It Is Well with My Soul

LWML Sunday

Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Oct 7, 2007

TEXT: Ps 31:1-5

It Is Well with My Soul!

Back in the 1800's a man by the name of Horatio Spafford wrote a hymn, and in doing so he penned the familiar line AIt is well, it is well with my soul.@

There are many times in each of our lives that we for whatever the reason might conclude that it is NOT well with my soul. It may even be today for some of you. We all feel this way from time to time.

In our Psalmody for today, Psalm 32:1-5, King David was right there with you and me as he says,

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also (v.9).

Things weren’t going so well with David’s soul. Whatever the details might have been David’s enemies were strong against him.

They scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life (v. 13).

And it wasn’t as simple as this: Yes, my enemies are coming against me but at least I can count on my friends. No, the people that should have been strong with David were wavering or worse.

Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me (v. 11)

There were enemies without and enemies within. These were just some of David’s problems.

You probably don’t have enemies plotting to take your life in the same way that David was targeted. But we do have a new scenario in today’s world. The world in which your children or grandchildren will grow up in is a different world. It’s different due to the lack of morality, and faith, but even bigger than that is the fear of terrorism. You and I didn’t grow up with that. We might have grown up under the Acold war,@ with its threats from Russia or the Missile Crisis in Cuba. But today’s world is riddled with gunman in the colleges and the schools. With metal detectors and campus police. Terrorists certainly wouldn’t’ hesitate to kill any one of us, or all of us.

But closer to our personal daily lives we can identify with those who lie about us and attempt to destroy our good name. I was saying in lifelight class last week that what is more scary today than identity thief is how people can put stuff on the inter-net that they know is not true and ruin your reputation. Just putting out the lie, even though it is a lie does it’s damage. David says this about liars:

Let lying lips be mute (v. 18)

Of course you don’t need the inter-net to spread lies. Gossip, juice gossip, false gossip has been around since the Fall of Adam and Eve. Many times gossipers don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. They slander you and put the worst construction on whatever you’ve done! They break the Eighth Commandment and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. And so, we have every good reason to say, AIt is NOT well with my soul.@

All that said and done, look at the wonderful thing that David points us to:

His lead line in Psalm 31:

In You, O Lord, do I take Refuge.@

If things weren’t well with his soul, David knew right where to go to make it well, and he went to God immediately.

In You, O Lord, do I take Refuge

David follows that appeal with many more expressions of his confidence in God.

You are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me (v. 3).

David expressed his confidence in God because God had helped him in the past and David knew that God keeps His promises to His people. As another example, David says,

Into Your hand I commit my spirit,@ and then says what God has done,

You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God (v.5). Still another example in verse 7: You have seen my affliction; You have known the distress of my soul@ And one more: I trust in You, O Lord; I say, >You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand@ (vv. 14-15).

David knew right where t go when things were not well with his soul! (PAUSE)

That was David, What About You?

Do you turn to God immediately, or when all else has fail, you’ll try God. Do you also know, as David did, that God has helped you in the past? Do you, like David, recall that God will keep His Promises, therefore turn to Him so that you can find Rest and Peace for your soul.

When life is ganging up on you, when not only your enemies but sometimes your friends aren’t there for you, what a great thing to turn immediately to God for help! This instinct to turn to God isn’t naturally yours but it was born into you by your Baptism. When you were baptized you were redeemed from the greatest of troubles, from the guilt of sin, from the dread of death, and from the domination of evil. In Baptism God brought you into His fortress, into His safe place of forgiveness even if people won’t let go of your sins and shortcomings. In Baptism God brought you into His fortress where hope abounds In Baptism God brought you into His fortress where His love for you reaches down into your soul.

What prompted David to turn to God has been put in you by your Baptism into Jesus Christ.

Your life is now hidden with God in Christ (Col. 3:3). Writes St. Paul.

And so you turn to God as David did and you confess, as David confessed,

Your are my rock and my fortress...You are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God (v 3-5).

When the faithful God has led you again to such a confession, you say,

It is well with my soul. It is well! (PAUSE)

And if your are struggling in life God has still another way to give rest to your soul. It is in the special Meal that His Son, our Lord instituted to reassure you that AAll is Well with your Soul.@ Christ comes to us in the bread and in the wine, but He offeres you more than Ajust a remembrance in His death.@ He offers you Himself with the guarantee attached to His body and blood the forgiveness of all your sins! He offers you and me this miracle, this mystery, as it is called by St. Paul, so that in still another way God tells you AAll Is Well With Your Soul.@

I mentioned Horatio Spafford at the beginning of the sermon. In the fire of 1871 in Chicago he lost most of his wealth. It was not a good time for him and his family. With a little left resources his family plan for a vacation in Europe. When the time came to set out on their vacation, some last minute business detained Mr. Spafford, but he sent his wife and four daughters ahead of him on the S.S. Ville Du Havre. On November 22 the Ville Du Havre was struck by an English ship and sank almost immediately. His four daughters wee drowned and only his wife survived. I can’t image the sorrow of losing all your children. But the story goes that shortly after this tragedy he wrote his famous words.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way; When sorrows, like sea billows, role’ Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.

Dare I say that the difficult times can prove to be times of special blessing? I not saying we should enjoy the difficult times. I don’t think that David got a kick out of his troubles.

It is the tough times, when the weight of the world is on your heart, the times when you’re suffering unjustly, you’ve done nothing wrong, but people are talking against you, these times when you realize that the universe doesn’t revolve around you and doesn’t seem to care about you... In such times you’re experiencing first-hand your sinful mortality. Jesus knows what you are going through. He took our sins and the sins of those who sin against us. Jesus took all sins upon Himself and paid for them to God.

That’s the theme this year for our Lutheran Women in Mission. We go to God because God is faithful and cares for us. That is the heart of the message of the LWML.

As David used the thirty-first Psalm to tell people that God is rock and fortress, so the LWML is telling people the same today. The women of the church do that through their mite boxes and their dedication to mission work. Our own ladies have quilted 163 . 65 went to flood victims in of the surrounding area.

The LWML also produces a magazine called ALutheran Woman’s Quarterly@ with devotions and articles pertaining to faith in Jesus Christ.

It Is Well with Your Soul & My Soul because of what God continues to make know to us about the forgiveness of all our sins in His Son, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Be like David, who when his heart sank and his spirit was low, he turn to God with the assurance that God would never leave him or forsake him. Nor will He you!

AMEN.