May it please the Lord to bless
us together this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn
to the book of Psalms, Psalm 90, and we'll read verse 14. Psalm 90 and reading verse 14. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. It is a wonderful thing to realise
that we have in the book of Psalms the personal prayers of men of
God. And to realise that people like
Moses and David were able to write down those things which
we find today have an echo in our hearts and sometimes describe
so adequately those things perhaps that we are not able or don't
seem to be able to speak very adequately in prayer but then
to come across words in the Word of God which are so suitable
to our situation and do indeed describe what we desire, how
encouraging it is, and surely it is an evidence for us that
we are one of the family of God as we can echo the prayers of
God's people. And so we are indeed thankful
that we have the Psalms and other parts of the Word of God which
have many prayers in and describe so very adequately our needs. So here we have this prayer of
Moses. And it wouldn't have been written
when he was a young man. It would have been written when he was
probably well advanced in age. And we should therefore not be
discouraged and think, well, surely he wouldn't pray a prayer
like this in his old age. Well, quite clearly, he was able
to and he did. And here we have then this request. What a request it is. O satisfy
us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all
our days. And it is significant that this
verse has two parts. It has a request and then it
has what will occur when that request is answered. The request
is simple, O satisfy us early with thy mercy, And then he says
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. What a good thing
it is to have a desire in our spiritual life that we may be
able to rejoice in what God has done. That we may be able to. Here was the concern. Well, Moses
did know the Lord, but here was his concern. And what a good
concern it was that he might be able to rejoice and be glad
all our days. Well, I'm sure we desire that. I hope we do. I pray we do. And
if we don't, well, may you pray that it might be your desire
to come to that place under the blessing of the Lord where you
have this desire that you may rejoice and be glad all our days. So he says, satisfy us early
with thy mercy. To be satisfied really means
that we are satiated, it really means that we are full and the
Lord has greatly blessed us to be satisfied. Now I suppose we
often feel our faith is very small and very weak and we might
be fearful to ask for a blessing like this. And we might think,
well, I'm sure I'll never come into a position like that.
Well, we are not to look on it like that. We are to realise
the Lord is able and the Lord is willing to do great things. We must remember We are coming
to the Lord God, the Almighty God, the Omnipotent God, who
is able to do for us far more and exceeding abundantly above
what we can ask or even think. That is the Word of God. And
how good it is to realise that we are coming to a great God,
not a little God, a great God. Let us not then limit our God. Let us come to Him in faith.
Let us come believing that He is able and willing to do these
things for us. So may we come rightly, it's
coming humbly, it's not coming in any wrong way, but to come
boldly is not a wrong way. We are encouraged to come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may find help in time of need. We're invited to come to the
great God in this way, to come boldly. That doesn't mean to
say that we're not to be humble in that boldness. There is a
humble boldness. But bless God if we come believing
that we come to this great God. And so here we have tonight these
words, Satisfy us early with thy mercy." He didn't want to
wait a long time. He didn't want to say, well,
OK, I need a blessing but it's not very important, whenever
it occurs. He was concerned. He had a living desire. He wanted
God to come to him early and to satisfy him. Now what does
this show? This shows A liveness of soul,
isn't it? It shows a true concern for our
spiritual health. That we want the Lord to come.
Oh, satisfy us early. Do come to me soon, Lord. Let
it not be a long time. Satisfy us early with thy mercy. This word mercy has been translated
from the original as mercy here. It can be translated in a number
of other ways. It can be translated as goodness,
loving kindness and favour amongst others. And so as we think of
the breadth of this word here, O satisfy us early with these
things. It is indeed the The same word
that occurs in that chapter we read this morning in Jeremiah
31. And it's the same word that we
read in the third verse. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with everlasting love,
therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. It's the same
word, lovingkindness. It's the same word here, mercy. satisfy us early with thy mercy."
Well, perhaps that's where we are tonight. Perhaps we're praying
for mercy. I believe that's one of the early
indications of the work of God in the soul, to cry to God for
mercy. And it will be a blessing, therefore,
if we can find in our hearts a time when we cry for mercy. Why would we cry for mercy? We'd
cry for mercy because we felt our need of mercy. And that's
mercy from God. Why? Because we feel condemned. Because we realise we've sinned
against God. Because we realise we're undone.
Because we realise we're lost and there's no hope for us. It may seem that hell, as it
were, is opening its mouth before us and we're fearful of falling
in to that abyss. It may be that we're afraid to go
to sleep at night because we fear we might wake up in hell. That is a real position. That's not a figment of imagination.
It is a real situation. And if we are there, we'll need
mercy. We'll need mercy to be delivered
from that wrath. The wrath of God. A holy God. It may be that you're trembling
before God. Trembling. as to what would happen
to you. Trembling because of what you
deserve. It may be then so suitable. Your prayer from your heart then,
it won't just be a formality. Prayer often is a formality. But bless God when prayer is
turned into reality. And the Lord causes us to walk
in a path where Our prayers become reality. Here was reality with Moses. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
mercy. Mercy. It's a wonderful word,
isn't it? It's a wonderful word, isn't
it? We read a lot about it in the Word of God. Mercy. That means when God turns away
His wrath from us. Why does He do that? Why does
He turn His wrath from us? God is just, you know, in all
of His dealings. And if we are a sinner before
God, we deserve His wrath. How is that to be turned away
from us? It's only to be turned away through
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done on our behalf. Mercy is only to be realised
through what Jesus Christ has done. Mercy is welcome news indeed
to those who guilty stand. And what a blessing it is if
the Lord is to satisfy us early with His mercy, it will be as
He directs us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Direct our attention
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the Lord Jesus won't mean anything
to you unless the Spirit of God has shown you your need of mercy. Unless you are standing on this
ground, unless you stood on this ground, the Lord Jesus Christ
would mean nothing to you. Is it nothing to you? All you
that pass by. How many people pass by and the
Saviour means nothing? It's just a name, just a historical
figure, just something that you've heard about and read about. But
when the Spirit of God comes and makes us cry to Him for mercy,
mercy is to be found through the merits of the Lord Jesus
Christ. and then be, you'll have to say,
I stand upon His merit. I know neither stand. That's where we need to be. And that's where the Spirit of
God will bring us to. It'll bring us to that place
to look to Jesus. My only hope of deliverance from
the wrath to come The only place where I shall find any comfort,
it is in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
mercy. Now if that's our prayer, if
that has been our prayer, then the answer will come. Jesus reveals
himself to us. Yes, he reveals himself to us.
We may have been perhaps like Thomas. We may have said, I will
not believe unless I can put my hands, my finger into the
nail holes and thrust my hand into his side. You see, Thomas
had his own plan. Thomas had his Bargain as it
was. He wasn't going to believe unless
he could do this. It may be sometimes in our lives
we've said, I will not believe unless I have this particular
blessing. I will not believe. Well, Thomas
was changed, wasn't he? The Lord can change you and me.
And he changed Thomas. in that amazing way when he came
and appeared to the disciples again. And the second time Thomas
was with them. And the Lord invited Thomas then
to do what he had requested to do. Did Thomas do it? No. He just said, my Lord and
my God. He didn't need then to fulfil
those things that he had said he was going to do. Because the
Lord had met with him. That will make the difference.
When the Lord comes and meets with us, when the Lord comes
and reveals himself to us, as he does not unto the world, this
will break down the barriers. They will flow down at his presence. The barriers, perhaps, which
we erect. Sometimes we put barriers, you
know, Our conditions, their barriers. Well, bless God. He dispenses
those barriers. He performs His will and His
purpose. And I believe the reason is this. God will have all the honour
and glory. You see, if the Lord answered our conditions, I'm sure we would be proud. We
would say, well, I requested this and God answered it. But
you see, when the Lord comes and blesses us in His way, then
we aren't able to claim any virtue ourselves. We have to bow down
and say, my Lord and my God. What a good thing that is, to
have Jesus reveal to us mercy. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
mercy. Now, if we're truly pleading
for mercy, you see, the Lord will come. The Lord will hear. But this means it's not just
a traditional prayer, because this will come from our heart. Because we have a real need. True sinners have a real need. And they need the Saviour. And
they need to have the assurance and the revelation that the Lord
Jesus is their God. He is their Redeemer. Thomas
said, my Lord and my God. And it's just what we need, don't
we? God's people need to come to
that place where they can say, my Lord, And my God, what's that? Deliverance. What's that? Freedom. What's that? Prayer answer. And the Lord comes. And so, oh, satisfy us early
with thy mercy. What a blessing it is then, when
the Lord comes and opens our understanding. That's what it
is. See, until the Lord comes, and opens our understanding,
our eyes are blinded. We don't see the grace and glorious
truth contained in the Word of God. It's an amazing fact. But it's only when the Lord comes
and opens our understanding, like the Apostle Paul, the scales
drop from his eyes. The Apostle Paul was a very learned
man. And he knew all the Old Testament
law inside out, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. But you
see, he was blind until that time when those skulls dropped
from his eyes. Now it will be a wonderful blessing
if the Lord comes and hears our cry. I believe it is a cry. You see, true prayer is a cry. And why I say that is this. It's
involuntary. You have to pray. You have to pray for mercy. It comes out from you. There
it is. And you pray it from your heart.
Mercy. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
mercy. When therefore the Lord comes
and blesses you with this satisfying and you see there in the Lord
Jesus Christ what you need and you stand amazed that you never
understood it before. You're so surprised. It's as
though all things become new. Things take on a different perspective. A different scene. It's like
a different world almost. And you see the necessity of
a saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful blessing. The
Lord hears your cry for mercy. If he does, he'll be satisfied
in this way. you'll be led to Christ. And there in Christ, you'll realise,
it may not be all at once, don't think you suddenly know everything.
The Word of God tells us it's line upon line, precept upon
precept, here a little and there a little, but don't forget The
Word of God tells us, a little that a righteous man hath is
better than the treasures of many wicked. So bless God, if
he's given you a little understanding of the truth of the Lord Jesus
Christ coming into this world to save sinners. Sinners can
say, and none but they, how precious is the Saviour. And unless the Spirit of God
comes and touches your heart, the Saviour will mean nothing
to you. But when the Holy Spirit, oh
bless God for the work of the Holy Spirit, oh bless God for
that, when the Spirit of God comes, as indeed the Comforter,
and reveals Jesus to your soul, What relief there is to have
that knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten
Son of the Father, the first president of the Trinity, He
comes! He's come! And He's come into this world
for the specific purpose of saving your soul. Think of that. Almighty God,
the ruler of the universe, come down to save your soul, my soul,
personal. Your sins washed away, my sins
washed away. A personal redemption. A personal
atonement. Oh, what a wonderful thing to
have this mercy revealed to us. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
mercy. And as the Spirit of God may
direct us, and direct us in this way, that we'll be led into the
cost of our redemption. That which perhaps we trivialised
at one time, we thought nothing of. We have very low views. But as the Spirit of God shows
us the cost to the Saviour of His sufferings so intense,
angels have no perfect sense. The Son of God suffered for his
people. He suffered and died that one
sacrifice for sin, to take away our sin. Nothing else would do. Nothing else would satisfy the
demands of the Holy God. Word of God tells us in Hebrews,
without shedding of blood, there is no remission, no forgiveness. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
fulfill that which his father gave him to do, to die in the
place of unworthy sinners, that we, by his grace, might one day
be with him in glory forever. And it's all of his mercy. And as we are able to join and
realise the blessing of this, as that mercy expands in our
understanding, and it expands in a greater knowledge of what
the Saviour did in His life, in His death, in His resurrection,
in His ascension, and now today, for His intercession. A glorious
blessing it is to have one that we can go to, to come to our
Father in prayer, to think that the Lord Jesus Christ, He intercedes. There, even today, He takes our
prayers. We may pray. We may think our
prayers are very ineffectual. We may think they're very poor.
But let us not forget those words. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much because the Lord Jesus presents
them to his Father. They are not ineffectual then.
They are an effectual prayer because of what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done. I rejoice tonight then in the
risen Saviour, Rejoice tonight that we have a glorious High
Priest. We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
Righteous, who can present our case. You see, we fail, don't
we, in words, as we come in prayer to our God. The Lord Jesus, as
our Advocate, can present our case. And that will be totally
adequately. He'll present it perfectly. Oh,
let us come then to the Saviour. I love those words. I came to
Jesus as I was. Weary and worn and sad. As you are. The Lord knows what
you're like. He knows. You don't have to put
on any special kind of attitudes. The Lord knows what you're like.
You come to Him exactly as you are. Anywhere. Anyplace. Anytime. The door of His mercy
stands open all day to the poor and the needy, not by the way,
and night as well. What a wonderful favour it is.
As we come here with a prayer like this, O, satisfy us early
with Thy mercy. And then to think of this word,
also, satisfy us early with Thy favour. The favour of God. You know, Esther, in her day,
she had a difficult task, didn't she? She was told that she had
to go in before Ahasuerus to present her petition. And she
knew that if she went in and the golden set was not held out
to her, there would only be one outcome. She would die. She would perish. And what did
she say? I will go in unto the king, which
is not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish. Given faith to go in unto the
king. What did she do? She found favour
before King Ahasuerus. He held out the golden scepter. Sometimes, perhaps, we may fear,
as it were, to come into the presence of the Lord. We feel
too guilty, too sinful, too bad. You may be driven to that place. But you come and say, like she
did, I will go in. And if I perish, I perish. Well, bless God. If we come in
faith, you'll find that the Lord holds out the golden scepter
to us and we receive favour. What's the position? We are accepted
in the Beloved. We're not accepted because of
what we've done. We're accepted because of what Christ has done.
Favour. Favour. Oh, satisfy us early
with thy favour. What a blessing it is, isn't
it, to have the favour of God. How unworthy we are, are we not?
We don't deserve any favour, do we? We deserve to be cast
off and cast out. And yet to think the Lord gives
favour to His people. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
favour." Then, think of it as that word, goodness. Satisfy
us early with thy goodness. Well, ponder your life. Ponder the Lord's goodness to
you. Over the years of your life,
when you were walking contrary to God, when you were far off,
When you were pleasing yourself, the Lord's goodness was over
you. What a favour, what a blessing. And then to realise, and I hope
it's true, that the Lord's come and touched your heart and you
are a partaker of his goodness. Perhaps you're able to enter
into what David said in that 23rd Psalm, when he came and
said, Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Why was he able to say that?
He was able to say that because he had proved the Lord was his
shepherd, the Lord was his God, The Lord is my shepherd, whether
the Lord has taught us anything. The Lord has come to us and called
us because the Good Shepherd has called us. The Good Shepherd
knows his sheep and he calls them. It's his goodness toward
us. Oh, to think of that. Oh, satisfy
us early with thy goodness. Can you thank God tonight for
his goodness toward you in not dealing with you as you deserve? Thereafter day, we receive his
goodness. And what returns do we give to
our God? Goodness and then loving kindness. I will satisfy us early with
thy loving-kindness." It's a very beautiful word, isn't it? Loving-kindness. It's a comprehensive word, isn't
it? Combining, really, love and kindness. I think, He saw me ruined in
the fall, but loved me, notwithstanding all. And we love God. Not because we love God, but
because God loved us. Oh, His love. My friends, it's
past our understanding, isn't it? To think of God's love. We never loved God. We were an
enemy, in opposition, fighting against God. And yet, His loving kindness
has drawn us, drawn us to Himself, warmed our heart of the loving
kindness of the Lord. His loving kindness, oh how great. Him writing sums it up, doesn't
he? Isn't it true? to think of his loving-kindness.
Oh, how great, how great it is to our unworthy sinners. And
here's his prayer. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
loving-kindness. You know, as you and I touch
by the loving-kindness of the Lord, oh, it breaks down barriers. We fall down and worship, we
fall down and bow before our God, to think that Such a God
should have loved us. Such a God should have shown
his kindness toward us. Sure it melts hard hearts. The loving kindness of the Lord,
O, satisfies early with thy mercy. And then we come to the other
part, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. He goes on to say, make us glad
according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the
years wherein we have seen evil. You see, the Lord afflicts for
our benefit and for our goodness, so that by His grace the Church
of God is able to say, it was good that I have been afflicted,
and that's in a variety of ways. It's very broad, but it's very
true. And so, may we rejoice and be glad all our days. Now, it's a lovely thing, isn't
it, to be able to rejoice. And it's a glorious thing to
be able to rejoice in the Lord's work. And it's a wonderful thing
to be able to rejoice in the Lord's work in our heart. You see, here he desires to rejoice,
that we may rejoice and be glad. Now if you've been burdened by
your sin, if you've been under conviction of sin, you know you'll
be burdened. And if the Lord comes and lifts
that burden and takes it away, well, You'll be gladness in your
heart, glad that the Lord has looked upon you. That spoken,
those words, there is therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but
after the spirit. There is a change, you see, in
spiritual life. There is a difference. There
is a walking after the spirit and not after the flesh. But
oh, to hear such words as that, there is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. Surely, that's glad sound, isn't
it? It's a glad sound to your soul. You'll rejoice in such words
as that. And you understand here what the God's servant says,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. And in that, there
is an honouring the Lord. Because it's being glad in what
God has done. In heard prayer, when God answers
prayer, there's a need to rejoice and there's a need to be glad.
There's a need to praise the Lord and to thank Him for His
great mercy, for His great loving kindness, for His goodness, for
His favour. It's true, isn't it? Surely.
What a debt we owe. It's good when we understand
a little of the debt we owe. When we realise the price that
has been paid. When we realise the cost of paying
that price. There was a ransom on our head,
and that was our life. And the Lord Jesus Christ died
in our stead, in our place. He bore the punishment instead. And He died upon Calvary's cross
and shed His most precious blood. Again, there may have been times
in our life when we've trampled underfoot the blood of Christ. But oh, bless God, if there's
been that change, when now we confirm with the Apostle Peter
the precious blood of Christ, cleanses us from all sin. All sin. We might term small
sins, we might term large sins. All sins. He bore the punishment
instead. That we may rejoice and be glad
all our days. Well, may we look into our hearts
tonight and may we be able to trace out our desires. The Lord will have mercy upon
us. And if that is so, to also trace
out the desire that we might rejoice and be glad. There's a new song in our mouth,
even praise unto our God. David spells it out very well
in that 40th Psalm, when he tells us, I waited patiently for the
Lord. And he inclined unto me and heard
my cry. Oh, wonderful, isn't it? The
Lord heard and answered prayer. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit. Almost a pit of despair, perhaps.
A pit of unbelief. He brought me up out of the miry
clay and set my feet upon a rock, the rock Christ Jesus, and established
my goings, established me in the truth of God, established
my goings, and hath put a new song in my mouth." A new song
in my mouth. And what was that song? A song
which hadn't been sung before. Praise unto our God. What was
the result? Many shall see it and fear and
shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust. Now, if you tonight are in this
place, oh, satisfy us early with thy mercy. It must be because
you are trusting in the Lord. Your trust is in God, not in
yourself. Looking out of yourself, and
you're trusting in the Lord. And what does the word say? Blessed
is that man that maketh the Lord his trust. Well, may we all be
found in that place tonight, trusting in the Lord, and realise
these words are very true, they're very precious, they're very important,
that we might indeed desire, that we might be satisfied. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
mercy, that we may Rejoice and be glad all our days, and at
last be received into glory, there to praise the Saviour for
ever and ever. Amen.