Easter Sunrise: I am Your servant

Psalm 143:

Lord, hear my prayer,
    listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
    come to my relief.
² Do not bring your servant into judgment,
    for no one living is righteous before you.
³ The enemy pursues me,
    he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in the darkness
    like those long dead.
⁴ So my spirit grows faint within me;
    my heart within me is dismayed.
⁵ I remember the days of long ago;
    I meditate on all your works
    and consider what your hands have done.
⁶ I spread out my hands to you;
    I thirst for you like a parched land.

⁷ Answer me quickly, Lord;
    my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me
    or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
⁸ Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
    for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
    for to you I entrust my life.
⁹ Rescue me from my enemies, Lord,
    for I hide myself in you.
¹⁰ Teach me to do your will,
    for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
    lead me on level ground.

¹¹ For your name’s sake, Lord, preserve my life;
    in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.
¹² In your unfailing love, silence my enemies;
    destroy all my foes,
    for I am your servant.

After hearing this morning’s scripture you are probably wondering why in the heck I am reading out of the Old Testament...  Easter has to do with the New Testament and the story of Jesus.  While that last statement is true, we can only truly understand the hope and love displayed on the cross by better understanding the writings of the Old Testament.  Right from the get-go, I can relate to what David wrote in this Psalm.  We find David pleading to God to not bring judgement on him in that very moment because he was not worthy.  In my weakest moments, I find myself praying the very same prayer.  In doing so, this creates times where we feel good about God passing judgement on us but it also creates times where we hope that God “is not paying attention” to us.  In our minds we hope that God missed our weak moment but in our hearts we know better.  In these moments, we are just like David, we plead to God to have mercy on us.  Sometimes these moments cause us to give up on our faith.  Like verse 4 says, “...my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed.”  How often does the weight of the world bear down on us?  How often does the ugliness of life rear its head?  

The answer to both those questions can be answered with a single cliche, “Life is not fair.”  And the funny part about that cliche is that God would probably agree with it.  It’s simple, life is truly not fair.  That is exactly why this morning is so dearly important.  When the stone was rolled away as Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus approached, there was not a body in site.  But what was found in the empty tomb was hope and eternal life.  If we can hold onto our faith by clinging to the hope and love of Christ then we will have ample ability to deal with life’s unfair moments.  I read somewhere this week that “...God is not particularly concerned with our happiness, however, He is concerned about our holiness.”  God wants us to be happy, but He knows that this is not always possible.  He wants to know how we handle our faith in those moments where happiness is absent.  That is exactly what David is doing in this Psalm.  At the time of writing this Psalm, we can tell that he is imprisoned, his enemies have pursued him and crushed David to the ground yet he thirsts for God just as parched land thirsts for rain, and after last summer and fall, we have a better understanding of that ourselves.  

When David has found himself in a situation where his spirit and heart are growing weaker, he pleads to God to rescue him from his enemy who was named Saul.  David knew who his enemy was that was trying to keep him from sharing his faith with the world.  However, the faces of our enemies today can take on many different “faces” such as: work, addictions, anger, or depression.  Whatever your enemy way be, this morning’s scripture offers us hope.  All we have to do is take a lesson from David, ask God to help you follow his will, trust God with your life, and ask for forgiveness.  David wrote several of his Psalms from a cave, a cave in which his enemies forced him to hide in.  Your “enemies” do the same to you.  They keep your faith locked in a small area so you cannot share it.  That area keeps getting smaller and smaller, the room for which God is in keeps shrinking if you do not seek God.  Your faith, and the hope and love that comes along with it, will eventually disappear if you do not consciously seek to walk a path of righteousness with God.  Now the question becomes, “how do we accomplish this?”  

The answer to that question is found in the very last phrase of this morning’s scripture, “... I am Your servant.”  In order for us to walk down a righteous path, we must serve God which means that we also must serve all of God’s people.  We can have a faith that is kept to ourselves, that stays in a cave, but we are called to much more than that.  We are called to live out our faith, to be a light unto the world.  As we celebrate our risen savior this morning, draw from his sacrifice.  What did Jesus mean when he called us to serve?  God calls us to love, He calls us to take our faith out of the comfort of its “little box” and live it.  From this day forward, how are you going to live your faith? And if you take the time to concentrate on your holiness, I will promise you that your happiness will not be far behind.  Amen.

Pictures of the kids during the Easter Egg Hunt:

God Bless,

Clinton

Fairview Christian Church