May it please God to bless us
as we consider his word tonight. Let's turn to the book of Psalms
and Psalm 45 and we'll read verse 5. Psalm 45 and reading verse
5. Thine arrows are sharp in the
heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under
them. We think of arrows as being quite
different from swords and the difference is really that swords
are used in close combat whereas arrows of course were used with
bows from a distance. And the truth is, of course,
that if you were in close combat and there were some with a sword,
you were very aware and very alert to the possibility of being
killed or at least being injured. But with regards to arrows, of
course, the people were not aware where they were coming from and
how they would penetrate into their body. Remember the case
of Ahab when he was killed by an arrow and it was somebody
that just drew a bow and eventually, I mean, he just fired his arrow
into the air and the arrow found an abiding place in Ahab's through
his armour and was the means of his death. Well then, we see
the difference, do we not, between arrows and swords, and to here
we're thinking principally upon arrows. Arrows which we might
think are fired from a distance, and by that I mean we don't actually
see them coming, but in fact they do great work. And here we have these descriptions
that these arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies,
whereby the people fall under them. And the truth is that when
we are perhaps walking contrary to God, walking away from God,
we are really as acting like his enemies. and therefore it
is on those occasions when the Lord then sends these arrows
which enter into the heart and they come suddenly and they,
as it were, jerk us into reality as we realise that we've been
wounded and of course We know that with natural soldiers, they
often miss their targets, but God never misses. If God fires
an arrow at you and me, we can be sure it will accomplish that
for which it was sent. There are no failures with God. And so, here we have this statement,
thine arrows are sharp in the heart. Well, God's arrows sharp
and They cause us to consider Sometimes those arrows wound
us and lay us very low and We have this description whereby
the people fall under thee when God therefore Shoots his arrows
There is a purpose in them. God never wastes any arrows. All the arrows that he shoots
at us find their target. And therefore they will have
an effect upon us. We won't be able to ignore it
in days past in battle. People couldn't ignore an arrow
which was sticking into their body, could they? They were very
aware of what it was. And so it will be so in our spiritual
life when God shoots arrows at us and they enter into our heart. That's of course the centre of
our feelings. And as it enters there and it's
sharp, And it brings us to consider why has this happened to me? Why has God brought this upon
me? Why is this arrow entered into
my heart? Sometimes, of course, we realise
very quickly. Perhaps sometimes we realise
immediately why the arrow has been shot at us. We should realise
this. that God shoots these arrows
in love to our soul. The effect is to bring us up
sometimes with a jerk. We may have been following a
false way, a wrong way, and the Lord has looked upon us and watched
upon us, and then at the appointed time, The arrow has been shot
at us and it's entered into our heart and it's had a gracious
effect. Perhaps not the effect that we
wanted, probably not. Probably the least effect that
we wanted. But God, in his love to us, corrects
us, does that for us. which we would not have done
for ourselves. You see, the Lord knows what's good for us. The
Lord knows what we need. Perhaps we may have been travelling
in a downward path. By that I mean a path away from
God. And the truth is, when a path
is downward, it's much easier, isn't it? It's easier to go downhill
than it is to go uphill. And the truth is that Christian
life is a battle, an uphill battle. So if you and I find ourselves
going downhill and content with it, because
the way seems easy, then perhaps the Lord comes and as it were
says, thus far shall thou go and no further. And he brings us perhaps to our
spiritual senses. And then it is that we realise
our soul is not as it should be. Our soul is not healthy as
it should be. We're not bringing forth fruit. We find that we're barren. We
find that we're hard-hearted and we're rebellious. And the
effect is that we find ourselves walking contrary to God. Well, isn't it a mercy? The Lord
doesn't leave us. The Lord has said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. It may be he's allowed us to
wander in the downhill path, but he's watched over us in that
path. And the appointed time comes when he fires the arrow
of conviction into our heart. What does it do? It causes us
to consider our ways. Sometimes we may know immediately
the cause of it. Sometimes we may have to ponder
it. Remember, of course, In the life
of David, when the Lord shot the arrow through Nathan the
prophet, David had no idea it was coming.
David didn't realise the purpose of Nathan's visit to him. He
thought it was just to recount an account of a poor man and
his one lamb. You can see that God's purpose
was far greater than that. And then when God spoke through
Nathan, very simply, Thou art the man. He didn't go looking around to
see who else was part of that statement. He knew that he was
the man. And immediately, You see, his
sins came before him. He realised his condition. Now, what a blessing. Like David,
the Lord gave him a spirit of true repentance. He was really
sorry for his sins. And that's the wonder of it.
The Lord deals with us in love to our souls. He brings us into
that period and that time of true repentance, because we then
realise how poor we are, how sinful we are, how in opposition
to God we are. And that's why David said, against
thee the only have I sinned. Thine arrows are sharp in the
heart of the king's enemies. Well, has God shot arrows at
your heart and my heart? Have we been convicted of some
sin that we've been engaging in? We may have engaged in, maybe
like David, it's past, but nonetheless, the Lord is over all things. And what a blessing if these
things Worked together for our good. It worked together for
David's good, didn't it? Sad as it was, and sad as it
may be in our lives, what a blessing it is that God brings it to make
it work together for our good. Because what was the effect in
David's life? He had to look out of himself.
He had to look to his God. Oh, the arrow had a good effect. My friends, God's arrows to his
people do have good effects. They're painful. They're painful,
but they're necessary. Because they correct us. Because they bring us back to
God. They show us where we've erred. and we're brought to understand
how foolish we've been. Again as we read, how foolish
was I and ignorant. And yet so often we can think
we're righteous and we're justified in the things that we're doing
and the things that we're saying, perhaps the things that we're
thinking. And yet when God comes and shoots the arrow of conviction
It opens to our understanding something of the true nature
of our heart. And then the effect is, we have
to say, can ever God dwell here? We don't then settle down in a comfortable
scene. We're not then sitting in the
seat of the scornful. We're not then sitting in the
Seated are critical. No, we're sitting in the lowest
seat. And we're seeking mercy from
Almighty God. We read together that 38th Psalm,
which again speaks in similar vein, although the psalm actually
is a different tone. And David commences by saying,
O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in
thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in
me, and thy hand presseth me sore.' And what had happened? God's arrows had entered into
his heart, had stuck fast there, and God's hand was upon him. He knew it was the hand of God
and therefore he had to confess, there is no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones
because of my sins. For mine iniquities are gone
over my head as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. We may be going on relatively
calm in our life, satisfied perhaps with our religion, satisfied
with our profession, and yet the truth is that we're in a
sad state. We're far off from God, and we
live to prove that no man can keep alive his own soul. We may think it's an easy thing
to keep ourselves lively in the things of God. My friends, we
have to prove that it's all of grace. And we have to prove that
we need to constantly pray to God. He will be mindful of us
and that we might be mindful of Him. We may walk together
in love and in union. And so David tells us here, you
see how his iniquities are a heavy burden, a heavy burden. Sin was not something which could
be lightly dismissed. And when the Lord shows us something
of our sin and perhaps a little more of our sin, and whereas
we might have initially just pushed it aside and tried to
ignore it. And perhaps we felt and thought
we had satisfactorily got rid of it. And you see the Lord brings
it back and adds to it. And it becomes a burden. And
it becomes a heavy burden. And when that burden becomes
heavy then we realise we can't shake it off. It's too heavy
for us. David said they are too heavy
for me. And the picture he gives is not
a pleasant one, is it? My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. The arrow had convicted him of
his sin and convicted him of his foolishness. And you see
in this case these arrows had stuck fast. He couldn't just
pull them out, throw them away and go on his way. No, they stuck fast and you know,
if you look at arrows sometimes, those arrows they have, they're
so shaped that once they go in you can't pull them out very
easily at all. Sometimes you and I have to carry those arrows.
They are a constant reminder of our sin. We can't just pull
them out and get rid of them, because God has shot those arrows
at us, and they've found the mark. And there they are, fast
in me, as David says. You see, with that position,
he cries out, doesn't he? He prays, O Lord, rebuke me not
in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. What
will these arrows produce? Prayer. Prayer to God. Prayer to God for deliverance.
Prayer to God for mercy. They stick fast. We have in this
fifth verse, these arrows are sharp. They don't bounce off. God's arrows don't bounce off.
God's arrows penetrate. God's arrows are effectual. God's arrows accomplish his will. And bless God, the devil can't
stop those arrows entering into our heart. The work of God, isn't it? What
a favor. Now, with these arrows sticking
fast in David, he tells us, I am troubled, I am bowed down, I
go mourning all the day long. Well that's the effect of God's
work in our heart, revealing to us something of what we really
are. And therefore we are troubled. Sin troubles us. Does sin trouble
you? Does sin trouble me or do we
just ignore it as something irrelevant? My friends, God applies his word
to our heart. You can't just shake it off,
the arrow's penetrated, it's entered in, and therefore we're
bowed down. You see, we have some very important
statements here. I'm bowed down greatly. It hadn't had just a little effect,
it had had a real effect upon him. And therefore he says, I
go mourning all the day long. Well, that's not a pleasant situation,
is it? But you know it's a situation
to be thankful for if it's the work of God's Spirit to bring
us to that place to mourn. The hymn writer says, over our
sins and after thee. Now that will be the object of
these arrows. It'll be to direct us to the
errors of our ways. To direct us to the exceeding
sinfulness of sin. To show us that we can't just
turn away. We can't just pass things away.
And then to therefore direct us to that One who can come and
deliver us. And who is that? The Lord Jesus
Christ. Now then, what a mercy it is
If these arrows of God have penetrated into our heart and revealed to
us sin in one way or another, one way or another. You know,
there's very many different forms of our sin. But anything which
is contrary to God, contrary to the ways of God, must be sin. Those things that we cannot really
ask God's blessing on must be sin. In the next Psalm, David
says, I will take heed to my ways. Why? Because God's arrow had
penetrated into David's heart. And whereas there he'd been happy
with his position, and the things that he'd been doing and saying,
When God's arrow struck home, it revealed to him something
of his true position. Well, he goes on to tell us,
I am fevered and sore broken. I have roared by reason of this
quietness of my heart. Again, when the Lord convicts
us of our sin, there's no peace, is there? Peace evaporates. What takes its place? This quietness
of heart. This quietness of heart, this arrow you see, is doing
its work and there it is, stuck into our heart, stuck fast within
us and enabling us to consider our ways and to see the true
situation. The work of God will drive us
then to the throne of grace. And it won't then be what we
might call a fancy or a clever prayer because it won't just
come from our head, it'll come from our heart and it may really
be a groan to God and he will have mercy on us. He's brought
us to that situation where we're ashamed of ourselves and we're
really troubled and we're feeble and sore broken. And we have
to then come again as David was with these arrows sticking fast
in him. And he says, Lord, all my desire
is before thee. Isn't it a good thing that there,
put there by God, is that true desire after holiness? That true desire after righteousness. That right desire to be walking
in accordance with God's will and purpose. And although perhaps
we've fallen, perhaps we've gone downhill, backwards, and found
ourselves far off from God, yet when God comes and convinces
us of our situation, we're able to groan before our God and come
in this position and say, Lord, all my desires before Thee and
my groaning is not hid from thee. Yes, what a mercy we have a God
who understands a groan. You groan as you're going down
the street. People won't know what it's about, will they? But
you see, God knows. God knows what the groan represents,
what the groan means, what the cause of the groan is. And to
think, well, the Lord knows the reason for it. It's wonderful,
isn't it? We don't have to come with a
beautifully formed prayer to Almighty God. He's so great,
so wonderful. He understands a groan. Where
if these arrows, you see, are sticking fast, they've been sharp,
they've penetrated, now here we are in this situation and
we can come and we can say, yes, Lord, all my desire, is before
thee. That's a comfort, isn't it? That's an encouragement. And my groaning is not hid from
thee, my heart panteth, my strength faileth. As for the light of
mine eyes, it also is gone from me. Yes, apparently David had
been blessed with light, walking in the light, and now Because
of walking contrary to his God, he tells us here, the light had
gone from him. The light had gone from him.
And you see how needful it is then that God brings the light
back. And how do we see that light? Where is that light? My friends, the only true light
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that glorious light. He tells us, I am the light of
the world. And therefore, in our low condition,
which it is, when we're able to look up, look out of ourselves,
to view then the Lord Jesus Christ as pure light. No sin. Nothing wrong. Perfect righteousness. and to think that we are made
perfect through him. Nothing in myself I bring, simply
to thy cross I cling. And it is a favour when God shoots
those arrows into our heart, which brings us down in our own
estimation, we are then critical of ourselves. We may have been
critical of other people. When God speaks, when God fires
his arrows, then we are critical of ourselves. And it is then
that we come right down low. And it is then that we look out
of ourselves, because we realise that in me that is in my flesh
dwells no good thing. And then it's wonderful to be
directed then to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we'll
then bless God for his mercy in shooting these arrows, these
sharp arrows, into the heart. And as they come into the heart,
they've had a real and gracious effect. What a mercy it is that
we have a God like that. You know, this 45th Psalm is
very different to the 38th Psalm, isn't it? Because it commences
with those words, My heart is inditing a good matter. I speak
of the things which I have heard touching the King. My tongue
is the pen of a ready writer. Well, it's the other end of the
spectrum, isn't it really? And the Psalmist is able to declare
thou fairer And the children of men, grace is poured into
thy lips, therefore God hath blessed thee forever." Well,
we see the direction then that the psalmist is able to speak
of. He's able then to remind us that the arrows of God are
sharp in the heart. If they've done their work in
revealing our condition, our sinfulness, and then in directing
us to the Saviour, Well, we can surely then rejoice, as the psalmist
did, in the goodness of God, in his mercy and in his favour. Jeremiah, in his day, had to
endure much opposition. In fact, perhaps, if we think
about it, if we think of Jeremiah's long life and think of the constant
opposition that he had, Perhaps for a few who have had to walk
in such a difficult path as he did. And in the third chapter
of Lamentations, he speaks about his condition. And that condition was perhaps
one that we might be surprised at. But remember he was but a
man, a man of God. He tells us, I am the man that
has seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me
and brought me to darkness, but not into light. Surely against
me is he turned. He turned his hand against me
all the day." Well, that's how it appeared to Jeremiah. But you see, in actual fact,
the Lord was dealing with Jeremiah in love and mercy to his soul. He tells us further on in this
chapter, he has bent his bow set me as a mark for the arrow.
It caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins, into
my heart, the centre of my feelings. Yes, the Lord directed the arrow
into Jeremiah's heart. My friends, today we should thank
God if God directs his arrows into our heart. We may not think
that we need it. God knows what we need. And isn't
it a mercy when God deals with us in love to our souls? Not in anger, in love to our
souls. And poor Jeremiah, he tells us,
I was a derision to all my people and their song all the day. It
filled me with bitterness. It's made me drunken with wormwood."
Sometimes we may perhaps not outwardly, but inwardly complain
against the path that God has ordained for us. We may think
it's a very bitter path. Well, if you think that, just
pause for a moment and just think of the path the Saviour walked
so that your soul might be redeemed. Think of the bitterness that
he had to endure, the derision of all the people against himself.
So undeserving and yet so wonderful that the Lord of life and glory
should have come down into this sinful world and suffered so
greatly so that you and I might be redeemed. And he tells us,
now Jeremiah carries on, my strength and my hope is perished from
the Lord. That's how it seemed to be. And
he says, remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and
the gall. And then he changes. What a change. My soul. This, of course, is
the great issue, isn't it? It's our soul which is at stake. My soul hath them still in remembrance
and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind. Therefore, does he despair? No, he says, therefore, have
I hope. This was a good hope. This was
a hope in God's mercies, he tells us. It is of the Lord's mercies
that we are not consumed. The Lord doesn't consume us. Instead, he fires his arrows
at us. They enter into our hearts and they do the blessed work
of God. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. Because his compassions fail
not, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Day
after day, my friends, the Lord's compassions fail not. Oh, how good it is then to realize
the truth of these words. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. It's good to remember and to
be reminded of the faithfulness of our God and how we, by comparison,
are so often so unfaithful. Well, we give thanks that the
Lord has recorded such experiences in his words to encourage us. You know, the true born-again
soul, when the Spirit of God strikes the heart and the arrow
penetrates, they won't be satisfied then with the condition that
finds them in. they'll be found confessing their
sins. Confessing their sins. It's one
of the greatest blessings to be granted a spirit of confession. A spirit of sorrow. Sorrow for
sin. You see, naturally we don't like
to confess we've made a mistake. We don't like to really admit
we've sinned. If we do, we try and make light
of it. But when God's arrow, that sharp
arrow, comes into our heart and sticks there, my friends, it
sticks there until God's work is done. And that work is done
when, as it was in David's case, the Lord came through Nathan
and said, Thou art the man. Yes, all my friends, what a blessing,
isn't it? When God works. Not man's work,
it's God's work. You know, Job was a favoured
man, wasn't he? We would think now, Job, surely
nothing seriously will come into your life. And it's good for
us to remember that we have these illustrations in God's words
to instruct us and to direct us in the right way. Remember, the description of
Job was There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job,
and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared
God and eschewed evil. You might think, well there's
a righteous man, surely he wouldn't have to walk a difficult path.
Well he did. He had to walk a most difficult
path, a far more difficult path than you and I would ever be
caused to walk, no doubt. And he comes and he tells us,
In one of his statements he says in the sixth chapter four, the
arrows of the Almighty are within me. The poison were off, drink
that my spirit. The terrors of God do set themselves
in array against me. Yes, he then perhaps saw more
of his true condition before a holy God. than perhaps he'd
seen before. And he had to confess the arrows
of the Almighty. My friends, it's good when you
and I can acknowledge it's God's hand that is upon us. It's God
that's firing the arrows. It's not man. God's doing it. And why is he doing it? For our
eternal good. Why is he doing it? So that his
name may be honoured and glorified. Why is he doing it? so that Christ
might be precious in our estimation. It's a blessed, wonderful work
of Almighty God. What a mercy it is in our little
lives that we prove, prove the work of God, prove that God does
fire these arrows at us. And I believe if we are a true
child of God, we would know what it is to have those arrows fired
at us, to know perhaps how they've stuck there. Perhaps they're
sticking there today. God knows. Now, the Proverbs,
Solomon's Proverbs, how instructive they are. In the first chapter,
we read some verses which point to our condition, when perhaps
those arrows are fired. And Solomon says, because I have
called. Well, no, let's start with the
verse before. turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour
out my Spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto
you, because I have called and ye refused. I have stretched
out my hand, and no man regarded. But ye have set at naught all
my counsel, and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh
at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh, when your
feet fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then
shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall
seek me early, but they shall not find me, for that they had
hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They were
none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be
filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple
shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me
shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear or evil. Surely what that describes is
when these arrows are fired, when they enter into our heart,
if we therefore hearken unto the word of the Lord. That's
what it means. The arrow is, as it were, the
word of the Lord. And to think that that word of
the Lord has come to us and is dealing with us, speaking to
us, and directing us to look to ourselves and see if we were
like these people that Solomon describes. Or as there are many
other descriptions in the Word of God, which speaks of those
who walk contrary to God. Or if we walk contrary to God,
he's told us, he'll walk contrary to us. We tend to ignore such
statements. My friends, it's very true. And
so tonight, here we have this statement. in this 45th Psalm
where the psalmist says, Thine arrows are sharp in the hearts
of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under them. Well, my friends, what a blessing
if that arrow penetrates into our heart, which makes us to
fall down. There we were, proud, full of
ourselves, full of our own ideas, going along, the Lord fires the
arrow. causes us to fall down before
Him, fall down before Him, and to acknowledge our sin, and to
cry unto Him in a time when He may be found, and to be directed,
perhaps once again, perhaps for the first time, to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We hear those words, look unto
me, and be ye saved, or the ends of the earth, for I am God. and
there's none else, then you'll thank God for those arrows. You'll thank God for His love.
You'll thank God for His mercy. And you'll be able to come indeed,
as the Psalmist did, the beginning of that thirty, sorry, the beginning
of the same forty-fifth Psalm, it said, My heart is indicting
a good matter. I speak of the things which I
have made, touching the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready
writer. Oh, how good it is then to have
our tongue loose to declare God's dealings, God's teachings, God's
favour, God's mercy toward us, which is a clear sign that we
are one of those who are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Amen.