Let's look at Psalm 86 tonight. We'll just get as far as we can.
Some of these psalms are just hard to, you know, sometimes
I kind of take the whole psalm together and just make points
rather than go verse by verse. And that's hard to do in this
psalms. It's almost, you almost have to go verse by verse. At
the same time, there's 17 of them. So We may not get all the
way to the end, but I want to get to a key verse, I think,
and see most of it. Verse one, Psalm 86, bow down
thine ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy. You know,
when you pray, you can't, you can't think about how, how am
I supposed to pray? You know, well, I need to, you
know, acknowledge this and I need to, You know, take off all the
points. Here's how I need to pray. No,
it just comes naturally. Prayer is an expression of the
heart. It's communicating with God Almighty
as a sinner before Him. A saved sinner. An object of
His mercy and grace. But instinctual, I guess, is
the right word, maybe, to that. It is an acknowledgement of how
high He is. and how low we are. You remember
the prophet said, God's in heaven and you're on the earth. And
therefore, let your words be few. This is kind of the attitude
here. Bow down now to your Lord. David had a sense of how high,
what condescension it was for God to even hear us at all. Again,
we don't have to think about that really. We don't have to
say, well, am I acknowledging this when I pray? Did I include
that in my prayer today? It's not like that, but it ought
to be natural, shouldn't it? We ought to. How can we come
before God at all without acknowledging how high he is and how low we
are? It's all through the Psalms,
isn't it? God doesn't need us. We need
God. Bow down nine years. God is high. We're poor and needy. By nature, our thoughts of God
are too low. And our thoughts of self are
too high. And David right away here in this prayer establishes
the proper way of things. I'm in the dust and God is on
the throne. In order for him to even hear
me, he's got to bow down. He's got to condescend. Much
less for him to grant my prayer. He doesn't owe me anything. I
haven't merited anything. I've provoked and earned his
wrath. It wouldn't be right for him
to even throw me a crumb, and yet I'm coming anyway. That's
the attitude of prayer. I'm coming anyway, because I've
got nowhere to go. And I know that God can do what I need.
He can give me what I need, and nobody else can. And I need it. I'm poor and needy. But there
are some things I'd like to have. There's a few things I'd like
to see done differently. I've got some things I've got
to have. and things that must be done
or we perish. And then he says in verse two,
preserve my soul for I am holy. O thou my God, save thy servant
that trusteth in thee. Now David, David who wrote my
sin is ever before me, is not confused here about what holiness
is or about what he is. This was not an uncommon expression
at all in the Old Testament to say I'm holy, or the same word
here is more often translated saints. I'm a saint. Or regarding his saints, let
me read a few of them. First Samuel 2.9, God will keep
the feet of his saints. Same word as holy here. And the
wicked shall be silent in darkness for by strength shall no man
prevail. You see how he talking about the saints and the wicked.
He's distinguishing. He's using this word that's used
in our text to distinguish between God's people and everybody else.
There's the saints and there's the wicked. It's not that the
saints aren't wicked. They often confess their wickedness,
but it was just a common way in Christ, in the eyes of God,
we're holy, we're set apart unto him. And we know that. We know
that. Second Chronicles 641, now therefore
arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place. Thou and the ark of thy
strength. Let thy priests, O Lord God,
be clothed with salvation and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. The word saints, there's the
same word. Psalm 37, 28, for the Lord loveth judgment and
forsaketh not his saints. They are preserved forever, but
the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. So what David effectively
is saying here is, Lord, I'm your saint. Don't forsake me. Preserve me. Keep me because
I'm yours. I'm set apart to you. That's
what that's one of the definitions of holiness in the scripture
set apart into God. I'm yours, so don't leave me. God's people distinguished from
the wicked are those who hated God by this word. And they knew. It's clear from the scriptures
that these Old Testament saints knew what the difference was
between holy and wicked saints and the wicked. It was the Lord's
choice of them. They knew they were the chosen
people of God, the elect of God. They also knew that the difference
between a saint and a wicked person, as it's expressed in
those ways, is God's presence with them. How else can we be distinguished
from any other people in the world, Lord, except that thou
go with us? And also, of course, it's the
precious blood. They offered blood every day,
every day. They knew that the difference
between that their acceptance under God, before God, with God,
communion with God, was by that blood that was shed. And they
knew it wasn't the blood of the animal that did it. By faith,
Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. And all
faith is in Christ. Verse three, be merciful unto
me, O Lord, for I cry unto thee daily. Holy people, in the sense
of personal sinlessness, don't need mercy. So again, I just
wanted to stress that David's not intending personal Sinlessness
when he says I'm holy. He's just saying I'm your saint Holy people in that sense of
personal sinlessness don't need mercy but God's Saints surely
do always Continually every every day. He said I cry into the every
day. What do you cry be merciful God
be? That old public and you can't
Can't help but think of him, can you, here? God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. We come every day like that.
If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The only
way sins can be cleansed, by the precious blood of Christ.
Verse four, rejoice the soul of thy servant. For unto thee,
O Lord, do I lift up my soul. This is such a beautiful. This is something I don't remember
ever praying. And I thought to myself as I
saw this, I'm going to start praying that rejoice my soul. Have you ever prayed that Lord? Take the take away the gloom
out of my heart. And shine your light in my soul. Rejoice the soul of my servant.
Not to be so down all the time. There's always so many reasons,
you know In our perception to be down all the time about things
and there are legitimate worries and legitimate causes for trouble
and And we do get down and we just can't we just can't help
it But what a good prayer this is only God can do that because
the joy is the food of his spirit This is something that I want
to remember to pray for. Lord, rejoice my soul. I lift it up to you. You know what
that's about? It's just here, Lord. I'm in
your hands. I place myself. We know that
we're in his hands. But we're agreeing with that.
When I say I lift up my soul, my soul is in his hands already,
but I'm agreeing with that. I'm saying, I wouldn't have it
any other way. I lift up my soul to thee. Verse five, for thou, Lord, are
good. That was in the psalm that Todd read. The Lord is good and
ready to forgive. These are the reasons why I lift
up my soul to God, because he's good. Don't trust your soul to
any man or woman. No matter how dear, no matter
how trustworthy they may be in the things of this world, we
must lift up our soul to God. He alone, there's none good but
one, and that's God. I put my soul into his hands,
acknowledging that my soul is in his hands and wanting it there,
wanting it there always. He's ready to forgive. I lift
up my soul unto him for forgiveness as it is just as I am. And he's plenteous in mercy.
To all that call upon him. That's why I say in verse three,
be merciful unto me, O Lord. That's not complicated, is it?
Don't you, don't you hate somebody that I know? You know, I don't
mean hate them, but you know what I'm saying? That can't get
to the point. Can't get to the point. And I'm
probably guilty of that often. But look, here it is. God is
plenteous in mercy. So what are we gonna do? Be merciful
unto me, O God. Don't beat around the bush about
it. I need your mercy. God's plenteous in mercy. That's
what I need. It's a good match, isn't it?
That's my greatest need. And He's so bountiful in His
mercy and free with it. And so I lift up my soul unto
Him. And God being good, says God is good, Him being good doesn't
mean He does what I want Him to do. That's not what it is.
We're prone to think that. I got that job, you know, or
I got that promotion, or this good thing happens, so God is
good. God is good. Job said God is good on the ash
heap. That's where we need to say it, too. How honoring it
is to Him. We should praise Him and honor
Him when He gives us something that we perceive as good. Certainly. We know it's from His hand. Thank
Him for it. But He's good when He takes,
too. He's good when he takes. He's ready to forgive. He doesn't
do so reluctantly. Aren't you glad he's not like
me? What about us? Don't you wish we forgave? As the scripture says, forgive
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven
you. Oh, that we could forgive like
that. God's mercy is abundant, where
sin abounded, his grace in Christ did much more abound. The mercy of God is in Christ.
That old publican, when he said, God be merciful to me, the sinner,
you know where he was standing? At the mercy seat, where the
blood was splashed, propitiation made and communion enjoyed with
God. The only place God said, I will
meet you there. And, of course, now that's everywhere
if Christ is in us. But his mercy reaches to the
lowest center and the farthest away. The one sheep that strayed. Verse six, give ear, O Lord,
unto my prayer, and attend to the voice of my supplications. We pray also now, and again,
this is not a conscious necessarily, we may be aware of it, but we
don't sit there and say, okay, how do I need to pray? No, this
is just natural. We pray with the understanding,
with the automatic understanding that God doesn't owe us even
an audience. He doesn't even have to hear
us. Verse 7 in the day of my trouble.
I will call upon thee For that won't answer me. I Thought about
this how to illustrate this have you ever really been in trouble? I Don't want to know about it,
but think about it anyway I'm not telling you and don't you
tell me But I thought about this The list of people in this world
that I could call upon for help in real trouble is real short. And it's not necessarily because
there's not that many people that would help me. There are
quite a few that would help me. But the thing about it, when
you're really in trouble, you don't just want to call just
any of them, do you? It's a short list. I believe there's two on
my list. I'm talking about deep, deep
trouble. I could call and nobody else
would know about it and that's important sometimes, isn't it?
Just be honest about it. That's one of the reasons it
couldn't necessarily be everybody on the list that would help me.
Thank God there are quite a few that would. There are a couple I could call
and Nobody else would know about it. And this is a different thing.
I wouldn't mind them knowing about it. Because I know how
much they love me. And I know it wouldn't change
it. They would do absolutely anything,
no matter what I needed. They would travel any distance
on a moment's notice, no questions asked, and do what needed to
be done. How many on your list that fills all that? Like I said,
there are quite a few that would help me, and I'm grateful for
that. But not like that. Well, we need to understand something.
Nobody loves us like God does. No one like him can literally
do anything. You remember what Job said? I
know now that thou canst do anything. Anything. He loves us. He's willing. He's omnipotent, he's able. Nobody's
as wise as he is. What you think needs to be done
may not be what needs to be done. He knows what needs to be done.
No one understands like he does. And nobody else will know about
it but him. He'll never bring it up to you or anybody else.
Even he won't remember it. Your sins and your iniquities
will I remember no more. He literally makes it go away. There's not many that can make
it go away. That's a short list. And when
it comes to the true trouble of our soul, there's just one. He makes it go away. under the
precious blood of our Savior. And he says to us over and over,
ask, ask me, and I'll give it to you. Verse 8, among the gods, there
is none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there any works like
unto thy works. There's nobody like you, and
there's nobody that can do what you can do. Do you see that? None like thee, and there's no
works like your works. Nobody can do what you can do.
Men's gods are no less foolish now than they ever were. A god
of stone or wood is no more ridiculous than a god of imagination. Which
is more laughable, Dagon, the Philistine fish god, or the god
of free will religion who can't do anything without the consent
and cooperation of man? It's kind of six to one, half
dozen to the other, isn't it? Our God is in the heavens. Our
God is not like any of them. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Do you know how important that
is, to know that? He does as he pleases. He said, be still and know that
I'm God. If any man confess that Jesus
Christ is the son of God He's saved He does as he pleases you don't
put him where you want him he puts you where he wants you He's not blind and deaf and dead
like other would-be gods and those who worship them the scripture
says the ones that worship them are just like them They can't
have eyes, but they can't see. They have ears, but they can't
hear you cry. This is why we cry to our God. This is why we lift up our soul
unto our God. Because he can do anything he
pleases. And he's ready to forgive. Do
you see that? What a combination that is. Omnipotence
and mercy are not only a unique combination, but a wonderful
one. both the will and the power to
do good on the sinners. Omnipotence, he can do anything. And mercy, he will have mercy
on whom he will have mercy. What a wonderful combination.
Holiness and grace are not found anywhere And anybody else, that's
why it says there's no God like you. Isaiah 45, 20, assemble
yourselves and come. Draw near together, you that
are escaped of the nations. That's us. Come together and
listen. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot
save. That's what we were just saying.
Thank God, look at the mercy of God here. You that have escaped
of the nations, you who have escaped sin by the grace of God,
by His choice and by His love and by His power. You gather
together and we acknowledge that everybody else is praying to
a God that can't save. Tell ye and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together. Let's talk about Him together.
Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that
time? Have not I the Lord? He'd been saying the same thing
from the start. What? That there's no God else
beside me. Cast away your idols of your
imagination. I'm a just God and a Savior. I'm a God that can be just and
justify a wretch like you. There's no other God like that.
There is none beside me. We worship Him for all those
reasons and many more. And neither are there any works
like unto His works. His saving work is effectual.
Every other God has plans, you know, that you can follow and
better yourself. You know, you can become clear or something
if you look at the plan that they laid out and you can, you
know, you can improve yourself. But only the God of the Bible
can save. That's the difference. They're
praying to a God that can't save. That's the difference between
the true God and false God. He can save. His work is not
like anybody else's work. His hand's not shortened and
He can't save you. If He says, I'm going to save
you, He's going to save you. It's not complicated. He does
as He pleases. When he dies for sinners that
they might live, those sinners live. He actually redeemed his people
on the cross with his precious blood, his cross work. His work's
not like any other work. What are we talking about? His
greatest work, really his only work, around which everything
else revolved, was the work he accomplished. Remember what they
were talking about on the Mount of Transfiguration? The death
that he should accomplish. That's the work of Christ. He actually redeemed his people
with that precious blood that he shed there. He took their
place before God and bore their sin. If he bore it, I'm not. I won't. This is the difference
between the true God and all the false gods. What happened
at Calvary? The work. And here's what happened on Calvary.
Notice how it takes us to our next verse in the text. What did happen on Calvary? Here
it is. They sang a new song, Revelation 5 now. We're going
to sing about it. And you know what we're going
to say? Christ, you are worthy to take the book and to open
the seals thereof. You've accomplished all the purposes
of God in that book. Fulfilled them. Crossed every
T, dotted every I. Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. In the volume of the book it's written of him
and he accomplished everything he was given to do. Thou art
worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou
was slain. There's that death that he accomplished
that Moses and Elijah were talking about on that mountain. Thou
was slain and hast redeemed us. Thou was slain and didn't try
anything, didn't make anything available. You redeemed us to
God by thy blood. out of every kindred, tongue,
and people, and nation. You see how that takes us to
our next verse? All nations whom thou hast made shall come and
worship before thee. They're not going to worship
him if they're not redeemed. There are going to be people
in every nation, tribe, tongue, under heaven that don't worship
him. But somebody's going to, out of every one of them, because
of what we read in Revelation 5-9, because he redeemed them.
And they're going to come and worship him for it. Lord and shall glorify thy name. That's what they do it in glory
It that's the fulfillment we read in Revelation 5 9 it fulfills
Psalm 86 9 doesn't it every all nations whom thou hast made shall
come before thee and Worship before thee O Lord I shall glorify
thy name that's fulfilled in eternity It's also fulfilled
in time By His grace, we worship Him
now. We're glorifying His name now.
Not near as good as we're going to. Verse 10, for thou art great. That's why we're gonna worship
Him. We're gonna glorify Him because of who He is. And why
else? Don't even look, if you didn't
even look at that verse, why would you say we would glorify
Him and worship Him? because of who he is and because
of what he did. And there it is right there.
For thou art great and doest wondrous things. And just to
emphasize it, thou art God alone. Thou art God alone. This word alone is an important
one now. Many people believe in God, but
not God alone. Salvation is by grace, according
to many, but not grace alone. Salvation is not by God alone. It's by God and you cooperating.
Christ is the Savior, they say, but not Christ alone. Thou art
God alone and everything that's included in that. Be in God. A just God and a Savior now.
You see that? You may have heard of the five
solas of the Reformation. I don't normally quote stuff
like this, but I think this is pretty, it embodies what we're talking
about in this verse. The five solas of the Reformation
were sola scriptura, the scriptures alone. We have one truth, one
authority, One source of truth and light and life. The scriptures
that are able to make thee wise unto salvation. We're not, we
don't add anything or take anything away. God said, if you do, your
name will be taken out of my book. The scriptures alone. Sola Fide,
faith alone. We are saved through faith alone
in Jesus Christ. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves is his gift. And then of course,
sola gratia, grace alone. We're saved by the grace of God
alone. We're saved because God wanted to save us. And he wanted
to save us because he loved us. Solus Christus, Christ alone. How does God save us? By Christ
alone. He is our salvation. He's our
lord. He's our savior. He's our king
He's our all and in all paul said And we're learning that
aren't we? And then solely deo gloria the
glory of god alone And may we live for his glory alone in all
things whatsoever you do do all to the glory of god That's pretty
good now, and it embodies what we're talking about. God alone,
he's God alone. And so he's to be worshipped
alone. He's to be believed alone. Salvation's by him alone. He's
the only, he's the just God and the Savior. And he saves through Christ alone.
His love is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Don't usually put much
stock in human creeds, no matter how scriptural they are, because
we have the scriptures themselves. We don't need them. But I do
believe that embodies the importance of what's expressed in our text.
Alone, that word alone. Many religious people will include
God, his word, his truth, in their religious systems. But
they add or they take away from the truth in order to make it
palatable to the flesh. It's not that they reject God
outright. Paul said they have a form of godliness. But they
deny the power thereof. Well, then they'll be okay. No,
they need to be saved, he said. Oh, that God would save them. If you deny the power of God,
you worship in a false God. God is God alone. His word alone
is truth, and Christ alone is salvation. Verse 11, teach me
thy way, O Lord. I almost sang that tonight, that
song, teach me thy way. Thy guiding grace afford teach
me that way I'll walk in your truth Unite my heart to fear
thy name You see again how this scripture is tied to the previous
one thou art God alone Therefore Don't don't let me
just incorporate you into my way teach me your way You see
that you are God alone. So teach me your way. Forget about my way. My way and God's way doesn't
ever cross. It's two different ways. If God
teaches us his way, when he does, when he teaches us his way, his
word doesn't return unto him void. I will walk in your truth. You see that? If God teaches
you, you're gonna walk. If I teach you, you know, you
may understand some things in your head, and it may affect
you in some way, but if God teaches you, you're gonna walk in his
truth. Those who just have natural understanding
of the Bible will have a form of godliness, but those who are
taught of God will walk in his truth. They'll hear of no other God.
What is it to walk in his truth? Well, I don't want to hear about
any other God than the sovereign God of scripture, who does what
he will, when he will, with whom he will, and whose hand is not
shortened that it can't save. I don't want to hear about it.
I'm glad I don't have to have to preach a gospel like that,
where I have to, you know, where God's depending on you to do
something. Don't want to hear about it and God forbid that
I ever say anything that would tend toward that. Don't want
to hear about any other God than the one who said before they
were ever born, I love Jacob and I hate Esau. Oh, how contrary that is to man's
will. Our whole society now is more
and more revolves around, you know, the
idea of not offending anyone. We don't want to say anything.
Let's change the whole English language so nobody will be offended. God said, I love Jacob and I
hate Esau. And we can bow or we can prove
that we're not one of the objects of his love. When we're taught of God, we
will hear of no other Savior, no other Savior than the victorious,
almighty Lord Jesus Christ who finished salvation, finished it by offering his very
soul for the sins of his people. He did not offer his very soul
on the cross to make salvation possible for a people who never
have done the right thing ever. You think about the idiocy of
that. In the garden, what did we do?
He came unto his own and what did they do? Never has man ever
made a decision on his own that was right and God's gonna give
us another chance That's all he's gonna purchase with his
precious blood is another shot for you to do the right thing.
Oh How repulsive that is? And when we walk in his truth,
it'll be repulsive on it And we will worship Christ the king
of salvation Who saved everyone that he died to save? actually
redeemed them when he died. And who can say with unquestionable
authority, I lay down my life for my sheep, and they shall
never perish. And this is why we say, verse
12, I will praise you. I'm gonna praise you. If we're taught of God, if he
does what we pray, if he grants us this prayer, Lord, hear me. You don't have to, but if you
do, and if you'll teach me your way, if you'll reveal to me your
gospel, your truth, my way is not your way. But since you are
the only God and you're great and do wondrous things and are
God alone, I want to know your way. I want to walk in your way.
And if he grants that, then we will walk in his truth. will
despise every lie concerning him and his great salvation and
will walk in his truth. And when the more we see his
truth, the more light we have, the more we'll praise him. I
will praise the Lord my God. And may this be true with all
my heart. Do you have any reservation in
your heart? When you praise him. Oh, that all of our hearts were engaged
in the praise of our Savior. He's so worthy. Because of his
grace. Because of the precious blood
of his son, look at that last part. We will glorify thy name
forever, ever, evermore. You know, there are very few
things. Concerning which you can say that. evermore. Very few things. Everything's going to change
pretty much almost, isn't it? Almost. Even that will change
to an extent, in a sense I should say, to a great extent. That
will change in a sense because we'll glorify Him so much better
with pure, true, Holy hearts. But what ain't gonna change is
this. We're not ever gonna stop glorifying him. Isn't it wonderful to do
something now that's forever? And praise his holy name for
letting us in on it. Let's pray.