to the lowest common denominator. You might think you're a good person if you compare yourself to people who are worse than you. But God sees all sin. And there's no one who's good in his sight. You may think your mirror looks pretty clean, but once you clean one spot of it, you see, "Oh, wow. It's actually pretty dirty." The same when you see God's holiness, you realize, "Oh, I am not clean. I am unclean. I am a sinner." And Jesus commands us to compare ourselves to that holiness. He says, "You shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." And this is why the Son of God had to come to earth and die on the cross. He came to earth, became a man, lived a perfect life, and he died upon the cross, died a substitutionary death all so that we who had sinned and do deserve suffering might have the opportunity to be forgiven. And more specifically, he didn't just die for our potential forgiveness. He died for everyone who would repent and believe, for his elect, for his people. So, ironically, the only man who didn't deserve to be afflicted was afflicted. The only man who didn't deserve to suffer did suffer. And our only hope is to humble ourselves and trust in his finished work upon the cross. And that's where we see his mercy most clearly. So, I would beg you, turn to Jesus if you have not. Turn to the only one who can offer you true forgiveness. Turn to the man of sorrows who suffered for those who trust in him. Turn to the only one with the power to save. Turn to Jesus. Let's pray.

Father, we trust you. We know the work of your son and we thank you for your mercy. We just see the overwhelming need we have for your grace and we just ask you to work in our lives. Father, fill us with a greater love for the things that you love and a greater hatred of the things that you hate. Fill us with a greater recognition of our need for your grace. We pray these things in your son's precious name. Amen.