Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 143. Psalm 143 and verse
8. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning, for in thee do
I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk, For I lift up my soul unto Thee. Part of the Prayer of David. I want to look before we come to
the specific petition of our text in verse 8. to what leads
up to it, which shows us where David's soul was at this time. We may ask ourselves where we
also are when we come before the Lord in prayer. Truly, it
should not be so if we are lively in the things of God, if our
souls are alive and we're mindful of what goes on within and touched
by those things that we walk through, that our prayers will
reflect that. They won't be the same every
time. They won't just be a road prayer
that follows a specific pattern, irrespective of whatever we're
going through. Many of the psalms are prayers. Many of the psalms, they show
us what is happening in the very soul of the person that is praying. And so where is David? Well firstly,
David is feeling his transgression. He says in verse two, enter not
into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man
living be justified. He is feeling his sin. He is
feeling that if the Lord were to judge him, he would be found
guilty and realising that he cannot be accounted free from
condemnation by his own works. And that is why he had prayed
in the first verse that the answer was to be not in his righteousness,
but in the Lord's. Righteousness, because it's evident,
he feels in verse two, he has no righteousness of his own. Another thing to note would be
in that first verse, hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my
supplications. How many prayers do we pray that
really there's nothing in those prayers? And how we react afterwards
to indicate that we really desire the Lord to hear our prayer. When we have a real case, when
we have something that we need to have attended to, then surely
our desire is that the Lord does hear that prayer. on Mount Carmel
where Elijah was put into the trial, the Baal God and the true
and living God, the whole matter rested upon the God hearing and
answering prayer and answering by fire. Because Baal, that is
no God whatsoever, could not answer and could not help then
he was seen not to be a God, but Elijah's God sent fire from
heaven and the sacrifice was consumed. Not only the sacrifice,
but the altar, the stones, the water as well. And when we pray,
we pray to the living and to the true God And we should be
mindful and before God and in his sight testify that we desire
that he hear what we are praying. And so we should really think
about what we are praying. The confessions that we make,
are they real? The petitions, are they really
what we want? Or do we really, maybe not really
concerned whether we have them or not? In verse 3, he makes confession
of being persecuted and smitten by the enemy. For the enemy hath
persecuted my soul, and smitten my life down to the ground. Every
child of God has an enemy. The scriptures are very clear.
Your adversary, the devil, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. The Lord says, whosoever will
be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. In other words,
the world is an enemy, is not a friend to the child of God. There are many snares, many things
that are laid for the feet of the people of God. And we will
find a worst enemy in our own soul. The heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked who can know him. And
David here, he acknowledges that he has this enemy, the enemy,
and what he has done to his soul and how low his life is. I wonder how we are. What is
our life? Our spiritual life, our prayer
life, our life before God. What about our love to God and
our love to his people? What is the life of our soul,
a meditation, and how we feed upon the word of God, or how
much the world has taken control in our souls. When David, he
confesses this, and then in verse four, the effect, when he confesses
this, what flows out from that, He says, therefore is my spirit
overwhelmed within me, my heart is desolate. This is being the
effect of the enemy. Now some of you might be saying,
well, I'm overwhelmed, my heart is desolate, but it is because
I'm not one of God's children, not one of his people, I'm not
in the way. Well, David says, no, no, the reason
why this is the case with my soul is because of the enemy. And may you take courage in this
as well, that God's children attacked by the enemy of their
souls, they do feel the effect of it. What would we think of
it? If God's children were to walk through this world And in
spite of all the enemies, they never, ever felt it. The children
of Israel, with their literal enemies, they did feel those
enemies. They did have to fight, and many
times they were smitten and they were wounded, and yes, their
sin was a part of that, but they were able to trace it to the
enemy. And His encouragement, when we
realize that, to then cry unto the Lord and seek unto the Lord
for that help. So, then we have in verse five,
I remember the days of old, I meditate on all thy works, I muse on the
work of thine hands. How many a time have you and
I, when we've been low, when we've been smitten by Satan or
the world, we thought back of times when we've really been
blessed, when we've been favoured, when we've had the love of God
in our hearts, when we've walked to the house of God, we've been
with the people of God, we've been in a good place, a blessed
place. The Word of God reminds us and
warns us, really, not to say, why were the former days better
than these? We're not to go back, we're not
to live all the time in the past, but we are still to remember,
and especially remember the works of the Lord. And this is what
David said he meditated on, because the Lord is still the same. He's
able to do today what he did before. And certainly Rahab,
when the children of Israel, 40 years after they went through
the Red Sea, and they're coming against Jericho, they remembered
what had happened those 40 years ago, and they believed that the
same God, the same power, was able to be with the children
of Israel then. And it was, when they saw the
Jordan stocked up the same as the Red Sea was divided, what
terror that must have been to those in Jericho. Because people are often backward
to think the same. And to remember back 40 years
and think, well, there was helps then and blessings then, and
he is the same today. I may change, but he is the same. And may we be like David, though
we are low, yet remember the works of the Lord. And then there
is that longing after the Lord. In verse six, praying and longing
after God, I stretch forth my hands unto thee, My soul thirsteth
after thee as a thirsty land-sealer. Is that where we are? Longing,
thirsting, desiring after God. And then the urgent case in verse
7, his spirit fails. Heal me speedily, O Lord, my
spirit faileth. How oft we cannot stay long in
prayer. Our spirit very often fails.
We need the Lord to appear and yet mindful of our unbelief and
our hardness of heart. And so these are the things that
lead up, as it were, to our text. We want the Lord's face. We want
to see him. Have we been reminded so much
lately with the mask wearing Sometimes we don't even recognize
people that we do know reasonably well. We go into another assembly
and we cannot see them clearly. Before that, when we just had
preaching online and a minister could not see his congregation
at all. And here is the Psalmist David,
he's desiring to see the Lord. With our mask wearing, very often,
we cannot tell a person's expressions. We need to see their whole face. And if we are to see the favour
and blessing of the Lord, we need to see Him clearly. And
this is what David is praying for. And we see Him through the
Word. We see Him by the Spirit. We
see Him as He shines upon His Word and into our hearts. And
so this is then the lead up to this petition, the petition of
our text. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness
in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the
way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. I want to look then with the
Lord's help at three points this morning. Firstly, the Lord's
ability to cause things to happen. David obviously believes that,
and we know it is true, because in our text he asked twice, cause
me. The second is cause me to hear. Cause me to hear. thy loving
kindness in the morning, and a reason is given, for in thee
do I trust. And then thirdly, there's a cause
me to know, cause me to know the way wherein I should walk. And again, there's a reason given,
for I lift up my soul unto thee. Firstly, the Lord's ability to
cause, to cause, to bring something about. We read right at the beginning
of the Word of God in the creation when Adam was formed, and then
the Lord would cause Adam to fall into a great sleep, deep
sleep, and then he'd take a rib from Adam and form the woman. We would, of course, today, we'd
say, well, we look upon an operation like that, we'd use an anesthetic
to cause someone to fall asleep. But our Lord caused it to happen
with Adam. Whether means are used or directly,
the Lord caused it so to happen. We think of in the days before
the flood, the Lord had caused there to be a mist that rose
up from the earth to water the earth. But when it came to the
flood, the Lord caused the heavens to open, the rain to come, the
foundations of the earth to be broken up. And the Lord caused
that to happen. We think of when David went into
the battle when Goliath had been challenging the children of Israel. Forty days he challenged them
and no deliverer, no one, not King Saul, was able to stand
against Goliath. But then David was sent by his
father into the camp to see how his brethren fared. And as he came into the camp,
then Goliath was challenging. And David was asking about this
man and what would be done to the man that delivered Israel
from his hand and took away the reproach to the children of Israel. And Eliab, his older brother,
was angry with him. said that he'd just come into
the camp just to see the warfare and to just indulge his curiosity. But David answers him and he
says, is there not a cause? There's two things there. One
cause, the reason why he came into the camp, was because he
had obeyed his father. A simple thing. Same with Joseph. Many years before, they bade
his father, and that was the beginning of him going into Egypt. May we not despise that smallest
of things, obedience to parents. Yet a great thing, the first
commandment with promise. But then God had another purpose,
another cause. Why it was not in the first days,
it needed to be proved and tried those 40 days, no deliverer,
but through David. David was to be the next king. He'd been anointed and he was
to be brought into the forefront and the notice of all the people
of Israel. God had a purpose in that. Very
often then we see that there is a second cause, there is that
which the Lord is using, but there is a purpose of the Lord,
there is a cause why the Lord is doing these things. We think of the crucifixion of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Lord says, for this cause
came their witness of the truth, but
to lay down his life, a ransom for his people. But what was
the cause of his being crucified? Peter says, you have taken and
by wicked hands, crucified and slain. But he also says that
he was delivered by the determinant counsel and for knowledge of
God. God has an ability to cause things
to happen. Sometimes we can be perplexed
like this when we think, why didn't the Lord cause something
to happen? When the brother of Mary and
Martha, Lazarus, when Lazarus died, there were those there
that said, could not this man that openeth the eyes of the
blind, cause that this man should not have died. They were perplexed
at this. Jesus could do some things, he
could open the eyes of the blind, but here is one that Jesus loved,
and he loved Mary and Martha as well, but he didn't cause
that he did not die. But God had another purpose,
and to raise him up from the dead. May we remember this, if
things are not done, it is not because God is not able to cause
it to be done and to cause it to happen. He is. If the Lord
was to determine to have a great revival in this land or in other
lands today, it would be done. If the Lord caused it to happen,
it would be done. We are to seek to pray for these
things and ask of them We do notice when the Lord uses means
to cause it to happen, but we're to see there is no lack in the
ability and power of the Lord. And so David is acknowledging
this, that God has a power over him, over him, cause me. Twice it is cause me. Are we
mindful of that? As we come into the house of
God, as we hear the word of God, the Lord can cause us to hear
it, cause us to be blessed, cause us to be directed, cause us to
receive the word. The Lord has a power over his
people. And this is what is said before
us here. The psalmist in Psalm 78 goes
back of the history of God's dealings with his people Israel. And there are several times he
mentions what God has caused to happen. In verse 13, he divided
the sea and caused them to pass through. He made the waters to
stand as an heap. And then in verse 16, he brought
streams also out of the rock and caused waters to run down
like rivers. And then in verse 26, he commanded
to eat angel's food. He sent them meat to the full.
He caused an east wind to blow in heaven. By his power, he brought
in the south wind, he rained flesh also upon them as dust. And we have what the Lord calls
to take place, what happened. But David, he views it especially
relative to himself. One of our hymns says, my heart
will move at thy command. And here is a prayer, a prayer
to the Lord that he would cause us, cause us, to do two things, to hear and
to know. Well, let us look first then
at the point here. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness
in the morning, and the reason is given, for in thee do I trust. Blessed thing if we can say that
we trust in the Lord and in trusting in the Lord we are looking to
Him to do these things for us. Who else shall we trust? Shall
we trust in ourselves? Shall we trust in man? Or we
trust in the Lord? The Lord has undertaken to keep
alive the souls of His people and to help them. But what is
meant in this petition? Thinking of the timing in the
morning. Sometimes in the word of God,
morning is put for a time when the trial comes to an end. There's nighttime, there's darkness,
but joy cometh in the morning. Those times of great bondage
for the people of God. A mourning is spoken as when
again the Lord appears and delivers out of those trials and it's
like a mourning to the soul of the people of God. The light
shines again where once was darkness. Now this prayer may refer to
that but I want to specifically confine our thoughts to the literal The first time in the day, when
we first wake up, when we first return to consciousness, when
we begin the day, the Lord says, It doesn't go well. The day started
with the Lord. The day started in the Word of
God and with His blessing. It goes well. May we each pay,
and I speak as much to myself as to any here, pay attention
to the morning, how we are, how the day is set forward right
from the beginning. look through the word of God
when there was something to be done when the children of Israel
had to go through the Jordan and things had to be attended
to we always read that they rose early in the morning they made
full use of the day especially when there was something important
to be done and attended to but what is it that David is asking
for in the morning. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness
in the morning. Sometimes it might be literally
hearing. As we wake up in the morning,
we hear things. It may be that we hear thee dawn
chorus, the birds singing. And we hear that. But David says
he doesn't want to just hear like the birds singing, but through
that, hear the loving kindness, thy loving kindness. To hear and to realize this The
Lord has given me hearing. I can hear the mercy, this mercy,
this blessing. This is the loving kindness of
the Lord. We pass by many of these things. Sometimes when we start to fail
with our hearing, then we value that hearing a lot more than
when we did when we maybe had very good hearing. and we realise
it is a blessing from the Lord to hear, then we might hear the
wife going about her work or the children playing, and we
realise the blessing the Lord has given a wife, a husband,
he's given children, he's given these blessings to us. Those
things that we hear in the surrounds, it brings back to our remembrance
what the Lord has given us and appeared for us, our home. We might realise that where we
are, how much prayer has been answered. We go back to times
of operations, times of sickness and realise those prayers have
been answered. We realise this Certainly I've
had occasion to the exercises over years that one day of those
31 years in Australia that I'd be brought back to England and
brought back to a pastorate and before that to be given a wife
from here in England and to realize in a morning And to have these
things come to mind that these things have come to pass. We're actually in possession
of them. We're walking in them. And it's realizing this right
in the very beginning of the day. Counting blessings, counting
mercies, but not only not just seeing those actual things, but
hearing thy loving kindness in them. There's many that would
perhaps acknowledge things that even that the Lord has done,
but not able to trace the loving kindness of the Lord in them.
And it's not just things that are pleasant to us either. We
have in Psalm 107, again and again where the psalmist portrays
the people of God falling down because they'd rebelled, because
they'd hardened themselves against the Lord, because they'd walked
in foolish ways. They fell down. There was none
to help. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses.
right through the psalm, O that men would praise the Lord for
His goodness, for His wonderful works for the children of men.
At the end of that psalm we read, Whoso is wise and will observe
these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness
of the Lord. There is some loving-kindness
of the Lord we don't need to understand. We can see the blessing
in it. But sometimes there's a cross-handed
blessing. Sometimes there's an affliction,
and the psalmist is brought to say, it's good for me that I
was afflicted. Before I was afflicted, I went
astray, but now have I kept thy word. And there's a tracing,
the loving-kindness of the Lord, even in an affliction. even in
a trial, even in a trouble, that the Lord has made these things
work for good. So Joseph is able to look back
and say to his brothers, it was not you that brought me hither,
but God, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. There's a beautiful start to
a day when we hear, and we hear the loving kindness of the Lord
through the things that he has done for us, it may be through
the Word of God, it may be through the Holy Spirit, the Comforter,
the Remembrancer, bringing to our remembrance those things
that the Lord has done for us. And we trace the loving kindness
of the Lord. Maybe it is with some of you
this morning, you need the Lord to guide you in this way, not
to do fresh things for you, but to shine upon what He has done
for you, to cause you, even this morning, to hear the loving kindness
of the Lord, to see a stamp of His smile, His pleasure, His
favour towards you in those things that you're walking in, that
He's given you, that He's provided you with in the way that He's
led you. Cause me. to hear thy loving
kindness in the morning. In one way, what David is confessing,
unless the Lord calls me to hear it, I won't hear it. I'll pass
it by, pass by many blessings without thanksgiving, without
that token for good, without that help. It's just all covered,
it's not seen. But when the Lord shines upon
his work, when he makes it to be seen, and he makes the ear
of his people open, and they hear. Maybe they've been hearing
before, only judgment, only wrath. All they can see is the Lord's
hand against them. That's what Jacob did. He said,
all these things are against me. Are they really, Jacob? He
didn't know his son was alive. He didn't know God had gone before
and was providing the food for them. He didn't know that. There
may be many things that you don't know, that I don't know, that
the Lord is doing even in those things we think are against us
at this present time. And yet if the Lord should cause
us to hear his loving kindness and then we see in those things
such a blessing, such kindness, Now it is kind for the Lord to
show his people their true state and condition, show them that
they are sinners, show them their need of the Saviour, show them
the Saviour. Have you ever woken in the morning,
thought back to the times of unregeneracy, and realised, here
am I, by the grace of God, walking in the ways of the Lord, reading
the word of God that I would never have read before, valuing
the precious blood of Christ shed upon Calvary's tree and
seeing it as shed for me that I had no desire after before. Having seen the loving kindness
of the Lord in the morning, in realising that he has put us
in the way of his steps and brought us to walk in his ways and to
seek his face and to desire to be with his people, and to be
with him forever. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness
in the morning. Why was I made to hear thy voice,
to enter while there's room, while many make a wretched choice
and rather starve than come? The hymn writer knows what it
is to ponder and to think upon the sovereign grace and mercies
of God. that should so put us amongst
his people. So may it be that this then is
our prayer and day by day we think of this and it be our prayer
in the morning as we first wake up in the morning that we hear
because God has caused us to hear his loving kindness in the
morning. And may it be that the reason
is as well that we do trust in the Lord. We lean upon Him to
work these things and to cause us to know these things. It's
not only what the Lord does, but that He actually shows us
that He does them. When we think of those ten lepers
the Lord healed, there's only one returned to give thanks unto
the Lord. Only one realised the loving
kindness of the Lord and that led him to the Lord. The others
took that blessing. They went to the priest, but
they never returned to God. How many do the same? Many blessings
that man has. God is the Saviour of all men,
especially of them that believe. And those that believe, they
trace those things the Lord does for them. to the loving-kindness
of the Lord. I have loved Thee with an everlasting
love, and therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn Thee. Secondly, his petition is, cause
me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto
Thee. When the Lord dealt with Saul
of Tarsus, his first request to the Lord was, Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do? By nature, we make our own way. We choose our own way. We seek
not the Lord's will in anything. Or sometimes it might be like
with Israel. They sought his will, but they'd
already planned what they were going to do. and just wanted
the rubber stamp of the Lord upon her. But when the Lord truly
works in a sinner's heart, then he wants to know the Lord's way. There's two ways that this petition
can be looked at, again, as in the first one. It can be in a
providential way. We read of this in Psalm 32,
a beautiful promise of the Lord. I will instruct thee and teach
thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine
eye, not as a horse or a mule, not just pulled from this way
to the other, but to hear the voice of the Lord, like a rider
that was to see which way was to go instead of forcing the
horse, just say, go right, go left. The people of the Lord
are to be not forced but made willing in the day of his power
and guided by his word in which way to go. Thy word is a lamp
unto my feet, a light unto my path. Where we're with shall
a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according
to thy word. And if that is where you are
this morning seeking Lord's direction and guidance, May this prayer
be yours. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk. What path should I take? What
way should I take? It's a good prayer. But I desire
to bring it in a different way, and that is the way that the
Lord's people should walk as not in a direct way in providence,
but the way that we should walk as Christians, as followers of
the Lamb. Our Lord, of course, he says
to his people, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. A beautiful answer to this
petition would be that. I am the way. Cause me to know
the way. Wherein I should walk, Christ
is the way. That is the track, that is the
way, that is the path for the people of God. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. He is the way, and may we remember
that. But how are we to walk? What
is the way wherein we should walk? Is it not to walk in ways
of holiness instead of the ways of ungodliness and unholiness? Is it not to walk in the way
of prayer, as David is here, rather than prayerlessness? Is
it not to walk in the way of the fear of the Lord rather than
to walk in a way that says as Pharaoh, who is the Lord, that
I should obey him or that should fear him. The Word says the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Cause me to know the
way wherein I should walk, that we might walk in the Word of
God, up and down in it, and that we might hear the Word of the
Lord. Is it not for the people of God
to be mindful that by nature our hearts are so hard, so proud,
so high-minded? And is it not then to remember
that the way for the Lord's people and the best way, the way of
blessing, is humbly, to walk humbly, with thy God, to walk
tenderly, to walk with a tender conscience, to walk in a way
that is a careful way, redeeming the time because the days are
evil, taking heed unto our steps, not rushing carelessly, thoughtlessly
and prayerlessly, one way and another way. Is it not to walk watchfully, praying and watching? How many warnings we have, as
the devil is a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk. I trust that all that are taught
of the Lord will know that the way that the ungodly walk is
a very different way than the way that the godly walk. And
the way that the godly walk is a way that the Lord has caused
them to know is the right way. This is the way, walking in it
when you turn to the right hand, when you turn to the left. Again, as we said with the first
point, this is seeking the Lord to do this for the son. As David, a man after God's own
heart, you might say, well, don't men automatically know which
way is the holy and right way, the way of the godly? No. and
only as taught by the Lord. And so David, he says, caused
me to know. How many that make a profession
in religion, you look upon perhaps their ways, how they're walking,
what they're saying, how they're acting, and you say, how is the
fear of God before their eyes? How do they learn that way? The
word says, learn not the ways of the heathen, but to learn
the ways of the Lord. And David, very mindful of this,
and may we be mindful of it as well, that we need the Lord to
cause us to know the way wherein we should walk. Not only just
to hear of it, but really to know it. Sometimes it's through
bitter paths, a way that transgresses his heart, And very often the
chastening of the Lord for a perverse and wrong way is bound up in
that way itself. We reap what we sow. We bring
ourselves into darkness and bondage. But with the teaching of the
Lord, He makes that work for good. We know by bitter experience
that to walk in a perverse and wrong way will bring the will
bring darkness, will bring trial. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk. No, Jehoshaphat and his son as
well, when they sent those ships for the gold and the ships were
broken, and then Ahab and his son, they decided to send servants
with them in the ships, but no, Jehoshaphat, He wouldn't do it. He'd learnt his lesson. He was
not to follow that way. And it's good for us when the
Lord touches our things, when he reproves, that through that
we actually discern that the Lord is causing us to know the
way wherein we should walk. That we're able to see that his
hand is clearly shown us the right way, the good way. Bless
the Lord for personal teaching. You know, if this prayer was
answered, and I believe it was with dear David, if it was answered
for you and I, we'll be able to know and clearly see we have
been taught by God. The Lord has taught us because
he has caused us to hear his loving kindness in the morning,
shone upon His work in us and for us, and He's caused us to
know the way wherein we should walk, brought us into that new
and living way, into the footsteps of the flock, to follow the Good
Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless this word
to us, walking a way of thankfulness, walking a way of praise, walk
in the way of the people of God, following the Lord Jesus Christ,
trusting solely to his death, to his blood, to his righteousness,
to his salvation, for what the Lord has done. May the Lord bless
this word, that it be our prayer and the Lord answer it for us. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.