May it please God to bless us
together tonight as we consider his word. Let us turn to the
book of Psalms, Psalm 12, and we'll read the first verse. The
book of Psalms, Psalm 12, and reading the first verse. Help, Lord, for the godly man
ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men." This was the prayer of David
and as we know David lived many years ago and the situation when
he was on the earth was like this. He was praying the Lord
would grant help and he cites the situation The godly man ceaseth,
and the faithful fail from among the children of men." Well, it
was true in his age, and I'm sure it's very true in the day
and age in which we live. And surely, as the word was so
appropriate in the day in which David lived, so it is so appropriate
in the day and age in which we live. How we need Help from the
Lord. Help in our individual lives. Help in our lives as a church
and people. Help in our lives as a nation. Help, Lord, was the cry of the
psalmist. And I'm sure that such a prayer,
so short and yet so specific, has a wonderful reference to
every child of God very often in their lives. It's not something
that we can do without. We cannot do without the help
of our God. And it's a wonderful favour and
blessing to know when such a prayer is uttered and the Lord condescends
to hear and send help and grant help so that we know it is the
help from the Lord. And we're able to say, yes, my
help cometh from the Lord. Well, what a blessing then, when
we can testify to the glory of God, that he has been mindful
of us, he has heard our prayers, and he has helped us. So remember then, all of us tonight
need this prayer. And we'll find this prayer so
necessary I believe probably every day, if we're honest. Every
day, you know, we have reason, don't we, to pray that God will
help us. It's a good prayer, isn't it?
As we commence the day, to pray that God will help us through
the day. Let us not depend on our own
strength. Let us look to the Lord, the
Almighty God, who is all-powerful and has all strength. and to
rest therefore in the Lord in this way. Come to him, help Lord. Sometimes it's perhaps more specific
than others. We come into a situation in our
daily life which we might not know what to do or what to say. And the prayer then is, help
Lord. But I hope we are able to remember
to pray to our God. Sometimes, you know, we struggle
on ourselves. And then the Lord has to graciously
remind us that we've forgotten to pray. And then we need to
come and say, help Lord, help me. Well, David in this particular
situation, he asked for help. And the reason is that it appeared
he was in a pretty destitute kind of condition in the community
in which he was living. And he tells us, the godly man
ceaseth and the faithful fail for among the children of men."
And I suppose if we look around our country today, it is a very
sad state. And surely it's very true that
the godly man ceaseth and the faithful fail for among the children
of men. There are really relatively very
few who are godly men. Very few who are faithful in
the day and age in which we live. And so there is a ceasing and
there is therefore a failing. And we see it really increasing,
don't we? We really see a scene of destitution. Well, do we then cry out, help
Lord? It's only the Lord that can bring
prosperity. It's only the Lord that can bring
again a time of blessing. It's only the Lord that can bring
again a time of spiritual revival. But my friends, we have a God
who is able to do great and wonderful things. And therefore, as we
may be, perhaps downcast, we may be sorry, sorrowful for the
scenes which we see around us, which is just like David describes
here, godly men ceasing and faithful men failing, to remember we have
a God who is still reigning, and a God who ever will reign,
a God who will never cease. and may we therefore have our
confidence in our God. You see, the tendency is for
us today to look around and by doing that, we look down and
we see the dismal situation, whereas we are encouraged to
look up, to realize we have a great God who can do wonderful things. And so, let us come today in
faith praying like this, help Lord, as we may feel like the
Psalmist in measure, as we consider the current situation. And here
we are, we're praying, help Lord, David prayed. And we can believe
David prayed in faith, nothing wavering. And may we come and
pray in faith, nothing wavering to our greatest God. You see,
we have a God, a great God. Sometimes we forget we have a
great God, or at least we appear to forget we have a great God
by our actions, by our lives. We seem to carry on and appearing
to just accept the current situation and be satisfied with the current
situation instead of crying out to our God that he will help
us and he will encourage us and he will strengthen us. The word
of God tells us so clearly I will be inquired of by the house of
Israel to do these things for them. And my friends, we are
to inquire of the Lord. We are to seek unto him. We are
to pray for his help and he will indeed be merciful to us and
be gracious to us. And so David knew what it was. There are many, many Psalms. We won't go through them tonight,
but there are many Psalms which speak of the need for help. And I'm sure if we are amongst
the household of faith, we would understand what the Psalmist
meant when he cried for help. And that we might cry tonight
and in our lives day by day for help. And it is important that
we cry to help to the one and only person that can provide
that help, and that is the Lord. And so to come to the Lord in
faith, believing, that He is able and that He is willing to
do for us far more exceedingly abundantly than you and I can
ask or even think. And remember when we pray like
this for help, we come to the Lord God. We don't come to a
little God, we come to a great God. We come to that God who
created all things, that God who made us, that God who made
the world, that God who keeps the world, its orbit today. We know that if the Lord changed
the solar system in a moment, everything would just disappear
and be in chaos. And so we can be thankful the
Lord keeps things as they are. And so we come to that great
God. Help Lord. Now then, the psalmist
elaborates a bit on this, the need for this help. He speaks
about the people he says they speak vanity everyone with his
neighbor with flattering lips and with a double heart do they
speak is that not evident in the day and age in which we live
do we not observe people speaking in vanity yes and uh... speaking vanity with their neighbor
with flattering lips how much there is today of flattery, isn't
there? People try to flatter each other,
to make each other think more highly of each other. Flattery. There's no room really
for flattery in the Church of God. There is room for speaking
kindly and lovingly and encouragingly and honestly, but there's no
room for flattery. And so here David expands and
exposes the situation which existed at this time. And my friends,
no doubt it's always existed, but it seems perhaps today that
it exists more. We see a great departure from
the faith, and we see people speaking vanity. Emptiness, isn't
it? What is vanity? Vanity is really
empty things of this world. Just the things of this world.
That is really vanity. And what do we see today? We
see everybody speaking vanity. They're not speaking, are they,
of the things of God. They're not speaking about the
greatness of God. What do they speak? They speak
against God. They mock God. And they speak
vanity. And he goes on with flattering
lips and with a double heart. Do they speak a double heart?
a deceitful heart. You see a heart which speaks
one thing to one person and another thing to another person. It's
a double heart and surely that's the situation which exists today
in the world in which we live. A double heart do they speak. It's a sad time isn't it? In
the history of the world and how clear it is that we must,
a necessity, be hastening towards the end of all things. But then
we read, and we must recognize the Lord is in control. And David says, the Lord shall
cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud
things. The Lord can cut them off, you
and I can't, We can't stop people saying things, but the Lord in
a moment can produce this effect, that flattering lips are cut
off and the tongue speaketh proud things. And he tells us then
what that means. Who have said, with our tongue
will we prevail? Our lips are our own. Who is
Lord over us? How many people there are today?
Indeed, the vast majority of mankind says, well, I can live
my own life as I want to. It's my life, and I'm going to
live my life as I want to. No one's going to dictate to
me how I live my life. I will speak as I want to speak. And so we see this situation
here, as David says, with our tongue, will we prevail? People think that they have ability
to prevail with the words they are able to speak. They rest
in their own ability. They have no confidence in anyone
else. They rely on themselves, on their
own skills, on the own words that they're able to speak. And
so with our own tongue, will we prevail? Our lips are our
own. Yes, every word that they want
to speak, they think are of their own and are able to say just
what they want to and then they say who is lord over us they
don't believe in the almighty god they don't believe there
is a god for the most part the attitude is atheistic whether
they might give lip service perhaps to a christian belief in reality
Their actions are atheistic, and so many people are just like
this. Who is Lord over us? I am in
charge of my own destiny. I'm going to decide what I'm
going to do in life, and I'm going to walk in this path. Is
it not obvious today that that's the position that we observe
all around us? Well, what does it mean? Does
it not cause us to cry out like David did? Help, Lord. Help us,
Lord, in this evil age in which we live, to stand firm for the
things of God, to not be misdirected by evil influences, and to listen
to wrong advice, to be taken in by the vanity of men who might
flatter us. You see, we're very fleshly,
and we're suspect to being taken in by flattering lips. We need to pray continually for
God's grace to help us not to fall under the snare of Satan. Satan is a great flatterer. My friends, let us not fall under
those situations. Let us realize the truth of God. We are what we are by the grace
of God and nothing else. Help, Lord. or then help us Lord
to live in this evil world in which we live. And so David then
runs on and he then speaks for the oppression of the poor. Well, David was a poor man, wasn't
he? We read, don't we? He tells us this poor man cried
and the Lord heard him. You and I tonight, a companion
of David. Do we esteem ourselves as a poor
man? Yes, a poor man. And yet one
who looks to the Lord. This poor man cried, as David
tells us, and the Lord didn't turn a deaf ear to him. This
poor man cried and the Lord heard him and delivered him out of
all of his distresses. And so we can believe today.
If we come like this and pray, help Lord. Yes, as it comes from
our heart and sometimes it really does. It's a real prayer. It's
not just a weasel word we might say, it's a real prayer. Help
Lord. My friends, when that comes from
our heart, we can believe we'll be like David was and be able
to testify the Lord did hear us and did deliver us for the
oppression of the poor. We might feel then to be oppressed,
oppressed by situations which develop in our lives. And we
can perhaps sometimes feel the devil as it were shaking us oppressing
us and telling us well of course you deserve this of course you
brought this on yourself and we have to confess well we're
guilty and we therefore be oppressed because of our situation and
what would it bring us to? Would we just sink under it and
believe the child of God looks up and they cry help Lord like
David did here for the oppression of the poor Yes, we won't find
ourselves thinking any high position. We'll
realize that we are poor. We may fail to be oppressed.
Well, the Lord comes to such for the oppression of the poor
and then for the sighing of the needy. Now, do you know what
it is to sigh before God? To sigh because of your sins,
to sigh because of the evil of your heart, the wrong thoughts,
the corruption of your nature. Sigh before God. Well, here David
comes and tells us, for the sighing of the needy, the sighing of
the needy. We don't really sigh unless we're
needy. And we're only really needy when
the Lord directs us to realize our need. And that need is when
we have offended Almighty God. Then our need is great, is it
not? And we come like that and we sigh to our God for the sighing
of the needy. I'm sure the true child of God
knows what it is to sigh before God, perhaps very often. to sigh
before God. Perhaps every day, perhaps many
times in a day, we sigh before our God because of our carnality,
because of the evil of our old nature, because of our besetting
sins, which we don't want to glory in, but we sigh because
of them. And so we read this for the sighing
of the needy. Then we read, now will I arise,
saith the Lord. Help, Lord. The Lord will arise
on our behalf. The Lord brings us down, and
also the Lord raises us up. We cannot raise ourself up. And you see, by nature, we don't
like being down. But the Spirit of God sometimes
brings us down to reveal to us something of the poverty of our
old nature and then to, as it were, lift us up, take us by
hand and raise us up. Now will I arise, saith the Lord,
I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. Well, has the devil been puffing
at you and me? I'm sure he has. Yes, he's been
puffing at us, trying to divert us from the narrow way, trying
to direct us into the broad way, which as we should realize, leads
to destruction. And he puffs at us in order to
turn us out of that narrow way. And of course, the broad way
to our fallen nature is attractive. It appears that it's an easier
path. It seems a smoother path. There's
not so many obstacles to overcome. It's not so rugged. And perhaps
we're weary because of the oppression, because of the difficulty which
we're facing. And so here we have this statement,
now will i arise saith the lord i will set him in safety from
him that puffeth at him and where is this safety my friends this
place of safety is only in the lord jesus christ there's no
other place of safety there is only safety in christ and so
how wonderful it will be if we find the Lord then setting us
as it were in himself to abide in him to walk with him and that's
a place of safety what a different situation it is and as we cried
to the Lord perhaps in real desperation help Lord we weren't able to
formulate any fancy long prayer Very from the heart though, help
Lord. And such a prayer doesn't come
from the head, you know. The reality of true prayer comes
from the heart. In a time of need, and we cry
out, help Lord. And then to see the Lord, then
directing us to himself. He is able. He is willing. Doubt no more. We may have been
tempted to give up and call no more on Jesus' name. We may not seem to be making
much progress, but you see the Lord brings us to a position
where we have to forsake all, all our own strength, all our
own ability, and come casting all our care upon Him. And then
we read, and then we realize, and then we are blessed with
the favor of Almighty God remembering us in our lowest state. For His mercy endureth forever. Where have we come? Do you know,
you've been in that position where the Lord has looked down,
and He's remembered you. Perhaps it was surprising. You
may have cried. You may have pleaded, you may
have sought for direction, sought for encouragement, appeared to
be no entrance, silence. And then, perhaps when you least
expected it, the Lord appeared, the Lord spoke, the Lord encouraged,
the Lord directed you. And what did you realize? It
was the Lord. It was the Lord that heard your
cry, that cry for help. And in the Lord's time, he brought
about a deliverance. He brought about blessing. He
brought about favor. And what was it? You were set
in safety. You see, when we're in Christ,
the devil can't get at us. The safety there. there's not
safety anywhere else but in Christ there is perfect safety and then
the psalmist goes on to tell us the words of the Lord are
pure words yes he's cried out help the Lord comes in and speaks
such suitable words words that and needful but words that come
and meet our case and we acknowledge and we bless God that his words
to us are pure words they may not always be physical words
but it may be the situation which has developed as the Lord comes
and speaks to us in this way We realise they are pure words
to our soul. Perhaps pure words to our situation,
which we've found ourselves in. Yes, and it's been a blessed
time of deliverance. And we acknowledge the goodness
of the Lord in remembering us in our lowest state. We cried,
we prayed, in God's time, in God's way, he heard, he answered,
and we bless God that we came in prayer to that God, that God
of all grace. The words of the Lord are pure
words. And really, the pure words of
God are very pure. And they're very precious. The
psalmist says here, as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified
seven times. It was pure silver, there was
nothing mixed with it. What did it mean? It was precious. It was the word of the Lord being
precious to your soul and my soul. And we found ourselves
crying to God, help Lord. And he's come to us and he's
spoken words of compassion words of love yes words of blessing
and they've been precious to us we thank God for them and
we've been able to gain the strength of them yes you know when the
Lord speaks it is a word of strength it's a word of support and it's
a word that you and I will need the Lord doesn't appear when
there is no need. The Lord doesn't speak when there
is no requirement for it. He doesn't, as it were, waste
words. When the Lord speaks, they are
then precious. You see, if we just, if you like,
if we had words whenever we kind of thought we needed them, in
a very casual way, They wouldn't be very precious, would they?
They wouldn't be as silver, tried in a furnace of earth, purified
seven times. And I believe when the Lord comes
and speaks to us in reality and truth, it is a word which is
tested and it's tried in our soul's experience. And as that
word is tried, it's purified. Yes, and it loses perhaps a condition,
a situation that we may have put upon it. Sometimes the Lord
might speak a word and we put our own interpretation on it
and then the Lord comes and He tries that word. It's His word
but He tries it and it goes in a furnace and it's purified And
then we observe that our interpretation wasn't correct. Our interpretation
wasn't good. And as that word is tested and
tried, we then recognize that yes, the Lord has spoken a pure
word. And we perhaps were corrupting
that word because we might have brought that word to suit our
situation. to apply that word to a situation
which we thought we needed to be directed in a certain way.
My friends, the Lord has a perfect way. And the Lord has a pure
word. And that pure word, we bless
God for, but it may be as David tells us here, as silver tried
in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. It's not just a
little purification, is it? Seven times in a furnace of earth,
yet heated very hot so that it might take away all that which
was not pure. Not once, not twice, seven times. I believe that may teach us that
we may have a wrong interpretation. number of times and that word
which is a pure word the Lord purifies in our experience So
then we come and recognize then there's nothing left of self
It's all been taken away And what is left? I believe what
is left is Christ crucified You see, the purpose of God's words
is to direct us to the Savior. And it may be sometimes that
we distort things. And we find then that we're not
really thanking and praising our God. The words of the Lord
are pure words. We've cried, help Lord, the Lord
has come. The Lord has brought his word
to us. It is a pure word, but it's tested and it's tried in
a furnace seven times. And then David comes and he tells
us, thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from
this generation forever. It may be that we're fearful
of making shipwreck of our faith. We may be that we see the evil
of our heart, the wickedness therein, and it may be that we
are brought to a situation where we come and we say, can ever
God dwell here in such a heart as mine? And then to be encouraged
by the word of God, as we've had to cry, help Lord, in my
situation, the Lord has come And the Lord has said, we shall
be kept. Kept, as Peter was, by the power
of God. And how good it is to come into
these times of testing and to know that our God can keep us,
and our God does keep us, sometimes against our will. God keeps us
because of his great grace toward us. because of his great love
toward us, of his great mercy. And we know then, this word is
true, thou shalt keep them. Oh Lord, thou shalt preserve
them from this generation forever. We shall be preserved. His people
will never fail. They fail in themselves, but
the God of all grace is with them to hold them up hold up
my goings in thy palms, that my footsteps slip not. That's
a cause, isn't it, for crying for help. The Lord will direct
us in this way. Yes, because we may fear that
our footsteps may slip. We may fear the weakness of our
flesh. Well, here is a promise. Thou
shalt keep them, O Lord, Thou shalt preserve them from this
generation forever. The Lord will keep the feet of
his saints. We will not fail. We will not
make shipwreck. We sure will at last be brought
home to eternal glory. And so the prayer will have been
heard. Help, Lord. My friends, it's
a prayer that we can utter at any time, isn't it? However poor,
however needy we may feel, it's a prayer that we can offer at
any time. You know the prophet Micah, he
tells us, and he said, woe is me, woe is me. Has that been
our situation? Woe is me. For I am as when they
have gathered the summer fruits as the great gleanings of the
vintage. There is no cluster to eat. my soul desire the first
ripe fruit the good man is perished out of the earth and there is
none upright among men they all lie in wait for blood they hunt
every man his brother with a net that they may do evil with both
hands earnestly the prince asketh and the judge asketh for a reward
and the great man he after his mischief desire so they wrap
it up yes my friends the day and age in which we live is just
like that isn't it and yet you see the prophet tells us the
best of them is as a briar the most upright is sharper than
a thorn hedge the day of thy watchman is thy visitation cometh
now shall be their perplexity and so he says trust you not
in a friend put you not confident in a guide keep the doors of
thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom for the son dishonorous
a father the daughter rises up against her mother the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law a man's enemies are the men of his own
house well faced with that situation and it might be very similar
we might feel in our own hearts and to cry, help Lord, what does
the prophet say? Therefore, therefore, when I
look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me. A gracious confidence in our
God. And my friends, we can have that
gracious confidence today in a day and age in which we live
and be thankful to know that we worship the same God yesterday
and forever. You know we read that 57th Psalm
because of how our prophet again commenced that to describe the
situation which existed in his day and in our day. The righteous
perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are
taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from
the evil to come. Well, what a situation that was
and what a situation it is today. But bless God, we have a God
who has said, Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, Thou shalt preserve
them from this generation forever, in the midst of this generation,
an evil and corrupt generation, to be kept by the power of God
and to be found in every time of need, pleading, very simply,
but yet from the bottom of our heart, like David did when he
came and said, help, Lord. Amen.