September 9, 2005

FROM THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

Psalm 61

This is a time of year when many people arrive in Abu Dhabi for the first time. We are delighted that so many of you have found your way to the church. During the next three weeks, I want to specifically speak to those of you who are new to Abu Dhabi and may be feeling rather overwhelmed by the whole experience.

Abu Dhabi isn’t the easiest place to get used to. I still remember very vividly my first impressions. Walking through the rather strange looking airport that resembled the inside of a mushroom. The first real shock, though, was walking out into my first blast of Abu Dhabi’s August heat. I looked around – certain that I must be standing in front of the exhaust vent for the air-conditioning unit. No place could be this hot! Only it was! Then in the vague fog of jet-lag came the uneasy thought; Maybe I’ve died and gone somewhere, and it isn’t heaven!

Then there was the babble of different languages all around; all the different ways of dressing, most of which were unfamiliar to me. That first 4:30 AM call to prayer was shock to the system. This was then followed by all the difficulties of getting settled; the appliances that didn’t work right, the delays of getting things hooked up; the workmen that didn’t come on time, and when they came they didn’t have any tools with them. I still remember going to the Immigration Building for the first time to start the procedure for my Residence Permit; the long lines, the chaos, the frustration of never being sure I was even standing in the right line. Of course if I was in the right line, then I would still be lacking some key document or signature and would have to start at the back of the queue again. Everything took so long and seemed so difficult. Hanging over this whole process was the ever present thought: What on earth am I doing here? Have I just made the biggest mistake of my life?

Well, if you’ve ever had some or all of those thoughts and feelings, let me reassure you that you are not alone. During these next 3 Fridays, in wrapping up our series on the psalms, we are going to look at a cluster of psalms, Psalms 61-63, and as we unwrap them together, I want to offer them to all of you who are new to Abu Dhabi as a kind of spiritual survival kit for life in Abu Dhabi. For those of you are veterans, however, don’t tune out. I believe there will be food here for you as well, because the principles I will be sharing are relevant to any of you who are passing through a difficult period in your life and are feeling overwhelmed.

The three psalms under consideration all have a similar tone and deal with similar themes. All three are identified in the ancient inscriptions as Psalms of David. But the inscriptions do not give us the actual circumstance in which he wrote them. Psalm 61 and 62 do not cite any circumstances, and Psalm 63 says only: “When he was in the desert of Judah.”

From the references in the psalms themselves, particularly the verses in which David refers to himself as the king, many scholars believe that these 3 psalms were written to reflect on his experiences during the time of Absalom’s rebellion. This was a particularly painful period in David’s life, when his own son rebelled against him and tried to set himself up as king. David and his supporters were forced to flee Jerusalem in fear of their lives. But whether we agree with this conclusion about the circumstances of these psalms or not, it is clear that David wrote these psalms when he was away from home, in exile, threatened by enemies and overwhelmed by life and its circumstances.

This sense of desperation is expressed clearly in 61:2: From the ends of the earth I call to you.

Does Abu Dhabi feel like the end of the earth to you? I don’t know about you, but when we first heard about the church in the Abu Dhabi, we had never heard of the United Arab Emirates. We had a blow up globe of the earth for our boys. You know, the kind like a beach ball. We blew it up to try and find where Abu Dhabi was. Only, if I recall rightly, it was right in one of the seams. We went to our little local library (this was before the days of the internet), and they only had one listing in the whole library on Abu Dhabi. It was a National Geographic magazine article from 1960, with pictures of pearl divers and camels.

Things are different  today, but Abu Dhabi is still not the best known place in the world. Even now, when we are traveling in the U.S., when store clerks try to interest us in some local credit card or preferred customer scheme we will tell them that we live overseas. This usually provokes a spark of interest. “Oh, where do you live?” When we respond, “Abu Dhabi,” we still get a blank look and a repeat question: “Where?”

No, Abu Dhabi isn’t the end of the earth, but the fact is, it sometimes feels like that. For most of us, it is a long way from home, from the familiar, from family and friends. That leads to a feeling of isolation and sometimes even desperation. The second line of verse 2 says: I call as my heart grows faint. The KJV translates: I call unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed.

When we feel like we are at the “ends of the earth,” far from all that is save and familiar, when our hearts are overwhelmed, it is time to learn the lessons of this short psalm. I want to share four points with you, each beginning with the letter P.

First, 1. PRAYER

Notice what David did when he felt overwhelmed.

Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint.

In these verses, David uses three different words to describe prayer. The first is a loud cry, a ringing cry of entreaty or supplication. “HELP!” There is nothing timid here. Let it ring. The second is the more common word for prayer or intercession before God. The third is simply the common word for calling out. But the key is, he directed all of them toward God.

People have different ways of responding to hard times. Some people tend to get angry with God, to turn away from him, to clam up and pout and blame God for the difficulties. None of these provide a way out. Prayer does.

If life in Abu Dhabi strikes you as particularly difficult, use the sense of desperation as the impetus to pray, to call on God. Who knows, maybe God brought you to Abu Dhabi to teach you to pray. Maybe you will learn lessons of God’s greatness here that you never would have learned in your comfortable niche at home. Sometimes, it is only when all other sources of help and strength are gone that we start to learn what prayer is.

The second P in our message is 2. PICTURES. One of the reasons the psalms are so effective in communicating with us is the abundant use of pictures. As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” What the psalms give us are actually pictures composed of words, an image, a mental picture to hang on to. David actually gives us five such pictures in Psalm 61.

The first is a. God as a Rock. In verse 2b we read, Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

The image of God as rock is actually common in Scripture. It is used to describe various aspects of God’s character; his permanence, his changlessness. It is also used to depict God as a source of shelter or protection.

As we know from David’s life, he had many experiences in the wilderness, hiding among the rocks. This is David’s emphasis here. If you want to hide behind a rock, then you need a rock that is bigger than you are. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. God is bigger, stronger, higher than we are.

The second picture is b. God as a Refuge. In verse 3a: You have been my refuge. Building on the picture of a rock, a refuge is place of shelter from rain, storm or danger. I grew up on a mission station in Kenya. Our home was surrounded by thick forest. One of our favorite activities growing up was building what we called “hideouts” in the forest. As soon as Saturday came or school let out for vacation, we would head into the woods to find or build our latest “hideout”. Sometimes it was a depression or hollowed out area that we built onto. Sometimes we started from scratch to build a shelter out of branches and fallen trees. I am not sure what we thought we were hiding out from – but those hideouts represented a place of security and safety – a place to be alone and quiet and secluded from the rest of the world. That’s what is captured in this word picture. David addresses God and says: “You have been my hideout.”

The third picture is c. God as a Strong Tower. It’s found in verse 3b: A strong tower against the foe. David lived in the age of fortified cities. And the strongest and most impregnable part of the city was the tower. It was a place to get above the enemy where you could fire down on him – but also where you were safe from his arrows and other weapons.

The fourth image is d. Dwelling in God’s Tent. This is found in verse 4a: I long to dwell in your tent forever. I believe this is a picture of constant fellowship and intimacy with God. For David, God’s tent was the tabernacle, the place of worship. Remember, the temple had not been built yet. Now, no human being actually lived in the tabernacle. But it was the place of the visible presence of God. When David says, “I long to live in your tabernacle forever,” it is a beautiful picture of fellowship with God.

The final picture is e. Taking refuge in the shelter of God’s wings. Look at verse 4b: And take refuge in the shelter of your wings. I think this one is my favorite. It is the picture of a mother bird protecting her young. I remember during our years in Africa, once visiting in the home of a pastor in Tanzania. There were a number of us sitting around on wood folding chairs in his simple thatched hut, drinking tea. As we sat there, a chicken came in the open door, scratching at the dirt floor for forgotten morsels of food. Behind her came a scattering of tiny yellow chicks, cheeping and making their own little forays out for food. Suddenly a young boy came running into the room to get something, startling this little family. It was fascinating to watch what happened. Rather than scattering in great flurry of feathers, at some unknown signal, they all made a beeline for the mother hen, and she settled instantly over the top of them. It was as if the chicks just disappeared. It was a beautiful object lesson of the safety and security that God offers to his children.

So this psalm offers you five pictures of what God can be and what he wants to be for you during your time in Abu Dhabi.

The next point in our message is 3. PAST EXPERIENCES.

For this third point, I want to focus on the tense of the verbs in this psalm, because I think they are significant. David begins in the present tense, the ongoing, the unfinished reality of his life. In verse 2, he says “I call to you.” Literally, “I am calling to you right now as I am speaking.” But how does David know to call on God? Why does he have the confidence to call on God in the present?

Look at verse 3: For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. Here David uses another tense. Here he is looking at the past. I am calling on you now in the present, because you have been my refuge in the past. Permit me a little speculation. Let’s assume that this psalm was written to reflect his experience of fleeing from Absalom. As he flees into the Judean wilderness that surrounds Jerusalem, he is moving into the terrain and the same area where he spent so much time fleeing from King Saul in his early days. As he does so, maybe he is flooded by a sense of déjà vu. With those memories comes the strong reminder of how God had protected him time and time again when Saul’s soldiers sought to trap him and kill him. David had only a small band of men around him in those days. He was no match for the armies of Saul. He had to rely on God’s protection. Again and again, God delivered him. Now, in similar circumstances, David draws on those memories. “I call to you today, God, just as I relied on you in the past and found you to be my refuge and strong tower.

I guess what I’m saying is, don’t isolate your life and experience in Abu Dhabi from the rest of your life. Draw on your past lessons. How has God answered prayer, cared for you, protected you, provided for you in the past? I know that as I went through my early days of disorientation and frustration in Abu Dhabi, I was able to go back in my memory to times I had faced new and unfamiliar circumstance in the past, and remember how God had delivered me and gotten me through those hard times. I was able to use those experiences to build up my faith to trust him with the challenges I was facing here.

One final point and we’re done: 4. PRAISE.

(Read Psalm 61:5-8)

In putting his confidence in God’s protection and provision for him as king, David mentions a vow that he has taken and a vow that he intends to fulfill. What was this vow? In putting verse 5 together with verse 8, I believe that it is a vow to offer daily praise to God. David has promised God: God, if you will deliver me and protect me with your love and faithfulness, then I will never forget to praise you and offer daily praise to your name.

Sometimes, I am afraid, this is a missing link for believers. We cry to God when we’re desperate and overwhelmed. And God in his grace hears our prayers and delivers us. Then we get comfortable and secure and before long, what happens? We forget God! Maybe there is a warning here for you Abu Dhabi veterans. You feel at home here, things are going well, no pressing problems. Think back to when you didn’t feel so secure, when you felt overwhelmed and cried out to God in desperation. And he answered! Did you promise to give praise to him? Have you kept that vow?

So, newcomers, welcome to Abu Dhabi! I offer you this psalm as the first resource in your spiritual survival kit. You might want to even consider memorizing this psalm to keep you focused on the four P’s: Prayer, Pictures, Past Experiences and Praise. No matter how overwhelmed you feel right now, if you’ll keep these truths in mind, God will get you through. You may even come to like it here. Many of us have. When that happens, don’t forget to give God the praise!