Let us turn again to God's Word
in the Psalm that we read, Psalm 63, and our text is found at
verse 8. Psalm 63, verse 8, My soul followeth
hard after thee, thy right hand upholdeth me. Psalm 63, Verse
8, My soul followeth art after thee, thy right hand upholdeth
me. You will observe how in this
short text David speaks of himself and he also speaks of his God. Of course the psalm is in the
form of a prayer, he is addressing God But see how in the opening
clause he speaks of himself, his real self, my soul. My soul, he says, followeth hard
after thee. And then he speaks of God, he
speaks to God, thy right hand upholdeth me. And I want us simply
to look at these two clauses that we find in this short verse,
which is the 8th verse of the Psalm, of course. And first of
all, to consider what David is saying with regards to his God
at the end of this particular verse, Thy right hand upholdeth
me. There is a sense in which He
is mindful in this psalm of the covenant of his God. He uses that great word loving-kindness
back in verse 3, because thy loving-kindness is better than
life. And as I have said on previous
occasions, what is often translated as loving-kindness in the Old
Testament is one of those rich, pregnant, Hebrew words that we
find in the Scriptures. In fact, so rich is the word
that is used here that it is not possible to find an English
word that's equivalent to all that is contained in the particular
word. It's the word Chesed. And it
has to do with God's covenant, His faithfulness in the covenant.
It has to do with God's grace and the sovereignty of that grace
in the covenant. And oftentimes, here in the Authorized
Version, it is rendered by this beautiful expression, loving
kindness. And that's what we see, is it
not, in God's covenant. How God is kind. How God is compassionate. How it is very much a covenant
of grace. And so here, In the text, David
says, Thy right hand upholdeth me. Thy right hand upholdeth
me. How God has taken hold of David. Now, I read Hebrews chapter 2
quite deliberately because of the way in which Verse 16 of
that chapter is rendered in the margin. You will observe how
in that particular verse, verse 16 of Hebrews chapter 2, several
words appear in italics, which indicates, of course, that these
words have been introduced in the translation, they're not
a rendering of any word that's there in the original, it's the
translators seeking to bring out the meaning of what is contained. But we see from the use of so
many italicized words that it is obviously a verse that is
not easy to translate. And so we have an alternative
reading in the margin. And it's that particular marginal
reading that I was thinking of in relation to our text tonight. David says at the end of the
verse, Thy right hand upholdeth me. And if we read Hebrews 2.16,
with the margin, he says, Verily he took not hold of angel, But
of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold. Now where is it that God
has taken hold of his people? He has taken hold of them, of
course, from eternity. He has laid his hands upon them
in a sense before ever they had been, before ever they were created. He laid his hand upon them in
the eternal purpose of His grace. That's when He blessed them,
as we read in Ephesians chapter 1, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, according as
He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. How God made choice of His people
before ever He created, even from eternity then He laid His
hands upon them. The Church was given to Christ
in the eternal covenant of grace. And we know that it all culminates,
of course, in eternity, in that that He's spoken of in Revelation
19 as the great marriage supper of the Lamb. when the church,
complete, entire, without spot or wrinkle or any blemish, is
taken up to be with God forever in heaven. The marriage supper
of the Lamb, there in Revelation 19 at verse 7, Let us be glad
and rejoice and give honour to Him, for the marriage of the
Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready And to her
was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These
are the true sayings of God." All that great marriage supper
of the Lamb. When Christ presents to the Father
that church that is complete. That church that is the bride
that was given to Him in the eternal councils of the guardians. And remember how here we read
in the text of a certain cleaving to God this opening clause of
the text my soul followeth hard after the expression to follow
hard as that basic meaning of cleaving and Isn't this something
that reminds us again of the concept of marriage as we have
it set before us in Scripture right from the beginning in Genesis
chapter 2. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and mother and cleave unto his wife and they too shall
be one flesh it says. All there is a cleaving there
is a blessed union. And so we have it here you see,
my soul followeth hard after them. Thy right hand upholdeth
me. And we know how in Scripture
the marriage union is very much taken up in relation to that
union between Christ and His people. As I've said, the church
is very much His bride and when Paul is giving very practical
instruction and exhortation in Ephesians chapter 5 And these
last chapters, of course, of the epistle to the Ephesians
4, 5 and 6 are the practical aspects of that epistle in particular. And he speaks at the end of chapter
5 of relationship between husband and wife. And what does he say
concerning that union? He says, verse 30, we are members
of his body, of his flesh and of his bone. For this cause shall
a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined or cleave
unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great
mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. There is then that eternal union
in the great purpose of God. It was then that God, as it were,
laid hold of his people. Thy right hand upholdeth me,
says David. God has taken hold of his people
in that eternal covenant. He has taken hold of the seed
of Abraham. But then, of course, when we
think of the passage there in Hebrews chapter 2, we see just
why it is rendered the way it is in the text, although we've
referred to the marginal reading. In the text, of course, it speaks
more especially of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
took not upon him the nature of angel, but He took on Him
the seed of Abraham. And so it was, you see, in the
fullness of the time when God sent forth His Son into this
world. It was then that the Lord Jesus,
as He were, laid His hand upon His people. Embrace them when
the fullness of the time was come. God sent forth His Son,
we read, made of a woman, made under the law Oh, He takes upon Himself their
human nature. He willingly identifies Himself
with His people. For as much as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, He likewise took part of the
same we read there in Hebrews chapter 2. Again, it is that
great mystery of godliness. It is God manifest in the flesh,
It is God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man. And though we do well, I say
again, to ponder these things, to consider that great doctrine
of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rightly we would make
much of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What it was that
he did whilst he was here upon the earth how he was made under
the law, how he was subject then to that holy law of God. And
he came, as we've said, to stand in the law place of his people,
that law that condemns them. He will answer it in all its
demands. And so he fulfills all righteousness
by his obedience. He lives a life of perfect conformity
to every one of God's commandments. Oh, he is that one who weaves,
as it were, the robe of righteousness by all those acts of obedience
to the holy will of God revealed in the holy Lord of God. And
then that man who was without sin, holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separate from sinners, that righteous man. is the one who
is obedient unto death even the death of the cross and so as
he honoured and magnified God's law in terms of all its precepts
by his righteous life in his dying he is honouring and magnifying
that same Lord of God in terms of all its dreadful penalties
he bears the punishment that was due to the transgressor.
He doesn't just stand in the sinner's place with regards to
the law in living. He also dies as a substitute
and for his people he bears in his own person that punishment
that was their just desert. As I said, we rightly make much
of this great work that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished here
upon the earth. God emphasizes the precious truths
of that life and that death and that resurrection. We have it
recorded, of course, in the Gospels, and we have a fourfold gospel.
How this truth is underlined and underlined and underlined
again. But let us not, as we make much
of the work of Christ, let us not failed to understand the
significance of the person. It's because of who he is that
gives such worth and such value to all that he does. Our salvation
is not only in the work of Christ, our salvation is in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is that one who comes
to us and identifies himself all together with his people. He really does take hold of his
people. We read of God sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. In the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin. He doesn't come and identify
himself with Adam in his innocence. He is spoken of, of course, as
the last Adam. And that second man, we are told,
is the Lord from heaven. But he doesn't come to identify
with Adam as he came pristine from the hand of his Creator
God, a sinless creature. No, he identifies with Adam as
a sinner, with Adam's sinful offspring. God sends His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. How great is the mystery! Of
course, He Himself is free from all taint of sin. There's nothing
of actual sin in Him. He, as we've said, is the Holy
and Righteous One who perfectly obeys the law of God. but he
is preserved free from every taint of original sin. That is
the great mystery of godliness in the incarnation, is it not?
The virgin birth. The Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee, the power of the highest shall overshadow thee, says the
angel to Mary. Therefore also that holy thing. That holy thing. All that is
the human body the human soul that is to be joined to the eternal
Son of God, the second person in the Godhead, that holy thing
that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. But in that birth do we not see
the Lord Jesus Christ as He were coming and taking hold of His
people. In eternity God has laid His
hands upon taken hold of them. But Christ, in his incarnation,
comes just where they are, sits where they sit, identifies himself
altogether with them, comes as that one who is the friend and
the saviour of sinners. And I say, friends, we see it
indicated here, thy right hand upholdeth me, says David. God
takes hold of his people. But let us turn, because I really
want to concentrate more particularly upon what David is saying in
the former part of the sentence, the first part of the text. Speaking of his own soul now,
and what is he speaking of when he speaks in these terms? He's
speaking of his faith. to follow heart after the Lord
is to live the life of faith. Now it's interesting to observe
how in the scripture our senses are used to represent to us what
faith is. We have the hearing of faith,
do we not? Romans 10, 17, so then faith
cometh by hearing. God addresses us in that sense. The Lord Jesus Christ, of course,
himself is the Word of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ comes
as that one who is the great prophet of God. He comes to preach
the Word of God, to proclaim the truth of God, No man hath
seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. And this
is why we rightly recognize the importance of the reading and
the preaching of the Word. God comes, God addresses us through
that sense of hearing. But then also faith is associated
with looking. Look unto me, and be ye silent. all the ends of the earth, for
I am God, and there is none else. There is to be a looking, looking
on to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, taking our eye
off every other object, looking to one single, one object alone,
looking only on to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
but then Besides the sense of hearing or the sense of looking,
we also see that there's reference to the sense of tasting. Isn't
faith, in that sense, a real feeding upon the Lord Jesus Christ? You know the words there in the
sixth chapter of John's Gospel that we've referred to so very
many times. The words of the Lord Jesus himself,
he says, Verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the
Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh,
and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. Here is
union, you see, here is cleaving. He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. There is a tasting of him, a
feeding upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and then also the sense of smell,
might be said, to represent to us something of faith. And we see that in the opening
chapter of that remarkable book, The Song of Solomon. In Solomon's
Song, chapter 1, verse 12, while the king sitteth at his table,
my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. And then this,
you see, a bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me. He shall lie all night betwixt
my breast. My beloved is unto me as a cluster
of campfire in the vineyards of Engid. The sense of smell
she smells him as he does and that's faith you see the
intimacy of faith that closeness of the union between Christ and
his people and then also you know the sense of touch is also
used in scripture in relation to the faith that we are to have
in the Lord Jesus Christ it has to be the handling of him that
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, says John,
and our hands have handled of the word of life. For to handle
the Lord Jesus is, are the ways in which faith is spoken of. But then here you see, in the
text, we see other aspects of what faith is. David says, my
soul followeth hard after thee, thy right hand upholdeth me."
There's a following after him. There's a following of faith.
And there is, as it were, the holding fast. As God holds his
people fast, so they hold him fast. Two things I want to mention
then with regards to what David is saying concerning himself
in the text. First of all, there's that sentence
which he speaks of the cleaving of faith. The cleaving of faith. As I said just now, the word
that we have at the beginning of the text, my soul followeth
heart, after the particular verb that's used here, to follow heart,
after, has the idea of being close. of clinging, of claving. That is certainly an aspect of
the particular word that David is using. Being close to the
Lord, clinging to the Lord, claving to the Lord. One of the commentators,
Samuel Chandler says, the primary sense of the word is to be glued
together. to follow hard after, to be glued
together. Now, the word, the same word
is also used in the book of Job and we see just how close it
is this sticking together, this gluing together from what we
read there in Job chapter 38 and verses 37 and 38. Verse 37, Who can number the
clouds in wisdom, or who can stay the bottles of heaven, when
the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together? Verse 37 speaks of the clouds,
speaks of the rainfall, the bottles of heaven. Here is torrential
rain, and what is the effect? When the rain pours down out
of the skies, the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods
cleave fast together." The clods cleave fast together. The dust, you see, by means of
the rain, becomes nothing more than mud and mire. They're just
sticking together. And that's what the Margin said.
The dust is turned into mire. The clods cleave, close together. It's the idea of things being
glued together. That's the force of the particular
word that is being used. There in Job 38.38 and here in
Psalm 63 and verse 8 following hard after being glued together how important it is that we recognize
that there is a blessed union that is associated with saving
faith a real union to the Lord Jesus Christ himself you see
true faith doesn't just deal with God simply in terms of doctrine. Now, of course, we're not to
decry sound doctrine, how important it is. The Lord Jesus says, ye
shall know the truth and the truth shall make you fluent. That's where liberty comes, when
we know the blessed truth of the Gospel. that the Lord Jesus
Christ is that one who has paid that awful debt that the sinner
owed to the Holy Lord of God, that sinner who was bound up,
as it were, under sentence of death, under condemnation, but
God in Christ has come and the price has been paid. And so the
lawful prisoner is now released. Ye shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free, says the Lord Jesus. Again in
his prayer to the Father in John 17, he prays, sanctify them through
thy truth, thy word is truth, or the sanctifying effect of
the true doctrines of the Word of God, the effect that it has
upon a man. How it brings holiness into the
life of a man. We're not to despise, we're not
to decry doctrine. It is vitally important. But true faith doesn't just deal
with God in terms of doctrine. It's not just assenting to the
letter of the truth of God's Word. Faith is not like that. It's not cold. It's not distant
and detached. What is true faith? It's, in
a sense, it's a pleading with God, a praying to God, a clinging
and a cleaving to God. And we see it, do we not, so
remarkably in the case of Jacob. Jacob, when the angel comes and
wrestles with him at Paneo. That that's recorded in the 32nd
chapter of the book of Genesis as Jacob is returning now after
those many years with the family of Laban and he returns remember
with his wife with Leah and with Rachel and he comes or he's journeying
towards his brother Esau and his Ephraim and he divides the
company into two parts and he himself waits behind and there wrestles
with him the angel in Genesis chapter 32 verse 24 Jacob was left alone and there
wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day and when
he saw that he prevailed not against him he touched the hollow
of his thigh and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint
as he wrestled with him and he said let me go for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee
go except thou bless me. Here is Jacob, you see. The angel
wrestles. Jacob wrestles. The angel touches
the hollow of his thigh. His thigh's out of joint as he's
wrestling. And the angel will have him now
to let go. But he refuses to let go. I will
not let thee go, he says, except thou bless me. He was disabled
by the angel in the course of that wrestling match, as it were.
And he has to give over wrestling. But what does he do now? He begins
to cling and to cleave. This is faith, you see. This
is what faith does. Wrestling, prayer, can wonders
do. bring relief in deepest straits. Prayer can force a passage through
iron bars and brazen gates, says John Newton, how true it is.
Oh, wrestling prayer, it does wonders. Here is Jacob then,
as he will not let the angel go, he clings, he cleaves, and
he cleaves in real faith. My soul cleaveth after thee is
the way in which we could render the opening part of our text. Again, an example that we have
of course in the Old Testament is to be found in that name that
was given to Jacob's son Naphtali. Naphtali was born to Bilhah and she was the maid of Rachel,
remember? We have the record of it there
in Genesis, in chapter 30, and verses 7 and 8. Bilhah, Rachel's maid, conceived
again, and Beerjacob her second son. And Rachel said, with great
wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister and I have prevailed
and she called his name Naphtali remember at this time Rachel
is barren she has no child Leah is fruitful but then Leah ceases
to bear but then Leah's mate also bears sons as it were on
behalf of Leah and here is Rachel and it's Bilal who is her maid
and what is she saying here in these verses? As she had wrestled with her
sister I wrestled with my sister and I have prevailed and she
called his name Naphtali which literally means my wrestling
my wrestling, as she had to wrestle to get the child. And that's
what we have here, you see, this idea of David following hard after his
God. How God has taken hold of him
by his right hand. What does David do? He follows
hard after. He desires to cling to God and
to cleave to Him, to be glued to Him. He will not let Him go. Oh, this is the blessing, you
see, of that union that the child of God can enjoy with his God. The closeness of that union.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? asked Paul. Shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or sword? No, nothing. Nothing is able
to separate. My soul followeth hard after
them. Thy right hand upholdeth me."
This is the way of faith, this is the life of faith then that
David is speaking of here in the psalm. There is a cleaving,
I say, and the clinging associated with faith. But then also, there
is the coming of faith. There is the coming of faith.
David cleaves to God as God upholds him, but also David wants to
follow after. He wants to follow after. Again, we're told that both holding
fast and following after are included in the vocabulary that
is being used in this particular verse. The German, the Lutheran
commentator Leupold makes that observation both holding fast
and following after are involved here. Now, initially of course,
faith is that coming, that coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord Jesus himself in the course of his ministry tells us that.
John 6.35, "...he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and
he that believeth in me shall never thirst." The coming and
the believing are one and the same thing in what the Lord is
saying there in John chapter 6. "...he that cometh to me,
he that believeth in me." The one who comes never hungers,
the one who believes never thirsts. That is what faith is. It is
that true coming to the Lord Jesus Christ just as there is
to be that looking to Christ and that hearing of the voice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, as we look and as we hear
we must follow, we must come to Him. My sheep know my voice,
He says. And they follow me, and I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. You see,
as Christ is laid hold of them, there is also that desire to
draw ever nearer and nearer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Draw nigh
to God, and He will draw nigh to you, we're told in James chapter
4. David desires not only to follow hard after. He wants really to come so close
to the Lord as to be clinging to the Lord and cleaving to the
Lord. But interestingly here, David is not desirous to run
ahead. He's not seeking to be beforehand
with God. None can be beforehand with God.
It is only as God takes hold of him by his right hand and
upholds him that he is able to pursue after God. He is not running
ahead of God, he is following hard after. You see, faith is
never presumptuous. Draw me, says the bride in the
song of Solomon, we will run after thee. It is God draws us,
it's as God comes as it were and lays his hand upon us that
we're able then to follow hard after this God. Or David in the
text and he's speaking so much the language of faith and he
recognizes he recognizes the necessity of the work of God
in his own soul Though in the first part of the verse he speaks
of himself, in the second part he clearly acknowledges God's
good hand upon him. And all that we might know that,
friends, the good hand of our God upon us. Thy right hand upholdeth
me, he says. Our God has purposed, as we said,
in eternity to lay hold of his people. Our Christ in the fullness
of the time, came in human form and came, as it were, to take
hold of His people. And now we need that that same
God should come and lay His hand upon us. If we're going to be
those who are upheld, those who are going to be enabled to persevere,
to continue in the way, to be following hard after Him, ever
seeking to draw closer to him, desirous that we might be those
who are really clinging and cleaving to him. What do we know, friends,
of the experience of David as he speaks in this particular
psalm? O God, he says, thou art my God,
early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee, my
flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land. where no water
is. Do we have any desire after this
God? Are we those who would really
seek to be coming to Him and following heart after Him? O
God grant that we might know something of the faith of this
man David, the man after God's own heart. He says, Because thou
hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will
I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after
thee, thy right hand upholdeth me. O the Lord grant that we
might know something then of David's experience and to know
that David's God is our God. Let us conclude our worship tonight
as we sing the hymn 1088. The tune is Leicester 171, the
hymn 1088. Shepherd divine, our once relief
in this our evil day. To all thy tempted followers
give the power to trust and pray. I will not let thee go unless
thou tell thy name to me with all thy great salvation bliss
and say, Christ died for thee. The Hymn 1088.