Defeating Discouragement (Psalm 31)

Defeating Discouragement
Luke 23:44-46

INTRODUCTION:
What causes you to get discouraged? What steals your peace of mind? What unsettles your heart? What causes you to lose sleep?

We can word the answers to these questions with four words: Family. Health. Jobs. Spirit.

Family - problems with our spouse or children. Parents. Siblings.

Health - health issues either with ourselves, our family, or our close friends.

Jobs - where? Co-workers. Promotions. Pleasing the boss. Potential problems.

Spirit - forgiveness? redemption? sinful habits?

When Jesus was experiencing severe pain while hanging on the cross, He uttered seven sentences that have been recorded for us by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. While He was hanging there on the cross, with pain throbbing in His forehead, with pain shooting through His arms from the nails in His hands, with the wound in His side throbbing, He raw back rubbing against the wood, pain shooting up through His legs from the nails in His feet, and above all, with the weight of the world’s sin on His shoulders… He quotes from the Old Testament. Twice. Both times are from the book of Psalms: Psalm 22:1 - “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” And…

Psalm 31:5 (Luke 23:46). Today, I wish us to meditate on Psalm 31 and ask ourselves, why? Why did Jesus find encouragement, peace of mind, a settled heart and a calm spirit, from quoting from Psalm 31:5: “Into Your hand, I commit My spirit”? Let’s feed our spirits on this psalm from David.

It is classified as a “psalm of lament” because David is expressing frustrations with what is happening to him and this causes him to express faith in Jehovah God. I believe you and I can “defeat discouragement” if we will find solace and consolation from the same psalm which gave our Savior encouragement while He was suffering on the cross…

JESUS FOUND ENCOURAGEMENT FROM PSALM 31 BECAUSE OF DAVID’S TRIALS - 31:1, 9-13:
Imagine where Jesus has been emotionally through His betrayal by Judas in the upper room and the betrayal by the other apostles in the garden and His trial. Now He’s on the cross - not one time had He violated any law. He had never violated God's law or man’s law. A more innocent man has never before been falsely condemned and prosecuted as Jesus had. What better way to meditate on the hope of the resurrection, than to know that God owes Him life, once He dies!

Remember Jesus’ trial with the Jews and Roman soldiers: slapping, punching, and spitting on Him. The scourging and the crucifixion itself.

Jesus will be seeking vindication. He has been teaching what the Father has told Him to teach. Now He is hanging on the cross for Truth. He quotes verse 5 and then “breathes His last” (Luke 23:46). What vindication is He looking for? Who do we want to be vindicated by? Whose approval are we looking for? It’s God’s approval that matters the most - right?

T-shirt said: “I don’t care what others think about me. What matters is what does God know about me.”

This psalm was sung, of course, among the Jews. They are worshipping God through this song. What purpose did it have for the temple community, and what about its relation to us today? Today we say, “Stop complaining, just be a man.” But the Jewish community cried out in distress; it showed trust. They shared their thoughts. They shared their trials. This is reflected in the psalms of lament. It’s not a situation about “Stop complaining; wear a helmet.” It’s the situation of “Lean on God.”

Song: “Man of sorrows”

“My strength fails because of my iniquity” (ver. 10). Doesn’t apply to Jesus, but His life was spent in grief. Especially toward His apostles - James and John asked Him, “Shall we call fire from heaven?” (Luke 9:54) Pharisees and Sadducees…

Verses 11-12: To man, David / Christ is reproach; the people flee from him / Him. But you can’t say that about God. He doesn’t run from us. We see some of these same thoughts reflected also in Isaiah’s view of the suffering Messiah (Isaiah 53).

Embracing this dependence on God, we need to grasp the point: “this is what I have been called to do.” It’s not pity; it’s identification with God’s plans. James 1:2: “Count it all joy…”

Of course, part of Jesus’ trials was also the fact that, bearing the sin of the world, He also experienced the silence of God: “Eli, Eli, lama Sabacthani? Why have you forsaken Me?” But, Jesus also knew that God would hear Him. Verse 22: “God heard His voice.” In Hebrews 5:7, the Hebrew writer states: “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.”

What David experienced was more than us, yet (vers 21-22), it is very relatable. “I am cut off from your sight.” It’s a knee-jerk reaction. We often feel like God is not quite listening to us. But when we meditate on the cross of Christ, we can see the presence and the listening ear of God. It goes back to the “Not my will.” We ask God, “Where have you been?” But it boils down to the idea of: “Your will be done.”

JESUS FOUND ENCOURAGEMENT FROM PSALM 31 BECAUSE OF DAVID’S TRUST - 31:1-6:
Notice the synonyms which David uses for God. To Jesus also, God is the: rock, fortress, stronghold, strength. David has been speaking about adversity. Jesus is experiencing adversity.

David and Jesus are speaking to people who are facing adversity in a number of ways. The adversity they experience becomes a central point for the struggle. It is adversity versus refuge. The refuge is in God.

God wants His people to ask Him to lead and to guide them. David finishes with his own perspective: verse 5. Jesus is facing His own adversity, so He uses this psalm to face His own need, as a human. Jesus needed God’s strength in His own adversity.

Jesus is saying to the Father: “You are the one I lean on.” Jesus feels secure in His relationship to the Father. Jesus trusted in the God of truth - for example, in the temptations against Satan. Jesus quoted the Father’s word against Satan and Jesus trusted that word. Here, He calls God the “God of truth” (ver. 5).

What characteristics of God specifically did Jesus trust?

God’s righteousness - verse 1
God’s immutability (unchangeableness) - verses 2-4
God’s truth (or faithfulness) - verse 5
God’s lovingkindness - verses 7, 16, 21
God’s knowledge - verse 7
God’s grace - verse 9
God’s justice - verses 17, 23
God’s goodness - verse 19
God’s presence - verse 20

The whole concept of the psalm and “defeating discouragement” certainly goes back to the idea of trust. Regardless of what happens, David and Jesus say, “I will trust in You, O Lord” (verses 6, 14). Verse 15: “My times are in Your hand.” I’m giving you me.

It reminds us of the prophet Jeremiah (chapter 18). He recognized that God was the potter and he was the clay. To be moulded and shaped and contoured in whatever way Jehovah God knew was best.

It reminds us of the prayer of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane: “Not as I will, but Your will be done.” When you are in turmoil, and you say that and mean it, even though you might be facing horrific things in life, when you say it and mean it, it’s one of the most powerful concepts to calm your heart. We can say that easily on a good day. But can we say it on a “bad day?”

Verses 15, 17-18: Jesus could have delivered Himself, but He put Himself into the Father’s hand. He did not want to be ashamed. “Let the enemies be ashamed for their wickedness” Similar to Psalm 17:9-13. David’s request to God is “bring the enemies down! I’m trusting You to do this.”

Young people try to live their faith and they are put to shame; adults can also feel shame for sharing their faith. “Crucify Him!” Jesus heard the Jews yell. They mocked Him while He was hanging on the cross: “He saved others, let Him save Himself!” Some yelled at Him: “Come down from the cross and we will believe!” Jesus could have saved Himself; but He was not ashamed to leave Himself in the hands of the Father.

Bit of contrast - Justice is to be served to those who have done this to him (David). David had the opportunity to take down King Saul (1 Samuel 24 & 26), but he didn’t touch him. Now we have the Anointed one who chooses not to take vengeance by His own hands.

Verse 19 - “Great is His goodness:” Jesus is on the cross; where is the great goodness in that? It’s in what God is doing through Jesus. Jesus surely had that in His mind and that’s what pulled Him through.

Hebrews 12:2, Jesus could see through the cross because He saw the glory on the other side, “for the joy set before Him.” Jesus could see it.

Verse 19 becomes one of the more powerful verses: it’s a declaration toward God, like verses 3, 14. “As for Me, I trust in you O Lord; how I trust in you!” In lament, these are declarations of joy. In the midst of all the calamity, the vain idols, the bones wasted away, David / Jesus keep declaring their trust in God. God is a rock and a fortress (ver. 3). This is a final declaration before He concludes the psalm; as He concludes - “How great you are!” Because of Who you are, I call on the “godly ones” to love Jehovah God!

So many perspectives in this and so many others: Psalm 23 - “I shall not want…”

JESUS FOUND ENCOURAGEMENT FROM PSALM 31 BECAUSE OF DAVID’S TRIUMPH 31:14-18, 23-24:
“I am in distress” (ver. 9). When there’s trouble, we know that since we are in Christ, He hears us in the day of our trouble. It might be that our death is required, but He is still with us.

Verse 7 - “I will rejoice and be glad” - “Because you have seen my affliction… You have known My trouble.” God is aware of me; He is aware of what I face. God is listening; He has considered my life. God has known the troubles of my soul. He brings stability because He listens; He knows.

Family, when you don’t have strength to carry on, remember where you are: You are in Christ. Because of God’s nature, He cannot lie and He will be with you through the trials of life.

Parallels the last part of Psalms 22:30-31 (which Jesus quotes, of course, on the cross) - and David turns to evangelism… Despite the frustrations and fears and anxieties, we have the call to evangelize in verses 23-24.

CONCLUSION:
As the apostle Peter writes his first letter, encouraging Christians to keep faithful to Jesus Christ and His gospel, He points to Jesus as the prime example of trust. In 1 Peter 2:21-25, Peter writes these words:

“For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.”

Then in 1 Peter 4:19, Peter writes to us: “therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall [this is an imperative in the Greek] entrust [the same verb used of Jesus in Luke 23:46] their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”

Take home message: Even though you might be experiencing trials in life that make your mind unsettled and steal peace from your heart, trust God to carry you through, being used a clay in His hands, and you will experience the triumph of faith!