Well now, once again, may the
Lord bless us as we turn to the 119th psalm, and this evening
we'll conclude our meditations in the psalm. We'll read from
verse 173 to the end. It's the four verses from 173
to 176 in the 119th psalm. David says, let thine hand help
me, for I have chosen thy precepts. I've longed for
thy salvation, O Lord, and thy law is my delight. Let my soul
live, and it shall praise thee, and let thy judgments help me. I've gone astray like a lost
sheep. Seek thy servant, for I do not
forget thy commandments. So this evening we come to the
last four verses in this wonderful psalm and are thankful for it. And as we come to the end, we
realise that David's desire is to warn his God that his Lord
would still help him and bless him and go before him. And so
we read, let thine hand help me. What a good thing that is,
isn't it? to desire that the Lord, his
hand, will help us. We need his hand, don't we, to
guide us and direct us. We need his hand to stop us,
perhaps, from doing things. We need his hand to help us and
to encourage us. Indeed, we need to feel and to
realise his hand is upon us. We're not being left to just
wander on aimlessly through this world, pleasing ourselves as
we want to, but to feel and to realise the hand of almighty
God is upon us. It's not surprising then, is
it? that David decided when he said let thine hand help me well
our help cometh from the Lord and there's many texts in the
Word of God about the strong hand of our God we can't go through
them all tonight but just one or two first of all in Nehemiah
we spoke in Nehemiah on the Lord's Day and Nehemiah tells us in
the very first chapter. Now these are thy servants and
thy people whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power and by thy
strong hand. That's a wonderful truth, isn't
it? May that be true, may we have the evidence of it in our
lives that indeed we are the Lord's people and we have been
redeemed by his great power and it is a great power to redeem
our souls and by his strong hand that means he's turned us to
himself hasn't left us to wander on aimlessly through this poor
sinful world trying to find satisfaction in the things of time but by
his strong hand he has redeemed us well that'll be a blessing
for you and me tonight if in our little lives we have the
evidence that we have been redeemed and we've been redeemed by his
power and strong hand and then in psalm 136 we also read with a strong hand and with a
stretched out arm, for his mercy endureth forever." His mercy
does endure forever. And it's good if you and I realise
it. And if you and I have known it, that we haven't been dealt
with as our sins deserve, it's because his mercy endure it forever. That's the great God we have.
And therefore, he keeps us and directs us and turns us with
his strong hand. You and I can't keep ourselves,
but we know that we are kept by the power of God. How humbling
it is to realize this is a wonderful and great truth. And then finally,
Jeremiah, a man of God, a man who had many difficulties in
his life, many obstacles to overcome, many people stood in his way,
and yet he's able to declare in the 32nd of Jeremiah, and
has brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt
with signs and with wonders. How true that is. and with a
strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror. In fact, no one could withstand
the power and the strength of God's hand. May that be a support
and a strength to us today. And so we read, let thine hand
help me, for I've chosen thy precepts. Once again we see he
homes in on this great desire to keep the precepts, to keep
the commands of Almighty God and he's able to say, for I've
chosen thy precepts. What a good thing it is if God
gives you and me grace to choose his ways, to choose his commands,
to choose his precepts and to really desire to keep his laws. It's all a grace. What a mercy
it is to have such a God who's dealt with us and given us a
desire to choose his ways. He then continues, I have longed
for thy salvation, O Lord. Well, I hope in all of our lives
we have longed for the salvation of God. That means we've longed
to know that the Lord has saved us. We long to know that the
blessed Saviour has died for us to take away all our sins. And what a blessing if We can
find in our hearts that longing after our God, not just something
which is a familiar phrase, but deep down in our hearts, like
David here, let my soul... Sorry, I have longed for thy
salvation, O Lord. What a blessing if you and I
Have long then for the salvation. And he goes on, and thy law is
my delight. It's like we just commented.
I've chosen thy precepts. He loved God's law. And as I've said on a number
of occasions, of course, that law really was the Old Testament
that he had up to that time, the five books of Moses and possibly
Job and Ruth. But we're thankful indeed that
we have this desire and this statement, and thy law is my
delight. And you and I should desire that
we measure up to such a desire, to delight in the law of God. And then he prays, let my soul
live. Let my soul live. He knew what
it was to be far off. He knew what it was to be overcome
by the power of Satan. And therefore we can understand
why he should make such a request. Let my soul live. It's a good
prayer. We don't want to be as it were
dead, spiritually dead. We want to be spiritually alive,
let my soul live, to be healthy in the things of God. And he
says, let my soul live and it shall praise thee. You see, if
God is gracious to us and gives us life in our soul, it's all
of grace, it's all of his favor. And surely that should produce
in our hearts desire to praise him. Just like we read here,
let my soul live and it shall praise thee and let thy judgments
help me. You may think perhaps that's
a strange thing to say but David desired that he would walk before
God in the light of his countenance and he would not be left to go
astray, and that God would let his judgments come upon him. And as he acknowledged that it
was the judgment of God, they would help him. You may remember,
towards the end of David's life, he decided to number the people. No reason to do that. The pride
of his heart. He wanted to know how many people
there were. And God dealt with him in love. He gave him the choice of three
things. And David came and said, he was
in a great fix. He didn't know what to do. But
he said, it's better to fall into the hands of God than into
the hands of man. And he let, therefore, God decide
what judgment should come upon him. Well, let thy judgments
help me. And then finally, the last verse
in this long psalm, he confesses, I've gone astray like a lost
sheep. It's good, isn't it, to have
confession. It's good to be honest before
our God, because we do wander, and what a mercy it is if we
wander away The Lord goes after us and he finds us and he brings
us back to the fold, brings us back with desires again after
spiritual life. It's very easy to become cold,
very easy to become worldly minded. But what a mercy if we're able
to come like David and confess our situation. and not just go
on ignoring it, but to be sorry for it. And here we have this
illustration, just like a lost sheep. A sheep gets lost, can't
find its way back. My friends, we need the God of
the whole earth to condescend to come and to bring us back. And so he says, seek thy servant. What a mercy if we desire for
the Lord to seek us, to keep us, to direct us, to be round
about us, and then to be able to testify as David did finally,
for I do not forget thy commandments. He didn't forget God's laws. What a blessing that is. If these
are before our eyes, as an unctuous light to all that's right and
a bar to all that's wrong. Well, if God gives us these desires,
it emanates from Him. It's through His mercy. It's
through His grace. And it's because of His love
to unworthy sinners. Well, we've come to the end of
this psalm. I'm sure we can thank God for
the many evidences we have of God's goodness and mercy towards
David, for the confessions he makes, for the praise he makes,
for the direction he desires. And may we ponder and not forget
all the words in this 119th Psalm. Well, may God bless his word.
Amen.