His wings I am safely abiding
Though the night deepens and tempests are wild Still I can
trust Him, I know He will keep me ? He has redeemed me and I
am His child ? ? Under His wings, under His wings ? ? Who from
His love can sever? ? ? Under His wings my soul shall
abide ? ? Safely abide forever ? Under His wings, what a refuge
in sorrow How the heart yearningly turns to His rest Often when
earth has no balm for my healing ? There I find comfort and there
I am blessed ? ? Under his wings, under his wings ? ? Who from
his love can sever ? ? Under his wings my soul shall abide
? ? Safely abide forever ? Under his wings, oh, what precious
enjoyment There will I hide till life's trials are over Sheltered,
protected, no evil can harm me. Resting in Jesus, I'm safe evermore. Under His wings, under His wings,
who from His love can sever? ? Under his wings my soul shall
abide ? ? Safely abide forever ? May be seated. Go with me, if you would, back
to Psalm 62. And while you're turning there,
I would like to remind you that this was Roy Baldwin's favorite
song. Psalm 62. If the Lord is willing, we're
going to end this service. With the song. I need the every
hour. Most gracious Lord. No tender
voice like thine can peace afford. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless
me now, my Savior, I come to thee. That song goes right along
with verse eight, which says, trust in him, at all times. Ye people, pour out your heart
before Him. God is a refuge for us. I need thee every hour." Don't
you find that in yourself? Don't you find yourself saying
that? Lord, I need you every hour. Trust in Him at all times. All times. At all times, trust
in Him. Trust in Him. Pour out your heart
before Him. What a good reminder. Pour out your heart before Him. You know, we pour out our heart
all the time to anybody who'll listen. If I can get somebody's
ear, I'll pour my heart out to you. Pour your heart out to Him. He said, I'll hear you. I'll
bend my ear down and I'll hear you. Pour out your heart to Him. Pour it out to Him. God is a
refuge for us. God is a refuge for us. Only
God is a refuge for us. The first word of this Psalm
is truly, and that word translates Only, if you have a center margin
in your Bible, you'll see that that word translates to mean
only, that's what it means, only. And down in verse nine, the word
surely also translates to mean only. I love that translation. Only, only. In addition to those
two times, David says the word only four more times in this
psalm. Only, only, only. For that reason, Charles Spurgeon
said this psalm is referred to as the only psalm. This is the
only psalm. You can hear David's emphasis
of only when he says in verse eight, trust in him only. at all times. Ye people, pour
out your heart before Him only. Only God is a refuge for us. Only God is a true refuge for
us. And the word silah means just
ponder that for a minute. That's what it means. Just pause
for a minute. And think about that. Just ponder
that for a minute. Now, who is this God that David
is saying to trust in at all times and pour our heart out
to? Who is David saying is our refuge? Who is David referring to? Who
is this God? Well, verse 1 says, Truly my
soul waiteth upon God From Him cometh my salvation. Only Him. Verse 2 says, He only
is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be greatly moved. David said, My God is my rock
and my salvation. Who is that? Who is that? Let's not ever take it for granted
that people know who God is. I told you before about that
foolish man. Bless his heart. Bless that man's
heart. I heard him end a wedding ceremony
with a prayer. He was conducting a wedding ceremony,
and I was watching the ceremony, and he ended his prayer praying
to God, whoever he or she may be. That's what most people think
about God. Let's not ever take for granted
that men and women know who God is. Who is David saying is our
God and our rock and our salvation? We'll turn over to 1 Corinthians
10 with me. 1 Corinthians 10. And while you're turning there,
I'll tell you that Bob and Rebecca have a granddaughter named Lucy
Jean Simpson. And we're gonna let Lucy Jean
Simpson tell men and women who God is, who our rock is. Lucy is now about, I'm guessing,
about 20 years old. And when Lucy was four years
old, I've told you all the time, every time I tell this, I say
she's five. I found the paper I wrote it
down on yesterday, and I wrote on it she was four. So I stand
corrected. She was four years old. Four
years old. And if this doesn't prove to
us that these classes are profitable, this seed that's planted teaching
these children, there's more wisdom in this than All a false religion put together.
But anyway, when she was four years old, Hannah and I were
at Adam and Carrie's house, and we were getting ready to sit
down and eat dinner, and Hannah and Carrie were putting dishes
on the table, and I sat down where they told me to sit down,
and Lucy slid up in the chair next to me. She had this picture she had
colored in Sunday school. And I said, what a beautiful
picture you have there. And she said, thank you. You
want me to tell you about it? And I said, I sure do. And she
held it up and it had this man on it and he was standing next
to a waterfall and it had all these people in the background.
And she said, well, this is Moses. And all these people are the
children of Israel. And they were out in the wilderness,
and the children of Israel started whining and complaining. And
they were just whining and complaining. They said, We're so thirsty,
Moses. We're just so thirsty. And they kept on whining and
complaining. She said, So do you know what
Moses did? And I said, what? She said, he
struck the rock. And she said, do you know what
came out of that rock? And I said, what? She said, living
water. And the people drank and they
drank and they were so satisfied. And she said, Do you know who
that rock was? And I said, Who? She said, Jesus
Christ. And she said, Do you know what
that rock did? And I said, What? She said it followed the Israelites
wherever they went. Look at verse 1, 1 Corinthians
10 verse 1 says, Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be
ignorant. Oh, I don't want men and women.
I want men and women to have the wisdom of a four year old. Moreover, brethren, I would not
that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were
under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all
baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat
the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual
drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed
them. And do you know who that rock
was? That rock was Christ. That rock was Christ. That's
who our rock is. That's who our salvation is. That's who our God is. Christ. Christ, Jesus, the Lord. Go back with me now to Psalm
62. Verse 1 says, truly, only, only. And oh, may God give us a heart
to say that with David. Only my soul waiteth upon the
Lord Jesus Christ, my God. From Him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock, and my salvation. He is my defense. Christ is. Christ is only. And that's why
David said, I shall not be greatly moved. It's all because of Him.
Verse 3 says, How long will you imagine mischief against a man? You shall be slain, all of you,
As a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence. That's man's nature against God. We all need to know. We need
to know. That's what we are. You read
something like that and you think, oh, how foolish they are. Why
would they do that? That's me and you by nature.
That is me and you. That is all men and women naturally
against God. That is man's standing before
God. In His flesh, in our flesh, we
are not standing on anything that is stable. Nothing. If God leaves us to ourselves,
we're going to die in our sins. And here's the reason why. Verse
4 says, They only consult to cast Him down from His excellency. They delight in lies. They bless
with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. And that is mankind
in his sinful flesh. That is man's sinful nature before
God. All that sinful man wants to
do in his heart is try to cast him down from his excellency. Man wants to bring God down and
he wants to bring himself up until God does a work in man.
And until God reveals the truth to man and reveals salvation
to man, and then all that His people want to do is bring themselves
down and lift Christ up. But man naturally wants to cast
God down from His excellency, and here's the thing about it.
God cannot be cast down from His excellency. Thank God. He is sovereignly seated on His
throne, and that's where He's going to stay for all eternity. I love knowing that. The angel
told Mary, He shall reign forever, and of His kingdom there shall
be no end. I love knowing that. Now, man
is going to be cast down, but not God. So David said in verse
five, my soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation
is from Him. David said to himself, he said
to his own soul, look to Christ. Just keep looking to Christ.
Just keep looking to Christ. Hope in Him. He said my expectation
is from Him. It's in Him, it's from Him. He's
my hope. He's my hope. Only Him. Verse
six says, He only is my rock. David is well-establishing this
word only. Well-establishing only. That needs to be well-established.
Only. Only you're going to you're going
to hear a lot of religions. You're going to hear a lot of
a lot of religions, false. There's only one true religion.
You're going to hear a lot of false religions who claim Christ
and claim grace and claim his work. They have no problem singing
Amazing Grace. They'll claim it as long as they
can add their own flesh to it, and add their own work to it,
and add their own decision to it, and add something they've
done. They'll claim Christ and claim
grace as long as they can share it with Him. David keeps saying,
only. Only. It's Christ only. It's not Christ plus anything. It's Christ alone. only. Verse six, he only is my rock
and my salvation. I'm not standing on anything
but him. I'm not standing on anything I've done. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. He's my rock. When Moses struck
that rock in the wilderness, what that represented was the
law striking Christ for the sin of the people. They were whining
and complaining. And that's all we do. God is
sovereign. His providence is perfect. Everything
he does is good and right. He'll never leave us. He'll never
forsake us. We'll never be forsaken or begging
bread yet. All we do is whine and complain.
It's all I do. Just whining and complain. Just
sin. That's what man is. And when
Moses struck the rock, when God told Moses, here's what you do.
You strike the rock. What that represented is the
law. Moses represents the law. The
holy justice of the law striking Christ. The sin, transgression
against the law requires a punishment. And the law's punishment was
taken out on Christ. Striking Christ instead of His
people. All have sinned, including God's
people. And the law had to punish us
for what we had done. But in grace and in mercy, God
chose for His people a substitute. a substitute to bear everything
that had to come to Him. God provided Christ to be their
substitute, to bear all of their striking punishment. And because
the law struck Christ instead of His people, by His stripes,
they are healed. Because He died, they live. His
life poured out of Him to them. That living water flowed out
to them. Through the offering of Himself, they live. Verse
7 says, In God is my salvation and my glory. If any man glory,
let him glory in the Lord. He is glory. He's my glory. Everybody wants to go to glory.
You know, we're all going to glory. He's glory. In God is
my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. It is in Christ. It's in the
One who was smitten for me. Manifest in the flesh to be smitten
for His people. Wounded for me, wounded for me. There on the cross He was wounded
for me. Gone my transgressions and now
I am free. All because the Lord Jesus was
wounded for me." All of God's people can say that. All of them
can say, dying for me, dying for me. There on the cross, He
was dying for me. Now in His death, my redemption
I see. In His death, I see my redemption. All because the Lord Jesus was
dying for me. Risen for us, living for us,
He's coming for us. I love that one. He's coming
for us. Verse 7 says, In God is my salvation
and my glory, the rock of my strength and my refuge is in
God. Trust in Him at all times. Ye
people, pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. He is a refuge for us. He's our
hiding place. He's our hiding place. Don't
we all love that story of when Charles Wesley, he was a preacher
and a hymn writer in the 1700s. He was upstairs in his house
And he had the window open. And all of a sudden, a huge storm
just dropped out of nowhere. Just raging rain and wind and
thunder. And Brother Wesley ran to the
shutter windows to close them quickly. And when he reached
out, a little bird flew into his coat. And he pulled that little bird
into his warmth and safety, and he sat back down and he wrote,
Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly while the
near waters roll. Hide me, hide me, hide me. You're my refuge. Throughout
this life, we're gonna need a refuge. And we are hiding in Him from
the great wrath and judgment of God's holiness. And every day when we need a
refuge, when we need a hiding place from everything, all the
storms that just roll over us, the waves of trials and troubles
and sin, when we need a refuge, He's our refuge. He's our hiding
place. He is our safety. He truly is. Verse 8 says, Trust in Him at
all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before Him.
God is a refuge for us. Surely men of low degree are
vanity, and men of high degree are a lie. To be laid in the
balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. It may appear to be one thing
or another, but it's all just emptiness, and it's all going
to be weighed into balance. A man may seem to be high in
prestige and high in place in this world and high in riches
and high in wealth, but he's empty, and he's not going to
weigh anything on that balance. He's not going to account for
anything. Man of every kind, no matter what he is, no matter
what he thinks he is, Man in his flesh is just emptier than
emptiness. Man at his best state or his
worst state, doesn't matter either way. Mankind is altogether vanity,
lighter than vanity, he said. Verse 10 says, trust not in oppression
and become not vain in robbery. If riches increase, set not your
heart upon them. Don't look to anything but Christ
alone. Whether you're oppressed to the point of stealing, or
so rich and increased that you think you have need of nothing,
don't look to anything but Christ alone. Seek Christ alone. Don't put your trust anywhere
but in Christ alone. Verse 11 says, God hath spoken
once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Aren't we so glad? All power
belongs to God. All ability belongs to God. That word power means strength. All strength belongs to God. That's not the only thing that
belongs to Him. In Deuteronomy, he said vengeance
belongs to him. He also said the secret things
of God belong to him. But thank God, that's not all
that belongs to him. Verse 12 says, also, mercy belongs to him. Thank God. Unto Thee, O Lord, belongs mercy."
Daniel 9 says, mercy, righteousness, and forgiveness belong to Him,
even though we have rebelled against Him. Psalm 3 says, salvation belongs
to Him. Salvation is of the Lord. Mark 9 says, we belong to Him. How thankful we are for that.
Because He purchased us with His own blood. We belong to Him.
That's a good thing to remember. He bought us. We belong to Him.
Everything belongs to Him. And rendering for everything. The doling out of all judgment
and all reward for everything. Belongs to Him. The end of verse
12 says, Thou renderest to every man according to his work. Oh, the glory of knowing that
all of the work of God's chosen people, all of their works, everything
they've done, that was laid on Christ. And all of the works of Christ
was laid on His people. Everything he did, he went about
doing good. I was reading Matthew for Lord
Will and Sunday Morning's message, and it says the Lord went somewhere
and healed everybody there. All the good. All the good. He just went about doing good.
All of his good was laid on his people, and then before the judgment
throne of God, we were all rewarded for the works that we stood in.
Christ was justly rewarded for every sinful work that His people
committed. Christ was justly rewarded. Because
He bore them. He owned them. He took them.
And we were justly rewarded. We want to get a hold of the
amazement of Christ being justly rewarded for our sin. Just try
to get a hold of the fact that we were justly rewarded for His
righteousness. All the righteous works that
Christ committed. Thank God all power has been
given to Him to do that. And all mercy has come to us
because of that. It all belongs to Him. It only
belongs to Him. Thank God for His goodness. Thank
God for His kindness. Thank God for His mercy. Thank
God for His refuge. Thank God He's provided for us
in the person of Christ our Savior, a hope, a salvation, an anchor
for our soul. Thank God. Verse 8 says, trust
in Him at all times. Ye people, pour out your heart
before Him. God is a refuge for us. Selah. Let's just pause and ponder
that a while. Amen.