Well, let us turn again to God's
Word and we turn to the psalm that we were reading, Psalm 79. I want to direct you for a while
this morning to the words that we find here at verse 11. Psalm
79, verse 11. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee according to the greatness of thy power preserve
those that are appointed to die. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee. According to the greatness of
thy power, preserve those that are appointed to die. because that history that's recorded
there is what lies behind the words that we have in this particular
psalm. It clearly speaks of the desolations
that came upon Jerusalem at the time of the Babylonian captivity. The opening words of the psalm
O God, the heathen are coming to thine inheritance, thy holy
temple have they defiled. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. We read in that 36th chapter
in 2nd Chronicles of how it was that Nebuchadnezzar came and
removed the king into exile took away all the treasures of the
House of the Lords and the palaces of the King and razed the temple
and destroyed the walls of the city to the ground. What terrible
days they were and it was during that period of course that Jeremiah
was ministering the Word of God, and we read there in that historic
book how they were rejecting that ministry of God's faithful
servants. So, Jeremiah, after his prophecy,
writes that book of Lamentations, a short book that follows the
prophecy. And there, remember the language
that we have in the opening words, of the lamentations of Jeremiah. How does a city sit solitary,
that was full of people? How is she become as a widow,
she that was great among the nations, and princess among the
provinces? How is she become tributary?
She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her. All her
friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her
enemies. Judah is gone into captivity
because of affliction and because of great servitude. She dwelleth
among the heathen. She findeth no rest. All her
persecutors overtook her between the straits. The ways of Zion
do mourn because none come to the solemn feast. All her gates
are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins
are afflicted. and she is in bitterness. And you can read, of course,
there through that remarkable book of Jeremiah's Lamentations. And as I say, the psalm belongs
to that same period, that sad period in the history of God's
ancient covenant people. Here at verse 4 in the psalm,
we are become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision
to them that are round about us. O long Lord, wilt thou be
angry forever? Shall thy jealousy burn like
fire? And there are, of course, other
Psalms that belong to the same period of Israel's history. In
the 74th Psalm, for example. And there, look at the language
in verses 9 and 10, we see not our signs, There is no more any
prophets, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. O God, how long shall the adversary
reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy
name forever? And then previously there at
verse 3, lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolation. even
all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. Some of these Psalms evidently,
historically, are speaking of these dreadful events. And yet,
it was not to be the end, of course. God had a gracious purpose
that He would yet fulfill. In Jeremiah, there in chapter
29 and verse 10, He speaks quite specifically that the period
of the captivity and the desolations of Jerusalem would be just 70
years, the length of a man's life, 3 score year and 10. But then in the following verse,
Jeremiah 29 11, God says, I know the thoughts that I think towards
you, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you unexpected
end. And so the historic book of 2nd
Chronicles doesn't conclude with Babylon. We know how the Babylonian Empire
was then overthrown by that of the Persians. And we read at
the end of 2nd Chronicles of Cyrus and the first year of his
reign and the the decree that he makes and the word of the
Lord that was spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah had to be accomplished
and so Cyrus issues a decree, Thou said Cyrus king of Persia
all the kingdom of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given
me and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem which
is in Judah who is there among you of all his people. The Lord
is God, be with him and let him go up. And then of course after
2nd Chronicles we have the book of Ezra. And those words at the
end of 2nd Chronicles in a sense are repeated in the opening verse
of the book of Ezra. And it is Ezra who goes up to
rebuild the temple of the Lord there in Jerusalem. God had a
gracious purpose to fulfill. Well, this is something of the
historical context, the setting of the psalm from which I've
announced our text here in verse 11 this morning. But we have to remember that
what we have in the Old Testament is much more than history. It's
a spiritual book, all of the Old Testament. It's all the Word
of God, and it all has some relevance to us. As Paul says on two occasions
in his epistles, writing firstly there in Romans 15, for whatsoever
things were written aforetime, he says, were written for our
learning, that we, through patience, literally endurance. We through
endurance and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. These
things in the Old Testament are written for our learning, says
the Apostle. And then again he writes in 1
Corinthians 10 11 that all these things happen unto them for ensamples
or for types. And they're written for us upon
whom the ends of the world are come. The ends of the world being
a specific reference to the Day of Grace, the Gospel Day. All
these things happened unto them for ensamples and there's something
for us to learn. We trust by the gracious Spirit
of God there might be some application to us and to our circumstances
and our needs. And so when we turn to the words
of the text, verse 11, let the sighing of the prisoner come
before the according to the greatness of thy power, preserve those
that are appointed to die." Isn't there some spiritual significance
here? One has remarked, something blessedly
experimental is to be found in these words. And I trust we might
discover something of that as we come now to look at the verse. And to take up this theme of
the sighing of the prisoner, the sighing of the prisoner. And I want to follow a very basic
approach, just two headings really, to say something first of all
with regards to the prisoner and then secondly to look at
his prayer. The prisoner and his prayer,
the sighing of the prisoner. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee." Surely, in a spiritual sense, the prisoner
here is that sinner who not only believes in the doctrine of total
depravity, but has had that awful truth discovered to his own soul. We often use that little mnemonic
tulip, which sets before us the great doctrines of the grace
of God. You know the significance of
each of those letters in tulip. And the first, total depravity.
The second, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible
grace. perseverance of the saints. A very useful little mnemonic
to remember those five points of Calvinism as we call them. There at the head of Tulip is
the letter T, total depravity. It's one thing for us to say
that solemn truth as he'd said before us on the page of Holy
Scripture but quite another of course when God discovers it
to our souls, when we are made to feel that we are those who
are appointed to death. And here in the verse, of course,
the end of the verse we read, of those that are appointed to
death, it is appointed unto man once to die, and then cometh
the judgment. There is that sense, of course,
in which we all have to come to terms with the awful truth
of our mortality, that as there is a time to be born, so there
is a time to die. But in the words of the text,
there's more than the solemn truth of mortality here. Remember
what was said to Adam there in the Garden of Eden? When God
puts him, as he were, under probation concerning the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, he could partake of all the trees of the Garden. They were all there for his delight,
and he could feed off those trees, but there was one that he must
not partake of, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And
God said, in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die. Or as the margin says more literally,
in the day that thou eatest thereof dying thou shalt die. In a sense there was that death
that was immediate. There was that awful sense of
his disobedience, his sin. And whereas previously God would
come into the garden and there was communion between God and
his creature man, God comes into the garden and what do Adam and
Eve do? They seek to hide themselves
from the presence of God. Of course it was a foolish thing.
They couldn't hide from God. He knew. And then the curse that
comes upon man comes upon creation and the man then sent out of
the garden, cut off. Well, those spoken of here in
our text, these prisoners that are appointed to die, they are
such as have been brought to some realization, some spiritual
realization of what their true condition is, some awful awareness
that they're in that fallen state, they're transgressors, transgressors
of God's holy law. But God has a purpose, you see.
Has God had a purpose with regards to the children of Israel? I
know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace
and not of evil, so when God brings that sinner to the realization
of what his condition is, the vast majority, of course, They
are blissfully unaware of where they are, what their relationship
is with God, that they are in that state of alienation, that
they are enemies of God. And the strange thing is that
when God begins to work graciously in the soul of the sinner, this
is where he begins, he has that realization that he is dead,
in trespasses and in sins. And yet God has a gracious work
that he will accomplish in the soul of that man. It's interesting,
when we come to the Word of God, to see how God does deal with
a multitude of people. And there's always that that
is similar in the Lord's dealings. Every experience of the grace
of God, of course, is a unique experience. We can't say that
everyone is going to have an identical experience. That's not the way of God. There
is uniformity in God's creation and yet there's variety in God's
creation. And I suppose we witness that
certainly at this season of the year when we see all of nature
beginning to come into life again. And we see all of a sudden that
those trees that were bare through the winter months are again full
of leaves. And yet, if we look at those
leaves, no two leaves are ever the same. I know we can distinguish
one tree from another by examining the leaves on that tree, but
if we take as an example an oak tree, and look at the leaves,
there are never any two leaves that are completely identical
on any of those trees. Every one is unique in a certain
sense, and yet there's a similarity. We see the marks of it being
the leaf of the oak, and so too in the experiences of the people
of God. There is a certain similarity,
and yet there's a certain uniqueness also. And when we come to read
of the experiences of these saints, as we just said, all that we
read of them in the Old Testament, all their types, aren't they?
All these things happened unto them for examples, for types. They're written for our learning. They're written for those of
the Gospel day, those at the end of the world. And so when
we turn to the writings of these different men, for example Moses,
what does Moses declare here in the 90th Psalm? Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses,
the man of God, and at the end of verse 3 it says, Thou turnest
man to destruction. and sayeth, Return ye children
of men. So isn't Moses speaking of what
it was in his own experience. He felt himself to be imprisoned
in a certain sense. He was brought to destruction.
He was brought to the end of himself. That's what God does
with any man that he deals graciously with. Thou turnest man to destruction. The man is stripped of any confidence
in himself. Brought to the end of himself.
And when God has brought the man to that position, he then
says to that man in his sovereignty and in the sovereignty of his
grace, return. All return, you children of men.
The work is altogether God's work. But then we see the same
in some ways with regards to David. And yet David's language
is very different to that of Moses in the 142nd Psalm. David cries out, bring my soul
out of prison, that I may praise thy name. He asked God to bring
his soul out of prison, that he might praise the name of God. And so he goes on, thou the righteous
shalt compass me about, for thou shalt deal bountifully with my
soul. your God he recognizes he's going
to deal with him in a bountiful way and yet there was that when
David felt himself to be in prison and he couldn't he couldn't free
himself couldn't release himself he knew that the Lord God must
deal with him in in a bountiful way and so it is with all of
these men time and time again he man Heman is the author of
the 88th Psalm. And what does he cry out? I am
shut up! And I cannot come forth, just
like David, you see. A prisoner. Shut up! And he could
not release himself. He couldn't do anything to help
himself, to save himself. John Newton says, Oh, could I
but believe! Then all would easily be, I would,
but cannot, Lord relieve, my help must come from thee. This
is how God teaches a man that solemn truth of the doctrine
of total depravity. Haman then says, I'm shut up.
He's shut up to what he is, shut up to the awfulness of his sin
and that sin of unbelief, the sin which does so easily beset
us and he couldn't come forth. And turning from the Old Testament
to the New Testament, what of the Apostle Paul? When he writes
there in the Galatian Epistle, he says, before faith came, we
were kept under the law, shut up, to the faith which would
afterward be revealed. Shut up again, you see. But shut
up to a gracious end. to the faith that would afterward
be revealed. All the strength of the Word
of God, the commandment of God, and the condemning power of that
Word. When Paul writes to the Romans, Romans 7.10, he says,
The commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death. All that commandment which is
good. The Lord is good, the commandments. He's good, profitable, useful.
But what does he do? He discovers to man his complete
and utter inability, convinces him of his sin. Whatsoever thing
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God. All the commandment was ordained
to life, Paul said, but I found it to be unto death. He was he
was the self-righteous Pharisee imagining that he was righteous
concerning the Lord of God and then he was shown the truth of
God's law, the spirituality of God's law and then he was condemned
and there was no way in which he could help himself or save
himself he found the law only shut him up to what he was, shut
him up to his native unbelief, the sin which so easily besets.
And so here you see in the text, let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee. According to the greatness of
thy power preserve those that are appointed to death. Only
God can help this man who is so shut up in himself and cannot
release himself, cannot relieve himself. God must have all the
glory in the salvation of the sinner. But what is the prayer
of this prisoner as we have it here? Two things we observe with regards
to his prayer. The manner of his praying and
the matter, the subject matter of his praying. What is the manner
of the man's praying? Well, his prayer is nothing more
than sighing. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee. Oh, remember the experience of
the children of Israel when they were in the awful iron furnace
of Egypt, when they were bond slaves. working there for the
Pharaoh and how matters go from bad to worse. As we see at the
end of Exodus chapter 2, the king of Egypt dies, the children
of Israel sigh. He came to part in process of
time that the king of Egypt died and 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 covenant
with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon
the children of Israel. And God had respect unto them. All this was real prayer of theirs
in the midst of all their trouble. all this sighing, all this groaning,
and how God answers, God remembers. Oh, God remembers His covenant,
His promise, that that He had spoken to Abraham, to Isaac and
Jacob. And God will respect His words,
and honor His word, and so deliverance comes, because immediately after
the words that we just read there at the end of chapter 2 we go
into the third chapter and we have the the call of Moses who
had been 40 years 40 years serving his father in Lord
Jethro 40 years as it were in the desert but now he's called
he must return to Egypt he is to be the one who will bring
deliverance to the children of Israel There we have the record
then of their bondage in Egypt, and what do they do? How does
deliverance come? They sigh. They sigh and they cry. And as
I have already said, this 79th Psalm, it belongs to that period
of another great bondage that comes upon God's ancient covenant
people. Not now in Egypt, but taken into
into Babylon. But again, again there's his
sighing. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee. According to the greatness of
thy power, preserve those that are appointed to die, those who've
gone into exile. Languishing there, in Babylon,
taunted by their captors. Sing us one of the songs of Zion,
they would say. How could they sing the Lord's
song in a strange land? All they can do is sigh, just
as their fathers had done in Egypt. This is the manner of
their praying. But again, surely we're to recognize
here there's a spiritual significance.
There's a spiritual application to be made from the words of
our text. And in a sense, we sang it in
our opening praise. I know, oftentimes, in those
hymns of Berridge, we might feel that the language is somewhat
quaint. It is. One can't dispute that. And yet, there's great spiritual
truth in what Berridge says. And there, of course, in that
opening hymn that we sang, 884, he's drawing the contrast between the mere formalists.
He lived in a day, I suppose, when it was more fashionable
to go to the house of God, to go to church. But O Many just
went out of form. And O Few really went with that
intent of worship, real worship, spiritual worship. The true worshippers
worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Well, Berridge
is drawing the contrast between the formalists and those who
are the true people of God. And what is the worship of those
who are true worshippers? Well, look at the language that
he uses here in verse 4. For thee my soul would cry and
send a laboring groan, for thee my heart would sigh and make
a pensive moan. Oh, that's the worship, you see.
that comes from broken hearts, those who feel something of their
sinnership, those who continually feel their need for the grace
of God, or they live their lives only to prove that they are day
by day debtors, and debtors to the God of all grace. This is
the language of the people of God, as we've already said. They
might have different experiences, they might express themselves
in slightly different ways, but there's always that certain sameness,
that similarity. Remember the language of David
in another psalm, Psalm 38 and verse 9, he says, Lord all my
desire is before Thee. All my desire is before Thee,
and my groaning is not hid from Thee. In Psalm 38, is one in
which he speaks of his sense of what is as a sinner in very
graphic terms. Very graphic terms. Read through
that 38th Psalm. David seems to feel that he is
full of some loathsome disease. Now the man feels it, and groans
out before his God, but the groaning is but an expression of his desire,
his hungering and his thirsting. And isn't that the evidence of
the Spirit of God in the soul of a man? How the Spirit helpeth
our infirmities, Paul says, and maketh intercession for us with
groanings that cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. or where that blessed
work of the Spirit is, it's all according to God's will. Even those groanings that cannot
be uttered, we know what it is to be in that place where words
fail us. And what words we do speak, we
feel they're so inadequate, they're broken sentences. We can't quite
find a way to really express the desires, the longings, the
yearnings of our heart. The manner then of this praying,
it's sighing. It's more than words. Let the
sighing of the prisoner come before Thee. Oh, but you see,
there is that desire to come before the Lord, to know that
blessing of access, of entrance, into the very presence of the
Lord. And there is that, that again
the Apostle speaks of that boldness, that access with confidence,
it is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now these sires, you see, they
need one to order their cause for them. They need one to be
their advocate, or we have an advocate. What is an advocate? Well, we would normally in England,
of course, speak of the bar, a barrister, a person who speaks
for another in the court. Well, that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ does on behalf of his people. He takes our poor groanings
and our sighings and he interprets them and he presents them and
they prevail in the high courts of heaven. But so much for the
manner of the prayer. What is the matter of this praying?
What is the matter, the subject matter here? Is it not salvation
that is being desired? And that's what we see really
at the end of the verse. According to the greatness of
thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die. Previously, in verse 9, he says,
Help us, O God, of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name, and
deliver us, and purge away our sins for Thy name's sake. What is he doing here? He's pleading
the name of God. And as he pleads the name of
God, he speaks of that salvation. that comes only from God. When
the Lord Jesus teaches his disciples that patterned prayer that we're
so familiar with, the Lord's Prayer, what is the first petition? Praying, of course, is petitioning
God. Praying is begging. Praying is
coming with requests. We never lose sight of that.
I speak to myself in many ways. Preachers, I think, sometimes
descend into preaching in their praying. There's a difference
between praying and preaching. Sometimes we seem to come, that's
the preacher comes and he tells God all about himself. Well,
the Lord knows himself. We don't need to tell God who
he is. We might need to remind ourselves that he's a good and
a gracious God, but we need to be aware that when we come to
prayer we are to implore that God would have mercy upon us. Praying is very different to
to preaching. And the Lord, when he gives us
the pattern prayer, we see that it really consists principally
of petitions, one petition after another. You're familiar with the petitions,
give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts, as we forgive
others. Lead us not into temptation,
deliver us from evil, and so on. But what is the very first
of all those petitions in the pattern prayer? Well, the first
one concerns God and the name of God. Our first petition must
always be, Hallowed be thy name. Our concern is to be for God
and the honour of God and the glory of God. And isn't that
what we have here in verse 9? Help us, O God, of our salvation
for the glory of Thy name and deliver us and purge away our
sins for Thy name's sake. It's not so much the salvation
of the sinner or the deliverance of the prisoner, it's the glory
of God. the honor of God's name that
must be paramount so when we come to God with our prayers
we come really in a spirit of true worship and we see it, don't
we, in the gospel when we think of that woman as an example,
that Canaanite woman, the woman of Theraphanesia she was a stranger
in Israel, she wasn't a Jew and she comes asking the Lord to
heal the daughter and the Lord seems to have no interest in
what she's saying he ignores her in a sense and the disciples
grow weary because she's so persistent and they want the Lord to send
her away but she won't be denied and then the Lord turns to her
the Lord grants her request. And what do we read? How she
prays to Him. Her prayer was so simple a prayer. She simply said, Lord, help me,
or Lord, save me. And it says she worshipped Him.
She said, Lord, help me, and she worshipped Him. Or you see,
if we come with the desire first and foremost for the glory of
God in our petitions. We'll come in a spirit of real
worship. We want God to be the one who receives all the honor
and all the glory. But here we have a prayer, and
it's a prayer really for salvation, for deliverance. This is what
the prisoner desires, that he might know release, deliverance, And so Asaph is praying here
for the application of that salvation. Salvation is set before us in
the Word of God, yes, but are we concerned that that salvation
might be our salvation? That God might bring it home
to our hearts and work it mightily and effectually in our souls?
This is what the psalmist is really asking in the language
that we have here in his prayer. He says, according to the greatness
of thy power. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee according to the greatness of thy power. Or as the margin says, the Hebrew
is literally, according to the greatness of thine arm. the greatness of thine army or
he wants God to do something he wants God to work deliverance
he wants to be brought out of his prison he wants release he
wants deliverance he wants salvation that's how he is praying the
greatness of thy power the greatness of thine arm and what of that
arm of God? well look at the language that
we have for example in the Book of the Prophets, in Isaiah chapter
51. Isaiah chapter 51 and there at
verse 9. Awake! Awake! Put on strength,
O arm of the Lord! Awake! As in the ancient days,
in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut
Rahab and wielded the dragon? not thou not it which hath dried
the sea, the waters of the great deep, who hath made the depths
of the sea away for the ransom to pass over? Therefore the redeemed
of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion."
Now, the language here is quite remarkable because The Prophet
is speaking of what God had done in the days of Moses. When he
speaks of Rahab, the reference is really to Egypt. And that
great deliverance that God wrought for his people when he made a
way for them through the Red Sea. He literally brought them
out of Egypt, he brought them through the Red Sea. And you
see how the Prophet is also pleading that God would do the same once
again. that those taken into exile into
Babylon would be brought again to Zion. We have those two great
works of God. And of course, as I've said,
Psalm 79 is speaking in the context of the Babylonian captivity. But what a prayer is this! Awake,
awake! Put on strength, O arm of the
Lord! All the prophets, like the Psalmist,
want God to make bare His arm, and to accomplish a great salvation. Again in chapter 52 there, Isaiah
52 verse 10, The Lord hath made bare His holy arm in the eyes
of the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation
of our God. When God makes bear His arm,
what is He doing? He's applying salvation. Oh,
it's the exceeding greatness of His power to us who do believe. Not just the power, but the exceeding
greatness of that power of God according to the working of His
mighty power when He raised up the Lord Jesus Christ from the
dead. Isn't that what Paul is saying there in Ephesians? Ephesians
1, 19 and 20. The same power that was there
when Christ broke through the bars of death and triumphed over
the grave is the same power that God puts forth in the souls of
His people when He works deliverance for them. Let the sighing of
the prisoner come before them. According to the greatness of
thy power, thine arm, preserve those that are appointed to die."
Well, God is able to do these things. And you see, surely we
are to recognize that prayer to such a God as this is never
in vain. It can't be in vain. because God is able. He's able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. That's the God that we deal with.
Nothing is impossible with Him. Oh, let the sighing of the prisoner
come before the Lord, or to come before such a one as this, such
a God who is able to do these things, to know what it is to
have that access. that entrance, that boldness,
that confidence. And we have the assurance, the
language of another psalm, Psalm 69, 33, the Lord heareth the
poor and despiseth not his prisoners. God doesn't despise His prisoners. He knows the thought that He
thinks towards His people, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give
them unexpected end. Again, look at the words of the
12th Psalm in verse 5, for the oppression of the poor, he says,
for the sighing of the needy, ne'er will I arise, saith the
Lord. Oh, we cannot pray in vain to
such a God as this God. So many Psalms, so many Psalms.
The 102nd, just one more, Psalm 102, and there in the language
of verses 19 and 20. For he hath looked down from
the height of his sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold
the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those
that are appointed to death. There's a reason. He looks down
from heaven, from the height of his sanctuary, from glory. He looks upon the earth, and
there's a purpose. It's in order to hear the groaning
of the prisoner. It's in order to lose those that
are appointed to death. This is the work that Christ
has accomplished for sinners. And if the Son shall make you
free, You shall be free indeed. That's our comfort. Oh, that's
our comfort. The Lord will hear, the Lord
will answer these prisoners. The prisoner then, and the prayer
of the prisoner. Oh God, be pleased that we might
know that we have some interest. in such a verse as we find here
in our text this morning. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee. According to the greatness of
thy power, preserve those that are appointed to die. The Lord
bless to us His Word. We're going to sing as our concluding
praise this morning the hymn 989, the tune Albano 847. Ye captives, ye captive souls
in fetters bound, who feel your misery. The way to liberty is
found, the sun shall make you free. 989, June 847.