Or if you take your Bibles and
turn with me to Psalm 77. Psalm 77. We'll be looking at
this Psalm in its entirety. We'll take it in sections. And
I've entitled this message, A Transcript of Inner Conflict. We have before
us the man Asaph. Spurgeon said of Asaph, he is
a man that usually sings in a minor key. He's usually the man of
great sorrow, a man of great difficulty, a man of great trials
and troubles. And God has used this man for
us. God has put these Psalms in here
because He knows this, none of God's saints escape the sharp
and cutting wounds of dark providence. None of us. None of God's elect,
none of the beloved sons will fail to feel the chastening hand
of our God. None of those who are redeemed
by the blood of Christ will ever escape the warfare and inner
conflict we feel daily. The Scriptures are clear. The
Spirit lusteth against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit.
These two are contrary one to another so that you cannot do
what you want to. What do you want to do? I want
to worship God. What does the flesh do? It doesn't. I'm so
thankful that the flesh doesn't get what it wants. But I know
this, in my sadness, the spirit doesn't get what it wants. And
these two are warring constantly. So no believer escapes it. No
believer avoids all the snares and hatred and assaults of Satan
upon the soul. Every believer in Christ must
suffer great trials and afflictions as we journey to Zion, every
one of us. None of us escape these things. And when these afflictions, these
persecutions, these trials and pains and sorrows and tribulations,
when they come, are you not confused? Is that not usually the first
instinct, confusion as to why? You chose me, you redeemed me,
you called me, you keep me. Why do you allow these things
to come? We're confused. as to why God
should allow dark providences to come into our life. We have days of joy and strength,
don't we? We do. We have days of joy and
strength where our faith is strong. We sing songs like, I stand amazed
in the presence. When Jesus is present, we say,
I stand amazed in His presence of Jesus the Nazarene. and wonder
how He could love me a sinner condemned unclean. How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall
ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. When our days are strong, that's
a good song, isn't it? We like those days, but we don't
get to keep those days, do we? Scripture says we see Him through
a lattice. We see Him and then we don't. We see Him and then
we don't. The times of woe and sorrow, the times of pain are
sharp. The tears flow down like rivers.
Our hearts are melted like wax in the flame of affliction. What
do we sing then? Well, we sing this psalm. We sing this psalm. He said this,
I cried unto God with my voice. Even unto God with my voice He
gave ear. In the day of my trouble I sought
the Lord, my sore ran into the night, and it ceased not, my
soul refused to be comforted." Does that sound good? Does that
sound comforting? He's not comforted. He's not
comforted. In days of trouble and trials,
our sore affliction runs into the darkness of night. And listen,
he said, when I remembered God, was He happy? Look what he said
in verse 3, I remember God and what? I was troubled. In the
day of our strength, we remember God and we're happy. But in the
day of our sorrow, we remember God and what? We're troubled.
We're troubled. Our prayers are changed from
shouts of praise to cries of lamentation. Our strong faith
melts in our hearts by the trials into doubts and fears. Listen, I want this message to
meet you where you're at. Have you been here? Have you
been here? Have you been a believer for
any length of time you have? Have you been afflicted, pressed
out of measure? Have you been tried, grieved,
as to feel God has left off mercy? There's a God full of mercy,
and yet I feel He left off mercy. There's a God full of promises.
And yet I feel as though God has forsaken His promise. Are you grieved with your sin? Grieved with sin and feel that
He has abandoned all hope of pardoning you? Listen, you're
not alone. You're not alone. God left these
men to show you and give you a transcript of their own heart
so that you might see this in yourself." This is in every believer. This is in every believer. This
is the condition of the man in our text who cried to God. He
sought after God. He knew this, God heard me, but
where is He? I sought Him. You know what I
didn't find? He said this in verse 7. Look
at that. He said, Will you cast me off
forever? What does that mean? Well, he felt cast off. He felt
as though the Lord cast him off. He said, Will you be no more
favorable to me? Is your mercy clean gone forever?
Doth the promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious?
Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? I'll tell you
what, this is an honest man, isn't it? God recorded this from
His heart. He was being honest. He wasn't
waxing eloquent. How many times when our troubles
are small, we can just say, well, you know, God's in charge of
everything. I believe that He's sovereign
and all is well. This man, he didn't believe that.
He was troubled. He thought mercy was gone. In times of darkness like this,
I know this, we forget what Christ said about following Him. We
forget. He said this, take up your cross,
and what? Can you follow Him without a
cross? No. In this world you shall suffer tribulation. Paul said, we must,
we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God.
The road to Zion is not smooth. It's hard. It's hard. It's full of trouble and difficulty. In our day of strength, when
all is well, the sea is calm, we say with Peter, Lord, I'll
die with you. Know what we say? We say, you can have all this
world, but give me Jesus. Now listen, we mean it. I'm not
making light of that. We mean it. In the day of our
strength, we surely, sincerely, like Peter, mean we will die
with him. But when faith is put to the
fire, when faith is put to the fire, when the deep and secret
providences of God causes the billows of affliction and grief
to overwhelm your soul, so that we say with David in Psalm 42,
deep calleth to deep at the noise of thy water spouts, all thy
waves and billows, all thy waves and billows are gone over me. It's then, like Peter, we are
unable to keep ourselves. We're unable to keep ourselves
from sin, from unbelief. When God removes His restraining
hand from us, how far are we capable of falling? But in such a time of darkness
and confusion, God has not left us without hope. You know why? He has given us text like this
for such a day. For such a day of darkness, God
gave us men like Asa, who openly and honestly wrote a transcript
of their own heart, of their own conflicts. And that's what
we have before us this morning. Those who have gone before us
show forth that we are not alone. God shows us that the trouble
and torment of Asaph is a mirror of our own sorrow and conflict.
The words of this troubled saint are the very words and thoughts
of those in the furnace of affliction. Asaph. But Asaph found comfort,
and that's what I hope to give you today. If you are in this
place, I want this message to reach down into our hearts so
that we might be comforted. Asaph had trouble. Asaph had
doubts. Asaph had fear. But in the end,
God gave grace. God gave comfort. God gave mercy. And I want us to see that this
morning. So, I got three things, three points in this message.
First of all, a plea. a plea of the troubled saints. You'll see this in verses 1-3.
And the second point is the inner conflict and sorrow as seen in
verses 4-9. And then a meditation and consolation
of God in verses 10-15. And then from 16-20, he gives
an illustration of it. He shows the illustration and
we're going to see that that's the deliverance of Israel at
the Red Sea. So let's see these things. First
of all, the plea of a troubled saint. If you're in trouble,
this is what you should do. You should plea. You should come
to God. Listen to what Asaph said. He
said, I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my
voice, and He gave ear to me. In the day of my trouble, I sought
the Lord. My sore ran in the night and
ceased not. My soul refused to be comforted.
I remembered God and was troubled. I complained, and my spirit was
overwhelmed." The child of God, again, is not exempt from any
common trouble. But one thing we have that most
lost men don't, is we have access to God. This shows you that if
you're in trouble, no matter how great the trouble, Asaph
was in great peril. Asaph was in great difficulty. He was in the fire of affliction,
and yet he had this access. He said, I cried unto God. I
cried with my voice. Now, how is it that we can be
sure we're going to be heard? Even because you are justified.
You who are believers in Christ, this morning, you have been justified. Therefore, because you are justified,
you have access to God. Paul said this, being justified
by faith. We have peace with God. Now, how are you justified? By
faith. Whose? Whose faith? Yours? No. Your faith only received
the justification. You can't be justified without
faith in Christ. That's true. But your faith did
not merit the justification. It was the faith of Christ. It
was the faith of Christ that merited the justification. It
was by His faith He merited two things. Righteousness and redemption. Righteousness. Paul says in Romans
3 and verse 22, Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Now how do we get the righteousness
of God? How was that merited? By the faith of Jesus Christ. And then it's given unto all
and upon all them that believe. You see, you receive it, but
your receiving it did not merit it. It was the faith of Christ. Our representative earned it.
He earned that access for you by His righteousness as our representative
before God. And then the Holy Spirit in regeneration
imparted that righteousness to you by giving you a new nature,
a holy nature. Secondly, He did redemption.
You were justified because He redeemed you. In Hebrews 9, in
verse 12, it says He entered in not with the blood of goats
and calves, but with His own blood. He entered in once in
the holy place having obtained eternal redemption. Not just redemption in time,
eternal redemption. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. The blood offering of Christ
has redeemed us, having borne all our sin. In His own body
on the tree, Jesus Christ bore our sin before God, and the justice
of God was extinguished at the cross. The blood of Christ extinguished
God's justice. Poured it out. Done. There's
no more justice to be had against us. Sin. Because there's no more
sin. He took it away. He bore it away. I always like
that great day of atonement. When you see that man, that strong
man carrying that scapegoat on his shoulders, you see him, and
you see him, and he's getting smaller as he goes. He's getting
smaller and smaller, and then what? He's gone. He said, that's
my sin. He took our sin and He bore it
in Himself. And not only this, but God having
reconciled us, having reconciled us, gave us the grace to receive
this reconciliation. To experience it. We have been
reconciled. To wit, God was in Christ, what? Reconciling the world unto Himself.
Who was doing that? God was reconciling the world
unto Himself. Where were you? I was in Him. I wasn't born yet, but I was
in Him. He was reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing,
not willing to impute my trespasses. God says, I will not impute the
trespasses to you. Will not. Why? Because I will
not. I will impute them to you. to
your Saviour. Therefore, the Scripture says,
God hath made Him to be sin for us. He knew no sin. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. So therefore, listen, because
of His righteousness, because of His death, because of the
regeneration of the Spirit, listen, you have this, peace with God. Peace with God. By whom we have, listen, this
word, access. Isn't that what Asaph has? He
has access. He knows, I have access. Therefore
he cried with his voice because he had access into the grace
of God wherein he stands. And so do you. In your time of
trouble, you should do this. You should cry. You should cry. He cried, he had access. But sadly, we do not always avail
ourselves of this. Is this usually our first option? No. Usually we lean too much
on the arm of flesh. Usually we do not cry first.
This, no doubt, took a long period to get Asaph to this point. He
starts out crying, but I guarantee you he didn't start out that
way, because none of us do. We usually try, run here, we
try to get this done, we try to escape trouble this way, using
the arm of flesh. One thing God's going to teach
us in our trial is that the arm of flesh cannot sustain you or
help you. The arm of flesh is weak. Most
such trouble comes upon us because we have set too much hope on
man. And when they fail us, we are
brought to despair. It is there the child of God
then looks up and pleads for help." Pleads for help. Troublesaint learned this. Run
to God and not man. If you can learn that, we would
escape a lot of trouble, wouldn't we? If we would go to God first,
instead of looking to ourselves. Cry unto God. In your grief,
lay out your heart. Now, Asaph is not going to lay
out a studied prayer. He's not going to lay out a rehearsed
prayer. You read this psalm, and it's
not neat in a box. It's really a transcript of his
heart. He is pouring out his heart to
God. He lays out His pain. He lays
out His broken heart. And so, listen, He uses His voice. You know, how many times have
you prayed just in your mind? But there's sometimes when pain
gets so great, you can't keep it in. You need to vent. Sometimes the soul feels compelled
to use the voice. For thus it finds a freer vent
of its agony. Have you ever had so much pain
you couldn't keep it in? Have you ever ran into the woods
screaming in pain and crying out to God? He couldn't keep it in any longer. He used his voice. Oh, my soul,
are you troubled? Then cry aloud. Silent thoughts
aren't enough. Use the voice. Isn't that what
he says, I think, in Hosea? Take with you words. Take with
you words. What word? This word. Isn't that
what we're doing? I cried unto the Lord, Asaph
said. You know what? That's what I say. I cried unto the Lord. And when my thoughts were not
enough, my voice. I had to utter it in my voice.
And notice, it was not sufficient for him
to do it once. Look at that. Look at the text. I cried unto
the Lord with my voice. Is there a period there? No,
there's a comma. Why? Because he had to do it
again. Even unto God with my voice. In such a strait and sorrow,
nothing but God's answer will suffice. Isn't that right? When you're in such pain, is
there anything else going to calm you but God's voice? And
when He doesn't answer, what are you going to do? Quit? Not in such sorrow you can't.
Remember the Canaanite woman? She came to the Lord and she
said, Have mercy on me, thou son of David! My daughter is
grievously vexed with the devil. You know what he did? He answered
her not a word. That's exactly what's happening
here. Listen, he said this, He gave Aaron to me. Wait a second. If he gave Aaron to you, then
that should be the end of the trouble, right? No. Just because
He heard you doesn't mean He answered. He heard me. Asa said, I know He heard me.
But He didn't show up. Look at that. He said, in the
day of my trouble, what did He do? I sought the Lord. I sought
the Lord because He wasn't there. Why would you seek somebody that
ain't there? You seek somebody because they ain't there. Sometimes
the Lord don't give answer. Remember the disciples, they
said, send her away. She cries after us. She's not after them.
She doesn't care about them. She needs Him. When a man's in
trouble, when God's saint's in trouble, only Christ will help. Only Christ can help. And I'm
not looking for disciples, I'm not looking for preachers, I'm
looking for God. And I'm not going to be satisfied
until I have His voice. And sometimes God answers like
Christ. He said, look, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel. I'm only here for the elect. You ever hear that? People say,
well, if you say anything about election, then people aren't
going to want to come. No. No, no. What did she do? She
worshipped. She bowed and she worshipped
him. And she said this, help me. Help me. You know what he did? Did he help her? Not yet. Not
yet. You know why? She wasn't low
enough. Have you ever asked why God hadn't
helped us yet? Maybe we're not low enough. He said, you gotta be a dog.
He said, you're a dog. Why should I help dogs? She said, yes. Truth. I'm not asking to sit at the
table. Just asking for crumbs. And he said, Woman, great is
thy faith, be it done unto thee. See what the Lord does? He hears. He doesn't always answer speedily,
does he? The Lord had been silent only
to aggravate our sorrows, to aggravate our woes. to cause
us to lay down and worship Him, to cause us to bow down. That's
what these troubles are for. They're causing us to bow down
to His sovereignty, to His will. I like this. He gave Aaron to me. Importunity
prevailed. The gate opened to the steady
knock. And it shall be so with us in
our trial of need." Listen, if God has not answered your cry,
knock and keep on knocking. Seek and keep on seeking. Why?
Importunity will always prevail. Why? He's merciful. He's gracious. He's gracious. Look at verse
2, he said, In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord, and
my soul ran into the night and ceased not. My soul refused to
be comforted. He sought the Lord early. He
sought Him in the day of trouble when it came. But that didn't
stop the trouble. The Lord heard him, but his trouble
continued to run. It continued to run into the
night. It increased. The main cause of his grief was
God's absence. Isn't this always the greatest
trouble for the believer, is when you cannot feel His presence? As when God hides His face, there's
no greater sorrow for the believer. We could be surrounded by friends
and family, could be gathered around us, but let God hide His
face, let Jesus' face disappear from view, and our sore is magnified,
our troubles begin to crush us. Listen, you can stand any weight,
any trouble, any difficulty as long as He's here. But the moment
He's gone, the least difficulty crushes us. The least trial crushes
us. Notice, the things that normally
would comfort Him are now useless to give Him any peace. Look at
this. In verse 2 again, he said, I
sought the Lord, my soul ran into the night, it ceased. My
soul refused to be comforted. In such pain, grief and sorrow,
even the promises of God that should bring us gladness. Spurgeon
says, as a sick man turns away the most nourishing food, so
did he. It is impossible for comfort
to comfort those who refuse to be comforted. You may bring them to the waters
of promise, but you cannot make them drink. Many daughters of
despondency have pushed aside the cup of gladness, and many
sons of sorrow have hugged their chains. There are times when
we are suspicious of good news and are not able to be persuaded
of peace. Look what he says in verse 3,
I remembered God, but did that bring him any joy? I remembered
God, but I was troubled. I complained and my spirit was
overwhelmed. Can you not hear the pain? Can
you not feel the pain? That even to remember God causes
pain and not pleasure, not joy. Even the comforts of God's promises
escape us, and he concludes that God surely is is cast him out. He said, surely if God had loved
me, I would not be in this place. Anybody else say that? Surely
if God loved me, if God chose me, if God redeemed me, then
how could I be in such a place as this? And so then when someone
comes along with a smiling face, giving you a scripture, they
mean well. But sometimes you just can't
receive it. The grief is too much. The pain is too hard. See how honest this is? Behold the sad case of the suffering
child. Now listen, have you ever been
here? And let's read the transcript now of his conflict. He says
in verse 4, Thou holdest mine eyes waking. I am so troubled
that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of
old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song
in the night. I commune with my own heart,
and my spirit made diligent search." See, he at once recognizes this
is God. He said, it's you that are keeping
my eyes awake. It's you. Isn't that what the
writer of Lamentations says? He says, has afflicted me. The Lord afflicted
me. Where do our afflictions come
from? How is it that Job was afflicted? Surely Satan did his
work. But we know this, that God, God
alone could allow it. God alone permitted it. And so
he says this, My affliction is in your hand. Thou kept my eyes
waking. I am troubled and cannot speak.
It was the thought of being lost, the thought of being cast away
that keeps his eyes awake, fearing he could fall off into hell.
Believer, have you been so troubled as to cause you to doubt even
your union with Christ? The psalmist tries to consider
better times. Look at that. He said, I have
considered the days of old, the ancient times. and called to
remembrance my song in the night." He goes to the Word of God and
he sees God's goodness to Israel. He remembers God's covenant of
grace, which previously was his song in the night. How many times
have we been in great trouble and the song of the covenant
comforted us? He said, I remember. I remember
your providence to Israel, your goodness to Israel, your goodness
to your people. I remember your salvation. I
remember the experience of grace to my own heart. He tries to
recall these things. This is a good practice. This
is good. If you're in this place, what
he did was right. He went to the Word of God. He
sought comfort from ancient times. from the covenant of God's grace,
let us call to our minds the grace and power of God in ancient
times as well as our own experience. Behold how God chose us in grace. Behold how Christ became our
surety, how he redeemed us to God. Remember those things. I was
talking to a friend who's in great trouble. I asked him what was his remedy. He said, well, the Word of God.
And he said, but it's not easy to go to the Word of God. I have
to actually force myself to go to the Word of God. That's an
honest answer, isn't it? A man in sorrow, a lot of times
we have to force ourselves to go to the Word of God. You should. You should force yourself to
go to this book. And that's exactly what Asaph
here is doing. He remembers, he calls to mind the gospel that
he has received. And even now in the teeth of
our trouble, we're still calling, I'm still trusting him, aren't
I? When I'm calling on God in my trouble, aren't I trusting
him? If I didn't trust him, I wouldn't call on him. I trust this, he
is able. Now listen, I don't know if he's
willing at this point, but I know he's able. And I know this, I've got no
place else to go. There is no one else that can
help. So what do I do? I remember what
He said. I try to call to mind those good
things, those promises He gave. And so now He makes a diligent
search to the question that is on His heart. He wants to answer
these questions. He's remembering the Word of
God because he has questions. Look at his questions. Look at
the questions that caused his eyes to stay open at night. He
said in verse 11, Will you cast me off forever? Will you be favorable no more? Is mercy clean gone forever?
Does his promise fail? forevermore. Hath God forgotten
to be gracious? Hath He, in anger, shut up His
tender mercies?" You see, this is where God's Word and providence
collide. God's Word and providence collide.
He goes to God's Word, He finds the promises of God, and then
He looks at His circumstance, and they seem contradictory. God says, I will never leave
you nor forsake you. And yet he feels cast off. He says, will your grace and
favor cease? Is he not the God of all grace?
Is there any grace besides his grace? Grace is unmerited favor,
isn't it? And he's asking this, is your
grace gone? Are you in so much trouble that
you would see that the grace of God is failing? He says, my grace is sufficient
for thee. But he feels it feels not like grace, but
rather judgment. He said, well, is your mercy
clean gone? The Scripture says, thy mercy
endureth forever. But it seems His mercy has been
cut off. God's promise is yea and amen
in Christ. And yet it appears by the circumstance
that His promise is failed. Listen to His promise. He says
this, I know my thoughts of you, thoughts of peace and not evil.
How about this one in Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse 15? He said,
Thou shalt not see evil anymore. That's a promise, isn't it? How
come I see evil? How come you promise peace and
yet there is no peace? You see how they seem to contradict
each other. But are such promises vain? Is
now the blood of Christ unable to extinguish the anger of God
on the soul? Can you not see the greatness
then of His despair? These are honest questions, friends.
These are questions from His heart. I'll tell you this, if you're
in enough pain, these will be your questions. Listen, if God's never brought
you here yet, wait a minute. If you're ever going to be used
of God, I promise you, you'll be here. These are sharp questions. Questions
that a man of God never thought he'd ever ask. But here you ask them and they're
transcribed by God for us. Surely if they weren't put there,
I would feel that I was the only one. I'm not. Neither are you. It's a greatness
of sorrow and despair. See, God opens the soul of the
saint so that we who ask such questions see that we are not
alone. And we may see that such despair,
the Spirit of God will bring forth this, hope. That's my last point is this,
the meditation and consolation of God. Look at this. He then
determines to do something. Verse 11. He determines. Remember I told you, when you
don't feel like going to the Word of God, go anyway. When
you don't feel like praying, pray anyway. This is what He's
doing. He said, I will. He said, I will
remember. What? The works of the Lord.
Surely. Definitely, I will remember the
wonders of old. I will meditate also of thy work
and talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary,
who is so great a God as our God. Thou art God that doest
wonders. Thou hast declared thy strength
among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed
thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. He determined to
meditate on God's salvation. That's the work you need to meditate
on. And you can go out and look at God's wonders of creation.
That's not going to help you in sorrow. Just not. That's not
going to help you. What's going to help you is to
go in the sanctuary. You need to go where the blood
sheds. That's the sanctuary. That's
the place where the offering was made. That's where the wonder
is. That's where the work of God is. It's in Christ. I will
remember Christ. In my sorrow, I will remember
Christ. I will remember His offering,
His blood, the arm of the Lord that has redeemed me. That's
what I need to remember. He said, Thy way. That's what
I need to remember. Christ is the way. I am the way,
the truth, and life. No man comes to God but by me.
If you're ever going to be heard of God, you've got to go in the
way. You've got to go by Christ. I am the way. His offering is
in the sanctuary. And notice this, he remembers
the greatness of his God. Whatever God says he'll do, you
listen, he'll do it. That negates all I feel and see. If what I feel and see is contradictory
to what God says He will do, then I need to disregard what
I feel and what I see. I need to cling to the promises
of God. Only then am I going to find
any peace. That's the only foundation I can stand on, is what God promises. God promises this. I just read
this earlier this morning. Listen to what this says in Psalm
34. This is a promise, isn't it? The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth. That's
good. That's not all. And delivereth them out of all
their trouble. That's what I need to remember.
God's promises are yea and amen in Christ. He will deliver us
out of all our troubles. All our troubles. How does he know this? How does
a psalmist find consolation in this? Well, he goes to one specific
portion of the Word of God. And if you were to look at verse
16 through verse 20, what he's going to talk about the Israelite
being delivered at the Red Sea. You remember Israel. They were
in bondage to Egypt 400 years and God delivered them. How did
he deliver them from Egypt? Blood. That's how they delivered. It was the Passover lamb. It
was by the blood of the Passover that they were delivered. What
a picture of Christ's offering. We were delivered from the bondage
of Egypt, the bondage of sin, the justice of God. We were set
free. Can you imagine the joy of Israel
when they were walking out? Everybody giving them things,
and they're just walking out with treasures. Boy, they must
have been really... Boy, I tell you, their faith
was so strong, wasn't it? Oh man, God's going to take us
to the promised land. Whoo! Let's go. On the way. There's that pillar of cloud.
We're following it. There's that pillar of fire at
night. We're following it. It wasn't
just, what, a few days. And God led them to the Red Sea. And He said, You just camp right
here. You stay right here. Okay. We'll stay here. Then God put it in Pharaoh's
heart to pursue them. Trouble's coming. Now that Pharaoh's
behind them, the mountains on the left, the deserts on the
right, and the seas in front of them, they've got no place
to go. Every time you read that word,
distress, that's what it means. You've got no place to go. When you're in trouble, this
is what you feel. You've got no place to go. Verse 16 said,
The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, and they were
afraid. The depths were troubled. The
clouds poured out water. The skies sent down out their
sound. Thine arrows also went abroad.
The voice of Thy thunder was in heaven. The lightnings lightened
the world. The earth trembled and shook.
Thy way is in the sea. And thy path in great waters,
thy footprints are not known. He's talking about the pardoning
of the Red Sea. There it is, they were trapped.
And what did he say? Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. And God pardoned the sea. And they walked through on dry
ground. Moses and Aaron led them. This brought great comfort to
him. In other words, whatever it is that's set before us, whatever
trouble, God surely will part it. God surely will take it out
of the way. Is it your sin? God's already taken that away,
hasn't he? He's already removed that. Judgment,
the justice of God, does that cause you great fear? Well, that's
already been taken away. Do you suppose there's anything
of the lesser troubles that he's not capable of removing? Listen, thy ways in the sea.
I can't tell what God... When Jesus is walking on the
water, do you think he left footprints so he can tell where he came
from, where he's going? No. Thy ways in the sea. I don't
know what you're going to do. I can't trace it out. I just
know this. You delivered Israel. You'll deliver me. That's my hope. That's my hope. That's the hope of every believer
in Jesus Christ. He redeemed Israel from its trouble.
It was God who put them in that place, and it was God that gave
them the way of escape. Did God cast them off? Was He
no longer gracious to him? Was His mercy gone? Did His promise
fail? No. He said, I'll send you to
Canaan. Did they get to Canaan? Yes. So will you. So will you. He did not destroy His people. He destroyed their enemies. And
that's what He's going to do with us. What are these fliers
of affliction doing? Are they not just burning the
dross? That's what they're there for. Even so, God will come and our
distresses, our sin, our enemies, and the dark providences of God
that are put before us, They cannot and will not be able to
resist His power. Why? Because Jesus Christ, our
prophet and priest, leads us. That's why He said Moses and
Aaron led them. Well, Christ was typified by
both Moses and Aaron. He is our prophet, isn't He?
And He is our priest. He will lead us. Where? Through
the trouble. And listen, we'll come out on
the other side. Come on. He promised. He promised. I will remember His promise,
even when I can't feel it. Gracious Father, I pray that
you'd be with us and strengthen us. Those who are in dark providences,
lift them up. Shine forth your word in the
darkness. Part the sea of our troubles. Send us, O Lord, to
the sanctuary that we might remember Christ and all he's accomplished
for us. I pray that you'd keep these
and bless them. Forgive us our many sins. In Jesus' name.