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The Balm of Asaph
By
Rev. Todd W. Allen
Psalm 77:1-12
This year
marks 150 years of history for this congregation. First Presbyterian
Church was organized with fourteen members 150 years ago in 1855 as
Villa Rica Presbyterian Church. First services were held in the
homes of the members. All early records were destroyed during the
Civil War and services were suspended until 1867. In 1885 a white
frame building for worship was constructed on Candler Street.
Mr. W. B. Candler was Clerk of Session
from 1888 until 1921. After his death, his children donated his home
property to the church.
In 1930 the frame church
building was moved to this present location on the donated property.
It was bricked and a basement was added for Sunday school rooms. The
mahogany pews, pulpit, and the stained glass windows were purchased
from Old Wesley Memorial Church in Atlanta when it was torn down.
The formula for the color in the windows has been lost, making them
irreplaceable antiques.
Mr. Candler's
home behind the church served as a manse for many years, and later
for Sunday school rooms and fellowship activities. It was torn down
in 1998, and a new fellowship building was erected. The sanctuary
and basement underwent a major renovation during 2000-2001.
Also, the
parking lot was paved and parking spaces were marked off. In 2002
the front steps of the church were replaced.
This early
church of just fourteen members by 1925 had grown to sixty members,
with a budget of $925. From 1930-1972 the church shared pastors at
various times with Austell, Bremen, Douglasville, Oak Mountain, and
Tallapoosa. Many of these were students from Columbia Theological
Seminary in Decatur, Georgia
In 1972 a new manse was
built on Twin Lakes, and the first full-time pastor, Al Ruggles, was
called. In 1986 the church name was changed from Villa Rica
Presbyterian Church to First Presbyterian Church of Villa Rica. In
1991 the church withdrew from the PCUSA and joined the Presbyterian
Church in America.
The church has mow
increased to a membership of over 100, with a budget of $130,000.
Psalm 77 is
a psalm for all of us at some time
or another. It is a
psalm written during a time of
perplexity, doubt
and soul distress.
Asaph
in his prayer in the first nine verses
argues with himself. He lays open his inmost thoughts during
a time of deep distress and discouragement. This duress was
physical and emotional. He was in a crisis.
His prayer had
been unceasing and continuous. He prayed during the day and during
the night. But although he prayed ever so fervently he was getting
no relief. He was so overwhelmed by his sorrow and misery that he
couldn’t focus on anything else. This problem occupied all of his
waking moments and he wasn't getting much sleep either.
In his
prayer he openly admits that he has begun to wonder why God seems to
be ignoring his prayers. He wonders if God has abandoned him. He is
fearful that he has offended God in Some way that cannot be
remedied. He has prayed so long and so hard that he really wonders
if his unresolved problem is a sign that God has cast him off and he
wonders, is this permanent? Will I never get straightened out in
this matter? He asks in verse 7,
Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable
again?
This is how
you can feel when you face a problem that you have earnestly sought
the Lord about for a long time and there is still no answer. The
problem persists. Will God never be favorable again? Isn't this
thing ever going to be lifted off my back?
Should
you be now or some later time go through similar trials that persist
and perplex the Word of God supplies answers. In Psalm 94:14 we are
assured that God will not cast off forever or be favorable no more,
For the LORD will not abandon His people, Nor will He forsake His
inheritance. And
in Lamentations 3:32 it says --
For if He
causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His
abundant lovingkindness.
In
verse 8 he asks,
has His mercy
ceased forever? Has His promise failed forevermore?
In answer
to his distressful question Hebrews 6:13-15 supplies an excellent
answer,
13For
when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one
greater, He swore by Himself, 14saying, “I
will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.”
15And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.
Heb. 6:13-15 (NASB)
There is just no way that the promises of God can fail.
God is certainly not a liar and when he doubly confirms His promise
with an oath we can know that it is impossible for God to fail to
keep His promise. So if you are in the faith of Abraham and have
accepted the promised Savior seed in the person of Jesus Christ then
you can be assured that he will never break his oath or fail to keep
his promise.
Finally,
in verse 9 he asks,
Has God
forgotten to be gracious, Or has He in anger withdrawn His
compassion? Selah.
We can quickly
put this question to rest. When Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving
the Law
… 5The
LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called
upon the name of the LORD. 6Then the LORD passed by in
front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate
and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and
truth; 7who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who
forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means
leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers
on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth
generations.” Ex. 34:5-7 (NASB)
By the time Asaph
gets to verse 10 it is as though he stops and thinks about what he
has been saying. He comes to the conclusion that he has been toying
with unbelief by questioning God's goodness, mercy and love. So in
verse nine he says Selah. He pauses and reconsiders his
attitude and goes on to admit that his grief and faintheartedness
are due to his own lack of faith.
He has been
wallowing around in a slough of despond. He has had no answer
because he has been full of doubt and mistrust of God. It is a grief
that has remained with him because he has imagined that God is such
a one as you and I – fickle, changeable, and untrustworthy. So now
he changes his approach. Now he reverts to a faith way of thinking
about his problem. He says in verses 11-15
11
I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember
Your wonders of old.
12
I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds.
13
Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God?
14
You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your
strength among the peoples.
15
You have by Your power redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and
Joseph.
Selah.
Are there times in
your own life that you go further and further into trouble because
you have lost your spiritual bearings?This calls us to pause, look
back, and remember who we are in Christ. The solution for this soul
is to remember God and his works. Remembering Godly works is a
godly activity. All too often, we resort to our own ideas and plans.
If you are growing faint from your own mental activities and
swirlings, maybe you need to learn this ancient art of remembering.
Remembering God is useful to reboot our computers and to recalibrate
our sights. And what does Asaph do? He looks back to the former
days. This is not a self-indulgent pining for a Golden age. No, this
is a sanity check as the believer reviews and reaffirms that God is
unchanging and always at work. He says,
11
I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember
Your wonders of old. 12 I will meditate on all Your
work And muse on Your deeds.
Note, he
did not confine this merely to his own lifetime, but he also went
beyond his own horizon. That's a good practice. Instead of
asking foolish questions that put God on trial he begins to think of
the truth about God, about his dealings with his people in former
years.
Beloved, we have as our
source book the Bible, which gives us many instances of the wonder
working power of the Lord on behalf of his people, both of
individuals and of the congregation of the Lord. So the psalmist now
stops moaning and groaning and begins to meditate and see all of
God's tender and loving care for His people in those historical
events that we can know from the Bible, and yes from the faith of
those who have gone before us, such as those who founded this
church. They no doubt went through their trials and troubles as
Asaph did, but they prevailed. They did not give up.
This church stands today as a
lighthouse, a city set on a hill that cannot be hid. It is a
constant reminder of the faith of those who have gone before who
persisted in the face of great difficulties, who for a time were
forced to suspend worship services due to Civil War disruption. But
by 1867 the congregation had rebooted and worship was resumed.
God in his
wonderful and mysterious providence builds his church.
Congregations like individuals face difficulties and even heartache
along the way. Like the psalmist we can go through periods when we
may wonder if God has forgotten us or has stopped being favorable to
us. But like Asaph we should go back and remember the years gone by
of God’s faithfulness and care for his people. True saving faith
does not give up; it presses on.
We may not
always know why God lets things come in life that hurt and why some
prayers seem to go so long unanswered, but we know that God is good
and that he will never leave us or forsake us.
Oh
listen beloved, studying the providence of God can be like studying
the path of a ship on the high seas. You cannot know from the
parting of the waves as it moves through the water the course it is
on. You do not go back and look at the sea when the ship has passed
by to try and determine the ship's course. It is impossible. Even
so, we cannot know the ways of Providence. It is beyond our
knowledge. But we know that He directs all things. Only the captain
of the ship knows the course of the ship and why he chooses to
maneuver as he does. The psalmist says,
Thy way was in the
sea, and Thy paths in the mighty waters. And Thy footprints may not
be known. Psalm 77:19
We can see the footprints of man but not the footprints of God.
Still, we know that He does make tracks everywhere. Nothing that
happens can happen without Him. And our trials and troubles are not
hid from Him. He in His infinite goodness and love is directing us
in a way that is for our good. We must reflect on this when we pass
through the deep waters and have travail of soul, as did Asaph.
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