Psalm 143 Hear my prayer O Lord
Give ear to my supplications in that faithfulness answer me
And in that righteousness David If you think about his
life, and how that the Lord he He cried out to the Lord over
his lifetime and the Lord brought him through battles Literally
through the valley of the shadow of death as he wrote And he was able to Request of the Lord and to inquire
of the Lord so many times and the Lord answered him But they
were David never took for granted When he came before the Lord
he said Lord hear my prayer and We don't ever need to Memorize
prayers especially But even have a formula to prayer We don't
have to say this, but this has to be our attitude Lord hear
me Don't take it for granted now Religion says God listens, but
I recall in the scriptures where I The Lord told his people not
to pray for a certain people, because I'm not going to hear
you. If you pray for them, I'm not going to hear you. He's God. He's God. And we come before
him with reverence. He didn't even bother telling
those people directly. He just told his people, don't
pray for them. Not the God of this religious
world. Give ear to my supplications That's how we come we come as
supplicants Because there's nothing that we're ever gonna have worth
having That doesn't come from him And notice the last part in the
faithfulness answer me in the righteousness It's not because
I just presume you know that God owes me an ear I It's because
he's faithful and he's righteous that I have any hope in coming
before him. And think about the word righteousness
now. What I pray may very well not conflict with
God's purpose. David says if it does Lord you
do what's right not what I ask Verse two and enter not into
judgment with a servant for in thy sight shall no man living
Be justified you see how You see why believers kind of cringe
when people talk about having a little word of prayer. You
know this I Let's have a little word of prayer or The way they just kind of flippantly
talk about God God had taught David he had given
him that new heart that he gives all believers We know that God
has to deal with us in righteousness, and we want him to but we don't
want him to deal with Directly with us in ourselves in righteousness
and judgment He saves us according to his righteous judgment But
that's clearly not what David's saying he's saying don't enter
into judgment with me as I stand before you a sinner As nobody
can stand if thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity who? Would stand
By the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
the sight of God. God must be just, but we need
him to be just and justify us. And he tells us how he does that
in Romans 3, through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. So we
want him to be just, but don't enter into judgment with us.
Deal with our substitute. our place And that really that
has to be the attitude of our prayer all the time doesn't it
when we come before him? What business do I even have
coming before him? The Lord said come in my name,
and you'll have what you seek you'll have Verse three for the enemy hath
persecuted my soul he had smitten my life down to the ground and
He hath made me to dwell in darkness as those that have been long
dead. Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me. My heart
within me is desolate. Desolate means astonished, appalled,
ravaged, and devastated. This also defines prayer. We come before God not ashamed
to admit or acknowledge our own helplessness. I'm overwhelmed. I'm in over my head. Without
you, I'm a goner. That's why Simon, when he's sinking
beneath the waves, he cried, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. You can't really
pray a whole lot better than that. Lord, save me. And that's how it always is with
prayer. That's why we come to Him, because
we're overwhelmed. It's not God, just help me out
here. It's not God, just, I just need
a boost. I just need, you know, a little
cooperation from you. I'm overwhelmed, I'm desolate. I can do without you nothing. That's prayer. And it's just
the truth. It's just the truth about us. Verse five, I remember the days
of old. I meditate on all thy works. I'm used on the work. Thy hands
David often did this He will recall and just meditate upon
in his prayer how that God has saved him so many times Before
I remember Lord with Goliath. I didn't stand a chance. I was
bold in your in your calls and for your glory, but that was
by your grace and I was overwhelmed then, but Lord,
look what you did. Look what you did. You saved
me. You did a miracle. You miraculously
helped me. And that's a good thing to bring
up when you're praying to the Lord. Because really what we're
saying is, Lord, if you will, you can do whatever I ask. You can do it, you can, you've
done it. Don't be ungrateful about that. Don't forget the days of old,
when you were in his hand and he lifted you up and he protected
you and he hedged you about and he brought you out of trouble. You see, we cannot cry before
God now, today, without understanding that he's
been saving us since before we were born. Don't act like now,
you know, oh, what am I going to do? I'll tell you what you're
going to do. You're going to rely on him that's been saving
you since before you came into this world. That's what, don't
forget the days of old. Remember his works before now
that have already happened. for you. Remember what He did
for you on Calvary. Can you pray with that in your
heart? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for me, how shall He not with Him also
freely give me all things? We've got to pray that way, don't
we? How can we not? Remember. I remember. That's David's prayer. May that
be our When you're in trouble, when
you're crying to the Lord, you can either wonder what you're
gonna do or you can think about what he's done. I recommend the latter for myself
and you. It's so easy to forget. Remember what he did for you
all these years. for 60 years now, and that's
just while I've been breathing. The Lord's taken care of me.
Can I doubt Him now? Is it even possible that I'm
so messed up that I could pray, doubting that He would give me
what I need? Not necessarily what I asked
for. It's better than that. Isn't it better than that? Was it better for you to give
your children everything they asked for or was it better for
you to make sure that they lacked nothing? That they needed Verse 6 I stretch forth my hands
under thee There's two sets of hands in
these last two verses aren't there I'm used on the work of your
hands and And as for my hands, you know, religion, I can't help
but bring it up because you know how prevalent this stuff is.
He has no hands but my hands. What a bunch of nonsense. You
need a bigger God than that. If that's what you say and think. It's his hands that do everything
that needs to be done. And that's why here's what my
hands do. Lord, you remember what that's what
Abraham said when that other king, he said, I'll take the
men that we've captured and you take all the spoils. And he said,
I don't need any of that. I'm not taking anything from
you lest you say, look what I did for Abraham. Remember what he
said next? I lift up my hands to the Lord. May God help us to do that. Verse seven, Lord, hear me speedily. Well, I better look at the last
part of verse six. My soul thirsteth after thee.
Now you think about that. It's not just the stuff that
God can do for us that we thirst, that thirst is always in the
scripture. It's our greatest physical need,
right? Air, thirst, food, thirsty, we're thirsty. That's an urgent, vital need. What is my urgent, vital need? It's you, Lord. I thirst after
you. As in a thirsty land. May God give us grace to be able to honestly pray that.
Hear me speedily, oh Lord. Verse seven, my spirit faileth. Don't hide your face from me.
Why would that even be an issue unless we richly deserve for
him to look away from us? You know how I know that? Because
that's what he did to his son when his son took my sin on Calvary. He hid his face from him. The cross is the only way we're
ever going to understand our sins. and God's grace, his love. Not thy face from me, lest I
be like unto them that go down into the pit. There's one thing that makes
me different from those that go down into the pit. It's the Lord looking upon me
Love and mercy and favor and blessing If he hides his face
from me, I'm exactly like this I deserve it just as much as
they did I Don't want to be like you So
Lord don't hide your face from me Verse 8 calls me to hear that
loving kindness in the morning I Should start the day that way
how about that? Hear it about how much Christ
loved me and gave himself for me. That's a pretty good start. Cause me to hear of it. For in
thee do I trust. Now you think about that. You can only really trust somebody
that loves you. Think about that. And so I want to hear again about
how much he loves me. Because I know if that's true, I shall not want, I shall not
want. I trust him. I trust in his eternal
love for me, not my love for him. Not my faith, but his faithfulness. Cause me to know the way where
I should walk. And I guarantee you, you thinking
about his loving kindness is gonna get you on the right path
to how you should walk. Christ crucified defines us. It defines who we are inside
and out. It defines what we do. He defines
what we do, how we walk. We walk like he's sovereign because
he's sovereign. We walk as his sons because we're
his sons. We walk as the elect of God because
we're the elect of God. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk. For I lift up my soul unto thee. I lift up my soul unto thee.
I hold up my hands to thee because I have to receive from you everything
I'm going to have that's worth having. And also I lift up my
soul unto thee. What did Paul say? I know whom
I believed. I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I lift up to him, which I've committed
unto him against that day. Cause me. Cause me to hear of Christ. The definition of love is what?
Hearing is love. Not that you loved God, but that
he loved you and sent his son to be the sin offering from your
sins. So when he says, cause me to
hear that loving kindness, that's loving kindness. The Savior
and what he did for me. And we lift up our soul unto him
who loved us. and gave himself for us. And
notice that he causes us to do, he causes us to hear. We're not
gonna do that. You wouldn't be here tonight
without his grace. You really think so? He has caused us tonight
to hear of his love in that he shed his precious
blood and gave himself for our sins. Verse nine, deliver me,
O Lord, from my enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me.
He doesn't even say, give me strength to fight my enemies. How many times did the Lord say
to the Israelite, this is not your fight. This is not your fight, this
is my fight. You're just gonna be in on it. That's all, I'm
just wanna be in on it. I don't wanna be, I don't want
anything to be up to me about you. I don't want anything to
be up to me not a single thing by his grace. I don't Deliver
me I flee unto thee to had me The Lord is my rock whom shall
I fear He said in the previous Psalm
to this one in verse 5 thou art my refuge thou art my refuge
David was in the cave of Dolom. You remember, if you remember
that story, he was hiding from Saul for, he was hiding it. Why would you go in a cave? Well,
you know, for protection, for protection from the elements,
from beasts. But he said to God, you're my
refuge, not this cave. This cave can't really protect
me from my true enemies. And this is the same idea here.
I run to you. Flee under the hour That's what Paul said in Philippians
3. I'm running to you. I'm running to Christ Hide me under the shadow of your
wing under the rock of ages I Davidson you know this is one
probably one of my very favorite verses psalm 4 8 I will both
lay me down in peace and sleep For thou Lord only makest me
to dwell in safety Safety safety Safe though the worlds may crumble
under his precious blood Teach me Lord verse 10 To do
that will Why does everybody want so much
to have a free will? David said, Lord, I want to do
your will. I want to do your will. He'll cure you of that.
He'll take away your fascination for having a free will, if you
ever find out who he is and what you are. Teach me to do that
will. We want our will to be in subjection
to his will. And look at the next phrase,
for you're my God. You're my God, you are my God.
Thomas, my Lord and my God. What a good prayer this is. I
pray the Lord will teach us to pray tonight. Thy spirit is good,
lead me into the land of uprightness. Lead me, your spirit is good.
Remember our Lord said in John 6, 63, it is the spirit that
quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. Your spirit is good. lead me into the land of uprightness. And Lord, notice he said, teach
me to do your will, not just to know it. You can't do it without
knowing it. Religion talks about, we wanna
do God's will. They don't know what God's will
is. You'd have to know Christ to understand what God's will
is. But he said, teach us to do it,
be doers of the word and not hearers only. Verse 11, quicken me, O Lord,
for thy name's sake. We need life. You know, when
religion talks about the abundant life, that means, of course,
you're gonna have two houses and a yacht, and you're gonna
have all these, but God wants to just shower you with, that's
fleshly stuff. That's not what God's blessing
is about. We don't need More luxurious
life we need life we need life Quicken me O Lord for thine names
sake for your purposes for your glory because of your will For thy righteousness sake bring
my soul out of trouble For thy righteousness sake, if
he's promised that not a hair will fall out of my head without
him, if he's promised to hedge me
about, he's promised that he'll keep me and that no harm will
come to me, to any of his children. And he warns everybody else,
you heard him and you'd be better off tying a millstone to your
neck and jumping into the sea. If he has obligated himself to save me continually, then
him bringing my soul out of trouble is a matter of his righteousness. It's a matter of his faithfulness,
and that's our hope. It's not gonna happen because
of my faithfulness, because my faithfulness is not worth calling faithfulness. And then verse 12, of thy mercy
cut off mine enemies. You know, everything God does
in this world is because of his mercy toward his sheep. You see
something, you know, beautiful happen, something wonderful,
something heartwarming, what's God's purpose in that mercy? You see something terrible happen,
people die, catastrophe, disaster. What's that, mercy? Mercy. It's all about his people. Here David is saying, cut off
my enemies, kill them and put them in hell, if that's your
will to do that. Out of what? Out of thy mercy. Out of thy mercy do that. not because of any deserving
on my part, but because of who you are, plenteous in mercy,
delighting to show mercy, and destroy all them that afflict
my soul. Destroy them. Can God do that? You know how many people in this
world would say, no, God can't do that. He doesn't do that,
that's Satan that does that. David said, Lord, I need for
you to do that. I need you to cut them off and
destroy them. And look at this part, for I
am your servant. That's why I'm bowing and God's
on the throne. That's why I'm a supplicant,
and he's the giver of all things. You are my God, he said in verse
10, you are my God, and what am I? Your servant, your servant. Remember Song of Solomon 2.16,
my beloved is mine, I'm his, I'm his. He's mine in the sense
that he's given himself for me. He is the unspeakable gift of
God to my soul. But I'm his in the sense that
I belong to him. He created me. He saved me. He gave himself
for me. He has eternally united me to
himself. And he's going to have me and
I'm going to have him for eternity. His I belong to him Remember one of the promises
of the new covenant is this in closing Jeremiah 31 33 But this
shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
After those days sayeth the Lord. I will put my law in their inward
parts and write it in their hearts and I'll be their God and and
they shall be my people. I've said to you before, there's
a lot of beautiful things that the Lord calls us in the scriptures, believers,
his elect. I like that, don't you? He chose
me, he chose me. If he hadn't, I never would have
chosen him. But my favorite one, my favorite
name for myself and you who know him
is this, simply his, his. Salvation can be summed up in
that one word, his. I'm a wretch, but I'm his wretch.
I'm a worm, but I'm his worm. It's good to be his worm.