Read ID: God is With Me
Psalm 139: 7-12
Well friends, it is another tremendous day to gather for worship. I hope that you experienced God’s presence and blessing this week. I also hope you’re ready to hear from God’s Word this morning. Today we’re continuing our sermon series called Real ID, which is our humble attempt to discover the real “us” in a world full of lies. Last week, we learned from Psalm 139 that God knows us and accepts us. Today we’re reminded that God is with us. Would you read with me?
There’s been a lot of attention given over the last several years to something known as the Loneliness Epidemic. If you were to do a quick Google search, you could spend hours upon hours reading the latest research on the topic of loneliness in our world. For instance, in a recent survey in the United Kingdom, a large percentage of respondents listed the fear of being alone as their number one fear. More than death. More than cancer. More than anxiety. Loneliness topped their list! Now, nobody actually knows if we are a lonelier people than our predecessors -it seems that every generation of people deals with some degree of loneliness, and every person has lonely experiences-but there is a tremendous amount of agreement that loneliness can silently destroy every aspect of our lives. Loneliness is often linked to depression, poor sleep patterns, hypertension and a whole host of other physical, mental and emotional issues. And because of these issues, there are no shortages of strategies and treatments to help combat th
When it comes to loneliness, I have some good news, some really strong news, for us.
The writer of Psalm 139 leaves no room for doubt: we are never truly alone. This is the testimony throughout Scripture. Although we might feel like we’re on an island, and we might feel at times as if the entire world is against, God’s presence is never far away. Listen again to his words: Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make by bed in the depths, you are there. Everywhere the psalmist tries to go, every turn he takes, every road he travels, he acknowledges that God is also there. This is one of the strongest, most hope-filled theological truths we could ever proclaim: God is with us. We call this the omnipresence of God. It’s the understanding that God is not limited by time or space, that God is not constrained by the boundaries that govern our existence, but somehow, God is present everywhere all the time. God is with us in the greatest heights and lowest lows. God is present in times of great joy and in times of darkest pain. Even there, says the Psalmist… These are essential words! Even there, in those places where we are least likely to expect God, He is there! But yet those are the very places where our faith is vulnerable to attack, seasons where we struggle to hold on and to believe.
In his book Helping Others on the Journey, author and pastor Terry Wardle talks about these seasons that most of us will experience along our journey with God. He starts out with the season of delight, which is the season we’d cling to forever, if we could. This is the season is where all is right in our world, and life is running as smooth as can be. It’s a season filled with love and joy and hope. But sooner or later, our delight is interrupted by unexpected seasons we’d rather avoid. There’s the desert season, where we can’t seem to make any progress, everything safe and secure seems to be out of our reach. There’s the season of distance, where God seems to be silent and far off. We want to hear God say something, anything, but we just can’t seem to hear. And then there’s the season of darkness, which is marked by suffering and pain. None of those seasons are fun. Deserts. Distance. Darkness. Those are the seasons in which we begin to feel rather lonely and start to think ugly lies about ourselves. They might cause us to question our faith or God’s love for us, or our value in God’s eyes. And these are exactly the places where we need to cling to the truth that we are not alone.
I’ve been through some of these seasons. Some have been brief, while others have lingered on far longer that I would’ve liked. And there have been times when I’ve wanted to throw in the towel. But what’s carried me through my own times of doubt and despair is leaning upon the witness of our faith and the stories of God’s faithfulness in others. And the Bible is filled with stories of God’s faithfulness and God’s presence, even when it feels like He’s absent. So what I’d like to do is share with you three stories that I’ve learned to lean on, three stories that have helped me navigate moments when I question God’s presence. Each story has an important tool to help us remember the God who is always with us, even when we’re convinced God is nowhere to be found.
This first story comes from Psalm 46. This is one of my favorite Psalms. I’ll often share it on hospital visits because it gives voice to the chaos we often feel. The language of this Psalm proclaims that God is our help in times of trouble, and then it spells out what that trouble looks like. It looks like the world is coming to an end, like an earthquake is destroying all of God’s good creation. The mountains are swallowed up by the ocean; the waters are raging; the nations are at war; there is desolation all around. You know, when I read Psalm 46, it’s almost like I’ve turned on the evening news. Another disaster strikes Puerto Rico. Another missile is launched in a foreign country. Another church is terrorized by an armed intruder. All of which makes me want to scream, Where is God in all of this? It can be hard to see God when it feels as if life is falling apart, when everything seems out of control. And when that happens, our usual response is do everything we can to bring our circumstances under control, to busy ourselves with the hope that maybe we can make sense of the mess. But that’s not what Psalm 46 tells us to do. Instead, Psalm 46 offers us these famous words: Be still, and know that I am God. In our stillness, we’re reminded that God is still in charge, that God is still at work. In our stillness, we begin to see what our frenzied activity doesn’t always permit us to see. And the darkness that seems so dark to us isn’t nearly as dark to him. So the first word that God speaks to us when feel all alone is simply this: Be still.
The second story comes from Exodus, when God’s people are floundering after 400 years of slavery. I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like to experience life under the rule and reign of somebody else. No freedom to go about life as you pleased. You ate when they told you to eat. You slept when they told you to sleep. You worked as they demanded you to work. And if they no longer had a use for you, they could do with you as they wanted. And those centuries of forced labor took its toll on the Israelites- and I’m guessing it did a number on their faith as well. Many commentators note how God seems to be absent in the first couple chapters. God just doesn’t seem to be doing anything, which is especially troubling because that’s exactly when we expect God to do something! We expect God to set us free when we’re oppressed; we expect God to break in when we can’t seem to get ahead; we expect God to move when we’re stuck. And maybe that’s the point. We expect God to do what we want to do without actually asking God to do it, without taking the time to exercise our faith. And there are times when God waits to move until we cry out. Years later, on a mountaintop, God tells a man named Moses that He is ready to move because He’s heard the cries of His people. Maybe at times we feel alone because we’ve forgotten to cry out the One who is there. Maybe we’ve become so accustomed to what we see and experience that we forget we’re a people who live by faith and not by sight. So that’s the second word I believe God has for us in seasons of doubt and despair: Cry out and live by faith.
The final story I want to share, and the story that I believe changes everything, is the account of Jesus on the Cross. This is certainly the darkest moment in history. It’s almost unthinkable, actually. On the cross, it seems as if Jesus is being abandoned, abandoned to a cruel world and a cruel death. I’ve thought about that before, about the pain of abandonment, and the very thought is unbearable. But here’s the most amazing thing about this story: In the midst of death, in the midst of pain, in the midst of a moment that must’ve felt like He was all alone in the world, Jesus chose to draw near to the God who He knew was still at work. The same faith Jesus expressed during quiet moments of prayer on the mountain, the same faith he professed every time he prayed to heal the sick, the same faith that walked on water and calmed the stormy seas, was the faith that led him to draw near to God in his darkest, loneliest hour. Father, forgive them. Father, where are you? Father, into your hands. That’s the third word I believe God has for us in times of loneliness: Draw near. Draw near, especially when it’s most difficult.
Friends, I’m no expert at faith, but what I do know is that some of God’s best work happens in those places of deepest darkness. And we’ll see that work when we use the tools God has given: to be still, and watch the chaos of Psalm 46 give way to the promise of One who makes all things new…to cry out, and watch God bring hope through a people who thought all hope was lost…to draw near, and celebrate that a cross meant for death became the door of eternal life for all who would believe. Truly the Psalmist is right: Even the darkness is not dark to You, O God. But that is not what the enemy of our souls wants us to believe. The enemy of our souls wants to convince us that we have a God who abandons us, ignores us and forgets us during times of trouble. We have an enemy who seeks to rob us of our real identity by telling us that we are to blame when tough times happen; that we are always at fault, and God would want nothing to do with us. But this is not who we are. This is not your real ID. Nor is it God’s. The witness of our faith, proclaimed from the beginning of creation, tells us the truth: God is Emmanuel. He is with us and will always be with us, and He isn’t going anywhere. Amen.
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