Psalm 5. Psalm 5. Be a joy if you have rejoicing
in your heart because of what the Lord's done. There is a multitude
of enemies in this world, in our sin, in our flesh, and in
the world around us. But in the midst of it all, don't
we have rejoicing in our Lord? Isn't it just rejoicing? The
joy of His salvation. I love to preach and see the
joy on your face. I love that. Because where the
joy is on the faces, generally there's joy in the heart. Joy
in the heart. Well, in Psalm 5, let's read
this together. I'll show you what rejoiced my
heart when I read these verses. Let me read it to you this way. You see that David is David is
praying. This is a song of David, but
David's praying. This is his prayer. He's speaking
of his prayer to God. And he says there in verse 4,
Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither
shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in
thy sight before thine eyes. He won't stand. Thou hatest all
workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that
speak lies. The Lord will abhor the bloody
and deceitful man. I read those verses and my first
thought was, well, that's a good description of me and my flesh. Very good description of me.
And the scripture says, They won't stand before God's
sight. Such a one can't stand even before God's sight. Can't
come into His presence. Look down at verse 9. There's
no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward parts vary wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
They flatter with their tongue. You familiar with that? Sound
familiar? Look over at Romans 3. Romans
3. And look at verse, this is where
Paul was quoting from when he was saying, this is the case
of every man, Jew and Gentile, no different. Look at Romans
3, verse 9. We've concluded. proved before both Jew and Gentiles
that they're all under sin. Verse 10, as it is written, there's
none righteous, no not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of
the way. They're together become unprofitable.
There's none that doeth good, no not one. Now here's, Paul's
quoting right here from our Psalm. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
With their tongues they've used deceit. Flattered, flattered
ourselves, commending our will, flattering ourselves, commending
our righteousness, flattering ourselves, commending some worthiness
in us to come before God, flattered themselves. The poison of asps
is under their lips, whose mouths full of cursing and bitterness,
their feet swift to shed blood, destruction and misery in their
ways, the way of peace they've not known. No fear of God before
their eyes. And we know what things forever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God. Look back there at Psalm 5 verse 10. Destroy thou them,
O God. The word means make them guilty.
Make them guilty. What grace it is when God makes
a sinner fall by our own counsels. Let them fall by their own counsel,
by their own words of wisdom. Cast them out in the multitude
of their transgressions for they rebelled against thee. It's grace
when God makes us to behold the multitude of our transgressions.
Shows us the transgression we are. in ourselves. And that's
what we are in our flesh. This is what we are. Every man,
a believer. And this is, but look now, verse
four again, he says, evil shall not dwell with thee. Evil will
not dwell in thy house. The foolish shall not stand in
thy sight. But here's the rejoicing. Here's
what just grabbed my heart. Verse three. My voice thou shalt
hear. My voice thou shalt hear, O Lord.
Look at verse 7. As for me, I will come into thy
house in the multitude of thy mercy, and in thy fear will I
worship thy holy temple. How so? Now David's talking about
coming into God's presence just in prayer. He begins it, verse
1. Give ear to my words, O Lord,
consider my meditation. How is it that a sinner, just
like David, just like me and you, how is it that we can come
into God's presence even speaking, even in prayer, even in the meditation
of our heart? How can we come into God's presence? How will He hear us? It's because he first hears Christ
Jesus the Lord. It's because the believer has
a mediator, an intercessor, an advocate with the Father in his
presence. And he delights in Christ Jesus
for his righteousness sake. Notice here verse 1, who David's
praying to. Give ear to my words, O Lord.
Consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my
cry, my King and my God. He's calling on God. My God. He's approaching God in Christ
Jesus, the King. That's who He's coming in. He
says there in verse 7, As for me, I'll come into thy house
in the multitude of thy mercy. All God's mercy. And it's a multitude
of mercy. All of it's where? It's all in
Christ. All in Christ. In thy fear, he
said, will I worship toward thy holy temple. You know who the
temple foreshadowed? The temple foreshadowed the body
of Christ Jesus. It foreshadowed Christ himself. He's that holy tabernacle that
dwelt among us. And this is the rejoicing. We
can come into God's presence. Speaking, praying, calling on
Him, we can come into His presence. Holy God, we're talking about,
we can come into His presence. And He'll hear us, because He
hears His Son. Because Christ Jesus the Lord
is the righteousness. of the believer. He's the holiness
whereby God will receive us. Look over at Hebrews 8. I read
there to you Hebrews 7 and I want you to see here Hebrews 8. He said there we have a high
priest. And he's talking about, all through here, he's talking
about Christ our High Priest, Christ the mediator between God
and His people. And then he says in verse 8,
Now of the things which we've spoken, this is the sum. We have
such a High Priest, who sat on the right hand of the throne
of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and
of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man. Look over at chapter 9 and look
at verse 11. Christ being come a high priest
of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not
made with hands, that's to say not of this building, not like
that old tabernacle, neither by the blood of bulls and goats,
goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once
into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us. Eternally purchased every one
of his people. What does it mean that he's entered
into this holy place? Look down at verse 24. Christ
is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the truth, not like that high priest went
into that holy place in the tabernacle, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us. For us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with the blood of others. For then must he have
often, often have suffered since the foundation of the world.
But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared for this
reason." This is what Christ accomplished. He put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself. What's the sum? Let's look at
Hebrews 10, 18. Hebrews 10.18, now where remission
of these is, where sin's put away, there's no more offering
for sin. It's put away. That means everybody
that he died for, he put away their sin. There's nothing else
to offer. Now watch this, having therefore,
this is what every believer, this is what the Spirit of God
bears witness of this in our hearts. We have remission. Christ
put away our sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness,
liberty to enter into the holiest. Where do we see that? Well, that's
heaven itself. Into God's presence. Into the
very presence of God. We have boldness to enter the
holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way. A new way and a living way. which
He's consecrated for us. He's opened it up. He's made
it so for us. Through the veil, through His
flesh, we have a high priest over the house of God. And He
says, therefore, let us draw near, let us come near. Do you see the rejoicing that
the believer has? God says, Art, God says to me
and you, God can look at me and say, I
can't, man, I can't believe God could say that about you, Clay.
I can't either. Can't either. But he says this
about me and you, me and all my brethren. He says, come near.
You have boldness, liberty. Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith. You know what faith is? Faith
is the assurance that I can come to God. There's nothing else
to be done. I can come to God. Faith is believing God will receive
me. He put away my sin. He'll receive
me. I can come to God. How do we
get this? Our hearts have been sprinkled
from an evil conscience. He made us to see what we are
in ourselves, but He made us see what we are in Christ. And
our bodies are washed with pure water. This is Christ the Lord. Now that's joy. Now listen to
this. If God will hear me, if He'll
hear you when we pray, If He'll hear me now, right now, when
I pray. If I can draw near to Him, right
now, in prayer. Which every believer can. Every
believer can come to God. Every believer can call on Him
and draw near to Him. If He'll receive me now, like
that, when I call on His name, when I call on Him in my heart,
when I call on Him in prayer. That means right now, without
anything else being done, I am fit, I am meet to be partakers
with those saints that are already in glory with Him. He hears the
believers sitting right here right now. He hears you sitting
here right now like He hears those saints that are there with
Him right now. And we're as fit and as perfect
and as meek to be with Him right now, without anything else being
done, in Christ Jesus our Lord, by the blood of Christ. We're
as fit to approach Him and be with Him in glory as those saints
right now. If God will hear me when I call
on Him. It's so, because God hears those who've been made
righteous in Christ. He hears those who've been washed
by the blood of His Son. He hears us. Now, there's joy. Christ has perfected us forever.
How do you know? Because He hears me. He hears
me. He hears my voice when I pray
unto Him. Now, I don't know how to pray
as I ought to. I don't know how to pray to Him
as I ought to. Sometimes I can't even put my prayer into words.
Sometimes I can't even do anything but just groan. But the Spirit helps my infirmity. And He that searches the heart. Look at this at Romans 8. He
that searches the heart. He knows. He knows. And Christ intercedes for the
saints according to the will of God. He presents my petition to God
perfectly. You see, we read these Psalms
and we read David, we see that a man wrote this, David, but
when we read these Psalms, God's recording this for us, how it
comes to him in Christ Jesus, so that we can see that where
David didn't pray as he ought, This is exactly how Christ interceded
for David. And this is how Christ intercedes
for his people. So that when we read these things,
even when it sounds like we read it. Destroy them just because
they're enemies against thee Christ prays that in perfect
righteousness without any sin Intercedes that without any sin,
but look at this Romans 8 26 the spirit also helpeth our infirmities
for we know not what we should pray for as we all but the spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered the Spirit itself. And he that searches the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God." So you see, when
we behold David here saying, give ear to my words, hear the
words of my meditation, David can pray. He can come into God's
presence just like every believer can in our King, our High Priest,
our Mediator, Christ the King. That being said, I want to give
you four words concerning prayer. Four words concerning prayer.
Here's the first word. It's first. I'm going to give
you just four single words to remember. This is the first one.
First. First. Look at verse 3. Psalm 5, 3. David says, My voice
shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord. Morning here means first. It means first. It means beginning,
in the beginning. Now the power of the Lord creates
a willingness. He creates this willingness in
our heart to cast all our care into His hands. David says, unto
thee will I pray. And when a sinner is made to
behold that Christ is our intercession, He's our intercessor. He's the
one who presents us to God. And when we're made to see that,
we seek Him first. We seek Him continually. We seek
Him always. We seek Him early. It doesn't
mean just when we first wake up in the morning, although we
do, we seek Him early. But it means seek Him first. Christ said, seek first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. Seek Him preeminently. Seek Him
above what you're going to put on, what you're going to wear,
where you're going to work, how you're going to feed your family,
how you're going to... Seek Christ first. Seek Christ first. And this is, see, when God speaks
into this heart, when he puts Christ in the heart, when Christ
enters in the heart, we really do begin praying without ceasing. He commands us. He calls us and
says, cast all your care onto me. Pray to me without ceasing. And the believer begins to really
pray without ceasing. we really do. Pray without ceasing. I laugh sometimes about all this
uproar and this carrying on about not being able to pray in certain
places in the schools and what have you. Nobody's been able
to stop me from praying anywhere, anytime, ever. Ever. We come into God and we pray
to Him continually. But you see, when prayer is an
act, when it's a mere act, when it's a mere duty, it's a habit,
it's a work. It's just a work of self-righteousness. But when God has come in and
He's entered into our soul, prayer becomes the life of God in the
soul. That's what is the total dependence. We live on Him. We live upon
our God. That's when we're made to see
the total inability in ourselves and our total helplessness. We
live upon God. We continually trust God and
depend upon God for everything. For everything. And we're living
upon Him. Look at verse 8. He says, Lead
me, O Lord, in Thy righteousness because of my enemies. You know
what the word there is? Those who observe me, watch to
find fault in me, to accuse me. Lead me, O Lord, in Thy righteousness
because of my enemies. You know what Satan is called?
He's called the accuser of the brethren. He's watching, wanting
to accuse, wanting to accuse, wanting to accuse. That's what
this flesh is. This flesh, my flesh within me
is an accuser. That's what it is. Accusing me,
accusing myself. Trying to take away my hope and
my righteousness and my confidence and the blessing I have and rejoicing
I have in my Savior. My own flesh is this enemy. How much more The enemy's round
about, and we totally depend on Him. Isn't it a joy to be
able to be honest, to really depend on God for everything?
It's a great joy to be able to confess to the Lord, Lord, I
need You. I need You every hour. I need
You to lead me constantly. So that's the first word. First. Seek Him first. First word. Here's the second word concerning
our approaching God, our prayer to God. Here's the second word,
reverence. Reverence. Look at verse 3. David
says, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee. Look over at Genesis 22, 9. I
want to show you another example where the original word is translated
another way. And it'll help us understand
what that word direct means. Genesis 22, verse 9. You know this account. It's whenever
Abraham went up the mount as the Lord commanded him and he
was sacrificing Isaac. Picture of Christ the Redeemer.
Look here at Genesis 22.9. It says, to the place which God had told
him of. That's what we're doing. And
when we come to God in prayer, we're coming to the place God's
told us to come to. We're coming to Christ, to that
Holy Temple, to that Holy Tabernacle, to that Christ Jesus our Lord.
We're coming in Him, coming through Him. And he says here, And Abraham
built an altar there and laid the wood in order. Do you see
that word in order? It's the same original word that's
translated direct in our text. He laid the wood in order. In
order. True prayer. True prayer is worship
of God the Father. And it's in reverence. It's in
order. when we behold what it took to
redeem us. You know what it took to redeem
us? It took Christ coming. It took
Christ bearing our sin in His own body on the tree. It took
Christ going to the cross and paying the wages of our sin debt. And it took, in order to make
us justified, and it takes Him coming to us in power and revealing
in us what Christ has done by the Spirit of God, creating us
anew. This is done through His gospel in righteousness, in order
according to God. And when we behold the order
of God's kingdom and the order of God's righteousness and the
order of the way it took to redeem us from iniquity, We behold,
this one we're approaching, this one we're praying to is holy.
He's holy. And we come to Him in reverence. We come to Him in fear. The beginning
of fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. When we truly reverence
God, it's the beginning of wisdom. And we come there, worshiping
Him, and we come there in with some order, some order before
God. What do you mean by that? Well,
let's look at Matthew 6 and let's see what our Lord said about
it. Matthew 6. He was talking there about the hypocrites that love to stand
in the synagogues and the corners of the streets, that they may
be seen of men when they pray, to be seen. Now they make great
prayer and all that, and he was saying, go into your closet and
pray. And look what he says here in verse 7, Matthew 6, 7. He says, but when you pray, use
not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they
should be heard for their much speaking. Be ye not therefore
like unto them. For your father knoweth what
things ye have need of before ye ask him. Look at this now. I want you
to see here. He says, verse 9, after this
manner, therefore, pray ye. It doesn't mean we have to use
these exact words. It doesn't mean we even have
to, we pray these in this exact order of the things he gives
here, but it means after this manner. I want you to see here
the simplicity and the singleness. This is what reverence is. This is what true worship is.
Knowing that the Father knows what we need before we even ask
Him. There's three simple things here
that this prayer includes. It includes adoration and submission. It includes our need. And it
includes praise. It's three things. Now look at
this, adoration and submission. Verse 9, Our Father, which art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Holy, worthy to be praised above
all, reverend, holy and reverend is his name. Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, your will be done, as it is in heaven. This
is just adoration and submission. This is, pray after that man,
with adoration and submission. This is the stuff of reference.
And then look, here's the second thing, it's need. And this is
our need. All our need is right here. Our
Lord doesn't speak in excess. What our Lord gives us here is
exactly what we need. Here's what we need. Verse 11,
give us this day our daily bread. We just need. We just need today. God to provide. Just our bread. Our shelter, our clothing, our
everything we need just for today. That's what we need. And we say
give because it's a gift of God. And look this 12 and forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors. We need forgiveness.
That's what we need. We need forgiveness. and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. We need to be led out of evil,
delivered from it. That's what we need. We need
right now, today, just our daily need. We need forgiveness, and
we need God to lead us. That's what we need. It may come
in various shapes and forms and fashions, That evil that we need
to be led out of. This is what we need. And here's
the third thing. It's just praise. Look at verse
13. For thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. In all these things, this is
what we're saying. Lord, glorify your name. Glorify
yourself. You see how single and how simplistic
it is? true prayer is. That's because
our Father knows the things we have need of before we ever ask
Him. So the first word is first. The
second word concerning approaching His throne of grace is reference. All this hoopla in the world
and all this carrying on in the church and there's so much excess
in religion. Excess. God's people are very
simple, very singular. And God teaches us to be so.
Here's the third word. Expectation. Expectation. Look back at the psalm in verse
3. David said, And I will look up. I will look
up. He said, I'll seek you first. I'll seek you early. I'll seek
you preeminently in the morning. He said, I'll seek you in reverence.
I'll direct my prayer unto thee. Not just I'm going to direct
it at you, but I'm going to have reference when I approach you.
Because I see your holiness in what you did in your son. And
here's the third word. And I'll look up. The word is
I'll watch and I'll wait. I expect you to answer my petition. You know, that's all this anxiety
we have. And I'm talking to Clay here. All my anxiety, all my worry,
all my fretting, all the things that just weigh me down and burden
me so, is not expecting God to do for
me what He said He will do. And it's this too. It's not watching
and expecting, and it's not waiting. Not waiting. There's something.
There's something evil. I don't know. There's something
evil about having what we want at the push of a button. Right
now. Right now. It teaches us not
to wait. Not to wait on anything. We need to slow down. You know,
we need to slow down. We need to learn to Wait. Trust. Expect. That's what he's saying. Expect.
I'm gonna expect. Lord, I expect. I'm looking up. I'm expecting. Let me ask you
this. Everything that you have needed,
has God provided? Everything I've ever needed,
God has provided. So, Why would I not expect? He's provided me righteousness
in His Son. He's provided me the perfection
of His Son. Provided me access into His presence. Provided me, after that, there's
not really a whole lot I need. I do need Him to provide for
me while I sojourn through this life, don't we? And he'll provide
it. He said, if I've given my son,
I'll give you everything. I'll give everything you need.
So we expect God to save all his own. We can expect God to
provide for all his own. We can expect God to come again
and to take us home. We can expect it. Expect it. Therefore will the
Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you, that He may be exalted,
that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of judgment.
Blessed are all they that wait on Him. Wait on the Lord. Be
of good courage. Wait on the Lord. He'll strengthen
thy heart. He'll strengthen thine heart.
So here's the first word is first. Seek Him first. God won't have
any rivalries. He won't have any rivalries between
us and Him. He's going to remove them, and it may be very painful
when He removes them, but He's going to make us seek Him first.
Secondly, we come to Him reverencing Him. He said to Moses, take off
the shoes of your feet. Moses, this is holy ground. Somebody
said this, we ought to consider I'm going to misquote it. We
ought to consider our words more than the simplicity of our words,
more than the multitude of our words. That's more important. Simplicity. And here's the third
thing is expectation. Expect him. Expect him to do
what he said. And here's the fourth word to
remember when we approach his throne of grace. Joy. Rejoice. Rejoice. Look at verse 11. Let all those that put their
trust in thee rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy. Do you trust the Lord? Do you
rejoice in Him? If we trust Him, we have every
reason to rejoice in Him. If we really trust the Lord,
He says let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice.
Let them ever shout for joy. Let them ever shout. for joy. We have reason in our
Lord Jesus Christ to rejoice, to rejoice continually, and to
rejoice greatly. Let them ever shout for joy. Why, what's the joy? Look at
that next word. Because thou defendest them. You cover them. You protect them. We're covered in the robe of
His righteousness. And He's going to defend us and
protect us. He'll defend us and protect us with His own life,
with His own blood. He'll defend and protect us in
this world. Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.
Verse 12. For thou, Lord, will bless the
righteous. With favor wilt thou compass
him as with a shield. We're righteous by how? In Christ. And because of Christ, in Christ,
we're surrounded. We're hedged about by a consuming
fire who is our God, who defends us like a shield. Remember those old shows where
they would have some character and he'd have a force field? You remember? His force field
beyond him. No, you couldn't get to him because
he'd have a force field around. The believer's got a force field
around us and it's Christ our Lord. Our righteousness. He defends us like a shield.
Like a shield. This is rejoicing it. Listen,
we got liberty to come to God because Christ, our mediator,
He hears us now, meaning He's going to receive us right now
and He'll receive us into His glory and His presence forevermore.
So when we do that, when we know that, when we rejoice in that,
when we have this in our heart, knowing that He's going to hear
and knowing that that he hears us, he also receives us because
he's made us accepted in the beloved. Then remember these
four words. Seek him first. Seek him in order,
in reverence, come to him and bow to him. Seek him expecting
him, watching up, looking for him and waiting on him to do
exactly as he's promised. and do it with rejoicing. Do
it with joy. Let them rejoice. Let them rejoice. I don't have anything not to
rejoice in. Not to rejoice in. It's not that
everything is, it's not that there's not thorns. It's not
that there are not great reasons right now If I look to the waves,
it's not that there's not great reason for me to cry my eyes
out. But I got greater reason to rejoice. Rejoice. Look up. Look to Him
and rejoice in Him. Rejoice in Him. God will defend us. He'll defend
all who's trusted Him. He's made them righteous. And
He's going to defend them. And this is our rejoicing. God
who crowned Christ. God who brought Him into His
presence and crowned Christ Jesus, His only begotten Son, with endless
joy. He's going to crown His people
with the endless joy of being brought into His presence. He's
going to do it for His own righteousness sake. That is, for the sake of
Christ the Lord. Can you rejoice? Can we rejoice? We got great reason to rejoice
in him. I hope that's a blessing.