Psalm 141. Psalm 141. Lord, I
cry unto thee. Make haste unto me. Give ear
unto my voice when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before
thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands
as the evening sacrifice. Set a watch, O Lord, before my
mouth. Keep the doors of my lips. Incline
not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with
men that work iniquity. And let me not eat of their dainties. Let the righteous smite me. It shall be a kindness. And let
him reprove me. It shall be an excellent oil
which shall not break my head. For yet my prayer also shall
be in their calamities. When their judges are overthrown
in stony places, they shall hear my words, for they are sweet. Our bones are scattered at the
grave's mouth as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.
But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord. In thee is my
trust. Leave not my soul destitute.
Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me and the
gins of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their
own nets whilst that I withal escape. Let's pray. Lord, how we are aware that the only way we
can come into your presence is through your son. But with what
thanksgiving we have that. He is our way. How we thank you for the salvation
that's in him. How we thank you for all your
glorious attributes. How we thank you for the revelation
of the great sacrifice of thy son as our salvation. Lord, we're very needy people.
We're poor and needy. How we need your mercy, how we
need your grace, how we need your favor, how we need your
love and kindness, how we need the forgiveness of sins, how
we need thy great salvation. Lord, we have those are a number
who are sick and suffering. We pray for your blessing upon
them and we pray for the healing of their bodies according to
your will. Lord, we know that you're the
first cause of all things, and we bow before thy will as good,
perfect, and acceptable through thy son. Give us grace to be
servants one to another. Give us grace to take the lowest
seat. Give us the grace to truly see ourselves like Paul did as
the chief of sinners and look to Christ only. Deliver us from that which would
hinder us in hearing from you. In Christ's name we pray, amen. I am so grateful for the Psalms
because they express what I feel, whatever that means, better than
I can express it myself. That's why I love the Psalms. Lord, I cry unto thee. You know, that's repeated 50
times in the Psalms, and that tells us how often this thought
is in the psalmist's heart. Lord, I cry unto thee. Lord, Jehovah, the self-existent
one. And I love to think about this.
The Lord is self existent. He is independent. He has no needs. And that tells us who he is.
Unlike us, we have so many needs. He has no needs. He's the one
we pray to. He's the one we cry to. The God
of glory, the omnipotent, sovereign, glorious God who has no needs. I am that I am. The self-existent
one. Oh Lord, I cry unto thee. Make haste unto me. You know,
when you're crying, You want the Lord to answer you in a hurry.
You know, you don't have any control over how quick he answers,
but you want him to answer. And that's what the psalmist
says. Make haste unto me, give ear
unto my voice when I cry unto thee. Now, don't you love the
language of this psalm? I mean, I'm not going to be able
to express this to you or somebody else, but here the Lord gives
us the words that are in the heart of the believer. Lord,
I cry unto thee, needy, poor and needy. Lord, I cry unto thee,
make haste unto me, give ear unto my voice when I cry unto
thee. I want to be heard. Verse two. Let my prayer be set forth before
thee as incense. and the lifting up of my hands
as the evening sacrifice." Now, when he says, let my prayer be
set forth as incense, you know that's talking about the intercession
of Christ. The incense in the tabernacle
represented Christ representing his people. Now, when I pray,
I am very aware of this. The only way my prayers will
be heard is as Christ presents them to his father. And what
a ground of confidence, the incense. My prayers are presented to the
Father by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what makes them acceptable,
a sweet smelling savor to him only because Christ offers him
up. There's so much said about the
intercession of Christ in the scriptures, wherefore he is able
to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him. That's
the only way to come, isn't it? Seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them, the continual intercession of Christ. These
things write unto you that you sin not, but if any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Oh, how thankful we are for his
intercession. When we pray, we realize, you
know, when we pray in the Lord's name, We realize that the prayer
is heard through his intercession, not because of our merit, not
because of any dessert on our part, but because of his righteousness
and his merits, our great high priest. And then he says, the
lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Now, there
was a morning and an evening sacrifice. And the foundation
of that intercession is what? the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when I'm praying, I am aware
that the only reason he intercedes for me is because of the sacrifice
he made on Calvary Street. And he accomplished my salvation
through that sacrifice. And now I can come into his presence
and cry. And this is distraught when he
is speaking this way. He's distraught. You ever been
distraught? He is certainly here and this
is the way he is crying to the Lord, understanding the only
way that he will be heard is the intercession of Christ and
his sacrifice. I love the fact that there's
a morning sacrifice and an evening sacrifice, which represents the
sacrifice of Christ. We begin with the sacrifice of
Christ. We end with the sacrifice of Christ at all times. Now he
says in verse three, Set a watch, O Lord, before my
mouth. Keep the door of my lips. Here's his first request, and
I would do so well to make this my request. Set a watch on my
mouth. And keep the door of my lips.
What comes out of my mouth is the index of what is in my heart. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh. And how often do you wish you
could pull those words back in that came out of your mouth?
Set a watch on my mouth. Keep the doors of my lips. Lips, I think of what James said
in James 1 26. He said, if a man seemeth to
be religious, but bridles not his tongue, but deceives his
own heart, that man's religion is vain. If a man seems to be
religious, and yet he doesn't bridle his tongue, he boasts
of his works and all the things that he's done, he has no bridling
of the tongue, his religion is vain. Give me a heart that will
speak appropriate words. Let me not promote myself, slander
others, or lie on you, O Lord. Set a watch upon my lips. Keep my lips from sinning against
thee, O The mouth, the tongue is a world of iniquity set on
fire of hell, James said. And so how wisely the psalmist
asked the Lord to do this for him. I need him to do this for
me because I know how quick I am to pop off, set a watch on my
mouth. Now look what he says in verse
four. I love this. Incline, not my heart, to any evil thing,
to practice wicked works with the men that work iniquity. And
let me not eat of their dainties, incline my heart, turn my heart,
bend my heart, influence my heart. Now if the Lord's gonna do something
for us, he's gonna ask us, or we're gonna ask him to do it
for us. He's going to cause us to ask him to do it for us. He's gonna incline my heart.
And he's going to cause me to ask him, Lord, incline my heart,
bend my heart, turn my heart, influence my heart. The king's heart and everybody
else's is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water,
he turneth it, whether so ever he will. Lord, incline and turn. and bend my heart. The psalmist
said in Psalm 119 verse 136, incline my heart to thy testimonies
and not to covetousness. Now, when David says this, incline
my heart, he's saying my heart will go in the wrong way unless
you turn it. Now that's just the way it is. I know enough
about myself to know that. My heart will go in the wrong
direction except as you turn it and except you incline it
toward yourself. So Lord, incline my heart so
I don't practice with the workers of iniquity these wicked works
he's speaking of. And you know, when I thought
about that, David saying, incline my heart this way, well, he's
realizing my heart's bad. And it needs to be inclined.
And I need you to do that. And I thought about when the
Lord taught us to pray. And this is something that ought
to be in our mind every day, every prayer. And the Lord taught
us to pray this way. Lord, lead us not into temptation. We realize
what happens when we're tempted. And we're asking the Lord, put
a hedge about us. Don't even let us be tempted. Incline, bend, influence our
heart. Incline not my heart to any evil
thing to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity.
And let me not eat of their dainties. Now look what he says next in
this prayer. This is something I need, that
you need. He says, let the righteous smite
me. Let the righteous smite me. And obviously, he's not talking
about getting hit in the face, but he's talking about correction. How well do we deal with correction? We chafe. Who are they to say
that to me? Who do they think they are? I
know I'm quick to think that way. Somebody corrects me. And
really, we ought to be very careful and very slow to correct people. You see, unsolicited advice is
always viewed as criticism. You want to give somebody some
advice when they're not asking for it? I know how it's generally
going to be construed. Criticism, they're criticizing
me. But I wish that we were, by the
grace of God, humble and can receive correction and instruction
by people that love us. You see, if somebody loves you,
they've got a better motive. They're not just trying to tear
you down. It's because they love you. And how much instruction
do we need? How much constructive criticism
do we need? A whole lot of it. And it's just
such a bad thing on our part to chafe all the time. But that's not the way David
did. He said, let the righteous smite me. It shall be a kindness. It's a mercy from you that this
takes place. Don't you love this attitude?
Don't you want to be this? Let the righteous smite me. It
shall be a kindness and let him reprove me. It shall be an excellent
oil which shall not break my head. What a blessing to be corrected. You know, I read some time ago,
to see where we were wrong yesterday is only to admit we're a little
wiser today. And that's what that is. Let
the righteous smite me. Now, somebody said, well, I need
to smite so-and-so. No, don't think that way. Don't
think that way. This attitude is to be toward
me, not who I need to correct, but may I be given the grace
to have the same attitude David did. Let the righteous might
be. There's plenty of places I know
I need to be smitten. Let the righteous smite me in
that sense. I want to be, I hope this is
my desire. I want to be corrected where
I need to be corrected. I'm aware of my, to some extent,
I'm aware of my stupid sinfulness that I can't see things. So David
says, let the righteous smite me. He says, for yet my prayer
also shall be in their calamities. In their calamities, I'm going
to be praying for them. I'm not going to be glad to see
what's happened to them. I'm not going to be delighting
and seeing their fall. In their calamities, I'll be
praying for them. May the Lord always give us this attitude
toward everybody. Verse six, when their judges are overthrown
in stony places, They shall hear my words for they're sweet. Now, the only time I ever really
hear is when I'm overthrown. And when I'm overthrown, not
backwards, given some view of who I really am. When I'm overthrown
and when I'm exposed to myself, the gospel becomes sweet and
pleasant words. Do you know you can only hear
the gospel as a sinner? If I'm not hearing as a sinner,
I'm hearing as a judge and a critic. You're hearing in one of those
two ways, I'm hearing in one of those two ways, as a sinner
or as a judge and a critic. Now it's only when I'm overthrown
that the gospel is sweet, words of pleasantness, good news to
me. Now look what he says in verse
seven. Our bones are scattered at the
grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth."
Now, picture in your mind, bones scattered, wood being chopped,
scattering all over the place, the chips of the wood. What we have is chaotic. Chaotic. That's a bad place to be, isn't
it? Chaotic. I can't put a reason
behind anything. Chaotic. That's what he's speaking
of. Chaos. Chaos. But mine eyes are unto
thee, O God the Lord. In thee is my trust. Leave not
my soul. destitute. Now, in spite of this
chaotic way my mind is thinking without order, in spite of that
condition, my eyes are unto thee, O Lord. And that represents faith. That is faith. Faith is looking
to him. It's not looking to yourself.
It's not looking to your circumstances. It's not looking to somebody
else, it's looking to him and him only. That's what faith is. It's not what you think about
yourself. Well, I must be saved because I. Get that out of the
equation. You look to him only, who he
is and what he's accomplished. And when you do that, you find
yourself believing. You find yourself trusting. Now,
if you're looking anywhere else, no. You remain in this state
of chaos, wood chips flying all over the place, bones scattered
around the ground, and that's the imagery the Holy Spirit gives
us. But in that place, what does he say? But mine eyes are unto
thee, O God the Lord, in thee is my trust. Leave not my soul
destitute. I look to thee because I have
nowhere else to look. I don't have a plan B. I don't
have a contingency plan. I look to thee only. There is no other place to look. I'm not looking. to anything
but being found in him. Not in me, not in them, not in
it. Let me repeat that. Not in me, not in them, not in
it. I look to thee. In thee is my salvation. I trust in thee is my trust. Now, This is an illustration I've
used many times, but I'll use it again. If all of God's favor
is in this room and there's no favor outside of this room, where
do you want to be? And that's exactly what Paul
meant when he said, oh, that I may win Christ and be found
in him. My trust is in thee, the only
place I want to be found. Lord knows if I'm telling the
truth, if this is the true desire of my heart, but I think it is.
The only place I want to be found is in him. When God looks at
me, I want him to see me in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of him are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made into us. Wisdom. Righteousness, sanctification,
redemption, all of God's salvation is in him. In thee, O Lord, do
I trust. You see, in him dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are, you know the next
word? Complete. In him, not in yourself,
in him. You know when he said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but
by me? This is very important. Doesn't really mean I come pleading
him. I'm only pleading Christ, although
I am. But it means when he comes into the Father's presence, I'm
in him, and I come in him. No man comes to the Father but
by me. Leave not my soul destitute. Leave me, you know what that
means? Leave me not to myself. Leave me not to my own understanding. Leave me not to my own way. Leave
me not to my own thoughts. I don't want to be left alone.
I don't want to, I want the Lord to even control my thoughts. I don't want to be left to myself.
Give me the grace to believe your gospel. Give me the grace
to persevere in the faith. Give me the grace to walk with
you by faith. Give me the grace to be united
with all thy people by faith. Give me grace. Don't leave me
to myself. The worst thing, you know, people
talk about free will. There's no such thing. You understand
that? There is no such thing. God doesn't
have free will in the sense that his will is controlled by his
holy nature. He can't sin, can he? He can't tell a lie. His
will is controlled by his nature. The natural man, his will's controlled
by a sinful nature. There's no such thing as free
will. But the worst thing that could happen to me or you is
for God to leave us to our own sinful wills. Worst thing. And that's what David is praying
for deliverance from. He says, leave not my soul destitute. Don't leave me to myself. Don't leave me to my own understanding. Intervene, intervene, Lord, intervene. Don't leave me to myself. It says in verse nine, keep me. Well, that's a glorious scriptural
desire that every believer has. Keep me, keep me. Kept by the power of God, through
faith unto salvation. Keep me. Preserve me. It's only
that man who endures to the end that shall be saved. Not the
man who begins, but the man who endures to the end. And that means you endure looking
to Christ only. You never graduate past that.
Your dying breath is going to be looking to Christ only. Keep me. Keep me from the snares
which they have laid for me and the gins and the bait of the
workers of iniquity." Now, not only are we our own worst enemies,
we've got all kinds of other enemies too. The world, the flesh,
the devil. That's what he's talking about.
Keep me from the gins and the bait and the snares of the wicked,
preserve me from that. Keep me from the snares which
they have laid for me and the gins, the bait of the workers
of iniquity. And then he says in verse 10,
let the wicked fall into their own nets whilst that I with all
escape from their gins and snares. Now, what I thought about was
Haman. Haman hated Mordecai. Haman had a brilliant idea. He hated Mordecai because Mordecai
wouldn't bow down before him. You can read about it in the
Book of Esther. And even when everything was going well for
him, he says, I can't enjoy it as long as Mordecai's around.
I want to get rid of this man. Mordecai, he wouldn't bow, he
believed God, he wasn't gonna bow to a man. So Haman comes
up with a brilliant idea. I'm gonna put up a gallows, 50
cubits high, and hang that man on those gallows. I'm gonna get
rid of Mordecai. He hated Mordecai. Guess who
was hung on those gallows? It wasn't Mordecai. It was Haman,
the man that created this. If you have an opportunity, read
the book of Esther this week. It would be a blessing to you.
It's not a long book, but it's so filled with the gospel. And
you have that story of Haman and Mordecai and Esther. She's such a glorious type of
Christ. But what happens to Haman, the enemy of the Jews? He was
a descendant of the Amalekites, which represent the flesh. He
was hung. Well, this is what the psalmist
says, let the wicked fall into their own nets. the things that
they want to do against the righteous, whilst that I with all escape. And you know, when the believer
is brought into glory, no more trouble. We'll say, by
the grace of God, I've escaped. I'm out of there. I'm in Emmanuel's
land. Amen. you