Let us turn to the psalm we were
reading, Psalm 69. I'm directing your attention
for a while this evening to the words that we find here at verse
13. Psalm 69, 13. But as for me, My prayer is unto Thee, O Lord,
in an acceptable time. O God, in the multitude of Thy
mercy, hear me in the truth of Thy salvation. But as for me,
my prayer is unto Thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time. O God,
in the multitude of Thy mercy, hear me in the truth of Thy salvation. To take up the theme then, so
playing in the opening clause of the verse, prayer in an acceptable
time. Prayer in an acceptable time. The psalmist goes on to speak
of the multitude of mercies and the truth of salvation. These words surely remind us
of what the Apostle says writing there in 2nd Corinthians chapter
6, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation
have I succored thee. Behold now is the accepted time,
and behold now is the day of salvation. Well surely here we
have a text that reminds us of that glorious day in which we're
favoured to live our lives in this earth. It is the day of
grace. It is that dispensation of the
Holy Ghost. Christ having accomplished his
great work of redemption, ascended on high, has now shed abroad
the Holy Spirit, that best of all donations, And yet oft times
we bemoan the day, we speak of hard days, days of small things,
and yet it is surely to be remembered again and again that it is very
much the Lord's Day. And of course, as we gather together
on this, the first day of the week, we remember that this is
that Sabbath that the Lord God in His wisdom has appointed.
for his church in this day of grace. And as we gather in this
fashion, do we really believe that it is the acceptable time
when God will hear us and God will answer us in all our prayers
and all our petitions? Well, as we come to consider
the text for a while, I want to divide what I say into two
main parts. to consider it first of all as
a prayer that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and
then secondly to see it as a prayer that belongs to every believer. We're told, aren't we, in the
title that this is in fact the psalm of David. But David is
a remarkable type of the Lord Jesus. His son Solomon of course
is a type of Christ and in Psalm 72 we have a psalm for Solomon
and that's evidently a messianic psalm. But it's not just David's
son. Solomon, who is a type of him
who was to come, David's greater son. But David himself in some
ways is spoken of in Scripture as a type of Christ. I think
in particular of the words that we have in the 34th chapter of
Ezekiel where the prophet has God's mouthpiece, he's rebuking
the false shepherds. God had provided those in Israel
who would be the shepherds of His people. They were to be the
priests and the prophets and the princes or the kings. They
were to shepherd His ancient covenant people. But what sharp
rebukes God lays against them in that 34th chapter in the book
of Ezekiel. But then God also gives promise
that He will raise up one to be a true shepherd over His people. There in that chapter, at verse
23, He says, I will set up one shepherd over them, and He shall
feed them, even My servant David. He shall feed them. He shall
be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their
God. and my servant David a prince
among them. I the Lord have spoken it and
I will make with them a covenant of peace and so on." Of course he's equal ministering
many, many days, many years after the reign of King David and yet
here we have promise of David who was to come Of course, the
shepherd that he's being spoken of is the Lord Jesus. He is David. David simply means the beloved.
It is in Christ that one who is the beloved of the Lord. And so, whilst the psalm is the
psalm of David, yet it's also messianic. It speaks clearly
of the Lord Jesus. And we have the authority of
the New Testament. Because words from this psalm
are taken up there and applied to Christ. The words in verse
9, for the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Remember how
when the Lord was driving out the buyers and sellers and the
moneylenders there in the temple. We're told how the disciples
remembered these things that were written. The zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up. Quoted there in John chapter
2 and verse 7. But then again the remaining
part of that 9th verse. The reproaches of them that reproach
thee are fallen upon me. The same words are taken up by
Paul writing in Romans 15 and verse 3 and applied to the Lord
Jesus Christ. here is authority enough then
we have these men of God in the New Testament Scriptures John
in his gospel and Paul in his epistle to the Romans making
reference to the language of the of the Sarmis but then also
later on in verse 20 reproach has broken my heart And I am
full of heaviness, and I look for some to take pity, but there
was none, and for comforters, but I found none." Does he not
remind us of Christ, there in the garden of Gethsemane? He takes those favored three,
and he goes away with them, and then he withdraws from them a
little, but he'll come back to them, and they're sleeping. They
can't watch with him. There in Gethsemane then we see
in many ways the fulfillment of the words that we have here
in verse 20. I look for some to take pity.
But there was none, and for comforters. But I found none. Backwards and
forwards thrice he ran, as if he sought some help from man.
there was none there to comfort him as he began to enter into
all those doleful sufferings and then again at verse 21 they
gave me also gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me
vinegar to drink and we're told aren't we how they did there
upon the cross offer him that drink of vinegar mingled with
gall so the The psalm is a messianic psalm. It's not just speaking
of David and David's experiences. It's very much speaking of the
Lord Jesus. And it's a psalm that's very
much in the form of prayer. And so thinking of the prayer
of the Lord Jesus Christ, what was it that lay behind the prayer
of Christ? And though he was a man of prayer,
he would spend whole nights in prayer. There in the garden of
Gethsemane we see him very much in the attitude of prayer, pleading
with his father. What lies behind his praying? Well, there are a number of things.
There's the sufferings of Christ. And as these are spoken of in
the Psalm, the opening words, Save me, O God, for the waters
are coming unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. All the Lord's sufferings there,
it was a baptism of suffering, was it not? Again, at verse 15,
he cries out, Let not the water flood overflow me, neither let
the deep swallow me up. Let not the pit shut her mouth
upon me. how he is one who is immersed
in his sufferings. And the psalmist uses that language
of being utterly overwhelmed by the waters. I have a baptism
to be baptized with, says Christ. How am I straightened until it
be accomplished? And there's a hymn of William
Gadsby, isn't there? 658 in the book. For us, Jesus was baptized in
tremendous agonies. Mighty vengeance like a flood
overwhelmed the Lamb of God. I find it strange because in
the Nazarene Songs, as far as I know, that book is still available
from Gospel Standard Trust Publications. The Nazarene Songs is the hymns,
all of the hymns of William Gadsby, all of his hymns are not in the
book. that bears his name. It's a selection out of his own
hymns as well as out of the hymns of others. But in the Nazarene
songs what we know as 658 in the hymn book as a verse that's
been omitted strangely. This is the verse. This is how
Gadsby continues and he's speaking of baptism. This was baptism
indeed. well might mountain shake with
dread, surely sprinkling ne'er can show such a scene of matchless
well." In believer's baptism there is an immersive, an overwhelming,
how the believer is buried, as it were, in the waters of baptism,
and doesn't baptism set before us in a picture, as it were,
the sufferings of the Lord Jesus? In Romans chapter 6 we see how
Paul makes that very point quite plainly. Baptism is immersion. And what does the believer do
as he goes into the waters of baptism? He is making an open
profession of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul says
this in Romans 6, verse 3, Know ye not that so many of us who
were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection." What is believers baptism? and baptism
is immersion any other form is not baptism whatever men might
want to call it baptism is literally immersion and it's that heaven
drawn picture it shows a real union with Christ buried with
him in all his sufferings Those sufferings that he speaks of
here so prophetically, save me, O God, for the waters are coming
in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me, he says. Or there's an identifying with
Christ in his death. That that death is for the one
who is being baptized. but not only identifying with
him in dying but also in resurrection because there is that coming
up again out of the waters of baptism. It's union with Christ
in his death and in his resurrection. And wasn't that Paul's great
desire that I may know him and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings. being made conformable unto his
death I often think of those words in Philippians through
it because in a sense the order is not quite right because we
have the resurrection before the crucifixion there the power
of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and conformity
to his death But when I think about it, is it not like this
that there must first come into our souls that power of resurrection
before we can know anything of the Lord Jesus Christ? We're
dead in trespasses and sins. Oh, there must come then that
power that was there when Christ was raised again from the dead.
He must come into our souls and then we can know something of
real fellowship with Him. that blessed one, that suffering
Saviour. We can rejoice in being partakers of His sufferings. That was what Paul desired. Oh,
there is the suffering then of the Lord Jesus. But what else
do we see here concerning Christ in this psalm? Do we not see
also the blessed truth that that death that He died was a substitutionary
death? It was a substitutionary death.
Look at the words of verse 5. He says, O God, thou knowest
my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee. How could the Lord Jesus ever
utter such words even in prophecy? Christ was without any sin. His
human nature even in its conception was pure and holy. He was conceived
by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin. The Holy Ghost
shall come upon thee, the power of the higher shall overshadow
thee. Therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God. All that holy thing, that human
body, that human soul, no taint, no taint of original sin, And
as He is holy in birth, so He is holy in every part of His
life. We read those words in Hebrews 7 this morning, holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than
the heavens. He is the sinless One. And yet,
here, if this is Christ speaking, Oh God, thou knowest my foolishness. and my sins are not his from
how Christ has identified himself all together with the sinner
that's what he has done we have God sending his own son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemning sin in the
flesh it's Christ in the sinners place God hath made him to be
sin for us, says Paul, who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. Oh, the precious truth then of
substitution. A holy man, a righteous man,
a sinless man, dying for sinners. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins. just for the unjust to bring
us to God. There was no sin, there was no
sin at all in him. He says here at the end of verse
4, then I restored that which I took not away. He restored
what he'd never taken away, there was nothing that he had to repay.
He had honored and magnified God's
law by the obedience of a holy life. And yet He dies there upon
the cross and He dies as a substitute. And now that precious truth of
His substitution is brought out so remarkably in those great
words of the 53rd of Isaiah. What a remarkable prophecy is
that of the Lord's suffering servant. Surely, says Isaiah,
He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. the chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed all we like sheep
have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all that's substitution,
that's Jesus in the sinner's place and how real those sufferings
were When God poured out His wrath, He was made a propitiation
for the sins of His people. Well, He suffered at the hands
of men, of course He did. They mocked Him and ridiculed
Him. And yet, what was that in comparison
with the sufferings He had to endure at the hands of God as
the substitute? here is Christ then in this psalm
and what do we have? we have Christ's pattern of prayer
here in the text that we announced at the outset but as for me Christ says my
prayer is unto thee O Lord in an acceptable time O God in the
multitude of thy mercy hear me in the truth of thy salvation
And observe the opening words, the buts, the buts. It reminds
us that we're not to ignore the context. And what is the context? In the previous verses, I made
sackcloth also my garment, and I became a proverb to them. They
that sit in the gate speak against me. And I was the song of the
drunkards, but as for me. Oh, it reminds us of how there,
in all those awful sufferings upon the cross, they mocked him. They ridiculed him. He was set
before them as a spectacle, naked, hanging there upon the cross
at Calvary. And he endured all that contradiction
of the sinners. And yet in spite of all that
he is still saying that this is the acceptable time of prayer
when things seem so dark and so black and everyone is opposed
to me. But as for Mary my prayer is
unto thee O Lord he says. And there upon the cross of course
it did appear as if God ignored him. At the beginning of the
psalm he says, I am weary of my crying, my throat is dry,
my eyes fail while I wait for my God. Do we complain that God
is slow to answer our prayers? Oh remember the Lord Jesus in
all the agonies and he feels so utterly forsaken of his God. My God, my God why hast thou
forsaken me? is the prayer that He utters.
And yet, all of this is acceptable time. Strange, isn't it, the ways of
God? The darkest hour is acceptable time of the Lord. That's the
mystery. That's the mystery. When all
are set against Him, when all are ridiculing Him and calling
Him to come down from the cross to perform some great miracle,
they'll believe in Him then. They mock Him with the drink
that they offer to Him. And He's crying out to His Father
in heaven and yet there seems to be no answer to His prayers.
He seems so utterly forsaken. What a mystery! Because we have
to remember that even there upon the cross He is still the Eternal
Son. of the Eternal Father. And God
is One. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord. There are not three gods. There
is one God and three persons in one God, Father, Son and Holy
Ghost and there can be no division in the Godhead. That's the mystery
of that cry that he utters. there upon the cross. But of
course, it's still the language of appropriation. He says, my,
my, it's my God. Oh, surely my prayer to such
a God as this can never be in vain. My prayer is unto the Lord
in an acceptable time. What a pattern the Lord Jesus
is to us of praying. 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,
were taught, and was heard in that he feared, though he were
a son, yet learned the obedience by the things that he suffered."
Those amazing words there in Hebrews 5. in the days of his flesh, offering
up prayer and supplication with strong crying and tears, unto the one who was able to
save him. And he's heard in that he feared. He's heard because
of his piety. His human life, you see, it's
a life of real dependence. It's a life of prayer. It's a
life of faith that the Lord Jesus lived here upon the earth. Just
as His followers, His disciples have to live that same life of
faith. All but the prayers of the Lord Jesus, there in the
garden, He's in agony, being in an agony it says. He prayed
more earnestly. What do we know of that agonizing
in our praying? Earnest in our praying, pleadings.
This is how God teaches his people. We have to be followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If we're disciples, we're followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, in the second place,
to recognize here that what we have is the believer's prayer.
It's the prayer of Christ, yes, but what of David? Isn't David
in some ways a type of the believer? Last Thursday, I made some reference,
didn't I, to what we have in the following 71st Psalm. Remember,
those who were present at the prayer meeting, we sought to
speak of the apostle as that one who is a pattern believer,
the language of 1 Timothy 1.16. He speaks of himself there as
a pattern, or a type, to them who shall believe hereafter.
I don't want to go over what I said then on Thursday, but
just to remind you, we were thinking of Paul as a pattern. Well, David's a pattern. In Psalm
71 and verse 7, I am as a wonder unto many, he says. Again, the
margin suggests he's a sign or portent unto many. but thou art
my strong refuge. And this 69th Psalm is the Psalm
of David. David isn't just writing these
words down as the Spirit dictates the words to him and impassionately
he just writes the words down. No, David is writing out of the
depth of his own soul. That's how God inspires his servants. David's prayer is an experimental
prayer, it's a real prayer. He's overwhelmed himself. He's writing in agonism. And he's a pattern. He's a pattern
believer. And what does he say here in
the text? As for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable
time, O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the
truth of thy salvation." Or does it not, as I've already
said, have its equivalent in the New Testament? And those
words in 2 Corinthians 6, I have heard thee in a time accepted.
And in the day of salvation have I suckered thee. Behold now is
the day, now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation. Salvation is altogether in the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's rooted in Him, in His person,
in His work. And there's a real experimental
union then between Christ and His child. We know there's an eternal union,
because all the election of grace are chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world, but they're chosen in Him. He's the
first of all God's elects. My servant whom I uphold, mine
elect, says God, in whom my soul delighteth. He's the first, but
all the election of grace are chosen in Him. There's eternal
union. but those who are chosen in him
when they come into this world they're born dead in trespasses
and sins and there must be that experience in their souls of
the new birth they must be born again of the spirit of God and
they must being born again of the spirit come to that faith
in Christ there's an experimental youth And here we see, in a way,
some three aspects of what that experimental union is. What is
it? Well, the believer, at the beginning,
will know what it is to be convinced of his sinnership. There'll be conviction of sin. There'll be conviction of sin. And the believer's troubled. David says in verse 79, I'm in
trouble. I'm in trouble, hear me speedily. Oh, the Lord, you see, He will
bring His people to that place of conviction. They'll know what
they are, where they are. And they'll be overwhelmed. They'll
feel the separation, the distance. Save me, O God, for the waters
are coming unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. Can there really be salvation
for that one who is brought to feel something of his state,
his condition, where there is in some measure smaller or greater,
but some measure of that work of conviction, that law work
we might say, whatsoever things the law said, it said to them,
we're under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty. How hard it is when our mouths
are stopped and we feel we're guilty. Can there really be salvation
for someone like me, a sinner? It's the office, isn't it, of
the Holy Spirit to come and to convince of sin, and of righteousness,
and of judgment. And Al saw that pattern, that
pattern, believe he knew it. I was alive without the law once,
he says. But the commandment came, sin
revived, and I died. Oh, he was so alive. He thought
he was such a righteous man, touching the righteousness of
the Lord. He was living the life of a Pharisee, touching the righteousness
of the Lord. I'm a blameless man. He didn't
understand anything. He didn't understand the Lord
of God. For all his great learning at the feet of Gamaliel. But then the Lord began to teach
him. the true nature of that law we know that the Lord is
spiritual he says but I'm carnal I'm sold on the sin that's what Paul had to learn
the awful truth the conviction of his sin and look at the language
of David here He says in verse 33, the Lord heareth the poor
and despiseth not his prisoners. Oh, the Lord does not despise
his prisoners. He has made provision for these. That's a great statement, isn't
it, that we have in Job 33, 24. Deliver him from going down to
the pit. I have found a ransom. that long speech that's made
by Elihu at the end of the book of Job. Deliver him from going
down to the pit. I have found a ransom. Oh, the Lord heareth the poor. He doesn't despise his prisoners.
He shut them up, you see. He shut them up to what they
are that they might see that their only hope, their only salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. nowhere else. He wants deliverance send us
this man. He's under conviction of what
he is as a sinner before a holy God. But then with the believer
it's not just how the spiritual life begins in his soul, it's
not just that Ministry of the Spirit convincing him, reproving
him of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Even subsequent
to saving faith, he finds himself involved in a conflict, a daily
conflict with sin. Do we not see that in this psalm? Here is David, he is continually
wrestling with what he is. He feels it in the depths of
his being. He says at verse 29, I am poor
and sorrowful. Let thy salvation, O God, set
me upon high. I will praise the name of God
with a song and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. For this
also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullet that hath
horns or hooves. The humble shall see this and
be glad, and your heart shall rejoice and seek God. For this man, you see, he knows
what it is. to continually wrestle with his God in prayer. It's
the same, isn't it, with Paul. He feels his sinnership, even
as an apostle. I know that in me, that is in
my flesh, he says, there dwelleth no good thing, for to will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.
For the good that I would I do, not the evil that I would, not
that I do. And then he cries out, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind,
I myself serve the Lord of God, but with the flesh, the Lord
of sin, or the real me, I myself, that's the real me, I serve the
Lord of God, ah, but the flesh, the all nature, how he feels
it. the Lord Jesus Christ is the
one who suffered for the sins of his people he is the one who
was born that's penalty and so God is never going to
visit such a judgment upon them but the believer is involved
in a fight he has a fight of faith against sins, a good fight
of faith And at times the Lord will come and the Lord will deal
with him and the Lord will chasten him and correct him. How remarkable is the life that
this man has to live then. The believer, yes there's that
conviction at the beginning, but there's that continual conflict.
There's the good fight of faith, there's laying hold of eternal
life, day by day. is a spiritual baptism just as
Christ knew a spiritual baptism but then what do we see finally
with regards to believer there is this confidence all the believers
confidence in is God and that's what we really have in the text
as for Mary my prayer is unto thee O Lord in unacceptable time. And see the language that he
is employing here. He speaks of the Lord. And it's
Jehovah. It's the God of the Covenant.
It's the Covenant name, isn't it? It's that name that is derived
from what God said to Moses at the burning bush, I am that I
am. Oh, it's the unchanging God who
is faithful to his promise. He was confirmed His promise
with an oath. He was sworn by Himself. This
is the one that he is looking to. His confidence is in God
and he goes on, as we said, to speak of the multitude of God's
mercy and the truth of God's salvation. O God, in the multitude
of Thy mercy, hear me, in the truth of Thy salvation. This is very much the Gospel. Again at verse 16 he says, Hear
me, O Lord, for Thy lovingkindness is good's. Turn unto me according
to the multitude of Thy tender mercies. All that lovingkindness
that's spoken of there in that 16th verse, what does it remind
us of? It's God's covenant faithfulness. oh it's that sovereign grace
of God, it's all those tender mercies and so he goes on in verse 17,
hide not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble hear me speedily
or draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it, deliver me because
of mine enemies this is the language of the man of God This is the
man after God's own heart. This is the true child of God. He knows what sin is. He's been
convinced. He's been reproved of what sin
is. He knows the daily conflict with it still. And yet his confidence,
his trust, is in the Lord his God. And he cries unto God out
of the depths of the earth, just as the Lord does here in the
opening words of the Psalm. Save me, O God, for the waters
are coming unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow. Oh, but where there's all that
overflowing, there's also the abundance of the grace of God.
There's that God who delivers His people because He has granted
to us such a day. or the acceptable time, the day
of salvation, the gospel day. It's our day. It's our day. But you know, to whom much is
given, of the same shall much be required. What do we make
of the day? Or what do we make of this particular
day? In all the fullness of the day
of grace, can we say we gave it? But as for me, personally,
It's me individually. It's my prayer. As for me, my
prayer is unto Thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time. O God,
in the multitude of Thy mercy, hear me in the truth of Thy salvation. Deliver me out of the mire. Let
me not sink. Let me be delivered from them
that hate me. and out of the deep waters. Oh, the Lord bless His words
and grant us grace that we might make the prayer our own prayer
even this day. Oh, the Lord bless His word to
us. Amen.