Let us turn again to God's Word
in the psalm that we read, Psalm 17. Psalm 17 and the opening
verse of the psalm. Hear the right, O Lord, attend
unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of
faint lips. Psalm 17, verse 1. Hear the right,
O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth
not out of found lips." And the theme, the subject that I want
to attempt to address from these words is that of the seeker's
sincerity and righteousness. It's a prayer of David according
to the title of the psalm. And here then we see something
of the seeker's the sincerity and his righteousness. Here,
the right. Who can pray in such a fashion
as this? As I say, it's a prayer of David. But surely in the fullest sense,
it is the Lord Jesus Christ that we see here. Because Christ only
could utter such a petition asking that God would hear the rightful
or the righteous one. David was a sinner. He was a sinner saved by the
grace of God. But he did sin. He was not always
what he should have been. He was not that righteous man.
Only the Lord Jesus Christ then could utter such words as we
find at the beginning of this psalm. We also read there in
the 24th psalm concerning the man who ascends into the hill
of God who is able to stand in his holy presence. David said
it is that one that hath a clean house and a pure heart and hath
not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully and clearly
there in the 21st Psalm. It is very much messianic. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who
is said before us. Think of the closing verses.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, be ye lift up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King
of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the
Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. Selah. Oh, that King of glory is God's
eternal Son, whom He hath set upon His holy hill of Zion. who has accomplished all the
goodwill and pleasure of his father and so when we come to
the words of our text this morning here at the beginning of the
17th Psalm surely here we are to recognize that it is the Lord
who is being spoken of hear the rites O Lord attend unto my cry
give ear unto my prayer that goeth not out of fine lips but
as Primarily we see Christ as that righteous one. Here also
we are reminded of those who would come to God through him,
by his mediation. He is the mediator, he is the
advocate, he is the intercessor. One God, says Paul, and one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And what an entrance
sinners enjoy through Him, in whom we have boldness, says Paul,
and access with confidence by the faith of Him, or through
Him we have access by one's spirit unto the Father. And so, to consider
something of the seeker's sincerity and righteousness. First of all,
to consider it in terms of the Saviour Himself, that He were
the prayer of the Saviour, the Righteous One, and then secondly
to think of the prayer of the seeker who would come by Christ. Here then we have a prayer, a
prayer of David. David himself is atypical person. He is a type of the Lord Jesus. Remember the importance of the
name that he bears. He is called David, and that
means the Beloved. And surely that title, the Beloved,
is one that belongs to Christ Himself. The Church addresses
him as the Beloved in that remarkable book, The Song of Solomon, and
there, in the words that we find at the beginning of chapter 6,
Where is thy Beloved gone? O thou fairest among women? is
the question that's put to the Church. Where is thy Beloved
turned aside, that we may seek him with thee? And the answer
of the church, my beloved, is gone down into his garden, to
the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies.
I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. He feedeth among the
lilies. So the church constantly gives
him this name. She calls him the beloved. She
calls him her David, the beloved one. And it's not only the church,
of course. We remember how God himself also
calls Christ by this same name. We have that prophecy in Isaiah
42 concerning the Lord's elect servant. Behold my servant whom
I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put
my spirit upon him. And when that Prophecy is referred
to in the Gospel in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 18. It's interesting
to see that it is rendered somewhat differently in the Gospel to
as we find it in Isaiah. There in Matthew 12, 18 we read,
Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, my beloved
in whom my soul is well pleased. I have put my spirit upon him. how the Father does in the Gospel
constantly acknowledge Christ as that One who is the Beloved. Why? When the Lord begins His
public ministry, when He's baptized of John in the river Jordan,
coming up out of those waters of baptism, as the heaven opens
and the Spirit descends in the form of a dove, so the Father
speaks those words, This is my Beloved Son. in whom I am well
pleased." And then again later, when we see Christ in the mount,
at the transfiguration, and those favoured three, Peter, James,
and John there with Christ, and they are favoured to see something
of his glory, they see through the veil of his humiliation,
the veil of his human nature, they see the glory that belongs
to him as that one who is divine, who is truly God, the eternal
Son of God. And again how the Father acknowledges
him and calls him the Beloved. This is my Beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased, He says. Hear ye Him. Here then we can
establish the fact that this psalm, the prayer of David, is
really speaking to us in many ways of David's greatest son. He's speaking to us of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And how we see that name given
to him, quite specifically in Ezekiel chapter 34. That chapter in which the Lord
God, through his servant, the prophet, is rebuking the shepherds
of Israel. those who should have had the
care of God's ancient covenant people, those who were the princes,
the kings in Israel and the priests and the prophets. But there were
many wicked kings, there were many false prophets, and there
were also many wicked priests. And what does God do as He rebukes
those, as He reproves the wicked shepherds who did not do what
they ought to be doing? He gives promise of raising up
one to be a true shepherd to His people. I will set up one
shepherd over them, He says in verse 23, and He shall feed them. Even My servant David He shall
feed them, and He shall be their shepherd, and I, the Lord, will
be their God, and My servant David, a prince among them. I,
the Lord, have spoken it, and I will make with them a covenant
of peace, and so forth. Well, who is this one who comes?
Who is the mediator of that covenant? Who is the good shepherd who
giveth his life for the sheep? The reference is clearly to the
Lord Jesus Christ, who comes, of course, as a fulfillment of
those offices. He is king. He is priest. He is prophet. And here we see
him spoken of in terms of David. Many, many years after the life
and death of David, we have this promise that God will raise him
up, his servant David, the beloved. That is, Christ who is David's
greater son. And so, the prayer that we have
in this verse, can we not say this is a prayer of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Hear the rites, O LORD, attend
unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of
feigned lips. Christ is that One who does right. Christ is that One who is the
Righteous One. Why, this is His name where by
He shall be called, says Jeremiah, the Lord our Righteousness. And when He is conceived in the womb of the
Virgin Mary when the Messiah comes the Holy Ghost says to
that favoured woman the Holy Ghost shall come upon them the
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy
thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God
that holy thing that was conceived in her womb by the Holy Ghost,
that human nature was without any taint of sin. By that miracle
of the virgin birth, that human nature was preserved from Adam's
original sin. He was holy and righteous in
his human birth, and so also, of course, in his life. He was without any actual sins. Oh, when the fullness of the
time has come, God sends forth His Son. He's made of a woman.
He's the seed of the woman. But He's also made under the
law. He is subject to the law of God. And how He does the law of God. Why, His very meat was to do
the will of Him that sent Him. And to finish His work. He must
be about His Father's business. all his life long he was one
who submitted himself to that law that he was born under and
we are told in Isaiah 42, 21 how the Lord is well pleased
for his righteousness sake why he will magnify the law and make
it honourable how he has honoured the law how he has obeyed it
perfectly, wholly, harmless, undefiled separate from sinners,
made higher than the heavens. Again, how does God speak of
Him in prophecy? The language that we have there
in Isaiah 53, the suffering servants, but He's also there at verse
11 called, My righteous servant. My righteous servant. He can say here, the rights. because he is that one who is
righteous, who has never sinned in thoughts, in words, or in
deeds. The only man that has lived a
life here upon the earth without any sin at all. Although Adam
and Eve, they were created sinless of course, made in the image,
created after the likeness of God, but both Adam and Eve sinned,
they transgressed. and all descended from them by
natural generation, partakers of their fallen nature, we've
all sinned. We've all fallen short of the
glory of God. Ah, but this one, the Lord Jesus
Christ, He never sinned. There was no original sin. And
there were no actual sins. And as He does right, so He also
speaks truth. He speaks of that prayer, that
goeth not out of feigned lips. That goeth not out of feigned
lips. Or as Imogen says, without lips
of deceit. Why, in another psalm, Psalm
45, we're told, grace is poured into thy lips. All the law was
given by Moses. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. As grace was poured into his
lips, so the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who spoke nothing
but truth. All his words, all that he ever
said was truth. Remember how we see him there,
the glorified Christ spoken of in the last book, in the book
of the Revelation. In Revelation 3.14 we read of
him as the Amen, the faithful and true witness. Oh, he is that one then who is
faithful, who is true in all his utterances. And how Time and again, as we
read of his ministry there in the Gospels, in prefixes, his
teaching with that word verily, and often it's a double verily,
which literally means Amen, or truly. Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have
seen, he can say to the Jews. He speaks what he knows. He bears testimony to the things
that he has seen. And he is a faithful witness.
Or when the Jews sent those who were to take him and catch him
in his words, as it were, they have to go back and report, never
man spake like this man. how he only spoke the truth.
And how the common people recognize that. Why recently we were looking
at those closing words in the Sermon on the Mount, the end
of Matthew chapter 7. How when Jesus had ended all
his sayings the people were astonished at his doctrine, astonished at
his teaching. For he taught as one having authority
and not as the scribes. Not like the scribes and Pharisees.
Why? He spoke truth because he was
that one who did truth. He's the righteous one. Hear
the righteous, O Lord. Attend unto my cry, give ear
unto my prayer that goeth not out of thine lips. And how in the psalm he can appeal
to God? He says at the beginning of the
second verse, let my sentence come forth from thy presence.
All we can appeal to God is that one who only ever speaks truth
and never utters any falsehood. He is righteous, obedient in every part of his
life here upon the earth, only speaking words of truth, and
in his prayers, in his prayers, how he is that one. who is sincere all his prayer does not go out
of fine lips there's nothing of deceit remember when he speaks of Nathanael
he says that he is an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile
no guile either in the Lord Jesus Christ himself how he comes how
he prays to God time and again how he's moved to pride it is
that communion with his father that really sustains him as a
man he's living that life of faith he's looking to his father
he feels his dependence upon his father he'll go and he'll
spend whole nights in prayer to his father in heaven And we
have those words, we've quoted them many a time there in Hebrews
5 who in the days of his flesh were told when he had offered
up prayer and supplication with strong crying and tears unto
him that was able to save him from death and was hurt in that
he feared. Oh what piety was there! The
fear of God was in his heart though he were a son yet learned
the obedience by the things that he suffered. the eternal Son
of God, but there we see Him in all the weakness of His human
nature, sinless human nature, yes, but real human nature. And
so living that life of faith, having to call upon His Father. Oh, we see it so remarkably when
He comes to perform that great miracle and to raise Lazarus
to life again. Why He had been dead and buried
for days. And his sister said, he stinketh. Now they, of course, there in
the Middle East, because of the excessive heat, they would bury
their dead very quickly. But the Lord raises him from
the dead. But how does he raise him? He says to the father there,
John 11, 42, I know that thou hearest me always. that because
of the people which stand by I said it that they might believe
that Thou hast sent them." Now we see him in his prayers there
groaning in himself as he prays to his Father. Oh, he prays so
sincerely because he feels as a man his complete and his utter
dependence upon the Father. This is the wonder of the Incarnation. He is never anything less than
God's Son, God's eternal Son. He is God. And yet, the mystery
of the incarnation, it's a real human life that he's living.
And so he is marching prayer to his Father in heaven. A prayer of David, a prayer of
the beloved. And the beloved, principally,
primarily, must always be the Lord Jesus Christ. But as I said at the beginning,
what of those who come to Him, or come to God through Him, who
look to Him as their great mediator and advocate and intercessor,
because He is a great high priest and of course He has accomplished
His priestly work here upon the earth, where we see Him as a
sacrificing priest, but now having accomplished that part of his
priestly work, he has risen from the dead, he has ascended on
high, he has entered into that within the veil, he has gone
into heaven, and there he ever lives to make intercession. For
all that would come to God, they come by him. And here we see
those who would come, the prayer of the seeker as I said, And
there is that sense in which we have to recognize that every
true seeker is David. Every true seeker after salvation
is David, is the beloved. John says we love him because
he first loved us. All the Lord has loved his people.
They are his beloved ones. And how do they express that
love? Why? They express that love really
by seeking after Him. They seek Him because He has
first sought them. He is the Good Shepherd, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the Good Shepherd is that one who goes
to seek that that is lost, that he might find it and restore
it. We love him because he first
loved us. We seek him because he first sought after us. And remember how David prays. So many of the Psalms, of course,
the Psalms of David. Psalm 63, a Psalm of David. When he was in the wilderness
of Judea. Oh God, he says, thou art my God. Early will I seek
thee. my soul thirsteth for them, my
flesh lungeth for them in a dry and thirsty land where no water
is. Why are these things written?
They're written for our learning. Or are we those who would be
seekers like David was a seeker after God? Consider then something of the
seeking of those who would know that salvation that is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. What do we see here in the text?
We see it is earnest seeking. It is earnest seeking after God.
Look at the words that he used throughout the verse. He says,
Here, attend, give ear. We have these parallel statements
time and again in the book of Psalms. part and parcel of that
Hebrew poetry, the same sort of truths being repeated in various
ways. Hear the rites, O Lord attend
unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer. And this is not vain
repetition. This is not vain repetition.
O the Lord Jesus, in the course of his own ministry there in
the Sermon of the Mount warns us against vile repetitions.
He says in Matthew 6,7 when he prays, Use not vile repetitions
as the heathen do. They think that they shall be
heard for their much speaking. We don't just come and say so
many Hail Marys or so many Paternosters We don't pray over our beads
like the Romanists or the Mohammedans. Those are vain repetitions, just
saying the same thing. Going through it as it were by
rote. But this is a different sort of repetition that we have
in the psalm. This is that evidence of earnestness
in the one who is seeking. Luther comments here that what
we have in these opening words of the psalm is great power of
feeling and many tears. How this man is, as it were,
feeling after his God, longing after his God. Hear the rites,
O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer. This is how we are to seek after
God. You shall seek me, He says, and you shall find me when you
shall search after me with all your heart. It has to be wholehearted
seeking. Oh God, preserve us from a divided
heart. that we can be addressing God,
as it were, with our prayers and yet our heart's affections
are running hither and thither away from God. No, we are to
seek Him with all of the heart. And where there is that wholeheartedness
in seeking, strangely, paradoxically, that heart is also the broken
heart. And that's the acceptable sacrifice,
isn't it? The broken heart, the broken
and the contrite spirits, O Lord, they will not despise. Our hearts
so broken, mourning over our sins, and yet in all that bitterness,
in all that sense of real repentance, grieving over sin, yet also that
true faith, that wholehearted prayer to God here, the right,
O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer." It's earnestness. It's earnestness in seeking after
God that we have here. But also, with regards to this
seeker, we see sincerity. We see sincerity in what we have
in the closing clause of the verse. that goeth not out of
fine lips, he says. Without lips of deceit is the
reading in the margin. Oh how we have to be preserved
from such practices as that, to be insincere. to be insincere. Think of the
language again that we have in the 32nd Psalm. Yet again, the Psalm of David.
Blessed is he, he says, whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputed not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. Oh, the blessed man. Why this
blessed man? He's the forgiven man. He's the
justified man. His sin isn't imputed to him. He's accounted righteous in Christ,
but he's also one who is guileless, in whose spirit there is no guile. And you remember how the Lord
God rebuked the children of Israel for their insincerity. or they were those who were quite
satisfied with nothing more than a form, the form of godliness
and yet nothing of the power of that godliness. There in the
language of the Prophet Isaiah 29 verse 13, Wherefore the Lord
said, Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth,
And with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart
far from me. And their fear toward me is taught
by the precept of men. Therefore, behold, I will proceed
to do a marvellous work among these people, even a marvellous
work and a wonder. For the wisdom of their wise
men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be
hid. Woe to them! Oh God, you see,
he rejects a mere form, an outward show, a display. Isn't that the religion of the
hypocrite? Why, it's all pretense. They
draw near, he says, with their mouth, they honour me with their
lips, but they remove their heart far from mine. All we need that
the Lord would grant that we might be those who are sincere.
that whole heartiness again, earnest as yet, but also sincerity. An Israelite indeed in whom there
is no guile. What does David say here at the
end of verse 3? I am purposed that my mouth shall
not transgress. God forbid that we should be
transgressors in our prayers because of our insincerity. or the prayer of the seeker,
then it's an earnest prayer, it's a sincere prayer, and there's
also finally here boldness. Boldness. And we see that really
in the opening words where he says, Hear the right, O Lord. Hear the right, O Lord. What
is he saying here? Well, David knew that he had
no righteousness of his own. Why doesn't he go on in another
psalm to speak how that he will make mention of the Lord's righteousness
and that righteousness only? He's very much like the Apostle
Paul as we see him there in Philippians 3. Paul's great desire was to be
found in Christ, not having, he says, mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is with the faith of Christ.
The righteousness which is of God by faith. Hear the rites. What is David
doing then? He's looking to him who is the
only mediator. He's asking that God will hear
him only for the sake of Jesus Christ. Again in another psalm
he says, Behold O God our shield, look upon the face of thine anointed. And so when we come to pray we
have to invoke that name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's there and there only that we have any boldness. In whom
Paul says we have boldness and access with confidence by the
faith of Him. Oh, when we come and look to
the Lord Jesus Christ and make our confessions in His name,
why, we're told, aren't we, if we confess our sins, He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins. And here, look at the margin,
it says here, justice. in the Lord Jesus Christ why
the very attributes of righteousness and justice and holiness all
those attributes in God are on the side of the sinner because
he is pleading the Lord Jesus Christ in his person and in his
work I can no denial take when I plead for Jesus sake says dear
John Newton or when we plead for the sake of the Lord Jesus
Christ what what boldness then hear the right hear justice oh
there is boldness here who is this seeker then that we witness
in this psalm it's that person whose whole life is bound up
in the Lord Jesus Christ it's a justified sinner it's a justified
sinner hear the right hear the righteous And it reminds us,
does it not, of that man who went to the temple in the hour
of prayer. Two men went. The one was a Pharisee,
full of himself, a self-righteous man. The other was a poor sinner,
a publican. And we're told that the publican,
standing afar off, could not lift up so much as his eyes to
heaven. He smote upon his breast, And
he cried saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Oh, he felt his sin, you see.
He felt his sin. He had such penitential eyes. He couldn't look to heaven. His
eyes were downcast. He was ashamed of himself before
God. He had a penitential heart. How he strikes at his breast.
How he attacks himself, really. The wretchedness of the sin of
his heart. and he has penitential left, what is his prayer God?
God be merciful, be propitious we knew that he deserved the
wrath of God but he wants to know the forgiveness of his sins
be merciful to me a sinner and you know we said it before there
in Luke 18.13 there's a definite article he literally says God
be merciful to me the sinner he is the sinner He is the greatest
of all sinners. That's how he feels himself.
But what does God say, or what does the Lord Jesus Christ God
manifest in the flesh say concerning that man? He was the man who
went to his house justified. Rather than the other, says the
Lord. Or that poor penitential publican. It's the same person,
it's this person that we meet here in David's psalm. Hear the rites, O Lord, attend
unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of
fine lips. O the Lord, help us to come in
such a spirit as we find here then in God's Word. And the Lord
bless His Word to us. Amen. Let us close our worship this morning
as we sing the hymn 383, wherewith shall we approach the Lord, and
bow before his throne, by trusting in his faithful word, and pleading
Christ alone. The tune is 227, the hymn is
383.