Practicing the Dynamics of Spiritual Resilience

Lord please speak to us this evening through your word and enable us by your Spirit to put what we learn into practice.

Let’s cut to the chase. If you follow Jesus it’s a given that you will sooner or later encounter challenges beyond your own strength. Here’s the Apostle Paul, they don’t come stronger in faith than him (2 Corinthians 1.8):

We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

If you are not already going through difficult times in your walk with Jesus, you will. How can we prepare? How can we develop the spiritual resilience to make it through such times? Psalm 63 gives us plenty of ideas as we gain insight to the dynamics of King David’s resilience, the habits that enabled him to keep faith and keep going when dryness, danger and duty threatened to overwhelm him. What lessons can we learn that will help us in our times of trouble? I have three headings: 1. Why we need spiritual resilience. 2. How can we develop spiritual resilience? 3. What is the key to experiencing spiritual resilience?

1. Why we need spiritual resilience

Psalm 63 is described as A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. Twice in his life David was in the wilderness. Both times numerically superior forces were pursuing him to destroy him. Both times he had responsibility for a group of people who were looking to him for leadership. There are at least two, probably three areas of stress for David.

a) He senses an inner spiritual dryness that parallels the physical dryness of the desert. (Psalm 63.1):

my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

b) External danger. There are those who seek to destroy him. In the second desert interlude that was one of David’s own sons, Absalom, adding family dysfunction to the mix. (Psalm 63.9):

…those who seek to destroy my life…

c) Leadership Responsibility (Psalm 63.11):

…the king…

Dryness, Danger, Duty. These do not, of course, exhaust sources of stress, (serious illness and bereavement spring to mind as others), but there is a lot for David to face and we too should be aware that we are not immune from troubles mounting up on top of one another. But David forged spiritual resilience that enabled him to face these troubles and he shares some of these secrets with us in this song, this Psalm. So let’s turn to look at some of David’s habits to see what we can learn:

2. How can we develop spiritual resilience?

Let’s reflect on some of the verbs David employs. What does he actually do? And what can we do to develop the same habits? Seek (Psalm 63.1):

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

I have stood on the edges of three deserts. In the desert you always have one thing front and centre of your mind. Water. Do I have enough? How long will it last? Where can I get more? And in this Psalm David recognizes his spiritual need is just like the physical need for water that he experiences. Just as you head for cold water in the fridge in a heat wave to deal with your physical thirst, only personal intimacy with God can truly satisfy the depths of our spirits. David makes it his priority. Can I ask you a question I need to constantly ask myself? Do you long for God himself? Is He your fundamental desire or do you just see him as a means to an end? This question is so important. Is God your God or are you treating him merely as a genie to grant your desires? Because if that’s the case then the danger is that your desires are actually your god. David puts God himself front and centre. Renewing, strengthening his relationship with God is his goal. The rest of the verbs tell us how he goes about seeking God.

Remember (Psalm 63.2, Psalm 63.7)

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory…when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help

For David, the sanctuary was a tent, the same tent that had accompanied the people of God as Moses brought them through the desert after God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. David’s son, Solomon would build the first fixed location temple in Jerusalem. The tent, or tabernacle, was the focus for worship of God and the focus for his presence with them. But David didn’t have access to the tabernacle for much of his wilderness time. He did, however, have his memories of worshiping God there. Was there an occasion when he experienced the glory of God’s presence as he worshipped, in much the same way as the prophet Isaiah would in the temple a few hundred years later? Or was it simply the physical reminders in the tabernacle of God’s great acts of rescue in saving his people that imprinted themselves on David’s mind? God is a powerful rescuer! Perhaps both are true but what is sure is that David recalled his past experiences of God to help him push through his present stresses. In Psalm 63.7 he reminds himself of how God has worked in his own personal history as well as in the history of his people in the world:

for you have been my help…

How often do you spend time remembering what God has done? Do you reflect often on the gospel, the overarching plan of rescue that God has for all of us? How about your personal experiences of God’s hand in public worship and in the high points and low points, indeed in the daily grind, of your life? I sometimes like to look back over the 250+ prayer letters we have sent out over the years to remind myself of how God has been at work in our story. I also wish now that I’d developed the habit of journaling to give even more grain and texture to this. Not everyone will take naturally to that habit but many do find it helpful. As he reflects on his experience of God it leads naturally to the next action:

Worship and prayer (Psalm 63.3-5,7):

my lips will praise you…I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands…my mouth will praise you with joyful lips…I will sing for joy

Worship, true worship at least, lifts our attention off ourselves and on to God. It is, of course, much more than the hymns and songs we sing together when we gather, though it is certainly not less than those. It doesn’t have to include singing, you could simply recite a psalm or other praise passage from scripture or your own words of worship, but music can help us to bring our emotions as well as our intellect into our interactions with God and he does desire communion with us as whole beings. Do you worship regularly and often during the day? Do you make public worship a priority? Do you worship and pray with others often, in a small group or prayer triplet? Are you memorizing passages of scripture that help you keep your focus on God? Do you make use of the modern resources to access worship material? If you are musically or literarily inclined, are you composing your own worship songs and poetry or prose?

Meditate (Psalm 63.5-6):

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night

When people talk of meditation today they tend to think of Eastern religious practices and believe it means emptying your mind and perhaps repeating a mantra word from a language you do not understand. Nothing could be further from the Biblical practice of meditation. Biblical Meditation is all about filling your mind with thoughts about the true nature of God and his wonderful deeds. It’s about pondering what the Bible says, working out its meaning and how that impacts us here and now in the real word. If it involves repetition it is not of meaningless sounds but of deeply meaningful truths. Reading and memorising scripture and mulling over its meaning, and how we can apply it, is the best route to lining up our thinking with reality and it is also the best way of dealing with those anxieties that keep us up or wake us up at night.

Cling (Psalm 63.8):

My soul clings to you…

When the Old Testament talks about soul it isn’t talking about some kind of disembodied entity. It simply means your whole person. David means I cling to you with all that I am. I find security, purpose, meaning and satisfaction in you. Security, Purpose, Meaning, Satisfaction. These are basic human desires. We all long to have these met but we look for them in all the wrong places; in money, in success, in fame, in sex, in self expression. None of these will cut it. We have been made for relationships and particularly for a relationship with God. St. Augustine the 4th century African church leader famously puts it this way:

You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.

Seek God like a parched man in the desert seeks water, says David, and once you have him never let go. Cling to Him. And when we say cling here think superglue not Velcro!

Expect (Psalm 63.8-11)

…your right hand upholds me. But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

The final discipline of resilience is focusing on the certainty that God will prevail. It is the confidence that, because of who He is, He will bring us through. Justice will triumph, evil will be defeated. It is the anticipation of victory and vindication. Before we move on to think about the key to spiritual resilience. I want to emphasise one other thing. It is this, David was not alone in the wilderness. He wasn’t a hermit in a cave. Both times he was there loyal, faithful friends were with him. Men like Ittai the Gittite, who we read about in our Old Testament lesson (2 Samuel 15.21):

But Ittai answered the king, “As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.”

We do not have to face our trials alone. God has given us a band of brothers and sisters who are with us on our own wilderness journeys. This is comradeship, this is community, this is church! Let's work to be like Ittai the Gittite for one another. There is one vital thing I want to say before we close. Our third main point this evening:

3. What is the key to experiencing spiritual resilience?

We have touched on some habits, some spiritual disciplines that will help us to be resilient when testing times come. But these habits are not themselves the key to spiritual resilience! What is that Key? The clue is right here in this Psalm. Look at Psalm 63.3:

Your steadfast love is better than life

What does that mean? What can be better than life itself? The word translated steadfast love doesn’t really have an exact English equivalent. Others have translated it as loving kindness or even just commitment. It’s a special word used in a special context. It describes the commitment of two parties in a covenant. A covenant is the agreement of two parties to be totally committed to each other. The Covenant we are probably most familiar with is marriage. Husband and wife commit to one another for life:

To have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death us do part.

But there are other covenants. One involves a strong king taking a people under his protection. He makes promises to protect them. The king rescues, protects, and provides for the people. And the people respond by committing to be loyal to the king and his direction for them. And covenant is a powerful picture of the relationship between God and his people; between God and us. He rescues, protects, and provides for us. This is his steadfast love, and we respond by devoting ourselves to him.

God’s Rescue (Psalm 63.7):

for you have been my help

God’s Protection (Psalm 63.8):

in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy

Psalm 63.7:

Your right hand upholds me

God’s Provision (Psalm 63.5):

my soul will be satisfied

So when David says God’s steadfast love is better than life, he means that a relationship with God exceeds anything else that life can offer. This is what Paul echoes when he says (Philippians 1.21):

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

The thing about Covenant in the Bible is that the stronger partner initiates it.
God initiates the relationship. The Key to Spiritual Resilience is found in God’s committed, covenantal, steadfast love (Psalm 63.3) ultimately expressed in Jesus. It is not our devotion to God but his Steadfast Love for us that takes the initiative (John 3.16):

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The spiritual disciplines that David has shown us in this Psalm do not establish our relationship with God. They enable us to grow in a relationship He has established with us through the gospel. So for those of us who already have this relationship with God it’s important to remember that our resilience in the face of trials depends ultimately on God and the dynamics we have been talking about are really all about leaning into that relationship. We are not practicing them to persuade God to care. We are doing them because we know he already does. And for any one here, or listening online, who are exploring what it might mean to become a follower of Jesus, may I address the misunderstanding that many people have? That misunderstanding is that we have to accumulate some kind of record in good works or spiritual activities to persuade God to love us. Nothing could be further from the truth. God already loves you, no matter how dark your record is. He loves you so much that he sent Jesus to die in your place so that you can become a member of his family. All you need to do is respond to his invitation to trust Jesus and you like David will be able to say, “O God, you are my God”. Let’s pray:

Lord help us to develop our relationship with you and enable us to overcome all challenges to that relationship through your power at work within us.