How Do I See Myself?

This morning, we're going to be looking a little bit at the issue of how we see ourselves. The issue of self-esteem. It's a bit of a popular phrase, a bit of a popular idea these days. And recently I read a quote from a psychologist by the name of Doctor James Dobson. I don't know if you have ever read any of his books or heard him on radio.

He talks about the issue of self-esteem in his book Hide or Seek. And he writes this: If I were to draw a caricature that would symbolise the millions of adults with low self-esteem, I would depict a bowed, weary traveller. Over his shoulder, I would place the end of a mile-long chain to which is attached tons of scrap iron, old tyres, and garbage of all types. Each piece of junk is inscribed with the details of some humiliation, a failure, an embarrassment, or a rejection from the past.

He would go. He could let go of the chain and free himself from a heavy load which immobilises and exhausts him, but he is somehow convinced that it must be dragged throughout life. Paralysed by its weight, he plods onward, digging a furrow in the good earth as he goes. This week I've been confronted again by the enormity of this issue that we face as a society. Many people don't realise that the fact, or the perceived fact, of their low self-esteem is bogus. It's completely fake.

It's completely a sham. Because many people don't realise the immense love that is available to them. Many people don't realise the innate worth that they have. Many people feel unworthy of God's love. In fact, guilt and shame is often the most corrosive effect on a Christian's life.

Guilt and shame. It can force us to become bitter. It can force us to become sad. It's a massive weight that we carry around through life. But there's a wonderful truth for us, and that is that God is thrilled by us.

He is absolutely delighted in us. If God had toes, they would be curling in pleasure at the thought of us. Chuck Swindoll tells of a story where he and his young children were travelling in a car together. And one day while driving in the car, Chuck said, "Hey, let's play the 'what if' game. What if?

What if you could be anybody in the world? What would you like to be?" One of his daughters said, "I would like to be the Bionic Woman." The other said who they would like to be. But Chuck Junior, his youngest son, never said a word.

When they finally stopped at a red light, Charles Senior, the pastor, asked his son, "Chuckie, who would you like to be?" "I'd like to be me," he said. "I like me." How refreshing is that to hear? How refreshing.

"I like me." From anyone in the world, who would I like to be? I would want to be me. Let's have a look at Psalm 18. A Psalm where David writes some beautiful things about his relationship with God and where we see that God likes us.

God really likes us. We're going to read from Psalm 18, verses 1 to 24, so we're not going to read the whole one. Psalm 18, verse 1. David writes, "I love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.

My God is my rock in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord, for He is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death entangled me. The torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

The cords of the grave coiled around me. The snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called to the Lord. I cried to my God for help. From His temple, He heard my voice.

My cry came before Him into His ears. The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountain shook. They trembled because He was angry. Smoke rose from His nostrils. Consuming fire came from His mouth.

Burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down. Dark clouds were under His feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew. He soared on the wings of the wind.

He made darkness His covering, His canopy around Him the dark rain clouds of the sky. Out of the brightness of His presence, clouds advanced with hailstones and bolts of lightning. The Lord thundered from heaven. The voice of the Most High resounded. He shot His arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightning and routed them.

The valleys of the sea were exposed, and the foundations of the earth laid bare at Your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of breath from Your nostrils. He reached down from on high and took hold of me. He drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support.

He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me because He delighted in me. We see David in a tough situation. In the first three verses, see the context to this Psalm. David recalls himself to be a wilderness wanderer, and he finds himself in a valley.

Now if you know the geography of Israel, you will know that there are huge valleys of massive floods that floodwaters have created, rushing into the Valley of Kedron, rushing into the Dead Sea. And David recalls himself. He portrays this image that he's a wilderness wanderer, and he finds himself in this dry riverbed. But all of a sudden, a huge flash flood happens, and he is enveloped in this floodwater. He gets entangled in it.

Seaweed or branches or whatever is holding him down, and he's struggling for air. The weight of the world, he says, is symbolised by this. His enemies are there to hold him down, to drag him down. But we see God coming to the rescue, flying on the wings of angels in the midst of dark clouds. This rescue that he's talking about came as a response to prayer.

It came as a response to his situation that he was in. And we see that God was moved by a prayer of a helpless man. God took him out, uncoiled him from this entangled mess that was keeping him there, and set him out into a spacious place, verse 19 says. He can breathe. There's air.

It's open. No more valleys. It's a broad open plain. Here in verse 19, David draws a conclusion. He says that God removed him from a tight, claustrophobic, narrow space where he was struggling for air, and He sets him into an open spacious place.

Everyone, everyone with a bit of life experience understands that feeling: that claustrophobia, that anxiety, that sense that you cannot breathe freely. And I want us to look this morning not so much at that situation, but at the response of David in the face of this fear. The response of David at God's rescue of him despite the fear. You see, some will pray to God in desperate foxhole situations.

Pastor Johan was a chaplain of the army, pastor at Mansfield, and he says that there are no atheists in foxholes. There are no atheists in foxholes. And so there are many people in those desperate situations that will pray, but when they are rescued and when life gets good again, they forget that prayer. And they may say, "Well, wow. That was lucky. I got out of that one."

They will pass, maybe, some credit onto themselves for being clever enough to come out of that situation alive. But we see David doesn't do that. He asked for God's help, and when help arrived, he quite properly attributes that to his Lord. We see something significant about this rescue. We see something of God's character in this rescue.

Why is it? Why is it that God rescues us in our times of need? What is His motivation? Well, we get a glimpse of that in verse 19. The last half of that verse says, "He rescued me because He delighted in me."

We don't read, "After I was in this situation, after I overcame this terrible situation, after I managed to get myself out of this entangled mess, then God loved me. Then God delighted in me." It says, rather, "When my life was chaotic, when my life was a mess, when I didn't know what I stood for, what was right, or what was wrong, God rescued me because He delights in me." It's the wonderful announcement of Romans 5:8 that says, "But God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

His love is for those who are not yet fixed, who are not yet perfect, who know that they are rotten, dirty sinners. David says that not only is he loved by God, but there is also a joyful element of God's love. It is not like God is some sort of guardian, a legal guardian that needs to love this person under whose care. God delights. He is joyful about His love for us.

David recognises that God seeks and enjoys him. God's face brightens into a smile at the thought of His beloved. The Hebrew word, the word here, "delight," conveys the idea of joyful attention, of being fascinated. God is drawn to us. If we could just believe what David here announces about his relationship with God, we would never be the same again.

If we can believe that God delights in us, we will forever be changed. God rescues us because He is thrilled in us. He delights in our company. Good parents love to impress their delight on their children, don't they? They do everything they can to create in the child a sense of worth and beauty.

To pass on to their child a sense of enthusiasm that they feel for them. A child who is loved, in turn, is likely to be free, to be confident, to be joyful themself. You know what I'm talking about. You know those moments as a child, the special significant moments where your mum, you know, is getting you ready for the formal. And she just cannot help but be taking photos, just, you know, pouring over you, just being so absolutely thrilled for you.

Taking hundreds of photos. A photo with you and your date, photo with you and your family, with your friends, with the poor limo driver that just wants to get paid. For some reason, which I guess I will only understand when I have kids of my own, parents want to gush over your face. Parents want to gush over their kids. And it's not so much for their sakes, but for you.

They want you to know how much they delight in you. They want you to know that I am thrilled by you. David concludes that God delights in him. He is a source of joy to God. And from here, David goes on to bear testimony to what happens to someone who begins to understand this.

What changes start taking place. What follows in these verses that we'll look at now is not a theological argument. It is not systematic. It is a prayer diary. It is an emotional expression where David tells us what changes took place in his experience because he believed and he knew that God's rescue meant God's love.

David's life was dramatically impacted when he realised that he was loved by God. It was so dramatic that it resulted in a life that was changed. We're going to have a little bit of a look at some of those things, what a changed life looks like in view of God's love. The first thing we see here is in verse 21. David says, "For I have kept the ways of the Lord.

I have not done evil by turning from my God." David had the option, he suggests here, of turning down a path that was contradictory to what God wanted for him. In his deepest, darkest moment, David chose to turn towards God, not away, to keep God's laws, to keep God's way. People around you might see you living differently. They might see you making decisions that most people will not make.

And they will think you are some sort of religious nut. They will think you are some cloistered, self-righteous individual. David is rejoicing that he doesn't live the way that he used to live. Turning towards God instead of away from Him has become David's delight. He is as grateful and astonished as anyone else that he isn't what he used to be.

"I have kept the ways of the Lord. I have not done evil by turning from my God." Then he goes on to verse 22. "All His laws are before me. I have not turned away from His decrees."

There are some who love the wisdom of God, some who love what the Bible teaches, and then there are some who try to avoid it, who chase against it. I often come across people who are burdened by their Christianity. Burdened by their Christianity. Others can't get enough of God's word, of God's direction. For them, everything rings true.

It persuades. It straightens. It corrects. It uplifts. From life, David knows that being obedient to God's will is the way to go.

Verse 30 says, "As for God, His way is perfect. The word of the law is flawless." Following God's perfect plan, following God's perfect will for us is freedom. It sets us free. He trains my hands, in verse 32, he writes.

Sorry. "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle.

My arms can bend a bow of bronze." A bow of bronze. It just creates this image of how empowered and how strong David felt by having followed God's way. If we don't follow God's way, we feel weak. We feel directionless.

We don't know what is up and what is down, what is right and what is wrong. Knowing God's will strengthens us, prepares us for battle. It transforms us to have successful lives. And then verse 23: "I have been blameless before Him and have kept myself from sin." Now in the Bible, blamelessness does not equate to innocence.

It doesn't mean perfection. In the ultimate Old Testament, blamelessness means spotlessness. It means that those marks that have caused you to be removed from God have been washed away. You have been made perfect, blameless, spotless. What David is saying is that he is blameless, meaning he is forgiven, and that excites him.

For David, who carries around the truth that he murdered a man to commit adultery with another woman, that was a massive thing. And he is just thrilled by the immense grace and forgiveness of God. He is blameless now in the sight of God. For him to say "I am blameless in His sight" represents an amazing change.

He's saying "I'm not carrying that garbage around anymore." It's a discovery of God's amazing grace. So David's rescue was a lesson to him, and he comes to the end of that saying, "God rescued me because He delighted in me." And if I am the delight of God, if I am the delight of God, there must be something good about me. There must be something nice.

It's inevitable. His truth persuades me. His nearness encourages me. His forgiveness cleanses me. And so over time, if we embrace that, if we accept that, we ourselves will be changed.

It is inevitable. We see ourselves differently. Issues of low self-esteem, issues of shame, issues of guilt will disappear. He doesn't just rescue us, friends. Doug said it again this morning.

He doesn't just save us. He changes us. Have you ever felt as if you were in a pit, in that valley with those storm waters rushing over you, coming to a new country, new situations, new networks, new friends?

New job. New financial situation, financial crisis. Have you ever felt, perhaps, that God has turned away from you? Have you ever felt that you have walked away from God? Have you ever felt so alone despite being surrounded by hundreds of people?

The magnificent news this morning is that you can scale that wall. You can scale that valley wall. You can climb out of that pit. You are not alone. Things are different.

We may need to be rescued a thousand times in our life, but God does not get tired of rescuing us because He delights in us. Sometimes God does allow certain things to happen to us, and there are reasons for that. The promise is not that He will put us on an easy street. The promise is not that He will make all things hunky-dory. The promise is that He will rescue us.

He is with us. He delights in us. Friends, you might not know this, but God has already rescued us from the most greatest and most troubling distress. And that is the threat of eternal death and eternal separation from all that is good, all that is pure. Like David said, we were entangled, and we were overwhelmed by the flood of sin.

We were drowning. We were struggling in our own selfishness and pride, although we may have never realised it. And our lives were heading to that eternal pit. But God saw our helpless situation, and He rescued us, sending His son, Jesus Christ, to pluck us from the grip of Satan, from the grip of sin that bound us, that chained us, that enslaved us.

God did what only He could do, and that is to pull off the greatest rescue mission this world has ever known. Why did God do that? Because He delights in us. For the same reason, He can't take His eyes off you and me. That is the most powerful good news anyone could ever receive.

Whether we are sitting in church today as Christians or whether we are not Christians at all, it is the greatest, most powerful good news that exists. You are free. You are rescued, and you don't have to go back to those things that enslaved you. The author David A. Redding puts it this way: "There is no other blessing I can give or would want to give, no gift so precious, no treasure so refreshing, nothing that can provision that I can give as provision for the journey we are all making other than to tell you that God is searching diligently for you.

He is not a stationary God. He is crazy about you. The expense to which He has gone isn't reasonable, is it? The cross was not a very dignified ransom, to say the least. It was a splurge of love and glory lavishly spent on you and me.

Jesus said, "A shepherd having a hundred sheep, if he loses but one, leaves the ninety-nine to go after the one and searches diligently until he finds it." God is like that shepherd. That is enough to make me laugh and cry at the same time. Knowing that God is crazy about us, knowing that He diligently searches for us is enough to make you laugh and cry at the same time. God delights in us.

God is thrilled by us. If He had toes, they would curl in pleasure. And that is enough to make us just feel so loved and so worthy. It is enough to wipe away any self-esteem issues forever. God is thrilled by us.

We have been made worthy of His love through Jesus Christ.