Discovering Rest When You’re Exhausted, Part 1

Psalm 37:1-11

St. John’s United Church of Christ
Greeley, Colorado
April 21, 2024
Rev. Juvenal Cervantes

I have a question for as we begin our study and this is a question that God asks us, “Are you tired?” Prior to Covid, we would ask folks, “How are you doing?” The typical response was, “Hey, I’m busy.”

Now we’re a little bit more honest. We ask, “How are you doing?” The response, “Man, I’m tired.” Then those of us who are really honest say, “I’m exhausted.”

Some of us wrestle with social anxiety. For some of us, it is difficult to make it to church. Others struggle with apathy. These are real things we experience.

Last week we talked about mental health, anxiety, depression. Issues that we’re facing, particularly among young people.

Today we want to hear the invitation of Jesus himself. Listen to God’s word from the Message Translation:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest.

Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”        Matthew 11:28-30

Does anyone want rest? This comes as a promise from the one who keeps his promise, always has, always will.

Last week we shared six ideas to help us with mental wellness, whether you are married or single, six things we can do to stem the tide of anxiety, depression and mental illness:

-      Normalize talking openly about our struggles

-      Practice active listening and value honest conversation

-    Combat negativity with gratitude

-    Share the best and worst parts of our day with each other

-    Craft intentional unplugged time together without screens

-    Commit to holistic wellness: walk, journal, pray, sleep

Our Scripture for today is Psalm 37:1-11. It will tell us why we are exhausted, what we can do to replenish our strength and how to use the strength that we have. Today, we’ll focus on the question, “Why am I exhausted.”

A person said, “I’m not an early bird.” His friend said, “Oh, then you’re a night owl.” He said, “No I’m not a night owl either, I think I’m just an exhausted pigeon.”

Some of us feel like an exhausted pigeon, this is beyond being tired. Some of us are tired because we are not getting adequate sleep, especially because sometimes we don’t go to bed until one in the morning!

Some of us are tired because we are not eating properly, not resting properly.

Some of us are tired because a busy life is not always a sign of a meaningful lie. An exhausted life is a sign of a distracted life. Today we want to learn how to overcome times of exhaustion.

This is a “chiastic acrostic psalm.” Often the psalms are like the Hebrew alphabet so folks can memorize long passages, like the Torah. A “chiasm” is where there is a statement or phrase that is made and on the back side of that it answers that or explains it.

We use chiastic without know it. We say, “When the going gets tough… the tough gets going.” It is a chiastic literary tool that writers use and we see this in the Hebrew language a lot. 

Here the whole psalm is a chiasm, literally, it runs all the way to patters and then it comes back to where it started. In the middle of the pattern is a phrase that we’re going to use today:

Those who are righteous and fond of the Lord will inherit the land, and those who don’t and find the lord are who inherit the land those who are evil are going to be cut off from the land.

To be “cut off the land” meant to be cut off from the promises of God.

The overall principal is that those who do evil and fail to acknowledge God are going to be cut off from the promise of God.

The opposite of exhaustion is not rest; it is something deeper than that. The problem of why we’re exhausted is deeper and we don’t think of it enough. The solution is deeper that what we think. The writer of Hebrews tells us that we find rest, yes, we come to the presence of God a we experience soulful, God-experienced grace.

How did I get so exhausted?

Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers! Psalm 37:1

This is why we’re exhausted: fret and envy.

I would like to do a little word study. Before we apply scripture, we have to know what is it saying? Before that, we need to ask, “What did it say to the original hearers?” Because when we jump to application, we make all kinds of stuff. It is helpful to think of the “thenness” and the “isness”- what did it say then and how does this apply to us now.

The word “fret” is not commonly used in our daily conversation. The word “hithpael” in the Hebrew is really hard to translate. When we think of fret we think of fear or worry, but it is a certain kind of fear that is driven by something in the definition of the word.

The word fret literally means to “heat one’s self up with vexation.” It means to be really annoyed, to work one’s self up to anger, because of things that are happening around you. But you’re working yourself up with frustration and anger that can lead to exhaustion.

Scripture helps us understand scripture. This idea of “fret” is found in Jeremiah 22:15

Do you think you are a king
because you compete in cedar?

It is like if you have your own business, and someone says, “Do you think you can run the nation because you can run a business? Really?” Or during Greeley Stampede I like to wear a cowboy hat, but that does not make me a cowboy.

The word “fret” means compete.

Another corollary verse is Jeremiah 29:5,

If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses?

The word “fret” means contend.

What is the connection here? You and I are exhausted because we’re competing and we’re comparing ourselves to others. We get exhausted because we’re comparing ourselves to others.

Why? The Hebrew parallel is the word “envy” and “jealous.” We’re comparing and competing because we’re envious of others. That’s what David is telling us here.

Comparison is the thief of joy, that’s why many of us are exhausted and we’re not experiencing the joy of the Lord that gives us strength. If we go deeper in our exhaustion, mentally, physically, emotionally, it is because we are comparing ourselves to others.

Look what we’re comparing ourselves with: evildoers. Two questions: if we are believers, why are we running after evildoers, the things of this world, those who are far from God? We all do this, we fall into the temptation of being like every other one here in Greeley or northern Colorado, we got to have this, and that thing.

He says “why do we chase after those evildoers, wrongdoers and not pursue the things of righteousness?”

We have a different king. We say, “Jesus is Lord of my life,” and lord means ruler, master. Why is it that now that we have a new king, living under a new kingdom, and were chasing after the stuff of this world? When we do, we’re going against who we are. We’re now a fish out of water and a fish out of water cannot breathe.

Exhausted because we chase after the evil things of this world. There is righteousness and there is evil. One thing is true: sin is exhausting, we can attest to that personally, and living in a fallen world is exhaustive.

It is easy for us to work ourselves up to frustration, with all that is going on in the world. We have parts of our world that are in war and we are directly or indirectly participating in the wars, in our country we have people killing people, we have an identity crisis, men dressing like girls, children adopting a gender-neutral identity. A gentleman said to me recently, “There are kids saying that they are a cat or a dog or a wolf.” Some of us may say, “But aren’t we supposed to set the world right by going again the woke culture, show up and yell and fight against everything that goes against what “we” believe!?

Hang on, because the text tells us otherwise and Jesus shows us another way.

Some of us are fearful, envious, and this has led us to frustration and exhaustion because we’re allowing way too much to get into our minds. This is partly a generational thing. Some of us are constantly letting the news, the news channels, the news feed, and news commentators tell us, not only what’s happening, but how we ought to feel about what’s happening, and how we ought to fret and how we should envy.

Be fearful of this people and be envious because they’re getting what you ought to be getting and we work ourselves up and we’re confused and we lose our Christian witness as a result.

There is a better way. Here’s why envy is so evil? Envy says, “you have what I want and I should be getting what you’re getting, I don’t like you because you’re getting what I should be getting.” And this gets us in all kinds of trouble.

David is telling us about fear paralysis and envy that rots the soul.

David tells us why we should not envy the wicked, the evildoers of this world. Look at verse two:

For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.

Why? It’s temporary, that’s why. Jesus said, “Don’t store up thing in this world, store up treasures in heaven.” Why do we not store up things in this world? Because it is insane, it is foolish. Why? Because it doesn’t last.

That’s what David is saying, “Don’t run after all that stuff, you’re making yourself stressful, confused, you’re exhausted, you’re running after the things of this world and it is making you crazy, don’t do it.” Why not? Because it’s temporary.

This verse reminds us, it is really the opposite of Isaiah forty, verse eight:

The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.

I enjoy driving around town and seeing the flowers blooming, the trees budding, the grass growing green. Then later is fades, dries and we’re in the fall season and winter season and it all changes.

What would it look like if we’re fretting in our lives? It would look like worry, hurry, we don’t have time to slow down. It would look like you don’t experience Sabbath in your life. It would look like you don’t rest, it would look like a low-grade frustration much of the time. It would look like an inability to sleep. We struggle, we can’t say no. It would look like we don’t pray much. It would look like we’re not in the Word, because we’re too busy, we’ve got other thigs, we can’t event spend five or ten minutes in the word. What’s up with that, right? It would look like you’re focused on many other things, you’re distracted. Can I challenge you to come to Jesus, because that’s where we find rest?

The challenge is that in our culture, this kind of thing is applauded. Yet we’re supposed to be counterculture. We’re supposed to be dissident disciples of Christ living in the kingdom, with a king and our lives look different, not lazy, not slothful, but instead we live out of rest. Jesus was often busy but he was never in a hurry, because he knew exactly who he was, and he followed the lord and he was confident in his love with the father and that’s the way we can live as well. So, how is your pace, how are you doing? Would you describe your life as, yes, experiencing a lot of unrest, dis-ease, in your spirit?

This is what is so challenging with this message. We look at the evil doers out there. But maybe the reason we can’t slow down is because we have dreams that we have established for ourselves that may or may not be according to God’s plan. Maybe the evil is in us. Maybe it is not everybody’s fault. Maybe it’s us and we need to come before the Lord and say, “Lord, I have a distracted life. I am not living with purpose and with significance and meaning.”

Next week, we’ll look at what we can do to replenish our strength and how to use the strength that we have. Today, let’s reflect on why we are exhausted and let’s make a decision to come to Christ and find rest in Him.