I titled this message, A Believer
in a Dark Place. A Believer in a Dark Place. Now this prayer is an instructive
prayer, masco. It's an instructive prayer. The
Holy Spirit had David to pen this prayer For all God's children
throughout all generations, we can learn from this. We can learn
something about prayer. We can learn something about
our Lord as we look at this. But David is in a dark place.
This is his situation. He's in a cave in Ptolemy. You can find that in 1 Samuel
22, one, where he's on the run. He's hiding. Saul had no egg to kill all those
priests in Nob, 85 priests, because they helped David, because Himilech
helped David. And not only did he kill all
those priests, he killed everybody in town. The men, the women,
the children, and it says, and the sucklings. He killed them
all. And so David had left there and
he's in this cave. And over there in verse seven,
he speaks of his soul being in prison. He said, bring my soul
out of prison. Saul was after his life. He felt
like a captive. He felt like he had nowhere to
turn. He was hemmed up in this cave. His enemies were closing
in on him, and he had real enemies, just as our Lord had real enemies.
And no doubt he was confused. You ever been there? What's the
Lord doing? I'm his child. I can't seem to
find him. Like Job, when he prayed, he
just, like the heavens were brass. He's in this cave and he just
says, I'm overwhelmed. I'm overwhelmed. What's a child
of God to do when he or she is going through such a very dark
time? And God's children will one by
one. Now go through dark times. Well, we're given the answer. The answer is given in one verse
in Isaiah 50 verse 10. Who is among you that feareth
the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his servant? Who's the Lord's
servant? Isaiah 42, Behold my servant,
the Lord Jesus Christ. who obeyeth the voice of my servant,
that walketh in darkness." Now, the original translation of that
says, that walketh in darknesses. You know, this is not the first
time David was in a cave. He was in a cave in Getty. He was in a cave at that time.
It wasn't the first time. You know, our trials do not come
and end with one trial. will not be confused and in darkness
just one time. It'll happen several times over
our life. But the more we grow in grace and in knowledge of
Christ, the more light we have in darkness. That walketh in darkness and
hath no light. You don't know what's going on.
You don't know what's going on. Let him trust in the name of
the Lord. That's all that God is. His name
is all that He is. Jehovah Jireh. Jehovah Sid Canoe. Remember Abraham said in one
place, the Lord will provide. The Lord our righteousness. The
Lord that healeth. That's the name of the Lord.
Trust Him. When you have no light, And you're
in darkness as to spiritually, you're just down, you're knocked
off your feet. There's just one thing to do.
You trust Him who does no wrong. You trust Him who's immutable.
You trust Him who's faithful. You trust Him who knows what
He's doing. You trust Him. Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay, stay, rest upon his God. Now this psalm
could be applied to the Lord Jesus Christ because he experienced
great darkness while he walked on this earth in the flesh, didn't
he? He cried in Gethsemane, my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto
death. I'm gonna die right here if I
don't get help, if the Lord doesn't help me. He wasn't looking for
help from his disciples, but Lord, he was crying unto the
Lord, that's who he's crying to. He cried on the cross, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why are you so far from the
words of my roaring? But you know what he said after
that? Put the heart holy. He didn't charge him with folly.
He didn't charge God with folly. He said, you're holy. You're
right. You see, that's trusting the
name of the Lord. He's holy. You know, holy just about describes
all of God. HIS LOVE IS HOLY, HIS POWER IS
HOLY, EVERYTHING ABOUT GOD IS HOLY. IT'S ATTACHED TO EVERY
ONE OF HIS ATTRIBUTES. IT'S HOLY. There were times when our Lord
groaned in SPIRIT. In John 11, 33, When Jesus therefore
saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with
her, He groaned in SPIRIT. When He told the disciples, He
says, One of you is going to betray Me. He says He groaned
in SPIRIT. He knows what it is. He knows
where David's at. Now note the process of David's
prayer. Verse one, I cried. Verse two,
I poured. Verse four, I looked. Verse six,
I said. In verse seven, he made a request,
attending to my cry, bring my soul out of prison. And here's
the purpose that I may praise thy name. This is the prayer. Now this is a prayer, it says,
Massacre of David, a prayer when he was in the cave. And it felt like he was trapped in
there, no doubt. He says, and he's telling us
this, I cried unto the Lord with my voice, with my voice unto
the Lord did I make my supplication. David tells us to whom he cried,
the Lord. Do you have any idea how many
people pray to a God that does not exist every day? What about, you see these men
when they gather and they face toward Mecca and they bow to
the ground, they're praying to a God that doesn't even exist. It's so sad. Everyone that believes not prays
to a God that doesn't exist. They don't believe Him. Then David is telling us that
he cried with his voice. This prayer is audible. They
could hear Him praying in the cave. You go over there in 1
Samuel 22 and you can read that where His, there's 400 people
came to Him, 400 men came to Him. They were the ones that
were broke. I mean, it was a motley crew
that came to Him. But they could hear Him praying
out loud. He put a voice to His prayer.
He laid His cause before the Lord. And this, he says, to encourage
all God's children who find themselves in dark places to cry out unto
the Lord. This is written for us. You're
going to find yourself in a dark place sooner or later. And here's what you do. You cry
unto the Lord. Put a voice to it. Get off by
yourself and just cry out loud to the Lord. And this falls into
the category of casting all our care upon Him, for He cares for
us. He cares for us. And listen here,
I poured out. I love the language. I love the
language that David is using. He's instructing us. We're being
instructed here by the Spirit of God. Pour out your soul. I
poured out my complaint before Him. I showed Him my trouble.
Our Lord did that in the Garden of Gethsemane on the cross. He poured out his, he poured
out his, he says here, and I like this, I poured out my complaint. He said, well, you shouldn't
do that before God. That's better than doing it before
you. It's better to do it before God than one another, isn't it?
You know, we can talk about one another's trouble. We sure don't
need to complain about it because it's of God. Are not all things
of God? Then we shouldn't complain to
each other. And it's nothing wrong with talking to one another.
You talk to me about trouble and pray for you. But there's
a difference in doing that and complaining about it. But we
are allowed, this is the freedom we have at the throne of grace.
We are allowed to lay our complaint before God. Job did, and God
did not condemn him. At the end of the book of Job,
did God condemn him? He said, no, no. He condemned
his three friends, but not Job, not Job. The Lord is the one
that we should take our complaints to, not each other, and especially
not the world. Don't complain in front of the
world. And that's for me too. It's unbecoming. for those who
claim to have faith to complain in front of unbelievers. Our Lord never did that. He laid
out His soul before God the Father. And David emptied himself of
his trouble. I like this. I poured out, just like I had
a glass of water here. It's just like pouring it out.
He said, I poured it out. I poured my heart out. I unveiled
my heart at the throne of grace. And that's the place to unveil
your heart is at the throne of grace. And here's his freedom
in prayer. I showed before him my trouble. Now we know that the Lord knows
our trouble. Yet we tell him our troubles. He tells us to,
you know, keeping things bottled up inside you just kill you.
You know that? It's not good to do that. Take your burden
to the Lord and leave it there. Unburden yourself there at the
throne of grace. Do it. Talk it out with the Lord. You
know, I find that the more real that the Lord is to us, to a
believer, the more he or she will pour out of their heart
to Him. You know, David said, I cried
out with my voice, I cried out, audible. Because God's real to
him. He's real to him. And he spoke
to him in that cave. He spoke to him as God's standing
there beside him, like a person talking to a person. Let's talk to our Father as His
children, because we are, and He is our Father. And He says in verse three, when
my spirit was overwhelmed within me, Has your spirit ever, has it
ever been overwhelmed within you? Have you ever been overwhelmed? Solomon said, a merry heart,
there in Proverbs 17, 22, a merry heart doth good like a medicine,
but a broken spirit dryeth the bones. When my spirit was overwhelmed,
you know what overwhelmed means? Bury or drown beneath a huge
mass. Has your sins ever overwhelmed
you? Have your sins ever really just
been like a huge mass coming down on you? Overwhelmed by our thoughts.
You know, this is where we get overwhelmed the most is in our
thoughts. Our thoughts. There are times when our spirits
are so overwhelmed because of the way we're thinking. We feel it's too much. We feel
we can't go any further. Can't make it. Can't make it
anymore. Exasperated to the highest degree. Exasperated. David's spirit was
so wrapped in gloom that all was darkness before him. You
know, our Lord experienced this in the Garden of Gethsemane.
When he was made to be sent for us, he's about to undergo the
wrath of God. It was just overwhelming. He
said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even to death. Our Lord can identify us with
us here. Listen to him in Hebrews 4.15,
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. We will never go through anything
that he hasn't experienced and dealt with. and did it without sin. We're in good company. We're
in good company, but here's good news. Here's honey out of the
eater. Here's honey out of the eater.
He said, when his spirit was overwhelmed, he was just drowning
in this fear and perplexity that he was in. He said, then thou
knewest my path. He drew comfort from this. Then thou knewest my power. Hang
on to this. Hang on to this truth like you'd
hang on to a plank in a shipwreck. I thought about that over an
axe. Remember when over in the book of Acts, I think it's in
Acts 27, when the shipwrecked and Paul was on it and they had
to get to shore. And you remember after the ship
that Paul said, stay here and nobody will lose their life.
Well, at the end of that chapter, it says, you know, if the ship
broke up and they jumped into the water and they, some of them,
it says, held on to boards and others to broken parts of the
ship. Sometimes that's all we have to hang on to. Maybe a verse
of scripture. That's all. Maybe it's a word
out of the word of God. Well, hang on to it. Here it
is. Then thou knewest my path. Hang
on to that. Hang on to it. Psalm 30 verse 5, For his anger
endureth but a moment in his favor's life. Weeping may endure
for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. It's coming just
as sure as there's sorrow. As a child of God goes through
sorrow, just as sure joy is coming. Just as sure as there's a trial,
there's a blessing. Job said when he wrestled with
the Lord, you know what he said? When the Lord touched his thigh,
he said, he blessed me there. In that trial, in that wrestling,
I was blessed, blessed of God. I was blessed in that trial. And let us draw some comfort
from this. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, thou knewest
my path. Take comfort in that. I don't
know which way I'll take when in such darkness, but he does.
It's not darkness to him. Nothing is dark before God. I like what Job said. Now, you
know how crushed Job was. You know what God did to him. Job 23 10, but he knoweth the
way that I take when he hath tried me. I shall come forth
as gold. I don't know how this is going
to end, but I know how I'm going to come out of it. I'm going
to come forth as gold. The dross is going to be burned
off, but I'm going to come out as gold. And He knows the way
that I take when He's tried me, when He's disciplined me. Do
you know the way that when you discipline your children, did
you know the way they would take? You have no idea what was gonna
happen. You don't, you didn't. But God
does. God knows exactly what's gonna
happen. He knows the way that I take when he's driving me.
And David said, thou knowest my path. You know the way that
I walk. Lord, you know my life. You know everything about me.
You know my path. I haven't been walking with the
ungodly, you know that. You know my path. I like what
John Newton wrote, let me read it to you. The Lord is not indifferent
or a mere spectator, but He observes with attention, He knows, He
considers your path, yea, He appoints it, and every circumstance
about it is under His direction. Your trouble began at the hour
He saw best. IT COULD NOT COME BEFORE, AND
HE HAS MARKED THE DEGREE OF IT TO A HAIR'S BREADTH, AND ITS
DURATION TO A MINUTE. HE KNOWS LIKEWISE HOW YOUR SPIRIT
IS AFFECTED, AND SUCH SUPPLIES OF GRACE AND STRENGTH, AND IN
SUCH SEASONS AS HE SEES NEEDFUL, HE WILL AFFORD IN DUE SEASONS. so that when things appear darkest,
when they appear darkest, you shall still be able to say, though
chastened, not killed, therefore hope in God, for you shall yet
praise Him." Isn't that good? That's good. That's a mature
believer. That's a mature believer. That's
one who's been tried. That's one who's been in a cave
like David, in a dark place, in a dark place. Listen, he said, in the way wherein
I walked, here in verse three, in the way wherein I walked,
have they privily laid a snare for me. Satan is subtle. He's not laying a snare for you
down at the local bar, you're not there. That's not your hangout
anymore. That's not your place. It's not
your place. You're not hanging out on a street
corner. That's not your place. He lays it in the way where you
walk. You walk by faith. You walk in
godliness. Satan is so subtle. He'll lay
a snare right in that way. Turn over to 1 Samuel 18. Verse 20, And Saul sent messengers
to take David. And when they saw the company
of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed
over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul,
and they also prophesied. And when it was told Saul, he
sent other messengers. And let me see if I got the right...
No, I'm in 19. Sorry about that. Well, that's
good reading anyway. I'll have to go back and check
that one out. All right, let me see where I'm
at. I said what I say, is that right? 18. Okay, I'm getting there, 18. Verse 20, And Michael, Saul's
daughter, loved David. And they told Saul, and the thing
pleased him. And Saul said, I will give him
her, that she may be a snare to him. David didn't see that. David didn't see that. And that
the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore Saul
said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son-in-law in the one
of the twain. I mean, Saul said, you're gonna
be my son-in-law, I'm gonna give you, but he did it as a snare.
That's Satan. David said, they privately, they
privately laid a snare in the way that I walk. David was walking
in the integrity of his heart. He's walking before God. David
was a man after God's own heart, but Satan will lay snares right
in that way. John, boy, you preach a great
message. And I appreciate it when you tell me that, but I've
got to be careful. I have to be careful. I don't want to believe my own
hype. It's the Lord who gives power to the message. It's the
Lord. It's the Lord. Satan, as someone said, is snares
in prosperity, snares in adversity. He's got them coming and going. Satan believed he could bring
down Job by stripping him of everything, didn't he? He says,
Lord, you blessed him. He said, oh God, you blessed
him and I'll bring him down. I'll show you that the only reason
he worships you is because you've made him rich. And God said,
have at him. Can't take his life. Someone said, let neither flattery
nor adversity drive us away. Neither one. In verse 4, I looked on my right
hand and beheld, it is observed, but there was no man that would
know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared
for my soul. There was no one for me. It says in John 1, verses 10
and 11, he was in the world And the world was made by Him, and
the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. Even His disciples forsook Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ. They forsook Him. No one stood
with Him, no one. He looked, He observed, and there
was none there for Him. He'd created the winepress of
God's wrath alone. He said, Behold, is there any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, all you that pass by? Christ is the only one who will
never leave us nor forsake us in our time of trial. He won't. He will not let everybody, let
the trial get hot enough and everybody will leave you. If
it gets hot enough, but not Christ. Not our Lord. He said, I'll never
leave you nor forsake you. I read this today in Job 15,
15. Behold, he put us no trust in his saints. Oh, he knows we're
made of dust. He knows what we are. He doesn't
put any trust in us. Refuge failed me. Perished from
me is what that means. Perished from me. There's no
place we can go for refuge but to Christ alone. David found
that cave. You know adulim? You know what
that means? Refuge. That's what that means. The word
adulim means refuge. And David said, I found no refuge
in this cave. He went in there to hide. That's
what he went in for. but he found no refuge. And he
makes it very, very clear to all God's children, that cave
is not my refuge. These 400 men with me are not
my refuge. God is. Refuge failed me and
the Lord will have to bring everyone whom he saved to this point where
they have no refuge. Your ancestry, your righteousness,
self-righteousness, Whatever it is, you just throw it in the
trash when it comes to salvation. Christ is our refuge. Christ
is our refuge. We have a sure refuge in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said in verse 5, I cried unto
thee, O Lord, I said, this is what I said. I want you all to
hear it. I want you to understand what I said when I was in that
cave. I said, thou art my refuge. He lets us know that he did not
take refuge into anyone or anything, but God almighty. Thou art my refuge and my portion
in the land of the living. Thou art my portion here. You
know, a lot of people's portion is in the bank. It's in what they own. It's in
their family. David said, God, you're my portion
in the land of the living, in this earth, in this world. And
when I leave it in that world to come, you are my portion. I'm not looking for rewards.
I'm not looking for a mansion in the sky to sweep by and by.
Lord, you forever are my portion. Is that enough? If we really
find God to be our portion, we'll be satisfied with everything
else God gives us, because I have it all. As Mephibosheth said,
give it to Ziba, I've got the king. Let him have it all. That's what Abraham did with
Lot, wasn't it? Abraham said to Lot, he said, Lot, you just
look out and wherever you want to go, whatever you want, you
take it. Go the other direction. Take
what's left. Why? He was the oldest. I mean, he
was the elder. He had the power to say, Lott,
you go over there and take that little acre and get out of my
hair. But he didn't. And he didn't
for one reason. One reason why. God was his portion. God said to Abraham, I am thy
exceeding great reward. I am. I'm yours. God has given
himself to us in Christ. Think of that. God has given
himself to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, he not only
gave us to Christ, but God's given himself to us in Christ.
I'll be their God. And they will be my people and
I'll walk with them. We are going to walk with God.
We do it now. We just don't realize it as much
because of our sinfulness. But one day we're going to walk
on a new earth with God forever. And we're going to walk with
God. That ought to astound us. David looked, he found no refuge,
none to help him. God brought him to the place
where God alone was his refuge. Psalm 46.1, God's our refuge
and strength, very present help in trouble. Psalm 46.7, the Lord
of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. And he says here, I cried to
thee, O Lord. I said, thou art my refuge, my
portion in the land of the living. Attend, be present, deal with. Attending to my cry, for I'm
brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are stronger than I. I thought of this. This came
to me when I was studying this and I hit verse six. I wrote
this down. I think I put it in the bulletin.
Can we ever shed a tear and our Lord not be near? Can we be overwhelmed
and our Lord not be at the helm? Can we ever be assailed below
and our Lord not feel the blow? Can we ever be brought low and
our Lord not know? Never can it be that our Lord
should leave us be. He wouldn't leave us in such
a place, in such a situation. But here's a question. Have you
ever been so low that the only way you could look was up? Now
that's low. That the only place you could
look is up. You know, when I hear someone talk about anyone negatively,
I know they've not been brought low. Because I tell you, when
you really, when you really, when God really brings us low,
everybody's above us. Everybody's above us. We don't
rejoice in someone's failures. Rejoice not when your enemy falls.
We don't rejoice in that because we were an enemy of God at one
time, weren't we? And yet He saved us. And He says here, deliver me
from my persecutors. You know what my worst persecutors
are? My sins. My thoughts, the old man of sin that I still
have, they are my worst persecutors. Like flies at a picnic, just
buzzing around all the time, trying to shoo them away. Like
Abraham, remember when he had to go shoo those buzzards off
the sacrifice? And that's what our thoughts
are like, just trying to Get them away off the thoughts. You know, you want to have a
thought of Christ, you try to think upon the Lord, and these
thoughts come in like buzzards. And you're just like, get out
of here. Persecutors, my sins, my thoughts,
and that old nature I still have. And last of all, bring my soul
out of prison. You know our thoughts, I thought
about this today, our thoughts can imprison us, can't they?
You know people who go into deep depression, I'm not a doctor,
I'm not a psychiatrist, of course you know that obvious. It's the thoughts, they can't
quit. They can't get them off themselves. It's constantly woe is me. And
it's kind of like a downward spiral just keeps, and it's the
thoughts. It's the thought that, you know,
our thoughts can imprison us. It can wrap us in gloom. Our
thoughts of God. What if we have wrong thoughts
of God? What if our thoughts of God are negative? What's that gonna do for you?
What's that gonna do for you? You won't be thinking, if God
be for us, who can be against us? Why can't we think like this?
I shall call his name Emmanuel, for it is written, God is with
us, God is for us. You know, that could have just
as easily been written, God against us, but it wasn't. God is for
us. Our thoughts of God should always
be great thoughts. They should be great thoughts
of God. If we ever start to have a negative thought of God, the
problem is here. It's us. It's me. It's my lack
of understanding. It's the way I'm thinking. It's
the way my mind is going. You got to stop it. Bring my soul. My soul out of
prison. Bring my soul out of this despair.
Bring my soul out of this distress. Bring my soul out of thinking
like I'm thinking. Bring my soul out of prison.
Set me free from this spiritual depression. There is such a thing
as spiritual depression. We can get that way. We can get
down. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Hope thou in God. That's spiritual depression. Hope thou ain't God. Why you
cast down? You have nothing to be cast down about. God save
you? You're not in hell, are you? Well, I have a happy day every
day. You know, I can hear our Lord
praying this from the tomb. David's in a cave. Our Lord was
in a tomb. That's a dark place. Bring my soul out of there. Thou
will not leave my soul in hell, he said, in the grave. MY SOUL IS ENCASED IN THIS BODY
OF DEATH LORD bring me out of it it's like a prison this body
of death that we are in is like a prison isn't it it's like trapped
in a body It's a prison. Paul said, when I would do good,
evil is present with me. That which I would do, I don't
do. That which I would not do, I do. But when God lays this
flesh in the ground, this old nature in the ground, that's
over with. That's like being let out of
prison. It's like setting the bird free
out of the cage. When the Lord takes us home, it'll be the same
as letting us out of prison. And last of all, here's the reason
for such deliverance. Here's why I pray this. This
is my harsh desire that I may praise thy name. I pray this
for your glory. David truly prayed this prayer
that he may come out of it and glorify God, give Him the glory
for the deliverance, that He would give unto the Lord
the glory due unto His name. You see, we live to praise His
holy name. Is that why we live? Is that
why we exist? WE DON'T EXIST SO WE CAN GROW
UP AND GET A JOB AND BUY A HOME AND GET A GOOD RETIREMENT. THAT'S
NOT WHY WE EXIST. THAT'S WHY THE WORLD, THAT'S
ALL THEY EXIST FOR AS FAR AS THEY'RE CONCERNED. WE EXIST TO
THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY. THIS PEOPLE HAVE I CREATED FOR
MY GLORY. THEY SHALL SHOW FORTH MY PRAISE.
WHEN? NOW. THAT'S WHEN, NOT WHEN WE
DIE, NOW. If we don't show it now, we won't
show it there, we won't be there. That I may praise thy name, bring
me out of this trouble, that I give unto you the glory that
belongs to your name. And the righteous, he says here, the
righteous shall compass me about, not all those who want to kill
me, not all those who hate me, not all those who gathered around
the cave to take my life, but the righteous shall compass me
about. For thou shalt deal bountifully
with me. The righteous do compass the Lord Jesus Christ. I can
hear Him praying this in that tomb. Bring me out of this tomb
that the righteous may compass me about. And they do. In glory,
guess who's getting the praise? Guess who we are going to surround? Him. The Lord Jesus Christ. Worthy is the Lamb. We're going
to sing that song one day. Worthy is the Lamb. that was
slain to receive power and glory and honor. We're going to be
the ones singing that. We're not going to just listen
to them. We're going to be singing it. And we shall be compassed about
with the righteous in glory. We shall. Isn't that going to
be something one day that everybody around you is righteous? Everybody
around you absolutely loves you. Nobody wants to harm you. Everybody
wants your best. They just love you with the love
of God. One day that's going to happen.
There won't be no terrors among the weak. There won't be no wolves
among the sheep. He'll just be encompassed by the righteous. Oh, really. A believer in a dark
place. you.