All right, brethren, Psalm 143. Now, we're told here in the heading,
this is a Psalm of David, and this is another season of great
crisis for David. When we read the Psalms, David's
Psalms, he's either praising the Lord, he's worshiping the
Lord, or he's begging the Lord to save him. from trouble. And
that pretty much sums up our life, doesn't it? We're praising
the Lord for what he's done for us, thanking him. We're worshiping
him. We're begging him to help us,
keep us, save us. Look down at verse three. He
said, for the enemy hath persecuted my soul. He hath smitten my life
down to the ground. 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."
I titled this, The Prayer of a Desolate Heart. Now, we're
not told what particular trouble this was. We're not told which
one of David's troubles this was, and we're not a particular
enemy's not named, and that's good because this can apply to
us. It can apply to whatever trouble
we're in. It can apply to whatever enemy
we face. It's good that it doesn't, but
you know, the Lord Jesus taught us to not judge after the outward
appearance, to not judge with the seeing eye or the hearing
ear. We see why when we look at David.
If you had lived in David's day and you knew David, just think
of this now. If you lived in that day and
you knew David, and you didn't know what the scriptures say,
we have the benefit of seeing everything and knowing everything
that the Lord's doing, but I'm saying if you lived then and
you knew David, but you didn't know what was really going on,
what the Lord was doing, You know, and you heard a rumor that David had done something
wrong and the king, the king of the land was after him. He was wanted by the king. Because
that's what happened. Saul spread rumors about David
and he wanted to kill him. But the people didn't know. They
didn't know what the truth was. Ahithophel, David's close friend
and one of his closest cabinet members, betrayed him, just out
and out betrayed him. And you know Ahithophel said
unkind things and wicked things. What if you heard David had committed
adultery with a close friend of his, and that he had gotten
this man's wife pregnant, he committed adultery with a close
friend's wife and gotten his wife pregnant, and then had him
killed to cover it up, and then God didn't let the infant live,
took the infant to glory. If you heard all of that, what
would you think about David? What if you heard that David
disobeyed God and 70,000 people died because
of David? That's what happened when he numbered Israel. 70,000
people died because of David disobeying God. What if you heard
a rumor that David's own son, Absalom, wanted to kill him? What if you heard that about
a brother that, say it's a brother that God had raised up to lead
his people like he had David, and you heard that this man's
own son despised him, wanted him, wished bad for him. All of these things, David was
on the run in the wilderness so much, and this is something
we don't think about much. When David's son Amnon raped
David's daughter, Amnon raped his sister. That's two of David's children.
Just think if you heard that about a brother, somebody you
knew, and you heard that and you saw that, you heard people
talking about all that. See, judging by the carnal eye
and the carnal ear, what you see and what you hear, These
things would make you think David didn't even know God, or that
God was against David, or that God had rejected David, or that
David had sinned and God was getting him because of it. But God said, David is a man
after mine own heart which shall fulfill my will. That's what God said about him.
How could God see David that way? How could he say that about
the man David? Only in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because of God's grace, beholding David in Christ. Because of God's
grace, making David willing to trust Christ, to trust God, believe
him and follow him. God the Father has a chosen children. They're those Christ laid down
his life for, those he redeemed. And the spirit of God dwells
in them. But brethren, we suffer fiery
trials. Peter said, beloved, think it
not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as
though some strange thing happened to you. Don't think it strange.
The Lord You know, one of the reasons that when you see your
brother sin or you see something, let's say you just see something
trying happen to a brother or sister, one of the reasons you
don't immediately jump to the conclusion, well, they've sinned,
God's against them or whatever, is because you know your own
sin. You know your own weakness. You know how that the Lord has
been gracious correct you, and keep you, and preserve you, and
that's why you don't judge by the carnal eye, carnal ear. You judge righteous judgment.
What is that? Trust the righteous judge. You
know the word of God says that if God chose them, and Christ
died for that brother, and they've been born again in God, they
are perfectly righteous before God. They're as righteous and
holy as God is. In Christ, by Christ, you know
that, that's judging righteous judgment. And you go to the Father,
go to Christ, you ask Christ to make them stand, whatever
they need. And every child of God, everyone
without exception, will be scourged by God, every single one of them. Every one of them will be chastened
by the Lord. Those that are true children
will be chastened by the Lord because he loves them. He only
does it to those he loves. When we see a brother or sister
go through things like David went through, here's righteous
judgment. God sure does love them. He sure
does love them. Keep correcting them, teaching
them, keeping them. So any of those troubles, they
could be an occasion for this psalm right here. Anything David
suffered could be a reason for this psalm. Any of those enemies,
even his own sinful flesh, they could be the enemies he's talking
about. But listen now, what he said here, verse three, the enemy
hath persecuted my soul. This was a hard work. This was
a inward, terrible, overwhelming thing. He smitten my life down
to the ground. He 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. It's desolate. When the Lord
gave Paul a messenger of Satan to buffet him, what did the Lord
teach him? What did the Lord teach Paul? Look over there at 2 Corinthians
12. Here's what the Lord taught Paul. And this is what the Lord's
teaching us in every One of these troubles, 2 Corinthians 12, he said in verse nine, he said
to me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is
made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest
upon me. Those two things are exactly
opposite and exactly opposite extremes, my infirmities, my
weakness, and Christ's power. They're at the opposite poles.
Listen, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches
and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake,
for when I am weak, then am I strong. That's what we're gonna see in
this psalm. We're gonna see the prayer of
a desolate heart, the prayer of one that is so weak, they
need God to do all the saving. That's a good place to be. That's when we're strong, when
we're trusting the Lord. First of all, first of all, rejoice
that we can come to God's throne of grace. Be thankful that we
can come to God's throne of grace. Look at how he begins. Verse
one, hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplication.
What a blessing that we can call on God to save. Because he chose us by his grace,
because Christ redeemed us, because we've been born and taught of
him, Listen, having Christ as our intercessor, having Christ
as our advocate with the Father, our high priest, by Him being
the new and living way, we can call on God. God will hear us. You know, trouble comes and carnal
men start plotting and scheming and trying to get numbers on
their sides and all these things. All these different things David
suffered from the men What does God's child do while that's going
on? Have a father. Father, father, help me, Lord.
Save me, Lord. Keep me, Lord. Protect me, Lord.
Give ear to my supplication. Doesn't it bring delight to you
as a father, as a mother? Aren't you happy when your child
comes to you when they need help? helpless, the more needy, the
more distressed, the more they need help, the more you delight
to help them. And that's so with the Father.
The more we need mercy, the more he delights to show us mercy.
He delights to show us mercy. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him, for he knows
our frame, he remembers where it does. And here's the second
thing. God is faithful and he's just
to be merciful to us. He's faithful and he's just to
be merciful to us. Look at verse one at the end.
He says, in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness. And enter not into judgment with
thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. When he's taught you what you
are, when he's taught us what we are, we know that in God's
sight, no man living can be justified. He's made you know that. You
cannot do anything to justify yourself. The Pharisee boasts
in his holiness. The Pharisee boasts that by something
he's done, by his moral works, by him keeping the law, by him
putting away a little outward sin, that he's made himself holy. He's made himself sanctified
and he can He thinks he can stand before God in the sight of God. Job knew better than that, and
so does everybody that's been taught of the Lord. You know
better than that. Listen to what Job said in Job
9. If you want to look there, Job
9. Look at verse 30, Job 9, 30. And listen to this. He said, if I wash myself with
snow water and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou
plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall pour me. For he's not a man as I am, that
I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Job
said, there's not even another son of Adam who can act as a
mediator between me and God. He's saying, I can't come to
God by washing myself, and there's no other man born of Adam that
can represent me to God. God taught Jacob, he taught David,
he's taught you that know him, that we cannot come to God in
any of our work, so-called works of sanctification, works of righteousness
that we've done. He's exceedingly pure and holy
and righteous, and we are exceedingly impure and unholy and unrighteous. The only holiness and righteousness
we have is the Lord Jesus. That's what God teaches. By the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in His
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Paul, the Spirit
of God said, the Spirit of God said to the Galatians, If you
do anything to try to justify yourself or sanctify yourself,
Christ will profit you nothing. You'd better do the whole law.
You've left grace and you're under law now. So back here,
back to David's prayer here. How, now think about this. This
is what got my attention on this. How can God, how can he answer
you in faithfulness? and deal with you in righteousness, and yet not enter into judgment
with you. How can God do that? How can he answer you in righteousness,
do what's right for you, but not condemn you? How can he do
what's right for you and yet be merciful to you? That's what
David's asking. Be faithful, Lord, be righteous,
but please don't condemn me. Don't, don't, don't enter into
judgment with me. There's no way I could stand
in his sight. How can the Lord be righteous and faithful and
right and deal with you and do what's right for you and yet
not condemn you? Because God sent his own son. He sent his own son for his people. And our Lord Jesus, he was made
of a woman. That means he was made of the
very human nature of his elect, of the seed of Abraham, his elect. He was made under the law, just
like his people are. Really was made of a woman, made
under the law. And when the time came, he hath
made him sin for us. He made him sin for us. It was
such an exact taking of our place. He was made to be what his people
are. He did it to make us righteous.
And with the sin of his people on him, he was made a curse for
us. A curse. That darkness for three hours,
and him crying, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? our substitute being made a curse
and suffering the hell that we deserve, that his people deserve. And by him accomplishing that,
he honored God's law, he magnified God's law, he declared God just,
and he made every one of his people as righteous and holy
as our God is. God can't receive anybody except
they're like him. holy and righteous like him,
and he made his people so. And so now, scripture says if
we confess our sins, you come like David came, saying, Lord,
my spirit's overwhelmed. My heart is desolate. I have
no ability. Lord, I can't stand before you.
If you were to take me to the law, I wouldn't be able to stand.
He's confessing he's a sinner. He's confessing he's nothing
and has no ability. If we confess our sin, he's faithful
and just to forgive us our sin. He's faithful and he's just to
be faithful to you and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Why? Because when any sin, we have
an advocate with the Father. When one of his saints sin, we
have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous. He's our righteousness. He's
our advocate with Father. He's our propitiation. He's made
atonement for our sins and cleansed us of our sins and put our sins
away before God and he represents us to God. And so God's just
to deal with you mercifully. In fact, not only that, it's
the only just thing for God to do. Because you're justified
and you're righteous, Only just thing for God to do with his
child is to be merciful to us. And that's so of me and you.
That's righteous judgment, knowing because Christ has justified
my brother, the right thing is to be merciful, to be forgiving
on suffering, to be helpful, to kind, do whatever I can to
help him. That's what God does to us. Now
look at this next thing, brethren. After David declares his absolute
weakness, what did he do? After he declares his total inability,
what did he do? Look at these two things. He
began to think on God's works, and where'd that bring him? That
brought him empty-handed to God to do everything for him. He
thought on God's works, and it brought him empty-handed to God
for God to do everything for him. Look here, verse five. I remember the days of old. I
meditate on all thy works. I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto
thee. My soul thirsteth after thee
as a thirsty land, Selah." Do you see that? He's in this great
trouble. He's in this place where he has
no ability. And he starts thinking on the
days of old, meditating on all God's works, musing on the works
of God's hands. And here's what it did for him.
It made him stretch forth his empty hands to God and trust
God to do everything for him. My soul thirsteth after thee
as a thirsty land, Selah. Pause and think about what that
means. That's what Selah means. Pause
and think about what it means. This is by the Spirit of God.
He'll turn us to remember God's works in saving us, how God has
been gracious to us. He'll make us remember that.
He'll bring us to remember how Christ, how God took flesh for
us and how he came and laid down his life for us. How that the
Lord sent the gospel to us and revealed himself to us. He'll
bring you to remember how he's kept you. He not only taught
you the gospel and gave you a heart to believe, he's kept you all
this many years. He's kept us together this long. And when he starts making you
muse on his works, the work of his hands, it causes you, in
the midst of this trouble, in the midst of all the problems
you're in, it causes you to come empty to God, thirsting for Him,
thirsting for Him to do everything for you. You know, this is the
direct result of thinking on Him, and this is what the Lord
does. When you go through trouble,
you go through some really painful, sorrowful trouble. You know,
you go through a time of mourning, whatever it is, if somebody's
betrayed you, If somebody, you've lost a loved one in some way,
however, whatever it is, you go through a period where you're
just, you're like David here, where my spirit's overwhelmed,
my heart's desolate, I just, I can't, you know what it's like when
you've been there. But the Lord brings you to a place where you
realize, I can't keep thinking on this. I cannot keep thinking
on this or I'm gonna perish. And the Lord turns you to start
thinking on Him and what He's done. He turns you, the Lord
does that. He turns you to start thinking
on Christ and what Christ has done for you. In that, beholding
the Lord and thinking on Him and how He has saved us by His
grace, that makes you start thirsting more and more for Him. It makes
you, it empties your hands of thinking you're going to save
yourself out of the trouble or in righteousness or holiness.
It empties your hands, beholding Christ. And you start thirsting
for Him and the Lord and he brings you to ask him to do everything
for you, and the Lord does it. You just can't go on thinking
about the trouble. He turns you to think on him.
David said, I remembered your works of old. I meditated on
all thy works. I am used on the works of thy
hands, and here's where it led him. I stretched forth my hands
to thee. My soul thirsteth after thee
as a thirsty lamb. Well, look at this all another
time in detail, but look what David, where it brought David
and what it made David depend on the Lord to do. Listen to
this. Tell me, nothing's left out here. This is what you need and what
I need, and this is where God brought David. He's totally dependent
on the Lord for everything. He knows he's a thirsty land.
He's like a desert. He can't, you can't get water
where there's no water. But look what he, verse seven,
hear me speedily, O Lord, my spirit faileth. Hide not thy
face from me, lest I be like them that go down into the pit.
All we need to know is he hears us. What did John said, if we
know that he hear us, then we know whatsoever we ask, we know
we have the petitions that we desired of him. You just need
to know he hears you, and you know he's gonna do what's right,
and faithful and merciful for his child, you know that. You
just need to know he hears you. Dave said, hear me speedily,
hide not your face from me. The face of his countenance,
if you look through, especially the Psalms, the face of God's
countenance is his presence. It's what gives us that strength
in your heart to know and to keep, you know, that communion
with him is his face. Look what he says next. 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 to thee. Cause me to,
Lord, cause me to know your loving kindness. Cause me to know the
way that I should go. Verse nine, deliver me, O Lord,
from mine enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me.
This is thirsting for the Lord. This is where it brought him
when he beheld the Lord's works. Teach me to do thy will for thou
art my God, thy spirit is good. Lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for thy namesake. Don't do any of this for anything
in me. Do it for your namesake, for
your glory, for your honor, by your grace. Quicken me. For thy
righteousness' sake, bring my soul out of trouble. And of thy
mercy, cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict
my soul, for I'm thy servant. You pray the Lord to be gracious
to your enemy. You pray he'll save, especially
if it's a man, a woman, you pray the Lord to save them. But you
come to a place, you come to a place, Just striking your soul
down into darkness, and like David's describing here, you
come to a place where you ask the Lord, Lord, if you're not
gonna save them, will you just remove them? Remove them. And that's where he's at. Brothers
and sisters, when the Lord brings you there, when he brings you
there to ask the Lord to do all these things for you, let me
tell you what the Lord will do. He'll do these things by making
you flee to Christ, make you look to Christ and rest in Him.
Go to Isaiah 26, 20. Here's exactly what He speak
to you, and I'm telling you now, the enemy could be right in front
of your face, raging, and the Lord will cause you to do just
what this verse says, and He'll settle you in your heart, and
you know everything will be fine. My Lord's gonna save me. This
is what he'll do. I don't care what the trouble
is. Look, Isaiah 26, 20. Come, my people, enter thou into
thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself, as
it were, for a little moment until the indignation be overpassed. For behold, the Lord cometh out
of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
The earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover
her slain. In that day, the Lord will, with
his soaring great and strong sword, shall punish Leviathan,
the piercing servant, even Leviathan, that crooked servant, and he
shall slay the dragon that's in the sea. In that day, sing
you unto her a vineyard of red wine. I, the Lord, do keep it. I will water it every moment,
lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day."
That's what the Lord does. When he brings you to say, Lord,
hide me in you, hide me in Christ, he draws you to just trust the
Lord. And what is it everybody says
now? If you know, you know. It's just
one of those things. If you know, you know. He brings
you to know that he's He's saving you, has saved you, and shall
save you, and everything's fine. And then, this next Psalm, just
look at the next two verses, then you're right back to praising
Him. Blessed be the Lord, my strength, which teacheth my hands
to war, my fingers to fight, my goodness, and my fortress,
my high tower, my deliverer, my shield, and he whom I trust,
who subdueth my people under me. That's what you brought right
back to praising him again. I pray the Lord, if you ever
in trouble of any kind, I pray the Lord, that is what the Lord's
gonna do for his people. He's just gonna bring it to the
end of you. He's gonna bring you to think on his works, what
he's done, that'll bring you to him empty handed. And you'll
ask him, Lord, do all these things for me. And these are all the
things he does for us. We'll look at the second half
of all those things. We'll try to look at those another
time, but that's enough for now. I pray to Lord, bless you. Let's
go to him. Our God and our Father, we thank
you. Thank you, Lord, that you're so gracious to us. Keep us looking only to Christ.
Keep us calling out thirsty to you. Lord, be with those that
are overwhelmed in spirit, desolated in heart. or prove to your people
again and again that you are our strength, our salvation,
our righteousness, our refuge, everything we need. Keep us looking,
believing, trusting. Lord, those you've brought through
things like this, use them to encourage others that are going
through the same. to remind brethren of your faithfulness. Forgive us, Lord, of our sins
and our iniquities, our righteousnesses that we think are good that don't
come anywhere near your righteousness. Forgive us of those, Lord. For
Christ's sake, we ask it in his name, amen. All right, Brother
Adam.