Seek the LORD!
18 APRIL 2021 | PRAYER & PRAISE SERVICE
Rev Chia Chin Nam
Scripture Passage: Psalm 105:1-6 (NIV)
WATCH | SERMON (VIDEO)
READ | SERMON NOTES
Summary | Everyone who seeks the LORD diligently and perseveringly will draw strength from Him and find His presence!
David’s exuberant expression in Psalm 105 – leaping and dancing before the Ark of the Covenant (2 Samuel 6), celebrated with praise and thanksgiving the coming of God into Jerusalem, Israel’s new capital city. The Ark was a significant symbol representing God’s presence with His people wherever they went. Today, as we contemplate v1-6 of Psalm 105, we observe 10 commands to praise the LORD while waiting expectantly for Jesus our Saviour’s return. V4 tells us to Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His presence continually! The Hebrew words ‘darash’ (seek with care/inquire about) and ‘beqash’ (to find/discover) reveal how we are to seek God’s strength and His presence - diligently and perseveringly. When we do, we will find strength – supernatural, and of the LORD.
1. Seeking the LORD diligently is a vital quest for God, to be invested passionately with a sense of priority, purged of conflicting interests and competing desires. David declared he would seek the LORD to dwell in His house all the days of his life, to gaze upon His beauty and inquire in His temple (Psalm 27:4). In Psalm 119:10 he committed to seek God with his whole heart, not to wander from His commandments. God and His work will always take first place when we seek Him sincerely and committedly. Those who seek the LORD unreservedly are promised they will surely find Him (Jeremiah 29:13) for God draws near to all who draw near to Him. (James 4:8)
2. Drawing strength from God begins when we cry to Him for help. When David’s family and possessions, and those of his men were taken captive by the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30), he sought the LORD Yahweh. Then his strength, sapped by despair, was renewed. God gave him victory over the enemy, enabled a successful mission of rescue and complete restoration. Just as David relied on God as his strength and shield (Psalm 28:7) we too cannot live a godly life - physically, emotionally and spiritually, on our own strength. Apart from God we can do nothing. His plans give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
It is when we stop striking out on our own, that God gives us His strength to overcome our bleak situations. He desires to lift us up from our struggles when we humble ourselves to seek Him with faith and praise. Good or bad, all earthly matters are temporal; but God’s plans are eternal and of everlasting good. We draw divine strength during persistently difficult times when we put ourselves in God’s hand. Despondency eventually evaporated to reveal a furtherance of God’s marvellous works for preacher Dr PP Job. Despite the tragic loss of his son, Dr Job’s painful experience actually served to advance the gospel of Christ (Philippians 1:12) as he went on to found schools for underprivileged girls from nursery to university throughout India. Though devastated, he was inwardly strengthened by the Spirit of God, who gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak who wait on Him. (Isaiah 40:29-31)
3. Finding God’s presence continually until we experience it is to seek a holy audience with the LORD and His favour, made possible only by our crucified Saviour Jesus. Personal disobedience results in God’s withdrawal. We do well to follow David’s example when having sinned, he repented and humbly pleaded with God not to cast him away from His presence nor to take away His Holy Spirit. David sought to be restored to the LORD. It is with fear and trembling that we are remorsefully mindful that our iniquities have separated us from God, and our sins have hidden God’s face from us, so that He will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2) But merciful God desires we turn back to Him. And when we earnestly do with contrition, He delights to bestow His presence and favour upon us. Such restoration grows our understanding and reflection of God’s character. God knows exactly the state we are in. He lays His hand of comfort, healing and direction upon our heads when we seek His presence to relate with intimately. (Psalm 139:5)
Let us therefore ponder the assurance that God’s presence brings us when we seek Him diligently with our whole being, and then commit to doing the following:
1. Seek God as life’s primary priority. Repent where we have not put the LORD first, and reorder our priorities.
2. Depend fully on God’s strength. Recognise His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
3. Commit to Sabbath-Rest. Practice the five spiritual disciplines regularly – of worship, scripture meditation, prayer, examen, in consecrated silence and solitude.
(Sermon Notes by Marjorie Tan)
PONDER | REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. Describe WesleyMC's R.O.A.D. of meditating on Scripture.
- Share your experience in the practice of this spiritual discipline.
- How would you encourage others to join the Church in this journey?
2. Read Psalm 105:1-6 reflectively and repeatedly until you are absorbed in it.
- Which commands from the psalmist resonated with your spirit?
- How would you put them into practice?
- Pray for yourself.
3. What does seeking the LORD diligently mean to you?
4. Share an incident whereby you cried out to the LORD for help and was strengthened by His Spirit. Describe how you feel?
5. “To find or see God’s face is to experience His presence and favour.”
- How is this truth a reality in your life?
- Why doesn’t everyone experience it?