Let us turn to God's Holy Word
and read together Psalm 143. Psalm 143. The Psalm of David.
Psalm 143. Hear my prayer, O Lord, give
ear to my supplications, in thy faithfulness answer me, and in
thy righteousness, and enter not into judgment with thy servant,
for in thy sight shall no man living be justified, for the
enemy hath persecuted my soul, he hath smitten my life down
to the ground, he hath made me to dwell in darkness as those
that have been long dead, therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within
me. My heart within me is desolate. I remember the days of old. I meditate on all thy works. I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto
thee. My soul thirsteth after thee
as a thirsty land, Selah. Hear me speedily, O Lord, my
spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest
I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Cast me cause me to hear thy
loving kindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause
me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto
thee. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine
enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me. Teach me to do thy will, for
thou art my God, thy spirit is good. Lead me into the land of
uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's
sake, for thy righteousness's sake. Bring my soul out of trouble
and of thy mercy cut off mine enemies and destroy all them
that afflict my soul for I am thy servant. So Lord may help me as we look
at this subject of this prayer of David I would draw your attention
particularly to the tenth verse. Teach me to do thy will. This central petition of David. David clearly in this psalm was
one who knew many troubles, who knew the enemy persecuting his
soul as he said. We read that his spirit was overwhelmed
within him. He was in the midst of great
troubles. And he was thinking, if we look
in verse 5, he was thinking back over his life. I think of the
days of old. I meditate on all thy works.
I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto
thee, and my soul thirsteth after thee. He was thirsty for God. as a thirsty land, Selah. Then
in verse 7 we have this prayer, to be heard speedily, hear me
speedily, O Lord my spirit faileth, hide not thy face from me. So David is praying that the
Lord would hear him and the Lord would deliver him, he was in
great trouble. He said, lest I be like unto them that go down
into the pit. And in verse 8, cause me to hear
thy lovingkindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause
me to know the way wherein I should walk. David wanted his way to
be directed by God. He wanted to know the way that
he should walk, as in verse 8. Then in verse 9, deliver me O
Lord from my enemies, I flee unto thee to hide me. So he was
seeking guidance, seeking direction, seeking that the Lord would go
before him and guide him. But in verse 10 we have this,
teach me to do thy will. As it were, David has asked that
the Lord would deliver him from his enemies, asked that the Lord
would be with him and bless him. But this central petition, teach
me to do thy will. This is, as it were, the centre
of his prayer, his desire to do the will of God. And this word will here, this
petition that he is praying, The will can be translated the
pleasure of God. God's pleasure, God's delight,
teach me to do thy will. David is here in a sense confessing
how easy it is for him not to do the will of God as it were,
his tendency not to do the will of God and his propensity as
it were to do the opposite. But his desire is, teach me,
his prayer is, teach me to do thy will. A prayer offered up
amongst great difficulties. But you might say, surely his
main focus is to be delivered from his enemies. His main focus,
as it were, is for the Lord to appear on his behalf. But then
David, as it were, is lifted up above those things which were
necessary. And yet his delight was teach
me to do thy will. And I want to think of this doing
the will of God tonight, this prayer, is it our prayer? Are
we concerned in our lives to do the will, to do the pleasure
of God? Or are we not? You see by nature
we have a will, we have a desire, but it is to do our own will.
We see that in the Garden of Eden with Eve. Her will, the
pleasant fruit, the desirability that it was good for food and
to make one wise. Her will was to eat of the fruit
and delight in that fruit. But it wasn't the will, it wasn't
the pleasure of God. teach me to do thy will. And
we, by nature, you see, we want our own way, we want to walk
for our own pleasure. You see, the will of God is the
pleasure of God. Are we desiring in our lives
the pleasure of God, or are we desiring our way? By nature,
you see, before we come to know the Lord, our life is a self-centred
life. It's my way, my will, my desire,
my affections. But the psalmist wants something
higher. He realizes that God's way is
the right way, that God's way is the way which will lead into
eternal life. Teach me to do thy will, thy
pleasure, to delight in what God delights in. a confession of his weakness
as well, you see. If he needs to pray to God, to
be able to do the will of God, to be taught to do the will of
God, it's a confession that he needs teaching, he needs help,
he needs strength. And we think of the Apostle Paul
in Romans 7 when he said, the good that I would I do not, and
the evil that I do not, I would not that I do. He had a desire,
and he tells us in Romans 7, I delight in the law of God after
the inward man. He had a delight, as David did
in this psalm. Yet he needed God, you see, to
help him to do the will of God. And as we come and meet for prayer
tonight, we see God's face, is it? that we may do his will. Yes, there's many things that
we need to pray for, many things that we need to bring to God
in prayer, but ultimately, is it not our greatest desire to
do the will, the pleasure, to delight ourselves, to do what
God delights in, to love what God loves and to hate what God
hates. I think somebody put it like
this, that once before conversion the will of God to him was a
sign. It was something that he had
to do as it were. He thought that he must walk
in this way but it was not his delight. And yet now, He says
it's become my song. It becomes my delight. And to
a Christian, you see, in his right mind, in not a backsliding
state, it's then the delight to do the will of God. The delight,
as it were, to want to do his will. So, sin is something, you
see, that at the root of sin is rebellion. Rebellion. And
what is rebellion? Rebellion is wanting to do our
will. wanting our way, wanting to live
life to our glory, rather than wanting to do his will. You see the Lord Jesus, we read
in Psalm 40 how he said, I delight to do thy will. Oh my God, he
delighted in his father's will for him. Although that will,
you see, was such a bitter place, it led him, as it were, it meant
that he had to go to Calvary to pay the price for sin. And
yet, he says later, the cup that my father giveth me, shall I
not drink it? That sweet submission to his
father's will. And may we know that in our lives,
that we may not, as it were, be going on, pressing on, wanting
our way, defying, as it were, God and saying, we will not have
this man to reign over us, but that we might be people who are
praying, teach me to do thy will. In all our troubles, in all our
trials, in all our sadnesses, in all our difficulties, in all
the things that we can't understand, all the way that is too tough,
too hard for us, all the pits that we fall into, all the difficulties
that we pass through. Teach me to do thy will. And later on in verse 11 he says,
quicken me. You see, if we are going to walk,
run in the ways of God's commandments, we need quickening. That means
we need to be made alive and lively, we need to run in his
ways, we need to delight in our God. Quicken me, O Lord, for
Thy name's sake. Teach me to do Thy will." So
the desire of the psalmist was to do the will of his God. He
was in a good place, though he was in a difficult place, though
he was in many trials, many things which he said he was being overwhelmed. but his desire was to do the
will of God. And why does God bring us into
trials and difficulties and sadness and disappointments? Is it so
we come back, as it were, to this main vital ingredient, teach
me to do thy will. You see, and this is a central
petition in the Lord's Prayer. Thy will be done. It's the part of the Lord's Prayer
that connects, as it were, the former part, talking about God's
glory and God's honour, and the latter part of the prayer which
deals with our natural needs, give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against
us. This joining point, teach me
to do the will of God, God's will, God's will for His people. Well, what is the will of God?
Well, the will of God is in the councils of eternity. There was
that, as it were, agreement between the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit that this people should be called out of nature's darkness
into the marvellous light of the Gospel. There was a way made
whereby sinners, rebels, those that were far off from God, should
be made nigh by the blood of Christ. There was a way opened
so that God could be just and the justifier of the ungodly. Teach me to do thy pleasure,
the pleasure of God. God delights in mercy, he delights
in his ways, and that we may be amongst those who delight
in his ways. Well, as we come then for prayer
tonight, may we pray for the many things that we stand in
need of, and commit to God the many things that are too hard
for us to deal with, the things that overwhelm us, but ultimately for each one of
us. May our deepest desire be this, teach me to do thy will,
to put God's pleasure, God's desires for us in our lives,
into practice in our lives, that we may not be running away from
God, that we may not be walking in paths of disobedience. that
we may, by God's grace, do the will of God, that we may follow
Him, that we may serve Him, and in all the situations that we
find ourselves in, that we may prove that God is with us. May the Lord add His blessing.