All right, brethren, I want to
look at Psalm 61 with you this morning. Brother Joe had read
for us on Tuesday night's message. He read from this psalm and I
was touched by seeing Christ our King in the last few verses
of the Psalm. And so I knew then that I wanted
to look at this Psalm more closely this week. And so I did that
and I was blessed in my heart. And I'd like to bring this word
to you this morning. Now, before we begin, if you
look at the beginning of the Psalm, where it says Psalm 61. Underneath there, you'll notice
there are some smaller words than what's in verse one. And
in this psalm, it says, it's to the chief musician upon Neganah,
a psalm of David. And so this wasn't inserted by
the publishers of the Bible that you're using, this was put there
by the author himself, in this case, David. And that word Neganah
jumped out at me because typically I'm familiar with the word Neganoth. And Neganoth is a plural form
of that word. You'll see it in Psalm 4 or Psalm
6, for example. It says Neganoth, and it's like
having the many instruments or the whole band playing that music
for this psalm. And David here puts Neganah. singular form of that word, and
what it signifies to us is the very quiet and personal nature
of this psalm between you and your God. It's like unplugging
from the guitar, the guitar from the amplifier. It's like picking
up a six-string guitar, an acoustic guitar, and playing the music
softly, unplugged. And so that's what this psalm
is. That's the nature of the psalm.
It's between you and your God. And so what I want for you as
believers to reflect on the goodness of your God, who hears your prayer,
who cares for you, his people, who preserves you and provides
all that you need through every trial and every affliction that
you go through. And so these words should comfort
you who are God's people. You people that are brought into
various afflictions and trials, this should be a comfort to you
because it's not, the answer of our prayer isn't because we've
done something or because we're worthy that it's because God
will be gracious to you in his son Jesus Christ so there's two
parts to this prayer there's there's the first four verses
which are prayer and then there's a break in in this after the
fourth verse it says sila there's a break there and then there's
a second half to this psalm and that second half rests on Christ
our Savior, our intercessor. We're heard for Christ's sake. So, in the beginning here of
this prayer, verse one, it reads, hear my prayer, O God, attend
unto, or hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. Now, there's an unspoken need
that the psalmist has here. We don't, we're not told exactly
what The reason is for him to cry out or to call out upon God,
yet it's an earnest request, and this is wrought in the heart
of the child of God. They're pressed, they're in sorrow,
they're in affliction, they're troubled, and they're crying
out to God to hear them and to help them. Understand that when believers
are brought into afflictions, when we have sorrows and difficulties
and trials and we're pressed in heart and we're pressed in
our spirit, know that it's because God has brought you there. God
has given you the trial. All our afflictions are according
to the divine appointment of Almighty Sovereign God. Nothing happens without His knowledge. Nothing happens except He wills
it to come to pass. Except He allows it and brings
it to you for your good. And the good, the first good
that we see in that is that we're driven to our God. That's a mercy. That's a grace of your God who
brings things to you. who brings things into your life,
who puts you into difficulties and brings you into these trappings
and these difficulties for the purpose of driving you to your
knees, to the throne of grace, crying out to the Lord, help
me, Lord. Remember me. Lord, I need your
help. I'm in great difficulty. I'm
struggling, Lord, and I'm not gonna make it. except you hear
me, except you answer my prayer and help me, Lord. And so when
you're brought into difficulties and trials and you're perplexed
or brought into great distresses, that shouldn't discourage you
from seeking the Lord. You who believe on him should
be encouraged to go to the Lord. You should be encouraged to go
to him and to cry out to him because it's for our good. It
drives us to seek our God. He brings it to us for us to
seek him and to call out to him. Our Lord was speaking to his
disciples and he gave them a parable. It's in Luke chapter 18, if you
want to look at it later. And the parable was given to
teach men that they ought always to pray, that they are to continue
in prayer and not to faint. And it was regarding a widow
and an unjust judge, meaning this was not a faithful man.
This wasn't a man who believed God or trusted God. But Christ
tells us that he answered the call. He answered the cry of
the widow. And a widow typically in our
minds is someone who doesn't have an advocate. She's a weak
person in herself, and she has no one to take up and to defend
her. And so she had to go to this
unjust judge. And the Lord tells us he heard
her. He finally answered her request because she continued
to ask him. And he said, well, she's wearing
me out. She's tiring me. And so I'm just
going to give her what she's asking for because I'm tired
of hearing from her. And Christ says, and shall not
God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though
he bear long with them? In other words, God's not gonna
be outdone by an unjust, wicked person. He's almighty, sovereign
God, and he's given you the trial and the burden of prayer that's
on your heart according to purpose, to drive you to his throne, to
cause you to feel your need of him, to know, Lord, if you don't
save me, if you don't help me, if you don't lift me up from
this and draw me to yourself I'm going to drown. I'm going
to drown. I'm going to, I'm going to die
in sorrow. And so it doesn't need to be
long words. It doesn't need to be pretty
words. It doesn't need to be a well thought out, organized
prayer. That's not what the Lord is looking
for. He's not looking for religion in you. He's looking for a broken
heart. and he brings you into the sorrow
to give you that broken heart and to make you cry out to him,
Lord, you're my God. And if you don't help me, I have
no one. I have no one to help me, Lord.
And so in that same chapter of Luke 18, we read of the Pharisee
who prayed and of the publican who prayed. The publican being
a sinner, one who is well known in the community to be a sinner. And all that the publican prayed
was, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And that was his prayer. And Christ said, that man went
down to his house justified. And that man went into the grave,
into lasting, eternal place of dwelling. He went to heaven justified,
justified with the Lord. And so it is that we can be religious,
we can be a Pharisee, we can be law keepers and think of ourselves
very highly and make lots of ornate and pretty prayers, but
they do nothing for us. That Pharisee, we're told, prayed
within himself. He was only heard by him. He
wasn't heard by God, but that one who was broken, that one
who was sorrowful, who prayed, Be merciful to me, a sinner."
That man was heard and went home justified. And so God is faithful
to bring his children into trials. He's faithful to bring us into
afflictions which reveal, Lord, I need you. I need a savior. I can't do this. I don't have
the wisdom. I don't have the strength. I
don't have the ability to to deliver myself. I don't even
know why this has come upon me, Lord, but help me, help me, save
me, Lord." Elihu was speaking to Job in the book of Job, and
this was after Job's other friends who didn't know the truth had
spoken, and Elihu said, the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath. Why? They cry not when God bindeth
them. So he binds you, he brings you
into trials and sorrows and afflictions and difficulties to cry out to
him, to make you cry out to him. And so that's why you go through
difficulties. That's why you go through trials.
It's not because he's laying stripes on you and beating you
and punishing you for sins and for things that you've done and
that you deserve. That's not why he's brought you into trial.
He brings you into trial to press you to say, Lord, I can't do
it myself. I need you. I need your grace. I need your Savior. I need your
salvation. So cry unto him. Ask him for
help. Ask him to answer your prayer. He's not bringing this
upon you to see how stoic, how mighty, how strong, how enduring
you are before you fall to your knees. That's not why he's doing
it. He's not looking for you to be great in this flesh. He's
looking to bring you into nothingness in yourself, to have no confidence
in the flesh, to cry out to him. He's your savior. And he tells
us and is teaching us always, without me, ye can do nothing. John 15, verse five, without
me, you can do nothing. And in verse seven of that same
chapter, He shows us what is produced in that. We cry out
to him, we pray to him so that he says, if ye abide in me and
my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall
be done unto you. You're gonna cry out and God's
gonna answer your prayer. And when you cry out, he teaches
us to cry out in accordance with his will. So that as we're crying
out and as he's bearing long with us, He is, by His Spirit,
teaching us what His will is, so that as He lifts us up and
raises us up in the arms of Christ, in the embrace of Christ, we're
made to see His will, to know that, you know what? I thought
I needed it answered this way, but now you show me Christ, and
Lord, I'm at peace, and I'm happy for how you've answered it. for
the peace that you've given to me in my heart and the comfort
I have that I am Christ's. And though things in this life
and in this world are chaotic and disrupted and not the way
I thought they should be, yet I have peace and joy because
I have fellowship with my God and his son. And that you don't
hold and count my sins against me, But for Christ's sake, you've
forgiven me and healed me and given me a new heart and a desire
to know you and love for you and that you love me. Thank you,
Lord. Thank you. And he brings his
child to to see that. So hear my cry, O God, attend
unto my prayer. He answers the prayer. And you
can ask any believer and they'll tell you, well, it wasn't the
way I thought it should be. It wasn't the way I first thought
it was going to be. And yet he's answered my prayer and I'm content.
I'm at peace with his grace and mercy for me, for Christ's sake. Then the Psalmist says in verse
two, from the end of the earth, will I cry unto thee, when my
heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than
I. Now, as I was reading this, It
seems that most commentators believe that David wrote this
later in life. David was an older man when he
wrote this Psalm and it was at the time when he had been driven
out from Jerusalem. His own son, Absalom, who he
loved, had turned on him and wanted to seize the throne and
was coming in with power and a lot of people on Absalom's
side so that David knew that if he stayed there, he would
be taken and put to death. And so David fled from Jerusalem. And now he, this is after the
fact that he's returning. He's the king being returned
to the throne because Absalom had been killed. But we're told
in Samuel, the book of first Samuel or second, I forget now,
but if we're told it by Samuel, And in Psalm 3, for example,
we know that David was tried that night. David was in great
difficulty. He was worried. He didn't know
if he was going to wake up the next morning, or if he would
be woken up by a spear being driven through his gut, or he
might be taken captive and brought to Absalom and there slain before
the throne that Absalom sat upon. And so he didn't know, and this
is what pressed him in prayer. And he says here in the Psalm,
this is what I'm getting to, is that he remembers it this
way. He said, from the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. David had been driven from Jerusalem. David had been driven from the
temple. That's where the people of God
worshiped God. That's where the sacrifices were. That's where the ordinances were. That's where the temple was and
where God would meet with his people in that temple and David,
was driven from that spot. And we can identify with that. When we're brought into difficulties,
we're driven from that place of peace and joy and comfort. We're moved from that area of
comfort that we like to be in. And when we're pushed out and
we're brought into difficulties, we're troubled and we're making
decisions from a place that we don't want to make decisions
for. And we're confused, and we're tried in that difficulty. And that's where David is. He's
out in the wilderness. And that's how we feel. Lord,
I'm at the end of the earth. I'm at my wit's end. I'm at the
end of my rope. And I'm about to perish, Lord.
And that's where David's crying from. And that's where he brings
his child to cry from. I'm far removed from my comfort
zone. I'm far removed from that place
of peace that I'm so been with you in, and now I'm out. I'm
out of sorts, Lord, and I don't know what to do. And the peace
for us is that David was heard there in the wilderness, and
God hears you in the wilderness. He hears you when you are at
the end of everything. When you're at the end of the
world, far, far away from where you would be, where you were
once comfortable and at peace and everything was well. It's
not like that now. And you're troubled, and you're
crying out to him, and God hears you. God hears you. He hears
your crying. He hears you crying out to him,
Lord, help me. Lord, save me. You think of that
Syrophoenician mother, Lord, help me. Help me, Lord. Heal my daughter. Lord, save
her. And that's where he brings you. You're not so far that God can't
hear you. You're not so far away that your
God does not hear your cry and your need of him. And so, trust
him. Even when you're driven far away
and when you have no peace or comfort, cry to him. Cry unto
your Savior, he hears your cry. The psalmist says, I will cry
to him when my heart is overwhelmed. Only he can help you. Only he
can save you. And he says, lead me, Lord, to
the rock that is higher than I. Lift me out of this trouble. You know, there's a variety of
things that can drive us away. In David's case, it was his own
sin. He was looking back. and remembering
this is what the Lord said to me would happen after he committed
adultery with Bathsheba and put her husband Uriah to death. And
so that was stinging David's conscience. He was remembering,
I'm here because of my sin. I'm here because of my sin. Sometimes
it's sin. Sometimes it's just to drive
you to your knees. And whatever the reason, God
hears the cry of his child who trusts him alone and knows, I
have nothing. I can't do this. Lord, save me.
Whatever reason you're there driven into the wilderness, God
hears the cry of his child. And he says, lead me to the rock
that is higher than I. Take me to the one who is my
salvation, that one who is lifted up, my glorious head, my lead
me to him, bring me to him, because in his arms, in his presence,
I have peace and comfort, even in the midst of the trial, even
in the midst of sorrow. And so there's no place that
we cannot reach the ear of our God for Christ's sake, for his
sake and what he's done. We're told in the book of Revelation,
It's in Revelation 7, it says, therefore are they before the
throne of God. And that's where God's people
are. You're before the throne of God, crying out to him. And
he hears your prayers because they have the savor of Christ. He is the incense by which our
prayers go up to the Father. And he hears them because of
Christ's sacrifice, because of Christ's blood and what he's
done for you. your prayers, your cry is heard. And in Revelation 7, 17, it says,
for the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed
them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And so wherever
you are, you're not out of earshot of the Lamb of God who provides
for you, who gathers you, who feeds you, who brings you to
living, refreshing waters, where he comforts you and gives you
peace and aid for your troubled soul. You know, Spurgeon gives
an illustration of a clergyman there in the United Kingdom.
They have a place on one of their coasts. I think he's describing
the Cliffs of Dover. He doesn't say it in the illustration,
but he describes it as a white, chalky rock. And so you can picture
those white cliffs of Dover shooting out of the ocean. And when sailors,
because they're a sea-faring nation, they depended on their
ships, when a ship went down off that coast, those sailors
died. Because even if they made it
to shore, there were the cliffs, and they couldn't climb those
cliffs and get out of the water until eventually they drowned.
And so this clergyman, took it upon himself to dig out, to carve
out stairs so that when those men went down and got to that
shore, they had a place, a refuge, that they could climb up those
stairs and go to a room that was carved out for them until
they could be saved and rescued from that spot. Christ is that
room, and he gives the stairs. He's provided that ladder. to
that open door in heaven, which is opened by Him. He is the door
opened, and He's provided Himself a sacrifice to put away your
sin and to lift you out who are drowning in the wrath of God
for your sin, to bring you up into safety. There's a verse in Song of Solomon
2.14 that says, that art in the clefts of the
rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance,
thy face. Let me hear thy voice, for sweet
is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. And that's what our
God says to us, to draw us to himself, and that's what we cry
out to him, Lord, meet me there, bring me, to that rock, to that
cleft of the rock. Lift me out of the waters of
wrath and trouble and difficulties, because I'm going to drown, Lord. Save me. Bring me up those stairs
to yourself and comfort me. Save me, Lord. Receive me. For
thou let me hear thy sweet voice and see thy sweet face. And so
this prayer, lead me to the rock that is higher than I, is given
to you, the children of God. who trust him and have faith
in him. It's given to you in grace to
move you to cry to him, to take your cares before the throne
of God and to cast them before him. And he tells us, because
he careth for you. And so you're brought into difficulties,
you're brought to cry out because he cares for you and wants to
hear your cry. is happy to hear your cry. He's
not troubled. He's not tired or wearied. He's
bringing you to cry out to him that you might know him and discover
the grace of God in Christ once and again. He says, verse three,
for thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from
the enemy. And what he's saying there is
I'm remembering. those past deliverances. I'm
reflecting on all those times that you provided for me, Lord.
And so I know that you shall provide again in Christ. I know where to come now. You've
taught me where to come. You've taught me to come to you.
And you showed me that you are salvation. And so Christ silences
the accuser, the accuser of our conscience, the accuser that
comes against us, that points out all our sins, all our failings,
all our foolishness. all the things that we've done
that we think has brought us there. And Christ silences those
and says, don't listen to that. You listen to me. You look to
me. I'm your salvation. I'm your
comfort. I'm your peace. I'm your all.
Christ has made all to his child. Now, there's a certainty here
from verse three, four, and five. The psalmist says, thou hast.
been a shelter for me. Verse four, he says, I will abide
in thy tabernacle forever. The tabernacle is Christ. We
abide in Christ ever, because he has put us in him. He says,
I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Christ, our salvation,
is the covert that God has sent, that God has provided to justify
us by the righteousness of Christ. We're not justified by our works.
We're not justified because we're good people. We're not justified
because we have done something to earn God's favor. We're justified
for Christ's sake. And Christ came to save sinners,
of whom we are brought to see and know, I'm the chief. I'm
the guilty one. I'm the one who's offended holy
God. Lord, save me. Remember me for Christ's sake. Don't look on my works. Don't
look on my righteousness. Take me, receive me in Christ's
righteousness. Receive me in his blood, which
was shed for sinners, for his people to put away their sin. And we cry out to him because
he regenerates us by his spirit of grace. That's why you cry
out to him, because he's given you a new birth in his son, And
so he says in Romans 10, 11, the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. You shall never be ashamed
trusting in Christ. You that trust in your own righteousness,
you will be ashamed. But you that trust in Christ
shall never be ashamed. Rest in him. And he says, for
thou, God, hast heard my vows. My vows are the promise of God
made to me Christ in Christ. It's what he's established in
the covenant of grace by his blood So that now I come to him
wanting to be found in him not having mine own righteousness
Which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ the righteousness, which is of God by faith and so in
my Lord my Savior is Christ thou has given me the heritage or
the inheritance of the saints in light, those that fear thy
name. Now, I had mentioned that at
the end of verse four, it has a break, and it has that word
silah, silah, which we believe to mean rest. There's a rest
there, there's a pause in that song, and the psalmist put it
there very appropriately, because really, verses one through four
is the cry of the burdened child of God. We're crying out to Him,
crying out, Lord save me, have mercy on me. And verses five
through eight are actually the intercessory prayer of your King,
of your Savior, of Him who sits at the right hand of the throne
of God, being received of Him, having done all the work to put
away your sin, having done everything to make you His own and to reconcile
you to holy God. for his sake, for his intercessory
prayer, that we are heard and that God receives us for Christ's
sake. And so let's look at this real
quickly. I won't be long. In verses five
through eight, it's as if he says, hear them, hear them, Father,
for thou, God, hast heard my vows. Thou hast given me the
heritage of those that fear thy name. These are my people, Father,
whom you gave to me before the foundation of the world. And
I came and paid my vows to be their shorty, their substitute,
to put away their sin, to make them righteous in my blood. Lord, hear them. Hear them, because
I've paid the vows. I've paid the price for them,
and they're mine. They're mine. Christ pleased
the Father well in everything. When he came, he did all the
will of the Father and came as our propitiation to turn the
wrath of God away from us. We were drowning in that sea
of wrath, and he lifted us up and took our place, and he bore
the wrath of God for us. For thou, O God, hast heard my
vows, my obedience, Christ says, and they're my regenerated souls. They live in me. They're hidden
me. They're mine and reconciled to
you. Hebrews 5.7 says, who in the
days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save
him from death, and was heard in that he feared. So even now, seated on the throne
on the right hand of God, he pleads for you his people. You shall never be lost. You
shall never be destroyed. You have no fear of the second
death because you have been made a partaker of the first resurrection
when he gave you his spirit because he paid for your sins and he
sent you his spirit to give you life, to regenerate you, to create
you in the image of his darling son. And he says, thou wilt prolong
the king's life. his years as many generations,
he shall abide before God forever. O prepare mercy and truth which
may preserve him, so will I sing praise unto thy name forever,
that I may daily perform my vows." Christ is your eternal advocate,
your eternal intercessor. That's never changing. You have
an eternal Savior, and so you are eternally saved, and that
shall never change. never change, God hears you always
for Christ's sake. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so Peter says this, 2 Peter
119, we have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye
do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in
a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your
hearts. Though you are in darkness now,
cry to him for help. He sent it to drive you to your
knees, to drive you to the throne, to cast your cares before him
because he careth for you. Amen. All right. Let's go to the Lord
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace. We thank you for the peace that
we have in your son. Lord, we thank you for this prayer,
this psalm that you've given to us. Lord, that we would see
and know that our difficulties and the wilderness that we find
ourselves in so often, Lord, it's given by your hand and you
mean it for our good. and for our grace to drive us
to your throne, to cry out to you for help. Lord, we see in
this your grace and your power, how that you do lead us to the
rock that is higher than we are, Lord. Lift us up, bring us into
Christ's bosom, into Christ's loving arms, and hold us there
in him, ever fed, ever comforted, made joyful and given peace in
Christ our Savior. It's in his name that we pray
and give thanks. And Lord, if there's any here
that are troubled and in great difficulties, that you would
comfort them and you would turn our eyes upon Jesus to behold
his complete salvation and to rest in him. For we shall never
be ashamed in Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen.