Okay, Psalm 119. You that God has called and given
a revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, you know that God the
Father chose His people in Christ before this world was made. He
everlastingly loved His people in His Son. He never has looked
upon His people simply in our sinful flesh. He's always looked
upon His people in His Son. You know that. The Lord has made
you to know that. He's given you to behold that
our Lord Jesus has been your righteousness from eternity.
When God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
He blessed us with all spiritual blessings. That's not leaving
any out. And God has made you to know
through faith that you are complete in Christ. He's made you to know
that your life is at God's right hand in our Savior and you're
complete in Him. He's made you to know that there's
been seasons when your heart overflowed with joy. There's
been seasons where you could walk on tiptoes. You just had
such a felt presence of the Lord with you and you knew He's your
Savior. You had close communion with
Him and you know this is so. You know by the gospel of God
you've been washed in that fount open for sin and uncleanness.
You know that the Lord will continue to wash you. You know that you
can come to him and can pour out your heart to him. You know
these things. You know you have the ear of
your heavenly father because you have an eternal high priest
that's in glory. And through the veil, that is
his flesh, he laid down his life and he's opened entrance for
you into the very holiest of holies and God's presence. And
you know this. But there's some times we can't
set our affection on Christ. There's times we cannot even
look up to God. Can't feel His presence. All
you can do is see your sin. All you can do is see what a
loathsome thing you are in yourself. Everything God promises he's
not viewing in his child, that's all you can view in yourself. Other people talk about their
sin, and you're thinking in your heart, you just don't have any
idea. Other people talk about themselves
being a chief of sinner, but you're in that point where you're
owning it as altogether so of yourself. You are the chief. That's the state David was in.
David's a regenerated, sanctified believer here. Down there in
verse 30 he said, I've chosen the way of truth, Christ the
way, Christ the truth, Christ the life. Thy judgments have
I laid before me. I've stuck unto thy testimonies.
He's a believer. He's walked with God and trusted
God and nothing changes that. But David, his confession to
God, his sin and his absolute inability. He said in verse 26,
I have declared my ways and thou hurtest me. David's confessing
his ways to God, everything about him. He's laying it out to God.
He hasn't gone to an earthly priest. He's gone to our great
high priest. He's gone to God. He's gone and
laid out everything before him, all his ways, his evil, His wicked
ways, His wandering ways, His cold ways, His indifferent ways,
His proud ways, His self-righteous ways, the ways of His words,
the ways of His thoughts, His cares, His doubts, His fears,
He laid it all out before God. I have declared unto you my ways. He confessed to God here in verse
25, My soul cleaveth unto the dust. We love the Psalms because we
hear a fellow believer experiencing what every believer has experienced. We hear a fellow believer crying
out what we've all cried out to God. Spurgeon points out this, I said
to you Thursday that ETH means ongoing. My soul cleaveth unto the dust. This is not a believer who sees
himself doing anything but just cleaving to dust. That's all
he sees himself, just cleaving to dust. Spurgeon said it was
an affair of his inmost spirit and it was not a casual and accidental
falling into the dust but a continuous and powerful tendency or cleaving
to the earth. We can say amen, can't we? You
say amen to that? Dust is the place of death. That's
what dust is, it's a place of death. Our Lord Jesus Christ
said in Psalm 22, thou hast brought me into the dust of death. And brethren, because he was
brought into that dust of death, he will graciously, mercifully
make us see how we cleave unto the dust. But he will not leave
his child in the dust. He will not leave his child in
the dust because he was brought into the dust of death and put
away all the sins of his people. And he will not leave you in
the dust. What that means is, is he felt worse than cold, he
felt dead. You ever felt dead? You ever
felt spiritually dead? Dust is the place of weakness.
What's weaker than dust? You don't depend on dust for
anything. Dust is a place of utter weakness. God made you
and me out of the dust. That's what we're made of, is
dust. The weakest thing there is. Our flesh is dust and you
know what? Because of sin we shall return
to the dust. Return to the dust. I like when
the scripture says Christ will present us to himself not having
spot or wrinkle. You seeing any wrinkles in your
dust, in your flesh? He gonna present us to himself
without even a wrinkle. Without even a wrinkle. Dust is weakness. Behold, he
put no trust in his servants, and his angels he charged with
folly. How much less in them that dwell
in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed
before the moth." That's us. That's us. Abraham owned himself to be dust
before God. That's a broken heart. He came
before God and he said, Behold now I've taken upon me to speak
unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. Dust and ashes. David confessed his inability
to obey God as he wanted to. He's confessing if we're not
obeying God as we want to, Then we're confessing our sins, we're
confessing our iniquity, we're confessing we've come short.
He says there in verse 26, teach me thy statutes. Why does he
need to be taught them? Depends on God. Make me to understand
the ways of thy precepts. He said in verse 32, I will run
the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
His heart's closed up right now. He feels dead. He's narrowed. He's squeezed in. He needs his heart to be enlarged.
That's what God's presence does. It enlarges your heart. We call
it blessing and it is a blessing. It enlarges your heart. But that's
an indication that David's a quickened believer. That's an indication
that he has been regenerated and that he does believe God
because he's crying out for God to do this for him. He has a
new heart. He has a new will. He runs the
way of God's precepts. He wants to please God, but he's
confessing here his own sin and his own weakness and his inability
apart from Christ, our strength. Paul said, to will is present
with me. That's what he's saying. But
how to perform that which is good, I find not. The good that I would, I do not.
The evil which I would not, that I do. I've had men tell me, Paul
didn't mean that he sinned by that. Then you don't understand
what he meant. You don't understand what he
meant. This proves God had begun a work of grace in the heart.
This is not the doctrine of depravity that David's talking about. This
is David owning himself to be the depraved sinner. There's
a big difference. He's heavy. He's heavy. He said
in verse 28, my soul melteth for heaviness. He's like a candle
before the flame. His soul melts. No strength,
no stability within him, just melting like wax. But you know,
our Lord Jesus in Psalm 22 also said, my heart is melted like
wax. He knows it. He knows it. That's why David's going to him.
He's going to him for grace and mercy to help. Because he sees,
I need him. I need him. Let's hear his plea
now. In verse 25, he said, My soul
cleaveth unto the dust, quicken thou me according to thy word. God's word is to us that he will
quicken. And it's by his word that he
does quicken. He said then, verse 28, my soul
melteth for heaviness, strengthen thou me according unto thy word. Now, Paul learned this and he
said, when we are weak, then we're strong. And we see why
right here in David. David is so weak, sees himself
like he really and truly is in the true light of what he really
is. And the only thing David can
do is cast it all upon the Lord. That's why when we're weak we're
strong. He's casting it all upon the
Lord. This is when we're strong, when
we're absolutely dependent on the Lord to be our strength. Be strong, Paul said, in the
Lord and the power of His might. If He just withdraws His presence
a little bit, we just sing Life is vain. We need him to come
to us. We need him to enlarge our heart.
We need him to make us know his presence. We need him to make
us know his favor. We need to know that he receives
us. We need to know that he's keeping
us. David's a regenerated Believer,
he has spiritual life or he wouldn't be making this plea. But he knows
he can't quicken himself. He can't quicken himself. He
can't make himself stop cleaving to the dust. That's what he's
asking God to do for him. Enliven me, he's saying. Renew
me, he's saying. There's not any spiritual life
for a dead sinner until he's been regenerated. And by the
same token, there is no quickening until God does the quickening
for one who has been regenerated. Regeneration's a one-time work
of the Spirit of God, but that sinner that's been quickened
to spiritual life needs the Lord to continue to quicken us day
by day. We need Him to renew us day by
day. And sometimes we get to thinking
we're a little strong, and He's gonna keep us knowing. Lord,
I need you to quicken me. We're as dependent upon God to
renew us as we are for God to first regenerate us to spiritual
life. He believed the Lord Jesus alone
could save him. He confessed faith in the Lord
in that he believes, Lord, Thou hast heard me. I have confessed
all my ways to you and you have heard me. He believed that. And God does give more grace.
God gives more grace. The Lord Jesus will be our strength.
The Spirit will quicken. David confessed here that his
soul cleaves to the dust, and God knows what that is. God came
down and took this dust that we dwell in. He knew no sin,
he was not born of a sinner like we are, but he knows the weakness
of our flesh. He said, The Spirit indeed is
willing, but the flesh is weak. That's what we see here in David.
The Spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. Christ knows what
that is. He knows what they don't you
thankful you have a high priest chosen from among men that is
touched with a feeling of our infirmities so that we can go
to him and he can have pity on you and sympathize with you because
he knows what it's like. The worst thing in the world
is go to somebody that don't know what you're suffering. He
knows it. No matter what it is, he knows
it. He knows it. He pitieth his children, for
he knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we're dust. Christ remembers what it was
to be in this dust. He remembers what it was to be
in this world. He remembers we're dust. And
because the Lord Jesus tested death, because he was brought
into that dust of death, because his heart was melted like wax,
because he prayed himself for God to quicken him, we could
read this whole psalm, this section of this psalm and hear Christ
speaking. Because he knows it. You know, David said, I cleave to the dust. My soul cleaves to the dust.
And you remember when the Lord gave the curse in the garden,
he told the serpent, on your belly you'll go all your days.
You'll eat the dust all your days. But because the Lord Jesus
Christ came and bore the curse, was made a curse for His people
and redeemed us from the curse, He's not going to let His child
continue cleaving to the dust. To some degree, we'll always
be cleaving to the dust because that's what we are. But He's
going to give you those renewed, fresh, quickened tokens of Him
so that you know that you dwell with Him. And He's going to keep
you cleaving to Him because He's always cleaving to His child. Because He's our righteousness,
because He's our life, because He's our sanctifier and our sanctification. What do you mean by that? I mean
exactly what we see right here in David. David can't separate
himself out of the dust. Who's he asking to do it? His
sanctifier. He will hear and he'll answer
the plea for new mercies. He put it in the heart in the
first place. David wouldn't be crying as if the Lord had put
it in his heart. And he'll hear, he'll answer, are you the poor,
needy beggar needing the Lord to raise you from the dust? Well, here's the good news. If
you're not, I don't have a word for you, but if you are, I got
good news for you. Psalm 113, seven, he raises up
the poor out of the dust. and he lifts the needy out of
the dunghill, that he may set him with princes, even with the
princes of his people." Oh, that's what he did when he
called us by his mercy and grace in the first hour. He doesn't
do that for us again. Let me read Psalm 71 20. Let
me read 71 20. Thou which has showed me great
and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me
up again from the depths of the earth. But that's good news, brethren.
He raises up the poor out of the dust. Are you poor? Are you
poor? Are you needy? You know, when
you're pouring in the dust, you're looking up to everybody. Well, lastly, he asked God to
be his teacher. He asked him to give him greater
understanding, renewed revelation of Christ. He wants every false
imagination of his flesh and every false word and gospel. He wants that removed from him.
He wants God to teach him the gospel again. That's what he
wants. He says in verse 26, teach me thy statute. Make me to understand
the way of thy precepts. So shall I talk of thy wondrous
works. That's interesting, isn't it?
If you show me the way of your precept, I'll talk of your wondrous
works. Verse 29, remove from me the
way of lying and grant me thy law graciously. Perhaps this is something David
is troubled about. Maybe he did lie on multiple
occasions. I don't think that's what he's
talking about. He's talking about every vain
thought of his own sinful flesh. Like Paul said, let God be true
and every man a liar. He's saying, save me from me.
Are you the liar? Grant me thy law graciously. Grant me your gospel. That's
what he wants. Grant me your gospel. Teach me
your gospel. That tells you what he means by remove from me the
way of lying. Remove from me the false gospel
and give me your gospel graciously. The way of all God's precepts
is the Lord Jesus. You take the precepts away from
Christ and separate them from Christ and just try to walk in
precepts and it won't avail you of anything. The way of the precepts
of our Lord is Christ. They all lead you to Him. Christ is the way of truth. That's
why he's saying, if you teach me the way of your precepts,
I will talk of thy wondrous works. The works that are wondrous are
the works of him that is wonderful, the Lord Jesus. The law of God
that we need is the way of truth. It's the gospel. He's the way
of truth. I'm the way, the truth, and the
light. Why do you come hear the gospel? I come to hear Christ. I come to hear about what my
Savior has done and is doing and shall do for me. That's what
I want to hear. The law that God graciously grants
to a child, it's not the law of the ministration of sin and
death. See, that law had already done
its work in David. David's in the dust. He's owning
himself to be the sinner in need of God's mercy and grace. He
needs Christ. The law is the ministration of
sin and death. It's done its work. He sees his
sin. He's in the dust of death. He needs to hear that the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the
law of sin and death. That's what we want to hear.
That's what we need to hear. That's life. That's why Christ
is the life. It's the good news of him. The
one way that David and all God's elect were made the righteousness
of God. The one way, the way that all
God's elect were made the righteousness of God is the obedience of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, would you graciously grant
to me thy law one more time? Would you let me hear one more
time how you fulfilled all righteousness for your people? Not just hear
it with these ears, but let me hear it in my heart. Quicken
thou me to hear it in my heart. Enlarge my heart with this good
news, Lord. That's what he's asking for.
He wants to be quickened by this word. He can't stop cleaving
to the dust. But he says, when you quicken
me, when you quicken me, when you teach me, verse 32, I will
run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. This, he's in a, he's in a, he
is in a low place. He's in a low place. He's a,
he's ashamed of himself and he's asking God there in verse 31,
Lord, let me, put me not to shame. Put me not to shame. Our Lord
promised you'll never be ashamed for trusting him. You'll never
be confounded for putting everything into his hands and trusting him.
But He's going to keep us asking Him, Lord, please don't put me
to shame. Please don't put me to shame.
Have you been there? Have you been there where you
know God's got every right? He's got it. But for Christ's
sake, God promises I'll not put you to shame. And he says, I'll run the way
of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. I won't
just walk in them, Lord. I'll run the way of thy commandments
when you enlarge my heart. There is no ability to crawl,
much less walk or run in the Lord's commandments until the
power of the Lord speaks. Do you see that in this Psalm?
Do you see that in this section right here? Lord, I'm cleaving
to the dust. I need you to quicken me. I need
you to enlarge my heart so I can run. I need you to teach me.
Give me a better understanding. Give me a fresh revelation, Lord.
I need you. I need you. I need you. This
is what you're not hearing priests in bullpits today. It's all about
how you need to help God do something. This center right here is a,
I need God to do it all. I need God to help me. I need salvation, really and
truly need salvation. I can't save myself. I can't
even quicken myself day to day and have my heart enlarged except
he do it. And so the Lord comes and He
speaks, just like He's promised to do. He has promised He will
feed His people, like we saw this morning. Sets us down at
His table and says, fear not, I've restored you and I'm going
to make full provision for you. You're going to eat at my table.
And so the Lord sends the word of the gospel to you. He sends
the word of the gospel to you. And it's Him speaking to you.
And he makes you to hear his precepts. And he speaks into
your heart and he says, this is his command, let not your
heart be troubled. When's your heart going to stop
being troubled? Can you just make your heart stop being troubled?
Anybody here have that ability? I'm not talking about little
things. I'm talking about when you really have heart trouble.
You can't make your heart not be troubled. But the Lord, when
He speaks, your heart stops being troubled. That's my Lord. That's my Lord speaking to me.
Oh, it's Him speaking. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God? Believe also in me. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. No man comes to the Father but by me. And by that word of
grace, He quickens. He enlarges the heart. He speaks
the reviving word into the soul. He's the Son of Righteousness.
You know, the other day, did y'all like that day we had this
week? What, 67 degrees? Wasn't that nice? This is where David was. He shut
up in his little cabin, in his little cold heart, where it's
dark, and he can't be enlarged, he can't open up, he can't get
out, he can't walk, he can't run. And then a 67 degree day
came, and the Lord shined down, the Son of Righteousness shined
down, and those beams, when they come into the heart, They heal
you. They heal you. Feel good in your
heart like the sun feels good on a cold day. That's the great
physician. That's him coming and applying
the ointment. He's the balm. He has the balm
of Gilead and he applies it to you. And that's the strength.
It's impossible not to believe on Him when He enlarges the heart.
It's impossible not to believe on Him. It's impossible to be
troubled when He speaks to you and says, let not your heart
be troubled, and turns you to Him. I know your thought. It's my thought too. I would
to God we could stay right there all the time. I would to God
we didn't turn through these Psalms and see over and over
and over and over David right there in that same place. But
I'm thankful he was because I'm there often. But I see what God
did for him. And that lets me know, God gonna
do that for you too. He'll do that for you too. And when he's spoken this word,
then he speaks this word to you. David says, I've confessed all
my ways to you, Lord, my sins. Here's another commandment he
gives you right here. Another precept he speaks to
you so you can run, so you quicken and you can run some more. He
says, now you're clean through the word which I've spoken to
you. Abide in me. and I am you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you except
you abide in me." Don't you, you know, when the Lord does
this, don't you read a verse like that and when you really
hear the Lord speak it to your heart, don't you have a holy
resolve in your heart, I'm going to abide in Him. I can't, I now
see again, I can't do one thing without Him. I'm going to abide
in Him. And in just a little while, cleave
into the dust again. What happened? When we're strong
in self, we're weak because we're not depending on Him. We have
to be kept weak so we know we have to abide in Him. He's your
strength. Then He speaks to you and He
commands you to love one another. Love one another as I've loved
you. You're down, you're in the dust,
you're cleaving to the dust, you're cleaving to the offenses. Just can't get over it. You're
cleaving to the bitterness, you're cleaving to the wrath, you're
cleaving to the clamor, you're cleaving to the evil speaking,
just cleaving to the old man of dust. and can't let go of it. Can't
let go of it. Can't pretend to love, can't
quicken ourselves out of that dust. But the Spirit of God comes.
Our Lord Jesus comes. And He shows you how merciful and how gracious
and how loving He is to you by showing you while you're in
that state, cleaving to that dust, that He's merciful and
He's gracious and He's loving to you. That's how He shows it
to you. It's always against the black
backdrop of our sin. That's how the diamond shines. And by that, brethren, He makes
you to be renewed and to know that you have forgiveness in
Him. And He makes you to know this. When you see what Christ did
for you on Calvary's cross and you hear Him say, and arise to God's right hand,
and you hear God say, when He arose, you arose in Him, when
He quickened you together with Him and raised you up together,
you sat down together in heavenly places in Him, and He makes you
to know that. You know what He makes you to
know by that? He makes you to know you had forgiveness with
God before He ever came and told you you had forgiveness with
God. And then He renews you to know
God's forgiven you all your trespasses. When he does that, you know what
it is? You were holding on to the bitterness cause of that
offense that was pointed at you. Now you see God's forgiven you
of that offense that was pointed back at the offender. Cleave into that dust. How does
He make you know this? He shows you His dying love for
you. He shows you how that when you
were ungodly, He laid down His life on the cross. He shows you
that even when we were dead in our sins, He said, I have not
beheld iniquity in Jacob. How in the world could that be? Because He beheld His people
and His Son. And his son came and did everything
necessary to make it so God now can receive us to himself and
say, you're righteous, you're holy, I can accept you, you're
perfect in my son, I can receive you, I delight in you, well done,
my good and faithful servant. And he makes you see that and
you see, Lord, all I've been doing is cleaving to the dust,
I didn't do anything. And that's when you see what
forgiveness is and what mercy is and what grace is. And that word enlarges the heart.
And with the commandment comes the power to love as he loved
us. At least you sure do want to.
You sure try to. A little while, you'll be back
in the dust. It is our life. We have the full presence and
understanding of our Lord and we're enlarged and run after
his commandments. I would cleave into the dust. You come in from a long day of
work, and you've been working hard all day, and you're tired,
and you got something broke at home, and you got the bills,
and you got all the different things coming in from every direction.
The wolf's not knocking at the door. He's banging on the door.
Can you lift yourself up by that dust? You just can't even pick his
word up, much less get anything out of it. But He draws you to Him. He draws
you to Him to start pouring out your heart, Lord, please. And
you start pouring out your ways to Him. Spurgeon had a good illustration. You know, when you go to a physician,
the first thing he's going to do is tell you, tell me everything's
wrong with you. Well, that's what I came to you
for. But no, you come to him and you
tell him what's hurting. What is the ailment? What's the
problem? And then he gives you the cure. The Lord's going to
draw us to confess it all to Him. And it's not just what we've
done. It's all our ways. Every single
thing about it. That's what the Lord told that
woman at the well. When she went back, she wasn't just saying
He knew about me shacking up. She was saying, He knows everything
I've ever done. He knows I'm a sinner. He already
knows it. But He'll keep us telling Him,
confessing to Him. And that's when He gives you
this sweet enlargement. Oh brethren, I pray the Lord keep us praying
just like David did right here. Praying, Lord give me grace to
just not ever see myself as anything
but cleaving to dust. Don't let me, Lord, think I'm
anything and nothing and less than nothing. Keep showing me
I can't do anything except I'm Christ, my strength. Make me
look to you for all, for all my need. Lord, keep speaking
the commandment of your grace into my heart and keep me knowing
this, the Lord is my rock. He's my rock, he's my fortress,
he's my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust,
my buckler, the horn of my salvation, my high tower. The Lord's my
light. He's my salvation. Whom shall
I fear? The Lord's the strength of my
life. Of whom shall I be afraid? The
Lord's my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in Him and I'm
helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices. And with my song, well, I praise
Him. The Lord's my strength. He's
my song. He's become my salvation. I pray
keep us right there.