Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - A Transformational Faith | The Writings | Psalm 86

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

Which of these describes your relationship with God: a pool floatie or a surfboard? Are you seeking comfort and control? Or are you willing to let go of your control to let God bring transformation? In today's episode, Jeff shares how Psalm 86 invites us into a surfboard kind of faith - the kind of faith that changes lives. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 86

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. Let's start with a little mental exercise. We're going to contrast two very different ways of experiencing the same substance, and we'll see which one correlates with the way you approach God. The substance in mind? Water. Now, fair warning, this first way of experiencing water is going to feel pretty good to think about. So if you're underway to work, I hope this doesn't make you long for the weekend too quickly. So to the mental exercise. I want you to imagine experiencing water from the vantage point of relaxing at a swimming pool.

You're on one of those flotation devices that tip over in the water way too easily, but in this instance, don't worry, you're doing just fine. You're floating on the water. You've got your favorite summer drink in hand, some music's playing in the background, probably Jimmy Buffett, let's be honest. the sun is shining, it feels pretty good. Now here's the question. If this is the way that you're planning to experience water,

then what will your ultimate goal be? What are you trying to accomplish? Some words that might come to mind are escape from the business of life, relaxation, comfort, all those things require an element of control. So maybe in other word is control. Now let's change the scenery to a very, very different way of experiencing the exact same substance. Instead of relaxing on a pool floaty in the water, imagine yourself balanced on top of a surfboard as a wave begins to crest behind you.

There's no cold drink in your hand. Jimmy Buffett is not playing in the background. Your heart is not relaxed. Your heart is racing. The powerful movement of water propels you forward as your mind and your mind. body experience, the rush of adrenaline. Now, back to our question. If this is the way that you're planning to experience water, then what will your ultimate goal be? What are you expecting? What are you trying to accomplish? Well, you might respond with words like this. Adventure, movement, momentum,

transformation, as you don't necessarily have complete control, but are responding to a bigger control in your life. Of course, there's a little overlap between the pool floaty and the surfboard. both involve a sense of fun. Both can be good. And while it's obviously a limited metaphor, there's something about the contrast between these two approaches to the same thing to water

that illuminates the two different approaches we can have to the living God. For some of us, maybe most of us, there's a tendency to approach God with a pool-floaty mentality. We measure our progress through the Christian life with goals like comfort, control, or escape. We treat God like a little retreat from our busy lives, like a friend who never has permission

to challenge us, move us, or shape us. A spiritual life like this can quickly, yet covertly, become a static, passive experience where we never grow, we never change. We're just stuck on that floaty, soaking up the UV rays, sipping a cherry lime aid. While a relationship with God absolutely contains important elements, like comfort, rest, and refuge, the Bible challenges many of us to have a more active, dynamic connection to our creator. To move from the pool floaty to the surfboard. This perspective is explored throughout the whole story of the Bible, yet we get a great

sense of it in Psalm 86, a Psalm of King David. Now, as we get ready to explore this Psalm, let's pause and ask for God's grace to be felt in our time together. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath, and thank you for your word. Jesus help us abide in you in this time as we engage with your truth. Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in Psalm 86. As we read these words, let these words read us and restore us and change us, change the way that we think, but also change the way that we live.

We pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, Psalm 86 comes to us from David when you, he's in a rough time in life. As verse 7 tells us, this is a day of trouble for David. Let's notice how throughout this Psalm, David's priority, though, is not simply to escape from his trouble. He's wanting something more. He does not have the end goal of control or comfort. This is not going to be a pool-floaty experience reading through Psalm 86. In his day of trouble, David begins his appeal to God by settling into a realistic view of So we read this in verses one and two.

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly. Save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God. Now let's just appreciate the humility of King David before the one true king here. David sees himself as poor and needy, as a servant of God. This reminds us of the words of Jesus in Matthew 5, 3. He says, blessed are the poor and spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Do you see yourself as poor and needy, as poor in spirit? As someone whose life and breath depends on the gracious giver of life and breath? I think we learn a valuable lesson from David's posture here. If we don't start with a posture of humility before God in times of trouble, we can fall into a trap of making our relationship with him all about our own. us. I want to point out one other important detail here that can be easy to gloss over. In verse two, David says, I am godly. Some translations say, I am faithful. Now, this is not a throwaway word. The Hebrew here is Hasid, C-H-A-S-I-D. It's rooted in one of the key words describing God's

character in the Old Testament. God's Chesed, C-H-E-S-E-D, his steadfast love. And this steadfast love of God, his chesed is the very thing David appeals to in verses 5, 13, and 15 of this Psalm. The reason he calls out to God is because God is abounding in steadfast love and chesed. And David is describing the deep, intimate, loyal relationship that he has with God in this moment. He's dependent on loyal to him. You see it all throughout the Psalm. But what's worthy of note here in verse two is that God's Chesid is the foundation for David's Khashid, for David's faithfulness, his godliness. Now, why does that matter? This emphasis on steadfast love and loyalty gives us a window into the nature of a real relationship with God. It's not about us getting what we want from him.

God is not a vending machine. He is not a product to consume. He is the king who is faithful to us. And his faithfulness to us creates a growing, dynamic, transformative faithfulness within us toward him. Now let's just pause and appreciate the fact that as we're working through this Psalm, David absolutely is appealing for God to save him. The question isn't whether David wants to be saved from his trouble.

The question is, what does he want to be saved into? The next section of this Psalm clarifies and defines that ultimate goal in his time of trouble. Let's pick up in verses 11 through 12. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord, my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. This section is like the climax of Psalm. 86, David's ultimate aim is not static comfort. He's asking God to teach him his way, to help him

walk in his truth, to have a united, integrated life that lives with reverence and awe before God, that ultimately leads to His glory, God's glory, forever. These verses are so powerfully countercultural, even within many religious circles. If you can, I encourage you to cover out some extra time, to read over or listen to these two verses, to meditate on them, pray through them. Is your view of God cultivating this kind of transformation? Or is Psalm 86 revealing ways that you've settled for a kind of pool-floaty experience with a living God? Now, it's not until the end of Psalm 86 that David gets back to the trouble he's experiencing.

As he appeals to God for his divine grace and comfort, you can't help but notice how this Psalm involves David and involves David's problems, but it's not really a Psalm about David. It's about God and God's movement through David's life. And just as there are two fundamentally different ways of experiencing water, Psalm 86 presents us with two fundamentally different ways of experiencing God. On the one hand, you could go with the comfort-oriented, self-centered approach and turn God into a resource for relaxation. Now, very few of us do this intentionally, yet many of us accidentally take this route by going through the motions of religion without having the humble courage to consider that there is a way

to the Christian life. And we're meant to walk in that way with a whole heart. A relationship with the creator of all things is a lot more like the surfboard on the movement of a gigantic wave. The movement is not initiated by us. It's fueled by his steadfast love, his faithfulness that makes our faithfulness possible. As we walk in his way and live for his glory,

our lives will not only endure times of trouble, they will be transformed through them. God, in our times of trouble and in our times of harmony, would you give us the humility to see that we are poor and needy, that we are dependent on you? help us see that your love for us is relentless and steadfast, that there's no one like you. Teach us your way that we may walk in your truth, unite our hearts to live with awe before you, and let all that we do in the day before us glorify your name forever. Amen.