The Blessing of Letting Go

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A Psalm of David Answer me when I call to you, O God who declares me innocent. Free me from my troubles. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. 2How long will you people ruin my reputation? How long will you make groundless accusations? How long will you continue your lies? 3You can be sure of this: The Lord set apart the godly for himself. The Lord will answer when I call to him. 4Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent. 5Offer sacrifices in the right spirit, and trust the Lord. 6Many people say, “Who will show us better times?” Let your face smile on us, Lord. 7You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine. 8In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe. Psalm 4 New Living Translation An Effective Trap In central Africa a tribe of hunters came up with a clever plan for cap- turing the local monkeys, which lived high up in the soaring trees and were very fast and difficult to catch, to shoot with an arrow, or to spear with even the sleekest of spears. The monkeys were delicacies to the local taste buds, though, and were highly valued—so there was great incentive in outwitting and catching them. The hunters devel- oped a clever scheme. They took a hollowed-out coconut, filled it with morsels of pungent and sweet-smelling food that the monkeys loved best, set the treat-loaded coconut on the ground, tied a vine around it and attached it to a nearby tree. Then they waited.

In time a monkey would come along, drawn by the aroma. The hole in the coconut was so small that the monkey could just manage to squeeze its hand inside. But once its fist wrapped around the food, it couldn’t pull that hand out. The hunters would then approach. The monkey’s survival instincts told it to run, but its hunger for the tasty food kept it from releasing its grasp, and thus it was attached to the coconut and an easy target for capture. The little monkey simply could not let go, even though holding on placed it in great danger.

That’s what I want to talk about this morning with you: the blessing of letting go. It’s not a message that’s particularly popular today—in a world where we’re constantly urged to get more, to do more, and to expect more. But it’s an ancient truth that is presented to us in our scripture text for today, Psalm 4.

A Man Who Had It All If the tradition and the ancient documents are correct (and we have no solid reason to doubt them), these words were written by one of the most successful, rich, powerful and famous men of his day—a man who had it all, who was at the top of the heap.

His name was King David. He is revered to this day as Israel’s greatest king, and he was an ancestor of Jesus the Messiah. David had more money than he could spend; he was a military hero and a great individual athlete (his fastball with the slingshot single-handedly

 2 knocked out an 8-foot giant, the heavyweight champ of his time). David had his pick of beautiful women; he was a poet and song- writer; he was a planner and visionary who designed a new capital city and bequeathed the blueprints (as well as the funds to cover construction) for one of the ancient world’s great wonders—the Jeru- salem Temple—to his son and successor Solomon to complete. Da- vid also, candidly, made some big mistakes in his personal life; he neglected his marriage and his family for a time, and he ended up going through a lot of pain and shame because of it.

But at the end of his life (which is when we believe the words of Psalm 4 were written) he has come to a place of great wisdom, and real inner peace. It was not a quick or easy path for him to get there. David finally learned how to let go, and we will identify four ways in which he did so—found in verses 4 through 8

1. Letting go of the past Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent. Psalm 4:4 One of the important lessons David has learned is the art of dealing in the right way with anger (and hurt, and resentment, and all the other toxic emotions that invade our heart when people treat us wrongly). He is not telling us that anger isn’t real or even legitimate and justified. But he is telling us that he’s found the best way to deal with it. Rather than lashing out in revenge, or keeping it inside to fester, he lets go of those things that hurt him. He doesn’t toss and turn; He gives them to the Lord.

There may be a man or woman here this morning who needs to let go of the pain and hurts from the past. Someone did something to you, and it’s still bothering you—festering like an open and un- healed wound. No matter how bad it is, the Bible tells us we need to forgive. Of course our natural instinct is to not forgive because we don’t want to let the other person get off without consequences.

3  But the problem is that we are not the judge and jury, the hands of justice. It is God’s prerogative to deal with that person or that organi- zation who hurt us or did us wrong. When we let go of our bitterness and resentment, we are actually doing ourselves the greatest favor. For that letting go is what frees us from the handcuffs of the past.

There may be a man or woman here this morning who needs to let go of their past mistakes and failures. Are you still punishing yourself, or feeling shame, or believing that you’re not worthy or loved by God because of things you’ve done in the past? The central message of the Gospel, the message of Christ’s love and forgiveness, is that there’s nothing you have ever or can ever do that Christ hasn’t already paid for on the cross. He offers to wipe the slate clean, to put the past away. And if God has forgiven you, who are you to pre- sume that your standards are higher than His? What you’ve con- fessed to Christ you must let go. It is forgiven. You are cleansed and made whole.

2. Letting go of some of our material blessings Offer sacrifices in the right spirit, and trust the Lord. Psalm 4:5 David reveals another part of his strategy for successful living. He is willing to let go of some of his wealth and possessions for the Lord’s work. That’s what a sacrifice was in the Jewish temple: a giving up of something worthwhile and valuable, as a way of proclaiming and reminding yourself that God is the owner and true source of every- thing. As a shepherd would give one of his lambs to the Lord in an act of worship, so we today provide an “offering” or “sacrifice” of a portion of our wealth and material blessings. Giving to a charity is a good way to keep our hearts from becoming too attached to material things—as David discovered thousands of years ago.

 4 3. Letting go of the pursuit of things Many people say, “Who will show us better times?” Let your face smile on us, Lord. You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine. Psalm 4:6-7 People around us are chasing after the good things in life. And many don’t know when they have enough—they are constantly grasping for more. Believers through the ages, like David, have learned the blessings that come from being content with what God has provided. Joy does not result from prosperity. It’s an inner quality that springs from our hearts, not our circumstances.

Christian writer and counselor Paul Tripp tells about an experience during his doctoral studies. Like many grad students, he worked part-time jobs to pay his bills and his tuition. He was hired to work as a gardener on an estate. Here’s what happened one day, in Tripp’s own words. It was obvious what was happening, but not to him. What he was trying to do would never work. I was his gardener, and I was at the base of his property, near the entrance, when he drove in with yet another new car. I had seen him do this same thing again and again. In fact, he was quickly running out of room. As he hopped out of his expensive new toy, he asked me what I thought. I said, “I don’t think it’s working.” He said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s a brand-new car.” I said, “I think what you’re trying to do will never work.” He said, “I have no idea what you’re trying to say to me.” I asked, “How many cars is it going to take before you realize that an automobile has no capacity whatsoever to satisfy your heart?” Disappointed, he said, “Boy, you’re raining on my parade.” I was, and it was a big gospel moment.

5  4. Letting go of worry In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe. Psalm 4:8 These are the words of a man who has found an inner refuge. David says that he is able to sleep well at night, not because he’s found al- cohol or a drug to knock him unconscious, but because he has let go and put in the Lord’s hands the things that might keep him awake at night. And that, in the final verse of the Psalm, is the real thrust of it: God’s peace is one of His most precious gifts to His children, and that peace comes when we learn how to “let go” and trust Him.

There may be a man or woman here today who needs to let go of worries and fears about the future. A cloud of serious and valid worry has enveloped you. Problems do need attention—and sometimes worries are wake-up calls for us that prompt us to do what we need to do. But beyond that, worries and fears can cripple us if we let them. Once we’ve done what we can do today, we have to learn to let go. Tomorrow will come in its own time. And only God knows what it will bring. Letting go of anxiety about what might come is the only way to experience the inner peace that Psalm 4 describes for us.

Conclusion Today we’ve been thinking about the blessing of letting go. It’s never easy to do. And it’s a daily decision, not just once for all. But it is God’s way to a fuller and more blessed life. In a Christian magazine a modern working mom described the lesson the Lord taught her one day. After a long day at her office, she raced to the store to buy some groceries and other items for her family, and then dashed home at just the time her child care provider needed to leave. She walked in the door from the garage to the kitchen loaded down with as many plastic bags as she could carry, as her three-year-old daughter came running up to her. “Mommy, I made something for you today. Look at it.” In exasperation she said, “Brittany, I can’t right now. I’m busy. I’ll look at it later.”

 6 Her daughter went back to her playroom. Mom continued to unload the groceries and put them away, say goodbye to the babysitter, and begin to prepare dinner. An hour later she finally remembered her daughter’s gift, and went to her apologetically to look at it. It was a handmade card with her own artwork, and inside it said, “I love you, Mommy.” The mother was so touched. In a long, hard day it was her brightest moment. Yet she had almost missed it, because she’d been so preoccupied and busy.

Later that evening, as she was reflecting on her day and reading her Bible and devotional book, it suddenly occurred to her that the inci- dent with the grocery bags and her daughter’s gift contained a lesson for her. She pulled out pen and paper and wrote a little poem. It ends with these words: And then at last I realized, through scattered thoughts and dull, that God can’t pour His blessings into hands already full. When our hands are too full of the things of this world—all the worries and responsibilities, the guilt and the hurts and the cares, like loaded shopping bags—we can’t receive the most precious gift of all: the peace of God. 

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