Let us turn to the 38th Psalm. I want to direct you this evening
to the words that we have here at verse 9. Psalm 38, verse 9. Lord, all my desire is before
Thee, and my groaning is not hid from Thee. Psalm 38, 9. Lord, all my desire
is before Thee, and my groaning is not hid from Thee. The psalm
of David to bring to remembrance. There's only two psalms with
that title. We've read both of them. The other one, that short
17th psalm. Another psalm of David to bring
to remembrance. The Lord would have his people
to remember many things, Remember what's said to the children of
Israel as they come to the borders of the promised land after those
40 years of wilderness wanderings. There in the 8th chapter of the
book of Deuteronomy. Thou shalt remember all the way
which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness
to humble them and to prove them to know what was in thine hearts
whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. As He humbled thee and suffered
thee to hunger and fed thee with manna which thou knewest not,
neither did thy fathers know that He might make thee know
that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Of course, when we come to the
New Testament, the Lord has given us a feast of remembrance. As
He instituted that Holy Supper when he was celebrating his last
Passover with his disciples and he took the bread and break it
gave to them and the cup likewise and they were to do these things
to partake of the broken bread and to drink of that cup in remembrance
of him. There's a purpose when the Lord
tells us to remember and of course there we are remembering Him
who is the only Saviour of sinners. But often when God tells us to
remember, we are to remember something concerning ourselves.
This is certainly the case with the children of Israel. All that they had to endure throughout
those 40 years. And what was God doing? He was
humbling them and proving them. When we come to the Psalms, certainly
to the 38th Psalm, What is it that we brought to remember?
It's a rather trying psalm in many ways because it speaks so
much of the reality of our sinnership and it's very graphic, the language
that is employed throughout the psalm David speaks of no soundness
in his flesh no rest in his bones, iniquities going over his head
as a great burden, his wounds stinking and corrupt, how he's
troubled, how he's bowed down, his loins filled with a loathsome
disease. The language is one that is a
graphic description of what we must appear as in the sight of
God in our natural state as we're born into this world dead in
trespasses and in sins. I think it's been well observed
by one that superficial Christianity knows little of the experience
that David is describing here in Psalm 38. Or what Paul is
describing in the language of Romans chapter 7. All wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
What does superficial Christianity know of these things. But what of these men, Paul and
David? Well, they certainly had some
sense of what they were as sinners before God. We not only have
this 38th Psalm, we have other Psalms of course, particularly
the great penitential 51st Psalm, in which he has to come and acknowledge
his great sins, his adultery, his murder. David has such a
sense of his sin, we see that in these words that we've just
referred to from verse 3 through 8. Remember that sin is very much
of man. God is not the author of sin.
God made man upright. They sought out many inventions. Sin is of man. Ah, but the sense
of sin. Where does that come from? It
can only come where there is that gracious quickening of the
Spirit of God in the soul of a man, when a man is made to
see something of himself. Superficial Christianity then,
because it's not the work of the Spirit of God, it doesn't
understand the experiences that are being described here in this
psalm, or in other psalms, or in Romans chapter 7. But what
of true Christianity? What is the evidence that there
is something real in the soul of a man? I suppose one of the
most striking things is that there will be real prayers. There
will be real prayers in that man's heart. But then we might recognize that
quite readily because we see it don't we in Acts chapter 9
where we see the Lord Jesus confronting that arch persecutor Saul of
Tarsus who was bent on the destruction of Christianity who so hated
Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples and yet a man obviously so troubled
in his own soul and the Lord confronts him, saves him he was
apprehended of Christ Jesus and he loses his sight because of
the great vision that he beholds and he's taken by the hand into
the city of Damascus where he had gone to hail Christians and
to dispatch them to prisons he's taken by the hand and then one
of those Christians a man called Ananias is directed to go to
the street called Straight where he'll find this man how strange
was the command that he should go to such a man but God had
done a work and how would he know that God had done a work
well we're told there in Acts 9.11 here is the evidence that
the man is a changed man behold he prieth that's the assurance
that Ananias is given This man is praying. Now, doubtless, when
he saw the Pharisee, he said many prayers. He observed all
the necessary hours of the day. He was a zealot for Pharisaism. And yet, though he'd said many
prayers, this was really the very first time he'd prayed. Very searching, isn't it? I mean,
we might say many prayers, and yet I looked at myself and I
wonder sometimes how many of those are real prayers real prayers
how many are are nothing more than just a display before men
it's a very solemn thing to stand before a congregation and to
be the mouthpiece in prayer it's the most trying part of the ministry
in many ways really to have to stand and to pray because there's
always that temptation you just make a display and and make an
impression. Praying to the people not praying
to God. Surely praying to God is real pleading and praying. I say again that real Christianity
is evidenced in true prayer. But what is it to pray? Well,
when we come to the Word of God we see the prayer goes by so
many names. There are many names given to
prayer. It's spoken of as sighing, longing, looking, thirsting,
crying, calling, asking, seeking, desiring, groaning. And of course,
we have those last two here in what I announce as our text.
David is praying in the psalm. He addresses God, O Lord, he
says, rebuke me not in thy wrath, thy that chasten me in thy heart
is pleasure. He deserves the wrath of God
but he wants God to all restrain himself. And what does he say
in the words of our text? We have those two words which
as I said just now are words that are often used with regards
to a prayer. What is it to pray? It's to desire
and it's to grow. Lord, all my desire is before
Thee, and my groaning is not hid from Thee. And you know, one of the characteristics
of the Psalms, Hebrew poetry is what we have in this book
of Psalms, of course, one of the characteristics of Hebrew
poetry is this parallelism, where you have the same truth expressed.
or certain truths contrasted, but parallel statements, parallel
clauses in a sentence. And so we have it here. Desire
is equivalent to groaning. And groaning is equivalent to
desiring. And that's really the theme that
I want to take up tonight. Groaning desire. Groaning desire. First of all to look at the desire
and then second we look at the groaning. In another psalm, Psalm 10 and
verse 17 with regards to desire it says, Lord thou hast heard
the desire of the humble. Isn't it strange? God hears desire. Desire I suppose is really something
that's not really expressed at all. But there in that 17th verse
of Psalm 10, Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble. Thou wilt prepare their hearts,
thou wilt cause thine ear to hear. God causes his ear to hear
desires that are unexpressed. And you know, desire is so necessary
in all worship that is true worship. if there's no desire in our worship
then surely it can scarcely go by that name of worship Psalm
27 and verse 4 David says one thing
have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." He's
speaking of worship. In terms of the Old Testament,
of course, he's speaking of worship in the temple. It was David who
wanted to build a temple. He'd removed the tabernacle from
Shiloh to Jerusalem and established the worship of God there in the
city of David, and he wanted to build a permanence, dwelling
for God. But he was a man of blood was
David, a great warrior king. It was his son Solomon who was
to have that great privilege to build the temple. But now
David, all he desires, you see, the worship of God. Is that true
of us? Do we desire the Lord's day? Because we look forward to the
opportunity of coming together into the house of the Lord that
we might worship Him. That's what we want to do. We
want to worship God We want to render to Him that
praise that He's worthy of. What is worship? It's worthyship.
God is worthy of our praises. We want to return thanks to Him
because He's such a good God. And we long for that day when
we can come together. It's what the Lord God has appointed
from creation. One day in seven to be a Sabbath
day. I know there are those today,
you see, who call themselves Christian, but they say, well,
there's no special Sabbath day to be observed anymore. Well,
there certainly was in the New Testament, the first day of the
week. We read throughout the Acts how the disciples would
gather together on that day. If the Old Testament Sabbath
was the remembrance of a great work of God, the work of creation,
it's not the New Testament Sabbath, the Lord's Day, the remembrance
of the greatest of all God's works. Redemption, we spoke of
it only last Thursday. In His highest work, redemption,
see His glory. In a blaze, says Gatsby in the
hymn. Or do we look forward to the
Lord's day? Desire it, because we want to
be in our place, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.
We want to worship God. But how do we worship? Well,
true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth
for the Father seeketh such to worship him says Christ God is
a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth or do we have that spiritual
desire it must be that sort of desire if we're going to worship
God it must be spiritual it must be some evidence then of the
spirit of God in our heart we cannot work ourselves up into
some frame whereby we worship God we come as poor dependents
we need the spirit to come and stir our spirits and work in
our hearts and we need him to come and to revive us again and
again and again not to leave us to ourselves not to be those
who are simply satisfied with the form and yet know nothing
at all of the power of those things all we want is the spirit
of God spiritual desire in the heart isn't that a mark of sincerity? are we sincere in our approaches
before the Lord? some interesting statements aren't
there? many interesting statements in the book of Proverbs the words
of the wise man the desire of the sluggard desireth and doth nothing. That's
what it says. The desire of the sluggard desireth
and doth nothing. How striking is that expression.
Again it says the desire of the slothful killeth him. There's
no life. There's only death in that man.
To what of David here in the psalm, what does he say? He says,
Lord, all my desire is before thee. All his desire is before
God. Or does he not indicate to us
something of the prayer of faith in the heart of this man? It's
before God. His desire comes before God. It's not just an outward expression
of worship, it's something that is in the depth of his soul and
he's presenting it before the Lord God. Man looks on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks on the hearts of men. And doesn't
the Lord Jesus Christ himself remind us of the importance of
desire when we pray? There should be desire in our
prayers, True prayer is a mixture of many things, isn't it? There
must be faith, of course. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. He that cometh to Him must believe
that He is. And that He's a rewarder of all
that diligently seek Him. We're to be diligent. We're to
come in faith. There has to be that desire.
Look at the words of the Lord Jesus. Mark chapter 11 and verse
24 He says, Therefore I say unto
you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
shall receive them, and ye shall have them. That's the word of
the Lord Jesus Himself. What things soever ye desire,
when ye pray, believe that ye shall receive them, and ye shall
have them. Oh, is there such a desire in
us? Is there that sort of desire
really in us? God says, you shall seek me and
find me when you shall search after me with all your hearts. Wholehearted desire. We're not
to come to worship God or to pray to God with a divided heart. we're to be whole hearted and
yet paradox as it is we're to come broken hearted or the sacrifice
of God is a broken spirit the broken and the contrite heart
God will not despise that's how we're to come our hearts whole
and yet broken but certainly not divided we're not to come
with our thoughts and our affections running to the ends of the earth
no we're to come as those whose whole heart is set upon the Lord
God himself if then ye be risen with Christ,
seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the Father's
right hand set your affections on things above, not on things
on the earth do we set our affections there? do we have such a desire
as that? What friends do we know of that
sort of exercise in our souls? You see, when we come together
to worship God, we're not passive. It's not just one person who's
doing everything. The man who stands in the pulpit
is leading the service. Well, we have a different practice
to that. We have a man at the desk who
will lead the worship, but we have a man who reads the Word
of God, who leads the congregation in prayer, who preaches the Word
of God, who pronounces the I don't have any diction at the end of
the worship, but that doesn't mean that those who sit in the
pew are just pew fodder, as it were. They're
doing nothing. No, there's to be all that exercise,
you see, all that desire. Or can we honestly, before God,
say that what David says here is true of us? Is it true of
me? Is it true of me tonight? All
my desire, Lord, is before Thee. can you say that? you know there is one who is
spoken of in scripture by so many names I did once count and I can't
remember the number I wrote it down, well I wrote it in the
concordance you know Cruden's concordance the oldest of all
the concordances but he has a list there of the names that are given
to Christ in scripture and it's quite amazing a multitude of
names given to the Lord and amongst those names is that one in Haggai
chapter 2 and verse 7 Haggai 2 verse 7 What is Christ? He is the desire of all nations
He is the desire of all nations Now can we in all sincerity before
God say that is true of each of us tonight. He's our desire. Whom am I in heaven but Thee?
There is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee. These are the words of God and
we have to examine ourselves and prove ourselves and know
ourselves in the light of the word of God. And what are we told? Again in
that Remarkable book of Proverbs, the desire of the righteous shall
be granted. Oh, the desire of the righteous
shall be granted. Well, of course, the righteous
one ultimately is the Lord Jesus Christ and His desire shall be
granted. He is to see of the travail of
His soul and He shall be satisfied. Christ is there in the book of
Proverbs as in every other part of Holy Scripture. The desire
of the righteous shall be granted. Let us also recognize this that
if He is the Lord our righteousness and we are in Christ that means
our desire will be granted also. We have all things in the Lord
Jesus Christ. All our desires are satisfied. if we know Him. As Augustine
said long ago, Thou hast made us for Thyself. Our souls are
restless till they rest in Thee. Their desire is satisfied, the
chief end of man, to glorify God and to enjoy Him, or to enjoy
Him. This is David and he expresses
here his desire All my desire is before thee, and my groaning,
he says, is not hid from thee. Well, let's turn to the other
part of the text, the groaning. The groaning. And I want to consider
it, as it were, from two perspectives. First of all, to consider this
as the Christian's experience this groaning it's Christian
experience that's been spoken of what is it that causes a person to groan in this fashion? well the first cause is that
realization that conviction of seeing we read in the 102nd Psalm of
the groaning of the prisoner of course the second hymn that
we just sang is addressing those spiritual prisoners the groaning
of the prisoner and how we see it so often in the language of
the people of God recorded here in Holy Scripture remember years
ago being so struck by the words of him and there in Psalm 88
and verse 8, I am shut up and cannot come forth. And it was, I think when I gave
my testimony, when I first became a member and pastor here at Salem,
I actually referred to this, I think it's in the church book.
It was years after I believed the Lord had met with me and
dealt with me, but I was many years after that period, I was
reading a sermon of James Wells and it was on that text, Psalm
88 verse 8, I am shut up and I cannot come forth and it was
entitled Prisoners of Hope Prisoners of Hope when God, you see, shuts
a man up and that's what God does when he brings us under
real conviction of sin does he not make us to see then that
we we're lost we can't do anything to save ourselves now I believe
the Lord dealt with me and I was in a church that we'd say was
quite liberal really I believe there were some who were genuine
Christians there but in the main it was made up of religious people
it was a general Baptist church but the Lord began with me there
and all those years later I found great comfort when I read through
that sermon of James Wells. I thought, when I'm that prisoner
of hope, because the Lord chopped me up, I knew I was lost and
I couldn't do anything. I couldn't do a thing. I was completely undone. I suppose I learnt really, although
I wouldn't have understood it at the time, I learnt something
of the truth of total depravity. And the utter inability and the
impossibility of giving myself faith. Paul says, before faith
came, we were kept under the law, shut up to the faith that
would afterward be revealed. We have to be shut up to faith.
Saving faith, it's not a duty, is it? There are those who talk
about duty fight. What can they do? They can't
perform that. Duties have to do with the law. Know what God
does with us under the Gospel? He shuts us up to the faith. that must afterward be revealed. Well, what is the law? It's administration
of condemnation. It's administration of death.
And Paul learnt that. I have not known sin, he says,
but by the law. He thought he knew everything
about the law. He says, touching the righteousness which is of
the law, he was a Pharisee. And the Pharisees, they knew
it all. And then Paul in Romans 7 says, I have not known sin,
but by the law. I had not known lust except the
commandment had said, thou shalt not covet. And it was that tenth
commandment, you see, thou shalt not covet. Sinful desire, sinful
desire. And he realized then, his heart
was full of it. Oh, the Lord is spiritual, but
I'm carnal. My heart is full of all manner
of evil and sin. Every wicked desire is there
in my heart. And so he was shut up. And shut
up to saving faith. Isn't that what the Lord does?
Whatever things the Lord says, it says that they were under
the law. Paul says that every mouth may be stopped. And all
the world become guiltless. every man stopped all indebted
indebted to that holy and righteous law of God and transgressors
of it all the Lord is the schoolmaster
you see to bring to Christ as that one who is the only saviour
of sinners the only the only delivers from sin and the law their debts are to the Lord,
but what has Christ done? He has redeemed His people. He has paid the debt that they
owe to the Lord. But when the Lord begins with
us, how He brings that conviction of sin and we're groaning. We
can't see how is there any way of salvation. How can salvation
really be mine? The impossibility of faith. and
yet to be told that that is the way of salvation believe only,
that's what the Lord says, believe only and we can't believe and
we groan, we groan at our prayers well that's the first cause of
the groaning but the child of God groans after
he's brought to salvation in many ways his life is a life
of groanings at times there are those providences that are so
contrary there's all the mystery of providence and the Lord's
strange dealings with his people as he says to the children of
Israel he will try them and he'll prove them in all their wilderness
wanderings he'll bring troubles into their lives. They might
even know times when they are being oppressed. Wasn't that
the experience of the children of Israel and their God's typical
people? That was their experience of
course when they were in Egypt before the deliverance came under
Moses. We read of them, I've referred
to the passage many a time, the end of Exodus 2 how the children of Israel sighed
by reason of the bondage and they cried and their cry came
up unto God by reason of the bondage and God heard their groaning
and God remembered His covenants with Abraham, with Isaac and
with Jacob and God looked upon the children of Israel and God
had respect unto them. Or as the margin says, God knew
them. Oh, He knew them, you see. He understood them. He heard
all their sighs and all their groanings. And then we go into
chapter 3, don't we? And the Lord sends the deliverer. Moses is called. In the very
next chapter. All their prayers don't go unanswered. God hears His people. He knew
them. He knew them in the midst of
all those tribes. How the Lord hears his people.
Look at the language in the next Psalm. Psalm 39 verse 12. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give
ear unto my cry. Hold not thy peace at my tears,
for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers
were. A stranger. That's what the child of God
is. He's a stranger in this world. and he feels this world it lies
in the wicked one and Satan is a very active foe he's the great
tempter then he's the accuser of the brethren he accuses them
day and night how he ensnares our feet he tempts us we fall
we're ashamed how can we sincerely confess what we've done when
we've done it so many times so many times and we feel well I
can't I can't pray How can I confess again? How can I repent again?
I don't know what real repentance is. You see, he'll shut our mouths.
He's accusing us in our consciences. He doesn't want us to come and
acknowledge what we are. But how different is David here? Verse 18, I will declare mine
iniquity, he says. I will be sorry for my sin. There's
his desire. He wants to be sorry. He wants to sorrow over his sin.
so he declares it to the Lord we have to shut the mouth of
that great adversary and pray even in the teeth of all his
accusations all these cross providences but
what struck me there in that twelfth verse in Psalm 39 he
says he doesn't say I'm a stranger to thee does he? he doesn't say I'm a stranger
to thee, he's addressing God, he's not saying I'm in a state
of alienation, I'm an enemy, he's not a stranger to God, I
am a stranger with thee and a sojourner. Oh the Lord is with him you see,
the Lord is with him in all these contrary providences, all these
strange events that God brings into the lives of his people.
and he's that God who's too wise to be mistaken, he's too good
to be unkind but he's with us, he's with his people and he hears
all their groanings when they can't find words to express his
dealings with them all these cross providences and
then also of course the third cause, the first cause
I say is when we are first brought under real conviction of sin
the second cause when God is dealing with us in ways that
seem so contrary and so mysterious and we can't really formulate
proper prayers but we groan but then also thirdly there's that
groaning and grieving over indwelling sin and of course this is very
much what David's doing here in the psalm the previous verses
verse 7 he says Lord my my loins are filled with a loathsome disease
and there is no soundness in my flesh I am feeble and sore
broken I have wrought by reason of the disquietness of my heart
that's indwelling sin surely that he's speaking of here Lord
all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from
the Paul there in Romans 7 in me
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing in me that is in my flesh there
dwelleth no good thing I'm altogether an unclean thing all wretched
man that I am it's groaning over indwelling sin you go and look
at the language of the Apostle 2nd Corinthians 5.4 We that are
in this tabernacle do groan being burdened, he says. We that are
in this tabernacle, this earthly body, that's what he's speaking
about, the body in which we have to live our lives. We groan being
burdened because of sin. One of the Erskines, it was either
Ebenezer or Ralph Erskine, those great ministers in the Church
of Scotland back in the 18th century one or two of them said
all that I had not of myself all that I had not me, myself,
that's my problem my old nature I am weary with my groaning all
the night make I my bed to swim I water my couch with my tears
we read in another psalm the Lord hath heard the voice
of my weeping the Lord hath heard my supplication the Lord will
receive my prayer you read it there in Psalm 6 he waters his
couch with tears his bed with his tears he's weary with his
groaning but then we come to verses 8 and 9 and the assurance
that the Lord will hear those groanings nor the Lord hears
his people when they groan out their prayer when they can only
express their desire in terms of groanings it's Christian experience
but then also, and this is the great comfort and I finish on
this note you know it's Christ's experience didn't the Lord Jesus Christ
groan in himself? there in John 11 where we have
the account of Christ performing that notable miracle when he
raises a man from the dead Lazarus and twice verse 33 verse 38 we're
told how Christ groaned in himself or the Lord knew what it was
to groan and then he says I knew that thou hearest me always verse
42. He knew that those groanings
that came from the very depths of his soul, he's a real man,
he's going to pour out that soul unto death, he's going to know
the separation of body and soul, he's a real man the Lord Jesus,
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. His groaning of
course was not because of any indwelling sin, he's sinless. he could say the prince of this
world cometh and hath nothing in me we can't say that, the
prince of this world satan comes and he has a great deal in us
that he's able to take advantage of there was nothing in Christ,
holy, harmless undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than
the heavens but a real man you know sin is not human is it?
God's made man upright Adam comes from his Creator's hand, Priston. So too Eve. There they are, innocent. No sin there, and they are real
human beings. The Lord Jesus is a real man
and is touched with the feeling of all our sinless infirmities.
He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
Oh, that's the wonder of it. I love those words in Hebrews
5 concerning Christ who in the days of his flesh when he had
offered up prayer with supplication and strong crying and tears unto
him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that
he feared though he were a son yet learned the obedience by
the things which he suffered He was heard in that he feared.
He had the fear of God. That man had the fear of God
in his heart. Real piety. And he poured out
his soul. He groaned. He knew what groanings
were. He knew what real prayer was, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's that one, you see, who
can comfort us in all our groanings. Remember the language, we've
already made some reference to it there in Hebrews 4, that we
have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. He was tempted in all points
like as we are yet without sin. And the conclusion the Paul draws,
therefore, this is the deduction. What are we to do with this man?
We are to come boldly to the throne of Christ, that we may
obtain mercy. and find grace to help in every
time of need and we're to come even with our groanings but we're to come also with these
real desires these longings, yearnings, hungerings, thirstings
Lords all my desire is before Thee and my groaning is not hid
from Thee my heart panteth my strength paleth me Oh how this
man you see here has such longings and yearnings after God. Oh God
grant that such religion as David had might be your religion and
my religion. May the Lord be pleased to bless
his word to us. Amen.