I please the Lord to bless us
together this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn to Psalm
119 and read verse 117. Psalm 119 and reading verse 117.
Hold thou me up and I shall be safe and I will have respect
unto thy statutes continually. How much of the Psalms are really
prayers and this is a prayer and it will be a good thing for
us if we can come alongside the Psalmist and realize the truth
and the need We have, day by day, of praying like this. Hold down me up and I shall be
safe. It is very, very easy to just
assume that we are adequate in and of ourselves and we can hold
ourselves up. Well, we have to prove, I'm sure,
many times perhaps, how foolish we are and how easily we fall. Indeed we do not, are not able
to hold ourselves up. You may remember when the Lord
Jesus was on the earth. There was an occasion when the
disciples were out in a boat and we read in the fourth watch
of the night, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. And
when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled,
saying, it is a spirit. And they cried out for fear.
But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer,
it is I, be not afraid. And then we read of Peter. Peter answered and said, Lord,
if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said,
come. When Peter was come down out
of the ship, he walked in the water, to go to Jesus. But, when he saw the wind boisterous,
he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried saying, Lord,
save me. You see, what had he done? What
had Peter done? He looked all around. He'd taken
his eyes off the Lord Jesus. And that is when you and I begin
to sink. That's when you and I find ourselves
lonely and sad and in a difficult situation. What have we done? We've taken our eyes off Jesus. Well, thankfully, Peter cried
out. He cried out on this occasion,
Lord, save me. And we may have a similar testimony
and have to say, Lord, hold thou me up. Because unless that is done,
I shall fail. I shall sink. I have no strength
myself." Now Peter, you see, dear old Peter, he thought he
had strength himself, as we know on several occasions. The Lord
graciously went to him and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand
and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith,
wherefore didst thou doubt? See, what he was doing, he was
doubting. The Lord had said, come. He had obeyed that call. He got
out of the boat. But when he saw the wind boisterous,
when he saw the difficulties, he was afraid and began to sink. and how very easily we, in our
life today, although we have so many good examples in the
Word of God to direct us, yet we find, left to ourselves, we're
looking around. We've taken our eyes off Jesus.
It's a very sad condemnation for us, isn't it? But we do have
to prove it is so, sadly. And that's why the Lord has given
us words like this to encourage us. Prayers like this, that we
might pray like this. Hold thou me up and I shall be
safe. We can think, can we not, of
a little babe or a child being held up in their father or mother's
arms. And you see they are safe, aren't
they? Sometimes they come, don't they?
Crying to be picked up. So they are carried and they
are safe. Hold down me up. Well I wonder,
do we desire to come to the Lord? Do we come earnestly praying
that we might be Held up. Oh Lord, hold thou me up. I'm fearful of stumbling. The
road's slippery. There's many things to sidetrack
me. I need to be held up. It's good if we understand something
of the difficulty of the path. and not assume it's an easy journey. The devil will try and pretend
to us it's an easy journey. You needn't worry. It's quite
nice and smooth if you follow what I tell you. The tendency
therefore is to listen to what he says and to find ourselves
in a broad way. Yes, it may not seem to be very
much trouble, But the problem is, our soul may be sad, our
soul may be destitute, our soul may be barren, our heart may
be hard-hearted. There's no tenderness to the
things of God. We just follow things in a dutiful
way. There's no love. There's no falling
down. There's no committing ourselves
unto the Lord. That's why we have a word like
this. Uphold me. Uphold me according unto thy
word that I may live. Hold thou me up. You see, there
was this distinct situation that the psalmist had a need himself. And let us never forget that
the reality of religion is directed to ourselves and we should be
very concerned about the state of our souls individually. And
of course we should then be concerned about others. But we won't be
concerned about others. unless we are concerned about
the state of our soul. We may mouth words, we may pretend
to be concerned about others, but there won't really be that
urgency, there won't really be that cry, there won't really
be that prayer for the blessing of the Lord to come upon others
unless we are in a good position before the Lord. We need, do
we not, to look to ourselves, to see how stands the case with
us, whether we are healthy in our soul, whether the Lord is
indeed holding us up. Hold Thou me up and I shall be
safe. We read in Deuteronomy, underneath
are the everlasting arms. The arms of the Saviour. My friends, there's safety there.
The Lord holds us up. There's safety there. And what
is the blessing? The blessing is this. We're close
to the Lord. The Lord is holding us. His arms
are under us. We're close to the Lord. We're
not close to the world. We're not close to the devil.
We are close to the Lord. See the need then, there is to
pray like this, hold down me up and I shall be safe. This is a place of safety. Safety, safe in the arms of Jesus. It's a lovely line, isn't it? Safe in the arms of Jesus. Well,
do we rejoice in that truth and do we desire to be there? Here
is a word then, is it not? Hold me up and I shall be safe. Now the truth is that the psalmist
was an exercised believer and we can find that to be true
in the words of this psalm read it, trace it out, we see his
concern about liveliness of soul. And even in this section that
we read together here, it commences with this statement, I hate vain
thoughts. Now, we should only hate vain
thoughts if we are held up by the Lord. Because by nature, we love vain
thoughts. Our thoughts wander here and
there and we, as it were, build castles in the air and think
of this and think of that and they're vain thoughts and that's
really because we're worldly minded. Well, David tells us,
we assume David was the writer of this psalm, he says, I hate
vain thoughts. That's not something that just
trips off our tongue. It may do. The Lord has shown
you and me anything of our hearts. We should realise how weak we
are. And sadly how we do have vain thoughts. They're not God
honouring. No, they honour the devil. Because the devil brings vain
thoughts into our minds. But there is the other side. Again, the Word of God never
leaves his people in a vacuum. He says, I hate vain thoughts,
but thy law do I love. He loves the Word of God. The law here really refers to
the whole Word of God. And so, can we say that tonight? Well, we will be able to say
if. were upheld. If we pray, hold thou me up and
I shall be safe. If that is our real desire, by
earnest prayer then, we can believe that the Lord will give us that
desire to hate vain thoughts and to love the Word of God. But thy law do I love. And then he says, thou art my
hiding place and my shield I hope in thy word." He realised what
a blessing it was to have the Lord as his hiding place and
shield. And that's why he could go and
pray like this, hold down me up and I shall be safe. He knew that safety was of the
Lord and that therefore he was safe when the Lord was his hiding
place and his shield. and he said, I hope in thy word. Hold down me up and I shall be
safe. Now, in that position, near to
the Lord, we hope in his word. The word upon which he has caused
us to hope. The devil will do all he can
to rest that word from your heart. And yet you may have that word.
You may have to pray urgently. Oh Lord, hold down me up and
I shall be safe. I don't want to lose that word.
I don't want to lose that which I have been given. Hold it fast. No man take thy crown. Hold it
fast. I hope in thy word, hold thou
me up, and I shall be safe. Depart from me, ye evildoers,
for I will keep the commandments of my God." Again we see his
concern here, to live a godly life, a godly life, how much
there is to consider in this psalm, how it does direct us
to righteousness, how it does direct us to keeping of the law
and the Lord's commands, in love to the Saviour. We do all things amiss unless
we do all things in love. And so here we have the desire,
because of our love to the Lord, that we might indeed be able to say, yes, depart from
me, ye evildoers. I don't want anything to do with
you. Depart from me, for I will keep
the commandments of my God. They're not the commandments
of a man. That's the great difference, isn't it? It's the commandments
of my God. Remember, in keeping His commands,
there is great reward. Wonderful blessing to follow
the Lord, wonderful blessing to keep His commands. And so,
hold thou me up and I shall be safe. He says, uphold me according
unto thy word, that I may live and let me not be ashamed of
my hope." Again, the temptation of the devil is very strong and
he will endeavour to make you belittle your hope. He will endeavour to try to prove
to you that the hope you have is of no value. Little value
or no value. And so we find a word here to
pick us up. Let me not be ashamed of my hope. What is that hope? It's the hope
the Lord has given you. Yes, it may be a little hope,
but my friends, to you it's a great hope. Because your eternal state
depends upon the word of the Lord. So your prayer will then
have to be, hold down me up and I shall be safe. Oh Lord, let
me not lose that which thou hast given me. Let me not be ashamed
of my hope. The tendency is, under the influence
of the devil, to be ashamed. Never be ashamed of your hope. Never be ashamed of it. Because
if God has given it to you, it's that which the Lord has given
and it's that which you should praise and bless and glorify
your God for. for that which he has given you,
his gift, his word, made over to you and you've laid hold of
it by faith. He comes and says then, uphold
me again according unto thy word, that I may live. You want to
live. not die, life, eternal life,
to be upheld according to the Word of God, not in accordance
with your desires, but in accordance with the Word of God. And so
we come and we read, hold thou me up and I shall be safe. Now remember, the prayer is to
the Lord. the Lord Jesus will come and
hold you up. What a blessed place that is.
What a good prayer it is to pray like that, that the Lord may
indeed hold you up. We read together that 73rd Psalm,
which directed us to this situation. And we read in this 73rd Psalm,
But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had well and I
slipped. He says, for I was envious at
the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Well, perhaps
we feel that sometimes. Our steps have well and I slipped. Remember, it's a slippery path
and we need to be kept And we're only kept by the power of God. And in the 71st Psalm, we read
in verse 6, By thee have I been holden up from the womb. And what does the previous verse
say? For thou art my hope. O Lord
God, thou art my trust from my youth." Well, perhaps some of
us can say, the Lord has been our trust from our youth. We can bless God for it. But
whatever that may be in our life, if we can say in our life, there
has been an occasion that we are able to say, thou art my
trust. O Thou art my hope, O Lord God,
Thou art my trust, and then be able to confirm by Thee have
I been holding up from the womb. Thou art He that took me out
of my mother's bowels. We weren't aware, were we? The
Lord was holding us up from the moment we were born. He watched
over us. He kept us as the apple of His
eye. Yes, and He was holding us up. Blessed be God, Thou art He that
took me out of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually
of Thee. Well, He had cause, didn't He,
to praise God? Well, tonight, you and I have
cause to praise God for holding us, holding us perhaps by our
right hand, lifting us up in his arms, bearing us. Simon said, I am as of a wonder
unto many, but thou art my strong refuge. Yes, the Lord was his
strong refuge, the Lord was his hiding place, and may that be
so in our little experience. The Lord being our refuge, and
the Lord being our hiding place. It's a good place. It's a wonderful
place. It's a place of favour. How many times in these psalms
does the Lord direct us to very similar statements? In the 63rd
psalm, again David says, 8th verse, My soul followeth hard
after thee, thy right hand upholdeth me. He realised, did he not,
the need to be upheld. We think of David's life perhaps,
and we know that he was left to fall very grievously. Very grievously. And we should
not forget the circumstances that he was in. There he was in the evening,
on the roof of his house in an idle situation. And that was really his downfall. We need to be very aware in our
lives that we do not allow ourselves to be idle. But we may indeed be found occupied
in the things of God. Well, David confessed his situation,
he says, my soul falleth hard after thee, thy right hand upholdeth
thee, me. But those that seek my soul to
destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. Be mindful, there are those who
would destroy our souls. Bless God. The Lord holds us
up. Hold thou me up. This is a prayer
which can never become out of date or old-fashioned, can it? And again, as we conclude in
that 73rd Psalm, Asaph says, My flesh and my heart
faileth. But he had a secret. God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. There was his confidence in his
God. For lo, they that are far from
thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them
that go whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw
near to God, I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare
all thy works." Well, Asaph had his trust in the Lord. David
had his trust in the Lord. My friends, tonight, do you and
I have our trust in the Lord? Is it really our prayer? Is it
really our cry tonight? Hold thou me up, and I shall
be safe. Are we concerned about our eternal
safety? Many people are not worried about
their eternal safety. But the great important consideration
is, is our soul safe? Hold down me up and I shall be
safe. If the Lord holds us up, it is because He has taken notice
of us because he has come to us and here it is that is holding
us up and we are safe and he holds all his people in his arms
may we come praying that we may know it in our hearts hold down
me up and i shall be safe There is a wonderful safety then in
this situation, in being held up by the Lord Jesus. So if we're in the arms of the
Lord, the devil can't grasp us, can he? Because the arms of the
Saviour are so strong, the strong arm of our God. And they're never
weary. The Lord never tires. His arms never become heavy. He holds us in his arms. Hold down me up and I shall be
safe. We realise the wonderful comfort
of that situation. Know what a blessing it is that
we are found lively in our souls because we are close to the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are not being found wandering
away, or to be kept then in that good and right place, so easy
is it to be found forgetting the great cost of our salvation.
Forgetting what the Lord Jesus did on our behalf, in order that
he might redeem our souls, in order that he might favour us
and draw us near unto himself. Well, you know, Paul the Apostle,
when he wrote to the Corinthians, he encouraged us in this situation. And he warned us. He says, Now
all these things happen unto me for example, and they are
written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the world are
come. Wherefore, Let him that thinketh, he standeth, take heed,
lest he fall. Again, remember Peter. Let him that thinketh, he standeth,
take heed, lest he fall. We should never assume that we
can stand by ourself. That's why our prayer should
be constantly really in accordance with these words. Hold thou me
up. Hold thou me up and I shall be
safe. Not left then to just wander
about. It's so easy, isn't it? To be
left to ourselves and just wander about. Hold thou me up and I shall be
safe. Safety is only to be found in
the Lord and not in ourselves. Naturally, we just rely on ourselves. Sometimes perhaps we're ashamed
that we are relying upon ourselves, that we struggle on to try and
get ourselves out of a difficult situation. And we've forgotten
to look to the Lord. We've perhaps forgotten to pray
this prayer, hold down me up and I shall be safe. There are so many difficulties
in the life of the Christian. There are many hardships to face,
many trials, many temptations, many temptations. That's why
I said on Lord's Day morning, the Lord's Prayer, the Lord says,
leave me not in a temptation, but deliver us from evil. How
important it is that we're not led into temptations, that we are delivered from evil. Hold Thou me up, and I shall
be safe. Again, we may think that we are
safe. Sometimes we can look back on
our lives and Remember the Lord's mercy and goodness to us and
think, well, I'm born again and the Lord's favoured me. And therefore
we can, as it were, relax and just rest upon that which we
have been blessed with. Well, it's right, you know, to
be thankful for every blessing. But remember this. You and I
will have to come to die. And what will we need when we
come to die? What will we need? We shall need
Christ. My friends, we don't know when
we are going to die. How important it is that we live
a life with Christ. What that really means is that
we desire a continual feeding upon Christ. Christ is our meat
and drink. It's Him that we love to hear
of. Him that we love to speak of.
and by faith to see and to know the comfort and support of being
held up, hold down me up and I shall be safe. The Lord brings
us then to these times of need, as it were, that come to our
senses and the Lord is not close to us, we've wandered away. The prayer must then be, O Lord,
do hold thou me up. I'm a weak, poor, hell-deserving
sinner. I can't claim any goodness myself.
All I can claim is failure. O Lord, do hold thou me up, and
I shall be safe. throughout our life and brought
safely home to glory. As the Lord leads us and the
Lord directs us to view Himself as the one thing needful, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one thing needful and
ought to be found in close to Him. Let us not wander afar off
Let us not wander into the broad way. Let us always be concerned
to be found held up, held up by the Lord. This statement here
is so important. We often lose sight of it. We
lose sight of the truth of God's word. The devil's aim is to blind
us. The devil's aim is to turn us
away from his word. To the vain things in this life,
so many things there are, and is a past master distracting
us from Christ? Anything that distracts us from
Christ, we need to question. We may think sometimes that,
well that's a lawful thing and that's something I can be involved
with, The Apostle was able to put that right when he said,
all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.
That means they weren't blessing his soul. That means he was able
to do them, but they weren't really beneficial for his soul.
It didn't keep him and bring him into a healthy place. It
didn't bring him closer to Christ. We should never make excuses
and think, well, I can get away with doing that. The question
is, does it bring us closer to Christ? It must be the test in
our spiritual life, in everything. Does it bring us closer to Christ? Hold thou me up. Now this will
be the cry of a healthy child of God, who realises their need,
who realises their weakness, and who is dependent upon what
Christ has done. It's good to be there, you know.
It's good to be found dependent upon what Christ has done. What
does that mean? It means that our attention will
be directed to the cross of Christ. We should be directed to Calvary
and we should come there with all our sins and all our woe
and all our backslidings and all our hardness of heart and
all our rebellion Come then and say, with a broken heart, O Lord,
hold thou me up, and I shall be safe. Just briefly he said,
and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. That
means he desired to walk in the way of the Lord. He desired to
follow the commands of his God Indeed they were the joy and
rejoicing of his soul. You can read in this 119th Psalm
many occasions where he rejoices in the statutes and the law of
his God. And so here we have this word,
I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. They weren't arduous for him,
because he desired to be an obedient servant of his God, who'd done
so much to redeem his soul. He had some view of the cost
of his redemption, and therefore his desire now was to have respect
under thy statutes, not just on a day, but every day, continually,
to remember the gracious words of the Lord The words of the
Lord that he spoke when he was on the earth, the words of instruction,
the words of correction, the words of encouragement, how many
words the Lord spoke. And I will have respect unto
thy statutes continually. The desire is to be close to
the Lord and walking in accordance with his word. so that his name
may be lifted up, so that he may be honoured and glorified,
and that we may be encouraged. There's no better place than
being found close to the Lord. And don't forget, that's the
place the devil hates. He hates you being there. He
would do everything to distract you. But hear the gracious words
of the Lord. Come unto me, all that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and
you shall find rest unto your souls." Comfort you see, blessing
of being united to Christ. My old friends tonight, covet
earnestly the best gifts. and the best gifts that have
union with Christ. Union with Christ is a blessing
in life and it is and it will be a blessing throughout eternity. So tonight may we desire from
our heart to follow this gracious exhortation of the Psalmist.
Hold thou me up and I shall be safe and I will have respect
unto thy statutes continually. Amen.