Seven Habits of Highly Successful Sufferers

Psalm 141:1-10 August 24, 2025 Pastor Chris Oswald

Thesis God qualifies believers for glory by putting them through suffering, and Christians can either succeed or fail in that suffering depending on whether they adopt the biblical habits David models in Psalm 141 and Christ perfects at the cross.

Series

Psalms

Type

Expository

Tone

pastoraldidactic

Method

grammatical-historicalredemptive-historicalapplicatory

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

67 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #24

"Applies the principle by distinguishing between Job's friends (who blamed) and true friends (who correct without condemning), and pressing the question of spiritual hunger."

Doctrinal loci· 14 surfaced

Christology · 17 Sanctification · 10 Soteriology · 7 Hamartiology · 5 Pastoral Theology · 5 Eschatology · 4 Ethics / Moral Theology · 3 Providence / Sovereignty · 3 Spiritual Warfare · 3 Anthropology · 2 Bibliology · 2 Ecclesiology · 2 Theology Proper · 2 Doxology / Worship · 1

Bible citations· 37

Illustrations· 5

The Pattern of Promise and Suffering in Old Testament Narratives historical example · unit #4 — Illustrates the grind-to-glory pattern through the general shape of OT narratives, where promise precedes suffering before fulfillment.
Spurgeon's Prophet in Rough Clothing historical example · unit #5 — Uses Spurgeon's experience with depression to illustrate that suffering precedes glory, using Spurgeon's own language of 'a prophet in rough clothing' preparing the way for blessing.
Two Men, Same Trial hypothetical · unit #15 — Constructs a hypothetical scenario of two men in identical trials — one who controls his speech and one who does not — to demonstrate how uncontrolled speech compounds suffering.
Pressure Hunting analogy · unit #46 — Uses the historical practice of pressure hunting to illustrate the principle of strategic thinking: the deer responds to the immediate threat while missing the real danger (the pit ahead).
A Chair for Jesus personal story · unit #64 — Illustrates the previous application with a personal story of a father praying over his dying daughter and physically placing an empty chair next to his own to symbolize Jesus' presence.

Theological claims· 22

Psalm 141 emerges from David's experience of suffering while fleeing King Saul. unit #1
Not all suffering is suffered successfully — there is a way to pass the test of suffering and a way to fail it, and David models successful suffering. unit #2
God qualifies His people for glory by putting them through suffering. unit #3
Not everyone has the right to rebuke; successful sufferers distinguish between righteous friends and unqualified critics. unit #25
Successful sufferers maintain moral indignation over the wrongness of suffering even when it is not caused by human sin. unit #27
Christians must reconcile the Old Testament imprecatory psalms with Jesus' command to love and pray for enemies. unit #30
Christians pray for enemies by asking God to destroy them through conversion (the gospel's 'blessed destruction'), and if not that, then through judgment. unit #31
Successful sufferers contemplate their own mortality. unit #33
Poses the question of why contemplating mortality is a consistent biblical theme and a crucial habit for successful suffering. unit #35
Wisdom for suffering comes from the fear of the Lord. unit #37
Contemplating mortality (memento mori) produces wisdom, a principle recognized in both Scripture and classical thought. unit #39
An eternal perspective is necessary for righteous living and for suffering successfully. unit #42
Jesus is the most successful sufferer who has ever lived, crowned with glory because of His suffering unto death. unit #49
Jesus prayed continually in His suffering, especially in Gethsemane and on the cross. unit #50
Poses the rhetorical question of whether Jesus practiced the second habit (speaking carefully). unit #51
Jesus shunned sinful diversions by consistently choosing the Father's hard path over self-serving comforts. unit #53
Jesus refused even medicinal comfort on the cross, choosing to remain fully conscious in His suffering. unit #54
Jesus didn't need human correction, but He received the striking of God on our behalf, which is the foundation of our hope in suffering. unit #55
Jesus triumphed over spiritual enemies at the cross, putting them to open shame. unit #56
Jesus repeatedly contemplated and declared His own mortality throughout His ministry. unit #57
Jesus thought strategically throughout His ministry, refusing to be steered by Satan or men. unit #59
Jesus' successful suffering without sin is the foundation of the Christian faith and the pattern of humiliation-to-exaltation that defines successful suffering. unit #60

Quotations· 2

"A prophet in rough clothing" — Charles Spurgeon (unit #5)

"there's no problem you're in that's so bad that you can't make it worse" — Unknown (unit #14)

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0 · Announces the text and sermon title, establishing the framing category of successful versus unsuccessful suffering

We're in Psalm 141 this morning. Psalm 141 and the title for the message is Seven Habits of Highly Successful Sufferers.

1 · Establishes the historical context of Psalm 141 as David fleeing from Saul, grounding the psalm in concrete suffering rather than abstract reflection

There's a pretty good chance if you open your Bible to the book of Psalms and see a Psalm of David, that it's going to be a Psalm rooted in the experience of suffering. It's more than likely, we think, based on the superscription in Psalm 142, we think that Psalm 141 and 142 go together and that David is writing this in reflection of or in the middle of running for his life from King Saul.

2 · Introduces the controlling category: suffering can be done successfully or unsuccessfully, with real spiritual stakes

David is a successful sufferer. And I think it's important to start off by saying that not everyone who suffers suffers successfully. That there are certain stakes at hand in various trials and tribulations, and there's a certain level of passing the test and a certain way of failing the test. You can either succeed in suffering or you can fail in suffering. And for the most part, David is a highly successful sufferer. David seems to do better when life's harder, and he seems to do worse when life is easier. I wonder if God sees any of us in that light.

3 · Establishes the theological purpose of suffering: God qualifies believers for glory through a season of grinding difficulty

Anyway, so we're going to talk about how to suffer successfully, and we need to understand what God is really doing when he allows various kinds of suffering to enter our lives. And whether it's a painful season of a relationship, you've been treated poorly, or you are sick, or something else is happening. If you are in the midst of suffering, you need to understand what God is doing. And the basic idea is that God will qualify us for glory by putting us through a grind. 2 Corinthians 4, this light and momentary suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory.

4 · Illustrates the grind-to-glory pattern through the general shape of OT narratives, where promise precedes suffering before fulfillment

If you study the narratives in the Old Testament in particular, you will often see God revealing a future of glory to his people, and then qualifying them to receive that glory through a season of suffering and struggle.

5 · Uses Spurgeon's experience with depression to illustrate that suffering precedes glory, using Spurgeon's own language of 'a prophet in rough clothing' preparing the way for blessing

I wonder how many of you know that Charles Spurgeon, the great Charles Spurgeon, had a routine struggle with probably biological depression. I would love to go back, by the way, to some of these. This is not going to surprise you in the least, but I would love to go back to these Puritans and talk to them about their diets. Because I guarantee you they weren't doing themselves any favor with the kind of vitamin D exposure they lacked, and the probably terrible food that they ate, and so on and so forth. I bet it was just tons of carbs, guys. I'm serious. It was just tons of carbs. Carbs will make you depressed every time. Anyway, as I read about Spurgeon's sufferings, I do wish I could say, hey, maybe get outside and get some sunshine. Stop reading, and so forth. Anyway, Spurgeon had a regular problem with depression, but he identified pretty early on in his life that depression was for him a prophet in rough clothing. How's that for a phrase? A prophet in rough clothing. He's a John the Baptist. Suffering depression was for him a John the Baptist, preparing the way for something much more glorious, much richer. And that is what God is always doing with our suffering, provided we suffer successfully.

6 · Transitions from the theological framing of suffering to the practical exposition of the seven habits in Psalm 141

Well, I mean, I'm not arguing this morning that the seven habits that I'm going to present to you today are the only ones. They're just the ones in Psalm 141.

7 · Announces the first of the seven habits and signals the beginning of the verse-by-verse exposition

And so why don't we walk our way through the seven habits of David, the highly successful sufferer. The first one is, is that he prayed continually.

8 · Reads the opening verses of Psalm 141 aloud, establishing David's continual prayer as the foundation of the passage

Look at verses one through two of Psalm 141. Oh Lord, I call upon you. Hasten to me. Give ear to my voice when I call to you. Let my prayer be counted as incense before you and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

9 · Explains why we possess such detailed knowledge of David's suffering practices: his habit of written prayer in the Psalms

What we'll see, in fact, the only reason that we know so much about how David handled suffering is because he prayed so often and wrote so many of those prayers in the form of Psalms.

10 · Applies the principle of continual prayer by reframing anxious thoughts as unaddressed prayers

I will remind you of something I try to share somewhat frequently most of us are walking around with a whole list of things we're worrying about in our heads. If we have been hurt or being hurt, whether through someone or some circumstance, we're going to think about that stuff a lot. And I always want people to remember, and I want to get myself to remember, that those sort of thoughts are just unaddressed prayers. They're just prayers without an address. All of your worries, all of your internal monologue, all of your reviewing of the hardships you're going through, all of your doubts about its success and so forth. All of those are just prayers. If you'll just attach dear father to the beginning, and I trust you at the end. And it's really a life-changing thing to understand that you actually pray all day. You just need to stop praying to yourself and turn all of those anxious thoughts and all of those sort of reviews that you're doing into address them to the Lord. That's what Paul's teaching us in Philippians when he says, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

11 · Unpacks the ceremonial imagery in verses 1-2 to show that David's prayer was not occasional but structured into the entire rhythm of his day

Here in verses one and two, when David talks about incense and the evening sacrifice, if you know about the Old Testament ceremonial worship structure, he's basically saying, I pray to you in the morning, I pray to you in the evening, I'm praying to you all day long.

12 · Summarizes the first habit and announces the second habit, maintaining the numbered structure of the sermon

And so the first habit of a highly successful sufferer is to pray continually. The second habit of a highly successful sufferer is to speak carefully.

13 · Reads verse 3 aloud, establishing the second habit: David's prayer for controlled speech in the midst of suffering

He says in verse three, set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips.

14 · Steps outside the exposition to address the congregation directly with pastoral concern: avoid compounding suffering with sinful speech

If you have gone through some hardships and I've talked to you, you know one of the things I'm really concerned about is that you don't make it worse than it already is with sin. That you don't make it worse than it already is by compounding the pain with stupid actions. You know, the statement is so true that there's no problem you're in that's so bad that you can't make it worse.

15 · Constructs a hypothetical scenario of two men in identical trials — one who controls his speech and one who does not — to demonstrate how uncontrolled speech compounds suffering

I want you to imagine with me two guys, we'll call them Jim and Bob. They live very far apart from each other and they're both, they don't know each other, and they're both about to go through the exact same trial, the same kind of trial. And one of them, let's say Jim, he is really good at controlling his speech when things get hard. He is good at checking his grumbling, both internally and externally, his complaining. He's very good at checking himself to not return reviling with reviling. He is really good at guarding his mouth. And then, was that Bob I said? Let's say that's Bob, okay? And I'm mixing them up. Jim, let's say, going through the same thing, Jim doesn't have control of his tongue. He's a blurter, he's a cursor, he's a complainer, he's a lasher-outer, he's a reviler. So we got Jim and Bob, and they're both going through the same trial at the same time. Who gets, who is going to make their trial worse than it was beforehand, right?

16 · Applies the principle of controlled speech by distinguishing between heart transformation and behavioral discipline — even while the heart is catching up, guard your speech

So while we would say that, yes, speech emanates from the heart and we want to deal with the heart, David talks about the heart here in a minute, we also want to say that actually, even as you're waiting for your heart to catch up, and maybe especially as you're waiting for your heart to catch up, in the middle of suffering, highly successful sufferers do not grumble. They are careful with their speech. So David asks, Lord, set a guard over my mouth and keep watch over my lips.

17 · Announces the third habit and directs attention to verse 4

Number three, they shun sinful diversions. Look at the next verse.

18 · Reads verse 4 aloud, establishing David's prayer against turning to sinful diversions in the midst of suffering

Verse four, Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds, in company with men who work iniquity, and let me not eat of their delicacies.

19 · Uses irony to connect with the congregation's shared experience of self-medicating pain through sinful diversions

I don't, maybe I'm the only one in the room who instinctively seeks to self-medicate stress, suffering, setbacks, conflicts with things like food, drink, sleep, TV, spending money. Like, I'm probably the only one, right?

20 · Applies the principle by explaining that successful sufferers recognize their own temptation patterns and avoid 'slamming dopamine buttons' when suffering increases

Reality is, is that we all know where all the dopamine buttons are in our life at all times. And what you're going to find as successful sufferers understand themselves well enough to know that this is the time when I'm going to be particularly tempted to slam a dopamine button that I have in the past. And friends, we talk about suffering, I think, mostly from that biblical lens where we think of really catastrophic things. But I would just tell you, as a guy who's been trying to walk with God for decades now, a lot of my stupid things haven't been because of hard, big sufferings. They've been because I was, I had been faithful to eat well for, you know, say, multiple weeks. And then I had a really, you know, my car broke down. And my stress went up to here. And then I go and I look for a self-medicating solution. And friends, I'll just tell you, like, you're going to constantly, constantly disrupt God's purposes in so far as you can for your suffering if you keep slamming the dopamine buttons when things get hard.

21 · Connects David's prayer to the universal human experience of gravitating toward forbidden comforts when suffering increases

So David understands this because he's a highly successful sufferer. And so he's like, God, don't let me, what does he say? Don't let me eat of their delicacies, which is totally, which is totally like a completely human experience. We've all been there. The delicacies are sitting over there in the case. For whatever reason, whether for prudence or for righteousness, we've said no to those. We're not going to go there. And then heart life gets hard. Where are we going to go?

22 · Summarizes the third habit and announces the fourth habit, maintaining the numbered structure of the sermon

So a highly successful sufferer will shun sinful diversions. Fourthly, a highly successful sufferer will seek correction. Look at verse five.

23 · Exposits verse 5 and unpacks the counter-intuitive wisdom that successful sufferers seek correction during suffering rather than using their pain to avoid accountability

Let a righteous man strike me. It is a kindness. Let him rebuke me. It is oil for my head. Let my head not refuse it. David is concerned that as he is already experiencing pain from the outside, that he would do what is very normal and natural to do. And that is to actively avoid having hard conversations that in the end would produce life. But we've already been through so much pain and my goodness, this would just be too much. We are absolutely in a coddling era where all you have to do to get someone to be nice to you and leave you alone and not tell you to stop sinning is to say you're having a hard time. And it is essentially the Christians perceived right to pull their I'm struggling card and therefore distance themselves from all accountability, rebuke, and so on and so forth. So you want to watch out when you're suffering that you don't become prickly and oversensitive. The reality is, as I've already said, one of the things, if people really do love you, one of the things they're going to be like really concerned about is you take your lumps that are providential from the Lord and not add to them. And you will add to them if you don't respond well. And so a good friend, a good friend will come to you and say, hey, let's do this righteously. Let me help you avoid compounding this problem with additional sin. But someone who doesn't, isn't a successful sufferer, they will use their current pain as sort of a buffer zone to keep people from rebuking, from correcting, and so on and so forth. They become highly sensitive and accusatory when they ought to be eager to receive help. David doesn't see confrontation and rebuke as a compounding of his pain. He sees it as a necessary corrective to keep that pain from avalanching and from becoming more than it has to be. This is clearly what we see in the book of Proverbs time and time again. And people who are actually hungry for God, hungry for truth, and understand themselves are also eager to receive correction. Proverbs 27.5, Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry, everything bitter is sweet.

24 · Applies the principle by distinguishing between Job's friends (who blamed) and true friends (who correct without condemning), and pressing the question of spiritual hunger

And so time and time again, this is just a key question of like, are you actually hungry and thirsty for righteousness? If you are, then when people tell you true things, you will not nitpick the delivery of those true things. Now, to be sure, when a sinner confronts you, it's unlikely that they're going to do so perfectly. To be sure. And so what will really come down to is how hungry are you for truth? And how hungry are you for righteousness? And how sure are you that if you don't receive correction and guidance from your friends, that you will likely fall into further sin? You have to kind of understand that in the middle of your suffering, all of these sort of possibilities, whether it be grumbling or diversion into sin, and so like, all of it's just right there. And at that time, you actually want a friend who will love you, not blame you, like Job's friends, but also keep you on track and help you not to compound what you're already going through. It will be very easy in those times to blame that person for being unloving. And the Bible's just like, no, that's not right. That's not what's going on.

25 · Qualifies the previous instruction by noting that David restricts correction to 'a righteous man' — not everyone earns the right to rebuke

Now, to be clear, we don't give everybody, we don't give everybody license. We don't give everybody a key into the rebuke room. David says, very qualified, let a righteous man strike me. Let a righteous man rebuke me. So we don't just admit this privilege to everybody, but we do admit it to somebody. And it's an important part of suffering successfully.

26 · Announces the fifth habit and summarizes it before unpacking the theological nuance

Number five is, we, a successful sufferer, will stoke the flames of moral indignation over the wrongness of what he is experiencing. And I just summarize that by praying against their enemies.

27 · Establishes the broader theological principle behind praying against enemies: maintaining moral clarity about the wrongness of suffering, even when no human perpetrator is in view

And I want to pull this apart at layers for you. First of all, suppose you're suffering something that's not like anybody's fault per se. A health thing, okay? What do you do with this idea? What is crucial in the midst of suffering is not to become apathetic toward what your heart is crying out for, and that is, I want a world that is right and just. I want an unbroken world. I don't want a world with suffering. I don't want a world with death. I don't want a world with pain. It is crucial in suffering that you keep your moral equilibrium even as you're experiencing something that is fundamentally either unjust or eternally ungood.

28 · Applies the principle to disease and other impersonal suffering, calling believers to resist fatalism by maintaining moral clarity about the wrongness of a fallen world

So suppose you're suffering from a disease. It's important in that moment to understand this should not be happening. What is happening to you right now is sin has cursed our world and you are living in a broken world and you need to keep some sense of sensitivity to the wrongness of the thing you're experiencing. Don't become acquainted with suffering so much so that you become this sort of it is what it is person. No, if it's wrong, it's wrong and you should embrace that as like, yeah, this is wrong.

29 · Exposits verses 5b-6, highlighting the intensity of David's imprecatory prayer against his enemies and the moral clarity behind it

In this particular case, David is suffering at the hands of evil men and so he prays for their undoing versus the end of verse 5 and 6. Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds when their judges are thrown over the cliff. Just so we're clear is that the very people who are trying to kill David are bleeding out at the bottom of a cliff while David tells them, I told you so. It's a very fierce, sharp, moral assertion.

30 · Frames the tension between David's imprecatory psalms and Jesus' command to love enemies, setting up the theological resolution in the next unit

When we are going through suffering at the hands of others, we need to be clear about the wrongness of their actions. Otherwise, how will we ever forgive them? And also just the wrongness of their actions so that we can know how to pray. Now, how do we reconcile? We've talked about this already in the psalm series, but let's just review really quickly. How do we reconcile the imprecatory psalms where David is praying for people to get thrown off of cliffs with what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 5, 43? You've heard it said, you've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. How do we do that? How do we pray for our enemies while also reading the imprecatory psalms and asserting that David wasn't wrong in praying them? He wasn't. How do we handle this?

31 · Resolves the tension by reframing destruction through the gospel: God's preferred destruction is conversion, which kills the old self

Well, one of the things we can remember is that the gospel that Jesus has brought us is a gospel of blessed destruction. What is the gospel? The gospel is God's proclamation that in order to live you must die. The gospel is God's proclamation that you must join him at the cross and give in to yourself and die to yourself so that you may live again. So let me tell you very clearly how you pray for your enemies and you pray for their destruction. The one most glorious option, there's lots of ways to be destroyed, but God's preferred means of destroying a person is by converting them. in which the old man is dead along with Christ and buried and the new man is risen to walk in eternal life. So here's how I pray for people that are being wicked. Lord God, I pray that you would save them and by saving them destroy their flesh, destroy their pride, destroy their sense of self-sufficiency, destroy the arrogance that allows them to act in such a cruel and hostile way. I pray that you would destroy them by saving them. And Lord, if it's not your plan to save them, I pray you'd destroy them by destroying them. That's how I pray for wicked people. I ask first that God would kill them by converting them. And if not that, then there's plan B.

32 · Transitions from the fifth habit to the sixth by summarizing the fifth and announcing the sixth

That's how I pray for wicked people. Now, number six, the sixth strategy for highly successful sufferers is some awareness of your own mortality. Contemplate.

33 · Introduces the sixth habit and signals an attempt to handle the theme of death theologically rather than morbidly

People who are good at suffering think about death. And I'm going to see if I can talk about this in a way that is consistent with the way Scripture handles it.

34 · Exposits verse 7, interpreting David's agricultural metaphor as a statement about universal mortality — both victim and perpetrator return to dust

You see it in verse seven. When one plows and breaks up the earth, so shall our bones be scattered at the mouth of Shoal. This is David's poetic way of saying that sooner or later, everybody in this particular story, both the victim and the perpetrator, will collapse and fall and be consumed back into the earth from whence they came.

35 · Poses the question of why contemplating mortality is a consistent biblical theme and a crucial habit for successful suffering

Why is that such a consistent theme across the Psalms? Why is contemplating one's mortality an important strategy for suffering successfully?

36 · Connects contemplating mortality to wisdom by tracing the logic of James 1: trials require wisdom, and wisdom comes from asking God

Well, let's trace this out a little bit. So we've got, let's go to James. Let's think about James for a second. James one, where James says, consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter various types of trials. Right? And he says, you know that these trials are testings of your faith and that they're going to produce steadfastness and steadfastness will have its full effect, making you perfect and complete. And then he says, if you lack wisdom, ask God.

37 · Establishes the link between wisdom and the fear of the Lord as the foundation for understanding suffering

So this is a new cat. This is a category for us now. When you're suffering, you should rejoice. And if you're having trouble rejoicing because you can't see what God is doing in this, ask God for wisdom. Okay. Now, what is, where does wisdom come from? It comes from the fear of the Lord.

38 · Provides the direct biblical link between contemplating mortality ('numbering our days') and gaining wisdom

It comes from, you know, the Bible's pretty clear on some of these locations, but I would just point you to Psalm 90 verse 12, where Moses prays, teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

39 · Introduces the classical concept of memento mori to show the universality of the principle that contemplating mortality produces wisdom

There's something, and it's been known throughout classical history for a very long time. There's something about memento mori. You will die. It's the Latin, you will die. There's something about memento mori that gives us a heart of wisdom.

40 · Applies the principle of contemplating mortality to suffering at the hands of others: remembering that your enemy is mortal breaks the illusion of their invincibility

And obviously, in the midst of suffering, you can see that this is true. One of the things the devil will do when you're suffering at the hands of others is make those others appear to have a level of supernatural power and that they're somehow unstoppable. When you're getting attacked by a human lion, God will, the devil will make you think, this lion has no limits. I'm done. So contemplating mortality in general is helpful. It's like, well, this is all going to be over in time enough.

41 · Applies the principle to the subjective experience of suffering: contemplating mortality reminds the sufferer that their current pain is a short season within a much larger eternal timeline

And that's the other problem. Time is very important for human beings. We have to really orient ourselves in it to understand life and so forth. Well, what happens when we suffer? Have you guys seen that meme? It's, the title says, how to make time stand still. And in the picture is a person doing a plank. Suffering slows down time and it begins to feel like you will just always be in this particular state. And so when we think about death, we're reminded that this piece of our life is a short piece of our life. And that sooner or later, this season will indeed pass. And that if I've placed my faith in Jesus, I get to go to the place where nothing bad ever happens again.

42 · Summarizes the principle: eternal perspective is necessary for righteous living and especially for suffering well

We need to orient ourselves on a bigger timeline than just this life to really live righteously in general, but in particular, to suffer well.

43 · Summarizes the sixth habit and announces the seventh habit

Successful sufferers have some capacity to see that this life is short. And therefore, whatever season of hardship I'm going through is short. It will all soon be passed. And all that is done for Christ will be the thing that lasts. Number seven is to think strategically.

44 · Reads verses 8-10 aloud, establishing David's strategic awareness of traps and his request for God's protection

Look at the last two verses, verses eight through ten. But my eyes are toward you, O God, my Lord. In you I seek refuge. Leave me not defenseless. Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me and the snares of evildoers. Let the wicked fall into their own nets while I pass by safely.

45 · Identifies the hunting metaphor pattern in verses 8-10 as a key to understanding David's strategic thinking

Look at the heavy proliferation of hunting language in these verses. Keep me from the trap, from the snares, from the nets.

46 · Uses the historical practice of pressure hunting to illustrate the principle of strategic thinking: the deer responds to the immediate threat while missing the real danger (the pit ahead)

Now, hunting has changed quite a bit since the invention of gunpowder, as you might imagine. hunting is more of a solo sport now than it's ever been before, especially large game hunting. But for the longest time, hunting was mostly done through various means of pressure hunting, where you would get a group of people together and go out into a field and simply press the game in the direction that you wanted them to go, usually into a net, a snare, a pit, or off a cliff, so on and so forth. Now, I want you to think about that because we could, we would get arrested or fined if we did this because you can't do it anymore. But if we wanted to, we could go out into a field right now and position a group of men in a certain way and we could move the deer just by them being afraid of us in a particular direction and voila, we've got ourselves a deer in a pit. What's going on in that situation is the deer is actually not playing, they're playing checkers, right? The deer is not playing chess. The deer is responding to the person as if the person is the threat, but in reality, you're using this pressure hunting technique to steer a person or a deer towards something that you actually want to, like, this is the undoing is over there, you know. You think it's me, but it's actually over here.

47 · Applies the pressure hunting analogy to spiritual warfare: Satan uses suffering to steer believers toward sin, and successful sufferers recognize this tactic

Well, this is the fundamental thing you need to know about Satan's strategy for suffering. He is going to hurt you. He's going to try to steer you and he's going to use the pain in your life to move you in a particular direction and you just need to know that. You need to not be outwitted by Satan's devices. You need to understand that he uses fear and he uses pain to move you in places that are further away from God and more in mortal danger than you were at the beginning. So, you just need to understand what the basic game is on the devil's side. He is actually trying to steer you and move you in a particular direction.

48 · Recaps all seven habits in sequence, completing the exposition of Psalm 141 and preparing for the Christological turn

So, those are the seven habits in this text for a highly successful sufferer named David. He prayed continually. He spoke carefully. He shunned sinful diversions. He sought correction. He prayed against his enemies. He contemplated his mortality and he thought strategically.

49 · Transitions from David to Jesus as the ultimate successful sufferer, establishing the Christological fulfillment of the sermon's theme

Now, wrapping up, David is a successful sufferer. Is he the most successful sufferer in the Bible? Well, if you listen to my sermons, I always end with Jesus. Here's Jesus, the most successful sufferer who has ever lived or died. Hebrews 2.9, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

50 · Demonstrates that Jesus practiced the first habit (praying continually) by pointing to Gethsemane and the cross

Did Jesus maintain these seven habits of highly successful sufferers? Did Jesus pray continually? Read the crucifixion story again. Start with Gethsemane. You know what it says of Jesus in Gethsemane? And being in agony, he prayed all the more earnestly. What is Jesus saying mostly from the cross? Who is Jesus speaking to mostly from the cross? He is indeed as he's suffering increases, so do his prayers.

51 · Poses the rhetorical question of whether Jesus practiced the second habit (speaking carefully)

Speak carefully. Did Jesus speak carefully in his sufferings?

52 · Demonstrates that Jesus practiced the second habit (speaking carefully) by citing Peter's description of Jesus not returning reviling

First Peter 2. When Jesus was reviled, Peter tells us, he did not return reviling. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. This is Peter's way of caring for his church and helping them to stay quiet when unjust suffering. Just hold your peace. Let God who judges justly vindicate you. Jesus did that.

53 · Demonstrates that Jesus practiced the third habit (shunning sinful diversions) by choosing the Father's hard way over self-medicating comforts

Shun sinful diversions. Jesus' life was acquainted with sorrows. He had a hard life, but he did not entrust himself to man. He chose time and time again to do it the father's way and not the easy way, missing meals, missing time with his family, and so on and so forth.

54 · Extends the previous unit with a specific example: Jesus refused wine mixed with myrrh, choosing to remain fully conscious in His suffering

Indeed, even as he is dying, he's offered a kind of anesthesia, a kind of primitive anesthesia, and a number of the Gospels record this. They offer him wine mixed with myrrh, and when he tasted it, he knew what it was, and he did not take it. Why? He chose to be fully conscious in his sufferings, and not eat of this particular delicacy to blunt the pain.

55 · Demonstrates the fourth habit (seeking correction) by noting that Jesus didn't seek correction from man but received striking from God as our substitute

Did he seek correction? David says, let a righteous man strike me. Did Jesus seek correction? No, he did not seek correction. He took on our sin, and the righteous God of the universe struck him. You know, there's a little, when you're doing Christology, when you're seeing Jesus, there are going to be little wrinkles because he's Jesus. Did he need a righteous man to strike him? No, but we needed a righteous God to strike him. Or we would have absolutely no hope in our suffering.

56 · Demonstrates that Jesus practiced the fifth habit (praying against enemies) by triumphing over spiritual rulers and authorities at the cross

Did he pray against his enemies? Well, I'll tell you this. Colossians 2.15 says that in his cross, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them.

57 · Demonstrates that Jesus practiced the sixth habit (contemplating mortality) by repeatedly declaring His intention to lay down His life

Did he contemplate his mortality? Absolutely, he did. He repeatedly said, I have come to lay down my life.

58 · Extends the previous unit with Jesus' final declaration from the cross, demonstrating His full consciousness of His own mortality

And as he is on the cross, he calls out to the Father, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit and having said this, he breathed his last.

59 · Demonstrates that Jesus practiced the seventh habit (thinking strategically) by consistently refusing to be manipulated or steered by Satan or men

Did he think strategically? Yeah. He knew how to not be steered. Read the Gospels and you'll see a man who just refused to be steered. He was always thinking strategically.

60 · Proclaims the grind-to-glory pattern in Christ as the foundation of all successful suffering, citing Philippians 2 as the definitive statement of Christ's humiliation and exaltation

So the truth is, is that our entire faith is built, and I think the whole world is built on the concept of successful suffering, starting with Jesus. He is the foundation of everything, and it is his ability to suffer successfully without sin that makes all of this possible. He went through the great grind for the great glory, Philippians 2, 6. Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, this is all the grind, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.

61 · Concludes the theological exposition by reading 1 Peter 2:19-25, which calls Christians to follow Jesus' example of suffering and identifies Him as the shepherd who enables this following

There's your grind and glory pattern, it's all over the Bible. And I'll leave us with what we read this morning for our call to worship, Peter's words not only to put your faith in Jesus as the most successful sufferer, but also to follow Jesus' example. 1 Peter 2 19, for this is a gracious thing when mindful of God one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. for what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile and return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseers of your souls.

62 · Issues a rhetorical challenge about the potential global impact if Christians learned to suffer successfully like Jesus

Two things real quick. Do you know how different the world would be? If all Christians learned how to be successful sufferers, do you know how much glory would be on the tail end of that grind? It would change everything if we could just learn how to do this like Jesus did this.

63 · Directly addresses sufferers in the congregation with a pastoral invitation to walk with Jesus through their suffering, modeling a prayer of humility and dependence

Secondly, do you understand, dear sufferer, that the man, Christ Jesus, acquainted with suffering, is your friend, and that he is right now happy to walk with you and keep you on track? and help you to suffer well. Let's humble ourselves today and say, Lord Jesus, I think I've been trying to do some of this suffering without my shepherd and the overseer of my souls. And I want to walk with you through this. You did it perfectly, and you've paid for me to do it better. So I want to walk with you through this.

64 · Illustrates the previous application with a personal story of a father praying over his dying daughter and physically placing an empty chair next to his own to symbolize Jesus' presence

I have a friend that many, many years ago, his daughter was born with a heart condition, didn't appear that she was going to survive, and you really couldn't. This was before all the monitors and stuff, and so you just had to stay up while your baby slept. And he would sit in the room and pray over this little girl who was just flirting with death all night. And eventually he realized, you know, there should be, he went and got another chair out of the kitchen, and he put this chair next to his chair, and he said, Lord Jesus, let's sit here tonight and walk through this again, knowing full well that he had a shepherd and overseer who would absolutely spend the night with him. Again, as he tried to suffer well.

65 · Transitions from the sermon proper to the communion liturgy by connecting the sacrament to the sermon's theme of Jesus as shepherd and successful sufferer

So communion today is all about celebrating this great Savior and shepherd who is with us. So if you place your faith in Jesus, and you're ready to follow him, and you are following him, then I would invite you to come and take a cup and a piece of bread, and come back to your seat, and we'll go through communion together after you get your elements.

66 · Closes the sermon with a pastoral prayer acknowledging Jesus as shepherd, confessing failures in suffering, and asking for grace and faith to follow His example

Let me pray. Lord Jesus, you are the great shepherd and overseer of our souls. And it is you who laid down your life for us so that we could be called sons and daughters of God. We praise your holy name for how faithful you've been to us. And we thank you so much for how much you've forgiven us. There's probably not a way to count the number of times we've suffered poorly. You are so full of grace. We do want to follow you, and we can see that this is the better way. So, Lord, would for the many times we failed and give us faith, Lord, to pursue you in this way. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Come.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Jul 27, 2025

Reverence & Reward

The fear of the Lord—understood as filial reverence expressed in both attitude and action—is the pathway to genuine biblical blessings, which God faithfully gives according to his own timing and type rather than our specifications.

Psalm 128:1-6

Aug 10, 2025

Understanding God's Personality

God's primary personality feature is His enthusiastic delight in redemption, demonstrated by where He meets us (in our pits), how He meets us (eagerly and repeatedly), and how He leaves us (crowned with steadfast love, not merely rescued).

Psalm 103

Aug 17, 2025

Developing a Godly Personality

A godly personality is formed not by willpower-driven emulation of divine attributes but by daily immersion in God's undeserved grace, which produces instinctive graciousness, mercy, and freedom from the need to compete for earthly approval.

Psalm 103:1-22

August 24 · This sermon

Seven Habits of Highly Successful Sufferers

God qualifies believers for glory by putting them through suffering, and Christians can either succeed or fail in that suffering depending on whether they adopt the biblical habits David models in Psalm 141 and Christ perfects at the cross.

Psalm 141:1-10

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

David wrote Psalm 141 while fleeing from King Saul—a season of genuine danger and uncertainty. What does the psalm reveal about where David…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we trace the arc from David's model of prayerful suffering, through Christ as the supreme sufferer, to our own calling to embrace suffering as God's instrument for our glory.

Prayer

Prayer for Successful Suffering

Father, we come before You in awe of Your character — You are the God who qualifies Your people for glory through suffering, who calls us no…

Family table

When Hard Things Happen, What Do We Do?

This prompt invites your family to think about David's example in Psalm 141 — when he was running from King Saul, he didn't just complain or…

Couples

Suffering Successfully Together

What habit from David's example—prayer, guarded speech, resisting comfort, seeking correction, praying for enemies, contemplating mortality,…

Memorize

Hebrews 2:9

This verse crystallizes the sermon's central claim that God qualifies His people for glory through suffering, culminating in Christ as the most successful sufferer. It directly establishes the humiliation-to-exaltation pattern that defines both Jesus' suffering and the believer's call to follow His example in adopting the seven habits of successful suffering.

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

This week we trace the arc from David's model of prayerful suffering, through Christ as the supreme sufferer, to our own calling to embrace suffering as God's instrument for our glory.

Monday 2 Corinthians 4

Paul's declaration that afflictions are producing in us an 'eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison' (4:17) grounds the sermon's central claim: suffering is not punishment but the instrument by which God shapes us for glory. We are being transformed 'from one degree of glory to another' (3:18), and suffering is the refiner's fire in that transformation. As we face trials, we are not being abandoned but actively qualified.

Tuesday James 1:2-5

James frames the testing of faith as a means to 'steadfastness' and 'completeness,' but only if we 'lack nothing'—meaning we must seek the wisdom that comes from asking God (1:5). This echoes David's habit of continual prayer and the sermon's claim that successful suffering requires deliberate practices. The difference between growing through trial and being crushed by it hinges on whether we turn to God for the wisdom to endure.

Wednesday Hebrews 2:9

The author's statement that we see Jesus 'crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death' presents Christ's humiliation-to-exaltation pattern as the template for all Christian suffering. His 'tasting death for everyone' was not meaningless agony but purposeful, redemptive endurance that secured our salvation. In beholding His crowned suffering, we glimpse the future shape of our own trials: present pain yielding to future glory.

Thursday 1 Peter 2:23

Peter's portrait of Christ entrusting Himself 'to him who judges justly' while being reviled, suffering, and making no threats captures the sermon's claim about successful suffering: it requires refusing both the comfort of sin and the gratification of revenge. Jesus had every power to escape or strike back, yet He neither numbed His pain through distraction nor vindicated Himself through force. His restraint declares that trust in God's justice exceeds the need for self-protection.

Friday Philippians 4:6

Paul's exhortation to present our requests to God 'with thanksgiving' transforms suffering from isolated anxiety into dialogue with our Father, the habit David models throughout Psalm 141. We are not meant to carry our trials silently or nurse them in worry; instead, every anxious thought becomes an occasion to address God directly. In this redirection, the burden shifts from our shoulders to His care, and we discover that grateful prayer in the midst of pain is itself an act of successful suffering.

Draft · pending review

Pray together this week

Prayer for Successful Suffering

Father, we come before You in awe of Your character — You are the God who qualifies Your people for glory through suffering, who calls us not to escape trial but to endure it faithfully. We confess that we have often failed in our suffering, seeking comfort through sinful diversions, allowing anxiety to become prayer without an address, and letting our words fall into complaint and grumbling when we should guard our lips with watchfulness (Psalm 141:3). We have not contemplated our mortality or sought the eternal perspective that produces true wisdom; instead, we have treated our present suffering as though it were our ultimate reality.

We thank You that in the gospel we have not a distant God but the most successful sufferer who has ever lived — Jesus Christ, who prayed continually in His agony, refused every sinful comfort, received the Father's striking on our behalf, and triumphed over our enemies at the cross without sin (Hebrews 2:9, Luke 22:44). His humiliation has become our exaltation; His faithful suffering has opened the way for ours to mean something in Your kingdom. We are compelled by His grace to follow His pattern.

Grant us, we pray, the habits David models and Christ perfects: give us ears to hear rebuke from righteous friends and the discernment to distinguish them from unqualified critics; strengthen us to resist the temptation to self-medicate our pain through worldly escapes; and bind our hearts to continual prayer, so that our anxious thoughts become honest conversation with You (Philippians 4:6). Help us to remember our mortality not with despair but with the fear of the Lord that produces wisdom (Psalm 141:8-10). Teach us to think strategically about our faith, refusing to be steered from the hard path You have set before us, and grant us the grace to pray for those who oppose us — asking that You would turn them through the gospel's blessed destruction, or judge them according to Your justice.

We commit ourselves together to the glad pursuit of successful suffering, knowing that You will be faithful to complete what You have begun in us. To You be glory and dominion forever.

Draft · pending review

Sunday-evening family table

When Hard Things Happen, What Do We Do?

For the parent

This prompt invites your family to think about David's example in Psalm 141 — when he was running from King Saul, he didn't just complain or give up. Instead, he prayed, watched his words, and asked God for help. The goal is to help kids see that *how* we respond to hard things matters just as much as the hard thing itself.

When something really hard happens — like someone's mean to you, or you're scared, or things don't go the way you hoped — what's one thing David did in Psalm 141 that we could do too? (Hint: he started by praying and being careful about what he said.)

works for ages 7+

Draft · pending review

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

David wrote Psalm 141 while fleeing from King Saul—a season of genuine danger and uncertainty. What does the psalm reveal about where David directed his attention and energy during this trial, and what does that suggest about his understanding of who could help him?

Psalm 141:1-2

→ How is David's posture toward God in this psalm different from what we might naturally do when facing our own threatening circumstances?
The sermon identifies seven habits that characterize 'successful' suffering versus failing in suffering. Why do you think the preacher frames suffering as something we can succeed or fail at, rather than simply something we endure?
David asks God to set a guard over his mouth and keep watch over the door of his lips (Psalm 141:3). What does this reveal about David's awareness of his own vulnerability, and what temptation to speech is he guarding against during his suffering?

Psalm 141:3-4

→ What would 'guarding our speech' look like for us when we're in the midst of difficulty—not perfection, but conscious discipline?
The sermon teaches that God qualifies His people for glory through suffering, and that this pattern culminates in Christ. How does understanding Jesus as 'the most successful sufferer' change the way we think about our own seasons of trial?

Hebrews 2:9

→ If Jesus' suffering was redemptive and led to His exaltation, what does that suggest about the potential purpose or outcome of our suffering?
David demonstrates the habit of contemplating mortality—acknowledging his own finitude and the reality of death. Why would this ancient practice of memento mori actually be a source of wisdom and help in suffering, rather than deepening despair?

→ When you think honestly about your own mortality and the brevity of this life, how does that perspective reshape what feels urgent or important to you right now?
The sermon explains that we pray for our enemies—including spiritual enemies—by praying for their conversion through the gospel, and if not conversion, then for God's righteous judgment. How does this framework (from Matthew 5:43-45 and the imprecatory psalms) help us hold together Jesus' command to love our enemies with the reality that some will resist God's grace?

Matthew 5:43-45

→ Who is someone in your life—or someone you know of—toward whom you need to practice this kind of prayer, and what would it look like to pray for their conversion this week?

Draft · pending review

Couples · three questions over coffee

Suffering Successfully Together

What habit from David's example—prayer, guarded speech, resisting comfort, seeking correction, praying for enemies, contemplating mortality, or thinking strategically—did the sermon expose as most needed in your own life right now?
How might we, as a couple, strengthen each other in one of these habits when suffering comes, rather than enabling the opposite pattern in one another?
What is one way you could pray for your spouse this week as they face their own trials—asking God to work these seven habits into their faithful endurance?

Draft · pending review

Memory verse this week

Hebrews 2:9

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Why this verse: This verse crystallizes the sermon's central claim that God qualifies His people for glory through suffering, culminating in Christ as the most successful sufferer. It directly establishes the humiliation-to-exaltation pattern that defines both Jesus' suffering and the believer's call to follow His example in adopting the seven habits of successful suffering.

Draft · pending review

Where this was preached

About the church

Providence Community Church

Lenexa, KS
Sundays · 10:00 AM
About us · What we believe

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# Providence Community Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [Reverence & Reward (Psalm 128:1-6, 2025-07-27)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2025/07/reverence-reward)
- [Understanding God's Personality (Psalm 103, 2025-08-10)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2025/08/understanding-god-s-personality)
- [Developing a Godly Personality (Psalm 103:1-22, 2025-08-17)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2025/08/developing-a-godly-personality)
- [Seven Habits of Highly Successful Sufferers (Psalm 141:1-10, 2025-08-24)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2025/08/seven-habits-of-highly-successful-sufferers)

## About
- [About the church](/about)
- [Plan a visit](/visit)

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