In the psalm that we read, Psalm
40, we find our text at verse 5. The Psalm 40, which we just read, and the verse
5. Many, O LORD my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to us wrought. They cannot be reckoned up in
order untruthy, if I would declare and speak of them, they are more
than can be numbered. Firstly then, I want us to consider
something of the works of God And here we see that God's works
are very much rooted in his thoughts. We have mentioned in the text
of both things, his wonderful works and his thoughts towards
his people. As I said, his works are very
much rooted then in his thoughts. He says, my counsel shall stand
and I shall do all my pleasure. And so, first of all we need
to say something surely with regards to those eternal thoughts,
those great purposes that lie in the minds of the Almighty
One. He says, the thoughts which I
think towards you, those thoughts which are said
then to be towards his children. David is speaking here, as we
see in the title of the psalm, and David of course, as is the
case throughout the book of Psalms, he speaks out of the fullness
of his own experience. and that that he had discovered
of God in the way in which God had been pleased to deal with
him in all the various situations that he found himself in throughout
his remarkable life. Thy thoughts which are to us,
says David, they cannot be reckoned of in order unto thee. If I would
declare and speak as them, they are more than can be numbered. Recognising a number of facts
with regards to the thoughts that God has towards David and
towards his children, first of all, we see quite clearly that
God's thoughts are personal. At the end of the psalm he says,
The Lord thinketh upon me, in all his great purpose, God adds
David in his mind's eye. And God, of course, always considers
his children as the apple of his eye. His thoughts towards
them are very personal. Has he not made a personal choice
of each and every one of them? In another of the Psalms, David
describes that blessed man And who is the blessed man? It is
that man whom God has shed his love upon. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and caused us to approach unto the... When we come to the New Testament
and we see God manifest in the flesh and we read in the Gospels
of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, do we not see how that
is a very personal ministry when Christ goes up into a mountain
and calls his apostles to, how he speaks to them and addresses
them and names them individually, and when the Lord sends them
out and they are enabled to do many mighty works and they come
back and they recount to him something of what they've been
enabled to do. Remember how Christ speaks to
them on that occasion. He says, rather rejoice because
your names are written in heaven. All God's thoughts of his people
are so personal. Every one of those whom he has
set his love upon, their names are written. They are written
in heaven, written in the Lamb's book of life. He knows them. And he has known them, of course,
from all eternity. We know that God is the one who
knows all things. He knows the end from the beginning. He dwells outside of time. From eternity he beholds time
from its beginning to its end. and that God who is the Eternal
One has known his people, therefore from everlasting. We are told
there in that wonderful 8th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans,
whom he did for love. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son. What lies behind God's great
purpose of predestination is that particular knowledge that
He has of each and every one of those who are the election
of Christ. It's not just God foreseeing
it, but God having that intimate knowledge of them. His thoughts
then are very personal thoughts. that he bears towards his children. The Lord thinketh upon murder. And as God's thoughts are so
personal, we also see that they are clearly pre-eminent. We cannot really begin to conceive
those thoughts that God has towards his children. For my thoughts
are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord, for as the heaven is higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts. There's a wonder with regards
then to the way in which God is pleased to think upon his
children. There's a mystery in the way
in which God is pleased to deal with his children. and we were
reminded that of course just now as we sang that remarkable
hymn of William Copeland's, God moves in a mysterious way his
wonders to perform all the wonder that we see then in the thoughts
that God bears towards his children. Thy thoughts which are to us
what they cannot be reckoned of in order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, says David, they are more than can be numbered." Such
preeminent thoughts. And then also, in these thoughts
that God bears towards his people, we need to recognise the fact
that God ever always has a gracious end in view. Oh, there is a great
purpose that God is accomplishing. As we said, he knows the end. From the beginning, what does
he say to his ancient people? At the time of the Babylonian
captivity, when the armies of the Babylonians had come and
laid siege to Jerusalem, and the city destroyed, and the temple
razed to the ground, and the people removed into exile. Yet through his servant, the
prophet Jeremiah, God says, I know, I know the thought that I think
towards you. thoughts of peace and not of
evil, to give you an expected end. Isn't that the great mystery
of God and the dealings of God, His ways at times seem so contrary
to His people, the way in which He deals with them, the things
that He brings them into, the circumstances, the situations
that we find ourselves in, and yet there is that expected end. He's dealing with His people,
why? He has to deliver us from our own foolish thoughts and
our own foolish wires. The psalmist again tells us,
the Lord knows the thoughts of the wicked that they are vanity.
God sees the vanity that is in the minds of the people. the vain thoughts of those who
are in positions of influence and authority. God sees all their
false reasonings, all their foolish schemes. God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thought of his heart was evil continually. And yet in
spite of all the thoughts and all the machinations of men and
all their scheming, yet God is the one who is sovereign in all
these things, and His good pleasure must be accomplished. The wise
man tells us in the Proverbs, there are many devices in a man's
heart, nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand. God's thoughts will and must
be accomplished. there will be that expected end. All God's thoughts towards his
people, and these thoughts, as I said, lie behind those wonderful
works that we read of at the beginning of the text. Many, O Lord my God, are my wonderful
works which thou hast done, and my thoughts. And so, considering
the second place, something of the works, of course. the works
of God. I'm thinking particularly of
that work that he does in the souls of his people. When God's
thoughts begin to have their accomplishment in the way in
which he deals with his children. What does God bring into the
soul of those who are the election of grace? He brings to them a
spiritual awakening. there is then that sense of their
sinnership, that conviction of their sins. And David says here
in verse 12, For innumerable evils have compassed me about,
my iniquities have taken hold upon them, so that I am not able
to look up, they are more than the hairs of my head, therefore
my heart faileth me. Where did David learn such a
lesson as that? It was the work of God. As God began to deal with him,
he was brought to see his real need. At the end of the psalm
he says, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Now at my help and my deliverer,
make no tarrying, O my God." He learns then something that
is true, states his real condition. He was a sinner. And it's remarkable
the language of the employees there in verse 12 as he speaks
of that work that God had worked in his soul, that work of conviction. What does he say? Innumerable
eagles accompanied me about. He was encompassed. We see something similar in the
experience of Jonah in his disobedience as he flees from the presence
of God and the Lord pursues him, remember? he was disobedient
to the heavenly command he was to go to Nineveh but instead
of going east he flees west even as far as Parshish or Spain but
the Lord pursues him in that ship sends a great storm and
you are familiar with the detail how Jonah is cast overboard and
swallowed by a great fish, and is in the belly of the fish three
days and three nights. And there in the second chapter
of Jonah we have his prayer, that remarkable prayer of Jonah
out of the fish's belly. And he says this, the waters
compassed me about, even to the salt. The depth closed me round
about, and the weeds were wrapped about my head. Here he is encompassed. And he reaches even to the depths
of his soul. It's not just a physical experience
that he's describing. This is his spiritual state.
And it's not dissimilar then to what David is describing in
the 12th verse of our psalm. Innumerable evils encompass me
about. Or David, you see, is encompassed
by what he is as a sinner. This is God working in the man's
soul. Iniquities prevail against me.
As for our transgressions, thou wilt purge them of wine. But not only is this man aware
of sin as something that is encompassing him on every hand, sin has also
seized hold of him. Sin has seized him. Now, all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that men in
general are unaware of what their real condition is. They have
no sense of their sinnership. They are dead in trespasses and
sins. But what does David say? Besides
these innumerable evils encompassing him, he says, my iniquities have
taken hold upon them. They have finished it. He has
such an acute aware of what he is before God. Remember how Nathan
had come to him when he was guilty in the matter of Bathsheba and
Uriah the Hittite? And how faithful the prophet
had been, he had fingered the very conscience of the king when
he said, Thou art the man. Oh God arrested him. God seized
hold of him by the word of the prophet and we see how in his
great penitential psalm, in Psalm 51, David is brought to acknowledge
what his sin was against thee. He says to God against thee,
The only vice sinned and done this evil in thy sight. How he
was seized, you see, seized by the hand of God. made aware of
what he was before the holiness of God. And it's not dissimilar,
is it, with regards to the experience of Saul of Tarsus, when he was
brought under that conviction of sin, when the Lord, as it
were, arrested him there at the very gate of Damascus, where
he was bent upon the destruction of the Christians. And he says
to the Philippians, I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. I am apprehended. The word literally means to lay
hold on, to seize. That was Paul's experience. The
Lord arrested him in his sin and brought conviction into his
soul. Thus the eternal counsel ran. Almighty love arrests that man. was what God did also with David. My iniquities, he says, have
taken hold upon me. And he continues, so that I am
not able to look up. He is so bowed down, he is so
burdened, because of his sin, he cannot look up, he is astray.
as he comes before God and as he waits upon God here in this
particular psalm, as he cries and prays and pleads with God,
how can he look up when he has such a sense of what he is in
the sight of the Holy One of Israel? We see the same, do we
not, in that publican of whom the Savior speaks. Standing afar
off, says Christ, He could not lift up so much as his eyes unto
heaven, that smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me,
a sinner. Oh, he couldn't look up. He's
so burdened, so troubled, just like David. I am not able to
look up. This is the work of God. This is the work of God in the
soul of a man. This is that wonderful work of
God that we read of here in our text when God comes and has such
dealings with the sinner. And then also we see David so
overwhelmed by this experience. I am not able to look up, he
says, because of his sins. They are more than the hairs
of my head, therefore my heart Finally, the margin tells us
that the Hebrew literally is, forsaketh me. My heart forsaketh
me. He struck down. He struck down
again. His heart has failed him. This
is the experiencing of David, the man after God's own heart.
When God is pleased to come and do his great work in the soul
of the sinner. It's overwhelming, it's an overwhelming
experience that David is describing, surely it is. And it's not just
here, it's there also in other of the Psalms, of course in Psalm
38. He says there at verse 7, My
loins are filled with a lonesome disease and there is no silence
in my flesh, I am feeble and sore broken. I am wrought by
reason of the disquietness of my heart." Overwhelmed, overwhelmed,
he feels himself to be in a horrible pit. He's sinking in the miry
fire. This is that one, you see, who
has such a sense under God's hand of himself and his sin. To cease in smart but slightly
too old confession is easier still, but all to feel cuts deep
beyond the expression, and David feels it. He feels it. But then, it doesn't end there,
does it? That's the dark side of his experience. But there was also deliverance
for this man. As he says in verse 2, he brought me up, also out
of a horrible pit. and out of the mighty clay, and
set my feet upon a rock, and established my going, and he
hath put a new song in my mouth, he even prays unto our God, many
shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. Isn't this
part of the wonderful works of God, that when he brings real
conviction into the soul of the sinner, When he shows the sinner
something of himself, the Lord also, in his mercy, gives him
a sight of that great salvation. He shows him the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so, it is another aspect of God's wonderful work. Not
just the conviction of the sinner, but also the salvation of the
sinner. And the sinner thus dealt with,
thus saved, is that blessed man that we read of in verse 4. Blessed
is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not
the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. His trust, you see,
is in the Lord. And we observe that it's the
covenant name, it's the covenant name, Lord, in capital letters,
which is indicative in the authorised version that this is the name
Jehovah, the God of the covenant, does he not say when he comes
to the end of his days that this was all his salvation,
this was all his desire, the covenant? He has made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things ensured. This is
all my salvation, and all my desire. His salvation is altogether
outside of himself. All his salvation is in God. And so he hath cried, this man, He respects us, not the proud.
He turns away from the proud, the self-righteous. This is one,
you see, who knows nothing of creature strength. He can do
nothing to help himself. What he says there in verse 12,
those are sincere words. He has been so utterly overwhelmed
by what God has shown him, what God has worked in his soul, he
can see no hope at all in himself. That's the end of all pride,
is it not? This is a man who is truly humbled before the Lord. And he rejects all lies. rejects the man who would say
that it's his duty to believe that there's something for him
to do in order that salvation might come to his soul, he is
made to feel his complete and utter impotence, the helplessness
of his condition because of his sins. And this is the way God
deals with his people. We see it time and again in the
scriptures, do we not? Moses in Psalm 90 says of God
and the ways of God and the dealings of God thou turnest man to destruction. And that was David's experience
also. He was brought to destruction,
the end of self. He had to learn that he was all
weakness in himself. Thou turnest man to destruction
and so is return you children. For God has to work effectually
and mightily and cause the sinner to come to Him. We see the same
in Psalm 88, the experience of Heman. I am shut up, he says,
and I cannot come forth, I cannot deliver myself. When God came
to Heman and shut him up to what he was, shut him up to his sinnership,
shut him up to his native unbelief, How could you deliver him, sir?
Paul tells us, before faith came we were kept under the law, shut
up to the faith which would afterward be revealed. Shut up to our unbelief,
waiting for God to come and work that true faith, that saving
faith in the soul. And this is David also here in
the psalm, I waited patiently for the Lord, you see. Now look
at what the margin says. There's a repetition really in
the original here according to the margin. David says, in waiting
I waited. In waiting I waited for the Lord. And they bring it out of course
in the expression that we have in the text. It's patient waiting.
It's real waiting. And that patient waiting you
know is not passive. The man who is really waiting
on the Lord isn't doing nothing at all. This is the man, you
see, who knows some real exercise in his soul. As he waits, so
he cries and calls. He inclined unto me and heard
my cry, says God. He didn't just do nothing at
all. As he saw himself, he was brought to see what he was before
God, He cries out. He cries out for mercy. This is waiting there, not in
unbelief, but this is a waiting in faith and in hope. He says later in verse 13, Be pleased,
O Lord, to deliver me, O Lord, make haste to help me. Oh yes,
he's waiting patiently, but he wants God to come with all speed,
he wants God to visit him, not at some distant date, he wants
God to come immediately. He wants God to come to him with
some urgency. And so right at the end, what
does he cry out? Thou art my help and my deliverer,
make no tarrying, O my God. Here we see then something of
God's work in the soul of the sinner, in bringing that sinner
to conviction, in awakening him in his soul, in causing him to
cry to God, to call upon God. And this man, you see, he cannot
come short It's not enough to know what he describes to us
in verse 12, that sense of his sin. It's not enough to know
he's a sinner. He needs to know that he's a saved sinner. He
needs to know what it is to be the blessed man, that happy man. In verse 4, the man that maketh
the Lord is Christ. All his confidence, all his faith
is there. All his salvation comes from
the Lord. Well, we sought to say something
with regards to the works of God, the thoughts that God has
towards a man, and the work that God is pleased to do in the soul
of a man. But I want, in the second place,
to consider the verse in another way, because surely here We have
reference to the works of the Lord Jesus Christ in particular.
This psalm is a psalm of David, but it's a prophetic psalm. It's a messianic psalm. It's
a psalm that really is speaking, not so much of David, but speaking
of David's greatest psalm. He directs us to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We have those words following
the text. verse 6, sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire,
mine ears are so open, good offering and sin offering are so not required,
then said I, though I come, in the volume of the book it is
written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea thy law
is within my heart. Now, we know from the New Testament
that that applies ultimately to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul,
when he writes to the Hebrews, here in Hebrews chapter 10, in verse 5, following he speaks
of Christ when he cometh into the world, he says And then we
have a quotation from Psalm 40. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast no pleasure then, said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God. This Psalm speaks to us of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the blessed man. Blessed is that
man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the
proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Friends, that blessed
man is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the man,
even the man Christ Jesus, the only mediator between God and
men. And so, here in the text, many,
O Lord, my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done. And did we not sing it just now
in that lovely 88th hymn of Joseph Hart concerning the wonder of
God's works and the greatest of those works that we witness
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, how wondrous are the
works of God displayed through all the world abroad, immensely
great, immensely small, yet one strange work exceeds them all."
And this is the work. Almighty God sighed, human breath,
the Lord of life experienced death. How it was done, we can't
discuss, but this we know it was done for us. In his highest
work, Redemption, see his glory in a blaze, says another hymn
writer, William Gadsby. It is that great work and the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have here in the text. Now what is that work of Christ?
Well, there is the life that he lived. And what life was it
that he lived? It was the righteous life. It was a
life of obedience to all the commandments of God. In the Incarnation we see him
as one who is made of a woman. The woman, remember, was first
in the transgression. And Christ is made of the woman. In that sense he has no human
father, though he has a human mother. It is the Holy Ghost
who comes upon the Virgin Mary and what is conceived in her
womb He is the Son of God. That which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God. It is God now in human flesh,
in possession of a human body and a human soul, made of a woman. But Paul also says He is made
under the law. He is subject to the law of God. He is obliged to obey every commandment
of that Lord of God. And that's the very thing that
he does. He says here at verse 9, I have
preached righteousness in the great congregation. Though 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 Conceal thy loving
kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. How the Lord
lived his life. And he lived that life before
the face of the people, before the face of men. He wrought such
a righteousness. He says, of course, in verse
8, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within
my heart. My meat is to do the will of
him that sent me and to finish his work. There is that aspect
to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ that we see in the life
that he lives. Yes, he comes ultimately to die,
but first he lives the life. And that life is vitally important
for the sinner, is it not? It is in that life that Christ
accomplishes the righteousness with which he will clothe his
people. That robe of righteousness, those
garments of salvation, how all was accomplished by Christ as
he obeyed every commandment of God, every precept of God, as
he honoured the Lord, as he magnified the Lord, the only sinless man
that has lived. For though the first Adam, of
course, was sinless at his creation when he comes pristine from the
hand of his maker, yet Adam sinned, Adam fell, Adam became the fallen
creature, the sinful man. But the Lord Jesus Christ, preserved
from every taint of original sin in the miracle of his virgin
birth, that holy thing that shall be born of the that holy human
nature shall be called the Son of God and so he was righteous
in his life he did the will of the Father
he was obedient and obedient unto death even the death of
the cross and so the act of obedience is but a part of the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ and is also is substitutionary death
as he gives that righteousness to his
people as that righteousness of Christ wrought in his life
is imputed to their account so in that blessed exchange all
their sins are reckoned to his account and Christ comes to die
in the room of the sinner He comes to die that great substitutionary
death for the sinner. He has made Him to be sin for
us, says Paul. Un unos sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. All we read of God, you
see, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. He is a sinless one. There is no cause of death in
him. It is the soul that sins that
dies. Death is the wages of sin. How can this sinless man die
then? Well, he dies to atone for sins
not his own. And there we see him all together
identified with the sinner. Doesn't verse 12 in this psalm,
if it's Messianic, apply to Christ? This is Christ. Innumerable evils
encompass 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 my head. Therefore my heart pales before
the burden of sin that is laid upon me. As he bears that punishment
that was due to his people. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver
me. O Lord, make haste to help me, Christ. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? This is the great work that Christ
accomplished here upon the earth. And I say it is Christ that we
must ultimately recognise in our text this morning. all those
thoughts of God, that great purpose of grace that God had before
the foundation of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, that Lamb
of God, slain from the foundation of the world, the greatest of
all the works of God. Many, O Lord, my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to us, for they cannot be reckoned up in order unto If
I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can
be numbered. The great purpose of salvation
is what we see here, and we see it all accomplished in Christ. And surely it is to Christ that
we must look, if we would know that blessed deliverance that
was David's experience, to know that work of God in our own soul,
bringing conviction of sin, yes, but not leaving it there. To
know what it is to come in with that blessed man, that make of
the Lord his trust and respect of not the proud nor such as
turn aside to lies. God grant then that it might
be ours, that we might know such a blessed experience as we see
here in the text. go back to the sea-swallow.