Let us turn to God's Word and
turning to the Psalm that we read, Psalm 40 and verses 4 and
5. Psalm 40, 4 and 5, Blessed is
that man that maketh the Lord his trust. And respecteth not
the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God,
are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts
which are to us wrought. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee, if I should declare and speak of them. They
are more than can be numbered. I want to say something as we
consider the content of the text, the content of the psalm really.
I want to say something of the marks of a Christian as David
sets it before us in the words of this 40th psalm. But first
of all to say something with regards to the works of the Lord
Jesus Christ because it is evident that this particular psalm principally
speaks of the Savior. We have those words in verses
6, 7 and 8. Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire, mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin
offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the
volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will,
O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. And you may recall
how that these words are taken up by the Apostle in Hebrews
chapter 10 and there at verse 5 following beginning of that fifth verse
speaking of Christ when he cometh into the world he saith It's
not so much the words of David then, but the words of Christ. He saith, Sacrifice and offering
thou didst not desire. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will. O my
God, yea, thy Lord is within my heart. The psalm then is one
that speaks to us so plainly. of the Lord Jesus and we have
the authority of the New Testament Scriptures when we say that because
Paul under the inspiration of the Spirit of God in that 10th
chapter of the Hebrews makes it so clear and so surely we
have to recognize that the man that is being spoken of in our
text Here in verse 4, is none other than the Lord Jesus. Blessed
is that man that maketh the Lord his trust. Christ is that man. Time and again we see that Christ
is evidently the man, the blessed man that is spoken of in this
part of Holy Scripture. So many of the Psalms speaks
of the man. The very first Psalm. Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is
in the law of the Lord and in his law that he meditate day
and night. And he shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water. that bringeth forth his fruit
in his season, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He delights in the Lord of God, in God's law, he is meditating
day and night. And remember how this man is
said before us also in the words of Psalm 24, the questions are
put, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? For he shall
stand in his holy place, he that hath clean hands and a pure heart,
who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing
from the Lord. Here is the blessed man. He shall
receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the
God of his salvation. And then you remember the end
of that 24th Psalm that speaks of him entering heaven itself
the King of Glory. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory
shall come in." Who is this King of Glory? Oh, the Lord Strong
and Mighty, the Lord Mighty in battle. It is then clearly the
Lord Jesus Christ that we see before us in this particular
psalm. And what a man he was. How he
lived his life here upon the earth and how he lived that life
as a life of faith. He would spend whole nights in
prayer to God. That's how he lived. He lived
his human life in dependence upon God. How he knew so much
of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. in the mighty works that he performed. It was through the Spirit of
God that he was casting out the demons. Now the Spirit is there
time and again. He's so wonderfully anointed
by the Spirit at his baptizing as he comes forth from those
waters of baptism. The heavens open and the Spirit
descends upon him in the form of a dove. He's led of the Spirit,
even through his temptations. He returns from the wilderness
of temptations in all the power of the Spirit. Oh, he is this
man. And he says at the end of the
psalm, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. What a remarkable man is this
man. This is the the second man, the
Lord from heaven. This is the last Adam who has
come now to put right all that that was lost by the first man,
the first Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we read in the
text of those wonderful works of God, many, O Lord my God,
are thy wonderful works which thou hast done." All those great
works of salvation. God there doing the most glorious
of works. He's wonderful, of course, in
creation. He's wonderful in providence.
But as Gatsby says, in his highest work, redemption, See, as glory
in a blaze, nor can angels ever mention Ought that more of God
displays And we sang it, didn't we, in our opening praise How
wondrous are the works of God Displayed through all the world
abroad Immensely great, immensely small Yet one strange work exceeds
them all Almighty God, side human breath, the Lord of life, experience
death. How it was done we can't discuss,
but this we know, was done for us, all these wondrous works
in. These, the highest and the most
glorious of all the works of God, the works of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now we spoke this morning of
that righteousness that he came to accomplish. There in the language
of Psalm 71, David's determination, I will make mention, he says,
of thy righteousness, even of thine only. And so we see the
Lord here, speaking of his ministry, verse 9, I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. No, I have not refrained my lips,
O LORD, Thou knowest. I have not hid Thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared Thy faithfulness
and Thy salvation. I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness
and Thy truth from the great congregation. He has come to
reveal all the wonder of God and the attributes of God, the
righteousness of God, the faithfulness of God, the lovingkindness of
God. in his ministry what a ministry it was and he comes of course
to do all God's will to be obedient to that work that
the father had committed to him in the eternal covenant and so
in verse 8 he says I delight to do thy will oh my God yea
thy law is within my heart God's law was there and he would accomplish
it all. We spoke then of what they call
the act of righteousness. The obedience to every command,
every precept, every statute. All that the law required. The
Lord Jesus was that one who accomplished it. Honouring, magnifying the
law. My meat, he says, is to do the
will of Him that has sent me and to finish His work. But then not only the life that
he lives, but the death that he dies, that substitutionary
death where he bears the punishment that was due to those who were
the transgressors, honoring the Lord in terms of all His dreadful
penalties. And we see him here, you see,
as the great sin-bearer. Verse 12, he says, "... innumerable
evils have compassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me, so that I am not able to look up, they are more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me." Or as the
margin says, "... my heart forsaketh me." How he
feels that awful burden. He who knew no sin being made
sin for his people. Or how that one suffers. I find some of the language in
these Psalms so remarkable. These Messianic Psalms, these
Psalms that so clearly speak of the Lord Jesus. Psalm 69. And there at verse 5 the language,
O gods, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from
thy. All the imputation of all the
foolish sin of his people. And it comes to the Lord Jesus
Christ, it's laid upon him. Now Psalm 69 is so evidently
a messianic psalm later in the psalm verse 9 we read the zeal
of thine house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them
that reproach thee are fallen upon me you see those words at the beginning
of that ninth verse are applied to Christ in John 2 aren't they?
when he clears the temple of the money changers and the buyers
of salads. And the disciples remembered
what was written here, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me
up. And then those words at the end of the verse, the reproaches
of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. Now the apostle
applies that to Christ there in verse 3 of Romans 15. Psalm
69 is speaking of Christ. It is Christ who is the author
of the psalm we might say. Oh God thou knowest my foolishness
and my sins are not hid from thee. All the imputation of all
that sin laid upon His sacred person and Him bearing the punishment
that was due to the sinners. God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sin and for sin condemns sin in the flesh. He has 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 Lord Jesus is here then
in this psalm. He is the blessed man. But the
believer is also here, the Christian is also here. It's a psalm of
David. David is clearly the human author
of the psalm. Though he speaks of and he speaks
as his greatest son, yet surely we are to discern something of
David's own experience in this psalm. And David, the man after
God's own heart, David, a true believer. And so I want to say
something from what is recorded here of the marks of a believer,
the marks of a Christian. And three things in particular.
Three marks. This man is known of God. This
man is known of God. This man is burdened by his sins. And this man is a believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Those three things to consider.
And we read, don't we, here of God's thoughts in verse 5. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to usward, they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee.
If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can
be numbered." All God's thoughts, wondrous thoughts that God has
towards His people. We read something of those thoughts,
of course, in the passage in Isaiah 55. But there we also
read of the thoughts of the unrighteous. In that 7th verse, let the wicked
forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Are we those
who when we come to the Word of God we desire that we might
be found not thinking our own thoughts but thinking God's thoughts
and thinking God's thoughts after Him? wanting to understand something
of what the will of the Lord is. All but all those blessed
thoughts of God. And what do we see here? They're
personal. They're personal thoughts. When God thinks of his people,
he thinks of them as individuals. Look at that word at the end
of the psalm, in the middle of verse 17, the Lord thinketh upon
her. The Lord thinketh upon my. He thinks upon individuals. That's a great and a blessed
thing, isn't it? Isn't that really what lies at
the very root of eternal election? Blessed is a man whom the Lord
chooseth. and cause us to approach unto
him. That's election. When the Lord Jesus is here upon
the earth and remember how he sends forth his disciples there
in Luke 10 and they're able to do many wondrous works but what
does he say to them? when they come back rejoicing
at all that they've been able to do in his name he says rejoice
rather because your names are written in heaven how the Lord
has thought of his people how the Lord has set his love upon
his people how the Lord has known them and known them in that intimate
way before ever there was any creation whom he did foreknow
we're told he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son and whom he predestinated, then he also calls. Now that foreknowledge is not
the foresight that the Arminian speaks of when he imagines that
the Lord has chosen his people because he has foreseen that
they will come to faith. And so the basis of his choice
according to the Arminian view is what the sinner does. The
sinner chooses to come to the Savior and because he makes that
choice God elects him. That's utter nonsense. No one
would ever come except the Lord was to draw him. the basis of
election lies not in the sinner but in God and in God's foreknowledge,
God's love, God's thoughts that are set upon his people the Lord
thinketh upon me each individual that he saves all this knowledge
of God is personal but it's more than that isn't it how preeminent it is A remarkable
thing it is, God's thoughts so different to our thoughts. We
read it there, didn't we? In that passage in Isaiah 55,
my thoughts are not your thoughts, he says. Neither are your ways
my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. God's thoughts are our preeminence
or we cannot begin to comprehend the wonder of them so different
to ours and so purposeful, so purposeful he says I know the
thoughts that I think towards you thoughts of peace and not
of evil to give you an expected end even as the children of Israel
were to go into exile they were going to be taken into captivity
God would take vengeance upon all their inventions, their foolish,
idolatrous ways. God would chasten His people.
They had to go into exile. But His thoughts are thoughts
of peace and not evil. Oh, He will so deal with them
as to bring them away from all their idols. And after 70 years,
of course, they do return. They return to the land of promise. The temple is rebuilt. The walls
of Jerusalem are restored. And so what we have in the Lamentations,
where Jeremiah cries over all the despoiling of Jerusalem,
all that is reversed. and his people are delivered
from all their idolatrous ways. We don't read after the captivity
of them being sunk into that sort of idolatry ever again.
I know the thoughts that I think towards you, he says. Thoughts
of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. Or better
is the end of the thing than the beginning thereof. Here is the mark then of those who are
the people of God, they are known by God Himself, personally, pre-eminently. He has a gracious purpose that
He will accomplish in their lives. And yet, and yet there are people
who are burdened. At times they are burdened. Or
they know what they are, they feel what they are. They are
burdened by the awful sense of their sinnership. And we see
it here in verse 12, "...enumerable evils have compassed me about,
mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able
to look up. They are more than the hairs
of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me." Oh, what a lament
is this that we see in the language of David. He wants God to help him. and
cries out at the end, Thou art my help and my deliverer. Make
no tarrying, O my God. Now he feels continually such
a need of God. Why? Because of the reality of
his sin. He's burdened by sin. And what
do we see with regards to this sin? A number of things really.
It's encompassing him. innumerable evils, he says, have
compassed me about." It's all around him. When we think of Jonah, the disobedient
prophet, when he flees from the Lord, and he is cast overboard,
he knows the Lord is in it, the Lord is pursuing his prophet.
He's swallowed by the great fish. He's in the fish's belly. He's
taken down into the very bowels of the earth. And he feels it,
doesn't he? Oh, he feels it so keenly. The bars of the earth, he says,
are about me. The depths close me round about. The vessels, the weeds, rather,
were about my head. He seems to be encompassed all
around, there, shut up, shut in, in the whale's belly. How terrible his experience,
encompassed by the consequence of all his sinful disobedience
to the ways of the Lord. The guy in the psalmist cries
out elsewhere, iniquities prevail against me. All he feels are so prevalent
He cannot escape them. This burden of sin, but not only
the encompassing of sin, but ought to be seized. He's seized
by it, this psalmist. That's the language that we have
there in the 12th verse. Mine iniquities, he says, have
taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They've
taken hold of him. They've seized upon him. and
David certainly knew that how the faithful prophet, how Nathan
deals with him in the matter of his sin and his great sin
with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah her husband Nathan comes and addresses him
there in the 12th chapter of 2nd Samuel Oh David, thou art
the man. He's seized really. And he cries
out, doesn't he, in the agonies of Psalm 51, against thee the
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. He realizes
what he's done. He's not just sinned in his adultery
and sinned in his murder, It's not just a matter of what he's
done to Bathsheba and what he's done to Uriah, her husband. It's against God. Against thee
the only have I sinned. Who is seized by his sin, but
those who are thus seized by their sinnership are the very
ones who are then seized by the Lord Jesus Christ. because Christ
came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. The
whole they have no need of the physician but they the deceit.
These are the ones that Christ comes, those who feel themselves
to be so encompassed by sin, those who are seized
by their sins. What does the Apostle say there
in Philippians 3, I am apprehended by Christ Jesus. Or the Lord has seized hold of
him, you see. This man who was an arch-persecutor,
this man who was such a self-righteous pharisee, and yet the Lord lays hold upon
him. And that's really the The basic
meaning of that word, to apprehend, the verb means to lay hold of,
to seize a man. Thus the Eternal Council ran. Almighty God, arrest that man. Oh, he's seized hold of, he's
arrested. And arrested by God, by the God of love. Though he
was one who was seized by sin. Here is a man so burdened and
encompassed by his sins. His sins have taken such a hold
of him, he cannot deliver himself, he cannot free himself, he's
in the grip of these things. Only the Lord can overcome that
sin and seize him and save him. But he's a man who's also so
bowed down, the language that we have there in that twelfth
verse. He says, I am not able to look
up They are more than the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart
faileth." That's the language of this man that the Lord thinks
upon. He's not able to look up. It's
such a burden that is bearing him down, bowing him down to
the very ground. We think of the publican in Luke
18. When those two men go to the
temple, the hour of prayer, one, the self-righteous Pharisee,
thinks himself so much better than all others. Oh, why, he glories in his religion,
in his performance of his duties, giving tithes and whatso. And
the publicans standing afar off, we're told, he could not lift
up his eyes to heaven. So ashamed. So burdened, so bowed
down. he could not lift up his eyes
to heaven, he smote upon his breast and he said God be merciful
to me a sinner here is one then of those whom
the Lord thinks upon he is utterly overwhelmed by
the burden of his sin my heart faileth me, or as we said, the
margin says, my heart forsaketh me. Or his heart, you see. This is where the problem lies,
that poor publican is striking his breast, he's attacking his
own heart. There's the seat of all the evil
that is in him. Again, look at the language in
Psalm 38. Verse 10 he says, My heart panteth,
my strength faileth me. As for the light of mine eyes,
it also is gone from me. Again this is David, it's David's
Psalms of Remembrance. What is it? What makes him to
pant so? Why does his strength fail him? He says, My loins are filled
with a loathsome disease, there's no soundness in my flesh. I'm
feeble and so broken, I've roared by reason of the disquietness
of my heart. Oh, he feels himself to be such
a sinner, but he would be sorry for his sin. Oh, this poor man, and yet this
blessed man, he knows the burden of his sins. But the Lord delivers
him. Verse 2, He brought me up also
out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, set my feet upon
a rock and established my goings. Oh, the Lord God thinks upon
this man. And what do we see ultimately?
We see him as a man who believes. He believes in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that the language that
we have here in the fourth verse? Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud,
nor such as turn aside to lies. All his trust, all his faith,
all his confidence is placed in the Lord, and it's the covenant
name, isn't it? it's Jehovah, it's the great
I am that I am, this man has no self-righteousness, no creature
strength, why he hates the proud, he respects not the proud nor
such as turn aside to lies, he doesn't want to hear the language
of those who would in any way encourage him in the idea of
any strength himself. He cannot do anything himself.
He's so shut in to what he is. He feels his utter helplessness,
his inability. How can such a man as this do
anything towards his own salvation? God has dealt with him. God has
turned the man to destruction. He's brought to the end of himself.
The Lord has shut him in. He cannot come forth. Think of
the language of the Apostle there in Galatians. Galatians 3, it
says, before faith came we were kept under the law. Shut up!
To the faith which would afterward be revealed. He shut up to himself,
this man. All he can do is look to the
Lord. All he can do is wait. wait upon his guards. I waited
patiently for the Lord, he says, and he inclined onto me and heard
my cry. And now in the margin we see
that the Hebrew is literally in waiting, I waited. Brought
out, of course, in the authorised version by the expression, I
waited patiently. In waiting is waiting. Where
is duty-faith here? All this man can do is look to
the Lord. He knows that he cannot give
himself faith. If he has faith, it must come as a gift of God.
By grace are you saved through faith, not through yourself.
It's a gift of God. he cannot work up faith in his
own soul, this man that would be impossible he is all weakness
he must have that faith that comes by the operation of God he has to look to the Lord Jesus
Christ who alone is the author of faith and so we read of him
waiting and what is this waiting? No,
it's not passive waiting. It's not the idea of, well, you
do nothing. Just let go, let God. It's not
that sort of waiting. It's not waiting in unbelief,
really. It's waiting in faith. It's waiting in hope. It's a
man who has such desires towards God. And now he looks to the Lord
to come with some urgency to him. He says in verse 13, Be
pleased, O Lord, to deliver me, O Lord, make haste to help me. He's in earnest, this man. This
is the mark, you see, of the Christian man. He's in earnest
with God. His religion isn't just a weekly
thing in his life, just a question of worshipping God on his day. This is a man who is doing business
with the Lord all the days of his life, continually waiting
upon God. He says in verse 16, let such
as love thy salvation say, continually, the Lord be magnified. who he
wants the Lord to be magnified in all the experience of his
own soul. Oh, he's a poor, he's a needy
soul. But this is a great thing the
Lord does think upon this man. The Lord takes account of this
man. And the man recognizes that all his hope and all his help
must come from this God. How does the psalm end? Thou
art my help. and my deliverer, make no tarrying,
O my God." Do we have that sort of faith? That we're forever
crying to the Lord, calling upon the Lord. We know what it is,
it's a good fight. But it's a fight of faith. And
it's a continual warfare for the child of God. And yet this
is that man who is so blessed of his God. He maketh the Lord
his trust. He respecteth not the proud nor
those that turn aside to lies. And now here in the fifth verse
he acknowledges that all his hope is in that
blessed truth that God thinks upon him. Many, O Lord my God,
are thy wonderful works which thou hast done. and thy thoughts
which are to us, for they cannot be reckoned up in order unto
thee, if I would declare and speak of them. They are more
than can be numbered." Oh, friends, that the Lord might be that One
who clearly is thinking upon us and we give evidence of that.
Because we bear those marks, that mark of being burdened by
our sins. and yet believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, the Lord be pleased then
to bless to us his word. Amen.