Let us turn once again to the
Word of God in the psalm that we read, Psalm 69, and directing
your attention to the opening two verses of the psalm. Psalm
69 and verses 1 and 2. Save me, O God, for the waters
are coming unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there
is no standing, I am come into deep waters where the floods
overflow me." As you are aware, so many of
the Psalms are clearly messianic. They contain a prophecy of the
Lord Jesus Christ and we see Him, do we not? We see him in
this psalm, as in so many other of the psalms. And the great
beauty of the psalms is that we are favored to see something
of the inward experiences of the Lord. The veil, as it were,
is drawn aside in the psalms, and we are able to gaze into
his very soul, And isn't that the case with regards to this
particular psalm? It's the psalm of David. But
as I trust we will establish, it is the psalm that speaks more
particularly of David's greatest son. It speaks of the Lord Jesus. 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 come into deep waters where
the floods overflow me. Let us not forget what the real
soul of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ amounted to. We can dwell overmuch upon the
outward aspect of that cruel death that he died when we think
of crucifixion as a form of execution what a dreadful thing it was
for any man to die in that fashion what a bloody scene and as I
say we we can't dwell too much on the outward aspect of those
sufferings and it was certainly the case that the Moravians in
the 18th century who of course had a great influence in the
great awakening that came into our own land. Those Moravians
from Germany did tend to dwell over much on the external aspect
of Christ's offerings in some of the hymns that were written
by those pietistic people. I say again that the real soul
of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus were those things that
he suffered in the very depth of his soul, his human soul. For example, there at the end
of Isaiah 53, we're told, when he shall make his soul an offering
for sin. If we read the marginal version
of the 10th verse of that great chapter on the suffering servant
of the Lord, when his soul shall make an offering for sin. Well, let us not lose sight of
the reality of the human nature of Christ. It is a terrible blasphemy,
I would say, to even suggest that He did not possess a true
human nature. He was body and soul. And the
Lord suffered inward sufferings. He suffered so acutely in His
soul, it was not so much that that men did to Him, It was what
God did when he visited upon his very person, that wrath that
was the desert of sinners, how he bore there that punishment
that was due to all those that the Father had given to him in
the eternal covenant. Well, first of all, let's consider
the opening words of this psalm in terms of the experience of
the Lord Jesus Christ. As I've said, it is clearly a
messianic psalm, and we know that because we find this psalm
being quoted in the New Testament Scriptures. And remember, we
always, if we interpret scripture right, we interpret the Old Testament
in terms of the New Testament. Augustine, that great church
father, Augustine of Hippo, said that the new is in the old concealed,
and the old is in the new revealed. And so we come to the New Testament,
I say, and we find this particular psalm being quoted. For example,
in verse 9 we have the words, For the zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up. And that was a verse, or part
of a verse, that the disciples remembered in John chapter 2,
when Christ cleared the money changers and those who were buyers
and sellers out of the temple and he took a whip of cords and
drove them out and we're told there in John how the disciples
remembered what was written the zeal of thine house hath eaten
me up And not only there, what we have at the beginning of that
ninth verse, but the second part, the reproaches of them that reproach
thee are fallen upon me, isn't that also quoted by the Apostle
in Romans chapter 15 and verse 3? For even Christ pleased not
himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach
thee are fallen upon me. It's quoted. specifically then
in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then one other example
from the psalm in the words of verse 25, let their habitation
be desolate and let none dwell in their tents. And again we
find this particular verse taken up in the Gospel in Matthew chapter
23, and there at the End of that particular chapter. Here is Christ approaching Jerusalem for the last time. O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them
that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her
wings, and she would not. Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. The words are spoken from the
psalm by Christ. For I say unto you, ye shall
not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord. How this psalm speaks then of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And how it speaks to us of His
sufferings. This is the great scene that
really runs throughout the psalm, how Christ suffered. What does David write in verse
20? Reproach hath broken my heart,
and I am full of heaviness. and I looked for some to take
pity but there was none and for comforters but I found none."
Reminds us surely of the Lord's experience there in the garden
of Gethsemane. And there he was taken and his
disciples all forsook him and fled. He was left He was disowned
by his own disciples. It was the fulfillment of this
very verse. When we see Christ there agonizing
in the garden before they arrest him, and he takes those favoured
three disciples, Peter and James and John, and he's apart from
the others, and he leaves them and says, watch and wait with
me, and he goes a stone's throw further and he falls to the ground. and he pleads with his father
concerning those things that lay before him, that bitter cup
that he must drink, and he goes back, and there they are sleeping,
and he goes again. None, you see, would watch with
him. The hymn writer says, backwards and forwards, thrice he ran as
if he sought some help from man. For it was the fulfillment of
these things. There was none No, not one would
come and be a comforter to Him. I am full of heaviness, and I
look for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters,
but I found none. We are told something of His
experience then at the beginning of those awful sufferings when
He goes into the garden. But then also, do we not see
something of His experience upon the cross? Isn't this spoken
of quite particularly here in verse 21? They gave me also gall
for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Oh, they offered him that drink when he cried out on the cross,
I thirst. Even his sufferings upon the
cross then are spoken of here. Oh, they would give him that
vinegar mingled with gold and he tastes of it and he refuses
to take this drug drink because he will feel these sufferings. We see him then, do we not? Here
as the great sacrifice for sins come to make that one offering
for sins forever and he cries out in all the agonies of his
soul, 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 come into deep waters, where
the floods overflow me. And all this, you see, all this
suffering is for the sake of His people. He will bear these
things. He will endure all that shame. He will persevere through all
the agonies of His sufferings because of that great love wherewith
He has loved His people. It's interesting what we read
in the hymn 658 It's a hymn really on baptism,
as you'll see from the title. We have a whole series of hymns
here on baptism from 654 following. And there in 658 at the second
verse, for us Jesus was baptized in tremendous agonies. Mighty
vengeance, like a flood, overwhelmed the Lamb of God. Isn't that the
language that we have here in the text? 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 come into deep waters, where
the floods overflow me. O Christ is immersed. in the
waters, the waters of suffering. Now the interesting thing is that 658, as we find it in Gadsby's
selection, is of course somewhat edited. When Gadsby added the
various appendages to the book, he edited some of his own hymns.
If we look at this hymn as it appears in his Nazarene songs,
we discover there's another verse that's omitted here in the selection
tonight. And this is the verse that's
omitted concerning Christ's sufferings. This was baptism indeed, while
my mountains shake with dread, surely sprinkling ne'er can show
such a scene of matchless world. How the Lord, you see, is immersed,
is baptized with sufferings, baptized with sufferings. And remember how in baptism,
according to what we read in the sixth chapter of Romans,
we have there the picture of the believer in union with the
Lord Jesus Christ, in union with Christ in his crucifixion and
also in his resurrection from the dead, buried with him in
baptism, but then also with Him rising again from the dead. It's a remarkable picture, is
it not, of what real baptism is. It's a baptism of immersion. There in Romans chapter 6 and
verses 3 and 4, 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." So what do we see here
then in the psalm? We see Christ, the suffering
Savior, immersed in all that dreadful agony that was involved
as he made his soul the great offering for sin. And he cries
out, Save me, O God, for the waters are coming unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I am come into deep waters where
the floods overflow me. But in the psalm we don't only
see Christ as the one who is suffering We also see Christ
here as that one who is suffering as a substitute. We see substitutionary
atonement here. Look at what he says in verse
5, O God thou knowest my foolishness and my sins are not hid from
thee. David could say such words and
they were true of David. He was a sinful son of Adam.
just as we are all the sinful descendants of Adam. And yet,
as I said, the psalm is speaking not so much of David's experience,
it's speaking more particularly of David's greatest son. How
could the Lord Jesus Christ ever utter such a word as that? O
God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from
thee. He was free from all sin. He
was preserved from every taint of original sin. Was he not conceived
by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin? And was she not
told by the angel that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God? He was preserved by that mystery
of the Incarnation, that miracle of the Virgin birth, preserved
from every taint of original sin. and he was sinless in life. Hebrews 7.26, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. Oh yes, he was tempted. How sorely
he was tempted, even after his baptism. He's led of the Spirit
into the wilderness and there he's tempted. And the devil leaves
him, but only for a season, Oh, what sore temptations! He says
to the disciples, ye are they which have continued with me
in my temptations. He's tempted, but he never sins. But he can sympathize, you see,
with tempted souls. Again, in Hebrews there in chapter
4 and verse 15, in all points. In all points, tempted like as
we are yet without sin. He is the sinless One. How then,
how then, can such a word as we have here in verse 5 in any
sense be a prophecy belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ? O God,
thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from
thee. Here we see Him as a substitute,
friends. It's not His sins. It's those
sins that are reckoned to Him, those sins that are imputed to
Him. God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. Oh, remember the language
of the Apostle Paul as he speaks of these things. 2 Corinthians
5.21, "...He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. It's a substitute that Christ
is. It's other people's sins. Not only Paul, but Peter says
much the same. Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust. The just for the unjust to bring
us to God. and how he feels it, you see.
Oh, how it must have been for him, his holy soul, his sinless
soul, and all that sin of his people imputed to him, reckoned
to his account, and him suffering as if he were the sinner, as
he dies as that blessed substitute. No wonder he would cry out in
all the agony of his soul, 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 come into deep waters where
the floods overflow me. And then again, Psalm 42 and
verse 7, Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts.
All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. how he is immersed,
immersed in these awful sufferings. Not so much the outward aspect,
that's the suffering at the hands of men, but that that is taking
place in the soul of this holy man, as he bears the punishment
of God. How there he cries again in the
Gospel, my God, my God, why? hast thou forsaken me? All the
mystery of it, you see, there's mystery in all that we see in
regards to the Lord Jesus, mystery in His birth, yes, is there not
mystery also in His dying? How could it be? He was never
anything less than the eternal Son of God. Remember that God
is a Trinity, yes, His Father, Son and Holy Ghost, He is three,
but God is one. And God cannot be divided. He is ever, always triune, the
three in one. And the one in three, there could
be no separation between the persons of the Godhead. And yet here is God the Son incarnate
upon the cross, crying out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? There's a mystery. and we will
never fathom it. But it reminds us, friends, does
it not, of the extent of the sufferings that he endured when
he made his soul that great offering for sins. I say primarily here
we have the experience of Christ David's greatest son, but David
the Psalmist is also speaking of himself. and he is speaking
out of his own experience. And here, as David is a true
child of God, can we not say that there is something in David's
experience that will be the experience of all those who are true believers? Remember that all believers are
united to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is, of course, an eternal
union When God makes choice of His people, He chooses them in
His Son. In that opening chapter of the
Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul writes, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Him. before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."
Now he is speaking here of union. and a blessed union, an eternal
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice again the little words,
the prepositions. What does He say in verse 3?
He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. Again in verse 4, He has chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world. There is a union.
All the election of grace are in Christ, and they are eternally
in Christ. When God set His love upon His
people, how did He make choice of them? He chose them in Christ. Christ is His first elect, and
all the election of grace is in Him. There is a union. And
as there is an eternal union, so there is also an experimental
union. There is that to be experienced
of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And how Paul, oh how
Paul knew it, how Paul not only knew it, how Paul yearned after
it, longed for it, desired it. Remember his language in Philippians
chapter 3, the great desire of his soul that I may know Him. Oh, that I may know Him and the
power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering,
being made conformable unto his death. That's what Paul wanted,
the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his
death. Friends, the believer has to
experience something of what is written here concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ, if there is to be that experimental union. Now what is it? Why doesn't the
believer experienced something of the conviction of sin. Who are those that Christ came
to call? He tells us, I came not to call
the righteous but sinners. All sinners are high in His esteem
and sinners highly value Him. Here is the man who receives
sinners. Here is the man who eats with sinners. Can we not
see then the child of God in the language of David here in
the psalm, Save me, O God! For the waters are coming unto
my soul, I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I
am coming to deep waters where the floods overflow me. Here
is that man, you see, who is beginning to feel something of
the reality of his fallen nature. Here is that man who is aware
of his sinnership. Our David cries out in another
psalm, Iniquities prevail against me. Oh, how David feels it, you
see, seeing such a dreadful reality. We sang of it just now in our
second hymn. Oh, thou hideous monster, see. What a curse hast thou brought
in! All creation grows through the pregnant cause of misery,
and the child of God, when God takes the sinner in hand, is
made to feel something of this. Isn't that how the Spirit teaches
us? Isn't that the office of the Holy Ghost in the outworking
of the Great Covenant? How the Lord Jesus speaks of
His coming, remember, in John's Gospel and the ministry that
He will exercise. Yes, He is to come as the Spirit
of Christ. He comes to bear testimony to
Christ. He takes of the things of Christ
and He makes them known. But how He does another work
also, when He is come, says the Lord, He will reprove the world
of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. This is the
Holy Spirit's office, to bring conviction into the soul of the
sinner, to make the sinner feel his need of salvation. Save me, O God! For the waters
are come in unto my soul. Here is that man you see immersed
by what he is. He has such a sense of his sinnership. Or there is that ministry, is
there not? The ministry of the Lord, how the Spirit takes the
Lord of God, that holy law, that righteous law, that law that
is just and good. Nothing the matter with the law.
It's God's law. Let us not forget that. But how
the law finds the sinner out. There's the fault. There's the
fault. It's in the sinner. Paul says,
We know that what things soever 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. Therefore by the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. There's the ministry of the law,
by the law is the knowledge of sin. It stops the mouth. The
sinner has nothing to say that would commend him. He's undone. He's convinced of his sin. It
was Paul's experience, I was a lie, he says. He's a Pharisee,
you see. Thought he knew the law, thought
he kept the law. And he says in Romans 7, I was alive without
the Lord once, but the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Oh, we know that the Lord is
spiritual, but I'm carnal, souled under sin. Fearful, isn't it? And yet this is how the Lord
deals with his people. How Christ felt sin to be a bitter
thing. Oh friends, do we feel sin to
be a bitter thing? Do I feel sin to be a bitter
thing? Alas, you know I love sin. My all nature loves sin. Can't
I be not of it? Oh, but do we grieve over our
all nature and that conflict that we feel within as the flesh
is lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh
and these are so contrary one to the other. You see the great
thing is that there is deliverance for sinners. There is deliverance
from the prison and the bondage of sin and we see it in the psalm.
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. That's David's prayer. He prays
for deliverance. And friends, there is deliverance.
Verse 33, The Lord heareth the poor. The Lord hears that prayer. And
He answers that prayer. The Lord heareth the poor and
despiseth not his prisoners. All those poor prisoners. Like
we have in Psalm 88, I am shut up and I cannot come forth, says
Haman. Cannot deliver himself. This
is how God deals with us. He teaches us the awful truth
of total depravity. He shuts our mouths. He shuts
us into what we are. We cannot deliver ourselves.
He turns man to destruction. That's what Moses says in Psalm
90. They turn us man to destruction
and say it returns. All we have to see it's only
the Lord Himself who can deliver. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit and out of the miry climes. and set my feet
upon a rock, and established my goings," says David in another
psalm, in Psalm 40. All the experiences, you see,
the experiences of the godly are set before us. See, yes,
it's right and proper that principally we see Christ. It's a Messianic
psalm. It belongs to Christ. But it
also belongs to those who are Christian people. It's the experience
of David. Oh, friends, is it my experience? Is it your experience? Have we
known that conviction of sin? And made to feel sin to be the
horrible thing that it is? And to hate it and to desire
to be delivered from it? We'll never be delivered from
it, will we? Until we reach heaven. Oh, but what a place! Sin, my
worst enemy before, shall vex mine eyes, and ears no more,
my inward foes shall all be slain. nor Satan break my peace again."
It's a blessed place, because sin can never enter into that
place. But here is the sinner, you see.
Here is the sinner desiring salvation. But it's not just the conviction
of sin, it's the believer's conflict, is it not? When saved from sin,
and there is such a thing as salvation, we're not We're not
to think that there's no assurance for the sinner that his sins
are forgiven, there is. There is forgiveness for sinners,
there is deliverance. We don't only have to recognize
what sin is and feel ourselves to be sinners, we need to know
what salvation is. But the strange thing is, when
saved, there is still this conflict with sin. when his pardon is
signed and his peace is procured from that moment his conflict
begins. Says Joseph, heart of the believer.
How true are the words. His conflict begins, he's now
involved in a fight. Oh, it is a fight, it's a good
fight of faith. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing, I am come into deep waters where the floods
overflow me, says David. It was the same with Paul, was
it not? Now, the signs of the Old and New Testament, they speak
the same language. They all speak the language of true Christian experience,
even those in the Old Testament. What does Paul say? For I know
But in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.
For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which
is good I find not. The good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that
I do. For how he feels it, you see.
How the old nature is yet there. All wretched man that I am, he
cries, who shall deliver me from the body of this day. This is the experience, I say,
of those who believe, those who have true faith, saving faith.
Remember when Paul writes to the Philippians, he says something
very similar, he tells them at the end of the opening chapter,
unto you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, not only to
believe on him, but to suffer for his sake. Oh, that's the
fellowship, is it not? The fellowship of his sufferings.
How he suffered. How he suffered as the great
sin-bearer. How he felt the awfulness of
that that was laid upon him when he made that great atoning sacrifice
for sins. Oh, what do we know of the fellowship
of his sufferings? You see, there's a baptism to
be baptized with. It was the mother of James and
of John, who in the Gospel came to the Lord Jesus. In Matthew
chapter 20, verse 20, then, came to him the
mother of Zebedee's children, that's James and John, with their
sons, worshipping him and desiring a certain thing of him. And he
said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that
these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the
other on the left, in thy kingdom. And Jesus answered and said,
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 ye shall drink indeed 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." Oh, they would know, you see.
They would experience that baptism, that awful baptism of sufferings. I sink in deep
mire where there is no standing. I am calm into deep waters where
the floods overflow me." This is the believer. So united to the Lord Jesus Christ,
having not only an eternal union, an experimental union, a union
in experience, But what does God do? Why He gives such a gracious
promise, does He not, to His poor suffering children? In Isaiah 43, Now thus saith
the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and thee that form thee, O Israel,
Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. and through the rivers, they
shall not overflows, when they walk us through the fire, they
shall not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, for
I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour."
All the promises of God. And what are we to do, friends,
with God's Word? We're to plead it, are we not?
We're to take the promises. And we're not To act like the
foolish man, the Arminian man who thinks of free will and says
he can just claim the promises and take the promises in some
presumptuous fashion, we can't do that. God has to apply His
Word, but we can plead His Word. We can plead His promises. That's
what we must do. We must persevere in pleading,
pleading the Word of God, pleading the promises of God. Save me,
O God! for the waters are coming to
my soul." Remind him, you see, of what he has said there in
Isaiah 43. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord, we read in another psalm, Psalm 130. Oh,
out of the very depths, when we find ourselves in deep waters,
when Satan seems to be so active and has gained the advantage
and we're down, how we have to plead that God would come and
rescue us. and deliverance. We have to cry
to Him, we have to pray to Him. This is why the Lord deals with
us in these strange ways, is it not? That we might know more
of Him, as we are brought to feel increasingly our complete
and utter dependence upon Him. What a blessed life it is, the
life of the Christian, to have that real, living, vital union
to the Lord Jesus Christ, to be identified with Him who came
to bear the punishment of all the sins of His people, and to
see the awful nature of our sins in the light of all His sufferings,
all that He endured for us. 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. Oh, we have to persevere. David
goes on, I am weary of my crying, my throat is dry, my eyes fail
while I wait for my God. But he didn't wait in vain. He
didn't wait in vain. None ever waits in vain that
waits upon this God. All gods will come and God will
deliver Such, remember the words that we have at the end of the
psalm, there in verse 33, the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth
not his prisoners. Let the heaven and earth praise
him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein. For God
will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah, that they
may dwell there, and have it in possession. Oh, the Lord be
pleasing to bless His Word to us tonight for His name's sake.
Amen.