Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the book of Psalms. Psalm
34 and verse 5. Psalm 34 and verse 5. They looked unto him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. Psalm 34 and verse 5, and it
is specifically the first clause, they looked unto him. We are told in this psalm, or
over the top of the psalm, that it is a psalm of David, and the
circumstances of which it was written. It was when David was
fleeing from Saul, he went to Abimelech, went to the priest,
he was given victuals, he was given the sword of Goliath. And amazingly, he, with that
sword, went over to Gath and to Achis, the king of Gath. And there it was immediately
recognized, and the king's servants said, is not this David of whom
they sang in their songs that Saul has slain his thousands
and David his ten thousands? And David was exceedingly fearful,
fearful for his life, and rightly so. He fled from Saul in his
own country, Now he was with the Philistines and now his life
was in danger again. And no doubt, as set forth in
this psalm, he cried out unto the Lord. We read in verse six,
this poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of
all his troubles. He also found himself to be mad,
let his spittle fall upon his beard, And Achish said, why have
you brought him to me? What need have I of mad men? And he escaped from his hand
and went into the cave at Ullum. So we are told of the circumstances
here, of which David had an answer to prayer, the Lord had appeared
to him, and he then is able to point others to where he looked
and the help that he had had from personal experience. He also is able to think of others
that looked as well and the effect that they had when they looked
unto the Lord. We read together the prayer of
Solomon David's son, the dedication of the temple. And no doubt,
he knew this psalm. He certainly would have known
the history of it. This psalm was, of course, sung
as most of the psalms were. And you'll find them, like the
Psalm 33, and then this psalm, 22 verses. Each verse starts
with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And you see it many times through
scripture. multiples of it, and we have
that Psalm 119, there is multiples of the eight, three, lots of
eight, and then even the Ecclesiastes used the same method of remembrance,
and no doubt Solomon then, he knew this Psalm, this Psalm that
was pointing, pointing those that were in trouble pointing
to looking unto him and really we may say here looking unto
the Lord Jesus Christ set forth in the types and in the shadows
and so Solomon in his prayer that which we read again and
again he spoke in that prayer of those that were to be looking
toward this place looking toward the temple we see in verse 38
of what we read what prayer and supplications whoever be made
by any man or by all like people israel we shall know every man
the plague of his own heart shall and spread forth his hands toward
this house, then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place. And we have again in verse 42,
when he shall come and pray toward this house. And it's repeated
many times, and I've no doubt Solomon had an eye to this psalm
and an eye to David's exhortation here, come you children, hearken
unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord and teach them
where to look. We've sung of it in our middle
hymn, we've sung it in our first hymn of looking, looking unto
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have it in David here, we
have it in Solomon's dedication, Then the prophets take it up
as well, if we think of Isaiah 45 and the beautiful way in which
the invitation is set forth there. And in verse 22, look unto me
and be ye saved or the ends of the earth, for I am God and there
is none else. We have Hebrews 12 as well, verse
2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and
the beautiful way that our Lord closes, Matthew chapter 11. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden. Take my yoke upon you, learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest.
unto your souls. And so we have the direction
in our text, a stating of what a people, a cloud of witnesses
did. They looked unto Him. On to three points this evening.
Firstly, the person they looked unto, the Lord. our Lord Jesus
Christ. And then secondly, those that
looked unto Him, and we'll add to that the effect of what we
have in the end of the verse, and were lightened, their faces
were not ashamed, they didn't just look and there was no effect
and no help, there was help. And then lastly the question,
as we apply it to ourselves, do we? Do we look unto Him? But firstly, the person that
is looked unto, our Lord Jesus Christ. I believe this psalm
is, as many of the psalms do, though they are spoken of the
experience of David and the other psalmists, they are pointing
to our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, they are speaking of
Him. In Psalm 22, of course, the well-known
words of our Lord upon the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And all that is spoken in that
Psalm, and in Psalm 69, and in this Psalm, this poor man cried,
and the Lord heard him. and saved him out of all of his
troubles, and we read in Hebrews that he cried and was heard in
that he feared, and that he then is that sympathising high priest
to the house of God. The Lord was made poor voluntarily,
willingly, humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. The Lord bore David's sins, the
sins of all of his people. If David here was fleeing from
death at the hand of Saul and then looking at death at the
hand of Achish, our Lord, as it were, would take on all of
the death of his people, all that they were deserving of,
and it all met upon him. It laid on him the iniquity of
us all. And so The person that they're
looking to is our Lord Jesus Christ. He it is that is set
right through the Scriptures. Now, the Lord emphasised that
in the sermon on the way to Emmaus, in all the Scriptures concerning
Himself. It would have been a most solemn
thing that many of those that took part in the sacrifices,
in the ceremonial law, only saw the sacrifice. They never saw
what it really set forth. We can think of those especially
that abused it, Eli's sons, those that did not follow the pattern
the Lord had given, that they did not really clearly see or
understand how it was setting forth the Lord Jesus Christ. We think of Moses, and Moses,
he spoke with the Lord face to face, he knew the Lord, and the
Lord says, he testified of me. But in that second time, when
the Lord commanded him to speak unto the rock, and he would bring
forth water, Moses, his spirit was stirred by the people, instead
of speaking, Then he smote it twice, and he said, must I bring
water out of this rock, he rebels. The water flowed out, but the
type was marred. Christ is not smitten twice. The rock had already been smitten
once, and now it only needed to be spoken to. And the Lord
said, because thou didst not sanctify me before the congregation,
thou shalt not go into the promised land. Thou shalt see it with
thine eyes afar off, but thou shalt not go in hence. And the Lord guards very much
the types and the shadows that they be done in due order, because
there is a significance to them all. And the people of the Lord,
they had to be very careful that that type was a true type and
that it answered, and that's why right at the very beginning
with Cain and with Abel, the Lord did not have respect unto
Cain's sacrifice. Cain was the fruit of the ground. It was of his work. It was not
what was ordered by the Lord. It was not a blood sacrifice. With Abel's it was. There'd been
death, there'd been bloodshed. It was a sacrifice. The Lord
had respect to it. That was setting forth the sufferings
and death, the bloodshedding of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cain's
was not. And that's why they had to be
looking back. And that's why we find with Abel,
he's numbered amongst those of faith. He offered a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain because they were looking unto him. They had
an eye unto the Lord. They looked unto Him. There was one person, one that
was to come, the seed of the woman that should bruise the
serpent's head, Emmanuel, that's spoken of in Isaiah, God with
us. They looked unto Him that was
promised from the beginning of the world. They looked unto Him
that their hopes were placed upon, their faith was centred
on, which was their hope of escaping the wrath to come, the hope of
heaven, the hope of deliverance from sin. That is who they were
looking at. There's no different way of salvation
through Old Testament and New. All have been saved and all will
be saved by looking to the same person under the one same sacrifice
and the same offering. And when we gather together in
the house of God, the one that is lifted up on the pole of the
gospel is Christ. We preach not ourselves, says
the apostle, but Christ Jesus, the Lord. When we have the transfiguration,
they saw no man but Jesus only. not law, not prophets, but he
that fulfilled the law and fulfilled the prophets. When we observe
the Lord's Supper, we do so in remembrance of him. We do show
forth his death till he come. We look past the bread and past
the wine and we see what it sets forth, Christ's broken body and
shed blood. And it is important that it is
true of us, it is true of them, the person that we look to is
a person, a real person, is our Lord, is our God, our Saviour,
He that was from eternity with the Father, He that came and
took upon Him the form of a servant, made in likeness of man, who
dwelt among us, who laid down His life for ransom, And He took
it again, rose from the dead. We look to Him, not to Mary,
not to prophets, not to preachers, not to men, but to Christ alone,
the God-man. And we look to Him. We look to Him by faith. That is the object of faith. And it must be the same with
us as what they look to as well. in Christ in all the scriptures,
that which is to be the one set before us in all the way, Paul
says, let us run the race that is set before us looking unto
Jesus. In one sense, the gospel and
the directions of the gospel are very, very simple. They're
very, very direct. You think in a natural way. If
someone is ill, then it's not one person that they are to look
to. I know we look to the Lord for
healing, but how many of us have known what it is to go from one
specialist to another specialist? I mean, a good specialist, but
that one deals with the heart and doesn't deal with the brain.
And if you have a broken leg, it's no use to go into someone
that is a specialist in their throat or something like that.
And we're used to many different ways that we go and look for
our help, but when it comes to our souls and really the one
that blesses all of the efforts of man, we're looking to one,
one person alone, looking unto the Lord. We are not to be deflected
or turned aside to any, to see no man, Jesus only. So the person looked unto, the
person set forth in this psalm, in his sufferings, his death,
the only name given among men, whereby we must be saved. The
only one in which our help is to be found. Our help is in the
name of the Lord, which made heaven and earth. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God,
there was nothing made that was made except by Him. He is the
Creator, He is the Former of all things, He is the Saviour,
the Redeemer. It hath pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. The person then, that they looked
to, they looked unto Him, is our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. I want to look then secondly
at those that looked, they looked unto Him. Who was David referring
to here? We know of course, and we briefly
mentioned with Abel, We have in Hebrews 11, a long list of
those that lived and died by faith. And we're told at the
end of that long list, that cloud of witnesses, these all having
obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise,
God having provided some better thing for us that they without
us should not be made perfect. And what he means is that they
were looking to the promised Saviour. They were looking to
Him that was to come. We are those that look back.
We have seen He has come. We have the testimony of Scripture
that He has come. But these, they died in the belief
that He would come. When Christ died, we read that
thou is the accuser of the brethren, cast down. And what was the accusing
of those brethren that were in heaven? Why are you in heaven? No blood has been shed. Your
debt has not been paid. How can you escape the wrath
of hell? How can you be here? And the
answer is because all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ
Jesus, because they're centered in God and not man. He is immutable. He is unchangeable. Have He said
and shall He not do it? They were there on the promise. We might promise to do something
for someone, promise to pay something, and then when it comes time to
pay it, we can't pay it. Well, if that was their grocery
bill and they've eaten it all, what are we going to do? They've
had the benefit, but it's not paid and we can't pay it. But
with our law, Nothing could prevent him from paying it. And at Calvary,
we read again and again that the Scriptures be fulfilled,
this was done. And the Scripture must be fulfilled.
Remember our Lord in the garden, he said, thinkest thou not that
I could pray my Father, and he presently giveth me twelve legion
of angels, 72,000 angels, But how then should the scriptures
be fulfilled? And all the time our Lord had
a mind, those scriptures must be fulfilled. Promises must be
kept. Things must be done that were
said that they would be done. And those things were done by
wicked hands of the Jews. They were done by the Romans. Pilate said to our Lord, knowest
thou not that I have power to release thee? power to crucify
thee? And our Lord said, To Pilate,
thou couldst have no power against me at all, except it were given
thee from heaven. And Peter, on the day of Pentecost,
he said that our Lord was delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, and by wicked hands crucified and slain. But salvation was of God. It wasn't wrought by the Jews
or by The Romans, they were in God's hand, though their wickedness
was charged upon them. It was their wickedness. And
so those that lived and died by faith, they were looking by
faith to the coming Messiah. They were looking to Christ.
They were looking to He that should come and die for their
sins and make atonement for their sins. several instances right
through the Hebrews 11 speak of those acts of faith. One of those that is spoken of
is Abraham. He would have been amongst those
they looked unto him. Our Lord clearly says that Abraham
saw my day and he rejoiced at it, going up the mountain Isaac
says, my father, the fire, the wood, but where is the lamb for
a burnt offering? And his father's Abraham's answer,
my son, God will provide himself a lamb. He will be the lamb.
He will provide it. Well, in that instance, he provided
the ram caught by its horn so it wasn't marred. It was still
spotless to be offered up in the stead of his son. But Abraham
saw past that. And Paul, he says that the blessing
upon Abraham was that in thee and in thy seed shall all nations
be blessed. And he clarifies, he said, not
seeds as of many, but of one, which is Christ. In thy seed,
in Christ. So we have the beautiful line,
don't we, in Matthew chapter one. Generations from Abraham,
to David, 14 generations, and from David to the carrying away
into Babylon, 14 generations, and from the carrying away into
Babylon and to Christ, 14 generations. And the promises they were given
to Abraham, and there the blessing was upon him that first looked
unto him. He's one of those spoken of in
our text. But then we have others. We have
David here in this psalm. He was numbered amongst those
that looked unto him. And I believe there were many
times, many times that he looked unto the Lord. Many times he
saw through the types, through the shadows. One of those times
would have been when his son died, when he'd committed adultery
and murder. God said that because what he'd
done had brought such a reproach on Israel, the son would die,
and he prostrated himself before the Lord on the ground for seven
days. Perventure, the child should
live, but the child died, and he rose, and he washed, and he
ate, and his servants couldn't understand why. He said, well,
He shall not come to me, but I shall go to him. He had a very
clear view that that child was saved with the Lord. And one
thing is very clear, that child did not die to put away David's
sin. He died as a chastisement for
David, but I believe David looked past that and he knew that his
greatest son would one day die for his sin. the promise seed,
Christ would die because of that sin. David had clearly been told
by Nathanael when he said, I have sinned. The Lord hath also put
away thy sin, thou shalt not die. And sin can only be put
away where there is the shedding of blood, and David knew that.
Without the shedding of blood, no remission. And so David would
have seen Christ's day then. He would have looked unto him.
He also, when he was told of Solomon's kingdom, and David,
he wanted to build this tabernacle, temple, the Lord said through
Nathan that he shouldn't build it, but his son that should be
born should build it. But he told him the manner of
the kingdom. And really it's a manner that
couldn't just belong to a man that shall die. But David, he
sat before the Lord, that the Lord had told him of his house
and a great world to come. And then he says this, is this
the manner of man, O Lord God? And I believe there he is saying,
is what you have told me of Solomon greater than Solomon? Is this
the manner of Christ? Is this the manner of he that
should come. And I believe these things that
they, as it were, glimpses through the lattice of the word and through
the types and the shadows you get a little glimpse of what
the promised seed should be, who it should be, something of
his kingdom, his glory, what his life should be. Really in
the lives of David and Solomon you have a kingdom which was
a kingdom of blood, and then a kingdom of peace. And in the
Lord Jesus Christ, you have the two put together, Christ's sufferings,
his blood, and then the peace for his people. The two things
go together. So David, they looked unto him. We think also of Elijah. Israel
had sinned against the Lord. They had gone after Baal. And
the Lord sent three and a half years of famine. And he prepared
the hearts of the children of Israel to listen to the Lord. They were brought up upon the
mount. They had to offer a sacrifice. And the God that answered by
fire, he was to be the God. Well, the Baal God couldn't answer
at all. He was no God. But then Elijah
drew near. And that altar was put in order,
the 12 stones, Though the tribes then were separated, ten and
the two, put them all together, the twelve stones, and then put
the wood in order, and the bullock upon it, and then prayed unto
the Lord, that they might know that their hearts had been turned
back again. Back again where? Back again
looking from Baal to him. They looked unto him. And as Elijah prayed that fire
came from heaven, that must have been a fearful thing. Many of
us would have seen lightning in the distance. Probably not
many of us have seen it very close at hand. But to see fire
coming down from heaven in such a way as to completely consume
the whole sacrifice, the altar, the dust, the water, everything,
it would have been a fearful sight. And yet the amazing thing
was, that fire, it didn't fall upon the idolaters, it didn't
fall upon the prophets of Baal, it fell upon the altar. And then
when the people saw it, and they said, the Lord hears God, hears
God, then they were willing themselves to put away Baal and to kill
the prophets of Baal. They were willing to do that.
And it is in that way that we look upon Christ. We see the
wrath of God descending upon him. They shall look upon him
whom they have pierced. And in looking upon him, the
Lord makes us willing to deal with our sins, deal with our
idolaters, and deal with those blind leaders that would lead
us into sin and in wickedness. It is looking unto him that that
power and that help is given, and that's what Elijah looked,
the people looked, they looked, they saw the fire, they saw the
fire descending upon that altar. They shall look upon him whom
they have pierced. And they did. So Elijah was one
of those. Then we have Jonah. Jonah running
away from the Lord. Why did Jonah run away from the
Lord? We're told in the fourth chapter why he did. Because he
says, was not this my a word in my own country, why I fled. Because Jonah knew that if God
sent a minister, if he sent the word to warn, that he would give
them repentance. What? Give Assyria repentance? Give them a wicked, cruel nation
of enemies against Israel repentance? Jonah did not want that. What,
and leave Israel without it? So he didn't want to go. So where
is there anything good news in the message that Jonah brought
to Ninevites? In 40 days, the city would be
destroyed. Where is the ray of hope in that?
In the 40 days. Because there was time. Not time
that they would change, but time that God would give them repentance. You think of the 40 days that
the rain was on the earth in the days of the flood, 40 years
in the wilderness, 40 days temptation of our Lord in the desert, 40
days from the Lord's rising from the dead to his ascension into
heaven. All the time, 40 days of Goliath
challenging Israel and then David comes and David delivers Israel.
40 is always a testing time. There's a time that is followed
by triumph, by deliverance, so often, again and again. And so
it was with the Ninevites too. You know, every day the Lord
gives us life. Every day lengthens out our lives. It is a blessing and a blessing
of hope. While there is life, there is
hope. And if you come in despairing
this evening, the Lord still gives you life, there is hope.
Still pray, still watch, Still cry to the Lord who lengthens
out your days. Seek him while he may be found
and call upon him while he is near. But Jonah, he runs away. But he doesn't get away. And the
Lord follows him. And there is the storm. And there
is the attempt to row and to get to land, to not do as Jonah
said, throw him into the sea. The mariners didn't want to do
it, but they couldn't escape it. Jonah is thrown into the
sea and the Lord provides a fish to swallow up Jonah, the timing
of that, the provision of that, the wonderful preservation of
Jonah. As far as those mariners were
concerned, he was dead, he's gone. I've no doubt they reported
to those of Nineveh that there was a prophet coming to them
to prophesy to them, but they'd thrown him into the sea and he
was dead. He wasn't coming anymore to them. But we read of Jonah
in the whale's belly and how that he cries unto the Lord in
his distress. He said, yet will I look again. Where? Toward thy holy temple. That's where he's looking again. And the Lord spake unto, he says,
salvation is of the Lord. The Lord spake unto the fish
and it vomited him out, not in the sea, but on the dry land. You think of the shock with the
Ninevites, that suddenly this preacher, instead of being dead,
he was alive. You think of the time when they
had crucified the Lord, he was dead, he was buried, finished,
we've got rid of this deceiver, And then we have the apostles
doing the same miracles, and raising from the dead, and healing,
and with great power preaching, and thousands following Him,
and thousands being converted, and all done in the name of Jesus,
who was supposed to be dead. Now, the Lord said that Jonah was
a sign. No sign would be given, but the
sign of Jonah's the prophet. I believe the Lord used it with
an inner violence. And the Lord used it in the day
of Pentecost when they were charged with the death of our Lord and
the miracles that the apostles did in his name. How many were
converted because they were looking not to the apostles. The apostles,
they said, look not on us as though by some power that we
are able to do these things. And they testified it was done
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you might feel, you're
like Jonas, so in the dark, so cast out, you've been running
away from the Lord, there's no hope at all, yet even with Him,
probably remembering, remembering Solomon's prayer, looking again
toward thy holy temple. Then we think of Daniel, and
it's possible that And those times that Daniel opened his
window, those three times a day towards Jerusalem, that the temple
was still standing because there was 25 years from when the first
captives went to Babylon and from when the temple was destroyed. And really, it's 70 years from
the time of the temple's destroying to when it was built up again.
It's 70 years. There's also 70 years from when
the first captives went out of Jerusalem and when the first
ones went back, because they came back and it was another
20 or 25 years before the temple was built. So the 70 years you
could take from two ways, from when the captives first went
and first came back, or from when the temple was destroyed
and when it was built again. And so when Daniel was praying
toward Jerusalem, it may be in those first 25 years that it
was still standing. But even if it wasn't, even if
it wasn't, he wasn't looking for that edifice, that building,
but what it set forth, what it set forth, the Lord Jesus Christ. We think also of what the Lord
said when that temple, that temple was destroyed. And then when
it was built again, And the prophets came and they said, the glory
of this latter house should be greater than the former. And our Lord, the Lord said,
destroy this temple. And I'll raise it up again in
three days. They said, well, how can you
do that? This temple took 42 years in building. But the Lord
spoke of his temple of his body. He was the great anti-time. And
it was to him that Daniel would be looking. And the deliverances,
the helps that Daniel had, he might feel to be in a far off
land, separated from the people of God. But do we still look,
look to the Lord? Well, I want to ask that question
in our last point. Do we look unto him? They looked unto him. But do
we look unto him? Are we like the people of God? In that respect, do we look to
the same place? We see in a Gospel day in a much
clearer light than what they did. Not types and not shadows,
but in the fulfilment of Scripture and in the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Do we have faith? Do we look
in that past the ordinances? Past even the preaching of the
Word, to see the Lord Jesus Christ is set forth in the Word. Do we regularly look toward Him
in our devotions, in our private devotions? And do we look for
Him as we gather together in the house of God? Where is He? Where is the Lord Jesus Christ? Where is He? In the Word, where
is He in the preaching? If I be lifted up above the earth,
will draw all men unto me. They looked unto Him. We read
here, and we're lightened. The effect with those that we've
spoken of, it helped them, it strengthened them. The Lord appeared
for them. They were not ashamed when they
looked to Him. And so it will be for us as well. In all our sin, in all our shame,
in all that we may see of a hopeless case, to whom can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Are there those special times?
We've spoken of Jonah, we've spoken of David, those times
that we are in affliction, that we are in danger, that we are
in tribulation. The Lord says, In me ye shall
have peace, in the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good
cheer, I have overcome the world. The Lord uses those troubles
and tribulations of his people to look unto him that was more
marred than any man, that walked the path of tribulation. We are
to consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest we be wearied and faint in our minds. Do we look unto Him for life?
We had it this morning. The life that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. No man can keep alive his own
soul, but do we look to Him for life? Look to Him for repentance. Look to Him for every blessing
of a living soul, a hearing ear, seeing eye, a feeling heart,
a tender conscience, a teachable spirit, do we look to Him for
Him. Thou pleased Him, the Father,
that in Him should all fullness dwell. There's not blessings
for a sinner in any other than in the Lord. We're not to be
looking at the gifts, but the giver, and the giver is our Lord. Do we look to Him for grace,
grace to help in time of need, Do we look to Him to appear for
us in providence? When providence frowns, when
we know not which way to turn, and we need the Lord to appear,
where is our eye? Is it upon man, or is it upon
the Lord? It's a question, isn't it? And
how is our soul? How does our soul stand before
God? Where are we looking for salvation? Is it in the finished work of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Is it in His precious blood that
was shed at Calvary or is it looking somewhere else? May we
be numbered amongst those that looked unto Him and be put in
the present tense that are looking unto Him. We're given this beautiful
promise, they that look for Him, shall He appear the second time
without sin unto salvation. And when you see these signs
happen, they come to pass, look up for your redemption. Groweth
nigh. What a blessed anticipation that
the Lord will come again and his dear people, they shall be
caught up with him in the air. Or if it is in death, I will
come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there
you may be also. May we be