Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. And I read for you a text, two
verses that are not together, verse 9 and verse 14. Verse 9 and verse 14. Hide not thy face far from me,
Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help, lead
me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. Wait on the
Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. This is a psalm of David, and
in the psalms we have the heart-breathings of a child of God, and a man
here after God's own heart. Sometimes we might be perplexed
in our own lives, in our own feelings, that there are so many
contrary feelings. On one hand we might feel very
strong about something, we might be able to have a clear profession
of what we believe and how we trust in the Lord. And on the
other hand, we've got many doubts, we've got many fears, and many
cries to the Lord. We wonder how can those things
all be in one breast and all be happening at once in one person? Could that really be a child
of God that has such a mixture of emotions, of feeling, of fears,
and of helps all at once. And yet we find it in the Psalms,
again and again, we have these ingredients of, on one hand,
profession of what the Lord is and our trust in Him. On the
other hand, crying to the Lord for His help and a confessing
of doubts and fears and in encouraging oneself in the Lord. to maybe
be encouraged to really notice the psalms and the mixture of
those feelings that the psalmist gives expression to. In this
psalm, this psalm of David, there's four main subjects that are addressed
in these fourteen verses. The first one is a profession
of the truths that he believes. In verse 1 we have the Lord is
my light and my salvation. We have the profession that he
is the strength of my life. We have also in verse 8 as well
the profession that we would seek the face of the Lord. When thou said, Seek ye my face,
my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. There is the profession and the
knowledge that when my father, in verse 10, and my mother forsake
me then, the Lord will take me up. And these are things that
are stated. I had fainted, verse 13, unless
I had believed to see. the goodness of the Lord in the
land of the living. I believe to see the goodness
of the Lord. Have we got a profession? Have we got those things that
we testify, that we believe and trust in? Do we have those things
that we can truly say the Lord has shown us these things? and made us to know these things. The man that had been born blind,
he says, one thing I know, for as I was blind, now I see. It's
good to have those things that, as the Lord has promised to teach
His children, those things, so the Lord has taught me that.
Know as yet I may not have the Spirit's witness with my spirit
that I am a child of God, and I don't have that assurance I
would long for, Yet I can say He's taught me this, or taught
me that, things that I do know and am able to testify of and
say. One thing I know, it's a great
thing to have one lesson, one thing taught by the Lord, because
where the Lord begins, He will always continue, and He'll finish
that teaching to His honour and glory. So there is a profession. May we be able to come in with
that part of the psalm, what the Lord is to us and what we
believe in Him. The next thing that runs right
through this psalm, in fact, it's over half of the verses
of this psalm speak of the enemies that David had. The very first
verse Whom shall I fear? Whom shall I be afraid? Verse
2, the wicked, even my enemies, my foes. We have it in verse
3, Thine host should encamp against me. And then in verse 5, time
of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. All the time
there's the enemies. Verse 6 as well, now shall mine
head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me. And verse 11, that lead me in
a plain path because of mine enemies. And verse 12, to live
me not over unto the will of mine enemies. Running right through
it. Child of God, we'll have enemies. We'll have adversaries. We'll
have those that rise up against us. We must not think that we
go through this life and there'll never be any that seek to attack
us, attack our faith, undermine our hope, seek to drag us to
hell, drag us back to the world, oppose us. David had many literal enemies. Saul pursued him again and again
before he came to be king. I think then his own son Absalom
rose up against him. The Philistines all the time
were seeking to attack them. Other nations as well. Many rose
up against him just because he was a child of God didn't mean
to say he would not have those that opposed him, and even in
his own circle of friends, the Heterophon, who they walked together
to the house of God together. Yet he lifted up his heel against
him, joined with Absalom. Enemies in places he did not
expect. What a lesson that is to us.
The great adversary we have is Satan. There's a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour. Our own hearts are deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? The
world is an enemy to a child of God. The Lord said, I have given them
thy word, the people of God my word, and the world hath hated
them. We are on an enemy's territory. And that's so evident right through
this psalm. A most solemn word in the Word
of God, the last enemy, the last enemy. And we're told the last
enemy is death, that shall be destroyed. And for a child of
God, when he dies, when they die, Then the soul returns to
God that gave it. And the Lord said, we are not
to fear even those that kill the body and after that there's
nothing more they can do, but fear Him who has power to cast
into hell both body and soul. After death, for a child of God,
they're out of reach of whatever this world might do. They might
have, and they did, dig up the mortal remains of Oliver Cromwell
and deal horribly with it, but they couldn't touch him, his
soul. The last enemy, out of reach
of Satan, out of reach of this world, and safe with the Lord. Victory at last. Thanks be unto
God that giveth the victory. But until we're brought to death,
then we have many, many adversaries. The third thing that's evident
through this psalm is prayer. There's something wrong, wouldn't
there? If we had the people of God, we had their profession,
we had their enemies, but they never prayed. Well, in this psalm,
we have the prayers that are running right through it, intertwined
with it. Verse four, those things that
are desired of the Lord. One thing I've desired of the
Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty of
the Lord, to inquire in his temple, is followed with breathings right
through the psalm. Verse 7, hear, O Lord, when I
cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer me. The
verse where our text is, we'll come back to that in a moment.
There's prayers right through that. And then verse 11, teach
me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of
mine enemies. And then in verse 12, deliver
me not over unto the will of mine enemies, or false witnesses
are risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty. So we
have prayers, the breathings that run through here, and really
in the prayers, you know, we see the type or the one that
is pointed to, the Lord Jesus Christ here, the false witnesses
that rose up, the adversaries that are around about him, path
that He walked, a path that greatly mirrors all that is set forth
in this psalm. And then there is the last verse,
the answer to prayer, and really it is the advice and the direction,
the secret. Wait on the Lord, be of good
courage and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on
the Lord. So it's not a long psalm, but
we have these subjects that run through it. Well, I've read,
as our text, verse 9 and verse 14. And looking at these two verses,
I want to Consider firstly what the Lord has been and is. Then secondly, there's four things
that David does not want the Lord to do. And in that way, I'd like to
look at it, not as David, but things that we can come in with
David that we do not. want the Lord to do. And then
the answer of the Lord in verse 14, that encouragement in that
verse. But firstly, what the Lord has
been and is. Verse 9, hide not thy face far
from me, put not thy servant away in anger, Thou hast been
my help. Lead me not, neither forsake
me, O God of my salvation. So there's two things. My help, my salvation. Personal. How vital for a personal
knowledge of the truth. The idea that God has put away
sin in the Lord Jesus Christ, And that there's no more problem,
there's no more need for any worry about sin, we can just
live our lives. That is what is taught by some,
as was believed by many. And the scriptures set before
us a need of a personal faith, a personal trust, of a real evidence
of the Lord's work in us. We give expression in this way,
to be able to say what the Lord has been to us, and what the
Lord is to us, going back to the past and in the present. And we really, all of the people
of God, they will have these two things. They'll have that
of which they may say, Raised in Ebenezer, hitherto hath the
Lord helped me. As it were, we can't lose what
the Lord has done. He can't have that taken away.
We might forget it, but have the Spirit remember it to us
again, and then it is what the Lord is to us, even now. Really, in the ordinance of the
Lord's Supper, we have those elements, don't we? We're to
show forth the Lord's death, that which is in the past, what
He has done for every one of His dear people, suffered, bled
and died on Calvary's tree, and what He is to us. He is our meat
and drink. He is our only hope. We show
forth His death till He doth come. We remember that which
He has done for a present help, for a present salvation, a present
deliverance. His precious blood shall never
lose its power. No, not till the last one is
brought safely home to glory. So I hope you can come or desire
that the Lord give us a mire personal. Thou hast been my help. Now we read in, I think it's
Peter's epistles, having tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now the second part of this speaks
of salvation, but in the first, that helm, it doesn't just involve salvation,
but it is the help of the Lord. It's like dear David, when he
went before Goliath and stood against him, he testified of
how the Lord had helped him against the lion and against the bear. He had delivered him, he'd saved
him out of their paws. And he testified that that same
God that had helped him against them would also help him and
also deliver Goliath into his hand. Many times the Lord will give
his people those tokens of his help in those little things,
things of which they taste what it is to have an answer to prayer,
what it is to have the Lord appear for them, and they be able to
see and trace His help in life's minutest circumstance. There
are many that receive the benefits and helps from the Lord that
never ascribe it to Him, Our Lord cured ten lepers, but only
one returned to give thanks unto God. We ought to think in this
world that there is two forces that are in action. One is just
chance, or the skill of surgeons, and the other is the Lord and
what He does. When we go into a hospital ward,
and there might be six people in that ward and they've all
got to have an operation. One of them is the Lord's people.
One of them is seeking the Lord to bring them safely through,
to guide the surgeons, to bless the work and to heal them. And
the Lord does, and they give Him the thanks and the glory
for Him. But then all of the other five,
they're also brought safely through but they've never asked the Lord
for it, and they don't give thanks for it, but the Lord's healed
them anyway. The world would say, no, the
Lord hasn't healed us, we didn't need Him, we don't believe in
Him, and we've just had the same benefit, what was the use of
your praying and your giving of thanks? And that is the unbelieving
world. As if The Lord was not good to
all, and his tender mercies over all his works, as if it was not
the Lord that is the Saviour of all men, especially of them
that believe. There is no two forces in the
world. At the last judgment, the Lord
shall say to those other five, I healed you all. You didn't
ask for it, but I did it. And when I did it, you never
acknowledged it, and you never gave me thanks. But this, my
child, sought it. I healed them, the same as you,
and they acknowledged me. They gave thanks. They believed. And it's a great blessing to
not listen to Satan, not listen to unbelief, but have the knowledge
that the Lord had done these things. For this child I prayed,
said Hannah, The Lord has given me my petition that I asked of
Him. The devil said it would have
happened anyway. She said, no, the Lord has heard
it and He has given me this petition. Those helps the Lord gives His
people, they begin and maybe we ought to trace those helps
and see those helps. in the smallest things, not reject
them because the devil says, well, you can't make claims of
that because you're not yet a child of God. You don't know whether
you're one of God's children at all. It's just a chance that's
happened. But the blessing is that you
see it, you acknowledge it, and feel and know it is his hand,
that what he's done, it matches your prayers. It matches what
you desired of the Lord. Thou hast been my help. We'd know, wouldn't we? In a
natural way, if someone had come to us and helped us. If we'd
broken down on the road and we hadn't got a jack and someone
stopped with a car and they'd got a good strong jack, lifted
up the car, changed the wheel for us, we'd know that we'd received
that help from them. The psalmist says, my help cometh
from the Lord. which made heaven and earth.
It's a great blessing to be able to testify of that. Having received help, says Paul,
of God, I continue unto this present day. I am what I am by
the grace of God. Sometimes we might not realize
the help that we have received. Sometimes we might see others
that have similar trials and difficulties and they buckle
under them and they can't continue under them. And then we realise
the only reason why we have been able to continue is because of
the help of the Lord. Or if the Lord withdraws that
help and we suddenly start to fail and our poor minds can't
continue and can't be supported and can't see things in a right
way and are ready to give up and are full of despondency.
And then we realise again what it has been to have those helps
through the Word and to be supported and able to see more clearly,
be able to say, Thou hast been my help. I haven't got help in
myself. I haven't got strength in myself.
I haven't got ability in myself. Now has been my help. And that's
a great encouragement. It's a great testimony to be
able to say what the Lord has been and is. To be able to go back. To go
back months or years. And you go back after one thing
and another thing. And in many things we could think
of, maybe you can think of in your lives and be challenged
and say, you look at that. You say now that you had not
received any help in the Lord in that. You deny the Lord helped
you in that. Can you really look the Lord
in the face and say that He's not helped me then? We can't
say that. We can't do that. May we be able to look at what
the Lord has done and be able to testify, Thou hast been my
help. And there's an implication here
that where the Lord has been the help of His people, He will
continue to do so. He will not forsake, He will
not give them to see help and to have them look to Him for
it and then forsake them in that, that's implied here. But the
second part of this is not only what the Lord has been, but what
He is. O God of my salvation. That's who He is. O God of my
salvation. He is the author of my salvation. He has planned it. He is the
God that has decreed it, who has given my poor unworthy name
unto His Son to redeem. His dear Son has taken my course. He has suffered and bled and
put away my sin. He has quickened my soul into
life, passed by me and bid me live. He is the One that has
taught me, instructed me, kept me, Salvation is deliverance
from hell and deliverance to heaven. It is the complete saving
power of Almighty God. O God of my salvation. There's a word in Psalm 68 that
has been precious to me at times, if I can find it. In verse 19 and 20, Blessed be
the Lord who daily loatheth us with benefits, even the God of
our salvation. Sela, pause and consider. In verse 20, He that is our God
is the God of salvation. And unto God the Lord belong
the issues from death. It's a blessed thing to realise
that He that is our God is the God of salvation. That was not
the case with the Israelites when they departed from the true
and living God and followed Baal. And even in the case of lighting
the fire under the offerings, their sacrifice, they couldn't
do. Their God was powerless to be
able to do that. What a solemn thing to have a
God that had no power, no might, no ability at all. But what a
blessed thing to have a God that is the God of salvation, that
is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. the God of my salvation, right
from the beginning of it to the end of it, right from the first
convictions of sin to the bringing to a full assurance of faith, O God of my salvation. May the Lord give us that same
testimony what the Lord has been and what He is to us, today and
tomorrow and the next day. Not the God of salvation one
day and not the next. Jesus Christ the same yesterday
and today and forever. The hymn writer says, did Jesus
once upon me shine? Then Jesus is. For ever mine. Well secondly, there's four things
that David does not want the Lord to do. And they may seem
strange things to actually say when there has been the profession
that we've just spoken of. Does he really? fear and know
that God is his salvation and that he has been held from them. It's all intermingled in this
verse. I have plucked out these two
things that what the Lord has been and what he is, but intermingled
with it, there's the asking. that the Lord would not do for
things. And may we come in and instead
of putting it in the words of David, make it to be our words,
what we would ask the Lord that he would not do these things
for us. Often we would put it the other
way around. We want the Lord to do something
for us. We want the Lord to do something.
But here is what we don't want him to do. The first is, we do
not want him to hide his face from us. Hide not thy face far
from me. You know, when we had to have
the masks off, well, the faces were hiding. And especially when
you went in to see the old people, they couldn't recognize you.
They couldn't see. As a minister, you couldn't discern
the expressions on the people's faces. And they were hidden. I think of the executioners of
Charles I. And he accused them, he said
to them, are you ashamed to meet me with open face? Because they
had visors on so that people couldn't see who they were that
was actually carrying out the execution. The Lord is to be viewed with
open face. The Apostle says, when we shall
see the Lord, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is. But when we see the Lord here
below, when we see Him in the lattice of the Word, then that
is where we reflect what we see of Him. But if the Lord hides
His face, we cannot see Him. We cannot see His expression.
We might go and visit. perhaps another chapel, or go
and visit a company, and there's a person there, and we know them,
and perhaps we have talked to them at other times, but though
we're there, we never see their face. They don't turn to us and
look at us, say hello, or how are you? We see them talking
to other people, we see them with their back to us, but we
never catch their eye, and we never see a smile. We never read
what they're thinking towards us at all. And you know that's
not very nice if you think, well, that person, have I offended
them? Have I upset them? They're not
even looking at me. And we rely on when we're having
interaction, one with another, of actually seeing each other. You know, how often would a parent
or a teacher when they're going to reprove a child, saying we've
done something wrong, I know it was when I was a child, and
we'd be looking at the ground, and we couldn't look at a teacher,
and we couldn't look at your parent, and look at me, you look
at me! And you had to look at the parent, or look at the teacher,
and you'd see that they were cross, and they'd see that they
were angry with you, and you could read, and they didn't want
you just to look away, but here's a psalmist, he says, I not thy
face far from me. He wanted to see the face of
the Lord. He wanted the Lord to look towards
him and not away from him. May that be what we desire as
well. What a difference to Adam. When the Lord came into the garden,
Adam hid himself. He didn't want to, he couldn't
look to the Lord. But when we think of our Lord
Jesus Christ, when we think of what he says in this psalm, O
God of my salvation, what a difference when we see
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, the good pleasure of
the Lord, the blessing of the Lord. We see His favour towards
us. You think of the man, the blind
man by the wayside. Our son of David had mercy upon
man. And what does he do? Does he
just turn away his face and just walk on and ignore them? No. He stops, he turns to them, he
looks to them. They can't see, they're blind.
His face is towards them and He asks them what they would
that He should do. Lord, that we might receive had
a sign, and the Lord gave them a sign. The woman, the Syro-Phoenician
woman, how she kept on after the Lord. She wanted Him to look
toward her, to hear her, to answer her. Hide not thy face far from them. And may that be What we don't
want the Lord to do to us, to hide His face from us. We want
to see Him in the lattice of the world. We want to see His
face in Providence. We want to be able to say, this
is the Lord's doing, it is marvelous in our eyes. We want to see that
which He feels towards us. Then there's a second thing. We don't want Him to put us away
in anger. No, Joseph was put away. He was
put away in prison, falsely accused, hidden from society, not able
to be of any use at all. But you know, we read the Lord
was with Joseph in the prison. He wasn't put away in anger,
not by the Lord, but he was in a sense put away. I was thinking
of this in a practical way, and say if you're working in the
kitchen doing cooking, or if you're working in the garden
doing gardening, and you might have had some bowls out doing
some cooking, you used them, And then you put them away. You
wash them up and you put them away in the cupboard. Or you've
used your spade and your fork and you've finished them and
you put them away in the shed. When you put it away, it's not
being used anymore. But it's not in anger. They will
be taken out and they will be used again. And I thought on
this, we're the people of God. If they're put away and put away
in anger, the Lord's displeasure, put away with the sense, I will
not use you, I don't want to see you, I don't want you in
my presence again, you're of no use in my vineyard, no use
to my people, no use amongst the people of God or in the church
of God, I'm just gonna put you away, just like we put some utensils
away with the intention of never using them again until we take
them out and take them down to the op shop or just throw them
in the bin. And this is what the Sama says,
put not thy servant away in anger. He uses this term servant as
if, put not away the one that they will use as a servant to
serve thee, to obey thee, to be of use to thee. So that's the second thing. The
third is that we don't want the Lord to leave us or to go away
from us. Sometimes we might have with
young children, especially when they're first starting school,
and you take them to the school, and then they don't want us to
leave them. They might be in tears and they
don't want us to go and leave them there and to go home. I
often remember with our two and how we had to leave them crying
like that and then spent the rest of the day worrying and
only to come back to pick them up and they didn't want to go
home and they'd had a lovely day and they'd got on really
well and there we worried all day about them, about leaving
them. But it is a picture here of The people of God not wanting
to be put in a place and then just left. Brought to a country
and then just left. Brought to a church and then
just left. Brought to a place of employment
and then just left. Just left to one's own devices
and left alone. Do not leave us. Leave me not. The presence of the Lord. You
know, sometimes, especially like an apprentice or one that is
learning, I know I was like this when I was learning, and the
one I was learning from, he'd start to show me what to do,
and I'd suddenly think, I know it all. I know what I do, but
I need you now. You can go and leave me. You
go to your own work. I'll do this." And off he goes. And then I suddenly think, well,
actually, there's something I don't know. I wish he was still here. I could ask him now, but he's
gone. And when you realize your own weakness, then you don't
want one to leave us. And the Lord will make sure with
his people that we don't get to say, well, we're going to
pray for the Lord's help, we're going to pray for an opening,
and as soon as He starts to work in providence, then we stop praying. Many times we can be like that.
We get to a certain way, we have someone that is going into hospital
for an operation, we pray that they'll be safely brought through,
they're safely brought through, and we stop praying. Might give
thanks for that. You've got the recovery yet.
There's many still things that need to be doing. And what about
it being sanctified? What about it being blessed?
Not just the healing of the body, but for the soul as well. If we know the Lord's help, and
we know how dependent we are upon Him, Just leave us in a situation
to our own devices, our own way, our own wisdom, our own understanding. This is the third thing we do
not want the Lord to do. The fourth thing is even stronger,
and that is we do not want Him to forsake us, that is, abandon
us or desert us when we think of our Lord. When He was coming
to Calvary, They all forsook Him and fled. And then on the
cross, my God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? The very things that the people
of God are saying, do not do for me, the Lord endured. And
the Lord went through, endured this for His people. Neither
forsake me. May this be a direction also
to us in our prayers. Our prayers are not only to be
things that we want the Lord to do for us, they can also be
things that we don't want the Lord to do. Well then we have the third point,
and that is the answer of the Lord. Verse 9 was what the Lord
has been and is, and then these four things that the psalmist
did not want the Lord to do. But in the 14, there's a direction,
direction from the Lord, a direction to Him, a direction to us each. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage. and he shall strengthen thine
heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Twice we affirm to wait on the
Lord. Often it is when we're in trials
and on tribulations, there is a time factor in it. The Lord waits to be gracious. He proves us whether we have
got some other help or not. There's a reason why Israel had
to 40 days flee from the presence of Goliath so that it could be
clearly seen there wasn't a help in Saul, there wasn't a help
in any other, but there was when the Lord provided David and Goliath
was slain. 40 is a testing time and there's
a reason for the delays and the waiting of the Lord. The reason
why Moses had to wait the 40 years while he was in Pharaoh's
household, 40 years in the desert, before he should then lead the
children of Israel through the wilderness. There's a time for
the Lord to appear, and the Lord's people are to wait. Your time
is already, my time is not yet. But we are to be encouraged,
to be of good courage. in the Lord. He shall strengthen
thine heart. Why? Waiting on the Lord with
a weak, trembling, fearful heart. And yet the promise, He shall
strengthen thine heart. Waiting is not just in the attitude
of time, but waiting on the Lord that our eyes are looking to
Him for help. My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
says the psalmist. He shall pluck my feet out of
the gnat. It's an attitude of which the
soul is directed, that they'll be looking in one direction for
help. When we think of salvation, there
is only one name given among men whereby we must be saved. There is no other name given
among men. There is no other Saviour, no
other Redeemer. There is only one God of salvation
and one way of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ alone and
through faith in Him. It is a blessed thing when we
are brought to that that our eyes are solely upon the Lord
and that we are looking to Him alone for our salvation. The strength He gives His dear
people is by faith. When their faith is fastened
upon Him, then their help and their strength comes from the
Lord. Out of weakness made strong. A people that are dependent upon
the Lord for all that they have. And that's why they don't want
Him to hide His face from them. They don't want Him to put them
away. They don't want Him to leave
them. or to forsake them, because their eyes are ever towards the
Lord, they need Him. God's people are to be a dependent
people, people that rely on the Lord. And if that is you tonight,
may it not be a mark against you, it's a mark for you, that
you may truly say that this is There is no other direction,
no other way, but the Lord and the Lord only. Now we have the
two verses here, two parts, but really the whole psalm is the
breathings of a living song. Many different things in the
one breast, in the one heart, reflecting what really is the
case with the children of God. May it be our case as well. May the Lord bless us with this
cry and the answer, and that help to wait on the Lord. They
that wait upon the Lord, we are told, in Isaiah, shall renew
their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. they shall walk and not faint. The Lord and His blessing. Amen.