Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Psalm 109, and reading for
our text, verse 22. Particularly the last part of
this text. Verse 22, for I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me. Particularly this word, my
heart is wounded within me. This is a psalm of David. It is also a messianic psalm. And the verse that we have read
speaks of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Those wounds that
He endured. We read in verse 8, a verse that
was quoted by the apostles. Let his days be few and let another
take his office. Who is that speaking of? That
is speaking of Judas Iscariot and all that is spoken so severely
against that man in the psalm We can clearly see in Acts chapter
1 and verse 20 where the apostle says, for it is written in the
book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell
therein. And let his bishopric let another
take. And that is his office. And so
they appointed Matthias in the place of Judas Iscariot. And so we know these Psalms,
and many of the Psalms, they speak of our Lord Jesus Christ. But they also speak of the people
of God and the experience that they also go through. And it is in that way, joining together,
path of our Lord and the path of His people that I desire to
speak to you this evening from this word. For I am poor and
needy and my heart is wounded within me. So I want to speak
firstly of our Lord, our Lord wounded for our transgressions. And then secondly, a wounded
people. And then thirdly, the healing
of a wounded people. Paul, when he writes to the Philippians,
he says of our Lord, that he humbled himself, that he became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, wherefore
God hath highly exalted him. Now text says, for I am poor
and needy. The Lord literally was born to
very poor parents and is known by the offerings that they offered
when he was first brought into the temple, but apart from that
literal poverty, he humbled himself so as to say, the foxes have
holes, the birds of the air have nests, that the Son of Man hath
not where to lay his head. Our Lord Jesus Christ, made of
a woman and made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law. Very clearly He did not come,
though He is set forth rightly as the King of Israel. Thou art
the King of Israel. Those that saw His Godhead through
His manhood, they could see that. But He did not come as an earthly
king. He did not come as one that many
expected, and so many were offended at him and yet he came to be
one with his people and to come into their place and their station
and their position. We read then of his heart wounded
within him and we think of the other prophecies that speak of
these wounds of our Lord. Isaiah 53. Surely He hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with his stripes we are healed. This is pointing
so clearly to the Lord, and this passage in Isaiah was preached
by Philip to the eunuch, clearly showing that this is the Lord. It's a beautiful gospel passage
of the sufferings of our Lord, not just as the wounds in his
hands, which we read of in Zechariah, but we read of that which is,
as in our text, in the heart. My heart is wounded. That's where the Lord felt the
keenest wounds, not those produced by the nails and the soldiers,
but that wound that he had in the house of his friends, and
that which was wounded by justice, and that which God hid his face
from him. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Of course, when we speak of the
heart, we are not thinking of the muscle that pumps the blood
around us, but our very being, our inmost being. What we really
are, our thoughts, our affections, our feelings, they are those
things that really drive us, motivate us. It's not just in
the mind, though it does comprehend the mind, but it does not need
to be consciously thought to be really felt and pained. And we can quite often know the
reality of heart things by that trait. We don't have to think
or work up these things, but it just comes as an arrow, and
comes as a pain, and it comes as an inward wound that is felt
really within. We read in Psalm 69, also of
the sufferings of our Lord. In verse 26, where they persecuted
him whom thou hast smitten, and they talked to the grief of those
whom thou hast wounded. The Lord Jesus Christ came as
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. It was that very
point that our Lord spoke to the two on the way to Emmaus.
They said, we trusted it should have been Him that should have
redeemed Israel. And our Lord's answer was, ought
not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His
glory? And our Lord drew their attention
to all of these scriptures, these scriptures, these portions. concerning
himself in all the scriptures. We read in Psalm 129, the flowers
may deep their furrows upon my back. We read in Psalm 69 of
many of the marks and evidences of the crucifixion and also Psalm
22. Our Lord Jesus Christ, suffered,
was wounded, his hands, his feet, his side, his head, his back,
literally, but wounded in heart. We read the first effects of
the sin that was laid upon him, that has laid upon him the iniquity
of us all, as in the Garden of Gethsemane, He sweat great drops
of blood, dropping down to the ground, so amazed at that weight
that was laid upon Him. And it is the sufferings of our
Lord being truly man and truly God that mark out the reality
of what sin is. And the Lord bearing that sin
and feeling the weight of that sin and feeling the effect of
how His Father must hide His face from that sin and hate sin. He had made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. So when we look at this verse,
may we think of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ upon the
cross and enduring the wrath of God and being wounded for
sins that are not his own, wounded in his heart. For I am poor and
needy and my heart is wounded within me. I want to then look
secondly at a wounded people. Wounded people. No, by nature we are not troubled
about sin. Sin has profoundly affected us. It profoundly works in us. But
man does not want to hear or know about it. He's not troubled by it. He's
not wounded by it. He needs that he be wounded before
he can be healed. One of our hymns says, nor are
men willing to have the truth told. The sight is too killing
for pride to behold. Yet Isaiah says that we are full
of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. There's no part sound
nor healthy. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked, and part of its deceit is to
cover over sin, to minimise it, to make out that it's not really
so bad, and to counter the Word of God. It comes in like Satan
did, hath God said, and undermines it to make it be a small thing,
a little thing. We need to understand and realize
that, that the natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither
can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. And
the great part of it is that he doesn't know the malady, won't
face up to the malady, he doesn't feel the wounds of sin, he doesn't
feel or know any need of healing, he is whole. But here is a different
expression. I am poor and needy, and my heart
is wounded within me. The sense of sin by this soul
has made them feel not high, mighty, and proud, but has laid
them low in the dust, made them poor. Nebuchadnezzar once had
a dream, but he couldn't remember what that dream was. And his wise men could not tell
him what the dream was, and they couldn't tell the interpretation.
But they thought if only the king could tell them the dream,
then they'd be over-interpreted. But the king said, no, you have
prepared for me lying words. If he was to tell them the dream,
they'd make up the interpretation, probably for a long time, until
the times were changed, says the king, and then he would forget,
or it wouldn't be found out that actually their interpretation
was wrong. But he said to them, you show
me the dream. and I'll know that you can tell
me the interpretation thereof." And I always thought that that
is a very vivid illustration of what is so vitally needed
in salvation. It takes the same God to reveal
our sin and the malady and to make us all to be a true wounded
soul over sin. be the same God that heals that
soul. The Lord must do both. And in that there's a real token. Remember Daniel? He did tell
the dream to the king. And the king then knew that what
Daniel was to then tell him concerning the interpretation was right
and real. And so when the Lord works in
the hearts of His people and convince of sin, when He brings
them to be wounded because of their own sins, and brings them
to need a Saviour, need a Redeemer, then it is a real evidence of
His work. It seems an opposite thing. It
doesn't seem to be a right way, and especially to those who feel
it, because it is felt, it is real. How many times have we
perhaps read in the Word of God about the Lord's blessing on
sinners, and you've come in prayer and said, but Lord, my sins are
real sins. They're really things I have
done and said, and how my heart is working. as if we feel that our case is
different than any other case. Because we have read about the
other cases, but now our case, we're feeling about it, and we're
pained about it, and there's the reality about it that is
actually in our heart. It touches our heart. How does the Lord bring about
that wounding? We read in Proverbs, faithful
are the wounds of a friend. And the Lord is a friend of His
people. And He will bring them to the
truth and make them know the truth, hear the truth. It applies not just at the beginning,
but along the way for restoring a backsliding soul too. We think
of David when he backslid, committed adultery and murder. You wonder
how it was that he kept on going, he still went into the house
of God, but not living close to the Lord. But then the Lord
kindly sent him Nathan, and through Nathan he was brought to see
his sin in the light of someone else. And then the word, thou
art the man, for I have sinned. And then immediately, the Lord
hath also put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. But the conviction
of the sin was very necessary first. It was a vital thing. Today, people don't want to hear
about sin. There are churches that tell
their ministers or those that visit that they don't want to
know about sin. They don't want to be told about
hell. that awaits all outside of Christ. They don't want to
be told that they are not good people. But it's only in that
way that they shall ever really know the mercy of God, the forgiveness
of God, or ever have any fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ at
all. In the Song of Solomon, Spouse,
the church, was pictured there. And she says that the watchmen
that went about the city, they found me, they wounded me. Sometimes
the Lord uses this, and I say sometimes, many times He does,
through the ministry. The Word finds the people out. They fall under that Word, under
conviction of sin. The Lord speaks through his servants,
it appeased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And the words come like arrows,
they find their mark. And it brings down and brings
to bow before the Lord. The Lord knows how to. bring
a soul down. Paul says the law is a schoolmaster
unto Christ. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. The law entered that sin might
abound. And he says of himself, I was
alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin
revived and I died. And that which was ordained unto
life, he found to be unto death. Wounded, the law finding its
mark, bringing him in as guilty, bringing him in as a sinner. Conscience, the Lord uses conscience. We think of how Joseph dealt
with his brothers. 20 years after they had sold
him, they come into Egypt and Joseph knows them and they do
not know him. But his first dealings with them
are designed to bring them to remember their guilt in what
they did to him. And it was very effective. They
didn't know Joseph could understand them But as he dealt with them,
then they spake one to another and said that we did not listen
to his cries. We did not hear him. And the
Lord is requiting us because of the evil that we did to our
brother. And all of those past sins were
brought up by things that they now were passing through. And
the Lord uses that. Things that are brought into
our lives. Adversaries, afflictions, trials. We being dealt with in the same
way as what we've dealt with others. Things that bring our
sin to remembrance. Remember when Elijah first was
at the brook and then he went to Zarephath, the upper room
of the widow's house. Many miracles. The cruise of
oil didn't fail. The meal didn't waste. But that woman didn't believe.
But then her son died. And she said, out there, come
to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son. And Elijah
takes the son up to his room and prays to the Lord, and the
Lord gives him the life of the Son back. And then the woman
says, now I know that thou art a prophet, the word of the Lord
in thy mouth is true. The Lord used such things as
that to bring sin to remembrance. Many that came to the Lord in
the days of His flesh came because of afflictions. We have some
of it, the woman pressing through the crown, The man with the son
that cast himself into the fire and into the water. They came
because of things that were brought into their lives. And those things the Lord sanctifies
and make to work for good. They don't automatically. There's
many in the world that have these things that makes them angry
against God, makes them fight against Him, makes them resist
Him. And because they don't know their
own evil heart, they feel the Lord has not been just. They've
been good people. They've done right things. And
the Lord hasn't rewarded them rightly. They deserve much better
at His hand. But one that is wounded, they
feel very, very differently. They feel the Lord is just in
what He has done. And the thoughts of their sin
pain them. And every thought of those things
they've done and they've said come as sharp arrows into their
soul. We think of Psalm 25, and it
speaks of the sins of the youth. Verse seven, remember not the
sins of my youth, nor my transgressions according to thy mercy. Remember
thou me for thy goodness sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the
Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way. And part
of that teaching is to convince of sin, to convict of sin, to
bring in guilty. Sometimes it is men. You know,
part of Job's trials wasn't all that came upon him in Providence,
but it was his friends that came. And they tried to lay upon him
things that were not right. Then it stood up with him things
that he might say were real sins, his own sins. The charge against
his friends was at the end. God said that they had condemned
him but had not convinced him. They hadn't been able to show
him wherein he was wrong. Yet God overruled it for good. Sometimes you may be accused
of things. that we haven't done at all.
And yet those very accusations are used by God to bring to our
remembrance things that are true, that we have done. And that then
stops our mouth and humbles us in the dust. And we think of
those that speak against us, well, what you're speaking is
wrong. But if you knew me truly, and
knew what is in my heart, and knew what sins I've done, you'd
have a lot, lot more to say, and that would be true too. The
Lord knows how to make that wound to be a wound that we cannot
escape, and plaster over, and just make out it is alright. It's not like those who may have
an imagined illness, and they're given a pill for it, Unknown
to them, it's just a bread pill. There's no healing in it at all. Mind over matter, they heal and
they're healed. But those who are wounded by
the Lord need a true healing. They need that which does really
touch the case. The woman with the issue of blood
had tried many things for 12 years to touch her case and nothing
did until she came and touched the hand of our Lord. Sin is a real thing. We are sinners. And we sin constantly. And it
needs the almighty work of God to bring us in as guilty before
His throne. Sinners can say, and none but
they, how precious is the Saviour. It is a preparation work, a needful
work. How deep should that conviction
be? as deep as needed to make us
need the Saviour. How long should it be? Known
only to the sovereignty of God. Some are held long under the
law and under conviction of sin and of darkness and condemnation,
and others a short time, then they're delivered and brought
out of it. but it will be an uncomfortable place. If we have
true conviction of sin, we will not easily be able to sit on
our seat, week after week, service by service, and not receive anything. It will cause a lot of prayer
and anxiousness and concern to go home, service after service,
still with sin there, still untouched, still as a sinner, still under
condemnation, still guilty, no change. And that will exercise
the soul, burden the soul, cause many thoughts. Am I really one
of the Lord? Is my conviction a real conviction? Is it really God preparing me
for a blessing? Or is it just conscience only
Is it really the special work of God or is it just like others
in the world feel as well? That's all this exercise with
so many thoughts and feelings and these are turned into prayers
and cries and groans to the Lord. And the Lord knows how then to
wound a soul and it cannot be touched by men, by ministers,
by family, by those who try to reassure us and try to speak
good to us, even those that try to point us to the Saviour, until
the Lord sends the heal, the healing is not done. It is very evident in the Lord's
miracles on earth that until the Lord wrought it, It was not
done. Even before our Lord, we think
of the Shunammite woman where her son died. And Elisha, he
sent his servant with the staff. No good, that did not help at
all. Only the Lord could revive that
son and bring him to life again. We mentioned of the one that
was cast His son cast into the fire and the water. He comes
to the Lord when he came down from his mount, and he said this,
I brought him to thy disciples. But they couldn't cast him out.
They couldn't do it. The woman that cried at last
to the Lord came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. The
disciples had said, she crieth after us. Send her away. They
couldn't help her. They couldn't meet those wounds,
tend those wounds. And this then is the mark of
God's Word when men, even ministers of the Gospel, even those with
the best intentions of trying to bring to the remedy, and a
true remedy at that, are not effectual. It's God's work to wound and
it's God's work to heal again. I must say this, if we were to
be a seeker after the Lord, don't seek being wounded or seek to
know our sins. If we are mindful that we need
a saviour, seek the saviour, I feel some, their eyes are from
the saviour and they really want to govern their own experience. They might read the experience
of others and they see the need of conviction of sin, so they
ask for that and they look for that. Let the Lord manage that. Let
the Lord determine how He'll deal with you, how He'll deal
with me, how He'll teach us. That He will convince of sin
is certain, but in what measure, what way? Leave that to Him. May we have our eyes upon Him. and Him alone. But especially
if we are wounded from sin, then there is a remedy, there is way
of escape, there is hope for such. And it needs to be said,
because those who are truly wounded feel that there is not hope.
You can tell them all you like, but well it is God's work to
convince. And I'll say, yes, but you do
not know my heart. As water, as in face, water face
untoeth the face, so the heart of man to man. He fasteneth all
their hearts alike. The Apostle Paul says, I am the
chief of sinners. And that he found mercy that
none might despair. And so there is hope. In those
who are brought like thee, publican, God be merciful to me a sinner,
and he beat upon his breast. That's where the trouble was,
and that's where the malady was. That's where the sore was. That's
where the wound was. A wounded people, wounded enough to prepare the
way for the gospel. Wounded enough for when the Lord
heals, they shall know it is the Lord's work and not man's
work. Gideon had his army made very
low so that he did not say his own goodness or his own might
and power had got the victory. And so the Lord, if He is to
give His people a true token, brings them first to know what
we read in Romans 8. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh. that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. I want to look then lastly at the
healing of a wounded soul. In Jeremiah 13, We read from verse 12, the Lord's
saying of Israel, and really spiritual Israel, thus saith
the Lord, thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. That is true. By nature, that
is what it is, except the provision in the Lord. Sin cannot be cured,
remedied, in any way, but the Lord's way. There is none to
plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up. Thou hast no healing
remedy, healing medicines. No, there is not. But in the
provision of the gospel, there is the Lord Jesus Christ to plead
the cause of his people. All thy lovers have forgotten
thee, they seek thee not. For I have wounded thee with
the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one,
for the multitude of thine iniquity, because thy sins were increased. Why cryest thou for thine affliction? Thy sorrow is incurable for the
multitude of thine iniquity. Because thy sins were increased,
I have done these things unto thee. Therefore all they that
devour thee shall be devoured. All thine adversaries, every
one of them, shall go into captivity. Nay, that spoil thee shall be
a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.
And then we read these beautiful words added to that. For I will
restore health unto thee, and I will hear thee of thy wounds,
saith the Lord, because they called thee an outcast, saying,
This is Zion, or the church of God, whom no man seeketh after. There is the Gospel that is preached
in these Old Testament books, setting forth the salvation of
the Lord. We have another in Isaiah 30
and verse 26. Moreover, and this is pointing
to Calvary, what was done there as the sun was darkened, or over
the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun. The
light of the sun shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days, in
the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and
healeth the stroke of their wound. And the Lord will do that. What he has done at Calvary has
paved the way for that. On the cross, our Lord Jesus
Christ put away sin, the sins of His people, by the sacrifice
of Himself. That which He endured, He endured
for His people. That which was laid upon Him
was the iniquity of all of His dear people. Those from the beginning
of time to the end of time, all that ever lived, were all laid
on the Lord Jesus Christ there at Calvary. But that debt that
is paid, that endured by the Lord, must then be conveyed in
experience to the people of God. And this is the intercession
of our Lord in heaven. It is the work of the Holy Spirit
to convict of sin, and then lead to Jesus' precious blood. He
shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. There is a
set time to favour Zion. Yea, the set time is come. We said about the same work of
God, the same Spirit that convicts. And it all flows from Calvary. It all flows from a work that
has been done there. and from a love that is an everlasting
love, and from a work that the Lord, once He begins, He finishes
it, He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto
the day of Jesus Christ. Which one of us will say? Will
you say when? When the Lord begins. How does
the Lord begin? Every one of His people, maybe
in a different way, different time, different place. Once the
Lord begins, the first thing He'll do is pass by and bid live,
give spiritual life. That is the very first beginning.
We can authoritatively say that that will be the same for every
one of God's children, that He'll give them spiritual life. I give
unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of mine hand. When that life
is received, they have new eyes, new ears, new feelings. It paves
the way for them to be convicted of sin, paves the way for them
to desire the things of God, gives them that hearing ear.
In Revelation, we have again and again, he that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And so that remedy, It is conveyed by the Spirit
in revealing what Christ has done on Calvary with a power,
a savour and an unction that only God can give. He chooses
the words that He may apply to His people and He heals those
wounds of sin. He takes away the guilt. He takes
away the condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation. It is the Spirit that shows the
debt being paid at Calvary, that lifts up the Lord Jesus Christ
before that sinner. Remember in the wilderness, there
was sin bitten, bitten by the serpents. Moses was commanded
to lift up a serpent in the likeness of those who was biting them.
Those that looked, they lived. Even those that looked from afar
off only saw the glint of it, they still lived. And our Lord
says in John 6, John 3, that even as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but should
have. eternal life. They shall look upon him whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn for him and be in bitterness
for him. And it is in this way, God taking
the things of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit applying them, blessing
them, not man's reason, not applying them to himself, not convincing
himself, but the same as the work was done. You might say
imperceptibly, but the effect was felt in the heart of wounding,
so the work of healing is done through the word, and you might
look at the word and you say, well, how has that had such an
effect? But it's what the Lord makes
it. There may be a verse, maybe several verses. The Lord bringing
the word, sending the word, a healing word. He spoke and it was done. That's how the world was formed
in the beginning. And really that is how it is
with a convinced sinner. Arrest that man, convince that
man, that woman, that child. And then the blessing is just
as much His command and His work. If you're a wounded soul, wait
upon the Lord. Attend the ministry of the Word
and expect that the Lord will, in His time and His way, bless
that to you and speak to you. One of the hymns, the last lines
of it, When and Where, and by what means, to his wisdom leaving. Remember, when under conviction
of sin, those lines followed me for a long while. It was a
ray of hope that the Lord would appear, and he did appear. Salvation is of the Lord. Dear
Jonah, in the midst of thee, Whale's belly tossed to and fro
and in darkness. Could have had no expectation
of deliverance from himself or from man or from any. And yet as he cried unto the
Lord in that dark place, you do that, dear soul, if you're
in that dark place. The Lord spake unto the fish
and it vomited him out on dry land. The Lord spake and it was
done. We never guess, never anticipate
how the Lord will deliver his people. But he will deliver them. And he knows how to do it. And
when he does it, they are delivered, they are set free. The children
of Israel in Egypt must have thought after nine signs that
had just devastated that whole land, that there was nothing
that the Lord could do to make the Egyptians let them go. Yet
the Lord knew what He was doing. The Lord brought the one sign,
brought the blood, brought the Passover, and immediately they
were thrust out. They went out with a high hand.
It wasn't uncertain, it was a clear deliverance. And that's what
the Lord would do for His people, healing them, yet laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all iniquity. All unrighteousness is the Lord's
work. We are to wait upon the posts
of His doors. We are to be looking unto Him
even from the ends of the earth. We are to come to Him who alone
can heal. Look to the one that has smitten
us, the one that has convicted us, the one that has brought
us in guilty, and to look to him, that he'll heal those festering
wounds of sin, and that he'll show us himself made sin for
us. This is the experience then,
the people of God, but also their Lord. And it brings to sweet
fellowship with Him, and to realise something of the sufferings of
our Lord that can never be understood any other way. For I am poor
and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. But when we look upon
the Lord and we see that reflection, And we see that in this psalm.
This is speaking of Him. But it's speaking of a convicted
and wounded soul too. And this is done. This is done
to heal those wounded souls. The Lord speak His word to you.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed
our transgressions from us. us all, wounded, for our transgressions. The Lord add his blessing. Amen.