INI
The Sunday after New Year
January 2, 2011
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

As You Enter a New Year,
GOD IS HOLDING YOUR HAND
Psalm 73:23-28

To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor
and glory forever and ever, Amen. Today we consider the Word of God in the
seventy-third Psalm, beginning with the 23rd verse, as follows [ESV]:

Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. 24 You guide
me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. 25 Whom
have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides
you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and
my portion forever. 27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you
put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 28 But for me it is good to be
near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your
works. Thus far our text.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Our Help in ages past and our Hope for years to
come, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

Yesterday we entered a new year, and it was a somewhat unsettling entrance,
what with snow remaining on the ground and near-record low temperatures. It
cast my mind back to an even more unsettling new year, one from eleven years
ago, one called Y2K. Remember that? We were all a little nervous. No one
knew quite what was going to happen. Many stockpiled food and water. All
flights in the U.S. were grounded. In the event, no airplanes fell from the sky.
No nuclear weapons were launched by accident. The power grid did not fail and
gangs did not take over the streets of our major cities. We still had lights and
heat and water in our homes. All the doomsayers' fears proved groundless.

For us there will always be some uncertainties, of course. Uncertainties about
what 2011 may hold for us and our families. My family and we here at
Ascension are dealing with some new uncertainties and challenges just at the
moment. You may be in your personal life as well. But some of the most
unsettling questions of all are those that plague each Christian from time to
time. Questions like: is my faith growing or shrinking? Is the Lord pleased or
angry with me? Will the Holy Spirit maintain control in my life, or will my sinful
flesh win out? If these sorts of questions have been on your mind recently, then
I have very good news for you! Listen to God's Word for today and rest assured
that,

As You Enter the New Year,
GOD IS HOLDING YOUR HAND

I. When your heart is weak, His touch will give you strength.
II. When you are tempted to stray, His touch will draw you near.

Psalm 73 is interesting in that it bears a striking similarity to another familiar
psalm. If you like, you can compare the two when you get home from church
today. And you won't have any trouble remembering which psalm the other one
is - all you have to do is reverse the numbers! The 37th and the 73rd Psalms
both deal with the same problem - the apparent prosperity of the wicked. In the
37th Psalm we read, I have seen a wicked, ruthless man, spreading himself like
a green laurel tree. (Psalm 37:35 ESV) How do you explain the fact that (in our
world of today especially) the unbelievers so often seem to do well, while the
Christians seem to suffer? In the verses preceding our text, the Psalmist
complains, Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
(Psalm 73:12-13 ESV) But at the same time, the writer confesses how sinful it
is to question God's mercy: I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward
you. (Psalm 73:22 ESV) Why is it ‘ignorant’? Because he knows the answer to
his question even before he asks it. Nevertheless, he says, I am continually with
you; you hold my right hand. The psalmist knows, and he assures you today,
that you've got something with which to face this coming year that no
unbeliever will ever have: as you enter the new year, GOD IS HOLDING
YOUR HAND.

When was the last time someone held your hand? For most of us, it's been so
long ago that we may have forgotten what a comforting feeling it can be. When
a parent holds a child's hand, it's because he loves him. Someone holds your
hand when they want to guide you, to comfort you, to show you that no matter
what dangers threaten, they are prepared to protect you. The touch of a hand is
meant to encourage the fearful and strengthen the weak. My Christian friends,
as you look toward the future that's exactly what God wants to do for you! The
psalmist says, You hold my right hand… My flesh and my heart may fail, but
God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Take comfort from the
fact that God is holding your hand. When your heart is weak, His touch will
give you strength.

One problem, of course, is that a lot of people don't like their hand held! They
don't feel they are weak. They don't feel they need to be guided or protected.
And often - in our sinful human pride - we may feel that way ourselves. That's
why we so often rely on our own resources to deal with the troubles that come
our way. But eventually, our flesh and our heart fail. We use up all the resources
we have. We try every device we know to provide our own security and
comfort, and we come up short. That's why the Bible says, Thus says the
LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD. (Jeremiah 17:5 ESV)

Yes, very often our hearts are weak. And far too often our sinful flesh has its
way with us. But remember, GOD IS HOLDING YOUR HAND. When your
heart is weak, His touch will give you strength. How blessed you will be when
you finally come to realize that your own flesh will always fail, but that God's
strength can never fail!

Our annual meeting is next Sunday. I remember our annual meeting from the
year 2000. Back then pretty much every meeting had one agenda item: building
the church. I recall one council member remarked that it was too bad that our
budget would force us to put up a wood-frame building. "Cellulose-based
structures," he said, "are always doomed here in our rainy Northwest. It's just a
matter of time!" Well, it’s held up pretty well so far. But it made me think -
what if we had had no budget to worry about? What would you build a new
church out of if money were no object and you could choose any material you
wanted? Bricks, maybe? Or some kind of masonry product? I know what I'd
choose - rock! You know, there's a reason all those medieval cathedrals are still
standing in Europe - it's because they're made out of rock, and rock is
impervious to the elements. Rock stands forever. Well, when our text says, God
is the strength of my heart, it's using a figurative translation of the Hebrew word
there. The literal translation is "rock" or “cliff”. God is the Rock of my heart is
what this passage really says!

So often in Scripture our faithful God is pictured as a Rock, steadfast, firm and
immovable. In the 18th Psalm we read, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress,
and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and
the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. Psa 18:2. And again in Psalm 67,
In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength. Someone aptly
said that a Christian is like the ivy plant - ivy can't stand up by itself, it must
cling to the rock. Yes your heart may be sinful and weak. Yes, you may have
fears and doubts. But God has taken hold of your hand. For Jesus' sake He has
replaced your sin with righteousness, and your weakness with strength. He has
given you a ROCK to cling to, and upon which to build your life. No matter
what happens tomorrow or next week or next year, your Rock will be there. It
doesn't matter what happens with your job, or the stock market, or the
economy. Your Rock will continue to provide for all your needs, as He always
has in the past. Far more importantly, it doesn't matter what sins you have
committed in the past, nor does it matter what weakness your flesh exhibits in
the future: none of that changes the Rock one bit! The Rock of your salvation
will never change. He will be there to offer you the comfort of sins freely
forgiven, of pardon sought and granted, of rescue hoped for and accomplished.
When your sins rise up to torment you, your gracious God will say, as He has
ever said, Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and
declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is
no other Rock; I know not one.'" Isa 44:8.

But what of those who stray from the true God? And hasn't it happened that
believers, too, have been lost by reason of their own wickedness and
unfaithfulness? Certainly. Our text says, For behold, those who are far from you
shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. The King
James has a more literal translation: thou hast destroyed all them that go a
whoring from thee. (Psa 73:27 KJV). Scripture uses very explicit language,
doesn't it, to describe the activities of those who stray from God. To "go a
whoring" means to be unfaithful to the true God. It means to seek somewhere
else what can only come from God, to give to others what belongs only to God.

That’s called idolatry. And we certainly see plenty of that in the world around
us. Yesterday, on New Year’s Day, Buddhist priests in Japan rang huge bells,
calling upon their idol to bless the new year. In the Arab world, Muslims bowed
toward the east and prayed to the false god Allah. Millions of people the world
over were seeking help and reassurance where none could be found, giving their
praise to gods who cannot hear them, because they do not exist. God says in
Isaiah, I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my
praise to carved idols. (Isaiah 42:8 ESV)

And what about you and me? Does the new year find us steadfast and faithful
to our true God, or are we tempted to stray? Does our confidence for the future
really lie in the Triune God? Or are we tempted rather to transfer that
confidence to our jobs, to bank accounts, to IRA's, to insurance policies? Is our
highest love and allegiance reserved for the true God alone? Or have we been
tempted rather to transfer that allegiance to our possessions - our homes, our
money, our things. Are we tempted love our things more than we love our God?
The temptation to stray is there, for all of us - let's be honest! And let's take
seriously our God's warning concerning these modern-day idols when He says,
You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a
jealous God. (Deuteronomy 5:9 ESV).

But even here we find a blessed reassurance. The psalmist goes on, But for me
it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell
of all your works. If you're daunted by the tremendous temptation that this
world lays before you, remember: God is holding your hand. And when you are
tempted to stray, His touch will draw you near.

What a blessing to be able to draw near to God! By nature we had no such
ability. By nature we were God's enemies, far away from God and inclined to go
farther away still. That's why God sent Jesus to earth that first Christmas Eve.
Paul told the Ephesian Christians, remember that you were at that time
separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by
the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:12-13 ESV) With the blood your Savior shed
on Calvary, He has allowed you to draw near to God, to approach the throne of
grace and find, not a stern judge, but a loving father. With His sacrifice, Christ
has cancelled your debt of sin and written your name in the Book of Life. Amid
all this world's uncertainties, you already know what your future holds. Like the
psalmist, you can say with confidence, You guide me with your counsel, and
afterward you will receive me to glory.

In my reading I came across an ancient Christian proverb. "I said to the man at
the gate of the New Year, 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the
unknown,' and he replied, 'Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the
hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known
way." Indeed, the future may be dark to us, but it is not dark to our God. The
One who has redeemed us by His Son is that same Rock of salvation who will
guide us and protect us in this new year, and in all the years to come. When
your heart is weak, His touch will give you strength. When you are tempted to
stray, His touch will draw you near. So as you enter the new year, lift up your
head with courage, and with a proper Christian confidence. Remember: God is
holding your hand. AMEN.