I want us to turn away this evening
from our consideration of the whole armour of God, that spiritual
armour that he's spoken of in Ephesians chapter 6 that we've
been considering now these past number of weeks and as we are
to subsequently come to the ordinance of the Lord's Table. I want us
to turn to that psalm that was read, Psalm 69. It is of course
a remarkable psalm. It is clearly a Messianic psalm. We see various parts of it taken
up quite specifically in the New Testament Scriptures, verse
9. We have those words, For the
zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. And it was of course that
scripture that the disciples remembered when Christ drove
the money changers and those who were buying and selling in
the temple drove them out of the house of God and they remembered
what was written concerning him, how that the seal of thine house
hath eaten me up. And then again the words that
we have at the end of that particular verse, the end of verse 19, the
reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. And the apostle Paul quotes those
words in reference to Christ in Romans chapter 15 and verse
3. And then furthermore, the end of verse 20, we're told
how I looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and
for comforters, but I found none." And wasn't that the experience
of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, when even those favoured three,
Peter and James and John, were unable to watch with Him. He might have said backwards
and forwards, thrice He ran, as if He sought some help from
man, but there was none. He looked for some to take pity,
but no comforters could be found. And then of course we have a
specific reference in verse 21 to his experience there upon
the cross at Golgotha. They gave me also gall for my
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink they gave
him that drink did they not when he cried out vinegar mingled
with with gore. The psalm then is quite clearly
to be understood in terms of the experience of the Lord Jesus
Christ and we looked at the psalm before only last year I discovered
we had considered the opening words verses 1 and 2 and sought
to say something then of Christ's soul sufferings not so much his
physical sufferings but those things that were transpiring
in the human soul of the Lord Jesus Christ was the subject
matter that we that we took up but this last week I was particularly
drawn to those words that we have at the end of the fourth
verse where David, David is of course the human author of the
psalm, it's a psalm of David, but David writing by the Holy
Ghost says then I restored that which
I took not away But of course the words belong more particularly
to the Lord Jesus. He is the one who restored that,
that He took not away. He restored all that honour and
glory that was due to the Holy Lord of God that was taken away
by those that He came to save. They were the transgressors,
they were the breakers of that law that He came to honour. And He honoured it in terms of
both the the precepts, he honoured and magnified the law by the
obedience of that sinless life but also he honoured and magnified
it in terms of all the dreadful penalties when he bore that tremendous
punishment for the sins of his people then I restored that which
I took not away. But as we come to the psalm tonight,
I don't really have a particular text, I just want us to consider
the psalm in a more general sense, to consider the whole psalm and
to consider it in terms of the experience of the believer, the
experience of the Christian and then also to see it in terms
of the the Lord Jesus Christ in his sufferings and in his
death. John Newton says, his way was
much rougher and darker than mine. Did Christ my Lord suffer
and shall I reply? Is there not such a thing as
the fellowship of his sufferings? And so first of all, although
the psalm speaks more specifically of the Lord Jesus Christ, I want
in the first place to consider the psalm in terms of the experience
of the Christian, and I want to observe four things concerning
the Christian's experience. First of all, do we not learn
something here of the experience of the believer when he comes
under conviction of sin how sin becomes a great trouble to him
and we have it of course here in verse 17 I am in trouble says
David hide not thy face from my servant for I am in trouble
hear me speedily. What does David desire? Well,
he sees his need of salvation. That's the very note upon which
the psalm opens. David prays for salvation, does
he not? He wants to be saved out of all
his troubles. out of all that awful sin that
he is now so burdened with? Save me, O God, for the waters
are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. Lord, does He not speak to us
of that man who is so very conscious of his sins? How iniquitous are
prevailing against this man. He's overwhelmed by the sense
of his need as a sinner before a holy God. It's the awakened
sinner that we seek. The Hymn writer says that all
are sinners in God's sight. There are but few so in their
own, but here is a man who is a sinner in his own sight, and
is that not the work of the Holy Spirit? A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. How is it that any man ever comes
into that position where he is aware that he is in deep trouble?
Because he has transgressed God's holy law. We know that all our
sinners all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is not a just man upon
the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. This is the testimony
of the Word of God. But if you have any real awareness,
David did. David saw his great need of salvation. He was that sacred sinner, in
the sense that his eyes had been opened by the Spirit of God,
and it is, of course, the peculiar office of the Holy Ghost to bring
that conviction into the sinner's soul. When the Lord Jesus speaks
of the coming of the Spirit, and the ministry of the Spirit
in John chapter 16, remember what He says, when He is come
He will reprove, or As the margin gives it, convince. He will convince
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because
you believe not on me. Of righteousness because I go
to the Father and you see me no more. And of judgment because the prince
of this world is judged. Well, here is that ministry of
the Holy Spirit then, and it's spoken of here, the believer
is brought under a sense of his need, he is convinced of what
he is before a holy God, and it's the Spirit who comes, and
he does it, of course, as we know, by the law of God. There is such a thing, is there
not, as a ministry of the holy, righteous, and just law of God. And it's demonstrated in the
Scriptures, particularly in the life of the Apostle Paul, that
man who was a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee, who considered
himself as a Pharisee to be guiltless before the Lord of God, blameless. He imagined that he kept God's
law, and in a sense he did. With regards to the externals
of his life, he lived a most legal life, but he tells us,
I was alive without the law. Once he thought he was alive,
didn't really understand the law. I was alive without the
law once, but the commandment came and sin revived and I died. We know that the Lord is spiritual,
that's what he discovered, the spirituality of that Lord of
God, how it reaches into the depths of a man's being. Doesn't
just have to do with the externals, the respectability of a man's
life, it has to do with those things that are transpiring in
the very depths of his heart. It's a spiritual Lord. We know
that the Lord is spiritual, says Paul, but I am carnal, souled
on the scene. This is that ministry that is
so necessary that a man might become aware of what he is and
understand his need of salvation. The ministry of the law, whatsoever
things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty
before God for By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified
in his sight. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. The knowledge of sin. And what
does David desire? You see, he's a man here who
understands something of his sinnership. Understands something
of original sin. Understands something of the
bondage of the well. He feels he's shut up. Verse
15, let not the water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow
me up, let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Oh, he feels it, you see. He
is deprived. He's shut into what he is. Total
depravity. Not the freedom of the will.
The freedom of the will is that that men like to speak of as
if all human beings have a perfectly free will to make choice as and
when they will of what they will. But man cannot choose that that
he's good and right in the sight of God by himself because man's
will is in bondage to what man is as a sinner, a fallen creature. It is the bondage of the will,
not the freedom of the will. David cries out, you see, in
his great sense of need. He wants to be delivered. He wants to be delivered out
of that situation that the pit shut not her mouth upon me, he
says. But then look at verse 33, the
Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners. All are prisoners
of hope, you see. prisoners of hope, those who
are brought into this condition. I remember some years ago now
reading a sermon of James Wells, and it's one of those sermons
that has ever stuck with me. It wasn't on this particular
psalm, it was on words in Psalm 88. I think it's the end of the
8th verse, I am shut up and I cannot come forth, was the text that
Wells preached on. And I can remember the sermon,
I remember the title of the sermon quite clearly. Prisoners of Hope.
Prisoners of Hope. Those who are shut up and they
cannot come forth. They cannot deliver themselves. Now this was David. This was
David. He knows it. The Lord heareth
the poor. He is that poor man. And despiseth not his prisoners. They're God's prisoners. or there's
hope for those who are God's prisoners. What do we see here
then concerning this man of God? What do we see of the Christian's
experience? The believer will know something of the conviction
of his sin. He'll have some sense of his
sinnership in the sight of God. But then also, of course, there
is this, in the second place, the believer's dreadful conflict
with sin. When he's saved, when God saves
him, he still finds himself in a conflict. Many times he feels
himself to be in the depths. He says in verse 2, I sink in
deep mire where there is no standing. I am come into deep waters where
the floods overflow. Oh, the believer is overwhelmed. overwhelmed sometimes by what
we can only describe as a baptism of sufferings, the conflict that
he has, the conflict that he has with Satan, the conflict
that he has with this wicked world. Does he not lie in the
wicked world? He is the prince of the power
of the air, the conflict that the believer has with himself,
with his own nature. There is Such a baptism, a baptism
of sufferings, a spiritual baptism. Remember when the mother of James and John
wanted that her son should have some preeminent position in Christ's
kingdom, one sitting on the right hand and the other on the left. But now the Lord speaks, you
see, that that's not His to give. Those who would have that, they
must know something of the Lord's own experience. His baptism of
sufferings. We have the event recorded there
in the Gospel in Matthew chapter 20. 20th chapter there in the Gospel
of Matthew in verse 22. Jesus answers and says, Ye know
not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup
that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall
indeed drink of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that
I am baptized with. But to sit on my right hand and
on my left is not mine to give. But it shall be given to them
for whom it is prepared of my Father. What does the Lord say? Ye shall indeed be baptised with
the baptism that I am baptised with. I have a baptism to be
baptised with, says Christ, and how am I straightened until it
be accomplished? Oh, there is a conflict for the
child of God if he's a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ Paul
tells the Philippians, unto you it is given in the behalf of
Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his
sake. Oh yes, saving faith is given,
given on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ. that faith that is the
gift of God, that faith that is of the operation of God, but
what comes with the faith? Not only to believe on Him, but
also to suffer for His sight. There is that fellowship of His
sufferings. Christ did not know the same
conflict with sin as His children. The Prince of this world comes
and does nothing in Him. But Christ did know a conflict,
did He not? well ultimately he is made sin he who knew no sin
is made sin for his people he must bear that awful punishment
of their sins and their believers are burdened also with sins and
that sense of their their sinnership before God the fellowship of
his sufferings the baptism of suffering in that sense and yet
we have of course the gracious promise that's given in that
43rd chapter of Isaiah's prophecy, when they pass us through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee, when they walk us through the fire they
shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee,
for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. Oh God is the Savior of His people
in the midst of all that awful conflict that they're having
to endure the good fight of faith those things that we've spoken
of of course in terms of that honor that he's provided that
the believer might be able to withstand in the evil day and
having done all to stand and Paul is the one who knew it,
he felt his own wretchedness The awful reality of that sin
in his fallen nature, O wretched man that I am, he cries out,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Oh, the believer, he knows in
his experience what it is to be convinced of his sin, to be
reproved by the Spirit of God, he knows what it is, even after
he has experienced the great salvation of God, to be in conflict
to be in conflict with himself all that I had not of myself
said Ralph Erskine that's all nature the good that I would I do not
the evil that I would not that I do says the Apostle this is
a wretched man crying out in the midst of his conflict But
that brings us to the third thing with regards to the believer's
experience as we have it here. Does not the believer cry out
in the midst of all his sin? Verse 17. I am in trouble, he cries. Hear me. Or as the margin says,
make haste to hear me. He doesn't want God to delay.
He wants God to come with all urgency. He needs to know an
immediate deliverance out of all his troubles. What does he
say there in the opening words of the psalm? Save me, O God,
for the waters are come in unto my soul. He is crying. The whole psalm really is very
much in the form of a prayer, well, I was going to say all
of the Psalms, certainly the first part right through to verse
29. And then in the closing seven
verses, he praises God. I will praise the name of God,
he says, with a song and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
He comes then to speak of his thanksgivings, but the great
majority of the verses in this psalm are in the form of a prayer. Constantly crying that God would
come and help him, that God would hear him, that God would save
him. And then he says in verse 3,
I am weary of my crying. My throat is dry, my nose failed. while I wait for my God, how
he cries out, you see, constantly, in the midst of all these bitter
experiences, in the realization of the awfulness of his sin. And so there in verse 29, which
is really the end of the prayer, I am poor and sorrowful, he says. Let thy salvation, O God, set
me up on high. All the experiencing of this
godly man, these various aspects of his experience, the conviction
of his sin, his conflict with sin, his crying out in the midst
of his sin, but then also in the fourth place we see this,
we see his confidence in God. Oh, that's the great thing, is
it not, ultimately? To turn away from ourselves and
to be looking on to God. How vital is that objective aspect
of the life of faith? Yes, there's a place to look
to ourselves, there's a place for self-examination, we should
be very much aware of that, on an occasion like this subsequently
we're to come to the Lord's Supper and what does scripture say? let a man examine himself let
a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and
drink of that cup there's a place for self-examination I'm no expert
on the Book of Common Prayer that book of 1662 that was really
the cause of driving what, 2000 Puritans out of the Church of
England I'm no expert on that book, but there's much that's
good in the book. Much of it, of course, is a product
of that great Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. And I understand that
in the service for Holy Communion, the whole section begins with
the Ten Commandments. Interesting, you see. You come
to observe the service of Holy Communion, you begin with the
Ten Commandments. Now, why did Cranmer do that? because we are
to examine ourselves and what is the point and purpose of the
law what is the ministration of the law by the law is the
knowledge of sin there is a place for self-examination and as we
look to ourselves concerning the Lord's supper it's not that
we're looking to ourselves to find some wonderful qualification
of holiness that would some way or other commend us to God No,
we look to ourselves and when we do that we see that we are
sinners yet and we need the Lord's mercy and we seek to come in
that spirit of real penitence, sorry for our sins, desiring
that we might see the awfulness of our sins in the light of the
sufferings of our Saviour. we might come as broken hearted
sinners and partake of those elements and feed our souls upon
the grace that is in the Lord Jesus Christ and manage to examine
himself to see whether he be in the faith is to prove himself
is to know himself says Paul except he be reprobate the reprobate
do not examine themselves the children of God examine themselves
but we're not to be always pouring on ourselves I like those lines
of Joseph Hart pour not on myself too long he says lest it sink
thee lower look to Jesus look to Jesus kinder strong mercy
joined with power and this is what we see in David we see his
confidence in God. He has confidence in God. Verse
13, As for me, as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord,
in an acceptable time. O God, in the multitude of thy
mercy, hear me in the truth of thy salvation, in an acceptable
time. Oh, what do we read in the New
Testament? The words of the Apostle there in 2 Corinthians 6, God
says, I have heard thee in a time accepted. In the day of salvation
I have succored thee. Behold, now is the acceptable
time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now our confidence, you see,
is to be in this great God. And this is David's confidence.
My prayer is unto thee, O Lord, he says, in an acceptable time. And so he goes on, verse 16,
he says, Hear me, O Lord, for thy lovingkindness is good. Turn unto me according to the
multitude of thy tender mercies. And we have that great word from
our authorised version here in verse 16 loving kindness loving
kindness oh it's a word that is so full, so pregnant in its
meaning it has the idea of God's covenant faithfulness God's sure
mercies in fact such is the richness of the word that there's no English
word that's adequate to bring out the fullness that is found
there, but we have this word so often in our authorised version,
God's loving kindness. Hear me. O Lord, for thy loving
kindness is good. Our God is a good God. Isaiah
tells us, in all their affliction he was afflicted. This is the
one that we really meet within the psalm. It's not so much that
the psalm is speaking of the believer's experience, it speaks
of that. But principally, as we've said,
this psalm is a Messianic psalm. It speaks to us of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And in all the experiences of
is children, how the Lord himself is afflicted, how he feels for
them. And so I want us to turn in the second place to see something
more of what the psalm tells us concerning Christ. And Christ
experiences here, we of course do have something of the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus set before us, the very opening words of
the psalm, those words that we were looking at only last year.
Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. We thought of the soul sufferings. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow. And again, something similarly
spoken, obviously not in verses 14 and 15. He speaks of the mire,
deliver me out of the mire, 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. Here
is a baptism. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ
and He's immersed in His sufferings. We've already referred in passing
to the words of the Lord in the Gospel when He says to His disciples,
I have a baptism to be baptized with. And how am I straightened
until it be accomplished? He's not speaking of That baptism
that marked the commencement of his earthly ministry, he did
submit to John's baptism. There at the River Jordan he
goes down into the waters with the Baptist. And as he is brought
up out of the waters, the heavens open and the Spirit descends
upon him in the form of a dove, just as John had been told would
be the case, upon whom the Spirit descended, he was told was the
Christ. And then the Father spoke that
word, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, all
the persons. of the ever-blessed Godhead of
the air, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit when Christ is baptized
by John in the river Jordan. He submits to baptism. But when
he says later in the course of his ministry, it's in Luke chapter
12 and verse 50, I have a baptism to be baptized with his speaking
of something yet before him. What is this baptism? It's a
baptism of suffering. It's what's spoken of here in
the Psalm. And the Lord, of course, was
aware of the Old Testament Scriptures. When he speaks of searching the
Scriptures, this is the Scripture he's speaking of, the Old Testament,
that testifies of Mary. He knew that all things that
were written in Moses, and in the Psalms and in the Prophets
must be fulfilled in him. He was aware then of this particular
Psalm and the words at the beginning of the Psalm. God be has at him
658 for us Jesus was baptized in tremendous agonies mighty
vengeance like a flood overwhelmed the Lamb of God but there's a
verse that's omitted strangely in the selection if you go back
and read in the the Nazarene songs if you read the fullness
of Gadsby's hymn writing there's a verse there that doesn't appear
in his selection and it's this this was baptism indeed well
might mountain shake with dread surely sprinkling nair can show
such a scene of matchless world. The Lord's baptism of sufferings
was something in which he was immersed. It was a real baptism,
a real baptism. Isn't that how it's spoken of?
In those words that we have in the sixth chapter of John, the
beginning of John's chapter, sorry, not John, the epistle
of Paul to the Romans. In Romans chapter 6, Verse 3, Know ye not that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into
His death? Therefore we are buried with
Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. For if we had been planted together
in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. What a wonderful picture, the
heaven-drawn picture it's been called. Believers' baptism, buried
with Christ, buried in the waters, rising again in newness of life. But identify, Joseph, one who
is going to know something of the fellowship of his offerings,
being made conformable, unto His death. Oh, we see then something
of Christ's sufferings here. Terrible sufferings, even a baptism
of sufferings. That that He had to endure upon
the cross, suffering not only at the hands of cruel and wicked
men, but suffering now at the hand of God. And there, of course,
enduring all the wrath of God, against the sins of his people.
But what else do we see? We see substitution. When we
think of the experience of the Lord Jesus Christ, we see substitution
in a remarkable sense in this psalm. It's a psalm of David,
and yet, as we've said, it's not David, it's Christ, it's
David's greatest son. And look at what he says in verse
5, O God, thou knowest my foolishness and my sins, or as the margin
says, my guiltiness, are not heads from the earth. Who is
this who is foolish and sinful and guilty? We know the Lord
Jesus Christ was none of those things. He is the wisdom of God Proverbs chapter 8, and then Paul to the Corinthians
says, who of God is made unto us? Wisdom. He's wise. He's not foolish. And there is
no sin in Him, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
made higher than the heavens. Oh yes, tempted. Sorely tempted. In all points, Paul says, tempted
like as we are yet without sin. Temptation is not sin. We sin
when we fall. When the devil comes and tempts
and we fall in with him. That's the sin. The Lord was
tempted. But when the prince of this world
came, he had nothing in him. Nothing. yet without sin. What then are we to make of these
words if this psalm is really a messianic psalm and the prophecy
of the Lord Jesus Christ, O God, thou knowest my foolishness and
my sins are not hid from thee. Here we see the Lord Jesus Christ
as that one who is identified with sinners. He has come, you
see, to be the surety of his people. He has come to be their
substitute. God sending His own Son, we read,
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. That's what we're
told concerning Him. Romans chapter 8 and verse 3,
God sending His own Son. in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and for sin. How he comes and identifies,
this sinless man identifies with sinful men. He has made him to
be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Oh, this is the amazing thing,
is it not? He has come as a substitute.
And this is where I began really earlier in the week when these
words in verse 4 struck me so forcibly then I restored that
which I took not away the Lord Jesus Christ owed no
debts to the Lord of God the Lord Jesus Christ was made under
the law and the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly obeyed the law of God
He honoured it, He magnified it What are they to restore? He is restoring that that others
hold. We see Him here, you see, the
great doctrine of substitutionary atonement that stands at the
very heart of the Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ in the sinner's
place. And isn't that what we come to
remember when we come tonight to the Holy Supper of the Lord?
These two in remembrance of me, he says, what are we to remember
of the Lord Jesus Christ? We are to remember all that He
gave as a substitute in our place, in our room, in our state. Christ also has once suffered
for sin. The just for the unjust to bring
us to God. This is how we are brought to
God. by and through those sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ all
that life that He gave when He poured out His soul unto death
when He shed that precious blood without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sins here is the remission of our
sins in that precious blood that was poured out when Christ gave
Himself when He died the just man for the unjust sinner. And it's everywhere in the scriptures
is it not? Everywhere. Of course we think
of those great words of the 53rd chapter of Isaiah concerning
him as that great substitute. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Look at the language he hath
borne our griefs. carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Barty was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. For we, like sheep, have gone
astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord
has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and
he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearer,
as he is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. Oh, he so willingly
goes that way of the cross, willingly dies as the substitute of his
people. Oh, having loved his own, which
were in the world, he loved them unto the end. even that bitter
end of the death of the cross. What do we see in the psalm?
We see Christ, I say. We see a suffering Saviour, immersed
in sufferings. We see Him as a substitute. But
then also, let us not lose sight of this, friends, His sympathy.
His sympathy. Not only do we see Christ, we
see the Christian. You see, we have not an High
Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
He was, in all points, tempted like us we are. Christ is here,
but the Christian is here. We read of him who in the days
of his flesh, 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 felt, Though he were a son,
he had learned the obedience by the things that he suffered,
all the things that he suffered. The human nature of the Lord
Jesus Christ, learning by obedience, learning to sympathize with his
people, it is the beauty, the beauty of the Psalms, the beauty
of this Psalm. It sets forth the Christian,
it sets forth something of the Christian's experience, As we
spoke just now of the Christian in his sense of conviction, his
sense of his sinnership, his conflict with sin, his crying
out of his sin, his confidence in God the Christian. But more
than that, the veil is drawn aside and here we see Christ.
And we see Christ in his sufferings as that great substitute. And what does he do? He cries
out, Save me, O God. the opening words of the psalm,
save me. Again at verse 16 he cries out,
hear me, O Lord. What does the Lord do in the
midst of all His sufferings? He cries, calls upon God. When we see Him coming to the
end of His earthly ministry in Gethsemane, being in an agony
we are told, He prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as drops of
blood falling to the ground. All the agonies of his soul.
What did we learn? The disciples said, Lord, teach
us to pray. Doesn't the Lord teach us here?
Teach us how to pray. Teach us how to call upon God.
How we live that life of faith, the life that we're to live.
Now we need to come time and again with these prayers, these
simple prayers. All those opening two words of
the psalm, save me. Save me, O God. Again there in verse 16, hear
me, O Lord. All the Lord's grant then that
as we come and hear the Word of God, we might be those who
are missing faith. with what we hear, how do we
mix faith with it? Do we not need to mix the prayer of faith?
That the Lord would come and that the Lord would so impress
the truth of his word upon all of our hearts that we might truly
receive the word. Those words of James, how we
are with meekness to receive the engrafted word, the implanted
word that's able to save the soul, oh God grant that He might
come and graciously apply the truth of His Word to all of our
souls, and that Christ might therefore be in us the hope of
glory. Amen.