Alright brethren, let's turn
to Psalm 102. Now, the Psalms are not in chronological
order according to how they came to pass in time, but it's by
God's sovereign hand that they're placed in the Scriptures where
they are. And sometimes that can be very instructive. In Psalm
101, we saw last time how David's resolve when he entered his office
as king was a good resolve. It's much like when we start
out in faith, and he wrote, I will, I will, I will. But the Lord taught David that
the words that were given to him were given by the Spirit
of God and that those words were the words of Christ the King.
David said that in the last words he spoke. And David was taught that it's
Christ's covenant word. It's not us saying, I will, I
will, I will, but Christ entering covenant with the Father. and
come in revealing to us His will and how that He promised, I will
and thou shalt. And it's that word, that covenant
that's ordered and sure in all things. And He makes Christ to
be all our salvation, all our resolve, to trust it all into
His hand. So after all the I wills of Psalm
101, as if to show us that salvation is not by our will. The Lord
put this psalm next, and it's titled, A Prayer of the Afflicted,
when he's overwhelmed and poureth out his complaint before the
Lord. And we hear a different spirit in the writer that was
used to write this psalm. He says in verse 1, Hear my prayer,
O Lord, and let my cry come unto Thee. Hide not Thy face from
me in the day when I am in trouble. Incline Thine ear unto me in
the day when I call. Answer me speedily. This is the
spirit of a broken and a contrite heart. Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and let my cry come unto Thee. This notion that we let the sovereign
God of heaven and earth do anything is blasphemous. We're the ones
praying to Him and asking, Lord, let my prayer come to Thee. And He saves us by His grace.
He sends the day of trouble to create this spirit in His child
and to keep this spirit in His child. He sends the day of trouble. to draw us to Him, to call to
Him. The amazing thing is that our
Lord Jesus has come and He, by His flesh, by what He did as
a man, bone of our bones, flesh of our flesh, His flesh, the
Hebrew writer said, is the new veil. And He, through that veil,
He entered by His flesh, through His flesh, and made a new way
for us, a living way. He consecrated it for us by His
blood. And we have this hymn as our
high priest over the house of God, ever living to make intercession
for us. to bring us to cry to Him and
to avail ourselves of that new way and that privilege to enter
in to the holiest of holies. He sends trouble. He sends needs
so that we are drawn to call on Him and ask Him, Lord, let
my prayer come into Thee. Let my prayer come to Thee. Now,
I read the Psalm to you, so I want to I want to just say a few things
here by way of introduction. We see what he says his need
is here. He said it's because our flesh
is like grass. He said, verse 3, my days are
consumed like smoke, are consumed into smoke, like a vapor. My
bones are burned as a hearth. And my heart is smitten, withered
like grass. I forget to eat my bread. You
skip down here, and he says that we're brought to remember our
God reigns. God is salvation. He says in
verse 12, But thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever, and thy remembrance
unto all generations. Thou shalt arise and have mercy
upon Zion for the time to favor her, yea, the set time is come. He said in verse 16, when the
Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory. He
will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their
prayer. This shall be written for the
generation to come. people that shall be created
shall praise the Lord. And this is why the Lord's people
love the Psalms, because we hear, when a psalmist writes these
things, we hear our troubles, we hear our afflictions, we hear
the things that we pray to the Lord. And we're comforted, and
we get the most comfort when we hear Christ speaking these
words. Christ being the one suffering
and praying to the Father and the Father hearing Him and beholding
the faithfulness of God our Father and Christ His Son so that we
know He will hear us and He will answer us. And these things give
us comfort when we read the Psalms. And he's telling us here that
when we behold how Christ cried to the Father and how the Father
heard Him, we're assured of the faithfulness of God toward us. And Christ promises here in verse
13, Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time
to favor her, yea, the set time is come. He said in verse 17,
He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise
their prayer. Are there any destitute? Any afflicted? Any overwhelmed? Christ says He will regard the
prayer of the destitute. He shall arise and have mercy
upon His Zion, upon the church, upon His elect. He set the time
to favor her. He set the time from eternity
to have favor, to show grace. And that's so in every single
thing that we go through in this life. He set the time to favor
His child. He's always favoring us, but
He has a time set. when He's going to make it clear
what He's done and make it known in our hearts. And that's when
He'll arise and we'll see His glory and He'll have mercy on
us in His set time. He said there in verse 1, He
says, Hear my prayer, O Lord, let my cry come unto Thee. Hide
not Thy face from me in the day when I'm in trouble. Incline
Thine ear unto me in the day when I call, answer me speedily. God's face is spoken of often
in the scripture. The face, the countenance, And
that's light. That's His light. That's His
glory. The face of the Lord, the countenance
of the Lord, the glory of His countenance, His face is light.
He gives us light. He gives us knowledge. He does
it in regeneration, Scripture says, when He shines into our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Christ Jesus. There's light, light, light all
in that. He gives light of the knowledge of the light of God
in the light of Christ Jesus. That's really what it's saying.
It's in His face. And God, when He makes His face
shine upon us, that's how God gives His child peace. That's
how He gives us peace. Gladness in the heart. Listen
to number 626. This was the blessing of the
high priest. The Lord lift up His countenance,
His face upon thee and give thee peace. That's how you're going
to have peace. He said in Psalm 4, in verse
6, He said, David, this is that familiar prayer where David said,
There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift
Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us, the light of Your face
upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my
heart. more than in the time that their
corn and their wine increased." That's how He does it, shining
the light of His face into our heart. Look at Psalm 42. God's face, His countenance is
His help. It's His power. It's His favor
to His people. Psalm 42 and verse 5. David praying here says, Why
art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. The help of
His countenance. It says in the margin, His presence
is salvation. We are talking about that. The light of His face. His presence.
His presence. So when the psalmist here in
our time, when he begs God, hide not thy face from me in the day
when I'm in trouble, it's because God's face, His countenance,
His light, His glory, that's what gives us light. That's what
gives us gladness, peace, strength, favor. Everything we need, it's
God's presence, His light in our heart. And you know this
is so because There can be many things going on all around you
and all kinds of trouble. And you see somebody that's just
a believer, then they're in peace. And you ask them, how do you
succumb? How do you have such peace and
such hope that you have? Well, there's only one way that
a believer can have that truly, and it's by the light of God's
face. It's knowing in your heart, having
Him present, and you know His presence. And it's faith. It gives you to trust Him that
He's ruling everything. And you could have a person,
a believer who doesn't have trouble, doesn't really have any trouble,
and yet he's just so troubled and he's just so torn and twisted. Why? Because he doesn't have
the face of God. He doesn't have the light of
the Lord present in his heart and know it. And know it so that
he knows it. Everything depends on this light,
this face of God. So when our Lord Jesus, when
He took flesh and came as a man, He so made Himself the servant
of God, as the Son of Man, that He depended upon the Father to
give Him light. The Scripture says the Lord poured
out on Him the Spirit without measure. The Spirit without measure. was speaking through David, David
was speaking of Solomon, but he's really speaking of the son
of David, Christ Jesus. When he came and humbled himself
as a servant of God, this is what David said. Listen to this.
He's speaking to God and he's speaking of Christ. This is in
Psalm 21.6, but let me read it to you. Speaking of Christ, he
said, Thou hast made him most blessed forever. Thou hast made
him exceeding glad with Thy countenance, with Thy face. And the Lord made
him know, the Lord spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. He had the Spirit of God. Now
he is God, you know that. But as the son of man, he is
dependent upon the Lord, he is trusting the Lord. And so in
this psalm, when you hear Christ crying out, hide not thy face
from me in the day when I am in trouble. It's on the cross. Our Lord, our Savior, when He
went to the cross, God the Father indeed hid His face from Christ. He hid His face from him because
He was the substitute, the sinless God-man is bearing the sin of
His people on the cross, and that was the justice. God turning
the light of His countenance from him, turning His face from
him, hiding His face from our Redeemer. That was God pouring
out justice on our Lord. And what all was involved in
that, we don't know. That's why the world went dark.
And we can't even comprehend the darkness of what Christ was
bearing by the Father turning His face from Him. It's just
beyond us. But because Christ satisfied
the Law's demands, because He answered it, and He made that
new way, He consecrated that new way for us, so God our Father
shall never hide His face from His child. He will never hide
His face from His child. This is the sure mercy we have
for Christ's sake. He hid His face from Christ and
He shall never take away the light of His countenance from
His child. Listen to this in Isaiah 54. Isaiah 54. Now when we were in
Christ on the cross, He hid His face from us in justice when
He hid His face from Christ in justice. But because He answered
justice and satisfied justice, He promises He will never take
away the light from His child. Listen to this, Isaiah 54, 7.
For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies
will I gather thee, and a little wrath I hid my face from thee
for a moment. But with everlasting kindness
will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this
is as the waters of Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that
the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have
I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. That
doesn't mean he won't chasten his people. It means he won't
condemn his people. He says, for the mountains shall
depart, the hills be removed. We are going to see that in our
psalm, how that everything in this world is going to be folded
up like a vesture when God is finished. The mountains shall
depart, the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. That's the sure mercies
of David right there. That's the sure mercies we have
for Christ's sake because he bore the father as the just judge,
hiding his face from him in justice. That's His covenant promise to
us. But He sometimes makes us think He's hid His face from
us. He sometimes makes us think He's hid His face from us. It
appears He doesn't hear our prayer because He doesn't answer us
speedily. He waits. And you keep calling. This is the blessing of our God
too. Not only does He send the trouble and give us enough light
to make us call on Him, This One who waits and who doesn't
answer us speedily every time, He's also instructed us to never
stop calling, to keep calling, to keep calling, to be importunate
and never stop calling on Him and promises He will answer,
the Father will answer. And sometimes you feel like he's
removed your light, and that's truly the affliction. This is
the chastening. We think the chastening is, you
know, outward things. And if that's all we think God's
chastening hand is, then as long as we got money in the bank,
and we're healthy, and the kids are healthy, and everything's
going relatively smooth in our life, we'll think we're really
blessed. That's not the blessing. And that's not, for any of that
to be taken away, that's not what really chastens. The blessing
is having the light of His face. The blessing is knowing you're
in His favor, and knowing that Christ has redeemed you, and
knowing God is with you, and God is working all things for
you according to His mercy and grace. That's the blessing. And
the chastening is when he just removes that light just enough
to where you don't have that peace. And your communion is
interrupted. That's the chastening. That's
the chastening. I was talking with someone this
week concerning themselves. And they have been going through
something for a long while. And they said, why is the Lord
not answering my prayer? Why is He not answering my prayer?
Why is He waiting so long? Well, we see some reasons in
this psalm. And this is something the Lord
has shown me, and keeps showing me, and I think He's shown some
of you this, and I think this is what, I know this is what
He's showing this person who believes the gospel. Whatever
it is that you're having trouble getting over, whatever it is
that you're having trouble reconciling, whatever it is that's causing
you to not have peace, to be afflicted and to be overwhelmed,
whatever it is, go to the Word and look into the Word and stop
worrying about the other person or the situation or the providence
going on around you. That's not the problem. That
is not the problem. You haven't come to the place
where God brings His child and understood God's dealing with
you. There may be a lot of things
involved with it, going on with it, but God's instructing you,
His child, personally. Don't you want His blessings
personally? Don't you want to know God's blessing you personally?
Well, in everything He's doing in the world, each of His children
is the center of His focus. With us, that's impossible, but
not with God. And what we need to do is stop
trying, well, if they would do this or they would do that, you
will be miserable all your days and may end up leaving the Gospel
if you keep on with that. But that's not what it is. Go
to this book and find out why you have the problem that you're
having. And this is what the Lord shows
here in this psalm. The Lord shows us again, when
He sends the trouble, what He's showing us again. We've seen
it. He's shown us. We've experienced
it. We've confessed it. You might
preach it. but it's so hard for us to really
learn it. And that's this, our flesh is
nothing but weakness. Our flesh is nothing but weakness. It says here in verse 3, For
my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as a
hearth. My heart is smitten. It's withered
like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread. By reason of
the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin. On the
cross, the Lord endured this that's spoken here, like none
of God's children ever have or ever will. He endured this. But when the Lord appears to
hide His face and not answer us speedily, He's truly answering
our prayer speedily. When He doesn't make it appear
like His face is shining on you and He's not answering you, He's
answering you. He's answering you. And He's making you know
the weakness of your flesh. The Lord Jesus declared the flesh
is weak. Remember when He did that? He
told them, just watch and pray with me. And He comes back and
they're asleep. Think about that. The most monumental
time in history of this world. And your Redeemer asks you, watch
and pray with me. And you fall asleep. And our
Lord didn't... He didn't... He didn't... He
gently reproved them and He said, the flesh is weak. And it is. And our Lord knows it. He experienced
it. He suffered this. But He's teaching us, in everything
we suffer, your flesh is the weakest thing there is. Without the light of God's face,
without Christ our strength, without Him, our flesh is weakness. It's inability. That's all it
is. And that's what He's teaching us. That's what He's teaching
us. That's why He sends the trouble.
That's why He waits. I'm telling you, this is so all
the time. What was the first thing God
taught you when He came to you? In the first moment, He made
you to know Him. He showed you He's sovereign, reigning, ruling,
saving, the righteousness, everything His people need, and He showed
you are everything but that. Nothing but grass. And it's what
he keeps showing us. My days are consumed like smoke. Our life's a vapor. And it's
just evaporating like smoke. How much confidence would you
put in smoke? Would you try to lean over on
a big cloud of smoke? That's what our life is. It's
a vapor. And he shows you by these things.
It's a vapor. My bones are burned as a hearth.
The bones are where our strength is. That's what holds you up
is your bones. And when He brings you to where
you're suffering so that your bones are so weak, they're like
wood burned to ashes on a hearth. What good is that? He says, my
heart is smitten, it's withered like grass. Our Lord said His
moisture was turned into drought on the cross. We can't even comprehend
what happened and what He bore. All of this He bore. All of this
happened to Him in that darkness on the cross. But he's going
to make us just a little bit, not even remotely like what he
did, but he's going to turn all our moisture into drought and
make us know our flesh has no strength in it. We're like withered
grass. It's the grass our flesh is.
He says, so that I forget to eat my bread by reason of the
voice of my groaning, my bones cleaved to my skin. That's a
true fast. This mess that the Pharisees
was doing when they was trying to make everybody see that they
were fasting. A fast is not some religious
thing you just decide you're going to do. A fast is when God
makes you so destitute you can't eat because you're seeking Him. And your weight starts dropping
off of you and your bone starts cleaving to you because you can't
eat. Because you need that bread.
You need the bread from heaven. You don't need earthly bread.
You don't even think about that. You need Him. That's a true fast. We really don't know how our
Lord bore this, the truth of how He bore this, and the hell
that He endured. But He endured the hell His people
deserved on that cross. And when your affliction overwhelms
you, and you just can't breathe, you can't catch your breath,
you're just overwhelmed by it. If there's ever been a time where
the worst trial you've ever suffered, a sick child, or you were sick,
or anything, try to remember how you felt during that time. The Lord says it's light affliction
compared to what our Savior suffered. But use it. Think about it. And
think about as heavy as it is and as much as it is showing
me my total lack of strength. Just think about what he bore
and think about what he suffered. This is why he sends these things.
Behold what the Lord is teaching us. Our flesh is weakness. It's
weakness. Sin. It's dust. There's nothing to put any confidence
in at any time. This is what it is to be really
destitute. Until we're brought here, we
ain't even called on the Lord the first time to see we don't
have anything in us to trust in. And secondly, the Lord reminds
us of our need for His presence, that we might dwell in Him and
He in us. We need Him. We need His presence
and the presence of His gospel and His people, His church, the
means He's ordained to save us. He says there in verse 6, I'm
like a pelican of the wilderness. I'm like an owl of the desert.
I watch and I'm as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. These
are images that that speak of these birds that are outside
of their habitat dwelling alone. That's what they have in common.
A pelican is a water bird. It's a waterfowl. It doesn't
dwell in the wilderness. You're not going to find a pelican
up in the uplands, up in the hill country. You're going to
find a pelican in a swamp, not in the wilderness. And an owl,
the kind of owl that's spoken of here, doesn't dwell in a desert.
It's not its habitat. It's not its dwelling. And sparrows
are always with other sparrows. You don't find sparrows just
by themselves. That's a dangerous place to be. Sparrows are with
sparrows, but here you have a sparrow all alone. Christ Jesus tread
the winepress alone. He went to the cross and tread
the winepress alone of the people. There was none to help Him. He
accomplished our redemption by Himself. He purged the sin of
His people by Himself. Yet, He said, when He said all
His apostles were going to depart and deny they knew Him, He said,
I'm going to go this alone. He said, yet I'm not alone. The
Father is with me. The Father is with me. And even
while in this earth, while He was in this earth bodily, He
was in the bosom of the Father. And the Father was in Him. And
when Christ takes up His dwelling in us, we dwell in Him and He
dwells in us. In Spirit. And nothing shall
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
He promises, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Now, if
you looked at all these sons, and they're with their father,
and they're having a wonderful life, and they're just, everything
goes well for them, and it just seems like the family's wealthy,
and they're with the Lord's people in His house every week, worshiping
the Lord, everything just going wonderful with them. And they
got this one brother, though. He ran off down to Egypt, got
thrown in prison, things going terrible for him. Which one would
you say is the blessed one? Yet when Joseph was sold into
slavery and he's down there in Egypt and ends up in prison,
alone, away from all his brethren, the Scripture says, yet the Lord
was with him. The Lord was with him. And notice here, verse 7, it
says, I watched, and I was a sparrow alone upon the housetop. When Christ was alone and suffering
in the Garden of Gethsemane, He told His disciples to watch,
but they fell asleep. But He watched. He never stopped
watching. And He never stops watching.
But by affliction, by making it appear that He hides His face,
by making it appear to us He is not answering us speedily.
Our Lord is making us watch for Him. That is what He is doing.
He is making you long for Him. He is making you want to have
His presence and want to hear from Him and makes you cry out
to Him. He's reminding you. He's keeping
you in remembrance. He alone is your habitation.
He's your dwelling. And when you feel like you're
outside of your dwelling and not with Him, that's... Now,
before God came and shined His face in your heart and gave you
light, that didn't even faze you. To not be with His people,
to not be around the gospel. You wanted to not be around it.
And you did not have any heart or desire whatsoever to be in
Christ. But now that He's done that for
you, this is what afflicts a child of God more than anything else,
is not knowing that we're in our dwelling, in our refuge,
in Christ. And any time that that is jeopardized
in any way. And if he waits a little while
and makes you suffer a little while, that's what you're longing
for. You're crying out for it. You're
begging God for it. You wouldn't have done that if
he hadn't sent you the affliction. If he hadn't withdrew just enough
to make you see you need him. This is not your habitat. This
wilderness and this desert and this world, it's not your habitat.
He is. He reminds us that we need to
be watching, and he makes you watch. He makes you start watching
for him. You're looking for him. You're
searching for him. Whereas before, we just didn't feel like we had
need of anything. We had everything. Now you need Him. Now you're
watching. Now you want to see what He's going to do. You need
Him. This is why He sends these things.
And as long as we're looking at somebody else and somebody
else is the problem, that's why I'm not in peace because of them,
them, them. You're not going to get peace. The Lord sends everything to
instruct each of His children. to make us long for Him. Has
it made you long for Him? Whatever your trouble, whatever
your affliction, when you're feeling overwhelmed, has it made
you long to be in Him and to have His presence and to know
Him? It's all that matters. If He does this in each one of
His children, you know what there'll be? A peaceful habitation. And he reminds us that Christ
alone saves us from every enemy. From every enemy. In verse 8
he said, My enemies reproach me all the day. They that are
mad against me are sworn against me. Christ's enemies were mad
against him. They truly were full of madness.
Insanity. But they were angry against Him
too. Sworn against Him. He said, they are sworn against
Me. Men who had nothing else in common entered covenant with
each other to be against Christ, to be His sworn enemies. They
were covenant and covenant with each other to be His enemy. But
why? Why did they do it? He said,
they reproached me. Why were they going around the
foot of the cross and continuing to reproach Christ and just reproach
Him more and more and more? Why were they doing it? What
gave them that boldness to think that they could just throw everything
they wanted to at Him? Verse 9, 4, Because I have eaten
ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping, because
of thine indignation and thy wrath, for thou hast lifted me
up and cast me down. God lifted Christ up on the cross
to fulfill God's law, and because He bore our sin, God cast Him
down. God poured out His wrath and
His indignation on him which you and I deserved and would
have borne had He not bore it for us. And He highly exalted
God by that. He satisfied the law and saved
His people by doing it. But because Christ suffered the
cross, His enemies justified their rejection of Him, accusing
Him of being smitten of God and afflicted. Now this is amazing. Think about this. The sight of
beholding Christ suffer on the cross makes Christ's child, in
whom He is working in spirit, it makes you fall down at Christ's
feet and thank Him for saving you, for bearing that on your
behalf or else you could not have come to God and been accepted
of God. And you fall down and worship
Him because of that. And right now today, that same
sight makes men and women laugh and
mock and reproach Him as just being a man smitten of God that
failed. The same sight. But verse 19 and 20 says that
God looked down from the height of His holy sanctuary. He heard
the groaning of the prisoner, Christ Jesus. He heard His cry,
the prisoner, Christ Jesus. And when He loosed our Redeemer,
He loosed all His people in Him and raised us to sit with Him.
And so, child of God, when He's lifted you up by His grace, given
you a heart to believe Him and trust Him, and you start to follow
Him, and you're going through your life wanting to honor Him
and worship Him and follow Him, And He cast you down in a trial
because of your sin, because of whatever the reason. And He cast you down. And enemies
use it to reproach you. Remember this, God has purpose. He has purpose in it. is to keep you remembering that
your risen Redeemer looks down from the height of His sanctuary
right now and He hears you, the prisoner, and He arises and looses
His child and makes you know He's your refuge. He keeps you
knowing that. There's a purpose in everything
we're going through and everything we suffer in this world. And
remember this, some of those people that were reproaching
Christ were His people. And He prayed for them. I know
they were His people and He prayed for them because He said, I don't
pray for the world. And He prayed for them. He said, I pray for
them, thou has given me. And He said, Father, forgive
them, they know not what they do. How can that be a child of
God? They're reproaching the Prince
of life. They're casting it in His teeth.
Man will see somebody like Solomon. at the end of his days was building
idols to satisfy his wives. Building idols and all these
different things that he was doing. And men say, heck, he
wasn't a child of God. I guarantee you he was a child
of God. Because whenever Bathsheba bore
him, Scripture says, God loved him. And He only says that about those
He saves. What I'm saying to you is, Remember, you're going
to be, if you're his child, you're going to be lifted up and you're
going to be cast down. Because Christ was on our behalf
and we're not greater than our Lord. And we need it. We need
it. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted that I might learn your statute. That's the only
way you're going to learn them. And he's your master. And he will
deal with you and he'll deal with each of his children. And
it'll be by Him that you stand. And He'll loose you. He'll hear
your cry, and He'll see you in your prison, and He'll come to
you, and He'll loose you, and He'll call you, and He'll save
you. It all serves this purpose. Now let me finish. You want to
know what the Lord teaches us every time he does these things
for us. Our religion is not just some
doctrines. It's not just a system of doctrine we learn. It is,
we hear this gospel and our Lord's working all these things in our
lives. And if we're his, you're going
to only have about one, maybe two really, really hard trials
in your life. But you're going to have one
or two that's going to make you feel like you're going to die. But you'll have a lot of little
ones and they'll make you feel like you're going to die too.
They all seem like they're the worst thing we ever suffered
when we suffered them. But this is the cause of all
of them. Verse 11, My days are like a shadow that declineth.
I'm withered like grass. Verse 2, He weakened my strength
in the way. He shortened my days. He showed
me I'm grass. That's what it's for. Keep you
remembering that. Keep you remembering that. Your
life's a vapor. You're about as strong as a puff
of smoke. And two, He's keeping you remembering,
thou God reigneth. He said in verse 12, But thou,
O Lord, shalt endure forever thy remembrance unto all generations. That means He's going to keep
His people remembering Him. He's going to keep Himself in
our remembrance. Thou shalt arise and have mercy
upon Zion for the time to favor her, yea, the set time has come.
Just like when it was the set time for Christ to come and lay
down His life in the fullness of time, Just like it was the
set time when he cried out, ìItís finished!î And God was satisfied.
And God, three days later, raised him from the grave. And then
40 days later, raised him up and he sat down with God at Godís
right hand as the glorified God-man. All done in the set time. Just
like it was the set time when God came to you in the season
of love and revealed Himself to you and found you polluted
and cast out in the open field like that abandoned baby. And
He called you, He spread His skirt over you, and He robed
you, and He washed you, and He put His ornaments upon you, and
everything you have, He gave you. So every single trial that
comes to us comes at the set time. And when He's brought us
to this end to see we're grass, and He's reigning, and He's our
only salvation, that's the time of favor when He'll arise and
save you, show you. And He does it all by revealing
His glory, showing Himself to you. That's the set time. And
He never changes. He never changes. He shows you.
You change. All you are is dust. That's all
you do is change. And one day you're going to perish.
And another thing is when He's finished calling the last of
His children, He's going to take this world and everything in
it, just like you take off your jacket when you get home and
fold it up or hang it up, put it wherever. He's going to fold
it all up like a vesture. But the Lord will remain unchanged,
unchangeable, just like He's always been from eternity, before
time existed, before this world was made. And another thing that's
going to remain is all His people that He created. Nothing added by us, nothing
that we contributed to it. What did we contribute to the
first creation? That's how much we're going to
contribute to the new creation. All of Him. All of Him. And what will remain is Him. And every one of these little
trials we go through where things just change and go different
and the way is not like we want, it's God shortening our day,
making us see our days are just a vapor, making us see we're
weak as grass. And it's Him making us see, verse
25, "...of old, as thou laid the foundation of the earth,
the heavens are the works of thy hands. They shall perish,
but thou shalt endure. Yea, all of them shall act old
like a garment. As a vesture shalt thou change
them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall have no end. The children of thy servants
shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee."
He doesn't fail. Verse 17, He will regard the
prayer of the destitute. He won't despise your prayer.
Verse 18, This shall be written for the generation to come. Are
you destitute? Are you destitute? Have you sat
down and counted the cost to see if you've got wherewith to
finish this? If you sat down and counted the
cost and you've got something in you that you think, well,
I've got what it takes. I believe I can finish it. That's
not what it means. You sit down and count the costs
and you realize, I don't have one thing I can contribute. It's all of Christ. All of him. And if you're that destitute,
he says he will regard the prayer of the destitute. He will not
despise their prayer. And if you're newly created of
Him, and I've been made a new creation by Him, this is written
for you. Look there in verse 18. This
shall be written for the generation to come. The people which shall
be created. That's who we are sitting here.
If we're born of Him, created of Him. He was saying it in that
day. These are the people that shall
be created. This is written for them. And here's what the end
will be. Every single time. They shall
praise the Lord. You're not a crane when He brings
you there. You're not an owl in the desert.
You're not a swallow alone when He brings you there. Sparrow
alone. What are you then? Look at Psalm 103.5. He satisfies thy mouth with good
things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. You're like
an eagle. You remember, He says there,
I'm going to rise and they're going to behold my glory. This
is how he works this. Remember Stephen? Stephen was
being stoned. His body was being stoned. He
was being killed. And he looked up and he beheld
the Lord standing in his glory. That's sort of what these trials
are. Our flesh is being stoned and mortified. And we are made
to see what fools we are in our sin nature. And He's showing
us Him risen, glorified, and He never changes. The same grace
and love and power by which He purposed to save us from the
beginning never varies whatsoever all the way through. That's the
glory we have to see. It's all, all, all, all of Him. Amen. Thanks.