Alright Psalm 86. I want to read through the psalm with you and as we do I want to begin tonight at verse 7 Which is about the middle He says in verse 1 bow down thine ear. Oh Lord Hear me for I am poor and needy So the reason he gives for asking for God to bow down, to humble himself, to listen, to give his ear, and to answer him, is that he is in such great need. He's poor. He has nothing. He's dependent upon God for everything. There's no one who can help him but God. And he has a great need for help, and so he asked the Lord to help him. Now we understand this, of course, preeminently to be speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I find it interesting that when I study the Psalms especially, that God has so interwoven the one who is praying with the Lord Jesus Christ and his people that is difficult to separate the two. As soon as we identify an expression or verses or the entire psalm as belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ, then we also see our own need, our own poverty of spirit too. And we also see God's grace that he would bow down to the poor and the needy, that He would also be gracious to us that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself would make Himself poor, so that we might be made rich by His poverty, and that God would be so gracious as to give His Son, and in order to give us, who have nothing, There's nothing in us that would attract God to show mercy to us or to help us, to hear us. There's no reason why God should hear us, except for the Lord Jesus Christ, who made himself poor in order that he might, by his poverty, bring all that we need to us by God's grace, his righteousness, his salvation, eternal life and everything, the knowledge of God. All of this is given to us because we are poor and needy and because Christ made himself poor and needy in order to bless us with his salvation. This is God's grace and it's magnified because we see that God was gracious to us in Christ, through Christ. Verse two says, preserve my soul for I am holy. Now, you can see in this psalm many requests and there's this first verse is hear me. The second verse, preserve my soul. The third verse, he says, be merciful to me. The fourth, rejoice my soul, rejoice the soul of thy servant. And in verse six, again, give ear. To my prayer and in all these places throughout this psalm at the end verse 17 show me a token for good Verse 16 have mercy upon me give thy strength to thy servant save the son of the handmaid So you can see all these things our prayers the supplication and these supplications are expressing the psalmist's need for And as he's poor and needy, he needs these things. He needs God to hear him, to preserve him, just to be merciful to him, to save him. And so you can see, our own souls resonate, don't they? With all of these requests. I need God to hear my need. I need him to do what seems good to him in order to meet my need. When God does what seems good to him, It'll be far beyond what you could ask or think. He's able to do, and He does do, far beyond all that we could ask or think, as He says in Ephesians chapter three. So all these things are teaching us God's great grace and His mercy in our own need, in the words of the psalmist, and the words of the psalmist are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the days of His flesh, but they're also our words, and there's such a close connection between Him and us that His prayer was heard for us, And our prayers, our needs are heard in Him. And so that's the blessedness of this Psalm. So he says, preserve me. He's showing here that if the Lord Jesus Christ in the days of His flesh depended on God to keep Him, to hold Him up, to give Him strength, to save Him, and to preserve Him, how much more do we need to be preserved? It shows us that everything we need comes from God. We need life. God gives us life. He gave us life by giving us the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He sent his son into the world that we should live by him, 1 John 4, verse 9. So, and Jesus said, because I live, you shall live also. I am the life, Christ is our life. And the life that we live is Christ living in us. So all these things teach us that our life is God giving us his life in Christ. And everything else too, not only our life, but faith, the spirit of God is given to us, faith, love, and this preservation. I heard Todd Nybert say that one time when Bruce Crabtree was preaching for them, he used the word, he meant to say preservation, but he said, perservation. And Todd said he thought that was the best way to really describe what preservation is. We persevere because God preserves us. And so that's preservation or whatever Bruce said. I love Bruce Crabtree's preaching and I wish I was there to hear that particular sermon. God has to preserve us, doesn't he? He has to hold us up. Psalm 119 says, hold thou me up and I shall be safe. I'll be safe if God holds me up. Peter was held up. Jesus prayed for his faith. He said, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And he was held up even though he denied the Lord Jesus. So we need God to preserve us. The Lord Jesus Christ himself in the days of his flesh had to be preserved. He was a man. He was a real man. And as a man, he depended perfectly upon God. And as a man, he was perfectly preserved. He was held up. He was able to do God's will. And then it says, for I am holy. Here's a second reason. The first one, I'm poor and needy. This one, I'm holy. And this is something, as I mentioned last time, I think we're reluctant to use these kinds of words to describe ourselves. I'm holy. because we understand sometimes wrongly that we make ourselves holy and we know we haven't progressed very far if we're doing something to make ourselves holy. We certainly haven't attained to the mark. We've fallen so far short that we have to really in honesty say, no, I'm unholy. But that's not what's meant here. It's not talking about an endeavor of man that makes himself holy. This is talking about what God does. God is the one who sanctifies us. He makes us holy. Of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. God is the God, the Lord is his name, he's the Lord who sanctifies us. And so we could go throughout scripture to see this, but the point here is that God did this, we are his workmanship, he started it, he's gonna finish it. And so he's really praying on the basis of what God determined to do. God is always pleased with his own work. God's work is always successful. And faith lives upon God's ability to do what God has promised. That's what faith is, believing that he who promised is able to do what he's promised and he's faithful to do it. And so he prays this way, preserve my soul. And when he says my soul, he means This is talking about his heart. This is where faith occurs. This is where the life of God is in us. It's in our soul. Even though the Spirit of God dwells in our bodies and the members of our bodies are the members of Christ, as he says in 1 Corinthians 6, Yet it is in our soul primarily, that's where the thoughts of our heart occur. That's where our mind is, we have the mind of Christ. That's where faith is going on, is in our soul. That's where love is. And so Jesus said that the first commandment, the most important one, was that we love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. And you can see that the whole heart, mind, soul, Those are things on the inside and strength. And that shows that the whole man is represented by the soul. Jesus told his disciples that his soul was very heavy. And it says in Isaiah 53 that his soul was made an offering for sin. So the matters that God deals with matters of the heart, and that's our soul. So he says, preserve my soul, preserve me in heart, in mind, in soul, in body, everything about me. And then he also says in this Psalm, in this verse of Psalm 86, O thou my God. And this is a covenant relationship. God has established it. My God. He says, save thy servant. I'm your servant because you made me your servant. That's why I say I'm holy, because you made me yours. You made me yours. You set me apart for yourself. And therefore I'm holy. I'm your work. And what you started, you'll finish. I'm your servant. And I trust in you. This faith was given to me. And this trust that we have is just a reflection. It's just a shadow, really, of the true and the perfect faith that the Lord Jesus Christ had in the days of his flesh, isn't it? how the Lord Jesus Christ obeyed God and that obedience of heart and mind and soul and strength was the obedience that sprang from his faith because he trusted in God and he perfectly trusted. He was dependent, utterly dependent as a man who had no strength unless it was given to him by God and so he lived. He lived his life and he spoke his words, he did everything that he did constantly to do the will of God. And then he says in verse three, be merciful to me, O Lord, for I cry unto thee daily. I love this verse because I need mercy daily. That's why we cry daily. Isn't that a wonderful thing that God himself has given us these words to be able to say, I cry daily to you because I need your mercy daily. And so there's never a time when God will not hear his people. And you've heard this before, I'm sure, but it's so comforting that God is more willing to show mercy than we are to cry for it. God is more willing to hear us than we are to call to him. He's more willing to preserve us than we realize our need for preservation. He's more willing to rejoice our souls than we seek him for that joy. He's more willing to answer than we are to call. God is a gracious God. That's the reason that we have any sense of our own need. And in all these things, we see the perfection of it in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse four, rejoice the soul of thy servant. And rejoicing comes from seeing God's What makes God happy, if you could think of it that way? What makes Him happy? Remember what Hebrews 12 says, for the joy that was set before Him, the Lord Jesus Christ endured the cross, despising the shame. His joy, Christ's joy is given to us. He says in John 15, that my joy might be in you and that and that your joy might be full. So the Lord Jesus Christ wants his people to have his joy. We rejoice when we have his joy, when we joy over what he rejoices over. And what is that? Well, it's his people. Can you imagine that? The Lord Jesus Christ rejoicing over his people, making their salvation to have them as his own, to have them with him, for them to behold his glory. This is his joy. Do you think his joy is gonna be fulfilled? It absolutely will. This is why he ran the race. This is the reward that he would have his people for whom he gave himself to his father in sacrifice. And what a joy it is that he would have the same will, the same heart, the mind, to do His Father's will and to have the same joy of His people, to save them. Zephaniah 3.17 says that the Lord would joy over His people with singing. Joy over them with singing. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will joy over thee with singing. And so we know that the Lord is going to joy over his people. In Jude, the book of Jude chapter, there's only one chapter, he says in the 24th verse of Jude, he says, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. That's a lot, isn't it? Because the joy of God, our Savior, cannot be put into words. It can't be measured. There's no comprehension of his joy. And so his joy, remember Joseph's joy over his brethren who had sold him into Egypt? His joy was infinitely more than theirs because he loved them. And so the Lord Jesus Christ has this great joy. And remember what it says in Isaiah, Let me see if I can get that for us here. Isaiah chapter, I think it's chapter 66, but I could be wrong. He says, Now it's in 61. He says in Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord, this is verse 1, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound. You know what that's like to be set free from prison? You can't get out, and then you're set free. And then to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, that would be the year of Jubilee, the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. Now listen to this verse in Isaiah 61, verse 3. To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy, for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified." So, in this verse you see that God gives joy as part of the preaching of the Gospel, as because of the work of Christ, through the ministry of the Spirit of God. When we hear the gospel of Christ's sin-atoning death and His righteousness that He established, that we're made the righteousness of God in Him, we're brought to God, all of our sins are taken away, we're clothed in His righteousness and His beauty, we're accepted for His sake alone, we're given eternal life and eternal glory because of Him, we rejoice. When we believe this, we joy with joy unspeakable and full of glory. receiving the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls. And so he says here, this is God's appointment to his people, to give them this oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And then in Psalm 51, you remember what David prayed when he had sinned so grievously. In Psalm 51, he said this in verse four, He said, against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. And then in verse eight, make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou has broken may rejoice. You see, that's the gospel. God giving joy to a condemned sinner. That's freedom. That is the spirit. That's the oil of gladness. given to them who were mourning. And in verse 14, he says, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. And so you can see here that the joy that comes to us, according to Isaiah 61 verse 2, is through the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. We are called trees of righteousness. We're given this joy because of His work. We're made to joy, rejoice, because of Christ's work. And this is what Romans 5 also says, we joy because the Spirit of God sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts abundantly through the ministry of the gospel teaching us what Christ has done for us. Then back to Psalm 86, he says, so give me this, rejoice the soul of thy servant, for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. We lift up our soul. What is it to lift up our soul? Well, we don't pray to God if we don't pray from the heart, do we? It doesn't do us any good just to mouth the words. How many times do we start our prayers and we're trying to pray and it seems so clumsy The words just aren't there and the words we put together seem so weak. And sometimes we just want to give up and then we start saying, Lord, help me. That's when we begin to pray. That's when the heart becomes engaged. So to lift up the soul, it's like think of it this way. We need we need the Lord as a child needs his father. And what does a child do? We have several grandchildren. One of the things I've seen the children do is they lift their hands up to their mommy or their daddy. And mom immediately lifts them up, scoops them up, don't they? And that's what we do. In our hearts we say, Lord, help me, save me, preserve me, rejoice the soul of your servant, be merciful to me. And all these things are just lifting up the soul. It's lifting up our needs. In Lamentations 3, in verse 41, he says, let us search and try our ways and lift our... our souls with our hands to the Lord. Lift everything we are in prayer. That's the way we lift up our voices. We lift up our hearts in prayer. We make our supplications to God. We express our need of Him, our need of Christ. Our great need because we're sinners and we have no strength. And we need him to save us and to save from beginning to end and to the uttermost. And so we lift up our souls. And then in verse... Verse 5, For thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive, plenty is in mercy to them that call on thee. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer, and attend to the voice of my supplications. And verse 7, he says, In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me. You see, the entire psalm is calling, isn't it? This is what calling is, it's prayer. Calling is prayer, and this call is a prayer of supplication. Supplication is making our requests known to God. It's making our requests known to God through Christ. It's expressing our need for Christ, for God in Christ, to save us. and to give us life, to give us faith, to give us everything. We have nothing. We need everything from Him. We're not asking for a house or a car or a job. That may be a temporary need. We need help with this. We have health problems. We have all these things. But the true need is in the heart. It's in the heart. and it's for God to give us His Spirit, it's for God to give us a sight of Christ with faith in Him and love for Him, to worship Him. That's what we really need, isn't it? That's a need we cannot meet, and it's a need, when God gives it to us, we're never so thankful. We can be in the worst of circumstances, and having the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, we have all things, don't we? And so he says, in the day of my trouble, I will call upon. Isn't it amazing that God, who is the giver of all good and perfect gifts, he gives all things life and breath and all things. And he delights to be God in that way, to give only. He never takes from us what we give to him. He first gave it. Isn't it wonderful, though, to say, to hear him tell us that in the day of our trouble, we are to call upon him. We think, well, no, I should call upon him when I'm not in trouble, because that would show that I'm really a true... And we should. We should call upon the Lord when we're not in trouble. But the sad fact is that we don't truly call until we're in trouble. And the Lord knows that. We're just like little kids who don't know our need for their parents until they get into trouble. And then they say, mom, dad, where are you? And they're right there. They were waiting. And the Lord is so gracious that he brings trouble so that we'll know our need and call upon him and express our need for him. That's supplication. And then we realize that our need can only be met by him. and that it's only met by Him in Christ, and that He has fully met our need in Christ, and that He has to give us faith in Christ to see our need met in Him, and to rejoice, to know this peace that passes understanding. And so we pray, Lord, help me. Do what seems good to You, but save me. Save me for Christ's sake. Isn't that it? Have mercy upon me. This is the revelation of your word that you save sinners. And I am a sinner. So save me in the day of my trouble. He says in Psalm 50, verse 15, call upon me in the day of trouble. Let me turn to that, make sure I don't misquote it. He says, call upon me in the day of trouble. In Psalm 50, verse 15. And he says, I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me." You see, God's doing all the work here. How did I glorify him? Because He delivered me in my trouble. I called. I was in trouble. He delivered me. He delivered me. And because He caused me to call upon Him in my trouble and delivered me, then I'm going to glorify Him. I'm going to say, it's all His work. He saved me by His grace. It's grace alone. And so what did I do? I was in trouble. That's what I did. I got myself in trouble. And he heard me. He called me. I mean, he delivered me. And now I glorify him. I'm the object of his saving grace. Isn't that wonderful? He knows our heart, He knows our need, He meets our needs, He met them in Christ, and He continues to meet them in Christ. He continues to direct us there. We could talk about that on and on, but remember this, what the Lord has said in the New Testament, that we are to come to the Lord, our God, through Christ, knowing that when we come to him through Christ, we're coming to his throne as a throne of grace, as a throne of grace. And therefore we come boldly to him, don't we? We come boldly to him because his throne is a throne of grace and we come by the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse eight, Verse 80 says, among the gods there's none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there any works like thy works. You see what he's saying here? The first six verses were expressing his need, his supplication, and he was given the reason why the Lord would hear him, and he gives many Poor and needy, I need you. You made me your servant. I cry to you daily, and I'm your servant, and I lift up my soul to you." And so he goes on, and you're good. That's the reason you will hear me, because you're good. You're ready to forgive. You're plenteous in mercy. Plenteous in mercy to all that call upon you. So that's why I'm calling. That's why I'm asking you to to hear me. You hear me for Christ's sake. But then he says this in verse seven, I call on the day of trouble. You're going to hear me. He's confident, isn't he? Isn't he? In verse seven. And so he goes on to contrast this confidence in God, his savior. In verse eight, by saying this among the gods, there is none like thee. Oh, Lord, neither are there any works like thy works. You see how the Spirit of God guides His people to think this way and to speak this way? They first realize that their hope is in Christ, that Christ Himself is their hope, and so they call upon Him. in trouble at all times, they worship him for his salvation. And these things are going on. This is the operation of the spirit of God giving them faith. And then they say, there's no gods like you. All of the works of men's hands taken all together are nothing. There's no God like you, nor are there any works like your works. So he sets God up. He sets God up in his prayer as being unique. There's none like him. None like him. None can do the works that God does. And that's why he's calling on the Lord. And so that's what's going on here. He says, idols are what? They're the works of men's hands. And all who make idols and trust idols are like the idols they trust and make. That's what Psalm 115 is saying. And no idols ever did anything. And yet men make them and trust in them and call on them. Just like the prophets of Baal when Elijah told them to make their altar and call on their God and see if he would answer. And he didn't, of course. And so he speaks in verse 7 with certainty, God will answer him. He's poor, he's needy, he doesn't do anything in order to benefit God, yet God acts in his sovereign grace and saves him, and he speaks to him that way. And so he knows he's going to answer him, but the gods of men's making are not like that at all. There's never been an idol that spoke. There's never been an idol that could say what they were going to do before they did it. Men can't do that. There was never an idol who could create anything out of nothing. There was never an idol who did all of his will, who said, this is what I'm going to do and then did it. There's never been an idol like that. No idols ever could say before they did anything all that they were going to do, because only God can do that. An idol can't raise the dead. An idol can't call those things which be not as though they were. Idols are the gods of the dead. Our God is the God of the living. An idol certainly cannot save a sinner. Idols cannot justify the ungodly. Idols can't do anything without compromising. They have no truth. They have no grace. They're powerless to do anything. And so that's why he contrasts it this way. He calls on the Lord, not an idol. He does not call on a man. He does not trust in a man's works. He calls on the Lord. The Lord will answer him, unlike the idols which can't hear and can't do anything. And he calls on the Lord, for there's none like the Lord. And it's a sin to compare any to Him. We can't say, well, this is what God is like. No, He's not like anything or anybody. You can only know Him in the Lord Jesus Christ from His Word. And so God can't be compared, there's none like Him. And so He calls on the Lord this way, and there's no one who can do His work. That's why when we say salvation is the work of God, we know immediately it cannot be the work of men. Because no one can do God's works. And salvation is of the Lord. It's not of men. It excludes Salvation precludes man from contributing to it because man is the object, the one who needs saving. And lots of comparisons have been made to try to illustrate that of a drowning man, for example. And preachers have often tried to say, no, it's not like a drowning man. A drowning man can thrash about, but a sinner can't thrash about. And I remember Pharaoh Griswold, I think his name was long time ago. I heard him preaching a sermon. He says, The problem with man is not that he's drowning and needs a lifeguard. The problem is that he's at the bottom of the ocean with 6,000 tons of force over every square inch of his body and he's dead and the sharks have eaten his heart out. He can't help himself. That's how bad he is. That's the God we have. That's the God we serve. The God who raises the dead. And that's why he calls. And when you see that that's the Lord, and that there's no God like him, no works like his works, then you'll call on him, won't you? Because that's our need, we'll call on the Lord. Then in verse nine, all nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name. So here he's showing that the Lord's people will be saved, they will be saved, he will be successful. Remember what Jesus said in John chapter 10 and verse 16 of John 10, he says, other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. And he goes on to say how his father gave him a commandment. to save them by laying his life down. And he would lay it down, and he would take it up again, and he would call his people, and he would keep them, and no one can pluck them out of his hands. They were his. And there were those who heard him who didn't believe, and he said, you don't believe because you're not my sheep. And so there was a distinction made. The Lord is successful. He doesn't fail. He can't fail. He's spoken it, he'll also bring it to pass. And that's the Lord our God. He's not like an idol at all. He's not like our imagined gods. He's the one who reveals himself to save sinners with his almighty power. And so he says, in great triumph, he speaks of what shall be. All nations whom thou has made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name. And he's talking about God's elect out of all nations. Every person on earth will bow to Christ. And God's people bow to him in their lifetimes by faith. We look to him. We trust in Him. We call on Him. We bow to Him. We call Him our Lord. And we're glad He's our Lord because only He could save us. And only He would have the heart and the power to save us. And so He has done that. And we call Him our Lord and our Savior. We confess Him as such. And we're glad to have it that way. We didn't put ourselves into this salvation. He called us. We're like the sheep with its head in the hole. And he called us out, he drug us out, he found us and put us on his shoulders and he brought us back and he put us in his fold and he saved us. And that's what he did. Well, he says, all nations, but there are those in the world who never bow to Christ, but they shall also bow to at that last day. And when they bow, it will be a willing admission that they oppose their own salvation by refusing Christ. And it was all their fault. And they have no excuse. And then they face eternal separation. And so how we pray now, how we tremble and say, Lord, save me from that, from myself. So this is why the psalmist is praying this way. In the day of my trouble, verse seven, I will call upon me for you will answer me among the gods. There's none like you, nor any works like your works. All nations whom you have made shall call upon you and worship before thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name. Verse 10, for thou art great. and doest wondrous things, thou art God alone. Here again, he's just praising God. You are great. You are great and you do wondrous things. You are God alone. No competition here. No one can come close here. There's nobody even in the field with God, in the competitor's field with God. He stands alone. The Lord Jesus Christ alone reigns. And the joy of his heart was to have his people with him. That's why he's so great. Oh, Lord, my God, thou art very great. That's what Psalm 104, verse one says, very great, how great thou art. When I, in awesome wonder that God would send his son and not spare him. Oh, Lord, you are very great. And so then he goes on in verse 11, he says, "...teach me thy way, O Lord, I will walk in thy truth, unite my heart to fear thy name." Now, he's speaking this way because in this psalm he's going to show in verse 14 that he has many enemies. But right here now, he's building on verse 7 by saying, after the first six verses, he's pouring out his supplication. Then in verse 7, he says, I will call upon you in the day of my trouble. You will answer me. And then he exalts, he ascribes greatness to God in verses 8, 9, 10. And then he says in verse 11, teach me thy way, O Lord. I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name. You know what happens when God teaches us? We learn. We learn. Everyone who is taught of the Father learns. And what does he teach them? He draws them to Christ. They come because he draws them. All of his children are taught of the Lord. That's what I think it's Isaiah 54 and John chapter 6 verse 44 and verse 45. Jesus said, No man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him. And then he goes on to say, and they shall all be taught of God as it is written. And he's speaking about Isaiah. It has to be given to us. The Father draws us. And so he says, teach me thy way, O Lord, and I will walk in thy truth. And what is his way? The Lord Jesus Christ. What is his truth? The Lord Jesus Christ. Why does he say, unite my heart to fear thy name? Because I need God to align, to bring my heart into union with his thinking, with the truth of the gospel, so that I trust Christ according to the revealed truth of his word. You see, when we hear the Word of God, and when we believe Him according to His Word, God receives the praise, doesn't He? He revealed Himself, He convinced us, He persuaded us of the truth of it, He gave us this grace to trust Christ, and now we go on rejoicing, like the man who was occupied, who was possessed by those demons. When he saw the Lord, he fell down and Christ cast out that legion of devils. And then he came and he followed Christ and he sat at his feet and he was in his right mind, clothed in his right mind. That's what the Lord does. He unites our heart to fear his name, not the gods of the heathen, nor our enemies, the heathen themselves. We don't fear man. We don't want to. We do. But we don't want to, that's why he says, unite my heart to fear thy name. You see, the essence of fearing God's name is to have a holy awe and adoration and admiration and trembling awe of God's goodness in Christ as someone who reveres him. And this comes about by God's grace when He causes us to look only to the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way we can express the What we've learned, the only way that the teaching that God gives the lesson of God to our hearts is fulfilled in its full expression is when we realize I'm a sinner and nothing at all. Jesus Christ is my all in all and we call on him to be all in all. to God for us, our answer to God for our sins, our obedience to God for our righteousness, our holiness, our redemption, our wisdom, our intercessor, our advocate, our surety, our redeemer, our everything, our life, our heaven, our glory. We want Him to be our all, don't we? We don't want anything that He is not, and all that He is is all that we have, and all that He is is all that we want. This is God's work. Unite my heart to trust Christ and so admire and adore and revere you. Because to not trust Him would leave us in the camp of those who have idols and whose gods can do nothing and they're left to answer God in their own person, like Esau and Cain and so many in Scripture. And so he says this, don't leave me to myself, show me Christ, the way, the truth and the life. You see, he's really asking the Lord to renew the work in him. He taught him when he first heard, but now teach me again, speak to me again, renew me, revive me again, give me this life I need day by day. The essence of fear in the Lord is walking by faith. And that's what God's people do. The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That's the expression of one who fears the Lord. And then in verse 12, I will praise the Lord my God with all my heart and I will glorify thy name forevermore, forevermore. You see, every believer longs to publish the good news of Christ. our great God and Savior. I will praise Thee, O Lord, my God." Remember what Thomas said? He wasn't with the disciples when Jesus rose from the dead, when the Lord appeared to them. And Thomas doubled down. He says, no, I'm not going to follow you. You're so easily duped. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to require a real proof that he rose from the dead. I'm not going to believe unless I can stick my fingers into the nail prints of his hands and thrust my hand into his side. Remember, he was standing in his unbelief on what he thought was solid ground. I will decide whether or not it's true or not. He was really resting on his own wisdom. He was leaning on his own understanding. And the Lord appeared. He said, Thomas, don't be unbelieving. But believing he said, go ahead, put your hands here. And thrust your hand over here, my side. And what did Thomas say? He said, my Lord and my God. I will praise thee, O Lord, my God, with all my heart. I will glorify thy name forevermore. I believe that's the attitude that Thomas had at that point. He was overwhelmed by the sight of Christ. He didn't have to touch his finger into his hands or put his his fist into his side. The Lord said, Thomas, Don't be unbelieving. And so he said this. He published the greatness of his savior. That's what we want to do. We want to declare God's wondrous works. We want to do that. The entrance of thy words giveth light. It gives understanding to the simple. He says in Psalm 119, faith. Faith in Christ is a wondrous work of God, isn't it? And so that's what the next verse says. Verse 13, he says, for great is thy mercy toward me, thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. That's salvation, isn't it? You have delivered my soul from the lowest hell. We know that the Lord delivered Christ from the grave. He delivered Christ, and in delivering Christ, He delivered His people with Him. And so everyone, the Lord Jesus Christ, these words could be applied to Him, You have delivered my soul from the lowest hell, the hell He was brought under because of the weight of my sins on Him, and the wrath due to me for my sins, that was put upon Him. And he was delivered from that and he was delivered from the rage of Satan and his kingdom and ungodly men. And so he could say that and we say that, too. He was delivered for our offenses and he was raised again for our justification. God delivered us when he delivered Christ. He raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. What did we do? What did we do to deserve that? How could a man who is a sinner and dead in his trespasses and sins be elevated and put by God at his own right hand? It's not going to happen. But he did Christ and he did when he raised up Christ and sat him there, he raised and sat his people with him in him. And that's where they are by grace. It's all of grace, but it's all on the foundation of Christ redeeming work. Great is thy mercy toward me, thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. You can't get any lower than where we were. It's the lowest place. Then he says in verse 14, O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul and have not set thee before them. They didn't set you before them. They didn't consider that, you know, they acted like, well, there's no, nothing's happening. God isn't, he's not going to do anything. He's going to compromise. He's not going to, surely he's not going to cast us into eternal hell. God wouldn't do that, would he? Me? That's a proud thought, isn't it? That is a proud thought. We ourselves were sometimes foolish and disobedient. We were deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. That describes us. And we're by nature, according to Ephesians 2, 3, we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Our sins prevailed against us, like Psalm 65, 3 says, and our sins were more powerful and more numerous than the armies of Egypt were that came against Israel. There was never a greater rebellion than our rebellion against God in our sins. And they came against God, but by his predeterminate will, his foreknowledge, and his counsel, God determined to deliver up Christ at the hands of wicked men in order to save us from our wickedness. That's grace. That is grace. God delivering us up from the evil we intended against the Lord Jesus Christ and the hell we deserve for that. And by that very deliverance, he saved us from our sins. That's grace. God delivered up his son, didn't spare him, and delivered up his son for us. And that's what this verse is saying. The proud are risen against me. The assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul and have not set thee before them. It was for my sins. That song I was reciting from Sunday, it was, I denied thee. I, it was, denied thee. I crucified thee. And yet he goes on, verse 15, but thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth, even though the proud are risen against me and my sins would condemn me. My sins were cast into the depths of the sea. And God did this. Great is His mercy. He delights in mercy. He will have compassion on us. He will cast our sins into the depths of the sea, just like the armies of Egypt. More powerful, more numerous, and yet drowned in the judgment that He brought upon Christ for us. Thou, O God, are full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering, plenteous in mercy and truth, not just mercy, compromising truth, but mercy in perfect delight and harmony with the truth of God, which is unsullied, uncompromising and holy. Mercy and truth kissed each other. A righteousness and peace of embraced and kissed each other. This is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's plenteous in mercy. His mercy, he's rich in mercy, he says in Ephesians 2. God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ and for Christ's sake alone. He didn't find something in us. He didn't look for something in us. He found it all in his son. And he could find nothing more that his own heart could require but what he found in Christ for us. And then in Psalm verse 16, O turn unto me and have mercy upon me, give thy strength to thy servant, and save the son of thy handmaid. I'm sure this is talking preeminently about the Lord Jesus Christ asking God for mercy and strength as his servant to save him, the son of the one that God chose and qualified to give birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's also true of every one of God's people. He had mercy on us, He turns to us, He has mercy upon us, He gives us His strength, He causes us to see Christ, and He saves us. We're the son of His own church, His people. God has made, called the church, the mother of us all. And so the gospel comes to us and gives us this new birth through the Spirit of God. Verse 17, show me a token for good that they which hate thee may see it and be ashamed. Now, I'm sure that when Christ rose from the dead, his enemies were ashamed. The soldiers certainly were that were guarding the tomb. They were as dead men. And then, of course, the high priest, the chief priest and the Sanhedrin, they were ashamed. What are we going to do? Let's pay off some someone to lie about this. I'm sure Herod and Pilate were ashamed, and they wanted to find out, what are you guys doing about this? We've got to cover this up. And they feared. God justified his son. God vindicated his words. He vindicated his claims to be the son of God, to be the one who only did his father's pleasure, come to save sinners. It was a token, wasn't it? A token for good, for our salvation, for his glory. And he says, do this so that they which hate thee may see it and be ashamed, because thou, Lord, has opened me or helped me and comforted me. God has helped his people in helping his son. God has comforted his people in raising his son from the dead. He's given them the victory over sin and death and hell, Satan, the curse of the law, the burden of the law. Taken away his wrath. He's made peace. He's justified them. He's given them a perfect righteousness He's clothed them in the beauty of his son brought them to himself in love and and set them in joy before him Made them as children heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ and given them eternal life and eternal glory All the promises of God in Christ are made theirs to the glory of God He's done it He's done it. Lord, thou has helped me. You have comforted me. What a token! What a token for good. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your mercy to us. What grace is this? Such a great token of your good in saving us who were so vile and and foul and rebellious against you, and were worthy to be cast off forever and ever. And yet you've brought us to yourself through the blood of your son, redeemed us to God by his own blood, and made us children of God, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. Delivering up the Lord Jesus, your only begotten Son, not sparing him, that you might spare us and give us all things with him. Lord, thank you that you brought this justification to us through such a high cost. Help us, Lord, to praise your name forever and ever. And we ask, Lord, that you would turn to us and unite our hearts to fear your name, to trust Christ, and to live by faith upon him. and glorify you with all of your people as the nations brought to bow before you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.