So 116. I love the Lord, because He hath
heard my voice and my supplications. Because He hath inclined His
ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compass
me, and the pains of hell get hold upon me. I found trouble
and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord, O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is
the Lord, and righteous, yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple,
I was brought low, and He helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my
soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou
hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my
feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living. I believe, therefore have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are
liars. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto
the Lord now in the presence of all His people. Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. O Lord,
truly I am Thy servant, I am Thy servant and the son of Thine
handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to Thee the sacrifice
of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. I
will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His
people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of
thee, O Jerusalem, praise ye the Lord. Now the word that I
desire to speak to you on is found in verse 7, the 7th verse. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. The psalmist here is speaking
to really his own soul, communing with his own soul. I trust each
of us know what it is, maybe even on a natural level, to be
going over things in our minds, to be speaking to ourselves,
and communing with ourselves, but it is a precious thing where
we commune with our soul. The psalmist often takes this
line, we think of the Psalms 42 and 43, Why art thou cast
down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? And he is having that Communion
is speaking with his own soul that maybe there's some of you
in doing that you get very low very cast down you can't see
any cause any reason for rejoicing or hope or help at all and yet
here is the Psalmist here in this psalm as he communes it
is very obvious in the very words of our text return unto thy rest
that he has departed from his rest. He has not had that comfort
and rest that he once had. And so what he goes over here
returns him back to his worship, his joy, He's rendering unto
the Lord for all his benefits. He's taking the cup of salvation. He's praising the Lord. In this
communion that he has, he's brought back again to a sweet fellowship,
not just with his own soul, but with the Lord and with the blessing
of the Lord. and so i want to just look at
three points this morning firstly the lord that is his people's
rest and then secondly a rest that we have known that his is
actually our rest because the word of the text says return
unto thy rest oh my soul And then we have the reasons that
are given for this, which is that the Lord had dealt bountifully
with thee. So firstly, the Lord, the rest
of His people, We think of the beautiful words our Lord speaks
at the end of chapter 11, the Gospel according to Matthew.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
rest of his people and he invites his people and those that are
heavy laden and burdened to come unto Him for that rest. You have a beautiful type of
this in the case of Noah and the ark and the dove that went
out from the ark. and we read that it found no
rest for the sole of its foot it went across the face of the
earth and there was no place she could rest at all and we
read then it came back returned unto him into the ark for the
waters were on the face of the whole earth then he put forth
his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark."
And the ark, a beautiful type of Christ, and those are the
Lord's people finding no rest, no comfort, no place for the
sole of their feet in this world, but returning unto Christ and
finding their rest. And of course we think of the
finished work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the book of Ruth, we have
Ruth presenting her petition to Boaz that he would spread
his skirt over her, that he would marry her, he would provide for
her, he'd be her bridegroom, her husband, and then Naomi gave
that direction to Ruth. Sit still, my daughter, the man
will not be in rest until he have finished the thing this
day." And we find Ruth sitting still, and it is Boaz that is
doing all of the work. He is making those arrangements,
and he is speaking to those at the gate, and he is doing all
on Ruth's behalf. Well, with our Lord Jesus Christ,
He has satisfied the law, He has made it honourable, justice
is done, there is a full payment price that is made, His dear
people are redeemed, they are set free, not by the payment
of gold and of silver, or those earthly things, but with the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the wrath of God
is appeased. His sacrifice is a propitiation
a wrath-ending sacrifice, and a righteousness is brought in
to clothe His people, to make them fit to stand before Him
and be faultless before the throne. The Lord Jesus Christ is His
people's rest. those that have been laboring
under the law, those that have been trying to find righteousness
of their own and will never find it, those who are buffeted and
tempted by Satan. The Lord is their rest. The Lord
is the one that bids him flee, that comes and shelters them,
protects them, keeps them, and delivers them from his hand. The Lord is their rest from man
whose breath is in his nostrils. He is the refuge of his people. In that way they flee unto him
and find their hiding place in him. The Lord Jesus Christ is
raised up for this very purpose for His people, a blessed resting
place, a place where they may see salvation completely finished
and hear the Lord from Calvary, it is finished. And all their
own slavish works, all of their fears, all of their troubles,
they may roll upon Him and rest upon Christ, and He is all that
their soul needs for time and for eternity. Now when we have
in our text, return unto thy rest, may we see in this our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. There remaineth a rest to the
people of God, and all the types, all the shadows really, they
all centre in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, may we be clear
of this, and the psalm here, it begins with, I love the Lord,
but may we really remember what John says before us, we love
him because he first loved us. And that is the rest of his people,
having loved his own, he loved them unto the end. dear Peter,
saying to the Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that
I love Thee. How? Because the Lord loved him
first. So may we clearly know this,
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the rest of the people of God,
and I'd speak this to any troubled soul, those tossed and troubled
in their minds and not finding rest this morning. Remember,
the Lord Jesus Christ is the rest of his people, his church's
rest, and he is to be their eternal rest, they that sleep in Jesus
that he will bring with him. We want to then notice in the
second place, it is the rest that we have known that is ours. The text says, return unto thy
rest, O my soul. And it's a blessed thing where
we are able to realize and to know that this rest that is the
biblical rest, the rest of the people of God and the Church
of God, is also ours. That that blessing has been made
known to us by the Holy Spirit's work, that He has blessed us,
that He has favoured us, that He has granted us that experience
and knowledge that the Lord is our rest, that we have walked
this path and proved these places, we have been like the weary dove,
we have found a rest in Christ, we have been like dear Ruth,
we have sat still, we have seen when the Lord has worked for
us, we've heard His voice, we've known those blessings, we can
truly say that the Lord is our God, that this God is our God
and He will be our guide even unto death. So it is implied
here, the soul here is identifying and saying this is not just something
that others have, or that is set forth in the Word that I
know nothing of, I do know it, I have known it, and I hope,
dear friends, that you also will recognize and know that you have
known this, and yet it may be this morning you are not in this
rest, you are troubled, You're tossed to and fro, you're filled
with fears. You have not rest, but you have
a rest. You have a rest in Christ, not
in self, not in your own works, not in the world, but in Christ. who is the rest of his people,
where there is a reason given to return unto our rest, reasons
that also show that the Lord is our rest, and reasons to induce
us to to trust again in Him, to roll our burdens upon Him
and to rest in Him. No, the Lord does not need us
to steady the ark. The Lord is our rock and upon
whom we are held steady. And so we have here, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. And it's going over
what the Lord has done. I hope This morning you go from
our gathering together and meditate upon what the Lord has done for
your soul. In this psalm we have several
things that are rehearsed and spoken of what the Lord has done. In verse 2, it is because he
hath inclined his ear unto me Therefore will I call upon him
as long as I live. A soul that is brought to pray,
and the Lord hear that prayer, inclined his ear, and hear the
psalmist says, This is the path I have walked. He has heard the
voice, my voice, and my supplications. Can you say that, dear friends?
that you have known the Lord has heard your voice, you have
cried unto Him, you walked through Psalm 117 and called upon Him
in your trouble, in your need, and the Lord hath heard you,
and you can join with the psalmist here. He has dealt bountifully
with me. What does bountifully mean? He
has dealt freely with you, liberally, providing, unremitting, constantly,
Bound to flee in a fruitful way, the Lord hath not dealt with
us as our sins have deserved, but is dealt with us in a way
of mercy. And the psalmist then says in
verse 6 that he was brought low and he helped me. Why He describes
how low the sorrows of death, pains of hell even, get hold
upon me, finding trouble and sorrow. Can we go back to those
times in our lives that that was the case? We were in trouble,
we were in sorrow, we were in distress, and the Lord came in
for us, and the Lord helped us and appeared for us, and the
Lord blessed us. We were low and He helped us
and brought us up. Sometimes we need reminding of
those times, we forget them, we pass over them because of
present troubles and present distresses, and we forget what
the Lord has done, where the Holy Spirit has given us a comforter,
a remembrancer to call to our remembrance. And may this Psalm
be used in that way, that we also can fill in with these things. In verse 8, Thou hast delivered
my soul from death. Mine eyes from tears, those times
that we've had griefs and sorrows and losses and bereavements,
and there are those of you that are widows and widowers and know
what it is to have had sorrow, but the Lord has delivered you
from those tears. He's given you sweet hope of
your departed one. He's given you the comfort in
times of sorrow that the world has not known. and you've had
his sweet and blessed presence at those times. And he said,
my feet from falling Those times when our feet were ready to fall,
when we were ready to slip, and the Lord has kept us and held
us and helped us. Have there been those times like
that in your life, in my life, where we say, I was ready to
fall and the Lord helped me? He delivered me from that snare,
from that trap, from that worldly way, from that pit of corruption. The Lord held my feet in His
ways and kept me. Now we have the blessing, the
blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, it addeth no sorrow with
it and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. In verse 13 we have this beautiful
word, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name
of the Lord. I'd like to think of this cup
of salvation, a cup in which put in it. is all the blessings
and all the helps of our life, all the Lord's kindness, all
the Lord's goodness, and the Lord's favours towards us. What
kind of a cup, what is in our cup, what has been in the cup?
We may have had many sorrows, afflictions, illnesses through
our life that have made that up, but many mercies and favours
and helps. You think of with dear Jacob,
And he'd put in that cup what happened at Bethel, and the ladder
set up on earth and into heaven. And he put in that cup all the
times that the Lord helped him when Laban was changing his wages,
those ten times. And when the Lord appeared for
him, when he wrestled, I will not let thee go except thou bless
me. And appeared for him and took
away Esau's anger, and they met in peace. He put into that cup
how the Lord appeared for him when he was going into Egypt
and assured him he would see his son Joseph again. All of those things, in that
cup there's a mixture, there's sorrows, But there's joys, and
very often in our deepest sorrows, they come the greatest joys and
greatest blessings, as is evidenced by this psalm. From the sorrows
of death, pains of hell, there is great joys of the deliverance
and blessings of the Lord. And so, may we return, as this
psalmist speaks to his own soul, return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee, and how does the psalmist
return? He returns with thanksgiving,
he returns with praise, what shall I render unto the Lord
for all his benefits towards me? he would take this cup, he
would praise the Lord, he would pay his vows, and it leads to
the blessing of the death of his dear people. Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Why? Because he's taking his redeemed
ones safely home to himself. All that he's done for them here
below is gathered up as the purchase of his precious blood. and he
desires that he has them with him and be with him. And may
the language of this psalm be that which is ours through our
life, right to our journey's end, to then be gathered home
safely with the Lord.