Restoration

A few years ago, an angry man rushed through the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam until he reached Rembrandt’s famous painting “Nightwatch.” Then he took out a knife and slashed it repeatedly before he could be stopped. A short time later, a distraught, hostile man slipped into St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome with a hammer and began to smash Michelangelo’s beautiful sculpture The Pieta. Two cherished works of art were severely damaged. But what did officials do? Throw them out and forget about them? Absolutely not! Using the best experts, who worked with the utmost care and precision, they made every effort to restore the treasures.

By His sovereign grace, God can bring good out of our failures, and even out of our sins. J. Stuart Holden tells of an old Scottish mansion close to where he had his little summer home. The walls of one room were filled with sketches made by distinguished artists. The practice began after a pitcher of soda water was accidentally spilled on a freshly decorated wall and left an unsightly stain. At the time, a noted artist, Lord Landseer, was a guest in the house. One day when the family went out to the moors, he stayed behind. With a few masterful strokes of a piece of charcoal, that ugly spot became the outline of a beautiful waterfall, bordered by trees and wildlife. He turned that disfigured wall into one of his most successful depictions of Highland life. (Swindoll, The Quest For Character, Multnomah, p. 49.)

That is what we see in this Psalm today. We see that God can and will restore us even when we fail and become pride-filled.

We may be in an area in life where we think we are too far gone.

We may be in an area where we believe that God will not hear us.

We may think we are too far gone.

I tell you this Psalm will dis-spell that idea.

We are not too far gone nor can we be too far for God to reach in and restore us, IF we will just call to Him to do so.

We see this in this Psalm. David called out to God-God answered.

David boasted of HIS prosperity and God punished.

David called out again, God answered with restoration.

Just as the stories told at the beginning said, God can take the broken and the stained and make them beautiful and good.

Let us look at Psalm 30

A Psalm of David. A song at the dedication of the temple. ¹ I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. ² O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. ³ O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit. ⁴ Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. ⁵ For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. ⁶ As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” ⁷ By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed. ⁸ To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: ⁹ “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? ¹⁰ Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!” ¹¹ You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, ¹² that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

Psalm 30 ESV

The first thing we see in this text is…

No Pit is Too Deep for God (vv. 1-5)

Corrie Ten Boom has said, “There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.”

That is an amazing quote that fits what this Psalm says.

David was down. He was in despair and under severe struggles.

He had people trying to rejoice over his fall and struggles. They were trying to overthrow him but he cried out to God.

He was in that pit. He was feeling that he was in the grave.

He felt rejected and destroyed. He was in dire straits and it was not looking good.

Yet, he did not seek anything but the Lord.

He did not try and fix the situation, but cried out to the Lord.

He knew the pit was deep but God’s love is deeper still.

He knew that even if this was a punishment from the Lord for him failing to do what he should do, it was only brief and the Lord would restore him and his joy would return.

We see that the Lord is merciful and that His favor and goodwill towards you will last a lifetime.

What we see in all this is that David knew that in all his victories and in all his failings that it is only the Lord who delivers and restores us.

Do you know this?

Do you see this in your life?

Do you want this in your life?

I pray that I do but I also see that I want to take charge of my bad situations and fix them myself. I want to remove the issue rather than waiting on the Lord and trusting that today may be bad but tomorrow–however far that tomorrow may be, will bring joy when I trust in the Lord to be the solution.

When I try and solve the problem I am much like this computer.

“A home-accident survey showed that 90 percent of accidents on staircases involved either the top or the bottom stair. This information was fed back into the computer to analyze how accidents could be reduced. The computer’s answer: ‘Remove the top and bottom stairs.'”

This solution makes the problem worse. That is what happens when we try and fix situations without the Lord.

When we try and solve it we fall prey to our pride and arrogance. And we find, “It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem.”

We may think we know the problem we are facing but do we really know it?

I venture to say no we do not. But God does and when we call out to Him we will have the one who knows exactly what is going on and exactly how to fix it.

Also when we do this we will avoid the next problem that arises from our “SOLUTIONS.”

This being…

Foolish Boasting Brings Despair (vv. 6-10)

David said here in his prosperity he would not be moved.

He even appeals to the Lord for placing him there. Yet we see him saying God hid His face from him.

I love how the NLT renders this section it says, Ps. 30:6-7

⁶ When I was prosperous, I said, “Nothing can stop me now!” ⁷ Your favor, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain. Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered.

Psalm 30:6–7 NLT

This is how we are when we solve a problem and feel like we are really something.

We will say “Look at me, look what I did. I fixed that and now nothing can stop me.”

That is until what we thought we fixed crumbles and we are there looking like a fool.

We will be like this actress

While she was enjoying a transatlantic ocean trip, Billie Burke, the famous actress, noticed that a gentleman at the next table was suffering from a bad cold. “Are you uncomfortable?” she asked sympathetically. The man nodded. “I’ll tell you just what to do for it,” she offered. “Go back to your stateroom and drink lots of orange juice. Take two aspirins. Cover yourself with all the blankets you can find. Sweat the cold out. I know just what I’m talking about. I’m Billie Burke from Hollywood.” The man smiled warmly and introduced himself in return. “Thanks,” he said, “I’m Dr. Mayo from the Mayo clinic.”

She spoke authoritatively and acted authoritative. Yet, she had no authority or expertise. She embarrassed herself before this great doctor.

This is exactly what we do when we boast of our goods and works. We do not have a clue even though we may think we do.

David realized his mistake and cried out to God for His mercy and help.

He realized that he had been foolish and that God is the one who places us and removes us when He knows it best.

He makes a strong and ardent plea to God.

“He prays by staking his whole existence as a faithful believer on his prayer. Shall his life come to an end at the very moment when he has just begun to comprehend that he should have given thanks to God, to whose grace he owes that life.”

This prayer is not placing anything upon himself but “The question directed to God expresses not so much the worshipper’s [sic] high esteem for his own self, which at the first glance might be inferred, but rather his later realization of the obligation of faith to bear witness to the grace of God as he has now come to know it.” (Artur Weiser, The Psalms: A Commentary, ed. Peter Ackroyd et al., The Old Testament Library (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1998), 272.)

In his despair that was God turning away from him because of his pride he realized the thankfulness and praises he should have been giving God.

He had fell into his pride and was letting that rule him. He was following his own desires and plans and thinking he had done a great thing in his life rather than thanking and praising God.

This points back to verse 5 and how God’s anger lasts a moment but his favor is for a lifetime.

When we make foolish boasts or gloat over “our accomplishments” we may receive this anger. But God’s favor and restorative powers are only a cry and call away.

His favor and mercy is more than we can comprehend. It is above all things and When we trust in God for our lives and everything in it then when we call out to Him for mercy and help and we need to…

Celebrate God’s Answer (vv. 11-12)

You may be asking wait a minute; how do we do this when sometimes it seems He does not answer?

That is a great question.

The answer is that we “give thanks to you [God] forever.”

We do not need an answer to celebrate the goodness of God.

All we need to do is cry out to Him and leave it with Him.

He is the one who will

Draw us up (v. 1)

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Heal us (v. 2)

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Restore our lives (v. 3)

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Give us Joy every day (v. 5)

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Correct us in our pride and foolishness (vv. 7-10)

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And He is the one who turns our mourning into dancing (v. 11)

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Sometimes it seems like He takes forever to answer.

Sometimes it seems like He does not answer.

Sometimes we feel He is too busy.

Sometimes we think He does not love us as much as others.

To answer these difficult questions we need to look at Abraham and Sarah.

They waited until they were 100 and nearly 100 for God to give them a son. Yet, God did it when the time was exactly right.

They had to be totally dependent on Him and He in their weakness delivered. Not their strength where they could say it was them, but their weakness where it could only be of God.

They waited and waited and became desperate and tried to do things their own way, but that led to trouble and strife.

They should have celebrated the words of God that He would give them a child. When was not given just that He would.

That is all we need to lean on too.

God will do what is absolutely right when it is absolutely right. You may have to be at the bottom so you do not place any of it on yourself as you doing it.

Maybe you have strayed and are trying to do it yourself. Maybe your patience is causing you to doubt.

I want you to know today that God takes the weak things and makes them strong. He takes the busted and makes new. He takes the rusted and restores to better than factory quality.

Simply those who realize that in their weakness they are strong, that is what God desires.

He will finish the work He started in you. He will complete exactly what He set out to do in you. He will do exactly what He has said He will.

We just need to rest in His timing and know that He will do all that He has said and then we need to celebrate in His answers.

Trust The Lord

There is no situation I can get into that God cannot get me out.

There is a story I read of a guy learning to fly. His instructor told him to put the plane into a steep and extended dive. He was totally unprepared for what was about to happen. After a brief time the engine stalled, and the plane began to plunge out-of-control. It soon became evident that the instructor was not going to help at all. After a few seconds, which seemed like eternity, he says his mind began to function again. He quickly corrected the situation.

Immediately he turned to the instructor and began to vent his fearful frustrations on him. He very calmly said, “There is no position you can get this airplane into that I cannot get you out of. If you want to learn to fly, go up there and do it again.” He said “At that moment God seemed to be saying to me, Remember this. As you serve Me, there is no situation you can get yourself into that I cannot get you out of. If you trust me, you will be all right.”

We need to remember that God is with us and He will get us through this life if we give it to Him.

If we trust God He will get us through and if we have fallen and look like a rusted out found in the middle of the pasture car, He can restore us to far better than we were before.

He truly is the God who Restores as well as the God who Keeps. Trust Him and allow Him to guide you in everything and you too can say as David does, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”