Let us turn again to Psalm 142
and verses 6 and 7. Attend unto my cry, for I am
brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison,
that I may praise thy name. The righteous shall compass me
about, for thou shalt deal bountifully with me. Psalm 142 and verses
6 and 7. Attend unto my cry, for I am
brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are stronger than I. bring my soul out of prison that
I may praise thy name, the righteous shall compass me about, for thou
shalt deal bountifully with me. I want us to consider then this
prayer, a prayer for deliverance. And here we see quite clearly
in the three Psalms that we read, Psalms 100, and 41, 142 and 143,
that all of them are very much in the form of prayers. Psalms, of course, as we've said
many a time, is a book of praises, but it's also a book of prayers. And all of these Psalms, these
three Psalms, very much open with prayer. Lord, I cry unto
thee. Make haste unto me. Give ear
unto my voice when I cry unto thee. I cried unto the Lord with
my voice. With my voice unto the Lord did
I make my supplication. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give
ear to my supplications. In thy faithfulness answer me,
and in thy righteousness. And so clearly The 142nd Psalm
is set in the midst of the prayers that David was so often wont
to make as he was brought into situations where he must of necessity
cry unto his God and seek his face and desire the Lord's deliverances. And this 142nd psalm informs
us in the title, and we remember the importance of the titles
because they are in fact the opening verse of the psalm. If we go back to the original,
they're there in the Hebrew Bible as the first verse of each psalm.
And I believe that with some of the Continental Bibles that
is also the case. The Dutch Bible for example,
the opening verse would be what we have here as the title of
the psalm. So the titles carry all the authority
of the word of God. And the 142nd declares Masculine
of David, a prayer when he was in the cave. The Masculine is
simply a psalm to give instruction. That's what it means, giving
instruction. There's some instruction for
us then in the psalm and there's some instruction of course when
we take account of the title because it explains to us the
circumstances. A prayer. When he, that is David,
was in the cave. We read of those the faithful
of the Old Testament in that remarkable 11th chapter of the
Hebrew Epistle where the Apostle mentions several by nine but
then as we draw towards the end of that particular chapter he says the time would fail him to mention everyone
who was of faith in the Old Testament. What shall I more say, he says,
for the time would fail them. And amongst those who he doesn't
speak of in any detail we find David also and Samuel. and the prophets. And then we're
told something concerning the lives and the circumstances of
these characters. Verse 38, of whom the world was
not worthy. They wandered in deserts and
in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these, all having obtained
a good report through faith, received not the promise God
having provided some better thing for us that they without us should
not be made perfect. Or there was yet to be that fullness
of the gospel of the grace of God with the appearing in the
last days of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what of these characters?
They wandered in deserts, mountains, dens, and caves of the earth. And here in the psalm that we're
turning to tonight we have David, praying when he was in the cave. Now he was in the cave on various
occasions. In the first book of Samuel we
see him as one who repeatedly has to flee from Saul and his
rages, Saul's desire to destroy David. In the 24th chapter he
is there in the cave at Engidi, hiding in the sides of the cave
when Saul comes into that cave. But I think it more likely that
what is being spoken of here is that previous occasion in
chapter 22 of the first book of Samuel. When we see him there
in the cave at Adolphe, Oh yeah, there is initially alone, but
then there are those who come and join with him and make one
with him. David therefore departed, we're told, the beginning of
that 22nd chapter, David therefore departed thence and escaped to
the cave at Dunham. And when his brethren and all
his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him. and everyone that was in distress
and everyone that was in debt and everyone that was discontented
gathered themselves onto him and he became a captain over
them and there were with him about 400 men initially he's
there his own family come and join him then there's 400 men
with him and then later in course of time there are 600 There are
600 there who are the followers of David. And there then we have
him. And we have this record of how
David seeks the face of God in all his distress. I cried unto
the Lord, he says. And then in our text, what does
he pray? Attend unto my cry. Attend unto
my cry, for I am brought very low. deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison,
that I may praise thy name. The righteous shall compass me
about, for thou shalt deal bountifully with me. Well, as we come in
particular to this passage, I mentioned three things tonight, three headings. First of all, I want to say something
with regards to the cry of David. It's the cry of faith. that we
have here, the Cray of Faith. Secondly, I want to say something
with regards to the centrality of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
psalm. And then finally, remark on the
communion of saints. The righteous, he says, shall
compass me about, for thou shalt still bountifully with my soul. First then, the cry, the prayer
really. And what he's praying, it's crying
to God. I cried, he says. Attend unto
my cry. The prayer of David is so significant
because as we know, where does spiritual life begin? Does it
not begin with prayer? That's the first evidence that
there's anything, any work of the Spirit of God in the very
depths of our soul. What was the assurance that was
given to Ananias in Acts chapter 9 when he is directed by the
Lord to go to the street called Straits where he's going to find
a man, Saul of Tarsus. Ananias would have been aware
who this man was he was an arch persecutor of those who were
the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ and he'd come to Damascus for
that very purpose to lay hold upon Christian believers and
to take them to Jerusalem and to present them before the Jewish
authorities. He was filled with hatred towards
Christians, the Saul of Tarsus. But he'd been kicking against
the pricks, he was under real conviction of sin. The Lord had
begun to deal with that man and as he had arrived there at the
very gate of Damascus, Christ had consulted him, confronted
him, arrested him really. He was apprehended, he says,
apprehended of Christ Jesus and he's struck with blindness and
he has to be taken, led by the hand into the city and he goes
there to the street called Straight and Ananias is to go and restore
his sight because this man has now not only been wonderfully
saved but he has a commission from the Lord to preach the gospel
What would Ananias think when he received such a vision and
such a commandment to go to such a man as that? But how does the
Lord assure him that there is something real in that man's
soul? For those words that we have in Acts 9.11, Behold, he
prieth, he says. You'll go there and you'll find
that man in the attitude of prayer. Behold he prayeth. Now doubtless Saul was a man
who had said many prayers. Why? He was a Pharisee, he was
the son of the Pharisee. And he had observed all the stated
hours of prayer that the Jews would observe, morning, noon,
night. He'd said many prayers and yet
in a sense We have to see that that was the first time that
he had really prayed. And his praying is the evidence
of spiritual life. And the Lord Jesus speaks of
God's elect, his own elect, he says, which cry day and night
unto him. Here is a mark then of the election
of grace. What do the elect do? They cry. They cry to God all the time,
they can't help it, they keep on crying. And so, here we see that there
is spiritual life in David. He says in verse 2, I poured
out my complaint before him, I showed before him my trouble. Isn't that what prayer is? Pouring
out our complaints, telling God our troubles. or take with you words says the
prophet and turn to the Lord and say take away all iniquity
and receive us graciously what a word of encouragement to the
sinner to take words and yet so often words fail us but spiritual
life begins with prayer but it doesn't just begin with prayer
spiritual life continues with prayer It continues with prayer all
the time. Look at the words that we have
here in verse 5. I think of the beginning of that
verse and the end of that verse. He says, I cried unto thee, O
Lord, in the land of the living. I cried unto thee, O Lord, I
said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the
living. But you see, The fact that he
is crying unto God is the evidence that he is in the land of the
living. He's in the land of the living now. And he prays, this is the life
of God that has come into the soul of this man. Oh Lord, by
these things men live. And in all these things is the
life of my spirit. That's the language of that gracious
King Hezekiah there in Isaiah 38. all the troubles that have
come to him. This is life to his soul because
he has to bring all these matters and lay them all before the Lord. The hymn writer says prayer was
appointed to convey the blessed God desires to give or designs
to give. Long as they live should Christians
pray for only whilst they pray they live. Only as we pray are
we living. And here is David He might be
in trouble, he might be hiding there in the cave, fearful, but
he's in the land of the living, and how do we know he's in the
land of the living? Because he's a man who is forever calling
upon God, crying to God. And the exhortation is pray,
without ceasing. Oh, the Lord spoke that parable
to his disciples that men ought always to pray. They ought always
to pray, that was the purpose of his parable. and they are
not to fight, they are to continue persevering in prayer. But what
is it that moves a man to pray? We see these words, we have them
before us on the page of Holy Scripture, but it's not enough,
is it? Simply to have God's Word, and to read God's Word, or to
hear the preaching of God's Word. What is it that moves a man really
to pray? What's the cause of him praying?
Well, what does David say? Attend unto my cry, for I am
brought very low. He is crying unto God because
he's been brought into a very low place. Not just a low place,
he's been brought into a very low place here. And what is it? that so troubles him. Persecutions. Deliver me from
my persecutors, he says, for they are stronger than I. Bring
my soul out of prison. Why? He feels as if he's imprisoned.
He's not a free man. Oh, this is a prayer, of course,
when he was in the cave. And while he's in the cave, he's
fleeing. He's fleeing from Saul, who is
always persecuting him. And he's so afraid, he thinks
one day he's going to die. He says to his great friend Jonathan,
the son of Saul, there is but a step between me and death. Why, my life is continually in
my hands. and when he gets there as we
saw in that 22nd chapter of 1st Samuel he does seem to be alone
in the first place but by degrees by degrees there are those who
gather to him his family come then others join
with him but poor David how hard it was for him there in the cave. When he first arrives there,
I looked on my right hand, he says, and beheld, but there was
no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared
for my soul. That was his initial experience
when he first arrives in the lonely cave at Adalim. And his enemies, all so often
they were strong those who were persecuting him he felt they
were stronger than he who were they? well there was Saul Saul
was his persecutor in fact he flees from Saul and what does
he do then? he goes to the philistines and
he puts himself under Achish the lord of the philistines there
in that 21st chapter of the book of Samuel verse 10 follows and
these are really his enemies and they are so much stronger
than he who is David he is but a shepherd boy and these are
the great leaders of men the king of Israel the Lord of the
Philistines oh David is in dire circumstances. And yet all of this is the cause
of him praying. The Lord has to deal with his
people in such ways as to move them to pray. And the psalm,
of course, as I said, it's a masker, it gives instruction. Why are
these things written? They're written for our learning,
says Paul. That we, through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. There in Romans 15,
that we through patience, the word is literally endurance.
Endurance and comfort of the Scriptures. Well, David has to endure. all
this opposition how he is constantly having to plead with God that
there might be deliverance attend unto my cry for I am brought
very low deliver me from my persecutors for they are stronger than I
now if it's for us and it is for us whatsoever things were
written aforetime were written for our learning It's not just
the history of David, is it? It's a word of God, it's a word
of God to us, even as we come together tonight. And do we not
have enemies? Many enemies. Or that great adversary. Peter says, be sober, be vigilant. Or that adversary, the devil.
How he walks around as a roaring lion. seeking whom he may devour
and how subtle a foe that man is or that evil spirit is I should
say what a foe he is to us he's the tempter he's the accuser
but he's also the liar how he whispers his lies how he confuses
us he's such a a subtle clever foe and we're not to be ignorant
of the devices of the devil. Yes, he'll tempt, we'll fall.
And what will he do? He'll immediately accuse us when
we fall. He'll accuse our conscience.
We'll feel utterly ashamed. How can we come and make a genuine
confession to God when we fall so easily, so readily? He'll
shut our mouths. He'll stop us crying and calling
and confessing our sins. There's the devil. There's the
world. John says, love not the world.
neither the things that are in the world for all that is in
the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and
the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world and
the world passeth away and the lust thereof but how all the
world it's so attractive isn't it how the old nature loves it
and runs after it and desires it what if oh satan the world
indwelling sin Oh, there's that within us that the devil can
take advantage of so easily. The heart that's deceitful above
everything and so desperately wicked. Who can know it? We scarce know ourselves. But
the Lord God knows us. And He tries us. Oh, there are
so many things enter trouble. There are these enemies, persecutors. Deliver me. from my persecutors. There's that accursed unbelief
that seems so much to cling and cleave to our fallen nature. Is it not the sin which doth
so easily beset us? We're full of unbelief, while
I am. Oh, unbelief so natural to call everything into question.
How can we pray without faith? It's impossible. that's what
it says it's impossible to please God
without faith he that comes to God must believe that he is and
that he is a rewarder of all that diligently seek him and
how these things they seem so strong to us can we not take
up David's plea then deliver me from my persecutors as stronger
than I am we have to tell the Lord we can't we have to pray bring my soul out of prison he
says he shut up or doesn't the Apostle say there in Galatians
3 before faith came we shut up and shut up to what we are in
our fallen nature we are unbelievers he shutteth up a man says Job
and there can be no opening or when the Lord brings us to understand
something of what we are in and of ourselves apart from the grace
of God what a place, what a low spot
attend unto my cry for I am brought very low oh the Lord does do
that doesn't he but he is doing it for a purpose to make us understand
something of what it means to live the life of faith It's the
land of the living, strangely. I cried unto thee, O Lord, in
the land of the living. In the land of the living. David's cry, it's a cry of faith. And it's a cry of faith in the
very face of all those enemies of the soul. But there's not
just David here in this psalm. There's not just David in this
psalm. We must turn truly to the Lord Jesus Christ, the centrality
of Christ. He says to the Jews, search the
scriptures, in them you think that you have eternal life, these
are they that testify of me. Or do we come to God's word with
that spirit we want to find Christ, we want to see Christ, we want
to hear His voice. Well this psalm is messianic,
because this Psalm directs us to the Lord Jesus Christ. David
says in verse 4, I looked on my right hand and beheld, but
there was no man that would know me, refuge found me, no man cared
for my soul. Now, what does the Ethiopian
ask Philip as he's reading there in Isaiah 53? Is this man speaking of himself
or some other? And we might ask the same question
here with regards to what David is saying in verse 4. Is David
just speaking of himself? Is David speaking of himself
or is he really speaking of some other? Truly it's Christ. What happens to the Lord when
His hour has come and is to be received up and they come to
the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest him. Now I know they could not
lay a finger upon him. He declared his deity, he said,
I am and they fell backward. They couldn't take him. They
could only take him as he willingly and voluntarily committed himself
into their hands in his sufferings. He is all the time making a voluntary
sacrifice. But what happened when they came
there into the Garden of Gethsemane? Well, we are told that they all
forsook Him and fled. They all forsook Him and fled. This is Christ. I looked on my right hand and
beheld but there was no man that would Refuge failed me, no man
cared for my soul. Oh, but it's more than that,
isn't it? Because when he comes to the
cross, he's altogether bereft. He makes that awful cry of dereliction. Why dost thou, forsaken man, or when my spirit was overwhelmed
within me here in verse 3 when my spirit was overwhelmed within
me then thou knewest my soul or knewest my path when my spirit was overwhelmed
and does it not remind us of the Lord Jesus Christ even in
that awful cry of dereliction because Although he speaks of
being forsaken, why hast thou forsaken me? How does he address
God? He uses the language of appropriation,
doesn't he? He doesn't just say God, he says
my God. My God. Why hast thou forsaken
me? It's the mystery of the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ because although he is forsaken because
he is being made a great sacrifice for sin, he is making the great
sin offering he is suffering now in his own person all the
wrath of God against all the sins of his people and yet surely
he can never be altogether cut off from God because he is God
and He is one with the Father and one with the Holy Spirit.
When my spirit was overwhelmed with Him, then Thou knewest my
path." Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ is here, and He's in every part
of this psalm. Where does David pray? When he
was in the cave. And it's the cave of Dolom. And
the very word of Dullam literally means a resting place. David
prays in that resting place. And it's there in the Lord Jesus
Christ that the believer finds all his rest. What is the gracious
invitation of the gospel? Come unto me all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you,
learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall
find rest for your souls. Isn't this where David is resting,
even as he flees to such a place as the cave, Adonai? Oh, to him
it is that place of rest. It's there that he can pour out
his soul unto his God in his prayer, as we see throughout
this 142nd Psalm. He comes unto the Lord Jesus
Christ and He rests in the Lord Jesus Christ. And who are those
who come and make one with Him there? Well, we are told something
of the character of His men, the sort of men that they were. and you know the language we
read it there in that 22nd chapter of 1st Samuel everyone that was
in distress and everyone that was in debt and everyone that
was discontented gathered themselves onto him and he became a captain
over them and there were with him about 400 men all they were
in debt they were discontented, they were bitter of soul it says
in the margin, the literal Hebrew means that bitterness of soul
and David gathers all these around
him and he becomes their captain all those you see who are troubled
and distressed and convicted and burdened and bitter in soul
Is it not a wonderful picture of the gospel and those that
the Lord Jesus Christ himself is pleased to receive? For they that are whole have
no need of a physician but they that are sick. Christ says I
came not to call the righteous but sinners. He came to call
sinners. Sinners are high in his esteem
and sinners highly value Him, even the worst of sinners, the
faithful saying that is worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the
chief says the Apostle. The Lord Jesus will save the
chief of sinners. And I know many say, and I've
heard it from gracious men, several of them say, you know, I don't
always agree with what Paul says He reckons he was the chief of
sinners, but I think I'm the chief of sinners rather than
Paul. Be that so, the Lord will receive whoever the chief of
sinners might be, because he receives sinners and he eats
with sinners. Sinners black as hell may hear
for hope of ground for who of mercy need despair when I have
mercy found," says Joseph Hart. Oh, if we can find mercy, can
we not say to every sinner there's mercy? There's mercy for the
sinner in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the great deliverer from
sin, from the curse of sin, from the condemnation of that holy
law of God. Bring my soul out of prison,
says David, that I may praise thy name. Oh, it is the Lord
who delivers from the prison house. Why? The Lord has found
a ransom, and who has provided that ransom? The Lord Jesus Christ
himself. He has redeemed us. From the
curse of the law, Paul says, being made a curse for us. For
it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He has
borne the curse of a broken law. In the sinner's place, he never
broke the law. He honoured the law, he magnified
the law. He obeyed every commandment.
He never sinned, he was holy, he was harmless, he was on defile,
separate from sinners. Yet he dies a great substitutionary
death, and by that he delivers the sinner. Bring my soul out
of prison. Oh, here is one who can deliver
from that awful prison cell. Christ has paid the redemption
price. He has satisfied all the demands
of God's holy law. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death withholdeth
sin. The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God. O He giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Attend unto my cry, says David. Bring my soul out of prison. And we, I say, must recognize
there's something of Christ here in the midst of this psalm it's
not just David, it's the Lord who is the great deliverer of
his people, of David and all who cry and call upon his name
and then finally do we not have the communion
of saints the righteous shall compass me about for thou shalt
deal bountifully with me. Oh, David feels so alone. The sparrow alone on her housetop,
I looked on my right hand and beheld, but there was no man
that would know me. Refuge found me, no man cared
for my soul. But it wasn't always like that.
There in the cave at Adullam, the place of his prayer, as we
said his family come to him there in the opening verse of
that 22nd chapter in 1st Samuel his family come and then 400
men are there in the second verse and as I said later in chapter
23 there are about 600 it's a company that's growing and they're all
with David What does the Lord do? God set us to solitary in
families. Oh, He comes and He has very
personal dealings with us. We know that. He deals with us
individually. Real religion is a very personal
thing. But what does the Lord do when
He saves His people? He brings them into the fellowship
of the saints. He sets us solitary in families. After we read through that great
11th chapter of Hebrews and we come into chapter 12, how does
it begin? Wherefore seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. That's
the communion of saints. We of course want communion with
God's living saints, the saints who are living here and now,
but we can also have communion with those saints who have gone
before. Do we not find that at times we read something of their
writings? Something of the sermons of those
of old, maybe? Or some doctrinal treatise that
they've written and it so speaks to us. And we feel such a love
for these men. These women also, who have gone
before, we feel a union with them. Though they're no longer
with us here upon the earth and when we read something of their
experiences in biographies we can relate to what they're saying.
There is such a thing as the communion of saints. It is not
part of the apostles' creed. I believe in the communion of
saints. That was the ancient creed of the early church. So great a cloud of witnesses. For those that we referred to
earlier, that are spoken of there in that 11th chapter of the Hebrew
Epistle. Others, he says, had trial of
cruel mockings and scourging, shame all over, bonds and imprisonment,
They were stolen, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain
with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins
and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom
the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts, in
mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And yet, these
are the signs of God. And what troubles I know, though
so often when we come to consider something of their experience
our experiences seem so insignificant what a privilege if we can in
any measure relate to these who are the blessed people of God
those who have gone before but of course the Lord when he sets
the solitary in families sits them in the midst of living families
not just those who have now left this sad scene and entered into
the bliss of heaven. It's those who are living now.
And this is why we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves
together. What folly it is! And how Paul
is so definite there when he gives that exhortation in the
Hebrew epistle again. he says, as the manner of some
is not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is, some might do that but rather we are to
be those exhorting one another and so much the more as we see
the day approaching how we stand in need of one another and David recognizes that and he
calls He calls it a great bounty. The
righteous shall compass me about, for thou shalt deal bountifully
with me. When the Lord deals bountifully
with His people, He sets them in the midst of families. There are those who are like-minded.
This was the pattern, wasn't it, in the early church, how
they had all things in common. How they were often together. And of course, above all, there
is that fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Well, that's
the wonder of it. In all their affliction, we're
told, He was afflicted. This is why the Lord is here
in the Psalms. How the Lord Himself would cry
unto His God, how He lived the life of faith, how He knew what
sore temptations were, He felt the same. We overcame Satan,
but he knew what it was to be sorely tempted, touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, we are told, in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. Oh, therefore, what are we to
do? We are to come boldly, boldly to that throne of grace that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
What is it to come boldly to the throne of grace? Well, it's
to do what David did. I cried unto the Lord with my
voice. With my voice unto the Lord did
I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before
Him. I showed before Him my trouble.
Attend unto my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me
from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. bring my
soul out of prison that I may praise thy name the righteous
shall compass me about for thou shalt deal bountifully with me
or doesn't David make his prayer in faith he knows that God is
a bountiful God a good God a prayer hearing and a prayer answering
God well the Lord grant to us Such a faith as we see in David. Amen.