Psalm 102: God hears the cry of the destitute

We have been studying the Psalms over the last few weeks – learning how to read them, having a go at writing them and sharing some of our stories through them.

 

The Book of Psalms is the ancient songbook of the Jewish Temple. At least 2,500 years old and with roots many hundreds of years before that. It may seem haphazard to us now but a close examination of the book will reveal a carefully composed collection of songs and poems for use in worship and prayer.

 

We have noted that the best way to understand the Psalms is often not to hear them addressed to God, nor to watch as an observer as the Psalmist engages with his God, but to stand behind the Psalmist, looking over his shoulder as he variously laments, shouts, worships and praises.

 

Indeed we have also observed that unlike our songbooks, bookshops and CD collections the Psalms generally are more lament than praise, more sorrow than joy, more doubt than faith and more questioning than certain, more Johnny Cash than Chas & Dave.

 

A couple of weeks ago we looked at Psalm 145 and wondered why we need to praise God – why does he need our affirmation and worship. We concluded that he doesn’t. He is just worthy of praise, much as a painting is worthy of appreciation - if it is any good. We realised that in the presence of that which is beautiful and good our souls leap, and in the case of God, our souls leap toward him, seeking our maker and the source of our being. And then we realised that we worship most when we worship together, “Hey did you see that? Come and look at this!”.

 

Last week we studied Psalm 122, one of the Psalms of Ascents, sung by the pilgrims as they walked up the road to Jerusalem to celebrate and worship, “I rejoiced when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord”.” And we realised that David, the Psalmist, was writing about the coming of the kingdom, bringing peace and safety to his people. But he was also writing as a prophet about Jesus coming to build his church, us, in which we see the King at work bringing peace and safety. And we also understand the same promise to those who are dying, that they will soon be gathered into the new Jerusalem where God is King forever and where there is no war or pain or suffering. David’s theme is one of, “Come on everyone, let us gather together in the house of the Lord, where his kingdom is secure, let us invite each other and those who need to be saved too.”

 

This week I want to turn to one of the lament Psalms although it is a Psalm that starts in lament and ends in hope and promise.

 

God hears the cry of the destitute.

 

Psalm 102 is written not by a “sinner” or a “worshipper” but by a “sufferer”. Although mainly written in the 1^st person, “I am in distress”, it is best understood as an allegory for the nation of and for the church today and indeed for our nation (not a Psalm of David – written later, possible during the exile).

 

The first half of the Psalm is a lament at the state of life, a cry to God to rescue and save.

The second half shares a vision of better things finishing in a statement of confidence in God.

 

There are 3 parts played out in this Psalm. There is God (v.1), there is Zion/Church (v.13) and there are the destitute (v.17).

 

1.     God is watching over the earth. He is all-powerful and eternal. The psalmist’s lament is a prayer of desperation to God, “Hear my prayer, let my cry for help come to you. Do not hide your face from me.” (v.1).

The promise of the Psalm is that he will not change, he is always there, from generation to generation, “Your years go on through all generations”(v.24). And though everything else may change and wear out, he doesn’t, “You laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish but you will remain.” (v. 25, 26).

 

2.     Zion is in a mess. The temple has been reduced to rubble, the walls of Jerusalem have been torn down. Today, what is the state of the church? Is she, she who is meant to be the pure, complete bride of Christ, not in need of repair and recovery too? Do we stand like a fortress city on a hill, a defiant symbol of power and security in the face of the enemy?

I fear not.

I recently heard an interesting perspective on the state of the church. It is said that there are 3 proselytising religions – ones that try and gain converts.

There is Islam, Christianity and western materialism.

They each have their story:

 

1. The Moslems once ruled the world many centuries ago and they want to rule the world again;
2. The Christians have the creation, fall, redemption and salvation story and we now seek the establishment of the kingdom of God across all the earth and forever;
3. The story of the western materialist starts with the enlightenment, then through science and rationalism leading to technology and now shopping & lifestyle. We are what we earn and what we own. Vorsprung dur technik.
   
   

The painful realisation is that the Moslem sees no great distinction between Christians and western materialists. Some of us go to church on Sunday but we are indistinguishable from the rest the remainder of the time.

Indeed we do need the power of God to come and rescue us and rebuild us.

Kings build cities, God builds his church. Oh God, please come and build your church.

 

3.     And then there are the destitute. Many within the church: many of us identify at times with what the Psalmist is saying, “Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress?” (v.2). We have people in this community suffering from serious illness, losing their jobs and businesses, in deep financial trouble, in marriages that are hard against the rocks, with children who bring distress not joy, struggling to manage over-busy lifestyles and the break-neck speed of change, despairing of their lives. “Oh Lord,” we cry, “Help!”

And then there are the many destitute just out there on the doorstep of our neighbourhoods, behind the curtains that cover up the pain, around the corner in deprived communities. Materially destitute, physically destitute, emotionally destitute and, most painfully, spiritually destitute too.

 

But there is hope.

 

And there is hope because the destitute cry out. It is not the prayer of the comfortable and the competent that he hears. It is the cry of the condemned, “He will respond to the prayer of the destitute…from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners.” (v.17, 19, 20)

 

When we cry out, where do we come from? Are we crying out from a place of destitution – aware of the paucity of our own existence, of our sin and incompetence? Or are we like the church in Laodicea which says, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth, reputation a career and a skill set, and do not need a thing.”  (Rev 3:17). To which the response of the Lord is, “I am about to spit you out of my mouth because you are lukewarm”.

 

If we want the Lord to come and rescue our land and release those condemned to death our prayers need to be the prayers of the destitute and the desperate, not of the comfortable and the competent.

 

And then there is hope, the King does hear and respond and takes his place as King. He establishes a safe place for his rule and reign. This is what we discovered last week in Psalm 122, the Kingship of God now expressed through his church.

 

The King takes his place, he gives us a place where we can live: in his territory, where he rules and holds sway, where we can know his power and his peace.

 

And until Jesus returns and brings about a new heaven and a new earth where God is King of all, forever, we live in the now and not yet. We know and sense the presence of the kingdom now, we have a foretaste of what is coming, but it is not fully here yet.

 

As we have said, the kingdom of God is where he rules and reigns. The church is not the kingdom of God but is the primary residence for it. Just as Jerusalem was not the kingdom of God but was an expression of his power and rule, so the church is an expression of his reign today.

 

In verses 12 following we see that the response of God to the cries of the destitute is the restoration of Zion. For us this is the building of the church. And what paves the way for God’s restoring of the church is that his people love the church, “Zion’s stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity” (v.14).

 

If we don’t care about the church to which we belong, what wonder if the Lord’s blessing is withheld.

 

King’s build palaces and fortresses, God builds his church. And when he does so all other kings and their peoples turn to honour the God of heaven and earth, “The nations will fear the name of the Lord, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory.” (v.15).

 

We go on to learn later in the bible that the church was commissioned by Jesus and is effectively his body on earth. Hence the phrase, “We are the body of Christ.”

 

So, according to the Psalmist, this is how it works:

1. We associate ourselves with the poor and lost and destitute. We get close to them and minister with them because the Lord “hears the cry of the prisoner, he responds to the prayer of the destitute.”
   
   We acknowledge the state we are in, that we too are lost and without hope, that we are destitute too.
   
   
2. We cry out to the Lord in a lament that bleeds out of our destitution.
   
   We pray Lord, “Come, and come now. Make this the day.”
   
   
3. And the Lord will hear and his way of answering our cry is to build his church.
   
   By building the temple and the walls around Jerusalem, God gave political and spiritual authority over Palestine in a way which allowed his kingdom to come and bring peace and security.
   
   In later times God sent his son, Jesus to save us and through him he establishes his church and sends his Holy Spirit to fill us and empower us.
   
   By building the church, releasing his healing and his power and his resources to those in the church, he establishes his kingdom on earth and extends his power and grace.
   
   
4. And the church then becomes the expression of his kingdom on earth and reaches out with his grace and mercy to the destitute and the lost. He doesn’t just go direct to the lost and the poor, he does it through his church.
   
   

And that creates something that will continue from generation to generation so that our children and their children will know the presence of the Lord. We see at the end of the Psalm (v.28), “The children of your servants will live in your presence, they will be established before you.” This is the wonderful promise of the coming of his kingdom to us and to our families and those who come after us.

We are reminded that one day there will be a new Jerusalem, a new heaven and a new earth, when the body of Christ, the church, will be made whole. When God’s kingdom will be firmly established forever with peace and security. When the nations and kingdoms of the whole earth will come to worship. And when we will no longer need to listen out for the cry of the poor, the prisoner, those condemned to death and where the destitute will have become princes of the kingdom.

To use Spurgeon’s phrase, the internal health of the church will bring about external influence. When the Lord hears our cry, when he sorts out the church and restores it, then we can begin to make an impact for the kingdom.

Ironically you may hear me criticising the church. Not at all. I love the church. I love the Vineyard and in particular I love this Vineyard. I know that we are seeing the kingdom of God here, amongst us and out there where we go to work and play and minister.

But there is much more. There is much more for us to do. There is much more of the kingdom to see. There is much for us to sort out amongst us.

What will it look like when God hears our cry and comes even more to rebuild his church?

1. He will bring in the lost. New people who don’t know how to behave in church, who may be very different from you & me;
2. He will train and equip us for life and for ministry;
3. He will sanctify us, make us more like Jesus, more like the person we are called to be;
4. He will bind us together in community, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.”
5. And we will see his Holy Spirit come in power to do his healing, restoring, confronting, revealing work.

This building project sounds good to me. That is what Alison and I have committed our lives to trying to be part of. To watching and waiting to see what God is doing and then piling in there to be used by him to bring about the growth of his kingdom. Many of you have joined with us on this journey of faith. And we are beginning to see his church being built.

Let us cry out to the Lord. Let us recognise that we are destitute and those around us are lost too. Let us pray and call out to God to come and restore and rescue and establish his kingdom so that we may see lives saved, marriages restored, finances rescued, relationships rebuilt, the sick healed and the enemy conquered. Let us pray that he builds his church in and around us. That we can play our part in seeing his kingdom come and leave a legacy for our children and theirs until Jesus returns and fulfils all things.