Rest in Peace

Read Psalm 4

Scientists have identified a planet that is traveling through the universe at 43,000 miles per hour.  How would you like to be the guy that was standing there with a radar gun to get that reading?

On top of that, this planet is orbiting a star at 67,000 miles per hour.  While this planet and the star it orbits are flying through the universe at 43,000 miles per hour, the planet is taking laps around the star at 67,000 miles per hour.  Wow!  Just wow!

On top of that, this planet is spinning on its axis at 24,000 miles per hour.

Scientists have identified this planet as earth.  I hope you folks are holding on to something.

Some people actually think that they can send messages from this cosmic projectile on which we live and God will receive them.  C’mon, what do we say?  Hey God, I’m on the move but I will be back in this spot relative to the sun in a year but I have no idea where I will be in the entirety of the universe.

Maybe, you had better just send your response to General Delivery.

There is also a name for these crazy people who are traveling through space at incredible speeds and trying to talk to God at the same time.  They are called Christians.  They are those who have sought God through the ages.

We have the audacity to talk to God as we are being hurled through the universe.  On top of that, we expect him to answer.  What a bunch of crazy people we are.

We are looking at a psalm—an ancient song or poem—that was written by one of the better know crazy people.  This psalm is by David, the man after God’s own heart.

As we approach this psalm, think on these three words. 

Rest in peace.

 Those are words that we say when we hear the news that somebody died.  It makes sense, you can’t really rest in peace in the middle of the trouble of this world, can you?

Next Sunday begins Advent so we wrap up this topic of rest for this year, not that it won’t surface in the course of many other messages or studies.  But for now, this morning we put to rest the topic of rest for at least a little while.

David composed a song that is essentially a dialogue with God with an aside or two for the people.  I will do my best to give it to you in Twenty-first Centuryspeak.

God, my God, Holy God, Righteous God,

Are you listening?  I’m needing some help here.

I’m feeling stressed, so much so that I would call it distress.  If I had a flag, I would be flying it upside down.

Lord, lay a little mercy on me and hear my pleas.  Hear my prayer!

In the psalm, God replies. 

OK people, answer me this.  How long will you turn what I have made good into shamefulness?

How long will you take my blessings and turn them into a mess?

How long will you play the smoke and mirrors game thinking that you can fool me?

How long will you seek false gods while you petition the one true God?

How long will you continue this double-faced, double-minded routine?

I’m thinking, I might be like Job and not want to ask any more questions.  I was hoping for something along the lines of I will fix whatever is ailing you, whether you put me first or not.

But David does not shrink back in this dialogue.  In fact, he proclaims an affirmation.  It’s offered in God’s presence but mostly for the people who are listening in on this conversation.  In Shakespearean construct, this would be an aside.

Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself.  Note, the godly have not set apart themselves.  God has set them apart.

Because of this special relationship that the Lord has established, I know he will hear my prayers.

David is saying that God will listen not because of what David has done to put himself in right standing with God but because God has set him and his people apart as special to him.

Yes, God does hear the prayer of his servant David and answers with something of a charge.

Don’t let your human anger lead to sin.  Don’t let your distress get you in a mess.  You let stress get you into a mess!

Take some quiet time and search your hearts.

Sit on your bed, go into your closet, find that place where you can “be still.”

Make a good sacrifice, not a perfunctory one.  Don’t just go through the motions.

Don’t play games with our relationship.

David answers, “Who can show us any good?”  Asking for a friend.

C’mon God, let your light shine upon us.  Show us in front of the ungodly naysayers, that your favor is upon us.

Now, David does what he does so often, what frequently we see in the psalms.  He wraps up in affirmation.  He may have had a complaint or petition or thought God needed to do something for him that was yet to manifest itself.  That is to say, David often wanted God to adjust to his timeline instead of the other way around.

C’mon God, can we not do this on my schedule for once?

But when all is said and done, David knows that God is God and whatever his answer or his plan or his silence brings is better than what he thought up himself.

David notes, You have already blessed me more than I thought possible.  Yes, even material blessings abound.  I have complained about my stress, but I know that you are always there for me and always have your eye on me.

Lord, because of who you are, I can rest.  I can enjoy peace that only you can give.  Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou art with me.

Thy rod and they staff comfort me.

I will be still and know that you are God.

I will receive your blessings, your peace, and your rest.

The world may be a mess.  It may grow more chaotic each day.  It may grow more ungodly each year, but I will still be able to get a good night’s sleep.  I’m departing from the original construct of the psalm and putting it in first person for us.

I am not losing any sleep over what the ungodly are doing for you have set us apart for your purpose.  You alone give us rest in the midst of distress.

Stress will not rob me of my rest.

Let us remember that we are designed with rest in mind.

We are made to do purposeful work and then rest from it.

The Sabbath was made for us, not the other way around.  We must not cheat ourselves out of what the Lord made for us.

Our rest does not depend upon the circumstances of the world.  We can rest in peace in a world that knows only distress.

I challenge you to be conformed to the patterns of the world no more.  Live according to your design.  Claim your Sabbath.  Rest in peace in a world that knows only trouble.

Rest in peace.

Amen!