Well, let us turn to God's Word
in the psalm that we've just read, Psalm 40, and directing
you for a while to the words that we find here in verses 11,
12, and 13. Psalm 40, verse 11, Withhold
not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord, let thy lovingkindness
and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have
compassed 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. Be pleased, O Lord,
to deliver me, O Lord, make haste to help me." These verses end
from verse 11 through to verse 13. And to say something really of
what we have in these verses as a description of the man of
God. We see something of the character
of the child of God in these verses. We read of that man previously
at verse 4, blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust,
and this is something of the description that is given of
that particular character here in the psalm. We can say that it is the believer
but of course ultimately it is the Lord Jesus Christ himself
who is being spoken of. There's no disputing the fact
that the psalm is a messianic psalm. It is quoted in the In
the New Testament, those words from verse 6 through to 8 are
referred to by the Apostle when he writes to
the Hebrews and he speaks in terms of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, if that is the case, we
have that authority of the New Testament There is no disputing
that this Psalm of David ultimately has to do with David's greater
son, the Lord Jesus. And is not Christ that one who
is the truly blessed man of God, that man who has lived the life
of faith. And we see it, of course, when
we read of him in the Gospels, one who lived that life of complete
and utter dependence. He would spend whole nights in
prayer to his father in heaven. He could say, the foxes have
hauls the birds of the air of nests, but the son of man hath
nowhere to lay his head." We have to look to the God of Providence
to make every provision for him. He was supported by certain women,
as we read there in Luke 8, certain women who ministered to him of
their substance. or he lived here upon the earth
as a stranger and a pilgrim, and yet he was the creator of
all things. He, ultimately then, is that
man that is being spoken of here in the psalm. It's the experiences
of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have. And so first of all
I want us, we examine the psalm to consider it in that messianic
sense but then secondly to draw out the fact that what we have
here is also the experiences of all those who are in the Lord
Jesus Christ. In some measure what is true
of him the head must also be true of the body which is the
church. First of all then to see the
Lord Jesus Christ. As I say, it's these verses 6,
7, and 8 that indicate to us quite clearly that it is Christ
that is being spoken of. They're taken up by Paul there
in Hebrews chapter 10. 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, thy law is within my heart. Now, he comes to accomplish
all that was written in the book of God's decree. how that Lord
of God was in his heart, his business was ever to do those
things that would please the Father. He must be about his
Father's business. But as we come to think of Christ,
first of all, to consider how he speaks here of
the thoughts of God in verse 5. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to us, Lord, they cannot be reckoned up in order unto
thee. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more
than can be numbered." And then he goes on, "...sacrifice and
offering thou didst not desire." Now, he is speaking clearly here
as that one who is the representative head of His body, the Church. He speaks of those thoughts of
God to us. And we see that, of course, when
we think of God's great decree in the councils of the Trinity,
that the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who is God's first elect,
and all those who are in act are chosen in him. God's thoughts then. God's thoughts
to us would both to Christ as the head and to that church which
is his body, those children which God has given to him in the eternal
covenant. And what are God's thoughts?
Well, we see that they are eternal and also they are, of course,
personal. When we come to the end of the
psalm, verse 17, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh
upon me. God thinks of his people in that
very personal and that very individual sense. He is mindful of each
and every one of those whom he has chosen in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Their names are written in heaven,
they're written in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the
foundation of the world. And as we have the description
here of that man who is blessed in verse 4, we can think also
of the language of Psalm 65. Another description of the blessed
man there at verse 4. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest, says the Psalmist. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto all God's thoughts towards
the Lord Jesus Christ and to all those who are in the Lord
Jesus Christ are our personal thoughts. and they stretch back
from before the foundation of the world, before ever God had
created. We're told concerning God's election
in Romans chapter 9, where the Apostle speaks of those twins
that were born to Rebekah, Esau and Jacob, the children not being
yet born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. It was said unto
her The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. How personal God's thoughts are
then. From all eternity the Lord knoweth
them that are his, whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate. to be conformed to the image
of his son. God's thoughts in Christ are
eternal and personal, they are also preeminent when we think
of the thoughts of God. Here he says, they cannot be
reckoned up in order unto thee. Also preeminent, my thoughts
are not your thoughts, says God, neither are your ways my ways.
For as the heaven is higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." We cannot
really, as creatures, with all the limitations that we know,
the limitations of time and of space, we cannot begin to comprehend
those remarkable thoughts of God as towards Christ and all
those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. God always has the end
in view. What does he say to Israel of
old? Israel, of course, a typical people. Israel, the type of the
true church, the spiritual Israel of God. I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, says God. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil to give you unexpected end. All the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is well assured of that when he speaks of that church that
is to be built upon the rock which is himself in his person
and his work. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. God's purpose cannot be frustrated. All his thoughts are sovereign
thoughts. I know the thoughts. And he speaks of that expected
end. All things then are working together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. All the thoughts of God. But
when we think of the man that is being described here in this
particular psalm, the Lord Jesus Christ, it's not just the thoughts
of God. He goes on here in verse 5 to speak of God's works. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and then thy thoughts which
are to us, O Lord, they cannot be reckoned up in order unto
thee. And what of the works of God?
Well, we sang just now in that lovely hymn of God's works, 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. It was done for us. There is
the greatest of all the works of God, those wonderful works
of God, which center in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what do we
witness when we think of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, He comes
to do the will of His Father. He says here in verse 8, I delight
to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. And He says it in the Gospel
so many times, my meat is to do the will of Him that sent
me, and to finish His work. how his human will acquiesces
in all the will of God, how this is the one thing that he desires,
not my will but thy will be done, he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane
even as he agonizes in prayer and contemplation of the completion
of that work a great sacrifice that He has come to make, sacrifice
and offering. He says, Thou didst not desire
mine ears as Thou opened burnt offering and sin offering as
Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me, to do Thy will, O my God,
yea, Thy law is within my heart. All those Old Testament sacrifices
must have their fulfillment in His obedience, and that obedience
is unto death, even the death of the cross. And what do we
see? We see here the remarkable truth of substitutionary
atonement. It is the Lord Jesus Christ very
much in the sinner's place. When he speaks here in verse
12, and I said we'd consider in particular these verses 11,
12, and 13. Look at the language in verse
12. 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 heads. Therefore my heart faileth me. Or we might wonder, How can this
be the language of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he not that one who
is free from all sin, free from the taint of original sin, that
holy thing, says the angel to the Virgin Mary, that holy thing
that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. There
is no original sin, there's no actual sins, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners. tempted in all points as we are,
or we knew what sore temptations were, tempted in all points,
yet without sin. How is it then that the Lord
can use such language as we find here in verse 12? Well, it's
because Christ is here speaking as that one who has taken to
himself all the sins of his people. all that sin reckoned to his
account. We see it again in another of
the Messianic Psalms, there in Psalm 69. And that Psalm is clearly
one that is a prophecy of the Lord Jesus. There at verse verse 9 he says the zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that reproach
thee are fallen upon me remember how when he drives the the money
changers and the sellers out of the temple the disciples remember
what's written the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and then
those words the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen
upon me are taken up by Paul in Romans 15 This psalm is one that speaks
of Christ as does Psalm 40. And then, again, there at verse
21 in Psalm 69, they gave me also gall for my meat, and in
my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. It's the experiences
of the Lord that are being spoken of. Now what does he say in Psalm
69? Verse 5, O God, thou knowest
my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee. Again, he
is so identified with the sinner. He is made in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin, says Paul. There in Romans chapter
8, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. God has made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him and so we have that great truth of of his substitutionary
atonement here in verse 12 he is taking to himself all the
sins of his people their iniquities are those that have taken hold
upon him he's not able to look up how burdened he is and his
heart is failing him as he suffers as the great sin atoning sacrifice. But then also, we see him as
that one who comes to preach righteousness. He says as much,
verse 9, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo,
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. Oh, he preached. And here is one who practiced
what he preached. Did he preach righteousness?
Well, he accomplished all righteousness. And now we see David as one who
glories in that righteousness of the Lord. When David comes
to the end, there in Psalm 71, David's old and grey hair, He says, My mouth shall show
forth Thy righteousness and Thy salvation all the day, for I
know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God, I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of
Thine only. Or do you see David, he rejoices
in the Lord, His righteousness. He says there in the 19th verse
of that psalm, Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who
has done great things, O God, who is like unto thee. And then
at the end, my tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all
the day." Jesus is the son of David, and David surely was a
preacher of righteousness, just as Noah was a preacher of righteousness,
but all directing us to the Lord, who is not only the preacher
of righteousness, but that one who is accomplished, righteousness,
he is honored and he has magnified the law of God. It is Christ
then who is being spoken of here in the psalm. But then, as I
said, here also we see those who are in Christ. We say something
of the character of those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as
that one who is their Savior. It is a psalm of David, and David
is speaking out of his own experience, although ultimately he is speaking
of Christ, but it is out of the fullness of his own heart that
he pens the word of the psalm. And we observe two things here
with regards to the character of David, and in a sense the
character of all those who are in Christ. Here is a man burdened
with sin, but secondly, here is a man also believing, trusting
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it's in verse 12 that we
see the great burden of sin, and how he speaks of it. He speaks
of being encompassed. Innumerable evils, says David,
have encompassed me about. the Mahajan speaks of him being
surrounded on every hand he feels that he's he's got evils on every hand
wherever he looks he feels it he cannot escape these sins encompass
him constantly, daily We can think of the experience of Jonah
when he prays out of the belly of the whale when he's there
in the very depths of the sea. What does he say? The waters
compassed me even to the soul, the depths closed me round about,
the weeds were wrapped about my head. And that in some way
is the feeling of David with regards to evil. It's everywhere. whichever way he turns, it's
encompassing him. How David feels these things,
again in Psalm 65 he cries out, Iniquities prevail against me.
He feels he cannot escape these terrible enemies. And there in the Psalm, in Psalm
65, he acknowledges the only way of escape As for our transgressions,
he says, thou wilt purge them away. Iniquities prevail against
me. As for our transgressions, thou
wilt purge them away. All that precious purgatory,
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, to purge the conscience, to purge
the conscience from all these dead works. Encompassed though
David was, but not only encompassed, he speaks of how he has been
seized by these things. My iniquities, He says there
in verse 12, "...have taken hold upon me." Oh, they hold him in their grip. But again, we know the great
antidote to these things, and it's found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul says there in Philippians
chapter 3, "...I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." and that word
to apprehend it means to lay hold of, to seize. Here is the
man who has to acknowledge that his iniquities have taken hold
upon him and yet there is one who is able to deliver him out
of the grip of all those iniquities, one who is able to lay hold upon
him and to save him. We sometimes sing those lovely
words of Jehoiada Brewer in the 134th hymn, Thus the eternal
counsel ran, Almighty love arresteth man. Well, there is the way of
salvation. You know, we have to come to
experience what David experienced when he felt that iniquities
had taken hold upon him. Remember the faithful dealings
of the prophet Nathan when David had sinned so grossly in the
matter of Bathsheba and her husband Uriah the Hittite. And Nathan
says, thou art the man. Or when the Lord takes hold of
his people, First of all, it is to convince them of their
sins and their iniquities do truly take hold upon them. But
the Lord, He wounds them in order to heal them, He slays them in
order to bring new life into their souls. He is encompassed, encompassed by evils, He is in
the grip of iniquities and he speaks of how he is bowed down. So that I cannot look up. Oh, he is so burdened here. It's
like the publican. Remember when the Lord speaks
of those two men who go to the temple at the hour of prayer,
the proud Pharisee? and the sin-convicted publican. The publican standing afar off,
it says, would not lift up so much as his soul unto heaven,
but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Well, that publican was a man like David. David acknowledges,
I am not able to look up, the poor publican. He was so ashamed
when he came to make his confessions before his God. Burden, bow down.
And then also David here speaks of how he's overwhelmed. My heart
faileth me, he says. The margin says the word faileth
literally means forsaketh. My heart forsaketh me. He is so overwhelmed that he is on the point of fighting. So great is that conviction and
that burden that he feels. All these things are more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. Again, look at the language of
David in Psalm 38 and verse 10. My heart panteth, my strength
faileth me, he says. He's brought to the complete
and utter end of himself. He's in an horrible pit, as he
says in verse 2. As the Lord delivers him, 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. What we see then with regards
to this man, the character of this man, is that real sense
of his utter inability, such a sense of his sinfulness. To
see sin, smart but slightly to own with lip confession, is easier
still but all to feel. Cuts deep beyond expression. This man has a feeling religion,
he feels what he is. But he doesn't just have that
sense of his sin, he is a man who is believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look at the language that we
have each side of this 12th verse. Verse 11 he says, And then he
goes on to speak of all that He feels of his sin in verse
12, and then verse 13, Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me, O Lord,
make haste to help me. How we see him constantly calling
upon God as that one who is the God of the covenant, both in
verse 11 and then twice in verse 13, O Lord, he says, O Lord,
O Lord, Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust. Oh, it's the Covenant. And how
all the language that he is employing here is that language of the
Covenant. He speaks of God's tender mercies. With all not thou thy tender
mercies from me. All the compassion, the kindness
of the Lord. And how we see it in the ministry
of the Lord Jesus. The bruised ridge shall he not
break nor quench the smoking flax, how he goes about doing
good, how he is tender in all his dealings with the sinful
sons of men. All his ministry is a discriminating
ministry, but we do not forget that the law was given by Moses
and grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He speaks of God's tender
mercies, Let thy lovingkindness, he says, and thy truth continually
preserve me." And this word, lovingkindness, reckoned to be
one of the great covenant words of the Old Testament. It speaks
of God's faithfulness in the covenant. It speaks to us, really,
of the sovereignty of God's grace, His determination to save His
people. He speaks not only of God's loving
kindness, but also he speaks of God's truth. Let thy loving
kindness and thy truth continually preserve me. What is God's truth? Well, God's truth is God's Word.
It's God's promise. It's God's oath. We know that
when God gave promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no
greater, he swore by himself. Oh, He has truly magnified His
Word above all His name. That is God's truth, and this
is what David pleads. This is the language of that
one who is a true child of God, a man who is trusting in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He pleads tender mercies, loving
kindness, truth. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver
me. O Lord, he says, make haste to help me. He knows that there
is all that fullness of grace only in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's nothing of self-righteousness in this particular character.
No, he feels what he is. He feels his helplessness, not
just the helplessness of the creature, speaking to his Creator
God. but that helplessness that he
feels as one who is a transgressor, a sinner. And doesn't God deal
with us in this fashion? He brings us to the end of ourselves.
Thou turnest man to destruction, says Moses in Psalm 90, and sayest,
Return, ye children of men. Oh, it's that word of a king
that has power. God brings us to the end of self
and then says, Return. It's all the work of God. And
down here we see him as one who really desires God to come with
all haste. He wants no delay. Deliver me,
O Lord, make haste, he says, to help me. This is how he comes
and this is how he cries unto his God. There might be such
a glorious deliverance. In verse 1 he says, I waited
patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me, and heard my
cry. Literally, in waiting. I waited. That's what it says
in the margin, to wait patiently. It's a, it's a Hebraism, really,
that we have there. I waited in waiting. It's not
inactivity, it's not passivity. It's that constant calling, that
continual seeking. Remember the exhortation of the
Apostle to the Colossians, continuing prayer, he says, and watching
the same with thanksgiving. And this is what the man of God
must do. Wasn't that the mark of salvation having come into
the soul of Tarsus? Behold, he prayeth." He may have
said many prayers, may have repeated his multitude of prayers, like
the papy says, all his Hail Marys, all his Pater Nostris, but Saul
of Tarsus had never prayed at all. But then, when the Lord
begins to deal with him, behold, he prayeth, how he has such a
desire that God would appear for him. The end of the psalm,
verse 16, he says, let all those that seek thee rejoice and be
glad in thee. Oh, he's one then who is brought
to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But I am poor and needy, yet
the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer. Make no tarrying, O my God."
Or the Lord granted as we come tonight to seek the face of God. We might bear that mark of those
who are the true people of God, with those who are truly part
of Christ's Church as we come to call upon His name and to
seek Him in our prayers. Will the Lord help us to pray
together? Now, before we pray, we're going
to sing our second praise in the hymn 761, the tune Baker
292. Show pity, Lord, O Lord, forgive. Let a repenting rebel live. Are
not Thy mercies large and free? May not a sinner trust in Thee? 7, 6, 1. It's a paraphrase of
part of Psalm 51.