All right, brethren, let's go
to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. And let's pick up here in verse
49. Remember the word to thy servant,
upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort. in my affliction, for thy word
hath quickened me. The proud have had me greatly
in derision, yet have I not declined from thy law. I remembered thy
judgments of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself. Horror
hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy
law. Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I have remembered thy name, O
Lord, in the night and have kept thy law. This I had because I
kept thy precepts." I've titled this I am his, he is mine and
the reason is because this word where David says in verse 56,
this I had, he's saying this is mine. He knew this is mine
and we're going to see he knew Christ was his and he was Christ. I am his and he is mine. David
spent most of his life pursued by men in the wilderness. Even after he had come to the
throne, he ended up back in the wilderness. His own house was
pursuing him, his children, and he spent most of his time pursued
by men in the wilderness. And that's why he's such a good
type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is who we hear in this
psalm, as we do in all these psalms. And as the representative
representing his people that God chose and gave to him, we
can hear our Lord walking by faith. We can hear our Lord depending
on the Father, his Father and our Father, his God and our God
as our righteous substitute, our head perfecting obedience
for his people. And so by our Savior, because
He did fulfill all righteousness and He is risen now as the God-man,
He brings us to call upon Him and trust Him to do for us even
as He did when He walked this earth. We're walking by faith,
depending on Him, and we're even depending on Him to keep us walking
by faith, keep quickening us and do this for us. I want to
just go verse by verse, but the first thing, I want us to hear
our Redeemer pleading the covenant promises of God his Father. Now
hear the Redeemer here, and he's calling on the Father, pleading
the promises of the Father. He said in verse 49, remember
the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to
hope. The Father really in those covenant
promises that he made to Abraham, he said, I've made these to thee
and thy seed. And Paul said in Galatians, that
seed's Christ. And when you hear the promises
made to Abraham, they were promises made to Christ. And therefore
they were promises to Abraham and to all the elect because
Christ was the fulfillment of them. That's why when the law
of Sinai entered in, it didn't change God's promise. It was
all his covenant. And our Heavenly Father said
to the Lord Jesus, let me just give you something, he said to
the Lord Jesus, he said, in an acceptable time have I heard
thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee, and I will
preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people
to establish the earth, the cause to inherit the desolate heritage.
that thou may say to the prisoners, go forth, and to them that are
in darkness, show yourself. They shall feed in the ways,
and their pastor shall be in all high places. And so when
our Lord was facing trouble, he's God, but as a man, he's
thoroughly depending on the Father, trusting the covenant word to
him. And the Lord said this as well in Isaiah chapter 50, He
said, the Lord opened mine ear. He's that servant. He says here,
I'm your servant. He's the servant. He's the willing
bond servant. He opened his ear with it all,
remember, and he would become the, stay with his master. He
said, the Lord opened my ear and I was not rebellious, neither
turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face
from shame and spitting, for the Lord God will help me. He
will help me. Therefore, shall I not be confounded?
Therefore, I've set my face like a flint. I know I shall not be
ashamed. He's near that justifies me.
Who will contend with me? He's getting that from the promise
the Father made to him. And so our Lord in our text is
saying, remember the word unto thy servant. Father, remember
the word unto thy servant on which thou hast caused me to
hope. And so, because He fulfilled our righteousness for us, and
because He put away the sin of His people, and now He's ascended
to the right hand of the Father, He is the covenant to us. All
God's promises are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, and truly He
is the covenant. He is the covenant to His people. He said, this is the New Testament
in my blood, in my blood, and all the promises He makes to
us, is what we ask him to remember when we're in need and we need
him to help and to deliver us. We're asking him to remember
the promises, his word of promise that he's made to us and calls
us to hope in. That's the blessing of grace
is having God's everlasting covenant made to us in Christ through
faith. That covenant interest we have
in Christ can't ever be changed. It's an everlasting covenant.
They're exceeding great and precious promises, and they are written
in the blood of our Redeemer. He is to us the covenant. He is the covenant. He is the
living word, the living word. He is the promise in whom we
trust. And every promise of God is yes
and amen in Him. So when you're in trouble and
you need God's help, You plead the promises God's made to you. There's a promise in God's covenant
to his people for every need that we have. Sin, he promised,
you come to me, you confess your sin and you cast all your hope
into my hand and on my mercy and believe on my son and there's
pardon and cleansing for his people. Distress, when you're
in distress, God promises peace. Christ said, my peace I give
unto you. Not as the world gives, give
I unto you. He gives us peace for our distress. Darkness, God promises light
to his people. Our Lord is the light and he
said, he that believes on me shall not abide in darkness.
You'll enter in darkness, you'll go through some night seasons
as we'll see with David here, but you won't abide in it. Plead
that promise to him. Affliction, he promises that
his grace is sufficient for you. He said, my strength is made
perfect in weakness. And we call and ask him, well,
remember that promise. Remember that promise. In all
our afflictions, God changes. Not. Believe him and trust him
and you're safe. You're safe. And this is our
comfort. He says there, verse 50, this
is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me. Notice he says, this is my comfort
in my affliction. Our Lord is the God who rules
the affliction, and God has affliction just suited for each one of his
children. He knows just what we need, just
when we need it, just how long we need it, and it's my affliction. Yours is your affliction. my
affliction. And our faithful Savior also
has comfort specifically for each of His children. This is
my comfort in my affliction. And He's that comfort. And how
does He give it? He says, Thy word hath quickened
me. The Lord Jesus is the word. He
is the word and he speaks the word and he quickens his people.
We saw how he spoke to Mary and quickened her again. And she
went from being in darkness, she went from being cast down
to laying hold of him and rejoicing. Thy word, this is my comfort
in my affliction, thy word hath quickened me. He's the resurrection
and he's the life, the living word that quickens. It's him. It's him. He quickens. He's the
word that quickens. He quickened us when he first
called you, and that's the only way we believed him. But he keeps
quickening those he's already quickened. Listen to this from
Psalm 71 20. Thou which has showed me great
and sore troubles, You, the one who gave me this affliction,
Lord, you've shown me great and sore troubles, shall quicken
me again and shall bring me up again from the depths of the
earth. That's what our Lord Jesus prayed to the Father and trusted
the Father to do, and that's what he brings us to trust him
to do for us. It's his quickening us that makes
us call upon his name and plead his promises. He quickens you
to make you call on Him and ask Him to quicken you. He said in
Psalm 18, So will not we go back from thee, quicken us, and we
will call upon thy name. That's how we're not going to
go back. You quicken us, Lord, and we'll call upon your name.
That's how you call upon His name. And this was David's constant
plea. It's mine. It's yours that know
Him. because we know we need our Lord's
quickening. Look there again in verse 25,
my soul cleaveth unto the dust, quicken thou me according to
thy word. Verse 37, turn away mine eyes
from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in the way. Verse 40,
behold I've longed after thy precepts, quicken me in thy righteousness. This is a believer, this is,
We confess our ways to him, we confess our sins to him, and
we want to obey him, and we need him to quicken us. Listen to
verse 88, quicken me after thy loving kindness, so shall I keep
the testimony of thy mouth. Verse 107, I'm afflicted very
much. Quicken me, O Lord, according
unto thy word. Don't you call on him to quicken
you. This is a common, common plea
of God's child. Quicken me, Lord. Look here in
verse 149. Hear my voice according unto
thy lovingkindness. O Lord, quicken me according
to thy judgment. Verse 154. Plead my cause and
deliver me. Quicken me according to thy word. Verse 156, great are thy tender
mercies, O Lord, quicken me according to thy judgments. Verse 159,
consider how I love thy precepts, quicken me, O Lord, according
to thy loving kindness. Why does God our Father remember
his promise and quicken his child? Why does he do this? Why did
he do it in the first hour? Why does he keep doing it? Well,
he's faithful to his covenant promise, but there's another
reason. Psalm 143, in verse 11, he said this, Quicken me, O Lord,
for Thy name's sake, for Thy righteousness' sake, bring my
soul out of trouble. That's why he does it. He does
it for his name's sake. His name's sake is the Lord Jesus,
his son. His righteousness that God has
provided is his son, Christ Jesus, and he's doing everything he's
doing for his weak, poor, needy children because of his son and
because his son has made us righteous by his obedience. That's why
He's doing what He's doing. And it's not only the Father
that quickens, and it's not only the Spirit that quickens, it's
Christ that quickens. He's the Word. As the Father
raises up the dead, He said, and quickeneth them, even so
the Son quickeneth whom He will. That's Christ speaking. He said
it's the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.
The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. I pray tonight, he speaks
and quickens. I need him to quicken me, you
need him to quicken you, and he's the only one that can do
it. And we plead with him, Lord, quicken me, according to your
loving kindness, quicken your people. And then we're reminded
here, it's the Lord who's gonna save his child from every enemy. He said in verse 51, the proud
have had me greatly in derision. Yet have I not declined from
thy law. I remember thy judgments of old,
O Lord, and have comforted myself. Now our Lord Jesus knew no sin. He always did that which pleased
the Father in everything he did. And yet the proud had him greatly
in derision. Derision means they mocked him,
they scorned him, they scoffed at him. Luke 23, 35, the people stood
beholding and the rulers also with them derided him, saying,
he saved others, let him save himself if he be Christ, the
chosen of God. That's what David was suffering
too. David suffered that not to the extent our Lord did, but
he suffered that too. And that's what he's asking the
Lord to save him from. But David had sinned and he knew
he had sinned. He says in this psalm, before
I was afflicted, I went astray. And he's gone to the Lord, we
saw earlier in it, and confessed all his ways to the Lord. That's
confessing every sin you know about, every sin that you are. That's asking the Lord even to
make you know your secret sins and forgive you of sins you don't
even know about yourself. That's the heart in everybody
God saves. We saw how he bore reproach,
and the proud had David greatly in derision. They tried to destroy
his faith. They tried to destroy his hope
in the Lord by mocking and deriding and reproaching him, scoffing
at him, calling him names, but our Lord Jesus He bore that for
his people. He knows what that is because
he bore that in a place of his people. And it's by Christ the
word quickening David that he said here, yet I have not declined
from thy law. God's word, his command to his
child is to believe on his son. in every time and every season
and whatever the case, to believe on his son and cease from man. He commands us to come to him
and confess all our sins to him. He commands us to depend on the
promise of the Lord and come and ask the Lord for everything
we need. And by Christ, the Word, Quicken,
and David, he didn't decline from trust in the Lord. They
tried to make him stop trusting the Lord. That's always the devil's
desire, is to try to shake the faith of God's child. But they
didn't make David decline from trusting the Lord. He didn't
decline from casting his care on Christ. He didn't decline
from begging God for mercy and for grace to help. He didn't
decline from having all his faith and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. He didn't. He didn't cease from
it. Brethren, try to never give men
a reason to reproach you. But this world will deride you.
This world will deride you. There's folks everywhere, everywhere
you go, and they will deride you, they will mock you for trusting
Christ. But you go to the Lord because
He is the only salvation for His people. And He's salvation
for everything we face in this life. everything. But notice
here, while his enemies took counsel with each other, David
took counsel in God's Word. He says, I remember thy judgments
of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself. This is what our Savior
did in perfection. You can hear Christ speaking
that verse. Whenever the devil was tempting him in the wilderness,
Christ Jesus answered the devil with, thus saith the Lord. He
kept answering with the word of the Lord. He remembered the
Lord's judgments of old. He comforted himself in the word
of the Lord. And like what I read in Isaiah 50, he remembered thou
art near that justifieth me. Who will contend with me? That
was his word of old, and he trusted in the word of our Lord. And
so, when David was in this place, it was our Savior, pre-incarnate
Lord Jesus, that comforted him and quickened him and kept him
remembering God's judgments of old. And that's how he was comforted.
God destroyed the proud in the flood who derided Noah. He destroyed the proud in the
flood when they derided Noah. He drowned Pharaoh and his army
in the Red Sea and delivered the children of Israel to the
other side. These are the judgments of old of our Lord, David remembered. Whenever Korah stirred up men
to oppose and gainsay Moses, telling him he took too much
on himself, Moses hid his face before the Lord, and the Lord
made the earth open and swallowed him up. But most of all, most
of all, when the Spirit of God brings you to remember his judgments
of old, he brings us to remember Christ on the cross crying, it
is finished. It is finished. He conquered
every enemy of his children on that cross. Our Lord conquered
the devil. He conquered our sin. He conquered death for us. He
conquered hell for his people. Our Lord conquered every enemy
his children have, and he's the life in you that quickens you
and keeps you continually remembering what he's accomplished on your
behalf, and keeps you calling on him. And he won't permit one
of his blood-bought children to perish. He's just not going
to do that. He's going to keep you. The Spirit
will bring us to remember what Christ suffered from those who
derided him. Remember what Christ suffered
from those who derided him. Rather than turn David from believing
the Lord, rather than turn him from believing the Lord by making
him remember how Christ suffered in his, and David was looking
forward to Christ's coming. He's looking to him as his surety
in what he would do. We're looking back at what he
has done, but by making you remember him, just like he did David,
instead of not believing the Lord, the derision only made
him believe the Lord more. Instead of making him decline
from hoping in the covenant promise of God, it made him hope in God's
covenant promise more. They tried to lessen his trust
in God's word, but by the Lord quickening him, by the Lord quickening
him, his confidence in God, in Christ, in his word increased. It didn't decline. That's why
God sends every affliction. It is to grow us and it is to
strengthen us. And the strength and the growth
is always to keep us heeding his word and trusting him and
him alone. And that's how David was comforted. He knew his Savior who planted
the ear also could hear his word, his cry for help. He knew the
Lord who created the eye, sees everything, and he knew the need
of his child. David knew this, and he trusted
this. He who teaches his child knowledge, he knows all things,
and he knows the thoughts of man that they are vanity. Our
Lord was ruling everything David faced. Our Lord God ruled everything
our Savior faced. And He's ruling everything we
face. And He knows what we have need of. And He's going to keep
you calling on Him more and more and trusting Him more and make
you more obedient to Him through the affliction than had He not
sent it. It's doing just the opposite
of what the deriders are accusing you of. The Lord in the middle
of it is proving you to be what He's made you to be. to keep
trusting him. And that's just the opposite
of what they deride for. Then through this the Lord even
humbles his child and he makes you weep for the enemy. He said
in verse 53, horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked
that forsake thy law. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
horror took hold of our Lord Jesus Christ. He saw the sin
of his wicked people who had forsaken God. And he saw that
he would bear the shame of that sin for us. And he saw the horror
of God's wrath that he would bear in place of his people. He saw that, and this is what
the Lord said. He said, Father, if thou be willing,
remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. That's what'll happen when
you're in that, in a far less place, but when you're struggling,
he's the angel that'll appear to you and strengthen you. But
he appeared to him and strengthened him, and being in agony, he prayed
more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling down to the ground. And the Lord knew this. He knew
the sin, he knew the wrath of God, and he knew what he was
going to suffer on that cross. And this is why he lamented over
Jerusalem that forsook him. They would not believe Him. They
rejected Him. And our Lord, He didn't say this in anger and
wrath. He said this lamenting that they
didn't. He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent
unto thee, How often would I have gathered
thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under
her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. There's no pleasure for the Lord
in that. God's child beholds the judgments
of God upon our Lord Jesus in our place. And when we look into
this word and we see the judgment of God upon sinners that rejected
Christ and forsook Christ and went away from the gospel of
our Lord and from God and from his people and fell away completely. It doesn't puff you up in pride. It breaks your heart. It makes
you tremble. It makes you weep. even for those
who derided you. And here's why. Because we know
in our flesh we deserve the exact same thing. And the Lord Jesus Christ took
our place. We know if he hadn't have quickened
us, we'd have never believed him. And we know this, if he didn't
continue to quicken us, we'd do the exact same thing. He lets
you see just enough of your willing sin and lets you see just enough
of what you do. That's what he did for David.
And he brought David to cry, Lord, please quicken me. Please
quicken me. That's why David was merciful to Shimei, because
he saw himself. That's who he saw in Shimei.
He saw himself. And he saw God's mercy. And God's
going to keep us remembering, brethren, it's Christ the root
who's bearing us. We're not bearing him. He's bearing
us. He's the root of David. Paul
said to the Gentiles in Romans 11, 8, boasts not against the
branches. Boasts not against those that
fell away and forsook the Lord. But if thou boasts, thou bears
not the root, but the root thee. Christ is the root. He's the
one that bears his people. Thou would say then where the
branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. Well,
because of unbelief they were broken off. And you stand by faith. Be not
high-minded, but fear. That's what the Lord's showing
us over and over and over, over and over and over. So he keeps
quickening us and he keeps us begging for him to quicken us.
Don't let us fall away, Lord. I want to keep your precept.
I want to obey you more. I want to keep every word of
your testimony, Lord, quicken me, quicken me, and I will." God's gracious to quicken and
to give His child a song, even in the ninth season. Even right
where David was, he's saying, this is what the Lord did for
me. He makes you know Like David said here, this I had, and he
makes you know this is yours. Christ is yours, and you're his.
And that's what he made David know. Verse 54, thy statutes
have been my sons in the house of my pilgrimage. I have remembered
thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law. I hope
when you hear that, I've kept thy law, I hope you hear what
David's saying. He believed God. He believed
the gospel. He trusted Christ. That's the
only way you and I establish the righteousness of the law.
And he wanted to obey God in every way, but he knew it was
in Christ only that he was accepted. He said, and this I had. I had
this assurance. I had this song in the night.
I had this comfort. I had this quickening of the
Lord because I kept thy precepts. Understand what he's saying here,
when you behold Christ your Savior, when you behold Christ your righteousness,
that made David sing with joy in this night season he's bearing,
just like Paul and Silas did when they were beaten in that
Philippian jail. It's in the night season, it's
in affliction. where there is no joy. If anybody
looked at you, the deriders would say, oh, he's not God. See, he's not the chosen. God
won't have him. You know, they're deriding you
because it don't appear like it. But our comfort in this night
season is in the name of our Lord. That's what he said, in
the name of the Lord. That's Christ. He said, this
I had. He became mine. I knew He's mine. He quickened me. I knew He was
mine. Because by quickening David, he kept God's precepts. He trusted the Lord just like
the Lord commanded. He called on the Lord just like
the Lord commanded. He confessed his utter inability
and his sin to God just like God commanded. He said, this
is my comfort and my affliction for thy word hath quickened me. That's my comfort, your word
quickened me. God commands we believe his covenant. He commands we hope in him. And
he commands we cease from man. And by God quickening him, that's
what he did. He trusted God's promises. He
called on God to remember his own promises. He hoped in the
Lord. He trusted the Lord to deal with
his enemies. God teaches us, commands us to
love our enemies. He commands us to trust the Lord
to deal with our enemies. That's what he did. By this quickening
God gave him. and it grieved him at his heart
because he saw himself cleaving to the dust. He saw himself cleaving
to the dust. When you really, really have
what David had here is when you see yourself cleave to the dust,
just like those that deride and go away, and yet God quickens
you and makes you know you're his and he's yours. God quickened him to remember
the name of the Lord in the night and he remembered and God gave
him a song in the night. And he said thereby, this I had. This I had. I knew the Lord is
mine and I'm his. That's something brethren only
the Lord can give and that's something nobody can take away.
And he'll give it to you when it looks as bad as it can possibly
look. When others looking at you would
just mock and deride and scoff. Look at the Lord on the cross.
That's as bad as it's ever been for anybody in the history of
this world. It's just far as the eye can see. And the Lord
quickened him and kept him trusting the Father even in the midst
of the darkness. And he had that angel strengthen
him and he had the comfort of the Lord. Now let me end with
this word. Affliction is our Lord working
obedience in us. And when I say that, I mean to
trust Christ more and more. This is how he's going to make
you know I'm his and he's mine. Listen to this. Blessed is the
man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law,
that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity. Doesn't
that sound a little paradoxical? That God's going to chase you
and send you great affliction in order to give you rest from
the days of adversity. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. Now Christ is our rest. In the
end, we're going to rest in Him for all eternity. But right now,
brethren, in the affliction, Christ is rest for His people.
We which have believed do enter into rest. God will find His
child like David in unbelief or in sin or whatever it is He's
chastening you to teach you, to show you more of Christ and
He'll quicken you and bring you to believe Him. And just like
He did David here, you'll enter into rest. while the affliction's
going on, and the stronger the affliction, the nearer He draws
you to Himself, and He makes you confidence to be more Christ.
And you know, that's mercy, that's grace, for God to be growing
you in faith in Him. To grow in your heart more established
on Him, your heart more trusting of Him, and less looking at man,
namely, your own self, but others too. This is how he's going to make
us more and more walk after him. And it's also love to our brethren. This is how he increases love
to our brethren. How so? Because David's doing
for us right here what the Lord said his children will do when
you've gone in the affliction and he's comforted you and taught
you. This is why he does it. This
is true love right here. Blessed be God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God
of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation, that
we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the
comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. That's
why he said it. It's to increase your faith in
Christ, but it's also to increase love in your heart so that you'll
use the same comfort that comforted you to comfort your brethren
in all the trouble they face. What is it? As the sufferings
of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by
Christ. Christ is the comfort. Here's
what David's asking for all through this psalm when he's asking the
Lord to quicken him and, Lord, I want to keep you precept, quicken
me and I will. Save me from me, Lord. Here's
what he's praying for. This was another hymn writer's
song. We're reading David's song that
he wrote in the night that God gave him. Here's another song
and this is what we're praying for right here. Oh, for a faith
that will not shrink. though pressed by many a foe,
that will not tremble on the brink of poverty or woe, that
will not murmur nor complain beneath our chastening rod, but
in the hour of grief and pain can lean upon her God. A faith
that shines more bright and clear when tempests rage without, that
when in danger knows no fear and darkness feels no doubt. A faith that keeps the narrow
way till life's last spark is fled and with a pure and heavenly
ray lights up a dying bed. Lord, give me such a faith as
this and then whatever may come. I taste, even here, the hallowed
bliss of my eternal home." Well, how's he going to give
that faith? He's going to give affliction.
And he's going to save you in it and make you joy and comfort
in it to be nothing about you or this world. He's going to
make it to be your Lord in your spirit. And that's how he's going
to do it. That's how he always does it.
Amen.