that the psalm is given by the
Holy Spirit. The title of this psalm is at
the very top before verse 1. It says, A Prayer of the Afflicted. A Prayer of the Afflicted. This psalm was given to us by
the grace of the Holy Spirit and gives us this very title,
A Prayer of the Afflicted, when He is overwhelmed and poureth
out his complaint before the Lord." The word here, complaint,
is not meant fault-finding or disapproval. It's not one of
rebellion. I know that we complain a lot. Who doesn't complain? Oh, God,
forgive us. We are constantly complaining. But this is not what the psalmist
here or the Holy Spirit gives as his title. He is not pouring
out his complaint as finding fault with God, but rather his
sorrow. This is what the afflicted do
when they cry out to God. They cry out and pour all of
their sorrow before the Lord. Their mourning. Is there any
child of God who is such afflicted as the psalmist? This word afflicted
means depressed, humbled, brought low, so that we are so overwhelmed
with darkness, so covered with troubles that cause us to reel
to and fro as a man on a ship in the midst of a storm. has
no footing. Are you without footing? Have
you ever been without footing to where you can't stand? Every
action and reaction is casting you down and nothing is there
to help. Is there any child of God so
distressed and covered with troubles and cares that you cannot stand? then let this be a psalm to you
this morning. Let this be our purpose. Pour out your mournings before
God. Pour out your complaint Expend
all of your sorrows and all of your troubles, all of your depression. This word means to gush out,
to pour out, to take a cup. If I were to take the glass here
this morning and turn it upside down, it would pour out all its
water. That's what the psalmist is here
doing. He's pouring out everything,
leaving nothing, pouring it out before God. all your troubles
and complaints. Are you such a soul? Have you
found your sin too heavy? Have you found the consequences
of your sin too costly? Are the pains of life too painful
in the circumstances of your lot so overwhelming that your
soul is crushed beneath the weight of them? And I want you to listen. Listen
to this very carefully because the Holy Spirit has given this
psalm particularly to you. Out of love, out of mercy, out
of grace, before you were born, this psalm was written by the
Holy Spirit of God as He moved on the afflicted man. Look at
verse 18. I want you to see this. It's
right here. He even explains it to us. Look
at this in verse 18. This shall be written for the
generation to come. Isn't that something? The Holy
Spirit knew that you, believer, would have trouble. He knew that
you would be afflicted and that you would need solace. You would
need comfort. You would need to know where
to go. He said, this psalm is for the
generation to come. Well, if this psalm is for you,
now listen, some of you may say, well, I'm not afflicted. Just
wait. Just wait. You tuck this away
then. You know, you have more than
you need at the time, so you tuck money away for a rainy day.
You tuck this away for a rainy day, because it's coming. The
affliction is coming. So if you're not in it now, you
will be. If you are, here it is for you.
First thing, look at what he tells us. He cries. He says, hear my prayer. Oh Lord,
and let my cry come unto thee. And he is meaning unto you only. Unto you only. Oh friend, let me be as plain
as I can in your moment of despair. If there is any true relief for
your soul, If there's to be any deliverance for you, the only
one who can do it is God. Now, you can look to anybody
else you want to. They can't help you. Can't do
it. Can't do it. I know this. When I have troubles or when
we have troubles, we like friends. I do. I think friends are necessary. Friends are wonderful. It's good
to consult your friends and to bear out your trouble to them. Bear out your trouble to your
friends and tell them your problems. And you know what? You do feel
lighter, don't you? When you do that, yeah, you feel
lighter. Until when? Until you're alone. Until, for
a moment, you may have a reprieve, but that doesn't last long because
you know what's waiting for you when you come home? Your trouble. It's waiting for you. Our friends
cannot deliver us from the trouble. They may give us a small reprieve.
God may use them for a moment, but that doesn't work. David said in Psalm 73, 26, My
flesh and heart faileth. Have you found that to be true?
Have you found your flesh and heart to fail? Well, know this,
the flesh and heart of your friend will fail you. Your flesh can't
handle it, their flesh can't handle it. And when you find yourselves
all alone again, your troubles seem heavier than they were before. Why? Because no man can deliver
you from sin. Do you not get this? I want you
to get this. The root, the root of all our
trouble is sin. There it is. Why is there trouble
in the world? Why is there difficulty? Why
is there depression? Why is there such things as the
afflictions we face every day? We know this, that sin is the
root cause. Because of the sin of our father,
Adam, that's what God, He cursed this earth. Not to bring forth
its strength, but to bring forth thorns and thistles, and that
by the sweat of our brow we should earn our bread. Our troubles may be caused by
the sin of other wicked men. And I'll tell you what, we're
coming into a time, and I want you to be prepared, we are coming
into a time in this country when we will be oppressed. People
mock at that and they laugh at that, but I tell you, it's coming.
It's coming. It's always been. It's not, this
is not something new. This is something we have had
a reprieve for a few hundred years, but that does not mean
that we are not, it's not coming. So our troubles may be caused
by the sin of others, but I'll tell you, most of our troubles,
listen, most of your troubles come because of your sin. How
do I know that? Because most of my troubles come
from my sin. They do. And if sin is the root cause
of our trouble, who then can deliver us from such troubles?
The only one who can deliver us from sin is God. That's it. He alone. All sin, listen, is
against God. And therefore, sin, in order
to be forgiven, must be forgiven by God. I like that picture when
those men brought that paralyzed man before the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you know what the Lord said to him first? He said, Son, be
of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven. You know what, I think that man,
instead of healing, I think that man desired to be forgiven. I do. I think he went down before
the Lord to be forgiven. And he received what he desired. And yet the Lord showed them
that you may know, because they know this, only God can forgive
sins, that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on
earth to forgive sins, he saith unto them, rise and walk. See,
that was a secondary blessing, wasn't it? The secondary, the
obscure blessing was to heal his paralyzation. What was the
first blessing, the greatest of all blessings? Forgiveness
of sins. And I don't care if you're paralyzed,
if you can understand that, if you can have your sins forgiven,
then that wouldn't seem very hard, if you can understand what
it is to be forgiven of sins. Oh sinful man, cry out to the
Lord in prayer and listen, never be satisfied except He hear you. You should never, if you're afflicted,
you should never be satisfied except God hear you. Because
you ain't going to be satisfied unless God hears you. Since God
is the only one that can deliver you, doesn't it make sense that
you would never cease to cry unto God until He answered? Prayer
to the wind is vanity. Prayer to men and saints, useless. They will never bring comfort,
even because men and saints are powerless to intercede for us
to God. Scripture tells us that there
is only one intercessor. There's only one who can mediate
between God and men. The man, Christ Jesus. I love how one scripture destroys
the entire Roman Catholic doctrine, crushes it, demolishes it, does
away with it. There is only one mediator between
God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. How shall sinners be heard of
God who is holy? Who shall ascend into the presence
of God and be heard? The psalmist said, he that hath
clean hands and a pure heart. It is then the afflicted may
say, surely this excludes me. We who are by nature and by practice
sinners have no right to come before the throne of God. You're
absolutely right. We in ourselves have absolutely
no right to be heard. How is it then we should cry
unto God? How can the filthy cry unto God
and expect to be heard? Only through the Mediator, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Sinners, behold, you may cry
to God and your prayers may come to the ears of the Almighty only
if you come through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. Are
you afflicted? Go to God. How can you go to
God? Through the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. That's it. He's only one mediator. You remember
in the Old Testament law, there was a way. There was a way that
Israel could meet with God in peace. There was a way that Israel
could have their sins atoned for. You remember it was the
great day of atonement. But you couldn't go to God just
any old way, could you? God didn't say, come to me any
way you choose. No. He said, you will come to
me, if you come to me in peace, it will be through a high priest
and a sacrifice. That's the only way that Israel
could meet with God in peace. Listen, the only way you can
meet with God in peace is through a high priest and a sacrifice. Natural man suppose that you
can go to God in any way. They say you can go to God your
way and I'll go to God my way and we'll both meet there. No,
we won't. No, we won't. The only way that God could meet
with Israel was by the mercy seat And the only way they could
be accepted before God is that the blood of the atonement was
offered by the high priest. All of that was a picture as
how God accepts sinners and how God may hear sinners, even by
the offering of Jesus Christ, his high priest. Behold him,
you who are afflicted, You believing saints who are afflicted. Do
you know how it is that you can endure affliction? By looking
at His affliction. The Apostle says that you should
consider His affliction so that you do not faint. It would do us good to see that
he above all men was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
more than any other man. You got problems? Your problems
are nothing compared to what his problems were. It's kind of funny. My brother
was calling my mom to complain. And my mom found out a way how
to stop this. She would complain about all
her troubles. And so that he would look at
his and go, well, I guess I really got nothing to complain about.
Really, friends, look at the trials of our Savior. Behold
them, look at them, lest you faint in the way. Behold his
suffering. See him in the garden with the
agony. As he sweat, as it were, great
drops of blood. I'll tell you, have you ever
agonized so much that you bled? I haven't been there. I'll tell
you, I agonized so much I had tears, but never blood. He was a righteous, spotless
Son who was to be made sin for us. Jesus was about to suffer
on the cross so that all the sufferings of men and earth or
in hell could not compare to His suffering. Jesus was made
to bear our sins, the sins of His elect in His own body. And
being made such, the vengeance of God was to be poured out on
him. When I suffer, I can think of
a hundred reasons why I should suffer. Can you? When you suffer, you can surely,
if you're honest with yourself, you can find plenty of reasons
why you should suffer. But consider Christ. There was
no cause in Him for suffering. And yet He willingly suffered. He willingly suffered. Behold,
the Lamb of God, upon whom God said, Awake, O sword, and smite
the man who is my fellow. Look over in Lamentations. Look
at this. Go over to Lamentations chapter 1. Look at verse 12. Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me. wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From above he sent fire into
my bones, and it prevaileth against me. And he hath spread a net
for my feet, and hath turned me back. He hath made me desolate
and faint all the day, all the day. Look at chapter 3. This is by prophecy again the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I am the man that has
seen affliction by the rod of God's wrath. He hath led me and
brought me into darkness. but not into light. Surely against
me is he turned, he turneth his hand against me." Listen, all
the day, all the day, every day the Lord Jesus Christ suffered
in this world. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief every day, every day. Look at verse 18. And I said,
my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering mine
affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul
hath him still in remembrance and is humbled in me. This I
recall to mind, therefore I have hope. It is of the Lord's mercies
that we are not consumed, because his compassion faileth They are
new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. O afflicted, cast down sinner,
behold and compare your sorrow to his. How does your sorrow weigh in
to his? Behold that when Jesus died,
listen to me, his sufferings had purpose, had meaning. His sufferings were so that you
could bring yours to God. His sufferings, His death was
so that you might bring yours to God. The way was opened by
His suffering. He satisfied God's justice and
when He died, what happened to that temple, that veil? Remember
the Day of Atonement, the only way to go in there is a high
priest and blood. What happened when His blood
was shed? the veil of the temple rent in twain, and the way was
made open. How then can you and I approach
into the throne of God and cry out and pour out our sorrows
and expect to be heard? Only through the blood of the
Savior, only through the blood and righteousness of His Son.
And if you go in this way, listen, you afflicted believer, you shall
be heard. You shall be heard. Come now,
you that are overwhelmed with sorrow and trouble and sin, come
now to God in prayer by Jesus Christ. Come now by faith in
God's only mediator. For in him, listen, God is well
pleased. Jeremiah 33 in verse 3 says,
call unto me and listen, I will answer thee. Is anybody confused? Is that confusing to you? Call
unto me and I will. answer thee. Is that not enough
assurance for you? That should be the greatest assurance
one who is in sorrow could ever have. The ear of God. You get my ear, but my ear gets
heavy quick. His ear never gets heavy. Your mouth may get heavy of complaining,
but His ear never gets heavy of hearing. So if you stop, that's
on you. It's not on Him. His ear, He
said, I'll hear you. There's no grief that the Lord
cannot soothe or cheer. There's no trouble too great
that His power cannot deliver. Therefore, we who come to God
by Jesus Christ will be content only when He hears us. Only when He hears us. Only when
our prayers come to the ears of our Father, who has given
us His Son to secure our acceptance. Therefore, you who cry, you afflicted
saint. The Scripture says, Hear my prayer,
O Lord, and let my cry come unto Thee, unto You only. Second of all, we who seek God
in trouble, listen, we must abase ourselves. We do not ever come to God demanding
anything. You know, the only person who's
ever demanded anything of God is Christ. Remember when he took
the book? I love that. That just, that
thrills me. He, we couldn't look on it. Nobody
could look on the book. And he ran up and grabbed it.
Why? He earned it. He merited it.
He is the only one that can demand anything of the Father. We cannot
demand anything. We come as beggars. Abase yourself. The psalmist
cries and he pleads this. He says, hide not thy face from
me. in the day when I'm in trouble.
Incline thine ear in the day when I call. Answer me speedily. There's no greater trouble for
us, for believers, as when God hides
his face. You know, I consider that I might
endure all of the afflictions of my brother in the martyrs
if I had his presence. If I have his presence, if I
see my title clear, if I could be like Stephen who was being
stoned to death, he looked up and the heavens were open and
he saw the Lord, surely we can endure any trouble. As long as we have Him, we can
do anything. We can endure any suffering.
But I'll tell you, He hides His face but for a second, and we
despair. We despair. The least trouble, when God hides
His face, becomes a great affliction. When faith and grace are low,
when sin overwhelms me and causes me to doubt my salvation in standing
before God, I am afraid. I'm afraid. I read of John Bunyan this week.
He wrote in his memoirs, he, every day for at least one year,
He was afflicted with the thought that God had abandoned him. Every day, voices would come
to his mind and say, Sell Christ! Sell Him! Sell Him! And he would
say, No! Not for a thousand, thousand
worlds! And yet, he daily was bombarded
with this, constantly, as though he questioned, have I sold him?
Have I sold him? Have I left him? Has he left
me? For a whole year. He was without comfort. Surely when we cannot see our
interest or hope or love for Christ, we know that we are of all men most miserable.
Therefore, in such a time, I need him to answer quickly. When God hides his face from
you, don't you need an answer fast? The psalmist said, please,
please don't wait. Please, please don't leave. Please show me. If you can't
let me see your face, at least give me your ear. Listen to the afflicted psalmist
and see if this is your troubles. He says, My days are consumed
like smoke, my bones are burned as a hearth, my heart is smitten
and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread. By
reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin. Is
this you? Are you in such a fog? Consider
that. He said, my days are filled with
smoke. He said, I can't see two steps
in front of me. I can't see anything. My days
are as a vapor. They're going to pass away quickly.
I need an answer now. I must have one now. We should
be like that woman who pursued the unjust judge until he gave
an answer. We should always plead before
God. Knock and keep on knocking. Ask
and keep on asking. Until we receive an answer, we
must have an answer. Well, here are the answers. Isaiah
42, verse 3, a bruised reed shall he not break. and smoking flax, he will not
quench. Are you such a bruised reed? He will not break you off. Is your faith nothing more than
a useless smoking flax? He said, my bones are burned
as a hearth. You think about a hearth that was meant to heat
and give warmth. And all the wood on the inside
is nothing more than cold ash with a little, little coal of
fire underneath. Not enough to warm anyone. Useless. Useless. Are you useless? And you should cry out to your
God. confessing such and recognize that he will not put out even
the smallest amount of faith. I'm thankful for that. I'm very
thankful. In the haze and darkness, hear
the voice of God-believer. Christ has triumphed. He shall
not fail nor be discouraged. You know what? Your small faith
is no discouragement to him. It is to you. It's not to him. It's not. He has prevailed, and he will,
we will cause us to persevere. Look at verse 7. He says, I watch
and am as a sparrow alone on the housetop. You know, when
a sparrow loses its mate, it's not cheerful but mourns in solitude. And he said, I'm like that sparrow.
Without you, I'm like a lone sparrow, defenseless, cheerless. Even so, when we don't feel the
presence of Christ, there's nothing, nothing on earth that can cheer
our soul except He come and reveal Himself to us. Behold, Lord, we are that are
without Thee are completely alone. Lord, answer us speedily. Lord,
come quickly. Kindle the fire of our heart.
Give us the zeal of Christ. Until then, we are like the psalmist,
he said, for I eat ashes like bread. Isn't everything tasteless without
Him? Oh, but if I have Him, I have
everything. If I have His blood, the justice
of God can only smile at me. If I have His righteousness,
the law can only embrace me and demand my full acceptance. If
I have Christ as my foundation, hell can never swallow me up. If I have Christ as my fortress,
there is no foe. no darkness, no trouble that
shall ever, ever, ever conquer my soul." Lastly, you who are
afflicted, consider this. Look down in verse 12, but. This
is where the psalm changes. But thou, O Lord, shalt endure
forever. This word, endure, it means sit. O Lord, Thou shalt sit on Thy
throne forever. Afflicted child of God, you who
come to God by Christ, He has suffered for your sins, satisfied
the wrath of God for you, and behold, He sits. Your Savior
sits. He sits on the throne of God,
ruling over all your troubles. Do you realize your troubles
are designed for you? That He has crafted them for
you. Behold thy Redeemer, even as he stands before God
for you and intercedes, that he will do all his sovereign
will. See then that there hath no temptation,
there hath no temptation taken you, but such is common to man. Believer, our troubles are not
special like we think. Oh man, you can't, you can't,
you can't enter into my trouble. Oh no. Oh no. Nobody understands
what I'm going through. So just leave, leave me alone.
Nobody. Your troubles are just as common
as everybody else's. They are. There's no temptation
taking you that other believers have not endured before you. Believer, our troubles are not
special as we think them to be, as though no saint has ever gone
through your trouble. Believer, see that your trouble
has been before, and it will happen again to others. But here
is your comfort. God is faithful. God is faithful. He was faithful
to bring them through it. He's faithful to bring you through
it. And he will be faithful to bring
those others through it. Has he not brought all his saints
through it? What saint went before you that he has not delivered? How then can you say he won't
deliver me? Oh, yes, he will. He will deliver
you. He is faithful who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will
with the temptation make a way of escape so that you may be
able to bear it. Remember that God is sovereign
and He knows best. And you don't. You don't know what's best for
you. You think you do, but you don't. God knows what's best for you. And he knows how best to deliver
you from your troubles. All we must do then is wait By
faith. Now, those words too complicated.
Wait. Is that a complicated word? Wait. By faith. Trusting in God. That sounds foolish to this world. But that's what God tells us
to do. Wait on him. Verse 13 of our text, thou shalt
arise and have mercy on Zion. God sits on the throne. And you
know, the only time he gets up to have mercy on you. He will. He will. He will arise at the
appointed time and deliver you. Well, now, the appointed time,
I can't tell you when that is. But it's appointed. And He will
arise and deliver you. Believer, let us then wait patiently,
set our prayers to the ears of God alone. Pour out your afflictions
before your Savior. Seek to be heard of God through
the mediator, Jesus Christ. Take all thy afflictions to Him
and plead. Plead your helplessness. You know, that's a cause. You
want a case to bring before God as to why He should answer you?
I'm helpless. There's a cause. I'm filthy. There's a cause.
I need mercy. There's a cause. I need strength.
There's a cause for Him to answer you speedily. Seek Him. And here the conclusion in verse
28. The children of thy servants
shall continue. Oh, thank God for his preserving
grace that I will continue. These troubles and afflictions
will not stop me from believing on my Savior. They will not stop
me from worshiping my God and adoring Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you, they will
not stop me from praying. Matter of fact, the afflictions
press me to pray. They press me to pray. Thy servants shall continue. And their seed shall be established
before thee." Established. I like that word. Established. Planted. Rooted. established. We're established in Christ.
And do you realize this? That for God to kick me out,
he would also have to kick out his own son. That just ain't gonna happen. I am so in union with Christ
that God accepts me as he accepts his son. Why then in affliction
would you not cry out to Him? Didn't He give this to you? Use it. Use it. You don't have to come up with
your own pleas. They're right here. He gives you the words
to say. Say them. Trust Him. And He'll
hear you. He'll hear you. you who come
to God by Jesus Christ. I pray that this will be a blessing
to you.