The reading this morning you'll
find on the hymn sheets at the back of the sheet. It is from
Psalm 119. Psalm 119 from verse 113 through
to 136. Psalm 119 from verse 113 on the back of the hymn sheets here. I hate vain thoughts, but thy
law do I love. Thou art my hiding-place and
my shield, I hope in thy word. Depart from me, ye evildoers,
for I will keep the commandments of my God. Uphold me according
unto thy word, that I may live, and let me not be ashamed of
my hope. Hold thou me up, and I shall
be safe, and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. Thou hast trodden down all them
that err from thy statutes, for their deceit is falsehood. Thou puttest away all the wicked
of the earth like dross, Therefore I love thy testimonies. My flesh
trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments. I have done judgment and justice,
leave me not to mine oppressors. Be shorty for thy servant for
good, let not the proud oppress me. Mine eyes fail for thy salvation
and for the word of thy righteousness. Deal with thy servant according
unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes. I am thy servant,
give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies. It is time
for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law. Therefore I love thy commandments
above gold, yea, above fine gold. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts
concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way. Thy testimonies are wonderful,
therefore doth my soul keep them. The entrance of thy words giveth
light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. I opened my
mouth and panted, for I longed for thy commandments. Look thou
upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto
those that love thy name. Order my steps in thy word, and
let not iniquity have dominion over me. Deliver me from the
oppression of man, so will I keep thy precepts. Make thy face to
shine upon thy servant, and teach me thy statutes. Rivers of waters
run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. Thus far the reading of God's
holy word. The word that I desire to speak
to you from this morning is verse 117, just the first part of that
verse, although we'll read the whole verse, and really I do
refer to the whole verse, which reads, Hold thou me up and I
shall be safe, and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. So the verse is on the front
of the sheets, hold thou me up, and I shall be safe. This is, of course, a prayer
of the psalmist here and it may be that it has been your prayer
as well. Hold thou me up and I shall be
safe. And it's good for us when we
make our prayers to God that there is a reason for them. We
don't just utter empty words, but there is a reason for our
petition and our prayers. And I suggest that in this psalm,
in these eight verses of this psalm, there is given the reasons
why the psalmist is praying this prayer, why he feels the need
to be held up, but also why he prays in this way. The first reason I'd give is
that the Lord has been dealing with others in judgment. We read in verse 118, Thou hast
trodden down all them that err from Thy statutes. And then in
verse 119, Thou hast puttest away all the wicked of the earth
like dross. When we notice those things,
what the Lord is doing with others, and the Lord's judgments in the
earth, and we see others that have fallen, and the Lord's dealings
with them, then surely that will give rise to this prayer, hold
thou me up, and I shall be safe. What if I fall? I need thy keeping. So if we've observed that, may
that be our prayer as well. Also we have in verse 120 that
he had the fear of the Lord. My flesh trembleth for fear of
thee. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. But when we truly know the Lord
and who He is, that will also cause us to pray that He will
hold us up and He will keep us. The third reason I give is that
he loved the testimonies of the Lord and did not want to be amongst
those that transgressed them. In verse 113 he says, Thy law
do I love. And verse 119, therefore I love
thy testimonies. What a basis, what a reason to
pray that the Lord will uphold us because we do love His Word,
we love Him, we love His testimonies, and we don't want to, through
the fallen nature that we have, our deceitful heart, fall and
grieve ourselves and grieve the Lord. The fourth reason is that
he had an expectation from the word of how the Lord upholds
his people. In verse 116 he says, Uphold
me according unto thy word that I may live. There is a basis
here, a reason, an expectation, that throughout the Word of God,
the Word of God shows us how the Lord upholds and keeps His
dear people. By His power, by His grace, by
the Word itself, He upholds them and strengthens them. That again
is a good reason to pray. Uphold me. Hold thou me up, and
I shall be safe. Uphold me according unto thy
word. But the last reason is, and I
hope you, dear friends, have been able to really feel this,
that the Lord is your hiding place. It was the psalmist's
hiding place. He says in verse 114, Thou art
my hiding place and my shield, I hope in thy word. If the Lord
is our hiding place and our shield, then we will go to Him and we'll
say to Him, Hold thou me up. It's a great privilege and if
there are those of you that feel so prone to fall, you maybe feel
tried in your minds, tempted by Satan, You have a God to go
to, you have a shield, you have a hiding place, and may you flee
to him in prayer, and this be your prayer, and my prayer, hold
thou me up, and I shall be saved. I want to then look at three
points. Firstly, his prayer, hold thou
me up. And then secondly, the safety
of those held up by the Lord. And then lastly, the proof and
effect of the Lord's upholding in a way apart from realising
that we haven't fallen. But firstly, in this psalm, there
are seven occasions of falling that are really identified here,
a reason why he specifically is asking to be held up. And the first occasion is in
verse 113, and that is to fall by vain thoughts. He says, I
hate vain thoughts. it's very obvious he knew what
they were and been tempted and tried with them and it may be
some of you dear pilgrims as well and no doubt maybe all of
you have been tried by vain thoughts imaginations Things that are
not true, are not right, Satan comes in and he plagues you,
he tries you, and yet those thoughts are empty, they're not meditation
upon the Lord, they're not real, they're not solid, they're vain,
they're empty. Now, when we realize we can so
easy fall by vain thoughts, hold thou me up so that I am not left. of vain thoughts. The second
occasion of falling is to be left with no love for the gospel,
no love for the law of God. He says in verse 113, But thy
law do I love. But we read in the last times
that men shall be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of the Lord,
and that because iniquity abounds, the love of many shall wax cold. When we realize that, we want
to be kept in the love of God, held up by the Lord, so we don't
lose the love of the Lord. We know the Lord is able to restore
that. And if there are those of you
this morning who feel that lack of love and you long to feel
it again, the Lord is able to restore it for you. But those
who haven't, those who have that blessing, may this be your prayer,
lest you lose that love of the Lord, the love of the Gospel.
The third thing is that we be kept from following those that
are walking in the ways of evil. He says in verse 115, Depart
from me, ye evildoers. When we have those round about
us, that are doing evil, that are doing wrong, how easy it
is to take up with it, to follow it, even before we really realise
it. We've drunk into their spirit,
we've followed in what they're proposing, and how we need to
be upheld. And the psalmist knew this. He
didn't want to follow those that walked in evil. The fourth thing
is that he did not want to cease keeping the commandments of the
Lord. Again, in verse 115, he says,
For I will keep the commandments of my God. Some of you remember
when the Lord first began in your heart and your first desire
to keep the commandments of the Lord and to walk in His ways. And we need that blessing all
our journey through. And where we love the commandments
of the Lord, we'll pray, hold thou me up, that I may be safe,
that I might still keep the commandments of my God. The fifth thing is
that he might be maintained in life. In verse 116, he says,
Uphold me according to thy word, that I may live. The Lord said,
I come that they might have life, that they might have it more
abundantly. But the apostle says, to be calmly
minded is death. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace. And we need the Lord to maintain
that life. The Lord says, without me ye
can do nothing, but because I live, ye shall live also. And we need
upholding in that way, lest the life of God goes to a slow and
a low ebb in our souls. How we need him at times to pour
fresh life upon the whole. May he do so this morning through
our gathering together, stir us up to fresh life, fresh zeal,
fresh love, fresh hatred of evil and love of holiness. But then the sixth reason is
that we be not left to be ashamed of our hope. In verse 116 he
says, and let me not be ashamed of my hope. How we need to be
upheld in that way, that we don't end up like dear Peter, being
so ashamed of the Lord that he denies Him those three times. Where the Lord has blessed you,
it may be many years ago. Don't be ashamed of that, dear
friends. Don't be ashamed of what you
have professed before the church. before your family, you might
say, but I don't feel as I did years ago. But the Lord's still
the same, and your salvation doesn't rely upon your feelings,
but upon what the Lord has done for you. And where the Lord has
blessed you years ago, and you've rejoiced, you've sung, you've
put Him on in open profession, He is still the same that began
that work in you. May you be helped then to pray. that the Lord would uphold you
so you don't become ashamed of your hope, that hope that you've
had and professed over many years. But the seventh reason is this,
that we be not left to deceit and falsehood. In verse 118,
Thou hast rodden down all them that err from Thy statutes, for
their deceit is falsehood. We need to be kept from a deceitful
wrong way, that we embrace the truth, hold to the truth, love
the truth. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. And so just in these eight verses,
we can see reasons why He was praying this prayer in the first
place, and then we see the reasons of occasion for falling that
he needed to be held up. Well, our second main point is
the safety of those that are held up by the Lord. He says
very clearly here, and I shall be safe, not might be safe, but
shall be safe. And in John 10, the Lord says
that His people are in His hand and in His Father's hand, and
that they are certainly safe there. And may we know this precious
truth, the safety of those held by the Lord, and all his sheep
are in his hand. They are safe, but he's glorified
and honored when they ask him, they ask him to hold them up. And they testify of what they
believe in the security and safety of God's people. It honours,
it glorifies the Lord in praying this prayer like this. But thirdly, what is the proof
of the Lord's upholding? You might say, well, the proof
is in all of these points. If we still have the love of
God, if we've kept from deceit and falsehood, if we still love
the gospel, if we're not ashamed of our hope, yes. Those are proofs
of it. But our text also gives us another
proof, and that is, I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. That is, respect means a deep
admiration for, or agree to recognize, and to abide by. You show me
a person that is has lost respect for the Word of God, for the
Gospel, despises it, can't care less whether they abide by it
or not, and I show you a person that is bound to fall, they will
fall, but you show me a person, however fearful and trembling,
that really respects the Word of God, honours it, esteems it,
the Word of God, I'll show you one that will be upheld by the
Lord. We're not good judges, you know,
of being upheld. If we had a blind person, and
we had a road that had many potholes in it and they said can you please
guide me through this road and you took them by the hand or
they held onto your arm and as they went from one pothole to
another and they stumbled in it and you held them up and they
didn't fall They'd get to the end of the road and they'd say,
thank you very much, you know, there's been so many dangers,
I've stumbled so many times, but I've never fallen down, you've
upheld me wonderfully. But what if that person that was
guiding them, as they went through that road, they skillfully guided
them round every single hole in that road? And they got to
the end of the road and the blind person turned to the guide and
said, well, I didn't really need you because there was no holes
in that road, there was no dangers at all. I didn't even stumble,
let alone fall. And yet that guide was the better
guide. They'd held them up completely
and guided them from all of those dangers, brought safely through.
How much the Lord has kept us from and delivered us and upheld
us shall only be clearly seen in heaven at last. We shall see
his wisdom, guidance and keeping. May we be helped then to pray
this prayer with the same assurance as the psalmist. Hold thou me
up and I shall be saved. May the Lord add his blessing
upon the word. Amen.