Let us turn again to God's Word
in the psalm that we read, Psalm 40, and directing you for a while
to the first two verses of the psalm, Psalm 40, verses 1 and
2. I waited patiently for the Lord,
and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up
also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set
my feet upon a rock. and establish my goings. I want to address the subject matter
of the waiting of faith. That's the message that I want
to, with the Lord's help, concentrate on for a while as we look at
these two verses. The waiting of faith. You may observe, if you have
a margin, that the opening clause we're told in the Hebrew literally
reads in waiting I waited in waiting I waited for the Lord
and he inclined unto me and heard my cry he brought me up also
out of an horrible pit and out of the miry clay and set my feet
upon a rock and established my goings I was struck recently
in reading the writings of a Lutheran theologian a man called Walther
Karl Walther and he spoke of the importance of what he refers
to as pericopes in the word of God and what he means by that
is those particular verses or truths that are so significant
and important and he reckoned it was important that such truths
should be dwelt upon in the course of ministry the book I was reading
really consisted of a series of addresses that he gave at
a theological college in North America to ministerial students
and he speaks there of the importance of these pericopes, these great
verses of Holy Scripture and surely what we have here in these
two verses could be said to be significant verses. There are
certain portions of Holy Scripture that I'm sure strike us very
forcibly as we read through the Word of God and certainly such
as we have here in these opening verses of this psalm. So I want
us, as I said, to consider tonight something of this waiting, the
waiting of faith What lies behind the weighting
that is being spoken of and so emphasized in the opening words
of this particular psalm? Is it not a sense, we might rather
say, is it not the burden of a man's sin? We've said before
how that sin itself is of course of the creature. God is not the
author of sin. sin is of the creature but the
sense of sin when it comes into the person's soul when he's troubled
in his conscience that sense of sin is something that is very
much of God and surely here David is so conscious of that the reality
of his sin and what that sin brought him into and the place
from whence he desires that the Lord God would yet deliver him.
He inclined unto me, he says, and heard my cry. He brought
me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and
set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And when
we read through the Psalms, we see how This sense of his sin
is so real in David's experience. Verse 12, innumerable evils,
he says, encompass me about. My 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. Striking are those words in that
particular verse. He feels himself as one who is
so encompassed with sins. Isn't that what he is saying
there in the opening words? Innumerable evils, he says, have
encompassed me about. They've surrounded me. They're
on every side. I cannot escape them. And we
can think also of Jonah's experience when the Lord began to deal with
that man. How he was one who had been disobedient, rebellious. He was in a sad backslidden state
when he was pursued by the Lord and then being cast overboard,
remember, swallowed by the great fish. and then as he goes into
the depths of the sea he cries out in his prayer the waters
compassed me about even to the soul the depth closed me round
about the waters were wrapped about my head how doubtless in
that situation were the prophets the disobedient prophets becoming
so much aware of his sins they were encompassing him on every
side how his His head, as it were, was wrapped about by this
sense of his sad disobedience, his awful condition before a
holy God. And this is what David speaks
of there in the opening words of the 12th verse, but then he
goes on to speak of how these sins have seized him. By iniquities, he says, have
taken hold upon me. He's in the grip of them. They're
not just surrounding him on every hand, but they've now taken hold
of his very mind, his being. And how we know that David was
dealt with so faithfully by the Prophet Nathan when he sinned
so grievously. and the prophet comes with those
words in 2nd Samuel 12 and says to the king thou art the man
thou art the man David oh how sin then was abounding and that's
the case here my iniquities he says have taken hold upon me
but where where sin abounds oh thank God grace does so much
more about And that is the case when the sinner discovers that
he has been arrested now by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that was
Paul, wasn't it? When he says concerning himself
there in Philippians chapter 3, I am apprehended of Christ
Jesus. All his iniquities had taken
hold of that man Saul of Tarsus when he was brought under conviction.
But then he realizes that it is one Even Jesus of Nazareth
who was really apprehended him. And the word that he uses in
that verse, Philippians 3.12, literally means to lay hold of,
to seize. It's the same then really as
we have here in the Old Testament. My iniquities have taken hold
upon them. The Lord took hold of him, brought
conviction to him. But that was just part of his
experience. not only does he have a sense of his sinnership,
but he is brought to experience the great blessing of that salvation
by the sovereign grace of God. The Lord meets with him there
at the very gate of Damascus. Saul saw why persecutors they
were. And he said, who are thou Lord?
And the Lord says, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is
hard for thee to kick against the bricks. He was arrested.
Thus the eternal covenant ran. Almighty love, arrest that man.
He was arrested by the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, he'd been seized
by his sins. But it was all to that end that
he might come to know the great salvation. but see how the language
here in this twelfth verse is so graphic because he continues my iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up or we cannot even
lift up his eyes to heaven David as he speaks there in the twelfth
verse it reminds us again of what the Lord Jesus said concerning
the publican who goes to the temple together with the proud
Pharisee at the hour of prayer and what do we read concerning
that publican? we read of him standing afar
off he could not lift up his eyes even unto heaven but smote
upon his breast and said God be merciful to me a sinner. Oh, I'm not able to look up.
He felt so much his unworthiness. How could he look up to heaven? How could he approach to a holy
God? Such a sense of his unworthiness,
a sense of his guilt, only deserving really the wrath of God. He smites
upon his breast. He feels sin there in the very
depths of his being. He strikes at his own heart as
it were. and cries out God be merciful to me a sinner you probably
are aware that actually the definite article is used there and he
says God be merciful to me the sinner the sinner he found himself
to be the greatest of all sinners the chief of sinners as Paul
also says of himself here is David then and he feels very
much the burden of his sin he's overwhelmed He's overwhelmed
there at the end of that verse he speaks of being so bowed down
and so overwhelmed. My heart, he says, faileth me. It's interesting, again, I do
find at times it's so instructive to just cast one's eye upon the
alternative reading that appears in the margin of many of our
Bibles. And we're told here, at the end of verse 12, that
the Hebrew is literally my heart forsaketh me my heart forsaketh
me it's a very pregnant statement he has no heart at all and though
we see it again in the language of Psalm 38 verse 10 my heart panteth my
strength paleth me As for the light of mine eyes, it also is
gone from me." All the depths of this man's experience, David. What a man. The man after God's
own heart, of course, and yet his heart failing him. No wonder
he speaks of a horrible pit and miry clay. This is where he finds
himself now to be. Such a dreadful place. Again,
I thought of the language that we have there at the beginning
of Isaiah 51 where God through the Prophet says to Israel look
unto the rock when she are hewn and to the hole of the rock or
the hole of the pit when she are digged such a sense of their
base origin is not just a matter of sins Actual sins, personal
sins. It's a matter of a nature that
is so sinful, because we're the very offspring of Adam. Adam sinned, we sinned in him,
we have partaken of a fallen nature from him. How that sin
has come down the generations. The horrible pits, the miry clay. Again, look at the language that
we have in another of the Psalms, Psalm 69. Verse 14, deliver me
out of the mire, and let me not sink. Let me be delivered from
them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the
water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and
let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. And then he says, Hear
me, O Lord, for thy lovingkindness is good. Oh, there's nothing
in South, but there's all that lovingkindness, all that covenant
faithfulness. that resides in the Lord God
himself. His only hope is there. It is
God who must deliver him then, bring him up out of the horrible
pit and out of the miry clay. But now, this waiting that we
read of at the beginning of the verse, what is the cause of him
addressing God in this fashion? Because he feels what he is. He feels what he is. And all
this burden is the cause, then, of him waiting upon God. I waited
patiently for the Lord. In waiting, I waited. And He
inclined unto me and heard my cry. And so, secondly, consider
how this is really waiting in faith. There's faith in this
man in spite of all that he says against himself. All that he
says here with regards to the situation, he fills himself in,
and there's no deliverance, he can't clamber out of the pit,
it's full of clay. Every time he seeks to deliver
himself, he only slips deeper into the mire. All sin is such
a dreadful reality to him. And so he must look to God, he
must wait upon the Lord. But what of his waiting? What
of this waiting? We're not to think that this
is something passive. That it's just a matter of let
go and let God. It's not that at all. There's
no inactivity here. No, there's crying, isn't there?
Here is this poor man, he's in a pit. And he wants to be delivered,
he cries out. He wants somebody to hear him.
He inclined onto me, he says. and heard my cry." Oh, there
was much activity in the soul of this man. As David is penning the words
of this psalm, let us be clear with regards to what divine inspiration
is. We don't believe, I trust we
don't just imagine for a moment that the Lord God simply dictated
the words to David and David wrote down the words and so what
he was writing was really the the word of God he was simply
an amanuensis he was taking it down as it was being dictated
to him that's not inspiration no the Lord God deals with his
people in a mysterious way and so inspired by the Spirit that
they are brought to right out of the depth of their own experience.
This is David in the Psalms. He's giving vent to what he feels
in the very depth of his soul. There's much soul exercise behind
the words that we have, not only in this Psalm, but throughout
the Psalms, throughout the whole of Scripture. There's a waiting then here,
not in unbelief, But there's a waiting on the part of David
that is full of hope and expectation. He's looking, he's watching that
the Lord will yet appear. And isn't that how we have to
come? Time and again we feel our own utter inability maybe. We just feel what we are. Sin
is so bound into our nature. What the hymn writer says, I
think some of the hymns, I'm sure you're aware of that in
Gadsby's, are not altogether suitable for public worship.
But as I said on previous occasions, it's a good book to read in our
devotions. And to use some of those hymns,
and to make them our prayers as it were. Think of the language
that we have there in the Hymn 875, Jesus, to thee I make my
moan, my doleful tale I tell to thee, for thou canst help,
and thou alone a lifeless lump of sin, like me. What language? A lifeless lump of sin. That's what we feel to be. What
can that person do? Wait upon the Lord. In waiting,
I waited. Oh, only the Lord, only the Lord
could help him. And then verse 4, blessed is
that man. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust,
and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. The Lord is all his trust, his
only trust. The proud, that's those who can
trust in themselves, those who might speak of creature strength,
and maybe we've had dealings with people like that in the
past when we've been in some trouble and they've been ready
to tell us what we should do and we thought well we can't
do anything and those who speak lies I think of the teaching
of some they like to speak of man's duties or they like to
speak in terms of the duty to believe, the duty to repent and
all this sort of thing and here is a poor sinner and he's been
tormented by such lies as that surely what can he do? and these come and they say their
words and they're simply striking this poor dying man more and
more dead he's dead enough in himself he's the blessed man
that maketh the Lord his trust and respecteth not the proud
nor such as turn aside to lies how does God justify his people. Or we believe in that great truth,
don't we, that was rediscovered by Luther at the time of the
Reformation, not so much discovered by him, but revealed to him.
Or the Lord dealt with that man in such a way that he came to
see that great cardinal doctrine. He said it's the truth by which
a church stands or falls, the doctrine of justification by
faith. And how Paul speaks of it, he
speaks of it of course in so many passages in the New Testament,
in his epistles, that they're in Romans 4. He says, "...to
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies
the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness." "...to him
that worketh not." He's not of works. He's not of any man's
doing. but it's believing on him that
justifies the ungodly and his faith is counted for righteousness
and that faith of course is not a work or doesn't contradict
himself it's him that worketh not what is that faith? well
what Paul is speaking of there as he makes clear at the end
of Romans chapter 4 is the object of that faith the blessed object
of faith And the object of faith is the promise of God, as we
see there at the end of that chapter. That promise that centered,
of course, initially in the son that was to be born, Isaac. But
Isaac, really a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's Christ
who is the true seed of Abraham. And it is Christ who is the object
of faith. I waited patiently for the Lord,
In waiting I waited. What is it that he's waiting
for in faith? Well this psalm is a messianic psalm. This psalm
40 speaks to us principally of the person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that. Look at the
words that we have here at verse 6. 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 Lord is within
my heart. And we know, and we know on the
authority of what we read in Hebrews chapter 10 at verse 5
following, that these verses are speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ. David is not so much speaking
of himself or his own experiences, it is a prophetic psalm. It's
messianic, it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and His work. That greatest of all the works
of God. Verse 5, Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works
which thou hast done. And what is the greatest of those
works? Well, is it not to be observed
in the Lord Jesus Christ and the work that He came to accomplish? We read here at verse 8 following
of righteousness. I delight to do thy will, O my
God, yea, thy law is within my heart I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Though 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." What did the Lord
Jesus Christ come to do? He came and He preached and He
preached the Gospel and that gospel is such a wondrous revelation
of the righteousness of God and the righteousness of God strangely
in the light of the wrath of God because in Christ we see
the harmonizing of all God's attributes in Christ God is just
and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus mercy and
truth meet together righteousness and peace kiss each other there
in the cross we see that God is a just God who can by no means
clear the guilty but must punish the sinner as it were but we
see the great love of God and the mercy of God and the grace
of God because we see one dying in the sinner's room and in the
sinner's stead or the Lord Jesus Christ is that one, he has lived
and he has died, that is the work that he came to do Now,
in the preaching and the declaring of righteousness to the great
congregation, what does the Lord do? He's so different to the
scribes and Pharisees. They say and do not, but He lives
the life. Oh, the Lord is well pleased
for His righteousness sake. He has honoured and magnified
the Lord of God. by the obedience of his sinless
life, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. And yet,
then, that holy, righteous and just one dies as a substitute. You see, the words that we have
in verse 12, and this is the amazing thing in the Messianic
Psalms. These words are what I sought
to Expound briefly just now, innumerable evils have compassed
me about. Mine iniquity have taken hold
upon me, so that I am not able to look up. Thou more than the
hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. Those words
belong primarily to Christ, in his sufferings upon the cross.
How real they were! How real they were! because all the sins of his people
were reckoned to his account, imputed to him. All he is that
one who has come and suffered as the substitute. God hath made
him to be seen for us, says the apostle, who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. What a blessed truth is that!
We read of God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, condemning sin in the flesh. This is the one, you see, who
is the object of David's waiting faith. Well, David longed, longed
for the appearance of the blessed Saviour, his own seed, Because
Christ is the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed
of David. I waited patiently for the Lord,
says David. And he does not wait in vain. What does he say at the end of
the verse, the second verse? He brought me up also out of
an horrible pit, out of the mighty clay, and set my feet upon a
rock, and established my goings set my feet upon the rock Christ
is the rock Christ is the rock of salvation his work is perfect
you read through that song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 and see
how many times he speaks of the rock and he's speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ as I've said many a time We have so much of
Christ, of course, in the Old Testament, even in the writings
of Moses. We know the law was given by
Moses, but surely we recognize that a book like Leviticus is
full of gospel. And there, in his song, Deuteronomy
32, Moses speaks of Christ as the rock. And this is the rock
upon which David is set and settled. Now what does he say here as
he waits? In waiting, I waited. Well he speaks about God heard.
God heard his cry. Oh he didn't in any way wait in vain did he? He inclined unto
me and heard my cry he says. and then he goes on in verse
5 doesn't he? not only speaking of God's wonderful
works but he says and thy thoughts which are to us wards they cannot
be reckoned up in order unto thee I would declare and speak
of them they are more than can be numbered God's thoughts God's
thoughts what are God's thoughts towards his people? well their
personal thoughts I am poor and needy says here
at verse 17 yet the Lord thinketh upon me or the Lord thinks of
his people their names of course are written in heaven their names
are written in the Lamb's book of life and so the Lord has known
them from all eternity you see why Paul can say there in that
great chapter Romans 8 that all things work together for them
that love God them who are the called according to his purpose
for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son and whom he did predestinate them he also
called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he
justified them he also glorified the golden chain from eternity
to eternity he foreknew them why he set his sovereign love
upon them from all eternity and ultimately they must be with
him in glory. They're personal thoughts. The
Lord knoweth them that are his. And they're preeminent thoughts. To us the idea is really incomprehensible. How can we begin to explain God's
thoughts? Does he not tell us My thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. 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,
so preeminent. We have such low views of God
sometimes, or that we could have greater thoughts. concerning
the greatness of God, you know, is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think. But when we pray, do we really
believe that? He's able to do exceeding abundantly,
it says. It's typical Pauline language,
isn't it? Piling the words together. You
can't really fathom that. Nothing's impossible with it.
And he does think of us personally, knows us individually personal
thoughts, preeminent thoughts and purposeful or there's a purpose
in all that the Lord does I know the thoughts that I think towards
you, he says thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an
expected end in the midst of all our troubles there's an expected
end the Lord doesn't make mistakes, he's too wise too wise to be
mistaken and he's too good to be unkind and this is the God
that we come to wait on when we pray the God who hears, who
answers, who knows of course he knows before ever we ask we're
not informing him of matters that he's ignorant of but how
he will have his people come in faith all without faith it's
impossible to please him and so were to wait upon him in faith.
I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard
my cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock, and established my goings. Oh, that the Lord then would
appear for us, personally, individually, for us as a local church, for
every local church, God will do his work. But we have that
great privilege of coming to seek his face. He will be inquired
of us. He will do it for us. But we're
to wait. In waiting, I waited for the
Lord. Let the Lord be pleased to help
us tonight to come and to seek his face with that confidence.
Now before we come again in prayer, let us sing the hymn 387 and
the tune is a bends 275 how sweet to wait upon the Lord
while he fulfills his gracious words to seek his face and not
in vain to be beloved and love again 387 tune 275