message, I wasn't even thinking
about it. All right, Psalm 61. Thank you,
Sarah. Hey, Ben, you turn that heat
down just a notch. Psalm 61. I've titled this when
my heart is overwhelmed. And let's read the first two
verses. We'll see where that title came
from. Hear my cry, O God. Attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. And that word overwhelmed
is to be covered over. And here, it's to be covered
over like somebody that's drowning, like covered over with waves.
And there's a rock that's near. And if you could just get to
that rock, that rock's higher than you, and that rock could
save you from those waves and from that drowning. But you're
so overwhelmed, you can't even get to the rock. So you have
to cry out. lead me to the rock that's higher
than I. And have you ever been overwhelmed,
like your heart really overwhelmed? It's where you can't breathe.
And it's a real thing. So overwhelmed. I've been speaking
with some brethren, and there's quite a few brethren right now
that are overwhelmed, going through different kinds of trials. And
I want tonight preach from this psalm and I do pray God will
be the preacher and I pray that he would comfort our brethren
that are suffering. Now I want to show you here in
the first half, David makes some incredible vows to God, some
vows to God. He says first of all, he says
that he'll cry unto God no matter his condition. He says there
in verse 2, from the end of the earth Will I cry unto thee when
my heart is overwhelmed? And then he makes a vow down
here in verse four. He says, I will abide in thy
tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of
thy wings. Now selah means stop and consider. Now consider this. How is it
David can make those vows with such resolve? No sinner has power to keep a
vow, much less to say that I'm going to always cry unto you,
Lord. I'll abide in your tabernacle
forever. I'll trust in the covert of your wings no matter what.
That's pretty strong resolve to be able to make a vow like
that. How could he do that? Well, the
next half of the Psalm, he gives what his assurance is that he'll
do this. And it's not him at all. It's
not his strength at all. It's the faithfulness of God.
First of all, David's assurance that he will keep his vows is
that God's already heard him pray. He's heard him when he
cried. And he already made him a joint
heir with Christ. Look here in verse five. For
thou, O God, hast heard my vows. You've already heard, and that
word vows there is the same word for prayer. You've already heard
my cry. You've heard my prayer. Thou
hast given me the heritage, the inheritance of those that fear
thy name. You've given me the inheritance
of those that believe on you. You've already given me the inheritance
of those that believe on Christ. And then David's assurance that
he'll continue to call upon God forever is because David sees
by faith. David's looking down through
the ages by faith. He believes God's word. And he
sees by faith what God's going to do in Christ and what Christ
is going to do for him. Now the commentators get all
sideways here because they say, well now David started speaking
in third person. Well, the pronoun does change.
But remember David's anointed of God, he's a prophet and he's
speaking about Christ. Look at this pronoun change.
He's talking about Christ here. David's king is who he's talking
about. Verse six, thou will prolong the king's life. In his years,
his many generations, he shall abide before God forever. Oh,
prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him. That's David's
assurance that he's gonna continually keep crying to God and abide
in his tabernacle. because of what Christ is gonna
do. And so David concludes, notice the pronoun changes back to I
now. He concludes, he says, verse
eight, so will I sing praise unto thy name forever, that I
may daily perform my vows. You see his vows there, what
he's talking about. He's not talking about some grand
promise to do something that God's not gonna enable him to
do. He's talking about I'm gonna cry unto thee, God, I'm going
to trust in the covert of your wings. I'm going to abide in
your tabernacle. And he says, and because of these
things God has done in Christ, I will sing unto thy name forever. I'm going to praise your name
forever for this, that I may daily perform my vows, that I
may daily trust in thee and daily call upon thee, daily abide in
thee. Now here's what I want you to
get from this and I want you to listen closely. If we believe
on Christ, David said there that he'd already been called by God,
he already trusted God, God already made him a joiner with Christ.
If we believe on Christ then let us be assured that no matter
our condition from the end of the earth or when our hearts
overwhelmed and we have no strength If we believe on Christ already,
by God's grace, no matter what our condition is, let us be assured,
we shall continue crying unto God our Father. And we shall
continue trusting Christ our King. Not by our strength, but
by God's grace. That's what David's saying here.
I want to show you this. I want to look first of all at
David's condition, and then secondly at David's cry, and then thirdly,
at David's confidence. First of all, David's condition
in verse 2, he says, from the end of the earth will I cry unto
thee when my heart is overwhelmed. Now David wrote this after he
was a king, but here was the problem. He was an exiled king. Absalom had banished him from
Jerusalem. He had banished him and so now
he's an exiled king. He's cut off from everybody.
And he's crying out to God from the end of the earth. It feels
to David like he is at the end of the earth. He's alone. He's
alienated. Have you ever felt cut off? Have you ever felt alienated? Have you ever felt alone? That's
especially hard to bear when you feel cut off from God. Cut
off from God. Well, in addition, David was
alienated from the one place God had appointed for worship.
One place he could come and worship God in Jerusalem and David couldn't
go there. That's where David's true brethren
were. David couldn't go into the house of God with his brethren
and worship. And David loved that. David considered
it a great privilege to be able to assemble with his brethren
in the house of God. We are experiencing a little
bit of what David felt from that because don't you miss assembling
together with your brethren? I'm looking forward to that so
much when we can come back together and meet together, hear the gospel
preached. That's one good thing this quarantine
has done, that God's done through it, is he's made us appreciate
this privilege that we have. Because you start missing something
when you can't have it anymore. Now to make David's situation
even more sorrowful, it was his own dear son who brought him
into this condition. David loved Absalom. You remember
when he mourned for Absalom. He loved him. And his own son
cast him out. His own son cut him off. You
can understand why David said, my heart's overwhelmed. His own
son did this to him. Even more sorrowful, sometimes
God's saints are overwhelmed with a sense of our sin. You're
overwhelmed with the guilt of your sin. You get overwhelmed
with the shame of it. Sin that you hate. Sin you want
to be done with. And just keep sinning. And you
hate it. You're ashamed of it. You feel
guilty. You know you're forgiven by God,
but you don't want to do that to God. Sometimes we get sorrowful
over our unbelief. We can't even pray to God. Can't
read His Word. Or you just don't trust His promises.
Get fearful, get worried about whether you're really saved or
not. There's all kinds of providence God brings upon us to afflict
us. But the good news of that is, it's of God's hand. Everything
David was suffering here was on purpose. It was of God's hand.
It was to bring him right where he was. Right where he was. And
trials, when they come like this, they're like a sea. They're like
a stormy sea. It's wave upon wave and so our
hearts become overwhelmed. It's like you come up and you
get a breath of air and you sink back down and you just can't
breathe. You've got this pressure on your
heart all the time. what Brother Ben just read. We have a great high priest seated
at God's right hand in the heavens. He's walked right where we've
walked. He's suffered what we've suffered. He knows the feeling
of our infirmities. If there's anybody who suffers,
Christ has suffered more. Think about your suffering. Next
time you're really suffering and you're really, I mean sorrow
is in your heart. Use that. Think about, as sorrowful
as this is to me, think about what Christ bore and how sorrowful
that must have been to Him. If we feel pain, Christ felt
it more. If our hearts are overwhelmed,
nobody's heart was overwhelmed like Christ's on the cross. What
should that make us do? Brother Ben just read it. First
of all, he said, seeing we have a great high priest passed into
the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, number one, let us hold
fast our profession. That's what David's doing in
our text. David's in the middle of this sorrow, middle of this
suffering, cut off at the end of the world, his heart's overwhelmed,
and he's holding fast his profession. He says, I will cry unto you,
God. I will abide in your tabernacle.
He's got a strong resolve, I will, I will. And then, since Christ
can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, come boldly
to the throne of grace. Come to him and ask him for grace
and ask him for help in time of need. And that's the second
thing here we see that David's doing. Now here's David's prayer. Look at verse one, he says, hear
my cry, oh God, attend unto my prayer. You know, in the midst
of any trouble, knowing that Christ sits there at God's right
hand, we should come boldly. That doesn't mean haughty and
arrogant. And I'll tell you this, if our
hearts overwhelm within us and we're really broken, and God's
really brought us to this place where we're cut off, alienated,
and broken, you won't come to God that way. This is not a demand. This is a begging God. Hear my
cry, oh God. Attend unto my prayer. See, he
asked that before he even starts praying. This is prayer before
prayer. This is a petition before a petition. Before I lay out
what I need, Lord, I just need to know you'll hear me. See that
attitude, the spirit of that? It's good to have brethren who
we can call on. Especially right now, we should
call on one another, text one another. I just finally got my
hearing aid back, so maybe I can call now because I was in bad
shape before, but I was trying to text you. But text, call,
whatever. It's good to do that, especially
brethren that are in need and have burdens to bear. Call on
brethren and be brethren that can be called on. But let me
tell you something, when God brings you to this place that
David was, you can't even talk to brethren. When your heart's overwhelmed,
you can't even talk to your brethren. But you can always cry to God. You can always cry to God. You're
never too far at the end of the world or end of the earth and
never too overwhelmed that you can't call on God. He's there. He's there. Now, I love this. I love how David is firm in his
resolve in the midst of this trouble. He's holding fast his
profession. But notice, it's not what the
world calls resolve. This is a resolve to be entirely
dependent on God. That's a good resolve. That's
a good vow. I'm going to make a vow. I'm
going to be resolute in this thing that I'm going to be entirely
dependent on you God. Look at verse 2. From the end
of the earth will I cry. Now that's some resolve there. I don't care where I am, how
far I will cry on today. Why are you crying David? Because I don't have any strength.
I need you. When my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me. I can't get to the rock. I need
you, Lord, to lead me to that rock. You see that resolve? I will cry, but who are you going
to cry to? Cry to God, because I need His
help. I'm going to trust you when my heart is overwhelmed,
Lord, to lead me to the rock. No matter where we are, no matter
our condition, as strong as our trouble may be, let our resolve
be stronger. I will cry unto thee, O God.
Lead me. I want every child of God to
know this. You're never too far and your condition is never too
bad to call upon God. Listen to Psalm 139. Look there
to your right with me. Let me get there real quick.
Psalm 139. Look at verse 7. Whither shall
I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from
thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, listen, even there
shall thy hand lead me. Isn't that what David asked for?
Lead me. He said, even there thy hand
shall lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. I need to be led
to the rock. I need to be held up above these
waves. He said he'll lead me and he'll hold me. Now remember
Christ's cry to the Father? Remember his cry to the Father? Here's David crying out to the
Father. Remember Christ's cry in the
midst of his travail? He was cut off from God. Talk
about being alienated. Talk about crying out from the
end of the earth. He was cut off from God. He was
cut off from his brethren. Talk about heart being overwhelmed.
He was cut off because he was bearing the sins of his people.
Cut off because he was bearing the wrath of God. He was alienated
from all. But look over at Hebrews 5. As
alienated as he was, look at this, what we read here. Hebrews
5 and verse 7. who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplication with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death
and was heard in that he feared. Though he were a son, now you
think about this, shall God's firstborn son suffer and we not
suffer? Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered. And God's teaching
us by the things we're suffering. Teaching us to trust Him. Teaching
us to look away from ourselves. Teaching us to trust Christ.
Teaching us to be resolute, resolved, and vowed to be utterly dependent
on God and Him alone. And being made perfect, he perfected
it, and he's our salvation. And being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.
And so when our hearts are overwhelmed, here's our resolve is to cry
unto him in utter dependence. Our psalm says, Psalm 61, verse
2, lead me, O God, to the rock that is higher than I. See, God's
going to even get the glory for leading us to Christ. We can't even get to Christ when
we're in this shape. We have to ask God, lead me to
Christ. He gets the glory for leading
me to Christ, and Christ gets the glory for being my rock.
In the wilderness, Moses smote the rock. Moses is the law. He pictures the law. And Moses
smote that rock. And when he smote that rock,
out of that rock came water. for the whole multitude of Israel. All the children of Israel. Water,
life came out for them. Christ, when he bore the sins
of his people, the law struck Christ. The law smote Christ.
And from Christ came life for every single chosen child of
God. And you know what else? That
rock followed them wherever they went in the wilderness. They
did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same
spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed
them, and that rock was Christ. And so Christ is the rock that's
higher than I. He's the rock that's higher than
I, who's ever present to save His redeemed. He's always present. You can be at the end of the
earth, He's there. You can be overwhelmed and sink to the depths,
He's there. ever present. And he's the rock
that's higher than I. He's higher than David. David
says he's higher than I. Well, he's not only higher than
King David, he's higher than all the kings of the earth. And
he's higher than the angels in heaven. And not only that, he's
higher than heaven. Such a high priest became us
who's holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher
than the heavens. He's the rock that's higher than
I. Has He not proven it already? Has He not proven that He can
save us from the floods? Look at verse 3. Thou hast been
a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. What are
we seeing? A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing. So his past mercies, this is
what you have been. Thou hast been a shelter for
me. You have been a strong tower from the enemy. And so here's
the resolve for the future. Verse four, I will abide in thy
tabernacle forever, and I will trust in the covert of thy wings.
You see the picture back there on the postcard on the back with
the chicken, with the little hen with the chicks on her wings?
That's it. Now I pray God will help us get
this, help me get this, help you get this. For some reason
when we get into these trials and these troubles and the waves
start raging, we want to try to figure out what caused it.
How did this come about? What happened here? Why did this
happen? What did they say? What did that one say? What caused
this? What did I do wrong here? If
I had done that other thing, whatever, you can look at the
waves until you are underneath the waves, looking up at the
waves. Or you can look to Christ. Look to Christ, not the waves.
The rock that is higher than I. Now here is David's confidence. How is he going to do this? How
is he going to keep crying and abiding and trusting like he
says he is going to do? He is not trusting in himself.
David's confidence is that God's already heard his cry, and He's
already made him a joint heir with Christ. Look here, verse
5. For thou, O God, hast heard my vows. For means because. Here's why I'm going to do all
this, Lord. Because thou, O God, hast heard my prayer. You've
heard my cry. And thou hast given me the heritage,
the inheritance of those that fear thy name. See, God had already
come to David and made David cry out for salvation. And he
cried. And God heard him. And God saved
him already. He made him a joint heir with
Christ. That's the inheritance. Christ is our portion and we're
His portion. We're joint heirs with Christ.
Everything that belongs to Christ belongs to us. That's Romans
8. We're joint heirs with Christ. And so because God had already
made David fear his name, that's what it means, you gave me the
heritage of those that fear thy name. Do you fear God's name?
It's healthy to fear God's name. To reverence God and fear God
and that makes you where you, if you fear your father, you
won't want to offend your father. And that's what he's talking
about, believing on him. And he said, he's already brought
me there and he's already given me an inheritance. And so David's
assurance that God would keep him so that he could fulfill
his vow to persevere in faith was that God had brought him
to confess Christ. And then God had made him a joint
heir with Christ and God never writes anybody out of his will.
Never. If he's made you an heir, you're
an heir forever. Now here's his confidence. Look,
he's going to continue trusting God because of what Christ did.
Look here. See, by faith, David's looking
ahead. He's looking through the ages.
I know David is probably, in a sense, talking about himself
here because God did prolong him and save him. But prophetically,
he's talking about Christ. And that's why the pronoun changes
right here. Look, thou wilt prolong the king's
life, his years as many generations. He shall abide before God forever. O prepare mercy and truth which
may preserve him. Now here's what he's saying.
Look, prepare mercy and truth that will preserve him. Christ
came and you know what he did? He prepared mercy and truth.
That's what he did. And it preserved Christ. He came
and he made mercy and justice agree in harmony. That's what
he was doing on the cross. He came and he declared God just
and the justifier of all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he brought in that everlasting righteousness for all his people.
And God being pleased with him because he prepared mercy and
truth, God Preserved Him. God raised Him. He finished the
work God sent Him to do and as God coveted with Him, God raised
Him from the dead. And so God preserved David in
Christ and He preserved you and me in Christ. You mean David
was already preserved in Christ before Christ went to the cross?
That's what we mean when we say Christ was David's surety. He
was his surety. It was sure. It was sure. and done in God's purpose. So David said, he's talking about
it in a future tense, but it's sure. And so God the Father is
so pleased with Christ His Son that He prolonged the King's
life. See there? Thou wilt prolong
the King's life. That's what He did. Christ the
King, David's King, He raised Him. In His years, His many generations,
He shall abide before God forever. And Christ is still seated there
right now in God's right hand. And he'll be in God's presence
forever. And so when he raised David's
king, he raised David. And when he raised David's king,
he raised you and me who believe on him. And so, here's David's
conclusion. Now look at the conclusion, verse
8. So will I. Remember when we looked
at John 3.16? For God so loved the world. Remember
it means after this manner. So, after this manner, so, so
after this manner will I, by God continually beholding Christ
before His face, He said there, He said there, He's going to
be continually before your face, He'll abide before God forever,
so by Christ continually being before God's face, by mercy and
truth preserving me, because He made mercy and truth meet
together, by God continually bringing me to cry, You know,
David is sitting here talking about how I will cry unto God.
I will cry unto God. Our problem is not so much crying
unto God, it is to get us to the point where we will cry unto
God. Isn't it? So God brings you to feel like
you are at the end of the earth. And He brings you to see your
hearts overwhelmed and feel like you can't get your next breath.
Why? So you will cry unto Him. And that's how you're going to
keep crying unto Him. So God continually holds Christ before
His face. He beholds mercy and truth. Preserving
this child of God right here. And God sees Him. He's a little
too proud right now. He just got to be king. I'm going
to have to bring Him down or He's going to get too proud and
forget me and not call on me. I'm going to have His Son kick
Him out of the kingdom. And David cries out to God. And God, he cries out to God,
lead me to the rock that's higher than I. And God led him to Christ,
right to the rock. And so David says, and so, and
so, and so will I sing praise unto
thy name forever. That's how I'm gonna do it. That
was the vow he made. He said, he said back up there, Verse 2, from the end of the
earth will I cry unto thee. That's what I'm going to do,
David said. I will do this. When my heart's overwhelmed,
I'll do this. He says verse 4, I will abide in thy tabernacle
forever. I will trust in the cover of
their wings. And then he told us how he's going to do that
forever. Christ has preserved him. Christ has satisfied justice.
God beholds Christ's face. God's going to bring him to cry.
And when he cries out, God's going to hear him. And God's
going to lead him to Christ. And he says, and so will I sing
praise unto thy name forever that I may daily perform my vows.
What were those vows he's going to daily perform? I'm going to
cry unto thee. I'm going to call on thee. I'm
going to abide in thy tabernacle. I'm going to stay under the cover
of thy wings. Do you get what I'm saying? Are
you with me? So believer, the waves might
be overwhelming. And you may be overwhelmed by
the waves. Don't look at the waves, cry unto God. That's the
purpose for the waves, to bring us to cry. Lead me to the rock
that's higher than I. and he'll lead you to the rock.
And so shall you sing praise unto his name forever and continue
performing your vow to trust Christ alone. That's how you'll
continue. I pray that's a blessing. Let's
go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for this
word and your many blessings to us. Thank you for trials. It's frightening to say that
to You, Father. Nobody likes a trial when it's
happening, but we thank You for the trial. We thank You, Lord,
that You keep us crying unto You. You keep us overwhelmed where
we can't do anything but cry to You. That is a really good
place that You bring us to, Father. We thank You for that. Lord,
thank You that You preserve us. This is how You preserve Your
people. In Your mercy, in Your truth, Your faithfulness, Your
justice. You preserve us because You behold
Christ before Your face forever. You do it for His sake. You keep
us fulfilling a vow of faith. A vow of trust. Not looking anywhere
else but You. Lord, make us to fulfill that
confession. Make us fulfill it by keeping
us calling on Him and abiding in Him and trusting under His
wings. How we thank you, Lord, for your mercy. You're so much
wiser than us. We spoil our children and turn
them into little brats and they ain't worth nothing. And you
just keep yours humble at your feet, trusting you and obedient
to you, calling on you. What a faithful father. Forgive
us our sins, Lord. Forgive us for trying to get
out from under the trial. Thank you, Father. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen.