Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 119 and for our text,
verse 25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust,
quicken thou me according to thy word. Psalm 119 and verse
25. Psalm 119 is full of praise for
the Word of God and for the Gospel. The Gospel precepts the life
of God. But it is also very full of the
experience of the people of God. It does not only speak of the
psalmist's delight in the things of God, but also the reality,
as we have in our text, where the psalmist feels to be cleaving
unto the dust the things of this poor, natural, dying world, and
so then joins to his confession a prayer for quickening and livening
according to the Word of God, as the way that it is taught
and set forth in the Word of God, and using the Word of God
to give fresh life for his soul. We would be very thankful for
those parts of the Word of God that show the true nature of
our all nature, that show, like we have in James, that Elijah
was a man subject unto like passions as we are, and to be reminded
that they were but men, and yet the Lord saved them by grace.
The Lord quickened them, and though they had many changes,
the Lord was pleased to revive them, strengthen them again. We have many times throughout
the Word of God the changes of God's people. In fact, we are
told that they that have no changes fear not God. And it is the Lord
that kills and the Lord makes alive. And it is through these
means that we are brought off the idea that all we need to
do is to exercise some duty faith, to keep alive our soul, a self-help
thing to keep alive our souls. And we do not have those times
when we prove by painful experience that in me, that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. And the Lord has testified in
the beautiful parable of the vine, that we cannot bring forth
fruit unless we are united with Him. And sometimes we may have
feared whether we really were united with Him, whether we really
were one of His people. And the way the Lord answers
it is to take away for a while the influence of His grace and
to cause us to, almost in our feelings, return to how we were
before we were called. We feel so lifeless and hard
and cold and far off and no beauty in the things of God. And it
is by these means the Lord teaches us that we are what we are by
the grace of God and to value what we maybe have taken for
granted and not realized has been the wonderful blessing of
the life of God in our souls. There is no way of making us
value something that we've taken for granted, no better way than
by taking it away for a while. And then we realise then, if
someone has had confidence, able to stand before men and not have
the fear of man, and they've just taken it for granted that
they have this ability, then when the Lord would teach them
where that comes from, he takes away that confidence. And then
they feel the fear of man, they tremble before man, they find
it hard. Where they have perhaps been
able to range through the word of God, the truths of God coming
quickly to mind, able to meditate on the things of God, rejoice
in the things of God, and not look upon that as the blessing
that it is, so then the Lord withdraws then. And the Word
seems to be but a hard, dead book, and nothing appeals or
draws, everything seems stale and hard and dry, and then we
realise that what we had before was a blessing, from the Lord. We just took it for granted.
We didn't realise what the Lord had given to us. And so the Lord
teaches by these means of bringing down, causing us to know what
we are in and of ourselves without having to remember back to days
of unregeneracy. We have to prove it as we go
on. When we're exhorted that we should
grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord, is not growing in
self-sufficiency or in the thought that, well, we can keep alive
our own souls. The grace of God is free and
unmerited, and we are to learn as we go on how undeserving we
are of anything from the Lord's hand, and especially the life
of God, that which He gives, I give unto them eternal life,
They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of mine hand." And yet God's people can. They can forget the
great distinguishing, separating, eternal blessing of the life
of God. And if we truly are converted,
we won't just say, well, we've got eternal life, we're going
to be with the Lord in heaven. We'll want to feel that life
here below, that bubbling up. of eternal life, that spiritual
life here below, and it will grieve us, we'll be sorrowful
when we don't feel that life and we feel carnal and of the
earth, earthly. And this is the experience that
the Sarvaj is pointing to here. My soul cleaveth unto the dust,
quicken thou me according to thy words. I want to look then
at three points. Firstly, the Samas soul, the
soul of man, and remind ourselves what it is to have a soul. And then secondly, the Samas
confession, and it may be that this is our confession as well. My soul cleaveth unto the dust. That is, if something cleaves,
a strange word really in the English language, we can cleave
a piece of wood and we can split it in half, but cleaving in the
other way is to embrace and to bind together and to be inseparable
from, and this is the meaning here, cleaving, or really join
and can't be separated from the dust or the earth and earthly
things. And then thirdly, the psalmist's
prayer. I always remember that, whatever
is our confession, there is to be prayer. Quicken me according
to thy word. We would think of Psalm 107,
in all the times that they were brought down. They were brought
down, then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. And the psalmist's here. He also
has the prayer so fast upon the confession. May we always remember
that principle. Whatever we are confessing or
bringing before the Lord, quickly join it with prayer, that the
Lord may change it and strengthen us. But firstly, the soul, our soul. The Samas is my soul. It doesn't
just say I cleave. Here below, our soul is inseparably
joined with us as men, as women, as humans. We have a body and
a soul. The word of God is very clear
of the distinction that is different between the beast, the spirit
of the beast which goeth downward unto the earth, and the spirit
of man which goeth upward. The soul of man is taught right
through the word. We think of the dying thief when
upon the cross and he prayed to the Lord, Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom. And our Lord said, verily, verily,
I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. And the empress says, today shalt
thou be with me in paradise. But his body was still on the
cross. And there we have the distinction
of the soul, that which is the real person, that which is us,
tabernacled in a tabernacle here, And our Lord speaking, not even
saying, thy soul shall be with me in paradise, but thou shalt
be. That it is the real person. And
so our Lord also, through his ministry, impressed upon his
hearers the need of the soul, the blessings of the soul. In Matthew chapter 10 and verse
28, the Lord says, and fear not them which kill the body, but
are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell. And he's speaking so clearly
of the soul and of the body. Then later on in the 16th chapter,
we read in verse 26, our Lord teaching concerning
the taking up of the cross. From verse 24, the Lord says
to his disciples, if any man will come after me, Let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever
will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his
life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if
he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his? soul. Our Lord is impressing
upon us the worth of the soul and what is so vital for us. We can lose our body, our body
can be killed. The martyrs, they were burnt
at the stake, but their soul was brought safely to the Lord. Those that were threatened by
Nebuchadnezzar, the three Hebrews, to be cast into the fire, they
testified the Lord was able to deliver them from the fire, but
he would deliver them out of his hand, and it would be through
death, through the release of their soul. And so they could
look upon this world, look upon their adversaries, and know that
that soul, they could not touch, they could not take that, that
was saved, that would be returning unto the Lord. And we think of
the Lord's teaching through parables in Luke chapter 12. We have the
parable of what is termed usually as the rich fool, and he was
a farmer, And the Lord spake of him, the surround of a certain
rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself,
saying, what shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will
I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul,
soul that has much goods laid up for many years, Take thy knees,
eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things
be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure
for himself, and is not rich toward God. Then later on the
Lord tells another parable, the solemn parable of Lazarus and
the rich man, as told in Luke 16. And in verse 20 we read,
there was a certain beggar named Lazarus that was laid at his
gate, at the gate of the rich man, that was clothed in purple
and fine linen, faring sumptuously every day, desiring to be fed. Lazarus was with the crumbs which
welled from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked
his sores. It came to pass that the beggar
died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich
man also died and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his
eyes, being in torments. Now we see again, there he is
buried, but his soul is then in torments. And our Lord is
impressing there, not that We are saved because of our poverty,
but the emphasis is those that are trusting to their riches
and things in this world, those that have all that they have
in this world. When we look the other side,
and we have the same picture in Psalm 73, where the psalmist
at first, he says, his footsteps were well nigh slipped when he
saw the prosperity of the wicked. was not until he came into the
sanctuary that then I understood their end. And he understands
how quickly that they were in terrors, as this man was, when
through death he was brought to hell and brought under the
solemn judgment of God. May we always remember this,
dear friends, the soul the worth of our souls, that which is our
real us. Do we value our souls? Are we
mindful of what the soul is and what it seeks after, what it
loves, and what is a grief and sorrow to it? and do these parables
and the teaching of our Lord search us as to how much we are
living for time and not living for eternity. Our Lord Jesus Christ also had
a soul. We read of him in the Garden
of Gethsemane that my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto
death. We read in Isaiah 53, he shall
see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Our Lord
was made of the seed of Abraham, made like unto his brethren,
but sin accepted. Not like the beasts that just
have a body, not like the angels with just our spirit, but having
soul and body. And he came that he might redeem
not only our souls, but our bodies also. Our souls first shall know
that redemption in the new birth, in the quickening, being born
again, being made spiritually alive. And later, the last day,
when the Lord comes, the end of the world, then the body also
shall be quickened and raised again. Both are redeemed. The soul is redeemed. The body
is redeemed. And the first evidence and token
of that is when the soul is redeemed through regenerating grace, through
the work, the sovereign work of God. I give unto them eternal
life. They shall never perish. Neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So are we mindful
of our soul, the health of our soul, the life of our soul, how
it stands before God, are we able to view what the psalmist
did here concerning his soul and have some confession concerning
it because the psalmist here was very concerned about his
soul. He didn't just ignore his condition. You know, naturally, if we have
illnesses, I hope that we are concerned about our body. If we have symptoms of something
being wrong, we don't just ignore it. We go to the doctor, we use
means to find out what is wrong, because we know that if something
is left untreated, it will get worse, and we value our body. It will affect how we live here
below. But do we use the same diligence
concerning our souls? And when we see symptoms of our
soul being not in a good condition, do we register that? Do we make confession of it? Do we join prayer with that? look at those things that are
going on within and realize these things are not affecting a body
which one day will be returning to the dust. They're not affecting
things of time. This is affecting my soul which
is eternal, which in the Word of God sets before us a much
more value, much more worth than anything else. the soul, the
chiefest blessing of man. And when we think of death, what
shall matter then? What shall matter then about
our physical body that is going into the grave? All of our families,
our homes, all of our possessions, all of those will be left behind.
And all that will matter is our soul. While we have these earthly
things all around us, what condition is our soul in? I want to then look at the psalmist's
confession here, how he feels the condition of his soul is. So our second point is Sama's
confession. My soul cleaveth unto the dust. This is his confession. Now I want you to think firstly
of how we are by nature, because under the fall of man, the Lord
said, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
And then when the sentence was executed, the Lord says that,
Thus thou art, and unto thus shalt thou return. And the condition of man, the
soul of man, instead of living unto God, instead of enjoying
his communion, instead of fellowship with God, there was that separation
and distance, casting out of the garden, a distance made by
sin and by death, alienated from God by wicked works, far off,
made far off. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned. The natural man can only Look
upon things of this world. When he's brought before spiritual
things, like Nicodemus was with the new birth, he all the time
thinks of it in natural things. How can a man be born again?
That he's born of a woman. The woman at the well of Samaria.
The well is deep. How can you draw that water?
She can't receive it first. The idea of spiritual water and
spiritual drink. The same in John 6. How can this
man give us his flesh to eat? They're offended. They went and
walked back. Walk no more with him. This isn't
hard saying. They couldn't discern that he
was not speaking of giving them literal bread, literal his body
and his flesh, but giving them spiritual bread. The words that
I speak unto thee, they are spirit and they are life. And so by
nature, we cannot enter into the things of God. We cannot
understand them. We cannot know them. There's
no capability of doing so. We have not got spiritual ears. We read in the letters to the
churches in Asia, he that hath an ear, let him hear what this
spirit saith unto the churches. And one says, mine ear hath he
opened. our Lord with all of the sons.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And by nature we don't
have that. We are dead, our soul is in a
dead condition. It is not alive, it doesn't have
life. It is a spiritual being, it will
live or exist eternally, but as ability to have communion and
fellowship with God or love the things of God and walk with God,
it does not know. And the work of our Lord in coming
to this earth, in taking soul and body, was that He might fulfil
the law, what we could not fulfil, that He might put away the sins
of His people that they could not deal with by the sacrifice
of Himself, that he should make a way that he could be a just,
a righteous and holy God, and yet say to a sinner, hell-deserving
sinner, who deserves eternal destruction, that that soul should
live. The Lord says, because I live,
ye shall live also. What the Lord did on this earth
and at Calvary makes a way that he can righteously give eternal
life to as many as his father had given him. And that is the
blessing that he gives at the new birth. I pass by thee when
thou wast in thy blood, and when thou wast in thy blood, I bid
thee live. Because I live, ye shall live
also. He quickens whom he will. It is the Spirit that quickeneth
The flesh profiteth nothing. And this applies to the Old Testament
as well as in you, everyone from Adam right through this world,
those that are made spiritually alive. It is through the Lord
Jesus Christ. When we think of the picture
of the Passover, there we had the families in the houses, and
the angel was going to pass through that night and destroy all of
the firstborn. Death was upon every house, but
the Lord gave a way of escape. If they were to take a lamb and
kill that lamb in the stead of the firstborn, and as an evidence
of that, to put the blood upon the doorpost and upon the lintel,
Then the Lord said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. There must be death, that there
might be life to those that deserve death. And so our Lord Jesus
Christ is that Paschal Lamb. It is through him that he quickens
a soul. Those that are yet dead in sin
have never known yet any change. But those that are quickened,
those that Lord has begun, he which hath begun a good work
in you, those for the first time have realized and know what they
are by nature as an ungodly, sinful enemy of God, that their
flesh does not like the things of God, the enmity, the hatred,
the rebellion, All of that is felt as realized. A sinner then
feels that they are a sinner. They know that they have a body
of death. Paul says, who shall deliver
me from this body of death? And it is when the Lord then
gives life that at first, as the Apostle Paul says in that
Roman 7, that that which was ordained unto life I found to
be unto death. The law of God slays, that all
the world might become guilty before God, that we might then
look to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation as a free gift
and not as something we have earned. But it's not enough that
we should just have the hope beyond the grave. We need that
which is evidenced here below. A living soul, a soul that has
known the new birth, is not content and happy to live at distance
from the Lord. It wants communion, fellowship. It seeks after spiritual things. It is, after all, a new creature
in Christ. It is one that now sees and hears
and smells and walks in the ways of the Lord. And our Lord said,
man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. And when the Lord worked the
miracle of the loaves and fishes, they followed him over the sea.
The Lord says, you see me not because you saw the miracles,
but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. labour
not for the bread which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto
eternal life." And so if we have a living soul, we will want that
bread, we want those things that enliven that soul, and it will
be a grief and sorrow to us when our soul is in a sickly condition,
lifeless, when it cleaves to things of earth. And this is
the psalmist's confession here. My soul cleaveth unto the dust. And yes, we may, we could apply
it to those that are first seeking the Lord and first have mindfulness
of a living soul. But I feel more it is that which
is realized right through the life of the people of God. They know those times when their
soul is cleaving to temporal and earthly things. Dear Martha
would say, yes, that was my condition. Come but about with much serving,
cleaving to things of the earth. Those things are always with
us. And our natural man loves those things. But it's when it
encroaches, upon the soul. When there's those things of
earth and they take away the joys of the soul, when we're
captivated by them, when we maybe have indulged those things and
the Lord then has withdrawn the blessings from the soul, then
we feel what the psalmist feels here. My soul cleaveth unto the
dust. to these lesser, baser things. It cannot rise, it cannot enjoy
the Word, it cannot enjoy the things of God. The lust of the
flesh, the desires of the mind are encroaching upon that soul,
are plaguing that soul. You know, our thoughts and our
affections In the new birth and as a lively soul, they're set
on things above, not on things on the earth. But the psalmist
here is saying, but my thoughts and my affections, they're on
things on earth and I cannot lift them. I cannot rise them
above these things. These things are eclipsing, are
taking away the joys of my soul. I cannot rise above them. I see these things. They engage
my thoughts. They engage my affections. They
wake me up at night. They cause me to neglect the
Word of God. They affect my prayers. They
affect the communion with the people of God. I don't enjoy
the house of God. I don't enjoy the things of God.
I have not got the assurance that I once had of eternal glory
because I live here below at such a distance from the Lord. What a picture. Just a few words
but it shows a real picture, doesn't it? Cleaveth unto the
dust. May this very word, very description
be a help to some of you who may feel the same. That you are
just cleaving to the earth. You can't rise. You can't feel a delight in the
things of God. You can't feel an appetite for
the Word or for the assembly of the people of God. You can't
see any beauty in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't see any attractiveness
in the doctrines of grace, in the blessings of the Word of
God. It cleaves to the dust, clings
to it. clings hard to it. This is the
confession of the Samasthita. And if this is yours, if this
is my confession, it's painful for the soul. It's painful for
the soul. But really this word says this
is a reality. God's people do feel this. They
do get into these places. They do walk this path. This
is not just the psalmist here alone. This is known by all the living
family of God. Why is it, we've touched upon
it before, but why is it that the Lord would ever leave his
people to feel this? Because they are to be reminded
that it is by grace, their life is bound up with the Lord. They
have no strength, they have no ability. And they also to know
that those blessings the Lord has given them, He has given
them, they are from above. Now the children of Israel, they
despised the manna, why? It was small. And it was constant,
day after day, right through their wilderness journey. They
despised it. We can despise that which is
the life of God in our soul. We so like to have all these
special blessings, these great blessings. Yes, the Lord does
give us those from time to time. But for the most part, it's a
blessed thing for a soul. to be living in the Word, meditating
upon it, feeding upon it, delighting to be with the people of God,
and as the Word is opened up, to see those treasures in it,
and to rejoice in that hope that when this body lies in the grave,
this soul that has enjoyed the Lord's life and light here below,
shall be with the Lord eternally. My dear friends, be encouraged
in this. If you are in this low place,
if you feel now that you are not what you were once, years
ago, and when the light of the Lord was upon your tabernacle,
you feel that this describes your case, may you be encouraged. May you be encouraged to go on
to what the psalmist did. turned from his confession, turned
from his complaint, and he turned unto prayer. And I want to look
at this as our third point. The psalmist's prayer, quicken
me according to thy word, or make me alive. Again, sometimes we can be helped
by leaving out words. It doesn't just say quicken me. or make me alive. He says, quicken
thou me according to thy word. He's not making resolutions,
he's not declaring what he is going to do, but he's looking
for this to be the mighty hand and work of God. A soul that
is coming to the right place, a soul that is not despairing
But hoping in God, you think of Psalm 43. Why art thou cast
down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him. And may we be
like that. You know, a soul that is low,
you say, well, that's half the problem. I find prayer so hard. I find it so hard even to rise,
to bring my case before the Lord. but see what hard-hearted prayers
will do. The Lord says, He will not come
unto me that ye might have life. This is a reminder, our life
is from the Lord. And according to His word, He
revives His people we see in the nation of Israel. How many
times they were brought up, then they were brought down, they
were chastened, They were brought into captivity. They were brought
after idols. They fell after idols. And the
Lord quickened them again. He revived them again and again. And you find with the people
of God as well, David knew what it was to be in low places. He knew what it was to be chastened
because of sin or the Lord to withdraw from him. And it is
then that we come back to that same God. To whom can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. That is what Peter's testimony
the Apostles was. And so we need to be quickened
according to the Word. The Word of God sets forth before
us the power of God. Speak the Word only and my servant
shall be healed. That is what we need to be reminded
again. The Lord is able to do these
things. He that quickened us at the first,
He alone is able to quicken us along the way. Then according
to the word of God, as is promised in that word, the Lord will maintain. None shall pluck them out of
mine hand. He will maintain the life that
He has given. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. That life that he gives is bound
up with the Lord Jesus Christ, and also by means of the word. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of the Lord. Often thought of it with Psalm
107, where it speaks of those in verse 18, their soul abhorreth
all manner of meat. They draw near unto the gates
of death." Well, the meat for the people of God is the Word
of God. You think, how can we be blessed?
How can we be saved through the Word when it's the Word that
we have no relish for, no delight in? But then we read in verse
20 in Psalm 107, He sent His Word and healed them and delivered
them from their destructions. The very thing that they were
pouring, the Lord used that very thing to quicken them and make
them alive again. What an encouragement to still
read the Word of God. What encouragement to still sit
under the preached Word, to still continue on to wait upon the
Lord that He'll give fresh life again. The psalmist goes on here, I
have declared my ways and thou heardest me, teach me thy statutes. And there will be a declaring
of our ways, a bringing them before the Lord, confessing them
before the Lord. But may we have the psalmist's
prayer. Don't neglect prayer, however
low, however earthbound, however far off we may feel to be. Still pray, the hymn writer says,
still pray, for God will all explain, nor shalt thou seek
his face in vain. And the Lord, he spoke the parables
that men ought always to pray and not to faint. The revival
is as they call upon the Lord, as we cry unto the Lord in our
trouble. And so May this be an encouragement
for us, those that may feel so lifeless, have a soul that seems
to just return to the dust and be no different than what we
were by nature. My soul, may we confess it before
the Lord and immediately bring this prayer. How pleasing to
the Lord. when His people acknowledge the
state and condition of their souls, which He knows already,
but turn that acknowledgement into prayer. A believing trust,
thou art able to do this. Thou art willing. It is provided
in the covenant. It is provided in what the Lord
has begun with me, that He will quicken me again and will enliven
me again. May the Lord bless this word
and may it be a help to a poor soul in this low state. My soul cleaveth unto the dust,
quicken thou me according to thy word. Amen.