Summary
Pastor Safrit walks through Psalm 31:1-8, emphasizing the importance of seeking refuge in the Lord during times of distress. He highlights David's trust in God as a source of strength and deliverance, encouraging the congregation to rely on God's faithfulness and love. The sermon challenges listeners to reflect on their own trust in God and to consider how they respond to adversity, ultimately reminding them that God is their rock and fortress who provides a way out of temptation and trouble.
Welcome and Housekeeping
Thank you for listening to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Sermon Audio. For more information, please visit our website, pgbcronda.com, or visit on all social media platforms. Thank you, men, for that singing.
If you have a young person who would like to be dismissed to Children's Church, that's available for you out this door to my left, your right. And if you have your Bibles, we're going to go to Psalms chapter 31 in our Summer in the Psalms series.
And we're going looking at a couple of Psalms this summer and just reflecting our heart toward what God has for us and through refreshment, renewal, encouragement.
And I hope it's been a refreshment encouragement to you. I know it has for me, just intentionally studying through some of these Psalms. And so today we'll be in Psalms chapter 31, verses 1 through 8. We're not going to look at all of the verses in this Psalm.
It is a longer 30, I'm sorry, 24 verses. We're just going to look at the first eight this morning and walk through these couple of things.
So if you're willing and able, I know some of you just stood, but we're going to stand out of honor of God's Word and we'll read this morning out of Psalms chapter 31. The Bible starts out by saying, Lord, I seek refuge in you.
Let me never be disgraced. Save me by your righteousness. Listen closely to me. Rescue me quickly.
Be a rock of refuge for me, a mountain fortress to save me. For you are my rock and my fortress. You lead and guide me for your name's sake. You will free me from the net that has secretly been set for me. For you are my refuge.
And into your hand I entrust my spirit. You have redeemed me, Lord, God of truth.
Verse six. I hate those who are devoted to worthless idols, but I trust in you, Lord. I will rejoice and be glad in your faithful love because you have seen my afflictions. You know the troubles of my soul. In verse eight.
And you have handed me over to the enemy. And you have not handed me over to the enemies. You have set my feet on a spacious place.
Lord, we love you. We thank you for what you've done. Be with the words that I've just read. Help me this morning as I preach your word, faithful to your text. We love you. In your name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
Again, this is a Psalm of David. And we've looked at several of his Psalms over the last couple of weeks. And this is a prayer of distress. And so imagine you're in a distressed time or a stressful time.
Distress Calls and Life Lessons
This is a prayer that David gave. And it's a prayer that we can learn from.
And as I was thinking about distress calls and what that looks like in our life, I looked at, my mind went to one of the most memorable stories of distress that I've ever read or heard of. And on this tragic day of April 14th, 1912. Anyone here born that day?
Terry had his hand up. Does anybody remember what happened on April 14th, 1912? The Titanic sunk. It's one of the most infamous maritime disasters in all of history.
The Titanic was the largest ocean liner of its time. Collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean during its maiden voyage from South Hampton to New York City. An estimated of 2,224 passengers and crew members were on board.
And more than 1,500 of them lost their lives that day on this maiden voyage that sank in just two hours and 40 minutes.
While the Titanic's disaster certainly stands out due to the magnitude of its loss, it's remembered by the actions of some nearby ships. One such ship was called the SS Californian.
The SS Californian was vilified and faced criticism for ignoring the distress call of the Titanic.
Captain Stanley Lord, the captain of the California, found himself in a swirl of controversy and questions that remain unanswered to this day.
As the Titanic was sinking, they were sending out distress signals. The California was very close nearby, reported that it was in the vicinity, and yet did not come to its aid.
The perceived inaction was made known as no longer the SS California, but they were labeled the ship that watched the Titanic sink.
Did you imagine that being your title to live by the rest of your life? You were close enough to respond to this massive disaster,
probably the largest disaster in maritime history of all time, and now you are known as the captain in the ship that just watched it go down. The failure to respond sparked many debates concerning whether the intervention would have saved more lives or not.
The contrast that we see is there was a ship called the SS Carpathia. Another ship, also in the area, heard the distress calls of the Titanic, and when they heard it, they immediately responded to the distress calls. And it said that they rescued over 700 survivors that day,
demonstrating that its crew's determination to provide aid in the middle of this catastrophe was greater than their need of themselves.
I believe truly this shows us the value of who we call out to when we're in distress. Who is our call when we are in distress? Who, when we are in a moment of controversy, a moment of need, who is it that we call out to?
Seeking Refuge in God
You see, David, in this psalm, the very first words of this psalm says this, Lord, the very first word is Lord, I seek refuge in you.
You see, David knew the only person that he could trust in this moment was the Lord.
So our question to begin is, where is our trust at this morning? Where is it and who is it that we're placing our trust in? Is it that the Lord is the first person that we call?
When times are tough, when things are hard, is our trust solely and fully in the Lord and saying, Lord, I'm coming to you and you only because I know that you are the one that is going to help me in my time of need.
You see, David continues on. He says this, let me never be disgraced. I wrote this down and it's in your notes.
I put a couple of sub points in your notes today. Not being ashamed leads to deliverance. Not being ashamed leads to deliverance.
You see, David could have been ashamed and disgraced, but he says this, I'm not going to be ashamed because I know that you're going to save me by your righteousness. And all this happens because he listened to the direction of the Lord.
You see, when we call on the Lord, are we trusting in what he has for us? Are we trusting that he is going to provide that way of escape?
Are we trusting that the Lord is going to be the one that is going to provide our needs when we don't know when our needs are going to be met?
Are we trusting that the Lord is going to be there in our times of heartache, our times of difficulty, and knowing that he is going to be the one that we know that we can call on?
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13, I didn't put this on the screens, but I want you to listen to the words of 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13. The apostle Paul writes, No temptation was come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful.
He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation which he will provide a way out so that you may be able to bear it. You see, I'm so thankful that when we trust the Lord, he gives us a way out of the temptation.
We don't have to stay in that moment when we call on the Lord.
He is like that ship that responded to the Titanic that came to its aid and said, We're here to help. How can we help you today? That's what the Lord does.
He gives us a way of escape. The Bible uses two terms here. He says that he's our rock. Again, I mentioned last week, throughout the Psalms, he gives these tangible words that we can attach to. He says, You're my rock. He's the strength that he gives us. He says that you're my salvation. You're the mountain that I run to.
I thought about this week as my father-in-law went down to Tampa area because there was this massive flooding in the southern tip of Florida, the Miami, Tampa Bay, that whole area.
You may have seen it on the news where they got 28, 30 inches of rain where houses were flooded out. Cars were riding by where the water was up to their windshields. There were people who were leaving that area and going to higher ground. They were going somewhere where they could find refuge.
It was a picture of us when we run to the Lord.
Trusting God in Distress
We're running away from the danger. We're running away from the distress that our life is in. And we're coming to this moment where we're trusting in the Lord.
And so we have to ask ourselves, what is our trust and where is our trust this morning? My wife told me that I needed to involve my daughter today in my message because today's her birthday. She's turning nine.
I've told her all week long that we are skipping her birthday. And she asked me almost every day, are we going to skip your birthday? Oh, my dad, dad, are we really going to skip? This is my day. I said, listen, we don't celebrate nine-year-olds. Nine-year-old, we just skip nine.
And so even last night, she's coming. She came to go to bed. Dad, my birthday's tomorrow. Are we really skipping it? I said, I don't know. We're going to camp.
I don't know. Let's see how you act. And so Jade, come on up here. Jade, do you trust dad? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. Stand on up here. All the way up here. All right. As a child, face. Come on this way. Back up, back up, back up. Turn around. Face that way. As a child, we often have this moment where we ask ourselves, are we going to trust people?
And even in adults, we get this point where, am I going to trust people? So Jade, if you trust dad, I want you to fall back so dad can trust you and pick and catch you. Okay? I'm here. Good job. Jade trusted me.
In that moment, she had a choice to make. And you may have seen it. She hesitated for a moment. Is dad going to step aside? Is he going to let me fall?
Am I going to get embarrassed on my birthday? Well, what's going to happen here? But in that moment, she trusted in her dad to take care of her. The question is, is are we trusting our Heavenly Father the same way?
Are we saying, God, I don't know what's going to happen in my finances. I don't know what's going to happen in my marriage.
I don't know what's going to happen to my kids. But God, I'm going to trust that I'm going to fall back and you're going to be there to catch me. You're going to be there to provide that way for me.
I don't know how it's going to happen, but I know that you will.
And oftentimes, I know me as an adult, we get to that point and we just say, I don't have that much faith. I can't step out when there's not a step there.
What is going to happen to me? And God says, I just need you to trust me.
I need you to be like David here and say, I'm going to seek refuge in you so that I won't be disgraced.
You see, if Hudson was here this morning, he's my youngest three and a half year old.
If I were to say, Hudson, I want you to trust dad, he'd stand at this banister and run as fast as he could and just jump off knowing that dad would catch him. And oftentimes, God says, I want faith like that little child. That has no worry, no care.
You're just going to trust the Lord and you're going to leap off this stage and know that I'm going to be there to trust you. But oftentimes, as we get older, our faith begins to diminish. Our faith begins to begin to realize that, man, there are real cares.
There are real worries. And the Lord's expecting me to trust him. And I just don't know if I can do that. You see, David here understood that it was only the Lord that could rescue him.
It was only the Lord that could give him the strength that he needed, the rescue and the salvation that only he could give. And so it was up to David to say, I'm going to trust in the Lord.
And then it says, as we trust in the Lord, we begin to see where our power truly comes from. Verses three through five, the Bible starts out by saying, you are my rock and my fortress.
You see, he says here again, he's given us tangible terms for us to say that we're identifying with who he is.
He is the rock that he built his church on, as we talked about this morning in Sunday school class, where the gates of hell will not prevail against his church because he is the one that built it.
And we are simply the hands and feet of Christ who are helping him build his church. But are we trusting that the Lord is our rock and the Lord is our fortress? Because that is where our power comes from. A lot of us in here are married or have been married.
Some of you may have or are widowed and are a widower and your spouse may have passed away. But I want you to imagine with me for a moment that day where you walked down that aisle, women, and you were coming to that moment where you were giving your life to your husband.
And you got down and the pastor began to go through the vows and he threw in there, women, you're going to submit to your husbands. Right? All our husbands say, amen. Women submit.
And the pastor says to the husband, you're going to love her more than you love herself.
And we go through our vows back and forth. And then at the end of that wedding, they make that kiss, that first kiss of the day. And they begin to turn.
And the pastor says, I now pronounce to you for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs. Husband and last name together.
There's a unity there. There is a thought of when we take on a person's last name, we take on their identity. We take on their personality. We begin to be Mr. and Mrs. Saferet. It's not Allison Thomas anymore. Thomas is gone. She's now Saferet. She's now taking on my name.
And wives, you may have been there where you begin to practice your signature. You're enamored of this new name that you've been given. And Christ says through the power of his Holy Spirit, he gives us a new name for your name's sake.
See, he doesn't give us a name, a new name for his name's sake. Look at verse 3. I'm giving you and guiding you for me for your name's sake.
Because you've been given a new name. A new name that is above any other name. A name that can only be touched by heaven and earth. A name that when it is heard, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that you are Lord. That's the name that we've been given.
And the Bible says that this power we've been given is like no power you've ever experienced here on earth. Or will ever experience here on earth. But it's only through the power of the Holy Spirit. And then in verse 4, he said, I've given you this power. I've given you this name.
But always be aware there's an enemy out there. And this enemy has set a trap for you.
This enemy is looking for you to be off guard.
And it says, You will free me from the net that they secretly set for me. You know, this is the enemy that so often we go around the life just blinded by what's going to happen. And just, we've got blinders on.
You've seen a horse, maybe you've seen a horse plow before and we put those blinders on because we don't want them looking left or right. And often times in our Christianity, we can put blinders on to where we don't see what the enemy is around us. You see, it's a secret trap.
It's not something that's out in the open that everyone's going to see. It's something that's secret. And the enemy is looking for us to fail. Often times in our world of social media, someone who is maybe popular in Christianity or someone you know will fail.
And that's the headline of the news for the next news cycle for weeks. And often times we'll hear that. And it's a secret sin. It's a secret thing. And the Bible is saying here, listen, that David understood this.
And he's saying that the enemy has a trap. And God, I need you to be my fortress. I need you to be my rock so that I can be aware of those things. Because you are my refuge. You're my power. You're my strength. You're everything that I need.
And then in verse 5, he makes this statement. And it's a very familiar phrase. We've heard it before. He says, his will be done.
As we look at his power, Jesus made this statement in the cross. And we looked at this word a couple of weeks ago. Into your hands I entrust my spirit. And you have redeemed me, Lord God of truth.
Jesus prayed this on the cross. Jesus prayed this in the garden when he said, Lord, not my will but yours be done.
And he said, I'm going to trust you. I'm going to be so in tune with you, God, that I don't care about my desires. I only care about your desires.
And I don't care about what I want, but I'm going to make sure that my desires line up with your desires. And are we that so in tune with God that
it's instinctive that we begin to do what God wants us to do? Think back for a moment. That marriage illustration.
Let's think on that for a minute. And imagine as you grow closer to your spouse, you begin to know their tics, right? You know what they like and what they don't like. You know how to aggravate them. You know how to aggravate them.
You begin to know that if my wife specifically, I'll share a little with her. If someone were in here, and don't do this because it can distract me, but if someone in here would begin to click a pin systematically or tap a pin,
it would begin to get on her nerves a lot. She doesn't like those little tics. And students in school will begin to know that. And they'll just sit there and they'll click a pin. And all of a sudden, it'll just begin to get on to her. She'll stop it.
Don't do it no more. You begin to know these things. You begin to know these natural tics of someone and what's going to cause them to be angry.
Or as we grow closer, we begin to grow closer to one another. And actually, we begin to grow closer to one another in our likes and dislikes.
It's crazy. There's statistics out there and there's studies on this, how when a man and a woman spend more time together, their likes and dislikes begin to be more and more the same. I don't know how it is. It's just how God programmed us. We're mimatic creatures.
We mimic things. And it's just how we begin to be.
But the question I have as we think through that is this, is that how it is with us and the Lord? Are we spending so much time with the Lord that the things He loves, we love? And the things He hates, we hate.
The things that He wants us to do, we just naturally do it because we're so in tune with what the Lord has for us that we know that He has these things for us and He loves them and He wants us to do them.
I shared this this morning in Sunday school as we were talking about Jesus and His disciples. And I told our young people, I said, the next six days, we're going to spend 24 hours a day, six days a week with each other at camp.
You're going to begin to know what they like and what they hate.
You're going to begin to know how to get on someone's nerves and how not to get on someone's nerves.
And I said, over the next five to six days, there's going to be arguments, there's going to be times where we're going to have spiritual experiences, where we're going to learn from the Lord and we're going to worship
together, we're going to play games, you're going to see competitive spirits come out, there's going to be some things that we're going to do. And I said, imagine the disciples.
That was them for three and a half years. They followed the Lord. They loved the Lord. They knew what the Lord had for them. The Lord was going off to pray. Yep, I know where God's at. He's over there praying. Jesus is over there praying. He's talking to his father.
Why is Jesus sleeping right now? There's waves coming. The water's coming in onto the boat.
They were so in tune with what Jesus was doing they didn't realize that he was the master of our all. And oftentimes we don't realize that he is the master of our lives because we haven't been spending the proper amount of time with him.
And therefore we don't have the power or the trust that we have in knowing that he is our savior.
You see, as I gave that illustration of Hudson, he spends the time with me. He knows that his dad's going to catch him.
If someone that would be a first time guest were to stand up here and say, Hudson, I know your name. Why don't you run and jump to me? He'd be like,
nope, I ain't going to do it. He'd walk probably over to this side to avoid even looking at him because I don't know that person. I'm not going to trust that person.
But once you get to know him and he knows you, then he can begin to trust you. And it's the same way with our relationship with our heavenly father. We don't trust him because we don't know him. We don't have his power because we don't know him.
But then he begins to go through and he says this thought of not only our trust and our power, but our enemy because there's an enemy out there. And David says, I hate those who are devoted to worthless idols.
And oftentimes in our life, we begin to be consumed with our enemies.
We begin to be consumed with those who are around us because verse six, he plainly lays out that we don't like them. No natural person says, yeah, I love my enemy.
I just, I want to be around them. I want to hang out with them. You think of your school rival when you played football or baseball or soccer or volleyball, whatever it may be, and you play the rival team. You don't put on their colors.
You put on your colors. You put your jersey on. You put the things that you love because you don't like your enemy. They lie.
They cheat us. And you talk about these things. And now the Bible says here is these enemies are, they're diverted to worthless idols. I can't trust them. I'm going to trust the Lord back to trusting again.
And yet we still trust the Lord through all things. And the Bible commands us as Jesus is teaching is to, and Paul says in Romans, pray for those who despisefully use you and mistreat you. Pray for them.
Pray for your enemies. And you're like, how can I pray for them? How can I love them? When I was growing up, I was born December 8th of 1988.
My mom, while she was pregnant with me, of course, nine months pregnant. You guys know biology. I don't have to explain that to you. My next door neighbor,
his mom was also pregnant at the exact same time. And on December 7th, that night, my neighbor was born.
December 8th, that next morning, it was less than 12 hours. My mom and my neighbor, they both had a baby within 12 hours of each other. My neighbor, his name was David, and he was my mortal enemy.
Okay? Because he was 12 hours older than me. And because he was 12 hours older than me, anytime we would do something, he would say, you're young.
Let the old people take care of it. You're just a little young. 12 hours now, remember,
my brothers would be hanging out and my siblings would be hanging out. We had a couple of friends and we'd get around and we'd go to do something and he'd say, hey, let all the old people, let all the older kids do this. James, you're younger.
You stay back there. You don't do anything. And I would get, I'd get so mad. I'd get angry.
I'm a redhead. I have a temper and I would be just so mad because he was my mortal enemy. And then as life went on and I began to go to middle school and high school and we began to do more things together and now we're older and of course we don't.
He's not my mortal enemy now. I love the guy. He's great.
I ran into him at a class reunion just a couple of years ago and he's got some kids and we sort of joked about some things. But you can imagine your enemy in life and you don't like him. You don't want to be around him. And this is David.
He says, there's people who are around me that are worthless and I just don't like them.
But then in verse seven, the very first part, it says this, we rejoice when we see God work through his mercy. I rejoice and I'm glad at your faithfulness and your love because you've seen my afflictions and we begin to imagine here we were God's mortal enemy at one point.
We were the enemy of God and God saw fit that he sent his son to come into the world to die for our sins and we begin to see, God, you didn't hate me but you loved me and
God's Mercy and Grace
I love you because you first loved me and we begin to see the mercy and the grace of God in our lives.
Think about the mercy that God's given you, the grace that God's given you in your life and we begin to say, God, if you could love me in that moment, if you could send your son for me in that moment, surely I could love my enemy.
Surely I could love those that hurt me and love those that despitefully use me. And unfortunately, the Lord will bring those people into your life in the times that you least want it to happen.
The times that you least want to help and love the enemies is the times that you most want it to not be there. And David said here, there's enemies all around me but I'm so thankful that your faithful love has been around me.
You see, God also sees us in our trouble and adversity. He says here, you know the troubles of my soul. I love how he uses this word, my soul. Because when you begin to have trouble in your life, you begin to have difficulties in your life, your soul is in anguish.
Your soul is in turmoil. And he says this, consider my trouble. And we begin to ask ourselves, how can Jesus even relate to this?
How can Jesus even relate to my soul and my troubles and what's going on in my life?
And as I was thinking about that, how Jesus can relate to us and how the Bible says that Jesus became all things for all men and he suffered and had trials just as we did. Jesus was in a desert after being fasting for 40 days. I've never fasted for 40 days.
It's always been a goal of mine to one day do that.
I just love food too much. I've fasted for seven days. It's the longest I've ever done.
But that moment where Jesus was without food for seven days or for 40 days and he's in the desert and the devil,
Satan, comes to him and tempts him with an idol, tempts him with the pride of life, tempts him with the pride of humanity and tempts him in all ways that we have been tempted just as Eve was tempted in the garden
and yet he didn't sin and yet he was there to not sin and in our life when we're tempted,
Jesus says, I'm there for you. I know your troubles. I know your soul is in hurt. Your soul is in turmoil and I am right here. All you have to do is turn to me. He's real.
He's experienced everything we've went through, everything we're going to go through and he's just standing there and he's saying, trust me,
turn, look at me. Your enemy is not the end. I am the end. I have overcome your enemy but are you going to turn to me? Because in verse 8 he simply lays out and he says this, I haven't left you. He hasn't left us.
He says this, you've not handed me over to my enemy but yet you've set my feet on a spacious ground. He didn't forsake us for our enemies. He didn't put us in a terrible room.
He put us in a place of a glorious room, a steadfast room. He placed our feet on a solid rock so that we have our feet ready for tomorrow.
But you see the progression here. You see how it all begins and as we go through this whole part of this first part of Psalms 31, it all begins and ends with trust in the Lord.
Closing Reflections on Distress
When we have distress, where do we turn into? Who are we turning to? And what is our steady thing in our life that we can turn to? As Terry comes,
I'm going to close a little bit different today. I'm going to ask you five questions. Maybe you want to write these five questions down. Probably should have put them on there.
The Lord just sort of brought them to me after I printed it. But five things that I want to really bring to your mind and ask you as you begin to evaluate your life and where you're at. The first is this, what tends to bring you down?
What is it in your life that brings you down? Is it the news? Is it family?
Is it finances? Is it church? Is it your relationship with Christ? What is it that brings you down in your life?
Number two, how do you respond when things don't go your way? See, David was exalted. He killed Goliath.
He was in this moment where he was the king of kings and he was going to be worshipped and David killed his ten thousands and Saul only killed his thousands and people worshipped him and all of a sudden he's been brought down and Saul's chasing him and when he's been chased by Saul,
he responds with, Lord, I'm going to seek you. How do you respond when things don't go your way? How can we access the rock and fortress
and protection that ultimately we're talking about here? And how do you access this? How do you go before the Lord? Do you have a place in your house where you've got a prayer closet where you go and you say, God, I need you today. God, I need you for my children.
I need you for me. I need you to work in my life. How do we access this rock?
And who do you know this morning that's sad and is in need to hear these words? Who is it that you can help by hearing these words? You see, David wasn't writing this necessarily for himself.
He was writing this to encourage others so that one day they would take this and this would be the song that they would sing that they trust in the Lord and that he's faithful through his love and he's
faithful through his actions and David was writing these so that others could hear these words.
And my fifth question is this. Is there a friend that you know who needs to find healing and maybe it's you this morning that needs healing and the forgiveness that only Christ can offer? You see, I can't offer forgiveness this morning.
I can't offer healing this morning. I can pray with you. I can help you. But ultimately, it's seeking the face of the Lord this morning and saying, God, I need you. I seek you.
I'm not going to seek man. I'm not going to seek any other outlet that is out there, but I'm going to seek the one and holy true God of all the universe who created mankind, who spoke the world into existence. that's who I'm going to before me today.
That's who I'm going to seek my refuge. Maybe it's you this morning that needs the forgiveness that Christ offers.
Whatever it may be this morning, maybe you're just struggling in your faith. Maybe you're just struggling to find answers and maybe this morning at your seat down front, maybe with someone, you go and you pray and you say, God, I need you to help me this morning.
Whatever your distress is, Christ is there and he says, are you seeking me? Christ is there behind us as we're that child about to fall back and he says, just trust me. I'm there. I'm not moving. I'm the rock. I'm the fortress. I'm your high tower. I am there for you.
Are you trusting me to fall back on me? That's what Christ says this morning. Lord, we love you. We thank you for what you've done. Lord, bring our minds into this thought where you are there for us. You're not there against us. You've overcome our enemies.
You've overcome the devil. You've overcome Satan in all of his ways. And now you're here to give us what the Bible says in Acts 1.8, the power to overcome the world. If only we trust in that power.
God, we thank you for this day. I pray that you have your will and way. In your name we pray. Amen.
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