Well may I please Almighty God
to bless us together this evening as we meditate in this word.
Let us turn to the book of Psalms. The book of Psalms and Psalm
number 61 and we'll read the second verse. Psalm 61 and reading
the second verse. 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. This is, as we're told, a psalm
of David. And if we think of David's life,
King David, it was not an easy life. Although he was, of course,
king, and he was greatly blessed, but he also had many difficulties
in his life. And therefore, we can understand
why he wrote a psalm like this. And he's praying, and he's praying
to God, and he's saying, hear my cry, O God, attend unto my
prayer. And it is a great blessing that
we have examples of such prayers as this for us today as we live
upon the earth. And as we face difficulties,
because we are told in the Bible that we will face difficulties,
that life won't be just a smooth path, there will be times when
we're tested, and times when our religion almost seems to
disappear. And so David goes on to tell
us From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee when my
heart is overwhelmed. That means he was really overcome
by the situations which surrounded him. And yet you see he's telling
us that he wouldn't give up. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed. We can think
perhaps of another character in the Bible that's well known
and that's the case of Jonah you may remember Jonah was disobedient
to God and instead of going to preach as he was told in Tarshish
he ran away and he found a ship and he thought he'd get in that
and escape having to go and preach to Nineveh as God had told him
so he did that He went into the ship and the ship took off and
there was sailing and then a great storm arose. And it was then,
though Jonah was asleep, the other sailors woke him up and
explained the situation and he then realised that he was the
problem, he was the cause of this great storm. He told them
to take him up and to throw him overboard which eventually, reluctantly,
they did. And amazingly, God had prepared,
as we're told, a great fish. In actual fact, a special whale
to actually swallow Jonah. And Jonah was, therefore, swallowed
by this Jonah, by this whale. But the Lord sustained him in
the stomach of the whale. And for three days and three
nights, Jonah was like that. And after that, we're told, he
then cried to God. He then prayed to God. Amazingly,
really, in that terrible darkness of the whale's stomach, it wasn't
until then that the Spirit of God really awakened him to realize
the only opportunity, the only chance he had of escape was to
pray to God. So he did pray to God. And God
heard his prayer. And the great blessing was, in
that situation, that Jonah came to realise his great need of
mercy. And he says, he made a wonderful
statement, he said, salvation is of the Lord. The only way
he could be saved physically, the only way he could be saved
spiritually was through God and we're told that the fish vomited
out Jonah onto dry land and then of course Jonah obeyed God and
he went then when he was told again to go and preach the gospel
to Nineveh which he did and there was a wonderful deliverance. So we have the account there
of Jonah like David here saying from the end of the earth would
I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed? And so he prays. What does he say? Lead me to
the rock that is higher than I. Well, what is the rock? You might well ask what the rock
is. It's a good question to ask. And we're told what the rock
is. In the first epistle of the Corinthians,
Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, we're told when Paul writes that
letter to the Corinthians, and he says, speaking of the Jewish
nation, the Hebrews, he says, and they did all drink the same
spiritual drink. For they drank that spiritual
rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. So therefore, what David is saying
here is really, lead me to Christ. Lead me to Christ, who is higher
than I am. What a good prayer that is. And what a wonderful prayer it
is, because it is a very appropriate prayer. for all of us to be led
by the Spirit of God to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because He is the
only one who can save our souls, the only one who can deliver
us, the Lord Jesus Christ. We read that long chapter in
the Acts of the Apostles where The deacon Stephen gives a wonderful
account of how God had been with the Hebrew people, the Jewish
nation, and he traces it back from Abraham. Of course, Abraham
was the person that the Lord God wonderfully appeared to and
told him that the people that emanated from him would be as
the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore. And at
that time, he didn't have any children at all. So it was a
great test for Abraham, because he was an old man then. And naturally
speaking, his wife was old and there wasn't any possibility
of having any children. But we're told that Abraham believed
God. And in due time, God granted
to Abraham and Sarah a child who, as no doubt you know, was
called Isaac. And it was some 14 years after
God had spoken to Abraham. Sometimes we think today that
things are going to suddenly happen. They're going to happen
tomorrow. Well, again, the Bible tells
us Your time is always, but my time is not yet. And we have to be patient for
God's time to be worked out. Because God has a perfect time. And what we have to realise is
that you and I are just very small, insignificant humans on
this vast world. And God rules and reigns over
everything, the vast universe. And He's in control of everything.
And everything is worked out in accordance with His wonderful
and magnificent plan. And we fit in to that great plan
that God has planned. And so let us not expect everything
to come about in accordance with our time scale. We often have
our timescale, well we should realise that God has a timescale
and the two timescales often don't agree but we can be sure
that God's timescale will be the best because we're told,
as for God, his way is perfect. So we should not be disappointed
if God's leading doesn't suddenly appear. It doesn't suddenly do
those things which we've expected. Sometimes God speaks to our hearts
and words of direction, words of leading as to what the Lord
has in store for us, the plans he has for us. And we sometimes
almost take it for granted that those things are going to happen
immediately. Don't forget that God's timescale is not our timescale. And therefore the Word of God
tells us, ye have need of patience. We do have need of patience,
because God will work everything out in accordance with His will. And then we shall be able to
say, as for God, His way is perfect. If our plans had been worked
to, we would prove they weren't very perfect. But we know that
God, who rules and reigns over everything, has a perfect plan. And so here we see David, in
this time of distress, quite clearly, he tells us, my heart
is overwhelmed. He's overwhelmed, we're not told
precisely what it is on this account, As we read the Word
of God, there are many times when David was overwhelmed, and
it was no doubt one of those occasions, and he comes and says
with this great prayer, lead me to the rock that is higher
than I, to be led to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we can
be sure if the Holy Spirit leads us to the Lord Jesus Christ,
it will be a good place It'll be a place of instruction, it'll
be a place of teaching, a place of direction, a place of leading,
and then as we're able to commit our way unto the Lord, to trust
also in Him. You see, David very simply and
very powerfully really says, lead me to the rock, lead me
to Christ that is higher than I. Well, it's good when you and
I are led to look and to see by faith the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ and to realise what the Lord Jesus Christ did when
he came into this world, the wonderful life that he led for
those 33 years, the first 30 years more or less in obscurity. And the last three years, of
course, when he was revealed the wonderful things that the
Saviour did. And the whole purpose of the
life of the Saviour really on this earth was to redeem his
people from their sins, to deliver them from the curse of sin. The curse of sin says, the soul
that sinneth it shall die, perish in our sins. And all of us need
to have our sins forgiven. As I've said very often, in heaven
there is no sin. There's no sinner in heaven. there are only forgiven sinners
in heaven. And everyone who is in heaven
is a forgiven sinner. Everyone who is in heaven is
one for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died. And in dying, what occurred? The Lord Jesus' death was one
that satisfied the holy law of God. And it paid the price required
to take away our sins. You see, there is a price to
pay, a price that you and I cannot pay. We're told the wages of
sin is death. The payment required is death,
but my friends, your death and my death will not be adequate
because it'll be sinful death. And there will still be sins
that need to be taken away. And so the only way that our
sins can be removed is through what the Lord Jesus Christ did
when he died upon that cross at Calvary to take away the sins
of his whole church. And of course as we read the
wonderful accounts which we do in the New Testament of the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that what occurred was
that he died and the evidence of his death was his shed blood. And we're told without the shedding
of blood there's no remission, there's no forgiveness if Jesus
Christ had not died If he had not shed his own blood, there
would be no hope for you and me. And so, tonight, can we not
pray like David did here? Lead me to the rock, lead me
to the Lord Jesus Christ that is higher than I. We're reminded
perhaps of the words of John the Baptist when he was the one
that was blessed to baptize the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said
to those around, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. This is really good news, isn't
it? To think of that. And what a blessing if the Holy
Spirit shows to us that Lord Jesus Christ died to take away
your sin, and died to take away my sin. Essential, isn't it? Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission, there's no forgiveness. And so this prayer
is really a wonderful prayer. Lead me to the rock that is higher
than I. Lead me to the Lord Jesus Christ. Show me the Lord Jesus Christ
has died for me to take away my sin. This is a great request,
isn't it? And to think that we are just
small, unworthy sinners of the earth, and we come to the great
God, the Almighty Ruler, the God who created all things, and
to think that God listens and hears our prayer. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it glorious to think about
that? To think that we have such a
Saviour, who is compassionate, who understands us, who knows
all about us. Other people won't understand
us. Other people can't understand us. But God knows all about us,
because He knows what we're thinking. No one else knows what we're
thinking, do they? The closest person, our husband
or our wife or our parents or our children, they don't know
what we're thinking. They may make some assessment,
but they don't know what we're thinking. But God knows what
you and I are thinking. He knows all about us. Now that's,
in one sense, a great blessing. On the other side it's a very
solemn consideration because God knows all the bad things
that we think. Nothing is hidden from Almighty
God. But also God knows our prayers. And if we prayed like this, lead
me to the rock, lead me to the Lord Jesus Christ, Other people
perhaps don't know anything about that. There may be a prayer between
your soul and God. It may be a prayer perhaps you
prayed for quite a long time. You don't seem to have got any
answer. Well, don't give up. Press on. Because we can read
this, the Lord waits to be gracious. As I said earlier, the Lord has
a perfect time. A time when He will hear and
answer. A time when He will come to us
individually and speak to our hearts and confirm to us that
He has indeed loved us, because the Lord God has a love to all
His people. Isn't that wonderful? Especially
if you and I look at ourselves and look at our own thoughts
and think how bad they are. And to think, can ever God love
such a bad person as me? Well, thankfully, it doesn't
depend upon our deeds. And as we read in the prophecy
of Jeremiah, chapter 31, where the prophet says the words of
the Lord, yea, I have loved thee with everlasting love, and therefore
with loving kindness, have drawn thee." That means the Lord has
drawn us to pray to Him. Many people today do not pray. Well, they may pray perhaps if
they're in some kind of difficulty and they may think, well, I better
pray to God. But they don't pray for their
soul. They don't pray that the Lord
will forgive their sins. I don't pray that one day they
may come and spend eternity with Jesus in glory. But it's a great
blessing if God has blessed us with such a desire and such a
hope as that. Well, says David, lead me to
the rock that is higher than I. And as we read the accounts
in the Word of God, we see how God's people have been gloriously
and wonderfully led, often in a way which we might seem very
strange. You think of Joseph, one of Jacob's
sons, the second youngest son, and a son who was wonderfully
blessed and he had some dreams from God which his brothers didn't
like very much. because they indicated that they
would all one day bow down to Joseph. So they weren't very
keen on that coming to pass. And they'd all gone off, the
ten brothers, Joseph and Benjamin, the youngest, were left at home
with their dad. The others had gone off with their flocks and
Jacob said to his son Joseph, go and see how your sons are
getting on. So he went off and Eventually
he was on the journey and his brothers saw him on the way off
and they said, here comes that dreamer. Let's get rid of him. We don't want him anymore. Let's see what becomes of his
dreams. And he came up to them and they
took him. They took off, he had this very special coat on of
many colours and they took it off and they cast him into a
pit to decide what to do with him. to begin with they thought
they would kill him and then they thought better of it, they
thought well perhaps that's not a good thing to do and then they
saw some merchants coming and they said we'll sell him to the
merchants as a slave and so they sold him to these merchants and
the merchants then took him and he went down with them into Egypt
and he was sold as a slave Well, you can imagine, can't you, what
Joseph was thinking. Why is this cut to me? Why am
I like this? Why have I been sold and why
am I having to be a slave? And then as you read the account
of Joseph, we know that he was looked upon by the master who
brought him Potiphar, who put him in a good place and then
eventually Potiphar had to go on journeys to do business and
his wife tried to seduce Joseph and he refused to be seduced
and then Potiphar's wife pretended that he tried to take her and
lie with her. When her husband came back, her
husband believed her rather than Joseph, and Joseph was put in
prison. And then in prison, he also found
favour with a jailer. And he was there for a good few
years. Eventually, there were two of
Pharaoh's servants, the butler and the baker, who were put in
prison. And they had dreams. And they
told Joseph the dreams. And Joseph was able to tell them
what the dreams meant. That one would be restored, the
butler, and the baker would be hung. And so it came to pass.
And Joseph said to the butler, when you come back, when you
come into Pharaoh's presence, don't forget me, remember me.
But the butler forgot for two years. And so I think it was
some 15 years from when he was sold to the millionaires that
poor old Joseph was in that situation. And when he was in prison, he
was chained up, it wasn't an easy time. He had these dreams. Were they going to come to pass?
Was God leading him? Was God leading him? What a question,
wasn't it? Lead me! Well, God was leading
him. And eventually, as you may know,
Pharaoh had a dream. And no one could tell him what
the dream was. And then a butler suddenly remembered. And he said,
I remember my thoughts today. And he told Pharaoh about Joseph. And Joseph was brought before
Pharaoh, and he was able to tell him what his dreams meant. So Joseph was then raised to
the next person in Pharaoh. It was a wonderful, wonderful
deliverance. And he told him there would be
seven years of plenty, and then seven years of famine. seven
years of plenty occurred and as the years of famine began
so Joseph's brothers and Jacob needed some food and the brothers
came down into Egypt and of course Joseph recognized them but Joseph's
brothers didn't recognize him and they were sent away and they
had to come again, we won't go into all the details and they
came again and they bowed down to Joseph just as his dreams
were so eventually Joseph told them who he was and all his brethren
came down into Egypt as we read in that chapter 70 of them, they
all came down into Egypt and they live there. Well, God led
Joseph, but in a way that he would never have expected. But it was God's purpose. And
I believe these things are recorded for our encouragement in the
day and age in which we live, that we still have a God who
leads us. And as we come and pray to him, to the rock, lead me to the Lord
Jesus Christ. In the 107th Psalm there's a
wonderful account there of the Lord's leadings of the children
of Israel which is recorded and verse 7 tells us, and he led
them forth by the right way that they might go to a city of habitation. That was true of Israel. They were led by the right way.
It wasn't easy. 40 years in the wilderness. But eventually they came across
Jordan and eventually came into the land of Canaan and of course
conquered those cities and took the land which God had promised
to them many years ago. And so perhaps God has promised
us something. We can't see at the moment any
prospect of it being fulfilled. Well,
we are not to give up. We are not to cast it away. We might be tempted to and we
might think, well, that's just me, that's just my flesh. Well,
if it's of God, First of all, you can be sure that you won't
be able to let it go, even if perhaps you're tempted to cast
it away and think, well that's just my imagination. You'll find that it will still
remain, perhaps not as powerful at some time as others, but you
won't be able to cast it off, because it's the work of God. God's work
is very wonderful. It was in the case of Joseph. Wonderful indeed, as you and
I read about it. We love to read it, don't we?
But you imagine being in Joseph's shoes at that time and thinking,
I must have made a mistake. Everything is going wrong. No,
Joseph, you didn't. What God said would come to pass. And it did come to pass. It came to pass for God's honour
and for God's glory. And that's the thing, isn't it?
So if we, in our little lives, if we think things are going
to work out in accordance with our plan, right? We think, wow,
this has happened and that's happened and this is going to
come to pass. And I'll be able to give a wonderful
account of this. God said this and God's done
this and God has said this. God doesn't allow that. Do you
know why? Because if it was to come to
pass in the exact way that we think, we would think, oh, well,
that's my prayers and that's me. No, God is a holy God. God is a jealous God. God has
his way and his plan. And God will have the glory.
You won't be able to say, well, of course, I thought this and
I planned this. It had to come and so yes, the
Lord's ways are higher than my ways. God's ways are better than
my ways. And I see how I had to be prepared. You think of Moses. We read about Moses in some detail
in that chapter. Moses of course was born in that
time when all the children were being slain and he was kept and
his mother hid him in the bulrushes and Pharaoh's daughter came and
saw the babe crying and told them to go and fetch the babe
and she said I'll look after it and he can be my son and remarkably
she called one of the Hebrews to nurse it, and of course the
nurse was in actual fact Moses' sister. So it was a wonderful
position. And therefore Moses was brought
up for 40 years in the palace of Pharaoh. Everything he needed,
wonderful comfort, wonderful existence. And then you see the
Lord showed him that he was the person that God would use to
bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. So the time was
getting near, the 400 years that were prophesied, they still had
40 years to go, but they were getting near and Moses thought,
well of course all the Egyptians, all the Israelites would obviously
know that he was a person that God had ordained to bring out
the children of Israel. Well, he saw these people fighting,
these Israelites fighting, and he told them to stop and they
said, look, hey, how about the person that you killed yesterday?
Because there'd been an Egyptian who was fighting one of the Israelites
and he'd slain him. And he realized that It was known
and he therefore escaped and he went many, many miles away
to the backside of the desert. And that wasn't just a short
stay. He was there for 40 years. Remember,
he thought the Israelites would know that he was the person that
God had ordained. Well, they didn't. Forty years
he was as the Bible tells us in the backside of the desert,
very different to Pharaoh's palace. But there was a lot of teaching
there, a lot of teaching. And God taught Moses in those
40 years about himself and about the need he had of relying totally
on Almighty God. And at the end of 40 years, as
we read, God appeared to him in a burning bush. There was
a bush which continued burning and Moses couldn't understand
why. And he drew near and God spoke
to him out of the bush and told him he was the person to go and
to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. And of course by that
time all Moses Thoughts of he being a person evaporated and
he said well, I'm just not suitable. I'm just not the right person You see God brought him right
down So really just like the Apostle
Paul Who said he was less than the least of all saints? See
God brings us down he might raise us up for his work, for his purpose. And so, after those 40 years,
he was 80 years old now, God used him to bring the children
of Israel out of Egypt. Lead me to the rock that is higher
than I. Yes, he was dependent then upon
his God. He wasn't dependent upon himself,
his own ability. And it all disappeared. He was
totally dependent upon his God. But we can be thankful God was
with him. My friends, what a mercy it is
for us today to know that God is with us. It's our turn to
walk upon the earth now. God knows what he has in store
for each one of us. God knows how he will lead us.
and how He will direct us. We can therefore be sure that
He will lead us in the right way. But it's not always the
way we expect. We think of Jeremiah. Jeremiah
was a man of God, a prophet of God, a man greatly blessed of
God. But again, he didn't find the
leading of God very easy. He was led by the Lord and he
tells us his experience. This is what he says. He hath
led me, is his God, to Jeremiah. Jeremiah is saying, he hath led
me. That's good, isn't it? Yes. But
what's the outcome? He hath led me and brought me
into darkness but not into light. We would expect the opposite,
wouldn't we? We would expect God to bring us into a beautiful,
light path. Everything would be lovely and
clear. We wouldn't have any difficulty in discerning it. Well, you see,
God's ways are different to ours. God did come. He did deliver
Jeremiah. He was Jesus' mighty dear God.
But it was a different way to what Jeremiah expected. And he tells us, he's hedged
up my ways. You know with the hedges around
you, you can't make much progress. And also he said he was chained
down, he had a heavy chain. And that slowed him down dramatically. Sometimes we can't rush along
like we might think. God deals with us as sons and
daughters of the Most High God. You see, David, in his path,
he became king. But not for a good few years
after he was anointed. No, he was chased around by Pharaoh
and a difficult life he had. So don't be surprised if our
lives are very different from what we expect. Because be assured
of this, God is dealing with us. as sons and daughters of
the Most High God. And we can thank God for it. In the 31st Psalm, David tells
us these words, Lead me in thy truth and teach me. Lead me. Here he is. Lead me. This isn't the only
time he asks to be led. Lead me. lead me in thy truth,
and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day."
It's good to wait upon the Lord. It's a good thing to wait upon
the Lord. We need patience. God gives patience. God gives patience. Your time
is always, but my time is not yet. No, God has a far better
time than you and I have. And so we should be very, very
thankful for that. Again, David tells us, for thou
art my rock, Just like this here, in the 31st Psalm, verse 3. For thou art my rock and my fortress,
therefore for thy name's sake lead me and guide me. To the true believer there will
be a constant concern that God leads us and that God guides
us. We won't want to go our own way. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but at the end they're off for the ways of death. Yes,
it's very easy to mistake the way. What a blessing though,
to know that God is on our side. that God's on our side, we can
be sure the way will be a good way and the way will be a right
way. And you know the truth is that
that will lead you and me to the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we will see then, we
will see His way was far rougher and darker than mine. Did God my Lord suffer, and shall
I repine? You see, as we view the Saviour,
as we view His life, it puts everything in a right perspective. We don't find then we are rebellious,
because God gives us grace and He gives us patience. And we
find that we are willing to submit ourselves under the mighty hand
of God. We may be exalted in due time
and he gives us grace to cast all our care upon him, believing
he cares for us. What a blessing it is, isn't
it? What a mercy to have such a kind and gracious God who doesn't
deal with us as our sins deserve. Remember, He led them in the
right way that they might go to a city of habitation. And that really is what we might
say the bottom line, isn't it? God leads us through life. to that inheritance which is
incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away. Yes, it's
a right way, it's a good way. It's a lot of corners to be knocked
off, it's a lot of things we have to leave behind, but that
which we receive of God we retain. because it's pure, it's good
and it's righteous. That which is of the flesh we
have to leave aside, we have to pass over. God works and what
he does is good and right. And he brings us at last, as
we read in the 107th Psalm, to our desired haven. What is that? heaven at last. How good it is
to be looking forward to that inheritance which is incorruptible
and undefiled and to anticipate the glory of being eternally
with Christ. That puts everything in a right
perspective and we can praise God for His gracious condescension
in not leaving us to ourselves. We may indeed be naturally overwhelmed,
but we won't give up. We'll pray to God, just like
David did here. He was, we might say, at wit's
end corner. From the end of the earth would
I cry unto thee. He wasn't going to give up. When
my heart is overwhelmed, lead me. to the rock that is higher
than I." Oh, friends, the Lord Jesus Christ is so much higher
than us, so much more glorious, so wonderful, so compassionate. What a mercy it is for us to
come and commit all our way unto Him, believing He cares for us. how humbling that is to think
Almighty God cares for such unworthy people as we are. And so the
first verse reads, Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer,
and that will be the true prayer of each one who is concerned
to know that God is with them, and God is leading them, and
God is blessing them. Amen.