I please God to bless us together
this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
book of Psalms, Psalm 63, and we'll read the first two verses. Psalm 63, and reading verses
one and two. O God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul
thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and
thirsty land where no water is, to see thy power and thy glory
so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. These words of David were written,
as we're told at the top of this psalm, when he was in the wilderness
of Judah. So we can understand by that,
that the area that he was in was not a very hospitable situation. And in a natural way, he was
therefore thirsty and needed drink. in that dry and thirsty
land. And how often the Word of God
gives us a natural position to indicate to us the direction
we should think with regard to our spiritual situation. Because David here was in the
wilderness of Judah, but we today are in the wilderness the wilderness
of this world. And it's a great blessing if
the Holy Spirit has shown to us that this world is indeed
a wilderness. That this world is not a place
of comfort for our souls. It is indeed a desert land. And naturally speaking, there
is nothing that profits our soul. But here we see David. We see the direction of his mind.
And what a good thing, therefore, if our mind is directed in the
same way that David's was, as you and I pass through the world
at the present time. And he's able to make this wonderful
statement as he commenced this psalm, O God, thou art my God. Now, there is a God in heaven. And you young people, I'm sure,
understand there is a God in heaven. And that God in heaven
is the creator of all things. He is the God who rules over
all things. He is the God that knows everything
about everything. He knows all about us in our
little lives, in our individual lives. He knows what we're doing
today. He knows what we're going to
do tomorrow. He knows what we're thinking. Every thought is known to Almighty
God and He knows the path that is ordained for us throughout
our little life here below. Now having said all that, this
is the God that you and I are before. The God who we stand
before. God that we have to do with,
and He is a righteous God, and He is a holy God, and He cannot
look upon sin. And therefore we come this morning
with this statement, O God, says David, thou art my God. Now you and I would only be able
to claim this truth in this way and be able to say, O God, thou
art my God, if we have the wonderful and blessed evidence of the work
of God in our soul. And God works his work in the
life and in the souls of his people. And that work is a great
work. Because that work brings us into
spiritual life. That work brings us out of the
dead state in which we were spiritually born, in that condition of deadness
and darkness, into a position of spiritual life. And it is
with that wonderful evidence and how needful it is for every
one of us to have the evidence that we do possess the life of
God in our souls. And if we do, and we perhaps
need to look for it and need to search for it to see whether
we are amongst those who are spiritually alive or whether
we are still amongst those who are spiritually dead. But if
we are able, and may we all be able, and we all need to be able,
to look into our hearts and find there the wonderful favour of
the life of God in our souls. And if we can, by the grace of
God, It's not something that you and I could produce ourself
or merit ourself. It is the great work of God to
give us life by His mercy, through His mercy and by His grace. But
if we possess that life, and may we all be able to say
we do possess that life, and if we're not sure, may we pray
to God that He will show us that we do possess that life of God
in our soul. Because if you and I don't possess
the life of God in our soul, you know the end of our life
will be terrible. Because we shall pass into hell. Now let us not settle down and
think that our chapel going will give us enough credit to get
us into heaven. It won't do us any real good
in and of itself. And I'm not speaking against
it, of course. It's right to come together to worship. But
my friends, you and I need to know personally the life of God
in our souls to be able to come in with the psalmist David and
say, Oh God, my God. And if you don't possess that
true life of God in our souls, you won't be able to say it.
Many people may perhaps pretend to say it, but let us not fool
ourselves. Let us not relax in the concern
we may have for the evidence of the life of God in our soul. There are those I've been familiar
with who've pretended to worship God, all their life, and yet
have not had the blessed evidence that God is their God. And so this morning, may it be
a great concern of all of us that we are able to join with
David, who was a man of God, and to be able to say, by his
grace, O God, thou art my God. Now, if that is true, and know
that it may be true in all of our lives, there will be the
evidence of it. The evidence of it in our life. And it won't be that you and
I just pick up religion when we come to Sunday and turn up
at chapel. You see, the evidence will be
day by day. the work of God in our hearts. And David had this concern and
this desire and was able to make this statement, early will I
seek thee. Early will I seek thee. And we
can draw the conclusion from this statement that each day,
early in each day, his concern was to be found Seeking the Lord. Seeking the Lord. And so, as
we look at our own hearts, the evidence of the life of God in
our soul, when we get up every day, is it our concern to be
found seeking the Lord early, each day early, will I seek thee? It just shows the evidence and
the weight of the life of God in our souls, it shows the liveliness
of our soul's condition. Whether we do truly know this
God, and if so, have this desire to come seeking the Lord early
every day. Oh God, thou art my God, early
will I seek thee. It's a good thing to come and
seek the Lord. It's a good thing to seek the
Lord early every day. And so then, David explains why
he desires to seek the Lord early, and obviously to seek Him every
day. He gives a description of his
soul, my soul. You and I have a soul, and you
and I can say my soul. We all have a soul. and have
to say, my soul. But what a blessing if we can
then go on to confirm the desires that David was able to tell us
here. He says, his soul, my soul. What is it? What's it doing?
Our soul is not something which is dead. Our soul is alive forevermore. We all have a soul. We all can
say, my soul, but all my friends today, can we also say these
words that David goes on to say? My soul thirsteth for thee, for
God. My flesh longeth for thee, his
God. In a dry and thirsty land where
no water is, Naturally speaking, naturally speaking, there's nothing
to draw us to the Saviour in the things of time. And his desire
was to be blessed with this wonderful view and this blessing of being
granted some satisfaction provided with the water of life. that
he was able to then come and see and to say to see thy power
and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Now perhaps we might just go
to the end of these words first and think of what David was saying. As I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Now again this was an evidence
that he possessed the life of God in his soul and therefore
was able to say, Thou art my God. Now the sanctuary of course
in his day was really the temple or before that of course if he
wasn't actually built a temple it was the tabernacle. And there
in the tabernacle, God came down and graciously met with Israel,
especially in the holy place. And it was the ordained place
that God had ordained where he would meet with his people. And he would meet with his people
through the instrumentality of the great and glorious high priest
that the Lord had appointed to Rule over his people in that
spiritual way, which also of course depicted the great and
glorious high priest the Lord Jesus Christ Now we can believe
as we read a word like this that David was able to declare that
he'd been given that faith to behold the Lord Jesus Christ
as the Lamb of God and There was that lamb taken morning and
evening and slain and the blood sprinkled and the lamb offered
up as a sacrifice to almighty God as a sweet smelling savour. And we can believe here that
David looked beyond just the outward position of the lamb
but he saw in that the wonderful blessing of the intercession
of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. I have seen thee
in the sanctuary. And he therefore longed after
a greater evidence of the Saviour in his life, and he was thirsting
and longing after the Lord God. Now, that again is a wonderful
evidence of the life of God in our souls. If we are thirsty
for God, if our flesh longs for the Lord in this dry and thirsty
land where no water is, it means that spiritually we have to look
outside of this world, outside of the things which exist. We
have to look up to our Lord God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And of
course this wasn't the only occasion when David tells us such truths. In an earlier psalm he speaks
about the heart and he tells us, as the heart panteth after
the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for
the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? Here was wonderful longing that
David had. And he gives us again the picture,
the illustration of this heart, a deer, running and becoming
thirsty, needing water to enable it to continue its journey, perhaps
fleeing from the enemy. And you see that may be the case
in our lives today. You know, we need to realize
that we are And I hope we are fleeing from Satan, who would
ever track us down, would ever watch where we're going, ever
ready to turn us away from the things of God, ever willing to
distract us. And we may find ourselves in
a situation where we are having to run, as it were, run for our
life. away from the temptations of
Satan. And we may become very thirsty
and perhaps very tired. And so here we have this illustration,
as David says, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Well, today, are we thirsty for
God? Are we thirsty for God? There
won't be any real evidence, will there? or at least not lively
evidence that we have this situation able to say, oh God, thou art
my God. If we're just satisfied with
an outward profession without any inward possession, the great
and necessary truth is that you and I need to possess the life
of God in our soul. And if we possess the life of
God in our soul, there will be that thirsting for Christ, that
thirsting. You see, this word thirst is
something that we can understand, because we understand what it's
like naturally, how we're thirsty, and how we need a drink to satisfy
that thirst. And that's clear, and that's
easy to understand, and obvious our natural life. And therefore
it's a picture that we can translate into our spiritual life, with
that desire that we might thirst for God, and that he may satisfy
that thirst. And only he can satisfy that
thirst. And David, you see, was satisfied
with that thirst, that thirst being satisfied, when he saw
the Lord in the sanctuary. Now that will be true for us
today. And we may think that, well, what does it mean? It means,
of course, the sanctuary to us today, we don't have a tabernacle,
we don't have a temple to go and worship in, but we do have
the Word of God to read, and we are thankful that we are able
to gather together to worship the Lord. And the Lord has provided
the opportunities for people to gather together to worship
the Lord. And as they come together, do
they come thirsting for God, thirsting that he will reveal
himself in the sanctuary in the house of God to their souls so
they go away refreshed and strengthened to continue in their journey
of life and continue to endure the opposition that Satan brings
to them because our life is one. It's a battle. It's a warfare. That's why the Apostle encouraged
his son Timothy to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The journey of the true Christian
is not a comfortable one in this world. First of all, they have
all the opposition of the things externally that Satan brings
upon them. Secondly, they have all the opposition
that Satan brings to them internally, into their soul, into their heart,
into their mind. And so there is this battle,
and how often we perhaps find it's an almost impossible situation,
and how we need God to come and to revive our soul, revive our
spirit, and to pour forth the blessing, and that's really why
We have these descriptions like this, that our soul thirsteth
for God. The psalmist did. God's people,
in their right mind and in their spiritually lively situation,
would also desire to be like this, to be found thirsting,
not for the pleasures of life, not for the things that perish
with the using, not for the things that you and I will have to leave
when we die, but thirsting for God. And the psalmist uses this
great statement for the living God. Many people today worship
a dead God. They worship dead idols. It was
so in the Word of God. Many people worship the dead
gods. The dead gods of Baal, etc. They had no life, they could
do nothing, but many people were satisfied with worshipping a
dead god, because it was very easy. There wasn't any complication. There was no penetration of the
work of the Spirit in their hearts, and therefore they were happy
to go along and worship a dead god. I suppose today in the world,
the majority of people worship a dead god. What a blessing for
you and me if we're found amongst those who are thirsting. Just like David, my soul thirsteth
for thee, for the living God. Like the psalmist tells us in
the 42nd Psalm, my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. Yes, the living God, the real
God. And if you and I have had a little
drop of the water of life from the Saviour himself to assuage
and to quench our thirst, it'll be something that you and I will
not forget, because it's the work of the Holy Spirit, And
it's the clear evidence of God's favour to warn us, to bring us
within the covenant of grace, and bring us within that position
so that we are able to say with psalmist, in all humility and
yet with all thankfulness, to be able to say, O God, thou art
my God, because our soul thirsts for thee. My flesh longeth for
thee. in a dry and thirsty land where
no water is. Naturally, in the world, there
is nothing to satisfy our soul. Nothing in this world, naturally. We have the world to observe,
we have the things that God has made, or the things in nature
that we can observe and praise God for. But the things in this
world, the things, the material things, You know, we'll never
really bring any satisfaction. We'll never really be a blessing
to our souls. We'll never really quench our
thirst. And therefore, it will not bring
us into closer fellowship or union with the Lord Jesus Christ. O God, Thou art my God. Only
when I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth for Thee. My flesh longeth for
Thee. in a dry and thirsty land where
no water is." Well, it's a tremendous statement. And it is, of course,
important that you and I, by God's grace, are able to measure
up our spiritual life with the life of those that we're able
to read of as godly people in the Word of God. That's why the
Word of God is before us. It's so that we can read it and
measure up our life to see how we compare with those who we
know have gone to glory, those who have fought the good fight
of faith, those who have battled day by day with all the assaults
of Satan, and those who have been able to say, by the grace
of God, O God, Thou art my God. Early when I seek Thee, my soul
thirsteth for Thee, My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and
thirsty land where no water is.' Well, in a spiritual way, do
we long after the revelation of Christ? Do we long after his
mercy and goodness to be shown toward us? The Word of God is
full of many expressions which direct us to seek after the Lord,
to pray for his blessing and to pray for his favour. And that chapter that we read
together in the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians in
the fourth chapter, Paul tells us, therefore, seeing we have
this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have
renounced The hidden things of dishonesty. This is the evidence,
again, in the life of God, in the soul, that we've been made
spiritually aware of the wrong things, the bad things, the sinful
things in this world and in our life. And the Holy Spirit has
directed us to such a word as this. to seek that we may have
the evidence that it's true, that we have renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty. Not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the Word of God deceitfully, and that means not pretending
to possess what we haven't got, but by manifestation, that's
the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, the manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. For if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost, the gospel that the Lord God
has shown to us, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not, blinded. Lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should
shine unto them. So if we are those who are truly
thirsting after God, it is because we have been blessed with the
revelation of the Gospel to our souls, and it has not been hidden
to us. And we have to ask the question,
of course, well, what is the Gospel? The gospel is good news. What is it? It is the great plan
of salvation. It is that which is set before
us in the word of God, that everyone born in this world is born in
sin and shapen in iniquity and are unable to enter into heaven
in that state. Because no sinner can enter into
glory, only saved sinners, only forgiven sinners. And that's
why you and I need to know that we are amongst those who possess
this great and glorious truth and that the God of this world
hasn't left us in a blind state. But we are amongst those who,
by the grace of God, have come to realise the preciousness and
the need of the Gospel, and the need of salvation, and all that
it means. And what it means is this. The
Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to die in the place of
his people, to take away their sins, so that they are washed,
they are clean, washed in the blood of the Lamb, washed in
His blood, redeemed, and therefore have an interest, a personal
interest, in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us never
forget that real religion is personal. Personal between you
and God, between me and God, is that which the Lord God reveals
to our heart. It's not just something which
is academic. It's not just something which
is theoretical. It is the work of the Blessed
Spirit that comes and reveals Christ to our heart, to our souls,
and gives us, therefore, that good hope through His mercy and
through His grace of eternal life. Now you see, if the Blessed
Spirit has granted us The realisation of this in our souls, what will
be the effect? It will be the effect is this,
that we will be thirsting after God. That we will be like the
psalmist tells us here. O God, my God, early will I seek
Thee, my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in
a dry and thirsty land where no water is. And so the Apostle
Paul tells us, In whom the God of this world hath blinded the
minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
Gospel of Christ Who is the image of God should shine unto them. The wonderful favour is that
God's people have received this light from heaven. This light
from heaven. And what is that light? The Lord
Jesus Christ is the light. He tells us, I am the light of
the world. And so therefore, what does that
mean? It means that you and I, by faith,
by faith, have viewed the Saviour as our Saviour, as our salvation. And we aren't among those whom
the world has blinded their minds. But the Apostle says, for we
preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. Now, to the Church of God, to
those who have been blessed with this true God-given desire to
be able to say, and all of us need to be able to say before
we die, O God, Thou art my God. My friends, this is so vital,
so important It's not something that can be just brushed aside
and put off and something which is of no consequence. It is the
utmost consequence because it concerns the eternal state, the
eternal welfare of our soul. And don't think, I'm a young
person, I've got a long time ahead of me. You don't know that.
The Lord may take your life today. Can you say today, O God, Thou
art my God, and without living desire, early will I seek Thee.
Yes, perhaps you may feel you're only young. Well, early will
I seek Thee. When you're a young person, early
will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee, my
flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water
is, and the Apostle goes on in these words when he says, for
God it is all of the work of the Holy Spirit. Let's never
forget that. For God, who commanded, we have
to look and see whether God has commanded the light, the glorious
light of the Gospel, to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts your heart and my heart into our soul to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Are we then
today thirsting and longing for the Lord Jesus to be revealed
to us If we have tasted a little of
his love and a little of his goodness, do we desire more and
more? As the Holy Spirit shows to us
the great love of the Lord Jesus Christ to such unworthy sinners,
I believe it will produce that longing desire that we may have
a much greater love to the Lord Jesus Christ, who came and so
willingly laid down his life that you and I might live. And then David goes on to say,
and it really comes to this, you see, he was thirsty and longing
for being refreshed in his soul, and he says this, to see thy
power and thy glory. see thy power and thy glory. Well, the power of God is set
forth before us in so many ways, but it is the power of God that
converts our soul, because it's the power of God that brings
us from spiritual death into spiritual life, and that requires
the power of God. And we should be thankful if
it has been granted, and therefore to continue to have the evidence
of that power upon us, in these words, to see thy power, and
to have it often revealed to us, that power of God which has
made us spiritually alive. as the Apostle says, and kneweth
he quickened. They are the evidence of this
wonderful power. The Apostle, the Psalmist, desired
that he might see this. It wasn't something he just wanted
to see and then forget about it. He wanted to see the power,
and of course the power then comes and reveals to us the glory
of God. And the power of God was that
which raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Remember, he died
upon Calvary's cross. He'd endured the wrath of God. And the power of God raised him
from the dead. Raised him up. My friends, what
a blessing it is that we have such a God who still today demonstrates
that same resurrection power which it is to raise dead sinners
to life and to continue the evidence of that in their lives as they
journey on and therefore we can understand the path. The psalmist
says to see thy power and thy glory and the glory of God of
course is as we just read is revealed in the face of Jesus
Christ as we by faith view the Savior. the Saviour dying in
our place for us on the cross at Calvary. And we're told, because
for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts, given us the evidence of this life, to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. This is a heavenly knowledge
This is a spiritual knowledge, this is the knowledge that the
Church of God thirsts after and longs for, that may be displayed
in the face of Jesus Christ. The face of Jesus Christ, as
we by faith view the Lord Jesus Christ in all his glory. We can think of him suffering,
We can think of Him dying. We can think of Him raised from
the dead. We can think of Him today, now
in glory, interceding for us. And my friends, as you and I
come today to pray to this God, thirsting for Him, how do we
come to God? Through our great and glorious
High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can believe by faith that
He The Blessed Saviour is looking upon us as we come to Him. We come to Him in all our need,
as He encourages us to do. Come unto Me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden. In a similar way, all ye that
are thirsting and longing after Me, come unto Me. And you see,
we will find that rest in the Lord Jesus Christ as we view
Him looking upon us compassion upon us. He knows our condition. He knows our position. He knows
our sinfulness. He knows everything about us.
And yet to think he's looking upon us in love because he's
redeemed our souls, because he's paid the price for our redemption.
He's stood in our place. He's bore the punishment instead. The knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh God, says David, thou art
my God. Now this morning, my friends,
I hope we can say that. And if you can't say it, pray
to God that you will be able to say it. Because no one gets
to heaven without being able to say it from their heart. Oh
God, Thou art my God. And I say the outworking of the
truth of that will be, as David explains to us in these words,
early when I seek Thee, a seeking after the Saviour, a desiring
to view Him, and it's the urgent thing in our lives, early when
I seek Thee my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for
Thee, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is, to see thy
power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Amen.