When The Going Gets Tough

Text:

Psalms 4:4:

Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.  Selah.

 

Theme:

When The Going Gets Tough

 

Introduction:

David and the Psalms:

• The Psalms from which the text is taken is believed to be the prayer and praise book developed by David, the King of Israel anointed by God. These hymns are hallowed cries of God’s servant, David, as he struggled to serve God in spite of his shortcomings.
• David’s life was a plethora of varied experiences: reared as a faithful shepherd of his father’s sheep, the slayer of the gargantuan Goliath, the leader of the victory over the Philistines, the one anointed by God as King of Israel, a “son” of God in his appointment to establish Jerusalem as the center of God’s Kingdom, his son appointed to build God’s House in Jerusalem, the Temple, while at the same time, David committed murder, and had an affair with another man’s wife.

• David knew what it meant to be human, fallible, sinful, weak, stained, tainted, marred, guilty, and ashamed before God but what overshadowed all of the former adjectives was the fact that David was HUMBLE before God and saw God as his only source of strength and refuge.  As he writes in Psalms 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”  David knew who he was and whose he was.  David knew that he was a sinner living only by God’s grace and that he was God’s child.  When all else failed, who else could he go to but his Creator…the one who created his life and his living.

• As David resolved to go to His Creator, the question of what to do “When The Going Gets Tough” has plagued mankind since the beginning of time.
  • Adam and Eve resolved to cover their nakedness with fig leaves and hide in the Garden of Eden amongst the trees
  • Abraham resolved to pack wood, equipment and his son to go to the mountain an make a sacrifice
  • Lot ran from his home never to look back…although his wife had to take a last fatal glance
  • Elijah ran into the wilderness and sat under a juniper…wishing that he could just die right then and there
  • Jonah traded in his divine ticket to Nineveh for a rough boat ride towards Joppa.
  • Peter took his sword and cut off Malchus’ ear
  • Paul and Silas had a “Jail Cell Prayer Meeting”
  • John on the Isle of Patmos took out his “pen” and wrote a prophetic epilogue
• The Bible gives us a glimpse into the different ways that we deal with “When The Going Gets Tough”:
  • Some people fall into the old ideology expressed in the saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” They either:
    • Get to work to overcome the toughness
    • Get the heck out of dodgeJ
  • Some resort to over-indulging in:
    • Food
    • Alcohol
    • Drugs
    • Shopping
    • Their Career
  • Some turn to a psychiatrist or psychologist
  • Some take out their frustration on other people
  • Some shut down altogether

 

Body:

• However, the Bible gives direction as to what we need to do “When The Going Gets Tough” in Psalm 4:4
  • “Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. ”
• Five things to do “When The Going Gets Tough”
  • “Stand in awe”
    • Psalms 33:8, “Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.”
      • Awe is reverential fear. No matter what the situation, reverence Him for who and what He is and fear Him for how and where He is.
  • “sin not”
    • Psalms 39:1, “I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.”
    • As it says in Ephesians 4:26, “Be ye angry, and sin not:”
    • Don’t sin in retaliation to your struggle.

“commune with your own heart”

• Don’t let other things, people, or thoughts DISTRACT you from yourself.
  • 2Kings 20:1-2, “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.  Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD”
• Accept who, where, and how you are…God will if you will!

Just as I am without one plea

But that thy blood was shed for me

• “upon your bed”
  • Be responsible for what’s yours
    • Joshua said in Joshua 24:15, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
• “be still”
  • Psalms 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God”
  • Stop running
  • Stop fighting
  • Stop cussing
  • Stop fussing
  • Psalms 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God”

 

Conclusion:

• “Selah”
  • This word is frequently found in the Book of Psalms and also in Habakkuk totaling about seventy-four times in all in Scripture. Its meaning is not definite.  Some interpret it as meaning “silence” or “pause” while others interpret it as “end” or “a division”
  • David used the word, Selah, after his words of thought had ended…when he had nothing else to add to the subject at hand.
  • Selah represents…what comes after out end…the next word after our last…what we don’t know after what we know. à God’s turn after we have tried our best
    • Donnie McClurkin says it well in his song, “Stand”
      • “Stand when there’s nothing left to do. You just stand, let the Lord see you through.  After you’ve done all you can, you just stand.”
    • The old folks would have many colorful dialectic exclamations when the power was no longer their own intellect, understanding, or memory but a shout in response to the power of the Holy Spirit
      • Lawd Ham Mercy!
      • Umm!
      • Oooh, Lawd!
      • Jeeesaassssss!
    • My Pastor, Rev. Dewitt Sherrer often exclaimed from having received God-given inspiration with his familiar words of, “Thank ya’, Holy Spirit!”
    • Then we can clearly see David! After he had done all that he could, after he was depleted of all intellectual resources, and after he had been reaffirmed through the inspiration of the God’s presence, exclaiming “Selah!”
      • When the going got tough, David had a shout in his SELAH!
        • Where is our shout????
        • Hadn’t God done anything for you?