Back when Harry Truman was President of the United States just after World War II, Dean Acheson was the Secretary of State. Someone later asked Acheson what kind of relationship he had with the President, and he said, among other things: “It is important that the relations between the President and his Secretary be quite frank, sometimes to the point of being blunt. And you just have to be deferential. He is the President of United States, and you don’t say rude things to him—you say blunt things to him. Sometimes he doesn’t like it. That’s natural, but he comes back and you argue the thing out. But that’s your duty. You don’t tell him only what he wants to hear. That would be bad for him and for everyone else.”  (David McCullough, Truman, p. 752)

And you can see how for the security of the country, it would be important for our Secretary of State, who deals with foreign countries, to be sometimes bluntly honest in his conversations with the President. He had to do it; for the security and health of our country. 

In the same way, if we want to have a healthy relationship with God. we need to be absolutely honest with Him. And I say that, because sometimes I think we feel like we have to talk to God a certain way. We used to call it “King James English;” many of us feel like we need to talk to Him with “Thee’s and Thou’s” and just be careful to say all the “right things.” As a result many of us may ot really tell God what is on our hearts — we may just say the things we think He WANTS to hear instead!

This morning as we look at Psalm 10, we see David talking to God in a way that many of us are not familiar with. He is very blunt, very honest with God. He says things to Him in way that I think many of us would find shocking, honestly! But one thing I want us to see today is that God is not shocked. And He wants honesty from us in our relationship with Him. There are issues in our lives that will never really be resolved, until we “level” with the Lord. You’ve heard that expression, “honest to God”? Well that is what Psalm 10 models for us today. It shows us we can — and SHOULD — be “honest to God.” 

I. The Scenario

David was very forthright with God here in :1, “Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do you hide Yourself in times of trouble?” Now, if you read past that really fast, it may not bother you any, but if you stop and think about it, those are some pretty strong questions, aren’t they? In fact it’s really more like an accusation! It’s kind of like  a “slap in the face” at God!  “Why are you standing far off? Why do You go hide when I am in trouble”?!  He’s basically accusing God here of being a “fair weather friend” who deserts him in his time of need! 

My Mom & her husband just celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary; they’re 87 & 85 years old. I remember when we went up to Tulsa years ago for their wedding, Cheryl & Michael & I went to church in Norman that weekend, but the preacher we enjoy listening to there, was out of town that day!  But the supply preacher told a story of how when he was younger, he and his friend were walking to town to the bowling alley, and they had to cross these railroad tracks, and this gang of guys was approaching about the same time they did. He said they got closer and closer, and he could see that they were going to meet them right at the railroad tracks, and he was wondering what was going to happen, when all of the sudden, his friend takes off running! So he’s left there, and the gang surrounds him, and they begin pushing him, and roughing up his hair — he said they didn’t hurt him, they just “roughed him up” a little. So when they had finished toying with him and left, he looks up, and his “friend” is standing down at the bowling alley, waving at him! He said he was going: yeah, that’s my best friend all right; he deserted me in my time of trouble! 

Well, that’s basically what David is saying about GOD here, isn’t it? He is saying, God, it seems like You always stand far away when I am in trouble. And he goes onto talk about how the wicked are chasing after the righteous, and evil men seem to prosper, and they flaunt their sins, and say (:4) “there is no God”, and :5 says they prosper and they do their evil deeds and say (:11) “God has forgotten.” And he asks God, “why?”  Why do they seem to be getting away with all this? Why am I, who am righteous, going through this difficult time? And why do YOU stand far off while I am in trouble? You are supposed to be my God, my rock, my helper, my fortress — but right now, You don’t seem to be anything more than a “fair weather friend”! That sounds strong, but that’s basically what he is saying to God, isn’t it? 

I think many of us would find it shocking that David would talk to God like this; to basically insult Him, and “slap Him in the face” in this way. But that is how he feels. He is being “honest to God.”

II. The Principle: You can talk to God about anything, and be totally honest with Him about how you feel. 

We can learn from David here that we can talk honestly with God about anything — even what some might consider to be shocking sentiments, and find that He has a listening ear. In fact, we see in scripture that many of the people God used in great ways were very direct and honest with Him. 

Throughout the Psalms, in these prayers, we see David and others being totally “honest to God”. Psalm 10 here is just one of many examples; there are many others: 

—22:1-2 “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?… I cry by day, but You do not answer…”. This is a famous example, because Jesus quotes it on the cross — again, He is the Greatest Example for us of being “honest to God” — He felt like God had turned His back on Him, and He told Him so. He was being “honest to God”! 

—137:4, 9 “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?… How blessed will be he one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock.” This is one of the most blatant examples of shocking honesty with God in scripture! In this Psalm, the people of Judah had been invaded by the Babylonians, who killed thousands of them, destroyed their city, and took their babies and bashed against the rocks. So this Psalmist is saying to the invaders, “Blessed is the one who does to YOU what you did to us!” He told God in Psalm 137 what he really felt. He was being “honest to God.” 

We see men of God all through scripture do this: 

— In Genesis 17, when God told Abraham that he and Sarah would be the parents of a great nation, :17 says that Abraham “fell on his face and laughed” and said, “Will a child be born to a man 100 years old?” Talk about honesty with God! We don’t teach that response too much in Sunday School, but that’s how Abraham felt. He laughed when God told him that; he was “honest to God”! 

–In Numbers 11, when the people of Israel complained to Moses because they were tired of eating manna, he went to God and he was very forthright. He said: “Why have you been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon me? Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, “Carry them in your bosom… to the land which You swore to their fathers? Where am I to give meat to give to all this people? … I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me. So if You are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once…” (Numbers 11:11-15) 

Moses basically let God “have it” with both barrels here, didn’t he! He was like: “what did I ever do to You to deserve this?!” I can’t lead and provide for these people; if this is how You’re going to treat me, just kill me right now! He was very “honest to God”! 

—Jonah Chapter 4 is another great example of one who is honest with God. When Jonah had finished preaching, and Nineveh had repented, he went outside the city to see what God would do after they repented. Verse 1 says ““he became angry” at God because He didn’t destroy Nineveh. And in :2, he says, “I knew You are a gracious and compassionate God …”. That’s why he fled to Tarshish in the first place because he didn’t want them to hear the message and be forgiven!  He was SO disappointed that these ruthless enemies were now going to be forgiven instead of judged. So he said in :3, “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” God said to him, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” And Jonah says very directly in :9, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”  Jonah didn’t put on a false front with God. He didn’t say “Oh, God, I am so glad You have forgiven these people.” He wasn’t glad about it, and he told God so. He told Him that he was so angry that he wished God would just kill him! Now, a lot of us might think: if I talked to God this way, He would kill me! But notice: God did NOT kill Jonah for saying that! He allowed him to pour out his heart, and say what he was really thinking. He allowed him to be “honest to God.” 

And He will do the same thing with you. He will allow you to be honest with Him. You can tell God anything — and you should. 

Now, I will be honest with YOU — I am probably not as good at this as my wife Cheryl is. (Some of you will have no trouble believing that Cheryl is very “honest to God”!) In what we called the “dark year” after I had graduated from seminary, we had just had our first baby, and I had no full-time job, and we were really struggling financially. Here we were in seminary because God called us there; we were tithing, and doing everything right but here we were struggling. One day Cheryl was very frustrated, and she said, “I just read this morning in I Timothy that with food and covering we are supposed to be content; well, we’re not even getting that!” She was mad! Later Cheryl told me that when she said that, I kind of stepped back, like I was waiting for the lightning to fall and didn’t want to get hit by it ….. I didn’t realize I was doing that, but I was probably subconsciously thinking it! I just wouldn’t have said that to God – but maybe I should have! Cheryl did say it; because she was being honest with God. She is very good about that. 

Later back in 2012 in Louisiana when I got sick and basically bedfast, Cheryl tried to bring in some money by doing landscaping. But she got a horrible case of poison ivy, all over her body. So while I was at the doctor, she asked him if he could write her a prescription for it, and he did. But when we got it filled, it was this little bitty tube, when she had it on like 60% of her body. And a bunch of things just all came crashing down on us that day, so when we got back from the drug store, she held up this little tube and said to God: “Are you kidding?” She was being “honest to God”! 

Maybe there is something in your life that you’ve felt like you couldn’t really talk to God about: A hurt? A disappointment? A sin? A failure? A question you are afraid to ask? Listen: THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN’T SAY TO GOD! You NEED to be honest with Him; you need to be able to express your heart to Him; whatever it is. 

Now, just like Secretary Acheson said about his relationship with Harry Truman, that you don’t say rude things to the President; in the same way, we don’t say rude things to God. There is a difference between “honesty” and “blasphemy” — we do need to speak respectfully to Holy God! But at the same time, there is no heartfelt feeling that you cannot have, or honest question that you cannot express to God.  And you NEED to express it, so that He can help you deal with it. 

— You need to be able to tell Him: “God, I don’t FEEL like doing what I know You want me to do!” THEN He can help you deal with that. 

— You need to honestly tell Him:  “I don’t want to give up this sin!” Then He can help give you the desire & power to turn away from it. 

— You need to honestly say: “God, I don’t want to do Your will!” Then He can help you do it anyway. 

— You need to be honest: “God, I don’t see how I can forgive that person!” Then He can give you grace to forgive them.

— Tell Him: “Lord, I am angry that You have allowed this thing to happen, or for my child, to be sick!” Then He can work with you.

But see, if you’re not honest with Him, and just say what you “think He wants you to say” instead of what you’re really thinking, then you aren’t really dealing with the real issues, and He can’t really help you.  \

So you need to say to Him: “God, this is where I really am! This is what I really feel.” You need to tell Him what’s really on your heart — no matter WHAT it is. You should be “honest to God.” Because it is only when you are really honest with God, that He can help you.

III. The Problem: Many of us do not do this. We are not honest with God or with ourselves.

The problem is that instead we often put on a false front, and we are not really dealing with our true feelings. As a result, we are not really allowing God and His word to impact our lives in the way that they could, because we are not being honest. We feel like we have to “sanitize” our thoughts and feelings toward God – as if there were certain things He can’t handle hearing, or that we can’t say to Him. But as we will see, He is God; He can handle it! But He can’t help you unless you’re really honest with Him, and admit to Him where you really are. Be honest with God! Tell Him what you really think. HE KNOWS IT ANYWAY, right?! 

In Tom Elliff’s book, Praying For Others, he tells the story of how he came to spend more time praying with God each day. He said that in his first years of ministry, he had treated the pastorate as if it were a “public relations” position, but he didn’t spent much time in God’s word and prayer. But God convicted him that he needed to devote himself to prayer, so he made a commitment to block off a time of prayer in his office at church.  He said he blocked off that time; he got there early the first morning; he said he got down on his knees to pray and seek God, and he began to pray. And he said, “Lord, You know how much I have wanted this time with You.” He said the first thing that God impressed on his heart was “Tom, be honest. You have NOT wanted this time with Me, or you would have been doing it!” And Tom had to admit; no, I have NOT “really wanted this time.” The first thing he needed to do was get honest with God, so that he and God could work together on the real problem: which was his lack of his heart desire for fellowship with God. 

Many of us are just like Tom Elliff was there; one of the problems we have is that we are NOT really “honest to God.” We “sanitize” our thoughts and prayers towards God and just say what we think He wants to hear. And as a result, like I was talking about, we never really get to work on the real issues of our lives, because we never get past the surface. So you end up saying all the “right” words, all the religious jargon, what you think you’re “supposed” to say – but it’s not real; it’s not how you really feel. You are being a “polite hypocrite”! God doesn’t want that; He wants to be real to you — but for God to be real to you, YOU’ve got to be real with Him. You’ve got to learn to get past “cliché” Christianity and be “Honest to God.” 

IV. The Answer: God is sufficient! 

“God is sufficient.” This is actually the first thing I typed on this message when I began it. This message came out of my daily Bible reading. While I was reading this Psalm, I had the impression for a message on being “Honest With God”- and I thought about all of the things we have just been talking about. But before I would seriously consider this as a message, I thought: “Wait a minute; how is this message going to END?!” What is the conclusion going to be? If sometimes we don’t “feel spiritual” and want to say all kinds of outrageous things to God, ok, but what’s the conclusion? How is this going to end? 

And God quickly showed me the conclusion. The answer to all of this is that God is sufficient. He is able to handle all of these things. He is able to handle all of your questions, and all of your problems, and all of your honesty, and all of your hurt and disappointment. He is sufficient! 

Verse 16 of Psalm 10 says “The Lord is King forever and ever; nations have perished from His land.” In other words, people come & go; powerful nations come & go — but God is eternal, unchangeable, unshakable. It is just like the song we’ve sung before: “You are God alone; from before time began, You were on Your throne; You were God alone. And right now – in the good times and bad — and in all of our questions, and doubt, and disappointment, and hurt, and anger — He is still on His throne; He is God alone! And all of your questions and doubt and hurt and honesty are not going to hurt God, or “throw” Him in any way! He can handle it! He is sufficient!  And then :17 says, “O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart …”. So God is not only on the throne, but He will strengthen and help us in our struggles. He is sufficient. 

He is sufficient, first of all, for our salvation. In fact, the only way you will ever be saved is to recognize that only GOD is sufficient for your salvation.  You can’t save yourself. You aren’t enough. You don’t have enough. The Bible says we are all sinners.  If you feel like you’re not good enough to be saved, that’s actually a good thing; that’s the first step to be saved, because the truth is, you AREN’T good enough, and you DON’T have what it takes to be saved. But Jesus does! When He died on the cross, He said “It is finished” — that means “paid in full.” Jesus paid in full for all your sins on the cross, so that you could be saved. He is sufficient for your salvation. You don’t need to “add” anything to it; just trust Jesus as your Lord & Savior, and you will be saved today. He is sufficient! 

And He is not only sufficient for your salvation; He is sufficient for everything you need. And He is sufficient to handle and answer any difficult thing that you bring to Him too.  

I once spoke to a man who had lost his father when he was a little boy, and he has been somewhat bitter and questioning of God because of what happened. He was talking with me about how he wrestled with that. But you know, I told him: I’m glad that he was wrestling with it, and being honest with God about how he feels ~ and you know what else? God is sufficient to handle his questions! God is sufficient to handle his doubts and feelings and all of his honesty! The primary thing I did was just point him to the word of God. God is totally sufficient to answer his questions, and speak to his heart, and do everything that He needs to do, in His word, through His Holy Spirit. God is not shaken by it; He is sufficient. 

See, some of you have questions today that this pastor cannot answer, they are beyond me. I’m not going to pretend like I have the answers to everything. (I think many pastors get in trouble when they feel like they DO have to have the answers to everything!) Some of you have life situations that I can’t understand, and I cannot explain to you why it is that way for you. Some of you have problems for which I can’t give you any help. And no one else can either. But I can point you today to the One who can. He is God, He is totally sufficient, He is able. 

Job, out of the hurt and grief of his heart, asked some of the most difficult questions that anyone has ever asked God. The last time I read through Job I compiled a list I called: “The Questions of Job.” Basically he asked: why has this happened to me? Why have I lost my sons, and my possessions, and my health, when I did nothing wrong, but worship You? These are hard questions! But God didn’t blink an eye. Significantly, He did NOT strike Job down with a lightning bolt for those questions. He was more than sufficient to handle his questions. He DID remind him of who He was: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you when I made the morning stars sing together, and the sons of God shouted with joy?! … Have you ever in our life commanded the morning to come, and caused the dawn to know its place?” The God who laid the foundations of the earth, and made the stars to shine, and commands the sun to come up every morning is able to handle whatever question or problem you honestly bring Him! 

God was able to handle Job’s questions; He was able to handle Abraham’s laughter; He was able to handle Moses’ disappointment; He was able to handle David’s sense of betrayal and abandonment; He was able to handle Jonah’s anger — and He is sufficient to handle anything that you can bring to Him too! He is not going to blink; you are not going to “hurt His feelings”; you won’t exhaust His patience, or overburden His resources. God is sufficient. He can handle it.  AND He is sufficient to help you THROUGH any difficulty that you are working through. No one else, no thing else, is enough to help you. But God is enough. He is sufficient. Look to Him.

See, He can handle your honesty. What He can’t stand is if you won’t be honest with Him. What He can’t stand is a hypocrite. Read through the New Testament, and you will see that Jesus was patient with people like Peter who was always doing the wrong thing; He was forgiving of the woman who was caught in adultery. He dealt gently with people of every kind. But the one group Jesus really let have it, in the whole New Testament, was the hypocrites. Read Matthew 23, where He said “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, HYPOCRITES.” He said it like 7 times in that one chapter. The New Testament word for “hypocrite” basically means an “actor,” someone who puts on a “mask,” and acts one way, but inwardly thinks and feels something else. 

So the lesson is: don’t be hypocritical with God. He wants you to be real. He wants you to be honest with him. God can handle the way you really feel; He can handle the real questions of your heart. Trust Him. Ask Him any question. Share with Him any disappointment. Be honest with him. Let Him in on the deepest and most difficult areas of your life. And if you will, you will find Him to be real, and sufficient for everything you need — IF — and only if, you will really be “honest to God”! 

INVITATION:

— Is there something in your life that you have not been talking to God about, because you were afraid it was too difficult, or too insulting? God is telling you today: let’s talk about it. Bring it to Me. He’s big enough to handle it. But He can’t help you, if you don’t bring it to Him.

— God may be saying to some of us today: it’s time for you to get honest with Me. Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear; tell Me what’s really on your heart, so I can help you deal with it. 

— Some of us might say, I have really not been spending time with God at all; I haven’t been talking to Him at all! Your commitment today needs to be to get back into His word and prayer every day. God is the most important relationship you have. Ask Him today to help you get back to time with Him like you need, every day.

— Or maybe you’d say: My biggest need today is that I need to admit that I need to be saved … be honest to God: and ask Him to save you, through Jesus Christ, right now!