So, Lord, may you graciously
help me. I return your attention once again to Psalm 51, what
we had before us this morning, and reading together verses 11
and 12 as a text. Although I do want to continue
with going through this precious psalm, may it be for the glory
of God. Psalm 51, verses 11 and 12. Cast me not away from thy presence,
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. We spoke this morning of this
psalm being a pattern, as it were, of how we are to come to
God when we have sinned, and how we are to find that pleading and that forgiveness
with God. Because, you see, it's clear
in this psalm that the happiness and the joy of David is linked
with being made right with God. And to think that we can have
happiness and joy, and yet be grieving the spirit, and yet
be walking contrary to God, is unscriptural. And indeed, from
what David is saying, it is wrong. It is not the joy that David
had, to have true joy without knowing a forgiveness with God. And these things are clearly
linked. And if we pick up where we left off in verse 7, we looked
at verse 7, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow." David realized that his sin was very great, and yet
he realized that the ability of Christ to cleanse us from
all sin was incredibly great. He has these black, wicked stains
on his character of adultery, of murder, of scheming, of perverting
the course of justice. And yet he says, purge me with
hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. He realises that the power of
Jesus to forgive sin can make it so white that it is whiter
than snow. The whitest thing that we really
know on this earth is the fresh snow as it falls. And yet David
realised that if God washed his sins away, God swept them all
away in that, what we've just been singing of, He was able
to make him whiter than snow. And then we come to verse 8,
where it turns and then starts to speak for the first time in
this psalm about joy and gladness. You see, David had lost his joy
and his gladness in what had taken place, in his sin, in his
wickedness against God. His spiritual joy had gone. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. And it's so interesting if we
look at this verse, and of course it's linked to the verse that
I read as a text, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. The same idea that God is able
to restore that which David, you see, had ruined. And how true that is. We're able
to ruin our relationship with God. We're able to get far off
from God by sin and wicked works, but we're unable to return. We're unable to undo what we
have done. But there David comes to this
God, you see, that is able to reverse the awful, terrible effects
of sin. Make me to hear joy and gladness. that the bones which thou hast
broken may rejoice." David did not have any, as far as we know,
any physical broken bones as a result of his sin. David is
speaking metaphorically. The pain, because broken bones,
we know it is very, very painful when we break bones and it stops
us being able to walk and move our limbs as usual if we have
those broken bones. And David, you see, was unable
to walk in the ways of the Lord, unable to serve the Lord, unable
to be a witness. And as the psalm goes on, you
see, it mentions all these things that David wants to be restored
to, that he may be useful and a blessing. He was the sweet
psalmist of Israel, and now he had such a blot on his character.
Would that mean that all the psalm book that he'd written
would be ripped up and destroyed because he was such a wicked
man and had done so many wicked things at this time? No, he wanted
a restoration that God would, as it were, restore him and still
make him a blessing to Israel, a blessing to God's people, as
he truly was. make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. So God clearly,
he is saying that God has broken his bones. He is in great pain. You see, whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth. And the Lord chastens his people
because he loves them, because he will not let them walk in
a way that is contrary to his word and his will. He brings
them back. He brings my wandering spirit
back when I forsake the way. But it's with broken bones. It's
hard work. Yes, it was easy to slip down
in that sin with Bathsheba. It was all quickly done. But
how to retrace his steps? He needed the Lord to intervene. But make me to hear joy and gladness. You see, he comes to the one
that he says has broken his bones, the one that he says has given
him all this pain and all this discomfort in correction and
so forth, he comes back to that very one and says, make me to
hear joy. and gladness. You see, that's
not natural really in many ways, is it? We think if somebody's
hurt us badly, if somebody's broken our bones, if somebody's
given us a lot of trouble, you think I'll go away from that
person and then I'll have joy and gladness. I won't go to that
person, I'll go away from that person. But you see, David here
comes back to God. And this is the way back to God.
In all our sin, in all our shortcomings, to come back to the God that
we have offended, the God that we have sinned against, and receive
from Him that pardon. Not running from God to get pleasure,
but running to God and realising this forgiveness, this washing
and this cleansing. And then to realise, make me
to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken
may rejoice." You see, David knew true sorrow in the broken
bones, in the terrible effects of his sin and the sorrow over
his sin. As we know, Peter, when he sinned,
denying his Lord, he went out and wept bitterly. It was very
sorry, very sorrowful for them. And yet he had make me to hear
joy and gladness. You see, here we can see that
the Lord's people have joys that the world knows nothing of, joys
of communion with the church's living head, but they also have
sorrows that this world don't understand. Yes, he could understand
that he'd have sorrow over the people he'd upset and they'd
give him trouble and they'd have sorrow in that way, but this
was a sorrow because he defended the God he loved. And this is
a sorrow that the world does not know. They do not know that
sorrow. They do not know that joy. The
joy of having fellowship with the church's living head, but
the joy of offending the one that has done so much for them,
the one that protected them from the lion and the bear, the one
that was with them in all their ways. He had offended this very
God. Make me to hear joy and gladness.
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins, blot out mine iniquities. A similar thought,
as we've had before, that he's praying for the blotting out
of his iniquities, that God would hide his face from his sin. And
the only way God could hide his face from David's sin was if
he hid his face from his beloved son. You see, we have to connect
the benefits we receive with the curse that Christ received. The two are intrinsically linked. The reason we receive blessing
is because his beloved son received the curse. Cursed is everyone
that hangeth upon a tree. His son was cursed, so his church,
his people, his bride could be blessed. And here we have, hide
thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. You see, the blessings that the
church received are not cheap. They were bought with the precious
blood of the Saviour. Hide thy face from my sins and
blot out all mine iniquities, creating me a clean heart. You
see, in creation, God created out of nothing that which we
have. Everything was made by the Word
of His power. David says, I need that creation
power now in my heart, to create what is not there, to give this
right spirit creating me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right
spirit within me. This is David's desire that he
may not go on in this filthy, wicked heart that is sinning
and scheming and planning and lustful and selfish and self-centred
and God dishonouring. No, he wants to be rid of such
a spirit. He knows that it is his spirit
by nature. It was like that from his mother's
womb. And yet Christ created me a clean heart, O God, and
renewed a right spirit within me. Are these your thoughts?
Are these your concerns? You see, David could have stopped,
as I said, at verse 3. He could have just acknowledged
his sin and then got on with life. But no, his greatest concern
was the relationship with his God. This was the preeminent
concern of David in Psalm 51. And as we go through the psalm,
we see his ambitions and his desires going higher and higher,
as it were, because he wants to be one that is a blessing
to the church. And it ends with, Do good in
thy good pleasure unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. He wants the blessing of the
church. and he wants a restoration of all that has been ruined by
sin. But then we come to our text
in verse 11 and 12, Caste me not away from thy presence. But
you say we read together in Psalm 139 that God's presence is everywhere. We read in verse 7, Whither shall
I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from
thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. Cast me. not away from thy presence. Psalm 139 is well known for showing
that God is everywhere. God knows everything. He is omnipresent
and He knows everything about us and He's present in that sense
with us. But David, who wrote Psalm 139,
is here saying, cast me not away from thy presence. Yes, the presence
of God is everywhere. but he wants the favourable presence
of God. He realises that there is a people
who know the joyful sound, who know the blessing of God in their
lives. Yes, God knows everyone, but
in a peculiar way he knows his people. You see, when it says,
depart from me, I never knew you, ye that work iniquity, it
wasn't as if God was saying, I had no knowledge of your existence. God knows everything. But I never
knew you in a favorable way. I never knew you in love, you
see. And this is what David desires,
the love of Christ, the love of God, to yet be bestowed upon
him. And he realized that he deserves
it to be completely forfeited. But let us go to another place
in the Bible where it uses this expression to understand what
is being said. In 2 Kings 24, But chapter 24
and verse 20 we have these words, for through the anger of the
Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah until he had cast them
out from his presence that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of
Babylon. Here it's talking about how that
Israel and Judah had rebelled against God and we read this
expression that they were cast out. from the presence of God. Cast me not away from thy presence. David wanted the Lord to be with
him. He did not want to be cut off
from the Lord. And you see, David realised very
much what we have in Ephesians Ephesians speaks about grieving
the spirit for which you were sealed. In Ephesians 4 verse
30 it says this, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby
ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Cast me not away
from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. David
was concerned that the Lord would take that Spirit from him. He'd
seen Saul, when we read that the Spirit of God left Saul,
and what a sad life he lived as king of Israel. He went around
chasing David as a partridge upon the mountains, seeking constantly
to overthrow what God had said would happen, that David would
be the next king. And he set his life, his work
as a king to try and defy God and to try and overturn the counsel
of the Most High. And what a fruitless life he
lived. Cast me not away from thy presence. and take not thy Holy Spirit
from me." Is this a concern to you in your lives? In the way
you live, in the way I live, are we concerned that the Lord,
whatever happens in our lives, that He would take not His Holy
Spirit from us? And you might say, but surely
all the Lord's people have the Holy Spirit. Is not this a qualification,
an identity, to be saved is to have the Spirit dwelling in us?
but clearly also from Scripture there are measures of the Spirit,
and we are to be filled with the Spirit. We are to know ever-increasing
levels of presence of the Holy Spirit in us, that we may live
lives that glorify God, and that we may walk rightly before our
God. Cast me not away from thy presence,
and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." These are the petitions,
both negative petitions, in the sense that he does not want this
to happen. Cast me not away from thy presence. Take not thy Holy
Spirit from me. These are the things he dreads.
These are the things he's so concerned about. These are the
things that would be the worst thing that could happen in his
life. You see, we can be like that,
we can fear perhaps losing our job, or fear this or that happening
to us, which would be very distressing. Fear an illness, or fear a loss
of something or somebody close to us. But do we fear this? As David did, cast me away from
thy presence. Take not thy Holy Spirit from
me. You see, if we have the Spirit
of God leaving us, left to ourselves, do we realise the awfulness of
that and the far-offness from that? David, you see, he loved
communion with his God. And for God to withdraw from
him, he realised he had grieved the Spirit. He'd walked quite
wrongly. And, you see, if we grieve the
Spirit, We are not, you see, one of the ways that we have
assurance is from the Spirit. The witness of the Spirit, it's
called. And you see, there's an intrinsic link between grieving
the Spirit and losing the assurance that we are the people of God.
And that's right. Why should we have any evidence
that we are the people of God when we are walking in a way
that is contrary to God? You see, salvation is not just
something that's future. It's not just something about
what happens when we die. It's salvation has come to this
house, we read of Zacchaeus. It was salvation now. Not that
Zacchaeus was going to have a time just in glory when he died, but
salvation has come to this house. The power of sin has been broken.
The old man of sin no longer has the upper hand in Zacchaeus'
household. Zacchaeus was now going to be
a follower of God. And you see, if we give ourselves,
as David did for this year of his life, to work evil and to
do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, He lost the
joy of His salvation. He lost His assurance. He could
no longer rejoice in the fact that He was on His way to glory.
It didn't mean He wasn't on His way to glory. But He lost all
the assurance of it. Once in Him, in Him forever,
thus the eternal covenant stands. God had made a covenant with
Him, ordered in all things and sure. And yet He lost the joy. He lost the assurance. And therefore
He prays. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation. You see, he'd lost the joy. He'd lost the evidence. He'd
lost the evidence that he was a child of God because he'd not
been walking under the power of the Spirit. He'd been walking
with the flesh having the upper hand. And you see, we can be
like that, can't we? and we can walk contrary to God
and wish that we could still have high levels of assurance,
wish that we could still, as it were, enjoy contemplation
of what must it be to be there to the people of God. But if
we are walking contrary to God, if we are disobeying what God
has said to do, this do in remembrance of me, if we are disobeying what
God has given in clear commands in his word, that we should walk
in those ways. We're disobedient and yet we
want the joy, yet we want the assurance, yet we want those
things which would encourage us. David, you see, had got right
with God. He had confessed his sin. He
confessed that it was his sin. He confessed that it was against
God. He confessed that he was sinful to the very core. And
he asks God to do for him that which he cannot do for himself.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. David could not do
it. David could not restore that which he had lost. And isn't
that solemn? Solemn for us each to realise
that we cannot restore that which we have lost. But he comes to
one that was able to do for him that which he could not do. And
when we have lost the joy of our salvation, you might say,
but once I rejoiced in it. Perhaps in your early days it
is with some as they come to know the Lord, there is such
a joy in the Lord and such assurance, but perhaps They're walking in
darkness and have no light at times. But it's not always for
this reason, but often it can be, and it certainly was with
David at this time. He lost his joy because sin had
come between him and his God. He had denied God. He had walked
contrary to God. He had pushed God's law to one
side. As Nathan said, wherefore hast
thou despised the commandment of the Lord? And David had actively
done that. But David now comes and seeks
earnestly, pleads. You see, this is not, this language
in Psalm 51 is not a language of claiming. He doesn't claim.
I've done this, now God you've got to do that. Now I must be,
I've confessed my sin and therefore everything must be joyful now.
Now everything must be joy and happiness because I've confessed
my sin, I've claimed that. No, if you read through Psalm
51, it's one of humble pleading with a God that he's greatly
offended. A God that he does not deserve
anything from, but a God that in his mercy, will grant him
everything that he stands in need of. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. Restore unto me everything that
sin has robbed me of. And sin is such a robber. It
comes to us as if it wants to give us something that will benefit
us. Just like Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan came and gave,
tried to encourage her with the benefits of eating of this forbidden
fruit. But it steals so much. And David,
from that moment of short-term pleasure with Bathsheba, oh,
he lost so much. He lost so much. It ruined so
much for King David. David says, restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. He wanted a restoration. And
uphold me. with thy free spirit. Uphold me with that spirit of
grace, and grant me that to uphold me and keep me, that I may not
once again fall into this wicked way. And as we spoke this morning,
that thou desirest truth in the inward parts. David wanted his
heart to be guarded, you see. In Proverbs 4 it has that. Keep thy heart with all diligence,
for out of it are the issues of life. That's Proverbs 4, verse
23. And this is so important. The
heart needs guarding. And each one of us, you young
people, guard the heart. If you think, well, it doesn't
matter too much what goes on inside as long as the outside's
kept clean. You see, you're walking on dangerous
ground. There'll be a time when temptation
will come and the opportunity to do evil will be presented
to you and then there's nothing to stop, as it were. Then there's
the headlong pursuit in that wrong way. But if the heart is
guarded, if we're like Joseph who says, how can I do this great
wickedness and sin against God? You see, the heart is made right
with God and is concerned to be kept. and can stop us going
in wrong ways. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation. Uphold me with thy free spirit. Give me a noble spirit. Give
me a right spirit. A spirit that loves thee, praises
thee, and serves thee. But look then at what this David
wants to do with this. Where does all this lead in David's
thinking? Then will I teach transgressors
thy ways. You see, David's prayer in Psalm
51 is not one great big prayer of selfishness. He wants his
relationship with God restored, but that is so that he can be
a blessing to the people of God, that he can be a blessing to
the Church of God. But obviously he doesn't start
with wanting to be a blessing to the Church of God, because
how can he if he is not right with God? First thing needs that
he should be right with God, and that is the first part of
Psalm 51, is so much with his relationship with his God. But
then he wants from that right relationship, he is concerned
then about his testimony, his witness to those around him.
Then will I teach transgressors. thy ways. I will then be able
to tell those who are far out of the way that God is a merciful
God, that God is able to save unto the uttermost all that come
unto God by Him because I've been there myself, because I've
stood guilty, I've stood condemned. You see, murder and adultery
were both in in his time, were punishable by death. David was guilty, and David could
easily have been killed for what he did. But then will I teach
transgressors thy ways, that God is a God of mercy. Then I
will be useful in the church of God. Then I will be able to
speak of the mercy of God, and sinners shall be converted. unto thee. You see, his prayer
is not just for himself. He needs to be right with God.
He needs his relationship of love restored. And this is clear
then. How can we be a true witness
to those around us if we've lost the joy of our Lord? If we've
not lost the joy of our salvation, if we do not glory in the things
of God, if Christ is not uppermost in our hearts, what witness can
we be to the world around us? If we're grovelling after the
same joys and the same blessings that they want, what witness
are we? No, David wanted his heart to
be taken up with the things of God. He wanted, create in me
a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. He
wanted that right, but then the outworking was going to be, then
will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted
unto thee. There was going to be a positive
effect of godliness on those around him, and there's confidence
in his prayer. Then Will I teach transgressors
thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee? He was bold
in realizing if he was made right with God there would be a gracious
and a God-glorifying outcome. Then in verse 14 he returns to
this theme of his guiltiness. Deliver me from blood guiltiness.
Deliver me from the consequences of these sins that deserved me
shedding my blood, my blood being shed. Deliver me from blood guiltiness,
O God, Thou God of my salvation." You see his faith is rising here. He says, Thou God of my salvation. You see, as it were, his assurance
is warming. Now he has had this sweet anticipation
of being washed and cleansed. Thou God of my salvation, and
my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. So you see,
he's not going to be silent. If God has set him free from
his sins, he's not going to go in a corner and just keep it
to himself. He's going to sing the praise of God. And we read
in heaven, you see, heaven's not going to be a place where
there's no singing. But there's going to be a place
where God is glorified. amongst his people. They are
going to sing the songs of Zion. They are going to glorify this
One who has washed them out of all of their uncleannesses. Then
I shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. And then in verse 15, O Lord,
open thou my lips. My mouth shall show forth thy
praise. The Lord is desiring, he is saying,
Lord, set my tongue loose, open my lips, my mouth shall show
forth thy praise. But you see, it's good to see
in Psalm 51 the balance between the joy and the sorrow. We live perhaps in a day when
Christianity is easy to have extremes. And it's easy to have
those that seem to focus only on the joy and the happiness
and the delight and the praise and seem to know little or nothing
of the sorrow for sin and the sadness over what they are before
God as hell-deserving sinners. They seem to focus very little
and perhaps they don't want to think about that at all. They
just want to praise. And there can be others. that
just focus on the negative, focus on their sinfulness, focus on
the fact that they come short of the glory of God. And sin
is mixed with all they do, but you don't ever hear them praising
God. Well you have, you see in these
verses, a balance. This same man who is speaking
of true praise, true glorification of Christ, mixed. with realization of who he is
as a guilty, hell-deserving sinner. You see verse 15, open thou my
lips and my mouth to show forth thy praise, a very glorious theme,
and to glorify God. But then verse 16, for thou desirest
not sacrifice, else would I give it, thou delightest not in burnt
offering. But you say, God appointed all
those burnt offerings? You go back and read in Moses,
Moses was commanded by God to institute the ceremonial law.
Why is David saying, for thou desirest not sacrifice, else
would I give it? Why is he saying that? Well,
you see, David realized something of the fact that the sacrifices
were pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. And those sacrifices
in and of themselves could never take away sin. And indeed it
was something that the Lord God made very clear in the beginning
of Isaiah, that he was, the sacrifices that Israel was presenting to
them, they were thinking that by giving a sacrifice to God,
they'd done their job. And they could then carry on
with their life as usual, as long as they'd given the sacrifice
to God, they could carry on. Isaiah chapter 1 picks this up,
verse 11. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt
offerings of rams, and of the fat of fed beasts. I delight
not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of goats. When
ye come to appear before me, who hath required this of your
hands to tread my court? God's saying, Yes, I appointed
the whole ceremonial law and all the sacrifices. Yes, I appointed
them all. But they were to be done. by
faith, looking to the Saviour. And just the death of an animal,
that in itself was not an acceptable sacrifice. But if it was brought,
you see, with the understanding and looking to Christ, Abraham
saw my day and was glad. If it was done in that way, then
it was a sweet savour. For thou desirest not sacrifice,
else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. That's not really what God It desires in and of themselves. He's talking in terms of relatively,
but then in verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a
broken and a contrite heart. Oh God, thou will not despise. So here it's showing that God
desires a broken and a contrite heart. This is what he desires.
But you say, and this is where I'm trying to point out, the
balance that you have in Psalm 51. In verse 17 it is saying
how much a true believer should be one who is of a broken and
a contrite heart. That means one that is broken
over sin, one that is sorrowing, one that is crushed over the
enormity of his sin. But this same one is the one
open thou my lips and my mouth. shall show forth thy praise. You see there's a contrast. There's these two great powers are working
in a true child of God. I think one of our hymns picks
this up. Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,
which before the cross I spend. Love and grief, my heart dividing. You see, there's these two motions.
There's the love to God. There's the singing of his praise.
He hath done everything well. I was lost and ruined in the
fall. And I was unworthy of the least
of his benefits. But Christ is precious. You see
the two sides. And David brings them together
and doesn't think they're contradictory. But indeed, it's the fact that
it's often pointed out, if you have a rainbow, the rainbow shines
brightest on the backdrop of the darkest cloud. And as we
realize the awfulness of our sin, that I am altogether as
an unclean thing, all my righteousness is as filthy rags. But then,
this is the one that can sing of mercy. This is the one that
can sing of a God that is good, a God that is merciful, a God
that is gracious. It comes out of a realisation
of who He is. And you see, so we don't have
to be amongst those that are always negative, as it were,
or always praising. We need to be amongst those that,
by God's grace, are partakers of both. to know the sorrow and
to know the joy, to know true sorrow over sin, but that sorrow
then is the backdrop to seeing the beauties of Christ to deliver
us from that awful condition. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. You might say, but as long as
I confess my sin and I get It says if he confesses our sin
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. All I need to do
is confess my sin and that's the end of it. I don't need to
go all through Psalm 51 and go all through this. You see Psalm
34 says this clearly in verse 18. The Lord is nigh unto them
that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be. a contrite spirit. You can't
separate them because God has joined them together. God has
said, this is the character. I will bring David, I will send
Nathan to David to bring David to a state where he is a contrite
spirit. No, he wasn't before. I think
he wasn't before. When you see his judgement against
this man with the Yulam, it was very hard and very judgemental
and very unfeeling and very unmerciful. David needs to be broken. And
God sent Nathan, you see, to break him down, thou art the
man. And now David is a broken man. David's one that realizes
his sin, the enormity of it, the awfulness of it. And now
he is in a position, in a state, as it were, that God has brought
him so that the Lord is nigh unto them that have a broken
heart. and save us such as of a contrite spirit." This is the
one in Isaiah that's so beautiful, to this man will I look, and
to him that is of a broken heart and of a contrite spirit. The
Lord will look unto them and when we have also that beautiful
word of Christ, prophetic of what Christ would do, In Isaiah
61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the
broken-hearted. You see, if we're hard-hearted,
if we're unbroken for sin, if we're unconcerned, if we're not
realising the awfulness of our state, it's clear from scripture
the Lord is not nigh us. The Lord has not come, the Lord
at that time is not going to reveal himself to us. He may
be sending his Nathan and we pray the Lord would to break
us down. But in that unhumbled, unrepentant state, the Lord will
not bless us in that state. We are to be humbled because
he has said. And you see, you might say, but you're quoting
all your texts from the Old Testament. Could we not have one from the
New? Well, if we think of the Lord Jesus himself speaking on
the Sermon on the Mount, he opened it with, blessed are the poor
in spirit. for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. David was one that mourned over
his sin, but he was one that rejoiced in his God. And beloved friends, we need
both sides. We need to be amongst those who
mourn over sin, who grieve over sin, and yet amongst those who
glorify God, who have a new song. You see, it was so in Psalm 40.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of a miry
clay, set my feet upon a rock, put a new song in my mouth, even
praise unto my God. You see, it's not separated the
awfulness of our condition with the praise of God. God has joined
these together, the sacrifices of God. are a broken spirit,
a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."
God will not turn away from such a character. These are the characters
that he has deigned to bless. These are the characters that
would write themselves off. The professing church perhaps
would despise them. They would think that they're
not much worth, but they're the characters that God has said
in his word that he will bless. Do good in thy good pleasure
and desire, and build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt
thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt
offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then shall they offer bullocks
upon thine altar. You see, we're back to offerings,
we're back to sacrifices. But David said, Thou desirest
not sacrifice. God wanted the heart right. And
when David was sacrificing these sacrifices in his day before
Christ came, they were beautiful to Christ when they were done
with a right heart. And so it is with us as we come
to worship God in his house. If we come wrongly, if we come
to think that we've turned up today and that means that that
crossed off religion off our list for this week and we can
then go on and live our lives unto ourselves and Think no more
upon His name. If that is what we think is acceptable
to God, it is not. He wants the heart. He wants
the heart to be broken over sin, after Him. He wants our hearts
to be on the stretch after Christ, so that we may be filled with
the Spirit. Well, we have then in this psalm
a clear evidence of David knowing these sorrows. and the joys of
being a true child of God. The true child of God knowing
sorrows that this world does not know and also knowing joys
that this world does not know. May we be amongst those people
then that know the joyful sound, that do truly Seek to this God. Come in all our wickedness, in
all our shortcoming. And as we have a controversy
with God, as we've come short and we've perhaps sinned in a
certain area of our lives, we need to come back. Have mercy
upon me, O God. We need to come back to God.
We're not to, as it were, run away from God and find our joys
outside of God. We're to go back to God, to confess
our sins and find as we plead, the blood that does for sin atone,
that God will graciously have mercy upon us. But we have to
remember this, ye have need of patience, that after ye have
done the will of God, that ye may receive the promise. We're
to wait on God. And that's why we have that precious
psalm, my soul, wait thou only upon God. for my expectation
is from him. He is the only one that is able
to grant forgiveness. He is the only one that can give
us solid joys and lasting pleasures. May we then come to this one,
confess our sins and be amongst those who truly are glorifying
to God, truly are able, as it were, to be used in converting,
then sinners should be converted unto thee. There should be a
true testimony. What flowing out of? Flowing
out of us being right with God, us walking in the joy of the
Lord, being able to tell others that there's joys in Christ that
this world knows nothing of. May we, by God's grace, be partaker
of them and know this God to be our God. because David at
his end was able to say this, although my house be not so with
God. Yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure, and this is all my
salvation and all my desire. And David tonight is in glory,
singing the praises of him that loved him and gave himself for
him, may we with them numbered, may we be now and through eternity.