Keith Battle - The Seesaw Ride

As we look at it, it’s just a seesaw—that’s what I call it. It’s a seesaw; he’s up, and then he’s down. He’s dancing, then he’s mourning, and he’s weeping. Then he’s filled with joy; he’s sick, and then he gets healed. It’s kind of like us; it’s a seesaw ride. That’s why I’m calling it a seesaw ride. Yeah, is anybody familiar with one of these? Y’all remember these from the playground? Yeah, somebody made this for us. This is wooden. Remember, they used to have metal joints? This may have been the most dangerous thing on the playground, especially if you had some rambunctious, wild kids on it. It could really take somebody out. Some of y’all, when I showed you this, yeah, some of y’all lost a few teeth on one of these, and I’m sure somebody busted their lip on here. We all remember riding on this, and then if somebody jumps off, you bust your tailbone all up. You know all of us had that experience. Even if you’re here and you’ve never seen a seesaw or a teeter-totter before, I find that hard to believe. But let me tell you this one thing I can state for sure: if you’re living, you’re on one. Every single life is a seesaw ride. Every life is filled with ups and downs, highs and lows, mountaintops and valleys. Every life is filled with praise and pressure; it’s just a part of life.

One of the reasons I believe God brought me to this passage this weekend is to encourage you—that you’re not alone. Some people feel like when their lives are going up and down like that, something is wrong with them. I’m just saying it’s the ride; we’re all on this ride. We all have to go up and down. The thing about it when you’re on this ride—what is interesting about this ride, anyone who’s ever been on it knows this—is that it’s a ride for two. You need the weight of another to lift you. Because if you’re ever alone, you always go down when nobody’s riding with you. Oh, that’s good right there. You always go down when nobody’s riding with you. Can I ask you a question? I know it’s early, but who’s riding with you? I don’t mean who’s in the car with you; I mean who’s riding with you? Because you always go down when nobody’s riding with you. And even if you’re riding a seesaw by yourself, even if you can muster enough strength to get yourself up, you can’t stay up if you’re by yourself. You need the weight of another to lift you.

We’ve seen in our lives what it’s like to have God on the other side, with His weight and glory lifting us, and the support of others lifting us. But we also know what it’s like to have the absence of support, and whenever that absence occurs, you feel let down. Being let down hurts; it’s disappointing because you were relying on somebody—you were depending on somebody—but they let you down. But sometimes—if you remember—I don’t know if anybody even remembers this game, but sometimes people would get on this and play a game. They’d jump off, and if they jump off on you, you don’t get let down; you get dropped. Has anybody ever just dropped you?

Let me get off of that; let me get back to the story. I’ll end up preaching the whole thing about the season. What we have here in this 30th Psalm is David giving us some insight into his seesaw ride. Because it’s not happening sequentially—in fact, if you were to start this psalm, actually verse six is where it all begins. The whole thing actually goes awry in verse six. I’m not going to go one, two, three, four, five, six, because it would be confusing. So here’s what I’m going to do: I’ll give you four things about this psalm and categorize it because it is not in chronological order. I’m going to talk about David’s circumstances, then David’s reactions to his circumstances, God’s intervention and response to David, and finally, David’s praise.

Alright, let me say it again for those in the back. I said I’m going to talk about David’s circumstances, then I’m going to discuss David’s reactions to his circumstances, God’s intervention and His response to David, and then I’m going to talk about David’s praise. Are y’all with me? If you’re with me, say «Let’s go!»

David’s circumstances are many, and his reaction to his circumstances is where we learn lessons. His circumstances are normal, and his reactions are normal as well, but where the lessons come is in how he responds. First of all, one of his circumstances was that he was sick. You find out in the early parts of this psalm, in verse 2, that not only was he sick, but this wasn’t a regular sickness—he was so sick he was close to dying. So that was one of his circumstances: he had an illness…