What Are You Reading? – Desperation & Declaration

well hi ladies and happy monday morning i hope that your monday has started off well and um this morning i want to go ahead and we're going to jump into psalm 63. so i'll get to the reason why I ended up jumping into this psalm because it happened to be right next to another one that I'm that I'm that I am currently reading but or in the process of memorizing but I'm just going to read some of this and perhaps really the question that I wanted to ask you this morning is where are you desperate? What area of life are you desperate? Where are all of your prayers turning to. And as many of you know, we just walked through the Armor of God Bible study, and something we did at the beginning of this study was we had everyone who was participating write a letter to God about certain situations and, you know, the things that they were going to be walking through and praying through over the next seven weeks that we met. And a lot of ladies, there are quite a few that reached out to me that just said they couldn't believe then at the end of the Bible study from that seven, well, ended up being eight-week period because we skipped July 4th, of how many things God had solved, moved, resolved, even to the point where my letter that I wrote, I was already way past all of those things, and there were other things on my mind now. So one of the things that we need to remember, and sometimes it's a longer period of desperation, a lot longer. We need to remember what God has done in the past because that builds up our faith when we're in moments of desperation, frustration, moments of feeling like he still doesn't hear us. As many of you know, I walked through singleness for 10 plus years and that was a long time of that, right? But there were seasons growing in it. So um i am going to read psalm 63 and we'll kind of do a bit of a breakdown with it so this is when david is it says when he was in the wilderness of judah um it's believed that this was while he was being pursued by saul it could have been for the period that he spent after absalom came after him um but we know that david is in the wilderness and he's earnestly seeking god and so in psalm 63 he says oh god you are my god earnestly i seek you my soul thirsts for you my flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water so i have looked upon you in the sanctuary beholding your power and glory and i'm going to stop right there so i love what he says how he is earnestly seeking god he's thirsting for him his flesh is fainting for him we see this picture of just complete desperation and then he says so i have looked upon you in the sanctuary beholding your power and glory remembering seeking god in the church in the temple seeking him and his presence and why does he do this he says because you are this is where we get to the remembrance part okay he remembers though he's in a dry and weary land he remembers beholding his power God's power and glory in the church in the sanctuary when he has sought his presence because your steadfast love is better than life my lips will praise you so I will bless you as long as I live in your name I will lift up my hands name it and declare it right I will bless you as long as I live in your name I will lift up my hands verse five my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips when i remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night for you have been my help remember when he's been your help remember what he's walked you through i don't know what you're walking through right now it could be the hardest thing you've ever walked through but remember what he has walked you through because he's faithful remember last week we talked about he's faithful he's full of faith he is faithful verse seven yeah i read part of it but verse seven for you have been my help and in the shadow of your wings i will sing for joy my soul clings to you your right hand upholds me and then the psalm transitions slightly and this is where we enter more of David's direct situation. He says, but those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth. They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be a portion for jackals, but the king shall rejoice in God. All who swear by him shall exult for the mouths of liars will be stopped. And that shall exult is like partaking of glory partaking of god's glory because we are glorified in him and so to me this this this psalm just really hit me especially after having done this armor of god bible study just the desperation but then the declaration so remember we have desperation and the issues where we are but then there is declaration of who god is remembering what he's done and moving forward taking ground in victory knowing that he is on the move god is on the move and so wherever you are right now i want you to really hone in on psalm 63 verse 8 so that's that that's in within this but that i read it already but it says my soul clings to you your right hand upholds me declare that over whatever situation it is yes you are maybe like david you may be um thirsting you may be fainting your physical body may be wearing away you may be so emotionally distraught such you may be in a place where you never thought that this was going to happen to you or to a family member or to um or to anyone that you know but just take a moment and just remember god's glory and say and declare tell yourself that's what i'm getting to i'm getting to the verse that i've been memorizing tell yourself my soul clings to you your right hand upholds me declare it to your mind to say it out loud there's power in saying it out loud and then i want you to maybe along with me meditate on this verse from psalm 62 so remember though you may be desperate you can still declare god's glory and then i want you to turn to psalm 62 verse 5 and this is where god has been making me sit and to sit in silence that's a hard hard place that does not mean that you cannot asks for prayers it does not mean that you cannot um talk with people about it but it's not a constant woe is me it is god's glory i'm going to sit in restful silence because god is still good and so psalm 62 verse 5 this is a declaration to your soul reminding kind of like what psalm 63 says my soul clings to you all right psalm 62 verse 5 says for god alone oh my soul wait in silence for my hope is from him so it's all because of god we are glorified in him our hope is from him our peace is from him and we long for him because we want to be with him eternally and we will be eternally but we long for that eternity with him um even while we yet struggle here so remember that psalm 62 verse 5 for god alone oh my soul wait in silence for my hope is from him so he's your hope it doesn't come from your yourself thank goodness right can i get an amen on that but it comes from god and we hope in him and there's a whole book right here that can tell you why we can hope in him from beginning to end old to new tells us exactly why we can hope in god so i don't know if you're in an absolutely desperate place this morning but declare god's goodness remember what he's done and hope in him sit in silence and just cling to him so i hope that that's a bit of an encouraging message it's kind of where i'm sitting uh today and just remembering how big our god is just how big how great and how mighty he is and that our hope is from him so i hope you have a great rest of your monday and i'll see you back here next week thanks

Originally published at warren.church.