The God Of My Strength

Psalms 43:1-5  Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.  (2)  For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?  (3)  O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.  (4)  Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.  (5)  Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Introduction: There are days, maybe weeks, where I truly search for the “God of My Strength.”  Those times I am weak in the flesh, weak in my study, my prayer time and my Bible reading time.

              What makes those days different than any other day?  On the “other days” I can feel the presence of “the God of my strength.”

              These days when I feel alone are infrequent, and I thank the Lord for that, and hopefully during those days I can know I kept my mouth shut and made no wrong decisions during those days.

              I believe that “God is my Hope and He is my Future.  He and He alone is who will get me through those “dog” days.  The best part is as I am coming out of those doldrums, I know Who is pulling me up.

Job 14:1  Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

              Job knew, probably better than I, that no matter who we are our days are full of trouble.

1 Peter 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Peter, and Job also, knew who was causing our problem.  Jesus is our help through those days.  He and only He will keep us from collapsing under such a great weight.  All those troubles.

              What can we do without Him?  How did we make it before we knew Him?

I.            MY PLEA TO GOD                                                              (vv 1-2)

              A.           Deliver Us From The Deceitful

                             1.           Help protect us from the unjust

2.               Keep us from the fear of the unjust

              i.            Deliver us from fear

B.              He is The God of My Strength

1.               Our Hope is in God

Psalms 42:8  Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

2.               He is with us

              i.            Day and night

              ii.           He is a 24/7 God

II.           GOD HAS SENT A LIGHT                                                      (v 3)

A.              He Is The Truth

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

1.               Jesus is the truth

Psalms 146:6  Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:

2.               God is the keeper of the Truth

              i.            Eternally

B.              He Is The Light

John 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

1.               The light of men

              i.            The life of men

              ii.           He is eternal life and light

III.         THE ALTAR OF GOD                                                             (v 4)

A.              I Will Praise You

1 Corinthians 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1.               We are the Temple of God

              i.            The God’s Altar resides within us

2.           The Spirit of God resides within us

              i.            The Holy Spirit

B.              He Is Our Great Joy

1.               Exceeding = great = greatest

2.               Praise Him in prayer

              i.            We will be made full

IV.         WHY ARE WE DOWN                                                             (v 5)

A.              The Flesh Is Weak

Matthew 26:41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

1.               We have a willing heart

              i.            We want to serve the Lord

1 Peter 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

                             2.           We look to the terror of the lion

                                           i.            The excitement of sin

                             3.           This roaring lion makes sin exciting

                                           ii.           Desirable

1 Peter 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

                             4.           We must resist the devil

                                           i.            We must be sober [serious]

              B.           Our Hope Is God

                             1.           He is our Anchor

Hebrews 6:18-19  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:  (19)  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

2.               We have an Anchor for our soul

              i.            Which is stedfast

                             a.           Unmoveable

              ii.           Which is our Hope

a.               Our Lord

b.               Our Saviour

c.               Our being

CONCLUSION:  We must look to God in times of trouble.   Only through Him can we receive the steadiness of His secure anchor.

              Without Him, we are a lost cause, yet, with Him we are His cause.  Search your heart, seek His help, turn to Him as each day starts, and as you lay your head down at night remember who your Anchor is.

              Without Him we are sailing seas of despair, without direction, without hope, the Hope of God, seek Him.