123. Psalm 123. I don't have a title for this message,
but if I had one, it would be a short prayer of comfort. a short prayer of comfort. The scripture says, Unto thee
lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of the servants
look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto
the hand of her mistress, So our eyes wait upon the Lord our
God until that He have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us,
O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we are exceedingly filled with
contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled
with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt
of the proud. The first thing that I would
have you notice this evening is the shortness of this psalm. It is a very short prayer. The psalmist here, in four verses,
in four verses, it is so small But I tell you that there is
an infinite amount of comfort, assurance, and wisdom in this
small prayer. There's an infinite amount of
strength to be had. There's an infinite amount of
wealth of both spiritual and practical wisdom for our souls. Let us not despise the day of
small things. I tell you, being from Texas,
you know, everything is big in Texas. And we like, we go to
a restaurant, we want something for our money. We want to get
something big. Everybody knows it goes out to
eat. You know, I kind of want to get my money's worth. I want
to get the biggest one. But I tell you, that's not always
the best, is it? That's not always the best. I tell you, most of
the things that God gives us are small, but they are very
rich. Very rich. Don't despise the
day of small things. I know that we have such a small
congregation here, but that's not something to despise, that's
something to rejoice at. Imagine the trouble we would
have if the world had come in among us. What a blessing it
is that the Lord keeps us from such things. We don't know what
would happen to us if we had such a large group. So we know
this. God knows what's best. So we
should rejoice in the day of small things. And in a matter
of prayer, In this matter of prayer, don't despise small prayers. Don't despise small prayers.
The scriptures are full of small prayers. I know that David has
one of my favorite prayers, Lord help. That's it. Lord help. I like that because I say that
quite often. That is a prayer. That is a prayer. This psalm is a short prayer. It is an effectual and fervent
prayer of a righteous man. And remember, the effectual,
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth what? It avails
much, much. Children of God, you are not
only instructed to pray, You are not only commanded as a duty
to pray, but God encourages you to pray. This short prayer is
an encouragement to pray. Because I tell you, most the
time we have prayer, it is not long. Most of our prayers are
short. But they're just as effectual
as if you went with a long prayer. Because you are a child of God,
your Father welcomes you into His courts. Welcomes you. You remember Esther, I was thinking
about her today when I was writing this. Esther was afraid to go
before her husband in the court because if he did not lend his
scepter, if he did not put his scepter toward Esther, no matter
if she was his wife or not, if he did not put that scepter forth,
she would die. Now she was afraid when she came
into his presence. Was he afraid? No! He immediately
put his scepter on and said, you come and talk. You come up
here. You tell me what you want. That's what our Father does.
He invites you to come. He welcomes you to come in prayer. Your Father welcomes you to come
at any time. at any place, regardless of your
circumstance, and even regardless of how you feel, your Father
welcomes you and says, ìCome, come and welcome my children
into my presence,î regardless of your feelings of unworthiness. How often do we feel that? We
feel unworthy to come before God. I know when we're made to feel
and know the sin and guilt of our nature, when we are burdened
down with troubles, so much that we feel our prayers won't reach
a ceiling. Now I may be talking to myself,
but I tell you there are times that I don't feel like praying. There are times where I'm so
burdened that I don't think that God would hear me if I cried. We may cry to God and in unbelief
feel that He does not hear us. But I tell you this according
to the Word of God, if you are in Christ, if you are a believer
in Christ, if you believe on the only begotten Son of God,
If you are resting in His righteousness, if you are resting in His blood
atonement, if we believe on Him who suffered under the wrath
of God for our sins and accomplished our righteousness, if we have
been born again of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit testifies
to our heart that we are sons of God, Then I tell you, God
hears you regardless of your circumstances or your feelings.
Come. Come and welcome. When? Anytime. Anytime. I know sometimes when people
call us, we may be a bother. Or we may feel we're a bother.
But I tell you, you never burden your Father. Your prayers never
burden Him. He always welcomes you if you
are His. Well, how do we know we are His?
Well, the Spirit of God testifies to you. Has the Spirit of God
testified to you within your own heart that you are a son
of God? What is that? Go over to Romans
chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and verse 14. The Scripture says, For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
And if children, then heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ. And if so be that you suffer
with Him, that we may be also glorified together." What is
this testimony of the Spirit of God? I tell you, it's faith. Faith in Christ is the testimony
How can we call on Him on whom we've not believed? Have you
called? Do you call? I call from my heart. I cry. Abba! Daddy. That's what that word is. It's
a tender word. Daddy. Father. We cry in our
hearts. The Spirit of God testifies that
we are the sons of God. Does the Spirit of God testify
in your heart you're a son of God? then friends, by all means,
make every available effort to cry out to your God at any time,
at any place. You're welcome to come. The Spirit
of God testifies within us. And I tell you, He constantly
points us to Jesus Christ. He constantly points us to the
finished work of our Redeemer. What is your merit here? What
is your merit before the throne of God? The Spirit of God constantly
points us to our merit. It is the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ. Okay, then come. If that's your
merit, if your merit's in Christ, then the Father says come. Come
and welcome. He points us to the blood and
righteousness of Christ for the forgiveness of sin and all our
acceptance. Why is it that you can pray to
God and be accepted and others not? Well, you are accepted because
of Christ. You're accepted because of Him.
Therefore, fearful and trembling believer, come boldly to the
throne of grace that you might find help in time of trouble. Believer, there is no trouble
that you experience. There is no grief or sorrow that
you have been through or are going through that our Savior
has Himself not experienced. There's nothing. Have you been betrayed? How much
more was He betrayed? Have you suffered the mockery
of men? How much more did He? Have you
hungered and thirst? Yes, He's done all those things,
infinitely more than we have. We may feel forsaken of God.
Do you feel forsaken? I tell you, Jesus Christ was
forsaken. Have you felt the guilt of your
sin? I tell you, He felt it infinitely
more when the Father made Him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Oh, friends, our saviors and
high priests that is touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
And what does our psalm say? The psalm says, Unto thee lift
up mine eyes. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes. O thou that dwellest in the heavens. The psalmist here is lifting
up his eyes to God, his Father. Lifting them up to Christ. His
Savior. Believer, cry out to God and
I tell you, lift up your eyes and He will hear you. He will hear you, not because
of you. He will hear you because of His
Son. He will not hear us because of
all of our service, but He will hear us because of our beloved
Savior and brother. Jesus Christ Himself says, I
pray not for this world, but He prays for you. He says, I pray that they be
one even as we are one. He says, I in them, thou in me. Let me read that. I want to read
that from John chapter 17. You don't have to go there, just
John chapter 17. Our Lord says, I in them. and
thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one." We are
made perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ. You, you who believe,
you have been made perfect in one, the Son. You are in union
with Him. Do you realize that for Him to
not hear you is for Him not to hear His own Son? That's impossible. That's impossible. When we lift
up our eyes in prayer unto God, He will hear you. He will hear
you. All things have been given to
Christ by the Father, all power, all salvation, all the glory
of God, and we were chosen by the Father from eternity and
accepted in the Beloved. Why is your prayer acceptable?
Because you are made acceptable in the Beloved. In the Beloved. When Jesus lived in righteousness
upon this earth, when He came and He lived a holy and righteous
life as a man, do you realize you lived in Him? You lived that
holy life in Him. And when He died upon the cross
for our sins, we died in Him. If you were in a hurricane and
you found shelter inside a cave that's inside of a mountain,
how much of that would affect you? How much of that hurricane
would touch you? Now, I'll tell you, it would
fall hard on the mountain. And you, being in the mountain,
would be safe from all harm. I tell you, we were in Christ,
and He absorbed all the wrath of God for our sins when we were
in Him. What have that touched you? Nothing. Nothing. He took it all. He bore
it all. And so when He died, we died.
And when He rose again and sat on the throne of God, I tell
you, believer, you are in Him. You are in Christ. And now He's revealed this blessed
truth to us. By His grace He saved us, and
we who believe on Him have this opportunity every moment of every
day to cry out to God, to lift our eyes to the heavens and pour
out our hearts in prayer unto Him. And He welcomes it. He welcomes it. You believer
in Christ, child of God, chosen of the Father, redeemed of the
Son, called of the Spirit, you are heirs and joint heirs with
Christ. In other words, whatever belongs
to Him belongs to you. What belongs to Him? What doesn't belong to Him? Well, then what belongs to you?
Everything that belongs to Him belongs to you. Is that not the
sweetest thing? The most precious gift that one
could give a human soul. We are made heirs and joint heirs
with Christ. We have all things. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, in verse 21, he says, therefore let no man
glory in men. Amen. Is that right? You idea,
I don't want, I don't want, I don't want any of it. All the praise
and glory for my salvation belongs to God alone. We don't glory
in men. Why? For all things are yours. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or
Peter, or the world, or life, or death, or things present,
or things to come, all are yours. And you are Christ's. And Christ's is God's. All things
are yours. Life is yours. Death is yours. Suffering is
yours. God's promises, every one of
them are yours. And you belong to Christ. Do you realize that you are His
reward, His inheritance? I know I don't feel like that.
There's just no way you can feel like that. But I tell you it's
true. We belong to Christ and He has
given us all things. His righteousness is yours. His
blood atonement is yours. His resurrection is yours. His omnipotent power is moving
all things after the counsel of His own will for your good. Lift up your eyes and cry out
to your God. Cry out in joy. If you're feeling
joy, cry out in joy. Cry out in pain. Whatever. Bring it to Him. Give Him praise
and glory. Peace is ours. Peace with God
has been bought by the blood of Christ. It's yours. This flesh is so contemptible. I hate this flesh because it's
always striving to do something to merit. I hate that. I always feel I got it. No! Christ
has done it all. Now just come. Come and welcome. What reason do you have, believer,
to neglect prayer? Is there any reason? If all things
are yours, then what reason do we have to
neglect prayer? Why would we withhold our complaints
and cries to such a loving Father who constantly watches you? Why would we withhold that? Believers, God does not need
for us to be long-winded in prayer. If you feel like you've got to
have some kind of manuscript in order to pray to God, throw
it in the trash and cry out from the heart. No matter how long or how short
the prayer is, cry out. Use what's been given to you. God does not require some formal
speech. Behold, the prayer of the psalmist
here is very short, is very simple, and it's filled with hope. He
lifts his eyes, not with doubtful eyes. He lifts his eyes in faith,
believing God to answer his prayer. And I tell you, if you can't
even say a word, then just sigh. Have you ever sighed? God hears our sighs. Matter of fact, back in Romans
chapter 8, it tells us that. It says, in verse 23, it says,
Not only they, not only creation growns, but ourselves also, which
have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our
body. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not
hope. For what a man seeth, why does
he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which
we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought to know. Is that not right? Do you not
often times go before the Father and say, I just don't even know
what to pray for. I've got so much going that I just can't
tell you which one If we would be here a long time, if I could
spill out my complaints, we would be here forever. The Lord knows
your problems. Pour out your heart. And I tell you, the Spirit knows
we don't know what to pray for, but the Spirit Himself maketh
intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. Oh! There's a prayer. Oh! That's
another one. Lift it up, if that's all you
got. Lift up your eyes and sigh unto
Him, and He will hear you. Our hope, our confidence is not
seen with our physical, natural eyes. Our hope in our prayer
and confidence comes from God, who is not seen. I've not seen God with these
eyes. But I tell you, I see Him with
the eye of faith. I've not seen the Lord Jesus
Christ with these physical eyes, but by faith I know I will. I
know I will. Like Job, he said, with these
eyes I myself, I'll see Him. I'll see Him with my own eyes
and not another. I believe and trust and therefore, we who have hope in Christ when
we cry out and lift our eyes to God we have this assurance
and therefore we wait patiently for his reply I know when we pray we want the
answer yesterday I think we live in such a fast
food culture that we have drive-through prayer. We expect to be, you
know, pray and then give it to me right now. God doesn't work
that way and you know that. But we know that God does hear
us and therefore, because we have such confidence in God,
we wait on Him. We wait on Him. Therefore let
us quickly lift our eyes in prayer in whatever circumstance in whatever
sorrow in whatever heaviness no matter your feelings cry out
to God and then Wait Look what he says in our text he cries
out unto God that dwellest in the heavens and he says behold
I as the eyes of the servant look to the hand of their masters,
as the eyes of the maiden look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God." Wait. We are to wait on God. Believer, we have such a hope such a confidence because of
Christ, because he has bridged the gap between God and man. He has bridged the gap between
man and God so that we may be able to approach and expect of
God to hear us. And as we wait, as we wait in prayer, we should
consider to whom we are calling. If you find it difficult to wait
on God, consider to whom you are calling. Our God dwells in
the heavens. Now surely God is omnipresent,
isn't he? I like this. Someone said this,
and you can use it if you want to. You have my permission to
use someone else's stuff. Someone said this, that God is
an infinite circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference
is nowhere. That's how infinite God is. God
is omnipresent. He's everywhere. at once. But yet when scripture refers
to God in His sovereign character, you'll notice that He is always
on the throne in heaven. In 1 Kings 22, the prophet Micah,
he's telling Ahab and Jehoshaphat, he said, I saw the Lord on His
throne. throne and all the host of heaven
standing on his right hand and on his left. God is omnipresent,
but I tell you God is in heaven on his throne. In Isaiah, God
says of himself, he says, the heaven is my throne and the earth
is my footstool. Wow, that's big. That's big. Our God is infinitely
big. Huge. Our God sits on the throne
in heaven, and I tell you, He does whatsoever He pleases. That's who we're coming to. When
we cry out with our sighs and groans, this is the One who says,
come and welcome. It is the God who sits on His
throne in heaven, administering all things after the counsel
of His own will. Flowers bloom at His discretion. The stars are upheld by His omnipotent
fingers. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
sits sovereignly on His throne and does everything. Lift up
your eyes and behold to whom you're talking. When you sigh
and groan, He welcomes that. And the one you're talking to
has omnipotent power. If you've got, say you had a
financial problem and you owed millions of dollars, Now, would
you come to me... Would you come to me with that
problem? Now, if you just want to tell me, that's something.
But I got no power to help you. I can't do anything for you.
Oh, but God could. God could do so much more. Don't trust in men. Believe in
God. Trust Him. Lay it at His feet,
and then as a servant, wait. wait. He hears you. Your prayer didn't
go unnoticed. He heard it. And I tell you,
He'll answer it and give you the best answer you could possibly
ask for. Matter of fact, He'll give you
an answer you never thought of. Hasn't that always been the way?
Usually we think this would be the best way for us out of this
problem, wouldn't it? We say, well, this is the way.
God, I'm praying for this particular way. And then we get it, we stomp,
we don't get it, we stomp around like little brats and we cry,
ah, well, I didn't get my way. And then we find out it's infinitely
better His way. It's always infinitely better
His way. You think we'd learn that? after
so many times, but yet God tells us, I hear you, I know what's
best for you, just come before my throne, lay it here, and wait
on me. I'll make it right. Look to Jesus,
who has and is and shall forever work all things for your good. Do you know that that's a promise?
Do you know that He is going to do that for your good? Do
you realize this is something God has obligated Himself to
you for? Go to Jeremiah. God has promised
to do you good. Jeremiah chapter 32, verse 40. You can go through this chapter,
and if you can, you should underline the I wills of this chapter. It's very, very wonderful to
do that. Isaiah, I mean, Jeremiah chapter 32 and verse 40. God
says, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from
them to do them good. This is God's covenant to you.
I will never turn away from you to do you good. I will always
do what is best for you. Did we ask this of God? No. God determined to give it. He said, I will. But I will put
my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me.
Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good. You know what?
It's not only that God has covenanted to do us good, but He was happy
to do it. He rejoices. Have you ever given
somebody something just to make them happy? Doesn't that make
you happy? If you give somebody something
and they rejoice in it, that makes the giver happy. What has
God given us? He's given us everything and
He's happy to do it. Did you deserve it? Absolutely
not. Did He give it? Absolutely. He gave it. He tells us that He would rejoice
over us to do us good. He said, I will plant them in
land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. Now is that going to happen?
Is that going to happen? God says I'll do it and I'll
do it with everything in me. You bet it is. It's gonna happen. He's gonna do you good. When? Every day. Every minute. For eternity, He
has done nothing but good for you. Nothing. God gives His whole
self to do us good. And He says how we're to pray.
He says to wait. I've got some things on this,
and I'm going to be brief. I know I've spent a lot of my
time, but I wanted you to see this. He says, he waits. He says,
behold, the eyes of the servant look to the hand of their masters,
and he waits. In the east, in the eastern countries,
most of the monarchs or masters would not speak to their servants,
but rather they would use hand gestures to direct their servants. And so the servant, if he was
a good servant, if he was a faithful servant, then he would always
have his eyes on his master's hands so that he would not miss
the command. Even so are we to wait on our
God like that. we're to wait on our God by looking
at the hand of His Word. How is it that we know what we're
to be doing? How is it that we know the will
of God? It is through His Word. Somebody recently had asked me about moving away
from the gospel, where there was no gospel being preached.
And I said, it's wrong. You shouldn't do
it. How do I know that? Forsake not
the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some
is. God says that. How much proof do we need from
God's Word that we are to assemble with believers? Now I'd say,
if there was a church there, if there was a gospel being preached,
I'd say, I'd pack all your stuff in bubble wrap for you. That'd
be great. We're not competing with one
another as God's servants. By all means, go and worship. But how do we know that that
would be wrong? What is the will of God? The will of God is that
we assemble together, that we worship God in faithfulness and
public worship. So I know that's not the revealed
will of God. It's simple by looking at His
Word. Watch His hand. Obey His hand. There's nothing greater for a
servant of God than to be used. Is that not right? Do you desire
to be used? I tell you, I desire to be used
of God. for your blessing and your benefit,
for your edification, for your spiritual growth. I desire to
be used of God that others might come and believe on Christ. I
desire that. What must I do? It is required
of a steward that he be found, what? Faithful. Praise God it doesn't say it's
required of a steward that he be found good. No! Faithful! Faithful. Take our place. Whatever your place is, take
that. Watch His hand. Obey His will. Love His people. Worship in spirit
and in truth. Pray, study the Word of God. These things are revealed to
us. Witness! Is that not a command of our
Master? Go you into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature? Yes! We are to be faithful witnesses
of God. Now how do we do this? Well, we don't promote ourselves. We don't promote ourselves. The
Apostle Peter said, Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts,
and be ready to give every man an answer that asketh you a reason
of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. The problem
is, many of us want to give an answer when nobody asks the question.
Isn't that right? We usually want to, when there's
no opportunity to witness, we want to just go at it. How about
waiting for an opportunity? Be faithful in worship. Be faithful
in prayer. Be faithful in study. And wait. And God will open the door. I tell you, people notice you
whether you think they do or not. You believe are being watched. And if we're found faithful,
I guarantee you somebody somewhere is going to ask, what's that
reason of hope? Why are you so peaceful? Your
life is a mess. Your life is horrible. How is
it that you can have such peace? Well, since you ask, let me tell
you. There's one, the Lord Jesus Christ,
my Savior. Let me tell you about Him. And so when we're given the opportunity
to serve, when our master's hands opens the doors of providence
for us, go through, go through as a willing servant. And friends, wait on God until
that he have mercy upon us. He says that in verse 3 twice.
Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we are exceedingly
filled with contempt. What's that word contempt? It's
bitterness. Are you not filled with contempt in your own soul? I hate me. I hate this old man so much,
I'm full of contempt. Have mercy on me. Have you ever stopped asking
for mercy? While you're waiting before your
God, keep asking for mercy to wait. Oh God have mercy. Oh God have
mercy. Can we ever say it enough? I've
still not found an end to that. And I won't until this body is
laid in the ground. Then I'll see. Then I'll know what it is to
be fully righteous. But until then I'm full of contempt
for myself. But that should not stop you
from praying for mercy. That should not stop you from
waiting before your God. That should not stop you from
calling out and lifting up your eyes, begging God for His gracious
mercy. And I'll tell you, you'll have
it. You'll have it. You'll give it. May God give us grace. to go
from this place, lifting our eyes to God, giving us hearts
of servants to wait on Him and to continually cry for mercy,
to do what He's asked us to do. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.