Well, as you are aware, we've
been going through the Acts of the Apostles and it's my intention
to continue with that, with those going through the Acts. But I
thought just tonight I would break away from it because this
particular psalm is on my spirit and with particular words. And
it's the same psalm that we actually had before us when James took
the service last Friday. which is Psalm 116. I don't believe
it's vain repetition. I believe it's a wonderful psalm
and we pray the Lord will bless it to us as we consider it this
evening. So Psalm 116. Although it doesn't actually
say so, I believe it is a psalm of David. I love the Lord because he has
heard my voice and my supplications because he hath inclined his
ear unto me. Therefore will I call upon him
as long as I live. The sorrows of death compass
me, and the pains of hell get hold upon me. I found trouble
and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver
my soul. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous,
yea, our God, is merciful, the Lord preserveth the simple. I
was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my
soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou
hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my
feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living. I believe, therefore have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted, I said
in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all his benefits to award me? I will take the cup
of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay
my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious In the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints. O Lord, truly I am Thy servant. I am Thy servant and the son
of Thine handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds. I
will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call
upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the
Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem, praise ye
the Lord." Well, I'll just comment on a
few verses in this chapter before we go to prayer. And the verse
which really has stuck out and been a strength to me and a help
is the sixth verse where we read, the Lord preserved it as simple,
I was brought low and the Lord helped me. We need to realise
that the Lord is in control of all our lives. The Lord raises
us up and the Lord also comes and sets us down and brings us
into low places. I don't think, in a spiritual
sense, any of the Lord's people are exempt from such an experience
in their life. The Lord sees fit to balance. There's a balancing of the clouds.
There's those times when we're raised up, those times when we're
greatly blessed, those times when we're brought low. And the
Lord brings us into that place for reasons. He brings us into
this place so that we may indeed seek unto Him perhaps more earnestly,
perhaps almost for the first time. And in that situation,
I believe when the Lord does bring His people into a low place,
there is always that great question as to how their soul stands before
Almighty God. It is a question which we should
never be ashamed to consider. We should be diligent to see
how our standing is in the Lord, that we may be established and
encouraged and blessed. And I believe one of the most
critical and one of the most essential considerations is covered
really in this first verse where the psalmist is able to say,
love the Lord? And the great question is, and
should be, and must be, do we love the Lord? Do we love the
Lord? You see, if we do not love the
Lord, then there is no spiritual hope for us, there is no hope
of eternal life. But if we do love the Lord, then
we have the evidence, the undisputable evidence, that we are eternally
safe, that we are redeemed. that we are redeemed with that
precious blood of Christ. And so how important the question
is that when the Lord does perhaps deign to bring us into this place,
bring us down, I was brought low to ask that great question,
do we love the Lord? Now, David tells us here, he
says, the Lord preserveth the simple. And that's a blessing,
because our spiritual religion, that which God gives us is not
complicated. And it's wonderful to think that
for the Lord preserves us in our simplicity, in our simpleness. We may not be able to claim great
experiences or wonderful revelations, but the great question is in
our simple condition. As the Lord brings us and preserves
us, The great question we have, do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? Now David here, in these first
two verses, he speaks of three things really. He speaks of God
with him now, a present God. The present God is, I love the
Lord. That is a present experience. And then he's able to say, he
hath heard my voice and my supplications because he hath inclined his
ear unto me. And that is a past experience. He's able to look back and to
confirm the Lord's goodness and the Lord's mercy toward him and
therefore to confirm he hath and then he looks forward and
he says therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. That's a wonderful testimony
that we have here of David as he looks back and he sees the
present and he sees the future and his confidence is in his
God and because he knows his favours which the Lord has granted
to him, and the Lord has heard his prayers, he's able to come
and say, I love the Lord because... Well, in our lives today, I wonder
if we're able to look back in our spiritual life and in answer
to that question, do I love the Lord? To be able to trace out
the answers, the mercy, the favour that God has given us, So they
were able to confirm, yes, I do love the Lord and I have reason. I have the evidence. I have been
blessed. I understand what the Lord has
done for me, bringing me out of nature into His glorious light,
revealing unto me something of the great love of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We may feel, I'm sure we do feel,
I feel, the great lack of love, but what a blessing if we know
a little, the word of God tells us, a little that a righteous
man hath is better than the treasures of many wicked. So the Lord has
looked upon us and touched our hearts in that small way so that
we know something of his love. We may be able to say then, with
a hymn writer, on such love my soul still ponder." Well, David's
able to come in with these wonderful words, I love the Lord because,
my friends, we need a because in our life. It's not sufficient
just to come and say, well, I love the Lord in some airy-fairy way.
We'll only say that truly as we are shown and as we're blessed
with a because. and we're therefore able to thank
the Lord for it. Well, the psalmist, he goes on
and he says, the sorrows of death compassed me, the pains of hell
got hold upon me, I found trouble and sorrow. And we should recognise
that what the Word of God teaches us and instructs us in, it's
not a path which is a strange path, it's a path which is walked
out by the Church of God and We are blessed as we recognise
the truth of God's Word and we understand this, I found trouble
and sorrow. What does that situation do?
What does it bring us to? What did it bring David to? Then,
called I upon the name of the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee,
deliver my soul. You see where he was homing in
on? His soul. That was a great question. He had many afflictions. He had
many battles. But here we have a little view.
of his real concern. And what was his concern about?
His concern was about his soul. And may that truly always be
our concern, to have the evidence that we love the Lord so that
we know our soul is blessed and is eternally safe. Gracious is
the Lord, and righteous, yea, our God is merciful. And is that
not so true? Is the Lord not gracious? Is
he not merciful? As we consider ourselves, as
we see our sinful condition by nature, we see the vileness of
our heart, we see the evil that dwells within, we perhaps almost
cry out, perhaps we do cry out, can ever God dwell here? And
we see here then the wonder of God who is gracious, gracious
and merciful. And so we come down then to this
verse and we read, The Lord preserveth the simple. He preserves us.
In all our situations, throughout our life, the Lord's watching
over us. He's leading us. He's directing
us. As we read of a God's servant,
Jacob. He found him in a desert place,
in a wasteland in wilderness. He led him about. He instructed
him. He kept him as the apple of his
eye. where he was preserved. My friends,
all God's people are preserved. And may we be simple Christians. May we have a simple faith. And
may we have the wonderful and amazing blessing of knowing the
truth that God loves us. The words in John, not that ye
loved God, but that he loved you. Well, tonight and every
day, may we know that God has loved us, and as we trace out
the evidence of it, of his wonderful grace and favour to us, then
may we be able to come and say, with the Psalmist, I love the
Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplication, because
he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon
him as long as I live.