Unto thee lift I up mine eyes,
O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants
look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto
the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our
God until that he have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us,
O Lord. Have mercy upon us, for we are
exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled
with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt
of the proud. Let's pray together. Gracious
Father, thank you for your word. Lord, may we treasure it as we
ought. Tonight, may we apply our hearts to your
word. Wisdom Lord and pray that you'd teach us meet with us and
teach us about your Holy Spirit We are nothing and we have nothing
and we know nothing, Lord, without your grace. Teach us, enable
us to worship, cause us to. You're so worthy of our worship
tonight. Thank you for all your blessings upon us. Bless our
children, those that we love. Have mercy on our souls in Christ's
holy name and for his sake we pray and ask, amen. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. This psalm, if you read the whole
psalm generally, it seems to force us to think about our situation, Where we are, what we are, who
we are, what we're doing as believers in this world. Think about that with me tonight
for a little while. What are we? The children of
God. Sinners. We're sheep. Saints. the elect, the chosen. Our Lord said in John 17, 16,
they are not of this world, even as I am not of this world. As he is, so are we. We're not
of this world. And by the way, how comforting
it is that our Lord prays for us. This is a prayer, David.
He said, I'm going to lift up my eyes and he's crying for mercy
here. He has a complaint in verse four,
a specific complaint. And so he's crying to God and
how comforting it is since we quoted from John 17. Think about
this. We pray to our Lord and we're mercy beggars at his feet. But what a blessing that our
Lord prays for us. He continues to intercede for
us, just like he told Simon Peter, I pray for you. You think about
him going up into the mountains and for an all night, it says
at times he prayed all night. And you think about what in the
world is he praying about all night? Well, he told Peter, I'm
praying for you, Peter. That's what I'm doing. What a
blessing that is. Somebody said one time that if
you could hear the Lord in the next room, if you could hear
Him, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, praying for you, you'd never
worry about anything. But He does pray. He is praying
for us. He's our mediator. He's our intercessor. He's our
great high priest, because of whom we come boldly to the throne
of grace, because he came, he went there for us first. And
as David did, as I said in this psalm, we pray for help, for
God's protection, we pray for comfort, we pray for his blessing. But what a, we don't even know
what to pray for. I'm glad that he prays for us.
But think about who we are, where we are, what we are, what we're
doing here. We're not of this world, although
we're in the world. He said, don't take them out
of the world, but keep them, keep them. The psalmist of Psalm
73, you remember, we talked about where he was envious at the prosperity
of the wicked. He says that the wicked don't
have trouble like we do. And we know that he was looking
at that all wrong. He was complaining about that
and thinking, boy, you know, it's not to our advantage to
even, it doesn't seem like it's to our advantage to even serve
the Lord. And then he, of course, repented of that and confessed
how foolish he was to say that. But what he was observing was
true. He wasn't seeing things. And
it's true to a great extent. Some of it is just us feeling
sorry for ourselves when we ought not. But the Lord doesn't use
trials in the life of the reprobate like he does in the life of his
people. And so we do suffer some things
that many don't. He sends us trials to keep us
looking to him, and it has that effect, doesn't it? Boy, we look
up, like David here, I'm going to lift up my eyes because I'm
at the bottom. That's the only place you can
look then. He does that to wean us from this world. It has that
effect too, doesn't it? You see how foolish and vain
this world is and how it's just nothing but trouble. You do your
very best to make something happen and it just You know, it just
it just falls to dust before your very eyes and you just begin
to think, well, what in the world, you know, maybe this isn't all
it's about. Maybe it's not just about the things of this life. We ought to have known that already.
But we begin to see it more and more, don't we? He does it, you know, the scripture
says this, that he puts us through trial so that we'll be able to
comfort others that go through trials. He does it to try our faith.
The trial of your faith is precious. He does it to work in us patience
and long-suffering and to increase our faith in Christ. He exercises
the faith that he gives by the things that we experience in
this life. But let's think about it. Take a little inventory of
where we are, what we are in this world. We don't think about
that. We just kind of blend in, don't we? And we just kind of
think of ourselves as part of this world. We're not. Don't
think that way. Let's realize our relationship
with this world because of our relationship with Him. Our relationship
with this world is what it is. Paul said, I'm done with it.
And it's done with me. We struggle with sin in this
flesh. Our sin like nobody else. Only
God's people struggle with sin. Isn't that right? This world
doesn't have any problem with sin. They don't grieve over it, they
love it. They might get a little twinge of conscience, you know,
every once in a while. Or might have when they were
younger. It might bother them for a night or two, but then
they'll justify themselves pretty quick, won't they? We're real
good at that. We'll figure out a reason why we just had to do
it. You know, it wasn't good. I did the wrong thing, but I
was forced to do it. I didn't have any choice, you know. We'll
justify ourselves sooner or later, and every time that happens,
we get a little more and a little more hardened to it as time goes
on until we have no conscience at all. The scriptures talk about
their conscience is seared with a hot iron. They've just excused
themselves so many times and justified themselves, and that's
our nature. But not for the sheep. Our sin tears us up. You see
it all through the scriptures. David cried, Lord, against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.
Paul mourned his sin. It tears us
up. Like Paul, the fact that we cannot
do what we would. You know, that's a big deal.
When you can't do what you want to do, that's tough for this
flesh, isn't it? That doesn't sit well with us.
What we want to do is honor our Lord. And we just can't get it
done, can we? We just can't quite get it done.
In what we do and in what we say, we want to honor Him and
worship Him and always be thankful to Him and serve Him in this
life. And in this sinful world, in
this flesh, that's a constant struggle. It's a warfare. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. But the thing about
it is this, it is a struggle, and it is warfare, and it's spiritual
warfare. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but we wrestle. It's principalities and powers.
It's spiritual warfare. But I'll tell you what our life
is not. But what everybody else's is,
our life in this world as believers is not just a vain cycle. You look at people. This is what
we're doing tonight. We're standing back and looking
at ourselves and looking at this world and our place in this world
by God's providence and in his design and purpose of having
his sheep in this world. This world is caught up in a
vain cycle. They go to work to make money
to buy beans, to get the strength to go to work to make money to
buy beans. That's it. That's it. Well, that's not our
life. Solomon looked at that, and he
saw that that's what it was. It's just a faint cycle. You
know what he said? It's vanity. It vexes my spirit. He said,
I was in it. I was caught up in it. He looked
at this world and the things that people do, and he did all
of them. He said, everything under the
sun, I put my hand to it. You ever felt that way? You've
done it all and seen it all. And what is there? What is there
to it? He worked and made money and
did everything that can be done in this world. He said, every
bit of it's vanity and a vexation of my spirit. But the life of
God's child is not vanity. We recognize that the flesh is
vanity. And the things of this world,
the fashion of this world that passes away is vanity. And we're
caught up in that to an extent. But our life as believers, there's
more to it than that. It's beautiful, isn't it? It's
a beautiful dance. It's choreographed by God. We
realize that He's pulling every string. That every trial that
comes our way and every joy He brought them. He caused them. And He brought it on me. He did
it specifically for me and for you. We all have different experiences.
And every one of them is tailored for you and for me by God, by
our Father. Our life is a fight. It's the
fighting of a fight. And it's a fight with a great
cause. And we need to remember that too when we're taking inventory
here tonight. There's a cause. David said way
back then, you remember when he faced Goliath? He said, is
there not a cause? Nobody wanted to fight him. And
he said, wait a minute, we have to fight him. Is there not a
cause? Is not necessity laid upon us? Think about that question as
it pertains to your life tonight. Is there not a cause? If there
was one then, there's one now. God hadn't changed. Man hasn't changed. God's purposes
haven't changed. If there was a cause then, there's
a cause now. Isn't there a reason? Isn't there
an endeavor? A purpose to what we do? It's
not just the vain cycle that this world is caught up in. Are
we not doing it for somebody? 2 Timothy 2, 4, No man that woreth
and tangleth himself in the affairs of this life, We don't get caught
up in it. We're in this world, but we're
not of this world. We don't get tangled up with
it. Why not? That he may please him who hath
chosen him to be a soldier. You think about that every once
in a while. God has chosen us to fight the
good fight of faith in his kingdom. chose us to fight. There's something wonderful about
that that I can't even hardly experience. What an honorable
and privileged position we're in. And we're fighting against ourselves.
We have to realize that too. Goliath is right in here. Goliath is right in here, my
own wicked heart of unbelief and sin. But we fight on. And we fight
under a banner, an ensign. We fight for a cause. We fight
for somebody. He who has chosen us to fight
as a soldier in his kingdom. It's very important that we keep
this perspective on things. As we go through this life, I tell you this, it's either
this or it's that vain cycle. I don't want any part of that,
do you? I don't want any part of that. I've seen by God's grace,
I've seen what Solomon saw. It's vain. And always remember, again, I
want to stress this again, it's the Lord, whatever it is, the
Lord brought it. If you're His now, and for everybody,
but if you're His, He brought it and it all works together
for your good. And we can't see it, but we know
that it's true, we believe Him. Every trial, every trouble, every
grief, we have His assurance that the victory is ours. Isn't
it good to know the outcome in advance? What a blessing. We
know how it turns out. We know how this thing ends.
And so when it ain't looking good for a while, I ain't worried
about it, are you? I know how it ends. It ain't
looking good. Well, that's all right. It is
good. It may not look that way right
now, but it is. We don't despair. And in it all, through it all,
in the midst of it all, we look to him. That's what David's saying. I need his mercy every moment. I've got problems. I've got an
issue that I want to bring before the Lord, a specific thing. Fairly
specific. There can be more specific things
that apply to that. But he said, I've got a problem
with this world. And I'm going to bring it before
God, but I'm looking to Him. I'm looking to Him. The title
of the message tonight is taken from verse 2. Look at it there.
He said, Our eyes wait. Our eyes. There are some eyes
in this world. The eyes of His sheep. And how
many of those are there? I don't know, but it ain't very
many. I know that. He said that. He didn't say how many, but He
said it wasn't many. narrow it's narrow isn't it it's
the few it's the remnants it's the leftovers it's the gleaning
grapes when the harvest is already taken away there's a few gleaning
grapes that's all it is but their eyes wait our eyes wait We look to our master. That's the illustration here. Like a servant looks to his master. Or to her handmaiden. Our captain. And why do we look to him? Because
we're weak. We've got a battle on our hands
and we can't do nothing. That's why we look to him. We've got to work that's beyond
us. Paul said, who is sufficient
for these things? And we're in the big middle of
it. We can't just lay out. But we're not sufficient. So
we look to Him because our sufficiency is of God. Our flesh is weak. We can't watch with Him even
for an hour. That's the first example that comes to my mind
when I think about the weakness of our flesh. Not only When our
Lord was bearing our sin, when he was doing the work of salvation,
not only did we not have any part in it, we couldn't even
watch him do it. I can't get over that. You talk about weak. We couldn't
even watch him do all the work. Got a great fight on our hands,
but no strength. That's a problem, or is it? Because
Paul said, when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. I can do all things through Christ,
which strengtheneth me. Without Him, we can do nothing,
but we're not without Him. We get easily discouraged, don't
we? Ah, we get so easily discouraged. Do you remember when the disciples
were on the road to Emmaus? And they were walking, they were
talking among themselves, and the Lord walked up and joined
Himself to them as they walked along. And they didn't know who
He was. They didn't recognize he hid
himself from them somehow or another and he said to them,
why, what are you talking about that's making you so sad? How many times in this world
are we sad and despondent and discouraged and the Lord of glory
is walking right by our side and we don't even know it. When they realized who he was
and that he was right there with them, they weren't sad anymore
after that. They couldn't believe it for joy. He was with them
again. He was with them the whole time. He never was not with them. That's
what we need to understand in this life. That's what we need
to understand. We look into him, and I guarantee
you he hadn't yet taken his eyes off of us. We take our eyes off
of him. You know, I just thought of it,
but when Simon Peter was You know, he's walking on the water.
It seems to just be such a simple and beautiful picture to me of
salvation. He began to look at the winds
and the waves. But you know where the Lord was looking, don't you?
He wasn't looking at the waves. He's looking at his child. He
always is. So we look to him. We're fighting an impossible
battle, but we're fighting it for God almighty. You remember
when Jacob, I love that when we were studying
in the book of Genesis in chapter 35, God, you know, Jacob came
to a place where he was just, he was just wore out, man. He,
things weren't going good. He didn't know, he didn't know
what was going to happen and he was discouraged. Everything
seemed to be going wrong. He got just like we get. You
know, things, everything seems to be working against me. And
God appeared to him and said to him, I am God Almighty. And God blessed him there at
Bethel and made promises to him and said, I love that God reminded
him at just the perfect time when he needed to hear it. He
reminded Jacob who he was. I'm God Almighty. He's promised to fight our battles
for us, and he don't lose. You know, David said when Goliath
was making his threats, he was mocking the God of Israel, mocking
God's children. taunting them, ridiculing them. I believe he said they looked like
a bunch of fleas coming out here, a bunch of little fleas hopping
around, coming after me. In 1 Samuel 17, 45, then David
said to the Philistine, Goliath, thou comest to me with a sword
and with a spear and with a shield. But I come to you in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom
thou hast defied. And this day will the Lord deliver
thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head
from thee. And I will give the carcasses
of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the
air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth
may know that there is a God in Israel. And here in our text, that same
man, he was a young man then, a little bit older now. He's still fighting. He's fighting
other battles, facing other trials. He's older now. And the battles
are not always so straightforward anymore, are they, when you're
a little older than they, as they used to be. But David is
still looking to his God. He's still looking to God. He's
still trusting Him. Unto thee lift up mine eyes,
thou that dwellest in the heavens. He said, the God of heaven, the Lord of hosts, the God of
the armies of Israel. He said in Psalm 115, three,
our God is in the heavens. What does that mean? Why did
he say, I'll lift up my eyes unto thee that dwellest in the
heavens? Well, in Psalm 115, 3, there he said, Our God is
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. That's who he's crying to. The
one that does as he pleases in the armies of heaven, among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand. We're
saying to him, what do we do? That's who we look to. The sovereign
God. High and lifted up. High and
lifted up. Remember where Isaiah saw him
in chapter six of Isaiah? High and lifted up and the angels
of heaven were covering their feet and their faces and crying
holy. That's where we're looking. That's what David said, I'm gonna
lift up my eyes. Can that God help you with whatever problems
you have right now? You reckon he can? Look to him like a servant looks
to his master. The eyes of a maiden unto the
hand of her mistress. What is it to look to the master?
Who is the master? Well, he's the one that's calling
the shots. We look to him because we don't even know what to do
unless we look to him, do we? The business is his business.
The business that we're doing is his. So how are we going to
know even what to do unless we look to him? What am I going
to do today? Well, let's find out what the
master wants. Shall we? Let's see what his orders are.
We know what they are, don't we? By his grace, he's revealed
it to us. He's the one that controls everything.
He's the one that provides everything. The master of the house is everything. He's the provider. He's the one
calling the shots. He controls everything. He commands
and it's done without question. He's not to be questioned. He's
trusted, He's exalted, He's served, He's respected. That's who He's
talking about here. Is that how it is with all that
you do in this world? Or are you doing it on your own?
You go on AWOL. No, no, we're serving Him. We
go in His bidding. His wish is our command. His message is our message. His
work is our work. His will, may it be my will. Paul instructs us in Colossians
3.22, listen to this. Servants, obey in all things
your masters according to the flesh. Not with eye service,
as men pleader. Don't just serve them when they
look him. Don't just serve them in ways that they know, you know,
make it look like you're doing a great job. Even when nobody
knows about it, serve them. Don't do your job in such a way
that it looks like you're doing a good job. Do a good job. In
singleness of heart, fearing God, serve whoever your boss
is in this world. We all have one or two or three
or more. Whoever they are, serve them. Fearing God in whatsoever you
do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. Realize
that you're not just doing it for that person. that's in charge
that person is in charge because God put him in charge and we're
serving him ultimately not unto men knowing that of the Lord
shall you receive the reward of the inheritance well they
don't treat me right you know I don't get what I deserve for
the work that I do maybe it's time to realize you're not really
working for them and if you need to go somewhere else There's
nothing wrong with that. I wouldn't be mistreated somewhere
legitimately and put up with it. But realize this, the Lord's
the one keeping the books, not me. Do you feel cheated in this
world? Maybe you're looking to the wrong
ones. Because I guarantee you this
world is not going to do you right. But it ain't up to this
world whether you get done right or not. Here it is Of the Lord you shall receive
the reward of the inheritance For you serve the Lord Christ
We're his servants and Remember that when you're working for
these servants these earthly servants remember that we're
his servants. We have a good master You know When the religious Jews, they
said, you know, they trusted Solomon. They said, you know,
the Lord said, there's a greater than Solomon here. But Solomon
was a type of the Lord. Let's turn to 1 Kings chapter
four. I want you to see this because we're talking about serving our master. 1 Kings chapter four. So King Solomon was king over
all Israel. First Kings chapter four. And
these were the princes which he had, and it lists them, it
gives a bunch of names there. And in verse seven it says, and
Solomon had 12 officers over all Israel, which provided victuals
for the king and his household. Each man his month and a year
made provision. And these are their names, and
it lists those names. And then if you go down to verse
20, it says, Judah and Israel were many as the sand, which
is by the sea. Solomon had authority over all
of them. Which is by the sea in multitude,
eating and drinking and making merry. And Solomon reigned over
all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines unto
the border of Egypt. And they brought presents and
served Solomon all the days of his life. Here's a great king.
They were prosperous. They were eating and drinking
and they were happy. Everybody was happy. And they served him. They served him because he was
a good master, a good king. And Solomon's provisions, verse
22, for one day was 30 measures of fine flour, talking about
just the magnitude of the kingdom that he was over. And it talks
about that for a while, verse 24, for he had dominion over
all the region on this side of the river from Tifsa even to
Azza, over all the kings on this side of the river, and he had
peace on all sides round about him. Nobody dared mess with him. It was a mighty kingdom. And
he was a mighty king and peace, peace. And Judah, and you see
what I'm talking about? They talked about how great Solomon
was. I said, there's a greater than Solomon looking at you right
now, talking with you. We're his servants. And Judah
and Israel dwelt safely. Every man under his vine and
under his fig tree. Everybody had their portion.
Everybody was well provided for. From Dan, even to Beersheba,
all the days of Solomon. Solomon had 40,000 stalls of
horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen. And those officers
provided victual for King Solomon. And for all that came unto King
Solomon's table, every man in his month, they lacked nothing. Remember when our Lord asked
his disciples, when I sent you out in my service, with my commission
to do my work that I sent you to do. Did you lack anything?
They said, not a thing. And so you see that he was wise
in verse 31. He was verse 30. Solomon's wisdom,
excel the wisdom of all the children. This is who we're serving. Don't
get discouraged about this world and maybe getting mistreated
in this world. And you know, there's just no
justice in this world. Well, yeah, there is, but not from
this world. There's not. Solomon wrote all the Proverbs
and he spake of things that nobody else knew anything about. This
is the one that we serve, the king. The Lord is my king. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want. Shall not want. Y'all got everything
you need tonight? Then what were you complaining
about earlier today? Me too. We have everything and we deserve
absolutely nothing. That's what verse 3 is all about.
Mercy. That's what mercy is. And we're asking for more. There's
still things that we need. We see as a need, you know. Where
are you going to look? Where are you going to get them?
Same place I've gotten everything else I need. And just like it was mercy when
he gave me what I had, it was him not giving me what I deserve
and giving me what I don't deserve. If he ever gives me anything
else, it'll be mercy. I'm crying for mercy, not what's
coming to me, mercy. And when I say we deserve nothing,
that's actually not true. We deserve the wrath of God is
what we deserve. You remember Mephibosheth, he's
such a beautiful picture of this. He was convinced that King David
was going to kill him. Because you see, he was of the
household of Saul. Jonathan was Saul's son and Mephibosheth
was Jonathan's son. And being of the household of
Saul, Saul was David's great enemy. David didn't want it to
be that way. You remember when David served
Saul well and tried to reason with him. And the Lord had anointed
David. And, you know, David had mercy
on him. He had Saul's life in his hands that time. He had his
sword there, and he laid it down. He let Saul know that he'd been
there while he was sleeping and walked away. He said, I'm not
going to kill God's king right now. Now, God had anointed David. You can see why David might think,
well, I'm the king. I'll just get this guy out of
my way. No, he understood the providence of God. God has anointed
me king, but right now, God's got another king. I'm not going
to harm you. So David was so good to him,
and Saul was wicked and evil and wretched and constantly hounding
David, a great enemy of David. And it was typical, when somebody
became king, if there was anybody like that, of the household of
the great enemy, that couldn't be trusted. They were done away
with. That's what Mephibosheth expected.
But what Mephibosheth didn't know is that David had made a
covenant. A covenant with his father. Listen to it. In 2 Samuel 9. Let's turn over there. 2 Samuel
9. We're talking about mercy now.
And how we got no reason to expect it. We don't deserve it. We're the enemy. But David had made a covenant
with Jonathan. Aphibosheth's father. And David
said in chapter 9 of 2 Samuel. Verse 1. And David said, Is there
yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? Jonathan said, I know David,
and I'm paraphrasing of course, but he said, my father is not
a good man. He's not going to cut you any
slack. He's going to kill you if he can do it. But in spite
of that, you're God's anointed. And promise me something, David,
when you're on the throne, you're going to be on the throne. It
didn't look like it at the time, but Jonathan believed. He had faith.
And what God said was what was going to be. And he said, when
you get on the throne, when you're king, when you're God's king
and you're on the throne, have mercy on my house. And so David had done that. You
can tell by the language here, David had done that. He had spared
everybody that he could. And he said, is there anybody
left? I've still got mercy left. I got mercy left over. Is there
anybody left that I can have mercy on? Because I love Jonathan
that much. That I may show him kindness.
That word is mercy more often than not in the scriptures. 140
some odd times, mercy. That I may show mercy. That's
what David's crying for in our text. And you know those that know
and need the mercy of God, they show themselves to be merciful.
We know what mercy is, don't we? May that be so. May that
be so. That we're like him in that way.
to the degree that we can be in this flesh. And there was of the house of
Saul a servant, whose name was Ziba. And when they had called
him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And
he said, Thy servant is he. And the king said, Is there not
yet any of the house of Saul, that I may show the mercy of
God unto him? You see, the mercy of God. And
Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame
on his feet. That's the first thing he said
about him. He's worthless. He's not good for anything. He's a cripple. And the king
said to him, where is he? And Ziba said unto the king,
behold, he's in the house of Mekir, the son of Amiel and Lodibar. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Mekhir the son of Ammiel from Lodibar. He lived in Lodibar, the place
of no pasture, a desert place. And now when Mephibosheth, the
son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell
on his face and did reverence. He scared to death of him is
what it was. And David said, Mephibosheth, and he answered,
behold, thy servant. And David said unto him, fear
not, don't be scared of me, for I will surely show thee mercy
for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the
land of Saul thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table
continually. And he bowed himself and said,
what is that? You see what we're talking about?
David said, like a servant looks to his master. I'm looking to God and I'm crying
for mercy. Here's a servant looking to his
master and saying, mercy, mercy. Behold thy servant. He bowed himself and said, what
is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as
I am? Then the king called to Zabba,
Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's
son all that pertain to Saul and to all his house. Therefore,
and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him.
He's lame, he can't do nothing. It's all right, we're gonna get
it done for him. That reminds me of the Good Samaritan,
doesn't it, you? The Good Samaritan didn't come
and say, you know, there's an inn up the road, they'll give
you something to eat, You know, no, he picked him up and put
him on his mule and took him up there and paid his way and
said if he uses all that, there's more where that came from. And
I've got it covered. We're lame. We can't do anything.
That's all right. We can't watch with him for one
hour. You remember what he said? Go ahead and get some sleep.
It's enough. It's gonna be fine. That's who we're serving now.
It's going to be mercy. It's not a cooperative effort.
It's mercy of the lame. You're going to tell his land
for him and you'll bring him the fruits that thou master's son
may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth, thy master's
son, shall eat bread always at my table. And Zabba had 15 sons
and 20 servants. He could get it done for him,
couldn't he? He could get it done for him. Mercy on the enemy
because of a covenant. Fallen and wretched and lame,
but sitting at the king's table and eating what the king eats.
That's us. Do we think of ourselves like
that in this world? Then shame on us if we don't.
How can you be a lame, worthless rebel, the house of the enemy,
and yet great mercy shown to you, worthless, and yet sitting
at the king's table and not realize what an honor that is? How can
I do that? How can I not be honored and
count myself highly privileged every day, every day? What's
the king serving today? I don't know, but it's gonna
be good, isn't it? It's gonna be good. We're going
to complain about the menu? We're sitting at the king's table.
Verse 4, David had a particular complaint here. The scorning
and contempt of the wicked. Now, here we are. We're beggars dining at the table
with the king. But that doesn't mean, you know,
we have troubles. The Lord tells us to make supplication,
make our supplications known to him. our needs known to him,
and we do that. The scorning and contempt of
the wicked is a problem for us. This world hates us and has no
use for us. They hate our God. They oppose
us in everything that we do. You know, this world, to the
extent that it doesn't chew you up and spit you out, it's just
to the extent that they're not even noticing you. That's all
it is. But this world will chew you
up and spit you out and then step on you after they spit you
out. And that's even if they don't
even know who you are. If they don't know you're God's child.
If you really want to be mistreated, let them know who you are. Just say one little thing that's
God's word. I think of examples of that.
I can think of examples of that every day. Just to quote a scripture, I
don't believe that. Well, you're not disagreeing
with me, you're disagreeing with God. You see, that's the problem.
If it was just me, your opinion is just as good as mine. But
if you have a problem with God, you've got a problem. And this
world has a problem with us and with our God. You just talk about
disciplining your children God's way a little bit in this world
and see what kind of response you get. Just a small thing in
it. We're not even talking about
how God saves a sinner yet. Let's just talk about disciplining
your children the way God clearly prescribes in his book and you'll
make enemies over it. Just like that. They'll want
to hang you from the nearest tree over it. Get mad at you.
Call you names. Talk about how a wife ought to
in God's design and order ought to submit to her husband and
reverence him, the scripture says, as she does the Lord, because
he's God's representative in the home. You talk about that
sometime with your buddies at the PTA or something, or at the
golf club. You know what I'm saying. You
know what I'm saying, don't you? You bring it up. Just something
benign like that. It just says it in the word of
God. It just happens to be God's word. They'll string you up if
they can get away with it. Scorn, ridicule. You want to
really make an enemy for life? Talk about how God saves a sinner.
Talk about the sovereign God who does as He pleases. He'll
drop you in hell if it fancies Him to do that. And He'll be
right to do it. You ever get tired of that? David
said, I'm full of it. I'm full of the scorn of this
world. You ever get sick of that? You
can't say anything right without this world jumping all over you. I get sick of it. David said,
I'm full of it. I'm sick of it. Lord, he cried
out to God. I've had my fill of it. I'm looking
to my Father for comfort, for strength, for encouragement,
for mercy. And think about the scene here.
The world is despising us and opposing us, and we're looking
to Him. And they can't stand us, and they'll mistreat you
any way they possibly can. If they have any authority over
you, they'll use it to hurt you, won't they? If you let them know
that you believe God, that's all you gotta do. They'll hurt
you in any way that they can. But here's the thing, we look
into God who said, you hurt my children, you harm a hair on
their head, and you'll wish that you'd tied a millstone around
your neck and thrown yourself in the sea. You hurt one of them and see
what happens. You'll ask for a do-over so that
you can throw yourself to the bottom of the ocean. That ought to encourage us a
little bit. What's the world going to do to us? What's this
world going to do? They can't stand us or our God.
And I get sick of that, don't you? That's discouraging. But
you know, at the same time, how about this language? The Lord
is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. You think about all we've been
talking about, who we are, what we are in this world, our place
in this world, what we're doing in this world, our relationship
with this world. The Lord is the strength of my
life. Of whom shall I be afraid? That was Psalm 27, one. Psalm
56, 11. In God have I put my trust. I
will not be afraid what man can do unto me. Let him fight and
fuss spit on us and whatever they want to do. Psalm 118.6, and I'll close with
this. The Lord is on my side. You think about that one for
a second. You got a controversy with this world? You got a problem
with this? A little dispute, you know, they kind of disagreeing
with you? Dog piling you? They can pile
on, can't they? The Lord's on my side. I will not fear. And then he asked
a question. What can man do to me? Psalm
118, six. That'd be a good one to remember.
That'd be a good one to remember. Moses said he drew a line in
the sand, didn't he? He said, who's on the Lord's
side? And David said, he's on my side. Both are true, aren't
they? By His grace, I want to be on
His side, don't you? I'll take sides with Him against
myself if He gives me faith. That's the gift of God, huh?
Oh, it's good. It's good to be on His side,
and it's sure enough good to have Him on my side. Let's pray.