God leads us to him! – Psalm 61

God leads us to him! – Psalm 61
By Pastor Lee Hemen
September 24, 2017

My Dad and I were headed home and in the yard of a stranger was my dog Tad. He was chained to a big old fir tree. I exclaimed, “Dad! There’s Tad!” We had been looking for him for days. My father just kept driving. Tad was one of those dogs I realize now that you look forward to the day when he runs a way. A friend of my parents had shoved him through our front door one Christmas Eve; we woke up to the tree on the floor, broken blubs, torn apart and half-eaten presents. He ran away once and I found him seven miles away in town by our elementary school. My teacher put him in her car until we could take him home later. He defecated all over inside of it; tore up her seats, and pretty much ruined her car. Sadly he was one dog you could not teach anything. My Dad was not going to turn around and claim him.

There are people like my old dog Tad whom you can’t seem to teach anything. They never learn to listen to anyone or anything. Sometimes we forget what God told Jeremiah, “The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.’” (Jeremiah 31:3 NIV) We can forget that God actively draws us to himself because he desires a relationship with us. Here in this Psalm of David we learn that God leads us to him! Let’s discover what that means for us this morning…

READ: Psalm 61

While we may equate searching for a strong tower in our day and age to the use of our cell phone, David understood it to be a place of safety and security. David learned that…

I. God leads us to him through the refuge of our prayer! (Vv. 1-4)

Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. Selah

  1. David immediately goes to the One he knows hears him when all others are deaf to his words: “Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.” David would learn that God “fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.” (Psalms 145:19 NIV) and on the converse Jesus would tell his detractors “He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” (John 8:47 NIV) Prayer is vastly important to those who would want God to hear them. However, more importantly it is more than simply vocalizing your concerns and confessions to a loving deity; it is how God’s precious children converse with their Lord in heaven! As David spoke with his Lord he came to a greater knowledge and understanding of who God was and how he would respond to his personal prayers. David would sing to his heavenly father, “From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” There was no place where David could go that he could not converse with his God. And there was no personal condition David could not share with God! Whether David felt protected or faint and needed a place “higher” than his self he knew he could talk with God. He knew God had been his “refuge, a strong tower against the foe.” This is why David could sing that he longed “to dwell in [God’s] tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of [his] wings.” This psalm was made by David and not necessarily for him. It is an intimate expression of the longing of his heart by the Spirit of God; it displays his relationship with and his full assurance in God. It is his conversation with the Lord for protection. David learned that God leads us to him through the refuge of our prayer!

  EXAMPLE: As a shepherd I am sure there were times when all David had to talk to were the stupid sheep of his flock, perhaps once in a while his unruly brothers, or the rocks, streams, and meadows that surrounded him. And of course he learned in these quite moments that he could talk with God. Over and over we discover in David’s Psalms, the music he made to the Lord, that David would pray “Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.” Just as in any relationship if you do not spend time speaking with those you care about in life your relationship will suffer. If in your walk with God you do not regularly pray, speak with God, your relationship suffers from a lack of communication. David learned that God leads us to him through the refuge of our prayer!
Recently it was reported that a couple of professors had the audacity to write “an op-ed suggesting that what might be needed in the United States is a return to some of the nation’s values and moralities of the 1950s. At its core but is not actually mentioned by the article is the heritage and influence of God upon a society. David knew this as well and he writes that…

II. God leads us to follow the heritage he has left us! (Vv. 5-8)

For you have heard my vows, O God; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. Increase the days of the king's life, his years for many generations. May he be enthroned in God's presence forever; appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him. Then will I ever sing praise to your name and fulfill my vows day after day.

  1. Then on the basis of God hearing David’s “vows” to the lord David prayed for God’s personal protection. “For you have heard my vows, O God” he sang. And then David reminds God that “you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.” David was king of Israel because God had chosen him to be king! David understood that his leadership could be taken away as easily as it had been given, either by the Lord or by those he lead, therefore David bluntly states it was God who gave him the leadership “the heritage” of Israel. And in doing so he was reminding God of his promise to the Israelites; that they were his inheritance! David was God’s child just as the Israelites were his children! John would later write “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.” (John 1:12-13 NIV) Paul would write that “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8:16-17 NIV) We pray now as God’s children and his inheritance! So it was on the promise of God’s inheritance and that he was his child that David prayed, “Increase the days of the king's life, his years for many generations. May he be enthroned in God's presence forever; appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him.” What a wondrous thing to know and experience for oneself! Paul would exclaim that “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” (Ephesians 3:12 NIV) As his children and his inheritance we can converse with the God of creation! David teaches us that God leads us to follow the heritage he has left us!

  EXAMPLE: Nothing was more important to the Jewish people than their remembrance of where they came from and an adherence to the laws given to them from the Lord. Nothing is as important as the personal heritage of our faith we leave behind. Little eyes and ears listen, see, and learn from their parents what is important in life. My father calmly told us one Sunday morning when we were rebelling about going to church: “You will go to church because that is what your family does on Sundays.” Of course I ended up a drug addict, a criminal, one who beats his wife and children and an awful grandfather because of my father’s insistence we would “go to church” on Sunday mornings -- of course not. David learned his faith from his parents about God. He would learn that he was God’s inheritance. David reminds us in a world where we are often taught and encouraged to follow our feelings instead of our faith that God leads us to follow the heritage he has left us!

Conclusion:

God leads us to him through the refuge of our prayer! God leads us to follow the heritage he has left us!
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This article is copyrighted © 2017 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.

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