Psalm 56: When Sorrow Overwhelms You

0:00Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together. Well hello everybody welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host Pastor Brandon today. Psalm chapter 56 and today's title is When sorrow overwhelms you. When sorrow overwhelms you. You ever have one of those moments when you know it's kind of like yesterday we were talking about Psalm 55 when anxiety control comes over you but it's not anxiety as much as it's just sadness. Like I'm not anxious I'm just sad. I just they're just overwhelmed with just just feeling broken on the inside. You ever felt that way? Well the good news is is God is not left you without a plan without a process without

1:03a way to filter out that sadness through the lens of God's word. So if you've ever felt just overwhelming sadness for a multitude of reasons today's for you. And so if you have your Bibles when open up with me to Psalm chapter 56 while you're doing that make sure you take just a second. Like share us subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure to leave us a five star review on the podcast it really does help and make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing team of people writing devotions there every single day and we would love to hear from you. We would love you to comment on those posts and and let's go back and forth. If you have questions want to make sure that you put your questions in there. We want to be able to engage with you with God's word and you can get all the information to all of that at the Biblebreakdown.com because the more we dig the more we find. Well, once again, we've been going through the book of Psalms because we believe the book of Proverbs teaches us how to deal with other people. Psalms teaches us how to relate to God. And this is a collection of the greatest hits of the people of God as they are doing life

2:05with God over the generations from the time of Moses to the time of Malachi. This is the greatest hits five songbooks of the people of God. And we're in a songbook number two, by the way, as we are just doing life with God. I love the fact that the book of Psalm teaches us how to do all these different things, like how to celebrate with God, how to get angry with God. Yes, sir, we talked about what to do when we have anxiety. Well, what about today when we just deal with just overwhelming sadness? Like today is David is writing about a time when the Philistines has seized him in an area. Like he had been he had been captured and he's been taken to the king of Gath which were enemies, the Philistines were enemies of the people of God. So he feels like he has just been he's just surrounded by evil, surrounded by difficulty. And he's just overwhelmed with fear and just sadness and doesn't know what to do. And if you've ever been like that, it seems like in those moments when we should turn

3:06to God the most, we tend to turn away from God the most. But the great thing is is that God is with us even when we go through these overwhelming times of sorrow, of fear and of difficulty. And so to get together, let's read through this and let's see what God's word has to say when we are dealing with just the uncertainty of sadness. Here we go. Chapter 56 verse 1 says this, Oh God, have mercy on me for people are hounding me. My foes attack me all day long. I am constantly hounded by those who slander me and many are boldly attacking me. So when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. I will praise God for what he has promised and I trust in God. So why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me? They are always twisting what I say. They spend their days plotting to harm me. They come together to spy on me, watching my every step eager to kill me.

4:07Don't let them get away with their wickedness in your anger, oh God, bring them down. You keep track of all my sorrows. You've collected all my tears in your bottle and you've recorded each one in your book. My enemies will retreat when I call to you for help. This I know God is on my side. I praise God for what he has promised. Yes, I praise the Lord for what he has promised. I trust in God so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me? I will fulfill all my vows to you, oh God. And I will offer sacrifices of thanks for your help. For you have rescued me from death. You have kept my feet from slipping. And so I walk in your presence, oh God, in your life giving light. Wow, I love this. I want to go back to this verse eight when he says you keep track of all my sorrows. You've collected all my tears in your bottle. You've recorded each one in your book.

5:08Otherwise that's a very, very songish way of saying you see all my problems. Look at this. He says when my enemy or my enemies will retreat when I call on you for help. This I know God is on my side. I will praise God for what he has promised. And I trust in God why should I be afraid? So once again, you keep track of all my sorrows. This I know God is on my side. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 23. David wrote this. He says though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid. Why for you will close beside me? What David is writing in this Psalm is he is saying there's so many bad things happening. And he's talking about some of the reasons why he is so sorrowful. And that same for us many times there are so many different reasons for being sorrowful that it's hard to pinpoint just one or maybe in your life it is very specifically.

6:11Because of a loss of a family member, a loss of an opportunity or grieving the death of a dream, whatever it is. The thing is is that I love how he says you God keep track of all my sorrows. Just like we talked about yesterday from Psalm 55, sometimes there are so many little anxieties that we end up feeling overwhelmed and we don't even know why because it's not just one thing. It's 10 things. But the amazing thing is is that God knows all 10. And when it comes to sorrow, God knows all 10. I remember right after you know, COVID happened in 2020, there was a friend of mine who was going through a deep depression and he didn't know why. He just knew he was sad. And he was telling me how he went to a counselor. And many times the reason why I go into a counselor is so important is because they can get a different perspective than what you or I have. And that person was listening to his story and what had happened is he had just got through starting a business two years beforehand. But because of COVID and the shutdowns and all that, his business had to come to an end

7:14and he was able to move it into a different business. So he was okay. But he never really grappled with the loss of that first business. And that counselor said, did you ever take a moment to grieve the loss of that dream that you had? And at first that guy was like, no, because we were able to move it into this and it was fine. So but wait a minute. You'd wanted to start that business for like 20 years. And then you got to have that business for two years. And then it ended abruptly. That was the end of a dream. Did you did you process that? Did you grieve over that for a little while? And my friend had never even thought about it. He'd been so busy doing the next thing that he had moved on, but his heart hadn't moved on. And that was what it was. And so we took it to the Lord and he prayed and he grieved over it and he just made his peace with it and he was so much better after that. And he said, I would have never seen that if God hadn't used that person to bring it to my remembrance. And it just reminds me over and over again, there are things that have happened in our life

8:15that we just moved on so quickly that we don't realize our heart is still there. And we haven't grieved the loss of those things or the ending of those things, but you know who has kept up with those things? The Lord. That's why we have to go to God when we feel so much sorrow and so much difficulty. It's because the Bible says God is on our side. And we can trust in Him when we can't trust anything else. And He has the ability to bring healing to things that we don't even know are broken in our life. And so the answer to the question, what do we do when sorrow overwhelms us? We realize God has never left us. And sometimes one of the most beautiful things that we can do when we just feel sorrow in our life. And we don't even know why is we just go to God with open hands and say, God, I'm feeling so just sad and sorrowful. Holy Spirit, when you bring to my mind why is it an unresolved sin that is causing it grieving in my heart because it's separation from us?

9:15Is it because of the death of something I haven't processed or is it because of an unmet expectation over here, whatever it is, I want to resolve it so that I can have joy in your presence. And that doesn't mean that in the Christian life we're always going to feel happy. We have all the emotions like everybody else. But there's a difference between having a sad day and having sorrow. And so I would encourage if you're going through a season of sorrow and you don't know why, take it to God and just say, God, I know that you have kept track of it. You're going to have to track of all of this. But for some reason, my heart has tried to cover this. Would you show me so that I can bring it to the light and find healing? Maybe you know exactly what it is. It's also time to take it to the Lord because God is on your side. And though we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we do not have to be afraid. Not because the valley is not long, not because it's not in a shadow, not because death is not close. We are not afraid because God is with us. It's pray together right now.

10:15God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you see us and that you know us. That Lord, there are sometimes we hold things deep in our heart and we hold it so deep that we don't even see what it is. But we know that you do. And so we trust you today to reveal it in due time so that you can heal it all the time. We celebrate you right now. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, God's Word says in Psalm 34 verse 1, say it with me, I will bless the Lord at all times. And I pray, shall continually be in my mouth. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Psalm chapter 57.