Alright, brethren, we're going
to get started. Let's turn to Psalm 71. Psalm 71. When I was looking at this psalm,
apparently there's some controversy as to who the author of this
psalm is. And that's because typically
they open with sort of a header, a title, and it oftentimes, either
by the circumstance or it says outright who the author is. If you look at Psalm 70 there,
It says, to the chief musician, a psalm of David to bring to
remembrance. And this one doesn't have any
title like that at all. It's just Psalm 71, and then
it begins. And so they wonder, well, did
David write this? Because normally he writes this. You know, there are a few others
that lack it, but it does appear to be David to me. If you look
over at Psalm 72, we see that it says a Psalm for Solomon. And so the reason why that's
important is because this Psalm is really written, appears to
be written by David in his old age. lived many years and was
getting up there now and growing weaker and reflecting upon his
life, upon the life, his life in the Lord and what the Lord,
how the Lord had blessed him and been with him all this time
and so the fact that 70 Psalm 72 says it's a Psalm for Solomon
you can see there that David as an aged man is is drawing
near to the end of his days and he's contemplating and thinking
about the Lord and and how the Lord has been toward him, his
help and his comfort. And, you know, Psalm 72 is he's
handing off the baton, if you will, to Solomon, who's now going
to lead the people of the Lord. And, you know, Paul would write
a similar letter in the close of his life. in Second Timothy. He would write there at the end
of his life, it's believed to be his last letter written, if
not, definitely one of the last ones, if not the last letter
that he wrote, and he wrote it to Timothy, his son in the faith. Paul is his spiritual father,
right? He preached the gospel to Timothy
when he was a young man. He preached the gospel to his
mother and his grandmother, and Timothy heard him preach the
gospel, and the Lord revealed faith in Timothy, and Timothy
was a believer, and Timothy now was a minister in the faith,
in that gospel, and Paul is saying, you know, my time's drawing near. My time's almost at an end, and
Timothy, you're now going to fight the fight that I've been
fighting for so long, but my time is finished here. And I
was thinking about the fact that it's not lost on me that we lost
two very prominent, preeminent men, one in 2019 and one in 2020,
and faithful men who preached the gospel and You know, they both passed away.
And I say, you know, preeminent, it's not that there's not other
men who we don't look at and say, wow, we are so blessed when
we hear them preach the gospel. They're so faithful. There's
many talented and gifted men who are yet here among us and
preaching the gospel. But those preeminent men were
used mightily of the Lord and a lot of us heard the gospel
for the first time hearing one of them preach the gospel and
they were used, there's no question, they were used in their day to
fight the fight that was given to them in their day. It marks the fact that, you know,
there's a battle in our day. There's now, you know, the battlefields
change, the lines get redrawn and the commanders on each side,
perhaps those, you know, captains, if you will, and generals on
the battlefield, they change out and those things vary. Those things change, right? The
fight that the Lord has for us is, different in our day, perhaps,
than what it was in their day. The specific arguments and the
challenges, the lies being brought against the truth may change,
but one thing does not ever change. And that's the ensign, the banner
under which the children of God, the army of God marches under.
that never changes it's it's the Lord and that's what Paul
was saying to Timothy he said in 2nd Timothy 1 12 I know whom
I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I have committed unto him against that day and you know
that's what the aged believer feels, and that's their hope. You aged saints, as you're passing
on, your hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know that the
fight is going to rage on after you're gone, and it's going to
be young saints carrying that forward. And the one thing that
the aged saint does is they point the younger brethren to the banner,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our hope and he's the one
whom we've committed all things to. And we've learned that, right? We've grown in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We thought we understood
that in our youth, right? When we first believed, we were
excited and zealous, and we thought we looked to the Lord and trusted
Him, and we did, we did. The Lord is the one who reveals
that faith in us, but we grew, right? We learned some things
under the teaching of the Lord. And so, That's what we see here
in this psalm. And any aged saint can look at
this psalm and say, yep, that's my experience. That's what the
Lord has taught me. And any young saint, any young
person here who's a believer, they will find it to be true. they'll find it to be so in their
lives, because it's the Lord who does not change. He's the
one that we commit all things to, and he's going to teach the
younger ones just as he's taught the older believers. Now, I've titled this, The Prayer
of the aged saint, the prayer of the aged saint. So basically
the first four verses, we won't be able to look at every verse
here, but the first four verses are the prayer. He opens in prayer,
this saint opens in prayer and we see this saint looking to
and asking the Lord for help. In their hour of need, in their
time of need, they're looking to the Lord and they're confessing
their hope in the Lord, that He is their trust. The Lord is the trust of the
believer. He says in verse 1, In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be put to confusion. Whether you're on the doorstep
of death or you're still young and feel like you have your whole
life in front of you, you that are the children of God, you
that have a hope in Christ, He is your trust. He's your confidence. He's more our trust and confidence
than we often know or feel it to be so. He is our trust. And I think the young people,
they struggle with this because it feels like you have so much
ahead of you, so many opportunities. You feel strong, right? Oftentimes,
young people are healthy, they have a tremendous amount of energy,
they have ideas and visions, and they've not suffered the
challenges and the difficulties and the setbacks that the agency
has, right? And so they're looking at their
life with a tremendous amount of opportunities, and they're
looking at it with great excitement, right? If you make a misstep,
you can often recover from it. You know, when you're young,
you can say, well, this career proved to be a dead end for me.
I'll just change it up and do something else. And at least
in this land, at least for the moment, you can be quite successful
As with an entrepreneurial mindset or just a little bit of hard
work to get you going, you can often get yourself going again.
But the problem there with the young person is because they
have so many opportunities and because they have this energy
and health and so many things going for them, it seems, they
often don't want to fix their hope in the Lord at such an early
age. They want to just go out and
experience things and do what all their friends are doing who
have no hope in the Lord. But the believer believer, the
one who the Lord has called and has revealed Christ to them,
doesn't matter how old they are in the flesh, when they've been
tried, when they've been put through affliction, what is one
thing that we realize is we come to know just how weak and how
needy we are for the Lord's grace and for His comfort to hear Him
speak to me, Lord. We can go a long time when things
are going well and not give it another thought when we haven't
really heard the Lord speak to us. But when you come into affliction,
and when you come into trouble, you realize, I feel like I haven't
heard the Lord speak a word to me in a long time. And you begin
to feel that dryness, that desert in the soul, and you feel just
how in need you are of the Lord's mercies and help. And you desire Him. You're hungering. You're reading His word. You
want to hear from from him. You want to be comforted by his
word. You want to go and hear the gospel. You want to be comforted
by what he's prepared for you that day. And you're going hopeful
that he's going to speak to you that morning or that evening. All right. And, you know, Jeremiah,
he was a prophet of the Lord. And I don't know when it sounds
like he was fairly young when the Lord began to speak to him
and prepare him and send him out with the word for the people
from the Lord. And he saw what was coming upon
Jerusalem and he was very troubled by it. And then he lived to see
it. He lived to see what the Lord had given him to say to
the people. And he wrote the book of Lamentations
as well as Jeremiah. He also wrote that tiny book
of Lamentations that follows Jeremiah. And in chapter 3, verse
27 through 31 in Lamentations, he writes, it's good for a man
that he bear the yoke in his youth. It's good to bear the
weight of that yoke. his youth, that his legs learn
how to firm up and strengthen under that heavy load while he's
still young. It says, he sitteth alone and
keepeth silence because he hath borne it upon him. He put it
his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. You know,
think of an oxen with that yoke and plowing that field with the
head down, just silently going across that field and plowing
those deep lines, which is planted in hope that it's going to yield
seed. It's going to bring forth fruit
in the time of harvest, right? And it's just breathing that
dust as it's being kicked up. And that's the picture here that
that young man is just He has that taste of the dirt and the
dust in his mouth. It's a humble, humble place,
but Jeremiah says it's good. It's good for that young man
to bear that. It says, he giveth his cheek
to him that smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach. That means he's suffering humility.
He's experiencing things that humble him, that show him that
he is but a man, that he can't always just do what he wants
to do or thinks he can do, but he's going to learn that He has
his place, and what he has is of the Lord, and that he needs
the Lord. And what he learns through that
is what's said in verse 31, that the Lord will not cast off forever. And that's a good thing to learn
at a young age, that even though we go through trials and difficulties
and afflictions, we aged saints and you that have spent any time
in the Lord, you've realized there's a day of rejoicing. There's
a day of gladness and comfort and peace when the Lord visits
me in that hour and raises me up and comforts me. And so, That's
our experience and that's what the Lord is teaching us so that
we learn, Lord, you are my trust. You're my trust, not my strength,
not my youth, not my opportunities. They're not my trust. You, Lord,
are my trust. And that's what he's bringing
all his saints to see, to look to him. You know, David, When
you think of David, as a young man, he was the youngest of his
siblings. And so he caught a lot of flack
just for that. They gave him a lot of heat for
that. And when he came up to, when
they were in battle under Saul, he comes up there and his brethren
accused him of just causing trouble, just up there to see the battle
and see what's going on. And he cries out, is there not
a cause? Is there not a reason for me
being here? He says, and then after he caught
the eye of Saul by being valiant in battle and defeating Goliath
and turning the battle so that Israel won that day, eventually
Saul despised David and tried to kill him, right? Tried to
thrust him through with a spear. And then on a couple of occasions,
two times, he fled from the presence of Saul. And Saul pursued him
all over the countryside and through the mountains and looked
for him to kill him, right? And David saw priests, right,
who had pity on him, who had mercy on him and gave him food
when he was hungry, food that was not lawful for them to give
him. but they fed him that he might have something to bring
to those vagabonds and peoples cast out from society that joined
themselves to him. They gave him something. And
for their reward, they were killed by Saul for helping David. And
they did it not even aware necessarily of what David, that he was fleeing
from Saul, right? And then he experienced chastening
under the hand of the Lord, severe chastening for his sin that he
committed in committing adultery with Bathsheba, and then having
her husband murdered that he might cover over his sin. The
Lord chastened David. He knew it was coming. He chose
it to come because he said, I'd rather have the Lord than be
left to the hands of wicked men. He was chastened by suffering
enduring a coup later on in his years, right? When he was getting
tired and weary, he suffered a coup by his own son, Absalom. And so David experienced a lot
of things in his day, in his life, but through it all, he
understood and knew the Lord is my trust. He's my hope. And he casted himself upon the
Lord for his mercy. And he prays there in verse two,
he says, deliver me in thy righteousness and cause me to escape. And what the Lord does is we,
through the trials and through the challenges and sufferings
and afflictions that we endure and the persecutions that we
endure, what the Lord is proving to us, what He's revealing, He
knows what He's done for us. He's revealing to us the faith
that He's worked in us. He's revealing His work. And
he's making it known to us that Christ is our all. And that's
what he's shown to us. That's what he's bringing to
our attention. Now turn over to 1 Corinthians
10, 12 through 13, regarding this escape that the Lord brings
to us. It's 1 Corinthians 10. What the
Lord is is delivering us from is the judgment which comes upon
the inhabitants of the earth who know not God. He's delivering
us from that judgment which is falling on them. Many people,
many wealthy or successful people, Not all, but many of them don't
know the Lord. They have no hope in the Lord.
They have no comfort or peace from the Lord. And while they
seem to do well here in the earth, if they continue in that, if
they are not given deliverance, if the Lord doesn't give them
repentance, then they're going to suffer a miserable eternity
separated from the Lord. And so here he says in 1 Corinthians
10, he gives first a warning to those that are confident,
those that have not yet learned humility, that haven't experienced
those difficulties and challenges. He says, verse 12, wherefore
let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. That's
a good thing for especially young saints to learn, who have so
much confidence and so much success and so many opportunities before
them. And then he gives a word of encouragement to you that
have suffered, to you that are put in the press and are going
through the difficulties and feeling the infirmity of your
flesh. To them, he says, you that are calling upon the Lord
and looking to Him, he says, there hath no temptation taken
you but such as is common to man. God is faithful. God is faithful. Our Lord would
have us to hear He is faithful. He is our trust. We can depend
upon Him. He's faithful. Who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the
temptation also make a way of escape that ye may be able to
bear it." So we're not going to come into ruin. We that are
the Lord, you're not going to suffer hell. Our Savior suffered
that for us, that we would be delivered from it and have hope
in our God who testifies to us that all who trust in Him and
look to Him, they shall never be ashamed. And he is our confidence
and our hope, all right? So that's what he's shown us
that our God deserves all our trust. He's worthy of our trust. He's certainly earned it more
than enough because we're nothing and yet he keeps us. He keeps
us ever looking to him. It isn't our strength and our
might that keeps us looking to Christ. It's his faithfulness
to us. And even when we're faithless,
he yet remains faithful because he cannot deny himself and he
has a people whom he loves whom he purposed to save from all
eternity and he shall never let them go they shall never be taken
from his hand and so there is no temptation that hath taken
you which is not common to man and he's given you the hope of
the believer to look to Christ and trust Him and you shall see
it all leads to the salvation of your soul. It's all for your
good and for your comfort. And so when the psalmist here
says, deliver me in thy righteousness, It, you know, the world teaches,
well, that's, that's, you know, we've got to be righteous. We've,
we do have to be righteous, right? But they've put the focus on
your works, your works in religion and, and, and that you've got
to make yourself appear righteous before the Lord or else he's
not going to do this for you. But what David is saying and
what the believers hope is, is that Christ is my righteousness. I have no righteousness of my
own. He's my all, and that's what the Lord is showing us,
that our deliverance, our standing before Him, our comfort and hope
and confidence is not because I myself am righteous and I've
done good works, but because He is righteous. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God, has been sent of God and lay down
his life willingly to put away my sin, that I might have this
hope in God and confidence in him, and know that I shall not
be destroyed with the wicked, but I shall be delivered in that
day and stand with my God in righteousness. All right, verse
two there at the end, it says, incline thine ear unto me and
save me. All right, bend your ear to me,
Lord, stooped down and listened to me, an unworthy sinner, hear
me, Lord, my cry for help. Hear me, Lord, save me. And I was thinking, you know,
who of us could be so confident as to ask the Lord, incline thine
ear to me, right? Because at any given moment,
the thoughts in my head or the thoughts in my heart I'd be ashamed,
right? There's a lot of times when we're
complaining or bitter or we're just thinking of worthless things
of the earth. And what if the Lord tuned in
right then? What if he heard right then and was listening
to the thoughts of my heart and the thoughts of my mind? There's
not a lot of confidence in what we think. So how could the psalmist
here pray, incline thine ear unto me and save me, Lord? Well, it's because that hope,
it's all founded upon Christ. Our standing, our righteousness,
everything that we have to come before the Lord in confidence
and boldness is found in Christ our Savior. And so, first of
all, our Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ has reconciled us so that
we have fellowship. We can come and ask the Lord
to hear my prayer, to save me, help me, Lord. We can ask him
for that. Christ has established that.
We are reconciled to the Father. There's nothing more that we
need to pay or do before he will hear us and receive us in his
presence. But as you progress through the
psalm, as you're reading it, for example, when you get up
to verse five, it becomes clear that the voice that our God,
God the Father, is hearing when we're saying, incline your ear
unto me, save me Lord the voice he's hearing is the voice of
his darling son that's the voice our voice becomes his voice right
or his voice becomes our voice is really the right way to say
it and listen to this verse 5 for thou art my hope oh Lord God
thou art my trust from my youth now who can say that perfectly
but the Lord Jesus Christ Who can speak like that in perfect
righteousness but Christ our Savior? Verse 6, By thee have
I been holden up from the womb. Thou art he that took me out
of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually
of thee. That's the voice of Christ, and
that's the voice that our Father hears when He inclines His ear
to hear us when we're crying out, save me, Lord. He's hearing
my praise shall be continually of Thee. When we're saying, Lord, hear
me, He's hearing the voice of His Son. He's not hearing our
bitterness, our complaints, our sin, our faults. He's hearing
His Son. And what He delights in is what
we have been taught and made to delight in. We're looking
to Him, to our Savior, and we're rejoicing in Him and saying,
He's precious. He's my all, my hope, my joy,
my refreshing. Lord, you're everything to me."
And you know where the father's looking? He's looking also to
the son and saying, there's my precious son in whom I delight,
in whom I sent for the very purpose to give my people whom I love
hope. and joy and comfort. And so,
He's delighting in you because He's made you to delight in the
Son. We delight in the same thing.
We're both looking to and praising the Son. We're glorying in the
Son. He glorifies the Son before us
and He's blessing us in Christ because that's what He's purpose
that we should do, that we should glory in Him, not glory in ourselves,
not glory in our works, not glory in what we've done, but our glory
is in Christ. And so that's why we can pray,
Lord, hear me, save me, Lord, right, save me, because we know
He's saving us for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake. And that's
why we can believe Him and trust Him. And, you know, even when
we're weak and we're not where we should be, the Spirit maketh
intercession for us. Breathing out, groaning those
words which we cannot utter or know how to say in that moment
or say without any feeling, the Spirit intercedeth for us and
declares those praises to the Father. So your Savior is our
mediator. He's the one who stands between
us and the Father and that's why we can have such boldness
and confidence to trust Him and to believe Him. All right, now,
I should probably stop here because we've come to the end of our
time, but perhaps we'll pick this up again. But I would say,
I would encourage you, brethren, the Lord is our trust. He's our
hope. He's our confidence. Look to
Him, and He's teaching you. You that are His people, you
that are His children, whom He's loved from all eternity, That's
what he's teaching us and showing us, that he's our trust, our
confidence, and he's our all. So I pray he bless that word
to your hearts. All right, let's close in prayer.
Our blessed Lord, we thank you, Father, that you are our trust. And Lord, in this flesh, we don't
know this. Lord, we fall far short. of what your glory deserves. Lord, our hope and our confidence
is Christ. And Lord, we know and pray that
you would continue to teach us that you are our all, that you
are our trust and confidence. Lord, that we would ever look
to the son whom you've provided for our very salvation. And Lord,
We do this because we know that's where you continue to look. You're
not looking to us for righteousness. You look to your son for everything
we need, and we're so thankful for that. Help us, Lord, to serve
you and to walk in the light of your gospel that you've given
to us in Christ. It's in his name that we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Okay, brethren, so we'll come
back in 15 minutes, a couple minutes after the hour.