Well, let us turn to the psalm
that we've just read, Psalm 74, and reading again at verse 9. The 74th psalm, and reading verse
9. We see not our signs, there is
no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth
how long. We see not our signs, There is
no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth
how long. I really want to take those opening
words as the text, as our theme really. These five words we see
not as signs. I'm dealing with just these two
points. First of all to say something with regards to the signs. What
is it that the psalmist is speaking of? Well, we have to take account,
of course, of the context of the psalm and we can understand
something of that when we look at the actual content. There are psalms, of course,
which in the title tell us of the circumstances in which David
or others was would have been moved to compose the psalm, but
we're not told that here, other than it's a masculine. It's a
psalm that gives instruction, so we look at the content, and
as we do that, surely we see that it must be about the time
of the desolations of Jerusalem, after the Babylonians had come
and laid siege to the holy city, raised the temple of God to the
ground and taken away the people into exile. Verse 4, it says,
Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations. They set
up their ensigns for signs, all the signs about the godly remnants
that God would always preserve in the midst of Israel. But all
the signs about them, why they are the ensigns, the banners
of the the Babylonian hordes were sacking Jerusalem and of
course we have the historic account of those awful guys in the second
book of Kings in 2nd Kings chapter 24 and there at verse 11 following
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city and his
servants did besiege it and Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to
the king of Babylon he and his mother and his servants and his
princes, and his officers, and the king of Babylon took him
in the eighth year of his reign, and he carried out hence all
the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of
the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold
which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the
Lord, as the Lord had said. And he carried away all Jerusalem,
and all the princes, and all the mighty men of Varah, even
ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths, none
remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land." We
have that description then of those events associated with
the overthrow of Jerusalem. And we see a description of these
things surely in the psalm. The psalmist pleads at verse
3, lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations. even all
that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. Again at verse
6, Now they break down the caft work thereof at once with axes
and hammers. They have cast fire into thy
sanctuary. They have defiled by casting
down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground. The content then indicates what
period it must have been. It was that time when eventually,
because of their sins, because of their awful, idolatrous ways,
God had judged them. And the hordes of the Babylonians
under Nebuchadnezzar had taken the city and removed the people
far away. And so, the lament that we have
in the text, we see not as signs. There is no more any prophet,
neither is there among us any that knoweth Now what are the
signs that are being spoken of? Well they are the signs of God's
presence, the signs really of God's blessing and of course
there were numerous signs, historical signs in the Old Testament and
tangible signs that indicated that they were the people of
God and that God was dwelling in their midst There was of course
the Ark of the Covenant and atop of the Ark there would be the
Mercy Seat and as we read in Exodus 25 that's where God promised
that he would come and and sit in the midst of his people, he
would dwell amongst them. And how they recognized then
something of the importance of that ark. It contained the two
tables of the law. The two tables of the law. And
hence it was called the ark of the covenant, that covenant that
God himself had made with them. And mentions made of it there
at the end of Numbers 10. as they're traveling through
the wilderness. In all those wanderings, we read
there at verse 35, He came to pass when the ark set forward
that Moses says, Rise up, lords, let thine enemies be scattered.
Let them that hate thee flee before them. And when it rested,
He said, Return, O Lord. unto the many thousands of Israel. The Ark is so clearly associated
with God and the presence of God. There were times previously
in their history when God had a doubt with them because of
their sins. We know how in 1 Samuel 4 at the Battle of Ebenezer the
Philistines had captured the Ark of the Lord and they've taken
it and in the following 5th chapter we see how they set it in the
house of their god Dagon but there at the end of 1st Samuel
chapter 4 we read of the wife of Phinehas one of the sons of
the high priest Eli she bears a child and she calls his name
Ichabod she named the child Ichabod saying like The glory is departed
from Israel because the Ark of God was taken. Because, of course,
her father-in-law and her husband had both been killed in that
battle. Here is one of the signs in the
Ark of the Covenant. And they no more had the Ark,
they no more had the Temple of the Lord. It had been destroyed. And then Also, another sign there
in the Old Testament was that mysterious thing that's referred
to as the Urim and the Thummim in the breastplate of the high
priest whereby they could ask counsel of the Lord and establish
what the Lord's will was. And we're told, aren't we, in
the days of King Saul that God would not answer that that disobedient
monarch he would not answer him by Urim or by Thummim well that
was gone there was also the brazen altar and the fire that had fallen
from heaven in Leviticus 9.24 there came fire out from before
the Lord we're told and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering
and the fat which when the people saw they shouted and fell on
their faces, but they see no more these remarkable things
that they were able previously to witness there in the temple
of the Lord. Above all things there was that
Shekinah glory. We know that when Moses first
sets up the The tabernacle at the end of the book of Exodus
made all of the various parts, all of the furnishings and the
tabernacle is finished and it's all set up. Exodus 40 verse 33,
we reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the
altar and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished
the work. and a cloud covered the tents
of the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter into
the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and as was the
case with the tabernacle so also ultimately with the temple but
it was at the time of the Babylonian exile, when they were taken into
captivity, that that glory of the Lord departed. And we see
it departing in the account that we have in the prophecy of Ezekiel. This is the greatest sign of
God's presence, the glory, that would fill the temple of the
Lord. But see how it is removing there
in Ezekiel chapter 10, And verse 18, we read, The glory
of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house, that
is the temple, and stood over the cherubims. And the cherubims
lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went up, the wheels
also were beside them. And everyone stood at the door
of the east gate of the Lord's house. and the glory of the God
of Israel was over them above. It's the vision that the prophet
had seen in the opening chapter where he sees the throne of God
and the cherubims and the wheels, but it's like a moving chariot
and it's moving away now. And it's moved from the holy
of holies to the east gates of the temple of the Lord, but then
again it moves further in chapter 11. God is departing. Chapter
11, verse 22 there, Then did the cherubims lift up their wings,
and the whales beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel
was over them above. And the glory of the Lord went
up from the midst of the city, that's Jerusalem, and stood upon
the mountain which is on the east side of the city. God is
departing, and where He's got going, He's going eastward. He
is going with that remnant who are going into exile. He will
preserve the remnant. And of course in due time they
will return under His gracious hand and He came to pass. But
here we see the solemn departure and the cry of the text. We see
not our signs. There is no more any prophet,
neither is there among us any that knoweth how long there were
historical signs and that they had tangible things that they
could witness as they worship the Lord, be it in the tabernacle,
be it in the temple, but these are gone. But of course in this
day of grace, we're to look for spiritual signs. There are no spiritual signs. not tangible things that we could
touch, but God's special presence is a spiritual presence. And
what are the spiritual signs? Well, they're marks. They're
marks of grace. And what are those marks of grace?
Well, there are many of them, of course. I suppose in many
respects the first of those marks is where we know that true filial
fear of the Lord in our hearts. It's spoken of, isn't it, as
the beginning. The fear of the Lord, it's the
beginning of wisdom we read in Psalm 111. To be made wise unto
salvation, it begins with the fear of the Lord. In the opening chapter of the
Proverbs, it's referred to as as knowledge. The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of knowledge. To be wise, to know. And we live
in a day where there's very little fear of the Lord. Even amongst
those who profess his name. How much worship today is truly
spiritual. How much is there that awe in
the presence of the thrice holy God of Israel. If these signs are the mark of
God's presence and the mark of God's blessing, how we need to
know that fear of the Lord? We read in Psalm 112, Blessed
is the man that feareth the Lord. Or what do we know of that blessed
mark, that sign, the fear of the Lord? The ungodly, we're
told in another Psalm, they have no fear of God before their eyes.
the ungodly that God denies. They don't believe there is a
God. What can they know of the fear
of the Lord if we know God? And who He is in the greatness
of God, in the holiness of God. We must be those who possess
that sign of the fear of the Lord. And then, of course, amongst
the most striking marks of Christ, surely, that's faith and repentance. Isn't that the message of the
gospel? When Jesus comes into Galilee preaching the gospel
of the kingdom, what does he say? The time is fulfilled. The
kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. And as with Christ, so with the
apostles. As Paul reminds the church of
the Ephesians there in Acts 20, the the ministry that he'd exercised
amongst them was that he was testifying both to Jew and to
Greek repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ
it's the same ministry as Christ's ministry it's faith and repentance
and it all centers in the Lord Jesus isn't each of those graces
the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ him hath God exalted with his
right hand we're taught to be a prince and a savior he gives
repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins he gives
it it's the gift of Christ and so to faith we're looking on
to Jesus the author and finisher of our
faith our faith is the gift of God as is repentance oh what
a sign is this of God's favor and God's blessing then if we're
those who have faith and repentance These are the signs that we should
be looking for. The fear of the Lord, faith,
repentance, prayer. The promise that God gives through
His servant the prophets. The words of Zechariah, remember.
God says, I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem the spirit of grace. and of supplications. And they
shall look upon me, whom they have pierced and mourned for
him, as one mourner for an only son, and be in bitterness for
him, as one is in bitterness for a firstborn." Oh, are we those then who desire
that grace, that gift of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of
grace, and of supplications. He helps us. He must help us
or we cannot pray. And here we see that the psalm
is really very much a prayer. The opening words, O God, why
hast thou cast us off forever? Why doth thine anger smoke against
the sheep of thy pasture? We have many prayers, many petitions
in the psalm. Verse 11, Why withdrawest thou
thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom. And
then the assurance, God is my King of all, working salvation
in the midst of the earth. Again at verse 19, O deliver
not the soul of thy turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked. Forget not the congregation of
thy poor forever. Have respect unto the covenant,
for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of
cruelty. It's a prayer. Now here, Asaph
is addressing himself. He comes with supplications,
pleading with his God. He's in prayer. When we're favored
with the real spirit of prayer, we see it as a sign of God's
blessing. There are times when prayer is
hard and difficult. Sometimes, maybe, we feel we're
not enjoying that access. The heavens are like brass. Are
our prayers entering into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth,
the Lord God of hosts? But God's promised to His people
that He will give them the Spirit, and He'll come as the Spirit
of grace and of supplications. And then, there's another sign,
isn't there? That of love of the brethren.
That's a mark of grace. and it's a comforting mark do
we love the brethren? maybe we lack assurance we wonder
do we have any true faith? any real repentance? well do
we love the brethren? John says in that first letter
we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love
the brethren or do we love the brethren? do
we have that gracious mark of God's favour. He that loveth
not his brother, says John, is in death. If there's life, we'll
love the brethren, and not only the brethren that we live amongst,
but even those of the communion of saints who've gone before,
said before can we not sometimes read something of the writings
of these men, maybe their experiences, or the sermons of some of these
gracious saints of old, and we feel such a union with them,
because their writings minister to us. The books. Remember how when the apostle
writes, he desires, is it Timothy he writes to? He wants him to
bring the books, as well as the parchments. Well, is it not through
those books that we can have fellowship? with those who've
gone before us, the communion of saints. It's a mark of God's
favour, it's a mark of grace, it's a sign that we have spiritual
life. We know that we pass from death
unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not
his brother is in death. And then there is the ministry
of the Word, the preaching of the Word. The text says We see
not our signs, there is no more any prophet, neither is there
among us any that knoweth how long. Remember when the Apostle is
dealing with the church at Corinth, and a greatly gifted church that
at Corinth, and yet a church so favored with those remarkable
gifts they were much abused. And in chapter 14 of that first
epistle he draws the difference between prophesying and the gift
of tongues. And he says there in verse 3
of that chapter, "...he that prophesieth speaketh unto men
to edification, and exhortation, and comfort." Well, what is this
prophesying? It's interesting, the Puritans
tended, on the whole, to equate it with faithful preaching of
the Word, the right dividing of the Word of Truth, and the
gracious application of that Word of Truth. You may be aware
of that little book by one of the Puritans, William Perkins,
one of the early Puritans. He wrote a little book called
The Art of Prophesying. That was the title, The Art of
Prophesying, but the whole book really is taken up with preaching,
the ministry of the Word. and it is a dreadful thing when God takes
away his word Amos speaks of dreadful famine doesn't he? Behold
the days come saith the Lord that I will send in the land
a famine and it's not a famine of bread it's not a thirst for
water it's a famine of the hearing of the word of God now It's strange
that we should have this statement here, neither is there any prophet,
or any that knoweth how long, because there were prophets associated
with the exile, Jeremiah for example. But also remember at
that time there were many false prophets. And now Jeremiah speaks
against the false prophets. the confusion that was brought
because the people loved the message of those men when they
said peace, peace and there was no peace but God sets himself
against the false prophets oh God you see is that one then
who deals with his people and he deals with his people in strange
mysterious ways There are signs. We've sought
to say something with regards to the context and the signs
that the Psalmist Asaph is speaking about initially. He's addressing
his own day and generation. But there are, as I've sought
to say, those spiritual signs that we should be looking for
in such a day as this, the day of grace, those marks of grace. But let us turn in the second
place to the seeing, or rather, it's a negative, isn't it? The
psalmist says, we see not our signs. We see not our signs. Regarding marks of grace, when
we look to ourselves, maybe when we think of that grace of faith,
the believer might lose sight of his faith. Is it not a truth
that we do sometimes? Because if there is faith, there's
also the trying of that faith. And when the trial comes, why,
it seems to overwhelm us. And sometimes we think, well,
have I any faith at all? Am I really a believer? We come
into that state where we begin to lack any assurance of our
salvation. It's not good to be in that place.
We might be in a situation where we're full of darkness because
the Lord's dealing with us. And whom the Lord loveth, we
know he chasteneth. He chasteneth every son who he
receiveth. It's a mark that God's dealing with us as his sons. But we remember, and we were
trying to say something about it last Lord's Day evening, even
the Lord Jesus Christ himself was enveloped in darkness. What
signs can you see in the midst of darkness? What darkness that
was that came into the soul of our Lord Jesus from the sixth
hour? There was darkness over all the earth until the ninth
hour, we're told, in Matthew's account. I know we were in Luke,
but each of the evangelists in the Gospels is describing in
some detail all that the Lord endured. And it was, you know,
when the darkness was over the whole earth for those three hours,
from 12 noon to to the ninth hour, three p.m.
in the afternoon and then at that hour the Lord makes that
awful cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But what is the Lord doing? He's
praying there, isn't he? He's addressing his God. It's
prayer. The Lord is the God-man. He lived
that life of faith. He lived a life of prayers. He
would spend whole nights in prayers. We see him agonizing in all the
sufferings of the garden of Gethsemane. He could teach others to pray
because he knew what prayer was. The Lord is praying there, he
prayed. And so, when we see not our signs,
what are we to do? We're to pray. And it's interesting
because, here at the beginning of the psalm, we have really
a prayer very similar to that that the Lord prayed. there upon
the cross oh god why hast thou cast us off forever christ said
my god my god why hast thou forsaken me it's very similar petition
or can we not learn from the lord and learn from others we
can learn from The Prophet Jeremiah, he was exercising a faithful
ministry, but there were many false prophets. In a sense, it
was as if there was no prophet at all, because there were so
many false prophets in his day. But what does he do? He laments.
We have the lamentations. And isn't this text that we're
looking at really a lament? We see not our signs, there is
no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth.
How long? How long, O Lord? We read, you know, of those in the tribe of Issachar who had
a remarkable gift, their understanding of the times in 1st Chronicles
12.32 the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding
of the times, to know what Israel ought to do. And can we not lament
that where are such men, such seers in our day? There were
in past days when there was a gracious movement of the Spirit of God
in parts of the land, there were those who seemed to have remarkable
understanding of the day in which they were living. But now we lament, because we
don't have that sort of ministry that was there in a better day,
surely. We can understand something of
what Asaph is saying in the words of our text. But what does he
do? Well, he asks God to remember. Look at the prayer in the second
verse, remember thy congregation. which thou hast purchased of
all, the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed, this
man's eye, and wherein thou hast dwelt. He's asking God to remember
again at verse 18, Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached,
O Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.
Or can we not come and ask God and plead with God that he would
remember? We can plead the covenant. Isn't that a great prayer, a
great petition in verse 20? Love, respect unto the covenant,
for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitation of
cruelty. Or can we not plead that covenant? That covenant that David says
is ordered in all things and sure? It's God's great purpose of salvation,
and even in the day like ours, he's accomplishing all that goodwill
and pleasure. At verse 10 he says, O God, how
long shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy
name forever? Why has God given us his word?
He's given us his word in a sense that we might plead the things
that God is saying to us. As the old Puritan said, we should
come before him and thicken our prayers with his own words, with
his own promises. We must pray just as the Lord
prays when He's all enveloped in darkness. When we see no signs,
when we feel well, where is God? And then finally, surely we're
to rest in this, we're to rest in the fact that God is sovereign.
God is sovereign over all His creation. Look at the language
in verses 16 and 17. The day is thine, the night also,
is Thine, Thou hast prepared the light and the sun, Thou hast
set all the borders of the earth, Thou hast made summer and winter." God is sovereign at all times,
all times, day and night, all seasons, be it the springtime
of the year or summertime, be it Autumn, even winter time,
in the winter when all is so cold and so barren. Oh, God has
made all these things. We're never in a situation that
God does not know. To Him darkness and light are alike,
we're told in Psalm 139. He makes light to shine as the
day. What are we to do? Well, remember
that exhortation, the end of Isaiah 50, "...who is among you
that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that
walketh in darkness, and hath no light. Let him trust in the
name of the Lord." Whatever situation, circumstance we might ever come
into, we can rest in the sovereignty of God. We rest in Him and that Sovereign
God, He's the God of grace. We're told, aren't we, where
sin abounds, grace does also abound. I was very struck on
Tuesday evening at a prayer meeting at Portsmouth, we stream it and
dear Graham Miller was able to be with us and he did pray and
people were able to hear him and I was very struck by the
word that he spoke. I know he loves words. He used to love to do crosswords. I don't know if he does them
anymore, but he used to often be doing a crossword. He liked
the study of words. And he just remarked, it was
a remark he made in prayer about where sin abounds, grace doth
so much more abound. And he said this with regards
to the word abound. He said, you know what that means?
It's a negative really, isn't it? The A is the negative, like
an atheist is a person who denies, does not believe in God. and
he said, he didn't say, he didn't go into it in this detail, he
just made the remark about a bound, he said it's a negative word,
and he said it means that God's grace is without bounds, there's
no bound to it, it extends everywhere, and of course that's what the
psalmist is rejoicing in, in Psalm 139, that God is everywhere,
he is the one who has made all times day and night he's made
all the seasons of the year and even when our souls are in the
midst of darkness and we cannot see our signs or we can look
to him and cry to him well God be pleased to bless these words
to us we see not our signs there is no more any prophet neither
is there among us any that knoweth how long oh God how long shall
the adversary approach shall the enemy blaspheme thy name
forever? Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand,
pluck it out of thy bosom? For God is my King of all, working
salvation in the midst of the earth. Oh, let us look then to
this God who is ever working out his own goodwill and pleasure,
and accomplishing all His eternal purposes. May the Lord bless
His word to us. Amen. Let us sing our second
phrase before we turn to prayer. The hymn 401, the tune Umbersley
385. How long, O Lord, shall I complain like one that seeks his God in
vain, canst thou thy face for ever hide, and I still pray,
and be denied. 401 2385